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

“My biggest concern will be if they bring Alec and Jane back in time for the fight.”

“What makes you think Aro’d let them come back?” Hector asked.

“You saw him. He’s not concerned with betrayal. I think he might have suspected Caius was up to something. Most of all, he’s not willing to give up the crown jewels of his treasured army. He’ll blame anyone else for their mistakes rather than punish them. He might destroy Caius for this, but not until after this is over. He’s a smart man. He knows he needs numbers. He saw what we can do.”

“If they have the full army,” Rain started, “Including the new recruits,” Zephyr added, “Do you think we can take them?” Meadow asked. “Without the Cullens?” They asked as one.

“Maybe, but we wouldn’t all come back. I wouldn’t be able to anticipate that many vampires and we don’t have a shield. Bianca and I would be the only ones able to fight if Alec was there. Even with the powers we have on our side, there’s no way we’d be able to act fast enough to get them all. If we took out Jane and Alec first, we’d have a better chance but we’d also have to take out Veronica. She’s a powerful shield and able to use our talents against us. She might be under Chelsea’s influence, I don’t know for sure that she reflects every supernatural gift out there. If she is in their control, we might not be able to talk her down. We might have to destroy her, fast, without hesitation.”

“If we took out their top players, would we be able to win?” Bianca asked.

“There’s a good chance,” I said. They stared at me. They could hear the hesitation in my voice. “But it would be improbable that we’d leave intact. Some of us wouldn’t make it.”

“So we would have a better chance,” Rain said, “To make it out alive,” Zephyr said, “If we included the Cullens.” Meadow finished.

“With them, it would be easy. We’d win and it would be unlikely that we’d have any casualties.” I stated.

“Think they’ll be as optimistic?” Pim asked.

“I think we should let them decide if they want to be involved. It should be their choice. We are, after all, talking about killing a couple dozen vampires.”

“Carlisle won’t want to, that’s for sure.” Laney said.

“We can do fine with just Bella, Edward, Jasper and Emmett. The rest can stay home and it wouldn’t hurt our chances.” I said.

“What if they all go pacifist tree hugger on us?” Hector asked.

“Then that’s their choice.” I replied but to myself I thought that would be very unlikely.

“So, we ask.” Laney said.

“We better not leave them waiting. I’m sure they saw what we did and how it turned out.” I reminded them.

Rain dropped us in the forest a mile off from the Cullen’s house. This was the path we had traveled to meet them the first time.

“You missed.” Hector teased.

“Not by much.” Rain replied.

I could see them already, lined up in front of their house.

“Déjà vu.” I murmured.

The smell of smoke was think in the air. I could see a pillar of purple smoke pillowing from the backyard. It smelled strange, distinctly sweet. It wasn’t pine they were burning back there.

We moved quickly to join them in the front yard. Alice had seen what had happened.

“How could you?!” Alice snapped. Her tone was both accusatory and pouting.

“We tried. I swear, we gave Aro every opportunity to settle this peacefully. He’s set on conquest.”

She rolled her eyes, “Of course he didn’t go for the diplomatic solution.” Then her eyes narrowed at me, “How could you try to leave us out of the fight! Do you know what would have happened if you had gone through with it?!” She nearly screamed at me.

“Whoa!” I raised my hands in a sign of surrender, “I had no intention of excluding you. However, we did want it to be your own decision. We understand if you don’t want to be involved.”

“And let you have all the fun?” Emmett said as he flexed and relaxed the knuckles of his fisted hands. He was ready for a fight.

Edward was staring at the triplets. They weren’t looking at him. I wondered what he was reading in their minds that was so fascinating.

“It wasn’t Adam.” He told Alice, “It was them.” He pointed to the girls.

They looked at him then, all three glaring at him.

“They wanted to leave us out of it. They had decided after seeing how well they did testing their powers on the Volturi that they would leave right from their grandmother’s house. But they changed their minds when Adam said they might not all come back.” Edward explained.

I turned to them, surprised by what I had missed, “When did that happen?”

“Zephyr might have told us about your plan B.” Meadow said, her eyes avoiding mine.

“And she might have suggested that we go somewhere private to discuss an alternative to fighting them with the Cullens.” Rain added quickly.

“When did you have time to discuss this? I’ve been with you the whole time.”

Zephyr smiled.

“You talked to them while I talked to Aro. How did you know they would go along with your suggestion?”

“We don’t need words to communicate.” Zephyr answered.

I knew they couldn’t communicate back and forth with their minds. They would have done it far more often and I would have picked up on it by now. But they were sisters and they thought in unison most of the time. They had worked out a system, how to talk to each other without anyone knowing. Zephyr could get the more detailed ideas across to each of them. They’d just have to come up with a way to say yes or no without anyone noticing.

Edward looked at their clasped hands. They were very rarely out of contact with each other. They held hands when we were in the Volturi stronghold.

