This is a work of speculative fanfiction. No profit was made nor was intended to be made. All rights to to Twilight and it's sequels and prequels belong to Stephanie Meyer and Little Brown Publishing company. I make no claim to ownership on any of those rights nor to any intellectual property of Stephanie Meyer.
AN: Thank you to those who have read, reviewed and/or added this story to their favorites. I apologize for the extreme delay. A few things were very much hindering my ability to continue with this story. The first was finals. In addition to being the mother of two I am a full time college student, and obviously finals took priority. Also, my youngest is teething. Oh life, you saucy, ironic playmate who bedevils me with lack of sleep! Also, I had some SERIOUS writer's block. However, finals are over, writer's block has ceased and maybe someday my youngest will stop teething. I want to say that I'll be getting into a good schedule, my goal was a chapter every 2 weeks. However, with my son teething hard and fast, I average about 2 to 3 hours of sleep a night. So until the horrors of teething are over, updates will arrive as I have the wherewithal to write them. This won't last forever and I just ask you to bear with me.
Chapter Eight:
Seth watched Ingrid as she walked near the fence line of the cult's land. She looked awful, and as she had warned them, that was the point. She was impersonating a junkie detoxing from her fix and as such she was going to look like death warmed over and served for afternoon tea. Ingrid was purposely not sleeping, because no detoxing junkie slept much, so there were dark circles around her eyes and she constantly twitched and picked at her clothes and skin. Her eyes were nervous and darted about and she jumped at every noise like it was loud as a gunshot, even if it was soft as a pin drop. She purposely was making herself throw-up at regular intervals and thus was always covered in a fine sheen of sweat. If Seth didn't know what was going on, he would have bought her act hook, line and sinker. Luckily, the cult seemed to be eating it up. She was allowed to walk where she would, they seemed to think it was good for her to work off her nervous energy.
As he watched, she walked over to the chain link fence and picked a flower from the bush of hyacinths that grew there. She did it every third day, and when she did, she would drop a usb port on the ground on the other side of the fence. It would contain all the information her little toys had gathered for her and the pack, along with any personal notes she had included. Ingrid had been there for one week, one more week and she would be done. At first Seth had been beside himself with worry, had actually chewed and licked his tail nearly raw with his concern for his imprint. But then something changed. He looked over the information she dropped for them one day and that fear turned to pride. His imprint may not have had any idea what to do with the vast majority of her kitchen... but who the hell cared? The cult had not found a single piece of tech that she had smuggled in with her and none of them concerned themselves with her beyond what had been expected. He had to admit, Ingrid's druggie act had hid her in plain sight. In a way, she might as well have been invisible.
Embry was with him and as dusk began to lengthen into night, the grey wolf crept soundlessly to the drop point and gently snagged the usb port in his teeth and crept back. Then he phased to human form, pulled on his clothes and looked at Seth.
"Come on. Quil and Leah will be here to take over for us. We gotta go or we risk having them realize that we're here."
Seth nodded his enormous head and then he too became human in the dim moonlight. Taking one last look at Ingrid's back as she walked to her room to put her flower in water, he made his soundless way to the Redclay's house. The twin's mother, Janice was making everyone supper and nicely enough, Brady was the most computer literate of the bunch of them. He and Collin had the only laptop in the pack. In the past week it had been getting quite a lot of use. It was only a year old, so unlike Sam, Leah and Embry's computers, it could handle the digital images Ingrid sent.
When they arrived Janice and Jake seemed to be locked in conversation. She turned as Embry and Seth walked in and smiled.
"Hello Seth, Embry. How are your mother's doing?"
Both of them made the usual pleasantries and walked into the living room where the rest of the pack was, they knew better than to launch immediately into a discussion about the cult right now. Jake always gave Janice his undivided attention, and more than any other pack family member, he reached out to her. Seth was of the opinion that it was because he thought that if Sarah Black was still alive, she would have reacted to the pack the way that Janice had. It was like, in a way, Jake was able to have some sort of maternal presence in his life by becoming close to the twin's mother.
