ELSA'S POV

I took mythology a lot more seriously since I'd become a vampire.

Often, when I looked back over my first three months as an immortal, I imagined how the thread of my life might look in the Fates' loom - who knew but that it actually existed? I was sure my thread must have changed color; I thought it had probably started out as a nice beige, something supportive and non-confrontational, something that would look good in the background. Now it felt like it must be bright crimson, or maybe glistening gold.

The tapestry of family and friends that wove together around me was a beautiful, glowing thing, full of their bright, complementary colors.

I was surprised by some of the threads I got to include in my life. The werewolves, with their deep, woodsy colors, were not something I'd expected; Honeymaren, of course, and Olaf, too. But my old friends Quil and Embry became part of the fabric as they joined Honeymaren's pack, and even Kristoff and Emily were cordial. The tensions between our families eased, mostly due to Eleazar. he was easy to love.

Sue and Liam Clearwater were interlaced into our life, too - two more I had not anticipated.

Sue seemed to have taken it on herself to smooth Agnarr's transition into the world of make-believe. She came with him to the Cullens' most days, though she never seemed truly comfortable here the way her son and most of Honeymaren's pack did. She did not speak often; she just hovered protectively near Agnarr. She was always the first person he looked to when Eleazar did something disturbingly advanced- which was often. In answer, Sue would eye Olaf meaningfully as if to say, Yeah, tell me about it.

Liam was even less comfortable than Sue and was the only part of our recently extended family who was openly hostile to the merger. However, he and Honeymaren had a new camaraderie that kept him close to us all. I asked her about it once - hesitantly; I didn't want to pry, but the relationship was so different from the way it used to be that it made me curious. she shrugged and told me it was a pack thing. she was her second-in-command now, her "beta," as

I'd called it once long ago.

"I figured as long as I was going to do this Alpha thing for real," Honeymaren explained, "I'd better nail down the formalities."

The new responsibility made Liam feel the need to check in with him often, and since she was always with Eleazar...

Liam was not happy to be near us, but he was the exception. Happiness was the main component in my life now, the dominant pattern in the tapestry. So much so that my relationship with Jasper was now much closer than I'd ever dreamed it would be.

At first I was really annoyed, though.

"Yeesh!" I complained to Anna one night after we'd put Eleazar in her wrought-iron crib. "If I haven't killed Agnarr or Sue yet, it's probably not going to happen. I wish Jasper would stop hovering all the time!"

"No one doubts you, Elsa, not in the slightest," she assured me. "You know how Jasper is - he can't resist a good emotional climate. You're so happy all the time, love, he gravitates toward you without thinking."

And then Anna hugged me tightly, because nothing pleased her more than my overwhelming ecstasy in this new life.

And I was euphoric the vast majority of the time. The days were not long enough for me to get my fill of adoring my daughter; the nights did not have enough hours to satisfy my need for Anna.

There was a flipside to the joy, though. If you turned the fabric of our lives over, I imagined the design on the backside would be woven in the bleak grays of doubt and fear.

Eleazar spoke his first word when he was exactly one week old. The word was Momma, which would have made my day, except that I was so frightened by his progress I could barely force my frozen face to smile back at him. It didn't help that he continued from his first word to his first sentence in the same breath. "Momma, where is Grandpa?" he'd asked in a clear, high soprano, only bothering to speak aloud because I was across the room from her. He'd already asked Rapunzel, using his normal (or seriously abnormal, from another point of view) means of communication. Rapunzel hadn't known the answer, so Eleazar had turned to me.

When he walked for the first time, fewer than three weeks later, it was similar. He'd simply stared at Alice for a long moment, watching intently as his aunt arranged bouquets in the vases scattered around the room, dancing back and forth across the floor with her arms full of flowers. Eleazar got to his feet, not in the least bit shaky, and crossed the floor almost as gracefully.

Honeymaren had burst into applause, because that was clearly the response Eleazar wanted. The way she was tied to him made her own reactions secondary; her first reflex was always to give Elemental whatever he needed. But our eyes met, and I saw all the panic in mine echoed in his. I made my hands clap together, too, trying to hide my fear from him. Anna applauded quietly at my side, and we didn't need to speak our thoughts to know they were the same.

Anna and Frederic threw themselves into research, looking for any answers, anything to expect. There was

very little to be found, and none of it verifiable.

Alice and Rapunzel usually began our day with a fashion show. Eleazar never wore the same clothes

twice, partly because she outgrew her clothes almost immediately and partly because Alice and Rapunzel were trying to create a baby album that appeared to span years rather than weeks. They took thousands of pictures, documenting every phase of his accelerated childhood.

