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 indebted to Stephenie Meyers 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 47 – Epilogue 1 – Settling down to "mated" life, and the story of Crazy and the mind-reader

Two months had passed. We no longer counted days, we had returned to a twelve month calendar, as there were no more humans in captivity.

I woke up one morning to find Carlisle curled around me like a glove. He was a little cold, but his body gradually warmed in contact with mine, so over the course of the night he had warmed up to near human body temperature. I could hear his purr before opening my eyes, so I kept them closed a while longer just to enjoy it.

Finally he laughed. "I know you're in there, sweetheart. Good morning."

"Already?" I asked, stretching and looking over at him. His topaz eyes, three inches away, startled me. "Gah!" I exclaimed, and would have fallen out of bed with the force I used to shove myself backwards to get away if he hadn't been holding me.

His body shook with silent laughter. "Jasper left for Seattle about two hours ago, no reason to pull away," he teased.

I swatted at him, and rolled out of bed, grabbing a robe lying on the bedside table. "I don't shove myself away from Jasper, so cut it out."

Sometimes I picked out my own clothes now. We had negotiated a little, now that we were mates. Their instincts were to be even more dominating, and they had even gone through a phase where they even hand-fed me, but I finally told them I was hard-wired for independence. Clothes were one of the few things they were willing to negotiate with me over. And, so far, it was about my only independent action that wasn't causing a daily spat.

Crazy was downstairs, playing tag with little Ron. Right now his mother, my cousin Hope, was staying with us. She liked that the vampresses took on some of the baby-sitting duties. They claimed they weren't duties, that they liked being around children.

Carlisle and Jasper were still on an uneasy terms with Crazy, but she continued to come and go as she pleased. She and the mind-reader had finally become "official" mates shortly after the Insurgency, and we hadn't seen either of them for over a month. Now they seemed to come up for air about once a week, and I got Crazy during that time. The mind-reader spent his time consulting with Marcus and Jasper.

Initially Marcus had been nervous around the mind-reader. After all, he had kept a steady watch on all three of the Volturi leaders for nearly three years, and advised the Human Council, through me, of all of their thoughts about the Resistance. When Marcus finally met him, he was even more surprised. The mind-reader, human name Jetsun Milarepa, had been something of a trouble-maker in Tibet prior to being a celebrated mystic who was considered the first to achieve complete enlightenment in a single lifetime. He had been well-known as a runner as well and had studied black magic prior to studying with his final teacher. As a young man, he had brought down a hailstorm in his village when he was angered with his family, killing thirty-five people. Marcus had heard of the celebrated monk when he was alive but had no idea that he had been turned into a vampire.

Marcus was not surprised to learn that such a talented mind-reader had never come to Aro's court. The vampire who had turned the mind-reader had no idea that his powers of concentration due to the years of meditation and enlightenment would allow his latent gift to enable him to read anyone's mind, anywhere in the world. Because of his ability, he was also able to steer clear of other vampires with ease.

I had only met him because of Crazy. Crazy was his mate, but she did not initially accept him.

"I was a good Catholic girl, Baby, and he was a Buddhist with a shaved head wearing funny robes. I couldn't bring myself to even think of doing the nasty with a monk," Crazy told me. If you wanted it laid out in no uncertain terms, just ask Crazy. It never seemed to cross her mind that the word "filter" might apply to her speech as well as coffee makers.

It had taken decades for Crazy to get used to the idea of being mated to a Buddhist monk. During that time, she had met me. Since Crazy was a nomad and had managed to get a job traveling in Aro's vampire world order, the mind-reader had initially made friends with me because he thought his role would be to build a home for the two of them around Crazy's human ward.

He found his inability to read my mind both puzzling and relaxing. Once he realized my mission as a freedom fighter, he set out to help me fulfill it, giving me full access to any information he could glean from the minds of those around me. He also helped me come to terms with my gift as "slayer", that I had been given upon the death of my mother the day I escaped the living death camp. He had, of course, known that Jasper and Carlisle were my mates, but he hadn't told me because he knew I wasn't ready to accept it. He let them tell me in their own time and on their own terms, something I gradually came to appreciate.

That his loyalty was to me, and not to the Human Council, proved troubling to the Council members. It was my C.O. (Commanding Officer) who finally figured out that I had this mind-reading friend. He had initially wondered if I was the mind-reader, but I assured him I was not. I had enough going on with the shared consciousness with my six cousins to deal with everybody else's thoughts. I didn't tell that to my C.O. either. I just told him that I wasn't a mind-reader.

But in the meantime, the mind-reader had waited for Crazy to accept him as her mate. This was contrary to the usual vampire male practice of claiming one's mate as soon as he recognized her.

I asked him about this one day. "So, while I appreciate that you are waiting for Crazy, why didn't you just do it the easy way, and just bite her? I mean, what are you afraid of, that every time you came home she would run to the top of the nearest tree to get away from you?"

He smiled and said, "Something like that. The simple truth is that most of us did not ask for this life, it was thrust upon us. That I have found this beautiful being with whom I will be able to share my eternity is a gift I never expected. Though we may not have asked for this second existence, I can give her the time to adjust to her future life with me."

So romantic. Most guys would just bite her and get it over with. Lucky her.

The vampire trials would be starting soon.

Caius's trial would be one of the first. When he saw what happened to Aro, and learned that Marcus had accepted the position of leading the vampires in what Caius considered a defeat, Caius had turned tail and tried to run and hide.

The mind-reader knew where he went, of course, so the allies found him within hours, intercepting his boat to Antarctica.

Even before he ran, the Human Council had decided that the surviving brothel girls would be allowed to pass sentence on him. The only delay was trying to get as many of the last groups of girls who were rescued strong enough to withstand the rigors of being in court for the length of the trial. No one questioned the outcome, but he was to be allowed counsel. Something no human had been given under the 20 years of Volturi rule.

Once the trials started, our brief period of relaxation would be over, and then the real work of rebuilding the shattered human world would begin in earnest.

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