endless light by Candace Caden

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CONTENTS  1. THE BEGINNING OF THE END

2. SECRET

3. AWKWARD

4. DAY OFF

5. DECLARING OURSELVES

6. LIFE CHANGING DECISION

7. RENEE

8. SUMMER

9. SOMETHING’S WRONG

10. A NEW LIFE

11. FIRST DAY

12. SWEET

13. DÉJÀ VU

14. PLANS

15. COMING CLEAN

16. PREPARING

17. SNEAKING AROUND

18. LOVE STRUCK

19. JOURNEYS

20. CONFRONTATION

100

21. BATTLE

105

22. REVENGE

110

23. END OF AN ERA

115

24. A NEW WORLD

120 

25. THE PROTECTORS

125

1

PREFACE What do you do when your whole world is perfect? When nothing can get any better? Most people would be happy, but in my world it seemed to be an omen. Perfection could only last so long. And once that time was up, would I still be alive? Would any of my family live through it? What do you do when the lives of everyone you love all lie in your hands? Something was coming. Something that wouldn’t just change my life, but the life of everyone around me. Something none of us could understand, and all wanted to. Something we had to get ready for before it was too late. But how do you get ready for something that you don’t understand? Would it all be worth it? Would, for once, everything work out in the end? Could my family finally live in peace? Was it so wrong to just want it to end? To just want happiness?

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1. THE BEGINNING OF THE END

It had been nearly seven years since we’d last heard anything from the Volturi. All those years ago they had come with the intentions of killing me because I am an unthinkable creation of what danger they were not sure; I am half human and half vampire. Until Alice went looking they had believed that I was the only one of my kind, but it was thanks to another like me, Nahuel, that I believe I was saved; and I think is was also of partial thanks to Marcus, one of the leaders of the Volturi, who did not believe that I was of any threat to anyone. You may be wondering how such a creature as myself can come about existing; this would be thanks to my mother, Bella, and my father, Edward, who had fallen in love even though he is a vampire and she was a human. I was conceived during their honeymoon and only a month later I had been born. Now, seven years later, I have the appearance of a typical human teenager around the age of sixteen. With me growing so quickly and my family not aging at all we had moved away from Forks only a few months after the aftermath of the Volturi’s visit had finally settled. We were now living in a small, sunless town a few thousand miles from Forks. We went back often to visit Grandpa, and so Jacob could visit Billy. We had just moved about two years ago. After the whole Volturi thing cooled down, I had gone with Mom and Dad to Dartmouth. I wasn’t a student, but they didn’t want to be away from me; just like I didn’t seem to want to be away from Jacob, so he had been with us too. While we were at Dartmouth, the rest of my family went off to live on their own; Rosalie and Emmett finally able to get married and live as a married couple should. Once Mom had finished with college we all joined back up and moved to this new town. We had been here for almost two years now, so I was used to spending my days with Esme. Everyone thought it was a bad idea for me to go to school, since I was still growing, so I did my best to stay out of the public eye. We knew I would stop growing soon, so I would be able to start going to school. I wondered what Esme did all those years, before I was born, when she was stuck in the house by herself. Although, on those rare sunny days, no one went to school, except Jacob. Jacob liked those days because he got to drive the Volvo. He tried on several occasions to 3

talk Dad into letting him take the Vanquish, but he would always say that it was far too ostentatious to not draw attention. It was fun to watch these arguments between them, but Jacob would always lose. Jake’s side of the argument would always consist of, “Oh, come on. Do you really think people don’t notice you? No one would be surprised that you have a Vanquish…” it would go on like that for awhile, but he would never win. I liked spending my days with Esme though. A lot of the day was spent with her homeschooling me so, when I did stop growing and started school, I would be caught up. I was quickly learning and easily bored, so we had been spending the last few days on calculus. I was already far beyond the knowledge I would need for school, but I figured being prepared wasn’t a bad thing. Mom was a little annoyed about repeating high school, but she said it wasn’t as bad this time around. She would joke and say, “At least people leave me alone this time.” Apparently Mom had been quite the catch before she was changed. I didn’t really know her prier to being a vampire, and the only memory I had of her as human wasn’t very attractive, but that wasn’t really her fault. Dad would get really annoyed when he caught people thinking about her in that way though. I could tell she thought it was funny to watch Dad’s reaction; I thought it was funny too. All in all, I was really excited to start school and make some human friends. I had Jacob, but he wasn’t exactly human. It wasn’t that my family wasn’t enough, it was just that I wanted the chance to know some humans. It’s half of what I am after all. Being a vampire was fun, but I wanted the chance to be human too. Today was just like any other day, so everyone was at school; Carlisle at the hospital. Carlisle had found a great local hospital to work at that was more than happy to have him. I had the feeling that he would never stop helping people, no matter how long he lived. Carlisle’s compassion was limitless and endless. He wasn’t like anyone else. We had all moved into town as a family in June, the school year already over, so that following September everyone had enrolled as freshmen in high school, even Jacob. They were all sophomores now, and the school year was almost over. They had just one more week and it would be summer again. I couldn’t wait. Summer was always my favorite time of year. I could spend all the time I wanted with my family when they didn’t have the obligation of school. I loved my family so much, and spending time with them was my favorite thing in the world to do. Today Esme was taking a day off from the usual teaching; instead she was informing me of the stories of my family. I had heard them before, but never in depth. I gave each a simple name to make it easy to remember: Emmett and the bear, Dad and the influenza, Jasper and the angel… I found Uncle Jasper’s the most interesting; it definitely explained a lot. Jazz was a completely different person now though. He had control over his instincts. I still remembered how he had been when I was first born, struggling to the change like he did. It was understandable though, what with the circumstance of his change and the beginning of his new life. After the change Maria fooled and tricked him into doing her bidding; if it wasn’t for Alice there’s no knowing how his second life would have turned out. Esme had gotten through everyone else’s story and was now finishing up with her own. Esme and the cliff, I liked to call it. When we heard the cars coming up the road, she quickly wrapped it up so I could run downstairs to wait for my family. It was my daily routine to go down and wait for them. I usually tried to get down to the garage in time to open the doors for them, but some days they were quicker than I was. This was my favorite part of the day, when I got to see my family after being away from them for seven hours. The time didn’t seem as bad to them, but when you never sleep, time passes more quickly. Jacob understood how I felt though. It was nice to at least have him around so we could do human things together. Out of the whole family we were the only ones that ate and slept after all. It was just refreshing to be able to share that human part of me with someone. There were other reasons I 4

liked having Jake around though. I wasn’t sure why he had become part of the family but he was great and I loved having him around. When we had all moved to this new town Jake had come to live with us too, and although Rose still gave him a hard time, he was part of the family now. We never went anywhere without him, and he never went anywhere without me. And since I never went anywhere without the rest of my family, he was always with us. I hoped that there was meaning behind this, him never wanting to be away from me, but I couldn’t be sure. I knew how I felt, but only Jasper and Dad would know his true feelings. I made it to the garage in time to open the door for them today. Dad’s Volvo and Rose’s Convertible pulled into the garage with amazing grace. They had probably been going a hundred miles an hour, but they always stopped in time. Our heightened senses made tasks like these very easy. I figured for a normal, human person it would be near impossible. Before I knew it, there were seven other people in the garage with me. Jacob was the last one to join us. I ran over to the Volvo and hugged Mom, Dad, and Jacob; my daily routine. Dad had a smirk on his face that I didn’t understand; it looked like he thought something was funny. And Mom, well she looked smug. I figured that was because of my welcome that extended to Jacob now. Mom always seemed pleased by any progression in our relationship. I was pleased too. I turned back to the Convertible then and greeted the rest of my family. “How was school?” I asked, to no one in particular. “The usual,” Jasper answered with his arm slug around Alice as they both began walking towards the door that led into the house together. “Yeah, the usual. You know, sitting in classes you’ve already had and throwing games in gym.” Emmett said. “So, I didn’t miss anything?” I asked hoping to spark conversation, or to get a good story. Maybe I could even figure out what dad was still smirking about. I saw Dad glance at Jacob, chuckle once, then look away. That’s what I had been waiting for. “Tell me,” I said instantly. “Tell you what?” Jasper asked confused, stopping both himself and Alice by the door. “Not you,” I said to Uncle Jazz. “You.” I pointed at Jake. “What are you talking about?” Jake asked innocently, trying to sound confused. Did he really not know what I was talking about? I thought about it for a second, no, he knew what I meant. “Fine. Don’t tell me.” I snapped at Jacob. I hated being left out of anything, no matter how trivial. I didn’t like feeling left out. It was bad enough that I couldn’t go to school with them. It was only fair that I could at least know about anything I was missing. “Dad?” I asked, turning away from Jacob to face him. From the look on his face, he was playing the innocent card too. He looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. Dad couldn’t play dumb. He could read minds. It was impossible for him to not know what was going on. He still tried though. He was a good liar. “Oh, come on. I am half vampire. I saw the look you gave Jake. What happened? Tell me. Please.” He looked at Jake again, and it seemed that Jake said something to him. He was probably telling him that it was okay for him to tell me. They communicated silently like this a lot. It was very irritating for everyone involved. “It seems that Jake is a bit of a ladies’ man,” he snickered. I raised my eyebrow trying to understand what he meant. I looked at Jake then. I was trying not to laugh, but I knew I already had a grin on my face. “What is he talking about?” I managed to get out. Jacob sighed. “I got asked out by this girl today,” he explained. It seemed he didn’t want to talk 5

about it, but I was going to make him. “Oh, really?” I laughed. “And what’s this girl’s name?” I didn’t really care what the girl’s name was; I just liked teasing him. “I hope you let her down easy.” “He was an absolute gentleman,” Dad said. “It was quite funny though; I could barely keep from laughing.” Dad grinned. “The poor girl could barely talk,” Mom said. “She actually had the nerve to come up to him at lunch while he was sitting with the rest of us,” Emmett said sounding a little impressed. I could picture it now- a human girl walking up to a table full of vampires in an attempt to ask out a werewolf. The idea was absolutely hilarious. Dad chuckled at this thought too. “She was quite scared,” Jasper said, smiling. He would know how she felt, after all. “Completely terrified,” Emmett agreed, chuckling. “Don’t be mean,” Alice said. She sounded a little upset by the fact that they were poking fun at this girl. “That was a very hard thing to do. You have no idea how long it took her to build up the confidence to ask him. She’d been debating the idea for the past two weeks,” she said sticking up for the girl. Everyone looked at her now. “Didn’t you think to give me a heads up?” Jake asked. “I did, but I saw that it would be more entertaining if I didn’t.” Alice smiled. Everyone started laughing then; I even heard Esme chuckle from inside the house. “Alright, alright. Enough humor at my expense. Can we please move on to a new topic of conversation?” Jake begged. Did he really think he would get off that easily? “Sure, sure.” I said, mimicking Jacob’s usual response; setting off the laughter again. Jake rolled his eyes and started walking towards the door where Jasper and Alice were still standing. I followed him, matching his pace easily. I wasn’t quite done picking on him yet. This one was too good to just let go. “So, was this girl pretty?” I teased. I was a little curious though. I heard Dad let out an angry sigh behind us. “Not as pretty as you,” he answered, sounding very sincere. I hated it when he did that; I couldn’t keep picking on him when he was complimenting me. I blushed and leaned my weight against his side. “Are you done badgering me now?” he asked, already knowing the answer. I pretended to think about it for a moment. Jake glared at me, and I chuckled. “Kidding,” I reassured him. “And yes, you’re off the hook.” “Thanks.” I could hear Emmett coming up from behind us, each of my family having their own individual sound to their walk; everyone did. I looked back over my shoulder to see him standing with us. “Just because she let you off the hook doesn’t mean I have. You’re going to be hearing about this for weeks,” Emmett said, throwing his arm around Jake’s shoulder. “Possibly months,” he corrected after thinking about it for a moment. “You’d better be ready; it’s going to get rough.” Jake mourned. “See what you did?” he said to me. “This is not my fault,” I disagreed. “You started it,” he playfully contradicted. Alice was suddenly at my side. “She’s right,” she chimed in. “He would have done it one way or the other,” she said, putting an end to our playful bickering. I stuck my tongue out at him. 6

“Very mature,” Jake said to me chuckling.

7

2. SECRET It was later that night and I was in my room getting ready to go to sleep. Just as I was lying down I heard Mom and Dad talking. It was the fact that I could only actually hear Dad that caught my attention because the other half of the conversation was going on in Mom’s head. It wasn’t often that Mom would talk to Dad with her thoughts, her having to take down her shield and all. It wasn’t that she wasn’t capable. She had mastered her powers over the years, but it just usually wasn’t worth the effort when they could just talk out loud. So the fact that I couldn’t hear Mom could only mean one thing, she didn’t want me to hear her. I was trying to figure out what they were talking about with only one side of the conversation. It was harder than I had thought it would be. It was kind of like being in the room with someone talking on the phone. After awhile you could get a decent grip on what they were talking about, but you could never be one hundred percent sure. And, on top of that, they must have known I was awake because Dad’s half of the conversation was incredibly cryptic. It was all I had to go on though; and, whatever the topic of discussion was, he sounded a little reluctant about it. “What is it Bella? Is something wrong?” he asked, sounding concerned. … a pause as Mom responded with a thought. “Yes. But that wasn’t a question, was it?” Apparently whatever mom must have said she’d already known the answer. … “What are you talking about Bella?” I was wondering the same thing. “She’ll still be able to do everything she can do now, possibly more. Plus, she’ll finally be able to start living a normal life.” She? I couldn’t help but think they were talking about me. What other possible reason could they have for all the secrecy? … “What does that have to do with her? You’re not making any sense, love.” Tell me about it. 8

… “You can’t possibly be suggesting what I think you are?” Suggesting what?! I was beginning to get really annoyed. I had never actually tried to make sense out of a one-sided conversation before, but it was harder than I would have thought. … “Are you out of your mind, love? She’s just a child. You can’t be serious. You can’t honestly think that this is something she wants now, something she can decide on so young.” They had to be talking about me, right? They had to be. So what was I too young for? And what was with all the secrecy? Why didn’t they just come in and tell me what they were talking about? … “I don’t know, Bella. This all sounds a little crazy. Besides, what would we have them do if she did want this? Just have them go at it and hope for the best?” Have them go at it? What was going on?! … “I know, but don’t you think they’re a little young for all this?” They? Were they talking about me and Jake? … “That was different. You know it was.” What was different? I see like I missed an important transition in the conversation. … “Like I tried to. You know it was an accident. I was completely ignorant of the fact that it was even possible. Not even Alice could foresee that outcome.” Okay, now I’m lost. Were they even still talking about the same thing at all? … “I do most definitely agree, but I just can’t agree to this, love. It’s completely mad.” So Dad agreed with something Mom was saying, but not something else. That’s helpful… … “No, neither of them has given it any thought. They’re too young to be thinking about that. They’re not even together yet. Besides, do you really think he would still be standing if he had? I swear if he-” Now who was Dad threatening? Jacob? And what hadn’t either of us given any thought about? Apparently something that Dad didn’t want us thinking about. And what did he mean, not together yet? … “Sorry.” I’m guessing Mom hadn’t liked that too much. She was used to it though. Dad had a bit of a temper, he threatened people often. … “I guess I do agree when you put it that way, but I’m still not happy about it.” Mom was always good at convincing Dad that she was right. He usually wasn’t this reluctant about it though. In most cases he would just agree with her right away and they’d go on with whatever they were doing, but he was really kicking and screaming about this one. … “I have to ask, what brought this on? It seems like a bit of a strange time to bring it up. There must be some sort of reasoning behind it.” I figured he meant the discussion they were having. … “Alice.” Aunt Alice? Had she seen something? And if she had, why didn’t I know anything about it? Usually Alice was pretty verbal about any visions she had that she thought were, or would be, of any importance, but apparently she had had some sort of vision about something and I had managed not to hear a thing about it. … 9

“Well then, I guess we can’t waste any time.” Great. Whatever was going on it was going to happen soon. The sooner the better. Patience was one thing I didn’t have in common with my family. … “Tomorrow then?” … “One condition, love. You have to tell them.” … “Look, this is weird enough as it is. Plus, it was your idea. Don’t drag me down with you.” Whatever Mom wanted to talk to us about it made dad uncomfortable, I could tell. … “I’ll help as much as I can.” Mom always got her way. If Em had been here he probably would have told Dad that he was whipped; like he wouldn’t do anything for Rose. I always found it hypocritical when he picked on him about it. Mom and Rose felt the same way. They would always just look at each other and laugh. … “You don’t have to do it alone.” … “I’ll try, love. It’s just the thought of them-” … “She’s definitely the most mature and intelligent person I’ve ever had the honor of knowing in my long life.” … “I understand. Being human is something she should experience.” If they weren’t talking about me I could definitely relate to whoever they were talking about. … “As long as I don’t have to be happy about it, I’ll be behind you on this.” … “Can we go to bed now please?” Mom and Dad didn’t actually sleep, but they did other things. Uuuh, I just grossed myself out! It was true though. It wasn’t like it was a secret what they did at night. I wasn’t an idiot. … I was still trying to fill in Mom’s missing part of the discussion when I heard them walking down the hallway to their room. “Goodnight Ness,” Mom said as she walked past my door; with a grin on her face, I was sure. Okay, that was so not funny. Was she trying to drive me crazy? It was obvious that she knew that I had been listening. It was like she was playing some sort of cruel joke on me. I had collected though, that apparently whatever was going on, I would find out about it tomorrow. I decided not to think about it until then. There was no sense in stressing about something that would be resolved tomorrow, so I rolled over and closed my eyes as I slowly drifted off to sleep.

10

3. AWKWARD I woke the next morning from a dream I couldn’t understand. I was in a dark room, and I couldn’t see anything. I could hear something though. Someone talking. It was a familiar voice, a voice I heard often. It took me only a second to identify it as my father’s. He was talking, it seemed, to someone, but the only one I could hear talking was him. The conversation didn’t make any sense without the other half. I was trying to figure out what they were talking about. I began listening harder for the other voice, concentrating only on what I could hear. That’s when I began to hear a sound that was indescribable, but familiar. It was a loud tearing, ripping sound. A sound that I had heard before, but couldn’t remember where. Then I felt pain in my stomach. I instinctively reached down. When my hands reached my stomach it felt all bloated and bloody. I began to panic. There was so much blood. I cried out for help, but no one answered. My father’s voice was gone now; a distant memory. I still couldn’t see anything. I didn’t know what to do. I began to cry. No one was coming to help me in this place. I was all alone here. That’s when I woke up. Although I couldn’t make any sense of the last part of the dream, I did know what the other part had been about. I had been remembering the conversation I had heard between my parents the night before. I hadn’t had any epiphanies while I slept, so I still had no idea what the whole thing had been about. I planned to find out though, as soon as I could. So I hurried to get out of bed and get dressed. I knew that whatever they had been talking about doing they were going to do it today from the sounds of the conversation, and I also was pretty sure that I had been the one they had been talking about. Well, me and Jacob. The conversation had been so confusing though that I couldn’t be sure of anything. I knew one thing though; no matter what they had been talking about I was going to confront them about it and get some answers. Once I was dressed I took a deep breath and walked out of my bedroom and into the living room where both of my parents were waiting for me, along with Jacob. Jake looked really concerned 11

and nervous, like when you get called to the principal’s office and you can’t help but think you’re in trouble. I must have been right when I assumed they had been talking about Jake last night. What other reason would he have for being here so early? I usually just met him at the house for breakfast. “So………” I said awkwardly; dragging out the word. “What’s going on? Are you two going to tell us what you were talking about last night, or do I have to force it out of you?” Jake raised his eyebrow so high that it nearly hit his hair line as he looked at me for some sort of explanation. His face was a huge question mark clouded with confusion, so I showed him what I had heard of the conversation last night. It was easy for me to show people my memories; I’d been told that they were as clear as if they were the person’s own. Over the years I had been working on being able to do this without the need of physical contact. It wasn’t always reliable, but I had been getting better at it. I was successful this time, but it only made him more confused; I knew how he felt. “Yes, we are going to tell you,” Mom answered. I looked over at Dad and from the look on his face I assumed he was still a little reluctant about the whole situation; whatever the situation might be. It really was odd for Dad to be this reluctant to do something that Mom wanted him to do. I knew it must be something bad if he was this against it. “Sit,” she commanded, gesturing to the spot next to Jake on the couch. The way Mom was spouting commands was making me feel like a dog. This thought made me chuckle when I went to sit down next to Jake. Now, stay. Good girl. Dad chuckled. Mom glared at him. He shrugged his shoulders. “Our daughter has a good sense of humor,” he said matter-of-factly. Mom was about to respond but I interrupted her before she could get the chance; if they got into an argument it would farther delay me finding out what was going on. “Well, get on with it,” I urged. “This concerns the both of you,” she said, turning back to look at the both of us sitting on the couch. “That’s why Jake is here,” mom explained. “I figured that much,” I replied in a bit of a sour tone. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure last night, but seeing Jacob here had confirmed my suspicions. Thinking about last night made me remember something Dad had said. I looked over at him, “And I don’t appreciate you threatening him.” He looked down at me, “Sorry, love.” He gave me his little crooked grin that Mom loved so much, but it didn’t touch his eyes. It seemed that he would rather be anywhere but here having this conversation. “Old habits die hard,” he quoted. “What were you threatening me about now, Edward?” Jake joked. “I didn’t even know I did anything to deserve threatening.” “It was more of, if you had done something,” he clarified. “So I’m safe then?” He laughed. “Yeah,” Dad chuckled back. “For now.” He smirked. Then he glanced at Mom, raised his eyebrow, then looked back to Jake. “You two are getting off topic,” Mom said, sounding a bit annoyed. I couldn’t blame her. Although they were entertaining, I really wanted to know what was going on. “How can I get off topic if I don’t know what the topic is?” Jake asked. “Good point,” Mom agreed. “so let me explain.” “Go for it Bells. I’m all ears.” Jake told her. “Oh, I don’t think they’re that big.” I said, reaching up and grabbing one of his ears. 12

The three of us chuckled; mom didn’t. She looked like she was getting really annoyed. Ignoring my joke; mom took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and was just getting ready to speak when… “You have no idea how close you are,” Dad interjected. I was really confused. I looked over at him, and he was looking squarely at Jake. I glanced over at Jake and saw his face. Jake had gotten a frightened look on his face; I was a little worried to find out what he was thinking about. I looked back over at Mom and realized that I was breathing heavily. “You can’t be serious, Pops.” This had to be bad; Jake was trying to hide how uncomfortable he was by making jokes. “I’m afraid I am,” Dad confirmed. “Are we really going to talk about this?” Jake asked incredulously. “I mean, I haven’t even-” he cut himself off before finishing. I imagined that he probably finished the sentence in his thoughts though. “Sorry son, it was Bella’s idea.” So, Dad was uncomfortable too? What would make them both this uncomfortable? And whatever it was, neither of them wanted to talk about it with me. “Don’t make me out to be the bad guy,” Mom said, sounding annoyed again. “Sorry, love. I didn’t mean it that way. I agree that it is something we need to talk about,” he paused, “but it was still Bella’s idea,” he added chuckling. Mom growled at Dad. “Kidding, kidding. Calm down, love.” “Would someone please explain to me what everyone is talking about!” I snapped. Everyone froze and looked at me. I didn’t mean to scream at them but I was being pushed beyond my limit. I just wanted to know what was going on already! “Sorry, Ness. Jake and your father keep swaying off topic.” “Sorry,” they both said simultaneously. “Go on love, I’ll stop interrupting,” Dad added. Mom took a deep breath, and, finally, began with her explanation. “Ness, you’ve heard your Aunt Rose’s story before, right?” “Yeah.” I didn’t understand where she was going with this, but I assumed that I was going to find out. “Do you know why Rose wishes that she could be human again?” she asked. I was getting the feeling from her questions that Mom wanted me to figure out on my own what everyone was talking about and why we were all here. A guessing game of sorts. “Yeah,” I answered. Everyone in my family knew that Rose was upset about not being able to have children, but I didn’t understand what that had to do with me. “Mom I’m not sure I understa-” I broke off because a thought had popped into my head. Rose couldn’t have kids because her body didn’t change; the same way that mine would stop changing soon. My dream suddenly made sense. Oh, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. Mom couldn’t honestly be asking me if I wanted to get- pregnant. Mom saw the look on my face and knew I understood. It was probably a look of utter shock. “Ness, you have to give it some thought, before it’s too late. You won’t have the choice for much longer. Alice had a vision that leads her to believe that you’ll be done growing soon.” “Mom-” I didn’t know what to say. So, I changed the subject. “Where’s Uncle Jazz?” “Why?” she asked, sounding really confused. But Dad, he already knew what I meant so, he 13

chuckled. “‘Cause I need him to calm me down before I have a heart attack,” I explained. It might have been funny, but I was serious. My heart was racing and I felt like I would die from the awkwardness of the whole situation. “Ness, please be serious,” Mom said patiently. “I am being serious. You can’t just spring something like this on a person!” I told them. “I agree,” Dad said. “Whose side are you on?” Mom growled at him. “You’re asking me to take sides in an agreement between my wife and my daughter?” He shook his head. “If that’s the case, I side with the werewolf.” “Edward-” “You’ve told her,” he objected. “That’s what you wanted to do, so I say we’re done here.” Mom gave him an evil look, and he sighed. “Ness, do you promise to give it some thought?” he asked me with a sort of desperation that I knew meant, say yes so we can all leave. “Yes. I promise to give it some thought.” Before Dad even had the chance to be happy that I had answered right it seemed that Mom said something to him with a thought. Dad sighed again. “He already understands,” he said to her. “Yeah. Bit of a weird thing to talk to your kids about, don’t you think?” Jake said. While Dad was chuckling and nodding Mom said, “It was necessary.” “Sure, sure. Now, is this conversation over?” Jake asked hopefully. “Yes. You two are free to leave.” Dad said. He was as eager to get this over with as we were. “Let’s go get some breakfast,” Jake suggested. “Alright, I’ll meet you there.” He looked confused, so I explained. “I wasn’t kidding about the heart attack; I need to go get Jasper first.” They all laughed this time. “Alright, I’ll see you there,” Jake chuckled.

