30
Jasper ended the call with Bella, and before he could set in action any kind of plan, his amazing mate was already on her knees, her hands pressed against the sides of her head and she was screaming. He, of course, could feel the difference between a real vision and the one she was having at the moment. She'd been his mate for the last seventy-five years, after all, and he knew every little quirk she had, and didn't have.
"What's going on?" Irina cried out as she came out of the woods with Carmen and Eleazar close behind.
Tanya walked out of the house, folding her arms in front of her and giving Jasper a look that clearly said she was in the know, so to speak. Her relationship with Jacob Black was shocking, but it hadn't taken him long to see the way they were together, even if it made his stomach churn. He had known her long enough to know that he was important to her, and there wasn't anything she wouldn't do for him. It was admirable, even if the sight of her kissing the mutt made him want to stab his eyes out.
"Alice, sweetheart, what do you see?" Carmen questioned as Charlie and Renee walked out of the woods, their hands wrapped around one another.
"Pain. Death. We need . . . We need to hurry," Alice cried out, really selling her performance.
"Hurry to where?" Eleazar asked, and when Jasper shifted his attention to him, he could tell the vampire wasn't buying her vision.
How had they not see the man for how he really was? They knew he had worked for the Volturi. One would be hard pressed to find anyone more than a few hundred years old who hadn't spent time in the brother's employment, including Carlisle. However, they hadn't been made aware of exactly what his job duties included. The man had purposely deceived them, and that wasn't something he would ever be able to forgive. Bella may be new to their family, but she was important to him, to all of them, and they would fight for her.
"That's enough, Alice," Tanya said, drawing everyone's attention to her, but hers was locked on Eleazar. "I'm going to make this simple. Jacob's people are in danger, and we are going to go help them."
"Like Hell we are!" Eleazar snarled.
"I'm not giving you a choice, Eleazar." Tanya walked down the front steps stopping when she was just inches away from him. "When you came to us, you begged for a second chance. After what the Brothers did to our mother, we could have just as easily ripped your head off and burned you until you were nothing more than pile of ashes."
She reached up and grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him down within inches of her. "You don't have to like him, but he's mine and we will protect him, protect his people, because they are my people now, too."
She pushed him away from her and shifted her eyes between Carmen and Irina. "And that goes for the two of you, as well. If you love me at all, you'll help us."
"Goddamn it, Tanya," Irina muttered, shaking her head. "Fine. I'm all in."
"Me too," Carmen said, causing Eleazar to gasp and she sighed, putting her hands up before she turned to him. "I love you. I've loved you for five centuries, but I don't know who are right now. The man I fell in love with would never have treated that girl like she was a monster. Her change was hard enough on her without you adding to her torment. Now, it's clear this . . . this Jacob is important to Tanya, which means she's right. He's family now, Eleazar, and we help our family. You are our family, aren't you?"
Sighing, Eleazar nodded. "I am."
"Then we should be going, we don't have time to waste," Alice said, standing up.
Though Jasper could still sense the reluctance coming from Irina and Eleazar, the eight of them climbed back into the black SUV and headed for Mesa, Washington to save a group of people who would run in terror if they knew what they really were.
—Stay—
Jacob couldn't relax as the Sentinel named Abel sat stiff and uncomfortable in the passenger seat of the car. All he could think about was his people, saving his people. They shouldn't be slaughtered just because his father and the other elders decided the writings were a sign to start the fucking apocalypse.
"We are close." Abel said, somehow sitting up even straighter. "I can sense them."
"How many?"
"Three dozen. Maybe more," he replied turning and looking at her. "You called it a curse. It is not a curse to be given the ability to protect your people."
"Maybe not," he admitted. "But we don't get the choice. It's forced upon us, makes us different, and it's not a good difference."
"Nobody gets the choice when it comes to war."
"War with the cold ones? The blood drinkers?" Jacob sighed as he turned off onto the small highway that would take them directly into Mesa. "My father believed he was stopping a war, by trying to stop her change. Yet, you say his actions are what started it."
"Yes."
"How?"
Abel turned and looked back at him. "Her power will not end the world, as your father believed. Her power will protect the humans, protect the innocent. Once she can control it, of course."
"Yeah? And how does she do that?"
"She will find her way, once she accepts it. Deciding to let the blood drinker change her was the first step, of course. Her human body was not adaptable to the power inside her. They were almost too late, she had almost faded completely into oblivion."
"So you really believe she's one of you?"
"Yes."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Because, like your father, we've been watching her since she was born. The day of her birth, we felt the world shift. We celebrated her return. As she grew older, her power grew, we felt the shift, the unbalance as she human body struggled to contain the gifts she had been bestowed. I was concerned he would be too late to change her."
"And you believe she is your leader?"
"She was called Eve, before we were pushed underground. Locked away and forgotten about, written in a book as the word of God."
"You're saying God isn't real?"
