It had been a day since Edward first realized what was happening in Volterra, and he would never quite forgive himself for wasting those fateful twenty-four hours.

But, he didn't know what to do.

He had been banished from the city and, per Alice, this meant any attempt he made to approach it would be thwarted.

He couldn't call Bella, nor Carlisle, and he had no way of speaking to them face to face.

It was all he could do to phone Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett, fret with them, and do not much more. Even there in the castle, they were as helpless as he himself was, if not moreso.

"I-think they'll be fine," Alice said, however in her hesitation was her unspoken thoughts, her uncertainty.

Carlisle had increasingly been flickering in and out of her sight. Now she could barely see him at all, only quick flashes of him with Esme or else Aro. Lately, as Edward increasingly pestered her to look, it seemed to only be Aro.

Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett were still in the clear, but that only made it worse, that Carlisle should be so patchy when the others were fine.

Funny, that Carlisle should fabricate Bella's cancer, when really he was the one who was like a terminally ill family member. Fading, flickering away, one moment lucid and tangible and then half gone in the next.

And there was nothing, nothing, they could do to keep him with them.

"I don't-" Alice cut herself off, "Something is happening, but it doesn't seem like it's a coordinated effort."

"Eleazar is right," Jasper added, "The Volturi have no use for Carlisle, nor anyone else in Volterra. With Alice, you, and myself here, none of our gifted members are in his reach. He'd gain nothing from it."

"And yet, they're taking him," Edward said darkly. "And they don't need a plan. Not with Chelsea."

"They don't waste space on vampires they don't need," Jasper said, "They run a very tight operation, feeding as many as they do in that city without detection. If they can't use Carlisle, they will not keep him."

Eleazar nodded. "They wouldn't even let my dear Carmen stay, even as important as she was to me. She had to live outside the city, while I visited. That, Edward, should tell you about their kind of economic reasoning."

"Hostages," Edward suddenly realized, "They will use the others to recruit us to Volterra!"

Oh, that was clever. Throw Edward out while he might warn the family, then trap the defenseless members there until Edward had no choice but to offer his services to the Volturi.

"I would never allow that," Jasper said coldly, "You can make your own choices, but no matter what happens to Carlisle, Alice and I will never go to Voltera."

Alice frowned, but Edward saw in her thoughts how she was relieved Jasper said it, so she wouldn't have to.

She loved Carlisle, he was the only father she had ever known and she did not want to envision a future without him. But, if she were to give in, let the Volturi take her–

Then there would be no Alice.

Having no identity when she woke up, Alice defined herself by the life she led. Should she lose the one she had now, should she become Alice de Volterra, a red-eyed girl in a black cloak, then that would consume her. Gone would be the happy, bubbling, pixie with a collection of fashion houses and a family to play daughter to.

She would become like Renata, a wordless, meek, subdued shadow that lived only to follow Aro, to serve and to wait on him with little purpose beyond when the next feeding would take place.

Nothing scared Alice quite so much as this.

"You don't mean that," Edward said intently. Alice shifted under his gaze, looked away from him and at the table.

Her thoughts took on a pleading note, "Edward, you understand-if what's happening to Carlisle is happening.. It can't happen to me."

"It won't come to that," Edward insisted, "I won't let it."

"But if it does," Alice said out loud, "Then I-I can't."

"Alice," Edward said gently, "You love your family. And we'd figure it out, one way or another."

Judging by the look Jasper gave him, he felt the doubt Edward also did.

He knew he couldn't make that promise, but, gifted or not, Alice sometimes needed the reassurance.

"Look again," he commanded, placing his head in his hands.

Alice nodded meekly, and closed her eyes.

A dark room but for the flickering candlelight and the shadows stretching across the wooden floor, furnished with beautiful, old things.

And in the middle of it, by a table, Carlisle with his arms around a woman with long, flowing, black curls. She was petrified, like Aro, Marcus, and Caius had been, and clothed in a foreign, Grecian, dress that fell gracefully across her body.

Then-a flash, Carlisle somewhere else, staring into space at nothing. No one with him, not moving anywhere, just staring and looking so-lost. It was a look that Edward had never seen from him before.

Another flash, and he was back in the room with the woman.

Carlisle was in the middle of making a decision.

"Eleazar, which of the women were petrified?" Edward quickly asked.

Eleazar blinked, "Ah, I believe only the wives are petrified. Of course, they never leave their tower, I rather doubt they'd be having anything to do with Carlisle."

