Chapter 23: Preparations
"A little higher on your side, Nat," Alice said, scrutinizing how Emmett and I were holding the large congratulatory banner she'd purchased for the graduation party.
Emmett and I had climbed up to the ceiling using bookshelves so that we could ensure that the banner was at the perfect height—we'd been at it for twenty minutes and I could tell that Emmett's patience was wearing thin.
"Ali, are you forgetting that human's eyes aren't nearly as sharp as ours?" Emmett asked. "No one will be able to tell that it's slightly off centre except for you."
"Exactly," Alice said. "It'll bother me for the whole night if it's crooked."
"I think there are more important things to worry about right now," Emmett said, rolling his eyes. The threat of the newborns in Seattle was getting worse and it felt like they were getting closer. I'd overheard Jasper, Carlisle, and Emmett discussing their attack plans earlier.
Emmett tightened his side of the banner, holding it taught against the wall. I held my side tight and looked at Alice expectantly. She narrowed her eyes and inspected our work for much longer than was probably necessary.
"Perfect," she grinned.
Emmett and I finished mounting the banner and jumped off of our bookshelves to the ground. We shifted the bookshelves back to their original spot and I watched as Jasper and Carlisle carried massive speakers into the living room. The party was in a couple hours—Alice had left the graduation ceremony immediately after receiving her diploma so she could return to the house to set up. She'd changed out of her graduation dress and into a silver sequinned tank top and blood-red leather pants.
"Are you sure you won't come tonight?" Alice asked me.
"I'm sure," I said quickly.
"It'll be fun, though," she pouted.
"I'm sure it will be," I said. "But Paul and I are going to spend the evening in Port Angeles."
She crinkled her nose. "There's not a whole lot to do in Port Angeles."
"We're seeing a movie."
"Oh, so you're fine to sit in a movie theatre packed with humans, but not our house," she said sarcastically.
I laughed. "Paul tends to pick movies that have been out for a while to avoid a situation like that from happening."
Alice rolled her eyes and pulled a little remote out of her pocket. She pressed a button and suddenly the lights in the Cullens' living room changed—they were now pulsing purple and red and it basically transformed the Cullens' home into a nightclub.
Rosalie and Esme entered the house, carrying multiple boxes of the catered food that they'd ordered and arranged them on one of the long tables that had been set up to the side of the room.
From outside, I heard a car drive up to the house, one of the doors close, and then the car pull away almost immediately. I listened as Edward and Bella had a hushed conversation about the party and the threat of the newborns that was on the horizon, and I knew that it was my queue to leave.
I'd tried to minimize my interactions with Bella—the few times I'd seen her we'd gotten along relatively well, but it was extremely difficult for me to stay in control of my thirst while she was near. I knew of Jasper's difficulties with his self-control and I didn't want to make things harder for him when he could also feel how thirsty I was around her.
"Am I good to go, Alice?" I asked.
"I guess," she said, heaving a huge sigh.
I laughed. "How would you explain my presence here? A stranger in your house who eerily has the same golden eyes and pale skin as you?"
"A distant cousin," she said immediately. "They'd never guess the truth."
"Well, I figured it out," Bella said as the door opened and she strode in with Edward.
"You had help," Edward teased.
"Yeah, he basically broke the treaty by telling you," Emmett laughed. "We should've gone to war with them when that happened—they would've been a lot easier to take down when the pack only had three members."
My stomach tightened and Bella's eyes widened at Emmett's words. "He didn't know the legends were true!"
"I'm just kidding, Bella," Emmett said. "Although, at least then I wouldn't have gotten into that fight with—"
"Emmett," I warned. I didn't need him bringing up the fight he'd had with Paul again. The thought of the two of them snarling and snapping at each other…
Alice rolled her eyes at Emmett and asked him to help her carry another speaker into the house to distract him from the conversation. I thanked her with my eyes and said goodbye to everyone before heading to La Push to meet up with Paul.
He was leaning against his car when I arrived at his building, a grin lighting his face as I came into view. He gave me a quick kiss and opened the passenger side door for me.
"I'm shocked you don't want to go to the big party tonight," he said sarcastically as he started to drive to Port Angeles.
I snorted. "Honestly, I think that's the last place I'd want to be. How'd you know it was happening?"
"Bella invited Jake."
"Do the Cullens know about that?" I asked.
He laughed. "I don't think so. He plans on attending with Embry and Quil."
