Her decaying hands grabbed my hair and forced me to look into her opaque eyes, eyes that resembled dead fish more than anything human, and she said, “You could stop this, but it would mean crossing paths with your family. Would you allow an innocent woman to be hacked to pieces and wrapped up in a pretty box? The old couple that you passed by on your way to school each day…does their death mean nothing to you? Could you truly stand by and let Isabella’s father be hunted down by the same loathsome creature that has murdered hundreds of nameless humans?”

I’d have answered her, but darkness swallowed me and when the light chased it away, my Bella was in a crumpled heap on the floor, Jacob and Alice by her side. The only tears flowed from Jacob, but the others were crying inside, their shoulders shaking with the weight of their emotions.

“There is still time to avert this tragedy. Unless…” she trailed off walking closer and closer to Bella studying her pained expression. “You do nothing and you will get your wish. This woman will grow to hate you more each day. She will learn that a vampire was to blame and rationally or not, she will link that to you. If not for you, she’d never have been brought to the Volturi’s attention and she’d still be human. Her father would be alive because the Cullens would have been there to protect him. No one would have had to leave Forks, because it wouldn’t have been necessary to fake Isabella’s death.”

“You can’t know that,” I said meekly.

“I’m not saying it is truth, just that this is what she will tell herself each night before she lies down with that boy, lets him wrap her in his warmth chasing away all thoughts of you.” She grasped my chin, her nails digging in. “You’d be free of her. She will finally be able to do what you wanted her to do – move on. Do nothing and this will happen, intervene and it could be your arms enveloping her each night.”

Whatever she saw in my eyes irritated her, fore she flung me aside. “I watched you,” she whispered, her back to me, “as you picked up the phone to call her. I waited in the shadows hoping that my sisters had made you see the error of your ways, hoping I wouldn’t need to get involved, but in the end you hung up the phone, coward that you are.”

“Your words are nothing but lies,” I spoke softly, tearing my eyes from Bella and facing my ghostly companion. “The Volturi are here, they will dole out justice.”

“Not before he kills that woman…before he feeds on your love’s father, guts him like a pig, and delivers his head to Renee,” she countered.

“How am I expected to get all the way across the country in time to save Charlie? And besides, last I saw, the Volturi were closing in on him. You think they will fail to bring him to justice? And if they do, how will I manage what they cannot? You’re insane.”

When she turned back her skin was rotting away leaving part of her high cheek bone peeking through, which glinted in the moonlight.

I recoiled at the sight of her. “What is happening to you?”

“My time is ending. I am being unmade,” she replied simply. The wind blew and clumps of her hair floated on it landing at my feet.

“You can do what the Volturi cannot because you know where he will strike. They have lost track of him. Their powers do not work on him as you already witnessed. He possesses something very much like your Isabella. He is a shield of great magnitude.”

“Shit!”

“Indeed,” she mumbled as part of her mouth began to droop away. “You will not be able to read his mind, but we have aided you enough that you could destroy him and save a few lives in the process.”

She placed her rotting flesh against my cheek. “These murders…they give you the perfect excuse to find your way back to your family. I do hope you make some good come of this creature’s mess.”

Bella whispered my name against Alice’s shoulder. “Where is he, Alice? I need him.”

“I’m coming, Bella.” The words were barely spoken and I was thrust back into my living room. Racing through the room at full vampire speed, I gathered up everything I’d need to travel across the country and face down an advisory that even the might of the Volturi seemed unable to destroy.