Odessa, Texas

None of the members of the Whitlock Coven, including honorary member Garrett, had traveled in a car with a newborn before. Garrett had rarely traveled by car at all, opting for railroad or boat when he needed to travel long distances. They had expected more chaos than they encountered, Bella was a surprisingly well controlled newborn. Her going stir crazy having to sit still for hours on end was the biggest problem, prompting them to let her get out and run down the empty highways in the middle of the night. They fed her animals every morning and night, even when she complained that she couldn't hold anymore inside her. They believed her, they could hear it sloshing around in there. Jasper and Peter had never been around a newborn who couldn't easily be sated with human blood, so they were taking every precaution. Jasper had more than enough experience with trying to abstain from a human diet, he knew he could survive for a month or two on a single human. Animals was an every week, sometimes twice a week dinner appointment, and Jasper hated keeping to a schedule. They let their newborns eat every week when they had an army. So Bella ate every day.

"Can we stuff it with the country music?" Garrett moaned, he had officially decided he did not like country music. He liked classical music, he was a lot like Edward in that way much to Bella's dismay. She had been starting to really like Garrett too.

"Those in the backseat do not get to dictate the music. It's a road trip rule." Peter explained to the vampire who had spent more time in a car the last three days than his entire life.

"Actually," Bella started, her voice already dripping with smugness. "The driver is the one who can't control the radio. The radio is the job of the co-pilot in the passenger seat. The driver should keep his or her eyes on the road." She said pointedly to Peter's reflection in the rear view mirror. "The rules have changed in the last fifty years." She added.

"Did you just call me old?" Peter asked indignantly. He was 28 when he was changed, older than Bella presently, in human years and in vampire age. "I am not old." He muttered under his breath, his brows furrowed into a grumpy frown. Bella had realized she hit a sore spot, and felt a little bad. She had been really sensitive about being older than Edward and that was only by a year. He most certainly was the oldest in human years, but not in vampire years.

"Is that a grey hair?" Jasper asked before leaning forward and pretending to examine Peter's hair, knowing it was a sore spot for the younger but also older, vampire.

"I will turn this car around!" Peter tried to smack Jasper's hand away repeatedly, but he kept missing.

"That's such an old man thing to say." Bella pointed out, "Like we are all young unruly kids or something, geeze, Peter." Peter was about to go on about how he wasn't that old, and that maybe they were being unruly kids, but Charlotte took that moment to do her job as co-pilot and changed the channel to a pop station and turned the volume up, earning annoyed groans from every male in the car and effectively changing the subject... For now.

"Still better than Country music." Garrett relented under his breath.

"I guess..." Bella wished she was able to be in the passenger seat, but she was flanked by Garrett and Jasper, to make sure she didn't lose control. She had been breathing out of her mouth the whole time, trying to avoid smelling anything that might set her off. Everyone had been telling her how great she was doing, but she didn't feel quite like herself.

The mood in the car turned somber as they turned down the long drive to the W Ranch. The smell of ashes drifted towards them on the wind. The whole property had been completely leveled. The house, the barns, the bunk house... Even the trees around the property had been razed to the ground. There was nothing as far as you could see. Except for the topless summer green jeep and the two vampires standing beside it, shining like a beacon of danger out on the open prairie.

The car had barely stopped before Bella had crawled over Jasper and out the door he scrambled to open for her and ran to Emmett and Rosalie, enveloping the former in a soul crushing hug almost knocking him to the ground. He had seen her coming, and prepared himself accordingly. He had been so excited when Alice had told them Bella had been changed, but very confused when Alice mentioned it was Jasper who did it. He would have changed her himself, if Rosalie hadn't been so against it. Leaving her in Forks was a decision he didn't agree with. Having his psuedo little sister back, and unbreakable, was a dream come true for the Tennessee mountain man turned vampire. He didn't remember much about his human life, the memories fading more and more over the years, but he was the oldest of 12 children. That love for your siblings was something he never forgot, and made living with the Cullens such an easy transition. He just replaced a mortal family with an immortal one.

"Belly...boo..." Emmett squeaked out, the newborn hugging him far too tightly. He could feel and hear his ribs starting to crack.

"Oh, sorry. I'm still working on that." Jasper couldn't help himself from grinning. They had taken every moment alone after hunting, to work on her touch sensitivity the past few days. He wouldn't admit it, but he kind of liked it when she over powered him.

"I always said you'd be an awesome vampire." Emmett grinned, ruffling her hair once he finished bemoaning his overly tight hug and making a show of gingerly poking and proding his ribs for injuries.

"You also said you wanted to wrestle." Bella said before tackling Emmett to the ground.

"Hey! No fair!" Emmett cried as he and Bela rolled around in the dirt, Emmett landing on his stomach and Bella ending up on top of him with his head in an arm lock. 'Say Uncle!' She squealed with laughter. But Emmett couldn't talk so he just tapped out.

"We had six ranch hands, are they...?" Charlotte may feed off humans, but that didn't mean she wanted to burn them alive. If vampires could cry, she would be. Her empathy was what kept her back from being a truly useful newborn vampire. Not that anyone sane would hold that against her.

"There weren't any bodies, aside from the horses." Rosalie replied, feeling remorseful. They had no chance, locked in their stalls in the barn.

"I'm going to have to take the truck into town later." Charlotte said to Peter more than anyone else. "They're not going to have anywhere to live, all their belongings are gone, and now they don't have jobs." She had always taken good care of the people they employed to take care of their houses and animals when they weren't around. It wasn't unusual for vampires to employ humans for work they couldn't do in the daylight without being exposed, but most didn't give a shit about the humans they employed. Humans were basically cattle to most vampires. He nodded, all their emergency cash on the ranch and undoubtedly been burned to a crisp. He wondered where they were, but hoped they were safe and sound back in town.

