"War is the science of destruction" -John Abbott
~Jane~
When I caught Kate's scent mingled with my brother's, I nearly lost it. Kate? With Alec? It was lucky they were just fighting, and not…the other stuff. I really didn't want Kate as a sister-in-law. She tortured us! Alec would be a fool if he felt an attachment to her after that.
I went about with business as usual. Winter break was almost over, so the Hybrid would soon be going back to school. It was nearly time to see if she could interact with humans in their environment. I hoped she wouldn't live up to the "challenge." I would love to see that sorry excuse for a vampire burn to ashes, the flames licking up her stupid salty tears.
Edward growled at me for the umpteenth time since I've been here. Well, if you don't like my thoughts, stay out of my head! Falling for a human! That's the most foolish thing I've ever seen. Edward snarled and Alec, my loyal brother, was right by my side in an instant, snarling at Edward.
"Control your thoughts, Jane." Bella hissed. And her maiden name was "Swan." Well, she was an ugly duckling, I'll give her that. Her problem was that she stayed that way, and never actually became a swan, even as a vampire.
Edward hissed at me. I pulled my lips back into a smile. Bella may think she's invincible because of her shield, but she would be foolish to underestimate the power of the Volturi, and especially of the Witch Twins. We didn't keep up our status as the most powerful coven in existence by playing nice.
Eventually, Alice came to their rescue. She told Isabella about her and Esme going shopping, and of course Little Miss Shield For A Face couldn't say no to precious little Alice, who was eighteen and even shorter than me.
"The nerve of that shield." I mumbled as soon as they had all left.
"I know." Alec snorted, "They think they're invincible just because of her." I nodded, running out of the house to hunt. I was going to be so glad to be back in Volterra, where Heidi can hunt for us.
I ran into Skyler on my way back to the Cullen house. We didn't acknowledge each other. That Skyler. I hated him as much as I hated Kate. Why? Because they hated the Volturi, they had powerful gifts, Kate tortured us, and because I simply hated them.
Back at the Cullen house, the Hybrid was eating cookies. Yucky, disgusting chocolate chip cookies. Just looking at the stuff made me want to hurl. Kate was sitting next to her, explaining to a werewolf(I know Aro expects us to call them "Shapeshifters," but I won't) what origin she was from.
"Okay, for the last time," she said angrily, "My brother and I are one-half Scandinavian, one-quarter Italian, and one-quarter British. Our father was half Scandinavian, half British, and our mother was half Scandinavian and half Italian." The werewolf nodded. "Skyler is half Scandinavian and half Irish. Get it now?"
"Yep." the werewolf nodded, "I get it." Kate sighed, relieved, "Finally." Wait, did I just see Alec roll his eyes and smirk? Playfully? I wanted to ask him why, but for some reason I felt like it was just my imagination. There was a feeling in my head, telling me that I should just let it go. I couldn't fight the feeling. The voice in my head was too strong. It felt better to just obey it without question.
I turned my gaze to Skyler, lying down on a sofa with his eyes closed and a hand resting next to his dark scarlet hair. He looked peaceful, except for the fact that his eyebrows were creased into a V-shape.
"Headache?" Kate asked, turning to him. Skyler gave a slight nod, and Kate walked over to sit on the sofa's cushiony arm, right next to Skyler's head. She rested the palm of her hand across her companion's forehead, and his expression relaxed slightly.
"Does that happen often?" the Hybrid asked, finally finished with that disgusting cookie.
"Not really." Kate answered. I noticed a slight British-Scandinavian accent in her voice, which wouldn't have been noticeable to anyone who wasn't looking for it. "But when he does get one, have a vampire rest their hand on his forehead. It helps. But they should try to not think much. You know, control their thoughts. I have to drop Bella's shield whenever I do this from now on. It…aggravates him." The Hybrid nodded just as Bella entered the room. She cast a confused glance at Kate's hand resting on Skyler, who's jaw clenched when she came in.
"Bella?" Kate asked curtly, with a tinge of rudeness in her voice, "Would you mind leaving the room? Skyler has a headache and your shield is only making it worse." She obviously wasn't going to act friendly to her new friend's mother.
"Of course." Bella answered, trying to imitate Kate's tone but failing miserably. She turned around abruptly and dashed out of the room, long colorless brown hair flailing behind her.
Kate scoffed, "Idiot." Skyler smirked slightly, saying, "She's…nervous around you." Kate arched a delicate eyebrow at his words. "Our gifts, they make her worry. Her shield does nothing against my gift, besides making my headache worse, and she has no idea what gifts you've absorbed, so she doesn't know if she can shield against them." I noticed his accent was more British than I would've thought, seeing as he was apparently Scandinavian and Irish.
