Chapter 29: Pluto
(Bella's POV) "Prague" by Damien Rice
Jillian, Lysander, Eleazar, Carmen, Tanya, Irina, Kate, Garrett, Mary, Randall, Benjamin, Tia, Siobhan, Liam, Maggie, Annie, Jasper, and I were in Forks, ready to join the wolves in battle against Marcus and the twenty Guards coming our way. Carlisle, Esme, Rose, Emmett, Peter, Char, Maria, Jude, Alanna, Zafrina, Senna, and Kachiri were in Stowe, prepared to defend our weapon supply from the sixteen Volterran allies Alice could see en route to the Vermont house. The paintball guns loaded with venom bullets weren't battle ready yet, but nine finished knives had been assigned to vampires in each group: Carlisle, Alice, Irwin, Eleazar, Kate, Benjamin, Maria, Zafrina, and Annie were equipped with daggers coated with my venom. Carlisle and Eleazar carried knives because they would be guarding my parents, Carlisle and Esme guarding my mom in Stowe while Eleazar and Carmen guarded my dad and Angela. The other armed vampires were chosen because their gifts would help them get close to targets with little help. Maria was given a knife because Peter insisted she'd need one. Alice and Irwin were going to teleport between battles, taking shots as Alice saw them like snipers.
Sam, Leah, and Seth were on guard duty, along with the eight new wolves the pack had gained the night before. They were far from battle-ready⏤three of them were twelve-year-old children⏤so Sam decided he needed to stay with them, guarding Emily and various members of the tribe. Leah and Seth were going to team up with Carmen and Eleazar. I didn't bother asking Jake why he was taking point on the front line. Jillian had said all the past chiefs were there when his father passed. He would allow himself to grieve later, when his people weren't under attack. This went much deeper than one death, one battle… by blood, he was the chief of the Quileute tribe.
"It's a comfort to know his spirit is at peace," Jillian said as she, Jake, Jasper, and I walked along the beach. A special burial would be held for Billy, stuck as he was in wolf form, once the approaching threat was dealt with.
"You got here just in time," Jacob murmured, forcing a smile, walking hand-in-hand with Jillian. "I mean, the timing sucks, but I don't think I could handle this without you here. It helps to know I have one sure thing⏤a future of my own to fight for."
"The people we need most have a way of finding us," Jillian said dreamily. As she spoke, she seemed to be watching something or someone just a couple feet in front of her, on her other side. "My best friend helped me keep my sanity after I lost control… he's here with us. His name is Milo."
"Hello, Milo," Jake, Jasper, and I all said in acceptance and greeting. Jillian laughed softly.
"Milo said he's honored to meet you, bowing quite theatrically while doing so. He always knows how to make…" Jillian blinked and took a quick step forward, arm outstretched as if to catch a falling object. There was fear in her eyes for a moment, and pain, but then she seemed to calm herself, or maybe Milo said something to calm her. She caught the calculating look Jasper and I exchanged.
"I think he's leaving, now that I have a family again. Of course, I won't keep him if he is ready to move on, but… we've been through so much.
"I'm the daughter of a pirate. A bastard daughter, but a pirate's daughter nonetheless. In June 1718, the pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, deliberately ran his ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, aground in Beaufort Inlet, North Carolina. He and a faction of his crew fled to Charleston, South Carolina—they pillaged the city, stole ships, took hostages for ransom, raped women… my mother, Fianola Lockwood was taken by Blackbeard himself." Jake started to shake, but Jillian moved closer to him and squeezed his hand.
"Ransom paid, my mother was released, but she told no one what happened. Her ransom was paid by her betrothed, James Williams, and she was ashamed her virginity had been stolen by a pirate. James, his father, his brothers, at least half the men in town left to hunt down Blackbeard and his crew. It took them several months, but they did catch him and he was executed that November.
"Back in Charleston, my mother realized she was carrying Blackbeard's child. Though she was alone in what she had suffered, she was not the only woman in town hiding an illegitimate pregnancy. Her close friend, Hermia Watson, was pregnant with a love child, their children having been conceived within days of each other. They chose to run away together.
"My mother and Hermia struggled to survive as vagabonds for months, traveling north, but they were strong and never fell ill. Three days before Milo's birth, a man attacked them. He attempted to rape Hermia, but my mother killed the man to save her, leaving them no choice but to flee further north. Hermia gave birth to Milo on January 20th, 1719. Luckily for Hermia, I was born shortly after, on February 14th. Milo rarely cried in my presence, and Hermia's wounds from the attack healed remarkably well, with little scarring and no infection. Sleeping near me even seemed to keep her nightmares away. Days old and knowing nothing of life, I was keeping the four of us in good health.
