"You seem less like a vampire than anyone," Bella observed. Her after-school discussion with Carlisle was proving to be fascinating and informative. Better still, Carlisle was completely open to questions of any kind. "Even less than a lot of humans I've met."
Carlisle laughed pleasantly. "I've had more time to practice appearing human than the others."
"What would you seem like if you didn't try?"
"You know that very well. You've met Aro, Caius, the guard. To humans, they seem either unnaturally still, or far too quick-moving. It can be unsettling. I don't include Marcus, as he makes rather a different impression."
"Marcus was the sad one?"
"That was your estimation of him, was it? Yes, Marcus has been grieving for centuries. He is withdrawn and barely functional."
"Why?"
"He lost his wife - his mate - long ago."
"But I thought...from what I was told, he shouldn't have even survived." Vampires who lost their mates, it had been explained to Bella, would either die trying to defend them, die avenging them, or blindly attack covens until they were killed.
"Aro keeps him alive, using the gift of one of his guard to calm him and sustain his sense of duty to the Volturi. Aro finds Marcus' talent useful."
"That seems so cruel."
"I cannot disagree. Kindness is not one of Aro's virtues." Bella had the feeling he could have said more, but moved back to the original point. "Within our family, it seems to me Alice has the most difficulty with seeming human. She remembers none of her human life, so acting human is entirely theatrical on her part. She is not insincere," he hastily added, "certainly not in her dealings with you; but some of her mannerisms are assumed, and she has to frequently remind herself to slow down."
Bella laughed. "So what I see is slowed down Alice?"
He laughed along with her, and allowed the matter to rest there as other members of the family began to gather, moving on to the subject that was the main purpose of the meeting. "Now, our nemesis, Victoria, is seeking vengeance for the loss of her mate; but she is not behaving in the expected way. She does not strike out wildly, nor does she seem to seek oblivion. She fights effectively."
"It's true," Jasper agreed, as the family took places around the big dining table, Edward beside Bella, taking her hand with a worried expression. While he'd turned over a new leaf, he was still uneasy with Bella hearing something as disturbing as strategies for thwarting a homicidal vampire, and struggled with his protective instincts. The presence of his ring on her left hand calmed him somewhat. "She's a more formidable enemy than she ought to be in her bereaved state. Her bond with James was less intense than usual; that may be one reason. She's furious, yes; but also careful, determined, patient. "
"There's only one of her," Emmett remarked, "and seven of us. We should have got her before now."
"We've had opportunities, but she's incredibly elusive," Carlisle agreed.
"What about Edward's theory?" Esme asked. "Could she be gifted, able to deflect our attacks somehow?"
"Her level of confidence tends to support that," Jasper offered. "She at least feels capture to be all but impossible."
"Possibly she can also deflect Alice's vision to some extent," Edward added.
Alice nodded. "That could be. I still have trouble getting a lead on her. Her future keeps shifting constantly."
They all looked at each other uncomfortably. They had grown used to depending on Alice's vision.
"Then again," Alice added, "it's not like with the werewolves; I can still see her. Her decisions come through very clearly; they just seem kind of aimless. It could be she's purposely changing her mind in order to throw me off."
"Throw you off? But how would she know you can see her future?" Bella asked.
"Through Laurent. He visited the Denali coven, remember? They knew about me, might have told Laurent, and then Laurent could have told Victoria when he came back to visit Forks, and met you and then met the wolf-things." Edward grimaced at the reminder of yet another attack on Bella that he'd failed to save her from. "Good thing Laurent didn't get a chance to report back," Alice added. "Victoria would have known Bella'd been left unprotected!"
Edward rested his head in his hands with a groan. "Sorry," Alice told him contritely. "Not discreet."
"Before we go further," Carlisle said, "perhaps we should discuss the situation in Seattle." Bella looked up in surprise. "There still seems to be some disagreement about the nature of the attacks."
"It could be Victoria," Esme suggested.
"There are too many deaths, too much obvious damage," Emmett protested. "If it's vampires, it's more than one, and they're awful sloppy about it. Maybe Victoria's taken up with new friends?"
"It could still be a plain old ordinary human serial killer," Alice said. They all, including Bella, laughed at her characterization.
"I wish we had more data on the killings, the crime scene findings," Jasper complained. "The news reports give very little detail."
"What kind of crime scene details?" Bella asked.
They all stared at her. "Why do you ask?" Edward inquired cautiously.