"We will settle everything tomorrow, I promise." He said to Charlotte, not wanting to leave good people out on their duff for too long. He looked at Jasper, who was watching Emmett and Bella roll around in the dirt with a smile on his face. "I think it's Maria, Major." Charlotte wasn't phased by Peter claiming it was Maria, they were in the south after all. In what was her territory over 100 years prior, though it wasn't anymore. It was Whitlock land, and Peter had made sure everyone around had known it.

"Maria knew I was with the Cullens, she visited me a decade or so into me and Alice living with them. She made a point to seek me out to tell me she wasn't holding a grudge and she understood why I left. I told you about this." Peter waved his hand dismissively at Jasper, not believing he was that naive.

"And you believed her? She sent two separate newborn armies after me and Charlotte." This was apparently news to Jasper, because his eyebrows shot right up to his hairline and his red eyes burned with anger.

"She, what?" His hands clenched and released. He would have followed Peter if he knew, which he 'posed would be why he wasn't informed about it. He couldn't say for sure, but back then... He might just have gone after Maria herself. Peter had been so important to Jasper. He still was, but it was overshadowed by everything he felt for his mate.

"See? She managed to keep secrets from you." Peter didn't mean to rub it in, but Jasper felt the sting all the same.

"She seemed genuine, her feelings didn't seem facetious." Jasper was going through the conversation in his mind, trying to see where Peter was coming from. She never sent anyone after him, that he was aware of.

"She lied to your face on a daily basis."

"No." Jasper knew Peter was right but he didn't want to believe him. He had spent a lot of time blindly following Maria, thinking she loved him. It wasn't until Peter left with Charlotte, that he really knew what love felt like.

"You really think she loved you, Jasper?"

"Well no. I know she didn't love me. I wasn't there because I loved her, either." Jasper was pretty sure that was true... He enjoyed what he did. Killing other vampires was easy, he didn't care about territory. He liked the fight and the thrill of it all.

"But it felt like she did, didn't it?"

"Hmm..." Was all Jasper said in reply. His eyes straying back to Bella, who had finally got Emmett to cry uncle, and was now sitting between Emmett and Rosalie talking and laughing in the shade of his jeep. It was nothing like what he felt for Bella. Just seeing her face made a cocktail of emotions swell to the surface.

"Hey Jazzy." Rosalie grinned up at him from the ground next to the jeep. He didn't take the bait. "Who would have thought?" She commented, her eyes following his to Bella. She hadn't liked the idea of Edward and Bella together, thinking Edward was controlling like Royce had been. Though not as psychotically murderous, despite being a vampire and craving Bella's blood more than he'd ever craved any human's blood before. Emmett had said there was no way Bella could be Edward's singer, because he couldn't control himself from draining his singers. He was halfway through draining all the blood in their bodies before he realized what he was doing, and by then there was no way he could stop himself. It had been like a compulsion to finish draining them dry.

"Yeah, how strange would Forks had been if I had seen her first?" Jasper laughed, thinking about how him and Alice had still been together and blissfully content at where they found themselves in life.

"Edward still would have gone after her." Emmett mentioned, taking a pause in his conversation with Bella about hunting animals for sport and blood. "He never shut the fuck up about her being his ambrosia blood bag or whatever dumb shit he said." Bella shrieked with laughter.

"He said," She started mimicking Edward's voice terribly, if that was what she was attempting. "'Your blood is ambrosia.' And, 'You're my own personal brand of heroin.'" She couldn't even stop laughing during her impersonation. "Blood bag, I never would have dated him if he called me a blood bag... To my face."

"I personally never thought you smelled that spectacular." Emmett commented while Bella crinkled her nose, clearly insulted.

"That's a good thing for Bella, you have absolutely no self control." Rosalie commented, referring to the two singers he had drained in their time together. He shrugged, dimples on full display. You couldn't blame him for acting on his instincts, and Rosalie especially couldn't blame him for a damn thing, when he shined those dimples at her. He looked just like Henry for a split second and her heart was overflowing with joy and remorse.

Aside from her human life, Vera and Henry were what she missed most. Her best friend had been everything to her, until Henry had been born. Even with her envy at her marriage and child, she still loved Vera with everything. Sadly realizing too late, that she loved Vera more than she loved Royce. She wanted marriage and a family, like Vera. Her family had wanted the wealth that Royce could have provided. She asked Jasper to have Jenks find out what happened to her a few years before they moved to Forks. Henry and his father had died in the Korean war, and Vera had never remarried. She was still alive, back then in 2001. Living in a retirement center for the elderly with alzheimers. Rosalie is pulled from her reminiscing from Emmett being Emmett.

The topic had been taboo before, but Emmett couldn't help but feel like if there were any time to ask Jasper, now was it.

"So, why did you try to chomp on Bella on her birthday?" Peter and Charlotte laughed, only having heard the highly edited version from Jasper.

"I did not." Jasper said firmly, leaning around Rosalie and Bella to glare at Emmett. "You damn well know I was fine until Edward shoved her into all the crystal."

"Hell, even I wasn't fine after that. Me and Alice ran out after you because we couldn't stand to be in the room anymore. No offense, Belly boo." He ruffled Bella's hair and she shoved him a bit too hard and he slid over a few feet.

"Rosalie and Carlisle were the only ones who could stand to be in the house with me at all." Bella remembered. Some of her human memories were the barest of glimpses, and others were more vivid. This was one of the latter.

"Being a vegetarian is hard sometimes, but it's worth it not to kill humans." Rosalie said, "I wouldn't have been able to do it, if I hadn't known of another way." In some ways Rosalie was stronger than others. One of those was never having drank human blood, something only Carlisle and herself could say. And now Bella. Her eyes were still vibrantly vermilion but they looked good on her, with her dark chestnut hair. The other, was being able to acknowledge her faults, even if to no one other than herself.

