Esme took no breaks, no pauses, and gave Bella no opportunities to stretch.

No matter how keenly she tried to understand the world of vampirism, Bella found herself entirely helpless without the heightened smell and hearing advantage Esme possessed. She wasn't sure if Alice was near, or if their scents were lingering for too long. All she could do was hold on to Esme as they made their way back to Washington.

It was almost thirty minutes later that Bella saw a clearing through the trees, and beyond, the looming Cullen estate. Nauseous and disoriented, Bella hopped off of Esme's back onto the dirt below. They were likely half a mile from the perimeter of the house.

Sunshine filtered intermitently through the tall trees. Bella crouched low momentarily to fight off the spins. Esme wasn't the steadiest runner, and Bella couldn't blame her. How often had she had to carry a human on her back?

Esme was watching her closely when Bella finally rose up to stand, squinting through the sparse rays of sun.

"Bella," she said. "I need you to listen."

The sterness of her voice caught her attention as Bella blinked fiercely against a sudden wave of vertigo.

"You must not tell Jasper a thing."

Bella wasn't sure she heard her correctly. "What?"

"Trust me. We cannot tell him anything that violates the laws as dictated within the Tome."

Bella attempted to search Esme's eyes, incredulous. "Alice and Edward have been keeping a human hostage for the last year. And you're saying we can't tell Jasper?"

"The Law of Exposure is in question. Jasper would be forced to report the violation, or he could be charged with aiding and abetting." Esme looked at her deeply. "Do you understand? We cannot be direct with him."

Bella shook her head. "He would piece it together, and then he would know. How is that any different from just telling him?"

Esme sighed sharply. It was unusual to see her so frustrated. She began walking towards the house. "Because then it is simply speculation. An idea. He cannot be charged for thinking."

"But you could be charged," Bella said, running forward to match her stride. "And so could I."

Curtly, Esme nodded. "No one believes Aro could get through your shield. But me? Yes. If Aro used his gift on me, he would see that I had knowledge and proof of Alice and Edward breaking the law. And he would also see that I remained silent, making me an unwilling accomplice, along with you." Esme's pace quickened, and Bella scurried to keep up. "The difference is, I don't care about a Volturi inquisition. Carlisle has always dealt with this appropriately. I do not fear the kings."

Bella knew this was something Jasper envied. "But Jasper should know and should report this," Bella argued strongly. "This is unacceptable. Alice has gone too far."

Esme stopped so abruptly that Bella feared she'd topple into her. "If Jasper reports Alice, Edward would be forced into questioning. He would be sent to Volterra, and… I have a strong feeling Carlisle would allow it. It is punishment to serve at court, but Edward would gain the experience he lacks. And when you are turned, Carlisle would bring you to Italy himself, and mate you as planned. You would serve alongside Edward." She shook her head, determined. "Jasper must not be put into a position where he has to reveal anything to the kings. Because he would, Bella. To avoid prosecution, he would." Her gaze caught on her, cautionary. "Nothing is more important to him than his freedom. Nothing and nobody."

The front door opened before they made it to the porch. Jasper stood, stoic and unmoving, at the threshold as Esme and Bella approached.

"Shower. Both of you," he said, stepping to the side to let them in.

Esme immediately peeled off the backpack from Bella, and led her to the stairs. When Bella glanced back at the door, it was closed. And Jasper was gone.

After a quick shower, Bella toweled off in the guest bedroom. The room was too quiet, allowing her thoughts to fester and churn within her mind.

She would let Esme do the talking, no matter how much she wanted to scream at Jasper. She wanted to warn him of Olivia's faked death. Warn him of what Alice had done. The Exposure Law, broken. The Cullens, seemingly in trouble.

But why?

Alice… Olivia Levi… Edward.

Alice knew the law. She knew exactly what she was doing.

Why was she condemning Carlisle's coven so brazenly?

There wasn't a single part of Bella that believed she was doing this for Edward; letting him keep a human for himself on the side, no matter the law. Alice was holding Olivia for something, and she had lured Edward into her crime for a reason.

Bella threw on a sweatshirt and leggings that she found in the closet and then headed out to the hall. And immediately, she recoiled back. Half in thought, she had hardly seen him.

"Bella," Jasper said, pushing off of the wall in front of her door.

