74. Arrival

As if she, too, felt cheated of our promised eternity, Bella spent the night loving me with single-minded intensity. If we didn't have guests arriving in the morning, I doubted she would have noticed the sun rising. It made me resent their intrusion. If I only had a month left with her, this was how I wanted to spend every second.

The rational part of me knew our guests were coming to try and ensure that our time together would not be cut short. If Alice's plan worked, we would have our forever. It was only that possibility that allowed me to let Bella go when she pulled away.

The instant the sun hit her face, Bella's whole demeanor changed. She went from languorously relaxed to anxiously rigid. The vampire reaction to stress turned her into a statue, immobile with tension. She held the pose only long enough for me to recognize it before she moved, springing from our bed so quickly it seemed she simply appeared at the closet doors. I was behind her half a second later, snagging the first clothes my fingers touched.

Alice's presence in the closet was too real, her absence too fresh. I didn't want to be in there any longer than was necessary.

Though I had not given the outside world a single conscious thought in the night, everything Alice had said came flooding back when the light flooded our room. Alice had told us more than just to gather our guests; she'd said they had information we needed. Only, she hadn't said what. Just that there was more than Nessie fueling this attack. Bella was surely right, that the Volturi were coming because Irina reported our illegal creation of an immortal child. What more could there be to the Volturi's reaction?

Alice's cryptic remarks had never been so infuriating! Living mostly in the future as she did, she sometimes forgot that the rest of us had to catch up with her in the present. She moved on so fast to the next future event, leaving us floundering half a step behind when we still had now to deal with. Usually, I could keep up with her, but this time, she had deliberately left me behind.

What if the rest of Tanya's family reacted the same way as Irina? None of our guests' cooperation was guaranteed. Alice saw only the possibility, and in each case, it had been slim. What if I never got the chance to question Eleazar before he and the others ran in fear for their lives?

"I wish there was a way to get the information we need from Eleazar before we tell them about Nessie," I grumbled as I yanked a shirt over my head. "Just in case."

"But he wouldn't understand the question to answer it," Bella said with a nod.

I grunted my agreement and hurried to follow Bella out of the closet. Like me, she seemed to feel Alice's absence too keenly, surrounded as we were by her spirit.

"Do you think they'll let us explain?" Bella whispered as she cracked open the door to Nessie's room.

There was a bleakness to her voice that I wanted to erase. I wished I could placate her with easy lies, but honesty was more important. A lie would not protect either of them, and I couldn't expect Bella not to call me on it. She always saw through me. No. The truth was the key. I just had to make everyone else see it.

"I don't know," I admitted.

I wished they could see Nessie now, sleeping as no vampire child ever could. Even when Bella scooped her from her bed and snuggled her close, Renesmee remained asleep.

Irina's response had been ingrained, their mother's execution imprinted upon her psyche. Without a doubt, the same could be said of Tanya and Kate. Their reactions would be similar.

But Alice had seen the possibility that they would stay. It was up to me to make that future happen. Gazing at my daughter's sleeping face, I had never felt more powerless. Her dreams were usually untroubled, but this morning, there was a nebulous sense of fear and a loneliness accompanied by each one of my family's faces.

I wasn't in a hurry to get back to the mansion. Our cousins were still many miles away, too far for me to hear their thoughts, but they were getting closer every minute. It wouldn't do for them to show up to an empty house. However, neither did I wish to be the only member of my family to fill it. Of course, Bella and Nessie, and probably Jacob, would be with me, but they would not be haunted by the ghosts of my family like I would be.

In truth, I could feel Esme and everyone else here, too, but the cottage was mine and Bella's home, not theirs. The mansion would echo with silence. Their absence would glare at me from every empty corner.

I sighed. Well, with any luck, it would soon be overly full. My family would return home before long, and if they were successful, we would soon be playing host to more guests than we ever had before. I wanted this first meeting behind me.

