Chapter Three
Isabella Cigno
Hail (Hail), what's the matter with your head, yeah
Hail (Hail), what's the matter with your mind and your sign
Hail (Hail), nothin' the matter with your head
Baby find it, come on and find it
Hail, with it, baby, 'cause you're fine
And you're mine, and you look so divine
Come and get your love - Redbone
Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that it would come to this. Here I was in the outdated, lemon yellow kitchen of some human I barely knew. I had nothing against humans, I'd mingled with a few throughout my life, painters, philosophers, poets, entertainers, all sorts of interesting folks. Beau was none of those things, mundane, young, and average-looking. Meeting them was an underwhelming experience, I'd expected more from the person who'd managed to whoo the ice princess. Beau was a tall person, well over six feet, though they slouched so far forward that they appeared a few inches shorter. They wore their curly brown hair tied back in a half-bun, and duck taped wireframe glasses. Beau had shifty chocolate eyes, and a hesitant smile, as if they didn't want to draw any attention to themself.
I watched mutely as the three of them, Alice, Beau, and Edythe, ambled up the stairs. Beau leaned into Edythe's side, a dreamy smile tugging on the corner of their lips. They were blissfully unaware of the reason for this unexpected visit.
Jasper and I stayed downstairs. We leaned against the cheap formica countertops, waiting in companionable silence. Beau's father was away at work. The house was quiet, save for the hum of an old refrigerator.
"Is this really necessary?" I complained.
Jasper shrugged, "To Edythe and Alice it is."
I rolled my eyes. "Couldn't Mason have just called her boyfr-sorry partner. Ugh my bad I didn't mean to say that. I'm an old dog, it's hard to learn new tricks. Not that I won't try, don't get me wrong. In my day most men I knew were," I sunk my hand downward, gesticulating with a limp wrist. "And some of the women too, in secret of course. I mean it was more strange if you weren't," I repeated the gesture. "Ancient Rome was very—"
"Yes I understand," Jasper interrupted. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers and heaved a world weary sigh, visibly irritated.
"Myself included. I may have been a goody two shoes, but I wasn't blind —"
"Thank you for the history lesson."
"If Beau is so important to your family, why aren't you upstairs with them? Don't you want to say goodbye, just in case."
He hung his head, ashamed. "I think it's better if I wait out here."
The conversation upstairs soured, Beau began to shout, even without vampire hearing, their voice was clearly audible.
"Please, I can't go through this again!"
Jasper winced.
"I have to do this, love. As soon as it's over I'll come back for you."
"You don't know that Edythe! You told me the Volturi was dangerous, and now you want to go running back there?"
When was this, I wondered ? No one had told me about Edythe coming to Volterra. They must have kept it from me. It wouldn't have been very hard to do, they'd probably sent me off on some mission to keep me away.
"I know! I'll be more careful this time."
"Take me with you."
"I can't."
"You could if you'd just get over yourself and change me."
"They have a point," Alice mused.
"No, absolutely not! It's out of the question."
"Alice, If I asked you to change me, would you do it?"
Alice sucked air through her teeth. "I'm sorry Beau, she's right. Even if we changed you, you wouldn't be much of a help. Newborns are strong, sure, but not very smart. It takes a few years to get over the bloodlust, and start thinking clearly."
"Please Edythe. Don't leave me." Their voice broke.
"We'll call you every day, okay?" Alice chirped. "You'll hardly miss us, and before you know it we'll be back."
"He was my brother, I can't just let this go."
Beau sniffled, and said nothing.
"Don't be like that," Edythe murmured.
"You're not listening to me! You can't see past the ghost of your dead brother. He's gone, and this isn't going to bring him back. I'm here! Alive, breathing, right in front of you! Begging you not to go, and—" They paused. The mattress springs squeaked as presumably Beau took a seat on top of their bed. They sighed slowly, and when they spoke again, they had no fight left in them. "It doesn't matter."
"Beau?"
"What I say doesn't even matter, you're not going to change your mind. You've already made your choice." They chuckled, "This was just a formality, to humor me, the stupid helpless little human."
"Beau, I'm sorry, please, I'm so sorry."
"Just get out." When neither of the Cullens moved, I heard a crash, the sound of breaking glass. Beau screeched at them. "Leave! It's what you do best."