As they left the kitchen they heard her whack Jake on the top of his head with a wooden spoon. "Nevermind you muscle bound ninny! Someday you'll have kids and then you'll understand. Now finish chopping those peppers or this stew will be too bland to serve."
They didn't even need to turn around to know that he had smiled at her and did exactly as she asked. It was how he always was with the Redclays.
Supper was a pleasant affair, Janice's cooking tasted great, and was in portions big enough to curb the appetites of the pack. Mr. Redclay had told them a story of his teen years that had everyone smiling and more than a few laughs. It was a good night. One of the small pleasures that made all of what they did worthwhile. They had long ago learned that it was the small things in life that made up a life... and that one should appreciate them.
After they all helped clean up the mess and the imprints had left to their respective homes, the pack gathered around Collin and Brady's laptop. They opened the file and Sam took a good look at the images and the notes.
"She's mapped out the whole place, there's not a square inch of it that we can't plot out from what she's given us. That'll come in handy if we have to actually attack their land, we'll know what spots have strategic value and which ones don't." Sam had wanted to be an architect and in fact that was what he been accepted to Northwestern University as, an architecture student. He had always had a good sense of space and spatial relations.
Paul took the computer and scrolled through her notes. "Uh guys... this is pretty significant, supposedly there's some sort of religious service that happens twice a week. She's says that it's mandatory for everyone except newcomers, that you have to be judged ready to make a commitment to be asked to go. She hasn't been allowed to attend but she says that when the people come out... some of them looked pretty weak and they end up needing to, and I quote, 'take to their beds for the remainder of the day'."
Jake turned to Seth. "What's your assessment of her Seth?"
Seth sighed. "You've seen her Jake. If I didn't know better, I'd think she was exactly what she says she is. A junkie who's trying to clean herself up. As far as I can tell, she's hasn't broken character once and they all seem to buy it. I don't like that she's in there, but I have to admit... she's good at this."
Jake, Sam and Paul, who was currently third again, conferred quietly as Brady began downloading all the info to his hard drive and sorting it. After a few moments they came back and faced the pack. Jake looked at each of them, like he was trying to impress the importance of what he was saying to them.
"I want her to get into the service, so I'm going to okay her staying in there as long as she needs to to achieve that. However... if any of you think her cover has been blown, get her out of there. According to her brother, she's not human and she can take a lot... but she's not on par with one of us and if you think she's about to get exposed to a bunch of leeches, do what you have to to get her out. Do you all understand?"
Everyone nodded. Seth looked at his alpha like he was a little bit stupid to think he needed to be told to make sure that a leech didn't eat his imprint. However he decided not to say anything. He had noticed lately that he was getting better at judging situations, getting better at knowing when to react and when not to.
As Seth walked home that night, his head turned of it's own accord to the direction Ingrid was in. He wondered how she was. He wondered why he wasn't more upset about the whole thing. Jared was amazed that Jake wasn't having to sit on him to keep him away from her. Seth couldn't explain it, there was just something deep inside him that said 'She's got this, trust her, she's got this.' Thus far he could find no reason to ignore that voice.
He turned back to his home, looking at the crest plate painted above the doorway, wondered if whoever had painted it knew the irony of the stylized wolf that was part of the imagery. Then he went inside to sleep. Just because he trusted Ingrid did not mean that he wasn't worried at all about her and he knew it would take him hours to sleep.
XXX XXX XXX XXX
Ingrid accepted the tin cup of sludge these people called coffee. If she ever wanted to have hair on her chest this was certainly going to do it for her. There was a service tomorrow and the whole cult seemed buzzing with activity to get ready. These people seemed like this was the focus of their whole lives. Ingrid supposed it was the comfort that ritual tended to give to believers. That feeling of sacred space. The fact that this whole place was filled with desperate, sad and lonely people who would cling to anything that gave them a reason to have faith in something larger than themselves just added to the sense of anticipation.
