Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter Seventeen

1 Taking care of the vampire corpses, the dead humans and wolves, the house – that was all easy. Fire had an amazing cleansing effect and, if controlled, was the best means of disposing of unwanted evidence, especially vampire and human remains. In this case, though, there were some problems resulting from the deaths in question. The dead campers and forest fires cropping up everywhere during the past week were weird and suspicious enough, but this? Five police officers dead, the chief missing, and not only that: they'd been on their way to search the house of a family that had caught the Feds' eye. All of them were now wiped out, the family was gone, and the house was in flames.

What was the first rule of being a vampire, well, a supernatural creature of whatever kind? Don't get caught. Yes, the house was burned, the corpses were gone, and the vampires overseeing this were veterans in disposing of evidence. Still, this was the age of information – the age of the internet. It wasn't possible to simply murder, burn, move away for a while, and trust in the fact that neither authorities, nor civilians had the capacity to prove anything, let alone do something about it.

In the twenty-first century, everything was different. Humans outnumbered vampires and whatever else might be lurking about by the millions. They had weapons of mass destruction. Hell, they had napalm. All they really needed was the element of surprise and a nice bonfire. Vampires alone were not nearly as invincible as they had spent millennia believing. That was one of the reasons many of the Volturi coven, including Demetri, advocated not only for a less homicidal approach to their daily conduct, but also for forging alliances with old enemies – if not that, then at least for making peace with them. It may not seem palatable to everyone, but it had become necessary. There was no way around this: either the vampires adapted to changing times, or they would eventually face extinction. Some would definitely argue that they deserved this due to their very nature, or that if they'd end up getting themselves extinct, it would be the logical extreme of evolution.

As he and Jasper took care of the house and the non-wolf corpses, Demetri tried to find solutions for the epic can of worms that had been opened with this fight today. The FBI would get wind of what had happened, of course, and would investigate. The media would pop up. People would grow aware of the fact that something strange was happening. Rumours would spread. Sites with sightings would pop up. Maybe someone would be able to upload a video of an actual vampire on social media, or livestream evidence that would then be impossible to get rid of. Humans would be more alert and motivated to prove the existence of the supernatural, especially if initially faced with ridicule.

Only one instant of carelessness, only one lucky break for a human, and the damage would be done. Exposure must be avoided at all costs, and yet, the more time marched on, the less likely absolute secrecy and obscurity became. What had been happening in and around Forks during the past few days hadn't helped, that was true, but the arrogance and the conspicuous prancing about of criminally stupid vampires such as the Cullens were the real problem, the actual reason why vampires and the supernatural would one day face general exposure.

In this particular instance there was, also, the collateral damage that was human loss and grieving relatives. This concrete case, for example, included the relatives of the deceased police officers. There was Charlie Swan's ex-wife to ask questions. There were friends and colleagues. There were the twenty-plus humans the Cullen vampires had drained amongst themselves. There was the way those humans had been killed and the way their bodies had been disposed of. There was the fact that there had been fires all over, buried remains, and that a prominent family was now at the centre of attention. People would remember that the Cullens had behaved strangely the minute they'd set foot into town. People would remember that the Cullens were not only rich and haughty and uncongenial, but generally odd and unpleasant. People would remember that the Cullens were physically weird, as well, that they stuck out like sore thumbs, that the kids were constantly skipping school, that they all kept to themselves, that they flaunted their wealth in everybody's faces. People would remember that Bella had displayed symptoms of severe depression after Edward had left her, that Charlie Swan had resented him for this. People would remember the wedding and Bella's mysterious disappearance. They would remember everything and they would not be the least bit inclined to take the Cullens' side in any of this, especially now that five of their police officers were dead and the Cullens looked very much responsible.