Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer and I do not own the rights to the Twilight Saga, Life and Death, or any of the accouterments in the series.

AN: The missing moment, Corner Rat Race, has now been posted.

Chapter 20 - Volterra

We began the steep climb, and the road grew congested. As we wound higher, the cars became too close together for Archie to weave insanely between them anymore. We slowed to a crawl behind a little tan Peugeot.

"Archie," I groaned. The clock on the dash seemed to be speeding up.

"It's the only way in," he tried to soothe me. But his voice was far too strained to provide any amount of comfort.

The cars continued to edge forward, one car length at a time. The sun beamed down brilliantly, seeming to be already overhead.

The cars crept one by one toward the city. As we got closer, I could see cars parked by the side of the road with people getting out to walk the rest of the way. At first I thought it was just impatience – something I could easily understand. But then we came around a switchback, and I could see the filled parking lot outside the city wall with the crowds of people walking through the gates. No one was being allowed to drive through.

"Archie," I whispered urgently.

"I know," he said. His face was chiseled from ice.

I was sure mine wasn't much better.

Now that I was looking, I could tell that it was very windy. The people crowding toward the gate gripped their hats and tugged their hair out of their faces. Their clothes billowed around them. I also noticed that the white was everywhere. White shirts, white hats, white flags dripping like long ribbons beside the gate, whipping in the wind – as I watched, a shimmering white scarf one woman had tied around her hair was caught in a sudden gust. It twisted up into the air above her, writhing like it was alive. She reached for it, jumping in the air, but it continued to flutter higher, a bright speck against the dull sepia of the ancient walls.

"Beau," Alice spoke quickly in a fierce, low voice. "I can't see what the guard here will decide now – if this doesn't work, you're going to have to go in alone. You're going to have to hurry without attracting too much attention. Just keep asking for the Palazzo dei Priori, and heading in the direction they tell you."

"Palazzo dei Priori," I repeated the name, immediately disliking how the words rolled off of my tongue.

"Or 'the clock tower,' if they speak English. I'll go around and try to find a secluded spot somewhere behind the city where I can go over the wall. By then, you will have hopefully found Edythe so she doesn't react rashly when she hears my mind for the first time."

I nodded.

"Edythe will be under the clock tower, to the north of the square. There's a narrow alleyway on the right, and she'll be in the shadow there. You have to get her attention before she can move into the sun."

I nodded furiously.

Archie was near the front of the line. A man in a navy blue uniform was directing the flow of traffic, turning the cars away from the full lot. They U-turned and headed back to find a place beside the road. Then it was Archie's turn.

The uniformed man motioned lazily, not paying attention. Archie accelerated, edging around him and heading for the gate. He shouted something at us, but held his ground, waving frantically to keep the next car from following our bad example.

The man at the gate wore a matching uniform. As we approached him, the throngs of tourists passed, crowding the sidewalks, some staring curiously – and others in open-mouthed shock – at the fancy Bugatti.

The guard stepped into the middle of the street. Archie angled the car carefully before he came to a full stop. The sun beat against my black tinted window, and he was in shadow. He swiftly reached behind the seat and grabbed something from his bag.

The guard came around the car with an irritated expression, and tapped on his window angrily. He rolled the window down halfway.

"I'm sorry, only tour buses allowed in the city today, sir," he said in English, with a heavy accent.

"It's a private tour," Archie said, flashing an alluring smile. He reached his hand out of the window, into the sunlight. I froze, until I realized he was wearing an elbow-length, tan glove. He took his hand, still raised from tapping his window, and pulled it into the car. He put something into his palm, and folded his fingers around it.

His face was dazed as he retrieved his hand and stared at the thick roll of money he now held.

The outside bill was a five hundred euro banknote.

"Is this a joke?" he mumbled.

Archie's smile was blinding. "Only if you think it's funny."

He looked at him, his eyes staring wide. I glanced nervously at the clock on the dash. If Edythe stuck to her plan, we had only five minutes left.

"I'm in a wee bit of a hurry," he hinted, still smiling.

The guard blinked twice, and then shoved the money inside his vest. He took a step away from the window and waved us on. None of the passing people seemed to notice the quiet exchange. Archie drove into the city, and we both sighed in relief.

The street was very narrow, cobbled with the same color stones as the faded cinnamon brown buildings that darkened the street with their shade. It had the feel of an alleyway. White flags decorated the walls, spaced only a few yards apart, flapping in the wind that whistled through the narrow lane. It was crowded, and the foot traffic slowed our progress.

