13. DELIVERANCE
My jaw clenched as Jane's blood-boiling scream drew near an end. I could tell what she was trying to do: it was as plain as the nose on her face. The look in her eyes was a dead giveaway.
Her eyes were red, like fire, but far more piercing.
I could almost feel where her gaze hit every one of us, over and over again as her frenzied eyes flicked to our faces, time after time. If it weren't for Bella, all of us would be writhing in pain at her feet, bent to her mercy. But she was our prisoner. A prisoner of our war.
My eyes tightened and my nostrils flared. The Cullens scent was nothing like the Volturi's scent, like Jane's scent. The Volturi's scent was so much stronger, as if it was one hundred times as concentrated. Every werewolf in the dark chamber was starting to see red, just like I was, and the tremors and heat from the very center of our beings was trying to force itself out into our arms and legs.
"What the hell is she doing here?" Jacob spat.
Carlisle took a step forward, holding his hand towards us as if to lessen the tremors and stop anyone from phasing before it happened.
"Bella, Emmett, and Benjamin caught her just a few hours ago," the doctor explained. "She was scouting for them, for Caius, but with Marcus on our side, we have access to all of their hiding places. It wasn't too hard to find her."
Jane screamed again, thrashing and bashing her marble head on the concrete floor, where it left a huge dent.
"God damn it!" she screeched. I had never seen the usually apathetic vampire show more emotion other than a small gasp, let alone the violent fit she was throwing now. "This will be the end of you, Carlisle! They're coming for me, and you know it!"
A million growls erupted from our small army, including from me and Jake. I found that I was leaning in towards her from under Jacob's arm, wanting so badly to rip the witch to shreds.
"I swear to God," Bella yelled, and I could almost felt something like a shock-wave shoot through her shield as Jane's unyielding glare shot towards her a million times, not doing harm at all. Bella had her skill absolutely perfected. "I swear to God, you freaking demon, I will rip you to pieces myself if you don't keep the hell quiet!"
Jane ignored her, and her agonized voice ripped through our ears.
"I'd like you see you try to get me!" she screamed, and for once, she seemed to be regaining the smallest ounce of self-control. "Aro knows I'm here, he'll come looking for me himself, and Alec too, if he cares enough!"
She let out a heartless laugh.
I growled again as her head leaned back, and her laugh shrunk, still as demonic as it had been before. She was in hysterics, as if what she had said contained any humor in it at all.
"This means that the Volturi know we're here now," Carlisle continued, as if Jane had never interrupted at all. "Felix and Afton were with her when we captured her, but they were gone too fast for us to have stopped them in time."
My heart sank deeper inside me, and I frowned, growling lowly again. I doubted anyone missed it though.
"We have to get Josh out of there tonight, now if we can," one of the Seattle coven said, the taller blonde boy.
I wondered if I was the only one who noticed the newer dark haired Seattle vampire flinch at the sound of Josh's name.
"I agree entirely," Carmen of the Denali coven said.
"Nothing is more terrible than a loss of our own," Makenna, the European nomad with a light French accent, whispered.
The violence-hating leader of the Cullens nodded his head.
"What are your thoughts, Jacob?" he said, inclining his head towards my Alpha and soulmate.
Jacob looked around at the ones he led, looking each one of them carefully in the eyes.
"We're ready for this," Jacob said finally, turning back to Carlisle.
"Oh, I sure hope you are, honey-bunch!" Jane was screaming again, hitting her head against the concrete again, creating a bigger dent.
"I told you to shut it!" Bella spat. It was then that I noticed the crescent shaped marks on her arms, glowing as if they were back-lighted. Jane must have bitten her.
Jane growled again, but the vampires preventing her from escape growled in return, and she crunched up into a ball, putting her head between her knees.
"What will you do if..." I could tell what Carlisle was getting at, and it hammered at another part of my heart: the part reserved for my pack. "...if one of your pack doesn't return?"
Jacob almost smiled, but I could see the pain, the bleeding terror in his eyes.
"That won't happen," he assured Carlisle, but I could feel that he was assuring me at the same time, for his hand seemed to tighten slightly around me. But his promise was hollow. I could feel it. Loss was looming over us, waiting for the first time we would let down our guard, and then tragedy would strike.
