Chapter 14

Singer

(Edward)

I had known almost everything that Alice had told Bella, even the part about her seeing Angela and Ben as our kind. I was still a little surprised that she almost acted on it; with the recent acts of the Volturi, we could not risk creating any newborns at the present time. Simply having Charlie was risky enough.

When she had the idea to bite Angela, I nearly ran outside to stop Alice but that would have been even more dangerous. I always tried to let my family make their own choices even if I knew what those choices were, but in this case interceding would not have been possible. I would have needed to run at my full sprint, which at the very least would have exposed us as more than human and that was the best case scenario. More than likely, my rushing out would have surprised Alice (tough to believe, but spur of the moment decisions can still surprise her) and had that happened it could have been disastrous for Angela. At the very least, she would have growled at me and that would have made us further suspect. The very worst case would have been that Alice might have instantly killed Angela, which would have been something that Bella would have never forgiven her for, and it was very likely that Alice wouldn't ever forgive herself for it either.

With the fact that Bella was at the edge of the forest surrounding the house, I felt that my best course of action was to simply allow Alice to talk to Angela and hope that if something happened that Bella would be able to stop her. But Bella now knowing that it was a possibility for some of her- no, strike that- some of our high school friends to become vampires put a sense of hope in her that might be misplaced at the present time. We'd never be able to petition the Volturi to add to our coven since they already distrusted us too much; they'd never let us turn anyone. That left only one option. The Volturi would have to be overthrown. While it was true that, with Bella's help to neutralize Jane and Alec it was possible, still the odds of taking on the guard wasn't very good. But something brought me back to Alice's vision. Marcus had had enough of his brothers and wanted out. Chelsea's mate, Afton was the most loyal to Marcus since he understood the pain of losing his mate. If Aro tried anything on either Afton or Marcus, Chelsea could revolt which would start the collapse of the guard by destroying their ties to Aro and Caius. Only a few of the guard were loyal to Aro or Caius without Chelsea's influence; unfortunately the most powerful ones were. But still the odds would be much better if we only had to contend with two of the ancients plus Jane, Alec, and Felix.

Carlisle was in his study, so my best course of action was to talk to him about what Alice had seen about the Volturi. He would better know how to handle them since he spent a lot of time with them, especially Aro. "Carlisle," I said upon entering the room at a forced whisper which would still be able to be heard by everyone in the house.

"What's troubling you, my son?" He asked smiling as he looked up from a journal article he was reading.

By now everyone knew something was on my mind. The family did not eavesdrop on purpose; it was just a product of everyone having insanely good hearing.

Carlisle opposed violence, and he saw firsthand how badly revolutions can turn out. A parody of a Ralph Waldo Emerson quote came to my mind. 'If you're going to shoot at the king, don't miss.' This was exactly what we would have to do to take out the Volturi, and if we failed then all of our kind would be gunning for us.

"Alice saw something," I started not sure how much I should tell him. I waited a minute and was surprised when he looked so supportive.

"And?" Carlisle asked expectantly. His eyes were nervous; I didn't need my gift to tell that.

I should have known better than this. Telling Carlisle first might just be the dumbest thing that I could do. The Volturi still were his friends… at least some of them. He always felt incredibly guilty for Marcus because of the loss of his mate. It was true that no one really knew who killed Didyme except me of course.

"And I don't think you'll like what she saw," I answered him timidly. I was relieved somewhat when Eleazar entered as well. The two of them knew the Italians better than almost anyone else, since they escaped from them. "She saw the fall of Volterra."

Carlisle was understanding, but Eleazar was shocked. No one had ever tried to take the city because it simply could not be taken. There was always a contingent of the guard there at almost all times, excepting once; that being about four years ago now when they all came for us. No supernatural could have foreseen it so no one was either brave or foolish enough to try.

I had to elaborate more. "All of them; Aro, Caius, Jane, Alec. All of them guard too, except for Marcus. He's had enough of Aro and is ready to defect. No longer is Aro bothering to hide his lust for control and power and it makes Marcus sick."

Carlisle understood exactly what Marcus was feeling. Aro had been coming closer to this path at the end of Carlisle's time in Italy. Marcus's first concern was always for the law and if he knew who actually killed his mate, he may had challenged Aro to a duel a long time ago. If it came to a fight between the two of them, it would be interesting. While Aro would now exactly what Marcus was planning when Marcus got his hands on Aro, it would only be for milliseconds at a time. And Marcus was a much better fighter than almost all of the guard; a fact that not many in the guard actually knew.

That brought another possibility. Alice saw the ancients and the guard coming here. We'd have the upper hand in the region, but still that would leave many humans to be put in extreme danger which included many of our friends. The Volturi had been adding to their numbers expecting a fight for the past three years and would be able to feed on the locals. Jasper was certain that they would send an advanced force to if nothing else scout the area, much like he would have done during the Civil War as a member of the cavalry, but even Alice wasn't sure who would come or when.

Then there was another possibility. Charlie's newborn stage appeared to be progressing far faster than any of us were expecting. Not as fast as Bella's did, but still incredibly rapidly. I heard Charlie's muffled thoughts in the edge of the property. They were waiting for something before returning home; I assumed on Angela to leave as not to be even more temptation for him. I needed to ask Eleazar now about something.

"Have you gotten any more of an indication from Charlie as to his gift?" I asked Eleazar anxiously.

Eleazar shook his head frowning. "Not really. I feel whatever it is getting stronger, and can tell that it had something to do with fire but other than that, I just can't really get a read on it." He strained himself trying to search towards Charlie again, rubbing his hands to his temples to help him concentrate. He remained that way for a few minutes, completely motionless except for rubbing his head before groaning in frustration. "It's almost as if he's got some form of a shield too."

