Tap. Tap. Tap.

I looked up from my make-up essay on Romeo and Juliet and found Tanya crouched at my open window. "Can I come in?" she asked.

"Yes," I answered. Charlie was asleep so there was no chance of him finding a random woman in my bedroom. "You don't have to ask. That's why the window was open."

Tanya sat down on my bed. "I will always ask first, or try to ask first. It's about respecting your privacy."

I pushed my work away and turned to face her. "He never did that," I whispered. "He used to watch me sleep, before I knew what he was. I used to think it was romantic—"

Her growling cut off my train of thought. "When I get ahold of him…" she snarled.

"You're not doing anything," I told her firmly. "He's not coming back, and for whatever reason you all are staying here."

She crossed her arms over her chest. "Fine." I could tell by the look in her eyes that she was still imagining ways to kill, or harm him.

"Dd you tell the others about what happened in La Push?" I asked curious.

"I did," Tanya confirmed. "Irina and Kate yelled at me for my stupidity. Eleazar is curious about the wolves. Carmen and Laurent are glad we're okay. They've all agreed to help train the wolves, though none of them want to be around Jacob."

"I don't know what's wrong with him. I've never seen him like this." I thought back to the other times I had seen him. He didn't seem thrilled to be around him on prom night but he was never so hostile.

"I was watching Sam and Emily earlier and I believe the wolves have their own form of mating," Tanya began. "I think Jacob wanted you to be his mate."

"How do you know I'm not?" I asked. Her eyes darkened at the thought. I didn't want to be Jacob's mate. But I was curious how Tanya seemed to be sure I wasn't.

"He never would have put your life in danger like that," Tanya explained. "Judging by Emily's scars I believe Sam phased and hurt her but it was accidental. Jacob was intentional. I don't know how it is for them, but for us, we can't hurt our mates, ever. Not even accidentally."

I wanted to ask if that included abandoning someone in the woods but I didn't have the chance. Tanya cocked her head to the side. Her lip curled back and she was growling. She was off my bed and halfway through my window before it registered in my mind.

"What?"

"Victoria," Tanya spat. "Carmen and Eleazar are coming to stay with you. I'm shutting the window behind me, stay away from the window and don't open it until you see Carmen and Eleazar." Tanya didn't wait for me to respond. She was already done, window shut behind her.

I did what Tanya asked and stayed away from the window. I didn't know why it mattered. If Victoria wanted me then a closed window wouldn't stop her.

I grabbed my things from my desk and dumped them on my bed. I didn't make it halfway through a sentence when there was another tap on my window. I jumped, causing my book to fall to the floor with a soft thud. I glanced toward the window, my heart pounding in my chest.

Relief washed over me when I saw Carmen's face in the window. Carmen and Eleazar were here which meant I was safe, for now. I threw the window open. Carmen and Eleazar jumped in. Eleazar shut the window behind him.

"Bella," Carmen greeted warmly. She pulled me in for a hug. "Are you okay?"

I shrugged. "About as a good as someone can be when they have a psychotic vampire after them."

Eleazar chuckled. "Yes, you do seem to attract the worst sort of vampires."

"Are they going to be alright?" I whispered.

Carmen patted my arm. "They will be fine. Those three have more experience then the rest of us combined."

I frowned. "What are you hiding?"

Eleazar sat on my bed and patted the spot next to him. I sat down. "Victoria's gift is tricky. I don't think they will catch her. Even with help from the wolves I don't think we will catch her. We need to rethink our strategy."

"Bella," Carmen said getting my attention. "It's getting late." I checked the clock. It was after eleven. "Try to sleep. Do you want Tanya to come back when they're done?" I nodded. "Okay."

"Wake me up," I requested. I wanted to see for myself that she was okay.

Eleazar helped clean off my bed. He positioned himself near my window, so if anyone came by, he would know. Carmen took my rocking chair. She started humming an unfamiliar tune and I slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Keep your voice down," I heard Carmen say. "You will wake Bella."

"No, once again Tanya isn't using her fucking brain," Kate hissed. "I get your need to catch Victoria, I really do, but you're going to get yourself killed in the process."