Of all our guests, the Denali sisters had the most reason to fear Nessie, having had personal experience with the Volturi's retribution. The others' knowledge would be second-hand, their fears based on hearsay. And of all our guests, our cousins' acceptance was most important. The more who stood beside us, the easier it would become to convince each new arrival to listen and look, and not jump to conclusions.

What if I failed this most important test? More hung in the balance now than when I'd been poised to take Bella's life. I'd passed the test that day in the meadow. I hadn't killed Bella. Not then, not during our honeymoon, not when I'd drunk her blood after James, nor when I'd bit her to change her. Those had been tests of my strength and self-control, not my powers of persuasion, yet I'd passed them because Bella had needed me.

Bella had needed me.

A new calm settled over me. Of course I had done what was necessary. Everything I did was for her. And so was this. I could persuade the others to listen, because Bella was counting on me to do so. Our daughter was counting on me. I could be what they needed. I could be persuasive, passionately truthful, confident in our innocence, and our friends would have no choice but to believe.

"Edward, will you teach me how to fight?"

Frozen in the act of opening the front door, Bella's question hit me like every offer to sacrifice herself she had ever made. Emmett wanted to fight for our family. I wanted to fight! I should have foreseen this. She'd wanted to help us fight the newborns, too.

But when I looked back at her, I no longer saw the fragile, breakable human girl. Now, Bella was a strong newborn vampire. Strong in mind and body. Unlike most newborns, she would not charge in, blindly controlled by her instincts. She would remember what I taught her... if I taught her to fight.

Yet, no matter what I taught her, if the worst happened, if they refused to listen, if they attacked regardless, the addition of Bella to our fighting force would make little difference. I didn't want her thinking I was dismissing her ability, but none of us could stand against them. Even Jasper had known this was not a fight he could win.

The truth was necessary again. Honesty, no matter how harsh.

"If it comes to a fight, there won't be much any of us can do."

She held my eyes, and I saw no trace of surprise or confusion in hers. She'd expected my answer and had hers ready. "Would you leave me unable to defend myself?"

I didn't want her in the opposition. I wanted her poised and ready to take Nessie and run. If she would run. If she could. They were sure to use their powers against us, but Jane had been unable to affect her before. I thought Alec probably would not, either. So. She would have to fight her way to freedom, while the rest of us were blinded.

The picture wasn't pretty, but I knew I would have to give her what she asked for: a fighting chance.

The door made a screech of protest, and I realized I was about to rip it from its hinges. I forced my hand to relax its grip on the knob. Reluctantly, I nodded my agreement.

"When you put it that way… I suppose we should get to work as soon as we can."

Bella didn't smile, but she nodded her approval of my acceptance. She walked through the open door, and I closed it behind us carefully, making certain not to tear it through the door jam instead. I understood to my core why Bella wanted to fight. My muscles ached with the need to use them.

We walked slowly down the path toward the big, empty house. I would have kept up with her if she ran, but she seemed as reluctant as I was to return to the empty rooms and their reminder that our family was gone.

"What would you say their biggest weakness is? Do they even have a weakness?"

I'd said we should start training as soon as possible, but I hadn't meant now. If we had to talk about her training, I would rather have focused on her strengths, not theirs, but it was vital that she know what we were up against. If she was to mount any kind of effective defense, she had to know what to defend herself from.

"Alec and Jane are their greatest offense," I said, trying to keep the near overwhelming fear for her out of my voice. She needn't fear Jane. I would never have to watch her writhe from a fire that only existed in her mind. "Their defensive players rarely see any real action."

"Because Jane can burn you where you stand - mentally, at least."

I cut my eyes toward her, but her gaze was focused inward. I wondered if she could remember Jane using her gift on me. Why would she have held onto that memory? It should have faded by now.

"What does Alec do? Didn't you once say he was even more dangerous than Jane?"

