Forty

The whole way out of the bar, Nadia couldn't stop muttering, fuck, under her breath. She knew the people, including the small-town hot bartender could hear it, but honestly, she did not care. There were others around her, including Jacob, back at the table, no doubt looking bemused by her hasty departure.

She had told him that it was an emergency at work, and that wasn't necessarily a lie. When she got into her jeep, turning the key and listening to the ignition start, she immediately felt calmer. Despite the news she had just gotten, and the notion that she was making headway with young Jacob Black, she was back in her car now. She could easily ditch this god forsaken town in a heartbeat if she really wanted to.

Dialing back in to her contact, letting the car's Bluetooth pick it up on the speaker, she pulled out of the crowded bar's parking lot.

"Hey," the voice on the other end said, it was Chantha, she could tell from his usually calm greeting on the other end. "Thanks for calling me back."

Nadia took a deep breath. "Okay, Chan. I'm in my car now, no one is around. Tell me what you said again."

"According to our sources, Kate has left the Denali coven and she's joined the Volturi."

Nadia was incredulous. "That can't be possible. Kate and her sisters would never defect to Aro. He killed their mother, for god's sake. Even if it was a millennium ago, vampires don't forget or move on that easily."

This business with the missing Italian woman made Nadia feel uneasy. She knew, like her grandmother Darlene knew before her, that Sprezzatura, an Italian tech company based in Volterra, was a front for Aro and his goons. Angelo Bianchi, the husband to the missing, and now confirmed dead Isobel, was just the tip of the iceberg. Nadia's initial inclination was to think that Angelo was behind his wife's disappearance, but the more she looked into it, the more she realized that was unlikely.

Like Felix, Jane had been missing from the inner sanctum of the coven for months. She was either on a mission, which seemed plausible, considering that her brother, Alec, had recently defected. Or, Aro had told her to disappear after Isobel went missing.

Darlene had made a particularly startling note in Jane's file from the seventies, detailing how she liked to kidnap pregnant women and… play with them.

Chantha remained calm, as though he were a third-party spectator to this conversation. "Be that as it may, but she was spotted in Italy four days ago. She was seen going into the Volturi fortress and she has not come back out since."

"Even if I could ignore their past history together," Nadia explained, turning out onto the quiet highway, "Kate hasn't had human blood in over a century. Darlene's records—" Nadia scratched her forehead, trying to remember what those files said. They were still in the storage unit back in Idaho, waiting to be translated into their computer system by the network she had formed.

Chantha cut in, "—I had one of the reps go and look them up. Darlene's handwriting is hard to decipher, but according to her notes, Kate last feed on human blood in 1886, she and her sisters were living in Russia then."

"I see." Biting her lip, Nadia tried to organize her thoughts. Never in a million years would she have anticipated this. She had been so preoccupied with Patricia's daughter, and driving Hopper and Gabriella out of the Midwest, that the Volturi, although always present, had remained in the back of her mind. "What about Felix?" She asked. "Has he reappeared on the scene, yet?"

Felix, the most skilled tracker in the Volturi guard had disappeared several months ago. No doubt tracking something on Aro's orders, even though they had not been able to assess what, exactly, he was looking for, as of yet.

"No sign of him. At least not by anyone in the Network."

"Fuck!" She shouted. It was all coming back to her. The constant nagging of the Volturi and her responsibilities to track and catalogue these stupid fucking vampires and their stupid fucking ways. She knew she never should have agreed to come out here for Billy. Cleaning up his hybrid mess, and his bizarre relationship with his son Jacob was the farthest thing from interesting. Just thinking about how she had to pretend to nervously shake her leg under the table, just to make him believe that she was excited to have a few drinks with him. The sooner all vampires were wiped from the face of the earth the better.

"Don't forget about your blood pressure, Nadia." Chantha's voice was toneless, devoid of emotion, calm to the point of infuriation.

"Fuck," she muttered under her breath.

"I do have some good news."

"Oh, yeah?" she huffed. Hands clenching on the steering wheel. Knuckles white. "What's that?"

"We got a lead on Samantha and Lindsay."

Nadia took a deep breath. Centering herself, to the best of her ability. Patricia, the vampire she had killed two years ago, had four daughters. All of them uniquely young vampires—young enough to skirt the edge of the Volturi's age laws. And each of them held an astonishing vampiric gift.

Samantha, the eldest daughter, was born in Cambodia at the turn of the century. Known for her petite frame and ankle length raven hair, she had the ability to see and understand all forms of illness. Knowing, just from looking at a human, what terminal cancer they were dying from, and where the devastating tumor was in their body. Nadia also believed, although she could not confirm this, that Samantha also had the ability to cure vampires from the brink of death. A fact which, if verified, and known, would make her one of the most powerful creatures ever to have walked the earth.