She was sitting across from a young woman whose belly was heavy, the 8th month of pregnancy weighing on the girl. The gravid female was collecting dishes from the long picnic table Ingrid sat at, as she passed her, Ingrid spoke up.
"You should sit down, you're closing in on your time and you have to be uncomfortable in this sun. I'll finish up those dishes."
The girl seemed startled a bit. "Are you sure? You've been quite sick, and our saviors tell us that a portion of honest labor keeps the human mind focused, engaged."
"I'm sure it does." Ingrid replied. "However... I think your mind has been engaged enough this morning. What's your name?"
"I'm Lydia." the girl replied shyly
"Nice to meet you Lydia, I'm Sydney Greene."
Lydia fiddled with her long skirt. "I know. I prepared your meals for you when you were in detox. I made them nice and bland... so as to not upset your stomach."
Ingrid smiled at her and helped her onto a bench, getting another tin cup so that she could have some water. Handing it to Lydia Ingrid bowed her head.
"Thank you then, I appreciate it. It's nice to know who was taking care of me."
The girl merely smiled and watched as Ingrid gathered up the breakfast dishes and gave them to the people on washing duty at the two large outdoor sinks. Then the wolfblooded made her way back, her instincts not liking leaving a woman who was deeply pregnant alone and vulnerable.
"So what brought you here?" she asked. Many newbies seemed to ask this question and she knew it would not draw attention to herself."
"My husband died." Lydia replied. "I was 4 months pregnant when it happened. I don't have any family and my husband's parents never really liked me."
Ingrid tilted her head. "Yes but... you're pregnant, you're carrying the only thing that's left of their son. What could be so bad that they would overlook something like that?"
"Matt came from a wealthy family, very wealthy. One of the founding families of Pasadena. I'm a nobody with no important family to speak of." Lydia said. "They had a match already picked out for him that they were heavily pushing at the time. But Matt fell in love with me and married me. It didn't go over well and when I got pregnant two years later, that went over even worse. They haven't had contact with me since the day Matt was buried."
Ingrid listened to the woman and thought how similar her story was to so many others. All these people were just folks at the end of their rope. People who had had something terrible happen to them. People who desperately needed something or someone to believe in. Regardless of whether or not there were vampires here, this place was a warehouse of human pain. Hollywood always got it so wrong, cults weren't places where murders done in the name of Satan were happening, but instead were places where depression and misery seemed to gather. The old saying: "Misery loves company" was very true.
As Lydia and Ingrid were talking, an old woman in a wheelchair was pushed by. She turned her head and looked at them and as Ingrid looked back, the woman's eyes seemed extremely familiar. She felt like she should know who this was. Turning to Lydia as the woman rolled past she asked her who she was.
"That's the founder of the Fellowship." Lydia replied. Her voice held a tinge of awe and worship. "She's very old, 87 I believe. She doesn't often go outside."
Ingrid schooled her face into an appropriate mask of awe and interest. "What's her name?"
"Dorothy O'Grady."
Ingrid felt the pit of her stomach drop. Dorothy O'Grady, aged 10, one of two survivors of the original massacre in 1933. Dorothy O'Grady, aged 87, founder of a cult on the spot of said massacre 77 years later. There was no way that was a coincidence, life just didn't work that way.
The rest of the day Ingrid followed Lydia around, helping her get everything ready for the services. Towards nightfall, Lydia was called away by a middle aged man with a beard, when she came back she was smiling happily.
"Sydney, I have great news! You've been invited to the service tonight. You'll get to meet our saviors!"
"Really?" Ingrid was a bit surprised.
Lydia looked so pleased, that if Ingrid was an actual cult hopeful, she'd be thrilled. "Ms. O'Grady saw how you helped me, saw that you aren't afraid of work. She says that she thinks you're ready!"