"My dad's been getting updates from the Seattle police. They're asking for input from other departments in the area. He told me a little bit about it. And," she added a little sheepishly, "I looked in his file when he was in the bathroom."
Emmett laughed. "Looks like we have a police insider working with us! Spill, Bella."
"Please do, Bella," Carlisle urged her. "Provided you find it acceptable to share this. It is, after all, police evidence."
"Oh, come on!" exclaimed Rosalie. "We're well outside the official system - every official system. It doesn't count."
"Don't pressure her, Rose," Esme chided gently.
"No, it's okay," Bella said. "I understand that it's a...special situation." It struck her that she really was talking to people who were the most absolute outsiders - even outside the human race. As she herself soon would be. She shook off that strange thought. "What do you want to know?"
She provided answers on the number of missing people, the state of the supposed crime scenes, the condition of the few bodies that had been found, and the physical evidence collected. At last, they all seemed satisfied. "Pretty clear," Emmett said.
"Yes," Carlisle agreed. "It's our kind - and not only one. Several, perhaps as many as five, judging by the evidence."
"Victoria has friends, then?" Esme speculated.
"So I assume. It could be unrelated to Victoria, but it hardly seems likely. James' coven were the first vampires we'd seen, or even scented traces of, in this area since we first lived here. The odds are very much against a second group happening to appear in Seattle at the same time Victoria is there."
"So," Edward mused, "she's been making a new coven of her own? Producing newborns?"
"That would be my guess." He turned to Alice. "You still see no indication of her plans?"
Alice grimaced irritably. "Nothing! I mean, I see her hunting, moving around the city - just trivia. I've never seen her plan to turn another human. Hmm - it might have happened when we were away."
"Certainly, but why would you see no other actions on her part? You foresaw her coming to Forks recently."
"Yes, it was very clear. But otherwise...she's so weirdly idle! It's as if she's deliberately avoiding making any decisions, so I won't see her future actions."
"Shouldn't you see these others she's supposed to be with?" Bella asked her.
"I don't see them, because I don't know who they are. They don't have any connection to us, so I sort of..." She made abstract, descriptive gestures with her hands. "I can't get a fix on them. I need something solid to start with."
Jasper, who had been listening in thoughtful silence, looked up. "What if we could identify one of the people she's turned?"
"How?"
"If she changed them, they'd have disappeared, or be presumed dead. There'd be documentation, missing persons reports." He looked at Bella. "Police investigations."
"That could be helpful," Alice agreed. "The problem is, we don't know which missing persons might be Victoria's new posse, and which are just their recent meals."
Edward glared at her. "Alice, can you please...!"
Bella squeezed his hand reassuringly. "It's okay. I know Victoria's...red-eyed. And I know she's dangerous. That's why we're doing this, right?"
"Exactly!" Alice grinned at her. "So...we've heard the names of the missing on the news." They quickly ran through the Seattle residents reported missing. The recent ones were typical vampire victims: vagrants, prostitutes, runaways - people whose disappearance would not cause as much alarm.
"You know," Esme said, "if we're looking for someone in partnership with Victoria, it couldn't be any of those names. They just disappeared in the last few weeks. If Victoria had changed any of them, they would still be brand new, not useful as accomplices yet."
"She could be busy training them," Emmett suggested.
Alice shook her head. "I don't see her training newborns, or planning to train newborns, or having anything to do with any newborns."
"Let's go further back," Carlisle suggested. "When did the disappearances start? Early spring?" Once again, they were unable to make any clear determination.
"There was one other missing person, before that," Bella offered shyly. "But maybe it doesn't count. It was way earlier, like last fall, and he wasn't from Seattle. He was local."
"Who was this?" Carlisle asked her.
"I don't remember his name. His parents came to see Charlie at the station one day, looking for their son. I don't think he was ever found."
"Last fall? When we were away, then." Jasper flitted from the room, returning almost instantly with a laptop. "Here it is. Riley Biers, reported missing in October. He was nineteen. Not a vagrant. He was employed, had family, friends; not someone who should just vanish."
Carlisle nodded. "No suspicious disappearances after that, until this recent series of missing persons from Seattle."
Jasper turned the computer screen toward Alice, showing her a photograph of Riley Biers. "Is that enough to work with?"