"We are ready," Quil said, from Jacob's direct left. "We've fought beside you before, this time shouldn't be so different."
I frowned slightly, but no one would've been able to see the difference, I was already frowning. I bit my lip and sighed, blinking slowly.
"Besides," Quil went on, chuckling a little. "Us wolves are way ready to open up some whoop-ass on those Volturi punks."
Carlisle smiled at Quil, and Jane let loose another of her ear-slicing cackles.
"What's the plan, Doc?" Jacob said, his eyes glinting with excitement.
Collin, Brady, Michael, Gary, Ricky, Iliana, Warren, Steven, Chris, Jacob, and myself were stationed along the coast, in pairs. The other wolves, Leah, Sam, Paul, Jared, Quil, and Embry, were in different places, but we weren't given the whole plot, in case there was a possibility of being captured. Then at least Aro wouldn't know everything.
The vampires were all stationed somewhere too, but we had also been hidden from that information. All we knew was that they were waiting to give us a signal.
The only exception to the numbering of the pairs was the group that Jacob and I consisted of. This group also contained Brady, who was only the tiniest bit uncomfortable around us, but only when we were really close.
Isla Didyme was made up of one main island, which you could only see if they wanted you to see, or if you had a good plan and good eyes.
Directly to the right and left of the main island were two smaller islands, Athenodora and Sulpicia. The two smaller islands seemed to flank the larger island, and they were just as invisible as Isla Didyme herself. From what Carlisle remembered, in perfect vampire HD (of course), the two smaller islands were used like guard stations, and mounted at the highest points of these two islands, twin colossal black guard towers stood above everything. When Carlisle had been with the Volturi, they had been known as the Monoliths, and also as The Watchers.
Thanks to Edward's exceptionally useful gift, we knew the Volturi's plans- at least, everything Aro had entrusted to his dearest Jane. I doubted he had told her everything. Jane was being babysat by Bella, of course, as well as Kate and Jasper. If something went awry, Jane would be burned within seconds. We probably wouldn't even wait to tear her apart- just burn her were she stood.
The island trio was far enough that Edward couldn't hear their minds, or even sense that they were there. But I did learn how we knew they were, besides Jane, of course: Edward had gone on a solo scout mission, swimming out in the ocean far enough that he could sense their minds' presence on the islands. He was incredibly lucky, though, because he wasn't detected at all, and he could tell. I guessed that luck just came with the whole vampire gig.
The five pairs, and our group of three, were set up all along the coastline, waiting for some kind of the signal. The vampires had assured us that we would know it when we saw it. We were waiting now. Just waiting.
At the signal, we were to head towards the source of it, whatever and wherever that would be, and what we found would get us to the island fast. We would be headed for the two smaller islands, the guard towers. If we could get past the guard members on those islands, or destroy them in the process, then we would be good.
I was deep in worry. I was stuck in it. Hopeless questions whirled through my already dizzy mind:
Would we be able to even get to Josh?
If we lost too many, how were the others to survive?
If we lost too many, could the others to survive at all?
Would I ever be able to forgive myself if something happened to the younger wolves?
If I died, what would happen to Jacob?
But the worst of these worrying questions stuck on me like it was nailed to me, a note written in blood.
Would I be able to live if something happened to Jacob?
I tried to shake it off, but that made it hurt worse. Another knife in my heart, a stain that would never come off. I shook it off again, and concentrated on our plans again, and then again, over and over. I was sure I could quote it completely if need be when Brady got my attention.
The three of us (Jacob, Brady, and myself) had positioned ourself on one of the beaches, awaiting this oh-so-important signal, the signal to charge. We were sitting nonchalantly around a log, none of us talking. We were trying to look like tourists every chance we could; I guess we could be called tourists, but I never thought of tourists as battle-ready mythical monsters.
"So," Brady began, grinning at me. His usually perfectly preppy light brown hair was messy now, probably due to lack of sleep. The sunset gave it a bit of a red tint to it. "You guys are a-, a couple now." He kept grinning. I couldn't help but feel a bit surprised. When we had come out to the pack, he had been one of the ones that had been okay with mine and Jacob's sudden lovey-doveyness. He hadn't, although, verbally expressed that. "I think it's kinda cute, ya know. There aren't enough gay people in La Push. There are plenty in Forks, I guess."
