Revolving Worlds – Book Two
Chapter 1 - Major Changes
Chapter 2 - A Chorus of Singers
Chapter 3 - Casualties
Chapter -4 - Which Five Were to Die?
Chapter 5 - Could it have been Poison?
Chapter 6 - A New Little Angel
Chapter 7 - Rengata?
Chapter 8 - Three is One Too Many
Chapter 9 - Through the Looking Glass
Chapter 10 - A Proposal
Chapter 11 - The Dining Room Table
Chapter 12 - Jake's Proposal – Take 2
Chapter 13 - The Trouble with Rumors
Chapter 14 - Timoshino
Chapter 15 - Another Hit
Chapter 16 - Picking Up the Pieces
Chapter 17 - Baseball and Bunnies
Chapter 18 - Wedding Talk
Chapter 19 - Rings and Parties
Chapter 20 - After The Wedding…..
.
Revolving Worlds – Book Two
2048
Chapter One
Major Changes
Jacob's Point of View
Greenland felt like a hundred years ago. In reality it had only been three years since I moved away from there with the Cullens.
We were all living just outside of Yaroslavl, Russia; a little town two hundred sixty-five miles north of Moscow, now. It was strange, I didn't know the language very well but was learning quickly thanks to my super charged Wolf brain. At least the locals let us keep to ourselves here. That's why we had to leave Greenland – too many nosy neighbors. No one had cared about us until we started raising animal there. Actually that wasn't even the problem. The problems started when it was noticed that no meat from the animals we were raising ever actually made it to any butchers or markets anywhere. Climate change was getting worse and worse. Food was getting more scarce all over the world and people were upset we weren't sharing. I don't think they would have objected so much if they had known the majority of the dead animals had enough venom in them that would have made its meat um… inedible.
Yaroslavl was more remote, our closest neighbors were one hundred and thirty kilometers away. That gave us plenty of grazing land for our bison and boars. Most residents didn't even know they had new neighbors… on two or four legs.
Things weren't all roses and sunshine here though.
Sure we got to go on the occasionally hunt when the local bear population was high. Nessie loved the hunt and I loved the gleam in her eyes she got when she really let loose and got to run at full speed.
And the weather was fine, none of us minded the cold, not that it really got that chilly here, or anywhere else, anymore. 42° Fahrenheit was the lowest I've seen it go in the last two years.
But this self imposed exile also came with an extra helping of isolation. The ten of us were our own company for days, weeks, and months on end. If it weren't for video calls, movies, and the TV the loneliness might have made some of us go insane. Well, not me. I had Nessie and she made everything perfect.
All that was about to change however.
Nessie and I were currently curled up on the living room couch watching some old movie when the doorbell rang.
Alice had already told all of us to expect them, so everyone had been spending the day, hanging out around the house just waiting for their arrival. Not that there was a lot of other things to do or places to go.
She was able to narrow down the day, but was unsure of the exact time so we'd been in here for awhile. First Ness and I watched a movie on TV, then a hockey game, and now an old movie. The Doc and Esme had been occupying themselves with some book or something in the corner. Edward was working on a new song on the piano, Bella read, Alice and Rose were designing new outfits for all of us, and Jasper and Emmett were going back and forth between the TV and… I don't know what. Truthfully, I hadn't really been paying attention to them. Even more truthfully, I wasn't paying that much attention to the hockey game or movie either.
When the doorbell rang I'd made no move to get up, but now that Amun and Kebi were here... well, I still made no move to get up, but did bring Nessie closer into my lap. There was just something about that Vampire that gave me the creeps, even after spending all that time living with him at his complex in Egypt, I still just didn't trust him. Back then we'd come to an… understanding, but it seems to have deteriorated, at least for me. Maybe it was the way he treated his wife, maybe it was that he did not fight the Volturi for the freedom of his adopted son and his wife, or maybe it was just that he was a red eyed Vampire, and I really had no reason too, even if he was Carlisle's friend.
"Amun, it's so good to see you. I trust everything is well?" I heard Carlisle say as he welcomed Amun into the house.
"Greetings my old friend," he replied to the Doc as he walked in, Kebi wordlessly following behind as usual, "but I am afraid that nothing could be further from the truth." Carlisle showed him and Kebi into the living room and pointed at one of the empty couches, not that they sat. Neither did Carlisle.
