AN: Hi guys, I know this is a really short chapter but I am getting over food poisoning. (It was a rough weekend.) And to top it off, it snowed 12 inches since midnight last night. (I live in Boston, MA so I guess I shouldn't be complaining. I should have known what I was getting into ... living around here and all.) But I promise you that I will have the next chapter up as soon as vampirically (not humanly ... vampirically) possible. Enjoy and remember R&R please :)

Last chapter:

"Where is Bella?" Jasper asked.

Emmett and Edward stood and scanned the teens huddled on the dance floor. Bella and Ben were no where in sight. "There's Ben," said Rosalie pointing to the beverage table.

"Where's Bella?" Edward asked, panic in his voice.

I felt the air move around me as the world went foggy …

Edward's Point of View

I watched Bella dance with Ben. Should I have let her go off that easily? It should be me out there dancing with her, holding her in my arms, feeling the heat of her skin inches from me.

"You really like her, don't you?" Alice asked, placing her hand on my leg. I watched her dance. I was not sure about much but I was certain that I did not like her. I could not fathom how to processes what I actually felt, but I knew that there was more to it than a simple emotion. It was not a crush, or infatuation, or even … love. It was so concrete, so tactile. But, there was always a fear, if ever so small that she could never feel this way about me, an abomination.

I nodded and smiled. Alice, always the watchful sister whether she knew it or not, had caught my apprehension

"Edward? What's wrong?" she asked. With Rosalie and Emmett dancing up a storm, I felt safe talking to Alice and Jasper. They already knew and felt what was going on. From these two, I could hide nothing.

I inhaled deeply and sighed. "I never know if I can trust myself around her," I spat out.

"You still crave her blood?" Jasper asked, I saw the slight twinge of fear in his eyes. He believed he was the weakest of us, though I wondered at my own resolve daily.

"N-no," I shuttered, uncharacteristically. "The opposite: I can not imagine hurting her. I just … well I feel so open with her. It's just that I am …" so afraid of an unrequited love.

"You're afraid," Alice finished my sentence. I affirmed it with a nod. "The man has a flaw," Alice smiled, joking to herself, but Jasper remained confused.

"He's, finally, acting like the teenager he looks like," Alice explained but I could tell he still was puzzled.

"He's afraid Bella doesn't like him the way he likes her," Alice finished and I nodded. Sometimes, I wondered who the mind reader really was! She was right though. My deepest, darkest fear, other than loosing Bella, was that she would never or could never return the love I feel with her.

"Tell him Jasper," Alice asked noticing my sullen turn.

Jasper inhaled deeply. He was fishing through images of Bella and me in his mind. It was an almost like an out of body experience, watching scenes you have only sat through first hand.

"She … well. The only thing that rivals the feeling she gets around you is how you get around her. It's one of the strongest emotions I've ever felt. It's like you're mirrors of each other," Jasper finished.

"She likes me?" I asked, astonished. Bella liked me? It might not be love but it was a start. Something might grow from "like."

"No," Alice said with finality. I could feel my face fall. A tidal wave of sadness flushed through me. How could I delude myself so? What did they mean then … mirrors?

"But, I thought you said …" I asked, more and more confused by the second. I would have jumped out of my chair and physically sifted through Alice and Jasper's mind myself if I thought it would have cleared the situation up.

Alice held up one finger to stop my words. "I think she is falling in love with you. You. Not this exterior of perfection but Edward, the man inside."

It was not a crush or a simple lustful hope she held. She might be falling in love with me. "Do you think so?" I asked.

"Yes," Jasper and Alice answered in unison.

Edward looks like a fool, what's he so happy about? Emmett wondered, walking back to our table.

"What's with the loopy grin?" Emmett asked, plopping down beside Rosalie.

"He's in love," Rose stated.

Girls always know, I thought with a smile.

"With who?" Emmett thrashed around in his seat looking at all the students in the gym.

"With Bella, you …"Rosalie began before being interrupted.

"Where is Bella?" Jasper asked.

Bella? She had not returned when the song ended. I stood in haste hardly noticing Emmett at my side. There was no sign of her on the dance floor. Her scent, so heady moments ago when she was by my side, had almost disappeared amongst the other odors of sweaty teens in the gym.

"There's Ben," said Rosalie pointing to the beverage table. I turned but Bella was not by his side. She should have come back by now, my mind screamed.

"Where is Bella?" I asked my siblings. I could hardly mask the panic taking over.

Edward! I heard Alice shriek as she slowly fell to the ground. Jasper had stopped her descent.

Alice's mind slipped into a vision. She had the forethought to call my attention back to her. That's my smart Alice, I thought. I tuned into her vision and a shroud of mist flew through my vision.

Darkness pulled around a building. The door, crimson in color, was pulled open and four figures found refuge within the bleak expanse of night. Three members of the party were dragging the fourth. They roamed through the halls, flanked on either side by large navy blue boxes. Lockers, they were in a school building. Another door was opened and then another.

The person who had been carried into the building was unceremoniously thrown to the floor. A figure pulled away from the group of three. They raised a hand and slapped the prone individual. The figure on the floor stirred, seemingly regaining composure and realized the predicament that they were in.

Another slap. Another slap. A balled fist and a kick to the shoulder. The ring leader of the group began to pummel the figure on the ground. Their hair fell loose around them as they pulled into a ball protecting his or her most vital parts. "Stop," the figure plead. It was a woman.

A savage kick to the arm was delivered in answer. A gash ran the length of her forearm. Blood pool away from her body.

The kicker, the leader, was a female. Her blonde hair was illuminated in by the moon light the shown in through a bank of windows. "I told you, the first day, remember. You touch my man again and I'd make you bleed. Do it again, and I'll kill you." Her sickening words made the male and female figure behind her shudder. They backed away as she delivered another blow.

The woman on the floor had stopped pleading with her. Thinking her unconscious, the group pulled her farther into the room and behind another door, shutting it before leaving.

The figure on the floor shifted and moaned a name so low, no one would have heard it. No one, but a vampire. "Edward."

My body slammed out of Alice's vision and we gasped in unison. Had this happened already? Could it be prevented?

I knew who she was. The figure on the floor was Bella. Mike and Jessica had dragged her away from the dance. Lauren, never one to do the heavy lifting, roughed Bella up and left her someplace. She must be in one of the many buildings spread out over campus.

I had to find her. My mind was still in shock though. How could Lauren do this? How could Jessica and Mike sit by and let her? Was she demented?

Alice jumped up pulling me along with her. "Emmett," she called to him and tossed him her cell phone. "Call Charlie Swan. Tell him that something has happened and they need a squad car to swing by."

"Edward," she said turning to me. "You need to find her."

I shook my head. I felt fuzzy. More odd though, I finally felt something. Like I had been wrapped in cotton for the past century. I felt everything around me. Fear. Anger. Rage. But above all, I felt her. I needed Bella. And, right now she needed me.

"Come with me," I appealed to Alice. "I might need your help. The blood …"

"No, Edward," she said, shaking her head and backing up. "You have to do this alone. I haven't hunted recently. Mistakes could be made. Hurry, Edward. She needs you."

I walked towards the exit of the gym and into a cavernous hallway. I could smell her. Fresh freesias in full bloom. Bella had been here. I turned to check with Alice. Would I be in time? How badly hurt was she?

"Find her," she mouthed from across the gym and I took off after her scent.