A/N – sorry for the wait! R/L is intruding again, and my update schedule has stretched from bi-weekly to monthly.

Almost finished though (hopefully) and then the sequel, which is sort of demanding to be written in my head.

Thanks again to the loyal readers and reviewers!

Previously

"Bella, please don't cry," I implored her. "Go do what you must, and then come back to me. I will wait for you, Bella, for as long as it takes. I love you, and have always loved you, and will always love you."

She raised her head and looked at me seriously from only a few inches away, her arms still wrapped around my waist as she was held by me.

"Edward", she finally said, her voice cracking. "I will always love you too. That is not in question. But last September, even though we loved each other, it wasn't enough to keep us together. And if I can come back to you, I will." She sobbed again, a few choked, strangled noises that ripped at me.

It was my mistake that caused this, my mistake! What could I do to fix it?

Bella finally got her crying under control, and looked up at me, for once the mask of hardness not at all apparent. Her soulful eyes were filled with love for me, and it took me a moment to realize she was speaking."…and if we never see each other again…," here she looked away, swallowing forcefully before continuing in a quieter voice, "if you ever fall in love again, don't let your fear and self-loathing rule you. You are worthy of love, and sometimes you have to take the plunge, and take a chance."

With a last squeeze around my waist, Bella disengaged herself from me, and Alice quietly took her hand and led her outside.

I turned around, with my back to the front door of my house, and slowly slid down the door until I was lying in a crumpled heap at the base. I listened to the car door's shut, and then slowly the sound of the engine disappeared down the drive.

Bella…my Bella…was gone.

Chapter 25

Unwelcome Visits

Time is a funny thing for a vampire. At times, it moves by in a steady, uninterrupted flow, as inconsequential and meaningless to our existences as the movement of the stars above their heads are to most humans.

So it was for me, until I met Bella; then, time's meaning changed. Every moment spent with her was precious, all the more so because they were limited by her precious mortality and her short years. Time with her meant peace; time away from her meant restlessness. Like a drug, I needed her. She was my 'addict's fix', and I always yearned for my next hit.

When I had left her last year, despite the almost constant pain it caused me, a part of me always had the comfort of knowing I could return to her at will, to at least check on her, and try to win her back if I so desired.

I shook my head in disbelief, as my current circumstances reminded me of all that I had lost. My arrogance back then was truly astonishing, to think I could walk into and out of her life when I chose.

Looking back on those short months with her, I realized that our relationship was a series of short vignettes of brief interludes of blissful happiness punctuated by a near constant backdrop of danger, and my brooding on how I would have to leave her before she got hurt.

The irony of the situation was not lost on me. In the end, I got what my twisted, masochistic-self kept insisting on: that she leave me behind.

I sat unmoving in my room, staring emptily at the forest that opened just outside the large window-wall that made up one side of my bedroom..

Bella had been gone for 12 hours now. Alice had returned a few hours earlier after having left with Bella, and nodded quietly when Carlisle asked if she was gone. I paid no attention to their discussion, the challenges, and the logistics involved in getting her away. ID's had apparently been taken care of by someone Jasper had done business with – not his usual contact, Jenks – but the source was hidden from me, and Jasper had insured that there was a chain of people involved in the final forgeries so it would be time consuming and difficult for someone to track her down. None of us knew what her new identity was, if she had changed her appearance, or if she was even in this country any longer.

I knew that I didn't have long to wallow, as there were many loose ends that needed tying-up. About an hour after Alice left with Bella, Jasper and Emmett had returned from their recon mission; they had discovered dozens of ash piles – the remains of the newborn army, apparently - in two separate locations. Surrounding the remains were the scents of the Volturi; it appeared that the Volturi had taken care of most – if not all – of the Newborn army and the threat of them descending upon Forks – and Bella - was finally gone.

The only questions remaining involved how much the Volturi had learned about us from the Newborns. Did they even know of our involvement at all? Did they take care of Victoria, preferably before they could question her?

And other, more disturbing questions came to mind. Was Aro with the Guard, and if he was, did he have a chance to read Victoria's, or her Captain Riley's, thoughts? If he had done so, then all might be lost, as one touch of his hand and he would know every thought that had ever passed through their minds, and he would see Bella and know that we had broken the secrecy law.

