Chapter 2

2 weeks prior to the break in at Bella’s

The two nomads deftly hopped the walls of the ancient city and made for the coast at top speed; the moonless night giving them slightly better cover. They quickly found the boat and sped off to catch the first flight out of Rome. It seemed their escape was flawless.

Everything went according to plan. The ruse that brought them to Volterra was never questioned. Their welcome into the castle was expected. The sacrifice of Riley was made worthwhile in the information he was able to give them before his demise. Without the map of the catacombs, they never would’ve found the guarded room. Too bad the poor idiot guarding the door was betrayed by his lust for the fiery Victoria.

They had been planning this coup for months-nearly a year in fact. Stealing the crystal would give them the power they needed to bring the vampire world out of the shadows and into power.

When they landed in Lima, Peru, they headed straight for the Jungle. It was lucky Victoria had such a knack for evading capture. They knew the Volturi would be hot on their heels, unfortunately for them they didn’t realize how close. Very few knew about Demetri’s ability to discern the location of most any vampire anywhere in the world.

Victoria and her partner, James, stopped on the outskirts of a small village to quickly sate their thirst and plunged deeper into the jungle. They must have run several hundred miles when they smelled the familiar scent of vampire.

"We have to get rid of it, I’ll lead them away and you take care of the bag," Victoria whispered furiously. James nodded and they split up. Victoria circled around and led away three of the tracking party from Volterra, while James tossed the leather sack several hundred yards away from him. He then met Demetri one on one.

They fought viciously but James’ strength and speed were no match. Demetri was up in flames in a matter of seconds and James was off chasing the rest.

Daylight was dawning and Victoria had successfully led the Volturi guard away from James and had managed to give them the slip.

xxx

Ben and Angela snuck out of the cave and made sure to note the proper landmarks on their map. They doubled back over their trail and turned themselves completely backwards. They wanted to make sure they wouldn’t be able to find the cave again without the map. They hurried back into base camp and quickly found an envelope. Bella would know what to do about this. The mail pouch left for town that afternoon.

Angela was almost asleep when an icy cold hand clamped over her mouth and forcefully pulled her up and out of bed. She tried to struggle but whoever had grabbed her had iron grips for hand. She looked frantically for Ben and saw that he was in the same predicament as she was. Heavy canvas sacks were thrown over their heads and they were thrown into the back of a vehicle. They were silently whisked out of their camp and taken to a run down building on the edge of Iquitos.

The young couple was dragged out of the car and tied up to hard chairs. There was very little light in the old building, but enough to make out the visage of their captors. Ben tried to shake off some of the disorientation and looked over to Angela. "Leave her alone!" He screamed, only to be knocked on the side of his head by the man. He quickly gagged Ben so as not to be distracted by his outbursts anymore.

Slowly, the vampire circled around Angela, prowling and drawing deep breaths full of her appetizing aroma.

"Where is my bag?" Hissed the man right next to her ear. She shivered with fear.

"I...I don’t...know what you’re talking about," stammered Angela.

Victoria slapped her across the face and Ben began to struggle against the ropes that were binding him to the chair. His cries of protest were muffled and made useless by the thick gag in his mouth.

Angela finally looked into her captors face and let out a gasp when she saw the blood red eyes in front of her. She’d never seen anything like it but she knew it was nothing natural. The question in her eyes spoke volumes.

James chuckled a bit and said, "So you’re finally getting an idea of who you’re messing with?" He bared his razor sharp teeth and leaned in towards her neck.

"Okay, okay! I don’t have the bag and I couldn’t find it again if I tried, I sent the parchment and a map to the states." James then licked her neck causing a shiver to run through the young woman’s body. "Delicious," he murmmered.

"Where did you send it you foolish girl?" He gripped her neck tightly, making sure not to snap it. He still needed information.

Tears began rolling down her cheeks as she tried to shake her head. She didn’t want to put her best friend in danger, but was this trinket worth her life? Certainly not. She gave the address and James released his hold on her. She slumped forward in her chair sobbing quietly.

"Victoria, start running. We can’t risk the airports. You should be able to get there around the same time as the letter."

"What should I do with the girl who lives there?"

"I don’t care," he roared. "Drain every last drop of blood from her veins! She’s of no consequence to me. Just make sure not to be seen."