"Alice kept trying to get me to stay for it," I said. "I'm almost regretting not agreeing now since I'm sure I'll be missing out on some drama."
"I can turn the car around," he offered. "Why not have four wolves attend?"
I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "As tempting as it is, I'm very excited for the movie."
"Are you actually?"
"Well…not so much the movie and more just spending time with you."
He chuckled and grasped my hand, squeezing it tightly. "We've spent plenty of time together this week."
"It's never enough," I said. "Are you already getting sick of me?"
He squeezed my hand again. "Never."
Once in the theatre, Paul ordered himself some popcorn and we settled ourselves into our seats with his arm around me and my head resting against his shoulder.
That night, we saw the latest superhero movie. Despite it being out for a couple of weeks, our theatre was a little busier than usual, but it wasn't busy enough to make me uncomfortable.
The movie itself was pretty good—I hadn't seen the rest of the movies related to it so I was a little bit confused about what was going on, but I was still able to enjoy it. When I'd told Paul that I hadn't seen any of the other films, he'd promised me that he'd get me completely caught up on them, just like he'd promised to get me caught up on all his favourite horror movies.
The lights turned back on and Paul and I began to quietly discuss the movie as the other people in the theatre started to shuffle out. As we talked, I checked my phone and I felt myself stiffen when I saw that I had thirteen missed calls from Alice.
"So, basically this movie introduced multiple universes and timelines within the main universe," Paul explained. "This opens up a tonne of possibilities for…" He trailed off and I felt him shift slightly. "Are you okay?"
"Alice called me thirteen times through the movie," I muttered. "Sorry, let me just call her back."
Paul pulled out his phone and I watched his brow furrow. "Sam and Jared both called me a bunch of times too."
Shit.
Had the newborns already attacked? Had we completely missed it during the movie?
Had somebody gotten hurt?
I quickly dialled Alice's number as Paul dialled Sam's, fighting the urge to bolt out of the theatre and get back to Forks immediately.
"Alice?" I asked once the line connected. "What's wrong?"
"Are you free tonight?" she asked, voice tight. I could hear the music from the party still pulsing in the background.
"What?" I asked, bewildered. "I told you I'm not coming to the party."
"It's not for the party," she said. "I-I had a vision. A decision has been made."
"They're coming here," I said, the realization dawning on me. Sam and Jared wouldn't have been calling Paul like they had been if the threat wasn't coming to us.
"They are."
"What do you need from me?" I asked.
"Can you come to the house?" she asked. "We're going to make plans."
I thought back to earlier when I'd overheard Carlisle, Emmett, and Jasper making plans and I knew that their plans of attack were going to have to shift to plans of defence.
"Yeah of course—we're leaving Port Angeles soon so I'll get there as soon as I leave Paul's place."
"He can come with you," Alice said, surprising me. "Sam Uley is going to join us to discuss as well."
"Okay…yeah, I'll see if he wants to join us," I said, glancing at Paul who was busy talking to Sam in Quileute. "See you soon, Alice."
"We'll be in the dining room—let yourselves in."
I ended my call with Alice just as Paul got off the phone with Sam. I met his eyes and knew that the two of us had had basically the same conversation.
"To the Cullens' place, I guess," he muttered, grasping my hand and pulling me to my feet.
"You're gonna come?" I asked.
"Sam wants Jared and me there," he said as we walked through the theatre and out to his car. "That's what happens when you're the Beta and Third-In-Command of the pack."
As Paul drove to the Cullens' house, I gripped his hand tightly. I'd known the threat was getting closer over the course of the past little while, but hearing how worried Alice had sounded on the phone had my stomach turning and worry eating away at me.
The fact that the pack was joining this meeting to make plans meant that the wolves would be aiding us during the fight with them and it had me worrying about Paul. I studied his face as he drove well above the speed limit and I felt my heart swell in my chest—he was the most important thing in my life at this point and I knew that I needed to do whatever I could to make sure he stayed safe.
He glanced over at me and gave me a small smile that didn't touch his eyes—he was worried too.
We were both silent as he drove to the Cullens' house, the tension in the air between us was so thick between us that you could cut it with a knife.
He pulled into the Cullens' winding driveway and I saw Sam and Jared waiting for us on the front porch. They both looked tense, but I could see excitement dancing deep in their dark eyes. If they were going to join us in fighting the newborns, it would be exactly what they were meant to do: kill vampires.