He leaned back against the log, and grinned a little more. Jacob's mouth was open into a neat 'O' and mine was probably the same. I wondered why we (either of us) had heard this in his mind in wolf form. But neither of us had been "wolf" while he was for a few days.
"Now that you two are going public," he continued, all awkwardness vanished. "Maybe there'll others back home that, ya know, come out of the closet."
My eyes were probably bugging out of their sockets.
"Guys, what's wrong?" he half-laughed. "Did I say something weird?"
Jacob stuttered before saying:
"No, um, nah, man," he said, about as appalled as I was. "It's just that you... you say that like you are..."
It was as much of a question as it was a statement.
Brady laughed a bit, leaning over a little.
"Nah, I'm not," he laughed. "I'm just really pro-gay rights, I guess you could say."
I smiled, chuckling a little.
"Really?" I said, turning to Jacob with a look like 'I told you they don't all hate us', which was really backwards, because I had been certain they all didn't like the whole "Seth+Jacob" thing.
"Yeah," Brady said. "Paul hates me for it. I bet he's in denial. Just wait: in a few months he'll be dead."
"Huh?" Jacob and I said in perfect unison.
"Um, why?" I said, trying not to laugh.
"Rachel will probably kill him," Brady laughed a little more. "He'll come out of the closet, and she'll rip his... you-know-whats off."
Jacob and I both broke into laughter so big you couldn't contain it if you tried. When our fit of laughter was over, we could talk again.
"Nah, man," Jacob said. "We would know by know if he was; ya know, the whole 'pack mind' thing."
Brady nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I guess so," Brady said. "Well, Sethie here managed to hid it from us for like two whole months."
"Oh, right," I said.
That pretty much ended the conversation, mostly because it was starting to get dark.
"We need to be watching for the signal," Jacob said, authority ringing in his deep voice. Ooooh, chills.
"What do we look for?" I asked, as our three pairs of eyes scanned the horizon and the surrounding areas.
"Our signal will be close-by," Jacob answered. "Well, close for a mythical creature."
"Wait," Brady said. "Our signal?"
"Yeah," Jacob replied. "There will be six signals. One for each of our groups, and then one for the main attacking group."
"Why aren't you with the attack group?" I asked, even though I couldn't stand the thought of him going away. "You're the biggest of us, and the strongest. Why aren't you at our front ranks?"
He eyed me with endearing suspicion.
"Could you really stand to be away from me?" he said, soothing my tense muscles with his voice.
Then our ears heard it.
Our heads shot to the source of the sound. There was a deafening "BOOM!" followed by a sharp cracking noise. Off in the distance, we saw a flare shoot up into the darkening western sky, headed by a blinding blue ball of light, and tailed by a long train of swirled blue-green smoke. Then I realized it wasn't a flare, but a firework.
The missile exploded into a fan of sparks- no, not a fan: a bird! It almost seemed to fly, it's majestic blue beak pointing towards something at the edge of the beach: a dock.
"The dock!" Brady shouted, and we all three shot to our feet, startling some gulls that had wandering near us.
Then we were running, straight for the dock.
"There's nothing there!" I yelled, as adrenaline shot through my veins. There was nothing there at all, no boats, no magical vampire submarine- nothing!
"Under the dock!" Jacob shouted back, his eyes alight as adrenaline coursed in him as well.
And then we were on the dock, our feet making thud-noises on the red-brown wood. With a huge splash, Jacob and I were in the water, with Brady half a second later.
I held my breath as good I could. Thank God for werewolf lungs.
Jacob motioned through the dark waters towards the open ocean. There, waiting for us, was the biggest irony I ever saw.
There it was, the magical vampire submarine I had imagined a few seconds ago. It was amazingly huge, and it was metal and glass, probably absolutely impenetrable. It was about four football fields away, and it was lower than us, but we could see it perfectly.