The pregnant woman pulled Ingrid along with her to her small cabin that she shared with another girl. "We need to get you the proper attire. We go to services in..."
"Red and white shrouds." Ingrid interrupted. "I know... I've seen you all in them before, heading to the church."
In her cabin Lydia introduced her to her roommate, Alison. Alison appeared to be no more than 18 years old. And barely that. She enthusiatcaillygave Ingrid an outfit of her's to wear to the church. Once Ingrid was in the shrouds she followed the two women into the nicest building on the property.
Where every other building was a rather poorly maintained, but yet astonishingly clean, cabin left over from the original camp, the church had been fully restored to it's former glory. Gleaming white paint, window boxes with white and red flowers, dogwood trees bracketing the front doors. There were windows of etched glass, Catholic and Pagan symbols sharing equal space in them. Ingrid was rather sure the windows were a later addition, not for a second believing that the original church would have had non-Catholic symbology festooned on it.
Upon entering, the inside was brightly whitewashed with red symbols along the top and bottom of the walls. The alter was simple with a red crucifix, two white chairs, and a white alter with a red cloth spread over it. The pews were white with red cushions and all the hanging lights were red glass on silver chains. The effect was nearly that of blood splashed all along a white canvas.
None of this gave Ingrid a feeling of hope that this wasn't the ingenious hunting ground for some twisted, yet brilliant vampire. The feeling tickling the back of her head wasn't helping either. Something was here, and if it wasn't vampires... it was something equally as bad.
She took her seat with Lydia and Alison near the front. She could see Dorothy O'Grady seated close to them, but in a place of honor that was all her own. And as a door to the side of the alter opened and two people walked up onto the dais and faced their congregation, the cold perfection of their faces, the inhuman beauty of their forms causing sounds of adoration and worship to leave the congregants mouths, O'Grady's face morphed into that of someone who had found their own person gods. Her hands gripped the arms of her chair so tightly that her knuckles turned white, her gasp almost a prayer on it's own.
Ingrid sat and mimicd the behavior of those around her. Watching Dorothy she realized something: That little girl had witnessed something so horrible that it fundamentally ruined her on a psychological level so deep there had never been any hope for her. Where the Viselli boy had grown unstable and killed himself in middle age, Dorothy had gone quietly insane, worshiping the greatest source of strength she had ever seen.
The old saying that what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger was so very, very wrong. Somethings do in fact kill you, leaving behind a moving and breathing body that has no idea that is no longer alive, no longer functioning. Looking at Dorothy O'Grady, Ingrid realized she was looking at one such person right then and there.
XXX XXX XXX XXX
That night Paul was patrolling when Ingrid neatly stepped out from behind a tree. For the rest of his days Paul would swear up and down that he knew she was there the whole time. He was lying. The man had no idea how this woman had gotten to be so sneaky... but he was a bit annoyed by it. And he also realized something, Ingrid had a very faint personal scent, too subtle, too unnoticeable. He made a note to ask about it later.
"I don't have a lot of time, I sneaked away for a little bit. I need to give you guys some info that you need now... and in person. But I don't have a lot of time, if I'm gone too long, they'll notice."
Paul nodded his shaggy head, let out the howl that he knew would call the pack to him and phased human in front of her. Immediately covering himself as he did so.
"Oh please." Ingrid said. "I grew up with all this stuff, do you really think that casual nudity bothers me in the slightest? You don't have anything I haven't seen before."
Paul smirked at her. "Either way Red, you're Seth's imprint. We try not to go flashing our junk to the imprints."
Ingrid would have had a pithy retort but soon she was surrounded by a whole mess of naked men... and one woman. Seth walked over to her immediately. "You okay? You weren't expected back this soon."
She smiled and waved her hand. "I'm fine, I just have stuff you need to hear in person. I had to make sure you understand everything I'm telling you, I don't want anything left to interpretation."