14

4. DAY OFF After I found Uncle Jazz and got a nice dose of a chill pill, I met up with Jake in the kitchen for breakfast. I didn’t even have to explain to Jasper what I had wanted. He could feel my mood before I even got into the house. He had seemed a little concerned about what could make me feel that way, but I said to him, “Trust me. You don’t want to know.” And he didn’t press the subject farther. I figured he could hear in my voice that this was something he could go without knowing, and was better off if he did. Today was Saturday, so Jake didn’t have to rush off to school like usual. When I got to the kitchen, Jake and a plate of food were waiting for me. “Feelin’ better?” Jake chuckled. “Yeah. Much better.” I sat down and started eating and Jake did the same. We were both nearly done eating now and neither of us had said a word since we had started, I figured it was just because we were eating; at least that’s why I hadn’t said anything. But then when I looked at Jake it looked like he was having an internal debate about something. “Is something wrong?” I asked him, somewhat worriedly. “Hmm?” He looked up from his plate. He must have been in deep thought because he honestly sounded like he hadn’t heard what I had said. “Is something wrong?” I repeated, raising my eyebrows. “No,” he answered. “Well, not exactly. I mean- I wouldn’t say wrong.” I had never heard Jake seem so… evasive. “You lost me,” I confessed. He sighed. “It’s about this morning.” “Oh, God,” I moaned. “Can we please just act like that didn’t happen?” I still didn’t even fully understand the whole situation myself; it was like Mom and Dad knew that Jake and I were going to 15

end up together when I didn’t even know it myself. I would think that Alice had seen something, but she can’t see mine and Jake’s futures so that couldn’t be it. I wanted to understand, but I also didn’t want to talk to Mom and Dad abut this. “Ness, I really think we should talk about it.” I sighed. “I know, we should.” He seemed surprised that I was agreeing with him so easily; I was usually the one to put up a fight. “But not now,” I added. I couldn’t think about this anymore today. I could already feel my anxiety coming back; where was Jazz when I needed him? I needed time to think about it on my own before I talked to anyone else about it; especially Jacob. I mean, we weren’t just talking about me getting pregnant. There was another topic that went along with it that was a little unavoidable; people just don’t get pregnant, so this meant we were also talking about my- virginity. Ugh! I just couldn’t think about this right now. The whole thing was just too- weird, invasive, awkward? I didn’t know the right word for it. This wasn’t a situation that normal people would find themselves in. Just then a wave of calm washed through me, a kind of calm that was unnatural in my current state. “Thanks, Jazz,” I said. I didn’t know where he was, but I knew he would hear me; if he was close enough to use his power on me, he was close enough to hear me. “No problem,” I heard him say from upstairs. Jake realized what was going on and said, “Okay. Not today.” he agreed. “So, what do you want to do today then?” “Hmm…….” I pondered. I really just wanted to get out of the house; get away from my family was more like it. “How ‘bout-” I pondered for another moment. “The beach?” I was referring to La Push Beach, of course. It was the only beach we ever went to. “The beach sounds good to me,” Jake agreed easily. “Do you mind if we visit Charlie while we’re there?” I knew he wouldn’t mind. Jake wasn’t the kind to mind about anything. He just went with the flow and laid back as he enjoyed the ride. “As long as you don’t mind if we visit Billy?” he joked. He knew that I wouldn’t mind either. We did this as often as we could, go back to our old home to visit our family; we knew the routine by now. Jasper was suddenly in the room with us. He was leaning against the kitchen doorway with his arms folded across his chest. “Are you sure you’ll be alright without me?” he asked. “I’ll manage,” I said with a nod. “You’re sure?” he asked again. “As long as the topic of this morning doesn’t come up again.” I confirmed, looking at Jake when I said this. “Promise,” he said. “I won’t bring it up until you’re ready to talk about it.” “Then I’ll be fine.” I said looking back at Jazz to answer his question. He raised his eyebrows, and I knew what he wanted. I sighed. “If you really want to know you can ask Bella or Edward,” I told him. Then I thought about it for a moment. “Actually, Alice would have probably seen this one,” I chuckled. “You can ask her.” He nodded his head, but before he could run off I stopped him. “Oh, and Jasper?” “Yes?” “Don’t tell anywhere where we’re going.” 16

He smiled. “Anyone being your mom and dad in particular?” “Yeah,” I answered with a smile. He ran off then, probably to find Alice. I turned back to Jake then, and his plate was empty. I laughed. “What?” he asked. “Do you ever not finish all of your food?” He laughed. “Nope. I always clean my plate. Us werewolves have an unquenchable appetite.” “I’ve noticed,” I laughed back. “So, are you ready to leave then?” “Sure, sure.” “Wanna race?” “What?” “Let’s run there.” “You’re serious?” “Why not?” “Are you sure you’re up for the run?” “Are you?” I countered. “What about Charlie? He’s going to wonder how we got there.” “Well……” I thought for a moment. “He knows you’re a werewolf. If he asks, we’ll tell him I rode you there.” I tried not to laugh, but failed. From the other room I heard Emmett crack a chuckle. “Very funny,” Jake said. Emmett was suddenly standing beside me. “I thought so,” he said still chuckling. “You must have gotten your sense of humor from me. That was a nice one, Ness.” “Thanks.” “You two better get going before your parents hear about your plan,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll cover for you.” “Thanks, Emmett,” I said. “No problem, kid. Now, get out of here.” “You ready, Jake?” “Yeah, let’s get going.” We both stood up and started towards the front door. “Thanks again, Emmett!” I called back over my shoulder. “Where are they going?” I heard Rose ask him. “Just hunting, nothing special,” he answered, not missing a beat. “Okay. So what-” Then she broke off because we were already at the end of the drive, so I couldn’t hear her anymore. “On your mark,” Jake said. “Get set,” I added. “Go!” We both shouted in synchronization. Just then he leaped into the air and phased. “Cheater!” I shouted to him. I heard him make a sound that sounded like laughter as his paws hit the ground and he began to run. A few hours later we were in Forks. Our race had fizzled out about half way there because we would rather run together, so we just called it a tie. 17

We went to visit Charlie, then Billy. Charlie had suggested coming with us when we told him that we were going to Billy’s. When we went outside I could tell he was about to ask where the car was, but I guess he decided he didn’t really want to know. He was still big on knowing as little as possible, so we rode there in the cruiser. Jake was in the back. I could barely keep from laughing. I think I recalled Mom telling me a story similar to this with Dad in the back seat. We had hung around Billy’s for a few hours just catching up. We were now saying our goodbyes. We weren’t going home yet, but we figured we would say them now. When Charlie opened the door for us his curiosity got the best of him. “How are you two getting home?” he asked. I didn’t know how to answer him. I looked up at Jake hoping that he had a good answer, but he was looking down at me hoping that I had an answer. Luckily, we were both saved by Billy. “The same way they got here.” I breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and looked up at Billy smiling. He was grinning back at me. Charlie stood there for a moment; he looked like he was having an internal debate. Then he opened his mouth and asked, “And how exactly did you two get here? I really want to know. This, knowing as little as possible gets annoying sometimes.” “You really want to know?” I asked. He nodded. I looked up at Jake. He shrugged and nodded, and I figured why not? It didn’t really give much away. “We ran here,” I answered. “You ran here?” He raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “Yup. We ran here.” Jake confirmed. He nodded slowly, thinking this over. I was a little worried by what he would say or ask next. We all waited for a response. “Okay.” “Okay?” “Well, dogs are known for being able to run long distances. And for you running here,” he pointed at me, “I don’t want to know.” All three of us were smiling at him. I reached up to pat Jake on the arm. “That they are,” I said grinning. “Well, you two should get going.” Billy said. “Sure, sure.” We started towards the beach then; waving and shouting goodbyes over our shoulders.

18

5. DECLARING OURSELVES Jacob and I were walking down the beach together, holding hands. The whole situation was a little awkward. It seemed that Jake liked me, but I couldn’t be sure. I had hoped, but we had never told each other how we felt. Although I knew how I felt I could only guess when it came to him. “This is nice, being alone for a change,” Jake said to break the silence. “You can’t blame them for being a little overprotective; they’re my parents after all.” “Sure, sure. It’s just frustrating sometimes. I try to give you a hug and Edward looks at me like he’s going to kill me.” “I know what you mean.” “Nessie, there’s something that I’ve been wanting to tell you for a really long time. Can we sit?” “Sure Jake, what’s up?” We sat down on an old rotted tree across from each other. We sat there in silence for a long time just looking into each other’s eyes. I started to get butterflies in my stomach, and then he finally spoke. “You know how I told you about imprinting?” he started. I was a little confused by his question, but he seemed very intense all of the sudden. This sudden intensity surprised me. I didn’t understand why he was asking me this, but I figured if I answered him I would find out. “Yeah. Like Sam and Emily, Claire and Embry. Right?” “Yeah. They’re imprinted. Do you remember me telling you about it?” “Yeah. I remember. You said it’s like finding your soul mate.” “That’s right.” I decided to just ask him what was going on. No eluding the subject. Just be blunt. You can do this. I couldn’t help but stop myself though, why did I have the feeling this was a really serious conversation and I just didn’t know about it? “Jake, what’s going on?” I finally asked. 19

“I- we’re… I don’t know how to tell you this.” He seemed very frustrated. “It’s okay, Jake. You can tell me anything, you know that.” “I’m not sure how you’ll feel about it,” he explained. I gave him a look so he would know that I wanted to know anyway. He looked away from me as he took a few deep breaths before saying, “I imprinted-” “Oh.” I was surprised by how disappointed I sounded. And I was a little embarrassed that Jake had heard the disappointment. He was quick to fix the misunderstanding. “With you. I imprinted with you.” A wave of relief washed over me. This explained so much. “When?” I asked him. “The first moment I saw you.” “We’ve been imprinted since I was born?” “Yeah. You almost found out. When Bella woke up from the change and found out what had happened she was a little… angry, but after she tried to kill me she cooled down and got used to the idea. I don’t think you remember it because you were only three days old. I told everyone that I wanted to tell you when I was ready. I’m surprised we kept it from you for so long. ” Tried to kill him?! I need to have a talk with Mom. “Me, too.” I grinned. Keeping secrets in our house wasn’t exactly easy, but I suppose if Alice and Edward are in on the secret it’s a bit easier. I’m surprised Emmett hadn’t told me though. He’s not exactly good at keeping secrets, but I had a feeling that this was much bigger than keeping a secret. Imprinting was a very big deal; it couldn’t be taken lightly. Jake reaching up to put his hand on my cheek broke me out of my mind babble. I looked up to look him in the eyes. “You mean the world to me, Renesmee.” I was surprised by the sudden intimacy I felt between us. This definitely wasn’t the conversation I had been expecting; not that I was in a hurry to talk about, well, babies. Or, I guess in our case, puppies. I was hoping this moment would be coming though, sooner or later. Declaring ourselves. I already knew how I felt, and it seemed clear how Jake felt, but there was still the matter of speaking the words. “I know, Jacob.” That’s what imprinting meant after all. “You mean the world to me too,” I reached, unthinkably, up and grabbed my locket. “More than my own life,” I added, and realized, only after speaking the words, how true they were. “So, you- you want this?” He gestured to himself then to me with the hand he had had on my cheek. He sounded so surprised. Did he honestly not know how I felt? I wasn’t sure how to answer, so I bit my lip and nodded. “You’re sure you want this?” he asked again; after all these years of waiting I guess he wanted to be sure about what I wanted. I also had a feeling in the back of my mind that this probably went along with some sort of agreement he had with Edward. “I want you,” I told him. “Always.” I heard Jake’s breath catch and I realized that I was holding mine. “I- I love you, Nessie.” I felt like I was about to cry. “I love you too, Jake.” We stared into each other’s eyes for a long, silent moment. It was so great to finally say it. We were both grinning; me through my tears that had fallen. There was one more thing I wanted to do though. I wasn’t exactly sure how to ask though. ‘Can I have a kiss?’ just didn’t seem right, so I 20

decided to use my gift instead. That way, I wouldn’t actually have to say anything. I showed Jake the picture in my mind of us kissing, and his grin vanished. “Are you sure?” “Yes, I’m sure.” I had been waiting for this moment longer than Jake would ever know. My heart started pounding; so did Jake’s. We both reached up with our right hands, caressing the other’s cheek. We leaned in slowly, closing our eyes. Then our lips met. I felt like every nerve in my body was being electrocuted. I was suddenly completely aware of his hand on my cheek and his other hand that he had rested on my waist; pulling me closer. I reached up with my left hand and put it on his other cheek; holding him there. He was kissing me very gently, but with the way I was feeling I didn’t want gentle. He tried to pull away then, but I pulled him closer; not letting him leave. I reached up and twined my fingers in his hair. He seemed to hesitate; not wanting to take it too far. I felt like he was afraid to take advantage of me. I knew this, but I didn’t care. This is what I want. You can’t take advantage of me if it’s what I want. I used my power to beam this thought into his head as best I could; I was having a bit of trouble focusing on anything, so I wasn’t sure if he had gotten the message. I just wanted him to stay here, with me, forever. I scooted closer to him, and his hand on my waist tightened and he pulled me even closer. He put more passion into the kiss now, and so did I. I never wanted this moment to end. The kiss started to get a bit out of control, but I didn’t want to stop, and I didn’t think that I could stop. The hands that I had had on his checks were now under his shirt feeling his toned torso. My shirt had ridden up a bit and the hand that Jake had on my waist was now touching more skin than fabric. It was when I made a move to try to take his shirt off that he pulled away. I was reluctant, but I let him this time. We were both gasping for breath from the kiss. “Wow,” we both managed to murmur in unison. I showed Jacob the picture again. “We should be getting back to the house,” was his answer to it. “Just once more. Please.” He was shaking his head. “You know, we can do that at the house. Don’t think I’ll shy away from kissing you in front of your parents. They’ve both known this was probably coming for the past seven years now. I think they can handle it.” I raised my eyebrow and showed him our kiss again. “Well, okay, maybe not like that. We don’t want them to have heart attacks. Well, actually, I guess that wouldn’t be a problem…” He thought for a moment, “We don’t want Edward killing me,” he corrected, grinning. “No, we definitely don’t want that,” I played along. “We’ll keep it strictly PG.” I chuckled. We were both grinning at my joke. Jacob stood up then, “Shall we?” he said, extending his hand to me. I reached out and grabbed his hand, and he helped me up; not that I really needed the help. It was the gesture that mattered. We started our run back to the house then, hand in hand all the way.

21

6. LIFE CHANGING DECISION It didn’t take us as long to get back home as it had to get to Forks because I knew Mom and Dad would be wondering where we were and that was enough to light a fire under the both of us. When we walked into the house Emmett was watching sports on TV, his usual pastime. If it wasn’t for him I don’t think the TV would ever be watched. He winked at me letting me know that our cover hadn’t been blown. Then he looked at our interlocked fingers and raised his eyebrows. “It’s about time!” Dad was saying as he came into the living room. Great. I knew we wouldn’t be able to keep our thoughts quiet. “It took you long enough,” he said, hitting Jake on the shoulder. Wait, what? “Can you blame me? It’s not exactly an easy thing to do.” Jake said back to him. “I’m just happy for you,” he said. Then he leaned towards Jake and whispered in his ear, “If I were you I would get out of here before Alice gets a hold of you. You know how she is.” “Oh, please. Give me some credit. I do see the future after all.” Alice was saying as she came down the steps. She skipped over and threw a hug on me, one that I hesitantly returned. I was very confused about what was going on right now. “I’m so happy for you!” she squealed. “I’m sorry,” I said, finally tired of being lost and confused about what was going on. “What?” I asked her. “You can’t expect to keep secrets in this house,” she explained. “I might not have been able to see your trip, but I did see your father planning your escape.” She gave dad a sideward glance. “Wait,” I said, wavering my arms in front of me. “You know? And you’re- happy?” I asked. “Well, I’m not too thrilled about-” Dad had started, but mom was suddenly there and had 22

smacked him on the arm. “What? The kid’s making out with my daughter. You expect me to be okay with that?” “You better keep your hands where I can see them, boy,” Emmett said at Jake’s side. I hadn’t even noticed that he was there. Jake held up his hands in mock surrender. Mom gave Dad a look and he sighed in surrender. “Of course we’re happy for you,” he said with fake enthusiasm. Emmett made a whipping sound at Dad which he rolled his eyes at. “We are happy for you,” Mom clarified as she glared at Dad and Emmett. “It was only a matter of time. He only imprinted on you, like, seven years ago.” Emmett chimed in. “Welcome to the family,” Jasper said. I hadn’t even noticed him join us, but he was suddenly standing next to Alice. I realized then that Carlisle and Esme had joined us too. “Uh… thanks,” Jake said, sounding a little surprised. “Not the reaction you were expecting?” Dad asked. “Not exactly,” Jake confessed. “So, the dog’s here to stay?” Rose asked. She had joined the rest of us in the living room now too. “You knew he wasn’t going anywhere,” Emmett said. “I was hoping the girl would come to her senses.” “Well, while I’m being senseless…” I said, narrowing my eyes into slits. “That’s not what I meant. I’m happy for you, I am. It’s just-” “Just what?” I interrupted. “It’s just that we’ll never get the smell out now.” Everyone started laughing then. “Thanks Blondie. It’s nice to feel welcome.” “You know you are always welcome here,” Esme said in her loving tone. “Yes, it is very nice to have a new addition to the family,” Carlisle added. “Thanks, Doc.” “Are we done with the welcomes now?” I asked. “This is getting a little weird.” “Yes. We are done now, but the party is just beginning.” Alice answered. “Party? What party?” I asked. “We have to celebrate!” Alice chimed like it was an obvious fact that should have occurred to me. “Do we now?” I asked in a joking tone. “Of course! This kind of thing doesn’t happen everyday. Besides, I’ve gotten you a gift.” “You did?” “Well, no. It was a bit of a short notice. It hasn’t arrived yet.” “What did you get us?” “Well, it’s more of a gift for Jake.” “Really? You got me a present?” Jake asked. “Yes. It should be here soon.” Her eyes went blank for a second. “It will be here tomorrow,” she clarified. “Thanks, Alice. I’m sure I’ll love it.” She looked at Edward unsure. “He’ll like it,” he assured her. “I don’t like not knowing these things for sure. It bothers me.” 23

“What’s it like to be like the rest of us?” Emmett joked. “I don’t like it,” she said. She sounded truly upset. Only Alice would get upset about not knowing if someone would like a gift. I was beginning to get curious. What had she gotten him? What would he want? “Besides for you… there are a few things,” Dad said, answering my unspoken thought. I couldn’t help but blush. I saw Jasper smile and I blushed even more. I looked next to him where Alice was standing and asked her, “Can we wait until his gift comes to celebrate?” “Why wait?” she asked. Alice loved any reason to throw a part, and telling her she couldn’t could possible send her into a frenzy. “I’m a bit tired. I had a very long day.” I looked up at Jake, and he looked down at me. We were both smiling at one another. I reached up on my tiptoes and pecked him on the lips. “Goodnight,” I told him. I couldn’t help grinning at his reaction to the kiss. He looked completely shocked. If he honestly thought that I was not going to kiss him on a daily basis, he was sadly mistaken. “Uh…” he drew out at he tried to gather his thoughts. “Do you want me to come with you?” Jake asked. “I’ll, uh, walk you home.” He chuckled. “Sure. I needed to talk to you anyway.” I answered nonchalantly. “Alright. Um, see you guys later.” He looked over to the rest of my family when he said this. Dad raised his eyebrow when I looked at him. Might as well get it over with. Besides, I’m sure this is what I want. He nodded his head. I saw mom give him a sideward glance. She would ask him what it was about once we left. “Goodnight, everyone.” I grabbed Jake’s hand then and started running to the cottage. Esme had taken it upon herself to build a cottage after we moved. It was an exact replica of the one she had fixed up for Mom and Dad back in Forks. It reminded me of home. The cottage was just far enough away from the house that my family wouldn’t be able to hear us. We reached the house within minutes. We went inside and I sat down. Jake mimicked me. “So what do you want to talk about?” he asked curiously, although he probably already knew. I sighed. “I want to talk about this morning.” “You’re sure you want to talk about it now?” “Yes. I want to get this over with.” “Ness, don’t you think you should give it more thought before you make up your mind?” “I’ve already made up my mind.” Just like my mom, when I made up my mind that was the end of it. “Okay,” Jake said. “Let’s hear it.” “Jake-” I started. I looked down at my hands, twining my fingers together. I was searching for the right words, then I realized there really wasn’t any. I didn’t look back up at him when I spoke. “I don’t want kids.” I took a deep breath and looked up at him now to see his reaction. He looked disappointed. “Unless, you want to?” If Jake wanted to have kids I wouldn’t take that away from him. “Are you sure about this Ness? Is this really what you want? I don’t want you to regret this decision later.” 24

“I’m sure.” He exhaled, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but I don’t want to have kids either. Unless, of course, you would have wanted to.” “I’m glad we agree on what we want. That makes this much easier.” “Yes. I was a bit worried. I didn’t know if you would or not.” “I don’t need kids to be happy Jacob, I have you.” I reached up with my hand and put it on his cheek. I was staring into his eyes, a big smile on my face. “But what about later?” he asked. “Five years from now? Fifty years from now? What if you change your mind?” “We can get a dog,” I joked. “Very funny.” “Jake, I won’t change my mind. This is what I want. I’m sure of it.” “In that case, should we inform everyone of the news?” “They already know.” He raised his eyebrow, not understanding what I meant. “Dad heard what I was thinking before we left. Mom saw him nod to me. I’m sure she’s already asked him what it was about. They already know.” “Well, in that case, you should get to bed. We’ve got a party to attend tomorrow.” He smiled. “You should get to bed, too,” I accused. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow morning then.” “You know, my bed is big enough for two, if you’d like to stay.” I raised my eyebrow and waited for his answer. He laughed at first, but when he saw my expression he stopped. “You’re serious?” he asked me in disbelief. “Yes.” “Ness, I don’t think that’s a good idea.” I puckered out my lower lip. “Why not?” He didn’t say anything. “See, you don’t have a good reason.” I grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the hallway. “Come on.” “Ness,” I stopped and looked at him. “Do you really not want to stay?” I tried to hide the disappointment in my voice, but failed. My voice had betrayed me and broke. “No, no. I do. Don’t be upset.” “Then what’s the problem?” “I guess there isn’t one.” “Then come on. I’m exhausted.” I continued to my room, pulling him along with me. We walked into my room then. “I’m just going to change, I’ll be right back.” “Okay, take your time.” I left him standing in my room, and went into the bathroom to change. When I came back into my room he was standing in the same place I had left him. “Are you ready for bed?” “Yes.” I went over to the bed, and he followed me. We both laid down. He seemed a little hesitant at first, as if he was trying to decide if he should do something. The next thing I knew he slung his arm around me, cradling me into his chest. 25

I liked it here, in his arms. I felt very safe. “Goodnight, Jake.” “Night, Ness.” Within minutes I was asleep, dreaming wonderful dreams. In the morning when I woke Jake was still there. I reached up and grabbed his hand, which was still slung over me. “Jake, you awake?” “Yes, I’m awake.” “Do you want to get going? I’m sure Alice is waiting for us.” “Sure. I wonder if my gift has arrived.” He chuckled. “What do you think she got you?” “I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be over the top.” “Does she ever do anything that’s not over the top?” “Good point.” I rolled over so I was facing him, and planted a kiss on him before he had time to react. “Good morning.” I said to him smiling. “Morning,” he said back. He was smiling too. “I guess I should get changed.” “Okay, I’ll wait.” I got up and walked over into the bathroom. There I found a pile of clothes waiting for me. I picked them up to get a good look at them; they were some of Jake’s clothes. “Um, Jake? Can you come here for a minute?” “What is it?” I heard him asking as he came around the corner. “I think these are for you.” I turned around to face him, holding up his shirt. “Where’d these come from?” “I guess someone figured that you would need a change of clothes.” “Meaning?” “Meaning that someone, I figure Bella, left them here for you.” “Oh. Well, I guess I do need to change.” He looked down at himself. His clothes were wrinkled and had dirt marks on them. “Here ya go.” I extended my arms to him, handing him his clothes. “Thanks honey.” “What did you say?” He had never called me that before. I liked it. “Um… thanks, for the clothes.” He tried to cover up. I wasn’t letting him get away with it that easily. “Did you just call me honey?” I felt the crimson running into my cheeks. “Um, yeah. I guess I did. I’m sorry.” “Don’t apologize. I like it.” “Good to know.” He chuckled. “I’m going to go change.” “Okay. We should get going. I’m sure Alice is getting very annoyed.” “No problem, it won’t take me that long.” Jacob left and walked back into my room. I shut the door and quickly yanked off my clothes, and slid into my clean ones. I grabbed a brush off of the counter and yanked it through my hair quickly, smoothing it out. I looked at myself in the mirror to make sure I looked okay before opening the door. “You ready?” I called to him. “Yeah.” He walked out of my room in his now clean clothes. “Let’s go.” 26

I grabbed his hand and starting running for the house. It took us only minutes to get there. Alice was waiting for us on the doorstep. “Where have you two been?” “Sorry Alice, but some of us need to get some sleep.” “Yes, yes. I know. Now, come on! Jake’s present is here.” “Alright. Lead the way.” I told her. She started running towards the garage. We followed close behind. She stopped right outside of the doors. “Okay, close your eyes,” she commanded. “Alice,” I said. “Don’t be difficult.” Jake snickered and followed her directions, I did the same. I heard the door open then. “Okay. Open them………… now!” My eyes flew open and I saw it, Jake’s present. She had gotten him a car. It was black and was a Mustang from the looks of it. “No. You. Didn’t.” Jake said in disbelieve. “Oh, yes. I did.” Alice confirmed. “Oh Alice, this is amazing! I love it!” Jake exclaimed. “It’s a Mustang, right?” I asked unsurely. I knew a little bit about cars from Jake and Rose, but I was no expert. “It’s not just a Mustang,” Jake said enthusiastically. “It’s a Shelby GT500KR!” “Whatever that means,” I murmured. “Are you ready to celebrate now?” Alice asked hopefully. “Yes!” Jake sounded truly ready to celebrate. I just laughed and followed them both into the house.

27

7. RENÉE The last week of school had passed quickly. We had spent all of Saturday celebrating. And on Sunday we actually went hunting. Then the school week came. I thought that it would go very slow seeing as how it was their last week, but it was the complete opposite; it went by quite quickly. The whole week had been a blur, and before I knew it, the week was over. Carlisle figured by the start of the next school year that I would be done growing, but until then I was just supposed to enjoy my summer; school was finally over and that meant I got to spend my days with my Jacob. I had talked Mom into letting me and Jacob go and visit Ren for the summer. I hadn’t seen her for a very long time, and I missed her very much. I never called her grandma, or any variation of the word. It made her feel too old. So Ren was what I called her. Actually, the only one of my grandparents that I actually addressed as such was Charlie. It just didn’t seem right to call someone like Carlisle grandpa; not when he was an eternally twenty-three year old. It surprised me sometimes to think about how young Carlisle really was. He had lived so long that he just seemed ageless. It was only in his appearance that he fooled people into thinking otherwise. When you were around him enough though you hardly noticed how young he was. Esme was very young too. She was only twenty-six after all. The oldest of the family, but still young in her own right. She had such a motherly feel about her that I hardly saw her as being that young though either. Carlisle and Esme were definitely beyond their years, and if it wasn’t for them my family wouldn’t exist; Carlisle making us, and Esme keeping us together like she did. Ren was very different from Carlisle and Esme though. Ren was almost like a child even at her age. She loved life in a way that only a few people did, and she was so carefree that nothing could worry her. She truly reminded me of a child’s carefree feelings about life, being too innocent to worry 28

about anything. There weren’t many people that grew up and still maintained these traits, but Ren had somehow managed to never loss them. It was my favorite thing about her. I didn’t get to meet her for a little while. Mom had been hesitant at first to make any contact with Ren after her transformation and my birth. She was too afraid that, with Ren’s active imagination, she would figure out what we were. She had already come close to guessing; Mom didn’t want to take the chance of her guessing right. Mom had only lasted a year even with all of her resistance before making contact with Ren. It was partly because Ren had gotten really suspicious about Mom always being too busy to even talk on the phone, and mostly because she missed her mom more than she ever thought she would. I could still remember one of the conversations between Ren and Dad. “I’m sorry Renée, but she’s in class right now,” Dad told her. “Do I really have such bad timing, Edward? Every time I call she is either in class or busy doing something else.” “Perhaps it is just bad luck.” “Is something going on? Is Bella okay?” “Bella is fine.” That was the first truthful thing that Dad had said during the whole conversation. “Are you sure?” “I’m sure. She has never been happier. She is just struggling a bit with school. She has a lot of work and studying to do. She is very busy nowadays.” “Edward, you would tell me if something was wrong, right?” “Of course I would. She’s fine, really.” “Okay. Well, I guess I’ll call back later.” “It was nice talking to you again.” “Yeah.” “Goodbye Renée.” “Bye.” She had even sent emails, Bella, I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for the last week now. Is everything okay? Edward keeps telling me that you’re just busy, but I can’t help but think it’s something more than that. Please call me and let me know that I’m worrying about nothing. I miss you honey. Mom.

Isabella, Please talk to me. Just let me know you’re okay. If you don’t want to call or visit that’s okay. Just let me know that you‘re alright. I feel like you’re keeping something from me.

