A/N: Dear all, thank you for reading and reviewing. An interesting objection was made, namely that the vampire transformation depicted in this fic is too cumbersome and impractical to be plausible. I happen to agree. If these were vampires of my own creation, their transformation would probably look different, but I did announce (way back in chapter 1) that I would be taking SMeyer's canon to its logical extreme. She's the one who wrote that it takes several days and that it's incredibly painful. She's the one who wrote her new-borns as being crazed with bloodlust - well, she told and never showed, and Bella turned into a horribly obnoxious Sue in BD, but that's how they are supposed to be. SMeyer also wrote her vampires as having simultaneous micro- and macrovision after they turn, and as hearing everything all at once, which would render them blind and deaf - hence Bella's difficulties in this fic. If you see everything at once, you see nothing at all. No matter how sparkly and awesome your vamps are, Steph, that's how it would work. Does any of SMeyer's lore make much sense? Nope, but this is a canon re-write. Anyway, it's always a pleasure reading your thoughts on my story, and I thank you all for giving me the time of day. In this chapter, shit gets real. There are also a number of references to TMNT 1987, South Park, Star Trek, Ghostbusters 1984, Real Ghostbusters...yeah, that's all I can think of right now. I hope you enjoy it! I really appreciate the feedback.
Chapter Twenty-Four
1 People at the hotel are gonna die, Leah had objected when they were talking over their infallible plan at the beach house.
They're doomed, anyway, Jasper had countered. They've all been infected by the Borg Queen. Their fate was sealed the moment the little trio of freaks walked into that hotel.
You don't know that, jackass!
He'd given her an unmistakeable bitch-please look. Honey, you don't seriously think that dear Nessie would entrench herself in that place without making sure everyone within reach is hers to command, right?
I know what I saw, Maria had added cheerily, although fuck if Leah knew whether this was a genuine sentiment or not. It was so hard to tell with vampires. Maria had been sitting to Jasper's left on the big couch, Bell-Bell to his right. I'm afraid they're all lost.
Leah had shot a look at Demetri and seen all confirmation she'd ever need. Fine. So they're as good as dead. Jacob-
Doesn't know that, Bella had cut in. He doesn't perceive Renesmee as a threat or as dangerous. He can't. She's his imprint. If anything, he probably believes that we want to take her away from him. I'm positive that he thinks we'll want to ensure the human hostages' safety. He'll try to use them as leverage.
And so we sacrifice dozens of people, Leah had said snidely, and snorted derisively. Nice. Really, that's just fucking charming.
There's no other way, Demetri had said. Maria is right: they are all lost and will have to be eliminated, anyway. It would, however, make sense to use that inevitability to our advantage.
Juggling with lives to further one's agenda had seemed very much vampiric in nature to Leah, but she'd agreed (grudgingly) that the leeches were spot on the money about that one. If dozens of innocent people had to die, anyway, to keep the horror from spreading, then at least they should die for a good cause. It wasn't as if their demise was up for debate. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it.
In theory, though, everything always sounded much more straight forward than it ended up being. The plan was simple enough: Bell-Bell was going to poison Jacob with a dose of her venom. Jasper, Maria, and Maria's minions would position themselves in an extended perimeter around the hotel, but far enough away not to be smelled or seen by their targets; they'd also start a number of fires. Fires. In a huge city filled with innocent people. Fire as a diversion. Anyway, Leah and Demetri would, accompanied by a number of other leeches, storm the hotel. Four of them would attempt to get to Rosalie and the demon baby and Charlie, while the others…yeah, they'd do the clean-up job regarding the rest of the patrons.
Better not to think about that.
The green area and little park behind the two silvery towers of the hotel were on fire. From the front, the setting sun reflected off the metal and windows in bright red and orange. From behind, flames flickered, drenching the huge buildings in dark shadows. Black smoke was billowing into the only partially overcast evening sky. Only the most dramatic reveal of dying sunlight for the most dramatic event of their lives! At least nature had a sense of propriety. From the distance, sirens could be heard. Passers-by were staring and simultaneously running away from the mayhem. Cars were stopping in the middle of the road. The ambient noise was unbelievable – the smell of things burning to a crisp, too.
Nobody was exiting the hotel.
Getting lost in all the chaos, Leah and her leech posse (dibs on the band name!) pushed through the doors into the lobby.
