Of Life and Death
Pairing : Edward/Jacob
Rating : R for now, might escalated
Disclaimer : All of it except the plot belongs to Stephanie Meyer, and I'm not her.
A.N. : Thanks for all the reviews, alerts and favorites, all of you make me oh so very happy. Finally, the long awaited meeting. It's not much though. I understand it may seem slow to you, but I'm building a plot here. Be patient with me, ne~? Oh, and the next chapter will include the story of Jacob's imprinting from Edward's point of view. Aren't you all curious? To those who wanted to see Marcus-Jacob's relationship improvement, here it is...
Sorry, had a problem with the html code. It's fine now.
Chapter 4 The Meeting
Jacob frowned as he adjusted his shades. No matter how many times he tried, he didn't seem to be able to block the mind reader's ability. It didn't make sense, considering he could block Aro out with no trouble at all.
"Aro, I need to tell you something." Jacob said, deciding it's best to come clean right now before something happened.
Currently, they're sitting in the car to go to the airport, waiting for Jane to stop fussing over their luggage.
Aro looked as calm as ever and asked, "Is there a problem, Jake?"
Jacob hesitated slightly before saying, "The Cullen's mind reader? I, uh, can't block him out. He keeps slipping away from me."
Aro raised an eyebrow at the revelation. That's a really interesting piece of knowledge, he mused. It's possible that Edward's position as Jacob's mate was the cause of his apparent resistance of the hybrid's ability. Very intriguing indeed.
"I understand. We're going to keep our mind shielded once we arrived. And Jake, try to shield the others. It might work."
It did. While Jacob didn't seem to be able to block Edward's ability, he apparently could protect the others against the mind reader's. Jacob frowned, it's far easier to block other vampire's ability rather than shielding them. But he didn't have the choice on the matter.
When they arrived at the airport, Jacob couldn't help not to gape. He knew how powerful and
rich the Volturi are, but the knowledge didn't come with an understanding what exactly it entailed. Figures they would have a private jet of all thing.
Caius looked amused at his awe, knowing exactly what the hybrid think. "We have several more, Aro thought it's wiser to use the smaller one as to not attract attention."
Jacob gaped again, "Is there anything you guys don't have?"
The older vampire clucked his tongue in disapproval, "Ours, Jake. Those things we have are yours too, never forget that you're a part of us. And no, anything we could possibly have, we have it. Except those vampires we desired to be a part of us yet declined our offer, of course."
Jacob was about to say more when something caught his attention. The smell of food, pizza to be exact. The hybrid's stomach growled in hunger, causing him to blush. While it's true that they had dinner of a group of screaming humans the night before, Jacob hadn't get a chance to eat real food.
Felix came over and drag the hybrid away, declaring they had time before the jet departed to get him some food. Jacob was glad; he really didn't want to go with an empty stomach. The rest of the group looked both amused and exasperated. Aro, especially, couldn't understand how the child could still stand eating such disgusting things. The disadvantage of creating a hybrid it seemed, he mused.
They almost reached Forks when Jacob admitted it shamefully.
"I think he managed to read my mind."
Everybody immediately stopped at that. The young vampire ducked his head and kept his gaze on the ground. He had been thinking about sneaking off to the Res, although if Aro knew the man would probably set Marcus on him. Jacob shuddered.
"I don't understand how, but I felt him slip through my defense and.."
Aro cut the boy's explanation, "It's alright Jacob, I understand. We've already closing in, so it's not a big deal. Let's just heading there immediately, though they might have been warned of our arrival." He said the last part to all presents.
Everyone murmured their assessment and they left it at that. Jacob was glad that no one seemed to be angry at him. He really didn't understand how the vampire managed to break his defense so easily and even more so that the others seemed to be completely understanding. That was weird.
Minutes later...
The house was incredibly beautiful. The walls were made of glass, standing humongous in the middle of the forest. Jacob was deeply impressed - Volterra was magnificent, yes, but this one was a winner on its own right. In the front of a massive garage housing several magnificent cars - Jacob was itching to laid his hands on those beauties- the Cullens were waiting for them.
Aro stood in the middle, Caius and Renata beside his left, Jane and Alec on his right. Demetri and Heidi stayed behind, while Marcus and Felix stood in front of Jake, blocking him from sight. Talk about overprotective parent, Jake sighed, not exactly comfortable with Marcus on his line of sight.
