Fate into Shadows

Chapter 11

Meet Greet

I was rightfully worried about this get-together at my house with my father and the wolves as I stood on the roof of my house and watched as the unsuspecting human greeted them in the backyard. I was actually surprised by how sunny it was today; it's never this bright, and if I don't have the guts to tell my dad, he'll surely notice my sparkling girlfriend.

I'm just hoping he'll trust golden-eyed vampires over supposed "saviors," and vampire killers. Though, the wolves outnumbered the vampires, with Angela, her grandmother, Tabby, and me adding to the numbers; so far they should keep their cool as we outpowered them. Even if we were outnumbered, we just needed to split them up, and they were as good as pathetic little puppies.

I felt like a change in my wardrobe today since it's so nice outside; I'm wearing a white skirt that hangs to my feet, light and airy with slits running each side from my upper thigh, giving me plenty of room to move. The white top I chose has no sleeves and has some padding and support with elastic around my neck, similar to a sports top, which also shows off my toned tummy. Lastly, my light blue half-boots and fingerless fighter's gloves with metal plating. My hair is tied back loosely in a white ponytail.

However, to complete my outfit, I had countless weapons completely hidden. In fact, I was carrying more weapons than I thought I could hide, and a sleek pair of transition sunglasses perched on my nose. I couldn't help but wonder how pathetic the wolves' senses must be if they can't even detect me when I'm not trying very hard to hide.

I watched as my dad cautiously greeted his guests, trying not to look suspicious but not doing a very good job of it, and I could tell he was carrying a gun.

My eyes scanned over the wolves when I saw that shifty one, Paul, from the other day looking at me. He was tense and looked up straight at me. I smirked as he restrained himself, making motions here and there causing other wolves to look up at me.

If only I had thought to bring a sniper rifle, I could take out all the troublemakers. I heard that Sam guy, their leader, telling his pack to ignore me, and that they can't make a move until Leah arrives. I actually heard the air quotes in his voice.

I couldn't help but smile. I didn't know why, but the thought of smashing that arrogant bastard's teeth down his throat made my heart beat with excitement.

As I watched, I saw Jacob giving me a few worried glances, but I knew he was too chicken to break ranks with Sam. It's a shame; from what little I remember from when we were younger, Jacob was a nice guy. Well, at least they were all wearing shirts today, which is something.

I left the roof after a few more minutes' observation with a swish. I found myself in the shade of the house in the garden by the drinks. I grabbed a beer, not caring that my dad had finally spotted me (I wasn't touching anything open). I pulled off the cap with my fingers and downed a swig. It was nice, refreshing, and ice cold.

Hey dad," I said as I approached where he stood next to where Billy sat at the barbecue. "It's nice to see you in such good health, Mr. Black," I said politely to the wheelchair-bound man.

"You too, Bella," he replied, and although I didn't doubt his sincerity, I could sense his anxiety.

"Morning, Bells," Dad said to me, but he seemed a bit stiff in his movements, as if he had a thousand things going on in his head. "Umm...where are your friends?" he asked after a moment, looking around me. It was at that moment that the other two humans at this gathering approached: Leah's mom, and dad. I felt sorry for them, but if they were on the wolves' side, I might just have to hit them!

"Oh... I believe that's Alice now," I replied as I heard my car pull up outside; I could hear the electric motors doing their thing silently, which made me smile. I left without it, and Alice brought it with her. She should be here soon. I hope you don't mind, but I invited Angela's grandmother. It would have been rude not to since I was inviting everyone else."

"Of course that's fine," he replied, eyeing me suspiciously. "I've met Ms. Webber before, and she's a very nice lady!" he said quickly, noticing my body language giving nothing away.

It was moments later that I heard the growls, too low for human ears to hear, and I smugly noted that the wolves obviously didn't think that any Cullen would dare go out in the sun.

However, Alice then glided around the side of the house with an angelic smile on her lips, wearing a beautiful flowing white summer dress and sandals. The giant white summer hat kept her mostly in shadow, while the huge stylish black sunglasses completed the look. I almost laughed at how the hat and the glasses almost made her look lost.

