Chapter Fifteen: Bad Doggies
Seattle - January 30th
"Were you close?" Jacob asked, looking down at the lifeless eyes of the vampire whose head was set in the middle of the warehouse like a grizzly present.
"No, Kell worked for me." Isabella was still sweeping the space with her nose and eyes, searching for something. A sign, a scent trail, anything.
"I found something." Leah shouted from across the massive empty space. She was kneeling next to a window, rubbing something between her fingers. Isabella flashed over to her, making Leah jump slightly.
"Dear god you're fast." Leah chuckled, wiping her hands. "There are traces of blood in this rust residue. Recent, and not human."
"I assumed Eliza told you we're not exactly normal vampires." Isabella said in monotone, leaning forward and gathering a bit of the gray and red dust in her palm. She brought it up to her nose and found the scent. "Can you track this?" She said towards Leah.
"Yes, although not in broad daylight. I need to be shifted." Leah was frustrated with the limitations of her kind. In human form she was stronger and faster, and her senses more alive than humans. Yet in her wolf form she could do so much more, and her sense of smell in particular was the strongest of the pack.
"I tracked them to a sewer entrance about a block away yesterday. Do you think you could follow the scent in that place?" Isabella delivered it almost like she was giving an order, but phrased it into a question.
Leah opened her mouth once and thought about it before responding. "I'm honestly not sure, it will definitely take longer. Although to be fair rooting out this trail in the city would be just as difficult."
Isabella glanced at Jacob who nodded once, and she immediately took off towards the sewer entrance. Then they all dropped down into the dark and confined space.
"Lead on Leah." Isabella said with a somewhat friendly nod, and Leah immediately shifted and began to search the air. One by one the rest of the pack shifted and followed her. Leah took point and they slowly made their way deep into the strange labyrinth of tunnels that made up the sewer, water and storm water drainage lines. Most were dry, save for some rats who scurried in the opposite direction of the wolves.
For hours they searched, until they found a branch that opened up into a series of spaces full of garbage and abandoned shelters made of tarps and boxes, which was clearly an old refuge for the homeless. They moved very quietly, but even then there was something wrong with the space. Something in the air that unsettled everyone present.
"I hate this Jake." Paul said through the wolf-link.
"He's right, this place is so creepy." Seth agreed, sniffing the air and almost sneezing from the foulness of it. Not sewage, it felt like something rotten and musty.
"Keep your focus boys." Leah warned, glancing back towards the rest of the pack. "Rebecca, how are things on your end?"
"All quiet, although Eric thinks we're being followed." Rebecca said almost letting through her exasperation. Her team was always acting as backup.
"He's just being paranoid." Sarah Call teased, her brother knocking into her causing her to snap at him.
"Screw you Sarah." Eric Call almost verbally growled, upset that his twin was giving him shit again.
"He may be right, I've been hearing things for ten minutes now." Rebecca looked back towards their rear flank and found the drain doors they had just moved through were closed. "Shit, something's wrong."
"Halt!" Jacob said loudly through the link, silencing the entire pack. Leah hunkered down keeping her head on a swivel, but stopped moving forward.
"All around us." Isabella whispered just loud enough for the nearest wolf to hear her, as she tracked a dozen large creatures on the other side of the north wall.
"Isabella's right, they aren't hiding anymore. Expect an attack any second, keep your senses peeled." Jacob spread out his own senses to prepare.
Everyone tensed as they waited, the three younger members of the pack gathering close and in front of Rebecca. Jacob, Leah, Paul, Seth and Rachel all fell into a familiar formation. Isabella leapt up towards a crenellation built out of concrete, with the low light it gave her an element of stealth.
"We should've brought the pups." Paul grumbled.
"Keep focused Paul." Leah chided.
"They're ready, we should've trusted…" Paul continued anyway, just as two sets of doors towards the far end of the room slammed open and a dozen wolves flooded out. "Well fuck." He got out before going silent.
"Hold!" Jacob shouted through the link sending a wave of confidence and strength, bolstering his pack and then lowering himself into an attack position. The enemy pack all howled, and the largest paced back and forth a couple of times working himself up.
"They want us to attack." Leah surmised, growling a warning towards the enemy.
"Exactly, everyone stays in positions!" Jacob ordered, and the pack all started to growl in unison towards the enemy. The taunt clearly unnerved some of the wolves on the other side who started to look around at each other.
"They don't have an Alpha." Seth said in shock.
"I think you're right." Rachel said with a mocking bark. The sound acted like a trigger, and haphazardly the enemy wolves began to charge trying to bark and yap so loudly that it unbalanced their enemy. Likely a tactic that had worked for them before.
"Steady." Jacob said as they closed the distance.
"Ready on my mark!" Leah ordered with a strong unwavering internal voice. The pack tensed for attack at her command. Jacob sent his non-verbal cue, a subtle twitch of his tail. "Now!" She shouted through the link, as everyone launched forward as one perfectly synchronized front. Down the long narrow space little could be heard except the pounding of padded feet and the hoofs and barks of the wolves as they ran.