"Yes," I said with a shudder. Whether she remembered Jane or not, I did. All too clearly. "In a way, he is the antidote to Jane. She makes you feel the worst pain imaginable. Alec, on the other hand, makes you feel nothing. Absolutely nothing. Sometimes, when the Volturi are feeling kind, they have Alec anesthetize someone before he is executed. If he has surrendered or pleased them in some other way."

"Anesthetic?" Doubt colored Bella's voice. "But how is that more dangerous than Jane?"

"Because he cuts off your senses altogether. No pain, but also no sight or sound or smell. Total sensory deprivation. You are utterly alone in the blackness. You don't even feel it when they burn you."

Bella's lower lip trembled, and she clutched Nessie tighter against her. With our shoulders almost touching, I could feel the warmth of our daughter's tiny, living body, like Bella cradled a small sun in her arms. If Alec could touch her mind - which I thought was unlikely - she wouldn't feel Nessie's warmth, wouldn't know when they took her from Bella's numb grasp.

That numbness, while disabling and frightening, was only an equal opposite to Jane's method for incapacitation. But there was more to his gift than hers, and I was grateful hers was the lesser. What would the face of the world look like if Jane had the ability to set fire to a field of her enemies? If her power, devastating already, could spread like the blaze it imitated? I was glad I would never know.

"That would make him only equally as dangerous as Jane," I continued, "in that they both can incapacitate you, make you into a helpless target. The difference between them is like the difference between Aro and me. Aro hears the mind of only one person at a time. Jane can only hurt the one object of her focus. I can hear everyone at the same time."

Frowning, I felt that made me sound more powerful than Aro, but surely that wasn't right. Alec was the more dangerous of the two because his gift had a greater reach. My range was wider than Aro's, it was true, but I could be lied to. Things could be hidden from me. Alice could never have hidden her visions from Aro.

Bella understood at once. "And Alec can incapacitate us all at the same time?"

It was better that she include herself in that statement. Better to expect his gift to work until proven otherwise. Better not to anticipate an advantage she might not have. I had no proof his gift would be ineffective. Jasper's ability worked on her. If Jane and Alec were truly opposites, since hers worked on the mind, his might work on the body. I thought it unlikely, but regardless, it was best that she be prepared.

"Yes. If he uses his gift against us, we will all stand blind and deaf until they get around to killing us - maybe they'll simply burn us without bothering to tear us apart first. Oh, we could try to fight, but we'll be more likely to hurt one another than we would be to hurt them."

I decided it was better to include myself, as she had done. I might be able to get around the blindness by looking through one of their eyes, but then Jane would only have to focus on me. I didn't want Bella imagining that possibility: our family blind and numb, myself writhing in agony, and she the only one unaffected, a solitary, horrified witness to our family's violent end.

And she wanted me to teach her to fight! Abruptly, I wished I had not agreed. Was there any way I could convince her to take Nessie, to leave me and save them both?

She was silent, but I didn't have to read her mind to know she was coming up with a new round of questions. I thought quickly through the other vampires in the Volturi's service. Two devastating powers we couldn't overcome was more than enough on their own, but Alice had seen many others coming. All the others. Chelsea, Renata, Heidi, others I didn't recognize from the image in Alice's thoughts, but who, without a doubt, possessed some measurable skill.

Even Felix, who had no supernatural ability above that of the normal vampire gifts, had spent centuries training and knew well how to take an opponent out. He had bested me once already. How was I supposed to train Bella to fight the likes of him? Jasper would have been better. He was the fighter in our family, the one with experience training newborns. I would have laid odds Jasper could take Felix down, with or without his empathic gift.

Apparently, that was not a bet Alice was willing to make. Not when his opponent would be backed by an army, as Felix would be.

A thrill of fear shot through me. We had to stop them first! Before a fight became necessary.

"Do you think Alec is a very good fighter?" Bella asked, surprising me. "Aside from what he can do, I mean. If he had to fight without his gift. I wonder if he's ever even tried…"

My eyes instantly found her face, but she refused to meet my glare. It had been a vain hope that she would move on to the others. She had ever been drawn to the biggest danger, or they to her, and I had already told her Alec was the biggest threat.

