Bella POV
Vampire. With the werewolves.
For the millionth time, she wished that Jasper was here. He would be able to discern exactly what it was that the werewolves were feeling and perhaps gain insight into what was unfolding before them. Did the pack respect this Vampire? Did they fear him? She was shocked to say the least.
She peered over at Edward first. He was deep in concentration, trying desperately to read the vampires thoughts, extract any information he could that would be of benefit to them all.
Her attention then turned to Felix and Demetri, both of whom were deadly quiet. Demetri's eyes expressed a concern that she had not seen reflected in them before. Both guard members usually had some combination of appearing smug, content, or annoyed. But never truly concerned. Bella guessed that being a guard in the Volturi afforded them that. They were the Alpha in many senses she supposed, and there were not many that were higher on the food chain then them.
Her eyes flicked back to scene below. The vampire was speaking, not that she could hear what was being said. It was both a blessing and a curse that they were downwind. It prevented their detection, but prevented her from being any real use. She hated that feeling.
Since she could not hear the vampire, she focused on other things. The vampire held the wolves complete attention and she could almost sense the anticipation from the men below, their muscles rigid as if they were ready to pounce. The vampire shouted something in what sounded to be their native tongue and the people below cheered in response, yelling, and raising their fists in the air as their leader turned on his heels and climbed into the first snow vehicle.
The men below gave their children and wives hugs and affectionate kisses, but quickly made haste in climbing in the remaining vehicles.
Demetri began to move to follow the caravan, but Felix quickly palmed his chest with force, giving a quick shake of his head no.
Dimitri frowned but leaned back to his previous position. They sat as the procession of vehicles moved towards the east, leaving only the women and children behind to disperse back into their dwellings.
Felix relaxed from his tense stance on the branch. "What did you get, Edward?"
"Well, they are heading for France, that much is certain. But I could not figure out from the vampires thoughts how or why he got involved with a pack of wolves. It appears that this vampire is following anothers orders."
Demetri's eyebrows furrowed. "We should have gone after him. It was one vampire with twenty two werewolves in a very weakened state. We could have easily taken them."
Felix scowled. "Then we would have never figured out who was behind this and why. Aro would not be pleased with that."
"Aro would understand." His comrade insisted.
"Demetri, we have been friends for centuries. I would not want to risk your neck over an impulsive move, just as I am sure you would not risk mine. No, we can follow them and attempt to find out more. After all, you are the best tracker there is. Surely a little distance will not trouble you. Talullah, Edward, and Bella, we will return to the camp and pack up our things. We will track them and in the meantime Edward, I want to know what information I could possibly glean from you in regards to identifying that vampire."
"When will we contact Aro?" Bella interrupted.
"Not yet. We still do not have satellite coverage and I would like to try to find out more first."
Jasper POV
Jasper walked down the cobble streets of Paris, looking for any sign of vampires. So far, he had not sensed any recent vampire activity, but he was having trouble getting his mind in the game. He sent Bella off another text a while ago, but had still not heard back. He was tempted to try to call her, but as it was, he knew that Aro would not be pleased even with these attempts at communication, he would view it as interference with the mission.
He stared at the Arc de Triomphe in the distance and knew that he needed to go further along the outskirts of the city. No vampire, newborn or not, would be stupid enough to travel into the heart of Paris and risk exposure at a famous landmark.
He turned around, his pace brisk. The quicker he completed this mission, the quicker he could head back home and try to piece his life together. He skipped several nicer neighborhoods, instead choosing to find one of the seedier parts of the town. He was rewarded quickly with his efforts when he came across the scent of several vampires who couldn't have left the area more than an hour or two ago.
He tracked the scent to an old building, the door worn and the windows blacked out.
Definitely vampire. Jasper thought to himself as he carefully walked around the building, trying not to alarm its inhabitants to his presence.
He was certain that there were at least fifteen vampires in there, if not more. If his instinct was correct, and there were three other locations similar to this one, that means that there were at least sixty newborns in the immediate region of Paris and that was a very dangerous situation.
Jasper was certain that Christoph did not reside in this building, but he was sure that he must frequent it often. Jasper left the neighborhood for a while before choosing to circle back again, entering an adjacent building to the one the vampire resided in. He climbed up the rickety stairs and easily broke the lock to the door that led to the roof. Jasper settled in, ignoring the beautiful view of the Paris city lights, instead, his attention turned solely to the rotting doorframe to the tenement below, waiting until the orchestrator of this harvest finally appeared.
Hours later, Jasper saw a soft figure walking down the alleyway, the collar of his coat upturned, blocking the majority of his face. However, even with his face obscured from view, Jasper knew that his eloquent gait and perfect posture screamed vampire.
