𝘊𝘏𝘈𝘗𝘛𝘌𝘙 𝘛𝘏𝘐𝘙𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕

(the cursed witch, act two)

"WOULD YOU LIKE SOME WARM NUTS?"

Nina whipped her head to face the flight attendant. "Sorry?"

"Some warm nuts. They're a favourite around here."

"Um... No, I'm good. My nuts are fine..."

The woman nodded before moving down the line of seats.

Nina turned to see Alice chuckling in amusement at her. "Was that lady just offering me her nuts? Or was she wanting mine?"

"Nuts as in peanuts, Nina."

"Oh..." Nina muttered. "I guess that makes more sense."

Peter leaned over from the aisle next to her. "Have you never been on a plane before?"

"I have two hundred bucks in my bank account right now. You can keep your mouth shut, absentee father."

Alice smiled as she watched the man huff and lean back into his seat.

"It's nice to see you haven't changed," Alice complimented when Nina got herself comfortable again.

"Oh, yeah no. I haven't changed at all... Other than the dead mother... my entire body that is riddled with broken bones, thanks for that one, Dad... and the possibility of being homeless. Life is going real smooth. But you know, I'm still funny, so that's a positive."

"This is going to be a long flight," Peter muttered, glancing at Alice and seeing her nod.

An hour or so later, Alice blatantly ignored the flight attendant's warnings of not using her cellphone and called Jasper.

Nina, although half asleep, listened to her conversation.

"I can't be sure, I keep seeing him do different things, he keeps changing his mind... A killing spree through the city, attacking the guard, lifting a car over his head in the main square... mostly things that would expose them—he knows that's the fastest way to force a reaction...."

Her voice was quiet enough that Nina had trouble hearing parts of it.

"No, you can't." Alice's voice dropped till it was nearly inaudible, though Nina was sitting inches from her. Nina noticed something then. She didn't have to struggle to hear her. Her voice was clear, the only thing muffling it was her tired mind.

"Tell Emmett no... Well, go after Emmett and Rosalie and bring them back... Think about it, Jasper. If he sees any of us, what do you think he will do?"

She nodded. "Exactly. I think Nina is the only chance—if there is a chance... I'll do everything that can be done, but prepare Carlisle; the odds aren't good."

She laughed then, and there was a catch in her voice. "I've thought of that... Yes, I promise." Her voice became pleading. "Don't follow me. I promise, Jasper. One way or another, I'll get out... And I love you." She hung up and leaned back in her seat with her eyes closed.

"I hate lying to him."

Nina opened her eyes then and turned slightly. "Tell me everything, Alice," She begged. "I don't understand. Why did you tell Jasper to stop Emmett? Why can't they come help us?"

Alice was shocked the witch heard her. "Two reasons," She whispered. "The first I told him. We could try to stop Edward ourselves—if Emmett could get his hands on him, we might be able to stop him long enough to convince him you're alive. But we can't sneak up on Edward. And if he sees us coming for him, he'll just act that much faster. He'll throw a Buick through a wall or something, and the Volturi will take him down."

"That's the second reason, of course, the reason I couldn't say to Jasper. Because if they're there and the Volturi kill Edward, they'll fight them. Nina." She opened her eyes and stared at the witch, beseeching. "If there were any chance we could win... if there were a way that the four of us could save my brother by fighting for him, maybe it would be different. But we can't, and, Nina, I can't lose Jasper like that."

Nina realized why Alice's eyes begged for her understanding. She was protecting Jasper, at Nina's expense, and maybe at Edward's, too. Nina understood, and she could not think badly of her.

She nodded. "Couldn't Edward hear you, though?" She asked. "Wouldn't he know, as soon as he heard your thoughts, that I was alive, that there was no point to this?"

"If he were listening," She explained. "But believe it or not, it's possible to lie with your thoughts. If you had died, I would still try to stop him. And I would be thinking 'she's alive, she's alive' as hard as I could. He knows that."

Alice breathed out unsurely. "If there were any way to do this without you, Nina, I wouldn't be endangering you like this. It's very wrong of me."

"Don't be stupid. I'm the last thing you need to be worrying about." Nina shook her head impatiently. "Tell me what you meant, about hating to lie to Jasper."

She smiled a grim smile. "I promised him I would get out before they killed me, too. It's not something I can guarantee—not by a long shot." She raised her eyebrows, as if willing Nina to take the danger more seriously.

Nina glanced at Peter. "How many are there?"

"There were three of them originally, Aro, Caius, and Marcus. Two females joined them over time, and the five of them make up the family. They are well over three thousand years old. Like Edward and Alice, Aro and Marcus are... gifted."