"Well, he's with one of them now. She has dark hair. Curls, about five foot two."

Though whether Carlisle was with her now or was going to be, could be, was still unclear. As the visions kept flashing by, it seemed more and more likely that Carlisle was going to choose the path with the woman.

Eleazar's eyes widened. "Why, that's Aro's wife! Sulpicia. Drugged out of her mind, poor thing. Whatever is he doing with her?"

Alice's vision flickered again, now Carlisle was in his room, the door shut behind him, looking despairingly for something, or someone. It was empty.

Was this a product of the same vision? Had he already made his choice and was reaping its rewards? Or was this a different path?

There was another flash, and he was back in the tower. The woman, Sulpicia, was smiling at him now.

"Look further ahead," Edward instructed.

"It doesn't work like that, Edward," Alice said, eyes still squeezed shut as her mind tried to process the visions resulting from Carlisle's indecision, "I can't see decisions people haven't made."

Then–

Alice gasped sharply.

Carlisle drew the woman into his arms, and kissed her.

Alice shook her head, uncomprehending.

"Keep looking," Edward said, before she could stop.

This couldn't be–

This was another impossibility, another thing that wasn't happening.

Any moment now, she'd get another flash, Carlisle would be back in his room, he–

Alice saw the woman jump up to wrap her legs around Carlisle's hips, so that she could kiss him more deeply. Carlisle's hands came up to hold her, one arm wrapping around her waist to hold her even closer, and the other sliding up along her leg.

There was no flickering now, the path forward was clear, there was no longer any indecision on Carlisle's end.

The door to the room opened, Caius walked in, his mouth forming the words, "Goddammit, Carlisle, keep it down!" before he slammed the door shut again. While Carlisle looked at the door initially in surprise, he smiled when it closed and turned back to the woman, who laughed merrily.

In one easy, practiced, movement, as if she had done this countless of times before, she pulled his clothes off, just as he reached towards her collar and ripped it, letting her dress fall into a pool around her.

The vision shut off, Alice had had enough.

"Keep looking!" Edward said, pounding his hand on the table so hard it left a crack.

Alice just looked back at him, in her mind was the clear thought, "I think we've seen enough, Edward."

"Alice," Jasper said, taking her head in his hands and turning her to look at him.

"I think Carlisle is having sex with Aro's wife," Alice said carefully, "Or he's going to be very soon. He's decided to."

"No!" Edward shouted.

"No," Eleazar said, "No, no, my dear Alice, no that can't be right. Carlisle is-he's just not-well he would certainly never agree to it for one thing."

"Yes!" Edward cried desperately. "You hear that, Alice, it wouldn't– it wouldn't happen, it wouldn't–" his breathing was getting out of control, and he tried to stop them altogether, only for a wretched sob to escape.

"I see what I see, Edward," Alice said evenly, "I don't argue with it."

Which was to say, as she further mused, that if she were to start doubting her gift then she would have to doubt all of it. She'd become a useless madman spouting prophecies that aren't true.

"But he wouldn't do this," Edward insisted. "He wouldn't– he would never–"

"Apparently he would," Jasper said, "Well-I'm not sure if this makes your theory more or less plausible."

"But it doesn't make sense!" Edward roared.

"Exactly," Eleazar added, "It doesn't make sense! Sulpicia would never sleep with Carlisle."

Edward nodded frantically. "And Aro is– he'll know immediately. They'll both be killed!"

"Exactly!" Eleazar added, "Aro keeps his wife in a tower, for God's sake! No one sees that woman, not even the most trusted of the guard. The one time I visited her, he was utterly livid and told me I was to never return to the tower. Carlisle wouldn't be allowed to set foot near that place."

Edward nodded again. "Yes- yes!"

"He's from a different time," Eleazar continued, "A time when women were property. And that is what Sulpicia is, property. He keeps her drugged and incapacitated for that very reason, so that he can have an immortal wife, but not one who could ever be his equal, or even hope to challenge him."

Edward turned in horror to look at Eleazar. That… Eleazar had told him of Chelsea, of course, but he had made no mention of this. He imagined Esme locked inside this tower, perhaps even Carlisle as well to keep him submissive and out of the way until Edward and Alice could be coerced to Volterra.

"Poor woman," Carmen said, entering the room. "Even I wasn't allowed to speak with her, the one time I tried. I thought maybe I could keep her some company, light up her day a bit, but Aro touched my hand once, and shut me down without ever letting me so much as see her."

