I've been promising a chapter after only a week for a while and not once kept my promise, so here it finally is. Enjoy, because real life is kicking my butt these days and I don't get to escape into this one quite as much as I'd like to.

Again, I'm starting off with a thank you to RowanMoon and giselle-lx, the superbetas and partners in real life escapism! I'm hoping they're more successful than me in that department this week!

I pushed the plate away, pulling my eyes from its contents and trying not to let the bewilderment show on my face as I frowned back at Edward. We had both seen Sam, Seth, Leah, Jacob—every single one of them—phase from human to wolf. Edward had fought beside them in their wolf form. We'd seen how they operate—in pack behavior. We'd seen how they communicate—through pack telepathy. There was no other option. They had to be werewolves. But Edward's eyes did not falter, or even blink as he analyzed my reaction from across the table.

I gave in to my confusion. "If they're not werewolves, what are they?"

Edward shrugged. "We don't know exactly. As far as we've been able to ascertain from their histories, they are some form of shapeshifters. They only take the wolf form because it was the choice of the first phasing elder." He pushed the plate back in front of me. "You need to eat, Bella. You're not immortal yet."

"You mean they could take other forms?" I asked, ignoring him. "Turn into other animals?"

He sighed and shook his head. "I can't be certain. I'm basing everything that I'm telling you on tribal legend, but according to certain Quileute tomes, once a form is chosen, it doesn't change." He frowned, and I guessed that he enjoyed basing all of his knowledge of something on legend just about as much as I did. "If the stories are trustworthy, the wolves in LaPush are wolves for eternity as long as they continue to phase."

I rolled my eyes and picked up my fork again, wondering just how many different races of immortal creatures I would have to hide my knowledge of before my life became one enormous fiction. I could almost feel myself slipping down the rabbit hole as it was.

"How long have you known about this?"

He watched as I put another forkful of noodles in my mouth, and then his eyes wandered toward the far wall. "Oh, we've known they weren't werewolves from our first encounter with Ephraim Black," he admitted. "Carlisle had some experience with the real werewolves during his mortal years, and he came across a few of them during his stay with the Volturi as well. He knew enough about them when we crossed paths with Jacob's grandfather to know that we were not facing werewolves." His jaw tightened, and he folded his hands together slowly. "If that had been the case, Carlisle would never have entered into a treaty with them. It is not in a werewolf's control to honor it."

"Then all this time, you knew that Jacob and his friends weren't dangerous, and you still made such a big deal about me seeing him?"

"I said they weren't werewolves, Bella. I never said they weren't dangerous." His face was incredulous, with a hint of the anger that always appeared when it seemed to him that I had grossly underestimated some part of his world. "It is still a question of inhuman strength and speed being wielded by adolescents that are controlled by hormones and emotions. If anything, the shapeshifters are more dangerous than true werewolves. You only have to look at Emily Young's face to understand that. The fact that Jacob has been able to control his temper thus far does not mean he is infallible."

When he looked at me again, his expression was severe, regretful. I didn't need to read minds to see the line that he had drawn between Jacob and himself with his last statement. I pushed on.

"Does Jacob know?"

Edward shook his head. "Until a year ago, Jacob thought all of the legends of his tribe were nothing more than entertaining bedtime stories. All he needs is time to read his history from the new perspective he's been given. I'm sure he'll arrive at his own conclusions eventually."

I thought about this. Jacob had been devastated for months when he had discovered what cards heredity had dealt him. It had taken him much longer than the other wolves to accept his role as a protector of the tribe. In many ways, his escape to the north was still an attempt to piece together the two warring identities that he had discovered inside himself only a little over a year ago. Would it really matter to him whether his label was werewolf or shapeshifter? His destiny was the same, no matter what title he was given. The only ones who seemed even remotely concerned with species names were off perusing the designer racks with Alice on the second level.

And then it hit me.

"But this is great!" I exclaimed, startling the waiter as he tried to replace my empty glass of Coke. I hadn't notice him arrive. He gave me a cutting look and then glanced, concerned, over at Edward's untouched beverage before retreating to the waiter's station on the other side of the room.

Edward looked puzzled.

"How exactly?" he asked.

I took a long, drawn-out drink to organize my argument before I began. Edward waited patiently with a doubtful expression.

