We sat there all night long, statues of horror and grief, and Alice never came back. We were all at our limits - frenzied into absolute stillness.

Everyone sat around waiting for Alice, but I had a feeling she was long gone. She had to do something; she was hiding something. Carlisle had barely been able to move his lips to explain it all to Seth and Leah.

The retelling seemed to make it worse; even Emmett stood silent and still from then on. Leah made a beeline to alert Sam; the wolves were readying themselves for what was coming. The sunlight broke through the back windows, sparkling on Rosalie's skin.

My eyes had not left hers since the news broke, her eyes had not left Demetri.

"Alice" Edward said. The sound of his voice was like ice cracking as it melted. All of us fractured a little, softened a little.

"She's been gone a long time," Rosalie murmured, surprised.

"Where could she be?" Emmett wondered, taking a step toward the door.

Esme put a hand on her arm. "We don't want to disturb ..."

"She's never taken so long before," Edward said. New worry splintered the mask his face had become. His features were alive again, his eyes suddenly wide with fresh fear, extra panic. "Carlisle, you don't think - something preemptive. Would Alice have had time to see if they sent someone for her?"

Everyone leapt into action, Lucia grabbing me hoping I could track them. The moment I got outside I phased, the scent of Alice and Jasper filled my senses, the low thrum of their path illuminating in my mind, the pull lurched, and I took off after it.

The others followed behind me only Bella and Edward keeping pace with me. I stopped when we reached the border.

"Would they have been able to surprise her?" Carlisle asked, his voice as even as if he were standing motionless rather than running at full speed.

"I don't see how," Edward answered. "But Aro knows her better than anyone else. Better than I do."

"Is this a trap?" Emmett called from behind us.

"Maybe," Edward said. "There's no scent but Alice and Jasper. Where were they going?"

Alice and Jasper's trail was curling into a wide arc; it stretched first east of the house, but headed north on the other side of the river, and then back west again after a few miles. We recrossed the river, all six jumping within a second of each other.

"Did you catch that scent?" Esme called ahead a few moments after we'd leaped the river for the second time. She was the farthest back, on the far-left edge of our hunting party. She gestured to the southeast.

"Keep to the main trail - we're almost to the Quileute border," Edward ordered tersely. "Stay together. See if they turned north or south."

I let out a bark opening my mind and focusing on Edward 'the went straight across... Sam's waiting for us'

"Sam's waiting" he relayed to the others. I stopped watching the man walking towards us. in his human form, flanked by two big wolves - Paul and Jared. It took Sam a while to reach us; his human pace made the others impatient.

I watched Edward's face go absolutely white as he read what Sam was thinking. Sam ignored him, looking straight at Carlisle as he stopped walking and began to speak.

"Right after midnight, Alice and Jasper came to this place and asked permission to cross our land to the ocean. I granted them that and escorted them to the coast myself. They went immediately into the water and did not return. As we journeyed, Alice told me it was of the utmost importance that I say nothing to Alex about seeing her until I spoke to you. I was to wait here for you to come looking for her and then give you this note. She told me to obey her as if all our lives depended on it."

Sam's face was grim as he held out a folded sheet of paper, printed all over with small black text. It was a page out of a book; my sharp eyes read the printed words as Carlisle unfolded it to see the other side. The side facing me was the copyright page from The Merchant of Venice.

"Alice has decided to leave us," Carlisle whispered.

"What?" Rosalie cried.

Carlisle turned the page around so that we all could read.

'Don't look for us. There isn't time to waste. Remember; Tanya, Siobhan, Amun, Alistair, all the nomads you can find. Alex must go to Canada retrieve more of her kind. We'll seek out Peter and Charlotte on our way. We're so sorry that we have to leave you this way, with no goodbyes or explanations. It's the only way for us. We love you.'

We stood frozen again, the silence total but for the sound of the wolves' heartbeats, their breathing. Their thoughts must have been loud, too. Edward was first to move again, speaking in response to what he heard in Sam's head.

"Yes, things are that dangerous."

"Enough that you would abandon your family?" Sam asked out loud, censure in his tone. It was clear that he had not read the note before giving it to Carlisle. He was upset now, looking as if he regretted listening to Alice.

"We don't know what she saw," Edward said. "Alice is neither unfeeling nor a coward. She just has more information than we do."

"We would not -," Sam began.

"You are bound differently than we are," Edward snapped. "We each still have our free will." Sam's chin jerked up, and his eyes looked suddenly flat black. I let out a small growl gesturing towards Edward.

'now is not the time' I went behind a tree and phased returning to my family.

"Best prepare Sam... Everyone"

"Alex, Sam, don't get your family slaughtered for pride" Carlisle spoke.

"Edward was right... this isn't about free will, it's instinct. Sam's pack is bound to mine as mine is his. Demetri and Renesmee are just as much a part of their family as they are mine." I looked back at Sam "This is much bigger than newborns, everyone must be ready." Sam nodded and left.

Behind me, I could hear Esme's quiet, tearless sobs. The others were rigid.

"We have much to do, what Alice did or didn't do doesn't matter anymore. Every person here is in danger, the question is are you going to sit back and let it happen or are you going to fight for your life"

"we don't want to fight" Carlisle spoke.

I looked him in the eyes "none of us do, really, but when survival is at threat we all must do what we have to. We have to gather allies, if only for moral support"

"I'm not going down without a fight," Emmett snarled low under his breath.

Lucia stood tall beside him "Alex is right. Alice told us what to do. Let's get it done."

The others nodded with determined expressions, and I realized that they were banking on whatever chance Alice had given us. That they were not going to give in to hopelessness and wait to die.

Yes, we all would fight. What else was there? And apparently we would involve others because Alice had said so before she'd left us. How could we not follow Alice's last warning? The wolves, too, would fight with us.

We would fight, they would fight, and if need be we would all die for this.