Chapter 5 Family Reunion

Alice

I sat alone and motionless on Tanya’s stiff couch staring sightlessly at Emmett and Jasper who were sprawled out in front of the television battling it out on some pointless video game. They went through several games a day, none of them offering them any real challenge, yet still they continued. Men were so easily amused.

I, however, wasn’t interested in what was going on in this bright room; no, my thoughts where wholly focused upstairs where Tanya and Irena were bickering in low whispers. So low, in fact, that I only caught a word here and there. I’d noticed that the two sisters had been arguing a lot lately, but they were good at keeping things quiet, so none of us knew what was brewing between them.

My vision clouded over and the surrounding noise was blanked out. All I was aware of was Bella and a horde of vampires surrounding her in a medieval type castle with three empty, stone thrones.

Some small sound must have alerted everyone, because when I slid back into the here and now, my whole family, with the exception of Edward who was still in South America, was looking at me with concern. Jasper handed me a sketch pad and I recreated the scene for them. When I’d finished, I glanced up to see Tanya, and her two sisters on the bottom stair looking on curiously.

“How can this be?” Carlisle gasped grabbing the paper roughly out of Jasper’s hand. He stared at my drawing as though he was willing it to show him something else, anything else beside what was really there.

“You know this place?”

He nodded fearfully. “I lived there once. It is Volterra.” He set my sketch down and pointed at the middle throne. “And this is Aro’s throne, our vampire leader, the head of the Volturi.”

A shudder coursed through all of us at that declaration. How on Earth had Bella managed to get mixed up with the biggest, baddest vampires in existence? I laughed at myself. The question was, why hadn’t we been expecting precisely that when we all knew her penchant for trouble.

“What does this mean?” Esme asked looking horrorstruck. I knew she was thinking the same thing we all were – if Aro had Bella, it would only be a matter of time before he sought us out. With one touch of his hands, Aro would know how close we’d been to her and that she knew what we were.