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Thank you to the following reviewers: Victoria cullen30, nannas-onepiece-adventure (for ch. 13), Sarai, and dhh (for chapter 6)

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Chapter 38

MIDNIGHT

"So where are they?" Ari tapped her foot, impatiently.

"Relax. They'll be here in a second." Edward replied for Jake who whined.

Ari stood between Luna and Loki with Cassie and Mara sitting on each respectively. Nicholas, Adam, Eri, Aki, Michael, Delphin, and Natalia fanned out beside the wolves and the Cullens bunched up in the middle with Carlisle in the center lead, they stood beside Ari. Ari opened her mouth, about to say something when she heard a loud howl and the rustling of bushes. Out came three men, Ari could see that they were tan, sun-kissed, had beautiful abs and dark hair. Their eyes were ranged from various shades of brown. "We're here. Where are the wolves?" the one in the middle asked, his tone ringing with authority.

"Here." Ari replied back just as sharply. "Let me assure you that they mean no harm to you, your pack, or your territory. They are merely here with us as we are their Alphas."

The man zeroed his gaze on her. "The one with you in the afternoon is missing. The most dangerous one." He pointed out.

"Well he would be here if you didn't leave him half-dead." She snapped back.

"Now now…" Carlisle stepped in, placing a calming hand on Ari's shoulder. "Let's discuss this normally…shall we, Sam?"

"You better have a good reason….Carlisle Cullen." Sam frowned. "Harboring such dangerous…hybrids is not a part of our treaty."

"It…is not." Carlisle agreed. "However, they are apart of the Astral Coven. The coven consists of vampires. It is classified as a vampire coven as well. We can have guests as long as they don't feed within the vicinity of this area. I assure you the vampires feed in Seattle."

Sam glared, unable to say more. "To hell with that! We demand to see the wolves themselves!" a man to the right snapped.

"Paul…." Sam began.

"Oh don't Paul me, Sam!" he growled. "They are mixed breeds. They smell dangerous. The wolf side of us knows they're dangerous and I'm sure as hell not letting them even be 10 miles to our territory where the imprints are living. Do you want them to attack our imprints?"

Sam's forehead creased even more, "Of course I worry for Emily's safety—as well as the other imprints, but as you can see, they are a part of a vampire coven, and therefore, we cannot just demand them to be given over."

"How smart." Cassie sneered as she sat atop Luna. "That you know you can't demand a thing of us."

"And you are….?" Paul asked with a glare.

"Cassidy. Or Cassie for short. I'm one of the coven leaders." She jabbed a finger at herself. "The brawns and muscle of the group. Mara's the smarts. Ari's the charisma and leadership."

"Then I'll take it as you were complimenting our intelligence since you admitted you were all muscle, no brains." Paul replied simply.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Cassie yelled. "Shut your mouth up. I bet I'm smarter than you. Asshole."

Paul quivered a bit, "Paul…." Sam began, "Calm down before…" RIIIIIIIIIIIP. Ari heard a large ripping noise as where moments before a Paul stood, now was a wolf. The wolf lunged at Cassie as Ari was promptly ripped away from the center by Nicholas and Michael. Natalia deflected the wolf with her….whatever it was she did. It was a glowing circle with weird symbols in it. Probably demonic stuff. Adam, Eri and Aki promptly grabbed the wolf and placed him under restraint. The wolf struggled and howled as more wolves appeared, ready to defend its pack mate.

Ari ripped herself away from the cocoon of protection as she walked back to the center, "Wasn't a good idea to do that. Attack us and all."

"Calm yourselves." Sam ordered his pack as he watched her carefully. "You….you're not human are you?"

"I am human." Ari shrugged. "I mean my mom took 8 or 9 months to give birth to me. I can age as you can see. And I can get injured. But…I do have that something extra you may or may not know about."

"And that is….?"

"And that is something that will not pose a threat to you." She replied smoothly. "Luna and Loki," she nodded towards them. "Are siblings of the wolf, Tate, that you so brazenly attacked earlier."

Sam drew his gaze over to Luna and Loki who stood warily at the edge, ready to pounce if necessary. Their tails were swishing back and forth, as if they were relaxed, but Ari could see that they weren't. Their eyes betrayed a whole different story. Hate. Revenge. Anger. Ari knew, they were thinking that it was these guys—these wolves—that hurt their oldest brother. "I see." He replied, "Would it be possible for them to shape shift back or are they…stuck in that form because of their bloodlines?"

"You know, one can only take so much." Mara snapped. "Just because they aren't pure blooded shape shifters like you guys, doesn't mean moot. They're unique and special and most definitely, better than you guys since they don't judge people the moment they see them."

