Red Moon ~ Chapter 11 ~ Who Said "Calm Before the Storm"...? Idiot!

Chapter 11: Who Said “Calm Before The Storm”…? Idiot!

I went behind a bush tied my shorts on my left leg. I left my shirt on. Then I did the opposite of what I had last night. I thought of my fox form. It worked.

Jacob had already phased and Nessie was on his back hugging his neck and stroking his fur. They both stared at the navy blue shirt Alice had given me.

‘What? Is there any problem?’ I asked.

‘That’s a sight you don’t see every day; foxes in blue shirts.’ They both laughed.

I grinned. He was right. Alright, next time I will take my shirt off.

‘You ready little fox?’ Jake teased as Nessie flicked his ear.

‘

Ha! It’s on like Donkey Kong!’ I smirked and took off before Jake knew what hit him. 

I heard a surprised ‘Hey! That’s cheating! No fair!’ and I let out a satisfied bark as I heard Nessie giggle as Jake entered into the chase.

We ran through the trees at inhuman speed. The feeling was awesome. So free… Like flying… I was just running, and laughing. At least mentally. Since Nessie was holding onto Jacob, he wasn’t the only one to hear me. For a few precious minutes, we completely forgot our problem and enjoyed the serenity of the wind blowing past us and the scents around us. I just felt. The ground under my paws. The wind through my fur.  I smelled the forest around us.

Then I heard Jacob mindlessly say in the same tone, The vampires behind us.

‘Vampires?’ I asked Jacob.

He let out a low growl as we realized what he just said because we were so caught up in the moment. We froze on the spot. Jake moved his shoulder blades like he was asking Nessie to climb off of him.

“Jake? Eshe? What’s wrong? What’s that smell? Who is there?” she asked, walking behind Jacob.

On my left, I felt someone moving. I turned around. I couldn’t see a face just brown hair and a grey cloak.

‘Run! Run! Go back home! Eshe! Take Ness and go away as fast as you can!’ Jacob shouted in my head.

I didn’t need to hear anything else, I already knew. I pushed Renesmee to the opposite side from the one Jake was looking and ran. I didn’t know which way the Cullen’s house was, I couldn’t think, so Nessie took the lead.

I couldn’t process what happened. I knew who the vampires were. What they wanted. I just couldn’t believe it. Accept it. This could not be. Not so soon. Another cloaked figure approached us from the front causing us to stop dead in our tracks. His crimson eyes glowed wildly and he grabbed Renesmee. He looked curiously at my shirt while Renesmee was struggling to escape from his strong grip. Behind him a brown haired girl, not older than what appeared to be fourteen years old, gracefully joined him. Her face was so sweet, so angelic. She smiled. Her smile was not even remotely angelic, it was pure evil. Not even close to the impression she gave me moments before. She sent a chill right through my spine. Nessie was kicking and trying to bite the huge vampire who was holding her. He was squeezing her so tight she could barely breathe.

“Get your hands off of me!” she shouted while struggling to free herself.

I heard the horrible sound like something really hard was torn apart and I turned around. The huge russet wolf had just ripped the left hand off of a vampire in a grey cloak with long mahogany hair. She looked beautiful beyond imagination even in this situation, with her left hand and her legs were subsequently thrown on the forest floor and her violet eyes wide open with a completely blank stare, eyes lifeless.

Jacob turned to another vampire, a male one and very muscular. I stood there watching, frozen. Suddenly everything around me disappeared. But not like when Jasper tried to calm me; I felt numb, but from the suddenly excruciating pain. My feet couldn’t hold me and my whole body was hurting. I fell and was jerking on the cold forest floor. The pain was breathtaking and mind numbing. I tried to scream but the sound that came was a blood-curdling mix of a growl and hiss so loud that I might be able to be heard even in the town. This was nothing compared to the agony I was feeling at the moment. A cold, cruel giggle came from the girl.

“I so wanted to do this!” she said and she clapped her hands excitedly. My vision was blurring while I was watching and listening to the girl laughing.

Several seconds later, though it felt like hours of torture, everybody froze. “Enough!” said a voice so old, so soft and perfect, ordering everyone to stop. The pain stopped. So did the girl’s laugh. I didn’t move anything but my eyes and tried to take in what was happening. “Alec, now.” the voice ordered as calmly as before.

I was expecting pain again but it never came thankfully. I raised my head slowly. The vampire who was holding Nessie put her down near me. Jacob was breathing heavily, all the vampires were backing away from us. I turned to see the vampire who had spoken before. He was so perfect, his skin white, his hair smooth and black, his eyes burgundy but clouded and milky, it was obvious he was one of the ancients. Next to him a boy, much like the girl with the cruel laugh, was standing and staring in our direction. His face looked so sweet, so angelic; he looked so harmless, just like the girl did at first.

What was he doing with the Volturi?

I waited for his expression to change too. It didn’t. Then something else caught my attention. A haze, clear but odd was surrounding us. What was going on? This is why the others backed away? The haze was coming closer and closer. Maybe if I went back? I turned my head. It was all around me. I turned to see Nessie. The haze had touched her already; her gaze was blank, like she didn’t have any contact with reality. So did Jake look. The haze was close – so close I could taste it in the air. I started feeling numb, my sight blanked, like my eyes were tightly shut. I couldn’t smell the forest around me, I couldn’t hear or feel anything. Everything had just disappeared.

