Previously in Merely an Illusion:

As I turned back towards Edward, I was aware of two things happening simultaneously; Alice's eyes glazed over slightly and Edward stiffened beneath me.

"No!" He yelled, putting me on the floor and running to Alice before shaking her violently, "How long Alice? Why didn't' you see earlier, dammit?"

Jasper pushed Edward away from his sobbing wife and growled at him.

"What is it Edward?"

He turned to Esme and answered in a cold whisper. "The Volturi are will be here in 2 minutes. They want to kill us all."

Chapter 10

I froze and my blood ran cold. Death? I found it hard to believe that this family, this image of perfection, could be destroyed so easily by the Volturi. Sobs erupted from someone nearby, Esme I think, but I remained a statue in the arms of my fiancé. Edward's arms tightened around my body and the precious moments we had left I spent wracking my brain in search of anything that could possibly offer us the hope of survival. In those short two minutes a million scenarios played out in my mind, each of which ending in death.

I heard them long before I saw them. They seemed to have hoped for an ambush as the guard emerged from the forest behind the house. Edward, hearing their thoughts before we heard their steps, urged us outside so we could meet our enemies head on and we stood as a family in formation; Carlisle standing at the arrow point with everybody paired off behind. Esme and Edward automatically paired together at the back, then looked slightly abashed as they remembered me. I shook my head softly and went inside the arrow, behind my father. I could still see every move that any vampire here made but I was hidden until I wished to show myself. Especially given my ability I could remain invisible until the time was right-

Hang on… Why didn't I think of it before? I could use my ability to try and hide everyone. Obviously I couldn't make us invisible without alerting the Volturi of my power but I could use it to shield us. I could use it to trick the eye of the Volturi and ultimately to save the lives of my family. I gave the majority of my brain over to calculating and initiating my plan but used the rest to listen to the conversation between Carlisle and one of the small ones. From here I couldn't be sure if it was Jane or Alec, I only hoped it was the latter. That way if I couldn't find a way out of our imminent deaths, they would be relatively painless for the family.

"Carlisle." A high-pitched trill sounded across the space and my heart sank. Jane. Of course. I could almost hear the strained smile in Carlisle's voice as he greeted our executioners.

"Hello Jane and the rest of you. To what do we owe this delightful visit?"

"Oh Carlisle, old friend, I'm sure you know by now. Even if dear sweet Alice hadn't seen it, Edward here would have plucked our mission from my head and thus you would know."

Shock registered on Carlisle's face as he heard the voice of his old friend and the betrayal he felt was evident when he next spoke. I too was shocked; Aro and his brothers so rarely left the castle and I certainly had not expected to see him here.

"Aro, my friend, I do know. I only ask two things of you, firstly why, and secondly-" his voice broke, "Please spare my family the pain of death. If not by abandoning this quest, then by at least asking Alec to use his power. By all means, hurt me, but not my wife or children. Please…"

And with that, Carlisle fell to his knees before Aro, threatening to expose me from my position behind. I quickly threw up the illusion of nothing behind my father, and I saw the brief spark of confusion in the eyes of my family when they saw I was no longer there and yet had not been heard to leave.

Aro threw his head back in a booming laugh that ricocheted off the walls of the forest and scattered birds from the trees. The guard also looked amused, smirks masking the faces of them all. I noticed that Emmett was looking mortified at Carlisle's 'cowardly' approach to the situation.

"Silly old man, you believed me? You thought I would slaughter this family? These people with such powerful gifts?"

They weren't going to kill us? As I so often found, Edward's mind seemed to be perfectly in tune with my own as he voiced my thought.

"Edward I shan't harm your family. No, no harm will befall anybody here. I will, however take three of your collective seven and scatter the rest of you across the globe. I'm afraid you shall never again see each other, but you shall be safe. Nerine, my dear, please step forward."

"Aro." An indescribably beautiful woman, glowing almost silver in the moonlight, stepped forward and extended a hand towards Aro. She was wearing a strange dress that implied she had just stepped straight out of the 14th century. It was a deep green colour with a sheer blue cape that fell to the floor. When she moved it gave the impression of moving through water and was almost magical. Long black hair fell in curling waves to her hips and she had the features of an angel. But her eyes were the strangest; despite her vampiric features and inhuman good looks, her eyes were the exact colour of the sea and seemed to change colour with her every move. This was a strange person.