I heard the wolves muttering in annoyance as she glided over, followed by the other three. I couldn't help but notice Alice was blatantly letting her hands catch drops of sunlight, making it sparkle, to show them she had nothing to fear from the light.

She wound up in my arms and I had no qualms about planting a soft kiss on her lips; since my father was quick to look away, I tilted her face towards the sun, just to piss them off. I pulled back as Tabby was laughing like a maniac and pointing at the angry wolves mockingly.

Good morning, Chief. This is Alice." Her beautiful voice chimed, causing the blushing man to turn around and face her. "Thank you for inviting us. The rest of the family should be here soon, including Leah, of course. They're just running a little late," she said, extending her right hand towards him in greeting.

He almost gasped as he saw the diamond-like effect the sun had on her face; he cautiously shook her hand. "Umm... think nothing of it, Alice," he said, his voice shaking slightly. "It's a pleasure."

She pulled her hand back and smiled brightly as our group took sick pleasure in the wolves' slack-jawed shock. I don't know if they've ever seen or known what happens to a vampire in sunlight, or if they just couldn't believe that she had shown them.

"Hi." She interrupted my father's train of thought as she quickly sniffed the air. "Wow, Charlie," she purred, "that smells amazing!" She happily licked her lips. "I haven't had barbecue in ages!" she exclaimed before being hit on the head by Ms. Webber's cane.

"Please excuse her, Chief," she said to him with a smile. "She does forget her manners."

"Oh, umm… that's okay," he replied looking lost and confused. "But please, call me Charlie." She smiled and nodded her head just as the wolves opened their mouths in a menacing growl, startling Charlie. The rest of the Cullens, plus Leah, walked through the house, but they all kept to the shadows.

"Okay, what's going on?" Charlie asked in worry as he looked around and realized he was the only one not in the loop.

Sam growled as he stepped forward. "These leeches are harboring one of our tribe members!" he hissed out in his boiling rage as he took in her scent.

Hearing sounds like she had run away, Charlie said with narrowed eyes. Looking at you, it seemed as if she might have good reason!

"Enough of this foolishness…!" Sam hissed through clenched teeth. "You are coming back with us now, Leah!" he spat out her name in disgust.

"No," she replied, her eyes fixed on his without wavering. "I'm not your property or of the tribe; I'm my own person, and you make me sick. There are laws to abide by, and you'll be punished for breaking them!"

He snarled and charged. I was going to intercept. Heck, all of the Cullens were going to as well when this lightly tan boy wearing just some cargo shorts charged out of the woods, did several somersaults in the air, and hit the ground before ramming his shoulder into Sam. The wolf hadn't transformed, thankfully, but he cried out in pain as he was sent flying several feet, painfully hitting the ground.

"Ha…! Got you good, dog breath!" the boy spoke out rather arrogantly while laughing. "Don't you know you shouldn't pick on a beautiful foxy young lady?" he questioned as he turned his head to Leah and winked, which caused her cheeks to light up crimson before he turned back to Sam, smirking, his bright blue eyes doing a lot of mocking.

I thought I sensed something over there, but the wind was blowing that way; it made it difficult to pick up on any scents. The person knew how to hide their scent. As I watched Sam growl while pulling himself up, I noticed the other dogs were growling too. Luckily, they seemed to realize they were outmatched.

I let my eyes flicker to Charlie as he just stared at me with wide eyes before he jumped as three large, dark-skinned men stepped out of the forest, quickly followed by some more leaner men and women that were more like the boy: athletic. The women were wearing tighter shorts and sports tops to hide their trophies.

"Danny!" the largest of the men laughed. "Rescuing a pretty young lady is certainly honorable." He smiled at Danny. "But you don't need to gloat or be so smug about it now." He turned to Sam. "Attacking the young Kaitlyn is tantamount to declaring war on my tribe. However, from what we have heard, you are already declaring war on the Cullen Coven, and after gathering our own evidence, we find ourselves disgusted with you wolves!"

"Who do you think you are?" Paul snarled out, unable to hold back his anger any longer.

