~ Chapter 39 ~

I don't want to be hostile.
I don't want to be dismal.
But I don't want to rot in an apathetic existence either.
See I want to believe you,
and I want to trust
and I want to have faith to put away the dagger.
But you lie, cheat, and steal.
And yet I tolerate you.
Veil of virtue hung to hide your method
while I smile and laugh and dance
and sing your praise and glory.
Shroud of virtue hung to mask your stigma
as I smile and laugh and dance
and sing your glory while you
lie, cheat, and steal.
How can I tolerate you?
Our guilt, our blame,
I've been far too sympathetic.
Our blood, our fault.
I've been far too sympathetic.
I am not innocent.
You are not innocent.
No one is innocent.
I will no longer tolerate you
Even if I must go down beside you.
Because, no one is innocent.

The vampire stood stock still as he peered out of the fifth story window of his spacious apartment. He was daydreaming again, of a puzzle that seemed as distant and hard to define to him as the faint hints of trees edging the horizon of the cityscape. This was his city, or at least he was the guardian of it. The Caravelli family might have ruled the underworld in this city, but it was his duty to protect the humans. It fell to him to catch one of his kind that was making waves that he couldn't let continue no matter the cost.

A quiet feminine voice drifted up from behind him, "Thinking about the Morgan case again?"

"Am I that transparent?" The brooding vampire responded after a moment, turning away from the window to look at his oldest and dearest friend, though given the very limited nature of their social circles it wasn't exactly something to brag about. He could count his friends on one hand, and still have enough fingers to grip and fire the gun he carried; though the gun was mostly for show. It helped in dealing with the human criminals if they saw he was armed.

"No, I just know you." The dark haired woman said with a sly smile, then looked down with a bit of sadness. "We'll catch him, we always do." She said finally after staring at her feet for a moment. He looked back at the window with a deep sigh.

"If we don't, the damn Volturi won't wait very much longer to step in and we'll be lucky if they only kill half the vampires in town." He lowered his head in thought. The last thing they needed was Volturi dogs snapping at their heels. Chicago had enough problems without them decimating the population in their normal dropping a nuke into a hole to take out a gopher approach..

"You know that's hyperbole, Oliver. The Caravelli's are getting too powerful for them to just show up. The Volturi will just find our little monster and be done with him." Emma tried to placate his fears, but she knew better. The Volturi wouldn't hesitate to crush the Caravelli family, if they found it convenient. Not to mention the handful of individuals and smaller covens would all be suspect and likely executed. If Volturi descended on the city, and worst came to worst, they might have to run. At least they had a lot of capital stowed away for just such an event. She didn't like the idea of leaving their friends behind, but how much could they really do against the Volturi. At least no one knew of their gifts, she had heard enough stories about the Volturi's interests in special talents to be wary who they told about them.

"Perhaps one can hope, but Emma, you know the Caravelli's don't protect the rest of us independents. Even if we do odd jobs for them on occasion." He hated associating with the family. The ruthless way they conducted their business was unpalatable to him, so she had to handle most of their interactions with what was basically the vampire mafia, the thought of it still made him smile. As a human he would've found the notion hilarious, the reality of it though, was terrifying. He frowned and his eyes flicked over her expression. "What is it?"

"Zoey called. There was another attack." Emma admitted reluctantly. Zoey had phoned a couple of minutes earlier with the news. She was out shopping and must have had the police scanner on in the car.

"I wish she wasn't so involved, she's too close to our world." Oliver said in displaced frustration. He was irritated with the case, not with Emma's timing or the fact that Zoey was involved in their business, even though it exposed her to vampires more than he liked. Zoey was ten years old when they found her hiding behind a couch after a particularly horrible vampire attack. Ever since the Caravelli bosses laid down the strict restrictions on human feeding, Oliver and Emma had been given a lot of work. They were the go to investigators for any mysterious or suspicious killings the family or human authorities couldn't figure out or didn't have the time to handle themselves.

Zoey was a liability for them though, so they took her in. They both were wary of having a human around, but they refused to condemn her to death, since she was far too young to turn, but old enough to know that what she was dealing with wasn't human. There really wasn't any other option. No one challenged the vampire's "kill or convert" law. Fortunately, after a couple of months the two of them had both fallen in love with the girl, and they became a strange soft of family, since Emma and Oliver were just very close platonic friends. After a lot of back and forth, they promised Zoey that when she was eighteen, they would give her a choice. Her birthday was in three days. Strangely, while Zoey seemed relaxed and confident about her eighteenth birthday approaching, Emma had been fretting about it for a month.

"Where's the body?" Oliver held back the irritation from his voice. She should've started with that.

"Zoey just texted you with the address." She said just after his phone started to vibrate.

"You coming?" He asked as he pulled the phone from his pocket. He assumed she'd want to go, but he knew better than to proceed from that assumption, since he never knew what kind of mood she was in.

Emma nodded once, she needed some violence. That created a twinge of pain inside, drudging up the long past. Emma and Oliver were just the latest in a series of names they had used in their long travels. They had lost their human names long ago, when almost by mutual consent they had agreed that there were too many bad memories associated with those pasts. Those fuzzy memories filled her with a dark anger, which she often funneled that into a narrow focus, none of which would've been possible without Oliver, he had helped her work though her issues... mostly, and by doing so facilitated the shape of her current personality.

