AN: Hey guys, some big news: I am a nerd, and I live in Hawai'i. This month I am transplanting to the mainland for grad school—a very difficult, elaborate process that will steal me away from this story for at least a week (or three). Don't panic! I will try and leave things at a solid point before the break, and when I am settled (I mean, as much as I will be) I will return to daily updates. Take care until then--
Reality tore in to me as I heard Edward's slippery, musical voice fill the room with the horrible news he'd told Jacob and I so recently.
The wolves reacted predictably; Leah rolled her eyes, Embry studied Edward's face, and Quil yelled "Bring it!" There were a couple of high fives and another brief scuffle between the youngest wolves as Edward shook his head and looked at Sam pleadingly. It would have been hilarious to me if I hadn't felt the same way. Sam took in Alice and I's grave expressions and then looked past us to Jacob.
"Jake, why do we care about this?" I swear I thought Edward was about to smack his forehead with his palm.
I didn't turn my head, but I felt the warmth of his breath on my shoulder. He was extremely close to me, but trying to remain unobtrusive. "To be honest…it's because all of the people that know anything about vampires are really, really freaked out by this. And because the word 'exterminate' came in to play." It didn't escape anyone that he'd just called the Cullens 'people.' Quil was too shocked to close his mouth, and Embry's broad forehead developed a crease deep enough to sink quarters in it. They weren't alone; hadn't Jacob been ready to rip Edward to pieces in my living room less than half an hour ago? The unfairness of his instability latched on to my fears like an unwelcome hitchhiker. Could this really work, when he was constantly two living creatures—my beautiful, thoughtful and generous Jacob, and the instinctual brute of the wolf? If I had to live with them both, could I do it? My heart seized, and when I raised my eyes I saw Leah's locked on mine. A final horrifying thought greeted me: what if I compromised, gave up so much of the self I'd made to accept him as he was now, and then….he imprinted?
"I don't think we understand the gravity of the situation," Leah murmured. Sam's tone previously had been lightly curious but a twinge impolite; he had left his warm bed and Emily to be here. Leah, on the other hand, probably spent the night prowling La Push, and she knew me better now. She saw something in my face that made her anxious.
Some of my fear was still a reaction to the pack being faced with adversarial vampires. I knew—had seen—the strength of the pack, but an organized army of vampires was very different from the frenetic, grieving crowd they'd fought this weekend. And Jake and Leah had still come too close to dying for comfort, in my opinion. They underestimated taking on the Volturi, but I didn't know how to explain why when some of the details escaped me too.
"Edward," I began, and I felt Jake shrink backwards again. "Why don't you tell us some of the things you told me…before?" When I turned my head I didn't see Edward immediately; I was struck instead by the beleaguered look on Alice's face as her eyes ticked back and forth. With a start, I realized Jasper was behind her, only the dimmest glow from the light trickling across his iridescent skin. I should have known he wouldn't have left her here alone, and realized when we arrived he must have been lingering in the dark as well. The gold in his eye turned towards me just as Edward addressed him.
"With my father gone, my brother is actually the closest thing we have to an authority on the Volturi," Edward murmured. "He's seen them engage in this kind of…attack…before." Edward moved further back in to the shadows as Jasper took his place beside Alice. She looked like a frail, tiny doll, all but her eyes still as she leaned against the wall.
Jasper made the wolves uncomfortable. A small wave of movement started among the young ones as they shivered away from him, an almost imperceptible migration in the opposite direction. I wondered why; the only interaction they'd ever had had been friendly, or at least unfriendly in the same direction. He gazed round at them unblinkingly and suddenly the movement stilled.
"When I was a much younger man," he said in a low but carrying voice, "I was a soldier." No one moved or spoke. "Without going in to too much unnecessary detail, let me just say that there is only one rule among vampires—secrecy. In the south, many years ago, there was a bit of a problem following that rule."
"What do you mean?" Sam seemed less affected by the somber tones of Jasper's voice, and his question cut through the spell. Leah shook her head and spoke up too.
"Yeah, Colonel Sanders--unnecessary details are usually the best part of any story."
A wry smile crossed Jasper's eerily perfect face. "They fought for territory—for feeding grounds." Leah and Sam wore matching grimaces, and Jasper continued. "A popular strategy was to create armies of newborn vampires and use them to shut down an existing dominant battalion or take over new territories." Jasper's melodies were darker then either Alice's or Edward's. As I watched him, I began to see some similarities to Embry in his language and approach, but a crushing sadness lay underneath the tactical words. "They lost control of their armies. Young vampires are, by nature, difficult to control, and eventually the Volturi were called in."
"Called in?" Leah's forehead wrinkled. "By who?"
"Not completely sure," Jasper responded softly. "They're considered a sort of…police force. They enforce the agreement of silence."
"So they called themselves in." Leah's eyes narrowed.
"You might say that," Jasper allowed, and shrugged gently. "We'll never know. But they rid the vampire world of the southern battles, and for that many were thankful. Their power is largely due to the fact that they regulate our world. They're thought of as a force for good."
"Because they exterminate threats? Threats like us?" Her eyes stayed small, flicking back and forth between the three vampires in front of her. Sam crossed his arms in front of his wide chest.
"Yes. They are extremely powerful, well organized, and most importantly, they have never, ever lost." Jasper nodded one last time as he took a step backwards in to the shadows, and the tension in the room erupted. The wolves were suddenly panicked, and the young ones shook so hard that parts of the room appeared blurred. Sam's voice suddenly echoed across them with a boom.
"No phasing!" Everyone was still, with the occasional twitch or whimper still eeking out. The strange calm Jasper's speech had elicited wasn't there but the pack clearly was past the brief but overwhelming fear his words gave them, and their absurd elation at the prospect of a war was long gone. I startled to realize that Jake's warm arms were wrapped protectively around me, reacting only when I felt him pull away. I knew he hadn't wanted the room full of young werewolves to hurt me if they phased. The same wistful part of me that longed for our last night wished they would stay as I felt them withdraw. "What does this mean for us?" Sam's voice was all seriousness now. The alpha in him darkened the room. Leah stood beside him, and they both leaned towards the vampires across the table.
"It will be useless to fight," Edward said, his head hanging. "Bella said to come to the whole pack immediately with this news, and considering it will probably mean a relocation, and dispersement of the pack—"
"Why?" Leah's hard voice cut across the room. "We didn't break their one rule. That doesn't make any sense." Count on Leah's whip smart mind to cut to the quick of the argument. Jasper and Edward looked at one another before he moved to speak again.
"Perhaps several other factors intrude with that obvious logic," he said, and with the briefest glance at Alice he looked out over the pack again. "We are not entirely sure of the scope of their motives, but the very fact that your community exists—an entire subset of a larger culture—may be enough to move them to invade. You know about us," Edward said, "and worse, you have engaged in something of a crusade against us, potentially drawing more attention to our existence indirectly." I thought of the 'animal attacks' Victoria had engaged in while I was in high school—was that really enough to get the Volturi here and now? It didn't seem like it. I watched Alice's eyes as Edward continued. "They also have…something of a grudge against what they call "the children of the moon." My mind wandered in the silence that followed.
They didn't know why they were really coming. The Cullens knew why Irina had gone to them, and they knew what the Volturi intended to do once they got here…but their motives were still unclear, even to Alice. Why would the Volturi come for the pack—was a grudge really enough?