A/N: This is short but I wanted it to stand alone. And since I'm not a cliffhanger kinda gal, I'm posting Chapter Fourteen right after this one. Thanks for reading!

Take care, M. x

A few days after the four vampires left Washington, Alice was in Carlisle's office organizing some of the books she'd brought back to New York. Just as she set her foot on the bottom rung of the ladder that allowed her access to the top shelves of the bookcase, she was pulled into a vision about her favorite human.

Bella was standing near the edge of the cliff diving cliff and looking over her shoulder, grinning at Jacob who was about ten feet behind her. Bella took a deep breath and then ran a few steps before flinging herself over the edge. Just as she started to fall, the vision went black.

Alice couldn't hold back a smile, in the back of her mind remembering that Bella and Jacob had a bet about who would hit the water first - human Bella or wolf Jacob. He must have phased right as he jumped.

Alice went back to work rearranging the shelves but it wasn't five minutes before she was pulled into another vision. It was brief and didn't make a lot of sense at the time. It was just a quick visual of Edward - looking more tortured than usual - running through a field ringed with cypress trees.

Greece maybe? Italy?

"What the hell would he be over there for?" she muttered to herself.

What Alice didn't know - couldn't know - was that Edward had made a last minute decision to come home. He was nearing the house just as Alice had a vision of Bella Swan's future fading to black.

Later that afternoon, Alice and Jasper were on their way back to the house from hunting when Alice was pulled into yet another vision.

Edward was standing in front of the Volturi kings, head down as he asked for death.

Aro looked at Edward curiously. "And you're quite certain your human mate has died?" he asked.

Edward nodded slowly. "Yes. I… I saw a vision of her and… her future disappeared," he choked out.

As Marcus reached over and touched the back of Aro's hand, Edward visibly flinched but said nothing.

"Give us some time to consider this, young Edward. It's an… unusual request," Aro said, a frown on his face as he watched the telepath closely.

Edward didn't respond other than giving the kings a sharp nod. When he turned his back to walk out of the throne room, the three kings exchanged glances.

"You're sure the human is not his mate?" Aro asked Marcus after a moment.

"Quite sure," Marcus nodded apathetically. "He has no current mate bond, nor a severed one, the way I would typically see if one's mate has died."

Aro nodded slowly as a wave of pain crossed Marcus' face just before the scene dissolved.

Alice growled as she snapped back to the present. "Goddamn it, Edward!"

Jasper, feeling the panic in her emotions as she stood frozen on the spot, took her hand and sent her a little bit of calm. She immediately pulled out her phone to call her brother.

He answered despondently after two rings. "What do you want, Alice?"

"Edward, that vision of Bella, it wasn't—"

"Don't lie to me!" he yelled, interrupting her. "I know what I saw!" he snapped.

Jasper let out a low growl at Edward's tone. Alice gave him a quick shake of her head and squeezed his hand.

"If you give me a second, I can explain—"

Edward interrupted her again. "Don't! I don't want to hear your lies."

Half a second later, Alice heard the sound of crunching metal and the call was disconnected. She immediately called him back but his phone went straight to voicemail. She tried another six times, all with the same result.

Her stubborn brother had crushed his phone.

Alice let out a scream of anger and frustration as she sat on the ground.

Jasper sat beside her, listening quietly as she explained what happened, and keeping up a steady stream of calm so they could work out what to do. "Can we catch up to him? He couldn't have gotten far yet."

Alice searched her visions and shook her head. "I can't see where he is. Right now he's just running."

"How long do we have?" Jasper asked.

Alice shrugged. "I don't see him in Italy for at least another day. Maybe two. The kings won't give him an answer right away so that gives us another twenty-four hours."

"What about if we fly to Italy and head him off at the pass? Maybe at the airport?"

Alice looked ahead again and let out another frustrated growl. "He won't listen. He'll think we're lying to keep him from going to the kings."

Jasper thought on it for a moment. "And if we go straight to Volterra?"

It was a minute before Alice answered, her anger and frustration climbing. "No, all that will do is make him expose himself. He refuses to believe us and moves that much quicker to force the Volturi's hand."

Jasper ran his fingers through his hair as he thought about what other options they had. Alice ran through every possible solution they could think of, but every vision ended the same way. With Edward's death.

It was after an hour of this that Alice tried the one option she hadn't let herself consider.

A minute later Alice put her head in her hands at the realization that the only future where Edward walked out of Volterra alive was the one where Bella came to Italy with them.