"My mother and Hermia finally found a home and steady work when a generous couple in northern Massachusetts⏤modern day Maine⏤took them in, in need of housekeepers and healers. Their home was near the front line of Father Rale's War, and they found themselves regularly housing and caring for wounded soldiers.
"Christopher and Cathrine, the home owners, came to regard us as their own family, supporting us even in the face of the unknown. They had noticed little things for years: Soldiers I spent more time with seemed to heal faster, and we all remained healthy despite all the death and disease around us. Still, I was tormented. I screamed and cried each night, not suffering from nightmares, but seeing and hearing things no one else could—we lived in a war zone and I could see and communicate with the dead. Christopher and Cathrine went often to church, but they did not believe such extreme measures should be taken against those who were… different. They feared I would be tried for witchcraft or sent to asylum if word of my abilities got out. For years, they kept my secret and kept me safe.
"As Milo and I grew, familial feelings fell away. By the time we were fifteen, we were slipping away from our mothers on market days and sneaking into the theatre to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream from the shadows; we first kissed when the faerie spell was broken. A year later, we were openly courting one another, but it was not to be.
"One summer's eve, I waited for Milo under a large tree near the theatre, close enough to see the players, but not near enough to hear. Certainly no one heard the vampire snatching me away. He carried me into the woods and bit me, but then he was distracted. I can only imagine he must have caught the scent of his singer to abandon his prey so abruptly. He disappeared and I began changing, alone in the woods…"
"Another vampire found you," Jasper said, not a question but a statement of fact. "A newborn turning and waking alone near a populated area? That's a recipe for disaster. I can tell you're remembering the burn, but I'm not feeling the level of horror and guilt I would expect from that scenario." Jillian smiled at him.
"Garrett. That's why Annie recruited him to help her find me. He was hunting nearby when he heard me and came looking. He told me he considered killing me then and there⏤he didn't want to be stuck with a newborn because of another vampire's carelessness. Obviously, he couldn't bring himself to do it. He ran me to the top of Mount Mansfield to finish my change. He tried his best to train me after I awoke, but he quickly realized training me to hunt humans was out of the question. I could see and hear the dead, after all.
"At the time, Garrett had not yet met Carlisle, but he'd encountered the three succubi sisters who fed on animals⏤your friends, Tanya, Irina, and Kate. Feeding on animals was a little easier, but I can see some animal spirits too. They're less likely to linger after death. Wild animals with no attachments to humans rarely linger or return in spirit after death, but some would stay. Scared and confused by my attack, some would walk with me for a time, trying to understand, trying to go back to their parents or to their babies... One day, I lashed out at Garrett and ran, just a few months into this life, thirsty and hating myself for it, hating poor Garrett for not finishing me off when he found me in the woods. I wasn't paying much attention to where I was going. I was running away from everything… Too late, I realized my feet were carrying me home."
I shuddered. Jasper was trying to keep Jillian's mounting guilt, horror, and grief to himself, but it transferred to me through our joined hands.
"Only Milo was home. I was so angry, and so thirsty, and he smelled so good—before I realized what I was doing, I had bitten him and started to drink..." Jillian shook her head, trying in vain to dislodge the memory. "I think I came as close as a vampire can come to blacking out, my mind shutting down, unable to accept what I'd just done. When it was over, I didn't know what to do. I picked up his body, thinking I needed to hide him or bury him somewhere, but Milo'a spirit manifested before me and asked me to disfigure the bite and leave his body for our mothers to find. He'd already seen them staying up all hours, worried sick, searching for me, the hope that I might still be alive eating away at them slowly. Milo wanted them to get some form of closure with him, agonizing as it would be.
"I expected Milo to leave after I fulfilled his last wish. I thought he would hate me, but I think he forgave me as soon as I bit him, before he even understood what was happening. I killed him and there he was, comforting me of all things, telling me how much I was missed and loved, how happy he was to see me alive… more or less.
"I went back to Garrett and told him everything. As much as my aversion to feeding on any living creature clearly frustrated him, hearing more about Milo, about my human life, it brought about the realization that I might be a Saturno. Garrett suggested I try taking smaller amounts of blood from animals, then healing and releasing them. It worked. I was able to feed without killing, and I was finally able to come to terms with what I had become... And now Milo's leaving. Now that I have my mate, he's ready to move on."
