Part 5

Bella raced through the woodland looking for the spot she had left the damn shifter in.

She paused and sniffed the air, her fangs extended as she struggled with the anger caused by her interaction with that damn Cullen boy.

Ah!

She was close, and as she headed up past another ridge in the mountain she found him. It surprised her to find the boy still alive but then shifting while a metal spike rested at your heart was only going to end one way.

But she'd half expected him to take his own life rather than wait for her return.

She approached him slowly. He was staked out on the ground, in his human form, metal rods she had found at the sawmill a few miles back had been used to secure his hands to the ground, forcing the metal through his hands and at least a foot into the ground. Painful surely, but injuries a shifter would recover from, even the broken leg had almost completely healed.

She'd blindfolded him with a piece of rag and gaged him with a chunk of wood placed into his mouth and secured with a wrap of wire around his head and face.

She could smell the urine as she approached and it made her chuckle.

Her eyes caught the stiffening of his body and the tentative movement of his head in her direction.

She could also hear the faint whimpers emitting from the boy and it made her angry. Had the shifter waited for her return in the vain hopes of besting her and escaping? That would have been admirable, but it seemed he only lived as he feared taking his own life.

There would be no attempt at escaping, she could tell. He was a weeper, a crier, the type that curled up into a ball and begged for their lives yet had no worth beyond that which their master gave them.

Weak.

Pathetic.

A growl escaped her lips as she came to his naked body. "Still here I see."

He started to scream at her, pleaded, begged, and cried.

She shook her head in disgust then pressed her boot down onto his half-broken leg and twisted her heel. Now he had reason to scream.

She smiled in amusement as his fingers twitched, bloody and sore, against the rods at his palms. The rod at his chest had pierced slightly but only enough to cause bleeding.

The screams continued as she removed the rods one by one, taking her time withdrawing them from his hands, wondering if the feel of it would cause the boy to faint, but no, he only screamed.

Muffled by the wood invading his mouth his noise making grew tiresome, even if she had hurt his leg again, the boy had nothing to whine about yet.

With the metal removed, save for that around his face, Bella lifted the shifter by the neck up into the air and hissed at him.

"You think this is agonising?" She asked giving him a little shake as she spoke. "This is nothing, nothing to the fate that awaits you boy. Nothing!" She cried tossing him to the side and watched dispassionately as his body crumpled against a tree bow and fell to the forest floor. The shifter struggled to lift his body up from the ground with his injured hands only to collapse down again.

Bella watched the boy grab frantically at the metal encasing his head. She let him bend and twist it away from his face, watched him struggle to remove the chunk of branch she had forced into his mouth.

Waited for him to free the blindfold, waited for him to turn desperate and terrified eyes in her direction, before pausing long enough to grin at him, and then she attacked.

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Alice paused at the exit of the school and stared at the falling rain. Dark clouds were filling the sky and she thought thunderstorms wouldn't be far off, the air had that hint of electricity to it.

She could have used her foresight to check but there was already a dull ache at the base of her skull and the meeting with Carlisle and then later with Bella's return, she felt checking on the weather was a waste of her time.

"Ready?" Rose said standing behind the human, watching as the rest of the students raced to their own cars or to their parent's cars as they were picked up at the end of the school day.

If they waited a few more minutes the car lot would be empty and Rose would be able to carry Alice to her car without letting the girl get too wet. They just had to be careful of the humans, but Jasper, Emmett and Bree were acting as lookouts.

Alice sighed, then, when she couldn't prolong any longer, nodded and was scooped up and in the time it took her to blink she was safely inside Rosalie's car.

"Are we just leaving Edward's car?" Bree asked as she and Jasper tucked into the back with Emmett.

Emmett snorted. "He can count himself lucky Bells didn't trash it when she left."

Rose started her car and headed for the mansion. Edward could worry about his own damn car. "If he wants it he knows where he left it." She said as she sped up after a glance at Alice let her know the human had closed her eyes for the ride home.

She'd never understand how the human was okay with being carried at vampire speed but was uncomfortable when it came to being inside a car at speed.

Emmett grinned as they soon turned onto their driveway. "So, little sis, how does it go tonight?"

Rose glared at her husband. "We'll find out soon enough Em." She hissed at him as she pulled the car into the garage beside Emmett's jeep and they all got out.

