Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

The Trail Walked

(Authors Note: I do not speak German; therefore anything that is said in German will be a full piece of dialogue written in English, in italics within quotation marks. Not to be confused with just a single word italicised amongst regular words, which is just an emphasised word.)
(TRIGGER WARNING: the following chapters consist of talks of Nazi Germany and the Jewish community, readers are advised to be mindful and skip these chapters if the topic/s are sensitive for you)

WE FOUND THE PACK OF WOLVES EASILY ENOUGH, there were five of them and one was on alert for the pack.
     "We should come back with Dad," Verity muttered as we watched the wolves. "Make sure he gets enough to drink. I doubt there'll be many animals around here."
     I could not deny her logic. And it wasn't like any of us needed to hunt. We could hope that they'd still be here, keep an eye on the pack until we really did need to feed and use them then. There was no point in wasting what we could use later.

It was a week before Igor started looking like he needed to hunt, there had been a lot of bloodshed during the week, and it was during a quiet period where Igor was on guard while his team slept, that we approached him.
     "You need to hunt," I whispered.
     "And leave them unprotected?" Igor asked, but his eyes rested on Johann's sleeping figure.
     "They won't be unprotected," Verity said and took the rifle from her father. "Go hunt. Demetri and Felix are watching, you can't afford to make mistakes."
     "If they wake up while I'm gone?"
     "They won't."
     Her smile seemed to have given him the confidence to at least stand.
     "Will you need that?"
     "No, but you can't hunt with a gun strapped to your back. The scent is too powerful and you won't be able to smell anything else."
     She was definitely smart. Igor looked nervous at first until he shrugged and turned to me.

The war was interesting and yet still as boring. One night every week I'd take Igor for a hunt while Verity would stay to guard the soldiers in the squadron, and then when Igor and I return, she'd go hunt alone.
     "I'll be safe, don't worry. Keep an eye on, Dad. I haven't read anything about his future but we both know that it can always change," she had whispered to me the first time when I had insisted to go hunt with her.
      It was like that for two months. Two very trialling months.
     There had been days where Igor simply could not hide his skin and we had all worried, but Demetri and Felix had not been there those days, and we all were surprised when the soldiers had hardly reacted.
     "At least you're on our side," Claus had said, leaning onto a nearby tree and drinking.
     "You'd have killed us by now if you were going to," another of the soldiers had said.
     Johann had approached Igor at night after that first day of sunlight.
     "Sir? Your sister... is she really your sister?" Johann asked. "Is she like you?"
     Igor had looked at him from the corner of his eye and answered with only one word, "partially".
     "Partially?" Johann had repeated but Igor hadn't elaborated.
     It had been sheer luck that had meant Felix and Demetri, or anyone else from the Volturi hadn't been with us during the sunny days, as some vampires were taking advantage of the severity of the human war and being sloppy with their meal times.
     Verity had warned us of their return one night but ensured us that the path Igor's squad was on would not be exposed to the sun, so Igor was safe. Verity and I were keeping our distance as we usually did during the day. Until the war finally met the men. The gunfire was severe. I had grasped Verity, and jumped high into the trees, holding her as tightly to me as possible without hurting her.
     "You do remember that my skin is as impenetrable as yours, right, Mum?" Verity asked.
     I rolled my eyes but I did let go, only holding her hand until the gunfire and shouted faded away.
     We jumped down and I heard the distinct sound of one man crying.
     "Stay here?" I asked Verity and she nodded before I jumped from the tree and ran for the squad.
     My sudden appearance didn't startle any of the surviving men.
     Igor stood in front of the men, gun smoking and pointed towards the tree. He wasn't breathing.
     "Igor," I said calmly and approached him. Slipping the gun out of his still hand. "It's over. You're okay. They're okay."
     The crying was Johann. Claus had been killed in the brawl, he was beyond saving but when Johann saw me watching him he began pleaded.
     "Can you save him?" he asked between cries. "Please, ma'am, he's my brother. Can you save him?"
     "I am sorry, Johann," I said calmly. "But he is beyond saving. He had joined the Lord now."
     Johann wailed into his brother's hair.
     "Grow some balls, man," one of the soldiers I had never heard anyone call anything other than Skippy.
     I turned back to my husband, blocking out the wails of Johann (he really was too good for this war). Igor's eyes were black with thirst even if we had only hunted two nights before. I worried more when I got his scent, realising that one of the opposing soldiers' blood sung to him. Blood that was now oozing out a bullet wound as the soldier died.
     "Come on," I put his gun down beside Johann and took Igor's hand. "We need to get out of here before Demetri and Felix get here and you know it."
     "I can't leave them," Igor said through his teeth, probably using the last of his clear air.
     "Don't worry, Dad," Verity said and crouched beside Johann. Her presence startled the other soldiers. Not fully human, not full vampire, they had expected and knew how to handle my sudden appearance, but not someone who could fully pass as one of their own. "I'll keep an eye on them until you get back. Take your time, okay?"
     Igor watched his daughter, and as always quickly accepted her words before turning his gaze back to me. I took his hand, ran my hand through the beard I was oh so grateful Hitler hadn't made him remove, and escorted him back to the farthest mountains and lands where we could potentially find prey.

