In Wisconsin, Carlisle's prayer went unanswered as the whole family sat around the dining table for a counsel of war. The chair at the table's head remained empty and was a depressing reminder that one of their number, their most beloved patriarch, was missing. No word of him had been heard for almost a week, but the Cullens and Masens hadn't spent that time in idleness. Not a single one of them intended to allow any more time to pass before they had put a plan in action to get him home.

Their discussions had become heated at times, and at one point, Emmett had jumped up, sending his chair flying, and stormed out of the room. Rosalie had quickly gone after him, and they had set off running into the forest, absenting themselves for nearly an hour. Upon their return, nothing was said and the discussion continued as if they'd never left.

Jasper insisted that they didn't go off half-cocked, wanting to make sure they had a solid, foolproof plan before they even considered getting on a plane. Through Alice, they knew Carlisle was still alive, although her visions were somewhat muddled and fragmented due to the distance—she had never before had to keep tabs on a family member who was quite so far away. Added to this, he was being kept in the depths of a fortified castle with three-foot-thick walls and was surrounded by a multitude of vampires, any one of whom might have the power to block her gift.

Nevertheless, what Alice was able to discern was horrifying.

It was clear that Carlisle had been denied access to his normal diet and instead was being offered humans to feed upon. Unfortunately, his decision to leave as soon as possible in order to forestall any precipitate action by Aro had left him insufficient time to hunt, assuming he would have a chance to do so when he arrived in Italy, which had failed to happen. Now, going into his third week since he'd last fed, he was constantly being forced to share his cell with terrified human sacrifices. However, it was obvious that the Volturi had woefully underestimated just how strong Carlisle's aversion to human blood was—indeed, Edward had long believed that this was actually Carlisle's gift.

Nevertheless, they anticipated that things were about to take a turn for the worse, and even Jasper had to concede that they should delay no longer. The plan they'd come up with could be honed no more, and they needed to leave as soon as possible. Finally, much to Esme's relief, Jasper set about making the arrangements.

The night before they were due to leave, they all took the opportunity to be with their partners—all, of course, except Esme, who wanted nothing more than to get on the first available flight, regardless of what had been discussed. However, there were no direct flights to Florence from Milwaukee or even Chicago. The only option for a commercial flight was from New York, so they had taken the decision to charter a private jet that also offered the advantage of taking off from Timmerman Airfield, just a short drive from their home in Fox Point. With their travel arrangements in place, they prepared for departure, although a heavy pall of dread seemed to hang over the whole house. Every one of them was painfully aware that they might not return for one reason or another, although somewhat surprisingly, it was Esme who remained the calmest in the face of impending action. Edward alone knew such calm grew out of her decision that should they fail in their attempt to save Carlisle, she would seek her own demise so that one way or another, she and her mate would be together again.

He never said a word to any of them about what he had seen in Esme's thoughts, not even Bella, because he knew the mere suggestion would break their hearts and, perhaps, their spirits.

Edward, meanwhile, also watched Alice.

Despite their constant bickering, he had grown to care deeply for her, like the little sister he'd never had. In one way, of course, they were alike, both having gifts they often considered more of a curse, and of course, Edward was the only one who was privy to Alice's visions, almost as if they were his own. Indeed, he believed it was this connection that made them interact in such a seemingly antagonistic way toward one another, albeit the hostility was playful and very much a façade. It was also, he supposed somewhat wryly, the reason why Alice was the most adept at blocking him from her thoughts.

Which is what she was doing now.

In truth, he was worried about her, as was Jasper, who had admitted as much to Edward in the last couple days. Of course, whatever she was hiding from Edward, she was also keeping from her husband in order that he couldn't inadvertently give away that which she was working so hard to keep secret—as an empath, it was Jasper who struggled the most to shield his thoughts from Edward.

All of this was just one more thing to worry about, but Edward forced himself to put his trust in Alice that she would tell him what he—and the others—needed to know when the time was right.

In the brief hiatus between planning and taking action, everyone had time to think about what was to come. However, they all had practical concerns as well, the main one of which was to hunt and to hunt well. They couldn't afford to make the same mistake as Carlisle, so even though they fretted about the time it would take, they took themselves off to the Lion's Den Nature Reserve where a cull was scheduled to take place due to overpopulation of predator animals. Emmett had even managed to find a grizzly that had emerged early from hibernation and been bad-tempered enough to give him a small challenge, cheering him up just a little.

Back home, they all took advantage of the final hours to be with their mates before they had to leave.

