Chapter 61 - Nightmare Newborns

We arrived back at the castle in minutes, since we had only been slowly jogging away from it and returned at full speed. The moment we arrived I got an incoming call from Eleazar and quickly answered.

"Eleazar!"

"All five of the major leaders of the Southern Covens have brought their armies and surrounded Volterra, just waiting for us to disperse. Alice's visions returned just in time for us to avoid walking into an ambush. We retreated to regroup and avoid notice while determining the best course of action, thinking we were the only ones. We asked Alice to check on the other covens, and she got hit with a series of visions of all of them being attacked. Some of the first to leave were killed before they could send out an alarm, others were killed shortly after sending a message for help. They were swarmed by large groups of well trained older newborns, some of whom were clearly gifted. Alice couldn't see your group at all, so we thought you were already dead, along with all our other family members. Only after we received your text did we realize you were still alive, even though she couldn't see you."

"She couldn't see us? What about the rest of the family?" I wondered. Have we already lost some of our loved ones? Did the warning come too late?

"Well, as we were running back, we called the other two groups she couldn't see and were pleased to discover they were alive as well. After checking in with them, we notified you," He explained.

Of course, the rest of the family could hear both sides of the conversation and were gathered around me. I went ahead and put the phone on speaker so everyone could hear more easily.

"Which groups could she not see?" Carlisle asked. "Did it appear black like her visions from before?"

I could tell by the tone that Eleazar had turned on his speakerphone as well. This time Alice was the one to address us. "Yes, Carlisle, it was the same blackness I've been seeing, and I've lost my visions again as we approach the castle. In addition to your entire group, I couldn't see the group consisting of Tanya, Billy, Laurent, Irina, and Bree, nor the group consisting of Charlie, Chelsea, Jacob, Jane, Alec, and Renata."

"I see," Carlisle replied thoughtfully. Suddenly he hissed, "The wolves!"

They promptly growled, their hackles rising. He held his hands up in a submissive, calming gesture. "Relax, I just realized all you shape shifters are unknowingly blocking her visions somehow. She can't see you or anyone around you, and when she herself is near you, she can't see anything at all!"

Alice gasped, while the wolves all grinned widely, pleased with this knowledge.

"So that's it!" Alice sighed in relief. "I thought I was broken!"

"But what are we going to do? We would have been dead if it weren't for Alice's gift!" Kate wailed, scared and anxious. "How will we know what to expect?"

I scowled. "Get a grip, Kate! We've just fought two armies and come out on top. We'll overcome this too. We will use the combined intelligence of our people to outwit them and learn to adapt as needed. I know nothing is the same as it has been for the past thousand years, but if we don't change our way of thinking and doing things, then we'll lose for sure. If we lose, then we all die, or worse, wish we had been granted the mercy of death. So, losing is not an option!"

My mate snuggled up to me, sending me her emotions to let me know how proud she was of me, along with her trust, confidence, and love. I wouldn't let her down. I understood how Kate was feeling. The Southern covens had never been in Europe before, much less worked together toward a common goal. They were supposed to fight amongst themselves and leave the rest of us alone. They were changing all the rules, just as Caius had, with his deadly guns that could wipe out multiple vampires in one shot, regardless of skill or experience.

As if a light bulb suddenly went on over my head, I had an epiphany. The guns! They would be perfect for wiping out clusters of raging newborns!

"Come with me!" I shouted to the others as I turned and raced to the storage vaults where Caius's leftover guns were being kept. They all followed without question. All the questions were being shouted through the phone by multiple voices.

"Where are you going?"

"What are you doing?"

"What's the plan?"

"Just come here," I ordered.

"Where?" Edward queried.

I huffed. "To the castle, like I said before." I rolled my eyes. Where else?

"Right, sorry," Edward answered, sheepishly. I pressed the end button, tucked the phone in my pocket, and entered the passcode to open the vault. As soon as the locks clicked open, Emmett began pulling the door open. Inside were rows of chests, filled with the small, deadly weapons.

"Bring them up to the courtyard," I commanded, carefully grabbing one. "Remember to be careful with them. Don't try to carry more than one chest at a time. For all we know, they may explode if handled too roughly or dropped on the ground."