"Me!" he roared out, his friendly demeanor completely gone now. "I am the Head of the Bear Tribe!" he said fiercely and proudly, his big brown eyes staring at Paul like ice. Paul shivered and backed down without hesitation.

Are you okay, dear?" asked a pretty tan older woman from the sleeker group, moving from them to Leah with a motherly smile. She brushed her dark hair out of her blue eyes. Leah could only nod and gulp, but the woman just laughed. "It is about time my son settles himself a little and finds a nice young woman to settle down with. Yes," she said, smiling at Leah. "Yes, very pretty, and I'm sure you're a sweet young woman."

"Mum," Danny complained, drawing out 'mum' in exasperation with a bright red check. I couldn't help but laugh. This caused attention to shift to me, and I shrugged.

Sam interrupted with a snort. "She isn't going anywhere with you." He sneered at the Bear Head. "You don't smell like him; she belongs to us, bitch!"

However, the woman just smiled while shaking her head in amusement. "You think a foolish little cub like you can hold a candle against my son?" she asked laughingly. "You give off a vibe I've often called 'evil rapist'! And just being this close to filth like you makes me want to bring down the full force of my tribe crashing down on you!"

"And my tribe will be crushing them with you, Lady Marier," the Bear-shifter said with a look of amusement now on his face.

"Enough!" Charlie suddenly interrupted the fun. He hadn't even noticed that Tabby had taken over his cooking duties, seemingly humming to herself. She no doubt still wanted her barbecue. All eyes turned to him, which I could tell made him uncomfortable. "Okay...who are you people and...just what the hell is going on?"

"Dad, calm down," I said quickly with a reassuring smile. "The... tribe boys... they're not human. They transform into huge wolves and they have to obey their pack leader, which is Sam, and he's been getting them to do some awful things."

"Bella," he said, looking at me like I was nuts. "Are you saying they're werewolves?"

"Yeah, we are," said Paul suddenly in smugness.

However, Tabby snorted and laughed. "You... Lykans?" she asked laughingly, while a few others chuckled along with her, and a few wolves looked like they were about to retort when they looked back at her in their fierce slit eyes. "I'm the real deal, pups," she said smugly. "And I was this before your ancestors were conned by the white man."

"What is this? A monster convention...?" Sam growled out in rage. "We should just kill the lot of you. That's what our tribe does. It kills filthy things like the Cullens. They're vampires!"

Startled, Charlie looked over at him in confusion, but Edward shrugged and stepped into the light, his skin glowing. "We… are unique among our kind," he said with a gentle smile. "We choose not to drink human blood, like a human can choose not to eat meat. That's why our eyes aren't red; they're gold."

"Bella?" he asked, looking completely baffled and a little scared.

"My granddaughter and I are witches," Ms. Webber suddenly confided.

"What?" Bella asked innocently as they all looked at her. "Oh, okay," she said as Jasper threw a near-super sonic stone at her and she just plucked it out of the air, as if it wasn't moving at all. "I'm a ninja..." she said with a pout. "Why when I say that does it sound so fake compared to the rest of you? Maybe I should call myself a spiritualist, or just say warrior, or, maybe I could say I'm a...?" I trailed off impishly, getting some weird looks.

"I still don't understand," he said in awe of my awesomeness, of course.

"Don't listen to these evil monsters, Charlie!" Sam said quickly. "They've brainwashed her and Leah, but if you let us take them both, we can help fix them."

"Yeah, like you could… you know what?" I asked, having lost all pretense that I wasn't angry. "Fuck you, I'm just going to kill you, Sam!" I said, moving forward with two knives in my hands. I was in his space before he could even blink and stabbed him straight through his right shoulder before jumping back as Paul transformed and went for me.

The long-bladed dagger that had slid out of my right sleeve sliced through Paul's throat, and he crumpled to the floor. As he transformed back, gurgling and struggling to keep his throat together, I knew it was over.

I heard the faint human screams as I charged Sam again, now fully transformed. Another wolf went for me, but a huge black bear charged out of the woods, its huge jaws tearing the other wolf's muzzle clean off, causing it to change back.

A quick glance revealed Jacob and Seth (Leah's younger brother) being coached by the bears to not transform, and to defy Sam until he was killed.