"This is madness," Edward said to himself in horror.

Utter, awful, madness that he couldn't do a thing against. Nothing except watch helplessly as Alice tried to see some truth in what was happening across the world.

"Alright, Edward," Jasper said evenly, not believing Edward or Eleazar in the least, "Then what did happen?"

Edward wrung his hands together. "This must be– it must be faked. I don't know how, but it must be."

Then Edward realized, "He's trying to goad us into entering Volterra."

Jasper's eyebrow raised and his thoughts took a distinctly dubious edge but Edward persisted, "Think about it, Alice sees this-awful, terrible, thing after her visions are clearly being tampered with by an outside party and have been for days. They think our first instinct is going to be to run to Volterra to rescue them, and then we fall straight into their trap."

"That's your first instinct," Jasper corrected.

"You don't want to stop this?" Edward cried. "He's cheating on Esme with-with this woman, for God's sake! If not Carlisle, then surely you must care about Esme!"

"That's Carlisle's choice, poor as it might be," Jasper said, "And I don't think Esme would find any comfort in my pity."

"As for faked visions," Jasper mused, "That's an awfully convenient ability, postured only against her gift, especially considering Alice has never been to Volterra."

"Aro read my mind-"

"Days ago," Jasper pointed out, "That hasn't given him much time to engineer this. Especially when Alice herself doesn't know how to alter her own visions."

"You underestimate them," Edward hissed but Jasper only gave him a dull look.

"I have seen the aftermath of their actions," Jasper said, "I know exactly what kind of footprint they've left on the world. I am not underestimating them, I am being realistic about how they will spend their time and resources. Faking visions for Alice is not something I believe they can achieve in only a few days."

Edward turned from him, unable to stomach him any longer. Jasper's cruel pragmatism felt like poison, seeping into Edward's soul and leaving him utterly cold. Jasper would leave their family to wither in Volterra without a hint of regret.

Edward ran a hand through his hair. He thought of poor Esme, alone and abandoned and- "Try Esme, Alice," Edward said. God, he needed to call her, needed to tell her–

Oh god, what could he even say to her?

Grab Carlisle, and run?

The Volturi would never allow them to get out.

Perhaps ignorance was Esme's protection, perhaps so long as she was unaware of the schemes Aro was concocting, she would be kept safe by that very ignorance - Edward did not imagine, even for a second, that her thoughts were private at this point - but he needed to see her, needed to know how she was doing, where she was.

Alice nodded, her eyes wide and sorrowful.

She fully believed Carlisle had committed infidelity, and she almost didn't want to look, for fear that Esme perhaps already knew, and Alice would be forced to see the moment devastation hit.

Esme, thankfully, was still clear.

She was in a softly lit room, one with no windows - probably underground. It was sparsely furnished, its dominant feature a desk, though much like Sulpicia's room it had the air of being old. She looked around in wonder, her hands fidgeting slightly.

Aro was with her.

He closed the door behind them, and she turned to look at him.

They sat on a couch.

At first, they appeared to just be talking with one another. What about was unclear, the angle wasn't quite right for Alice to read their lips, but they were simply talking. Then, there was a moment of indecision, a flash where the conversation continued until Esme quietly left the room, and one where she took his hand in hers.

"What is she doing?" Edward breathed in horror, "Why would she give him her hand?"

Aro's glazed eyes were on the wall.

Then, the visions paused for a moment, flickered.

"What's happening?"

Alice squeezed her eyes shut, "I think… Aro might be making a decision. That makes it-harder to see what happens next."

"What kind of decision?!" Edward barked.

"I don't know, it depends solely on him which means it's-fuzzy."

The vision solidified, and Aro said something to Esme. They relocated to a different room, there in a flash as the vision changed.

Esme entered the room, fidgeting again, though there was determination, and - delight? Pride? - in her eyes.

Then Aro took her face in his hands, and kissed her ever so softly.

Alice very quickly stopped looking.

Edward fell backwards, forcing himself away from the table with such speed that, when he crashed into the wooden floors, they splintered around him.

"Esme seems to be-having sex with Aro," Alice explained for Eleazar and Jasper.

Eleazar opened his mouth, closed it, and then out of nowhere he started laughing. A deranged, high pitched, nervous giggle emitted from his throat. He looked at Alice, as if for confirmation that this was somehow funny, but she didn't look back. Despite this, he just kept laughing.

