CHAPTER TWO:

Italy, Volterra: The Volturi

"Masters, you summoned us?"

"Ah, Jane, dear one," trilled Master Aro, "Felix and Demetri too- I have a very important job for you!"

Jane tilted her head, interest clear on her face. When the irritating Corin had summoned her, she'd originally been annoyed at the interruption. The stupid girl was young, moronic and absolutely in love with Master Aro- it was pathetic, and she hated the way Master Aro humored her, and dearly wished that he hadn't forbade Jane from using her Gift on her.

Corin thought she was special, like she was the only one who Master Aro had recruited personally, that she was the only one he had taught to read and write, and speak different human tongues. That she was oh-so unique with her Gift- she wasn't. Master Aro had rescued Jane and Alec himself from the stake, when their village had tried burning them alive. He'd had his eye on them from when they were not even ten years old; he'd seen their potential. He had been the one to Turn them- pathetic Corin's Turning had been an accident, some vampire snacking on prostitutes had got his teeth in her neck, and was too lazy to finish the job.

Jane had personally hunted him down and tortured him until he begged for death for his oversight.

Jane really disliked Corin.

Still, Corin's news that her Masters wanted to see her, Felix and Demetri was promising- the three of them, as well as her dear twin on occasion, were his most successful execution team, and they were sent out whenever a stupid vampire, or group of vampires, broke the laws the Masters had put in place to hide the existence of vampires from.

"How can we help, Masters?" she asked them. "Is it to do with the Cullen's human pet?" she added, hopefully.

If Jane really disliked Corin, then she hated the Cullens. She hated how Master Aro wanted Alice Cullen so desperately, and more then that, she despised how that worthless human had done something to her beloved Masters, something that made them let her go free. She had threatened Jane's Masters! She would die screaming for that, Jane would make sure of it- personally.

"We have a task for you, dear ones," Master Aro informed them, "a vampire is creating a newborn army in America- and very close to where the Cullens currently reside." Jane's eyes widened, and she smiled eagerly.

"The Cullens are making an army?" If they were, then nothing could stop her Masters from ordering their deaths, and no vampire would ever even think they deserved anything other then annihilation for breaking the rules that had kept the vampires safe for millennia.

And when the Cullens were dead, the worthless human would have no one left to protect her.

"I do not believe the Cullens are creating the army," Master Aro said, and disappointment had Jane's shoulders hunching, "but," continued her Master, "I believe we can use this to our advantage. Whoever is creating this army has broken the rules- they are threatening our exposure and are sentenced to death, as in accordance to our laws. And they will be... but first there is something they can do for us."

"There is, Master?"

"Yes. Why do you think an army is being created so far from the South, where they are usually amassed? Why Seattle? There's no one there the creator needs to fight for the territory. No, I believe the army is being created for a different purpose entirely. Vengeance."

Vengeance. That was something Jane was very familiar with.

"Master... you think someone is creating an army to destroy a coven, in revenge?" she asked.

"Yes," Master Aro smiled, "and guess which coven is closest." Jane's eyes widened, and she felt her smile stretch across her face, ear to ear.

"The Cullens."

-

-

I felt oddly buoyant as I walked from Spanish toward the cafeteria, and it wasn't just because I was holding hands with the most perfect person on the planet, though that was certainly part of it.

Maybe it was the knowledge that if tonight went well, Jacob might actually start talking to me again.

Or maybe it wasn't anything to do with me specifically. Maybe it was the atmosphere of freedom that hung over the entire campus. School was winding down, and, for the senior class especially, there was a perceptible thrill in the air.

Freedom was so close it was touchable, taste-able. Signs of it were everywhere. Posters crowded together on the cafeteria walls, and the trashcans wore a colorful skirt of spilled-over fliers: reminders to buy yearbooks, class rings, and announcements; deadlines to order graduation gowns, hats, and tassels; neon- bright sales pitches - the juniors campaigning for class office; ominous, rose-wreathed advertisements for this year's prom.

Even with my friends, the main topic was graduation.

"Have you sent your announcements, yet?" Angela asked when Edward and I sat down at our table. She had her light brown hair pulled back into a sloppy ponytail instead of her usual smooth hairdo, and there was a slightly frantic look about her eyes.

Alice and Katie were already there, too, on either side of Angela. Katie was intent over a book, the few words I could read upside-down as I peered over at her suggesting it was a Divination book. Alice was scrutinizing my boring jeans-and-a-t-shirt outfit in a way that made me self-conscious. Probably plotting another makeover. I sighed. My indifferent attitude to fashion was a constant thorn in her side. If I'd allow it, she'd love to dress me every day - perhaps several times a day- like some oversized three-dimensional paper doll.