"Speaking of moving on," Alice interjected, materializing out of nowhere with Irwin beside her, "it's time. Jillian, we need to take you to Jacob's house." Jacob hugged Jillian tightly, his nose buried in her hair despite her scent. Jillian stood on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek, then she took Irwin's free hand and disappeared with Irwin and Alice. She would be guarding my dad and Angela, along with Carmen, Eleazar, Leah, and Seth. Jake shifted without a word and I panicked, jumping in front of him.
"Remember, once you lead the pack in, you need to stay close to me. As long as you're in range of my shield, the whole pack will be protected. Don't let anyone provoke you. Marcus still believes werewolves killed his mate, and you're similar enough to enrage him—he'll come to you, then I'll bite him or someone can stab him." Jake huffed, but he gave me a gentle headbutt in passing, acknowledgment enough.
When Jasper and I arrived in what I would always regard as the baseball clearing, I imagined James walking through the trees in the distance. It was all so surreal. Thirteen vampires waited for us. Jake and half the wolf pack waited about sixty yards downwind, hidden in the woods at our back. It was no secret we'd joined forces with them, but Alice's visions would remain clearer longer if the wolves held back at first, not joining the first charge. We were counting on Alice and Irwin to make several venom strikes in each location; as soon as the wolves got involved, they would be teleporting blind. A rustle in the distance snapped everyone to attention and we all fell in line. Footsteps became more distinct, and then they came faster, trees breaking and falling away as the rush began. There would be no talking.
I didn't know every name, but I knew every face but one. Most of the Guards were low-to-mid-rank, only seven were female, and Felix was easily spotted, taller than all the others. Marcus emerged last, the apathetic mask he usually wore painted with anger forced upon him. He was just another puppet, a victim. His eyes met mine. Locked on target, I charged toward him.
"Newborn speed!" Jasper called out in warning. He and Benjamin were right behind me, the others a few feet behind them. The Guards ahead smiled at me, thrilled to see the newborn Saturno forgetting herself so easily. I paused and waited for the others to catch up. A split-second before impact, I amplified, allowing Jasper to send out a massive wave of confusion and reluctance. At the same time, Benjamin made the ground ahead of us ripple and shatter, wind swirling, engulfing our enemies in a dust cloud dense enough to hamper even our vision. We tackled the first bodies we reached.
"Down!" Kate yelled, and I turned to see her leap over Garrett, landing between him and Felix, reaching out and bringing Felix down with an audible zap. Garrett grabbed Felix's reaching arms, pulling just hard enough to make his arms crack at the shoulder, and Kate drove her knife into the opening. I couldn't wait to see how the weapon worked. With Jasper and Benjamin close beside me, I pushed forward. Our two nomads, Mary and Randall, leapt at two female Guards to our left. Mary bit one female and pinned her down. Irwin and Alice appeared and Alice drove her knife into the bite. The female Randall held suddenly got the upper hand, twisting out of his hold and snapping his arm at the elbow. She chucked the limb at Irwin and leapt toward him with a shriek. He reflexively teleported with Alice in tow, so Jasper turned to help. Benjamin sent up another cloud. I howled.
One second. For one full second, the battle stopped. Everyone shifted on their feet, eyes up, scanning the woods all around. Wolves here could kill vampires, that much everyone knew⏤werewolves, shape-shifters, whatever you called them, they were a threat⏤and their answering howl was thunderous.
"Kassam!" Marcus bellowed. Kassam? The one vampire I'd never seen, of course.
"NO!" Siobhan screamed and ran back the way we'd come, toward the charging wolves.
"Siobhan!" Liam followed, though he seemed to be looking right through his mate. Maggie was frozen where she stood, clearly upset, but looking strangely... defiant?
"Tanya!" Kate ran the same direction, followed by a distraught Garrett, her new mate. Tanya and Irina followed him.
Annie cried out and dove down toward the center of the field. Benjamin, Tia, Mary, Randall... "Bella!" My mate cried out my name even as he ran away from me. The wolves had come to a full-stop, whimpering and pawing at the ground.
With a triumphant shout, several Guards jumped the length of the field and attacked.
"Shield!" Lysander growled, telekinetically knocking two Guards away from me and tackling a third about to strike. He attacked sloppily, not all of his blows connecting. I turned back toward Maggie just in time to see Felix grab her. I crouched, preparing to leap for him, but then I realized he'd saved her from another attacker. He'd been stabbed and my venom had freed him.