Alice, for a moment, nearly involuntarily, directed her inner gaze back towards that room, towards Esme, but looked away again, as if burned when she saw–

It was happening.

"No," Eleazar said, "No, Esme's a lovely woman, but-No."

Jasper said nothing, merely looked pointedly away from the table, from Edward and Alice, and out the window towards the mountains.

He was aggressively thinking of nothing at all.

"Rosalie," Edward mumbled, and dug out his phone from his pocket.

Damned if Aro was touching all their hands or not, he had to call someone, and if he had to pick someone there. Rosalie was the only one who might, somehow, both keep her head and be overlooked. Beautiful as she was, perhaps Aro would overlook her and think she didn't have a brain cell to her name.

Maybe it wasn't even too late. Maybe none of these decisions had been made, Rosalie would get there in time, and then–

Edward would not let Esme be defiled.

He would not let that happen.

An almost sort of calm settled over him. No, this wouldn't happen, and it wouldn't happen because he wasn't going to let it. Esme and Carlisle would be rescued, they would be fine, Rosalie would come through because for all her faults, she cared about family.

It was all going to be fine.

Edward didn't quite know how, not yet, not when they were still in Volterra, but–

Esme and Carlisle would not cheat on each other.

Rosalie picked up unusually fast, "Hello, Edward."

Her voice sounded unusually gentle, almost timid. It was a tone she only used when she was trying to be-careful with Edward. When she knew that whatever it was she knew, whatever it was she had to say, was a devastating blow for which even she would have to temper herself.

"Rosalie, where are you?"

She didn't answer for a moment, and then-

"I'm at the airport."

The world stopped.

"Excuse me?" Edward asked, his voice lethal.

"Have you called Carlisle or Esme yet?" Rosalie asked in lieu of explaining.

"Rosalie– why the fuck are you at the airport right now?!"

"You should call Esme," Rosalie said, but after a pause explained, "Carlisle and Esme's marriage, it's in serious jeopardy right now. I don't know what's going on, Esme refuses to say, but it's something awful."

"Damn right it's in serious jeopardy!" Edward screamed into the phone. "They're both cheating on each other!"

"...What?" Rosalie asked.

"Esme and Carlisle! Right now! Carlisle is with Aro's wife, and Esme– she's with Aro!"

"Did Edward just say that Esme's porking Aro?" Emmett asked on the other side, sounding more amused than anything else, as if this was the funniest joke he'd heard in a while. Rosalie dutifully ignored him.

"Edward, how did you find this out?" Rosalie asked, voice now sharp.

"Alice! She had a vision! Carlisle's in the tower, Esme is someplace else! With Aro! They're– god, I can't even–" he broke off.

"Jesus Christ, Edward-" she cut herself off, "Look, I respect Alice, but she has visions all the time and, to be frank, not all of them come true and half of them are-they're not going to happen. Remember the twenty different times she saw Jasper eating the entire school?"

"Rosalie," Edward hissed, "If you think I will forgive you for leaving them when they needed them most– leaving them to get– and you call yourself my sister?!"

"If I told you, right now, that Esme was sleeping with Aro and Carlisle sleeping with Aro's wife, at the same time mind you, would you believe me?" Rosalie asked instead, voice absolutely dripping with derision.

"Sounds like Aro and Missus are having some pretty cool fantasies," Emmett jibed.

"Emmett, not now," Rosalie said with a sigh, "Look, Edward, in any other circumstance I would gladly turn around right now. In fact, I wasn't going to leave at all. But yes, Edward, this is very serious and while I don't think Esme's sleeping with Aro or Carlisle with-Aro's wife or whoever, I do think something very bad is happening in their marriage that they have to work out. If Esme feels that's easiest with us not there then we're not staying. I will do whatever I have to to help them through this. And sometimes, Edward, that means getting out of the way."

Eleazar, meanwhile, had had an epiphany. "That would explain it," he hissed. "Corin. She's the drug vampire, Aro sometimes makes use of her gift as well - they must both be under her influence. Oh, that explains it."

The whole man sagged in relief.

"Explains why Aro's so zealous with his wife, too, she'll fantasize over just about any man that walks into Volterra. God, she probably fantasized about me as well. And Aro, such a hypocrite, too, when he covets Carlisle's wife. Oh," Eleazar sighed, "this does explain it."

