Chapter 11 - Chase

It was hard to go about my normal routine with such a heavy load on my shoulders.  Yet again my very existence was putting the Cullens in danger.  They had existed for a hundred years with no trouble, and within two years of meeting me they were fighting off vampire after vampire.  Forced to kill their own kind to protect a human.

Edward remained quietly tortured about the bind he felt he had put me in.  Become a vampire or die was the main message of the Volturi, and at this point in time neither seemed to fit.  We had a plan, the immortal life was on hold, while we played out our teen romance and escaped together with my parents hearts intact.

I would often waken in the middle of the night, and without him realising, listen to him writing his journal with an angry pen.  He didn’t want to kill me, to take my life and replace it with an immortal existence, yet he didn’t want anyone else to do it - even without his gift I could read his mind.  He felt we were being pushed into doing things the Volturis way, and neither of us liked a bully.

We would find a way.

We often took a drive to a remote place, and Edward would run us to the top of a tree where we would sit, and contemplate each other for a while.  

“Bella, are you afraid?” Edward asked me, swinging himself down to rest beside me on a massive gnarled limb of a huge spruce tree.

“Of the Volturi? Yeh I am totally, but what can I do? They’ll come anyway...”

“I’ll protect you”

“Yeh, but Edward protect me from what? I mean I want this, I want to be with you, so why are we stalling, couldn’t we just do something now, say we want to go to Europe for the summer or something”

“Charlie would never allow it.” Edward had leaned so far forward we were face to face, his strength and acrobatics still made my pulse run fast.

“Better than a vampire battle in his kitchen”

Edward smiled, his perfect teeth creasing his bottom lip, “I suppose that is true”

Then suddenly his brow furrowed and his eyes widened, “There is someone here, Bella, I can hear them”

I lifted myself slowly to a sit, straining my ears as if I would hear too, but watching Edwards face as he concluded who he was listening to.

“Caius” He said, throwing me onto his back and telling me to hold on tight.

He took off through the trees like a monkey, swinging tree to tree with amazing speed.  

“Does he know we are here?” I roared into Edwards ear.

“He is chasing us Bella” He answered, and I turned my head to see Caius, a hooded figure, chasing us as we flew on.  Up to the top of the tree, and Edward began to jump from tree top to tree top.  Like a weird game of chess, we jumped forward and each treetop was replaced with Caius.  He was close enough now that I could see his fiery red eyes, with each jump in our wake he could smell me stronger and I could see his thirst for my blood grew more and more.

The trees shook and swayed with each jump and I began to lose confidence.  My fears took over and I started to lose my breath.

“Edward” I shouted, “I can’t breathe”

With that Edward made a huge leap across the river and began to run through the fields at a faster speed than I had ever experienced so far.  I felt myself slipping into unconciousness, the hyperventilation taking its toll, and just before I passed out I felt Edward tighten his grip on me, shouting “Caius No!”