My family members drifted around the house, absorbed with their own thoughts. Carlisle had informed us that we would be having a family meeting that evening to discuss this very issue, and I forced myself to focus on something other than my grief over Bella's decision to leave me.

Suddenly, Alice's thoughts showed she was being pulled into a vision, and I cringed when I saw our immediate future unfolding.

As the vision ended, Alice called out to everyone: "The Volturi are coming. They are almost here."

Carlisle rose calmly from the couch, but his face looked grim. "How long, Alice?"

Her voice was a whisper. "10 minutes maybe."

Everyone moved to the family room, as Jasper dialed Sam, telling him to keep the Wolves back on the reservation. Thankfully, the Wolves were fully briefed on the danger the Volturi represented and acquiesced without difficulty. They had no interest in fighting them without reason. They had even helped remove the blood snares we had left, once we told them the news about the newborn army's demise.

Sam did warn us, however, that if one of the Volturi was found hunting on Tribal land, they would not hesitate to defend their people.

Despite being fearful - and frustrated - by this, I knew that if the situation was reversed, I would do the same: no matter the danger I would protect my family with everything I had.

Standing next to Emmett and Jasper in the living room, I suddenly I picked-up a group of thoughts – thinking in Italian - at the edge of my range, rapidly approaching our house.

It seemed we had gotten Bella out of here just in time.

I looked over at my sire. "Carlisle, I hear them, maybe three or four miles out. They will be here within maybe two minutes."

He nodded quickly from his position next to Esme, and took her hand in reassurance when he sensed her distress. Carlisle was the only one who seemed un-flustered and calm, and I don't think that was only from Jasper's calming gift that was suffusing the room.

We were soon all able to hear their approach, and they slowed as they made their way across our front lawn, a line of still, black figures that approached us as if they were floating above the ground. The family walked calmly out onto the front porch, and arrayed ourselves in a long line.

The Volturi Guard – of whom I had seen many times in Carlisle's thoughts but had never met myself – were clad head to toe in long, flowing robes the color of damp ashes. There were five of them, with the two shortest in the center of the formation. I read their minds, which were confident – almost arrogant – and calm, but their thoughts were almost unnaturally blank or repetitive. I caught a few stray thoughts only, and realized that Aro had told them about my gift, and they were doing what they could to block me. Which also meant that Aro must have already been informed about the Cullen's involvement with this newborn fiasco.

Thankfully, none of the five looked to be Aro, Caius, or Marcus. Just their Guard. I sighed in relief: Aro might not know anything about our rule-breaking yet. And each hour we could delay that knowledge gave Bella a chance to further disappear.

Please Bella, I prayed, please be safe.

Jasper picked-up on my emotions, and he raised an eyebrow at me, without taking his eyes off of the approaching threat.

As they neared the porch, Carlisle stepped forward, and raised his right hand in greeting. "Welcome to my home. May I know who I have the honor of addressing?" Carlisle's voice was calm, and controlled, and he spoke in English, instead of their preferred Italian.

As one, the Volturi members stopped in their tracks, still some ten feet from us; pale hands reached up and they lowered their hoods.

The two faces in the middle surprised me the most. Based on descriptions I had heard, I knew them to be Jane and her twin brother Alec. Jane was small, perhaps no taller than Alice at just under five feet; Alec, her twin brother, was perhaps five-foot six or so. The twins had been changed as young teenagers after being rescued by Aro as they were being burned alive at the stake for witchcraft. Their exact ages were unknown, but they couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen, and perhaps as young as thirteen. It was difficult to tell, as their faces had an ageless quality to them, and their eyes – though a deep, ruby red – were calculating and wise.

Of the other guards, I recognized two from Carlisle's memories: Felix, the hulking giant, purportedly an expert in several forms of eastern martial arts and wrestling; and Demetri, tall, lean, Roman in appearance, and famed as the world's best tracker. The fifth member was unknown to Carlisle, and none of the Guard had thought of his name yet. He too was large, though not so large as Felix or Emmett, and he stood with a cat-like poise, balanced on the balls of his feet. His mind was exceptionally alert, and he swept his gaze continuously across my family, like a warrior preparing for battle.

Looking closer now, I could see that the unknown Guardsman's cloak was not quite so dark as the other four, which were almost black. From my discussions with Carlisle, I knew that the darker the robe the higher the Guard's rank, so this one was lower ranked than his companions.

