AN: Sorry it took so long to update; I gave my head a wobble though and this chapter fell out. lol. Don't forget to Vote on my profile how YOU want this story to end. Also if you have time please review. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for reading! Xx
I gulped I had never heard Carlisle sound so scary... so like a vampire! I had a feeling he was going to be worse once he knew everything. And he was the calm one! For the first time ever I was actually a little fearful to be mortal in a room with nine very angry vampires; even if they were my family!
I watched as the whole family sat watching me, waiting for me to explain what was going on. I took the moment they were allowing me to give myself the chance to gather my thoughts. How do I tell them and keep them calm at the same time? Where do I start? Should I tell them anything or should I just tell them what I think they need to know at this moment?
"Don't even think about it!" Jasper interrupted my rambling thoughts.
"What's going on?" Emmett asked.
"She's thinking about editing the information she has!" Several growls were quickly heard; I could not believe Jasper told on me!
"Ok I won't keep anything from you." I told them. "Anyone gets too angry or worked up I will stop immediately!" I told them looking at them all individually; I looked at Edward a beat or two longer than the others.
"As you are all probably aware when you first left Forks Edward decided to find a new distraction." I could not help the dig I made at his expense; I blame a combination of pregnancy hormones and residue anger at the stupid annoying vampires. I turned to face Edward. "Even though you didn't believe Victoria to be a true threat you still tried to track her didn't you?" He nodded but still obviously didn't understand where I was going with this.
"Yes I did. However I obviously was not that good at tracking her down." He told me looking sorrowful. "I tracked her to Brazil but then lost the trail. I must have followed a false trail or something. I soon realised I could not pick up where she had gone from there. I kept trying but realised it was useless. Alice saw me not succeeding and asked me to come home to the family." He told us.
"She did indeed go to Brazil." I told him. "She then double backed and went to Mexico." At my mention of Mexico Jasper, Peter, Charlotte and after hearing their thoughts, Edward all sat up bolt straight frozen in a weird combination of shock and fear.
"Maria!" Charlotte whispered. The rest of the vampires in the room quickly caught on and were quickly in the same state; I gave them all a moment to absorb this information and the ramifications that could come from it.
"Carry on Bella." Carlisle spoke finally; I looked around the room and it seemed that Carlisle speaking had brought everyone out of their thoughts and they were now once again watching me, waiting for me to continue.
"It seems that when Victoria was with James he told her the stories behind the Southern Wars and she was aware of Maria and her legendary army. She purposefully went to Mexico to seek out Maria and gain her assistance. She told Maria how a coven had killed her mate and she needed some help to get her revenge. She had Maria give her a crash course in making a newborn army and how to control them; Maria even allowed a couple of her more mature fully trained fighters to accompany Victoria and aid her in creating and training the newborns."
"Why would Maria help Victoria though?" Rosalie asked.
"Before the time of Jasper, Peter and Charlotte, Maria made her first newborn army. Unlike what is widely believed she did not make this army as a way of gaining territory; Maria's first army was created for the sole purpose of destroying the coven that killed her mate." There were several shocked gasps at this news.
"Maria had a mate?" Charlotte asked.
"Yes his name was Montalvo and he was her mate and creator. He saw her when she was still human and knew immediately she was his mate so changed her. They lived together for about half a century until a coven killed him for feeding in their territory. That is when Maria used the idea pioneered by Benito for the first time. The victory with her army over the coven lead her to become very power hungry and she decided to carry on with her army to secure her own territory. She identified greatly with Victoria and offered her all the assistance she could."
"What does this mean now?" Jasper asked
"It means that Victoria with the knowledge she gained from Maria now has her army and is planning her attack." I told them; the growls immediately started up again. "At the moment there is Victoria with the two soldiers Maria sent her with and currently a total of twenty eight newborn vampires."
"What are we going to do?" Esme sobbed.
"We plan, we train and then we fight!" Peter spoke out.
"I agree!" I told the room.
"Bella you cannot be serious!" Edward shouted. "We need to leave and hide you were she cannot find you. I need to keep you safe!"
"Edward if you want to leave then go!" I told him firmly. "I however am staying here!"
"How can you seriously expect me to let you stay here after telling us there is a vampire army on its way!"
"Let me stay here! Did you just seriously say that?" I shouted as I jumped out of my seat. "Edward Anthony Masen Cullen you so much as say anything like that to me EVER again and I will make sure you regret it for the rest of my life!" I screamed at him. I was beyond livid.
"Bella calm down it is not good for the babies to get yourself stressed." Carlisle told me going into doctor mode.
"The babies are fine Carlisle; they like their mother are just very infuriated with their stupid father!" I told him with a huff as I sat back down.
"Bella..." Edward tried to speak to me again.
