A/N: A quick thank you to everyone who added this story in their alerts and/or added it to their favorite list. It truly means a lot to me.

Chapter 38-

Bella's POV-

I am sorry; did I just hear that wrong?

Can you please repeat it for me, probably slower this time around?

Did she just say that she killed everyone that Stefan considered near and dear to him, and would have killed him too, had he not escaped?

Or…was that a trick of my desperate ears, waiting to hear these golden words?

"You killed Stefan's coven?" Jasper raised an eyebrow in disbelief, mumbling to his very self, the revelation obviously being a shocker to him, as well.

So, it stood proven, I wasn't having any auditory hallucinations.

Yay me!

At least I had something going for me at the moment, even if it was of hardly any relevance to the topic of importance.

Anyhow…. Kate shrugged at him, least affected by the shock and disbelief in his tone. "Yes, and I also killed anyone willing to stand in support for him. There were a few; old as dirt and useless as tattered paper- buffoons ready to give away their life for him; I just fulfilled their wish. They thought they could take me; they did not survive to tell the tale." Her voice was as nonchalant as could be, almost as if she were discussing over the weather of the small town of Forks- there is nothing to discuss, for the matter, it is nearly the same all throughout the year, and hence the monotony when one spoke of it.

Wow!

My jaw had literally dropped open, not exaggerating there!

I mean…. wow!

And here I had thought that Maggie had guts, almost in awe of the woman.

Damn. Why couldn't have Edward mated with Kate?

Not that I hated her or wanted her to suffer till the end of eternity or anything, but imagine the level of humor we could possibly attain in that scenario?

She would have torn him alive, feeding him to the crows, before bringing him back to life and asking him of whether he had learnt his lesson or not, without her facial expression changing even a mere bit, as bored as it could be.

Harsh, indeed, but hilarious, too, and anyhow, who has any sympathy in mind for Edward Cullen?

Definitely not me!

He totally has it coming, whatever Maggie have planned for him.

Now, if she decides to let us in, telling us of what her plan is, then I can hardly be blamed for laughing and taking pleasure in his pain.

Being happy is no crime, you know?

"How?" Jasper questioned, letting out a cough- of course, he didn't really need to cough, but I guess it was more for the effect than otherwise. "You don't look to be much of a fighter, no offense there."

Kate smiled back at him, shrugging. "None taken; I am not much of a fighter, I admit, at least not in comparison to you." She finished with a well-timed wink.

"You know about me?" Jasper looked stunned by this revelation…. and possibly so was I.

How did Kate know about Jasper?

They were not friends or even acquaintances, that much was obvious from the way Jasper was currently behaving. If I had to place my bets, I would say that he was meeting her for the first time today, so how was it possible that she knew about him being a good fighter?

Had Garrett mentioned this to her?

No… they had just met, and talking about your friend's fighting prowess is hardly a first date conversation material….

Then how?

Kate laughed, not in a taunting manner but in a 'you cannot be serious there' manner. "Who doesn't know about you, Mr. Chief Assassinator for the Volturi?" she grinned, "I may not live in Volterra, or even anywhere close to Italy, but I do know well of what happens inside those four walls. If Aro has eyes and ears everywhere- monitoring each coven and nomad that exists in this world, I have eyes and ears seeing and hearing on my behalf inside that very castle he calls a home, reporting to me every small detail of importance."

What?

Was she serious?

Shit.

This was big!

I turned to look at Jasper, his expression mirroring mine to perfection.

Who was this woman?

How had Garrett even found her?

She seemed…. deadly.

"How did you find her?" Jasper asked the very thing on my mind, turning to look at Garrett. "Um, I mean, I am pretty sure that would take more luck than one could have on their side."

Garrett waved him off, grinning, dropping a kiss on Kate's forehead, the latter smiling in response.

"I have a question, though." Maggie interrupted, shyly. "Doesn't Aro know about this 'wolf in the sheep's clothing'? He can read minds and so…."

Yeah, about that!

How was her source managing this detail out?

Unless her source was Aro itself, which would make sense if it were, but was heavily unlikely, obviously.

Kate waved her off. "My source is too high up in the order to be questioned. Aro never reads her mind, and even if he did, he knows better than to call her out. The Volturi rests on her shoulders, in a manner of speaking."

Okay, so at least we knew it was a her.

That is a start, if nothing more than that.

"Wait," Jasper called for everyone's attention, briefly turning to look at me before once again looking at Kate, hesitance and doubt visible on his face. "I know that you hardly know us, and this may be inappropriate and even rude, and you can definitely say no…."

Kate smiled, cutting him off. "I don't like spiral things, they annoy me; just reach to the topic directly."

Jasper sighed, nodding his head. "I am in a bit of a soup with the Volturi. I know it is a lot to ask for… but can your source help me out?"

