In the year 2020, Vampires took control of society and ordered all humans placed in vampire custody. The people who were not captured formed a Resistance movement, headed by the Human Council, who began to plan the Insurgence.

I am, of course, indebted to Stephenie Meyer for this world we all play in, and these characters we all adore. Additionally, I am indebted to hitntr01, who has graciously allowed me to use certain concepts from her wonderful story "In Need of Rescue", which constitute much of the background of my own story. These include: the language Vampiri, the Rules, the machines used to draw blood from humans, Manners Training, and the plot theme of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.

CHAPTER 39 – The Ardella Situation - The Return of Amy

Author's note – I have had some requests for clarification regarding the relationship of Carlisle and Bella. Carlisle has long suppressed his vampire side. So when he met Bella in Chicago, he didn't fully understand (or maybe wasn't ready to admit to himself) the true nature of her attraction. Jasper has always been aware of his vampire side and immediately understood what Bella meant to the two of them, and what they had been searching for in their travels together. Carlisle initially hid his feelings for Bella behind his "I'm going to heal her" role that he had played for centuries. He had been growing in awareness of his true feelings, and by the time of Marcus' visit, when Marcus confirmed their bond as mates, he knew what Jasper had known all along.

(Jasper's POV)

Alice and I had gone to the Seattle human containment facility to retrieve Ardella' s baby Amy. The bastards had told us if we wanted to buy the child back, it would cost us $25,000. WTF? They had only given us $5,000 for her as an infant.

The man I was negotiating with nodded when I reminded him of our buying price, and replied, "Yes, but infants at three days do not always live. We incurred expenses just by keeping her in good health. And she's still too young to start drawing her blood, so it's been all cash out with her for us, and no income return on our investment. That's a lot of money, both for doctor's care and for the woman who cared for her. If you want her back it will cost you $25,000."

The insincerity was running off of this smug vampire in waves. So I used my gift to reduce the price to $10,000. We were almost done negotiating, and the vampire was starting to print the sale papers, when the office phone rang. Another vampire came in and asked to see my papers.

This new vampire reviewed my papers, which listed my gift as empath. He introduced himself as manager of the facility and said that one of the mind-readers had been following our negotiation, and had seen me use of my power. The facility would accept $15,000 for the child, and not a penny less.

I was furious, but I paid. I had a gifted human in my house; I was struggling not to let the mind-reader pick up on that as well, so I wanted the negotiation over. If they knew the mother was gifted, they might not be willing to give up the child at all. After all, Aro was supposed to be notified of gifted humans. If anyone turned over a human that Aro found worthy of changing, there was a reward in it for the vampire who found the human. Depending on the nature and usefulness of the human's gift, the reward could be monetary, a loosening of travel restrictions, an invitation to move closer to Volterra, or even a stipend for a century or two.

Once the ownership papers were signed, and we had the transfer and ownership deeds, we were done with this human containment facility. We were handed the now crying child, and a box containing a human child care kit. We started the long drive back to Forks. Alice was sitting next to the child, who was in a car seat, and was pretending to comfort her. She clearly had no idea of how to do this. I ended up sending the child a dose of lethargy, just so we could get to the house while I had some part of my sanity.

When we got to the house, there was the smell of a deliveryman on the front porch. That was in no way unusual, Alice got deliveries all the time. But when I opened the door, it was clear someone had been in the house during the time we were gone. Ardella was standing by the door, so she was all right. I handed her the child and started to investigate the intrusion.

Ardella simply said, "Thank you," when I handed her the baby. She smoothed the child's hair and said, "Amy, it's Mommy, baby."

I eased up with the drowsiness I had sent the child, who immediately started crying. I was surprised how well Ardella handled the crying; it was almost as if she was expecting it. I started to follow the scent trail upstairs and then turned to Ardella.

"Was someone in the house while we were gone?" I asked, hardly thinking that I was addressing a human in a human language.

"Yes," she answered. "A deliveryman arrived with a package for me. I had him take it upstairs."

Alice hissed, "You what? You opened the door?"

