Author's Note: Hello everyone again. I know it's been a long time, as I've gotten distracted by other projects and work but rest assure that I have every intention of finishing this story.

Chapter 22

Training

(Charlie)

The training was rather uneventful, almost boring other than the time I spent sparring. Jasper and Emmett mostly took turns sparring with some of the wolves and even showed me a couple of things. While I was still incredibly new to this life, I had picked up a lot of tricks. It surprised me how much fun this all was. I had expected from what the Cullens told me that I'd be more animal than rational being for the first few months, but I'd come through much like I was when I was human soon after that. But I found out shortly after my change was done that Bella had confidence in me; confidence that I'd been just as good as she had been.

We were missing Bella and Angela, who were off on Angela's first hunt and also Esme stayed behind in the house. I wondered how far they would go to keep her away from temptation. Granted, her first feeding from the slaughtered animal would be enough to slack her initial thirst, she would need to hunt on her own to learn how to control her new instincts. That had been the hardest thing I had to so when hunting; shutting off the hunting instinct when I needed to. I wondered what she would find as her favorite tasting animal.

"Impressive," Jasper complimented when I dodged his attacks for almost three minutes before he was able to surprise me when it was my turn again. But that had been a rouse. His compliment had one goal in mind and that was that it distracted me. He helped me off the ground where now a three foot crater existed from where he tackled me. "But you took your eyes off you opponent. That's the one mistake you must never make."

Bella had taken Angela into the forests to hunt. A couple of the others had wanted to come as well to make sure that Angela wouldn't be overly tempted in her first day as a vampire, but Bella was confident that at the current hour- it was long after midnight and on a Tuesday no less- that no humans would be in the forests. That and it was unusually cold for late October.

We kept sparring. Jasper was an excellent teacher and he kept using strikes that were as quick and deadly as a cobra. After about an hour I was able to read his moves and even counter some of them. He still largely had the upper hand, but I was slowly becoming more and more used to his attacks.

I looked at Garrett. He had been the one teaching me in Alaska. I could tell after a few sessions that Jasper was even better at hand to hand combat that Garrett was and wondered if I might pick up a few things from just watching the two of them.

"Garrett?" Edward asked, as he looked expectantly at Jasper and me.

"Yes Edward?" Garrett's voice having a little too much eagerness in it.

"You up for a little exhibition?"

Garrett's face lit up with anticipation. I knew from being with the Alaskans how much Garrett loved to spar, not that there was anyone in Alaska who could compare to his skill in hand to hand. "You or Jasper?" He asked.

Jasper also smiled expectantly. "Your choice," Jasper answered.

Garrett faced off with Jasper as the two began to circle each other as I backed away from the two of them and back towards Edward. The two moved so fast that before I became a vampire there would have been no way that I would have been able to see them. Now however, it was only two easy to focus the two of them.

Their strikes looked like that of the most venomous of snakes; quick, powerful, and most importantly deadly. Had they attacked a human with half of the force they did, he would had been instantly paralyzed at best.

"Five hundred on Jasper," I heard Emmett's booming bass from behind me.

It wasn't long before a lovely voice answered him. "You're on," Kate answered in reply.

I heard Edward sigh and then roll his eyes. "You'll never learn, will you Emmett?"

"What?"

Again Edward shook his head. "He's got a little bit of a gambling problem," Edward said to me focusing back on the two sparring vampires. "See how Jasper keeps Garrett just far enough away to make Jasper have enough time to react to the instinct to attack. It's part of Jasper's talent. He can sense the building rage in his opponent and that will give him time to prepare for the strike."

"Not quite as effective as mind reading though, is it?" I quipped back to a sly chuckle from Edward.

"Cheater," Emmett muttered in protest as he and Kate were still talking trash about their chosen combatants.

Again, Edward laughed at his brother. "Emmett thinks that when I use my talent, it's cheating."

"Is so," Emmett protested again.

I joined Edward chuckling at how much of a child Emmett was being before after a couple of seconds, Emmett started crying from pain. "OWWWW! Rose, dammit. What the hell are you doing?"

