No matter how many stars I wish on, I don't own Twilight or its characters, darn it! Twilight and its original characters are property of Stephanie Meyer. All original characters (Not many of them, but the few that are here) are the result of too many late nights and too many energy drinks! :) Take care all! ~AD
Chapter 13
"Like hell!" I shouted.
"They will certainly try," Carlisle said. "And one way or the other, they'll set out to get what they want."
I ran angry hands through my hair. "Damn it, they...they can't!"
"Yeah, that'll go over well," Rosalie said snidely. "What, you think you can just walk up to the Volturi and tell them 'No'?"
I threw her a dark look. "I don't know what rabid animal you drank from," I snarled. "But back off."
Rosalie growled at me, a deep, throaty sound.
"All right, children," Esme said, stepping between us. "Enough."
Emmett got up to take hold of Rosalie's shoulder, effectively bringing her under control.
I had no such support system in place, and I was angrier than she was. I turned, storming out of the house. Once the door shut behind me, however, I was at a loss of what to do next.
I needed to protect the wolves, that I knew. I'd promised Jacob, and they were my friends. I couldn't just do nothing...but I was going up against a group of vampires that I didn't know.
A group of vampires that actually scared other vampires. How could I compete with that?
"They'd help you, you know," a familiar voice from beside me said. "All you have to do is ask."
I turned to face Edward. "And you?"
"I'll be there, but only if you want me to be."
I put my hands over my face, trying to find another way out of this mess. Anything but asking the Cullens for more help. I'd spent so many years hating them for what I'd seen as their desertion...How could I go to them and ask them to put their lives on the line? To stand with me and to stand against what they told me were the most powerful vampires known?
For me.
For the wolves.
Then, again, how could I not?
I turned, and I was alone again. I walked to the door, hand hesitating on the knob. Turning it slowly, I re-entered the living room, and looked at the faces that were so familiar to me...and yet still so much of a mystery to me.
I steeled myself. "Please," I asked, "Please, help me save the wolves."
The next day found me still at the Cullens, and starting to train to fight. I was sorely lacking in that area, having never had to really defend myself before. Granted, I'd just taken Victoria out, but I was sure that was because I had the element of surprise on my side.
That, and a lot of rage. Much of what had happened was still so much of a blur that I wasn't sure I could re-create any of it if I tried.
Thus, the training.
So far, Jasper had run me through my paces, and Rosalie had taken way too much enjoyment in kicking me around.
They had graciously decided to give me a break (probably to go wash the dirt out of my mouth), and that's when Alice joined me. I finally got around to asking the question that had been burning in my mind. "How long do we have?"
"Two weeks." She said.
"Why two weeks? Why give us so much time?"
"They won't come straight here," She said. "They'll make stops and detour. They don't want to raise suspicion or gain the attention of anyone who could beat them here and recruit the wolves before they can."
"Makes sense, I guess."
"Don't knock it," She said, slinging an arm around my shoulders. "This gives us time to prepare."
"Yeah, right." With a sigh, I got to my feet. "I've got to go. It's about time to go meet up with the wolves for training there."
"Go ahead," Alice said. "Jasper will be along in a little bit."
I nodded, and began the run toward the reservation. Once at the res, I met with the pack, all human, and began talking strategy.
Jasper joined us a few minutes later, pulling up in a mud-splattered jeep. Then the training began in earnest.
I was worried about all of them, but none more than Gabe. Gabriel Black was not handling his father's death well, and seemed to place all of the blame on me.
Not that I could blame him. I blamed me. Gabe, however, was getting more self-destructive by the day. He was angry, reckless, and completely out of control. He was spending more time than necessary in wolf-form and running wild. I could tell he didn't really want any of us, the vampires, around...but we were the best choice for training that they had.
My days were split in half between the Cullens for Vampire fighting training, and the reservation for wolf training...and I only spent about a quarter of the time on my feet. I found myself having to get out of the dirt more often than not.
