AN: Sorry everyone for the long wait for the next chapter, but life's been incredibly busy the last while. Between my regular job, and running for office it's been crazy. Then, on top of everything else my brother and his wife have their first child. Needless to say, too much, too soon. I'm not even gonna speculate when the next chapter will be up, but I'll have it done ASAP.

Chapter 10

Preparations

"Hey Arch?" I asked seeing him lost in another one of his visions as the two of us had made it to the clearing. I thought back to how much I had seen here in only a very short time. On the edge of the meadow was where Edythe and I had our first date- well our first planned date anyway. Then the next evening, in the very same meadow was the baseball game; the baseball game where my future with Edythe had changed, for the better. I smiled from the realization of that night. The night where Archie's vision of me as a vampire began to cement itself in his mind.

Surprisingly, he snarled at me when whatever he was seeing ended. "You're not gonna spoil my fun!" He hissed at me. "How could you?"

"What?" I was completely shocked by his change in mood. What had he seen that would have ticked him off like this?

"Why do I see you and Edythe running off to Vegas to elope and not inviting moi?" He was no longer angry, at least but rather hurt and the guilt he was inflicting on me from his pained expression was more than what I figured Jessamine could even inflict on someone. That and I was easy to manipulate when it came to guilt trips, a fact that I was well aware of. Archie looked crushed that I would leave him behind for my and Edythe's nuptials. "And think about what it'll do to Earnest and Carine too? Didn't you think that Earnest would of liked to have been able to walk his baby girl down the aisle for real?"

I crumbled like the putty I was in his hand when he tried to lay on one of his guilt trips, collapsing onto my knees in the warm, soft meadow. The ground was still a little damp from this morning's drizzle, but it was unbelievably comfortable. I thought about it again. August 13th, my original plan for our wedding was still only five weeks away. I supposed that I could wait that long. But I had wanted to push everything up for Edythe. I saw how much she wanted to be actually married, even if I still was a little scared about the whole proposition.

"Alright," I sighed knowing that I was beaten again by my best bro. "I'll wait a few more weeks, but you better blow this wedding out of the water," I half threatened him with my upper lip raising slightly in a snarl. "If you don't, I'll never speak to you again."

He smiled again as he helped me up, then wrapping his arms around me in a huge bro-hug, slapping my back way harder than was necessary. I assumed that he just couldn't control himself knowing how easy it was for him to get his way. Then my thoughts went back to Edythe. What about what she wanted?

"You won't regret it," he said guaranteeing me that I'd love our wedding. "Believe me, I know exactly what Edythe wants."

"What about what I want?" I asked.

He burst out laughing. "Silly boy! Don't ya know anything? The wedding is the bride's day; the groom just has to go along with everything." He winked at me as he added, "The honeymoon is for the groom."

I joined him laughing. Edythe had been the one to first suggest the small Vegas option, but I had deferred to Archie's grand visions knowing that in Edythe's formative years she would have loved a gigantic and ornate wedding, even if the guest list would now have to be really small. It still hurt to think that in the aftermath of me becoming a vampire that my parents wouldn't be able to attend but I knew that this was inevitable. This was the price of being immortal; watching everyone you loved when you were human grow old and die eventually but that was only a small part of it. The much larger pain of the transition was removing yourself from your human friends and family. I thought I was ready for it, but it turned out that Royal had been more right than I had thought.

But then I thought of the concept of a honeymoon. I doubted that as young as I still was to the new life that we'd go anywhere that we couldn't run or drive to, even if my self-control was more that any of them had anticipated.

"So how much do you have ready already?" I asked kind of curious. I had basically agreed to give him and Earnest free reign when it came to the wedding about two weeks ago. Had he sought out her dress yet? What about my tux? I'd never worn one before, since I just wore a black suit when Renee and Phil got married last year.

"Well, the vision's been in my head ever since Edythe decided she was strong enough not to kill you in the meadow that first day," he said with a wink, "knowing that ultimately this was where you two were going to end up. The only thing I wasn't sure of was if you'd be human or a vampire."