29

I really hope everything is okay. I love you, honey. Don’t forget that. Mom. Mom had felt really guilty for making Ren so worried. She hated it, but she thought it would be easier to just leave her out of her new life. She didn’t want Ren to be a part of this, but Mom couldn’t bare it anymore. It was truly tearing her up inside. I hated seeing her that way. I could tell it was bothering Dad too. When he had changed, his family had already been gone. He had never had to go through what Mom was going through. You could tell how bad she truly felt whenever we were around Jazz. Mom would actually get upset if he tried to make her feel better, saying that she deserved to feel this way for doing this to her mom. One day I couldn’t take it anymore. It all seemed silly to me anyway, so I figured I would just go for it. “Mom, maybe you should just tell her. The Volturi won’t find out. And if they do, we will protect her. I don’t like those rotten Volturi anyway. They’re bad people. Plus, we can beat them if it came to that.” I had stopped to rethink my thoughts for a moment. All this talk of war with the Volturi wasn’t pleasing Mom, but who could blame me? They had planned to kill me before they had ever even met me, and that had all just been a reason for them to kill my family. In Laymen’s terms, we weren’t exactly friends. Then it hit me. It seemed so obvious. I almost wanted to smack myself in the forehead for not thinking of it sooner. “Why don’t you just do like you did with Grandpa? Just tell her enough so we can see her. Let her draw her own conclusions, and when she does, tell her to keep them to herself. You can even shield her thoughts from Dad so he won’t know what she’s thinking.” That had been enough to get through to Mom. Sure, there were flaws in the plan, but it didn’t matter. Whatever happened happened. We would worry about any consequences later. I knew in a normal situation that Mom would have never gone for such a flawed plan, this wasn’t a normal situation though. I’m pretty sure that Mom had been at the point that she would have taken any sort of plan or reason as an excuse to see Ren again. Before Dad had ever even agreed to turn her Mom had known that this was something she was going to have to deal with; leaving her human life behind. She had thought that it was something she could do, but people always say that you never truly appreciate what you have until it’s gone and I guess that is what had happened to Mom; she hadn’t realized how much she truly did love her parents until after she couldn’t see them. I could imagine how she was feeling; I couldn’t imagine not being able to see my family whenever I wanted. It was something no one should have to do. So, even though the plan wasn’t perfect, it was going to have to do. Mom had started with an email, Mom, I’m sorry I haven’t been calling or writing you. I’ve been very busy, but you were right, that was only part of it. I have something very important to tell you, but I can’t do it in a letter. I’m coming to see you. We’re coming to see you. Not just Edward and I, someone else that you’ve never met, but should have a very long time ago. I’m sorry. We’ll be there by

30

the end of the week. And don’t be worried, everything is okay. I can’t wait to meet you! She’s very excited. You’ll love her. I promise. Jacob will be with us too. We’ll see you soon. I love you. We love you. Bella. I had talked Mom into letting me add in that one part. Who could blame me? I was excited about meeting my Grandma for the first time. “So, we’re going to see Renée?” Jacob had asked after glancing over Mom’s shoulder while she had still been writing the letter. “Yeah, we’re going to see Renée,” Mom answered. “Sweet! Do I get to phase in front of a human again?” He had sounded way too excited about that. “The look on their face is always hilarious.” Exactly how many humans had he phased in front of? “I haven’t decided how we are going to tell her,” Mom said simply. Jake looked disappointed by her answer so she said, “Yes, yes. Maybe you’ll get to phase in front of her.” “Yes!” … I worried about him sometimes. We had ended up on a plane that same day. By the next morning we were in town on our way to Ren’s house. “Oh, Bella! You look so beautiful!” She had scooped Mom up in a hug without even thinking about it. She leaned back away from her, looking over at Dad then back to Mom. “Does this have something to do with what you’re keeping from me?” Mom looked over at Dad, raised her eyebrow at him, then he laughed and nodded. Mom turned her head back so she was looking at Ren, took a deep breath, smiled, then said, “Jake has something he wants to show you.” “Yes!” Jake shouted. He even pumped his fist in the air. I just rolled my eyes at him along with Mom and Dad. Everything had ended up going good with Ren. She wasn’t even scared. She wasn’t even surprised! The fact that shape shifters existed barely fazed her at all. Mom and Dad had introduced me afterwards saying that I was Dad’s niece and that they had adopted me, but like Grandpa, I don’t think she believed them. When they were telling her this I was sitting with Jacob squishing his hand; if this didn’t work out we would never be able to see her again. Ren had looked at me for a very long moment, no doubt seeing her daughter in my face. Mom had a very pained expression on her face; she was just hoping that Ren would accept this explanation. She looked like she was about to question their story, but when Ren looked back at Mom and saw her face she immediately changed her tactics. She looked back at Jacob and I, smiled, and said “Aren’t you two the cutest couple.” I couldn’t help but laugh in relief; I was just so pleased that Ren seemed to understand. The fact that at the time Jake and I hadn’t been a couple didn’t even bother me, I was too relieved to care. Ren and I had gotten along quite well, and I couldn’t wait to go see her again. This was the first time I was getting a chance to go see her again. Plus, I was really excited to be going away with Jake. We were planning on spending most of the summer with Ren. We were allowed 31

to stay as long as we wanted, and we could leave whenever we wanted. The only rule was that we had to be back in time for school. A summer away from Mom and Dad… just me and Jacob. Well, Ren and Phil would be there too, but I didn’t think that Ren would be the type to worry. I was surprised that Mom and Dad were letting me go; they were the type to worry. Mom is a worrier, Dad is a protector. It’s just the way they are. The fact that they were letting us go on this trip was completely crazy. They barely let me cross the street alone, let alone get on a plane with my boyfriend (I like the sound of that.) and fly across the continent. Forget about being nearly indestructible, someone could kidnap me. This whole thing was strange, but I wasn’t complaining. I was going to be able to be alone with my boyfriend (Man, I love that word! Especially in reference to my Jacob.) for the first time since we’d made it official. Granted Jake and I had been alone on many occasions, but you never really feel alone with a mind reader in the house. Sometimes Mom would shield us to give us our privacy, but they’re a team, they’re in cahoots, there’s no way for us to know if she was really shielding us or not. It did help that Alice couldn’t see either of our futures, but with Mom and Dad tag teaming all the time we never really felt alone. A vacation was exactly what we needed.

32

8. SUMMER We left that night to catch our flight. We took Jake’s new Mustang, which he was really excited about. He hadn’t gotten much of a chance to drive it since he had gotten it. He and Rose had spent hours together in the garage fixing it up, even though it was in perfect condition. Apparently a car can always be better, and go faster. They had bonded a bit over their love for cars. They still cracked dog and blonde jokes on a daily basis, but their bickering had become more playful than cruel. We got to the airport just in time to catch our flight. We landed in Florida early the next morning. Jake and I figured that Ren and Phil would still be sleeping, so we stopped to get a bite at a little restaurant in the airport. Jacob was starving; no surprise there. I ate too because I figured hunting would be out of the question while we were here. We took our time eating. Jake ate three burgers and a large fry, not something that was out of the norm for him. I just had a salad and some tea. We were there for almost two hours just eating and talking. We didn’t really talk about anything in particular, we just talked. When we finally got asked to leave by the manager because we weren’t actually eating anymore, we went to the pickup to get a taxi. When Jake and I finally got to Ren’s house, it was around seven. It was still pretty early, but we were hoping that they would be up. When we pulled up in front of the house we could see people moving around inside. We paid the driver, got our things out of the trunk, and started up the walk. We both stopped when we got to the door. I was a little nervous about Ren seeing Jacob now that we were officially together. I looked over at him and he saw that I was nervous. “Don’t worry,” he said as he reached up to grab my hand. “Somehow I think she won’t be that surprised.” He leaned down and pecked me on the lips then moved his mouth to my ear. “And don’t forget, keep your thoughts to yourself. You don’t want to freak anyone out,” he chuckled. I showed him a picture of me shaving his head while he slept, then what he would look like as a bald wolf. “Very funny,” he said in a sarcastic tone. 33

“I thought so,” I chirped. He gave me a serious look. “Don’t worry. I am all over this. I’ve got complete control of it.” I assured him. “Okay. Just be careful. You know that if you get emotional sometimes you lose control of it.” he reminded me. “Sure, sure,” I mocked. “Don’t scare the humans. I got it.” I smiled. He rolled his eyes at me. “Would you like to do the honors or shall I?” he said as he gestured to the door. “We need to knock sooner or later.” “I’ll do it,” I answered. I reached up to knock, pulling my fist back, and just as I started to move it towards the door it swung open and there stood Ren. “I thought I heard someone out here.” She smiled at us then. “Your mother called and said you’d be on your way.” She reached out and pulled me into a hug, which I returned. After a few seconds she leaned back and acknowledged Jake. “Are you the hugging type?” she asked him in a joking tone. “Not usually,” he answered, “but for you Renée…” He shrugged, “I guess I can make an exception.” She reached up, just barely able to touch, and patted him on the cheek three times. “It’s good to know that you’ve kept your sense of humor over the years.” He grinned and she smiled back at him. “Come here,” she said as she extended her arms out for a hug. * * * The next morning I woke up pretty early. I figured everyone else would still be sleeping, and I didn’t have anything else to do until everyone woke up. I wasn’t used to being in a house where there wasn’t someone that was always up. I felt… alone. Even though I was in a house with three other people I felt alone. I had never gotten the chance to feel alone until this very moment. I felt so strange that my first reasoning was to wake someone up. I obviously realized that that wasn’t the best idea after only a second of reasoning, but what else could I do until someone else woke up? I’ll make some breakfast, I thought. The smell of food should wake up Jake, at the very least. I had to chuckle at that. I walked out of my room and into the hallway. As I came around the corner to the kitchen, I was surprised to find Ren standing by the sink. It seemed like she was thinking about something or maybe thinking about doing something. I purposefully stepped down so the floor would creek; "Humans like to be able to hear you coming," I remembered Dad telling me. Ren whirled around quickly to see who it was. “Oh, Ness. I didn’t know anyone else was up.” “It’s just me,” I answered casually. “I didn’t think anyone else was up either. I was just going to make some breakfast.” She hesitated for a second. She was thinking hard about if she wanted to say something or not. I decided to put her out of her misery. “What is it?” I asked her curiously. “What?” she said in surprise. I raised my eyebrows at her. “Oh, it’s nothing. It’s just… never mind.” “Did you want to ask me something?” I persisted, growing more eager to find out by the second. Her evasiveness was getting to me. 34

“Yes,” she confessed, “but I know I shouldn’t.” “Is it about me and Jacob?” I asked. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had some questions about that. “No. I’m very happy for you two.” She gave into her curiosity. “It’s about what you two were talking about on the porch yesterday.” I must have given her a strange look. “I eavesdropped for a bit before opening the door,” she confessed miserably. “I’m sorry.” “It’s okay. We don’t get much privacy at home, either. We’re kinda used to it.” I was trying to keep calm, but inside I was desperately trying to remember mine and Jacob’s conversation the previous day. Someone needs to knock… don’t be worried… no powers. Oh, no. We had been talking about my power. “Which part did you hear?” I asked, trying not to panic. “The end,” she answered. “It’s been driving me crazy. What we’re you two talking about? What do you have control of?” she burst out all at once. I opened my mouth but didn’t know what to say. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “I don’t blame you for being curious,” I finally said. “but I can’t tell you!” I hated having to feed her lie after lie. I hate this! I wish I could just tell you. “Ness, it’s okay,” she told me, and it was then that I realized that I had said the last part out loud. “It’s not!” I nearly cried. “I hate having to lie to you.” She sighed. “Come sit down,” she said, pulling out a chair from the table in the corner of the room. I walked over and sat down. She did the same. “This has something to do with what you guys are, right?” she asked, surprising me. I sputtered. I was dumbfounded. I had no idea what to say. “I haven’t quite figured it out, but I have a feeling that you guys don’t want me to.” I finally found my voice. “You knowing could put you in danger,” I answered. She nodded her head as if she had figured that much out. “You guys have some kind of powers, right?” I knew I shouldn’t have answered, but I nodded my head anyway. “Do you think you could show me?” she asked, sounding kind of excited. I must have looked reluctant because she added quickly, “I wouldn’t say anything to anybody, I promise.” I shook my head. “That’s the problem. You don’t have to say anything for Dad to find out,” I squinted my eyes angrily. “He can read minds,” I spat out. I knew I shouldn’t have told her, but I couldn’t stop myself. She just nodded her head again. “Can you?” she asked. “No,” I answered. I was already too far in, stopping now was pointless. “I do the opposite.” “The opposite?” She looked confused. “Dad can hear and see other people’s thoughts,” I began. “I can make other people hear and see my thoughts.” I explained. “Really?” she asked in utter amazement. I began thinking of La Push beach. I showed it to Ren. Her eyes went wide and she gasped. “See?” I asked. “Wow. It’s like I’m really there.” she said in a dreamy voice. 35

“Yeah,” I said, letting the thought fade away. It was nice to be able to share this with her. Mom was going to be so mad, but I didn’t care anymore. “What else do you want to know?” I asked her. “Are there things that all of you can do?” “Yes. We’re fast, strong… all of our senses are more heightened than a human’s,” I explained. “Fast? Like super speed?” I chuckled. “Yeah, you could say that,” I answered. “Here. Watch.” Moving as quickly as I could, I went to see if Phil and Jacob were still sleeping. I found out they were, then I ran back into the kitchen stopping on the opposite side of the room from where the table sat. Ren looked really confused. “Over here,” I said. She whirled around. “Oh, gosh!" she exclaimed in surprise. “Where did you go?” “I went to see if the boys were still sleeping. They are, by the way.” I smiled. “You were only gone for a few seconds,” she said, shocked that I was there and back again so quickly. Just as fast as I had before, I moved over to the table to sit down. “Yup.” “Oh, my,” she said whirling around to face me again. She looked back at the spot on the other side of the room where I had just been no more than a second before, then she looked back to me. “That must come in handy.” “It makes getting around a lot easier.” I laughed. She seemed to stop to think about something for a second. “Could you show me how Bella’s doing? Like you did before?” I smiled at her. “Sure,” I answered. I began to show her things from the last few weeks. I had gotten just as wrapped up in the memories as Ren had. A few minutes into it I heard a faint sound of someone walking. It took me a second to realize that it wasn’t from my memories, and that Ren obviously didn’t hear it. Just like I had said before, everyone has their own sound to their walk, and that is how I knew who it was. Jake. I gasped and immediately stopped. “What’s wrong?” she asked worriedly. “Jake’s coming.” As I said this, he came around the corner. “Hey, guys,” he greeted. “What are you two up to?” “Nothing,” we both said… a little too quickly. “If you two aren’t up to something…” he said in a slightly mocking, slightly accusing tone. We both looked at each other, grinning. Then we both began to laugh. * * * “Bella is going to kill you!” Jake exclaimed. It had been three weeks since I had had that conversation with Ren in the kitchen. We had been sneaking around and ending conversations every time people came near since. Jacob had become very suspicious. I was finally coming clean to him. We were in the guest bedroom sitting on the bed facing each other. Ren and Phil had already gone to sleep. “I know,” I admitted guiltily, biting my lip. “What were you thinking?” Jake asked a little too loudly. “Look, can you please not yell at me? I’ve already got a headache as it is. Besides, Ren and Phil are sleeping.” 36

He suddenly looked concerned. “You do? Are you alright?” “Yeah," I waved my hand dismissively. "I’m fine. I just don’t like going without blood for this long.” It was true that I could survive on human food, I just didn’t like it very much. I figured that I would always prefer blood. I rubbed my temples and looked up at him through my fingers. He looked deep in thought. “What’s on your mind?” He hesitated before answering. “You know,” he started, “you could always... well, you know.” He fumbled for words. I furrowed my eyebrows. “I don’t believe I’m following you on this one,” I told him. He looked uncomfortably now. I just continued looking at him. “Well… you could always…” “I could always what? Go find myself an alligator?” I joked. “No.” “Are there woods near by?” “No.” “What then?” I asked. “Bite me,” he finally finished. I suddenly had an overwhelming urge to reach over and do exactly that. “Don’t be ridiculous,” I said immediately, but I couldn’t help but catch sight of the artery in his neck as I looked away from him. “You used to all the time when you were little,” he reminded me. “It doesn’t hurt me. And besides that, I heal quickly. Werewolf, remember?” “I know, but it was different then. I was little, I didn’t know any better.” I felt like I was trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince Jake that this was a bad idea. Would it really be so wrong to bite him? I wasn’t venomous like the rest of my family, and Jake could heal very fast. “Nessie, it’s okay.” he said reassuringly. He reached up and stroked my hair. “I know you want to.” I felt like I could hear his pulse pounding in my ears now like a persistent drum. “Jake,” I pleaded. “It’s okay,” he hushed. The hand he had been stroking my hair with began to pull me closer to him. I realized that he was pulling me towards his neck. “It’s okay,” he repeated. I woke up the next morning feeling a million times better. Jake was lying next to me on the bed still snoring. I rolled over to look at him. The mark on his neck was completely gone. I reached up in disbelief. The skin there was smooth, no evidence left of what had happened. I didn’t realize how stupid it was for me to be lying there poking around at his neck until he started groaning. I pulled my hand away, but it was already too late. His eyes began fluttering then he was looking right at me. “What are you doing?” He didn’t sound annoyed, but genuinely curious. “The mark’s gone,” I replied dumbly. He smiled at me. “So, you felt the need to poke around at my neck? Makes perfect sense.” “Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you up.” I told him. 37

“You were poking me in the neck, but you didn’t mean to wake me up?” He chuckled. I reached over with the same hand that I had been poking around at his neck with and rested it on his cheek. “Oh, shut up.” I leaned forward and kissed him. Then I kissed him again. And again… He pulled back only slightly so he could catch his breath; I took advantage of it by doing the same. “So I’m guessing that you’re feeling better?” he asked a little breathlessly. I could feel his warm breath on my face as he spoke and I closed my eyes. I thought about not having to lie to Ren anymore, about being able to share my secrets with her, about having someone to talk to who wasn’t undead or didn’t morph into a giant dog- about this new connection I had with Jacob… “I’m feeling much better,” I answered. And after saying it, I realized how true it really was.

38

9. SOMETHING’S WRONG Jacob and I laid in bed until we heard Renée get up and go into the kitchen. She seemed to be a morning person which I had been grateful for since my arrival. That first day I had been worried about too much alone time, but we both always seemed to wake up around the same time and with the boys sleeping in it gave us some time to talk alone. Now that Jake knew that she knew we at least had one less person to have to hide it from anymore. Phil was still a problem though, and I had no intentions of him ever finding out the truth. Since I knew now that Ren’s morning routine was to get up and make breakfast, I asked Jake the most logical question that would follow. “Hungry?” I chuckled at my own question. “Like I have to ask.” He smiled. “Of course! Let’s go get some food.” he answered. He slid out of the bed and held out his hand to me. I took it immediately. He helped me up and we walked down the hall to the kitchen like this; hand in hand. When we came around the corner to the kitchen I saw Renée looking our way. I smiled at her like I normally would the first time I saw her in the morning, but the smile didn’t stay as long as I would usually keep it, and this wasn’t because I didn’t want it to. It slid away in the moment that three things happened simultaneously: I became very dizzy, I stumbled, and Jake grabbed my waist to steady me. “Are you alright?” he asked in a voice sounding more confused than worried. “What happened?” That was Renée. “Nothing. I just felt a little disoriented there for a second.” I blinked my eyes rapidly as I straightened myself up. I was trying to see where the feeling had come from as I began pinching the space between my eyes. It seemed that as quick as it had come, it had gone; only lasting a second. I felt fine again. 39

“I’m fine. Really.” I reassured them. Jacob just continued to stand there staring at me like he was waiting for it to happen again. After what seemed like forever, Renée finally broke the silence. “Why don’t you kids have a seat? Breakfast is ready.” Jacob moved to the table hesitantly, not letting go of me until I was sitting down. Through out all of breakfast Jacob was looking at me over his plate. It was as if he expected me to faint and fall out of my chair or pass out and land in my food. Every time that I would look over at him he would look down at his plate. Did he really think I didn’t see him staring at me? He worries too much, I thought to myself. Yeah, the whole thing was weird, but I felt fine now. Jacob didn’t seem convinced of this though. “Well, I’m done.” It had been completely silent the whole meal, so when Jake spoke I actually jumped. “Ness, you done? I want to talk to you.” I looked down at my plate and realized that I hadn’t eaten anything. “Yeah,” I answered anyway. I looked over to Renée. “I’m not very hungry. Just save my plate and you can give to Phil.” She looked a little worried too. “Okay.” She tried to smile but it looked a little forced. Jacob was hovering behind me. He probably wanted to be close if I lost my balance again. I’m fine! I thought. When I stood up he placed his hand on my back and led me back down the hall to the guest room. “Sit,” he commanded, gesturing to the bed. “Jake. I’m fine. Really.” I said, but I sat down anyway. “Ness, what was that about? Is something wrong?” “Jake, I’m fine really,” I repeated again. “I just felt-” I tried to find the right word. “Weird,” yes, ‘weird’ seemed to be appropriate, “for a second.” “What do you mean? Are you sick? Do you feel okay?” He was sounding extremely worried for my well-being. He had completely misunderstood what I had meant. I had to reassure him quickly before he had a panic attack. It seemed like a silly thing to get so worried about; people got sick all the time. Yes, people got sick, but I wasn’t like other people. I had never been sick. In my seven years of life I hade never had a single sniffle; perfectly healthy. “No, no. Jake, I’m fine. I’m not sick. That’s not what I meant. I’m sorry that I misled you. I just mean that I felt-” I searched for another word to describe how I felt. “Strange, just different. I’m not sure.” “Do you think it was the blood? Could werewolf blood do that to you?” He was sounding completely ashamed in himself. “I used to bite you all the time, remember? When I was little.” “Yes, you used to bite me. You never actually drank any of my blood.” “Jacob, don’t be ridiculous. This isn’t your fault.” I reassured him. It was no wonder he was so worried; he thought this was his fault. Werewolf blood wouldn’t hurt me would it? I realized that I honestly didn’t know. Jake’s just worrying like he always does. There can’t be any truth to this. He still looked unsure; I was beginning to think that I probably looked the same way. “Let’s call Carlisle. He would know.” I suggested. “You don’t mind him knowing about the blood thing?” he asked. 40

I chuckled once without humor. “He would have found out anyway,” I said. “Right.” We both just stood there awkwardly; neither of us making a move for our phone. “I guess I’ll call him,” Jake finally said. He fished his hand into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He flipped it open and starting punching in numbers, then, with a sigh, lifted it to his ear. I realized while he had been dialing that he had actually dialed the number, not just scrolled through his contact list and found it. A werewolf knowing a vampire’s number off the top of their head. That’s almost as bad as having one on speed dial. I chuckled. “What’s funny?” “Nothing,” I giggled. He looked like he was going to say something, but then the other end of the line clicked on. “Hello, Jacob. How are you two enjoying your vacation?” I immediately recognized it as Carlisle’s voice coming through the phone speaker. “How’d you know it was me?” Jake asked. “Caller ID,” he answered. “Is everything alright?” Here we go, I thought. “Not exactly. I think something might be wrong with Ness.” Nothing is wrong with Ness. Ness is fine. “Something? What kind of something? What’s happened?” He had gone all professional now. Carlisle was always a doctor first, and a vampire second; and he was a father on top of anything and everything else. “Well, it’s nothing big. It just seemed… out of the ordinary.” “Says the werewolf to the vampire,” I mumbled. I heard Carlisle make a noise that sounded like he was clearing his throat; but a vampire wouldn’t have any need to do that, I thought. I realized then that he was doing it to covering up his laughing. Jake acted as if I hadn’t spoken, but I knew he had heard me too. “It only lasted for a second,” he continued, “but she said that she had felt really disoriented and she stumbled. She might have fallen if I wouldn’t have been there to catch her.” “Hmm… that is a little odd. Is she okay now?” “I’m fine,” I answered. I knew Carlisle would be able to hear me. “I’m not sure what to make of this,” he answered. “Did anything happen before hand? Anything that could have caused it?” Jacob stiffened but answered quickly. “That’s why I called. Is there any way that-” he sighed and continued, “That my blood could have done that to her?” There was no pause before he responded. “I don’t believe so, but I haven’t had much experience with this. Maybe you should bring her home so I can have a look at her. Just to be on the safe side.” “That’s what I was thinking. We’ll be home in a few hours.” “I’ll be ready for you.” “Goodbye, Carlisle,” I said quickly before Jake could hang up the phone. He flipped it shut then and lifted his head up to look at me. It was the first time he had looked me in the eyes since dialing the number. “I guess I’ll have to break the news to Renée?” I sighed. “Will you help me? She’s going to be 41

upset.” “Of course I will.” We both just stood there for a few moments staring at each other. He had started blushing and I could feel myself blushing too, but neither of us looked away. “Well,” I finally said, “I guess we should get it over with then.”

42

10. A NEW LIFE Ren was very understanding about the whole situation. While I was saying my goodbyes to her Jake went to pack up our things. “Promise to come back and visit soon?” Ren asked. “Of course!” I reassured her. “I’ll talk with Mom and Dad and see if we can come back down for the holidays.” I knew well enough that once they found out what I had told her the chances of me seeing her again were slim, but this wasn’t the time to dwell on that. “That would be great,” she said in a tone that seemed like she was thinking the same thing I was. Just then Jake walked around the corner. “Ready?” he asked. “There’s something I need to do first,” I answered. Ever since I had come clean to Ren I had been trying to figure out a plan that would keep her safe. Alice wouldn’t know because I was the one who had told her; at least I hoped so. That only left Dad. “Anything I can help you with?” Jake asked. “No. Just give me your phone.” I said, reaching my hand out for it. He reached into his pocket for his phone. “Wanna check the score on the way to the airport,” he said in a joking tone, reaching his arm out to hand me the phone. “Very funny.” Jake knew I didn’t like sports all that much. “I’ll go put the bags in the car while you deal with… business.” He started to turn around. I wanted privacy for this, so I quickly showed Ren her helping him. She looked at me for only a second before understanding. “I’ll help you!” she said, sticking her figure in the air like she had just gotten an idea. She had rushed through the words, coming out in a jumble, in an attempt to get them out before Jake left the 43

room. “It’s fine. I can handle it.” Jake said, waving his hand dismissively. “Oh, come on,” she insisted. “Let me at least hold the door for you.” “I guess that would make issues a bit easier…” He shrugged his shoulders. “Alright,” he agreed. They stated walking down the hall to the guest bedroom where our bags were probably sitting on the bed ready to go. I waited until they were completely down the hall before looking down at the phone I was clutching in my hand. I flipped it open and started scrolling through the contact list. I scrolled down until I got to Bella. That’s the one, I thought as I hit the send button. The phone hadn’t gotten through one ring before a voice answered. “Renesmee, how are you? Carlisle told us what was going on.” Of course he had. “I’m fine. Really.” I reassured her. I felt like I had said that at least twenty times since the incident in the kitchen. “Then what is it?” “Are you shielding?” I asked her. I knew she would understand what I meant. “Not myself, but the family.” She did that sometimes to give them privacy, and to make things easier on Dad. “Should I be?” “Yes. I need to ask you a favor.” There was a short pause, only lasting for a second longing than it would have usually taken her to respond. “Okay. Go ahead.” “I need you to shield Jacob and me when we get back.” I didn’t want to explain why, but I knew I had to. “To protect Ren,” I explained, short and simply. She sighed, more in understanding than in anger or annoyance. “Ness, don’t worry about it. If we ever encounter the Volturi again we won’t give Aro anything. I’ll protect her, okay? You have nothing to worry about.” There was so much love in her voice that it made my heart hurt. “Thank you.” I felt my eyes tearing up and was glad that Mom couldn’t see me. “I’ll see you soon, love. Okay?” “Okay, Mom. Love you.” “More than my own life,” she responded. Just as I was shutting the phone Jacob came around the corner into the kitchen. “Everything under control?” he asked. “Yup,” I sniffled. I rubbed the spots under my eyes. My hand came back wet. Jake looked concerned. “Happy tears,” I reassured him, chuckling. “My team is winning,” I joked. “I was a little worried there for a second.” “I know.” I smiled at him. “Everything’s fine.” “That’s good.” He smiled. “Ready to go?” He pointed in the general direction of the front door. “I am now,” I answered. I walked over to him and wrapped my arm around his waist squeezing him to me, as I did this he slid his arm around my neck and did the same. We were in this sort of side-by-side embrace as we walked out to the car where Ren was waiting for us, smiling. “Did you get everything sorted out?” she asked, looking towards me. “Yup. Everything’s under control.” 44

