All recognizable characters belong to their original owners, no infringement intended.

Chapter 8: Fever

Jacob waited a polite five seconds before rising to be showered in Nessie's attention. He enfolded her in his arms. She was such a tiny thing; her cheek pressed against him at the lower half of his ribcage. He leaned over to kiss the top of her head, smelling the sweet-salty scent. She had cut her hair and her head was a golden dandelion of ringlets. When he stepped back to look at her, Jacob realized with a shock that she had grown up since he had seen her. When she left she had looked like a girl of about 16 but now there was a new maturity in the slender curve of her face. Maybe it is just the eyes? he thought. The easy child-like exuberance Nessie had always exhibited had fled.

"Are you still mad at me?" she asked him uncertainly, peering up through the dark sweep of her lashes.

Jacob realized that he had forgiven her for leaving him. He guessed at the reason for his newfound tolerance. It wasn't the fact that she had returned home in one piece, laying his fears to rest. It was Tara. He was no longer a broken fraction seeking completion.

"I forgive you," he said, pushing back the curls from either side of her face, and noticing again how sharp her cheekbones looked. "Next time you leave on a Vision Quest, just make sure you say goodbye."

She squinted at him from between her feathery lashes and put her hand on his chest.

"Next time I go on a Vision Quest, maybe you can come with me," she said, lowering her voice and batting her eyelashes at him, confidence fully restored.

Jacob felt uncomfortable with those familiar warm brown eyes looking up at him from that grown woman's face with Tara standing right there. He stepped back from Nessie, putting some space between them. Tara was eyeing the two of them coolly. She looked less than thrilled to see the newcomer.

"A road trip might be fun, but that depends on whether or not she wants to come," Jacob said, trying to salvage the situation by including Tara in the conversation. "I'd like to introduce you to your Aunt Tara."

"Jacob!" Bella hollered, punching him in the arm. "Have you no tact?"

Renesmee's lips quivered and her eyes grew wide and filled with pain. She looked at Jacob, and then at Tara.

"You got married?" she asked.

Tara nervously snorted at the misunderstanding and the sound was so abrupt and so incongruous with her lovely features that Renesmee looked shocked. Jacob looked pained.

Bella moved to stand beside Tara and slid an arm around her shoulder.

"Sweetheart, let me explain everything. I was hoping to ease into this a bit more. Tara is my long lost sister," she said.

Renesmee rolled her eyes, taking this news in remarkable stride. She looked back and forth between the two women and then she visibly brightened.

"You guys…" she said affectionately. "You nearly gave me a heart attack. So I have another aunt. That's cool. Hey, you owe me like ten past due birthday presents." She reached a slim warm hand to clasp Tara's casually. As soon as their skin touched, her face changed and she grasped Tara's hand much more firmly.

"Wow! … What? I'm feeling some energy." She shook her head with a reluctant smile. "Never a dull moment in this house."

Reading her thoughts, Edward spoke up, "Tara has a gift."

"Dad, I got that. Where have you been all my life Tara baby?" she asked, pouting her full lips. "I have a special ability too," she said, looking at Tara.

"It is nice to meet you," Tara said, somewhat weakly.

"Speaking of special abilities – Edward how long have you known that Renesmee was coming home?" Bella asked in outrage.

Edward shrugged. "She wanted it to be a surprise," he said, evading the question.

"Mom, Dad, Jacob -- we will definitely catch up in a few. I have some important Volturi news but time is of the essence now and I think Tara and I should go for a walk and catch up a wee bit."

Jacob looked decidedly uncomfortable with this proposal.

Tara felt disgruntled. No, she corrected, I feel cosmically disgruntled. Of course Renesmee was darling and charming… She's my freaking niece, right? But that look of longing that she had seen Jacob give Renesmee burned in her mind. This is mentally disturbing, is my ten year old niece my rival? It's just… it's just…. Yuck. Ever since Bella had walked onto her porch she had been a good sport. But seriously folks… Enough is enough.