She looked at the picture. "Maybe." As the others continued to talk quietly, she sank into a vision, staring blankly at nothing for many minutes. She emerged at one point, and they all looked at her expectantly. "Just taking a break," she explained. "I have to try and find him changed, as a vampire, and it's kind of slidey." No one asked her to explain, and Alice zoned out once more.
Four minutes later, she focused on them again, and broke into a wide smile. "Got 'im!"
"You've found this Riley?" Carlisle asked. "Is he with Victoria?"
"Oh, yes! He's her right-hand man, and now that I'm on to him, it's clear as day! She did tell him about me. She's using him to hide from me."
"How?" Edward asked.
"She has him making all the plans. Victoria told him she had to destroy us for whatever reason - I see him repeating some story about us being out to get her, blah, blah - and she has him plot a strategy and put everything together, without telling her about it! That way, I can't see her plans to attack us in her future, because Victoria isn't making any decision to attack. She's leaving it all in this Riley's hands."
"That's ingenious," Jasper remarked. "But just what is Riley's strategy?"
Alice stopped smiling. "He's going to make an army. Enough newborns at once to overpower us."
"That idea must have originally come from Victoria," Edward said. "Last year, I tracked her south, through areas where there were still traces of newborn armies. That's likely where she got the idea. But could he manage such a large group of newborns alone?"
"I see him doing it," Alice affirmed. "He seems to have a talent for managing people. And he's intending to let the slightly more mature newborns assist with the brand-new ones."
"How many are there now?" Carlisle asked.
"Right now, just Riley, and three others."
"That's all?" Emmett exclaimed. "We can handle five vampires!"
"If we must," Carlisle agreed. "It's a mercy Alice was able to identify them before they'd grown to the actual army they intended."
Bella shivered, and Edward put a protective arm around her shoulders.
"How soon do they intend to make more?" Rosalie asked.
"He'll wait a few weeks to let the first batch stabilize, then move fairly quickly. That's the plan for now, anyway. Once they have their army, they'll be led to Forks. It'll take time to not only train the newbies, but feed them the party line about why they need to go attack these Cullens."
"Then we have a little time," Carlisle said, with some relief. "Do you see a good window of opportunity?"
"Not at the moment," Alice told him. "Victoria is at a distance right now."
"Ideally, they should be close together when we attack," Jasper said.
"I can watch for that," Alice offered. "Now that I know who's involved and what they're up to, it's clear sailing."
"Thank you, Alice," Carlisle said. "Let us know." He looked around at the others. "I believe that's all we can accomplish for now. We'll discuss strategy when we have a clearer idea of time and place." They quietly dispersed to their own afternoon activities.
"I should get home and start dinner," Bella said, rising from her chair.
Alice jumped up as well. "Let me drive you home this time, Bella." As Edward started to object, she said, "No, by myself. I want to talk wedding dresses with Bella, and you aren't supposed to know about that beforehand."
"I'm going there in any case, Alice," he pointed out. Bella was never left unguarded as long as Victoria was still at large.
"Then you can run, and meet her there." Alice took Bella's hand and led her to the door.
"Goodbye, everyone," Bella called as she was dragged out the front door. "See you soon!"
Alice got behind the wheel of Bella's truck. "I hate driving this thing!" she exclaimed, as Bella climbed more slowly into the passenger seat. "On top of everything else, it's so slow!"
"I could drive."
"No, it's fine." She grinned. "Edward is planning to get you a new car." At Bella's shocked expression, she explained, "Not necessarily right now. After we move away - supposedly for college." Before Bella could say more, she went on, "We still don't have a firm plan on the wedding, you know. Are you really doing Las Vegas?"
"Um, it hasn't been settled yet."
"You won't consider a real wedding? I could plan such a gorgeous event for you. You just have to say the word."
"Alice, you know I'm not comfortable with anything elaborate. Weddings already freak me out as it is."
She sighed. "No matter where, you could still wear a lovely wedding gown."
"Ugh! Those big, poofy white dresses!"
"It does not have to be big or poofy! Give me some credit! I can make a wedding gown that will be exactly to your taste. As formal or informal as you like."
Bella eyed her suspiciously, but at last said, "Let's figure out exactly how we're doing this, and then we can talk about what I'll wear. Fair enough?"
"More than fair. Thank you, Bella."
"Well...thank you for offering." She laughed mirthlessly. "It's so weird! We're talking about a gang of killer vampires coming for you, and you're still going on about wedding dresses and stuff."
"Life doesn't stop just because you're targeted for assassination."
