Goddess of the Hunt

Part I: Execution Denied

"Attacking young girls now, are you?" I asked as I came from behind the Vulturi in cloaks red and black. The big one, Felix, froze in his movement toward the teenage girl. Dimitri, the skinny one, turned and instantly bent the knee. His eyes were averted. Smart boy. But also, weak.

Alec's left hand grasped his twin sister Jane's elbow, turning to face me. While Alec didn't kneel like his Russian comrade, he did avert his eyes. To her credit, Jane didn't even blink. She was scared, but her anger won out over her fear. "You," she spoke in a harsh whisper.

My lips twitched into something beginning to resemble a Cheshire cat grin. I couldn't help myself. "So, are you attacking innocent teenage girls now?"

Jane took a step towards me, Alec's restraining hand was thrown off. Demitri was still intently staring into the ground on his knees, and Felix couldn't move even if he wanted to.

The teenage girl and the Olympic Coven were standing still, in shock and confusion. I suppose I had that effect on people. Or rather, judging by the look in their blonde leader's eyes, the reaction of the Vulturi was what startled the maverick coven so.

Jane stepped forward, enough so that she had to tilt her head up to look at me, and I had to tilt mine down to look at her. "She's not innocent. She's a newborn who drew unwanted attention to our kind in Seattle. She was part of a force that attacked a coven who for better or worse is on good terms with Aro. She is not an innocent little girl." Jane's temper was suppressed, a fact which I confess myself quite proud of. I know she was suppressing her temper because she hadn't taken a swing at me yet. Though in fairness, she'd been using her power on me since I announced my presence. But she knew by now how fruitless her efforts were to set my nervous system ablaze.

I looked at the young girl. "Your maker, did he explain to you the rules the Vulturi enforce?" The terrified young girl shook her head. "Did you reveal to a human the truth of your newfound condition?" She shook her head again. "Did you kill or seriously injure any of this coven?"

"No, I just hid and surrendered. I don't want to hurt them. I'm…I'm so sorry." The girl's breaths were coming in heaves as she sobbed.

I turned my head to look back down at Jane. "Jane, she speaks the truth."

Jane glared up at me, then back at the girl, who dropped to the ground, keening in agony.

I rolled my eyes. And then I moved. Before any of the vampires could make a counter move, I had stepped up to Felix, and deftly plucked out his eyes. While he was on his knees screaming, I couldn't help but appreciate that he and I were nearly the same height. It was a rare occurrence for me. Unfortunately, this other giant chose to be an equally giant asshole, so I had to teach him, and his superiors a lesson.

There were a couple gasps from the Olympic Coven, but I ignored them for now.

"Your eyes will regenerate by the time you reach Vulterra, maybe," I said calmly. Jane had relinquished the young girl from her torturous gaze. "Jane, I won't discipline the rest of you, but inform Marcus and Aro they will Skype chat with me before sending over any of the Guard to this continent again. Or at the very least, a phone call. They have my number. Do you understand?"

"Yes, you've made your point." Alec spoke up quickly.

"It will be done." Demitri echoed.

Jane however, was a little more hesitant. Felix was whimpering now, Alec helping him to his feet. "And what of Caius?" Jane asked.

"Caius is too busy sucking his own cock to be somebody I concern myself with." I replied with not a little malice. "Tell Caius that if the other two fail to notify me of any future incursions, he will be the one who suffers my consequences." I wasn't playing anymore. I wouldn't court open war with the Vulturi by killing the man, but that genocidal fop got on my nerves.

Jane looked back at the Olympic Coven and her own people. She wasn't pleased at all with how things had gone. I gently laid a hand on her shoulder. "You needn't carry such a tainted heart. Jane, you're so much more than this shell you've become," I murmured.

She didn't flinch away from me, but she rebuffed me all the same. Without a further word, she and the others, Dimitri and Alec both helping Felix, fled back across the field into the woods from which they came.

I turned to the remaining vampires and sole human. I considered them for a long moment in which nobody dared speak. That is, until the teenage newborn piped up, "Thank your for saving me."

I slowly walked up to her. She was even shorter than Jane. But she had a kindness to her eyes that Jane had since lost. Perhaps I could do better this time around.

