Chapter 26 – All bark and no bite
B-P.O.V.
Peter's hands held me so tightly, as we crashed to the forest floor, that he would have crushed me without my shield. Using my shield to loosen his hold I kicked him off of me sending him back fifteen yards and jump to my feet. He came at me almost instantly; I dogged left at the last possible moment. He missed me by a centimeter at most. He stayed close and as we circled each other. Charlotte was standing twenty yards out watching us intently and Zora was approaching quickly. He lunged again grabbing my right wrist with his left hand; I moved to my right and used his momentum to throw him towards Charlotte. He spun around and charge at me, but stopped short when he heard Zora drop out of the tree next to Charlotte. I used his distraction to my advantage and jumped on his back. Then pushed him to the ground and flipped off him to land on the other side of Charlotte.
"What the hell is going on here?" Zora shrieked as Peter stood and evaluated us. He didn't like us so close to his mate. He knew we could get to her before he could.
"Step away from her," he growled at us. I nodded and flashed to Zora's side then we backed away slowly.
"Why are you attacking Bella?" Zora hissed at Peter.
"She ran," he snarled. We were still closer to Charlotte than he was, he wanted to move towards her but was afraid we would reach her first.
"We weren't running from you!" Zora barked.
"Then what?" Charlotte asked while eyeing us closely.
"The Wolves!" Zora snapped. With that statement Peter flashed in front of his mate in a defensive crouch. He no longer considered us the biggest threats to her and we were both on the defensive.
"Why are they passed the border? Where are the Cullen's?" he asked suspiciously.
"We don't know. We saw two of them in human form in Port Angeles they followed us, so we took off into the woods. One of them followed us in wolf form we split up to make it harder to track us. We don't know the Cullen's or where they are, we haven't met anyone new here," Zora answered relaxing slightly. Nate was getting closer, he still had the wolf on his trail but we couldn't hear them yet.
"This is Cullen territory. They should be here for at least a few more years." Peter said and Charlotte nodded in agreement, both looking skeptical.
"I don't know what to tell you. We haven't seen them or smelled the fresh scent around. If they should be here and aren't it has nothing to do with us," Zora answered in a questioning tone.
"Just call them," I said. "Here, use my phone." I tossed my phone to Charlotte. She snatched out of the air and dialed quickly.
"Where are you?" Charlotte asked before whomever answered get say anything.
"Denali, we . . ." Alice started to speak but Charlotte spoke over top of her.
"We'll see you soon." She ended the call and tossed the phone back to me.
"See they're fine," Charlotte said to Peter, Just as the sounds of Nate and the wolf came into hearing range, Peter and Charlotte both stiffened.
"Let's go." Charlotte whispered, and then they were gone.
Zora sighed loudly. "Shit - that was crazy. Why the hell did he come after you like that, my god?"
"Who knows? We should get going. Although, I don't really like that we're leading the Wolves towards Derm and Huilen." I mutter as we leaped back into the trees.
As we soar from tree to tree, I concentrate on the minds of the wolves. They are all connected like Hector and the other Jaguars. I hear a total of sixteen minds even though Seth is the only one in the radius of Edwards's power. Six have stayed to defend the Reservation; eight are still making their way towards us. Seth is following Nate as he zigzags' his way towards Zora and I, and Jacob is gaining on them fast. They have no clue what we are but are on the offensive because we "reek of Bloodsucker." I really don't want them near Dermott and Huilen, with the Cullen's gone the Wolves have taken over Washington. They have orders to kill any vampire they set eyes on. Two members of the tribe were killed last week by the vampire I saw with Alice's power. We can't let them find Dermott and Huilen. Nate is hearing the same thing I am, his mind looking to find a way to stop Dermott and Huilen from coming to us. He pulls out his phone, still running at full speed and send's them a text.
