I sat on the stairs watching Alice flint from one decoration to the next while adamantly refusing to help decorate. Emmett and Jasper had already been recruited and, being the gentlemen that they were, followed instructions without compliant while I stubbornly took a seat and watched, knowing Alice was going overboard for a party that even the guest of honor didn't want. I thought it was silly to break form for the girl, especially when she didn't want to celebrate.

"Three minutes!" Alice trilled moments before the roar of Bella's truck could be heard as she rushed from the room to finish getting ready herself. I rolled my eyes and Jasper chuckled as he joined me on the stairs.

"How do you always manage to get out of doing any work?" Jasper whispered as he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

"I'm ill-tempered and don't understand human trivialities, why would she want my help?" I raised a brow and Jasper seemed to realize the genius of human activities appearing to put me in a foul mood whether I liked the activity or not. He was the only one that would know the truth and he would never call out my lie in front of the others.

"Sometimes I think you're more devious then I give you credit for." He said and pressed a kiss to my head as I smiled back at him innocently.

"What is it you always say, dear? It's easy to allow others to make their own assumptions, from there they see only what they want to see?" I asked coyly and Jasper grinned as his hand twitched on my shoulder, before he could think about actually doing the action of tickling my side I had ducked out from under his arm and stood across the room.

"Now, now, we're about to have company. We wouldn't want to scar the poor human girl, now would we?" I asked seriously, though Jasper was able to feel my amusement as he shook his head.

"You're quite right, darlin'. What could I have been thinking? I simply have to get you later when you're least expecting it." My smiled dropped and I scowled while Jasper smiled smugly, his arm once again wrapping around me as we could now make out Bella and Edward arguing.

"Not tonight, Bella. Please." Edward implored.

"Well, maybe Alice will give me what I want." Bella stated and I quirked a brow at Jasper. We both could guess what they were talking about as Edward growled in frustration.

"This isn't going to be your last birthday, Bella." Edward stated solemnly and was immediately met with her protest.

"That's not fair!" She cried. Their conversation cut off abruptly as Bella's truck broke through the trees and she got her first look at the house. After a moment she moaned and I looked to Jasper, unsure what emotion she could be feeling to cause that reaction.

"Self-consciousness, embarrassment and annoyance." He whispered and I nodded.

"This is a party. Try to be a good sport." Edward admonished and for once I was on the side of the human.

"You know, Edward, it's really not fair to put her in situations she'd explicitly asked not to be put in and then expect her to bend to your every whim." Edward gave another growl as Jasper looked imploringly to me.

"Not your fight, Abi." Jasper admonished and I shrugged. If my opinion was unwanted then Edward should do better to make sure they have these conversations out of my hearing range.

"I have a question." Bella stated as her truck door squealed.

"If I develop this film will you show up in the picture?" Bella asked making Edward burst into laughter while chuckles could be heard in other places around the house as the family quickly assembled in the front room. Edward was still laughing as he opened the door for Bella and on queue like Alice had instructed we all called out 'Happy Birthday, Bella!'. Bella's face flushed bright red and her eyes dropped to the floor.

Edward wrapped an arm around her shoulder's and pulled her further into the room as he pressed a kiss to her forehead. Esme and Carlisle greeted Bella with hugs and Carlisle pretended to whisper in her ear his apologies for not being able to rein in Alice. Alice gave a pout but smiled back when Carlisle smiled at her.

"You haven't changed at all." Emmett declared with mock disappointment.

"I expected a perceptible difference, but here you are, red-faced as always." He teased and the blush on her face darkened.

"Thanks a lot, Emmett." Bella groused and Emmett chuckled.

"I have to step out for a second, don't do anything funny." He said and gave an obnoxious wink to Alice before dashing out of the room to install the new radio in Bella's truck.

"I'll try." Bella said after him as Alice skipped forward.

"Time to open presents!" Alice sang and pulled Bella toward the table that held a cake and several silver-wrapped packages.

"Alice, I know I told you I didn't want anything." Bella began to protest but Alice waved her off.

"But I didn't listen." Alice said smugly and pressed a gift into Bella's hands as she took Bella's camera. The box was the gift Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper had gone in on, the radio that Emmett was now installing in her truck.

Bella looked at the box curiously, giving it a small shake. She looked at the tag on the box and carefully tore the paper off. She looked confusedly at the writing on the box before opening it and becoming more confused as she looked inside to find the box empty.

"Um… thanks." Bella said awkwardly. Rose cracked a smile and Jasper couldn't hold back his laughter.

"It's a stereo for your truck. Emmett's installing it right now so that you can't return it." Bella's lip twitched.

"Thanks, Jasper, Rosalie." Bella said and the grinned.

"Thanks Emmett!" She called and we could all hear his laughter and Bella laughed too.

"Abilene, you're next!" Alice trilled. Bella looked surprised as she looked to me and I shrugged before grabbing the two small boxes off the stairs and stepping closer to Bella.

"For the record, I was going to give these to you whether it was your birthday or not." I said and Bella smiled as I handed her the two unwrapped boxes. The fact that I wanted them to remain unwrapped was the reason I had been carrying them around all day so I could keep them away from Alice and her obsessive need to coordinate everything. Emmett came bounding into the room as the boxes were leaving my hands.

"Just in time!" Emmett crowed and crowded in behind Jasper who'd moved closer with me. I stepped back into his arms as Bella got the chance to look at her gifts.