Isabella slipped down and moved through a nearby shadow to behind the enemy, as the two packs slammed into each other. A writhing mess of fur and fury that was impossible to track. The three younger members along with Rebecca as their leader were waiting to join the fray, but also watching the rear flank in case of a second assault. Isabella slowly unsheathed the blade gifted to her by Felix after her first successful mission. After the mission in Brazil she never went out without it. She moved towards the back exit silently, confident that her companions could take care of this group of mongrels.
Jacob and Leah had already dispatched five of the enemy wolves, Paul and Seth had one kill each and Rachel had injured hers so severely that it was completely incapacitated, shifting back into his human form. The rest of the enemy wolves tried to disengage, but it was too late and the pack each took after one, attacking swiftly from behind and killing them before they got even ten feet away. After the brawl Jacob looked around confirming that there were no other imminent threats.
"Great job. Paul, Seth gather the remains. Leah help me with the live one." The directions were the last he used over the wolf-link before shifting into human form. Leah joined him and together they picked up the wounded enemy and dragged him to the nearest wall to prop him up. He had half a dozen deep claw marks and three deeper bites on his shoulders, flank and one on his neck. The wounds were far too serious to heal quickly, and if he didn't get help he would probably die from them.
"What's your name?" Jacob asked crouching down to look the man in the eyes.
"Ryan." The man managed to choke out, spitting up blood for the effort.
"We'll get you help, but I need to know how many are in your pack?" Jacob tried kindness, and the man just shook his head coughing.
"Too… many…" He managed, and then started to convulse, the wounds getting the better of him. Then he stopped shaking, and locked his eyes on Jacob. He worked the blood down his throat and started to laugh coarsely. "You're going to die down here." Then the life drained out of him and his eyes fixed and dilated as his heart beat its last.
"He's gone. We might be in trouble." He looked back at Leah who immediately shifted and started scouting again. Jacob followed suit and started towards the back of the room with Leah.
"Where did the vamp go?" Sarah said through the link.
"Damn it Bella." Jacob accidentally sent through the link. "She'll be fine, she's been doing stuff like this for as long as we have from what I understand."
"Right, Bella freaking Swan is a badass." Paul said with heavy sarcasm.
"She threw you around like you were a pup." Eric teased.
"Any vampire can do that, I doubt she is all that special." Paul said, although he didn't sound nearly as confident as he thought he did.
"How many vampires in the last fifty years have gotten close to beating us? None, and you know it. Isabella is different, and it's good that she's on our side." Leah cut in, the edge in her voice giving the rest of the pack the unspoken command to stop the back and forth.
"Right, sorry Leah." Paul relented, and the pack got very quiet as they started moving forward.
They found Isabella standing just short of an arched opening into what sounded like a massive open space. She was practically invisible in the shadows, only the ambient light that cast her slightly in the backlight gave away her presence. She held up a hand to stop as the pack drew close. Then turned and leaned forward to whisper directly in Jacob's ear.
"I've counted at least thirty-eight wolves down there. Most are asleep, but several are out on guard duty. The last sweep was five minutes ago on a ten minute interval." As soon as she was done speaking she returned to her position.
"You heard her, we are massively outnumbered. We play this safe, drawing them into a bottleneck." Jacob advised, and the pack all gave a silent confirmation they understood the danger.
"What if some run?" Seth countered.
"Good point. Seth, go with Paul and find a way to flank them. Rebecca, you and your team find a tertiary escape route just in case. Leah, Rachel you're with me." Jacob had often used this dynamic, finding his second and his sister very easy to work with. They had different instincts from Paul and even Seth, giving him the right amount of deference combined with purposeful and meaningful resistance when he was being a bonehead.
Once the pack had started moving into position, they waited for the right moment. Paul and Seth found a back drainage door that was unguarded two levels down near the bottom of the massive domed distribution room where this enemy pack had made their home.
"Check in." Jacob ordered.
"We're good." Seth said right away.
"Found a couple of back channels off the room, so we're set up." Rebecca confirmed next.
"Alright, I'm gonna pull the trigger." Jacob announced, and then stepped to the edge of the guard rail which loomed fifty feet above the basin.
"Fuck!" Paul shouted through the link, as the sound of a metal door slamming open broke the silence. "Too many!"
Jacob looked down and found the entire enemy pack awake and funneling into the large double doored opening on the north side of the space. Jacob was about to jump down when a swift breeze moved past him.
"I need your power now" Isabella shouted towards her daughter, immediately drawing on her cloak and pulling it around her as she landed amidst the horde of giant wolves. She immediately began to attack, cutting down two before they even knew something was wrong. Jacob was stunned as she appeared, a spinning black whirlwind of death as wolf after wolf was flung away from her with a limp body and lifeless eyes. The enemy pack slowly realized they were being attacked from behind and turned on her. She backed up, her blade caked in blood dripping from the tip. The darkness of the room started to close in, the shadows starting to scream forcing several of the wolves to turn and run.
