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25. The Hell Raisers

"Bella!" Edward's screaming was the first thing that I registered. Even for a Vampire, his reaction time was pretty fast. I kept my eyes on the destruction in front of me, not even knowing he was there until he lifted me up and held me to him.

I didn't protest nor did I feel guilty about wanting him to hold me. Instead I felt just as I had felt that night Mrs. Cope attacked me and he'd greeted me in the same way; I felt safe, reassured. My hands hung limply at my sides but Edward held me to him with a force that would snap any tree in half. He held on to me as bits of wood and soil fell around us, as the smoke from the landmine swirled around us hiding the destruction from us for a few more seconds.

"Bella, Bella, Bella," Edward was muttering. "What happened? What was it?"

"I threw a branch," I said, my eyes never leaving the swirling smoke of nothingness in front of us.

"I thought I'd lost you," he said, breathless from shock. "Don't ever do that to me again!"

I didn't reply, partly because I didn't know how to. Do what again? Stumble upon a mine? It wasn't as though I could…

"The smell!" I said suddenly as the smoke began to clear ever so slightly.

"What smell?" Edward asked, his voice muffled as he spoke into my shoulder.

"The metallic smell," I replied. "It must be the landmines." Edward didn't answer. "They're not very effective if we can smell them."

"Can we not talk about how effective they may or may not be?" Edward asked. "I can't believe I nearly–" He stopped, lifting his head up and noticing the same time as me the figures making their way towards us through the smoke. At first they were nothing but grey sketches becoming bolder and bolder as they neared us.

"The Volturi," I breathed.

"No," Edward said surely. "Some of them are too tall."

"Meaning?" I asked.

"The Volturi are very old Vampires," he replied, gently loosening his grip on me, "They're from a time when humans didn't grow as tall as they do now."

"Interesting," I said. Having never seen the Volturi before – they tended to keep to themselves and let others do their dirty work – I could only imagine a group of midgets in red hooded cloaks.

When the figures did come into view though, Edward dropped me as we both gasped in shock. Their leader, with her long blonde hair and angelic face, looked so much like…

"Tanya," Edward breathed looking upon the woman with the same dream-like expression I imagined him having nearly a century ago when he saw her for the first time.

The woman stopped and looked at us both in surprise. I knew she couldn't be Tanya but she looked so much like her that I began to get a feeling of hope. Maybe Tanya had escaped – and if so then that meant the Volturi were not as impenetrable as they seemed. And, in turn, that meant Jacob still had a chance. Jacob…

"Irina?" one of the figures addressed the blonde woman, making my heart sink. Irina. The name still sounded familiar though and so unusual. I racked my brain trying to remember where I had heard it before. "What is the matter?" The figure speaking was a tall brunette girl with green eyes that were a shade lighter than Lizzie's.

"Well, they're not dead for one thing," the figure on the other side pointed out. This was a male with a deep voice and a stocky build. He scanned Edward and me before seeming to stumble back in surprise. "Their eyes…" he muttered. "Nikki, look! Irina, are they–"

The blonde Vampire – Irina – held up her hand, silencing the man immediately. She cocked her head to the side, also looking us up and down.

"Who are you?" she demanded in a voice so filled with authority I felt I could do nothing but obey.

"Bella Swan," I answered. "And this is Edward Masen." Edward was still dumb-struck, staring at Irina with his mouth hanging open.

"You said Tanya," Irina said, her voice like a whisper. "Whereabouts did you come across such a name?"

"Y-you remind me of someone I once knew. Her name was Tanya," Edward said finally. I looked at him in surprise. Did he really just stutter?

From nowhere a rage of jealousy swept through me. He had been infatuated with Tanya before – could he really now be finding Irina attractive? She looked so similar to Tanya but where Tanya had been delicate and ladylike, Irina had more of a build. Could they have been related?

I gasped, suddenly remembering where I had heard her name.

"Irina!" I cried, stepping forward. The two humans at her flanks took a step back but Irina stayed where she was like a cold stone statue. "Tanya told me about you. She said you were killed by a werewolf!" It had to be the same person otherwise she wouldn't have halted when Edward had spoken Tanya's name, she wouldn't look so alike…

"Tanya was the one who was killed by a werewolf," Irina said coldly. "I lost her and my other friends over a hundred years ago in the deserts of–"

"Arizona!" I interrupted. "Tanya told me she was the only one to have survived."

Irina seemed to regard us for a moment before she turned back to the two humans beside her. "Take the Jeep back to the Base," she said, the authority evident in her tone once again. "I'll meet you back there soon."

"But what about the rest of the–" Kellan began but stopped when he saw the expression on Irina's face.

"Our work today is done," she said, calmly and slowly. "Get back to Base. Now."

I watched Nikki and Kellan exchange a glance before they hurriedly retreated back to where the smoke was still thick. Once they were gone and I heard the sound of a Jeep's engine start some way away, Irina made her way over to us.

"Tell me everything you know about Tanya," she ordered. "Where is she now?"

