𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍:
Volterra

CORDELIA, ALICE, AND BELLA MADE THEIR FLIGHT WITH A SECOND TO SPARE.

The plane sat idle on the tarmac while the flight attendants strolled-so casually-up and down the aisle, patting the bags in the overhead compartments to make sure everything fit.

The pilots leaned out of the cockpit, chatting with them as they passed.

Cordelia had Alice beside her. The pixie is leaning on her shoulder, her eyes closed, watching closely, seeing if her vision will change.

Then her eyes suddenly opened, looking at Bella sitting with a stranger, her leg bouncing up and down. "It's faster than running," Alice reminds her in a low voice, while Bella just nods.

Alice lifted the phone on the back of the seat in front of her before they stopped climbing, turning her back on the stewardess who eyed her with disapproval.

Something about Cordelia's expression stopped the stewardess from coming over to protest.

It's Jasper who's talking to Alice on the phone, trying to convince Alice to let them follow, by them, meaning Emmett and Rosalie, and Rosalie's wife.

"I can't be sure. I keep seeing him do different things. He keeps changing his mind...A killing spree through the city, attacking the guard, lifting a car over his head in the main square...mostly things that would expose them-he knows that's the fastest way to force a reaction..." Alice whispers, and Cordelia sighs. Honestly, what is Edward thinking? It's idiotic, really.

"No, you can't." Alice's voice dropped till it was nearly inaudible. Jasper is still convincing her to let them catch up to them.

"Tell Emmett no...Well, go after Emmett and Rosalie and bring them back...Think about it, Jasper. If he sees any of us, what do you think he will do?"

"He'll be fast to make up his mind," Jasper answers with a sigh. Cordelia could tell that he was getting frustrated.

Alice nods in agreement and says, nodded. "Exactly. I think Bella is the only chance-if there is a chance...I'll do everything that can be done, but prepare Carlisle; the odds aren't good."

"It's up to you and Cordelia to save his brooding ass," Alice and Cordelia laugh.

"I've thought of that... Yes, I promise." Her voice became pleading.

"Don't follow me. She'll get mad at me if I drag you to the Volturi. You're not exactly welcomed there."

"I know, with Maria being a threat of exposure of our kind in her prime years, fine, I won't," Jasper tells her. Then Alice hung up the phone and leaned into Cordelia's shoulder.

"Tell me everything, Alice," Bella begs. "I don't understand. Why did you tell Jasper to stop Emmett? Why can't they come to help us?"

"Two reasons," she whispers, her eyes still closed. "The first, I told him. We could try to stop Edward ourselves-if Emmett could get his hands on him, we might be able to stop him long enough to convince him you're alive. But we can't sneak up on Edward. And if he sees us coming for him, he'll just act that much faster. He'll throw a Buiclc through a wall or something, and the Volturi will take him down."

"That's the second reason, of course, the reason I couldn't say to Jasper. Because if they're there and the Volturi kill Edward, they'll fight them. Bella." She opened her eyes and stared at Bella, beseeching.

"If there were any chance we could win...if there were a way that the six of us could save my brother by fighting for him, maybe it would be different.

But we can't, and Bella. I made a promise to keep Jasper safe. I can't break that promise."

Cordelia then remembers. When Maria scouts Jasper out in Calgary, Alice briefly meets Jasper's fiancee, making the pixie promise her to watch and protect Jasper. Of course, the woman knows Jasper can protect himself, but the woman just needs to make sure.

"Couldn't Edward hear you, though." Bella asks. "Wouldn't he know, as soon as he heard your thoughts, that I was alive, that there was no point to this?"

"If he were listening," she explains. "But believe it or not, it's possible to lie with your thoughts. If you had died, I would still try to stop him. And I would be thinking, 'She's alive, she's alive,' as hard as I could. He knows that." Alice tells Bella, and the girl just grounds her teeth in mute frustration.

"If there were any way to do this without you, Bella, I wouldn't be endangering you like this. It's very wrong of me."

"Don't be stupid. I'm the last thing you should be worrying about." Bella shakes her head impatiently.

"Who are these Volturi?" Bella demands in a whisper. "What makes them so much more dangerous than Cordelia, Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, even Rosalie's wife, and you?"

Alice took a deep breath and then abruptly leveled a dark glance over Bella's shoulder. Bella turned in time to see the man in the aisle seat looking away as if he wasn't listening to them.

He appeared to be a businessman in a dark suit with a power tie and a laptop on his knees.

While Bella stares at him with irritation, he opens the computer and very conspicuously puts headphones on.