“Good. Ready to go?” She pointed towards the car. “I am,” I answered. “Jake?” “Let’s get home,” he answered. “Make sure you’re okay.” I had almost forgotten that anything was supposed to be wrong with me. “Right,” I answered. It was time to go home. After an hour long car rode, traffic, and a seeming endless plane ride, we were finally landing. We headed off the plane and walked out to meet whoever would be waiting for us. And… everyone was there. Oh, gosh. Em and Rose, Jazz and Alice, Carlisle and Esme, and, of course, Mom and Dad. Emmett was the first to come over and swoop me up into a hug, lifting my feet off the ground and swinging me around. “Damn I missed having you around,” he said as he set me back down on the ground. “Aw, Uncle Emmett. You missed me?” I joked. “Don’t push it, Kid,” he said, reaching up and ruffling my hair. He side-stepped then to make room for another set of outstretched arms. I was being pulled up into hugs left and right, and if I didn’t know my family so well I probably wouldn’t have even known who I was hugging. I saw Jake out of the corner of my eye conversing with Emmett; about what, I had no idea. “Alright. Let’s head to the house. I have an examination to do.” This was Carlisle, of course. “Sure, sure. We have to make sure I’m not dying or anything.” I joked. “And that is why I missed having you around,” Emmett said, swinging his arm across my shoulders. “These people don’t have any sense of humor like we do.” “You know, if we were actually blood related, I’d think I’d inherited it from you.” “Oh, you don’t need to be related by blood to inherit things. I take full credit for your good sense of humor.” He had puffed out his chest like he was truly proud of this fact. “Whatever you need to tell yourself,” I said, patting him on the chest. “Yes, yes. It’s lovely that your back, but can we please go? The clouds are going to be passing soon and I do not want to put on a show for these humans.” It was nice to have Alice around predicting the weather. With that we all started to head towards the exit. I idly wondered what we must look like to all the humans around us, since they were staring at us and all, but I pushed the thought aside and reached out to grab Jake’s hand. When we finally got to the car at least ten minutes had passed. I noticed that Emmett’s Jeep and Carlisle’s Mercedes were parked on either side of the Mustang. I gave Alice a sideward glance and chuckled. Seriously, what were the chances of getting those spots? Carlisle, Esme, Mom, and Dad were heading towards the Mercedes while Em, Rose, Alice, and Jazz headed towards the Jeep. “We’ll see ya guys back at the house!” Emmett called as he slid up into the driver’s seat. He had that mischievous glint in his eye like he always did when he was behind the wheel of a car. I got some waves from inside the car then Emmett pealed out of the spot and sped off. I just shook my head and turned towards the Mercedes. “If he wasn’t a vampire I don’t think I’d let him behind the wheel of a car.” Of course Dad would have known what I was thinking. “At least we know no one in the car is in any danger. Even if he did crash.” I said. “Good Point. We’ll see you back at the house, love.” “We’ll be right behind you,” Jake chimed in. He was heading towards the driver’s door fiddling 45

with his keys. “Drive safe,” Esme said from the passenger seat. “Always do,” Jake said back. The whole ride home I just sat and looked at Jacob. I was completely wrapped up in all thoughts Jake and didn’t even notice all the miles passing by. I realized that I was pretty much starring at him and just as I began to worry that I was making him nervous I noticed that he was smiling. “I can read your mind you know.” I gasped and quickly pulled in the little elastic band around my brain. How long had I been sharing my thoughts with him? Now I wasn’t only worried but embarrassed too. “I didn’t realize-” he broke off before finishing his thought. “Didn’t realize what?” I asked. His hand on the steering wheel tightened. I had a feeling that he didn’t want to tell me what you had just realized, but he knew that I wouldn’t let it go. He sighed, but he didn’t look at me. “How much you love me.” I was confused to say the least. “Jake, you know I love you. I’ve told you so myself.” “And I love you, but it’s not like you’ve had a lot of people to choose from, Ness. “Jake, don’t ever think that.” We were sitting in traffic, so I reached over and turned his head so he was looking at me. “I love you because I love you, not because you were the only one around.” “It’s just nice to know for sure is all.” He smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes. I tried to crack the tension with some humor. “Promise I won’t run off with the first other boy I meet who shows any interest.” That got him. He smiled this time, a real smile. I remembered what had started this whole discussion and felt myself blush. “What did you see?” I asked in a sort of panicky voice. He chuckled and turned his eyes back to the road but didn’t answer. “What did you see?!” The rest of the ride home was silent. I was still feeling a little embarrassed about whatever it was I had accidentally shared with Jacob. He refused to tell me, and he seemed determined to stick to this decision. We were pulling into the garage now. Both the Jeep and the Mercedes were already there, both empty. Jake shut off the car and I reached for the handle to open the door, but it was already open. I looked up and saw Dad standing there. “It seems you two had an interesting ride home.” Dad could be so embarrassing sometimes! “I told you not to doubt her.” He said this part only to Jake. I guess I should have known that Dad would have known all about the worries Jake was having. “Guess I just didn’t think I was good enough for her.” Jake chuckled. “Oh, you’re not that bad,” Dad joked, waving his hand dismissively. “Wow, Edward. I think that’s the closest you’ve ever come to giving me a compliment.” “Don’t get use to it.” I was always surprised by the strange friendship between Dad and Jake. “Come on,” Dad said. “I’ll take you to Carlisle.” Carlisle ended up being in his office. It was a lot like his office back at the house in Forks. It 46

had floor to ceiling bookshelves and old paintings hanging around on the walls along with a big desk right in the middle of the room. He was sitting behind his desk with a book as big as a cinder block in his lap. When we walked in he flipped the book shut and looked up. “Ah, you’re back.” He stood up, book still in hand, and leaped up onto one of the shelves; at least eight feet off the ground. He slid the book onto an open spot on the shelf then leaped back down, landing lightly on his feet. “I’ve set up in the spare bedroom.” He was already out the door walking down the hall. The three of us just stood there gawking at him. It wasn’t like Carlisle to be randomly scaling bookshelves. “Come. Come.” He ushered. I sat in the spare bedroom on one of those tables like they had at doctors’ offices. It had been over an hour of extensive testing. There had been a lot of poking and prodding and measuring. Half way through I had actually asked Carlisle for a drink. I could smell that he had some packs of human blood lying around somewhere; it was just like Carlisle to be prepared for anything. Dad had brought me a cup and I’d poured it in there and drank it like it was any ordinary drink. Now I sat there with the empty cup in my hands and nothing to do. I’d managed to make it last for awhile which had kept me occupied, but now it was gone and I had nothing to do. Carlisle was on the other side of the room looking at different papers that were scattered about and scribbling some things down. Unlike most doctors Carlisle had amazing handwriting. “So, what’s the prognosis, doc? Am I gonna live?” I knew I would be fine. I was just so bored. I figured humor might entertain me. It didn’t work. “You’ll definitely live,” he answered. “So you know what’s wrong with me?” I asked, excited. I was so ready for this to be over. “Well, from all of the data that I have collected I do believe that I can make a rational diagnosis.” “Which is…?” I said, drawing the word out for him to input the answer as I twirled my hands around in a circle. “It seems that you have stopped growing,” he said triumphantly. * * * After a month of waiting, we were sure that I was done growing. I had grown to be a rightful height of 5’ 7’’- taller than Mom, but shorter than Dad; and much shorter than Jacob, but everyone was shorter than Jacob. Everything was different now. This was a different life, a new life. And part of my new life would be going to school. Now that I was done growing, I could actually go with the rest of my family. The story would be that Carlisle and Esme had adopted me, so when I was at school I had to call everyone by their first names. I would be their sister, not their daughter or niece. I would still be able to be with Jacob though, and that’s all that mattered.

47

11. FIRST DAY Summer break is over and school is starting tomorrow. I’m not sure if I’m excited or not. I had been so excited before about the experience, but now I wasn’t so sure about it. I have a feeling that school isn’t exactly going to be fun, but it should be nice to be a normal teenager for a change. That was one aspect of life that I wanted to be a part of but hadn’t gotten to experience yet, normal. I woke up this morning with Mom tapping me on the shoulder. I reluctantly got up and got into the shower. I stepped out a few minutes later and slipped on my robe. I went over to my room then and started rummaging through my closest for something to wear. I decided on this really cute dress that Alice had gotten me. It was a little white bubble dress. It was really short on me now so I decided to pair it with my favorite pair of jeans and some flats. I met Mom and Dad in the living room and then we headed out for the house. Jake was waiting for us in the garage by the Volvo. He smirked when he saw me and I smirked back. “Good morning,” he said as I was walking towards him. He leaned down and peaked me on the lips. “That’s a really nice outfit.” “Thanks.” “Would you two love birds get a move on,” Emmett said as he walked around us to get into the Jeep. “Sure thing, bro,” I joked. “See ya at school, little sis.” “Re, Rene, Renes… Miss Cullen?” “Here. And it’s Renesmee, but you can just call me Ness.” Only one teacher had managed to pronounce my name correctly all day, but it didn’t really bother me. Actually, I thought it was quite funny; listening to them stumble over my name trying to 48

figure out how to pronounce it. Once I explained that it was just Renee and Esme stuck together they seemed to understand. Then they would get a look on their face like they were thinking, “I should have been able to figure that out, now I look like an idiot.” And I would always look at them like I thought they were an idiot just so they would think so. I doubted any of them would ever forget my name now. Almost every teacher had asked me if I was related to the other Cullens, each time confirming their suspicions. We all did look alike after all, in at least one sense. And people always told me I looked a lot like my mom and my dad, not that anyone here knew that they were my parents. Jake and I had the exact same schedule, complements of Dad. I was glad too, having him there made the day much better. I had two classes with Mom and Dad. They had the same schedule too, so every class I had with Mom I had with Dad, and vise versa. I also had one class with Alice, but the only time I got to see the rest of my family was at lunch. It was finally time for lunch, and Jacob and I were walking there together. We walked into the cafeteria, and I tried to take it in. It was a fairly big room full of hungry children and circular tables scattered about. There was a sound like a roar due to all of the different conversations going on at once. Jake and I were holding hands and everyone was staring at us. It had bothered me at first, but I had gotten use to the staring now. I suppose that I had been stared at my whole life, so I guess it wasn’t really something out of the norm for me, or for any of my family. It was something you just grew used to ignoring, but it wasn’t anything you could truly become comfortable with. As we walked by a table full of students I heard one of them say, “So where do you think he was hiding her?” I couldn’t help but laugh. Hiding me, huh? What a completely absurd thing to say. Then I heard someone answer, “It’s no wonder he never talked to any other girls, and why he turned down Sara. I mean, Sara’s hot and everything, but that chick’s a hard ten.” “No doubt, dude. And it definitely explains why he sits with the Cullens everyday; he’s dating their sister.” “Yeah, I always wondered why he sat with them. Now it makes perfect sense.” “It must be pretty serious too; I heard he lives with them.” “Really? How…” The conversation trailed off as we made our way across the cafeteria. “So what was so funny?” Jacob asked. Apparently he hadn’t been listening to them. “Oh nothing, just something that boy over there said. These humans are so funny.” I had been hearing all kinds of different conversations today and I couldn’t believe the things these teenagers talked about. They were so ridiculous and trivia, but they talked about them like they were the most important thing in the world. I could hardly believe it. Maybe being normal is overrated. “Which part, about me hiding you?” So he had heard them. “Yes. That’s the part I’m referring to.” “Yeah, that was pretty funny.” We were waiting in line now so Jacob could get something to eat; I still preferred blood. I watched him as he continued to pile more and more food onto his tray. “You consuming this massive amount of food on a daily basis is going to make the humans suspicious,” I said in a hushed tone. Jake leaned down so that his lips were touching my ear. “So will calling them humans.” He straightened up before continuing, speaking louder now. “I’m in a bulking phase.” I noticed that he puffed out his chest before continuing. “Trainer says I need to eat a lot of protein.” He said this loud enough that a few students around us would have heard him. The story of Jake and his ‘trainer’ would be around school by the end of the day. 49

“Nothing on that tray contains any protein,” I contradicted. He spoke in a hushed tone again, leaning down slightly. “A normal teenage human wouldn’t know that.” Urg! This was going to be harder than I thought. I should just shut my mouth before I get the whole family implicated with a stupid remark. Jake reached down and grabbed my shoulder. “I’m only kidding, Ness. Calm Down.” He paused for a second before going on. “You really should stop referring to them as humans though.” “Got it,” I said. Calling them humans implied that I was something other than human; I really needed to stop doing that. After Jake paid for his massive amount of food we began to walk to the table where my family was waiting. The table that was on the other side of the cafeteria where we had come in. Since we had to go back the same way that we came to get to the table where my family was sitting we ended up passing the same table of students that had made me laugh before. As we were walking by the table I heard the same person as before say, “How do you think he eats all that food everyday and is still that skinny? It doesn’t make any sense.” I laughed again. “If you say, ‘I told you so’ I might just have to eat you,” Jake said. I just stuck my tongue out at him. We had made it to the table where my family was all waiting. I sat down next to Mom and Jake sat down next to me, Rose was on his other side. Let’s hope no arguments get started, they’re in fist-throwing range. I looked past Rose to see the rest of my family: Emmett next to her, then Jazz, Alice, Dad, then Mom. They all seemed so comfortable here that if it wasn’t for our appearance I believe that no one would have any reason to suspect us. All of us had control of ourselves enough that school didn’t bother any of us. School used to be painful for Jasper, being in such a small enclosed area with so many humans, but now he sat next to Alice with a smile on his face. Uncle Jazz didn’t have trouble with his self control anymore. Dad had said that it was thanks to me and something I had said to him a long time ago. Jazz always had trouble understanding how I drank human blood as a child without being tempted when I was around humans. It was a reasonable enough question. Our animal instincts had a large control over our actions, and, for someone with a life like Jasper, he just didn’t understand how it could be possible. It had been only two years after my birth when I had explained it to him. “I could never put someone through a pain like that, losing a loved one. All of that grief and emptiness… knowing I had caused it. I could never live with myself if I knew I had done that to someone. Everyone has family that loves them… that would miss them if they were gone. “And I know that I couldn’t imagine if I ever lost one of you: Carlisle, Esme… Mom, DadJacob. I don’t know what I would do if someone ever took you guys away from me. Any one of you. It would be a pain I could never endure. You are all my family, and I love you all so much. The world wouldn’t be the same with one of you gone,” I paused. “What would you do if someone took Alice away from you?” By the time I had finished my little speech he had had a very thoughtful look on his face. Especially after that last line, “What would you do if someone took Alice away from you?” That seemed to hit home. I knew that Alice was the one thing in this world that he couldn’t bear losing. Simple to say, school was easy for him now. 50

“How’s your first day going?” Mom asked. I looked at her skeptically and said, “Like you haven’t had Dad giving you the run down all day.” I knew my parents, I wasn’t stupid. Everyone at the table started laughing, because everyone knew it was true. Mom and Dad could be a little paranoid. I couldn’t blame them though; they just loved me too much. Plus, Dad had to see how people reacted to me; if anyone was suspicious of me for one reason or another we would have to do something to fix it or we could possibly be forced to leave. This was always the routine that Dad had to go through every time the family would have to move to a new town to get a fresh start. I wasn’t sure how many times they had been through this now, but I’m sure Dad had it down to a science by now. For the first week or so he would see how everyone was perceiving them and be sure that no one was getting suspicious, and that if anyone was getting suspicious, which they usually did to an extent, that they weren’t anywhere near the right track of finding out what we truly are. I believe there was only one time that the family had had to move because someone had guessed right and that had been before I was born. We were much better at being discreet and acting as normal as possible now. The rest of the day passed much like the morning. Jacob and I walked into class together, everyone started murmuring, the teacher took roll, pronounced my name wrong, then we learned about something I already knew. I could tell right away that school wasn’t going to be something I would enjoy, but as long as I got to endure it with Jacob by my side it wouldn’t be so bad.

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12. SWEET I had started school over a week ago, and I was used to the routine by now. I would get up, get ready, meet up with Mom, Dad, and Jacob, then we would leave for school. Today, however, was September tenth, and I knew exactly what that would mean. It was my birthday, and I was ready to endure anything Alice threw at me. I knew I wasn’t getting through today without a party, it was inevitable; Alice would never allow it. So I was surprised when I got up to go to school and Alice didn’t say anything to me about my birthday. There was definitely something going on, and I knew it. I rode to school with Mom, Dad, and Jacob; like usual. School seemed to pass in a blur, and before I knew it the day was over and Jacob and I were walking out of school together towards the Volvo. That was when I saw it. It was one of the most beautiful cars I had ever seen, and that was saying something coming from my family. It was blue, sleek, slightly feminine, and fast. Yes, it was definitely fast. It was the loveliest shade of blue I had ever seen. Sort of like a deep ocean blue with an underline simmer; like the way my skin looked in the sunlight. I looked at Jacob. He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “It’s a Fisker Karma S Sunset hybrid convertible.” Hybrid; Emmett’s idea of a joke, I’m sure. He has a great sense of humor like that. “This is for me?” I asked in utter disbelief. “Of course it is! Happy Birthday!” Alice said with way too much enthusiasm. She always got overly excited about everything. She also loved any excuse to through a party, and she was an expert at finding excuses. “Emmett picked it out, what do you think?” Mom asked, confirming my suspicions from before. “I love it, of course,” I said, and it wasn’t a lie. I couldn’t wait to take it for a spin, and from the look on Jacob’s face he couldn’t wait either. I didn’t fully understand the look of shock though. I mean, he looked really surprised. He’d been with my family long enough that things like this didn’t usually surprise him anymore. 52

“How did you get your hands on one of these?” he asked incredulously. “I didn’t even know they had started production.” “They haven’t,” Dad said. That explained it; they had gotten me a car that didn’t fully exist yet. I didn’t even want to think about how they had gotten a hold of a car that hadn’t even begun production yet. “We’ll see you at the house,” Dad said, getting into the Volvo. “Yes. We will see you at the house.” Alice said, but it sounded more like a demand. “We’ll be right behind you,” I assured her. Jacob and I got into my new car and began our ride home. The car was like a dream. It was such a great ride, and I was in such disbelief that it was mine. The entire ride home it had been silent in the car; I was simply enjoying the ride, and didn’t really have much to say. When we reached the house Jacob and I got out and began to walk into the house. On our way in he said, “Happy Birthday, Ness.” “Thanks, Jake.” “Are you ready?” “Ready for what?” “You’ll see.” When we got into the house there was a large group of mythical creatures waiting for me. In the mass of faces I could see the Denali coven; made up of Kate and Garrett, Carmen and Eleazar, and Tanya. I felt bad for Tanya being in a coven with two pairs, and her still being alone. I figured that that was how it must have been for Dad before he had met Mom. I didn’t like to think about it. The three Amazons, Kachiri, Senna, and Zafrina, were also there. I was very exited to see Kate and Zafrina again. It seemed like it had been forever ago when I had last seen them. The rest of the group, the larger part, was made up of werewolves. Everyone was there, even Leah. I wasn’t really sure why she was here, but I was glad she was. Mom was right behind me. She whispered into my ear, “Sorry, we couldn’t ruin Alice’s fun.” “No mom, it’s fine. Really.” “You’re a good sport. Alice will be pleased.” “I like making her happy.” Jacob was excited to see his pack, and I was exited to see him exited. I had met the packs before, but there seemed to be some new additions. They seemed young and nervous. It was obvious they hadn’t spent much time around vampires. Just then I saw some movement in the group of people in front of me. I could make out what looked like two figures, one of them hunched down slightly, making their way out of the group. They stepped forward then and I saw their faces. It was Grandpa, Ren and Billy! “Ness!” Ren exclaimed. She ran up to me with her arms extended and swooped me up in a hug. “What are you doing here?” I was both confused and excited! “Alice called. She flew me out so I could be here for your party,” she explained. “Flew me out too,” Grandpa said as he walked up, pushing Billy in his wheelchair, to stand next to Ren. I reached out to give him a hug. “Happy birthday, kiddo,” he said. 53

“Thanks Grandpa.” “Dad?” I heard Jake say. He jogged over to where we were all standing and stopped so he was standing next to me. “Dad, what are you doing here?” he asked. “I was invited,” he said. “Don’t sound so happy to see me,” he joked. “Oh, Billy. I’m happy to see you.” I said. “I hear my boy finally had the guts to tell you about the imprint,” he said casually. I felt myself blush slightly. “The what?” Ren and Grandpa asked simultaneously. “Ness and Jake are dating,” Billy said simply. “Oh… I knew that,” Ren said. “They’re what?!” That was Grandpa. “Aren’t you a little old for her?” I guess Jake had to be about 23 now; even though he didn’t look it. As if having heard my thought Jake said, “Do I look too old for her?” “Boy, you look the exact same way you did seven years ago.” Ren raised her eyebrow. “Perk of being a werewolf?” she asked. “Sure is,” Jake said. “Okay! That’s enough talk about werewolves for one day,” Grandpa said, raising his hands as if he were really trying to stop something. “Let’s get on with the party.” I looked around then and saw Mom saying her hellos to Quil, Embry, and Sam. Grandpa and Billy began making their way over to them. I looked back to my companions. Ren smiled at me before leaving to go and stand by Alice. “I’ll see you later?” Jake asked. “Of course.” With that Jake walked off into the crowd of people with what looked like no set destination. I looked around again and saw Dad and Seth catching up with each other. It still surprised me when I saw the depth of their friendship. They were standing in the corner, and I could make out some of the conversation; “Hey, Edward! Man, it’s good to see you again. How’s everything been going?” Seth asked. “Good, everything is fine.” “I heard you got Ness a car? Do you really think she needs one, man? I mean, don’t you already have, like, ten cars?” “Seven actually, eight If you count Renesmee’s.” “You guys are so loaded!” They both started laughing then, and the conversation seemed to trail off. “Nessie!” I heard someone yell. I looked up and saw Zafrina. She threw a hug on me and I returned it. “Zafrina, I’m so glad to see you!” I gushed. “And I, you,” she replied. I saw Jacob walk up behind her. He looked like he wanted something. “Can you give us a minute?” “Sure.” She began to walk away, glancing back at us a few times. “I wanted to give you your present before the party really gets going.” “You got me a present?” “Of course I did.” He chuckled as if it should have been obvious. “Well?” 54

“Close your eyes.” I followed his instruction and reached out with my hands. After a moment I felt a little box fall into my palms. I opened my eyes and I saw a jewelry box. I looked at him, then down at the box. “Go ahead,” Jacob pressed. I slid the box into my one hand, and opened it with the other. Inside I saw a golden band that matched my locket. There were little round diamonds set into the band equidistant from one another, and there appeared to be something engraved on the inside of the band. I starred at the ring in shock then looked up at Jacob. “It’s a promise ring,” he explained. “Read the engraving.” I turned the ring up onto its side and read ‘Forever’ in an elegant script carved right into the band. I didn’t say anything for fear that my voice would betray me. “Do you like it?” Jacob asked, sounding a little worried. I took a deep breath. “It’s perfect,” I managed to get out. “May I have the honor?” he asked, reaching down for the ring. I didn’t think I could talk without my voice breaking, so I just nodded my head. He took the ring out of my fingers, then took my left hand. He looked at me, and I looked up at him. I was fighting back tears the entire time. He slid the ring onto that one very special finger, then looked up at me. “Forever,” he said. I reached up on my tiptoes and threw my arms around his neck. I stayed there for awhile; until I could control my tears of joy. Then I pulled away slightly and pressed my lips to his. In that instant I realized that everyone in the room, except for Mom and Dad, were looking at us; gawking was actually a better word. I looked up and everyone looked away at the same time, trying to hide the fact that they had been staring. I whispered in Jacob’s ear, “Everyone is staring at us.” He chuckled. “Are they enjoying the show?” “They seem to be.” I chuckled back. The rest of the party seemed to pass in a blur. Lots of hugging and greeting and conversing. Everyone was catching up with one another, as was I. Everything had gone fairly normal; except for the fact that all the guests were mythical creatures. It wasn’t until far into the party when everything went wrong. I had been talking to Seth when I heard someone say, “Alice, what’s wrong?” By the time I was looking at Alice, everyone else in the room was too. Her face was blank. Everyone froze. Would it ever end?

55

13. DÉJÀ VU Dad’s face was a look of shock; a perfect mirror of Alice’s. Everyone else in the room had a similar look, but only Alice and Dad knew the true reason for it; everyone else was just shocked by their shock. “What does it mean?” Dad got out in a shocked gasp. Everyone in the room had gone completely silent at the sight of Alice and Dad’s voice breaking through that layer of silence that had seemed to be coating the whole room was enough to break everyone out of their frozen state, it didn’t stop anyone from continuing to look from Dad to Alice though. “I don’t know,” Alice answered. Her voice was full of confusion and what sounded like fear. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” she went on, the tone of her voice not changing from before. “Is the Volturi involved?” Dad asked. There wasn’t much that could put Alice and Dad into a state like this. They were vampires and they had seen a lot in their years, they didn’t scare easily. “I don’t know,” she answered in a hollow sounding voice. “I’m going to need some time to figure this out.” “Is it soon?” Dad asked. His voice was so empty of emotion that it just sounded like an echo; it gave me chills to hear him talk that way. “It’s not clear,” she said in a frustrated voice. “It’s soon,” she went on, “but not in the immediate future.” She paused as she squeezed her eyes shut tightly causing her forehead to wrinkle as if trying to force herself to see. “A few weeks… maybe a month,” she said in an unsure voice. “So we’re safe… for now?” “Yes, but I don’t know for how long.” Alice looked at Dad with a truly terrified look. When it came to the future Alice saw it as her responsibility to know what was coming, and when she failed at this responsibility she took it quite strongly. 56

“Do whatever you need to do Alice; take as long as you nee. I will explain to the others while you’re gone.” Alice nodded her head. She was getting ready to leave us when she stopped herself quickly as if she had smacked right into a wall of thought. She looked around the room at everyone and said, “Can everyone whose futures I can’t see decide not to go to Italy please,” she said with mock hope. She looked around at everyone then she sighed deeply and ran off; Jasper following close behind. The two of them had barley made it out of the room before Emmett said, “What’s going on?” His voice sounded impatient and complaining. Dad turned to look at Emmett with the same shocked expression still on his face. “Alice just saw something,” he answered in the same empty voice that he had been speaking in since Alice’s vision. “She does that all the time, what’s the big deal?” Emmett asked. “Well, it’s more of the lack of what she saw that we are worried about.” “What are you going on about?” I was wondering the same thing. Dad seemed to struggle to find the words. “The whole future just,” he paused to find the appropriate word, “disappeared.” He glanced around at the werewolves, his eyes lingering on me for a moment, before looking back at Emmett. “Disappeared?” “Completely blank,” he confirmed. “So what have the dogs done now that’s made the whole future go blank?” Emmett said in a joking voice. How could he joke like this when it was obviously something serious? “Emmett, I think it’s more serious than that,” Dad said, echoing my thought. “This is something big.” “How big?” “We don’t know,” was all he could answer. No one said anything for a long time after that. Everyone stood frozen, not knowing what to think. I had lost track of time and had no idea how long it had been since anyone had spoken. It wasn’t until Alice and Jasper came back that we all broke out of our reverie. “So, what is it?” I asked Alice. Alice looked at me, opened her mouth, then closed it again. It seemed that she didn’t know how to explain. “Why would we do that?” Dad asked. “It’s all very confusing, I know. It took me awhile to make any sense of it at all, and when I did I still couldn’t believe it.” she answered. “I’ve never had a vision quite like this before.” “Alice, I can’t even understand what you’re thinking right now. Can you please explain this?” “Yeah, the rest of us would also like to know what’s going on.” Emmett chimed in with a cocky tone. I couldn’t blame him, he was only saying what everyone was probably thinking. They continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “I’m not sure, but it seems it is our choice to go. Why we would chose this I still don’t know.” “Our choice?” Dad asked. “Would you two like to share with the rest of the class?” Emmett said, annoyed. Dad finally acknowledged Emmett, sighed, then began to explain. “It seems that we are taking a trip to Italy,” Dad said simply. “We’re what? Why? What have the Volturi done now?” “It seems nothing,” Alice answered in an empty voice. 57

“Then why are we going?” Emmett asked, confused. Emmett didn’t tend to ask questioned when it came to a fight; it just showed how confused this whole situation was truly making him… and everyone else. “It seems we are going there to kill them,” Alice said bluntly. “Sweet.” So Emmett. Alice rolled her eyes and continued. “It seems that in my vision,” she said slowly, “I had had a vision,” she continued, “and in that vision the Volturi were planning an attack on us.” From the looks on people’s faces in the room it seemed that Alice had lost quite a few people in her explanation, Dad had managed to follow. “You had a vision within a vision?” Dad asked, finally breaking out of his dead sounding voice. “Precisely,” Alice answered. “So, what does that mean exactly?” Emmett asked. “It seems that we have decided to kill the Volturi,” she said to everyone in the room this time. “Why now?” Carlisle asked. There was no immediate answer because Alice was now bent over and gripping her forehead with her hands. She seemed to be in pain. Jasper was standing behind her holding onto her with both hands to be sure she wouldn’t fall. Everyone in the room was watching her closely, an array of worry on each person’s face. She suddenly shot upright with wide eyes and a look of realization and understanding on her face. “Because we are stronger than them now.” Even though she was answering Carlisle’s question she was looking directly at me. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I saw Dad looking at me too. “We will win?” Esme asked. She wouldn’t agree to it if it put any of us in danger. “I believe that is why we have decided to go,” Alice answered. “It was hard for me to understand at first, what with me not being able to see the wolves future, but it was only when I could not see the actually battle that the outcome was in our favor.” She looked around the room at all the wolves finally resting her eyes on me. “And it was only when Ness was there-” “Me?” I squeaked. “Yes, we will need you to fight if we want to win without casualties.” “Really?” I asked dumfounded. “Yes. You are the key to bringing the Volturi down.” Everyone was staring at me in shock; I was in shock too. “I will fight,” I managed to force out. “And we will win,” Alice added.

