Bella

I slammed my locker shut with extra force. Far too many tests in a single day. To top it off, it was sleeting and gray, which meant a windy, cold walk home. I whirled away from the wall. Someone was standing right behind me.

"Oh! Sorry—" I began before I recognized him. "Edward!"

He gave me a slow, lazy smile, lashes lowered beneath his glasses. He put one hand on the wall by my face and brought his lips to my ear. "I have a present for you," he whispered.

My annoyance faded as I drank in the warmth of his body.

He had one hand behind his back and a huge grin on his face. With a flourish he brought out a bouquet of lilies, waxy and white with deep red throats, topped with a narrow box.

They smelled fantastic—luxurious and heady, their rich scent making my nostrils tingle. "But—what's the occasion?"

He laughed. "Do I need an occasion to give the special woman in my life a present? It's the two-month anniversary of our first date, Bella." He brushed his lips over the top of my head.

I felt like such a jerk. Weren't boys supposed to be the ones who forgot anniversaries? "I'm sorry," I mumbled. "I didn't get you anything."

"Never mind," he said. "I didn't want you to. Why don't you open the box?"

I glanced around the crowded school corridor. "Right here?"

With a laugh, he bent, slipped one arm around me and scooped me up. I stiffened and squeaked as he trotted down the hall. He shouldered open one of the classroom doors and carried me over the threshold. Once we were alone, he combed his fingers through my hair and kissed me deeply.

I finally pulled back, gasping. His eyes were lidded as he drew away. "Open it," he commanded.

I laid the lilies on the desk and unwrapped the box, removing the tissue paper to reveal a long envelope. Sliding my finger under the flap, I removed a glossy brochure and a printed cardboard slip. "What—what is this?" I flipped the brochure over. A resort on the Big Island of Hawaii?

He laughed at the baffled expression on my face. "I'm taking you on a Hawaiian vacation."

"W-what do you mean? When?"

"This weekend," he said. "Do you like your present?"

I stared at him, the brochure dangling from my fingers. "Don't we have school?"

He stroked one finger along my cheek. "You'll only have to miss one day. We'll leave Thursday night and return Sunday night. First class airline tickets. That'll give us three full days in a warm and sunny paradise. We'll get away from all this dark and cold." He moved closer. "What do you say?"

"It sounds wonderful," I said, "but you know I've never been on an airplane before."

He bent his head to mine. "You're going to love it."

I clutched the envelope and the lilies to my chest as I ran down the stairs to my next class. Such an extravagant gift. I had never heard of going to Hawaii for a weekend. It was romantic that he wanted to celebrate our two-month anniversary, but the scale of the gift terrified me. It was the sort of thing you'd do for a honeymoon.

Maybe.

If you were rich.

Just how much money did Edward have? Spending money on a few fancy dinners was one thing, but a vacation like this had to cost thousands of dollars. How much was Volterra paying him? I shivered. The thought of such a large amount of money being involved in Edward's illegal activities made them seem even more dangerous.

"Hey!" Leah called as she stepped into my path in the central hall. "What's been up with you lately? We haven't seen you anywhere."

"We've missed you," said Jessica as she joined us.

I shrugged. "I've been in school every day. What's to miss?"

"You're always eating lunch alone with Edward these days and neglecting your friends," Leah said.

A wave of guilt washed over me. "I'm sorry. We're both so busy with school it seems that there isn't really that much time to spend together."

Leah scrutinized my face. "What's wrong? You look so distracted and worried." Her eyes fell on the lilies. "And what's this—flowers? Nice!"

I lifted the bouquet and gazed at it as though puzzled. "Edward gave me the flowers for our two-month anniversary."

Both girls grinned widely at that. "Aww, that's sweet," said Leah. "He's so romantic, isn't he?"

"But what's wrong?" pressed Jessica. "Why aren't you smiling?"

I stared at them blankly. What could I say? Edward had warned me of the importance of keeping his membership in Volterra a secret. Obviously I couldn't tell them that he had invited me on a wildly extravagant vacation. But I could certainly tell them that he wanted to go away with me for the weekend. As a matter of fact, I had to let them know, or they would wonder where I was.

I bit my lip, and my eyes shifted back and forth. "Edward invited me to go away over the weekend, and I'm a bit nervous about that."

"But why?" Jessica demanded. She lowered her voice. "Going away for the weekend sounds fun! Who wouldn't want to be alone with someone as hot as Edward all weekend? I mean, it's not like your mom's gonna know." She leered at me.

I stood there, sure that my face was becoming redder than the throats of the lilies. I still felt a little guilty about not following Charlie's wishes that I wait until marriage. Although I was a legal adult now and entitled to make my own decisions, everything had ended up being far more complicated than I had ever imagined.

Leah said, "I think it's sweet that he's thinking of two months with you as an anniversary, and that he wants to take you somewhere. Where is he taking you, by the way?"

"Well," I began, frantically trying to think of a trip that didn't sound too expensive, "he has a friend with a camper, and we're going to borrow it and go up into the mountains." I twirled a strand of hair around my finger, ashamed that I was lying to my own best friends.

"Camping in the middle of winter?" asked Leah, a line appearing in the middle of her forehead. "I hope that camper has a good heater."

Jessica grinned. "They won't need a heater—they'll be keeping each other warm."

Edward

Edward walked down the hall of Volturi Pharmaceuticals and knocked on the door of one of the laboratories. When there was no answer, he peered in the window and saw Aro asleep on the lab couch, his mouth hanging open.

He held his key card to the reader and went inside. The lab smelled of the latest chemical concoction Aro was working on, and loud hip-hop music was blaring from a set of speakers in a corner. Edward turned off the stereo. Then he bent down to shake Aro's shoulder.

"Dr. Volturi!" he called. "Wake up. You asked me to remind you about the company party. It's going on now, sir. Wake up, sir!" he said again, shaking Aro one more time.

Finally the man stirred and groggily opened bloodshot eyes. "Like always," he mumbled, "your timing sucks, Edward." He struggled to sit up on the couch, brushing his waist-long hair back from his face. He swung his legs over the side and heaved himself up to a sitting position. "Hey, what happened to the music?"

"I turned it off, sir, so that you could get ready to go to the party."

Aro snorted. "Pull that stick outta your ass, Edward. You gotta loosen up if you're ever gonna have a happy life." He pulled himself up to standing, tucked in his shirt, and stalked out of the lab.

Edward followed, shaking his head.

Aro was weaving back and forth and singing off-key as he walked down the hall.

Edward slid his hand under the lapel of his lab coat to adjust the gain on Alice's recording device. Aro's behavior never failed to irritate him. And the way the other employees played up to him was disgusting. It infuriated Edward to be the low-status employee in this company when the president and owner was a crook who acted like a drunken teenager. What's more, after what Edward had discovered in Aro's email— He took a deep breath. It was just another example of how wrong things were with the world, that Aro had gotten away scot-free.

But for now, he would play the role of an obsequious follower, and collect evidence on these fools. They would be his masters just a little while longer.

He smiled politely and said, "Dr. Volturi, shall we join the party now?"