"Have you really never drank any human blood?" Bella asked with awe in her voice. Humans smelled really good, but she was trying her hardest not to smell them at all. She was scared of taking a human life, and had a lot of anxiety about it.

"No, not even when I tore Royce limb from limb." The smile on Rosalie's face was a mixture of fond remembrance and anger. She wished she had changed him so she could have done it again and again. She had never told anyone that before... Except Jasper. Who, like Peter, couldn't say the same as Rosalie. They had murdered more than their fair share of humans, including in brutal and horrific ways neither of them wanted to talk about in front of their mates. Never mind what they had done to their fellow vampires on Maria's orders, not that it had stopped them from enjoying it any less.

"Oookay..." Bella wasn't sure how to respond to that, most everyone there wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Damn, Rosie." She just shrugged. Something about the situation made her feel like over sharing a little. So what?

The sun was starting to set, casting an amber glow across the desert. Bella stood up to watch the sun's slow blaze below the horizon. She let out a long drawn out sigh, her vampire senses seeing colors she had never even dreamed in before. Jasper couldn't help but stare at her. His mate. Her brunette hair glowing in the sunset's waning light, her chestnut highlights coming alive. Her skin shining like she just bathed in diamonds. Jasper had thought Bella was a pretty human. As a vampire, he thought she was one of the most stunning creatures he had or ever will see. Right now however...

"Jasper, I swear to fuck. There is no privacy for fuckin' miles." Peter griped, shoving Jasper into Rosalie.

"Hey, I'm not the horn dog." Rosalie glared at Peter as she shoved Jasper into him.

"Sorry, collateral damage." There was no remorse to be had. Peter got shoved twice.

"Guys you're really harshing my vibe here." Bella said, not looking away from the sunset. Vampires didn't have to worry about retinal damage. The rest of the vampires shut up and stood up to join her and enjoy the final descent of that day's revolution around the sun. The deserts dying golden light was casting purple and blue shadows over the landscape. The sunset across the sky was fading into magenta and violet hues. They didn't often take joy in life's small pleasures, especially after so many decades on this earth. It just wasn't the one Jasper wanted to partake in in that moment.

When the sun did finally finish it's slow climb to another time zone's morning casting the land in official darkness, Peter decided it was now to pass the torch, so to speak.

"So, what's the plan now, Major?" He was specific because he didn't want useless ideas from the peanut gallery. He didn't know or trust most of these vampires. Peter was ready for Jasper to take his place as the head of the Whitlock Coven. It had been fine and dandy when it was just Peter and Charlotte, but with Jasper back with his mate, it wasn't Peter's place in the hierarchy anymore. Not that there was a whole lot of decisions to be made when it was just the two of them, but shit was about to go down. And to that, Peter said, 'No, thank you!'

"Hard to make decisions when you don't have a fuckin' clue." Jasper commented dryly.

"Sure, we've got clues Major. Kate isn't mated to Eleazar, right?" Peter brought up the phone conversation he had with Alice not long after she and Edward left Ithaca.

"No, Carmen and Eleazar are mated. Why would you think that?" Rosalie asked. Peter briefly filled her and Emmett in on the phone conversation he had with Alice.

"I need to get to a laptop." Emmett announced. Bella grumbles about having had a perfectly good one at her now destroyed apartment. "The Cullen crest is more than just a sign of affiliation. It's a tracking device." He started to explain to the other vampires. It wasn't something Carlisle wanted many people to know, but he figured Garrett and Bella were more than trustworthy. Garrett was a long standing friend of Carlisle, before he had ever formed his own Coven. They were nomads together for a time during the revolutionary war.

"If it's destroyed, it will ping it's last location's GPS coordinates. If it's pushed, it will ping the current GPS coordinates, and every 5 minutes after that. I can manually ping it, but we've never needed to." It was a precaution he was happy to assist Carlisle with, but never understood the need for it. The Cullen Coven, Emmett was starting to realize, was a lot more sheltered than he had been led to believe.

"We can go get one, now that it's night time. There's a Best Buy at the other side of town, by the College." Charlotte supplied, and Jasper thought buying a few for Bella to test her typing on would be a good idea. Emmett nodded in agreement.

"We need somewhere to go, we can't just roam around like nomads." Jasper side eyed Garrett before he continued, not wanting to offend the nomad of the group. "We need somewhere safe to figure out what to do, sitting out in the open like this is making me fuckin' anxious. Besides, I haven't fed since last time we were in Texas, aside from animals. I don't know about the rest of you," He referred to rest of the human blood drinking vampires. "We need a set destination to meet up at. And also I'm not going back in that truck for any reason whatsoever." He finished.

"Me neither." Bella agreed. "I've never felt claustrophobic before, but that last car confinement made me feel that way."

"We have a small little cabin up in the mountains of New Mexico. It would be a great place for a newborn to run around. Nothing for miles and miles." Peter suggested. It was one of the first properties they bought when they went legit in the fifties. "Could probably run there in a few hours." Jasper nodded, that would be home base then.

"I want to meet with Esme in Forks. She's heading there with the rest of the Denali Coven to talk to the wolves about Carlisle..." Rosalie hesitated before adding, "And to check in on Charlie, to see how he's doing after Bella's death."

"Oh, that's right. I'm dead." Bella said thoughtfully. She had so much going on since her rebirth as a vampire, she had given no thought about her parents or how her death would affect them. Bella hadn't even begun to think her next thought before Jasper interrupted her.

"You are not going to Forks to see your Dad." He said firmly, in a tone that gave no way for argument. "You could massacre half the town before I got you back under control." Bella shuddered, thinking of her few friends from her time in Forks. And then then she had a brief idea about eating Jessica Stanley on purpose.

