"She's in Volterra!"

I saw Bella surge forward out of the corner of my eye. I didn't realize that she was falling, like dead weight, to the floor. I though that, like me, she was moving toward Alice, hands outstretched, about to shake the little sprite and ask her what the hell she was talking about.

As I took Alice's thin shoulders in my hands, Edward was the one to jump forward, to catch Bella in his arms before she could drop so gracelessly right onto her face. In my defense, I hadn't known that vampires could faint—if that was what you would call Bella's little swoon—and I was still being driven by my imprint.

It was obvious that Alice was distressed about Ren, that Ren was the one that was in Volterra, and that knowledge shot straight through my heart like an ice pick plunging into the frozen surface of a mountain, cracking all my defenses as I was seized with the idea that Ren was no longer in some unknown safe location. She was in the house of the enemy.

"Bella," Edward murmured, carefully placing his wife back onto her own two feet.

She sagged against him. All that strength in her granite legs seemed to mean nothing as she took in the enormity of the situation as easily as I did, reading between the vague lines of Alice's three word exclamation.

Alice, however, didn't see Bella fall. Maybe she was still caught up in whatever she'd seen in her head, or maybe she was overcome with the same sort of violent desperation as I was. Whatever the reason, she didn't spare Bella a glance as her sister-in-law pressed against Edward, her face ashen and drawn, a small, almost inaudible breath pressing past her lips.

"They got her?" I asked.

Alice shook her head, her eyes focusing on my face. I remembered a time when I would have done just about anything to keep a five foot, minimum, distance between us. I remembered how annoying I found her always-chipper voice and overly expressive eyes. Now, I watched her short-cropped brown hair sway around her face, saw the compassion she held for Ren, and felt the faintest of bonds between us.

I would have to remember to be disgusted later.

"No," Alice said. "She went right to them."

"What?" Edward and I demanded in unison.

I frowned at him in response, but Edward was focused on Alice. There was something in his face now that was even worse than Bella's look of grief. Where Alice was too expressive, Edward was the calm, impassive slab of rock, but now his eyes were reflecting something of his inner turmoil, and I thought that, if he really did have a soul, it was on fire right now, screaming inside of him.

Alice saw her brother's expression too. She lifted her hands to her face, pressing her palms to her cheeks and draping her fingers over her eyes. I thought she might have muttered Jasper's name in some sort of silent plea. I didn't know where Jasper was, so I squeezed her shoulders, hoping that I could be good enough for the moment.

"What are you talking about? Why did Ren go to the Volturi?"

Alice's fingers curled until they rested on her cheeks as well, her knuckles pressed into the purple blemishes underneath her eyes.

"They followed her when she left your house. She knew that they would keep following her and keep finding her, so she waited for them in Nashville, Tennessee," Alice said, talking like she was reciting lines from a book as she pulled her vision back out of her head. "She told them she would go with them. She figured that this way was better for anyone, so she won't be a burden anymore."

A burden? My fingers slid away from Alice's shoulders.

Shit, had I done this?

I had tried so hard to push Ren away that I had driven her right into the arms of her pursuers. I had crossed the line, that stupid line that had never been quite bold enough for me to navigate my way across.

Of course I'd crossed the fucking line! I'd had sex with her, and then I had told her that it was just sex. She might have manipulated me into it, but I had went along. I hadn't fought that hard, and I had used her for it, and then I had made her ashamed of it. I had been her last hope.

"I'm going to Volterra."

Three pairs of eyes turned toward me at once. Only Alice's held nothing close to a hint of disbelief.

"That's not your place," Edward snapped.

Despite the fact that Edward had no idea that I'd imprinted on his daughter, those words were not the ones to say to me. As soon as the imprint swallowed them, it rippled awake, growling in possessiveness. It wasn't like I didn't want an excuse to deck Cullen. I felt the flash of anger like a hot iron prodding me in the chest. Alice must have seen it as well, must have guessed at something of what was between Ren and me, because she stepped forward quickly, placing a light, but restraining, hand on my chest.

"No, Edward, I think he should be the one to go."

"What? Why?"

It was Bella's turn to become defensive as she stepped around her husband, who'd advanced toward me unwisely a second ago, to study Alice and I as if we'd both schemed Ren's disappearance up together. I scowled at Bella as she fell in line with her husband, forming a picture that seemed tarnished and not quite as attractive to me.

Funny that when her body reached physical perfection, it seemed like a downgrade to me. She wasn't who she once had been, and, whether because of my imprint or my own instincts, I felt a shift between us, a crack in the ground that was slowly yawning wider. At the moment, looking at her beside Edward, her arm on his shoulder as if she planned to restrain him as Alice restrained me, it was like looking at a stranger.