* * * * *

When I woke up, I was lying on a soft, thick, velvet carpet. On both of my sides were wide car seats made of black leather. I wasn’t in my human form, it was obvious, but my shorts were still tied on my leg. On the seat next to me was only Ness who was still unconscious, so I phased back, got fully dressed and sat next to her.

We were in a car, a limo to be exact. Outside it was dark and the landscape was unknown to me. I felt stiff. Well, to be honest, I’m not used to sleeping on a car floor. I tried to recall the memory of the events earlier in the day; I remembered the scene with the Volturi, but then… nothing. I had passed out?

Were we defeated? Whose is the limo? What happened while I was out? All these questions were swirling in my head, asking for answers and I couldn’t come up with any.

“Nessie?” I shook her gently. She was fast asleep. “Ness?” I called her again. This time she moved and lazily half-opened her eyes. She looked at me and then at the car. She stared at the dark glass and tried to see the driver in the front seat. She couldn’t and neither could I.

“What happened?” she asked slowly finding her voice.

“I’m not sure, I don’t remember much…” I explained to her, the fear and confusion evident in my voice.

“Where is Jake?” she asked panic filled her now shaky voice.

I lowered my head. I hadn’t wondered about him at all. He’s so strong; he could have run away from them. But did he? He was fighting the last time I saw him. He didn’t even try to escape. He stayed and protected us, killing at least one vampire. Was he…dead? Renesmee saw the look on while I was thinking and assumed the worse.

“No… No… NO! He can’t have died! No! He has imprinted on me! He can’t die! I would have known! Or wouldn’t I?” she wasn’t really talking to me, just trying to calm herself.

“Imprinted?” I asked not knowing what she was talking about.

“WE ARE SOULMATES! It’s a wolf thing… they meet their other half and they know that they are made for each other… They haven’t told me yet, they want me to be at least fully mature but I heard them talking about it once. My parents were having a fight with Jacob because he almost told me and they wanted him to leave. That is when he shouted I was his imprint and he couldn’t bear being away from me… I have known since then even though, in my heart, I guess I had always known Jake was more to me than a friend, I just did not fully understand it.” After she explained it to me, she started talking to herself again.

“He can’t just die… he wouldn’t just leave me… I would know…. I would be dying as well…. dead inside…” she repeated over and over again. She was sobbing and tears welled up and spilled on her shirt.

Several minutes passed without anything changing, Renesmee kept on crying and I was staring blankly at the back of the window between the driver and us.  Nothing else, just that, without even knowing what I was staring at, why I couldn’t react in any way, not even to comfort her at least.

The car finally stopped moving. Outside I could see a huge parking lot and a departure board, green letters, numbers, destinations, hours showing up on the screen… We were in an airport. Someone opened the door, for a moment I feared it would be again this brown haired girl, but it was someone else, the man who had ordered the others to stop, one of the ancients. He smiled, appearing to be friendly, but I didn’t feel like I could trust him.

“I see you are awake. And you phased back, lovely Eshe. I did love your pretty fox, but you are much more beautiful in person. Excellent!” he cooed. 

A low hiss escaped my lips as Nessie spat what appeared to be obscenities, but I couldn’t be sure because she was sobbing too hard.

“Please be good little girls and put these cloaks on. We don’t want to be a problem now do we? We wouldn’t want Alec to have to subdue you again.” He smiled and he handed us two grey cloaks, much lighter colored than the ones the two brown haired children had on.

“Renesmee, dear one! I haven’t seen you for some years now! I must say you have grown a lot since our last meeting. Such a pretty girl. You look so much like your beautiful mother. How are she and your father?” He questioned like they were old friends, best buddies or something.

“Aro,” she snarled.

“May I ask why you are crying?” He said as he reached to wipe a tear from her cheek.

“What did you do to Jacob?” she whispered and made a low hiss as she jerked back from his touch.

“You don’t have to worry about him, my dear child. If it makes you feel better, he is alive and not hurt. Jane and Alec are sitting with him.” I heard her sigh in relief, but after she heard the two names, she looked terrified again.

“Now, please, could you put on your cloaks and follow me? We will miss our flight. And please don’t try to run away, it won’t do any good; for you or your wolf friend.” He chuckled.

These last words stressed me. He was threatening us. If we tried to escape they would run after us and no matter if they caught us again they would kill Jacob as punishment. We had to follow him. I put on my cloak as ordered and I saw Nessie do the same as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She suddenly stood straight up and acted as if nothing was going on.

The morning sun forced me to place my hand in front of my eyes. It was cold outside and Aro had covered his head with the hood of his cloak. I imitated him even though my skin didn’t sparkle in the sunlight. He passed the main entrance of the airport and headed to the right side of the building. A white private jet was there waiting and the door was still open. As we came closer, I could see the passengers of the plane. Everyone was in grey and black cloaks and had pale white, ice-cold looking skin. The plane was full of vampires. And not just any vampires, the Volturi guard. 

I trembled for a moment then felt Nessie reach for my hand and twine our fingers together as I heard, Hold your head up high, Eshe, help will come and we will get away, I can feel it. We will not cower before Aro and his evil guards. We are better than that and our lives, as well Jake’s depend on it.

She squeezed my hand and let a small sigh escape as we walked up the stairs into a plane full of vampires and an unknown fate. I felt as long as we were together, we would somehow be okay.    

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