Edward

All I could think about last night was Bella and the newborns and Victoria. I couldn't let them get to her. Carlisle had been the one to insist that I let Bella be alone last night, so that she had time to absorb the information and news on her own. I wanted with all my unbeating heart to be right there with her, keeping her safe, but he had insisted upon it.

As soon as the sunlight had shown through my windows, I tore up off of the couch that I had been sitting on in the same position all night and ran out the doors before anyone could stop me. It was no longer night, and I needed more than anything to be with Bella to know that she was alright.

And then I found it—police cars outside of the Swan house, and police officers standing on the green lawn.

My stomach twisted into knots. What was this?

I searched the crowd for Charlie, searching for his thoughts, but the worried and frantic thoughts of all the officers and of the near-by neighbors, who were watching from their porches and lawns, made it too difficult to search his mind out.

I saw him sitting in his police uniform on the bench on the porch. A few of the older police officers were surrounding him, consolidating him, I assumed. But what for?

Dread filled me as I instantly thought of the worst.

I walked as fast as I could at human speed over to Charlie. "What happened?" I asked him, trying to keep the worry out of my voice. But I know I failed.

Charlie didn't even look at me. "Bella…" he murmured, "she's…gone."

Panic built up inside of me. "What do you mean she's gone? Where did she go? Why did she leave? How long has she been gone? What are you doing to find her? Who—"

"Son," one of the police officers said, holding up a hand to silence me. I turned to look at him. "I think it's best if you leave this to us and leave Officer Swan alone. You'll find out along with all the other citizens."

I left reluctantly, trudging back down the porch steps and on the sidewalk, thinking.

Was she with Jacob? No, if she was, then Charlie would have been told. He liked Jacob, and he would never react this way if she was merely with Jacob.

I stopped by one of the younger officers. "Excuse me," I said, to get his attention. "Do you know what happened by any chance?"

"The young Miss Swan," the officer said. "Officer Swan found a note earlier this morning, around five or so. A suicide note." Horror pierced through me, and it took all that I had to stay standing right then and there, and not rip the throats out of every single human there. "We're checking to see if maybe it was forged, and she's been kidnapped. It wouldn't be unheard of to kidnap the only child of a police chief, to hold her for ransom or to get his or her record cleaned."

Someone else said something to the man, and he turned away from me.

She wouldn't have committed suicide. I had thought once, back when I had left her and Alice had had a vision of her jumping off of a cliff. But I had reacted too irrationally, and it had turned out to be a simple misunderstanding. She had been cliff-diving, and had been with Jacob, which was why Alice had not seen the part where he pulled her to safety on the shore. As much as I hated to admit it, she was as safe with Jacob as one could be with a shape-shifter.

But, if she didn't commit suicide, then who could have kidnapped her? It couldn't have been Victoria, we would have seen them coming. Besides, they still hadn't gotten here yet, not even having left Seattle.

I hadn't realized that I was already back at the house until I saw Esme come toward me with a concerned expression.

I sunk down on the couch in the living room. She said something to me, but I didn't register it.

Who would have taken Bella?

"Edward."

I looked up at Carlisle. "What happened, Edward?"

"Someone took Bella." I said. And then I couldn't stop. "Someone kidnapped Bella. Why would anyone take Bella and make a fake suicide note? What would be the point? Why not just steal her away and leave it at that? She's never done anything to anybody. Who would do this? It wasn't the newborns because they're still in Seattle. But I can't think of anyone else who would—"

And I didn't need to think of anyone else because, right at that second, Alice entered the room.

"It was Caius."

All heads and eyes turned to her, and I briefly noticed that everyone else was in the living room as well. When had they all entered?

"What do you mean, Alice?" Esme asked.

Alice looked over at Esme. "I had a vision a while ago, before all of this newborn trouble. I didn't think it was that important, so I didn't share it. I thought it was rather useless, actually."

"What was it?" I shouted.

Alice turned to look at me, straight in the eyes. "It was of Caius pacing back and forth in his study. He was deep in thought, but I didn't know what of. And then Jane entered his study. He told her that she knew what must be done. She nodded and left, and he went back to pacing." Her voice took on a panicked tone as she spoke next, "I didn't think anything would come of it. I was going to share it, but then all this newborn mess started and it just seemed so insignificant in comparison, because we wouldn't have been able to know what Caius had been talking about anyways, and I—"

She started to shake, and if she were human, she would have been sobbing. She curled up into herself in guilt and Jasper was at her side in less than an instant, turning her toward him and hugging her, stroking her hair and whispering words that we all heard but chose to ignore.