We returned by the next sunrise, Demetri and Felix were in the trees a fair distance away, but they could see Verity from where they were.
     I knew they wouldn't like it, at all, but we approached Verity and you could almost hear the annoyance and anger from Felix and Demetri.
     When she looked at me there was a shadow over her eyes that immediately sparked my worry.
     I approached our daughter and quickly pulled her into my arms. I didn't know what had caused that shadow in her usually bright eyes, but I didn't like it there and hoped however I could, I could help.
     Then I got her scent and realised that the shadow was caused by the war. We had been through war before. But this was the first time she was in the thick of it all, and it was getting to her.
     "I am sorry, Verity," I whispered to her. I had to pull her head down so I could kiss the top of her head. "Nobody wins when it comes to war."
     I heard the irritation spike in the surviving soldiers. They were determined to win but knew better than to argue with us. Something else Demetri and Felix would not like the thought of...
     No, they knew. Felix and Demetri knew the soldiers knew because Verity had explained to them. The only reason they hadn't killed us and the humans is that none of the soldiers lives past this track. The humans here never leave this trail. She wouldn't tell them how they die, only that they would not be returning home in one piece.
     It felt like my dead heart had been torn out of my chest when I read that in her past. All the men who had been very welcoming and kind to us upon discovering that we were not human, would not leave this trail alive. I knew it was inevitable, but it didn't make it any easier to acknowledge.
     "Everyone had lives, futures, families to go home to," she responded quietly.
     Igor joined in our embrace shortly and then crouched beside one of his past comrades and began looting the body. Taking the gun, ammunition... grenade?
     He caught my eyes watching him as he put it in his pocket.
     "What do you need that for?" I asked.
     Grenades were dangerous, not just for humans but for us as well. Especially being so close to his being. If he was blown up, or even just close enough to an explosion for it to matter the Volturi will strike and they will try to kill. I couldn't allow that.
     I swore I noticed a pleading look sweep over his eyes. But it only lasted momentarily before he turned to his soldiers.
     "Let's get a move on, men," he instructed. "We have orders to follow and a mission to fulfil."
     He didn't know what Verity and I knew. Why we both watched Johann now and Verity was starting to mentally prepare herself for the goodbye.
     I kissed Verity's head again as I slid myself out of the embrace. Though it felt like the kind of cuddle a child asks for when they just need a hug from their mother, there were other things the three of us needed to focus on.
     I had noticed earlier that one of the dead had been their squadrons medic, so I walked over the corpse and took his medkit off him and hung it over my shoulder. I didn't pick up a gun, no way in the heavens would I hold one of those.
     "We should stay here with the dead," one soldier I had learnt was named Uwe, began to argue.
     "If you want to wait for more of them to come back, be my guest. How many bodies do you think are out there now? Being unclaimed by their sides?"
     Igor didn't wait for an answer, he just helped Johann on his feet. Softly, as the boy was still hunched over his brother's body.
     "Move forward, Johann," Igor said calmly. Softly. Very differently from how he just spoke to Uwe.
     It made me smile, knowing and remembering that even in intense, aggravating situations, Igor still cared for others. I could never picture a time when he would fully stop caring.
     "Claus would not want you dying over his body."
     "I'll help you," Verity quickly said and slid herself underneath his arm.
     Johann at first cringed from being supported by Verity, but he accepted it quickly and used her almost as a crutch. He didn't get out of the instance totally unscathed. He had damaged his leg, no open wound, so probably twisted it, or a sprain as he wasn't in any severe obvious pain.
     I took up the rear while Igor kept to the front, Verity with the soldiers between us.
     I could feel the eyes of Felix and Demetri watching our every move, and my head was almost on the grenade in Igor's pocket. A literal bomb just waiting to go off.