Chapter 33: Fallen Star
(Bella's POV) "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" cover by Lorde
I heard the howling. Wolves were in the castle. I heard a roar of fury that announced to the world, 'Major Whitlock is here'. I was human again, in the middle of a vampire melee. All three of Kate's opponents turned for just a second, distracted by my heartbeat, by my flowing blood. Kate took full advantage of that second of distraction and grabbed two of them, zapping them hard enough to bring them to the ground, stunned by the jolt. Garrett finally got around his two opponents and ran to her aid, holding back one massive guard while Kate beheaded one of the two she'd shocked. Chelsea was reattaching her arm while Aro and Marcus continued their duel, their movements a blur to my human eyes. Black smoke billowed around Alec, disabling his two opponents and the two Guards scrambling after Garrett, but Alec wasn't in control of himself. I'd freed him from Aro and Chelsea, but not from himself. His black eyes were on me, his teeth flashing in the light spilling into the tunnel from above. I stumbled backward, colliding with Amelia. Why she hadn't drained me as soon as she finished changing me, I had no idea, but she looked as thirsty as Alec when I turned to face her. I was done for. Then wolves stared falling from the sky.
Jake, Quil, Embry, Devon, and Zane jumped through the hole in the floor above. Unfortunately, Quil and Embry landed in Alec's smoke. Free or not, Alec reacted immediately to the wolves keeping him from his prey. Quil was right next to him. "Alec, no!" I screamed, but he'd already wrapped his arms around Quil's neck. I ran toward him. The smoke couldn't stop me. When Alec crushed Quil's neck, I threw myself on Embry's back. Gripping his fur, I forced my shield around him, the effort making me dizzy. Regaining his senses and seeing his dead friend in Alec's arms, he attacked viciously. As soon as he began ripping Alec apart, the smoke dissipated. I had only just freed him, but I couldn't save him.
Cold hands ripped me off Embry's back. I only had a second to wonder why Embry hadn't reacted. I found myself in a darker part of the tunnel, being lowered carefully to the ground several yards from the bulk of the fighting, Jasper's body a physical shield between me and the action. Looking closer, I saw Heidi, Gianna, and at least three or four more Guards we'd torn apart. What? How? Obviously they'd arrived while I was trying to save Quil, unable to get to me through the smoke, but who reassembled them? Jasper tried to calm me, but he was too upset. He bent down to lick the bite mark on my neck, sealing it with just a bit of his own venom, wiping away the blood not soaked into my clothes. Behind him, I saw that Tanya and Irina had joined the fight.
"Secure," Jasper called over his shoulder. Peter and Char jumped through the hole and joined the fight. Looking up, I saw several of our allies standing around the opening in the floor above. Lysander, Benjamin, Tia, Carmen, Eleazar...
"Why aren't they jumping?" I asked
"There are more bombs," Jasper explained quickly, almost too quickly for my newly human ears. "The one that dropped you in here had a remote detonator. The others are fire-bombs with motion sensors. We didn't know about them because they were installed before our wedding, a security measure with so many attending. There are sensors twenty-five yards that way," he pointed behind me, "and sixty-five yards that way." He pointed across the fighters in the middle. "Alistair was obviously caught in Jacksonville; he was here, under their control. He and the wives followed you through the castle, reassembling vampires you left behind. Half of our fighters are searching the castle for them and the other reassembled Guards, trying to keep them away. Bella, we saw you shielding Embry. Can you amplify?" Kate broke away from the fight and darted over to us. She took my hand and glared at a Guard fighting her sisters. I tried to amplify... nothing.
"No, I'm sorry," I said. "I can't." Kate had already rejoined the fight.
"Going up, then," Jasper said, scooping me up into his arms. He ran toward the opening in the floor and jumped, but we didn't make it. I noticed a blur of movement behind Carmen. She and Eleazar were knocked aside as the figure pushed through them and slammed into us, knocking us to the ground. Jasper tossed me clear of the rubble as we fell, sparing me another cut. Landing almost exactly where I'd been standing a moment before, I stood to see Jasper scanning the room, growling. Everyone above looked confused too. Oh no...