58

14. PLANS “So what is the plan?” Carlisle asked in the attempt to take charge of this crazy situation. It was obvious that everyone had been taken completely by surprise by this whole thing; a battle with the Volturi on our own terms, who would have thought? Everyone looked around not sure who had the answer. With Alice being the one who knew the most about what was going on it seemed only right that she was the one who answered. “Well, I guess we should begin training, make sure everyone is ready. Most of the people that will be joining us are already here so that part is pretty much taken care of. We just need to get ready and form a plan.” “It’s a good thing you had your vision now; saved us from having to make some phone calls,” Tanya joked. “I think us all being here together is actually what caused the vision,” Alice said, taking away any humor from what Tanya had said. “Do the Volturi know anything about this?” Carlisle asked. “No, and they won’t know until it’s too late,” Jasper answered. Interesting that Alice had taken the time to have given him the low down before coming back. “The ball seems to be in our court for a change,” Emmett said, sounding far too excited considering the situation. Everyone rolled their eyes at him. There was no one else in the world that I knew that could render an eye roll from an entire room full of people. I’m sure Emmett would say that he was just that talented, another response that would render an eye roll from anyone around. “Emmett,” Dad said, “be serious.” I looked at Dad then back at Emmett quickly. I was sure that this would be interesting. “I am serious! This is going to be sweet! It’s been forever since we’ve been in a good fight. And the last time we were supposed to be in one it ended in such disappointment. I can’t wait for this!” 59

Dad sighed, shook his head, and let Emmett to his imagination- which from the look on his face he was taking full advantage of. “So is there anyone that I need to get in contact with?” Carlisle asked, getting back on topic. Alice’s face went blank for a second as she searched for the answer. It seemed to take her a bit longer than it usually would have but she answered with confidence. “The Romanians. They will want a part in this.” She seemed like she wasn’t going to say anything more. Thinking that Alice was done, just like the rest of us, he turned with the intentions of leaving the room. He didn’t take more than a step when Alice spoke up again. “Benjamin.” He stopped. “We’ll need Benjamin too,” she said. “Anyone else?” he asked. “I’ll let you know,” she answered. Carlisle nodded his head before leaving the room. “How about the rest of us?” Mom asked. “What can we do?” “Start training,” she said to Jasper. It was so strange how Jasper’s original upbringing after initially being changed came in such handy for us over the years; he knew how to fight and he knew how to train others to fight. Sometimes I wondered how things would have been if he hadn’t been around to help my family when they had gotten into bad situations like this over the years. Jasper nodded and in the blink of an eye was gone. He had probably gone to set up. It never took more than Alice asking him once to do something for him to carry it out. “What should the rest of us do?” Tanya asked, mimicking Mom’s previous question. “Train,” Alice said. “Get ready.” “Get ready for what?” one of the younger wolves I didn’t particularly recognize asked. “For anything,” Alice answered. Sam stepped out from the group. “We’ll have to get our plans together,” he said. “We will have the element of surprise. That is for sure.” Alice said. “And Ness,” the mention of my name had gotten my undivided attention, “she’ll be our key to getting to the brothers,” Eleazar said like simple fact. What had I missed now? “Excuse me?” Jake sounded like he was ready to snap Eleazar’s neck. I put my hand on his chest to stop his advance. Now was so not the time to be getting in fights with each other. Eleazar held up his hands in defense. “Her power will allow us to get past Renata,” he explained. “I didn’t mean anything by it.” “What are you talking about?” Mom asked. She stepped forward so she was next to me. “I never realized…” Dad murmured. “Is everyone in your family this ignorant all the time?” Eleazar asked, slightly joking. “First, you guys didn’t realize that Bella is a shield, and now you don’t realize the extent of Renesmee’s powers? You all are just yanking my chain, right?” he asked in disbelief. “We knew. Well- when she could use her power on Bella I assumed as much, but we never really gave it much thought.” Dad explained. “What are you all talking about? Everyone knows that I can share my thoughts. It’s not a secret.” “She can do what?” I heard Grandpa whisper the question to Ren who was looking everywhere but at him. He looked down at Billy who looked away quickly, avoiding eye contact also. Poor Grandpa. 60

“That’s not the power we’re talking about,” Dad said. Okay. Now I’m confused. “Then what…?” I trailed off. Do I have a power I don’t even know about? “What else can I do?” I asked with a tinge of annoyance in my voice. Had they really not told me about a possible power that they thought I may have? Why would they do that? “You don’t only have the opposite of your father’s power,” Eleazar began, “you also have the opposite of your mother’s power.” The opposite of a shield? “What exactly does that mean?” I asked. “What can I do?” “Your mother can form shields. You can destroy them.” “I can… Really?” “Yes.” “So, let me get this straight,” Jake said. “If Bella is shielding herself from Edward for exampleNess should be able to take it down so he can hear her?” he asked. “Precisely,” Eleazar said. “You need to teach me!” I said frantically. “You need to teach me how so we can get past Renata.” “We must begin her training,” Eleazar agreed. “I helped Bella with her power,” Kate said. “I’ll help Ness.” “Alice, is there anything else that needs to be done,” I asked. “No. Carlisle is getting in touch with everyone we’ll need. Jasper will start with the fight training for anyone that needs it. You just focus on getting control of your power.” I tried to swallow the big lump in my throat and failed. Everyone’s counting on me! I thought franticly. They’re not going to say it out loud, but they are! I tried taking a deep breath to calm myself, but it didn’t work very well. All I have to do is get control of some freaky shield breaking power I didn’t know I had. That shouldn’t be too hard, right? I chuckled silently to myself. Oh, yeah. No big deal. I am so over my head.

61

15. COMING CLEAN A huge wave of calm suddenly washed over me. I took a deep, calming breath before saying, “Thank you, Jasper.” Lately with school and everything I had completely dropped the use of aunt and uncle; what with the fact that they weren’t really my aunts and uncles, not technically, it wasn’t that weird. I wasn’t sure he heard me, but then he joined us in the room. “You’re welcome.” He smiled at me. “I’m ready to start training,” he said to no one in particular. And with that, he left again. Half of the occupants of the room left. I looked around to see who was still there. Dad, Mom, Kate, Emmett, Jake, Leah, Seth, Billy, Grandpa, and Ren were the only ones still in the room. I wasn’t sure why Emmett was still here. I figured he’d be all over training. Then I looked over and saw him grinning and realized that he was probably sticking around to see the show. I saw Dad looking at me. He nodded and then rolled his eyes. “You two should train,” Jake said to Seth and Leah. Oh, right. He was their alpha. They were waiting to see what they should do. “Can’t I watch?” Seth asked. I couldn’t help it. “Watch what?” “Watch you train. I want to see you using your powers.” I raised my eyebrow and sent him a thought of me getting Kate to give him a good shock. He gasped; I realized then that I had never used my power on him before. I stopped immediately. I was about to apologize when he spoke up. “Resorting to mind warfare? You don’t have to be mean,” he said. “I was only kidding. I would never do you any bodily harm, nor would I get anyone else to do it for me.” 62

“So does that mean I can watch?” he asked, sounding hopeful again. “No.” “Why not?” “Because I wouldn’t like to have a large audience watching me fail.” “You’ll do fine, honey,” Jake said, gripping my shoulders. “Thanks.” Grandpa cleared his throat awkwardly. When I looked up I noticed that Seth and Leah were already gone. Then I drew my attention to Grandpa. “Uh…” he dragged out. Ren pointed her finger up like she was raising her hand and trying to form an idea at the same time. “Wha-” she started, but cut herself off. We all just stood there awkwardly not knowing what to tell them. Finally the silence was broken. “Okay,” Kate stated. “Who wants to explain to the humans what just happened?” She looked around the room. “Anyone? Anyone?” “Wow, Charlie,” Dad said. “I’m surprised.” Grandpa furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. “Excuse me?” “I can read mind,” Dad said bluntly. Grandpa stuttered; Ren and Billy avoided making eye contact with him. I raised my hand slightly. “And I can allow anyone I want to read my mind.” “And, uh, I can shield against all these different powers that our kind have,” Mom said weakly. “And I shock people!” Kate chirped. “Wanna see?” She reached over and touched Emmett on the arm. He stiffened. It wasn’t until Kate lifted her finger off of his arm that he shouted, “God damn it, Kate!” “You know you liked it.” Emmett was opening his mouth about to speak, but Dad spoke up before he got the chance. “Emmett,” Dad said. He clamped his jaw shut, but didn’t stop his glaring at Kate. “Emmett!” he said again. “What?” “Go train. Now” He finally broke eye contact with Kate and glanced at Dad. Dad sighed. “Emmett, just go.” He pointed towards the door. He rolled his eyed before running off. Everyone was looking at Kate now. “What?! It got rid of him, didn’t it?” she asked. Everyone gave slight shrugs and turned back to Ren and Grandpa. “I imagine that we’re not going to get an explanation,” Ren said. It wasn’t a question, just a statement of fact. “You both already know more than you should.” I saw Dad glance at me before continuing. “And if we’re taking down the Volturi there isn’t any danger in telling you the truth,” he finished. There was no argument from anyone in the room, so he continued. 63

“We’re vampires,” he said simply. “Don’t worry, we’re vegetarians. Strict diet of animal blood only.” Kate said in a slightly joking tone. “So, you’re- and Bella--” Grandpa sputtered. Ren, on the other hand, didn’t look surprised at all. “Yes, I’m a vampire,” Mom said. She hesitated for a second before going on. “I died after giving birth to Renesmee. Edward injected me with his venom in the attempt to save my life. And well, it worked,” she concluded. “So, Ness is your daughter,” Grandpa said. “Yes, but you already knew that, didn’t you?” Mom asked. “I knew she had to be your daughter. She has your eyes.” “She has my human eyes,” Mom agreed. “They change color when the transformation occurs,” Mom explained. “But that would have to mean-” Grandpa glared over at Dad. Dad’s eyes went wide. “No, no!” Dad wavered his hands in front of him. “It wasn’t like that. I swear. It happened during the honeymoon. Ness just grew very quickly. Bella was only pregnant for a month.” Grandpa looked over at Mom. “It’s true, Dad. I was only pregnant for a month. We didn’t get married because I was pregnant. I swear.” Grandpa nodded his head like he was down with this topic now. “So is Ness different from you guys?” Ren asked. “I’m half human, half vampire. That’s why I grew so quick,” I explained, “but I stopped when I was staying with you over the summer. That’s what my little ‘episode’ was.” I said, making air quotes around the word episode with my fingers. “So, you’re done growing?” Ren asked. “Yup. I will forever look this way.” I said, gesturing to myself. “Well, then how-” she started, but Dad cut her off. “He won’t age either. None of us do.” he explained. I felt Jacob’s hand slip into mine and I looked over at him and smiled. “That’s why Bella was so set on being changed. She had chosen it long before the pregnancy.” Ren and Grandpa’s eyes both got big and they looked at Mom. “What?” she exclaimed. “What was I supposed to do? Grow old and die while Edward stayed seventeen forever.” She glanced over at Dad. “It was the only way we could be together.” “I begged to differ, but what is done is done,” Dad said. “So, who turned you into vampire then?” Ren asked, pointing at Dad. “Carlisle turned me, then Esme, Rosalie, and last Emmett. All of us were dying at the time. Jasper and Alice were changed by other vampires that are both dead now. Alice’s gift allowed her to see Jasper and us. So, she found Jasper then meet up with us and we’ve been a family ever since.” “Alice’s power?” Ren asked. “What can she do?” “Ah, yes. Alice’s power. That’s what the whole scene was about. Alice can see the future. She had a vision and that’s what we were all going on about,” he explained. “In the vision she saw us fighting the Volturi, who are a group of very old, very powerful vampires. They’re kind of like our royal family. They’re job is to keep our kind a secret, and to punish those who don’t. That’s why we couldn’t tell you about us at first. They have been abusing their power for many centuries and it is time that they are taken care of; which is what her vision was all about. That’s why we can tell you everything now.” 64

Ren swallowed loudly before answering. “Wow,” was all she said. “That explains a lot,” Grandpa said. I was surprised with him. He was taking it much better than I thought he would. “Um,” I spoke up. “Jasper also has the ability to feel and control people’s emotions.” I shifted my eyes around. “Just- just figured you should know that,” I said in a weak voice. “Really? That’s interesting,” Ren said. “Yeah. It’s something alright.” Jake chuckled. “I guess you guys need to get ready then, right?” Ren asked. “If you have to battle this powerful group of vampires. The Volturi you called them?” “Yes. They reside in Volterra, Italy.” “That makes a little more sense.” She laughed “I guess we should head home,” she said. “NO. Stay.” I burst out. I turned to face Mom. If I could get her to say yes then Dad would just go along with it if he liked it or not. “Please, Mom,” I pleaded. “Can they stay?” She sighed, thought about it for a second, then nodded her head. “Yah!” I exclaimed in excitement. “We can stay?” Ren sounded just as equally excited. “Yes, you guys can stay,” Mom answered. “Just stay away from any areas where training is taking place. I don’t want anyone getting hurt.” “We can do that,” Ren chirped. “Alright then,” Dad said. “Now that that’s all sorted out, you two can stay in any of the rooms upstairs,” he directed at Grandpa and Ren. “Billy, there’s a room on the first floor that you can have.” Billy nodded his head. “Where will you guys sleep?” Grandpa asked. “We don’t sleep,” Dad answered. “I see,” was all he said. “You guys can go upstairs and pick out rooms. Feel free to look around and get settled. There’s a TV in the living room and food in the kitchen.” he said. “Oh, and there’s some bathrooms around here too.” He chuckled. “Good, cause I need one of those,” Ren said. “I know,” Dad said. “Over there.” He pointed. “Thanks.” She walked in the direction that Dad had pointed. “I should go help Sam,” Jake said. I looked up at him and tried to smile. I wasn’t exactly excited about him having to fight, but I knew he would be fine. “Unless you want me to stay with you while you train?” “No, you go train,” I answered. “I’m gonna need someone to protect me when the fists are flying,” I joked. He smiled before kissing me, and then he left. “Charlie, you wanna take me outback with the others?” Billy asked. “Sure thing,” Charlie answered. Charlie started to push Billy towards the backdoors where everyone was outside already training. I realized then that Kate was already gone. I hadn’t even noticed her leaving. Man, I am very unobservant when Jake and I are talking. 65

“You are indeed,” Dad said. “Back before you were born your mother used to be like that with me,” he joked. “I think she was just using me because once she became a vampire she lost all interest.” Mom backhanded him on the arm. “Stop telling our daughter lies.” “You don’t even know what we’re talking about.” Mom huffed and walked off. Dad came over to where I was standing with his eyebrows raised. He placed his hand onto my back. “She also used to have a sense of humor,” he joked.

66

16. PREPARING “Just focus,” Kate said. I took a deep breath. “Block out everything happening around us. I need you focused.” It wasn’t exactly easy to focus with everything that was going on. Jazz was training, so there were wolves and vampires prancing through the air on the other side of the yard. Those who weren’t training were scattered about holding conversations with one another. I took another deep breath. “I’m ready.” “Okay. First what I want to try to do is to get you to be able to sense the shields,” she said. “You can’t destroy them if you don’t know they’re there,” she explained. “Okay. How are we going to do that?” I asked. I had a feeling I already knew, but I wanted to hear what she had to say. “Bella?” She turned her head towards Mom. “Yes?” she responded. “I’m going to need your help with this.” “Of course. What do you need me to do?” Mom asked. “I want you to put your shield up then down to see if Ness can sense the difference. I think that will be the easiest way.” “How will I know what to try to focus on?” I asked. “Ness, honey. What’s it like when you send your thoughts to people?” Mom asked. “What do you mean?” “With me, when I use my power, it’s like an elastic band that I’m stretching. Is it like that with you?” “Yes. Sort of. Except that I don’t really have to think about it because I’ve been doing it since I 67

was born, but I can still feel it.” “Okay. What I want you to do is try to feel that.” “Okay.” “I’m going to shield you. Close your eyes and focus and see if you can feel it.” “Okay.” I closed my eyes and focused only on Mom’s voice. “Okay. I’m going to shield you now. Ready?” “Yes.” A second passed then Mom spoke. “Do you feel any different?” she asked. I tried to sense any difference about me, but felt nothing. I tried focusing harder. I clamped my eyes shut and blocked out all of the noise around me, but still felt nothing. “No,” I said frustrated. “I can’t feel a difference.” “Honey, it’s okay. It took me a long time to be able to use my power. Just take a deep breath.” I did what she told me to do, but it didn’t help much. “Ness, I need you to focus. Okay?” “I can’t,” I almost whined. “Ness, stay here. I’ll be right back.” “Wait. Where are you-” Before I could finish I heard a whoosh of air and knew she was already gone. I kept my eyes closed and tried to both focus and calm down at the same time. I can do this! I chanted over and over again in my head. After a few seconds I heard footsteps coming towards us. I opened my eyes and saw Mom with Jacob coming towards me. Jake smiled as he approached, then they both sat down across from me. “Mom, what are you doing?” I asked. She completely ignored my question. “Jake, I need you to help Ness focus.” “Help her focus?” he asked, sounding confused. “Yes. I need her to focus, but she can’t with everything that is going on.” He looked a little confused by the request, but it wasn’t that abnormal to be asked to do strange things in my family. “Okay,” he said. He slid down off of his chair onto his knees. He moved over so that he was right in front of me. Even with him on the ground on his knees and me sitting on the chair our eyes were still almost level with each others. He put his hands on my knees and looked deep into my eyes. At that moment I was completely unaware of anything, but Jake. “Ness?” The way he said my name put butterflies in my stomach. “Yes?” “What are you thinking about right now?” I smiled before answering. “You.” “Why don’t you close your eyes and show me.” I titled my head to the side, but didn’t give his request a second thought. “Okay.” I closed my eyes and starting showing him different memories I had of him. I suddenly felt a strange pressure around me. I stopped sending Jake my memories and tilted my head to the side trying to figure out what it was. I opened my eyes and saw Jake. He was still in the same place he was before I had closed my eyes, but now he was glancing over at Mom. He turned back to look at me when he saw that I had opened my eyes. “Did it work?” he asked. 68

“What?” “Did you feel it?” “Feel what?” He chuckled and looked over at Mom. “I think I made her a little too focused.” “Wait,” I said, holding up my hands. “Your shield,” I said to Mom. “I did feel it,” I chirped. “I can feel it,” I corrected. “You forgot what you were even supposed to be doing, didn’t you?” Jake asked. I felt myself blush. “Maybe…” We both sat there smiling at each other. I heard someone clear their throat. It was enough to get my attention long enough to stop staring at Jake. “Ness?” someone asked. “Hmm?” I looked to where the question had some from and found Mom looking at me with her one eyebrow cocked up. “You said you could feel the shield?” “What?” It took me a second to remember what she was talking about. “Oh! Yeah, I can. It feels like there’s a slight pressure around me. That’s you, right?” “Let’s see.” I saw something flick in her eyes. The slight pressure around me vanished then. “Can you feel it now?” she asked. “No.” “Then I think it is safe to assume that the pressure you felt was my shield.” “What’s next?” I asked Kate. “We have to get you to be able to sense it when it is not only shielding you, but other people,” she answered. “Okay. How are we going to do that?” I asked. “Since you have this power you should be able to sense it,” she answered. “We just have to get you to recognize it. You’ve probably never felt it before because you’re so used to it. “Show Bella your thoughts and see if you can feel yourself breaking through her shield.” “Close your eyes,” Jake said. I did as I was told. “Now, slowly start to send it out. When you get to Bella see if you can feel yourself breaking through her shield.” I nodded my head. Slowly I started to stretch the band around my brain and send it out to Mom. I took the time to do what usually came naturally to me. When I reached Mom I could feel the same pressure that had been around me only moments before around her now. As I proceeded it faded then disappeared completely. I was now sharing my thoughts with her. “That’s it!” I exclaimed, snapping back my band. “My power!” I saw everyone looking at me strangely like I was crazy. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I was so excited! “My power, my ability to share my thoughts with people, that’s the key to using my other power.” “What do you mean?” Kate asked. “When I send out my thoughts it allows me to sense the shield.” “Really?” Jake asked. “Why hadn’t you ever noticed before?” “I guess because I was so used to it that I just never gave it a second though. Like with Mom 69

shielding herself. She was so used to it that she never realized she was doing it.” “It makes sense. You don’t tend to notice things unless you are looking for them.” Kate said. “What now?” I asked. I was feeling a little more excited now that I was figuring things out. “We need to be sure that you can break down the shield.” “Okay.” “Edward?” Dad was instantly next to her. “Yes?” he asked. “We need your assistance.” “Alright.” “Bella could you shield Jacob please?” “Of course.” “Edward, I want you focusing on Jacob’s thoughts.” “You mean, lack there of?” “Hey!” Jake shouted. “That’s not what I meant. You’re being shielded so I can’t hear your thoughts. You’re usually very mentally chatty.” “…Thanks.” “Focus you two,” Kate said, sounding a little irritated. “Now Ness I want you to try to break through the shield.” “Okay.” “Edward, when you can hear Jacob’s thoughts again let us know.” “Got it,” he said. I immediately closed my eyes. I sent out my thoughts to Jake this time and sensed the pressure around him. Something in my head clicked on and I broke through the shield, but I hadn’t used my ability to share my thoughts to do it. This was something else. “I can hear him,” Dad said. “But I can’t hear you,” Jake said, sounding confused. “Shouldn’t I be able to hear you, Ness?” My eyes flung open and I gasped. I felt the band snap back and saw everyone staring at me. “What was that?” I exclaimed. “What happened?” Mom asked frantically. “I broke through the shield without sharing my thoughts with Jake. It was something else. It must have been my other power.” “Do you want to try again?” Kate asked. “Yeah. Let’s go again.” “Alright. Everyone ready?” “Mhmm.” “Yes.” “Ready.” “Okay, Ness. Whenever you’re ready.” “Okay.” I started to stretch out my band again. I realized that Mom wasn’t only shielding Jake, but Kate and Dad too. Why not? I figured. I concentrated on the three of them and imagined the shields not being there anymore, and then they were gone. “I can hear you again,” Dad said. “But none of you can hear me, can you?” “What do you mean?” Kate asked. 70

“Mom was shielding all three of you,” I explained. “And you took down all three of the shields?” Kate asked. “Yeah. I think I did.” “Did you figure out how it works?” Kate asked. “I think I did. I just imagined it not being there anymore and it was gone.” “Really?” Jake asked. “Yeah. It was kind of weird, but it worked.” “Do you think you have control of it?” Mom asked. “I think I do. Both of my powers are actually a lot alike. I figured it would be harder to learn how to use it, but I guess subconsciously I already knew how to do it.” I explained. “I guess we’re done then?” Jake asked. “Wait, I want to test something first,” I said. “That’s a good idea,” Dad said. “What do you want to do?” Kate asked. “I want to check the range of it. Mom can you shield…” I looked over to the other side of the yard to see who would be a good choice, then smiled. “Seth.” “Sure.” “Dad?” “I’m ready if you are,” he answered. “Okay.” I closed my eyes and started stretching my band out across the yard. Mom was shielding more than just one person. I realized that if I focused I could tell who it was she was shielding: Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Seth, Sam, Ren… “Oh, this should be interesting,” I chuckled. Slowly, one by one, I took down each of the shields that Mom had up around my family and friends until they were all gone. “Ness, love, that was quite impressive!” Dad exclaimed. “What happened?” Jake asked. “She just took down ten shields on her first try!” “Ten?” he asked. “Actually it was eleven,” I corrected. “It was,” Dad said. He must have been testing me. “It seems you have this under control,” Kate stated. “I believe I do.” “Good job, honey.” Jake had a lot of pride in his voice. I felt myself blush. “So… should I train now?” I asked after a moment’s hesitation. “NO.” Mom, Dad, and Jake all said in unison. “Wait, why?” I asked. “You won’t be doing any fighting, so it is pointless,” Dad said. “We’ll protect you,” Jake added. So, they were going to leave me defenseless? I quickly pushed the thought away. “Okay,” I said. I looked around and saw that it was getting dark. Even though using my power had been easy I still felt a little drained. “I guess I’ll just grab something to eat then,” I said. “I’ll come with you, if that’s okay?” Jake asked. 71

“Yeah. That’s fine, Jake. Let’s go.” I wanted to get away from Dad as quick as possible. I was trying my best to not think about anything, but it would only work for so long. I couldn’t let Dad know what I was planning to do.

72

17. SNEAKING AROUND By the time Jake and I were done eating it was pitch black outside. “You wanna head to bed?” Jake asked. After a long day of training all I wanted to do was sleep, but there was something I had to do first. I wasn’t going to let him know that though. “Yeah. I’m pretty tired. Let’s go.” I answered. We headed to the cottage and went into my room. “How are you feeling?” Jake asked. He had taken off his shoes and his shirt and was lying in the bed already; he looked exhausted. “Just a little drained, but I’m fine. I just need some more practice.” Only Jake didn’t know what kind of practice I was talking about. “Well, come lay down then. Get some sleep. You can practice more in the morning.” I went to lie down next to him in the bed. “Good night,” he whispered. Only a few minutes passed before he was snoring. I slowly slid out of the bed; being careful not to jostle him too much. I didn’t want him knowing what I was doing. For once I could truly appreciate my heightened sense, it was going to make sneaking off much easier. I was also for the first time appreciative of Jake’s heavy sleeping; all the more easier this would be. I got outside without any trouble then made my way to the house. Looking for Emmett and making sure no one saw me was a little difficult, but there were just so many people everywhere that no one really took any notice to me. I ended up finding him in the living room watching TV by himself. I hid out in the bathroom that was right off of the living room; no one would be coming in here. I peaked my head out the door ever so slightly. 73

“Emmett?” I whispered the question in the hopes that no one else would hear me. “You sound like you want something,” he stated. “A favor.” He looked over at me and saw the nervous look on my face. “Oh, this looks good. Whatever it is, I’m in.” “Follow me.” I turned and headed out towards the woods where we would go to hunt. It was far enough from home that no one would hear us. I ran straight there without looking back. I heard him coming behind me and it just pushed me to go faster. When I reached the spot I stopped and turned to face him. “So, what’s up?” Emmett asked once we stopped running. “I want you to train me. I know no one wants me training. Everyone says that I won’t be doing any fighting. I’m fine with that, but I don’t want to be completely defenseless. You never know what could happen; Alice can’t see my future. I want to be able to protect myself just in case.” Emmett had started grinning as soon as I said the word train. I knew if anyone would break the rules it would be him. “You are so much like Bella, it’s ridiculous.” “What do you mean?” “Back when you were born and the Volturi came, Bella insisted on being trained even though she was killing herself just to get control of her power.” “Oh, I do remember.” “You were only a couple months old at the time, but I figured you would.” “So, will you help me?” I asked, getting right back to the point. “Breaking the rules, sneaking around? You know I’m in!” “I just need to know the basics.” “Alright,” he said. “Attack me.” He gestured to himself. I cocked my eyebrow. Was he serious? “I understand that I may be intimidating, but you just need to do it.” If you hadn’t been able to see his face you may not have been able to tell that he was kidding. It was the grin that gave him away. He was enjoying this far too much. Fine he wanted me to attack him, then I would. I calculated how tall he was and how far away from me he was in my head. Once I was done I leaped towards him, flipped in midair so that I was facing the other way, and landed on his back. “Gottcha,” I joked. “Ness, how the hell did you do that?” I shrugged my shoulders before sliding off of his back. As soon as my feet touched the ground he turned around to face me. “Your guard was down?” “Oh, no. My guard wasn’t down. My guard is never down.” “So, you’re saying that I could have taken you out in one move without even thinking about it?” I saw his eyes slit and then he launched towards me. I leaped up and grabbed the branch of the tree above me, swung around, then poll vaulted myself to the other side of the clearing. When I landed I pivoted on my heels quickly so that I was facing Emmett again. “What’s your problem?” I asked him. He was standing there looking at me with a dumbfounded expression on his face. “How did you do that?” he asked. What, are we playing twenty questions and no one told me? 74

I was a little confused by his question, but I answered anyway. “I jumped up and grabbed the tree branch then used it to fling myself over here.” “I know what you did, but how did you do it?” I thought about what I had just done, and realized that I had no idea how I had done it. “I don’t know. I just… did.” I saw a huge grin spread across his face when I said this. “You seem to be a natural. I’m so proud.” “A natural?” “Some of us can just kick ass without ever needing any training. You are one of those people.” “Really?” I asked in disbelief. “Definitely.” “So, I don’t need any training?” “You could still benefit from training, but I don’t think that anyone will expect you to be as good as you are, and that, that will give you an upper hand.” “So, they’ll underestimate me?” “Most definitely.” “So, you think I’ll be okay for the fight then?” I realized that I said ‘so’ a lot when I was confused. “If the opportunity presents itself I believe you’ll be able to defend yourself without a second thought.” “You’re sure?” “I’m positive.” “Well, I guess we can go then?” Emmett didn’t make a move to leave. He just stood there grinning at me. “What?” I asked. “Wanna go one more round?” he asked. “Are you sure you’re up for it?” I chuckled. “Oh, I am so taking you down.” He leaped towards me and I side stepped out of the way quickly. He hit the ground and rolled so that he was on his feet again; except this time he stayed in a crouch. I chuckled before going down into a crouch myself. “You’re laughing at me?” he snarled. “Oh, yes. I am.” I answered. “You better watch yourself, little girl.” He said it like a warning, but there was an underline hint of playfulness in his voice. “Bring it on,” I snarled back.