"Just a little farther," Archie encouraged me; I was gripping the door handle, ready to throw myself into the street as soon as he told me to.

He drove in quick spurts and sudden stops, and the people in the crowd shook their fists at us and said angry words that made me glad I hadn't decided to read an English-Italian dictionary since I'd become a vampire.

In one of the brief stops, he handed me a pair of solid black, leather elbow-length gloves. I immediately put them on.

He turned onto a little path that couldn't have been meant for cars; shocked people had to squeeze into doorways as we scraped by. We found another street at the end. The buildings were taller here; they leaned together overhead so that no sunlight touched the pavement – the thrashing white flags on either side nearly met. The crowd was thicker here than anywhere else. Archie stopped the car. I had the door open before we were at a standstill.

I was immediately assaulted with thousands of smells – mostly the humans crowding the street – but in spite of all of them, the smells of dozens of vampires – that must roam these streets at all hours – permeated practically stronger than anything else. It almost completely overpowered my senses. Underneath it all was another scent that smelled similar to the wolves in La Push, albeit slightly different, but it was so subtle that I passed it off as my imagination.

He pointed to where the street widened into a patch of bright openness. "There – we're at the southern end of the square. Run straight across, to the right of the clock tower. I'll find a way around –"

"They're everywhere, Archie," I hissed the words. I wasn't sure if I was talking more about the humans... or the vampires.

He practically pushed me out of the car. "Forget about them. You have two minutes. Keep your hood up and go, Beau, go!" he shouted, climbing out of the car as he spoke.

I didn't pause to watch Archie don the other cloak and melt into the shadows going the opposite direction. I didn't stop to close my door behind me. I gently shoved a heavy woman out of my way and hurried in the direction I was told to go, head down, paying little attention to anything.

Coming out of the dark lane, I was blinded by the brilliant sunlight beating down into the principal plaza. The wind whooshed into me, and I immediately reached up so I could prevent the hood from flying backwards, extremely grateful for the gloves I'd been given. I still had my head down so I didn't see the wall of humans until I practically rammed through them. I pulled up short.

There was no pathway, no crevice between the close pressed bodies. I pushed my way through them furiously, even as I made a conscious effort to not be too rough. I ignored the words that were flung at me along with the glancing feather-like blows when people tried to force me back with their hands and elbows. The faces were a blur of anger and surprise, surrounded by the ever-present white. A blonde woman scowled at me, and shook her fist in anger. A child, lifted on a man's shoulders to see over the crowd, grinned down at me, his lips distended over a set of plastic vampire fangs.

The throng jostled around me, practically forcing me off course. I was glad the clock was so visible, or I'd never be certain of the direction I was heading. But both hands on the clock pointed up toward the pitiless sun, and, though I shoved viciously against the crowd, I knew I was too late. I wasn't even halfway across. I wasn't going to make it.

I hoped Archie would get out. I hoped that he would see and know that I going to fail, so he could escape and return home to Jessamine.

I listened, above the angry exclamations, trying to hear the sound of discovery: the gasp, maybe the scream, as Edythe came into someone's view.

But there was a break in the crowd – I could see a bubble of space ahead. I pushed urgently toward it, not realizing till I ran into a low brick wall, that a square fountain was set into the center of the plaza.

I could practically hear Archie in my head telling me not to draw attention to myself, but I was out of time. So I flung my leg over the edge and darted through the knee-deep water as fast as I dared to go. It sprayed all around me as I thrashed my way across the pool. The fountain was very wide; it let me cross the center of the square and then some in mere seconds. I didn't pause when I hit the far edge – I used the low wall as a springboard, throwing myself into the crowd.

They moved more readily for the pazzo in nero massiccio, as the people muttered around me, trying to avoid the icy water that splattered from my dripping cloak as I ran. I glanced up at the clock again.

A deep, booming chime echoed through the square. It throbbed in the stones under my feet.

Children cried, covering their ears.

"Edythe!" I shouted, knowing it was useless. The crowd was too loud, even for someone such as myself, to hear for more than a few feet in any direction.

The clock tolled again. I ran past a child in his mother's arms – his hair was almost as white as the flags in the dazzling sunlight. A circle of tall men, all wearing white blazers, called out warnings as I dashed past them. The clock tolled again.

