A/N: I greatly apologize for making you wait so long for an update. I had planned to post a new chapter before now, but physics class got in the way. The semester is almost over so I should be able to post more regularly soon. Enjoy!
March 19, 2006, Volterra, Italy
The phone rang as he passed it. Vince stopped and looked around, but at the butt-crack of dawn, the streets were pretty much deserted. And the trouble just piled on, didn't it? He had a bad feeling he knew who was going to be on the other end of that line. He plucked the handset off its cradle. "Yes, Alice?"
"They told him no, Vince and he's gone crazy! He was going to go hunting, now he's not, and he's decided to walk out into the main square at noon! You can't let him know you're there or he'll do it now and we lose." There was a moan in the background, nearly swamped by the roaring of a finely tuned engine.
"Bella's taking it hard." His mind spun. Why hadn't Demetri explained the situation?
"Of course she is! I stole a car – don't even think about it, by the way – and we're heading to Volterra as fast as this beauty will go." His sister swallowed hard. "But it's going to be close, damn close, Vince."
"What if I run Bella through the back alleys? Today is St. Marcus Day, the streets will be packed, and she's not good at running to begin with."
"Tell me something I don't know," Alice said with a small sigh. "Give me a second. It could go either way … can you possibly not think at all for two minutes?"
"I'll do my best, pixie, but we know how he is."
"If we survive this, I'm changing Bella myself."
"About time somebody does." He glanced around to make sure no one was in earshot. "Did you see anything else?"
"Like?"
"The Volturi. I told one of them Edward was mistaken, that his mate was alive, and he said he'd tell his masters." Vince let his tone go sour. Alice drew in a breath. "What?"
"They were told," she said quietly, "but Aro chose to keep it to himself."
"Why in the hell –"
"I think he's interested in all of us. No, Bella, it'll be fine, alright? Trust me. We'll be there as soon as we can." She hung up without another word and he set the phone back in its cradle, fighting the urge to shatter the plastic.
Why couldn't just one little thing go the way it was supposed to?
Vince whirled around and ghosted into the back alleys of Volterra.
11:55
"Go, Bella!" The yellow Porsche rocked to a halt in the street and the passenger door flew open, Bella tumbling out somehow upright and running. She flew into his arms – he made sure to hold his breath – and he darted away, fighting to keep his thoughts clear so Edward didn't hear them. Frankly, he couldn't wait until she was a vampire, she wouldn't smell so damn appetizing then. And had Edward been smart enough to change her last fall, they wouldn't be in this mess now.
He ran through the shadows, keeping an ear trained on the clock up in the tower, each second winding the mechanism a little tighter, until it would sound at high noon.
God, why did this remind him of a B grade western on TV? He'd always loved those movies, and fantasized about being a cowboy star as a kid. But real life he could do without. There was no script for the Volturi except their own.
"Hurry, Vince," Bella pleaded.
"I can't go any faster." The last thing they needed was someone walking into one of the alleys and seeing them moving at a pace clearly not human. He watched the clock tower growing larger in front of them. "Almost there." He slid to a halt at the end of the alley and set her on her feet. "There, the alley directly opposite. He's just inside the shadows, run, Bella!" She took off at a pretty decent sprint – for her – and Vince darted around the back way. He didn't dare step one foot closer to the sun than he had to, he could smell the Volturi had several watchers focused on that alley. Including the one he'd met early that morning.
"Edward! Edward!" Vince reached the alley just as she barreled into his brother. "Edward, you have to get away from the sun!" Bella attempted to shove him backwards into the alley but it was like watching a kitten attack a mastiff.
"They're very good," he mused. "I didn't feel a thing." Vince fought the urge to slap his brother.
"What? No, Edward, we have to move, the Volturi –"
"What?" His brother finally seemed to rouse himself from whatever stupor he'd been in. Which was nice considering what was between him and them. Edward suddenly flipped around, tucking Bella behind him. "My thanks, but I won't be requiring your services today, gentlemen."
"Shall we take this elsewhere?" A voice hissed as two shadows detached from the high stone walls in the middle of the alley.
"I haven't broken any laws," Edward protested smoothly.
"Felix was merely referring to the proximity of the sun." Vince recognized that voice. He strolled forward. If his heart hadn't been dead, it would have been hammering in his chest like the time he'd been called out to a domestic and wound up ducking flying furniture.
"Had your masters not decided to play games, this entire day could have gone differently." The shadows turned, inky-gray cloaks undulating in the breeze. Demetri's brow furrowed, then smoothed.
