Rosalie walked over to it and examined the caller identification display. "It's Alice and Jasper," she reported a second before reaching down and activating the speakerphone. "Hi."
At the end of the last Christmas holiday season, Carlisle and Esme traveled north to commune with Eleazar, Carmen, Kate and Tanya. The Denali Coven maintained an isolated home on the outskirt of the National Park that their coven was named for. They relocated their home in this vicinity every ten to fifteen years and in between these times they frequently traveled abroad to protect their anonymity. The few people who knew of them thought the house they occupied was nothing more than a vacation home. This was a perception they actively endorsed. In reality the house served as a rally point for the coven. In essence this was the truth for all vampire covens that maintained a presence in the mortal world. The short lifespans and ever changing situations of humans made this an effective work around from either a ghostlike existence or a nomadic one.
Carlisle's and Esme's visits here were nearly regular occurrences. The two families intentionally staggered the times that they acquired new domiciles so that one could frequently visit the other during their transient period. Carlisle enjoyed the company of Eleazar immensely, as did Esme for Carmen's. They would invariably spend the bulk of their times together trading in new information they acquired during their separation. The mortal's penchant for growing intellectually, evolving socially and culturally, and reinventing themselves and the world around them made their domain a perpetual classroom for vampires. Carlisle's and Eleazar's eagerness to soak up this information was the foundation for their friendship. Esme, Carmen, Kate and Tanya usually spent their time exploring more diverting pursuits. Music, fashion, the trends of the times and the mortals who were shaping them was a common interest here. Carlisle and Esme could have spent a whole year hear amusing themselves, but their plan to spend the summer on the Olympic Peninsula would cut this visit short.
Alice and Jasper set off for Europe after the Christmas holiday season. The large collection of elegant and historical cities in Europe made this continent a popular haunt for them and vampires in general. The winter months made it all the more attractive to them. Even in the daylight hours they could often traverse the communities without the use of makeup. By the spring of the next year Alice and Jasper had settled into a cottage outside of Stockholm, Sweden, a day's travel by car. It was a remote area that they had dwelled in twice before. The scenery, the myriad of lakes and rivers, and the wilderness made this a favorite place for them to escape to.
The cottage was a two bedroom wood frame structure. A covered porch in the front and patio in the back provided spectacular views of the surrounding countryside. The building sat near the top of a boulder strewn hill. A thin population of tall, straight, narrow spruce trees covered the hillside all about the cottage. The distant terrain was equally configured with hills and trees. The back porch looked out over a lake that was large enough to encompass twenty football fields.
Alice was in the middle of enjoying the view at the rear of the cottage when she suddenly became overcome by a vision. The impact of what she saw in her mind's eye made her step back in shock. She paused just for a second to challenge with disbelief what she had seen, and then she turned and raced into the house. The vision was no lie. Alice knew she had to stop it, but she feared it was already too late.
"What is it," Jasper queried?
Alice snatched up the phone that was on the end table next to him. An instant after she dialed out a call at near the speed of a blur. Jasper set down the book he was reading and rose to his feet in the blink of an eye. Alice's demeanor told him that something was horribly wrong.
"It can't be true," Alice pleaded to her-self with a terrified expression. "I think something terrible has happened," she reported to Jasper while impatiently waiting for her call to go through.
Half a dozen seconds passed before the ringing stopped on the other end. Alice listened for half a second to the voice coming through the phone. For the whole of this time she impatiently waited for the speaker to go silent so she could ask the question that she feared to hear the answer to.
"Is Bella there," Alice desperately blurted into the phone?
On the other end of the call, Rosalie was momentarily startled by the tone of this inquiry. Bella, Edward, Emmett and Nessie were also surprised by the pitch of her voice and reoriented their stances to face the phone head-on.
"Yes, she's right here," Rosalie acknowledge in a questioning tone.
"Tell her to be careful. Tell her not to go anywhere alone." Alice's pleading instructions alarmed all who were present with her.
"What is it, Alice? What happens to Bella?" Edward quickly inquired as he, Bella, Emmett and Nessie closed in around the phone.
"I don't know," Alice responded into the mouthpiece with a confused inflection. "I can't see Bella," Alice continued. Her voice heavily laced with worry. "I see Edward. I see echoes of Nessie. I see everyone except Bella."
Jasper moved his person to within an inch of Alice. He placed both hands upon her shoulders. Alice visibly relaxed under his touch.
"In my vision," Alice spoke again after a pause, "Bella is dead."
6- War Drums
"Who, Alice," Edward demanded loudly? "Who wants to kill Bella?"
"I don't know." Alice fumbled the words out. "I just know that it's going…" Alice's speaking slowly trailed to a stop. Her thoughts suddenly became lost in a new vision.
"What are you seeing, Alice," Edward forcefully challenged again?
"It was going to happen soon, somewhere on the peninsula." Alice continued to fumble her words out over the distraction of her visions. Three seconds later she continued her report with a new thought. "It's gone."
"The vision…? The vision is gone?" Edward queried an instant later with a desperate tone to his voice.
