Stephanie Meyer owns all of Twilight. I just play there.
CH. 7
The returning Cullens found Alice and Finder sitting on the porch, laughing. Finder was smoking a tiny, oddly sweet herbal cigarette, which she stubbed out as the family returned, placing the end in a small metal container she replaced in the pouch at her waist. "I am aware of the vampire's aversion to fire. Your venom is quite flammable, isn't it?"
"You better believe it," laughed Alice. "I haven't had a chance to tell you that yet."
"Aw, Alice, you didn't tell her anything, did you?" whined Emmett.
"Now, brother, you know that she wouldn't do anything like that," said Jasper, crossing to his wife's side.
Carlisle added, "Finder, you really shouldn't smoke. It really is very bad for your health."
Finder laughed again, and Alice joined in. Carlisle looked a little nonplussed, and Finder quickly apologized. "I am sorry if I seemed cavalier about your warning, Dr. Carlisle. I am aware of the dangers of tobacco for most people. These, however, are not commercial tobacco, but mostly sweet herbs and spices with some natural tobacco, no man-made chemical additives, and I am hardly 'most people'. My regenerative processes are far more efficient than the norm, I assure you. My occasional indulgence does me no harm, and I am careful not to set a bad example for others. I actually began smoking this blend in the Middle East many, many decades ago. And I assure you, I will not allow fire to get out of control around you or your family."
Esme grinned at her husband. "Once a doctor, always a doctor." Carlisle had the good grace to look slightly embarrassed. "My apologies. It was rude of me to comment like that."
"Not at all, Doctor Carlisle. Not at all." Finder looked around the yard, seeing the rest of the family gathered. "Well, then, shall we be about it?"
Jasper asked, "How long do you think this will take?"
"Not long," replied Finder confidently. She stepped away from the porch, raised her hands slightly, the shadows rose up around her, and she was gone.
"Whoa!" huffed Emmett.
"Did we really see that?" asked Jacob.
"She just….vanished!" whispered Seth.
Rosalie snorted. "Magic tricks. Hmmppphhh.."
"I don't know if it is magic, exactly, but it certainly isn't some sort of trick.
She was here one second and the next, gone," observed Edward.
Carlisle was silent. This particular phenomenon he had seen before, and he devoutly hoped he could keep that from his mind-reading son. Still, he was noted for his scientific observations, and he couldn't afford to keep quiet about this. 'Focus, Carlisle,' he told himself. Aloud, he said, "We should compare our observations at this point. We may not have privacy for some time to come. What did you see?"
Jacob answered first. "She vanished."
"Well, yeah, but how?" questioned Seth.
"Reneesme, did you sense anything at all?" queried Carlisle?
"Nothing, Grandpa Carlisle. I never picked up anything at all from her. Weird," sighed Reneesme.
"Anyone else?" he asked.
"It seemed that the shadows just….came out of nowhere and swallowed her," said Jasper thoughtfully. "Like the light just stopped where she was."
Emmett added, "It came up from around her feet and moved up her body. She disappeared from the floor up."
The family looked at him in surprise. "What? I am more than just a pretty face," Emmett grinned.
"Good observation," Carlisle allowed, grinning back at his teddy-bear son.
"So she disappears. Big deal. Maybe she should stay gone," snorted Rosalie, unimpressed. The woman had cut her husband, with a knife, no less.
"Rosalie, this is important. Everything to do with this woman is important," Carlisle admonished.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Save the world. Mysterious weapons. History lessons. Disappearing acts. I got it," she said sarcastically.
Carlisle sighed deeply as the rest of the family considered what they had learned.
"Let me see if I understand all this," said Esme. "She claims to be over seven hundred years old, a knight of the Templar order, she has some unique weapons, she believes that our entire world is under some form of attack and she wants our help, and she can disappear."
"Don't forget the finding things, the parallel worlds bit, and the mysterious vision Alice had," added Jasper.
"And that none of us can detect her scent or her breathing or heartbeat," observed Bella.
"Could you sense her 'light', Bella?" asked Carlisle.
"No, which is very strange. I can sense anyone under my shield, but not her. I tried, Carlisle, I did." Bella seemed frustrated by her inability to sense their visitor.
"I couldn't 'hear' her either, love," added Edward.
"I can't see her in any of my visions," Alice chimed in. "I can see us, but not her. I can see what is going on around her, but it's like those television specials where the blur the face of someone, so their identity can be concealed."