Leave our stuff. Take to the water and meet us in Victoria, ASAP. – N
He has stopped zigzagging now and is coming straight towards us now. Zora and I have just reached the area where we are supposed to meet Huilen and Dermott. When Nate texts us as well,
Don't mention H or D, they're not coming. When we talk to the wolves follow my lead and keep quiet. I'll see you soon. – N
As we read it Zora's mind goes into overdrive, wondering how many wolves are in the area and we are going to make it out of this alive. She becomes very conflicted, torn between wishing Huilen and Dermott were with us and being happy they aren't.
The six wolves running from the Reservation cross Peter and Charlotte's trail, the Alpha order four to follow them. He is determined to keep the number in their favor; two wolves per vampire or whatever we are.
Zora and I stay perched high in a tree and listened as Nate and his follower approached us. Nate dashed up the same tree as us, sitting on a lower branch but still out of the reach of the wolf below. Seth circled the tree startling slightly when Zora and I drop down onto the same branch as Nate. I heard Nate's plan and nodded for him to try it, I got a good enough feeling from his choice.
"We know what you are and we know that your pack members can hear us through your mind. We mean no harm to you or your tribe, but can and will defend ourselves if need be. Have one of your members shift so we can talk or let us leave in peace."
The other wolves growled at Nate's words but were wondering how we knew what they are. Nate pointed to the ground and then dropped out of the tree. Zora grabbed my hand shrugging and we followed him. Seth backedup a few paces, snarling as he went. The minds of the others went wild and Jacob doubled his effort to reach Seth.
"We won't attack him, only defend ourselves but keep in mind that you are the ones that followed us while having no clue what we are," Nate snarled. I stretched out my shield and pick their spark up about four-miles out and Jacob was just crossed the two-mile mark.
"We know a lot more about you than you know about us. If you attack us, I can promise some of you won't ever make back to La Push. See the small one with me she just sent off the vampires, I'm sure you smelled them on your way to find us. If she can do that what do you think the three of us can do?" Jacob entered the clearing growling loudly. He stood taller than Seth and was deep rust color compared to Seth sandy brown.
"Jacob, it's nice of you to join us." Nate mocked and Zora's grip on my hand tighten further. All the wolves were stunned that we knew his name, I almost snort at the shocked looks on the wolves' faces. Nate causally pushed off the tree he was leaning on.
"You see we know others of your kind, Naguals, skin-walkers, shape shifters or whatever you want to call yourselves. But your website claims your werewolves, which I can promise you're not. I believe you got a call about the website this morning.
"You see we're taking a road trip and split off from some of our family. The Olympic Forest is just a meeting spot for us we can move on if that's what you'd like since we were already planning to. We were Port Angeles this evening for just that reason, but then you approached us and followed us. The only reason we ran, was to get out of the town, we wouldn't want to risk exposure after all. I know how hard it can be for a young shifter to remain in control." He said the last sentence tauntingly. The wolves' minds revolved around a woman named Emily who had been hurt by one of them.
"You see there are rules in the supernatural world and the reason we were planning on leaving town was because of the website I mentioned. Folklore, Myths and Tribal legends is one thing, but to put facts about things humans have no business knowing about online for the world to see, that draws attention. Attention, like that can be deadly. We did our part by contacting your tribal council hoping they take care of it. We wanted to get out of the area just in case we weren't the first to come across that site, none of us want to be around if someone comes to pass judgment on you."
As Nate wraps up his dramatic speech the rest of the wolves appear. The Alpha, a huge black wolf, tries to stare us down but we showed no fear. His speech made us out to be stronger than Vampires and now we play the part. Nate nods at the large black wolf and says.
"Alpha, have someone phase out so we can talk. We will answer some of the questions you may have."
The Alpha nods towards Jacob, then ducks behind a tree and reemerged as a human. He stands about six-foot two with short black hair and tanned skin. He approaches us carefully with a wolf on either side of him stopping ten feet away.
"Hello, I am Nahuel." He raises and extends his hand at full speed not bothering with human pretenses. The Alpha bobs his head but makes no move to shake Nate's hand. "Sam" is his curt reply.
"Well, you're the ones who tracked us down. What can I do for you?" Nate asks in a friendly tone.