"We merely wish to speak to them." Sam replied. "And please let go of Paul. You're making us antsy."

"And you don't think that you made us antsy when you attacked Tate?" Nicholas muttered from the side, his hands wrapped tightly around the wolf's mouth.

Sam sighed, "We are getting nowhere. We are here blaming each other." Carlisle interrupted. "Now, let's solve this. Sam, the wolves can shape shift back, but they are not. They do not feel comfortable with you, just like the rest of your wolves are not in their human form. Yes, the La Push wolves did attack Tate, but let us…try to solve this issue at hand. Sam, as you can see, they will not attack at random. There have been no news on the headlines or papers that there are mysterious deaths. And guys, let Paul up. You aren't helping." They let Paul up as he scrambled back to Sam's side, glowering.

"Very well. They are….granted access to your territory, Carlisle. Be sure that none of them cross into the wolves' territory without permission as we will not take the intrusion lightly. It will be a case of attack first, ask later." Sam turned to leave, as Ari spoke up.

"Wait a second!" she yelled. "You have to apologize to Tate! We were clearly on Cullen territory when you attacked us! Even if we did pose a threat, we are on their land and as a result, you should have listened to our explanation instead of attacking us first!"

Sam paused, "Then what do you want us to do?" he asked gruffly.

"Uhhhh…go apologize to Tate?" she spelled it out for him.

"We are not going into vampire territory."

"That's fine. I brought my phone. I'll just record you apologizing to him." She replied, pulling out her iPhone. "Ready to go whenever you are."

Sam took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a second, "Very well. Start the video." He clenched his knuckles tightly, to the point of which they turned white. "I, Sam Uley, apologize for the actions of my wolf pack. We should have asked of your reasons to be on the beach, specifically Cullen territory. We had no right to attack you as you were not on our land." He ended. "Satisfied?"

"More or less." She put her phone away. "Bye." Sam didn't say another word as he disappeared into the brush with the rest of the wolves. "Well that went swimmingly, don't you think?"

"I don't think an apology was enough." Cassie grumbled.

"Considering that it's from Sam who doesn't bend to anyone besides his imprint, that's a lot." Edward replied, "Or as Jacob here says."

"You're one scary force to reckon with, Ari." Jasper commented.

"Not really. It was just an apology. Personally, I think we should have made him come personally to apologize, but the whole wolf-vampire territory thing…" Ari shrugged. "Now should we get back? We've still got the whole Volturi thing….Nicholas!" Nicholas appeared instantly beside her, picking her up to carry her back without a further word.

"You know…the way he acts around her, I would have thought that he's her slave or something."

"Isn't he?" Rose snorted. "The way she only needs to say a word and he's there."

"He'll never find a mate this way." Eri sighed. "Forever alone. Kind of like Jane and Alec of the Volturi."

Cassie and Mara snorted. "I wouldn't be so sure of that. You never know. Maybe they'll find someone." Mara replied. "They're really nice once you get to know them."

"Right. After you peel away the 100 levels of evil and cruelness." Emmett muttered. "They're scary, creepy, and weird."

"Luna, Loki. Let's leave. Ari's ahead of us already." Cassie somewhat ordered. "Tate's back there too." Cassie and Mara left simultaneously, leaving the rest of the vampires to stand in the clearing awkwardly.

BACK AT THE CULLEN RESIDENCE

Ari walked downstairs, after having checked on Tate. He was still sleeping soundly in his bed and hadn't awoken at all during their brief leaving. She walked downstairs, where the rest of them sat, waiting. Well. Most. She could hear Cassie in the kitchen cooking something up. Ari shuddered. Probably more meat. Cassie rarely ate any vegetables and fruits (except potatoes). "Well then. Let's get to business." She sat down on the sofa, wiggling her butt. It felt…uncomfortable? Since when were couches uncomfortable? "Carlisle, did you stuff this couch with rocks or something? Why is it so…." She trailed off when she looked down, and noticed a pair of shoes. She was wearing socks. Fluffy puppy socks. Not. Shoes. She sprang out of the chair, screaming as she whirled around. "Nicholas! Why the heck didn't you speak up?!"

He shrugged. "You sat down before I could say anything. I figure you'd figure it out sooner or later anyways."

She stared at him. "Well." She said dryly, moving over to the seat next to him, sitting down after having inspected the couch carefully for no other vampires, humans or shape shifters. "I need to talk to y'all about something."

"Y'all?" Alice echoed. "Since when do you say, y'all?"

"Since I met Jasper." Ari grinned. "It's quite fun actually—y'all. Y'all."

