Redshift, Ashlynn Chantrea [early reader books .TXT] 📗

had a leaner build. His dark hair hung to his shoulders. The natural wave of his hair gave him a wild, unkempt appearance. He had an olive tint to his pale skin. He looked relaxed but focused.

“I haven’t met your associate. Another of the upper echelon of the Volturi?” I said to Jane. Then I looked at the mysterious vampire, “And what do you do for Aro?”

“I have a talent for…finding things.” A smug smile pulled at the corners of his mouth, “I know where you’re hiding them.”

A tracker. Worse, a supernatural tracker. He didn’t need their scent to find them. He used an extra sense to locate those he was seeking.

“It doesn’t matter.” I lied. “They’re being protected.”

They snickered softly.

“You have no idea what you’re up against.” I said, trying my hand at bluffing.

“I know exactly what we will be up against.” Jane corrected me.

“You only think you do. And that was your problem, Jane. Your arrogance. You’re a soldier, not a teacher. They’re learning, growing more powerful every second. You don’t stand a chance against them. Now that they know they can beat you.” As I said each word, it began to feel like the truth. They would survive, I could feel it.

I felt Jane try to use her power on me.

I shook my head, “So pathetic.”

She bared her teeth at me, a shriek of rage erupting from her throat. I could feel her trying harder. It wasn’t changing anything, I still wasn’t affected, but I could sense the increase in intensity.

“Would it make you feel better if I said, ‘ow, ow. Oh, the pain?’” I said without inflection.

“Felix!” She snapped. “Demetri! Finish this.”

Two at once. This would test my focus and speed. They moved in opposite directions, trying to attack from opposite sides. They moved together, each springing at me at the exact same moment. I anticipated Felix’s strength and eagerness for revenge. His leap was much higher and faster than Demetri’s. I moved quickly, sinking low to the ground and ducking under Felix. He landed with his back to me. I didn’t hesitate. I jumped at him, pulling his head to the side with both hands and biting down on his neck. His head ripped free with a quick metallic screech.

I threw his head as hard as I could into the trees. They’d have to search for it later. His body went limp and fell at my feet.

Demetri hadn’t been fazed by his associate being decapitated. He was already coming at me. I couldn’t avoid his grasp. I did, reach for him as well. Jane joined him, coming from behind. She was on my back, lips at my ear.

“I’ll enjoy watching you burn.” She murmured.

I braced, waiting for the end.

It surprised me when she let go. She crumpled to the ground, along with Demetri. They had their hands clamped down on their ears.

I looked up. Zephyr was standing at the edge of clearing, glaring at the two soldier lying on the ground.

Rain and Meadow quickly ran to my side.

“Are you okay? Rain asked.

“We have a problem.” I said, looking down at Demetri.

“What is it?” Asked Meadow.

I didn’t waste time explaining. I bent down and decapitated Demetri. I slung his body over my shoulder and carried his head in my hand.

“Keeping a souvenir?” Rain asked. She looked a little disturbed.

“We need to get back.” I told her flatly.

We sprinted over to Zephyr and then we appeared on the Cullen’s doorstep. Rain, Zephyr and Meadow didn’t inquire about the body I was carrying, but they looked nervous. They walked into the house ahead of me.

In an instant, everyone was there.

“Where should I put him?” I asked Carlisle. I dropped him on the floor, careful to keep his head far from his body.

“Why did you bring him here?” He asked.

“He can find our families. He already knows where they are although I don’t think he told the others. They were expecting him to lead them there.” I answered.

“How does he know?” Laney asked.

“Tracking is his gift. He can sense others purely in his mind and follow them to wherever they’re hiding.” Edward told them.

“It was too risky to leave him there.”

“We need to destroy him.” Jasper said.

“Wait!” Carlisle said with a tone of urgency.

“We don’t have a choice, Carlisle.” Edward agreed with his brother.

“We do.” I interjected, “We can keep him incapacitated like this until we know that we can’t avoid a fight. If this can be negotiated peacefully, we’ll return him. If not, we burn him. One less to worry about.”

“No!” Bianca protested, “We should destroy him now.”

“He’s a risk to our families. They can’t defend themselves. We have to protect them.” Laney agreed.

“It will be a declaration of war. There will be no way around it, if we do this.”

“They declared war the second they started building an army to destroy us.” Jasper snapped.

“You think you’ve got it bad?” Pim raised his voice. I was mildly shocked by the anger in his tone, “They consider us traitors!”

“Yeah!” Hector snarled, “This isn’t just about you anymore!”

“We didn’t ask for this!” Bianca joined in, her tone just as biting as the others.