I nodded. "Ever since I met him, Charlie's been difficult to get a read on. Unlike Bella, who I am still completely kept out by unless she wants to let me in, with Charlie it just takes a lot of concentration… even still." Eleazar nodded in understanding as to why he was having so much difficulty with this. I added hopefully, "Maybe even his shield will be as strong as Bella's."

Once again, Eleazar shook his head. "That's not going to be his gift. I can only assume that if Bella's mother was changed too, her gift would be more similar to Bella's. But still, Charlie has some shield but that isn't his talent. His gift will be offensive in nature."

I smiled. At the current time, offensive fighters was what we needed. Jane and Alec, in physical combat could be easily neutralized. That still left many skilled fighters, that Emmett and Jasper would be all too eager to get their hands on.

"Was there anything else?" Carlisle asked placing his right arm around my shoulders. "Surely that wasn't the only thing bothering you."

"Well, there was one other thing," I started slowly. I wasn't sure if I should say what I wanted to in front of Eleazar. But he was one of Carlisle's closest friends, and Tanya was close to becoming Charlie's mate which would link our two covens- no families even closer.

"Yes?" Eleazar smiled. "You know that we're committed to doing the right thing and helping you."

I smiled, now confident in telling him.

"Alice saw some of Bella's friends being changed. She isn't sure yet on the details yet, but it's at least two of them, plus she lost sight of one other and she can't figure out why. And Billy Black has started to become cloudy."

They both pondered this for a moment. Ben Cheney's best friend Austin Marks, the two of whom stayed behind in Pullman at Washington State while Angela came home to tell her parents about the two of them getting married and also to ask Alice to do their wedding, had been much the same way as Billy had been for a few weeks to Alice before he completely disappeared. Alice had seen this before, but then I remembered something that Jacob had said. Leah was out of town looking at colleges, and included on her tour was WSU, along with Idaho and Boise State. That had to be it, Leah and Austin were simply meeting together, maybe even becoming very good friends.

Then I remembered something that Angela thought as she pulled onto our property. She received a phone call from Ben and he told her that Austin had met a girl the last evening, and she was very pretty. One of the girls from La Push in fact. This was it; it had to be Leah. The two of them had hit it off and that was why Alice was losing Austin. His future was getting intertwined with Leah's.

But that still left Billy. Most of the elders of the Quileutes had been wolves at one time, but the older ones all stopped phasing long ago. In fact Billy's last phase had been more than thirty years ago. It made no real sense as to why Alice would be losing his future unless…

My thoughts went to the story of the third wife. Taha Aki was so enraged after the sacrifice of his third wife that his wolf form sprang forth, even though it had been more than fifteen years since his last phase. It made sense; with enough rage even a wolf long since his last change could get triggered.

Just then there was about to be a knock on the door from Tanya. She resented the fact that she couldn't go with Charlie on his first hunt, but Carlisle was able to convince her that Bella by herself could handle him best. I waited for the extra two seconds for her to knock; she had known that Carlisle and Eleazar were both in the study and wanted to talk to them even though I could provide more insight into what she wanted to ask.

I was a little surprised when Carmen came in with Tanya, mainly because her thoughts were always so quiet compared to most of our kind.

"What is bothering you, my child?" Eleazar asked with his gentle smile on his face. Even though Tanya was the leader of the coven, Eleazar and Carmen always seemed more like parents to the sisters than anything else. I couldn't help but think that the vegetarian lifestyle fit his gentle nature well.

"It's the way," Tanya started to the older vampires before she wasn't sure how much they'd be able to share with them.

Luckily Carmen was there to finish Tanya's question. "She still feels a pull to Charlie and isn't sure why."

"Oh," Eleazar and Carlisle both said almost in unison. I could tell that neither of them really knew either. Luckily I did, as I felt the same way towards Bella.

"He's your la tua cantante," I said softly. Even though she had never heard the phrase before, she was guessing what it meant and wasn't that far off. So I elaborated. "When Charlie was human, his blood 'sang' to you."

Tanya cut me off trying to explain herself, "But now he's a vampire. He doesn't have blood."

"He does, but it was never his blood that sang to you; it was his soul." Carlisle smiled at me. He knew that I finally was admitting that he was right all along; our kind still did possess souls, and it was up to us as to how light they would be. "Aro told me a few years ago that la tua cantante was when a human's blood sings to us, but as I learned earlier from James about Alice, but didn't know at the time, that it was much more than that. Bella smelled simply irresistible to me, because I was drawn to some much deeper than just her blood. It was true that she smelled tempting to most other vampires when she was human, but to me there were no words to describe it. I heard your thoughts about Charlie; he smelled the same way to you."

"But Alice," Carlisle started but I interrupted him.

"Bella was going to be Alice's best friend," I said but that wasn't right. Best friends didn't go far enough. "The two of them are like sisters; that's why Bella smelled so good to her."

"I guess that makes sense," Eleazar said looking confused.

"I didn't know how Esme smelled to Carlisle when she was human, nor do I know how Emmett smelled to Rosalie, but I venture it was similar to the way Charlie smelled to you." Carlisle nodded to me. I could only assume he was confirming that indeed Esme smelled the same way I was describing to them when the two of them first met. "Why don't you try talking to him?" I asked softly to Tanya.

"What if he doesn't like me?" Tanya sounded way too scared of something that couldn't even be a possibility.

"Are you kidding me?" Carlisle asked sarcastically. "Charlie's absolutely smitten with you."

I nodded my affirmation. He was right, and now all Tanya needed was a little courage.