"What are you thinking?" I demanded.

"Well, he probably can't do that to me, can he? If what he does is like Aro and Jane and you. Maybe… if he's never really had to defend himself… and I learned a few tricks - "

"He's been with the Volturi for centuries," I said, desperate to stop her from making the offer I'd known she would make. "Yes, you're surely immune to his power, but you are still a newborn, Bella. I can't make you that strong a fighter in a few weeks. I'm sure he's had training."

"Maybe, maybe not. It's the one thing I can do that no one else can. Even if I can just distract him for a while - "

A distraction. I heard the word, but I also heard her intent. A sacrifice.

"Please, Bella," I interrupted, "let's not talk about this."

"Be reasonable."

Reasonable? Reasonable?! I inhaled deeply, trying to dispel the image of Bella, a solitary figure moving among statues, hurtling herself at an army in the hope that she could reach her target fast enough to make a difference.

It wouldn't work.

Even if she could get to Alec, distract him for a few seconds from focusing on our family, the rest of the guard would converge on her while we floundered, disoriented. Before we could take advantage of that momentary distraction and rush them en masse, she would be gone, and we would be right back where we started, blind and numb, only now accompanied by the memory of Bella's pointless, fiery end.

The best I could hope for was for her to run away from them, and to be capable of fighting off any who might catch up with her so that she could keep running.

"I will teach you what I can, but please don't make me think about you sacrificing yourself as a diversion - " My throat closed over the word.

Bella nodded, but it seemed to be an agreement to no longer discuss her sacrifice, rather than for her not to be one.

What was she thinking?! Her immunity to their powers didn't make of her a weapon. I had been defeated by one of the Volturi guard - just one! A powerless one, at that - and she seemed to think she could take them all on. By herself!

I knew becoming a vampire enhanced a person's strongest traits, but never had I anticipated the possibility that Bella's magnetic attraction to every conceivable danger might become stronger. She had courted death as a human. Now? It seemed she intended to rush into the arms of the largest, most powerful vampire army to ever exist, with the intention of defeating them single-handedly!

As if to confirm my fears, she said, "I have to learn everything. As much as you can possibly cram into my head in the next month."

I clenched my teeth, unwilling to argue. She wouldn't hear me now, anyway. I would teach her to defend herself, focusing on evasion, how to avoid them when they grabbed for her, how to break away without loss of limb or life. Under no circumstance would I teach her a single offensive move. No need to throw fuel onto her fire.

"Demetri…" she began, finally moving on from planning her attack on Alec, as if he was next on her hit list.

"Demetri is mine," I snarled.

"Why?"

I could feel her eyes on me, but it was my turn to avoid her gaze.

How could I convince her to run? Telling her how much I needed her to live didn't seem to be enough. Could I make her see that Renesmee needed her? She had already proved she would sacrifice her life to protect our daughter. In this case, only by staying alive would she accomplish that aim.

Even so, deliberately sacrificing my life, leaving me writhing under Jane's stare and leaving our family numbly waiting for death didn't sound like something I could easily convince Bella to do. Not even to save our daughter.

All else being equal, once we were dealt with, they'd go after Alice, and I couldn't have that, either.

My sister deserved her eternity, and so did Jasper. She could avoid Demetri easily, but Alice shouldn't have to spend the rest of time being hunted.

If Bella could be convinced to take Nessie and run, that could break the guards' concentration far more readily than attacking. They wouldn't be used to an adversary who was immune to their powers. That would be my chance - possibly my only chance - to save as many of my family as I could.

Bella could break their focus by running away, the Volturi would divide their forces to give chase, and then I could attack. I wouldn't survive long after taking Demetri out, but that was unimportant. Mine would be the suicide mission, not hers. And Demetri, not Alec, would be my target. Bella and Nessie would survive, and Alice was sure to find her. Then they could all live, safely.

Was this the future my sister had hidden from me?

