Chapter 14: Changes

Carlisle's POV

We finally arrived at the seclusion house and Esme, Alice, and Bella were waiting for us outside. Bella began running to me and I met her halfway. "I was so worried about you. I was so afraid that they Rose, Jazz and Em wouldn't make it in time."

"Don't worry love. I had the wolves as backup while I waited for them. Everything is alright now. Edward is on his way to Volterra and will be executed on arrival. He can't bother us anymore."

She let me go and turned to her father. "Dad. I'm so glad you made it. I was worried about you too."

"I'm fine Bells. I slept through most of the fun actually. I did wake up in time to take out some of my frustration on Edward's legs though." Everyone that had been present for that laughed and the rest just looked confused so I told them what he did.

Bella looked at him incredulously but laughed along with everyone else. I turned to Charlie. "Are you ready?"

Charlie gulped audibly but nodded and followed me into the house. We had all agreed to help Charlie through his change the same way we did Bella; cooling his body with our own. He said his human goodbyes to the family and promised to see them in a few days. With luck he will take to the transformation as well as Bella did and be able to skip the violent bloodthirsty newborn stage as well.

When we got upstairs Charlie turned to Bella. "Can Bella do it?"

"No dad. I can't. I'm still too young. I won't be able to stop. I can't trust myself to do it. Carlisle has the most control. He should really do it. I'll be here the whole time though. I won't leave your side until you wake up."

"Okay if you're sure kid."

I looked at Charlie with a silent apology on my face. "This is really going to hurt."

"I'm ready."

Bella climbed into bed and held him to her as I leaned down to bite his neck. I let my venom flow into his veins and pulled back as he began to scream. Esme slipped into position on his other side and unlike with Bella she refused to move for the entire three days. I wonder. I can tell she feels drawn to Charlie and he to her. Maybe it will turn into something more. Maybe she has finally found her soulmate. I hope so. She deserves happiness as much as the rest of us.

Charlie's POV

The burning was horrible. It seemed to go on forever. I couldn't even think around it. They warned me of course, but no warning in the world could possibly prepare me for this kind of blistering agony. They said it would be better for me since now they knew that body contact helps. If this is better I can't imagine the pain that they all went through.

Finally the pain is receeding from my limbs, but it's getting worse everywhere else. I hope this means it's ending soon. I can hear my heart struggling to beat. It's getting close. Finally my heart stopped and the pain went away, but I feel so different. I open my eyes and gasp. I can see everything. I can see the particles in the air. The texture of everything around me. I look to my new family and am in awe. I thought they were unnaturally beautiful before. I may as well have been blind. I sit slowly and look to my daughter. She is looking at me with wide eyes. I can tell she is entranced by me at the same time as she is wary of me. Why would she be wary of me? Oh yeah. They don't know how I'll react. I need to say something to make them all relax. "Hi" I smiled at the sound of my voice. It's so different.

"How do you feel?" Carlisle asked me.

"Amazed and a little disoriented."

"You're not thirsty?"

"Yeah a bit."

Bella grinned at me. "C'mon dad. Lets teach you to hunt." She grabbed my hand and I followed her out the rest of the family trailing after us. After taking down a few polar bears we went back to the house.

"This is amazing. It seems being prepared and knowing what is happening really does allow immunity to the newborn effects. Either that or it is genetic for the Swans. It could be either." Carlisle said and he turned to Bella. "Does he have any abilities?"

Bella looked at me and squinted her eyes. Then she gasped and began opening and closing her mouth like a fish. "What?" I asked her.

"You...you...can read minds but that's not all. You can...control minds too." She stuttered out.

"What?!" I am completely shocked. Then I stop and pay attention and realize I can hear the minds of everyone in the room except for Bella's.

'This is amazing. We have to find a way to train his mind control. Obviously it would be best if we never have to use it, but it can really help if our lives are in danger.' -Carlisle

'Well so much for privacy without Edward around' -Rosalie

'Wonderful! Now I can share my visions with someone who can see them with me again. It makes things so much easier' -Alice

'Great. More unexplainable emotions to deal with.' -Jasper

I put my hands over my ears and willed it to stop as hard as I could. So many voices. It's completely distracting. Suddenly they disappeared. "Hmm. It appears I can turn it off. Either that or you all just completely blanked your minds at the same time."

"Thank God!" Rosalie said. "At least we can have some privacy."