"Bad doggies, It's me you want." She taunted, her eyes full of anger and malicious glee. The nominal leader of the enemy pack lunged forward, followed by five of his most devoted followers. She cut his head off with a sidestep, and her movement flowed into the next one. She got through four before the last managed to gouge out a chunk from her side. In return she grabbed a handful of fur and flesh and tore out his throat. He was dead before he hit the ground.
The remaining wolves all attacked at once, their growls of fury sounding like a primal cry of pain reverberating through the tunnels and even up into the streets of Seattle, but the traffic drowned out the sound until it seemed like nothing more than a dog whimpering for a juicy bone. Isabella braced for the assault, having no illusions that this would be her death. Until she heard three sets of paws land behind her as Jacob, Leah and Rachel joined the fray. Together they worked their way through the rest of the mob until they got to Seth and Paul, who had fought so hard that nearly a dozen corpses surrounded them. Both were prone, and not moving, bleeding from cuts up and down their torso and legs.
Forks - January 30th
Eliza gasped as her mother began to draw on her power, she straightened up stiffly and clenched her teeth tightly to maintain a modicum of focus. Then she released all of her natural barriers, save for the memory of her conversation with Alice so that Isabella wouldn't have to strain to pull on her power. She didn't hesitate to give in, but her worry multiplied a hundred fold as she saw first hand what was happening. Watching helplessly from afar as Isabella faced off against far too many at once.
"Are you feeling okay?" Jasper's voice penetrated the haze she was suddenly in.
"No, I'm... I need to..." Eliza didn't even know how to finish her sentence as she felt her mother drop the cloak and give into her shadows. She felt sick, and leaned against her bike for support, climbing on top of it to maintain the ruse she was fine.
"What's going on?" He asked, almost reaching out to see if she was okay but stopping short and withdrawing his hand. He could feel the waves of worry and fear radiating from her. She sat for a couple of minutes with her eyes closed, watching the fight feeling utterly helpless. Then she saw the wolf take a slash at her mother, and reciprocal pain exploded along Eliza's left side. A phantom response to the real pain her mother was experiencing. She gritted her teeth and waited, hoping she wasn't about to watch her mother die. Then she heard Jacob, Leah and Rachel land and join her, and the tide turned quickly.
She let out a sigh of relief, and shut down her side of the link for a moment so that Isabella wouldn't be distracted with worry. A few minutes later she felt a familiar knock on her mental wall. Eliza immediately opened up hearing her mother's call fully.
"Eliza, find a Cullen, I don't care which one. Tell them we need Carlisle, immediately! I don't care what you have to do. Meet me at the house. We have two wounded and it's bad." Isabella's voice snapped with a sense of seriousness and worry that drove home the absolute urgency of her request.
"How are you transporting them?" Eliza asked, already knowing most of the details, except for Isabella's condition. She knew she was hurt, but couldn't tell to what degree.
"I'm gonna try my thing, the rest should be at the house in about an hour. Get Carlisle, anyway you can as soon as possible!" Isabella said almost glossing over the fact she was using her most powerful and dangerous gift.
"You've never tried it over such a distance, especially with two in tow." Eliza thought back worriedly, the nature of shadow teleportation was terrifying, and despite the obvious utility, Isabella rarely used the gift. A part of her was convinced she would enter into the space between worlds and never leave. Trapped forever in that endless darkness, the thought terrified her to the core. Curious, Eliza had gone through once, and hated the sensation vowing to never use it again.
"Five, Jacob, Rachel and Leah won't leave them." Isabella corrected quickly, obviously trying to wrap up the conversation before an argument started.
"It might kill all of you." Eliza had to get it out, she didn't want her mother putting herself in this kind of danger after narrowly surviving a battle where she was outnumbered almost ten to one.
"Risk I have to take." Isabella's tone made it clear that she wasn't just trying to cut off the argument, there was no point in even making the attempt. Her mind was set on her choice to use her gift to give these wolves a chance to live.
"Jasper is right here so I'll do what I can, see you soon. I hope." Eliza wasn't happy, but she wasn't going to argue for the sake of arguing. She could only hope that things would go well. Then she relaxed as the pain ended when Isabella dampened the direct connection between their two minds as she started her journey through shadow.
Eliza cleared her mind and focused on her surroundings again, then looked over at Jasper, "I need you to get a hold of Carlisle right now. We need his help. People are hurt."
Jasper's expression was puzzled, "what? What do you need?"
Eliza shook her head, growling at him, "I don't need your questions, I need Carlisle to meet me here in three minutes, or, I swear by all that is holy, I will go to the hospital and drag him out by his hair." Noting Jasper's shocked expression, she softened her tone, but only marginally. "Please. There are two gravely wounded, and they cannot go to a human hospital. I promise I will answer any question you have. If need be, tell him it is an official request for assistance from the Volturi."
Jasper gave her a quizzical look, and she sighed. "We'll owe him a favor, and like the Lannisters, the Volturi always pay their debts."
Jasper actually chuckled slightly, which inadvertently made Eliza like him just a bit more. Then he pulled out his phone and dialed Carlisle. Yet nothing about this made Eliza happy, her mother had gotten in over her head. Now she had told one Cullen the truth, and was about to rope in two more. That meant the entire coven was going to learn the truth, including Edward.