"The wolves would take one look at her and you with red eyes and assume the treaty was broken." Emmett added, "And without Carlisle to explain, who knows what would happen."

"The treaty with the cold ones?" Bella asks, another human memory unlocking for her. "Jacob told me about that, after Edward saved me from Tyler's van. Oh my gosh, does that mean the werewolves are real?! I wonder if Jacob is one..." Bella remembered how cold and stand off-ish Jacob got before she left Forks. The week before she left, he flat out refused to see her, dropping off her truck in the middle of a night with a note to travel safe.

"They're Shapeshifters, but yes." Emmett grinned. "They're MASSIVE too, bigger than a grizzly." He had always wished they could have stronger friendships with the Quileute tribe. He thought they were awesome.

"He said something like you guys couldn't cross the border or bite a human." Bella tried to remember the details, but that day at the beach was as foggy in memory as it was that morning on the cold and rainy beach.

"We won't bite a human, or cross over into their land. While we are in residence, they don't cross over into ours. Town is the only exception. It's like Switzerland." Rosalie explained. "I don't think the treaty covers Jasper, anyway."

"Why not?" Bella asked.

"When we signed the treaty, it was just Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Emmett and myself. We all signed it."

"But me and Alice never did." Jasper said. "Was that something new members were supposed to sign?"

"No one ever brought it up." Emmett shrugged. "I don't think anyone thought about it." The wolves had certainly never mentioned it, and Emmett wondered if they knew exactly the terms and where the physical treaty was.

"So you have a treaty with the local Shapeshifters, show up after like sixty years with two new members, and no one thinks hey, maybe they bit 'em?" Peter laughed, "Do they even care about enforcing it at all?"

"Shit, that's a good point." Emmett said. "I don't think there were any shifters around to do any enforcing."

"If Esme goes to my Dad and tells him she's sorry I died, wouldn't that make them think you guys killed me? Billy Black is his best friend, he's on the Rez just as much as he's home. What if they attack Esme?" Rosalie and Emmett shared a look, the only ones of the group who had seen the shifters in action back in the thirties. Esme wouldn't stand a chance with one of them. She wasn't a fighter. She was the epitome of empathetic mothering.

"Your Dad is friends with the grandson of Ephraim Black?" Rosalie was surprised, though Bella couldn't understand why. It was a small town, everyone knew everything about every body. Except the Cullens being vampires, and the Quileutes being Shapeshifters.

"Are you really that self absorbed?" Emmett laughed, "Even Jasper knew that and he hardly paid any attention to humans." Rosalie gave Emmett a withering glare, but she supposed he did have a point. She really didn't give a shit about any of the humans they were forced to play pretend around. She just liked dressing up and looking good and hearing their envious comments when they thought she was out of ear shot. She wasn't superficial, she was petty.

"I'm also friends with the great grandson of Ephraim Black." Bella was thinking back to how strangely Jacob had been acting. She had assumed it was because she was leaving town and he had a crush on her. Now she wasn't so sure. One by one, his friends abandoning him to hang out with Sam Uley. "I think the wolves are back. After you guys left, I was hanging out on the Rez a lot more with Jacob." Edward had hated her traveling anywhere where he couldn't get to her, so she never went and only saw Jacob when he came to her house. As a child, she was welcomed at the Rez just as much as her father. She supposed that open invitation was closed indefinitely now.

"And there was this older boy, Sam Uley, Jacob kept complaining how he had like, a little cult going on. I saw some of the kids before they joined up with Sam, Quil and Embry were scrawny teenagers. After they stopped hanging out with Jacob and started being Sam's little lost puppy dogs, they had a growth spurt, cut their hair, got tattoos, and were super ripped."

"Super ripped, huh Bells?" Emmett grinned, but Bella rolled her eyes and wisely ignored his insinuation. Big muscles weren't her thing, she was more than pleased she ended up with a vampire like Jasper. Scars and all.

"Yeah, like the level of muscles you have. Just over a few weeks."

"That sounds about right." He confirmed. "When we saw them before, they were massive men. If we had steroids back then, that's what I would have thought the Quileutes were on."

"The sooner we get that laptop and get to Forks, the better. You can get a car charger and check in on things while I drive." Rosalie started thinking pragmatically. If Carlisle and Edward were missing, and Esme possibly in danger, she didn't know who else would take control of things besides her. Bless Em's heart, but he wasn't a leader. He was the muscle. Until Jasper came along, that is. Plus, Rosalie drove like a bat out of hell. Assuming bats can drive.

"Yeah, I'm going to have to pass on Forks." Garrett said, "I have no desire to see Shapeshifters in action, as much as I love Esme." He was sure Carlisle would understand. He never mentioned the Shapeshifters when he invited Garrett to visit them after they first moved here, he knew Garrett would decline the invitation. Being a vampire was as supernatural as Garrett wanted to get.

"What about Jenks?" Peter asked. "He still up in Seattle?"

"Vancouver now, actually." Jasper corrected. "Jenks Jr. took over, and he didn't enjoy taking the ferry as much as his father."

"Jenks Jr. is a cunt." Peter regretted it the second it was out of his mouth because Charlotte and Rosalie smacked him upside the head.

"Pete!" Charlotte admonished him. She had been trying to teach him manners, to no avail. He just shrugged helplessly. It didn't change the facts, and the facts were, the guy was a cunt. Emmett had mumbled something about 'Dang, a double whammy.' And side eyed Charlotte with a new nervous appreciation and respect. He'd been taking slaps to the back of the head for the stupid shit he said, for decades from Rosalie.

"He just needs the fear of God put into him." Jasper turned towards Rosalie. "You wanna terrorize the guy into submission?"

"Gladly." Rosalie was more than happy to visit Jenks Jr. after she saw to Esme and Charlie in Forks.

