"I'm going." Vera said firmly. Her father had just told her that instead of fighting with the rest of them she would be staying on the mountain with Edward and Bella. She found that absolutely preposterous.
"No." Her father said raising his voice, which he seldom ever did at his daughter who blinked at his tone of voice.
"I can help, I'm more powerful than anyone on the field." She argued
"So you can protect Bella better than anyone else." He shot back
"Edward will protect her" She said throwing her hands exasperated. She knew if she stayed on that mountain she would likely be doing nothing.
"This is not up for debate." He said slamming his fist down on the table, which snapped in half.
She blinked at him, incredulous. Never had her father ever lost his temper at her.
"Fine." She grumbled walking away, taking an apple as she did, and angrily munched on it.
The day of the battle she and her father went to the Cullens' house, all of their eyes a shining topaz color, signaling that they had just fed. She glanced up at her father's eyes, which were still gold, but had darkened quite a bit. "He should have fed" she thought.
"Bella and Edward are already at the campsite, Vera just follow Jacob's scent, it'll lead you to them." Alice said
"Bella has left a trail of her scent that'll lead the newborns right to the clearing where we'll be waiting." Jasper said
"Alright, lets go." Carlisle said walking out with Esme in his arms
While her father and the Cullens went to the clearing she followed Alice's instructions and followed Jacob's scent, which led right tot he campsite where Edward stood with Bella in his arms.
"Vera." Bella said
"My dad said I have to stay with you guys." She didn't bother hiding her distaste as she knew Edward could read her thoughts anyways. Bella nodded at her before turning back to Edward.
For nearly 15 minutes Vera sat like a statue, she was filled with anxiety about her dad and Bella's anxiety wasn't helping her own. She tried to tune out their conversation, apparently Bella had asked Jacob to kiss her, and now she was in a pool of self-misery. Edward was right beside her, in his own pool of self-misery, something about leaving her bleeding and Jacob being the one to stitch her up. She found the both of them ridiculously self centered, a lot of back and forth, Edward reassuring her that she wasn't terrible, then going all martyr and Bella reassuring him that he hadn't hurt her as much as he thought when he had left last fall. It was quite a prolonged circle of self deprecation that they drew around each other.
"We will try, I promised you that, just not before we're married." She heard Edward murmur to Bella. Oh my God, are they talking about sex? Seriously at a time like this? She must have done something to piss her dad off for her to be forced to endure this torture that was listening Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen's conversations.
Finally, there was a moment of silence as Edward and Bella were both filled with too much anxiety about the fight to talk to each other. Suddenly Edward hissed, so loud it caused Vera to be by their side in a second.
"What's wrong?" She demanded
"Victoria. It was always Victoria." Edward groaned
"Victoria is coming?" Bella asked wide eyed
"She caught by scent and is following it, she figured you would be with me." Edward explained, his face morphed into one of concentration "She's not alone."
Vera wasn't sure who Victoria was, but obviously whoever she was she posed enough danger for Edward to be acting like this and it wasn't the time to ask. She would take it second by second.
Two vampires walked slowly into the clearing. A guy and a girl. The guy, blonde, muscular, and tall, no older than eighteen, his eyes a vivid poppy shade. The girl, who was a couple feet behind him to the right had bright orange hair, like fire, it was curly and unruly, it glistened, reflecting the sunlight, "pretty" Vera thought. Her eyes were pitch black, like unbreakable obsidian.
"Riley." Edward pleaded with the blonde vampire "She's using you, she doesn't love you, she never has."
"Shut up." Riley snarled
"She loves her mate, James. She's hell bent on avenging his death. Why do you think she has created this army? Why she chose you in particular to manipulate into her bidding?" Edward question
"He's lying Riley, it's always been you. I love you, forever." Victoria said to the blonde vampire who was clearly having a crisis, questioning his decisions and every touch Victoria had given him.
"Yes, you saw the glimmer of reluctance when she kissed you, the double meaning in her words, the false notes in her promises." Edward tried again, pleading.
That was Edward's mistake, reading Riley's thoughts-he was already quite paranoid about the mind reader, and Edward had just given him undeniable evidence that what Victoria said was true, with a snarl he launched himself at Edward who threw him off, easily. Riley crashed into a tree twenty feet away and got back up just as quickly.
Edward was in front of Bella in a protective stance, facing Victoria who had an equally frightening snarl. Vera faced Riley, who was growling at her. He ran towards them, and Vera intercepted him before he could reach Edward and Bella. They fell to the floor with Riley on top her, his hands wrapped around her neck, squeezing. Bringing her knee up, she forced it into his crotch, a weak spot in men not even vampirism could change. However that only allowed her a moment to escape as the pain was fleeting. She rolled out from under him and stood up facing him a chilling snarl ripped out of her throat.
Bella had been watching from behind a tree, Edward was in a blur of motion with Victoria, her human eyes had trouble keeping up with their speed. The fight seemed to be equal and that filled her with anxiety, what if Edward lost? Glancing the other way she saw Vera fighting with Riley, she was fairly certain Vera would win against this newborn; her vampirism, werewolf genes, and experience gave her an edge that Riley didn't have.
Vera, who was actually getting a little anxious about her fight, as she perceived them as equal, cheated. Allowing herself into Riley's head she took away his desire to protect Victoria. With that motivation taken away from him, he faltered, not wanting to fight against Vera anymore. She took Riley's moment of indecision and swiftly ripped his head off.
Then she ran to go help Edward, who was currently struggling to get out of the chokehold Victoria held him in. She crashed into them, sending all three of them to the snowy ground. Growling she managed to grab Victoria's ankle and yanked her over. In a swift, nimble move, one so fast Bella couldn't even see Vera had Victoria's hands locked behind her back and Edward had grabbed her head, ripping it off with a deafening screech of porcelain.