Bella snorted. "Apparently not." Something occurred to her, but she quickly changed her mind.
Alice caught it, however. "Go ahead, Bella."
"With what?"
"You were about to ask me something. Ooh - something about sex?" Bella blushed. "Oh, are we going to have a heart to heart sex chat? That's so cool!"
Bella rolled her eyes. "It's nothing." At Alice's pleading look, she went on, "I had a kind of biology question for Edward, and he said maybe I should ask someone female instead."
"Because he didn't know, or because it wasn't proper?"
"Proper," she muttered.
"Lay it on me," Alice urged.
"It's just...I had wondered if it was possible for a vampire to make a human pregnant, and he said no. I asked him why not, and that's when he shut it down."
"Oh, that's easy stuff! I thought we were going to get into positions and technique and whatnot." She giggled at Bella's alarmed stare. "Maybe another time. Well, in the first place, vampires and humans are genetically incompatible. When we're changed, our DNA changes too. We even have an extra chromosome or two that humans don't have. Carlisle's studied it over the years."
"I see."
Second thing is, we can't get pregnant because we're sort of dead."
"Er, clearly you're not..."
"Only by human standards. We move and think and all, but we don't grow or change. Our cells don't replicate like human ones. When they have to, very rarely, repair or replace themselves, the process isn't like human cells growing back; more like the formation of crystals. Again, Carlisle has data on all that."
"Wow," Bella said inadequately.
"We don't keep losing skin cells or whatever, and making new ones, and all like that, because we don't normally wear out. We only have to drink a little blood every few weeks, because we don't have to keep replacing stuff. Our bodies are fairly static."
"Where do you get energy, then?"
"We don't know. Maybe the properties of blood are special. Or maybe we get energy from light - sunlight, moonlight, starlight. We're just not sure." She shrugged. "Point is, we don't produce any conventionally living cells - like ova, or sperm. It wouldn't make sense, biological units of life forming inside something more like crystalline rock! It's just not that kind of body any more, see?"
"Kind of."
"And then, unlike humans, there's minimal fluids of any kind. Just venom, which is continually recycled when we swallow. Ask Carlisle some time about the properties of venom; it's wild! It has elements not found anywhere in nature! Anyhow, we don't lose or waste much; it's a sort of closed environment."
Bella's head was spinning. "Okay."
"Meaning, no semen either." Bella blushed harder, but listened with considerable interest. "That really wouldn't work. Like I said, we can't waste substance. And the way vampires have sex, there'd be an awful lot of waste."
"Why?" Bella asked cautiously.
Alice laughed. "Vampires don't have natural limits on making whoopee. Didn't you know that? Zero recovery time. When mates first get together, they can sometimes go at it for days! Weeks! When I first met my Jazzy, we set out to find the Cullens. It took years, though, because first we had to have our honeymoon. We would only quit long enough to hunt, then back to it again. Insatiable!" She sighed nostalgically. "We get better at balancing our activities later on, but we still get our six to eight hours' worth a night." She started dreamily humming Night Time is the Right Time to herself.
Bella closed her mouth, which had fallen open. "Um, what does that have to do with wasting substance or whatever it was?"
"Oh, it just means that it wouldn't make any sense for a male vampire to produce semen. How would he keep supplying it? Whatever his body used to produce the stuff, would run out from all the nonstop hanky-panky; he'd be a dry husk after the first week."
"I, uh, see the problem." Bella gathered her wits. "So that's why there's no possibility of pregnancy."
"Yup." Alice glanced sidewise at her. "Are you sure you don't want to move on to the techniques and positions?"
Bella turned a deeper shade of red. "I don't think so, Alice."
"You're going to be married to a vampire before long. For that matter, you'll soon be a married vampire yourself. Just like me!" She grinned. "I'm an open book, Bella, if there's anything you'd like to know."
Bella found that there were one or two things, and made use of the final half of the drive home to better inform herself.
Notes: This chapter serves to adjust two problems I had with the original story. The first is Alice's complete unawareness of an army of vampires being formed in a nearby city. I thought that at least required some explanation, as well as more effort put toward its solution - ideally, before the process advanced too far. The second is, of course, the idea that male vampires are fertile. If S. Meyer found a half-vampire baby essential to her story, that's her business; but let's face it, the idea isn't logical or consistent, so in my revisioning I'm firmly closing the door on that possibility. I let Alice do the explaining, just because I found that made it more fun.