Carlisle:
Jane's eyes moved slowly across all our faces, then dropped to Bree, who was muttering madly, her head in her hands again.
"I don't understand," Jane said. Her voice was dry, toneless. Her dark burgundy eyes were suspicious.
"She has surrendered," Edward answered for me.
"Surrendered?" Jane demanded, a hint of curiosity shining through.
"Carlisle gave her the option," Edward explained.
"There are no options for those who break the rules." Jane's voice lost all its curiosity: it was as cold and cruel as ever.
"That's in your hands," I said. "As long as she was willing to halt her attack on us, I saw no need to destroy her. She was never taught." Please, Jane, see reason…she can learn…
Jane wasn't buying it.
"That is irrelevant."
"As you wish," I agreed; objection would lead to trouble we did not need, but perhaps there was some other way to convince her…
Jane stared at me, surprised and maybe even disappointed at my apparent willingness to comply. She shook away her surprise with the slightest movement, and composed her features.
"Aro hoped that we would get far enough west to see you, Carlisle. He sends his regards," Jane said politely. I nodded.
"I would appreciate if you could convey mine to him," I replied in the same tone.
"Of course," Jane said with an angelic smile. Her eyes moved away from my face to the remains of the bonfire. "It appears that you've done our work today…for the most part." She glanced at Bree. "Just out of professional curiosity, how many were there? They left quite a wake of destruction in Seattle."
"Eighteen, including this one," I replied. Jane was clearly taken aback by this. She looked back at the fire, trying to reassess the size of it.
"Eighteen?" she repeated.
"All brand-new," I shrugged dismissively: I couldn't make the fight sound too hard, because Jane would get suspicious about how we all managed to survive – no doubt she already was. Indeed, if we had been the only fighters, as we claimed, I dread to think of the shambled remains of the family who would be standing here. "They were unskilled."
"All?" Jane's voice turned sharp. "Then who was their creator?"
"Her name was Victoria," Edward answered blankly. Esme quivered, remembering all too well how she had been tricked and defeated, leaving the redhead free to attack Seth and Edward.
"Was?" Jane inquired. In explanation, Edward looked to the east, where a thinner pillar of smoke rose over the treetops. Jane looked that way for a long moment, and then examined the closer bonfire.
"This Victoria…" she wondered. "She was an addition to the eighteen here?"
"Yes," Edward replied. "She had only one other with her. He was not as young as this one here, but no older than a year."
"Riley," Esme hissed.
"Twenty," Jane murmured, trying to hide her shock. She quickly recovered and continued her interrogation. "Who dealt with the creator?"
"I did," Edward replied.
Jane's eyes narrowed into a glare, and her attention again returned to Bree. Esme shifted uncomfortably, only the slightest of movements, and the three cloaked guards behind Jane exchanged glances.
"You there," Jane demanded of the girl. "Your name?"
Bree gave Jane a hateful glare. Jane smiled amiably, and the girl gave a gut-wrenching scream, writhing against invisible bindings. Esme opened her mouth to object but I shook my head and she shut it again. Bella twisted away, looking as though she were about to be sick. My eyes were wide, and I couldn't tear them away from the convulsing, screaming Bree but to glance at Jane's face. She was still smiling - in fact, if anything, her smile had widened.
Finally, Bree's screams fell silent. Shaking limbs held her in a lopsided sitting position, and this time when she looked at Jane, it was with fear rather than bitterness.
"Your name," Jane demanded.
"Bree," the girl gasped. Esme's expression softened, but I kept my eyes on hers, warning her not to step out of place as Jane smiled again and Bree cried out in agony.
"She'll tell you anything you want to know," Edward explained through his teeth. "You don't have to do that."
"Oh, I know," Jane replied simply. I swallowed the growl in my throat; objecting would do neither Bree nor us any good. We were already treading on egg-shells.
"Bree, is his story true?" Jane demanded, her voice cold again. "Were there twenty of you?"
Bree was on her side, curled into the fetus position; she was panting, with dirt smudges everywhere. There were tears in her clothes, and her hair falling in front of her face. Worst of all, she shuddered and shook like a timid little rabbit, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. On hearing Jane's new question, she cringed like a beaten dog, expecting another bout of torture.
"Nineteen or twenty maybe more I don't know!" she cried. "Sara and the one whose name I don't know got into a fight on the way…"
"And this Victoria," Jane demanded. "Did she create you?"
"I don't know," Bree replied, trembling. "Riley never said her name…I didn't see that night…it was so dark…and it hurt…" Bree shuddered, and I glanced at Esme again to warn her to keep in place. She sadly nodded her understanding and returned her grieving eyes to Bree.
