We were soon on our way to the hotel in Pheonix. Alice and Jasper were in the front while Bella and I were in the back. Bella was curled into my side, her head resting on my shoulder. Her tears wet my shirt, but I ignored it in favour of her comfort. Bella couldn't sleep, even though the sun had dipped behind the skyline ages ago. I could feel Bella's pain, even without Jasper's powers. It was silent in the car as I thought over the events of the day. My heart was breaking the entire ride. I was driving farther and farther away from Victoria, from my heart. "Which way to the airport?" Jasper asked softly.
"Stay on the I-Ten for a little longer." I murmured. "We'll pass right by it."
"Are we flying somewhere?" A raspy voice asked. I looked down and saw Bella looking up at me. I sucked in an unnecessary breath through my nose.
"No." Alice replied. "But it's better to be close, just in case." I gently carded my fingers through her hair.
"Try and sleep Bells." I soothed. "I'll wake you up if we need you." Bella nodded silently, closing her eyes and settling against me. She eventually did fall asleep, and when we arrived at the hotel, I carried her inside and into our room. I laid Bella on the bed, slipping out of her hold. I sat across one of the armchairs, my ears reaching out to listen for something. It wasn't until the sun had risen again when I heard noise from Bella's room.
"Do you want to check on her?" Alice asked me, setting a hand on my arm. I shook my head.
"I'm not in the right headspace." I said to her. "I'm…"
"It's ok." Alice soothed before heading into Bella's room. I didn't listen to their conversation but turned my head when Alice led Bella into the room. I shifted my sitting position and opened my arms for Bella. She settled into me as Alice pushed the coffee table towards us. Bella picked up a plate and started to pick at the foot, not paying attention to what she was eating.
"What's wrong, Alice?" Bella asked, putting her food back. Alice turned to her.
"Nothing's wrong."
"What do we do?"
"We wait for Carlisle to call."
"And should he have called by now?" Alice's eyes flicked from the phone sitting on top of her bag and then back to Bella. "What does that mean? That he hasn't called yet?"
"It just means that no one has anything to report." I told her, running my fingers through her hair. Bella's looked up at me suspiciously. Jasper appeared next to Alice.
"Bella." He said. "You have nothing to worry about, you're completely safe here."
"I know that." Bella replied.
"Then why are you frightened?"
"You heard what Laurent said." Bella breathed. "He said James was lethal. What if something goes wrong and they get separated? If something happens to any of them, Carlisle, Emmett...Edward…" Bella gulped. "If that woman hurts Esme." My eyes closed, venom pooling in my eyes but going nowhere. "How could I live with myself when it's my fault? None of you should be risking yourselves for me-"
"Bella, Bella stop." Jasper interrupted. "You're worrying about all the wrong things, Bella. Trust me on this, none of us are in jeopardy. You are under too much strain as it is, don't add to it with wholly unnecessary worries. Listen to me!" Bella had looked away but her head snapped back over to Jasper. "Our family is strong. Our only fear is losing you."
"But why should you-"
"It's been almost a century that Edward's been alone." Alice but in this time. "Now he's found you. You can't see the changes that we see, we who have been with him for so long. Do you think any of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred of years if he loses you?" The wait was horrendous. It was late at night when anyone spoke. Bella had retreated to the bed, Alice and I following her. Bella was laying on the bed with me leaning against the headboard and Alice cross-legged at my feet. Eventually, Bella sat up and curled her arms around her knees.
"Alice?" Bella asked.
"Yes?"
"What do you think they're doing?"
"Carlisle wanted to lead the tracker as far north as possible, wait for him to get close and then turn and ambush him." Alice replied. Eske and Rosalie were supposed to head west as long as they could keep Victoria behind them. If she turned around, they were to head back to Forks and keep an eye on your dad. So I imagine things are going well if they can't call. It means the tracker is close enough that they don't want him to overhear.
"And Esme?"
"I think she must be back in Forks. She won't call if there's any chance Victoria will overhear. I expect they're all just being very careful."
"Do you think they're safe? Really?"
"Bella, how many times do we have to tell you there's no danger to us?"
"Will you tell me the truth though?"
"Yes, I will always tell you the truth."
"Alex?" Bella looked over at me.
"I haven't hidden anything from you since we revealed ourselves." I told her. "I wouldn't lie to you either."
"Tell me then...what does it feel like to become a Vampire."
"I…" I trailed off. "Bella you don't want to know."
"Edward doesn't want me to tell you that." Alice stated.
"That's not fair. I know how it happens but I have a right to know how it feels."
"I know." Bella gave Alice a look. "He'll be extremely angry."
"It's none of his business. It's between you and me. Alice, as a friend, and Alex, as my sister. I'm begging you both." Alice and I shared a look.
"I'll tell you the mechanics of it. But I don't remember it myself, and I've never seen it done, so keep in mind that I can only tell you the theory. As predators, we have a glut of weapons in our physical arsenal, much much more than really necessary. The strength, the speed, the acute senses, not to mention those of us like Edward, Jasper, Alex and I, who have extra senses as well. And then, like a carnivorous flower, we are physically attractive to our prey."
"Not only do we have of those, but we also have our venom." I took over for Alice. "The venom doesn't kill, it's to early incapacitate. When we bite something, the venom causes extreme pain. It takes a while for the venom to spread from a single bite."
