A/N: I have been working on this story, honest! :) With my thanks to anndeveria for her help with the Italian translations, I bring you chapter two… See you down below!

Carlisle POV

"I do thank you for your permission. My wife and I have always been most interested in the nocturnal practices of the Cape Buffalo." Big game hunters classified the buffalo as the most dangerous of the non-endangered species to hunt. After nearly four hundred years, I was more than ready to try my hand with them. Esme as well. She was not as fierce a hunter as our daughters perhaps, but my wife knew how to leap on her kill with dispatch.

Of course, I had taken the liberty of reviewing the now-classic National Geographic video clip of the Battle at Kruger, in which a pride of lions takes down a young buffalo, which is then almost stolen by a crocodile before the rest of the herd of buffalo return. The buffalo manage to rescue their lost calf – which was by some miracle still able to walk, by all that is holy – and disperse the pride of lions with some dramatic uses of buffalo horns and sheer determination. It was quite amazing to view.

Just at the moment, it was raining. Not a prohibitive amount of precipitation, but enough to keep it overcast and necessitate some coverage. Our guide was reviewing our safari credentials, seeming to come to the conclusion that we were indeed experienced. We signed a waiver and Esme smiled graciously in that lovely way of hers.

"Thank you so much. I've so been looking forward to this."

"You, ma'am?" the dark-skinned fellow said, his lips parting in an incredulous grin. He wiped a trail of sweat from his temple. "You must be a brave lady!"

"Oh, she is," I assured our host, drawing Esme up against me. "She married me!"

"Well, all is in order, Mr. and Mrs. Cullen. A reminder that the Cape Buffalo are very formidable. Try not to get too close or to seem threatening. The rain today probably hasn't deterred them from grazing, but if so, they'll be active tonight. On behalf of the park, I wish you a safe safari."

All the while we were listening to Mr. Abouti's discussion about the dangers of the safari, the needed equipment and so forth, I was practicing.

Nascondi. I Tuoi. Pensieri. Tu. Puoi. Lui. Non Può. Vedere.

Hide. Your. Thoughts. You. Can. He. Cannot. See. Words coded from books my newest daughter was studying. We used the words in Italian because, as Bella suggested, it would be a "double fake-out."

"If we use English, that'd be too easy. If we choose another language, they'd be suspicious when they came over it. Even if it was in my course of study," she had intimated as we were saying our final farewells in front of the Hanover house. No one could hear us, and Bella was highly nervous. "Italian. My studies."

"Of course, dear one."

And so we made our plan. It took a few emails, but she had truly plotted out a strategy beforehand. Perhaps her studies with Jasper on battle tactics had indeed gone to some further effect Jasper had intended. We exchanged information via discussions about her coursework, using a code we reinforced at the New Years' Party last year. My part was to practice hiding my thoughts. Even if there was no one around, I did know how to do it. Decades of living with Edward had taught me that much.

So I practiced. I had to be able to do better than I did, she informed me last year. Edward was prying. "He's suspicious," Bella had murmured into my ear in a lightning-speed blur of words. "Esme?"

I managed a negative before Bella pulled away to cross the room and hug her sisters and Esme. She had given a gift to Jasper that evening as well and I wondered just what Bella was trying to do.

My husband. Ignorant. Be.

Mio marito. Ignorante. Essere.

Of course we couldn't tell Edward. So instead of meeting with the family this year, Esme and I were hunting big game in Africa. Georgia during the college football season was not my favorite place in any event.

"Oh Carlisle, I do miss the children, but it is a pleasure to be able to spend so much uninterrupted time with you," my wife murmured as we drove off through the light rain.

"I am sure 'the children' miss you, too," I assured her. "Jasper would be shaking his head to hear you now, you know."

Esme cast me a flirtatious glance and tossed a damp lock of hair over her shoulder. "He certainly doesn't see me as a maternal figure."

She was teasing me and I had to chuckle. "He's not the only one!"

"Well, at least Bella truly treats me as a mother. It's so nice to have one of 'the children' need a mother on occasion. Do you find that she treats you like a father?"

"Bella?" I navigated our four-wheel-drive vehicle around a tree that had been allowed to thrive on the road. "She's always treated me as a second father, I think. It's quite an honor, considering her father is still alive."

