Author's Note:

Hi everyone!

Happy December! First, I just wanted to apologize for my updating so irregularly, school's been pretty hectic lately so I haven't had much time to write besides for classes. It feels like midterm season just ended and we're on to finals soon already, haha. Secondly, I just wanted to acknowledge that another pretty big difference between this fic and the original Breaking Dawn is that Beau and the Cullens are summoned to the Volturi before the baby is even born. Because of this, there won't really be much emphasis on "witnesses" like there was in the original because no one out there really knows what can become of Beau and Edythe's child just yet (or is there...? hehe) and so the family's going to have to find some other way around that instead, which will be discussed a little bit in this chapter.

I'll try to post at least once a month, hopefully more. I've also started working on an alternate ending to Life and Death canon with this fic (and possibly others like New Moon and Eclipse in the future) though this one is my priority right now. As always, thank you for reading and for all the support! I hope you enjoy :)

33. RESEARCH

"What do we know about this?" Edythe hurtled down the stairs and into the living room. She turned Arch around to look at her, holding the letter out for him to see.

"He just told them the truth." Arch answered, shoulders moving up then down. "Sulpicia just wants to assess if this is true, but that's all I've got so far. I don't know what she has in mind for us though, they're all coming – Sulpicia, Athenodora, Marcus, and the Volturi guard – a week, two weeks tops from now. Either we go to them or they come to us, I can see that much."

"Yeah, well, judging by the sound of that I really don't think they're coming here to just talk, Arch." Eleanor's tone was grave and her arms were crossed over her chest. The noticeable hint of muscle on her strong upper arms tightened and rolled as she exhaled.

"But I don't understand – I mean, why do they want to see us now? We've done nothing wrong, and the baby isn't even born yet… what could they possibly want from us?" I threw my hands out to either side of me, my palms facing the ceiling and I shook my head, hard.

"I think I know." Jessamine started, taking a step forward. "It appears that, for some reason, they've already made up their minds about the child and are set on eliminating the problem at its source – you get rid of Edythe, you get rid of the child; the threat. Simple. It's much less… messy."

The alarm bells went off in my head, blaring in my ears. So, under the guise of "assessing the truth", they're actually really coming here to kill my wife? My child? Just the thought made every muscle in my body tighten and I clenched my fists and slammed them hard into the hood of the piano. There was this hotness creeping up behind my eyes and my heart seized up in my chest at the thought of losing them both - I knew I would not be able to live through that. Maybe they'll have mercy on me; kill me too...

No. I can't think like this. I can't give up.

I jumped in. "But we don't know that; they can't do that! There has got to be some other way. I mean, if we could just plead for our case, then maybe they'll let us go-"

"I'm afraid that's not going to work." Carine was right behind me and Edythe now, Earnest at her side. "I have known the Volturi long enough to understand that they won't let us go so easily." Carine started, carefully modulating her voice to try and keep her cool. She shook her head, defeated. But in the next moment like an idea was striking her anew, she put a thoughtful finger to her lip and looked up again, her eyes suddenly bright. "Or perhaps… perhaps we can make them pause for just a moment; to stop, and to listen, and to give us a chance to explain." She nodded her head now almost hopefully. "We will need further proof and evidence that the child will not pose a threat to our kind; proof that our secret will stay safe with them. That's what's most important to the Volturi, I'm sure." But then her face darkened and that one flicker of hope faded away just as quickly as it appeared. "The only way I can think to do that though is if we found another like the child." The panic flashed right back onto all our faces.

"And how exactly are we going to do that?" Edythe asked seriously. "We didn't even know it was possible up until I found out I was pregnant, Carine." Her voice grew louder; more forceful and she gestured furiously to herself.

"I don't know, honey. I've only ever heard stories; old myths and legends in all my years traveling but I've yet to ever meet such a child in the flesh born of such a union." Carine shook her head quickly and squeezed Earnest's hand.