My brief perusal took less than a second, and I focused in as Jane answered Carlisle's greeting.

"Hello, Carlisle. It has been a long time." She spoke in English, with a slightly Eastern European accent to her words. Her tone was neutral; neither inviting, nor threatening, and her young-girl voice was clear and sonorous, almost bell-like.

"It has, indeed," replied Carlisle, nodding slightly at the other Volturi members. "I am very surprised to see the five of you here." Carlisle was not going to give anything away yet. We had discussed the possibility of a Volturi visit, and until the Volturi gave us a clear indication of why they had sought us out, we would not admit to any specific knowledge of why they were in the area.

Alec smirked at Carlisle's answer, and I caught a quick flicker in his thoughts before they went back to blankness or meaningless banter. He knew that we were aware of why they were there, and that we were aware of the newborns in the area.

Clearly, they had gotten information from at least some of the Newborns.

Our fate – and Bella's - rested on how much they knew.

It was Jane who answered Carlisle. "Come now, Carlisle. I am quite certain you know why we are here. The newborns who were after your coven were quite eager to tell us – after sufficient 'persuasion', of course – about your coven of 'Golden Eyes', who were trying to exterminate them and all other red-eyed vampires. Quite the story they were telling, as you would imagine. Clever, too. Their creator kept them in the dark, and made them quite wary of your coven. They imagined you to be hell-bent on taking over the Vampire world."

Jane smirked, and shook her head lightly. "Of course, their true reasons for wanting you gone were not told to them. And none of the newborns knew anything at all about the Volturi, and undoubtedly had been left in the dark intentionally by their sire. They were flagrant in their disregard of our secrecy laws. A most unforgiveable crime, and quite against our rules." She laughed quietly at this, but her eyes were hard, and she stared directly into Carlisle's eyes.

I scanned the Guard's thoughts, and I did not flinch when I witnessed the torturous methods they used to extract information from the newborns. I was trying to determine if they knew the truth about Victoria's vendetta against Bella and myself.

I tried to dig deeper, looking for any evidence of the red-haired witch, and I was rewarded when I briefly had a glimpse of her and another vampire – older than a newborn, based on the garnet color of his eyes – before her thoughts cut-off and she focused on reciting old Italian libretto's. She was clearly well-informed about how to block-me out, but I had seen enough.

I quickly let the image of the other vampire penetrate my thinking - there was something familiar about him that I couldn't place. I focused on him again, and realized that I had seen him in the thoughts of the newborn – Jonas - that we had questioned a few days earlier. His name was Riley, and the Newborns were apparently reporting to him. He was Victoria's Captain, and it appeared that the Volturi had him.

As I pondered this, Carlisle hesitated before answering Jane. He was uneasy at Jane's insinuations about our knowledge, and her hard glare when she talked about the secrecy laws; but he quickly regained his calm, thanks to both his strong will and Jasper's subtle calming influence, which he was exerting over both sides.

Carlisle took a small breath, and needed a moment to collect his thoughts. He quickly ran through several scenarios in his mind, but settled once again for politeness and feigned ignorance. "I am glad that you were able to end the threat they posed. The number of deaths in Seattle was causing us much concern." Carlisle gave a slight nod of his head, as if in thanks, and continued. "Unless you are leaving immediately for Volterra, I would like to introduce my family to you, and welcome you to rest and refresh yourselves in my home before you return to Italy."

Jane and Alec exchanged a quick glance, but their thoughts gave nothing away. After a brief moment, Jane turned back to Carlisle. "Yes, that would be…welcome. We will soon be returning to Volterra, but would like to meet your family. Aro will be most interested in hearing my report, I am sure." Though her words started-off friendly, there was a subtle menace to them when she finished. In her thoughts, I again saw a flash of Victoria and Riley.

I suddenly realized something else about Riley: his 'human' face was listed on 'missing person' flyers that were stapled to various utility poles and shop windows all over town. He was a Forks resident, and lived with his parents, Mr and Mrs. Biers, before he vanished about 7 months ago.

Now I understood what happened to him. Apparently, Victoria took him, bit him, and used him as a shield against Alice's visions by letting him make the day-to-day tactical decisions, leaving Alice in the dark. She had never met Riley, and so she could not predict his future. She didn't even know to look for him.

