"Carlisle-" I began as I looked over to him.
"Yes?" he questioned. "Bella?" he prompted after I hadn't answered him for a few seconds.
"You lived with Caius for a little while," I said. "Do you think he would send Jane off like this?" I questioned and everyone looked over to Carlisle. I knew that he might ot know the answer; but as he had lived with them for a period of time he understood their ways better than we ever would.
"I don't know," he admitted. "If parts of the guard leaves the capital then all three leaders need to be aware of it" he added. "However-" he started before anyone could say anything. "Caius has been known secretly to go on his own personal missions from time to time; and he would take a couple of members of the guard with him" he explained. "No matter how unsettled Aro is until they return" he muttered and I nodded at this. During Carlisle's stay with the Volturi he obviously had witnessed this first hand; and by the look on his face he didn't appreciate Caius leaving like that.
"How long are they gone for?" Edward asked for the room.
"Depends" Carlisle shrugged as he rested against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "A month. a year" he stated. "Depends on what he wanted to do, I guess" he added.
"How old is he anyway?" Jacob questioned.
"Caius's date of birth is unknown, all that is noted is that it was before 1300 B.C. This makes him the oldest of the trio, with his transformation anyway" he stated. "Aro jokes and says that it is probably down to his moody nature as he is forever in a mid life crisis" Carlisle meekly smiled.
"Anyway-" he began again. "You probably noticed the Romanian coven's upfront distaste for the Volturi, and Caius is behind that" he said. "Caius told me during my stay with them that before he met Aro he used to run afoul of the Romanian coven. He escaped with his life but developed a great hatred for the powerful Romanians" he added. "He was fighting them for nearly a decade, what seemed to somber him was when he met his mate, Athenodora and from that point they began to travel together as a bonded pair" he finished and we all watched as Carlisle looked down at the floor for a few seconds before looking back at us all. "He then went on to meet Aro, at the time Aro was only a few years into his vampire life. Young though he was, Aro was already formulating his plan to dominate the vampire world" he continued. "He was already forming plans to achieve this and had also begun forming a coven with Marcus; Caius told me that when he met the coven he was immediately attracted to the idea of joining forces with the gifted vampires. As he didn't like feeling weak, knowing that the Romanians or anyone stronger than him would be able to destroy him at their will. He wanted to be powerful and strong just as much as Aro did" he finished. I then watched as his eyes looked out towards the scene through the windows and I could tell by the look on his face he was reliving the conversations that he had once shared.
"Though Caius has no psychic gift, Aro was drawn to Caius's ambition and passionate capacity to hate; he saw a great potential for manipulation in what could be both a weakness and a strength" he stated breaking the silence once more. "When Caius and Athenodora joined the Volturi it meant that they doubled Aro's numbers; and they were shortly joined by Aro's sister, Didyme, and later Aro's romantic interest, Sulpicia" he continued smoothly. "However when someone started questioning their power Aro and Caius began to worry about diluting their power further, and from then on brought vampires into the coven as subordinates only. Or as you know them as their guard" he stated as he looked back over to me and Edward. "I have watched that Caius wasn't as patient as Aro, however he was willing to follow Aro's long-term plan. But the reasoning to this was because he could see that doing so gave him a better chance of getting what he wanted than seeking it head-on would. So with this in mind he supported Aro's cause, enforced vampire discretion, because it brought him to his ultimate goal: war against the Romainian coven" he finished with a sigh. "There was even points where I have seen with my own two eyes that when Caius have fabricated stories against the Romainian coven so Aro and Marcus would act; I did try to speak up; but Caius would quickly silence me" he sighed as he dropped his right hand from his chest and he dragged it through his hair. "Telling me that I didn't understand the threat; and that as I was only a guest I didn't have a say in Volturi matters" he grumbled. "I wanted to fight against this; but in the end I decided against this" he told us all. "This was in fact one of the reasons that caused me to leave the Volturi" he finished solemnly.