They crossed the city in mere minutes, the twilight masking their movements over rooftops and along streets that were emptying out just before the evening rush. They paid the usual bribe to one of their friends on the human police force to get close, thankfully because of the backlog of cases, homicide detectives were slow to arrive. Emma spread out her mind, as Oliver touched the still warm body of the college boy whose neck had been ripped apart.

Emma searched out within her gift to scan the surface thoughts of everyone around her in search of their prey. From her decades of practice she could easily determine that most of the minds in her hundred yard range were human, but one stood out. She zeroed in on it, and smiled as she felt the semi-familiar tenor of the monster's mind. She had run into him once before, but they had never been this close. Her only thought was that he was baiting them for some reason.

Oliver pressed his hand against the wound slightly, not hard enough to disturb the scene, but definitely close enough to establish physical contact. Oliver closed his eyes tightly, and started to search. The images started to flow almost immediately, as was the case of all of the recently dead. Inanimate objects were easier, different, more ordered. Oliver suspected that his gift touched on the residual memories of a formally living creature, which were often random and unhelpful. Of course his gift didn't work on the living. That's was Emma's department.

"Got him." Emma whispered.

Oliver didn't notice, he was swimming through the flood of things this boy had held onto in his final moments. His last girlfriend's face and breasts, his father's proud smile after he had been accepted into the University of Illinois, his mother's tears when he said goodbye before he left for Chicago, the voice of the friend who had invited him to a house warming party on this side of town, the presence of the man who had come up from behind and torn... the images stopped short. Oliver frowned, he was too late. There wasn't enough there.

He stood and looked around, Emma was gone.

"Shit. I hate it when she does this." He picked up her scent trail, and followed without even a wave to his cop friend.

The trail ended at a towering wall, and he glanced around him quickly before scaling it. On the roof he found her stone still, locked into a mental tether with a vampire on the other side of the roof. The vampire also looked like he was frozen mid-stride, unable to move a muscle.

Emma didn't like this one's thoughts, they felt dirty and vile to her. Yet she wrapped her mental arms around his mind, and stopped him in place more effective than any chain. She then started to root through his memories, searching for the connection to the Morgan case. It wasn't a pleasant experience for her captive, nor did she make any attempt to make it so.

This wasn't a passive scanning of thoughts, or even a cursory reading of what was on the vampire's mind. No, this was a violation of the worst and deepest sort. She plunged viciously into his mind with no regard for privacy or decency. Normally it would pain her to be so intrusive, but in this situation she reveled in agony it caused She could vaguely feel Oliver by her side when she finally found that poor girl's face in his memories.

"You deserve pain." She said into his mind, and began to twist it. His body clenched in an involuntary spasm, contorting from the mental illusion she implanted. But something was wrong, even under the pain she was inflicting, she felt a surge of pleasure, and the sense of success. He was too confident. It was a trap! Oliver's hand landed on her shoulder at the same time she jerked her mind from the vampire's. "We have company." She spat out as she expanded her ability outward, pushing it as far as it would go. There she felt the minds of nearly a dozen vampires and at least eight other dog… creatures of some kind some kind, except the lightest skimming of their surface thoughts gave her a sense of being fractured and twisted.

"Go, I can keep them still long enough to get away." She said as she tried to reach into all their minds at once. It would keep her totally immobile, exerting that kind of control required absolute concentration. She didn't wait for his response, as she expanded her mind outward. Her touch was ruthless as she did her best to lock every one of the creatures immobile. While she had done it to the vampire they had been chasing, he was just one being, She had never tried to effect so many physically before, and she met with different levels of success. But she managed to either completely immobilize some while partially paralyzing others enough that they couldn't move well,

"Not a chance." Oliver said in refusal, even though he was relatively certain she couldn't hear him. The thought of leaving her behind was reprehensible to him. Without waiting, he gathered her up in his arms and started to run. She kept a hold of the minds for as long as she could, but far too soon they were outside of the range of her abilities. It had taken him only moments to exceed that range, they were barely one hundred yards away from the building when she couldn't reach them any further.

They both heard the screams and howls that came the instant the group of monsters was released from her control. She didn't bother pushing out of Oliver's grasp as he ran, her weight wasn't slowing him and she was far too drained at the moment to easily keep up his pace. She knew where he was headed, their only escape at this point was to make it to the water, only she had no idea where they would go from there.

She didn't need to delve into his head to know the same question was on both of their minds.

What the hell just happened?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXX

The funeral split up as Isabella and Eliza pushed the pile of dirt Emmett had created from digging the hole back in. Then they tamped it down, smoothed it out, and gently placed the grass Emmett had pulled up carefully back on top. Once they had filled in the hole, they paid another minute of respect to Henry's memory, before turning and heading toward the camp fire where everyone else had gathered.

