Author's Note- Hello all, good to see you again. I got alot of mixed reviews for last chapter and I wanted to explain before moving on. I loved Kiya, yes, but she had to die. Why? well I think she said it best when she said "Everybody dies." No one in the world-even the twilight- world is invincible. And there isn't always a time where Asima or someone can save the day. Sometimes living in a world of the supernatural is the reason you die. Would she change it? no probably not. She was content with her life, no regrets. So with that said, don't feel be too sad. I'm worried about you guys. If you can't handle Kiya's death I hate to see what happens when the fight comes.*semi spoiler. Oh wells. Enjoy chapter 20
Chapter 20: Reconciliation
"Lift on three," Alice's tiny voice instructed Jasper and Emmett. "Asima and Rose, be ready to secure the doors. One...two...three."
Emmett and Jasper both lifted the twenty foot gate doors into place without struggle holding them into their frames while Rosalie and I went to work. We each held three massive iron rods meant to hold the hinges in place. When everything was aligned properly we let ourselves drop from the gate walls inserting each cylinder as we fell.
Rosalie was about to do it a lot faster than me, giving me a rather smug smile when I stuck my landing. "Told you I'd finish first."
" You sure did Baby," Emmett wrapped an arm around her, just as smug, "Looks like Jasper owes me some money."
Jasper rolled his eyes opening his door to make sure it opened and closed easily. "I'm just glad we've finished all the repairs."
"We're distraction free now," Alice muttered unhappy.
She was right to be; since bringing back the journal over a week ago we've still had nothing to do but wait. We'd given it to Carlisle but it was written in a language that neither he nor I had ever seen before, which is saying something.
I knew it had to be something from Merit's lineage—because most tribes had their own languages lost thought time— but I knew that giving us the journal was as far as her and her grandfather were going to go towards saving Ness—dooming us to figure it out ourselves.
We had so much on our plates that even our immortal minds were becoming strained. We had to save Ness; and that meant deciphering a book—that might not even help!—to get an idea how to do so. We had to repair Jennah. We had to reassure the citizens that they were safe; The city had remained untouched for hundreds of generations and Zach's attack shook the morale of the city. Literally!
Recent events caused a wave of new protectors to be awoken, something we didn't even think was still possible. I was shocked to rush back from Egypt and find Ciyan and Phillip having fevers, outlined in the faintest of green hues. Luckily Ciyan and Phillip were the ones affected by the wave and their fevers and symptoms lasted a few days as opposed to the weeks I remembered enduring.
A part of me was happy, because I knew that as long as they transfigured, they would live forever. Since their birth it had been a fear of mine that they were too close to humans. Sure they grew as quickly as they mentally developed, but in every other way—the soft, breakable way— they weren't like us. It felt good not to live in fear of outliving our children. Another part of me was morose; despite the fact they were chosen to protect, and had the perfect people to guide them; they were still children. How could they protect lives, when they had yet to fully live themselves?
Sami and Rami worked with them while we finished rebuilding the city, excited that out line was growing. Thee transfiguration process so natural for them that we all had to wonder if it were normal. What we took weeks to master they managed to overcome in days, sometimes hours. Jabril and Carlisle speculated that it was most likely due to them being aware of the leopard history. That they weren't afraid of it, and therefore didn't reject it like we all did at first. Jabril would watch them when he wasn't on patrol, and a part of me could see the hint of envy in his eyes. He wouldn't change the way his life ended up for all the wealth in the world, but every now and then, he'd miss the feel of the change.
Seth was just as torn as I was. He didn't want Ciyan and Phillip to take the weight of the city on their shoulders so early. But being a Quileute he knew all to well the pride and honor, that came with the job. Though he secretly pouted at the fact they weren't wolves instead—something I would probably tease him about when all the chaos was over and we were at peace again —he helped tremendously.
Bella and Edward were in agony, turning their hurt and anger into fuel to assist Carlisle in whatever way they can—even running to Libya one night for a potential lead on the language. I'd never seen two sleepless beings so tired.
But even they were better than Jacob, if Bella and Edward were in agony, he was plauged with pain. His aura hung over him like a black cloud, his moods shifting erratically between anger, frustration, despondency, and being catatonic. It was heartbreaking to watch because I had no doubt that if the roles were reversed and it was me out instead, Seth would be the same way.
