Chapter 21

By nightfall Edward, Alice and Jasper were back sequestered in the secure room while the interrogation of the druids began, Carlisle was helping run tests in the lab and the rest of the Cullen's were on the training grounds with the Hamilton children learning about medieval weapons. They had taken Jasper's statement to heart; if they wanted to live they needed to know how to fight more than vampires.

The Hamilton's had already gone over the results of the Cullen's scans and were now talking to the girls about what happened. They were scared they were in trouble and had a hard time getting the story out but between what they said and what Ingram picked out of their minds the whole story came out. Yes, the girls were in a part of the forest they should not have been, much closer to the line than was safe. They were speculating about what was going on in the castle, talking about the male vampires especially Edward. That was when they noticed the boys walking towards them asking them if they had seen the vampires in the woods. Several things contributed to them crossing the line; they are young impressionable girls hoping for love, the boys knew about vampires and things most people don't and the girls looking to impress them spoke as if they knew more about what was happening than they did. It was easy to lure them across the boundary.

Once the druids had the girls they began asking questions about what was happening at the castle. Did they know which way the Guardians were leaning on the guilt of the Cullen's? Were all prisoners allowed the freedom of the vampires? Were they planning any attacks? Had the Executioner's been training more than usual? Were there any other prisoners in the castle? The girls didn't have the answers to these questions and so began the mind probes. Through the girls minds they saw the Executioner's training, the Cullen's coming and going and different members of the Hamilton family coming and going. Thankfully they had been stopped before they could get far enough into the girls minds to realize that none of the recent things the girls had seen was normal behavior during an investigation. The girls were released to their parents and from the looks on their faces they wished it was Isabelle doling out their punishment and not their parents.

After the girls left the castle Haldor went to dungeons to let them know the questioning could now really begin. On his way back to Gabriel's office he stopped by the medical suites to let Carlisle know they were ready to discuss his coven's scans. If he wanted Alice, Edward and Jasper involved in the discussion then everyone would need to meet in the secure room. Carlisle decided he did want everyone together to go over them so Haldor called up to the office with Carlisle's decision. As the Hamilton's made their way to the secure room you could hear screams coming up from the dungeon. Some were for mercy, others for death and some were just in pain but none of them would be answered. The Hamilton's knew this and as they stepped into the room the Cullen's knew by their impassive faces that they wouldn't be either.

Isabelle looked around as everyone was taking their seats. "Carlisle, with everything we needed to get done there has been little time to explain things as they should be explained. With recent events I must take the time to explain as fully as I can. I want you to know we were never hiding things from you but rather only giving you the information that was a necessity for you to know. In most instances not telling was for your benefit but that is no longer the case. I know you have suspected this but let me lay it out for you. Yes we followed you for the two weeks with the exception of yourself, Esme and Edward. Yes we searched your houses, plural not just the one in Leeds and yes we dug deeply into your lives including your human ones. We looked into it all; it had to be done so that there would no surprises in the end. The main reason we followed you is so that nothing was overlooked and it is a good thing we did because our senses and contacts picked up more than yours did."

Facing Rosalie and Emmett, Isabelle started, "Soren and Ruth tailed Rose and Emmett, and we got the impression that you trust the Egyptian coven, you shouldn't. They are unsure about the entire situation, they will go whichever saves their butts do not forget that when the time comes to call upon your friends for aid. Some of the werewolves in Siberia and Russia are changing with out the full moon. It is still a full transformation unlike the lycans but we do not know if this is a hybrid or just a case of evolution that is happening. At Stonehenge, they are doing human sacrifices as well as animal ones. The humans are needed in a ceremony to open a door to the underworld. They are using the doorway to bring forth Brudes. They stay for about 24 hours and then return without a sacrifice. Looking into their human and vampire lives everything was fine; we found nothing to be concerned about."

Turning to Jasper and Alice she continued, "Digby and Elisabeth followed Jasper and Alice and did not turn up anything until New Orleans. That is where the voodoo magic was big and also where Digby and Elisabeth picked up a hybrid tail that followed them back here, but we took care of that problem. Jasper has met a berserker and a few druids, as well as killing a werewolf in Russia before finding Alice. However none of these actions or encounters seemed to have caused any lasting ripples. We did uncover some information about Alice's past and if you want after this over I will gladly sit down and explain it all to you Alice. The choice is yours of course." Alice immediately started bouncing in her seat and responded, "I would love to do that Isabelle. Thank you."

"Now let's go over the medical tests and scans." Isabelle continued. "There are a few things I have mentioned to Carlisle already and he has asked me to bring them up in this meeting. First the venom test, Carlisle and therefore those he turned, are from one of the most ancient bloodlines and of Italian descent. This maybe one of the reasons you are able to deal with the bloodlust easier than others, the strength and age of your venom. As far as we can tell the five of you are among the last of this bloodline. Alice is from an old bloodline but not as old as Carlisle's. Jasper is the most interesting while he is also from an ancient bloodline; it is a volatile South American one. This is most likely part of what makes him such an effective fighter and it is definitely part of why his bloodlust is so hard to control."

