Divine Comedy (30)

Jane

We buried Kurojaki on the side of Iya Valley, under an unmarked grave. We held no ceremony for the likes of him, a monster not because he was a jinrō, but because he'd been a child predator. Had I been too late to reach Kimi in time...I shuddered at the thought. Kurojaki, his unwillingness to repent and conform, served as a valuable reminder for why Alec and I had taken on this long, hard journey to better ourselves.

Now that the whirlwind of recent events had settled down, I had time to ask Alec about his sword. As expected, he had quite a tale in store for me. The trial to earn his sword had been among the sand, while mine was under rain.

Seth and I admired the blade my brother unsheathed before us.

"You name the sword after the werewolf you beat..." Seth nodded with approval. "That's pretty metal. No pun intended."

"So your sword is called Timur," I said. "It suits you, brother."

Alec nodded in thanks and returned the sword to its place hanging behind him. "How do you feel about having yours named Kurojaki?"

I smirked. "'Black demon' has a nice, chilling ring to it."

"Why am I not surprised you'd go for dark and scary?" Seth joked.

Afterwards, Goro didn't mind that Seth came along with us to Mount Tai. Perhaps his valiant aid had earned him the right to witness the forging of my sword. I certainly thought he had earned it.

Alec and I were coming back to Mount Tai in China for a second time. For Seth, it was his first. His reaction to the monks in the courtyard was much like mine and Alec's—wide, disbelieving eyes and a mouth that wanted to drop right onto the floor.

"Whoa..." he breathed. "So this was the training you were talking about."

"Yes, it's called iron body training," I said. "If a human can focus enough and properly direct energy to withstand the tip of a spear, then my kind could break the fangs or claws of a jinrō by the same principle."

"That's so awesome. I didn't even know that's possible."

"Me neither. Until I started training with Goro, anyway." I pulled back the sleeve of my keikogi to show my scars—darkened, rugged slash marks marring my pale skin. "It's not easy to master. This is what happens when you try and fail to make part of yourself unbreakable."

Seth reached out to hold my forearm and stroke his thumb over a scar. "You did it in the end, though. You knocked out all the claws and teeth of that werewolf."

"I couldn't have done that without you, without your blood."

I remembered how the wolf within him had sent me a thrilling, dizzying rush unlike anything I had felt before. I remembered how savagely I had beaten Kurojaki, and I regarded Seth with undisguised amazement. With such wildness and power, how could he stand there so calmly, go about his everyday life like that? Perhaps the spirit of the wolf, displaced from his body and forced into mine, behaved differently.

Consuming his wolf form's blood had given me the edge over Kurojaki in a pinch, but it wasn't something I'd be willing to do again. Not if I wanted to have full control of myself.

I snapped out of my unsettled thoughts as we neared the forge that the monks let Goro use. I handed over the bag of fangs and claws to him, and watched with wonder how flames and strikes of the hammer on anvil formed them into a blade.

As Goro presented the finished weapon before me, the sight of it—the tangible culmination of all my years of training—compelled me to lower myself on one knee.

"Jane, you've trained hard and fought even harder," Goro solemnly declared. "You earned the right to wield this blade. Wield it well."

Overwhelmed beyond words, I expressed gratitude through a deep bow and rose to accept the sword, Kurojaki, with great care. This was the first time Goro had addressed me by name, not as "little one" like he always had.

Goro beckoned at Alec, who'd been standing beside Seth, to step forward. My brother stood next to me now, and Goro regarded us with pride in his golden eyes.

"From this day forward, you two are no longer my students. We are equals." He bowed at the waist. "It has been an honor to train you, and it is an honor to now consider you my comrades, my brother and sister at arms."

Alec and I returned the deep bow, silently sharing the giddy elation from hard-earned success. We had come such a long way from the day we had set foot in Japan, and an even longer way from when we had joined the Volturi. If my younger self could see me now, she wouldn't believe her eyes. I doubted she'd be able to even fathom the very idea of a powerless yet sword-wielding warrior.