Esme winced and I apologized with a silent look and touch on her arm. Bella had tried, sincerely, to keep in touch with her family after her wedding and beginning life as an undergraduate student. But the strain had been too much for her to handle with equanimity. The decision had been made to have an accident in which she was killed shortly after she finished her Junior year at Dartmouth. (She had been able to enter as a Junior as she had already completed her first two years at a local college upon her marriage.) Edward acted the grieving widower – and indeed he did mourn for having to have been part of the cause of the grief evident at Bella Swan Cullen's funeral – and still communicated annually with Bella's parents, as they regarded him as their son-in-law. Christmas cards were exchanged, but even they made Bella weep in the rough, gasping way of our kind.

We let the sad silence linger between us as we drove further into the park. There were game wardens, but they had been informed of our visit and the Cullen credentials were such that they were pleased to let us be on our own.

"Let's stop here," I suggested at last. "Take a scent."

"In this weather?" Esme challenged, a glint in her eye. "We could also listen. It'd be more reliable."

"As you wish."

We parked the automobile and I dashed around to Esme's side of the car to hand her out of it. Of course my wife did not require my assistance in this or any other matter, but she was kind enough to allow me the mask of humanity in such things. We inhaled deeply together – decades as hunting partners allowed for us to do this so closely to one another. The soil affected the scents of the wildlife, but it was not entirely unfamiliar. I just had to reacquaint myself with the richer green of the odors. The herbivore leavings were strong, here.

I glanced at Esme as she swung her eyes toward me. They darkened as I watched. "Hunting first, lover-boy," she sneered playfully.

"Game on, as the boys say," I returned.

We took off on a run, following the pungent aroma of Cape Buffalo. Through the night, the rain glancing off my stone skin, I flashed after the herd. My sense of smell traced their path as my sense of sight caught their current location, far ahead between two copses of high-leafed trees. The beasts snuffled and made deep lowing sounds as they moved together. I could feel my interest spiking. Heavy animals, full-blooded, I would only really need one so I better make this a great hunting experience.

I glanced at my Esme, who was focused entirely on the herd in front of us. There was an older calf – smaller than a female adult buffalo but larger than a noticeably newer-born – who was straggling on the edge. I winced, remembering the video I had seen and the intense protectiveness the Cape Buffalo exhibited in terms of their young. Still, I knew that Esme could take the youngling away if she chose it for her prey.

She didn't.

I found my attention absolutely held spellbound as my mate unleashed her wildest side. Her lush hair streamed behind her as she sped to the rear of the herd and leapt, cracking the back of a smallish adult female so that the creature collapsed with a weak sound of protest. I was poised to run to Esme's aid if she found the buffalo too awkward to move from the herd, but she did not require me. She hefted the cow to her own shoulders in a fireman's carry and lifted her prey away.

And best of all, the beast was incapacitated but her heart still beat, so the blood would be fresh.

However, the death of this member of the herd left the others restless. "Careful!" Esme cautioned as she ran away, following the scent trail of the herd and back toward our vehicle.

"You too!"

And she was gone. I would miss seeing her drain her kill, but I had a hunger of my own to satisfy. The animals were not going to make it easy, either. They were already shifting, refusing to move ahead on whatever path their Alpha Male, or whatever it was, chose for them. They milled about, circling, herding the younger and more vulnerable of their number to the center of their massive community. The wet earth shifted underneath their many hooves, making a susurrant, slushing sound while they reorganized. The males were alert, their horned heads shifting back and forth. Esme's scent was unknown to them, but they knew it wasn't normal.

I was exhilarated by the challenge before me. To take down a bull, to do so while not incurring damage to myself and without further damaging the herd, was my goal. I ran around the northern edge of the herd as the rain let up. Careful not to step in any unstable patches of earth, I hopped and leapt to the top of a tree within easy access to the Cape Buffalo herd. Then, when I sensed their instinct was going to cause them to run, I jumped hard from the tree, using gravity and my own body mass and innate strength to break the spine of a lead bull in two. He made some crazed sound that sounded almost like a honking, throaty bellow before I muscled him away, out of the path of the following stampede.

Following Esme's scent, I hefted the bull in her wake, stopping several yards from her. The heartbeat of the cow was slow and sluggish, meaning that my wife was nearly sated with nourishment. My turn.

I drank from the Cape Buffalo, appreciating the thick, savory quality of its blood and thankful that both Esme and I had hunted and escaped unscathed. When we were finished, we helped one another with the chore of handling the corpses. We quartered the cow and distributed her flesh for the carrion birds and beasts while burying the bull. Less conspicuous, that way.

