A/N: Shorter chapter, but it's needed. Again, any quotes similar to those found in the Twilight series are familiar for a reason. They have already been written by SM, and published in the books. I'm just borrowing them.

Thanks to everyone who has read and reviewed so far. Enjoy!

Victoria was terrified, and therefore Riley was terrified. Only one of them truly knew the extent of danger they were in. The Volturi were standing in their cottage, and there would be no running if they chose to destroy them. Their newborn army would be destroyed soon after, all quarantined in a basement, not knowing the sun wouldn't destroy them, so they believed there was no way to run.

"Five days," Jane warned. "You have five days to destroy the Cullens, or we destroy you."

"And if we do destroy the Cullens?" Victoria asked.

"That depends," she said in a sweet voice. "Just do it, and we'll decide later."

"Five days is hardly enough time to train an army..." Riley protested.

"Five days is all you have. But I do have an offer for you."

"What is it?" Victoria asked, sounding hopeful.

Jane shot a look at Alec. "Demetri, Felix, will you go make sure those bodies in the morgue are taken care of?"

Felix and Demetri exchanged glances. They knew something strange was going down.

"Now," she ordered. Not wanting to be on the wrong side of her gift Demetri and Felix ran off. Jane waited until they were out of earshot to continue. A sudden, deadly serious look crossed her face before she said, "There will be two more with the Cullens, two you may not have encountered yet."

"Last time I was there I saw a new blonde-haired male, but no one else I haven't seen before," Victoria nodded.

"There is also a brown-haired female. They'll still have mostly red eyes, but they're on their way to gold. These two have been... particularly burdensome to our organization as of late."

"What have they done?"

"It's not your concern. And I have no care about the blonde-haired male. But the female needs to be taken care of. And whoever is the one who takes care of her will find themselves particularly rewarded."

"Rewarded? How?"

"Speaking hypothetically only, whomever kills Herm... her will mostly likely have any antics they have caused before completely forgiven and forgotten, perhaps they may have something they'd do in the future forgiven. And if they ever happen to show up in Volterra, they will have two champions for them to join, despite a lack of particular talents."

"Me? In the Volturi?" Victoria whispered greedily.

"The offer will be extended to whomever kills the female. We're not picky," she shrugged. "As long as she's gone, we don't care who manages to do it."

Riley and Victoria frowned in unison. "What's so special about this girl that you want her dead so badly?" Riley asked.

"Nothing," Jane snapped. "Nothing is special about her at all. Just remember, you have five days." With that she and Alec swept from the cottage.

The two left didn't even look at each other. Neither believed Jane's assertion that there was nothing special about the female, quite the opposite actually. She must be very powerful if Jane wanted her gone so badly she wasn't even willing to let the rest of the Volturi into her plans. But they had no choice but to attack in five days or die. Whatever this new girl was capable of, let the newborns die at her hand. It didn't change their main goal.

Hermione spent most of the day helping Alice get everything ready for Bella's party. She and Jasper had gone hunting the night before, drinking until they felt unable to do so anymore. Word had gotten around town about their presence, and several people wanted to see the newest members of the Cullen family. Jasper grumbled about feeling like he was being put on display, but Edward said it would be odd for them not to attend. There was a concern being around so many humans, which is why they over-indulged hunting the night before.

Minutes before Bella arrived Hermione came downstairs, seeking approval from Alice for the outfit she had picked- a deep purple one shoulder dress that covered the scorch mark still adorning her upper arm and a pair of tall boots. She had changed hers and Jasper's eye colors, but didn't want to do much more, because she didn't want to devote too much energy to keeping up the spells, detracting from her efforts to not kill any of Bella's guests.

The only way Jasper had agreed to go to the party was that he and Hermione worked out a system. Before the guests started to arrive he and Hermione sat on the same chair, with her between his legs. His arms were wrapped around her middle, his head resting on her shoulder, her hands on his forearms.

Edward caught sight of Bella looking at their intimate pose longingly, and he whispered, "It's not about being together. Do you see how they're holding each other?"

"Yes," she replied, studying their arms.

"It's to hold each other back. They've thought so many situations through. They have a code phrase to tell each other if they feel their control slipping. They're going to ask the other for a drink," he said with a dry smile. "They've worked out several signals to tell our family that it's getting to be too much and they need to leave."

"Better safe than sorry," she muttered as they sat across from Hermione and Jasper. Edward called the rest of the group over to talk about Bella's realization that she was the one who was being hunted.

"Perhaps tonight might be a good night for Emmett and I to accompany Hermione and Jasper to Seattle to try to figure things out," Amir said grimly, looking as if he were weighing his options.

"I'll go, too," Alice and Rosalie said in unison.

"We will as well," Esme said, offering Carlisle's services as well.

"Of course I'm in," Edward nodded.

"No," Bella shook her head frantically.

"We can't risk them coming here," Hermione said. "That gives them the advantage. If we go to get them they're likely to be unorganized, separated, and much easier to pick off. Now if Alec and the rest of the group were here, I'd be making them come, but Aro doesn't seem to know where they are. He said he was sending them to us, to help Jasper and I, but we haven't heard from them."

"The best plan for us would be go take care of them before we give them a chance to take care of us. There will be less of a chance of casualties if we move as a group and take them down one at a time or in small groups. Chances are they'll be out hunting, much easier to pick off."

"Perhaps now is not the best time to be making decisions," Carlisle muttered. "We've got enough to worry about right now."

Before anyone could say anything else the doorbell rang, and it was time for their human charade. The first group of Bella's classmates came in, said their congratulations to Bella, and moved cautiously into he house as a group. They started to go towards the couches, but one look at Jasper and they moved towards the food. Between Jasper and Emmett, they'd take the scary man they knew over the one they didn't.

