Disclaimer: So sad. It really is. Does it count if I want them to be mine?

6. Eavesdropping

Dean and Sam sat in the Impala on a side street near the hospital. The range on the receiver wasn't that great and if they went too far, it cut out. Dean had his window open halfway despite the drizzle that was falling – Sam had a microwave burrito for lunch that he picked up at the gas station and the aftereffects were killing him. Sam kept snickering now and then and Dean was nearly ready to reach over and cuff him one. The kid was twenty five and still thought farts were funny.

And Sam's supposed to be the mature one. Dean thought acerbically.

Sam had been on his laptop for a while earlier, looking into more leads for the murders in Seattle. The death count was rising swiftly – two more bodies discovered and a woman reported missing by her boyfriend. But the laptop's battery had given out over an hour ago, leaving the younger Winchester with nothing to do either.

The Doc had been pretty boring most of the day. A few phone calls, disappeared now and then, came back. He had a few patients come in earlier, Dean had found that amusing. Some kid had come in, embarrassment clear in his voice, and told the Doc that it burned when he peed.

Dean was getting thoroughly bored. Stake-outs weren't his thing on the best of days, and with Sam's huffing in boredom, and the various other sounds Sam was making, made this 'brilliant idea' seem more trouble than it was worth. If the Doc would just start talking in tongues or chanting spells or something. But the guy was more vanilla than vanilla.

Doctor Cullen's intercom buzzed.

'Doctor Cullen?'

'Yes Rachel?'

'Your wife and daughter are here to see you.'

'Thank you Rachel. Send them in please.'

Dean and Sam instantly sat up straighter and leaned over the receiver.

'Esme…Alice…what's wrong?' Worry crept into the Doc's voice.

'We were on our way back from Tacoma,' Esme said, 'when Alice had a vision.'

Dean and Sam exchanged looks. Alice had visions? Psychic visions? Like the ones Sam used to get? The ones Caleb still suffers from?

'What did you see, Alice?'

'The Volturi…they've made a decision.'

"The Volturi?" Dean mouthed. Sam shot a finger up to silence him and leaned back to listen intently to the conversation.

'What's happening Alice?'

'They've decided to send four of their guard here to put a stop to what's happening in Seattle.'

'Who are they sending? When will they arrive?' The Doc sounded scared.

'Jane and Felix for sure, two others for added muscle.'

'Dear God – them coming here.'

'I think it will be over before they arrive. You know I can't see it because of our new friends, but I think it will be over.'

'I hope so. I don't want to think about what will happen if the guards see the others. Does anyone else know yet?'

'No. We came here first, to let you make a decision.' Esme must have moved closer to the desk as her soft voice grew louder.

'Alright. I'll sign out and meet you back at home. Don't tell anyone until I get there and we can have a family meeting.'

'That will be a little hard. Edward's home.' Esme sounded skeptical. Apparently they couldn't keep their thoughts from the kid.

'Is Bella there too?' Carlisle asked.

'No. She's at Jake's.' Alice sounded slightly relieved and irritated all at the same time.

'She's safe there. Wait for me at the end of the driveway, you'll be out of your brother's range.'

The kid had that wide a range? That was useful information.

'See you back at the house soon, Carlisle.' Esme's worried voice filtered through the electronics.

The door clicked shut and several minutes later, after some hurried shuffling, it opened and shut again. Then there was nothing but silence in the office.

Sam looked up from the receiver with a horror stricken face. "The Volturi." He whispered.

"Yeah, what was that? They all sounded scared."

"Don't you remember any of the stories that Pastor Jim used to tell us?" Sam frowned.

"Sam, Pastor Jim was full of stories. What is the Volturi?" Dean hated when Sam remembered things that he didn't.

"Remember? The Volturi were the Kings of the Vampires?" Sam's eyebrows were buried in his hairline as he looked at his brother with disbelief.

Something clicked in Dean's brain. He did remember something like that, had written it off when they were young because their dad had told them that vampires didn't exist anymore – that others had hunted them to extinction. It wasn't until shortly before dad's death that they learned he'd been wrong and vampires were alive and kicking. Well…not alive.

"You mean that old story is true?" Dean exclaimed.

"Dude – when is it ever an old story or legend when it comes to us?" Sam tossed a crumpled napkin into a paper bag in disgust.

