Author's Note:

IF YOU'RE THINKING ABOUT SKIPPING THE AN, DO NOT!

I REPEAT: DO NOT SKIP THE AUTHOR'S NOTE-- IT IS VERY IMPORTANT

I'm sorry, everybody. Here's a list of what I'm sorry about.

1. It's been sooooo long since I updated! I meant to wrap this story up sooner!

2. I have been having a lot of trouble writing this last part of WY, so it may not be up to my usual standards. I know it's the climax, but for some reason, I can't get as engaged in the end as I was in the beginning.

3. THERE IS, IN FACT, ANOTHER CHAPTER THAT I SHALL POST AFTER THIS ONE. I've been telling everyone that I only had one chapter left till the end and the epilogue, but...that is NO LONGER TRUE. This chapter would have ended up way too long, so I decided to put in yet another cliffhanger, and write up one last chapter. To anyone who may be disappointed by this news, I give my sincere apology.

And I will do my best to post the last chapter soon after this one.

Thank you so much for your support and patience!

Songs:

A Whisper and A Clamor -- Anberlin .com/watch?v=zst5Gj8iJpM (the sound of this song adds to the tension of this chapter)

So Cold -- Breaking Benjamin .com/watch?v=uA_suck5MTg (again, this song amplifies the frigid atmosphere. And it's an awesome song)

Two Tower's Trailer -- Requiem for a Dream Remix .com/watch?v=z8KHmN7Ev2I (I have no idea what the actual song is called, and it's a tad dramatic. Still, it fits)

Hold your breath!

Jasper's POV

38. Culmination

"You touch him, you die."

I could scarcely believe that was my mother. This wild creature made of marble and ice could not be Esme. All traces of softness were gone, leaving hard planes and raw muscle. She was more of a vampire than I was. Blowing free about her face, her shining hair enhanced the effect, swirling around her sheer white cheeks and incensed black eyes.

"You heard me," Esme said, unleashing the fury of her eyes on Adelaide and her men. "Put that lighter down."

I was still dazed from the overwhelming blackness that had caused me to faint, but I could clearly see the silhouettes of my family and friends, lined up behind our mother. Emmett was the hulking shadow to the left, and there was Siobhan beside him. Liam was next, and then, to my amazement, Tanya and Kate, all three restlessly shifting. Maggie and Alice must have been in the back, the smallest fighters last.

Adelaide's hand hovered in the air, the fire starter's flame waving. Her astonishment at the intimidating group of vampires looming before her was a memory I would cherish forever. A pale emotion in the light of Esme's blazing anger, her surprise vanished quickly, replaced by ghoulish delight. "The Cullen clan," she breathed. "At last, you'll be together again."

Esme was unmoved by this sentiment. "You will step away from my husband," she ordered evenly. "Now."

"Your husband?" Adelaide turned to look at Rosalie; the corner of her lips turned into a smile. "I've been deceived."

"Are you deaf or something?" asked Emmett harshly. "You heard Esme!"

The five vampires surrounding Carlisle shared uneasy glances. They were confused, unsure of what their course of action should be. I couldn't blame them, seeing as they were in a very perlious position. If they didn't move soon, they would be destroyed by the eight vampires facing them. If they did move, their mastermind would punish them. Reynard looked at Adelaide, hoping for a signal. His leader was not forthcoming with a command. Esme snarled lightly, and the snarl was repeated by all those behind her.

Carefully, the five men moved backward, leaving Carlisle in a huddle on the ground, his hands clapped over his head, protecting his neck. My father's feelings were swiveling between fear, for whom I didn't know, and confusion. He looked up warily, tensing, and saw Esme in all her ferocity. His face registered more shock than I would have thought possible for a man in his position. He had undoubtedly heard her voice, but apparently he could not reconcile this angry woman with his lovely wife. Imperceptibly, his lips moved, and the fear I'd felt before increased as he stared at her. So Carlisle was more afraid for Esme, the one in control of the situation, than he was for himself.

