AN: I don't want to explain too much—it ruins the fun of writing! I just hope you guys can be patient and let everything unwind…all the dots get connected (and the first ones are waaaay, way back in the beginning) in the end. Much love to reviewers! You guys are awesome.
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"One of the Denali clan has gone to the Volturi," he said. I waited to understand, for the salt and the mist to retreat, but they didn't. If Alice hadn't seen Jacob imprint and leave me…what could be worse? Edward's expression became thoughtful and intense as he read my face. I saw a flicker of something there I didn't recognize before he continued, and he took several small, gliding steps towards Jake and I as he spoke. I didn't immediately realize he was addressing Jacob.
"The pack attacked a vampire several years ago, while Bella was still in high school." The sentence ended flatly, and Jacob, still looking at me, shrugged. Even though his eyes raked over my body his nose twitched; I knew Jake was surveying Edward while attempting to appear otherwise preoccupied. I slid backward from him on the couch and narrowed my eyes. Edward continued, watching us. "This would have been soon after… I left Forks." My head whipped towards him. He looked back at me. Jacob growled.
"So what?" Even though Jacob was sitting on the couch with me, his spine was curved in a hard sickle, his limbs wide. He looked at Edward with his head cocked, and the long black hair I'd so lovingly combed hours before fanned across his face like a shadow. Edward refused to be intimidated.
"This vampire's name was Laurent." Both of their heads once again turned towards me as I gasped. Of course. Broken pairs…the Denali clan…I looked up at Edward and heard my normal voice, horrified, come tripping out of my mouth.
"The Volturi are the vampires in that painting of Carlisle's, aren't they?" Edward nodded, the line of his lovely mouth grim.
"Irina, in her grief, has decided to go to them. She met Victoria," here he turned from us and slowly searched his mind for details, "and the pair commiserated over their mutual grudge, in spite of differing lifestyle choices." His eyes returned to Jacob, the endless black inside of them scorching the space between the two men. "While Victoria thought a direct approach best—and considering her background, one can't be surprised she chose it—Irina contemplated other means of confrontation." He sighed. "When she heard of her friend's death, in addition to her lover's, she felt she had no choice." My mind ticked across the words restlessly until Jake's rough whisper interrupted.
"Who cares?" Jacob's voice was absurdly nonchalant; he leaned back on the couch as if he were relieved. "So more vampires show up and do what? Try to bight us?" A slow smile trickled across his face, becoming brighter with each word. "That's what they do—and here's the thing, what we do is stop them. No biggie." As his gaze returned to my face the smile dimmed and he sighed. "Am I acting like an idiot again?"
"Yes," I whispered, and while I knew Jacob was technically right I also knew things had to be worse if Edward was here. His lovely face was turned once again towards Jacob, but a seething disdain glowered across it. Jacob raised an eyebrow, stretching his long legs out. He clearly thought the worst had passed.
"I am hardly interested in deliberately intruding on your courtship, Jacob Black," Edward hissed. Jake, still largely unaffected by the dramatic scenario facing the pack, just rolled his eyes and slouched further in to the couch. My mind ridiculously wondered if Charlie would really be so upset to find him there in the morning before I snapped back to the present.
"Give it a rest, both of you," I sighed. "Edward, what does this mean?" The ice in my spine began to lock around my ribs; I remembered this feeling, the vicious fear that blocked all reason and sense from the mind, eventually eclipsing even pain. I could tell the numbness was setting in. They were coming. They were the most powerful, ancient vampires in the world, and they were about to be informed of the pack—I literally could not fathom the consequences.
But Edward could. I saw it in the drawn hollow of his cheeks, the way he'd refused to chance missing us and came here, knowing he'd be hurt by Jacob's wandering mind. Panic. Edward was panicking, in the only sickeningly inhuman way he could. We locked eyes and I stared in to the depths there. "It means they are going to exterminate the pack," he whispered, and the sudden white told me he had closed his eyes. Jacob's hushed whisper tore my gaze away from Edward's face.
"Impossible." He was standing again, so swiftly, a breeze blew across me. He stared down at Edward, his chest beginning to move rapidly as his heart picked up speed. The long muscles in his forearms shifted as his hands clenched and began to tremble.