Goro straightened up and cleared his throat. "Before we head back, there's something I must do at the temple."

Seth raised his hand meekly. "Sir, could I watch the monks train while we wait?"

"Sure you can." Goro turned away and headed up the stone steps. "I won't be long."

I watched him make his way for a peach tree standing above us, and as he picked off the fruit, I understood. Alec was guiding Seth back to the courtyard, so they could marvel at the monks, while I approached Goro.

"Those peaches...they're for your daughter, aren't they?" I asked softly. "This is the day she passed away?"

Goro nodded, his downcast gaze on the peaches in his arms.

Golden leaves fell from a nearby gingko tree to swirl at our feet and whistle past our shoulders.

"My son was born in autumn," I said. "I don't know when he died, so I treat the day he was born and the day he died as the same."

"Then let's go leave offerings for our children together."

The custom for remembering loved ones in the East often involved putting up their favorite food and drinks on an altar. Connor may have gone on to grow into a man, but I had no idea which food and drink he liked the most. I had never thought to ask during my unexpected reunion with him, and now I wish I had. My time with him on earth had only been five months, when he'd been an infant, not old enough for solid food. I had nursed him since the day he was born. So I asked the monks to provide a substitute: a bottle of Chinese coconut milk. That would have to do. Symbolic gesture and whatnot.

Goro and I headed silently into a part of the temple where we could leave our offerings. A peach and the coconut milk sat on the altar beside each other, as tangible reminders of the children we had and lost so long ago. Goro and I held red sticks of incense in clasped hands, so that the burnt tips stuck out from between our middle fingers. We let the silence envelop us like an unseen blanket.

I wasn't a spiritual person, but in this solemn time for remembrance, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine reaching out past the stretch of time.

Father, Mother, Connor...are you watching over me and Alec? Have you seen how far we've come, how much better we've become now? I like to think that you're proud of us. I wish I had a way of knowing. I wish I could see your faces. I have to settle for believing, and hoping that one day, I'll get to see you all again.

I opened my eyes, watching how smoke wafted from the burnt tip of the stick, like prayers and thoughts rising. That was the idea, anyway.

Goro had already emerged from the privacy of his reflection. He planted his stick of incense in the little porcelain pot. Mine soon joined his. He kept his gaze fixed on the offerings, but he said in a low voice, "I hope that Yuki hasn't been jealous lately."

I frowned. "What makes you say that?"

He only turned his head and slanted down his gaze to regard me. He said nothing else. He had a penchant for not stating the obvious. Then it hit me. Ever since Goro had taken me and my brother under his wing, he had come to treat us like his daughter and son. He reached down to rest his large palm on my head. It was brief, only half a second, but in that moment, I thought that maybe Goro had given his daughter the same gesture of affection. My heart went out for him then.

"I hope my parents haven't been jealous either," I said softly.

Goro may have called Alec and me brother and sister in arms, but we looked to him as more of a father. We had lost our birth father too soon, and for centuries Aro had operated under the paternal guise to manipulate and exploit us. Goro, however, had become the father we'd been missing for so long. We couldn't see it at first, since he had pushed us almost to the point of breaking, and had never stooped to coddle us and hold our hands. While Aro had groomed me and Alec for lofty positions in the Volturi, Goro had us start from scratch and work hard for anything we had to earn, from the clothes on our backs to the jinrō blades we wielded.

There were certainly times in my training I had resented the rigor and strain we'd been put through. Now, looking back, I had nothing but the utmost gratitude. Perhaps Goro had seen me and Alec as nuisances, especially we'd been so stubborn and insisted on being trained. Now I saw fondness for us glowing in his golden eyes. For all I knew, every step my brother and I took forward to become better warriors had relieved him of the centuries-old pain from losing his daughter.

Goro had needed us as much as Alec and I had needed him.

Did a moment like this, a deluge of startling heartfelt insights, warrant something like an embrace? I wasn't like Seth, who could heap great amounts of affection with enviable ease. Goro saved me from the awkwardness of my position as he turned and stepped away from the altar.