Seth nodded and looked to Jake. The alpha was frowning. For Ingrid to have snuck out without giving them prior warning, it had to be important. But still, the alpha in him didn't like not being the first to know something. He gestured for Ingrid to talk.
"You have a massive problem up there. First of all, history's about to repeat itself. That whole cult is a herd of cattle for two vampires. The problem is that I'm positive they've bought their own hype. It looks like they were turned and then completely abandoned. A priest and a nun, both of whom seem to think that they're chosen by G-d to be immortal."
"How can you tell they believe this?" Jake asked.
"It's the way they talk, the way they move. Faith and belief ooze from every pore in their bodies. Which makes sense, because in life they were clergy. Faith was already a way of life to them. I think... I think they latched on to the symbolism of the Eucharist. The body and especially blood of Christ. They survived a vicious and bloody attack, they drink blood, they're immortal. The parallels are there if you look hard enough. With no one to lead them through the change, to teach them what they are... their minds latched onto what they knew. And that was religion."
Seth's face went hard. "How bad is it?"
"Bad. Every single last person up there is like a true believer. You have to understand, they've all been given what looks like proof of G-d. They're willing donors. They volunteer, in an ecstasy of religious fervor, to be drunk from. It has a sort of tent revival feel to it actually. And for the vampires part, if they're not true believers themselves... I'll eat my own hair. But that's not actually the worst of it."
"Oh?" Jake responded.
"They're still like newborns." Ingrid's voice sounded like she was dropping a bomb.
"How is that possible?" Jake demanded. "It's been 77 years. There's no way they can still be newborns."
Seth spoke up next. "It takes a year, sometimes a year and change for a vampire to burn through their human blood supply. After that, they're no longer newborns."
"I'm aware." she said almost sarcastically. "But remember those photos? The way I said the savagery screamed newborn attack?"
"I remember." said Sam.
"When a newborn creates another vampire it's almost like that vampire is a sort of a subspecies. Not truly a permanent newborn, but close enough in many ways. They're stronger, faster and far more enduring than a regular vampire, even moreso than a regular newborn. However you outnumber them 5 to 1, so that cancels out a lot of the strength and speed. What it won't cancel out is the endurance. You will need to rip them into bite sized chunks before you light them on fire. Just ripping off arms, legs and the head won't work. They'll reattach in the flames and you'll have to fight them all over again."
Ingrid waited for that little caveat to sink in.
"Holy. Fucking. Shit." It was sort of rare for Embry to swear so flamboyantly.
"That's not all." Ingrid added.
"Of course it isn't. Why would I ever think that there was good news coming in all of this." Jake motioned for her to continue.
"You can't just run in there and attack."
"Why the hell not?" asked Quil.
"Those people will do anything for their 'saviors'. They will get inbetween you and them. Hell, they'll volunteer to be hostages to ensure their safety. There are families up there. Children, one pregnant woman. If you run in there all balls to the walls, a lot of innocent people are going to die."
Collin shrugged. "Yeah but... they worship vampires for fuck's sake! Maybe they're not so great themselves."
"That's not our decision to make Collin." Leah's voice was swift and cutting.
"They're not bad people, they're lost people. Most of them have some sort of godawful tragedy in their lives they just can't get through. The rest are pathetically and easily lead. They don't deserve to die, not like they will if you just attack the place full throttle."
"And you're sure of this?" asked Jake.
"You weren't up there. You didn't see what I saw." Her voice was heavy, like it was made of lead.
XXX XXX XXX XXX
When the two vampires took their seats behind the alter piece, Ingrid took in their appearance. A man and a woman, both dressed in the outfits of the Catholic clergy, but with slight changes. The nun's habit was red and white as opposed to black and white and her whimple was of a pre-Vatican two era style. Nun's no longer wore this style of habit, it was like she was stuck in a time that had long since passed. The priest as well was not dressed in the clothes of a contemporary priest. Instead of a black suit and white collar, he wore a red hassock and with a white sash and collar. Their eyes were red, displaying that they were indeed human drinkers. Their beauty was perfect, like it was carved from marble by a master sculptor.