I shuttered a little remembering how close I had come to overwhelming her that day. I couldn't help myself. When she kissed me, I just let my instincts take over and it nearly cost me my life that day. Apparently Archie had known all along that the chances of me surviving were better than any of them thought, even Edythe seeing the visions through Archie's visions. She didn't believe him in that instance, but after that she never doubted him again. That was why in Phoenix, when I lay bloodied and broken at the hands of Joss when Edythe knew that she wouldn't be able to get rid of all of the venom, she believed him for the first time. That ultimately our love was destined to end up in one of the two futures he had seen for us at first. Me as a vampire, or killed by Edythe's own hands. She never wanted this for me, but I only wanted her. So in the end, I had gotten what I wanted.

"Arch?" I kinda growled softly, my mind returning to what I had asked him. I could tell that he didn't want to answer me. It had to be really bad.

"Well yeah; I mean I got your tux already, naturally. Don't ask me why, but I decided to go the theatrical route with you. You're gonna look like a lot of the classic portrayals of Count Dracula," he laughed. "Cape and everything. Sorry, just could help myself." His laughter made it sound like he wasn't sorry at all.

Was he doing this to pick on me, or was it something that secretly Edythe wanted? "I… you… completely… idiotic and insane!" I stuttered out, the words all jumbling together. I felt myself wanting to ring his neck for ring so ridiculous.

"Don't spoil my fun," he assured me which brought my anger level down. "You'll look great."

"That wasn't what I was worried about," I said with a glare.

"Nobody likes a party pooper Beau."

"Argh," I growled. But I knew better. Archie was just such a force of nature that any of his plans tended to come true. From our being the best of friends to the way everything sorted itself out between me and Edythe. It was better to just let him have his way on most thing because if you didn't, Archie was great at bringing on guilt trips.

"Awesome!" He crowed. "See what happens when you're flexible."

I groaned again but relented. There was no doubt in my mind that Archie would get his way not.

"What about Edythe?" I asked calming down somewhat. "I mean, who's her maid of honor gonna be?"

"Either Carine or Jess. She keeps changing her mind, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna be Carine."

"And her dress?"

"That's been taken care of for a long time Beau."

"Don't I get to see it?" I wondered how intricate and ornate he'd go with hers. I could picture Archie just going with something out of a movie or something. And I didn't doubt that Edythe would look so beautiful; more beautiful than words could ever do justice to.

He raised his right eyebrow a little in an expression that said 'really?' "You know better than that, B-man. The groom doesn't get to see the dress until the day of. But take my word for it; it'll be perfect."

"It's not that; I trust you plenty. It's me I don't trust."

"It'll work out Beau, just relax dude." He smiled again and tapped his temple with his left hand, "Trust me."

He was right. I did just need to relax when it came to the wedding. I had thought that having a grand wedding like I was sure that Archie would want to do would be all kinds of awful, but the real question that I needed to ask was what did Edythe want. Surely with his gift he'd know almost better than anyone else; maybe even better than Edythe did herself.

He smiled again, with a gentle laugh coming from Archie as he banged my back really hard. I mean it sounded like two huge stones crashing together. Thank god that there couldn't be anyone within a few miles of us. "Told ya," he all but sang in his gorgeous arpeggio. It still surprised me how different all of the Cullens' voices sounded now, since their voices were always beautiful. But now, they all rang even more so than before. And Archie's voice always had a more musical quality to it than anyone else's.

"Ok," I relented. "I'll be good, but you better give Edythe everything she ever wanted in her wedding." I winked as I added, "Even the things that she doesn't know that she wants."

"Nice," he answered as he must have picked something that I wanted to do but hadn't completely thought out yet.

"So can we talk more about the fight?" I asked now that almost all of my qualms with the wedding were gone.

"If you want," he answered, "but you won't be anywhere near it if Edythe gets her way." Archie stuck his tongue out as me, blowing a little raspberry teasingly.

"Come on," I cried in protest, "you know that it makes sense for me to be there, especially if they are looking for me."

"I think I'm with Edy on this one, dude. But in the end, it'll be Jess's call. She's the one who knows better than all of us how to deal with this."

"But why?" I protested. Man, I felt like I was four years old again and my mom was telling me something, like I couldn't have ice cream for dinner. I laughed at the absurdity.

"You know this is Jess's area, B. Besides, every day Jessamine sees you so calm and under control, she can't believe it. She keeps waiting for something in you to snap; not that Edythe or I would ever let that happen Beau."

"Huh?" I was genuinely surprised now. I mean, sure I had heard all of the stories about most newborns- well I guess I should say almost every other newborn in history besides from myself.

"You don't know how much Jess hates you, do you?"

"I mean," I started but was taken aback, collapsing to my knees. "Wait, Jessamine hates me?!"