At three months, Eleazar could have been a big one-year-old, or a small two-year-old. he wasn't shaped exactly like a toddler; he was leaner and more graceful, his proportions were more even, like an adult's. His blonde hung to his waist; I couldn't bear to cut them, even if Alice would have allowed it so why i decided to keep it in a ponytail. Eleazar could speak with flawless grammar and articulation, but he rarely bothered, preferring to simply show people what he wanted. he could not only walk but run and dance. he could even read.

I'd been reading Tennyson to her one night, because the flow and rhythm of his poetry seemed restful. (I had to search constantly for new material; Eleazar didn't like repetition in her bedtime stories as other children supposedly did, and he had no patience for picture books.) he reached up to touch my cheek, the image in his mind one of us, only with his holding the book. I gave it to his, smiling.

" There is sweet music here,'" he read without hesitation, "'that softer falls than petals from blown roses on the grass, or night-dews on still waters between walls of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass - '"

My hand was robotic as I took the book back.

"If you read, how will you fall asleep?" I asked in a voice that had barely escaped shaking.

By Frederic's calculations, the growth of his body was gradually slowing; his mind continued to race on ahead. Even if the rate of decrease held steady, he'd still be an adult in no more than four years.

Four years. And an old woman by fifteen.

Just fifteen years of life.

But he was so healthy. Vital, bright, glowing, and happy. His conspicuous well-being made it easy for me to be happy with his in the moment and leave the future for tomorrow.

Frederic and Anna discussed our options for the future from every angle in low voices that I tried not to hear. They never had these discussions when Honeymaren was around, because there was one sure way to halt aging, and that wasn't something Honeymaren was likely to be excited about. I wasn't. Too dangerous! my instincts screamed at me. Honeymaren and Eleazar seemed alike in so many ways, both half-and-half beings, two things at the same time. And all the werewolf lore insisted that vampire venom was a death sentence rather than a course to immortality_

Frederic and Anna had exhausted the research they could do from a distance, and now we were preparing to follow old legends at their source. We were going back to Brazil, starting there. The Ticunas had legends about children like Eleazar... If other children like her had ever existed, perhaps some tale of the life span of half-mortal children still lingered_

The only real question left was exactly when we would go.

I was the holdup. A small part of it was that I wanted to stay near Forks until after the holidays, for Agnarr's

sake. But more than that, there was a different journey that I knew had to come first - that was the clear priority. Also, it had to be a solo trip.

This was the only argument that Anna and I had gotten in since I'd become a vampire. The main point of contention was the "solo" part. But the facts were what they were, and my plan was the only one that made rational sense. I had to go see the Volturi, and I had to do it absolutely alone.

Even freed from old nightmares, from any dreams at all, it was impossible to forget the Volturi. Nor did they leave us without reminders.

Until the day that Aro's present showed up, i didn't know that Alice had sent a wedding announcement to the Volturi leaders; we'd been far away on Arianna's island when she'd seen a vision of Volturi soldiers- Jane and Alec, the devastatingly powerful twins, among them. Caius was planning to send a hunting party to see if I was still human, against their edict (because I knew about the secret vampire world, I either must join it or be silenced... permanently). So Alice had mailed the announcement, seeing that this would delay them as they deciphered the meaning behind it. But they would come eventually. That was certain.

The present itself was not overtly threatening. Extravagant, yes, almost frightening in that very extravagance. The threat was in the parting line of Aro's congratulatory note, written in black ink on a square of heavy, plain white paper in Aro's own hand:

I so look forward to seeing the new Mrs. Cullen in person.

The gift was presented in an ornately carved, ancient wooden box inlaid with gold and mother-of-pearl, ornamented with a rainbow of gemstones. Alice said the box itself was a priceless treasure, that it would have outshone just about any piece of jewelry besides the one inside it.

"I always wondered where the crown jewels disappeared to after John of England pawned them in the thirteenth century," Frederic said. "I suppose it doesn't surprise me that the Volturi have their share."

The necklace was simple - gold woven into a thick rope of a chain, almost scaled, like a smooth snake that would curl close around the throat. One jewel hung suspended from the rope; a white diamond the size of a golf ball.

The unsubtle reminder in Aro's note interested me more than the jewel. The Volturi needed to see that I was immortal, that the Cullens had been obedient to the Volturi's orders, and they needed to see this soon. They could not be allowed near Forks. There was only one way to keep our life here safe.

"You're not going alone," Anna had insisted through her teeth, her hands clenching into fists.

"They won't hurt me," I'd said as soothingly as I could manage, forcing my voice to sound sure. "They have no reason to. I'm a vampire. Case closed."

"No. Absolutely no."

"Anna, it's the only way to protect him."

And she hadn't been able to argue with that. My logic was watertight.

