RECAP: Miriam met up with Alice, Edward, Bella, Jacob, Nessie, Embry, and Quil at school and learned a lot mot about the vampire world. She managed to convince Elsie not to be scared, too. So now they're okay. But there's still the threat of the Volturi finding out about Miriam's existence...
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight, only Miriam, Cammie, Brooke, Elsie's parents, the twins, and Glenn.
WORD COUNT: 3559
In the three years that passed after I discovered my unbelievable heritage, my life changed for the better. Elsie and I became inseparable with my family, to the slight confusion of our schoolmates. Nobody could explain or figure out how the new kids had bonded with us so fast.
As far as Maman and Papa were concerned, we were all just friends. They had no clue about the vampires and shifters, let alone the fact that Jacob and Nessie were my biological parents. By then, I had gotten used to calling them by name in public, along with Grandma and Grandpa – I mean, Bella and Edward. Rosalie sometimes baby-sat my younger adoptive siblings, and they adored her, although Brooke was a little scared of Emmett.
By then, everyone but Elsie, Seth, Alice, and I had graduated from high school, while Jasper continued to work there. Cammie Everard often went to see him unnecessarily (coughdesperateslutcough), but not nearly as much as Alice. With her gift, she could tell exactly when nobody would be around to catch them making out – Jasper would be so fired if someone did. Quil had moved back to his hometown La Push, to live with his imprint, Claire.
Dad had explained imprinting to me. From my understanding, it was a reaction a shifter had when he saw his 'soulmate'. Their hearts were pretty much bound together to the end of time after that. One day I asked him when he'd imprinted on Mom, and apparently it was when she was only a couple minutes old! He'd actually helped deliver the girl he was going to marry! Elsie and I both agreed that that was just weird.
The whole imprinting thing raised a lot of questions for me. I knew the wolf guys didn't age, so what happened when the girl they'd imprinted on got older? Considering Quil's case, Claire was now thirty-one. Then Seth explained that the non-aging thing only happened if they transformed regularly. If not, then they would just continue to get older like everyone else. His older sister, Leah, was still living in La Push, happily married (though not to an imprint) and working as a lawyer, and she definitely looked her age of forty-six.
As for Seth and I… well, things were still really awkward. I mean, I could no longer deny that I liked him, and I often dreamt fantasies of him, but after quite a bit of thought on the arguing voices in my head, I came to the likely conclusion that they were my two sides: my humanity and the supernatural creature. While I was glad that I'd given in to the latter at first and trusted Jasper, the demands it made afterwards were somewhat frightening. I'd read 'Lord of the Flies'; if I gave in, I would be in danger of losing my humanity to 'The Beast'. Even if it made my human existence harder, I had to stay away from Seth.
Mom, Elsie, and Alice were the only one I confided in about my worries (although I'm pretty sure Jasper and Grandpa had a good sense of them as well). Elsie agreed with me that the age difference was kind of weird, but said that I should go for him, anyway, and Mom and Alice backed her up. But even with their advice, I still refrained from making any moves.
Instead, I often went out with guys from my own grade. I really wanted a boy who would love me and never hurt me, but in every relationship I had, I just never felt close to the guy. The nice ones usually broke it off gently because they could tell I wasn't really that into them, and the pervs who wanted… other things from me were easy to walk away from, especially with a family of vamps and 'werewolves' to keep the guy from bugging me. Still, it frustrated me beyond belief, and Elsie made it harder by continuously insisting that I should just give it up and go out with Seth. "If anything," she would joke, "He'll be able to defend himself if your Dad gets too overprotective. All those other boys would just be walking pieces of kibble!"
Thursday, February 22nd, 2035
It was late February, a month before my eighteenth birthday, that Elsie told me that her family was going on vacation to Italy for March Break. More specifically, Volterra, home of the Volturi. Her mom wanted to attend the festival celebrating the expulsion of the vampires (if only they knew), and that bothered my vamp/shifter family quite a bit. The Volturi's 'hunting' strategy was to have one vampire give a group of humans a 'guided tour' of their castle, luring the unsuspecting tourists to their deaths. What if Elsie's parents fell for it?
"We can only keep them safe if they stay in town," Great-Grandpa Carlisle stated one day while we were discussing it at their house, "Once they wander out of Golden Creek or the Forks region, they're fair game for hunting. If we intervene to try and save them, the Volturi will realize something's up. They could find out that Elsie knows all about us, and they could learn about Miriam."
