Lessons

As the summer progressed, Bella and I began to spend most evenings with my family. On this night, everyone else was watching Emmett and Jasper's game of eight-board chess while Bella watched a stack of invitations growing as Alice moved them from the blank pile to the addressed pile. Bella had offered to help, but Alice had shooed her away. Her eyes were getting larger with each addition Alice made to the pile.

"Alice," Bella started. "I don't even know that many people. Who are you inviting?"

"Oh, just friends and family," she answered breezily.

"Okay. So, Charlie gets one and Renée gets another. That makes two. I'm counting... a lot more than two."

"I said 'friends' too."

"Alright... Angela, Ben, Jessica, Mike." She ticked each name off on her fingers. "That makes four more."

"You aren't the only one getting married, you know."

Bella blinked at her. Though her teeth were clenched, she seemed to be trying to maintain a reasonable tone when she spoke. "Alice, I specifically told you that I had veto power over the guest list. You're not inviting your vampire friends, are you?"

Alice snorted. "Of course not!"

"Who are you inviting?"

Alice's tiny, razor-sharp teeth pressed into her lower lip while she avoided Bella's eyes. Hearing the thought in Alice's mind, I laughed and answered for her. "Oh, just half the town of Forks!"

"What?!"

"Bella." Alice folded her hands under her chin and stared at Bella with wide eyes. "Trust me, please?"

"Oh, that is so unfair," she muttered, crossing her arms and looking away from my sister.

"You only have to do this once, so I want to make sure you do it right. You'll thank me for this one day."

Bella huffed.

Emmett leaned toward her conspiratorially and whispered loudly, "You know, you're lucky, Bella. Rose makes me get married every time we move."

Moving one of his queens across several boards, Jasper said, "Don't try to pretend that you don't enjoy it as much as she does, Emmett."

"I do not!"

"No, I think he's right. He doesn't enjoy it as much as Rose; he likes it more," I said with a chuckle.

Rose arched an eyebrow. "And why shouldn't he enjoy being married to me?"

"We're not talking about being married to you. We're talking about getting married to you."

"Well, the best part about marrying you ain't the weddin', babe." He kissed her hand before wiggling his eyebrows at me. It's what comes after! Too bad for you, Eddie.

"Emmett!" I protested under my breath. Against my skin, Bella's temperature rose with the heat from her blush, able to see through Emmett as clearly as she saw through me.

Jasper pretended to turn his laugh into a cough when I glared at him, too.

Alice ignored us. "Besides, you wouldn't want to leave your new family out of it, would you?"

Looking back at Alice in confusion, Bella asked, "You're sending invitations to yourselves?"

"Don't be silly."

"I know you can't mean any of your human relatives."

"Still being silly," Alice sang.

"Alice!"

"The Denali's are our cousins. It's only right that they should be invited."

I decided that I rather enjoying the thought of Tanya seeing me getting married.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Bella asked, hesitantly.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Alice asked as she finished with another envelope.

"Well... They didn't make a secret of the fact that they hold a grudge against the wolves."

"Carmen called us a few days after the fight," Carlisle told her. "She said they all feel terrible for abandoning us when we needed them, and offered apologies for the entire coven."

Esme sniffed indignantly. "Well, except for Irina."

Carlisle conceded that fact with a nod. "Still, none of them wanted us harmed, and they were all, including Irina, extremely relieved when they heard that we had survived unscathed."

Bella frowned. "Not entirely unscathed."

"Jacob Black is almost back to normal, Bella," Carlisle assured her. "Except for a couple of his larger bones, which are still knitting, he is perfectly healthy."

"And will he stay that way if the Denali's come here?" she demanded.

"The wolves will be fine," I assured her. "Our cousins would never put us in danger by attacking the Quileutes."

"No," Jasper said as he took Emmett's last knight from the board. "They'd just let an army attack us instead. They may have mourned our passing if any of us had been killed, but they are no strangers to family loss, and vengeance is a very strong vampire trait."

