I ran the thirty miles to the nearest grouping of mansions and found a black corvette with heavily tinted windows.
The car was a little flashy, but I needed something fast. I disabled the alarm and mashed the pedal to the floor. I stopped by my plane, which I had never unloaded, and grabbed my passport and my credit card. I was in Seattle in no time at all. I ditched the car at the airport and bought a ticket to Los Angeles.
I was glad it was dark when I arrived. I went to the long term parking and found myself a heavily tinted Mercedes. I occasionally caught a vampire scent and I was wary all alone. I used to spend all of my time alone and I had never been worried before.
I floored it to La Paz, where I had left Darius and Nathan. I ditched the car in the parking lot of the tourist center and ran to the sea caves we used to base out of. I caught a lot of vampire traffic in as I went down into the caves and a glimmer of hope was alive in my chest. Maybe Darius and Nathan were still up to their old tricks down here in Mexico.
"Who are you?" Darius moved out to stop my progress once I'd made it away from the human populated areas.
"Remember me." Oily smooth.
"Bella?"
"Yes Darius."
"It's been a long time."
"Yes it has."
"You look good."
"Thank you Darius."
"Why are you back here Bella?"
"I need to call in some favors Darius. I have a family now and the Volturie are trying to kill them to get to my sister and I."
"Because of your mind control?"
"Yes."
"I don't want to cross the Volturie Bella."
"I need you Darius."
"Nathan." Darius called quietly.
"Remember me."
"Bella! How have you been gorgeous?"
"Good Nathan." He picked me up and swung me in a circle.
Nathan was bigger than Emmett even. I felt a pang of sorrow as I thought of my overlarge older brother back in Forks.
"I need your help training some newborns."
"You've been branching out on your own?" Darius was surprised.
"You always refused to do any creating before."
"I still refuse Darius. I commandeered someone else's army, about twenty new vampires."
"And who are you up against?" Nathan was still smiling.
"The Volturie."
"That's suicide Bella."
"I know, but I have to try. To protect my family."
"You mean your coven right? We don't' have families Bella."
"No Darius, I have a family. It's hard to explain. I have a husband, his name is Edward." There was another pang of sorrow as I saw his perfect face in my memory.
"I'll have to see this."
"Does that mean you're in Nathan?" The hope was growing stronger.
"I'm in. Serena." A short woman vampire with long black braids came out of the shadows of the caves.
"Bella, this is Serena."
"Nice to meet you Serena."
"And you." She had a slight Mexican accent.
"We recently lost a battle with another Coven. We're cleaned out. It's not the same without you Bella."
"You up for an adventure Darius? I never thought of you as a chicken before."
I didn't like the way he was staring at me. He stared like he used to, Serena was obviously not his mate. I flashed the gold ring on my left hand and he stared at it unhappily.
"Let's go."
"Elaina, Janeta we're leaving."
Two small vampires with bright red eyes came around the corner of the caves. This was obviously all that they had left after their last battle. They were losing their touch. This was not good. Maybe, however, with all three of us training the vampires we might have a chance.
"I have a car at the tourist parking lot. We are going to need another one."
"We have one."
"Meet me in Seattle then you can follow me."
Darius was in the car with me while the others were following.
"A husband huh?"
"Yes. Edward." I said pointedly.
"Never figured you were the settling down type Bella."
"You never knew the real me Darius. It is pretty great to have people who will back you up because they love you."
I called Alice from the road and told her the good news.
"You better get your ass back here Isabella Cullen. All these newborns are making me nervous."
"Calm and collected Alice, I'll be back soon with reinforcements."
We drove talking about the years we'd spent apart to Seattle and then to the mansion. Alice was waiting on the front steps, which were huge, she skipped down to us and I hugged her as soon as I got out of the car.
"Alice, this is Darius, Nathan, Serena, Elaina, and Janeta."
"Pleasure to meet you all I'm sure." Alice was impatient.
"The Volturie are on their way. They sent a few of their guard ahead to report back and the found the warehouse. The ancients are coming along with the wives."
"Shit." My sentiments were echoed a few more times by our new arrivals.
"They mean business." Alice sounded hopeless.
"None of that Alice."
"Now where are your newborns?" Nathan was actually excited.
"Inside."
"Let's get started." Darius was a little excited as well.
We gather everyone in a clearing a little way away from the mansion. Darius and Nathan were showing the young vampires what they were capable of. They were racing and jumping and doing acrobatics. That is exactly how I had learned to fight. I used mostly acrobatics to gain the upper hand. If the opponent can't keep track of you then you have the advantage.