"Ouch," I mumbled under my breath.
The door creaked open. Alice and Edythe descended the stairs. When they approached us, Jasper and I acted as if we had not overheard their argument. The four of us hopped into Edythe's silver volvo, and headed for the border to La Push. Behind her back, Alice had complained about Edythe's taste in cars, referring to this one as 'the mom-mobile.' To be fair, Alice was not far off, the Volvo even had three rows of seats, it was a glorified mini-van.
"Well, it's off to the wolves' den, I guess," I said.
The other three vampires grimaced, but said nothing.
"What? Do you guys not get along or something?"
Alice and Jasper chuckled, as if sharing a private joke that I was not in on. Edythe was too busy brooding to join them. Undoubtedly the argument between her partner and herself was still weighing heavily on her mind.
"Sorry I didn't mean to laugh so hard. It's just, well that's the understatement of the century."
"How bad is it between our kind and theirs?"
"They're our mortal enemies, who's entire existence is to eliminate our kind. Their ancestors spared us and made a pact with Carlisle, on the condition that we never harm a human. And don't even get me started on the stench! It's truly horrendous. You might want to cover your nose. Honestly it takes some getting used to." Alice shuddered and pressed her silk scarf to her nose.
When we got closer to the reservation, I realized the stinky smell hadn't been coming from Beau at all. At his place the aroma had been faint, but noticeable. Here, the smell of wet dogs was overwhelming.
"You weren't kidding," I gagged, and covered my nose.
Alice shook her head.
I held my breath, but it didn't provide much relief.
Edythe pulled into an empty parking lot. The building was mid-sized, with vinyl siding, and green roof tiles. The sign was black with bold red letters that spelled the words, 'Hungry Wolf | Scratch Kitchen.' The windows were shuttered, with sun faded blinds rolled all the way down. A neon 'Sorry we're closed,' sign was lit, and hanging on the door window.
"Why are we pulling up to a diner?" I asked.
"Neutral territory. One of their mothers owns the place."
"So the werewolf diner is called Hungry Wolf?"
Alice laughed, "I guess it's not a subtle name, but unless you're in the know, you probably wouldn't connect the dots."
"Won't someone overhear us in there?"
"It's closed on Sunday's so we should be good."
It was Sunday? Already? Last weekend I'd been partying in an Italian club. Time sure flies when every second is agony and your life hangs in a fragile balance between life and death. Or did this technically count as my afterlife? If so I needed to have a stern word with someone about this. As far as afterlives go, this one sucked. Where were the choirs of heavenly, feathered angels? The white robes? Sure it sounded like a snooze fest, but it was bound to be better than this crap.
We walked over to the entrance, waiting for someone to let us in. I knocked impatiently on the glass, and heard a grumbling female voice, approaching the door.
"Now this is why I hate opening this place for Mom, case and point!"
"People really do that?" Another voice called from within.
"YES! All the time. And I'm like chill out geezer, it's only 7:02, give me a damn second!"
"We're closed!" The girl yelled. I could only make out her silhouette from behind the opaque shades. She had to be six foot two, at least. Impressive.
"You already know it's us," Edythe protested. "In case you've forgotten, I am a mind reader."
"Well you're no fun, Cullen." The girl opened the door, and raised her eyebrows at me, "Is this a new one? You know that's against the treaty Cullen! Oh well, it was nice knowing you—"
"Stop fooling around Leah, just let them in."
The girl, Leah, stepped aside. She stunk like a wet dog but was pretty easy on the eyes, with well-muscled arms, broad shoulders, thick thighs, and an impeccable figure. Her skin was a deep brown, her hair was black and cut just above her shoulders. I got the feeling Alice would disapprove of her outfit, a sport's bra, tank top, and basketball shorts with paint across the butt.
She wrinkled her nose at us when we walked past. We probably didn't smell good to them either.
"How'd that happen?" I blurted out before I could think to keep my mouth shut.
"Huh?"
I pointed to the paint stain, and she face palmed. "Don't ask. It's been a loooong day."
I glanced down at the clock I'd stolen from a Spanish businessman's luggage. It was only nine in the morning.