"It's extremely dangerous," Grandpa agreed, "But we can't just let them go off to their deaths!"
"A few of us could go," Grandma suggested, "And Alice can keep an eye on the Volturi's movements. If their paths cross with the O'Laskeys', she can call, and we can do something."
"Yeah, but like what?" Kate asked. She was from the other vegetarian coven, somewhere up in Alaska, and had come down for a visit with her mate, Garrett.
"I don't know, mess with their car or bus or whatever they're getting around in, cause traffic jams, distractions, anything to keep them off that tour."
"If the Volturi notice our people, they can just say they're there for a visit," Rosalie added, clearly on board with this plan, but not too eager to go as part of the first group, "But they'll have to be very careful about it."
"We can help," Garrett volunteered immediately, "Anything to wipe the smirks off their faces." Emmett grinned and gave him a high-five.
"Okay, we'll go with that," Dad agreed, "It's risky, but it's pretty much the only thing we can do." All the others nodded as well, but I was still unsure. Jasper, Grandpa, Seth, Mom, and Dad all noticed right away.
"Don't worry," Mom assured me, kissing my forehead, "Nothing's going to happen, sweetie. I promise."
I instantly began to relax, although I suspected it was mainly Jasper's doing.
Friday, March 9th, 2035
Elsie trembled as she hugged me goodbye. Despite Grandma, Grandpa, Kate, and Garrett already being in Italy, ready to play secret bodyguard for her family, she was still scared. Looking at her face, though, most people wouldn't be able to tell, maybe not even her own parents. Only Grandpa, Jasper, I would really be able to detect her fear; them because of their powers, and me just because I knew her better than anyone.
"Have fun," I told her, and she grinned at me shakily.
"I'll e-mail you every day," she replied. We hugged one more time before she boarded her plane.
I myself was pretty nervous as I drove home. What if something went wrong? While I had no experience with the Volturi, the others had, and I'd heard the horror stories of those who dared cross the royalty of the vampire world.
Grandpa's precious classic silver Volvo was parked in my driveway when I got home. That struck me as odd. He was supposed to be in Volterra. Then I figured Dad must've taken it – he and Grandpa tended to 'borrow' each other's rides and stuff, though not necessarily with each other's permission. Grandma said they still didn't quite get along so well, even though the little tension between them was nothing compared to what it had been back when they were both competing for her love.
Ew.
So when I went inside, I wasn't all that surprised to see Dad watching TV with Brooke and the twins. Well, Brooke was watching TV; Wally had Dustin in a headlock on the floor while Dad was trying to making them stop without having to get up off the couch.
I rolled my eyes, walked over, and knelt beside the boys. "Un! Deux! Trois!" (One! Two! Three!) I shouted, hitting the floor rug, "Wally est le gagneur, le match est fini!" (Wally's the winner, the match is over!) They immediately separated, knowing that if they delayed by even two seconds, I would pull them apart myself. I may look skinny, but I'm part vampire, for crying out loud! I can beat any human in arm wrestling any day.
"Nice one," Dad commented, "How'd you get 'em to listen like that?"
"Years of practice. Dustin, arretez." Dustin had started poking his brother, who was bound to start another fight if that continued. "What's on?"
"Some old, weird Canadian game show." I looked at the screen and realised Brooke was engrossed in another rerun of 'Uh Oh!', one of Papa's favourite game shows from his childhood. My favourite part was when a contestant answered a trivia question wrong, resulting in the black-leather-masked 'Punisher' getting to drop a bucket of brightly-coloured goo on their partner's head.
I plunked down next to Dad. "Don't knock it. Watching people get slime dumped on their heads is awesome."
"Elsie on her way?"
"Yep. Think she'll be okay?"
Dad glanced over at Brooke, reminding me that I couldn't go into detail around her. The twins had run off into the kitchen, and I really didn't want to know what they were up to, and the sounds of a saxophone and flute coming from upstairs told me that Glenn was practicing with his girlfriend Katrina. It's Italy; what could happen?" He gave me a one-armed hug.
"WRONG!" Brooke shouted, making us both jump, "It's counter-clockwise!" On the TV, the weird host declared the girl's answer to the question (Which way does the water flow when you flash the toilet?) was wrong.
