Chapter 18 – Traps
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A/N: multiple POVs in this chapter.
To guest reviewers who have sent comments I should answer, please give me a chance to do so, PM me and we will discuss the meaning of "romantic" or of what Edward thinks of the mating bond. (Paint me frustrated).
Everybody, please see note at the bottom.
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(Kevin)
The plan was sound - if I did my part well, that is. My love coached me, because it all depended from that one telephone call.
I had to report to Demetri that not all was well in the wolves' paradise. I would tell him that this at least was what I had gathered with the micro recorders help. As Demetri had surmised, the wolves protected Alice Cullen, who moved around the country with a wolf in attendance, so that she couldn't be tracked. But the lupine protector worked also against Alice's ability to See the future, so she was mostly blind, her visions short and rare. Here I carefully avoided telling him about her going underwater.
So – I would explain - the situation dragged on, with no end in sight. And some of the wolves were unhappy about it. They feared the Volturi's wrath, to the point that some of them were thinking of a trade-off: Alice in exchange for the tribe's safety. But they didn't know how to manage this, while they were sure that when the Volturi descended on them it would be too late to negotiate.
Now this was absolute bullshit, obviously. There was no way a group of discontented wolves could keep their plotting secret, because when they phased, the other wolves would discover it: they had a sort of collective mind when in animal form. But Demetri didn't know it, since Edward Masen hadn't known himself, as the issue hadn't come up when he was interrogating the Cullen family. The former inquisitor had discovered this secret only after meeting Leah, Bella and Alice.
Eventually I made the call. If my voice trembled a little it was just natural, right? Once I'd delivered my speech, I waited, barely breathing. Would he ask me to open a negotiation with the dissenting wolves? The whole trap was based on this.
Demetri took the bait and instructed me to tell those wolves that I could help them to contact the Italian coven. This, of course, implied that I was there under false pretenses, and I made a proper show of reluctance. Couldn't he come himself? They would be enraged, could kill me, etc.
He laughed, and ruthlessly reminded me that he had not forgotten my sister's address in Montreal. I had better hurry and do it, and report the results to him as soon as possible.
We decided to give him a couple of days - ostensibly for me to speak with the dissenters – then I would call him again.
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(Edward)
So far, so good. As there was nothing to do for a while, we all took some time off. Alice and Jasper - with a bored Seth in tow - went to San Juan County, aiming at spending most of their time into the sea. Kevin and Leah disappeared too, while not going very far, just somewhere in the nearby forests, and Bella decided she was going to show me Seattle.
The weather did not disappoint – cloudy but not actually rainy in the morning - so we were able to see open air landmarks like the Olympic Sculpture Park. Bella had lunch in a French bakery in Pike Place, where it would not look so strange that only one of us was eating. Afterwards, since it began raining in earnest, we took the underground tour of the subterranean passages that – before the Great Fire – had been the main roadways and first-floor storefronts of old downtown Seattle, near Pioneer Square. Recent archeology for me, used to Italy's truly ancient sites but it was, in its own way, entertaining.
An unspoken, uneasy truce had settled between Bella and me. Personal issues were forbidden, our mutual feelings were not to be discussed, but it was like walking a big elephant on a leash, one that became heavier and more obstinate as the hours went by. He refused to go along.
We went back to the car, after she declined to take the tour of the historical red light district.
"I did it with Rose and Alice once. Sex, drugs and debauchery. It was sad, mainly. The revelers are all dead now." She explained with little enthusiasm.
"Humans die, it's normal."
My words seemed to irritate her.
"Vampires die too. You should know." Her voice was harsh, and I flinched.
Silence enveloped us as I drove. Was she referring to my role as inquisitor, sending vampires – the Cullens included – to their destruction, or to my death quest, which I never admitted clearly to her?
"Indeed. But we aren't programmed for death." I finally objected, finding myself blabbering about my short encounter with Sigmund Freud and his Death Instinct theories.
She mused for a while, then asked.
"Then vampires would not attempt suicide?"
"No, normally they won't. It would be, apart from everything, a very difficult thing to do."
Her next question floored me:
"What should change in order to make a vampire overcome his self-preservation instinct?"
"Madness – caused, say, by extreme thirst or the loss of a mate – or maybe the desire to rediscover his lost humanity, I suppose." These words came out of my mouth before I could stop them. The last thing I wanted was to disclose my wager with Death, but here I was, about to spill.
Bella, however, seemed to take my answer at face value and build on it, because when she spoke again it was with a sense of wonder.
"That is what you are doing, isn't it, Edward? You first decided to hunt only criminals and now you are switching to animals and … and you are helping Alice, me, and the Quileutes. Oh my God, oh my God." She covered her face with her hands, seemingly overwhelmed.
We had arrived at the resort, and I stopped the car. Bella wasn't in a hurry to get out but I went to open her door. With a fluid movement that took me by surprise, she embraced me, tight. I stood frozen, battling against the desire to reciprocate. Her eyes bored into mine.
"Don't leave me, Edward. You are the one for me. I never thought I could find him, but here you are. And you know it, and you know I'm the one for you. We can't lose each other, we can't."
