Chapter Nine (LJ Summers)
Warning: Earns the PG- 13 rating due to the violence in this chapter

LJ's alto rang out in the clearing as she pronounced the picnic to be, "Awesome!" The long picnic tables were covered in serviceable white and red checked plastic and were being approached by two horses. Megs and LJ thought that was pretty cool, at least until LJ started itching due to her allergy to all things equine.

Marie mostly noticed the flies that tended to follow the horses. "Ew. Bugs. Ew." Tony laughed at her squeamishness as the sunset painted the sky orange and purple.

The other young people at Kathie's Ranch (or Pediatric Penitentiary, as some nameless wit dubbed it the day after they first learned how to clean up after the chickens) were mostly appreciative of the opportunity to eat out of doors, where voice levels did not have to be maintained and there was the opportunity for the occasional table-side entertainment. The horses were only part of the show. The young people themselves tried stand-up comedy and guitar-accompanied musical stylings.

"Mom? Where's my plate? I can't eat dinner without my plate." One of Kathie's daughters – Delaney – called from the end of the table closest to the boys' bunkhouse. Conversation stopped as all eyes turned slowly to her. "What?" she said, hands on her hips. "It's tradition."

Kathie, withholding a grin, assured her daughter that the plate was on the kitchen counter. Conversation resumed, rising and falling as the grilled meats and vegetables were served up and everyone lined up to get their share. Another lull settled tangibly over the group just before Joe appeared.

"Hon? What do you want me to do with your buns?"

On his way to the main house for his previously-arranged private dinner with Bella, even Edward had to chuckle at the way Kathie's eyes rounded out when her husband asked that question.

"Keep your hands off my buns in front of the children," Kathie eventually said, her voice strangled on her laugh.

Bella was laughing too and the sight broadened Edward's grin. Her hair pulled the reddish tones from the setting sun, her laugh lightened her expression, giving him one more mental picture to keep with him. Just in case this didn't go well.

He checked his preparations at Kathie's dining table. Everything, down to the flowers in the vase in the middle of the oak table, was in place. He had moved the painted saw off to a sideboard. Kathie was still working on it, apparently. He used a couple of kitchen matches to light candles and then dashed outside to claim Bella before she sat down to dinner.

"Bella! Wait up!"

"Edward!" Her smile lit up the darkening sky for him as he jogged to her side. "Where've you been?"

"Getting some stuff ready. Get your dinner and come on, okay?" He caught Embry's eye and shrugged at the other guy's far-too-knowing grin. "I've got a surprise for you."

Bella sought out her Aunt Kathie with a worried expression on her face. "You sure? She's been antsy all day and I don't want –"

Edward raked a hand through his hair. This was not what he had imagined! "I'm sure. I've got permission and everything. Come on, okay? Please?" he added softly, unwilling to beg in front of anyone but Bella. For her, he'd resort to pleading, but he sure as hell didn't want anyone hearing him do it.

A blush darkened Bella's pale cheeks. "Sure, Edward. Okay. Where're we going?"

"In the house. Just the two of us."

A shy smile curved her lips as she met his eyes. Her own were mysterious pools that held all the promises in the world for Edward. He could have likely stayed there, just staring happily at her, until Embry bumped him from behind.

"Dude. Watch where you're goin'," Edward advised, regaining his natural balance after the tall, muscled Native American boy seemed to forget where he was. Amused at the temporarily besotted expression on Embry's face, Edward tracked where Embry was looking. Oh. Yeah. Like, he should have known that one. "You've got it bad, don't you?" Edward murmured, elbowing Embry in the ribs. He had learned, over the past weeks, that Embry was built with some serious muscle and bruises could and would result even from the most playful antics.

"Who? Val?" Bella turned as they all three followed Valerie's progression to a table. Edward didn't get it, exactly, though Val was a great girl. But from the moment Embry clapped eyes on her on the second day they were here, it was as if he was under a spell or something. He hovered, sometimes. He hadn't said anything to Val, as far as Edward had heard. No gossip or anything – and this place was rife with gossip (Tony and Marie had been found "mucking out" the horse stalls well after dark one night...) so Edward could only figure Embry, for all his good humor, was just really shy.

"Yeah. Valerie." In the waning light, Edward couldn't tell if the Quileute guy was blushing, but his tone sounded as if he might be. Edward knew he had no leg to stand on; he looked at Bella much the same.

"C'mon, Bella. Let's leave Romeo to pine after Juliet."

She slapped him playfully on the arm before sliding her hand down to twine her fingers with his. Edward led her back inside Kathie's house, hoping he didn't say something so stupid that she'd laugh in his face.

