Chapter 9

Visitors

We all anxiously waited for the Volturi to arrive. All of the times that I met with the Volturi … I don't even think I despised Victoria or James, as much as the Volturi. I just hated their little mind games! No matter what Alice's vision was, I could feel that they were up to something.

There was not much time before they arrived. Edward and I agreed that there was no need for Renesmee to be here when they arrived; they were not here for her, and none of us wanted the Volturi anywhere near Renesmee, so we asked that Rosalie and Jacob would take her to Charlie's house until the Volturi were gone. I instructed Rosalie that if anyone asked what they were doing there, to just say that Charlie had asked them to take care of the house while he was gone.

They left right away, Jacob was fussing about Rosalie going with them, but he would get over it. Charlie was also not happy about Renesmee being out of his sight; after all, he had heard us talking about the Volturi in the past two days, and he was as unhappy about their visit as the rest of us…well, except for Alice.

We tried to get Alice to share her visions with us, we were all wondering why she was so calm about the Volturi's visit, but she refused to share, saying that if we knew, things could change. Even Jasper was left in the dark, not knowing what she had seen.

Carlisle and I debated whether Charlie should know what the Volturi's powers were. He already knew about Elizabeth (the new Volturi)'s powers. We ended up telling him what Demetri's power was, we did not want him tracking Renesmee, so Charlie was going to disable Demetri's ability. We decided to keep Aro's power from Charlie to avoid the Volturi from knowing that one of us was doing that. Hopefully that would work. Although, the thought of watching Aro's power vanish, even if it was for a little while, would be entertaining.

We heard a loud knock on the front door. Edward and I froze in place. He moved slightly so that he was in front of me. Charlie looked as if he was on a job; cautious and attentive. He came and stood by Edward's side. I literally had to take a step to the side so that I could have a view of the front door.

Carlisle slowly opened to door, welcoming Aro. He was there alone!?

I turned to Charlie and whispered so Aro could not hear me.

"Dad, did you disable the Demetri's power?" I asked nervously. I wasn't worried about the other one, Elizabeth, but I did not want Demetri tracking Renesmee.

"Yes Bells." He said, never taking his eyes off of Aro.

"Welcome, friend." Carlisle said looking behind Aro to see if anyone else was there. "Do you come alone?"

"This is not like our last visit Carlisle, this is only a … casual visit. But I did not come alone. The other two are hunting."

Aro noticed Carlisle's concern and answered his unspoken question.

"Don't worry my friend; they are not hunting in your precious town. They are well aware that you establish permanent residence here. We would never damage your living arrangements."

"Thanks you! Come in Aro. I believe that you have already met everyone. Well, except for Charlie."

"Wow, another addition to our beautiful family…" He just sounded so … fake! I was already getting irritated. Edward took a step back and put his arm around my waist. That relaxed me a little.

"Actually Aro, Charlie had always been family, even before; he is Bella's father."

Aro pretended to be surprised. "Wonderful! And how is the child?... There is no need to hide her from us. We mean no harm. As I said, this is just a casual visit."

I noticed Charlie rolling his eyes. I whispered to him. "Dad, behave."

Carlisle kept talking to Aro as if he believed his visit to be casual.

Carlisle chucked… "Renesmee is doing wonderful and of course, we are not hiding her. Renesmee is in town with two others, running some errands."

"Two others?! Is there another addition to the family other then Charlie?"

"No, she is with Rosalie and Jacob."

"Oh! So you are still hanging out with wolves?"

They both laughed.

Carlisle kept the conversation as casual as possible. "So, how long will you be staying? Do you need a place to stay?"

"Not long. We have some business to take care of in Seattle, so we are just passing through. We should actually head back to Seattle for the night, but we would like to come back tomorrow for a longer visit. And we would love to see the child again."

Edward and Charlie's eyes got darker with anger. I am sure Aro noticed, but he chose to ignore it.

"I don't believe that will be a problem, Aro. We would love to see you and the others tomorrow."

"Wonderful. I do have to get going now, there was a bit of a mess in Seatlle that we need to clear up. I will be back tomorrow. It was wonderful seeing everyone again."

We all just stood there, trying to figure out the true reason behind his visit. Carlisle walked Aro to the door. As he walked back, puzzled just like the rest of us, Charlie was already on the phone demanding that Rosalie and Jacob came back with Renesmee. They seemed to hesitate, so Edward took the phone from Charlie and told Rosalie to come back.

I looked around looking for Alice. I was determined to make her tell us what her vision was. She was in the other room and seemed horrified.

"Bella, my visions keep changing. I think it is the Volturi, changing their decisions on purpose to confuse me. I really can't understand. It is almost like each of them are making opposite decisions!"

Edward came into the room.

"Alice calm down. Your mind is so confused right now; I can't even understand your thoughts. Tell us what you see." He demanded.

Alice looked at us, hesitating whether she should share her visions with us. Finally, she agreed to share her vision, under the condition that Charlie did not know what it was. I didn't understand her request, but agreed to it.

Edward went to the other room to make sure that Charlie was not at a hearing distance, and Alice started to tell me what she had seen…