Heeding my warning, the vampires and wolves each grabbed a chest and ran it up to the courtyard, before coming back for another one. Three trips was all it took to empty out the vault. By then the Denalis and the Swans, who'd been last to leave before the Cullens and Whitlocks, were back at the castle.

I divided us into teams of 5-8, making sure each team had a wolf for easy instant communication between teams. I left Esme, Carmen, and Alice in charge of passing out guns to the covens as they returned and sending them back out as back-up for us. We each carried four guns with us, ready to decimate the bad guys. Additionally, the werewolves carried a pack in their mouths containing a few blood bags gleaned from the supply kept in the deep freezer. The blood had been hastily heated in the castle's microwaves, to make the scent more potent. The odor of the werewolves helped mask the odor of the blood from the rest of us and made it much less tempting, so we wouldn't drink it ourselves. We would hold our breath when it came time to open and spill the blood on the ground as a trap for hungry newborns.

Each group ran off in a separate direction, now prepared for battle. We raced forward, watching for our retreating allies, ready to come to their aid. I had chosen to race in the direction of Ireland, with Bella, Peter, Charlotte, and Quil. I was hoping to catch up with the Irish coven, knowing Marcus would be a major target as one of the three kings. It didn't take long before I saw their panicked faces heading in our direction, a clump of newborns on their heels. I noticed they were each sporting a few new bite marks, so I knew the battle had been very close and the escape a near failure.

"Get back to the castle!" I shouted. "You'll be briefed there!"

They all nodded and raced past us without stopping, knowing we were covering them. I felt their relief and gratitude for our help. The newborns were in sight in seconds, nicely clustered together, perfect targets for our weapons. I waved for my team to pause and stepped out in front of them, taking a few steps closer to the approaching enemy. As soon as they were within fifteen feet, just getting ready to crouch and spring at me, I pulled the trigger, wiping out five or six of them in seconds with a single shot. The others froze in their tracks, confused by the sudden loss of their compatriots. Of course, this just made them sitting ducks, as I pulled the trigger again. I didn't even have time to say a sarcastic goodbye before they were all dust in the wind.

I knew the sight of purple smoke and the smell of burning vampires would make any other vampires approaching the area more cautious, so we moved past the piles of ash and over to the east a little. The English covens came barreling toward us, looking distinctly worse for the wear. One of the injured vampires was desperately trying to reattach an arm, several were missing chunks, one was limping badly, and one of their number was missing entirely. Their clothes were torn in places, their hair was in complete disarray, and most of them had more than one new bite marks.

I ordered them back to the castle and realized several of them would likely have to feed and heal a bit before they could return to battle. They barely got past us before the newborns surrounded us. Of course, with all of us armed to the teeth, they didn't stand a chance. With our backs to one another and Embry in our center, we blasted a ring of fire out around us. The newborns didn't even have time to wonder what hit them before they were fertilizing the soil with their smoking remains.

I have to admit, I really like these guns when I'm the one shooting, I thought to myself. It's so much easier to resolve our problems without endangering ourselves. It almost feels like cheating, but knowing my mate isn't going head to head with trained soldiers, risking loss of life or limb, absolves any guilt I feel over the ease of our victory.

"Damn, I love these guns, Major!" Peter cheered, echoing my thoughts. "They are fucking awesome!"

"That's the fastest I've ever seen newborns vanquished!" Char agreed. "And there's no need to hunt down missing limbs to throw into the fire afterward either. So nice and clean, easy, and downright scary. If they ever got their hands on this technology, we'd be dead for sure."

"I'm just glad we're able to take them down without getting hurt ourselves. You've seen the condition of those retreating," Bella added.

Quil added a little bark of agreement and then quickly wrote on the ground. It's working great for all our groups. None of ours are hurt yet, but I've already lost count of how many newborns have been neatly cremated.

With this encouraging news, we continued running, moving a little to the east again. This time we hit newborns without seeing any of our allies first. I thought some of them were gifted judging by the confusion they felt when we were able to continue our approach unhindered.

"There's at least two, possibly three of them pinging off my shield, Major," Bella confirmed my suspicions.

