Chapter 21: Claire- Embry's Call
I woke up with a start, wrapped in Quil's warm arms as a voice rang through the door.
"Quil, man, wake up! Get out here!" I never heard Embry so frazzled and I hopped out of Quil's bed quickly, pulling on a pair of cut-off sweats on the floor, and drawing the string as tightly as possible which still left them hanging low on my hips. They looked more like capris than shorts on me and I sort of like the style, if they were a bit smaller I could be starting a trend, hobo-girl chic.
As I started looking for a shirt, Quil shuffled around and threw me something from his top drawer. I recognized it immediately as my own, although it was very, very old. It was a shirt from the summer camp I attended in the fourth grade. The summer camp that I hated and after two tear stained letters Quil came and busted me out of— without my parent's permission. I remember the thrill of the late night escape; my nine year old mind running wild with images of us as international spies or kick ass cat-burglars.
I smiled despite myself and pulled on the faded red and white shirt, it was very, very tight and extremely short, which on one hand was a blessing as I was not wearing a bra so it held me securely in place, however with the low hanging sweats it left a good amount of my stomach exposed. Quil smiled at my bare mid-section as he threw the door open to face Embry.
Embry crashed in without thinking. When he caught sight of me his eyes widened and he smiled goofily, his eyes lingering on my mid-section. I giggled at his inappropriateness in a time of crisis and Quil punched him hard in his arm. He came back to his senses and turned away from me to face Quil.
"Bella and Alice, they brought them back. They found them and they brought them back, they're alive," he said breathlessly. My stomach dropped, I felt dizzy with excitement and searched for my flip-flops as Quil ran out the door. I ran after him, jumping on his back as he ran towards Sue's.
The exhilaration was like electricity throughout the house and I hopped off of Quil not even thinking about my attire. Solace who sat close to Phil smirked so widely that I remembered I was bare from the top of my ribs to the apex of my hips. I scowled at him, holding my head up high as I headed towards the large gathering in the kitchen. Kim who was glued to Jared, raised an eyebrow at me as I walked in and I winked at her. I felt immensely more confident now as I walked through the house in a mitch-matched outfit, I would never have dreamed of wearing this before last night.
Then I saw them, Natalia was curled up in Seth's lap and mumbling rapidly in Spanish. Seth had studied Spanish for almost three years solid since meeting Natalia and he nodded solemnly in understanding, not taking his eyes off of her once.
Michael injured but healing, was flanked by Jordan and Anna who sat crying silently next to him.
In the farthest corner Brady was engaged in a serious man-hug with Collin and I was abruptly hit with overwhelming emotion. I put my arms around the both of them sobbing quietly. They broke apart momentarily adding me to the circle, and then I realized something I should have noticed when I came in. The Cullens and Renesme were not here.
"Wait," I said breaking off. "Where are Renesme and the Cullens?" Collin looked weary as he glanced down at me, and Brady ran a hand through his hair.
"They're preparing for the fight," Krys answered me, obvious excitement in his eyes.
"What fight?" I asked turning to find Quil, who was watching me from across the room.
"We took out four of their guard, their coming for us," Brady's voice was shaky.
"No, no, you didn't take out anyone. The Cullens did!" I was close to screaming when Quil placed a heavy arm around my shoulder, grounding me. A sweet smell like flowers and baked good hit my nose, and I saw the Cullens filling in, Edward at the head, holding his wife's hand. When his eyes reached mine his face changed, almost apologetic. I noticed now that they were not alone; they were followed by six new vampires and a handsome tanned man that was not vampire, but definitely not human.
Sam came forward shaking their hands and looking weary, "any new information?"
"Yes, Alice sees them coming now. They are not taking their time to plan this time. They do not want to give us time to assemble an army again," Carlisle said bleakly.
"We have contacted everyone. Tia and Benjamin are already on their way, Stefan and Vladimir will arrive within the day. Siobhan's coven has been informed, they have been waiting for this for quite some time," Edward continued.
"How long before they arrive?" Quil asked still holding me.
"Alice doesn't see the Volturi arriving here. They are going to our home in Canada. We will leave tonight," Edward answered.
"What about the summit and all of that?" I asked him looking deep in his topaz eyes.
"It's too late. While Alice and Bella were retrieving the wolves they successfully took out four of the Volturi's guards, two of which were gifted. Vampires with gifts are highly prized by Aro, he won't let this pass," Edward answered. Bella smirked as if she was proud of herself and I felt nauseous.
"Why didn't they kill us when they had the chance, Edward?" Seth asked from his chair still holding on to Natalia. There was a sort of odd affection in the way they interacted, the rest of the pack were all civil to the Cullens (especially Renesme) but Edward and Seth were way past civility, they were friends.
"I think Aro intended to abduct you and see if you could be trained as guards," Edward answered, walking to Seth's side and patting him wholeheartedly on the arm. "If that could have been managed they would have collected you all before the battle, if not, they would have used Gianna to eliminate you."
Natalia stared up at Edward uncomfortably. Edward bowed his head to her and whispered something in Spanish, she gasped and Seth chuckled.
"Don't freak out my fiancée, Edward she's new to this."
