Chapter Forty Three

Carlisle

I hated doing it and it went against my oath as a doctor but the specially treated rats had to be set free in a small community to do their worst. Rosalie offered to do the release but I went with her, being responsible for the deaths of even a few humans was a terrible guilt to carry with you. I wanted to spare her that but she had grown since the Volturi were ousted by the Romanians, especially since she found herself involved in a fight for her very life and I was proud of the confident woman she had become.

Once freed we waited for the rats to do their worst and it didn't take long. Soon the humans began to act violently and the authorities moved in quickly to quarantine the area. It took a little longer for them to discover what had happened but once they discovered the dead rats and dissected them they found what they were looking for, the reason for the terrible slaughter in different countries.

The papers and the internet were full of it, the mutated strain of the disease that had caused headlines some years before in cattle, spongiform encephalopathy. Of course, there were many scientists with differing theories of why rats had suddenly developed the disease but the only thing we were interested in was that the humans accepted it as the reason for all the deaths. As long as there were no more folk tales of blood-drinking monsters running around killing. Although, in a small number of fringe groups there was still a theory that the Chupacabra had extended its diet to include humans. Luckily the mainstream humans merely laughed at the "crazies" which was just what we wanted. Our world was safe once more.

I suppose I should have expected some kind of backlash from Aro in respect of those who had stood with the Romanians. He and his two "Brothers" Marcus and Felix arranged for small death squads of their own to go out and hunt down anyone who had fought with Stefan and Vladimir.

The rest, those who had remained neutral or merely spoken out against the Volturi were spared which relieved me. There had been too much death, it was time to heal now, to pull together as a species.

Aro did ask if Esme and I would join them in Greece,

"You fought for us, you believe in what we stand for, why not join us Carlisle, bring your family with you. We need you more than ever now."

"We are already committed, Carmen believes Eleazar is still alive and we have promised to help her find him. Besides I don't believe in everything you stand for Aro, you know that."

"Perhaps I will change with your help, Carlisle. Besides I have Felix to contend with now too and poor Sulpicia is all alone since Athenadora and Chelsea have both died."

He had to make do with a tenuous perhaps although I was sure Esme would have no wish to join the Volturi. She had her hands full with poor Carmen who flatly refused to accept her mate was dead. The girls insisted on taking her back to Denali and Esme accompanied them while the guys and I undertook to search for him although we had little hope of finding anything, especially Eleazar alive and well.

We split up to extend the search as widely as possible. Emmett, Rosalie and I went back to Romania, to the Romanian castle while Peter, Charlotte, Jasper, and Bella, would hunt around the headquarters of the Romanians in the USA Darius, and Charlie, who had shown an aptitude with computers would comb the dark net looking for any sign that he might be alive but unable to find us. Personally, I never expected to see my old friend again which saddened me greatly.

Jasper

I thought looking for Eleazar was a waste of time, there was no reason for Caspar and Soul to keep him alive, in fact if they had any sense they would have killed him as soon as they heard Stefan and Vladimir were dead. Carlisle was upset we hadn't taken any prisoners but he had no understanding of a vampire warrior's attitude to enemies. None of us wanted to spend time watching our backs for revenge attacks and neither Soul nor Caspar would have told us anything anyway. Personally, I'd had it with fighting, I was worn out from the tension and the memories fighting always brought back to the surface. All I wanted was to go away, disappear with Bella and forget everything but my beautiful mate.

However, as the question of Eleazar's fate was still very much open according to Carmen, Bella and I agreed to go back to the last place we knew the mercenaries had been and Peter insisted on joining us. Charlotte was coming too but then there was some crisis back home with the horses and she went back to deal with that leaving Peter to go with us and Charlie decided to string along too.

"Darius doesn't need me and I'd rather be on the move than sitting in front of a computer for hours at a time."

I thought he just enjoyed Peter's company and preferred to be close to Bella for now too.