Aro smiled and waved her towards us. "Ah, my dear, but where are my manners? Meet the Cullens. Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Emmett, Alice, Rosalie, Jasper- and who are you?" He said, coming to a stop before me. I gulped. What did I do? Checking the breadths of my power I realised it was falling a little short. I could only guess it was a result of that woman's presence. Plus, situations of this calibre tended to make me a little nervous.

"Uh, I'm Ed-Edward's fiancée." I made sure to look shy and to hide behind Edward as much as possible. Thankfully, last time I'd been with the Volturi I'd been looking pretty different so they wouldn't recognise my face. My voice on the other hand…

"Edward! You never told us you found love! I thought you had some kind of relationship with Eleazar's friend… Tanya is it?" Edward growled in Aro's general direction. He had a relationship with Tanya? "No matter, it only makes our job here today just a tad more fun. Say goodbye, lovebirds. This shall be the last you ever see of each other. Nerine, here , is going to wipe your memories. You shan't even remember each other; isn't that splendiferous?" He chuckled and Nerine stepped forward and placed a hand on Emmett, who was being restrained by both Felix and Demitri.

I clutched Edward close and whispered in his ear. "Edward, if we're lucky, her power won't work on me like yours and Aro's don't. If that's the case, I may be able to one day save us all. When she does whatever she's going to do to Emmett, tell me what goes through her mind. I'll go from there." He moved only his eyes, up to the sky above, and back down agreeing silently to my terms. Nothing that would tip the others off.

I looked back to Emmett, hugging Edward close as two guard members stood behind us, their fingers touching my skin. Nerine closed her eyes and the change was instantaneous. Emmett fell to his knees and his face went blank, his eyes rolling back into his head. I memorized every movement.

Rosalie struggled against her captor but Alec quickly immobilized her. Esme let out a muffled sob and Carlisle extended a hand towards her. His eyes flickered to mine and I knew our thoughts were in tandem. Pain, sorrow and betrayal showed in his eyes, but behind that was hope. Our lives were in my hands.

I let out a whimper and buried my face in Edward's chest. He ducked his head, seeming to kiss me softly.

"She runs a replay of everyone of Emmett's memories and then breaks down each one. She's left a few; his name, enough of the vampire rules to keep him controlled and his personality. But the rest is gone." Emmett fell backwards, his head hitting the frozen ground hard. The crack of impact was shattering, thunderous; it echoed off the mountains. "He's not unconscious; not quite. He's just extremely absorbed in his own thoughts, it's a side effect of the mind erase. Apparently it lasts a few hours and is the closest to unconsciousness as we'll ever get."

I watched, helpless, as my family succumbed to the witch's touch. As each member fell, two guards stepped forward, picked them up, and took them either to Aro's feet or into the trees. Edward told me the thoughts of every guard and gave me every clue he could. When she reached Edward, the only creatures remaining in the clearing was the woman herself, Aro, Jane, Alec, two guards and me. Alice and Jasper were at Aro's feet, snow falling onto their angelic faces.

No sound escaped Edward's lips as he cringed against the ground. It felt like my head would explode from the pain of watching this and yet I couldn't tear my eyes away. Each second Edward lay on the floor was another of our memories that he was losing. I felt myself running through every memory of him I had, just in case. The fuzzy human one's I left till last, they were the most painful to watch. It was like I was watching through a thick, dark veil—because my human eyes had been half blind. Everything had been so blurred.

Finally she was done with Edward. My jaw clenched as I prepared myself for whatever might happen. Her hand landed on my forehead and felt hot. Jacob hot. Her eyes closed and I felt nothing. Absolutely nothing that could harm me. There was a slight pressure against the edge of my brain but it was nothing I wouldn't hold off. I threw up a cover-story that I knew only Nerine could see. I think it was something similar to my Arianne Marks life, but I'm not sure. With the rest of my mind I ran through what I could do next. All Edward had plucked from the minds of the guards was that each family member was to be placed far away from each other and any other vampires. He also found a few place names in Oregon, Massachusetts and also France and England. I knew I was going to have a long search ahead of me and I was dreading it.

But I also knew I would have no way of ever marrying Edward or re-uniting the family unless I worked myself to the bone for the next few years. And so, as a strange inhuman woman attempted to wipe my memory, I thought only of strategy and how to save those I loved.

***

So, I'm not even going to make any excuses about my lateness… I guess it's just something I'm going to have to acknowledge. I'm late for everything. =[

But here's chapter 10! I hope you like it! I'm not 100% sure of it at the moment so you may find me editing it at some point. I'll let you know if I do though.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading!

Rebecca.