"Bella's going to need identification, although to be honest, we all should probably get new identities. The Cullen affiliated names would be too easy to track for the Volturi."

"We've used Hale and McCarty within the last 15 years." Rosalie said.

"Never used Whitlock, though. Carlisle was worried the Mexico Coven could find us through it." Jasper looked at Peter and Charlotte, "You've been using it though, right?"

"Well yeah, what else were we gonna call ourselves?" Peter was a little defensive, he never did ask permission. Jasper waved it off, he could feel his emotions and he was proud to share his human family name with his vampire family. He made sure to let Peter feel his pride at him using his last name, so there would be no doubts going forward.

"Garrett, I don't suppose you have a name you'd be willing to share?" Garrett laughed before Jasper finished asking.

"I wouldn't know what it was, if I did. I've been stealing last names off of our founding fathers since the beginning."

"Thief." Bella accused, laughing. "They died for your freedom Garrett. And you steal their last names?"

"I'm also dead, having died for your freedom." He laughed. "What's your last name?" Garrett asked her.

"Swan, can't use that. My Dad's chief of police. The Volturi would find us super fast."

"What's your Mom's maiden name?" Rosalie asked.

"Higginbotham." Bella cringed as she said it, her nose crinkling up in a way Jasper thought was adorable.

"Christ, that's awful." Rosalie said and almost immediately after, apologizing. "Sorry." She said sheepishly.

"No, it's awful." Bella agreed.

"Me and Emmett will think something up, unless you have a preference, Garrett?"

"Wait, you're getting me new papers?" Garrett was surprised he was included in that portion of planning. He'd mostly been here for the ride. He had originally gone to see Carlisle, worried about the Volturi being in America and just happened to be in time to join them on their adventure. He was incredibly touched to be included.

"Well, whatever name you end up deciding, I want in on." Bella said to Rosalie, causing Jasper's dead heart to clench.

"You don't want to be a Whitlock?" Jasper's voice was quiet. The hurt was all over his face, down turned brows and a growing frown on his lips.

"Oh..." She said lamely, "Uh. I hadn't really thought about it?"

"So..." Jasper hedged. "Do you want to have my last name?"

"Don't we have to get married first?" She asked.

"Vampires don't do that. Well, normal vampires." He amended, since Rosalie and Emmett have done it dozens of times. "Do you want to get married?"

"Not really..." Bella shrugged. "If it was something you wanted? I don't really care about all of that." Jasper's mother was dead, so he had no desire for all of the pomp and circumstance either.

"I only want you." Jasper said in a loaded tone that had Peter groaning.

"NO! We do not have time for you two to fuck this out."

"When will we?" Bella asked, her eyes on Jasper.

"When I'm far, far away." Peter said.

"Speaking of being far away, I'm ready to hit the road." Rosalie said, "Best Buy closes soon." She added for Emmett's benefit. She knew he missed Bella and wanted to spend more time with her. He wouldn't shut up about how excited he was she was a baby vamp when Alice told them.

"Alright, tell me exactly where this cabin of yours is, Pete." Jasper said, reluctantly giving up on the idea of more alone time with Bella. Peter spent some time drawing out a crude map in the dirt with his finger, showing everyone roughly where the cabin was and explaining landmarks so they could find it easily. Peter scuffed the map out with his boot heel once everyone was satisfied they would be able to find it. They took hardly any time saying goodbye before separating, Garrett was going with the only person he really knew and Rosalie and Emmett weren't big on goodbyes. Only promising to go hunting with Bella when they arrived in New Mexico before they hopped in Emmett's jeep and were making dust trails down the long barren treeless driveway.

.o.O.o.

Santiago waited at the airport for Demetri as long as he dared. They didn't have protocols for this. After an hour, he suspected that Demetri had fared the same fate Felix had, and instructed the pilot to take off for Italy. Aro would not be pleased. This was supposed to be a 'quick trip to the colonies'. To check up on a claim Carlisle Cullen was harboring a human pet. The last thing anyone had expected, was for it to turn into a massacre. Two of four returning, would not please Aro. The fact that it was Demetri, the one with the power to track any vampire they've met, and Felix, a vampire Aro had changed himself... He shuddered at thinking of the anger Aro would direct at him. Santiago had never cared for Carlisle Cullen, he was just another vampire for Aro's collection of oddities. He thought, like most of the Volturi, that drinking animal blood was stupid. So what if you could sustain yourself on animal blood? Did you want a prize? Out of all the things you could spend your eternal life doing... It seemed so unnecessary.

The image of Felix losing his head was constantly replaying behind Santiago's eyelids. Felix never had a chance. The blond vampire just stood there and let Felix's own momentum be his downfall. Demetri just standing there, doing nothing. All while Felix was killed, set ablaze, and Carlisle Cullen ran off into the forest. Neither of them had been able to get any sort of answer from Carlisle about the human pet. Santiago couldn't even definitively say that there had never been a human at the Cullen residences. He hadn't been the one to investigate. His job was to guard Chelsea. The anxiety and fear were thick in the cabin of the airplane. It would be a long flight back to Europe, and between fear of Aro's reaction to all that had gone wrong, and Chelsea's pained hisses and moans every few minutes as her arm knitted itself back together, it was going to be the longest flight of Santiago's life.

When they did finally arrive back at Volterra, Chelsea was immediately escorted away. They didn't have an infirmary, this hadn't been a situation the Volturi had been in for hundreds of years. There simply just wasn't a threat to their power anymore. Santiago made the long walk to the throne room, voices quieting as he got closer and starting back up again twice as fast and twice as loud after he passed. The whole of Volterra was rife with gossips. He was sure everyone had their own story for Demetri and Felix's absence and Chelsea's injury. He was positive that they were so far from the truth, they wouldn't believe the truth when it came out. A single vampire took out Felix and Demetri? Santiago was a formidable fighter, but Felix and Demetri were top tier. Santiago supposed he was top tier now. He couldn't bring himself to care about something like that, they had been his friends as well as comrades.

