A/N: Okay, so here it is, as promised. It's just a little shorter than the others have been, but chalk full of information. The urgency is beginning to build.

Enjoy!

-Wish

Chapter 60: Time

We combed the woods again for Victoria's scent after the wolves had moved on. We found it slightly, but it passed over the boundary and into the sea. Sam had made it quite clear they didn't want our help on their side of the boundary, so we were forced to go back and admit defeat. Victoria had gotten away, again. Even with the wolves on one side and our family on the other, somehow she evaded us. It was frustrating. Bella's life continued to be threatened by our world. I doubted it would end until she was finally like us, or our world succeeded.

No, Edward is coming home. Don't begin that line of thought. It will only upset him. He had Bella to worry about, and that was plenty on its own.

"Edward is home," Alice chimed from downstairs. A few minutes later I heard his car pull into our driveway. I figured it was time to go downstairs. Edward would want to know what happened while he and Bella were in Florida and despite Edward's mind-reading range; it was still easier to have a real conversation, face to face.

Alice, Esme, and the others were greeting Edward when I walked into the living room. Well, not all the others. Rosalie had taken to sulking in the garage again, bringing Emmett along as her carjack. Alice encircled Edward as much as she could in a most enthusiastic hug.

"The way you behave, you'd think I was gone for a decade," Edward remarked.

"Well you're my favorite brother and I missed you," Alice replied.

"Welcome back, Edward. How was Florida?" Esme greeted him, giving him a slightly softer, but no less earnest hug.

"Much too sunny," Edward smiled down at her, "but Bella had a good time with her mother." He looked up and his eyes found me. The question they asked was obvious. "What happened?"

"We found her, but she got away," I replied, going over the series of events from my memory. Edward's mind-reading did come in handy when relating a story.

"Alice couldn't see them," Edward murmured.

"It wasn't just fuzzy, Edward," Alice added. "It was gone. I can't see the wolves, or anything, I think, when they're involved."

"She escaped down the boundary line," Jasper added. "Like she was reading it from a map."

"The wolves got all defensive, though," Emmett said, walking in with Rosalie from the garage. He was covered in grease, though Rose had managed to stay completely clean. "Stupid grey one thought I'd stepped over the line. Tried to take a snap at me."

"We'll have to be extremely careful from now on," I cautioned everyone.

"Hey, I wouldn't mind some wolf," Emmett shrugged. "Though I think those have gotten rancid or something."

"It is an awful smell," Alice admitted. "I doubt it will be too hard to recognize. Anyway, I don't think we'll have to worry about Victoria for a little while. She's made no immediate plans to return. Bella is safe for now."

"I doubt that will last long though," Emmett piped up. "Danger magnet as she is." He grinned at me. "But we won't have to worry about that for much longer."

Edward growled slightly, tensing but doing nothing further.

"Oh, chillax, Eddie-boy. Don't you know you're supposed to come back from vacation completely relaxed? That's why it's called 'vacation'."

"Emmett," Esme said softly.

"Alright, alright," Emmett conceded. He and Rosalie left, heading out the back door. Rosalie had done little more than stare at Edward. I had no doubt she was telling him exactly how annoyed with "guard duty" she was.

"Thank you all for understanding," Edward said.

"I would have done the same if it was Alice," Jasper replied.

Alice looked sideways at him, keenly. "Really? You'd take me to Florida if I was in danger?"

"Well maybe not Florida," he admitted. "All the sun, but I would make your safety my top priority."

Alice smiled at him, standing up on her tiptoes and pecking him on the nose.

"I wonder why Alice can't see the wolves," Esme said. Everyone looked to me, of course. It seemed like most recently I had become the "expert" on the supernatural in our family. But I could only guess at why Alice could not see the wolves.

"Perhaps the wolves have a natural immunity to Alice," Jasper suggested. "Like Bella has to Edward."

But I shook my head. "Your gift worked perfectly fine on them, though," I reminded him. "I think it may have something to do with their transformations," I hedged.

Edward looked interested. "How so?" he asked.

"Edward, you found that their transformations are controlled by their emotions. It's rather involuntary, and when the shift happens, it changes everything. Perhaps, Alice cannot see them because of these shifts, how they are unpredictable, and when they shift from their human forms to their wolf forms; they cease to exist, if just for a split second."

Alice looked thoughtful. "It could be. Since my visions rely on decisions, but when they lose control and shift, it's not typically a conscious decision."

"Exactly," I agreed.

"It's possible," Alice decided. "But it still puts a large hole in my visions. And it's annoying."

"If your visions disappear, we'll know the wolves are involved at least," I reminded her.

"And it won't happen too often," Esme added.

"Let's hope," Alice agreed. "It's so annoying."

"Are we still monitoring the situation in Seattle?" Edward asked.

"There have been four new deaths over the weekend," I replied. I'd been keeping a close eye on the newspapers, looking for not only deaths, but disappearances too. I was sure not everything was being accounted for. There were most likely disappearances and killings that were not being reported because they were the "dregs of society". Homeless people, prostitutes, street kids, anyone who might be out there that nobody seemed to care for. The papers reported on family members, people of society going missing.