Leah slammed the door shut behind us, and double checked the lock. The rest of the pack was squeezed into a super-sized, circular booth. They'd pulled together quite the spread, milk shakes, eggs, pancakes, waffles, chicken strips, diced and seasoned potatoes, buttermilk biscuits, pitchers of fresh squeezed orange juice, bacon, sausage links, nearly every breakfast food known to man.
I pulled up a chair and sat with them. The man nearest me jumped. The rest of the room went deadly silent.
"What the hell are you doing?" He yelled.
"Calm down Paul."
The man ordering Paul was the tallest among them. He was dressed in a simple cotton t-shirt, flannel jacket and cargo shorts. He had this calm, self-assured air about him, despite being in a room with four vampires he was cool and collected, leaning far back in his chair. Only his eyes gave him away, they were shrewd, watching me like a hawk. I knew a leader when I saw one, this man was definitely Sam Uley, Alpha of the pack.
"Did I do something wrong?" I asked, feigning ignorance. I glanced over my shoulder and pretended to 'just' realize that my traveling companions were on the opposite side of the room, seated in the stools. "I did, didn't I? That's my bad." I apologized profusely.
In truth, I'd wanted to see how the pack would respond to my faux-pas. I gauged their reactions. Sam regarded me with a hard stare, seeing through my charade. That was good, no one wants to be allied with a fool. The youngest wolf seated next to Leah, nodded slightly, and sent me a timid smile, accepting the apology. Leah frowned and angled her body slightly in front of the young wolf, shielding him from me. The others were on high alert, their muscles tensed and poised for attack.
"Excuse our friend, she's not familiar with your kind." Never thought I'd hear those words coming from her mouth. In all the years I'd known her, she'd never referred to me as a friend.
"My kind? What's that supposed to mean?"
I chuckled, then stopped quickly. I wasn't sure if it was appropriate of me to laugh at that particular quip.
"Leah!"
She rolled her eyes. "I kid, I kid, we have lots of fun, you and I."
"The feeling is not mutual." Edythe replied.
"How about we start out by introducing ourselves," the other Native woman said. Unlike Leah she was slender and short, with long dark hair and flawless russet skin. "I'm Emily, this is Sam, my Fiance, that's Paul, Jared, Seth, Jacob, Quil, and Embry."
I caught a whiff of Emily, and realized that she was not a shapeshifter. She smelled rather good actually, mouthwatering, like blueberry muffins, and honey. It was a good thing I'd drained a mountain lion before coming here. I swallowed the venom pooling in my mouth.
"It's nice to meet you Emily, I'm Bella, and I know you've already met, but it feels weird not introducing them too. That's Alice, Jasper, and Mason."
"Edythe," she corrected me almost immediately.
"What is it you're here for exactly? Where's Dr. Leech and the rest of your merry band of bloodsuckers?"
Edythe growled, low in her throat. I shot a glare at her over my shoulder. Now was not the time to rise to the wolf's bait and antagonize potential allies.
"Jacob!" Sam chided.
"Don't worry about it. I don't know about the rest of them, but I've been called much worse." I assured him. Strictly speaking that was not true, I DID know Edythe had been cursed out on many occasions, I'd been the one doing the cursing.
"Still, I apologize on his behalf. What he meant to say was, Where's Dr. Cullen, Mrs. Cullen, and um—" He glanced at his fiance, at a loss. Emily shrugged.
"Emerson? Frigid bitch?" Leah suggested.
"I think it was Edmund and Rosario, right?" Jared said.
Alice had warned me about how strained their relationship with the shapeshifters was, but I hadn't expected it to be this bad. I glanced at my watch again and frowned. This was shaping up to be the most tedious of meetings I'd ever been forced to sit through—and I'd been a member of the Volturi! Gianna always insisted upon these pointless team building exercises, as well as quarterly reports with poorly formatted powerpoint slides, ugly clip art, and incomprehensible screenshots of excel spreadsheets.
It took about thirty or so minutes to give the pack an abridged version of the events leading up to our meeting. As I recounted my tale, Sam maintained a neutral face, but glanced a couple times at Emily throughout, as if wondering what he'd do if he were in my shoes. Paul looked bored out of his mind, and picked at his food with some measure of annoyance. The others watched with various degrees of attention. Seth was particularly engrossed, hanging on my every word.
"That's awful," He said when I finished speaking. "I'm so sorry that happened to you." Seth was nearly on the verge of tears.
Leah offered him a napkin and he frowned, refusing her tissue.
