„Bella, that was remarkable," Carlisle said, still excited. "You might be ready to leave at the end of the week."

That made me happy. "Are you sure?" Carlisle nodded.

No. It meant I had only five days left to practice my self-control. I really wanted to see Charlie before we'd leave. I couldn't risk with hurting him.

"I think I need more time than that. It was very hard for me to stay where I was."

Carlisle nodded understandingly. "You can have all the time you need. We will leave when you think you're ready."

Carlisle was the most understanding and supporting person in the world. I started to like him even more than I did before.

"Let's go again." I closed my eyes and tried to focus.

I didn't see when Carlisle opened the box but I could hear it and smell it. Every time I felt the blood it was like a hit in the throat. Almost unbearable. Don't move. Don't move. Don't move. I didn't. I opened my eyes slowly. I could see the blood and I could smell it.

I hadn't noticed that both Esme and Emmett are holding my arms in place. "Let me go," I said. My voice and face was calm enough so they freed me. I walked slowly towards Carlisle and the blood. I squatted next to Carlisle, being very close to the blood. Carlisle looked at me curiously, but still ready to stop me any second.

I took a deep breath and let the scent in my lungs. My throat was on fire. I was losing it. I quickly ran out of the house straight into the woods. Stop, I said to myself. I did. No one came after me. I was glad they didn't. I started to go back more slowly because I needed to be alone for a minute.

When I got back they all looked at me like I was a miracle.

"I have never seen anything like you before," Carlisle was stunned. "You're not even a week old and yet your self-control is equal to someone who's at least 10 years old."

Esme smiled to me very sweetly. A smirk played on Emmett's lips. "Hardcore," I heard him mumble.

When Edward and Alice arrived I basically flew in Edward's arms and gave him a short kiss.

Carlisle was very excited to tell Edward about my self-control. The look on Edward's face was proud. He was proud of me and he awarded me with a kiss.

I wanted to hear about their trip. "How did it go?"

"We went to the school and of course we had to look devastated. Especially Edward. I think we did a good job. Basically everyone thought about you, like Edward told me and everyone was looking at us. Ms. Cope told us there will be a ceremony for you on Thursday and wanted us to come but I said Edward could not bear it. Ms. Cope understood. When we left the school we went to Charlie's." I could almost feel my heart beat when Alice mentioned Charlie. "He didn't want to see anyone and basically closed the door in front of our faces. He looked pretty awful."

I sighed. Why couldn't I just go and tell him it was going to be OK? The thought of me seeing him soon kept me sane. I needed to practice very hard, though. I wasn't anything near perfect yet.

"We should probably get going, Emmett. It's getting too crowded here." Esme smiled and looked at Emmett.

"Wait a minute," Emmett said and looked at me. Edward chuckled.

"What?" I asked.

"How about arm-wrestling, Bella?" Emmett grinned.

I gulped. Me? Against him? I looked at Emmett. He was huge. I couldn't…

"Bella's going to take you down, Emmett," Edward laughed. I looked at him. He couldn't possibly be serious.

"Come on, Bella," Emmett said walking outside. He placed his elbow on a big rock and wiped me closer with his finger. I looked at Edward again. He nodded.

I took a deep breath and placed my elbow on the rock, too. Emmett grabbed my hand and started pushing. My hand was strong against his and it surprised me. I felt the strength rushing through my body and smiled. I pushed harder and in a second Emmett's hand was down. The big rock was now a bunch of small rocks.

Emmett cursed and Edward laughed. "I told you so," he said. I started laughing, too. At first I was frightened of my warbling laughter but then it made me laugh even more. Carlisle, Alice and Esme joined with me and Edward but Emmett was still angry with me. "I'm not going to give up, you know," he said, "rematch tomorrow."

Edward laughed even harder and shook his head.

"Tomorrow," Emmett pushed through his teeth and then he disappeared in the woods. Esme waved and hugged me. I smiled and then she was gone, too.

