Chapter 10: Death in Volterra

A/n : Oh my. I am sorry to anyone who has been waiting for an update (like, the 4 of you hehe). School and work and 2 bastard other fics would not let me get back to my baby. But I'm back now and intend to be updating more frequently, like before.

Um - remember, we're traveling toward Volterra. James and Victoria have Bella and Angela. Edward, Jasper, Alice, Esme, Carlisle, Irina and Laurent are in pursuit.

Disclaimer: Just playing in Stephenie Meyer's backyard for a while. Twilight is all hers.

Bella knew she was dreaming again.

She must have fallen asleep in the saddle. Her dreams took her back through her memories to a different saddle. Instead of riding, as she had been for two weeks now, with her back pressed against James, she was riding with her arms wrapped around Edward's waist.

It was right after the meadow - she and Edward had finally declared themselves after months of dancing around each other. He had kissed her breathless under the light of the full moon, making up for every time he had held back from touching and loving her. Though the night was cool, the lingering heat of his kisses kept her warm as they made their way back to Forkshire. They rode in silence, her cheek resting against his leather tunic and her arms firmly around him. He kept one hand on the horse but his other hand traced the edges of her fingers as she held on to him.

She felt his back tense under her cheek as they got closer to town, but then he breathed easier. "The men," he used the term loosely, "Who attacked you have been detained. Your father and the knights are taking care of them now."

Bella shuddered, breathing in his scent to soothe the sharp spike of fear that had run down her back at the mention of the four men Edward had rescued her from earlier that evening. With all the revelations since then, she would have forgotten save for her aching cheek and bruised wrists. Hearing her unsteady breath, Edward squeezed her hand reassuringly.

Another set of horse hooves joined them as they rode into town. Bella was not at all surprised to see Alice, looking slightly disheveled but otherwise unharmed. Alice grimaced at the mark on her cheek. "Don't worry, Bella, they look a great deal worse."

"Are you alright? And Jasper and Emmett?" Bella asked, suddenly anxious.

"Of course," Alice assured her. She looked over at her brother. "I told Sir Swan that she was fine but Father would prefer to keep watch over her tonight. You're welcome." Alice grinned at them both and rode away before they could get a word in edgewise.

Edward sighed but Bella could feel the tension in his shoulders loosen. They were almost to the guild house now. "I'll understand if you don't want to stay - I would just prefer to not have you out of my sight tonight," Edward said softly.

She clutched his hand in both of hers. "I want to stay with you," she assured him.

When they arrived at the guild house, Carlisle wanted to look at Bella's wrists but Esme took one look at the way their hands were clasped tightly and shooed them up the stairs.

Edward tried to do the gentlemanly thing by staying on the couch. Having none of that, Bella got out of his bed, taking him by the hand, shy and bold at the same time, and tugged until he relented and laid down facing her.

They talked. All the things they wanted to say to each other for months were said. They talked about their limited intimate experience. Edward had bedded a couple of girls before, but both times he had been drunk off his ass and celebrating a victory in a distant land. Bella's experience was limited to the one boy she had kissed, before Edward. He had been the foreman's son on her mother's farm, and she had only done it to see if she was missing anything.

They did not share their bodies that night, but he kept her warm and safe in his arms as she slept.

Bella opened her eyes, a nagging feeling at the back of her mind telling her something was wrong. She blinked in the sunlight that was filtering into the room. Something was wrong. She blinked and pulled the blanket up a bit to ward off the early morning chill. Then she froze.

The blankets were too warm and the bed she was on too soft. For the last two weeks she had slept on hard ground or with her hands tied around small trees. Now she was definitely in a bed...on top of pillows. The bed was lumpy and the straw that filled the pillows poked at her, but it was as good as the king's best silk for how it felt compared to the dirt.

Bella sat bolt upright, confused and disoriented. She found James easily enough. He was sitting in a chair, leaning back with his feet up on a tiny table that was tucked into the corner. He was smiling that wicked smile that sent a spike of dread throughout Bella's body. She was frozen in place by the look in his eyes - all evil and not unlike a very big cat toying with its prey.