"I said I wouldn't be long," he said over his shoulder. "We'd better head back to Shikoku now."

I glanced one last time at the peach and coconut milk, then followed him to reunite with Alec and Seth.

No sooner had we returned to Japan, Seth had to fly back to the United States. He'd use the airport in Shikoku this time, not the one in Tokyo. Alec and I left our swords with Goro and accompanied Seth to Kochi, so he didn't have to find his way to the city through Iya Valley.

"Now that the two of you are all trained up and got your swords, I don't have anything to worry about, right?" Seth asked us with a broad grin.

"You won't have anything to worry about," I echoed with confidence.

I haven't seen a peep of the supposed kresnik Seth had mentioned. He no longer had any compelling reason to stay, but I was sorry to see him go.

As if he had read my mind, he said, "I wish we had more time with sightseeing. I had so much fun with you, Jane."

I nodded. "Likewise. I hope we can do it again."

He gave me a warm, firm hug. "Thank you for making my first trip to Japan the most amazing thing ever." He pulled back and asked, "You'll be coming to the States soon, right?"

I kissed his cheek. "That's the plan." Though we had completed training to earn our swords, Alec and I had elected to stay with Goro for a few more days, to get used to handling our new weapons. "A good warrior is always learning," Goro once told us, "and has a good mind to always remember that."

At both the kiss and my reply, Seth's face brightened. "Okay, I'll be looking out for you, then."

When he turned to say farewell to Alec, he was surprised with a hearty shake of the hand from my brother.

"I can't thank you enough for being by my sister's side when she fought Kurojaki. She has nothing but the highest regard for you. Your compassion and dedication to protecting others has been a shining example for us to follow during our training."

Seth's cheeks turned red like beets, and he looked overwhelmed and flattered beyond words. The only thing he could get out was "Wow, Alec, I-I don't know what to say. Er, thanks, man."

I bit back a chuckle. That was just like Seth to remain down-to-earth and get flustered under praise. And it wasn't like Alec to wear his thoughts on his sleeve. I realized then that Seth may very well have become my brother's first friend. Where friends were concerned, you couldn't ask for a better one than Seth.

After that bridge of friendship had formed, Alec and I parted ways with Seth so he could board his plane. We reunited with Goro in Iya Valley so he could walk us through sword kata. First, he whipped out his blade, Eiji, to floor us with an impressive flurry of cuts and spins of the hilt in his hand.

Though we had passed his training, Alec and I stood there in the same awe we had shown when he first drew Eiji on us that night.

"We've come full circle," Goro said as we began to imitate his sword strokes. "Remember the knives you used to cut fish at the market? The same principles apply here."

Unlike back then, when we'd been naive to his methods, now we could better grasp the wisdom and truth behind every slash and stab of his blade. Our weapons may be newly forged, but we had to treat them like they were extensions of ourselves. The slightest twists and turns of our wrists affected the path of the sword, down to the tip of it.

Most of our kind would balk at the thought of handling such a dangerous blade, but Alec and I handled them with calm, cool precision. We had defeated the former owners of those fangs and claws, after all. We were above making the mistake of a careless cut.

Days passed, and we progressed to sparring.

"This will be different from how humans fight," Goro declared. "The vast majority of our kind won't be wielding weapons, so you won't be seeing a lot of sword against sword combat." As he faced us, he angled the length of his blade down his free arm. "It's far more practical to show you two how to land a blow on an unarmed foe."

I tipped Kurojaki in my one-handed grip toward him. "In other words, you'll teach us to outspeed and outmaneuver whoever we're pursuing."

"Exactly."

We started drills in the clearing, where Goro would take evasive action to stay out of our reach. Any vampire brave enough not to take off running would most likely confront us to try ducking past our sword strokes. Alec and I had two goals to juggle: one, not let Goro slip past our defenses, and two, slip in stabs and slashes to take him down—in theory, anyway. By taking him down, that meant connecting our blades against his, which would be angled over any part of his body that'd be hacked off without that steely protection. The clang of sword against sword made for a rewarding sound. Goro, pretending to be the average vampire, didn't use Eiji to attack, but only to defend himself from our successful strikes. This spared us from actually inflicting bleeding wounds on each other.

