Seven
Without irony, Garrett liked to tell his coven mates about snow.
True, they were in Alaska, but he always found the glaciers and snowcaps worth talking about, despite the decades his Mate, Kate and her family had spent here, in this wasteland of wild frontier, he couldn't help but stare up at the midnight black sky in wonder while the snow fell.
Kate rolled her eyes. "It's just snow."
Garrett was affronted. "Just snow. Just snow. I'm appalled, Katie."
She knew there was no point arguing with him, so she didn't bother. Instead she lay her naked flesh down in the snowdrift. She couldn't feel the cold, but secretly, she loved to stretch out against the clean gleam of it. The moon was hidden behind the storm clouds but her vampire sight let her see how each chard of ice glistened against the frozen earth.
"Now that," Garrett said, pointing toward her, voyeuristically, "that is the true American dream." He was at her side in an instant. Lips at her throat and hand on her marble breast. "This is what I fought every war for." He kissed her ear. "Revolution," he moved his lips down to her throat, "civil unrest," another kiss to her collarbone, "global fights," he let his tongue circle her erect nipple, "fucking Vietnam."
Kate giggled. "Oh, my love. I'm not American."
Scoffing, he said. "No! All who place their feet here are American. This dream," his hands started kneading her breasts, "should be for everyone."
She sent a small spark out from her fingertips and when it touched his chest with an electric zing it made him groan.
"We're not interrupting, are we?" Carmen's velvety accent broke them from their games.
Beside her Eleazar chuckled sympathetically. "We were just out for a stroll," he told them. "I enjoy the snow as well, Garrett. In Spain the weather is never so unpredictable."
Dejectedly, Garret waved at them as they passed.
Kate didn't bother covering up. She didn't mind being seen and Garrett didn't either. He knew one of the things that Kate loved about him was that he didn't stifle her. He knew she was too wild to be tamed.
"Now, where we're we…?" She asked after Carmen and Eleazar had moved farther away. "I believe I was here," she zapped him again and he fell, like puddy, against her flesh. She smiled as he entered her and began his litany of slogans to carry their love making along. Before the end he would start bellowing "The British are coming, the British are coming," before his boisterousness turned to desperate, "I'm cuming, I'm cuming's."
Afterward she held him close. Tenderly stroking the taught muscles of his back.
"Oh, god. Woman, I love you."
Smiling, Kate echoed it back.
Both of them startled when they heard Tanya scream out. Kate was on her feet in an instant, with Garrett tumbling through the snow beside her where he was thrown.
Kate and Tanya had been together for more than a millennium, and she understood all of her sister's words and tones and actions. This was fear, she heard, and anger.
Kate hissed as she took to a run. She could hear Garrett follow close behind her and far off, from somewhere deep in the woods, she could hear Carmen and Eleazar drawing nearer, they too had been alerted to Tanya's distress.
Kate sprinted back to the house first. The homestead was laid out with the house in the center of seventeen square miles of open fields and lush forests. The house sat at the top of a hill, modern and well lit. Scanning the wall of windows that made up the south side of the dwelling she could not easily see her sister, but she could see the shadows of three strangers.
"Who are you?" Kate growled when she entered. "Where is my sister?"
Tanya stopped her with an upraised hand. Garrett and the others stalked in behind Kate. In turn they took in the scene. Furniture was scattered and one of the walls had fallen; it looked as though someone had been thrown through.
Kate questioned, "Tanya?"
Tanya said nothing, but her eyes were pleading.
The three figures stood calmly at the other end of the room. They were hooded, and with a jolt of understanding Kate realized they were in fact not strangers.
The girl spoke up first. "We've come a long way."
The boy, her equal in height, added, "A very long way. And this is what we find…" he beckoned to the room and the frozen vampires who stood across from them, now currently staring them down.
The girl cocked her head, inquisitive and bird-boned. "Do we have an agreement, then?"
Garrett pulled Kate aside to step forward. "What is this?"
The girl whipped her head to the side, her eyes slicing through him in warning. "I wasn't talking to you."
Garrett stepped back, involuntary. He remembered her powers all too well.
"Tanya?" The girl asked again. This time there was more threat to her voice.
Tanya looked back to her sister and fellow coven members. Her eyes looked deeply at Carmen, Eleazar, Garrett, and then finally at Kate. "Yes, we agree. We'll do what you ask."
Kate was aghast. "Tanya, what is this? What did you agree to?"
Tanya's struggle was evident in her face. "They won't hurt you. It was agreed."
"Like hell they will," Garrett raged. Carmen and Eleazar were at their backs in an instant, poised and crouched for attack. Kate raised her fingers and shards of electric light burst from her fingertips like crooked daggers.
"Stop!" Tanya jumped, her body blocking the strangers from the onslaught of Kate's deadly gift.
When Tanya crumpled to the ground, Kate stopped.
"This is taking much too long," the girl warned, stretching her neck in visible irritation.
Tanya had fallen brokenly to the ground, but she reached out to her sister. Her voice was hoarse. "Don't," she warned.
"What is this?" Kate pleaded. "What have you done?"
Tanya raised herself from the floor, and slowly made her way to her family. Pulling Kate tightly into an embrace she whispered. "You have to go with them." Kate tensed in her arms. Tanya felt Garrett startle at Kate's back. "They won't hurt you, like I said. We have to do what they say. Irina, they say, Irina is still alive. And to get her back we have to… we have to—"
The boy spoke up. "This is all very charming… You've agreed to perform this task and help us. In return we will deliver Irina, your sister, a known liar and saboteur, to you. Kate will accompany my sister back to Vultura as collateral. When the task is complete, she and Irina will be returned, unharmed. Please stop making us wait."
"I don't understand," Kate whispered against her sister's shoulder. "I saw Irina killed. I saw them put her flesh to the flames."
"A rouse," the girl rolled her eyes. "Very simple, really."
"—But all these years…?" Kate wondered. "How can we be sure?"
The third figure stepped forward from between the boy and girl. Two milky white hands rose and pulled a hood back from a face that was all too familiar to them.
"Irina!" The group chorused.
"Yes, my sisters, my family, I—"
The girl interrupted. "That's enough. We leave now."
Irina slipped back into the shadows behind them and Kate stepped forward, reaching out to her.
"No!" Garrett stopped her. He looked, pleadingly, to Tanya and the others. He searched Kate's face. "To go with them means never coming back. The Volturi don't give second chances. Once Aro has you in his powers he will not let you go."
Kate stroked his cheek with the palm of her hand. "I have to help my sister. I need you to understand." She pressed her forehead to his while he spluttered and ragged. She kissed him finally, leaving him with a farewell kiss on the lips before pushing him away. Eleazar and the others held him back while Kate departed, shifting into the shadows to take Irina into a long overdue embrace.
The girl rolled her eyes. "Lovely…"
"What happens now?" Tanya asked.
The boy and girl looked at each other, seemly deciding something.
The girl spoke up first. "I'm going home," she gave the boy a final raised eyebrow. "Ladies," she gestured to Kate and Irina. "We're leaving now."
Garrett struggled against his family's deathly grasps.
The boy stepped forward. "I need both of you," he gestured to Tanya and Garrett. "For the next part of Aro's plan. Come, let's get started."