A noise from the other side of the room finally broke the hold that James had on her. She looked up to see Victoria toweling off in front of the basin. She was watching Bella too, a smirk on her face.

"Where's Angela," Bella blurted, her voice sounding too panicked for her own liking.

Victoria just snickered and moved to where James sat. She kissed him long and slow. "I'll be back," she said, and then she was gone.

James' eyes followed her to the door. When she was gone he smiled a tight smile, then turned his gaze back to Bella. Bella blinked, trying to reorient herself; trying to remember the last thing that had happened. Everything seemed off and she still wasn't quite sure why.

As her mind unfroze she had questions. Many questions. Still out of sorts, the questions tumbled out of her in a confused but harsh tone. "How did I get here? Where are we? Where. Is. Angela?"

James smirked again and put his feet on the floor. He said nothing, he just propped ups elbows on his knees and leaned his head on his folded hands. He was just watching her again. Toying with her. Trying to unnerve her.

It was working.

Caught up in worry for her friend, Bella had failed to realize that she wasn't bound in any way. As soon as she figured that out she was out of the bed, as far across the room from James as she could get. As she stood she almost fell, unmistakably woozy. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. She noted that her body was lethargic, despite the adrenaline rush the fear had brought with it.

Chancing to look away from James for a second, Bella glanced out the one window in the room. She froze at what she saw. The window was too high for her to see out of it from her current position but she could see the sky. The sun was not yet to its midpoint. When she had closed her eyes in the saddle it had been a little past midday. Her eye shot back to James, but his chair was empty. She started as he came up beside her - stealthy and moving too quickly.

Bella's heart beat out of control. She backed up a few paces automatically. "You drugged me. Why? And where is Angela?"

James chuffed. "Yet again you are in no place to be making demands," he said as he stalked toward her. Bella instinctively stepped backward. She tripped and started to fall but he grabbed her by her arm, pushing her up against the wall. "You just never learn, do you girl?"

"Where is Angela?" Bella demanded again, forcing herself to look him in the eye.

He sneered. He pulled his dagger from where it was hidden and pressed it flat against her cheek. "You don't need to worry about your little friend anymore."

Bella froze, her eyes going wide and her mouth falling open as she gasped. The pieces fell into place. James had always said that Angela was of no consequence to him. He used Angela to control Bella. They must be near the people who paid James. They hadn't needed Angela anymore, and had drugged Bella to ensure that she gave them no problems until they were safely at their destination. "You killed her," Bella whispered.

James trailed the knife down, the cold metal pressing against her throat as a warning, "You have bigger things to worry about."

Bella was still as she tried to process that she had inadvertently cost one of her best friends her life. Angela's face filled her mind. The shy girl who was always at her side in the bakery. The questioned she asked about Edward as his and Bella's relationship developed. She was so unlike the other girls in town, whose questions were designed to find the best gossip. Angela had always been genuine. Bella remembered, the day after she'd fallen asleep in Edward's bed, his arms wrapped around her, she'd come late to the bakery. Angela had greeted her with a knowing smile. "Edward finally pulled his head out of his ass?" They had giggled together over Edward and Ben - Angela's love.

And now she was gone. And it was Bella's fault.

The slap of the dagger on the nightstand as James put it down startled Bella out of her reverie. Her eyes flew to James' again. He was standing close to her, one hand still pressed against her shoulder, pinning her against the wall. He brought his free hand up, tangling it in her hair.

The sharp pain where he yanked her hair focused her thoughts and redirected the blame to where it should go - squarely on James' shoulders. Bella was not helpless, and as James had said she no longer had to worry about Angela. "Don't touch me!" she yelled, furious. She brought her knee up but James spun just enough that she missed his groin. She still hit him pretty hard, causing him to stumble backward a step. Not wasting anytime she drove her elbow into his chest causing him to gasp.

She wanted to stay; to beat the life from him as he had robbed Angela's life. She knew that he was physically stronger than she was and better trained. Making a fist with both hands, Bella threw all of her power into an uppercut that had James groaning and stumbling back again. Then she ran.

