Show me where the sun comes through the sky

I'll show you where the rain gets in and I'll show you hurricanes

And the way that summer fades

Underneath the weight of it all

"Weight of it all"

-Matt Nathanson

Chapter 40:

More vampires? I was wrong. It's worse.

Edward was at the door before they had a chance to knock. There were four of them.

The blonde seemed the most excited to see Edward. "Edward!"

I heard Edward rack off a list of their names. I think I caught them all. Eleazar was the dark haired male standing next to the dark haired female, Carmen. Both of them had a hint of olive to their complexion, which made it a little less clear that they were vampires. Kate was the peppy little blonde, enthralled to see Edward. And Tanya was the strawberry blonde who was calmly taking in the scenery.

Edward looked nervous as he waved them into the house.

"I knew the werewolves were involved." Tanya grumbled as she picked up on Jacob's scent.

Bitch, I snarled softly. I knew I was far enough away from the house that they couldn't smell me. I took a few steps closer, because they knew we were involved now. It was only a matter of minutes before she saw Jake.

"Freaking dogs," Tanya muttered quietly, but not so quietly that I didn't hear it.

This self-righteous vampire was already starting to get on my nerves. In fact, I would trade her for Rosalie any day. I shuddered a little at the thought. I never thought that I would want Rosalie back.

Edward was quick to respond, "Yes, and the werewolves are on our side. Again." Ha, that shut her up. Damn, I didn't know the leech cared enough to defend us.

Edward explained to the four of them that his family was in danger. He pleaded with them to hear him out.

"We're listening," Tanya assured him.

Edward asked them to listen to what they heard in the other room. They all impatiently just ignored his request, and took a step towards where Bella, Jacob, and Nessie were hidden. Edward quickly jumped in their path.

"Listen first, please." Edward nodded at his friends.

Tanya mentioned that she could hear Jacob's heart. But when Edward asked her what else she could hear, she didn't seem as confident about Nessie's quick little heart rate. I held in laughter when Kate guessed that they had a bird in the kitchen. Yes, because owning a bird is something every vampire wants to do. Polly want some blood? Polly want some blood?

"Bella, bring out Renesmee please?" Edward said nervously. Wow, I didn't know that vampires could get nervous.

When Bella came in carrying Nessie, with Jacob hovering protectively over the two of them, I thought the vampires were going to drop dead from shock. Tanya stumbled back a few paces, while Kate took a more dramatic approach, leaping backwards to the front door, ready to bolt if necessary.

Drama Queen. I rolled my eyes.

Eleazar pushed Carmen behind him protectively, and let out a hiss. Wow, really? They were acting like Nessie was some kind of killer. It was actually kind of amusing. Four full-grown vampires, scared to death of a three-month-old baby.

Take cover, for she might drool on you to death. This was just too funny.

Carmen was the only one of the four who didn't look terrified beyond belief. She looked at Nessie curiously from behind Eleazar.

"You promised you would listen." Edward seemed disappointed. I wasn't at all surprised or disappointed by the foolish way they were behaving.

I saw Kate reach for the doorknob. She was hyperventilating. How was it possible for something that didn't breathe to hyperventilate?

"She's not a full vampire child." Edward tried to calm the hysterical vampires. "She's half human. We are not her "creators" in that sense."

If he had been her creator, he would be dead. The werewolves wouldn't have taken too kindly to a vampire transforming a human child into one of them. That would have broken the treaty.

"She's my, well, biologically, I'm her father…" Edward stuttered out.

I felt the nerdy voice of my brother in the back of my head in a wheezing dark Star Wars voice, "I am your faaather…" Nessie was the vampire's own personal Luke Skywalker. God damn Seth for always bringing up Star Wars…

Eleazar had a puzzled look on his face. I could tell he didn't believe a word that Edward was saying.

"Bella is her biological mother," Edward continued.

"This is like some horrible soap opera plot," I heard Kate say softly.

That made me laugh. Kate was pretty nifty. Damn, had I just said nifty? The 60's called, they want their lingo back. I made fun of myself.

"Bella conceived, carried, and gave birth to Renesmee while she was still human."

Ah man, don't remind me. I grunted at the memory of Bella's hideous swollen belly.

Edward softly tried to point out the resemblance that Nessie had to the both of them. I rolled my eyes and mocked him, Oh, she has Bella's beautiful eyes. But she has my perfect bone structure. We'll have to wait until she's a little older to see which one of our horrible personalities she has.

Carmen inched forward while the other three watched in shock. Nessie cooed happily in Bella's arms and then touched her face. I imagine she was asking permission to touch Carmen. She was a smart little thing. A few seconds later, Bella asked Nessie's question.