Embry was terrified, and it took everything he had to keep that to himself. Bad enough he had already set Kathie on edge. Her heightened adrenaline and nervous heartbeat had been obvious to him all day. He was here to be the eyes and ears of his brothers, who were still hidden in the woods. Two of the bloodsuckers knew about them– dammit – but they were still here!

What was it that held them so closely? Kathie? Bella? Or had they come because he and his brothers were here? Were they bringing danger or protecting from it, ultimately?

"I'm getting a headache," he mumbled as he piled food on his plate. Lots of food. He was going to have to run a patrol as soon as the shadows provided protection.

He had taken his sectioned pressed-cardboard-feeling plate, piled with grilled burgers and a heap of grilled broccoli, diced potatoes, green beans and peppers. "Uh, Valerie?" he managed to say, though he felt that he towered over her. "Can I sit with you?"

Val lifted her dark blue eyes to meet his and Embry just melted a little. Okay, a lot. She smiled. "Sure! I, um, was kind of hoping you'd have asked before, you know?"

He wrinkled his nose with a sheepish smile. "Yeah, I know. Just one of those, uh –"

"Strong, silent types? Or the Tall, dark and handsome type?"

She was flirting and Embry was completely relieved. But not so much so that he didn't forget his other preoccupation. He was fighting the urge to wrap Valerie up against himself and inhale deeply. Yes, he needed to tell Sam he'd imprinted. He did. But –

An instinctive glance past the perimeter showed him something he did not want to see. He swore under his breath and shot to his feet. "Valerie. I need you to get into the bunkhouse, honey." His stomach clenched and his muscles were rippling. Valerie, perhaps sensing the anger and panic underneath his surface calm, rose to her feet as well and he nudged her gently in the direction of the bunkhouse. "Go, honey, please. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, all right, but you have to go. Now. Get the others to go with you..." He nudged her again, taking a moment to give her a long look in the eye before he did something he would not, later, believe he had had the guts to try. With one muscled arm, he reversed her direction, pulled her back toward himself and kissed her. Fast and hard, he didn't have time for more.

"Embry...?" she whispered, her skin pink in the darkening evening. "What...?"

"Sorry. Later, I promise. Go, now. Stay in there, promise me, until I come get you."

She scowled up at him and defiantly grabbed her dinner. "Fine. But you will explain yourself later, Embry Call!"

He nodded, watched her go, and then ran to Kathie and Joe, who were sitting with their daughters at the table nearest the grill. "Kathie. You have to get everyone in. Take the kids to the bunkhouse. The girls' if you can all fit in there. It's easiest to guard." And Valerie was there already.

He saw Kathie's mouth open and shut as she placed a hand over her heart and said something under her breath that he was fairly certain she didn't want her daughters to hear. Then, she rasped, "Really? Embry? Is this about...?"

Joe, with all the reactions of a military man, caught the seriousness in Embry's bearing and decided to get the kids safe first, interrogate later. Which was fine with Embry.

Kathie saw to the shutting down of the cooking apparatus while Joe went from table to table. Satisfied that Joe had it going fine, Embry took a deep breath and ran to the tree line, where Sam had already flashed the signal – a white shirt waved twice in the gloom.

No one remembered Edward and Bella until much too late.

Bella had vague memories of how they got here. Her defenses were entirely absent whenever Edward touched her. He had only taken her hand to kiss before they drank from the pretty, cut-glass tumblers Kathie had let Edward use this evening. Only a brushing of his lips on her palm...and then he was dragging his mouth up the sensitive skin of her inner arm to her elbow and she plowed her free hand into his hair and his mouth found hers.

The path to his mouth finding hers so passionately wasn't nearly as important to her as the way she was feeling as Edward enfolded her into himself. The way her heart was pounding, as if insisting she feel each individual beat. Her breath catching, her every nerve ending seeking, questing for more...for something...

Until the howling started, followed by the shrieking.

"Bella! Edward! Hide! Hide!!!!" The shriek was cut off abruptly, followed by another series of howls that had Bella shivering from her stomach out.

Edward clutched her to his chest for another set of heartbeats. He appeared to be listening, but it was suddenly way too quiet. Even the horses were silent. Her mouth suddenly dry, Bella – ever a police chief's daughter – sought the first weapon she could set her hands on.

Edward was already at the back door, having turned off the light so he could see outside more clearly. "Get down, Bella. Do like Kathie said. Hide," he whispered, his breath fogging against the glass a little.

"Like I'm gonna hide. I don't think so," she muttered.

