Joanna looked around the hotel room, dressed in a police officer's uniform, surveying the damage. She could still smell the sharp tang of blood, and if her guess was correct, it was Mary Helena's blood. The front door was broken in off its hinges, and the bathroom door was cracked nearly in half. If Joanna were to guess again, she would say a local vampire would be to blame for this. What Joanna couldn't guess was how much, if any, blood the vampire was able to drink from Mary Helena. Aro and Caius were not going to like this whatsoever, but it was her duty to report in. Her first priority was capturing Mary Helena and bringing her back to the Volturi for impregnation and breeding an army. After taking in as many details as she could, Joanna slipped out unnoticed and walked into an empty stairwell, shucking off her police officer's uniform in favor for street clothes. Joanna walked out of the building a few minutes later, pulling out her cell phone and dialing Aro's number.

……

..

When Helena finally regained consciousness, she opened her eyes slowly and looked around the room. It was a cold kind of white, with faint beeping noises coming from behind her. She surveyed her body, checking for any signs of injury. Her arm felt heavy, and she felt weak. Raising her arm, she saw that it was heavily bandaged, and there were tubes and wires coming from each hand. A sudden wave of nausea overtook her and Helena started dry-heaving. A nurse came rushing in, trying to figure out what could be making Helena so sick.

"Are you allergic to any medicines?" the nurse asked Helena.

Helena had no clue what she was or wasn't allergic to medicine-wise. When Helena shook her head, she saw what was making her so ill. The doctor was giving her a blood transfusion through the vein in the crook of her elbow. Helena managed to get her bandaged arm over and tried ripping the tube from her. The nurse, following protocol, called for a couple of orderlies, and tried to prevent Helena from not only ripping the blood tube out, but also damaging her vein and skin in the process.

"Don't understand…blood…making me ill." Helena said, her accent making her words hard to understand.

"Poor thing is delusional. Let's get her stable." the nurse said, motioning for the orderlies to strap her arms down.

Helena wanted to scream but instead she started convulsing. They wouldn't believe her when she tried to tell them the blood they were giving her was what was making her so ill. If she didn't get the blood tube out of her arm and leave the hospital as soon as possible, Joanna and the Volturi could track her down and bring her back to Italy. That thought made Helena sicker to her stomach, but gave her the energy she needed to do something drastic. In a fit of desperation, Helena craned her neck to try to bite through the tube that was pumping blood into her arm. The nurse screamed and tried quickly to repair the tube, but the damage was done. Helena had bitten through the tubing completely, watching the blood drip onto the clean, white floor. The orderlies forgot about strapping Helena to the bed and started helping the nurse who was frantically trying to clean the mess and summon the doctor. Using the last of her mental strength, Helena convinced a nurse who was running by the room to remove her IV and other tubes, making it look like she was actually helping when she was actually was not. Within one minute, the nurse had freed Helena and started making another mess with the IV to further distract the nurse and orderlies. Helena wondered how she would be able to get out of the room and to some clothes so she could escape without being found out. Helena, clutching her arm, made a mad dash out of the room and through the hallway, looking for a public restroom. When she finally found one, she rushed in and locked herself in a stall. She prayed that someone would come in so she could borrow their clothes and walk out. Minutes passed and no one entered. Helena was starting to get worried that no one would come in and the orderlies or a nurse would find her when the bathroom door opened and a rather large woman walked in. With the thought that beggars couldn't be choosers, she grabbed the top of the tank on the commode and snuck up behind the woman and hit her hard enough on the head to knock her out for a little while, but not to do any serious damage. Helena rushed to lock the door before anyone else came in and saw her. She kept apologizing under her breath as she took the woman's shirt, which was long enough for a short dress, and shoes, figuring that since the pants wouldn't fit, she wouldn't take them. She did her best to disguise the places where she had an IV and the blood tube by draping the woman's coat over her arms and unlocked the door. Helena hurriedly walked to the nearest exit, hoping no one would notice her clothing.

……

..

Alice froze during a presentation about Shakespeare during the middle of English class. Two visions came upon her, one right after the other. Jasper cited some excuse about Alice having a seizure and that she needed to see their father and carried her out of the classroom. He gently put Alice in the backseat of Edward's Volvo and sent a text message to each of the Cullens explaining what was going on. Within seconds, Edward, Emmett, and Rosalie all rushed out to the car. Edward got in and drove quickly to the hospital where Carlisle would be waiting for them.

"Alice? Alice, what do you see?" Jasper asked, stroking Alice's face.

Alice, of course, remained silent and unmoving through her visions. Edward was trying to concentrate on his driving and on what Alice was seeing, but he couldn't make sense of it. He pulled into the hospital parking lot, with Emmett and Rosalie pulling in right beside him. Jasper carried Alice up to Carlisle's office with the rest following him. Within seconds, Carlisle had joined them, waiting on Alice's visions to end.

"She's closer. But they're looking for her. They want to bring her back before she finds what she is looking for." Alice whispered.

"Who? Who?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't know who she is. But the Volturi is after her. She's…different. They had her and they lost her. They're mad." Alice whispered, her visions ending.

"What do you think it means, Alice?" Edward asked, reading Alice's thoughts.

"It has to do with us, why would I be getting visions of her otherwise?" Alice asked.

"Where did you see her?" Jasper asked. "Maybe we have to help her."

"She's close by. But she's injured. I don't know where she is, the landscape could be anywhere." Alice said.

"Should we start a search, Carlisle?" Emmett asked.

"No. Not yet. Not until we know where to look." Carlisle finally replied.

……

..

Aro had just gotten off the phone with Joanna. He stalked down the hallway where he kept humans around for feeding purposes. Grabbing a cocky, arrogant man who was threatening bodily harm and death, Aro ripped into the human's jugular, the man's screams of pain and eventual death doing nothing to calm his anger. Caius watched him from the corner, walking out when Aro dropped the lifeless body to the ground.

"What has happened?" Caius asked, watching his friend.

"Joanna has just reported in. Apparently some local vampire had attacked Mary Helena. She's not sure how much, if any, blood the vampire drank. But the humans rushed Mary Helena off to a hospital. Joanna is going there next to capture Mary Helena and bring her back. Let us hope that she was not compromised." Aro said.

"Should we alert any allies in the area?" Caius asked.

"No! They will try to use her for themselves. Our plan will be no more if that happens." Aro said.

"Should I send out back up to assist Joanna?" Caius asked.

"Not yet. Let us see if she fails us again. If she does, we'll have her…removed. Then we shall replace her." Aro said.

……

..

Author's Note: How badly do you guys hate me? I don't blame you if you do. But I do have a really good reason for the long hiatus on this story. Silly me decided to take three summer classes so I could graduate quicker. Well I didn't count on having a f'n devil for a professor. She's horrible! Two quizzes and an exam PER WEEK. Plus homework twice a week. She's the effin devil! And she's all like "if you need help email me and let me know." Well I emailed her like three times and each time she goes "look over the homework." What the hell. That doesn't help! So yeah, between that and working in the lab and dealing with two other classes, it left no time to write. But classes are over on the 31st so my lovely beautiful sexy intelligent snazzy-dressing super hot readers have a regular updating to look forward to. Please don't hate me. I'm trying! I know this is a short update but its an update. I will try to update again later this week after I take the hellacious finals. Someone send Solomon Trimble over to me so I can de-stress? I'd appreciate it so much. Tell me what you think about this chapter, I wanna know! Mwaaaaah to all my readers who haven't given up on me!