Then, we followed our noses to the nearest watering hole and cleaned ourselves up. Seeing my mate's bare skin in the moonlight did prompt other instincts entirely...

C&E C&E C&E

We had had to take our lovemaking to the trees, of all places, to avoid the sun when it rose, hot and pulsing, over the horizon. I was rather dismayed to find that we were not alone when we were just finding an interesting new way to incorporate a branch into our time together.

"Carlisle Cullen! I can catch your scent and it will do you no good to hide from me. I have been in search of you for quite some time."

In the tree, Esme and I heard the male vampiric voice and stilled for an instant before snagging our clothing from the high branches where they were hanging and dressing at speeds that would have appeared blurs to any human eye. Then, we exchanged smiles with each other. We had spent decades living with "the children" and such quick-dressing was something we had done often enough to save the notional embarrassment of the others in our family.

Esme and I – though rather conservative in our outer appearances – were adventurous in our intimacy on occasion.

I stood in front of my wife as the newcomer approached. He had not hurried, but his path led him inexorably to stand beneath us.

"Felix," I murmured. "It's been a long while, friend." Esme relaxed behind me as I smiled politely at one of the senior members of the Volturi Guard. "Allow me to introduce to you my wife. My mate, Esme."

We leapt gracefully to the ground and shook hands in a most civilized and conventional manner. Esme restrained her unease and took her lead from me as Felix nodded to her. "Carlisle. I have come on Aro's behalf."

Felix was an enormous form of a man. Six feet, ten inches in height, he looked as if he could have been a modern-day body builder, selling shakes on an infomercial on cable television. The morning sun glinted quietly off the skin that stretched over his prominent cheekbones. The rest of him was adequately covered. Thin gloves, a thin sweater, linen trousers and low safari hat served to cover him in such a way as was unremarkable. He could not help his stunning proportions, but Felix had done what he could to make himself nondescript in every other way.

"I imagine he's wanting you to check up on us?" I could not quite keep the edge of bitterness from my voice. "As you can see, Esme and I are quite alone, here."

Felix nodded again, his hands crossed in front of him. "Yes. That is indeed part of it. I am sorry. You understand he is only seeking the best for our kind."

"Oh, and a coven of animal-drinkers is terribly threatening," Esme muttered from under my arm, where I kept her close to me.

Felix coughed unnecessarily. "It is not your diet that concerns The Three, Esme Cullen. As I am sure you are aware."

"I know," I assured him. "So, you see us as we are. Should I assume that you or your fellow Guard members are to establish the same for the rest of our family?" I wondered if I had any need to get in touch with Bella.

Nascondi. I Tuoi. Pensieri. Hide your thoughts.

I threw up barriers in my mind, to practice. If I were brought before Aro, I couldn't hide my thoughts, but before Edward... I had to. I had to be able to for all of our sakes. Aro would burn Bella in front of us all and that would destroy my family more certainly than Aro's decree.

"Indeed. Aro has been most...pleased...with your apparent willingness to be guided by his wisdom."

Apparent willingness. So Aro was not entirely convinced. Well. We had to work harder at that.

"We were given little choice," I reminded Felix with a lift of my brow. "So we complied."

"We would be most grateful if you would not alert the rest of your disbanded coven to the impending visits. It would be most...unpleasant to have to resort to calling Demetri or someone else to track them down."

I grimaced. I had to comply or our plan would be exposed. Jasper had convinced me of the importance of lulling the Volturi into a belief of our compliance with their unreasonable request. He was a man of war and I would heed him.

"Of course," I assured the Guard. "We are hunting at this time, as you can see. I have no plans on being in communication with anyone at this juncture aside from my wife. We have been surrounded by others for decades and are rather enjoying the solitude."

The giant vampire merely bowed at Esme and me one final time before saying, "We thank you. Enjoy your...second honeymoon, Carlisle Cullen. Esme Cullen."

Emmett POV

"All right," I told Rosalie from my computer across the office from hers. "Got the grades submitted and I am ready for that hunt I promised you." Summer loomed hot ahead of us, but I loved that the humidity wouldn't affect us. Much.

My incredibly sexy wife hummed at me in the distracted way she had when she was in the middle of a thought. She was typing. She was always typing, lately. Ever since Jasper suggested at New Year's that she should consider writing a book, Rosalie had taken his words to heart and had been typing practically ever since. With some breaks if I was behaving myself.

