Edward's POV
We reached the entrance where Jasper was about to take before I stopped him. once the wolves incapacitated the two inexperienced guards, we made our way down the hall to where I knew Alice to be at. Reviewing the memories I saw in Eleazar's mind, I took a right and I knew I was only a few meters away from the door.
While we were running, I saw in the minds of Jacob and Embry, to check on others' progress inside the castle. Several moments later, the parties took their positions—in case we needed back up if anything went wrong on this mission. Only Tanya's team had a bit of a problem dealing with four vampires, but they were able to manage them without alerting anyone else.
In the back of my mind, I was almost surprised by the lack of security in this castle and wondered about the implications of this. Checking my surrounding, Jasper was behind me, Jacob on my left and Embry on Jasper's right, I opened the door that led downstairs to the cells. I looked at Jasper meaningfully.
This was it, we were about to see Alice again. We ran down the stairs and ran into two guards, which Jacob and Embry readily took care of. Once Jasper took the keys of one guard, he caught up to me as I went to each door, checking the minds of each prisoner for Alice, keeping an ear open for the fight behind us. The wolves in their minds were tensed as well, all of us waiting with bated breath.
My body ran cold when I finally found Alice's thoughts—she was thinking about the day she had been taken from us. The memory nearly distracted me from the task at hand. Jasper didn't pause and took that this door—the last one—to be Alice's and wrenched it open after he unlocked it. I shook my head out of Alice's mind for the moment and followed in.
"Alice," I murmured, watching Jasper and Alice hugging each other desperately, not having any need to say anything.
"Oh Jasper," Alice cried, her voice breaking, burying her face into her husband's chest. Jasper merely tightened his hold on her and looked back at me.
I nodded, stating that we needed to go now. The two guards were now dismembered and burning away.
"Alice love, we need to go now," he whispered to her and she nodded, allowing Jasper to half carry her as we made our way out of the prison we were in. This was the most dangerous part of our mission—anyone could have heard the fighting, guards alerting anyone, and other factors came to mind. Alice sobered up when she saw two wolves several meters away then realized what was going on.
"You..." she started but Jasper held a finger to her mouth.
You got them to help us? So that's how you were able to come here without me seeing, she thought and I nodded for the briefest second. She looked at Jasper as Alice recalled the vision she had of Jasper how nearly he had been in being captured. I shivered at the thought, we had been so close.
Before we reached an intersection, I stopped suddenly, making others pause. I saw in the minds of five vampires investigating a pile of torn limbs near the entrance. One had just alerted the elite guards, and they were coming. I scowled at the situation and tried to recall a second passage we could take. Softly and quickly, I whispered into Jacob's ear, alerting the rest of the pack to the situation.
Take the third passage, that'll take you to Irina's team, Sam said through Jacob's mind.
I nodded then we turned around and went down several corridors until we met with Irina's team just outside of a passage to outside. I looked at Jacob and nodded to the rest of the pack of wolves. It was time to leave. We ran along the old pipes and eventually made our way up and out of Volterra. I checked again in the minds of the pack, making sure they did not run into any difficulties. They didn't. Several moments later, the rest of the teams met at the rendezvous point several miles out of the city in the countryside.
Eleazar took the capsule out and released a plane then we boarded the aircraft. Once we were in the stratosphere—on the edge of space, we were able to relax. The tension I did not know built up in me, was disappearing as I stretched. I ignored the sweet whisperings of nothing between Jasper and Alice. My heart felt a pang of misery, wanting nothing more than to hold Bella in my arms like Jasper was doing, and murmur sweet little things to my love.
Soon, I'll have her soon, I told myself.
"I'm honestly surprised by how well the mission went," Eleazar said, breaking the silence as everyone calmed down. I could only nod in agreement, seeing in Eleazar's mind.
Recalling Alice's vision of Jasper, I spoke out loud in thought.
"It may have to do with Jasper's rash decision," I said, looking at Jasper. "He was going to be captured, and it seems in the minds of the vampires I saw back there, that Aro used most of his forces in one area where Jasper was going to go. He never saw anything involving us, so that was the saving grace of this plan."
Jasper's face slacked, realizing just how close to death he had been, if not for my coming to stop him.
I'm really sorry, I had no idea...he thought.
"It's fine, you have Alice now," I said, looking away, "Now, we just need to get Bella."
I turned to Alice a second later, still on Jasper's lap, "Do you know where she is?"