"Tanya and Irina are causing problems because they think you've made a treaty with a bunch of crazy, rabid, uncontrollable monsters like the ones who killed their families. But we both know that none of the wolves in LaPush would hurt anyone, unless they were a threat to their friends or family. All we have to do is make Irina and Tanya see that the Quileute wolves aren't even real werewolves, and they'll understand why you entered into the treaty with them to begin with."

It was so simple to me that I didn't understand why the issue hadn't been resolved long ago. Weren't vampires supposed to be quicker than humans at everything? But Edward's head had started to shake in protest before I had even finished my suggestion.

"That will never happen." He insisted in a tone that was suddenly as cold as his eyes. His skin had grown a shade paler even in the soft yellow lamplight. I didn't understand.

"Why not?"

"Bella, you've heard their tribal histories first hand. The Quileute leader's evolved into shapeshifters to protect their people from vampires. The only time that their shapeshifting abilities reappear is in the presence of a threat from us. Do you really want to tell two vampires that spent over five centuries hunting wolves that the ones living next door to their closest friends have evolved a species that specializes in killing our kind?"

I let his words sink in, remembering his unexplained effort to silence me at the confrontation between Tanya and Jacob at our reception. "Is that why you didn't want them to know about Seth helping you kill Victoria?"

"Of course."

"But they already knew that the wolves killed Laurent."

His expression was guarded as he waited for a waiter to pass before he began his explanation.

"Tanya and Irina have strong suspicions that the wolves, as a pack, managed to kill Laurent, but their previous knowledge of werewolves contradicts that notion. The only other occasions when a werewolf has managed to take down one of us has been when the vampire is outnumbered at least twelve to one. Fortunately, everything they've discovered about the Quileute pack, including what they know of their numbers at the time of Laurent's death, has kept those suspicions from becoming anything more dangerous. That fact is probably the only reason that the incident at our wedding reception did not end in death."

He avoided my eyes as he finished and I couldn't help but notice that he was excluding his opinion of exactly which side the deaths would have been on. It was a question of centuries of experience versus the element of surprise. I shuddered, hating the idea that it was only a fortuitous misunderstanding that had kept my wedding night from becoming a massacre.

"Of course, your reckless behavior that night significantly increased those suspicions…and created new ones," he admonished. " Now they both suspect that you have some sort of unnatural power over the alpha of the pack."

"Over Jacob?" I half-laughed, half-snorted. "I wish I had a super powers over Jacob! Then maybe I could make him see reason and stop wolfing around all over the country!" I scooped up the last forkful of noodles and marveled at how hungry I'd been in the end.

Edward's expression did not hold the tiniest fragment of humor. "This is not funny, Bella," he warned. "Do you remember the part of Irina's tale involving the African tribe?"

I nodded.

"Their leader was a vampire, and they caused chaos in the Congo region for centuries. Can you imagine how serious it would be if they thought that you could lead the Quileutes? And how much worse it would be if they knew just how much more powerful they were than werewolves?"

"But I'm not even a vampire."

My rebuff had been too quick for me to truly think about the implication behind his words. Edward waited, patient and expressionless, for the obvious to sink in. My heart sunk as it did. I would be a vampire in just under four months.

"They think that when I'm a vampire, I'm going to make an army of wolves?" The revelation sounded just as crazy out loud as it had in my head—like an excerpt from a cheesy horror film with too many cheap special effects and not enough plotline, but I wasn't in the laughing mood anymore. It seemed my life had become one of those horror films.

Edward's shoulders sank in frustration. "I don't know what they're thinking." I could tell that it hurt him to admit it. "You have to understand that Tanya and Irina have had a thousand years of practice at hiding their thoughts from someone vastly more powerful than me."

A picture of a sinister, black haired vampire with a calculating smirk and red eyes that did not seem even remotely human crossed my mind and I wondered to myself how it was possible to hide any thoughts from a being who saw your entire history in a handshake.

"What can we do?" I asked, downtrodden.

"You can prepare for your first semester of college," he replied, his mood taking one of his frustratingly characteristic 180 degree turns. His tone was almost fatherly now. "And I can only continue to do what I'm doing…search their thoughts for any anomalies and try to convince them that my wife has no aspirations into werewolf domination."

I sighed.

"You know, Tanya and Irina will find out about the differences between the LaPush wolves and real werewolves eventually." How much time could two immortal mythological creatures avoid contact, even with a 1500 mile buffer? And how exactly had my strange little piece of the world suddenly become so filled with feuding fairy-tale villains?