"So...if the venom is left to spread…" Bella muttered. I nodded.
"I omitted the pain when I showed you how I was turned, but it's excruciating. It was three days of torture. I was begging for death each second I was changing, but then I thought of Victoria and I fought through it. It took me three days to change." Bella shivered. "You see why I didn't let you feel that pain now."
"Edward said it was that it was very hard to...I don't quite understand."
"We're also like sharks in a way." Alice continued. "Once we taste the blood, or even smell it for that matter, it becomes very hard to keep from feeding. Sometimes impossible. So you see, to actually bite someone, to taste the blood, it would begin the frenzy. It's difficult on both sides, the bloodlust on one hand and the awful pain on the other."
"Why don't you think you remember? Alex did."
"I don't know." Alice admitted. "For everyone else, the pain of transformation is the sharpest memory they have of their human life. I remember nothing of being human."
"Each person's different in remembering what their human life was like." I finished. "I was lucky that I remembered my human life or I would have lost my humanity ages ago." After that, we relapsed into silence. The minutes dragged on for who knows how long before Alice leapt from the bed.
"Something's changed." She breathed. It was urgent. She made it to the door just as Jasper did. He lead Alice back into the room and made her sit back down
"What do you see?" Jasper asked her.
"I see a room…" Alice said in a trance. "And there are mirrors everywhere. The floor is wooden. He's in the room, and he's waiting. There's gold...a gold stripe access the mirrors."
"Where's the room?"
"I don't know. Something is missing, another decision hasn't been made yet."
"How much time?"
"It's soon. He'll be in the mirror room today, or maybe tomorrow. It all depends. He's waiting for something. And he's in the dark now."
"What is he doing?"
"He's watching TV...no...he's running a VCR in the dark...in another place."
"Can you see where he is?"
"No, it's too dark."
"And the mirror room, who else is there?"
"Just the mirrors, and the gold. It's a band, around the room. And there's a black table with a big stereo, and a TV. He's touching the VCR there, but he doesn't watch the way he does in the dark room. This is the room where he waits." Alice came back into focus, turning to Jasper.
"There's nothing else?" Jasper clarified. Alice shook her head.
"What does it mean?" Bella asked. There was a beat of silence before Jasper turned to Bella.
"It means the tracker's plans have changed." Jasper explained softly. "He's made a decision that will lead him to the mirror room, and the dark room."
"But do we know where those rooms are?"
"No."
"But we do know that he won't be in the mountains north of Washinton, being hunted, he'll elude them." Alice reported dully.
"Should we call?" Bella asked. And as if by magic, the phone rang. Alice blurred across the room and answered it.
"Carlisle?" Alice gasped. I didn't bother to listen in to the other end of the conversation. "Yes." Alice glanced at Bella. "I just saw him." Alice went on to explain her vision. "Whatever made him get on that plane...it was leading him to those rooms. "Yes." She offered the phone to Bella. "Bella?" My sister practically raced across the room to grab the phone from Alice. I turned out of the conversation and turned to Alice as she gave us details on her conversation. James had hopped on a plane and evaded Carlisle and Edward. We were also told that Victoria went to the house when Charlie was at work, she spent moments in the main rooms and Bella's room but she apparently spent the most time in my room. She was digging around the entire town for dirt on Bella. Alice soon had a pen and paper, starting to sketch the room she saw. Jasper and I were leaning against the back of the couch as we watched her. Bella turned to hand the phone back but caught onto what Alice was doing.
"It's a ballet studio." Bella told us. We looked up at her, surprised.
"Do you know this room?" Jasper questioned. Alice bent over her work to continue drawing.
"It looks like a place I used to go for dance lessons, when I was eight or nine. It was shaped just the same." Bella gently touched a section of the page. "That's where the bathrooms were, the doors were through the other dance floor. But the stereo was here." Bella pointed to another part of the picture. "It was older, and there wasn't a TV. There was a window in the waiting room, you would see the room from this perspective if you looked through it." Alice, Jasper and I stared at her.
"Bells, are you sure?" I questioned softly.
"No, not at all. I suppose most dance studios would look the same, the mirror's, the bar." Bella ran her fingers over the gold across the room. "It's just the shape that looks familiar."
"Would you have any reason to go there now?" Alice asked.
"No, I haven't been there in almost ten years. I was a terrible dancer, they always put me in the back for recitals."
"So there's no way it could be connected with you?"
"No, I don't even think the same person owns it. I'm sure it's just another dance studio, somewhere."
"Where was the studio you went to?" Jasper asked.
"It was just around the corner from my mum's house. I used to walk there after school…"
"Here in Pheonix then?"
"Yes, fifty-eighth street and cactus." Bella paused. "Alice, is that phone's safe?"
"Yes." Alice replied. "The number would just trace back to Washington."
"Then I can use it to call mu mum."
"I thought she was in Florida?"
"She is, but she's coming home soon and she can't come back to that house while…"
"How will you reach her?"
"They don't have a permanent number except at the house. She's supposed to check messages regularly."
"Jasper?" Alice turned to her husband.
"I don't think there's any way it couldn't hurt, be sure you don't say where you are, of course."
"Tell her hi from me too." I added. "Still have to keep up the appearance that we're twins." Bella nodded. I didn't listen into her call, but when she was done, Bella eventually fell asleep waiting for the phone to ring again.