Edward was infuriated by this situation far more so than anyone else. He was not accustomed to waiting on words to be spoken to learn the details of one of Alice's visions. He became even more annoyed by the need to question her to explain her words.
"She's going to be okay, Edward," a suddenly relieved Alice reassured. "The vision is gone. Bella is going to be okay."
"So, this changed it?" Emmett asked no one in particular.
"Yes," Alice responded through the speakerphone. "But to be safe, Bella, you need to get off that peninsula."
"I'm not going anywhere," Bella adamantly asserted. "If someone is out to kill me than, I want to know who it is."
"Bella…," Edward sharply spoke.
Bella quickly cut him off with a counter response to Edward's unspoken challenge. "I'm not going to spend the next hundred years looking over my shoulder."
A few seconds of silence descended between them as all present, on either end of the phone line, pondered Bella's decision.
"Are you sure this was supposed to happen on the peninsula?" Rosalie queried this from behind a ruffled brow and a look of suspicion on her face.
Nessie shared this look of suspicion mixed with an equal share of worry.
"Yes," Alice answered with a word.
Edward's thinking was masked behind his poker face expression. Emmett's thinking came around to everyone else's a step behind. He threw his hands up and stepped back as he pondered the thought that the others were considering.
"You've got to be kidding me."
Jasper monitored the conversation from Alice's side of the phone connection. His vampire hearing picked up all that was being said on the far end. He studied Alice's face for some clue of what she might have seen. After a few seconds of study he could discern no tell from her expression. He then elected to prompt her with a question.
"Do you think the shape-shifters could be after Bella?"
Alice had no response, but her silence was a powerful indictment. It took only a few seconds for all present to come to the realization that the Quileute shape-shifters were prime suspects for this premonition. Everyone knew that it was uncommon
for Alice to have only a vision of the aftermath of an event that did harm to someone she cared deeply for. The only explanation for this was that the event itself was something she could not see. The Cullens knew that the only people on the peninsula that Alice could not see in her visions were Nessie and the shape-shifters.
"It can't be the Quileute," Nessie suddenly insisted. "They wouldn't do that. I know they wouldn't."
"Honey, I know you don't want to believe it," Rosalie pleaded. "But shape-shifters take on more than just the appearance of the animal they acquire. They inherit their instincts and nature."
"But they're not dumb animals," Nessie insisted. "They have human intelligence."
"It's a conflict," Edward quickly corrected. "They're human side is always battling their primitive nature."
"It's true, Nessie," Alice continued through the phone connection. "When they lose their tempers, they're just as wild as the wolves they mimic."
"Yeah, just ask Emily," Emmett tagged on behind.
The Cullen's understanding of shape-shifters came from thousands of years of study passed along through the vampire grapevine. The Cullen vampires knew that shape-shifters could not turn themselves into inanimate objects. They also knew that shape-shifters could not vary the build or coloring of the animal they chose to mimic. It had been surmised by a vampire, less than two centuries back, that shape-shifters were simply de-evolving themselves into an earlier species of life on the evolutionary chain. The only part of them that remained human was the intellect that was there from the beginning.
"I still don't believe it," Nessie insisted. "There has to be another explanation."
"Think about it," Rosalie countered soberly. "The shape-shifters have been moody lately. We know this. They haven't been speaking to us for months and Billy said their anger is focused on Edward and Bella."
Nessie had trouble accepting this reasoning. Her mind struggled to find an argument to dispute it. Bella was also having trouble with this thinking, but for her acceptance was proving to be far less of a struggle.
"I'm sorry, Honey," Bella softly spoke with a touch of her hand to Nessie's arm. "We have to at least consider the possibility that Jacob is no longer our friend.
"I have to talk with him," Nessie blurted out in a mildly distraught voice.
"No," Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Emmett, Alice and Jasper yelled in unison.
Edward and Bella instinctively reached out and grasped Nessie firmly about each arm.
"No one crosses the treaty line," Edward sternly continued.
"If the shape-shifters are on the warpath, then there will be blood for sure if one of us steps over that line."
Emmett's assertion had no effect on Nessie and she quickly countered with one of her own.
"That doesn't apply to me."
"We have to assume it applies to all of us now," Rosalie argued back.
"I don't think staying off their land is enough," Jasper spoke up through the speakerphone. "You should all get off the peninsula."
"I agree," Alice insisted.
"No," Bella countered an instant behind. "I'm not leaving my parents and my brother on this peninsula unprotected."
Bella's assertion threw the family into a state of confusion. No one had a quick solution to the dilemma they were then pondering. After a few seconds of thought Jasper inserted a conclusion he just came to.
"Okay, if none of you are leaving then we're coming to you."
The silence in response to this declaration was in itself an agreement to the thinking.
"We should be there by the time Carlisle and Esme arrive," Jasper advised a few seconds later.
"Please stay together," Alice added on to the end.
Bella looked into the face of Nessie and responded in a tone as succinct as she could make it. "We will."
In the evening of the next day, Carlisle and Esme returned to the peninsula. Rosalie called and advised them of Alice's vision. This, in turn, hastened their arrival. The day they had planned to use for hunting was scuttled in favor of a direct and speedy transit to Clallam County, Washington. They raced into the Cullen family home with the decisiveness of a bullet.