"It's picking up," Jasper remarked. "I'm not sure this is the cause of just one newborn. There are too many deaths. A newborn this rampant would be gorging themselves on blood every night. Nobody's thirst is that insatiable."

"You think there is more than one?" Esme asked.

"There has to be." Jasper looked to me. "This is getting out of hand, Carlisle. The Volturi surely know about it by now. They will be forced to come soon. We need to handle this before they do."

"Nothing has been decided yet," Alice said. "I've been watching their every move."

"But you are also watching Victoria," Jasper reminded her. "It is possible something slipped through."

But Alice shook her head firmly. "No. I've been keeping tabs too closely on them. If they made a major decision like that, I would have seen it, even if I wasn't looking for it. The Volturi aren't coming yet."

"But Jasper is right," Rosalie said, speaking up for the first time since Edward returned. "We have to do something soon. We're running out of time."

I was still reluctant. I didn't want my family getting involved. What if handling this newborn, or newborns, if Jasper was correct, actually brought the Volturi, rather than kept them away? And dealing with newborns could be unpredictable. There was hardly any reasoning with a newborn. They were ruled almost entirely by their instincts. If we finally confronted them, we would most likely be forced to chase them off, or kill them. And I didn't like the thought of either. Not if they didn't know what they were doing was wrong.

"We have to continue to wait," I insisted. "We don't want to get involved unless we absolutely have to."

Jasper sighed. "I'm afraid by then, it might be too late. I don't think we'll have until graduation, Carlisle. They are too out of control. The Volturi will notice, soon if they haven't already."

"They haven't," Alice insisted again. She shot Jasper a firm glance, reasserting her assurance.

Jasper nodded to her, but he turned back to me, his expression hard. "We need to make plans, Carlisle. Before we are out of time."

"What are we going to do about Victoria?"

Bella came over to our house with Edward a few days after their return from Florida and the first question she asked, beyond the appropriate "How are you?" was "What are we going to do about Victoria?"

"You don't need to worry about Victoria, Bella," Edward told her.

"I'm offended," Alice replied, rolling her eyes. "You're not honestly worried about this, are you?"

"If it's no big deal, then why did Edward drag me to Florida?" she retorted.

"Haven't you noticed yet, Bella, that Edward is just the teeniest bit prone to overreaction?"

Edward glared at her, but I couldn't help thinking, It's true, Edward.

"But don't you think things would be easier if you just turned me now?" Bella insisted. "Then you wouldn't have to worry about Victoria getting to me. I would be like you all."

"There are seven of us, Bella," I reminded her. "And with Alice on our side, I don't think Victoria's going to catch us off guard. I think it's important, for Charlie's sake, that we stick with the original plan." The last thing we needed was a missing persons investigation. And if we changed Bella now, with the tension between the wolves and us so high, it would mean a gruesome battle, another thing we didn't need.

Esme stepped forward and placed a gentle kiss on Bella's forehead soothingly. "We'd never allow anything to happen to you, sweetheart. You know that. Please don't be anxious."

"I'm really glad Edward didn't kill you. Everything's so much more fun with you around," Emmett added, grinning and winking at Bella. Rosalie was not so open with Bella, simply glaring at her. But Rosalie had never given any indication that she liked Bella, so her behavior was nothing out of the ordinary.

We tried to reassure Bella that everything was fine. As long as the wolves didn't get in the way again, Alice would be able to see Victoria coming long before she actually came. And there was only a few more weeks left to graduation. There was no need to rush Bella's transformation, despite what she may think. And there could be severe consequences for changing Bella right now.

"Hey Eddie-boy, you up for a hunting trip this weekend?" Emmett asked. Edward's eyes were pitch-black. It seemed that he went much longer between feedings than he ever had before. I knew it worried Esme.

"I can't I—"

"You should go," Bella interrupted.

"Bella—"

"I don't see anything happening this weekend, Edward," Alice chimed in. "Bella will be safe for a few days."

"Yeah, and you look like the walking death, little brother," Emmett added, snickering at his own joke. Bella smiled at it too.

Edward turned to Bella, but she seemed to be just as set on Edward going as Emmett and Alice were. "You need to hunt," she told him. "You can't starve just to protect me."

"I'm hardly starving, Bella," Edward replied. "And you're more important."

"Alice said everything will be fine this weekend. Go have fun. Bag some mountain lions for me." And it seemed that was the end of the argument.

Personally I thought it was good for Edward to go out with his brothers hunting. He hadn't gone on a proper weekend trip since before we'd moved away from Forks. First Edward had been depressed, then there was the business with Italy, and now Victoria was back and all Edward seemed to think of was how to protect Bella. He needed some time to let go and have some fun like he did before.

"Carlisle, are you coming?" Jasper asked.

I had to refuse though. "I'm sorry, I have a surgery this Saturday," I replied. "Perhaps another time."

"Suit yourself," Emmett shrugged.

A/N2: Please review! Tell me what you liked, didn't like. Are the characters in canon or am I missing the mark?

-Wish