"I know," he responded miserably. "But at least I can make sure that they are far to the north and in the comfort of their own home when they discover that fact. It may eliminate their desire to pursue violence."

We fell silent as the waiter appeared to take my plate and ask if we would like to share a Black Sticky Rice Pudding. Edward assured him, in as pleasant a voice as possible, that we would pass. I cringed as I tried to imagine what a desert with such an unappealing name could possibly taste like. Edward asked for the check, and the waiter disappeared with a smile, leaving two small after dinner mints in his wake. I took one and began to unwrap it, thankful that there were no fortune cookies in a Thai restaurant. I had all the fortune telling I could take in the form of a sister-in-law.

Which reminded me…

"What does Alice see?"

Edward had to have her watching. If he couldn't fully rely on his own talents, he was definitely relying on hers.

But his face was a mask of frustration again as he pointed to his temple with one long pale finger. "Untraceable," he reminded me. "Not even Alice can see her. She's just like the wolves, which probably further explains her fascination with them."

My eyebrows formed a worried frown. Not even I was able to escape Alice's constant vigilance, and I was the strange exception to most talents. It was unsettling, to say the least, that Irina could go unseen in the present and the future.

"But Alice can still see Tanya, right?"

He nodded. "Tanya is on a plane to Anchorage on Monday morning—I'm assuming with Irina by her side," he reassured. "Alice sees her take off without any problems."

"And does Tanya think I'm a future wolf lord too?"

"As far as I can tell, Tanya has no opinion on the matter. She's only here to support Irina. She has a great dislike of the wolves, of course, but she felt horrible for her reaction at our wedding, and she's been trying not to allow her aversion to become an obsession." A smirk broke through the gloom on his face. "In any case, she has other things to brood about…for the moment, at least."

I blinked, intrigued. "What other things?"

"Well, with you off pursuing human activities," he stared down at the last mint. "Who do you think is taking on your duties as Alice's personal pin-up doll?"

He was trying to change the subject, and doing a wonderful job. There was only one way that he could know what Alice was making Tanya do in this minute. "You're listening to her thoughts right now."

"Every last, infinitely patient one," he said, his grin widening. "And Irina's. I'm hoping that if they spend enough time away from us, they'll let their guard down and I'll be able to catch something more than just price tags and dress sizes."

I took a sip of my Coke. "How is that working for you?"

He frowned. "Both of them are remarkably focused on clothing." He picked up the mint and began to unwrap it slowly. "But at least they are no longer trying on lingerie."

"Edward!" I scolded, snatching the mint from his hands. He laughed.

"Bella, they are practically my sisters! Of course I didn't look!"

The waiter showed up with the check, and a bill appeared magically in one of Edward's hands as the other grabbed mine under the table.

"No change," he said with a smile. The waiter thanked him and disappeared.

Our legs intertwined almost casually under the table, and I was reminded of our first dinner together at La Bella Italia in Port Angeles and his strict no-touch policy. I had never imagined at that meeting that only two years later, I would be sitting in a restaurant, staring into the same intense amber eyes, this time with his ring on my finger and the unforgettable memory of his body in the moonlight to accompany it. I was glad I had summoned the courage to confront him that night.

I was also glad that the waiter was a male this time.

Edward stood with one of his swift, not-quite-human movements, and pulled me to my feet beside him. "Are you ready to relieve Tanya of her modeling duties for a few more hours?"

I groaned. "Why can't Alice try on her own clothes?"

"You've seen the size of her closet. Alice doesn't need any more clothes." His arm slipped around me as he escorted me to the exit, his scent lingering just long enough to take my breath away. "She planned this expedition for the three of you. She convinces herself that she is doing you a favor, no matter how much you protest." The hostess at the entryway caught sight of Edward as we passed, and dropped the menus she had been putting away. Edward pulled me closer and kissed my forehead gently, seeming not to notice the scramble to recover the menus.

"Try to look at it positively," he whispered into my hair. "The stores close at nine."

I let him lead me out, grumbling the whole way.

Nine-thirty found us all piled into the Guardian with a full trunk and no foot room. I was exhausted. Alice had insisted on shoe shopping after my dinner, and we had expended all of my energy and almost all of Edward's patience in limiting her purchases for me to two nearly practical pairs of dress shoes.

Tanya, Irina, and Alice sat in the back seat again, playing over each horrified look that had appeared on my face as the heels that they had all picked out for me slowly got higher and higher.

