Paul was cussing. Jared was cussing. Embry was cussing. Emily was frantic.
And quite uncharacteristically, Carlisle was beyond irritated.
Not particularly at the cussing. Rather at the wolves' attempt at keeping things from them. The vague answers, and the vehement demands to call Bella back were all they were offered. Since reaching the house, none of them had phased. But their words, even to each other, were cryptic enough that Carlisle could not understand what was going on.
Carlisle was worried for his patients. He was concerned for the frantic humans in their midst. He was even a little aghast at the shrinking number of wolves returning in fighting condition after each of their venture out.
With all the wolves, and the five humans huddled in his room on the first floor, Carlisle found himself surrounded by his family in the living room. Rosalie was still with Renesmee in Edward's room. But Esme, Jasper, Alice and he stood in a loose circle near Leah's sleeping form.
Her heart was a little erratic now. She would wake up soon.
"We have to leave," Alice was firm. "We can't win this Carlisle. Let's take Charlie and leave!"
Esme, someone who stood by him in most situations, also seemed to be in agreement. "It's not safe here anymore."
Carlisle wanted to leave too. As much as he cared about his patients and worried about their guests, he did not wish to put his family in harm's way. He could not let them get hurt. Not on his account. And with fifteen wolves and two vampires against them, they were not getting out of the confrontation unharmed.
But he was loath to leave these people to fend for themselves either. If Arthur, or in more likely a scenario, his associate, had mind control abilities, they wouldn't leave the area just because the Cullens left. They would hunt down every single shape-shifter there was in La Push. Or as they did the day before, force young boys to change somehow. They would destroy their community to create an army. And then they would continue to hunt him and his family across the face of the planet.
He voiced his concern and Jasper was quick to reply. "We will meet up with others. Call on your friends. Build our numbers enough to give ourselves a fair chance."
Carlisle shook his head.
"No," he said. "I can't ask this of them. Not again. The Denalis just lost their sister. Amun and Benjamin developed a rift. Alistair is probably still running. I can't endanger anyone else…"
An idea was forming in his head. It was a mad idea. But the more Carlisle thought of it, the more it seemed like the only choice. He could not let the Quileute be ravaged. He could not ask his friends to endanger their life. He could not put his family at-
"No!" Jasper's sharp snap brought Carlisle back to the present. Alice and Esme looked at him questioningly and even the people upstairs went quiet at the sudden yell. "Absolutely not, Carlisle. You are not pulling a Bella on us."
Esme sucked in a shocked breath and Alice let out a low growl. Jasper just glowered at the plan Carlisle hadn't even voiced out in his mind yet. It had just been a flashing possibility when Jasper detected and quashed it.
Carlisle gave a reluctant smile, his yet-unformed, secret plan out. "You have to agree it is the safest option for all involved."
"Jasper tell me he isn't planning on running off to this Arthur person," Rosalie demanded from the top of the stairs.
"I can't read his mind. But yes, I do detect the same thing I felt in Bella before she ran off to James in Phoenix," Jasper said through gritted teeth.
"Carlisle…" Esme's strangled gasp was all he needed to chuck that plan out the proverbial window. In an instant he was facing her, their eavesdropping guests forgotten. He looked at her wide eyes and quivering lips as she took in shallow gasps of breath. "No…" she whispered.
"No. No, no, no," he agreed. His hands on her trembling shoulders, he was willing to agree a hundred times more. "No, love, I promise, I will not do that. We'll leave. We'll all go as far away as possible from all of this. Or we will fight. But I promise I will not leave you!"
Esme grabbed his wrist in a vice grip, her nails digging into his nearly impenetrable skin. Her terrified eyes frozen somewhere near his chest. He could almost feel her gaze burning a hole through his shirt. He pulled her into an embrace, mumbling his apology over her head.
