I'll be home for Christmas

Chapter 49

Chapter 49 - I'll be home for Christmas

Disclaimer: the characters and all recognisable situations belong to Stephenie Meyer - this is a work of fan fiction, except for the legends and histories of the Quileute that, of course, belong to them. I pay my respects to their gods.

Thanks to BanSidhe [ruadh sidhe] and Feebes86 for betaing and pre-reading.

The pieces were all on the chessboard now, at least all the pieces that the Quileute had to play with. The Cullens had moved back into their old house and were keeping a low profile; no trips into Forks. At least the house was so far out of town and so isolated, that they were unlikely to get any people driving past. They had not cleared the ferns that had overtaken the front lawn in the years they were away.

Carlisle kept offering to ask other vampires to help them until Billy just told him point blank, that if any of those vampires had red eyes, the pack would kill them the second they got anywhere near tribal land. No matter what Carlisle had told them.

"We have no treaty with them and we will not tolerate the deaths of others to provide sustenance for our allies - that would make us as guilty of murder as the Volturi."

The notice boards in the tribal hall started to fill up with information about their enemy. The five core members of the Volturi were: Marcus, Aro and Caius. The two remaining wives: Sulpicia, Aro's wife and Athenodora, Caius's. Neither had any special skills although Carlisle told them that Athenodora may be one of the oldest vampires in existence.

"What do they do?" Bella asked.

"They are kept virtual prisoners in the tower," Carlisle answered.

"Why?"

"Because they are so valuable to their husbands."

Bella stood quickly. "I need to go for a walk."

Josh looked concerned but let her go.

Edward stood quickly and made as if to follow her, but Jasper beat him to the door and after a small discussion, Edward went back and sat down.

Josh saw it all but pretended that he hadn't.

"Oh, it's you," Bella said when she saw it was Jasper.

"You were frightened it would be Edward."

"I cannot deal with Edward, today," Bella told Jasper. "Does that make me a coward?"

"No."

"Josh said that seeing you guys is hard for me because I didn't just let Edward go. I lost you, too and I had never had much of a family before."

"He's right."

"He is about a lot of things." She smiled at the ground; affection for Josh.

Jasper chuckled. "You trust him and his advice."

"Yeah… he has a few things worked out."

"What other gifts does he have?"

"What makes you think he has any?"

"Call it intuition. And Billy told us he had dreams."

"He has dreams of the future. He can share his dreams with me or walk in mine. I am never sure which." She paused. "And I can talk to him, in his head. Kind of like the pack does."

"His dreams are not as clear as Alice's?"

"No. Do you know, I have always wondered… do you think it is a self -fulfilling prophecy? That we say there was a dream of a battle with the Volturi and we do things to make sure that a war happens? We kill their scout, and force them to act."