"Edward, are you listening to me?" Rosalie asked on the other end, "Just-Leave them alone for a while. Call, of course, but-You've never been in a relationship. Understand, I'm not using this against you or using it to win an argument, I'm just saying that you don't understand how it works and how sometimes two people have to work things out between themselves."

"Rosalie," Edward said hoarsely, "I'm telling you, they're in trouble, and they need you."

"I know, Edward," she said with a sigh, "But I'm telling you that what they need from me right now is to be anywhere else. And they need it from Emmett, Jasper, Alice, and even you."

Edward hung up.

"Are you two going to help me, then?" he asked Alice and Jasper.

Funny how he already knew the answer to that.

"With what?" Jasper asked, "Even if what you fear is happening-what would you have us do?"

"You don't think, that in a coven with gifts that bend and confuse the mind, forge and undo relationships, and even give the effects of drugs, that our parents, Esme and Carlisle, might not be willing participants in this– this depravity?"

Jasper mused over his possible answer, whether it was worth enraging Edward or if he even could keep his thoughts to himself considering Edward's gift.

Finally, he said, "From what I know of the Volturi, which is admittedly little, Carlisle and Esme simply aren't worth the effort."

Jasper frowned, and Edward could see the argument he was forming in his mind, even as Jasper hadn't yet formulated the words for it.

Edward snarled.

Jasper said it anyway. "You know there are many among our kind who– who don't practice traditional marriage, the way we do, who are not mates the way we use the word."

And privately, out of Edward's hearing but no longer, Jasper had always wondered about Carlisle Cullen's decades spent in Volterra and what, precisely, could have gone on there.

A memory came back to Jasper, only a flash, but Edward saw enough of it anyway.

It had been in the early days of Jasper's stay with the Cullens, everything was still so very new– the lifestyle, the diet, the human charade - and Carlisle, the coven leader who was more of a father.

He hadn't known what to make of it when he learned that Carlisle had once lived in Volterra, in the den of lions that even vampires feared. He'd spent decades there, and been friends with Aro, a name that had been synonymous with death in Jasper's world.

He had asked Carlisle what he thought about when he was with Aro, a man who could see your every thought, and might condemn you for it.

"England," Carlisle had quipped with a grin, only to grimace, and start talking about geography.

Yes, Jasper had wondered about those two.

Edward snarled at Jasper. "He's English. Of course they'd talk about England."

Jasper said nothing, just looked at Edward, and said, "You haven't told me your plan yet. If what you think is happening is happening, what, exactly, do you want us to do about it?"

Edward-

He didn't know.

He thought desperately of sneaking into Volterra again but Alice quickly shook her head, "They'll kill you, Edward. After those phone calls-they won't just turn you away."

He turned to Eleazar, who looked somehow winded, like he'd run across the continent. His thoughts were still mulling over Alice's visions, reassuring himself that none of what she had seen had actually taken place.

"Eleazar, you know them best, how might we ever defeat them?"

Eleazar shook his head, "Ah, I'm afraid it's never been done. To my knowledge, even before they acquired Jane and Alec, they had not lost a single battle. And after they acquired them-they weren't even battles anymore."

"Has Aro ever not gotten what he wanted?" Edward asked insistently.

Eleazar considered this, "Well, I left of course. He made me choose between him and my Carmen, I imagine he thought the choice was obvious. I chose Carmen, and I have never returned to his service. I imagine he regrets that dearly."

Eleazar's memory of Aro, resigned but accepting, flickered for a moment. He had reassured Eleazar that he was always welcome back, any time, for however long. Caius, of course, had snorted, and Aro had shot him a warning look.

Caius never said a word, but it was clear that he thought Eleazar was a fool for choosing Carmen over the power and wealth of the Volturi.

Privately, Eleazar had suspected Caius felt jealous of him, of his insight and confidence with Aro, of the fact that he was gifted at all, and Caius was not.

Like Carlisle, Caius was an ordinary immortal among gods, and Eleazar had seen enough of his bitter, caustic, nature to know that this bothered him.

And while, under ordinary circumstances, this would intrigue Edward. However, he didn't have time for this.

"What about any other time?" Edward asked, he couldn't afford relying on Carlisle or Esme finding the strength of will to walk away. To be presented any illusion of choice at all.

Eleazar shook his head slowly. "No, the Volturi stronghold is– you can't even imagine it, Edward. And with Bella as an excuse - have you noticed, that the vampires selected to help with that scheme, happen to be the most powerful few? Jane, Alec, Renata, Aro himself - the girl, your family, they are unreachable to us. You won't get them out with force."