"Aw, fuck! What the hell?" It was out before she knew it. Before she knew it, too, she'd reached out and grabbed Demetri's elbow, as if to hold him back or something equally idiotic. What was she, the team mom? Real Ghostbusters Janine after studio intervention? Christ.
The reaction wasn't completely unwarranted, though. At least ten people were just standing there, staring at them, their mouths hanging open in silent screams, their faces twisted masks of horror and panic. Some of them had reddish-brown stains caking their chins and their clothes. All of their eyes were completely white, as if their eyeballs had rolled back in an attempt to crawl into their skulls.
The stench was unbelievable, making the stinging smell of burning wood seem like the loveliest of perfumes. Good God, were these people putrefying alive? It was disgusting.
"Not our concern," Demetri said lowly, calmly, and started walking ahead. Two of Maria's vampires – a skinny once-black woman (what was with the white-washing these poor people were forced to go through? Lordy!) and a pasty red-headed man – followed wordlessly.
Three other leeches advanced on the still figures.
Trying (and failing) not to shudder, Leah ran past the sort-of zombies and past her three companions. She was the first to head up the staircase. Yeah, taking the elevator would probably not be a problem, but why risk getting stuck? People always behaved stupidly in movies and trashy novels because the plot said so. Leah aimed for not falling into the traps of her own shortcomings. It wasn't always avoidable, but in this case, the smarter choice was pretty obvious.
"Do you want to phase?" Demetri was to her right in a flash. Oh yeah, right: those people never got physically tired. How annoying.
She'd almost forgotten (that he was a vampire). "Only if I have to. If Charlie's still alive, he'll need a familiar face to look at."
"If they haven't split, already," Red-Headed Vampire Guy said. He was close behind.
"They can't. We've got them surrounded and they will be able to tell," Vampire Woman retorted.
"Well, if you're not going to phase, please forgive me for this," Demetri said, unceremoniously scooped Leah into his arms, and started dashing upstairs at a blinding, scenery-blurring pace, "but we're a little pressed for time, and in human form, you're slower than I am."
Leah hardly had time to cry out in protest or to feel nauseous before they reached the top story. Holy fuck. "Thanks a bunch, buddy," she muttered when he set her on her feet again, and reeled for a second.
"Apologies," he said, not really sounding very sorry at all. "Shall we go?"
"Yes. No time like the present," she said, and took a deep breath. They stepped out of the door leading from the stairs and onto the corridor. It was silent, and the air smelled clean. No sort-of zombies around here, then. Thank goodness for that one! In front of the door to the presidential suite (and assuming that that was where their pals would be hiding was a bit of a no-brainer), they all stopped. "Well, do we knock?" Here was Leah's trusted old coping mechanism again. She was Doctor Snark and Captain Sarcasm, all rolled into one. How delightful.
"They're in there, waiting for us," Vampire Woman said, while Leah wished she'd had a better memory for things like people's names. Well, nobody was perfect.
"Waiting for us to walk in there and let the spawn erase our free will with its demon voice," Leah said. "Maybe it needs to touch us, since we're not human." Otherwise, why wasn't Re-name-me screaming from the inside? Why did the whole gig have to be so damn creepy? Her stomach panged. This part of the plan was…icky. She'd actually wanted to get this bullshit over with before, but both she and the vampires healed too quickly. Well, the vampires didn't heal so much as simply reassemble, and-
Oh, for heaven's sake! Now was so not the time for internal ramblings! This whole stupid plan was half-assed and very likely to fail, but they were desperate. Also, they did have a failsafe…kind of. Sort of. Yeah.
"We should just do it," Vampire Guy said, as if reading her thoughts. He wasn't. She'd checked.
"This whole bullshit is so convoluted and stupid and depending on a whole lot of variables aligning just the way we need them to, I feel like we're gonna walk in there to find Shredder and Krang waiting for us with a trans-dimensional mutagen ray or something," Leah said, and pulled the convenient knitting needle she'd found at the house from her sweater's left sleeve.
Demetri glanced at her, eyebrows raised. "Who?"
Leah only waved off.
"More like Cthulhu and Eric Cartman," Vampire Guy said from behind her. "Although if they do win, maybe we'll wake up from a dream where we only thought we'd failed at preventing the episode's villains from turning Tijuana into Shredderville."
"What was that episode's Aesop again?" Leah said. Her stomach was churning. Yes, she was stalling. No, it didn't change the fact that they were going to actually go through with their ridiculously cartoonish plan. "Be careful what you wish for, Turtles!"