The sickening feeling of what she’d just done settled like a rock in the pit of her stomach. She’d just sentenced her best friend to the worst possible fate. The last thing Angela saw before she was knocked out was the flaming red hair sweeping out of the room towards her dearest friend.

xxx

Present Time

BPOV

The officer took my contact information and blabbed about something else that probably should be important to me but the only thing I could think about was getting to the airport. I hoped I had enough on my credit card to cover the flight.

I managed to flag down a taxi and headed to the Sea-Tac airport. I wasn’t sure what kind of flights I would find, it was getting late and I kind of felt like I was on The Amazing Race. I found myself stumbling through the airport asking desperately for the next flight to Peru. It looked like I’d have to fly to Atlanta and then connect to Lima. From there I’d need to get on some deathly puddle jumper to Iquitos. I was going to die.

I was herded through security and looked at my watch. Crap I have 10 minutes to run from here to the end of the concourse. I really am going to die.

After I got my shoes tied on I made a break for it. Angela was depending on me. I couldn’t let my nerves and panic attacks stop me.

Earlier that Day

EPOV

I could hear the rest of my family preparing their luggage. I was already packed, sitting on my couch listening to my music, trying desperately not to hear the inner monologues of my siblings. How I loved my curse to read the minds of anyone around me.

Carlisle had once again become too young to appear 36 and we had long since finished high school, so we were off to do a tour with "Doctors without Borders"; at least Carlisle was. The rest of us would be working with the Peace Corps. Our flight was leaving tonight and Alice was still trying to pack her ‘necessities’. Jasper and Emmett were playing video games for the last time and Rosalie was finishing one last manicure. We weren’t planning on having very many niceties down in Peru.

Esme called up to everyone, "Bring your bags down, we don’t want to forget anything!" Reluctantly I peeled myself off the couch and headed down the stairs. One by one the rest of the family came down and deposited their bags in the foyer.

Carlisle came down the stairs rubbing his hands together. He was genuinely excited about this new opportunity. He’d been wanting to do something like this for a while now. "Well! Shall we go on one last hunt before we head to the airport?"

"Absolutely!" Bellowed Emmet, "don’t want to start feeling peckish on the airplane do we now?"

I rolled my eyes and punched him in the shoulder. "I don’t think anyone here, including Jasper, will have an issue with the folks on the plane. Besides, there are far fewer people in first class than coach, so we’ll be fine." We made our way through the forest and took off in separate directions.

I preferred hunting alone. The quiet in my head, the solitude was relaxing. I stopped running for a moment to take in the scents around me. Ahhhh there it is...here kitty kitty. I chased after the mountain lion and quickly drank it dry. A couple of deer and a lynx later and I was filled. My eyes were probably as light as they’ve ever been.

As I approached the house, I began to hear the excited chatter of Alice. This should be interesting, I hope he fed well...Allons enfants de la patrie le jour de gloire est arrivé...

Yes, I was well fed, but why was Alice now singing the French National Anthem in her head. "Why are you blocking me out sister?"

"Edward, I have no idea what you mean." I raised an eyebrow at her and shook my head. "Just know that our flight should be interesting."

"Alice," I grumbled, her vagueness was always so frustrating to me, "details please?"

"I don’t have details, Ed-ward. The vision is fairly cloudy, the only thing I can say is that our flight will definitely be interesting."

"Whatever Alice. Just let me know if anything changes." I stalked off to the house and began hauling bags out to the cars.

We all loaded into the Vehicles, Alice, Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie in the Jeep and Carlisle, Esme and myself in the Mercedes. We’d arranged for a service to return our vehicles from the airport back to our home in Forks.

Alice had assured us that the security check would go by without a problem, she then began snickering and filled her mind with the periodic table of elements. As we neared the check I began to hear what made Alice snicker. The female TSA agent was filled with lust, probably thanks to Jasper who’d gone through just before me, and her thoughts were less than pure. ‘Yes I’m definitely gonna have to take this fine specimen for an extra thorough wand check’.

I groaned internally while the woman escorted me to a different area of security. When she had completed her additional security measures she allowed me to leave. ‘Mmmmm mmm. Looks just as good going as he does coming.’ I shook my head and made my way back to my family. Had he been human, Emmett would’ve been nearly purple from holding in his laughter.

"What’s wrong Eddie?" He spluttered.

"Shut up, Emmett," I growled.