Leah volunteered to let Rosabella stay in the main palace with her, Jabril, Sami, and Rami— knowing Jacob was in no way emotionally capable of holding it together for anything. Rosabella went willingly, especially since Ciyan and Phillip were already staying there until they learned all they needed to about being leopards. She was exceptionally strong, well aware that her mother had been taken, and that we had no surefire way of getting her back; Rosa didn't cry.
When we decided to tell her the truth, and as she listened, she didn't interrupt. You could feel the worry, and sadness radiating from her, but she didn't shed a tear. The brown eyed girl just nodded and thanked us for not lying. When asked later by Esme why she wasn't crying or upset she said that she knew we would fix it, and that she was only going to keep happy thoughts until we did.
"We don't need distractions, we need to find Renesmee." Rose argued following us back to the Cullen house.
Em kept his arm around her, "But we can't do that until we figure out what's in that damn book."
"We'll just have to all join the search," Jasper suggested, we rolled our eyes but bit our tongues. Like we hadn't done that already. He felt what we were casting off and amended, "Well try a different approach, maybe."
"How long until the next full moon?" Tink asked aloud, her voice a tad whiny with her frustration.
"Eighteen days." We all deadpanned.
Everyone knew how much time we had since the moment Merit told us. There was no doubt a countdown in all of our heads, making us each a bit more anxious as the days counted down. She had been taken over two weeks ago.
Esme heard us coming and opened the door. "Any news?" I asked hopeful, like one of us did every day when we headed out on some quest and turned up empty handed.
Esme tried to keep the answer as positive as possible while we followed her upstairs. "Carlisle was close today, we thought it was Sanskrit."
"But it isn't." Edward sighed closing a book of dead languages, putting it in the stack that was about as tall as me, and picked up another one.
Bella's forehead wrinkled as she read her book. "I still think it's Sumerian, since it's derived mostly of wedges."
"And I would agree, but when translated it doesn't make sense." Carlisle sighed only glancing in the first few pages of another book before doubting it's usefulness. We all filed in doing the same.
"Based on the region of Merit's tribe, I'd assume Coptic." Edward reasoned comparing his book with the pages in the journal. Some of the symbols are the same.
I shook my head, "Except you know four different immortal beings that speak, read and write Coptic and that isn't it." I read the title of the first book I picked up, and put it in the discard pile immediately, Why was a book on Old Norse included in the first place.
"Any luck?" Jabril asked coming upstairs after letting himself in. Everyone pretty much just left his question in the air. "I see, well is there anything I can do?"
"Not unless there's a decoder ring for dead languages some where." Emmett only half joked shifting uncomfortably. For a vampire, he wasn't very still, but then again Emmett never struck me as the logical planning type, more of ready to fight. Emmett didn't care how, why, when or where, all he needed was to be pointed in the right direction and he'd find the fight eventually.
"How are the kiddo's?" Aliced asked, trying her best to keep the tension that came with silence out of the air for as long as possible. When one of us was quiet for too long the reminder that we could do nothing crept back in and one of us stormed out in annoyance at the obvious.
Jabril understood, "They're fine, Rosabella was painting when I left. Ciyan and Phillip are out on their first patrol—" He interrupted me before I could say what I wanted, "—Seth's with them, and it's just to the sea and back, let them get a feel of the sands, they're phenomenal learners."
"Actually, I just wanted to suggest that now would be a good time for Sami and Rami to go over how to track their leopard brethren." I corrected politely. "Sami and Rami are more than capable of caring for them."
"What am I chopped liver?" Seth demanded coming upstairs catching no one by surprise. I could always feel him long before he approached, my body anticipating. My russet toned hero was obviously in such a hurry to see me that he forgot to shake the white sand from his hair after phasing back.
"Yep." I declared unabashed leaning up to kiss him. "You're obviously not there doing the protecting thing."
"Sam and Ram shooed me away to do some leopard only thing. Plus it didn't help that I couldn't understand them or hear them. I see that Jennah is officially refortified..." he noted.
"Finished not even twenty minutes ago," Emmett boasted picking up a book— like he was fooling anyone.
"Any news from Jacob?" Esme asked hopeful, sadness touching the corners of her features.