"Arch? Can you see anything? Can you try?" Edythe frantically asked, running up to his side.

"I can't see hybrids Edy, even if there were any out there. I can't even see you because you're carrying one. You know that." He answered with a solemn shake of his head. "But… I still have faith in the vision I had earlier; how the Denali brothers might know something about it. They saw something, years and years ago. I could just feel it. I'm not giving up on that yet."

Jules stepped forward. "I actually have something to say about that, too." Everyone turned to look at her now and I saw that she was tugging at her fingers. "They do know something."

"Why didn't you say anything about this earlier, Julie?" Arch started up excitedly and ran up to her, taking her shoulders. She turned to look at Carine then, who nodded her head.

"Actually, we both know something about that." Carine finally answered. "We need to go to Alaska. Right now. Come on." Carine nodded her head once at all of us and everybody took off in every direction and met back up in the living room before I could even blink. Jules had already packed weeks ago and left her bag in a closet here right next to mine, so I took those out for us. By then Carine had already gotten her hands on some flight tickets and the nine of us split up into two cars, Edythe's silver Volvo and Carine's black Mercedes and we sped off towards the airport, not looking back.

…

By the time we got to Alaska, the snow beat down harder, dusting the world in a blinding white of fresh powder. Once outside, I shielded my eyes from the brightness of the sun reflecting off the new-fallen snow, the flocculent wisps coming down from the sky and joining the blanket of white beneath our feet. Carine and Earnest led us to that same large black van as last time and we all clambered into it, though Edythe had a harder time with that now. I offered her my hand and helped her into the car, then we sped off. The cousins were already waiting for us by the time we pulled into their driveway. Just as I swung the car door closed, I was startled backwards when a snowshoe hare leapt out in front of me and scampered across the white floor in my field of vision. Its footprints made tiny indents in the snow and I stared after its fluffy, bobbing form as it continued on towards the mountains behind the house until disappearing completely from my view, its white coat becoming one with the icy landscape so that it was hidden in plain sight.

"Come inside. Hurry." Kirill's urgent voice broke my concentration and Edythe tugged my hand as they ushered us inside, slamming the door shut when we were all in. We gathered all around the dining room table. Even Jules was sitting with us, to the left next to me; always by my side. Edythe was to my right. She reached a pale, thin hand into her coat pocket and pulled out the letter we received from the Volturi, sliding it soundlessly across the table so Kirill, Dimitri, Elena and Carlos could have a look at it. They passed it around, their faces genuinely repentant; troubled.

Edythe let out a shuddered breath and looked down into her lap then up again at her cousins. Her crimson eyes were sharp, and her lips pressed tight against each other making a thin, hard line. Her arms were crossed on the table below her chest and she began to speak before Carine had a chance to.

"So now you see." She nodded her head severely. They were silent. "Please. You have to help us." She pleaded almost frantically but inhaled another sharp breath to compose herself, carefully modulating her voice and shifting into her smooth velvet tone of persuasion. They were still silent, their faces rigid with distress.

"I'm sorry, Edythe. Truly, I am. But as I have already said once before, we do not wish ill upon you and yours, but we won't stand against the Volturi. We simply cannot!" his voice rang out almost angrily.

Carine jumped in. "But with all due respect, Kirill, it's your brother who had broken his promise to us in the first place. You owe us this much. I am begging you, please. They are coming for us, Kirill, the entire Volturi guard. My son saw it." At Carine's words, I saw as Kirill exchanged a silent glance with every last one of his remaining coven mates and, after what seemed like a really, really long time to me, he let out a deep breath sliding his eyes shut and sighed, I guess in resignation, and then they nodded at the exact same time, all at once.