"Back to the topic at hand…"

"Right. Sorry Rose." Ari focused. "I propose moving the Volturi meet up to be sooner. That means….text Marcus or whatever tonight."

"What?" Cassie finally croaked after an awkwardly long (it was actually a minute) pause in the room.

"I think we should contact them sooner." Ari clarified.

"She's nuts. She's absolutely nuts. Someone get the quack doctor in because we have a case here. S-class. Highest priority."

Ari frowned. "I'm not mental. We need to go back home a bit right? I'd rather deal with them now rather than later with our families about. And with this much time, if we need to stretch the time a bit, we actually have time to stretch it. If we wait till the last minute, who knows how long it'd take to get this resolved?"

"True. The faster this is solved the faster I could go back to my old ways…." Cassie trailed off. "But you want to contact them tomorrow?"

"Tonight." Ari corrected. "I have a feeling it must be tonight. Period."

"I think this makes sense." Mara agreed, looking up from her book. "If we solve this quickly, we won't bind our families into this problem."

"I hate to break the story here, but have you guys ever considered that maybe….just mayyyyybeeee," Rose began exaggerating, "That Caius, Marcus and Aro are really your mates?"

Cassie scoffed, leaning back in her seat, "Please. I doubt it. That bastard? My mate? If he was he wouldn't be fucking some whore on the ground while having an orgasm using his dead wife's name." she crossed her arms.

"If Marcus truly did care about me, he would have found me." Mara replied, equally, raising a novel up, covering her face. "It isn't that hard. And besides, he….he was in love with Didyme." Ari could see Mara smirk from the side. "Cause everything reminded him of her. Everything. Yip-idy-do-da. That's how it was."

"Well…same here. Aro loved Sulpicia. I should have known though, he never really came to our dates."

"Is this your only reason as to why you're not giving them a chance?" Rose asked.

"Nah. Yeah. That's just our only reason." Cassie said sarcastically. "We're just running away cause we hate them. Totally."

"I think what Cassie is trying to say is that we aren't ready to face them just yet." Mara replied.

"More like I feel like that we are scared to confront them, that we don't know what's going to happen." Ari reasoned. "But I feel that we are ready to see them. We'll be scared and freaked out, but…better now than later."

"So then you want us to give your location now?"

Ari looked over to Cassie and Mara, "Look. I know we all don't want to see them again. Heck, I don't either. Quite frankly, I'm enjoying my lifestyle as it is. Travelling with you guys and the coven, meeting new people, learning that I'm suppose to be a witch and you guys are elves and demon summoners. It's all fun and all, but they're vampires. They live forever. We don't know how long this is going to take for them to give up. I want to get this over with as soon as possible, move on, find some hot guy to marry and have little kids and live in a normal two-story home on a 100 acre land with 2 dogs, 1 cat, 4 horses—and I'm getting off topic, but I just want to move on without them looming over me. Without anyone getting in-trouble for knowing us."

"….Ari, what you dream of, is so….ordinary." Mara had a small smile on her lips. "But it does sound fun. To not worry about the Volturi. Like they were just a dream."

Cassie sighed, "That does sound nice though. Us not having to worry about what the Volturi are planning." She closed her eyes. "I could see what you mean, Ari. With that 2 story house and a hot husband. It'd be a quiet, pleasant life. Full of sex and making love."'

"Of course. It's always has to deal with you and sex." Ari rolled her eyes. "So we're in agreement?"

"Pretty much." Cassie shrugged.

"I guess." Mara nodded.

Turning, Ari looked over to the rest of the group, vampires and shapeshifters. "It's decided."

"I like how you guys just decide on stuff like this." Alice smiled. "Carlisle! Go make the text now."

Carlisle pulled out his phone slowly, "Are you sure?" he asked again, his golden liquid-colored eyes staring into her eyes.

She hesitated, nodding a bit, "Yes. Yes. Please…make the call before I regret my decision and then I decide to cowardly back out."

Carlisle lowered his eyes to his phone, his fingers tapping at a hurried pace on the phone. Ari could feel her heart thump loudly against her ribcage. A part of her wanted to just stop it. To yell, don't do it. To tell Carlisle to stop. But she knew better. Even if she put it off, Aro still was going to find her at some point. "It has been done." He announced quietly, getting up. "I suppose our next step, would be to get ready for the Volturi arrival."

"Smart idea." Nicholas nodded. "I will scout the area some more with the rest of the Astral coven, and we will make preparations for an escape if needed." Nicholas glanced over to the wolves of the Astral coven. "You two should stay here for the sake of the girls and Tate. Tate might take a bit more time to heal, but Delphin, Michael and Natalia are here. They will provide excellent defense."