Bella was still waiting for an answer, so I gave her the part she would be able to accept.

"For Alice. It's the only thanks I can give her now for the last fifty years."

This time, Bella's nod was one of approval. We were in complete agreement on this, at least. Alice would get her eternity with Jasper.

Jacob's thoughts reached me before the tread of his paws against the ground was audible. The cadence was fast and grinding as he dug his claws in to propel himself quickly across the frozen ground. The army was nowhere near us, but their threat was a palpable tension that hung in the still morning air. He knew she was okay just by the lack of speed in our run, but he could think of nothing except seeing Renesmee with his own eyes, assuring his heart of what his mind already knew.

Bella acknowledged his presence with a quick nod when he pulled abreast of her, but immediately returned to questioning me.

"Edward, why do you think Alice told us to ask Eleazar about the Volturi? Has he been to Italy recently or something? What could he know?"

"Eleazar knows everything when it comes to the Volturi. I forgot you didn't know. He used to be one of them," I explained, surprised to realize I hadn't already told her. Until now, we'd had better things to talk about than Tanya and her family. Bella's exceptional control made it easy to forget how little time had actually passed since I had changed her. She was such an integral part of my life, smoothly fitting into our family, it seemed as though she had been with us always, when it had really only been a few months.

Jacob growled while an angry hiss escaped Bella.

"What?" Bella's lips pulled back from her teeth in a curl of disgust.

I didn't understand. She hadn't been remotely phased when I'd confessed to murdering people, yet this disclosure caused her to react.

Carlisle had lived with the Volturi too, though it was true that he was never more than a guest, and had only lasted a few decades. He and Eleazar were kindred spirits. I was lucky Carlisle had already left Volterra before Eleazar's birth. Had the two met back then, I might never have been created.

I had to smile at my good fortune.

"Eleazar is a very gentle person. He wasn't entirely happy with the Volturi, but he respected the law and its need to be upheld. He felt he was working toward the greater good. He doesn't regret his time with them. But when he found Carmen, he found his place in the world. They are very similar people, both very compassionate for vampires."

Aro had kept his strange friend's existence a secret from the newly joined member of his guard, concerned that his nature would have led him to adopt Carlisle's philosophy - exactly as he and Carmen had done upon meeting the Denali clan.

My smile twisted into a satisfied smirk. Withholding that knowledge had done Aro little good. He had still ended up losing Eleazar's services.

"They met Tanya and her sisters, and they never looked back. They are well suited to this lifestyle. If they'd never found Tanya, I imagine they would have eventually discovered a way to live without human blood on their own."

Though we had told Jacob of the Volturi, we had not gone into much detail beyond their role as law enforcement. He knew only of their rules and of the only punishment for breaking them that could have any meaning to creatures such as we. He found it difficult to reconcile the idea of a gentle executioner. Were they so desperate for warriors they would employ one who was unwilling to fight?

"No," I said, "he wasn't one of their warriors, so to speak. He had a gift they found convenient."

Which was…?

"He has an instinctive feel for the gits of others - the extra abilities that some vampires have. He could give Aro a general idea of what any given vampire was capable of just by being in proximity with him or her. This was helpful when the Volturi went into battle. He could warn them if someone in the opposing coven had a skill that might give them some trouble. That was rare; it takes quite a skill to even inconvenience the Volturi for a moment."

Inconvenience… Jacob repeated with a mental sneer. That's what we are to them: an inconvenience. How very inconsiderate of us, forcing them to take time out of their busy schedules to come and murder us all. Guess it's a good thing Aro knows about your gift already, since he won't have your friend there to warn him of the inconvenience of having his mind read.

"More often, the warning would give Aro the chance to save someone who might be useful to him," I clarified. "Eleazar's gift works even with humans, to an extent. He has to really concentrate with humans, though, because the latent ability is so nebulous. Aro would have him test the people who wanted to join, to see if they had any potential. Aro was sorry to see him go."