Alice nodded, sitting in the empty seat next to Jasper, taking this seriously. "She's in Cuba."
At her words, we felt the plane change course, from southeast to west. Her eyes glazed over for a moment as I took a look in her mind.
A vampire with black curly hair—Leo, I realized—answered the phone, then his face grew stern and said yes once then hung up. He went to the reinforced steel door and opened it.
"Enjoy your meal, Bella? Well, it's time to move," he said, then the vision went black.
Alice stared at me with wide eyes, wondering where Leo was going to take her next. I bared my teeth at the thought of Leo moving her anywhere, much less touching or ordering her.
"Sam, please," I gritted, not needing to say more—everyone knew what we needed to do. Get there as fast as possible. I watched the gauges of the aircraft. We were going at top speeds, and I felt that it was still not enough.
I kept an eye on Alice's mind, waiting for any new visions concerning Bella. I was not disappointed.
The aircraft landed in the middle of the forest near where Bella was held captive in Cuba and the group of people on the plane sped out of the plane, getting to the destination. When I saw myself enter the dwelling, I pulled ahead of others, and reached the fifth floor and crashed through the door where she is—or was. All he—I, found, was an empty room. I saw myself looking at the door where Bella was held and it was open wide. No one was in there.
I let out a cry of frustration, we were too late and Jasper held a tighter hold on Alice, trying to send soothing waves over me and her. It was no use, my mind was in overdrive, wanting to tear something apart as I sat in my seat stoically, refusing to move for fear of destroying something.
"We're going to be too late," Alice said, explaining ourselves. "I can't see anything else. I don't know where Bella is going to be at!"
Rubbing the area between my eyes with my thumb and finger, trying to regain control over myself.
"We'll go there and find out if they left any clues," Eleazar said, his voice somber. "At the very least, you'll be able to learn the scents of Leo."
I nodded grimly, it was all we could expect at this point.
"While we are getting to Cuba, we should get in contact with Carlisle and Emmet," Alice said.
I saw in her mind of brief visions of our family members and they were doing the best they could to make snap decisions and making their actual decisions unknown. We couldn't rely on Alice's vision in finding them.
"Do we have numbers for both parties?" Jasper wondered, looking at Tanya. She took her phone out, nodding.
"If they haven't changed it recently, but I can still hunt down for their numbers if they did," she said, dialing Carlisle's number then hung up a second later with a frown when we heard the error message. She frowned as she dialed Emmet's, wondering if Carlisle was okay.
We heard the telltale ringing on the other end of the phone and we waited.
"Hello, Tanya," Emmet answered.
"Hi Emmet," she greeted then looked over to me.
I gestured to Tanya to give me the phone.
"Hey Emmet," I said.
"Edward, what's going on?" he asked, sounding curious. I realized that this was not part of the plan we discussed, I was supposed to see a coven in South America.
"It's Alice and Bella," I said, "We got Alice out."
"Yes! Is she all right? What do we do now?" he asked, enthusiastic at the news. "What about Bella? Did you find her?"
"No, that's the bad news, where are you? Start coming to Cuba," I said. "I'll see you there."
"Cuba? Did she hide out there or something?" he asked, confused.
"She was... kidnapped," I said with a sigh.
"Well, we're in the Keys in Florida actually, so we could make a quick jaunt over to the island," he said and my heart dared to hope at the idea of them getting to Bella before they left until I looked at Alice. Emmet was still too late and I let out a sigh, beating myself up for trying to hope.
"Do you have Carlisle's number?" I asked.
"Yeah, we have the new number," he said, reciting the number to me.
"Thanks, Emmet. All right, we'll see you in about an hour or so," I said then hung up. I dialed the new number in and waited.
"Hello?" Carlisle answered.
"Hey, Carlisle," I greeted, a smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. It had been over six months since I talked to him last on the phone.
"Hey Edward, everything all right?" he asked.
"We got Alice," I said and silence filled in for a few moments then I heard squealing in the background.
"You got Alice out?! When?" Esme asked, frantically. "Are you okay? How did you get in and out? You're not hurt anywhere are you? Does this mean Jasper is back with you again?"
I laughed quietly, "Mom, we got her out just now and yeah, we're okay, yes, Jasper is back, we were stupid, I know."
"But how did you get Alice out?" Carlisle asked.
"The wolves," I answered.
"Clever, who's all with you?"
"The Denali coven and the original pack as well as the newer ones," I responded, "But we have something more important to worry about now. It's Bella."