I love our mate, Major purred. She's so incredible and gifted and talented!

I know, I smugly agreed with myself.

With a wicked smirk, I raised my gun and wiped out a third of their number. Bella and Peter followed suit, less than a second behind, taking out nearly all of them before they could even react. The few remaining in the back were terrified and confused, trying to figure out what just happened to all the soldiers in front of them. Charlotte lunged forward, pulling the trigger mid-air, and holding it down, while sweeping her arm from left to right. That was it for them, the whole group gone in the blink of an eye.

Peter started to cheer, but stopped midway through. "Someone's coming. Don't shoot."

We all stared intensely in the direction he was facing, and sure enough, a male vampire emerged from behind a barn. My gift warned me there was another vampire still hidden by the building. The male immediately took a submissive position and declared, "Please don't kill me! I can help you!"

I took a few steps toward him, careful to keep my mate behind me to her frustration. "How so?"

He looked at me and his eyes widened before he dropped them again, shifting to make himself appear even more harmless. "I hate my maker and had already been planning to leave him with my mate, when it was decided to move us here. I decided it would be safer to escape over here, where my maker and fellow soldiers were unfamiliar with the territory. I guessed there would be more hiding places with the geography over here than back there, and the chaos of encountering everything new would be the perfect cover for our disappearance."He paused and I nodded, gesturing for him to continue.

"My maker is a brutal man, and I didn't want my mate to be forced to endure his training methods or his idea of discipline and punishment. As I was biding my time, I overheard my maker discussing the new government, and I realized there was more this existence than violence and bloodshed. Furthermore, I was excited to learn that not all our kind were vicious, soul stealing, greedy monsters. I would like to be part of this new order I heard described, to live amongst civilized, rational vampires with the ability to have compassion and make compromises. In short, we, my mate and I , would like to join you."

I had carefully monitored his emotions and his hidden mate's emotions during the entire conversation and detected only sincere hope, with no hint of deceit. However, I'd been fooled in the past, so I looked to Peter for guidance. He smiled and nodded to me, giving me the sign that he trusted this guy. Since I trusted Peter, I waved the man forward.

"You and your mate are granted safe passage past us. You are to go to the old Volturi Castle. If you follow our scents, it will lead you right there. However, I will warn you now, if you double cross me or betray us in any way, you'll be wishing I'd killed you the easy way when you'd had a chance," I told him.

He bowed respectfully and waved for his mate to come out and join him. "I am Carew and this is my mate Lucianna. If you continue straight ahead, you should encounter my maker, the leader of this newborn army, along with his most trusted officers."

Peter nodded "Yes, they are not far," he confirmed. "Two are quite gifted, but that won't be a problem for our young Bella."

"MY Bella," I growled instinctively. "Not ours!"

"All yours, baby," Bella responded, rubbing her chest against my back in a comforting manner that quickly soothed the savage beast.

Peter smirked. "Right, your Bella. That's what I meant."

Quil made his chuffing wolf laughter at my expense.

Trying to regain my dignity, I turned back to the couple inching their way toward us. "Very well, you are free to go," I informed the couple, formally.

We watched them carefully as they ran past us in the direction of the castle, then moved forward at a more cautious pace, alert for the expected enemy. They were standing in a wide open area waiting for us. None of these guys were newborns. They were all seasoned fighters like Peter, Charlotte, and me.

"Definite pinging and fluttering against my shield, Major," Bella informed me in a low whisper. "I can feel two different gifts trying to work against us, though I couldn't tell you what they are. I have a general idea of which direction they are coming from, but those vamps are packed so closely together, I can't tell for sure which ones are the guilty parties."

I nodded to acknowledge her information, grateful for her shield again, but not taking my eyes off the vampires in front of me for a moment. "Hello, Pedro," I greeted him, relishing in his fear when he recognized me.

"M-major W-whitlock," he stuttered pathetically. He straightened himself up, trying to hide his terror and nervousness.

I shook my head sadly and shook my finger chidingly at him. "You should have left well enough alone, Pedro. If you had stayed in your little corner of the world, you would have lived much longer. As it is now, you can kiss your ass goodbye."