"We will do what we can. Follow me." Silently, Kirill rose to his feet and motioned for us to follow after him up the stairs. He led us to a large room with a giant fireplace in it which stretched from floor to ceiling. Right next to the largest six-paneled window which the last of the sun seemed to shine through was an office desk complete with three drawers on either side of the brown leather chair with wheels parked right in front of the desk, centering it. On top of the desk was a large computer monitor and gray keyboard and some large bookcases lined the walls. I saw a number of pictures displayed with all five of the coven members smiling happily together over the years on the office desk, the free wall spaces, and the windowsills in the room; you could just tell they all loved each other very deeply. When I saw Ivan's face I was once again reminded how I still couldn't be entirely mad at him. Maybe he really did think he was doing the right thing; maybe losing Lauren just got too painful for him to bear. But why did he have to go and do this to us? His family? I wondered if things would ever be the same between us all and I furrowed my brow.

"Beau?" Edythe threaded her arm through mine, pulling me out of my thoughts. "What are you thinking of?" I couldn't answer her and only brought her to my chest, circling my arms around her entire body. I could feel her cool hands pressing themselves tightly against my back. I knew I'd do anything to protect her; her and the baby. It was my own personal vow.

Kirill motioned all around the room and nodded.

"What is it that you need, Carine?" he asked, his voice soft.

"We need to find evidence; evidence that the child will not pose a threat to our kind."

"Then that is exactly what we will do."

With that, we all set to work right away.

…

The daylight slowly dissolved into darkness and we turned on all the lights in the room, working deep into the night. I didn't even feel tired though, and I haven't even looked at the clock once, much too focused on the task at hand of finding something that can potentially save my family. We were all using our phones, taking turns on the computer and rotating through all the books, and I had to wonder why our cousins had so many texts of this nature in the first place, though I was absolutely grateful for it nonetheless. It still wasn't enough though. So far, here's what we gathered: First of all, it was much, much rarer for a female vampire to get herself pregnant by a human male, or at least some variation of that... um, circumstance. You'll find that the other way around though was a lot more common, and I do mean that pretty loosely – that is, while the odds of a male vampire getting a human female pregnant was like finding a needle in a haystack, what we had on our hands was more like trying to snowboard, blindfolded, down the face of a giant, jagged cliff in the middle of a lightning storm without getting yourself killed – in other words, you can just forget it. It's definitely not a lot to go on, that's for sure. I heard Dimitri letting out a sigh when he slammed the book of legends he was looking through shut, I'm assuming finding nothing of interest in there either. The next best thing I thought to look out for going through the books again were the terms incubus and succubus, or demons who seduce and prey on sleeping humans and suck the life out of them through the deed – you know what I mean - like the Hungarian Liderc or the Swedish Mare among others. However, knowing how it was with us, I guess succubus was the more accurate term of the two that I should really be looking out for, though it actually offended me to even refer to my wife – oh, you know, just the love of my life and literal mother of my child, no big deal - as such a thing in the first place even if it was just for the sake of research. Even then, the closest thing I could find was the Sumerian Ardat Lili, a demon who seduces men and begets "ghostly children" by them– I got that one off the web, by the way – and I let out a frustrated groan, gripping tightly at either side of my head with my elbows pressed hard against the computer desk. I eyed Earnest and Royal, who were each scanning a book at the table on the other side of the room, flipping back and forth between the pages with lips pursed in deep concentration.

"This isn't working, there has got to be more." Edythe wailed, holding her head in her hands. I saw as Elena's eyebrows raised and softened, looking at my wife with what could only have been pity. She pressed her lips together and put a slender finger to her chin looking up at the skylight so she could see the stars through it, remembering.

"I was a part of the Volturi for many a year." She started in a calm voice. "I had an ability too valuable for Aro – Sulpicia's late husband – to resist. I had helped him to recruit new members with unique and powerful gifts for the Volturi guard and he saw me as indispensable for it. That man was ruthless. However, Sulpicia had always been a very reasonable woman, and I thought her very just. It is strange to me she would wish to bring any sort of harm upon you and your family unless she had utmost reason to. I expect she would have listened to what you had to say first before deciding to destroy the child; to destroy Edythe. Perhaps… perhaps it is something we do not know about?" Elena looked to where Kirill was holding a book open in his hands, Dimitri just about to reach for another right beside him. Their eyes locked on hers, and they nodded.