Her brow furrowed in confusion, and Bella cocked her head at my father. "Laurent wasn't really a part of their family, though, was he?"

"Well, no. Despite the way Irina felt about him, if they had truly been mates, he would not have returned to Victoria."

"I don't think Irina really believes that he had, though," Emmett said as he attempted to corner Jasper's king. "That woman is almost as stubborn as you, Rose."

Rosalie rolled her eyes. "All three of them are."

I laughed. "You have no idea."

"Good thing for Bella that Edward is even more stubborn still. Or bad, depending on how you look at it."

I shot her a stern look.

Rose arched an eyebrow at me and taunted, Deny it. Or would you like me to tell everyone about the times I found you hiding in their attic to avoid joining them on their... hunts?

Thankfully, I was saved from answering her when Esme unknowingly came to my rescue. "It's not really their fault. They've been leaderless for a very long time."

"Wait, I thought you said it was Tanya's coven? Isn't she their leader?"

"She is now," Carlisle said. "But she is not their creator. Carmen and Eleazar joined them in the same way that Alice and Jasper have joined us. But Kate, Irina, and Tanya were all created by the same vampire. She was their mother, just as I am the father of our family."

"Who was she?"

I held back my irritation at Bella's constant curiosity regarding our way of life. She was to be one of us soon, and the Denali's would be her cousins, too. Their tale was one that she should know.

"I do not know Tanya's mother's name," Carlisle answered her.

Bella blinked her eyes several times, apparently surprised by that admission. "But... wouldn't Edward have heard…" She turned to me in confusion.

"I can only hear their thoughts as they pass through their minds, Bella," I reminded her.

Carlisle nodded solemnly. "They never speak of her if they can avoid it, never think of her willingly."

"What happened to her?"

"The Volturi killed her."

She clutched my hand tighter and shuddered.

Carlisle studied my Bella for a moment before elaborating. "The woman who created Tanya, Kate, and Irina - who loved them, I believe - lived many years before I was born, during a time of plague in our world, the plague of the immortal children." He leaned back in his seat and rubbed his thumb across his lips. In his mind were images from his time with the Volturi, and I had to hold back my own shudder. I'd seen the memories before, but they never failed to horrify me.

"What they were thinking, those ancient ones, I can't begin to understand. They created vampires out of humans who were barely more than infants."

Bella's lips curled, her forehead creased, and she swallowed hard. I was sure my own face held a similar look of disgust. Not at the children themselves, for I had seen their beauty in Carlisle's mind, but at what they represented. Creating a vampire was not an easy feat for most of our kind, and there were often many failures prior to each success. It sickened me to think of how many children must have been killed by those women as they attempted to create even one immortal child of their own.

Knowing how much Esme and Rose longed for children of their own, I could - almost - understand the draw they must have had. Esme was not the only mother whom I had known who had lost a child. Seeing into humans' minds over the years had often been unpleasant, and I had witnessed more than my fair share of humans grieving. To have a child that could never die... Many women would have given much for such a thing, but the children they envisioned were nothing like the monsters the ancient vampires had created.

Seeing Bella's look of disgust, Carlisle tried to explain why so many of them had been created. "They were very beautiful. So endearing, so enchanting, you cannot imagine. You had but to be near them to love them; it was an automatic thing. However, they could not be taught. They were frozen at whatever level of development they had achieved before being bitten. Adorable two-year olds with dimples and lisps that could destroy half a village in one of their tantrums. If they hungered, they fed, and no words of warning could restrain them. Humans saw them, stories circulated, fear spread like fire in dry brush..."

Aware of an ache from both my mother and my sister as Carlisle told Bella of the children, Jasper began using his talent to smooth some of the sharper edges off of their grief. While he may have been able to soothe their grief, he couldn't erase the reasons behind it. I saw Esme remembering her own long-dead infant while Rosalie remembered the child of her human best friend. Briefly, I wondered - if it hadn't been illegal - whether or not Rose would have found a way to change a child for herself.

