I woke up on the sofa with my mother's battered copy of Romeo and Juliet laid on my face. I groaned and stretched. I could see that the light was coming through the window, so it wasn't night time. I placed the book on the shelf and made my way upstairs. I opened Chaska's door and peered into his room. He wasn't there. I suddenly had a sense of panic run through me. What if he'd been kidnapped again? I ran into mine and Jacob's room, hoping they were playing in there. But neither of them were present. I pulled my phone from my nightstand and dialled Jacob's number. He answered. "Jacob! Do you have Chaska?" I panicked. I heard Jacob sigh, in exasperation? "Yes, I've taken him to see my dad while I patrol. Is that okay? I left a note in the kitchen." I relaxed and sat on the bed. "Of course it is. I just panicked. Stay safe. I love you." He chuckled at my overprotective 'stay safe' and told me he loved me too. I put my phone into my jeans pocket and considered what to do with my day.
I didn't like hunting on my own, so I decided to go and see if anyone wanted to come with me. When I pulled up at the house, Alice and my mother were waiting for me. "I want to see how far we can run today." Alice announced. My mother laughed, "You already know how far we can run Alice, you've seen what we're gonna do this afternoon." She pouted a little and then took each of us, with each of her hands. We ran north of the house and stayed well hidden in forest lands. I took down a cougar along the way, and then a deer. Alice took down a male lynx. She'd never tried it before. My mother was slow to hunt, after hunting with my father yesterday. She only took down one deer. We carried on running north. By noon time were weren't far from the Yukon border. "So we're going to Tanya's?" My mother asked. Alice nodded but didn't expand. We followed the coast around and then started heading East. Once we were in Yukon Alice called Tanya. "Tanya, is it okay if we call? We shall be there in just over an hour… Yes, that's lovely… No nothing's wrong, Carlisle just wanted me to speak with you, nothing is serious, I promise… Thank you… Yes we'll see you soon." Alice spoke into the phone. I looked over at my mother and raised my eyebrows. She shuck her head infinitesimally.
We arrived in Alaska at the exact time Alice had predicted. It was just after three o'clock. We'd have made it there a lot faster if we hadn't stopped to hunt, and if I wasn't slightly slower than my vampire mother and aunt. Tanya greeted us with open arms. Her sister, Kate, was thrilled to see me. I got along very well with Kate, she was a very thoughtful person. But in all honesty, I thought her mate, Garrett, was the funniest vampire I'd ever met. Tanya invited us into her sitting room. We sat and waited for Carmen and Eleazar to join us. Once they came inside and were seated, Alice began. "Carlisle wants to know if you've heard anything about the Romanians? Or any other possible uprising?" Alice shot a sideways glance at me. Tanya opened her mouth to answer, but I couldn't help myself. "Vladimir and Stefan? What's happened?" I interjected. I had met them when I was still a child, the first time we had faced the Volturi. No one else seemed to like them, but I found them very interesting. They were the rulers of the vampire world before the retched murderers.
"Its nothing to worry about, Renesmee, Carlisle just believes that after our last encounter that they will try and claim power." Alice explained. Tanya nodded, understanding why Carlisle had thought this. "The last we heard was that a clan from Colorado were trying to gather as many gifted as possible." Tanya informed. I cringed at the fact that there would no doubt be many battles in the future for us. Eleazar spoke for the first time today. "There has been more problems in Volterra. The city has been rebuilt and now nomads are invading, trying to take power. None of them last long. So far there hasn't been many fights that we have heard of. But with no one to deliver punishment, there has been more human blood shed than imaginably possible." Every sighed. "I don't understand why our families can't just become the leaders. We've worked well in the past." Carmen mused. Garrett chuckled at her naivety. "We can't become the ruling body. We'd have to kill people. There can be no authority with out fear, to establish fear you need to do ruthless things, not empty threats. Not only that, we'd have to battle for our right to lead. We'd have no freedom." Garrett was still a patriot, as Aro had said. "We just need to look out for ourselves, and our families." Kate smiled, winding her hand into Garrett's. He kissed her cheek. "That is very true. We just need to protect our families. Speaking of which Tanya, where's your fiancé?" My mother suggested. Tanya's musical laugh filled the room. None of us had yet to meet Tanya's future husband, Andrew.
After much talk of the wedding plans, the door opened. A dark haired, golden eyed vampire walked in. It was obvious that he'd just been hunting because of how gold his eyes were. He took Tanya's hand and smiled over at us. "Andrew, this is Alice, Bella and Renesmee." Tanya said, and then spoke to us, "This is my fiancé, Andrew." He smiled shyly and then spoke, "Its nice to meet you all." His voice was deeper than I'd expected. He was undoubtedly beautiful, as all vampires were. I could see why Tanya found him attractive. "Andrew's from England. He's just celebrated his 100th birthday!" Tanya swooned. This surprised me a little, I'd never expected him to be from England, his accent didn't indicate anything. I was also shocked that Tanya had mentioned his age. None of us, not even Carlisle, knew how old Tanya was. She was very touchy about that. Even as an immortal. Andrew seemed like a very thoughtful vampire. He considered himself not to have a gift, but Tanya said his personality was his gift. They were very sweet together. He was changed when he fell for a succubus (not too dissimilar from Tanya herself) and she didn't have the heart to kill him, so after drinking some of his blood she forced herself to stop and ran away. Andrew never saw her again. He was nineteen when he was changed. Tanya told us the wedding was to be in a matter of months. When it was time for us to leave, Tanya gave us the invitation. She warned us to keep her informed on the politics and feuds, if anything new was discovered.
As we ran my mother started to ask Alice questions. "Have you ever seen anything like this, Alice?" Her voice was masking her concern. I could tell this very well nowadays. "No, the Volturi were in power since before I was created. And I can't see what the future is going to be because there are too many decisions involved." She sighed. Nothing frustrated Alice more than not knowing what her future held. "I hope we can just be left in peace. I just want to have a quiet… existence, with no interference from people I do not care for!" My mother never ranted. "Bella, I totally agree. Its not far, but there is nothing we can do. We just have to deal the hand that has been given to us, so-to-speak." It felt like there was no hope for a happy ruling. And for some reason it felt vital for my family, we were so concerned by it. I knew that I was concerned for the world that my son would grow up in. My family were concerned for my son, and my own sanity, and to be quite frank I was unsure why Tanya's family was so concerned. I put it down to the diet of animal blood, Carlisle had always said that it made us more human, and more in tune to emotions and physical pain. I believed that they were concerned for the unnecessary blood shed of the humans, and the deaths of many vampires. The vampire world was changing, I could feel it. Whether we would be directly involved or not, I was unsure.