Waxing Gibbous

Uninvited Guests (A)

Everything was going well, the wolves were doing fine, a few new additions were added to the pack. Carlisle and Esme returned a week after they had gone, Emmett and Lucia just a few days later, and all of us felt better when they were home.

Carlisle brought one more friend home with him, though friend might have been the wrong term. Alistair was a misanthropic English vampire who counted Carlisle as his closest acquaintance, though he could hardly stand a visit more than once a century. Alistair very much preferred to wander alone, and Carlisle had called in a lot of favors to get him here. He shunned all company, and it was clear he didn't have any admirers in the gathered covens.

The brooding dark-haired vampire took Carlisle at his word about Renesmee and Demetri's origins, refusing, like Amun, to touch her. Edward told Carlisle, Esme, and me that Alistair was afraid to be here, but more afraid of not knowing the outcome. He was deeply suspicious of all authority, and therefore naturally suspicious of the Volturi.

What was happening now seemed to confirm all his fears.

"Of course, now they'll know i was here," we heard him grumble to himself in the attic - his preferred spot to sulk. "No way to keep it from Aro at this point. Centuries on the run, that's what this will mean. Everyone Carlisle's talked to in the last decade will be on their list. I can't believe I got myself sucked into this mess. What a fine way to treat your friends."

But if he was right about having to run from the Volturi, at least he had more hope of doing that than the rest of us. Alistair was a tracker, though not nearly as precise and efficient as Demetri. Alistair just felt an elusive pull toward whatever he was seeking. But that pull would be enough to tell him which direction to run - the opposite direction from Demetri. His sense was a lot like mine, but mine was stronger.

And then another pair of unexpected friends arrived - unexpected, because neither Carlisle nor Rosalie had been able to contact the Amazons.

"Carlisle," the taller of the two very tall feline women greeted him when they arrived. Both of them seemed as if they'd been stretched - long arms and legs, long fingers, long black braids, and long faces with long noses. They wore nothing but animal skins - hide vests and tight-fitting pants that laced on the sides with leather ties. They were hidden in the amazon, natives. They lived a wild and free life, taking the skins of their kills for clothing.

But Alice had sent them, and that was interesting news, to put it mildly. Why was Alice in South America? Just because she'd seen that no one else would be able to get in touch with the Amazons.

"Zafrina and Senna! But Where's Kachiri?" Carlisle asked. I've never seen you three apart."

"Alice told us we needed to separate," Zafrina answered in the rough, deep voice, an effect of not speaking much I would guess. "It's uncomfortable to be away from each other, but Alice assured us that you needed us here, while she very much needed Kachiri somewhere else. That's all she would tell us, except that there was a great hurry...?" Zafrina's statement trailed off into a question. Demetri of course had no fear of the vampires and eagerly greeted them.

His happiness and open personality easily garnered the attention from everyone in the vicinity. Occasionally he would go with me to check in with Sam.

The news about Alice was oddly comforting. Clearly, she was on some obscure mission of her own as she avoided whatever Aro had planned for her.

Like I told them, Alice wouldn't abandon us.

Edward was thrilled to have the Amazons with us, because Zafrina was enormously talented; her gift could make a very dangerous offensive weapon. Not that Edward was asking for Zafrina to side with us in the battle, but if the Volturi did not pause when they saw our witnesses, perhaps they would pause for a different kind of scene.