Seth took a seat at my feet, his momentary happiness fading. "Jake should be back in a few hours..." He reported, "He went all the way up to Syria this time... just hoping to catch a scent of her."
"The poor thing," Esme sympathized bringing a hand to her mouth.
"Stupid mutt," Rosalie muttered shaking her head. There was no animosity in her words, her tone more dismal than angry. "I don't see how wandering around aimlessly with his nose in the air is going to help find her. We don't even know where to look."
"It's better than doing nothing," Emmett disagreed, Rose looked up at him and he defended his statement, "I mean, if it were you I couldn't just sit in one place you know?"
Edward felt the same way, "If the sun weren't an issue, rest assured Bella and I would be searching with him."
"We'll make a break through, son." Carlisle promised giving up on another book. The stack tripped in size over the half an hour with everyone helping.
"Not wanting to sound like a pessimist," Jasper started, finishing a book of his own. "But, when we figure out what this journal says. When it leads us to Nessie, what then?"
"What do you mean what then?" I muttered furrowing my eyebrows, "We bring her back and punish the ones responsible."
"He means how, Asima," Alice corrected. "How do we kill Zach and the others?"
There were a lot of holes in our plan, "We don't know how many there are." Jabril reminded. "Sure we saw five total, Zach included, but there could be a lot more when we find her."
"How do we kill them?" Jasper added, "They tore through here like—" He stopped, not wanting the reminder of Alice getting hurt, and his failure to protect the city in our absence.
Emmett shrugged, "We'll attack before a full moon, obviously."
"But how do we kill them? We don't even know when they're around. No smell, special gift immunity, and probably a full secret arsenal." Jasper deliberated, more to himself than to us— his mind already in a tactical setting. "We don't even know if they can be killed. I mean, how do we know?"
Emmett rolled his eyes, he hated tactics. "We know because they have gooey insides and we don't."
"Gooey insides?" Alice and Rose echoed at the immaturity of his statement. Surely he was old enough to use grown up words.
Edward was on the same thought process as Jazz though, "Hopefully this journal will decipher more than just location. I think the important thing is—"
Jabril stood up abruptly, "—Sami and Rami are back, something's not right..."
That was all it took for everyone to blur downstairs and out the door. Sami was opening the gate by the time we were up to it letting everyone back in from their trip.
"Is everything alright?" I asked Phillip and Ciyan.
They sauntered through, not as my children but as protectors of Jennah. Their walk deliberate, making no moves more than necessary. "Of course mother, we were just on the coast lines and felt someone coming."
"Did you find them? Threat, traveler?" Carlisle inquiring perked up.
"Oh we found her," Rami verified leading a raven haired woman through the gates. She looked annoyed and amazed at the same time, Rami was just plain annoyed. "She was wandering in the desert.; but obviously had no doubt about how to get here. How many people are going to know about this place?"
"We didn't tell anyone," I promised, not really annoyed, but intrigued as to the reason she trekked though miles of sand to find us.
Merit pulled her away and adjusted her backpack on her shoulder. "Of course no one told me, what kind of clairvoyant would I be if I needed to ask something as simple as directions?"
"A dead one." Rami answered without hesitation. "You would have died from dehydration before you made it."
They obviously didn't get along, "I knew where I was going."
Rami rolled his eyes, "Whether you did or not let me let you in on a little trick about Jennah; the location alone protects us from being discovered. Were too far away in any direction for any human to reach us."
"Rami..." Sami cautioned staring uneasily between Merit and I. He knew that she came to find us for a reason and wanted to know.
Rami on the other hand didn't care. "If one of us doesn't find you first and take you to safety, you die."
Merit frowned at the thought, but then smiled, "But I knew you'd find me."
"Actually the little ones found her, tracked her all the way to the dunes." Sami corrected, giving me some information he knew I would like.
Using the burn of our skin was as a compass was something that took time to perfect, because when you first start out each hot just felt like hot. It took time to differentiate between the degrees and longer to be comfortable enough with it to go towards it when human nature tells you to go back.
"Excellent job you two." Seth congratulated knowing they did well but not quite the extent of the difficulty.
Merit just shook her head, "Are you guys like this with all of your visitors; because I hope you're more more welcoming when the next group shows up."
