Good morning (:
I returned home late in the evening after patrols. Sam and Embry had gone back to Emily's for dinner, but I wanted to crash early.
I knew Grandma and Mom went to Los Angeles today for an antique furniture auction or something. Aunt Alice had really wanted to go, but she had school. I had laughed at that one since I was being home-schooled for the rest of the year.
Dad, Uncle Jasper, Edward and Bella were gathered around the TV. Dad and I were the only ones that really used it so this was a weird occurrence.
"What are you watching?" I asked. No answer. So I moved into the room. It was the local news- reports about a murder spree in Seattle. The numbers were alarming, but we weren't the Justice League so why was my family concerned?
The news story ended and moved on to a report on new dog-walking regulations before someone finally answered my question.
"It's a vampire," Uncle Jasper said.
"Oh, boy," I said, chuckling. Bella turned to me. Her brown eyebrows were raised in alarm.
"Aren't you worried?" she asked.
"We were in one place in New York -near the city- where we used to get them like termites. Big coven plus nearby city equals lots of vampires dropping in," I said, nonchalantly, trying to inconspicuously place myself next to her, "And it only takes one look at Dad to scare them off, right, Dad?"
"That's right, my boy," Dad said grinning at me. He reached his arm behind the couch to bump my fist.
"We shouldn't take this lightly. I don't think this is just a curious nomad," Uncle Jasper said, "It looks like a threat. Someone is deliberately trying to tell us something.
"Why would someone want to do that?" Bella asked.
"Covens don't come as big as ours," Edward told her, "They might be trying to cut us down in numbers to diminish our power."
"Covens don't usually establish themselves so close to cities. Nomads love them for the easy hunting. Someone or someones might be sending a message to us so we'll leave this prime real estate. When I was created, there were armies of newborns fighting over land in the South."
I knew about Uncle Jasper's history. But could that be happening here in Forks over a hundred years later?
I thought all those wars were stamped out by the...
"Didn't the Volturi have the final word in the newborn wars?" Dad asked.
"They're the vampire royalty, right?" Bella asked.
The front door opened, and Mom and Grandma came through. Ugh, the worst timing. Mom walked right into the area where we had been talking and gave a pointed look to Dad, Jasper, and Edward. I rolled my eyes. She always did that when the Volturi came up. As if talking about them would bring them here. I don't get what the big deal was. We weren't criminals.
"Rose," Dad said tiredly, "We can't pretend they don't exist."
"Em," she hissed.
"He's not a little kid," Dad reminded her. She looked me over. I was most definitely not little.
I had a long curiosity about the Volturi. Mom and Dad had chosen to not talk to me about them, but Edward had told me a little. He had spent a lot of my childhood in college so he had been unaware of my parents' policies.
"Come on. Bella knows more than me, and she's a rookie," I said.
"A rookie?" Bella asked, "I resent that."
I laughed, "And I am now an actual member of the supernatural creature community. I should know."
My quick exchange with Bella made my heart a little light. I just forgot the hurt between us enough to have some of our normal banter.
"Fine," Mom huffed, "What do you know?"
"Excellent," I said, "I know Grandpa used to live with them and about Jane, Alec, and Demetri."
"You told him about those two awful twins?" Mom hissed at Edward. He held his hands up in innocence.
"How was I supposed to know that wasn't allowed?"
"You read minds!"
"So what are they?" I asked over them, "And how come I'm not allowed to know about them?"
"They're a royal family led by three ancient vampires, Aro, Marcus, and Caius. They are the closest thing we have to government. They make laws that are meant to above all, keep the secret. If a vampire isn't being careful with their hunting, they will be killed," Edward said, "The three I told you about are part of their guard. Aro likes to collect those with rare gifts for his guard."
"Ok," I said, waiting for the part about the secrecy.
"When you were two, one of Carlisle's old friends violated the laws. His mate had died, and the man went crazy," Mom said with a pointed look to Edward, "He just wanted to create chaos and watch the world burn. So he kept a building hostage and then killed all of the hostages. Like I said- crazy. The humans made their own assumptions, but the Volturi came after him. He tried to make a deal with them in exchange for a quick and painless death. So he told them about how Aro's dear friend Carlisle had adopted a human baby-
"Oh, no," I muttered.
"Naturally, Aro had to check so he sent Demetri and Heidi to find us and see if it was true. The only thing that spared your life was your gift that we thought you had. Aro had interfered with Jane and Alec's lives, some say, so that he could turn them when they were older. The deal was that we could wait until you were older, and then we had to change you."
"Aro wanted to preserve the gift. When he heard about Alice, he immediately wanted her. If he were ever in a position where he could acquire a number of us, you would have made a good companion to her," Edward said. Jasper growled.
"I can't believe this. Nobody told me anything about this, all these years?" I exclaimed.
"We didn't want to scare you," Mom said.
"Why didn't you bite me though? You gave me the option to live until one hundred!"
"The Volturi don't think about time the same way we do. They're several millennia old. They wouldn't think about you until you were an old man. We didn't get too worked up about it," Uncle Jasper said.
"I still should have known," I said, "You should have just bit me and kept yourselves safe."
"You shouldn't have to worry about vampires coming after you. It would have terrified you, and you know it," Mom said. I may be able to see where she's coming from about that. I used to get all those nightmares, but those were about car wrecks.
"We don't need them coming here and running into us. So the sooner the Seattle vampires are gone, the better," Edward said.
I nodded. And I knew a few people who would help us get rid of them.
"So we would just be able to kill them?" Paul asked excitedly.
"It's for the good of Seattle," Sam said. The pack was meeting at the Uley house. Over the past month, we had gained one new member, plus two huge kids we now had to watch out for. My family's return and probably the threat in Seattle were causing the additions to the pack.
Our new member was Quil, as we expected. He had come off as a loudmouth at first, but he was actually pretty cool. And totally psyched about being a wolf. He reminded me of my dad in that way, who thought of becoming a vampire as one of the greatest things to ever happen to him.
"We probably don't want those Volturi coming in either. If they're as powerful as you say, we want them far away from La Push and Forks," Sam said, "We should check out the city, see what we scope out."
"We would draw him in with our blood and then snap like a mousetrap," Jared said. He was good with strategy.
"So we're in on this?" I said to check. Everyone turned to Sam like kids to a parent.
He grinned, "We need to keep an eye out, and if we just have to smash some heads while we're at it, we'll just have to do it for the sake of the tribe."
Everyone grinned and hooted. But I saw Emily standing in the doorway, shaking her head and rolling her eyes.
I hope you liked it! Please keep the reviews coming because I'm really nervous about these chapters and how you're going to respond! Also, I have a question of the day. I want to know what you think is going to happen in Jacob's future, immediate and distanced. I'd love to hear your opinions. Have a great day! Mwah!