Chapter 25

Bella
Jasper helped Alice to her feet. She seemed strangely weakened, not quite herself. The haunted look in her eyes made me shiver. She now knew where Nessie was, but there was no joy or excitement in the revelation for her. It seemed only a small part of what she'd seen. Since she'd said my name repeatedly during her vision, I knew a large portion of it concerned me, and that it was bad, but she refused to reveal any of the details save for the whereabouts of my daughter.
I gently placed my hands on either side of her face.
"Alice," I said softly. "Where's Nessie?"
She was silent for a moment, staring down as if she were finding it difficult to look at me. Slowly, she raised her head and met my gaze with an expression of infinite sadness. Her huge, dark eyes swam with horror, and seemed to fill the world until I could see nothing else.
"She's in Romania. Moldavia, to be exact. I saw…Stefan and Vladimir talking about her, about how we'd be coming for her soon," she whispered, frowning slightly. "They seemed happy about that," she added, almost in an offhand manner. A low, menacing growl emanated from Edward's chest. I knew there was more that she wanted to say, that telling me who had my daughter was not at the forefront of her mind. The indecision on her face was painfully evident as she struggled with herself.
"No, Alice," Edward growled. "There's no point in saying more. You know as well as anyone that your visions are not infallible. We need to concentrate on Renesmee right now. We need to figure out why Stefan and Vladimir took her."
"Who cares why those creepy bloodsuckers took her!" Jacob exclaimed. "We know where she is, so let's go!" He began to stomp off in the direction of the airport terminal, but Edward grabbed his arm to restrain him.
"Wait, Jacob. We need to figure out how we're going to approach the situation before we go storming off to Romania. We don't know what tricks those two fiends have up their sleeves."
Jacob sighed heavily and began tapping his foot impatiently. "Ok, so, come up with a game plan already. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm getting a little tired of these wild goose chases. So far, we've come up empty handed with everything we've done and every place we've gone. But I trust Alice's visions," he gestured to Alice as he said this, and she grimaced in response. "So let's figure this thing out and get going!"
"Alice said they already know we're coming, so we could be walking into a trap," Edward mused.
"That doesn't matter. I agree with Jacob. We need to go now. I'm not going to wait any longer to have my daughter back in my arms," I huffed determinedly. I sensed that Edward's and Alice's hesitation had more to do with the possible fate Alice had seen for me than in any scheming on the part of the Romanians, and it angered me. Renesmee was far more important than anything that might happen to me.
"Maybe…" Alice said hesitantly, "Maybe Bella should stay behind. Some of us could stay with her, and the rest of us could go on ahead to Romania."
I stared at her in disbelief, and did not miss the meaningful look that passed between her and Edward. There was a hopeful gleam in his eyes, a hope that he should have known better than to trust in.
"No! No way, Alice. There's no way in hell that I'm staying behind. She's my daughter, for crying out loud! Of course I'm going with you!" I shrieked.
Edward wrapped his arms around my shoulders in an effort to calm and quiet me. The small spark of hope was gone, replaced by a resigned disappointment. Did they not know me at all? Did they actually think for one second that I would agree to stay behind?
"Why should Bella have to stay here?" Jacob questioned, a puzzled look on his face. He'd obviously not picked up on the tension between Edward, Alice, and I over her vision, he was so focused on getting Renesmee back. I didn't blame him one bit. I knew he was going crazy without her, like we all were.
"It's not important," I said quickly. I didn't want anyone else worrying about me. "We should just go. Besides, we all may need my shield for protection. As Edward pointed out, we don't know what the Romanians have in store for us."
The rest of our group nodded and murmured in agreement. I didn't believe that Stefan and Vladimir were in this by themselves. They had to be in collusion with other vampires to have pulled this off. The two half vampire women that Jacob, Embry, and Seth remembered being on their plane were proof of that.
Edward sighed and turned to Demetri. The member of the Volturi guard had stood silently by, taking it all in. I knew he couldn't wait to return to Volterra to report back to Aro everything he had learned. "Demetri, it looks as though we will no longer be needing your services. Please tell Aro that we appreciate his help," Edward said grudgingly.
Demetri merely nodded, and said, "Of course. Nothing pleases Aro more than to be able to help his friends."
I almost gagged at hearing this, but fought it back. I just wanted to be rid of Demetri and whoever else had followed him here so we could be free to go to my daughter.
Demetri turned to go, then hesitated. "You are more than welcome to continue to use the jet, if you'd like. It would be more convenient, and perhaps a faster means of travel for you," he offered.
Edward looked to Carlisle, who shrugged his shoulders. "It's up to you, Edward," he said.
"Thank you, Demetri, that is most generous of you. We accept. We'll return the plane as soon as we can."
Demetri nodded again, then was gone in the blink of an eye. Our group headed back toward the plane, where the human pilot sat slumped in the cockpit, catching a cat nap. A brave man indeed, to be transporting a plane full of monsters without the slightest hint of fear about him. Or rather, a completely oblivious man.
Once on the plane and heading east, I noted that Jacob was practically bouncing in his seat, though there was a look of pure exhaustion on his face.
"Jake, why don't you try and get some sleep?" I suggested. "It will be a few hours until we arrive, and there's not much else to do right now."
"You know Bells, I don't think I've ever flown as much in my life as I have this past week," he grinned weakly. "It makes me nervous. 'Sides, I don't think I'll be able to sleep until we get Nessie back." He yawned hugely and settled back into his seat. Despite his words, he was soon fast asleep and snoring softly. I was glad. He needed to rest, to catch up on his sleep so he could be fully refreshed for what was to come. I had no idea how the upcoming confrontation would play out. With so many of us, it seemed almost too easy to take out the Romanians and rescue Nessie. I tried not to think about Alice's vision, concentrating instead on Nessie's beautiful face, how happy our reunion would be. We're coming, sweetheart. Just hold on a little while longer.