Chapter 38
"Wha...What are you doing here?" The look on Alice's face and the emotion that she was feeling was one of absolute surprise. Alice doesn't get taken by surprise often, if ever.
I ignored her question and pulled her into a bone crushing hug. I had never in my life been so happy to see Alice as I was now. For the first time since I received the call from Jacob, I truly felt hope. Alice must have seen something otherwise, why would she be here?
"I didn't see you in here. How is that possible? I saw you arrive and then nothing." She looked up at me with her big golden eyes.
"Alice, please tell me you know where she is." I begged as I shook her slightly by the shoulders, trying to get her to focus on the matter at hand, forgetting that this was my former lover of several decades, my best friend for just as long. Manners were not going to be used at this particular moment, I needed to know everything she had seen and I needed to know it now.
"Yes, I do know, that's why I came. She has been taken by Victoria and two Volturi guards. They are taking her to Aro. They are taking her to Italy."
My knees just about gave out. In my wildest dreams, I would have never come up with that scenario. That one would have been on my list of places she would be right after her having been abducted by aliens.
"What do you mean? Why? Why would they be taking her to Italy? What would Aro want with her? Why are they working with Victoria?" I spit out every question that was racing through my brain, not bothering to wait for a response from Alice. "We need to leave here now and try and catch up with them." I started to pull her toward the door, completely forgetting about Seth who was still in the apartment.
"Um, Jasper, who is your smelly, shaky friend over there?" Alice asked as she pointed at Seth who was still trembling from being in our presence.
"Long story. I'll tell you in the car." I turned toward Seth. "Call Jacob and let him know what has happened and where I am going. Tell him I will call him the moment I have any news to report, but you must stress to him that he cannot be involved with getting her back. I cannot involve you or the pack..."
"The pack??" Alice interrupted.
I put my hand up to silence her and gave her a beseeching look. I'd have to bring her up to speed later. Turning back to Seth, I continued. "As I was saying, I cannot involve you or the pack any further. I do not believe that the Volturi are aware of the existence of werewolves in La Push and I know that they would love to do nothing more than exterminate you if they found out. Bella would never forgive herself if that happened, so you MUST stay behind and you must convince Jacob to do the same. Do you understand?" Seth nodded slightly as he continued to shift back and forth, trying to remain calm. I turned toward the door and pulled Alice with me. Every second spent in that apartment was a second that Bella was being taken further away from me. We ran down the stairs and hit the sidewalk in seconds, we moved with our vampire speed and were in my car before anyone would have detected us.
"We need to get to the airport as fast as possible." I said as I pulled out onto the road. "Fuck. It's too sunny for us to be out like this." I rubbed my forehead as I tried to think about what to do. The airport was full of windows. There was no way that Alice and I would be undetected if we went there now. I couldn't imagine letting an entire day get between Bella and I.
"Try and arrange a private plane. I don't care what it costs. We need to leave now." I ordered Alice, grimacing as I realized that I was being extremely rude. She immediately began dialing her phone without mentioning it.
"I'm sorry. I am not quite myself at the moment. I just need to get her back, Alice. I can't...I just don't know..." I took a deep breath to calm myself as my emotions were running amok.
Alice reached over and put her hand on my arm and nodded slightly in understanding as she began to speak to whoever was on the other end of the phone. I looked down at her tiny hand and then up to her face, which was giving me a small encouraging smile. "She is going to be fine, Jasper. We will make it there in time."
I couldn't help myself, but her comments struck a nerve. How could she say that? After everything that had happened, how could she be so sure?
I waited until she was off the phone and then the next thoughts raced out of my mouth without me thinking them through. "Really, Alice? Did you see that? Because you'll forgive me if I don't throw all my eggs in your basket. Have you any idea of what Bella has been through since we left her? Where you aware that she has been hunted by Victoria since the day we killed James? How about the fact that Laurent found her and was seconds away from killing her before she was rescued. Or, how about the fact that Victoria killed her parents? Did you happen to sleep through that vision?"
When I heard her gasp at my words, I immediately felt terrible for laying into Alice like that. I was a shit and I knew it. I turned to look at her directly so I could apologize sincerely and was met with the back of her hand. Her slap definitely stung, but not as much as the look of hurt on her face I caused by my insensitive words.
"Fuck you, Jasper! Do you think this is easy for me? Do you think seeing the two of you together has been a walk in the park for me? No, it hasn't. So, get your head out of your ass and stop worrying about what I didn't see and start worrying about what I did." She looked away from me and crossed her arms over her chest. She was right, I never once considered how her visions might affect her and immediately felt even worse.
