There's been even more attacks in the past couple weeks than there has been in a while. I'm heading over to the Cullens' house with Bella and Edward to discuss what's happening. I've kept Chiron updated on everything happening with the army and he trusts that I'm helping them get rid of it.
"It's getting worse."
"A lot worse," I say.
"We're going to have to do something," Carlisle announces.
"It takes more than one of our kind to cause the damage they're reporting. Quite a few more," Jasper tells everyone, looking at Edward. "And they're undisciplined, conspicuous."
"It's newborns," Edward concludes. Oh that's just great! It's not just vampires with no morals that are being manipulated to join an army, it's new vampires who are scared, have no idea what's going on, and are just following what their creator says to do.
"What? Like new vampires?" Bella asks.
"In the first few months after the change," Edward answers.
"That's when we're at our most uncontrollable. Viscous," Jasper explains. "Insane with thirst." Why are these people so melodramatic? I know Nico and I are most of the time, but this is just depressing.
"Something to look forward to," Emmett jokes, looking at Bella. Finally, someone makes a joke. Life is so bland without Leo and Will. Heck even Percy would make this better.
"No one's trained these newborns, but this isn't random," Jasper tells Carlisle.
"Someone's creating an army," Carlisle says.
I sigh, "This is what we were afraid of," I tell them. Edward looks at me confused, trying to get into my head again.
"Well, now we're definitely going to Seattle," Emmett jumps up.
"Not if they come here first," I say. It wouldn't be out of the way that they're doing this to come after the Cullens so who's to say they won't be coming here soon.
"We will stop them before that happens," Carlisle promises.
"An army of vampires?" Bella asks. Ha, now I bet you had walked away when you had the chance.
"And they've been created to fight someone." Yeah, you guys.
"We're the only clan even close to Seattle." See, Edward gets it.
"Regardless of why they were made, if we don't put a stop to them, the Volturi will," Carlisle says seriously. Or I could just grab a couple friends and we could kill them all. If we can kill Titans I'm pretty sure we could handle an army of vampires. A little egotistical, but I have a lot of people that could help, and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be able to get through our armour. "I'm surprised they let it go on this long." I'm not, they probably didn't care too much and just want to let them kill the Cullens so they don't have to.
"Maybe they're behind it?" Edward offers. No, they would never expose themselves like this, they know that we would be forced to kill them. "In Italy. I read Aro's mind. He wants me and Alice to join him, but he knows we'll never choose him as long as our family's still alive." Jasper looks ready to kill at the mention of his girlfriend or wife, I'm not really sure what they are.
"An army could solve that for him."
I shake my head. "No, there's too many risk factors involved. If they were the ones doing this. This is just convenient for them so they aren't stepping in just yet. It has to be someone else."
~
When Bella and I get home Charlie is looking over Riley Biers' case. He knows that he's probably either dead or a vampire, but he won't stop looking until he knows for sure. "Hey, have you eaten dinner yet?" Bella asks him.
"Uh, no, I haven't," He answers. He sighs "This kid, Riley Biers, disappeared over a year ago, and his poor parents have been papering Seattle with these things ever since," Charlie says, holding up one of the flyers with Riley's face on it.
"You think they should just give up?" Bella asks him.
"Well, I wouldn't if it were you." As he says this I start backing out of the room. I walk up the stairs into my room and lay on my bed. I sometimes wish my mother was still alive, she loved us like Charlie loves Bella. If I went missing no one would care or even know. Nico and I did it all the time and everyone kind of just shrugged it off and if we showed up again, we showed up. If not then I don't know if they would really even care. When Percy disappeared it was a hunt that everyone participated in.
If I disappeared Nico would look and so would Hazel. Maybe Leo would too, but if they didn't find me Leo could move on easily. None of the campers really care about the kids of Hades.
~
Graduation is coming up and I apparently passed everything I need to in order to graduate. I didn't think this would ever happen. Especially since most of the stuff on my transcript was lies. Honestly, I kind of wish Nico or Leo would be here to celebrate since this is the only time one of us will graduate high school, but I didn't tell them when it was. I may have mentioned the day once or twice, but I doubt they remembered.
It's in a couple days and I was invited to a graduation party at Alice's house. I don't know if I'll go though, I've never liked parties. I hear two cars quickly drive up to the house and see Jacob and Edward. I ran down stairs knowing that nothing good could be happening.
"Hey, do you know what's going on?" I ask Charlie who is also getting up from the couch.
"No, do you?" I shake my head. We hear yelling coming from outside and run out the door.
"Hey, Hey, Hey! Easy, guys. Easy." Charlie commands as we see Edward and Jacob pretty close to one another, honestly it looks like they're about to kiss. "Let's take it down a notch. All right?" He looks between the both of them "What's going on?"
Jacob hesitates before answering "I kissed Bella." My eyes widened at his confession. I knew he was stupid, but he kissed her? "And she broke her hand." How in the Hades did she manage that? "Punching my face" That explains it, I'm on her side, punch him again! "Total misunderstanding."
"Here, Charlie, why don't Edward and I drive Bella to Carlisle's house so he can fix her hand, okay?" He nods and goes back inside the house. Jake turns to get in his car. "Who told you, you could leave?" I ask him. He turns back around and walks back.
