[BamaFan121s]

As the bus pulled of the road, we quickly stepped into the steady flow of visitors making their way into the city on foot. My hands tightened into fists and I stretched my shield to surround Edward and Alice.

"Anything?" Alice whispered as we drew nearer to the gate.

"Nothing," Edward replied quickly.

"I don't see anyone being there. Closer to the center, and it gets fuzzy..."

We stepped into the city, beneath the heavy, raised gate. My eyes scanned the crowd surrounding us at a frantic pace, looking for any figure clad in gray.

Constantly remaining aware of our surroundings, we steadily wound our way through the narrow cobblestone paths of the city, making our way closer to the center of the ancient city.

I looked to the rooftops as well as we passed through the narrow alleys, but still, saw no sign of the guard.

When we neared St. Mark's Square, we stopped and exchanged quick, nervous glances, each of us unsure of how to proceed. We hadn't factored what to do from here. Truthfully, we hadn't considered making it here without meeting some sort of resistance. There were several entrances that we knew of, but did we really expect to be able to just walk through any of them unchallenged? My mind was reeling as I tried to evaluate our possibilities.

Something was off. Weren't they expecting us? Had they all retreated under the city? Did that mean that the others had been detected?

My breath sped with the last thought. It became raspy and my body threatened to curl inward on itself defensively. Edward reached to take my hand. "Shhhh," he barely breathed. We continued inching closer to the center of the city in silence.

Suddenly, I heard Edward's teeth snap and grind together. I turned to him and noticed his eyes were trained on the rooftops. I followed his gaze just in time to see a dark blur move above us.

"They know we're here," I said matter of factly.

"Yes," he hissed. "They know."

"They don't plan to act here in the open," Alice whispered.

"No," Edward agreed. "But we have taken them by surprise. It seems as if your idea worked Bella. They are shocked that we made it to the center before they detected us. They'd planned to act to stop us if possible, but not this close to the square."

"Who?" I asked. As I waited for his response, the faces of the guard I knew flashed through my mind. I mentally began sizing up anyone who would oppose us.

"Felix, Alec, I'm sure of. A few others who have never been more than fixtures in the background."

I growled at his mention of Alec. I knew that I would be no match for Felix's mere physical size, but Alec possessed a gift which I could defend against. My ability to do so would be crucial if we were to encounter him at any point.

Wordlessly, Edward held his hand up to silence us. He cocked his head first to one side, then to the other. My eyes searched the rooftops and the square that stretched out before us, looking for the figure that had already moved out of site. After a long moment, Edward frowned as deep lines etched themselves into his forehead. Slowly, he began shaking his head back and forth. "This doesn't make any sense," he pondered. "They're...retreating. But why?"

As I strained my eyes to see what was no longer there, the crucial mistake that we'd made came crashing down on us. The three of us had been so intent on the rooftops and courtyard before us, that we'd mistakenly lost focus on what was going on street level around us. A sudden, crisp breeze drifting from the open alley behind us brought with it the unmistakable trace of other vampires and the distinct sound of footsteps. But it was a fraction of a second too late as the voice of their leader had already reached us. "Well, we were so hoping to run into you three here!"

Dropping the façade at keeping a human pace, we turned to face the three vampires who had suddenly appeared in the alley behind us as they closed the gap between us and St. Mark's Square at a frightening pace.