"You don't understand how powerful they are," Edward whispered. "I don't understand how powerful they are." Deafening silence filled each space between us until the television, suddenly noticeable, became jarring. Edward incongruously shook his head, his expression livid and his eyes locked on Jacob's shadowed face. "Foolish! It won't work—neither will work, there are not enough of you—not enough of us." His emphasis on the last word stilled Jacob's shaking fists; clearly, their conversation was once again challenging his temper, but the offer of an alliance was calming. Edward watched him before he continued. "Of course we would fight with you." He nodded. "With her."
"How can you be sure everyone would?" My question was sincere; Rose had never held me in high esteem, and I hadn't even seen Carlisle or Esme yet, let alone Emmett and Jasper.
"We've already spoken about it," Edward said, and the hard line of his mouth told me he would not divulge the details of what was sure to have been a messy discussion. "We are confident fighting is not the best option available to us."
"Why not?" Jacob loomed in the corner, the dim light of the television dancing over his brutal body. He'd silently slipped further away from Edward and I, presumably to better control himself. The temporary lapse in animosity towards Edward did nothing to diminish the feverish energy rippling away from him, as his hands began to shake again.
"The Volturi would vanquish us easily. They have many warriors among them with special talents—talents that make my own look like an infantile parlor trick. Without Alice, they would be able to kill us all without warning." He moved his crystalline head to look at both of us, and I realized I'd stopped breathing. "Carlisle has already left to try to reason with them. It was, unfortunately, too late to intercept Irina."
I thought of the Denali coven, trying to recall the dim details Edward had provided me so long ago. Sisters, living in Alaska as vegetarians…that was all. I thought of the one making her way to Italy as we spoke here in my living room, and the suffering she had endured. Would I have chosen her way? Or would I have fought like Victoria to avenge the death of my lover? Could I be angry at someone who had her life wretched away from her, knowing the suffering it had caused me to lose Edward…and seeing how fragile my happiness with Jake really was? What if…what if someone tried to take him away from me? I didn't dwell further on the thought after I realized that was exactly what was happening.
I looked at Jacob. I knew that he understood Victoria's motives better than I could; I'd never be a warrior. My memory jolted when I recalled the bumpy, Emmett-bound flight from the baseball field where I'd first seen her—I wasn't a warrior like Victoria, but I was capable of strategy. I'd first proved it then when I created an impromptu plan to save my father, and proved it again two nights ago. What had Leah said? Something about battle strategy… Leah. I needed to speak to her. Immediately.
"Edward, we need to speak to the pack. Right now." He looked at me with the same curiosity from earlier crumpling his ivory brow, but his body language reflected a cautious refusal. I cut him off and heightened the urgency in my voice. "This isn't about Jake and I, Edward, it's about all of them—the entire Quileute tribe. We can't sit around my living room and decide their fate without them." The look on his face changed again, and the core of my argument surfaced between us, rocky and loud. "You can't choose for them, Edward." He stared at me.
Jacob seemed visibly calmed, suddenly completely and utterly still; his hands opened. I registered the change with a sigh although I didn't understand what I'd said to cause it. The second of relief retreated as my irritation struggled with the icy fear in my chest. "Let's go! Now." I stood, and it felt better than crumbling in to a ball, even though that's what my heart really wanted to do.
"What about Charlie, Bella?" Edward's voice was gentle, but the strange look in his eyes hadn't left; Jacob was once again in control and stepped forward from the shadows to stand beside Edward, his face mirroring the concern on his rival's.
"I'll tell him I missed Jake," I said curtly, and moved to shuffle past them to the front door. My knees shook but I kept walking until Jake snagged me with a long arm.
"Does he know—will that make sense?" His worry at this moment was heart-breakingly sweet. So much underlay the question: does he know about us? What does he know about us? And then, the tension of everything we had yet to decide lay before me once again. Jacob must have been outside when I spoke to Charlie; perhaps a quick run to calm himself down. I shrugged, trying to rid myself of every thought but the task at hand. Jake's eyes lingered on me, trailing down my body from where his hand had landed, and Edward abruptly left, the air whistling as he went. "Maybe you should change, Bella," Jake said softly. "If you come back in pajamas I don't think he'll like it." His broad, beautiful mouth was tilted towards me, but I backed away as abruptly as Edward had fled. Hurt flushed on Jake's face.
"Go wait outside, I'll be right there," I said. We had managed to keep the volume down all night, so I worked to keep my voice steady and low. In spite of everything that had happened, it was useless to deny that I was still furious with both of them.
"I'm going to phase," he spoke in a rumbling monotone. "I'll meet you in La Push with the pack at Emily's restaurant." I didn't turn around, instead going strait up the stairs as quietly and quickly as I could.