Chapter Thirty Eight
Johnny
I looked at the young boy standing there mulling over the words he had spoken then turned to Atiqtalaaq.
"The police officer was the boy's uncle? You never mentioned that fact to me."
He looked confused,
"Sam never mentioned it to me, he just said that the police chief knew that they had kidnapped the children so they were forced to bring him along."
"That's a lie. They drugged us and took us from Uncle Charlie's house and now they've killed him."
There were tears in the young boy's eyes and my mother handed him a tissue taking from him the little girl who had been roused by the sound of voices.
"Atiqtalaaq, you will phase and order our guardians to wait for orders from me. You tell them to inform the Quileutes to halt too. I want to speak to the child and find out what he has to say. Someone has been lying to you and I want to hear the truth."
I didn't wait for him to obey me just held out my hand to the boy,
"I would like you to tell me all about yourself. Will you do that for me?"
He hesitated,
"Yes, but first can I ring my parents? They'll be so worried about us."
"I'd like to hear your story first then I can speak to them too if that's alright with you."
He thought about this, tears still rolling down his cheeks,
"Then can you send someone to pick up Uncle Charlie's body and bring it back? I don't want him eaten by some animal."
"Certainly and I am very sorry that you had to witness such a shocking event."
I ordered Atiqtalaaq to send two guardians back to recover the body then the boy took my outstretched hand and we walked together into the meeting room.
Once there with Annie and the little girl who was peaceful but watching Caden carefully as if afraid he might vanish any second I pointed to a chair and took one opposite,
"Right, now, tell me everything you know Caden."
As I listened I understood that the Quileutes had gone rogue kidnapping the children with no thought to the inevitable consequences of their actions. The children had been drugged along with his uncle and brought here where Sam Uley had told whatever story he thought would get him help to hide the children from their parents. The girl was adopted but the Cullens were now their lawful parents and as far as I could see she was well treated and loved. I understood the passion to become a parent even though I didn't like the idea of a human baby being brought up by vampires. As for Caden, now that was a far more interesting and dangerous affair. Hadn't Sam thought about Caden's father's actions once he knew who had taken the children. If things were not handled extremely carefully we would find ourselves at war with The Major.
Caden had just finished telling me his story when the two guardians sent out to retrieve his uncle's body arrived back with bad news.
"The body is gone."
"Are you sure you were at the right place?"
"Of course, there was plenty of blood and the scent of a polar bear with cubs but the wind is so fierce the scent was almost gone. We had to check the area and scrape back some of the new snow to see all the blood."
The boy's lip was quivering and I knew how upset he must be so I sent him off with Annie and Charity to get warm and some food.
Atiqtalaaq appeared behind the men, his face pale with shock having heard Caden's story.
"I didn't know. Sam Uley lied to me."
"Yes he did, but it was up to you to check his story thoroughly yet not once did you question the children or the man. Why is that?"
"Well, I never expected brother guardians to lie to me."
"I find it is always better to speak to everyone involved before deciding who to believe. And now I have to avert a war….. if I can."
"But, but you said now was a perfect time to take out the leeches, with their leaders occupied with internal fighting. Why shouldn't we go ahead?"
I had said that true, but there was a more pressing problem here now, if The Major found out the children were here then it wouldn't be long before he turned up and he certainly wouldn't be alone. Our own people would be in grave danger then. I considered my options, sooner or later the vampires would find out where the children were and come for them. We could act quickly, some of our men were already in position to attack the Cullens but could they take out The Major? And if so was our action just? Probably not although they did have the Quileute pack with them and this was their fight. It might be a good idea to find out what was going on in the reservation first as no one had been able to contact the elders.
Going outside I phased to speak to my guys,
"Check out the reservation but do not engage the Cullens at present and watch out for the Quileute pack, I do not want them acting precipitously either. Report back to me as soon as you can."
After the acknowledgment I went to our communication center to find out if they had heard anything on the matter.
"The Cullens have engaged Darius to hunt down the Quileutes and the children."
I cursed, if anyone could trace them to us it would be him.
"But so far he's found nothing, there was a text message to Sam Uley's mate who drove here with the cop but I managed to scramble the location of the cell phone. It won't stop him for much longer though, he's better at this than me, I was just lucky."
Caden
Annie set us on the couch by the fire in her cabin and wrapped us in blankets while she set about heating up some food for us. After a few minutes she came in with mugs of hot chocolate but I couldn't drink it, the very smell made me feel sick. All I could think of was Uncle Charlie laying on the snow, blood spreading around him as the bears attacked. I tried so hard to help but I just wasn't strong enough, I tried to influence them, to knock them off their stride but I was so wound up and scared that it didn't work properly and he was still hurt so badly I knew he was going to die. When I ran to him I could see death coming for him and did the only thing I could but again I hadn't been strong enough, maybe there was just too much human in my make up and as a result he was dead.
Charity clung to me her eyes red and puffy from crying but she sipped the warm chocolate milk and nibbled on a cookie offering bits to Daisy. My eyes were drawn to the smear of blood on Daisy's clothes, a painful reminder that my uncle was gone and I would never see him or go fishing with him again. It wasn't fair, I should have been able to help but I couldn't and now we were going to be sent away to a strange place among strange people and might never see each other or our parents again.
Anger welled up in me and the flames jumped high the logs spitting embers and crackling. I wished the flames would jump from the fire and engulf the whole village, burn it to the ground but then it would mean Rachel losing everything and Annie and neither of them had been cruel to us. I hung my head refusing a bowl of homemade soup when it was offered a little later although I sat with Charity and helped her as she refused to let go of my hand and she held Daily in the other.
I asked Annie if she knew what would happen next but she only smiled a little sadly,
"I have no idea Caden but I don't think you'll be leaving here yet and I know Johnny has sent some men to look for your uncle's body, if they find it then I promise you we will treat him with all dignity and honor as a brave man who died defending his charges."
Her words should have helped and they were said kindly enough but I couldn't find words to thank her, they stuck in my throat and once Charity had finished eating Annie led us into a bedroom with a big double bed and left us to rest. Did she really think I could sleep after all that had happened? If I closed my eyes I knew I would see my uncle standing there shouting at me to run as the huge white bears attacked.