(Thomas POV)
Gathering together in the front room on a Christmas evening wouldn't normally be considered an unusual thing for most families. However, this was not a normal family.
Alice sat next to Esme, who had apparently decided that would be mandatory by simply not letting her go after the brief hug shared by the tree line. Jasper was also locked down by his adopted mother's other hand, so naturally he sat on her left side. He wore a smile that had more tenderness in it than usual. Having not separated from the Cullens since the moment he and Alice moved them into Edward's room fifty years ago, he apparently didn't realize that he would be missed in his absence.
Esme's emotions, which he could read, told him he had been very wrong in his assumption. The overwhelming hug and then the punch he received from Emmett was another clue that he had truly found a place that accepted him.
Off to the side of the room sat Zafrina, Senna, and Kachiri. Upon meeting after their separation, they simply placed their heads together for a moment in silence.
Watching that moment seemed almost like watching something private, so no one focused on it beyond the first glance. Later, you could see them randomly touching each other as if verifying that the three were indeed together again.
Alice was finishing up her story of looking for something she couldn't see in the lower Amazon and how she then ran into the four figures that remained unnamed so far. I tuned in just as Alice started her introductions.
"This is who my visions led me to. His name is Joham, and these are his daughters, Serena, Maysun, and Jennifer."
Joham appeared to be around 5 ft 10 in with a slim, bordering on skinny frame. He looked at everything like it was to be categorized and dismissed unless he found it interesting. He was definitely the type who thought himself superior to everything.
Joham looked around with a mix of contempt and curiosity. "Young Alice has managed to catch my interest with her description of the, if you will forgive my bluntness, self-imposed foolishness of feeding on animals. Humans are barely more tolerable, of course, but they are at least our natural prey. Still, this arrangement is unusual enough to merit my observation."
His eyes landed on Jacob and Leah with a somewhat questioning look in his gaze.
The one Alice had identified as Jennifer stepped forward before anyone could answer him.
"Please don't take offense," she said, then winced a little. "Or… take less offense than that probably deserves. My father rarely leaves his lab, and sometimes he forgets people are not research notes."
Joham's eyes shifted to her.
Jennifer smiled at him. "I'm translating you into something people can stand."
Well, I thought to myself, Jennifer seems nice, but her dad is a dick.
Before I could make my words more polite than my thoughts, Bella interrupted.
"I am sorry. But are you a hybrid…like my daughter?"
All three sisters focused intently on Bella as her question registered.
Serena spoke first, her tone carried a faint Scandinavian accent. "Your daughter? But you are a vampire. Do you mean your adopted daughter?"
Bella looked at the woman who seemed only a few years older than her, but there was no telling for sure. She had the pale complexion of a vampire and stood 5ft6in, with deep raven-black hair.
"No, I carried my daughter while human and became a vampire after she was delivered."
I noticed Bella decided to go with the sanitized description of what she went through, typical Bella.
The look of shock on the faces of the three girls, and even on Joham's, was nearly comical.
Joham was the first to recover. "Did the child save you by turning you during her birth? Is she venomous?"
I could see Edward wanting to take offence at the tone Joham used, but Bella had a place she wanted to go with her questions, and she wasn't going to let a little rudeness sidetrack her.
"My daughter is not venomous. But she is aging very quickly." She then turned to Jennifer, who seemed the most sociable so far, "Can I ask how old you are? Or more specifically, how old you were when fully matured? Will Renesmee stop ageing?"
She spoke so quickly and with such force that she had expended all the breath in her lungs just as she finished. She then waited so intently for the answer she forgot to take another breath.
Jennifer opened her mouth ready to answer, but Joham spoke first.
"It appears you have several questions for us," he said. "As it happens, I have several of my own."
Jennifer's mouth closed, and the faint tightening around her eyes made it clear that the interruption was nothing new.
Joham's attention moved past Bella and settled on Jacob, Leah, and me.
"Perhaps we could arrange an equitable exchange of information."
Yep. Definitely a dick.
Judging by Leah's expression, she agreed with me.
I wondered how pleased Joham would be if he knew Edward could already hear every question forming in his mind. Edythe could do the same once she chose to focus on him.
Then I remembered the lesson I had learned the hard way about thinking too clearly around mind readers.
I looked toward Edward and tried to think of every question he would want answered. All I had to do was ask the question, and if Joham thought the answer, Edward would hear it.
Edward's expression barely changed, but his eyes shifted toward Joham before returning to me.
That was enough.
"I'm sure you have many questions for us," I said. "But before we begin trading information, perhaps you should explain exactly what you are offering."
Joham studied me.
"Besides the maturation of your daughters," I continued, "what information are you prepared to share?"
His eyes narrowed slightly.
I smiled.
"You want to know how Bella survived, what Jacob and Leah are, and what makes me different. That seems like a great deal of information in exchange for Renesmee's life expectancy. She is precious to us, but your daughters standing here already prove that she will be fine. The exact numbers would be useful, but we will learn them in time whether you tell us or not."
A frown creased Joham's face as the information he had expected to bargain with became less valuable than he had first assumed.
Before he could say anything, Carlisle stepped forward.
"Thomas is correct," he said calmly. "There is no reason to treat every answer as a separate transaction."
Joham's attention shifted toward him.
Carlisle continued before he could object. "You and I share an interest in the scientific questions involved. I have extensive records concerning Bella's pregnancy, transformation, and Renesmee's development. I would be willing to discuss those findings with you, provided the exchange remains mutual."
That caught Joham's attention far more effectively than anything else had.
"You kept records?"
"Detailed ones."
Joham's gaze sharpened. "Including the mother's condition during gestation?"
