Chapter 16

Light arose and filled the room from the small candle Marcus lit.

Aro gazed back at us, his face lit up strangely by the fire.

Caius fixed his eyes on my daughter.

Aro looked Edward’s way, communicating with him silently.

Edward grimaced, and slowly walked up to the ancient member of the Volturi. Aro took Edward’s hand in his, and raised it up to his forehead. Nobody dared move a muscle.

Suddenly, Aro let out a startling chuckle. Jake jumped, startled by the sound.

Edward pulled himself free, and returned to his position by my side.

Aro’s eyes roamed around the room in a nanosecond, searching for his next victim.

“Renesmee”, he whispered in awe.

She looked at me, then Edward. He nodded, his topaz eyes filled with a strange, questioning look.

Nessie gazed up at Jake. He resentfully let her down, having a hard time with it, as was I with the thought of my daughter unprotected, inching her way towards the translucent, outstretched hand of Aro.

But she wasn’t unprotected. Involuntarily, I unleashed my shield, stretching it around my family. Training every once in a while helped; it was much easier to move around now.

As she reached her hand to Aro’s face, I pulled my shield back slightly so her arm was her only vulnerability.

After about two seconds, Renesmee quickly pulled her hand away, and ran back into Jake’s warm arms.

“And just when I thought I’d seen everything”, Aro said.

“What is it now? What’s going on?”, Caius demanded.

“Isn’t it obvious, Caius? See the way Renesmee and the shape shifter cling to one another! It seems to be that the two are in love.”

“His name is Jacob”, Nessie defended quietly.

“This changes everything”, Marcus said.

Caius nodded in agreement, a look of pure disgust upon his face.

Aro shook his head and turned back to us. Besides Edward, we were all confused.

“Find someone else, Aro”, Edward said coolly through gritted teeth. I could tell he was trying very hard not to lose himself.

“Edward, what-”, I started, but he hushed me with a finger to my lips.

“We simply have no other choice. Nobody else fits our exact description.”, Aro explained.

“Aro, I know perfectly well your mind’s made up. But you do realize the wolves will be a part of this too?”

Aro nodded.

“Yes, they will certainly make an excellent guard.”

From behind me I heard Leah growl.

Edward put his hand on the small of my back, and turned me around, so we both faced the rest of our family.

We all looked up at him for an explanation.

“The Volturi have recently been informed of a rumor. They believe there is a vampire army building up and planning to attack them here in Volterra and revealing their home to humans. Apparently Stefan and Vladimir are behind this, and have gathered hundreds of newborns from all over the world. Aro has decided that they will all hide out until further notice. His plan was…to leave us in charge, as fill-ins, until their guard is able to track down and destroy the army. He figured since we have so many gifted beings, and extra protection from Sam’s pack, that we’d be best for the job.”

I stared back in shock.

“Aro, is this really necessary?”, Carlisle asked.

“Friend Carlisle, I hate to be a burden to you and your wonderful family, especially with all that seems to be going on…”, he said, glancing over to Jake and Nessie.

“…but by the sounds of it, this is no regular army.”

“It appears Stefan and Vladimir have somehow gathered-The Children of the Moon on their side”, Edward said silently.

We’d obviously given them the idea.

“They’ve been hunting them down this whole time, ever since learning of Caius’ dislike of them. And they were more than happy to help, after losing so many of their kind because of the Volturi”, Edward said.

I sighed. We really did have no choice. It was bad enough the two Romanian vampires had gotten the whole “wolves” idea partly from our own wolves. And I didn’t even want to think about what the Volturi would do to us if we refused to help them.

Aro seemed helpless, depending on us, his “friends”, to help him, though he was the leader of the most powerful vampires.

There was an eerie, awkward silence as we pretended to contemplate the decision we had no choice but to agree to.