Jacob shot through the water, with Brady to his right. I followed after, kicking my feet as hard as I could as I blinked through the familiar feeling of salt water.
Out of the corner of my wide hyper sensitive eyes, I could see other members of our pack, far away, but all headed towards the same objective. And air, I could only hope.
We swam with all our might, and neared our safe haven, our way to get to our true objective.
I stopped counting the time after 30 seconds, knowing that holding my breath would only get harder from here. I never stopped following my Jacob, and Brady, and we finally arrived at the submarine. It was not a normal submarine, more like a huge underwater metal blimp than anything. We neatly dodged the almost motionless propellers and made our way to the huge glowing area that was obviously our entrance.
We made it there second, Collin and Ricky getting there first. The others were there within ten seconds too, and I could feel my lungs threatening to explode. Suddenly there was a rush of water and the glass wall between us and the room beyond opened suddenly, and we were all sucked into the now water filled compartment.
Then the glass was closed, and the water was draining from the room. When my head broke the water, I was gasping for the air, and other gasps for air erupted all around me as my pack and my Jacob broke the surface, all of our lungs longing for oxygen.
The water was gone within seconds, and a door opened.
Alice was standing there, and she closed the door behind her.
"Everyone hold still," she commanded when a heart-stopping gust of warm air blew through the area, and we dried in seconds. "Follow me."
She sounded like the war-ready lieutenant of the submarine rather than the pixie-like girl she had been only two days ago. Alice ripped open the door again, and half-ran through it. We all followed suit, running through the hallways. I could feel the surface beneath me shift as the submarine glided into motion again.
"We don't have much time," Alice sang as we entered a huge control room, with wires and buttons and levers sticking out all around us. Also in the room sat the ever-lovely Rosalie, Tanya, Benjamin, Randall, Garrett, and Kachiri. Rosalie and Garrett were at the controls, and Rose was communicating to someone through a tiny silver cell phone. I could tell it was Carlisle. "The others are all swimming. We'll be able to see them through these windows in a few seconds."
"How long before we get there?" Jacob asked.
"About twenty minutes," Rosalie said, and I could tell that this annoyed her immensely.
Jared gasped behind me.
"I have an idea!" he said. Then he spun towards Benjamin. "You can control water, right?"
"Yes," Benjamin said, realization dripping into his voice.
"If you can control the water around the ship," Jared said, his eyes alight.
Then I knew what he was suggesting.
"We can get there in no time!" Benjamin finished Jared's sentence. "But I've never tried something so immense. I might crush the ship."
"Come on, we have to give it a shot!" Alice said. I could tell the speed at which we were going was bugging her too. It lessened the time we might not already have.
Benjamin pursed his lips and motioned for us to give him some room. We took quick steps back, moving as one. Benjamin's eyes shut tight, and his muscular white arms stretched to his sides, his fingers clenching. Then he suddenly thrust his hands forward in one fluid movement.
I felt the ship lurch forward beneath our feet, and I clutched at Jacob for support. The ship jerked again when Benjamin forced one hand forward as if he was pushing something heavy forward. Then we were moving very quickly. Alice's face exploded into an exultant smile.
"Yes!" Garret yelled, punching one fist into the air. "Bring on some Italian vampire scum!"
The trip in the submarine went by so fast, I almost didn't have time to take in what the hell was going on. Everyone on this ship was the majority of the first group, which was going to take Sulpicia's Island, the smaller watch tower island that flanked Isla Didyme. The rest of our group consisted of the Seattle coven. Bella, Jasper, and Kate were with Jane, and they were locked in a deep cell at the very center of the submarine. They were going to take her to Isla Didyme and throw her in Josh's cell once he was liberated from it.
After we got through taking the two islands down, we would split up into groups of four, and would charge the Citadel of Didyme, where the leaders would be, and Josh with them. Part of me was itching to rip Caius's damn head from his shoulders, and if I went down in the process, I was sure as hell not going alone: I'd bring Caius with me.
Alec, Hallie, Demetri, Renata, Felicia, Kereana, Elijah, and Afton were our main targets; they were the most deadly. The leaders were our next targets, and if we could take out the rest of them, then victory would be in our hands, and soon.
