Chapter 20
Third Person's POV
Forks
Silence.
That was the only thing to be heard now in the quiet town of Forks and it was nothing short of strange. Carlisle had always thought Forks a quiet town, but now, now it was almost as if it was...haunted. Nobody in town really did anything anymore. It was as though the horrific events that happened to both Bella and Charlie had turned the town into a ghost town.
Nobody went out any more, with the exception of very reluctant civil servants.
"Carlisle...how could we have been so stupid?" Esme asked her mate as she clung to his side.
Carlisle couldn't say anything.
He could only stare at the gravestone of the sweet, accepting young woman that he had loved like a daughter and cruelly threw aside at the behest of a foolish and selfish child. At the thought of Edward and the way he demanded, no ordered, them all to leave Bella behind made the paternal nature in Carlisle roar with rage. While the rest of him, the vampire and leader side, craved to show the little punk his station in the coven. His vampire instincts and desire for revenge on the animals that took his baby girl away had been simmering ever since they left the Canadian boarder.
"There is no point in worrying about the past now, Esme," Carlisle told her darkly as his own mind turned to the past. "I have been such a fool, Esme. All these centuries I have always believed that it was us, our kind, that were the monsters and while for a vast number of our race it is true...it is nothing compared the humans. The sheer mass of destruction and casualties I have witnessed at the hands of humans." Carlisle continued to speak, his anger growing and growing at the thought of all those innocent souls that would come to the hospitals where he once worked and many die on him because of the level of violence displayed.
Perhaps, Jasper's brother and his mate had the right idea after all. Hunt the human animals, the ones that will never be missed because they were born without souls.
"What are you saying, Carlisle?" Esme asked her husband, was she hearing him right? Was he really saying what it sounded like?
"I'm saying...that it's well past time that we stop denying what we are, Esme my darling. Bella was an innocent child. So was Rosalie and you," Carlisle began as he looked down at his wife. "And neither one of you are going to be the last. But we can make sure that the human monsters of this world realise that they are not the most dangerous predators in this world," Carlisle finished, his eyes darkening with blood lust.
"Over my dead body, blood sucker!" A man's voice snapped behind him.
Carlisle, already seriously pissed off, turned to look darkly at the man who spoke and found none other than Sam Uley standing there. Shadowed, naturally, by the rest of his pack.
"Samuel. To what do I owe this, unwelcoming, visit?" Carlisle drawled out.
"We want you out of this town, leech," another young shape-shifter spoke.
Carlisle raised an eyebrow.
"You really should teach your pups how to respect their elders, Samuel. Not everyone will be as accommodating as my lovely mate and I," Carlisle replied with a sneer in the direction of the rude shape shifter.
"Paul, watch your mouth," Sam snapped.
Carlisle rolled his eyes.
"Well done, I can see your parenting skills are no better than my own," Carlisle said annoyed. "But, at least I can say that I intend to correct my mistakes," he added almost like it was an after thought, like he was asking for Sam's dinner plans.
"Oh really, and how do you intend to do that?" Sam asked with mild interest.
"Apologise, Samuel. But from here on out, I'm making a point not to share my plans with anyone other than my mate and unless you're about to tell me you've imprinted on me. Well, that isn't you," Carlisle replied.
Snarls and growls met his words but one dark and menacing look silenced them all into stunned disbelief, but none more so than Sam.
"What happened to the peace loving Carlisle that made a treaty with us?" Sam wondered.
"He was too weak to stand his ground and his daughter was brutally murdered because of it. Speaking of Bella, where the fuck were YOU!?" Carlisle demanded as seven years of suppressed anger and guilt erupted in him. "Isn't the great La Push pack supposed to be protecting these people? Didn't you all have a special connection to Bella and Charlie? I know I played a part in their deaths and I accept it but where the fuck were all of you? Pissing up trees?" Carlisle continued.
Sam growled this time.
"She was taken by humans," Sam growled.
"WRONG!" Carlisle roared, making the pack cower in fear. "It was a vampire that had taken her, do you know how I know that? Because the fucker went back to their home and recently!" Carlisle snarled.