"Yeah, totally radical, dude. Very nice. I was around during the Eighties, too, you know," Vampire Woman said, sounding a little bored and very much annoyed. "Can we please finally get a move on and stop spouting outdated pop-culture references? The people in there are probably getting antsy."
"Cowabunga, friends and allies," Leah muttered, and braced herself for the pain. "Here we go." Without further ado, she jammed the needle into her ears.
2 Jacob didn't so much as lose consciousness, but he must've been sort of in and out of it, as he lost some chunks of time. One moment, beach. Pain. Nausea. Bella carrying him. Black-out. Some house. Stairs. Black-out. Being tied to a chair. Black-out. A gag? Duct tape? Seriously? Black-out.
Then, bright light in his eyes. Might've been acid. He tried to scream. Muffled yell came out, instead. He couldn't move. Why couldn't he move? His skin was burning. His blood was burning. His eyes were burning. He was on fire liquefying acid lava excruciating pain so much pain sweet Jesus flames agony.
Where was Nessie? Oh God, they were after Nessie, his precious girl, the most important person in the universe, and he was here, helpless and in pain, completely useless! What was going to happen? What were they going to do? They wanted to take her away from him, keep her all to themselves, lock her up where she couldn't have any more friends! He couldn't let that happen! The thought of her sadness alone felt like someone punching into his gut and ripping his insides out. Oh God. Oh God!
That was when he realised that he was bawling. God damn it!
"Is the light making it worse? I'm sorry." Was that Bella? That lousy, lying piece of shit! Once he managed to free himself, he was going to make her pay, he was going-
Relative darkness returned. A little relief! He drew in a tremulous breath through his snot-dripping nose. Not his number-one option at the moment, but what with the fucking duct tape…
"I'm sorry about the pain, Jake, but there was no other way," she said flatly, tonelessly. Her metallic voice felt like shrapnel in his poor, tortured ears. "It should be less awful because I infected you via injection and not by biting you directly. Demetri says this lessens the effect of the venom." She sat down on the big bed opposite the chair she'd tied him to and just looked at him passively for an excruciatingly long half-eternity. "You're too far gone. You're no longer fit to consent, as Jasper would call it."
Wait, was there warmth in her voice at the mention of Creepula? For fuck's sake, here he was, burning, writhing, helpless, unsure whether he was going to be able to keep from shitting himself, and she had a crush on goddamn Creepula? This was so screwed up. He squinted at her and tried to fling an insult at her head, but of course, nothing but a stifled groan came out.
"I'm hoping the venom breaks the control just as it broke yours over Leah, but I'm not counting on it. Maybe we can incapacitate you until they come up with a cure in Volterra. Then again, maybe there is no cure. Maybe there is damage control. Maybe there is nothing at all. We'll have to wait and see what happens, won't we?" She tilted her head slightly to the side as she watched him, unblinking. "I don't want you to die. I don't want Charlie to die. But there's the distinct possibility that we won't have a choice."
Who the hell was 'we', anyway? Awesome of her. Here she was, pretending to have a bleeding heart in order to absolve herself of the guilt of murdering those closest to her. Acknowledging that something was wrong did not wash the sins away. Man, these leeches were all such hypocrites! How he longed to have his strength back! He'd rip her head off and toss it in the fire her little friends had started.
"I know you don't want to hear this, Jake, but Renesmee is dangerous – very dangerous. Already, she's responsible for multiple deaths. More will follow. She's not just a little girl. She's never been just a little girl. Her mind has always been developed, and what she does is take away people's free will. She eats away the personalities of everyone she touches and turns them into her drones. How can you not see how wrong, how terrible that is?"
His stomach clenched. He felt sick. Great. If he was going to throw up, it was going to have to come out of his nostrils. Awesome. Good thing he was sweating buckets, too, to compensate for that. Hallelujah. Some of her words struck a chord, somehow, reminding him of earlier, more peaceful days, but…but…no. No! No! This was bullshit! Nessie was a little girl, and all she wanted was to be loved and protected! That was all there was to it! He needed to get back to her. He needed her!