"So fill me in on the Volturi thing Sam – my memory's got holes." He frowned.

"The Volturi are supposed to be the Kings of the Vampires. They were responsible for upholding Vampiric Law."

"Vampiric Law?" Dean scoffed.

"They had to have laws Dean, otherwise they'd be severely hunted. They were supposed to have an army of vampires loyal to the Kings and they kept all of the vamps in line in order to keep the secret of their existence. They must have been doing a good job, since we all thought they were extinct until a couple of years ago. They'd want to remain a secret society as much as the Brotherhood does."

Dean nodded. It made sense in a sick sort of way.

"Anyway, by the sounds of it, the Volturi Guard is coming to take care of what's going on in Seattle."

"So all those killings and missing people…that's the work of vampires?" Dean didn't want to believe it.

"I guess so." Sam paused for a moment. "I thought about it for a moment at the start of this case, but I didn't think it was plausible. Do you realize how many vamps in a nest it would take to kill that number of people?"

"More than the normal small coven of leeches."

"Exactly. They don't get that large because they fight amongst themselves."

"So where did this bunch come from?"

"No idea. But I guess we know what the Cullens are now."

"Come on Sammy. The Cullens can't be vampires. The Doc is a doctor – a surgeon no less. If he were a vamp he'd drink dry every patient he operated on. Besides, when have you ever seen a vampire with yellow eyes?" Dean snapped.

"Lenore and Eli." Sam snapped back.

"Lenore?" He questioned. Who the hell was Lenore? Then realization hit him. "Lenore!" He breathed.

Lenore and Eli had been hunted by Gordon Walker. He and Sam had stumbled onto the case because they'd heard of cattle deaths in the area and suspected ritual cult killings. They met Gordon, and he had filled them in on the vampires – Dean had actually killed one at the saw mill. The vampires had kidnapped Sam, and released him after telling him that they weren't hunting humans, that they were responsible for the cattle deaths. They had let him go in hopes that he would tell other hunters so they wouldn't go after them and they could live in peace. But Gordon had gone after them anyway, and Dean had made a difficult choice in siding with the coven over Gordon. It had been the first time where Dean had been so conflicted by his quest in destroying the supernatural. But seeing Lenore fight her nature when Gordon cut Sam's arm open…She didn't want to be a monster, and was trying to make the best of her situation. And Dean couldn't kill her when she wasn't harming anyone.

"Sammy…they can't be." He whispered.

"If they've been living off animal blood for a long time, their control would be pretty good. It also explains the yellow eyes, the non-aging, the pale skin and the size of their family. Lenore and Eli's clan was large for vampires too. The animal blood must make them less aggressive."

"Okay…" Dean started. "Let's just say the Cullens are vampires and hunt animals instead of people. What about what's happening in Seattle?"

"Well the Cullens would have heard about what was going on there. Carlisle must have gone to the morgue that day to confirm it was the work of vampires. The Cullens haven't hurt anybody that we know of, so they must be trying to defend their territory from the vamps that moved into the area."

"Which means that they probably don't want the Volturi coming to the neighborhood if they are the big bad law enforcement. No one wants 'The Law' showing up on their doorstep for any reason."

"Especially if Edward and Bella are together. She must know what they are and I don't think that the Volturi would like the fact that she's human. They would see her as a risk."

"Or a snack." Dean rolled his eyes. "Do you think that the Seattle vamps know about Edward and Bella? That they would come after the Cullens for revealing themselves to a human like that?"

"Maybe…But now they have the Guard on them, which has got to be worse than a family of pansy vampires and their human pet." Sam scrubbed his hand over his face in thought and huffed. "Unless the Cullens have enemies…Maybe the Seattle vamps are several covens joining together, and want to take them out."

"But why?"

"They're freaks of the vampire world man." Sam said simply.

Dean slapped the steering wheel in frustration. "This case just keeps getting worse and worse!" He exclaimed. "First, we got mass murders, then we get a family of vegan vampires, then we've got a visit from the vampiric royal army. This fucking blows!"

"Yeah, and who are the 'others' that Alice mentioned?"

