Chapter 10

Battle with Time

Upon our arrival at the airport things soon got complicated. The people at the check in desk were suspicious that there was only one bag for all 3 of us.

"Ma'am where did you say you were going?" the man asked.

"Italy" Alice said calmly but I could tell by the tone in her voice she was ready to punch this man if he was going to give her a hard time.

"And is this your only bag?" he asked.

"We're meeting our brother at the airport…he has stuff for us at his house" Alice lied smoothly.

"Are you Italian?" the man asked.

"Half" Alice said.

The man nodded slowly "right…come to security with me" he said.

Alice rolled her eyes "sir, our mother is gravely ill and may die in a matter of hours. My sisters and I are flying to Italy to see her for one last time!" if she could Alice sounded like she could cry.

Alice sent me a glance and I knew what I had to do so I pretended to start crying "Please sir!" I said.

The man huffed again "let me see your passports."

Alice handed him our passports swiftly and he checked us over. He must've figured what harm could 3 "ordinary small human girls" could do right? Well let's just say he was lucky he didn't find out.

We made it to the flight gate just as they were closing the gate "WAIT!" Bella shouted pushing me in front of her.

The woman closing the door rolled her eyes "no consideration" I heard her mumble but then again I guess I understood her point of view yet it made me angry. She didn't know everything did she? She couldn't just judge and make assumptions. At least she finally let us on the plane.

We sat down in our seats. Me in the window seat, Bella in the middle, and Alice in the aisle, Bella bounced anxiously in her seat as the flight attendants strolled up and down the aisles.

"It's faster than running" I tried to calm Bella and myself.

After about ten minutes I was concerned as to why the plane wasn't starting considering that they were about to close the gate when we arrived.

"Attention passengers…attention. Unfortunately we're having technical difficulties so it will be a little while before takeoff thank you and our sincerest apologies for the wait" the pilot's voice filled the airplane.

"You're kidding me right?" I asked.

"Learn a little patience kid" said a middle aged woman behind me.

Alice turned and glared at her as if to say 'mind your own business.'

A baby began crying and her older brother who looked about six was holding her. I slumped in my seat immediately realizing that time was definitely not on my side and that I was about to lose my brother.

Alice lifted the phone on the back of the seat in front of her and the stewardess eyed her with disproving. I saw Bella give her the most innocent stare with her wide chocolate eyes which I guess somehow convinced the stewardess to say nothing.

Alice dialed Jasper's number and spoke to him about what was going on. I could hear him ask 'what is he going to do?'

"I can't be sure, I keep seeing him do different things, he keeps changing his mind…a killing spree through the city, attacking the guard, lifting a car over his head in the main square…mostly things that would expose them-he knows that's the fastest way to get a reaction…" Alice said.

"Emmett, Rosalie, and I are going over there right now" I heard Jasper said.

"No, you can't. Tell Emmett no…" I tuned it all out. Usually this happened when I felt like I was being suffocated…when I felt dead. My hearing would just stop working. I knew it was just a mind trick but I couldn't help it.

I saw Alice put the phone back and Bella asked "Tell me everything. I don't understand. Why did you tell Jasper to stop Emmett, why can't they come help us?"

"Two reasons, the first I told him. We could try to stop Edward ourselves-if Emmett could get his hands on him, we might be able to stop him long enough to convince him you're alive. But we can't just sneak up on Edward if he sees us coming for him he'll act that much faster. He'll throw a Buick through a wall or something and the Volturi will take him out." Alice said.

"Besides" I said "You, me and the world knows that if Emmett and Jasper were there they would want to fight the Volturi especially if they…you know. If we fought the Volturi we would lose and who the hell knows what they would do then" I said.

"Can't Edward hear you though?" Bella asked "Wouldn't he know, as soon as he heard your thoughts, that I was alive and there was no point in this" Bella said.

I shook my head "Even if you were dead he knows we would still try and think 'she's alive, she's alive' and believe it or not there's a way for you to just completely block Edward out of your mind but it takes a ton of concentration" I said.

