Edward's POV
We arrived in San Diego some hours later, making sure all our thoughts are focused on relying on the wolves. In the back of my mind, I knew that this was the only way to make sure Alice couldn't see us, and therefore, Volturi couldn't either. I knew we could plan safely ourselves, but only in the safety of the wolves. I hated to lie to the coven, but they would have started thinking of a plan if I told them it were the case. Irina's thoughts were the most unpleasant, despising the thought of having to go with whatever plans the wolves would come up with. The others weren't much better, even Eleazar's thoughts were tainted with distaste with the idea.
Off the boat now, I called Sam up instead of Jacob, respecting his leadership authority and asked where they were at. Once I had the directions, we took the train and made our way to the meeting point. We stepped into an alley that made way to a courtyard, large enough for all of us. I noticed that this area was abandoned, and smelled no humans nearby.
"I got a plan," I said, getting to business, "but first, how are you settling in?"
"Well enough, we made sure they couldn't pick up our scent if it came to that," Sam answered in a gruff voice, trying to get used to our smell. We were doing the same thing.
I nodded, wishing there was another way, but then went back on topic. "The only way I see it is getting Alice out of Volturi. We can't find Bella—there were no clues in Hawaii, and it will just be like trying to find a grain of sugar in a building sized mound of salt if we tried to search the world."
"But how do you propose that?" Sam asked, crossing his arms.
"It will be tricky, I understand," I began, "but you know that Alice can't see you, or any of us if we're with you..."
"So you want us to go with you?" Jacob guessed and I nodded.
"One or two of you would do," Edward said, looking at the coven apologetically. "It's as long we are in the presence of the wolves that Alice can't see."
"Oh," Kate said, nodding thoughtfully. "You didn't want us to think of a plan prematurely."
"It would have given us away, yes," I said, looking back at the pack. It did not escape my notice that they were all relieved, that they could start planning now.
"We'll be happy to lend a hand," Sam said with a wry smile. "Half of us can go with you, and the rest stays and protect the tribe."
"That sounds reasonable," Eleazar said after a moment in thought. "Edward, you say that as long we are in their presence, Alice can't see us and what we are going to do?" I nodded in affirmation. Eleazar looked at Irina, looking apologetic, "Then we must make sure we are to remain with at least one of the wolves at all times."
Irina let out a sound of disgust, but made no further complaints verbally. In her mind, she was furious that she had to be in their presence, of the very ones that killed her mate.
"I'm sorry, Irina, it wasn't their fault..." I said. Irina let out an eye roll and looked away.
"What did we do?" Jacob asked, wondering when had they gotten on Irina's bad side. Irina snapped her head at Jacob, fury written on her face. I cast a warning glance at Irina—she wanted to snap his head off.
"You killed my mate," she bit out. "God, I loved him so much..." her voice shook, shaking with anger and sadness. Her pain was still raw after all these years, I realized and sympathized with her and looked at Jacob.
Jacob raised an eye and looked at Sam who studied Irina carefully.
"Which one was he...?" Sam asked, trying to recall someone they had killed. If it was possible, her face grew even more disgusted.
"I heard that you had to kill him because he wanted..." Irina began then faltered, looking at everyone and sighed. Her family stared at her with pity, and I read their mind and knew why she stopped speaking. "I know, I know..."
"They had to protect Bella," I murmured quietly, glad that the wolves had done their job, but wished it had not gone that way.
With my words spoken, the original pack recalled the time they were there in the meadow where there was a showdown between Bella and Laurent.
"Ah... we had been hoping he was one of you... Bella had seemed to know him," Sam said, regret filling his voice. "I hope you will forgive us for taking away your mate, and trust us on this mission."
Irina stared at the ground stiffly, then nodded, taking a shuddering breath.
"I'll do my best to trust you not to kill us all," she said, crossing her arms, not meeting anyone's eyes. I knew it was as far as trust went for her. I turned to Sam.
"So, the plan is to get Alice out, and we can find Bella after," Sam said, getting back to business at hand. "Has anyone been to the base before?"
"I stayed there as a guard for a time," Eleazar said, sounding business now. "The castle is fairly simple, one you would expect to see in any medieval castle of the past. Except for a moat of course. I'll draw a map of where the prison cells are."