I was stunned as well. Once again, Ardella's feeling included a surge of fear and then determination. "A deliveryman arrived with a package for me, so I opened the door and let him in. I had him take it upstairs to my room."

I decided to ask her later how she managed to open the door, which had an electronic key pad on it. She was obviously gifted, but maybe she had simply watched one of us open the door and picked up the combination. If that's what happened, it must have been Alice she had watched, as she hadn't been downstairs in years when I was at home. I ran up the stairs with Ardella following. I got to her room before she did.

But Ardella was right behind me. "I'm going to give Amy a bath to help her relax. Maybe she'll be able to stop crying and get some sleep. I would appreciate it if you would both leave my room, and give us some privacy," she said quietly.

This stunned me, and I turned to give her a glare. But she didn't drop into a submissive posture, as she always had done in the past. She just stood and faced me. I sent her a dose of fear and then the urge to please me, and got no reaction. None. It was as if she didn't feel them.

I had never met an individual immune to my gift.

She was nervous but carefully stepped around me, carrying Amy into the bathroom. "Some privacy, please," she repeated. "I need to get re-acquainted with the daughter you stole from me two years ago."

I let her pass me, in amazement. Alice and I left her room, and I went downstairs and made the call to Eleazar. I needed him down here, to tell me just what I had living under my roof.

A few hours later, we could hear rustling and unfamiliar sounds from the room upstairs. Ardella came downstairs with Amy, carrying a brown bag which reeked of human food. Ardella was dressed in a bright yellow dress, trimmed with matching gingham, and Amy had on a matching dress and hat. Ardella was wearing sandals. The baby had on little sneakers and was holding on to a large stuffed unicorn. Ardella passed us, without comment, and went straight into the kitchen.

Since Alice clearly wasn't going to deal with this situation, I went into the kitchen. "What are you doing?" I asked. "You know we don't allow you in here unescorted."

"I'm making Amy some lunch," she replied, without look at me.

"We have food for both of you," I said, pulling down a bag of the kibble we fed Ardella. "And we were given a care package with instructions on food and bathing for the child."

"She isn't eating that shit; she's going to eat real food," Ardella snapped.

Now insolence I would not tolerate. I turned to her, and once again, although her feelings included fear, she also had determination. Her hands shook, but she placed the bag she was carrying on the table.

"There is an apple in that bag," Ardella said, pointing at the brown bag. "If you want to cut it up for her, that would be useful. Otherwise, give me a knife, and I'll do it."

Startled, I opened the bag to inspect the contents. Inside, there was bread, cheese, and an apple. There was also a container of what appeared to be apple juice.

"Who is sending this to you?" I asked.

"Obviously, someone who cares a lot more about us than you do," Ardella replied firmly. "Don't worry; it appears you won't have to strain your budget to buy us real food. That's being handled by someone else."

This came as a shock. Now she was talking about my finances? And why did I care what a human thought?

Eleazar wouldn't get here quickly enough. So I called Edward. And I suggested he wear his guard uniform when he came over. I knew he hated wearing the uniform in town. Everyone knew he had taken that job at the facility, but prison guards were looked down on. They may have had a higher position in the hierarchy established by Volterra but were generally regarded with suspicion like cops. But since prison guards didn't have the power over other vampires that cops had, they were looked upon with disgust. After all, what kind of vampire would agree to spend their days inside the cages the pathetic humans were kept in?

Edward arrived at my house quite quickly in his shiny silver Volvo. When he arrived, he told me that he couldn't read Ardella's mind. Amy's thoughts were quite standard, though, he reported. When she saw the guard uniform, she had ducked her head. She'd already been trained to fear the vampire guards on the facility. I asked why he hadn't mentioned Ardella's immunity to his gift before, as he had been over to our house any number of times. Alice had served him Ardella's blood often, as he was considered her bachelor brother who needed looking after.

Edward replied that he hadn't given Ardella much thought before. He had picked up what she was thinking, but usually she had just been exsanguinated at the time of his visit, so she was either unconscious or just waking up. She hadn't been thinking much.

In his opinion, this blocking of her thoughts was something new.

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