The next few days passed practicing. Edward insisted I needed to hunt but I wanted to be thirsty so it would be harder for me to resist and if I could resist it would make me stronger. Carlisle agreed.

"Bella, are you sure? Take your time. We have plenty of time to visit your father," Edward said. It was Friday morning and he tried to convince me into going hunting, again.

"No, we might have time but Charlie doesn't. And I want to see him for the last time as soon as possible." Edward sighed because he knew he couldn't get me out.

Alice and Edward didn't think it was necessary to hold me back anymore so they both sat on the sofa and watched. The blood was still inviting but it was now easier to resist it.

"I think you're ready, Bella," Carlisle said.

I nodded. I thought I was ready, too. I wanted to go see Charlie so badly, say goodbye, even if he couldn't do it. Of course I would take Edward with me, just to be sure.

Then something happened. The sun came out, just like Alice predicted. I stepped outside, dragging Edward with me.

It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. I had seen Edward in sunlight when I was human but now I could really see him. I slowly raised my arm and looked at it, stunned. The light was so bright. Amazing.

I stood there, holding Edward's hand and looking at him for an hour. Or at least that's what it felt like. Then the sun disappeared behind the clouds.

"Is the sun going to come out again?" I asked Alice.

"No." That made me sad and happy at the same moment. Sad because I couldn't see Edward in the sunlight again and happy because I could see Charlie now.

"Let's go see Charlie," I told Edward.

"Are you sure?" Edward was still questioning me.

"Completely." I let go of his hand and let him show the way.

Before we could go I needed to hunt. We found some deer and Edward insisted me to drink three of them.

In ten minutes I was leaning against a tree and looking at my father's house. It was the closest tree to the house. I hopped on a low branch to see into the house.

I saw him. He was heartbroken. He was sitting on his kitchen chair, one figure leaning over him and another one sitting in a wheelchair next to him. It took me less than a second to realize the taller figure was Jacob Black, the boy who had told me about the Cullens. He had cut his hair short and he was much taller and muscular than I remembered. The man in the wheelchair was Billy Black, Jacob's father, Charlie's best friend.

They probably came to comfort him so he wouldn't feel so alone. I was glad someone looked after him.

"I want to come back at night. When he's asleep so I can go in," I said. It was my plan at the first place but I couldn't wait.

Edward didn't say anything, he just nodded.

I watched Charlie for a long time. In an hour or so Billy patted Charlie on his shoulder and said: "Charlie, it will be OK. Bella wouldn't want you to be like this."

It seemed like Charlie didn't hear him.

Jacob helped Billy out and said goodbye to Charlie. The second he closed the door his face became furious. He cursed and started shaking of anger. The wind started playing with his short hair. Fortunately the wind was from my direction so it didn't bring the smell of his blood to me.

Jacob swiftly raised his head. "Wait here," he said to Billy who looked confused for a second.

"Jacob, are you out of your mind?" Billy yelled at him.

Jacob was running this way very fast. If I wouldn't have known better I would've thought he was a vampire.

"Edward, we need to go," I almost panicked. No one could know I was still alive. Edward didn't move. He exposed his teeth and hissed.

It was already too late, Jacob was standing in front of us. I held my breath but I could feel the heat. He focused on Edward's face and it looked like he hadn't even noticed me.

"I thought you left town," Jacob shouted. He was shaking all over. "Bella's dead because of you!" He was really mad.

Edward clearly had a hard time trying to look serious. How could he even think of laughing right now?!

Finally Jacob turned to me but he was still talking to Edward. "Now that Bella's dead you find another girl? Is that how it is with you, bloodsuckers? You treat people like dirt! You think you're some kind of gods! You're not!"

I froze. Bloodsuckers?

"Watch it, dog. You don't want me to call the animal control, do you?" Edward hissed.

Jacob turned back to Edward. He started shaking uncontrollably. The next second there was no Jacob, only a huge red-brown wolf ready to attack us. Of course I knew no animal had a change against us but it was still a bit intimidating.