"Stop struggling. You'll only make it worse for yourself," she said, again in that flat, emotionless tone. Sure, she was really heartbroken about all of this, wasn't she? Psychopathic asshole with no motherly instinct, that was what she was! A soulless, undead monster. "You're outnumbered and outgunned. We've got Jasper and Maria to divert attention from the hotel and to calm everyone down. We've got Demetri and Leah to take care of the rest." She paused, but all he could do was glare at her out of his poor, watering, tortured eyes. "I know you thought that taking all those humans hostage was your trump card, but it wasn't. They're all infected and would have to die anyway."
That…what? He hadn't expected…seriously? God Lord, these monsters were cold! Were they…were they really…his stomach churned worse than ever. It felt as if his innards were liquefying. What the hell? They couldn't…they…sweet Jesus. This was fucking awful!
"I know that you won't see it this way because you can't, but we're the good guys in this," she went on prattling. Yeah, sure. "So what we're gonna do is sit tight and wait until it's all over. Then, we'll decide what happens to you."
Oh, wasn't that just great? How magnanimous of her. If he could have, he would've strangled her right there and then. How could he ever have loved such a cold, selfish, murderous piece of garbage who wouldn't even lift a finger to save her own daughter? She was right about one thing, though: right now, there really was nothing to do but wait. He'd wait until the effect of the venom had lessened, and then he would kill this undead monster and all of her allies. He'd get back to his Nessie, no matter what.
No matter what.
3 At least the hearing loss worked perfectly. The funny thing was, they didn't even know how strong Renesfail's voice powers were, but risking being taken in any more than they already had would be really stupid. That was why going temporarily deaf was the safer choice rather than opting for earmuffs or earplugs. Sure, the whole plan was still half-assed and depended on a whole bunch of things working out just right, but desperate times and all. They didn't have much of a choice, and they had to act quickly.
Now, was this the plot of an awesome 80s cartoon or of a bad 2000s horror flick? Maybe both. Probably both. It was absurd enough, in any case, but hey, this was Leah's life, and she had always wanted to live through incredible adventures. Yeah. So much for that.
Unable to hear herself, she called out (yelled?) for Rosalie to open the door and let them in, that they didn't want anyone else to get hurt, that they'd come in anyway, and that Rosalie and Renesmee had nowhere to run. Of course, nothing happened. In her human form, Leah couldn't exactly smell them, but if they tried to bolt, her vamp buddies would notice. She was pretty sure, however, that Rosalie was bound to realise that all exits were blocked for her and the demon baby. When the door wasn't opened, Vampire Woman kicked it in. As they'd agreed previously, they waited, but still, nothing happened. Cautiously and deliberately slowly, they entered the lion's den. Leah's heart was pounding and she was ready to phase at a moment's notice. She hoped to God that Charlie was still alive.
They found all three of them in the living area, waiting. Rosalie was standing by the huge panorama window, holding a weeping Renesmee in her arms. Charlie stood right beside her, dishevelled and pale, his cheeks covered in dark stubble, his moustache in disarray, his hands in the pockets of his blood-stained uniform pants. He obviously knew that he had zero chance of escaping. Before he could even make it halfway to the couch, Bitch Barbie From Hell would be able to break his neck at least half a dozen times.
When he saw Leah, his warm, brown eyes grew wide, and there was a flicker of hope in them.
She gave him a grim little smile and nodded curtly. To Rosalie, whose own bright-red eyes were darting from one hostile to the other, she said, "We can't hear you and we won't let the d…the child touch us." Briefly, she held up her gloved hands and sent a silent (and grudging) thanks to Maria, who'd provided them with what they needed earlier. "Rosalie, you're surrounded. There is no escape. If you try to run, you'll die. The kid will, too. I know that's the last thing you want."
Renesmee buried her face in Rosalie's golden locks and clung onto her like it was the end of the world. Well, in a sense, it was. Her entire body shook uncontrollably.
Rosalie said something, and even though Leah's lip-reading ability was limited, it was fairly obvious that the words had not been those of kindness and friendship and puppies and unicorns.
"We have Jacob," Leah continued, cutting into whatever hateful tirade the leech was hurling at her. "The infected humans have already been taken care of." 'Mercy-killed' was the term she was actually looking for. "For now, Jasper and Maria are keeping people away from the building, but that won't last forever."