75

18. LOVE STRUCK It had been a month since Alice had had her vision of us battling the Volturi. Since then, every night I have been sneaking out to meet Emmett for my training. We had managed to keep it secret from the others. It hadn’t actually been too hard; Dad was the only one that we had actually had to plan out a way to hide it from him. I had asked Mom if she would start shielding me all the time so I could get more used to the feeling of it. She had fallen for my lie easily. Emmett, on the other hand, made up some story that Edward had been getting on his nerves lately and he wanted her to shield him. Mom had just chuckled at him and followed through with the request. No harm, no foul. So, with me training my mind during the day and my muscles at night; I had been pretty busy. I found myself not having much time to relax, and I knew that it was because I was putting too much pressure on myself. I also knew that I could handle it. During the lapse of the last month all of our reinforcements had arrived. Benjamin had come with his mate Tia, but told us that Amun had refused. That was fine though because the only one we needed was Benjamin. Stefan and Vladimir had also happily agreed to join us. I had mostly avoided them just on the main fact that they gave me the creeps; it was made easier by the fact that they mostly kept to themselves. “We have a week,” Alice randomly spouted one day. She had been standing in the corner of the living room staying abnormally quiet. A lot of people were conjugating in the living room talking amongst themselves when she randomly burst out with this. Everyone in the room had become quiet. “What was that Alice?” I asked. 76

“We have one more week until we are leaving for Volterra. I’ll start with our traveling plans.” And with that, she had left us all in the room open mouthed. That was six days ago. Alice had gotten her hands on a plane somehow with a straight through flight to Volterra planned. Apparently there were quite a few people in our group that knew how to fly. There was at least fifty of us, so it wasn’t that surprising; when you could live forever you tended to dabble in just about everything. I didn’t even want to imagine how she had gotten a plane, and how much money it had taken to do so. Nevertheless, we were due off tomorrow morning. I had spent the morning training with Mom and Kate; I had gotten complete control of my power and I was confident in my fighting abilities. After I grew tired of training I asked Jake if he wanted to go hunting. I honestly wasn’t that thirsty, but I wanted to keep busy. The truth was, I was really nervous. This was my first battle and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I had to imagine that it was normal for me to be nervous. It was the kind of nervousness that a sports star would get before a game, or probably more like a soldier before battle. In a matter of hours all of the people I loved would be coming with me to battle the Volturi. The powerful, undefeatable Volturi. We all knew what Alice had seen, but because of the wolves and I there were holes in her vision and I couldn’t help but feel that in one of those holes could be the outcome of the life of someone close to me. Jake agreed to go hunting so we headed off to my favorite spot; it was the same spot that Emmett and I had been sneaking off to every night for the past month to train. My favorite spot was a clearing in the woods that was nearly a perfect circle. When I had first stumbled upon it I had been hunting with Mom, Dad, and Jacob. Dad had told me that there was a place much like it back in Forks that he called ‘The Meadow’ and that he used to take Mom there when she was still human. I would go there whenever I wanted to get away from everything. “Bet I can beat you to the stream,” I probed Jake when we reached the clearing. “Oh, really? Wanna race?” “Let’s do it,” I answered. “No cheating,” I added as I started to see him quiver. “Fine. I’ll take ya down human style.” “We’ll see about that,” I teased. “Ready?” he asked. “Go!” I shouted. We both bolted forward in the direction of the stream. Even in his human form Jake was inhumanly fast. I let him pull ahead of me a bit then I got myself positioned behind him. I planted my feet and leaped forward. I landed with my hands on his shoulders and my legs up in the air above Jake’s head. I quickly switched the shoulders that my hands were on so that I was facing the other direction. I imagined that I probably looked quite acrobatic, but I did it with ease. I dropped my legs down in front of him and pulled him down with my whole body weight. My back smacked the ground and Jake fell right on top of me. I rolled so that our positions were switched and he was the one on the ground and I was hovering about him. I had my knees on either side of him and he was laying with his back flat on the ground looking up at me. The look on his face was priceless. He looked completely baffled; I had done all this in a matter of a second. “Oops.” I chuckled. “How did you do that?” His tone hinted at his absolute confusion. 77

I grinned. “The force is strong with this one,” I quoted. Jake shook his head in disbelief; he didn’t know about my natural ability to ‘kick ass’ as Emmett had put it after all. Then in a split second his expression changed to something totally different; playful. “Come here.” He grabbed hold of me and rolled so that he was on top again. “I like this game,” I joked as Jake’s lips met mine. I reached up with my hands to put them on his cheeks. It was then that I realized how close Jake actually was to me. His body was laying on top of mine, but in a way that felt right. Every inch of me felt electrified, and, for once, Jake was not holding back on me. Unlike before on the beach when he had been reluctant and cautious the entire time, he was now being extremely passionate and didn’t seem to be worrying about anything. This time when I made a move to remove his shirt he didn’t protest, but helped. He made a trail of kisses down to my neck and it was while he hesitated there that his neck was right by my nose. I got a good whiff of his blood and heard myself groan in pleasure. With Jake it didn’t matter if I was thirsty or not, his blood just drove me crazy. For the rest of my family it repulsed them, for me it was like a drug. I took another deep breath of his aroma before he moved back to my mouth and started kissing me again. Without really the intention of doing so, Jake grunted. I had bitten him on the lip and I could taste the blood. I didn’t know if I had done this out of passion or out of blood lust, but I opened my eyes for a second to assess the damage. I saw his bottom lip smeared with red. His eyes were open too and he was watching what I was doing, but I didn’t look at him, I only stared at his lip. Within a second of seeing the blood my instincts took over me. My tongue flicked out and I licked the blood off his lip. The wound was already beginning to close there. Jake moaned in pleasure and moved his face back down to my neck so that his neck was right by my nose again. “Go ahead,” Jake whispered in my ear. His voice sounded very husky when he spoke and it drove me crazy, in a good way. I reached up slightly so that my mouth reached his neck. I ran my mouth down the nape of his neck. I opened my mouth and set my teeth into his skin there. Jake grunted and tensed, then he completely relaxed. Jake’s blood made the back of my throat burn with an incredible intensity. I sunk my teeth deeper and I heard Jake groan again. I pulled away slightly. “I’m fine,” he breathed into my ear. Whether he was or not I didn’t want to take too much blood and leave him weak. I ran my tongue along his neck, gathering up the blood that was there. With my teeth no longer in his neck the wound was beginning to close. This reassured me more than I could have ever imagined. I laid my head back down on the ground and Jake looked at me. “Did I hurt you?” I asked a little worried. He reached up with his right hand to stroke my cheek. “The only way you could hurt me is by leaving me.” I could feel my heart start to flutter wildly. I reached up with my hand and pulled his face down so that our lips met again. I could feel the sun hitting my face and I groaned and rolled over. I hit something hard and opened my eyes. Jake was lying there watching me with a smile on his face. “Good morning,” he said in the sweetest tone in the world. 78

He leaned forward and pecked me on the lips softly. “It’s morning already?” I groaned again. “I’d have to guess from your skin that it is.” He reached up and caressed my cheek. I realized that the blinds of my window were open and that was where the light had been coming in from. I could feel the sun still hitting a bit of my face, so I must be shimmering slightly. “Is it weird for you?” I asked him. The thought was always bouncing around in my head of how it must be for Jake to be with me. Vampires and werewolves were supposed to be enemies after all, and I knew that before I had been born that he had hated our kind. It wasn’t until Mom had gotten pregnant with me that he had really become friends with my family and had worked together to keep me safe. I had never had a problem with the wolves; I had never had a problem with anyone except the Volturi. “What do you mean?” he asked. I realized that my question hadn’t made much sense, so I explained myself. “Well, before I was born you hated vampires. Don’t deny it because I know that you did. So, is it ever weird for you to be lying in bed with one and living with a family of them and-” He cut me off. “You’re my family now. Sure, it was strange at first but not anymore. Now it just seems… right.” “Really?” I asked. I knew he stayed here because of me, but I never realized that he had started thinking of us as his family. It was very… refreshing. I loved the fact that he was part of the family now. It made me feel like he could never leave me, that he would always be here. “Really.” We were laying there in bed looking into each others’ eyes. I loved waking up every morning now with Jake there. It made me feel safe. All of a sudden the door of my room swung open and there stood Emmett. “You two love birds need to get a move on. We’re do off in the next hour.” “Emmett, what the hell?” I exclaimed. “Edward sent me to get you two,” he explained. “And you couldn’t knock?” I yelled. “I could have, but I didn’t.” He was lounging against the door frame like he wasn’t completely invading my privacy. I shook my head. He was ridiculous. “I guess we should get up then,” I said to Jake. “I’ll go hop in the shower and then I’ll make us some breakfast while you get yours.” “Sounds like a plan.” Jake slid out of the bed and walked past Emmett and down the hall. I waited until I heard the water turn on to get up. I walked over to where Emmett was still lounging against the door frame and confronted him. I made sure to talk in a hushed tone. Even if Jake was in the shower his hearing was amazing. “Okay, what’s really going on?” I asked Emmett. I could tell from the first moment when he had come into my room that he had wanted something. “So the dog has taken up residence in your bed, huh?” Just from the tone of his voice I could tell where his mind was; the same place it always was. I sighed and rolled my eyes. “It’s not like that.” “It better not be like that or I’ll kick his ass.” “Emmett,” I said with a stern tone. There would be no talk of kicking Jake’s ass while I was 79

around. He sighed and surprised me by saying, “Sorry.” “It has made sneaking out every night very difficult.” “That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Where were you last night?” “I wanted to rest up before we left. I would have told you, but I didn’t really know how to go about doing that.” “It’s fine. I didn’t wait long. When I got there and I didn’t see you I left. So, are you ready?” “I think so,” I answered. “I took down Jake yesterday easily.” “You- what?” he asked in surprise. “We were just messing around.” I pushed it off like it wasn’t a big deal. I had snuck up on him after all. “That’s still pretty impressive,” Emmett contradicted. “Impressive?” Jake questioned as he came down the hall. He was toweling his hair dry and the only thing covering him was a towel wrapped and secured around his waist. “Try incredible,” he corrected. “I didn’t stand a chance,” he added, smirking at me. When Jake had spoken I had jumped slightly. I was so wrapped up in mine and Emmett’s secret conversation that I hadn’t even heard Jake coming. I wonder how much of it he had heard? I worried, but, on the other hand, I was standing there glaring at every wet-glimmering inch of his naked body that I could see; almost forgetting about Emmett completely. When I remembered his existence I realized that Emmett was eyeing Jake’s neck where I imagined there was a scar that only a full vampire’s eyes could see. “I can see that,” Emmett responded. I felt myself blush fiercely; Jake didn’t seem to notice. “Ness, I left the water on for you. I’ll get dressed and then I’ll start making some breakfast.” “Okay, Jake. Thank you.” He took a step into my room, having to squeeze in with Emmett blocking the way, and pecked me on the lips. “Anytime,” he said. Then he walked past me into my room and started shifting through a drawer which I had let him use to put some of his clothes in. “He’s keeping clothes in your room too?” Emmett whispered into my ear. I felt myself blush again when I realized how it must have looked. “Shut up Emmett and go tell everyone that we’ll be ready,” I snapped. Emmett cackled, then he was gone. I rubbed my temples as I made my way to the shower; he could be such a headache sometimes. As soon as I walked into the bathroom I realized that I didn’t have a change of clothes with me. The whole conversation with Emmett had nearly made me forget what I was even supposed to be doing. I mentally cursed him and spun around and went back down the hall to my bedroom. There was only one problem, I had forgotten that Jake was in there changing. As soon as I stepped into the room I had seen the towel laying on the floor, and, before I could stop myself, scanned my eyes up examining the entire backside of him. I gasped. He was gorgeous. Before he could turn around my hand flew up to cover my eyes. “I’m sorry!” I whirled around to go back out of the room and smacked right into the wall. “Damn it!” I reached out with the hand that wasn’t covering my eyes and starting feeling around like a blind person. I heard Jake turn around and as soon as he saw me he chuckled. 80

“I didn’t see anything. I swear!” I was still feeling around like an idiot trying to get out of the room. Where was the door?! He laughed again. “Ness, just open your eyes.” “No, I’ll find it,” I said as I kept feeling around. How had I gotten so far away from the door? Then I touched something that I knew wasn’t the door, it was far too warm and smooth and… chiseled? Oh, my god! My eyes flew open to find Jake only centimeters away from my face, and my hand resting on his abdomen. “I told you to open your eyes.” Jake chuckled. “I didn’t see anything,” I repeated again. Jake cocked his head to the side and smirked. “You’re lying,” he said, calling my bluff. My cheeks went scarlet and I closed my eyes so they couldn’t wonder anywhere else. “You pervert,” he taunted. “I’m sorry.” I felt my cheeks blush even deeper. He only chuckled. “You need to go get your shower.” He grabbed either of my shoulders and turned me around. “Go straight ten steps then you’ll be at the door. Oh, and once you get into the hallway, for goodness sake, open your eyes. I’ll leave a change of clothes for you outside of the bathroom door.” “Thank you. I would kiss you, but I don’t want to open my eyes again.” Jake grabbed a hold of my shoulders again and spun me around. I felt his warm lips come down onto mine and I reached up to put my hand on his cheek. I pulled away slightly so I could say three simple, but very meaningful words. “I love you.” “Forever,” Jake added. Then his lips touched mine again.

81

19. JOURNEYS After stealing a few more kisses from Jacob I finally went to get my shower. Jake had guided me to the door, my eyes still closed, and then had shut the door behind me so he could finally get dressed. Standing there kissing him while I knew that he was completely nude had been unusual at first, but, like always, I got caught up in the moment and had almost completely forgotten about the unusualness of it all. By the time I was done in the shower Jake had breakfast ready for us. We were in the kitchen sitting at the bar across from each other finishing up our food when Emmett reappeared. “You two and your food,” he taunted. “Sorry if we’re too human for you,” I retorted. “You are far from human, my little protégé.” He smirked. “Finish up your meal then come to the house. Alice said we need to leave in the next twenty minutes.” Then he was gone again. “Protégé? What did he mean by that?” “Who knows?” I lied. “Just Emmett being Emmett.” “Mmm-hmm,” Jake mumbled. Most people would have thought that he was mumbling because he had food in his mouth, I knew him better than that; he knew I was lying. It drives me absolutely crazy when he does that! I hate having to lie to him, but I hate it even more when he knows that I’m lying and just allows himself to be lied to! I’m lying for a good reason though, right? He would have never approved of me going off every night getting training from Emmett, but I couldn’t leave myself defenseless just in case something happened. Jake would never forgive himself if something happened to me, but I can’t leave it to him to protect me! I just wanted to help! “What?” Jake asked, looking up from his plate of food that was nearly licked clean. He had just shoved the last forkful of food into his mouth before he had spoken. It took me a moment to realize that I had sent out that last thought on a wave of emotion and that Jake had heard it. 82

“I just wanted to help,” I said aloud. Jake laid his fork down onto his plate then stood up. “What are you talking about, Ness?” he asked as he picked up the plate. “I feel like I missed something.” He walked over and set the plate down in the sink. “I know that you know that I’m lying.” …that sounded really confusing. I shook off the confusing flip flop of a sentence and went on. “How much do you know?” Jake let go of the plate and turned around slowly to face me. “Know about what?” He was still trying to play dumb. “Jacob Ephraim Black, do not play stupid with me. I know you at least know I’m lying about the Emmett thing.” Jake sighed and shook his head. I realized that he was trying to avoid eye contact. “I figured that if you wanted me to know that you would tell me,” he finally answered, looking up at me. I wasn’t sure if he actually knew what was going on or not; although it didn’t exactly help to keep my secret by taking him down yesterday in the clearing and talking to Emmett while Jake was still in the house. Maybe he still doesn’t know what’s going on though. I raised one eyebrow. “Tell you what?” I asked. Jake’s reaction was a combination of biting his lip, shaking his head, and rolling his eyes. “How much do you know?” I asked. I could tell from his expression that he wasn’t in the dark about what I had been up to. He locked eyes with me before answering. “I know you’ve been sneaking out every night with Emmett for the past month. I know he’s been training you. I also know that you’ve managed to keep it from everyone, even Edward.” I guess I can’t keep anything from Jake. I hadn’t been fooling him at all. I looked down at the counter top so I wouldn’t have to look at his eyes anymore; I felt so bad for lying to him, and even more bad for doing it poorly. “And,” he went on, taking a step towards me. I had thought he was done and was surprised when he spoke again. “I know that you’re a natural. I know that you’ve been showing up Emmett and that you took me down yesterday like it was nothing.” With each sentence he had taken a step closer to me as if to emphasize each statement. I felt myself blush. I wasn’t sure if what he had said had been meant as a compliment, but I couldn’t help but see it that way. “I know that you are the most amazing person in the world, and that it doesn’t surprise me that you’re good at fighting because you’re good at everything.” When he said this I finally looked up. He had continued getting closer to me and was now on my side of the bar. “It also doesn’t surprise me that you wanted to train because you are your mother’s daughter and I would expect nothing less from you.” With the last sentence he had taken the final step and was now right in front of me. “You’ve known this entire time?” He slid into the stool next to mine. “I followed you the first night you snuck out. I knew you were up to something, and I just wanted to be sure you weren’t getting yourself into any danger.” “You followed me?” “Yeah. I’m sorry. I was just worried, but when I saw you with Emmett I had a pretty good feeling that I knew what you were up to. Then I followed you guys to the clearing and when I saw you showing Emmett up I knew you’d be fine. You’re quite the fighter. All natural talent; Emmett must be proud.” “I think he was a little embarrassed about being shown up by a girl.” 83

“I don’t think Emmett gets embarrassed; he just gets defensive.” I immediately flashed back to the moment of Emmett and me in the clearing. When I had gotten the upper hand on him he had been surprised at first but then he had come after me. I had dodged his strike easily, but he was defiantly defensive after seeing my skills. “I think you’re right. He did get defensive.” “Yeah, I saw that. You were very impressive.” I felt myself blush again. “Thanks.” I thought about it for a moment. “You didn’t tell anyone, did you?” “Of course not. Well, Emmett knows that I know.” “What?” Why hadn’t Emmett told me that Jake knew about our late night training? Then the thought hit me. What a JERK! He had been watching me squirm this last month for his own personal enjoyment. Oh, when I get me hands on him… “I told him not to say anything. I figured you didn’t want me to know so I just told him to keep it quiet.” I sighed. “I guess the only person I have to be mad at is myself. I should have just told you from the beginning instead of lying-” “Ness,” he cut me off, “I understand why you did it. I’m not upset. I just want to be sure that you know you can tell me anything. You know that, right Nessie?” Jake didn’t call me Nessie very often anymore, and when he did it was usually because something was wrong or because he was extremely uncomfortable. I tilted my head to the side and examined his expression trying to find something there; any sort of trace that explained his question. His eyes were almost pleading, but the rest of his expression was unreadable. “Jake, what’s wrong?” I started, searching through my memory of anything that I may have been keeping from him. He knew about Renée, he knew about my late night training, he knew I loved him and wanted to be with him forever in every sense… I started to say, I don’t know what you mean, but all I got out was “I-” and Jake’s lips had come down onto mine with a very passionate force. I slowly began to rise from my seat and Jake did the same. It seemed that as soon as Jake kissed me my entire mind went blank. I would always forget what I had been doing and the only thing that I would be aware of would be Jake. This time was no different. From the instant Jake’s lips had touched mine my mind had fogged over and the only thing that was on my mind was him. I couldn’t help but notice that Jake was acting strangely though. He usually didn’t kiss me this hard; he always kissed me like he was afraid that I was fragile. Even the day in the clearing he hadn’t kissed me like this, and I liked it. I was trying to figure out what had gotten into him, but I was having trouble focusing on anything. A memory flashed through my head of Jake and me in the kitchen when he had been walking towards me as I sat there. His eyes had been blazing. After a moment I identified the look. At the time I had thought it might have been anger, but it wasn’t. He had had that look in his eye since the incident in my bedroom; a look of want, of need, of passion. I tried to remember what had happened in the bedroom. I had- well, I had seen Jake naked. The first moment I had looked into his eyes when I was trying to find the door and failed awfully he had had that look in his eyes then, but not before when we had woken up. It must have been something that happened after he had gotten out of the shower, when I had seen him. I felt my back being pushed against a wall and just like the wall had hit me so did the realization 84

of what was going on. The very instant that I had seen him I can only imagine what I must have been thinking, been feeling. Even if it was subconsciously. He must have heard me. I must have shared my thoughts with him in that instant. A look of want… that’s what it is. In that instant I had wanted Jake. I had wanted him in the one way that I had thought insane only a few months ago when my mother had asked me if I wanted children. Now Jake wanted the same thing that I had wanted. He only confirmed my suspicions when I felt his hand tugging at my shirt. Jake had never made an attempt to remove my shirt before, but I was willing to let him; only… “Jake,” I gasped. It seemed that he became aware of what he was doing and tried to put some distance between us. He was about to say, I’m sorry, but before he could get it out I continued. “You have awful timing,” I panted. I was extremely breathless from his assault of kisses. It was obvious that Jake had thought I was telling him no, but now he looked a little confused. I decided to explain. “We’re supposed to be leaving soon, remember? Meeting everyone at the house.” I still had my back pressed up against the wall and Jake was a few steps away from me. It took him a moment to realize what my words meant; that I hadn’t been telling him no, just that it wasn’t the right time for this. Slowly, a sly smile spread across Jake’s face and he was looking at me with that same look in his eyes that he had before. My hands were down by my sides, palms pressed against the wall; I was still breathing heavily. I was looking at Jake the same way he was looking at me and the look in his eyes was matched with my own. Before I realized what I was doing I had pushed myself away from the wall and was entangled with Jake again. This time I was the one backing him into the wall; except it didn’t work out quite as well for me as it had when he had done it. Jake’s foot caught on the rug and with us being so close to each other when he stumbled it caused me to stumble too, and then we were both going down. My first instinct was to flail my arms to try to grab a hold of something, but Jake was thinking more clearly. Jake gabbed both of my arms to be sure he had a good hold on me and he moved me in a way that would insure that he would be the thing that I would fall on, and sure enough when he hit the floor I hit him only a millisecond later. I had landed right on top of him. Even in this position I couldn’t help it. I started cracking up laughing; becoming completely hysterical. I rolled off of him onto the floor and sat up. “Are you- okay?” I got out between chuckles. That was the moment that Jake broke; he started laughing just as hard as I was. “What are you two doing?” I heard a chipper voice ask. The spot where we had fallen was behind the couch and I could tell that the voice was coming from the front door. I got up onto my knees and peered over the back of the couch, still grinning. Alice was standing in the door frame looking at me with both eyebrows raised. “We, uh,” I stuttered over laughter. Jake shuffled and he was then in the same position I was in; kneeling and peering over the 85

couch. He chuckled. “We fell,” he finished for me. “Yes, well, I see that,” she mumbled. “Are you two ready? We need to be leaving.” “Yeah,” I answered. “We’re ready to go. We’ll be right behind you. Promise.” “Lovely. I’ll see you in a few moments in the garage then.” Then she turned and was gone, leaving the door open behind her. I had told Alice we were ready, but there was one thing I had to tell Jake quickly before we followed her. I turned to him and kissed him one last time. “Later,” I said, eyes still blazing. I was hoping that he would understand my meaning. When I saw his eyes widen slightly I knew he understood. I wanted him to know that I did want this, but right now we had other things to take care of. I stood up and Jake did the same. He took my hand and then we were off. We reached the garage only moments later to see what looked like an organized mess. There were people everywhere, but I had the feeling that they were all doing their own set purpose. We stayed by the side lines not wanting to get in anyone’s way; we were only there for a minute before Alice came over. “Good, you’re here.” She breathed an unnecessary sigh of relief. “Are you both ready to go?” she asked. “We’ve got a long trip ahead of us.” “We’re ready,” I answered for the both of us. “Excellent.” She turned away from us and faced the large crowd of people. I wasn’t sure how Alice had been elected leader, but it seemed she was in charge. “Is everyone ready?” she called. I realized that Alice looked a little… well, I supposed she looked stressed. It was hard to be sure because I had never seen her stressed before, but it definitely looked like something was bothering her. There were shouted, Just abouts, and, A few more seconds, from around the room. Before Alice could run off again I grabbed her shoulder. “Alice, are you okay?” I asked her. I hated seeing her this way; it really bothered me. “Of course. I’m fine.” She hadn’t even really taken time to think about the question before responding. It was like she had the answer rehearsed. “Not so fast. What’s bothering you?” She gave me a look like, please just let me pretend I’m fine, but I wasn’t going to have it. “Alice, come on. I just want to be sure you’re okay.” “It’s just with all these stupid mutts around that my head feels like it’s spinning. I’ve got futures twining together and it’s causing huge gapes of time to disappear.” she blurted out in a rush. I felt that I was gawking at her in surprise. After a second she realized what she had said and her eyes went large. “Did I say, stupid mutts?” she asked, rubbing her temple with one hand. I nodded my head slightly. “I need to sit down,” she said and stumbled off. As I watched her go find a seat I realized that our leader was currently ‘taking a break.’ I decided to take her place. “Jasper,” I called when I saw him standing across the room. He turned his head in my direction. I walked over to where he was standing, having to push my way through people to get there. Jake had followed in tow. “Go check on Alice,” I said simply. He looked at me strangely and I went on. “She’s having some trouble. She’s over there.” I pointed in her direction. “Make sure she’s okay.” 86

I had barely finished my sentence and he was gone. I turned and scanned the crowd and found Mom and Dad together. I walked over to them, Jake following without question. “Dad, is everyone ready to go?” They both looked at me strangely for a second then Dad answered. “Yes. Everyone is ready.” “Okay, everybody!” I called over the constant hum of different voices mixing together. “This is it people! It’s time to go!” Everyone turned and looked at me in surprise. Everyone was silent and unmoving. “You heard her! Let’s go people!” Jake shouted. “Who put the dog in charge?” Rose had come up to stand next to me. “Do you want to lead the troops, Blondie?” Jake asked in the same mocking tone as Rose. Rose considered this for a moment. “You take care of your kind, I’ll take care of mine,” she said in a serious voice. “Deal.” They both nodded at each other in agreement and went off to get everyone moving. “That was weird,” I muttered. “Yeah…” Mom and Dad said in unison. “It’s time to go.” Alice and Jasper were now standing with us and Alice was back in her leadership mode. “I’m feeling much better,” Alice said to me. “Everyone is ready to go.” She was silent for a long moment, almost like a dramatic pause. “It’s time.”