"Jasper? Is everything okay?" She heard Carlisle's voice. He was obviously concerned to hear from one of his children during school hours.
"No, I need you to meet me out front of the school right now. There's a major emergency. Don't waste time driving, run." Jasper's voice was calm but very grave, in an effort to convey seriousness of the situation.
"Tell him to bring suture kits, compound dressings and a fuckton of antiseptic." Eliza interjected, knowing her voice would carry and Carlisle could hear her.
Carlisle was silent for a moment, before answering. "Understood, I'll be there." Then the line went dead.
Jasper slid his phone into his pocket and then looked up at Eliza. "Are you going to tell me what this is about?"
Eliza shook her head "There isn't enough time right now, but I've made the promise so we'll answer any question you and your family has about me and my family." Eliza kicked over her bike and moved towards the entrance looking for Carlisle. Once she saw him she peeled out until she got to the edge of town and stopped once to check to make sure Carlisle was following, only to find that Jasper had come along.
"What are you doing?" Eliza demanded when she saw Jasper.
"I'm coming along to help." Jasper said in a tone that suggested there was nothing she could say that would convince him otherwise.
"We don't need your help." She responded instinctively, but Carlisle shook his head.
"I may need him, and he has remarkable restraint." Carlisle's statement made Eliza almost laugh, but she shrugged.
"Fine. Just keep up." She flipped her helmet visor back down and pushed the bike as hard as it would go. They were at the turn off in less than five minutes, a drive that would normally take thirty at safe speeds.
Both kept pace behind her, and Jasper took the opportunity to fill Carlisle in with what he did know. "She confirmed their status as Volturi, then offered us a favor unilaterally in exchange for your help."
Carlisle frowned, "If she knows me as well as she claims, she would know I would help without this favor."
"I'm not so sure." Jasper shook his head a couple of times, and then they remained quiet as they made their way down a long path of gravel until it eventually turned to paving stones. Neither had expected to find the house at the end of the drive, and both stopped in awe.
Eliza had stopped the bike and let it drop as she jumped off, pulling the helmet and gloves off and leaving them discarded on the ground behind her.
"Mom!" She called, and Leah came running out of the main house. "Eliza, is he here?" Eliza let go of her breath she had been holding since her mother had told her she was attempting a shadowwalk with five others. Then she nodded motioning with her head back towards Carlisle and Jasper. "They are in the main dining room, it's bad." Leah looked a bit desperate, and Eliza wanted to comfort her but instead she waved a hand forward, and the four of them quickly moved into the house.
Carlisle immediately began to examine the two men laid out on the long glass and metal table, blood pooling and running off onto the hardwood floor. Henry had started a couple of pressure dressings, but he was only trained in combat first aid and wasn't sure what to do with the broken bones and deeper lacerations and internal injuries.
"I need light and room." Carlisle said moving between the two so quickly Leah had trouble tracking him. "Jasper, call Esme, I need my full kit, blood, the x-ray machine and help."
Jasper was on the phone to Esme as soon as the words left Carlisle's mouth. Esme picked up on the second ring and a few moments later, Jasper was sprinting out the door to meet her and bring her to the house. Carlisle continued to work, stopping the bleeding first. Then began a visual examination, before pausing and looking around.
Jacob, Leah and Rachel were all standing against the far wall, tears streaming down their faces all completely nude. Henry was nearby ready to help if needed and Eliza was leaning against the far doorway with her eyes closed.
"Can they stay here longer term, we shouldn't risk moving them for at least a few days no matter their healing ability?" Carlisle asked, and Eliza nodded once.
"Of course. Are they stable?" Eliza asked, and Carlisle nodded.
"For now, until I get the rest of my equipment from home there is not much more I can do." Carlisle was still looking down at his patients as he removed his examination gloves.
"Good, there is one more patient." Eliza said, glancing up towards the ceiling.
"Why didn't you say anything?" Carlisle said, with a touch of frustration.
"Because she is being stubborn." Eliza said with a tired sigh. She knew exactly where her mother was, laying up in her room trying to will herself to heal. Eliza moved quickly towards the attic and gritted her teeth as she stepped aside for Carlisle to enter.
"He's here mom." Eliza said with a hesitant tone, not entirely sure how she was going to react to Carlisle's presence. The thick metallic smell of blood tugged at her thirst.
"Why isn't he downstairs, he needs to fix them." Bella said with hostility, not even attempting to hide her feelings.
"They're stabilized, please let me look at your wounds." Carlisle begged, and stood waiting for her response.
"Fine Carlisle." Isabella agreed with a resigned sigh. "Lights." The house AI immediately responded and the overhead lights flipped on. Several empty bags of blood were scattered on the floor in front of the couch she was laying on. She leaned up and met eyes for the first time with a man she had once thought of as a second father. She felt a twinge of the old pain, but tamped it down. Instead a small sneer curled her blood drenched lips. Eliza gasped taking in her mother's condition, her black pants and shirt were hanging off of her in tatters, her hair a mess, and her entire body covered in blood. A large wound was exposed on her left side, with several large gashes crisscrossing her stomach and rib cage on that side.