She didn't get far, James having been prepared for her antics. He grabbed her by the back of the linen shirt she wore and yanked her backward. Bella collided with the wall, falling to the floor. It hadn't hurt her badly but she was stunned into stillness. James did not give her time to recover. He reached down and yanked her up roughly, hurtling her toward the bed. He leaned over her immediately, pinning her body with his so that her upper body was pressed into the rumpled blankets. "Gods damn you!" Bella raged, infuriated by her own helplessness. "Pathetic son of a whore."

He laughed and gripped her hair again, forcing her head back so he could put his lips to her ear. "Pathetic am I? Yet here you are under me. Tell me who's the pathetic one," he hissed, his free hand traveling down the curve of her body. "You're not very bright Isabella. You could have made this easy on yourself. Enjoyable, even," he let go of her hair, giving her head a shove. "Now, not only will I have you - one way or another - but when I find your lover, your dear," he sneered the word, "Edward, I'm going to tell him of all the fun," he emphasized the word by slipping his hand under the hem of the simple leather pants she wore, his fingers digging into the skin of her ass pointedly, "We had together." He leaned all the way over her again, his head resting against hers. "Then," he whispered, "I'm going to kill him. Slowly."

"No!" Bella screamed the word. As James had been talking she had been inching her arm backward, toward the nightstand where he had slammed down his dagger. Her fingers finally closed around the hilt of the blade and she swung blindly, feeling the dagger dig into flesh. James yelled, his weight suddenly disappearing from her. Bella stood and spun in one quick movement, the bloody knife in her hand. James had one hand pressed against his side, against the wound she'd inflicted. "You're not getting near Edward." She swung at him again with the knife but he grabbed her arm.

After the fact, it was hard to figure out exactly what had happened. Bella had been blinded by rage and fear. She remembered screaming at him as she swung the knife, and she remembered that they wrestled. She remembered him crying out so the dagger must have struck him a number of times. Everything was blurry. Everything happened so quickly.

Then, suddenly, she was on the floor on her knees and James was pressed into a corner, completely slumped over. He wasn't moving. She blinked as if coming out of a trance. James was bloody. Very bloody.

The door opened and Bella's head whipped around at the noise. Victoria stood there, and for a moment everything was eerily silent.

Then Bella followed Victoria's eyes, seeing what had them wide and shocked.

Bella's arm was still up; the dagger still in her fist. Her fingers were gripped so tightly around it that they were white. It was a stark contrast to the deep crimson that covered the dagger and her hand and trickled down her arm. Bella dropped the dagger, startling when it landed with a loud thud against the wood floor.

Then Victoria shrieked.

***

Meanwhile, close but still too far away

Edward had known what Jasper was doing when he heard the song he played. Of course, he had heard it many times before - but always aimed at the enemy. It was a slowing song, designed to lull the target into a harmless sleep. In Edward's case it was to keep him from pushing his horse to hard and getting away from the group. They were less than a day's ride from Volterra and Edward was desperate. He still didn't understand how James and Victoria had stayed ahead of them the entire, unbearably long, two weeks. But stay ahead they had. Alice'd had a vision earlier that day where she saw Bella lying in a bed, asleep and untied for once. She hadn't seen anything after that.

Jasper's song had its intended effect. Edward was out cold in his saddle. However, unlike Rosalie's potions, Jasper's song did not grant him dreamless sleep. Instead he was lost in his memories. Some part of him knew he was dreaming, but he could remember exactly what she felt like in his dreams. He could remember her scent and the sound of her laughter. Part of him was relieved to be able to see, hear and feel her like this.

It was late afternoon, a couple of days after Alice's wedding. Edward was sitting in a chair in the corner of the bakery, watching Bella work. She was baking - not for profit or for anyone else - just for him. If you had asked him, before Bella, if he thought there was any kind of grace or beauty in baking, he would have quirked an eyebrow and merely chuckled. Watching Bella, he was now aware that baking could look almost like a dance. He was fascinated. Kneading dough and tossing together ingredients, Bella was in her element. Her hands were sure and she used no measuring cups, seeming to toss things into bowls and cut off portions at random.