Eliza sat down next to Leah as they approached the fire. Bree sat herself down on the other side of Eliza, and then smiled when Rosalie almost immediately sat down on the other side of her, Emmett immediately followed suit taking his place next to his wife. Seth looked slightly put off at the seating arrangements, and contented himself standing behind the group. He didn't look too out of place as some other members of the pack remained standing slightly outside the circle of the fire too.

Isabella found a place next to Alice, who immediately slid her hand into Isabella's. Eliza noticed that once again, Alice had an instantaneous effect on her mother's emotions. It wasn't like Isabella's anger was gone, rather it much less dominant, suppressed by other more pleasant emotions. Eliza wisely chose not to make any comment on it.

As they settled in, Jacob looked up with a wry smile on his face. "You're back less than two weeks and we've already had two emergency council meetings. Which is more than in the past ten years. Totally a coincidence, I'm sure." The teasing tone in his voice kept it from being insulting.

Isabella's lips quirked up in a small smile for a brief moment. She looked around at the faces of everyone present and realized that they were all staring and waiting for her to speak. "Eliza has filled you all in on what's going on?"

Jacob made a 'sorta' motion with his hand, glanced around at his pack and the council before returning his eyes to Isabella. "She told Leah the very basics after she woke up. The Volturi has cancelled the alliance with us, and have or will send a group of vampires to attack us. Enough to warn us to prepare while you were unconscious. Honestly I'm surprised we got that much, I don't think a locomotive could have dragged her from your side."

Isabella had a curious expression on her face when she glanced at Eliza who shrugged slightly. "I didn't want to blurt out everything in the Cullen's house. I didn't know who might over hear. I wanted a chance to talk to you first." Isabella's brief distraction didn't go un-noticed.

"You kinda told me to shut up too." Bree interjected a little timidly.

"I did? I so don't remember that." Eliza sent with a slight cringe. She felt horrible at the idea of talking down to Bree.

"It's okay, I wouldn't have said anything anyway." Bree offered happily, needing them to know she was trustworthy.

"No, I'm sorry. I was probably half out of my mind at the time. I probably said it because I knew you weren't aware of all of the politics and ramifications of the Volturi." Eliza was visibly wincing at this point. If she had told Bree to shut up, she probably hadn't done it nicely, and Bree was being too cool about it.

"I know, I really am okay with it. You were gasping for breath before falling unconscious again. I honestly don't hold it against you." Bree pressed up against Eliza for a few seconds, which was a welcome reminder that she was growing more and more comfortable with her as a sister.

"Eliza, Bree I'm really happy that you're bonding, and I'm sure we're all shocked that Eliza has a habit of putting her foot in her mouth from time to time, but could we talk about this later?" Isabella interjected as gently as she could. She didn't want to break up the bonding moment, but this was a meeting she called and her attention had to be focused on it.

"Um, yeah sorry." Eliza said still feeling a little upset that she snapped at Bree.

"You didn't yell at me or anything, just kind of told me to keep my mouth shut about the Volturi. Anyway, It's not like we're interrupting the conversation." Bree said with a bit of cynical confidence. It made both Isabella and Eliza smile inwardly at her. She was starting to come out of her shell already, and it made them both very proud to be a part of her life. "But this is important to you Mom, so I'll shut up, for now."

"I take it that there's more to the story?" Quil asked quietly, looking up at Isabella who turned away from Bree with a bemused expression on her face. Then he motioned with a meaningful glance at the remains of the house. He had refrained from inquiring more deeply the instant they arrived because of the solemn nature of the funeral, but he wasn't going to keep his mouth shut any longer.

"A little bit." Isabella admitted, she seemed to hesitate; struggling with how to put her thoughts into words as a surge of conflicting emotions rose up inside her. She was a little bit surprised by her own reactions, since she hadn't really had a problem controlling herself all day. She looked towards Eliza and Bree who were both staring at the structure clearly lost in the painful memories it conjured. No wonder her emotions were suddenly so hard to handle, she narrowed her connection to her daughters slightly, which gave her a bit of peace, and then she gave Alice's hand a gentle squeeze, which calmed her even more.

"I think we deserve to hear the entire story." Quil almost demanded in a firm tone of voice, Isabella met his glare and noted the hardening of his expression.

Out of the corner of her eye, Isabella noticed Rosalie stiffen and begin to bristle as she drew away from Emmett. Discomfort and a touch of hostility crept into her eyes as she stared at Quil. Isabella shifted to intercept the blonde from getting in his face, but found herself yet again surprised when Rosalie took a deep breath and settled back into her husband. Little by little Isabella was growing fond of her new coven mate, who was clearly trying to work against her normal impulses and make her current situation work.

Isabella turned back towards Quil, and then surveyed the faces of the rest of the gathered pack and council members. Colin seemed to be the only one glaring at her with open hostility. "What Eliza told you was true. The Volturi Council dissolved the alliance with your pack for less than honorable reasons."

Colin's stood and raised a hand in protest before Isabella could continue. "I told you! We ally with vampires, and the first thing they do is turn around and admit to breaking that alliance before the ink is even dry. Now they are actively trying to kill us, and we sit here and talk with them? This is nonsense! Why are we even here? And why are members of the Cullens here?! We have no alliance with them."