I have absolutely no clue how they managed to sneak up behind us, but when the Punisher poured the yellow-brown slime – an appropriate colour for that question – down the funnel into the Slime Chamber, Wally and Dustin popped up from behind the couch and dumped some kind of gunk on Dad's head.
"What the f- ow!" I smacked Dad in the arm before he could finish (I love being able to get away with that). The twins immediately dashed to their room, dropping what I realised were two plastic cups filled with cornstarch, water, and green food colouring. Most of the homemade slime was now dripping down Dad's face, and I couldn't hold back a laugh. Brooke was practically rolling on the floor, overcome with hysterics.
Dad even grinned a little. "Hah, hah. Where's the bathroom again?" I pointed him in the right direction, still giggling madly. It wasn't until he was down the hall and out of sight that Brooke and I were able to calm down.
"Those two are in so much trouble," I stated, picking up the forgotten cups of slime. Brooke and I tended to speak English when it was just the two of us, since she used to live with an English-speaking family.
"Yeah. Maman and Papa aren't going to be happy when they learn they dumped goop on your boyfriend's head!"
"Ew! Jacob isn't my boyfriend! He's more like a big brother! Of course, the way he acts sometimes, you'd think he was my father, or something." I could say that much to her.
"Oh yeah, sorry. I got him mixed up with Seth."
I dropped one of the cups, and some of the leftover gunk spilled onto the rug. "I told you, Seth is not my boyfriend, either!" My fingers fumbled as I tried to pick it back up.
"But you want him to be, and he wants that, too." I stared at her incredulously. "Hey, I'm eleven years old. I know things."
"You're crazy, Brookie." Brooke shrugged and went back to watching TV, pouting when she realised it'd gone to commercial break.
Tuesday, March 13th, 2035
"What do you think of this one?" Rosalie asked, holding up a top with a very low neckline.
"I think Emmett's going to love it," Alice replied, and I nodded in agreement. Emmett would go crazy over her in that, although I had to wonder how long it would stay on.
Rosalie grinned and added it to the huge load of clothes slung over her arm. Anyone who was paying attention would notice that a normal person would show some difficulty carrying all that weight – there were ten shirts, nine pairs of (designer) jeans, and about a dozen dresses – but Rosalie handled it all as if it were as light as a feather. Alice carried about twice that much.
I, on the other hand, only carried a sweater and a pair of boots. Unlike my great-aunts, I didn't have tons of cash to burn. My salary at the outlet mall's juice bar just wasn't big enough to cover gas, car insurance (since I drove Papa's car, I had to pay part of the insurance), and a mega shopping splurge.
We were near the jewellery section when Alice's eyes went blank, and she gave a gasp of horror. "What is it?" Rosalie asked urgently.
Instead of answering, Alice whipped out her cell phone and frantically dialled a number so fast that her fingers were a blur. "Pickuppickuppickup!" she whispered, "Edward! Mrs. O'Laskey made a last-second decision to go on the tour! You've got to do something, fast!"
I gasped. My best friend was about to go down into the lair of the vampires who actually do drink human blood! She'd be a sitting duck! What if Grandma, Grandpa, Kate, and Garrett couldn't get to them in time?
I couldn't stop shaking as I trailed behind Mom and Dad at the very back of the group. Maybe, if we were the closest to the doors, we could make a run for it. But I knew I was deluding myself. There was no way we could possibly outrun a whole swarm of vampires.
The other dozen or so tourists had no clue what was about to happen to us. An elderly couple tried to contain their hyperactive grandkids, a pair of college girls chatted in Italian, and Mom was taking pictures of every piece of deformed statue that she deemed 'interesting'. Normally I'd complain that she was wasting memory card space, but it wouldn't matter; at this rate, we'd all be dead soon.
Where were they? Edward and Bella and their Denali cousins were supposed to be watching us and keeping us safe! But I suppose they didn't have much warning; Mom had just decided on a whim, like usual. I should've considered that. The last I'd seen of them, they were talking to a guy in a creepy trench coat and sunglasses. The little bit of his face I did glimpse seemed to sparkle. It only hit me then that he must've been a vampire; probably with the Volturi. Of course they couldn't go after us without making him suspicious.
