Disclaimer to Stephanie Meyer.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviews, follows, favorites, etc. I always really appreciate it! I hope you all like this chapter, I was really excited to write it and I hope it's a fun change of pace.

With love, -M

Chapter Thirteen

EPOV

I watched as my phone rang, refusing my sister the hope of changing my mind. She's already seen my decision, she knows she won't get to me in time. It's been weeks of me floating through Europe drifting from town to town until I was close enough to Volterra and far enough from Rosalie and Emmett.

It's time and they can't stop me.

Still ringing in my hand I crushed the phone in one easy motion and watched the pieces fall to the ground completely unsalvageable.

I took no joy in hurting my family. Frankly, I had refused to let myself think too much on the subject. For weeks I had been evading Alice's visions. I could not afford a mis-step, I couldn't give them any hope this outcome may be different. But as true as that was, some truth was owed to the fact I hated how much pain this would bring the people I'd loved most.

Well, almost all of the people I had loved most.

Stepping out of the alleyway, I moved briskly through the crowded streets of the festival. The locals were celebrating, enjoying food and music and all the joys that accompanied their simple and linear life. The deeper I moved into the city, the stronger an odd sense of calm settled over me. I used to envy these people, I used to sit in the shadows and sulk as they existed freely in the sun with their loved ones. Every year, humans get to celebrate holidays and birthdays with meaning, the finality of their existence giving value to their life.

The calmness deepened.

My finality is nearly here.

I had never met the Volturi, my only knowledge of them sourced by Carlisle and other vampires met in passing. The closest thing our kind has to royalty, they valued the laws that govern our species above all else. It was something I depended on desperately, a last resort need be.

Almost to the chamber's entrance, I stopped near a fountain littered with glittering coins. This would be my last chance to let my skin feel the heat of the sun. I stretched out my hand from under my robe, the repulsive glimmer of my skin shining into the fountain's reflection.

The skin of a killer.

I sneered at my hand as if it insulted me personally.

I had never wanted this, never asked for this life. I'd known early on what I truly was, that this life would never grant me any kind of real kindness. And from the moment I had met her, I knew nothing else could be more true.

I despise myself for many reasons, reasons that have never escaped from the forefront of my mind. But I loathe myself for her. The last time I saw her face with my own eyes, I had promised her that her life would continue on as if I never existed. So cruelly true in my own words, a car accident. She had been killed by a car accident.

And when it happened, I wasn't there to protect her. No, I was here- "protecting" her.

It really was as if I had never existed.

The piece of fountain gripped under my hand crumbled.

I could have saved her. If I had been there, if I had just gone back like I almost did every night-

I flicked the crumbled pieces of the fountain into the water. The truth of it all was that I loathed my existence in her life. Whether I had stayed, or left, or returned, or kept the strength to stay away, I was always going to be responsible for her death.

Every second she had spent with me was a risk. And after her birthday party, when I had to hold my own brother back from killing her, I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't take her begging me to end her life, to steal her soul from her just to be with me. I wanted her to live her life as intended, like a normal human.

But it didn't matter because she was damned from the start.

She was all the proof I needed to understand the cursed life that I'd existed in for nearly a hundred years. From the moment I met her, there was never a chance of her surviving me. This was the longest I could prolong the inevitable. The curse was being near her, getting to know her, loving her and then being loved by her. The curse was finding out she had been killed by something as routine and simple as a car accident.

I could have saved her.

It was the last thread.

I can't exist in this world without her.

Every night after I had left Forks, I fought myself to stay away. I thought of her every second of every day. I craved her company. I wanted to breathe her in, hold her closely and listen to the broken whispers of her sleep. Every night was the same battle within myself to keep my distance. I tried to will myself to give her a better life, a chance at a life with someone who could give her children, grow old with her, and support all her dreams.

I was only a few days, maybe a few weeks tops, from going back to Forks and begging her for her forgiveness. I wouldn't have been strong enough to stay away for much longer. I would have called Alice to anticipate her reaction. I would have practiced what to say and littered her room with freesias. I would have done anything.

But now I could do nothing.

Well, except for one thing.

My last chance, a foolish hope. Never in my life had I believed in an afterlife for my kind. But now I clung to it, the only way I may be able to see her again. The only thing that had given life to the dread that surrounded this existence no longer breathed on this Earth, and I would rather cease to exist than confront this truth any longer. An afterlife with her was my only hope.

And I hoped more than anything.

Taking in my last breath of fresh air, I walked to the secluded chamber's entrance and stepped inside. The interior was exactly as Carlisle had described, the decorations still accurate to the portrait painted in his office. A young woman sat at the desk, her head perking up upon my entrance.

Oh my, beautiful among the beautiful, what a gift.

"I'm here to speak with the Volturi," I said flatly, not interested in the monotony of her thoughts.

"Of course, are they expecting you?"

"No."

The woman flinched, my tone hard.

"May I have a name?"

"Edward Cullen."

Oh-

My eyebrows raised at her expression. "Is there something wrong?"

