"This is boring."

"Ssh!" I hissed from behind my folded hands, not looking away from the chess board. Alice was my mirror image opposite me, though she seemed to think that biting her lip would accomplish something. The game had been going on for a good hour now, though neither of us had yet to touch our pieces. It was just like our mental sparring on that night Jasper had begun teaching us to fight; I simply read her mind and she read my future. We had made a total of three hundred and thirty-two moves, though there had been so much backtracking that the mental board itself was still in its first ten moves.

"This is boring," Emmett moaned again, still hovering at my right shoulder.

"It was your idea," Esme pointed out, standing behind Alice. Jasper and Rosalie were flanking the sides of the table, watching as well. I hadn't been allowed to play chess at all since 1937, and everyone was hoping to witness my first defeat. If Carlisle wasn't still at work, he would no doubt be hovering along with everyone else.

"All I said was that they might be a match for each other!"

"Shut it, Emmett," Jasper growled. "You're annoying Alice. She's trying to concentrate."

There was another ten minutes of silence, and then Jasper smiled slightly and nudged Emmett with his foot. "What do you say we make a little wager on the outcome?"

I frowned, glancing up at my opponent. What had Jasper felt, to suddenly make him so confident in Alice's success? She was smiling too, and suddenly very focused on her investment plans for the upcoming week. But then she let it slip in her excitement; her remaining bishop was cooking up a diversion so that her rook and knight could finally trap my queen. I quickly changed my strategy, giving my queen a new escape route which involved the assassination of her bishop. Alice and Jasper frowned in tandem half a second later.

"Sure," Emmett finally answered. "What've you got in mind?"

"Forget it," Jasper muttered.

"Oh no you don't! Leave your lousy gift out of this. I'll bet my first month of raking leaves on Edward."

Jasper considered this for a moment, then nodded. "Deal. And if Alice wins, you do ALL the shoveling for the entire winter."

"No way. A season of chores isn't worth a month of chores!"

"Shoveling is incidental," Jasper argued. "And there's probably less hours overall, because-"

"Would you two shut up?!" Rosalie shrieked, making the chess pieces rattle on the glass board.

"News flash, bro: this ain't Texas. It's Vermont. Shoveling snow is about as incidental as Alice changing clothes."

"But you've got to factor in the slugs and the mold. Raking is way more disgusting than shoveling. If anything, I should throw in-"

"OUT!" Esme commanded, pointing at the door.

"Good," Emmett scowled, storming around me and flicking over my rook as he passed. "Come on, Jasper, let's go kill something. These losers'll still be at it when we get back anyway."

Jasper pecked Alice on the cheek for good luck and they bustled out the front door, still arguing over the terms of their wager. The door slammed and their thoughts began to quickly recede. I picked up my rook and set him right, sighing in relief at the relative quiet of just three minds. In fact, maybe this rook was the key… maybe if I made it look like he was attacking her right flank of pawns, I could lure them out away from her king, who was still bunched up behind a wall of defenders.

Oh no you don't! Alice scrambled back two moves, sending her knight out in challenge with a pawn in reserve for its protection. I sighed, leaning more heavily on my elbows and frowning down at the new board as it appeared in our minds. There was something to be said for the normal style of playing; at least in that case, your turn was over once your hand left the piece. But, I thought with a smile, where was the fun in that?

Esme sighed as well; she was relieved at the quiet, like I was, but also relieved to see me so relaxed.

Two weeks had passed since Jasper helped bring Carlisle and myself to our new understanding. Not much had changed for me, in terms of my plans for the short term; I still wasn't able to do much other than hang around the house and work on my correspondence courses. But my whole world was different. I felt a peace that I hadn't felt in decades- at peace with Carlisle, and with myself as well. As a result, I found that I was better able to enjoy moments like this, where I was doing nothing more productive than lose myself in a chess game with one of my siblings. I no longer felt the sharp lash of my guilt, driving me on toward an unnecessary atonement to the last person who would have wanted me to feel that burden. It didn't change what had I had done, or the fact that the monster that still held too much sway over my existence. His thirst for blood was just as powerful, his teeth just as sharp… the danger just as real. But he had been declawed, no longer able to scrape my heart with his lies. I still felt the shadow of damnation, but it was no longer heavy with fear. Proving myself was no long an obligation.