"Oh, I don't think so, Major. Not this time," Pedro growled condescendingly. "I know who your mate is and I'll drain her myself if you don't back away."

"You'll 'drain' her?" I asked skeptically. What is this fool trying to pull anyway? My mate is right behind me.

"Yeah, she's human still. I met her a few days ago. See, one of my men has a gift, and as soon as he saw her, he told me she was your mate. I decided to keep her, in a place nobody else knows, as a little insurance policy," he informed me smugly.

I laughed loudly and he scowled at me.

"If you kill me, you'll never find her," he warned petulantly.

"Either you're bluffing or your man was," I replied with a grin. "My mate is the powerful vampire standing right behind me. Nice try, asshole."

"Damn!" he cursed, turning to a brown haired vampire. "You said that would work!"

The other vampire shrugged. "I said it would work if he didn't have a mate already."

"I grow weary of your conversation," I griped. "Say your prayers."

"Prayers?" Pedro queried in confusion.

Instead of answering, I pulled the trigger, emptying my gun into their midst. My comrades joined in the roasting, finishing off the rest of that coven. Just in case, I asked Peter if we got them all or if we left a loose end to come back and bite us in the ass. He thought for a few minutes and assured me it was time to move on to the next army.

"One down, four to go," Bella sneered. "Let's get this show on the road."

Figuring we were now at the outside edge of the circle, we ran further to the south, maintaining the same distance from the castle, hoping to take out the other clusters of leaders and experienced guards, as they were the key to ending the war. Newborns could always be replaced by those who considered them expendable, causing a never ending cycle of fighting and death. If we could take out the ones who were calling the shots, we could end this war, once and for all.

Suddenly, Quil howled, indicating important news. We stopped to allow him to scratch the info into the dirt, worried what had happened to one of our groups. Maria captured Laurent, Embry badly injured. Kate, Garrett, and Benjamin retreating with Embry back to base. Carlisle's group retreating to take care of Embry.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, more determined than ever to take out the trash injuring my people. "Let's kill these fuckers!"

We started running again, and I could feel the desire for revenge stirring in the hearts of my team. The next bad guys we meet are in for a world of hurt, I thought smugly.

Two minutes later, we came up behind Miguel and his minions. We didn't even give them time to react before blasting them away. We had each used up two guns, but none of the blood. Tossing the used guns in the sack Quil carried, we agreed to keep going, since we still had two guns left.

Hearing vampires rapidly approaching our position, we immediately went on the defensive, fingers on the triggers, just waiting for them to get close enough to blast. Quil suddenly dropped the bag from his mouth and barked twice. Alarmed, we stared at him in our peripheral vision, not daring to take our eyes off the area of incoming targets.

We heard a crash and then two answering barks coming not far in front of us. We quickly straightened and waited tensely, realizing it was most likely our own people headed our way, or at least shortly behind the enemy. If we blasted our guns, we could hit them by mistake. Tucking our guns away, we prepared to fight the old fashioned way, depending on whatever came crashing through the underbrush.

It was a good thing we did, because it was Tanya, Billy, Chief, Alec, and Marcus who came into sight over the hill. They grinned widely and relaxed, realizing we weren't the enemy.

"It's clear between the castle and here now," Alec reported, used to running missions. "Though we did come across the ashes of some of our allies in the process."

"Damn!" I cursed, angry that the Southern leaders had managed to get the jump on us. There was nothing to do about it now, except destroy them so they couldn't do it again.

Especially that bitch, Maria, Major growled. No doubt this was her idea.

"You got the message of what happened to Laurent and Embry?" I questioned. They nodded, frowning. An idea came to me. "Chief, do you think you could try to track Maria in stealth mode? I know you can't go far from Billy, but if you could get an idea of her location, that would greatly help. Don't try to engage her alone, though if you see an opportunity to grab Laurent and run, then go for it. He'll be under her influence and may not be heavily guarded, since he'll be feeling loyal to her."

Chief nodded, left his sack with us, and took off to where Embry had last encountered Maria before he got too hurt to function.