For Edward and Bella, their lovemaking took on an urgency that had never previously existed as they tried, and failed, to push from their minds the thought that their days may be far more finite than they had originally believed, that this incredible love affair might have a much earlier end date than they could possibly have imagined.

A light tap on the door finally saw them separate after hours of constant, sometimes frenzied intimacy.

Bella threw on a robe and went to the door, only to find Rosalie with her arms wrapped around herself, looking for all the world like a traumatized teenage girl. The statuesque, confident, almost supercilious beauty seemed to have been brought low in a way that shocked Bella to the core.

"Rose! Oh my God, what's happened?"

"Bella, I'm sorry to intrude, but I … may I come in?"

Bella stepped back, opening the door wider. "Of course."

Moments later, curled in on herself in the corner of a sofa, Rosalie looked at Bella sitting at the other end. As the silence expanded between the two women, Edward came downstairs, now dressed, and placed his hands on the back of the couch next to his wife's head.

"It's okay, Rose, I'll go talk to Emmett and Jasper. Stay as long as you need to."

With a small, tremulous smile, Rose nodded her gratitude, and then he was gone.

"Do you want to talk about it, Rose? If not, I'm happy for us just to sit quietly. I can put some music on, or the TV, if you prefer."

"No, no TV, thanks, although maybe some music."

Prompting Alexa, Rose smiled her approval as Laura Marling began to softly bare her soul in a haunting melody.

The loaded silence between them continued for a short while, but then the blonde vampire huffed and lifted her gaze to Bella. "I know you and I have never been close, Bella, but Esme is deaf to everything except when we're leaving, and Alice … well, poor Alice is a mess, so I'm afraid you've drawn the short straw."

"Yep, that's the way to win me over, tell me I'm your third-choice confidante in a house where you're one of only four females."

Rosalie's eyes widened and she immediately tried to backpedal. "Oh, God, I'm so sorry; I didn't mean it like that!"

Bella leaned forward, patting the other woman's knee. "Forget it, Rose; I'm just kidding. I completely understand because you're right, we've never been particularly close, but I'd love for that to change. If I can help, I will. So, why don't you tell me why you're here and Edward felt the need to go and do a bit of male bonding."

"It's just …" She looked away, staring into the empty fireplace.

"You're scared."

Rosalie snorted. "You're remarkably perceptive, Bella. I haven't been scared since I was being thrown to the ground by my dick of a fiancé, who then raped me and invited his three friends to have their fun as well."

Bella gasped, her hand going to her mouth as she took in the horror of what she'd just heard. "Rose," she whispered, "I'm so sorry … I didn't know."

"And why should you? I don't make a song and dance about it, and that was all such a long time ago. They paid for their crime after I was changed; I made sure of that. I hated what Carlisle had done to me, that he'd saved me, given me what I considered this … this twilight existence, nothing more than half a life, so I made damned sure I got some kind of payback. They had stolen my life, so I stole theirs; a deadly quid pro quo, if you will. But even after I found Emmett—and God knows I love that man to distraction—I always felt robbed. Robbed of life and robbed of death."

"Oh, Rose, I … I don't know what to say."

She smiled ruefully. "So, imagine how I felt when you turned up, all aglow with this new life that you had chosen. I'm sorry, Bella, but I have to admit I was a little … irritated that anyone would make that choice. None of us had, so it was inconceivable that a healthy young woman with her whole human life ahead of her would do so."

She held her hand up to forestall a response. "I know, I know, it was your choice to make, and it was the only way to be with Edward. I promise you I do understand. I'm well aware I couldn't live without Em—he's my lover, my rock and my best friend. But, well, that's the problem, isn't it?"

Bella nodded, totally understanding where she was coming from because these had been her own thoughts all day.

As venom glittered in Rosalie's eyes in place of tears that would never spill, she looked down at her lap where she was compulsively twisting the rings on the third finger of her left hand. "It's ironic, isn't it, that now there's a chance I might actually lose this life I've so long imagined I abhorred, I desperately want to cling on to it."

"Not ironic, Rose, I'd say it's completely natural. You … all of us have so much to lose. I haven't been doing this as long as any of you guys, but I already know that I will move heaven and earth to keep living this life I've made with Edward and with all of you."

Rose sniffed, despite her inability to cry. "I was so, so angry with Carlisle for a very long time. I'd wanted a husband, children, grandchildren." She chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "Of course, it turns out that marriage to Royce would have been miserable. I would have been the trophy wife of a violent and abusive alcoholic, and who wants to bring children into that sort of environment? Even if I'd survived the attack, Carlisle tells me I was massively damaged internally, so children would almost certainly have been off the cards."