"What is your name, newborn?" I asked.

"Bree Tanner," she replied hesitantly. I looked over the Olympic Coven. I'd never really met any of them except for…

"Major Whitlock, do you really think your family can handle Miss Bree in addition to all the drama going on with the human in your midst?" I ask kindly.

Jasper stiffened at being addressed as such. His waifish mate clung to his elbow in a similar way to Alec and Jane.

Jasper looked around at his family and at last replied, "I don't know."

The leader of their coven spoke up, "We weren't lying to them, we would be willing to take care of young Bree."

"Even if she is no longer under threat of death?" I ask casually as I come to stand in front of them all from my former position off to the side.

The coven leader didn't respond. I looked at Bree, then at the only one of the coven who seemed to have aged into their mid-twenties. "What do you think?"

The vampire who was giving off something of a maternal aura, even from here, looked at Bree, then at her mate, then back at me. "It won't be easy, that's for sure, but we can do it. I think we owe it to her." None of the others seemed to outwardly disagree.

In a moment of inspiration, I crouched down to Bree's eye level. "You don't have to decide now. It would be cruel to ask such a thing of you. But I have a proposition for you: I could raise you in this new and very extraordinary world you've been thrust into. I want you to think about it." I looked at the human.

"She's about to fall over from I don't know what. I think it would be best to continue this discussion at your headquarters," I say with a cocked eyebrow. The human had been resistant to Jane's powers. Perhaps she wasn't just another boring girl after all.

"I can't read your thoughts," the tall brown-haired boy said. I looked at him with amusement.

"After that display I put on for you all with Jane, this surprises you? She may be an emotionally compromised punisher for the Vulturi, but the mastery of her gift is indisputable. And she's worked on controlling it far more than you have yours. When she was a newborn, everybody in her vicinity felt like they were on fire, but now she can do precision strikes. Maybe if you practice for a few centuries you'll have more success; gifts evolve after all, as we do as people."

Okay, enough of this preachy-ness. "Where do you people live? We'll retire there for the moment." The Olympic Coven's leader, some friend of Aro's apparently, nodded. And without a word, we sped off into the forest opposite from where the Vulturi fled.

We arrived at their household in minutes. The human girl looked a little dazed as her mate(?) let her down. I had run alongside Bree, and now I put a gentle hand on her shoulder. "No matter what you do going forward, so long as you harm no innocents from now on, you will not come to harm."

Bree only nodded. She was clearly still an emotional shambles, but that was alright. If she lost control around the human, I'd restrain her without any real difficulty.

A new scent hit me like a wave. it was coming from inside the house. It was new. I don't remember the last time a scent caught my attention like that, I've been around for so long, there's very little to discover anymore. But this was surprising. "Werewolves." the tall blonde girl muttered with annoyance.

"Friends of yours?" I ask, for the first time hesitant.

"It's Jacob and one of the others," the mind-reader said. "Jacob is hurt, and she was relegated to guard duty apparently.

"Don't they have their own doctor on the reservation?" the gaunt-looking veteran asked with no emotion.

"Apparently not," the maternal one whispered with genuine worry in her voice.

"You have werewolves as friends? They don't smell like werewolves." I say with curiosity.

The human chose this moment to speak up, "They're technically wolf-shifters. They don't have the 'curse of the moon'." I looked at her with a slightly tilted head. Well, this was certainly interesting.

I could smell blood, not much, and definitely non-human. And I could hear muffled cursing as well. It was only as I grew closer that I realised the original scent that piqued my curiosity was in fact two distinct scents, one of them far better than the other. The lesser of the scents was actually quite bad.

The coven leader sprinted into the house after signalling his coven to remain calm. He didn't have the authority to signal me to do anything, but I didn't mind waiting for whatever was going on inside to be resolved. We walked in after him. There was a First Nations boy on the dining room table. His arm was bent out of place, and significant bruising to his entire left side. His ribs were destroyed. I'm assuming this is the 'Jacob' the human referred to. There was a tall woman facing away from me, also First Nations I'm assuming. She was a little over six feet, so a couple inches below me. I like other tall women, we're a rarity that I really do appreciate.