"We wolves cannot catch her scent either. No sound from her body beyond her voice, and very little heat signature. I would have to ask Sam's pack if they have ever heard of anything like this, but the only thing I can remember are the legends about the spirit-walkers, who were actually, well, gods or something like it, who appeared to my people." Jacob tugged at his hair as he spoke, annoyed that there was nothing more he could offer.
"Oh great. A Native American god? Uh-huh. Not with that hair." Rosalie's tone was bitter.
"Nothing else, Jacob?" asked Edward.
"Nope. But some of the things from those old legends do seem to fit Finder. No scent, appears and disappears, speaks in secret code, gives those who see them quests, all the usual sort of crap. Come to think of it, the same crap Finder is pulling." Jacob grinned at Edward, who returned the grin.
"Hhhmmmmm," murmured Carlisle. "Most unusual." He paused for a long minute. "Someone sent me a flash drive several months ago. I think it may have been Finder." It was as close to the truth as he could come while still avoiding the details of that long night in Phoenix.
"A flash drive?" asked Jasper.
"Yes. The data concerned a very unusual virus, something I have never seen before. It appears to attack humans, vampires, werewolves, all with equal devastation."
"Why do you think it was Finder?" questioned Esme.
"Because she showed up at my office today with a case equipped with technology simply not available in this world and told me that it contained samples of this virus."
"Wait a minute. Why would this Finder woman send you anything, much less information on some weird virus?" asked Rosalie suspiciously.
"Think about it, Rosalie," Carlisle said, exasperated. He pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "She knew about us. Our names, where I work, where we live. She knows about the Volturi. She knows we are vampires, vegetarians, knows our powers. She knows about Jacob and Seth, that they are werewolves. She probably knows about Reneesme." At Edward's low hiss and Jacob's growl, he opened his eyes and met their concern. "My point is not that I believe she is dangerous to us. On the contrary, I think she is exactly what she says, however unbelievable it sounds. Choosing to come to me with this demonstrates just how well she does know us. If this virus attacks vampires as well as werewolves and humans, who better to seek out to investigate it than a vampire doctor with over three hundred years studying medicine?" Carlisle had carefully considered how to explain his 'acquaintance' with Finder in a manner that would cover his feelings and his thoughts for his gifted sons. He was determined that no one would ever know about that night in Phoenix when Bella died, but he had to come up with something to explain his reasoning.
"Carlisle, she said that this, whatever this is, is dangerous, and that we have to be involved. What does she mean?" asked Bella, slipping onto Edward's lap and curling one hand around his neck, calming him slightly.
"There is that small metal case Finder carried. It's still in Carlisle's car," ventured Alice. "I did see that," she added sheepishly.
Jasper smiled warmly at his wife. "You can't really help what you see, darlin'."
"And it is going to stay in the car, locked up in the console, until I can get it to the lab. If it is a sample, then it is incredibly dangerous for us all. I have a bio-hazard suit, and when we settle this with Finder, I will transfer the case to the lab," ordered Carlisle.
"Alice, how long before she gets back?" asked Seth.
Alice thought for a moment. "Not long, maybe ten minutes."
"I need to clear my head," sighed Carlisle. "I am going for a walk."
He could feel his family watching his with puzzlement, but he had to get out, if only for a few minutes. He needed to breathe, just shake off this stress. His family was in danger, had been from the minute Finder turned up, and it was his responsibility to protect them as best he could. He just wished he knew exactly what he was protecting them from.
Deep in the forest, Finder stepped from the darkness beside a tree, a fallen giant of its kind, the torn and tangled roots extending upwards for more than twenty feet above her. Carefully she extended her senses, checking her surroundings. She could smell the forest, the pine and spruce, the moss and ferns, the nearby burrowing animals, and the scent of a recent vampire visit. Satisfied that no danger lurked nearby, she climbed easily and quickly through the roots of the giant conifer. Once there, she once again checked her surroundings, then knelt and pulled from beneath the bark a silver teaspoon. Smiling to herself, she tucked it into her belt pouch and leapt from the trunk to the forest floor. She held still for a moment and silently disappeared, only to reappear several miles away on the edge of a large, fast-flowing stream. She stood on a tumble of large rocks, looking across the whispering water, when , in the blink of an eye, she drew her sword.
Across the stream, a man stood, hands on his hips, laughing.
"Faster than you used to be, my dear", he chuckled.
Finder did not relax her stance, though more than thirty feet of water separated the two.
"Ah, Katharine, it has been far too long," the man smiled winningly. He was not tall, but well built, with broad shoulders filling his expensive, custom suit. His tiercel yellow eyes crinkled with his smile as he ran his eyes up and down Finder's body. "You really ought to be wearing gowns that suit you. You are truly a beautiful woman. Show it off."