"It's not your fault B-money. And, for the record, she doesn't hate you; she really just hates herself," he said as he helped me back to my feet again. "She just can't believe that everything she knew about newborns in the past is being completely turned on its head. Jess sees how fast you've adapted, how fast your emotions calm themselves. She just doesn't believe that a newborn can be that in control of their self."

"But why would she hate me because of that?"

Archie laughed, his ringing peal of bells soaring through the air. "Because she was the typical newborn. Even now, with the fact that we've been with Carine and on the non-traditional diet for almost half a century, she still struggles. You've never tasted human blood," he said and I felt my thirst flare for just a split second before I choked back the venom that was flooding my mouth. "And more so you've never really been that close to doing it either. Jessamine's just so used to newborns being so wild that they're almost impossible to control."

"Huh," I muttered understanding. I wondered if I would take a couple of humans if that would make Jess feel better, but quickly let that idea pass. I couldn't risk that. I mean, what if it was one of my friends? I vowed at the beginning, on that first day in this amazing new life that I would be the best vampire in history- maybe even as good as Carine was. Never would human blood touch my lips.

"It's Edythe too, you know. She left Carine and Earnest for those few years because she didn't want to reduce her hunting. That's partly why she insists on you hunting so much now, no matter how much I tell her that it's not necessary. But back to Edy; she didn't realize that problems that her indiscriminate hunting was having on the ecosystem where they were staying. Then, of course, she decided to take sustenance the traditional way."

"So is that why Edythe was so upset on that first day?" Surely he would know that I didn't mean the first day I met her, rather my first day as a vampire.

Archie shook his head. "Naw, it wasn't that," he said, his face almost sympathetic. "She was scared that you wouldn't still feel the same way about her as you did before."

I laughed. That was so beyond the realm of any possibilities.

Archie joined me in laughing. "Yeah, I know," he said. "She didn't believe what I saw about your first hunt either. That you'd be beyond overjoyed simply from being with her. That Earnest's hopes for the two of you were right; you two'd be completely emancipated in your relationship."

"Wow!" I gasped. Everything had worked out so beyond well; much better than I could have ever dreamed they would, barring the way I left Charlie. I still regretted that but I didn't have any other option. I had to leave ASAP and the only way that was going to happen was to cut him as deeply as I had.

"Hey Arch?" I asked and he looked up again at me. "You still see flickers of my dad, right?"

"Yeah," he answered and I could tell that he was trying to figure out what it means. "Normally when I see a human die, I never see him again. But your dad's been weird." He searched again, I was unsure if it was in the future or his memory. Either way, within a second he gasped. "How'd I miss that?"

"What Arch?" I pleaded with him to tell me as I hung on his right shoulder.

"I never actually saw your dad die. I just saw him meet one of the newborns."

"He could of escaped?" I asked, hope filling my voice for the first time about Charlie since that fateful day when I met Joss.

"Maybe. I saw him in pain somewhere in the dark for a few hours afterwards. But now I just see random flickers of him." Again Archie closed his eyes, concentrating and then another gasp. "He was somewhere with high chain link fences and plain concrete walls."

The Archie went blank again. I could tell he was seeing something that he didn't want to see just yet. A decision must have been made somewhere and the foresight of it was hitting him with amazing clarity.

"What Arch? What is it?" I all but begged.

In a move that was so fast, he looked at his phone, I assumed to check the time. "Dammit!" He spit, then dialed a number. Barely one ring went by before I heard the voice on the other end.

"What is it Archie?" Carine's gentle soprano sang.

"Get everyone to the clearing now," he said so fast that the words blended together. "Something's changed."

Even though the clearing was more than three miles from the house, Edythe was there before two minutes passed with all of the rest shortly behind her. As soon as Edythe reached my side, my left arm instinctively wrapped around her waist. She smiled briefly but then stiffened. I knew what this meant; she had picked whatever Archie had seen from his brain already.

"What is it?" Jessamine asked as she reached Archie's side as he all but copied my move with Edythe.

"Well, it looks like drawing them out of Seattle won't be our biggest challenge," Archie sort of chuckled.

"They're coming here!" Edythe growled, a low menacing sound, ripping up the back of her throat.

"The whole army?" Eleanor asked, her tone was more excited than worried. Surely she'd be thinking about all the vampires she'd be getting to fight. It was just so typically El; not thinking about the danger, rather the fun she thought she'd be in for.