Edward stood with Alice and Jasper, the three of them protecting Bella from direct view. Carlisle and Esme in the middle, with Rosalie and Emmett on another side. He narrowed his eyes when he recognized the hooded figure behind Marcus and Felix as the one he had read his thoughts earlier. Obviously, he was a new member of the guards - he wasn't there when Edward went there the last time - and possibly the one responsible for Alice unable to see the future and he failed to sense them until it's too late.
Marcus noticed the gaze Edward directed on his childe and growled menacingly. He didn't care if the vampire was his childe's supposed mate. His protective feeling came to the forefront in a confrontation like this and he didn't like the way the enemy looked at his childe.
"Aro," Carlisle greeted, seemingly intend on ignoring all else but the Volturi's leader.
"Carlisle, it's been a long time." He said politely, "It's really too bad that our meeting had to be in such circumstances."
The Cullens stiffened as Aro's gaze traveled to where the human scent came from.
"You haven't turned her yet." A statement.
Carlisle nodded, a bit nervously. Esme closed her eyes and sent a quick prayer to the Power That Be. Edward was fascinated by the scent coming of the Volturi's newest member. It severely reminded him of Jacob Black.
Aro continued, "You understand, if you have no intention whatsoever to turn her, then we'll be forced to kill her in front of you all. She knew of our existence, after all." Before, Aro would have offered the girl a chance to be turned by one of his guards. But they already had Jacob now, and the half-breed was much more gifted than Bella could ever turn out to be.
"We'll give you a day to think this through. If by the same time tomorrow the girl still human, well..." Aro left the last part of his threat unsaid. Everyone's already knew it anyway.
"Thank you, Aro," Carlisle said, stepping forward to shake the vampire's hand.
Aro smiled and hugged the younger vampire, he's always been fascinated of Carlisle. Their intimate greeting was interrupted by a loud growl from their side.
Marcus had stepped forward, ready to pummel the insolent brat who couldn't stop staring at his childe. Edward was immediately on defensive stance, noting that Jasper had stepped forward, trying to calm them both. With Bella stood right behind them, Marcus' move was too dangerous for her. Jasper's powers didn't seem to work either, unfortunately.
Jacob rolled his eyes at his sire's overprotective manner. Honestly, the guy with weird colored hair was only staring at him, what's the big deal. Marcus was greatly overcompensating the fact that under normal circumstances Jacob was scared shitless of him. Not really wanting a confrontation, and feeling an awful need to protect the bronze haired vampire - how weird - he stepped quickly in between his sire and Edward.
Only when he looked at Marcus' astounded face did Jacob realize what he'd just done. He had never, not once in his short year of living as vampire, standing face to face with his sire on his own will. He began to panic, fear clawing out of his gut when he felt a comforting hand touched his shoulder tentatively.
Edward didn't know why, but when the foreign vampire stood protectively in front of him, he felt a surge of happiness. And then the vampire seemed to realize his move and froze up in panic. His mind whirled in terror and Edward was getting flashes of biting and pain, lots of pain. He clamped his hand to the stranger's shoulder, trying to calm him down.
It was working. Marcus watched in astonishment as Jacob grew calmer and calmer even as the boy stood in front of him. And that was without the effect of Jasper's power, since his ability would be useless on Jacob. The Volturi's leader fought the urge to laughing maniacally as his childe looked into his eyes without panic and fear for the first time in his existence.
The rest of the guards also seemed to realize the rarity of the moment since none of them make a sound, not even breathing. Even the Cullens was entranced at the confusing yet seemingly incredible occurrence. Finally after long minutes pass, Aro, however reluctantly and regretfully, cleared his throat, effectively breaking the magic of the situation. Jacob flushed slightly, but refusing to move from his position, although he did lower his gaze.
Marcus felt a twinge of disappointment at that. But he contented himself by thinking that once Edward joined the fray, such moment would surely be plentiful. Satisfied, he backed off, signaling Jacob that he had no intention to attack anymore.
"We're leaving now," Aro announced, mostly to Jacob.
The young vampire nodded, still hiding beneath the hood and the shades he wore. He moved quickly to run after the others, standing beside Felix and drawing comfort from his big stature. Edward felt a surge of jealousy at that, but he stomped hard on it, not wanting Jasper to pick it up.
At the Volturi's sudden departure, the Cullens plus Bella looked floundered. They seemed to be at lost of what had just happen, but Edward kindly reminded them of the matter at hand. The decision of what become of Bella Swan.
TBC...