"The ones that are blocking her visions." Dean added. Only in their world could people having visions not be the main focus of a conversation. "I don't like that part either. And why does Doctor Cullen want to hide them from the Volturi? And what will be finished before the Guard arrives? What the fuck is going on around here?"

"Well, they seemed pretty worried about Edward and Bella finding out about Alice's vision. Do you think it could have something to do with them?" Sam leaned his massive frame against the seat back. Pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger, he adopted what Dean referred to as the 'pensive and brooding Sammy look'.

"It sounded like that to me."

Sam sighed. "What if the Cullens are planning to change Bella without her or Edward knowing about it?"

"But why would they do that?" Dean scowled.

"We've got the Seattle vampires on the warpath, and now the Volturi are coming to investigate. Maybe the Doc thinks that changing her will save her from the others. They can't have a problem about her if she's one of them. Or at least she'll have a better survival rate if they come after her if she's vamped out."

"So why hide it from Edward? Wouldn't Eddie want to change her?" Dean asked skeptically. In his experience, vampires were very selfish creatures and it would fall into line that Edward would want his squeeze to be as dead and immortal as him.

"You saw the way he was holding onto her and the way he was so protective of her… Maybe he really loves her."

Dean snorted in disdain. That wasn't possible. Though Sam made a good point, Dean didn't believe that a vampire was capable of loving a human…But that picture in Edward's room floated to the forefront of his mind. You couldn't fake that look.

"Vampires mate for life." Sam added, trying to hammer his point home.

Dean had a brief image of vampire sex. "Dude, that's just gross." He grimaced.

"But true none the less."

"Then wouldn't he want to change her into one of them? That way she's not a walking, talking all-you-can-eat buffet?" Edward should want to change her into one of them if for no other reason than he wouldn't kill her accidentally if she were one of them.

"Maybe he loves her enough that he doesn't want to do that to her."

"I repeat. This case is all fucked up." Dean was getting thoroughly upset about this one. It was morally offending him that this chick was human and most likely knew the guy she was keeping time with was stone-cold dead and just as likely to rip her throat out as go down on her. Dean shuddered as another mental image slammed into him.

Eww.

Dean huffed. "Okay…Let's just assume that the dumb chick is getting tapped by the dead kid. And let's just assume that the Seattle vamps are out for blood because of it, and the Volturi vamps are coming to hand out some vampiric justice…And those are big assumptions…What do we do?"

"We remove her from the equation." Sam looked up suddenly, a ray of hopefulness in his green eyes.

"We what?!" Dean's face scrunched up into a mask of incredulity. "You want to gank that kid?"

"No!" Sam shouted angrily. "I mean we get her out of there. Hide her from all of them until we figure out what's going on."

Dean laughed derisively. "You want to kidnap the daughter of the Chief of Police? Sam, have you lost your mind?"

"I think Police Chief Andy is the least of our worries right now." Sam scowled. "I think we need to get that girl out of the situation until it's clear for her to come out. We've got three large groups of vampires coming together, and it's going to be a bloodbath – Quentin Tarantino kind of bloodbath." Sam paused, and Dean didn't like when Sam paused in the middle of a rant. It usually meant he thought of something neither of them were going to like.

"What is it Sammy?" Dean narrowed his eyes at the younger hunter.

"It's just that…there are old legends…I don't know if they're real and it's certainly not well documented…they don't keep the human alive for very long – just a vampire's way of playing with their food really…"

"Spit it out Sam." Dean ground out.

"There are old legends about vampires that take human lovers…"

"And?" Dean pressed, getting annoyed at Sam's reluctance to just come out with it.

"In the legends, the human tends to get a bit brainwashed. Like they can't live without their lover."

"You're kidding me! Like some sort of vampire mind STD?"

"Something like that."

"Fuck!" Dean slapped the steering wheel in agitation. Like they needed anything else added to the misery of this case.

Fucking vampires!

His mind jumped to another image that he wished he could burn from his retina.

Eww.

"We gotta get that girl out of there. If she's brainwashed, we can't blame her own stupidity on her." Dean snarled.

A/N: Like I said before, I don't hate any of these characters. I just think that Sam and Dean wouldn't be too keen on the Cullens or Bella's relationship to them.

A/N2: Who caught SPN on Thursday? Dirty up that Angel, Dean!!! I laughed so hard at the look on Cas' face – priceless.