The Dark Princess 11

“Carlisle, Esme what are you doing here?” Edward didn’t understand why his father and mother were being put in a cells next to him. The guard cruelly put Esme and Carlisle in separate cells separating the mates from each other. Edward wasn’t surprised though as the royals had no regard for the mate bond. It was more than obvious from the way they had taken Bella away from him and tried to claim Jane was her true mate. Edward was still angry that Bella was being sacrificed to that woman. Now seeing Carlisle and Esme in cells Edward wondered why it seemed the Volturi wanted to break up his family.

“Edward!!” Carlisle reached through the bars trying to reach his son but they had put Esme in the cell between them. He had a feeling that this was done on purpose. “How are you? What is going on?”

“Where is Bella?” Esme asked. She was concerned for the girl especially after hearing the king and queen claiming a child bond. If anyone had the right to claim Bella as a daughter it was her not the two sadistic royals.

“Bella was taken away from me. The royals claim that she is actually Jane’s mate.” Edward had been planning his revenge on Jane for trying to take away his mate. Now that Carlisle and Esme were here maybe they could help him.

“Why would they claim that?” Carlisle was now more convinced than ever the royals were lying.

Edward sighed.“I do not know but seeing the two of you here confirms my suspicions that the Volturi are trying to break up our coven.”

“What would they gain from this though?” Esme asked. None of this made sense to her. Why were the royals trying to break up their family? She just couldn’t understand.

“I believe since they know I would never join the guard they have taken Bella to use her for her gift.” Edward told them.

Esme gasped. “You mean they are planning on changing her?”

“Yes.” Edward nodded his head. “I think they took her because as a human she doesn’t feel the mate bond properly and they are hoping to trick her into believing Jane is her mate so they can keep her in line.”

“That would make sense.” Carlisle agreed. “If Bella were to become a vampire and never look you in the eyes she would never know what the bond felt like. If she didn’t know what it felt like she could easily be convinced of what it is supposed to be.”

“We know how powerful Bella’s gift is now as a human. She is probably able to block Aro as well so its no wonder he took interest. He simply wishes to add her to his collection.” Edward said angrily.

“Oh no, poor Bella.” Esme put her hand over her mouth to stop the sobs that were threatening to overtake her. Her daughter was going to become another one of the Volturi’s weapons.

“Where are Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper?” Edward didn’t care about what happen to Alice but he needed Jasper on his side if he had a chance to get Bella back. Jasper was their best fighter.

“We don’t know.” Carlisle told him. “All we were told about them was that Bella asked for their lives to be spared and the kings granted her request.”

Edward shook his head in disgust.” That means they are probably trying to turn them against us as well. Although Rosalie does have quite a dislike for Bella.”

“Yes I do believe that Rosalie would side with us if it comes to a fight though.She has no love for Bella but she wouldn’t want the girl to go through so much suffering.” Carlisle always thought it was sad that Rosalie never gave her brother’s mate a chance but her jealousy of the girl’s human life prevented her from forming a relationship.

Thinking about Rosalie reminded Esme of something. “Edward they have claimed you had hurt Bella, is that true?”

“I did no such thing. I was merely protecting her from Jane. Any injury she sustained was from me trying to save her from the witch twin trying to claim her.” Edward still couldn’t believe that Bella had made a move towards Jane. They must of had Chelsea in the throne room. Edward hadn’t seen her but she could have been hiding in the shadows so no-one suspected her of influencing anyone.

“So Bella was hurt?” Carlisle was proud Edward had tried to protect his mate. If that wasn’t just more proof of the mate bond he didn’t know what the kings wanted.

“I had gripped her arm when she moved to walk towards Jane. In my panic I somehow grabbed too hard.” Edward told them.

“You hurt Bella?” That didn’t make sense to Esme. It was almost impossible to hurt your own mate even accidentally. If you did manage to the grief and shame you felt over the injury would have been debilitating.

“Like I said, I was defending Bella. Unlike the others in the throne room including Alice I was worried about Bella’s safety. After hearing Jane’s thoughts about my mate I knew I had to act before she got her hands on Bella.” Edward didn’t want to think about what Jane had been planning for his Bella. That was why he needed to get out of here as soon as possible. He needed to protect Bella’s innocence.

“What happened with Alice? Why isn’t she here with us?” Carlisle didn’t know exactly where Alice fit in this whole equation.

Edward sneered as he thought of the traitor that used to be his sister. “Alice is no longer a part of this coven. She not only refused to stand by me and defend Bella but she actually put her hands on me to physically stop me from trying to go after Bella.”

“No!! Alice wouldn’t do that.” Esme didn’t think Alice would go against her family. She was the one who chose them.