"What group?" Rosalie demanded whirling around from her conversation with Emmett, no longer bored with ours.
Merit was momentarily stunned by her beauty, which was normal as well has the rapid heartbeat that followed with the reminder that she was a vampire. "I don't know."
"There's something she doesn't know?" Rami muttered sarcastically out of her hearing range.
"You're Merit right, the one that lent us the first set of journals." Carlisle connected. "They've been most helpful thank you."
"Helping vampires is apparently what I do now," She muttered to herself forgetting that we all could hear her. "Don't mention it."
Bella took this one, "You obviously have an aversion to helping us, so why are you here? Why not just stay at home and go about your life?"
"Trust me, I tried." She promised, shaking her head at some memory. "After Asima left my grandfathers, I went back to Cairo and tried to do just that. Long story short, I get dreams."
"What kind of dreams?" Alice asked, her small voice genuinely curious. The only being with psychic abilities she'd known other than herself was Margaux, and they were in no position to compare stories; and Merit was human.
Merit looked around Jasper at the tiny person that asked the question. "The kind of dreams that don't go away until you do what they say. So here I am, doing what I'm told."
"So what exactly are you here to—"
She interrupted me, "I hate to seem rude, but can we have this conversation inside somewhere. I just walked across six miles of desert."
Esme kicked into hospitality mode leading us back to the Cullen house, "Oh of course, you poor thing. Come this way. You'll have to excuse us, the heat doesn't bother us the way it would a human so we forget."
Once we were in the Cullen's living room and Merit had a glass of water in her hand she looked up at Carlisle, "May I see my grandfather's journal?"
"Of course." He assured zipping upstairs and bringing it back before she could sit her glass down.
She didn't open it, just ran her hand across the cover, examining the binding in silence. Her mind fading back into some memory, and with a quick breath she dismissed it, opening the book. She cracked a smile when she realized it wasn't written in Arabic like the others had been. "Have you all had any luck translating?"
"None whatsoever," Carlisle confessed.
Bella took a seat at the end of the couch she was on, "I thought it was Sumerian, based on the wedges in the text, but I got something about 'gates' when I tried to translate it, and it didn't make sense."
"A boundary gate," Merit corrected tracing her finger under the symbols. "'The birth of the boundary gate.'"
"You can read it." Edward guessed feeling hopeful.
She shook her head handing it back to Carlisle. "Nope, I just know the first few sentences. My grandfather wrote all of his secrets in Akkadian as did his mother and so on. You were close though, Sumerian was derived from Akkadian, but its grammatical structure is more like classical Arabic."
"But if you can't translate it—" Edward started.
Rami was rude enough to finish, "Why are you here?"
"To help." She insisted.
"But your family's encounter with werewolves was before you were born, do you know the stories?" Emmett tried to understand.
She shook her head, "No their first encounter was in Sudan when my grandfather was a young man; Zachariah had seduced and taken his fiance; never seen or heard from again. They lost that fight before it even began." She started slowly rolling up her sleeve as she spoke. "The second time was seven years ago with me; and I'm sure you can guess how that battle ended."
Everyone stared at the inside of her wrist like it was the key to everything, no one speaking. "That book, translates in Akkadian to 'The birth of Merit', it's about me."
"But you told them that there was nothing that could be done." Emmett argued.
"You lied," Seth accused standing up. "I'm going to phase and tell Jacob to hurry back."
"Go," I nodded and he was out the door.
That brought her attention to me, more than willingly throwing me under the bus. "She didn't tell you that I was bitten by a werewolf?"
Every immortal head whipped my way. "I got the journal, and then Seth called about the children and everything sorta—slipped."
"Slipped." Edward echoed in disbelief.
Carlisle stopped his son from going further, "How about we just listen to Merit's story?"
"Look, I know I lied to you all but you have to understand." Her voice wasn't very apologetic. "My family killed Grey."
That name was supposed to hold weight to us. "Whose Grey?"
"One of Zach's descendants," She answered impatiently. "Oh don't look that way, I told you their goal was to increase their numbers, of course he has children. But only one sun that I knew of."
"That's why you were afraid in the shop," Bella figured. "You found out Zach was connected to Renesmee and you didn't want him to know that your family was responsible."
