Once again, I have to apologise for the long wait between updates! Last chapter I said I wouldn't leave you guys for a month – guess what happens! Blame my newly bought and thoroughly watched New Moon DVD for the wait.

Anyway, here is your next chapter. See you soon :)

Previously:

I smelled the salty, sea air minutes before I spotted glinting water stretching out in front of me, the moon projecting a perfect reflection of itself on the calmness.

We raced through the last of the trees, and Alice stopped at the shore line, looking around to make sure no one was around.

"Please, please, Bella, do not get freaked out. Its only water and you can swim really fast. Just follow me, okay?"

Bella's POV

"Please hurry up, we don't have much time!" Alice shouted.

"Alice..." I panicked, apprehensive of what I was about to do.

"It'll be fine, okay? Just get in the water and swim like you normally would. It's fast." She promised. I looked over at Alice quickly, and her face was begging me to trust her again.

"Err... okay," I murmured, watching Alice take off into the water at lightning speed. A few seconds later, her head popped up, drifting among the waves about a hundred metres out from the shore.

I stepped forward into the water, till I got knee deep. The cold of the water should have affected me – it was winter in this part of the world – but it didn't bother me like it should've. My shoes started sinking down in the soft sand, and I immediately took them off and chucked them into the ocean stretching before me. I heard a soft plop couple of seconds later, signalling they had hit the water.

I sighed and looked at the clothes I was wearing, cursing myself for deciding to wear full length jeans today. There was nothing worse I could have picked to wear when swimming.

I walked deeper into the water, but when I reached chest height, I suddenly stopped when I felt the water by my feet swish, like something had swum around it. I told myself to stop imagining things, and kept going deeper into the water, but seconds later, the sensation started again.

"Alice!" My voice trembled with fear.

"What?" She called back, appearing suddenly by my side.

"There's no sharks or anything here, is there?"

Alice rolled her eyes and gave me an incredulous expression, forgetting about the rush she was in for the moment.

"Sharks, Bella, really?" She snorted.

"Well..." I drawled.

"You're a vampire, Bella. A shark is way more afraid of us then we are of them. They disappear as soon as we come near. Intelligent creatures." She added.

"I thought that was dolphins," I mumbled, more to myself.

I took a deep breath and dove into the water, not waiting for Alice's witty response, and not waiting around for any impending shark attacks either.

I found gliding through the water easy, and shot through the water, leaving white wash and bubbles behind me, just like jet aeroplanes in the sky.

Alice quickly caught up to me, and gave me thumbs up. I smiled back at her, and let her lead the way. I didn't know at all how Alice knew what direction she was heading. I saw the white light shining from above me, the dark gloom of the blackness below me, and everywhere in between was shades of blue. I didn't know which way was north at all. We could have been heading to Antarctica for all I knew.

There wasn't any way I could predict how much time had passed when Alice pulled my arm up to the surface of the water. I was momentarily amazed how I hadn't run out of energy or had to breathe for so long.

I breathed in the first oxygen I could, and I felt relieved to be able to smell my surroundings again. It was like when Ed–

I cut my thoughts right there are tried to concentrate on Alice.

"Were off the coast of the Azores Islands, São Miguel, to be exact," she told me, and I could indeed see the twinkling lights of houses behind her, and the orange and pink colours of dawn peeking through at the horizon.

"How far are we?"

"Just a bit over half way."

"How long did we take to swim from America to here?"

"About 4 hours," she answered. She then looked around us, and satisfied that there were no humans to see us, she carried on talking.

"I can't see much more than before," she whispered, and I immediately knew what she was referring to. "I think he's still on the plane. I hate not knowing!" She shook her head, as if to shake the thoughts away.

"So... he doesn't know what he will do when he gets to Italy?" I asked, afraid of the answer.

"He's thinking... only flickers..." Alice muttered, and then she looked back to me.

"We have to get going again. In about an hour or so we will reach the Strait of Gibraltar, and it's a very narrow gap. I have no idea which way the tide is going or if there are any ships going in or out, and it's also daylight, so we have to be very careful, okay? I'll tell you when we get close." She patted my arm and dove again.