"What are you?" Sam asks harshly.
"Sorry, that's not something I can't answer," Nate tells him.
"Where are the vampires you traveled with?"
"They left the area."
"And you will follow them?" Nate only nods in response.
"These Rules you speak of, who enforces them?"
"The Volturi, they are a group of extremely gift vampires. They would massacre anyone and anything in a twenty-mile radius for what has been revealed on that site. They have many talents that would render you useless," Nate answers firmly.
Sam scoffs. "Maybe you would be useless, but we were born to defend our lands from the Cold Ones."
"So, you can stop a vampire whose talent will have you deaf, blind and frozen in place, I highly doubt that. Vampires only have one law keep the secret, when broken it's a death sentence for anyone involved. Your kind was not born to kill vampires you were born to protect your people and your land. If I'm not mistaken your tribes first wolf turned because he was betrayed by someone from within your tribe. It wasn't vampires that started the magic that transforms you." The wolves growled loudly, Sam raised his hand and they stopped.
"We aren't here to debate our origins or what purpose we serve."
"Why are we here? You consider yourselves as vampire hunter yet followed us out here and you know we aren't vampires." Nate irritation is starting to show.
"They followed you because you were covered in vampire scent, it wasn't the Cullen's, scent and we needed to know what the threat was. You were followed in hopes that you would lead us to them," Sam stated firmly.
"Well, as I said they left the area and even if they didn't they are no threat to the humans. They don't drink human blood."
"We were under the impression that was a rarity among vampires." Nate only nods
"So, they left the area already and you are leaving as well?" Again Nate just bobbed his head in agreement. They just stood looking at each other for a moment, before Nate spoke up.
"You should really take care of the website you don't want that type of trouble it's going to bring. Also, we were meeting another vampire here in the forest, we will try to contact her before she shows up but if you see a Golden-eyed female she is just looking for us, she is not a threat. We would be grateful if you let her pass."
"We will keep that in mind," Sam conceded.
"I know Manuel told your elders that you could contact him if you had questions or wanted more information about your kind, you should consider it. We will be on our way now." With that Nate turned his back to them a flashed to Zora's side. He pointed upwards; Zora and I darted up the tree with Nate on our heels. We were hidden from the sight of the wolves below almost immediately.
Our false bravado sold our lie; they assumed we would beat them in a fight even with the numbers stacked in their favor. We left behind stunned six stunned shape shifters that believed they found something stronger than the average vampire and that we called the tribal council to help them.
We traveled through the woods in silence. I stopped my mind to Nate when the wolves we out the range of Edwards power. We found the abandoned rental car and made our way out of Port Angeles before Zora exploded.
"What the hell was that Nahuel? We could have been killed. You just lied to six HUGE wolves, you made it sound like . . . What would you have done if they attacked us? There was no way we could have defended ourselves! You shouldn't have told Huilen and Derm not to come."
"You're right and that's why I did what I did. We ran from them in Port Angeles and they came after us. We had nothing on our side and if they attacked us we would have been in a lot of trouble. So I made it seem like we had nothing to fear, that way they'd think twice. I figured the rest of them were coming and if Huilen and Dermott showed up they would have attacked right away. It was a no win situation, so I did my best, just be glad it worked," Nate barked at Zora. Then he took a deep breath and started over.
"Look, I know you were scared but it was the best I could do. Having Huilen and Dermott with us just would have made it worse. I used their lack of knowledge about us to our advantage it was the only way we could get the upper hand. I'm sorry we did not talk about it first, but we couldn't with the wolves in hearing range." Nate told her.
"I know you're right . . . it's just, I was so worried that they were going to kill us," Zora muttered.
"I know but we're all OK. We just have to get out of Washington and then we won't have to worry about them anymore."
"Where are we going anyway?" I asked.
"Canada is the fastest. We can call Derm and Huilen to let them know where to meet us. Then once we figure that out I have to make a trip out to Northwest Territories."
"What? Why? Can't we all go with you?"