"Jasper."

He reached a hand forward and grabbed her wrist, and then the other, pushing up the sleeves of her sweatshirt. Once satisfied at whatever he was searching for on her skin, he dropped her hands, and then stepped even closer, staring deeply into her eyes, before his gaze lowered to her neck, fingers rising to her jaw. Focused. Assessing. Inspecting.

"I'm okay," Bella reassured him. "Really, I am."

"Your heart is stuttering."

And there was so much she wanted to tell him. "It's been… a morning."

He narrowed his eyes at her. And there, within the depths of his gaze, was a warning. Perhaps he already suspected there was something amiss. Perhaps he needed her to remain quiet.

We cannot be direct with him.

"Esme's in the library," he told her by way of ushering her on. And with a hand on the small of her back, Jasper led her down the hall.

Upon entering the library, Bella saw Esme lingering by the bookshelves, her lips downturned in a frown. Bella noted the dampness of her hair, and the change of her clothes.

Jasper sat at his desk. There was a moment of suffocating silence that left Bella fidgety, her fingers twitching beside her as she moved forward, lowering herself to a chair before Jasper.

Finally, as Bella settled, Jasper asked into the silence, "Did you find anything?"

"No," Esme said immediately, not turning from the books. "We wiped our scents and headed back the moment I got your text."

Jasper's red gaze snapped to Bella. "Good."

Bella held his gaze, unsure.

There was a heavy scrape of a book as Esme pulled one out of the bookshelf. A distinctly black one that Bella was all too familiar with.

Esme walked over and plopped the Vampiric Tome down before Jasper. Only once the dust settled did she say, "You're a man of the court. If Alice was violating the law, how would that work with the kings? She was a Volturi, after all."

Jasper placed a hand on the cover. "She would be tried with accordance to the Tome. The punishment would depend on what law was broken."

Esme considered. Or feigned it. Either way, Bella felt this was all ridiculous as she watched Esme reach forward and slide the Tome closer, flipping open the heavy cover and quickly scanning the pages. Finally, she placed a finger over a piece of text. "This one. As an example."

Bella didn't need to see the page. She knew Esme had found the section dictacting the Law of Exposure.

Slowly, Jasper's eyes rose from the Tome to Esme. Something unspoken passed between them. "If there is a human who was exposed to vampirism, and the human has been kept alive past the mark of a year, Alice would be brought before the kings. Aro would have free reign over her mind, as he would need proof of her involvement. He would charge her once he attains the confirmation. Now, what that would look like for Alice Cullen, I cannot say. Her position with the Volturi is different compared to an ordinary citizen."

Esme's eyes lowered to the page. "And if it wasn't just Alice? Perhaps… if she had an accomplice?"

Jasper leaned back in his chair, running a hand over his face, pinching at it. Bella could feel his frustration from the tension in his shoulders. The agitation. Of course, he was attempting to unravel the situation. "Any accomplice would be sentenced to serve two-hundred and fifty years."

Esme glanced quickly at Bella. "And what about their mate?"

"The sentence would be halved," Jasper said easily. "And both would be made to serve the Volturi."

Bella paused. At that moment, the absurdity of the situation faded as an understanding fell over her. "The Matehood clause could so easily be taken advantage of, then, couldn't it?"

It wasn't something she had considered before.

Jasper was staring hard at Esme, but his eyes reluctantly landed on Bella. "Explain."

"A mated pair will always serve a sentence together, regardless if one of them was innocent. As long as there is a guilty party, both will serve."

Jasper nodded her along.

"If there was a desire to sentence not one but two individuals to servitude, then all you would need is to get one of them charged, and ensure they are mated. The mate, though innocent, would simply have to follow. It is the law."

As Alice's accomplice, Edward would be tried and sentenced. And if Carlisle succeeded, Bella, as Edward's mate, would be forced to serve the kings alongside Edward.

Bella blew out a sharp breath. Was that it then?

Was Bella simply made to be a present for the kings? Alice would deliver both Edward and Bella right to Aro's feet. Two powerfully gifted individuals. Two Cullens.

Was that what Alice needed to get back into Aro's good graces? To be welcomed back to court? To restore her last name?

But you're not hers to trade. Under Carlisle's jurisdiction, she cannot touch you.