“I’m sorry but she did. She even proclaimed her loyalty to the kings.” Edward was stretching the truth a bit saying that as Alice had made it clear she was declaring her loyalty to Bella not the kings but in the end it didn’t matter. Alice had chosen her side.

Carlisle shook his head. This was worse than he thought. “So that was why Alice had been so mad when she called us. She even went as far to claim you and Bella weren’t mates. If she was working with the kings then it would make sense to try and plant a seed of doubt in the family.”

“Exactly.” Edward liked this line of thinking. “It makes me wonder if she even actually genuinely came to us to be part of the family or if she had seen visions of Bella and set all of this up.”

“Do you mean she was an agent for the kings?” Esme had never considered that before but it wasn’t that unbelievable.

“It would make sense. I mean she claims to not know anything other than waking up a vampire and seeing a vision of Jasper, followed by one of us. If she had been living with Aro she may have training on how to hide certain thoughts around mind readers. It would probably be easy for her to block out anything other than searching for us.” Carlisle was now thinking over the many years Alice had spent with them. Had she always put the family above everything else? He wasn’t sure.

“So that means Alice had set the whole thing up. She did say that she was having trouble seeing Bella’s future but that could be just another lie. If Alice didn’t want any of us to know what would happen when we got here saying Bella was blocking her visions was a good way to explain it. She used the excuse of Bella’s shield for the lack of visions.” Edward couldn’t believe he had never seen it. Alice was a member of the Volturi, of that he was now sure.

“Alice was Bella’s best friend. Are you saying that the love she shows for Bella is a lie also?” Esme asked. Out of all of the claims that had been made the past few days Alice not loving Bella was the hardest one to believe. It was beyond obvious to anyone who spent time with Alice and Bella that Alice cared deeply for the human.

Carlisle thought about that for a minute. “Alice’s feelings could have started out as false but maybe she got in too deep. Bella is quite a spectacular human it would be easy for Alice to have true feelings for her.

“Yes my Bella is quite extraordinary.” Edward smiled. “I dare say she is almost perfect. That is why we need to save her from the Volturi. She is too good to become a mindless follower of these barbarians.”

“I agree. We need to get Bella away from the castle. If what we think about Alice is true then we shouldn’t worry about saving them.Rosalie and Emmett we would need to find as well.” Carlisle was trying to think about how exactly they could get out of the dungeons. That was the first step.

Edward held back a scowl thinking of wasting their time on Rosalie and Emmett. He didn’t know why they would waste their time rescuing the two of them. In Edward’s mind the mated pair weren’t useful in anyway and he believed they should just leave them to their fate in the castle. The only reason he wasn’t fighting to leave them was because they may need Emmett’s strength. “Do you know where they were taken?”

“When we were escorted through the castle they were told that the Volturi princess requested their presence. I don’t know how true that was though.” Carlisle said. “Actually now that I’m thinking about it Jasper didn’t seem disturbed or surprised when we were told there was a Volturi princess. He simply went along with the guard and said he was looking forward to meeting her.”

“That just proves Alice and Jasper work for the Volturi. Jasper must have known that Alice was safe with Bella.” Esme was now more than sure Alice had never been a true member of the family. It saddened her greatly as she had thought of both Alice and Jasper as her own children but if they had been plotting this whole time she would have to push her feelings aside for the time being and mourn the loss of her relationship with them later.

“Right now we need to make a plan on how to get out of here. I know the castle very well after living here for so long but don’t exactly know how the royal wing is set up as I was never allowed there.” Carlisle figured he could get them in the right area without being seen but getting into the royal wing would be a problem.

“I figure once we get out of the dungeon we go directly to Bella first. I can read the minds of the vampires and guards we come across to find out where the others are but Bella needs to be the priority.” Edward didn’t say that they were most likely leaving the other two behind as he knew once they got Bella the castle would become over run with guards.

“That’s fine. If worse comes to worse we leave Rosalie and Emmett behind. They seem to be in the good graces of the royals so they might be able to get out on their own. After that I think we should contact the Denali to get their help hiding us and Bella. They hate the Volturi more than anyone so if they find out what is going on then they would definitely be on our side. That way if it comes to Bella actually having to be changed you would be with your mate right away and no one else could claim her.” Carlisle knew their cousins would help them. No matter how strict they were about the law, the Denali hated the Volturi worse than anyone. Finding out what the royals were trying to do to Bella would outrage them enough that they would stand against the Volturi. Carlisle just knew it.As they began to make their plan to escape and take Bella Carlisle tried to figure out how he could find out information on how to break mind control. At first he thought Alice was under the influence of others but now he wasn’t sure. If what was said about Bella accepting the bonds was true then it was obvious that she definitely was. That would make it harder to rescue her. She might even try to fight them. Hopefully the mate bond she shared with Edward would overwhelm the other influence because he wasn’t sure his son had it in him to change his mate.