Control

Chapter 11

"Family meeting?" Andy leaned on the doorframe looking each of us over.

"Seems they are." Sophia was out of bed. I was guessing she got tired of waiting for me to return with an answer.

Both girls were dressed in black ripped-up trousers. Only Sophia had a black skirt over hers and a black tank top while Andy had a gray flannel tied around her waist and a black T-shirt. 

"Sophia... can I ask you something?" I asked her in a wary voice.

She frowned and walked out more on the porch. She paused when she saw the burnt marking on it. "That mark..."

"You know it?" I asked her.

Her expression turned into a haunted one. "I saw it... on the door of my family home... it matched what my little brother said those people wore as an amulet of some kind..." She swallowed hard and gripped my arm. "Why is it on my porch? Who are they?"

"They are an old cult. They go back even to my time as a mortal... they are the ones that tried to kill my sister and me. They marked our family home before trying to kill us. Seems they stick to their same tricks with marking who is next on their list."

She and Andy looked at one another before looking at the marking.

"Well, we won't make it easy for them to target us." Andy was calm as she spoke.

"You come from a powerful family Andy?" Aro asked.

"You could say that." 

"Can they help?"

Andy smirked. "Oh yeah. We're just as strong together as we are separate."

"Good. Call them. Looks like we are going to be working together with witches."

"And the wolves." Renesmee chimes in. "Jake made contact with locals up this way and in other places. They are all spreading the word. Some may work with us, some may not. Either way, they are going to help handle the new spread of variant that is going on."

"That is probably one of the best news we have heard today. Between them and the witches that will help... we might just stand a chance." Demetri let out a sigh of relief.

Aro still looked less than pleased at our situation. He was used to Jane, Demetri, and me going in and cleaning the messes up and not having to count on outsiders to help. He was used to us being feared and no one dared question or cross us. Those days are over right now. He was going to have to put his pride aside for us to come out of this alive.

"They will have a bad day messing with us and our family." Andy stayed leaning on the doorframe as she spoke to us.

"Family?" Jasper questioned.

"Yeah. All of you are family now. These two idiots already knew they were." She points her thumb over at mine and Demetri's direction.

Aro looked at her in surprise. "You just met us."

"So? We are going through life and death together. You are with those two and they have been in our lives for a while now. By association, the rest of you are now family. Get used to it, emo boy."

"Emo boy?" Aro looked at me. "What does she mean by that?"

"Take it as a compliment," I replied.

"Who wants breakfast?" Andy turned around to go back in.

"Breakfast? It is midnight." Jasper went to follow her.

"So? You guys don't sleep anyway. Who wants pancakes?" She questioned.

"I do!" Demetri shoved past Jasper and sidestepped around the trap.

The others followed them back in aside from Sophia and me. She stood looking down at the mark burnt into the porch. 

"Why did they kill my family and why are they back?" She looked up at me her eyes swimming in tears.

I pulled her into my arms and held her. "I don't know. I wish I had a better answer. All I can give you is my vow to kill them and keep you safe." In a short period, our world had been flipped upside down. Years ago I would have never believed you that this was where I would be at this point in my immortal life, yet here I was. I was having a hard time believing that this was all reality. It seemed like a bad dream for the most part. The wide spread of the variants, the love of my life having her life threatened, and others I cared for being at risk and targeted. I wanted so badly for this reality to be a dream. Be a nightmare. I kissed the top of Sophia's head. "I love you. I promise I will stop all of this."

"I love you too. Just promise you will live. Don't die in the mix of all of this. Promise you will come back to me no matter what." She looked up at me with tears staining her face. "I can't lose you too."

I gently cleaned her tears away with my thumbs and cupped her cheeks in my hands. "I promise I will always come back to you, Sophia. I won't let this and anything else keep me from you." I said those words to her yet I knew I would unwillingly break them as much as I did not want to. I loved her and wanted a life with her, but given what was going on and all that was at stake I knew the likelihood of me making it out alive was slim to none. "Why don't we go in with the others and eat?"

Sophia took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she worked to calm down. "Sure... I'm sure Demetri and Andy are already arguing over cooking and something else stupid."

"Don't they always?"

She laughed. "You have a point. They are cute together though."

"It's about time they started dating."

"It is well overdue." 

I followed her in and into the kitchen where everyone was gathered. Aro was laughing and enjoying himself. I didn't think I would say that with the situation I was in. Marcus even let an amused smile grace his face.

"See. Family." Andy came over to us with plates of pancakes.

I looked the room over. Renesmee was sat on one of the counters eating and cracking jokes with Aro. Jasper and Marcus were exchanging stories with Demetri. It was midnight and everyone was lively and for a moment ignoring all the problems right at our doorstep. This peace was something we needed as careless as it was. We could worry in the morning about what was to come, but for now, we would enjoy this moment. I think Andy knew we needed this break to get us to group together. She knew we were divided and fixed it. 

Taking my plate from her I gave her a smile in return. "Thank you for this."

"My papa always says that good food and a lot of love in a home can make a lot of outside problems seem not so big and not so bad. Food can bring people together." Andy leaned back on the counter next to us. "Maybe tomorrow night I can whip us up some Jumbalaya. Give the newbies here something to excite their tastebuds."

"I think that would be good." Sophia looked down at her plate and poked at her pancake.

Andy frowned. "Don't worry about what we can't control right now. I am going to talk to my family in the morning and get them over here. We are stronger together than we are separate."

Sophia gave a nod and took a bite of her food. Andy and I both knew that Sophia was upset over the situation and the turn it had all taken. She was reminded of a horrible time in her life. I could not blame her for how she was feeling. I wasn't feeling much better either knowing that Anita was still alive and behind so much of this.

"You think they will come?" I asked.

"I know they will."