"God, you really love to wave your douchebag flag around whenever you get a chance don't you?" Eliza sneered, she wasn't about to let him forget his actions from the last council meeting.

Isabella's voice cracked like a whip, cutting off any further comment from Eliza who had opened her mouth to continue, and Colin who looked like he was preparing to get right up into Eliza's face and challenge her. "If you would let me explain, you would have all of those answers and more. Or would you like to flap your mouth some more and make assumptions that will only make an ass out of you."

She paused to look around at everyone pointedly, in a visible challenge to anyone to make another interruption before she finished. Colin took one look at her dangerous expression and sat back down looking a little defeated. Quil stifled a smirk, and Eliza bit her lip to keep from smiling widely.

"The Volturi Council decided in their own circuitous way to terminate the alliance and attack you. Then they ordered us to attack you. We refused. Aro and Cauis didn't take our refusal philosophically, they reacted as they always do when someone disagrees with them... With violence. Except this time they decided to pass their judgment on us from a far, setting off explosives built into the very foundation of our house." Isabella motioned her head towards the house as evidence.

"Talk about shoddy construction." Eliza added with a smirk. This elicited several groans, but Isabella actually smiled at Eliza's slightly inappropriate humor.

"That's seems insane... they blew up your house over a philosophical disagreement or because you disagreed with their orders? Do they treat all their coven members with such flippant loyalty and obvious disdain?" Quil said incredulously.

"Both actually. I knew how they would react, their track record for people refusing orders of any kind is very consistent. So it was something I was prepared for... well not the explosion. That admittedly was unexpected. The Volturi are all about the ends justifying the means, if a member of the Coven is causing problems they generally have one solution, execution." Isabella said rather ruefully. She had always thought of them as that ruthless, but she didn't quite grasp how much they feared her and Eliza until they stooped to such duplicitous methods.

"That's... I guess there's no way I could understand something like that. No offense, but I don't know how a vampire mind works." Quil seemed to be pondering the idea, but the slight scowl of frustration on his face spoke to his inability to grasp the concept.

"None taken." Isabella shrugged, he was right there was no way he could understand how a vampire's mind worked. The Quileutes spent a vast majority of their history avoiding their blood enemies, and the idea of coexisting peacefully never occurred to them until the Cullens. Why would any of them have spent the effort to understand their enemy, besides figuring out new ways to defeat them.

"I still can't believe they blew up your house." Quil repeated staring at the mostly blackened rubble that looked like a crushed insect in the limited light of the twilight sky and the chaotic dancing lights cast from the bonfire.

"Well, it was either that or someone let Jacob cook." Tekali quipped with a wry smile.

"Hey, I'm not that bad." Jacob managed an offended face for all of three seconds before he grinned sheepishly.

"Honey, I love you, but you can burn instant jell-o. He can't even make toast without setting off the fire alarm." Tekali said in jest, although it wasn't entirely untrue. Jacob's face grew a little red from embarrassment, but he couldn't help but chuckle.

Quil held up a hand to redirect the conversation back to the issue at hand. Jacob quickly stopped and dropped his smile, and Tekali nodded once in respect towards Quil. "There's one thing I don't understand. Why the sudden change, and why did they insist on having you two begin the assault on us? That seems like a major and rather sudden reversal." Quil asked, his voice remaining serious.

Isabella's eyes narrowed, "A couple of reasons. First is that they were informed about the relationship between Eliza and Leah. They definitely did not approve of that."

"Who, I mean I certainly didn't tell anyone?" Leah spoke up, glancing at Eliza and an obvious thought occurred to her and her eyes flicked involuntarily toward the boulder marking the grave where they'd just buried Henry.

"No, he wasn't to blame. No the blame falls squarely on the shoulders of our shit stain of a brother." Rosalie sighed and growled at the same time, then hung her head in a bit of shame. She had bought his lies for nearly two centuries and it made her furious just thinking about it. Bree couldn't stand to see her in such pain so she wrapped an arm around her waist and wormed her head under Rosalie's arm so she could rest it against her chest. A small smile flicked across Rosalie's face as she squeezed Bree's shoulder gently.

"Former brother." Emmett added spitting on the ground in disgust. The hatred behind his eyes really didn't suit him, and Isabella made a mental note of dealing his rage sometime very soon. She was well aware of the effects such anger could have, and didn't want him to dwell on it.

The Quileute's all had a similar reaction; shock and anger. Most amounted to not much more than glares and raised eyebrows, but a few looked downright hostile. The focus of course was all centered on Rosalie, who was too lost in her own personal demons to notice.

Jacob turned and stared at Isabella, silently demanding she meet his eyes. Isabella shook her head slightly, avoiding Jacob for several long seconds before finally meeting his unspoken question. She wasn't sure how strongly he would react to the answer, especially since it validated everything he had said all those years ago. "Yeah, it was Edward."

Jacob stood up and let out a growl of frustration and vindication, and then he tensed up so tightly that he was visibly shaking for a moment before he got himself under control. "I knew I should have hunted that fucking leech down and ripped his head off when this all started!"