Edward's chest tightened, and he tried to keep himself from breaking into sobs.

Opposite him, Jasper sensed his distress, and sought to relieve him of some of it. However, there was only so much he could do, like trying to shovel water out of a sinking boat, but more would only keep flooding in, for as long as the truth remained: Esme and Carlisle were stuck in Volterra, and they were being violated.

"Understand that the Volturi have-very few enemies left in this world," Eleazar said, "There's the rabble they put down, but you can't exactly call them organized opposition. No, the old covens that they shattered, most are gone completely or else sport one or two scattered and impotent survivors."

But they had enemies, once, long ago.

And some of those enemies had survived.

Edward now remembered that Carlisle's friend in Egypt, Amun, who Carlisle had once mentioned had been part of a great Egyptian coven that had been rival to the Volturi. He'd offhand noted that, should Edward ever have the chance to meet Amun, he had probably best keep thoughts on the Volturi to himself as it was, to this day, a very sore topic.

But Amun had a young friend, a gifted, brilliant young boy with a shining smile and a will to go out into the world and free himself of the oppressive Volturi.

Benjamin, with his gift of fire, could light up an army of vampires in seconds. With his gift of air, and earth, and water, he could lift objects, terraform the world itself, perhaps even create earthquakes and rifts in the continental plates.

Or, perhaps, at the very least he could light Volterra itself ablaze. This would force the evacuation for Bella Swan's sake, and might give Edward the time he needed to reach Esme, Carlisle and, if time permitted, Bella as well.

Benjamin had never been able to test the full extent of his powers, as Amun feared exposure. But he could do great things, that much was beyond doubt.

Surely, Amun and Benjamin would see the righteousness of Edward's cause. And as friends of Carlisle's, they would have to be concerned for the man's wellbeing.

And there was the self-serving angle, that they could avenge Amun's honor, and put the fear of God into Aro, so that Benjamin would be able to stretch his legs, walk more freely, as the indomitable force that he was.

"Edward-" Alice said, as Edward's decision solidified in her mind. He saw himself travelling to Egypt, as Amun had no phone to speak of, and meeting with a hesitant seeming Amun. Amun's decision was obscured, as he hadn't yet met with Edward, but he would meet with him.

Egypt, that was a very long flight, perhaps too long. He'd wasted so much time already.

"Alice," he said evenly, "Tell me. Look for Carlisle and Esme - not now - but look into their futures. Do you see them returning to us?"

Alice reached out a hand to hold Jasper's for support, even as she closed her eyes to do as Edward said.

There was… a very brief flicker, a hesitant, hazy, outline of their more distant futures.

There were flashes, brief glimpses of Carlisle and Aro in the library, Esme with Sulpicia, bent over something on a table that Alice couldn't see, Sulpicia in the library placing her forehead on the table and groaning, Marcus and Carlisle glaring at each other and bumping each other's shoulders as each refused to move out of the way, Carlisle and Esme both laughing at something Aro said–

When she tried to push farther, to see the date of their return-Nothing.

And in between those flashes were blank spaces, as if her inner eye was willfully looking away from something, leaving her unable to see the full picture.

Something was blocking her.

She frowned, and concentrated, tried to push past whatever it was, but–

"Ow," she mumbled, more surprised than hurt. The oddest feeling, like a human headache, clouded her mind.

Jasper drew her into his lap, and she blinked dazedly. "Something blocked me," she said in amazement.

"The host of Volterra has formidable gifts," Eleazar said ominously.

Alice's eyes widened, and she shivered in terror.

"I'm leaving for Egypt," Edward announced, standing from his seat. He paused to glance at Jasper and Alice, feeling his lip curl in distaste, "Am I right to assume you're not coming?"

Jasper looked Edward directly in the eye, "I assume you're talking to Carlisle's old friend? We'll have to pass."

Edward looked each of the occupants in the room in the eye.

Alice and Jasper would be keeping out of anything that might turn Aro's eye towards them.

Carmen and Eleazar - they were good people, brave, and fond of Carlisle and his family, but Eleazar had a duty to his wife first and foremost to protect her, and he could not put her at risk, not even for a purpose as noble as this.

"Farewell," he said, feeling his lips twist wryly. Before anyone could protest, he'd dashed to the computer to purchase his ticket, and then he was out of the house.