Alice wouldn't need to trade. She would only need to have Bella—or her mate—criminally charged.

For a moment, Jasper was silent, a hand absently running over his jaw. "You are correct. The Matehood clause could be twisted to an advantage, given malicious intent."

What was Alice if not malicious?

Bella stared down at the desk in front of her, her brows drawn.

Suddenly, she knew that Jasper reporting the crime would be equally as detrimental.

Edward would be sent to the Volturi. Carlisle would drag Bella to Italy, and ensure that their mating was complete. And Bella would still be made to serve the Volturi alongside Edward.

Reporting the crime would only pull the timeline forward.

Either way, Bella and Edward were gifts to the kings.

Either way, Alice would win.

Bella gritted her teeth through another bout of vampiric speed as Jasper clutched her to his chest, cradling her close with a hand on her back, and an arm beneath her legs. The journey from the Cullen estate to her bedroom was decidedly shorter than crossing the Oregon border, but Bella's head still spun the moment she was laid down on her bed.

She'd had enough of supernatural speed for the day.

For a moment, she let herself lie there on her comforter, staring up at the ceiling. It was only midday, and yet she felt like she could sleep a full night's rest.

Propping herself up on her elbows, she peeked at Jasper, who was lingering by her window. His gaze was unseeing. Distant.

"How was hanging out with Alice?" she asked, entirely unsure of how to speak to him at this moment.

"Alice," he sighed, as if that would explain it all. And it did.

Bella sat up, crossing her legs on her bed. "I understand."

Jasper nodded, more to himself. "I think I do as well." Suddenly, his head snapped to her. "Ask me questions."

"Questions?"

"As you always do," he prompted, his eyes powerful on hers. "Ask me."

Bella searched his gaze carefully. She should be cautious, she knew, with her wording. "Did you ever see Olivia Levi's body?"

There was an instant rigidity to Jasper's body. As if he had simply frozen into place.

Bella pressed, "Edward killed her, right? How much had he hurt her?"

Jasper finally ran a hand through his hair, his eyes flying about the room, unsure where to land. "Her arm was broken. There was a nasty gash on her neck where Edward bit her."

Bella looked down at her fingers, clutching tightly at her comforter. "And then you took care of it. You said it yourself."

"I cleared the scene," he said carefully. "Alice snapped her neck and buried her."

But she did not. Olivia Levi was alive, and she was Alice Cullen's prisoner, and bait for Edward Cullen to lure him into this mess.

It was at that moment that the weight of it all descended upon Bella. Olivia Levi, a young woman, held hostage for over a year. Her death faked. Her world upended. Vampires had infiltrated her life and altered its trajectory, never to be restored. Never to be righted.

In that, they weren't too dissimilar.

Bella leaned forward, clutching her head between both palms. Disbelief. Disgust. Empathy. It was unfair how quickly the world could change. How delicate mortality was. How unassuming they all were, naive and unprepared when faced with the threat of the supernatural unknown.

"Bella." Jasper's voice was right in front of her. Slowly, she let her hands fall, looking up at him as he stood before her bed. "Thank you for going today. It was a risk."

Blinking away unshed tears, she merely said, "You aren't a risk taker."

"No," he agreed, knowing eyes searching hers. "And I think you understand that."

Esme certainly did.

He grabbed her hand, pulling her to stand. "This changes nothing."

Throat tight, Bella looked away. There was nothing she could stay. She disagreed, but there was nothing she could say.

A woman was kidnapped, fated to be killed, likely by the Volturi who would seek to right this wrong. Bella was powerless to interfere.

And she knew with a cold realization that Jasper would let Olivia Levi die. Happily, in fact. He did not have to be involved. He would rather not be involved. Jasper Whitlock would prefer that he be kept as far away from the situation as possible.

A part of her could understand that.

But the other part of her that demanded justice—the part of her that somehow believed that the world was inherently good, refused to accept it.

"Look at me," Jasper repeated, hands coming up to cradle her jaw. "Bella. Tell me you understand."

She gritted her teeth through the helplessness and forced herself to agree. It came out as a choke. "This changes nothing."

A/N: It's been entirely too long, hasn't it?

I so appreicate your readership, and your support. Thank you for your patience as I hop between fandoms.

~blu