Delphin was sipping some Arizona Tea, something he had discovered he liked, despite Mara's chagrin since she didn't like it. He munched on a honey cookie as he looked up, "Why aren't you having us come along?"

"Come again?" Nicholas replied, taken aback.

Delphin shrugged. "I feel that it'd only make sense that since Michael is an excellent assassin that you'd have him help you scout areas of potential dangers and good hiding spots. And with me being related to the elven race, I could help you with setting up the environment, so it looks real even if we changed it a bit to suit our needs. And Natalia, her specialty is demonology since she is a demon-summoner, but she's also an excellent strategist. That's why she is still alive and in the upper ranks of Cassie's family. With the three of us here, we are amazing, and you put us on baby-sitting duty?"

"You….can come along then…." Nicholas sighed. "But that leaves not enough people to be back here in-case something happens."

"I think that everyone should go. Of Astral coven at least. So we all know what to do when the time comes—if the time comes."

"But that would leave you defenseless." Nicholas frowned.

Cassie scoffed. "What part of witch-elf-demon summoner do you not understand? We will be find by ourselves. If anything happens, even if I have to sacrifice my life I will make sure my precious Luci will appear." She muttered, resting her cheek on her left fist. She crossed her legs, "Get going."

"Nicholas, we'll be fine by ourselves." Mara said a bit more politely. "Besides, we won't be alone. Tate is recovering here. We'll just take care of him and….discuss our girl troubles or something. Heck, Cara offered for us to go over to her place so we could have a girls' chat, right? We'll just go over there. It's protected by a barrier anyhow. If you guys couldn't get in, then I'm sure as heck that the Volturi won't get in."

"Yes! I agree! We'll just head over to Cara's place. Should we bring Tate?" Ari glanced upstairs.

"No. I will stay here and take care of him." Carlisle smiled. "Don't worry about him."

"Oh…okay." Ari blinked, "Thanks Carlisle."

"No problem." Carlisle nodded as he flitted upstairs as Luna and Loki came downstairs.

"We understand. We are to go and scout as well." Luna spoke for the two of them, as she went down the stairs, going down two steps at a time.

"We'll escort you to the girl's home. I don't feel safe letting you just walk there." Michael said.

"Are you sure about going there? If he's a banished elf, he has to have done something really bad." Delphin spoke up. "Banished elves are always bad, full of mischief."

Ari rolled her eyes, "Let me assure you that Mr. Owens—er, Eric, is a good guy. He was banished for a stupid reason. By the way, Mara, you'll have to ask Mr. Owens about his story. See if you can do anything about it with the whole Aurelia-Prince thing. Like seriously."

"The elven land is broken up into several different kingdoms." Mara explained. "While I may have influence in my…great-great, how many times great, grandfather's kingdom, I may not have the same influence elsewhere." Seeing Ari's look of disappointment, she quickly continued, "Of course, I can ask and I can see what I can do, but keep in mind, that this whole thing is new to me."

Ari brightened, "Of course. It would be the same way if I was ever asked to look into a banished witch or wizard's case."

"Gah! Who cares about rules?" Cassie hrumphed. "Here's my opinion. Accept him into the coven and we're done. He can go travelling with us. Done."

Ari raised an eyebrow, "I think he likes it there. Doesn't want to go anywhere else."

"We're wasting daylight. Let's go!" Rose snapped as she ushered them out the door. "I will be the guide for our territory. To make sure you guys don't accidentally step onto the mutts' territory."

"Thank you, Rose." Ari chimed with Cassie and Mara.

"Don't thank me right now. Thank me after you've survived this. Aro and Caius are a bit tenacious. I don't know about Marcus, but when they actually combine forces for something they really want accomplished, hell breaks out."

Ari swallowed slightly, lowering her eyes, "Never the less, thank you."

ARO

Aro glided through the rooms smoothly, humming. What was he to do? Let's see...he had to catch up on the paperwork he had been ignoring lately. He had to feed. He was dying to sink his teeth into the soft, butter-like flesh of a human's. He had to find Aria. She was somewhere out there. He wasn't paying attention to his surroundings as he bumped into another Guard member. "Excuse me." He nodded politely, reaching out to give the fallen guard member a hand.

He hesitated. "I can get up myself, Master." He insisted.

Aro raised an eyebrow, was he trying to hide something? "No. I insist." Aro shoved the hand towards the guard member. "I made you fall, did I not?"

"I don't mind, Master…." The guard member began getting up by himself.