"I'm sorry Alice. I didn't mean to be so rude. I'm having a really hard time here and there are just so many unanswered questions and I'm beside myself with worry and…I just can't…it's so hard to think that I might not get her back. Please believe me, I am grateful that you are here."
"I know, Jasper." She reached over and squeezed my arm again, immediately forgiving me for being such an ass. "I really don't know why I didn't see any of those things. In the beginning, I made myself not look for Bella. I didn't want to see her because I missed her so much I was afraid that I would go back on my word to Edward and I would head back to Forks at the slightest indication that she missed me. I purposely blocked anything having to do with Bella from my mind thereby not allowing any visions of her to come to me. I should have looked, I should have and now I have to live with that. Then, as more time passed, I couldn't help myself and I tried to look, but I couldn't find her. It was like she disappeared. Then, when she showed up at Dartmouth, I'd see flashes here and there, but never a full vision. It was most disarming. I thought I was going crazy. Then, whenever she was with you, I had no trouble getting full and complete visions." She hung her head and I was immediately hit with how uncomfortable she became all of a sudden.
"Oh." I said as I realized exactly what she would have seen. Okay, this was slightly awkward.
"It's okay Jasper, I had seen those visions long before we left Forks." She said as she understood that I just realized that she had seen exactly what Bella and I had been doing.
"What?" I don't think I could have been more shocked at anything else that might have come out of her mouth.
"I've always known that the two of you would end up together." She whispered as she looked out the window.
I was stunned. The shock of those words nearly caused me to drive off the road. "Exactly how long have you known?"
She sat quietly as she thought about my question. I didn't dare rush her. I wanted her to feel free to answer me honestly and completely. Not that I expected Alice to do anything else, but the fact that she knew something of this magnitude and had kept it from me for this long, did plant seeds of doubt in my mind as to exactly what else she had kept from me over the years.
As her uncomfortable silence continued and her emotions became harder to read, I couldn't help but prod her along. "How long Alice?"
She looked up at me with her big pleading eyes and I felt her remorse and stilled myself for her response. "Since the day of the baseball game when we first met James."
Anger shot through me immediately. "Why on earth did you keep this a secret? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I just thought it was something that needed to occur naturally. If it was meant to be, it would be." She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly.
"If is was meant to be, it would be?" I spit out rhetorically. "God dammit Alice. All this time has passed, all these horrible things have happened to her and had I known that I was destined to end up with Bella, I might have been able to prevent them. You need to be completely honest with me and tell me exactly when you had your first vision and tell me exactly what is was."
Alice bit her bottom lip, regret flooding the car as she began to explain. "It is not what you think. I didn't realize it was anything more than a close friendship. There was never any indication that Edward and I were no longer in the picture. But…there is one thing I should tell you…about a vision I had…after that night, while we were in Phoenix at the airport and you left to take Bella to the washroom--"
"Is that the reason you started to pull away from me?" I knew Alice was still speaking, but so many little things that didn't make sense to me before, all of a sudden became clear and I stopped listening to what she was saying and rudely cut her off before she could continue her sentence about her other vision.
"Listen, we've been over this several times, Jasper. Yes, it was one of them, but the fact that I saw that you were going to end up with Bella didn't cause our break up, we were headed in that direction all along. It just solidified, for me, that we were right in splitting up. You and I worked for so long to try to get it right, but it was not meant to be. More and more visions of you and Bella together, as more than just friends, kept coming and I tried so many ways to change circumstances so that it wouldn't happen, but no matter what I did, the two of you always ended up together. I'm sorry. I know that I shouldn't have done that, but I couldn't help it. I think I was more afraid of losing my best friend than anything else. Then, I saw how happy she made you, I could see how content and peaceful you looked and I'd never seen you look that way with me." She paused as she looked out the window, waiting before continuing. "Then, I thought that after what happened on her birthday, things might change, but it seemed to have the complete opposite effect. The visions that I started to have of the two of you showed you in a much closer relationship and… uh…well…doing relationship type things."
How horrible it must have been for Alice to have seen these visions, especially when we were still together. No wonder she started to pull away from me.
"Did Edward know? Did you ever tell him about your visions? Is that why he left Bella?" I demanded, hoping that wasn't so. Not that I didn't want Edward to know that we were together. In fact, when I had Bella back it was one of the things that I needed to speak with her about. I wanted all of the Cullens to know about our relationship, I would not feel right if it were any other way. But, it would kill me to think that Edward left because of Alice's visions. That would mean that everything that Bella had gone through would be a direct result of her ending up with me. I could not stand that.
