“So what’s the plan?” I asked in a voice of forced brightness when Jasper and I finally rejoined the others. Alice was sitting at the dining table sifting through various visions again, and Edward sat watching them with her. Carlisle looked deep in thought, and Jasper immediately walked over and started talking to him. Their conversation was hurried and held in low, rough voices. “Are you feeling better, Mia?” Rosalie asked, gliding over and touching my elbow briefly. I nodded and squeezed out a smile. “Yes thank you; sorry to have worried you all.” Esme embraced me gently, her eyes wide.
Alice stood up and skipped over to me. On her way she was joined by Jasper, who stayed next to her at all times, and Carlisle, who followed Alice over to us and then went to Esme. Edward trailed behind, and Emmett noticed our grouping and dragged himself off the sofa to listen. “Aro and Marcus are coming. They’ll bring Renata, Demetri, Alec and Jane but the rest will stay to protect Volterra. So we know that they aren’t looking for a fight; the numbers are too close and they wouldn’t risk losing any of their members. It’s more likely that they’ll want to know if Mia has a gift to try and recruit her.”
I looked around in confusion. “Recruit me? But I live with you guys. Don’t I? Do I have to leave or something?” Esme wrapped her fingers around my forearm reassuringly. “No, you don’t have to go. Like I said, you don’t ever have to leave,” Jasper reminded me quietly from Alice’s shoulder. “Besides, we don’t know that you have a gift,” Carlisle said thoughtfully, his brow furrowing in concentration. Rosalie looked tense, but Emmett rubbed her shoulders comfortingly and she took his hand seeming slightly calmer. They all seemed like parts of a whole; different limbs from the same body. And I didn’t fit in with that. “Yes you do,” Edward murmured, but I wasn’t convinced. I could tell he was about to carry on, but Alice interrupted with a panicked choking noise.
“They’ve changed their plans,” she coughed. Her eyebrows knitted together and she clutched tightly at Jasper’s hand while she distanced herself again. “They were going to wait three days to let the situation develop slightly, but then they changed their minds – for no reason at all!” Everyone’s eyes were on Alice as she came back, desperately trying to convey her alarm but seemingly unable to speak. Instantly everybody crowded around her, plaguing her with fast questions, but Edward was the one who answered them. “They’re on their way now,” he said in a flat monotone. “The plane’s leaving in ten minutes.” The Cullens’ eyes widened, perfectly in sync, and I shivered.
“I’ll leave,” I offered, “I’ll go now so that they won’t bother you. You won’t be troubled by me anymore, I promise.” A low growl rumbled around the coven, and Esme was the first to protest. “No, no, you mustn’t!” she insisted, “You can’t leave us.” I shrugged hopelessly. “I don’t want to drag any more trouble onto your doorstep.” Esme was overflowing with garbled disagreements, but everyone else was silent – until Carlisle contradicted me in his cool voice. “Even if you leave now, they’ll still come to us. They know you’re here now, and even if Demetri knows you’ve left then they’ll still come to talk to us. They’ll be angry that we let a newborn just leave us, in case you then expose vampires to the humans.” I shook my head stubbornly, urgently trying to think of a way to keep them all safe, but I knew I had lost. Giving up at last, I sighed and hung my head. “Six hours,” Alice said, “They took a private jet.” Again a wave of panic rippled through the house, but I was largely unaware of the others now.
