When Jacob's phone rings, he almost ignores it because it is in the other room and his arms are wound around Nessie and the tv remote as they decide on a movie to watch. But when Alice rushes into the room, eyes wide with the phone in her hand, he sees the caller ID and frowns, it reads Tory with a crescent moon emoji next to it. On the third ring, he answers, "Hey Tory, what's up?" He can hear her breathing heavily on the other end of the line, "Victorya?"
"How ironclad is the treaty, Jake?" Her voice is shaking, people's voices speaking another language in the background, Italian? "Like, it protects every member of the tribe, right? Even my sister?"
Edward flits into the room, speaking quickly to Alice, Renesmee pales as Jacob frowns, the only person who's hearing is not sensitive enough to pick up vampire speed. "What's wrong Tory, where are you?" He had not talked to her in a few weeks, when she called to tell him Eliza was in the hospital after a car accident, insisting she was fine physically, there was no need for him to jet home from Alaska to go to the funeral of her fiancé, Eliza insisted on going alone to it.
"Elizabeth got a job teaching abroad, like she always talked about. We're in Florence and she wanted to go to the torture museum—who wants to see shit like that?—but the guy at the hostel suggested going to a castle instead and—" She's speaking quickly, running out of breath and sighing raggedly. "We went to run, but there was this little girl, like all the Children of the Corn rolled into one, and Eliza ran right into this guy and then we blacked out. And when I woke up, Eliza was talking to them like she was trying to calm down a spooked cat! She can't really be mated to one of them, can she?"
"They went to Volturi castle." Edward assumed, frowning. "We need to call Carlisle, he needs to tell them to run, we'll all be summoned soon no doubt." He turned to Alice, who's eyes glazed over in a vision. Jacob stood and began to pace as he pressed the phone closer to his ear, attempting to drown the other's out so his cousin would not hear them.
"Who, Vicky, who is Eliza mated to?" He spat the words, ignoring the heated looks of the others, demanding answers to questions he really did not want to know either way.
"He...he had long brown hair, and red eyes of course. He had a seal, hanging from his neck, like a house crest in The Tudors. His eyes went from ice to fire when he saw her Jacob, like he could drown in her soul." She shivered, it was like how Seth looked at her, but the thought gave her no comfort.
"Marcus." Alice supplied, snapping back to reality. "She's mated to a Volturi king."
"And Aro will want to see her past, assess her for a gift and turn her right away." Edward said, running a hand through his hair, a tell of stress. "And he'll see the cover up job we did."
"Tory, listen to me, it's going to be okay. I'll look into flights, I'll come get you, okay? Have you told anyone else?" Jacob asked, attempting to do damage control. If anyone in the pack found out, it would be all out war.
"N-no." The fear is back in her voice, "If I told Seth, then he'd tell Sam, and Sam would tell my mom-" They both shuddered at that prospect, no one wished for the wrath of Bayak to fall upon them.
"Okay, okay. It's okay." Jacob soothed, frown deepening when Edward's phone began to ring and he held it up, it was Carlisle calling. "Just stay calm, check into a hotel or a hostel or something, just go somewhere safe and stay there until I get there."
"But I'm meeting Eliza for lunch!" Tory panicked, "She promised me if I left her there, we would meet for lunch!" There's a rattling sound on the phone as Tory pushes through a crowd, desperate for a brightly sunlit area.
"It could be a trap." Nessie pipes up, her early memories involved the fear of the Volturi, it seemed to simple that they let Tory go. One could never be sure what the brothers were planning.
"Is there outdoor seating at the place where you guys are supposed to meet?" Jacob probes, Edward begins to pace as well as he completes his own phone call.
"I think so…" Tory whimpers, was she crying?
"Tory, listen to me. It's okay, sit in the sunniest seat and wait for Eliza, if she comes alone, convince her to stay in the sunlight, Bella and a few of the Cullens are in the UK right now, it's a much shorter flight. When night falls, meet up with them." Jacob was in full alpha mode, he needed to protect his people, his family, his pack.
"Is Eliza going to be okay?" Her voice betrayed her youth and a naive hope that is lost with age and time, clinging to her words. "She promised me she would be okay."
"I'm sure she's fine, I assume you told her the truth, about everything?" He's hesitant to ask, but he needs to know.
"Well I woke up to 'Victorya, are werewolves fucking real?' So...yeah." She's sheepish for the first time, fearing she did something wrong. Jake sighs, he would have preferred to have told Eliza, he had planned to visit her after she started teaching in the La Push area, like her mother had predicted last Christmas, but now she had found out for all the wrong reasons.
"Okay, calm down. No one is mad at you...just don't tell your mom anything yet. Neither of us want her jumping on the next flight to raise hell." Jake instructs, moving towards the bedroom he and Nessie had been using and began to throw his clothes into a bag. "I'll see you soon, okay?"
"Okay..okay." Tory sighs into the phone, "I love you, cuz."
"I love you too, Tor, it's going to be okay. I gotta go, I'm going to pack." He listens to her mumble a goodbye and then throws his phone on the bed and curses. Edward appears in the doorway with an equally grim expression.
"Carlisle has summoned the entire coven to Volterra, he was quite interested to meet our new members and discuss a human that he saved." Edward informs, crossing his arm, "Carlisle couldn't glean too much, but apparently Eliza is fearful of a woman from the accident, though she did know her name."
"Well…shit." Jacob sighs.