Angela and Ben were next, and after they greeted Bella they made a beeline for Hermione and Jasper.

"It's so nice to meet you," Angela said with a wide smile, sitting in a love seat across from the couple and pulling Ben down next to her. "I'd say Bella's told us so much about you, but I don't want to lie. It's only been recently that she's been telling us about you."

"She never really knew much about us before we decided to come here," Hermione said pleasantly.

"How are you liking it over here in the States? Is it much different from Italy?"

"It is different, but different in a good way."

"The school we're going to offers a study abroad program, and I thought if I could get the money together, you know, through scholarships and stuff, that I'd really like to go to school in Italy."

"It does have some very nice colleges," she nodded. "Which area were you thinking about going to?"

"I'm not sure. Do you have any suggestions?"

"You can't go wrong with the classic areas. Tuscany, Rome, Sicily..."

"Is there anywhere you wouldn't recommend I go?" she asked with a chuckle.

"Volterra," she said, a sudden seriousness written across her face.

"I think I've heard about that, something about a festival..."

"Don't go to Volterra," she ordered firmly. "It is not worth it."

"You sound like you had a bad experience," she frowned.

"We were... lured there by someone promising a tour of the older areas. The whole group got ripped off. Just stay away," she warned one last time.

There was a moment of silence before Jasper smiled and said, "Having a doom and gloom moment, darlin'?"

She immediately chuckled, and leaned back to kiss his cheek. "Sorry. I didn't mean to wreck the mood of the party. Are you excited to be done with school?"

"Of course!" Angela replied enthusiastically. She launched into a discussion about her plans after school, and what kind of grades she was hoping to get when they came out the next week, something Hermione felt very at-ease discussing and encouraging. They talked for the better part of an hour before Ben pried Angela away to go talk with some of his friends. Hermione and Jasper made the rounds of the party, introducing themselves and making light conversation.

They were dancing together with a few other couples enjoying the softened music out in the backyard when suddenly Jasper perked up.

"What's going on?" Hermione asked, sounding concerned.

"Alice, Bella, Carlisle, and Edward. Something has made them all extremely tense," he replied.

"Think we should go check it out?"

"Anything that concerns Alice like that..." he nodded, grabbing her hand and leading her inside. They found Alice inside, facing three large russet-skinned boys, Amir standing protectively in front of her, a nervous looking Bella next to her.

"Werewolves," Jasper hissed under his breath, and Hermione caught the scent for the first time. She tried not to pull a face as they approached the group.

"We have a right to know," the boy at the front muttered. Amir snarled in response, moving more in front of Alice, causing the three boys to brace themselves.

"Hey, hey," Bella chuckled nervously. "This is a party, remember?"

"Is there a problem here?" Hermione asked, moving to stand next to Amir. Jasper stood behind her, hand around her middle, ready to pull her out of the way at a moment's notice.

The three boys winced at the new arrivals.

"Those eyes aren't right," one of the boys in the back mumbled.

"Hermione!" Bella breathed. "Um, Hermione, Jasper. Perhaps I should introduce you to my, um, friends."

"I know them," Jasper growled.

"This is Jacob, Embry, and Quil," she continued, not hearing them. "Jake, this is Hermione and Jasper."

"We know him," Jacob spat. "And stop stalling. We want to know."

"They should probably hear it," Alice said calmly. "They've decided to spare us the trouble of going to Seattle."

Bella gasped, her hands covering her mouth. "They're coming here? To Forks?"

"Yes."

"Is it what we thought it was?" Hermione asked, fingers absentmindedly tracing the pendant tucked under her dress.

"One of them was carrying Bella's red shirt."

Hermione and Jasper scowled in unison. "We can't let them come that far. There aren't enough of us to protect the town," Jasper muttered.

"I know," Alice replied. "But it doesn't matter where we stop them. There still won't be enough of us, and some of them will come here to search."

"No!" Bella gasped again. "I have to go, I have to get away from here."

"They'll come anyways."

"If I go meet them? If they find what they're looking for, maybe they'll go away and not hurt anyone else."

"Bella..."

"Hold it," Jacob interrupted. "What is coming?"

"An army of newborns. Our kind," Hermione replied.

"For Bella?"

"That's the official reason," she muttered, feeling Jasper's arm tighten around her. Alice had been trying to watch for Jane, too, but Jane wasn't making any decisions, either, and Alice said it gave her a headache trying to concentrate on her.

"There are too many of them for you?"

"We have a few advantages, dog," Jasper said, and Amir glanced at Hermione. "It will be an even fight."

"No," he replied with a smirk. "It won't be even."

"Excellent!" Alice hissed. "Everything has just disappeared, of course. That's inconvenient, but all things considered, I'll take it."

"We'll still need to coordinate. This won't be easy for us. And we have one condition."

"What is it?"

Jacob looked directly at Hermione. "Don't think we don't know why they sent you out of town last time," he said in a half-growl. "Time to 'fess up. What talent are you hiding?"

"You will find out, but not here," Hermione replied calmly. "I promise full disclosure."

"We'll be holding a strategic meeting," Amir cut in. "If you want some instruction, you are more than welcome to join."

"We'll be there. What time?"

"Three o'clock?"

Jacob agreed, and they agreed on a place to meet. Without a goodbye the pack boys turned and walked off, Bella following them, pleading with Jacob not to fight.

"Well, darlin'," Jasper whispered in Hermione's ear. "You like fighting alongside werewolves. This will be quite the experience for you."

"Yes, it will be," she muttered, eyes following the boys until they walked out of the house.