"Bella." Carlisle hesitated for a fraction of a second, muttering the name with longing and reverence. Isabella almost rolled her eyes at him before letting her head flop back on her pillow. Then he was at her side.
"I need to remove this." He asked before touching her. She nodded, but flinched as he tore it open. "How?" He muttered as he began to examine her wounds. Then he applied some glue to seal up the larger cuts, not bothering with antiseptic.
"Sutures will not work on us, but I've closed the wounds as well as I can. It looks like they are already starting to heal. You should be fine in about an hour at most." He said confidently, although he had never seen vampire physiology like hers and wasn't entirely sure his assessment was correct.
"Good, now get back downstairs. Seth and Paul are not dying today." She said in a voice dripping with hatred, the implied threat taking Carlisle aback. Carlisle nodded and started to turn to comply with her demand. "Carlisle, if we speak again do not use that name. I am Isabella now." He stopped at the top of the steps and nodded again, and without another word he headed downstairs.
"Mom, why didn't you call me?" Eliza needed an explanation.
"Timing, by the time we were in the fight it was too late. There were far more than we could ever have expected. At least fifty." Isabella kept her eyes closed, and spoke in her usual monotone.
"Fifty, how is that possible?" Eliza shook her head in confusion, there was no way there were enough shifters out in the world to gather fifty into one pack. There had to be something else going on.
Isabella shook her head. "No fucking idea. I'm pretty sure Jacob doesn't know either. They were untrained and their Alpha wasn't present, just a couple of untrained mutts trying to lead."
Eliza almost chuckled, a thin smile curling her lips ever so slightly upward. "Sounds like a shit show, I'm going next time."
"Alright." Isabella was in no mood to fight her.
"Promise." Eliza said with a note of seriousness that got Isabella's attention. She frowned, looked up and met her daughter's eyes.
"Pinky swear." Isabella managed a small smile, before collapsing back onto the pillow
"I'll hold you to that." Eliza said with a grin.
"I know." Isabella tried not to sigh, but it came out anyway. Eliza left without another word, but knew this was only the beginning.
As she was descending the stairs Esme and Jasper rushed in, lugging in a portable x-ray and a couple duffel bags of medical supplies. She followed and found Jacob, Leah and Rachel were wearing some of her clothes. Jacob was only in a pair of tight sweatpants. She looked at Henry who shrugged.
"Modesty felt important." Henry said simply, and Eliza nodded. She hadn't looked directly at Leah as a show of respect, but found Leah looking at her now with a heavy blush on her face.
"I didn't look." Eliza said, flashing Leah a soft smile.
"Thank you." Leah said not quite able to meet Eliza's eyes.
"Everyone out. We need to work." Carlisle ordered as he began to set up a makeshift surgery.
They all left reluctantly, meeting Jasper who was waiting in the living room. Jacob, Rachel and Leah all collapsed on the closest soft seat.
"Shall I make some food while we wait?" Henry offered, and Jacob nodded absently as he rested his head against the back of the couch he was sitting on.
"Food sounds perfect." Jacob sounded deeply tired.
"How many should we expect?" Henry asked with a polite smile.
"The rest of the pack will be coming. Including everyone we left down in La Push. There's twenty of us in total." Leah said with a soft sigh, imagining all the pups gathered in one place.
"Right, I'll see what we have." Henry started to leave the room with a strained look on his face but stopped at the door. "Actually, I'm going to go shopping. Any requests?"
"Meat." Rachel said with a small chuckle, although the worry and pain in her eyes was very close to the surface.
"Meat it is. I'll get some good grill options… for twenty." Henry almost started to laugh, but immediately headed out.
"We have two questions, Eliza." Jacob said when he finally sat back up. Eliza nodded once.
"Alright, if I have the answers." Eliza didn't even sit up, she just shrugged her shoulders and rested her hands in her lap as she leaned back in the recliner she had plopped down on.
"How did she do that?" Jacob asked, still feeling cold from the strange movement through shadows.
"She… It's hard to explain exactly. Mom sort of bonded with shadow." Eliza couldn't fully explain what happened, and didn't really want to think about it either.
"She moved like nothing we've seen before, she's faster and stronger than any vampire we've encountered. Hell, with those numbers they should've torn her apart." Jacob said sitting forward with a mildly concerned look on his face. He was sure about Isabella now, but he had no idea what to think about her abilities. In theory he trusted her, but a new breed of vampire terrified him to his core.
"We told you that our bond is unique, we still don't know why. Although we rarely let loose our full power or risk exposure and possible execution as abominations by our coven." Eliza didn't seem bitter, but she was clearly not thrilled the fact that she had been in hiding for basically her entire life.
"That's rough, hiding who you are." Rachel said with a heavy frown.
"It's just a precaution, Caius is very intolerant of, well, pretty much everything." Eliza shrugged, she really didn't want to talk about the council, especially Caius.