Even in the short time I'd known Aro, I'd been able to see that he was a collector - and his most prized treasures were his living pieces. He coveted beauty, talent, and rarity in his immortal followers more than any jewel locked in his vaults. It was unfortunate enough that he'd begun to covet Alice's and Anna's abilities. I would give him no more reason to be jealous of Frederic's family. Eleazar's was beautiful and gifted and unique - he was one of a kind. He could not be allowed to see him, not even through someone's thoughts.

And I was the only one whose thoughts he could not hear. Of course I would go alone.

Alice did not see any trouble with my trip, but she was worried by the indistinct quality of her visions. She said they were sometimes similarly hazy when there were outside decisions that might conflict but that had not been solidly resolved. This uncertainty made Anna, already hesitant, extremely opposed to what I had to do. She wanted to come with me as far as my connection in London, but I wouldn't leave Eleazar without both her parents. Frederic was coming instead. It made both Anna and me a little more relaxed, knowing that Frederic would be only a few hours away from me.

Alice kept searching for the future, but the things she found were unrelated to what she was looking for. A new trend in the stock market; a possible visit of reconciliation from Ivin, though his decision was not firm; a snowstorm that wouldn't hit for another six weeks; a call from Iduna (I was practicing my "rough" voice, and getting better at it every day - to Iduna's knowledge, I was still sick, but mending).

We bought the tickets for Italy the day after Eleazar turned three months. I planned for it to be a very short trip, so I hadn't told Agnarr about it. Honeymaren knew, and she took Anna's view on things. However, today the argument was about Brazil. Honeymaren was determined to come with us.

The three of us, Honeymaren, Eleazar, and I, were hunting together. The diet of animal blood wasn't Eleazar's favorite thing - and that was why Honeymaren was allowed to come along. Honeymaren had made it a contest between them, and that made her more willing than anything else.

Eleazar was quite clear on the whole good vs. bad as it applied to hunting humans; she just thought that donated blood made a nice compromise. Human food filled her and it seemed compatible with his system, but he reacted to all varieties of solid food with the same martyred endurance I had once given cauliflower and lima beans. Animal blood was better than that, at least. he had a competitive nature, and the challenge of beating Honeymaren made him excited to hunt.

"Honeymaren I said, trying to reason with her again while Eleazar danced ahead of us into the long clearing, searching for a scent he liked. "You've got obligations here. Olaf, Liam - "

she snorted. "I'm not my pack's nanny. They've all got responsibilities in La Push anyway."

"Sort of like you? Are you officially dropping out of high school, then? If you're going to keep up with Eleazar, you're going to have to study a lot harder."

"It's just a sabbatical. I'll get back to school when things... slow down."

I lost my concentration on my side of the disagreement when she said that, and we both automatically looked at

Eleazar. He was staring at the snowflakes fluttering high above her head, melting before they could stick to the yellowed grass in the long arrowhead-shaped meadow that we were standing in. His ruffled ivory dress was just a shade darker than the snow, and his blonde ponytail managed to shimmer, though the sun was buried deeply behind the clouds.

As we watched, he crouched for an instant and then sprang fifteen feet up into the air. His little hands closed around a flake, and he dropped lightly to his feet.

He turned to us with his shocking smile - truly, it wasn't something you could get used to - and opened his hands to show us the perfectly formed eight-pointed ice star in his palm before it melted.

"Pretty," Honeymaren called to him appreciatively. "But I think you're stalling, Elson."

he bounded back to Honeymaren; she held her arms out at exactly the moment he leaped into them. They had the move perfectly synchronized. He did this when he had something to say. He still preferred not to speak aloud.

Eleazar touched her face, scowling adorably as we all listened to the sound of a small herd of elk moving farther into the wood.

"Suuuure you're not thirsty, Elson," Honeymaren answered a little sarcastically, but more indulgently than anything else. "You're just afraid IlI catch the biggest one again!"

He flipped backward out of Honeymaren's arms, landing lightly on his feet, and rolled his eyes - he looked so much like Anna when he did that. Then he darted off toward the trees.

"Got it," Honeymaren said when I leaned as if to follow. She yanked her t-shirt off as she charged after him into the forest, already trembling. "It doesn't count if you cheat," she called to Eleazar.

I smiled at the leaves they left fluttering behind them, shaking my head. Honeymaren was more a child than Eleazar sometimes.

I paused, giving my hunters a few minutes' head start. It would be beyond simple to track them, and Eleazar would love to surprise me with the size of her prey. I smiled again.

The narrow meadow was very still, very empty. The fluttering snow was thinning above me, almost gone. Alice had seen that it wouldn't stick for many weeks.

Usually Anna and I came together on these hunting trips. But Anna was with Frederic today, planning the trip to Rio, talking behind Honeymaren's back... I frowned. When I returned, I would take Honeymaren's side. she should come with us. she had as big a stake in this as any of us - her entire life was at stake, just like mine.

While my thoughts were lost in the near future, my eyes swept the mountainside routinely, searching for prey, searching for danger. I didn't think about it; the urge was an automatic thing.