"Shield!" Felix shouted, carrying Maggie back toward the others.
Maggie could detect lies. Illusions could blind her, but they couldn't deceive her.
I grabbed Lysander by the arm and let my shield burst out around us. When his eyes refocused, I amplified his gift. "Kill him!"
Boom. Kassam's head was blown off in an instant. Boom. Lysander brought down another Guard even as he ran with me to rejoin the others. A Guard had taken off Liam's arm. Garrett and Irina were in pieces. In that moment, I was more aware than ever of the exact shape of my shield. I molded it to every angle, every curve of each vampire and wolf I cared about. The Guards close to us were taken down swiftly, but too few, too few...
"Where are the others?"
"They split up while you were distracted," Felix replied, his voice cold and distant. We had no time to talk. Some Guards were still advancing, Marcus urging them on. A distant howl pierced the air, and I saw Jake stumble. Back on his feet in a split-second, he turned and led the wolves back toward town. The other wolves. Emily. Angela. My dad... Behind me, nine Guards were closing in. The female Mary and Alice had freed was burning, her venom on on Marcus' hands. I took Kate's hand in mine. With her sister and her mate in pieces around her, she needed no further instruction. I amplified and effectively turned Kate into Jane.
One down. Jasper charged and ripped them apart. Zap. Tia bit them and Benjamin stabbed them. Zap. Tanya tore apart the Guard she reached, too furious to play nice. Zap. Felix picked up Kate's knife and stabbed another large male Guard. Kate released my hand and rushed at another. Lysander, Annie, Maggie, and Mary lunged for the others.
Running toward Marcus, I dropped low for a slide-tackle. Marcus stumbled slightly, but he recovered and whirled, aiming a powerful kick down toward my head. Latching onto his leg, I pulled, still failing to topple him, but smothering the blow. Marcus freed himself from my hold with one more powerful heave, launching me upward. I rolled in the air as Jasper had taught me, and as I came back down I grabbed Marcus' reaching hand and swung my legs down as hard as I could, kicking him in the chest while my weight fell on his wrist. As I fell, I saw the flicker of fear in Marcus' eyes. His gaze flickered away for a millisecond, toward one of the knives no doubt, and he seemed to decide he couldn't risk an open wound. Before I could break his hand off at the wrist, he leapt up to meet me, pulling me close so I lost my leverage. We both hit the ground and rolled away from each other.
"Go help the pack," I ordered the others, and Marcus loosed the first real growl I'd ever heard from him. "Help the wounded or get them to Jillian. Protect everyone." Jasper nodded and everyone else scattered.
"The fools run to the aid of our natural enemy," Marcus wheezed, his tone harsh but his voice deep but thin after centuries of silence. "It's true, you've ruined them."
There was no point arguing with him while Aro and Chelsea controlled him. Still, tugging at the right threads could bring him down. Jasper remained close but said nothing. A glance in his direction revealed what I already knew: the Major had taken over. He knew I needed this fight in more ways than one. It had to be me.
"Were you able to fix Jane, yet? I know she's too valuable to burn." I gestured casually toward the female he'd burned. Marcus growled and lunged. I vaulted over him.
"She's doing just fine, though she fears you now, as she should."
"Chelsea's a miracle worker," I taunted, my words dripping with sarcasm. Marcus sprang at me again and I narrowly evaded him.
"Do not speak of my mate, vile creature. Your mate is within my reach."
"My mate is out of your league," I hissed. "What chance have you got against Major Whitlock if you can't even take a newborn." Marcus lunged, and I braced for the impact. He caught me with one arm and threw me into a cluster of boulders. Before the last shard of stone hit the ground, he was on me again, but this time I drove my elbows down into he stone below me. The boulder cracked and split in two. Marcus lost his balance as the stone fell away, and that one moment was all I needed. Marcus fell lumpishly on top of me, and I bit into his broad shoulder, injecting as much venom as I could into the wound.
"That will do, Isabella," Marcus murmured seven seconds later, my teeth still in his shoulder. A wave of calm washed over us both. I released Marcus immediately and Jasper came over to help us up. For the first time, Marcus looked fully alert and truly present. His eyes were haunted, but they were clear. He looked around the field for a moment, then he heaved a heavy sigh and turned to face me. "We have much to discuss, but it will all keep for now." Alice and Irwin appeared then. Perfect timing.
