Chapter Twenty Eight
Carlisle
We touched down close to a small town in Alberta called Cold Lake and swapped the helicopter for an all-terrain vehicle so I knew we were going into the wilds of the area.
"I have a place up here. It's convenient, no humans around, few people live here so as I don't visit that often they don't get a good look at me. The place gets handed down through the family. It's kept locked for years at a time, although I have a family who keep tabs on it from time to time, they pass the responsibility and keys down too. Works for me."
"What about communications? You can't have cell phone reception surely?"
Darius shook his head at Emmett's question as he drove through the small community.
"Nope, don't like cell phones anyhow they are too easily traced, although if you know what you are doing it's easy to get around their vulnerability. I use satellite hook-ups."
"You have a satellite up there?"
Darius grin broadened,
"Nope Emmett, but I piggyback on more or less every weather satellite on the globe, plus some of the surveying ones. Although, they aren't so long lived, and a few defense ones which are the best of all."
"And no one knows?"
"Well for a start it's a company I have dealings with that makes a lot of these satellites, and I supply the software so I just add in a trap door allowing me access whenever I need it."
"And that's how you watch the Volturi?"
"Among others yes. Now enough questions. As soon as we get there I'll link up, and we'll see exactly what the Volturi are doing."
"But we're looking for Alice and Bella. We already know the Volturi don't have them."
"I know Esme, but if they know Alice is missing and they wanted her for themselves then they are going to be looking for her and whoever took her. We may as well let them work for us."
Darius' home was a huge stone built house with a steeply sloping roof to shed the snowfalls. Inside it was surprisingly cozy with a huge fieldstone hearth, and heavy wooden furniture quite obviously hand crafted by a master cabinet maker. Then I remembered Darius had always been good with his hands although I didn't think it was a gift he brought with him to this life, not the son of a Roman Senator.
Esme's eyes were almost bulging as she ran her hands across the wood and glanced admiringly around. It wasn't until we were all inside and settled in the family room that Darius started asking questions at the same time tapping rapidly on his keyboard, and adjusting the resolution on his screen. He wanted to know exactly what I'd said to Aro, and he'd said to me then descriptions of Alice and Bella. Also, the conversation between the girl who found Bella's phone, and rang Chief Swan, and the one with the boy Emmett and I saw. He was thorough and then he checked a few more things on the screen.
"Well like I said there's no unusual activity with any of the large covens who might be interested in a gift like Alice's. Which means either there is a new group I don't know anything about which is highly improbable or we have someone else wanting it for a different reason which again is odd."
"How long will we have to stay here?"
He shrugged at Kate's question,
"I guess that depends on what the Volturi do and say. They will be looking for you now you've disappeared from the radar. Maybe not as keenly as they would if Alice weren't missing separately. I would think her gift trumps Edward's even, after all Aro is a mind reader, although I know his gift is more limited than yours Edward. He's gonna be pissed that someone else got to her first."
"What about whoever tipped the Volturi off?"
"Just one of Aro's watchers who heard a conversation. Possibly just a couple of careless words. It could have been any of you. I'm amazed the other gifts stayed hidden so long but, unfortunately, they no longer are. I don't see you getting out of this mess with the Volturi Carlisle. You've broken the rules and they are a pretty paranoid group of fuckers."
Carlisle nodded jumping up and pacing,
"I understand that and I'm happy to go to Aro and offer my services to them if they will leave my family be but the most important thing for now is to find Alice and Bella before something terrible happens to them."
"I can't see anyone killing Alice, after all they went to some trouble to track and kidnap her. The human girl, Bella, is a different story. She may already be dead depending on who is behind it all although, why they didn't kill her straight away is a mystery. I can't think of a single vampire who wouldn't have drained her, and hid her body, or just killed her if they were short of time. Either way I would have expected her body to turn up in Seattle somewhere."
"How do you know it hasn't Darius?"
"If it had Esme, I would know, trust me."
