I have heard a bit of the Jake factor in this story falling. Well don't worry. It will all be clear in the next chapter. More then you think. I know he has been kinda vacant, but he wil
Here it is. The start the of the climax. Kinda long chapter, and almost none of it is dialog.
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I may have gotten Edward to let me come here, but he decided taking Bella was too much of a risk. Gave her a cell and a credit card and told her to not leave the airport. She seemed very irritated not being able to come, but stayed after much argument from Edward.
There was nothing in our way now. We were all just three vampires walking through the Volturi's palace, or whatever they called it. Now the goal was to get to the rendezvous. Pathway after pathway Beth and Jasper walked, me trailing behind. Walking faster was the biggest plus of this Vampire thing.
The next room was the long hallway if I remembered Edward's instructions correctly. Beth started up a small talk conversation as we entered the waiting room. A human secretary was sitting at the desk. I could smell the blood racing through her. Beth was restraining my sent though. She said that if I wasn't used to controlling myself, even with her help, I would kill all humans within a mile. I looked to the doors. This part involved me being good at talking. Beth and Jasper would help, but I wanted to do something, and for some reason Carlisle thought this would be the perfect job for me. Don't know why he did though, convincing people was Jaspers territory, make them feel like they can trust you then get anything out of them.
I took an unneeded breath to calm the nerves. My mind was still somewhat human. My hand traced one of the lines in the marble of her desk.
"May I help you?" she asked, unphased by my appearance, or so it seemed from the outside.
"Yes," Alice had given me hints as to what to do here: look into her eyes, don't stutter, and hope with all my might she will believe me. So I did, "I'm Stephanie, this is Jasper and Beth." Her eyes were a deep green. If not for the stress lines under her eyes, she may have been a very beautiful woman, "We are here to see Marcus and Aro about a little matter. When will it be possible to meet with them?" I gestured my hand to the doors ahead of her, I had been told that was where the room all of the Volturi gathered.
I watched her eyes so closely that mine seemed to slightly blur. As if her eyes had glazed over. Wait! The rest of my vision wasn't glazed though, just her eyes. This made me jump, turning side-to-side, expecting one of them to be over my shoulder. Only Jasper and Beth were in the room. What was happening? Where were they?
"They are going to feed soon, you may go see them afterwards. Unless that is not suitable for you." she was still glazed. I am positive that before I spoke she had very normal eyes though. No glaze, no anything. Was this my doing? I couldn't speak.
"That is just fine, we will wait until they have eaten." Jasper spoke up, stepping ahead of me. Beth grabbed my arm.
"Alright them, you may take a seat if you would like." The woman spoke as if nothing strange had happened.
"Thank you." Jasper grabbed my other arm, and the dragged me to the chairs closest to the doors we had entered through.
Not until we had sat did I say anything, "Jasper, don't you get it." I whispered harshly, "They are here. Didn't you see her eyes? They have her."
"No, they don't." Jasper said, calming me.
"Then how?" I asked, though I could not be frightened with him around.
"This was an experiment. Alice was pretty sure of it, but we wanted to see if for ourselves. It came from when you first met Edward. Remember? You convinced him so easily of your story. Too easily from Edward's point of view, but he was too intrigued by your story and believed it so fully that he thought nothing of it tell later when he was with Bella." Jasper was slowly telling the story. As he spoke I suddenly had a shocking realization.
"You think it's hereditary!" I shrieked. Then when Beth shot a hand over my mouth I finished in a whisper, "You think just because I am related to them means that I can convince people of anything too? That can't be true."
"It is a possibility," Beth chimed in, "You did it with that Jacob kid too, Edward told me. Convinced him so easily of coming here. In any right state of mind, do you think someone that protective over you, as I have been told, would ever let you come to this vampire city?" She finished.
"No," I answered allowed. This was so obvious. Why hadn't I thought of it before? I had been too easy to convince them, but at that point I had other things on my mind.
The silver cell phone in Jaspers pocket buzzed, "Hello," he answered in a flash. Then handed me the phone. I heard Alice's voice squeal.
"Um, hi." I said.
"You did it! You did it! You did it!" Alice perked up, "I knew you would."
"Yeah, I just wish you all had let me in on it earlier." I replied, grumbling.
"I thought of that, and we almost did, but," she held it out, "if we had you would have been all stuttery, not trusting yourself to do it, and then it would have been a big and total mess, nothing would work right." She seemed very set on her decision.
"Just asking, are there any surprises that I haven't been told yet?" I asked.
"Nope, you know the rest from here. I have to go now though, because Heidi is coming though the door in a matter of seconds. Bye." The phone clicked shut on the other line and I handed the one at my ear back to Jasper.
"Go time." I said, just as voices could be heard from far back past the door we had just entered.
Beth nodded and instantly I was human faster then I had time to comprehend, and I had two human companions on either side of me. I felt like I was deficient now, had some disability after having my first taste of the way my immortal friends lived. There wasn't much time to decipher it though because the crowd was just then bustling through the door and we had to act quickly. We ran to join the crowd finding the center as to not be notice by any vampire watching the crowd. We didn't want our faces in their memory. I hadn't even gotten a chance to look at how Jasper and Beth looked as human. The adrenalin was so high that all I wanted to do was get on with it.