Next we ended up revisiting our lessons in sprinting through the woods, but this time with swords. Chasing Goro through the treetops was more difficult, but after some unsuccessful runs, Alec figured out that there were no rules about having to chase Goro with a sword at hand. At the fifth run, my brother sprinted ahead and above me to vault over the treeline, then dive back down whipping out Timur from the sheath on his back.

Goro twisted around to deflect the downward strike with Eiji, which sent him crashing to the ground on his back.

I jumped off the branches and caught up to them with a shake of my head. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?"

Alec straightened up and stowed away Timur. His golden eyes flickered over at me with a teasing light. "But sister, you already had your moment of glory when you struck him at the clearing first."

"He's right." Goro sprang back to his feet with a kip-up. "Let your brother have this one."

At sunset, the three of us started our descent down the mountain to go hunting. Goro led the way, and when we filed in a single line down the narrow vine bridge, he came to an abrupt stop.

Alec and I peered around his bulky build, and I drew in a sharp breath. Standing at a stone's throw from us was the ghostly, pale blue form of a stallion. The kresnik.

My hand flew to the hilt of Kurojaki behind me. In sync with my bristling alarm, Alec grasped at Timur. To my surprise, Goro didn't pull out Eiji, but kept his hands free and slackened by his sides.

"A spirit..." he rumbled. "I haven't seen one around here for a very long time."

"It's not here on friendly terms," I said tightly. Seth's warning echoed in my mind like the rings of a bell.

The kresnik's pawing hoof made no sound on the wooden slats of the vine bridge. In faintly Slavic-accented English, it said, "Is it truly just the three of you? With the amount of power that drew me to Japan, to this valley, I could've sworn there'd be more."

"Where did you come from?" Goro asked. "What do you want with us?"

The kresnik, Luka, regarded us with his long face, without discernible eyes. "To your first question, I won't tell you. As for the second, I thought about killing you." He said this with a casual air that sent a shiver up my spine.

I unsheathed Kurojaki, its blade glinting under the moon like a long, cold fang. Alec's draw closely followed mine. Goro still didn't grip his sword, but his large hands curled into fists.

"I see," Luka said. "So you're armed. Monsters pretending to be civilized. Isn't it more natural for the likes of you to fight with your teeth and bare hands, like the beasts that you are, instead of holding manmade weapons?"

I narrowed my eyes at his condescending tone.

He angled his face away to look like he peered over the bridge. The breeze that tasted of sea salt rippled through his mane. "Well, that changes things. I'd be a fool to pick a fight against such weapons. I should set my sights on a different target."

At that, my eyes widened. I swore under my breath.

Just as the realization struck me, the kresnik made a clean leap over the bridge, his wispy form streaking over and through the treetops. Towards the sea.

"The Cullens," I cried. "He's going after the Cullens!"

Alec and I sheathed our swords and hurled ourselves off the bridge. We had no time to explain to Goro, though by the way he took off with us, he seemed to understand. Seth had told me that great concentrations in vampiric numbers or power seemed to attract Luka. That was why he had first set foot in Forks, in the Cullens' territory. He then came to Japan, led by the wrong assumption that Alec and I, in our newfound full-fledged strength and recent spars with Goro, had formed a new powerful coven. Now he switched his target to the original one: the Cullen family, currently the world's largest coven and, unlike the three of us, were armed with nothing to defend themselves from an assault.

The urgency of the impending threat pushed us to the limit of our speed. We hurtled past the trees. We sped through the town filled with villagers who seemed to move in slow motion now. We ran so fast that they must've chalked up the violent tug of their clothes and hair to be a great gust of wind.

Luka galloped down the longest pier and jumped off the end of it in a graceful arc. We skidded to a halt, watching his incorporeal frame sprint on water.