"Has anything happened since yesterday," Carlisle queried all present?
Edward, Bella, Emmett, Rosalie and Nessie intercepted them in the foyer of the house.
"No, nothing," Rosalie reported.
"Alice?" Esme queried with a word.
"Not since the first call," Bella responded to the implied question.
Edward studied Carlisle's mind for information on his thinking. Emmett and Nessie waited on a vocal report of same.
"She must be in transit right now," Carlisle pondered out the obvious.
"I don't believe Jacob and the others would do this," Nessie implored to Carlisle.
Carlisle perceived the anguish in Nessie's face and stepped over to her before speaking.
"I know it's hard to believe," Carlisle spoke softly. "But it doesn't have to be all of them. It could be just two or three of them. The shape-shifters always thought of us as a potential enemy."
"You're not going to hurt them," Nessie questioned back with a pleading expression?
"No Sweetheart," Carlisle promptly responded as he took her hands into his. "Not if we can avoid it."
Esme quickly stepped over to Nessie with a look of concern on her face. She gently placed a hand on Nessie's shoulder. Carlisle backed away to give room.
"Hey, this whole thing is probably about some chance encounter in the forest that went bad," Esme reassured with a forced smile. "Now that we know about this we can take precautions to prevent it."
Nessie accepted Esme's support with a forced smile of her own. Emmett was not equally gratified by this idea and said so two seconds later.
"So, aren't we going to confront them?"
Emmett's words were spoken with ferocity behind them. All eyes turned to him in response.
"Emmett is right," Rosalie quickly supported. "We can't just keep dancing around these wolves, not if we're going to maintain a presence here. We need to resolve this one way or the other, now."
Carlisle gave Rosalie's and Emmett's expression a quick study before responding to their words.
"The shape-shifters are our friends and allies," he instructed calmly. "We need to do whatever we can to avoid a conflict with them."
"That was yesterday," Emmett challenged back. "I think someone needs to communicate to them that our side of the boundary is now off limits to them."
"I agree," Rosalie rifled in sternly.
"Something like that will definitely provoke the entire pack," Bella retorted with equal tenacity.
Edward's silence with regards to this question was suddenly noticed by all within the room. Their eyes favored his location. Edward ignored this attention and kept his stare fixed onto Carlisle. He, in turn, read this as deference to him.
"We shouldn't worry about this now," Carlisle instructed all present. "Alice and Jasper are not here to share their thoughts."
"Alice can't see anything when it comes to those wolves," Rosalie quickly pointed out. "What is she going to tell us that we don't already know?"
"Just the same, I want them here before making decisions about what to do."
Carlisle's resolution was the last word on the subject for this assembly. It was, however, a perennial topic of conversation, over the course of the day, between a varied two and three of the family.
"You agree with Aunt Rose, don't you, Dad?"
Nessie cornered Edward in the kitchen for the purpose of putting this question to him. Bella followed them there in anticipation of the topic of their discussion.
"If it comes down to a choice between the safety of you and your mother against them, then there is no choice."
Edward's reply was sobering and unwavering. Nessie was momentarily startled by this answer, despite the fact she already knew what it would be. Bella moved in on the discussion from behind Nessie. She looked to Nessie with concern and caugh
t her attention.
"I think we need to give this some time to blow over, before we do something that we won't be able to come back from." Bella gently suggested this as she looked back and forth between her daughter and her husband
Relieved to hear these words, Nessie nodded her head in agreement as she pushed out a smile. Edward was not inclined to be that amenable.
"If Alice produces one word of bad news, then the time is up."
Edward stared into Bella's eyes to give weight to his stern warning. Four seconds later, he abandoned this discussion and sought solitude for his thoughts elsewhere.
Alice and Jasper arrived at the Cullen family home late that evening. All were there in waiting for them, impatient for news from Alice.
"Have there been any new visions?" Carlisle queried Alice the instant she became settled in the living-room.
"No, nothing," Alice reported without hesitation. "But, we shouldn't be here. I can't see the wolves. I can only see the aftermath of anything they do."
"That's what I've been saying," Emmett spoke out loudly. "We need to act first. We need to make something happen now while we're prepared for it."
"They're not rabid animals to be disposed of," Bella argued back.
"Neither are we," Rosalie retorted an instant behind.
Nessie kept an eye on Edward for some reaction to all that was being said. He had shown none to this point. He was too busy assimilating the thoughts behind the words being spoken.
"What about us?"
Carlisle's sudden query to Alice redirected the conversation to her.
"That's just it, I can't see you or Esme or Bella or any of us when one of those shape-shifters is nearby," Alice instructed in a plaintive voice.
"What about the aftermath of an event," Carlisle corrected his query. "Have you had any visions that suggest something has happened that you didn't see?"
"With Nessie here I can't be sure of what I'm not seeing," Alice insisted with finality. "This is why I think we should just leave."
"I'm not leaving with my parents here," Bella sternly countered. "You can go, but I'm staying."
Everyone could see that Bella had directed her assertion at the whole family.
The Malevolent Vampire Page 5