He sighed. "Then there are the two that you need to be most careful of. The twins, Jane and Alec, are part of the guard. Jane can implant the illusion of pain and render anyone useless. Then Alec... trust me, you do not want to feel what that kid can do. He cuts off all senses. Little bastard used to do it to me to wake me up in the mornings."

"You can sleep?" Alice questioned.

"It's because I'm better than you," Peter chuckled. "But then there is Felix. He's very strong, much like your other brother, I assume... Emmett. Demetri... You don't need to worry about him unless you plan on running. He's a tracker. They will all most likely be in the room with us. The rest of the guard is posted all throughout Voltera."

"How strong is he, exactly?"

"Stronger," He told her, giving her a look. Stronger than her, he meant. "So keep your ass away from him. Demitri would be the easiest target. Alec and Jane will be the biggest issue."

"What about the main three?"

"They like to watch. It gives them entertainment. Besides, what's the point of having a guard if you have to do everything by yourself?"

Nina sighed. "So we're basically screwed if we don't get there in time."

"Yeah."

Peter shrugged. "I can run you there. I'm very good at keeping my mind clear."

"Are you sure you can do that?" Alice asked, leaning forward to see him past Nina.

"I may be a young vampire, but I still have some brains."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Let me concentrate now. I'm trying to see what he's planning."

She pressed her hands to the sides of her face, rubbing her fingertips against her temples. Nina watched her in fascination for a long time. Eventually, she became utterly motionless; her face like a stone sculpture. The minutes passed, and if Nina didn't know better, she would have thought she'd fallen asleep. She didn't dare interrupt her to ask what was going on.

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

"Alice," She finally said. "Alice, we have to go." She touched her arm. Her eyes came open very slowly. She shook her head from side to side for a moment.

"Anything new?" Nina asked in a low voice, conscious of the people that had begun to walk the isle.

"Not exactly," She breathed in a voice Nina wouldn't have been able to hear a week before. "He's getting closer. He's deciding how he's going to ask."

They had to run for their 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. This time, she was in the middle row, leaving Peter next to Nina.

"Are you doing alright?" Peter whispered, leaning down slightly.

"One of the few people still alive that I love is about to kill himself because of me. Just peachy, dad."

"Right. Sorry. Dumb question."

"You think?"

"How are you feeling though...?" He leaned closer, though he could tell Alice wouldn't be able to hear in her trance-like state. "Wolf-wise?"

Nina pursed her lips. "I'm fucking pissed off. And I want to punch someone, if that's what you're asking."

"That's normal. You'll be like that for a few months."

"I'm not gonna like... punch my ex boyfriend or anything, am I?"

"You probably will. You won't have much control over your anger. You're still new and learning. It will take time to work it out."

"So... I'm going to be a bitch for now? Do I get a bitch pass, then?"

He shrugged. "I guess so. As long as you tell them. Are you planning on telling them?"

She shifted. The seats in this place were much less comfortable than the last one. "I guess I'll have to. But... I don't think they are planning on coming back to Forks with me once they know he's not going to kill himself."

"You think so?" He almost sounded hopeful. 

Nina laughed softly though her smile was so small he almost couldn't see it. "Maybe we should set up tinder accounts for each other."

"What's a tinder?" 

"Nevermind. You're too old." 

The conversation died out eventually.

Nina fell asleep. It wasn't until two hours later that she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Nina," Alice hissed, her voice a little too loud in the darkened cabin full of sleeping humans.

"What's wrong?" The witch asked, frowning. Peter was asleep beside her, his head resting on the wall of the plane. It was strange, seeing a vampire asleep.

Alice's eyes gleamed in the dim light of a reading lamp in the row behind them. "It's not wrong." She smiled fiercely. "It's right. They're deliberating, but they've decided to tell him no."

"The Volturi?" Nina muttered, groggy.

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

Rolling her sleep-filled eyes, she looked at the vampire. "Tell me."

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

"No, thank you." Alice beamed up at him, her smile shockingly lovely.

The attendant's expression was dazed as he turned and stumbled his way back.

"Tell me."

She whispered into her ear. "They're interested in him—they think his talent could be useful. 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 Nina hopeful, to make her feel the relief Alice obviously felt. There were still so many ways that they could be too late. And if Peter didn't get her through the walls into the Volturi city, she wouldn't be able to stop Alice from dragging her back home.

"Alice?"

"What?"

"I'm confused. How are you seeing this so clearly? And then other times, you see things far away—things that don't happen?"