She nodded, "My family never talks about my—time. If I were to share that information with her— If Zachariah were to find out, he'd kill everyone I'd ever loved out of spite and leave me alive just to watch me suffer."
"And that's the type of person that has Ness?" I hissed getting up. "Great."
"No one values family more than Zacariah," Merit shifted nervously, no doubt feeling the atmosphere around her. "You wouldn't believe the things he's done to preserve it. He won't stop until he get's his numbers back."
"For what?" Emmett demanded. "I mean, we love family. We have the knowledge to grow our family not just through venom anymore, but we're not."
"Emmett right?" Merit asked trying to place his name, he nodded and she continued. "If you had enemies that outnumbered you greatly; if you were looking for revenge. Would you prefer to spread out and recruit, or stand alone?"
That was an easy answer for him, after all we'd done it. "I'd recruit."
"Yes, but the thing with recruiting is, people— in all species— are selfish by nature. Self preservation will always overrule all emotions except one. Love. When you stand with friends, or allies, you run the risk of them betraying you when it becomes prudent. Your family on the other hand," She started looking around. "I'm willing to bet there isn't one of them you wouldn't happily die for if it were their life or yours."
He didn't have a response right away, but when he did it almost made me want to smile. "I think happily isn't the right word."
Even Merit smiled, "Well the idea is the same."
"Okay, so he's building a family, and army family. For what?" Sami wondered.
Merit's face went grave again, "For the oldest enemy they've ever had."
"Vampires." Alice assumed. "I mean, unless someone wants to tell me there's witches out there now, there isn't anything older than us."
"Yes and no." Merit corrected.
"There is no yes and no," Rosalie argued. "Either it's vampires or it isn't."
Merit took a long sip of her water before she explained— an infuriatingly long human sip. "He want's revenge on a specific institution of vampires."
"The Volturi?" Jacob guessed standing in the doorway with Seth. He was disheveled, but he was here. That made me worry less, his eyes holding a hint of life now that there was some hope.
He made her jump, but she recovered, "If that's the name of your governed body, then yes."
"He's a bit late for that." Jacob muttered taking a seat on the chase next to me.
Carlisle explained, "The Volturi isn't governed the same way, not even the same people. That was taken care of over a decade ago."
Merit put her glass back down, nodding. "Oh I know." She jerked her head to Seth, "Your mate was quite telling when I touched him." I didn't respond. "I doubt that really matters, the institution still stands does it not?"
Seth rested his elbows on his legs leaning into the conversation. "Anyone want to bet that's what's been killing off the Volturi guard for the past few months."
Jasper sat up, "Where those attacks?"
"Russia, Ukraine, and Greece." I recalled from my Volterra meeting.
Jasper got up and started pacing in thought.
"That's brilliant," Edward agreed to his internal thoughts.
"What?" Emmett demanded, clueless.
I listened myself and concurred, "It's a safe assumption."
"What is?" Rose inquired.
But Jasper was on a role, getting even Jabril was excited. "Do you think we could get them behind us?"
"If it's their self preservation, they'd have to." Alice joined in, no doubt seeing what we were planning.
Jacob gave up by then, "Oh come on."
"Clue us in here Babe," Seth requested.
Edward took the reigns, "If we can base the pattern of the attacks on their intention to slowly but surely reach Italy, then back tracking them—"
"Could most likely lead us to where they originate." Bella guess.
Edward nodded, "And if they're after the Volturi, then they'd be more than willing to fight with us if there are more."
"Not to mention they've killed werewolves." Carlisle gathered.
Merit rained on our parade. "No correction, they killed regular werewolves. The kind that were created by biting, among the many, Zacariah's father. They didn't kill a single birthed werewolf, they couldn't find them if they wanted to."
"You sure know a lot," Jacob accused, losing patience.
Merit nodded, "I was Grey's complement, and for a brief time he shared everything with me."
"Complement—"
"Someone's in the dunes." Sami picked up looking up at his hands.
Merit looked pleased, "I told you someone else was coming."
Rami didn't care, he was over visitors. "Can't we just leave them? We're actually making a breakthrough here."
"Brothers, that would go against everything we were taught. If it's a threat we must deal with it, if it isn't we must guide them to safety, that doesn't necessarily mean here." Jabril requested, and almost on cue to back him up, the sound of padded claws passed the front window, two leopards purring—My children.
