AN: I decided to post early because today is a busy day of real world stuff.
S. Meyer owns twilight
CHAPTER 3
BPOV
Pete called us into the lounge room; a large map lay on the coffee table. We sat around it and started planning. J began "most of the armies during the Wars were in the South West states; Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Nevada. Caius and I recommend we do a sweep of these states first. Charlie and Em will drive Char's sedan while Rose will drive the Volturi SUV. A Scouting party consisting of myself, Pete and Demitri will search for signs of vampire combat, the rest will hang back between us and the cars until you hear from us."
"What's our timeline?" Char asked. "If we're lucky we can search Texas over the period of three days, New Mexico and Arizona will take a couple of days depending on what we encounter and we'll only need to focus on the southern half of Nevada. We'll only search the other states connected to the four we're searching if we pick up signs of activity. The main focus of our scouting trip will be to set up a safe area to act as headquarters. Once the area is secure we will form attack groups and perform a sweep." He nodded for Pete to take over.
"The attack groups are as follows;
Team 1; J and Demitri will lead. If any armies are around they'll isolate the leader and dismantle them for transport
Team 2; I will lead the frontal assault and assess any curve balls. Bella, Felix and Jane, you're with me.
Team 3; is containment, distraction and clean up, Char and Alec that's down to you." Pete said.
He handed out some ear pieces "keep these in at all times. Charlie, Rose and Em; you'll be manning the comms. The only conversation I want to hear is regarding our mission. Should anyone take up valuable air time while we're on duty, you'll be sent back to headquarters and you coven leader will be notified. That means Caius for the Volturi and J for the rest of us. Now, should J, Demitri and I encounter an army before we've secured an area we'll head back or call for back up. In this situation Bella, Alec and Felix will join us and Jane and Char will guard the others in the cars."
He pointed to the map on the coffee table, there were small dots covering some parts of the map. "J, Char and I are very familiar with this area and we've located a few hot spots we believe to be ideal for raising an army. We've set up a timetable of when it's safe to scout and perform sweeps. For the most part these places are uninhabitable for humans; either by being too isolated, dangerous terrain or extreme weather conditions. We must wear cloaks while out; this will prevent exposure to stray humans that cross our path and it will identify us as Volturi agents.
"Now, on another note; you may or may not be aware that the Volturi spread rumor of our demise once they cleaned up the south. For this reason Bella, J, Char and I will wear masks. We have reputations from our past life and no one outside this group or the Volturi must know our identity, there are many who would wish to challenge us and we are not interested in wasting time with arrogant young ones. Bella will wear a mask for the same reason, should word spread of our identity she will suffer the same consequences."
Pete pulled a box from under the table and opened it, handing masks out among the four of us. They were a similar anodized titanium as the pendants, there was a dark blue sheen to them in the light. A thick band of metal circled around the back of the mask from side to side, another band crossed from the top of mask to the back of the horizontal band. Pete continued "from this point in time you must not use our names. Bella is Death, J is War, Char is Famine and I am Pestilence. Do not mutter our names once we leave this place. No matter what." We nodded. "Good, lets suit up and head out." He finished.
Once the car was packed Pete, Char, J and I put on our masks. There were fine holes drilled into the part that covered the nose and mouth, there was plenty of room to move our faces behind it. The mask became snug at the bridge of our noses and pressed tightly against our eye sockets, our eyes were the only visible part. The metal band running from the top of the mask to the back kept it on us while the metal band running behind our head, cheek to cheek, kept it secure. There was some give to the metal bands that allowed small adjustments.
Dad approached us holding four small flasks, each with their own straw "Rose and I have been working on a way to keep you incognito. This mixture will disguise your scents. Hopefully if you run into any old enemies they won't recognize your smell. I'm afraid it tastes like shit. Pete had mentioned how rare golden eyes were in the vampire world, so with the help of the Volturi, I have created this mix with human blood. I've kept it unpalatable so it won't interfere with your animal drinking. You'll be less identifiable with the traditional red eyes."