Her eyes tightened. Nina wondered if she guessed what she was thinking of.

"It's clear because it's immediate and close, and I'm really concentrating. The faraway things that come on their own—those are just glimpses, faint maybes. Plus, I see my kind more easily than yours. Edward is even easier because I'm so attuned to him."

"You see me sometimes," She reminded her.

Alice shook her head. "Not as clearly."

Nina sighed. "I really wish you could have been right about me. In the beginning, when you first saw things about me, before we even met..."

"What do you mean?"

"You saw me become one of you." Nina barely mouthed the words.

She sighed. "It was a possibility at the time."

At the time... Not anymore.

"Actually, Nina..." She hesitated, and then seemed to make a choice. "Honestly, I think it's all gotten beyond ridiculous. I'm debating whether to just change you myself."

"What about Bella?"

"Bella... She'd have to be turned as well, in order to please the Volturi."

"Is there any other way... that the Volturi would let her live?"

Alice shrugged. "I guess there are the occasional loopholes."

"What about a wolf?" Nina remembered Jacob telling her something during one of their motorcycle test runs, after he had turned.

"What about a wolf?" Alice asked, repeating the question.

"The Quileute wolves... they have this thing. Imprinting. It's their version of a mate. What if Bella was an imprint?"

"Then... Then she would already have to have the knowledge over the supernatural occurrences. It would work."

"Good... Bella's covered then."

"It's just you then," Peter spoke up, shocking them both. They hadn't realized he had woken up during their short conversation.

"Just Nina?" Alice questioned. "She's a witch. The Volturi don't really mind witches."

Peter didn't look at the vampire, instead, his eyes were on Nina. "They'll sense it. They'll know you're my daughter as soon as we walk in."

"I know that." Nina nodded. "If they kill me, they kill me. Edward said it himself. 'Vampires are easily distracted'. You will all get over it soon enough."

"Nina," Alice spoke in a warning tone. "You are not the one dying today."

The witch turned to her. "Alice. Tell me one thing I have left."

"You have..." Alice couldn't find anything.

"Exactly. I have nothing to live for. I don't have my mom. I don't have Edward. Bella is going to move on and be with Jacob. And Dad... You've lived without me for 18 years. I'm sure you'll be fine without me."

"Go back to sleep," Alice encouraged her. "I'll wake you up when there's something new."

"Right," Nina grumbled, certain that sleep was a lost cause now.

Alice pulled her legs up on the seat, wrapping her arms around them and leaning her forehead against her knees. She rocked back and forth as she concentrated.

Nina rested her head against the seat, watching her, and the next thing she knew, her eyes opened wide.

"What's happening?" Nina mumbled.

"They've told him no," She said quietly.

Nina noticed at once that her enthusiasm was gone. Her voice choked in her throat with panic. "What's he going to do?"

"It was chaotic at first. I was only getting flickers. He was changing plans so quickly."

"What kinds of plans?" Nina pressed.

"There was a bad hour," She whispered. "He'd decided to go hunting." She looked at Nina, seeing the incomprehension on her face. "In the city," She explained. "It got very close. He changed his mind at the last minute."

"He wouldn't want to disappoint Carlisle," Nina mumbled.

"Probably," Alice agreed.

"Will there be enough time?"

As she spoke, there was a shift in the cabin pressure. She could feel the plane angling downward.

"I'm hoping so—if he sticks to his latest decision, maybe."

"What is that?"

"He's going to keep it simple. He's just going to walk out into the sun."

Just walk out into the sun. That was all. It would be enough. The image of Edward on the front porch of the Cullen home—glowing, shimmering like his skin was made of a million diamond facets—was burned into Nina's memory.

No human who saw that would ever forget. The Volturi couldn't possibly allow it. Not if they wanted to keep their city inconspicuous.

She looked at the slight gray glow that shone through the opened windows.

"We'll be too late," She whispered, her throat closing in panic.

Alice shook her head. "Right now, he's leaning toward the melodramatic. He wants the biggest audience possible, so he'll choose the main plaza under the clock tower. The walls are high there. He'll wait till the sun is exactly overhead."

"So we have till noon?"

"If we're lucky. If he sticks with this decision."

The pilot came on over the intercom, announcing, first in French and then in English, their imminent landing. The seat belt lights dinged and flashed.

"How far is it from Florence to Volterra?"

"That depends on how fast you drive... Nina?"

"Yes?" She eyed her speculatively. 

"How strongly are you opposed to grand theft auto?

A bright yellow Porsche screamed to a stop a few feet in front of where Nina paced, the word TURBO scrawled in silver cursive across its back. Everyone beside her on the crowded airport sidewalk stared.