"It's Afton!" I tried to warn them, trying to spot the vampire they couldn't see. He was behind me. He lifted me off the ground and threw me toward Aro and Chelsea. Jasper leapt for me, catching me and landing on his feet right in front of Aro. He set me on my feet behind him as he whirled to punch Aro back. Marcus appeared on my other side, keeping Chelsea away. Afton could pick us all off one-by-one while my shield was so limited. "Lysander!" I called, reaching my arms up toward him. "Jump!" Though crowding was an issue, he jumped, landing next to me. I jumped on his back and held on tight. "Find Afton. He's invisible to everyone else⏤short blond hair, about five-ten." Lysander immediately raised his hand and I watched as Afton flew into a wall, narrowly missing Jake. Afton lunged for him. "Jake, four o'clock!" Jake turned and bit Afton's reaching arm. Lysander aimed another telekinetic attack at Afton, knocking him off balance so he fell forward. The arm Jake held started tearing away at the shoulder. Holding my legs around his waist, Lysander leapt clear of the crowd, toward Afton. Upon landing, he let go of my legs, dodged Afton's defensive kick, and grabbed his head. "Pull, Jake!" Jake tore off Afton's arm, and the look in his eyes told me he could see Afton then. With a quick twist, Lysander took off Afton's head.
The Guards were losing. Their body parts littered the ground. When only Aro, Chelsea, Gianna, and two male Guards remained, Marcus brought the fighting to a stop. "Enough of this madness!" He bellowed, commanding everyone's attention. He turned to Aro. "It's over, brother. Your reign has come to an end, but this is not how a new and different era begins. For once, face me on level ground, with honor and clear intent." Was it going to come to one final duel? It might have, but there was one more wild card, a free and unpredictable vampire in the tunnel with us: Amelia.
While Marcus had everyone distracted, Amelia dashed around the piles of stone and stony limbs, wrapping her three limbs around Chelsea and biting the other vampire. Chelsea screamed as the reversal began, and it was a horrific thing to watch. I thought I'd felt my skin shattering and reforming, and that's just what it looked like. Another second, and then Chelsea was human. The remaining Guards stood frozen for a moment, looking dazed as Chelsea's power over them failed, but only their blind devotion to Aro had been broken. Their false memories were enough to keep them loyal to Aro, so I was shocked when Gianna broke away from her defensive position near Aro and flew at Chelsea, ripping her away from Amelia and biting her, drinking from her. She was a typical newborn, I guess. I'd clearly been spared from such a fate because Aro had specifically ordered everyone under his control to avoid my blood and venom like the plague.
"You have not seen madness," Aro growled. Ripping Chelsea away from Gianna, he threw her half-drained body toward the bomb nearest to him. With a lighting-fast kick to the side, Aro sent Marcus tumbling in the same direction.
"Benjamin, stop the fire!" I screamed as the bomb went off. The blast knocked me backward to the ground, and I was nearly trampled as the vampires and wolves in the tunnel scrambled out of the way. Jasper dove toward me, covering me, shielding me from the debris. When I could finally see Marcus, he was tearing off his burning clothing with one arm. His left arm had been taken off just above the elbow, burned away so there was nothing to reattach. It could have been worse. Even my eyes could see the scorch marks on the ceiling above him. Still watching from above, Benjamin had saved Marcus from some of the blast. Chelsea was dead, her human body so badly burned I couldn't stand to look at her. The rusty, sweet, rotten smell of her blood and burned flesh made me gag. I buried my face in Jasper's chest, breathing deeply so his scent cleansed my sinuses and palate.
Aro had been holding back. Bereft of Chelsea, he was a desperate man, a man possessed, and he fought like the fiercest demon from Hell. Jasper's eyes had gone entirely black, telling me the Major wanted to put this new demon in his place. Eleazar and Carmen had jumped down into the tunnel and they were trying to contain Amelia without seriously harming her or getting themselves bitten. While Kate, Garrett, Tanya, and Irina took the two remaining Guards down, Peter and Char were struggling with Aro. Seeing his Captain and Lieutenant struggle so, Jasper leapt to his feet with a roar and charged. I got back on my feet to take in the rest of the scene: The wolves were huddled together, clearly wanting to fight, but too too afraid of setting off another bomb. Lysander was piling rubble against the wall where the last bomb had gone off. Was the tunnel going to collapse on us?
"Tia, find Irwin!" I called. "Lysander, lift the wolves out of here! Hurry!" Only Benjamin remained above us when his mate took off. Marcus took over reinforcing the wall while Lysander put his telekinesis to better use, carefully lifting and maneuvering one wolf at a time through the hole and onto sturdy ground. With my eyes on the wolves, I missed the bodies coming toward me. Char was airborne and flailing, having been thrown by Aro. Marcus reached me a split second faster, bringing me back to the ground in a careful, protective tackle. I didn't flinch away when what remained of his left arm touched my skin, but the clay-like texture of his scorched skin made me shudder involuntarily. Peter abandoned his fight with Aro to grab Char, stopping her just short of the other sensor. It wasn't hard to see what Aro was doing. I didn't need Alice to tell me what was going to happen. Marcus shifted, about to get up and help Jasper with Aro, but I grabbed his scorched arm and he stopped, looking down at me with an indecipherable expression on his face. Was it surprise? Confusion? It was more than inquiring.