"They let him go?" Bella asked, skeptically. "Just like that?"

"The Volturi aren't supposed to be the villains, the way they seem to you," I reminded her. "They are the foundation of our peace and civilization. Each member of the guard chooses to serve them. It's quite prestigious; they are all proud to be there, not forced to be there."

Bella's perception of them was marred by her experiences. Their protection of the vampire community as a whole was nebulous, whereas their threat to us was direct and immediate. They had threated her life, and mine, and now our daughter's, all to uphold their laws. Defending their actions left a bitter taste in my mouth, yet who knew what the world would be like without those laws?

The scowl on her face told me Bella liked hearing my defense of them as much as I liked saying it, but she had never seen me as the bad guy, despite my warnings. That hadn't changed.

Well, I had to admit she had been right about me, but that did not mean my actions were right, lawful, and good.

The vast majority of vampires would agree with the decision to execute us, and feel it long overdue. Our family risked recognition every day by living in close proximity with humans for extended periods of time. Bella's knowledge of us was proof that we were not as circumspect as we liked to believe. I had exposed our world to her, and then nearly exposed us all to the world in a blatant display of my alienness, a glittering, stone-skinned monster in full view of the public eye. And worst of all, now we had created an immortal child, a taboo beyond any other in our world. By anyone's reckoning, our actions would seem a callous disregard of the safety of all vampires.

Except where Nessie was concerned, we were in the wrong. Aro's benevolence had given us the chance to redeem ourselves, gifted Bella and me with the chance to spend eternity together.

And look what we had done with that chance.

Of course we would have to be dealt with. For the good of vampires everywhere, we had to die. It was up to the Volturi to protect the entire vampire population from our increasingly risky behavior. They would be the saviors of the entire world, and we would be remembered as the dangerous deviants who had been mercifully granted a quick and easy death.

At least, that was how everyone else would see it.

Gently, I said, "They're only alleged to be heinous and evil by the criminals, Bella."

"We're not criminals," she insisted, exactly as she had always insisted I was not a monster.

Jacob agreed with Bella. We had done nothing wrong in his eyes. So we'd had a kid. Big deal. Any law that vilified a child for existing was wrong. And our kid was, without a doubt, wonderful and good.

"They don't know that," I said.

Quietly, as if afraid of the answer, Bella said, "Do you really think we can make them stop and listen?"

I thought of the vampire I'd met, of his curiosity and excitement over new discoveries - such a rarity at his age - and felt his own nature might be our biggest ally. All we had to do was get his attention, and his curiosity would do the rest. Our friends would make him pause, if we could gather enough of them.

The universal revulsion over changing a child was not easily overcome. For us to convince so many to do so would surprise Aro.

If we could convince our friends that Nessie was not what they feared, we should be able to convince him, shouldn't we? I wished I could be certain of what his reaction would be. Alice had seen the possibility of our stand, but only the possibility, and - so far as I knew - not at all what the end result might be. I couldn't even be sure Tanya would listen, much less Aro.

Why had Alice left? What had she seen? I hated not knowing.

Shrugging off my uncertainty, I said, "If we find enough friends to stand beside us. Maybe."

Tanya would be the key. She and Kate would make the difference. If they stayed, the others would be easier to convince. And if the two sisters stayed, when it was their other sister who had turned us in, their presence alone would speak volumes to the army we were soon to face.

A sense of urgency overtook me. Our slow stroll was no longer good enough. Beside me, Bella's pace picked up as well. We only left Jacob behind for a few seconds. When he caught up with us, he wondered what had caused our sudden sprint, and if I had heard someone approaching already.

"Tanya shouldn't be too much longer," I explained. "We need to be ready."

Seconds later we were opening the door to the empty house. Perhaps it was the echoing emptiness that woke her, or the familiar scents, or maybe it was simply time, but Nessie opened her eyes only moments later.

