Chapter Thirty Five

Darius

We had found the girls, terrified and thirsty, embarrassed at their red eyes and desperate for news of Carmen and Eleazar. The few guards left at the castle had already fled by the time we arrived having heard of their leaders defeat somehow.

The girls had been kept locked away but from the state of their clothes and the dullness in their eyes it was pretty obvious they hadn't spent all their time locked up alone unfortunately but they were happy to see us that is until they heard we had no idea where Eleazar and Carmen were. All they could tell us was what they had heard the guards talking about. Eleazar had been moved and it seemed there was some kind of doomsday plan.

"What the fuck is a doomsday plan? They already tried spit roasting us once. What's next? A fucking nuke?"

When Tanya looked at me puzzled I explained the bombing attack.

"Try to remember all you heard. We need a clue to find Eleazar and stop whatever Stefan planned in case of defeat, that is what they meant by a doomsday plan I take it?"

She nodded but it was Kate who gave us the first real clue,

"I heard one of our guards say that Eleazar had gone to join the commandos and the guard said he was glad he'd been left behind to guard us. He didn't want to be in a doomsday battalion. He said something about it being suicide trying to kill off the rebels with The Major still alive."

Peter shot me a worried look and I nodded, the idea of a group of assassins hunting down anyone who had joined the Volturi was a worrying one. If Stefan had really thought they might be defeated then I could see him keeping back a battalion of elite soldiers to get his revenge even if he didn't live to see it. I had wondered why they had used mainly newborns under Maria's command, they must have had some of their own crack troops. Leaving Peter to give the news to The Major and the Volturi I took Tanya with me to check out the castle properly as she knew it's layout better than we did.

Hiding in one of the old cellars we found a solitary Romanian guard and dragged him back upstairs to question. Tanya said he was a stranger to her so presumably not one of those who had guarded the girls. Peter and the other girls joined us as I began questioning him. At first he pretended not to understand my questions but a few punches from Peter soon jogged his memory.

"I don't know where they took Eleazar or where these soldiers you talk of are based. I was merely a procurer."

"

And what was it you procured for the Romanians?"

"Food, humans from the surrounding countryside. It became more difficult when our numbers began to swell. Until that is Stefan said it no longer mattered that the humans knew they were being preyed upon."

"So you lured humans to their deaths?"

He looked puzzled at my disgusted tone.

"Yes, it's what we live on so of course."

Our next find was more helpful, a map that had slipped to the floor beneath a table. On it was marked a position about eighty miles from the castle, could this be the commandos base? Deciding it was all we had to go on we moved out taking our prisoner with us for now. If he proved a nuisance then he would die, Peter had made that perfectly clear to him. The girls were just glad to be out of the castle and I heard Irina tell Kate that if she got the opportunity to kill any of the Romanian army she would be delighted. When we got close to the point on the map we left the prisoner with Kate and Irina and took Tanya with us.

I could tell that we were too late, whoever had been here was gone although not long from the intensity of the scents in the air. The spot was a series of rooms, some above ground and some below that had been the home for a number of vampires for some time. Papers littered the floor in one room, obviously the nerve centre for whatever was going on and there were several lists of names, rebels, including ourselves, the Cullens and various others that were familiar.

"Darius, I can smell Eleazar, he was here."

I followed her into a room with a thick iron door and a huge lock that had obviously been used as a prison of some kind. Inside it was empty except for a pen that lay discarded on the floor. I looked around for paper, perhaps Eleazar had left a note for anyone who came looking for him but there was nothing.

Tanya who had disappeared shouted to me from outside the small high window in the room.

"Darius, I found a note. Eleazar wrote it, a warning to us."

"Does it say where they took him?"

"No, just that there is a corps of crack soldiers with orders to kill all the rebels on a list including us and Carlisle's family. He says Stefan told him they would keep him alive to witness the deaths. That's a good sign isn't it? It means they wouldn't have killed him, that he's still alive."

I hated to burst her bubble but if I had been the commander of such a group knowing my leaders were dead I would rid myself of the "witness" after all he was just a pain and would slow them down or even try to stop them.

I picked up the sheaf of papers and went back outside taking the note from Tanya and reading it as we jogged back to rejoin the others. Peter was waiting impatiently and I handed Eleazar's note to him to read as Tanya told her sisters what we had discovered. He called me to one side, far enough away from the girls that whispered words wouldn't be overheard.

"I left the girls watching the scum bag and did a bit of spying out the area myself."

"And you found something?"

He nodded and pulled something from his pants pocket, it was a heavy silver bracelet with the words "Eleazar and Carmen for eternity" engraved on it.

"I found it close to the trail that leads down the mountain, there were signs of a fire too."

We both knew what that meant, the soldiers had decided it was too much trouble carting a prisoner around with them, they had murdered Eleazar, burning his body and just leaving or overlooking his bracelet. I glanced back to where the girls stood around the prisoner.

"Well, I guess we should tell them."

Peter did it surprisingly gently, handing the bracelet to Tanya who took it in silence then showed it to her sisters. All three stood staring at it for a few minutes as if grieving silently together.

We could have saved our prisoner if we had tried but neither Peter nor I moved a muscle as the three girls turned on him as one, ripping him to pieces in their fury and grief. When their grief was spent they burned what remained then rejoined us.

"We have to find Carmen,"

I nodded,

"She may already know Eleazar is dead, mates usually feel it."

"Nevertheless, we have to find her before she does something terrible."

"Mates don't survive without the other Tanya."

She shook her head,

"That's not always true Peter. Darius survived and Carmen has us, she's not alone."

I didn't tell them that only vengeance had kept me alive all these years with the pain tearing me apart every second of those years. I doubted we would find Carmen in time but I didn't tell her that either. Let her hope, her sisters too, until we knew one way or the other.

We decided to send the girls back to Carlisle and Esme, that's where Carmen would head when she heard the war was over and the Romanians defeated if she was still alive to hear that was. They took a copy of the list with them although Peter had read it out to Carlisle on the phone. We would continue on, following the commandoes until they split up which they inevitably would and decide our next move then.

As we travelled we decided on the weakest names, they would be the ones we would concentrate on saving. The stronger, like the Cullens, The Major and what remained of the Volturi could look after themselves.

"You know I never thought of the Romanians as being vindictive enough or forward thinking enough to come up with this shit."

"You should never underestimate people Peter. I guess if there's a chance you might go down you want to take as many of the enemy with you as possible."

"Yeah but what drives these commandos? If they've already been paid why don't they just say fuck it and go home. Stefan and Vladimir aren't gonna complain."

Peter had a point, what was driving these soldiers? Were they mercenaries? If so then they had a reputation to uphold or jobs in the future would be few and far between. If not then someone must be watching for them to complete the assignment before paying them, which raised another question, who?