I got home and asked Dad if he'd found out anything new about the murders.

"Nothing," he said, "There's not any sort of connection that I can see, and no reason for it, either. It looks like it's just random killings now, but I'm not so sure..."

If Dad couldn't find anything, then we probably wouldn't either, and there was one thing left to do: get the truth out of the Cullens. But how?

I tried to study, but after I did my math homework, I kept thinking about the murders. Whoever did them was desperate. It made me sick.

I decided to look up more French. Someone had to keep Edward from his mind-reading.

Before the hour was up, Angela invited us to her house to study for the SAT. I drove there within 15 minutes, and arrived to find Jessica on the coffee colored couch, reciting the facts of World War 2 for history class as though she was a textbook. Then after the overall story, she moved onto the Nazi occupation in Denmark, throwing in lots of extra facts that weren't in the given lesson. Angela was studying vocabulary flashcards.

"How do you do that?" I asked, open mouthed, after Jessica was done.

She shrugged. "I love history. You learn from it," She glanced at Angela. "I hate vocab, though."

Angela looked up. "I needed to finish Trig homework, but I'll do that when I'm up at midnight again," She sighed good-naturedly, "Insomnia stinks."

We were all practicing vocab, but after a while, it felt odd. Like we were being watched. Angela persisted with her studying.

"Come on, Jessica," Angela urged, holding up a flashcard. "You know this one. Inopinate."

Then I saw it. For the briefest second. Rosalie's blond hair; it had flashed at the window before she disappeared.

Jessica was struggling. She hadn't been facing the window and hadn't seen Rosalie. "Inopinate. It's an adjective. Um..."

"Rosalie!" I shrieked. It blurted out of my mouth. I couldn't stand this mysteriousness anymore.

Jessica started, but the word had come back to her. "Inopinate. Something unexpected, a surprise."

There was a click as Rosalie opened the window and came in, sighing. "Come on, Alice, they saw us. May as well come out."

Jess put her head in her hands. "Inopinate. I'll never forget what that means now. Not even if I try."

Angela glared. "What are you doing here?"

Alice came in. "We'd like to talk. But the others don't think it's a good idea."

The others. Jasper, Emmett, Edward, Mrs. Cullen, and even Dr. Cullen, though he had seemed nice.

Jess snorted. "They don't think talking is a good idea? No wonder you're anti-social."

She hadn't meant it. Jessica wouldn't ever say anything like that. She was trying to anger them so they'd speak.

Rosalie took the bait. "No, they don't think talking to low-life, polluting, extinctionist-"

Alice's eyes widened. She knew what was coming.

"- merciless, violent, ignorant humans is a good idea, thank you very much. And I'm starting to believe them. It's only because of Alice I'm here."

Angela's eyes narrowed. "Thanks for all that, non-human, we're trying not to pollute here, in case you haven't noticed. I write articles on it. Everything here is organic, do you know how much that costs, rich girl? And scratch the violent, merciless part. I don't even kill bugs."

"So you know we're not human," Alice said quietly. "What do you think we are?"

"I don't know, you tell me. And after you're done with that, explain the murders. Just because you didn't kill anyone doesn't mean you're not guilty. You

know where they're going to happen and you still don't tell anyone. That's as bad as doing the killing." I said. I think the 'Chief Swan's daughter' in me came alive then.

Alice nodded, unsurprised. I could see now that she'd left her drawings on the table on purpose. Perhaps she had even transferred to our math class just to let us figure out her ability.

Rosalie sank into a couch. "We don't know what we are, either. What we know is that we're the product of an intentional human effort to create live

weaponry," She said the word as though it made her sick, then continued, "and it's not fair to us. Why should we care about your murders? For all we know, you humans murdered hundreds of test subjects before we were made."

Jessica frowned. "All right. So explain your abilities. Everything."

"Abilities? You humans aren't as ignorant as we thought," Rosalie said, surprised. "We are this way because someone injected themselves with several venoms, so that their so-called abilities could be transmitted. Then they transferred it to us. The powers of venom are amazing. It is being studied by scientists-"

"-who believe that the venom contains coded cures for human diseases." Angela finished.

"True," Alice said. "Several of your medicines originate from venom. Prialt, from the cone snail. Integrilin originates from gaboon viper venom. Viprinex

from Malayan pit vipers. Many more medicines have yet to be discovered. But not many people know about this. You humans seem to think that nature

cannot hold the answers. You are dead wrong. We must learn from nature's perfection. The cone snail had the mechanism for pressurized darts far

before humans did. And theirs are still more proficient.

"But changing humans using venom is the wrong way to go. We were created venom-free. There is a reason for that. Although we have the powerful

muscles of a snake, our human bodies do not have enough energy for it. Rescuing you from Mike's car took a lot of strength. We spent the day we got off

of school in total bed rest, feeding on pure sugar water. We learned that trick from the hummingbirds." Alice sat back, rubbing her forehead.

I remembered the car crash. Only Alice and Rosalie had done anything requiring strength. Despite what Rosalie may say about humans, she had saved

me. Either by her own will or because of Alice. Alice, who had known what was going to happen.

Rosalie continued. "The visions Alice has and each of our individual abilities have extreme repercussions. Usually skull splitting headaches, but also

fatigue, concussions, and other things we have yet to find out. Where those mental abilities came from we don't know. Most likely from the inner

mechanism of the animal we were bonded with. But being this way has one positive. If I had grown up normal, I never would have known what humans

do to nature, to the very food they eat. Anything but completely natural, non-processed food is as poisonous to us as it is to animals. We cannot live

in anything but small towns, for in cities, the air is too polluted. Our fate, and the humans' as well, is tied to the fate of the earth."

I gasped. If I was one of them, I never would have lived in Phoenix. I never would have met Robyn and Nicole.

Alice sat up. "We have told you all we know about us. But what are we? We have no idea. But we are not natural, and that in itself will kill us."

"In short," said Rosalie, "We have enough to worry about without adding murders to the list. Especially if the murders have nothing to do with us."

Alice was petulant. "Edward and I care, but there's not much we can do. They're happening too frequently. The energy to required to save them would

get us hospitalized."

"At least tell the police where they're going to happen." pushed Jessica.

"We would, but we have bigger problems."

"Like what?"

"We think they're after us. The murderers are one of our... kind. They must want the research we have. It's the only reason they could be here."

I remembered the venom traces in the victims. But why would they transfer their venom to the victims?

There was something they weren't telling us, or perhaps they didn't know, themselves.

"What research?" Jessica continued.

"About how to turn us back to humans. And we aren't going to hand it over."

"And why is that?"

"Because many animals were killed to change us. And many more will be killed if we wish to reverse it. We stopped the research when we figured that out."

I spoke up. "Anti-venom. The cure for venomous injuries. It is derived from the venom itself. That's what they want."

Dad had told me that. When he was a child he had to call the ambulance when his friend had been bitten by a rattlesnake in Forks. He had asked the

doctors how they were going to cure him.

"It's not that simple. It takes years to put together this sort of database. Each of us has at least ten different venoms involved in our making. To find out

which of the thousands of animals it comes from requires extreme genetic testing. This is why they have to steal it from us."

I got up. "Then we're talking to my dad. There's some way out of this. And you owe it to those victims. They're dying for you."

All the stuff about the venoms is true. I've been researching it for months. Look it up yourself.

And people say animals were created by accident. You can't create pressurized darts on accident.

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