Oh. I frowned, hardly expecting that.

"What kind of trouble?" Kate questioned; her eyes narrowed together.

Jasper sighed. "I was given an assignment. I failed to complete it…."

"And Aro will now sentence you to death when he finds out," Kate finished his sentence for him, "His reasoning being that you can no longer be trusted, and so he would rather not have you in this world than worry about your presence once in every decade or so."

"Yes," Jasper sighed, nodding his head in complete agreement.

"Oh," Kate frowned. "What was the assignment, if you don't mind me asking?"

Jasper let out a breath, not really comfortable talking on the matter- I could see that in his eyes as he shifted at his place, gaping like a fish with his mouth opening and closing a few times.

"The assignment was to kill me." I took the lead, staring into Kate's eyes. "I was human back then."

"But…but…she is your mate?" Kate's frown widened; her eyes fixated on Jasper. "He can't ask you to kill your mate! That's insane!"

"Babe," Garrett took her hand in his, calming her down, or at least attempting to do so. "This is Aro we are talking about. He is capable of doing everything on the face of this planet."

"Yeah," Jasper nodded his head. "Also, he really didn't know that Bella would turn out to be my mate. How could he, when even I didn't know of something of this sort happening?"

Jasper pulled me closer to him, his fingers coming to intertwine with mine, lending me the support, and also needing the support and love that only I could offer him in return. I sent him all the love and adoration I had for him, smiling when he sighed in relief.

"But why did he want to kill you?" Kate turned to look at me, confused. "Last I checked, Aro did not care about the humans, and even my source hadn't told me about him going after a human?"

I shrugged briefly, Jasper answering on my behalf. "The assignment was a tight-lipped secret. Even in the castle, on a few knew about it, as the probability of me failing and never returning was much higher than the alternative, and so Aro did not wish to create more hype than needed, something about not wanting the others to panic if I didn't return."

"Why," Kate repeated her question. "Why would the probability of you failing be any high? You are supposed to be the best in this obscure business? Wait." She turned to look at me, her head briefly tilted. "What power is it that you have? You cannot not have a power, from all this that I hear."

I gave her a small smile in response, nodding my head in agreement. She was correct; I did have a power to speak of. "I am a kind of a pyromaniac; I can create fire from my hand, killing anyone and everyone that stands in my way. I have had it since years now; I don't know where it came from, it is just there."

"Oh," Kate frowned, deep in thought. "You mean you had it as a human?"

I nodded my head. "Yes."

"That's certainly unexpected." Kate hummed in surprise.

"Bella is also a shield." Jasper added. "No mental powers affect her. This is what had Aro more worried. She could easily kill any vampire, and she did for a long time. Any vampire that was dumb enough to cross path with her, was ash the next second."

"Is it so?" Kate looked honestly surprised, a spark of newness shining in her eyes. "Can I try something on you, Bella?"

What?

I turned to look at Jasper in question.

What did she want to try on me now?

"Sweetheart," Garrett interrupted her, hesitantly smiling. "She is my friend's mate…"

"Shush, Garrett," Kate cut him off, annoyed by the interruption. "I will use my lowest frequency; in case they are any wrong. I am not a complete goner, contrary to what you believe."

Garrett blushed, looking at his feet in embarrassment.

Damn.

I had never seen him act like this.

No one could shut Garrett up, not even Jasper- and Jasper did have his ways.

Garrett was a man of his own mind, who did what he wanted and said what he thought correct, not bothering to check of the other's reaction to his words.

So, this was a complete surprise!

Kate may just be good for him.

"So, Bella, can I?" Kate smiled at me.

It seemed like she was waiting for my permission, permission to do what but?

"I don't understand…."

I decided to take the frank approach, instead of agreeing to something that I would soon come to regret.

She nodded her head in agreement. "I guess I should have explained. I have a power, too. I can shock a person, rendering them temporarily incapacitated. It affects the mind, leaving behind an electrical shock like feeling- the effects based on the frequency I use. The person that I use it upon does not recover for a few long seconds, the higher the frequency used- the longer they take to recover, and I dismember them in that much time."

"Is this how you killed Stefan's coven?" I asked, a part of the puzzle coming together in my mind.

Kate smiled, nodding her head. "People underestimate my power. They don't understand of how dangerous it can turn out to be in a fight. Anyhow, my power does not work on shields. Maybe because their mind is protected and so cannot be penetrated? I would just like to test this on you, of course if you are comfortable with it."

"I guess…." I hesitated. Nobody wants to be the guinea pig, and especially not after you have heard of the power to be used upon you, but how bad could it be? Kate had assured Garrett that she would use a lower frequency, and Jasper was right here. He would make sure that nothing happened to me. I turned to look at him, his nod giving me the confidence needed. He was curious to see of how this would turn out, his curiousness overpowering everything else- the strategist in him now awoken.