"Is this Caius one of the Volturi Council Isabella mentioned?" Leah asked drawing Eliza's attention towards her. Their eyes meeting and a soft smile curled up Leah's face. Eliza couldn't help but feel a touch of joy at causing someone else a moment of happiness. It was a strange thing to consider that in Leah she would have a partner, who would never ask for more than she could give. She was starting to see why imprints never stayed one sided for long.
"Yes…" Eliza was about to elaborate when Paul shrieked in agony. Rachel was on her feet, but Leah touched her arm, not restraining her but making her stop.
"You knew this would happen, he has to break his bones again to set them properly." Leah said with a pained expression, knowing her brother was likely next.
"I should be in there holding his hand, not some vampire who didn't even know his name an hour ago." Rachel's distress and desperation was making her chest tremble, as hot tears began to stream down her face, her focus entirely on the room where her husband was being broken in order to to heal.
"It's better if you don't watch that, and as much as I hate to admit it, Carlisle is the best doctor within a hundred miles." Jacob said, squeezing his sister's shoulder. She turned into him and he hugged her tightly.
"I should… He shouldn't... Paul... He can't die..." Rachel's voice was muffled and her body was shaking from the violence of her sobs.
"He won't die. I'm sure of that. I also made sure that he felt the love you just displayed for him." Jasper said, as everyone in the room realized he was still there.
"How?" Rachel looked at him through reddened eyes.
"He can sense and manipulate emotions. A vampire gift." Eliza explained giving him a dirty look. He nodded once and left the room to help Carlisle and Esme. No one bothered to even look at him as he left the room.
"Is that like Bella's shadow thing?" Jacob asked in confusion.
"Some vampires have certain unique gifts, my mother has two. One she had even as a human, a mental shield capable of blocking the mental powers of vampires. The other is something that happened to her. Which is very hard to even wrap my head around, so I'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say, I have a cloak which is why she was invisible to you when she jumped into the fray. When under the cloak everything is kind of blocked off. You can see, hear, even smell things outside the cloak but it conceals you perfectly. You could scream at the top of your lungs, and no one outside that protective barrier will hear you." Eliza was trying to keep the explanation of her abilities as simple as possible, but she wasn't sure she was all that successful.
Leah frowned as she watched Eliza. While she was desperately worried about her brother, Eliza was still at the forefront of her thoughts. "Alright, but how could she cloak herself? That doesn't make sense, you weren't there?"
Eliza nodded, "Our connection, the bond that was created when she bit me all those years ago. We can share thoughts, feelings and even one another's abilities. If we're within a few hundred yards of one another sharing powers is easy, it's hard if we're doing it over a greater distance like from here to Seattle." She was about to elaborate how much it physically hurt, but didn't want to worry Leah, she was already going through enough.
Jacob nodded very slowly, "I'm worried about Rebecca now, are you sure she won't be followed?"
"I got them out of the city first, but I couldn't continue the rest of the way with all of them." Isabella said as she entered the room. Not even Eliza was aware of her movement through the house.
"Mother, that was stupid." Eliza's mental voice scolded her mother, and Isabella sent back a mental shrug.
"I know. It worked, but if it makes you happy that door seems to have slammed shut for me now. I can no longer feel the shadow world, so that last trip may have been may last one." Isabella voice was neutral, but in a way she was happy to have possibly blown out the connection to the darkness.
"Don't ever do it again, even if it does open up for you." Eliza's voice turned to worry, and Isabella actually turned towards her and pulled her into a half hug.
"I can't promise that and you know it." Isabella said as gently as she could, but she would use every tool in her arsenal if needed and both of them knew it.
"Fine." Eliza said out loud, pulling away from the hug and crossing her arms and glaring at her mother.
"Did we just miss something?" Jacob said looking at the glare Eliza was giving her mother.
"Not important right now. Mom, Esme and Jasper are here along with Carlisle." Eliza's irritation came through her voice and she purposefully turned and sat on the arm of the couch next to Leah.
"I know. They need to be made aware of this issue. It affects them as well." Isabella said with a frown, glancing towards the room where she could easily hear Carlisle working on one of the wolves, issuing quiet orders to Esme or Jasper.
"Do you want me to…" Eliza started, but Isabella shook her head.
"No, It's time." Isabella sighed, and glanced at Eliza and gave her a small nod.
"There is something you should know. I told Alice." Eliza admitted with more than a little guilt, and Isabella didn't react well.
Isabella turned towards her daughter glaring at her intensely, "you did what?"
"Here, I held back the memory so that you weren't distracted." Eliza released the memory across the link and Isabella visibly flinched. Shook her head once, began to grind her teeth and then closed her eyes. A singular wave of pain escaped through the link, but she shut it down instantly. When Isabella opened her eyes, Eliza felt disheartened to see the same coldness. She had hoped the conversation she had with Alice would have more effect on her.
"I can't handle that right now. I… I'll deal with her later." Isabella said coldly, then looked towards the room where the Cullens were wrapping up their work.
"We'll need a stretcher to get them up to their rooms." Carlisle said to someone, but it was impossible to know who he had spoken to. Jacob looked towards Eliza.