87

20. CONFRONTATION The plane ride there was very long. Since we had ended up just renting a plane, at least that was what I was telling myself, we didn’t have to hide. This made the trip a little bit better. We had already planned out our battle strategy so there wasn’t much to do on the plane. Everyone was pretty quiet, and the complete absence of sound was so eerie that I could barely stand it. I wondered what it was like for Dad though. Although everyone was being quiet I knew that their thoughts were probably a mirror opposite. I spent some of the time sleeping, some of it eating, and some of it just looking at Jacob. The remainder of the time I decided to use to entertain myself by putting thoughts into my friends’ and my family’s heads. I put the thought into Emmett’s head of Rosalie making out with some random Calvin Klein model and had him hooting and howling. Then I morphed Rose into him and started laughing hysterically at the expression on his face. My fun lightened the mood a bit, but it was obvious that everyone was still tense. It didn’t matter what we did now, we all knew what we were going to have to do soon. The fight that was coming wasn’t something that any of us could take lightly; it was too important and dangerous for that. I felt a certain overwhelming thrill about what we were about to do. Sure seven years was a long time to hold a grudge, but these were the people that had come and tried to kill me as a child. They fooled themselves into believing that they were protecting our kind from exposure, but the Volturi had become a dictatorship. One full of greed and lies. They did protect our kind from exposure but only at their own advantage. They took what they wanted, and no one’s life was above these wants. Well it was time for us to take their power away from them once and for all. Their reign had gone on for far too long. Too many lives had been ruined because of them, and it was time for them to pay for it. Centuries of bad karma was coming their way, and it was going to end bloody. 88

After what felt like days we finally reached Volterra. I could almost feel the flood of terror that came over all of us… everyone but Emmett. I had the feeling that he was never scared. Dad was the only one who would ever know for sure. As we came down for our landing I saw that it was in a very discreet, rundown looking excuse for an airport. I had a feeling that it had been long abandoned, and that most people probably didn’t even know it was here. We all unloaded from the plane and began to organize ourselves. All of the wolves got into their packs, Jake having to reluctantly leave my side. We had planned for them to stay in their human form until they were inside of the Volturi’s dwelling. They were good at keeping to the shadows, but we figured it would be much easier for them to blend in if they stayed as their human selves. I gathered up with the group of us that was do to go in first. It was seven of us, six without Jake, that were going to go in to confront the Volturi. Dad and Alice were going because Aro had been trying to get his hands on them and make them a part of his guard ever since meeting, and because their powers had the potential to come in handy. Mom was going also for the use of her power; we needed protection from Jane and Alec (the terror twins) after all, and I knew that Mom would never let Dad go alone. Jasper and Emmett were coming because of their fight experience, and because Jasper’s power may come in handy. Emmett just refused to let us go without him. Jake and I were also going. Me because of my power, and Jake because he refused to let me go without him. The seven of us were do to go into the Volturi and confront them first. Mom was to make sure that every one of us was shielded, and I was to make sure that all of the Volturi’s shields were down before the rest of the group came in. As the six of us stood around in a circle in silence I began to feel very nervous about this job I had. It was important that I broke down any and all of the Volturi’s shields before we began fighting them or one of us could get hurt. It was a lot of pressure to know how important it was for me to do this, and thinking about it only made me feel worse. A sudden calm washed over me. I reached beside me to where Jazz was standing and squeezed his arm as I looked up and smiled at him. I don’t know what I would do without Jasper around to clam me down lately. I wasn’t a person who got stressed out often, but these last few months had been crazy. As a result of the slight degree that I had turned to the side to smile up at Jazz I saw out of the corner of my eye Jake coming up behind me. I slid my hand off of Jasper’s arm and wrapped it around Jake along with my other arm pulling him into a hug. Jake wrapped his arms around me too in a sort of protective embrace. “How are you doing?” he asked in a whisper. “I’m okay.” He rubbed my back in comfort then pulled back as he slid his hand down so he could hold my hand in his. We turned back to face the rest of the group then. “Time to go?” Jake asked them. There were nods all around the circle. “Everyone’s ready,” Dad agreed. “Okay, let’s do this!” Emmett said with his usual enthusiasm when it came to fighting. “Bella, you’re ready?” Dad asked Mom. 89

She took a deep breath as she closed her eyes. She held the breath for a second then let it out as she opened her eyes. “All of us are shielded,” she told him. “Good,” he said. “Keep to the shadows,” and he took off faster than the human eye could see. The plan was for Dad to lead the way since he was the fastest out of all of us, and his gift would allow him to know where people were before seeing them. The rest of us took off to follow him. Emmett was determined to take lead with Dad so he took off as quick as he could to catch up with him. Jasper and Alice ran along together in content silence. Jake and I were at the back of the group while Mom ran along with us. I was gripping Jake’s hand tightly as we ran. I couldn’t believe how nervous I was feeling, but how excited and happy I was at the same time. I was finally going to get some revenge on the Volturi and, although it was nerveraking, it was also a rather joyous occasion. We ran along through the shadows avoiding all humans that were around us. There weren’t many people to take notice of us though; the streets seemed very empty. I wondered if this was why we were supposed to come today; that there wouldn’t be many people around. There was no way to know for sure. Alice hadn’t been able to fully understand her visions as of late. It seemed that the futures of the wolves and I were to intertwined with everyone else’s. It had been a lot of guessing for her lately, and she hated it. It did seem though that the streets were bare, but I realized that I had never actually been here before. Maybe this was the norm for Volterra. Maybe it was only on the Saint Marcus Day Festival that the streets here were crowded with people. I had heard the story of Dad attempting suicide here when he had thought Mom was dead from her cliff diving incident, so I knew that it was a fairly crowded place during that festival. I suppose that it was possible that on a normal day here this was how it was, but I couldn’t help but think that Alice’s vision had somehow told her that today was the right day just for this reason, even if she didn’t know it herself. I saw Dad stop up ahead as the rest of us caught up to him. “This is the best way in,” Dad said as he pointed towards an alley. “There’s a way in right over here,” he pointed to a specific spot now that just looked empty, but I imagined that there was some sort of hidden door or underground tunnel there. The Volturi were careful to make sure that their whereabouts couldn’t be easily stumbled upon by humans, and I imagined that anyone who had the accidental misfortune to never lived to talk about it. Dad lead the way for us as we followed along. We went all the way to the end of the alley which came to a dead end. I still wasn’t sure where it was that we were going in at until Dad bent down and moved a grate. I saw that there was an opening that looked like it took you into a dark, old tunnel. “Follow me,” he said and he jumped down into it. Each of us followed suit with Emmett going last. He said that he was going to watch our backs, literally. All of us followed Dad until eventually making it into a room that looked something like a lobby. There was a woman sitting at a desk who had been watching us since we had entered the room. Dad walked over to her and we all followed. “Hello, Heidi,” Dad said in a slightly sinister tone. “It’s lovely to see you. We are going to have a little talk with everyone, so any treats you may have had planned for today are now cancelled.” I looked at Mom. Treats? I asked her with my eyes. 90

Her expression was enough to explain. “Is everyone here?” Dad asked her. “Yes, everyone is in,” she answered. “Excellent.” “Let’s do this,” Emmett said. We all started the walk down the long hallway that eventually lead us into a large opened room. We went through a set of doors, the largest ones I had ever seen, and walked down another hallway. This one also opened into a large room, but this room was full of vampires. Murderous ones. Heartless ones. I stood looking as I took them all in. The Volturi was the largest coven in existence, that was why they had ruled for so long, but now our group numbered theirs. With us, our friends, and the wolves we could take them down. They had no idea what they were in store for. “Why, Edward, Alice, to what do we owe the pleasure?” Aro asked. He came forward towards Dad who was still the lead of our group. Aro reached out for Dad’s hand and took it without saying a word. The expression that came over his face was blank. He turned Dad’s hand over in his and still his expression didn’t change. “Not this time, Aro,” Dad said, pulling his hand away before Aro had the chance to grip it tightly in frustration. He tilted his head to the side. “You remember my wife,” Dad responded as he reached his arm back for Mom. Mom came forward to stand next to Dad. “Hello, Aro,” Mom said in a tone that was trying to sound friendly but was clearly full of hatred. “It’s been awhile.” “This is your doing, Bella?” he asked. “It is,” she answered in a snipped response. “How intriguing,” he said in a truly fascinated tone. “Oh, yes. She is truly gifted,” Dad said. “Our daughter is gifted too. I’m sure you remember her. You wanted to kill her when she was a child.” “Oh, Edward. Always the drama king. You know that was simply a misunderstanding.” “Of course,” Mom said. “Ness, would you come here please,” Dad said. I walked forward so that I was standing on the opposite side of him that Mom was, Mom on his right and me on his left. “Yes?” I asked him. “Would you like to do the honors?” “Of course, Daddy.” I already knew what it was he wanted me to do; this was part of the plan. I closed my eyes and focused on the shields in the room. As I focused in on the ones I already knew were there I sensed something. I leaned my head to the side as I focused. “They have more than I remember,” I said as a wave of doubt came over me. What if I couldn’t do it? What if I failed everyone that was counting on me? This doubt only lasted as long as it took for Jake’s hand that he had in mine to tighten its grip. At that moment I broke through them all, excluding Mom’s of course. As I opened my eyes I saw all of the members of the Volturi as they stood with confused expressions looking around them for an explanation. “There,” I said with pride and confidence. “That should make things a little more far.” “Any of you that want to surrender, leave now,” Dad said in a sharp tone. “And for the rest of you,” Emmett continued in a much more sinister tone, “it’s time to die.” 91

21. BATTLE At Emmett’s cue, the rest of our group entered the room. Our small group became massive as all of the wolves joined us, now phased into their wolf selves, along with the Denali coven, the Amazons, Ben and Tia, the Romanians, Esme and Carlisle, and Rose. Carlisle was at lead with Esme by his side. All of them came forward to join us, our group amounting to nearly fifty. “What’s all this?” Aro asked. “Have you come to declare war on us?” “Oh, no. Of course not.” Emmett said in a tone laced with sarcasm. “We’ve come to kill you,” he said without flinching. “Have you now?” Caius asked in an amused tone. “And how do you expect to do that?” “Well we’ve already broken down you shields,” he started, “and your two main defenses are useless against us,” he was referring to Jane and Alec, “and our numbers are equally matched…” he trailed off. “I don’t see how this fight isn’t in our favor.” “There’s only one loose end for us to take care of,” Dad said. I knew what he meant by this, we had talked about it before leaving for our trip. We needed to get ride of Chelsea so the bounds she was creating would be broken. There were many people here that were probably being kept against their will. It was Chelsea’s job to make everyone feel like they wanted to be there, but it wasn’t always the case. The plan had been that when the fight started for Emmett to make his way to Chelsea as soon as he could, but I realized that if we killed her before the fighting started that a lot of people had the potential to be saved in the process. No one would expect me. I can do this. I looked over to Emmett and he looked back at me. We had become good at silent communication over the time that he had spent training me. I used this to my advantage to tell him about my plan. 92

Let me get her, I told him with my eyes. The corner of his mouth corked up. You’re sure? Together. We both gave each other a nod so we knew we were in agreement and then I turned my attention back to the group in front of us. I let go of Jake’s hand as I scanned the group for Chelsea, finding her quickly. Before anyone could guess at my plan I went into action. I knelt and sprang across the room towards her. As I flew through the air I kept my eyes open for anyone coming for me. I placed my hands on one of their shoulders to boost myself up into the air as I began to loss some momentum. This gave me what I needed to make it the rest of the way to Chelsea as I flipped myself around in the air to put myself behind her. Before she had any time to react I grabbed a hold of her and threw her across the room to Emmett. I immediately had to duck out of the way of a swinging arm. As I ducked to miss it I knocked the person’s feet out from underneath of them then straightened myself up and launched myself back over to the side of the room where my family was. I landed with a roll and brought myself into a crouch. As I straightened myself up with a grin on my face I looked over to see Emmett with Chelsea in a vice hold; no one was stronger than Emmett. Everyone was looking from me to Emmett. I had moved so quickly and so swiftly that no one of the Volturi had had true time to react to my attack. No one, not even my family and friends, had expected this from me. Emmett and Jake were the only ones who knew that I could fight the way I could; to everyone else I just looked like an innocent bystander. “Nessie, would you like to do the honors?” Emmett asked me. I walked over to him where he stood with Chelsea in his arms as she thrashed about and shouted obscenities. “Let go of me, you bastard!” she shouted. “So I’m guessing that you stand strong with the Volturi then?” I asked her. “All we want from you is for your bounds to be broken.” “I will not betray my coven!” she shouted at me as she continued to thrash around in Emmett’s arms. I sighed deeply. “Very well,” I said to her. Emmett griped her even tighter so that she was completely incapable of any movement. I walked up so that I was standing right in front of her. My face was a scorn as a reached up quickly and snapped her head off. “NO!” Aro shouted. As I held it by the hair I would have expected to feel something, but killing had been second nature to me all my life and you could hardly even think of some of the Volturi as people. They’re souls had been lost for them when their human lives had ended. Now a lot of them were just empty shells living only on our animal instincts and forgetting everything else. I looked down at Chelsea’s still open eyes and felt only anger. I gripped her hair tight and flung the head over to where Aro stood. It fell by his feet as he looked at me in disbelief. “Perhaps you should have killed me when I was a child,” I said to him in a heavy tone, “because now I will be the cause of all your deaths.” Emmett cackled and the battle ensued. Almost instantly Jake was by my side as his wolf self along with Mom, Dad, Emmett, and Seth. The original plan had been for them to protect me while the fighting was going on, even though 93

Emmett and Jake had known that I wouldn’t need it. I decided to abide by my parents wishes though and stay put in the protective circle they had formed around me… that was until I saw some of the members of the Volturi standing back away from the melee with frightened expressions. I ducked and weaved and jumped and leaped my way through the crowd until I was standing with them on the other side of the room. I heard someone coming up behind me and spun around quickly. It was Dad. “What were you thinking?” he asked me in a breathless voice. “Help me,” I told him. I went over to them as they stood in the shadows. “Do you all choice to surrender?” I asked them. It was the girl closest to me who responded. “I don’t want to be here,” she nearly cried. She was the typical blond hair, blue eyed beauty although her eyes weren’t blue anymore but more of a deep red. She looked no more than sixteen and even with being a vampire she still looked utterly harmless. “I don’t think I ever wanted to be here.” “And the rest of you?” I asked the others, “You no longer want to be apart of the Volturi either?” They all remained silent but shook their heads in response. I turned to Dad. “Are they all telling the truth?” I asked him. “None of them have any desire to be a part of the Volturi.” I turned back to them. “Go then. Get out of here.” They started to scatter to get out of the room as quickly as they could; all except for the young girl who had spoken before. She reached up to grab my sleeve, I noticed that she was wearing gloves. “Where am I supposed to go?” she asked me. The rest of them were all gone now, she was the only of the surrenders who was still around. “How old are you?” “I was thirteen when they came for me only a few months ago. They told me that I was going to have an amazing power and made me into one of them.” “And do you have a power?” She nodded her head. “What’s your name?” I asked her. I knew I had to get back to the action soon, but I couldn’t just send her off on her own. She was right, she had no where to go. “Maddy,” she answered in a small voice. “Okay, Maddy. You can either find somewhere to hid until the fighting is over or you can come with me.” “I’d rather stay with you,” she told me. I had never felt so much in charge of another life before. “Do you know how to fight?” I asked her. “The Volturi taught me, but I don’t like to. My power isn’t physical.” I nodded my head. “Okay.” I took a deep breath and turned around to find Dad anxiously watching all of the action going on around us. We were standing back away from it in the shadows so that no one took much notice to us, but if anyone had Dad would have taken them out before they would have even gotten the chance to get to me. “Daddy, back us,” I told him. He turned slightly so that he could see me but still keep an eye on the action. I reached back to Maddy and grabbed a hold of her hand. “Maddy, I’m Ness, and you can trust me.” 94

She gripped my hand tightly. “Come,” I told her. I started my way back to where Jake, Mom, Seth, and Emmett still stood in a partial circle on the other side of the room. I kept a hold of her hand as I pulled her along with me as Dad followed behind us. We made our way back to them with only a small set back. An angry member of the Volturi came towards us. I slid down between his legs and came up behind him. I ripped off his head before grabbing a hold of Maddy’s hand again and leaping into the protective circle. “These people are my family, Maddy. They’ll keep you safe.” “Family,” she echoed the word in disbelief that something so beautiful could be possible for people like us.

maddy  

In the circle I was surrounded by two giant wolves that were unlike any creature that I had ever seen before, and the other three were like me. And then there was Ness. Ness was different from all the others. She seemed to be like me, but I knew that I could hear a heart beat when she was by me; my heightened senses allowed me to hear it, but it seemed to beat faster than any humans I had ever heard before. I looked around at the five of them and wondered how it was possible that they were her family. “Stay in the circle!” she shouted to me. “The sooner this is over, the sooner you’ll be safe.” She leaped out of the circle then and started her way around the room killing the members of the Volturi that still remained. She was so graceful and quick. She was probably the best fighter of them all. As I stood completely still in the middle of the circle finally feeling some sense of safety I watched Ness going around the room. I wasn’t sure why it was that I trusted this vicious killer, but she seemed to be good. I knew that the Volturi weren’t good people, so anyone killing them seemed justified in some way. I noticed that the three leaders Aro, Caius, and Marcus were still standing where they had been before the fighting had started. They were making no moves towards any of Ness’s family as they fought all around them, and none of them made any move towards them either. I hoped that they didn’t have the intentions of letting them live because Aro had been the one who had come and taken me those few months ago. I hated him so much, and I wanted to be sure that he was dead before I ever left this place. As I turned to look around the room I saw the biggest of the vampires surrounding me wresting with one of the Volturi. The girl managed to break away from him, but instead of coming at him again she started toward me instead.

renesmee  

I heard Maddy scream and spun around quickly. A girl was running towards her and no one was going to be able to get to her in time. 95

I did the first thing that came to mind and closed my eyes quickly and sent out the thought of darkness to the girl. When I opened my eyes she was frozen in place looking confused. She was about to go after Maddy again but her pause was enough for Seth to get to her first. Emmett was there instantly too with a gleam of revenge in his eyes. Between him and Seth the girl was in pieces almost immediately. I looked around the room to find that only Aro, Caius, and Marcus were left standing, and it was time for them to die.

96

22. REVENGE Our group came back together as five of us stepped forward: Mom, Dad, Tanya, myself, and Jacob; Dad took lead. “Do you choose to step down?” he asked. “Never,” Aro and Caius said together. Marcus remained silent, saying nothing… like always. I noticed that something looked different about his face though. He seemed somehow confused, or like he was lost. “Marcus, you don’t have to die,” Dad told him. Marcus looked at him as if he had forgotten about Dad’s gift. After a moment of realization it seemed that he answered him. “There’s always a choice,” Dad told him. I was sure that they were having a conversation now; Dad’s response wouldn’t make sense otherwise. “Chelsea is dead now, Marcus,” Dad said in a seemingly random response. It was like listening to Mom and Dad talking that night about Jake and I all over again. A conversation just didn’t make sense without both sides. Marcus even looked a little confused by Dad’s response too, but I was sure that it was for a different reason than I was. “She was working on you more than you realized,” Dad explained. Marcus tilted his head to the side, and Dad nodded. He looked at Aro, hesitated, then spoke. “After Didyme’s death-” “How did Didyme die?” Dad burst out, cutting Marcus off. He had a very concentrated look on his face, but he wasn’t looking at Marcus. He was looking at Aro? “How did Didyme die, Aro?” He was almost demanding the answer. It made no sense. Dad would have seen the story in their heads. 97

“She was killed in a battle many centuries ago,” Aro said. “That’s what you want him to think, isn’t it? “They were going to leave, you had no choice.” I don’t think he will see it that way.” I was confused at first by this exchange, but then all the pieces seemed to fall into place. If Aro wanted something he had no problem killing for it; Maddy was a perfect example of that. At my realization I showed Dad a picture of Aro killing Didyme, and he nodded. Then I showed the picture to the still confused Marcus. For the first time in centuries, Marcus showed some emotion. First disbelief, then betrayal, and last, rage. Before any of us could stop him, Aro was dead. Marcus stood up from Aro’s body, looking at Caius. “You’re on your own brother; this was never my fight.” “You stand with the enemy?” “I stand with the enemy only if I am welcome there.” “Of course Marcus, you are welcome to join us,” Dad said. Then he added, “Don’t worry, I think you will do well with our life style.” He chuckled. “Thank you for your kindness, Edward. And I am up for the challenge.” Marcus’s sudden upbeat attitude had me looking back at Jasper. He saw me looking at him instantly. He looked like a dog getting caught in the act of peeing on the carpet. He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, and I just shook my head and turned back around. “You don’t only stand with the enemy, but you plan to join them?” Caius said in disbelieve. “You realize that you are sentencing me to my death?” “I sentence you to nothing. If I were to stand with you, we would both die. It is our choice; I am just choosing a different one.” “Are you going to help them kill your only family?” “We were never family,” Marcus said in a stone cold tone. “We’ll take care of Caius,” Tanya said. “We will take care of Aro,” Vladimir and Stefan said in unison. “Well, what’s left of him,” Stefan said, grinning. “This revenge is long overdue,” Vladimir said. “It’s a shame we couldn’t kill them ourselves,” Stefan added. “But this will have to due for it seems we are not the only ones with a score to settle,” Vladimir went on. They both glanced at Kate and Tanya who were both already beginning to go into crouches. “You killed our mother,” Tanya snarled. “And our sister,” Kate hissed. They were both in full crouches now, ready to launch at any moment. “It’s time for you to die,” Vladimir and Stefan said together. “We will start the fire.” Tanya and Kate began backing Caius into the corner. “We will leave you alone,” Marcus said. No one seemed at all surprised by Marcus’s sudden side change. Before we could get out of the room I heard the ripping and tearing begin. I showed Dad a picture of Kate and Tanya; my way of asking him if they would be okay on their own. He glanced at Alice then nodded his head. “They will be fine.” He sighed in relief. “Everything is going to be just fine.” We all walked out into the lobby where Heidi was now gone and waited for Kate, Tanya, Vladimir, and Stefan. All of the wolves went into a different room so that they could change back and get dressed. 98

While Jake was gone Maddy asked me some questions. “Where are you guys from?” she asked. “All over,” I answered, “but my family lives in Washington. We have to move every few years though and start over so that no one will notice that we’re not aging.” She seemed to hesitant but I could tell that she had something else she wanted to ask. “Go ahead, Maddy. You can ask me anything you want.” She looked down then back up at me again. “What are you?” she asked. I felt like an idiot for not thinking of that; of course she would be curious about that! “I’m a vampire, human hybrid,” I told her. She looked at me with a dumbfounded expression. It took her a moment to get her voice back. “Uh, how exactly does that work?” she asked. “My dad is a vampire and my mom was a human; she’s a vampire now too though.” She still looked pretty confused. “A story for another time perhaps,” I told her. “Nessie,” the voice came from behind me. It was Jacob. “Jake!” I spun around and leaped up, wrapping my arms around his neck, and kissed him. He carefully set me down as our embrace slid into a hug. “So you’re the one my girlfriend went after,” he said. I kept hold of Jacob but turned so that I could look at Maddy. She smiled lightly at Jake. “What were you thinking in there anyway? You nearly gave me a heart attack.” “I was thinking that there was no point for people to die who didn’t have to,” I answered serious. “Besides,” I went on, “I’m a better fighter than you, even on your best day.” “Thanks for reminding me,” he said and pecked me on the lips. I turned around then. “This is my boyfriend, Jake. He’s a shape shifter.” “Hi,” Jake greeted her nonchalantly. Maddy’s expression was one of complete shock. “Yeah,” I answered her unspoken question, “they exist too.” “So those were what those big wolves in there were, shape shifters?” “Yup,” I answered. “That was my Jacob.” I patted him on the chest as I looked up into his eyes. She smiled at me but it didn’t touch her eyes. “What is it?” I asked her. She shook her head and looked away, but I wasn’t going to let it go that easily. “Maddy-” “It’s nothing.” I sighed deeply. “Don’t make me have my Dad come over here and tell me what you’re thinking.” She looked at me with wide eyes. “He can read minds,” I told her. “Oh. Well- it’s just- Where am I supposed to go?” she asked. I looked up at Jake, and he gave me a look that said, You know who you have to ask. Carlisle, I thought out to him. He was next to me in a instant. “Yes, Ness, what is it?” Maddy was looking at me confused again. There were so many things she didn’t know. “I called him with my thoughts,” I explained to her. Then I looked over at Carlisle. “Carlisle, this is Maddy. She was one of the Volturi who surrendered. She’s only thirteen and 99

was just recently turned, she doesn’t have anywhere to go.” “Well she come back with us then, of course.” “Really?” Maddy asked in utter disbelief. “I can come back with you to your home?” “Of course, Maddy. We’ll take care of you. I’m Carlisle, by the way. I’m the leader of our coven, but we usually call it our family.” He smiled. “Thank you, Carlisle,” I said to him. “Of course, Ness. And great job in there. I feel like I missed something though.” “Emmett and I found out that I was a natural and he’s been secretly training me for the last month,” I explained. “Oh, your mother and your father will have a few choice words to share with him when they find out,” he said. “You might want to warn him.” “I’m sure Emmett can take care of himself just fine. Plus, you know he loves a good fight.” “Yes, well, let’s hope that this will satisfy him for a bit.” “I doubt it,” I said. “I’m sure he’s already thirsting for another fight.” Before Carlisle could say anything more Kate, Tanya, Vladimir, and Stefan entered the room. “How did everything go,” Carlisle asked, turning to face them. “All of the bodies have been probably taken care of,” Stefan answered. “Burnt to a crisp,” Vladimir said as if clarification was needed. “Tanya? Kate? Everything went well?” “Everything went perfectly,” Kate answered. “They’re all dead,” Tanya said in a flat voice. “All of them,” she went on. “We’ve done it,” she said in disbelief. “We’ve actually done it!” she said in a voice that was instantly filled with emotion. “The Volturi are gone, dead. They will never be able to hurt anyone ever again.”

100

23. END OF AN ERA We were all back home now. Ren, Charlie, and Billy had been very happy to see that everyone was alright. Everyone was getting ready to leave and head back to their own homes now. Jake had said his goodbyes to all of the wolves and his Dad; they were all heading back to La Push together along with Charlie. The Romanians had never come back with us; we weren’t sure where they were now. Ben and Tia had also stayed since it was close to home for them. The Amazons had left shortly after we had gotten back home. I had had my goodbyes with Zafrina before they had left. Now the only people left were Maddy, Ren, Marcus, and the Denali coven. I knew I needed to have a conversation with Maddy, she looked so uncomfortable around us, so we all decided that we would meet in the living room to talk to her; everyone except for Marcus. Marcus had been spending time on his own since getting back, and we had all decided to give him some time to himself. So much had happened to him in such a short time that it was understandable for him to just want to be alone for a little while with his thoughts. Not that everything had begun to settle down everyone, excluding Marcus, was now in the living room. I decided to be the one to talk since she knew me the most. “So, Maddy, this is Carlisle,” I started, gesturing over to him. “You met him back in Italy. He is the oldest out of all of us. He made my dad, Edward, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett,” I said as I gestured to each of them, “into vampires. Alice and Jasper, they came and joined them a few years later. This is my mom, Bella,” I gestured to her, “and she was turned by my dad after she had me. “We are all a family,” I explained. “Jacob too,” I added, laying my hand on his arm. “This is the Denali coven,” I said, gesturing over to where they all stood. “They are the only other group of vampires that live off of animal blood like us.” “Animal blood?” she asked. “You can do that? We don’t have to kill people?” 101

“No,” I answered. “We don’t.” “The Volturi always told me that it was the only way. I always refused to accept it. I wouldn’t drink anything, even when they tried to force me to.” “You haven’t drank at all since you’ve been turned?” She shook her head. “Her body must still be living off of the remaining blood in her system, but we really need to get her some blood,” Carlisle said. “We’ll take you out hunting then. It’s really easy for us.” “Okay,” she said in a weak voice. “For most people I’ve heard that the hardest thing is to try to replace human blood with animal blood, but since you’ve never had any human blood it should be easy for you.” She smiled a little more now. “Anyway, let’s get back to telling you about us,” I said. “A lot of us have powers too,” I went on. “My dad, Edward,” I said, “he can read minds. I’m the opposite of my dad, I can allow other people to read my mind. And my mom, Bella, she’s a shield against any mental powers like my dad’s; when she blocks them out, I break them down.” “I guess my power wouldn’t work on her then,” Maddy cut in, “but I’m not really sure if it is all mental or if it’s physical too.” “That’s right. You said Aro turned you because of your power. Do you mind me asking what it is?” She looked down at her hands that she still wore her gloves on. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to,” I added quickly. “It’s not that,” she said. “It’s just that I don’t really like it. I had a tough time after I was first changed; until I started wearing the gloves that is.” “You don’t shock people do you?” Kate chimed in. “I remember having a few accidents at first.” “Don’t remind me,” Tanya mumbled. “Um… no. I don’t do that.” Maddy said, trying not to smile. “I, well… basically if I touch something or someone I’ll know the whole past of it. It has to be skin contact though, hence the gloves.” She held up her hands then quickly put them back down at her sides again. Everyone in the room was gawking at her. I was the first one to respond. “That’s so cool!” I exclaimed. “So we wouldn’t even have to tell you all our stories, you could just touch us and then know them all?” “Yeah, I guess so,” she said quietly. She was looking extremely uncomfortable now. “Maddy, there’s no reason to feel uncomfortable about your power. Like Ness said, a lot of us have powers. Alice over here can see the future,” he gestured at her. “Guilty,” she said in a kind tone. “With a few exceptions,” she glanced at Jake and I. “And Jasper, he can feel and manipulate emotions.” “If you’re ever feeling bad and want a pick me up I’m the one to come and see,” he said with a smile. “Kate can shook people, Eleazar can sense powers, Emmett can kick someone’s ass…” he trailed off with a smile. “You better believe it,” Emmett said, puffing out his chest. That finally got her and she laughed. It was a light sound like she hadn’t gotten to do it at all recently. Her expression changed quickly though to one of confusion. “You don’t have to be afraid to ask your questions, Maddy,” Dad told her. I was thankful for his courtesy of the rest of us in the room, not answering unspoken questions like he usually did. 102

“Well, it’s just- if… Eleazar you said it was?” Dad nodded. “If Eleazar can sense powers than why would you even bother asking me what my power is when you can just have him tell you?” I didn’t understand the reasoning behind her question so I was hoping that Dad would answer her. “Not all of us are like the Volturi, Maddy. Now, don’t get me wrong, there are others that are, but not us. Living on animal blood allows us to remain civilized.” “It’s true.” All of us turned to see who had said it. Marcus had walked into the room to join us. “The only reason that the Volturi were able to stay together was because of Chelsea. If it hadn’t been for her we probably would have just ended up killing each other. From what I can tell the animal blood does allow you to remain civilized; when you live off of human blood it’s all you can think about. The only true bond that a vampire living off of human blood can form is that with a mate.” “Marcus is right,” Dad agreed. “Human blood makes us vicious. It brings out our animal instincts until that’s the only thing left. Animal blood allows us to still feel human, and we live as much like humans as we can.” “We go to school and can get jobs and everything,” I said. “The only real inconvenience is having to move every few years because we don’t age. And of course wherever we go we have to remain discreet which can prove to be difficult every once and awhile.” I had learned this for myself when I had started school; sometimes you just say things without thinking about them. “It gets easier with time,” Carlisle said, “acting human.” “How long have you been doing it; living like this?” Maddy asked. Carlisle thought back to a different time. “It’s been centuries,” he answered. “Since I was changed back in the 1600’s.” “You’ve been around that long?” “I have,” he answered with a smile. “What do you do with all that time on your hands? How do you find purpose?” Carlisle smiled. “We have more than enough time to find what it is we want to do. You’ll have time to do just about everything. I tried a few things out and found that being a doctor was my calling; I’ve been one ever since.” “But don’t you have to be around blood to be a doctor? How do you do it?” “Blood has no control over me anymore. It takes some time and effort to get over the craving, but with some time I did. “And my family, they were a product of my loneliness. I only ever turned those who were dying though. I don’t take the lives of the living, I save them.” Maddy smiled. “You sound like a very good man,” she said. “A good man indeed,” Marcus agreed. “I truly did like having you around back when you were part of the Volturi. I was happy to see you go though. I knew you were too good of a man to be part of our treacherous coven. I’m happy to see it finally come to an end.” “I’m sorry about what you had to find out, Marcus. I know that couldn’t have been easy.” “There’s something incredibly freeing about knowing the truth though.” He shook his head. “Aro always did whatever he had to do to get what he wanted. I’m just sorry that wanting me meant having to end Didyme.” He shook his head again. “His own sister…” he whispered. “He was always relentless.” There was a silence in the room. No one knew how to respond to what Marcus was saying. It 103

wasn’t something that rendered a simply response. For our kind losing a mate was something that lit a fire inside of us, a fire that could never be extinguished no matter what revenge we got. Lucky for all of us, Marcus went on. “This is the end of an era,” he said. “It most certainly is,” Carlisle agreed. “Our world has been controlled by Aro for so long I don’t know what it will be without him. You can say what you want about his ways, but he did keep our existence a secret. Without the fear of the Volturi’s action nomads could run wild. We have to do something. We are going to need someone to keep our world in order with the Volturi gone.” Carlisle was shaking his head. “I know that my family is the next biggest coven of vampires, but I will not make this their responsibility.” Marcus sighed. “I understand, Carlisle, but you know as well as I do that we can’t leave our world ungoverned. Without consequences it will surely fall into chaos and bring back the vampire wars of the past. Our world can not function as an anarchy. It is our responsibility now to clean up the mess that we have caused.” “I agree with you Marcus, but I just can’t see who there is that can be in control. The numbers would have to be large and the group would have to be strong, both physically and as a unit.” “Agreed.” “Let’s take some time to think about it before we make any decisions,” Carlisle said. He looked like he had been defeated. I looked all around the room at my family and saw the same expression on each of their faces. We were all thinking the same thing; we were the only ones that could do this, we were the only ones that had the unity, the power, and the numbers needed to keep our world in order, and we all knew it.