The throne room fell completely silent when the great wooden doors slowly swung opened for him. The sound of his boots thudding on the tile floor echoed through the large room. He didn't hesitate when he reached the dais, extending his hand for Aro's mental inspection and dropping to his knees in reverence. The pomp and circumstance, Aro once explained, was the heart of the Volturi's power. Power wasn't just strength, to Aro. It was showmanship.

Santiago let his mind wander through the last few days, knowing if Aro needed to, he could direct himself to whatever part of Santiago's mind he wanted. He couldn't see what Aro saw, his power didn't work like that. Instead Aro could comb through your thoughts and memories and you would be none the wiser, unless he wanted you to be aware. It was invasive, and Aro would have done anything to trade his power with Edward Cullen.

"I have seen this vampire before." Aro said, loud enough that his voice was now the only thing filling the void of sound in the throne room. He paused, still holding Santiago's hand in his own. "It is unfortunate Demetri was unable to return with you. I would have liked to see this man again, from his mind." Letting go of Santiago's hand, he stood up and took a solid step back from the dais, still with his head bowed respectfully. This sent the court whispering with speculation. Demetri had never been accused of being a liar, but not a single soul believed his stories about The Major of the Southern Vampire Wars. Even Aro had maintained a stoic disbelief. It was one thing for a group of vampires to be that powerful, but for a single vampire...

"Brother." Caius sighed, exasperated with his brother's antics, waving his hand impatiently. "Do tell us now, don't drag it on." He couldn't stand Aro's theatrics. He preferred his information to be forthright and without the thrilling embellishments Aro loved so dearly. This was a throne room, not a theatre.

As it was, if the rumors were true and Demetri and Felix had been killed... It had been a long time since he had been out in the field, and he was itching for a new adversary. The last real fun Caius had was during the 1800's, during the first Southern Vampire War. It was the last time he was truly in the thick of it. Ripping limbs and heads off of irrational newborns was like shooting fish in a barrel, even so... He had endured more than a few bites for his enjoyment, and Aro had insisted he sit the second one out. Kings cannot risk their own lives so frivolously, they ought to set an example. Coming back wounded, was not a good example. It made them look weak, and Caius disagreed. He considered his battle scars trophies, awards bestowed upon him by the dead. They were a sign of power, not weakness.

"It seems that Demetri's tall tales of a scarred blonde vampire who caused the destruction of multiple covens during the Second Southern Vampire War in the early 1900's weren't so tall after all." Aro had to speak up over the din of the throne room. Rarely was there such news these last few centuries. The world of vampires had been keeping its toe's within the Volturi's finely defined lines. They hadn't announced publicly that Carlisle was suspected of harboring a human pet, mainly because they knew it was a flimsy lie that no one who had met the vegetarian doctor would believe. This, however...

"Rumors of Carlisle Cullen having a human pet were unsubstantiated." Aro barely paused for dramatics, smiling coyly. Knowing that the shock of such a statement would bring disquiet to the gathered vampires. He raised his voice then, rather than wait for them to quiet down on their own.

"What we discovered during our investigation was that Carlisle Cullen welcomed a vampire into his coven, the very same vampire that caused our retreat in 1920." When they returned in the late forties, he was nowhere to be found and Maria De la Rosa was ruling over a far diminished army than before. The problem had seemed to have taken care of itself. She had a small territory, and had no plans for expansion. So they let her go. She wasn't actively breaking the law, and the Volturi didn't want to cause anymore vampire deaths.

He remembered when Carlisle had spoke of the couple that joined him in the late fifties. He had mentioned the man, Jasper Whitlock, having a hard time with the animal diet. He had written to him that he had a different upbringing than most vampires. Aro should have put the pieces together then, but he assumed that Carlisle was just being an uptight prick about never having had human blood. He always thought it was strange, a vampire who had never struggled with blood lust, would preach to others, and teach others how to control theirs. It's no wonder Edward left him every few decades for a few years of freedom and feeding off of humans. Animal diets were unnatural to their kind.

"This Vampire, is the very same vampire Demetri spoke of some eighty years ago. Carlisle Cullen was knowingly harboring a vampire responsible for the deaths of thousands of our kind." While newborn armies weren't explicitly against the rules, exposure was. Newborn armies posed a huge exposure risk. Killing vampires wasn't exactly against the rules either. The noise that erupted from Aro's statement forced him to take a long pause, until it quieted back down. Carlisle Cullen was infamous in the vampire world. His control legendary, his ability to be a doctor and helping humans was both mocked and praised. The idea that he could value human life so, but keep hidden a vampire who had killed untold vampires? Outrageous.

"I've seen with my own eyes, through Santiago's memories, Felix's murder at the hands of this vampire." His voice didn't waver, although his dead heart clenched in agony. Killing a member of the Volturi during an official investigation was an instant death sentence. But to kill someone who had been with Aro for so long, someone Aro had changed himself... Aro couldn't help himself from taking it extremely personally.

"Brother, do tell me we are going to America?" Caius said lazily, crimson eyes gleaming with the promise of battle.

"We have no other choice. The Cullen Coven need to be brought to Volterra to answer for their crimes. The amount of pieces do not concern me. They can be reattached upon arrival." Aro smirked, his eyes glittering with mischief, and his cold red orbs were shining with something else lurking in their depths.

Revenge.

Felix had been like a son to Aro. Watching his demise was difficult, maintaining his regular jovial demeanor facade on the outside, while inside he was roiling with rage and indignation. Carlisle may not have been directly responsible, but he would pay for Felix's death. Progeny for progeny.

.o.O.o.

