Chapter Twenty Six
Carlisle
I had wondered if Darius would answer my call for help although he knew how I left Volterra disillusioned by what I had found there. Expecting a fountain of knowledge that could be put to good use, I found the same petty jealousies and greed for power I had found among the humans. The only good thing the Volturi did was to keep our race a secret from the humans.
It avoided wide scale witch hunts, hundreds of innocent humans from being murdered as the monsters they clearly were not. It allowed vampires like me to live among the humans, granted the others in general fed on humans but our numbers were not that great that they killed too many and caused a problem and any that did or were careless the Volturi dispatched. They kept me safe and my family, but I still could not join them.
I felt somehow disappointed by finding most vampires were like the basest-born human. The thieves, murderers, and greedy, I had come across in my own time, in 17th century London. Man didn't change his ways, his nature, when he became a vampire, and that almost made me despair, but I made my own little world in my family and the work I did. Using my skills and the extra senses nature had endowed me with as a vampire to help the humans.
We drove as far as we could and completed the journey on foot through the forest until we reached Vulcan Lookout where we found a helicopter waiting and standing beside it a hand raised in greeting was my old friend himself.
"Darius, I can't thank you enough for coming to my aid."
"What are friends for if not to help each other but you do present quite a problem. The Volturi don't like losing their man so to speak and you have rather set the cat among the pigeons with your "family". You know I could have told you this would happen one day. You never admitted your own charisma Carlisle, but it has brought to you a group of very interesting gifts and the Volturi want those gifts, you know how greedy and paranoid Aro is."
"Yes, I thought you might say that. Alice told me that the Volturi were coming for us just before she disappeared along with Bella her human friend, but it's not the Volturi is it?"
"No, the Volturi want Alice as much as Edward now they know of her gift, a little birdie informed them by the way but that's for another time when you have leisure. I know you want me to tell you where Alice is, but I can't Carlisle because I have no idea. Give me all the details and I'll see what I can do but for now we need to get you and your "family" to safety."
Esme
I took Carlisle's hand and held my other out,
"It's good to meet you, Darius, Carlisle has mentioned you."
He looked at my hand and touched it momentary,
"If I can help I will Esme but as I say we should get moving before someone begins to wonder why there's a helicopter waiting here. It's not been used for years."
Rose and Emmett came forward,
"Where are we going? The Volturi will trace us surely? After all, they have Demetri and according to Carlisle he's the best."
Darius held up a finger,
"One, Demetri is the second best tracker, third if you take into account the Volturi's first tracker and two."
He held up another,
"They haven't found me yet, and, believe me, they keep trying. As for where, I think we'll be living off the grid if you understand my meaning."
Rose nodded silenced by Darius clipped tones although I thought it might be due to the fact he had very little interaction with others, he was rusty that was all.
We climbed into the helicopter, but Kate balked at first,
"I don't want trouble with the Volturi. I want to go home, Edward."
"It's a little late for that, you're in their sights if you are connected to the Cullens and, by the way, you are clinging to Edward I take it you are?"
Kate nodded still looking strained.
"Well I don't have time to hang around Edward so I suggest you either persuade your mate to join us or stay here with her but the Volturi will find you and they'll probably want to know where the rest are. You can tell them you don't know but I doubt they'll believe you, at least until Aro can read your thoughts and you may fall into Caius' hands first in which case good luck, you'll need it."
Kate allowed herself to be pulled into the helicopter and minutes later we were in the air headed north into Canada. There was a flurry of radio activity with Darius mumbling low in response to questions before everything went silent apart from the thrum of the rotors overhead.
"Won't the Volturi be able to track the flight path?"
"Sure but why would they? This is a scouting party for film locations, nothing to do with the Cullens or me."
Carlisle smiled,
"Darius was always good with communications and I would imagine he has complete mastery of the computer world."
Darius turned and smiled slightly at the praise,
"My friend I can make a computer do anything I need it to. People tend to rely on them. No one ever thinks how easy it is to manipulate the cyber world if you know how. I don't exist in the real world, I'm a ghost, a spirit who manipulates the world to my own ends. I even know what the Volturi are thinking about, at the time they think it. I have eyes and ears everywhere."
"So why haven't you found Alice yet?"
I frowned at Kate, but he just raised an eyebrow,
"As I only recently found out she was missing and have been making arrangements knowing I would hear from Carlisle I haven't had much time but I know your two missing girls aren't in Volterra, Romania, Spain, or the Urals, the first covens to come to mind. I have traces out and I'm confident we'll find them, but there are other ghosts out there, maybe they have fallen into the black hole such ghosts create, who knows."
After that, no one spoke except Edward to reassure Kate that her sisters would be fine.
"Aro has no reason to suspect your sisters or Carmen and Eleazar. He knows that you are with us now not them."
"I should ring them. Warn them maybe."
"Sorry, no can do. From the time you climbed into this helicopter you no longer exist. You can't make phone calls, use the internet, write, in fact, you live in a parallel world which is inhabited only by us. It's the only way to keep you all safe while I hunt for Alice and the human."
"Bella, her name is Bella."
Darius looked at Rose again and nodded,
"Fair enough, Bella. Do we need to be worrying about the human authorities? Or her parents?"
"I don't think so, her father is in a drug induced coma and won't be surfacing again until Rose administers the antidote, He was the only real problem, he's Chief of Police in Forks where we were living. As for her mother, I don't think she's even in the country so I doubt she knows Bella is missing. The local police will wonder what happened when Bella doesn't turn up and they can't find her to tell her about her father, but the only clue they have is a cell phone which was found in a Seattle park."
"What about her link to you Carlisle?"
"I left a message at the clinic apologizing for having to leave so precipitously but citing family reasons. I was hoping maybe you could smooth the way there."
"Sure just tell me what you need. I guess we're all right for a few more hours, it being the weekend, but we'll think of something, no sweat."