True to her word, not too long after we paused at the Azores Islands, she stopped me and we swum up to break the water again. Thanks to the clear blue skies, I saw a red and white cruiser about 7 miles away making its way between the two land masses.

"That's the boat that ferries passengers between Tarifa in Spain and Tanger in Morrocco." She said. It was making its way to the right; surprisingly fast for such a big boat.

"Just follow me closely from now on, okay?" Alice asked of me.

I nodded and we disappeared under the water again, this time swimming slower than we had before. I felt the stream of warm water when we passed the trail the boat had left.

From there on, the journey comprised of skirting around the edges of islands and avoiding the early morning fishing boats that were out to get the days catch.

We slowed down when we skirted around the northern edge of Corsica – so Alice told me – and in between two smaller islands before we made land on a deserted beach. Alice was paranoid as she looked around for any humans before we got our soaked selves out of the water.

"All I can say is that I'm thankful that Volterra is only twenty or so miles from the shore." Alice muttered, nervous. I could see what was ahead, rolling landscapes and small towns dotted along the roads. No large forests for cover, only open spaces.

"So he's decided to go there after all?" I asked Alice quietly, suddenly reminded again of why we had swum half the way around the world. I had been a bit pre-occupied with the culture shock of being in a different country for the first time in my life.

"Yes," Alice whispered, pulling me into the shade of some nearby trees before she carried on talking. "He landed at Rome airport not long ago; he's running up to Volterra." The hairs on my neck stood up as I realised Edward could not be far away from us now.

Alice sensed my reaction. "Judging by the landscape, I'm guessing he is in the upper reaches of Lazio at the moment."

"Where?" I asked, confused.

"About 80 miles south of here, I'm guessing," Alice replied, no hesitation in her outcome. I was shocked that after this much separation, I was so close to Edward, but under such grave circumstances.

I was too shocked to talk, but I found my voice after a couple of seconds and asked Alice the million dollar question.

"What do we do?"

Alice thought for a moment.

"I guess we head to Volterra and hope we get there before him. If we do I guess," she grabbed her short hair in annoyance,"we can run towards the direction he is coming from. We'll have to be very careful."

I'm sure that the Tuscan country-side was beautiful in every sense of the word, but I couldn't concentrate on my surroundings. My mind was circling around Edward and what his reaction would be when he saw me. What my reaction would be when I saw him. What he would look like. Would he be grateful that his sister and I turned up? But most of all; what would his reaction be to my appearance?

The walls of Volterra started about a third up a hill in the landscape, and it contained an orange and white stone city that somehow managed to squeeze in there. The attention to detail was staggering, statues of gods and the famous alike adorned the walls and streets I could see from this far away.

We ran adjacent to the road leading into the city, an unnecessary line of trees separating us. No human would have been able to see us at these speeds.

We both managed to stay in the shade as we made our way through a passage in the walls and onto the streets. Farmers, businessmen, bakers, grocers and locals selling off their produce all lined the paths, eager for their stalls to receive attention. We made our way through them relatively unnoticed, walking at human speed, which seemed to annoy Alice to no end.

I followed her into an alleyway that had steps leading up to what seemed to be an even busier street, and I saw glimpses of people dawdling at the top of the stairs.

Alice gasped and her eyes went blank. Seconds later, the skin on my arms prickled, almost like it was willing to have goose bumps. I was suddenly aware of a presence behind me.

"Bella!"

My breath gushed out of me when I saw the man frozen there.

Well, well, well. I can't wait to find out what happens next! Lol. I know this was a short chapter, but the next chapter will be up soon (I hope!). I just had to stop it here *evil grin*. Let this chapter quench your thirst a little, just think of it as an intermission. I loved the research I had to do for this chapter. I hope you liked it :D

I'm recommending The Misapprehension of Bella Swanby hunterhunting. The full title of the story is: The Misapprehension of Bella Swan Regarding the Inferior Intellect of Hockey Players. Through incessant stalking and persistence, can Edward wear down Bella's resistance and teach her to embrace her inner puck bunny? A ridiculous love story. It's very cute and funny in places, and Iove the personalities of Edward and Bella used in this.