"Alec, why don't you go back to the castle and provide a little numbing for those in pain?" Bella suggested.

Alec looked surprised, but then a big grin lit up his face. "Great idea!"

I could feel his happiness and appreciation as he realized how his gift could be used to help his friends and family in a noncombative way. Really, he is the best anesthesia around, even better than me. I can mask the pain, but I can't take it away without absorbing it into myself, and there aren't many I'm willing to suffer for that way.

"Here, take the empty guns with you," Peter recommended. "So we don't have to keep carting them around." Alec nodded and gathered the spent weapons from Quil's sack and from his teammates, loading them into Chief's abandoned sack. He then added their leftover blood bags to our sack and returned it to Quil, before taking off toward the castle.

"That was an excellent idea, Bella," Marcus praised, causing her to smile. "I don't know why my brothers never thought of using his gift that way for our injured guards."

"Probably because they were sadists who enjoyed the suffering of others," Tanya muttered bitterly. Marcus frowned, but didn't respond, and Billy gave her a comforting hug.

"We need to keep going and take out the next leader," I reminded them. They quickly fell in step around and behind me as I led the way.

Once again, we heard a group of vampires rapidly approaching at a diagonal. They had changed direction to intercept when they heard or sensed us. We were ready, but more cautious this time, knowing how close we had come to injuring our own family members a few minutes ago.

Quil dropped the pack and barked again. Sure enough, we heard an answering bark from up ahead. Shortly thereafter, we encountered Charlie, Chelsea, Jacob, Jane, and Liam. Chelsea's eyes swept over our group, and she immediately began to panic.

"Where's Alec?" she demanded, starting to hyperventilate. "My baby! Where's my son?"

"Calm down, he's fine!" I insisted, sending her a massive dose of calm. "He went back to the castle to help numb the injured while they heal."

"Oh, thank goodness!" Chelsea sighed with relief, collapsing back into Charlie's strong embrace, seeking his comfort and support.

"Wow, that's perfect for him," Jane commented in surprise, smiling affectionately down at Jake.

Charlie recognized my tension and quickly reported, "We just finished taking out the leader and his guards."

Jane looked back up again, glancing from Charlie to me. Realizing Charlie was trying to give report, she took over for him, being much more familiar with the vampire world. "It was the one called Luiz. He was quite an angry little man, held a massive grudge against the Volturi. He recognized me as having been one of their guards and put up an intense fight. Luckily the guns take all the real challenge out of it, so nobody got hurt. Well, nobody on our side anyway. Their side is all ash now. I wonder how long Caius had had these little guns. I could've used them numerous times in the past. If I'd had these suckers, I wouldn't have so many scars now."

I smirked at her. "Tell me about it."

She looked at me and laughed. "Yeah, I can see I'm preaching to the choir on that score. Still, I wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of these babies. It's scary as hell. There's no defense against them, other than to just not get too close."

I groaned and nodded. "I know. We need to make sure they don't fall into the wrong hands."

I felt a gentle tug on my arm and looked down at my mate. Seeing her disturbed frown, I asked, "What is it? What's wrong?"

"If Maria captured Laurent, then she has his guns too, doesn't she?" Bella pointed out to us all.

I wasn't the only one who froze and started cursing a blue streak at the realization.

"What if she figures out how they work and makes her own?" Char whispered in terror.

"We can't let her get away," Peter snarled. "It'll be a disaster. We have to take her out today!"

"By the way, we lost the entire Kenya and Sydney covens, and one from New Zealand," Jane informed me more quietly. "I didn't want to worry the others with what can't be changed, but I figured you should know."

I groaned and nodded. How many more had we lost? How many more would we lose before it was all over and done? How could one woman's greed cause so much destruction?

Peter was close enough to have heard and I felt his dismay and self-recrimination, as he muttered, "If only I had been able to figure out what was waiting on the horizon. If only we had sent people out in larger groups, or escorted them home ourselves. If only we had trained them all to fight, maybe they could have defended themselves long enough for help to come."

