Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.
Rated M for several reasons.
Chpt 35 Scouting for Vampires
BPOV
"Alright." I ask her as we set out the next day. "How do we find The Volturi?"
"We do not." She answers with a degree of smugness. "They will find us."
This sounds remarkably like the start of our planning session in the truck on the way down from Alaska. Wander around with a target painted on your back waiting for something to happen.
The sour expression on my face makes her laugh.
With a smirk she produces Edward's credit card from her pocket, flourishing it in front of my face.
Edward A Cullen.
We left it at Denali after we'd been given all the stuff for our new identity as Mayburys.
"We will go to the area closest to Bangor, check into a hotel with it and wait."
"Um." I'm not sure she's thought this through properly. "What happens if we get frozen while we're waiting?"
"I questioned Eleazar extensively. This Clarion's gift, the wiping part, requires physical contact. One of us just needs to avoid that so that the other can make our petition."
Oh, of course, how silly of me. It's really very simple when you know how.
"Are you fucking nuts?"
"No. When we agreed yesterday to explore The Volturi option, what were you expecting to do? Look them up in a telephone directory?"
"You know, you sound a lot like Maria." I mutter, forgetting myself.
"I met her once." She confesses, surprising me. "She was an amazing vampire, a mass of contradictions, extremely beautiful. She came, a few centuries ago, to talk to Eleazar and my mother."
She closes her eyes for a moment in pain.
"It was not long before my mother, Sasha, was taken from us by The Volturi."
Suddenly I feel the urge to unburden myself, to tell at least one person what I know about Carlisle and Maria. Thankfully common sense keeps my lips tightly sealed. Instead I content myself with slipping an arm around her waist and squeezing her briefly.
She favours me with a sad smile and we climb into the truck, setting off on today's mission, which is frankly a little less scary than her driving. Aggressive doesn't really do it justice as an adjective.
…..
They say that waiting is hard to do and it certainly is, especially if you aren't sure what you're waiting for and have a strong suspicion you aren't going to like it when it happens.
The hotel we selected is on the edge of a vast tract of woodland, our potential escape route, and when we found out they had cabins available on the edge of the property we jumped at the chance.
…..
As the warm bubbles flutter around me I can't help but giggle.
"What is amusing?" Tanya asks.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to be awaiting my death in a hot tub wearing nothing but my bra and panties."
"It is a little unorthodox I grant you." She says with a smile. "We should probably get out soon if we do not want to be caught like this."
With a mutual sigh we clamber out, darting inside to get dressed.
Within minutes we are stretched out on the couches while I listlessly flick through the channels looking for something to take our minds off the situation.
"Bella, do you mind if I ask you something?"
"No." Yes, it depends.
"Do you love Edward?"
Ah.
"I don't know." I answer after a long pause, the pain and confusion evident in my voice.
"This situation must be very hard for you. I do not mind if you wish to talk about it. Sometimes, someone neutral, it may help . . . ."
"I find it very difficult to think about, never mind talk about." I admit by way of a delaying tactic.
"That is very understandable. And I can see how talking about it with Edward would make that worse. It is not my place to pry, please do not think I am being nosey. I like you, I can see that you are troubled. It would be a pleasure to help if I can, even if it is only to listen. Any time you want to and are ready."
"Thank you." I tell her with a genuine smile of gratitude.
"Oh, True Blood, I love this. Eric is to die for. Do you mind if we watch?"
I shake my head, relaxing back on the couch and half closing my eyes to consider her offer.
I'd discounted talking to her. I really didn't know her well enough, still don't in fairness, but it's very tempting. I want to talk to Edward, I really do but my thoughts and feelings are so snarled I can't imagine it being very productive. Hence my fear, the fear that something will get said or done which will drive a wedge between us forever, forever leaving our issues unresolved.
I know she loves Edward and I should probably suspect her of having some other agenda with her offer. But I don't. I like her, I trust her. I can even see how she would be good for Edward.
But does that mean I am ready or able to talk to her about it?
Jeez, when did I become such an angsty drip that I can't work through my problems on my own?
"That is Eric, what do you think?"
"He reminds me of Jasper." Big and blonde.
"He does rather. I confess I have always had something of a damp patch for Jasper, Alice is a very lucky woman."
"Tanya!"
"Bella, looking and appreciating is allowed. He looks extremely attractive in his uniform, I should love to have met him as a human, perhaps like Maria I would have been tempted to turn him."
She would have treated him a whole lot better.
On screen Eric and the heroine are locked in a passionate clinch.
Which brings me back to Edward.
What am I doing?
I should have told him in no uncertain terms never to kiss me again after the first time. Tanya asked him if he was toying with me. Something which considering our history I had considered as well. But perhaps I'm being no better. I loved Garrett, I still do. Surely that means I'm not ready to go round exchanging passionate kisses with another man, not even Edward. Especially, as Tanya implied, if he's harbouring romantic thoughts about me.