"Only a little over three months left, Bella," Tanya had assured me after recalling a particularly horrendous pair of tiger-skin, needle heel pumps that I would never in my entire life have had any purpose for whatsoever. "You'll develop a taste for the elegant and the eccentric once you gain our…gifts, shall we say?"

I chuckled dubiously. "You mean if I don't trip on the heels Alice bought me today and break my neck before I can even make it to vampire status?"

"Dark sarcasm!" Irina was beaming beside her sister as she turned her eyes toward our overly silent driver. "Edward, now all you have to do is assure me that she spends days at a time brooding, and I will believe that she's truly your match in every way!"

Edward smiled and kept his eyes on the road.

Unlike the journey up to the Emerald City, the return trip was surprisingly much more pleasant. With Alice's spending addiction momentarily satiated, and Tanya and Irina on a strategic quest to fit every last one of their purchases into the meager two-item luggage limit enforced by Alaska airlines, I felt my anti-shopping defenses finally lowering and I allowed myself to sit back and enjoy the easy banter that bounced from family member to family member.

"It would have been much less problematic if you would have foreseen this conundrum and requested the jet from Carmen and Eleazar when you came down, Irina," Tanya insisted after a discussion on how to properly pack cashmere threatened to become an argument.

"You forget that the plane was elsewhere deployed when I made my impromptu journey south, and no doubt being used for much more exciting purposes."

Irina's eyes glided amusedly from Edward to me in the rear view mirror, leaving little doubt as to what she imagined had occurred during our seven hour flight to and from Madrid in the private jet. I glanced toward Edward with a guilty grin and wondered why whatever was in Irina's thoughts hadn't occurred to me on the plane.

There was no guilt at all in Edward's smile as he met Irina's gaze in the rear view mirror. "You know, Irina, if you were able to limit your male conquests, I'm sure that Carmen would have no objection to lending you the jet for a time. It really is quite comfortable."

Irina's laugh was almost wicked. "Oh, Edward, don't fool yourself. You can't even imagine the things that have happened in that plane."

Edward flinched and his hand slipped to my leg as if to steady himself. "No, but I see that you have no problem doing so." His eyes shifted accusatorily toward Tanya. "Bella ate on that table!"

Tanya gave him an innocent grin. "It's been cleaned since then."

I focused on the glow of the headlights ahead of us, certain beyond anything else in that moment that I did not want to know what had happened on the plane…and also that next time, I would insist on Northwest Airlines.

The conversation turned to much more innocent things as the car sped down the highway, following the headlights home at break-neck speed. Alice and Tanya delved into an idea for Rosalie's next wedding, while Irina and Edward chatted good-naturedly about the remodeling job that Esme had agreed to do on their Denali home. I secretly hoped that it was only me who noticed how Edward's brow twitched every time Irina would answer a question. He was searching for much more than decorating tips, I was certain.

I listened with waning interest, acutely aware of his hand on my leg, and marveling at the silences that never seemed to be awkward between the four of them, until we rounded the last bend and the lights of the house appeared. The headlights had just spilled onto the first of the large cedars when my cell phone sounded from my pocket. I'd forgotten that I had even brought it along. Most of the time, it sat forgotten on the desk in my bedroom. The only two people who ever called me were Edward and Charlie, and lately I'd had pretty unlimited access to both. I'd brought it along that day to ease my mind, and I dug it quickly out of my pocket as Edward pulled the car around.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bella." It was Billy. He'd no doubt convinced Charlie to stay at his place until I got home. "How's the trip going?"

"Hi, Billy! Actually we're just getting back. Is my dad still over there with you?"

I heard a sharp intake of breath beside me, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Edward's hands clench suddenly around the steering wheel. The car came to a final jolting halt that caused all of our seatbelts to lock.

"Yeah, the game went into extra innings, and he was just wondering…"

"Hang up."

Cold. Emotionless.

I peered over at him, puzzled. Edward had grown paler than I'd seen him since our graduation night and his eyes were suddenly beyond furious as he clung to the steering wheel. It looked as though he was putting all of his effort into not smashing it right now.

"Bella?" Billy's voice was suddenly distant on the other end of the receiver. Edward's mouth twitched and all eyes flickered momentarily to the cell phone in my hand.

"Hang up, Bella." His voice was too calm. Too even. And his eyes were black.

"Edward, what happened?" Tanya asked from behind us.

