Chapter 21: I Have A Plan
Max PoV
"Let me get this straight. You're a bunch of vegetarian vampires, who have special powers."
"Yep." Emmett nodded.
"You all met at various points and are now a family. Edward met Bella when she moved here and they fell in love. Now Bella want to be a vampire so she can live forever with all you guys."
"That about covers it."
"But, Bella?" I turned to look at the girl, sitting content in Edward's lap. "Doesn't it bother you that he's so much older than you? I mean you're what? A hundred?" I directed the second bit at Edward.
"Around. Maybe Ninety."
"You don't look a hundred. You're all dead young and pretty. Especially Rosalie. She looked about eighteen. She's dead pretty, don't you think? Fang? You're a guy, right?" I smirked at Fang's hidden shock. "Do you think she's pretty? Rosalie, I mean. I loved her hair!"
I tuned Nudge's incessant babblings out and glanced round the room.
Everyone was spread out around what appeared to be a sitting room. There were four separate seats, two couches and two armchairs, all facing inwards. Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman and Angel were all sitting on a rug in the middle. Total sat in Angel's lap.
Carlisle and the motherly woman, Esme, shared the two person sofa. Alice, Jasper and Emmett occupied the three seater. Alice and Jasper were holding hands.
Edward sat with Bella on an armchair. His arms were wrapped round her protectively and they were whispering to each other.
Seth, the boy from the cliff, stood leaning against the wall. His eyes had never left my face through the Cullen's whole story.
Me, being special, had my own armchair. Fang sat on the arm, his gaze darting from face to face. His eyes met mine and he nodded. He believed the story.
I did too. All except for one bit.
"And Rosalie just left? Without saying where she was going?" I asked, looking round, confused. "When did she go? And wouldn't you notice?"
"She left shortly after school on Tuesday. We let her go; she didn't know at that time what she was going to do. She simply wanted away from everything for a while. We all do it. Every fifty years or so."
"So you let her leave, and now she's gone and told these Volturi people about us?"
"Who are the Volturi?" Nudge spoke from her position on the floor.
"They're sort of vampire royalty. They keep the peace between the different covens. Stop normal people finding out about us. And um, well dealing with people that do." Edward pulled Bella closer to him as he explained.
"What do you mean dealing with people?" I'm sure Iggy already knew what he meant.
"Either killing them, or changing them into vampires."
"Why are they coming after Max if she didn't know about you? I mean 'They thought of her as a threat' is kinda lame, don't you think? Rosalie didn't know about us either, so she didn't know we could cause damage. For all she knew we were normal people. And just because she doesn't like Max doesn't mean she should put her life in danger. But, hang on! By telling the Volturi people about Max she's making her immortal, so she'll be around a lot longer, right? Whereas if she just completely ignored Max, then she'd only have to put up with her for a year, as far as Rosalie knew. Right?"
Nudge looked around the room with big brown eyes as she finished.
I laughed. "Well done Nudge. You've done it again."
Angel laughed along with us, only to laugh harder as the guys looked at us like we were freaks. Which, to be fair, we were.
"Germany." I said.
It was interesting how much impact that one word had on them. Iggy and Gazzy's faces fell and they looked at the ground. Fang looked incredibly guilty and turned to me apologetically. I met his gaze.
I sent him a look; 'It's not your fault.'
He just stared back at me; 'Yeah. It is.'
'No. I should have listened to you.'
'Max, he was your brother. He was family.'
'So are you.'
"How are you doing that?"
I jumped slightly and we both turned to look at Edward.
"Neither of you are actually saying anything, yet you are having a conversations that is as effective as speaking out loud. How?"
"We just know each other really well." I shrugged it off.
"They do that," Nudge started, "They have whole conversations together doing that. Sometimes they don't even realise it! Like, they glance at each other and instantly know what they're about to do. Fang doesn't even change his expression. He never does actually. He's like a rock. Like those huge heads carved into the side of that mountain. The ones of the president people. Their expressions never change. But when we met the president, his expression wasn't all serious like they were in the mountain things. Do you remember that? I liked his house! It was huge! Remember the parrot rooms? And the presidential china! That was great! A whole room full of china! I wonder why it's called china. Is it 'cause it's made in China? Oh! Max? Can we go to China? Then we can eat all the Chinese food we want! Do you have any Chinese food? I'm hungry."
She turned to look at Esme, who was staring at Nudge open-mouthed after her one hundred and forty-nine word long speech. Which, as usual, ended with her talking about food.
And for you people who decided to, or even thought about, counting the words? You have way too much time!
"Uh. We could order in some food if that's alright?" Esme asked me.
I nodded absentmindedly. An idea was forming itself in my mind.
"You said the leader of these Volturi people reads minds and memories by touching a person, yeah?" I asked no-one in particular.
Edward nodded, looking at me curiously. I quickly blocked my mind.
I've got it. I thought to myself. If I can just...
No Maximum. It is far too dangerous. It could kill you. Of course, the Voice had to give it's unwanted opinion.
It would stop them.
It would also hurt Angel and Edward, and any other mind reader around.
I'll send her away. No. Even better, I'll go by myself. Meet them on their way here.
I will not let you harm yourself in such a way.
Can you think of anything else to do?
The Voice was silent.
I nodded to myself, running over my plan in my head, once more. Now all I had to do was fool the Flock and the Cullens.
Standing up, I cleared my throat. Everyone turned to me.
I took a deep breath and said the four words I'm famous for.
"I have a plan."
