Bella
Maybe I had put too much faith in living a normal life. Who's to say that living here among all these fairytale creatures wasn't normal, and that what I thought of as normal was the actual fairytale? Alice and Jasper still hadn't return yet. It was five o'clock and I was beginning to worry. Esme and Carlisle had spent the day replacing the small television in Billy's house with a 50" LCD. Rosalie decided that the old sofa should go and be replace with a sectional to hold more people. Billy allowed them to take over. He figured it would keep them busy and out of his way.
I sat on the front steps watching the wolf pack, and the Cullen's playing football. It was nice to see them getting along so well. It was what I always wanted. I wanted them to get along, so that I could keep Jacob in my life. Now I just wanted to keep them there. I waved at Jacob as he got a touchdown. He nodded and blew me a pretend kiss, which I pretended to catch.
"Hey, Bella." Edward said taking a seat next to me on the steps.
"Hey. How is Leah?"
He grinned. "She's fine. She's tired, I finally talked her into taking a nap."
He looked out at the guys. "Who would have ever thought that was possible."
Paul patted Emmett on the shoulder for a job well done in blocking the ball from Rosalie.
"Not me." I laughed.
Edward looked down at my hand. "Leah told me that you guys were getting married."
"Yeah. Something-else that doesn't seem real." I grinned.
"I'm going to have to step up my game. I'm pretty sure that Leah will get jealous."
"The two of you have the rest of your lives. Jacob and I don't have for-ever."
He looked at me with sympathy. "He's going to stop phasing so he can grow old with you."
I nodded yes. "If we get that far." My voice wavered.
"Alice will be back. She'll have answers and we can see what will be the best plan."
"Edward, come join the team." Paul called out across the yard.
Edward stood up, he paused to look down at me. "When we stop the Volturi, this life here, this friendship that we all have developed will be passed on for generations to come. This peace that we get to share,…It's all because of the choice that you made." He ran to join the team. But not just any team, Jacobs team.
After dinner everyone crashed around the living room. Everyone but Jacob and myself. We decided to do the dishes. I washed and he dried, neither really saying much. Alice should have been back a long time ago. I was starting to worry for her and Jasper. What if it was today? What if they got caught in the house? I dropped the plate, and Jacob caught it before it hit the floor.
"Bella, what's wrong?"
I stared out the kitchen window, my heart racing in my chest, fear trembling through my body. "Volturi…"
Jacob
I turned to look out the window to see what Bella was looking at. Three older, white, frail men stood in long coats, a younger girl with blonde hair was standing to the side of them. In front of them on their knees was Alice and Jasper. I reached out and pulled Bella close to me, turning to make my way to the living room. Edward must have read my mind, because he was on his feet ready to attack.
Everyone looked up at us.
"What's going on?" Sam asked.
"There here." Bella whispered. "The Volturi is here and they have Alice."
Esme stood up. "No,…" If she could have cried they would have been tears flowing down her cheeks.
"We need to see what they want. Then we will go from there." Carlisle said taking Esme's arm. "I'll go first."
"No." Sam said. "This is our reservation, and they are our family too. We all go."
Carlisle nodded in agreement. He opened the door and we all walked out. I held Bella tightly in my arms, Paul and Jared took their place in front of us. The sun had began to sit. And the darkness embraced us. Was this to be the way we all would die?