Alice finally finished talking on the phone. She handed the phone to Jasper, who continued talking at those annoying vampire speeds.
"Stupid, overly dramatic..." she muttered.
She looked at me with wide, frightened eyes. I'd never seen her like this. Even when we were getting chased by James she'd always remained confident. She had always been so sure that nothing would happen, that we'd make it through ok.
"What did Edward tell you about the Volturi?"
I thought back to my conversations with Edward, trying to think of any mention of the Volturi.
"I don't really remember. What are the Volturi?"
"The Volturi are the closest thing to royalty that we have in the Vampire world," Alice answered. I looked at her in confusion. Honestly, the Cullens lived like royalty, I wondered what the people who were considered the kings and queens of their world must be like.
"The Volturi are an incredibly powerful coven of vampires. Not like us, either. They make and enforce all our laws."
"What do you mean they aren't like you?"
"They don't eat animals, do they?" Matt asked.
She shook her head. "Edward went to them to try to commit suicide," she said, her voice breaking.
I gasped, as what she said sank in. All the pain I'd felt was nothing compared to thinking about anything happening to Edward. Every injury I'd ever had seemed to flair up, every bruise and break and stitch. The horrible lack, the hole in me from Edward not being in my life overwhelmed me, and I blacked out.
I came to as we pulled into a small airport.
"No!" Alice was shouting into a phone. "It has to be this way. We might have too many already. If he sees us coming..." she paused, waiting for the person on the other end of the line to say something. "No, it has to be Bella. If he hears any of us he'll just do it quicker. No, you all need to just stay put. I know. I love you too." She clicked the phone shut.
"What do you mean? What do I have to do?" I asked Alice.
"Edward thinks you're dead."
"What?" Why would he think that? Why would he even care? Did he actually have any feelings for me?
"You really need to hear this explanation from him. But he really does love you, and he's been a complete mess ever since he left. He's going to try to provoke the Volturi into killing him by breaking just about the only rule we have. He's going to show humans what he is, and the Volturi enforce that rule very stridently."
They'd kill him! "Alice! We have to stop him! Why don't you get the whole family to go drag him back? We can't let him do this," I pleaded.
"If he senses anyone coming to stop him, it's just going to make him do it all the quicker. He hasn't even gotten to the Volturi yet. First he'll ask them, and they'll "think" about it, even though Aro would never kill someone with as great a gift as Edward's. That should buy us some time. He still hasn't decided what he'll do to provoke them anyhow when they won't kill him. We've got time, if we can just get you to him, it'll all be ok."
We got on a private jet that Carlisle had chartered while we were on the drive over. Even when chasing Edward in my dreams, even when he had told me how I was no good for him, I had never wished to be a vampire as much as I do now. To be able to run at such break neck speeds and not stumble, to be able to run to him immediately and stop him from killing us both.
After Alice told me, I was to nervous to even sit still. I would have probably been pacing up and down the aisle of the little jet we were on, except that Jasper (or I assume it was Jasper, perhaps I just was that tired) hit me with a smothering blanket of lethargy that soon had me nodding off to sleep. I tried to stay awake, but all I managed was to keep drifting in and out of consciousness. I would wake up to Alice stroking my hair, looking at me with sad eyes, or Jasper and Matt deep in conversation that I should have been able to catch but couldn't in my half awake state.
I couldn't tell if it was hours or days that I was like that, though I know it must have only been a few hours before we landed.
I heard Alice growl as we exited the plane.
"What is it?"
"The Volturi just told Edward their decision. That was much quicker than I thought they would. We need to hurry," she said, her eyes scanning a collection of parked cars separated from us by a chain link fence.
Author's note: Again, sorry I didn't update as fast as I wanted to. I meant to have this done last night, but things intruded. Now I have to go write a paper on neurology and addiction (who doesn't like this topic, among us Edward lovers?), so while I can respond to comments, don't expect much in the way of updates today. But please, give me a reason to procrastinate some more.