He didn't answer. No one moved. No one made an attempt to exit the car. Tanya and Alice exchanged looks of confusion as my brain stuttered and searched for a way to end the conversation with Billy without causing him to worry. Before I could think of anything to say, Edward had swung around in his seat, and was glaring at Irina with a detached fury.

"What did you do?" he hissed between clenched teeth. Irina's eyes were wide and terrified, but the confusion that I'd seen in both Alice and Tanya's expressions was utterly absent from hers. She knew what was happening.

"Bella!" Billy called on the other line, more insistently this time. I'd already forgotten I was still holding the phone. "Bella is something going on there?"

"Billy, can I call you back in a few minutes?"

Irina's eyes became chilling as she stared Edward down.

"Is it serious? Do I need to send some of the boys?"

Before I could even think of how to answer him, Edward had pulled the phone from my hand, his eyes still locked on his cousin.

"Hello Billy," he said, his voice portraying a self-possession that did not show at all on his face. The contrast frightened me. "There's no trouble at all here. We're just in the process of saying an early farewell to our guests. Bella will be home without fail in about an hour. Thank you for your concern, Billy." He hung up the phone without waiting for a response.

Alice gasped suddenly. She'd seen something.

"Edward, don't!"

But he was already out of the car. Before I even knew what was happening, he had the opposite passenger door open, and had Irina by one shoulder. She was pinned against the side of the Guardian before Tanya could even make a move in her sister's defense. Irina did not resist, and she held out a hand in restraint when Tanya flew around to her side.

"Edward, I needed to be sure they were harmless," Irina stammered before his hand closed around her neck. Tanya growled and strained in her stance, her eyes shifting from Edward's grip to Irina's restraining hand.

"What else have you done, Irina?" Edward demanded through dangerously sharp teeth. His voice was furious, and he looked just as much like a vampire as he had in his final battle with Victoria.

"Nothing more!" she insisted. "No one saw me. No one knows." But as I watched in utter confusion, Edward's eyes grew impossibly wider and the hand that was not holding Irina's neck suddenly dug into the door of the Guardian. I saw the chrome mold into the perfect indentation of four long fingers.

"Edward, what is going on?"

It was Alice from behind me. She had exited the car, but had gone no further toward the fray. I recognized her stance as one that a mother lion would have adapted to protect her cubs, and I realized with dismay that, in this case, I was the one she was protecting. Edward didn't respond.

"If you don't take your hands off my sister or explain yourself now, Edward, I'll cut you down myself." The threat in Tanya's voice was very real. She was livid and ready to spring, and looking every bit as vampiric as Edward. He disregarded her completely.

"If I find that you've harmed any one of those people, Irina…"

"Wolves, Edward!" Irina replied harshly, struggling against the arm that held her pinned. Edward didn't budge. "They're not people! They are animals!"

"Are their families animals too?" Edward argued, only inches away from her face. His lip was pulled back in a snarl, his brilliant white teeth kept at bay only by sheer force of will. "Is Bella an animal? Is her father?"

At the mention of my father, the daze that had settled over me broke and I struggled to exit the car, realizing with embarrassment that I hadn't even unbuckled my seatbelt. The volume of Edward's voice had been steadily rising, and his final words must have brought the struggle to the attention of everyone in the house. As Irina struggled to find a response, Jasper and Emmett appeared on the porch. They paused to assess the situation, and the blind confusion that adorned both faces was almost comical.

"Listen to me, Edward…" Irina began, but before she could continue, Rosalie and Carlisle appeared beside the two brothers on the porch and everything was a sudden blur of impossibly fast action. Before I even had time to flick the button that would release my seatbelt, Irina and Edward had disappeared, surrounded by five new bodies.

Alice vanished silently from behind me and appeared as one of the crowd on the other side of the car, but when I tried to move toward the driver's seat to see what was happening, a pair of cold hands closed on my arm and began pulling me clear of the car. I looked back to find Esme, her face uneasy as she pushed herself between me and what threatened to become and all out brawl. I hadn't even seen her come out. How had the night taken such a violent turn so quickly?

As I struggled in vain to get closer, I felt a wave of calm wash over me. It had exactly the same effect as a bucketful of cold water would have had on a human argument. The tension appeared to drain out of everyone in the tiny group, and though I still could not see Edward or Irina, I felt instantly relieved. Carlisle's voice sounded from the center of the group.

"Edward. Irina. Explain this."

