Seth Clearwater Imprinted With Trouble

Chap. 14

Chap. 14

Seth POV

Jasper stood behind Alice and lightly touched her shoulder. “When will the Volturi arrive?”

Alice and Clari spoke simultaneously. “Tonight.”

“Wha!?” I half shouted. “When did—what?!”

Carlisle looked strained. “Why so soon, Alice?”

Edward spoke up. “They’re angry. They’d begun searching for Clari days ago. Once they realized she was no longer in Italy, they turned to other countries.”

“And the first place they think to check is here,” Leah ground out sarcastically.

“Maybe it’s time to move,” Emmett helpfully proposed.

“NO!” shouted half the people in the room.

“Emmett, why don’t you keep your stupid to yourself?” Alice said caustically.

“Only trying to help,” he shrugged back, unoffended. “I mean, basic response, right? Fight or flight. If fleeing ain’t an option, how the hell are we gonna fight?”

“We don’t,” Clari’s little voice chirped. Everyone looked at her uncertainly. “If you fight, your entire family will be an-anih-ilaat—“

“Annihilated?” I interjected uncertainly. Clari nodded her sweet little head as she concentrated fiercely on the conversation. Her English was improving every minute. Slightly terrifying.

“Volturi will not hesitate to destroy you a third time. My pre-resence in your company merely gives them excuse to do so.”

“Then how are we supposed to win?” Jasper asked angrily.

“You don’t,” she repeated slowly. “There will be no fight. I will confront him, tell him what he wishes to know, and he will leave.”

“Clarianna, I have doubts that Aro will be so lenient as to allow you to choose sides. The likelihood of him acknowledging your opinion is almost nonexistent. You may have a better chance of the Volturi listening to you if Edward or myself were by your side,” Carlisle softly rationalized.

“Even if he did, he’d probably only let you stay if he and his lackey-slave guards take up residence next door,” Emmett, the only obnoxious one other than Rosalie, said obnoxiously. Alice rolled her eyes.

Leah grinned brutally, wolfishly. “Don’t worry. We’ll convince him otherwise.”

Clari looked at everyone in the room and sighed. I gently squeezed her hand. Suddenly, she sounded ancient—and had a firm grasp on the English language. “You are all under the opinion that I am unaware of my father’s true colors. This is not so. I know my father extraordinarily well—have known his thoughts, opinions, his deceptions, his misdeeds from the womb. He will attempt to take me back to Italy out of pride and greed and the need to strike out at your family, Edward, Carlisle. He has no sense of familiarity towards me or others—not even a droplet for his kin.”