As she worked she would cast glances as him. This worried him when she was cutting the apples. She looked up at him from under her lashes and the knife in her hand kept slicing. But she was so sure and confident in her bakery that she had only laughed at his admonishment. "Do you remember last week when you and Emmett were dueling...with live swords and no armor?"

He had nodded, not sure what she was getting at. She'd merely raised her eyebrows, holding his gaze as her hands kept cutting the apples. Then it had clicked - she had been terrified for him and yet had said nothing, knowing he was sure of himself. When she saw the comprehension on his face she lifted the tiny knife she was wielding. "Besides, nobody needs all 10 fingers."

She finally set the turnovers to bake and sat at the small table, across from Edward. They spoke softly of nothing important, their hands clasped over the table. He played with her fingers, stroking her skin. The aroma of baking apples, pastry and sugar filled the small space and Edward was almost as anxious as a five year old waiting for cookies to cool. By the time the turnovers came out of the oven - looking golden and crisp and perfect - Edward was surprised he wasn't drooling.

She made him wait until they were relatively cool.

Edward had had to keep his eyelids from fluttering as he chewed. "This is...divine," he said as he swallowed the first bite, quickly going in for another. He thought about the other time she had made these, when he wasn't talking to her and was hardly looking at her. The day he had saved her from being hit by a wagon and trampled to death. "You know," he said thoughtfully, "that day, I was about to let Alice force one of these down my throat. I would have given in right there. You didn't need to throw yourself in front of Tyler's cart after all," he teased.

She laughed, surprised that he was able to laugh about that day, and bit into her own pastry. They ate in silence, Edward remembering that he had almost lost her. Then he was thinking about it again - Alice's vision. The vision where she was on her knees at his grandfather's feet. It still hadn't gone away. "What if I can't protect you from..." he said before he realized he was speaking out loud.

She looked up, knowing by the look on his face what he was talking about. It was a far away - desolate look. If there was one thing Edward hated it was the future being out of his control. No matter what they did - that vision could not escape them. It seemed it was her fate. "Then you can't protect me," she said slowly, as if it were only logical. He looked up at her, stricken. "Edward...every life is lived on borrowed time. Something, someday, is going to separate us. You know - it's more likely that it will be you. I'm a baker. Given your lifestyle, it's more likely that you'll ride off one day...and I'll never see you alive again." She was visibly distraught at this thought.

"That's not going to happen," he said, even though he knew damn well that it was a distinct possibility.

He could tell she knew he was lying. "It could," Bella said simply. She looked back down at her pastry, dusting off grains of sugar idly. "I hate that I can't protect you almost as much as I hate that you feel like you have to protect me. I want to be strong - like Alice and Rosalie. I wish I could be by your side - and that we could protect each other."

He didn't have a response for her. As much as he always wanted to be near her, the idea of her facing the horrors he had known was...terrifying. Instead of answering he leaned forward over the table. She leaned forward automatically and he kissed her. He eased his guilt at keeping her in the dark about her power by kissing her long and slow, his tongue tasting the sweetness of the apple turnover in her mouth. He stood and pulled her into his arms. She felt so delicate and small; he had convinced himself once again that what he was doing was right. She was too vulnerable to put in a field where any one of a hundred things could kill her. He was desperate to keep her safe.

Edward stirred in the saddle, coming into the present - groggy. That day in the bakery, he had taken her against the wall, both of them needy for each other - knowing their time might be short. Instead of reveling in the sweetness of their lovemaking, Edward was wallowing in the consequences of his own mistakes.

"Hey," Jasper's voice broke into his thoughts. "I can practically feel the guilt coming off you, Edward."

Edward looked up, blinking and taking in his surroundings. He was still in his saddle. He guessed that Jasper had been riding close to make sure he didn't fall off. Carlisle and Esme were slightly ahead of the group. Alice was off to the side, looking distressed as she had been for the last two weeks. Laurent and Irina were riding behind. Edward shook his head, trying to grasp time and place.

"It's your fault," he said tiredly. "If you hadn't put me to sleep I wouldn't have been dreaming about her." And just how monumentally I failed her, he did not add.