"Do you have a phone I could use?" Jacob asked as he realized his own phone was back on his bike back in their safehouse on the outskirts of Seattle.
"Sure, here." She reached into her pocket and pulled out her cell and tossed it to him. He dialed the number from memory and it rang twice before picking up.
"Hello?" The voice was familiar, but Eliza couldn't quite place it at first.
"Tek, could you bring one of the stretchers from the lifeguard hut." Jacob's voice was softer as he spoke to her, the affection on his face made Isabella very happy for a second. Jacob had been miserable when she had known him, so desperately in love with her that it hurt every day to see that love in his eyes. Now that it was directed towards another she could finally feel the actual love she once had for him, as a brother of sorts. She knew a ember of that feeling still existed somewhere in the tatters of her soul, but she wasn't sure it was enough to forge anything more than a casual relationship with him.
"Got it, anything else? Food?" Tekali sounded appropriately concerned but kept the call almost professional.
"We have someone handling that." Jacob replied with a small chuckle. "Although I have no idea what kind of food to expect."
"We'll be there in twenty. I heard from Rebecca, they were very confused but are on their way. Should be arriving at roughly the same time. How are they?" Tekali let through a bit more of her worry, the unspoken question also asking if he was hurt.
"They're alive. We'll know more in a few. Carlisle is almost done. The rest of us are fine outside of a few cuts and bruises. Isabella got the worst of it, but she's already up and about." Jacob glanced at Isabella who didn't show any outward signs of injury at all.
"Carlisle Cullen?" Tekali asked with more than a little surprise.
"Yeah, it was him or a human hospital." Jacob said with a frown and a soft sigh of acceptance.
"Right. Well, I love you. See you soon." Tekali kept it short, although she wanted to say more.
"Love you too." He closed the phone and sighed again. "Carlisle, we have a stretcher coming." Jacob said loudly enough for Carlisle to hear him in the other room. The three vampires emerged from the dining room, Carlisle looking tired and lightly covered in blood. His usually perfect hair was messy, and his tie was missing. Esme was searching expectantly until her eyes fell on Isabella, her lips began to quiver.
"It really is you." Esme's voice wavered heavily, the emotions coming across in her eyes, body language and tone. She was utterly overwhelmed and shaken to her core at the revelation that her lost daughter was not only alive but standing not ten feet in front of her. "Bel… Isabella."
Isabella glared at her. The hatred on her face was stronger than she had shown Carlisle, and Esme practically fell back in response. "Thank you for helping Seth and Paul, now that your services are rendered we request that you leave this place and never return." Isabella said coldly. Her eyes did not leave Esme's, who broke eye contact and looked down in shame.
"I'll need to check on them daily until they have recovered." Carlisle insisted, looking rather severe. He tried to wrap a protective arm around his wife, but she wouldn't accept him. They looked at each other wordlessly for a moment, and he nodded.
"That is acceptable, but only you and one other can come to assist for the duration. After that, if any of your family trespasses onto our territory there will be punitive action, and remember the Volturi do not give second chances."
"So you are Volturi." Carlisle said looking a bit upset. "That explains some, but can you tell me what is going on?"
Rachel interrupted anything further by standing. "Before we get into that, are they going to be okay?"
Carlisle nodded very slowly. "They will be. They're in bad shape, they each have multiple broken bones, serious contusions and deep lacerations not to mention some major loss of blood. Seth had a spinal injury…" Leah made a noise that forced Carlisle to pause. "He has good autonomic and involuntary reactions to stimulus, so he should make a full recovery. They need rest and lots of it. I know you heal quickly, but I recommend bed rest for at least three to four days, to be absolutely sure they heal properly."
The relief in the room was palpable, as the entire group let out a deep breath no one realized they were holding. "Can I go see him?" Rachel asked quietly.
Carlisle nodded, "I would give him an hour or so before you do, he shouldn't move before the initial healing begins. After that you can."
"Is there anything else?" Isabella narrowed her eyes at him, as though she could read his thoughts. Carlisle wondered if she had that ability, and nodded once. "Paul did regain consciousness briefly, his injuries were a bit less severe. He mentioned he was still partially aware after they were both taken down. He didn't catch much, but he did overhear mention of an Alpha who reports to someone named Joham."
"Who or what is Joham?" Jacob asked with a deep frown and a touch of confusion.
Carlisle shook his head. "I don't know the name."
Then the room began to darken, and the wolves all turned towards Isabella whose eyes had turned completely black. She was stone still, her mouth set in a grimace. Yet she wasn't looking at Carlisle or Jacob, she was looking at her daughter who was seething with rage.
"Is he close, is he here in Washington?" Eliza hissed coldly.
Carlisle shook his head again. "I don't know, Paul didn't mention anything else before slipping back into unconsciousness."
"WAKE HIM!" Eliza practically screamed, her body shaking and the light in the room diminishing even more.
"I'm sorry it isn't safe right now." Carlisle said, shaking his head in fear.
"Eliza." Isabella said, placing a hand on her daughter's shoulder. As she spoke the lights in the room returned to normal. "I will find him."