"Are you done?" Tanya asked wearily. She sounded so drained. I didn't think that was possible for a vampire.

"You need to hunt," Irina reminded her. Irina sighed. Tanya must have said no. "Fine, we will bring you blood."

"She's going to need human blood," Eleazar inputted. "Or she will never heal."

Heal? Heal from what? "Tanya," I called trying to sit up.

"Bella." I was in her arms before I could lift my head.

"What happened?" I squinted at the blonde vampire holding me. She was in pain. I could see it in her eyes.

"She's an idiot," Kate huffed.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "Kate is just a little upset." Kate muttered something under her breath that sounded a lot like understatement. "Can you give us a minute?" The others nodded and left, though Kate looked reluctant. "Go Kate."

"What happened?" I repeated.

"I caught up to Victoria," Tanya began. "I underestimated her gift. We fought. She won." She pulled back her shirt to reveal a bite mark on her collarbone. I unconsciously rubbed my arm, where my identical bite mark was. It looked strange on her perfect marble skin. It was leaking something, venom perhaps.

Tears formed in my eyes as I stared at the mark. This was not okay. Tanya was hurt because of me. Her perfect skin forever scarred because Victoria wanted me dead and because they wouldn't do what was necessary. The Cullens put my father in danger.

What if this wasn't it? What if something worse happened? What if next time Victoria managed to kill her? I can't handle that. I can't handle of any of this. It was too much. I couldn't lose her. I wouldn't survive that.

"Bella, breathe," Tanya said holding me closer to her.

"I can't… you… you could have died… my fault… you can't do that again," I cried.

"Oh Bella," Tanya said rocking me in her arms. "I'm going to be fine. Victoria got lucky. It won't happen again."

I shook my head. Just the thought of her being out there made me want to vomit. "Please don't go," I begged. "Stay with me. Don't go out there."

She kissed my forehead. "Okay," Tanya agreed. "Okay. If that's what you need, I will stay with you. Get some sleep Bella. I will be here in the morning." She sang to me in a language I didn't recognize until I drifted off to sleep.

"Kate, I swear to God if you wake Bella up, I will rip your arm off and beat you with it," Tanya hissed.

"Too late Tanya. She's awake," Irina said nodding in my direction.

"Leave Kate alone," I mumbled sleepily.

Kate looked smug. Tanya on the other hand looked grumpy. "Fine," she grumbled.

"What's going on?" I asked rubbing my eyes. According to the clock it was 5:30am. I groaned. There was no point in going back to sleep now.

Irina climbed onto the other side of my bed, leaving me in between Tanya and Irina. "We searched for Victoria but she's gone," Irina said sadly. "She headed east, toward Seattle."

"We should keep an eye on Seattle," Laurent suggested. "There's something about her heading to the city that concerns me."

Tanya nodded at Laurent's suggestion. "I agree. I will fill in Sam today. If Victoria is going to keep making these appearances, we will need to prepare the wolves as soon as possible."

I watched Tanya as she detailed their plan for the next few days. There was something off about her. I glanced at Irina. Her eyes were the light gold I was used to see. I glanced at Tanya again. "Your eyes," I blurted out. Tanya's eyes weren't red but they were definitely not gold.

"Human blood mixed with animal blood," Tanya explained. "Human blood was the best and quickest way for me to heal but I didn't want to freak you out with the red eyes."

I frowned. "If you need the blood…"

"I'm fine Bella," she promised. "It was mostly human blood."

"How… did you…?" I couldn't form the words.

"Blood bags Bella," Kate explained. "No humans were harmed in an attempt to heal my dumbass sister."

Tanya rolled her eyes at Kate. "Where did you get the blood bags?" I asked curious.

"Hospital," Carmen answered. "We… commandeered some yesterday. They're mostly your blood type. We wanted to be prepared, just in case. We're no Carlisle but between the six of us we have enough medical knowledge."

I yawned. "You should try to get some more sleep," Tanya suggested.