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24. A NEW WORLD “I suppose we have more than enough to keep ourselves busy before we have to make a decision,” Marcus said. “Yes, Marcus. We need to get you settled into your new life. Perhaps while I think about our bigger problems you can have a talk with Tanya. She is the leader of another coven like ours that is just as well practiced in this lifestyle as my family is, she should be able to help you.” He looked over to her. “Tanya, would you be willing to talk with Marcus?” Marcus followed Carlisle’s gaze and seemed to see Tanya for the first time. Not just see her for the first time in the room, but see her for the first time in his life. Tanya was looking off in the distance only paying half attention to what was going on in the room. When she didn’t answer, Kate responded instead. “Are we getting a new addition to the family? We’d be all squared off again.” Kate said. “We’d take you in ourselves if we were not already so full. There are already ten of us. It’s a bit hard to not be noticeable with a family that big.” I explained. “We don’t try to live in the human world quite as much as the Cullens do,” Garrett explained. “But they are devoted to living solely off animal blood,” I added. “I think joining us will be good for you, Marcus,” Carmen said with a smile. Marcus was still looking at Tanya who was looking out the window. “So, what’s all this talk of someone joining my family?” Tanya asked, finally pulling her attention back into the room. “Tanya, you know Marcus,” Carlisle said. “I would like you to talk to him about our lifestyle if that’s alright.” She looked like she was about to refuse when she met Marcus’s stare. “Sure,” she said. I was expecting Marcus to say something so when he didn’t I looked over at him. He was still 105

staring at Tanya but now I noticed that there was a certain gleam in his eyes. Dad’s head suddenly snapped up, and his eyes locked on Marcus’s face. “I’m Tanya. We’ve never had a true introduction.” She reached out with her hand to shake his, but he didn’t move, he was still staring at her. Dad bumped him on the shoulder to knock him out of his trance. He shook his head in an attempt to get back to normal. Then he closed his eyes, opening to reveal them full of hope. He finally reached out to take her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” “Right…” Tanya drawled as a smile spread across her face. “Well, it’s nice to finally meet you. I guess I should introduce you to the others.” She turned away from him. “This is my family. You already know Eleazar and Carmen.” “Yes,” Marcus said in a voice that sounded happy, something I never thought that I would hear. “It’s a pleasure to see you again.” “Marcus,” Eleazar said with a nod. I had heard the story of Eleazar’s previous membership in the Volturi, and his departure. “I see things have gone well for you since leaving. I could never tell you, but I was happy to see you go. There was never a day that I was in agreement with the things we were doing.” “I’m glad to see that you’re finally free of them too.” Marcus nodded. “And this is Kate and Garrett,” Tanya went on when she was sure that Eleazar and Marcus were done talking. As their conversation continued the room began to clear out. Carlisle and Esme had left to discuss our impending doom, Emmett had made his way to the couch where he was now watching Sports Center on the flat screen, and the rest of my family seemed to be having their own conversations around the room now too. Maddy leaned in towards me to say, “I still have one more question.” I turned to face her. “What’s that?” I asked. “Who’s the human?” Sure enough when I looked up Ren was making her way over to us. She had been quiet during our entire discussion in the living room, and was now coming over to talk to me. “Hey, Ness,” she said. “I think all the serious talk is over. At least for now.” “Yes, I believe so too.” I turned so that I was looking at Maddy again and answered her question. “This is Ren, my grandma. Everyone else calls her Renée.” “Hi,” Ren said, reaching out a hand. “You’re Maddy, right?” Maddy hesitated to take Ren’s hand. I watched her closely as I nodded and smiled in approval. She reached out and took it as she nodded. “Yes, I’m Maddy. It’s nice to meet you.” I watched for a change in Maddy as she shook Ren’s hand; anything that would make me think that this was too much for her, that she was going to snap. When she took her hand, shook Ren’s, then put it back down at her side with no change I could hardly believe it. “How are you feeling, Maddy?” She looked at me confused. “You haven’t drank anything since you were turned, you must be starving.” “Should I leave?” Ren asked in a half joking, half serious voice. I held up my hand to keep her there while I kept an eye on Maddy. If she made a move towards Ren I would stop her first. “The burning must be unbearable,” I said to Maddy. I had never had to experience the burning of thirst, but I had heard enough about it from my family to know that it could become unbearable. 106

This got Maddy’s attention. She looked at me with big eyes as disbelief coated her face. She stood jaw dropped for a few seconds before she even made a move to respond. She composed herself a bit then said, “That’s one of the things about this life that I can’t stand. I don’t understand how the rest of you bear it.” I looked at her questionably. “Did the Volturi never tell you?” I asked. “The Volturi didn’t tell me much of anything. What in particular do you mean though?” “The burning, it comes from thirst. It’s not something that’s just there, it goes away after you’ve feed. I’m surprised that you can even bear it. I can tell from your eyes that you’re starving; you’ve only been a vampire for a few months and their already nearly faded to black.” She gave me a confused look again. “All newborns’ eyes are red for usually the first year after being turned; it’s the blood from when they were still human in their system. Your eyes will turn black when you’re thirsty. If you drink human blood your eyes will stay a dark crimson, but if you live off of animal blood like my family they turn a topaz color. As the blood drains out of your system so does the color in your eyes. “I’m half human so that doesn’t affect me, I can also live off of human food if I wanted to… I prefer blood though. I drink human and animal… I don’t hunt the humans though. Carlisle is a doctor so he keeps blood bags around in case of emergency. When I was little I drank human blood, but now I live mostly off of animal like the rest of my family. “Anyway, my family can usually go a tops of two weeks in between hunts, but we usually go every weekend. That’s why we always get a house in the woods, it makes going out for a snack much more convenient.” “So you’re saying that the burning would go away if I drank some blood?” Maddy asked me. “Really, I can leave,” Ren joked. “Let’s take you hunting.” “What will we hunt?” “Anything really, but deer mostly. We can hunt other things too though. My dad, his favorite is mountain lions. Emmett grizzles, that’s a personal feud for him though; a story for a different time. “Deer are the smallest animals we hunt though, anything smaller would be fairly ineffective.” “I’m sorry,” Ren said, waving her hand, “did you say grizzles?” “Yes, I did. I wouldn’t recommend it for a human, that is how Emmett got this way after all.” “Been loving life ever since,” Emmett chimed from the couch. “Yes, well, you must be starving, Maddy. Let’s go hunting.” I took Maddy to the clearing so I could teach her to hunt. The two of us stood across from each other as I listened for animals in the woods. There were some times that when we came out there weren’t many animals around, so I wanted to be sure that there were some around before starting. I heard some deer off in the distance almost immediately. “Listen,” I told Maddy. “Ignore any outside noises and just focus on the forest. You’ll be able to hear the animals feet hitting the ground as they walk. Can you hear it?” She stared off into space as she focused all of her energy on listening. After a few seconds she smiled in spite of herself. “Yeah, yeah. I think I do.” I smiled at her joy. “Okay. Are you ready then?” “What do I do?” she asked. “Just use your hearing to guide you to where the animal is and use your sight to get there quickly and safely. Once you’re there you’ll want to get close enough to jump on the animal then go for 107

the throat. Once your venom enters into its body it will be defenseless. And don’t worry about getting hurt, you’re fairly indestructible unless it comes to another vampire or a shape shifter. “So, if you’re ready, follow me.” She nodded to let me know that she was indeed ready then I set off towards the place where I had heard the group of deer. She followed along with me as I ducked and weaved through the forest, her following suit from my example. As we neared the group I whispered to her, “Do as I do.” She nodded as we broke into a small clearing where a group of deer were drinking from a stream. The deer immediately reacted to our presence and began to run away. “They can smell us, so we have to be quick,” I whispered quickly to Maddy. I ran after them and quickly caught up with one. I jumped and landed on its back breaking its neck quickly then biting into the jugular. Since I’m not poisonous like the rest of my family I couldn’t relay on any venom to take down my pray. After I drank for a bit I raised my head to look at Maddy. “Got it?” I asked her. She nodded. “Okay. Give it a try then.” As I stood up from the deer Maddy began to make her way to where the rest of the deer had gone. I quickly followed her and watched as she chased down her own deer doing as I had done and spared no expensive while she drained the deer dry. With the red having been drained so much from her eyes when she looked up at me they were now a strange color of red tinted topaz. “Did I do good?” she asked me in a childish voice looking for approval. Even as she looked up at me over the deer’s body with blood covering her it was hard to believe that there was any evil in this girl. “You did very good,” I told her and smiled. “How are you feeling now?” “So much better,” she said. “Can I have another one?” “Of course you can,” I told her. She flashed a smile at me then ran off with a look of excitement in her eyes. I followed her with the same excitement that she seemed to have; sometimes it’s nice to have someone that relays on you so much. There was no loss for me not being able to have children if I had Maddy around. As Maddy and I made our way back to the house we stopped by the cottage so I could show her where I lived with my mom and my dad. I grabbed some of my old clothes for her that would be her size then we went up to the house. “That was really great for your first hunt,” I told her. “You barely got any blood on you at all.” It felt really great to give her this strange compliment and she seemed to like it too. “There’s a bathroom right over there,” I pointed, “so you can clean yourself up and change. And don’t worry about clothes, I’ll take you out later tonight if you want and you can pick some out. I’d hate to stick you with my hand-me-downs.” “Thank you so much, for everything,” she said in a sincere voice. “You’re welcome.” I smiled. “Now go get cleaned up.” She smiled at me then went into the bathroom. I started towards the kitchen where I had been able to hear an interesting sounding conversation 108

since entering the house. Interesting because I could hear my family talking with someone who’s voice I couldn’t exactly place, and everyone seemed kind of wound up. As I came around the corner I saw my whole family standing on one side of the bar and someone else who’s back was to me on the other. As a result from my arrival all of my family looked up at me and the unknown person standing with their back to me turned around. “Nahuel,” I said in a way that almost sounded like a question, “what are you doing here?”

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25. THE PROTECTORS “It seems he’s stopped by for a surprise visit,” Dad said. “More like unwanted,” Emmett grumbled. Jazz glared at him a gave him a dose of calm to shut him up. Sometimes for people who didn’t understand Emmett’s sense of humor would take it seriously, but he never seemed to realize when it was inappropriate. Before the awkward silence could go on for too long Maddy cam skipping into the room at a normal human pace. She bounded up to me not paying any attention to the rest of the room. “The clothes fit perfectly,” she chirped. She was wearing a white, long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves rolled up to where the sleeves of the black leather jacket that she wore over top stopped at her elbows. She had that paired with worn out looking jeans, black chucks, and the white gloves that she had had on before; I wondered if she had purposefully picked out an outfit to match them. “Thank you so much! I love them! And look,” she went on, “my eyes changed colors!” Due to my expression she seemed to finally notice the rest of the room and froze. “I’m interrupting something, aren’t I?” I rested my hand on her arm and smiled. “I’m glad that the clothes fit,” I told her. “We do have a visitor though. This is Nahuel,” I gestured to him. Nahuel was standing there staring at Maddy with the same look that Marcus had given Tanya before in the living room. I still didn’t understand what the look meant, so I just ignored it. I heard Dad sigh deeply. I looked over at him and I caught him rolling his eyes before slipping out the backdoor. Mom looked around confused before running after him. “Well,” I said confused, “if you’re going to explain why you’re here you might as well do it over supper. Now where’s Jacob, he must be starving?” The four of us: myself, Jake, Maddy, and Nahuel, were all sitting at the bar in the kitchen. Jake 110

had appeared shortly after the mention of food and the both of us had gotten something together. Now Nahuel and Jake were shoving food into their mouths while Maddy and I sat across form them and watched incredulously. “Is he like you?” Maddy whispered to me so that only I would hear. I nodded my head. “How long is he going to stay?” We should probably ask why he’s here first, I thought to her. She jumped at this and looked at me. I laid my hand on her shoulder. My power, remember? “So that’s how it works?” I nodded again. We both looked back over to the boys who were now shoveling the last bits of their food into their mouths. “You would think they would be a little more… mannered in front of us,” Maddy said. I chuckled. “So, Nahuel,” I said to get his attention. He looked up at me then set his fork down with a smile. “To what do we owe the pleasure?” I asked. “Oh, yes. I had almost forgotten.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin then went on. “This was lovely, by the way. Thank you.” I smiled. “So, yes. Why am I here… I saw the Amazons as they were passing through on their way home,” he began. “You see, my aunt and I have been living in the states trying out living in society again with your lifestyle. It’s been going pretty well, and I had talked with them before making the move. Since they knew we were there they decided to stop in on their way back and say hi. While they were there they told us about where they were coming from and everything that had happened. They were kind of vague with the details so I decided to come up and hear it from the source and make sure everyone was okay.” “Yes, Kachiri, Senna, and Zafrina left shortly after we got back from Italy; they didn’t want to impose any farther by sticking around.” “Italy?” he asked. “Yes. We went there to kill the Volturi, and we were quite successful. The only members still living are those who surrendered,” I glanced at Maddy. “So that’s who this is?” he asked in an interested tone, referring to Maddy. “You were a member of the Volturi?” he asked her. She seemed to light up when he turned his attention from me to her. I looked over at Jake who was smirking. “Yeah,” she answered. “What was that like?” he asked. “It wasn’t all bad I guess. A few of them were actually pretty nice when they wanted to be. I like it much better here though. It’s sort of like being human again.” “Oh, I know what you mean. The Cullens are great people. I think you’ll like it here.” Nahuel saying that seemed to make me realize that I had never really spoken with Carlisle about Maddy staying. I was sure that he would be okay with it, but it would be something that I would have to ask the whole family about. A decision like this couldn’t be taken lightly. “Well you two seem to be getting along swimmingly,” I said quickly, “so if it’s okay with you Maddy I have some things that I need to attend to.” 111

“Sure, I don’t mind.” “Great. If you need anything just come and find me.” She didn’t really seem to hear me now that Nahuel and her were talking again. I figured she’d be fine so I got up so I could start my search for Carlisle. Before I could leave the room Jake said quickly, “I’ll come with you.” I looked at him a little questioningly. I didn’t understand why he seemed so eager to come along with me to perform this uninteresting task, but he seemed like he wasn‘t going to take no as an answer. “Okay,” I answered. Whatever floats your boat. I walked out of the kitchen and into the living room with Jake following behind me. “So, Sparky, do you know where Carlisle is?” “He’s in his office,” Jake answered. “And did you just call me Sparky?” I started towards Carlisle’s office. “Yeah, I did. You seemed so gung ho on coming along, plus you’re kind of a dog, so the nickname Sparky seemed appropriate.” “It’s not that I wanted to come along, I wanted to leave Maddy and Nahuel alone.” I stopped right outside of the closed door to Carlisle’s office and turned to face Jake. “What are you talking about,” I asked him. “Oh, Ness,” he said in an adoring tone as he stroked my cheek. “You can be so ignorant sometimes.” Before I could ask him what he was talking about he opened the door to Carlisle’s office and went right in. I sputtered before following him into the room. Carlisle was sitting at his desk with Esme standing next to him. Neither of them seemed surprised or annoyed by us barging into the room, they just looked up at us and smiled. “What can I help you two with?” Carlisle asked. “I just wanted to talk to you about Maddy. Carlisle, I’d really like for her to stay, and-” Carlisle held up his hand. “Your father has already come and talked to me about it. As far as the both of us are concerned she can stay. We’ll have a family meeting soon to talk about it.” “Oh, um… thank you, Carlisle.” “Anytime.” “I can go and get everyone together now if you’d like… it’s starting to get dark and I’d like to be at the meeting too.” “Of course. Now is as good of a time as any.” “Okay, I’ll go and gather everyone into the dining room.” The dining room was always the room that we went to for a family meeting. No matter what house it was, that was always the meeting room. “Very well. We’ll be down shortly.” I nodded before leaving the room. “You really like her, huh?” Jake asked. I looked at him a little confused. “Maddy I mean. You seem so happy around her.” “It’s sort of nice to have her rely on me like she does, and she’s so innocent and sweet. I hope that she’ll fit in here well.” “I’m sure she’ll fit in just fine.” He reached up to rub my back. “I’m glad to see you so happy.” I leaned into his side. “Are you going to help me gather everyone up?” “Of course. I’m pretty sure everyone’s downstairs, but if anyone has strayed off I’ll go and get them for you.” 112

“Thanks, Jake.” We reached the bottom of the steps and Maddy came running over. “Can I talk to you for a minute, Ness?” Jake kissed my cheek before leaving. “Of course,” I answered. “What is it?” “Well… it’s just-” she looked to be sure that no one was around before continuing. “I really like Nahuel and I don’t want him to leave.” “It’s not that I wanted to come along, I wanted to leave Maddy and Nahuel alone.” Jake had been right, I was ignorant. “Oh, Maddy. I- I don’t know what I can do about that. We can talk to the rest of the family about it, I guess. We’re getting ready to have a family meeting now. We’ll run the idea by them and see what they think okay.” I tried to seem hopeful, but I knew that the chances of Nahuel staying were slim to none. Our family was already too large, I couldn’t see them agreeing to add another member. “Okay,” Maddy said in a hopeless voice. I tried to muster an encouraging smile but if I couldn’t prove it to myself why would Maddy believe me. “Come on,” I told her. “We’re meeting in the dining room.” The both of us walked into the dining room to find that everyone was already waiting for us. Marcus was standing with the Denali coven while my family was sitting around the table. Nahuel was standing off on his own looking a little unsure about being here. In the back of my mind I wondered where Ren might be, but it wasn’t really necessary or even a good idea to have her here for this so I ignored the thought. Jake walked over to stand with us. I looked over at Maddy and saw that she was looking a little uncomfortable standing in the room with everyone staring at her, and I couldn’t blame her. I put my hand on her back in an effort to make her feel a little more comfortable before I spoke. “I want Maddy to stay,” I said to the whole room. “I propose that Nahuel stay too,” Dad said. Everyone but Carlisle, Esme, Mom, and Marcus gawked at him. Maddy, on the other hand, seemed extremely enthused at the idea, but still gawked at him nonetheless. “I would very much like to stay,” Nahuel agreed quickly. “What about your aunt?” Carmen asked. Nahuel seemed to take a moment to think. “We could move. We don’t have to live with you if it’s too much of a bother, we’ll just live in town.” “Like extended family,” I said with a smile. “What if I went to live with Nahuel and his aunt?” Maddy asked. “Then we could still see each other, but I wouldn’t be your responsibility.” I could tell this last part was directed more at me than anyone else. “If it’s okay with Nahuel than I suppose it’s okay with me.” I felt my stomach sink with uncertainty. Would it really be the same when she didn’t have to rely on me? “It’s okay with me,” Nahuel answered. Of course it is, I thought bitterly. “As long as I can come over every day,” Maddy added quickly. “And we’d go to school together too, right?” “It will be like the mutt all over again,” Rose chimed in. “Isn’t this how it started with him too? And if they joined us our family would be a little on the large side, don’t you think?” “Rose, you’re input is never welcome,” Emmett grumbled at her. He looked over at me and smiled. 113

Rose glared at him. Thanks for that, Emmett, I thought to him. You know she’s probably going to try to kill you later. Rose was glaring at him as he glanced over at her then looked away quickly trying to seem nonchalant. “Rose, before you get yourself all worked up I’ve already thought about this,” Carlisle said. Rose huffed then Carlisle went on. “If after some time Huilen, Nahuel, and Maddy would like to join our family then I believe that Emmett and yourself could try living on your own for awhile… as a married couple.” Rose’s expression changed immediately. “That sounds like an excellent idea. I’m in.” “I thought you might be,” Carlisle mused. He sighed before continuing. “Now onto the more serious problem at hand.” “Actually Carlisle, I think Jacob has gotten that all figured out,” Dad said. I looked at Jake to find him looking at Dad questioningly. “Really?” Carlisle asked. “What is it that he believes we should do?” “Yeah, what incredible idea is it that the mutt came up with?” Rose asked. “Believe it or not Rosalie, Jake is very smart, he just doesn’t realize it.” “Wow, Edward. That actually sounded like a compliment.” “Yes, well, although it pains me it is the truth.” “Would you please get back to the ingenious idea that Jake has come up with, please,” I grumbled at Dad. “It’s actually really obvious, but we would have probably never considered it,” Dad explained. “It’s about having to replace the Volturi. Jake thinks that the wolves should take their place.” Carlisle looked at him unsure. “Think about it Carlisle, it makes sense. The whole reason for their existence is to protect humans from vampires. Why shouldn’t they take their place?” “I don’t know that it’s fair for us to cast our burden onto them.” “Carlisle, we were there too. This is just as much our fault as it is yours.” Jake said. “I just don’t feel right about this.” “Edward’s right. This is the reasoning behind our existence, and we out number you by many. As the alpha I agree to take on this responsibility for myself and for my wolves.” “And I believe it would be beneficial if I were in charge since I’ve been at this for a long time,” Marcus said. “It may be difficult to head the group from Denali, but I believe I can make it work.” “You could always stay in our house outside of Forks,” I proposed. “Only if Tanya would be willing to make the move.” I looked at him a little confused. “So ignorant,” Jake whispered in my ear. “That would be up to everyone,” Tanya said. “I don’t mind a move,” Kate said; which everyone knew meant that Garrett wouldn’t mind either. “We don’t mind either,” Carmen said. “Jacob?” Carlisle asked. “I’m fine with Marcus leading us. It’s best to have someone experienced to be able to go to.” “Then it’s decided,” Carlisle said with a little excitement. “You’ll all move to our home outside of Forks so that Marcus can lead the wolves who are taking over for the Volturi.” With that it was settled; the wolves would be the new protectors of our existence. They had always been the protectors after all. In the end, they were the only choice that made sense. “I’ll call Sam tomorrow to explain to him what’s going on,” Jake said. 114

“Excellent,” Carlisle said. “Now is there anything left for us to do?” “What about Ren?” I asked. “We have her scheduled to leave tomorrow,” Alice answered. “I think she said she was going upstairs to pack.” “And school?” Jake asked. School had been forgotten ever since Alice had gotten her vision, but now that we were back to our normal lives we would have to start up again. “We can start back up next week,” Dad answered. “We’ll need to get Maddy enrolled,” Carlisle said. “I get to go back to school?” Maddy asked, sounding excited to do anything human again. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Jasper asked. “She hasn’t been a vampire for very long.” “I think she’ll be okay,” I said. “She was around Ren earlier and didn’t even flinch. I think all of those months of starving herself has build up her tolerance to an incredible level.” “Maddy, do you feel like your ready for something like this?” Esme asked. “Absolutely!” she said quickly. “I’m so used to the burning that I hardly notice it. I can do it! Promise!” “It’s settled then,” Carlisle said. “You’ll start school with the rest of the kids. What grade are you supposed to be in?” “I was supposed to finish up my last year of middle school this year. That was, of course, until the Volturi came and took me over the summer.” “Well the rest of the kids are all in the high school, but we’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Carlisle said with a wave of his hand. “We’ve dealt with enough things today.” I heard Jake sigh in relief from behind me before wrapping his arms around my waist and hunching down to rest his head on my right shoulder. I reached up and rested my arms on top of his and covered his hands with mine. “One last thing before you two leave,” Mom said to Jake and I. “Edward and I have decided,” I noticed that Dad made a throat cutting motion then pointed at Mom, “to let you and Jake have the cottage for yourselves.” Dad stood there silent with an unhappy expression until Mom looked at him. His expression remained the same but with a sigh he said, “We’ve already moved the stuff around.” “So we have the cottage all to ourselves?” I asked with a little too much excitement. Emmett was grinning. Dad sighed again. “Yes.” “Thank you!” I directed at Mom because I knew it had been her idea. Mom smiled and Dad groaned. Jake tightened his grip on me. “I’m pretty tired. Do you want to head out?” I heard Emmett chuckle and ignored him. “Yeah, I’m tired too,” I said to him. “Well I cause Jake and I are going to call it a night.” “I bet you are,” Emmett mumbled. Everyone ignored him. “Before you two head off to sleep I think it best for us to say our goodbyes now so we can leave for our trip to Forks,” Tanya said. “You’re leaving?” I asked them. “We’ve imposed long enough,” Marcus answered. “It’s time for us,” I noticed that with this word he places his arm around Tanya, who smiled like I had never seen her smile before, “to go. We need to go get settled in at our new home.” He smiled. I used up the last bit of my energy saying my goodbyes to Carmen and Eleazar, Kate and 115

Garrett, and I suppose Tanya and Marcus. It seemed that it was a rightful conclusion to be drawn that they had ended up finding a mate in each other. Who would have thought? Now Jake and I were heading to the cottage. Our cottage. When we reached the door both of us froze. We looked at each other like we weren’t sure what to do. I was feeling as if there was something that should be done, but I wasn’t really sure what. Leave it to Jake to be the one who figured out what it was. He scooped me up in his arms before opening up the door. “Carry you through the threshold?” he said in a joking, loving tone. I giggled in spit of myself as he stepped into the cottage. Our cottage, I reminded myself. This was the most perfect moment. Jacob and I were together, really together. He brightened up my world like my own sun lighting up the rest of our forever, and I wanted him to know that. As he held me in his arms I looked deep into his eyes and said, “You’ll always be my sun, my light.” I reached up to put my hand on his cheek. “My endless light.”

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the end? there is no end to eternity

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