~21~

I didn't have time to think, and before I knew it, I threw the burning candlestick into Aro's leering face. I watched as the flames began to burn his malicious smile and suddenly Aiden was sweeping me up into his arms and practically flying up the stairs in the tower.

"Get them!" I heard Aro shout to the guard as we ran up the tower. I could only imagine what they would do to us now once they caught up with us.

In a second, we were up at the top of the tower, looking out onto the city below us.

"They're coming now!" Aiden shouted and in a flash he jumped out of the tower, still carrying me, and we landed several feet below it on the roof of the castle.

"Grab onto my back!" Aiden shouted to me, as we dangled from the side of the slanted roof, only one of his hands holding on.

I clamored out of his arm that was around me and climbed onto his back. "You're crazy," I shouted as we hung from the building.

"Well how else were we gonna save our asses? I didn't see you having any brilliant ideas," he said back at me.

I looked back up at the tower and saw Demetri and Felix, along with two other members of the Volturi, looking down at us from the tower. "Aiden go, they're coming!"

As they started to jump off the tower, Aiden climbed back onto the roof and began to crawl along it. I heard the four Volturi guard right on our tails, but I didn't dare look back. I closed my eyes, feeling the wind hit my face as Aiden ran along.

Suddenly, I felt us travel downward and I opened my eyes to see us land on the roof of another section of the castle, and within seconds, Felix reached to grab us, when Aiden flung us through a window. I felt the glass hit my skin as we landed face down onto the stone floor of the castle.

I looked up to see the chamber that led into the big circular room surrounding us. I leapt to my feet, helping Aiden up with me, as Felix came through the broken glass window and picked up Aiden and threw him down hard onto the stone floor.

"No!" I screamed, but it was useless, because I felt myself collapse to the ground as a stabbing pain swept through my body. At first I thought someone had thrown millions of little knives at my body, but when I turned my head, I saw Jane glaring down on me, smiling her malicious smile, that let me know her gift was working on me.

I continued to writhe in pain on the ground, letting out screams of agony, and I saw Aiden hover over me with what seemed like agony from watching all over his face. Screams of fury then escaped his lips and he jumped over me, knocking small little Jane to the floor.

I immediately got up from the cold stone floor, and by the time I was up, my father was standing next to me.

"Get Aiden out of here as quickly as you can. I'll stay with Carlisle and try to reason with them," he said to me.

"But Daddy," I whined. I didn't want to leave him behind. I was afraid of what they would do to him.

"Go!" he screamed, "I will meet you back in Buffalo as soon as I can." And with that, he charged after Felix, and through him into the wall. I saw Carlisle out of the corner of my eye go for Demetri, and I ran to Aiden, yanking him off of Jane.

"Come on!" I screamed as he threw me onto his back again and we took off down the hallway as fast as we could. We reached the front door within seconds, and threw ourselves out of it and onto the stone steps of the castle, the sunlight hitting us.

"The car!" I shouted to him. We ran to the car that Carlisle had parked in the dark alley next to the castle. "Aiden please tell me you know how to drive," I said to him, my words coming out in a rush.

"Well, I've had a few lessons," he answered.

"Better than me," I said as I pushed him into the driver's seat.

I climbed into the passenger side and Aiden floored it, driving as fast he could through the stream of people walking the streets of the city. Every so often he would put his foot on the break too fast and the car would stop abruptly, but then he'd just slam his foot harder on the gas again.

"Why are we driving anyway?" he asked me, still keeping his eyes on the road.

"Because they won't suspect us to drive. They would expect us to run to the nearest airport or to another part of the country or something," I said.

"But then, wouldn't they be at the airport already waiting for us by the time we got there?" he asked.

"Well let's just hope they're not that smart and they're not there," I said.

About 40 minutes later, we made it to the airport, and we parked on the side of the road in the front, and dashed inside. Luckily, a plane to New York was about to take off and we were able to make it in time on it before it took off.

From our seats in the back, we glanced around the giant plane, and didn't see any members of the Volturi anywhere. I looked out the window as the plane rolled down the runway and took off. I finally felt relief and peace with Aiden sitting right next to me and knowing that he was safe, but I felt fear and terror run through me as I thought of my father and Carlisle whom I left behind in the midst of the Volturi's wrath.