"The swords—" Alec began to say.

"They won't get ruined in seawater," Goro replied.

No reason to hesitate, then. With that assuring note, we dove into the sea. We cut through the water like a trio of torpedoes. Our sharp vision could also cut through the dark depths, and the pale blue glow from Luka above the surface guided us. I strived to keep the only sign of his presence in my sight.

Seth said that Luka had crossed the ocean on foot to reach Forks. I had a hard time believing it at first, but now I was seeing it for myself. Goro, Alec, and I would have to swim across the entire Pacific Ocean. Bloody hell. I gritted my teeth and kept kicking.

I tried to tell myself to just think of the ocean like another forest. Like more trees to jump through.

Like Alec had shown me while chasing down Goro, now wasn't the time for swords. That would come later, after we'd focus all our effort on swimming the fastest we could.

I wished I could warn Seth or the Cullens, but there was no time or any way to do so. Perhaps Alice could receive a warning through her vision, as soon as Alec and I had decided to give pursuit. But that was no guarantee. The only thing we could do was what Alec and I had been training for: outspeed the opponent. Get to the Cullens before Luka.

Seth

When it came to campfire stories, the one about bringing down the Volturi reigned as the best one for a while. It had the guys hanging at the edge of their log-seats, but it was time for new stories. I came back from Japan with plenty of 'em.

On the night after I flew back home, I told the packs about all the cool sights in Tokyo, about Jane meeting the family she didn't know she had, and of course, about our epic fight against the black werewolf.

In the rush of my excitement, I might have not recounted the fight as eloquently as Jane would have. (Many air punches and sound effects were involved.) Still, I managed to capture the total awe in my audience. Leah's knuckles on the log beneath her were white through the whole werewolf story.

"Might be best if you leave out the werewolf part with Mom," she finally said.

I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "Yeah, that wasn't in my trip itinerary."

Collin and Brady, who were learning how to grill stuff from Sam, served up hamburgers and beef kabobs for dinner. Story time was over, but there were still plenty of questions for me as I took my seat and munched on my food along with everyone else.

Sam's pack was still struggling to wrap their heads around the idea that real werewolves existed. My story about the black werewolf was their first time hearing about it. Jake and Leah, though, had come with me to Volterra and saw firsthand how horrible werewolf wounds could be.

The burgers and kabobs were done right and very tasty, so I rewarded Collin and Brady with hearty pats on the back. "Thanks a lot for dinner," I told them. "Nothing like real American food after a trip to Japan." They beamed at my praise but didn't laugh at my joke, so I nudged them in the ribs and added, "Real American, get it? 'Cause we're Native?" They laughed then.

After telling the packs, the Cullens were next to hear about my time in Japan. Instead of gathering over a fire, they gathered in their living room. Their expressions were more restrained and dignified, compared to the packs' shameless wide-eyed, open-mouthed disbelief, but they were just as intrigued and compelled by my stories.

Finally, Renesmee said, "It sounds like Jane and Alec have grown and changed a lot over the years, kind of like me."

Jane and Alec's growth had more to do with their character. Edward and Bella's daughter, being a hybrid, literally, physically grew with a rapidness that never failed to astound us. Renesmee wasn't a girl looking under ten anymore. Now she appeared in her mid-teens, around my age. She had outgrown Alice, and stood almost as tall as Bella, so that Alice reclaimed her title as the shortest member in the family.

"The twins have completed Goro's training." Carlisle sounded quite pleased. "It's far from easy, but I had faith that they would pull through. I look forward to seeing them again, so I can congratulate them."

Alice rose abruptly from her seat on the living room couch, staring past the TV rather than at it. "Speak of the devils," she said in a hushed voice.

Jasper gripped her small hand. "What's wrong? What do you see?"

"Jane and Alec are coming."

"Here? Right now?" I blurted out. "That's sooner than what she had told me."

Alice furrowed her brow. "They're swimming over here."

"Swimming?" Emmett asked. "In the ocean?"