He agreed to both the options in his promises. To leave or to fight. But in his heart, he knew there was only one thing they, as a family could do. He made up his mind, and turned, without breaking his embrace from Esme, so that he could face Alice over his wife's head.
"Look at Charlie's future," he said and Alice's eyes went blank momentarily.
"It's gone. Disappeared," she whispered, coming back into focus.
Carlisle gave a curt nod and changed his plan. "Now?"
Alice looked at their human family's future again. "It's back. He gets in the car with others."
As one, both father and daughter looked up at the ceiling, at their now almost silent guests.
Calling Bella back right away meant sacrificing Charlie.
Carlisle did not enjoy being the one listened to. But given that he had not only eavesdropped on a private conversation a while back but also asked his telepathic son to convey secrets the pack did not wish to share, he did not complain.
Instead, he sighed, gently stepping away from Esme. He looked into her eyes and only when she gave an understanding nod did he look towards his veteran son. He gave a jerk of his head, asking him to come with him. Alice followed them to his and Esme's room while his wife went with Rosalie to their granddaughter.
Carlisle took in a deep breath at the threshold of his bedroom, nearly flooding his senses with the smell of the wolves, before he knocked and after a second, gently pushed the door open. Jasper and Alice followed him into the crowded place. One of the largest rooms in the house, it was occupied almost to the brim. The place was loud with sixteen heart beats and despite the large windows thrown open, the air radiated with heat. There was just enough space for the three vampires to stand.
Jacob stood up, pushing towards their host and came to a stop a few steps away from Carlisle. The patriarch was shrouded in a sudden and unnatural wave of calm and he threw his empath son a brief look of gratitude.
"Jacob," he spoke to the boy but everyone in the room listened with rapt attention. "I believe there has been enough of eavesdropping and withholding information, from both our sides. If we are going to be fighting together, we want to know exactly what is going on as well. By keeping us in the dark, about no matter how small a thing, you are putting us in danger. Can I expect complete honesty from you? We will be equally happy to answer any question that you may have."
Carlisle looked at the boy, hard, until he sighed and relented.
"Look Doc. We hardly understand what is going on either. I don't know how or where to start…"
"The beginning would be a good place to start," Alice snapped at his non-committal reply. They still looked unsure. Jacob exchanged a look with Jared, Sam's second-in-command.
Carlisle decided to ease the situation as much as he could. "Jasper will ask you questions that will be relevant for our impeding confrontation."
He stepped back so that his son could take his place. He trusted Jasper's experience in battles and believed him the best option to ask the questions that were necessary without delving too deep into tribe secrets.
His son started with basic things that they already knew like the numbers of the younger wolves and what happened in the confrontation with them. Jared, Paul and other members of Sam's pack were unable to disobey the Alpha command that forbade them from divulging that information. But Embry, once permitted by Jacob, gave them a little more detail than what Edward had already gleaned from their mind. Jasper listened attentively nonetheless, not openly accepting that they had Edward eavesdropping.
From Embry's narration, it did not seem like they had realized that the younger wolves had tried to take down the ad-hoc leaders of the pack. Carlisle listened without interruption. As promised, he would share the theories but after the wolves were done talking.
Then Jasper proceeded to topics they did not yet know. What happened in La Push? Why were they running in human form? Where were the remaining wolves? What made them believe the vampires were controlling the third pack and how could Bella help with that?
Jacob took over the narration thereafter.
"When we reached La Push, some of the smaller houses bordering the forest had been ransacked," he said with a heavy sigh. He swallowed deeply, his hands trembling as he continued. "The people had been…pulled out. The wolves were…eating them."
His voice broke at many places and Sue audibly gasped. Carlisle looked at the alarmed faces of the five humans in the room and he realized they had not been clued in to the events either.
He kept his face impassive, as did Jasper and Alice, nodding once to encourage Jacob to keep going.
"We tried to talk to them, trying to locate their alpha. Sam continued to call out to the alpha while the others fought them off. A few of us and I phased back to our human forms to help the injured people and put out the fires that had been started. There wasn't much we could do though."