"Because," Alice said, "the Volturi guard will smell us and know that we're coming. Liam and Jane have had a brush with Jacob, but they're the only ones that know his smell, and I just—I know it has to be him to do this, okay?"

Bella looked up at me, evidently confused. It wasn't surprising, considering she'd felt this whole thing had been a scam I'd created just to see her again. Now she was having a hard time figuring out why I was still going along with the game, risking everything to go find and retrieve her daughter.

If she had any idea how badly my chest ached at the thought of the distance between Renesmee and myself at that second, she would have understood, and she would have forgotten any of her delusional ideas that I had come to Forks for her.

Thinking it might have been even part of the reason had been stupid on my part and on hers. I didn't know how to handle that yet. Maybe I never would.

"I don't understand," Bella murmured.

"Neither do I," Edward agreed, staring his sister suspiciously.

Alice returned his gaze. "We don't have time to debate this. Jacob has to get going before anything worse happens."

"I won't let anything worse happen," I promised instinctively, as my stomach tightened with nausea at the mere thought.

Alice smiled at me. "I know. Now, take this, and go."

Reaching into her pocket, Alice extracted a credit card and waved it in my face. I stared at it for a few moments considering rejecting. Regardless of the fact that I was feeling somewhat united with Alice at the moment, I still wasn't comfortable with taking anything from the Cullen's—especially money. I didn't want...I didn't like the idea of being in their debt.

Edward shifted, showing nerves. "Just take it, Jacob."

I really didn't want anything from Edward Cullen.

But the fact of the matter was that I was desperate to go after Renesmee, and I had depleted a good portion of my funds getting back to Forks. There was no way I could make it all the way to Italy on my salary. I might have been the best of the best, but I would never be upper class.

I reached out and took the card, stuffing it into my own pocket with a grimace. Alice gave me an encouraging smile, and I decided it was time to book out of there before things got any more strange and uneasy.

"I'll be back soon." I looked from Alice to Bella. "With Renesmee, I promise."

"I know," Alice told me.

She really did give me the creeps.

None of the vampires followed me to the door, which was fine by me. I let myself out and ducked into the misting of rain, averting my gaze from the dreary, gray sky that felt too much like a bad omen. I almost didn't see Sam, Leah, and Seth in my path until I was on top of them.

"What the--"

Sam caught me by the shoulders to protect us both from a collision. I stepped back after righting myself, looking at the three of them in confused suspicion. Leah and Seth were smiling smugly back at me, though Sam looked, as always, serious and grim.

"What are you guys doing?" I demanded.

"I told Sam that you shouldn't be doing this," Leah told me, "and he said that you could do whatever you wanted, so we decided that we were going to help you."

"Yeah," Seth chimed in, "so what are we doing first?"

I opened my mouth, closed it, and then looked at Sam in question. His expression remained the same, though he shrugged and gave Leah a quick glance, as if to say that she was the one making the decisions, and, perhaps, he'd agreed out of thought for his own safety. Leah did not like to be argued with.

This, however, was a different story.

"You guys can't help me. I'm going to Italy right now."

"Italy?" Seth choked.

But Leah only grinned. "I've always wanted to go to Italy. How are we getting there?"

"I'm getting there by plane. The Cullen's gave me their card."

"Oh! Well! Looks like we're all going on a vacation thanks to a generous donation from the Cullen's!" Leah clapped her hands together in a girly, excited sort of way that was unusual for her.

If I hadn't detected her malicious intent to getting something free at the expense of the vampires, I might have been worried about her.

"No, Leah, this is my problem," I told her.

She snorted. Even Sam seemed amused.

"It's our problem too, Jacob. We've been having issues with these vampires for awhile now. We're all going with you. It's the best and smartest idea. You can't face a legion of vampires alone."

It was a good point to make, and one that had been smartly deployed to make me reconsider. I hadn't exactly enjoyed the idea of facing a coven of ancient vampires on my own, but I also hadn't given much thought to the danger, considering Ren continued to hang in the balance, and that was all that mattered at the moment.

I made a face at Leah, grimacing at the idea of involving the three of them. The problem was that, now that I was stopping to think it over, it was the better choice. It was the choice with the better guarantee that the rescue mission would go over successfully. I hated the idea that I was willing to sacrifice the well-being of my friends to ensure the safety of Ren.

It made the acceptance of their offer harder to vocalize. It lodged in the back of my throat for several minutes as Leah continued to stare expectantly at me, her customary grin hanging across her lips. The urgency of time finally forced it from my mouth.

"All right. Fine. Let's go." I gestured to the three of them. "I'm sure the Cullen's won't mind the extra expense if it's a better guarantee for Renesmee."

Leah snorted. "Who cares about the expense to them! Did I mention I want to ride first class?"