That was typical Carlisle.

"Give me my family," Esme ordered Adelaide, as the allies behind her spread out, blocking the path to the riverbank.

"Mrs. Cullen," Adelaide began, but was cut off.

"Do not talk to me." With a slicing gesture, Esme interrupted the nomad. "Give me my family, and we'll go our own way. No talk is necessary."

With tight lips, Adelaide growled at my mother, her posture aggressive. Her growl was answered by nine other snarls, and I realized in a second that I was responding as well, my body leaning forward, ready to attack. The vampires that were guarding Rosalie and I all stepped forward, forgetting us in their anticipation of a fight.

Adelaide's feelings were oscillating between amusement, slight anxiety, and black fury. She had no concept of the protectiveness we all had for Esme, usually the weakest link in our defense. All she saw was a threatening female vampire, one with a strong will and seven more fighters to back her up.

Esme was jeopordizing Adelaide's plan, which was why the nomad held such hostility toward her. With eight new vampires to battle the army, Esme could easily decimate the ranks of the nomad's men, leaving no one to carry on Adelaide's scheme to overthrow the Volturi. In several minutes, everything Adelaide had been working toward could be crushed. Did Esme know what she had started, coming with so many of us to rescue her family?

Tired of waiting, Esme took another step. "If you won't give them to me, we will take them."

"Back away," Adelaide told her men, slinking back from Esme. She appeared to be retreating, her hands held in front of her and her eyes on our mother. Her men did as they were told, except for one, his feet planted firmly in the ground. It was the southern man, I noted, the one with the ability to--

"Esme, duck!"

Edward's warning came none too soon. Esme obeyed his shout, dropping to her hands and knees as a bar of steel, four inches thick and six feet long, came singing over her head. Our other friends ducked as well, but Emmett caught the pole in one hand and sent it spinning back to the southern man. He, the man Jonathon, grinned at my brother, and nodded in approval at the throw.

Esme regained her footing, giving Jonathon an icy glare. "I think maybe we should negotiate, Mrs. Cullen," Adelaide said, from her safer position away from our allies. "I admire your boldness, and I think we could reach a compromise."

I snorted: a compromise? Where was a compromise when Carlisle had needed one? From what I'd learned of the nomad, she could negotiate about as well as she could fly. I opened my mouth, intending to shout a non-compromise policy to Esme, when a wall of scent hit me from behind. It was a scent that was sickeningly familiar, and much too appetizing. Of course, it was accompanied by a stream of terror and impatience, both feelings equal, so there could only be one human generating that smell.

Holding my breath, I turned slightly to the side, being as inconspicuous as possible. "Bella," I spit out between my teeth, "what are you doing here?"

"Aren't you going to help Carlisle and Esme?" she asked back, sending more of her delicious scent toward me. My body tensed against my will, my hunting senses switched on.

How could I even answer coherently, when I was trying not to kill her?

"Edward should talk to you," I managed to say.

There was a pause, then I felt her realization. "Oh." She shifted, and it seemed like every move she made tempted me more to attack her. This was just perfect. Here we were, on the brink of destruction, and all I could concentrate on was not murdering my sister. "But I can't, Jasper," she whipsered. "He's being held by that huge redhead!"

Now it was my turn to mutter, "Oh." Directing Bella straight to another killer thirsting for her blood wasn't the best idea. "I'd forgotten that. Well," I gritted my teeth against my thirst, "what is it?"

I had to twist my head more, to see what Bella was doing to make her scent so much more alluring. She was crouching behind a section of warehouse wall. We'd been backed up to the doors of the building by our guards, so my back was rubbing against the same wall she was hiding behind. Thankfully, she'd found something to wrap her injured arm in, stifling the sweet smell of her blood. Her face was inches from mine as I looked back. I quickly whipped my head the other way, where my teeth weren't a hair's breadth from her throat.