I told her everything – it seemed Edward was still in a state of shock. When I got to the part about Tanya being captured and held by the Volturi, Irina growled and punched a nearby tree thus sinking her fist into the wood.

"Those bastards," she seethed.

"I'm sorry," I told her sincerely. "Maybe things would have turned out differently had she known one of you had survived the attack. Are there any more?"

"No," Irina replied, pulling her fist from the tree and flexing her fingers, "I didn't even think Tanya had survived. And yes, things would have turned out differently – I agree. You wouldn't have been saved from that werewolf for a start."

Edward seemed to have recovered because he growled and placed a protective arm around me. I didn't shrug him off. Minutes earlier he'd thought I'd been ripped apart and my pieces burned by the bomb. I figured I owed him a little reassurance. Just a little.

"Your eyes," Irina said suddenly, looking at Edward. "They are a dangerous colour. One might think you are in league with the Hell Raisers."

"And why would that be?" Edward asked smoothly though his arm never left my shoulders.

Irina pointed to her own eyes. They were the same golden colour. I hadn't really given that much thought when I'd first seen her. She'd looked so much like Tanya that I'd assumed the eye colour was just a given. "Round here, eye colour is how we recognise allies," Irina explained. "Those who feed off animal blood are usual in defiance of the Volturi."

"Oh we are in defiance," I said, referring to our new life-on-the-run.

"I know," Irina nodded. "But had any of the Vampire Council seen you then you would have been destroyed immediately."

"Immediately?" I frowned. "Don't you mean we'd just get shipped off to the Volturi? Destroying us straight away seems a bit extreme don't you think?"

Irina smiled without humour. "Welcome to Britain."

(*)

Irina invited us to the Base straight away. Like Lizzie, our eye colour and lifestyle seemed to be proof enough to her that we could be trusted. Plus she wanted to hear all about what Tanya had been up to in the past hundred years. We walked leisurely through the woods.

On the way, I listened to Edward shared some of his and Tanya's stories with Irina. I couldn't help but feel jealous and then angry with myself for being jealous – I was supposed to be angry at Edward and not give a damn whether he lived or died.

I listened to him tell Irina all about his and Tanya's visits round the world. I watched him wring his hands in embarrassment when he told us – in very brief detail – about their visit to the Caribbean Islands where they went to straight from Italy after his change; I watched him laugh as he retold fond memories of their encounter with the monkey Shifters in the Amazon; I watched him seem to cringe when he told Irina about them parting ways after Alice's vision of me. I wondered if he was worried about Irina's reaction. He had, in a way, ditched her friend for the likes of a human.

"How did you survive?" I blurted once Edward seemed to run out of stories to tell – or stories that he wanted to tell. "Tanya said she ran the moment she realized there was no hope for you."

"Survival tactic," Irina nodded in approval of her sister's actions – something that surprised me. "There was no hope for us surviving – not all of us anyway. We fought back the best we could and in the end we won but only because I was the only survivor. I fled the scene then, leaving my friends' body parts behind. To the Arizonian Council it would have looked like nothing but a brawl between werewolves and Vampires that had gone horribly wrong."

"What made you come to England?" Edward asked, taking in the area around him as though he couldn't understand why anybody would come here – unless they were desperate like us.

"I knew that no justice would be done for my friends and that made me angry." She clenched her fingers into fists again. "And I'd heard about the uprisings in Britain – they were just small things back then – but I came over here and I…" She stopped and threw her hands out to the sides. "I made them into very big things."

"The Washington Bombings," I realized. "That was you."

"Partly me," Irina admitted. "I've always had a team of humans willing to help and risk their lives for a better future."

"So you're a Hell Raiser," Edward said.

Irina nodded. "The term was practically invented because of me. Some of the Church Worshippers – you know the ones, they believe Vampires came from the Devil – caught wind of a Vampire being involved with the Resistance and they just didn't know what to make of it." She shrugged. "They nicknamed us the Hell Raisers because they assumed that since a Vampire was involved they weren't against the Vampires for religious reasons but for personal gain."

"And are you doing it for religious reasons?" I asked.

"Please," Irina smiled. "I've lived for hundreds of years and have an endless more to go; why would I worry about the after life? Religion is for silly little humans who can't accept death for what it is."

"So the Church is actually with the Vampires when it comes to you lot," Edward said, surprised. "I didn't see that one coming."

"You could say the Church – and every other religion for that matter – is on the fence. If what we do destroys hundreds of Vampires then they love us. But if one human is killed…"

"They hate you," I finished. "In that case then you really are Hell Raisers."

"Exactly." Irina nodded.

"But what about the humans you do kill?" Edward asked.

"Collateral damage," she shrugged.

"Not every Vampire is a member of the Volturi," he continued.

"Every Vampire, to me, who isn't a Hell Raiser is a member of the Volturi."

Part of me was starting to wonder if Irina was all together in the head.

"Besides," she continued. "What we are doing now is just practicing."