"Emmett, leave your brother alone," Esme chided.

We easily made our way to the gate and patiently waited for first class to board. I pulled out my ipod and settled in to the aisle seat. It seemed that most of the passengers had boarded and everyone was pretty much settled. I listened to the thoughts of the flight crew. Apparently we were waiting on one last passenger.

"Ummm, Edward?"

"What is it Alice?" I didn’t mean for my voice to sound so annoyed, but I was a little tired of her antics today.

"I think you should sit back here with Jasper, and I’ll take your seat."

"Why? What have you seen?"

She hesitated a bit and just started pulling my arm. "Alice," I warned.

"Just trust me please?"

"Fine." I gathered my things and moved back with Jasper. I turned and gave him a questioning look. He just shrugged his shoulders and I couldn’t hear anything contradictory in his head.

Just as I had settled back down, the devil herself walked onto the plane. The petite brown haired woman stumbled onto the plane and struggled down the aisle. She looked up at the seat numbers and found hers right next to Alice. She clumsily hoisted her bag up into the overhead bin and squeezed past my sister. She turned, plopped herself into the seat in front of me. She leaned forward to take her jacket off and then adjusted the air flow above her. When she shook her hair the fan blew her scent right into my face. I was knocked backward and my eyes went wide.

Fortunately, all of the airplane noise made the growl that emanated from my chest inaudible except to my family. Jasper turned to me and I could see in his mind my eyes had turned pitch black. He pushed his hand on my chest hard. I didn’t even realize I was struggling toward the girl in front of me. I felt strong waves of calm washing over me, but the smell was still swirling around me.

"Turn it off, brother. Stop breathing," Jasper whispered. I nodded and closed my airways. Carlisle and Esme looked over at me, concern etched on their features. I shook my head. At this point it was too late to do anything. We had already pushed away from the gate and were waiting for take off. This was going to be the longest flight of my life, hopefully the girl in front of me wouldn’t die.

BPOV

When I’d managed to get myself settled into the ridiculously expensive first class seat (it was the only seat left of course), I took a deep breath and sighed. I reached into my bag and popped a Xanax. I could already feel the walls of this giant aluminum tube closing in on me. I closed my eyes and tried my relaxation breaths, but that wasn’t helping at all. My eyes blinked open when the girl next to me began to speak.

"Hi, I’m Alice!" She was practically bouncing as she offered me her hand. She seemed way too happy and energetic for international traveling.

"Bella," I replied briefly taking her hand and politely shaking it. Wow she must be really cold, her hand is freezing.

"It’s soooo nice to meet you Bella! This is my husband Jasper and my brother, Edward." She pointed to a handsome blonde man behind her and the glorious bronze haired man behind me.

The one she indicated as Jasper nodded toward me and gave a small smile. The man she called Edward just stared at me, like I was the last thing on earth he wanted to look at. I tried smiling at him, I even offered my hand to shake, but he recoiled like I had just thrust a snake in his face. He gave me a curt nod and turned his face away from me.

What’s his problem? Gosh, it’s not like I didn’t wear deodorant or anything.

I was broken out of my thoughts by the ball of energy sitting next to me.

"Don’t mind Edward, he’s always a bit moody, and I think he’s fairly anxious for this flight."

"Does he want a Xanax? I have plenty. I’ll probably be out like a light in a half hour."

"No, he has his own strange ways of dealing with his issues." She turned and shot a wicked glare at the man sitting behind me. "So are you getting off in Atlanta or are you continuing on to Lima?"

I couldn’t decide if I should tell her the truth or not. I probably wouldn’t see these people again, so what could it hurt? "Um, I’m actually connecting from Lima to Iquitos to meet a friend."

"Really?" she nearly shrieked. "We’re going to Iquitos as well! My Father is joining the Doctors Without Borders program and the rest of us are working with the Peace Corps there."

"Wow, that’s a really funny coincidence. The friend I’m meeting is working with the Peace Corps too." I let out a huge yawn, my day finally catching up to me. We’d been talking non stop, I wasn’t even really aware of our taking off, and now the pills were starting to work.

"Well, I’ll let you get some rest, you look worn out."

"Yeah, thanks." I pulled the pillow out from under my seat and tried to get comfortable. I twisted and turned and managed to catch another creepy glimpse of Edwards angry black eyes staring at me. What a jerk.