"What's going on?" he asked, sounding concerned at my use of voice.
"Can you come to Cuba?" I asked, "She's there—or was, she was captured by Leo from the Volturi. Or, he was from the Volturi at least."
I heard a sharp intake of breath, "Leo?"
"I take it that you know him," I said bitterly. "It sounds like she has quite the tale, ever since she came out of hiding. She was, for the most part, on the move. Until she ran into Leo."
"We're on our way now, Edward," he said seriously, "When will you be there?"
"About forty-five minutes."
"Then I'll see you in about an hour and half. Bye Edward, I love you Alice, glad you're safe now."
"I love you too," Alice said, her face twisting up with dry tears. "Love you too mom."
"Oh sweetie, I love you too! I can't wait to see you again," Esme cried.
"Bye," I said after a few minutes of exchanging similar phrases of how we all missed each other. I then hung up, feeling happy for the first time in years. Our family was going to be reunited after almost a decade of separation. The only person missing in the picture was Bella.
Bella's POV
I heard the door opening and Leo stalked in, smirking. "Enjoy your meal, Bella? Well, it's time to move."
Huh? What? I thought, bewildered as he walked over to me, taking a pair of handcuffs and put me in chains.
"Now, no funny business, we're going somewhere else," Leo said, putting a blindfold on my eyes, preventing me from realizing where we were going.
Is he going to play more games? Did someone suspect something going on in here? I wondered as Leo's bodyguard led me out of the room and up the stairs. Why are we leaving? How much time have had passed now?
Once we were in some sort of transportation, I could not tell if it was a helicopter, a jet, or any other kind of aircraft—or even one made for land. I was completely confused in my surroundings. I knew it wasn't the same jet Leo used on the way to Cuba. I tried my best to rely on my hearing and smell. Which offered little to no clues. I tried recalling any voices that led to the change in plans and all I could remember was phone ringing and Leo answering, and saying yes only once.
Frustration mounted in my mind the further we travelled. I could almost swear we were going in circles. Maybe that was Leo's plan, throwing off my sense of direction.
"So, you never answered my question, did you enjoy the meal?" Leo asked sometime later. I glared in the direction of Leo's voice and looked away. I still felt awful about taking the girl's life. It wasn't fair.
"I had to try and test a new experiment, you see," Leo went on, ignoring my fury on my face.
An experiment? What? Is that his game?! I thought frantically, wondering what he had done to the girl.
"I noticed in the memories of the phone you had, that you have a very good control over your thirst. You had no idea how long you resisted until you gave in, do you?" Leo asked.
It must have been six weeks! I wouldn't have tried to take her life any sooner than that, knowing me... I pondered, remembering the first time I had drunk blood. I had lasted a good two or so weeks, maybe two and a half was pushing it. For a newborn, I imagined, that was pretty good.
Then again, I was distraught over what had happened...
"I'll tell you," Leo said after a moment, letting me think about how long I had been in that room. I feared what Leo was going to say, There was something in his voice that made me dread what I was going to hear.
"You lasted four days with the girl."
No! No, it can't be! He's lying, I blanched at his words. He's trying to mess with my mind. Don't believe him for a second.
"Want to know the secret?" he asked, as though he was doing me a great favor. He chuckled, ignoring my disgusted face. "A few of my... co-workers have been working on something. They're not pleased when they captured a few vampires different from us, and the prisoners would refuse the blood of human for long periods of time, say, five weeks, before feeding again. So, we developed a formula just for them. Just for you."
"A torture device," I murmured, wondering who else they were torturing with this method. This was obviously made for vegetarian vampires. I remembered Alice and shuddered. She must be in so much pain.
Leo chuckled again, "Yes, precisely."
"I hate you," I spat, wishing I could get out of this chair and attack him. Unfortunately, I couldn't for several reasons—one, I was handcuffed, two, this chair also had the same kind of metal chaining me down, and three, the bodyguard was sitting between the two of us. Despite that, I thrashed in my seat, trying to find weak spot but the vampire next to me slapped me across the face with such force that surprised me more than anything else.
"You better stop that," Leo said mildly, "it's not wise to test us."
I merely snarled at him and then I began breaking down, sobbing.
Edward...! I need you so badly, I thought, feeling hopeless in this situation. I felt completely blind, with no clue as to where I was going, or why he was torturing me. Please Edward, even if you still don't love me, I need you! All I ever want is you, Edward.
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