"We have to free Rosalie and Edward, so they can help Carlisle and Esme. Do you have any plans?"

"Bella, there's seven vampires with Esme. I don't think she needs any help." That wasn't true; Esme needed all the help she could get. Even with our friends to lend a hand, we were outnumbered with not very promising odds.

Bella was too smart for my hedging reply. "They're still outnumbered! They need the three of you!"

Every time she spoke, it was driving me insane. The floral pull of her scent sufficiently blew apart any thoughts of a plan that might have been forming. "Maybe they do, but we have to wait--"

"There is no compromise, nomad." Esme was facing off with Adelaide, aligning herself into a better attack stance. "If you don't surrender my family, we will fight you and your men."

"Just take a look around you, Mrs. Cullen," Adelaide said coolly. "You are outnumbered, aren't you? Do you think it's wise to attack us?"

From the crevices in which they'd been hiding, the bulk of Adelaide's army came into the narrow street between the warehouse buildings. There was fifteen in all; compared to our seven, that was more than enough. And these men were no newborns, either. They were seasoned fighters, nomads with the drive to sustain their own existences. Against us, my non-violent family and our peaceable friends, they were a formidable force.

But they didn't have the power of a mother lioness on their side.

"We will only attack you if you resist giving us our family members." That was Kate, her steely eyes boring into Adelaide. I would not want to stand in Kate's way, especially not when she was in one of her fiery moods.

Adelaide seemed to ignore the threats so blatantly before her. "My compromise is this: if you'll consent to join us for a time, to help my army in our cause, I will give you your family."

"You will give them to me now," Esme commanded calmly.

"I don't think--"

"You were going to murder my husband. I don't strike deals with murderers." There was no cooperation in anything Esme did. I wanted to cheer for my mother's acuity, for seeing through Adelaide like she was transparent.

"Good, Esme," I heard Rosalie whisper.

"Jasper," Bella urged, at my ear, "what should we do?"

I cringed, beating back the urge to cave in to that wonderful smell. "I don't know. Let's see how these negotiations work out."

Bella snorted, a bad move. "What negotiations? Oh, sorry."

Locking my jaw in place, I steered my attention back to Esme. Think of Esme and a plan, not Bella's scent, look for a way to help them...Edward, from his place futher down the warehouse, stiffened, his eyes moving to scan my rigid body. He couldn't betray Bella to the guard smashing him into the wall, and he couldn't save Bella from me. The poor kid was most likely in worse agony than I was, imagining the things that might happen to his sweetheart.

"I offered your..." Adelaide smiled, "husband a chance to join me in my revolution. I had to punish him when he refused."

"Look, nomad." Esme leaned forward, her gaze and emotions burning with an intensity that put Adelaide's heartless flippancy to shame. "I do not care why you were going to hurt Carlisle. I only care that you were going to hurt him. Your reasons mean nothing to us."

"And will you kill us all, in revenge? That seems contradictory to Dr. Cullen's behavior."

Drawing back some, Esme looked bemused. "Kill you all?"

"Isn't that customary, when one coven threatens another? The offending coven is obliterated by the threatened coven."

Esme shook her head in a rapid-fire movement. "We will only harm you if you continue to withhold our loved ones. But you must surrender them soon, or we'll take your reluctance as a 'no'."

If she wasn't careful, Esme would lose the edge she'd gained by being the fearsome and seriously miffed mate. I could still feel her anger, seething under a thin layer of temporary patience, but no one else possessed my extra sense. The opposing vampires would take Esme's mercy for softness, and that would result in a fight for sure. When Adelaide felt comfortable enough, she would strike, using all the combined powers of her army to bring down my family. Already, her uneasiness was giving way to confidence in her men.

Bella was right-- we needed to bolster Esme's forces, but not with physical might.