"Great," Kate smiled. "Don't worry, I will pull it back if it works."

I sighed, crossing my fingers, hoping against hope that her power would not work on me.

Vampires and pain were hardly a familiar- heard about- topic, and so, yeah, I was no hurry to find this out of whether her power worked on me or not.

Kate smirked, her hand outstretched as her eyes bore into mine, the glare on her face deadly enough to kill a person, in case her power did not do the deed to perfection.

She was not someone you wanted to mess with, that much was obvious from her behavior and confident approach. She would have you alive for dinner, if you attempted to take her for a jolly ride- another fact I could see in her eyes, which were surprisingly a mix between gold and red, almost as if she fed on both- human and animals.

Strange, indeed.

Anyhow, Kate continued to glare for a few long minutes, her expression changing to one of disbelief as she winced, trying harder and harder to use her power on me, failing each time she tried.

I smiled, extremely and instantly grateful that nothing was happening to me; her power was not working on me, my shield having kept me protected.

"Remarkable," Kate stated, nodding her head to herself. "We could easily pair up in a fight. You be the defense and I will be the offense. We would be undefeatable." She smirked at me.

My eyes widened at her words, not knowing of what to say in the situation.

What could one even say in such a situation?

I had definitely not planned to fight a hundred wars, and I wasn't the strategist in the room to ponder over such stuff.

"I can see why Aro would be worried. He has every reason to worry." Kate added, taking my silence for agreement.

"So," Jasper raised an eyebrow in question. "Will your source help us out?"

Kate sighed, "I will have to ask her. She is like a sister to me, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. Anyhow, you have Bella with you, it is not like he can actually harm you?"

"Yeah," Jasper gulped. "But I would rather not be looking at my back for the rest of my existence. I want to end this in one go."

Kate hummed in agreement. "I will have to see what can be done. Convincing Aro is difficult, but if you have some blackmail, it can work."

"Why not lie and tell him that Bella's dead?" Garrett asked, confused.

Yeah, wouldn't that have been the better and wiser option to choose.

Why not just do this?

"It wouldn't have worked." Jasper shrugged. "What reason would I give for never going to Volterra again, for the minute I would step into the throne room, Aro would know the truth. The only other way to that was to lie and inform Aro that the both of us had died…."

"We could do that." I cut him off, excitement thick in my tone.

That was a good option.

We could totally do that.

Why did we even need to inform Aro that Jasper had failed to complete his assignment?

We could simply pretend to be dead, and voila, problem solved!

Jasper smiled at me, pushing a lock of my hair behind my ear. "Bella, our vampire community is very small. We would have to live in hiding for the rest of eternity. We would have to choose one small corner of the world and remain there, hoping that no vampire ever came across us that would recognize us and report it back to the Volturi."

"Would it be that difficult?" I whispered in hesitance.

"It wouldn't be an ideal life." Jasper sighed. "I don't want us to live in hiding, Bella. I want us to travel the world together- seeing new places as we learnt more about the other, and that wouldn't be possible if we were supposed to pretend to be dead."

"Oh." I nodded my head in agreement, once again back to the main problem at hand.

"I cannot guarantee you anything, but I will try to talk to my source to see of what she says." Kate stated.

Jasper nodded his head, smiling briefly.

"Why do you want to kill Stefan, though?" I asked, still confused at this fact. "I want to kill him because he killed my parents. Why are you so against him?"

Kate sighed, her eyes burning with the need for revenge. "He killed my sister and her mate. They had come to Romania for a holiday and accidently trespassed into his territory, not being any wiser to where his territory began. Stefan got wild at this fact, attacking them instantly for intruding onto his space, treating them like they were some spy out to get information on him. They tried to convince him that it was an honest mistake, but he and that brother of his refused to listen. I lost my sister because of his ego and need to prove himself strong."

"Oh," I whispered. "I am sorry for your loss."

She gave me a sad smile, Garrett's arms coming to wrap around her.

"I left my coven that very day of when we found out." She continued. "I was very close to Irina, and could not rest till I didn't get my revenge. It has taken decades, but I am finally here, a step away from my destination."

I nodded my head in agreement. "Like you said, we will end this together."

"This can never end without me and the missus," a voice spoke up, my head turning to look at these new faces having just appeared in front of us, a man with short blonde hair, red eyes and the widest smirk on his face being the one to have spoken, a woman with a similar, welcoming smile and long golden hair standing by his side, behaving as long-lost family having finally returned home.

"Peter and Charlotte," Jasper grinned, surprising me.

Oh.

So, these were Peter and Charlotte, and they were finally here in the picture.

Why did it feel like now the story was about to become much more interesting?