Gathering the two bodies, Edward pulled out a match and lit them on fire. Together the three of them walked down the mountain, to where the fight had ended. When they walked into the clearing Vera instinctively started looking for her dad.
"Carlisle." She called "Where's my dad?"
When Carlisle didn't respond she cocked her head to the side and raised an eyebrow "Carlisle." She said again
"Vera." Edward said gently, touching her shoulder, having read Carlisle's thoughts, he knew that Julius Prince had been killed.
"Carlisle where is he?" She asked again, this time her voice cracked
"I'm so sorry little one, we were outnumbered, by a lot and he was ganged up on by three newborns. He's dead." Carlisle said, sympathy and pain leaking into his every word, just as he found his friend again he had lost him.
"I don't understand." Tears had started streaming down her face, he couldn't just be dead. No, half a millennium alive to be killed by a newborn? No. Impossible.
"I'm sorry." Carlisle said again as he gathered his friend's daughter in his arms
"I fought with him. I didn't want to stay out of the fight, I fought with him, and now he's dead." She sobbed into Carlisle's shoulder
"I know, I'm so sorry." Carlisle said for the third time while rubbing her back.
"Leah don't!" She heard Edward yell, snapping out of her hysteria she looked up to see a russet colored wolf fighting with with a newborn, and the newborn had his arms around the wolf with a squeeze the wolf let out a whimpered howl, dropping to the floor. Jacob.
"I'm sorry." Carlisle said once again, running a hand over the back of the girl that he held's head he sped off to attend to the injured werewolf.
"Jacob." She heard Bella scream as she ran towards him
"Edward." She heard Alice call to him, he looked at her and his face scrunched up, he too ran towards Jacob.
"Bones on the right side of his body are shattered." She heard Carlisle diagnose
"The Volturi are coming, we need to get him out of here, we're not going to want to fight with them." Edward said, looking up at his "father"
"We'll take him back to Billy's." Sam said, and the wolves carried Jacob away
With all the commotion Vera had managed to calm herself down and stop the tears from flowing. Esme had started rubbing comforting circles on her back, which she greatly appreciated.
"They're coming." Alice called out, and sure enough a minute later four cloaked vampires showed up. The two in the middle wore pitch black cloaks while the two on the side wore charcoal grey cloaks.
"Impressive, I've never seen a coven escape an assault of this magnitude intact." The small blonde vampire said. If Vera had heard the words the blonde said she would have screamed "Not entirely." However, her focus was elsewhere.
Her eyes had met the guy in the middle wearing the black cloak. His crimson orbs burned holes in her umber ones. Suddenly the rest of the world melted away, her father's death seemed like a million years ago, and all she could focus on was him. "And suddenly gravity has no effect over you, and it's them binding you to the earth." Seth's words played in her mind. He, like Vera couldn't look away from the girl that stood with the coven of vegetarian vampires. He was utterly enthralled, not only by how beautiful he perceived her to be but by the sound of her beating heart, it was like a lullaby, the sweetest melody the universe has ever known. "Mate" He thought.
Edwards head snapped to face her's, he stared at the girl that was staring at the Volturi guard. "That is not good" he thought, his previous fears of the Volturi being interested in her were now increased tenfold as he watched her stare at the witch twin as if she were a blind man seeing the sun for the first time.
"We were lucky." Carlisle said, not wanting to correct her
"I doubt that." The girl sneered "Who's this?" She asked, referring to Vera. Obviously she had wanted Vera to respond to her, but Vera hadn't even heard her; still staring at the vampire beside her.
"Her name is Vera Prince." Carlisle said
"Is she human?" She asked curiously, she could hear the heartbeat, as well as the rushing blood, but it had absolutely zero appeal to her.
"No." Carlisle said honestly, seeing no point in lying
"What are you?" She asked directly to Vera. Obviously she had wanted Vera to respond to her, but Vera hadn't even heard her; still staring at the vampire beside her.
Suddenly she was on the floor, writhing in pain. She screamed as her body lit itself on fire. It was the most harrowing thing she had ever experience. She begged for it to stop, for mercy.
"Jane." the vampire growled, demanding his twin to release his mate.
"Alec." the girl snapped, releasing Vera from her firey hold
Gasping for air, Vera stood up, gathering herself "What is it that you wish to know?" She said, no longer looking at Alec, but the small girl who had just caused her so much anguish
"What are you?" Jane asked again
"Half vampire, half werewolf." Vera said callously, not seeing the need to dance around that fact.
There was a collective hiss from all four of the Volturi guard "You are in league with werewolves?" The blonde male on the left of Alec snarled
"Did you miss the part where she said she was half vampire too?" Edward asked rolling his eyes at their dramatic reaction
"How is that even possible?" Jane asked, deciding to ignore Edward's sarcastic comment
"We don't know." Carlisle answered truthfully
"Hmph." Jane huffed "Aro will be interested to hear about this." While Edward didn't like the amount of attention Vera was being shown he was sardonically grateful for it as the attention was being kept off Bella.
"Yes... I think it best if the girl came with us." Alec said keeping his voice steady, but his underlying intention did not go unnoticed by Edward.
"You mean you think it best if your mate came with you back to your dungeon?" Edward sneered, his distaste for Alec was not in the least bit subtle.
"Mate?" Jane shrieked as she looked at her twin
"You dare-" Alec started, about to verbally attack Edward for speaking bad about his home
"Hey!" Vera thundered, she hated nothing more than people fighting over her
"I'll go with you." She said
"Vera." Edward and Carlisle said simultaneously surprised with what she just said
"I have nothing here for me anymore." She said softly, looking back at the family who had shown her unequivocal kindness in the short time she had known them