Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chpt 36 The Italian Job
BPOV
"Put her down!"
"No."
"Em, bro . . . ."
"I will shred you and shit you out!"
"Arthur! Vampire! I am the Doctor here, my examination table is a good place for her to be." Nadir interrupts calmly.
Yes, please, put me down, I feel sick.
Ah, hello horizontal flat stable surface.
One hand enveloped in a warm one and one in a cold one.
"I cannot examine her like this."
"Em, drop." Jasper drawls.
"Why should . . . . okay . . . . fine. I'm here Bells, I've got your back."
Cold gives way to blazing warmth and I drift away . . . .
...
My eyes open slowly and I roll sideways instinctively, feeling stiff and sore.
"Holy shit! What happened to you?" I gasp, taking in the two black eyes and multitude of matching bruises on his visible skin.
"Nothing much." He groans, waking and straightening out in the chair. "I'm almost healed already. Are you okay?"
I perform a quick inventory, feels like it, so I nod.
"We did it."
"We did?"
He nods, taking my hand.
"Philip?"
"Phil the Dill is in mint condition. Jasper crash landed him and the communications gear in one piece before the tower went down, but I think he may have developed a bit of a crush on his rescuer. He's quite the military man your Major Whitlock."
"Youngest Major in the Confederate army." I snicker, recalling Alice's intense pride in that fact. "What happened to me?"
"You hit your head like you always do." Arthur laughs, shaking his own. "Emmett was most contrite."
I reach up with my free hand, easily finding the lump just above my left temple.
"Hardest substance known to man after vampires according to Carlisle." I sigh.
He sighs too, the amusement fading from his eyes.
"We leave for Italy at first light. I don't suppose I can persuade you not to come?"
"You know why I have to." I reply, thinking about Alec.
"Yes." He sighs again, thinking about someone else.
"Arthur . . . ."
"Arturo!" Oleg shouts, bursting through the door. "Stop making nice with Oleg future mistress and get on here, we haf work to do and blonde vampire who look like American movie star has sensible suggestion."
"I'd better go Bellski." Arthur chuckles, getting up to press his lips to my forehead in a long lingering kiss.
"Out Oleg." He orders, wrapping an arm around his shoulder to take him with him. "It'll be a cold day in hell before I give you a chance to work your Russian charms on her unsupervised."
"Goodbye beautiful Isabella!" Oleg calls as Arthur herds him out.
I collapse back for a moment, frustrated, and then resign myself to the fact that Arthur and I aren't going to get a chance to talk until this is over.
But before I can get up Nadir bustles in and goes through the whole shining light twenty questions routine. Then he hands me my rifle and throws me out of his one and only private room with unneeded instructions for the recently concussed. I am, after all, something of an expert.
...
I tour the camp.
Amazingly no one was killed. I can't quite believe it. Though there are quite a few walking wounded in the restaurant, fuelling themselves back to health with copious quantities of hot food. Nadir has it reasonably easy I guess, reset broken bones, stitch where appropriate, prescribe painkillers and a five course meal.
Not true of the vampires. There is still a pall of purple smoke clinging to the valley and I have to remind myself that they are, were, people too.
After a shower in one of the undamaged chalets I go in search of the plotters and, unsurprised to find them in the bar, I settle into one of the armchairs to listen.
Our original plan was simple. We don't want to eradicate The Volturi, we simply want to weaken them and force them to accept that we have a right to exist and that we are strong enough to oppose them if we wish. But a fight inside the city of Volterra will be a very different proposition to what happened here, despite our superior numbers.
"So who is coming with us?" Jasper asks as they survey the makeshift model on the table that I'm guessing is supposed to be Volterra.
"A hundred of us." Arthur answers.
"All shifters?"
"All except Bella." Philip answers. "I'm off to one of our other camps to co-ordinate communication."
"Bella is a human." Jasper points out, probably thinking like me, what Edward's reaction will be.
"Bellski a magical creature in her own right." Arthur drawls. "And you try stopping her."
Jasper glances at me and I waggle my rifle at him, which makes him smile in a way that lights up his normally guarded face.
"Okay. Bella comes with us. Alec's gift will be severely limited inside the Castle, though just as troublesome to our attack, so if a group of us can get her to him that will undoubtedly give us the advantage."
"Will they be expecting?" Oleg asks.
"No." Jasper shakes his head. "It simply will not occur to them that the reason they haven't heard from us is because we've been beaten. They don't use cells or much technology so being out of contact for a few days won't even faze them."
Arthur nods, that's what he'd said when we started talking about this months ago.
"With Felix gone." Jasper continues. "It would also be prudent to concentrate our efforts on taking out Caius."
"What happened to Felix?" I ask, aware of his importance.
"We think you shot him Bells." Em laughs. "Like Jane there weren't enough pieces left to be entirely sure but it smelt like him."
"Oh."
Jasper winks at me and returns to his original point.
"Caius. Aro will see the sense in treating with you, but Caius will not, he will continue to be a danger to you, and to us."
"Caius is mine." Arthur states quietly.
"Understood." Jasper nods. "But like all three brothers he will be heavily guarded. You will not be able to go after him alone. And you will be needed to engage with Aro. I think we should plan to herd them into the Audience Chamber, there we can address all our requirements in one go."
"What about Alec?" Em asks.
"That's where Bella comes in." Jasper says quietly, transferring his attention to me briefly before focussing back on Arthur. "Gun or no gun it will not occur to anyone there that she is a threat. If we can get the survivors there, with Bella, and she can use her ability we will have accomplished everything we need. Removed Aro's last mass offensive weapon. Proved our point that they are no longer and never will be again invulnerable. Forced him to deal with you. And given you the chance to take your revenge on Caius without splitting and weakening our forces during the critical stages of the attack.