He closed his eyes and turned his face towards the rising moon, and there he stood stone still and silent for several moments as the rest of those gathered reconciled their own feelings. Eventually he calmed down and took several deep calming breaths before he looked down at Isabella and started much more quietly. "Tell me you ground him into dust today.?"

This time genuine guilt flicked across Isabella's face. "I wish I had, but no, I owed Carlisle for taking care of us after the explosion. Rosalie did slap the shit out of him, and then gave him reason to sing soprano before kicking him several times in the gut." Most of the wolves gave the blonde a pleased and slightly jealous smile, and Isabella flashed Isabella one as well.

Rosalie grinned at the respect she'd just received from Isabella, and feeling the need to reciprocate, interjected. "Then you pitched him through a window and then cratered him into the ground like some anime goddess, can't forget that!"

The humor seemed to fly past Jacob, "I told you all those years ago that he was a total fucking waste! I should go take care of him right fucking now! It's about a hundred years overdue!" Jacob was so worked up that he was literally spitting with each word. His rapid pacing around one side of the fire signaled how close he was to flying off the handle.

"I'll come with you. I'd be happy for that bastard to suffer a bit before he dies." Emmett said, stepping forward slightly, a grim expression on his face.

Jacob turned towards him and nodded once at the unexpected camaraderie. That was the second time he felt kinship with the towering vampire. It made him wonder how far he had misjudged the Cullens for all those years. The thought made him pause in mid-step, as he looked at all of them assembled. Had they really changed? He regarded Emmett carefully, and decided that he would be happy to call him an ally if things went in that direction.

Emmett's call to hunt seemed to catch most of the Quileutes by surprise, but before any of them could respond verbally, and form what might be the most unique and diverse lynch mob in history, Isabella spoke up, her voice once again sharp and commanding enough to draw everyone's attention. "No! Absolutely not! " Her loud interjection was accompanied by a glare that sent shivers down every spine.

Once again she paused to look around the circle until she was sure she had everyone's attention. "I let him live because we owed Carlisle. I made it very clear I wouldn't touch him if he stays away and no longer interferes. However he knows if I, or any of us see him again, his life is forfeit. So we will not hunt him down no matter how much he deserves it. We have to deal with much bigger problems than a spoiled brat. As such, anyone who wanders off to try will have to deal with me!" Once more her gaze moved over the group, daring anyone to challenge her.

An absolute silence fell over the group, leaving on the crickets and the crackling of the fire to keep everyone's thoughts company. "How does she do that stare thing? Is that a power?" Asked a slightly awed voice that was magnified in the sudden silence of the night..

Everyone's head whipped around to look at Bree who looked confused for a moment, and then blinked in surprise and brought her hands flew to her mouth with a gasp. "Oh my god! Was that out loud?"

Even Eliza was staring at her in open mouthed surprise, before she burst out laughing. It seem to break the dam of tension throughout the group because everyone started laughing a moment later.

Isabella's ran a hand over her face with a sigh, "Two of them. I have two of them."

Once the laughter died down, Isabella continued. "Anyway, the basic conflict is pretty easy simple and easy to explain. Caius, and Aro to a certain extent, are unmitigated bigots. They have absolutely no tolerance for inter-species mingling, especially a vampire and a shifter. That coupled with their inability to see past that prejudice and recognize your pack as true allies pretty much cemented things in their minds. When they overruled our objections, intimated that we made the deal under false pretenses, and outright ordered us to betray our alliance with you... well… needless to say we're no longer members of the Volturi. And as much as I'd like to blame Edward for everything, I'm sure Caius needed no prompting to come to his ultimate decision, Edward was simply a catalyst." Isabella stated dryly, once Jacob had calmed down enough to listen to her.

"Why should we trust anything you have to say? By your own admittance your… kind… doesn't keep any sort of alliances you make!" Colin demanded abruptly.

Before anyone could answer sarcastically, or otherwise; Rita, one of the female council members, spoke up, realization filling her voice. "Colin, don't you see. She defied her pack by refusing to attack ours. She did not break our Alliance, which in truth was always with her more than the Volturi." That provoked some murmurs throughout the gathered group, apparently putting it in those terms struck deeply at the pack's sense of honor.

Isabella shook her head slowly. "The Volturi aren't like your pack. Neither are most vampire coven's for that matter. You're a family. The Volturi don't think in terms like that."

"But you did defy your leadership for our pack?" Rita insisted with a stubbornness that made Isabella smile.

But Isabella didn't fully agree, so she shook her head unwilling to accept the praise. "I did refuse to betray the alliance yes, but not entirely for noble reasons. I respect your people, but they were admittedly a secondary concern. I defied the Volturi for my daughter… daughters. When it comes to my family, I will fight tooth and claw to give them the freedom to choose their mates, and follow whatever path of life they want. I would give my life for them without hesitation, so that's exactly what I did. The Volturi would take that from them, and I could not allow that under any circumstances. I should've realized years ago that they were wrong for us, but misplaced loyalty and a need to release my own personal demons through the violence they offered, kept me from leaving." Isabella glanced first at Eliza then at Bree before returning to look at the council.

Rita was nodding thoughtfully, a strange respect on her face. Quil was clearly thinking of all the ramifications thoroughly before speaking again. Colin was stewing in anger and resentment. He didn't like being told what to do or talked down to, especially by a vampire.