"Hurry, Nina!" Alice shouted impatiently through the open passenger window. Nina ran to the door and threw herself in. She could see Peter already in the backseat, having appeared there before she could even see him leave.

"Could you pick a more conspicuous car to steal?" The interior was black leather, and the windows were tinted dark. It felt safer inside, like nighttime.

Alice was already weaving, too fast, through the thick airport traffic — sliding through tiny spaces between the cars as Nina cringed and fumbled for her seat belt.

"The important question," She corrected, "is whether I could have stolen a faster car, and I don't think so. I got lucky."

"I'm sure that will be very comforting at the roadblock." She trilled a laugh. "Trust me, Nina. If anyone sets up a roadblock, it will be behind us." She hit the gas then, as if to prove her point.

If Nina had wanted to watch the scenery of Florence, she couldn't. The car was weaving through streets so fast Florence became only a memory.

Alice's driving frightened her more than what was to come of her life, despite the fact that she knew she could trust Alice behind the wheel. And she was too tortured with anxiety to really see the hills or the walled towns that looked like castles in the distance.

"Do you see anything else?"

"There's something going on," Alice muttered. "Some kind of festival. The streets are full of people and red flags. What's the date today?"

Nina wasn't entirely sure.

"It's the nineteenth," Peter answered for her.

"Well, that's ironic. It's Saint Marcus Day."

"Which means?"

She chuckled darkly. "The city holds a celebration every year. As the legend goes, a Christian missionary, a Father Marcus—Marcus of the Volturi, in fact—drove all the vampires from Volterra fifteen hundred years ago. The story claims he was martyred in Romania, still trying to drive away the vampire scourge. Of course, that's nonsense—he's never left the city. But that's where some of the superstitions about things like crosses and garlic come from. Father Marcus used them so successfully. And vampires don't trouble Volterra, so they must work."

Her smile was sardonic. "It's become more of a celebration of the city, and recognition for the police force—after all, Volterra is an amazingly safe city. The police get the credit."

Nina was realizing what she meant when she'd said ironic.

"They're not going to be very happy if Edward messes things up for them on St. Marcus Day, are they?"

Alice shook her head, her expression grim. "No. They'll act very quickly."

Nina looked away, fighting against her teeth as they tried to break through the skin of her lower lip. Bleeding was not the best idea right now. The sun was terrifyingly high in the pale blue sky.

"He's still planning on noon?" She checked.

"Yes. He's decided to wait. And they're waiting for him."

"Tell me what I have to do." She kept her eyes on the winding road—the needle on the speedometer was touching the far right on the dial. "You don't have to do anything. He just has to see you before he moves into the light. And he has to see you before he sees me."

"How are we going to work that?"

A small red car seemed to be racing backward as Alice zoomed around it.

"I'm going to get you as close as possible, and then Peter is going to run in the direction I point you."

Nina nodded.

"There," Alice said abruptly, pointing to the castle city atop the closest hill.

Nina stared at it, feeling the very first hint of a new kind of fear. Every minute since yesterday morning—it seemed like a week ago—when Alice had spoken his name at the foot of the stairs, there had been only one fear.

And yet, now, as she stared at the ancient sienna walls and towers crowning the peak of the steep hill, she felt another, more selfish kind of dread thrill through her. She supposed the city was very beautiful. It absolutely terrified her.

"Volterra," Alice announced in a flat, icy voice. 

a/n

just wanted to give you guys a little warning that I'm probably going to be leaving Wattpad soon. I'm just really not that interested in it anymore and i'm getting sick of the passive aggressive hate comments that i get on literally every single book. i've been doing this since I was sixteen and soon i'm gonna be twenty so... i don't know. i'm just not sixteen anymore. i don't have all the time in the world and the time I do have I'd rather spend it being more aware of the world around me than the world in my computer.

I have written till the end of new moon for this book so that will continue to be posted till it reaches the end in a few weeks so don't worry about that. and who knows, maybe in a few months or a year or two I might be back.

it's just right now, i'm working 40+ hours a week, i'm learning how to take over my families business and dealing with the stress of feeling i'm not good enough and i'm about to start taking college courses after my 8 hour shifts. i've got a lot on my plate and i physically and mentally can't keep up with writing. 

we've had a good run, we've had some laughs and some tears and I will forever be grateful for the time you have spent with me. i made some pretty amazing friends here and that meant a lot to a sixteen year old girl who had just come out to her friends and then was made a mockery of by her entire school. 

so thank you for being here with me. and thank you for letting me be myself.

-megan