Part XI: Be Unmade
Bree's POV
Jesus fucking Christ. The last two minutes were surreal.
Let's recap:
I drained Bambi and some of his friends on the sprint over here (nasty stuff, animal blood), and I wasn't as thirsty now as I was before. Part of me (a larger part than was probably appropriate) was glad I couldn't sleep anymore. Nightmares of draining two of Bambi and 3 of Thumper would be so traumatic. But I was hella worried about our friends. Alice said she had a vision (because she was a fucking pre-cog!) of blood and wolves. And me hurting them, somehow, with that bitch's powers.
I have torture powers? Why did it feel so right? What just happened?
Leah went full Princess Mononoke with that transformation. Bigger even. Also, yuck. I got sprayed with her blood when she did that. It tasted weird. And again when she trisected that shit ticket. Also, she just killed that dude.
If I wasn't raised as a newborn in such horrible conditions with young men and women being violated and then torn apart in front of me for weeks, I would've passed out. But I wasn't a stranger to the worst kinds of cruelties anymore, so this asshole's death didn't much bother me.
The rest of the wolves really didn't look eager to pick a fight with Leah or Artemisia anymore. I mean, Leah went Attack on Titan all over that one dude, so I didn't blame them.
There were two new people. And they were like Artemisia! Vampires, but not cold ones. For some reason, the Cullens looked scared of the shorter lighter-skinned one. I mean, she looked kinda cute, maybe only a few years older than me when she was turned. Was it just me, or did most vamps end up immortal during highschool or college years? Oh, wait. My 21st century mind is showing. Millenials for life!
So most vamps were in their physical prime when they were turned. Good thing to remember going forward I guess.
Artemisia was acting like a three-year-old with a new stuffed animal. She just bounded over to Leah and jumped on her, started an intense cuddling session.
Vampires are fucking weirdos. I mean, I was always a weirdo, so I'm not too chuffed about a new level of it. Though I suppose the weirdness was doubly true for mated vampires.
Wow, I was really zoning out. I think I checked out when Artemisia landed on Leah's back. But now I looked back at the wolf-leader, Sam. Chelsea, as Artemisia named her, had Sam on his knees before anybody else could blink.
The tall Mediterranean super model Chelsea arrived with looked on with fascination and adoration. Great, another mated couple, as if things weren't already fucking fucked up with heart eyes and weirdness everywhere.
Now that daddy could never hurt me again, I could use filthy language whenever I wanted! Even if it was just inside my head. I think vocalizing these words may take a little longer for me to do without physically flinching.
So, Chelsea had watched Avatar: Legend of Korra, cause the position she had Sam in was straight up Amon style. Like, Avatar Aang was always serene as hell when he stripped people's souls apart when he took their powers away. Chelsea was far more predatory, hence, Amon, and Avatar Korra.
In all the chaos, I didn't notice the mind-reader show up. Edward. Wasn't he going to tundra central in Alaska? He was looking at me with a quirked eyebrow…he heard all my references, and now he was hearing this…fucking fantastic. Also, can you like, just not…in my head right now? Though now I thought about it, other than the hint of amusement at my favourite TV show, he looked kinda bummed out.
The human, Bella wasn't with him. Oh. Did they break up?
"Sam, is it?" Chelsea started. Sam looked terrified, but realised if he shifted to his wolf form, he'd fucking die immediately. Judging from the fact that Leah was currently licking the blood off her red-drenched muzzle meant she liked the taste of wolf-blood. Sam probably–scratch that–definitely noticed her doing that. It was a little creepy to be honest. Did that count as cannibalism? Gross.
Sam didn't reply to Chelsea's inane question. "Did you hear me, boy?" She repeated with a little more edge.
"Yes." Sam was not pleased about being (literally) under the thumb of somebody a full head shorter than him.
Chelsea briefly looked up at my saviour Artemisia, who nodded. Was that permission of some sort? Chelsea's grin split her face and accentuated her sharp cheekbones in a predatory grin. "Well, I must say it's not often I get to perform surgery with my powers. Usually, I'm asked to do something as simple as severing shaky intra-coven relationships."
"What do you mean?" Sam spat out.
"Well, the thing is, I don't like slavery. You see, I was born a slave, and my human memories have erased any sort of sympathy for slavers, however benign they may be." Chelsea's tone was becoming dangerously glee. "The whip is always hanging overhead."
"What the fuck do you mean?" Sam spat again. Like, there was literally spit dripping from his chin, it was hella nasty.