She caught me staring at her, lifted a shoulder, and shook her head slightly, before looking away from me to watch Carlisle tell his story. Stay out of my head!

"Tanya's mother created such a child. As with the other ancients, I cannot fathom her reasons." Carlisle hesitated as he recalled the burning bodies of small children. He inhaled deeply, trying to dispel the image from his mind. "The Volturi became involved, of course."

Bella flinched beside me, and I put my arm around her, as though I could protect her from the images that I was sure Carlisle's words were conjuring in her mind.

"The Volturi studied the immortal children, at home in Volterra and all around the world. Caius decided the young ones were incapable of protecting our secret. And so they had to be destroyed.

"I told you they were lovable. Well, covens fought to the last man - were utterly decimated - to protect them. The carnage was not as widespread as the southern wars on this continent, but much more devastating in its own way. Long-established covens, old traditions, friends... Much was lost. In the end, the practice was completely eliminated. The immortal children became unmentionable, a taboo.

"When I lived with the Volturi, I met two immortal children, so I know firsthand the appeal they had. Aro studied the little ones for many years after the catastrophe they had caused was over. You know his inquisitive disposition; he was hopeful that they could be tamed. But in the end, the decision was unanimous: the immortal children could not be allowed to exist.

"It is unclear precisely what happened with Tanya's mother. Tanya, Kate, and Irina were entirely oblivious until the day the Volturi came for them, their mother and her illegal creation already their prisoners. It was ignorance that saved Tanya's and her sister's lives. Aro touched them and saw their total innocence, so they were not punished with their mother.

"None of them had ever seen the boy before, or dreamed of his existence, until the day they watched him burn in his mother's arms. I can only guess that their mother had kept her secret to protect them from this exact outcome. But why had she created him in the first place? Who was he, and what had he meant to her that would cause her to cross this most uncrossable of lines? Tanya and the others never received an answer to any of these questions. But they could not doubt their mother's guilt, and I do not think theyhave ever truly forgiven her."

…as my son has never truly forgiven me…

Carlisle glanced at me and a rapid flow of images of me ran through his mind. I saw us having a century's worth of debates and arguments that had all essentially meant the same thing: I was a soulless monster, and Carlisle my creator. I hadn't blamed him; he had blamed himself. I had enough experience with my own loneliness to understood why he had created me, but I had never been happy about it.

Not until I had met Bella, that is. With her as my wife, I would finally have something that was worth an eternity of suffering. Indeed, with her as my wife, I might not even spend my eternity suffering. Forever in Bella's arms sounded blissful, if I could just keep her from killing. And, if I could just keep from killing her on our wedding night.

My discontent wasn't Carlisle's fault. What child could blame their parent for desiring offspring? Even if Carlisle's desire had not been for a child so much as for a companion when he'd created me, I'd always known and understood his reasons, but that didn't mean I felt any differently about the fate he'd thrust upon me. I hated being a vampire, and I hated that Bella was so eager to become one. I couldn't deny her any longer, though. When next she asked me to, I would bite her, and pray to whatever God was willing to listen that she didn't end up hating me for it.

Swallowing hard, I looked away from Carlisle's eyes.

He looked back at Bella and resumed his story. "Even with Aro's perfect assurance that Tanya, Kate, and Irina were innocent, Caius wanted them to burn. Guilty by association. They were lucky that Aro felt like being merciful that day. Tanya and her sisters were pardoned, but left with unhealing hearts and a very healthy respect for the law."

"Yes, they respect the law, as does every vampire, if they don't want to burn. But those who make and enforce the laws can change and manipulate them to suit their purposes. You don't really think that he let them go out of the kindness of his cold heart, do you, Carlisle?" I all but snarled.