Everyone was rapt with attention, they hung on every word these two people spoke. There were three readings, one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament and one that appeared to be some sort of reworked legend from typical British mythology. All of the readings had something in common. They featured blood. The power of blood, the mythos of blood.
Ingrid knew the two vampires could not affect the minds of so many people with their mental powers and frighteningly, they didn't appear to need to. The belief that the congregants had seemed to be enough. They reached out their hands, prayed with a fervor almost akin to someone experiencing an intense high. Perhaps whatever they go out of this perceived close connection to the Divine was the drug.
Whatever it was, she knew that she had to play her part. She looked astonished, mesmerized, unsure. All the hallmarks of someone confronted with something that challenges the very foundations on which they've built their life. They had to believe she was buying this, that she was on board for their brand of salvation.
Then the two stood up and all noise stopped. All movement stopped. Everything... stopped. They each walked before the alter and smiled at their herd. Ingrid was not even going to bother thinking of these people as anything else. They were a herd, meant only to satisfy their hunger. The man held up his arms and began to speak.
"Tonight my sister and I hunger. We require that which G-d Himself has ordained for us. Which among you will choose to help sustain us?"
A middle aged man, the same one who had informed Lydia that Ingrid, or more appropriately Sydney, had been chosen to attend services stood up and made his way to the alter. He knelt before the man and held out his wrist. The priest took the proffered wrist and held it to his lips, spoke a prayer lowly and drank. The man eventually began to sway, like he was starting to get dizzy with blood loss. The priest let him go and two people from the front pew took the woozy man and brought him to a room to the left of the alter.
After he was done feeding, the priest gestured for the nun to join him. "Who now will feed my sister? Who now will offer themselves up for salvation?"
Alison, from her spot next to Lydia and Ingrid nearly ran to the front of the dais, lowering herself to the ground, she let her body grow loose as she offered herself up to the female vampire. The nun reached down and gathered Alison to her, supporting her weight as though she were merely a a baby. Then quick like a snake, she struck at the vein on the side of her neck. Alison closed her eyes and began to have an experience that seemed almost like a religious rapture. Eventually the priest squeezed the nun's shoulder and she broke away from Alison's neck.
Lydia's roommate was unconscious. Again two congregants from the front pew took her to the same room off the side of the alter. The service continued with more prayers and speeches. Ingrid watched it all, alert to everything that was happening, cataloging it to report to Seth's pack. At the end of the church service, the man had rejoined the rest of the cult members. Yet Alison remained out of sight.
After a final hymn the people began to file out. Ingrid watched as Dorothy O'Grady sat with a look of ecstatic worship on her face. As Ingrid looked at her, the old woman turned her head and met her eyes.
"They are so powerful." O'Grady whispered. "They can take your destiny and rewrite it, sweep away everything that you thought was written in stone about your life. My world made no sense till I accepted what they meant, till I found them again, till I could worship them."
Ingrid widened her eyes and played her part, her voice a hushed whisper of awe. "Can they give me meaning too?"
O'Grady smiled at her. "They can give anyone meaning, someday... they'll give all of us meaning."
Ingrid saw the two vampires coming to where their most profound worshiper sat in her chair and waited. When they got there they both kissed Dorothy on her cheek. Then they turned to Ingrid.
"I'm Father Anthony Rossi and this is Sister Kathrine Joseph. I see you have been judged to be ready to join the rest of our brothers and sisters in salvation." His voice was rich and melodic and if Ingrid hadn't been what she was, she would have found herself drawn to it like a bee to honey.