One box was German chocolate that Jasper and I had picked up from a small chocolate shop on a town that bordered the Black Forest and the other was a wooden ornament that I'd picked out at the airport while we'd been waiting for out flight. Bella's eyes widened as she looked over the ornament that had been hand carved into an intricate snowflake.

"It's beautiful." Bella said in awe as she ran her finger over the front of the ornament.

"Thank you, Abi." She smiled and I gave a small smile in return as Jasper hugged me from behind.

"Open mine and Edward's next." Alice said and slipped my gifts from Bella's hands to replace with their gift. Bella turned to glare at Edward.

"You promised." Bella accused and my interest was piqued over the new argument.

"I didn't spend a dime." Edward assured, holding a hand up in an innocent gesture. Bella inhaled deeply before turning to Alice.

"Give it to me." Bella sighed and Alice handed over the small package. Bella rolled her eyes at Edward as she slipped her finger underneath the flap of the wrapping paper and jerked upward. The action likely would have gone unnoticed if it hadn't immediately been followed by a hitch in Bella's breath as pulled her finger away from the gift, then pulled it up closer to her face. I'd barely registered the sight of the blood on her finger before the smell hit me and the fire flared in my throat. I growled, but the action was broken off by the vicious growl that erupted from beside me. His arms were no longer around me and before I could clear the blood lust from my thoughts enough to think Jasper was gone from my side.

"No!" Edward yelled. Edward lunged to meet Jasper head on and shoved Bella out of the way. Bella flew across the room and into the table holding all the party necessities that Alice had insisted on. The crash of Bella hitting the table was almost over shadowed by Jasper and Edward colliding. My mind was caught between going after the bleeding girl and helping Jasper fight Edward, the two instincts warring with each other till Emmett came up behind Jasper and grabbed him in a head lock. I snarled at this, moving to intervene when Rosalie's arms locked around me. I snapped at Rose and she growled in response. I started to struggle before my mind finally managed to combat the blood lust. I stopped breathing and froze, Rose looked at speculatively before seeing that I wasn't pretending in an attempt to get away.

"Emmett, get Jasper out of here." Carlisle ordered and I turned my focus back to Jasper as he continued to struggle against Emmett and Edward. I raced in front of him, cutting off his sight of the blood. Jasper snarled at my presence in front of him, solely focused on getting to the blood. I snarled back and my hand lashed out, striking Jasper across the face. The action startled him enough that Emmett was able to get a better hold on him and the two of us were able to start moving toward the door.

"Come on, Jasper." Emmett grunted as Jasper once again started to struggle. I knew the family didn't trust me anymore than Jasper, Rosalie was less then a step behind me should I dare take a breath. Jasper continued to struggle well into the trees, the fresh air not enough to remove the thought of fresh blood from his focus.

"Emmett let him go." I said and Emmett looked at me like I'd grown a second head.

"He'll just run back to the house." Emmett protested and I shook my head.

"No, he won't." I promised and stepped back in front of Jasper. I knew how to push all his buttons, I'd have his sole focus in a moment and all that blood lust was going to be channeled into fighting. I easily dodged his teeth as I stepped into his space, giving a snarl of my own and giving a love bite to his throat. Jasper jerked away from me, giving another vicious snarling before trying to lunge at me.

"Emmett, let him go." I said again and stepped away. Emmett looked uncertain, glancing to Rose who shrugged before nodding. Emmett struggled with Jasper for another moment as he agonized over the thought before letting his arms drop and jumping clear of any attack Jasper might had tried. With his freedom Jasper lunged for me and I smiled as I dodged.

"Come on, show me what you've got." I goaded as I motioned for him to come at me. Blood and a threat were the two things that immediately triggered any vampire's instincts, but with Jasper's training he had to think about it less than others and that made him more dangerous. Usually the blood lust was stronger than the desire to fight, at least till you gave a little pain. It was Jasper's switch, he could always get blood later, but when he felt pain his whole focus changed to staying alive and the urge to fight overrode the blood lust. My little love bite had basically wiped Bella from his mind till he could eliminate the threat and since the threat was me, his instincts wouldn't allow him to harm me permanently so we were going to fight till he could think clearly again and he would eventually calm down.

Jasper came after me head on hard and fast, not his usually tactic but that let me know that he was finally starting to think again. With anyone that he didn't know he wouldn't use traditional tactics because they would be expecting it, but traditional tactics were what Jasper had been trained to avoid and something that he and Peter had made sure to teach me when they were preparing me to go back out into the world. His use of traditional methods showed that he at the very least recognized who he was fighting and was going head on to throw me off.

Jasper managed to land a couple hits as he slowly shifted back to his usual tactics and I started using my gift to my advantage. Any time it looked like Jasper might get the upper hand I would disappear to put some distance between us and reappear behind him just to frustrate him. He snarled as he snapped around to face me again,

"God damn it, stay visible!" He snarled and I grinned. Not being able to see his opponent was Jasper's pet peeve and the fact that he could and chose to verbalize it showed he was almost lucid again. Jasper lunged at me again and I allowed him to take me to the ground before reversing the hold and pinning him to the ground. I purred as I ground my hips into his, the change it atmosphere sent a jolt through Jasper and him hesitate long enough that I pressed my lips to his. He gave a guttural growl but his hands found my hips as his mouth started moving against mine.

After a moment Jasper pushed me back and my eyes met his. The pain in his eyes showed he was once again completely lucid. I could feel his guilt and angst as the emotions hit him and he lost his grasp on his gift. He had been doing so well for so long now that this set back with Bella of all people struck him harder than normal.

"What have I done?" He whispered brokenly.