I nearly beat my head against the warehouse. How could I have not thought of this before? Anxiety for Carlisle and Esme had taken precedent, conentrating on not eating Bella alive on top of that. Shutting off my breath to settle my thinking, I flooded Adelaide's army with uncertainty. Why were they involved in all this conflict, anyway? Why weren't they out in the wild, hunting, finding their own paths to freedom?

There was a murmur shuddering through the group of guards, starting with the center and spreading. I heard discontent in some of their voices, and I fed the agitation, expanding the feelings of fear and mistrust. If I could turn Adelaide's men on her, our dilemma would be solved. Without an army, the nomad would be an empty threat, nothing but a raving fanatic.

The murmuring grew, and the men swayed as one entity, their emotions roiling. I threw in two or three dissonant spouts of disgust and contempt, placing them in strategic points, finding the most unhappy of the group. The vampires began to vocalize their doubts louder, but Adelaide snarled at them, and they quieted. I could still feel their turmoil-- Adelaide would have to act soon, or lose all her recriuts.

I switched to a different tactic: playing with Adelaide herself.

"My men are restless with inactivity," she told Esme, "so we must move on soon. Will you join us or not?"

At the moment, her feelings were stable, full of self-assurance, egotism. Although she was slightly bothered by Esme's intrusion, and by the discontent of her men, she was positive she could salvage the situation. What hubris, to think she was unstoppable, when she knew we had extraordinary powers on our side! Delicately, ever so faintly, I tweaked her slight concern into a more tangible worry. Then I leaked some irritation at her men into her system, to take her focus and dissipate it away from Esme.

The nomad's left eyebrow twitched, and I grinned minimally. Small things like that let me know my ability was alive and well. Soon, I would have the woman tied up in knots.

"As far as I know, the Cullens never asked to join you," Siobhan pointed out, her teeth bared. "So what right do you have to force them into your service?"

Frowning, Adelaide turned to Esme. "I need an answer, Mrs. Cullen."

Esme took a shallow breath. "I am the one who needs an answer, nomad. Will you willingly give me my husband and my children, or will you not?"

I punched into Adelaide's confidence, whittling it down to a sliver of what it once was. I tried to ease if off slowly, like a man working an extremely fine-tuned machine. But it seemed I wasn't too subtle, because Adelaide whirled to face me. "We're being attacked from all sides," she hissed, her eyes narrowing to cat's slits. Stupidly, I froze, even though everything I had manipulated had been through my power alone, not my body. Bella's breath caught in her throat, and I exhaled, her scent lessening with her fear. "Don't worry," I whispered, for her ears only.

"Jasper, your son," Adelaide spun to address Esme, "is the reason my men have suddenly lost faith in me." She was observative, I noted. "And now he's digging into my emotions, too. Is that your plot, Mrs. Cullen? To divide us against one another?"

The vampires behind the nomad muttered in suprise, casting me dubious looks. I kept their feelings even, not wanting to give them any reason to second their leader's motion. Bella's breathing was faster now, more frenzied. "Bella, stop that," I said, barely speaking, but putting some bite into my words. I couldn't keep myself together if she was blowing more mouth-watering scent across my face.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered, and took longer, larger breaths, each one labored with stress.

"I have no conspiracy, nomad!" Esme snapped, finally exasperated with the woman. "Jasper is his own man. I don't command him, and I am not trying to break up your coven, or whatever it is."

"So you say," retorted Adelaide.

Esme's eyes tightened, as did her clenched fists. "Well, you will just have to take my word for it."

"I," smiled Adelaide, raising a bone-pale finger, "will do no such thing."

From behind her, a lithe white figure sprang, a figure whose fluttering white clothing streamed around it in the wind. The figure was emanating deadly emotions, and a bloodlust that rivaled the most pitiless of our kind. It was screaming out a battlecry, soaring in a path that would take it over its leader's head, and straight at Esme.

The worst part was, Esme dived out of the figure's way, as did all our other allies.

Everyone except Alice.