"No, don't do it, James," Alec instructed, his awareness spread out over the houses and outbuildings before them. He was marshaling his inner resources so that he could blanket the entire area, allowing them to punish/feed at their leisure. "Wait until they're numbed. Your Singer won't fight you, then."

James, stubborn creature, apparently wanted the fight. "I'll go in alone and take him. Then we can...see what the human woman knows. Isn't that our directive?"

Alec flexed his shoulders. It was a human action, but one that he had adopted in tense circumstances. "My Master did not anticipate so many humans with her. We'll need to see if we can separate her from the others. That is our primary concern right now."

James wheeled on the older – but younger-seeming – vampire. Alec was not wearing the officious black cloak now. Garbed in a casual black pullover and dark trousers, the dark-haired fellow was trying too hard, James felt, to fit in. He inhaled and smelled so very many humans... "I'll be quick," was all he said before he shot away from Alec and ran at his top speeds toward the house.

Patience, Singer, he mused silently, ignoring the fresher smell of saturated canine. He was ready to open the door to the house, the one that was coated on one edge with the scent of his Singer. A young man with the sweetest blood James had smelled since that girl in Mississippi...

The door opened to reveal a tall, bronze-haired young man that set James' throat afire with the need for his blood. "Ahhh," the vampire breathed audibly. "You came out."

He reached for him just as a female screamed "Edward!"

Annoyed, James casually grabbed the boy – Edward, presumably– with one hand and prepared to deal with the female first. "Friend of yours?" he asked his captive conversationally.

The young man struggled and James occupied himself with self-torture, inhaling the too-heady fragrance of his blood while he sought the female out with his tracking-sense. He would reach her and –

And he couldn't sense her. And then, the hellacious stench of the wolves blew closer and the howls...! James didn't waste a moment, but bit into his Singer's jugular, drawing blood deeply into himself with intense, almost sexual pleasure. The pumping in of his own venom was a byproduct of that sensation – a release of sorts as he reveled in the indescribable...

"Edward! Run!" The girl's voice was full and determined and something whistled in the air, clanging against James' neck with a sharp metallic sound that was followed by a long series of wobbly noises.

Caius was, frankly, disgusted.

It was supposed to be simple. Find the woman, find out what she knew. Kill the woman. Perhaps her husband as well – women told their husbands everything, so killing him would be considered a security precaution. That was supposed to be the extent of the mission. Then, their secret would be kept. No more revelatory "Young Adult" novels about his kind, thinly veiled as fiction. Even if it had been utter guesswork, the details were so precise as to be factual.

So Kathie and her husband would die. It was a routine procedure. Perfected over millennia.

Alec had let James get out of hand and Demetrius –

Where the hell was the Tracker, anyway?

The howls set Caius on the move. Though he rarely did field work anymore, he did enjoy getting his hands dirty on occasion. With a crooked grin, he set off toward the main house, where the howls were converging and a fresh wafting of human blood – young, nigh on irresistible – reached his nose. Along with the scent of Alec.

"On threat of burning, get the situation neutralized!" Caius demanded of the gifted vampire running with him.

"Neutralized. You've been watching too many American police shows," Alec retorted, stilling near the barn and as far away from the stench of the wolves as he could get. He could hear the large creatures pacing. Several of them, in fact. One at least by the main house, two, yes there – off to his right. Yes. And at least three sets of footpads where the concentration of humans was the greatest.

And they were all howling. Alec forced himself to try to concentrate and he released his own, self-immune fog of desensitization.

Which was when they heard a girl shriek a name and the strange metallic clanging sound that both Caius and Alec recognized as the sound of a saw on vampire flesh. Humans had tried that before. Caius swore out loud, secrecy being entirely by the way, arriving with Alec just as James was recovering from his surprise. The sandy-haired vampire was just reaching for the girl's slender neck –

And just as the werewolf exploded from out of the darkness, preceded briefly by his stench. Caius forgot their mission entirely, his long antipathy for these creatures overtaking all that he knew he was here for.

"You!" he shouted.

The beast ignored him, growling explosively as he collided with the youngest of the three vampires. A vicious tangle ensued before Alec's gift could take full effect. The metallic screeching of rending vampire flesh contrasted with the sharp whining bark of the wounded werewolf as Caius ripped a hindquarter from his body. By the time Alec's gift of insensibility was effective, there was a decapitated and eviscerated vampire held within two paws of a three-limbed werewolf. And a young man who had just started to cry out in pain before his senses were taken from him. Alec shook his head to assess the situation. Wondering about the fog he had unleashed just before he came this close to the house, when something caught his eyes.

