Across fictive worlds

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Leia POV

The war was going well enough for the Alliance yet it did not feel that way for Leia. On the one hand they only had three heavily injured people from the skirmishes. Jared and Paul who fell back to the reservation to lick their wounds and Esme had lost an arm, though that was quickly reattached with only a big scar to show for it. On the other hand, nearly a dozen newborns lay dead. Sightings of the battles had been kept to a minimum thanks to the efficient teamwork of the Denalis, taking out the newborns as quickly as possible. Still, five people had died to the thirst of the attacking vampires and another six went missing. Carlisle and Jasper had pulled some strings so that the witnesses that had been brought in by the police for questioning had to undergo an examination. It was an easy matter to fake the blood test results then and claim the witnesses all had traces of a hallucinogenic drug in their blood stream. This started an investigation of where exactly that drug came from. They'd have their work cut out for them inventing some kind of drug gang they could blame for the deaths but with the Chief of the police missing, the department was severely understaffed. They'd brought themselves some time but they'd have to end the war as soon as possible.

That Charlie had been caught in the crossfire though felt like a personal failure to Leia.

With communication down, the Alliance had resorted to putting at least one wolf with every team they send out so they could rely messages telepathically. This made Alice' talent all but useless. The pixie-like vampire had grown frustrated anyway though. Vampires in Maria's chain of command randomly changed their minds in a way that just wasn't natural, even for someone who knew to avoid becoming predictable. It was as if they were acting on completely different sets of information from one hour to the next. By this point it was more hindrance than help to try and figure out what they planned.

In the early evening, a scouting party found the coven's base in Port Angeles and within half an hour a frontal attack was started that saw five more vampires dead. Maria vanished right in front of their eyes together with three other vampires in a plume of black mist.

They did manage to save Charlie. He was... not unhurt but un-bitten. He was also cursing the Cullens for being monstrous killers and supposedly brainwashing Leia, the Quileute for being traitors to their race and gave Leia a terrible 'I'm so disappointed in you' look for siding with them.

It was horrible.
The Denali's insisted Charlie had to be killed or turned now that he knew about the existence of vampires. They had zero desire to invite the wrath of the Volturi because of this. That almost made the pack attack them, lead by Jacob who knew Charlie to be his father's best friend. Charlie absolutely did not want to turn of course and threatened he'd kill them all if they tried. Jasper was arguing that this was exactly what Maria wanted, to divide them, sow disunity and wage war against them psychologically. It didn't help to know this though. The problem was still real.

Leia was sitting on the front porch of the Cullen house. She simply couldn't take it anymore, the screaming, the shouting, the constant arguments. She felt personally responsible to what had happened to Charlie. He wasn't her father, not really but it wasn't the first time he'd been put in danger because of her. Novel-Bella had always managed to protect him, to keep him away from all this. Why couldn't she do the same?

The former princess heard footsteps behind her and turned around to see Edward approach and sit down next to her. He looked serious and tired.

"How bad is it?" she asked quietly.

Edward sighed. "Jasper managed to keep him calm enough for me to question him. We've discussed what we found with Eleazar. He thinks he was able to identify a talent that could be responsible before he vanished with Maria and the others."