Disclaimer: I am not Stephanie Meyer and therefore I do not own anything that has to do with her characters. I just enjoy perverting the hell out of them.

Chapter 1

I could feel him, the same way I always could, pushing at the veil to be let out – except today, the feeling was stronger than ever. It always was on the birthday we had once shared. The same day that his life had so abruptly ended, as it so happened.

I could never forget what it had felt like when I'd perverted the gift I'd been born with and used the power of all the spirits in the forest to shove Edward into the ravine. My parents both had told me again and again how it hadn't been my fault. Both Edward and I had come into our full powers at far too young. But it didn't matter how many times I was told that it had simply been a tragic mistake, because the reality was, I'd known what I was doing.

In a moment of childish rage, exasperated by the fact that he'd been trying to make bees attack me only moments prior, I'd struck him with my hands and used my gift to send him flying. In truth, I'd just wanted to hurt him the same way he had done to me many times before, but I'd felt it the instant he'd died.

And he'd remained tethered to me ever since. My parents, Renee and Charlie, were unaware of that part as I'd never shared it with them. I knew how they would feel if they ever discovered the truth. I'd heard them say again and again that it was our job as necromancers to help spirits find rest. To bind one to myself the way I had done, or perhaps he had done – I still wasn't sure on which of us controlled it – was an extreme perversion of my gift.

But Edward was my twin, my soul mate... the other half of me. In all honesty, I hadn't fully realized just how much a part of me he truly was until after he was dead. But now that I knew, I couldn't forget.

And because I knew, I wasn't about to let him go.

"Calm down, Edward, I promise I'll visit with you before the end of the day," I whispered just as I pulled up out front of my parents house for the birthday party they were having for Alice and me.

Our birthday was always bittersweet, with the ever present reminder of what had happened to Edward, but we still celebrated it. As my mother liked to say, "Birthdays are an important right of passage." And now, with Alice off at Portland University for the vast majority of every year, it was even more important.

In fact, because Alice had spent last summer in Paris, the last time I'd seen her had been Yule. Of course, that was more recent than Angie, who had moved to Los Angeles three years ago with her on-again off-again boyfriend, or Vicky, who'd been serving in the army for the last four years and hadn't bothered to come home for any of her furloughs – not that I blamed her.

Then there was Rosalie, my oldest sister and the only one besides me to stay in Forks – at least so far. I suspected it would soon be changing though, because now she had an offer I couldn't see her refusing... even if I had to push her to accept it.

Of course, the fact that I'd refused two similar offers was proof that it was possible, but it was different for me. After all, there was someone waiting for me, I just had to find a way to revive him first. The only problem with that was I wasn't sure how.

I was far stronger in my gift than my parents or any of my ancestors before them, a fact that was made obvious by my ability to call upon animal spirits as easily as I could call on human ghosts. Still, I wasn't sure if I had the power to bring Edward back to life. Something which would have been easy if he still had a body, but even if the body of Edward hadn't decomposed over the course of the last thirteen years buried in the ground, the Edward that walked with me on the other side of the veil was now a man. He'd grown as I had, changing from a young boy who was constantly annoyed by his twin, to an adolescent youth with moody opinions and dark thoughts, to the brooding teenager who desired more company than I could provide, and finally to the handsome man he was now.

I closed my eyes, shuddering slightly as I felt the barest brush of fingers against my neck.

"Be patient," I muttered under my breath. "We have to get through the birthday party first, and then I'll bring you out. You know how mom and dad would react if they realized you hadn't moved on the way they think you have."

It was true, our parents had tried endlessly to summon him for months after he had died, but since he was tethered to me, he'd never appeared to them, and eventually they'd decided he must have already moved on. It had been a hard pill for my parents to swallow for more than one reason, because on top of losing their only son, it also meant the end of the necromancy line.

After they'd realized they couldn't bring back Edward, they'd tried to have another son, but they weren't successful over the course of the following eight years. Instead, they only managed to have two more girls, and their last daughter practically killed my mom to have. With no son being born, our gift would end with me, well me and Sasha

Because, ironically enough, for the first time in the last five generations of our family there was now a second female necromancer.

My two youngest siblings, Bree, now ten, and Sasha, now five, were the only two still living in my parents' home. All the rest of us had moved out and were on our own now.

I got the present out of the back of my car that I'd found for Alice, hoping she'd appreciate the item that had cost me more than a month's worth of profit from the small coffee shop I'd opened down town. I was looking forward to seeing her. She was the runt of the family, only about five inches taller than Bree – who was already four and a half feet tall.

When I reached the front door of the house I'd grown up in – too small for as many kids as grew up in it – I rang the doorbell.

The door opened almost immediately, Rosalie standing on the other side. "About time you got here, sis. I swear you're going to be late to your own funeral."

I rolled my eyes. "God, I sure hope so, at least by a few decades."

She chuckled before turning her back to me and heading into the house. "It's a good thing you broke things off with Jake. I think dad is about to have a coronary because Alice brought someone with her."

I scowled. "There was never anything to break off with Jake."

She looked over her shoulder at me, arching one of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows in the process. "Did he know that?"

No. In fact, he still hadn't gotten it. "Yes."

"If you say so."

Rosalie turned her head back forward as we made it to the world's second smallest laundry room – my condo had the smallest – and reached for the back door to head outside, but I reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Has Vicky called?" I knew my older sister likely would never call me after my failure, but I wanted to believe she at least called to wish Alice a happy birthday.