"Of course he's real, but his book is fallacy, the words men believe came from him. They used us as examples as how to live, to love, to die." He sighed. "Humans used to revel in our presence. They were under our protection, but then the blood drinkers came along, changed their visions of us. We were ostracized until we were forced to hide, forced to leave them vulnerable. We've spent too long watching as the humans we once protected were preyed upon, fed on, and turned into one of them. Our hearts broke with each needless death. But then they made the decision to value human life, and there was a shift. We had mission again."
"You mean the Cullens?"
Abel nodded. "And your mate."
"Don't bring her into this."
"She is a part of this. They all are. They chose to protect humanity, which makes them our allies, as do your people."
"Are we going to make it in time?"
"Just in time."
Jacob pressed his foot down on the gas pedal, speeding up. The closer they got to Mesa, the tenser he felt himself becoming. He had put his people in danger when he went against his father, when he fought to save Charlie and Renee Swan. The decision to try to save them hadn't been an easy one for him to make, but he just couldn't sit back while innocent people were murdered just because they wanted their daughter to live. As much as he detested what Bella had let herself become, he wouldn't have found Tanya if she hadn't said yes, and he couldn't live without her ever again.
As they drove through the gates into Mesa, Washington, Jacob could feel the electricity in the air. He parked outside of the small police station and as he and Abel climbed out of the SUV, he saw Tanya, Charlie, Renee, Jasper, Alice, Irina, Carmen, and Eleazar emerging from the woods.
Jacob and Tanya met in the middle, their arms wrapping around each other, their lips finding comfort on the other. The moment he saw her walk out of that house, everything inside of shifted, changed, and he knew he would never be able to let her go. He'd never felt that type of connection with someone, and it scared him. Scared him because she was a vampire, and he was a wolf, whose soul mission was to stop her.
He heard movement around them and when he looked around, he saw Sentinels descending on either side of them. Like Abel and Cain, they were wearing dark cloaks, but unlike Cain and Abel, they were foreboding and Jacob knew they would be lucky to save themselves, much less his people.
In an instant, Jasper, Alice, Carmen, Irina, and Eleazar were gathered around them, but they weren't alone. Emerging from the buildings around them were a half dozen wolves. Jacob, of course, knew them: Embry Call, Quil Ateara Jr., Collin Littlesea, Brady Fuller, Leah Clearwater, and her little brother Seth. They shifted their eyes from Jacob to the vampires and Abel, who had joined them in the middle, preparing to fight the Sentinels that were circling around them.
"We do not have to do this," Abel said, moving to the front of the group and placing his hands up in front of them. "They are not responsible for what is coming. They are innocent."
"None of them are innocent," one of them said before he moved forward, pulling the hood off his head. Like Abel, his skin was thin and pale, fragile. He clasps his hands together in front of him, his head tilting to the side. "We warned you, brother, not to move against us."
"And we told you were not going to let you slaughter innocent people," Abel countered. "Abraham, there are women and children here."
"There were women and children with us when refused to fight with us, when we were driven underground by the blood drinkers," the man named Abraham replied, his eyes shifting from him to the vampires standing around them. "You are standing with our enemy, Abel. Have you no loyalty?"
"I am loyal to her."
Abraham laughed. "You still think she is our savior."
"I know she is."
"You are foolish. She might have been, but that was before they changed her, before they corrupted her."
"If had seen her power, you would not believe that. She can help us. They can help us make our stand, but not if you attack their innocence. We are better than that, Abraham."
"We will make our stand without them, or you. You should not have come here, brother."
"No, it is you who should not have come here. I am sorry that you lost your way. We will miss you, brother. Goodbye."
Jacob threw his arms around Tanya as Abel's eyes began to glow and he raised his arms and screamed. The sound shook the ground, and the Sentinels gathered around them began to ascend toward them. In a frenzy, they jumped into action. Jacob leapt through the air, feeling his body rip open as he transformed form his human body into his wolf form just in time to take one of them to the ground. He clamped his jaw around the beings head and ripped it off, throwing to the side before he turned and looked for his next target. Jasper and Alice were fighting off three of the Sentinels, while Eleazar, Irina, and Carmen had half a dozen on them. Seth and Leah were plowing through four of them while Embry, Quil, Collin, and Brady were each battling two.
He searched for Tanya, finding her on the other side of the street, three of the Sentinels on top of her. She was fighting, battling for her existence, but before Jacob could make the move to help her, he watched as Abel came up behind two of them, grabbing them by the back of the head and threw them down the road, right at Jacob's feet.
Jacob made quick to rip their heads off, and when he looked up, he nodded his head in Abel's direction before jumping into the fray and stopping the Sentinels from ending his bloodline, from killing the woman he loved, and hoping that Bella and Edward were getting the answers they so desperately needed. For all their sakes.
Thank you for all the AMAZING reviews. I know the updates for this story are slower than my other two, but I am taking my time to ensure I am telling the best story possible, since it's not the norm.