Chapter Nineteen

CHAPTER NINETEEN

See What Happens When You Double Cross Others

Luca stepped forward and barked a grating laugh “We don’t care if they kill you, why the hell do we care if a group of vampires take out another group of vampires? We only care enough to get our family back and then you can go about ripping one another to shreds. I admit that it was easier to get along with you than I had expected, you don’t smell as bad as these,” she gestured with her head towards the Volturi “do but nonetheless we still find you disgusting and we want nothing to do with you.” Turning to Aro she spoke with quiet reverence, which even to my ears sounded forced and insincere, saying “We have held up our end of the bargain, please release our family and we will leave you in peace as long as we catch none of you on our land.” She had barely finished speaking before Aro begun to laugh, his chuckle dry like autumn leaves scraping against the pavement, he raised one eyebrow and said “Let you go? I thought you were clever, you will never leave here. Demetri” Before we could speak, or react, Demetri had sprung forward; the knife he had held at Jacob’s throat glinting in his hand, he flicked his wrist and in the space of a second Luca’s head was severed from her body. Antonio and Joseph howled in stunned pain and lurched in fury at the vampire who had just decapitated their sister.

Chaos erupted and I found myself released from momma’s protective embrace, she placed me at her side, her lips quivering with the speed at which she spoke to me “Go and get Jacob and the others, we will take care of the Volturi. They are the main concern. I couldn’t stand to lose either one of you, so get yourselves out of here. Be careful because he is too weak to protect you if something should happen.” She kissed my cheek and flung herself into the fracas. I made my way quietly across to Jacob, he lay unconscious against the flagged stones of the courtyard, I knelt down at his head and tapped his face lightly with my hand, mindful of the broken bones inflicted by Aro “Come on Jake, wake up. Please! Come on! Please Jake, we need you.” I touched the side of his face and let what Aro had said run through my mind, if he was telling the truth than I needed Jake more than ever. Still Jake didn’t move, panic was starting to well within me and I felt my breathing accelerate and my mind start to malfunction. How in the world was I supposed to get a person as big as Jacob out of this vampire guarded city and to safety, not to mention leave my family to fight when they were extremely outnumbered.

I darted away from Jacob and over to where Leah, Seth and the other captives were. I was relieved to see that they were all conscious at least, drugged to their eyeballs, but awake and willing to try and help me get them away from this vile place. I worked on the bonds that were holding them against the wall, iron chains that bit into their flesh and created welts and in some cases cuts if they fought hard against their restraints. I had complete faith in my family but I knew I that I needed help to get out of here alive. I put my head against Seth’s ear and whispered “What’s wrong with Jacob? Why is he so much more affected by what they gave you?” Seth, who had more energy than was normal for any one person to have, stared listlessly up at me before saying hoarsely “Because he is the Alpha he took more subduing, they doubled the dose that they had used on us and dosed him more regularly. He has been barely conscious in the last couple of days.” I heard my whimper of disbelief but I hardened my mind to the pain that Jacob and the others had been through and focused my entire strength on freeing them. I gripped the chains that held the wolf-pack to the wall and ripped it out of the stone with an ease that surprised even me. He rolled to his side and pushed himself up onto his knees to help me free Leah, I was frustrated at their weakness because I knew my own and I also knew the strength of the vampires around us. I buried my frustration as deeply as I could and helped Seth free Leah and the members of the Italian wolf pack; though I was tempted to leave them tied up because of their role in bringing us here. That petty thought and my hesitation lasted barely a second before I helped Seth free the other wolves, there were two female and a male wolf and I was surprised to see Leah crawl to the side of the male and tenderly touch his cheek, I had never seen her show affection toward anyone besides Sue and Seth and it threw me momentarily before the sound of Jacob moaning snagged my attention fully.