She paused, seeming to take a moment to mourn her loss. "But it was like I needed to be angry with someone, and Carlisle was the only one on whom I could focus my anger. He never fought back when I raged at him, always telling me he wasn't sorry he saved me because he loved me like a father loves his firstborn daughter."

She was silent for a moment, once again focusing on her hands where she was twisting them constantly in her lap. It occurred to Bella that it was a very human action.

At last, she once again made eye contact. "He didn't deserve my anger, Bella; far from it. I know that now, and if I'm honest, I knew it then. He's the best man I ever met … I mean, Emmett is a wonderful man, and I consider myself to be truly blessed to have him, but until I came to know Carlisle, it was impossible for me to imagine that such a … a truly good man could exist." She chuckled humorlessly. "God knows, my father was not a good man, and Royce … well, he was as far from the concept as you could get. Spoiled, arrogant, narcissistic, and a mean drunk. But he was rich and handsome, and at the time, I was naïve enough to believe that was all I needed in a husband. Unfortunately, I didn't have any decent role models on whom to base an informed opinion, and I was probably going to end up like my mother—just another shallow, witless socialite, drowning her pain and loneliness with booze and pills behind closed doors."

Bella nodded despite the fact that her own upbringing couldn't have been more different. Certainly, she didn't envy Rosalie's privileged, wealthy background. Not for the first time, she was reminded of how lucky she had been to have a man like Charlie for a father. Wise, compassionate, and selfless, he had seldom articulated his love for her in words, but he showed her every day of her life until he died just how precious she was. She truly believed that it was this that made it possible for her to see beyond Edward's nature and past deeds to the incredible man she had bonded with for eternity.

She was brought out of her reverie when Rosalie spoke again.

"So, yeah, I'm scared, Bella. Afraid for my own life, for my family's, and terrified of losing Emmett. I'll admit that a huge part of me wants to sequester myself here with him—and he'd stay if I begged him to, even though he's champing at the bit to wage war on the Volturi—but I won't … I can't let Carlisle down. I'd walk through fire for that man, and if it's at all in my power, I will rain terror down on any one of those motherfuckers who have harmed him. I know I don't have any useful talents, but I will fight for him to my last breath."

Bella now moved to encircle Rose in her arms, hugging her tight. Then, with a soft kiss to her temple, she pulled back a little and fixed her with her gaze until the other woman met her eyes. "Don't sell yourself short, Rose. Okay, maybe you can't read minds, manipulate moods, or see the future, but you do have talents. You're strong and clever and fiercely loyal, and I defy any man—or woman, come to that—who wouldn't drop to their knees and pant like a dog if you looked at them the way you look at Emmett or wither like a desiccated corn husk if you gave them the Ice Queen treatment, the way I've seen you do. Now, that's a real talent, and, oh boy, is that shit scary!"

She felt Rose's shoulders start to shake and moved away as her new friend threw her head back and laughed freely. Grinning, Bella couldn't help but join in with Rosalie's contagious laughter, which was how Edward found them when he walked back in with Emmett close on his heels. Stopping in their tracks when they saw the two chuckling women, they could only look at one another and shrug.

"Babe, you okay?" Emmett enquired tentatively. When last he'd seen her, she'd been in the depths of despair, and he'd been at a loss to know what he could do to help her.

Offering him a blinding smile, she stood to walk around the couch and into his welcoming arms. "I'm fine, Em. Let's go back up to the house and leave these two to finish packing."

Turning, she held out a hand across the back of the sofa, which Bella took, giving it a gentle squeeze.

"Thanks, Bella, I …"

"I know, Rose. Go check on Esme, and we'll see you in about twenty minutes."

With a parting wink and grateful smile from Emmett, they left, arm in arm.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Edward pulled Bella off the sofa into his arms, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He didn't question what he and Emmett had walked in on because he'd gotten the gist of it from Rosalie's mind, and it was clearly a private matter between them. Instead, he smiled at his beautiful girl. "Twenty minutes, huh? I think we can make good use of at least fifteen of them."

With that, their lips crashed together, and in a blur of movement that ruffled the drapes, Edward shot upstairs to their bedroom.

~o0o~

It was a cold, midwinter evening when the Gulfstream G700 jet touched down at Galileo Galilei International Airport in Pisa. The seven vampires made for a somber group as they gathered their limited baggage—they all knew that if their mission didn't succeed in the next couple days, they wouldn't require more than one change of clothes—before disembarking and heading into the small arrivals area to collect the keys for the two SUVs they had pre-booked.