This had freed my muse to new heights. I had been tinkering again with the song for Carlisle, though he still didn't know about it. I was also composing two other sonatas at once right now, one inspired by Esme- her love for her children being the wordless theme- and the other by the humming vivacity of the rainforest back in Washington State. When I closed my eyes, I could still smell all the scents that had tangled together in the cold humidity. But when I opened my eyes, I easily found the inspiration for the other sonata; Esme's joy at having such a busy household was really shared by us all. She was assigning chores right and left now, to keep up with the mess and housecleaning that was the natural result of having such a large, active family. Alice was almost wholly responsible for the laundry now, a load which she cleverly averted by simply giving away as much as our clothing as she could get away with. And, naturally, this led to the need for more shopping. I had so far managed to avoid escorting her since the day we had bought the piano, and if Rosalie would hurry up and teach Alice to drive, as she had been promising, I might never have to go again.

Jasper and Emmett always ended up with the bulk of the outdoor chores, and were forever trading and gambling their jobs back and forth. Carlisle and I continued doing most of the home maintenance and repair, though Jasper was quickly becoming a genius at everything electrical. Rosalie was currently reorganizing the shed and the garage every day after school, and also helped Esme with a bit of the other cleaning, as did Alice. She had finally restored the Lincoln to its former glory, and was still working like mad to make the van less of an embarrassment. Esme was left with the rest. But she couldn't be happier, straightening Alice's piles of drawings here, spackling to cover the evidence of Emmett and Jasper's latest fight there.

I win! Alice suddenly thought in triumph. I returned my attention to the game, waiting as she showed me a move-by-move vision of her latest attempt at victory.

"No you don't," I snorted. "That move isn't legal- that one, there. You can't castle your king through check. That whole future's not even possible."

"You might've mentioned that when you explained the rules," Alice sulked. "Anything else you're not telling me?"

"I'll let you know," I said cheerfully, and leaned back in my chair. Alice rewound her strategy by seven moves and we both fell into frozen silence again.

Rosalie and Esme eventually lost interest, drifting away to their own hobbies and tasks. The game went on for another hour, with the advantage slowly leaning toward my side. Alice was just about to concede the permanent loss of her second rook when she suddenly gasped, a horrible vision wrenching her away from our game: Jasper, with the canopy of the forest behind him, kneeling over a man with his eyes closed in grief... and blood on his lips.

I shot to my feet, upsetting the board. "When? Where?" I demanded. Alice finally breathed again as the last pieces clattered to the floor, shaking her head.

"I don't know," she moaned. "In the forest somewhere… but soon. A few minutes."

I didn't waste any more time with questions; I just tore out the patio door and started running. At least the storm was holding off so I could follow Jasper's and Emmett's scents. I could hear Alice running behind me.

"Keep looking!" I shouted over my shoulder. "I need to know where I'm going!" I was quickly outpacing Alice in my flight; I still had a good grip on her mind but it wasn't going to last long.

Alice backed up her vision in a panic, trying to get a good picture which showed more of the scenery. But the forest looked the same no matter what she did. I finally got a glimpse of the blunt peak of Mt. Moosilauke in the distance, but that didn't help me much; I was already headed that way via their scents. If I was going to stop this, I needed to cut straight to where they were, not follow the meandering trails of their morning hunt.

"I need more than that!" I shouted. "And keep up, I'm losing you already!"

I couldn't afford to slow down. Alice growled in frustration, pushing herself as hard as she could. I'm trying, I'm trying! I was just so focused on the game, I didn't check in enough to see which paths they took! She racked her visions, combing at super-speed through my own future now, trying to project where I would end up. I followed along in my own mind, trying to memorize every turn and circle I was going to take, trying to guess what shortcuts might shave off a few precious seconds. And just in time; their trail was already taking a turn south, away from where I knew I needed to be. I hesitated just for a millisecond and then shot on ahead, trusting that I would pick up the trail again soon and keeping the ever-changing map of Alice's trail-visions in my head.

Edward, I'm sorry! It doesn't matter, you're not going to make it. Alice kept running after me, but we both groaned in defeat as the image of Jasper's accident remained unchanged. The vision was so certain now that it was a moving picture. Jasper finally opened his red eyes and turned the body over to survey the damage.