"You said that you and your brothers did know something about the Volturi, right? Something that could be used against them?" Jules suddenly piped, rising to her feet. She stood next to Carine and the two exchanged a knowing look.

"Of course." Kirill's voice grew soft, it sounded like he was talking to himself. He slammed the book he was looking at shut, blinking. From the highest shelf attached to the wall on the other side of the room, Kirill took down from it an old, dusty brown box that was pushed up against the back of it behind a good number of newer ones and we all looked on, waiting.

"While there may be no documented evidence as to what can become of that child, perhaps you can still get them to listen to your pleas."

"What do you mean? How can we do that?" Eleanor asked, leaning forward. I put a hand on my chin, thinking about what they were saying.

And then it hit me.

That's it.

"We can beat the Volturi at their own game." My mouth fell open as I realized the weight of my words.

"Precisely." Kirill nodded his head. "They are hiding something, that much we know. You use that against them - leverage, per se, a bargaining chip. Shortly after Sasha was-" his didn't finish his sentence and ran his hand absentmindedly through his hair. "After she was punished, chaos continued to ensue in the final wave of the Plague of the Immortal Children. What most did not know though however was that at the very same time, another Plague of sorts was running its course behind the scenes. Many nomads and covens throughout the world began disappearing without a trace; covens with no involvement whatsoever in the affair of creating Immortal Children. Carine knows the story as does your young friend Julie here. We thought to use this knowledge against the Volturi; to confront them with these unspoken truths and to hold them accountable. But the fear of retribution was so very high and evidence was extremely difficult to come by without first incriminating ourselves. But there was something more; a missing link."

"What link?" Carine breathed.

"Not long before the final wave of the Plague of the Immortal Children hit our world, I'd say some twenty years before the Volturi had served their final acts of twisted justice and tore our family asunder, my brothers and I had been out hunting with a few acquaintances of ours – they had once been a part of the Volturi guard - when, as we were coming home, we had witnessed the execution of another like us; a local who would terrorize his village by nightfall. By then I believe Aro had already been dismissed; him and his brother Caius being found guilty of treason; and so, it was Sulpicia who subsequently replaced her husband as the Volturi's leader, ruling alongside Athenodora – who took over for her husband Caius- and Marcus. But there was – I shall never forget it – a child. A strange child; a beautiful child who clung to Sulpicia's robes. This child was no immortal, at least from what we could see and hear of her, whose heart beat like the rhythm of a hummingbird's wings and whose eyes were as lovely and as clear a blue as Sasha's once were. We thought very seriously to ourselves: for what reason on this earth would the Volturi have want for a human child if not to feed on her sweet blood? And yet, once the transgressor had been dealt with Sulpicia, with all the tenderness of a mother, lifted the frightened child into her arms and pressed her head of dark curls to the shadow of her neck, whispering the sweetest words of comfort into the little child's ear. We asked our companions what they thought of so odd a sight, but they never did answer us clearly and left us behind shortly thereafter. We were certain then in our knowledge that that child meant something to Sulpicia." He finished in a low, susurrus voice.

"You don't suppose…?" Edythe whispered. She looked down again, touching a quick hand to her stomach before snapping her eyes back up to look at Kirill who nodded his head.

"I do now. Before I had never fathomed it to be possible, but you have certainly apprised me, Edythe. You and your extraordinary family."

Extraordinary. I contemplated the implication of the word over and over again in my brain and finally decided for my own sake that I liked the sound of that, knowing it meant that he was on our side and that maybe, just maybe, the answer to our prayers was out there somewhere; that there was a light at the end of the tunnel and a finish line to all this madness yet in sight.