Still Finder did not speak or move.
"Aww, are you still unhappy with me for the last time we met?" His baritone voice was mellifluous, flowing like chocolate over his words, but his eyes began to tighten slightly at Finder's continued silence and drawn sword. "I'm sorry, my dear, about trying to kill you, but I just got carried away in the heat of the moment. Now, my dear, you really ought to relax. After all, I know you can be gone before I can cross this stream. I chose this place apurpose, you know, just so we could have a tête-à-tête, just the two of us."
Finder's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly, but she did not alter her stance, nor break her silence.
"Well, if you won't speak, I guess it falls to me." His face hardened as he continued and threat wound through his words. "I know what you are doing. Katharine. Stop. Stop now. Just let it go. You cannot stop me. You know you do not want to," he coaxed. "Not really."
From the woods behind Finder, Carlisle stood, shocked. He had decided to clear his head with a quick run, never thinking he would come upon Finder in the process of finishing the test she had set. He had stopped to watch the stars when he heard a man speaking. It was a voice well used to power and persuasion, flexible and supple as music, beautiful and well controlled. Carlisle was upwind of the man, so no scent touched him, and he was well controlled around humans. He turned to depart when he heard the man say a name. Katharine. Finder's name. Carlisle silently crept closer, eavesdropping shamelessly. This woman was a puzzle, and he had no clue about the man. However, something about the voice, the beautiful baritone voice, troubled him. Something about this man made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and the venom pool in his mouth. The situation bore closer investigation. He stood, hidden in the shadows, and peered out.
There was Finder, holding her sword ready, standing loosely on a pile of large rocks. Across the stream was a man, very oddly dressed to be so deep in the woods. He wore a black suit, a brilliant white shirt with discretely sparkling jewel cuff links, and a blood-red tie. Gleaming black leather shoes shone on his feet. He was smiling, wheedling Finder into something …conversation, attack, something. But Finder might have been stone for all the reaction visible. Even the normally unconscious tightening of muscles, of the eyes and face, did not happen. She simply waited, Zen-like, as the man continued to talk.
"Ah, Katharine, it could be like it was, you and I. Fighting. Exploring. Loving. We could rule the worlds, all of them, you and I. Come with me, Katharine. You and I, we could have anything, everything we ever wanted, together." The man smiled, his yellow tiercel eyes gleaming warmly, his body swaying imperceptibly, his hands extended gently, pleading and coaxing coating every syllable from his lips.
And still Finder did not move, held silent.
And the man changed. Slowly, even to vampire senses, but he changed. His eyes narrowed. He lowered his hands as his body stiffened, his face altered to something far different that the charming, handsome man he had been a moment earlier. He was no longer charming, no longer affable. Dangerous, that is what he became. A sense of terrible darkness suffused his entire being, easily discerned by a vampire. His lips hardened into a tight line, his brows crept together as he drew himself up.
"Still stubborn, I see," he sneered, and the beautiful voice was now filled with scorn. "Stop what you are doing, Katharine. You will regret interfering with me. If you get in my way, I will destroy you and everyone near you." He did not shout, never raised his voice, but his words were laced so heavily with threat and hatred that even a vampire as old and strong as Carlisle shuddered. The man stared hard at Finder for several seconds, then snorted contemptuously and stalked away, into the forest. Finder, Carlisle saw, did not move. Only her eyes followed the man until he disappeared. He waited, watching silently.
Finder stood on the rock for another five minutes, slowly moving her head as she surveyed the entire area. Finally, she moved her sword to one hand and jumped from the rock to the edge of the stream. She knelt down at the edge and rummaged amongst the plants, finally coming up with an onyx chess piece, which she tucked into her belt pouch as she stood.
"You can come out, Dr. Carlisle," she called.
Carlisle stopped breathing in shock. No one, except possibly a mind-reading vampire, could have known he was there, and yet Finder did. He stepped out of the forest and crossed to the pile of tumbled rocks quietly, with nothing to say.
Finder did not look at him. She continually scanned the surrounding area, searching as if she expected something dangerous to attack at any moment.
"He knows you," Carlisle finally said.
"Yes. He was once my husband." Finder smiled grimly. "Please, go back to the house, and don't let anyone out alone. I will follow when I have finished the task."
Carlisle was speechless. He nodded once and turned lithely, running as fast as he had ever run in his life towards home, the family he loved, and had to protect. And away from this dangerous mystery that threatened them all.