I motioned to Seth and he crawled to my side, I waited for him to put his head close to mine, mainly to keep our plans from the super hearing of the vampires around us, when he got so close that I could see every individual hair on his face I whispered “I need to know if you and the others are up to helping us escape. I can’t get Jacob out of here because he is just too big. If you are up to helping me carry him out then those are our orders. Get out and don’t worry about the others.” I saw the surprise flicker across Seth’s face and I heard the suck of air as he inhaled sharply, indicating that he didn’t like leaving the rest of my family any more than I did, I nodded my head and whispered “I know, I hate it too but if we hang around we will be a liability and we will end up getting one or all of them killed.” He sighed deeply before saying “They didn’t give the rest of us much attention, they just drugged us when they remembered so we still have most of our strength just not enough to take them on or phase, so tell us what you want us to do and we’ll do it.” I smiled grimly and said “I want you and the other male to get Jacob and head out the gate we entered in, don’t stop! Leah and the other two females will be directly behind you. I will bring up the rear.” at this Seth’s head automatically started shaking but I spoke over his objection “I am the only one who isn’t drugged and I can move quick enough to escape. Just concentrate on getting the others out and I will look after myself. No arguments!” he sighed and said “Fine but if Jacob wakes enough to realise what is happening he will tear me a new one.” I showed him my teeth and said “If you don’t do what I’ve asked I will tear you a new one!” he chuckled but nodded his head. He moved away from me and towards the remaining hostages and I went back to Jacob.

I was so focused on getting out of Voltera that I had unconsciously forgotten about the raging war that was being played out around me. I was violently reminded of this fact as Alice went flying over my head, snarling and snapping at Demetri who had leapt after her. I gasped as they slammed into the building opposite me with enough force to crack the exterior, sending bits of brick and cement flying through the air; I crouched over Jacob protecting him from the debris. I felt myself wince as the detritus sliced into my back but I ignored the pain and the wet slickness of blood as it slid down my spine and pulled Jake into a sitting position, he stirred but didn’t regain consciousness and I couldn’t help wondering if he was ever going to come to. A small sound behind me had me spinning into a defensive crouch, baring my teeth and snarling low in the back of my throat, the sight of three scared humans and two slightly incredulous ones had me relaxing my stance and allowing them access to the prone figure I had been protecting.

Seth and the other male, who had introduced himself as Cameron, gathered Jacob up off the dirty road and with Leah, Antoinette and Vanessa, the other female wolves, heading up our pathetic looking rescue team and me bringing up the rear we made a covert attempt to flee the carnage that Voltera had become. We stuck to the darkness of the walls and I allowed myself the luxury of a sigh of relief as we neared the gate, it was short lived when our way was suddenly blocked by the slight figure of Alyssa. My little band of escapees paused and looked back at me to see what I wanted to do, I hesitated because she was so new to this life and I didn’t want to kill her if I had a choice; that thought  gave me pause, could I destroy her? Even if I wanted to, I didn’t know if I had the strength to do it but she was stopping our departure and that meant that she was putting Jacob in danger and I couldn’t have that. I moved to the front of our posse and stood protectively between them and her, she cocked her head inquisitively to one side before saying slowly “I can see that you will do anything to protect these people and even though I can’t see why, I respect you for that.” She raised her slim shoulders in an eloquent shrug before continuing “But Aro made me and I am loyal.” As she spoke I was struck with an idea; moving closer to Alyssa, the various sounds of warning coming from those behind me made the skin at the back of my neck prickle but I ignored them and concentrated on my thoughts, I held out my hand and said “You know what I want to show you and you can see that I’m not lying to you. You’ve seen how we live, you’ve seen how much we love one another, and we can show you how to live your life without the need to take human lives. Please I can see that you aren’t like the others and I would like to get these people out of harms’ way; I know the loyalty that you feel and I can see that you feel torn between them and the life that my family represents.” Alyssa contemplated me silently before saying softly “I know where you’re coming from and I know that I can trust you but what of the dogs that you are trying to help escape?  Can you promise me that they won’t be hunting me in the hours, days, weeks, and centuries ahead?” I dragged a breath into lungs that refused to co-operate, I knew that our escape hinged on getting this girl to help us leave. “They won’t hunt you as long as you aren’t hunting humans. You can come back to the States with us and we will help you assimilate into our lifestyle.” I stopped speaking again and waited precious seconds for her to speak again, when she took longer than I hoped she would I gave up my dignity and did the only thing I knew that I had left, I begged “Please Alyssa, I am having a baby. You saw that, surely you wouldn’t let them kill me and I can’t raise this baby on my own. I need Jacob, we need each other. The others are my family, I ...” Alyssa cut across me and said “Sheesh you are such a drama queen, I admit that I am curious about how you live your life, I don’t know if I’d cut it but I want to see if I can. Aro was so dead set about how you needed to be taught a lesson, never got the feeling that you were dangerous. So let’s blow this pop stand and get you to safety so your other family members don’t hunt me down and rip out my throat for not helping you.” She turned her red eyes on us.