"They're coming fast. They're heading for the shoreline closest to our house."

I sprang to my feet from the sofa. "It's got to be an emergency. Jane and Alec must have something important to tell us."

"I agree," Carlisle said. "Let's meet up with them and ask what's going on."

Together we headed for the shore where Alice said the twins would be. A pale crescent moon, shrouded behind clouds, glowed over us. Several meters away, Jane and Alec burst through moonlit waves. As soon as they found their footing on shallow water, they ran toward us, sending up great splashes around their legs.

Water clung to their martial arts uniforms, to their white tops and dark blue pants. The sight of them in those clothes, and all their scars and their swords strapped to their backs, must've really taken the Cullens by surprise. Shocking them even more was the arrival of Goro, someone who all but Carlisle had never met before. But there was no time to explain. Definitely no time for pleasantries.

"Luka is coming," Jane said.

"We came all the way from Japan to warn you," Alec said.

Goro's deep voice boomed in our ears. "You need to run. Run for your lives until the sun rises."

Even as Alice's vision had tipped us on their arrival, what they had to tell the family dropped on them like a bomb. They froze where they stood, confused and disoriented, searching the waters for a ghostly sign of the kresnik.

Panic and urgency harshened Jane's voice. "Don't just stand there. We gave you a head start. Run!"

Her command, combined with the rasp of swords drawn from their sheaths, snapped the Cullens out of their frightened trance. A collective shiver rippled through them—an involuntary reaction to the werewolf essence trapped in those blades. They brandished their swords toward the sea.

"The three of us will try to fend off the spirit and buy you time," Goro said. And to Carlisle: "It's the least we can do for you, old friend."

"Thank you," Carlisle replied softly.

I caught a glimpse of Bella grabbing her daughter's hand before the Cullens sprinted away. I stayed at the shore with Jane, Alec, and Goro, who faced the sea with swords gripped tightly in their hands.

Jane's golden eyes flashed over to me. "What are you still doing here? You should be with the Cullens."

This was not the reunion I had been hoping for, but I clenched my jaw and stood my ground. "I'm staying to help you fight, like before."

Jane sighed. "Very well. No use in dissuading you. I know how stubborn you are."

I noticed the faintest trace of a smile on her face. "When's he coming?" I asked.

"In a minute or two," Alec said in a tight voice.

Of course Luka showed up just after I had left Japan. After I had left Jane. Stupid, stupid, stupid. If my head had legs, it'd be kicking itself.

If I had stayed behind, and Luka showed up the way he did, I could have warned the Cullens over the phone while Jane, Alec, and Goro chased after Luka across the Pacific. No way I could've held my breath and swam that fast, but I could have been some use by giving the Cullens a heads up. I'll try to be some use now.

I phased into my wolf form and threw back my head to howl, calling for Leah and Jake. A few seconds later, from miles away, I heard their howling response. When I lowered my head, I caught sight of a pale blue glow growing on the horizon. That was no sunrise, but Luka galloping at full speed over the water.

The hairs on my neck stood on end. Jane, Alec, and Goro stiffened and crouched lower over the sands. Luka closed in on us with frightening speed. In half a minute, I could see the rise and fall of his legs, the dip of his long head. Jake and Leah pelted down the shoreline to join the four of us.

Damn it, Leah growled. He really did come back.

Who's the new guy? Jake asked.

That's Goro: Jane and Alec's teacher from Japan, I replied.

We didn't have time to make introductions. Jake and Leah faced the sea with me, curling their lips and baring their fangs at Luka.

His voice seemed to blow in with the chilly autumn gale. "You kudlak swim faster than I thought. And your wolf friends decided to tag along, like little dogs. Are you really going to stand in my way?"

Jane narrowed her eyes. "If you're not going to stop and turn back the way you came, then yes."

"I'll make you regret that decision."

Blue flares tore from his flanks, and instead of sizzling out like ordinary flames, they grew and turned into more horses. Luka was splitting himself into an entire herd, nine copies in equal height, swiftness, and fiery light. The ten horses wove among each other, so that I lost sight of Luka, the original one.