She stared at the leech, arms crossed, willing her to see reason beyond the mind-warp she'd suffered – irreversible mind-warp, according to Demetri. Leah's stomach roiled. Here she was, lying to these people's faces as if it were nothing. They both had to die, and she was selling them a happy ending where there could be none. The worst thing was, she was doing it well. Fibbing had never been much of a problem, but she'd never actually told big, game-changing lies to anyone. This here was a matter of life and death. That didn't exactly compare to lying to her mom about sneaking out at night in order to hook up with Sam. Images of the vampires she'd killed (Skinny kid in a soccer jersey. Short lady. Chubby boy. Pixie-haircut girl.) popped up before her mind's eye. She was a killer. Yes, those leeches had already been dead. Yes, it had been self-defence. No, rationalising the taking of a life did not make it better at all.
Then, she thought of Jared and Embry, carelessly murdered and left in the woods to rot. She thought of Seth, who'd said all those hateful things to her because he'd already been too far gone, who'd tried to kill her in order to protect the demon-spawn. She thought of her friends and distant relatives dying in the name of an ancient duty to protect the land and the people. She thought of the little wolves being crushed to death by undead monsters who'd been responsible for every single tragedy that had unfolded in and around Forks, long before the mind-warping demon baby had waltzed upon the stage. She thought of the dead humans, and how casual the Cullens had been about those deaths, how they had turned Bell-Bell fully expecting her to go berserk and murder oodles of innocent human beings. She thought of the rest of her people, who were being held hostage by that fucking albino leech and the creepy Shining twins. She thought of Sam and Emily. She thought of her dad. She thought of Jacob, whose fate was as good as sealed. She thought of Charlie and the hope she'd just seen in his eyes. She thought of Bell-Bell and her sadistic little boyfriend, killing as they went and having exactly zero fucks to give. She thought of Demetri, who hadn't chosen any of this and who still managed to be a decent person, despite the fact that someone had turned him into a parasitic monster against his will.
Finally, she thought of herself.
The pain in her stomach vanished. Her hands stopped shaking. She felt her face getting hot. Straightening her posture, she said, "It's over. You know it. We know it. Give up. You got nowhere to run, and you can only make it worse for everyone, mostly yourselves. You resist, you die. That's all there is to it. Negotiations are done."
Rosalie stared at her, wide-eyed and thin-lipped, whilst Charlie looked like he was on the verge of high-fiving Leah. He looked so…proud.
That cut right into Leah's heart. She glanced at Demetri, who nodded.
He said something Leah couldn't make out, and Rosalie's panicky stare fixed on him.
She backed against the thick glass, crushing Renesmee to her chest, shaking her head. When she spoke, there was no mistaking her words, as she very clearly enunciated, "Go to hell."
Oh-oh. Time to wolf out and time for the vamps to jump to the rescue. They'd take care of Rosalie and the demon-spawn; Leah would save Charlie, as agreed. Whatever his fate might be, he would not die here in this stupid hotel at the hands of goddamn Rosalie Hale. She balled her hands into fists, flexed her muscles, felt the heat rising-
That was when it happened. Quick as lightning, unexpected, almost as if he were a leech himself, Charlie turned left, grabbed Renesmee's head, and twisted it harshly. Leah could almost hear the snapping sound. The kid went limp in Rosalie's arms. Rosalie stared at Charlie as if he'd just transmuted into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, her mouth open, her eyes huge. He stared right back, pale as a sheet, clearly not believing he'd just done what he'd done.
Leah saw it happen before it actually happened. Rosalie held the lifeless body of the demon-spawn against herself with her left arm, clenched her right fist, hauled back-
Leah screamed. She jumped, shoved Charlie away. The fist connected with her torso, punched through it. Pain. God oh God what was this oh God her body was broken it was broken dear Lord the pain! Blood. Air. No air! Oh, God. Oh, no. The floor seemed to come up, connected with her face. She hardly felt that. Legs in her field of vision, yanking Rosalie away. So much blood! She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe! She-
The world went black.
4 The hotel in Port Angeles that Chelsea had chosen before her return to Volterra was really quite proper: it overlooked the rather captivating Strait of Juan de Fuca and was only a block away from the town centre. Not that Caius and his small entourage would do much exploring during the short time they'd be staying there. No, they'd fed well before leaving Italy, and they wouldn't need to risk exposing themselves for at least another week. Less experienced vampires might be too tempted to succumb to their urges sooner, but centuries of experience, practice, and patience taught a person the self-discipline that he or she needed in order to survive in this world.