Jacob was the first to respond, asking quietly. "What are you planning to do now?"

Eliza shot a quick wink at Tekali. "Didn't your wife tell you? We're all going to be bunking with you for a few weeks while we build a new home." Jacob didn't see the wink. "You… wait… Um what? I can't... we don't... have the room." He stumbled over an excuse clumsily.

"Honey, they don't sleep. They don't eat. We have plenty of room." Tekali said playing along, although her offer wasn't entirely playful. Tekali winked back at Eliza, and gave Isabella a welcoming smile to let her know that she was at least open to the possibility.

Jacob caught the wink, but didn't understand the smile. He looked between them for a moment before continuing, "I guess you have a point. Wait, am I missing something?" Eliza and Tekali both started laughing.

"Would it help to know that we're the Swan Coven now?" Bree chipped in brightly, causing heads to turn in her direction.

"Swan Coven?" Jacob shot Isabella an amused grin.

"It's a much cooler name." Eliza nodded earnestly with a grin at Bree. "Now we don't sound like we're named after a dead philosopher." Isabella sighed and rolled her eyes slightly but couldn't keep the smallest hint of an amused smile off her face.

Jacob frowned a little bit, "I have to admit, when we found out about the house blowing up and the Volturi being responsible, it was fairly obvious that you were leaving that coven. But we assumed you were going to tell us that you were joining the Cullens, and that's why they're here." Jacob glanced significantly at Emmett and Rosalie, and then Alice, though his gaze came to rest on Alice and Isabella's joined hands.

It was Alice that spoke up this time, shaking her head as she stepped forward, reluctantly disengaging her hand from Isabella's. "It's the other way around. Isabella has allowed us to join her coven." She looked around and continued at the unspoken questions on the shifter's faces. "I couldn't stay there knowing what Edward had done, which was for also for deeply personal reasons beyond what he did to Isabella. So I asked to join her coven."

"It only took you a hundred years to figure that out?" Jacob snapped in irritation.

Alice opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by a snarl from behind her. Realizing the danger Alice spun around to grab Isabella before she could take more than a step forward.

The irritation on Jacob's face was turned to surprise at Isabella's response. On top of the snarl, she was glaring balefully at him. Alice had one hand on Isabella's shoulder and the other on her right forearm, and after only a moment Isabella seemed to calm. Despite her reaction the look on his face was resolute, he refused to back down.

Alice slowly turned around, releasing Isabella's shoulder but she slowly slid her hand down to too take Isabella's hand again, she liked keeping in contact with her since it was a luxury she never thought would be possible less than a month ago. Alice met Jacob's eyes without flinching. "Yes, I screwed up when we left. We all did. I freely admit that. I will never leave again, I'd rather die."

Jacob met her eyes for a full minute before he looked away without conceding anything. "It's easy for you to say that. I was there last time to try and pick up the pieces you left behind." His eyes fixed on Bella's, "How do you know she… they… aren't going to turn around and do the same thing again. Just abandon you high and dry."

Alice's retort was quicker than Isabella's as she stared at Jacob unflinchingly, "I regret leaving, I've held that guilt in my heart every day for a century. I died the day we left, but I did it for my family. I did it for Edward. Who I thought loved her with everything he had. I stayed away from her in the beginning because he claimed her. Yesterday I learned that it was all an elaborate game, a ruse to keep us from indulging in what he believed to be a perverted relationship. He betrayed us in every conceivable way, he kept us apart for a century out of spite, selfishness, and ignorance. Yet I know that's just an excuse, I shouldn't have left. I condemned her to that... that..." Alice seemed to break from the weight of her guilt, and lost total emotional control. She let go and was starting to crumple to her knees, only to be quickly pulled up into Isabella's arms.

Isabella pressed Alice to her tightly, as she wept uncontrollably. The last thing she ever expected was Alice to feel this level of guilt over what Victoria had done. She assumed that she had transferred most of the blame to Edward like she had. She started to rub Alice's back in an attempt to console her, and it did seem to calm her down a little. The raw emotions in Alice's expression seemed to open up a strange hole though, a crack in Isabella's armor that she didn't expect anyone could ever touch again. She felt exposed and vulnerable, and for a very brief moment she wasn't sure it was a bad thing. Alice needed her, and she wasn't about to let go. Her eyes flashed pure black as she looked up at Jacob for a moment.

Jacob stepped back and nearly stumbled over the log at the outburst, Tekali caught him at the last moment and pulled her down beside her with a level of anger he wouldn't have expected. Still there was something he needed to know, what was Alice talking about? Had something happened to Isabella that she'd not told him about?

He clinched his jaw a few times, the curiosity burned in him, but he didn't want to attempt to ask with this audience. He risked the continued fury from his wife and stood again, and carefully met Isabella's eyes. The blackness was slowly fading again, but the anger was still there. He knew how close he was to cross a line he couldn't retreat from so he took a moment to frame his next question carefully.

Except as he was about to speak Rosalie interrupted. "She's been through enough. Leave her alone." Rosalie stood and leveled a warning glare at Jacob.

