2: Revelations
Jacob was standing in the doorway, he looked uneasy as his eyes pierced the dark looking everywhere but at me.
"My love" I said, my voice making him smile briefly.
"Nes" Finally he looked at me, his eyes were red, had he been crying?
"What's wrong sweetie?" I whispered, he was trembling as he came closer, I got of the bike, Alice was already standing behind me as she grabbed my hand. Then I smelled it… blood. His mouth formed the letters as I said the name…
"Billy"
I ran inside, Alice right behind me, there he lay on the floor, broken. My heart skipped a beat, to my relief Billy was still breathing, I could hear a faint heartbeat as well. Right then Jacob came back in again. Kneeling down beside the old man's damaged body.
"I just got back here a few minutes ago, I was following a suspicious scent in the woods, I've been out for less then an hour" Jacob said, his voice lacked the life I could normally hear in it. He looked at me again, pain in his eyes. I knew Jacob well enough to understand that seeing someone he cared about hurt, was what cut him the deepest.
Jacob gently lifted Billy up from the ground and brought him to the couch, the blood on the floor still showed where he had been lying before, like a chalk outline, my mind morbidly suggested. The old Indian was severely wounded, but I trusted Carlisle to pull him through, Alice was already on the phone to get him to come over. Through the blood that clouded my sense of smell I now detected a new scent, much less pleasing then the blood, it was definitely the scent of a vampire, but not one I knew and it had a strange edge to it. Alice just got of the phone, pulling up her nose in wrinkles as she looked at me, she had smelled it too.
"The scent itself almost seems to hide" I said, hardly aware I was speaking out loud.
Carlisle got there in record time and started working on Billy right away. Billy had opened his eyes only once. The look of horror in his eyes scared me, he didn't seem to recognize me. Jabob, Alice and I went outside, since there was nothing we could do but wait, we'd rather do that outside. After some time Carlisle came outside and walked over to us, we were now waiting in front of the house. Carlisle explained that he had sedated Billy pretty heavily.
"I forced his body in a state of rest so he can heal. He is severely wounded, but I think he'll pull through." Carlisle said in a monotonous voice. Then a lighter mood seemed to hit him all of a sudden.
"Nessie, you and Alice have a visitor, head to the house, Jacob and I will watch Billy for now"
I looked at Jacob, he nodded at me, I kissed him on the cheek and whispered. " I'll see you in a few hours" I got on my bike. Alice jumped on the back without the bike even moving and put her arms around me, seconds later we were on the road. I saw dark shapes in the woods around us, the packs, restless for having missed an intruder on their turf.
Not much later we arrived at the house, Alice jumped off of the bike and smiled at me, having seen the visitor in her mind allready, at that moment I smelled someone familiar and as I walked up to the house he came out, the rebel vampire.
"Uncle Garret!" I yelled and flung myself around his neck in a most un-cool manner . For a moment I was just a teen, happy having her favorite uncle visit, though in reality even "teen" was pushing it off course, I was officially yet to have my seventh birthday. In as many ways as I was beyond my years I was in equally as many so much younger. Garret looked at me smiling and then kissed my cheek.
"Hey there sweetie" he said, a mischievous smile on his lips. "I hear we're in trouble?"
"Trouble is somewhat of an understatement" Alice said casually while walking inside the house, Garret and I followed as Alice quickly explained to Garret what she had seen in her recent vision. Mom and dad where waiting for us in the living room together with Jazz, Emm, Rose and Esme, worried looks on their faces.
"How's Billy?" Mom asked, I explained Billy's status and how Carlisle had sedated him. Though the worry never left any of their faces there was a sense of relief hearing Jacob's father would pull through.
Emmet directed his attention towards Garret. Apparently Garret had been waiting for us to arrive before explaining the reason for his visit. The Rebel vampire described how he had come across a vampire scent he didn't recognize. Out of curiosity he followed the trail, after a few miles the scent changed. It became increasingly hard to follow, but it was heading for Forks and so Garret decided to pay the Cullen house a visit. At this point question marks nearly literally appeared above the heads of all those present. Before discussion could follow I explained how Jacob had smelled something strange in the woods and how Alice and myself had picked up the strange "hiding" scent in Billy's house.
"It seems we have a mystery on our hands" Garret said, with just a touch too much excitement in his voice. Emmet nodded in Garrets direction, a subtle hint of a smile around his lips, always eager to meet a challenge head on.
I suggested that the recent Volturi activity Alice reported and the events surrounding the attack on Billy might very well be related. Everybody was in agreement that we could not ignore that fact. The weird hiding scent should be taken into account as well, I indicated that it might very well be some sort of vampiric power, perhaps some sort of stealth that had also flown beneath the radar of Alice's precognitive power.
" If that is the case, we should be extra careful of protecting our loved ones out there" Rosalie said, a bit out of character. Though I knew "aunt Rose" to love me to death, her heart has always been difficult to win over, especially for humans and werewolves. But the addition of Mom and me to the Cullen family had it's impact it seemed. Rosalie had thawed out a bit these last six years.
Rosalie's remark sent increasing shockwaves through the group as all of a sudden it became clear that when Billy could be targeted right under our noses many others were possible victims of an attack as well, not in the least my grandfather Charlie. Mom already ahead of me was little more then a blur leaving the house as fast as possible.
My father of course followed without hesitation. I stayed at the house, to wait for Jacob, but also to discuss something of a plan with the family. Jasper was the first one to speak.
"Perhaps we can organize ourselves and build up some sort of fortification? Pull in as many of our more vulnerable friends as possible"
"Don't forget, not everybody is officially aware of our families extraordinary status" I said.
"I doubt the Volturi need anymore reason to come over, the confrontation is inevitable as is." Alice stated, an apologetic smile on her face as she shrugged of the bleak image of the future she just summoned.
As I thought of the fortification concept Jasper had implied involuntarily a twisted image of the Adams family mansion came to mind, a somber estate monsters kept safely inside.
"We need to assemble the alliance" Garret said, his voice pulling me from my mental picture. The thought of immortals, wolves and vampires all together suddenly felt a bit less vulnerable then just safely inside the Adams residence.
Due to their lack of judgment, figuratively as well as literally the last time the Volturi came to Forks, most of the nomads had taken a stronger position against the Italian dictators, some had even joined the alliance. We would greatly outnumber them. Since the confrontation six years ago some of the Volturi guards have even been eliminated, or perhaps assassinated is a better word. Though it is still somewhat of a mystery as to who would take such an aggressive stand against the Volturi. We were more then thankful to see their numbers decline over the years.
As we discussed our plans on how we would assemble the alliance and go about fortifying our surroundings the phone rang, it was Emmet who picked it up. I could see the look in his eyes changing after a few seconds. We all waited for him to speak when he hung up…
"Charlie is missing" he said.