Victoria was cunning, no doubt of that. And she had far more information on how our gifts worked than I was comfortable with. It was not hard to pinpoint who must have informed her of our talents: the traitor Laurent was the obvious choice.

Damn him! I should have ended him last year: letting him run off to Denali had been a mistake.

As these thoughts ran through my mind, I realized that we were much luckier than we deserved. Victoria's plan would have worked, and Bella – and probably my family as well – would be dead now. We were saved by two factors that she had overlooked: The Wolves, and the Volturi. Without their assistance, it is certain that Bella would have been killed, and it was doubtful that the my family would have come through a battle without casualties.

Still lost in my thoughts and only giving the present situation brief attention, I stepped aside as the Guards walked past Carlisle's outstretched hand and entered our home. They quickly arrayed themselves on one side of the room, with the exception of Jane, who casually walked around the well-appointed space, admiring the hanging artwork and expensive antique furniture.

When she finished her brief tour, Carlisle introduced us all, and finished by asking Jane, "Can you tell us who your new member is? I have not had the pleasure of his acquaintance."

It was Alec who answered this time, as Jane was still absorbed in looking at a large, original Pissaro that was hung over the stone fireplace. "This is Santiago. He joined the Guard about fifty years after you left, Carlisle." Alec's voice was also that of a young man, not sonorous like Jane's but not quite as full or as deep as an older boy or adult man would have had.

Carlisle nodded at Santiago, who bowed his head for a moment in greeting. In his thoughts, I saw that there was some respect given to Carlisle by Aro, and this had apparently been enough to merit a greeting from Santiago, whose thoughts were otherwise cool and calculating.

An awkward silence hung over the room while Jane finished her inspection of the painting; finally, she turned back to us. "Let us speak frankly, Carlisle. We captured the leaders of these newborns." At this, the thoughts of my family turned somber. We knew we were skating on very thin ice now.

Jane let her eyes wander over my family, their red gleam threatening, before focusing again on Carlisle. "Does the name Victoria ring any bells?" Her voice was tightly controlled, and her eyes were now bright and eager.

Emmett let out an involuntary hiss at the mention of her name, before controlling himself once more. Jane did not miss his slip though, and a cold smile formed on her lips. "Yes, thank you for confirming it. We had to spend time with her pawn, a youngling named Riley, before he would give up her name and location. And even so, she was very hard to track, and she eventually escaped into the water. Demetri has her signature now, and we shall find her later."

I let out a slight breath I didn't realize I was holding, and was not surprised to find the same glimmer of hope and relief in the minds of my family. All was not yet lost: they did not have Victoria.

My relief was very short-lived, however, as I realized that Riley must have told them as much as he knew, and I didn't doubt that Demetri would eventually be able to track Victoria down. And when they did, they would learn of Bella.

I caught a glimmer of Jasper's thoughts as they were directed at me: 'they must not know everything yet Edward, or Jane wouldn't be here talking with us. Rather, we would be on the way to Volterra already.'

I silently agreed with him, but the tension had not lessened by much.

Jane was speaking again. "Meanwhile, we shall take our time with Riley, who is currently on his way back to Volterra, boxed-up and in pieces. He will be reassembled there, and Aro shall learn everything in his mind before he is put on trial for his crimes."

The news that they did not have Victoria was the only piece of good news so far. But the reality of Riley still being alive, and on his way to Aro, left me with a sinking feeling in my gut. This was echoed in the thoughts of my family, as we realized our fate – and Bella's – now hung by a thin thread.

Now it all depended upon how much Riley knew.

My vampiric mind ran through several possibilities, and I was not surprised to hear Jasper doing the same, and Alice scanning ahead for visions of our possible futures.

I estimated that the worst case scenario we were facing was that Riley knew more than he told Jane – in fact, knew everything about Bella and our relationships with her - and Aro would soon have this knowledge. If this was the case, my family would be guilty of breaking the secrecy law, which had severe consequences, which I had heard many times before from Jasper, Carlisle, and our cousin in Denali, Eleazar.

Usually, the Guard would collect the vampire or coven who broke the law, and detain them while the human who knew of us were brought to Aro (or killed on the spot if it was not easy or possible to get them to Italy).