"He thought I should think about a self-help book, or something about female empowerment," Rosie had told me on the way home in January. "But honest? I want to sneak in that stuff. I think I'd rather write a novel. I could do that, right?" Her golden eyes had touched mine, seeking my approval.

As if she needed it. But she did, really. I got Rosalie in her entirety. Her incredible strength, fierce pride and her deep-seated vulnerabilities. She was an amazing woman. I leaned back in my chair and watched as her fingers found their way through her thoughts. She could make that keyboard clatter away like a Tommy gun if she wanted to, and if her words were keeping up with her thoughts. Other times, the dialogue tended to slow her down so that the keys were tapped more contemplatively. Dialogue did this to her, I had come to learn.

I smiled at her bowed head while she thought and fought for words that she wanted her characters to say. I turned to a project of my own and remembered to keep that same smile on my face as I did so.

It wasn't easy. Bells really was a piece of work.

E&R E&R E&R

"I hear Atlanta is a great city," she had told me on the phone. Her tone was totally casual. I didn't see it coming. "Didn't they have the Olympics there, once?"

"Yep. You can still see some of the sites, too," I told her. I remember that I was reading while she was talking to me. Clicking away pages on my Kindle reader.

"When you're teaching, do you do anything with sports and, like, the shot put and stuff? You know, they physics of it? The math? How do athletes figure that out how much force they have to put into their work?" Oh, she had been so cagey...

"Well, humans have to be really careful in how they apply force," I had told her, still not seeing it coming. "We don't have the same restraints."

"What kind of restraints hold people like us?" she asked. I could still hear the edge to her tone. "Handcuffs won't do it, right?"

"Thinking of bondage with Eddie boy, over there?"

Her laugh had been short and sharp. "Mmmm... I wouldn't discount the idea. Seriously, Dr. McCarty, how could little ol' me ever try to, um, restrain a big, bad vampire...?" A curl came to her voice and I thought for sure I had her.

But when I had pulled Edward aside at New Years to see how the whole bondage scene was working for him, he looked at me as if I'd grown another head.

E&R E&R E&R

A little envelope popped up on my computer screen while I waited for Rose's internal dialogue to manifest itself on her screen. "i. at dartmouth dot edu."

Now what?

Hey to my favorite physics professor!

So I was wanting to check on that bondage issue, you know? Like what kind of restraints I should use? The conventional ones just aren't...effective. Do you know of any experimental materials that might work on a really, really strong man? Hmmm? You're the strongest man I know...

I know, Emm! Maybe you could do some trials for me?

Love ya!

B

Something was off, here. Still, I remembered that Jasper had found that we were being tapped, and I was fairly certain Bella and Edward were aware of this as well, so it is entirely possible this was just a ruse.

But what the hell was Isabella Swan Cullen up to?

"Emmett?" Rosalie was suddenly behind me, scanning the email on my screen. Inwardly, I flinched. "What's up? What about our hunt, honey?"

I closed the mail window and spun in my chair to pull my wife onto my lap. "Hey, I was asking you about that just a few minutes ago. Ready to run?"

"Let me go change first," she said, her mind still apparently half on her story. "Are we taking the Jeep or going local?"

I laughed. "You up for a drive?"

"It's the end of the term, Emm. I'm up for anything." Her smile promised me anything and everything and then some. I squeezed her curves against me and she tossed her hair flirtatiously. "That, too, if you want to postpone our hunt for a day..."

I was ready to take her up on that, too, when there was a knock at the door, followed by a sharp ring of our doorbell.

Rosalie rolled her eyes and slid off my lap. "I swear, if it's one of the frat boys out to try to get you drunk again, Professor McCarty..."

"I'll get rid of them if it is, honey." I wiggled my brows suggestively. "Nothing is more intoxicating than you are."

"I'll be waiting, then," she purred as she dashed off up the stairs. Amazing how fast she moved.

Another knock dragged my attention back to the door and I found my glasses – plain glass in a platinum frame that Rose had made for me – and put them on. "Coming!"

I opened the door, assuming the demeanor of Emmett McCarty, PhD, Physics Professor. It was a demeanor I dropped immediately upon seeing the vampire at the front door. A vampire who had disguised his scent. A vampire who was bigger than I was.

My mind flew immediately to Bella's email and several things clicked in my mind at once. I felt the stupid need to inhale, deep and fast, but I pushed the need away. "Good evening," I said instead. Taking in the trousers and hat and gloves, I remarked, "It's kind of hot for gloves, you know. Doesn't blend in well."