She sighed. "No, but it's hard to guess why. She could be deep in Kuwait and have no reception at the moment."

I didn't bother to point out that satellite phones always had a signal as I accepted I shouldn't have asked to begin with – my shoulders slumped. "We know why she didn't call."

"She doesn't blame you, Bell."

"Sure she does. Hell, I blame me. I should have been able to reach out to Anne's spirit after what happened to her. I should have been able to give her family closure. I should have been able to give Vicky closure."

"You know what mom and dad say, that she probably already moved on and found peace."

I didn't believe that for a second. "I've pulled others back after they found peace."

Rosalie looked at me again. "You've never been able to pull Edward back."

"Yeah." Technically, it wasn't a lie. He'd never moved on, so I'd never had to, but she didn't know that. I shook my head. "Okay. Lead on, Macduff."

"It's lay on, and you know that."

"Mom's the literacy teacher, not me. Besides, I meant what I said." I spun my hand outward in a flourish.

She rolled her eyes this time and started to turn toward the door but stopped. "Oh, Angie mailed a letter and wanted me to to tell you happy birthday for her. She would have called today, but she's on some sort of soul searching mission at the moment. She's at some type of retreat that doesn't allow any technology."

"Let me guess, Ben and her broke up again."

"Yep."

I looked up at the ceiling and shook my head. "When are those two going to finally accept that they're perfect for each other and tie that damn knot?"

"You know Angie can't commit."

"And Ben doesn't understand what ring and knee action is."

Rosalie snorted before finally opening the back door.

Outside there were a ton of pink streamers and several tables set up with white tablecloths. Leah and Seth were there as well as a few of the people Alice and I had gone to high school with. I looked over the different people but didn't see a face of a guy who I didn't recognize.

"I thought you said Alice brought someone," I murmured.

"Yeah, her." She nodded her head at a lithe blond bombshell with plump red lips and a large bodice.

I blinked a couple of times before finally muttering under my breath, "Well, that'd do it."

Rosalie let out another snort. "Wait till you hear who she didn't bring."

I arched an eyebrow at my oldest sister for a moment, waiting for an explanation, but she didn't elaborate. Finally, I shrugged and headed over to Alice.

"Bella!" She shrieked at a decibel which made me want to cringe when she noticed me heading her way, immediately racing over to me and hugging me tight. "I've missed you and you're right, those mesh pink studded Christian Louboutin pumps are going to be perfect on me. I'll absolutely love them. You've got to meet my girlfriend, Charlotte, she has lips that are absolutely to die for. I bet you'd enjoy kissing them, I know you liked it when –"

I slammed the palm of my hand over her mouth. "Shut it." Necromancy was commonplace in our family, stretching back over two dozen generations in all, but Alice was something else entirely... something different. Nearest our parents knew, she was actually the first in our family. To our knowledge, never before had there been someone with precognitive abilities. But she had them, and they were powerful – so powerful, in fact, that it scared most of the rest of us.

Alice pulled my hand from her mouth, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I won't say it. But I've got so much to tell you. I really wish I could have convinced my boyfriends to come too, though I'm pretty sure it would have given dad a stroke if Peter and Jasper had come with me –"

"Wait. What!?" At least now I knew what Rosalie had been talking about.

"I know Rosalie was gossiping to you about me." She shook her head. "It would have been better if they'd come too, Jasper especially, but he doesn't believe I'm psychic. So I'll have to save him when I get back. Probably for the best. Four-ways never actually last, they're just a faze after all. At least that's what dad is hoping. He'll be right too if things go the way I see them in my head."

I'd forgotten about her other 'talent' of being able to talk without ever seeming to have to take a breath.

"By the way, if my spirit appears to you, please don't worry. I'll actually be fine. I promise."

My hands went around her shoulders fast as I suddenly shook her. "What does that mean? Did you foresee your own death?"

Alice frowned briefly. "Not... I mean... Well... Sort of. Part of me is going to die, but I'm still ultimately going to be alive. At least if the future I'm currently tuned into comes to fruition. It'll be for the best, this gift of mine is just getting worse. I don't think it would be so bad if I was a necromancer, like you. But I'm just a normal human, I don't have the n chromosome that you do. My mind isn't meant to handle the extra capacity that it takes for my gift, yet I can't turn it off. I'm pretty sure I need this future to happen or I'm fairly certain I'm going to someday end up as a drooling mess in a psyche ward.

"Besides, maybe then I won't go blabbing to the 'rents about what your planning on trying. You do realize that without a body for you to transplant him in, you're going to likely kill yourself bringing him back."

"Hush," I hissed, immediately glancing around to make sure our parents weren't too close. "At least then, the line could continue. Sure, he'd have to wait a good thirteen years before Sasha was old enough, but that's a small price to pay."

"She isn't his soul mate. You are," Alice said, dropping the light voice she had been using as she stared me down. "There's a reason you've always been able to communicate with him."

I glowered at her. "Mind your own business, sister."

"The beauty of my gift, every-damn-body is my business," she stated, returning to the lighter voice again. "Come on, we have presents and cake to get to."

AN: Okay, I was originally going to have the whole birthday in one chapter, but this feels like a fit cutting off point. The rest of Bella's birthday will be in chapter 2, including the reintroduction of Edward, as a spirit of course.