I shook my head and put my hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "It never helps to dwell on the 'what ifs', Peter. We all could have done things differently, but the blame lies squarely on the shoulders of the Southern covens. They are the ones who decided to attack and formulate a massacre in a bid for world domination. They are the evil ones who need to be stopped. You and I both are needed by all those who have survived and are now looking to us to protect and guide them. We can't lose sight of the here and now by dwelling on the past and all the 'woulda, shoulda, coulda'. Unless we find a vampire with the ability of time travel, there's no point wondering what might have been."

He sighed and smiled weakly. "Yeah, I know. You're right. As usual. Let's go kick some Southern ass."

"There's the spirit," Bella giggled, lightening the atmosphere for both of us. Jane smiled widely at her, thankful for her attitude.

"C'mon, sis," Jane chuckled, offering Bella her arm.

Bella's eyebrows raised as she looked at Jane. "Sis?"

Jane laughed. "Yeah, my mom is mated to your dad, so I had to listen to all his recollections of your childhood, before we ran into anyone else. I figure if I have to hear all about your first steps, first words, and first teeth, then at least I ought to gain a sister out of the deal."

Bella grinned and laughed along. "Alright, fair enough, I suppose. Though I should warn you I don't remember much from my human life, and Carlisle is the one who raised me up from a newborn in my vampire life. So, I honor Charlie by calling him Dad, but Carlisle is my Daddy."

"Right, you had head trauma, didn't you?" Jane replied thoughtfully. "Well, I never had a father worth knowing, and Charlie seems like a truly great guy. Would you mind then, if Alec and I adopted him as our vampire Daddy? I've never seen my mom so happy before, neither as a human or a vampire, and we'd love to make the family complete. I think it might help Charlie too, since he became a vampire for your sake, only to find you didn't even remember him. I think if he had a focus for his paternal feelings, it would take a lot of pressure off your relationship with him." She looked over at Bella, feeling hopeful, but fearing rejection. I knew my girl wouldn't let her down.

Bella smiled widely and nodded her head. "That's a great idea, Jane. I'm all for it. Sounds like a win/win for everyone."

I chuckled to myself as Jane cheered, an extra spring in her step. I knew Bella was all in favor of sharing Charlie, because she didn't feel all that close to him. She viewed him more as an obligation, someone she cared about because she should, because of his title, as opposed to because of himself. If Jane had asked for Carlisle and Esme to adopt her, that would've been a different story altogether. We vampires are awfully possessive, and she considered Carlisle and Esme to be all hers. Heaven help them the next time they are in the mood to adopt a stray.

"We need to keep going," I reminded the group again. "Benito is still unaccounted for, as is Maria."

With minimal grumbling, everyone gathered around me, getting into formation again.

"Should we send anyone back to the castle, or should we stay together?"

In that instant it dawned on me, "Oh, shit! Carlisle's group must have been headed for Benito when they drew back to the castle to help with Embry! That means Benito knows about the guns and has had time to prepare a counter defense! We need to stay together."

Peter and I shared a look, and I could read the same concern in his eyes as I knew was in mine. Benito was one hard to kill son of a bitch. He was the one who originally came up with the idea of creating a newborn army to take over and defend territory. He was absolutely brilliant, able to think outside the box. He'd been wanted by the Volturi for centuries and had been ganged up on by other Southern covens more times than I knew, but always came out victorious. Even as the Major, the God of War, I had never defeated him entirely. I had taken out his army numerous times, but I'd never been able to get close enough to the man himself to end his reign of terror.

Quil growled and scratched out a quick message. Leah, Rose, Emmett, Eleazar, Edward, Alice, and Irina are chasing after Maria. They know Chief is tracking her. They are in the ocean, swimming back to the Americas, to Maria's home base.

I nodded grimly. "That leaves us to get to Benito before he catches up to her, if possible. Move out!"

We took off running at full speed, following around the perimeter of the circle that had surrounded Volterra. After ten minutes, I caught Benito's trail retreating from Volterra and changed direction to follow it. I could smell faint traces of other vampires, his loyal underlings, but nothing strong enough to indicate they were still in the vicinity. Unfortunately, my nose came to the wrong conclusion. I heard Jane screaming behind me to the right and dashed in that direction to come to her rescue.