"Rose! Apologize right now!" Esme said scandalized.

"What I'm sure he heard me grumbling about it in my head anyway."

I chuckled. "Actually Rose I did, but I don't blame you. I wouldn't want anyone listening in on my private thoughts all the time either."

Carlisle looked at me curiously. "We need to train you in the mind control. That's something that you have to learn to be able to use not only to help us if we are ever in danger, but also because if you don't have control over it, it can run away from you and you could use it without meaning to. We will need everyone's help for that and I'm sure we can trust you Charlie not to make anyone do anything too bad?" He raised an eyebrow at me.

I couldn't help but make my mind wander to all of the funny and completely embarrassing things I could make people do, but of course I would never do anything that someone would never live down. It could be a good chance for some practical jokes though. "I can't promise I won't embarrass anyone, because lets face it, that's a good way to make training fun, but I do promise I won't do anything that anyone would find too bad. Just little practical joke type things."

"I can live with that." Esme said and smiled at me. God she has such a beautiful smile. It makes me feel all warmed up inside.

Bella's POV

I am so glad my father is a vampire now, but to be honest his abilities kind of scare me a little. I know he won't be able to use them on me and I've gotten pretty good at shielding others, but if somehow, somewhere down the line someone is able to corrupt him this could be really bad. I just have to trust him. He's been a cop long enough that he should be nearly immune to that kind of thing. I will enjoy his training though. My dad has a great sense of humor when he gets a chance to show it.

All of a sudden my cell phone rang. Who would be calling me? All of my family is here? I looked at the caller ID. Aro? That's weird. I picked up the phone. "Aro what's wrong? Is it about Edward?"

"Not exactly, but I do have a problem. I know I said that I would let you have your newborn year before I asked for your help, but things are getting bad here and I don't know how much longer I can wait."

"What's going on?"

"Well Caius wasn't happy at all about Edward's execution and he feels that your family is gaining too much power and too many numbers. He thinks that you are a threat to us. I have heard murmurs throughout the castle. Many of the guard are agreeing with him. It may come to a fight between us. If it does I may need your ability to figure out what if any gifts I have on my side."

"Of course Aro. If it comes to that I will help regardless of any agreement we have had."

"Thank you my dear. May I speak with Carlisle a moment?"

"Of course." I handed the phone to my fiancee.

Carlisle's POV

"I heard what you just told Bella. How bad is it?"

"Are you alone?" I could tell he wanted me to be so I headed out a good distance away from the house where no one could hear me.

"You realize I will most likely tell them everything anyway."

"I know, but I need to tell you first. Get your opinion, before you bring your family into it."

"I understand. So how bad is it?"

"It's very bad. More than half the guard agrees with Caius and if he revolts against us there is a good chance he will win. You know that Marcus and I have been able to temper his violent nature, but now Marcus is becoming more and more withdrawn. I don't think he is against me, but I don't think he will side with me if it comes to a fight either. I fear for what will happen to our world if Caius is in control."

I pinched the bridge of my nose. This is the last thing we need. "What do you need from me?"

"I know how you detest violence Carlisle, but I also know that you can't escape it. If Caius wins then he will come after your family and I don't think I can go against him alone. I need your help. You have the largest coven that is friendly to me. I understand if you refuse, but I'm begging you."

"And if my family does stand with you? What then? You cannot possibly run Volterra alone with more than half of your guard gone."

"I know. That is another part of what I wanted to ask you. I would like to offer your family a place at my side. You will not be asked to fight as part of the guard, your family can take the more administrative jobs if they would prefer. I can even offer you a place in the Volterra hospital if you want to continue to practice medicine. Basically anything you ask for is yours."

"Would you make the diet my family and I proscribe to mandatory among vampires?"

"Unfortunately old friend that is the one thing I cannot do for a few reasons. First of all there would be rioting. The majority of the vampire world would rise against us and we would all be destroyed. Second of all it is not feasible. I did the math before I called you knowing that you were going to ask for that. At the rate that the human population is destroying wildlife, if you add all of the vampires in the world feeding from the animals as well the entire animal population would be wiped out within ten years. And when I say all animals I mean even things as small as squirrels and rabbits. I think we both know what that would do to the entire ecosystem of the world."

"I know old friend. I have done the math as well. I just wanted to see how far you would take it and if you would be truthful with me about your limitations since you did say anything I ask for."