Self-discipline might not be enough to control all the damage that had been done here, though. Already – as Quirina had discovered – the FBI had been asked to assist with investigations by the local police, and given the fact that the Cullens had been under observation for their dodgy financial practices anyway, this affair was far from over. Demetri and the other surviving vampires had done a good job eliminating physical evidence, and all living witnesses were accounted for, but that didn't mean they were all safe from discovery. No, once the immediate danger was over, some major damage control would need to be effected. That would be the perfect opportunity for Jasper Whitlock to prove his worth to his new coven, wouldn't it?
Caius was standing on the balcony of his suite. He was looking out at the slowly darkening waters of the strait, breathing in the salty, briny sea air because he needed it in order to be able to speak to Aro through the pre-paid mobile telephone…but also because it reminded him of the days when he'd been stationed at Ostia with his garrison of soldiers, millennia ago. How heart-wrenching it had been to be forced to leave it all behind. How devastating it had been to helplessly watch the proud and mighty Roman Empire fall. How-
Oh, this was quite useless.
Grabbing the metal railing with almost too much force, he said, "You're sure the woman does not show symptoms of corruption?"
On the other end of the line, Aro laughed softly. "You should listen to yourself, dear brother: 'the woman'. She has a name, you know."
"I know." What he really meant to say was that he didn't give a fig, but Aro had a tendency to dial up his charming power whenever someone got too blunt for his taste, and Caius was in no mood to be dazzled against his will.
"As for your question: no, she remains uncorrupted. She is not unsusceptible to the creature's powers, but the creature cannot force her to do its bidding. It's quite fascinating! I believe we are really edging closer to a solution, maybe even a cure."
If he were to be perfectly candid, Caius had no idea how to feel about that announcement. He was well aware that dhampirs were to Aro what werewolves were to himself: Aro hated them with unmitigated passion. Of course it would be good news – great news, in fact – if Aro managed to find a way to counteract dhampir corruption. Still, he'd only barely come to terms with what had happened to his sister, all those centuries ago. Sometimes, rage and grief still completely overwhelmed him to the point of rendering him almost helpless. How well would he be able to handle finding out that execution wasn't the only option for those who had been spoiled by a half-breed's unholy powers? Caius didn't know. Any scenario was possible. Aro had been so hell-bent on finding answers, the whole affair had basically become the white whale to his Captain Ahab. What did a person do once the strongest driving force of their lives was taken away from them?
Caius put his free hand to his mangled throat and closed his eyes for a moment. He then thought of Atalante and her words to him. She'd told him that he had won. She'd told him that his enemies were dead and that he was not. For the first time in possibly forever, he wondered whether that was the source of his ever-growing lack of contentment. Maybe he needed enemies to fight. Maybe he really was unable to shake the part of himself that was a Roman commander who'd known nothing but war games all his life.
The bigger question was: did the same apply to Aro? The answer to this would make all the difference to every vampire in the whole world once he managed to reach the goal he'd been striving to reach for over half a millennium…whether this meant finding a cure for dhampir corruption or coming to the conclusion that that was utterly impossible.
"If you're right, my initial instinct to collect and not summarily execute the Cullen dhampir was right."
"No!" The sharpness of Aro's reply was almost enough to make Caius flinch. More softly, he added, "No. Fiora is all we need. The Cullen one seems even more powerful, and I don't want to have two mind-consuming monsters under my roof. It just doesn't seem very prudent to me."
"If you feel that way. I'll tell Demetri."
"Tell him to collect some of the corrupted people, too: a vampire, that imprinted wolf, and a human. I need living subjects to test my theory on. Who knows? Maybe I can heal them."
Caius looked out at the grey waters again. There was a stiff breeze coming in from the sea. It felt lovely. There was something inherently pleasing about the ocean. Sighing inwardly, he made himself say the following: "Demetri has been acting very protective of one of the werewolves – the female, Leah Clearwater. I think he's become emotionally attached to her in some way."
There was a moment of silence. Then, Aro said, "Ah, I see. Our permanently lonely boy makes a friend you disapprove of, and now you're convinced that he's turned traitor, or something equally absurd," merrily.
Well, wasn't this just typical? Biting back a sharp comeback, Caius limited himself to replying, "These creatures are just as dangerous to us as half-breeds, Aro. Matters such as these are not to be taken lightly," through clenched teeth.