I turned to see Rosalie have his right ear twisted in her hand, as Emmett's right hand held where it would have been on his head. "The two month old is acting like more of a grown up than your eighty year old ass is!" She snapped back at him with a scowl as she handed his ear back. Emmett gave it a lick and then place it back to his head where, like magic it began to reattach itself to his head. After a few seconds, Rosalie even playfully flicked it again.

"Dammit Rose! Stop that."

I heard the sound of snickering laughter coming from the wolves, and even Billy's deep guffaws.

"That's how the sparring ends, of course," Edward said focusing back on the fight, "one of them losing a major limb or being pinned. You just saw Emmett demonstrate how we can heal from such an injury almost instantly, although that wasn't Rosalie's intention there." He chuckled, no doubt from whatever Rosalie's true intentions were. "Reattaching an arm or leg will take a little longer, and of course it will hurt like the dickens but it won't leave any permanent scar."

Seeing that any attempts at offensive strikes was getting him no where, Garrett refocused his posture into more defensive one. It was a strategy he had shown me on many occasions that was effective when one was fighting someone who had a large advantage in either speed or strength. I couldn't even count how many times that he had used my own strength and momentum only to have me pinned before I realized it.

Garrett was baiting Jasper, something I was only too familiar with. In fact, that had been the most important part of the fight training I had received from him; let your opponent make the mistake and counterattack when he least expected it. It had gotten boring as the two of them just circled for almost three minutes before Jasper, no doubt triggered by impatience finally sprung at Garrett. At the last second, Garrett dropped down and used a move that I had seen many times watching professional wrestling; a perfect drop toe hold. At the last possible second, Garrett dropped down onto his stomach and tripped Jasper. It was only too easy for Garrett, with Jasper now prone on his stomach for him to be restrained. Garrett's left foot was now firmly planted on Jasper's right shoulder blade and he had Jasper's right arm trapped in both of his hands.

Curses came from the fallen vampire, followed by a metallic shriek as Garrett finally started to twist on his arm to detach it. I knew what Garrett was doing. When we sparred like this, after the first time when he yanked off one of my legs to show how much it hurt, he always gave me to opportunity to tap out before he removed whatever appendage he had at his mercy. Of course, he didn't want me always to tap, since I needed to learn how to escape such a position, which I was slowly learning. But this time I could see he was affording Jasper the same courtesy.

After waiting a few seconds to see Jasper would not submit, slowly Garrett twisted Jasper's arm to remove it, almost 180 degrees from normal. As the shrieks got move and more disturbed, Jasper finally relented.

"Alright, alright," the defeated vampire groaned. "You win this round."

A proud smile filled Garrett's face as he slowly twisted Jasper's arm back to its original position, and then helped his up by Jasper's other arm.

"Damn it!" Emmett cursed again. I knew how bad of a sore loser he could be when I heard how much he cursed when Bella had tricked him into betting her a car, after using Alice's help. Bella had filled me in on the specifics later, of course. That I had to be good. She had done it; not killed anyone in her first five years now as a vampire, so I was confident that I could as well. It hadn't been easy, as when I left a few weeks ago, I nearly killed Angela. But what saved me was that I was still very full from my first hunt. The thirst, while it flared up, did not over power me.

"That will be all for today," Edward said to the wolves. "While you are welcome to stay for as long as you wish, there will be no more training for tonight."

"Next time?" Austin asked as he still held Leah in his arms. It made me feel happy for her, knowing that even though both of her parents were gone, she had finally found someone worth sharing her life with. And not only that, but apparently Seth had found his imprint in one of the other half vampire hybrids. Everything had worked out so well for all my friends that, for the first time, I was hopeful in the future.

We all sat in the clearing as Carlisle and Esme returned. Not many of the wolves remained, as only Jacob, Seth, and Embry stayed. Apparently, Angela's and Bella's hunt had gone very well, even if Alice had to return to give Angela some new clothes. Angela, from what Esme had said had seemed to get more of her prey's blood on her clothes than in her mouth. The most important thing was the two of them hadn't gotten anywhere near any humans, so Angela didn't even face that temptation today.