"He didn't want us to be able to think of her," Bree continued. "He said our thoughts weren't safe." Esme, Jane and I glanced at Edward. Our thoughts weren't safe…Victoria must have known about his ability.
"Tell me about Riley," Jane said. "Why did he bring you here?"
"Riley told us that we had to destroy the strange yellow-eyes here," Bree said quickly, willing to tell what she needed to if it meant avoiding Jane's torturous gaze. "He said it would be easy. He said that the city was theirs, and they were coming to get us. He said once they were gone, all the blood would be ours. He gave us her scent." She jabbed a finger at Bella. "He said we would know that we had the right coven, because she would be with them. He said whoever got to her first could have her."
Well he was fooling them on that part; Riley would have been the first newborn on the scene since he was with Victoria, and on top of that I doubted Victoria would be willing to let someone else kill Bella. This was, after all, a vengeance mission. Those newborns had no idea what they were getting themselves into.
"It looks like Riley was wrong about the easy part," Jane noted, her eyes flicking to my face. Her comment ruffled my feathers just a little; I was very proud of my family, and even if she hadn't meant it as a compliment, I would happily take it as such.
Bree nodded and carefully sat up, still quivering a little with the fear that Jane would hurt her again.
"I don't know what happened," she continued. "We split up, but the others never came. And Riley left us, and he didn't come to help like he promised. And then it was so confusing, and everybody was in pieces. I was afraid. I wanted to run away. That one-" she looked at me "- said they wouldn't hurt me if I stopped fighting."
"Ah, but that wasn't his gift to offer, young one. Broken rules demand consequences," Jane murmured gently. Esme and I both moved to react, but Jasper shot us each a warning glare. We stopped. Bree's eyes flickered between us, searching for some kind of recognition. Hope. Help.
"Are you sure you got them all?" Jane asked, snapping my attention back to her. "The other half that split off?"
"We split up too," I told her confidently; she didn't need to know exactly who the 'we' included.
"I can't deny that I'm impressed," she concluded. The other guards murmured in agreement. "I've never seen a coven escape this magnitude of offensive intact. Do you know what was behind it? It seems like extreme behaviour, considering the way you live here. And why was the girl the key?"
Her eyes fell reluctantly to Bella.
"Victoria had a grudge against Bella," Edward explained, making Jane laugh. It was a child's laugh, which seemed strange coming out of the mouth of one who smiled at the sound of screaming. She smiled again now, gazing at Bella in the same strange, benign way she had looked at Bree. Bella did not react, but Edward stiffened.
"Would you please not do that?" he asked. Jane laughed again.
"Just checking," she said merrily. "No harm done, apparently."
Bella shivered, but looked relieved. Her unreadable mind seemed to have retained its protective qualities.
"Well it appears that there's not much left for us to do," Jane said after a moment. "We're not used to being rendered unnecessary. It's too bad we missed the fight. It sounds like it would have been entertaining to watch."
"Yes, and you were so close," Edward replied, scrutinizing Jane's mind for a reason behind not being here earlier. "It's a shame you didn't arrive just a half hour earlier. Perhaps then you could have fulfilled your purpose here."
Jane met Edward gaze, unfazed though she knew his intent.
"Yes, quite a pity how things turned out, isn't it?" she replied, playing Edward's game. Something in her mind must have told Edward what he needed to know; he nodded to himself, satisfied with whatever it was.
Jane's gaze returned to Bree, now bored.
"Felix?" she invited.
"Wait," Edward interrupted. Jane raised an eyebrow at him, and Edward looked at me. "We could explain the rules to the young one," he proposed, a last ditch effort at saving Bree. "She doesn't seem unwilling to learn. She didn't know what she was doing."
"Of course," I agreed. "We would certainly be prepared to take responsibility for Bree."
Jane stared at us in amazement and disbelief.
"We don't make exceptions," she said, "and we don't give second chances. It's bad for our reputation. Which reminds me…Caius will be so interested to hear that you're still human, Bella. Perhaps he'll decide to visit."
"The date is set," Alice interjected. "Perhaps we'll come to visit you in a few months."
She said yes? For a moment, I almost smiled, but the smile disappeared when Jane turned to me.
"It was nice to meet you, Carlisle – I'd thought Aro was exaggerating. Well, until we meet again…"
I nodded, trying not to let the pain show on my face as I forced myself to stand still. I looked apologetically at Bree, and her eyes widened in fear when she recognised our betrayal. Esme hung her head. Even Jasper looked a little disappointed.
"Take care of that, Felix," Jane said, flicking a hand dismissively in Bree's direction. "I want to go home."