I was grateful that we didn't need to breathe because I doubted that any one of us would have been able to. The room was silent. No one dared to say a word, for fear of causing anyone else additional pain and worry.

Our 'vegetarian' existence, our strange lifestyle, our refusal to conform couldn't last forever. The family had lived in its own little bubble for so many decades, filtering out the reality of what we were, banishing our natural instincts and forcing ourselves to be anything other than ourselves. Was that wrong? I didn't believe so. Allowing our natural beings to take over would have been at the expense of so many innocent people. Nothing could condone the suffering that we would put others through, if we had a choice to do otherwise. Humans, in my eyes, in the eyes of my family, were not below us. They were not lesser beings that deserved the fate that we could bestow upon them. It was not up to vampires to choose the destiny of humans. By refraining from killing these humans, we saved people, we preserved lives that might otherwise have been lost. Had it been any other man but Carlisle upon that fateful night, centuries ago, he would undoubtedly have followed the 'natural' path for vampires. In doing so, how many others would have died? How many would the tally have reached if every member of our family hunted humans, killed and murdered?

I would love to think that I would have been conscientious enough to see the wrong in what I was expected to do as a vampire but I couldn't definitely say that I would have spurned a vampiric existence if Carlisle had not been there to explain the way that his family lived. Hopefully I might have retained some kind of humanity and felt pity for those whom I was supposed to slaughter but without Carlisle, perhaps I would have followed the vampire cliché. It was Carlisle who had helped us all to become something other than the norm, to lead a life away from murder and death and bloodlust. None of us were able to succeed so well as he but we had managed, despite the odds, to turn our lives around, even when they seemed to be set on a specific path.

But now, our bubble had burst. Reality had come seeping in through the cracks, threatening to wipe out our way of life. The Volturi were one group of vampires that I had never wanted anything to do with. As the saying goes, 'absolute power corrupts absolutely' and the Volturi were a living (and unfortunately, immortal) example of that. They had been growing more and more suspicious of Carlisle and our family over the decades, as more vampires joined him. I wasn't sure whether Aro knew of Jasper, Alice and Edward's talents but he was sure to find out about us very soon. Aro had the ability to read minds, to read every thought that one mind had ever held. Edward's mind was likely to be a mine of information, one that, regrettably, would be completely open to Aro. I knew how Edward would hate that. I also knew how dangerous it would be. Aro detested the thought of our growing family, with powers to rival those within the Volturi. He would try to persuade Edward to join him, I was sure of that. The more that Aro found out about our family, the more dangerous it was for us and the more vulnerable we would be to the powerful forces of the Volturi.

"Aren't we going to do anything?" Emmett cut through the silence. Four heads snapped up to look at him. "We're just going to sit here and let Italy destroy us?" Jasper sighed.

"Em, you know what Alice said. She saw you and Rose in Volterra, trying to pull Edward back. They'll just take you down after him. You can't fight off the entire guard single-handedly. It's not an option."

"Well, sure I can't do it alone," he argued. "But there are five of us here." Emmett looked pointedly around the snarled.

"Emmett, stop it." Jasper growled. "We're not going to put the entire family in danger. We've got enough problems already."

"I thought you were supposed to be the military one?" Emmett scowled. "Can't you think of anything?"

"Emmett, shut up," Rose whimpered. "Don't you think that if there was anything that could be done, I'd be doing it right now?"

"We need to wait for a phone call from Alice," Carlisle intervened. "She promised that she'd contact us as soon as she knows what's happening."

"Why don't you go hunting?" I suggested to them. "Just try to take your mind off it?" I doubted that there was anything that could distract us but I had to try to stay strong for everyone else. Even if Alice didn't come back...

"Esme, even if there was a bleeding human dancing in front of me, it wouldn't take my mind off everything," Rosalie snapped. "Surely Alice knows what's going to happen by now?"

"Man, we could really use a mind reader right now," Emmett sighed.

It was beginning to get dark outside and I guessed that in Italy, it would still be very early morning. We had no way of knowing what was happening. Had Alice and Bella arrived? Had Alice seen what would happen to Edward? If they were too late...would Alice and Bella be able to get out? If I knew Alice, she would do all that she could to try to get Bella out. Perhaps Bella would be left to be the messenger, to tell us what had happened, to explain everything. The fear rose up inside me again. What would I do if my family didn't come home? I had to prepare myself for the fact that I may never see them again. Jasper had told me that their chances of saving Edward were not very high. I winced slightly at that thought.

"I'm going to call Alice," Emmett suddenly announced. "I need to know what's going on." Jasper jumped up and stood between Emmett and the door.

"Don't, Emmett." Jasper told him. "You can't distract them." Emmett growled loudly.

"I can't just sit here not knowing!" Emmett shouted at Jasper. "Don't try to pretend that you're not worried about Alice!" Rosalie seemed to wake from her distant trance for a second to pull on Emmett's sleeve.

"Emmett, please..." she was pleading with him. Her features were twisted with fear, anguish and emotions that I'd never seen on her before. "Emmett..." Rosalie begged once more. Suddenly, I understood. She was petrified of the truth. Rosalie was so afraid of Alice's phone call. She didn't want to find out what she was responsible for; she knew that she'd made a mistake but nobody knew just how serious the consequences would be.

"Emmett, please sit down," I whispered, realising that I, too, was scared of that phone call. I so desperately wanted to know that my family was safe. But did I want to hear any other news? Would we hear any other news? Would Alice have time to contact us if everything went wrong? Emmett sat down heavily next to Rosalie and put his arm around her shoulders. She buried her face in his neck.

Jasper's phone gave one loud beep and then the room was silent. Everyone turned their heads to his mobile on the coffee table. Slowly, Jasper leaned over and picked it up, his finger hovering over the keypad nervously. Rosalie was shaking in Emmett's arms, her face whiter than I had ever seen it. Every second that we waited was the worst kind of torture. I turned my attention to Jasper's face as he tentatively opened the message.

I didn't want to expect the worst.

But what was the worst possible outcome that we could be faced with?

I clutched Carlisle's hand with all my strength as Jasper looked up at his family...