It didn't take us long to get back to their old headquarters which was still deserted. I guess none of the surviving stragglers would risk coming back and being discovered here. We split up to comb the surrounding area, if Stefan and Vladimir had Eleazar close by then Caspar and Soul would have been here at the same time but they wouldn't have been wandering around which meant there had to be another camp close by.

Eventually, Charlie found it, a depression in the grounds leading into a small cave system. I could smell our adversaries if only weakly so this was the place. All we had to do now was to make sure Eleazar's scent was not here.

If they had kept him alive as a witness he would have been with them here, if not then hopefully Carmen would accept that they had killed him as soon as they heard their paymasters were dead. Of course, there was no sign Eleazar had ever been here, no scent, no sign of somewhere a prisoner might be held and we went back to Greece with the news to tell Esme deciding it would be better if she broke it to Carmen and the girls.

The new headquarters was almost finished, nothing as big and grand as Volterra but then the Volturi were no longer as grand either. Aro had learned a hard lesson and I thought he would probably be a better man for the lesson. They were recruiting hard to fill the gaps in the Volturi guard which was still overlooked by Felix even though he was now one of the leaders.

He tried again to persuade me to join him but Bella and I wanted no more than to leave all this behind us and once Carlisle and the others returned from Romania we would be homeward bound wherever that might turn out to be.

When news came in from Rosalie we were all astonished, they had found Eleazar alive and well, in hiding. One of Caspar's men had seen the writing on the wall and changed sides, saving Eleazar by offering to "execute" him and leave proof of his death for us to find if we came looking.

He and Eleazar had then gone into hiding up in the mountains waiting for news of what had happened. They had not heard the latest, that the Volturi were back in power and all five were on their way back, flying straight to Alaska so Carmen could be reunited with her mate.

"Does this mean it's finally over?"

"Yes Bella, that's it. Are you ready to go home too?"

She threw herself into my arms and I understood just how desperate she was to be away from all this. I wasn't sure what Charlie would decide to do but I guessed he might want to come back with us. I understood but it meant more time before the two of us could be truly alone. When he asked if he could speak to us alone I braced myself,

"Look, Bella, I know you worry about me and what I'm going to do if I don't go home with you and Jasper but I think I'll give it a miss. I've got the whole world and eternity stretching out in front of me and there's plenty I want to see and do."

"But you have no idea how to behave around humans dad."

"Hey, I'm not a complete idiot Bella. I watched you and the others besides it's not like I'm going to be on my own. Peter and Charlotte have invited me to stay for a while and Darius wants me to spend some time with him. I even got an open invitation to join the Volturi, who knows?"

Bella was horrified by the last but I was more concerned by the invitation from Peter.

"Charlie, just promise me one thing."

He smiled,

"If I can Jasper, what?"

"Don't get roped into anything by Peter."

"Like what? He's your friend isn't he? He wouldn't get me into anything dangerous."

"Oh yes he would because that's Peter. If he gets you involved in one of his schemes, a fight club maybe? Just say no. Otherwise, I'll have to send Bella to haul your ass back."

He rolled his eyes but laughed,

"Don't worry, I can look after myself and who knows, I might get Peter involved in something dangerous myself."

I shook my head, the two of them together was going to be more than even I could cope with! But it meant Bella and I were free to go off on our own and that was fine by both of us. We didn't hang around long, someone was sure to see a need for us to stay if we did. Instead, we arranged a sightseeing trip of the United States to give us time to be alone, after all, if we didn't know where we were going from day to day then neither would Peter, or Charlie or anyone else who might take it into their heads to try and track us down. Darius had been warned by Bella in the nicest possible way that if he was asked to do so he was to decline or she would ensure all his computers were shielded from him indefinitely! Then we left, alone at last and planning to stay that way for as long as possible.

THE END

Jules is in hospital so the next story will be following as soon as she is back on her feet but she wants to thank everyone who is following her. Many thanks John.

Many thanks John.