I was angry too. Livid, in fact. But it didn’t feel right. It didn’t make sense. Jasper’s anger was justified. We were a part of an army meant to kill him and those he loved. Sure, we had been dragged into the middle of it but the Cullens hadn’t asked for this either. I focused the reasonable part of my brain before joining the increasingly heated discussion.

“Stop!” I yelled. Every quieted. “We all have a right to be angry and we are all involved now. It doesn’t matter how it started, we’re in this together.”

“You don’t know what he’s capable of.” Edward said to me.

“This is our fight.” Jasper said. “We know them. We’ve faced them before. This is our decision.”

“I won’t stop you, if you choose to burn him. But I don’t want to be a part of it. Not if there’s another way.”

“Adam is right.” Carlisle said firmly, “We do not kill needlessly.”

His family reluctantly agreed to wait. We moved his body to one side of the room, out of the way, and his head was moved to Carlisle’s study. I followed him there. He had an impressive collection of books and art. I saw his likeness painted in one of the pictures.

“Nice use of color.” I murmured as I examined the painting more closely.

“Those three are the head of the Volturi.” He replied. “Aro, Caius and Marcus.”

Our enemy.

He told me of his history with them. He was explicit in his details. Two out of three of the top Volturi were gifted. Poor Caius. It had to anger him to be less powerful than the others. Aro was at the top of the pyramid, the mastermind. No one did anything without consulting him first.

Aro sounded like an intellectual. He was cold and calculating but didn’t want to appear so. He was very fond of his reputation. He had spent centuries building this empire, policing the vampire world. His laws were simple, and justice was swift. He didn’t show mercy unless it suited him. He had collected his gifted army over the centuries, taking a few every couple hundred years. And he needed everyone to see him as fair when he passed judgment. That made this army I had been drafted into completely out of character for him. It violated his own rules. I wouldn’t put it past him, based on what I’d heard, to build an army of gifted soldiers using Pim to create new loyal vampires. But he would have been inconspicuous about it. He would have done it slowly, over hundreds of years. This move was far too fast to be his. But who else could orchestrate this?

Marcus sounded unmotivated. Carlisle told me of Didyme, Marcus’s mate. He hadn’t been the same since her death. He had apparently become bored with this life. He did nothing unless pushed to by Aro or Caius. He wasn’t the one pulling the strings here or anywhere else for that matter.

Caius, on the other hand, was impulsive and rash. He had pushed to send a battalion to check on Bella before she had been changed only months after first meeting her. According to Edward, he disliked Aro using his ability to read his mind and refused to touch him. He resented Aro for taking control of the Volturi instead of allowing all three to have an equal share of authority.

To me, that last piece of information was the most telling. Caius was most likely the one who had started this, given Felix the idea of building an army using Pim. It fit. He couldn’t start taking vampires that already existed because that kind of news would make it to Aro’s ears. And Aro would most likely investigate something like that. But changing humans you knew would become gifted vampires could be done inconspicuously; what did vampires care if a bunch of humans went missing? So, he plans to build his own army, all with supernatural abilities; but why? Was it just a matter of revenge? Did he see their last encounter as an embarrassment? Or was there more to it? Could he actually be staging a coup d’état? And if he was, what would Aro do with this information?

Chapter 8

“I might have found a way to end this peacefully.” I announced. Everyone was gathered in the living room. My family looked at me with hope in their eyes. They really trusted my judgment. The Cullens looked doubtful. To be expected, I suppose.

I explained my theory, my reasoning. No one really argued. Edward and Carlisle stared at each other with pensive expressions. They were looking for flaws in my logic. I didn’t wait for them to find any.

“I plan to go to Aro, present him with this information in exchange for the freedom of the drafted Volturi soldiers and a truce with the Cullen family. We all walk away, no war and no plans for any future aggression.” I said, keeping my eyes mostly on Carlisle and his family.

“He only pretends to be a pillar of justice and peace.” Alice said. “He won’t give up what he wants. He’s just going to wait for another opportunity and declare war then.”

“And he won’t tell you as much. He’ll speak eloquently of his desire for peace and never meaning to be the villain. But it’s all a lie. He’s far more interested in acquisition than peace.” Edward added.

“But not at the risk of his reputation.” I qualified, “Look, we haven’t broken any of his rules. He doesn’t have cause to come after us. His own guards, his own brother has violated his law. With the possibility of Caius being a traitor, and an army being built by his guards, right under his nose, I think he might be too distracted to be calculating at that moment. I move quickly, I give him all the information at once and make my demands right then. He’ll be so caught up in the drama of the ones he trusts betraying him that he might slip up. He might even be grateful, especially if Caius is the one behind all this. Can you imagine if he reads Caius’s plans to overthrow him right from his head? I see things getting pretty