"As I told you, the decision was not mine to make."
"You did say that." Vince crossed his arms. "But since this is of their own making, I fail to see why we should go anywhere but home."
"Unfortunately, she knows about us." Demetri nodded at Bella cowering behind Edward. "It is against our laws."
"She'll be turned soon."
"I'm afraid I cannot take your word for it. Aro wishes to meet all of you."
"Bella isn't going anywhere near them," Edward hissed under his breath and Felix crouched. Demetri rolled his eyes.
"I much preferred our discussion," he commented offhandedly. "Does no one have any sense these days?"
"Define sense," Vince muttered. "I think it ended with my generation."
"Everyone thinks that," Demetri said in a flat tone. "Just wait until you've been around for a millennia."
"Your masters intend to give us that option?" Heads turned as Alice sauntered gracefully into the alley from the square. "From what I saw, that didn't seem likely."
"Aro is interested, in all of you," Demetri admitted. "But she is merely a liability." He nodded at Bella. "One you do not intend to turn or destroy and that is a violation of our laws."
"You've been around a millennia and never seen a law that wasn't broken or bent in some fashion?" Vince crossed his arms and shifted his weight. Demetri straightened, if such a thing was possible. The vampire already stood stiff as an ex-Marine county coroner he'd once known.
"The Volturi do not allow –" He cut off as a new scent filled the air, one reminiscent of a forested mountain mixed with sunshine and summertime, cut with the icy sweet scent of vampire.
"There are always options, darling, one only has to recognize them." A cloak much darker in hue billowed in a sudden gust of wind, the hood pulled up over a bowed head. Alice drew in a breath, the woman raised her head, and gleaming golden eyes met Vince's. A tiny smirk touched her lips. "Aro wanted to send Jane, but I convinced Master Marcus to send me instead." She raked them all with an appraising look. "You must be the Cullens who drive Caius to such irritation. Thank you for that by the way." She stopped scant centimeters from Demetri's side, one hand lightly resting in the crook of the arm he raised in silent offer without even glancing sideways.
Mated. They had to be. And based on the color of her cloak, she possessed power the vampires in front of him did not. But how if she was a "vegetarian" for lack of a better description? How had such a vampire even joined the guard in the first place?
"You have so many questions," she said with a smile. "But they'll have to wait. Aro demands your presence without further delay, or he will send that petulant little brat after all." Her lips twitched as though she'd enjoy such a development.
"You delight in tormenting Jane," Felix groused under his breath, and the newcomer laughed.
"It's not that hard, idiota, she's frozen forever at what – twelve? I could run circles around her if I was half that." Demetri patted her arm.
"She was born in a much rougher time, agape mou. Women weren't considered much better than slaves in 800's Britain. You would have been burned as a witch, no different than her."
"I do know my history, darling," she said, a note of annoyance creeping into her voice. "Enough chatter, they're waiting and Caius is growing impatient." Her lips twitched again and Vince was certain she enjoyed irritating that particular vampire. Her gaze flicked over Bella without so much as a spark of interest. "If it will soothe troubled minds, I personally guarantee her safety for as long as she is in my presence." She gave them a feral smile. "Not that you actually have a choice in the matter, but I thought it sounded nice, don't you think?" Without waiting for an answer, she turned, the long cloak sweeping the stones underfoot and stirring up her scent. Demetri's eyes dilated and Vince held back a snort. A millennia old he may be, but age never stopped that particular emotion.
Alice glanced his way and he motioned her to follow him with Edward and Bella bringing up the rear. The mystery woman was correct: they didn't have a choice so they needed to be as cool-headed as possible if they wanted to get out of Italy in one piece.
The woman led them to the end of the alley where she pried up a large grate, then leaped lightly into the unknown. Demetri mock bowed and Vince rolled his eyes as he jumped down. The woman was waiting, hands folded at her waist, hood still pulled up and golden eyes gleaming in a ray of sunlight poking down from a crack somewhere above. "So many questions," she breathed. "If you were alive, you'd be shaking with excitement." He snorted and she smiled just as Alice landed beside them and turned to help Bella descend.
"He's got questions alright," his little sister said with a smirk. "But he doesn't need to ask them when I can give him all the answers before he even decides which one to ask first."
"So you're the mind reader that has Aro in an apoplectic fit. Do me a favor and don't join the guard, I want to listen to him sulk and whine for the next hundred years."
