Chapter Forty Three

Darius

So it was decided that we could do this without involving any of the others, Bella's gift was so powerful I wasn't at all surprised that it had almost killed her as a human. All we needed to do was find out the lay of the land in Volterra so I excused myself to speak to my contact there.

"Darius? I thought I might be hearing from you soon, things are pretty crazy here right now and I'm sure its all connected to the human the Volturi are salivating over."

"You could be right my friend, where is everyone now?"

"By everyone I assume you mean the Cullens, Esme and Rose are still in the wives tower although a little bird tells me that the exiled Emmett might be returning to his mates side. Carlisle and Edward are now a couple and it just seems so right, after all who else would tolerate the spoilt brat?"

"Any other news?"

"Yes interestingly enough, Marcus is making overtures to Esme Cullen. He's been alone so long I'm not sure he'd know what to do if she accepted him but it is keeping him distracted and Caius nervous. He's wetting himself worrying about you and your friends turning up here and ripping their heads off although I think he'd be pleased to see you if you were alone, there's still a score to settle and it worries him that you have crawled out of the woodwork and are working with The Major."

"He should be worried, his time is fast coming to an end. Are they on high alert?"

"Not really, with you in the United States they don't need to be but some more of the guard have been sent to look for the girl so watch out. That could be another reason for calling Emmett Cullen back to Volterra, they are a little weak in defence with so many of the guard away. It might be that they are tempted to utilise the newborns he's helped train but that's risky, who knows which way they will turn if they are set loose. I guess that warning is like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, The Major and Peter have enough experience with newborns themselves."

"Thanks Vincenzo. Just a friendly warning, I'd get out of Volterra as soon as you can."

"Really? Thanks for the heads up, good luck to your party."

Jasper

I was desperate to spend time alone with Bella, I needed to make her mine but there just wasn't time. If we were to retain the element of surprise then we had to move as quickly as possible so Peter went off to gas up the truck, the Volturi might be on the look out for vampires moving in on foot but a truck would make them think of humans. When Darius told me the situation in Volterra I knew the time was right to strike, even if we had needed help it couldn't get here in time and would tip Aro off to our whereabouts, not a good idea.

"We should use a frontal assault, drive straight into Volterra and announce ourselves as visitors."

I agreed with Darius suggestion and put it to Peter when he returned,

"Sounds OK to me, let them think were here to parley and then when we get inside Bella lets loose with her gift, we can't lose."

"What about Esme and Rose?"

Peter looked at Bella and rolled his eyes,

"What about them? You thinking of this as a rescue mission? Don't you ever learn girl, the only person you can really save is yourself and your mate of course."

"I don't believe Esme or Rose have done anything to me and I will save them if I can."

"Rose possibly but I think Esme will want to stay with Marcus."

"Then that's her decision to make Darius but I wont allow her to be forced into staying."

"What about Edward and Carlisle?"

She hesitated at my question and her brow creased with a frown.

"I want to say I'd help them too but something is stopping me."

"That would be common sense by my reckoning. Bella, Edward hasn't exactly helped the situation. I think he deserves everything he gets".

"But Carlisle tried to help. He warned us about the Volturi, should I just forget about him too?"

"Well my dear lets put it this way, you leave the fox in the hen-house your going to end up with a lot of dead fucking chickens. Edward will manipulate himself into a position of power and that's like leaving Aro in charge. Do you want a repeat of that scenario?"

"I guess not, but if I can force them to leave Volterra?"

I nodded over her head at Peter who sighed theatrically,

"I guess its worth a thought but more importantly have you considered who you are going to put in Aro's place?"

Bella looked shocked and I knew she hadn't had time to think this through but there wasn't time for a long debate.

"If Aro and Caius make trouble they go. If Marcus stands to one side he gets the crown along with Esme if she chooses to stay with him."

"Caius dies either way Major. I've waited too long to get my hands on that bastard. Please Bella leave him to me."

She smiled at Darius and nodded her understanding and I didn't rate Caius chances very high at all."

Bella

Everything was happening so quickly, if I'd still been human my head would have been spinning but as it was I managed to keep up with everything. We needed to act and quickly so drove straight towards Volterra, Peter and Darius up front, Jasper and I in the rear as he explained about the citadel and the Volturi in more detail. The more I heard of Aro the less I liked the manipulative, egotistical monster and Caius was no better but I felt a certain compassion for Marcus considering what had been done to him. How could Aro arrange the murder of his own sister just to keep his friend in the Volturi? If I could salvage something for Esme and Marcus I would. I had been watching Peter as he drove, from all that Id heard about mates I expected him to be showing more signs of distress, after all he had no idea where Charlotte was or if he'd ever see her again. It made me wonder, like the others, if Charlotte had even been Peters mate. If not I hoped he would find his special someone soon, before he encountered Charlotte again, then he could blow her out just as she deserved.

The stone walls rose up on the mountainside and I could see Volterra's location had been chosen originally with defence in mind. For humans it was a formidable position, anyone wanting to storm the town would have to do so up hill which would be extremely difficult especially in Medieval times when armies used footsoldiers, archers, and cavalry. Did the Volturi still see it as impregnable? Because if so they were about to get a rude awakening, the enemy were going to knock on their very door and demand admittance.