"Well let me rephrase that then. Anything within reason and within my power."

"I must admit I don't like the idea much, but I like the alternative even less. I will have to speak with my family before I give you an answer though Aro. This is not my decision alone to make."

"I understand. Don't take too long to decide though. I don't know how volatile the situation here is and how long it will hold before erupting."

"I will get back to you within a few days."

"Thank you."

I hung up the phone and sighed deeply. This is really really bad. I don't know if we have a choice but to get involved. Aro is right. He won't be able to win. My family, however, with Alice's sight, Bella's shield, Jasper's emotion control and fighting ability, Emmett's strength, Rosalie's speed, even Charlie's mind reading and control, we could turn the tide and basically be unbeatable. Caius is right about that. If we wanted power we could roll right over them all. I really need to speak with the others.

Bella's POV

Carlisle disappeared with my phone almost an hour ago. Things must be worse than Aro lead me to believe if Carlisle had to go elsewhere for the call. I can't help but be worried now.

Finally Carlisle came back in the door. He looked downtrodden, older somehow. Things must be really bad. "Family meeting" Carlisle called.

Once we were all sitting down Carlisle began. "Things are bad in Volterra. They are on the verge of a civil war so to speak. Caius has half the guard on his side and is set on overthrowing Aro and then destroying us. Aro cannot win with those he has on his side now. He has asked for our help, not only in defending against his brother, but also with the running of Volterra once we win. We need to decide what to do."

Chatter broke out among everyone. This is so surreal. I honestly don't know what to think. I'm too stunned for words. "Wait. Why did he call me first? Why didn't he just call you to begin with?"

"Aro is nothing if not honorable. He would have fought with himself about breaking the deal that he made with you. In the end he likely realized that he had no choice, but he felt it was right to ask you first and ensure that you would not hate him for it."

I nodded. "At least he didn't break the deal on purpose or without remorse. That is the important thing. None of us could have forseen this."

"I'm sure that he hoped you would see it that way love."

"Wait why should we do this? We would be putting ourselves in harms way and we aren't actually in it for the power of helping to rule the world." Esme piped up.

"I look at it this way. When Aro loses we will be pulled into this war either way. Caius will come after us and we will have to face him. If we defeat Caius then we would have to take up leadership anyway since someone has to do it. This way we not only save Aro and his loyal people in the process, but we have him around to help us run things in the end."

"So you have already made up your mind?" Rosalie asked.

"Not entirely. That is just the situation as I see it. I welcome all of your opinions and would not make a final decision without all of you either way."

"I thought the reason you left Volterra when you stayed with them before is because they didn't support your diet. How are they going to feel about all of us on that diet?"

"Well Aro was mostly supportive of me. Caius and Marcus were the ones who ostracized me for it and tried constantly to tempt me off of it. Aro thought it was amusing of course, but never tried to change me from it. Aro has basically offered anything we want in return for our help and I'm sure that would extend to offering all of the guard our diet." Carlisle explained.

I thought about that for a minute. "Well in that case can't he just make our diet mandatory? Make all vampires swear off human blood?" Carlisle gave a long and rather boring explanation of why that wasn't possible and he was right as much as I hated to admit it. "But then what if we get too many on the vegitarian diet? Won't that happen anyway?"

"Not likely. No matter how many we try to get on our diet there is little chance of us getting more than half of them to agree with it and even less to stick with it for long periods of time. If we need to though we can get the Volturi to create animal preserves to help increase the populations and make them unhuntable for the time being. We can also get him to buy up all of the forested areas he can to keep humans from killing them off faster like we have done in some areas. There are things we can do to help, but nothing will help if everyone switches diets"

"What about Marcus? Where does he fall in all of this? You have said it will be Caius against Aro, but you have said nothing about who's side he is on."

"Aro thinks that Marcus will avoid the conflict altogether. He doesn't seem to want to be in the middle of it. He will probably flee."

I notice that Charlie has had that blank look on his face during the entire discussion. I call it his cop look. Like he is looking for other angles to explore. Suddenly he spoke up. "How do we know that this isn't all part of his plan. Perhaps Aro is the one who is afraid of our power and wants to secure us on his side and take out the others in the process. Maybe he is using us to start the war. We show up, declare ourselves for him, and force the others to rise against us so that he can eliminate them and set himself alone at the top."