Bella leans closer to Alice. Her lips were at Bella's ears as she breathed the story. "I was surprised that you recognized the name," she says.

"That you understood so immediately what it meant-when I said he was going to Italy. I thought I would have to explain. How much did Edward tell you?"

"He just said they were an old, powerful family-like royalty. That you didn't antagonize them unless you wanted to...die," Bella whispers. The last word was hard to choke out.

"You have to understand," Alice says, her voice slower, more measured now. "We Cullens are unique in more ways than you know. It's...abnormal for so many of us to live together in peace. It's the same for Tanya's family in the north, and Carlisle speculates that abstaining makes it easier for us to be civilized and to form bonds based on love rather than survival or convenience. Even James's little coven of three was unusually large-and you saw how easily Laurent left them. Our kind travel alone or in pairs, as a general rule. Carlisle's family is the biggest in existence, as far as I know, with the one exception. The Volturi." Well, except for Mansion's kingdom before the Volturi destroyed it.

"There were three of them originally, Aro, Caius, and Marcus."

"I've seen them," Bella mumbles. "In the picture in Carlisle's study."

Alice nods. "Two females joined them over time, and the five of them make up the family. I'm not sure, but I suspect that their age is what gives them the ability to live peacefully together. They are well over three thousand years old. Or maybe it's their gifts that give them extra tolerance. Like Edward, Cordelia, and I, Aro and Marcus are...talented."

She continues before Bella can ask. "Or maybe it's just their love of power that binds them together. Royalty is an apt description."

"But if there are only five-"

"Five that make up the family," she corrects. "That doesn't include their guard."

"That sounds serious."

Alice then stopped her eyes glazing another vision. Cordelia took it upon herself to continue. "Oh, it is," Cordelia assures her. "There were nine members of the guard that were permanent the last time we heard. Others are more...transitory. It changes. And many of them are gifted as well-with formidable gifts, gifts that make what I can do look like a parlor trick. The Volturi chose them for their abilities, physical or otherwise."

Bella opened her mouth and then close it. Not really knowing how to process what she is thinking at the moment.

Cordelia nodded as if she understood exactly what Bella was thinking.

"They don't get into too many confrontations. No one is stupid enough to mess with them. They stay in their city, leaving only as duty calls."

•| ⊱✿⊰ |•

THE PLANE LANDED IN ITALY. Cordelia and Alice decided to steal a car, and a bright yellow Porsche daughter the pixie's eyes.

She squeals in excitement as she runs towards it. Cordelia then rolls her eyes, "I want this."

"Fine, but I'm driving. We can't exactly have you behind the wheel having visions. We'll crash," Cordelia tells her as she opens the car after picking the locks on the side.

Alice pouts yet agrees nonetheless. The interior was black, leather and the windows were tinted dark.

They picked Bella up at the front gate of the airport, "Sheesh, Cordelia," Bella complains. "Could you pick a more conspicuous car to steal?"

Cordelia is already weaving, too fast, through the thick airport traffic-sliding through tiny spaces between the cars as Bella cringed and fumbled for her seat belt.

"The important question," she corrects, "Is whether I could have stolen a faster car, and I don't think so. I got lucky."

"I'm sure that will be very comforting at the roadblock."

Alice trilled a laugh. "Trust me, Bella. If anyone sets up a roadblock, it will be behind us." Cordelia hit the gas then as if to prove her point.

"Do you see anything more?"

"There's something going on," Alice mutters. "Some kind of festival. The streets are full of people and red flags. What's the date today?"

"The nineteenth, maybe?"

"Well, that's ironic. It's Saint Marcus Day." Alice says, and Cordelia rolls her eyes. It was that time of the year.

"Which means?"

Cordelia chuckles darkly. "The city holds a celebration every year. As the legend goes, a Christian missionary, a Father Marcus-Marcus of the Voltun, in fact-drove all the vampires from Volterra fifteen hundred years ago. The story claims he was martyred in Romania, still trying to drive away from the vampire scourge. Of course, that's nonsense-he's never left the city. But that's where some of the superstitions about things like crosses and garlic come from. Father Marcus used them so successfully. And vampires don't trouble Volterra, so they must work." Her smile is sardonic.

"It's become more of a celebration of the city and recognition for the police force-after all, Volterra is an amazingly safe city. The police get the credit."

"They're not going to be very happy if Edward messes things up for them on St. Marcus Day, are they?" Alice shakes her head, her expression grim.

"No. They'll act very quickly." After an hour, Alice told Bella her brief plan. Cordelia announced a castle-like building at their sight.

"Volterra."