I could see that there were some large white, red, and orange tigers attacking the wolves too. The Cullens had also moved in to help. However, Carlisle and Esme had moved to protect the humans in their sparkly awesomeness. Though, I couldn't understand why I wasn't surprised that Tanya was still cooking away without a care in the world, watching the show.

Shrugging, I jumped up, flipping around with some circus-like acrobatics; my dagger ended up in the skull of a wolf just as I saw a huge white fox and a white tiger tag-teaming on another wolf.

As I landed, I just flung my kunai and it landed in the eye of a wolf. Spinning backwards, I roundhoused a wolf with my left heel before Emmett crushed its neck. High-fiving me, we linked hands and he tried to lift me, but his eyes widened when I gained the momentum and used him to bludgeon a wolf to death, leaving him to nurse his pride.

It was just after that when I saw Alice being multi-teamed by Sam and three others and barely dodging their attacks. She had even lost her hat, but her sparkles were only making it harder for them to catch her.

Jasper and I reached her at the same time. I grabbed the kunai still lodged in Sam's shoulder and twisted it before he realized we were there. The pack leader roared and screamed in pain before I kicked him over.

I slammed my foot into his throat as he struggled to get up. In that moment, the battle stopped as a group of wide-eyed wolves stared at the scene as I dropped onto him, my left hand grabbing his throat. I pulled back my right fist.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

With each punch, blood sprayed from him; with the second, he stopped struggling; with the third, his heart stopped beating, and he was dead. I stood up, and I must have looked like a sight, covered in blood but not a drop on me.

This is what happens…" I said slowly and coldly. "To any mythical creature that fucks with my territory or my family…!"

"As it should be," agreed the Head of the Bear Clan with a proud nod. "We... those who have families to protect cannot let creatures like Sam live if they threaten to disrupt our world and the human world," he said, turning his attention to Jacob. "Be thankful that the Guard of Frontier City, or one of the other cities did not come. You are now the Head of the Wolf Tribe. I pray you do not let such responsibility cloud your sensibilities!"

"Yes, sir," he agreed with a strong nod. "But... the girls he... we... they're... he killed them all."

He nodded with a sad sigh. "Such frivolous use of something as delicate as life... it's no wonder the Wolf Tribe must make penance, and restore honour to your people. It is the only way."

"Dad… are you okay?" I asked as I walked over with Alice holding my hand. "I'm… I'm sorry, but… in this world, we can't just lock them up and try them for their crimes. Sometimes we have to do what needs to be done."

He just nodded slowly, looking dazed. "I just need to think," he said as he walked off and sat down on the back porch.

I sighed as most of the other shifters ran off to change, while Leah (once decent) followed Esme as she helped Billy over to Charlie. "I kind of jumped the gun on attacking like that, but I couldn't stomach the fucking prick anymore!"

"You weren't the only one holding back," Rose said as she drifted over. "I was close to starting it too. Oh, yeah…how the hell did you manage not to get any dog blood on you?" she asked while snuggling up next to me, her new sister, looking relieved that everything had worked out.

Well… that's the secret of being awesome!" I replied with a small smile, as she pulled away pouting, before we both laughed, and she kissed my forehead before burying her face into my neck and holding me for a little longer.

She said sweetly, "You and Alice are perfect together; as you're both adorable weirdos whom I couldn't help but fall in love with anyway."

"I love you too, Rose."

"I want in on the love, too!" Alice chimed laughingly as she wormed her way into our sister-time, and we let her join us while we all laughed and just held each other for a little while.

Charlie

I was reeling. Vampires. Animal tribes. Even that werewolf girl who was still cooking while the large bear tribe removed the dead. My own daughter was apparently a flipping ninja.

Looking at Billy Black, I realized he wasn't as in the dark, but he didn't know everything. "I'm sorry, Charlie," Billy said with a tired sigh, but he looked relieved, even with a vampire, Esme, being kind enough to wheel his chair for him, as Carlisle stood by their side.

"And you?" Charlie asked as he looked up at Carlisle.