Movement.

"You! What did you do? What did you do to Edward?"

"How...?" Bewildered, Alec failed to act quickly enough to stop the girl who had apparently carried her own immunity to his gift. Well, that was not to be allowed. He saw that even in her fear and fury, she was beautiful. And might even be gifted if she were to be a vampire. He could change her – take her back to Volterra and bring her into the Guard. Perhaps she would even be his mate...!

The thoughts flew through his vampiric brain in less than the time it took the girl to cover the boy's neck wound with her hand. "He's ... he's not bleeding," she was murmuring even as Alec moved with incredible speed, dragging her against himself and plunging his own teeth into her neck to begin the change. She might be a shield of some sort... Aro would be amazed.

He ignored the backdrop of confused growling, sending his fog out toward the heavily populated building, knowing that the rest of the wolves would be overtaken shortly. Instead, he did his best for this girl. This lovely, fragrant morsel of humanity whom he was changing for his own. Another bite on the other side of her neck. Lovely scars; she would bear his marks for eternity. And then her elbows. Hm. That other scent... He sniffed. Ah, the Singer. James' singer. HE had tasted her...!? Jealousy ate through Alec but did not deter him from his course. There would be time to dismember the boy, even if James' venom had begun to change him since the tracker didn't get to finish feeding.

Caius recovered first, and he would have taken the wolf apart except that a long-expected voice rang out through the sudden stillness brought on by Alec's peculiar gift.

"I have her, you fools. You allowed yourselves to be sidetracked. Master Aro will be so pleased to know how well you serve him."

"Demetrius!" Caius brushed the gore from his granite hands and abandoned the wolf for the moment. "Where've you been?"

The Tracker nodded at the woman in his arms. She was apparently asleep, but Alec knew it was his gift that had affected her. Demetrius sneered at Caius and Alec. "You two completely ignored our primary target. She was the woman we were sent to investigate, not that little girl, there," he said, flicking a finger dismissively at the brunette Alec had discovered a sudden lust for.

It was just then that Bella began to whimper, then to cry out in the pain of her burning. Alec grimaced; his gift would be of no use to her.

A pity.

The wolf Caius had attacked stirred on the ground at the sound of Bella's voice. A bestial cry whispered from his furred throat. Caius turned to finish the job, but Alec stopped him.

"Demetrius is right. Let's interrogate the woman, first."

They were moving into the house – the trappings of civilization called to Alec's sense of order – and he debated leaving the girl outside when the young man roused as well.

"Bella...!" the boy rasped, his voice tortured against the inevitable burning.

"Edward!" the girl answered, hearing him even through her pain.

Alec curled his lip in distaste. Fine, if she wanted to spend this time with him, fine. He laid her next to James' Singer and was about ready to lead the way into the house when the howling started up again.

"Defend!" Caius directed them.

Demetrius, Alec and Caius stood in a quasi-triangular formation with their backs to one another and prepared to meet the coming wolves. The rolling wave of growls and howls and fur swept up and over the vampires, and they were in a violent frenzy of hot and cold, rough and smooth, blood and venom. It was almost too intense for noise after a moment, and the fighting became deadly silent. The background sounds of two suffering teenagers and the dying whimpers of a werewolf were all that a bystander would have heard.

Until a decisive male voice called out to all of them: "Stop this at once! I am Carlisle Cullen and I think I can clear everything up for you."

The name registered with werewolf and vampire alike and the fighting drew to a clumsy, awkward halt as a group of several vampires fairly flew across the open ground to confront the antagonists.

Caius remembered Carlisle and nodded, rubbing absently at a clawed groove in his arm. "Carlisle. It is a surprise to see you here."

"Yes, well," the blond man said in his diplomatic manner, "I wanted to check on a former patient of mine. I believe that's her, there by the door."

"Oh! I know them!" a young woman declared decisively, moving fearlessly past everyone while a tall, blond man placed himself between her and the Volturi Guard as well as the werewolves. "These are the two I told you about, Jasper."

"Great. More newborns," the scarred one said.

With a frown on his face, the former "fourth brother" of the Volturi confronted Caius. "What interest do The Three have in this place?" He next studied the wolves. "Quileute?"

One of the wolves, a large black one, barked once. Carlisle nodded, baffling Caius, who was monitoring every shift of muscle of each of these creatures.

"There's been a concern about keeping our secret, Carlisle," Caius said after a moment's thought. "Perhaps we should discuss it like civilized men."

"Indeed. Let me see to the young people, there, and I'll be happy to do so."