Jasper was a tough taskmaster, too. He had us doing drills, speed tests and sparring. There hadn't really been any objections to his doing the training, he really was the most experienced of us all, given his background.
Peter Uley had really stepped up his game as the Alpha, too. He'd even made a training time for the wolves to work with each other, whipping them into a more cohesive unit. Until now, they'd been pretty informal over who the leader was, but now it showed in Peter's observations and corrections. He was a good taskmaster with them as well.
Sam would have been proud to see the leader that his son had turned out to be.
There was only one rough moment when Jasper had to correct Cole for losing focus, and allowing his sparring partner to get behind him.
"You have to be aware of your surroundings at all times," he said. "Don't ever let a vampire get behind you in a fight. They could crush you..."
The words "like Jacob" hung in the air and seemed to place a shadow over us all.
We called a halt to the session then and there. The wolves seemed to deflate right in front of me, their desire to continue disappearing for the moment. Before they disappeared, I asked them to take the afternoon off, and go cliff diving or something else they'd enjoy. No use in them being miserable for the rest of the day and coming back tomorrow to train with it still hanging over them.
My phone rang just as the last of the wolves disappeared into the woods. It startled me, because Jacob was the only one to ever call me at this number.
"Bella," Alice answered my greeting. "We have a couple of visitors coming that you need to meet."
"Uh, o.k.," I stuttered. Now what? I thought, but didn't dare ask. Sometimes I just didn't want to hear the answer or tempt fate.
Jasper and I rode back to the Cullen house in the jeep, Neither of us seeming to know who was coming...or if Jasper knew, he wasn't saying, the bum. We entered the house to find most of the Cullen family standing in the living room.
"Oh, good," Alice said, dancing to Jasper's side. She wove her arm through his in that sweet, familiar way that couples who've been together for a long time have.
I envied that, as I hadn't had that in a long time.
"You're just in time," Alice continued, either oblivious of my internal struggle or choosing to not acknowledge it. "They just got here."
I was about to ask who "they" were, when twin bell-like laughs came from the rear of the house. Edward entered the living room, smiling, with a woman on each arm.
Not just any women, these two were tall, super-model beautiful with the white-blonde hair that just screamed of a Slavic background.
"Bella," Esme said, sending Edward a look that I couldn't read. Ever the professional hostess, however, Esme went on with the introductions. "This is Tanya and Kate. They are from the Denali Clan, and Irina's sisters."
"Our family stays with them in Alaska whenever we need a change," Alice chimed in.
'Fan-freaking-tastic,' I thought, sarcastic even to myself.
"It's pretty easy to stay there for long periods and remain hidden from the humans," One of the sisters...Kate, I thought...said. "After all, we have limited daylight for 6 months, and the other 6, it's almost constant night."
"Hmm," I said, not really paying attention. I was still trying to figure out why they were here, and why the Cullens had welcomed them in with open arms. How could they do that, after the crap Irina was pulling?
And why was Tanya hanging on Edward like that?
"..here to help us," Carlisle had been saying.
Admittedly, I'd missed the beginning of what he'd been saying. I was busy watching the two blondes in front of me.
"I'm sure you have questions," Kate said, moving to the center of the group. "When we were told what Irina had done, and what you were facing because of her actions," She lifted her shoulders into a graceful shrug. "We had to come and see how to help."
"Irina was never the same after Laurent left," Tanya said, a small frown creasing her perfect face.
"Laurent?" Gods, I was tired of being left out of the loop...and I was amazed at how often Laurent's name popped up lately.
"Yes," Tanya said...still clinging to Edwards arm, I noticed. "Irina and Laurent became mates after he came to stay with us. He was doing well with the vegetarian diet, too. Then one day, he just left. He said that he needed to go help a friend of his, and we never saw him again."