"So let me get this straight. You want us to drop everything we're doing, fly across the world, let an organization of human drinking vampires know that we exist, make a powerful enemy, and all for some petty revenge plan?" Sam said.
"Well that's a very uncharitable way of putting it."
"It's our duty to protect our people. What you're asking for will put them in harm's way."
"Take it from me, you can attack them now, when you have the advantage or wait for them to attack you when you least expect it. Nothing stays a secret forever. When they find out about your existence they will eradicate you, just like they did with the children of the moon."
"Is that a threat?" Paul growled.
Sam put a hand on his shoulder but otherwise ignored him. "I find that outcome highly unlikely. Any vampire that comes this way doesn't live long enough to tell the tale, aside from the Cullens. If The Volturi finds out about us we'll all know who to blame."
I wanted to rip my hair out, no matter what I said, Sam had a rebuttal. There would be no chance of recruiting the whole pack.
"What about the rest of you? What do you think? I swear to you that I'm not exaggerating, I know what The Volturi are capable of better than anyone else in this room." I bowed my head, "I hope you don't find out the hard way, like I did."
Jared shook his head. "I'm with Sam on this one."
"Me too," Embry agreed.
Jacob stared at his hands with furrowed brows, and stayed quiet, as if he were trying to go unnoticed. I bit back a smile. So one of them was clearly conflicted.
Quil shrugged. "I don't really care one way or the other."
"Beau told me about the Volturi," Jacob blurted out. "And I think letting them live would be a mistake in the long run."
Paul growled, "You have no right to question Sam's decision! Quit acting like you're the boss of us."
"Don't speak for me Paul," Sam ordered. "If anyone else has something to say, I'm all ears."
"We can't leave, who's going to protect our imprints? We know what happened last—" Jared faltered at the murderous look on Paul's face and went silent.
Leah rolled her eyes. "Don't worry Jared, us lowly single people can go in your place. I wouldn't mind ripping some heads off, and kicking some vampire ass."
Sam frowned. "This isn't a joke Leah. How do you think Seth or Sue would take it if something happened to you? Do you think Harry—"
Leah snarled, and stabbed her stack of pancakes with a butter knife. "Finish that sentence and see what happens!"
Emily backed away quickly, and Leah seemed almost offended. She exhaled slowly and calmed down.
Sam sighed. "I'll admit, I don't know much about your kind. But I trust Jacob's judgement. If you say they are dangerous then there is only one thing to do. Most of us must stay behind and protect La Push, but if any of you want to volunteer to help the Cullens, I won't stop you."
"I'm in." Jacob said.
"We don't want your help." Edythe refused.
"Mason! We're not in any position to refuse help."
"If anyone else wants to volunteer I'm open to working with them, but not him."
"I don't know what you have against him and frankly I don't care. Suck it up! He's joining our team. Jacob, it's nice to meet you, I look forward to working with you." I extended my hand, and Jacob stared at it, before reluctantly shaking it. His flesh ran so warm that it almost burned to the touch. I winced and pulled away.
I could practically feel Edythe's eyes glaring daggers at my back, but I refused to acknowledge her. She could pout all she wanted, but I wasn't going to change my mind. I had a good feeling about this.
"I'm in too," Leah said.
"Then I'm going with you," Said Seth.
"The hell you are!"
Seth made eye contact with me, "You said you needed all the help you can get."
"He's fourteen!"
"You're sister's right Seth. I know you'd be a great help but I couldn't let you do this in good conscience."
"But—"
"It's non-negotiable, sorry bud."
Was this how you talked to adolescents? I think I'd heard a human refer to a teen as bud in an eighties movie at some point, surely the lingo hadn't changed too much in the decades since. The only adolescents I knew were Alec and Jane, but they were Satan's evil spawns from hell so they did not count.
Seth scowled, clearly it had been the wrong thing to say. But with this expression on his face he looked an awful lot like Leah, I could see the strong family resemblance.
Paul shrugged. He took a bite of his waffle and chewed with his mouth open. "Well I can't let Jake and Leah have all the fun. Let's burn some bloodsuckers." He swallowed his food, and slurped loudly at the final sips of his milkshake. Emily smacked him upside the head, but he seemed to not even feel it.