Angela's eyes had darkened just a little bit, but were still a very vibrant red. I knew first hand how long they could take to darken as my eyes were still a light amber.

"You did great Ang," Bella said as she led her out with the rest of us.

"Your wardrobe would beg to differ," Alice sang back mockingly with a disapproving scowl.

"Don't listen to her," Bella joked back. She added, "Just remember, minimum size equals maximum annoyance."

Alice looked like she was about to pout but Bella just started laughing at her. "Come on Alice, you know I'm just teasing anyway."

"Not that it's not true," Edward countered with a snickering look on his face.

"Now don't pretend that you didn't enjoy your wedding, Edward," Alice started to defend herself.

Edward smiled at the little pixie like vampire. Even though Alice was very short her spirit always made her seem much larger than she really was.

"That's more like it," Alice belled as she had a huge smile on her face. Then she was looking into the future again and I wondered if she was focusing on the fight or something else. When she smiled, I knew that it couldn't be the Volturi she was seeing. "And you'll love your wedding too Angie."

Angela looked shocked, just completely taken aback by the fact that Alice was looking at something as trivial as her wedding when something much more crucial was in the much nearer future.

But then she was lost looking out over the horizon again. I knew what this meant; she was seeing another vision and all of us were aware that the best thing to do was let it play out so we could get the maximum amount of information from it as possible. Alice's face would show no indication of what she was seeing, but Edward's would. Almost all of looked at him as Alice was consumed by what she was seeing for almost three minutes before she violently shook her head, returning her consciousness to us.

"What is it, Alice?" Jasper asked as his arms instinctively wrapped around her to offer whatever comfort he could.

"They're all coming," Edward said for her as Alice still looked almost horrified by something she had seen. "The only ones that not certain of is the wives and their bodyguard."

"How long do we have?" Eleazar asked almost in horror.

"They'll leave Italy the day after tomorrow. They'll be in Seattle by Saturday."

"And here?" Carlisle asked.

"That's the other part that's not certain," Edward answered his father. "Aro plans to let them all hunt after they land in Seattle."

"We can't allow that," Carlisle answered, his voice completely solemn and resolved. I agreed with him. Maybe that was part of the reason why my control was as good as it was, I was as committed to protecting those around from what was out there. I had done it when I was a cop and there was no reason not to continue doing this.

"How do we stop them?" Jasper asked to Alice.

Jasper shrugged.

From what Garrett had told me, this would be the hardest thing we would have to do. The Volturi were incredibly gifted, led by the young twins. Of course, Bella could neutralize their gifts effects on us but still she couldn't be everywhere at once. That led to another thought. What if we sent for them when they landed? Alice would be able to see the exact moment of their landing, and Carlisle could possibly get his hands on enough donated human blood to, at the very least slack their thirst.

Edward looked up at me intrigued. "That's an interesting idea," he commented. "It just might work to keep humans in the area safe."

"Will someone please tell me what the hell is going on?!" Emmett brayed, completely annoyed that he was behind.

"Later," Emmett answered. "Right now, Carlisle needs to start obtaining as much human blood as possible."

"Are you sure that's safe?" Esme asked looking right at Angela.

"I really can't be sure," Edward answered looking as concerned as Esme was, "but we cannot allow the Volturi to hunt anywhere within a hundred miles of here."

Esme relented since she knew Edward was right. They had to stay as inconspicuous as possible, knowing that any allegations could force their hands about a lot of things, up to and including murder. This had been the reason for the fight between Edward and his family after the accident with the van when Bella first came here. Bella knew something was very different about the Cullens after that but ended up falling in love with Edward as time passed. I really couldn't be mad about that anymore, since I had entered their world, first when I met Nessie for the first time, then even more so when Esme and Alice told me the whole truth. But still, we had to do everything in our power to protect the innocent. I had sworn an oath to that all those years ago when I first joined the police force. I would continue that now.