Fr. Rossi held out his hand and Ingrid shook it, ignoring her instincts to attack the walking dead thing in front of her. Sr. Joseph did not offer to shake hands and as Ingrid quickly assessed her appearance, she realized that the nun had a symptom emblematic of her kind, never ending thirst. This vampire could never be left to her own devices... she'd drink until she exposed the whole of the vampire race to the world, and so long as her appetite was filled, she wouldn't care. There was a reason that the Volturri forbade newborns to sire their own crazed offspring. More than 70% of them turned out like Sr. Joseph. Left to a life of a starving dog on a leash, eventually going mad to the pull of constant hunger and thirst.
Ingrid watched the interaction between Fr. Rossi and Sr. Joseph as he asked her about her life, how she had fallen prey to a "loose lifestyle and drugs". He was clearly the person in charge, while Sr. Joseph was an object of worship to the cult, Fr. Rossi was just as obviously an object of worship to her. Ingrid was unable to tell if Rossi had turned the nun or if she had been turned at the same time he was, during the massacre, but it didn't really matter. He controlled her and Ingrid was positive that if push came to shove, the female would go absolutely berserk to defend him. Whether he would do the same for her was less clear.
The wolfblooded excused herself when it was obvious that the two vampires wanted to speak to O'Grady privately. Leaving the church she found Lydia who was excited that her newfound friend seemed to be enthusiastically eager to partake of everything the cult had to offer.
"I have great news Sydney! Adolfus, he's in charge of assigning rooms, has moved your stuff into my cabin. Alison has been moved to another cabin... you'll be my roommate!"
Ingrid smiled and pretended that the news left her happy and excited. But instead it left her suspicious, where was Alison?
Three hours later she still had not appeared. When she asked about her, Ingrid was told that sometimes salvation took a very personal toll and required an extensive period of recuperation. Ingrid didn't by that for a second and as dusk fell, she went for one of her many walks. When she neared the church she went around to the back. What she found there told a far different story than the one the cult members wanted to believe.
There were drag marks from the outer door to the room that Alison had been placed in after the service. As a wolfblooded Ingrid's senses were sharper than a normal human's, though not anywhere near as sharp as a wolf's. She didn't need wolf senses to smell the blood and death left behind in those drag marks though, they were far to fresh for the smell to have faded. Alison had been drained dry and if not dry, then past the point where she could live through it.
She walked back to her new cabin and spent the rest of the evening talking to Lydia. After the pregnant woman went to sleep, Ingrid waited, then as things grew quiet she slipped out of the cabin and to the fenceline. This place was far too amateurishly defended for sneaking out to even be a challenge for her. She simply found the place where the cameras had little hope of catching her and where the tree overhang interfered with the alarm system connected to the chain link fence. Then she threw her jacket over the top and quickly climbed over, running off in the direction of La Push and whatever patrolling wolf she could find.
XXX XXX XXX XXX
"Jesus." Sam breathed. "And you're sure she's dead?"
"I'd stake my reputation on it and even if she isn't... it doesn't really matter. It's exactly what you were afraid it would be up there." Ingrid said.
Seth came closer to him and put his hand on her shoulder "You did good, thank you for this."
As her imprint, he set the tone of how his packmates interacted with Ingrid. When he was cautious and unsure of himself, so where they... even the ones who were clearly dominant to him. His ease with her in this moment spread throughout the pack and their body language changed, it became more relaxed, less aggressive. Ingrid might not have been pack... but she was an ally, a valuable one, and it was starting to show in their actions toward her.
"Thanks." her reaction was simple.
Jake took a breath. "Alright, we've gotta get in there, take these two out, and someone has to call Charlie and tell him to look for another body. Leah, make the call."
Leah nodded and disappeared from her position next to Paul to make the call.
"Okay, Ingrid, where's the best place to attack from on the cult? I want to do this with the least possible risk of loss of human life." he demanded.
"If you want to make sure that those people don't die, I have to go back. I can turn off the alarms and let you in. Keep the element of surprise in your favor. If you can get in and get to them before they can get to their herd... than these people have the greatest chance of surviving the encounter." Ingrid offered.
