Chapter 3

"Can you come?" Andrew asked after telling Clara what had happened.

"Of course." Clara said

"We're meeting in the café Mom runs," Andrew suddenly remembered.

"That late?" Clara frowned. "Won't people notice?"

"No, there's a back room. Are you sure you can get your parent's to let you out of the house?"

Clara gave him a did-you-really-just-ask-that look. "I can come." She yawned suddenly.

"Tired?" Andrew asked, concerned. "You don't have to come."

"I'm coming. I just had a late night. No worries."

Sure enough, at 8:45 Clara emerged from the front door of her house. She waved at Andrew and he hurried across the street to meet her. He took her hand, "Shall we go?"

"Let's," Clara smiled. They walked at a quick-ish human pace to Renesmee's café, the Sweet Bite. They went in through the side door and met the family in the back room.

"Hey, everyone," Andrew said. He looked around at his family. They all appeared to be relaxed but Andrew could tell that it was due to Jasper. "So…"

"So we need to talk about the Volturi," Carlisle began. "They want to observe Andrew and his interactions with humans."

"But they already have someone here," Rosalie said. "Let's move onto what this is really about."

"Yeah, that they want to pick us off bit by bit," Emmett said.

"Anyway," Edward interrupted. "It's already been decided that they'll meet in France. We don't want the guard coming out west again."

"Why France?" Andrew asked. It was suddenly very quiet.

"Again?" Clara asked suddenly.

"That's right, Setting Sun hasn't come out yet," Renesmee said. "Mom, will you summarize the story for Clara?" While Bella did that the discussion turned to what they were going to do.

"So obviously he has to go," Carlisle said grimly.

"But you know that he might be in danger if we don't go," Esme said, upset.

"He will be in danger," Rosalie stated. "Even if he proves to them that he isn't a liability."

"They'll use Clara, too." Emmett said casually.

Andrew automatically tightened his grip on Clara's hand, which suddenly made her aware of the world outside of her conversation with Bella again. "No."

"They will," Edward said. "You know it."

"Edward, don't frighten them," Bella murmured.

"It won't," Clara said. "We need to know every possibility."

"To be honest there's not many," Alice said suddenly. She and Jasper had been whispering nearly silently and very quickly with Jasper for the past few minutes.

"Very few actually," Jasper said in his Southern twang. "Either they're going to be confronted and challenged or somehow left alone."

It suddenly went very quiet.

"Breathe," Andrew reminded Clara. Her face had suddenly gone pale. "Clara?"

Clara shook her head suddenly, as if shaking off a bad memory. Actually she was trying to rid herself of the terrifying visions that had suddenly flooded her mind. If the Volturi decided that Andrew was too much of a liability… if he never came home… maybe this trip wasn't a good idea.

"The trip is going to happen," Edward said to Clara. "But at least this way we're prepared."

Jasper spoke again. "Perhaps if we knew if Andrew was venomous?"

Clara looked at Andrew. "You don't know?"

"Nope. We always thought that I always was more wolf than vampire so somehow we never figured out if I have any trace of venom. Anyway, venom is a death sentence to werewolves so we assumed it wasn't possible."

"I could run some tests," Carlisle said quietly. "Finding venom shouldn't be hard."

Jacob and Renesmee looked at each other. They hadn't allowed Carlisle to do that kind of thing in the past, but Andrew had just turned eighteen.

Andrew considered that. "It won't be hard?"

"It shouldn't be."

Andrew nodded slowly. "All right, then."

"Hey, hate to bring it up again, but what if the Volturi grabs Clara?" Emmett asked. "Or one of, ow!" Rosalie had elbowed him, hard.

"What?" Andrew asked.

"Nothing," Renesmee said, giving Emmett a look that could kill. "But they won't unless they want all of us to cross the Atlantic."

"Right." Bella said briskly. "Well it's getting late and there's not much more we can do. Bedtime for the humans and hybrids, I think." She was watching Clara struggle to swallow a yawn.

Andrew noticed this too. "C'mon, Clara." He helped her up and she swayed slightly. "Do you sleep at all?"

"Of course I do," Clara said. "I was just busy last night."

"Until when?"

"Um, 3 or 4…"

"You're going to bed," Andrew decided. "Come on."

"I'll drive you two," Renesmee offered. Within minutes Clara was walking back through her front door and Andrew and Renesmee were listening to make sure she wasn't in trouble. Apparently Clara's gift was as powerful as ever because her mom, who happened to be awake, gave her no trouble and they heard Clara's feet trudge up the stairs.

"Let's go, Andrew," Renesmee. "You have an important day tomorrow."

"What do you mean? Tomorrow's just graduation practice. Wait, is this the thing you guys were hiding?"

But Renesmee Black refused to say another word.