I kept an unnervingly neutral face, but beneath the table I clenched a fist. Jasper sent me a wave of relaxing emotions, so clearly he wasn't fooled. Who could blame me for my displeasure? Paul was the worst of them. I would have preferred the child. In the short time I'd known him, he'd already demonstrated a short fuse, rude demeanor, and subpar table manners.
"Well, then it's settled, Leah, Jacob, and Paul will join you on your mission." He sighed tiredly, rose from his seat and muttered to himself very quietly. I could barely make out the words. Something about consulting the elders?
"We appreciate your help." I assured him, before glancing again at my watch. "Not to be rude but we better be getting a move on."
While the three shapeshifters packed, and said their goodbyes to their family, the four of us were sitting in Edythe's car at the border between Forks and LaPush. I was bored out of my mind, I tapped my foot impatiently, and glanced out the window every few seconds. Sitting and waiting was not my forte.
"How about now Alice, do you see them coming out soon?" I asked.
"Bella, for the eighteenth time, no I cannot, I can't see anything."
"Ugh," I banged the back of my head against the headrest. "This is so boring."
My mind began to wander, back to those years I'd been happier beyond words. So chipper that Carlisle had begun to notice my shift in mood.
"I can't believe you Carlisle! You've got to be joking!"
"It's not as if I have an abundance of freetime Bella."
"Then it's settled, we're using your day off to go to the art museum."
"Go on without me, it'll have to be another time."
"Oh come on old man, come with me!" I begged. "Don't you want to see your face immortalized in an oil painting? Don't you want to see me with angel wings on canvas?" I wiggled my eyebrows suggestively, "Or me reclining nude in a garden."
Carlisle at this point, had known me for centuries, he ignored my advances without so much as batting an eye. "No I'm planning on going North instead, I'm getting a little thirsty and I hear they've had some wolf sightings in Wisconsin."
"Sounds delicious," I replied without a morsel of sincerity. I was a recent convert to the diet of animal blood. There were some creatures that tasted better than others, but even the best of them were not as tasty as human blood. It was a hard transition.
"Bella?"
"Hmm?"
"It's been four months, not that I mind, but how long do you plan on staying here?"
"Are you trying to kick me out Carlisle? I mean I get it, I must be putting a damper on your bachelor lifestyle."
Carlisle rolled his eyes good naturedly, "You know how Aro is. If I were you I'd send him a letter, or make a telephone call, does he have a telephone?"
"He has a telephone." I mumbled. "I don't want to talk to him."
"You'll have to eventually."
"I know."
"Does this have anything to do with your nighttime activities?"
I ducked my head and stared at my shoes, a sensible pair of brown leather Chelsea boots.
"I wonder, have you met any interesting people? Perhaps a certain gentleman caller?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about, old man. I'm a chaste, god-fearing woman, who keeps a nickel between her knees."
"Interesting, most nights you come home smelling like aftershave and cologne—I suppose that's just a coincidence."
My lips twitched. "Stranger things have happened."
"You should bring him over some time, I'd like to meet the man who's got you so flustered."
"You're not mad?"
"What would I be mad about?"
"I don't know...me being irresponsible? Getting close to a human? Potentially exposing our kind? Honestly even I think it's a little stupid, I mean I should know better! What am I doing?"
Carlisle cracked a smile, "There's no explaining the things we do for love."
"Love?! Carlisle I'm not—don't be ridiculous I'm fond of Edward but love— we've only been seeing each other for what? Less than a half a year?"
"You can deny it all you want, but the only person you're fooling is yourself. Face it, you're in love."
"Oh no."
"What?"
"I think you're right." I grabbed him by the shoulders and he jumped slightly, surprised at the sudden contact. "Carlisle what am I going to do?"
"Well for starters, if you want to go to the art museum so badly why don't you take him? Who knows it might soften the blow."
"Oh please no way. What would I even do?" I gestured at the unadorned wall in Carlisle's two-flat apartment. "See that painting, that's me, I posed for it over five hundred years ago. Yeah I'm sure that'll go over smoothly!"
"Well you love this mystery man, and he loves you, he'd be a fool not to. You've never been the type to suffer fools. Don't you think he has a right to know what he's getting into? Relationships are built on trust. You should be honest with the people you care about."
I hated Carlisle, because nine times out of ten he was right, not that I was ready to admit that.