The southern vampire eyed this man continually, tracing his steps until he stooped inside the doorway, giving confirmation that this was indeed Christoph. Jasper quickly moved back down the stairs, hiding in the shadows until Christoph reappeared.
The Frenchman left the building in a hurry, unaware of the fellow vampire that was now trailing a little ways behind him. Christoph led Jasper all the way to the first class hotel that he was temporarily residing.
Christoph quietly slid the card key in the door to the Penthouse Suite.
Very Well funded. Jasper thought as he took the opportunity to slide up behind the stranger. The vampire froze as he finally realized that he was not alone.
The man did not move, he did not even turn his head. "You are not Volturi. What is it you want?"
"Answers." Jasper moved to shove Christoph into the middle of the room, but the vampire willingly went of his own accord. Jasper shut the door with a resounding clang, never taking his eyes off of his target.
The vampire's likeness was true to his picture, brown hair, brown eyes, equal to Jasper's height, dressed better then a vampire of his means should be.
"I don't have answers."
Jasper walked slowly around him. "Well, then that is just too bad. Because I can't leave here until I have them."
Christoph stood there wearily, eying the unknown quantity in the room. "Who are you?"
Even though the vampire hid it well, Jasper's ability allowed him to sense the fear that raidiated off of him. "I was going to ask you the same thing. You see, I was sent here to find out why you are creating a newborn army. You have caught the attention of some very important people and you are not exactly being discreet about it."
"You are not Volturi guard." He repeated his first comment to Jasper from a few moments ago.
Jasper stepped forward. "No. No, I am not. But I am working for them. Now again, I think it is in your best interest to disclose why you are raising an army."
"I was told to."
"By whom?"
"I would be killed if I told you." He straightened out the sleeves on his Armani suit.
"You are going to be killed if you don't. So I suggest that your sense of self preservation kicks in and you choose to live a while longer instead of being killed right this second."
"You would not do that."
"Oh, wouldn't I? You see, the Volturi asked me to get involved because I have extensive experience in handling newborn armies. I am also a very efficient killer." Jasper played up the man's fear, twisting it, heightening it until the Christoph's cool demeanor finally cracked. "So why don't you tell me who you are working for? Because based my ease of tracking you, you are not the brains behind this."
"I can't say."
Jasper focused till the man began to cower in fear. "Well, if your preference is to die then…"
Jasper took a step towards him.
"No! I want to tell you, but I can't. I don't know his name. He just deposits money into an account and instructions on what to do and when."
"What kind of instructions? What is he planning?"
When Christoph did not respond, Jasper grabbed him by the throat, pushing him against the wall. "I asked what was he planning?"
"He… he… in a little over two days time, the newborns will be unleashed upon the streets of Paris with the instructions to kill and to feed as much as possible."
Jasper tightened his grip, reaching out with his gift. He was telling the truth. If those newborns got out, their secret would be lost forever. "How many?"
"How many, what?"
The southern vampire gritted his teeth. "How many newborns are there?"
"I… I don't know."
Jasper began to feel the bones break underneath him. "How do you not know?"
"I am only in charge of one quadrant of Paris. I have about twenty newborns myself. I don't know about the others. We are not allowed to contact each other and we are all given separate instructions."
Jasper cursed. Whoever was in charge was smart and even if he took out the twenty in this quadrant, which he could not do himself, and just barely with the help of Jane, Alec, and Alice, there were still three other groups to contend with, all in two days time. Daunting was not even the word for it. "And you have no clue who this person is?"
"None."
"Have you ever met them?"
"Only once. He was big and tall, even by vampire standards. He had olive colored skin with black hair and he was quite cocky."
"How tall?"
"Six foot seven inches."
Jasper ran through all the vampires that matched that description that he had come across. There were only a handful. "Did he ever give a reason why he wanted to do this?"
"He made a vague reference to changing of the guards and then he laughed to himself as if it was a great joke."
Jasper froze and dropped Christoph unceremoniously to the ground he realized who was orchestrating it all.
Impossible.
Behind all the this was a Volturi member.
Behind all of this was Felix.
A/N: So, what did you think? Thank you everyone for sticking to with this story. My dream of actually publishing a book came true over the past couple of weeks and it has been an absolute whirlwind of a ride. I wanted to thank especially a couple of people on this board who are currently reading the book for me. So for XxSouthernCowgirlxX and roon0, thank you so much. I am also going to give away five more copies of the book just for you guys, if you are interested, please see my profile page. Thank you all for your support and I would never have gotten the courage to do this if it wasn't for a lot of peoples encouraging words.