Jasper scoffed lightly. "You were going out of your skin as it was."

"I feel like I'm going to lose my mind," Edward admitted in a soft voice, hoping his parents couldn't hear them. "Two weeks Jasper...to know she's alive, and yet always just out of reach. I can't bear it." His voice was heavy. "I know the what-ifs are useless, but I have nothing but time...nothing to do but ride and think of how it could have been different if only I hadn't been so stupid."

Jasper regarded his brother-in-law for a long minute before speaking. "You know, Edward, Alice is perhaps the only one in the world who can see the future. Yet even she cannot arrange things just perfectly so that nothing bad ever happens. If she, with her gift, is not capable of fighting the future - what makes you think you should be infallible?" Jasper shook his head. "Alice saw the vision of Bella before you ever knew about her potential," he reminded him.

"You know how her visions work. The future is in motion. It changes. Until it happens, her visions aren't reality," Edward snapped back. Which meant that every single decision he made could have prevented the vision from ever happening.

"Well, that means you have time, so have hope," Jasper put a hand on Edward's arm. "It's not over yet brother. We'll find some way out of this."

Edward didn't answer. Logically, he knew what Jasper was getting at. Logic mattered very little when it couldn't help snatch Bella away from Aro's greedy hands. He rubbed his eyes again, trying to shake off the stupor of sleep so that he could be ready if...when he was in a position to help Bella.

They were nearing a town; the last town before Volterra in fact. It was a tiny village about five miles outside of the huge city. Automatically, Edward began to scan the minds of the city. If nothing else, it gave him something to distract himself with.

Edward's breath caught in his throat when he heard a familiar mind, and saw Bella's face in its thoughts.

Angela Weber was in this town.

He had spurred his horse into a run before he had finished processing the thought.

"Edward!" he heard Jasper and his father's voices call to him, but he didn't stop. After two weeks, his body was down to base reactions - survival mode. He needed Bella. Angela had been with Bella. Getting to Angela was one step closer to having Bella back in his arms.

He could see, in her thoughts, that she was worried first and foremost for her friend. She didn't know what to do. She was far away from home and far away, she thought, from anyone who could help her.

Once he got into town, it took Edward another few, agonizing minutes to get his bearings. Angela was in a small but comfortable looking home. He saw glimpses of the middle-aged couple she was with, but Angela looked out the window a lot, thankfully. He was able to compare her view with the town and he figure out where she was at. By the time he knocked on the door his family, and Irina and Laurent, had caught up with him.

"Edward, what's going on?" Carlisle asked, dismounting his horse.

Edward didn't answer, gesturing for his father to wait a minute. The door to the small home opened, the middle aged woman from Angela's thoughts peered up at him. "Can I help you?"

"I'm looking for Angela Weber," Edward said, thankful his voice still worked properly and he sounded somewhat polite. He heard the chair scoot across wood floor as Angela got up and then the quick footfalls as she darted to the door. The older woman stepped to the side a second before Angela flung herself into Edward's arms.

"Edward, Edward, oh thank the gods!" Angela cried, holding onto him tightly. He kept his arms wrapped around her as his mind was inundated with her thoughts. Finally in the presence of someone familiar, she had let her guard down almost immediately. The whole of two weeks of terror ran through her head all at once – images and voices and feelings all blending together. In the space of a few heartbeats she was shaking hard; crying into his tunic.

Edward held her, trying to make sense of the images going through her mind, while Carlisle made his introductions to the mystified woman who owned the home. Once she understood what was going on she ushered them all in for something warm to eat and drink. Edward had to carry Angela, who was trembling too hard to stand. As soon as he was in the door he sunk to the floor, Angela in his arms, and he rocked the frightened girl. As much as he was desperate for any news about Bella, Angela was the first tangible thing he could hold onto since Bella had been kidnapped - he needed to hold her as much as she needed to be held.

"B-B-B-," Angela stuttered, desperately trying to get a grip on herself enough to ask the question that had been foremost in her mind for two weeks.