"The throne room has a drain," I said. The throne room was directly over the bomb. I couldn't see the drain in the dark with my human eyes, but I knew it was there. "How is it cleaned? Can Benjamin flood this tunnel?" Marcus' gaze snapped up to the bomb, then up to Benjamin.
"Behind Caius' throne," he told Benjamin. "Turn them all on and show us what you can do." Benjamin raced away.
Marcus scooped me up with one arm and jumped up through the hole, setting me on my feet in the room above. He gave my shoulder a gentle squeeze and jumped back down. Still waiting for Irwin, the wolves walked over to stand with me. Unfortunately, we were standing at the front end of the ruined entrance hall, above the bomb that already exploded, damaging the structure below. The floor didn't give out entirely, but a section crumbled away and Jake slipped, falling back into the tunnel. I would have fallen too, but Embry grabbed my sweater with his teeth, pulling me to safety just before the fabric tore. I heard the sound of rushing water and bursting pipes.
"Lysander!" I called, pointing at Jake. "Please!"
"Bella?! What happened?!" Tia had returned with Irwin, apparently without warning him I was human again.
"No time," I said. "Can you take the wolves in this form?" I asked, fearing the answer. Irwin shook his head.
"No."
I could barely see Benjamin in the dark throne room, but I heard a thunderous crash as the last few pipes gave way. While some of the water surely went down the built-in drain, Benjamin forced most of it out the doors, into the hole, straight down onto our allies below. It was a Niagara-scale waterfall. The water did have the desired effect when it came to the bomb; the sensor was activated, but the fire was immediately extinguished by the flood and the water absorbed some of the blast. No one was harmed by the bomb, but Lysander hadn't lifted Jake out in time. I looked at the thick, puckered scar on my arm and my eyes welled with tears. The pack had suffered enough. I jumped.
"Bella!"
The upper-third of the tunnel hadn't flooded yet. Carmen, Eleazar, and Tanya swam to the surface first, dragging Amelia with them. They didn't seem to notice me as they climbed out. I could see Chelsea's body floating on the current. Farther down, I could see Jake. I knew his wolf-strength made him a great swimmer in human form, but he was just too heavy in wolf form. I needed Jasper. He needed Jasper.
"Jasper!" I called even as I swam toward Jake. "Jasper!" Irina surfaced behind me. "Get Jasper!" I shouted, still swimming. Irina went back under without argument. I passed the scorched wall, pushing Chelsea's body aside. I'd almost reached Jake when I felt a sharp pain in my side; a chunk of debris from the explosion had cut me. Ignoring the pain and the blood, I swam as close to Jake as I could without being dragged under. "Try to shift, Jake, come on!" I urged. "I'm not leaving you. I'm taking you back to Jillian and the pack⏤shift, dammit!" Jake whimpered and tried to shake his head at me. "Jasper!" I sobbed, "Jasper, help!"
"Bella, what were you thinking?!" Jasper half-growled, surfacing beside me and pulling me close, kissing me fiercely.
"I was thinking about my friend and how much the pack suffered because of us, because of me," I cried when I caught my breath. "Jake can't shift back, and Irwin can't help him like this. Help him!" Jasper had been sending out strong waves of calm since the moment he surfaced, but I rambled on, panicked. A moment later, Jake shifted back into human form. I cried even harder in relief. Being human again sucked.
Jake and Jasper swam back to the hole in the floor, Jasper carrying me on his back. Irwin, Benjamin, and Tia helped us out of the water, the three of them holding their breath when they saw the large cut on my side. I think the relief of seeing Jake was enough to help the other wolves shift back. Irwin took that as his cue to start teleporting them out of the castle, out of the city. "Where's everyone else?" I asked when he was done.
"I took Carmen, Eleazar, Tanya, Irina, and Amelia outside the wall," Irwin said. "Almost everyone is waiting out there now, including Jane."
Kate and Garret surfaced before I could ask about them, lifting Quil's body out of the water with them. Quil died in wolf form, so Irwin couldn't teleport with him, but we could carry his body out of the city. A moment later, Lysander and Marcus surfaced. Having only one arm, Marcus had to toss Aro's head up before he lifted himself out of the water.
Outside the walls of Volterra, just before the sun rose, we buried Quil and burned Aro. It was finally over.