On the other side of the men in blazers, there was a break in the throng, space between the sightseers who milled aimlessly around me. My eyes searched the dark narrow passage to the right of the wide square edifice under the tower. I still couldn't see much on the street level – there were still too many people in the way.

The clock tolled again, and I prepared to forget the human facade all together. I was not going to let Edythe be destroyed while I was this close.

A little family of four stood nearest to the alley's mouth. The two girls wore silver – not white – dresses, with matching ribbons tying their dark hair back. The father wasn't tall. It seemed like I could see something bright in the shadows, just over his shoulder. I hurtled toward them, wishing that I'd been gifted with a vision that let me see through physical objects. The clock tolled, and the littlest girl clamped her hands over her ears.

The older girl, just waist high on her mother, hugged her mother's leg and stared into the shadows behind them. As I watched, she tugged on her mother's elbow and pointed toward the darkness. The clock tolled, I was so close now.

Her father stared at me in surprise as I bore down on them.

The older girl giggled and said something to her mother, gesturing toward the shadows again impatiently.

I swerved around the father – he clutched the baby out of my way – and sprinted for the gloomy breach behind them as the clock tolled over my head.

"Edythe, no!" I shouted, but my voice was lost in the roar of the chime.

I could see her now. And I could see that she could not see me, because her eyes were closed.

It was really her, no hallucination or insane figment of my imagination. And I realized that my delusions were more flawed than I'd realized; they'd never done her justice.

Edythe stood, motionless as a statue, just a few feet from the mouth of the alley. There were deep purple rings under her eyes – a very small part of my mind wondered if that was how mine had looked in January. Her arms were relaxed at her sides, her palms turned forward. Her expression was very peaceful, like she was dreaming pleasant things. She wore a white silk dress that had a visible gleam, it was held up with the barest of spaghetti straps, it stopped above her knees. I'd never seen her in anything like it before, and a part of me noted just how much of a goddess she really looked, even in this moment. I made a mental note to thank Archie for not warning me, but I didn't have time to admire her.

The last six and a half months meant nothing. The letter, and all the pain it caused, meant nothing. And it did not matter if she truly did not want me. I would never want anything but her, no matter how long my immortality was.

The clock tolled, and she took a large stride toward the light.

"No!" I shouted. "Edythe, look at me!"

She wasn't listening. She smiled very slightly. She raised her foot to take the step that would put her directly in the path of the sun.

I took a calculated risk, taking the last ten yards before her foot even had a chance to fall.

I used all my strength to shove her deeply into the alley, pushing her against the brick wall. In that instant, I didn't care if I was rough, just so long as it saved her life.

Her dark eyes opened slowly as the clock tolled again.

She looked down at me with quiet surprise.

"Amazing," she said, her exquisite voice full of wonder, slightly amused. "Carine was right."

"Edythe, we need to get out of here, now." Even as I said it, I realized a big problem with my plan. She was as close to naked as I'd honestly ever seen her, far too visible to get away. I could give her my cloak though and she could leave with Archie. Perhaps Archie had seen me staying in Volterra for a reason other than my initial assumption.

She seemed bemused. Her hand brushed softly against my cheek. She didn't appear to notice that I was talking to her. The clock tolled, but she didn't react.

It was very strange, for I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt well. Whole. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off her skin. It was like the damning pain of the last months had never happened. I was perfect – not healed, but as if the time had been a mere figment of my imagination.

"I can't believe how quick it was. I didn't feel a thing – they're very good," she mused, closing her eyes again and pressing her lips against my neck. Her voice was perfectly melodious. "Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath had no power yet upon thy beauty," she murmured, and I knew the quote of Romeo's well, but was surprised to hear it from her lips, knowing how much she despised that play. The clock boomed out its final chime. "You still smell and look like a vampire," she went on. "So maybe this is hell. I don't care. I'll take it."

I finally understood her misconception, and part of me understood with a deep sadness, that her words meant she'd rather I was still human, but I pushed it aside – accepting that I could deal with that grief later. "I'm not dead," I interrupted. "And neither are you! Please Edythe, we have to go. They can't be far away!"

She pulled back a little ways, her brow furrowing in confusion.

"What was that?" she asked politely.

"We're not dead, not yet! But we have to get out of here before the Volturi –"

Comprehension flickered on her face as I spoke. Before I could finish she and I switched positions in a move so startlingly fast, even my mind was shocked.