Then it clicked. They could signal her by squeezing Zephyr’s hand. And no one would be the wiser.

I lifted an eyebrow as I gazed at them.

“Impressive.” I sighed, smiling. “But next time a heads up would be nice,” I tilted my head in Alice’s direction a couple times, “so I’m prepared for the fallout.”

They giggled.

“Sorry, dad.” They said as one.

“Stop calling me that.” I complained.

They all chuckled.

“Well, that leaves you to choose.” I said, mostly to Carlisle, the one I knew wouldn’t want to fight, “Do you want to come with us or stay out of it?”

“We will help you.” Carlisle said in a grave tone.

“You don’t have to, Carlisle.” I said, sensing his hesitation, “We can get this done with just Edward, Bella, Jasper and Emmett. You don’t have to be involved.”

“We’re a family. I will fight for my family.”

“We stand together.” Esme said softly, “We’re all going.”

“Very well.” I replied. “Alice, anything happening on Aro’s end?”

“He’s changed his mind a few times now.” She told us, “His future keeps changing.”

“We’ve pushed him into a hasty decision. He’s not trying to avoid you now. He’s trying to pick the strategy most likely to succeed. Pim, can you feel the camp?”

“Yeah, they’re all still there. They haven’t killed anyone since we left.”

“Are they moving?”

“No, they’re still in Siberia.”

“Good, when they start to move, let me know. We’ll meet them in Voltura.”

“It might be better to wait for them to come to us.” Jasper suggested.

“We can make sure there aren’t any human casualties here. Voltura is filled with people. We’d never be able to save them all. And it would expose us for what we are.” Edward said.

“But we don’t have a way to make sure they all come at once. You’ve said they’ve tried that before and it didn’t work for them. I don’t see Aro doing the same thing and expecting to win. If we hit them in Voltura, we’ll get them all. It’s their home base. The one place they’ll all return to.” I argued.

“But what about the people?” Laney asked.

“We have to try to get them out. Quickly. Without attracting the attention of the Volturi.” The more I thought about it, the more it seemed unlikely we’d be able to do it. Evacuating thousands of people would take a catastrophe. And anything that would spark a mass exodus would inevitably alert the Volturi. “If only we had someone that could just inspire the thought of escape without an incident to attract the Volturi’s attention.” I mused.

“It would take me a while to get to everyone, bossman.” Bianca said, “And I think they’d catch on before everyone was out.”

“You’re right.” I agreed.

“There might be someone.” Edward said.

We all looked at him. Evidently his family didn’t know who he was talking about either.

“A few years ago, a newborn army came and tried to kill us. We won and one girl surrendered. She thought of a boy that had been with them but had deserted them before the fight. She called him Fred. Freaky Fred. She wanted me to be nice to him if I ever met him. He has a unique gift. He can repel those around him. Literally make it painful to be anywhere near him. It’s not agony like Jane gives but more like feeling nauseous, being violently ill. You can’t even think of him for a while after he’s used his gift on you. If we could get him to come, he could clear the city in a matter of minutes. Everyone would run from the sensation he sends out.”

“Do you think he’d help us?” I asked.

“I think he might when I tell him we’re going after the ones that killed Bree. She was his only friend then. He might like vengeance on the vampires that killed her just so she wouldn’t reveal that she knew they were involved as well.”

“Sounds like he has a powerful gift and he might still be alone, given the nature of his talent. Pim, can you feel anyone like that?”

“Several.” He answered.

“In the Canada region?” Edward asked.

“A couple. How powerful we talking?”

“Think forest fire powerful.” Edward said.

“Yep, I got one like that in the northern Quebec area.”

“Pim and I can go track down Fred while the rest of you take lessons on fighting with Jasper.” Edward said.

“And if Fred doesn’t want you to get close enough to talk to him? How are you going to get close if you can’t even think about him for twenty minutes after he repels you?”

“Good point.” He conceded, “Adam, Pim and I will go track down Fred.”

“Do you want me to take you there?” Rain offered.

“No, stay and work with Jasper. He’s going to be the one laying out strategy for this fight. We’ll be back in a day or so.”

“And we probably shouldn’t surprise him by just appearing in front of him. It might make him hostile.” Edward said.

“We’ll be back soon.” I promised, looking at Laney.

We ran as fast as we could, following Pim’s lead. Edward would sprint ahead at times. I got the feeling he could leave us in the dust anytime he wanted to but he was good about letting Pim lead most of the time. We stuck to the woods and uninhabited areas, watching for any signs of life.

We finally caught up to him. He had fed recently, I could smell the blood. He hadn’t cleaned himself off yet. We moved slowly, trying not to spook him.

When we were a mile out I tried speaking to him.

“Fred,” I called, “We’d like to talk to you.”

He started to