SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW ➻ DEMETRI VOLTURI

T R E

"That was horrible," Cecilia breathed out as she finally stumbled into the living room. Her entire arms were covered in bags, all of them leaving red welts on her skin. She dumped the bags near the hallway, telling herself that she would take care of those later, and with a loud thud, she let herself fall on the couch.

"Horrible is when you miss the perfect dress by the second because somebody was more invested in waffles than looking good," Alice called back.

Emmett, who was seated on the other end of the couch let out a loud snort and held out his fist for Cecilia to bump it. She did so gladly. "Nice one."

They'd left for Anchorage when it was still dark and now, upon their return, it was dark outside again. Cecilia hadn't been exaggerating about Rose trying on every item in every store, but the worst thing was, she only ended up buying barely enough clothes to fit two bags. Cecilia had made sure she'd bought enough clothes to last her a lifetime if that meant no shopping trips for the coming several months.

"You can be such a whiner," Rose said, though the smile brightening her already beautiful face told her she meant nothing of it. She grabbed Cecilia's legs and lifted them ever so slightly before sitting down and draping them over her lap. "But it was fun, right?"

Cecilia was positive that at this point she hated shopping than she did yesterday, but she absolutely loved spending time with Alice and Rose, even if it was seated on a bench watching the vampires change from one outfit into another. "Yes, the parts with the waffles, the club sandwich and McDonald's were the best."

"Pig," Rosalie snorted.

"Says the supernatural creature that-"

Cecilia was abruptly cut off by the sound of a vase shattering in hundreds of tiny pieces as it landed on the floor and like she'd been stung by a bee, she shot up from the couch, looking at Alice with a worried expression on her face.

Jasper was already by Alice's side, his arms enveloping her in a gentle hug. It had been a while since she'd been taken aback by vision in such away, which Cecilia guessed couldn't mean any good. She shared a look with Rose, who wore a matching expression of wonder and worry on her face. Her glance shifted to her mother, who'd swept away the shards of glass so fast, Cecilia hadn't even seen her doing it.

"What do you see, Alice?" Carlisle asked, his voice calm and his posture ever so collected.

"It's the Volturi," Alice said. She sounded out of breath, her gaze staring away in the distance at something only she could see. "They're here in two days."

"Do you know why?" her father asked again.

"Yes, they just want to see Renesmee after all these years," Alice said, still locked away in her vision. "But they're going to find Celia..."

"And?" her father pushed.

Alice finally seemed to snap out of the vision, her eyes shifting to Cecilia in a way that made the girl shiver in fear. "They want to make an example of her."

The silence in the Cullen house was deafening, especially with the only sound being the slightly panicked breathing coming from Cecilia. She knew enough about the Volturi to make her skin crawl in fear. They were supposed to be both the royalty and the law enforcers of the vampire world. The most important and the only truly enforced law was that vampires weren't supposed to expose themselves to humans, something her family had done twice. They'd let Bella off, but Cecilia wasn't so sure she would get the same easy route out. Come to think about it, she was positive the Volturi were still sour about the standoff with Renesmee almost seventeen years ago since, contrary to humans, vampires had time on their side to hold very long grudges. They'd probably do anything to make her family sing a couple of tunes lower, including chopping her head of, or whatever kind of ritual they had.