"Think of a blank screen…that's what she taught me" Alice said jerking her thumb towards me as if I were some sort of menace. She then refocused her attention on the situation "if there were any way to do this without you, Bella, I wouldn't be endangering you lie this. It's very wrong of me."

"Don't be stupid. I'm the last thing you should be worrying about. Tell me what you meant, about hating to lie to Jasper" Bella said.

"I promised him I would get out before they killed me, too. It's not something I can guarantee…at all" Alice said.

"While she may be able to see the future she has no control over it" I said slightly obnoxiously, I was trying to lighten up the situation in the slightest bit even if my mind was having a mental breakdown at the current moment.

"Who are these Volturi? What makes them so much more dangerous than Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, and you?" Bella asked.

"I was surprised you recognized the name. I thought I would have to explain. How much did Edward tell you?" Alice said.

"He just said that they were an old powerful family-like royalty. That you didn't antagonize them unless you wanted to…die" Bella said choking on the last word.

"You have to understand, We Cullens are unique in more ways than you know. It's…abnormal for so many of us to live together in peace. It's the same for Tanya's family in the north, and Carlisle speculates that abstaining makes it easier for us to be civilized, to form bonds based on love rather than survival or convenience. Even James's little coven of three was unusually large. Carlisle's family is the biggest in existence as far as we know with one exception. The Volturi." Alice said.

"There were three of them originally, Aro, Caius, and Marcus" I said.

"I've seen them, in the picture in Carlisle's study" Bella said.

I nodded, "Two females joined them over time, and the five that make up the family. I'm not sure but I suspect that their age is what gives them the ability to live peacefully together. They are well over three thousand years old. Or maybe it's their gifts that give them extra tolerance. Like Edward, Alice, and I, Aro and Marcus are…talented" I said.

Alice continued where I left off "or maybe it's just their love of power that binds them together. Royalty is an apt description."

"But if there are only five…" Bella began.

"Five that make up the family, that doesn't include their guard" I said.

"That sounds…serious" Bella said seriously.

"Oh it is" I said.

"There were nine members of the guard that were permanent, the last time we heard. Others are more…transitory. It changes and many of them are gifted as well with formidable gifts, gifts that can make what I do look like a parlor trick. The Volturi chose them very specifically" Alice said.

"They don't get too many confrontations. No one is stupid enough to mess with them and they rarely leave their cities unless they have to…you know" I said.

"What?" Bella said.

"They don't call them royalty for nothing. They are the enforcers of our rules. If any rule is broken harshly then…" I slid my index finger across my neck.

"There are rules?!" Bella asked.

"SHH!" Alice and I said.

"Shouldn't somebody have mentioned this to me earlier? I mean I wanted to…be one of you! Shouldn't someone explain the rules to me?" Bella asked.

Alice chuckled "it's not that complicated Bella. There's only one core restriction and if you think about it, you can probably figure it out for yourself."

"Nope I have no idea" Bella said.

"Maybe it's too obvious" Alice said.

"We have to keep our existence a secret" I said.

Bella put two and two together "so Edward…"

"Is planning to flout that in their city, the city they've held for three thousand years. They are so protective of their city that they don't allow hunting within its walls. Volterra is probably the safest city in the world."

"But you said they didn't leave. How do they eat?" Bella asked.

"They don't leave. They bring their food to them sometimes from quite far away but it gives them a change to do something when they're not being overprotective of their city" I said.

"From situations like this one, like Edward" Bella finished and I was amazed that she was able to say his name.

"They don't get many situations like this…you don't get a lot of suicidal vampires" I muttered softly.

Bella winced and Alice wrapped her arm around Bella's shoulder, "We'll do what we can, it's not over yet" she said.

"Not yet, and the Volturi will get us if we mess up."

"You say that like it's a good thing!" I said horrified.

Bella shrugged "Knock it off Bella or we're turning around and going back to Forks" Alice said.