I shook my head. "I would have to get up soon anyway," I told her. "I still have school. Is Charlie awake?"

"He left about an hour ago," Eleazar answered. "He received a phone call, a disappearance of a local boy, Riley Biers."

I didn't recognize the name. "Laurent and Irina offered to keep an eye on him," Tanya continued. "We're not sure if it was a vampire that caused the disappearance."

"You think it might be Victoria?" I asked.

"We have no way of knowing for sure," Kate replied. "We're just being cautious. Tanya will meet with her new best friend later and see what they know. The rest of us will be watching you."

"You guys don't have to keep watching me," I protested. At this rate they were going to starve.

"You are a part of our family Bella. Get over it," Kate said.

With some effort I managed to climb over Tanya and out of my bed. I grabbed my clothes as quickly as I could. The thing I wanted was the vampires seeing my underwear. I took my time in the shower. I was up early enough so I didn't have to rush.

When I got back to my room I half-expected all the vampires to be there still. Instead it was just Tanya, lounging on my bed. It didn't look like she had moved. "Give me your arm," Tanya instructed, sitting up. I gave her my arm and she quickly rebandaged it. "It's looking better."

I pulled my arm away. I didn't like how she stared at the cut, like she was willing it to disappear. "Where is everyone?"

"Irina is making breakfast for you. Laurent is watching your father. The others went to hunt," Tanya answered.

"Is Kate still mad at you?" I wanted to know.

"Yes," Tanya said with a sigh. "It's more fear than anything. She's afraid I'm going to get myself killed."

"Sounds like Kate is right," I muttered under my breath.

"I'm not trying to get myself killed," Tanya said. "I'm trying to keep you alive."

"What's Sam going to do when he finds out you had human blood?" I asked nervously. I should have been disgusted or scared that Tanya had human blood. But I wasn't. I was happy that Tanya was okay.

"I really don't know," Tanya said honestly. "He seems to understand our nature, even if he doesn't like it. Oh, I almost forgot." Tanya walked over and grabbed something off my desk. "Laurent made you flashcards for government. He said you can't be mad because he isn't giving you the answers, just key points."

I took the flashcards from Tanya. They were well written. They had a lot of details but I could tell from the writing it wasn't copied from the book. "Will you thank him for me?"

"Of course Bella." She hugged me. "We should head downstairs. Irina is done with breakfast."

Tanya grabbed my bag and we headed downstairs. Irina had gone overboard as usual. She made French toast, fruit with granola and yogurt, eggs and bacon. There were even muffins and cinnamon rolls.

"I appreciate this but normally I just eat a Poptart," I told Irina.

Irina wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Even I know Poptarts are not good for you. Sit. Eat."

It's been a while since I was able to take my time and eat breakfast. "Where did you get all this food?" I asked once I finished with the French toast.

"Carmen and I went shopping yesterday," Irina answered. "I brought the food over. You didn't eat much last night." It was true. I was too worried about what was going to happen between Sam and Tanya to worry about eating. "So I figured you could use a good breakfast."

Irina cleaned up the kitchen while I ate. Dishes were done and leftovers were refrigerated before I was halfway done with my plate. I half-expected Irina to pack my lunch. She didn't and I was grateful for that. I was eighteen. I didn't need the mother hen vampire packing my lunch. I checked the clock. I needed to start making my way to school.

Tanya kissed my cheek. "Have a good day."

"Will you text me, or call me, and let me know the meeting with Sam went okay?" I requested.

"Sure," Tanya agreed.

The teachers continued to be surprised by my participation in school. It wasn't as bad as yesterday but it was still frustrating. My classmates were just as bad, if not worse. I was tempted to sic Tanya on them. Or worse… Kate. I dismissed the idea rather quickly. No one deserved that.

It was 7th period English, my last class for the day. We were currently working on a book project. Each of us picked a book and did a report, and either a poster, PowerPoint or another visual representation of the book. I kind of cheated and picked Wuthering Heights, a book I've read so many times before. This class period was dedicated to reading the book if you hadn't finished it or starting your outline. The book I didn't need to reread and I finished the outline in the first ten minutes of class. That gave me time to work on my current list of strange things Tanya has said and done.