Jake looked a bit less than convinced. "We'd be sending you back into a situation that we know to be dangerous. Besides, if you go back, they might already know you've left, you could be walking back into an extremely hostile situation and we won't be close enough to get to you."
"I've been doing this for a long time Alpha Black, I'm not suicidal and know how to cut my losses when a situation has gone south. My cover hasn't been blown, and I'm positive that they have no idea I'm gone. I wouldn't volunteer to go back if that wasn't the case." she said.
Seth listened to the interaction and watched his imprint, trying to judge the situation for himself. He didn't want to rely on some other wolf's assesment of it, Ingrid was his imprint, he wanted to figure this out for himself. And as he paid attention he realized that that inner voice of his was still saying the same thing 'Trust her, she's got this.'
He got Jake's attention. "We should trust her to do her job. If she says she can do it... I believe her. Her brother said she was one of the best at this, that she's well trained. At some point... we have to take the chance."
"Are you out of your fucking mind Seth?" Jared sounded pissed off. "She's your imprint. What the hell is wrong with you? How can you risk her life like this? Like it means fucking nothing to you? I would never be so careless with Kim! Ever."
Seth openly growled at Jared, which was new for him. He rarely butted heads with the wolves above him. He was quietly dominant over the wolves he outranked and laughingly submissive to the wolves who outranked him.
"Don't you EVER tell me how to handle my imprint. Ingrid isn't Kim Jared and if you can't see that, that's not my fucking issue. I trust her, she's my imprint and so I trust her. If she says she can do something, I trust her not to be stupid about it and do what she needs to do. Keep your nose out of my imprint Jared and pay attention to your own business." Seth's voice was clear and strong.
Everyone was a bit impressed with him, even Ingrid. Happy go lucky Seth so rarely ever got angry, so rarely got upset. Being accussed of being a negligent and ungrateful imprinted wolf was clearly a good way to get right under his fur with a quickness.
"Jared, Seth back off... now." Jake voice was heavy with the weight of authority that would settle over him in situations like this.
"Ingrid, go back to the cult. We attack at 3am, we're going to be depending on you to let us in. After you do, stay out of the way and out of the fighting. Try to get as many people out of the area as you can, but if it goes bad... get the hell out of there." he said.
"But Jake!" Jared protested.
"That's ENOUGH! I made my descision Jared and it's no longer up for discussion. Now get your shit ready for 3am." Jake left no room to manuver as he cut Jared's disagreement off.
Jake dispersed the pack to their preperations, what few there were to make and walked over to Seth and Ingrid. "You said there are kids up there, a pregnant woman?"
Ingrid nodded yes.
"They're your first priority to get out. I'm not sure how we'll react if a kid dies in front of us." he ordered.
"You have my word." Ingrid said.
Then Jake turned and left the two of them alone. Seth rurned to Ingird and took her in. He liked this, he liked being able to just be around her and the focus be on them accomplishing something together, not on the constant back and forth struggle between them.
"Don't make me regret backing you up." he said.
"I won't. You can depend on me." she replied.
As Seth watched her slink back off in the direction of the cult he realized that she was right. He could depend on her. It might not be the deep love of Kim and Jared or the devotion of Sam and Emily... but he liked that fact that if he needed her, Ingrid would show up and get whatever it was done. He realized that what with all the drama in the pack's lives... he had very few people that would do that for him.
XXX XXX XXX XXX
Ingrid climbed back over the fence, went to the circuit breaker box and opened it and tore the wires out. She watched the light go out for the alarm system, then she made her way over to the security hut where someone was always watching the cameras. She crept in and behind the man, and before he could even react, she took the back of his head and slammed him, face first onto the deck, knocking him unconscious. Then she turned off the cameras and any other security systems controlled from the hut.
After that was done, she went to the fence and quickly took out the man watching the gate. Checking her watch, she saw that it was 3am. She quietly opened the gate wide and waited for the rustle in the trees that would let her know the pack was about to emerge.