2.

You could say that I was freaked out.

Hell, you could say I almost had a heart-attack.

He was a member of the Volturi, of that much I was sure. He was familiar, and I recognized him from my one and only visit to Italy.

His black hair gently coasted to his shoulders, and his skin had an odd complexion that I didn't have much time to reflect on. He growled instinctively and brought his nose to my tightly-gripped throat. With a sickening smile, he breathed in my scent and murmured, "What I wouldn't give to kill you now." His eyes met mine in the mirror, and I felt my brain panic. He had murder on the mind.

"Where is the Cullen clan?" he muttered, bringing his mouth to my neck and teasing himself, pretending like he was going to bite me.

For a horrific moment, I couldn't find my voice, couldn't reply. "Hmm?" he grunted, squeezing my throat a bit tighter.

"They're downstairs," I coughed. "Edward and Alice are downstairs."

"And the others?" he asked, gripping tighter all the while.

"Emmett and Rosalie are in their room. Carlisle's at the hospital and Esme's working in the garden. Jasper's outside with her," I wheezed. He was constricting my airway passage, and I was becoming dizzy.

He bared his teeth at me, and inquired roughly, "When will the doctor be home? My orders are to speak with the doctor."

"He gets home at different times," I gasped, now clinging at his strong arms in a desperate attempt to breathe. "I don't...know—"

"I will return later," the vampire told me, loosening his grip with a reluctant look on his face. "The doctor and I must talk. Tell the others I will return later."

And then, as suddenly as he was there, choking me, he was gone. The bathroom window was left slightly opened, and I eyed it nervously. Suddenly, the actual horror of the situation hit me. "Edward," I said, quietly, somehow calmly. I have to tell Edward, I thought. "Edward," I called a little louder. Finally, my silence was completely penetrated. Now, we all know I'm not one to panic, but...

"EDWARD!" I shouted, stumbling backwards towards the bathroom door, feeling the handle hit my lower back. I gripped it, twisted it, and fell backwards into Edward's cold chest.

"Bella?" his voice inquired in my ear, worried. "What's wrong, love?" He spun me around to look at his face. "You smell...diffferent. Who...what happened?"

"One of the Volturi," I spluttered, glancing behind me again at the bathroom window. "He said he needed to talk to Carlisle—"

"Shh," Edward said, holding a finger to my lips. He sniffed. "It was Demetri," he growled, instantly stepping around me and into the room, placing himself protectively between me and the window through which Demetri had entered and left. "Come with me." He grabbed my wrist and pulled me downstairs, into the kitchen. "Alice, get everyone in here." Alice opened her mouth to protest, but caught a glimpse of my face. She took on a grim expression and nodded, heading swiftly up the stairs.

Edward began pacing. He'd been doing a lot of that, ever since I had agreed to marry him. He always complained of not being able to rea my mind, but now it had gone to a whole new level. Half the time, he seemed to completely believe that I wanted this wedding. The other half, he second-guessed me and thought that I was just trying to please him.

Unfortunately, the latter was actually correct.

Alice rushed down the stairs and outside, and Rosalie and Emmett came quickly into the room shortly after. Emmett sat down next to me and looked concernedly from my bewildered face to Edward's furious pacing as Rosalie stood in the corner of the room, arms folded and a scowl set on her painfully beautiful face.

"What happened?" Emmett asked, the smallest of grins appearing on his face. "Bella looks like she just tried to use my brush." He flashed a smile at Edward, who had paused in his pace to stare at him, puzzled.

"It's so full of his hair-gel that it's disgusting," Rosalie said, rolling her eyes and picking at her nails, which she had painted ruby-red.

Edward shook his head in irritation and went back to pacing, glaring at the floor.

Seconds later, Alice entered the kitchen, tailed by Jasper and Esme, who had on a pair of green gardening gloves. "What's happened?" Esme demanded, crouchng next to my chair and placing a glove-clad hand over my own. "Edward, what happened?" she asked, looking expectantly up at her adoptive son.

Edward, never stopping his pace, told her that I'd been ambushed in the bathroom by Demetri, a member of the Volturi guard. "His scent was all over her...especially her throat," he said pointedly, finally collapsing into the chair opposite me once he'd finished explaining.

Emmett's face had formed into a snarl, and Alice was rubbing her clenched fist. Rosalie looked slightly indifferent, and Esme couldn't even speak, out of shock. "Well, what do you think they want?" Jasper, who I'd almost forgotten was there, asked from his position in the doorway.

"I don't know," Edward muttered, putting his face in his hands and staring at the table. "He's long gone; his thought process is completely out of my reach, and I think that that's what he wants." He slammed his fist down on the table, leaving a dent and causing me to jump slightly. "Alice, do you see anything?"