William Cummings.

"NO!" I roared, surging forward at an impossibly faster pace. Alice blinked as her motion picture changed back into a still image, now blinking in and out with an image of Jasper with his eyes back to their normal orange-rust color, then blinking in and out with an image of me fighting Jasper.

Maybe? Hurry... -ward, hurry! And don't you dare… got to… careful!...

I growled in anger, unsure what to do; I was losing Alice's mind, but slowing down would mean absolute failure. I charged on ahead, running blind on the last vision Alice had given me. Mercifully I soon came across Jasper's scent again, but now there was a new danger: the clouds finally broke overhead. The rain began with a vengeance, and I stopped and knelt to sniff the ground and trees, desperately trying to guess which of the two trails I was now finding was heavier with Jasper's most recent passage; the scents were already being diluted by the new moisture. I took the left one on a whim, my feet barely touching the ground as I flew through the forest. I leapt over a wide slice of some unnamed creek, relieved to find the scent even fresher on the other side.

I could just hear Jasper's mind now; it hadn't happened yet. He was stalking a lynx, keeping the mountain on his right as he followed it. I hissed in frustration, cursing both myself and Alice; if I had known he was going to end up so far to the west, I wouldn't have needed to waste so much time following his loop around this way. At this rate, he would encounter the human just inside the canopy of the forest, just off the dirt road that led out of Warren. Of course it would be closer to the road! I thought angrily. Emmett's mind was farther off to the east, just a faint echo in the back of my own brain.

It happened, then; the inevitable event that would cause the disaster. The wind changed direction, an angry gale blowing from the west and driving the rain so hard it was horizontal for a moment. Jasper snapped up into standing, his nostrils flaring and his eyes wide. It wasn't just human scent; this was blood, freshly spilled.

He tried to resist. He might have had a chance, if he fed before now, or if he hadn't already been in hunting mode. But as it was, the battle was over in less than a second. He was racing toward the scent now, his mind an inhuman swirl of thirst and fury at his own weakness. Stop! STOP! I can't... I need it NOW!

I changed direction, now able to guess exactly where he was headed. I soon heard William's mind as well; he was lamenting his clumsiness. He had been setting up a tent- God only knew why he was in the woods in this weather- and the rain had made the stakes slippery. He had slipped getting the final one ready, slicing open his left hand. He had already wrapped it with a clean shirt, but the blood was soaking through. I growled again, furious at the coincidence of him coming here and bleeding right when Jasper was out, but there was no more time for thought. I somehow found the strength to push myself even harder, now shouting as loud as I dared for Jasper to stop. But his mind was too far gone. At least I had William's mind loud and clear now, I was taking a straight shot to where he was. Less than a mile to go.

William was feeling nauseous now, and just beginning to wonder whether he should drive back to the hospital for stitches. He turned around and did the worst thing he could possibly have done: he began to unwind the makeshift bandage. It was soaked in blood now; he wanted to check on the cut and wrap it in something fresh. The air shimmered with the glorious scent of his blood, and I burst out of the woods, only a tenth of a second behind Jasper, who was coming from my right. He jumped, roaring in triumph and defeat all at once, and grabbed William's shoulders from behind. Just as his mouth touched my friend's neck, I collided with them. The thunder was echoed by the crash of immortal stone and the softer thud of human flesh.

The three of us slammed into a nearby tree. Jasper turned on me in a snarling rage, leaving William to tumble lifelessly to the wet ground. He was in my face before I could blink, his eyes black and wild and his teeth gleaming with venom.

MINE!

I barely got my arm up in time, blocking his bite. His jaws snapped together as I hit him, but he had his hands around my throat even before I had pulled my arm back. I kneed him in the groin as hard as I could, and his hands slipped away. I lunged to catch him, but he was already spinning back toward William and the blood that was calling him. I finally felt my own fiery thirst then, fully doubled by Jasper's. I blinked and shook my head, but there was no time. I dropped to the ground and attacked from underneath Jasper as he jumped, sending both of us crashing into the tent. There was a brief, silent struggle as we both got tangled in the rain-drenched fabric, then I managed to extricate myself. I slammed Jasper face-first into the ground, trying to grab onto his flailing arms and keep him tangled.