"We're here!" Alice said, as we all stood in a room just above the control room. The wall that led the exterior of the ship seemed to be some kind of drawbridge, ready to connect us to the island. "Bella, get ready."
Behind us, Bella nodded, as Kate and Jasper held Jane in a vice grip. The three of them were to take Jane through the water to the citadel, and await us there.
A rush of air told us to get ready. Adrenaline coursed through me and my breath came raggedly and painfully. The warmth of beginning to phase rushed through my veins as I started to let it take over my body. The door opened and the white beach before us was revealed. Jacob, at my side, held me tighter.
"I won't let you go," he whispered. For half a second, I calmed down, ready for battle. But then he kissed me. His warm lips pressed tensely against mine. Tears welled in my eyes as I realized that this could be the last time we would ever kiss.
"If something happens to me," I whispered back into his lips. "Then I'll make you let go."
And then we were wolves.
And then we were running.
And then I was ready.
Taking out the tower was easier than any of us had expected. And it was the most amazing experience I had been through since fighting Riley and Victoria, or when I first kissed Jacob. Ten of their guards against twenty-five of ours. And we didn't lose anyone!
Sam, Warren, Jennie, and I had taken Chelsea out first, as Alice and Garrett ripped Afton to bits. Bella managed somehow to pull her shield perfectly around all of us for most of the time, as she held Jane still, and Jane was threatened with being shocked by Kate if she spoke; Jasper fought to keep her calm through the entire fight. Only once did Bella slip up, and five of us had been frozen in desensitization by Kereana's formidable gift. But Jacob, Rose, Iliana, and Ricky managed to get her before she saw them, and her ashes were spewing purple smoke into the air before we had time to blink. Benjamin used the wind to blow the smoke just the right way so that it would not be visible from the other islands, not even to vampire eyes. Santiago, Trenton, Heidi, and Corin were there also, as well as three enemies that we had no name for. They were all destroyed within ten minutes, as Benjamin flitted around, setting fire to their ashes, and then setting them out with water whenever they were good and dead.
Injuries were there though. Garrett's arm had been torn off, but it was soon replaced. Iliana's shoulder had been cut by one of Kereana's claws when she spun around. Everyone was bruised and battered, but the wolves healed within minutes, and the vampires simply found their other parts and replaced them without problem. The vampire's clothes were tattered for the most part. But best of all, we were safe, at least for a moment. My Jacob was safe.
We were all standing around the last set of burning ashes when Benjamin doused the flames. He forced the smoke to blew horizontally into the trees surrounding the colossal metal towers before Kate shouted in exultation.
"Yes!" she yelled quietly, and a chorus of hushed celebration resounded throughout our group of glorious immortals and humongous wolves. We had to be extra careful, just in case there were others.
"Ten down," Garrett said.
"Forty to go," Bella finished.
The wolves panted, each one of the smiling, or grimacing in slight pain as our injuries healed. My paws were scraped up, and my underside was in pain, but I was healing quickly.
"Yeah, forty you'll never get to!" Jane muttered loud enough that we could all hear.
"We already have," Alice chimed, her voice smug as she sneered at Jane. "Some of them, at least."
Then her cell phone was at her ear.
We all got a quick replay of the fight on Athenodora's Island. There had been ten of the guards there: Felix, Felicia, Rory, and more unknowns. Apparently we had caught the more boring end of things here. Without Bella, they had a little more trouble there. Rory, a guard member with the ability to fly, caused a lot of pain, but she was taken out fast. Felicia, the guard member with weather control powers, had summoned lightning against the group there. They had finished earlier than we had, since they had gotten there before we started here. The fight had been fast, but difficult. Many had lost limbs, and there was a bit of humor in it: Edward had gotten his arm mixed up in one of the piles ready to be burned, but he got it back before the fire was started. Everyone retrieved their limbs, but there was another twist in the battle.
Felix, the Volturi member that reminded me greatly of Emmett and was very friendly towards Bella, had escaped. He made it to Isla Didyme before they had time to react.
That raised the stakes a little, and meant we had to be fast and exact in getting the main island.
"Ten more down," Randall said, his voice low.
It was Jennie who answered.
"Thirty more to go."