"What?" Bella said.

"You know what. If we're too late for Edward, I'm going to do my damnedest to get you back to Charlie, and I don't want trouble from you do you understand? Alice asked.

"Sure" Bella said.

'If we're too late to save Edward,' the words kept repeating in my head and the reality set in. Yes we might actually be too late and I would lose my brother forever.

I hated this feeling. The feeling of knowing he was in trouble and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it but only watching him suffer. Maybe I never would understand how he feels right now since I've never had a mate but could he really do this to Carlisle? Would he really go that far as to have the Volturi kill him? It would kill not only him but all of us and Alice, Bella, and I would have to live with guilt forever.

I wanted to just send him my thoughts…tell him to stop but I couldn't even calm him down at the moment. Besides, he would think I was lying and would rush into it.

"Hazel" I heard Alice say softly.

"Yeah?"

"Can you track Edward for us…see what he's planning" Alice asked.

"Yeah…sure" I said and closed my eyes and concentrated on my brother.

He was there…going to the Volturi and asking to be killed. Aro turned to him and said that he was making a mistake but they would debate it.

Alice was concentrating too…except instead of seeing the present she was seeing the future and that was what we needed right now.

Pretty soon Bella was telling Alice and I that we were in New York City to get to our connecting flight. "Anything new?" she asked.

"Not really they're debating but I can't really see the outcome" I said.

"I can't either…they're still deciding" Alice said.

We caught the connecting flight pretty quickly and it was similar to the last one as they were just closing the door when we arrived but it was better than waiting.

Alice and I continued our concentration but I couldn't exactly see what was going on…just them debating and then they decided…NO. I looked over and Alice and she had seen it long before I had.

"Bella!" she hissed a little too loudly.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked.

"It's not wrong. It's right, they decided to tell him no" Alice said smiling.

"The Volturi?" Bella muttered.

"Of course, Bella keep up. I can see what they're going to say" Alice said.

"Tell me" Bella said.

One of the flight attendants came down the aisle and asked if we needed a pillow.

"No thank you" Alice said smiling at him and the attendant stumbled forward in a dazed manner.

"Tell me" Bella breathed quietly.

"They're interested in him and think his talent could be useful so they're going to offer him a place with them."

"What will he say?" Bella asked.

"I can't see that yet. This is good news for them at least since they don't want to destroy him. Aro is going to call him 'wasteful' and maybe that will spark something in him to plan something more creative.

"Alice?" Bella asked.

"What?"

"I'm confused, how are you seeing things so clearly?" Bella asked.

"It's clear because it's immediate and close and I'm really concentrating plus I see my kind easier than yours" Alice said.

"You see me sometimes" Bella said.

"Not as clearly" Alice said.

I could hear them start talking about Bella being changed into a vampire and without really realizing it I was tuning them out.

I tracked Edward and saw something that changed everything. I could see the sun in the faintest corner of my eyes and snapped the shades shut… the last thing we needed was exposure.

"What's happening?" Bella mumbled.

"He's figured out what he's going to do" I said.

"What is that?" Bella asked.

"He's going to just keep it simple and walk out into the sun" I said.

"We'll be too late" Bella whispered.

"Right now he wants the biggest audience possible so he'll choose the main plaza under the clock tower. The walls are high there and he'll wait until the sun is exactly overhead" Alice said.

"So we have till noon?" Bella asked.

"If he sticks to this decision" Alice said.

The pilot's voice came over the intercom speaking first in Italian and then English that we were landing.

"How far is it from Florence to Volterra?" Bella asked.

"Depends on how fast you drive…Bella?" Alice asked.

"Yes?" Bella asked.

"How strongly are you opposed to grand theft auto" Alice said.

When we landed we ran through the terminal getting several crazy looks from people but we didn't care and while Alice went to steal her car I waited with Bella on the sidewalk.

A few minutes later we saw a bright yellow Porsche pull up beside us and as Bella and I climbed in I could feel a small sense of relief…we were one step closer.

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