"Second, the x-rays showed that each of you have a tracking device implanted at the base of your skull. They are not active and we can not remove them." This got the attention of the Cullen's quickly. Isabelle held her hand up to stop the questions she could see where coming. "When I said can not I mean will not remove them. If we try to take them out it could activate them or alert someone that they are gone and we can't have that yet. Whoever put them there needs to think we don't know about them. We looked to see if you had any memory of them during the scans and none of you did, which means at some point that memory was wiped from your mind. It wasn't altered or fuzzy like we do but completely removed, this is not easy to do properly. I will get to our theories on who did it later. Alice, Jasper and Edward have a separate tracking device on them at the base of their spines, almost like a tramp stamp. It showed up during the infrared pictures. When activated it emits a heat signature that is traceable. Jasper's has been turned on and is pinging away. The protection around the castle prevents this signal from getting out but once you leave Hamilton land they will know exactly where you are. This device is used by the Volturi so we are guessing it is theirs. I know they have Demetri but with these devices they can track you without him. Once again you have no memory of this being implanted which makes no sense because the Volturi wouldn't hide this from you. We think whoever wiped your first memory did this one as well. Now they have a second way to at least track three of you if need be."

Isabelle paused for a moment and then sighed before looking at each of them, "All of you have had your memories altered to some degree. Most of it is small things like the tracking devices and general knowledge things about the Druid and Lycan Clans. It turns out none of you ever knew anything about the prophecy or Brudes which is odd. It could be because of the way the brothers came into power, we are not sure. The other clans have passed this type of information on in the form of legend stories and myths but it does get passed on, even if they don't believe. Perhaps the most disturbing thing found is that Emmett has imbedded memories waiting to be accessed."

"What?" Emmett yelled. "How can I have memories I know nothing about yet? Can you get them out? Who put them there?"

"Calm down Emmett and I will answer your questions as much as I can." Isabelle said calmly. "The memories are about taking the girls and what happens to them. They are just sitting in your brain waiting for a trigger word to be said so they come forward in your mind. Once they are accessed it would be like a real memory for you. From what Ingram was able to see it would be very convincing, Emmett would not have a reason to doubt he did those things and these memories would come with a full sensory experience- sight, sounds everything would seem very real to him. We deactivated his trigger so to speak, now when the word is said to him he will remember this conversation and come to tell one of us without accessing the false memories. Because Emmett's memory would have been full sensory we scanned Jasper and Edward specifically for triggers and found several. Jasper has 2 triggers - one is for affecting his memory and the other is for acceptance. Jasper would just be able to feel what Emmett is feeling at the time so he just needs to accept the feelings as true. Edward has several and once we found the one pertaining to his memory and the one for Emmett we stopped trying to find out what they did and just deactivated them. The triggers and memory altering with Edward is very dangerous, because of his gift you also have to alter the memories he has from others minds. Whoever did this to him has amazing control and they had to be able to keep him for quite some time. You each have small blackout periods in your minds; this is when the memory altering was done. From what was happening before the blackout it looks as if you were each hunting when it was done. Except Edward, his largest blackout period happens in Vancouver when he was away from the coven. But for the rest of you this being done in Leeds while you are hunting explains the 2 druid's presence Heidi and Keldan picked up even though they were attempting to cloak themselves."

Gabriel spoke at this time, "There are a couple of other things we need to discuss before we get to who is behind this and why. Starting with the hybrids; the college girls were taken to enhance their breeding program. The needed to infuse the bloodline with new blood so if you are taking human girls anyway why not take the ones that will progress the bloodline. Their blood is being mixed with lycan, druid, werewolf and even Cajun/voodoo to bring out certain traits maybe in some it is strength, others it is intelligence and for druids it may be a magically boost. We also know they are being given growth hormones so they mature faster physically but we are unsure what this does mentally and emotionally. The hybrids currently in interrogation should be able to answer those questions for us. Right now it appears they are going for quantity and not quality because they are advancing the already fast growth process. If it turns out the hormones don't affect them then they are going for both and that is something to consider."

"The last thing to consider before we take a break is how the Cullen Coven is perceived by the supernatural world." Gabriel said. "I know some of you picked up on it and so did we while investigating you. If one or two of you were mentioned by name things were fine but if we just said the Cullen's the reactions were very different. They varied from fine to disgust to disgruntled to jealous to gleeful that you are the ones trouble. It didn't matter if we were talking to druids, lycans or vampires the reactions were all over the board. Most felt as if you thought you were above them and trying to "pass" as human, others are worried because of the size and abilities of the members in the coven, some are put off by your diet and a lot are just happy it is the vampires in trouble because that doesn't happen very often."

Carlisle and the rest looked as if they had just run a marathon and mentally they had. Isabelle leaned forward and placed her hand on top of Carlisle's, "I know this is a lot to take in and I am sorry we can't give you more time to deal with it but we must be ready for the Council meeting next week. We will take a break and meet again in the morning. While you are taking this time you also need to think about whom you can call to come to your aid, whom you trust with your lives because that is what you will be doing. You also need to decide if you want to return to Leeds or spend the week here until we leave for the meeting and you will be going to that with us. We are still conducting interrogations so Alice, Jasper and Edward may want to remain in the room so they don't have to experience that also or you all can it is up to you."

The Hamilton's stood and filed out of the room. At the door Isabelle turned and said, "We did notice while scanning everyone that not all of the experiences while traveling had been shared with the coven." At this the Hamilton's all laughed. "My favorite was Emmett and the anaconda" Gabriel said shaking his head. Elisabeth poked her head back in the room and said, "Mine was Alice and the voodoo doll, that was priceless." Isabelle shook her head and looked to a confused Carlisle, "If you need a mood lightener force them to tell the stories, they truly are funny."

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