Lindsay, the second daughter, originally from a slum in India, was retrocognitiant—able to see and feel everything from the past by being near a person. All previous actions and emotions, for the entirety of that person's life, be it a few days, or a millennium in the past.

After Patricia's death, Lindsay and Samantha had gone into hiding, where they remained to this day. The other two sisters, Felicity and Navah, were with the Volturi.

Felicity, a native, like Nadia herself, and a fellow female with the gene mutation that allowed them to change into animals, had once been a promising member of Nadia's network. The gene was tripped by the presence of vampires. Nadia had no idea how it first started, or what tribe was the first to mutate, but somehow, long ago. Vampires roamed the wide expanse of Europe, only crossing the wide breath of the sea on the rare occasion. Another mystery that Nadia hadn't solved yet, was why so few indigenous people were ever made vampires. It could have easily become an epidemic, centuries ago, before the Mayflower landed. If she was ever given the opportunity, Nadia wanted to pick Carlisle Cullen's brain on that, to see what his thoughts were. Her suspicions were that it had to do with their scent—which she had been told compared to wet animals or roadkill. Hardly what anyone would call an appetizing meal.

The final daughter, Navah, was the oldest. Barely thirteen when turned, similarly on the cusp of adolescence like Jane and Alec were, she had been changed in Jerusalem, during the twelfth century. She had been hidden by her mother, Patricia, for centuries. She had the power to stop time for short periods. The moment of death could easily be stopped, allowing enough time to cure a dying man, or escape from a chase. Aro had her now. She and Felicity were locked inside the compound. Despite her best efforts, Nadia still wasn't sure if they had joined of their own free will, or if Aro had somehow known that Nadia was planning on killing Patricia when she did, and had the two girls kidnapped in the melee.

Taking a deep breath, Nadia said, "Alright, Chan, tell me what you found out?"

"They were spotted in Oregon. Just a few hours from where you are."

"Oregon?" Nadia was shocked. "Why would they be in Oregon?" There hadn't been a sighting of either girl in years, Timbuktu would have been less of a shock.

"Likely for the same reason that Carlisle and the rest of the Cullen's chose Forks. It's out of the way. Obscure. Hidden. Small town. Why would you think to look for them there?"

Nadia chewed on her lip. She was still driving down the highway out of Forks. The night around her felt dark and milky, thick with a sudden oncoming fog. "Oregon. I can't believe it's a coincidence. They know I'm here. Lindsay likely picked up on something. She met someone that I had been around. She followed me without me realizing it."

Chantha was dismissive. "According to the source, she and Samantha have been there for more than a year. A year ago, you were in Texas trying to get Hopper and Gabriella under control. They're reclusive. They live in a house in the woods, only come out to feed every week or so. It appears that they've adopted a similar ethical structure to the Cullen's—they don't feed on animals, but rather than killing they've been helping themselves to the local blood bank. That's how we found them. The local news picked up the depleting blood supply for the surrounding hospitals. The link caused us to investigate further."

"And?"

"We sent one of the crew down. Positive visual sighting of Samantha. We knew they had to stay clear of Lindsay. The crew member pretended to be a hiker, lost in the woods. He said he recognized Samantha by her long hair. He said she looked sickly and sallow, but was polite and gave him directions to the main road."

"Lindsay will know something is up by that."

"Maybe. We're hoping it'll be chocked up to normal human to vampire interaction."

"I don't know." Suddenly, Nadia felt dizzy with possibilities. Kate with the Volturi? "What about Garrett?" She asked suddenly.

Over the phone, Nadia could hear papers shuffling. "He remained at the compound in Alaska. Positive sightings for Tanya and the others as well."

"Doesn't add up." Nadia was turning back into the motel parking lot, parking the jeep. "Garrett wouldn't just let her go, not everything that's happened. Not since the Volturi came here years ago. Irina too. Why would Kate go back to them?"

"Blood is a powerful motivator," Chantha said. "There've been two large human tours that have gone into the compound since Kate arrived. Unless she's planning on living on the sewer rats, human blood is her only viable option to survive."

"Alright. Let me think on this. Keep me posted if anything else happens."

"Got it!"

"We should also get someone down in Oregon to set up shop. Keep an eye out for Lindsay and Samantha. The added publicity will either make them retreat further into the woods, or flee again. I'd like to stay on top of them, if we can."

"Any idea how long you'll be in Forks?"

"No idea," she confessed. "The problem with the hybrid is simple, yet, there's a lot of moving pieces on this chess board. I have to move them carefully. No one here can know about what the Network's plans are."

"I got it. I'll check back in with you tomorrow."

"Thanks, Chan."

Nadia could see Patrick's shiluette hunched over the computer screen in the main office. It was an ancient dial up monstrosity, a relic of another time, compared to the hardware that Nadia was used to working with. She had parked her jeep close to her door, quietly sauntering over to the front door of her motel. She had had to avoid Patrick twice now, dodging his awkward attempts at a second and third casual fuck in her tiny room. She had kept the 'Do not Disturb,' sign since she checked in, and she was happily isolated away from other people.