"For what?" I asked.

"For when we get our real target; the Volturi."

"You'll never get the Volturi," Edward told her with finality. "That's impossible."

"No it's not," Irina protested. "And we will get them – one day."

(*)

The base for the Hell Raisers came as a bit of surprise to me because of one thing; it was a church. Or, rather, it was underneath a church.

"It's the last place they'd look," Irina explained, staring up at the old building with fondness.

"How old is it?" Edward asked.

I was too busy trying to block the memories that such a building brought to me. It was as if this one reminder opened up a whole book of memories; all of them involving the Angels that had tried to kill me. The Angels who would have succeeded in killing me – had Edward not turned me.

I hated to admit it to myself but I was starting to see the logic in his decision.

"It's not in use anymore. It's older than me," Irina replied with surprise in her tone. "Everything in this country is old though. Come on, it's not often I get to give guests a guided tour."

She led the way round the back of the church where a small cemetery stood though it looked more like somebody had scattered a handful of tombstones in their back garden.

"Look at this one," I said to Edward, pointing at the nearest stone with the most readable writing. "It's dated 1901 – this place must be ancient!"

"I was born in 1901," Edward pointed out.

"Oh." I straightened up, feeling a bit embarrassed. "Maybe it's just ancient to me then."

Irina wasn't listening; instead she was lifting up what seemed to be doors in the floor.

"Is that a basement?" I asked.

"Yeah," Irina replied, checking to make sure the doors would hold. "It's the only way in and out which makes the humans feel better – they're convinced the church is haunted."

"Ah." Edward smiled. "Ghosts; what a silly human superstition."

"Indeed." He and Irina shared a smile.

Feeling a little left out, I made my way into the basement first. Inside seemed swallowed up by darkness but my improved eyesight helped me to find my way down the steps. I could hear Edward following behind me, having memorised the way he walked without even realizing it. Irina was behind him and she shut the doors behind her making darkness fall. Even Vampires couldn't see without a little bit of light; it's not like we have night vision.

"Just feel your way down the corridor," Irina advised from behind. "There's nothing here to bump into."

I trailed my hands along the walls on either side of me, knowing if I had been human I would be trembling with claustrophobia. My fingertips were met with old stone and I could hear a dripping noise.

"Just a few more steps," called Irina once again. I came to a stop instantly, feeling the presence of something in front of me. Edward collided into the back of me and I could tell by the way his fingers brushed my hips that it hadn't been an accident. Before I could call him up on it, however, Irina said, "Give the door a push."

I did, a too hard of a push it seemed as it swung open all the way and hit the wall beside it, startling the humans who sat at the table nursing mugs of coffee.

Whatever I had expected a secret basement to be like, it wasn't this. The room – with its candle-lit lanterns and dominating wooden table – look more like a comfortable den. A few wooden doors – identical to the one we had walked through were littered around the walls.

"Dormitories for the humans," Irina explained, pointing to each door in turn, "Bathrooms for the humans and the Weaponry Room."

"Wow," I breathed. "It all sounded so cosy up until that last one."

Edward smirked but Irina ignored me, waving her arm towards the humans sat at the table. "This is Nikki and Kellan," she introduced us. "They're the only humans in Base right now. The rest are scattered across the world carrying out important work."

"How many of you are there?" Edward asked, cocking an eyebrow. "And where are they all?" I knew then he was thinking the same as me; would any of our friends be in danger?

"Fifty, give or take," she replied. "But of course we've never all been together at once. That's just risky and we're far too busy for that."

Edward nodded slowly, glancing at Kellan and Nikki who stayed sat down at the table staring at us.

"Kellan, Nikki, this is Edward and Bella," Irina said to them. "They're with us."

"You didn't tell us you were expecting somebody," Kellan said, surprised. He never took his eyes off us.

"I wasn't," Irina admitted. "But they're a nice surprise aren't they?"

Kellan regarded us with suspicion from then on.

"Thank you for talking to us," Edward said to Irina suddenly. "But Bella and I need to get going. We don't want to lead the Volturi here."

"Lead the Volturi?" Nikki repeated in alarm.

Irina held her hand up to her. "I will explain everything later," she said before turning to us. "Thank you for your information," she said. "I wish you the best and feel free to come and see us again."

"You're just letting them go?" Kellan asked as though he were unable to help himself.

Irina shot him a dark look. "They are my guests, Kellan. Don't be rude."

We left, aware of Kellan glaring at our backs.

"Wow, two allies in less than twenty-four hours," I said as we set off South.

To our right were the woods and to our left, down in the valleys, were little towns and villages. It was the first sign of civilized human life I'd seen since we got here.

Edward didn't reply to me. Instead he stopped and held out an arm in front of me so I had no choice but to do the same.

"What is it?"I asked. He held a finger to his lips to shush me but was too late. We both heard the rustling high up in the trees, a place only a Vampire could reach. I felt something akin to blood turning to ice.

They'd found us. The Volturi had found us.