Somewhere in the Coahuila desert, Mexico, 1923

The Volturi were having no problem quelling yet another pathetic excuse for a land grab in the Americas. Demetri did not understand what was so special about this continent that had vampires and humans alike, in a frenzy to claim pieces of it. The land was desert and gold had little to no appeal for vampires. Demetri hung back, far behind the front line. His job was simple. If anyone ran, he would insure they did not escape. To capture someone competent and old enough to stand trial in Volterra, and send them back to Caius for questioning. They had brought roughly fifty vampires to cull this newborn army of over two hundred. One of the largest armies Demetri had ever seen, though Caius said they used to have them by the thousand a millennia ago. When humans were more open to the existence of their kind.

Newborns were predicable in their unpredictability, they moved forward as one, all arms and teeth gnashing. Easy fodder for the seasoned vampires Demetri chose to join him on this incursion. He had sent Vinchenco ahead, to act as leader and coordinate attacks with those around him. He would be the one to point out the older vampires in the fray for Demetri to interrogate. Or kill. He didn't want to struggle for his prize. There were already fires burning with limbs of fallen newborns. They would do clean up after, to make sure all were disposed of. Secrecy was why they were here, as well as the flamboyant disregard for vampire life. They had gotten very efficient in dealing with rebellions over their thousands of years keeping peace in the vampire world.

It had only been several minutes, more than enough time for the almost fifty vampires the Volturi sent to dispatch dozens of newborns. They were all out of Demetri's sight now, having moved towards the start of the seemingly never ending wave of newborn vampires. He followed up in the rear, in no hurry. Keeping his eyes peeled for anyone who might slip through, or away. It had all been routine. Just another day cleaning up someone's mistake.

Demetri would guess they had dispatched nearly a hundred newborns, before he saw his first vampire flee. A Volturi defector. He had not expected it to be one of their own. A newer guard, only a few decades old, had decided to run away from the fight. Demetri made quick work of him, not waiting to hear his excuses as he tossed his dismembered head into one of the waiting bonfires. Caius would have killed him if he let him run all the way back to the ship, and it was better not to let Caius think anything was amiss. He was under strict orders by Aro and Marcus to keep Caius away from the front lines. Kings no longer did field work.

Soon the order descended into chaos.

Then there was another Volturi guard member running away, and another. Several fleeing at one time, more than Demetri could take care of swiftly by himself. Other members of the guard pursued them, and Demetri stalked forward to see what had so many members of the guard acting like untrained newborns. He caught a few words here and there from the deserters, something about a vampire with 'many scars' who was 'terrifying' and killed Vinchenco by punching his head clear off his shoulders. Then came the retreating members already missing an arm, a hand. One's head was nearly torn clean off. He took care of them all, adding their head's to the closest fire. The rest of them would be cleaned up later.

To Demetri, it sounded like a bunch of fairy tale bullshit. He had heard the rumors before, of a blonde vampire with many scars, who was seven feet tall, could kill men by looking at them... Yadda, yadda. It had been the same for decades, these stories coming out of the Americas. Then Demetri heard the screaming. Starting and stopping just as abruptly, he urged himself forward. More curious than anything, though the guard following him were filled with trepidation.

The tides had changed, and Demetri could finally see the cause. Two blonde vampires, both shirtless and scarred to the point where at this distance he could see them clearly, were unhurriedly moving forward through the writhing mass of newborns around them. The less scarred of the two walking backwards, keeping their flank clear. The other was letting members of the Volturi come at him, one at a time or four at a time, it did not matter. He used their own momentum against them, taking a head clean off and shoving the body at another before he took their head off too. The others would stand in silent horror, unable to act as they watched their compatriots mercilessly killed in front of them. Some would get taken out by a newborn before they could get to them, or they'd rush forward, recklessly attacking him with anger, only to meet the same fate.

Demetri thought a thousand thoughts. Did that vampire have powers? Was it a shield, was he using mind control? He was hesitant to get close enough to find out for himself, though this was the exact kind of vampire Caius wanted for questioning. He didn't understand how he was manipulating the other vampires around him, into an almost docile compliance. If docile compliance included screaming in terror for their maker before they died. Demetri's final thought was that they had noticed him, standing there watching and were now headed straight for him. Not knowing the extent of this vampire's powers, and not having any desire to be killed himself, he called for a retreat. Vinchenco was already dead, a vampire who had been with the Volturi since the very inception... Demetri loathed his return to Volterra.

They had already lost an unheard of amount of Volturi forces by the time they made it to the harbor, where Caius was waiting on the deck of the Volturi's boat. They didn't do limb retrieval, they did not provide medical care. Anyone left behind was a loss. It was better to cut their loses now, than over the open ocean. Anyone missing a limb, or horribly wounded, was killed and burned before the boat left the shores. Caius had been in disbelief, refusing to leave when Demetri came aboard and issued a retreat. He had seen the fleeing members of the Volturi guard, and killed many of them himself. He heard their rushed, frantic explanations for retreating and he did not care. He wanted to see for himself, and Demetri was under strict orders by the other two kings, not to let him come to any harm. So they departed the harbor, Caius staring off the deck towards land until it became too far for even a vampire to see.

.o.O.o.

Somewhere Far Outside of Albuquerque...

Jasper and Garrett flanked Bella by several yards as they ran through the wide open desert. Their vampire sight giving them an advantage on seeing something come up on the horizon, with enough time to steer Bella away from danger. Jasper thought it would be a good release of energy, after the unbearably long road trip from Ithaca to Odessa. Jasper was just sick of being in a vehicle with so many people, and Garrett hated being in a vehicle altogether. Being confined in a small space was difficult for most people, but touch sensitive, hearing sensitive, smell sensitive, irrational, emotionally unstable newborns? It was unbearable for everyone, not just the baby vamp. He wanted her to enjoy being a vampire, instead of spending too much time trying to repress that part of herself. That was one of the things he thought Carlisle did wrong with his progeny. It was unnatural.