As soon as she closed the motel door behind her and started to shuffle off her boots, her cell rang again. Her immediate reaction was that it was Chantha, confirming some earlier unresolved connection or fact that he hadn't originally relayed.

Nadia couldn't hold in the groan that escaped her when she glanced at the screen and saw Billy Black's number appear on the screen. She hadn't added him in as a contact, mostly out of fear that he would call while she was with Jacob, but she recognized the three-six-zero area code.

Rolling her eyes, she barked, "Yes, Billy?" After connecting the call.

"Na—Nadia?" He seemed frazzled. Maybe taken off guard by her tone.

"One and only," she confessed.

"I wanted to check in." She heard him swallow, start again. "When we spoke yesterday you said that you were planning on making contact with Jacob?"

True enough. She had called him yesterday afternoon to explain her plan. Originally, she was only going to tail him for a day or two, getting the lay of his normal activities. Initially, she had thought to take her jeep in to the autobody shop where he worked, meet him, clandestinely, from there, and spark up a friendship. Nadia had had no idea the night before, when she followed him to the Cullen compound, that she would witness him phase on the side of the road after being violently escorted off the property by three of the family vampires. One of whom was Alec, who she recognized by sight. Keeping her distance, she had followed Jacob's altered form all the way to Hoquiam, where she had parked, absently at the Grizzley Den, watching him enter the rickety little school, and then saunter back out, in ill-fitting clothes and a dower expression on his face.

It had been too easy, really. As easy as twirling her umbrella in a parking lot and striking up a conversation with the right words.

"Yes," she explained without preamble. "He and I meet for drinks earlier."

Billy seemed taken aback again. "Drinks?"

"I thought he was twenty-one, Billy. Isn't that, right?"

"Well… Yes. I just…"

"Have a hard time picturing him as anything but a little boy? Right, I got it. He is old enough to fall in love with a hybrid, though, Billy. I wouldn't be surprised by anything that he has or has not done." Her immediate thought was of his titillating tale of accidently hitting his girlies aunt, but she knew that Billy's mind was wandering to the intimacies that he was desperate to believe his son wasn't engaged in with the likes of a half-vampire.

"I brought you here to eliminate a threat, Nadia." His tone was curt.

She hissed her response back. "Who said anything about not following through with the assignment?"

"I don't want my son getting hurt."

"But you do want his imprinted mate to be disposed of. Do you really think that won't hurt him?"

"A small pain."

She was incredulous. "Do you really believe that? I know you never imprinted, Billy. But, come on."

"He can fall in love again. He'll have his whole life. If we don't take this action now his life is forfeit. It's just a matter of time before he's killed."

Surprisingly, the thought of Jacob being turned didn't seem to have occurred to him. There were fates worse than death, Billy Black just wasn't clever enough to realize them.

"You have to let me do this my way," she pressed. "I can't do this with you breathing down my neck this whole time."

"Two more Quileute youths shifted in the last week. The Volturi vampire is causing more of our people to phase to protect the tribe. As long as the Cullen daughter remains alive, she and her family will continue to cause a threat to our people."

"You know," she began slowly. "The other day I drove past the chief of polices house. A tiny little white rambler. That same little girl was there. I thought you and the chief were lifelong friends? Do you really think the death of the chief's granddaughter won't destroy him?"

Billy paused, briefly. "Charlie Swan doesn't fully understand what she is. If he understood the extent of it, he would understand. You kill a rabid animal. You—"

"Lock away a hooligan who's done something bad? Stop criminals in their tracks with the power of a single sheriff badge?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Not ridiculous at all," she cajoled. "I just want you to understand that your actions have consequences. The Cullen's won't let anything happen to her. It'll be a fight, either way, and they'll do anything to keep their own out of harm's way. When I succeed in this, there will be a path of destruction that will lead straight to your oldest friend's doorway. I suggest you get a good fishing session in with him before all of this happens. Grief does horrible things to people. I doubt he'll ever be the same after this."

"I appreciate your concern."

"Think about it—what does a lioness do if her cub is in danger? How about a shark when you come for its young? I'm prepared to kill Bella or Edward or both. Imagine what Charlie's grief will be like to lose both daughter and granddaughter at the same time. Imagine, Edward—What he would do if his family were harmed? What he's capable of doing when they're gone? Madness, Billy. You remember the rage you felt when your wife died."

"Shut up, Nadia."

She chuckled. "Good. I'm glad I have your attention now. I will call you once a week to check in. Do not ever call this number again. I call you. Not the other way around. I can't have you interfering with my plans."

"You're nothing like your grandmother," he spat through gritted teeth.

Nadia raised her chin, defiant. "No. I'm not."