Armed with red markers Darius and I faced off in a circle of onlookers. He feinted to the left and without hesitation and flipped into the air landing on his back. He was too fast for me to mark his neck with the marker. He whirled around twisting me off of him. I did a front handspring and pushed him backward with both of my feet to his chest. I flipped in a back handspring to land on my feet and Darius was already feet from me even though I'd kicked him yards back. It felt very good to fight again after so many years of no excitement. He almost got his arms around me but I ducked down and swept his feet out from under him and pounced with the marker getting his shoulder. He swore and jumped up to face me in a crouch. I jumped without any acrobatics and came down behind him faster than he could turn I marked an X on the back of his neck and flipped out of the way.
"You haven't lost your touch Bella." Nathan clapped me on the back.
"Thank you."
After that it was easy to train the newborns. They all wanted to take a crack at an older vampire. We warned them that the Volturie would be looking for them to wrap their arms around their enemy and would be ready for it. We showed them how to use their newborn strength using moves that an older vampire would use.
Gena was especially good. I saw her jump and twist in front of Nathan and mark a red X on his face. She crouched with a smirk on her pretty face. She was the least happy with what she had become. The rest of them were glad to trade their homeless lives in the human world for supernatural abilities even if they had to go up against an unknown enemy in a week's time. Gena missed her family. She, unlike the rest, had been from a nice middle class family and had been in the wrong place at the wrong time when Victoria found her.
The new vampires had only a hazy idea of what was coming for us. Alice and I were all too aware. Darius and Nathan had barely escaped with their lives the last time the Volturie had become involved.
The days passed and the newborns got better and better. I didn't know how we were going to deal with Jane and Alec. I would have to kill them since I was the only one whom they couldn't hurt or blind.
We hunted and Alice led them running to a clearing outside of Forks. The Volturie were on their way. I found my plane and flew back to the house in Forks. Edward ran the fastest out to meet me. I barely got the plane stopped by the time he had opened the door and grabbed me by the waist out of the plane. He kissed me ferociously and held me tighter than he ever had.
"Don't do that again Please." He growled as he kissed the hollow below my ear.
"I'll try."
Carlisle coughed and Edward reluctantly stopped kissing me. He, however, did not let me go.
"What are we up against?"
"Where is Alice?" Jasper had a crazed look in his eyes.
"She's safe right now Jasper. The Volturie are coming to Forks. We think they are going to blame you for the newborns in Seattle."
"That is ridiculous." Rosalie hissed.
"What is our plan?" Edward still had me wrapped in his arms.
"I need you all to remain safely oblivious to what Alice and I are up to. We've been bad, very bad."
"What do you need us to do?" Esme asked.
"I need you all to be strong and ready to fight tomorrow morning in the clearing. Go hunting but stay away from that clearing until tomorrow. Got it?"
"Got it." Emmett smiled at the thought of a fight.
"Now if you will all excuse us I need some time with my wife." Edward's tone made it clear that there was no room for argument.
My family scattered into the trees to hunt and Edward carried me up the stairs to our room. He stared into my eyes, his were black with thirst. He sat on the couch and rested his chin on my head where I had it resting on his chest. He would occasionally kiss my hair.
"I love you." He said quietly.
"And I you."
"I don't understand how Bella." I was confused.
"I can never repay what I stole from you."
"Damn that Jacob! You are not to think about that ever again do you hear me Edward Cullen?" He smiled weakly and nodded.
I kissed him passionately and he responded in the same fashion. That was it for my Target clothes and his designer outfit was rags on the floor. I saw the sun come up and remembered what this day had in store for us. I pulled away from him and went to the closet. I put on a pair of jeans, knee high boots, and a blue long sleeved T-shirt. I took one last look at Edward's perfection where I had left him on the floor.
"Go hunt Edward and meet me in the clearing." I blew him a kiss and left the room choking back the sobbing I could feel in my chest.
I met up with Alice in the clearing with the rest of our vampire army. All but Alice and I faded into the forest when we heard Carlisle and Esme approaching closely followed by Rosalie, Emmett, and Jasper. Jasper ran right to Alice's side and they stared into each other's faces in a moment so private I had to look away.
"What is going on Bella? Alice?" Carlisle was uncharacteristically abrupt.
"The Vulturie are coming any time now. We are going to try and convince them that we had nothing to do with creating the newborns in Seattle. If that plan fails, which it might, we have plan B."
"Plan B?" Jasper was skeptical.
"I can't let you in on that yet."
"I don't like it."
"Neither do I." Edward had entered the clearing and like yesterday gathered me into his arms and we stood together waiting.