"Well, it still doesn't give her permission to act so snotty." Kate snarled slightly, "Did you hear her tone? She was imitating me!" Kate's eyes blazed angrily and Skyler's smirked shifted into a frown.
"Shh, shh." he shushed gently, "She's just jealous. She can't hate you: you're her daughter's friend." he said, trying to calm her down. Kate relaxed a little, lifting her hand up from where it lay and strolling towards the cluster of rooms upstairs.
Skyler shifted so that he was now sitting up straight. His eyes turned their crimson gaze towards the Hybrid's violin case.
"You play the violin?" he asked. The hybrid nodded. She skipped over joyfully to the glossy black case and opened it up to reveal a full-sized violin resting on dark blue fabric. The Hybrid picked up the instrument and attached the shoulder rest.
"Can you play one?" she asked. Skyler nodded, "Kate made me learn how. She's pretty convincing, you know." The Hybrid giggled, "Yeah. She made me learn Pachelbel's Canon simply because she liked the song. She's right. It's beautiful." Skyler nodded, picking up the violin and playing Pachelbel's Canon perfectly, "And it's the only song I can play." he said. I rolled my eyes and left the room, Alec trailing behind me.
"That disgusting piece of garbage!" I hissed.
"Skyler, Renesmee, or the violin?" Alec joked. I glared at him. When was he this happy? Usually, Alec just pretended around others, but we were alone, by the edge of the Cullens' backyard. He didn't need to act.
"What has you in such a good mood?" I demanded.
"Nothing." he answered, the normal uncaring tone in his voice once again.
"Alright." I said, "Well, the Hybrid's got to hurry up and do something that'll let me kill her! I'm tired of waiting!" I plopped down on the short, lush green grass and folded my arms across my chest.
"I know, Jane." my twin said. I narrowed my eyes at him, smiling, "Of course you do."
We talked for the longest time since we've been here. I wondered what Alec was doing when I wasn't around, and he said he just read a book or something, although there was an edge of secrecy and reluctance in his voice. Alec was never too good at keeping secrets, and I knew that whatever was on his mind would get back to me soon. After all, we were twins. We had been close for too long. Three hundred years. Alec would never keep secrets from his own sister, now would he?
"I'm going to hunt." I said, getting up to leave.
"Would you like me to accompany you?" Alec asked.
"No thanks." I answered, "You can just go do whatever it is that you do." My brother seemed reluctant at first, but nodded and walked back to the house.
I did hunt, in fact. But I was on some other private mission. I scoured the forest for any traces of Kate's scent that could be mingled with Alec's, that would prove once and for all if he was indeed keeping secrets from me. So far, I had no luck. The closest I had been was those rocks, but it wasn't rock-hard evidence. I needed something better.
I searched for a full hour to no avail. I walked back to the Cullens' house slowly, pondering if my brother really was telling the truth or not. I had no real reason to doubt him, after all.
I sighed, reaching the house and running into Skyler again on the last time, we didn't acknowledge each other. I assumed he was just going hunting. His eyes were looking a bit dark.
When I stepped inside the house, I immediately looked around for Alec. He was nowhere in sight. I walked in the direction of my "room" on the second floor, right by my brother's. Along the way, though, I stopped. A mixture of scents lingered near my destination. It was familiar, and anger built up in me as I recognized the scent. My brother's mixed with Kate's.
I eavesdropped on the room next to mine, but gave up after I heard nothing. I tried to tell myself that everyone had walked by here a lot, and that it was just overlapping scents. But unfortunately, teenagers are much too curious for our own good. I laid my hand on the door handle so quietly not even I noticed a sound, and very, very slowly, I turned it.
What I saw inside made a piercing hiss escape my lips before I could stop it. Kate was in the room with Alec, who had his arms around her, holding her close. Too close. They both turned when they heard me, my brother's eyes widening in shock and fear. I glared at the both of them for a fraction of a second before I lunged.
A/N: Hello people. As you can plainly see, Jane has found out Kate and Alec's secret, so next chapter might involve potential violence. Poor Alec, he's stuck in the middle. The reason why Jane was having that little voice in her head that prevented her from asking Alec something was because Skyler was using his gift on her, which gave him a minor headache.
Next chapter will be up soon 'cause I hate cliff-hangers just as much as you probably do.
I forgot to put a disclaimer in the last chapter, so no I don't own Flyleaf.