"I came to get you guys because of an email Jennifer sent me. It seems Joham dropped a pregnant woman out in the middle of nowhere. He has Serena getting there before the due date. So I'll have to hurry, she'll be there in two days." Zora's shoulders fell with disappointment.
"We could come with you." I said softly. I saw Zora shaking her head no. I knew he wouldn't let us come with him but I hated the idea of him going alone. Zora had tried to come with him when he left to save Mom and me but no matter what augments she had tried he always said no.
"You know we can't risk Joham or Serena finding out about you two. I have to go alone," he said in a firm tone. Trying to end the conversation before it started. We had been through enough tonight; he did not need me adding to it, so I decided to let it go.
"Where in Canada are we going? I'll start looking up flights on my phone." She was clearly unhappy but trying to be as sportive possible.
"I think the closest Canadian airport is outside of Vancouver, Abbotsford or something like that. We should be there in about four hours if we make the ferry, six if not." Zora nodded and pulled her phone from her pocket.
"Shit! Nahuel I have fifteen missed calls from Huilen and Dermott! You better call her, this will be worse that when you snuck off to find Garr in the Grand Canyon," she giggled.
It seemed like days since we last saw them; but really it had only been two hours and half but somehow I didn't think that would matter to Huilen. I was right she answered the phone and began screaming at Nate at once. When she finally stopped talking over him Nate told our story down playing the incidents with Peter and the wolves. He told her where we were headed and asked that they meet us there. Then he regretfully told her about Jennifer's email and that he would be flying to the Northwest Territories. Huilen begged and pleaded for him not to go, she said that it would only bring him heartache. He of course said he had to try to be first flight out. He comforted Huilen for a while before he got off the phone.
Nate looked at me in the rearview mirror with questioning eyes. I thought about his choice to attempt to save the mother and child, but all I felt was indifference. I shrugged my shoulders at him and his shoulders slumped in defeat. He signaled me to read his mind,
Try Alice's power; see if you find anything that may help.
I gave him a slight nod then concentrated on his spark under my shield. I unlocked her power and it pulled me in right away. Nate's future spun wildly, what planet would be chartered, where would he choose to land, would he go on foot or rent a vehicle. With so many possibilities I could find nothing about the mother and child. I wrapped up Alice's gift quickly, hating the way the visions made me feel almost foggy.
Then project my thoughts to explaining that he had too many choices left to make. Until he knew how he would get to her, I had no inkling of whether he would be able to save her or not?
Zora was watching me closely and asked. "You, OK back there Bella? You looked a bit dazed."
"Yeah, just tired," I lied
"It's not late enough for you to be sleepy. You sure it's not something else?" She tried again, looking less than convinced by my answer.
"I'm fine; it has been a long day I guess."
"Yeah, it has but it's more than that." She gazed at me distrustfully.
I did not respond. She was right it was more than that but I still wouldn't tell her. She muttered whatever and turned to face forwards in the front seat with a huff.
I close my eyes pretending to rest. I pulled my soft shield back so it only covered me. I focused solely on the soft music coming from the speakers then unlocked Alice's power; waiting for the visions to come to me. I had not worked with her power at all yet. I understood it mostly but the only times I used it was when I focused on someone under my shield. Doing that seemed to make the visions different than what I had seen in Alice's mind.
The visions that came were much less intrusive.
The warm greetings we would receive from Huilen and Dermott.
All of us at the airport in the early morning with Nate heading off on his own while the rest of us boarded a plan to Missoula, Montana.
Zora and I walking alone in the woods, "I hope they're right about this." She said looking down at me. "Check your powers and let me see," she said while smiling brightly.
The last one had no meaning to me, other than sometime soon Zora would know about my powers. She could have been talking about anything, and I did not recognize the woods around us. I only knew it would happen soon because I had not aged. I left Alice's power on for a while longer but no visions came to me. So I tried to "look" for them by concentrating on the person I wanted to see a vision of, my Mom.
She was talking with two vampires, telling them to go into the woods to bury their kills. As they disappeared in the woods she ran back into the town to find a payphone.
