Chapter song- When I Grow Up by NF
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"You better be damn sure this will work." Leah deadpanned as she crossed her toned arms across her lean body. We - us three girls and the body that Peggy had hyjacked - had just landed in Italy under night's cover and with the aid of expertly-forged passports that Charlotte had handed us. Apparently, Jasper also shared a fraudulent lawyer named Mr. Jenks with his friends, and had left enough money that Charlotte had been able to call express orders on all of the documents.
Thank God for paranoid rednecks.
"Yeah, she better be." My sister matched the she-wolf's pose as they both glared down at me. Bella was especially irritated with me as her eyes had settled to a slighter darker ruby due to my deception. And, in all fairness, tricking her into killing me had been a bit of a dick move.
I shrugged under their scrutiny. "Relaaax... I can totally pull this off!" I didn't want to mention that I had picked the possibility that exposed the most danger to me and guaranteed that both my sister and Leah would be able to get away.
As we scurried across the cold, industrial floors of the airport, our carry-ons clanging behind us, I couldn't help but feel grateful for their support. Bella, as loyal as ever, would've knocked my lights out for trying to exclude her, while Leah was destined to be apart of the family. And, if everything went according to plan, we'd be on the run for an eternity as an unstoppable unit.
Happiness entered my every pore at the future. Sure, it wasn't exactly the future I was seeing at the present, but it was a blurry possibility. We just couldn't get caught or we'd all be the Volturi's slaves for the next century until I could arrange Aro's murder and we performed a coup d'état for the throne. It was rather tempting; Jazz would look sooo hot and right as leader of the Guard.
Not a horrible future, but I just wasn't that patient and I'd rather kiss and hang out with my man now.
"Pipsqueak." Leah squeezed my shoulder to grab my attention from my scheming. "I'm sniffing a lot of vamps around here, we need to get out of the public eye quick."
She was right. Itchy eye contacts and heavy concealer was helping us blend in, but it was extremely difficult to slow my movements down to mirror anything remotely human. Not to mention that humans smelled insanely good right now.
It seemed as though my control was better than Bella's, and that Bella's appetite for human blood was significantly diminished since having chomped down on my neck. Maybe it was because it had scared her so bad.
"Alrighty. Which way next, Peggy?" I asked cheerfully to the extremely tall vampire escorting us.
A feminine Southern accent, masked within a deep timbre, responded. "In Volturra, there are a series of underground passages and rooms that amount to the Volturi's home throughout the entire city. Luca specifically recalls an entrance under a nightclub where we would be particularly inconspicuous. Apparently, the club entrances are where the majority of their...food comes from and so the guards are less wary against unfamiliar faces."
We ducked away into an alleyway absent of security lights while I digested this information. If we were to use a club entrance... Closing my eyes, images flowed over me at supersonic speed while my vampiric mind quickly interpreted them. "It should work as long as we use Peggy as the draw. How can we get the rest of us in though?" More details were needed to make the future crystal clear.
"Slap a hood on me and then we are dragging Leah and you in through the entrance as our food." Bella supplied helpfully. "Your physique is too abnormal to pass off as a generic member of the Guard, and Leah is actually human."
My mouth twisted at the use of the descriptor 'abnormal' for my body type, but managed to keep my trap shut while we all agreed to the plan and began to scramble around the town assembling appropriate night club attire to trick our way in. Out of total habit, I picked both my and Bella's clothing and nearly bit my tongue in half when I saw the getup that Leah had selected.
Criticism was hardly necessary when we were on a rather deadly timetable already.
"All right ladies, the best case scenario that I'm seeing is if we go real low and slow, we will be able to set Jazz free. Then we let him take over. In quite a few scenarios, I'm thrown around like a rag doll by a really aggressive dude for like an hour, so let's try to avoid that because it turns out that I'm shit at fighting. Remember low and slow." I preached to the others as we waited on the short-list line at the club. Turns out vampiric good looks made the whole experience a helluva lot more convenient.
"The holding cells are a mile from here to the North. If something happens to this body, I won't be able to do shit for you guys unless Miss Bella can find me a new body." Peggy reminded us for the hundredth time. She was obviously nervous about not being able to crossover if something went South.
"Stick close to me then." Bella muttered as a bouncer gave her a wink and a thumbs up, indicating that she could proceed.
Lights flashed and music thumped thick in the air. Bodies grinded and nearly made me drool venom once I realized the sheer magnitude of humans with their hearts pumping there were. Bella groaned beside me as we dispersed, working the crowd in case there were others watching us. My outfit and makeup did the best it could to make me look human, which meant I was wearing a silky, beady shawl that covered a lot of white skin and some blush to simulate blood in my cheeks.
The dancing couldn't help but be fun, and it reminded me of the dance where everything had gone so horribly wrong. It'd been a long time since I'd looked at Jazz without the gauze of amnesia between us, and I couldn't wait to crush him close and never let him go again.