Jacob looked around the room with a dazed look in his eyes, the unshed tears glstening under the waning sunlight when he looked at Emily.
"That's when it happened. The woman, she appeared out of nowhere in front of Sam. She did something. I don't know what. One moment he was trying to get the human she had with her out of harm's way, the next, he turned on us. All the others, the ones from Sam's pack who were in their wolf form did too."
"Just a moment," Jared interrupted. There was a hitch in his breath but he continued speaking nonetheless. "The human? The hostages they had? He was with her?"
Jacob nodded. "One of them. The older one, in black shirt."
Paul and Jared shared an uneasy look. Jacob continued. "Quil…he was in wolf form when this happened and he phased back and warned us not to turn. He had felt some kind of…pressure. Like someone was prodding at his brain, telling him to attack us. We bolted from there. They could have easily out run us, but they didn't. The woman just laughed while Sam and the rest…"
Jacob's voice broke and he took in a deep breath. When he spoke again, he looked equal part pained and equal part furious. "While Sam and the rest bowed to her. As if she was trying to send some sick message to us."
For a while, the room was silent save for the heavy breathing and the racing hearts.
Eventually, Jacob cleared his throat and faced Jasper. "Your turn Cullen. What is going on? Why is Doc's creator trying to kill him? What all do you know?"
Jasper looked at Carlisle, who gave a small nod of his head, letting Jasper continue to speak for them. He summarized the story of his conversion and eventual promise of vengeance for their audience
Carlisle kept his eyes focused on his son even when he felt several people looking at him with interest.
"We don't know much about the woman who accompanies him though," Jasper admitted. "Or the humans."
"Maybe he teamed up with her, or converted her for her gift," Alice theorized. "If this woman can control wolves, maybe she can control humans too. And they keep one or two with them, to do whatever they can't do themselves."
Carlisle nodded. It was the most logical theory they had.
"Well, then let's go hunt this woman down," Paul snapped. "If we kill her, the wolves would be free. We can explain things to the third pack and get them under our wing. And the Cullens can deal with the Daddy-Leech."
"I don't believe that is a very good idea Paul," Carlisle said, his voice a little hesitant. He exchanged a look with Alice and Jasper, whose thoughts seem to be heading to the same realization.
"Why not?" Embry was the one to ask.
"Because we don't think it is pure co-incidence that you five were the ones most grievously injured during your first run-in with the pack," Jasper answered, sharing the first of their several theories. "Apart from Collin, who was most likely a collateral damage when he swooped in to save Jared, the other four made up the beta and the third-in-command for your respective packs. The younger wolves specifically targeted the command present."
Carlisle saw realization dawning on many faces. But he knew they hadn't pieced together everything just yet, even before the several 'why' was whispered, almost to themselves.
"The pack mind works in a very unique way." Alice took over from Jasper at the questions. "In the clearing, during the confrontation with the Volturi, Bella said she could shield individual wolves. But once she had the alpha under her protection, she could feel and protect the minds of the entire pack, even if the individual wolf was not under the dome of her shield. We think this woman's powers would work in the same way."
"What do you mean?" Jared gasped out, alarmed. He hissed in pain at the movement and Kim forced him back down on the mattress.
When Carlisle spoke, he spoke to the entire room. "It means as long as Sam is under the vampire's control, all members of his pack, if they phase, will also be under her control."
A/N:
Choices...Choices...Choices! What will Carlisle do? Call Bella and sacrifice Charlie? Save Charlie and run the risk of nearly doubling up the number of wolves against them?
As you can probably guess, the fight is coming to them!
Also the fight will be scattered to at least two places. So, would you like to read the second fight from one of the human's POV, one of the wolves's or Esme's? Or a skipping 3rd person narration of the fighting at all the places. I haven't yet written that chapter and would love to hear if you all have a preference!
-ZQ