Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight nor the characters contained in this story.
Warning: This story is rated M for a reason. Language, Violence, Sex. You've been warned.
AN: Thank you so much for reviewing and your well wishes! I'm trying more therapy on my arm in hopes that it will work and I can avoid surgery - so far not so good and I'm in a lot of pain, but there's still hope and I'm keeping my fingers crossed!
Now, back to the Cullen's home...
"Well, aren't you going to thank me for saving you?" Alice asked Carlisle after Bella ran from the house. "All of you," she added smugly, looking around the room at the others.
Carlisle said nothing, merely stared at her with annoyance. Esme frowned over at Alice in disapproval.
"Over my dead body," Rosalie murmured under her breath.
"You mean saving yourself, don't you, Alice?" Jasper sneered. "You know as well as we do that Aro would shove his hand so far up your ass, you would be his own personal puppet if he got a hold of you."
"Must you always be so crass?" she scoffed in disgust. "Something in common with your new girlfriend, I suppose."
"Mate," Jasper corrected, his tone proud.
"And what was I?" Alice hedged, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Nothing," Jasper answered dismissively, before turning his attention back to Garrett.
Alice's face fell and Jasper felt the hurt radiating from her but she said nothing in retaliation – for once.
"Jasper," Esme whispered in admonishment but Jasper ignored her.
"What mission?" he asked Garrett instead.
Garrett stared silently up at him, still on his knees.
"What. Mission. Does Aro have you on?" Jasper repeated with a growl when Garrett didn't answer.
Garrett glanced at Carlisle. "A vampire making a newborn army in Seattle," he answered reluctantly.
Jasper hissed, "Newborns? How many?"
"Not sure yet on a full count."
"The increase in missing person reports over the past months...," Carlisle supplied as he thought out loud.
Garrett nodded.
"Who is making them and why?" Jasper interrogated.
Peter and Char arrived back at the house then before Garrett could answer. "We're back," Peter sang in greeting as they stepped through the doorway, hands tightly interlocked. "Huh. Would you look at that, dear...Garrett's still in one piece."
"Pity," Char remarked with a frown.
"So what did we miss then?" Peter asked Jasper after he took in the scene.
"Where's Bella?" Garrett and Jasper asked in unison when it became clear she hadn't returned with Peter and Char. Garrett stood up and Jasper took a reactionary step towards the door.
"Whoa there," Peter stopped them, dropping Char's hand and holding his palms out while blocking the front doorway in a wide stance.
Emmett snorted a laugh. "You look like Owen."
"Who?" Peter asked in confusion while trying to keep an eye on Garrett and Jasper's feet for any further movement towards the doorway.
"You know, Owen, from Jurassic World? He wrangled the raptors," Emmett explained, mimicking the famous pose.
"Oh yeah, I saw that movie," Peter said with a nod toward Emmett. "Except some things in this world aren't as cute and fuzzy as a velociraptor," he added as he glanced warily at Jasper.
"Where is she?" Jasper demanded.
"She's fine," Peter emphasized. "She just needed a few moments to herself."
Jasper stared at Peter.
"She's fine, Major. I swear it," Peter promised, staring right back.
Jasper took a forced calming breath and Peter exhaled in relief. Peter really didn't want the experience of trying to hold the Major back, and he knew he would have ended up losing some limbs for it. But for Bella, Peter would have done his best; she deserved some space after everything that had just been revealed to her. He imagined that shit took time to process.
"Garrett here was just telling us about his latest mission; someone making a newborn army in Seattle," Jasper said, turning again to face Garrett.
"Newborns?" Char gasped in horror.
"Who's making them?" Peter asked in alarm.
Jasper raised an eyebrow at Garrett expectantly.
"From what I had time to gather, her name is Victoria. But Victoria has another named Riley assisting her, though he doesn't appear to be much older than a newborn himself," Garrett explained, overturning a chair that had survived Bella's wrath and sitting heavily down into it. "I believe there is a third vampire as well, as I've heard them discussing someone else named James. But I haven't been able to figure out where he is or what his part is in all of it."
"Mates?" Jasper inquired.
"No. At least Victoria and Riley aren't. I'm not sure about Victoria and James' connection. I wasn't lying when I told Aro I didn't have all of the necessary information yet, you know," Garrett said, his tone revealing his annoyance.
"How would we know that, Gary? Since all you do is lie," Char accused, her tone sickly sweet and face scowling. If looks could kill, he would be ashes in the wind.
Garrett flinched slightly. "Well I'm not lying about this."
"When you visited here...," Carlisle spoke up.
"First or second time?" Garrett asked blandly, as if he was expecting the question. And he had been – Carlisle wasn't stupid. Garrett knew he would put it together sooner or later. He steeled himself for their reactions.
"First."
"Aro sent me."
"Motherfucker," Emmett cursed.
"You Bastard," Rose accused.
Esme gasped, but not at their language this time. They had welcomed Garrett into their home - into their hearts - and he had only been there to spy on them?
"Why?" Carlisle demanded.
"He wanted to know if you were truly playing house like you claimed or if you were actually a coven leader like he believed. And he wanted to know what your individual relationships were like with each other," Garrett said. "For the record, the second time I came on my own, to simply visit friends."
"And what did you tell Aro after the first time?" Esme growled, surprising Garrett at the pure vehemence behind it.
"That Carlisle was both, whether he admitted to it or not; head of a family and coven leader - and where Carlisle lacked experience in coven leadership, Jasper was there to take over," he admitted guiltily. "He also wanted to know more about some of your family's talents," he added, while glancing at Edward and Alice pointedly but not elaborating further.
Carlisle shook his head in disgust at who he now considered his former friend. Jasper had been right when he called Garrett a traitor earlier. Because that's exactly what he was.
"Some advice?" Garrett offered, leaning back in the chair stiffly.
Carlisle raised a brow at Garrett's gall. "By all means," he gritted.
"You're focusing on the wrong thing here, Carlisle. If you want to worry about something, worry about why Aro let you in on the fact that I worked for them at all," Garrett suggested. Anything to draw focus away from the feeling of betrayal he could see on all of their faces. Garrett simply did what he had to do - what Aro ordered him to do - didn't they understand that?
Carlisle barked a bitter laugh and studied Garrett. Did Garrett really think that he was that valuable to Aro? That he wasn't just as expendable as all the others before him?
"And are you not also worried about why Aro doesn't care?"
"Terrified, actually. But not for myself," Garrett replied with brutal honesty. He had always wondered when the day would come that Aro would value a shot at Bella over Garrett's services. Was this the game Aro was now playing?
Dread settled in Garrett's gut like a giant fucking boulder.
AN: Do you think Garrett's a traitor? Or was he merely doing what he had to do?
Thoughts?
**Thanks for reading!**