"Absolutely not. He can't find out about our kind. I don't want him getting sucked into my mess."
Carlisle shrugged. "He's bound to notice some things. Don't be too surprised if he figures it out on his own."
At the time, I'd laughed very hard at this remark, completely underestimating Edward's perceptiveness. He'd proven me wrong in due time. "In your dreams old man, he's not going to figure it out. I've got the pretend-to-be-human-routine, perfected."
"Are you sure Bella? Maybe this human would like to see your reclining nude painting, if he hasn't already."
I gasped, "Oh my Carlisle, I can't believe you said that!" I gripped my chair and laughed hysterically, doubling over and nearly falling off my seat.
"You've been a friend of mine for what, three hundred years now? You were bound to rub off on me eventually."
"You told me you used to be a priest. For shame Father Cullen!"
"The centuries corrupt us all," he said sagely, grabbing his coat. "Enjoy your museum date."
"I'm not going on a museum date." I bellowed as he shut his front door and locked it behind him.
Alice froze, and dropped her phone. The sound tore me from my daydream, and back to reality. Alice's eyes glazed over. Jasper slid a sketchbook onto her lap, and a pencil between her fingers. She worked quickly, drawing what looked like a Victorian home in flames. Edythe gasped in horror, and turned the key in her ignition. She revved the engine and made a u-turn, speeding quickly towards the direction we'd come.
"What is it? Alice what did you see?"
She didn't respond, still enraptured in her vision, instead Edythe filled us in. "The Volturi is going to attack our family at the house. If we don't hurry they don't stand a chance of survival."
No, not Carlisle, he hadn't done anything wrong, why were they doing this? I slammed my fist into my armrest, enraged, it snapped off and broke. Edythe was too distressed to rebuke me for destroying her car.
When we arrived, the home appeared just as it had in Alice's drawing, up in large, red flames. Thick plumes of black smoke began to rise up in the air. I gasped, the tears I was unable to shed prickled at my eyes.
Notes:
1. Yeah I know. I'm evil for that cliff hanger. I'm going to try to keep up a regular uploading schedule, which should be feasible, I have a few chapters pre-written. I'm going to update this fic about once a week on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday at the very latest. If I can write 2 chapters or more in a week, I might throw you a bone and give you an extra update.
2. I chose the song 'Come and Get Your Love,' by Redbone because I imagine the wolf pack blasting this song while they cook/eat breakfast at the diner. Dad/AM rock seems like a good way to pump yourself up while you cook in the morning, and the cultural significance of an indigenous rock band also seemed important.
3. Beau Swan fills the role that OG Bella did in the original canon story. We love that for them. They are non-binary and in a love triangle with Edythe and Jacob.
4. In this fic, Emily is not scarred, hence why her skin is described as being perfectly smooth. The reason for that is because I do not condone abuse. I would be okay with this plot line if Stephanie Meyer had used it to raise awareness about how Native women are more likely to experience domestic violence and sexual assault. I'd also be okay with this plot point if Smeyer framed it properly. Being forced to love, and stay with your abuser due to forces outside of your control is horrifying—and if Meyer had framed it like a tragedy, it could have been interesting.
Unfortunately, this plot point is mostly used to emphasis how dangerous and monstrous the wolves are. It's also used as a cautionary tale for the "important" character Bella. Also I've read a bit about how SMeyer's portrayal of the indigenous wolves as angry, violent, and scantily clad perpetuates negative stereotypes about indigenous men—so I took that into account.
5. To the person who left the kind review about how 'I need to read the book', understand that I've read the book about 10 or so times if not more, in my twilight phase. If you don't interpret what Sam did to Emily-literally scarring her so badly that she needed stitches and is permanently disfigured as abusive then idk what to tell you. (And I know the book so well that I also know Sue Clearwater is the one who did the stitches because the tribe doesn't trust the hospital because Carlisle works there. And Sue works as a nurse). I suppose we are all entitled to our own interpretations of the text. Also it's not just me who has interpreted that event, accidental or not, as abusive, I did extensive research of Native, and Quileute specific sources on how Smeyer portrayed this particular tribe. Regardless of Smeyer justifying the event as accidental, it is still irresponsible to portray Sam & Emily's relationship like this. Also, this is my fic, lol. Don't like it, don't read it.