"What is it, what's wrong?" Esme asked him.
"It's the Volturi. You were right before. We need to get Benjamin and Tia out of there, by force."
"What happened? What changed your mind?" Bella asked Amun.
I'd blocked enough of Alice's vision that while she knew they were coming she didn't know why.
"They won't let him see Benjamin," Edward informed all of us, after reading his mind. Why couldn't he let the man answer, or talk for himself?
I was about to shoot Eddie a disapproving look, but Amun beat me to it. Most of us were use to his constant butting in, but Amun wasn't, even after living with him for two years. I knew just as well as everyone how much it freaked Amun out to have Edward poking around in his head. It reminded him too much of Aro. He seemed as unnerved by Edward's intrusion as I thought he'd be.
"All I wanted to do was check up on my coven," Amun started to explain, while glaring at Edward. Great! Those two fighting now wasn't going to help things. Edward gave him a regretful look, in lieu of an actual apology. Amun nodded. I guess that was the end of that. "I only wanted to make sure things were going all right, that Benjamin and Tia were being treated well. They wouldn't even let me see Benjamin, I had no idea if he was even in Volterra, or not." The more he talked the stiller he got. By the end the only thing moving on Amun was his mouth.
Kebi then reached over, grabbing his hand and her touch seemed to calm him down, or wake him up… whatever she did he started moving again and stopped being so rigid.
"I trusted them," he sighed. "I trusted that they were going to be respectful and that Aro and the others would not abuse Benjamin and Tia, or our... friendship. But the fact that they wouldn't even let me talk to them... I don't know. Something is wrong, I know it."
"What is it you would like us to do to help?" the Doc asked.
"I have been following Benjamin. I wanted to see what I could find out myself. I am not a tracker, but I've been around long enough to be able to find someone... given enough time. It took me several months before I located him. After having no luck outside of Italy, I went back to Volterra. I'd been watching the main doors, seeing if he'd come in or out, but they never brought him through that way, so eventually I switched to the tunnels.
"It was more dangerous, more confined. There were less places for me to hide, but I managed to not be detected and witnessed them bringing him in one night. Our eyes locked for just a moment, but it was like he didn't even recognize me. I don't know what they've done to him, but whatever it is, it can't be good."
"Amun, I'm not sure of the correct way to tell you this-" Carlisle hesitantly began, once his friend stopped speaking. "I'm afraid we may have overstepped a bit, but when you refused to confront the Volturi three years ago we didn't back down, at least not completely. We've had someone watching Benjamin. No harm was intended, but we do know what he has been up to and at the very least I can assure you that he's alright. It may be that his lack of response in Volterra was for your own protection."
"Do you remember Alistair?" Edward then asked him, which was stupid 'cause Vamps never forgot anyone or anything in their rock hard brains. "He has a deep mistrust of the Volturi and also happens to be a tracker. He's been following Benjamin, and checking in regularly with us. He has let us know exactly what has been transpiring. We can tell you exactly what Benjamin's been up to."
"Alistair has watched him?" Amun asked.
"Yes."
"Why would he do such a thing? He did not seem to be one who would do something for another. He hadn't even stayed long enough to confront the Volturi with us when this one was still a baby," he said looking over at Nessie.
"And he felt bad about that," Edward told him. "This is his way of making up for it."
"Oh," Amun scrunched his face. "And is it as bad as I feared, Carlisle?" he then asked, quickly moving on from his shock of someone doing something selflessly for someone else. "Please tell me the truth. Has the Volturi twisted my Benjamin into their puppet? Has he become nothing more than Aro's killing machine?"
"Just the opposite," Bella said.
Over the years we'd received updates from Alistair, and strangely enough, just like Alice had seen, the Volturi were indeed (currently) only using Benjamin for the most noble of justifications- when a Vampire had truly stepped out of bounds and done something that exposed themselves to humans, or on the rare occasion begged for death.
It only happened once but was when some Vampire lost their Mate in a random accident. The two of them had been in a war zone and got caught in the middle of an explosion. We never found out what they were doing there, but in my opinion they were just some dumb, cocky Vampires, who thought that they would be able to survive anything. She had, her Mate wasn't so lucky, and when he was gone she wanted to join him in death and had begged the Volturi to end her life, which they let Benjamin bestow.