He looked back at me, his eyes showing shock at my vehemence. "The Volturi may not hold much in this world to be sacred, but they do believe strongly in the law. Above all, they respect the law."

"Of course they do. It's what gives them their power. Without the law, they are just another coven, more dangerous than most due to their size."

"Size often works to a disadvantage among covens, Edward. You know how territorial our species is. Even within the boundaries of a coven's hunting grounds, there can be disputes between coven members."

"Yes, you've told me so before. It's why most covens are two." I took a deep breath, preparing to argue with him further, but Bella interrupted me.

"I don't understand," Bella said. The line of confusion was deep between her brows and her eyes were bewildered when they met mine. "There are seven of you, and Tanya's coven has five members. You don't fight each other."

"Hah! One day you'll have to watch Eddie, Jazz, and me really go at it." Emmett grinned at Bella, showing all of his teeth.

"Tsk. How often have you told me that wrestling is different from actually fighting, Emmett?" Esme raised her eyebrows at him. "You aren't really trying to kill your brothers, no matter how it looks."

"Well…" He narrowed his eyes at Jasper. "Maybe not kill." …a little dismembering never killed anyone!

"We are different because of our diet, Bella," Jasper said as he knocked over Emmett's king.

"Aw, hell!"

Jasper grinned in triumph and lounged back in his chair. "Animal blood is different than a human's. Less potent."

"I've told her that," I muttered.

"Have you?" He lifted an eyebrow skeptically. "Then why doesn't she understand? You may have told her it was different, but I doubt you actually explained how."

"I didn't really feel it was necessary at the time to be going into details."

"You're getting married in a month. Times have changed. Don't you think she needs to know what she's getting herself into?"

"I know. I've made my choice." Bella's voice was alarmed, her fingers tightening around mine as though she was afraid her chosen future would be taken away from her again, as I had tried to do before.

"But is it a fully informed decision?"

"Jasper," Carlisle's low voice chided him.

"I'm not trying to talk you out of anything, Bella." He nodded toward me. "I've been trying to talk him into changing you since you got back from Italy. We all have."

Rose hissed softly.

"Okay, not all of us, but I know my brother as well as we all do, and he has always had a tendency to be… overprotective."

I considered reminding him of the numerous times that very tendency had saved him from sporting red eyes yet again, but Bella smiled slightly and pressed herself closer to me.

"When I'm one of you, then we can protect each other," she whispered.

I kissed her hair. "You already do."

"And then there will be eight of us," Jasper stressed. "There isn't another coven in the world as large as ours, and I'm not sure there has ever been."

"But there were twenty of those newborns, weren't there?"

"There's a difference, Bella." Alice looked up from the invitation she was addressing. "That was an army, not a coven. They weren't created to live together; they were created to kill and be killed. Their numbers changed just in the few days I was actually able to see them. They killed each other and had to be replaced constantly."

Jasper nodded. "That's typical behavior in a newborn. They're wild, ferocious, impulsive. It's what makes them so deadly as weapons, but not so good for living companions. The army wasn't a coven; they were just pawns. The coven was Victoria and Riley at most, although it could be argued that he was just her pawn, too."

While Jasper spoke, I watched Bella's face closely. I expected to smell adrenaline, or to see her face pale, as she had before when confronted with the reality of what she was facing. Though her heart rate increased slightly, and a muscle along her jaw tightened, she showed no signs that she feared her future.

In response to Jasper's statement, I nodded. "She had no plans to keep him."

"So, a coven of one."

"But the - " Bella swallowed and seemed to have to force herself to say her next words, "Volturi have more than two, and their guards weren't newborns. Aren't they the largest coven?"

"There are five members of the Volturi coven," Carlisle explained. "Aro and his mate, Caius and his mate, and Marcus, whose mate died long ago. The rest are more like employees, and are free to come and go as they please."

I snorted.

Eleazar left them, if you recall. "Nor did he try to prevent me from leaving."

"You were a guest, not a member of the guard."