Aro asked me to bring him directly to his chambers as soon as he arrived.

"No, I'm sorry, nothing is wrong. Please, Mr. Cullen, follow me."

As soon as he arrived.

So Aro was expecting me.

I followed the woman through the damp and dimly lit hallways. I wasn't sure what I expected, but I felt nothing. How could one feel without their other half? I was willingly walking the plank, prepared to beg for a fate others fought desperately to prevent. I chuckled to myself from the irony of it, only feeling a little bad about the woman flinching to the sound of my morbid amusement.

Finally, the young woman led me to a set of large arched chamber doors before slipping away. As beautiful as she thought I was, she was more terrified of me. Good. Already, I could hear the faint voices of the minds inside the room. They could hear our footsteps, they knew someone was outside their chamber. Now all they wanted to know was who.

I pushed open the doors to the Volturi's chambers not waiting for an invitation to enter. As expected, Aro, Marcus and Caius were all seated in their counterfeit thrones under the dome of the chamber. Their other members stood beside them, watching and waiting like vultures on the side of a road.

I stepped farther into the room to stand within the dim light. Now outside of the shadows, Aro could see my face and I his. I raised my chin to meet his eyes. Aro was a man that demanded respect, one who's ego I was prepared to tend to in order to get what I wanted. I cleared my throat, prepared to introduce myself, right as I singled out Aro's thoughts.

Ah, Edward Cullen. Welcome my dear friend.

Aro's mouth curled into a tight smile, giddy at my surprise. He turned to his peers, gesturing a single hand in my direction with raised eyebrows. Everyone's eyes were now on me, fragments of surprise, pity, and amusement in all of their features. Only one member, a girl no more than 12 or 13 kept the same hard and cold expression. She stared at me with an intensity I had never felt in my entire life. Could she read my mind? Did she know why I was here? Why were the others-

But before Aro's face turned back to mine, I could hear the girl's thoughts. They were loud, angry, she was screaming in her own mind for me to listen. I snapped my head in her direction, how could she possibly know that I could-

But then I saw her

Bella.

A flash of memories played out like a movie in the girl's mind. Bella in the snow after the accident, her shoulder drenched in blood with another vampire's hands around her neck. Her skin was tinted blue from the snow and slowly darkening from the stone hand around her throat. I watched from the girl's eyes as the other vampire carried Bella over his shoulder like a bag of flour. She had been eager to bring Bella to Aro, nothing more than a trophy from her hunting expedition.

Every member of the Volturi was now thinking of Bella. She had been here. Bella had been in this very room. I could see Bella from Aro's thoughts now, his body hunched over hers as he played off her fear. Her stubborn determination to protect us enticed him to push her harder. She was so thin and frail, her cheeks sunken into her face. She was somehow even more pale than when I had last seen her, a feat I didn't think possible for a human. I wanted to reach out through Aro's memory to hold her, pull her against me so I could feel the pulse of her heart against my own skin. I ached for her.

She hadn't felt so close in months.

But Aro switched gears. Now he remembered the shock of Bella's shield against his gift. I could feel Aro's curiosity as Jane tried to use her own gifts on Bella. Even in Aro's memory I could see the same expression on the girl's face. She enjoyed the pain of others, she wanted to be its source. It was her gift, pain.

I sank to my knees, reeling. What did they do to her?

I was nearly to my feet ready to rip Aro's head from his body when I heard my father's voice.

"My son, Edward, has lost someone."

Carlisle had been here too?

Someone was now remembering Carlisle entering their chambers. I watched my father plead for my life, asking them not to go through with what I came here today to ask exactly for. But then Bella, she cried out for me. She cried out for me.

And then…

No-

No it was impossible.

But why-

I raised my head to meet Aro's eyes, seeing the memory as clearly as if it had been my own. Carlisle was bent over Bella, his mouth on her arm. Blood trickled down her as she shrieked from the venom in her veins. Bella's free hand was gripped onto Carlisle's shoulders, her nails digging into the fabric of his shirt. Her eyes pleaded with Carlisle to stop the pain. Through it all Aro watched with glee, excited by the turnout of events. Eventually Aro watched Carlisle carry Bella's limp body from the chamber.

And he was thrilled to show it all to me.

For someone who didn't need to breathe, I felt as though not enough air existed in the room.

Carlisle saved Bella.

She's alive.

She's alive.

Without a single word spoken, I ran out of the Volturi's chambers.

She's alive.

I couldn't wait another second. I had to find her. I had to call my family. I had to call Alice.

Alice.

She knew how today was going to play out. She knew I was going to evade her calls and run from Rosalie and Emmett. She wasn't here because she knew I wouldn't even get a word out to the Volturi.

She's keeping Bella safe.

Alice wasn't here because she was with Bella.

I have to call her.

All this time avoiding my family to follow my heart and they already had it.

She's alive.

A/N: I'd love to hear what you guys think about Edwards POV! I hope you all have a nice weekend! :)