"Would you mind if she shows you something?" Bella questioned. "She has a gift for explaining things."

Carmen looked delighted. "Do you speak, little one?"

I laughed. Her GPA was higher than all four of them put together. The way Nessie was being spoken to must have been very condescending to her. If I were Nessie, I probably would have answered, "Why, of course you judgmental little cunt, I articulate my feelings quite well. Matter of fact, I can speak in five different languages; but no, sure, go ahead and talk to me like I'm an idiot."

Nessie was a lot kinder than I would have been as she just answered with a delicate, "Yes."

Insert "stunned" vampire faces here. The only one who didn't look even remotely shocked was Carmen. Hmm, maybe I had misjudged her. She nodded slightly to let Nessie know that it was ok for her to touch her face. Nessie placed her hands on Carmen's cheek. Eleazar overreacted to Carmen's tension when Nessie touched her, and he was by her side seconds later, ready to pull her away from Nessie's tiny, apparently deadly, hand. Carmen stopped him and listened to Nessie through her thoughts.

"She must have gained her gifted abilities from her talented father." Carmen smiled at Edward.

Oh sure, dote on him, because Edward's ego wasn't large enough already.

After seeing it in her thoughts, Carmen quickly convinced the other's that Edward was telling the truth. She even talked Eleazar into letting Nessie explain to him. At first, he flinched away, bringing Kate and Tanya by his side defensively.

"Watch, please," Nessie said, impatiently. It was ironic that she was the only one in the room actually acting like an adult.

A few minutes later, all of the vampires were relaxed after having been shown what I can only assume to be Nessie's life from the day she was born. I shivered at the notion that the kid remembered her own birth. If Edward and Bella as parents weren't enough to screw her up, the fact that she actually recalled coming out of her mother was certainly enough to land her in therapy for years.

Tanya asked Edward for an explanation as to why his family was in danger.

Edward hesitated before responding, "Irina was mistaken when she went to the guard."

"Irina?" Kate growled. She let out a hiss, and then a sigh of disappointment in her sister. "She did this to you? To Carlisle? After everything he's done?"

Tanya wasn't as quick to judge as Kate had been. She automatically tried to blame someone else in defense of her sister. But Edward explained that Alice had seen Irina in her vision, going to the Volturi. I saw Edward flinch when he mentioned his sister's name.

Kate, Tanya, Eleazar, and Carmen all apologized profusely for Irina's overreaction.

"There's nothing that can be done about Irina's misconception. She's already spoken to the guard. Alice gave us a month."

The other vampires looked stunned that it was going to take them so long to get here.

"A month?" Kate questioned.

Edward nodded.

"So long?" Eleazar asked.

"They're all coming. Not just the guard," Edward explained. "Aro, Caius, Marcus. Even the wives."

"Impossible," Eleazar gasped. Apparently the wives didn't get out much.

Edward explained that all hope was not lost. He told them that Carlisle, Esme, Emmett, and Rosalie were looking for others to help them.

Tanya spoke realistically, "It doesn't matter how many people you gather, Edward. All that we can do is die with you."

Ha! It's too bad Embry wasn't a wolf right now. I owed him an "I told you so."

"We certainly won't stand by and let you get slaughtered for nothing," Kate frowned. I could tell that she thoroughly disapproved of her sister's impulsive reaction.

"If we could just get enough witnesses to make them pause, if only for one second, we could state our case," Edward sighed. "It's too bad that Irina came when she did. If she had only come later, maybe this whole mess could have been avoided."

Yeah, somehow I doubted that. I watched as Eleazar paced the floor. It was obvious that he was thinking about the Volturi's motives. It was just a hunch, but something told me that even if the Volturi stopped long enough to hear that Nessie wasn't an immortal child, they would still destroy us all. Stupid dictators.

Even though this was obviously a suicide mission, Carmen quickly volunteered her family to stay to witness Renesmee's development in the next month, so when the Volturi came, they could state their case to them.

Tanya quietly agreed to stay to witness for the Cullens. Even though she didn't say anything aloud, I could tell she had the same opinions of the Volturi that I did. They were coming to kill the Cullens. And that meant a fight no matter what.

Great, looks like this town had just gained four new residents. I wonder how Sam's pack would react.

Tanya assured Edward they weren't alone in this.

"If it does come down to a fight, we can not idly stand by. Of course, I can only speak for myself…"

Kate quickly piped in, "You really doubt me that much?"

I heard Tanya mention something about the fact that they were sure to get killed. Kate didn't seem that concerned about it.

"Count me in," she said, as if it were as simple as that. She had a sassy "bring 'em on" look in her eyes.

Carmen agreed that she would, likewise, die in battle. God, we were all going to die.