"I... I'm sorry. I had no idea." Jacob said mostly to Alice, but he was looking at Rosalie.

Alice pulled away then, and looked into Isabella's eyes for a long moment, before standing and brushing herself off and looking at Jacob. For the first time she was actually happy she couldn't form tears, because she knew she would've been a puffy mess. "Apology accepted."

Isabella stood and took Alice's hand again. Marveling at the calmness it created. "To answer your earlier question; We're the Swan Coven, and we are your allies if you'll have us."

Once again it was Quil's calm voice that spoke up, "Please pardon my ignorance, you can imagine that I may not be up on all the intricacies of vampire politics, but what exactly does that mean?"

"Generally? It means that you're looking at everyone in the coven, It means that I speak for our loyalties, and we will choose what is best for us, not some fascist council thousands of miles away. Specifically? Our plan is to stay in the area, one because this is home. Two because the Volturi have declared that your pack is to die and we do not abandon our allies. And three, now that they know Eliza and I are still alive they're not going to pull any punches. They don't like leaving loose ends." Isabella replied, her voice returning to its previously unruffled calm.

"Oh, now you think we need your protection?" Colin sneered at Isabella in disgust.

"Wow. My sister was right. You are a butthead." Bree blurted, prompting a wide grin from Eliza.

Jacob cut things off before they devolved into insults. "How do they know you survived?" He frowned a little bit his eyes going to Isabella who was staring into the fire.

"Once again, courtesy of our asshole brother." Jasper hissed softly, clearly not over his anger from earlier. "He called them and told them. He want revenge in the worst way. Though apparently his actions hardly came as much of a surprise." He glanced at Isabella with a bit of unresolved tension, but didn't vocalize it.

Jacob snorted, "Um… not if you paid any attention like… at all. I totally believe that's something he'd do. At least Bells has been paying attention to that much. Why did you let him ruin it for you then? Those European leeches would have gone on assuming you were dead." He directed his question at Isabella who added a log to Bree's rather impressive blaze.

"That betrayal is a little fresh, so you might want to hold your tongue, dog." Jasper practically spit back.

"Jasper's still a little angry, it was only this afternoon that we found out about Edward's true nature." Adara amended Jasper's thinly veiled threat, defusing it before it escalated. This shifted the question back to Isabella who was stoking the fire to catch onto the new log.

She sighed slightly, and gave Jasper one small glance to acknowledge that she knew the conversation wasn't over. Then she turned around slowly to met every pair of eyes directed at her.

When she finally did respond, her voice was calm and deliberate. "The Volturi would have found out about our survival eventually. Now they know for sure. I… we…" She faltered a little, her next few words held huge implications. It wasn't as if she was hesitant about her intentions, but something in the way all those eyes were looking at her managed to unnerve her a bit. She was used to being stared at in fear or anger, but being stared at in expectation was a new experience. She took a second to gather herself, squaring her shoulders before she scanned the faces of everyone once again. There were frowns all around, as her voice turned cold, and her eyes slowly turned black for all to see, "The Swan Coven is declaring war on the Volturi."

There was stunned silence again for several minutes. Until Jasper finally stood and addressed Isabella directly. " I just want to clarify for everyone's edification, you are declaring war on the biggest and most powerful coven in the world. One that you were just a small part of, I'll remind you. I'll grant that I've never seen fighting prowess like yours, but remember Aro collects vampires with powers like they're trophies. You know how they handle those who don't fall into line. Is there any part of you that thinks he's going to just let this slide?"

"What part of my statement was hard to understand? I know we are not going to be overlooked or forgotten. I kinda doubt an apology would suffice in this case. Nor would I give them one. I mean to face them straight on." Isabella's reply was blunt and straight forward, she knew this conversation with Jasper had to happen now, even if she would've preferred it to happen in a more private setting.

"Then why would you squander the biggest advantage you have? Why would you throw the element of surprise out the window? That was the best tool you had." Jasper asked, though he managed, barely, to keep his tone from being accusatory. He knew he had asked a similar question earlier but the answer had been unsatisfactory, and it didn't seem like the time or place.

Isabella's smile could only be described as predatory. "It's not the best tool we have. I've learned my lessons from the Volturi well. The best tool we have is fear." Jasper frowned but didn't say anything, letting Isabella continue. He could see that he wasn't the only one that looked confused at her statement.

"The Volturi control the vampire world because all of the covens are afraid of them. That's how they keep them in line. Now I will grant that they serve their purpose of keeping our world hidden, but no one has ever called them altruistic. They're like the bogeyman you tell kids about. Step out of line and the Volturi will show up and end it. Behave or the bogeyman will show up and get you! And if the Volturi have to show up, it's rarely to exchange pleasantries." Isabella kept her eyes mostly on the fire as she talked.

"So you're not afraid of them, and that's going to keep you safe?" Jasper's voice was quietly questioning, without being outright challenging. He knew it wouldn't look good if she had a dissenter in her ranks, so he tried to make it look like he was baiting her responses instead of being outright hostile. Although he was tempted to let Jacob take over the line of questioning, because it looked like he was itching to.

