Chapter12

(Edward)

"Is there anything we can do?" I pleaded with him, just wanting to see if he was responsive in anyway. He face was still relentlessly blank, absolutely vacant of any type of emotion.

I turned to my love, searching for any type of reassurance that this wasn't completely my fault.

"Edward, just let him be."

We whispered below the low hum of the plane, trying our hardest to be discrete aboard an aircraft packed with unsuspecting humans.

It was times like these when we needed a private jet.

"I don't know how to help. Is he okay to just go home? How is he even sitting on this place right now? Why isn't he bloodthirsty? What are we supposed to tell the pack? Why would he do this to himself?"

"You act as if I have the slightest idea of what is going on. I am just as clueless as you."

"This is my fault." I groaned.

Hearing her chuckle, I didn't even need to turn to see the expression on her face. I knew that laugh; she was mocking me.

"Right, cause everything is always your fault, isn't it? It wasn't just that all of us were tricked, no way. It was that Edward was careless enough to leave Seth in the hands of revenge hungry, flesh-tearing, rampant, purebred werewolves. Nope, it's all your fault Edward, like it always is. Because it wasn't our responsibility to make sure everybody was accounted for, it was yours."

"That's not what I meant, but thanks for your sarcasm, wife. It's really appreciated."

"Ugh, than what did you mean? How in any way, shape or form is this only your burden?" Her whispers were haste; I could sense the aggravated tone in her voice.

"Because, I can read minds Bella, I should have paid more attention. I should have been able to know what they were trying to do to him. I should have predicted it before it happened, now Seth has to pay the price for my stupidity."

"That's enough." She spat, blunt.

I finally turned to face her, and felt even more disappointed in myself; the etch of annoyance in her brow was there because of me.

"I have just about had it with having to repeat myself constantly about how annoyed I am with you blaming yourself for every little thing that goes wrong. It's getting really old, really fast, and I refuse to deal with it for the rest of my life. How many times do I have to beg you to stop?"

The heaven of her hands held mine.

"What happened to Seth isn't anymore our fault than it was yours. We were fooled by a pack of wolves apparently smarter than us. We should feel stupid, not guilty."
I refused to accept that; if we were more alert, we wouldn't have been tricked.

I let my head fall against the seat, and analyzed the scenario that has been playing over and over in my head since the moment it happened.

***

We hurdled over the descending rock wall while it slowly slunk back into the ground.

It had been 7 hours since we had left Seth to fend for himself within the confines of the wolves' prison, and we were more than eager to see what had become of our mistake.

They were expecting us.

Seth was waiting on the rocks, Kane standing behind him, the wild waves of the sea crashing in every direction.

The closer I got to Seth, the more I knew that something was seriously wrong.

The first thing I noticed; Seth was bald.

His usually happy face was washed out. His eyes were depressing, starring down at his feet. He looked small and weak; I could have broken him in half without breaking a sweat. Mindless grunts filled his subconscious, his thoughts so diminutive; they were hardly thoughts at all. Instead of the jolly, carefree waves that normally radiated off of Seth were absolutely gone. There was nothing to him now. He was an empty hollow shell of a man.

This wasn't Seth; this was a werewolf.

"Ay, mates. You couldn't be more on time," Kane grumbled. His tone made me skeptical, his thoughts made me nervous. They were like white noise to me, completely and totally blocked.

I ignored his comment, turning to the dormant giant sitting in front of him.

"Seth, are you alright? I don't even know what to say,"

He didn't acknowledge us at all; his eyes stare inertly to the earth.

"Seth is more than alright Mr. Cullen, he's just a little down at the moment," Kane clapped his hand down to Seth's rigid shoulder. Despite the strength Kane put into the gesture, Seth seemed to not feel it, his body didn't move from the force.

"What happened to him?" Carlisle asked, appearing absolutely calm. I knew otherwise.

A thick Irish accent answered him with more craze than before.

"Well, to answer that question, I should probably first explain why." Kane stepped from behind Seth and sat settled himself on the boulder, inviting us to join him.

"For the last 50 years as a community, we have been building our own fleet of solders. We are tired of being 2nd to the Volturi, and we intend to fight for our freedom the minute God's good graces will send us our sign to attack."

The determination in Kane's eyes had Jasper on the edge of his seat.

"We have decided that Seth and others like him, his pack, are meant to fight alongside us for their due liberties."

"Seth has nothing to do with your vendetta against the Volturi; they haven't shown any type of resentment toward his kind." Carlisle interjected. Kane chuckled at the thought.

"Seth is our kind mate. He descends from a long line of purebreds; it just so happened that during conception, his kind never full acquired the dominant trait of his ancestors before him. His kin wasn't demeaned by the Volturi throughout their existence. He has a right to fight for them, dominant and recessive traits have absolutely nothing to do with reprisal. Seth was born to fight and win this war, for his father's father, and the father before that."

Kane's speech was obviously one he gave often.

My loves voice calmed the hundreds of questions coursing through me.

"Seth, when did you decide this?"

He didn't answer, of course. He didn't even look her in the eye.

"Yesterday, obviously. While my lovely wife and I were sidetracking your fleet, we were initiating Seth into ours!" His baled hands feel on Seth's stone shoulder again, a fiery pride burning in his eyes.

I couldn't put my finger on why I suddenly wanted to hurdle this man into the tide.

"Sidetracking?" Alice chimed.

"Evidently, your kin has a higher threshold for processing information." He chuckled a little before continuing on. He was much jollier today than I remembered him being yesterday, his personality was more buoyant. "In order for your family to forget Seth at the end of the day, we made sure to overload your thought process with enough new information for you to be distracted enough to leave Seth with us for the night. Ha, I love that little trick! Yeah, you guys were a real challenge, especially with your little mind reader over there. But, it's all mathematical, don't feel tricked, nobody has the power to overcome a good sidetrack, no matter how old you are."

The monstrous alien looked to me, sarcasm dripping off his every word.

For the first time in 107 years, I felt stupid.

"Seth has decided to go home for awhile before actually joining our fleet up here. Im sure he's got some good-byes to say, and some things to get together. Hopefully he will have some recruits when he comes back home. Eh, Seth?"

We all looked to his lifeless eyes, they didn't respond.

It was apparent that Kane wasn't worried about Seth. He had seen this before.

"He will be melancholy for awhile, until his symmetry gets straightened out. The chemicals take awhile to settle, it's a big change, a fast change. It won't be easy. The depression is always the hardest part of being bitten, it's inevitable. He'll perk right up though, soon enough."

Everything seemed surreal, what were we supposed to think. We couldn't even assume that this was really something that Seth had wanted; he surely wasn't speaking for himself. He looked like he had just spent the night being tortured. And for all we knew, he had been. We didn't know these people; we didn't know what they wanted with Seth. All we could do was follow the instructions given to us by complete strangers and try and help Seth as much as we could.

For the first time in 107 year, I felt helpless.

"He can be around people during the day, no problem. It's when the sun is set that he is going to transform. Then, he cannot be around humans, under any circumstances."

Kane clapped Seth again on the back before turning around and walking back down the boulder we stood on.

He called over his shoulder before descending into the valley.

"Please bring him back in one piece mates, we need this one."

A very uncomfortable silence hung in the air while we swam back to shore.

For the first time in 107 years, I felt confused.

***

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