She stood in front of me, facing away, her arms outstretched as she crouched slightly.

I peeked around her to see two figures detach themselves from the gloom. Their eyes gleamed red as they stepped towards us.

"Greetings, ladies," Edythe's voice was calm and pleasant, on the surface. "I don't think I'll be requiring your services today. I would appreciate it very much, however, if you would send my thanks to your masters."

"Shall we take this conversation to a more appropriate venue?" a smooth voice whispered menacingly.

"I don't believe that will be necessary." Edythe's voice was harder now. "I know your instructions, Fahima. I haven't broken any rules."

"Fahima merely meant to point out the proximity of the sun," the other said in a soothing tone. They were both concealed within cloaks similar to my own – except theirs were smoky gray, instead of black. "Let us seek better cover."

"I'll be right behind you," Edythe said dryly. "Beau, why don't you go ahead and go."

"The boy comes to," Fahima said.

"I don't think so." The pretense of civility disappeared. Edythe's voice was flat and icy. Her weight shifted infinitesimally, and I could see that she was preparing to fight.

"No." I mouthed the word. I went to step forward.

He hand shoved me back. "Shh," she murmured, only for me.

"Fahima," the second, more reasonable one cautioned. "Not here." She turned to Edythe. "Sulpicia would simply like to speak with you again, if you have decided not to force our hand after all."

"Certainly," Edythe agreed. "But the boy goes free."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," the polite one said regretfully. "He broke the rules."

"You may make another vampire believe that, but I hear your thoughts. That family was from out of town and they were never going to make it back home. So I'm afraid I'll be unable to accept Sulpicia's invitation, Demeter."

Edythe's words made me glance past them. The family of four was gone. Other humans had already moved into the space that they'd been.

"That's just fine," Fahima purred, she was very big, tall and musculature. Her size reminded me of Eleanor.

"Sulpicia will be disappointed," Demeter sighed.

"I'm sure she'll survive the let down," Edythe replied.

Fahima and Demeter stole closer toward the mouth of the alley, spreading out slightly so they could come at us from two sides. They meant to force us deeper into the alley, to avoid a scene. No reflected light found access to their skin; they were safe inside their cloaks.

Edythe didn't move an inch. We were both doomed if we didn't find an escape soon. I opened my mouth to agree to go with them as long as they let her go.

Abruptly, Edythe's head whipped around, toward the darkness of the winding alley, as did Demeter's and Fahima's. I didn't turn to look though, I recognized the footsteps.

"Let's behave ourselves, shall we?" Archie suggested. "There are humans present."

Archie stepped casually to Edythe's side. He had his black cloak on just like mine and he seemed almost too casual.

Demeter and Fahima straightened up, glancing at each other in discontent. Fahima's face soured. Apparently they didn't like being outnumbered.

"We're not alone," he reminded them.

Demeter glanced over her shoulder. A few yards into the square were three teenage girls varying in age. They all wore yellow sundresses and had wide-brimmed white hats on them. Another girl in the same outfit as them, closer to a woman than the rest, was next to the people in blazers and pointing our way.

Demeter shook her head. "Please, Edythe, let's be reasonable," she said.

"Let's," Edythe agreed. "And we'll leave quietly now, with no one the wiser."

Demeter sighed in frustration. "At least let us discuss this more privately."

Six men in blazers now joined the girls as they watched us with anxious expressions – I was starting to realize the men must be part of the human police. I was very conscious of Edythe's protective stance in front of me – sure that this was what caused their alarm. I wanted to shout at them to run.

Edythe's teeth came together audibly. "No."

Fahima smiled.

"Enough."

The voice was soft, velvety... deadly.

I spun towards the sound just as a young boy came into view. His eyes were the same gleaming red as theirs. His cloak, unlike theirs, was almost black – more similar still to the ones that both Archie and I wore. He was short, about the same height as Archie, and he looked like a child. Was he even fourteen?

His size was insignificant, but I'd seen how both Fahima and Demeter had relaxed the instant he'd spoke before I'd spun to face this new threat. Just how powerful was this boy?

Edythe relaxed her position – the defeat clear in her pose.

"Alec," she sighed in resignation.

Archie folded his arms over his chest, his face impassive.

"Follow me," Alec spoke again, his voice a monotone. He turned his back on us and drifted silently into the depths of the alley.

Fahima gestured for us to go first, smirking.

