My muse had abandoned me, but it's back. It came with a price- I was listening to music to wake it up, and my parents walked in on me singing. Oh, the embarrassment! But, enjoy this long-ish chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight.
It happened a week after we'd arrived in Volterra.
Nothing had happened much in the time- Aro still asked us question, though not as many as before. He was attempting to create a board game other vampires would enjoy, as well as planning how to get a contractor to install a pool in the basement without revealing the Volturi.
We had continued touring the city, making new memories that included Edward being forced to eat a mince pie by an overeager street vendor, Emmett and Rosalie accidentally breaking an old obelisk and super gluing it back together, and Alice disguising her self and acting as an Indian fortune-teller for a day. Also, Jasper accidentally lost control over his emotions at one point, reducing half the city to sobbing people washing the roads with their tears for no apparent reason.
I was flipping through a book I'd gotten from Aro's library. It was a copy of Romeo and Juliet, handwritten by Shakespeare himself.
Emmett popped his head into my room. "Have you seen Rosalie? We were going to go shopping." He grimaced. "Or, a better term for it would be Alice and Rosalie shopping and Jasper and I carrying their bags."
I frowned, realizing I hadn't seen my blonde sister at all that day. "No. Maybe ask Aro? He keeps tags on us."
"Good idea, Bella," he said, and wandered off.
I returned to my book.
I heard footsteps and looked up, annoyed. It was Emmett again.
He was wringing his hands. "Aro said she went out hunting earlier, but she hasn't returned yet. But she should be back!"
I put the book down on the floor. This was a problem- our hunting ground was a small open woodland a few miles outside the city. Knowing Rosalie, she would have finished up fast and ran back, especially with the promise of shopping. "Let's ask Alice," I said.
We got to Alice's room to find her and Jasper waiting impatiently inside. "You seen Rose?" she asked.
I shook my head. "That's why we're here- she went hunting, but she didn't come back. She should be done by now."
Alice frowned, and closed her eyes. A frown passed across her face. "I'm getting glimpses of her future, but short, and they keep changing. By the time I make sure they're about her, they're gone.
Jasper thought for a moment, projecting calm at us all. "Let's go look at the park she was at. But let's get Edward too, and tell Carlisle and Esme where we're going."
So the four of us climbed the flight of stairs to our adopted parents' room. Edward joined us halfway up, telling us he knew what was going on. Of course.
Our entourage reached the room. Before we knocked, Carlisle came out. "I heard your coming up," he explained. "What's going on?"
Edward explained. He had, of course, picked up pretty much everything from Alice, Jasper, and Emmett's minds. And he had the advantage of seeing how Carlisle comprehended it.
Esme slipped out the door. "Not Rose too," she said unhappily. "I guess you should go. But be careful. We'll have to tell Aro if you're not back in a few hours."
"Esme and I will go instead of you two," Carlisle said to Jasper and Alice. "If something goes wrong, you two would have the best chance of finding out fast and getting help."
It was way past 18, but I still had a curfew.
We acquired a car from one of the large dealerships the Volturi seemed to own. It had a slick little GPS system-which we discovered had one small flaw.
Emmett poked it gingerly- a few years ago he'd broken a GPS system when he pounded it with his fist in frustration. "Why is the GPS speaking Hindu in Italy?"
Edward was driving. He took a hand off the steering wheel to jab the settings button. "It has no other language," he groaned.
"In all of your years alive, none of you learned Hindu?" I asked.
"Well, no," Edward admitted. "We were learning the more common languages- French, Spanish, Italian, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Sign Language…"
"Latin, Greek, Chinese," Esme added helpfully. "But not Hindu."
We managed to find our way to the park by following the maps the GPS provided. Emmett got annoyed with the voice though, and the GPS suffered a voice bow casualty.
We got out and circled the woods. The wind was at my back, and the sun was breaking through the clouds just a bit, peppering us with quick, furtive bursts of light.
Then the wind changed directions, and it brought a new smell to me. A familiar, vampire smell.
Emmett smelled it too, and grew tense. "Ambush," he said.
And there's the end! No, I've decided to be not THAT cruel. There's more under:
I whirled around, to find us confronted by a hoard of red-eyed vampires. But something was wrong- there were far more than there should be, if this was Bob's coven.
My family and I made a tight circle and started to fight. I clawed, using shields to deflect direct attacks, but it was evident that we were losing. There were too many of them.
Carlisle sidled next to me. "Esme, Emmett, and I are going to make a distraction. You put a shield over you and Edward."
I was horrified. "You're sacrificing yourselves?"
He shook his head. "They're not fighting to kill. We'll be fine. You two need to escape and get word back to Volterra."
"But…"
"No buts, Bella. Do it." With that, he dashed suddenly into the foes. Esme and Emmett mimicked his move.
There was shock in the ranks, and a small clear space opened up around Edward and me. I calmed myself, and put a wall up.
Carlisle, Emmett, and Esme had been overwhelmed and were being dragged off- still struggling. That was good- they were still alive.
A vampire launched herself at Edward and me, only to meet an invisible resistance. I noticed she was one of the twins from Bob's coven.
"Very well," she hissed. "Stay in your bubble. We have your friends, and we'll get you too soon."
She followed the rest of the ambush party, who had started to retreat when they noticed it was impossible to get through my wall.
Soon, they were entirely gone, leaving only Edward and I under the suddenly sunny sky.