I can't even begin to examine how I feel about that, the whole concept terrifies me.
Perhaps I should talk to Tanya about it. I need to talk to someone . . . .
"Bella." Tanya's low voice breaks into my thoughts. "Can you smell that?"
"What? I can't smell anything."
Oh shit.
I click off the TV and we surge to our feet sharing identical looks of fear and alarm.
Slowly and silently Tanya backs out of the room, as agreed, leaving me alone to face our visitors.
In my mind's eye I can picture them, sinister and pale in their cloaks, as they close in around me, hands like claws reaching for me, dark red eyes glowing with malice.
My whole body begins to tremble.
This was so not a good idea.
Outside in the distance I can hear footsteps approaching down the boardwalk.
Slow and heavy.
And I fancy I can hear the rustle of a cloak, caught occasionally and snapped back violently, by the wind.
Oh fuck. This is what Garrett used to call a clean underwear moment. Shame I'm not wearing any. What would his mother say?
Despite the physical impossibility my impervious skin begins to prickle, the tiny hairs, like razor wire, attempting to stand proud from my immobile flesh.
I cast my senses out, searching for any other sign of movement but there is nothing, it's like even Tanya has dropped off the face of the earth.
The footsteps are drawing nearer and my trembling is showing no sign of abating.
Dear god I hope it's not him. Anybody but him. The hulking, brooding star of many a vividly recalled human nightmare. The one who was going to kill Edward.
We really didn't think this through.
Oh god, Garrett, if there's an afterlife I hope you're waiting for me. I'm sorry I never got around to retrieving your Maserati.
A knock at the door.
I force my trembling legs to carry me over there.
Really, it's ludicrous, like a crappy horror movie. Something dangerous and frightening is knocking at the door and I'm opening it.
The Darwin Theorists would have a field day.
"Isabella, you wear your immortality well." He leers, eyes raking me over appreciatively from head to toe.
"Felix."
"You remember me. How touching."
I swallow convulsively. Aro may have been the more viscerally frightening persona but it is Felix's strength and menacing presence that has stayed with me the longest.
"Do not attempt to run. You are surrounded."
I nod jerkily.
"May I come in?"
"N-no?"
"No?" He chuckles. "I may be a little old fashioned but surely it is impolite not to invite an old friend into your home?"
"This is not my home." Oh god, fear has rendered me witless.
He takes a deep breath, leaning down from his great height until his nose is practically pressed against mine and his huge terrifying face completely fills my vision.
"Boo." He says softly.
In a squeal and a nanosecond I retreat to the centre of the room, wrapping my arms tightly around myself.
Such a bad idea. Bad, bad, bad.
"The delightful Ms Denali." Felix drawls. "I recognise your scent. You may as well come and join us. I would hate to have to climb that tree and retrieve you."
A soft thump and Tanya's hesitant steps carry her to the open doors on the deck, where she hovers, looking as scared as I feel.
"Please, Felix." She breathes. "We have come here only for information. We have lost coven members. We do not wish to interfere or be in the way."
"It is a little late for that Ms Denali." He growls, making us both cower. "I have had to break away from my important work in order to make yet another apparently fruitless attempt to convince the Cullens and their allies to leave The Volturi's work to The Volturi."
We both swallow.
"It pains me to be unable to enjoy the company of two such luscious beauties but I am afraid matters are at a critical stage and I do not have time for the niceties. Clarion! In here if you please."
Another vampire appears in the doorway behind Felix and Eleazar's description of him as striking is surely an understatement.
Despite his prosaic dress he is quite simply the most beautiful anything I have ever laid eyes on in my life. Androgynous, of medium height and medium build, he has the short black curls of a cherub and the piercing blue eyes of an angel.
He even has a beatific smile.
It's completely chilling.
And so is the way the remaining scents in the room are sucked into an invisible vortex along with the, only detectable to vampires, physical signs of previous occupation.
Without knowing which of us moved I find myself clasping hands with Tanya.
"Enough with the theatrics my friend." Felix drawls. "Start with the brunette, we will leave a message for the Cullens to pick them up when we are in a better position."
He sighs mightily.
"My Master's instructions are sometimes burdensome."
"Please." Tanya begs. "We only want to understand what is happening, how people we care about came to be killed. We only want answers and then we will leave and never return. We promise. Please."
It doesn't look like our wide eyed idea of appealing for truth and justice is going to work and we cling to each other as Clarion advances under Felix's hawkish gaze.
"I am surprised that a vampire like Carlisle has so little control over his women." Felix observes to the eerily quiet Clarion. "But then, they are practically a separate species.
Have a good rest my dear ladies. I am told Clarion's touch can be quite rejuvenating."
I scream in anguish and frustration as Clarion's cold dead fingers close gently around my exposed wrist like strands of cloying seaweed.