It was then that they spotted Carlisle's car.

That made Rose feel uneasy because she knew Carlisle had had a busy day at the hospital planned so to leave early meant he was concerned about Bella's demand for a meeting, or possibly it just meant Edward had gone over the top in his retelling of the events that happened at school.

She gripped Emmett's hand as they all heard Edward hiss as they made their way into the house at human speed in deference to Alice.

They were met in the living room area by a pensive Carlisle and a scowling Edward. Esme was sat beside Carlisle also looking worried.

"What's he told you?" Rose asked Carlisle, crossing her arms over her chest, clearly doubting Edward's ability to give the facts without bias. "Did he mention wanting us all to kill a member of the Volturi or did he leave that part out?"

Edward growled, getting to his feet.

Carlisle put his hand up to his son as he stood in front of Rosalie, not wanting the pair to start fighting when they had more serious concerns to deal with.

"Isabella Volturi is not just a member of the Volturi guard Rosalie, she is the daughter of Marcus and one of the most lethal weapons at their disposal."

Emmett frowned. "She seemed cool to me."

Carlisle shot his wife a look.

Esme plastered on a smile and stood, moving towards Alice. "Come, let's get you something to eat before this meeting tonight." She said to the girl as she guided her out of the room and away from the conversation.

Jasper shook his head. "Alice has a right to be here for this discussion." He didn't like the thought of keeping secrets from his sister.

"It may be best to leave her out of this until our course of action has been decided." Carlisle explained as he retook his seat.

Emmett and Rosalie also took seats and they all waited for Carlisle to continue.

"I have never met Isabella in person, but I have seen her so we will know tonight if she is who she claims to be." He went on. "But if she is truly Isabella Volturi then I have grave concerns about the nature of her interest in Alice. The Volturi would love to have a member of their guard with such a strong ability."

"What are you saying Carlisle?" Rosalie asked.

"He's saying Bella needs to be taken care of, for all of our safety." Edward cut in.

"Dude, are you serious?" Emmett asked into the stunned silence that was created by Edward's words.

"Deadly."

Rosalie rolled her eyes at her brother. "This is a joke right?" She asked eyeing Edward and Carlisle. "I may not be the best fighter among us but even I could tell she could have taken us all on at school and wouldn't have broken into a sweat."

Jasper stood, unhappy with where this was going. "To stand against Isabella would be to stand against the Volturi. There was no problem until Edward grabbed Alice and wanted us all to attack Isabella."

Carlisle sighed, thinking for a moment. "Do they have a true connection?" He asked Jasper.

Jasper closed his eyes and tried to recall how strong he felt Bella's reaction to Alice to be. "It's difficult, she seems to be able to block my power at times, and with Alice still human…they are connected." He added as he opened his eyes again. "Alice has a stronger connection to Bella than she has to some in this room, but the reverse is hard to explain but it's there." It was the best he could offer.

"Can't you talk to Aro?" Emmett asked.

Rosalie shook her head. "He can't, not without admitting we have a human in our coven."

Jasper understood now and gave a nod. "Yes, our joining has created part of the problem has it not?"

Carlisle stood and raked his hand through his hair as he tried to find some sort of solution.

"We should call the Denali's, they could be here before morning." Edward suggested. "She can't beat us all."

"Would you give it a rest already!" Rosalie snapped at him.

Edward growled at his sister, ignoring the responding growl coming from Emmett.

"I agree with Rose on this, I will not attack my sister's mate." Jasper interjected.

"Can we allow her to be used by the Volturi?" Edward asked.

Jasper shook his head with a tired sigh. "If they are mates then Alice will go where Bella goes, you can't prevent that." Mates couldn't be parted for long so it wouldn't be possible to keep Alice from the Volturi because Bella was part of that world and would no doubt be returning to it in the very near future.

"But she's our sister." Bree added quietly, feeling heartbroken by the idea that Alice could be taken away from them.

Jasper wrapped his mate into his arms and calmed her with the use of his gift. It was too early to be talking about Alice leaving them. "Come, let's go spend some time with her before Bella arrives." He said and the pair headed for the kitchen where Esme and Alice were making dinner.

