New Moon

decisively.'

My eyes popped wide with shock. 'There are rules?' I asked in a voice that was too loud.

'Shh!'

'Shouldn't somebody have mentioned this to me earlier?' I whispered angrily. 'I mean, I wanted to be a… to be one of you! Shouldn't somebody have explained the rules to me?'

Alice chuckled once at my reaction. 'It's not that complicated, Bella. There's only one core restriction—and if you think about it, you can probably figure it out for yourself.'

I thought about it. 'Nope, I have no idea.'

She shook her head, disappointed. 'Maybe it's too obvious. We just have to keep our existence a secret.'

'Oh,' I mumbled. It was obvious.

'It makes sense, and most of us don't need policing,' she continued. 'But, after a few centuries, sometimes one of us gets bored. Or crazy. I dor't know. And then the Volturi step in before it can compromise them, or the rest of us.'

'So Edward…'

'Is planning to flout that in their own city—the city they've secretly held for three thousand years, since the time of the Etruscans. They are so protective of their city that they don't allow hunting within its walls. Volterra is probably the safest city in the world—from vampire attack at the very least.'

'But you said they didn't leave. How do they eat?'

'They don't leave. They bring in their food from the outside, from quite far away sometimes. It gives their guard something to do when they're not out annihilating mavericks. Or protecting Volterra from exposure…'

'From situations like this one, like Edward,' I finished her sentence. It was amazingly easy to say his name now. I wasn't sure what the difference was. Maybe because I wasn't really planning on living much longer without seeing him. Or at all, if we were too late. It was comforting to know that I would have an easy out.

'I doubt they've ever had a situation quite like this,' she muttered, disgusted. 'You don't get a lot of suicidal vampires.'

The sound that escaped out of my mouth was very quiet, but Alice seemed to understand that it was a cry of pain. She wrapped her thin, strong arm around my shoulders.

'We'll do what we can, Bella. It's not over yet.'

'Not yet.' I let her comfort me, though I knew she thought our chances were poor. 'And the Volturi will get us if we mess up.'

Alice stiffened. 'You say that like it's a good thing.'

I shrugged.

'Knock it off, Bella, or we're turning around in New York and going back to Forks.'

'What?'

'You know what. If we're too late for Edward, I'm going to do my damnedest to get you back to Charlie, and I don't want any trouble from you. Do you understand that?'

'Sure, Alice.'

She pulled back slightly so that she could glare at me. 'No trouble.'

'Scout's honor,' I muttered.

She rolled her eyes.

'Let me concentrate, now. I'm trying to see what he's planning.'

She left her arm around me, but let her head fall back against the seat and closed her eyes. She pressed her free hand to the side of her face, rubbing her fingertips against her temple.

I watched her in fascination for a long time. Eventually, she became utterly motionless, hei face like a stone sculpture. The minutes passed, and if I didn't know better, I would have thought she'd fallen asleep. I didn't dare interrupt her to ask what was going on.

I wished there was something safe for me to think about. I couldn't allow myself to consider the horrors we were headed toward, or, more horrific yet, the chance that we might fail—not if I wanted to keep from screaming aloud.

I couldn't anticipate anything, either. Maybe, if I were very, very, very lucky, I would somehow be able to save Edward. But I wasn't so stupid as to think that saving him would mean that I could stay with him. I was no different, no more special than I'd been before. There would be no new reason for him to want me now. Seeing him and losing him again…

I fought back against the pain. This was the price I had to pay to save his life. I would pay it.

They showed a movie, and my neighbor got headphones. Sometimes I watched the figures moving across the little screen, but I couldn't even tell if the movie was supposed to be a romance or a horror film.

After an eternity, the plane began to descend toward New York City. Alice remained in her trance. I dithered, reaching out to touch her, only to pull my hand back again. This happened a dozen times before the plane touched town with a jarring impact.

'Alice,' I finally said. 'Alice, we have to go.'

I touched her arm.

Her eyes came open very slowly. She shook her head from side to side for a moment.

'Anything new?' I asked in a low voice, conscious of the man listening on the other side of me.

'Not exactly,' she breathed in a voice I could barely catch. 'He's getting closer. He's deciding how he's going to ask.'

We had to run for our connection, but that was good—better than having to wait. As soon as the plane was in the air, Alice closed her eyes and slid back into the same stupor as before. I waited as patiently as I could. When it was dark again, I opened the window to stare out into the flat black that was no better than the window shade.

I was grateful that I'd had so many months' practice with controlling my thoughts. Instead of dwelling on the terrifying possibilities that, no matter what Alice said, I did not intend to survive, I concentrated on lesser problems. Like, what I was going to say to Charlie if I got back:' That was a thorny enough problem to occupy several hours. And Jacob? He'd promised to wait for me, but did that promise still apply? Would I end up home alone in Forks, with no one at all? Maybe I didn't want to survive, no matter what happened.

It felt like seconds later when Alice shook my shoulder—I hadn't realized I'd fallen asleep.

'Bella,' she hissed, her voice a little too loud in the darkened cabin full of sleeping humans.

I wasn't disoriented—I hadn't been out long enough for that.

'What's wrong?'

Alice's eyes gleamed in the dim light of a reading lamp in the row behind us.

'It's not wrong.' She smiled fiercely. 'It's right. They're deliberating, but they've decided to tell him no.'

'The Volturi?' I muttered, groggy.

'Of course, Bella, keep up. I can see what they're going to say.'

'Tell me.'

An attendant tiptoed down the aisle to us. 'Can I get you ladies a pillow?' His hushed whisper was a rebuke to our comparatively loud conversation.

'No, thank you.' Alice beamed at up at him, her smile shockingly lovely. The attendant's expression was dazed as he turned and stumbled his way back.

'Tell me,' I breathed almost silently.

She whispered into my ear. 'They're interested in him—they think his talent could be uselul. They're going to offer him a place with them.'

'What will he say?'

'I can't see that yet, but I'll bet it's colorful.' She grinned again. 'This is the first good news—the first break. They're intrigued; they truly don't want to destroy him—'wasteful,' that's the word Aro will use—and that may be enough to force him to get creative. The longer he spends on his plans, the better for us.'

It wasn't enough to make me hopeful, to make me feel the relief she obviously felt. There were still so many ways that we could be too late. And if I didn't get through the walls into the Volturi city, I wouldn't be able to stop Alice from dragging me back home.

'Alice?'