"I guess you and Alice don't exactly need to," Angela continues, giving a quick smile to Edward, "but what about you, Bella?"

"Nope," I answer Angela. "No point. Charlie knows when I'm graduating- who else is there?"

"Not your mother?" Katie asks, looking up from the Divination book. I wince.

"Renée didn't cope well with the whole witch thing," I say, reluctant to go over this, but wanting to be honest to my friend, "I was twelve when I stopped returning to her over the holidays- I stayed with Luna and just visited her over the summer holidays. Then she got engaged, and, well, she refused to tell her fiancé what I was. I don't think I've spoken to her since."

"Wow, I feel like a jerk now." Katie mutters, looking glum. "Sorry, Bella."

"Don't sweat it. It's not your fault she's the way she is." I sigh, before stealing an apple off Angela's tray and taking a big bite out of it. Angela mock-scowls at me, before turning to Katie.

"How about you, Katie?" she asks. "Any announcements to send out?" Katie shrugs.

"Mum's stuck in Britain, and dad's staying with her." She answers, "and Daniel's a teacher here, so he obviously knows."

"Hearing you call Mr. Banner 'Daniel' will never stop being weird," Angela says, even as she reaches across to gently squeeze Katie's hand. Katie gives a weak smile back at her.

"We're a sorry bunch," she says, and I lift up Angela's orange juice in a mock toast.

"Cheers to that!"

"Give me back my juice," Angela grumbles, snatching it back. "Well, mom has about a hundred siblings and a thousand cousins and she expects me to hand-address an announcement to every one of them. I'm going to get carpal tunnel. I can't put it off any longer and I'm just dreading it."

"So Qiang's invited?" I ask, and Angela nods. "Charlie will be happy about that," I laugh. Angela pouts.

"Go ahead, laugh at my pain!" she says, theatrically spinning around so her back is facing me. "Cruel wench!"

"Aw, I'll help you Angie," I volunteer, and she turns back around to face me, genuine relief on her face. "If you don't mind my awful handwriting, that is." I add.

"Me too," Katie pipes up.

"I'd be happy to help." Alice looks excited to be able to say that- the Cullens have lived a pretty solitary existence, and Alice in particular is always marveling at the fact she has a group of friends outside her family and the vampire world she can interact with, and enjoy spending time with. "And I have perfect handwriting." She announces smugly.

"As do I," Edward says, with a smile, "I would be glad to help as well- I owe you and your family a great debt for what you did for Bella."

I wince slightly at the subtle reminder, one hand reaching up to touch the faint red scar that reaches across my jawline. The turtleneck sweaters I've taken to wearing hides how it spreads down my neck, past my collarbones. Edward gives me an apologetic look, reaching out to squeeze my hand gently.

Angela looks like the vet called to announce her puppy's cancer has been successfully eradiated, and will now live its projected sixteen years in full health and happiness. "Thanks everyone." She near about beams at us all, "we can do it any time that suits you guys."

"Well I can't do it tonight- I talked to Charlie last night, after you and Katie left; he agreed with Katie's plan and he's invited Billy over for the game and an... I guess you could call it 'intervention'." I use my fingers to make quotation signs.

"How about we kick Edward out and make it a girl's night?" Alice suggests, "Luna can join us- I'll host; Carlisle and Esme will love to have a weekend off somewhere, so will Emmett and Rosalie, and Edward and Jasper can go off hunting."

"If you're sure it won't be a bother," Angela says, already looking excited at the prospect.

"Not at all." Alice assures her. Edward gives a mock-sigh.

"I know when I'm not wanted," he says, in a mournful voice. We all laugh.

"What do you think we should do?" Alice asks, excitedly, her mind already racing. "It shouldn't take more then half an hour to complete the announcements with all of us helping, no matter how extended your family is."

"Alice," I caution, "let's keep it in the continental U.S.." Alice pouts at me, but I keep my expression stern and she wilts.

"Fine." She sighs, over-dramatically, before she, Katie and Angela burst into discussion about things to do in Port Angeles or maybe Hoquiam; a discussion that abruptly halted when her usually oh-so animated face suddenly went blank.

Alice's expression was something I recognized- an expression that sent an automatic shock of panic through my body (hotelroomsPhoenixheatpapersketchvisionvisionvision). The vacant look in her eyes told me that she was seeing something very different from the mundane lunchroom scene that surrounded us, but something that was every bit as real in its own way. Something that was coming, something that would happen soon.