"We were contacted a few months later, by his friend, Victoria." Kate said...and yes, I was tired of hearing Victoria's name, too. "She said that the Cullens and the Children of the Moon here in Forks were working together and had killed Laurent. Of course," Kate said with a smile, "We knew that to be a lie. The Cullens were with us at the time, so there was no way that they were involved."
"Even so," Tanya broke in, "Irina fixated on the shapeshifters. She left a few months ago, and we'd almost given up hope that she was still alive."
Too bad for us, I thought, angrily.
Kate was all business now. "Best we can guess, is that she'd met up with this Victoria," Kate all but spit the name, "and joined up with her group of misfits."
"Victoria probably sought her out," Carlisle said. "Alice has tried to trace her for years, but she's keeping to Alice's blind spots."
Alice nodded, "She'd never make the decisions on her own, so I had no mental trail to follow."
"So, the decision for Irina to go to the Volturi..." Kate started.
"She was offered the opportunity," I seethed, "But the choice to go was all hers."
Kate nodded sadly.
"So," Tanya said, finally letting go of Edward's arm, "we came to help our friends."
"Suuuuuure," I drawled out so that it was roughly ten syllables. I looked at Carlisle for a hint of how to proceed. "Now what?"
"Now," he said, looking into the faces of everyone in the room, "We begin training in earnest."
Chapter 14
Word began to spread that the Cullen family, the Olympic Clan, was planning on standing against the Volturi. No reason was given, and none would be given. Only those who pledged to help the family would be told of the circumstances. It was known, however, that the Cullens were not planning a fight. They were asking for help so that they had the appearance of numbers behind them...enough to make them stop and listen.
The Cullens had contacted as many of their friends as possible, all were close friends and trustworthy...or so the Cullens had told me. From there, the story had spread faster than a pregnancy rumor at a prom.
Vampires were coming out of the woodwork...almost literally...with more showing up every day. There were so many that I'd actually stopped trying to remember names after the first ten. I'd stopped counting after I hit twenty.
Lilah Littlesea and Gwendolyn Chase were my 'Guinea Pigs'. They acted as messengers between the vampires and the wolves by way of their mental link. They were the newest wolves to change, but they also had the friendliest dispositions. If that weren't enough, they were more than willing to be the first wolves that the incoming vampires met. They were definitely getting better at the rapid changing between forms as a result.
Jasper and I began encouraging both sides that we needed to train together to be effective.
...And so we trained, and sparred, and trained some more. When the wolves started coming to the house to train with us, we started drawing crowds of other vampires.
Two more vampires from the Denali clan had joined us, Eleazar and Carmen. They seemed nice enough, but I'd kept my distance from Irina's friends and family.
It was the trust thing again... I didn't trust them.
Eleazar, however, kept staring at me, like he was expecting something from me. He'd never said a word, just watched. For days now, I thought about approaching him to find out what the problem was, but convinced myself not to care.
And so I threw myself into the training wholeheartedly. And when I wasn't training, I was attempting to hide from a few specific vampires.
No matter where I was, or where I was going, everywhere I turned, there was Edward and Tanya. They seemed to be attached at the hip since Tanya's arrival, and it was starting to get to me. I was irritated...and I shouldn't have been.
She was always laughing at a joke, or playing with his hair, touching him or teasing him with some inside joke that only they knew the punch line.
Edward started out the week laughing and teasing her back...but lately, he was looking weary of the whole thing. Almost like he hated the attention.
Three days before the Volturi were supposed to arrive, my luck ran out. Tanya and I were thrown together to duel in practice. I couldn't say that the thought of getting some hits in on Tanya didn't appeal to me. Actually, just the thought of kicking her scrawny backside made me giggle a little on the inside.
The truth was, I wasn't a fighter. As hard as I tried, it was pitifully little, too painfully late.
Yet, there I was, facing off with her.
We'd been at it for almost half an hour, when a crowd started to gather. A few of the Cullens were there, Jasper and Emmett placing bets and Edward, of course.