"Nothing but the best for you, Clearwater," I responded.

---

RPOV

The cloak was the color of their blood lust.

Crimson was so much more than the shade of the Volturi's eyes. It was the thick shroud of their aura, the lust they felt for blood, the disdain they felt for humans, and the color of the royalty that made their spines rigid.

I didn't like it. I felt like a monster underneath the heavy cloth of the cloak. It made me shapeless and faceless as the sleeves slid inches past my fingers and the hood draped so far over my head that my face was a shadow, briefly showing faint mounds of shape if I turned in just the right light.

But there wasn't any light. The Volturi hid in the underground chambers in their fortress in Volterra, creeping through shadowy halls like phantoms with red eyes and vacant expressions. They were all so refined, so perfect. Nothing was out of place. Their clothes held no wrinkles but existed as if they had been permanently ironed flat. Their hair fell in whatever direction they wanted it, and it didn't move. Their makeup never smeared, and their teeth were never crooked. I had seen only one guard with a slight imperfection, but even the bump of his once-broken nose seemed to be intended.

I didn't like to be around any of them, and Aro sensed this—knew this. They let me occupy myself in the room they had given me without interruption the entire first day of my stay, and it put me more ill-at-ease than it would have if Liam had been sitting in the room with me, tapping his foot on the polished marble floor.

I was waiting for them to ask me to touch someone, to tell them what some stranger was thinking, to project my thoughts onto them. That was what they wanted, after all, tight? But the request didn't come, and I slept without being woken through my first night in the Volturi's haven, sprawled across silk sheets that made me feel like a foreigner.

I was actually glad the next morning when Liam came to fetch me from the room. I was starting to feel even smaller and more insignificant surrounded by the intricate vases propped on stands, the large, colorful painting of a landscape hung over an oak dresser, and, even, the draperies that hung around the four-poster bed I'd slept on.

To be sure that he'd retrieved me for the reason I was guessing, I brushed against him once—despite the fact that I would have rather have bitten off my own hand—and felt the shimmer of his thoughts skirt through my own. I smiled grimly.

Aro was preparing his speech, even now, to win me over to their side, formulating the best motivation to change my mind and heart, to convert me from the less prestigious ranks of vegetarian vampires to the ones with blood lust. Aro seemed to be entirely overlooking the fact that I was part human, that I had not, to this date, tasted human blood. He had told Liam his dream of me joining the ranks, and I saw that image inside of Liam's head as I brushed my arm against his, and I did not see how Aro could have imagined it as any more than a fantasy.

Despite my powers, I would never be part of the Volturi. I was part human. I stood for everything they disliked, and I felt all of those emotions they found so weak and foolish. I was also only half as strong as a normal vampire, and the only red drink I had ever cared for was fruit punch, not blood.

I didn't have anything to offer Aro. I had no interest in joining the Volturi. I didn't have the necessary drive or interest in my own personal gain to become like one of them.

But I did have something to ask of him. If this was the day that he felt like asking me for something, I felt that I had every right to ask him for something. He had, after all, completely ruined my life, chasing me away from my family, taking, more or less, everything I had for something that he wanted.

I pulled away from Liam. I stayed to the opposite side of the hall and did not brush him again, almost as if I was afraid that he could see my thoughts, that I might accidentally impress them upon him. I didn't want anyone to see the plan I had made by taking the thoughts I had pulled from someone else's mind a long time ago.

There had been moments in my brief life when I had seen my mother looking at my father in a very peculiar way. She would steal private glances at him when she felt that no one was watching, her expression becoming almost too painful to look at. It was something about the way her pupils would seem to dilate, her lips parting as if she was preparing to call my father back to her, though he was only a step or two away, sitting on the couch or leaning against the window to peer outside.

One day, I had seen this look cross my mother's face, and I had reached out and touched her on impulse. The flood of memories that had poured into my head had been overwhelming, colorful, and bleeding with the hurt that my mother could still feel aching raw inside of her from time to time.

The memory was brief and changed quickly, dancing through the streets of Volterra, past the red cloaks, racing to the clock tower as it chimed the hour. I saw her spot my father stepping out of the shadows. I felt the fear in her heart as she convulsed with the idea that she was almost too late, that my father would succeed with his death wish.

One step, she had thought so clearly inside of my head, and the Volturi would murder him like he had planned for them to.

The rest of this memory would come in spurts, but only this part stayed etched into the filmy substance of my brain, because it had been the moment when my life had hung in the balance, when my mother had felt the most acute sense of pain, and the first time I had learned how a vampire could die.

Were there more ways to kill a vampire hybrid? I didn't know, but I only needed one. Maybe I didn't sparkle like a vampire, but there were other ways to create a scene.