"Do you have any idea how long it will take you to find Alice and Bella?"
"Not a clue, whoever took them hasn't made any contact over cell phone or satellite so either they are very canny or they too live off the grid.
"Well don't most nomads live off the grid?"
Kate was snappy, frightened, and missing her sisters was not helping.
"You think it was nomads who snatched Alice?"
Kate bit her lip realizing how silly the idea sounded when spoken out loud.
"Yeah like me, this was planned and executed very smoothly, and nomads aren't known for their planning trust me I've known enough of them."
Carlisle
While the others went out to familiarize themselves with the surroundings, and hunt, I stayed behind with Darius talking about the old times and getting up to date. He continued to monitor the messages, and satellite pictures that flashed across his screen we came down to the bottom line.
"You know there's a good chance the human girl Bella is already dead don't you Carlisle? I can't think of a single vampire who would keep her alive, why would they?"
"I can't give up hope Darius and neither can the rest of the family. It's all we have left and I know Alice will do all she can to save Bella."
"Then let's hope I get a break soon, for both their sakes. Do you have any idea who might have wanted Alice? Have you or anyone else spoken about Alice's gift to anyone else?"
"No, they are all aware that to talk about gifts is dangerous."
"Almost as dangerous as being the Pied Piper of gifted vampires."
I sighed, he was back on that again, even now after so long.
"I know you think I have a gift, that I'm a magnet for gifted vampires, but you're wrong. The only people I have I changed, they didn't come looking for me Darius."
"I don't think that changes anything Carlisle. Maybe your gift draws you to them, to save Edward, Esme, and Rose, maybe even Emmett."
"No Rose brought Emmett home, I never saw him until that day."
"But you could have drawn Rose back with him. Anyway, it doesn't really matter, I doubt you will stay out of the Volturi's hands much longer. Did you know they've been watching you ever since you left Italy."
"I did wonder if they might check in on me from time to time, it's how they knew about Edward I guess, but how did you know?
"Because I watched them watching you. I haven't given up on getting my hands on Caius, he'll slip up one day and then he will be mine."
I could see the truth of his threat in his eyes, Caius would be doomed if he ever stepped outside the safety of the citadel, something that restricted his life considerably. The number of females for him to seduce was much smaller and he had his wife watching over his shoulder and all the while there was the specter of Darius hovering just out of sight and waiting...waiting patiently through the centuries for his chance.
When the others got back the conversation returned to the question of who had taken the girls,
"You must have some idea's Darius? After all you said you know everything that goes on in our world."
"Kate that's extremely rude."
"No, it's OK Carlisle. If you want to play that game we can Kate but I don't think you'll like the outcome. There are several groups of vampires who would jump at the chance of a gift, not all for the same reason the Volturi do. I mentioned the most likely to you earlier but as I say I have nothing from any of them that would lead me to suspect they are our kidnappers and they are the ones where Bella might just make it out alive however slim her chances."
"So who else is there?"
"None that spring to mind as likely, there's a small rebel group in Hungary who would dearly like to snatch the Romanian crown. It would give them power over quite an area, but they would still be under Volturi rule, and Alice would soon be snatched from them. She could at a push give them the opportunity, but I can't see them coming to the States and making such a smooth job of the kidnap."
"What about the guardians? They wanted the Cullens out of Forks."
"The guardians? No way Kate, Johnny H isn't going to start a war with the Volturi just to get a coven of vampires with an unbroken treaty from their area."
"Why do I get the feeling there's another that you aren't mentioning?"
Darius looked at Kate as Edward answered her question,
"The Southern Covens but you are dismissing them. Why?"
"Two reasons, firstly they rarely venture over the border and certainly not that far north, It's way outside their comfort zone and secondly because if it was them it's likely to be Maria and The Major. So I suggest you all pray it isn't them because if it is; you can kiss goodbye to any possibility of getting Bella back alive, Alice either."