Blending in was simple, we just acted like tourists. Though thinking of what these people were going to be used for if we hadn't come was a frightful thought, and kept me forcing a smile.
"Isn't this place so pretty?" I heard a little voice from my side. There was a young girl, no older than five looking up at me, "This place is so pretty. They say that there is a big surprise for everyone at the end of the tour."
She looked so cute and I worked so hard to keep the tears from falling looking at the little girl, "What's your name?" I asked her bending over slightly as we walked.
"Dezrae" she said.
I swallowed back the tears, "Where are your parents at Dezrae?" I asked.
"Mommy is up there," She pointed to the lady not too far in front of me, "with my grandma. They love old buildings and just loved that they got to see this one." I looked up as the doors shut behind us, letting a tear fall from my eye. I turned from Dezerae without a word and continued to move. This was the last thing this girl would ever see if we weren't here to help. Even so, there must have been so many other girls like her. So many lost in this dreadful room.
The moment we got in there we had seconds to get out. After passing through the door the blood left again and I had all of the 'abilities' back. The inability to cry was a grace now. I couldn't turn around, but I could still hear her voice in the back of my mind, "Mommy, look how big this room is!" there was still a knot in my throat and I moved quickly keeping the thought out of my mind. We slipped to the back and snuck out the back of the crowd joining the other Vampires on the wall.
One of the Volturi, I don't even know which, was greeting them and there was only moments before it would get nasty. I really paid no attention to the look of anyone around me other than to check faces for the distinguishing features of, Julius, Maggie, or Nathan.
"This is where your stuff comes in again Steph." Beth whispered in my ear, "Start with a couple in the back."
There was one vampire not far from me. I walked toward him watching his eyes, "Excuse me, but would you happen to know what is happening here?" The other vampire turned to me with a bewildered expression.
"What are you crazy? This is food numskull." It was a guy, beautiful. His hair was grown long like they wore it in medieval times though.
"You mean you eat these people?" Four other vampires turned to join the conversation, all looking directly into my eyes. Perfect, "Eating people is wrong. You should not let anyone eat humans." I glanced at all of there eyes. This power was useful. Every eye was glazed. Soon several more from either direction came to ask what was happening. I explained in the same way, making sure to meet their eyes while speaking. This was working well. Dezerae was the only thought in my mind as I spoke. She had to get out, had to.
I heard the Volturi man stop speaking and I knew I had run out of time. The vampires jumped, at least the ones I hadn't spoken to yet. Those took what I said to the letter and tried to stop the ones that weren't going after them. Jasper calmed the crowd enough so that no one got seriously hurt, but I could smell the spilled blood. I kept my eyes straightforward as to not see who had died. There was no way I would be able to pull it off if I let that happen. We all knew that not all the humans would survive. It was a risk. I slinked through the crowd speaking to everyone I could. Soon half the room was on my side. Jasper stayed by the door telling the people where to go. There would be no vampires in the halls now, they had all come here for their meal. If things had gone to plan then Carlisle and Emmet were helping them as well. My goal was to find Edward, and I had to keep Beth close. No one cared about a couple vampires wondering around with no care in the world. Half the room was crazed with the smell of blood in the air and the other half was fighting back only those going after the blood.
I was scanning the crowed unable to find any sign of Edward. He was our goal to finding anyone and anything. The thought that this was getting hopeless crossed my mind just as I was pulled in a side door and then it was quickly shut. Edward stood there with Beth and my forearms grasped in one hand and a finger to his lips with the other. We both nodded in understanding and he led us down the corridor to a small room that looked just like any other room in this place.
"Julius is on his own, easy to find, but we will need you." He nodded his head in my direction.
"Ok, did you get Esme with Carlisle?" I asked, making sure the plan had gone correctly.
"Yes, she is with Alice right now getting those people out of here." Edward replied. Then he pointed to the right and we both followed him is silence until we reached the place were Julius stood watching the corridor. He seemed to be waiting for us. Arms crossed across his chest he didn't look happy to see us either, "Almost here." Edward said. Code for: the rest of my family is almost here to help us.
Julius didn't speak, but his eyes, glazed red and menacing, never left mine. Like he was beating me down. Trying to kill me just with a stare. If looks could kill this would have been my funeral.
I stepped to Edward instinctively for protection, and his arm pushed me farther behind him, as if I were still human. Julius didn't seem to like this at all, and he lost his composure and lunged forward, not to Edward, or Beth, but me.
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Ok, tada. The next chapter is almost done. I just need to finish it, and I am not very good at fight scenes. Well, I think you all want me to get back to writing. This story is almost over, I just have to finish the climax, give you the after story a bit, and then I will be done. At some point I plan to start Steph's childhood one if I get enough response.
That Dezerae stuff made me cry. I got so sad over that. My fingers haven't decided if she shall live or not, either that or they haven't told me, so I can't tell you anything.
How was everyone's New Years? I had a blast flying at 6:00 in the morning on the 1st (sarcastically speaking) working on around three hours of sleep and two liters of coke I don't think was very good for me.
Bi, got to go write more for you all:
!!REVIEWING MAKES MY FINGERS TYPE FASTER!!
Rouge: Great chapter Anna! This is really fun picturing. All of their plan coming into play. It's so exciting. But I just can't see Julius wanting to attack Steph.