It is important that none of us touches Aro before then or he will know about the bullets. That might be easier said than done, all fighting is usually left to the Guard but considering the numbers they are facing it is possible that he may enter the fray.
We also need to make sure we kill Chelsea and Corin. Their gifts are insidious over time, we have already felt them. Enforced loyalty and addictive contentment. No one should command such long term weapons."
"What about your family?" Arthur asks.
"They will help, but Emmett and I must find them and brief them first."
Arthur just stares at him.
"You will have lost nothing by letting us try." Jasper points out reasonably. "Your numbers are superior and you will prevail. The rest of the family may be useful with Aro since they know nothing about The Aussie Special."
Arthur continues to stare and Jasper sighs, finally giving in.
"I want only what you want shifter, to protect my mate, and my family. For them to be able to live freely and in peace."
Arthur glances at me but there's no way I'm going to attempt to influence this. I trust the Cullens but I've learned a lot about sacrifice, compromise and consequences in last twelve months and I'd be a fool not to bow to his superior experience.
"Alright." Arthur decides, casting his eyes around our own group. "What do the rest of you think?"
...
"One day." I mutter as I strap myself into my seat. "I'm going to go to Italy as a fucking tourist."
Arthur just laughs, patting my knee.
A military transport plane, no matter which mercenary you hired it from at what exorbitant cost, is nothing like an airliner. And this isn't a movie so you can't just land a plane like that in a European country, we're parachuting into the countryside.
Em and Jasper watch with strange expressions on their faces again as Arthur checks my 'shute, and I suppress a smile. I've jumped a few times now without the need for a giant eagle hovering over me.
...
"I'll see you in Volterra." Arthur murmurs as he leads me a little way from the others who are milling about and burying parachute gear. "Be safe."
"You be safe too." I sigh, moving in to wrap myself around his warmth.
"I'll do my best." He says softly into my hair. "If anything happens . . . ."
"I know what to do."
"I'm sure the Cullens will look after you if that's what you want." He says, rubbing his nose in my hair.
"Arthur . . . ."
"Arthur! We need you!"
He moves me out of his embrace slightly and looks down at me with a far from happy smile.
"Later, okay?"
"Okay." I whisper as his mouth crashes down, hard and desperate over mine.
And I respond to it with every fibre of my being, kissing him just as hard and just as desperately, welcoming his tongue into my mouth, hands fisting in the shoulders of his shirt, trying to climb him like a tree . . . .
"Arthur!" Someone else calls.
He releases me with a sigh and a more genuine smile, then I watch him walk away, filled with a mixture of emotions that leave me sick to my stomach. He's going ahead to scout in eagle form . . . .
...
It makes sense to let Em carry me to Volterra, it's faster than our original plan to drive.
Vampire speed is not conducive to conversation with a human and so I arrive there with little more information than I set out with.
Edward returned, Aro learned of our existence, Edward wasn't punished but has been barely seen by the family since, choosing to brood alone instead.
I had hoped and feared as much. I know him as well as I know myself. So much so that I really don't need to ask him any of the questions that have been burning inside me this last year.
"Bells?" Em whispers as we gather downwind of the city to wait.
"Yeah Em?"
"I'm kinda proud of you, is that a bad thing?"
"I guess not Em."
"And Bells. Arthur? I get it."
I have no words to answer that so I just nod.
...
We hadn't originally planned for me to go in with the first wave but now, with Em offering to protect me from falling masonry and other crush hazards, I can. So I don my new flak jacket, protection against vampire shrapnel, and follow Em down through a not very inviting looking sewer grating, the rest of our group, rifles strapped to whatever their backs currently are, following.
The other three groups are all taking different routes in. Including Arthur's who will be strolling in through the front door, who would they lock it against, at any moment.
This sewer entrance isn't normally guarded, again who would they fear, and we're quite a way down it when pandemonium breaks out and Em cages me against the wall. The sound of fighting is amplified in the close confines and the noise is so great I'm rendered effectively deaf until it stops.
Em releases me to peer around him into the darkness.
Someone is whimpering but otherwise all is quiet.
I rush forward when I realise that it's Thierry.
"What happened?" I whisper, bending over his naked body.
"Leg is broken." He grinds out. "You carry on."
"Here." I hand him his rifle and he takes it with a grimace. "We'll send someone back for you."
And with a quiet touch from everyone as they pass his prone form we move on.
"Two down." Em whispers as we emerge from the sewer into a rough stone passageway that ends in a set of spiral steps. There is electric light here, but I imagine it hasn't been upgraded for a century, its little better than candlelight and almost as flickering.
The walls shake as I set foot on the first stair and then settle with a little downpour of dust.
"Don't worry." Em says, urging me on. "They knew how to build back in the day, it'll stand through a lot more abuse than this."
"Can you hear what's happening?" I whisper as we climb upwards, shape-shifters in front and behind.
"Some. Jasper has found the family but not Edward. They're all okay and have joined the fight. Aro, Caius and Marcus are with their bodyguards, wives and attendants in the Audience Chamber. It sounds like everyone else is falling back to join them, just as we hoped . . . . some Guard and hangers-on are trying to escape but your shape-shifters are chasing them down . . . ."
Vicious snarling erupts in front of us and Em presses me against the wall again as a body in a black cloak tumbles past us to fall among the teeth and claws below. I can't watch, the metallic tearing sounds are bad enough.
And then we're climbing again, through an unlit patch, the darkness oppressive, at least to me.
I can hear more now.
Growling, snarling, metallic shrieking, incoherent shouts. , bangs, crashes . . . . and then suddenly we're emerging into a wide, well lit, marble corridor and an immediate storm of ferocious noise and blurred movement.
"No stop!" Em orders fiercely. "It's Edward!"