The Cullens were definitely uncomfortable now. Edward shot a glance at Alice, who dispassionately shrugged. The tall bronze-skinned vamp who came with Chelsea walked over to me. I was standing slightly apart from everyone else. It was only then I'd subconsciously edged toward Leah and Artemisia. The newcomer winked down at me. I blushed. WTF was with me today and blushing at gorgeous women? It was goddamn embarrassing. She looked like a university student, like, the university student who single-handedly leads her volleyball team to all the trophies. And then fucks all the girls on her team to celebrate. Did anybody do that? I'd do that
She put a hand on my head and moved it around lightly. Thankfully this small gesture of hers shook me out of my volleyball girl fantasies. She was petting me! And I loved it. I'm a weirdo, no two ways about it.
"Who are you, shorty?" She asked in a distinctly Italian accent.
I bristled at the jab at my diminutive height and responded, "Bree. Who are you?"
"I'm Gioia. Chelsea's mate." As if I couldn't assume that the way she was looking at the other immortal. But my little spat of jealousy disappeared as quickly as my thirst for Bella's blood. Yep. Jealousy over this Italian beauty would get me murdered, thank you Victoria powers.
A gasp from all the wolves sans Leah brought both of our attention back towards the confrontation happening in front of us.
Chelsea began cackling. Okay, she was a little frightening, I'll admit. She had my vote for most chilling Bellatrix impersonation.
Sam looked horrified. Could he feel the effect of Chelsea's powers? "Hey, Alice?" I whispered super quietly. I hoped it was quiet enough for only the people on our side of the treaty line to hear. "What can she do?"
Alice looked at the rest of the pack for a moment before turning back to me. "She can alter the bonds people have with each other. Like, she could make it so none of my family even like each other anymore, or she could make us her slaves if she wanted." Wow. That was fucking terrifying.
"But she just said she hates slavery?" I asked.
"I don't know much about her to be honest," Alice conceded.
Gioia stepped up to defend her mate in our little side chat. "Chelsea never uses her powers to subjugate people like that. It's not the same as holding command over everybody, she'd have to work at it for a long time to enslave somebody. And it's not like she's ever done it before."
Chelsea seemed to notice our little side-chat. "I did once." Everybody turned to her now. "I enslaved my old master. And not for very long. Besides, the horrors I visited upon him before finishing him was nothing compared to what he put me and the rest of us through." Her voice had a cold edge to it that had the small hairs on my arms stand up.
"You, however," Chelsea had returned to her normal tone (which was scary for different reasons) as she addressed Sam. "You will not be my slave, since that's a punishment I'll only reserve for people who successfully visit horrors upon those I love or myself. You're just an asshole. Frankly, I'm curious as to how far it's 'okay' to go with you." Chelsea looked up at Artemisia.
"I can do whatever I want?" she asked for a full and unequivocal confirmation.
"Yes. But don't harm that one," she said pointing to the smallest of the wolves. I didn't actually hurt that one. (Not that I had much control over who I hurt in that moment. The Cullens were lucky they weren't collateral.) "He's Leah's brother."
Chelsea nodded and seemed to gather her thoughts for a moment. "If you could shift back to your human form, that would be probably less painful for you."
Leah's brother immediately shifted back into a human. Sam looked flabbergasted, as did some of the other wolves. Surprise on the face of a wolf looks priceless, by the way.
Chelsea started laughing. Leah also laughed telepathically. How the fuck did that work? I suppose we'd find out about Leah's ability to manifest her voice (and laughs) in our minds at some later time. "Wow. So I suppose I don't have to worry about hurting him anyway. He just defied your Alpha command. How is that possible I wonder?"
Oddly enough it was Edward who responded, "Perogative of his bloodline. Seth, Leah, and Jacob, who's currently recovering at our house, have a more 'pure' lineage than Sam."
Chelsea looked as surprised as anyone that it was one of the more introverted Cullens to speak up. Personally, I thought Rosalie won the prize of 'most introverted,' but then again, I only knew them for less than 24 hours.
"Well, that makes sense. It seems to me the way you're all so effective is your pack bond. Hearing each other's thoughts and such must make you amazing in combat. It's a bloody shame I'll never see it in action."
Edward's eyes widened, "Holy shit," he muttered. He was cowed.
Chelsea ignored the mind-reader and continued without missing a beat. Her voice seemed to be verging on breaking into laughter, as if this was all so easy. "Whatever or whichever one of your gods designed this bond was a fool. Making one of you a lynchpin was a bad idea. All your powers funnelled through a single lynchpin, a person…wow that's dumb. As it stands, the connective tissue of 'your' pack runs through you….I think that's a mistake."
The wolves all started keening and Sam screamed as well as their most prized bond of fraternity was rent asunder forever. All of them dropped to the ground unconscious, like least-loved marionettes.
Chelsea took in a deep breath. Her smile was almost orgasmic as she breathed, "Be unmade."
Author's Note: Hello readers! I took a rather extreme step in this chapter, let me know what you think? Also, thank you for reading!
