In Paris 1723

Chapter Sixty-One

"I doubt that," Jane says, turning her attention towards Carlisle.

"It appears we missed an entertaining fight," Alec mused, his eyes roaming the small bonfires that we had started.

"Yes," Jane continues, "it's not often we're rendered unnecessary."

"If you'd arrived a half-hour ago, you would've fulfilled your purpose," Edward said stiffly.

"Pity," Jane utters blandy, her eyes looking over us all before stopping. "You missed one."

We all turned slightly our eyes falling on the newborn that Carlisle and Esme had saved. Her red eyes darting around, her brown hair shaking as she looked at us all, fearful and unknowing about what her future held. Jasper swiftly moved further away from the rest of the family to stand even closer next to her. Theo, did the same, unwrapping his arm from my waist and moving to stand slightly closer to the newborn.

"We offered her asylum in exchange for her surrender," Carlisle explained, hopeful that Jane would allow her to live.

"That wasn't yours to offer," Jane retorts, her gaze shifting back towards the girl, quickly evoking her gift, watching in amusement as she fell to the ground, shrieking in agony. "Why did you come? Who created you?"

"You don't need to do that," Esme spoke up, hating to see the girl in pain. "She'll tell you anything you want to know.

The girl's screaming suddenly stopped and Jane turned her head, looking back at Esme and giving a little smirk. "I know."

The girl let out a shaky breath, still crying from the torture that she had received. "I- I don't know! Riley wouldn't tell us. He said our thoughts weren't safe!"

"Her name was Victoria," Edward said, bitterness clear in his tone. "Perhaps you knew her."

Carlisle just gave Edward a small reassuring smile, obviously wanting to lessen the tension between the two sides. "Edward, if the Volturi had knowledge of Victoria, they would've stopped her. Isn't that right Jane?" he said, looking back towards the girl.

"Of course," she replied, her bright red eyes twitching slightly. She paused, looking at us all before glancing behind her. "Felix."

He started forward, Esme's eyes widening in fear as she looked back at the girl, knowing what her fate would be. "She didn't know what she was doing," she cried out, hopelessly to keep the girl alive.

Jane stopped Felix, throwing out her hand as she watched Esme carefully, the ghost of a smile flickering across her face. She already knew what her final verdict would be, but she wanted to draw out Esme's distress.

Esme glanced back at the girl then back towards Jane, her eyes filling with silent pleas. "We'll... take responsibility for her."

"Giver her a chance," Carlisle said, trying to persuade Jane.

I glanced back at the girl, whose red eyes were bouncing back and forth, as if she were watching a tennis match. Jane just sat back in her heels, lowering her hand, her eyes gleaming at the knowledge of having something over us.

"The Volturi don't give second chances. Keep that in mind" she stated, sealing the poor girl's fate. Her eyes fluttered over to Bella, who had kept her head down and pressed her body into Edward's, a small smirk emerging on her face. "Caius will be interested to know that she's still human."

"The date is set," Bella replied, quickly dampening Jane's mood, her crimson eyes narrowing slightly in frustration.

"Take care of that Felix," she said simply, her eyes suddenly dulling, bored of the confrontation. "I'd like to go home."

He glanced at Jane as he walked towards, Esme dropping her head in defeat as she stepped aside.

Carlisle just bit his lip and looked down, before moving to stand beside his distressed wife.

Theo had quickly moved to stand beside me when he heard Jane's words, wrapping his arms around my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me.

As Felix moved forwards, I turned away, deciding instead to look at Theo's cotton jacket, biting my lip as I listened to the girl scream out, only for it to be quickly silenced.

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They left a few minutes after that, their crimson eyes looking over us once more before vanishing into the woods.

I let out a small sigh as I looked around, watching the small bonfires blaze, still going strong. The clearing showed the aftermath of the fight, broken trees, uprooted grass, and plenty of dead twigs and sticks were littered around.

"I need to go to help Jacob," Carlisle murmured, turning back around, his eyes meeting mine. "Genevieve?"

I, somewhat reluctantly, nod my hand and gingerly unwrap Theo's hand from my waist, giving him a quick kiss before looking up at him.

"I'll be okay," I whisper, noticing how he let out a worried grunt, not wanting to let me go to the reservation.

He pauses for a second before sighing and nodding his head slowly, giving my hand a final squeeze before letting go.

I turn back towards Carlisle and nod, both of us running back towards the house. We both need to change out of our dirt-covered clothes and Carlisle needed to repack his at-home medical bag with things that would, hopefully, help Jacob. The extra time would, hopefully, enable me to go out for a quick hunt before Carlisle called me back to the house.

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here's a celebratory last update of 2021! hope that everyone has a safe and fun new year's eve! 🍾
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-T