And then she cried, and cried, and cried. I had no answers for her, because she was right.
Bella was the one for me. A fearless, unique girl who held my dead heart in her fragile hands. Perfect, she was perfect. But it wasn't possible, it was too late. It was already too late even when I saw her for the first time.
Fortunately, when my mission will be accomplished and I'll be free to disappear, I won't have long to live.
Unable to give her any comfort, I just followed Bella inside. Her head lowered, she didn't look at me and, once again, she shut her door on my face. Exactly what I deserved.
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(Kevin)
It was time to make the second call. I told Demetri that, after some grumbling, the lupine dissenters had accepted my offer to liaison with him. They were that desperate. And they had found the perfect solution for delivering Alice to the Italian coven.
Alice's husband Jasper was coming back, I told Demetri. He had left abruptly due to some disagreement with the coven's leader and did not know what had happened to the Cullens. But now his wife had had a snippet of a vision and Saw that in a couple of days or so he would reach the ruins of the Cullens' house and then give in to despair. Sure that his mate was no more, he would be convinced that the deed had been done by the Volturi, as there was not another group big enough and strong enough to destroy a coven like the Cullens. Bent on revenge, he would probably go to Volterra, intending to inflict as much damage as he could, no matter the consequences.
This too was bullshit, obviously. A few days previously Jasper had indeed seen the ruins but he had acted rationally, going to La Push to know what had happened and learned that both his wife and Bella had survived.
Demetri, however, didn't know Jasper and could well believe what I was telling him, because his mate loss could make a vampire go berserk. Alice wanted to prevent this, I told the tracker, so she was going to the ruins herself and wait, in order to be there when he arrived. She would take her usual bodyguard there – Leah – who secretly sided with the dissenters to get back at Sam, the pack's head. I hinted at a thwarted love story there, a complete fabrication. Some of the wolves would patrol the forest, trying to intercept Jasper even before he arrived, and, again, the dissenters would manage to be on those patrols, to make sure that nobody would get back in time to help Alice when Demetri came to get her. As soon as he showed up, Leah would disappear too.
What Demetri wouldn't know was that two very angry immortals would be concealed in the woods. Hopefully their distinctive vampire smell would be confused with Alice's one and covered by Leah's scent. And the wolves, of course, would prevent his escaping if he tried to run.
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(Demetri)
Kevin is just a stupid human. Like they all are. Did he think that I would meekly wait in New York for his call? I am already in the Olympic Peninsula and not alone. The two nomads I have found in New York – Judy and Bart - are eager to help, because I promised to bring them back to Volterra with me. They are tired of the nomadic lifestyle and feel destined to a higher calling, namely to be part of the Guard. Ha, they wish.
The female is marginally gifted, in the sense that she is a 'scent chameleon', being able to mask her vampire smell and assume another, or to be odorless. But she can only do it for a short time. The male is just strong, and not very bright. But I do need support, because a fight one to one between vampires is never a good idea. And in my case, I'd prefer to become ash rather than ask my coven's help, as my reinstatement depends on doing this alone. The Seer might be small, but she is devious and fast, so I recruited the two nomads as back up.
When we'll have subdued Alice, I think the safest way will be to dismember her and put the pieces in three different boxes marked as 'sculptures'. We'll check them on different flights. It should work even if the boxes are scanned, which normally doesn't happen. It has worked with other reluctant acquisitions in the past.
As for my part in the bargain, I have given my word but, at the end of the day, Aro will decide whether to keep them or kick them out.
Now, since I can't get near the native reservation, but I need to make sure of the details, I am sending Judy. She'll stay in the woods nearby, listening and observing. We'll be in contact by cell phone.
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Oh well, this is very interesting. Moving from tree top to tree top Judy has reported that everything is very calm at the reservation. She hasn't seen anyone resembling Alice, just ordinary natives going about their business. And not many of them. Therefore Alice and the wolves who intend to betray her to me must be already on location, and soon I'll go there too, but there is something I must do first. We will scout the woods in the chance that we intercept Alice's husband before he gets to the ruins. It would be great, because I would have the perfect weapon to tame the Seer, but who knows when he will arrive? In any case, if he arrives later is not so bad, because then everything will go as Alice has predicted, and we might expect him in Volterra next. When Aro touches her we will know and, once we have him, she'll become very reasonable.
I am about to call Judy back, when she tells me that there are two humans on the beach, not native. From her description one must be Kevin – which won't do. I'll make him come to me, as I want him under my control and dispose of him when I am done. But who is the girl? My puzzlement increases when they are joined by a big wolf who – at this point Judy is making mistakes in her texts because she is terrified – becomes a very naked Indian teenager. Who the hell is this girl, who knows about shape-shifters? It's supposed to be a secret, isn't it? Maybe she knows about vampires too, so she should be removed.
I give my instructions to Judy and prepare the distraction that will take care of the boy shape shifter. I'll call Kevin now.
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Note
I am going to Spain for a short vacation and don't know if I'll have easy internet access in my hotels. Therefore next chapter will be posted around April 8th. Before or after that I'll answer all reviews.