Luckily, her thoughts were clearing, and Edward could see a face clearly in her mind. "Ben is fine. He survived the battle without so much as a scrape. I expect he's in Forkshire, worried sick about you," Edward soothed quickly. He felt badly for not realizing right away what she would need. It seemed like a lifetime ago that the guild and the Knights had ridden out to battle. Angela and Bella had been taken without knowing the outcome of the battle.

As soon as the words had left his mouth Angela went limp in his arms, her relief palpable. She would get to go home to her lover.

Edward could only hope that his story would have a similarly happy ending.

Finally, Angela calmed. "I'm sorry," she said softly, disentangling herself from Edward's arms. He stood and pulled her up with him. Carlisle stood, offering her his seat at the small table. She took a deep breath and then began telling everything she knew.

It was difficult for Edward to see her memories along with her story. Through her eyes, he saw what happened the day of the battle. She had been in the front of the bakery when the woman, Victoria, had grabbed her from behind, putting a hand over her mouth and a blade to her neck. She had only been able to watch James creep toward the back room where Bella was washing, completely unaware of what was about to happen.

He felt an incredible surge of pride, mingled with fury and fear, when Bella retaliated against James. He paced the small room like a caged wildcat as he watched James hurt Bella through Angela's memories. He had seen the bruises on her throat from Alice's visions, but watching James put them there was another torture altogether. His father placed a hand on his shoulder to still his pacing and his snarling.

Angela continued her story. Through Laurent, Edward had already been aware of James' sadistic tendencies. He liked watching his prey break. Angela recalled waking, hearing Bella call Edward's name as she mumbled in her sleep. Over and over. James must have picked up on it as well because Angela became aware that he was using it to terrorize her. Bella's weakness was in the people she loved and James exploited it to tear down her defenses. He threatened Angela's body to keep Bella complacent, and threatened Edward's life to get under her skin.

They didn't learn much they hadn't already known. Angela confirmed that it was James who had brought the undead scourge down upon the town, for no other purpose than to obtain Bella. He had hinted that his financier was female and unstable to say the least - it fit with Laurent's story of James being called before Lady Jane. Angela also had her suspicions of what James was up to when Victoria would take her away from their camp to get cleaned up. She remembered the first time - when she had come back to find Bella on her knees, sobbing into one hand. Bella had sworn she wasn't hurt, but then Angela remembered discovering the back of her dress was open.

"I don't think... I'm sure he didn't hurt her like that," Angela hurried to assure Edward.

"He didn't," Edward responded through clenched teeth. "Alice had visions. He was terrorizing her, but he never fulfilled his threats." Esme stood and Edward let her wrap her arms around him, letting his mother's love calm the impotent rage he felt. He reminded himself that this is what he'd prayed and begged for - a shred of something - anything that meant he could mark as progress in getting Bella back.

Truthfully, it wasn't much he didn't already know - but it helped fill in a few more missing pieces.

"The last thing I remember was riding yesterday. It was around midday. I saw Bella struggling to keep awake and I was so tired. I woke up in a haystack here."

"James favored a heavy sleeping potion when he needed to keep his quarry alive and unharmed," Laurent commented, recalling the mixture of herbs that James always kept in his pack.

The same thought sounded in Carlisle, Jasper, Alice and Edward's heads. Why had Angela been left alive? She was a loose end, to say the least.

Before they could ponder any further Alice suddenly gasped.

A vision flashed through her mind - a still image of the very immediate future. Bella on her back with a knife in her hand; James above her, the knife about to plunge into his side.

Another gasp, though Edward couldn't be sure if it was Alice's or his own, and the image fluctuated. James was slumped over, his body looking limp across Bella's. Bella's eyes were wide with shock.

Three more times the image fluctuated - showing Bella and James in different positions in the room they were in. Always Bella had the knife. Always it ended the same - with James' body at an unnatural angle - his blood spilling.

Edward should have been glad. He should have been proud. He should have been relieved.

Instead his heart started to pound so quick and loud he thought it would beat straight out of his chest. His fists clenched and he let out a strangled cry of despair, falling to his knees, even as Alice started to chant, "No, no, no."