"Fiancee?!"Sue gasped and Kim hollered, "About damn time, Clearwater," from the kitchen.
I was super happy for them, but also a little jealous, yesterday night before all of this madness this was the exact announcement we were going to make, we going to tell the pack we were planning to get married. Now… now I didn't even know if he was going to live past tomorrow.
"So now what? This Gianna chick is gone, so it's a fair fight right? Why is everyone worried?" Solace asked from the door. Leah stood next to him, her eyes glued to the floor and I sensed intimacy in their postures that I never noticed before.
"It's never a fair fight with the Volturi. They still have Renesme and their guard has been upped substantially since their last encounter with us. We have contacted everyone we could but this time we don't have the pretense of bearing witness, this time is a fight. We are attempting to overthrow a monarchy, they aren't going to take that lightly—we vampires value our lives," a tall man with a ponytail spoke from beside his mate.
"Garret's right, less people are going to be willing to come forward now. We aren't fighting an accusation against us, we are fighting the establishment," his mate, a small beautiful vampiress interjected.
"I think the group that took Nessie might not be far waiting for orders. They wouldn't bring her to the battle. We followed their scents to the ocean, but they could have doubled back farther along the coast. We should split up, follow the trail again and if we can't find her head north in time for the Volturi's arrival" Jasper said, still wrapped around Alice.
"We'll go back first. Someone has to be there to meet the Dracula twins anyways," the big-teddy bear of a vampire Emmett said, grabbing his life-size Barbie girlfriend and heading to the door.
"Emmett, we shouldn't split into such small groups. Take Garret, Kate, Jake and Huilen with you," Jasper ordered, no one questioned him; he had a stance, a presence that was awe-inspiring and also terrifying. He was obviously in charge when it came to battle, I watched as the eyes of the stunning tanned man follow the Huilen as she left. He seemed torn, as he held onto a statuesque strawberry blonde. Before last night the sight of these vampire women would have tortured me for weeks, their perfection was disheartening, but I hardly noticed it now.
The blond Tanya, spoke, "Huilen will be safe with Kate and Emmett, don't worry lover," she cooed in his ear. I noticed then that Edward and his wife Bella were whispering and shooting glances in my direction. Quil noticed too rushed to my side.
"I don't like the way they are looking at her," Quil hissed under his breath, as Edward and Bella, seemingly aware of Quil's anger stopped abruptly.
"Calm down, Quil. Edward is just worried about Claire," Bella assured him.
"Why is he worried?" Quil demanded.
"Did the mini-vamp see my future doom?" I asked casually, Edward chuckled.
"No, you just remind us a bit of our daughter. We feel very… protective of you," Edward explained. Quil's stance relaxed noticeably and the guilt started to suffocate me.
I was trying to keep Quil from this battle, the battle for Renesme, a girl I had known my entire life. She had a family, friends and an imprint just like me… and if this had happened to me, if our places were switched, I would hope she'd allow Jake to fight for me. I felt tears sting at the corner of my eyes and I put my head down in shame.
"I'm really sorry about Nessie," were the only words that I trusted myself with then. A hard cold hand touched my shoulder and Bella's kind face stared down at me.
"I know exactly how you feel, it's terrifying," she whispered, her sweet breath washing over me.
"Which… is why we think you should stay in La Push with Anna, Seth and Michael. They've been hurt, they're not fit to fight and someone needs to keep an eye out here just in case," Edward said looking meaningfully at Sam who watched us from across the room. Sam nodded and turned back to Emily.
"I'm going," Anna said standing at the table.
"So am I," Michael said making the same gesture.
"Me too," Seth said, standing even as Natalia tried to force him back down— and the rest of the pack considered it their moment to declare.
"I'm in," said Jordan, putting his arm around his brother.
"It's my job," Phil said gravely.
"I wouldn't miss it," said Krys just as Solace said, "we all gotta die someday," I shuddered.
Collin and Brady, huddled in the corner in discussion, before they turned to the group and together simply said, "We're in."
Leah came into the room and much to the surprise of everyone around said, "If Jake and Seth fight, I fight." Quil gasped and started to step forward, but I grabbed onto him tightly, my eyes pleading with Edward for help.
"You know I'm going," Embry called, winking at Leah as he joined her in the middle of the dining room. Quil had stopped and I used the opportunity to force him to look at me. I kissed him with all the passion I could muster and begged him, "Quil, please, they said you could stay." Embry looked back at him and I saw the pain in Quil's eyes. I was being selfish, but I could not stand by and let him go without a fight.
The room got even tenser, there were three other whispered arguments across the room and just three wolves left to declare. I watched as Kim silently fought with Jared, her eyes were a mix of pain and fury before she blurted out, "I'm pregnant, so I win! You're staying!" Jared's eyes fell on Sam and he nodded, giving Jared a weak smile. Jared's shoulders slumped in defeated and he left the room.
Rachel and Paul's discussion was much calmer, he kept pointing in the direction of the crowd, looking at Anna and murmuring. Rachel was crying as she finally nodded and he spoke, "I'm in," he sounded defeated.
Only Quil was left.