Chapter 6: Defense

CARLISLE CULLEN

Emmett pulled his Jeep into the driveway of the seaside mansion just outside of Modesto, California. The place reminded me of our house in Forks; isolated, fancy, pale, mostly glass in the back. Of course, it was five times the size of our house, but the overall look was the same.

Rosalie sniffed the air, then gave the rest of us the okay. We slipped out of the car and bolted to the door. I knocked, and was answered by a creature that I recognized as the Missing Link.

"Hey," he said. "You Ed's family?"

"Yes," I said. "I'm Carlisle, this is my wife Esme, Alice's partner Jasper, and Emmett and his partner Rosalie."

"I'm Link," he replied. "But you know that, right?"

"Yes," I said. "We're familiar with your team's heroics. Is Jane still contained?"

"Right there," Link said, pointing over his shoulder. My family filed in and B.O.B. approached. Jane was suspended within his mass. When she saw us, she glared.

"Good," I said. "Don't release her until Bella arrives; we'll need her to shield us."

"Why are you helping us?" Ginormica asked. "We've learned a lot about this government, and it seems a huge risk for you to take."

"You ever tried contradicting Nessie?" Emmett said with a smirk. "Damn near impossible. She's just too cute. She says save the Modesto Monsters, we save the Modesto Monsters."

"Did Edward say when he would get here?" I said quickly.

"Before it gets dark," Link said. "In the meantime… you, huge guy, you're Emmett, right?"

"Yes, that's right," Emmett said, surprised. "Why?"

"Ed said he likes to look for opportunities for you to get your ass kicked," Link explained. "We thought we could help him out with that."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Bella, Edward, Jacob, and Nessie all arrived a few hours later. Link greeted him by playing back the video they had taken of Emmett being brutally assaulted by the five Modesto Monsters.

"Very good," Edward said appreciatively. "That's hardly fair, but I'll take what yuks I can get. Thank you, Link. Are you ready, love?" Bella nodded. "Okay, you can release Jane now."

"Who?" B.O.B. said.

"The vampire girl you've been holding for the past five hours," Link supplied.

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"Just spit, B.O.B."

B.O.B. expelled Jane, who made a few visible efforts to harness her gift, but Bella's shield held up, as it always does.

"This isn't even worth it," Jane sneered. "If you're going to defend this freak of engineering, I'll leave it alone."

"Question, Jane," Edward said. "Where is Alec?" Jane made no visible movements, but I knew she couldn't conceal the answer from flashing through her head. "Ah," Edward said. "Well, go get him and explain everything before going back to Volterra, if you don't mind."

"Yeah," Link said. "We wouldn't want to have to kick his ass too."

Jane zipped from the house at top vampire speed. All of the monsters but Insectosaurus looked surprised at what to them must have looked like Jane simply vanishing into thin air. Insectosaurus brayed.

"Yeah, well, we don't all have telescopic vision like you, pal," Link retorted.

Nessie touched Jacob's face, and he replied, "Ask your daddy."

"Daddy, are our new friends safe?" she asked.

"That depends, Ness," Edward said, smiling that crooked smile that always makes Bella twitch. "She's going to tell Aro what happened. She thinks B.O.B. can be trusted. I can't be sure if the elders will agree, though."

"We can take 'em," Nessie said cheerfully.

"Probably," Edward agreed. "But I'm hoping it doesn't come to that."

Nessie nodded.

"Well, thanks, you guys," Susan said, smiling broadly. "You're all so sweet to help us like this. How can we repay you?"

"Oh, don't worry about it," I assured them. "Everyone deserves protection from the corrupted bullies that call themselves the vampire royal family."

"Oh, come on," Susan insisted. "Just let us owe you something."

"No," I said. "We're fine."

"Let's at least have a party," Susan pleaded. "Come on, guys. We'll order some pizza."

"We can't digest human food," Bella reminded them.

"Hell, I can digest human food," Jacob interjected. "Get me a pizza. Large meat-lover's. You want some pizza, Ness?" She shook her head.

"What about the rest of you?" Susan asked, looking around at us. "Can we get you any refreshments of any kind?"

I waved the question aside. "We only have to drink every couple of weeks… and we'd have to hunt for it anyway. Don't worry about us."

"Well, come on," Link said, gathering up Edward and Emmett. "Let's play some video games, whip up some tunes. Let's party like monsters!"

Susan took out her giant cell phone and dialed. "Hey, Antonio. It's Susan. Yep, get us the usual and a large meat-lover's for our guests. Thanks." She hung up. "Okay, who's ready to party?"

"Define 'partying like monsters'," Jasper said warily.

"Put it this way," Dr. Cockroach said. "The five of us? We are all very large and/or sturdy creatures who can hold remarkable amounts of alcohol. We get hammered, baby! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"Days on end," Link said dreamily. "People come up, say, 'Hey, Link, what have you been doing lately?' And I say 'I been partyin', baby!'. Ha-ha… you guys remember what happened last time we had a party? 'Cause I don't!"

Dr. Cockroach thought. "I seem to recall that I woke up playing 'Every Breath You Take' on a saxophone in a church in Nigeria… and that was the last thing I remember before I was brought back to my senses by being run over by a charioteer somewhere in, I think, Newark."

"That's right," Link said. "Yeah… I think I remember now. Who was driving the chariot?"

"I think it was you."

"Oh yeah."

Esme and I exchanged glances. "Sounds like a party to me," she said.