A/N: Alright… I could have held things in suspense for a while, but apparently, I decided not to… I have mixed emotions about this chapter… let me know what you think!

Chapter 26 - Two Strands

When we arrived at the small cottage hidden in the woods about five miles from the edge of Forks, I took a deep breath and collected myself. I knew that I needed to steel myself against what I was about to see in person. I had seen much more gruesome sights, however, most of them were people I had never met and the fact that this was my daughter was going to make it more difficult.

After a few deep breaths, I turned to my family and said, "I need to go in on my own. I need to be totally undistracted. I know what kinds of things I'm looking for and don't want to miss anything that might be vital to finding Ness."

Edward looked like he was in pain, not wanting to allow me to face this on my own but I knew he would never be able to handle this. I pulled down my shield for just a moment and thought, Edward, let me be stronger than you for once and spare you this pain, love. Please stay here. I looked at him imploringly and finally he nodded, and I turned and walked into the blood stained room.

For a moment, I was completely overwhelmed. The smell of stale blood filled my senses and I frantically swallowed the venom that was pooling in my mouth begging for a taste. I shuddered and focused my mind. I started looking over the room. I found obvious signs that Ness was here with two other people. There were three sets of muddy footprints and three distinct scents. I could smell the different animals they had fed her to keep her blood volume high. I could tell that even though they kept her fed, she had still been extremely weak when they left here from the way all of her footprints dragged across the floor slightly. There was a second, smaller room. No doubt, this is where the two vampires were while they let my daughter bleed, not wanting to lose control and feed on her. I thoroughly scanned the area. The room smelled of vampire and sex. I could not believe that they were able to be intimate while someone was screaming and bleeding in the next room. Just as I was about to move on I saw in a dust filled corner two strands of hair, one blond and relatively short and the other brilliant red and extremely long. I matched the scents from the hairs and was able to guess at the gender of each from the hair lengths. Something about the red one seemed very familiar. I stood there for an extended period but the memory refused to come. I took the hairs and walked out to face my family, not being able to stand being inside the room another moment.

I closed the door behind me and took some deep breaths. As I did, I felt a soothing blanket of calm spread over me. I looked over at Jasper and gave him a look of gratitude before I turned off my emotions again and addressed the family.

"Did anyone recognize the two vampire scents in there?" I asked with little hope.

Carlisle looked at me in astonishment and said, "Bella, all we could smell was Nessie. The blood completely overwhelmed us."

I nodded to Carlisle and said, "I figured that was the case anyway. I just thought I'd ask."

I held out the two hairs to Carlisle and Edward and said, "I need everyone to smell these carefully. Hopefully you can smell the vampire scent that lingers on them."

Edward and Carlisle each took a hair and both breathed in deeply simultaneously. It would have been funny had the situation not been so serious. As it was, I thought I heard Emmett muffle a slight chuckle and saw Jasper silently shake his head and roll his eyes. I looked back over at Edward and stopped all other train of thought. Edwards golden eyes were huge and round, his mouth open in a small 'O' shape and a look of horror and shock read across his face and body.

I moved over to him quickly and finally he spat out with all the venom and hatred he could, "Victoria!"

I growled in pain, hatred and fear, and ran towards the faint but remaining trail towards the road where the cars were located, tracking the horrid monster who had taken my daughter from me. I could hear the rest of them following behind me and Edward was quickly closing. Without a word, we loaded the cars, rolled down the windows and followed the scent. I threw myself across the seat into Edward's arms allowing the pain of what I had seen and the terror I felt for my daughter consumed me while we sped towards Victoria.