We exited Paul's car and approached the house with Paul gripping my hand tightly. He was holding himself very tensely and I knew how uncomfortable he was at the thought of entering the Cullens' home. Sam nodded at the two of us in greeting while Jared stood with his arms crossed tightly against his chest, avoiding both of our eyes.
I tried not to let it bother me too much that Paul and Jared still didn't seem to be on good terms.
The four of us were quiet as we entered the house and I was relieved to see that the party had already ended. The house was perfectly clean—the only evidence of the party were the speakers they'd set up earlier and the long table they'd had the food on. Everything else had already been cleaned up and the banner had already been taken down.
I led Paul, Sam, and Jared into the Cullens' dining room where everyone except for Edward was seated around the massive table. Carlisle stood from his seat at the head of the table and smiled warmly at me before addressing Sam.
"Thank you for joining us—I know how difficult this must be for you."
"We all want the same thing," Sam said. "To protect the town and remove this threat."
"Please, have a seat," Esme said, motioning to the empty chairs. I sat down in a chair and Paul followed suit, still gripping my hand. Sam took a seat directly across from Carlisle while Jared stayed standing with his arms crossed in the corner of the room.
"Do we know who's causing this?" Sam asked, getting to business quickly.
"We have our theories," Carlisle said. "But we don't have any concrete answers to that question."
"What are these theories?" Sam asked.
Carlisle glanced at Alice and then me before saying, "My son, Edward, believes that the Volturi may be involved."
Paul stiffened beside me. "Why do you think that?"
"Who are the Volturi?" Sam asked at the same time as Paul's question.
"The Volturi are the closest thing our kind has to authority," Carlisle explained. "And Edward believes that it may be them because they don't have the best relationship with our coven. There may be reason for them to check on us and they may be anticipating a fight, so they're creating what we call a newborn army to strengthen their numbers."
"I don't believe it's them, though," Alice said. "I've been keeping a watchful eye on each of them and none of them have made plans to move."
"Some things slip through, Ali," Jasper said gently, squeezing her hand.
"Any command would have come directly from Aro," Alice insisted. "No one from the guard would plan something like this on their own."
"What if someone broke away?" Emmett asked. "Someone from the guard could be holding a grudge."
"Emmett, have you ever heard of a member of the guard breaking away?"
"Yes," Emmett said, looking pointedly at Carlisle.
"And no one's left since!" Alice said, exasperated. She was frustrated that no one seemed to have faith in her power and I couldn't blame her. "The only one of them who would do something like this to attack one of us is Jane and I've been watching her too."
"We have to look at all of the possibilities here," Emmett said with a shrug. "We know that they want—"
"They don't work like that, though," I whispered, cutting off Emmett before he could mention the Volturi expecting Bella to be turned. We didn't need to get into that conversation with the pack present.
Everyone at the table turned to look at me and I shifted slightly.
"What do you mean, Natalie?" Carlisle asked.
"You and I probably know better than the rest of us, Carlisle," I began. "The Volturi doesn't care about being subtle. They have enough vampires on their side to attack us without much problem. Plus, there's no reason for them to attack us. If they're just checking in, they'd simply send some of their strongest as a backup in case of a real fight. They wouldn't be anticipating one."
"That's true," Alice said, sounding grateful that someone was agreeing with her. "They wouldn't need an entire army to help them—they basically already have an army at their disposal."
Paul relaxed slightly next to me, relief pouring out of him. I squeezed his hand gently and he sent a small smile my way before turning his attention back to Carlisle.
"What about the redhead we've been chasing?" Sam asked. "Could she have something to do with it?"
"She could," Carlisle said. "She has the most reason out of anyone to come after us."
"I've been watching her too and haven't seen anything," Alice said. "But like Jasper said, some things slip through."
"When are they arriving?" Sam asked.
"The fifteenth," Alice said.
"Four days," Jared breathed. Paul's hand tightened on mine and I glanced at him, but he kept his eyes trained on Carlisle.
"Do you know how many of them there are?" Sam asked.
"We don't," Carlisle said. "We've estimated that there are at least twenty."
Twenty.
Twenty newborn vampires being trained to attack us and taught how to fight. The strength that came with being a newborn was beyond normal vampiric strength—very few vampires would possess the strength of a newborn after the first few months.
"Where do your numbers stand?" Jasper asked Sam.
"Ten," Jared said.