"Alice?" Angela kept repeating, until Alice blinked, coming back to the present.

"I think we should head further then Hoquiam this weekend." Is all she says, before forcibly changing the subject.

The conversation never reclaims its levity, and I was confident we were all left uneasy as the school-bell rung, and Alice disappeared from the room, so fast it was like she'd apparated. I raised an eyebrow at Edward, but he just shook his head.

"Later."

"How much later?" I pushed. He grimaced slightly.

"After the talk with Billy." I narrow my eyes.

"Any particular reason, or are you just putting it off?" I question. For a moment I think he's going to admit that he's putting it off, when his face clears suddenly.

"Actually, there is a particular reason." He says, as if he's just realized it himself. When he doesn't say anything else I sigh and accept this is the best I'm going to get.

"After the talk with Billy. I'm holding you to that." I say, before letting him lead the way through the throng of students to our next class.

-

I'm anxious, and I can't stop my foot tapping against the floor, or turning my DA coin between my fingers.

Luna, Carlisle, Esme and I are sitting around the kitchen table that I've temporarily enlargened for the purpose of this 'dinner' tonight. There's a pan of lasagna with herb bread sitting in the center of the table, under stasis and warming charms while we wait for Charlie to return from La Push with our guest, slash victim.

Esme has drawn Luna into a serene sort of conversation about painting, the motherly woman seemingly delighted by Luna's interest and appreciation of art.

I'm so distracted that I'm surprised when Luna reaches out and taps my hand. "Calm down," she tells me, looking a lot more focused then usual. "The jibberwabbs have quite clearly said that Mister Swan won't be here for another six and a half minutes."

"Are you a Seer, Luna?" Carlisle asks my best friend, curiously. Luna smiles at him, her silver eyes losing their brief show of focus.

"Oh no, Mister Carlisle," she says, in her wispy voice, "I'm not a Seer, not at all, but the little creatures, the ones that no one else sees, whisper to me; they tell me things. You see, Jibberwabbs can peek into the future, Blibbering Humdingers will always remember what has been, and Nargles... well they just know all sorts of things, the naughty pests."

"Jibberwabbs? Any relations to the Jabberwocky?" Carlisle asks, having processed Luna's strange explanation much faster then people usually do, his vampire speed mind no doubt aiding that, and Esme frowns at him, the very maternal woman taking his question as an insult towards Luna; a teasing remark.

I'm fairly certain he's genuinely curious.

Come to think of it, so am I- Lewis Carroll and Luna seem to exist on a very similar wavelength...

Luna looks at Carlisle with a mixture of bewilderment and worry present on her face. "Are you okay, Mister Carlisle?" She asks, reaching over to place a palm over Carlisle's forehead. She hmms to herself, leaning back from a shocked-still Carlisle, who couldn't seem to process she'd just touched him, a vampire, observing him gravely. "Mister Carlisle, there is no such thing as a Jabberwocky- if you are seeing or communicating with one, I advise you contact a doctor immediately."

Carlisle looks like he doesn't know what to say. Esme is visibly trying not to laugh.

"I'm a doctor, Luna," he says, finally. "And a vampire." He adds as an afterthought, as though that fact hadn't occurred to him first thing.

Luna's presence does tend to tip one's mind off kilter.

"Oh, that's right," Luna says, before continuing on and completely disregarding Carlisle's slightly more important reminder of his supernatural status, "I've always heard doctors make the worst patients. Finding one willing to treat you might be difficult."

Carlisle looks like he doesn't now what to say. Esme is openly giggling, though she is doing so behind her hand, in a very lady-like manner. I just smile.

There isn't much else one can do when faced with the dreaded 'Luna Logic'. If it could be weaponized, it's wielder could quite possibly rule the universe. And I'm fairly certain that's not an exaggeration.

The sound of Charlie's cruiser pulling up knocks me out of my distractedly relaxed state, and my nerves quickly resurface. Luna threads her fingers through my hand, the one not clenching onto the DA galleon, and squeezes gently. I take as much comfort from her presence as I can, as I listen to the front door open, and the sound of Billy's wheelchair as Charlie pushes him into the kitchen.

They round the corner, Charlie and Billy, and I can literally pinpoint the moment Billy realizes the Cullens are present- his face shuts down, his upper body tensing in tightly restrained anger.

"Charlie," his voice is stiff, a sign that he is angry- very angry, "what the hell's going on?"

"Billy," Charlie says, looking both serious and pained, "I'm sorry, but this is an intervention."