"I'm going to get a sweater," Tara announced.

Everyone looked startled at such a human thing to say. Edward gazed at her knowingly and Tara hoped that if he was reading her mind he had some discretion after a hundred years of insider information. She stamped up the steps and slid into a gray striped sweater, tugging the hood up over her hair defiantly. She glanced into the mirror. Alone with her reflection, comparing herself to that graceful woodland sprite downstairs, was not where she wanted to be, so she thumped back down as best she could - being a 115 pound girl in soft soled boots.

When Tara entered the living room the air was palpably thick with an uncomfortably tense vibe. Everyone looked at her nervously, like they were afraid she was going to have a temper tantrum. She briefly considered it, but decided that eternal life called for a modicum of maturity.

"All set. Let's roll," she said briskly to Renesmee.

They walked out into the moonlit night. The cold air was refreshing against Tara's cheeks and she slid the hood of her sweater back and shook her head to let it flow onto her neck. I need to cool this temper a little bit, she thought.

"It really is nice to meet you," Renesmee said, glancing sideways at Tara with an ingratiating smile. "I didn't mean to act overly casual at the fantastic news that you are here. My mom had told me she found you but I didn't expect to see you in the living room. Being in this family kind of trains you to accept surprising facts easily. I'd like to show you my memories. It's a pretty effective way of communicating. Do you mind?" She held out her hand.

Tara shrugged. "Sure," she said shortly, and then a thought struck her. "You aren't going to read my mind are you?"

"Nope."

"Then OK."

She extended her hand. The pictures rolled into Tara's mind, with Renesmee's feelings as the soundtrack. Mostly the images were of Jacob. First, he was her playmate, then he was her brother and later…. later…

… the world's most overbearing father.

Tara laughed.

"Get it?" Renesmee asked. "That wolfie dude was never going to let me grow up. So imagine you have two dads, one of them is an undead mind reader and the other one is a gigantic werewolf. How is a girl ever going to get a date?"

"I'm feeling you," said Tara, experiencing a strong sense of relief and a drastic improvement in her attitude towards her new niece. "So you had to get some space."

"A couple of thousand miles was just about enough space …" Renesmee chuckled, "… but I could never stay away for long."

"Thanks for clearing up the Jacob thing – Now I know how you feel about him."

"I thought I'd better get straight with you. He's in there looking at you all lovey dovey and you were giving me the vampire stink eye. By the way, you do have beautiful eyes. Did they mention to you how unusual that is?"

"Thanks. Yes, it has been mentioned several times that I am a unique vampire."

"You and me both. At first they thought that I was the world's only half human, half vampire but my Aunt Alice found another one."

"Is she like you?"

"She's a he. His name is Nahuel and I don't know him. I've been looking for him though."

Tara noticed that Renesmee looked wistful and she felt the urge to hug the tiny girl.

"Renesmee, I don't mean to be rude, but I have to ask you another question."

"Shoot."

"Can I call you Nessie instead? No offense to your mom, but your name is ridiculous."

"You're telling me! I think she was tripped out on morphine or something. It was a really bad pregnancy."

"Ouch. Well your family is in there waiting for the scoop. You'd better tell them everything you've learned."

Nessie again took Tara's hand and showed her what she had seen in Italy. Tara saw a group of people being led out of the sun and into the shadows. The last one was a little golden-haired girl, straggling behind to look at a small cat darting down an alley. A cloaked man took the girl's hand and pulled her into the darkness, pushing back his hood to reveal his ivory flesh when he was safely away from the sun's rays.

Tara saw the same man again later in Nessie's vision, his eyes were liquid crimson in his white face and he was speaking with a small dark-haired vampire. Both of them knelt before a vampire with odd, papery skin who extended his hand regally to touch their skin. Humans, dazed as if sleep walking, were led up to him and he methodically punctured and drained them with no apparent enjoyment, letting their corpses fall to the ground to be replaced with a fresh supply. One after another were brought to him, until the vision was blacked out as if Nessie had covered her eyes to blot out the horror.