We are so stupid. I shook my head.

I perked back up when I heard Tanya ask about the wolves. I looked at Jacob, curious as to what he was going to say. Would he be able to maintain his composure around the new vampires? I saw that he was watching Carmen like a hawk. She was cuddling Nessie. He never took his eyes off of Nessie as he responded to Tanya.

"We're here to kick a little Volturi ass," Jacob smirked. "If they won't listen to us about Nessie, I mean, Renesmee…" Had he cringed saying her full name? I lost it to my laughter. "We're going to stop them."

Tanya didn't look convinced. Obviously she didn't know what werewolves were capable of. She called Jacob a child and then insinuated that he didn't know who he was dealing with. Well, that was true, but we were certainly someone they needed in this battle.

"You don't know what we can do," Jacob said proudly.

I just said that! Get outta my head! I exclaimed jokingly.

Tanya respected Jacob's choice to fight. She and Kate both noticed his attachment to Nessie. He hadn't taken her eyes off of her. They watched him curiously, uncertain what to think in this situation.

"Yes, they are a very talented family," Eleazar spoke. "A mind reader for a father, a shield for a mother, and then whatever magic this extraordinary child has bewitched us with."

Geeze, he made them sound like a circus sideshow. I chuckled a bit to myself. Bella, Edward, and Nessie Cullen Incorporated: we do birthday parties and Bah Mitzvahs.

I was so caught up in my own amusement that I hadn't realized that Eleazar had just classified Bella as having a talent. She had a talent to annoy the shit out of me, did that count?

I listened as he explained about these vampires called "shields" that could protect themselves against other vampires with talents. Eleazar explained a little more about shields and what they could do.

Bella looked confused. She said that people could manipulate her physical state, like Jasper controlling her emotions, but no one had been able to mess with her mind. I snorted. That's because she didn't have a mind for anyone to mess with.

"It's completely mental," Eleazar nodded. Ha, she's completely mental.

Bella went on about how none of the vampires, aside from Alice and Jasper, had been able to use their abilities on her.

"Mama, you're special," Nessie beamed.

Ha, Bella was special alright. But not in a good way. I'm glad I had stayed to watch this. I was having a blast making fun of Bella without having Jacob or Edward telling me to shut up every two seconds.

"I wonder…" Kate looked curiously at Bella. "Can you project?"

"I…I don't know. I never tried," Bella said.

Kate explained that she might not be able to. "Heaven knows I've been working on projecting my current for centuries."

Wow, how old were these vampires?

Edward explained that Kate could shock people, like Jane. Bella cowered, and I laughed. Wimp. Kate explained that she was different than Jane. Apparently she didn't use her power to torture people.

Aw, why not? I wondered. That would be a cool little power to have. If I had that ability, anyone unlucky enough to piss me off would get the hell shocked out of them. Maybe I would throw a fork or something in their hand to make the electricity travel better, Here, can you hold this piece of metal for a second? I'm going to electrocute you. That would be fun.

I watched as Kate and Bella discussed the possibility that if they could teach Bella how to project her shield, they might have a shot against the Volturi. I was more intrigued by some quiet conversation going on between Edward and Eleazar. Jacob was watching them curiously, too. A few moments later, they explained what they were talking about. I got kind of bored as they started to talk about how the Volturi killed families of vampires, and blah, blah, blah.

I watched all the vampires dance around the house, chatting away, and discussing strategies. Jacob had floated over towards where Carmen was holding Nessie. Eleazar placed his hand on Carmen's arm affectionately and she brought her free hand up to his arm and smiled at him.

Watching Carmen holding on to Eleazar lovingly, I had a sudden, painful memory flash into my thoughts. I swallowed a knot in my throat as I gave in to the thought and let it flood my mind.

The way that Carmen was looking at Eleazar is the same way that I used to look at Sam. I remembered our last day together. How I had squeezed his arm with affection. I think on some level, I knew that he was going to break my heart that day. But that didn't stop me from hoping for a different outcome as I held on to him for dear life.

I could recall how the look in his eyes was cold and sad. The way that Eleazar looked at Carmen is not the same way that Sam had looked at me. I could see that Eleazar loved Carmen back.

I was brought back into reality as a scent blew into my nose. More vampires. Damn, the Cullens worked fast. I saw another car pull into the driveway. I shook my head. I'd stuck around long enough.

But even though I didn't want to stay here with the crowds of vampires, I was having a hard time pushing myself back to La Push. Oddly enough, instead of feeling aggravated that there were more vampires in town, I was feeling saddened. There was a lot more weighing on my mind than the Volturi coming to town. And there was only one way to clear my head.

I had to talk to Sam.