Emmett grinned feeling like Edward was no longer orchestrating the outcome of tonight's meeting with Bella which let him relax. He slung his arm over Rosalie's shoulders and moved to follow his brother and his mate into the kitchen.

"Come on, let's see how much Alice will take to look into tonight and see if Bella takes Edward's head off. Literally."

Rosalie chuckled as they left their brother to brood with their father.

Edward scowled after the pair but didn't comment.

"What do we do now?" He asked Carlisle.

"The only thing we can do son, wait and see what happens when she arrives and do our best to limit action by the rest of the Volturi." Carlisle said just as unhappy with the outcome of the family meeting as his son.

"This is a mistake." Edward stated then shot up the stairs to his room, needing the solitude before the monster turned up at his home wanting to tear his family up.

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Bella spotted the Volturi jet on the runway and made her way over to it, her presence masked by the storm as she dragged a crudely constructed box behind her. Every so often her acute hearing picked up the wailing from inside but the sound was enjoyable to her and she was grinning by the time she was at the aircraft.

A human from the airport was already there with a mechanical dolly to transfer the box Bella had brought into the cargo hold located ten feet above ground.

Bella supervised as the box was loaded. She would then turn her attention to whomever had delivery duty to make sure the creature remained alive, at least until her father could take receipt of it. And then its fate was in Marcus' hands.

"Well from that stench, the thing's clearly not dead yet." Came a voice from behind Bella, startling the older vampire.

"Jane!" Bella exclaimed as she spun around and raced over to the blonde vampire, picking her up and spinning her around in her arms in delight.

Jane giggled as she was whirled around in the rain before being placed gently back down onto her feet.

"What are you doing here?" Bella asked quickly, more than happy to see the blonde but curious as to why she would have been sent here instead of remaining in Volterra to guard the city. "You didn't have to come just for the mutt, did you?" And then Bella frowned, wondering if Jane had been sent on collection duty as some form of punishment. "Are you in trouble with Aro again?"

Jane snorted. "Trouble? Me?" Then she shook her head with a grin. "If you really must know the old fool is worried you aren't in enough of a rush to return home." She explained, "Can you believe he actually sent me in the hopes of talking you into coming back to deliver the mutt to Marcus yourself?"

Bella smiled just thinking about why she was staying.

Alice.

"So it's true then?" Jane asked, slightly amazed that Aro's hinting of a mate was more accurate than she had thought. "You've met your mate?"

Bella practically bounced on her toes at the mention of her Alice. "Do you want to meet her?" She asked excitedly.

Jane paused, taking in the dramatic change in Bella's features. It was hard to believe the vampire standing in front of her right now was one of the most feared in the world.

"I think I should." Jane replied seriously. "There's no telling what kind of tricks you could have fallen for. The Great Isabella Volturi – mated! Who would believe such a thing without seeing it with their own eyes?"

"Hey!" Bella scowled at the blonde, affronted at the gentle ribbing she was getting. "Like you can talk, you haven't met your mate either."

Jane made another dismissive noise as she watched the plane hatch close for which she was eternally grateful, even with the wind from the storm, the scent of shifter blood was disgustingly overpowering. She was glad to be out of Volterra while the thing would be there, and she hoped it was long dead by her return.

"One, I'm not as old as you are, I still have plenty of time, and two, I'm in the middle of world domination right now. Priorities thank you very much!" She added with a sniff and dramatic rise of her chin before they both ended up giggling.

"And how is that going for you?" Bella asked as they stepped away from the aircraft as the engines started to power up and the human with the metal loading contraption left to return to the relative safety of the terminal.

Jane shrugged. "Chelsea's doing her thing."

"And the old man?"

"You know Aro, give him a little more rope and he'll hang himself."

Bella grinned as they took off at speed.

It didn't take Jane long to realise where the direction they were traveling would take them and which group of vampires had claim to the area.

"Oh, please tell me we're going where I think we're going?" She asked Bella with a hopefully look.

Bella laughed then, she had forgotten how well Edward got on with the Volturi. Only Aro seemed to be able to put up with the boy and that was only because he wanted control of the Cullen boy's power.

"Maybe." She finally replied, although it was clearly a given that they were heading towards Forks and that meant the home of the Cullen's.

It was going to be a very interesting meeting.

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AN/

Sorry for the wait, I'll try and get another part up soon!

Thanks for reading!