"Dear Caius, you should know me well enough to understand that I take nothing lightly," Aro said, still sounding cheerful, even though he knew that Caius knew that this tone of voice could not always be trusted. "I just happen to agree with Demetri: the Quileute wolves are only a threat to us if we threaten them, first." Of course Aro would know everything about what Demetri thought on the subject after one brief second of touching Chelsea's hand.
"As the highest ranking field officer, I've taken the liberty of giving him an ultimatum: either he proves his loyalty by killing the female wolf, or I will erase this tribe from the face of the Earth once and for all."
There was a heavy, rather exasperated sigh at the other end. "I wish you hadn't done that – really, I do. I don't like it when deals made by one of our agents get unmade by a superior. It makes us look bad, and that is something we do not need."
"Aro…" Caius started impatiently, but Aro cut him off.
"No, I won't cancel out your decision. You are, as you so eloquently put it, the highest ranking field officer. You are my general, Caius, and I won't undermine your authority. That kind of lack of unity would make us look worse than a massacre ever could, because at least the latter commands respect. I would advise you to act more prudently in the future, however, and take into consideration that violence is not always the best course of action." Again, he sighed. "I wish you had consulted me before giving Demetri this rather rash ultimatum." At least he wasn't cancelling it out.
Caius felt a grim little smile take hold of his sharp-angled features. The breeze coming in from the water blew back his short, blond hair, and ruffled the scarf concealing his faintly itching scar. "I'll keep that in mind."
"See that you do. It would really pain me to be forced to supervise the every step of a person I've come to rely on so much." It was smart not to ignore this thinly-veiled threat, because no matter how idiosyncratic Aro's behaviour might get, he wasn't exactly in the habit of idly threatening people.
"Of course. If you make any progress with the half-breed, I want updates. Oh, and there is a corrupted wolf youth in La Push that you might want to examine more closely, if the one in Mexico cannot be salvaged alive."
"Well, isn't that delightful news?" Aro probably already knew that one, too, but he just loved his little games, didn't he? "Of course I will keep you informed, dear brother. Please, enjoy your stay in America. I hope nothing will happen to inconvenience your short holiday. One last thing, though: I've decided to allow Chelsea to re-join you in Port Angeles. She expressed regret at having to cut her trip short. I'm sure you'll appreciate her company." With that, he disconnected the call.
Only barely refraining from tossing the phone over the railing, Caius bit his tongue and brusquely stomped back inside the room. No matter what Aro said, no matter how many spies Aro sent, Caius knew that he was right. The werewolf threat had to be eliminated. There was no other choice. Aro obviously wouldn't approve if Caius decided to kill all the wolves, but he would not jeopardise the Volturi leaders' unity publicly at any price.
After all, a massacre was the lesser evil, wasn't it?
5 "You want me to do what?" Irina stared at Aro incredulously. They were back in her cell / guest room. He'd led her back there a while ago, telling her he needed to take care of some business, and that it would be lovely if she just stayed put during his absence. Naturally, she did as required. What else was she supposed to do, anyway? Roam the corridors, weeping? Hardly. She'd busied herself well enough in the interim, but of course, her mind had kept returning to the subject of Fiora, the brain-eating dhampir who'd not managed to make her do its bidding.
It? It? Good God. Had she really just thought of that poor girl with a dehumanising pronoun? Yes, it would make everything a lot easier, dehumanising her, but easy did usually not equal right. It certainly didn't in this case.
"You have no supernatural ability, and yet there is something in you that makes you resistant to the powers of the strongest dhampirs," Aro explained cheerfully. God, he just looked so unbelievably happy, it was nigh on impossible for her to resist the temptation of simply giving into the feeling, herself. "There has to be a reason for this. The best option we have is to test the most probable hypotheses first."
Okay. That made sense. What it didn't do was make the affair any more palatable – literally, in this case. She crossed her arms and took a little step back, trying hard to shield herself from the effects of his bubbly enthusiasm. This guy was really something else. It was one thing to find oneself under unwanted circumstances. It was quite different when one suddenly started to feel things that were unwanted and that were being originated by another person.
"And the most probable hypothesis is that my resistance is somehow tied to something in my venom?"
In a split second, he was right in front of her, grabbing her upper arms, beaming at her in a way that made it impossible for her to look away from him. "Wouldn't that be absolutely incredible? Nothing short of amazing?"
She shrugged awkwardly, feeling strangely weak in the knees. "Well, I've been called a poisonous succubus before."