"Thanks dad" I whispered.
We sucked up the blood through the straw, tilting the masks forward slightly. I shuddered. "That's fucking awful Charlie" Pete lamented, dad shrugged "this is a potent mix, it'll change your scent for a few days. You'll manage." He smiled and got into the car. Em sped off in Char's sedan while Charlie and Rose followed behind in the SUV the Volturi had hired. The sun had begun to set.
We had been running for half an hour. Pete, J and Demitri were running ahead of us and looking for any sign of vampires. We'd reached the town of Beaumont fifteen minutes ago and were running south west. We were circling Huston when J barked through our comms "halt. Pestilence report" I heard Pete sniff and respond "Seven scents"
"Famine, report" Char answered next to me. "Western side of Huston."
"Healers, report"
"Five miles to Huston" Rose replied. "Famine, head back to the east side of Huston and secure the area." J said.
"Yes, War." Char replied. She pointed to Felix and Jane then herself indicating her group, she pointed east. Char then pointed to me and Alec and pointed north, we nodded and split up circling the city from each direction. There were no vampiric scents.
We met up with Char and the others in the north east side of town. Char gestured for Alec and I to do a quick run through the streets in the North West and she gestured to her group to search the south east corner. We found nothing supernatural. "Famine, north west section secure." Alec reported into the coms. "South east section secure, head for Hamilton Street." She replied.
We kept to the shadows and met in a side street. Char pointed to Felix, Jane and Alec, then held up two fingers and moved them together, they nodded and Felix took out his ear pieces to keep the line clear. Char and I hid in the car park, we weren't able to take our masks off until the mission completed.
Felix's voice held a charming lilt "good evening, my family and I would like two adjoining rooms, are any available?" A woman's voice sounded flustered "certainly! We have two rooms available on the second floor, it'll be $150 per room per night. How long will you be staying with us Mr...?"
"Call me Felix, Miss. We're just passing through." He said and handed over a credit card. I heard three sets of footsteps as they moved upstairs.
Seconds later we heard Jane whisper "Famine, Death" we carefully climbed up the side of the building, the bricks were easy to grip onto. Char went in first, I followed shortly after. Felix put his earpiece back in "War, Healers we have two adjoining suites at the local hotel, a side street runs along the northern side of the buildings. We're on the second floor, rooms 212 and 214. We'll leave the windows open."
"Received" said J, "received" Emmett echoed and added; "ETA five minutes."
I looked around the room. The walls were cream and a double bed sat against the wall, it's dark green bed spread matching the drapes. The carpet was burgundy. It was clean and sparse. I peeked through the door next to the wardrobe, it looked like we'd be sharing a bathroom. I gave up any hope of having a shower.
Emmett's voice crackled through the earpiece "arrived in alley, parked around back." I heard him fumble with his ear piece, removing it. His voice floated up stairs "Good evening Miss, my brother arrived a short time ago and booked us a room."
"Felix?" The lady asked, her heartbeat sped up "yes, Miss. Can we head on up?"
"Sure, second floor down the right corridor, room 212 and 214."
"Thank you." I could just picture him flashing his dimples. Three sets of footsteps came towards us, Rose opened the door and entered first. "Healers in room" she reported to the others. "Good, our ETA is 20 minutes." J said. Emmett came up carrying dad's supplies, he'd been driving the Volturi SUV while Rose and Charlie drove Char's sedan.
Charlie had everything set up in the furthest corner from the window. I heard light footsteps in the alley, Peter's voice came through the comms "incoming." We kept our distance from the open window, J came through first, followed by Pete and Demitri. We removed our ear pieces. J came up to me and hugged me his eyes sparkling behind his mask, "missed you" he whispered.
