Bella's POV

By Tuesday afternoon I was really anxious. Renesmee was ready, even excited. Jacob was still debating on whether or not he would stay at our house when Lauren came. Would his presence make our chances less likely to ally her?

Edward and Carlisle were the worst. They were spending every hour of every day in his office; researching witches. I had barely seen Edward at all. Alice was trying so hard to see what was coming, but she was getting frustrated because Jacob kept changing his mind.

I had a feeling that she would snap at any given moment. Jasper agreed. Emmett and Rosalie were away in Alaska, talking to Eleazar to see if he knew anything. They would probably be back later tonight.

I, on the other hand, had nothing to do. Jacob was occupying Renesmee, and nobody seemed to need any help. I once again felt useless, like two years ago when the Volturi had come. So I decided to do some little research myself.

I knew there probably wouldn't be anything real about witches on the Internet, but I tried anyway. I found a website similar to the one I had looked at when I first found out that Edward was a vampire. It had the same look, even the same contact address. Somebody knows a little about the supernatural, I thought. I wondered momentarily if they were one of us.

"What are you doing, Bella?" Jasper had come up behind me, and he was reading the introduction over my shoulder. He sounded exhausted, but I knew that was just a rebuttal from how Alice was feeling. I felt sorry for her.

" A little research of my own. I feel useless, just sitting here. I decided I would at least try to help Edward and Carlisle. I found a website like this when I was researching vampires after I learned about you guys, and it was very accurate." I looked at his face. It was full of confusion.

" I was thinking that one of our kind might own it, but would anyone be so stupid? It confuses me how accurate it is…" I trailed off, letting my eyes wander over the screen. I snapped to attention when my phone started ringing. My whole family was gathered around me in an instant.

" Hello?" I answered, not bothering to look at caller ID.

" Hi, Bella. It's Lauren. I had one question about tomorrow night." She sounded excited when she said tomorrow night.

" Well what is it?" I said, trying my best to sound excited, too. It worked too well. Emmett laughed at my voice.

" I was wondering if I could bring a friend. She's visiting from Brazil, and I'm having her stay at my house. Do you mind?"

I looked at Edward. His face was frozen in shock. "It's another witch! No she can't bring her, Bella! No!" Carlisle was in shock and he looked as if he could pass out when Edward said that.

" I'm sorry, Lauren, but Esme doesn't feel that comfortable having that many people that she doesn't know in her house. It took a lot of convincing on my part to let just you come over. I'm sorry. You can still come, right?" I pleaded, trying really hard to make it so that all our preparations weren't useless.

Lauren's voice was a little less excited, but still happy."Yea. Of course. I really want to meet your daughter."

"Ok. I have to go now, so I'll talk to you later. Bye." I hung up. " Edward, there's another witch in town? Why didn't you tell me!" I was terrified now, scared stiff.

Edward's POV

I told Carlisle we should have told her. Now she was pissed, and Jasper was about to pop with her stress. "Calm, love. I wanted to tell you, but Carlisle wouldn't let me. Alice, is there any way you can tell who she is?" I was urgent now, hoping that Alice would know.

Alice's eyes closed for a full minute and I hissed with frustration. "Her name is Paula, and from what I can tell, she hates vampires with her entire heart, and she is really old. Over 100. Far too old for us. Paula doesn't know about us, so that means Lauren doesn't trust her. That's good. But what I can't grasp is why she came here. It's so hard being veiled!"

" Veiled? What do you mean Alice? Can't you see properly?" Bella asked, her expression turning to worry. She waltzed over to me in one fluid movement. I instinctively wrapped my arms around her waist protectively.

Alice took four deep breaths and spoke. "No. I can see humans okay, because I was one. I can see vampires best, because I am one. But I can't see werewolves at all, and half bloods like Renesmee and witches are foggy; veiled. It's so frustrating!" She hissed and leaned into Jasper, who held her tight.

" Ok. Relax, everybody. We need to be calm and collected for when she arrives. Jacob! I want you to go wake Nessie up and bring her here. We need to teach her what to do while Lauren's here. Rosalie, can you go with him and grab a change of clothes for Bella and Edward? It would be very helpful, because I need to talk to them for a while. Jasper, take Alice to the mall for a few hours or something. We need her calm enough to see later. Emmett, Esme? Go to the Thrifway and get some snack foods for Lauren. Bella and Edward, come with me." Carlisle said, taking control.

Everybody zipped away to do their assigned jobs, even Rosalie went without hesitation. That momentarily shocked me. Still holding my hand, Bella pulled me up the stairs after Carlisle. We went to his study, a room I had been in for too many hours the past few days.

" Carlisle, what is this about? You already told me everything I need to know about witches, and through me, Bella. This, I know, is on a completely different topic. What?" I was semi-annoyed because he was blocking me in his mind by reciting the entire play of Romeo and Juliet in Italian.

His eyes were apologetic. "This is mostly for Bella. Lauren will be trying to attack all day today, I can guarantee it. All of them will be mental though, because she does not wish to reveal herself. Do you get where I'm going?" He was looking Bella straight in the eyes and she nodded slowly.

"You want me to shield the family, correct?" She said, instantly projecting her shield out around the room. Carlisle grinned.

" Correct. You can handle that, I know it." He stood and walked to the window; staring out at the rising sun. Not a cloud in sight. "Edward, I need you monitoring her all night. Listen closely to her every thought, and act on them. If she is thinking a physical attack, tell me immediately. The sun will be an issue, so I need to get downstairs and put up the shades. I'll be back soon." He darted from the room.

"The way everyone is talking, you'd think Aro and Caius were coming for tea!" Bella laughed, and it was such a funny image, I had to join in. It felt good to laugh; I hadn't done that much in the last week.

"Well, I hope the danger will be less than that," I murmured, becoming serious again.

"Don't worry. Everything will turn out fine." Bella was very positive that this would work. I tried to follow her example.

Bella's POV

The doorbell rang 8 hours later, and I jumped to my feet. "Showtime," I muttered, hearing Emmett's echoing laugh from upstairs. Almost anything would make him laugh. I walked slowly to the door, pulling it open with a grin.