I dug my claws into the sand, not believing what I had just seen. Holy shit!

So much for numbers on our side, Jake growled.

This is crazy, I cried. Then again, this was a spirit we were dealing with here. If this guy could show up in the shape of a horse and run on water, he sure as hell could do his own version of Naruto's shadow clone jutsu.

"What's the strategy here?" Alec asked.

"Don't let a single one slip past," Goro replied. "I bet they'll spread out to try running past us. Take them on from all directions."

As he had expected, the phantom herd broke apart to fan around our line. My side, the defending side, broke that line as we scattered. Jane and Alec charged down the left side of the shore, while Leah and I took the right to close in on three or four horses.

My sister, who could run faster and jump higher than me, was the first to try sinking teeth into one of them. Two darted away, but one wasn't quick enough. It bucked under the snap of her bite, looking for a moment like it had lost a chunk of its hindleg, then it faded into nothing. I twisted around to snap at one of the two that had dodged Leah. A scalding hotness seared through my mouth for a moment, then my teeth shut over thin air. The horse also writhed and faded away.

"Those must be the copies," Jane called from across the shore. "Find the original."

My paws kicked up sand as I ran back and forth to chase down the Luka clones. The ones Leah and I couldn't grab with our teeth and claws, we ran them down to lead them right into Jane, Alec, and Goro. Their blades glinted in blinding arcs as they made quick work of cutting down the copies.

Then Goro drew out another blade, so he handled one in each hand. The flurry of cuts doubled thanks to the added weapon. One of his blades gave out a sharp, sizzling hiss on the back of a horse.

That's the real one, Jake snarled.

Luka let out a roar. He bucked his long neck low and arched his back high to heave against the blade. That sent Goro skidding back a few feet on the sand. His sword strike had left an angry red slash across Luka's back, but only for a moment. The cut sealed over, returning to a ghostly blue.

"You're wasting my time." His voice came from all the horses at once, in chilling, echoing unison. "Get out of my way."

A horse clone dealt Alec a mighty kick of its hindlegs, and another snapped at Jane with its teeth. Alec dropped to his hands and knees in what looked like a fluid, graceful fall. Jane caught the teeth with a timely upward flick of her sword. Luka hurled past Goro to reform the herd with his four remaining clones, surging into the line of trees.

The six of us took off in hot pursuit. My pack pounded our paws on the dirt as we wove around shrubs and tree trunks, while the vampires took to the trees and leapt across treetops like acrobats.

Luka may look like he was made of flames, but he and his copies coursed through the forest like a river over stones. This was no game, but a true urgent race where we had to push ourselves to our limit. We pumped our legs so hard that we didn't waste breath talking. Among the pack, Leah edged out ahead of me and Jake. No surprise there. But among the vampires, Goro came first. I didn't expect that from a man of his size. To the rest of us's credit, we were pretty damn fast too, and we tailed closely behind Leah and Goro.

It seemed that the Cullens ran along the Pacific Northwest coastline, sticking to the woods and avoiding civilization. Whenever trees thinned out, the vampires sprinted on the rocks along with the pack. Ocean waves pounded on the crags to our left, some of them sending up such big splashes that it sprayed on my coat. Being so close to the water didn't seem to slow Luka down. Could anything slow him down?

The wind grew colder, and it bit into us with sharper and sharper teeth. We were running north, toward Canada. Have the Cullens crossed the border already?

Then, as we crested over a hill, the sight ahead made me yelp in alarm. The Cullens were pale dots crawling up along the next hill several hundred feet away. They looked like they were crawling because of the distance, but they weren't running fast enough. Luka was catching up.

I raised my voice to a warning howl. Jake and Leah joined me. Slowly but steadily we closed the distance between us and Luka's herd. Leah used the top of the hill to spring off in a gambling leap. She sank her teeth into the rump of the slowest horse. It reared on its hind feet and faded away.

Damn it, not the real one, she said.