Or perhaps there was a reason for my scanning, some tiny trigger that my razor-sharp senses had caught before I realized it consciously.

As my eyes flitted across the edge of a distant cliff, standing out starkly blue-gray against the green-black forest, a glint of silver - or was it gold? - gripped my attention.

My gaze zeroed in on the color that shouldn't have been there, so far away in the haze that an eagle wouldn't have been able to make it out. I stared.

he stared back.

That he was a vampire was obvious. His skin was marble white, the texture a million times smoother than human skin. Even under the clouds, he glistened ever so slightly. If his skin had not given him away, his stillness would have. Only vampires and statues could be so perfectly motionless.

His hair was pale, pale blond, almost silver. This was the gleam that had caught my eye. It hung straight as a ruler to a blunt edge at his chin, parted evenly down the center.

he was a stranger to me. I was absolutely certain I'd never seen him before, even as a human. None of the faces in my muddy memory were the same as this one. But I knew him at once from his dark golden eyes.

Ivin had decided to come after all.

For one moment I stared at him, and he stared back. I wondered if he would guess immediately who I was as well. I half-raised my hand, about to wave, but his lip twisted the tiniest bit, making his face suddenly hostile.

I heard Eleazar's cry of victory from the forest, heard Honeymaren's echoing howl, and saw Ivin's face jerk reflexively to the sound when it echoed to him a few seconds later. His gaze cut slightly to the right, and I knew what he was seeing. An enormous russet werewolf, perhaps the very one who had killed his Laurent. How long had he been watching us? Long enough to see our affectionate exchange before, I was sure.

His face spasmed in pain.

Instinctually, I opened my hands in front of me in an apologetic gesture. He turned back to me, and his lip curled back over his teeth. His jaw unlocked as he growled.

When the faint sound reached me, he had already turned and disappeared into the forest.

"Crap!" I groaned.

I sprinted into the forest after Eleazar and Honeymaren's, unwilling to have them out of my sight. I didn't know which direction Ivan had taken, or exactly how furious he was right now. Vengeance was a common obsession for vampires who lost mates Ivan wanted revenge on the wolves for killing laruant., one that was not easy to suppress.

Running at full speed, it only took me two seconds to reach them.

"Mine is bigger," I heard Eleazar insist as I burst through the thick thornbushes to the small open space where they stood.

Honeymaren's ears flattened as she took in my expression; she crouched forward, baring her teeth - her muzzle was streaked with blood from her kill. Her eyes raked the forest. I could hear the growl building in his throat.

Eleazar was every bit as alert as Honeymaren. Abandoning the dead stag at his feet, he leaped into my waiting arms, pressing his curious hands against my cheeks.

"I'm overreacting," I assured them quickly. "It's okay, I think. Hold on."

I pulled out my cell phone and hit the speed dial. Anna answered on the first ring. Honeymaren and Eleazar listened intently to my side as I filled Anna in.

"Come, bring Frederic," I trilled so fast I wondered if Honeymaren could keep up. "I saw Ivan, and he saw me, but then

he saw Honeymaren and he got mad and ran away, I think. He hasn't shown up here - yet, anyway - but he looked pretty upset so maybe he will. If he doesn't, you and Frederic have to go after him and talk to him. I feel so bad."

Honeymaren rumbled.

"We'll be there in half a minute," Anna assured me, and I could hear the whoosh of the wind her running made.

We darted back to the long meadow and then waited silently as Honeymaren and I listened carefully for the sound of an approach we did not recognize.

When the sound came, though, it was very familiar. And then Anna was at my side, Frederic a few seconds behind. I was surprised to hear the heavy pad of big paws following behind Frederic. I supposed I shouldn't have been shocked. With Eleazar in even a hint of danger, of course Honeymaren would call in reinforcements.

"He was up on that ridge," I told them at once, pointing out the spot. If Ivin was fleeing, he already had quite a head start. Would he stop and listen to Frederic? His expression before made me think not. "Maybe you should call Cassandra and Jasper and have them come with you. He looked... really upset. he growled at me."

"What?" Anna said angrily.

Frederic put a hand on her arm. "He's grieving. I'll go after him."

I'm coming with you," Anna insisted.

They exchanged a long glance - perhaps Frederic was measuring Anna's irritation with Ivan against her helpfulness as a mind reader. Finally, Frederic nodded, and they took off to find the trail without calling for Jasper or Cassandra.

Honeymaren huffed impatiently and poked my back with her nose. she must want Eleazar back at the safety of the house, just in case. I agreed with her on that, and we hurried home with Olaf and Liam running at our flanks.

Eleazar was complacent in my arms, one hand still resting on my face. Since the hunting trip had been aborted, he would just have to make do with donated blood. His thoughts were a little smug.