But then Kirill made a face like when you're going on vacation and suddenly realize you've left your luggage at home and were already at the airport. "You should know that there is no documented evidence whatsoever of that child's existence anywhere besides within the confines of our own memory, I'm afraid. It is a dead end." When he said that, the optimism I felt just seconds ago now faded away some. I waited, listening. "You won't get any answers from them should you so much as even mention that child. It will very likely wound your cause."

"And how do you know that, Kirill?" Earnest asked, genuinely curious.

"Soon after Sasha's death, we ran into our acquaintances again from the day of the village execution we had all witnessed. I thought to mention the little girl briefly in conversation but oddly enough, they refused to even acknowledge that they saw her, as if it never happened in the first place; that the girl did not even exist." He shook his head. "It almost seemed to me that our companions were frightened of someone – or something – and were sworn to a vow of secrecy which rendered them vulnerable to retribution, and I cannot help but think it had everything to do with that strange, beautiful child we saw that fateful day. And we never did see her likeness anywhere ever again, even on the day which the Volturi came for us. But how could Sulpicia bear to part with that most beloved child? Something must have happened to her. And the destruction, the madness… to whom did that grief belong? Why did they not acknowledge the disappearances unless they had known about them all along? Why were our companions banned from even speaking of the child? I am afraid what you are searching for, then, will get you nowhere if the Volturi were to be made aware of it." He shook his head. "Do not mention the child, only the disappearances. In this way, perhaps they'll be less likely to make any rash decisions against you and yours."

I chewed on my lip, thinking hard about what he was saying. I guess it just meant that our best bet now was to focus our research on the mystery of the disappearing nomads and covens instead. It was something, at least. And, by the looks of it, those two – the child and the disappearances -were connected in some strange way to each other anyways. Only, going into the confrontation from this particular angle we were more likely to get what we wanted from the Volturi; for them to listen to us for just one split second, because we weren't the only ones who had something to hide.

"Then that's fine." I nodded my head. "Leverage, blackmail – whatever, right? Any will do. Tell us everything you know." I sat up straighter now and pressed my lips tight together in concentration, folding my hands on the polished wooden table leaning forward.

Kirill thumbed through the old box again, taking from it faded yellow documents, folders, newspaper clippings, pictures, just about every type of printed media you can think of. He told us about many things, like how his brothers and those acquaintances knew of several other covens in the area at that time – hundreds of years ago - who disappeared one day without a trace along with many others in different parts of the world. He told us about how animals and other livestock in villages were found drained of life near the outskirts of Volterra, where the Volturi resided, causing mass hysteria to break out in nearby villages which cast a wary eye of suspicion on their kind making it that much harder for real vampires to live in secret; in peace. He talked about the paranoia these villagers faced, how ordinary humans were accused of being vampires, witches, goblins, demons, and everything in between by their fellow neighbors who went after them with pitchforks and torches, setting their houses on fire and burning innocent people at the stake, practices I knew Carine was all too familiar with from her human life. The final wave of the Plague of the Immortal Children struck around the same time which these events took place, serving as the perfect diversion. Kirill and his brothers posed this question to themselves– could that have been the Volturi's plan all along? A cover-up? Or was it simply a convenient coincidence? For years, they had wanted to confront the Volturi and get justice for Sasha, but because evidence of the Volturi's alleged involvement in these events was so hard to come by, they tried to make peace with Sasha's death; tried to move on, as impossible as that was for them to do. Now, it was up to us.

"We sincerely hope this information may be of some use to you and your family." Kirill put everything away in the box again and replaced the top lid, sliding it across the table to us.

"Thank you all so very much." Carine bowed her head, taking the box from her cousins.