J turned to the rest in the room. "We came across a small group of vampires; two are older while the other five are newborn. We'll keep the room for tonight. Death, Famine, Felix and Jane, you're with us." He nodded at Pete to continue "their ranks aren't anything special. We followed them at a distance for sixty miles, no other scents joined them and they didn't pick up our trail. They set up camp near Edna.
"Emmett, you'll need to put your ear piece in. We'll keep you updated. Alec, Demitri; keep your senses open, you're on lookout duty. Famine and Felix will follow me, War will incapacitate the leader. Famine, Felix and I will be the first wave of attack and Death and Jane will be the second wave of attack, that means containment and clean up." Pete explained. He threw three empty duffle bags to Jane and I. We nodded, the five of us put our comms back in and nodded to Emmett as he put his back in.
We jumped out the window of the hotel, J lead us south west, Felix, Pete and Char were behind him and Jane and I followed. We ran at a slower pace, keeping our noise to a minimum. We dodged branches and fallen objects as we picked up the scent of the vampires. J put up his hand to halt us and climbed a tall building to scope out the area. He jumped down "all clear" he said and motioned for us to follow.
We kept running, weaving through empty streets, forest and parkland. Every now and then J would climb a tree or building to search the area and we'd continue on. The vampires' scent grew stronger as we headed for woodland west of Edna. He halted us pointing to himself then south, then pointing to Pete and Felix and pointing west and finally pointing to Jane and I and pointing east. We got into our positions, waiting for instructions.
The thump of two bodies echoed through the forest, followed by the metallic screech of torn vampire limbs. The newborns froze, Pete's voice whispered through the comms "team one, go." They strolled out from their cover, the newborns instantly went in to attack. I saw Char concentrate as she fought against a large male. The newborn became frenzied under the influence of her gift.
"Team two, go" J's voice spoke. Jane and I hopped into the open without the newborns noticing us. I concentrated on my gift and felt flames erupt around my shield. One newborn tried to run, but Jane sent him falling to the ground in agony. She quickly tore him apart and threw the pieces at me to catch fire. Pete and Char had killed off three newborns, Jane had killed one. We trapped the remaining newborn between the four of us. It kicked towards Jane considering her an easy kill. Pete tore it's limbs off and Jane ran to deliver the empty duffle bags to J. Pete threw the limbs that littered the clearing towards me, I caught them and they disintegrated in my hands. Not bad for a giant zippo.
I focused on my calm and let the flames along my shield die out. Pete nodded to me "team one, success." He said, I echoed his report "team two, success" J's voice whispered through the ear piece "War, success. Heading to battle ground with two prisoners."
As soon as J and Jane arrived they put down the two full duffle bags and one empty one. He looked over me, searching for injuries. He turned to the others and nodded before speaking "headquarters, report." Emmett's voice reached our ears "no change." J replied "our ETA is 30 minutes. No ally casualties."
We headed back to the hotel in Huston, running at full speed, J was in the lead checking for new vampire scents. We made it back without incident. Char, Jane and I headed in through the window while J and Pete put the three duffle backs in the Volturi SUV. We took out our earpieces and discussed our next move. We still had a lot of time before the sun rose. "Demitri, do you sense anything in our vicinity?" J asked. Demitri closed his eyes and concentrated. "No, there are no large groups of vampires for many miles, but there could be smaller groups, it's hard to tell with all the humans around." J repeated the question to Pete. "I'm not picking anything up." He said frustrated. J nodded "we can cover the south of the state from Edna to Eagle's Pass." He turned to dad "you, Em and Rose can stay here. The rest of us will split into two groups to clear the tip of the state. We'll be back by dawn. Rose will be on comms."
J pointed to me, Char, Jane and Felix "Team one will follow the coast and search from Brownsville to George West." He pointed to himself, Alec, Demitri and Peter. "We're team two. We'll cover the boarder of Mexico and move inland to meet at George West."