Things had been strange since Tanya and her family came to Forks. She risked certain death by coming to La Push and she didn't seem bothered by it. Kate was right. Tanya was acting like an idiot. What I couldn't figure out was why she was doing it. Why was she risking her life for me?

There was also her insane need to keep me alive. Even he didn't work so hard to keep me alive. It was kind of funny watch a vampire trying to keep a human alive when a year ago vampires were doing their best to kill me.

I continued to jot down my list. Whenever Ms. Matthews came by I would cover the list and pretend I was working on the essay. My outline was on display so she knew I had completed that and that I wasn't slacking.

By the time class was over my list and about a quarter of my essay was done. "Good job Bella," Ms. Matthews praised as I made my way to the door. "I look forward to seeing the rest of your project."

"Thanks Ms. Matthews," I said blushing at the praise.

"Have a good day Bella," Ms. Matthews said. "And Bella," she added before I could leave. I turned to face her. "Welcome back."

This time when I drove home my truck was empty. I made sure to check the backseat before I got in. Not that it would have mattered much. They could easily get in the back after I checked it. I checked my phone. There was no missed calls or texts. That meant either Tanya hadn't seen Sam yet, or it didn't go well.

Instead of going home I headed to the Cullen house. It looked the same as it always did. It looked like one of them had cleaned up the front yard. The weeds were gone and new flowers were planted. It looked nice.

There were several cars in the driveway that I didn't recognize. I assumed it was from the errands that Tanya mentioned they had done while I was at school. It was hard to tell who the cars belonged to. It made it hard for me to figure out if Tanya was here.

"Bella," Kate greeted coming out of the house.

"Kate," I said. Kate immediately pulled in for a hug. I shouldn't be surprised by how affectionate they were. Yet I was because the Cullens were never like this. They were always so scared of touching me, like I would break. It took me a minute to realize I had referred to them as the Cullens and I didn't feel any pain from it.

"What brings you here?" Kate asked once she let me go.

"Tanya didn't call me," I said waving the phone at her.

"She had to go hunting," Kate explained. "She didn't drink enough human blood to recover from the bite as quickly as she could have."

"If she needed the human blood she should have drank it," I muttered.

"She didn't want to scare you," Kate said softly. She led me toward the house. "You don't have great experiences with human drinkers. Tanya didn't want you to see her as one of them."

I shook my head. "I'm not afraid of her," I said. "I could never be afraid of her. Kate." I sat on the couch while Kate sat across from me on the armchair. "Why are you so angry at her?"

Kate sighed. "Tanya is being reckless," she began. "I love my sister and I'm terrified she's going to get herself killed. She's not thinking."

I looked down. "I thought it was because you didn't like her risking her life for me," I whispered.

Kate got up and sat down beside me. She pulled me into her arms. "Bella, that is not true," Kate said kissing my forehead. "I don't like Tanya risking her life at all. But I can't deny that I wouldn't do the same thing. You're family Bella. We all love you."

"Did Tanya talk to Sam yet?" I questioned.

"She did," Kate confirmed. "He wasn't thrilled about the human blood. We had to show him our stash of blood bags so he knew we weren't killing humans." Kate didn't seem happy about that.

"You don't like him, do you?" It wasn't surprising. From what I remembered they were enemies. The fact that Tanya and Sam got along was unheard of.

"It's not that I don't like him," Kate said carefully. "I don't trust him. I don't trust that him and his pack won't turn on us the minute we teach them to fight. Or that they won't try to kill us as soon as Victoria is dealt with."

"He wouldn't do that," I protested. I didn't know Sam well enough to know if he would honor the truce between the two but he did try to protect me from Jacob. That had to count for something.

"We are enemies Bella," Kate said patiently. "He wouldn't win in a fight again us but I wouldn't put it past them to try."

"I don't want anyone to get hurt," I told her.

Kate was next to me in the blink of an eye. "I know Bella. It will be fine. It will work out in the end."

"It has to work out," I said to myself.