Chapter 35

Edward drove south till he was definitely out of range for reading the werewolves' minds, and then said to Demetri, "If you eat an animal or two after a human, your eyes turn gold again."

Demetri turned towards Edward in shock. Is that how Jasper hid his slips?

"That, and he was careful not to think about it."

Demetri was trying not to laugh. Not that he thought it was funny at all, but it was amusing that Jasper could hide his thoughts from Edward in a way that no one else in the Volturi could. So while it was true that no one knew Jasper better than Edward, Edward was able to find more out about anyone aside from Jasper himself.

"Yes, it's very ironic," Edward droned. "And his new mate is another factor."

Demetri nodded. Alice Brandon frightened him. He himself had killed vampires, of course, but that was in the line of duty. Past behavior indicated future behavior, and if Alice killed vampires who "used her" - well, it probably was better if Jasper quit the guard.

"We're at best just staying at the Seattle outpost for good, but we both are committed to taking out these wolves before considering anything of that nature," he assured Demetri.

"Hold on. We both just signed a treaty saying that we were going to stay out of the tribal lands, and not bite humans, right?"

Edward rolled his eyes. "Caius still wants them destroyed, but Aro wants us to wait till they break the treaty."

"And you actually think they'll break the treaty first? Wait, what am I saying, you read their thoughts, of course you do."

"They can barely even control their phasing. The ones we met are the oldest and most in control - Sam's been a werewolf ever since the Cullens moved here, actually. He didn't really believe in the legends and went to see Carlisle, just as a doctor visit for poison ivy. And that very night he phased for the first time. After that, the entire tribe was forbidden to even go to the hospital in Forks, just in case he would be attending."

Demetri stared at Edward. "That seems a bit extreme."

"Well, they loosened up after a while, as long as Carlisle absolutely doesn't come into contact with any of them, they'll go if they need to. But Sam was the only one till just before we got here. Apparently Sam was hunting a vampire, and Paul and Jared ended up phasing because it came too close. Then Leah followed them - she didn't do anything while they killed it, but that was enough to get her to change too."

Demetri was confused. Did the Quileuetes want their children to phase or not?

"If the Cullens had been the only ones around, then no. They did trust them not to kill. But they attracted a nomad. They never did meet him, but they knew he was around. And it wasn't long before the wolves killed him, so they don't even know his name."

And I bet it was Edward and Jasper who accidentally activated even more wolves.

"Yes," he sighed. "It's all our fault. The longer we stay around here, the more wolves we activate."

"Then why the hell do you want to stay at all? Is Jasper's mate that attached to this area?"

"She's that attached to being part of Carlisle's ... family," he said.

And your mate is still human. Ridiculous.

"I'm not going to destroy an innocent life," Edward snarled. He had to let go of the gear shift before he squeezed it into oblivion.

"I'm sorry," Demetri said out loud. "I don't mean to say you don't know best when it comes to your mate. Just that, if I met someone, and she was human and of age, I'd not want her out of my sight at all."

"I'm not as selfish as you," he snapped. Being away from Jasper was a lot more difficult than he remembered. "Sorry. I'm used to Jasper keeping everyone relatively calm."

"Don't apologize. There's no one right way to act when it comes to the love of your life, right? There's only what works for you."

He counted to ten as slowly as he could, then replied, "You are correct. Let us stop discussing this part. I'm keeping her human till she wants different, she can make whatever choice she wants to. It's all up to her, not me. I'm not going to do anything to an innocent," he repeated.

"All right, we won't discuss her anymore. Tell me how the Cullens met the wolves in the first place."

"Emmett was chasing a bear through their territory, and they attacked him and Rosalie. They were quite surprised to see wolves the size of bears, and even more surprised that the wolves could harm them. Esme and Carlisle were able to convince them that they only wanted to hunt animals, and so they made the treaty."

"Emmett and Rosalie were wounded, but still able to fight back?"

Edward nodded. "There were only three wolves in that pack, so four Cullens were able to take them down without too much effort. But Carlisle didn't attack Ephraim Black, just had Esme hold the back paws down while he held the front paws. That act of mercy convinced him, and he was the chief, so..."

Demetri had been going over the battle in his head, but suddenly looked up and saw the ocean as they whizzed by. Where are we?

"I just kept taking 101 south, I didn't want anyone to hear this discussion," he said.

"Smart boy. But now we don't have one vampire to one wolf, do we?"

"Not if the Cullens don't fight with us," he agreed. "There are seven as of now."

"But now I can find at least those wolves we met. And that one is their leader, Sam Uley, correct?"

"That's right. But again, we're going to let them break the treaty first. We're going to try to get the younger wolves angry. The older ones were barely able to hold themselves down in the first place, and then Jacob Black totally hates me, too."

"I assume that's one of the wolves I didn't meet?"

He nodded. "He, uh, sort of had a crush on Bella for a while. I'm pretty sure he's moved on now, but uh, he knew about my feelings too."

"And how the hell could he possibly know that? How obvious were you?"

Edward winced. "We were both pretty obvious, actually. We, uh, took turns, uh, watching her."

Demetri stared at Edward. He wasn't stupid. You took turns with a werewolf stalking a human.

"Uh, yes, I suppose it could look that way from one angle," he admitted, trying not to cringe. "But we both told her about it!"

"And she was thrilled, right?"

"I think she tried to kick Black in the balls when he told her."

Demetri chuckled. "What did she do to you?"

"Yelled at me, then made me to promise to stop it."

Did he actually stop?

"Of course I stopped!" he yelped. "I wouldn't break a promise to Bella!"

"Right, right, of course you did, right." Edward usually doesn't stop stalking people till he kills them.

"This is different, you know that. She's a singer, I had to try something, anything, to get used to her scent!"

"Edward, are you telling me you didn't realize she was your mate at first, and nearly killed her?"

"Well, of course. How many vampires do you know that avoided eating their singers?"

None. Well, one, apparently.

"I simply had practiced deliberate feeding for so long that I was able to avoid it the first time. And then I worried about it, so I decided habituation was the way to go."

"In other words, stalking."

"How else should I have done it, Demetri? Can you think of another way?"

Carlisle could have given you a blood sample.

"OK, that's not a bad idea," Edward said after a minute of silence. "I suppose if she wasn't actually my mate, I would have thought of that before the uh, whole stalking thing got out of hand."

"All's well that ends well," laughed Demetri. "But so, Jacob Black has stopped pressing his suit?"

"Correct, they've agreed to just be friends. But he's definitely opposed to me being in her life, and so he might be the best way to get the treaty broken."

Demetri nodded, then said, "We should go back to the Cullens for now. Jasper ought to be included in this part."

Edward slowed the car down, made sure no one was coming, then made a squealing U-turn to head north again.