"Wait." Arch suddenly started, touching a finger to his temple. He closed his eyes before opening them again. "I just had a vision – of your old companions, I think. Three brothers. It looks like…" he shifted his jaw and squeezed his eyes shut again. "We're going to be paying them a visit soon. They'll have even more answers I believe - perhaps that means they're willing to break their silence now, after all these years. I wonder why though…" Arch started scribbling things on a nearby pad of paper with his eyes shut. Edythe watched him closely, her pink lips folding in on themselves in an intense look of concentration, trying to see the images being conjured up in her brother's mind.

"This is where you guys lived around the time you saw that child, correct?" Arch carefully pushed the yellow paper across the table with the tip of his pen for them to see and Kirill and Dimitri nodded at once, an address I think printed on the paper pad in messy scrawl.

"Yes. Nearby the Istrian peninsula – Croatia today, if I am correct."

"That's perfect." Arch muttered triumphantly. "I know where we're going next."

…

We started packing at the crack of dawn and met Carine's cousins outside the door. "We wish you the best of luck. Please, be careful. We are deeply sorry for what our brother has done and are even more sorry we could not have done more to help."

"You've done plenty for us, thank you." Carine wrapped her arms around Kirill, Dimitri, Elena, and Carlos, the rest of us following suit. Just as we were all about to duck into the car, Kirill called out to us.

"Edythe, Beau? I understand this may be long overdue, but please accept my sincerest congratulations on your growing family." I saw the edges of Edythe's pink lips curl up into a gentle smile at his words. Her fingers tightened around my own and she leaned her head on my shoulder as we hurried back to the van before racing to the airport to catch our flight home.

We made it back to the Cullens' big white house before evening had come. We all dashed inside, closing the door quickly behind us. Everyone took off again, going to pack for our upcoming trip to Croatia to talk with Kirill's old acquaintances and were back in the living room with bags slung over their shoulders before I had even started up the stairs.

"Don't bother. I've already got you covered." Edythe pulled the straps of my canvas carry-on tight over one shoulder, hers on the other.

"Hey, let me get those for you-" I made to take them from her holding out my hands but she dashed outside of my reach every time with movements so quick they didn't even exist, so I just gave up. We were taking the very next flight out of here; it was going to leave in about two-ish hours. Just then, I snapped my fingers.

"Wait! Let me grab something." Quickly I bounded up the stairs in threes making a mad dash for my room. I went to the nightstand on my side of the bed and rummaged through the bottom drawer for the birthday presents which Edythe and Jules had given to me, the golden pocketknife and the sterling silver wolf compass. I galloped down the stairs with them in tow, wondering if I should put them in my bag or my jacket pockets before I found myself back in the living room.

Observing how the gold handle of the pocketknife glinted in the last bits of the sun, I flipped it open and swished the blade in the air like it was a lightsaber from Star Wars. Not that my mad Jedi skills would do me any good up against the Volturi or anything like that but at least I had something which some good old-fashioned human thugs in an ally or some thick green vines that might trip me up in some solitary forest couldn't stand a chance against – that is, if I didn't accidentally injure myself with it first of course, which had a high probability of happening given the fact that I'm me. I mean, sure it was pretty but exactly why did my wife trust me with sharp objects again?

"You should really put that thing away or you're gonna kill someone with it." Jules laughed out loud when she saw me.

"That would kind of be the point," I answered, swishing the blade around again before striking a cool galactic pose holding it out to one side of me with both hands, like I was Luke Skywalker going up against an imaginary Darth Vader.

"You are such a nerd."

"I'll take that as a compliment." I shrugged. I closed the pocketknife up again and slid it into my coat pocket. I dangled the compass she'd gotten me in front of her face and snapped my palm shut around it before thrusting it into my other pocket. Jules smiled a little at that, just as I was hoping she'd do.

"Shall we get going now?" I heard my wife's musical voice ring out from the porch tinged with just a hint of impatience and something else I couldn't quite put my finger on.

"Coming." I yelled back and gripping Jules' shoulders in front of me, I pushed us both out the door after my wife.

We were going to find some answers.