As we converged on the scene, I saw Jane writhing and screaming on the ground, her pain levels indicating she was under the influence of her own gift, while a brown mud monster grabbed the guns from her hands and pockets. As the mud man made to retreat with the stolen weapons, Charlie and Chelsea both fired on it with their guns. Instead of bursting into flames, the mud simply steamed, then hardened into brick.

Of course, the perfect countermeasure. We vampires can handle extreme heat, just not open flame. The mud absorbed the heat, keeping the flame from ever touching the vampire's skin, I realized.

Luckily, the guns weren't our only resource. Crazed by his imprint's pain, Jake pounced on the mud man from behind, tearing off his head with ease. Jane's pain immediately stopped, and we gathered around the mud creature to confiscate the guns and learn all we could about Benito's plans.

The mud man turned out to be a mud covered female vampire. Benito's minion had coated her skin and hair with mud up to an inch thick in places. Not only did it make her mostly flameproof, but it greatly masked her scent to the point she could effectively hide it from us.

"We are going to have to investigate every scent, no matter how minor," I grumbled, knowing this would likely result in a few wild goose chases, giving Benito the advantage. "What happened, Jane?"

Thankfully, Jane had recovered enough to answer me. "I tried to use my gift on her as soon as I spotted her, but it felt like it bounced off of her and hit me instead."

"Like a mirror!" Pete interjected. "She's a mirror, turning others' gifts back on themselves. That's a powerful gift!"

I had pulled my trusty lighter out of my pocket to burn her, but paused to reassess. "Is she worth saving? Could we trust her to be loyal to our side?"

Peter shrugged, but then turned to Charlie. "Why don't we reattach her head and have Charlie test her?"

"Mirror, remember!" I reminded him irritably. "She'll just turn it back on him and all we'll learn about is Charlie's secrets."

"Oh, right. Well, what if Bella shields him?" he suggested.

I thought about it. "Wait, wasn't Bella shielding Jane?" I turned to look at her in question.

She looked back through her memories and shook her head. "No, the mirror girl got in between me and her, effectively cutting off my shield from Jane. Her mirror reflects my shield back to me, keeping me from putting my shield over her. I can go around her, but she cut through it without even realizing it, since Jane had pulled so far away from the rest of us. My shield was stretched out in a thin line to cover her, which the mirror was able to block with her body."

"So, if Bella's shield reflects off the mirror too, then all that would happen is my gift would bounce off the mirror and into Bella's shield, where it would be stopped and nullified," Charlie mused.

"We don't have time for this," Char growled. "Benito is getting away!"

"She's right, we should send her back to the castle in pieces," I decided. "Who volunteers to carry her back?"

Just then, I heard Liam scream. I could feel his pain and shock and knew he had just lost a limb. Damn! These assholes are sneaking up on us and picking us off one at a time, I mentally cursed.

They're after the guns, to take them back to Benito, Major warned.

My eyes widened in realization. Yes, of course. The mud proves they already know about them. Of course, they'd want some too.

"They're after the guns," I warned everyone else. "Stay close and keep alert. They're camouflaged, both looks and scent, and are intent on sneak attacks."

We found Liam scrambling on the ground after his leg and caught a glimpse of another mud person fleeing the scene at full speed. Instinctively, I threw out my gift, dropping him to the ground with lethargy, apathy, boredom, and a mild dread. I quickly caught up with him, seeing Liam's guns clutched in his filthy paws. I grabbed the guns back, and not wanting to waste the fuel, I spit on the bastard a few times and lit him up with my lighter. The spots with my venom burned hot enough to melt the dirt, forming molten lava. As the lava flowed, it exposed his skin, which immediately burst into flame. It only took slightly longer than usual to burn him to ash, leaving behind a pile of cooling magma.

Hurrying back to Liam, I pulled a bag of blood, from Quil's sack and gave it to him. "Here, drink this. It'll help you heal faster."

He took it gratefully and guzzled it down. Sure enough, within seconds we could see the difference in the speed at which his tissues knitted back together.

"Alec's gift cut off when Chief and Jacob cut off his senses, right?" I asked.

Chelsea nodded. "Yes, that's right. He said the saliva took away all his senses and he didn't know up from down."