Edward pulls Bella back towards him, he doesn't need to be able to read my mind to know what I'm about to do. "Now, why did you think it was a good idea to force yourself on her? You've known since the beginning she loved someone else, what is your problem?" He goes to open his mouth. "That was a rhetorical question. I don't want to hear excuses. I want an apology and something else, but you'll find that out in a second."
He turns to Bella saying unapologetically, "I'm very sorry for what I've done and it'll never happen again." He turns back to me.
"Good Jake, now time for the other thing." I raise my fist and punch him in the face, hearing a satisfying crack. "Now go home."
~
Carlisle said it's only a sprain and now I'm just waiting for him to finish wrapping it. "Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time again, Bella?" Emmett jokes.
She laughs, "I punched a werewolf in the face."
"Badass, you're going to be one tough little newborn," He smirks. Rosalie looks a little upset at this.
"Tough enough to take you on," Bella jokes back. "But you really should've seen Natalia, pretty sure she broke his nose."
I scoff, rolling my eyes, "Would've made it so he couldn't have kids too, but I thought that was overkill," I say. Rosalie throws down the paper she was reading, and walks outside. Bella follows her and they start talking.
Jasper starts talking about how Victoria is starting to show up more and more. I think she's taunting us. That's a mistake because now we know it's her, we're expecting her and her army of Newborns. Well I am, the others refuse to believe it's her. I shadow travel home without the other two, not wanting to wait forever for them.
~
It's finally graduation and Charlie woke both of us up excitedly and made us breakfast. He isn't the best cook, but I was very grateful for his nice gesture.
Right now Jessica is giving her graduation speech which I don't have too much hope for with what she was going over last week. "When we were five, they asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up. Our answers were things like astronaut, president, or, in my case, a princess. When we were 10 they asked again. We answered rock stars, cowboys, or, in my case, gold medalist. But now that we've grown up, they want a serious answer. Well, how about this? 'Who the hell knows?'"
Well by now you should have at least somewhat of an idea, I mean you're going to college. "This isn't the time to make hard and fast decisions. This is the time to make mistakes. Take the wrong train and get stuck somewhere. Fall in love... a lot." Okay sorry, but is this a Hallmark movie? I shake my head and laugh a little. "Major in philosophy. Because there's no way to make a career out of that. Change your mind, and change it again, because nothing is permanent. So make as many mistakes as you can. That way, someday, when they ask what we want to be, we won't have to guess. We'll know." Everyone stands up cheering for Jessica as she walks off stage.
Now everyone is being called to get their diploma. When Bella's name is called Charlie stands up clapping, looking really proud. "Natalia Di Angelo," I walk up and shake hands with the principal. Everyone claps politely for me and then I walk off stage. The principal makes his closing announcements and then we're free to leave.
I look around and see everyone running and hugging family members, even the Cullen's are taking pictures, looking happy. I suddenly feel a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and see a dark skinned girl with a purple shirt smiling happily.
She immediately wraps her arms around me and squeezes me tightly. "Geez Hazel, don't kill her before we can hug her!" I heard someone joke. I look up and see my boyfriend and twin brother smiling at me.
I hugged all three of them at once. "I missed you guys so much!" I whisper
"We missed you, too," Hazel tells me.
"I can't believe you were smart enough to graduate," Nico laughs.
"Me, too," I laughed with him. "How long are you guys here for?" I ask.
"Just for today, Chiron doesn't want us to distract you too much," Leo says, sadly.
"Well, then let's make tonight good," I smile. Hazel claps happily.
"We brought Mrs. Leary so she can shadow travel us to McDonalds for dinner," Nico tells me, making Leo roll his eyes and complain. Just then Charlie comes over.
"Hey, Valdez," He greets.
"Hey, Charlie," Leo hugs him. "How's your daughter?" He asks.
Charlie points over to Bella and Edward. "She just graduated, now she's leaving me for a party."
"My girlfriend just graduated and now we're going to dinner. Sorry about her leaving, hopefully she'll come by later. Nice seeing you again!" Leo waves goodbye as Nico pulls him out of the school.
~
We had an amazing time. We go to McDonalds with Leo's reluctance. I don't know what he has against it, probably because I've taken him there so many times, and then to camp Jupiter and end up hanging out with Frank, Rheyna, and Jason. We played just dance, we struggled to get Nico to play, but he eventually gave in. It was so good to see them all again. They stay at Camp Jupiter while I catch a ride back to Forks. I don't make it back there until about 3 a.m. and everyone is already asleep so I quietly enter the house and head up to my room. Before I can get in bed someone speeds into my room.
"You know, I really don't like that and would prefer it if you left," I say to Edward without turning around.
"A decision has been made." This gets me to turn around. "The army of Newborns is coming here. The pack is going to fight, and we know that we probably can't stop you from fighting with us, we just wish for you to be fully trained."
I nod, "It's what I came here to do, I'm going to help in any way to get rid of them. If you want me to prove that I can help then fine, but there really is nothing you can do to stop me."
"Jasper is training us to kill Newborns," He tells me.
"Name the time and place and I'll be ready," He nods and goes back to Bella's room. I get under my covers and just stare at the ceiling for a while before letting sleep consume me.