Four horses left. Coming up just behind her were Jane and Alec. They shared the quickest glance. What happened next looked like something straight out of a kung fu movie. Alec swung the top half of his body low to throw up the lower half in a butterfly kick. Jane jumped just past him. He dipped his body close to the ground again, and in the same breath grabbed Jane by the cloth on her back in both hands, before she'd hit dirt, and instead of another butterfly kick, he planted both feet firmly on the ground to sling her into the air. She sailed high above the pack, over our astounded faces, high enough to end her arc on the back of the leading horse.

Her sword flashed from its sheath as she descended. With a flick of her wrist, she angled it for a downward stab. She plunged it into the horse's back, between the shoulder blades. She was rewarded with the shrieking hiss of metal on flame.

Yes! Nailed him, I cried.

Luka bucked and reared with a ear-piercing neigh. He skidded to a halt and thrashed in place with wild kicks. Jane clung on with the stubbornness of a burr. I could see her blade turn red where it stabbed through Luka's ghostly body. She gripped the hilt with both hands, so she wouldn't burn them on his fiery form. The rest of us ran up to try helping her, but the other horses stood in our way.

I let out a frustrated growl as I ducked and bounded away from hooves that'd kick my face in. Out of the corner of my eye, Luka charged into the nearest sheet of rock, trying to throw off Jane. Like she had done with the black werewolf, Luka ran and leapt along the rock to drag her against it. She braced herself to weather the impact.

But his violent jump, combined with being smashed against the rock, broke her two-handed grip on the sword. Her feet slipped from the precarious perch on his back, swinging out clockwise. Her left hand kept gripping the sword, but her right arm followed the swing of her legs.

Luka twisted his neck to clamp his teeth down on where her arm met her shoulder. He tore it clean off with a great wrench of his head. She screamed.

"Sister," Alec cried.

Her name came out as a howl from my throat. Luka fell onto his left side with deliberate force, crushing all of Jane except her face and left arm against the ground. She let out another scream, and her hand fell away from the hilt. With no grip to hold it steady, the sword fell harmlessly through Luka's chest and out between his front legs to clatter on the ground.

Alec and I bounded over to Jane. Leah, Jake, and Goro formed a protective circle around us. Luka swallowed Jane's entire right arm. His semi-transparent form let me see how her arm slid from his neck to his gut. It smoldered and reddened in there, then it darkened and crumbled into ash. All we could do was look on in speechless horror.

Like the slash Goro had made, the stab Jane had left closed up, too. Steam billowed from Luka's flared nostrils and gaping mouth, like some demon from hell. His copies wavered and collapsed into shapeless wisps. His own form wasn't holding up too well. It seethed and frothed like something boiling. Even his voice rumbled and growled, like a volcano about to erupt.

"Not...enough power. Not enough...yet. I...need more." He spoke as if words could crumble. Then he said, "I'll...be back. Next time...I'll obliterate...every last one of you."

Jake and Goro lunged, but Luka still had enough agility to duck past fangs and blades. He galloped past us, escaping a bite from Leah. He jumped over the cliffs, into the sea, but the end of his fall didn't come in a splash.

Luka disappeared. The Cullens were safe, but at a great cost.

Curled up in Alec's arms, Jane clutched at the blackened, burnt stump at her right shoulder. She wouldn't heal from this wound. Fire destroyed vampires. Her right arm was gone forever. I whined and pressed my muzzle to her cheek. She leaned against me. She said nothing, but I heard small, strangled sobs caught in the bobbing lump in her throat.

We may have survived the night, but looking at the agony still twisted over Jane's face, I felt like we hadn't won.

The Japan arc/purgatory arc ends here! The next chapter will start the last arc, the paradise arc. Where will it be? You'll see.

I hope you've enjoyed Goro's character and the part he played in Jane and Alec's development. He is meant to be a foil of Aro. Their approaches to raising and guiding the twins are complete opposites. The Japanese name Goro sounding similar to Aro is not a coincidence, but a deliberate choice.