Archie walked after the little Alec at once. Edythe wrapped her arm around my waist and we walked side by side almost instinctively. The alley angled slightly downward as it narrowed. I looked at her with frantic questions in my eyes, but she just shook her head.

I could hear the others silently walking behind us.

"Well, Archie," Edythe said conversationally as we walked. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you here."

"It was my mistake," Archie answered in the same tone. "It was my job to set it right."

"What happened?" Her voice was polite, as if she were barely interested. I imagined this was due to the listening ears behind us.

"It's a long story." Archie's eyes flickered toward me and away. "In summary, he did fight with Victor, but he had help and then Victor fled, but left a special kind of present for Beau to deal with."

I could imagine what she was hearing in Archie's thoughts now. My fight with Lauren, my encounters with Victor, my friendship with the wolves, my even more inappropriate feelings when it came to Jules...

"Hm," Edythe said curtly, and the casual tone of her voice was gone.

I could feel her eyes on me, but didn't turn my head to look at her. I didn't want to see what she was thinking at the moment, whether she was incredulous that I could kill or accusing that I did it. My imagination allowed me to visualize both, all without finding out which she was actually leaning towards.

There was a loose curve to the alley, still slanting downward, so I didn't see the squared-off dead end coming until we reached the flat, windowless, brick face. The little one called Alec was nowhere to be seen.

Archie didn't hesitate, didn't break pace, as he strode toward the wall. Then, with easy grace, he slid down an open hole in the street.

It looked like a drain, sunk into the lowest point of the paving. I hadn't noticed it until Archie disappeared, but the grate was halfway pushed aside. The hole was small, and black.

Edythe pushed me forward a little as I grimaced.

I eyed the hole dubiously, but stepped forward and dropped into the hole without any further prompting. There wasn't enough room for Edythe and me to go at the same time.

I touched the ground a moment later, barely noticing as I landed perfectly on my feet.

It was dim, but not black at the bottom. The light from the hole above provided a faint glow, reflecting wetly from the stones under my feet. The light vanished for a second, and then Edythe was beside me. She put her arm around me, holding me close to her side, and we began to head down the tunnel. I wrapped an arm around her waist in turn, and tried not to think of the gloomy walls and ground which I could see perfectly well.

The grate was closed behind us, removing the small amount of light from the tunnel, but it did nothing to stop me seeing how freaky this tunnel actually looked. Were these catacombs?

Edythe held me tightly. She reached her free hand across her body to briefly touch my face, her thumb sweeping across my lips. I realized that this was the only reunion we would get, and I clutched myself closer to her.

I was relatively sure, even if they let Archie and Edythe go, I'd sealed my own fate, no matter what Edythe had heard in their thoughts.

Even though her words above when she'd thought we were both dead had made her feelings about me clear, she still would reach out and touch me occasionally, and so I allowed myself to fall into the belief that, for now at least, she perhaps did still love me. I let myself believe that if we somehow got out of this, then I'd get to be with her forever. I knew it was a lie, but I still imagined it.

Of course, I didn't need to ask what my fate was surely going to be. I already knew what it was going to be all too well.

The path beneath our feet continued to slant downward, taking us deeper into the ground, and it made me claustrophobic.

I couldn't tell where the light was coming from, but it slowly turned dark gray instead of black.

We were in a low, arched tunnel. Long trails of ebony moisture seeped down the gray stones, like they were bleeding ink.

We walked through the tunnel at a brisk walk, and I heard one of them sigh behind us, as if we were moving too slowly for her preference. Well, it was Alec that was setting the pace.

At the end of the tunnel was a grate – the iron bars were rusting, but thick as my arm. A small door made of thinner, interlaced bars was standing open. We ducked through and hurried on, to a larger, brighter stone room. The grille slammed shut with a clang, followed by the snap of a lock. I didn't dare look behind me.

On the other side of the long room was a low, heavy wooden door. It was very thick – I could tell because it, too, stood open.

We stepped through the door, and I glanced around me in surprise, relaxing automatically. Beside me, Edythe tensed, her jaw clenched tight.

AN: Per Google Translate: pazzo in nero massiccio = crazy man in solid black. I in no way guarantee the validity of that.

For Alec and Jane, rather than gender-swap and give them new names, I merely power-swapped.

I'll be writing and likely posting Bitter Reminder from Bonnie's POV tomorrow, but chapter twenty-one should be up in two days.