"No, I never told him. At the time, I still hoped that if they stayed together, obviously, then the two of you wouldn't be together. I thought that their love would triumph." She sighed as she slumped back in her seat. "But no matter how close they got, I still saw the two of you together, especially after her birthday, like I said, the one event that I thought would change the visions was the one incident that solidified their existence in reality. There was no doubting how things were going to turn out as that one event is what caused Edward to make his decision to leave her. Up until then, as you know, my visions always changed as the future was uncertain, Edward flopped back and forth between whether or not he should leave her. The moment Edward made his decision, he set in motion the events that have led us here today."
We drove the rest of the way to the airport in silence, but it did not escape my notice that I had interrupted her before she was able to tell me about that one further vision. As I pulled into the private hanger and parked off to the side, I made a mental note to be sure to ask Alice to continue with her vision once we were settled on the plane. We found the pilot that Alice had dealt with on the phone and with the help of some dazzling and a very hefty payment, we were in the air within 30 minutes.
After we boarded the plane, Alice immediately settled into her seat and curled her feet underneath her. Sitting across from her, I could feel she was deep in thought and didn't want to interrupt her in order to continue our earlier conversation. We continued to remain quiet for the majority of the flight as I didn't know what to say to Alice anymore. I felt like a stranger in her presence. I missed the feeling that I had when I was with Bella, that feeling of completeness, that total calm that enveloped me. I felt on edge, not only because of the circumstances, but because I didn't feel in control of my thirst. My mind was racing, automatically assuming the worst was going to happen and that I was going to be too late in saving Bella. I was restless and fidgety. What would I do if I failed? I pretty much knew the answer to that question. I had searched for decades to obtain the peace I had finally found with Bella, I knew that should she for some reason leave my life, I would never find that peace again. There was no going forward without her and I couldn't go back to the way I used to be. I was tired of the constant fight, the never ending battle of warding off the thirst, of always being on guard, the loneliness of not having a companion. I wanted to be the carefree, relaxed, happy person that Bella helped me be and I knew I would only achieve those feelings again once I knew that Bella was safe and sound and back in my arms.
"Jazz?" Alice looked up at me, calling me by the name that she always used for me.
"Yes."Again, I felt so guilty dragging her into this with me without so much as even asking her. She didn't have to help me, but she was here. I thought about what I would do had the tables been turned. Would I be so generous in helping her find her true love if he were in danger? Yes, I would, immediately disgraced at myself for even questioning whether or not I would. I looked down at the woman that I had once loved with all of my being and knew that no matter what, I would always be there for her just as she was here with me.
"I just wanted you to know that I am so sorry I didn't see things sooner. Please know, that I would have done anything to protect her. I love her like a sister and would never want to see anything happen to her. I've been thinking about all the gaps in my visions and I think that I know what the problem is."
"Really?"
"Yes, it seems that I lose sight of things whenever she is with her friends from La Push. And then, I saw you go to her apartment today, but as soon as you entered her building, I lost the vision. It was just fuzzy." Her face was scrunched as if she were irritated at the circumstances.
"And…?" I urged her to continue.
"Well, I think it has to do with the werewolves. It seems that whenever Bella is in their presence, I can't see her which means, obviously, I can't see werewolves."
"You are right! That must be it. Seth was no where near the apartment this morning when Victoria and the two other vampires were there. That's why you saw what happened and why you continued to see what was going to happen."
We sat in silence for a few more moments when I noticed that Alice had her eyes closed and she was concentrating very hard on something.
"What?" I asked, immediately sitting on the edge of my seat knowing that she had seen something.
"They just arrived in Italy and are taking Bella directly to Aro." She whispered.
"Are you able to determine why Aro is so interested in her?"
"Aro is very curious about her. It seems that once Victoria couldn't find Bella, she enlisted the help of the Volturi and made some sort of deal with Aro, but I obviously can't tell what the deal is since that happened in the past. All I can see is that Aro is very excited to meet her. However, from the visions that I have seen, things are not going quite the way that Victoria had planned and she is pretty upset with the fact that Bella is going to Italy. I guess she thought that once Bella was found, she was going to be all hers."
"Well, thank goodness for small favours. For whatever reason Aro wants to see her, it saved her life, so I'm not going to complain." I paused for a moment before I continued. "Did you see us there? Do we get her out?"
"Not yet. I haven't seen anything other than their arrival." She pulled her legs up into her chest and rested her head on her knees. She closed her eyes and began to rock back and forth in what I knew was a soothing motion for her.
As hard as it was to remain silent, I did not want to disturb her while she tried to pull out another vision. I leaned back into my seat and closed my eyes. I thought of the last few days with Bella and how happy I had been and realized that if the next few hours were to be Bella's last, then, without a doubt in my mind, they would also be mine.