I turned to look at Carlisle to see him already looking at me. "From what you and Alice told me of your little visit to the Volturi," he said gravely, "they were deeply upset that Bella was a human who knew about us and was still alive. I know Aro, and he doesn't do favors very often. He let you all leave alive, but Caius would have wanted to abide by the rules. He sticks to the rules and laws that they have made so closely that he kills those who break it. And letting Bella stay human and know of our existence is breaking one of the most important rules, if not the most important. Most likely, he's had her changed."

Anger surged throughout me. I would kill Caius, and all the other Volturi.

"But how do you know that she is not simply dead?" I heard Jasper ask, and I wanted to kill him as well, for speaking so casually of Bella being dead.

I growled at him, but he ignored me and instead stared at Carlisle.

"If they had merely wanted to kill her, they wouldn't have gone through all the trouble to make a fake suicide note, they would simply have killed her and left her there for someone to find. No, they wanted to make sure that no one would go looking for her once she was gone. Besides, Aro doesn't let people with abilities just walk away from him, and Bella will have an ability as a vampire that intrigues him. And so, both him and Caius would want her changed as soon as possible—albeit for different reasons." Carlisle said, looking at me the entire time.

Despair started to fill me as I thought of what they would do to her there. She wasn't safe with them. They wouldn't treat her right. It nearly killed me to think of what she was going through right now, with those scum bags. And my heart very nearly broke at the thought of her experiencing the agonizing torture of the change. And I wasn't with her to help her through it.

I stood up. "We have to go there. We have to stop them and save Bella."

Carlisle looked at me with sad eyes, and I didn't want to hear what he'd have to say. But I found that my feet wouldn't work.

"It's not as easy as that, Edward. We'd have to fight them for her, and we would lose, and then no good would come of that. We wouldn't be helping her any. We'd be hurting her, because once she wakes up from the change, to then learn that she'll be kept prisoner in Volterra and, on top of that, that the entire Cullen family is dead. It would break her."

If I had been human, I would have cried alongside Alice, who had now calmed down a bit. But her face was still buried in Jasper's shirt, and she was still motionless.

"This is the time where you have to decide if she's really worth it." My head snapped over in Rosalie's direction, and I lunged.

Emmett slammed in to me and knocked me to the floor, where he restrained me. He growled at me, and I nearly bit him.

"So, what? You all get someone to spend eternity with, and I get to be all by myself for eternity, soaking in the despair of a lost loved one who I could have saved?" I snarled at no one in particular.

"I want to save Bella too," Emmett said. "But we have to wait until the right time. And even I know that during her change is not the right time, Edward. You can't just rush in there and pick a fight. During any battle, you need to have a well thought-out plan."

"Emmett's right," I heard Jasper say. "We must deal with the newborns before negotiating for Bella's release. The newborns would run rampant here, destroying the entire town and all of it's people if we don't stop them. And a fight with the Volturi is one that we would easily lose, so we must settle for negotiating for her. Diplomacy will be a much better choice than violence in the long run."

I knew that what they were all saying made sense, even what Rosalie said, but I didn't want to act rationally or to wait and plan and deal with Victoria first. Victoria could wait for all I cared. I just wanted my Bella to be safe and by my side once more. I didn't want her to be a vampire and damned for all eternity like I was.

There had to be a way to stop the change before it had finished and had stopped her beautiful beating heart.

But, even as I thought that, I knew that there was no way. Bella was now forever a vampire, whether I liked it or not.

I could only pray that she was okay all the way over in Volterra, that they were treating her well.

A little part of me said that they were, but a larger part of me said, "Dream on."

Sometimes the point-of-view will stray away from Bella, but it will be hers mainly for this story. Chapter three will be along quickly, and it will not be Bella's point of view. Nor will the next couple chapters after that. I'm doing it this way so that she doesn't magically awaken after her change to find that nothing at all happened while she was changing, and that time literally froze. So, time does go on, and you will read about it with other characters, even within the heads of some of the Volturi. And keep in mind that I will do the very best I can to keep the characters in-character.