Throat feeling suspiciously thick from thinking about him, I ran into Peggy inconspicuously and did my best to feign interest as I ran my hands down her masculine body. I could see it was just as awkward for her as it was for me, but we did a pretty convincing job of it. Next came the part of the plan where I had to make a few shots disappear since the Volturi vampires seemed to make sure their victims were thoroughly tanked before taking them down through the tunnels.
"This is disgusting..." I whined after the third shot with big eyes as Peggy ordered another one. It tasted like dust and mold.
"You're so close, you can do it." She encouraged dryly. "If I can look at these outfits from eighty years in the future while wearing a man's body without freaking out, you sure as hell can stomach a few shots."
Phrased like that, I felt a little bit like an ass for complaining. A tingling laugh came down a few seats down on the bar, and I spotted Leah tipping back a tequila with a sloppy grin as Bella watched on in apparent amazement. Either she was actually drunk or a significantly better actress than me. I slowly grabbed the next tiny glass placed in front of me by a bemused bartender and downed it.
I leaned against Peggy sloppily. "Mission is a go."
She half-lifted me, half-dragged me across the dance floor to the hallway that held the bathrooms. As giggling women filtered out in a tipsy group, she pressed me against the wall in a heady but inconspicuous embrace until the coast was clear. I could hear Bella and Leah giggling as they trailed us, their act much more convincing than ours.
Peggy released me to let me half fall down the wall as she lifted a cut of wood off of the hardwood floor to reveal the entrance. She then picked me up and jumped into the abyss.
I sucked in and out a single breath before we hit the ground. I felt Peggy readjust my shawl to cover my face in a drunken display of my stomach as the featherweight footsteps of another vampire approached.
"Luca! You're back fast." A female guard said in friendly greeting. Her accent was British.
"Yes, the query was not so hard to find this time around. I decided to celebrate." Peggy slipped into a seamless Italian accent as she held my body with one arm. Bella landed slightly behind us.
"Well, I'm glad you've returned." The guard dropped her voice several octaves to mask a giggle. "One of the Cullens handed both Jane and Alec their asses at the same time. I hope the Masters decide to keep him; he's very powerful." A faint amount of interest threaded her words.
I swallowed back a growl even as Peggy laughed out loud. "That is interesting, Lily. I look forward to meeting this Monster."
Lily kept in step with 'Luca' with only a few glances at Bella and Leah. With her slipping on Luca's old robe as soon as she'd entered the tunnel, my sister looked pretty casual and bored.
We were in.
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Jasper took the next punch to his gut with a bare wince, swinging from the momentum of the chains that the Guard had hung him from. He'd managed to take out three more of fuckers before Rosalie's pleading for him to stop had really registered. Luckily for him, Marcus had been so amused at his antics that he'd convinced Aro and Caius, who'd both been beyond furious at the situation, into agreeing to provide extra security until they could set up an appointment with Chelsea for him.
It was the mention of that name that had really stopped him in his tracks.
She'll take Mary away from him. Chelsea was renowned for manipulating emotional bonds to ensure the Guards' fidelity, and he'd never heard of a case where she had failed. It erased all preexisting bonds beforehand. If he made it to that appointment, he'd be no better than the thoughtless puppet that Maria had made him all those decades ago.
He'd rather be executed than to be used in such a way again.
"How. Do. You. Like. That." Felix grunted as he delivered a blow with each word into Jasper's abdomen. Apparently the big brute had a thing for the evil little bitch who Jasper had taught a lesson.
He bared his teeth and went with it. He'd had much worse before in the beginning while in Maria's forces, when he'd tried to resist her orders initially. He'd been young, much more susceptible to reprogramming than he was now. One would think that immortality meant a lack of feeling, but that was a gross misinterpretation of the situation. Heightened senses amounted to a heightened sensitivity to pain and suffering.
"Felix!" A tall vampire entered the lone cell, his eyes dark with hunger.
The blows ceased. "Luca." Felix sounded pleasantly surprised, as though he hadn't just been caught ruthlessly torturing a prisoner. "You've tracked down the sisters already?" A dark, angry eagerness within his tone set Jasper's teeth on edge.
The man shrugged. "Wasn't so difficult, although," he shuddered visibly, "I hate Texas. Texan vampires are insane." He glanced at Jasper and a feral look went into his eyes. "Who is this?"
It felt like a rhetorical question to Jasper. Something about this vampire felt so familiar, and he couldn't quite pinpoint where he'd seen him before.
"Some fucking asshole that needs to be on fire right about now."
A small white and black streak knocked Felix away from his chain. Sounds of a squeamish followed before a loud crack splintered the room as a wall exploded.
"Ow!" The musical, trilling exclamation sent his undead heart into hyperdrive.
No, it can't be. The rubble shifted to reveal a petite, gorgeous face and dusty black hair. Eyes that were once emerald looked into his own.
"What the fuck, Mary!" He couldn't help letting out the curse even as Felix began approaching her with a murderous expression on his dumb face.
She stood up slow and with absolutely no discipline. "Wow he's gonna hit me hard."