I looked at my nephew's oldest friends, "Rami...from the sounds of it, their going with or without you two. We wouldn't want anything happening to our youngest additions, my youngest additions now would we?"
"We're going," Rami surrendered, "But we're taking them to the first civilization we reach that isn't ours."
Merit laughed omnisciently to herself, "Oh trust me Rami, you'll want to bring them back here, trust me."
"I don't." He made perfectly clear, getting up. "We'll be back."
Once the four of them were gone, I turned my attention back to Merit. "What's a complement?"
"Werewolves choose their mates based on a lot of things; what I don't know. But when he chooses, he bites her, establishing a connection. He learns everything about her, wants, hopes, dreams, the things she doesn't want to share with anyone; and then offers those things.
His pain is her pain, and vise versa with every other emotion. He offers himself to her as well, sharing everything with her, even though it's only temporary, she accepts it, wants to be a part of it, it's the best time of her existence." Merit explained staring at the sculpture on Esme's coffee table.
"So it's like imprinting?" Rosalie guessed, making Jacob snap at her, "It's not the same!"
Merit shook her head, "It isn't. From what I've gathered, with these two." She motioned between Seth and I again, "your bonds are a lot different."
"How? Sorry, Jake, but they do sound the same." Emmett agreed.
"For starters, when you guys find your one, that's it. Whether she lives, or dies you will only have the one. You'll never have another imprint. With werewolves, their complements never survive child birth, so when the connection is broken, it all goes away. It's a coping mechanism to keep their line going."
"So none of it's real?" Esme wondered.
Merit shook her head, "No it's real alright. The love, the connection, it's all real it's just real for that time. A werewolf could have limitless complements in their time."
It all sounded crazy to me, love wasn't conditional. If I loved someone, I loved them forever. "He told you all of this?" She nodded solemnly. "And you just accepted it?"
"You don't understand. I didn't just accept it, I didn't care. I didn't care that there were many before me, I didn't care that it would kill me, I didn't care that there would be many after me. In that moment, I felt more alive than I ever had, and I'd rather die than lose that feeling. I wanted it all." Merit recalled her feelings without emotion, like she were looking in on someone else's.
Jacob was too angry to speak, the idea of Ness not only being taken and admired by something like that, but wanting it was unthinkable.
"Okay, so... let's keep calm here." Carlisle suggested watching Edward with fists so tight that it looked like his knuckles would pop.
"How do we kill them?" I demanded, because right now with everything going on, it's the only thing that we needed to know.
Merit didn't look up. "Destroying the heart and removing the head."
"Tch— What are they, the cause of every cheesy piece of vampire folklore in history?" Emmett scoffed. "Done."
"It's not that simple," She clarified. "My family succeeded out of pure luck. It was days after the full moon, he was weaker. His heart wasn't in the right place, I lost my father..."
"What do you mean not in the right place?" Carlisle picked up. "Metaphorically or literally?"
"Literally, Carlisle. His heart was on the right side of his body."
"Okay, let's get to work people." Jacob encouraged standing. "Merit, I want every story he told you. Maybe we can find out where they lived."
Merit shook her head, "Not right now." Esme and Carlisle's foreheads creased in confusion.
"What do you mean, not right now?" Jasper demanded.
She jumped at the noise, her mind flashing to Sami and Rami bursting in and interrupting. "Because there is no point in telling my stories if they're going to get interrupted."
Seth calmly asked her, "What do you mean—"
"Asima, something's happened!" Rami burst through the front door smelling familiar and unfamiliar at the same time. "You need to come with me to the main palace."
Jabril stood the same time I did, "What is it?"
"The wave reached further than we thought, your friend brought them." Sami explained.
My friend? Couldn't be...Phillip? And like that I was running, Jabril and Seth in tow towards the main house. I froze in the door way when I saw him. I hadn't seen him in three years. His face was about the same, apart from the stubble, a few days late on his shave. "Phillip."
"Asima." He breathed with relief, his voice shaky and uneven. Like he thought I was a mirage, or he was just really having trouble believing anything.
He was in my arms in the same second. I wasn't able to control my speed and I didn't want to. "God I missed you." I admitted.