"Do you have something to hide?" Aro's eyes narrowed.

"N-No…Master." He swallowed.

"Then take my hand." The guard member slowly, ever so slowly, raised his hand, grasped Aro's, stood up, and withdrew his hand immediately.

"Excuse me, Master!" the guard member scurried off, leaving Aro to stand in utter silence, staring after the guard.

He knew. That guard member knew. And it wasn't just that guard member. It was the whole Guard. Senior, new, High, or low. They knew. They blood knew where the girls were. And they had been hiding it. A smile played on his lips. Well, if they were to play this game so was he. "Jane!"

"Master?"

"Call a meeting in the Throne Room. Tell Marcus and Caius to be present as well." He marched off towards the throne room. He would find out. They would tell him where the girls were. He would say nothing, besides hint that he knew. Did they really think they could hide it from him? How foolish.

Jane stared after Master Aro's retreating form. Shit. He knew. What could she do? Master Caius wasn't going to be forgiving at all. She'd be lucky if they all got out unscathed. But….there was one more person. Master Marcus. Surely, he would help them. Panicked, Jane sped off towards Master Marcus's study, texting the whole Guard, Master Aro knows. Prepare yourself. We've rehearsed this. Don't break under pressure. Fall under our lead. We'll eventually break, but we can push for time, hopefully the sight-seer will see our impending arrival fast enough for them to escape. Also, Felix go tell Master Caius that Master Aro wants to call a meeting in the Throne room.

MARCUS

Marcus was staring at his phone. There had been no response yet. But one was to come soon. Very soon. Should he read to past the time? No…it reminded him too much of Mara. Especially the books they read together. He read over her annotated notes on the book. They were certainly very entertaining. Some of them, challenged his ideas and interpretations of the books itself. But…was that all there was to Mara? No. It couldn't be. He felt that…Mara had disguised her true nature to fit in with him. She enjoyed books, yes, but was that all there was to her? Probably not. Thinking back, he really was a fool, he didn't even know her favorite color, food, animal, or anything. And yet, he was so sure that Mara knew everything about him. Everything. He sighed, slumping in his chair. He didn't really want to do anything anymore. He just wanted to wait for someone to come in or even call him, and tell him, that they had found Mara. Alive and well. Then he would go to her, see how she was. He would be by her side, and if she wanted to stay human, so be it. He would let her stay that way, he would guard her, keep her company until she drew her last breath. If she wanted him gone, he would simply go and watch her from a distance. If she….if she gave him another chance, he would never let go of that chance again, even if he had to fight tooth and nail, vampire to vampire for it. Suddenly, Marcus's phone vibrated as he adverted his gaze back towards his phone. It was a message from Carlisle. Forks, Washington. With us. Carlisle had replied, had given him a chance. Should he go tell his brothers now, so they could leave immediately? His phone rang again, Don't hurt them. Don't hurt them, it read. Marcus felt so bad. Did…did Carlisle hint that he would hurt her? That they, the Volturi Kings, would hurt the girls? The very girls that they had spent weeks, months, searching? The ones that had caused them—him—to abandon everything simply to find them? "Come in." Marcus called, hearing a knock on the door.

Jane entered, "I have something to admit." Jane said slowly.

"Please sit, Jane."

"Master Marcus, I'm only telling you this, because out of the three Masters, I fear that you are the only one left that is…sane."

"What has happened, Jane?" Marcus pressed kindly.

"Master Aro accidentally touched one of the guard members. He knows that we know. He's going to call a meeting. The girls are with the Cullens. He will allow us a chance to speak up, but….I don't think Master Aro will trust us much after this incident. All I hope is that you….protect the girls as much as you can. I understand that you are looking for Mara as well, however, for the sake of their happiness—her happiness, please don't be the cage that cages the birds."

"I won't Jane. I won't." Marcus sighed. "No longer will I be the reason why my mate, the one I hold and cherish above all, cries. I won't hurt her anymore. I simply wish to watch her from afar. Even if it means I die when she dies."

"Master…." Jane's eyes widened.

Marcus gave her a small smile, "Let's go to Aro, yes? I would hate to keep him waiting." Marcus stood up, exiting the room, leaving Jane to sit there in stunned silence.

Well. That was it for this chapter. I know it's super short, but yeah. I apologize. Leave a review! Annnd as usual, once again, I will apologize in advance if my characters are too mary-sue, if the twilight crew are too OOC, or even if I make any mistakes in regards to references towards the Twilight books or writing. It has been a long time since I read any of the Twilight books (like 7th grade!...5+ years). But I hope those mistakes don't deter you from reading the fanfic! ^_^.