I shut off the power after that, mom was safe and that was all I needed to see. It brought a small smile to my face but did little to ease my fears; until she was back with us I would not be able to relax.
The rest of the night and the following morning played out just as I had seen in the visions. We listened to our message from Mom before we left the hotel; she did not have much to say.
"Hey - we're outside of San Antonio. They sent me out with Dean and Warren tonight. It's the first time they ever let Dean with me, so I must be gaining their trust. I keep asking questions about who we are saving, but haven't gotten any answers yet. Love you."
*~o~*
Once we arrived in Missoula we made our way to Lolo National Forest. We had to hike most of the day at human pace because there were so many humans around. We set up camp when the sunset, in the most secluded spot we could find. Then Huilen and Dermott left to run a perimeter check. Zora wanted to check in with Nate, whom had not heard anything from since we split up at the airport. So we rushed up the small Mountain hoping to get cell service. Our phones both chimed when we reach to top, we each had a distressed message from Garrett.
Zora called him while I sent Derm, Huilen and Nate a text saying that we're calling him back and not to worry.
E – P.O.V.
Jasper fled with his mind centered on finding and destroying the Immortal Child. As he neared the edge of the clearing Alice is pulled into a vision of Jasper being crushed by an unseen force, it was the most shocking vision I have ever seen.
They immense pain and grief that Alice felt from seeing the visions had Jasper at her side seconds later.
"What is it Alice? What did you see?" he asked as he pulled her close. She sobbed into his chest while he rubbed her back comfortingly.
"You can't go," she cried. "You'll die."
Peter and Charlotte hissed loudly knowing he was headed towards Isa and her family. Garrett shrugged as if it were no big deal and said.
"I know that they have killed to protect their family before, if you choose to go after them they would fight back."
"I'll go to the Volturi then." The same vision flashed in Alice's mind, and her grief grew stronger having seen it a second time.
"No, you'll still die that changed nothing. You can't go. She's not what you think," Alice wailed.
"They're not what you think." Alice whispered over and over while Jasper tried to comfort her, but he still had not changed his mind.
Garrett phone rang loudly and he answered it before the first ring was complete. "Aurora, are you ok? Is everyone safe?"
"Yeah we're fine. Are you? Your message kinda freaked Bella and me out; we just got phone service."
"Sorry about that, I went a bit nut's when I found out Peter was with you guys. He didn't hurt Isa did he?" he murmured quietly as we all listened in on the conversation.
She snorted. "That ass tackled her in midair when we were trying to outrun the Wolves that were following us. . ." Alice, Jasper and let out soft growls and Peter hissed.
"Who are you with? That was more than just Peter and Charlotte?" she hissed at Garrett.
"I know; Peter, Char and Edward, Alice and Jasper Cullen can hear you. I'm going to have to tell them something, Char made a comment that made it sound like Isa was an Immortal Child."
"Great; that's just great! We haven't had enough problems lately! Renée's being held hostage by some sick'o; then we were chased by wolves, attacked by Peter, confronting six wanna be werewolves, Nate's run off in search of another one of us and now Charlotte is telling stories about us!" she wails, losing her composure. "I can't deal with this!" We can hear her crying as she passes the phone off.
"Garr?" a new voice whispers.
"It's going to be ok." He's looking towards Alice willing her to agree.
"Can't they hear our hearts through the phone? Show them pictures of us or something. This is a mess."
"Yeah – I know. Try holding the phone to your chest we should be able to hear it." We hear rustling then a very fast but steady heart rate.
"Can they hear it?" she asks in the background. We all nod and Garrett lets out a sigh.
"Yeah, we can."
"Good, so no one is coming after us or running to Italy?" Everyone nods in agreement. Jaspers mind can't understand what would have a heart rate like that, look like a seven-year old and could fight off Peter.
"Sorry Isabella, I thought they knew. After all Edwards a mind reader." Charlotte mummers thinking that she didn't really know them but she gave her word not to spread their story.