Alice held up her index finger and shut her eyes. The longest and shortest moment of my life occurred, in which Edward's golden eyes stared into mine. Then, Alice opened her eyes and dropped into the chair adjacent to his.

"Well?" Edward asked expectantly.

She sighed and looked down at the table. "I'm not really sure I should tell you," she admitted. "You'll find out later, and I know that you're just going to get angry..."

"Damnit, Alice!" he shouted, slamming his fist down again, and this time cracking the table slightly. "Tell me," he growled.

She bit her lip for a moment, and then sighed. "It's what we all pretty much suspect. They want us to change Bella, or hand her over to them."

Emmett let out a low string of curses that I either didn't hear or didn't understand, and Esme stared at her feet, unable to find words. Edward groaned and stood up with such force that his chair fell over, and started pacing again. "Well, that's completely out of the question," he muttered. "We have plans to...we're going to...Just the wedding, we wanted to wait until after the wedding..." He growled again and glanced around at everyone.

The rest of them were pretty wrapped up in their own thought processes, but I was staring back at him with a good amount of fear in my eyes. "Bella," he breathed. He looked around at them all again, and then grabbed my wrist, pulling me into his arms and carrying me quickly from the room to the stairs, and then into our room. He set me down gently on the bed and resumed his pacing.

After about fifteen minutes of watching him go back and forth, I made an observation. "You're going to wear a path in the carpet, you know."

He looked at me and flashed me a deeply troubled grin. Instantly, he was at my side, holding my hands in his and looking seriously into my eyes. "Bella, what do you think about all of this?"

The question startled me. "Well," I said, trying to find a way to put it lightly. "I honestly think you should just...change me."

He actually seemed to be considering for a few minutes, but then he smiled and said, "Oh, no. You're not backing out of your end of the bargain."

Rolling my eyes, I replied, "Edward, we've had this conversation countless times. I'm not going to skip out on my end of the deal. I want to marry you—" —I made a sllightly disgusted face at this— "—and this is a different choice than the one you're turning it into. It's not a matter of whether or not I will marry you. It's more of a question of would you rather I be a vampire, or in the hands of the Volturi?"

His eyebrows skyrocketed. "I never really looked at it like that," he confessed. "I'm sorry, Bella. I really hope you didn't think that I would rather you be with them—"

"Don't worry about it," I said, that having been the very last thing on my mind.

My favorite crooked smile appearing on his flawless face, he took my face into his hands, and placed a chaste kiss on my lips. "Ahh, my Bella," he said, smiling and kissing me again.

I grinned back at him. "So...what are we going to do about this?" I asked, breaking the all-too-comfortable silence after a minute.

His happiness evaporated. "Well, we can't hand you over to the Volturi, so that option's out." I was prepared to punch the air in triumph, but he stopped that short by continuing, "And I refuse to change you until after we are married."

The eye-roll was repeated, and I sarcastically suggested, "Well let's just have Alice whip up some more invitations—the Volturi can sit in on the ceremony, and then you can inject me with venom in front of a whole audience, including my entirely mortal friends and family! There; three stones with one bird!" I paused. "Or was it the other way around?"

There wasn't even a slight smile at this suggestion. "We'll see what Carlisle thinks when he gets home," Edward decided, nodding and standing. "Come, love. Let's see what we can rustle up for food for you in this cave."

He took my hand in his and I walked back downstairs with him. At this point, Emmett and Jasper were sitting in front of the television, watching a basketball game. For a moment, we stood there in silence. Every once in a while, Emmett's arms would tense as he unconsciously prepared himself to make the same move as one of the players, and then Jasper would cast him a glance and he would loosen up.

Edward cleared his throat, and the frightening snarl on Emmett's face disappeared. He glanced bewilderedly behind him at us and smiled. "See, now Bella looks a bit more normal." He hopped up. "So what's up?'

"Food," Edward said. "Did anyone remember to go buy food for the human?"

I crossed my arms tightly over my chest and looked at him disbelievingly. "You know, you make me sound like a pet of some sort. 'The human,'" I mimicked him, using air quotes. Jasper cracked a grin. "Well, the human can feed herself, thank you very much." I headed towards the front door, putting on my sneakers that had been resting beside it. Emmett, Edward, and Jasper watched in amusement as I opened the front door and cast them all a superior look. I humphed and took a step out the door.

Unfortunately for me, it was raining.

Torrential Downpour was how Emmett put it later.

I quickly stepped back into the house, and the three of them were roaring as I dripped all over the floor. "Funny," I growled.

"C'mon," Emmett said, pulling on his own shoes and still stifling chuckles. "Let's take Bella out for lunch."


A/N: Just had to say that I am really very flattered by all the reviews. Thanks to StephaniePascal for all of the publicity. XD I hope you enjoyed this chapter (not my favorite, I'll tell you that much), and reviews are still very much welcome!

Your deeply devoted writing slave,
Sara XD