"Aro, Caius and Marcus have simply been having him enforce justice," she continued. "But only when absolutely necessary, and in many cases he's been using his gift in a most virtuous manner, at the Volturi leaders behest, helping our kind cover up any unfortunate incidents when they happen to occur, every now and then, in order to spare the lives of Vampires who have accidentally lost control, but only briefly."
"Apparently they have been making the same offer, they gave Tia, to many - a century of oversight in exchange for not ending their lives," Jasper explained.
"Of course that's only if it is just the ONE mistake," Alice added, filling in some of the additional details she'd seen in her visions. "Which is much more lenient than the Volturi have ever been in the past."
"We are not sure if it's some new plot that they're up to, but I like to think that they're truly trying to make amends," Esme added. Jasper just gave her a look that told me he thought she was being pretty naïve, but I'd come to see Esme as someone who was too loving and motherly to ever see things any other way.
"Please tell me everything that you have learned," Amun requested as he finally sat down in one of the many chairs in the room, "in greater detail, if you please."
Carlisle acknowledged and acquiesced to his request, then began to give Amun a rundown of exactly what we'd heard from Alistair, every place he'd gone, every justified punishment he'd delivered, every deal for temporary oversight he'd witnessed, and every cover up, to keep Vampires existence hidden from the human world, he'd a hand in. Over the years Alistair's reports, together with Alice's visions had put us at ease, for the time being at least.
"I'm glad that Benjamin is still as I have raised him and has not let them corrupt him, but I don't think you are right in your relief. Actually I think something is very, very wrong," Amun replied after hearing every account that we relayed to him. "Do you have a map?"
"There's one hanging in the library," Emmett told him before leading the way up there.
Amun grabbed a pen off of a nearby table and began marking off not only locations of the areas around the world Alistair had followed Benjamin to, but also the routes we'd told him that Benjamin had taken. The Volturi's pursuit of justice had taken him all over the world, almost. As soon as Amun had marked everything on the map one thing became obvious - the Volturi had never ventured even close to Greece.
But didn't that make sense? Carlisle had assured me that Vampires don't like going to that country. It was too close to Italy, which is where the Volturi were located, so if there was no Vampires in Greece, why would the Volturi go there?
But it had to be more than that to get Amun so worked up.
I didn't see it until Amun pointed out how, not only did the Volturi not to go into the country to extol any justice, they stayed clear of it entirely, traveling all the way around it whenever they needed to travel from one nearby country to another, instead of cutting straight through the middle.
I know that Vampires are fast, almost as fast as Wolves and it wouldn't cut out that much time from their travels, but one or two hours was still one or two hours, no matter how long you lived. Why take the long way around when you simply go straight through a country?
I don't know how none of us hadn't seen it before, but when Amun pointed out, it was pretty obvious.
When Benjamin had met with some Vampires in a small town outside of Istanbul on their way west to Albania, they hadn't bothered taking the quickest most direct route, straight through the northern part of Greece, but had gone around the entire country.
Even after having lived with the Cullens for over four decades, I wasn't a Vampire, and was still missing, what I considered, one vital piece of information. "Um... where, in Italy exactly, is Volterra?"
"It's located right here," Carlisle said pointing close to the top of the boot-shaped country.
"Oh, err... alright." I didn't see what the problem was. It was nowhere close to Greece. Vampires would have to travel hundreds of miles and cross the Mediterranean if they wanted to take the most direct way to Greece, if anyone was so inclined to travel that way.
But that just led to more questions. There were other countries that were closer to Volterra than Greece. Why would Vampires completely avoid that one country, but go to others... others closer to Volterra? There were Vampires in Albania, and Albania was much closer than Greece to Volterra.
What was going on in Greece? Suddenly, the issue with Benjamin didn't seem as bad. Or did it? Maybe the country just smelled bad or something. But there were no Vampires there right now and we had an actual situation that needed our attention in Italy.
While Amun was obsessing over Greece I started thinking more about what was going on with Aro's sudden benevolence. From what I remember in the field back in Washington it seemed like Aro was a man who never did anything unless it somehow benefited himself. What was he getting out of all of this?