Three empty duffle bags were handed to Char; our team leader. We headed out first. J's group leaving seconds later. They headed west while we headed south. Char and Jane followed the coast line, taking time in the more industrial areas. Felix and I were further inland, searching silently for any trace of vampire activity.
As we neared Corpus Christi we smelled a very faint, old, vampire scent. "One old scent, north east side of Corpus Christi. Heading west." Felix reported. Char's voice came through the comms "old traces of vampire ash, three scents." We ran to meet her and sniffed the air, one of the old scents was identical to the one Felix and I had crossed. The other scent headed south. We didn't recognize the old scent that came from the scatter of vampire ash. Char reported her findings over the comms. J's voice crackled in reply. "Keep to the plan. Team two in Cotulla heading west. No scents yet."
Felix and I ran through Corpus Christi while Char and Jane followed the coastline. We reached Brownsville two hours later. There had been no other scents. Char's voice whispered through the comms "single nomad ahead, scent matched one heading south from Corpus Christi. Male, long black hair, tall. Currently feeding."
"Approach with caution. Felix and Death stay close to Famine and Jane." J said. We headed east and stood with Char and Jane. We watched as the nomad finished his meal and disposed of the body. Char pointed to Jane and Felix to approach.
The nomad noticed them and froze, bowing his head in submission. "What is your name?" Felix asked. "Eli." The nomad said softly. "What is your business here?" Felix asked. "Passing through, I'm headed to Mexico City. I was attacked by two newborns. I killed one and the other ran west." Eli said. "Did you see anyone else?" Felix asked, Eli shook his head "no, I've been running since I crossed into Texas." He was looking around, I could see he was scared. Jane picked up on his mood and asked him about it. "This area is cursed. I just want to get to Mexico." Felix looked at him, searching him for any sign of deception. "Spread the word, the Volturi are back to clean up the Newborn Wars." He said to Eli. They sent him on his way and we watched him run south.
"Good job." J said into the comms. We resumed our search, carefully running further inland and keeping our senses open. When we reached Kingsville we heard J bark "halt." We froze before realizing he was talking to his team. We stopped to listen to what was happening to them. "Five scents. South East side of Zapata. No curveballs." Pete said. We heard movement over the comms followed by the metallic screech of vampire skin being torn apart. "Team two go." J ordered. The sound of fighting reached us. It was terrifying to listen to. The sound of more vampire dismemberment started, it was shortly followed by a low 'woof' of fire igniting our kind. "Team two success. One prisoner, no ally casualties." J reported. We exhaled in relief and kept running.
After a few more hours we finished our search. We ended up in George West and reported "team one complete. We have reached our destination." Char said. We heard Pete's voice through the comms. "Team two heading north from Hebbronville. We're still searching our area. ETA two hours."
"We'll search between here and San Diego. We'll meet you there." Char said. "Understood. Cotulla and Laredo districts already cleared." J said.
We searched at a slower pace, coming across the old scent of the vampire we smelled in Corpus Christi, it headed to Laredo. We followed it and came across the signs of a battle and piles of ash. It had been taken care of by J's team. We headed back to San Diego and waited for the others. They arrived half an hour later. "Let's head back to our Huston headquarters." J said.
We arrived before dawn and settled in for the day. We wouldn't be able to leave again until dark. Jane called the Masters and reported on our first captures and kills. "They're sending a courier, they'll arrive in Austin in three days and take the prisoners back to Volterra." She said when she finished the call.
Pete was pouring over the map "I believe we'll run into more armies to the west, I say we do a clean sweep of Northern Texas and New Mexico. Felix, what did Aro find out from Maria?"
"She started an army because she came across a couple of others doing the same in New Mexico. She didn't know their names or camp locations, she just knew that there were territories open for the taking and she wanted in on it." Felix said.
"What do you mean she didn't know any camp locations?" J asked. Felix responded; "The new armies are aware of the laws they're breaking, they don't want to be caught so they remain nomadic, they sweep through their territory and never stay in one place long enough to be caught. The territory lines are constantly changing."
