Heart of Stone | Jasper Hale

17

They had driven to the nearest airport and got on a flight to Italy, not much was said. Bella was just as nervous as Alice and Aimee were, none of them wanted to lose Edward, despite how annoying his brooding was.

After the long flight, Alice somehow got her hands on a yellow Jaguar and they were flying down the roads of Italy. Aimee's phone started ringing, she looked at it and saw Jasper's name.

She answered it and heard Jasper's sigh of relief, "Hey, Jazzy."

"Where are you?"
"In Italy."
"You said you'd be back soon, it's been two days."
"Things didn't really work out. Bella is actually alive and now we're on our way to save Edward."
"Edward's gone, we figured he went to do something reckless."
"Like go to the Volturi."
"You're going to the Volturi?!"
"Um, nope."
"Darlin', one day you're gonna give me a heart attack."
"I'll be safe and back soon, I love you."
"Please be safe, I love you."

She ended the call to see Bella looking out of the window, biting her nails. The human girl hadn't said much, running her fingers through her hair, stressed. "So I figured you didn't rent this car?" Bella asked, trying to distract them all.

"I figured you wouldn't be opposed to grand theft auto." Alice smiled.

"Not today." Bella replied, looking out of the window again. Alice's eyes became vacant as she got another vision. "What do you see?" Aimee asked.

"They refused him." She answered.

"He's gonna make a scene, show himself to the humans." Aimee murmured under her breath. Alice nodded.

"No! When?" Bella desperately questioned.

"He's gonna wait until noon, when the sun's at its highest."

"Alice, you gotta hurry up." Bella pleaded.

"Calm down, Bella. We'll get there in time." Aimee said, turning back to look at Bella. It didn't seem to work, Bella was even more stressed, shifting around in her seat and looking at the time in the car.

"There's Volterra." Alice pointed out, and they all looked to see a city, built quite close together, but it looked romantic and historic. The city looked gorgeous. They made it into Volterra to see people all in red cloaks.

"Why are they all in red?" Bella asked, visibly stressed again.

"San Marco's Day festival." Alice replied, driving in the shade. "They're commemorating the expulsion of vampires from the city."

"They haven't done a very good job." Aimee muttered, looking at all the people in red.

"The Volturi will never let him get far enough to reveal himself." She added to Alice, Bella's breathing increased.

Aimee was in control, but all these people were freaking her out. She hadn't been in a large crowd like this, only one or two humans at a time.

"Bella, just breathe." She said, trying to distract herself, turning around in her seat to look at Bella, and not at the crowds of people dressed in red.

Alice drove through a street but was stopped. A guy said they had to park somewhere else, Aimee rolled her window down to swear at the man, but Alice quickly stopped her.

"Bella, you're the only one he can't see coming, if I go he'll read my thoughts and think I'm lying." She spoke quickly, the guy was speaking rapidly in Italian, gesturing his arms about wildly.