I remembered what Jacob had told me in La Push. Another legend claims that we descended from wolves — and that the wolves are our brothers still. It's against tribal law to kill them.

It was true. There was a small town in Washington State where all the legends turned out to be true.

Edward grabbed my arm and then we were running so fast I had a hard time keeping up. We didn't stop for a very long time.

When we finally stopped I asked Edward where we were. He didn't answer me, only said: "Damn dogs."

He let go of my hand and started running again. I ran after him. "Edward, what's this about? Was it Jacob?" I couldn't get rid of the picture of the angry wolf.

"Werewolves. They're going to attack. We need to tell Carlisle."

"Why? Why are they attacking?" I asked.

"Jacob thinks we- well I killed you. In his eyes we broke the treaty. When he saw you he didn't recognize you, he thought you were someone else. He was sure I never cared about you and meant to kill you. He thinks I fed on you," Edward explained.

I stopped. "What?" Edward also stopped. "Why didn't you tell him it was me? Of course he didn't recognize me, how could he possibly? We need to tell them. We need to go back!"

"Bella, it's not going to keep away the fight. You're a vampire now. In their eyes it's even worse than death." I don't know if Edward was trying to calm me down but anyway it didn't work.

"James bit me, not you."

"I bit you, too. To make the venom spread faster."

"It doesn't matter. The venom was already in my system. There was no turning back," I calmed Edward. I didn't want Jacob Black to get hurt. He was Billy's son after all and more importantly, he was just a kid.

Edward sighed. "You might be right. Now, let's tell Carlisle."

We were running in silence until I asked: "Why is Jacob a werewolf?" It was weird for me to say that word. Edward looked confused.

"He wasn't a werewolf when we met."

"Vampires in the neighborhood. It's their job to protect people from us and when there are more vampires there are more werewolves."

I nodded thoughtfully. We stopped in front of the little cottage. Alice was already on the door. She must have already seen it. What she said surprised me. "I can't see anything!"

Carlisle was right by her side. "What happened?" He looked at us.

"Werewolves are going to attack," Edward explained. He told them the rest of the story and looked at Carlisle. I bet he was hoping Carlisle could keep away the fight.

"Alice, can you see what's going to happen?" Carlisle asked. Alice looked highly focused, like she was trying to see something invisible.

"No," she said after a short break. "I don't understand."

"Maybe it's the wolves?" Edward offered. Alice looked at him, confused.

"Maybe you can't see the wolves and since their future is tied with our future right now you can't see anything," Edward explained immediately.

"Yes. You're right, I think. I can see the weather and everything else that doesn't concern us."

"So what are we going to do?" I asked. "I don't want to fight them, they're only children."

"I agree with you, Bella. We need to explain them the situation." I was glad Carlisle was so peaceful. "We need to go and Bella, you should come, too."

I nodded but Edward interrupted me: "No! What if they hurt Bella? She's so young, she can't fight. I won't let her get killed."

"Edward, it's fine. It's the only way," I calmed him.

After few minutes he finally agreed.

I felt bad because again I was the reason the Cullens had to suffer. Of course I hoped there was going to be no fight but I couldn't know that.

We started running south. Edward and Carlisle were ahead of me and Alice. Alice was still upset because she didn't know what was going to happen. I tried to comfort her by telling her most of the people feel like this all the time but she ignored me.

After eight minutes Edward stopped. So did the rest of us. I smelled some kind of animals. They didn't smell very good, worse than deer. There was nothing inviting in that scent. Then I heard five beating hearts. It must have been the werewolves.

A huge black wolf walked out behind the trees. Walking became running in a second and then he was right in front of us. I looked at Edward who was closest to the wolf. He slowly raised his hands to show the wolf we meant no harm.

"This isn't what it looks like," Edward said. "Hear us out."

The wolf turned to me and I had an urge to run. I stayed where I was anyway. Then the rest of the wolves started to move closer to us. A red-brown wolf caught my eye.

"Jacob?" I asked.

The wolves froze.