The man smiled gently. "I have never killed a human in my three hundred and sixty something years, with the exception of the few who turned. As for Alice... she is over one hundred, and doesn't remember her human life, but yet, she has never tasted human blood, and as a newborn, it can be extremely difficult to resist."

Honestly, I felt relief when I looked over and saw how Alice and Bella loved each other. Sometimes fate can be cruel.

"All I want is for Bella to be happy," I said gently. "But, who taught her all of this ninja stuff?"

"I did," Bella started, surprising me as she had snuck closer with Alice in her arms. "Fifteen hundred years ago, I went by a different name... I just remembered who I was. I'm sorry, Dad. I love you, but I think there is a war coming, and I will have to lead the armies of good mythical beings against the bad."

"It could be worse," interjected a young woman with fire-red hair that I hadn't ever met before, but who had brilliant white feathered wings extending from the center of her back, above her waist, and amazing sky-blue eyes. She was dressed in a way that would give anyone heart palpitations.

Bella!?" she exclaimed in surprise.

"In the flesh, Saya-hime!" she exclaimed, hugging my daughter before pulling back with a wicked grin. "Hi, you must be Saya's new dad," she said, offering her hand for a shake, and I took it, more confused than ever, as she was an actual angel. "I'm Lucifer Morningstar. I'm a psychiatrist to some of the most vile souls in existence, so if you ever need to talk, I'll give you a free session."

She spoke like a normal person, but my eyes widened in horror, as I realized my daughter was on pet name terms with The Freaking Devil, and even my Native American friends looked at her in equal parts horror and awe.

Lucifer sighed and pouted. "My forces on Earth are at your command, again, Saya-hime... I mean, Isabella," she quickly added, "but Jehovah doesn't like to interfere; he often forgets we aren't as indestructible as the humans think we are... and I like the peace we've had. This Everett guy is going to take that from us."

Bella seemed to sigh before starting as her phone made a noise with the Back to the Future time travel tune and she looked at her screen. "Warning: Miss. Lucifer found me, and will be with you in a minute, lots of love, Esmeralda," Bella read with a sigh before looking at Lucifer. "Did you seduce my best friend?"

Lucifer shrugged. "You do know, she..."

Yes," she agreed sadly. "And this time, things will be different."

Lucifer shrugged again. "Well, okay, fair enough, but next time you die, Elysium awaits the noble hero."

"I really don't want to be the God of Heaven or Hell… that's just silly," Bella said as she rolled her eyes, while I could only stare, dumbfounded. "It kind of looks after itself anyway, and Valkyrie and her Valkyries do a good enough job with watching over the place with Valhalla and their heroes."

Lucifer only smiled before turning a vicious grin to Alice who was staring at the woman in fascination and awe. "So you must be, Alice Cullen, the adorable little vampire," she said, offering her hand, and Alice gulped as she was pulled from Bella's arms. "You lucky little, bitch. I am so jealous of you, so just do me a favour... wow; that's a new one, someone else doing The Devil a favour, but... just take care of our home, okay?"

"O-of course," Alice readily agreed.

"Why do you refer to Bella as a princess?" Esme asked curiously. Lucifer looked at her sharply in surprise. "I-I mean, if you wouldn't mind telling me, Lady Lucifer?"

Lucifer chuckled. "She was the Unlimited Princess, foretold to lead the world... to bring everything under one banner... to destroy cultures and nations... well, that was the interpretation the Emperor's scribes took. Turned out she took pity on the weak... she saw something that even gods like myself couldn't see. It was too late by the time her father realized she was going to unite the mortals... the slaves against their masters... though, I suppose, technically Saya-chan did kill her dad with no male heir, so I guess that makes her Empress."

Bella rolled her eyes in annoyance. "The Altair Empire has been forgotten by the world, and no one seems to care about it anymore."

That was when I lost consciousness, and I wasn't the only one; it was all too much to take in.

Bella

I caught my dad before Alice could catch Esme, but their brains seemed to be overloaded, and though Esme didn't exactly faint, it took her a moment to come around, while my dad just stayed under for several minutes while the vampire doctor looked after him.

To Be Continued…