Damn it all to hell, but her visions were distracting her from the actual fight. He struggled uselessly, trying to get free from the impossible situation. The giant vampire reared up his fist.
And then Luca moved. A twisting motion that rang so familiar to Jasper that he blinked to double check what he was seeing. It wasn't a takedown maneuver integral to the Guard; it was far too simple in its application, but effective.
The very same move that he'd taught to hundreds of newborns.
Felix was pinned. At least momentarily. "Mary, untie him now." A familiar Southern accent came out of the mysterious man's mouth.
Mary flitted across the room in an instant, climbing nimbly up the chain and deftly unhooking him. A light kiss ghosted his collarbone before he hit his feet. And then he swept into the fight, synchronizing quickly with the odd stranger helping them out.
Felix was a different beast from the Witch Twins. With tremendous strength and centuries of hand-to-hand combat under his belt, he was effectively the equivalent to Maria's strength or better. Even with the two of them combined, he found himself covering far too much area as the experienced Guard member focused his attacks on Luca, whose attacks were far less advanced than they should've been.
"Stand back." Jasper barked out the order instinctually and Luca obeyed immediately.
Maybe five minutes later, he finally saw his chance. Ducking and weaving into a weak opening between his legs, he tore out the knee cap and swung behind his opponent. "Help me out." He grunted as he used all the dirty tricks up his sleeve to contain the other vampire. Emmett would've been real useful to have around at the moment.
Eventually, with a lot of awkward shifting and heaving, Felix hung from the very spot that Jasper had hung at. He grinned up at him. "How you doing, big fella?"
An impressive roar reverberated around the cell. Jasper let out a low whistle of satisfaction while dusting off his hands off his jeans. "Good thing y'all soundproof these sons of bitches." He briefly considered getting some revenge on Felix, but quickly dismissed the idea.
His lady was here, and they needed to get the hell out of Dodge.
"Jazz?" He whipped around to see Mary, dirt smudged on her cheek and holding a silly looking shawl around her like a blanket. It was the first good look he'd had at her, and the only true moment where it really hit him that she wasn't human anymore.
And she had infiltrated a compound that vampires twenty times her age wouldn't dare to. For him.
"Look," she began tentatively, "I know it was probably a ridiculously dumb idea, but I couldn't-"
He grabbed her and crushed her to him, finally no longer having to worry about hurting her, and stopped her apology mid-sentence. The familiar weight calmed him and for a second he just breathed her in.
"You bet this was a terrible idea," he murmured into her hair, "but I love you too much to care." He kissed her gently on the crown of her head and set her down. "We have got to get out of here." He switched to a different frame of mind, one where he was the commander and the people in front of him were his men.
"Leah and Bella are sniffing out the others. With Leah's tracking, it shouldn't take too long and I saw that they'd be able to avoid people." Mary offered hesitantly.
He nodded and expressed a few ground rules of engagement before they left the cell: he'd lead the way, Mary would stay in the middle, and absolutely, no matter what, they would remain silent as they went through the tunnels. Mary had sighed and rolled her eyes at that last one.
Flicking her nose playfully, he kept a good pace through the tunnels as he navigated to where Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett were being held. And if life wasn't a bitch enough, a ginger surprise awaited him.
"Well, if this isn't truly a shame," Edward kicked off the wall of his post with a cruel smile. "I do get to kill you, Jasper." His eyes were wild and red as sin, while his black robes covered his lean body frame in a ridiculous giveaway to his allegiances.
His gut rolled at the sight. "So all those years of making fun of my restraint and this is what you do the first time someone puts some pressure on you, Eddie?" He stepped out of the shadows of the tunnel despite Mary's tiny hand trying to stop him.
Hiding wasn't going to get them out of here. It would be fastest if he took out old Eddie boy himself, and then he could grab the others.
Edward didn't hesitate; The damn mindreader was right on him.
Avoiding a claw to the eyes, Jasper sidestepped him and did his best to keep up. Edward's face was twisted in angry lines, and the rage actually succeeded in making him sharper. He was more focused than usual.
"Human life makes us stronger. The Guard needs me strong!" Even his vocabulary seemed degraded from what was normal.
So Chelsea had done her work on him and suddenly his own life wasn't the most important thing to him anymore. He bit back a grin as he dodged a punch. "Well, Lord Aro also needs his cock sucked, so I'm guessing you've found your life calling, Eddie."
Liquid pain exploded as suddenly Jasper's arm became detached.
Edward held it with a demented smile. "Doesn't feel so good, does it?" His eyes slid uncannily behind him. "You underestimated us this time."
Fear exploded within him and he had no choice, but to look behind him. That one decision took everything as Edward quickly removed his other arm and got him to his knees. Pussy he may be, but the ginger had always been able to fight.
Not that it fucking mattered. Everything stopped once he realized that Carlisle, civilized and always so pristine, was covered in blood and held Mary in his grasp. Her head angled just right for a removal.
"Well sons," he licked his reddened lips with a relish, "You interrupted my mealtime."