"How are you?" my mom asked me that next morning. She sat by my bed and patted me on the leg. I stared at her in surprise that she was here, that she knew something was wrong. How often she knew when I needed someone to talk to. With just a glance at me and she could count the amount of things I had left unsaid.

I took a deep breath to steady myself. "I'm sorry, mom." I read the emotions as they scrolled across her face. Surprise. Disbelief. Suspicion. I bit my lip. I felt funny telling her that but it was the most honest truth.

She reached out her hand and caressed my cheek with cold fingers. Her emotions washed over me. Her motherly love and the tiny bit of hunger the warmth of my body heat brought her. It was just an ordinary feeling, it was almost nonexistent, but it was there. I knew she would never even consider hurting me, none of them would, but more than once I'd noticed I smelled like breakfast to them.

"What's the matter, Nessie?" she asked, her voice ringing. "Why are you sorry?" When I didn't answer, she shook her head. "I had forgotten," she said wistfully.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You," she smiled. "When you were very little. I guess it didn't last very long, did it? But I remember it well enough. You almost never spoke out loud. You used to show us what you wanted, what you needed. And then you were all grown up and never again did you show us anything. Why is that, Nessie? Why do you refuse your... your gift?"

I stared into my mother's golden eyes. They hadn't always been like this. They were said to have been brown, an exact replica of mine. Or the other way around. But I looked nothing like her. I've always looked... immortal. Whereas she still looked human though immortality had been granted to her. I wondered how she could look like this and still be what she was.

"There is sweet music here," I recited to her, "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... You used to read that to me every night. Why don't you anymore?"

My mother smiled and she looked so beautiful I remembered something I overheard Alice telling Jasper one day. "It's no wonder her name means beauty." No wonder, indeed.

"We didn't know how long you would live," she admitted. "You spoke your first word when you were exactly one week old. I was so frightened, Nessie. Then you were walking. Then you were reading. Carlisle said the growth of your body was gradually slowing, but that didn't assure me of anything. Your mind continued to race on ahead. And you were an adult before I could get used to the idea of being a mother."

"I'm sorry," I repeated.

"What for, Nessie?"

"For everything."

"You did nothing wrong."

"I feel like-like I keep being pressed against walls. And I keep making a mess wherever I go. Elijah-"

"He loves you and you love him. Why are you apologizing for it? I never did. And I don't regret one minute of my life with Edward. And more often than not I wonder if eternity will be enough time with him. He might not like Elijah because he fears him, but even Edward understand what you're feeling. So don't ever apologize for love, Nessie."

In her golden eyes I saw the reflection of my face. My large chocolate eyes were watery and wide. I wondered what was this – this fear that had taken over me since last night, since... Niklaus. I wasn't afraid of him, no. I was afraid of what he might do to Elijah. There was something going on there between those two, a war I didn't want to be a part of. But how could I leave Elijah in it alone?

"I won't," I said, but it didn't feel like a promise.

Mother studied me carefully. "You have a visitor," she said after a while. I looked at her inquiringly. "He came to woo you again." She sounded slightly amused, but she knew the situation was serious.

The name came to me before she spoke it – Marcus. One of the three leaders of the Volturi coven. Ever since I became what you would call a "woman grown", he'd started to visit in order to ask me to consider him for an eternal husband. I thought he was awfully kind after I got over how creepy he was. He was the one who detected my relationship with Jacob was completely fraternal and would never go beyond that. That seemed to have given Jacob leave to go and fall in love with Leah. I was grateful for that.

But after he got rid of Jacob, whom apparently Marcus considered his biggest adversary, he started to come more often and though I kept trying to explain to him I didn't feel like that about him, he kept coming to remind me he could see how I felt and how my feelings toward him grew warmer every time. I couldn't deny I liked him. He was kind – if you could call a Volturi kind – and he never forced himself on me or anything. He would take me for walks on the park and he would tell me stories of his life in exchange, and I quote, "for nothing more than the blessing of your company."

I didn't mind at all spending time with Marcus. He proved himself a good friend and a good ally, would I ever need one. I only wished he would understand I would never love him like he wanted me to. And I hated that I was causing him pain.

He knew of pain already. A long time ago, he had married Didyme, Aro's sister. He'd loved her dearly. She had the incredible yet underestimated ability to make people happy. I thought this was the greatest gift of all. Why, if you could make every one you care about feel happy all the time, wouldn't you? And Marcus saw it too. And he must've felt happiness beyond compare while he was with her. So much that now he seemed unable to be pleased by anything at all.

Anyway, Marcus and Didyme eventually became discontent with the Volturi, and planned on leaving. In order to prevent this, Aro, who pretended to have given his blessing, murdered his own flesh and blood because Marcus "was too integral" to Aro's plans. Of course, Marcus never knew of this, but I've met Aro and he insisted upon touching me not knowing my power would work just as his.

I thought about telling Marcus several times, but what good would it make? He would only lose yet another person he loved, a friend, a brother, someone who cared for him, or pretended to. And though still apathetic, Marcus seemed more... alive whenever we were together. It wasn't much, but I could make him laugh. For brief seconds, I was able to take him away from that permanent state of grief-related apathy. But that was the best I could do for him.

"So that's why you're here," I said.

"Yes and no," my mother said. "I came to tell you he's here. But I also came to see how you are. You came home so early last night. And you seemed sad. Why weren't you with Elijah, Nessie? What happened?"

I shook my head and got out of bed. It was a bright sunny day. It was yet another day drown

in the supernatural world. And once again would I spend a sunny day with a sad, ill tempered immortal. I seemed to attract a lot of those.

I glanced at my mother and wondered how to answer her. She knew something was up and

I had never been a very good liar. Something I had her to thank for. So I decided on the truth, but I decided on a brief, emotionless disturbed truth.

"I met his brother," I told her at last.