Archie closed his eyes again and I knew he was concentrating deeply. I looked right into Edythe's face, knowing that she would display something before Archie would. A few seconds later, Edythe spit, "Dammit," through her teeth.

"What is it?" Again it was Eleanor and she was upset that no one had answered her earlier question.

Archie came out of his trance and answered, "They were passing around one of Beau's red tee shirts. One that one of them stole from his room in Charlie's house."

"You were right, Beau," Carine answered, her voice as gentle as ever. She was trying to calm me. I worked as hard as I could to not move anything, not show how truly terrified I was of this. I wondered if Jessamine caught on to my ruse. "Whoever it was in Seattle creating all of this havoc was always after our family."

That wasn't what I was the most afraid of. I had tried as hard as I could to stay away from town so I wouldn't risk hurting any of my human friends. I knew that I couldn't risk being around any of them because of either being spotted by them or possibly killing one of them. There were a few, I thought the first few days of my new life that it would have been fun to scare. At the top of that list was Jeremy. He was just so damned annoying, and would not take a hint that I couldn't talk about my time spent with Edythe. Not that a part of me didn't want to brag about it somewhat. But Allen and Becca were at the top of the list of those I didn't want to see get hurt. But now there was going to be a gaggle of- how many of them would there be anyway?

Archie must have seen me freaking out in the near future, so he answered. "As of now, twenty-six."

"Twenty-six?" Royal spat, no doubt as worried as I was. "When? I mean, how long will we have to get ready?"

Archie closed his eyes, trying to get some clue as to the time frame. "They'll be leaving Seattle when the moon is ninety-four percent of full." He focused again before saying, "Waning."

I pulled out my phone. The full moon was the following Thursday, so that meant they'd leave Seattle next Saturday. I didn't like this. We had at most a week and a half, and that assumed that whoever had made the decision to come here didn't change it. I didn't think that would be enough time to get everyone ready for the fight, especially the wolves. They wouldn't know enough about the newborns. The only good thing was that if the only landmark he had to know when they would come was the moon, then that meant they'd be leaving at night. That would give us an advantage but I had no idea how the darkness would affect the wolves.

"We'll be ready," Jessamine said to me. She must have known how much I was freaking out. "There are things are not necessary for them to know, but even one training session should be enough for those mutts."

"Jessamine," Earnest growled. "They are our allies. We won't condemn them to face a foe they are not ready for. We will prepare them for everything the best that we can."

Jessamine, I could tell was annoyed but she wouldn't cross Earnest. While he was an incredibly gentle man, Earnest always seemed to have this edge about him. I kind of wondered what he had been in his previous life. It reminded me of something Charlie had told me once; that the guy talking all loud in a bar or whatever wasn't the guy you needed to worry about. The real baddest mamma-jamma wouldn't let you know how dangerous he was until it was too late.

Then the scent of wolf was strong again. I sniffed in deeply, and felt my nose automatically wrinkle from the stink. About a minute later, I heard the sound of heavy thudding hearts and padded paws. I started to count them and quickly realized that there were way more than I was expecting. Sure, I knew about Emma and Quinn morphing or whatever they called it, so that should of put there numbers up to six. As all the wolves entered the clearing, I counted nine. Then another minute later, the sound of a motorcycle coming down the path. Two people were on the bike; Jules, in her human form, and Saul Clearwater. It made no sense why he would be here. All the legends about The Quileutes said that the secret was known by the girls who could change. Why a man would be there was beyond me. But then I remembered what Julie had said a couple of days ago; something that I had forgotten in this moment. Sarah and Lee Clearwater both had changed into wolves. In fact, a few of the Quileutes even speculated that the shock of seeing a male phase is what triggered Holly's heart attack. She had probably been ready to see Sarah change but was totally unprepared to see Lee do so.

In any events, this was going to be an interesting night. I hoped that I would get the chance to see how much El's and Jess's training on me had taken. Sure, I hadn't been able to take down Jess yet but I had managed a couple of times to take down Eleanor. I was still significantly stronger than El was. I hoped that I would get the chance to spar some against her. But then, what if Jules or some of the other wolves wanted to spar against me. I just hoped that I could control myself from doing something stupid if I did. While it could be fun, this was also gonna probably be a really stressful night.

AN: So there is the next chapter. Please let me know what you think. Next time is the training session which will have a few changes from Eclipse