At that, he laughed. "You young people and your sarcasm. Don't put yourself down, dear girl. You are a marvel of nature. In fact, you might be a game-changer, and don't we all want to be special in some way?"
Through all the dazzling, Irina was not too far gone to not notice how phony all this flattery was. He didn't know her. He had no reason to care, but probably every reason to believe that nice manners were bound to get him further than brute force. Still, thinking about the girl in the cage reminded her that this was a person who was capable of great violence, who-
He took her hands. The smile vanished. "I'm sorry you feel that way, and in time, I hope I can persuade you otherwise."
Oh, yes. She'd almost forgotten about his tactile telepathy.
"An easy mistake to make," he said, voice and expression warm again. "Come on, then, sweet Irina. Let us test our most likely hypothesis."
6 Bella and Jacob hadn't sat around in the master bedroom for long, when her phone rang. She plucked it out of her pocket, stared at it with that blank look on her weird face for a couple of seconds, and then took the call. "Yes? Oh, hi." Was that warmth in her voice again? Aw, sweet. It must be Creepula calling, wanting nothing more than to update his lady love on current events.
Yuck.
Jacob sat slumped in that dumb chair, boiling and freezing at the same time, his stomach lurching and his breath hitching, his teeth chattering, his whole body shaking uncontrollably. The rope felt like it was cutting into melting skin. Was this even a fraction of what people experienced while they were being turned into leeches? No wonder they all went fucking insane. All he wanted to do was rip his burning skin off, crawl into the ocean, and sleep sleep sleep forever. Instead, here he was, not even allowed temporal insanity, being forced to have a fully functioning mind despite the pain and nausea. He watched Bella as she listened to whoever.
She was utterly immobile, not breathing, not blinking, not emoting. God knew how long this went on, but finally, she shoved the phone back into the pocket of her pants. Focussing her dead eyes on Jacob, she said, "It's over."
It felt like a punch in his dissolving stomach. Bile shot up his throat. He gagged, swallowed it down again, cringed. This was disgusting! His thoughts kept screaming Nessie's name. Where was she? What had they done to her? Was she all right? She must feel so frightened, so lost, so unloved, so-
All that escaped his lips was a muffled whimper. He struggled against his restraints, but was helpless against them until the stupid venom wore off.
"Charlie broke Renesmee's neck," Bella said, sounding mildly surprised, while Jacob almost vomited. "Not that this will kill her, not permanently at least, but it did put her out of commission for a while. Interesting, isn't it? I hadn't even thought of that."
Interesting? Interesting? These goddamn monsters! Laying hands on his girl! He was gonna rip them all limb from limb! He was gonna annihilate their entire unholy species! He would watch them all burn! He would-
"Leah's been badly injured, though, Jasper tells me," Bella went on, very obviously completely indifferent. "She might not make it." After a moment of silence, she tilted her head slightly to the side, not taking her creepy corpse eyes off him. "You know, I once thought that I had stumbled into the loveliest fairy tale. In such a tale, the plucky heroine – in this case Leah rather than myself – would undoubtedly survive whatever gruesome injury she suffered during her heroic quest. She'd get to her lowest point, and then she'd overcome her difficulties and triumph against evil, in the end. But this isn't a fairy tale, is it, Jake? No, this is a horror story, the kind where it only pays off to be the right kind of monster. I understand that now. I didn't before, but now I do." She got up to her feet, stepped over to him, and reached out to touch his face. He flinched violently, though, and she let her hand drop to her side. "Neither Renesmee, nor Leah are the right kind of monster, you see, and if Renesmee's temporary death doesn't change your condition at all, then I'm afraid that neither are you."
He stared at her out of wide eyes. Sweat was dripping down his forehead, his nose, his chin, burning as it went. His heart was thundering. His whole body trembled. Oh, Leah. Of course he didn't want her to die, but if she'd gotten herself crushed while trying to harm his Nessie, then she'd brought it upon herself. No, what really mattered was getting back to his precious girl. He needed to save her from those abominations holding her hostage. If Leah's little buddies hadn't gotten rid of Barbie, yet, then Jacob would have to do it, instead. Nessie wouldn't be too pleased at first, but she'd understand. The vampires were bad for her. No, what she really needed was Jacob – him, and no-one else. He'd make her understand. She could still have human pets if she wanted (and of course she deserved to be worshipped as a goddess), but the only person she really needed in her life was Jacob. Soon, they'd be reunited, and then he would make the vampires pay for what they'd done.