His tone was unassuming and objective, and yet there was an immediate reaction from everyone around him. The others backed away, and I could see Edward once again through the windows on the other side of the car. He had released Irina, but his expression had not changed. His eyes flickered to me through the car windshield, and I saw both relief and reluctance flash across them before he turned back to Carlisle.

"She's been violating the treaty," he began, his eyes falling to the ground. I was suddenly convinced that this was an effort not to meet my eyes. His face was a grimace of disgust as he continued. "She's been in the houses of every wolf and every member of their family. I saw her watching them as they slept."

Esme inhaled sharply at my side. An icy shiver ran down my spine and into all of my extremities as Carlisle, his face now a shade whiter as well, turned to a stiff-jawed Irina.

"Is this true?" His voice was arbitrary, but I could sense a tension there, held under control by centuries of practice.

Irina nodded slowly. "Carlisle, I had no intention of harming any of them. I only wanted to see for myself why their scent is so different from their Old World ancestors."

My eyes flickered cautiously to Edward. Carlisle was unreadable as he turned to Tanya.

"Did you have any part in this?"

Tanya's mouth opened, but no sound came out as she stared at her sister in wide-eyed disbelief. Edward answered for her. "Irina's been watching them the entire time and hiding it from all of us—even Tanya. She knows their houses inside and out. When Billy called Bella, I caught a glimpse of the Black living room in her thoughts, and…"

He detained himself there, glancing over at me with a clenched jaw and I wasn't sure if he had edited the story because of me or because the anger that appeared in his face at that moment had restricted his speech. Images appeared of Irina, pale and ghostlike, lurking at the foot of Seth's bed…in Jacob's living room, or worse, hiding in the shadows of little Claire's closet as she slept, and my mind wandered to Edward's response only seconds before Jasper and Emmett had come out to see what was wrong.

Is Bella an animal? Is her father?

My blood ran cold and my heartbeat picked up. From his position yards away from me, Edward noticed the change and his eyes locked with mine, his face a mask of regret that gave everything away. In the sudden scuffle, I had barely even noticed Edward's mention of my father, and it had been instantly discarded with the discovery of a treaty violation, but it dawned on me now that the reason that he would react so fiercely against one of his own family members would not be out of fear for the wolf pack. The only reason that he would have turned so quickly on Irina was if he thought that I was in danger…or in danger of losing someone I loved.

"She's been in my house, hasn't she?" The question came in a whisper.

Edward nodded slowly without breaking his gaze. The others looked around at me expectantly. Irina stared off into the distance defiantly.

"While you were hunting?"

He nodded again. I tensed and glared back. They were supposed to have been hunting together. How had she gotten away from him for that long? And why hadn't he told me? Esme's grip tightened slightly on my upper arm. My next question came in a weak croak.

"She was watching Charlie and me? While we slept?"

Edward breathed deeply in an effort to control his anger as a third nod of the head confirmed what it physically pained him to admit—that Irina had managed to get past him and threaten what he loved.

Anger tore through me then, raw and burning in my chest and I leapt forward toward the deathly still blond vampire without a logic thought in my mind. She had been in my father's bedroom. After all that the Cullens and the wolves had gone through to protect me and my father from harm over the past year, it was Irina—Edward's family…my family now—that suddenly posed the greatest threat.

I wasn't sure what I would have done if Esme's steady hands hadn't been there to hold me back—leapt over the car at Irina perhaps? How many times could she have run circles around me before my mortal legs had managed to carry me those five yards? Instead, I resigned myself to yelling at her from my mother-in-law's constraining arms.

"Why Charlie?" I bellowed, trying to make myself sound as threatening as possible and failing miserably. "He's not a wolf! He doesn't even know what you are! Why him?"

Irina remained silent and unmoving, but her gaze was directed at me now, her expression one of utter incredulity.

Edward was at my side in a moment, restraining me as my struggling became half-hearted and whispering apologies into my hair. I allowed myself to fold into his arms, but my eyes were still fixed furiously on Irina. A wave of calm shot over me then, stealing the last of my desire to attack, and I glanced appreciatively at Jasper. Everyone was suddenly focused on me with expressions that ranged from disbelief to amusement, probably wondering if they had really just seen a human try to attack a vampire. It was Carlisle who broke the spell.

"This situation would be better dealt with indoors," he insisted, turning away from Irina for the first time. "Edward, you should take Bella home. We can't afford to have any more tempers flaring tonight—mortal or immortal."

Edward nodded and started toward the car again with one last malicious glance toward his cousin.