"So do we just break in?" Embry asked.
"From a different direction, yes, it may actually be best if we split into five teams as there are five different secret passages. Back then, they were rarely guarded, only during times of war, so they're guarded now with two or three at each post," Eleazar said. "How many of you will be coming?"
Sam took a moment to think then replied, "Twelve."
"So one group will have two vampires and two wolves, and the rest will have a vampire and two wolves," he muttered. He looked at Irina who looked horrified of being placed with only two wolves and herself. "Are you comfortable on your own or would you like to team up?"
I could tell from his mind that he was hoping he could team up with his mate, to be able to protect her if anything went wrong. Eleazar knew that Irina might not appreciate not having anyone but the wolves to rely on. Irina hunched her shoulders down, looking defeated. I peeked into her mind and saw that she hated being the cause of so much trouble in this group. Looking over the pack, I noticed that they felt sympathy for Irina, but some of them, Leah especially, stared at Irina with mild disgust for being the one to cause any sort of problems during the planning stages.
"I'll... do my best and work alone with the wolves," she murmured, surprising Eleazar, and became pleased.
"Thank you Irina, I'm sure between now and when the mission is complete when Bella is safe with us, you should be able to get along well," Eleazar promised. "So, I'll team with Carmen, and... well, how to do this..." he asked, wondering how to split the wolves into groups. I decided to speak up.
"Why don't we let them split up and they can be in a team where they know each other's skills in battle," I said, and it apparently caused the pack to relax a bit and began picking their partners out. I scanned their mind, trying to see which ones would mesh with which of the vampire they would be teaming up with. I explained to them what I was doing, "Just seeing which teams will work best, so give me a moment to see how we can work together."
After about ten minutes of studying their minds, I decided.
"Irina, Quil and Seth," I started off, knowing that she would want to know first, to save her frazzled nerves. "Carmen, Eleazar, Paul and Leah..." I went off, putting teams together, then reached to myself last. "...and I will work with Jacob and Embry. Make sure you stick with each other at all times. Alice can't see you as long as you are within thirty feet of each other. Did everyone get that?"
They all either nodded or said yes. Satisfied, "Later, we'll take a moment and get to know each other in our teams. First, we'll have to have some way of communicating when getting Alice out. We will assume that Bella is there as well."
"If she is there, then we'll find out with Alice. She must know if she is in the castle with her," Eleazar said.
"Right, and if she is, that will be our next priority. The wolves will, of course, be phased at all times. Not only this will serve us against anyone, but they can communicate with each other if anything goes down. If it does, I want a signal," I said, looking at Sam. "And a signal for us to get out once we get Alice and Bella."
"We'll scratch the floor if it's time to go," Sam said then took a moment to think, "If anything is wrong, our fur will naturally rise. We'll try not to howl." He looked at his pack members.
I looked at Eleazar, knowing that we got the basics down. "And now... how are we getting in, Eleazar?"
Eleazar smiled, finally getting to the heart of the planning stages.
-x-x-x-
We touched down in Italy, just outside of Volterra. We got off the plane that we had stolen and resized it to a capsule. We knew we would have to return it once we were done. The entire trip here, we had gotten to know to each other's teammates, figuring out how to split duties among themselves.
"Before we go in," Eleazar said, "let us hunt."
I looked at Jacob and he immediately changed into a wolf in an underbrush and followed me to a herd of goats. Unappetizing, but it would have to do. Five small goats later, we regrouped back where the plane landed. The wolves remained in their animal form, ready to go in at any time.
I hoped to all deities in the world that this would go smoothly. It had been decided that I—along with Jacob and Embry, would get Alice out, since I could read the collective minds of the wolves, and therefore, know what everyone is doing at all times. If we came across any vampires, they were to be instantly dismembered.
"Everyone ready?" Eleazar asked, looking around in the group. We weren't, but we may as well be ready as ever. Our plan had a few holes, but they required quick improvisation and we had covered those, in case they came up.
"All right, let's move out!"
At Eleazar's words, we instantly split up, making our way to the secret passages around the city.