Chapter 6

Between Tanya and Irina, eventually the Denali coven was able to get the full story of what had happened to Bella after she had moved to Forks. It was quickly decided that the Cullen’s, particularly Edward, had taken an unnatural interest in her outside of her being his singer. They just weren’t sure if the interest was because of him or because Carlisle pushed for it.

They were all still sitting in their same spots, except for Carmen who had volunteered to cook Bella dinner and Eleazar who felt it was necessary to call the Volturi and ask for their council on what they wanted the Denali’s to do with the information they had. Even though it likely should have bene Tanya who made the call, they figured since Eleazar was technically still friendly with the coven, she decided it would be okay for him to call while Tanya continued to try and figure out more things that Bella may not have thought to bring up as she may not have thought it was important… and to keep Kate in line and not distract Bella as much as she wanted to.

They had all decided that Laurent was just a coven member trying to do his coven member a favor as she had just lost her mate and felt sorry for her. Then Laurent decided Bella’s scent was far too appetizing to pass on and attacked, therefore causing the wolf shifter’s to attack and kill him. Irina immediately wished the French vampire still lived so that she could get retribution for a false mate claim. She would have loved to take the lying vampire to the queens and have them punish him; they took false mate claims nearly more seriously than letting their secret known to humans because of their past.

“We would need to get all the Cullen’s to Italy then, to face the queens.” Tanya said as she thought over what was very likely to happen in the next few days. “I doubt Carlisle would be so willing to go if he believed he was in trouble.”

“Rosalie and Alice had both mentioned that Edward had also left the Cullen’s to go hunt Victoria in some sort of way to protect Bella from her.” Irina said with a roll of her eyes; “Too bad he apparently went to South America when she was clearly in Forks the entire time. Either he is such a bad tracker that he couldn’t find his way out of a paper sack, or he was doing something else there.”

“Well, after what I’ve heard about the whole James thing,” Kate said as she put her arm around Bella’s shoulders in an attempt to pull her closer, only for Bella to immediately grab that hand, remove it from around her and put her hand in Kate’s lap. Kate gripped Bella’s hand to keep some type of contact, and mentally cheered at herself for her success when Bella didn’t pull away her hand. Kate had more game than her sisters were willing to admit. “I doubt Edward thinks outside of what he wants for the immediate future. I bet he’s following Carlisle’s orders; perhaps some loyalty for his sire or something.”

“Edward is too old for the sire bond to have any true sway over him.” Tanya muttered, thinking over that at the least Edward was willing doing what Carlisle wanted. She was mostly sure Esme was as well seeing as they were mates. She had never thought they weren’t in the past, she doubted Carlisle would fake his own mate bond; and it would make sense as to why he always made sure Esme was at home, in the center of their territory at all times. He was doing all he could to keep her safe and away from others.

“What about Alice and Jasper?” Irina asked, thinking over the whole coven and how they interacted with each other. She was replaying every moment she had ever seen between them all to try and figure out if there had ever been anything odd or unusual in the way any of them acted. “Jasper always seemed to be wrapped around Alice’s fingers.”

“Alice can see the future, perhaps she agrees with what Carlisle is doing and is helping him.” Tanya thought out loud. “Or Jasper isn’t as innocent as he seems and is manipulating Alice somehow?”

“How long does Jasper’s power work on people?” Bella asked. She had been mostly quiet throughout this conversation, only really answering questions asked of her, but when they kept talking, not at vampire volume but in a volume she could hear, she understood that they were including her in their conversation even if she wasn’t talking. It was a lot more than the Cullen’s ever did; Edward would have had a hernia if he found out Bella was part of any type of serious conversation. She may not be entirely convinced about her role within the Denali coven, but they were clearly more than okay with including her far more than the Cullen’s ever did.

Kate moved their clasped hands into Bella’s lap, dropping the hand in favor of holding a thigh. If her hand was moving as high as she could get, when Bella’s hand quickly grabbed the wondering limb and held it in a death grip in her own lap, hoping Kate wouldn’t use her strength against; she didn’t even bother think about the fact that she wasn’t upset about Kate touching her more intimately than Edward had ever dare, just the fact that it was in front of her family while they were supposed to be having a serious conversation.