The tour guide in the fishnet tights had never mentioned her name, but I had no doubt it was Heidi. When I'd found out we'd be coming here, I'd gone to Carlisle for as much dirt on the Volturi as my brain could hold. I wasn't sure how knowing all their names and how they were going to kill us was would be helpful, though.
"Honey, hurry up," Mom insisted, taking my hand and pulling me along, "We don't want you to get lost." At least she was right about that. I did not feel like being lost and alone in a castle full of evil vampires.
"And now we're going to go down to the throne room to meet some actual descendants of Saint Marcus and the Volturi vampire hunters," Heidi announced, her violet eyes – make that red eyes with blue contacts – glinting. We passed through a nicely decorated hallway with a secretary desk off to the right. The woman sitting there had jet-black hair cut in a bob and was bent over a stack of paperwork, so that we couldn't see her face. I kept watching her as we walked past, and right before we turned a corner, I saw her look up.
I'd been expecting red or black eyes, so I was startled to see that her were a beautiful shade of deep green. She was human. And she had to know. How was she still alive?
When I found myself being partially dragged through the double doors and into the ornate throne room, I instantly knew that our situation was now hopeless. The entire room was filled with vampires, wearing black or grey robes and not even bothering to disguise their red eyes. "Their costumes suck," one little boy whispered loudly, "They don't look anything like real vampires." Oh, if he knew… I was the only one who understood the danger.
There were three male vampires sitting on a raised platform with the same number of thrones. I knew from the Cullens' descriptions that the blond one was Caius, the one who looked bored out of his mind was 'Saint' Marcus himself, and that left Aro as the one wearing a seemingly friendly smile, but was perhaps the cruellest and most manipulative of them all. I subtly pulled my lighter out of my pocket.
Aro stood and spread his arms open wide. "Friends," he announced, "Eat up."
In a split second, total hell erupted all around me. The vampires all jumped on the other humans, snapping their necks first or simply going straight for the jugular. A stone cold hand grabbed my arm, and I whipped around, sticking the flame in the vamp's face. He screamed and stumbled back, his face smoking and going up in flames. The entire massacre stopped right away. None of the vampires moved to help their comrade. In fact, they all skittered back as he stumbled towards them, his whole body now aflame. Five seconds later, Mr. Bad-Boy-Vampire was now Mr. Pile-of-Smouldering-Ash.
Faster than my eyes could register, two more vampires rushed to my side, forced the lighter out of my hand, and pinned my arms behind my back. Caius was staring at me suspiciously. "She knew," he stated sharply, "She knew we are vulnerable to flames and had her lighter out before we even made a move." The rest of the Volturi murmured amongst each other, clearly agreeing with him.
One of the tiny female vampires stepped forward, dropping one of the dead college girls to the floor carelessly. "Interesting," she said, grinning at me. My whole body was suddenly filled with a red-hot, agonising pain. It was only the two vampires holding me up that kept me from collapsing.
"Stop it!" I heard my Mom yell. The agony ceased and I gasped, looking around and trying to catch my breath at the same time. Dad was lying immobile on the floor, while Mom was trapped in headlock by a really big vampire.
Jane looked over at her – and yes, I knew it had to be evil little Jane – and giggled. It sounded so creepy. "Would you like some, too?"
"No," I commanded, trying to sound braver than I felt, "Leave my mother alone, Jane." A wave of surprise swept through the room. I bit my tongue, realising that I'd just admitted to knowing her name.
In a blink of an eye, I was dragged right up in front of Aro's throne. The Volturi leader reached out with one long, thin finger and touched my forehead.
My life flashed before my eyes. No joke; it felt like I was watching every moment of my life, sped up a billon times. I gasped as I realised it was Aro's powers. He was absorbing every thought and feeling I'd ever had. Only after five seconds, he stopped. "This one will live," he announced, "It seems our old friends the Cullens have been hiding something from us." Miriam! With that one touch, I'd told the Volturi everything about her! "The rest can die."
I twisted around to look at my mother. She stared back at me, desperately frightened. "No…" I begged, "No, don't! Please!" With a sadistic grin, the vampire holding her snapped her neck with a sickening, horrifying crack. "NOOOOOO!"
Dun dun DUUNNNNNNNN... How's that for a cliffie? Next chapter, Miriam and co. launch a rescue mission to save Elsie.