The jet's captain was being extremely well paid to await their return, and Jasper had informed him that if they didn't show up within the next 72 hours, they wouldn't be coming.

Knowing that the Volturi had their spies everywhere, they had planned a circuitous and quiet route that offered the most discreet and, hopefully, unobserved approach to the city. For the same reason, they hadn't made hotel reservations, and neither would they do so because such arrangements would be quickly telegraphed to the Guard. Ever the strategist, Jasper had scoured the internet and even hacked into a number of satellites, including one that had been sent into orbit by the Chinese to gather weather data but was clearly more interested in military installations than storm patterns. Finally, he located what appeared to be a moderately sized house that showed every sign of having been long abandoned. It was conveniently situated in the hills a few miles to the north of the castle, hidden deep within a densely wooded copse. There would be no home comforts, but this was of no consequence to a group of vampires, and it was here they would set up their base.

Arriving just as midnight began to strike, the sonorous tolling from a church clock echoing across the city, they discovered that the house was, indeed, derelict, with large cracks in the walls and gaps in the roof through which the dark, moonless sky could be glimpsed. However, a few pieces of furniture remained that the last inhabitants had presumably considered too shabby or threadbare to take with them, and for the most part, the building provided sufficient shelter from the elements. More importantly, it was completely isolated, and a large, adjacent barn, although rickety and weather-beaten, provided an excellent hiding place for their vehicles; they wouldn't be needed again until—or if—they made good their escape.

In a word, it was perfect.

Gathering around an old table, to which Emmett had made some makeshift repairs, the seven of them went through their plan one more time, refining it where necessary. Edward, in particular, was very unhappy about the initial part of their strategy but had been forced to concede, in the face of everyone else's arguments, that it was probably the only way forward.

At last, as the distant clock's second chime of two o'clock faded, he drew Bella to one side while the others prepared for departure.

"I wish …"

Bella pressed her forefinger to Edward's lips. "I know, love; I do. But this is the only way."

He dipped his forehead to hers, sighing. "Doesn't stop me wishing there was another way. You know I'm going to be worrying about you from the moment you leave until I see you again."

Cupping his face, she rose on tiptoes and brushed his lips with her own. Edward buried his hands in her hair, kissing her back for all he was worth, only breaking away when an impatient Esme called to them softly from outside.

Looking him in the eye, Bella smiled, hoping she looked more confident than she felt. "This will work, Edward. And you know I'm the only one who can protect myself from Asshat Aro and his bunch of fetid twatwaffles."

Edward chuckled at Bella's description of the vampire king and his cohort, but she merely smiled. "You never know, I may even walk out of there with Carlisle, and we can just go straight home."

Edward sobered, shaking his head a little. "I wish with all my heart that you may be right, but I think we both know that's unlikely. Just promise me, Bella … promise me you'll be careful. We'll be right behind you, so please don't do anything foolish."

"I won't; I promise. Now, come on; we need to go before Esme implodes."

He nodded, his face a mask of doubt and apprehension. Finally, he enclosed her hand within his own, and they walked together out of the tumbledown dwelling to join with their small, avenging army.

Without another word, they turned as one and made their way silently through heavy forestation and up the hill toward the looming castle, each with their own thoughts, to which only Edward was privy. He was easily able to ignore them, however, because all he heard was his mate's mind suddenly opening up to him. He gazed down at her as her silent words rang inside his head.

"I love you, Edward, with every part of me. I will never leave you, no matter what happens. Believe in me. I will love you forever."

He paused briefly to plant a fleeting kiss to her mouth. "I believe, Bella, and I love you too. I always will."

They quickly caught up with the others so that the first part of the plan could be set in motion.


A/N: Okay, first thing's first. Your reviews are brilliant! So many theories and clever ideas. I love them - I hope I managed to respond to everyone, but if I didn't, please don't doubt that I truly appreciate your feedback, no matter how brief.

Now, we've finally reached the point of no return. My fantastic beta, Alice's White Rabbit, said she knew I'd end on a cliffie - what can I say, I can't help myself! - but hoped there would be some action in the next chapter. I'm not sure I can promise that quite yet *cringes at the audible groan* as I have just a little more setting up to do ... and my characters do tend to be wordy buggers! We're getting there, so please bear with me a little longer as I'm having way too much fun at the moment to let this end too soon.