"Damn, this is a wild goose chase. We need more intel." Peter said. He was getting frustrated. "We're missing something, War. We have to interrogate the prisoners." He said. J nodded and replied "at sundown we'll head for the clearing where we captured them in Edna, its isolated enough that the humans won't hear them scream. Jane, Alec and I will get the information. We'll move headquarters North to Austin. We can search the more isolated areas until the courier arrives."
JPOV
Pete was pacing and shaking his head "there's something missing. My gift is telling me to head east, but it goes against our experience."
"Calm down Pestilence" I ordered "we'll get the intel soon"
"Something feels wrong, War. We don't know when the armies started occurring. We know this area and we've passed through many isolated spots which would have been ideal for an army."
"You heard what Felix said, the armies are nomadic-"
"That's just it! We've only come across a couple of scent trails, if there was a fight for territory the scent would be more concentrated and we'd smell others."
"We'll stick to the plan, I get you're worried. We'll get the Intel and work it out from there."
"It's not just that, War. My gift is telling us we need more back up." I sat up straighter. "As soon as we find anything out we'll confer with Caius. We're not amateurs, Pestilence. This is a part of us, it's why we were created." I sent him some calm, but what he'd said had bothered me. If his gift was telling him we needed to head east we'd have to trust it. First, we'd clean up the south west.
There was some cloud cover late in the afternoon. It was just what we needed, Pete, Char, Bella and I snuck into the parking lot. The others met us out there and we put in our ear pieces. I weighed the skill set of each member of our group and started assigning teams. Charlie, Bella and I rode in Char's sedan while Pete, Char and Jane rode in the SUV. Felix, Alec, Emmett and Rose would run to Austin.
The windows of the car were tinted heavily so no one would see the four strange people in masks from the outside. Charlie turned to me "when we reach Austin I'll make some more scent changing blood. Jane and Alec have stocked the cooler with human blood." I nodded, as much as I hate the taste I appreciated the result. Bella fidgeted next to me, I sent some calm her way.
The drive wasn't long at all. We came across a cheap motel. There was little cover. There were no vampire scents. I spoke over the comms "Death, Famine, Pestilence and I have arrived. Charlie, can you arrange for two rooms at the back of the hotel?" He nodded, I passed him my credit card.
I quickly spoke into the comms. "The four horsemen must remain in the vehicles until dark. Felix, what is your ETA?"
"Five minutes, we had to slow down when humans were about."
"No problem. Charlie and Jane will set up the room." I said. Charlie returned "two rooms on the first floor, there's some tree cover. Rooms 10 and 12."
"Excellent." He started the car and headed down the drive, Jane was close behind. He parked outside the rooms, there were a few trees which would hide us well. We headed in and Charlie handed us the flasks of human blood. He grinned, watching our eyes crinkle in disgust as we sucked the foul tasting blood through the straw. "Are you guys right for the time being?" He asked. "Sure, but we'll probably need to feed after our interrogation." I said, Jane and I would be using our power and Bella still had to feed regularly. "No problem, War" Charlie said. I could feel his awkwardness at using my new battle name.
He turned to Bella, "Death, in the glove box of the sedan is a flask of the bear blood, it's been nearly two days since you ate."
"Thanks, but won't feeding change our eye color?" She asked. He shook his head "the blood I use to mask your scent is concentrated. Your meal will lighten your eyes a little, but they'll still be red." Bella leaned over to me and whispered; "can you send him my emotions?" I nodded sending Charlie a wave of gratitude and love, his eyes widened a little. "That's from Death, you can't see her smile at you so she asked me to send her emotions to you." He smiled at her "always happy to help Death, you too War." He chuckled "it's take a while to get used to your names." I went out to the car to get my mate her thermos of blood.