The second worst case, would be Aro either coming here or immediately demanding our presence. We might be able to delay for a while, but as soon as he touches any one of us, he will know everything; how we exposed ourselves to humans when I stopped the van, how we let Bella continue living with the forbidden knowledge of our world, and how we then left Bella without supervision and with a very good reason to want to hurt us, when we left her last September in such a cruel and abrupt manner.

I did not know Aro or the brothers at all, but from what I gathered from Carlisle's thoughts, the most volatile of the Three, Caius, might demand extreme punishment on our coven; this could take the form of anything from mandatory service in the guard, to imprisonment, or even death. Perhaps Carlisle's friendship with Aro would mitigate our punishment somewhat, but regardless of the punishment doled out to the Cullen coven, the 'human' would be ordered to be put to death, unless we could convince the brothers to allow us to change her.

Figuratively speaking, I was sweating bullets for Bella, and I was thankful that none of us knew exactly where she was. Even her new identity was buried under several false trails and we did not know the name of the person who ultimately supplied her with the false identification. Yes, Aro could chase down the person Jasper originally contracted with to furnish make Bella 'disappear' and try discover to whom he sent Bella to. But Jasper had wisely insisted that each person 'downstream' from the original source be unknown to him and preferably located outside of the Pacific Northwest; thus, it would take a lot of tracking and work for the Volturi to find Bella; but if they were determined to do so, I didn't believe she would be able to hide for long.

And the fact that we went to such lengths to hide her would not go unnoticed by the Volturi.

I once again regretted not changing her when I had the chance to do so, and every fiber in my body was telling me to run to Jasper's contact and find her myself, and then hide her away from the world and convince her to join me in eternity.

All of this passed through my mind quickly, and I was brought out of my reverie when Carlisle answered Jane. "We are glad you finally caught them, Jane. Their newborn army has been terrorizing the population here for quite some time. I am surprised that they did not come under your jurisdiction earlier."

Jane's thoughts briefly flickered in annoyance at Carlisle's words, and her expression hardened. "Are you questioning our effectiveness, Carlisle?"

As ever, Carlisle's voice was diplomatic, smooth, and calm. He met Jane's stare without fear. "Not at all, Jane. In fact, the opposite," said Carlisle. "The Volturi usually bring lawbreakers under control very quickly, and I was just surprised this one got as far as it did."

Jane squinted at Carlisle for a moment, before smoothing her face back into an expressionless mask. "Very well then. We shall be returning to Volterra. I would expect that there will be follow-up questions from the Masters. Please make yourself available should they contact you."

She said this in a neutral tone, but her thoughts were threatening. She suspected that our involvement in this mess was deeper than we were saying, but she would not act without Aro's consent.

"Of course, Jane," answered Carlisle. "We shall be leaving Forks at some point in the near future as we strive to keep a low profile and maintain secrecy, but if you leave me a way to contact Aro or his representatives I will inform them of where we will be."

Jane nodded at Carlisle, recited a name and number to him, and then, without another word, the Guard turned and left the house, vanishing as quickly as they had come. They ran east, heading for Seattle and the private plane that would take them back to Volterra.

My family turned to me, asking me in their thoughts if I had heard anything to indicate they knew we were lying to them.

"No," I announced. "They don't know everything yet; but once they get Riley re-assembled back in Volterra, I have no doubt that we will be hearing from Aro or Caius. Clearly she suspected that we knew much more than we were saying, and from what Carlisle has told me of Aro, he is going to want the full story from one of us."

Alice grimaced, focusing her gift on unraveling the tangled lines of our future, but there were too many decisions still to be made, too many unknown variables for anything to be clear.

I knew that, for now, staying in Forks any longer was pointless. The only reason we returned – Bella – was no longer here, so staying on would not only not serve any purpose, but would anger the Wolves. We would make sure that Charlie had Alice's contact information, so Bella could get in touch with us if she returned, but besides that I didn't know if she would ever come back here again. Hopefully she would keep in touch with Charlie, and he would pass on the number to her.

If he didn't – or if she didn't call before her illness took her – then I feared I would never see my Bella again.

And then, despite the enormous strength that flowed through my granite body, I felt truly powerless; and even Jasper's calming influence wasn't enough to keep me from the feeling that my dead heart was splitting in two.

END PART 1