"Marcus, will you wait in the Cullen home here in Forks?" I asked. "I'll join you as soon as we know our friends are safe." Marcus simply nodded. Irwin bowed slightly and offered his free arm. Four seconds after they took Marcus away, Irwin and Alice reappeared. I amplified Irwin's gift so he could take us all into town.
"Bells!" We arrived at the Black house, where my dad and Angela had been kept. Eleazar, Carmen, Jillian, Leah, and Seth had been their guards. There was a purple-tinted smoke column rising behind the house. When the smell of freshly spilled human blood hit my nose, I tensed, not bothered by my thirst at all but shocked that the two humans present had come to harm. Turning toward my dad's voice, I saw there was dried blood on his left arm, but no other sign of injury.
"Bella!" Angela ran toward me as well, the blood on her arm streaked like Leah had tried licking her mate's arm clean.
"All the Guards came here," Alice whispered rapidly in my ear. "Emily is safe; Sam and the new wolves didn't even have to fight. Leah was hurt and Angela panicked, cutting her arm to distract the Guards, then Charlie cut his arm to take attention off her." Jasper snorted.
"Yep, something in the water here," he muttered wryly.
My dad and Angela reached me then, and they both threw their arms around me. "It's okay," I said, hugging them back. "I'm fine, you're okay, none of our people were burned⏤some need reassembling and healing, but we somehow got through it."
"We lost one in Stowe," Irwin said somberly. "It was going well at first⏤Zafrina slipped around behind the Volterran allies and trapped most of them in one of her illusions, but stragglers surprised her and attacked. One of her coven mates, Kachiri, saved her from the fire, but she was overpowered and burned instead."
"How many freed?" Jasper prompted.
"Nine out of seventeen freed in Stowe," Alice answered.
"Nice," Seth interjected, walking over with Leah, both of them back in human form. Carmen, Eleazar, and Jillian followed.
"They all fled," Alice said sullenly. "No help from them, but at least we don't have to worry about them attacking us again. The other eight might have been saved if no one came to harm, but once Kachiri was burned..." For a moment, everyone was silent.
"What did you do with Master Marcus?" Felix asked, coming up the road with Annie, Benjamin, and Tia.
Leah nearly phased when she saw Felix, but Angela moved closer and squeezed her hand reassuringly, calming the mordant wolf. Felix noticed Leah's reaction and ducked his head in submission, slowing to human pace and stopping a few yards away. Annie, airborne on approach, landed next to him. Benjamin and Tia stood at his other side, showing silent solidarity.
"Felix is the only Guard we really saved," Annie explained. "Aro ordered Marcus and the Guards to kill each other before losing one of their number to our side."
"Felix can come to the Cullen house with me," I said. "I bit Marcus. He's waiting there for us. Felix saved Maggie and warned me when Kassam attacked..." I turned to Jasper. "What did his gift do anyway? Everyone panicked." Jasper shuddered.
"We all saw our loved ones in pieces," he said, "in piles close to a fire. The illusion also countered logic somehow. You were standing right next to me, but all my senses told me otherwise."
"Mas…" Felix swallowed the word. "Aro found Kassam shortly before your wedding," Felix offered. "Kassam was hidden away, a secret weapon. I only met him yesterday."
The sound of a car coming down the road made us all scatter. Most of the vampires hid in the trees around the house. I swept Angela up into my arms, ignoring Leah's snarl of protest, and ran inside with her. As I knew he would, Jasper carried my dad inside the same way. Leah and Seth barreled through the front door just before the car came around the corner. I whipped around when Jake charged in through the back door, just catching a glimpse of the water bucket he'd used to douse the fire. The car pulled off the road and parked out front. Jake walked over to the window, his eyes widening in surprise.
"Rebecca?" His sister. Billy. The funeral.
Jillian opened the back door and beckoned to me. Waving to my dad and Angela, I grabbed Jasper's hand and we slipped out together. While Jake greeted his sister, Jasper and I found Felix and lead him away, back toward the old Cullen house.
"Felix, are you the only surviving Guard?" Marcus was waiting in the living room when we arrived.
"Yes, Master Marcus. The others fell to the purging order when they were freed." Marcus nodded somberly.
"The weapons were inspired, Isabella, but you certainly struck a nerve with Aro."
"They weren't my idea," I said. "And please, call me Bella."
"Bella," he said, nodding politely. "I am honored you put yourself at risk to save me. Too long I have wasted away in a grim and distorted reality, my thoughts and decisions never my own. Tell me, my dear, how are we to proceed from here?"