Ban Together Chapter 33

Alice and Jasper had left Carlisle and Esme to their own devices. The two had tied up loose ends with whatever experiments Alice still had ongoing, likely just killing the humans to be rid of them, and hadn’t reach out since then. Carlisle had tried several times to get in some type of contact with them but they had completely gone dark. Normally Jasper would have reached out to them to let them know where they were going and their plan was so they could all reunite and start over. But not this time. No matter what either Cullen did, the seer and the empath were clearly ignoring them.

That was fine thought.

Carlisle always had back up plans. He knew from when he first met the pair when they showed up on his doorstep claiming all of them would be working together and accomplishing their goals together that the couple never meant for their partnership to be permanent.

Carlisle made sure that when they would either secretly leave them or betray them, he would have a plan to keep him and Esme safe. While he wanted to continue with his experiments, likely as much as Alice wanted to keep up with hers, Carlisle knew there was a time and a place for them. Unlike Alice, Carlisle had learned fairly early on that if he did too much, took too many humans or involved too many vampires, it would backfire on him sooner rather than later.

So, his experiments could wait. At least until it was safer. First, he needed to make sure he and Esme were taken off the Volturi’s radar. If Carlisle played his cards right, he could get Alice and Jasper to take the fall for everything. They were technically a very powerful couple after all, and neither Carlisle nor Esme had gifts of their own. How were they supposed to beat someone who could see the future and someone who could manipulate emotions? Alice would always know what to say to get what she wanted and Jasper would always make sure they believed her. It was the perfect setup for the couple to take the fall.

To make it even more believable, Carlisle decided to pay a visit from some old friends and ask for their help.

They were known to stick within the laws so as to never have to have a visit from the Volturi. They hardly ever even welcomed other vampires within their territory because they were afraid of being associated with the wrong person. But Carlisle, being the very likable and honest man he was, was able to win over the Irish coven fairly easily and had kept up correspondence with them as time had passed.

As soon as they realized Alice and Jasper weren’t going to be found very easily, they decided to make their way to visit some friends to try and gather enough ‘witnesses’ of their good deeds and behaviors to try and get the Volturi’s interest off of them. The Irish coven was the safest bet because of Maggie’s gift. As long as they could fool Maggie, they would be fine. Thankfully, Carlisle had asked a lot of questions the young woman didn’t seem to mind answering when they first met about her gift. The older Irish couple hadn’t seemed happy with Maggie sharing so much but Carlisle didn’t care. He was very thankful the young woman had been allowed to answer all his questions.

As long and Carlisle and Esme watched what they said and not flat out lie, Maggie would never know. Carlisle had learned Maggie’s gift was very black and white. Either the person told a lie, or they didn’t. He had even been able to test out her gift and learned as long as most of what Carlisle said was the truth, she would never know better.

“As you see, Esme and I find ourselves in a very difficult situation.” Carlisle ended, after spinning everything and leaving out just the right amount of details to make Esme and Carlisle seem like the victims. They made sure to include their attachment to Bella, there was no way Carlisle would have been able to sell a lie to Maggie without including that bit, and how afraid they were their son, Edward, had just walked to his death.

“I can’t believe you allowed two people into your coven and were so wrong about them.” Siobhan said with a frown. She was their own coven leader and had turned away many people from joining them because the stories they told didn’t add up. If everything Carlisle was saying was true, how had they been fooled for so long? Was Jasper’s gift really that powerful that the affects would last when Carlisle was work and he was in school? There were too many questions.

“What about Rosalie and Emmett?” Liam asked before either Carlisle or Esme could answer. “Have they not sent word about their location either?” Carlisle had very briefly explained the two had decided to become nomads to explore their world on their own since they had always been with the Cullen’s since they were turned. It was a reasonable explanation, something most vampires did once they were out of their newborn phases.

“They haven’t.” Esme answered with a gentle frown, “We know Emmett has a tendency to break things, especially something as small and fragile as cell phones, but normally they would have replaced it by now and contact us to let us know how they were doing and where they planned to go to next.”