The coven leader was at the boy's side instantly, working medical magic, I'm assuming, since I didn't really care about the injured boy. I walked by them, Bree practically clinging at my side. I normally didn't care for teenage anxiousness like this, but for some reason, this young girl interested me.

"I think it's past time for introductions, don't you?" the small brunette chirped. She was practically hopping with excitement. Extroverts I rolled my eyes in my mind.

"Your coven leader is busy, do you not want to wait for him?" I asked.

"It's fine," the coven leader said from the other room. "I can multitask."

I shrugged. Very well, let's get to it. "You go first, you're hosting me after all."

The extrovert piped up, "I' Alice, and this is my husband Jasper," she said indicating the veteran.

The mind-reader indicated the human, "This is my girlfriend Bella Swan, and I am Edward Cullen." I nodded, looking at the maternal one.

"I'm Esme Cullen, and Carlisle is in the other room treating our friend Jacob." Edward gave an involuntary twitch at the word friend. Bella however, beamed at Esme.

"I'm Rosalie Hale and this is Emmett, my husband," the blonde, Rosalie, said curtly. Emmett was taller than me, not my much, but he was at least two meters tall. He may be the biggest of the Olympic Coven, but I could tell that Jasper was the far better fighter. Some people just radiated murderous intent, and this giant held all the aggression of a teddy bear in most circumstances. I could just feel stuff like that.

"I confess myself, confused. Why are you still human?" I asked, levelling Bella with a look.

"Because she–,"

I cut across Edward, "Did I ask you, mind-reader? The lady can speak for herself can you not? Let's hear it."

Bella looked scared. Good. She should be. But she also had a glint of sterner stuff in her eyes. "Because Alice made a deal with Aro. When Edward marries me."

"When Edward marries me," I repeated in an unsettling imitation of her voice that gave more than one person in the room chills. "Don't you mean, when you marry him? Pull yourself together woman." I rolled my eyes so they could all see it this time.

"So Aro allowed you to live as a human for how long, while knowing the supernatural world exists?" I ask with a barbed tone. I'm not totally upset, but it's an important question all the same.

"Yes. Like Alice told Jane, the date is already set, just after graduation."

"You're a high schooler?" Bree asked, for some reason astonished. I gave her an odd look, but her typically teenage question diffused some of the tension I cause. Oh well.

Bella looked at Bree with a foreign expression to her, bemusement. She actually blushed a little. The littlest vampire felt she had to follow up on that question 'cause of the strange expressions, "I mean, you look, you look older, that's all." If Bree Tanner could blush, she'd be a tomato right now. As it was, she retreated to the position she had taken up at my side. It seemed like my little ward had a tiny crush.

I laughed out loud at this, which was compounded by the grimace that Edward gave as he invaded Bree's thoughts. Actually, I'd have to see to that invasion, but not just yet.

"So, who are you?" Rosalie asked from her perch on the stairs with her teddy bear husband.

I opened my mouth to answer when the First Nations girl walked into the room. She looked sceptical as she entered the room. She was wearing a form-fitting eather jacket over a Buffy: The Vampire Slayer t-shirt. I had to respect that. I really do. Her jeans were impeccable, and her belt buckle had fangs on it. I'd underestimated her before. Perhaps I shouldn't have dismissed her as 'just another wolf' when I walked into the house. What was her name again?

I turned fully towards her for the first time and our eyes met. I'd be told about the reactions of everybody else in the room decades later when Bree recounted it to me. But in the moment, I missed both Edward and Jasper clutching their heads and falling to their knees. I missed Bella and Alice's respective shrieks of surprise.

The only thing I remember about that moment was her eyes. As if we possessed one mind in that moment, we walked towards each other. Bree would also describe this moment as "the most epic thing I've ever seen. It's like you were both Moses and the Cullens were the sea."

She said, "It's you?"

I could only do what came naturally, I took her right hand in mine, bent down and kissed it. "I have waited an eternity for you, and yet I know not your name." I murmured to her once I stood at full height again.

"I'm Leah Clearwater. You're my imprint…who are you?"

Imprint? I think she meant soul mate. I thought for a moment before responding to the woman I knew would be at my side "I have carried many names. Some with honour, and some out of necessity But when I was human, I was one of the most feared naval commanders in the Empire. I am Artemisia."