He towered over me like always, "Kyle and Asima...they're leopards." He cried in my hair, still making sure I was real.
"I know, don't worry, we'll take care of them." I tried to soothe but the hysterics didn't stop, and I couldn't understand why. "It'll be okay."
"No, no it's not. Kiya's gone." He revealed sobbing harder, his mind running over everything that happened starting with the death of his wife. He'd been holding it all in to be strong enough to get the twins here, but seeing me was his undoing. It all rushed back and a bit to fast to control.
"Kiya?" Jabril repeated in disbelief, his voice holding his own sadness. "Impossible."
"A vampire," He confirmed still upset, and he had every right to be. He'd lost his wife and discovered his children were leopards back to back.
I used Jasper's gifts to the best of my ability, trying calm him down. "Phil, you're safe, the children are safe. We'll help them adjust, and they'll be right along with Ciyan and Phillip."
"Asima..." Leah called carefully from the back room. She didn't want to interrupt, but she needed to. "They want to see you."
I made sure Phil could hold it together before I nodded.
"Bring them Leah, it's alright." Jabril requested.
I saw their glow before I actually saw them, a soft green haze almost the color of mint; lead the way. When they came around the corner, I linked Phil's hand with my own. I knew they wouldn't be the small three year olds I remembered, but I didn't expect them to be as big as they were either.
"How long since their change?" Jabril wondered examining their soft green outlines.
"Four days ago," Phil managed to reveal clearing his throat. "Kyle, Asima," He started carefully. "This is—"
They both stepped forward without fear. "We know Daddy. You're princess Asima, Prince Jabril, Prince Sami, and Prince Rami. You're twins like us." Little Asima pointed at each of us as she made the connections. The cartouches I gave them fit perfectly now. "You look just like the drawings in Mommy's story book."
"Story book?" Jabril asked in confusion. Leah handed it off to him and he flipped through a book of hand drawings—just pictures, no words attached.
Phil explained, "Kiya wanted to keep your history alive, so she told them stories in the form of fairy tales. She drew the pictures herself."
"Why didn't she just tell them the truth?" Sami wondered.
Phil looked at me and his eyes fell. I explained, "Phil thought it would be safer if they didn't know right away. That they got a chance to be as normal as possible."
My nephew's henna colored eyes radiated disapproval, but he didn't voice it. Kyle looked up at me, "Dad say's you're our godmother..."
"I am," I verified.
"Can we meet everyone else?" Kyle wondered. "Our other godmother, the Cullen's, Ciyan, Phillip?"
Sami shook his head subtly. I let go of Phil's hand to get closer to them. "Asima, Kyle, Ness isn't around right now. But she'll love to see you when she comes home. You can't see the Cullen's until you learn to control your changing because your first instinct is to attack vampires right now, and they're our friends, and we don't want that do we?"
They shook their heads in unision. "No."
"But you can see Ciyan and Phillip. They're leopards too. Do you remember them?" I asked tucking Asima's long black hair behind her ear. I could tell by their eyes they didn't, "It's okay, it'll come back to you."
"Okay little ones, how about we show you the wall of our history?" Jabril suggested taking their hands and following Sami and Rami back to the hall that lead out into the garden.
"Ness is gone?" Phil asked when I righted myself and turned back to see him.
I wasn't going to lie, "She was taken a few weeks ago, but we'll get her back."
"My heart goes to Jacob." He apologized looking down.
Seth came over clapping a hand on his back. "Yeah he's taking it pretty hard. It's good to see you Phil, I wish the reason were different. Kiya was an amazing lady, you have my condolences."
He didn't say thank you or respond to Seth in general, not that I could blame him. The man just lost his wife."The Cullen's still live here right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, on the east side of the city."
"Can you take me to see Carlisle?" He requested, his eyes still rimmed red from the tears.
I couldn't deny him anything at this point. "Of course, Edward and the other will be glad to see you. They still never properly thanked you for giving them the idea to go to Volterra."
"Well now I need something from them, so hopefully they'll be willing to oblige and call it even."
I took his hand and headed with him back to the Cullen house, Seth walking ahead and letting us linger a bit behind. His way of giving us space. "What do you need?"
I looked up at him his eyes dark and tired and to be honest they worried me."I need help becoming a vampire."