I smirked. "Excellent! Jake! I need you to go slobber all over the mirror's head. Make sure it gets in her eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and all over her skin."

He gave a wolfish grin and trotted over to begin the torture of saturating her in his foul smelling scent.

"I'll help him!" Jane eagerly volunteered. She smeared the slimy stuff all over the enemy, wiping away the mud to make sure the copious amounts of wolf spit covered everywhere it should. When they were finished, I noticed I could sense her emotions, whereas I couldn't before. Great, her mirror's down!

"Chelsea, can you cut the mirror's ties to Benito while her gift isn't working?" I asked, full of hope.

"Sure!" Chelsea agreed, eager to help. She went over to the pile of parts and concentrated. Jane and Jake retreated out of her way to give her the space to work most effectively. After a minute or two, she shook her head and looked at me with alarm. "No, I can't. She's Benito's mate!"

"His mate?" I gasped in shock. How could he risk her like this? He can't be far away. He'd never leave his mate behind. "Hmm, we can use this to our advantage. If we kill her, he'll come after us for revenge, but he still might take the time to plot against us first. If we only seriously injure her, the mating bond will force him to come for her right away, in hopes of saving her life." I nodded to myself, then ordered, "Burn her lower legs, everything below the knee."

Peter instantly hopped forward to carry out my orders. Char and Jane stepped in to help, without hesitation.

I looked at the others, some of whom were staring at me in horror. Though, thankfully, my Bella was sending me her love, understanding, and respect. I shrugged at those who'd never had to fight a vampire war before. "If we don't kill Benito, our people will never be safe from him. He will never give up on his dream of ruling the world, and his methods are brutal. Burning his mate's lower legs will send a signal through the mating bond that she's on the verge of death, but is still intact enough to function fairly normally. Believe it or not, a vampire can function without their lower legs. Humans do it, why can't we? Once the wound heals, we can even walk on the stumps without the pain the humans have to prevent them from doing so, preventing the need for a wheelchair or similar device."

Quite a few of them shuddered at the thought and looked down at their own legs. I knew they were hoping to never have to find that out the hard way.

As expected, once her detached flesh was burning to ash, we heard a distinctive roar in the distance. I knew he would be gathering his forces, which he'd likely spread far and wide to avoid the ease of cluster killing with the guns, and then coming after us with everything he had.

Taking advantage of the few minutes we had left before he arrived, I explained what happened with other mud man I'd killed. Their eyes widened as they understood my plan and began working frantically to put it into practice. I grabbed one of the empty guns and began filling it with my venom. Next I disabled the sparking portion of the device. Finally, I tested it, feeling pleased when it shot out a steady stream of venom with the press of the trigger. All around me, my teammates were doing the same.

We were finished and ready not a moment too soon as a dozen vampires poured over the hill, surrounding an enraged Benito. The moment they were within range, we fired the guns in our right hands, coating and soaking them with our venom. The next second, we fired the guns in our left hands, sending out the billowing rows of flame.

I could see in the enemies' eyes they expected their mud shields to protect them. They didn't realize the venom would make the mud actually burn, instead of simply absorbing the heat. We were now faced with a baker's dozen of screaming, struggling lava monsters. They charred the ground as they tried to run away from the pain, tried to run from themselves.

I briefly wondered what would happen if any of them tried to 'stop, drop, and roll' like the American firemen always advocated. Would it get the burning mud, the lava, off fast enough to keep it from igniting their skin? Would it cool it down fast enough, sharing the heat with the ground?

Two minutes later we were left with silence and thirteen new piles of magma. In his panic, Benito had run to his injured mate, succeeding only in setting the rest of her on fire, burning them together.

"What are the humans going to think about this?" Charlie mused, looking at the cooling volcanic rock.

"Who knows?"

"Who cares?"

"No doubt, they'll come up with some odd scientific reason for it," I told him, shrugging my shoulders. "Humans are quite creative in explaining away all evidence of the supernatural."

We all laughed and headed back to the castle to check on the vampires there and prepare to help go after Maria.

xxxxxxx

AN: I hope this lived up to your expectations. Thanks!