Chapter 21
Third Person's POV
Somewhere In America...
From the moment they had crossed the Forks boarder, Carlisle and Esme both became aware that at least one of the La Push shape shifters was following them. Not that it made much sense to them given that they had left town and neither had any intention of ever returning. They were now approaching six hours of flat out running and still the mutt was following them and it was really beginning to unnerve Esme, as for Carlisle he was just becoming more and more pissed with every passing second that they were being followed.
"Carlisle, this is getting ridiculous," Esme told him easily enough.
"Agreed." He replied before coming to an abrupt stop.
Esme stopped just ahead before walking back to her mate at a human pace and it was a short while later that a very human Jacob Black appeared before them. His features dark with hatred.
"There better be a good reason for your following us, pup." Carlisle snarled.
Jacob looked at Carlisle in shock.
"I heard you had manners blood sucker." Jacob threw back.
"I'm in the business of reserving my manners for those that don't insult me out of small mindedness. Now tell me why you are following my mate and I. We are well past the boarders of Forks and away from the treaty as a result." Carlisle snapped back.
He was done fucking around with the La Push tribe, for years he had been nothing but respectful to them and got treated with disrespect and contempt in return. Knowing full well that they were just itching for an excuse to come after his coven.
"I don't believe Bella and Charlie are dead, I think they were imprisoned by your kind for snacking." Jacob rushed away, his body flushing.
"With the exception of a select few, none of whom have ever laid a foot in America, none of my kind keeps humans for snacking." Carlisle hissed back.
"What would you call what you did to Bella then?" Jacob threw back foolishly.
A fool's errand he quickly felt as Carlisle had him by the throat.
"Listen to me very carefully you disrespectful little shit, I can not speak for that dumb fuck Edward but neither myself or my mate every played with Isabella in anyway. She was the daughter I never got to have as a human and I'll be damned if I'm going to let an idiot love sick boy spit on what she means to me and my mate." Carlisle hissed, spitting venom as he went.
Carlisle felt his eyes practically turning red at Jacob's remarks
"Why...didn't...you...write...then..." Jacob spluttered out.
Carlisle dropped him to the ground.
"Edward had told us that Isabella wanted absolutely no contact but I have since come to the conclusion that it was bull shit. Sadly my realisation came around the time we heard about her death." Carlisle replied, his anger briefly escaping him.
Jacob staggered to his feet and looked Carlisle in the eye.
"But that's the thing, like I said before, I don't think she is dead. Either of them. I went to where their bodies were found, the scents were all wrong." Jacob urged
"What are you talking about, they found the bodies." Esme replied painfully, the last thing she wanted was to be reminded of how her baby girl had died.
"They found bodies, but what the news didn't report was that the bodies had been burned, not badly enough for the stench to mask their scents but enough to make facial identification pretty damn difficult. Yet some how for some strange reason drops of blood and hair by each of the respective bodies is how they identified them. No dental records were ever looked at, they were never even requested. How many burned bodies have you come across as a doctor where you knew you should look at dental records but didn't? Unless you knew the person you were looking at wasn't the person that the world wanted to know was dead?" Jacob explained in a hurry.
He felt stupid for hanging on to the hope for so long but Jacob wasn't about to let Charlie and Bella both go unless he had absolute concrete proof they were dead.
"Furthermore the medical professional who did the identifications came into a massive amount of money the day after the funerals and flew off to live in the Bahamas. Who would do that unless something wasn't right?" Jacob added.
Esme grabbed onto Carlisle's arm, forcing the doctor to clench his teeth. Not from any physical pain but from emotional pain, this idiot pup had gone and given his mate hope that their daughter was still alive. A hope that Carlisle knew would destroy his mate beyond repair when this childish hope was proven false.
"Carlisle..." Esme whispered hopefully.
'Damn this boy, damn this boy to the depths of hell for putting my mate through this.' Carlisle thought to himself.
The stiffness of Carlisle's nod made him wonder if someone was standing behind him and using all their strength to make the nod happen. Jacob's eyes lit up at the nod from Carlisle, he finally had some help in finding out the truth about Bella and Charlie. Even if the help was coming from two blood suckers and with clear reluctance from the doctor.
Meanwhile...
