Redshift by Ashlynn Chantrea (free ebook reader for ipad .txt) 📕

“We mean you no harm.” I said in a normal voice, the volume I would pick if I were talking to a human standing next to me. There was several hundred yards of distance between us, but they heard me just fine.

“We know.” The blond male standing in front said in a calm, gentle voice.

“That’s right. You knew we were coming.” I said as I remembered they have psychic, “Then you must know why we’ve come.”

“You want our help.” A small dark haired girl said in a musical soprano voice. She spoke as though she knew, as though she had heard us talking. I wondered if she was the psychic. Or was she the mind reader, figuring out from our thoughts why we had come?

“To fight the Volturi?” A redheaded boy said in a stunned tone.

“Yes…and no.” I replied, “We came to ask for…sanctuary. For lack of a better word. We’re running from them.”

“What did you do?” A blond boy standing next to the small dark haired girl asked.

The redhead gasped. He stared at each of us with a look of horror on his face.

The mind reader.

“Carlisle,” The rusty haired boy sighed, still overcome with the horror of our thoughts.

I lifted my hand, gesturing for the mind reader to stop. He eyed me curiously.

“Give me the chance to explain, this concerns your entire clan.” I said to him. He nodded, pressing his lips together in to a thin line.

I slowly stepped out of the tree line, moving cautiously closer to them. My friends followed, staying close behind me. When we were ten yards away from them we stopped.

“They’re after us, because we escaped.” I explained, “I suppose our crime would be treason. They changed us for the purpose of drafting us. They’ve amassed an army.”

A couple of them hissed in disapproval. The blond boy shook his head vehemently.

“No,” He said harshly, “They wouldn’t do that! They wouldn’t break their own law! The Volturi wouldn’t make a newborn army.”

“Newborn?” I asked, simply curious but Hector and Bianca snarled at the word.

“It is what we call those that have recently been made into vampires.” The leader said calmly.

“They aren’t making a newborn army.” The mind reader informed them.

“He’s right,” I continued, “They had no intention of releasing us into battle anytime soon. They are still training the ‘newborns,’ teaching them not only to fight, but to use their powers as well.”

“Powers?” A hulk of a boy with dark curly hair scoffed.

“They’re talented, Emmett.” The mind reader told him in a sharp tone, “Like Alice and I are talented.”

The humor vanished from Emmett’s expression. He could appreciate the gravity of what that meant.

“And Bella.” I added.

“How do you know my name?! How do you know anything about me?” A girl with long brown hair exclaimed. The red haired boy took a step in front of her, blocking her from my view.

I lifted my hands in a sign of surrender, showing I meant no harm.

“You should know, they mean to keep Alice and Bella alive. They mean to capture them, not destroy them. I still haven’t figured out why.” I admitted.

“The leader of the Volturi is a collector of sorts.” The mind reader explained.

The unknown leader, the mastermind behind the vampire boot camp they were running. The one in charge of Jane, Alec and Felix was a collector.

“I can’t believe Aro would do this.” The leader said.

“He didn’t. I would have seen it.” The little girl said, looking puzzled.

The psychic.

“They’re working around your vision again.” A tall blond girl said.

“Moving in your blind spots.” A lady with soft brown hair standing next to the leader added.

“What does that mean?” Laney asked shyly.

She was the first of my group to speak other than me. I looked back at her briefly, impressed that she had voiced her question. No one else was brave enough to talk to them.

“I can see the future but I can only see what people decide to do and where those decisions will lead them. If Aro decided to make an army, I would have seen it before any of you had been created.”

“Aro could be like any other leader and delegate his authority.” I offered. Everyone stared at me. “You don’t really think the President is the one giving commands to the troops, now do you?”

“Then who is the one making the decisions?” The mind reader asked.

“Jane.” Everyone in my group said at the same time except for me. I wasn’t so sure. My money was on Alec.

“Alice, check Alec.” The mind reader said quickly.

“It’s just a theory. I could be wrong. But he was the one with a level head and he seemed to be keeping an eye on everything both inside and outside the camp.” I said.

Alice concentrated for a moment, “Nothing.”

I thought about that. They weren’t making the decisions. They were following orders. Jane and Alec seemed like the most likely to be in charge and it made sense because their gifts made them effective leaders for such a volatile group. But if you wanted to avoid detection on this scale, would you pick two very likely to be in charge? No, you’d go with the least likely to make important decisions. The one with more muscle than brains. Felix.

Then I remembered when Jane had been torturing Hector. “Jane.” He had whispered and though it had pissed her off, she had stopped. There was also the significant look he had given her when he cut practice short. He was trying to tell her to behave. Felix was the one in charge.

“No,” The mind reader said to me, obviously seeing my train of thought, “That would be reckless. Aro would never trust him with something that important.”

“He’s not the mastermind, that’s for sure.” I agreed, but there was validity to my hypothesis. I thought of Jane, Alec, Felix and the other boy entering the room. They had moved as one, thought as one. It was second nature. Once given the suggestion to make an army (an order would be too much like a decision), would he need instruction on how to proceed or would he know the orders before they were given? And would he be smart enough to set this up without the help of his superiors?

“I still don’t see Aro allowing him to take command.” The mind reader said.

“Who?!” Bella asked, obviously frustrated with only hearing half the conversation.

“Adam thinks Felix is the one making the decisions.” He answered patiently.

“Adam?” She inquired, looking at me.