This was true, Carlisle and Esme's first stop had been the Swan family home but they had found it in ruins and the distinct scent of Laurent being present. Although his scent was at least four days old and weaker than they would have liked, it was still strong enough to track. And track they did. They had tracked it to a cave in the mountains that surrounded Forks and found some of Bella's things there, along with the decomposed corpses of humans. Though it had been seven years, the blood stained cave walls indicating very violent and bloody deaths had occurred.
"You, like us, let them down Samuel and because of this. The moment Esme and I leave this cursed town the treaty is void, we will never return here again and none of you fuckers will ever come looking for us because if you do, I'll personally make wolf skin rugs out of every last one of you," Carlisle vowed before silently indicating to Esme for them to go.
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of Southgate...
Charlie and Victoria knew that they were going to be late for the meeting and blamed it entirely on a new drug gang that had intended to open up for business in Southgate by using children. Victoria had become more than a little murderous at the thought and the two of them immediately went hunting for them. Most were now in prison but the worst of them, three of them who foolishly decided to proposition Victoria, were now without their lives.
"I've heard some disgusting and disrespectful shit in my long life, Charlie but that, that was by far the worst!" Victoria seethed.
Charlie tried his best to soothe her by rubbing circles lovingly on her hand with his thumb.
"Well, you certainly taught them a lesson in respect, they'll just never be able to put it into practice," Charlie told her.
Victoria smirked menacingly, she had certainly taught them a lesson. But the smirk quickly disappeared as she thought about Bella.
"I hope Bella isn't going to be too upset with us for being late, do you?" Victoria asked
Charlie sighed.
"I hope not, though I haven't spoken to her for a while," Charlie replied and was just about to say how he should call her tonight when a smell caught his attention.
"Do you smell that?" he asked looking at his mate and was stunned to see a much more predatory snarl on her face.
"Victoria? What's wrong?" he asked her.
"That smell...it's his, Charlie. It's Laurent's!" Victoria hissed.
Laurent.
The vampire that had abducted his baby girl and subjected her to the worse fate a woman could ever endure. Both father and vampire collided with each other with the emotional force of an atom bomb, resulting in Charlie seeing nothing but red in his vision.
Without hesitating, both Charlie and Victoria took off after the scent. Their mission clear, to hunt down Laurent and if the Volturi agreed to it, kill him in the most merciless way imaginable and Charlie had spent the last seven years coming up with some very creative ways of making another vampire suffer. But he supposed that it wouldn't hurt to use Laurent as a test run.
At the Minnesota boarder...
This couldn't be right.
There was no fucking way that this was happening.
He had to have achieved the impossible and become the first vampire in history to go deaf because there was no way, absolutely, no way that Peter had just told him what he had heard.
"Captain, you had better tell me that I'm starting to lose my hearing or at the very least that this is a very poor fucking joke," Jasper demanded coldly.
Peter, who was already surprised and terrified by the fact that he wasn't being converted into a hood ornament, gulped and braced himself for what was about to come.
"I can't do either of those things, Major. Maria will be arriving this time tomorrow night in accord to our truce," Peter told him firmly, though his voice still shook dangerously with fear for the inevitable.
The roar that came from Jasper was like nothing any of them had ever heard before. It was a roar so powerful, so feral that birds all over the forest took flight in terror. Emmett, whom had never truly witnessed the God of War in all his murderous glory, backed away and dropped into immediate submission. Charlotte and Peter did the same, but it did very little to protect Peter from the God of War at this moment in time.
Peter finally found himself implanted into the car with such force that the tyres exploded along with the airbags. When he was finally able to focus and look at his brother, Peter would later be convinced that he actually pissed and shit himself for his brother was unrecognisable. Jasper's eyes were darker than they'd ever been but the pupils were blood red, it was then that Peter realised that Jasper had somehow went to an even more powerful and dangerous ability of the vampire persona. If he survived this now, it would be a true miracle of God's mercy.
"Jasper!?" A woman's voice gasped in shock.
Peter didn't dare to even glance in the direction of the voice, he remembered it from the phone call, it was Jasper's mate. Looks like he may well live through this after all.
"Stay there, Isabella!" Jasper, or whoever the fuck Peter was dealing with, ordered.