"Yes."
"The changes to the fetus?"
"Yes."
"The delivery?"
Carlisle's expression tightened by the smallest amount. "Everything."
Bella looked less than thrilled at the idea of Joham reading the details, but Carlisle glanced toward her before continuing.
"Only with Bella's permission."
Joham looked at her as if the concept had not occurred to him.
Bella noticed.
So did Edward.
"I'll allow Carlisle to discuss the medical information," she said. "But nothing personal that isn't relevant."
Joham inclined his head. "Acceptable."
Apparently, he could manage manners when sufficiently motivated.
Carlisle gestured toward the hallway leading to his office. "Then perhaps we should continue there."
Before Joham could follow him, Jennifer spoke.
"I stopped visibly aging around seven years after I was born."
Everyone turned toward her.
She looked at Bella rather than her father.
"Serena and Maysun were much the same. There were slight differences between us, but nothing drastic."
Bella finally remembered to breathe.
"And after that?" she asked.
Jennifer shrugged lightly. "Nothing. We haven't changed since."
Renesmee stood close beside Bella, watching Jennifer with wide eyes.
"So she'll stop aging?" Bella asked.
"Physically, yes," Jennifer said. "Once she reaches maturity. It is the same even for my brother."
The relief that moved through Bella's face was impossible to miss.
Edward's shoulders lowered slightly beside her.
Joham looked displeased that Jennifer had given the information away without demanding anything in return, but Carlisle had already offered him something far more interesting.
He followed Carlisle toward the office.
Serena and Maysun went with them.
Jennifer remained where she was.
Joham stopped when he noticed.
"Jennifer."
She looked toward him. "You don't need all three of us to confirm we grew up."
His eyes narrowed.
Jennifer smiled pleasantly. "Besides, someone should make sure you remain welcome."
Joham stared at her for another second before continuing after Carlisle.
Jennifer watched him disappear down the hallway, then released a quiet breath.
Leah leaned closer to me.
"I like her."
"She's making a strong impression."
Jennifer looked toward us.
"I can hear you."
Leah did not look embarrassed. "Good."
That earned the first full smile I had seen from Jennifer.
The front door opened before anyone could say more.
Peter and Charlotte stepped inside, carrying the clean scent of the forest with them. They had gone hunting before we returned from Charlie's and had apparently missed Alice and Jasper's arrival.
Peter stopped when he saw Jasper sitting beside Esme.
"Well," he said. "Look who finally decided to come back."
Jasper's mouth twitched. "Good to see you too."
"You call us all the way up here, tell us the Volturi are coming, and then disappear before we arrive."
"Alice needed me."
Peter glanced toward Alice, still firmly held against Esme's side. "Of course she did."
Alice smiled sweetly. "You make that sound like a complaint."
"It is an observation made after several decades of experience."
Charlotte crossed the room and briefly clasped Jasper's arm.
"You could have left a message," she said.
"I didn't have time."
"You never do."
There was no anger behind it. Just the familiar annoyance of old friends who had been inconvenienced often enough to expect it.
Jasper looked between them. "You came anyway."
Peter struck him once on the shoulder.
"You asked."
That seemed to settle the matter.
Charlotte moved on to greet Esme and Alice, while Peter exchanged a few insults with Emmett before taking his usual place near the Cullens as though he had never been absent.
They had known this family far too long to require formal welcomes.
Jasper watched them settle into the room, the faint smile remaining on his face.
For a few minutes, the house felt almost complete.
Alice and Jasper were back with their family.
Kachiri sat between Zafrina and Senna, the three still touching occasionally as if confirming their reunion.
Peter and Charlotte had returned from the hunt and resumed their familiar places among the Cullens.
Even Jennifer had found a position near Leah and me, safely away from whatever scientific discussion her father had begun in Carlisle's office.
Upstairs, I could hear the quieter heartbeats of the children. Renesmee, Harry, and Nancy had been taken up earlier, with Siobhan, Liam, and Maggie keeping them occupied and away from the increasingly complicated conversation below.
Then Alice's head turned toward the windows.
Her expression went distant.
The room quieted.
"What is it?" Jasper asked.
Alice blinked and returned to the present.
"More guests."
A moment later, two figures emerged from the trees.
They did not hurry.
They did not need to.
Both men were ancient enough that their skin looked thin and brittle, stretched tightly across sharp features. Their eyes were vivid red, and their dark clothing appeared to belong more naturally to another century.
Carlisle returned from his office before they reached the porch, Joham following close behind him.
Recognition crossed Carlisle's face.
"Vladimir. Stefan."
The two Romanian vampires entered without waiting for an invitation.
Vladimir looked around the crowded room, taking in every coven, every shapeshifter, and every unfamiliar face. His gaze briefly moved toward the ceiling when the children's heartbeats reached him, but there was no interest in his expression.
He had not come for them.
Then he smiled.
There was nothing friendly in it.
"So," he said, "the Cullens have finally gathered enough strength to draw the Volturi from their fortress."
Carlisle stepped forward. "Our intention is to prevent a confrontation."
Stefan dismissed that with a slight movement of his hand.
"Your intentions are of little concern to us."
Vladimir's eyes moved across the gathered witnesses.
"You misunderstand our presence. We have not come to determine whether your family has broken one of their laws."
"Nor do we care whether you have," Stefan added.
The room grew colder.
Carlisle studied them carefully. "Then why have you come?"
Vladimir's smile widened.
"Because the Volturi are coming."
Stefan moved to stand beside him.
"And after fifteen centuries," he said, "someone may finally give us the opportunity to strike them."
They had not come as witnesses.
They had come for war.