"Ugh, thanks for the nightmares. Oh, wait – I don't sleep. Those are the Volturi, right? A scary group."

Renesmee's visions of the remorseless, white creatures rounding up whole families for the slaughter was shocking to Tara. These were not the Cullen vampires. They were killing machines. It wasn't a hunt or anything remotely like the food chain in the natural world. It was mass murder on an eternal scale. Tara experienced Nessie's revulsion along with her own as she shared the memory. Her skin crawled at this evil sacrifice.

They returned to the house where Bella, Jacob, Esme and Edward were huddled in discussion. They looked surprised to see the women returning so soon. Jacob rose and walked towards them, an uncertain look on his face. Tara was shaken by what she had seen.

"That was quick," said Jacob nervously, noticing Tara's skin looked paler than usual.

"Jake, you know I am really good at explaining things," Renesmee said in a patient and loving voice. "Auntie and I have an understanding, but we have a lot to do before Jane gets here." At the mention of Jane's name, everyone but Tara flinched.

"Who is Jane?" Tara asked.

"She's that little tiny girl thing I showed you in my memory… you know, the one that came with feelings of immense pain and dread… she's a Volturi not-so-secret weapon. They are sending her."

"What's her talent?"

"Like I said, pain and dread. She can inflict it with her mind."

"Not to worry honey, she can't penetrate my shield," Bella said reassuringly.

"I wouldn't count on it Mom. She is amped up. I don't know how to explain it, but she's sort of "with a vengeance" now. Something is not right in Volterra and I am guessing that has something to do with why they are sending her."

Bella remembered the ancient unfeeling halls of the Volturi fortress. From the outside the building could be mistaken for any stop on a tour of Volterra, but that would be a grave error. It was rotten at its core. She had been dragged into its icy depths against her will as a human, but the terrifying oppression of it was still vivid even through the imperfect fog of her human memory. The structure was imbued with the evil of its inhabitants, the Volturi and their fatal guards, who had risen to power for thousands of years on secrecy, domination and human blood. For those with the sensibility to detect it, the very stones were permeated by the reek of death.

To say something was "not right" in Volterra is an understatement. Everything is not right in Volterra, Bella thought.

"There is much fear there. Aro is changing," Renesmee said seriously.

Bella knew that this was a very significant statement. Mountains erode over time, sea levels rise and fall, but Aro had not changed for thousands of years.

Edward's eyes darkened and his face grew drawn as he read Renesmee's mind.

"I know Dad … it's freaky, right," Renesmee said.

"How about saying it out loud for those of us who do not have the power to read minds," Jacob said in annoyance.

"From what I was told, about four weeks ago, Aro started complaining of thirst. They say he is insatiable. The Volturi guard have been bringing in roomfuls of people for him. They are mining the countryside for fresh blood." She paused, shuddering. "Marcus and Caius – they are his brothers," she explained for Tara, "started showing the same symptoms. It seems to have spread to some of the older vampires first. They are getting out of control." She looked seriously at Edward and then her mouth dropped open as a sudden thought struck her and she looked around the room.

"How is Carlisle?"

Bella did not miss the significance of the question. Carlisle was one of the oldest vampires that they knew. Renesmee must be worried that Carlisle could be sick as well, she thought.

"He's fine," Edward said curtly, a frown furrowing his brow as he caught Renesmee's concerns. "Do they have any theories on what this may be?"

"They don't, but it definitely has them scared. Some people are calling it "the fever" -- but never in front of Aro."

"That is just horrible," Tara said. Her face was gentle with sympathy.

"Tara, these are some really bad vampires," Jacob explained.

"She's talking about all the people they are killing," Bella interrupted. She turned to Renesmee. "How do you know this?"

Renesmee's brown eyes looked enormous. "I have a friend in the Volturi guard," she said simply. "You'll all be meeting him very soon."