Come to cheer on his girlfriend. How sweet.
Tanya noticed he was there, too. "Edward," She called out to him. "We're almost done here. Poor Bella here seems to be getting worn out."
Me? Worn out?
"After this," she almost purred, "Could you play something on the piano for me?"
Edward looked confused, then surprised.
What had he seen in that little brain of hers?
"I really liked that lullaby you played for me that one time," She said.
My blood felt like it was trying to boil, and my head felt like it was trying to explode.
Edward started shaking his head at her, looking a little panicked now. "I don't..."
What in the...?
"Oh, sure you remember," Tanya said breezily, waving her hand in the air dismissively. "It goes like this." She started to hum a slow, sweet melody and...
That's MY song! This little she-devil in front of me knew my song! Edward's been playing her the song he wrote for me?
Just when I'd convinced myself that he couldn't do anything else to hurt me, he does this. I didn't consciously move, but suddenly we were in the thick of it again.
Tanya's smile slipped a notch. Good.
Time slowed, and suddenly I saw where every punch and kick was coming from before it connected. The fight moved us farther from the house, and closer to the woods, which was fine with me. Once on the tree line, we were able to use trees and the rocky terrain for leverage.
I actually managed to get some hits in, when she finally landed a kick on me. I stumbled, and that was all she needed.
She body-slammed me to the ground, pinning my body to the ground, and holding my wrists down with hers.
"Are you done now?" She asked, angrily.
"Not even close," I snarled. Pushing with all my strength, I threw her a good 10 feet. Enough of a distance for me to get on my feet.
"Good," she said, all serious now. "It's nice that you're finally showing some backbone. I felt like I was kicking a kitten for a while there."
"What?"
She dropped her fighting stance. "You're been angry, temperamental, brooding, and fighting the wrong people."
I lowered my arms, but not my guard. "You want to say something to me, just say it and be done."
"You were hurt, I get that," She said, frustrated now. "I even understand it. Edward's a jerk, and sometimes doesn't think about who he's affecting with his actions. He hurt you badly, leaving the way he did. They all hurt you. Can't you just get over it, and try to understand why?"
I tried to storm past her. I was so not about to get all buddy-buddy with her and discuss my issues. Not about this.
She reached out and clamped a hand on my arm, digging in and not about to let go. I was going nowhere.
"Fine, you think you know so much about it," I raged at her. "Then talk."
"He still loves you." She stated this so quietly, I almost didn't hear her at first. "He loves you, and it's killing him that you're so close but so resistant to forgiveness. He left to save you," She gave me a little shake. "He wanted you to have a full life far from all the craziness that we live with every day. I saw him after he left, and it almost killed him to do it."
I laughed, humorlessly. "And yet, he still did it."
"Look," She said, "I know more about this whole thing than you probably want to know..."
"You're right," I wrenched my arm out of her grip. "I don't want to know. Besides, he had you to comfort him after, right?"
"Fine." She hissed back at me. "You don't want to believe me, fine. But something broke in him when he left, and it's never been fixed. Yes, we had a thing once, but it was before he met you. There hasn't been anyone for him since. You don't want to believe me, fine, but here's the truth of the situation; If he didn't care for you, if they," She gestured towards the Cullen's house in the distance, "didn't care about you, why are they still here? They're putting their lives are on the line, and it's not even for a situation that had anything to do with them. The wolves don't care about them, they don't care about the wolves. They care," she emphasized, "about you. About you being hurt."
I stopped and stared, dumbly.
Tanya turned, and started walking towards the house. Over her shoulder, she got in one last dig. "The sooner you realize what's really going on, what's really on the line, the better off we all will be."
As a note, we were just trying to download the remaining chapters in this fic...but there appears to be a limit on the number of documents that can be applied here. /sigh Sooooo...sorry for re-posting all the chapters this way, BUT there was still too much to try to fit in here! (There's another 8 chapters until the end!) :) Thanks for the patience guys!