"I can't imagine you being with them" Jacob advised.
"I know Jacob" Carlisle meekly smiled; and once more we fell into silence - not knowing what to do with this information.
"Moving on-" Carlisle started, which captured our attention once more. "After the Romanians were mostly destroyed, Caius was satisfied to spend his time punishing offenders of Aro's law, while leaving the rest of the decision-making to Aro. Caius wouldn't have been quite satisfied without Chelsea's influence, but Aro made sure that she kept him tightly bound to the coven tightly together" he explained smoothly as he looked around us all. "After the Romanian's were all but extinct, Caius kept himself occupied with other crusades" he continued. "You know of course about his crusade against the immortal children; which of course Caius led - with Aro, Marcus and the rest of the Volturi following him. Caius would press the offensive so people would see his point of view; and he led most of the hunting parties and always participated in the destruction of the offenders" he shuddered. "He also oversaw the clean up after the Southern Wars, making sure the newborn armies and their creators were utterly annihilated. Caius is always at the head of any Volturi expedition, leaving Aro free for more important projects. So I have to agree with Bella in part when she thinks that Caius is behind this" He said as he smiled meekly at me. "As for the most part he probably is" he finished as he pursed his lips together.
"But how does this relate to us?" Jacob questioned. "I knew he was pretty freaked when he saw us before; but we are not werewolves" he reminded us all.
"He probably doesn't know that" Carlisle advised. "But given the nature of his other crusades he probably won't even care" he sighed.
"What crusade?" Jacob asked in disbelief.
"You know that Caius doesn't like werewolves-" Carlisle started and I watched as Jacob nodded in response to this. "Well there is a reason behind that; and that reasoning pushed him onto his campaign to wipe out the werewolf population" he advised and Jacob gasped at this as his face fell into shock.
"So he is involving us in this?" Jacob growled as he bawled his fists up.
"By the looks of it yes" Carlisle confirmed. "For all he knows you are werewolves; and that is an offence to him" he stated and I heard another growl escape from Jacob's lips.
"Similar to his response to the Romanians, Caius had once felt vulnerable and powerless during an attack from a werewolf. His characteristic response was to attempt to destroy the entire species that had made him feel helpless" Carlisle continued. "The werewolves he hunted to near extinction are also known as the Children of the Moon. And even though they are not related to you or either pack Jacob it looks like he may be including you all in this because of what happened to him" he stated. "I'm sorry" he apologised.
"It's not your fault" Jacob dismissed. "But now I know this you know that it is war; we will have to act" he stressed. "I know you want to do this peacefully; but I don't know how this can be possible" he stressed and I watched as Carlisle pursed his lips together at this. I know that this goes against the grain for Carlisle; he hates violence of any kind and I knew that it was down to his father. I just hoped that we were going to be able to deal with this peacefully; but as the cold hard stare of Jane started to enter my mind I didn't know whether this was going to be possible.
"I know" Carlisle finally stated. "But for the meanwhile all I can ask is for you to try" he begged. "If I can speak to them I might be able to stop this" he advised; we all then watched as Jacob reluctantly nodded at this before he looked back down at Renesmee. I knew that this wasn't going to be difficult for Jacob to follow this request; it was built into his DNA to fight against vampires. Yes things had changed and things were better between the packs and the Cullen's but I always knew that we were going to be the exception to the rule.
We all then fell into silence once more and I couldn't stop a growl escape from my lips, causing everyone to look over to me and I shook my head at this. I didn't want to talk about what was on my mind - how this affecting me family. I hated it! And Jane and Caius would know this - especially Jane! She has always shown her dislike for me, even as a mortal, and there was part of me that wanted to settle things. But as my eyes landed by on Carlisle I pushed this all away, Carlisle was right - this had to be done the right way. The peaceful way. I just hoped that we were going to be able to be given the opportunity, which I was still somewhat very much doubted.