"There must have been others. Do you believe no one would notice if the only way a vampire left their service was in ashes?"

"No doubt Aro had some ulterior motive or else I don't think anyone would have been able to leave. Aro would have seen to it that they didn't want to."

Cocking an eyebrow, he said, "He let you go too."

I shook my head. "It wasn't by choice."

"No! It was in accordance with his laws. The very laws which you claim he does not follow."

"Oh, he follows them alright. I'm only saying that they change them to suit their purposes. It suited them to let us leave. I guarantee you he will try to find a way to bring us back later. He wants us to be members of his guard. Alice, especially."

"That may be, but it is still a voluntary position that many seek out. And once accepted as a member of the guard, few vampires choose to leave it. The position is considered prestigious, and they enjoy the privileges that come with living within the castle."

"So they are in a cage of their own making, reinforced by the talents he surrounds himself with. That doesn't make the castle any less of a prison for those who cannot escape from it."

"Why would anyone want to live there?" Bella muttered. Glancing back at her face, I saw her lips curled in disgust and wondered if she was remembering Gianna, the human woman who served the Volturi, and watching the humans filing into the room which served as the bloodthirsty coven's dining room.

Carlisle pictured the only other coven Bella had met. "Do you recall how dirty James's coven was?"

Bella nodded.

"They were nomads, homeless scavengers, and they lived more like the animals that we hunt than like the humans they once were. It is very rare for a vampire to have a home of their own. Some of our more sedentary friends have been known to use their victims' homes for a few days or even weeks at a time, but it is not really theirs. The Volturi's castle is unique in the vampire world in that it is a permanent settlement which they have occupied for thousands of years. Even our family doesn't have that. We move every few years, but we are migratory, not nomadic.

"We are different because we hunt animals, Bella, but it is more than just a difference in what we eat; it is a difference in our way of life, and our large family size reflects that."

Carlisle met my eyes, and I felt my jaw clench, but I allowed him to continue. I wouldn't let Bella make my mistakes. "Human blood is addictive. And, like a drug, it changes the one who drinks it. I do not think you will have had much experience with addicts."

He paused, and she shook her head slowly.

"Humans fight over their territory, too. The right to buy and sell in a given city is heavily defended, and those who use them will kill to obtain their drug of choice. The same is true for our kind. But since we," he gestured around the room, "do not drink human blood, that drive is not there. Or, not the same, at any rate."

Emmett snickered. "Yeah, it's not the same, but you won't catch me trying to take your first lion from you!"

Bella blushed and looked away from him with a soft laugh. "So," she began hesitantly, "because you are vegetarians, you get along? Live, more peacefully? More human, I mean?"

Esme laughed. "There is nothing peaceful about living in a house full of teenagers!"

Emmett tossed a couch cushion at her. "I'm twenty!"

"And you're the biggest kid of them all, Emmett." She grinned at him and threw the cushion back.

Carlisle shot my brother a stern look. "In answer to your question, Bella, yes."

"Then how do the Volturi manage it? They don't kill each other."

"We're back to the power issue," I answered. "The laws keep them in control, and enforcing those laws extends their territory to cover the entire world. They bring humans in from every country, and no one dares to challenge them. Power is a drug that is as addictive as any other, and more than most. And anything that challenges their power must be destroyed."

"Within the framework of their laws," Carlisle insisted.

"And if it doesn't fit, they'll make it fit. They'll change the laws to suit themselves."

"You are prejudiced because of what you experienced."

"And you're biased because of what you did! I'm telling you, Carlisle, the Volturi are a plague on the vampire community just as much as the immortal children ever were."

"Do you know what this world would be like without them? The southern wars would not be limited to the south, for one thing."

Jasper nodded. "Until I left Maria's army, I had believed the wars covered the globe. You don't want to live in a world where that is true. Trust me."

Stubbornly, I insisted, "A necessary evil, then. But don't kid yourselves that they are anything else."