We saw the street lights flicker on. Bella had just finished the thermos and had put her mask back on. I sent her a wave of love before addressing the room. "Jane, Alec and I will head out via the west and run down east with the prisoners. Death and Pestilence will search this area, reconnaissance only. Famine and Felix will join us and secure our location. The healers will stay here and monitor the comms, Emmett and Charlie can take out the ear plugs, Rose you'll be our contact. Move out." I said.
Jane, Alec and I ran ahead, Char and Felix ran each side of us, keeping a distance of half a mile on each side. Hopefully they would pick up any scents. We reached the clearing, I opened up my senses to see if there was anyone, human or vampire, around. "All clear on this side, War" Felix reported, "All clear this side too" Char echoed. Jane, Alec and I dropped the bag, opened them up and started assembling the macabre jigsaw "leave their arms and legs off" I ordered.
We waited for the prisoners heads to fuse with their torsos. "Answer our questions truthfully and I won't kill you." I said and blasted them with fear and desperation. "What are your names?"
"Donovan"
"Michael"
"How long have you been a vampire?"
"Twelve years, three months" Donovan answered, Michael's reluctance was growing, but he answered the question "eleven years, nine months."
"What are your creators' names?"
"We belonged to one army, our creator and the rest were killed by an attacking army."
"How many people were a part of this army?"
"Aside from us, there were twenty-five."
"Where were you camped?"
"In Louisiana, our army had taken the south western territory." Donovan kept answering my questions.
Something was slowly clicking into place. "Why did you choose to come to Texas?" I asked. Donovan was trying to think of a lie, at the first sign of hesitation I nodded to Jane who let loose her power. Michael's fear shot up as he saw Donovan twitch in agony and he blurted out an answer "Texas and the other western states are mostly uninhabited, our kind seemed scared to travel to them, we came in contact with another army and joined them for a couple of months in New Mexico, we didn't encounter any other armies, we headed to Texas and decided to try and carving out a territory, that was about six months ago."
"Why did you have five newborns with you?" I asked. Michael answered. "We tried to make more, but didn't have the control. It was only over the last month that we were able to turn humans." This confirmed Pete's intel; the Wars had been cleaned up more than half a century ago, but they had started up further east.
"How many armies have you encountered since you were turned?" Donovan hadn't yet recovered from Jane's gift. Michael answered for the both of them "around thirty, each with about twenty five soldiers."
"Did you ever move east?" Michael shook his head "the battles were more fierce, our creator, Josiah, seemed to be happy to stay in one place and defend it."
"Have you both heard of the Volturi?" Jane asked. Their faces were blank and I could feel their confusion. "What do you know of the history of the Vampire Wars?" I asked. "They were a long time ago, decades. Josiah told us how, half a century ago, he had heard a rumor that a gang were killing off the southern covens, he didn't take it seriously. One day he'd gone into Mexico to feed and when he came back he heard the sound of vampires being dismembered and hid. He stayed in his hiding spot for a month before creating his own army, he said he hasn't encountered the gang since. He said that the ones who slaughtered the war lords had left and lived on the other side of the world." Michael explained.
"How did the other armies form?"
"Our sire said that some nomads came through and had heard about the wars, they created others to fight for them and grew wealthy." I sighed and looked to Jane and Alec "there isn't anything else we need to know, lets dismantle them, we'll call our Master and see how he wants us to proceed. Michael and Donovan's screams died off as their heads were removed. "Let's head back." I said.
BPOV
We listened to the interrogation through our ear pieces. So far we hadn't come across anything suggesting vampiric activity. There was a lot of human habitation, but I couldn't see anywhere that would be ideal for an army.
Austin was a busy city. The human population was very dense here. I looked to Pete in question. He shook his head. He wasn't picking up anything. We kept running, reaching the western side of Austin. We'd searched the central business district and the area around the hotel, there were no vampire scents. "No signs of our kind, War." Pete reported. "Good. Return to the hotel and stay with the others." So far so good.