The Imprint or the Blood Singer

Chapter 9

 "Was a fancy yellow sports car really necessary to rent?" Maisie asked as Alice sped through the streets of Italy.

"It was the fastest on the lot... the Volturi refused him."

Alice had caught Maisie up to speed on specific vampire knowledge the pack didn't have information on, especially the Volturi.

"That's a good thing then?"

"No no." Alice pushed the car as fast as it could go. "He's going to make a scene. Show himself in front of the humans."

"How much time do we have?"

"He'll do it at noon, when the sun is at its highest peak."

Alice parked the car when it could no longer fit through the streets of Voltaire. She and Maisie ran, Alice careful to make sure all her coverings stayed in place. They kept having to push people out of the way.

"Why are they all in red cloaks?"

"St. Marcus Day Festival. They commemorate the exposure of vampires in their city. It's what makes this perfect. The Volturi would never let him get far enough to reveal himself."

Maisie and Alice moved even faster, knowing time was quickly running out.

"He'll be under the clock tower. I'm right behind you Maisie. But you need to go first, he needs to hear you coming first. If it's me, he'll think I'm lying and rush into it."

She could see Edward standing on the top step of the entrance to the clock tower. The buttons on his blue shirt were undone.

Edward, she screamed his name in her head as loud as she possibly could.

Edward looked up slightly as if he heard her. But he didn't see Maisie, the red cloaks were blocking his view. His mind must have been playing tricks on him. She pushed faster, allowing a little bit of the wolf side to kick in. Without much thought, she tackled Edward back into the protecting shade of the clock tower.

"Maisie?" Edward asked in disbelief as he clutched her head to his chest. "I thought you were dead, Alice saw you..."

He could feel the girl's heartbeat, smell the sweet blood that linked her to him. He saw the look of fear on her face from Alice's vision when he first met her. This was the cause of her pain and he felt more sorry for even leading her here.

"I'm very much alive, Edward. It's not a mirage. I'm here, I'm here—"

Maisie looked Edward in the eye and all time stopped. Whatever the pack's theories were about her imprinting were wrong. Maisie was sure she'd float away if Edward stopped looking at her. Gravity no longer held her to the Earth, he did. And for once she didn't want to pull away from his eyes, but get lost in the gold forever.

Edward smiled at her sugary sweet thoughts, worried about how sickly he looked. Alice came running up behind her. Maisie and Edward got to their feet and he began to button up his shirt and roll down the sleeves, hiding every inch of it from sunshine. Maisie sniffed the air, disgusted. Vampire and its smell was not like the Cullens. It was like the redhead. The scent of a vampire that drank human blood.

"Let's go, before you can think to cause another scene," Alice said.

Before they could move Edward uttered one word: Jane.

The three of them turned around to see a blonde girl flanked by two much larger men.

"Aro sent me to see what was taking so long."