Jasper Whitlock
We needed to stay focused.
"Peter," I barked out, "your point of view."
"Pass," he said, "Charlotte can go first."
Charlotte stepped forward. "The humans are a liability, I say we change them now, unless you are Garrett aren't committed to spending an eternity with them."
"Garrett, why do you want to change Angela?"
"I lost you once," Garrett spoke lowly, "because I was too afraid. I am not going to make that mistake again. I love Angela and I will not let her die or be changed by someone other than me."
"Angela?" I asked.
"I don't know," she said. "Vampires are evil, I don't want to become evil. My dad, he's a pastor, if I do this, I'm going to hell. I can't do it."
"Bella?" I held my breath, not wanting to overreact.
"They're right," Bella said, "we need to become queens and this is how we can achieve this. I don't want to be weak, Jasper, I don't want to stand by, I want to kill them."
"You don't know what you're asking," I told her.
"Tell me then," Bella said.
"No." I couldn't, I would try and sway her opinion and she would know this. "Peter, you tell her."
"Okay," Peter stepped forward, eagerly grinning, "first we drain you, and you'll fight. You'll want to hold onto life, but it'll be impossible. Then we pump our venom in and oh boy, if you think you've felt pain before, you haven't. It burns, worse than fire. You will scream and wish death upon yourself. Three days it lasts for and Jasper will be able to feel everything you go through, it will crush him. I'm getting personal," he shook his head, "back to the facts.
"When you wake up, the world will be different, you will be different. Everyone comes across losing something. It can be a good thing, but not always. Jasper likes to tell me that I lost my sanity." Peter laughed. "So, you will lose something and depending how much the Cullens fucked you up and how weak you are, well, that will affect you too. Let's put that aside, if you and Angela lived normal lives, it still wouldn't matter. You'd be an unpredictable newborn for at least a year. You're strong, you're fast, you're savage. You only want blood and you don't care how you get it. It'll be a miracle even if you can think straight.
"These are your two options girls; you make the change, be forever altered, and we have to put off this fight for at least a year; or you stay as you are for now, deal with the Cullens using your vampire mates as weapons, and you deal with any emotional damage you have going on. Neither choice will be an easy one, but be smart about it because one can't be taken back."
I could feel Bella's hesitation, so I spoke up.
"If Bella wishes to become a vampire," I said, "I consent." I only did it because I could feel her hesitation. "Bella?" I asked.
"Umm," she faltered, "I didn't have all the facts. I need to think this through."
She left out the front door and went to the tree line. Angela went to the couch.
"Peter, your thoughts?" I asked.
"I think we should wait," Peter said, "but if that happens, you and Garrett, and your mates, have to realize that we might lose one or both of the humans. It's a great risk."
"What do you think Major?" Charlotte asked.
I no longer knew. I didn't want to lose Bella and although I was certain I'd be able to keep her safe, what if I couldn't? Garrett had been through all of this with me, he had loved me and then one day I was gone. He thought I had died, but I had made the change. If the Cullens, or someone else, changed Bella and ran with her, that would be worse than death. Maybe we should risk the change.
"What if we just change one of them?" I asked. "It'll lessen our pawns by fifty per cent, and handling two newborns would be risky."
"But it's smarter," Charlotte said, "to do them both at once so we can get it over and done with. Peter's not going to leave your sorry ass now that you've let him back into your life and I go where Peter goes. We're stuck here, we can't leave, and that means we'll have to look after these newborns too. I thought we were past this; the fighting, the newborns. I didn't leave the war to join a new one. I know this is important, but how long will it take and what will it cost us?"
"Who would we change?" Peter asked.
The answer was simple. "Bella."
I could feel their shock.
"Really?" Charlotte asked.
I trusted Charlotte, she loved me too, in her own way, so I spoke quietly. Peter already knew this information.
"Bella is a shield," I said, "we can use that. Changing her makes the most sense."
"Angela could have a gift too," Charlotte said, "it makes the most sense to change them both."
"They're not going to wait a year, well, Bella's not, and Angela, she cares for the Cullens like I cared for Maria. You know how hard it was to pull me out of her grasp. If we change Angela, it'll be harder to keep her from going back to the Cullens, mate or no mate. She doesn't want to make the change yet, why not just leave her?"
"We're doing this all wrong," Peter said, "they all have the facts now, Bella's confused, we don't even know if she wants to be changed anymore. We need to regroup and see where everyone's at."
"Umm," Angela spoke, "where's Bella?"
"At the trees," I barked.
"No, umm, I can't feel her anymore."
"Feel her?" I asked, coming over to her.
"Yes, I don't know how to explain it, but I can feel people when they're gone. Like, with the Cullens, they had strong bonds as a group, like our group has, and when one's not there or nearby, I feel this gaping hole, the group is incomplete. I can't feel Bella anymore."
What? I stretched out my gift. I couldn't feel Bella either, but that wasn't unusual, she liked to hide her emotions from me. A feeling of dread settled inside of me and I ran out to the tree line.
There was no sign of her. I growled. She couldn't have gone far, she was only a human, it hadn't been that long. Where was she? My scream ripped throughout the trees, the birds leaving their perches for miles. This had to be a mistake.
I took off running, searching for her scent, it had to be somewhere. Then, there was a wisp of something tangy and sweet. I ran full speed and found my Swan close to death for the second time in my life. The pain froze me. There was blood everywhere. I was too late, she was already dead.
No. I knelt beside her and pumped all the venom I had into her system praying it would be enough, praying that I wasn't too late. The venom settled and I waited for the burning to start, it never came. All was silent and calm. She was dead.
Bella's hand was clenched tightly around a piece of parchment. Her final words. My hands shook as I grabbed it, unfurling it.
Through sacrifice, a pawn can win.