Then Isabella blurred out of the room faster than anyone could track.
"No…" Eliza said, looking after her. "Where do you think you're going?" Eliza demanded, though she was certain she already knew.
"I'm going back to Seattle to track down that Alpha. This is the closest I've come to that bastard in years. The only reason I came back is because of the wolves." Isabella replied as she grabbed some additional gear that was stowed in her closet. Then she was out the window.
"Don't be stupid Mother, you are nowhere near one hundred percent, we may heal fast, but not that fast. I want him dead as much as you do, but you know there will be no trace to follow, especially after you burned their remains." Eliza said, sending her mother the impression of irritation and frustration. Isabella paused on the ground outside the house. "You also promised not to go off alone again. I'm supposed to be the rash and impulsive one, you are supposed to be the levelheaded one. You can't lead us anywhere if you're dead damn it!"
"It doesn't matter what I promised, he changes everything. I'm going back." Isabella sent back tersely, repressing most of her anger. "I'm not going to pass up even the slightest chance to find him. Take care of things here while I'm gone." Isabella started to move as she replied through the link, a tone of finality giving Eliza a twinge of fear.
Eliza did the only thing she could think of and jumped through the nearest window, shattering glass and splintering wood. She hit the ground at full speed and tackled Isabella into the soft ground, skidding to a stop. Jacob, Leah and Rachel all rushed out, followed by Jasper, Carlisle, and Esme. None of them were prepared for what they saw. Isabella and Eliza were locked in a stalemate, each pinning the other to the ground, covered in mud. Eliza seemed to have the advantage, but it was tenuous and as everyone converged upon them they turned into a blur that even the vampires had trouble following. When they stopped moving it was Isabella who had the upper hand, but it was short lived. They broke apart and began to stare at each other.
"You are not going without me. Not this time, not for something this important. These creatures are sloppy, young and stupid. Their leaders treat them as disposable. We will have another chance." Eliza said through the link after almost a minute of glaring at one another. Isabella fell to her knees, the tension in her shoulders relaxing. She looked defeated, but nodded.
"Together. I swear." She sounded resigned, but not upset. With that Eliza stood and held out a hand to her. Isabella grasped it tightly, and pulled her into a tight hug, one that Isabella returned just as tightly.
"Uh… what just happened?" Jacob asked, voicing the question for everyone there.
Isabella and Eliza broke apart self-consciously. "Sorry, we just had a small disagreement." Isabella said, most of her irritation gone. Seeing doubt on everyone's faces, she continued "I'll explain, after I have a second shower." She said, glancing down at the mud covering her from the neck down.
"And after I have a first." Eliza spoke up looking down at her ruined clothes with a squished up face.
Isabella glanced up at the hole in the wall where the living room window used to be. "Henry is going to be upset."
"Nah, he'll just get a contractor out here." Eliza shrugged it off, and started towards the house.
Isabella shrugged and followed. As Eliza made her way across the expanse of grass, Leah ran up to walk by her side. "I had no idea you were so much stronger than Isabella." Leah whispered, genuinely stunned.
"Are you kidding, any other day I'd be lucky to get out of that fight in one piece." Eliza laughed, genuine amusement crossing her face.
Isabella harrumphed, as she headed into the house ahead of them. Leah hadn't known Isabella's hearing was that good. Leah also noticed with a slight shiver that Isabella did not disagree with Eliza's assessment.
Eliza kept a grin on her face as she headed into the house with Leah at her side, "One time mom and another guard member got into an argument. To prove a point, she not only beat the crap out of Felix in a sparring session; but during the fight, she stripped him down to his underwear in front of the entire Volturi guard. He's never lived down from the Star Wars boxers. Personally I would've fought harder, I prefer to keep my underwear hidden thank you very much." Eliza explained.
"That's a shame." Leah retorted with a grin, then looked down in embarrassment. Eliza actually blushed, a soft rose showing up on her cheeks for a fraction of a second.
Author's Notes:
So yes, Isabella has a 'new' power. This was added for two reasons. One, it should exist within the power scope of someone who can manipulate shadows. Two, it solved a rather bad plot hole. The farthest west point of Seattle is 138 miles from Forks. Even cutting through forests and traveling at 100mph it would take more than an hour to get back to Forks. This is an inelegant solution, but it also allows for some interesting possibilities later on in the narrative. This also marks another big narrative point in the story. In the last chapter Alice learned about Isabella, but this is first real interaction with the Cullens. It was light on purpose, they are mostly stunned by her presence (especially Esme).
If you haven't been paying attention to parallels, we are rounding chapter 19 of the original. We have also removed the confusion about the relationship between Eliza and Isabella. There isn't a need to have the Cullens think they are romantically paired, especially since Alice already knows about their relationship. This does mean that the first interaction between Isabella and Alice (which I promise is coming soon) will be slightly different from the original.
A small word of advance warning, the next chapter is entirely new and will formally introduce some major external elements into the story. Anyone familiar with the original might have an idea of who is coming, but I will say that most of the chapter will take place in a windy city.
Next Up: The Rest of the World