"Good evening, Emmett Cullen. I am Felix from the Volturi. I have already been to see Carlisle and Esme, as well as Edward and Isabella – beautiful sister you have, by the way, and they send their regards. Jasper and Alice were not available – would you happen to know where they are?"

"Emmett? Honey?"

Felix continued to stand on our front porch and I couldn't bring myself to invite him in. I was edgy, every muscle in my body tense with the need to defend my family. I rarely met anyone bigger than I was. Maybe that's what this feeling stemmed from; I didn't know. "Rosalie? We have company."

She was down the stairs in a flash. "Oh," she murmured. Thankfully, she hadn't undressed yet. "Hello. Emmett, why haven't you invited our guest inside?" Her words were polite, but her face was foreboding; she didn't like this guy any more than I did.

"Come in, come in," I said at last. Didn't want to dismember a member of the Volturi in front of the neighbors.

Felix, swept past me as if he owned my house. I stiffened again and would have caught him by his overdressed arm if Rose hadn't taken my hand in hers first. "I am relieved that my coming is so obviously a surprise. I wasn't sure if the rest of your...family...would have managed to keep their knowledge to themselves." Felix strode through the hall and into the unused dining room of our home.

It was a Victorian house, built about the time Rose and I had been alive as humans. Almost a hundred years ago, really. We had renovated it and it looked authentic on the surfaces. The hardwood floor Felix stood on didn't break with his mass, though, since Rose and I had reinforced all the floors against the surety of... enthusiastic sexual activity. Living alone had its perks!

I tried for casual. Again. Removing my prop-glasses, I leaned against the wainscoting on the wall. "Yep. Big surprise. So what's up, Felix of the Volturi?" A big man, indeed. Bells had been trying to tell me! That's what that email was for. Well, part of the reason for it, anyway.

Felix stood as immovable as a memorial in a cemetery. "Aro, a friend of your sire's, was merely wishing to see how you and the rest of your coven were doing. He was, of course, gratified that you were all so...willing to comply with his wishes."

As if we'd had a choice! Arrogant ass. Rosalie crossed her arms; being casual was not her style. "You scattered my family. We've stayed scattered. Happy?"

"You were reunited..."

"Only for a holiday party. You know, a party? So we girls can get dressed up and make our men wear nice suits." She cast me a disparaging glance that I knew was a sham. "This one especially. Can't take him anywhere."

Felix lifted one dark brow. "I see. Any plans for another...party?"

"No," Rose stated, her voice firm. "Not this year. I hate that you've done this to us, just so you know."

Felix didn't appear to care in the least what Rosalie thought of him. He was an idiot. "You can understand that Aro doesn't entirely trust your compliance." I snorted. He continued. "With a family as gifted as yours, we are understandably cautious."

"Look at us," I said, pulling Rose next to my side. "She and I? Not gifted. I mean, you know, she's hotter than any female you'll ever bribe to sleep with you, but that's it."

Rosalie laughed at me. "And he's sm–"

I nudged her hard in her ribs. She winced. "So much better in bed that you'll ever hope to be," she blurted. A look in her eye told me I'd hear about this later. What could I say? Bella was all about secrets and I couldn't say anything when I was only guessing.

Right?

Felix rolled his eyes, refusing to be baited to retaliate, even verbally. "Thank you for your reassurances. I have apparently interrupted your evening."

"Yeah, we were going hunting. For animals, you know." I moved toward the front of the house. I'm real subtle. "So we'd rather not get caught during the daylight and it'd be best if you left. Now."

He displayed no irritation. Just inhaled, obviously checking for other scents, and then he smiled in the most patronizing manner ever. "Thank you. It was a pleasure making your acquaintance."

"Likewise," Rosalie grumbled.

We watched him leave, heard his car drive off down the street and then my wife turned to me, hands on her hips.

"Emmett McCarty Cullen. What the hell was that all about?"

A/N 2: News! I have been added as a VIP Author at A Different Forest. I have a cabin where I post teasers for this story as well as a place folks can come say hello. Links are on my profile page, if you're interested!

Also, my story Surprise M'Ending is up for a GLOVE AWARD for BEST OOC story. The link to voting for this and other wonderful stories is: http :/thegloveawards .webs .com/ vote. htm - Just take out the spaces and you've got a perfectly usable URL. :)

Thanks for reading and stay tuned! I am busily at work with Edward and Bella right this minute...