"I have no plans to," Alice said lightly, but her brow furrowed and her eyes took on that far away look he knew so well. She was seeing something, and whether that was good news or bad, he wouldn't know until she chose to enlighten them all. Her face cleared in an instant and then she was his bubbly sister again. "You'll have to write and tell me how badly he took our refusal." Vince's heart would have skipped a beat had it been able to; as it was, he shifted his weight ever so slightly.
So there was a chance then? Unless Alice was merely hiding the truth. The woman laughed as she started down the dim corridor under the street, leaving Bella and Edward still climbing down the ladder. He was surprised she willingly left her mate with only Felix to defend him against the three of them, until he reconsidered the color of her cloak and wondered again at what power she possessed.
She waited for them at a heavy wooden door, an air of impatience seeming to vibrate across her marble skin as Bella took forever to stumble her way down the tunnel. "C-c-cold." Her already pale skin was ghost white and she shivered against Edward. Golden eyes rolled skyward and he swore a muttered cuss word slipped through the woman's teeth as she contemplated the sole human in their midst.
"Rather unimpressive, I must say." She glanced at Edward glowering next to Bella. "All this fuss for her when you could have had a vampire mate?" Edward snarled under his breath and Demetri stiffened until the woman wiggled her fingers at him. "No accounting for taste, darling." She sniffed and flung open the door, revealing a modern hallway that wouldn't be out of place in any office building he'd ever been in. The door closed behind them and the Volturi slipped their hoods back, their demeanor noticeably changing as they entered their home. Dark locks not much different in shade from Bella's crowned the mystery woman's head, the strands gleaming under the lights overhead as she turned to find Demetri. The two linked arms as they sauntered down the hallway without a backward glance.
Felix chuckled and they all turned to look at him. He motioned at the retreating pair. "Perfect match, yes?"
"If you say so," Edward muttered under his breath.
"I thought the Volturi were all … regular … vampires," Bella said in a hushed voice.
"They are."
"They were." Vince's response rang out in perfect unison with Alice's. "But she's an … anomaly," his sister continued. Felix laughed.
"No one really cares what Courtney eats, more for the rest of us, you know. I thought she'd slip up after she was turned, but she hasn't yet."
"You knew her before she was turned?" Vince leaped on the nugget of information, at this point, who knew what might get them out in one piece. Felix shrugged.
"She was supposed to be lunch. Came in on a tour group last spring. Master Marcus felt her mating bond with Demetri and informed Master Aro." Bella jolted.
"Tour group? Lunch?" She looked a little green around the gills. "You mean –"
"If her talent hadn't shown itself, she'd have been dead before Demetri could lock eyes with her and seal the bond."
"Aro wanted her talent," Alice said flatly, and Felix nodded. "That's all that saved her." Her gaze flicked to Bella and Vince wondered what she was thinking. So far as they knew, Bella's only talent was hurting herself through her own clumsiness and that was far from helpful.
"Is story time over, Felix?" Courtney called from the end of the hallway next to a stainless steel door. "We have exactly five minutes and thirty-seven seconds before Aro sends Jane after us." She sounded annoyed, even if her face didn't betray it. She pressed a button and the door slid open revealing an elevator. The rest of them crowded inside and the elevator began to ascend smoothly upwards, leaving Vince wondering which building they were inside.
The doors slid open, revealing another hallway, this one decorated more lavishly with expansive landscapes and dark wood trim. Vince was shocked when his nose picked up the scent of another human. A woman with smooth, olive skin rose from her ornate desk and smiled at the vampires approaching her, inclining her head slightly when Courtney reached the edge of the rug her desk was perched on.
"Mistress Courtney. Demetri." Vince's brows rose into his hairline and he shared a glance with Alice, who shrugged.
"Gianna." Courtney sounded bored. Felix brushed a thumb over the woman's cheek as he passed and she giggled, prompting a glance over her shoulder from Courtney.
"The Masters are gathered in the tower, Mistress Courtney."
"That will be all." The woman inclined her head and retook her seat behind the desk. Vince glanced at Edward who shook his head slightly.
"She's human," Bella said. "How?"
"She wants to be one of them," Edward whispered into her ear.
"She'll be lunch, most likely," Vince added. Nothing he'd seen would indicate otherwise. If Courtney was only spared for her power, this woman didn't stand much of a chance considering what the Volturi already possessed.
A pair of ornate doors stood at the far end of the lushly carpeted hallway and it was in that direction that Courtney led them. In a matter of minutes, they'd meet the Volturi Masters themselves.
If he'd still been human, Vince would have lost his lunch.