Isabella shook her head. "No. I'm going to make them fear us." Jasper felt a rise of frustration, and he knew he was about to lose his temper so he backed off, nodding once. Jacob immediately took over.

"How are you going to do that? These Italian leeches sound like they have an army. How do you beat an army with eight vampires? Even if we join you, that won't be enough right?" Jacob was more confused than angry, although he couldn't quite remove the mild fear he felt at the prospect of fighting something so big.

"The Volturi are a force of nature. They're a storm that's going to rain down on us." Jasper interjected, since Jacob's question was almost exactly what he hoped it would be. He was relieved that he wasn't the only one to whom tactics and planning was important. However old he may be, part of him was still a soldier at heart, and the idea that Isabella seemed to be so apathetic toward strategy was something that frustrated him beyond belief.

"If they're a storm, we're going to set fire to the rain." Isabella's almost feral voice was cold and totally devoid of humor." Aro has made a major mistake. He and Caius both regard me as little more than a mostly rabid attack dog; barely kept in check by my daughter. Fit only to be set loose on our enemies and then put back in her cage until the next time." Isabella paused and looked around, taking a moment to squeeze Alice's hand as her voice dropped to a threatening hiss. "They're about to find out just how wrong they are, and in the worst circumstances possible for them."

"What do you mean?" Quil asked, his voice and eyes intent on Isabella.

Isabella met his eyes , "There's a bunch of small fires burning that they're supposed to be working on putting out and during this time… two of his enforcers have slipped the leash and gone rogue. And it's the two enforcers that are completely immune to their most effective weapons. Jane and Alec. If they want to come after us and it has to be physical. That's why they tried to kill us the way they did. Aro didn't want to risk the losses that might occur if it came to a face to face battle. He hoped that by catching us by surprise and blowing us up it would save him the trouble. Aro had every advantage, surprise, the opening shot, knew our weaknesses, and he still failed."

Isabella had gotten worked up as she spoke, and for emphasis she took a breath and shrug a little bit. "Aro always has backup plans for backup plans. But this time his backup plan not only failed, but backfired in the worst way possible. Well… in the second worst way possible I guess."

"How's that?" Jacob asked curiously

"The Volturi tried to kill my daughters… and they fucked up." Isabella said, squaring her shoulders. "Leaving us alive was a mistake."

"From what I understand you shouldn't have survived. And what do you mean second worst mistake?" Quil spoke up, his tone curious.

Isabella ignored his first question, she didn't like the implications. "If they had killed my daughter's then the hell I would visit upon them would make them beg for the release of death." Isabella's voice was harsh and cold and devoid of all feeling, making several people present visibly tremble.

"As it is, they've made their choices. They just haven't found out the consequences of their actions yet. They have sown the wind and now they shall reap the whirlwind." Isabella said, her voice retaining that calm tone.

"Interesting statement, Assassin. Prophetic even." A harsh and slightly accented voice seemed to drift over the entire group from outside the circle of the fire. No one was prepared for the voice, because not a trace of scent nor careless sound was made in her approach. Isabella turned with a curious and puzzled expression on her face, then she frowned as confusion overtook her features. The voice put her immediately on guard, causing her to wonder who it was that knew not only her identity, but could have possibly managed to track her here.

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Author's notes- Chapter wooohoo!

1) I'm sure you started the beginning of this chapter and went O_O w. t. f. Who the eff are these people? Is this the right story? Where's my Isabella? Alice? Eliza? Leah? As I said when I started this, this is a larger story involving a lot of plot lines that get tied into one another. I want to show that this story isn't just confined to Forks, it has impacts all over the world. As for what role these people play? DUN DUN DUN. You'll have to wait and find out. One thing is for sure it'll be fun.

2) As always thank you to Samantha Minuet for her amazing work with this story. We originally had this council scene with 8500 words before any back and forth editing. But we had to split it up into at least one further chapter. Otherwise we might have ended up with a 25k word chapter :P

3) Secrets and Covenants, our other collaboration has posted chapter three! Take a look! (Samantha Minuet is the primary author for that story.)

We started this week with Samantha going back through the first chapters and editing and helping me re-do them. So they're far more detailed, more set up, more insight into the characters. I hope you might take the chance to go back and read. The first chapter has been updated already! With Samantha and I on this together we really wanted to make the entire story ours. Ironically with all the new detail it's now much closer to what I originally envisioned even if it's gotten a massive overhaul. Let us know what you think, review the new chapters with us?.

4) Samantha Minuet's Co-Author's Note: Blame me for the new characters. But please don't judge yet, they have a very specific purpose that I think you guy are going to love. I had to argue with Kathryn on this one to split up the chapter... there is literally another twelve pages at least to go in the council meeting. I hope you all like it so far, I can't wait to read your thoughts on this one, and please check out Chapter 1… I'm proud of our work!

5) Yeah, I call this chapter my Elrond's council. Which people who read the book know was a super long part of the literary Fellowship of the Rings. That's my precedent. I don't really feel like I have to justify it or anything, I like the chapter and think it's necessary even if it's long. Besides, like I said it's fun!

6) Please read and review! We love reviews!

Next Chapter- Mysterious newcomer.