"Seven," Sam corrected immediately. "Colin, Brady, and Seth aren't fighting. They're too young."
The thought of sweet Seth Clearwater fighting against volatile vampires made my heart constrict painfully. If anything happened to him or Leah it would completely destroy Sue.
The Cullens and Sam began to make more concrete plans of defence and came up with the best strategies to ensure that we'd be successful, but I couldn't stay focused on what they were talking about.
My eyes were on Paul.
He was intently listening to the conversation at hand, nodding along in a agreement and throwing in his own ideas when he could, but I could see the tension around his eyes and in the tightness of his posture.
I couldn't focus on the conversation about the battle when I knew how easily I could lose him during it. I wasn't worried about it before the wolves had agreed to join, but now it felt like the one person that meant everything to me could be taken away because of one mistake.
I was memorizing his features; drinking in every plane of his face, the beautiful copper glow of his skin, the small bump on his nose from the times it had been broken, and most importantly: the way his hand felt on mine.
"Alice."
Rosalie's voice was barely above a whisper and I tore my eyes away from Paul to look at Alice. She'd gone completely still, her eyes staring blankly at the wall behind Paul and me. I watched as Jasper put a gentle hand on her shoulder and waited for Alice to return to the present, staring at her intently.
She blinked rapidly and her face clouded with horror. "She…she slipped up."
"What?" Carlisle asked, brow furrowed.
"It's her," Alice whispered.
"Victoria," Rosalie hissed.
"What did you see?" Esme asked gently.
"I saw her whispering commands to a young vampire," she said. "Not one of the newborns, but he's not much older than them. I think she's been getting him to do her dirty work while she keeps us occupied chasing her through the woods. It's how someone got into Bella's room and it's how she's kept me in the dark. She…she knew how to evade my gift."
I closed my eyes—it wasn't enough that it was a group of volatile newborn vampires coming to Forks, but now it was the vengeful vampire who wanted nothing more than to hurt the wolves and the Cullens?
Paul squeezed my hand tightly and I opened my eyes; he looked at me and I saw fear deep in his brown eyes. I was sure his thoughts were along the same as mine—he was scared of losing me just as I was scared of losing him.
"We'll need to make plans to get our people to safety," Sam said. "This vampire has a personal reason to attack us—we need to make sure anyone she might go after is safe."
"We'll help in any way we can," Esme said. "Who needs to be hidden?"
"Charlie is probably the most at risk," Carlisle said. "Victoria knows how to get to him because of his close relation to Bella."
"We can get Billy to take him fishing that day," Jared said. "Away from Forks and La Push."
"We need to make sure Sue, Emily, and Kim are hidden too," Paul said, making my heart constrict. The thought of Victoria going after any of them…
"Maybe they can go to Seattle for the weekend," Sam mused. "These vampires will be out of Seattle by Thursday—it should give them time to get out of Forks before they arrive here."
"We'll pay for accommodations and travel," Alice said. "It's the least we can do."
Paul glanced at me and I knew what he was thinking. He wanted me to go with them to Seattle so that he'd know that I'd be safe as well.
I couldn't do that, though—not when he'd be here in Forks, fighting for his life. I wouldn't sit on the sidelines, holed up in some hotel room worrying about whether I'd ever see him again.
I looked away from him. "Maybe Colin, Brady, and Seth could go with them? That way they can stay safe but still feel like they're helping."
"Good idea, Natalie," Sam said.
"Seth's going to be a problem, though," Jared muttered. "Good luck convincing him to stay behind when Leah will be here fighting."
"There is still the issue of Bella," Alice said quietly. "She'd never agree to going to Seattle too."
"I'm sure Edward has already thought of a plan for that," Carlisle said. "And I'm sure they could use extra support. Perhaps Seth can provide that extra protection."
The Cullens made plans with Sam to train tonight so that the wolves could get more comfortable with the Cullens and have a better understanding for how to best defend themselves against the newborns. Paul, Sam, and Jared stood from the table—Paul pressed a gentle kiss to my temple and squeezed my hand once more—before each of them left the Cullens' house so they could call upon the rest of the pack members to get them ready for the evening ahead of them.
I'd wished more than anything that Paul had stayed behind with me—every moment with him felt precious after the conversation we'd had.
"It will be strange to work with them," Alice said after they'd phased and run back to Forks.
"I never would have thought it would be possible," Carlisle said.
I almost wished it hadn't been a possibility.