Without hesitation, Jacob bounded upstairs, helping himself to the clothes in Emmett's and Rosalie's shared closet. Under other circumstances, he might have lingered. The animosity between him and Rose was more for show now than anything, but I could read his amusement over the idea of trailing his fingers along the rack of her clothes, simply to leave his scent for her to find.

While Renesmee had her morning meal, the three of us discussed how best to present our daughter to our guests. It felt as though I had done precious little aside from making and remaking plans over the past few months. Jacob was all for taking Nessie into the woods to wait while Bella and I met with our cousins. He wanted her as far from potentially hostile vampires as possible.

I felt any sort of subterfuge would serve to create suspicion. We needed them to trust us, to believe us, and I had already decided honesty was the only viable path.

Bella, of course, came up with the solution: a compromise. The three of them would wait here, in the house, where our cousins could be directed to use their other vampire senses to hear and smell that Nessie was a living being unlike anything they knew. Then, and only then, would I allow them in to look upon her and see her uniqueness for themselves.

For perhaps the first time, Jacob did not want to hold Renesmee. He could not phase with her in his arms. She was safest in Bella's care, a fact that made me smile. When first Bella had met our daughter, Jacob had protested. How could we allow a dangerous and unpredictable newborn vampire anywhere near our precious infant?

How Bella had changed everything. Newborn vampires. Vampire children. Werewolves. Me. Everything she touched became something new, something better.

We would survive this. We would!

Bella made everything possible.

I wanted to wrap her in my arms, but feared that when the time came, I would not be able to let her go. Instead, I leaned against the wall of windows and let my mind range away from my wife and child.

There were cars passing our driveway, miles from our house, but still within my reach. I caught snatches of songs and conversations. The humans had such mundane worries. Bills that needed paying, groceries to buy, if he liked her dress, an appointment to be kept. How alone they all felt, and yet how similar were those half-heard worries, exactly like every other human I had ever heard.

Decades of practice made ignoring those thoughts easy. I paid them no attention, aside from verifying they were not the minds I sought. I listened for the clearer sound of vampire thoughts. The vivid colors they could see would stand out from the dullness of human vision.

When I did hear a clear, inhuman voice, it belonged to Nessie. "What if they don't like me?"

Her quiet worry instantly caught all our attention. Jacob started to placate her with easy words, but Bella cut him off with a single glare.

"They don't understand you, Renesmee," Bella explained, "because they've never met anyone like you. Getting them to understand is the problem."

Renesmee didn't like being unique. She showed Bella an image of everyone she knew, a rapid flashing of faces. She was singular, the freak. If only she knew how like her mother she really was.

"You're special," Bella said, soothingly, "that's not a bad thing."

Refusing to be soothed, Nessie shook her head. If she were like us, there would be no problem. The only logical conclusion she could come to was, "This is my fault."

"No," we all disagreed in unison.

I wanted to explain, and I was sure Bella did too, but we were out of time. As was often the case, in the moment of distraction, in the very second I stopped looking and listening for our guests, they arrived. Bella heard them, too. Her head turned toward the sound of tires on gravel. Without a doubt, she could hear how easily the car navigated the sharp turns of our drive at a speed much faster than a human could have done.

In a flash, I was standing in front of the door, listening as Eleazar pulled their car up to the house and cut the engine. I tried to gather my courage as they piled out of the car. My hand hesitated on the knob, fear rooting me to the spot. What if they ran? What if they attacked? What if they did neither, but still refused to listen? What if I couldn't convince them? What if I couldn't convince anyone? What if, what if…

Their thoughts were filled with wary curiosity. I had grown so used to the werewolves that I barely registered their stench anymore, but to our visitors, the area around our house reeked. If vampire eyes could still produce tears, theirs would be watering in reaction.

Carlisle had told them nothing of the danger we were in, but they could sense the threat as if it hung in the very air, as if they could smell it along with the werewolves' rancid musk. They were already on edge. Waiting would not help matters.

Trying to be brave like Bella, I opened the door and gave my cousins a calm smile of greeting.