"Unless you are going to follow that up with I was wrong and I am sorry and it will never happen again, do not say anything at all." I snapped at him. The fact that he shut up proved how he had still not learned. "Esme what's wrong?" I asked her suddenly noticing that she was staring at me and if she could cry tears she would be.
"I wish you would not speak of your death so flippantly." She sobbed. I was confused and told her so. "When you were telling Edward off, you warned him that he would regret it for the rest of YOUR life. I guess it just hit too close to my heart that your life is hanging on the balance." She sobbed.
"Esme there is no point in me pretending otherwise; I am sorry to upset you though." I told her earning a soft smile.
"Why have I not seen any of this? Why can I still not see this even though I'm specifically looking? Bella why are my visions not working?" Alice frantically asked me as Jasper wrapped her in his arm offering his mate some comfort in her stressed out state. It was nice to see them being there for one another; when I looked around at my family I felt a pang of longing as I noticed all of the mated couples in similar comforting embraces; only Edward and I sat separately. I decided to pull myself out of my thoughts as there was no point in dwelling. We were not going to be like that anytime soon. I could not stand him at the moment and we needed to sort a lot of issues out before we can decide what we are going to do about us; it still hurt being on my own though.
"Alice there is a reason that your visions aren't working." I told her, she immediately looked up. "You are being blocked."
"What do you mean she's being blocked?" Jasper asked obviously worried someone was doing something to his wife.
"We've been betrayed." I told them. "Laurent when he went up to Denali never severed ties with Victoria. He became mates with Irina and found out a lot of information on you all. He then relayed all this information to Victoria. She knows that Alice's visions are subjective to decisions; she herself has not been making important decisions instead the two soldiers of Maria's army have been. You not knowing these two vampires have not been getting any visions on their decisions."
"I need to call Eleazar." Carlisle announced. "Yes you do." I told him. "A few phone calls need to be made. If we are going to defeat Victoria's army we will need help. However Carlisle you need to find a way to get Eleazar and his family minus Laurent and Irina here before you tell them anything. Any other way and Laurent will find out and tell Victoria; we need Victoria to be unaware of how much we know. Peter you should definitely ring your friend Garrett we could definitely use him." "How did you know I was just thinking if to ring him or not?" Peter asked. "Because I'm brilliant!" I told him with a laugh. "That you are." he told me laughing himself. "Carlisle you also need to ring your friends the Irish coven and ask them to come for a visit." He nodded. "As with the Denali's don't tell them anything until they get here."
"Should I call the Volturi?" Carlisle asked
"NO!" I screamed jumping up. "Please Carlisle don't call them... they can never know. Please promise me that you will never tell them. Please Carlisle promise me! Promise me!" I hysterically screamed as I was punching Carlisle's chest as he gently tried to restrain me.
"Bella shhh shhh it's ok. It's ok I promise I won't call them." He gently embraced me and held me as I sobbed.
I don't know how long I had cried for but I was now curled up in Esme's lap as she gently rocked me. Rosalie was gently rubbing my back helping me to calm down.
"Bella if you're up to it can you tell me what got you so upset?" Carlisle gently asked me.
"If the Volturi found out about the babies they would send a full force attack upon the family. We would all be killed... and my babies... my babies... they'd take my babies." I told them whilst sobbing. "My babies would be taken and after being tortured into submission... they'd be kept as pets... they'd be kept for their amusement to do awful things to... Carlisle they'd keep my babies in a locked cage until they wanted to hurt them again... please don't let them get my babies... please not my babies." By this point I could barely breathe I was so hysterical.
"Bella darling can you lower your shield so I can calm you please?" Jasper asked taking my hand; by now I was in a full blown panic attack. "Please that's it darling it's ok we've got you."
"Jasper I saw what they would do." I told him with a sob. "I saw what the male guards would do to Renee and make Charlie watch." At that there was a loud crash; the scream that followed allowed me to know that it was Edward in pain by what I told him could happen to his children.
"Come here darling." Jasper reached for me and swiftly moved me from Esme's lap to his own. "Don't go torturing yourself with those awful thought's. They aren't going to happen I can promise you that. You should know all about my alter ego the Major if you truly know about my past." He asked and through my tears I nodded. "Well he is an uncle now and no army, Volturi or the Devil himself is getting near his niece and nephew. Now I know you've had a rough go with this latest information so would it be ok if I helped you sleep? You need to give that pretty little head of yours a rest." he spoke softly to me as I cried and nodded into his chest. The last thing I was aware of before the thick blanket of sleep Jasper sent me was hearing Esme trying to calm a devastated and enraged Edward, and Emmett trying to comfort a distraught Rosalie. Jasper gently rocked me whilst quietly humming a calming tune to me.
AN: Well what did you think? Some heavy drama huh? Please review and let me know your thoughts. Also don't forget the Vote on my profile for this story. Hope you enjoyed and as ever thanks for reading. Until next time. Xx