Jasper, Carlisle and Esme's faces fell, Esme's going white as bone. "Oh no. Bella...she's not...," Esme could not finish her sentence.

"No," Alice answered, her voice far away. She leaned into Jasper's embrace. "No... she killed him. Ma. She killed James."

Esme gasped; Carlisle and Jasper's eyes widened; Irina and Laurent dropped their heads. Only Angela looked confused. She didn't understand why this was a bad thing.

Edward remembered, a lifetime ago it seemed - when he was still trying to deny his attraction and need for Bella - the day they'd talked about Volterra. He remembered that day with perfect clarity because it had been the day they first kissed; the day he stopped fighting what he felt for her. He remembered what he'd told her about Volterra's one unbreakable rule. He echoed his words from before, for Angela's sake, though there was no life in his tone. "You don't commit murder in Volterra- under any circumstances. Not unless you want to die."

In Alice's mind, the vision that had plagued them both since the day they'd met Bella became solid. Instead of being a possible future, it became undeniable fact. The image had changed somewhat. It had become more true to life. Bella wore the same clothing she had on in the vision with James. Her hair was disheveled and her clothing rumpled. Blood was everywhere - spattered across her clothing like a child's nonsensical drawing; smeared across her cheek and caked on her hands. Her hands were shackled behind her back, as always, and she stared up at Aro with defiance in her eyes as Demetri and Felix kept their hands on her shoulders.

The imminent and unavoidable future.

"No," Edward said, shaking his head vehemently. He was on his feet and running again. But Carlisle had been expecting it. He grabbed his son's arm, tugging him back before he could get to the door. "Let me go!" Edward demanded, trying to shake his father's hold.

"Son, please," Carlisle said, trying to bring Edward down from his panic with no success.

"No!" Edward protested. "I waited all this time. I slowed down. I slept. I did as you asked."

"You have to think, Edward. You know you have to think before you act here. Aro wouldn't have gone through all this trouble just to kill her now," Jasper said, but even as he spoke Alice went stiff in his arms.

Another vision passed through her mind. It was another still moment, and Edward staggered under the overwhelming horror that swept over him. Of all the abhorrent images that he'd ever held in his head, this one threatened to cut loose the binds of sanity. In the vision, Bella lay across a stone slab. Her eyes were closed. Her face was stained in the ashy pallor of death. There were very neat incisions at her pulse points - at her wrists and across her neck.

It was a glimpse of a not too distant future. It was the Volturi's chosen execution method - death by exsanguination.

"Edward," Esme started, reaching for him, "It's going to be alrig-."

He cut her off, recoiling from his mother's touch as if he had been burned. All of his frustration and anger from the past two weeks came out in a rush at perhaps the one person who least deserved it. "Don't tell me it's going to be alright, because you don't know! That's what we told Billy Black all those years ago. And we couldn't protect her. We couldn't stop it from happening. It happened to his wife. It happened to so many wives and husbands and lovers and children. It's not going to happen to Bella. I can't lose her, I can't."

He sat down heavily, bringing his knees up to his chest and burying his face in his hands. His whole body shook with the helplessness he felt. It was maddening to sit here knowing she was still alive and in trouble. It was maddening to have no good solution. No clear enemy he could fight with his sword and his fists. No way of knowing how to talk her out of this situation. Just a glimpse of a fate he had no way of knowing how to prevent.

Almost as soon as he had sunk to the floor he was standing again. "I'm going. Come with me or don't, but I won't be away from her any longer."

He did not wait for their answer but sprinted to the door and out.

If he could prevent the image that was burned into his memory, he would. He would do whatever it took.

If he could not he would find a way to follow Bella, because the one thing he was sure of in all of this mess was that he would not be without her again. Ever.

So…yea.

First, to my Melly – Dizzygrl28 who you can find under my favorite authors. She is my muse and my beta and … well, I love her.

Second, you may want to check out Fate's Seduction – an AU of my FR world written by CellaCullen…who I also couldn't live without but who is probably at least partly responsible for my plot bunny infestation problem. A link to Fate's Seduction is in my profile.

Thanks for waiting and reading! Let me know how you feel!