He had lost them, it took some doing, but Laurent had finally managed to get rid of his pursuers. Not that he needed to guess who was chasing him. From the moment he realised that Victoria had found her true mate in her target's father, Laurent knew that all bets were off. Why hadn't he just killed the little bitch like he had originally intended?
Oh, right. Now he remembered, because Alice and Edward had threatened his own mate's safety unless he made the human suffer in every horrific way he could think of and like an idiot he had thought about the money. What had happened to him? When he was human he had been a Frenchman, and while given the colour of his skin he was unable to be a true nobleman, he had more honour than the nobles of Court. How had he become such a disgusting, foal and evil monster? His dear Papa would be rolling over in his grave if he could see how his boy had turned out now.
"There you are," a murderous voice snarled from behind him.
Laurent raised his hands into the air and slowly turned around to face both Victoria and Charles Swan. Both looked to be foaming at the mouth.
"I do not know why I ran, a father's wrath knows no bounds, especially when arm has been brought to his child." Laurent began remorsefully before finding himself flat on his back, Chief Swan's teeth practically touching his eyeball.
"Do not ever mention or think of my daughter again!" He snarled, the ground appearing to shake beneath Laurent as his barked the order.
"Please...I do not ask for mercy. I will accept whatever and every punishment you deem equal to my crimes, but you need to know why. It is not as black and white as you think." Laurent tried again, he had to be quick, there was only a small window available to him before an attack would befall his precious Irina. "My mate was threatened, if I did not do such...soulless evil, she would have suffered a fate much worse than what she did. You have no reason to believe but I vow upon all that I had once believed in that it is truth I speak. Besides, the ones that threatened my mate made it clear that there was someone far more soulless than I more than willing to do much worse to your daughter than I." Laurent rambled out quickly.
Charlie, through his own particular gift, saw that Laurent was speaking truthfully. It was the only reason why he got off of the monster that had brought such pain to his daughter. Victoria approached Laurent and spat in his face.
"Give me a reason not to destroy you, you piece of shit." Victoria growled.
"I have valuable information that the Volturi and the God of War needs to hear, Victoria the mind reader and the Seer are behind this and they intend to do something much more dangerous. Something that will effect the whole of our kind, iand I fear the humans are also at risk. With the modern world, there is no way we'd be able to avoid being exposed." Laurent urged as he launched to his feet.
Victoria's eyes went wide.
"Charlie, is he..." Victoria began but her mate gave her the answer before she finished the question.
"He speaks the truth, Vicky." Charlie replied before grabbing Laurent by the throat.
"You get to live a little longer but as soon as you're done giving the information you have. I'm going to do things to you that not even the devil himself would dare entertain." Charlie growled softly and menacingly.
Laurent nodded the best he could, showing that he understood perfectly.
Keeping a firm grip on Laurent, Charlie turned too look at Victoria.
"How far away are we?" He asked her, still not used to travelling on foot.
"We run, we'll be back with our daughter by dawn." Victoria replied before glaring at Laurent "That's only if our prisoner doesn't give us any problems." She added.
"I won't. I swear it, all I ask is that Irina is safe and I get to bid her farewell before my punishment it carried out." Laurent vowed.
Charlie let go of Laurent's throat.
"Let's go, the sooner we reach Bella the sooner he talks before finally dying." Charlie said darkly.
With that the three of them took off running, heading towards the Minnesota boarder and for the first time in eight years, despite knowing that he was now approaching his death, Laurent felt lighter than he had since the day he'd met Irina. He could only hope now that Irina would be able to find some form of happiness with another vampire and if not put the blame where it belonged.
At Alice and Edward's feet.
Minnesota Boarder...
Everyone was still greatly unnerved by the events of what Peter had described as a conversion of personalities that Jasper held. The Major and the God of War. Which was truly unique and more than likely a first in vampire history, Peter also informed them that should his new found persona were to emerge in the presence of the Volturi, there was no telling what would happen. Short of Jasper remaining the victor if a fight broke out.
"You expect me to believe that what happened to Jasper has never happened before," Bella said in disbelief.
"As far as I'm aware, Jasper is the first vampire to vampire to have his eyes change like that." Peter replied assuredly.