Esme technically wasn’t lying. Emmett always had trouble with his strength and it would be more abnormal for him to not break something. And the couple had been on trips, trips that had been closely monitored by Alice, and always checked in when they arrived and left a location. Carlisle had always been able to keep tabs on the couple; until now at least.

“We just want you guys to be available to stand witness, no fighting, no challenges, so that Esme and I can safely go to the Volturi and clear our names.” Carlisle said with just a slight hint of pleading in his tone to help sell his sincerity.

“I don’t think the three of us are going to sway the Volturi one way or the other.” Maggie said with a frown. She had never met the queens but she had heard enough from Siobhan and Liam to know better than to just waltz into their throne room with someone they were out to kill and claim they meant no harm.

“We understand, it’s a lot of information to digest.” Esme said in her motherly tone that tended to have people instantly believe anything she said.

“Why don’t we give you some time to think about everything we told you?” Carlisle asked, knowing pushing would only push them away. They had all the information they were willing to give so sticking around to try and answer more questions wouldn’t do anything. They also didn’t want to go anywhere until they knew they had at least some allies. As it were, they had nowhere to go that was safe anyways. “We can go explore some sights that we haven’t seen in a few decades for a couple days and then we can come back and see what you think?” He offered with a charming smile, showing his was confident that when they returned they would have the Irish coven on their side. Confidence was key afterall.

“I think that would be best.” Siobhan said. “We don’t want to decide anything too rashly and we also don’t want our friends to be unjustly killed. Come back in a week and we will talk then old friend.” She added with a smile to try and show Carlisle likely had nothing to talk about. It wasn’t uncommon for covens to take so long to decide to help another coven if asked. She was following protocol and Carlisle could respect that.

After their goodbyes, Liam went out to run a perimeter check. They wanted to make sure the Cullen’s had completely left and not stuck around to try and hear their discussions. He remarked their inner border, a border than was just outside their hearing range so they would know if there was a vampire around that could hear them in their home, before returning.

“Well, they’re lying sacks of shite.” Maggie said once Liam was back and nodded the okay to talk. Maggie sat back in her chair, ignoring the scolding look quickly shot to her by Siobhan. The older may not like cussing but Maggie did and it’d be a cold day in hell before she stopped.

“Even I could tell that.” Liam said with snort, “While what they said made sense on some level, just the fact their entire coven seemed to abandon didn’t make sense.” Liam added, not understanding how someone could join a coven and leave so easily. Joining a coven was nearly like getting married. It was a very big commitment and not taken very lightly. It was why there were so many nomads. A vampire was possessive and once it accepted someone as it’s own, even just as a coven member, vampires tended to not let go. But to have their entire coven do so? Liam just didn’t understand.

“I figured.” Siobhan said with a sigh. Sometimes she really hated being the coven leader. “You two run perimeter, together, I don’t want to risk something happening. I’ll call the Volturi and see what they have to say.” Liam kissed his mate goodbye, more like a kiss as an apology that she was stuck calling the fear rulers, and Maggie waved goodbye before both were off. How the two didn’t know Siobhan and her coven were supporters of the queens was astounding; they had to be very oblivious to not realize. Then again, if they thought they had fooled Maggie, regardless of Maggie holding back information on her gift all those years ago, they were bigger fools than Siobhan had realized.

With a heavy sigh, full of annoyance and resignment, she called the one number she hadn’t needed to call often.

“Volturi.” Came a very human voice of the receptionist and Siobhan grit her teeth.

“This is Siobhan from Ireland, I believe I have some interesting news the queens may want to know about.” Siobhan only knew the Cullen’s were lying, but Maggie wasn’t gifted enough to gleam the truth out of their lies. She only knew since the Cullen’s were afraid to go to the Volturi, chances were the Volturi had a lot of information and that was something she was sorely lacking. “I have the Cullen’s visiting me.” She said after a brief pause, deciding what would be best to say.

“I’ll Athenodora.” The human receptionist said before putting her on a quick hold.

A queen? Athenodora at that? This just meant Siobhan’s day got a lot worse. She steeled her nerves and waited for the queen to come on line. At least since Siobhan called first, she knew her coven wouldn’t get in trouble. She just had to make sure to keep it that way.