Chapter Fifty Seven
Alice
It was so noisy here in the center of Manhattan and suddenly I wanted to be back in Forks, living the quiet peaceful life I had enjoyed with the Cullens but that was all gone, we were now fugitives with little long term future except as victims of The Major. Poor Bella had been dragged into this by Edward and then when he tired of her he handed her to the Volturi along with the rest of us, what a bastard.
I felt guilty I hadn't seen the danger coming although no one else blamed me. If only my gift would become more reliable and frequent. Carlisle and Eleazar seemed to think it would with the passage of time but I needed it now. There had to be a way around this, surely we weren't all going to die. I looked over to Bella's bedroom door tempted to go sit with her but if she had finally fallen asleep I didn't want to chance waking her. How awful it must be to know your father was being tortured to lure you to your own death. It reminded me of my own guilt, if I'd left with Sefton my parents and my little brother would have lived their lives and hopefully died as old people in their own beds instead of being murdered so horribly.
Instead I sat with Charlotte, Rose, and Emmett playing cards, they had taught me to play poker although Esme insisted we play for cents only. I think the rule had been brought in when Edward played, after all he could hardly lose reading everyone else's hands. Sometimes he tried not to listen in but it was hard for him. When I first arrived he had been kind to me and again to Charlotte so what changed him so radically when Bella arrived on the scene?
The fact he wasn't the great all powerful all knowing man who could get whatever he wanted and who patted himself on the back for resisting the lure of Bella's blood maybe. His ego had taken a terrible beating when she turned her back on him but to sign her death warrant? That was the pits! It was dawn before we stopped playing unsure what to do next. We could hardly start new lives here with such a threat hanging over us, all we could do was to protect Bella until...well until The Major had nothing left to threaten her with...until her father was dead, a grim thought.
I closed my eyes feeling pressure building up in my brain the way it did when I got a vision and suddenly there it was, Bella in the dark but moving, away from us and into danger. I gasped then stood and ran to her bedroom door barging in and hoping I could apologise for waking her but her bed was empty, the clothes pulled back and cold, she was gone and she'd been gone a while.
"Carlisle, Bella's gone. She's going to Forks."
The others came running over looking in and cursing,
"How? How the hell did she get out and how will she get all the way to Forks? She doesn't have any money to speak of."
Another vision flashed through my mind,
"She got him to arrange it. Bella contacted The Major somehow and he organized it all for her."
I staggered, these weren't like my usual visions, these were so concrete I knew they were real, not possibilities, I was seeing what she had done, the past not the future somehow.
"How Alice? We need to know how far ahead of she is."
I started to shake my head at Carlisle's question but then I saw it,
"Fly, you need to fly to get there, possibly before her, I can't tell for sure."
Carlisle was already on the phone to his friend Darius and we were soon on our way back to the airport.
He had tried to insist we stayed behind, even Esme and Rose but they were as adamant as Charlotte and I had been, we were sticking together to the end. Luckily Darius had sourced a fast jet and it didn't take too long to get to Seattle where a large SUV waited. This time Emmett climbed behind the wheel, he knew the mountain trails in the Olympic range better than anyone and Darius had found the spot The Major was waiting for Bella. He had three others with him watching the trails but we didn't think they would stop us approaching, we were his targets too after all. Unfortunately Bella was ahead of us although only by an hour, his arrangements had taken time, a lot more than ours.
"Are we going to get there in time to save her Carlisle?"
He turned to Esme shaking his head,
"Not unless he decides to wait and see if we follow. If he wants her dead then she'll be dead the moment she sets foot in his camp. I'm sorry my sweet, I think we might be too late this time. Maybe we should turn back, you could get the plane back to New York and stay out of his reach."
"And you?"
"We got Bella and her father into this, I have to try to get them out alive."
As we started climbing the trail into the mountains a giant wolf stepped into the center of the road and Emmett stamped on the brakes.
"Stay here."
Carlisle got out followed by Em and they stood facing the wolf who shimmered and reformed as Sam Uley the pack alpha. We listened, had he seen Bella? Were the wolves willing to help us?
"Sam."
"You brought him here and he killed two of my brothers Cullen."
"True but I think we can stop him killing any more. I regret what has happened."
"He's got Chief Swan. Are you going to save him too? What about Bella? Do you leave a leech lover to face death alone? Will you wait until he kills the Swans and then run again?"
"We came to try and save Bella and her father."
"How? You aren't warriors, he is."
"It's us he really wants, then he'll leave you in peace."
"You know we only allow his presence because he hasn't threatened the tribe. We cannot attack, only defend our people.
"I know and I'm sorry. You can't offer us your help?"
"Help? The only help I would offer you and yours is a swift brutal death Cullen and if it comes to a fight between my pack and the leeches we will not differentiate between our targets."
"Very well, thank you for the warning. With luck we shall meet again."
"If any more of my pack brothers die I'll make it my mission to hunt down your "family" and kill every one of them leaving you until last so you suffer."
He didn't wait for Carlisle to answer his threat just phased and disappeared into the trees that lined both sides of the road and we could feel he wasn't alone, other pairs of eyes watched from the gloom.
They climbed back into the SUV in silence but we had all heard Sam's words, he had said "until he has killed the Swans" plural which meant he had both Bella and her father or soon would have. If the wolves knew Bella was going to meet the vampire who was torturing her father why didn't they try to stop her? After all Chief Swan was a friend of the tribe, surely his daughter deserved a little protection? Esme vocalized my question and Carlisle shook his head,
"As far as the wolves are concerned Bella betrayed them by becoming involved with us, they see her as the enemy too and no wolf will risk his life for an enemy, even when that enemy is the daughter of a friend."
"So they just let her go off up the mountain to her death?"
"Yes Alice, they did but I think she is alone, he accused us of leaving her to face death ALONE remember. If she is alone and on foot we may still beat her to him. Let me try Darius, see if he can pinpoint her position."