Bella scoffed.
"You know, you never had any problems following my instructions that lead you to the Major," Peter said annoyed.
Bella looked at Peter in some surprise but mostly in suspicion.
"What are you talking about?" Bella demanded
"I'm Yoda1900, sugar." Peter said with a grin.
Bella didn't know what to say at this. Yoda1900, the internet being she had been talking with for the last three years was a vampire named Peter whom just so happened to be Jasper's brother from the Southern wars!
"You've been in touch with my mate." Jasper stated with a growl.
Peter raised his hand.
"Hey, I didn't know you two were mates until after you'd reunited. Trust me if my knower had told me this shit back when she was human, I would have made sure your ass had stayed put." Peter told him honestly. "My knower, after the little lady and I first started talking, told me to make sure you were in the city where you'd found her and by that point she'd already got there." Peter continued before a panicked look at Bella "All under your own decision making, I swear to you." Peter added.
Bella looked at him darkly for a moment before deciding that he was being honest with her.
"We will discuss your being Yoda1900 later, right now I'm more concerned about your contacting that crazy bitch Maria and telling her exactly where to find you three." Bella told him.
Peter, under no illusions she'd more than likely kick his ass at some point, took the olive branch to move past the awkward atmosphere for the time being.
"It was the last thing on Earth I wanted to do, little lady. The only one more crazy than that bitch are the mind reader and the pixie but it's a matter of survival." Peter told the small group.
"You said that about 50 times already, Captain and I'm beginning to lose my patience with the song." Jasper growled darkly.
"I know, Major but unfortunately it is still all I have." Peter apologised.
Jasper glared at his captain darkly before chucking his captain's arm square into his chest.
"Ouch!" Peter growled out as Charlotte took his arm and began the process of reattaching it, watched by an interested Bella.
"First limb reassemble?" Peter asked.
"Yes, I've done my fair share of removing limbs but never bothered to stick around long enough to see it get reattached. What's more painful?" Bella replied casually.
Peter shrugged his one good arm, trying his best not to reveal the pain he was in.
"About even really, it hurts a fuck sight worse if its not your venom or the venom of your mate." Peter told her honestly. "Phone's ringing by the way." Peter added as an after thought.
Before Bella could say it wasn't, her cell began to ring out Papa Was A Rolling Stone. With a dark look at Peter, not entirely sure if he was exactly like Alice or not, Bella answered her phone.
"Hi, Dad." She greeted easily.
"Hey kiddo, good news is we should be with you by dawn." Charlie told her quickly, Bella heard the nerves in his voice.
"And the bad news?" Bella asked, narrowing her eyes.
"I wouldn't really call it bad, bad more...painful." Charlie tried to sooth.
"Papa Swan, just fess up or she'll tear the forest damn. Fuck, damn it woman not so hard." Peter growled out through pain.
"Stop being a baby, besides you have this coming." Char reminded him darkly.
Peter wisely chose to remain silent at that.
"Who was that? You know what, it's not important right now. What is important is that we've got him, Bells. We've caught Laurent." Charlie said in a rush, desperate to get the ghastly business of telling his daughter the news.
Bella said nothing.
She did nothing.
Peter gulped and slowly got to his feet.
"Everyone but Jasper, very and I do mean very slowly back away." Peter whispered softly.
Nobody dared question Peter, instead the three other vampires very slowly did exactly as instructed perhaps even slower than needed.
On the other end of the phone, Charlie looked at his mate with worry and pain on his face before a soul destroying wail shattered the silence.
Laurent, to his credit, did not shrink away when a whole new murderous look took hold of both Charlie and Victoria.
"What we do to you as punishment will never be enough." Charlie growled, his eyes filled with the tears he could no longer shed.
"But we will have fun trying to match it." Victoria vowed darkly as the heart and soul wrenching cries of their daughter continued to echo through both phone and forest.
A sobbing Rosalie and Charlotte both clung to their mates, not seeing the murderous rage that would consume them completely had it not been for the women they love so completely.
A/N: Apologise for the rather long wait but I hope you feel it was worth it in some form. No beta for this chapter if you spot anything, possible spelling differences aside, please let me know so I can edit as soon as possible.
Thank you all for reading and your patience.