After a few minutes I felt my phone vibrating in my pocket and saw Jane's name come up on the caller ID. I almost instantly answered the phone with a terse greeting and talked with the Volturi leader, arranging a time and place to meet up with the guard contingent they had sent to help us find Renesmee. We were still following Victoria's trail, which was steadily getting stronger as we went. She never veered off course. It was as if she wanted us to find her. Was it possible that she wanted that? Why would she want such a large vampire coven to find her, even if she didn't know about the guard, unless - Suddenly it hit me with such force that I gasped audibly. Victoria was not going to be the only one waiting for us. She had a lot more than one companion. She wasn't afraid of anyone finding her. She was confident enough that she would win any battle she faced. She had an army, probably a newborn army due to the difficulty she would have getting anyone but newborns to work for her. I let down my shield and allowed Edward to hear my thoughts. A fraction of a second later, Edward cried out and I whipped out my cell phone. Jasper was in the other car and he was the only one who had a chance to help us now. I tried voice dialing but I was so worked up that the phone could not recognize my voice. I growled fiercely at the seriously flawed piece of technology and then dialed Jasper's cell by hand.

Jasper answered before the first ring even ended and said, "Alice had a very interesting vision about a newborn army the moment you figured it out Bella. You are correct. We are looking at a newborn army somewhere in the upper teens, most of them old enough to keep from attacking Ness but young enough to still have a newborn's speed and strength. Call Jane now, Bella. I need to know how many are joining us. Alice is having trouble pinpointing an exact number."

I gave a quick reply and then hung up the phone to call Volterra again. Jane seemed to take an eternity to answer the phone that was in reality only a few seconds.

Without greeting or preamble, I barked out, "Jane, I need to know how many you sent to Washington now. We have a large group of newborns to worry about."

I heard Jane take a quick shocked breath on the other side of the phone and then she fired out, "Bella we sent most of the same group that went after the Cullens. I knew I could trust them. Alec is leading them. They should arrive within the hour. The moment I hear from them, I'll have them call you."

Jane went on to list the six vampires who would be joining us. Then, I thanked her quickly, hung up the phone, and called Jasper back to let him know the results of my conversation. With the eight of us, and the six members of the guard it would be close but we would make it out all right. Now we just had to figure out how to get Ness out of there without any harm coming to her.

Our phones were constantly ringing off the hook as we drove. The Volturi guard contingent caught up with us and we caravanned down through Mexico and through Central America. Alice revealed that Victoria was in southern Chile and that Renesmee would be scared and confused, but physically fine when we got there, not really understanding why Victoria would want to hurt her. As we drove, however, Victoria was somehow getting news as well. She was frantically increasing the size of her army how as we drove towards her. It was a race against time that we had very little chance of winning now that her army was growing daily. I blocked my mind and thought about my options. The only real choice I had was to give myself to Victoria in exchange for Nessie. I would give anything to protect my daughter and it looks like it is time to do so. Alice started calling my phone frantically. I should have known that she would have seen my decision the moment I made it. I ignored the phone until Edward mentioned it. I blew it off saying something about wanting to relax and be ready to fight when the time came.

After what seemed like forever, we arrived a few miles outside of Victoria's camp. Alec, Carlisle, Edward, Jasper and I left the group as soon as they got started setting up so that we could plan together. Carlisle and Edward were severely out of place in this situation, however I could not deny them the chance to protect someone they loved.

Just as we were about to start the planning, Jasper pulled me aside and harshly whispered, "Bella, I've been blocking my thoughts from Edward, but what you want to do is suicide. You need our help. Stop being stubborn and let us help for once. We can get to her without you sacrificing yourself. Giving yourself up will allow Victoria to win. Alice has seen it Bella. Don't you dare trying to do this alone!"

I looked at Jasper and saw that he meant every word he said, but I needed to see it for sure.

"Edward?" I called out into the cooling air.

Edward came walking over to us with a very serious expression on his face.

He gently wrapped his arms around me and said, "Yes, love?"

I looked at him and said, "I need to know if Jasper is telling the truth."

Edward looked back at me and finally solemnly nodded. I could see emotions flicker over Edwards face as he watched.

Finally Edward said, "Love, he's telling the truth and there is no way I would have allowed you to do that anyway. She is our daughter. You are not going to fight this alone. We have a planning session to start. Let's go."

I could tell that Edward was angry with me for my plans. I guess if things had been reversed, I would have been mad and terrified as well. After we rescued Ness, we would have more talking to do.

Next chapter will be up next weekend! Reviews make me smile and I will need many reasons to smile this week with four concerts in three days!