“I’m sorry,” I said, totally forgetting that they didn’t know any of our names, except the mind reader of course, “I’m Adam.” I pointed to each of them as I introduced them, “This is Laney, Pim, Hector, Bianca, Zephyr, Rain and Meadow.”

“Forgive us,” The leader said softly, “I am Carlisle.” He gestured to each of his clan as he spoke, “This is my mate, Esme. This is Edward, Bella, Emmett, Rosalie, Alice and Jasper.”

Mate, interesting terminology. They all seemed to be paired off in couples but they were obviously bonded to each other as a whole as well. They were guarded, but calm. They seemed peaceful, serene. I couldn’t believe they had started this. It didn’t seem like the natural reaction for them.

All this effort over eight strange golden-eyed vampires. I couldn’t understand the motivation. I felt far more threatened by the Volturi than I did by them.

“You would have to know our history with them to understand their motivations.” Edward told me.

Zephyr huffed, the slightest sound of irritation. Then almost the entire clan of golden-eyed vampires froze for half a second. Immediately followed by a rush of everyone talking at once.

“I can’t stop myself from hearing what you’re thinking.” Edward said, sounding guilty.

“He isn’t trying to be rude.” Esme said calmly.

“Edward sometimes forgets that the rest of us can’t hear what he hears.” Carlisle said with a repentant smile.

“Who did that?” Jasper asked.

“What was that?” Emmett asked.

“Wow!” Alice exclaimed, smiling.

All of them spoke at the same time. I sorted quickly through what each had said and before the others could react, I turned to Zephyr.

“Zephyr!” I used a scolding voice like I remembered my father using when I would act up us as a child, “Not exactly the best way to get your point across!”

“It worked, didn’t it?” She replied like a petulant teenager.

“What did you say?” Hector asked her.

“That it’s rude to eavesdrop.” She said, glaring in Edward’s direction.

I took a deep breath and shook my head.

“Sorry.” I said with contrition, “They can be spirited but none of us mean to be threatening,” I turned to look at the triplets, “Right Zephyr?”

“Yeah, whatever.” She replied, looking away.

“That is quite a talent you have.” Carlisle said. He looked curious but he didn’t inquire further.

“We were picked by the Volturi because we each possess a talent they feel would be useful to them. Useful in counteracting the talents that you possess. You all have some talent as well, right?” I asked.

They stared at me, no one spoke.

“Pim, can you tell how powerful they are?” I asked.

Their eyes shifted to Pim. He closed his eyes and concentrated.

Then he looked at me, “I count one pretty powerful, two moderate and one that barely registers.” He answered.

Jasper snarled.

“What?” Pim said defensively, “Yours is moderate. It’s his that is barely showing up.” He pointed to Carlisle.

“That’s only four. There’s eight of them.” I said to Pim, ignoring the reaction the clan was having to Carlisle being picked out.

“The rest don’t show up.” He looked over at Bella, “She’s not even there.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Bella snapped. She sounded hurt by his assessment.

“I can feel energy, even from those that don’t have power. You don’t show up at all. I can’t feel you.” He answered.

“The one that can block the talents of others.” I surmised. “Fascinating.”

“Oh,” She replied sheepishly to Pim. “Sorry. Can you sense me if I remove the shield?” She asked.

Pim immediately took off back into the trees. He ran as fast as he could.

“Pim, what’s wrong?” I called after him.

He stopped running when he was a few miles away and said, “Ow!”

“Evidently you are a strong presence without your shield.” I said to Bella.

She smiled a little. Then Pim came back. She had evidently put her shield back up.

“You okay?” I asked when he was beside me again.

“That was intense.” He said to me with wide eyes. He pointed to Carlisle, “Candlelight,” Then Edward and Jasper, “Bonfire,” Then Alice, “Three story building engulfed in flames,” Then Bella, “The sun. Like if you were standing directly next to it.”

“Ouch.” I replied.

“Ya think?!.” Pim quipped.

I smiled. He was right. I was stating the obvious. My smile faded as my thoughts returned to the situation at hand.

“Years of training to fight five gifted vampires?” I thought aloud.

“Years?” Laney asked.

“I was there for six months. And I was one of the first.” Bianca informed me.

“No, you weren’t.” Pim said solemnly.

“I wasn’t talking about how long we had been there. I was talking about how long we would have been there if we hadn’t gotten out.”

“You think they would have kept us there like that for years?” Hector asked, looking slight paler than before.

“For as long as it took,” Rain said, “for us to be ready,” Zephyr continued, “to face them.” Meadow finished. They hugged each other a little tighter around the waist.

“They’re right.” I said to Hector, “I got the impression they were planning decades ahead. We might not have seen battle for fifty or sixty years. Maybe longer.”

“Decades.” Laney breathed.

I looked over at Laney, “We won’t be that lucky. Our escape has changed the time table. They can’t wait decades now. Whatever they’re going to do, it’s going to be soon. How close are they?”

“They’re coming here?!” Bella exclaimed.

In the background I heard Edward call Alice’s name and in my peripheral vision I saw Alice shake her head. But my focus was on Laney.

She looked confused for a moment, “They aren’t coming for us anymore. I’ve been so preoccupied I didn’t even realize they stopped pursuing us.”

“When was the last time you remember feeling them?”

“When we made it to Washington. After that I was too distracted to notice.”

Edward was looking at Carlisle as he said, “She can feel those that are tracking her, even if it’s only the thought of finding her, she can sense them.”

Carlisle looked concerned, “Very