"Jasper! It's me, Edward! You can't do this! JASPER!" But he freed his hands from the canvas then, and I barely swung out of the way as he sprang back up into my face, still a mindless monster. His gift was instinctively active now; my thirst was momentarily drowned in a wave of sheer terror. I stumbled and fell, somehow managing to lock my arms around his right leg as he dove for William again. This time he slammed a fist into my face, and I gasped in pain as I felt his teeth sink into the back of my left shoulder. I probably would have given up right there, between the pain and the fear he was hitting me with, but my own thirst was raging again now, too. The monster screamed in fury, clawing his way up through my throat and giving me the strength to keep fighting for the blood that was rightfully mine. And I remembered, through the murderous haze in my brain, that I was trying to save my friend. From my own brother!

I burst off the ground in my rage, crying out again as Jasper's teeth tore off my shoulder. I kicked him in the face, following through to get him into a headlock and driving him down to the ground. I buried my left hand in his hair and yanked back, exposing his throat. He finally froze, his mind scrambling partially back into focus as he tried to come up with an escape. I risked letting go of his throat now, clamping my hand over his nose and mouth instead to cut off his air.

"Jasper, stop! You can't have him. Go back to Alice, and don't breathe again until you're far away. Do you hear me?! I'll tear you apart if you don't get out of here!"

Jasper blinked, his thoughts gelling halfway back to sanity. "GO BACK TO ALICE!" I shouted again into his ear. I saw her then in his mind, a swirling white aura around her smile. I felt my fear began to melt away as he retracted his gift. He nodded against my hand, bringing his own up. For a second I thought he was trying to attack again, but he slipped his hand over his nose and mouth and broke out of my grasp. I dropped back toward William again in a defensive posture, but Jasper was already gone, running at top speed away from temptation. There were hardly any thoughts to hear, but they were quickly fading.

I drew one shuddering breath, but cut it off again; this would all have been for nothing if I ended up attacking William myself. He was still alive, at least, his breathing and thudding heart the only sound in the clearing. But something was wrong about the rhythm. I took another moment to compose myself, and, firmly telling the monster to go to hell, knelt by my friend and turned him over.

It was a mistake.

I hadn't seen exactly how he had hit the tree during our collision, but his neck was covered with blood. And now that I had moved him, it was flowing fast, much too fast. I couldn't quite see, but from the sheer speed of the blood loss, he had to have nicked his external carotid artery. For half a second I just stared, watching in hungry fascination as his life drained away. My hands slowly made their way to his shoulders and I bent lower, opening my mouth for the feast that I held in my hands. It was mine.

Yes!

"No," I hissed, snapping my teeth and my eyes shut. I blindly, gently pressed my hand against the wound; was it to save him, or to lift his throat to my teeth?

"Alice," I breathed, using up the last of my air. I drew one deep, burning breath; I would not kill my friend. "ALICE!" I shouted. "If you're watching me, don't come any closer. I need an ambulance at the entrance to the forest- there's a little parking lot just off the eastern edge of a town called Warren. They'll need…" I gasped more air in, gritting my teeth against the siren song of William's blood. "They'll need to run a stretcher into the woods. I think we're about a half mile east of where that dirt path ends. Tell them it's an animal attack, he needs blood right away…"

I couldn't do any more than that. I creaked open my eyes just enough to see where the worst of the damage was, and then squeezed them shut again before I slipped my fingers inside the wound. I found the torn artery and gently clamped the frayed tissue together.

William's heart began to stutter back into a slightly more normal rhythm, but now I could feel the warm pulse of blood against my fingers with every thud of his weakened heart.

Feed. Feed. FEED. FEED!

I didn't dare open my eyes again. If I saw the blood again, I would lose it. And I couldn't let go, or he would die. I just knelt there, frozen between the clamoring monster and the life of my friend, unable to move or do anything else. I squeezed my eyes shut even tighter and clenched my teeth harder, and prayed that Alice had been paying attention, that help was on the way, and that the rain would please keep pounding the scent of William's blood down away from my nose.

This was the hardest battle I had ever fought, and I was going to lose it any second.