"Tell me, Captain," Jasper sneered "why should I let you live for this traitorous act?" He demanded in a tone so disturbingly calm it chilled Peter's very soul to here it.
"I didn't have a choice. I don't know what's coming Sir, but it isn't just your mate or mine that's at risk now. We all are, if we don't band together... We'll fail and our mates will suffer a fate worse than death," Peter hurried out, trembling.
Jasper stood bolt up right and looked down on Peter in contemplation.
"Very well, you shall live," Jasper told him but Peter wasn't dumb enough to celebrate his reprieve just yet. "But you will be punished for acting without informing me first," Jasper added.
It was over before anyone else, even Peter himself, had time to think, let alone react. The only thing that Peter became aware of was blinding pain, he crumbled down onto the road and found half his right arm missing.
"Fuck!" Peter gasped out through pain.
"This is your first and only warning, Captain. Do not do this again," Jasper told him before promptly walking over to his mate and wrapping his arms around her.
Everyone else, Bella included, was too stunned to react to the scene that had just been played out in front of them.
It took 3 hours before Jasper became aware of his surroundings again and when he did he was stunned to find that he was holding Peter's lower right arm in his hands. Camp had been set up in the middle of the forest and everyone was looking at him with terror in their eyes.
"Why the fuck do I have your arm?" Jasper asked confused as he waved it around.
Everybody looked at each other but nobody said anything.
This was the last thing they needed or expected.
If only they knew what was to follow.
Volturi
All these centuries and the Volturi brothers were finding themselves to be growing increasingly bored with each passing day. Nothing exciting ever happened round here any more, not since the Swans had left anyway. Aro, whom had taken a very fraternal liking to Isabella Swan, found himself cringing at the thought of whatever punishment she was to deliver against Edward Cullen.
Why, he almost felt sorry for the boy.
Almost
He couldn't stop the evil chuckle from passing his lips.
"Enlighten us to the joke, brother," Caius requested in a bored tone.
Aro looked sideways to his younger brother and smirked evilly.
"Just thinking about the fate that awaits Edward Cullen when our beloved Isabella catches up with him," Aro shared with the room, which was soon filled with equally dark laughter.
"Let us hope she remembers to record it for our entertainment," Marcus added. "It would be a shame not witness the little punk learning the true meaning behind the phrase 'Hell Hath No Fury Like A Woman Scorned'," he finished.
"Indeed it would," Caius agreed.
"I might even just use our jet and watch the fun in person," Aro thought aloud. "There are just some things one has to witness in person in order to enjoy it's true beauty," he finished.
Caius and Marcus smirked at each other and hummed in agreement.
The doors to the throne room were almost catapulted off of their hinges as a vampire came rushing in. The guards appeared in front of their kings, while the kings themselves leapt to their feet.
"What is the meaning..." Aro began but stopped at the state of the vampire before him.
He was truly a wreck, a walking massacre of with a missing arm, an eye missing and a good chunk of his torso was no longer present.
"They're back..." He gasped before crumbling to the floor.
Without thinking, Aro shot to the young vampire's side and pulled him into a fatherly embrace. The moment his hands connected with the young dying vampire's skin, Aro saw the horror of they.
Once he was able to pull himself out of the horror, Aro looked down upon the young vampire with sad eyes.
"We have received your warning, young Thomas. Rest easy now, it is almost over but I vow to you upon my live and kin. You and those who have fallen beside you shall be avenged," Aro promised softly.
It was with a brief smile of gratitude that Thomas, a vampire of only 70 years, died in the arms of one of the three kings.
Aro placed him back down gently onto the floor and turned to face his fellow kings and the guard.
"Brother...what is this threat?" Caius demanded, Aro was half convinced his young brother had lost even more colour.
"Demetri, assemble the whole guard. I want everyone back here immediately," Aro ordered.
Demetri nodded, but didn't move, he couldn't. He was too transfixed with Thomas' state.
"Aro, what is happening?!" Marcus demanded.
"They're back, the werewolves have returned," Aro told him truthfully.
Stunned horror was on everyone's face and off in the distance, the sounds of howling wolves reached their ears.
A/N: There we go, finally, chapter 20 and the Jasper's wrath are posted for your viewing pleasure. Big thanks to Beta reader Fairendale for her help and support.