Bella, was absolutely living it up.

Having never been terribly athletic as a human, tripping over thin air more than a tangible object, this was a complete thrill for her. Being able to run faster than she ever could before, with no worries of falling and breaking something. She was unbreakable. She jumped over dried out river beds with ease, and on the occasion she did trip over a rock, or landed in a gopher hole she hadn't noticed, she rolled and jumped back up at full tilt, laughing as if she never fell at all. Her mind was whirling with all the new sensations, sights and smells around her. Thoughts passing through her mind one after another.

Aside from Bella's occasional peals of laughter, the older vampires were quiet. Contemplative. A lot had gone on in the last two weeks, least of them being Jasper finding his human mate as a human and changing her. If Maria really was a threat, splitting up like this was less than ideal. Newborn armies were unheard of in the 20th century. It was less than ideal with all the security cameras, never mind everyone having a camera in their pocket. The fear of discovery, and repercussions by the Volturi, were too great to risk such an endeavor. Maria was also a crazy bitch, Jasper considered. He couldn't put something like that past her, if she wanted to kill him. He watched Bella a few yards ahead of him, her wind blowing in the air. He'd be damned if he died now.

There was something missing from the puzzle, to keep Jasper from connecting all the dots. Knowledge he didn't know how to get. He hoped Emmett and Rosalie would be able to find Carlisle, Alice and Edward. No one had heard from Carlisle and Edward since we saw them in New York. Jasper wouldn't voice it within Bella's earshot, but he assumed they were both dead. The phone call from Alice had been too suspicious to assume she was in a safe location. If none of them were in Denali, and none of them were in Forks, then where the hell were they?

They were hundreds of miles away from civilization by then, and not too far from the cabin Peter and Charlotte had been living in during the fifties. The odds of running into one person, let alone a group would be rare. Exposure would be low, the Volturi don't know about Peter and Charlotte so it wasn't a Cullen property they could trace.

"It was a great place to let a newborn run around," Peter had said.

Peter hadn't realized just how right he had been.

Jasper felt the enraged, blood thirsty, starved emotions of multiple groups of what Jasper knew to be newborn vampires closing in around them from three sides, left, right and behind. Garrett hearing them a few seconds later, both older vampires closing the distance between them and the newborn, giving her less space to get away from them. They didn't want to spook her into acting irrationally and trying to fight. It would be a death sentence for at least two of the three. Jasper wouldn't leave her, but Garrett had no loyalty to die for either of them.

Jasper had been ambushed before, though not with untested vampires. He had no doubt Garrett could hold his own against a vampire, but a gaggle of newborns? Garrett was a bit of a pacifist normally, unless you were British. Like Carlisle, he could rip a head off if he had to. Bella couldn't fight for shit. The only thing she could fight and win against was gravity. There was only so many vampires he could reach at a time with his empathic abilities. He couldn't tell how many were coming for them. The stakes were higher now, his mate was with him. He wished Peter had come with him. Peter was tried and true. He knew he could take out a dozen vampires at his back without making a fuss. But as his Pa always said, 'Wish in one hand, and shit in the other.'

Jasper hated that Peter was right about Maria.

He couldn't guarantee it was him they wanted, that they wouldn't chase after Bella if he stopped to fight them. He couldn't even be sure if she would keep running if he told her to. He could barely feel Garrett's concern over the rising swell of emotions coming at Jasper from all sides. He met Garrett's eyes, and tried to convey with his eyes and emotions, just how badly he needed him to get the fuck out of here with Bella. Garrett had ditched his jacket, already preparing to fight with him. He nodded towards Bella, sending Garrett urgency and trust. He was asking him without words, to protect his mate. Telling him that he trusted his entire existence in his hands.

"Are you sure?" Garrett asked incredulously. He wasn't ready to die today, but he didn't want Jasper to either. He had never witnessed the Major in action, having met Jasper after he was already with the Cullens. It wasn't that he didn't believe the rumors of Jasper's battle prowess, there was just a lot of fucking vampires on their way towards them. In response, Jasper turned his attention to Bella, sending her the same urgency he sent Garrett along with a healthy dose of adrenaline and his love and devotion.

"Run to Emmett." It was more a command than a statement, and Bella looked over her shoulder just in time to see Jasper dig his heels into the dirt and turn to face the clouds of dust closing in on him.

Bella hadn't been paying attention to much other than the sun on her face, the wind in her hair and the pure unadulterated joy and freedom she felt. The sun was bright and hot and her skin warmed like a lizard laying on a scalding rock. She had been thinking about her conversation with Jasper before they set off to New Mexico. The promise of being able to spend actual time together, to talk like they had when she was human... To be able to spend time exploring each others bodies... So when she heard Garrett answering an unspoken question with one of his own, she was curious to what that question had been. But before she could voice her own, she was pumped full of urgency, adrenaline and Jasper's love, and he was shouting at her to run to Emmett. She didn't know where Emmett was exactly, but she knew where he was going to be.

Her step faltered, seeing that Jasper was being quickly surrounded by vampires, all grasping and snapping as he moved around them, taking heads and limbs just as easily as he avoided their maws. She must have witnessed him kill a dozen vampires in the few seconds before he disappeared from view entirely overwhelmed by the writhing mass of bodies, her anxiety spiking to an unbearable level along with her fear.

"Bella, Focus! Go to Emmett!" Garrett shouted at her, urging her forward and away from the scant few newborn vampires that had decided to follow after them. He could handle them, if she kept going. With one final glance at where she had last seen Jasper in the mob of vampires, she turned and heading straight towards Forks.

The End

(of this chapter)