Bella's Wish (A Twilight Saga story: Twilight Reimagined)

15 ∘ Army (BPOV)

I spent the rest of the day with Jacob. Sam called him when it was getting late. Something about his turn running perimeter? I didn’t know what that meant. I only assumed it was wolf business.

“What are you thinking?” Edward sat next to me on the couch in his room.

“Just glad to be back, that’s all. It was nice catching up with Jake.” I smiled. He held me. I got a whiff of Carlisle’s scent. He was home. Edward and I walked downstairs.

“Why?” Edward was confused.

“We don’t know how long we’ll be here. I wanted us to get settled, so I did.”

“What happened?” I hated when Edward had mind-conversations.

“He got his job back at the hospital.”

“I thought we were leaving after we took care of Victoria?” Emmett asked. He was watching the news with Jasper.

“We’ll figure it out. We always do,” Carlisle said, sitting next to them.

“Seattle is in a state of terror. Police are baffled by the escalating murders, and disappearances,” the news woman stated.

“Woah. What is this?” Emmett turned up the volume, and the rest of the family came down to the living room.

“Whatever it is, it’s not our problem,” Rosalie said, twisting her hair. Esme looked at her scoldingly.

Jasper leaned forward. “I’ve never heard of humans creating this much damage.”

On screen, it showed fires and police tape. Everyone was frantic.

“Maybe it’s not humans.” Alice looked stiff, coming out of a daze.

“What did you see, Alice?” Jasper held her hand.

She didn’t say anything, she just looked at me. It was the same look she gave me at the hotel, after I told her about the dance lessons I took at the ballet studio as a kid.

“I know his face. He’s local. Riley Biers. He didn’t start this,” Edward told her.

“Whoever did is staying out of the action.” I’ve never known Alice to be so oblivious. It was strange.

“Must be playing with the blind spots in your vision,” Carlisle guessed.

“Who would even know to do that?” I asked.

“I’ll give you one guess,” Emmett said.

“Victoria.” Edward sounded strangled. I put my hand around his arm.

Jasper stopped breathing, and we all looked at him.

He told the story about the vampire who turned him, and what he did when he stayed with her.

Maria. That was her name. She wanted to build an army, and she used Jasper to do it. She had him create vampire after vampire for almost a century. And the ones who were no use to her, she had Jasper kill. I guessed that’s why Edward told me Jasper would be the one to train me. Because he knew about Jasper’s past, about how he trained all his Newborns. He had practice with them. So of course he’d know the best way to train me. It made sense.

“So, what, Victoria’s creating an army? To fight us? How are we supposed to get ready for that?” I asked.

“I’m not sure,” Carlisle said.

“What about the wolves? They’d surely give us an advantage,” Edward pointed out.

“They definitely would. But how could we ask such a thing?”

“Trust me, they’d be more than happy to kill vampires. Bella?” Edward looked at me.

“Hm?”

“Would you be willing to ask Jacob?”

“I don’t know what I’d say. Besides, it’s not like he’s Alpha.”

“No, as it turns out, he’s not.” He looked surprised as he said this. “But he was supposed to be. Instead, he is second in command.“

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“He was asked to be Alpha. He said no. So it fell back on Sam. Jacob became the Beta.”

“Oh. Interesting... Yeah, I guess I could talk to him about it.”

He nodded. “Okay. Let’s go.”

“Wait. I should do it alone. He trusts me.”

“Bella—”

“I’ll be back later.”