"It's fine, just please don't mention us to anyone else." Isa answers softly. We can still hear Aurora sniffing in the background.
"Ok, you may as well tell me everything that's going on. They all heard the recap from Zora anyway," Garrett says playfully.
"That's why text is better; no one can overhear you!" snaps Zora and we all snicker.
"Alright, what was the last Renée up date you got?"
"Names and Powers?" he says vaguely and Isa hums. Garrett's is hoping that she won't say too much, he is worried about Peter and Jaspers reaction. Renée is being held hostage by a small group of newborns that are heading south.
She starts to tell him about the last forty-eight hours beginning with messages from Renée. Jasper and Peter both asked for clarification as she spoke in as little detail as possible. She gave it begrudgingly, when talking about Renée. However, when Jasper asked who her shifter friend was and where they were.
"Look I don't know you and I'm not outing my friends. They are nothing like the wolves' and would leave you alone anyway cause your vegetarians. So don't worry about them." She snapped. Alice and Charlotte giggled at her. Charlotte thought of how Isabella's abruptness rubbed her the wrong way when they met. Now that she wasn't on the receiving end she enjoyed it particularly if it was aimed at Jasper.
After she snapped at Jasper she dove right back into the story without missing a beat. She downplayed what happen with Peter, I could see it in his and Charlotte's minds. They were both pleasantly surprised that she wasn't trying to get them in trouble with Garrett. When she got to the face off with the six wolves' it seemed that Zora could no longer handle the edited version she took her phone back and ranted to Garrett about what an 'ass' Nahuel was. She finished with a huff, we were all stunned that he basically tricked the wolves into thinking that the three of them could and would take out the whole pack if necessary. He also managed to make them seem like the good guys for warning them about the website and the Volturi.
"And just what were you telling me about him running off looking for others?" Garrett asked playfully he was happy that Zora was no longer crying.
"Oh he jumped . . ." Zora started.
"Don't" Isa hissed at the same time.
"Why not?" Zora scoffed.
"We don't know them! Don't tell them where he is when he is alone; you already said he was away looking for another one of us. That's more than enough information." Isa said softly.
"Whatever Bella, you always think you know everything. It's not like they are going to look for him or something. Garrett wouldn't let that happen." Zora barked back at her.
"You don't know that. It's just not worth the risk. . ." Zora interrupted her and they went back and forth a few times, before Garrett interrupted them both.
"Guys stop - Look I'll call Nate later if he wants to tell me what's up he can. How's that?" Garrett said trying to get them to stop, he saw both sides of the argument and hated when they fought.
"Yeah - you do that! Bye Garr." Zora said with false enthusiasm.
"What's your problem . . ." We heard Zora sneer at Isa before she hung up, we were all shocked by the venom in Zora voice.
"So, they aren't vampires but clearly are something supernatural. Tell me what you know!" Alice chirped at Garrett determined to get the information out of him. His mind was made up he was not sharing anything, and begging me not to say a word about what I had seen from his thoughts. Even with his mind I had no idea what they are.
"I don't know what they are, and I'm not trying to find out. Why do you care anyhow?" He said simply. Peter and Charlotte both agreed and would not say anything because they did not want to know. Jasper was absorbing Alice and mine' curiosity, and was trying to work it out based on the little information he had.
"I'll figure it out eventually," Alice simpered at Garrett, while her thoughts centered on different ways to find out just what they were. Isa was right not to tell us where Nate was looking for others like them because I'm not sure we could have stopped Alice from tracking him down.
"I wish you wouldn't try." He said, then thought for a moment and asked. "What was your vision of when Jasper was running away from here?"
Alice sucked in a ragged breath and shook her head back and forth.
.
Thanks for reading! *I'll send you a preview, if you review.* ;)
I was thinking of doing a flash forward for Valentines day let me know if you'ed be interested It would be E&B of course.
*Big thank you Snowgoose, for being a great beta! *
Also check out my profile for charter index for this story and a link to photos!
2/10/13
Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight and the twilight characters, no copyright infringement intended.