What exactly was going on with all of the Vampires that Aro, Caius and Marcus were pardoning, giving a second chance for a hundred years of oversight? Ha! It was more like blackmailed loyalty.
That's what it was! They were amassing an army. Not of newborns, or witnesses, where their allegiance couldn't be completely trusted. These Vampires had been living with the Volturi, they were seeing firsthand how the Volturi leaders were extolling justice – with (false) understanding and consideration, trying to reestablish the good name of the Volturi, so that next time they chose to pick a fight, most likely with us, all of their "witnesses" would truly be on their side, not just as witnesses, but allies, ready to fight for them.
We would be outnumbered, and who knew how many would have gifts. Some could possibly even be like Benjamin, and be able to get through Bella's shield. Aro and the others had been recruiting an army, right under our noses!
After I shared my theory with everyone, Rose looked over at Jasper and asked "How many? How many could they have possibly amassed, ready to fight against us?"
Jasper's brow scrunched just for a moment but I figured he was trying to calculate the numbers in his head. We only had reports from Alistair for the past three years that he'd been watching Benjamin, but how long had it been that Aro and the others had been up to this? It could have been going on for years... decades even. Benjamin (and to a lesser extent, Tia) was just one, in a long list, that the Volturi had acquired through this sort of trickery and deceit.
There are not that many Vampires in the world, not compared to humans, at least. They probably had only been able to acquire one or two, possibly as many as four, in a year, if the Vampire the Volturi pardoned had a Mate that they requested to come with them. But it had been almost forty years since that day back in Forks where we stood against those damn, bastard Vampire rulers. Had they been doing this sort of thing all along?
We will definitely be outnumbered if that was the case, even if every single witness from last time stood with us, and every Wolf, past and present phased and came along. That was one thing, at least, even if we gave up our Wolves, we were still always able to recall them, years, even decades later, if needed. But we would still be lacking far behind Jasper's one hundred fifty maximum estimate that the Volturi might have amassed.
"That number is probably high. Remember they would need to feed and house all of them, and keep them under control. Our kind does not do well in large groups," Jasper explained.
"But they would have had Marcus use his gift to check their loyalties and choose to keep only those they thought least likely to revolt against them," Edward argued. "They also have Chelsea tightening their bonds. And while I'm not sure exactly how effective she may be on so many, Corin's gift is similar to yours, Jasper. She cannot artificially calm everyone down like you, but can make their new members feel content with their situation. Normally she just uses it on Aro and Caius' wives, but she could probably easily encompass more under her gift."
"Great!" Bella huffed, before turning to Jasper. "So what do we do?" She, and probably everyone else, was relying on his military training and knowledge to get us out of this... somehow.
With his brow typically furrowed and after a minute to think, much longer than needed for a Vampire, in a normal circumstance, Jasper replied, "I believe that if we have any chance of surviving this we need to go on the offensive. Waiting for them to attack is suicide."
Immediately everyone started talking over each other, strategizing on ways to best confront the Volturi. Well almost everyone.
Carlisle the idea. He deplored violence. "Hold on Jasper. I think we need to take a step back for a moment. We do not know that they even consider us a target. Alice have you seen them plan anything against us?"
"No, I didn't think so," the Doc continued, taking her blank stare as a non-confirmation.
Well that was good news. But my relief was short lived as soon as I saw Edward move to talk. "They could be playing with the holes in your visions, Alice. Aro has read my mind as well as yours. He knows as well as we do how they work. He'd know how to get around them."
Edward stared sternly at his sister, the look in his eyes... yikes! It was one of the few times he actually looked like an evil bloodsucking Vampire. But I could understand his reasoning. She was after all the one person who might be able to see if and when we needed to be prepared to fight a massive army. "Alice, try again. Look years into the future if necessary," he requested, struggling to hold back his rage. But I think it was probably out of fear for his family – Bella and Nessie, and not anger at his sister.
"But you know the further away I look, the more unsure the future is."
"Please." he said, this time really stressing to calm down his tone.
"Okay... but... I need time... I need to... I can't see... Wolf blocks my-" she stuttered as she flew out the back door. Humph! But if time away from me was what she needed then that was fine. I would gladly give it to her.
A.N. If you've read Revolving World Book 1 you would have noticed that this was the last chapter there, but it was getting too long, so I've moved it over here. The next chapter is new.