~ Chapter Twelve ~

I was stunned. That had been my worst fear, my most impossible, yet likely fear.

"How?" I asked hoarsely, all traces of anger gone.

"We don't know," he answered and I could hear the frustrated honesty in his voice.

I stood, rooted to the ground. The Volturi. Everything clicked into place. The Cullen's weird behaviour before baseball, the fact that only Bella stayed to walk with me because I wouldn't be able to get in her head, Edward and Alice slightly avoiding me, introducing Nessie and Jacob to me to distract me…

"I have to get away, I can't put you in danger because of me."

"No." Alice said sharply. "You're staying with us. They're not having you. We have friends that have promised to fight and if it comes to that…they've had it coming a long time," she said fiercely. I shook my head. A fight. Carlisle had told me of the numbers of Volturi. There was no way we'd win, even with friends. Only the very best vampires. His words came stinging back. We'd be massacred and it would all be my fault. I had two choices – go with them or run away now and keep the Cullens safe.

"No." I looked up at Alice's words and found her right in front of me. She'd had another vision. "Phoebe, they have the world's best tracker. You'd be caught in no time. And you would be forced to join them. They'd make you feed off humans, Phoebe. If you stayed with us, we won't let them take you. If it comes to a fight, our numbers are bigger than theirs." I looked at her incredulously. "They've come before, for Nessie. Well, not exactly, it's complicated, I'll explain it to you later. We outnumbered them, Phoebe. We will do so again. They're too scared to lose some of their precious guard. I can see that it won't come to anything. They're wasting their time," she smiled at me. She had me convinced and she knew it. I nodded and she skipped over to Edward.

"We need everyone that we had the last time, and more if possible. We've got to really intimidate them." Edward nodded and called the rest of the Cullens down. They appeared immediately, looking at me.

"She knows," Edward explained what had happened. Carlisle nodded solemnly.

"So soon afterwards…" he sighed. "We need to make arrangements."

The words just became a buzz, full of unfamiliar names. I sat down on the loveseat and Alice sat down beside me, her arm around my shoulders.

"I swear to you Phoebe, it will be fine."

"But why are they coming?"

"For you, they want your powers. They know about you for some reason."

"That's not what I meant. Do they think just asking me will make me want to come? Do they want a fight?"

"No, a fight is the last thing they want, I told you. They don't want to exterminate their numbers. It's more likely that they'll just retreat again, there's only a veryslim chance that it will come to a fight anyway, there's really no need to worry." It hadn't escaped my notice that she had left most of my question unanswered.

We sat in silence for a while, while the others worked everything out, making last minute flight arrangements, mapping out routes, phoning various vampires to warn them, sorting everything out quicker than even I thought possible. Too soon, they were done.

"Right. We will split into groups and track down our friends. Jacob, Nessie, Phoebe, Alice you stay here and explain everything to everyone that comes. Alice, we still don't know the date?" She shook her head at Carlisle's question. "Edward, Bella and Jasper are one group, myself and Esme are another and so are Rosalie and Emmett. Alice, phone me if there's an update, will you?" Alice nodded again. Were they leaving already? Did they think the timing so short? Is it worse than they're making out? Were they that desperate for numbers? Everyone hugged and muttered goodbyes and the answer became clear. Yes, yes they were.