Chapter 2

Alice's POV

I watched calmly as Nessie and Jacob played in the garden. I knew that they would be hungry soon. To be fair, Jacob was always hungry and Nessie only ate human food if it was really good. She still mostly drank blood - either animal or donated, though she preferred the latter. I watched them, and then I saw something very different.

I was in a dark room, pitch-black beyond the table, which was lit by glowing candles. Figures sat around the table, but their features were fuzzy and unclear. I knew, though, that they were vampires. Their hands moved over documents and plans, and I realised with some surprise that they were wearing gloves.
What would a vampire want with gloves, when no humans were present?
One vampire reached behind themselves and scooped up a handful of black rock. The rock was etched with lines that glowed blood-red, and the vampire quickly dropped it on the table, seeming to not want any more contact with it than was necessary. They spoke only in murmured whispers that even my vampire hearing couldn't make out. A different vampire placed something else on the table, a stone box with an odd shape cut into the middle of it. A mould. But for what?
The vampire scooped up the strange black rock and put it in a ceramic jug before placing a lid on this. Then, she - I knew instinctively that she was female - laid a hand on the iron handle poking up from the middle of the stone table, and pulled. A small circle of the tabletop lifted up, and a glow came from inside. The ceramic jug containing the black stone was placed over this, and after a while - I was uncertain how much time had passed - it was removed. The female vampire tipped up the jug, and a stream of molten black metal poured into the mould. In seconds, it had partially set, and I picked it up with a pair of tongs as the other one hit the metal with a strange hammer. When she was satisfied with it, the female opened another section of the table and held it inside. The telltale hiss of water meeting heat echoed, and she pulled it out before picking something up from under the table. She held the metal still as the other vampire seemed to connect this odd wooden shape to it, and then it was done. She held the thing up to the candlelight, and I froze at the feeling of wrongness emanating from it.

In her hand was a pitch-black dagger with a simple wooden handle and glowing lines of blood red scored through the surface.

"Alice? Alice?"
I blinked out of the vision, my eyes quickly adjusting to the light. I looked up into Jasper's eyes, which were wide with concern. The others were all standing around her, watching.
"What did you see?"
I hesitated. "I…don't really understand it. It was dark, and there were vampires, but I couldn't see them clearly. They were making something…a weapon."
Jasper's brow furrowed. "What could vampires want with a weapon? We don't need tools."
I shivered. "I don't know, but there was something off about it. It felt…wrong."
Edward narrowed his eyes. "What did it look like?"
"It was a blade, a dagger. But it wasn't the shape that was wrong, it was the material. It was made out of a metal darker than pitch, with glowing red lines etched across it. And it's more than that…the vampires wore gloves, and they acted so cautious around it. Even wearing gloves, they were careful not to touch it for more than a second, and they mostly handled it with tongs."
Edward blinked and looked like he was about to say something, but then he whipped around to stare at Carlisle so fast that he was a blur.

"What was that?" he demanded.

Carlisle's eyes flicked to Edward. "It's something I saw when I stayed with the Volturi. You all know how Aro covets power; well, he researched several myths of our kind that could point him towards greater power. Most of them turned out to be just that–myths."
Bella blinked in obvious confusion. "Vampires have myths? I would have thought that, being immortal, it would be fairly easy to confirm or deny things like that before they became shrouded enough to be called myths. You know, since you'd probably have been able to track down a vampire who was alive when it happened."
Edward smiled gently at her.
"Usually that's the case, love, but there are always outliers. Things that were witnessed but not understood; vampires who died before they could pass on more than the bare minimum of details. When you're part of our world, you quickly learn not to discount anything, no matter how unlikely, because it could come back to bite you one day."
Bella rolled her eyes.
"Well, I know that. To be honest, if a dragon appeared out of nowhere right now, I don't think I'd even be that surprised."
Emmett laughed at her. "Dragons are myths," he laughed. Bella narrowed her eyes at him.
"So are vampires and werewolves—or shapeshifters, or whatever you want to call them," she pointed out. Emmett opened his mouth to reply, but Edward cut across him.
"Carlisle, you were talking about Aro's obsession with vampire myths," he reminded Carlisle. Carlisle nodded.

"Yes, well, most things he pursued turned out to be legends or rumours. He was never discouraged, though, and kept hunting for weapons and places long forgotten. Every now and then, he'd find a myth that held a grain of truth, or even more than that. Not just our myths, either; anything that could be considered even remotely possible, he would investigate. But one of the legends he was most fixated on was that of the shadow blades."
He paused. It felt like everyone in the room was holding their breath, including the two that actually needed to breathe. I found myself leaning forward, desperate to hear more. I wasn't disappointed.
"The shadow blades were referenced in an ancient text that was written in a language neither Aro or any of his followers had ever seen. Aro tried very hard to decode it, but while I was staying with him—and before that—the Volturi only made two major developments. A point in the text that mentioned blood onyx, and one that mentioned blood of immortals. There was a drawing in the text that exactly matched what Alice has just described, the same metal used in a variety of weapons.
"Aro became obsessed with it, hunting for them in secret. His fixation on them was actually one of the reasons I left—I felt that he was searching for something that shouldn't be found."

The room was deathly still. Everyone was frozen. Eventually, Edward broke the silence.
"It's the same. The drawing you remember matched up exactly to what I saw in Alice's mind."
Bella blinked. "I'm thinking that's not a good thing."
Jacob snorted, shaking his head.
"With our track record? Definitely bad."
Nessie twisted around to glare at him. "Don't be a pessimist."
"Sorry, Ness. Can't help it."
She rolled her eyes and turned around. "How can we find out more?"
Carlisle started to answer, but Bella beat him to it.
"There is no we in this, missy. You are not getting involved when the Volturi most likely have something to do with this."
Nessie threw her hands up in the air. "Come on! You act like I'm a baby, Momma!"
Bella sighed.
"It's not like that. We just don't want you to get hurt!"
"What if I think standing by and watching one of you get hurt, while I can't do anything, is worse?" Nessie pleaded. Bella shook her head.
"That's irrelevant–"
"Um, Bella," I cut in, not wanting them to argue when there were far more pressing matters to attend to, "Don't you think you're being a little hypocritical?"
Bella frowned. "What?"
"When you were human," I reminded her, "and we told you to stay safe but you always did the exact opposite."
"I did not," she complained, causing Emmett to burst out laughing.
"Don't worry, Bella," he grinned when she glared at him. "We all believe you."
Bella turned to Edward for support, but he shook his head.
"Sorry, Bella, but Alice is absolutely right. You got in an alarming amount of trouble as a human."
"None of which was my fault!"
"James," he reminded her. "Cliff diving, motorbikes, werewolves…" At that last one, Jacob shot Edward a glare.
"Um, back to the weapons," I reminded them. Carlisle nodded.
"We can try to gather information on them. The original text was found in Ireland, so I can ask Siobhán to keep an eye out."
I nodded, and then Esme spoke up for the first time.

"If–if the Volturi figure out how to make these weapons, and Alice said the vampires in her vision didn't want to touch the metal even before it was made into something dangerous…" She stopped, apparently reluctant to share her thoughts. Edward glanced at her.
"Go on - you're right. I don't like it, but you're probably right."
Esme nodded, looking up.

"What are the chances that they're going to use them against us?"