“Not very far.” Kate answered right away, smirking when her human moved her hand away from being so far up her thigh but still kept hold of her hand. “From what I understand he can see farther than the distance he can affect people’s emotions and he has to be able to actually see them. He can’t blindly affect people.” Kate answered, happy that her tactical knowledge and just overall nosiness was able to give answers to her mate. This way, it made her seem more impressive than she already did to her mate.

“Kate would know; she’s loves messing with both Edward and Jasper and their abilities; if there was anyone that figured out their limits without asking, it would be her.” Irina said and from the tone she used, she wasn’t complementing her sister. She was simply pointing out how annoying she was.

“Alice had gone to Seattle plenty of times without Jasper, so she wouldn’t have been under his influence then, right?” Bella asked, thinking about all the times the boys went on hunting trips while she was forced to go shopping with Alice and sometimes Rosalie if the blonde felt she could stomach Bella’s presence long enough.

The three blondes looked at Bella intently, like she had just shed some light on something they hadn’t thought of. Bella felt the atmosphere grow a lot more intense as the seconds ticked by.

“What?” Bella immediately asked, looking to Tanya for answers since she was the leader.

“That means Alice is acting of her volition.” Tanya explained, which Bella had assumed as much since she had never thought Jasper would intentionally use his gift of anyone; much less Alice. “That also means that Alice likely saw our entire conversation before we even started it. She knows we are doubting their innocence.”

“It means your dinner is going to be a little late.” Carmen said from the doorway in the most serious tone Bella had ever heard from the brunette woman.

“They requested our presence immediately.” Eleazar said, appearing suddenly next to his mate.

What happened next was a flurry of movements as everyone moved as quickly as they could to grab what was absolutely necessary and then left the house behind. They packed enough clothes as could be fit in a travel on bag for each person and immediately all got into a vehicle to get to the closest airport where they were sure they could bribe someone easily enough to get them a ride as far as the gas tank could take them.

It was explained that if Alice was working with Carlisle, and they had no reason to doubt she wasn’t, she would have seen any threats against her. Meaning she would have seen their conversation. They needed to get to the Volturi, their strong hold was more than safe enough to keep out the Cullen’s and whatever plot they were plotting and keep them within the laws.

“As soon as we’re there, I’m sure the queens will agree to help with Victoria and figure out what the Cullen’s are up to and deal with them as well.” Irina said before tailing off as they walked closer to the hanger that they had been directed to. They had brought the car as close as they could and were forced to walk the rest of the way. She was regretting leaving the car behind now as they are started to smell the very distinct scent of vampire.

“Stay close to me Bella.” Kate said as she moved her very human to walk behind her and in front of Carmen and Eleazar, doing her best to keep the human surrounded and protected. She had complete faith in her coven to keep what was theirs safe. “There is a vampire we do not recognize here.” She said as a red head walked out from behind the hanger. Behind her a few other vampires that were clearly newborns and struggling with their bloodlust walked out as well. The two newborns were covered in blood; apparently whatever humans were in the hanger were no longer alive.

“Give me the human and I’ll take my friends away from here.” The red head said, not loud enough for Bella to hear from the distance between the groups.

“We out number you.” Tanya said, looking directly in the red heads eyes, gaging how strong she possibly was.

“Victoria.” Bella whispered as she looked at the redhead slowly approaching her still group. Tanya had stopped their advance when the vampires had rounded the corner.

Kate had to bite back a growl as she realized this vampire was the one hunting her mate. Her eyes went stark black immediately as her entire body tensed for a fight to protect her mate and destroy all threats. Kate was a warrior and everything inside of her was demanding she kill the threat to her mate and be done with it. She was more than confidant between her and her sisters, the newborns and younger vampire would not win. But Tanya’s nearly invisible hand twitch told her to wait, her coven leader had a plan and she was bound to follow it… she would yell at Tanya later if she didn’t get to kill the red head sooner rather than later.

“And you underestimate me.” The red head with a wicked grin, her main focus on the human surrounded by vampires that were willing to die for her. Victoria was going to have fun testing this group. “Attack.” She commanded at the lowest volume she could, walking backwards at vampire speed just far enough away where she could still see what was happening and be out of harms’ way. These vampires didn’t know nearly enough to be an actual threat to her and she had orders to follow. And all she needed to do was study how well they fought. She gave a quick glance to the other three newborns that had hung back behind the corner; they joined quickly in the fight as planned, ensuring Victoria would have a safe escape. She only spared a final smirk towards the human, happy to see the look of fear in her eyes, before she finally took her leave.