Sorry this chapter is a bit later than intended, but I have some good news that will hopefully make up for my tardiness: one of my other stories is almost finished - I'm working on the epilogue as we speak - so I'll soon have more time to devote to this one. If all goes well, May's update should come earlier in the month than usual.

Chapter 19: Outbreak

When they heard what had happened, the rest of the family's reactions were similar to Peter's. After spending the last several hours caring for patients whose numbers had only grown when the last sick vampire's victims were brought in, Carlisle wasn't tired, but the misery he'd seen weighed him down enough that he felt a sudden need to sit. Esme, who usually knew just what to say to make someone feel better, was so crushed by the news of the hospital massacre and its four-year-old perpetrator that she simply froze, and even Alice, normally the most talkative one in the family, was silent.

Only Rosalie, who was just as affected as everyone else but too stubborn to show it, managed to get a few words out. "So what do we do now?"

"There's only one thing we can do." They all looked around at the sound of Edward's quiet voice to find him staring down at the floor, his brow furrowed in thought - and judging by his fatalistic tone, he didn't like where those thoughts had taken him. "Go to the Volturi. It doesn't matter if they don't believe the virus is a real threat, they can't ignore an incident of this magnitude. We'll need their help to track down anyone who might have escaped the hospital after being bitten."

"And then what?" Carlisle asked, fixing him with a piercing look. "You know they won't want to leave any witnesses."

Edward looked up, meeting his father's doubtful gaze. "I think we can convince them to spare the humans if we point out how much more conspicuous so many deaths would be, particularly when Peter and Jasper can make them believe they merely suffered an episode of mass hysteria, like Jasper said." He nodded at his brother in acknowledgment that his supposition about how the survivors would likely rationalize what they'd seen was probably correct, before his expression darkened. "As for those who were bitten..." He hesitated, then forced himself to continue. "They almost certainly will be killed...but we have to face the fact that that may be the outcome regardless. Those people from the fishing town - the virus seems to be spreading through their bodies along with the venom, which means that by the time they finish changing, it'll be too late to save them by removing the tainted body parts like we did for Carmen, Liam, and Mary."

"We can't be sure of that," Carlisle protested, but something in his voice - something that sounded like desperate denial battling with defeat - said otherwise.

"Nothing is set in stone until it actually happens," Alice agreed, "but the outlook isn't good. My visions are still cloudy - too many factors have yet to be decided...but I've seen enough to know that this could go very badly. Getting the Volturi's help may be our best shot at preventing that."

She stopped there, but everyone heard the part she didn't say aloud loud and clear - that it was a shot they needed to take, even if it meant that the newly bitten were likely to become collateral damage. There was a moment of silence as they all came to grips with that before Bella spoke up.

"What about Peter? Won't the Volturi have a problem with him knowing about us?"

"There are bigger problems to worry about right now," Rosalie replied with a shrug. "Hopefully their heads aren't stuck too far up their asses for them to see that."

"If they are, I'll pull them out," Emmett offered, completely serious for once.

"It may also help if we show them that Peter is...not a typical human," Esme suggested. "He has a secret of his own to protect for similar reasons, so surely we can convince them that he can be trusted to keep ours as well."

"Yeah, I think I can convince them," Peter agreed, though his attitude was more grim than hopeful. "I came pretty close to leveling New York City a few months ago, so I think I can handle a few stubborn vampires."

"You mean you'd actually nuke their home?" Elle asked with interest, before turning to Edward. "Didn't you say they live in a big, fancy castle?"

"Yes, and it's filled with all sorts of priceless objects. They would certainly be upset if anything happened to it."

"I don't want to hurt anyone, obviously," Peter asserted in an effort to quell the disapproval and apprehension he felt radiating from some of the family members, then looked down into Bella's face, which was still pinched with worry, and took hold of her hand. "But I won't let them come between us either. Nothing's ever going to keep us apart again, I promise."

She stared into his eyes for a moment, gauging his confidence in his ability to follow through on that promise; then, apparently finding what she was looking for, she relaxed, and so did the Cullens, their trepidation turning to understanding. While they didn't want to see Peter's full power brought to bear against the Volturi - frankly, it was rather frightening to imagine how such a showdown might play out - there wasn't a single one among them who wouldn't tear down a hundred castles if that was what it took to be with the one they loved.

Volterra, Italy

Peter braced himself for the worst when they arrived in a smaller rear courtyard, which was surrounded by such high walls that most of it would be heavily shadowed even during the middle of the day, but no guards came rushing out to meet them even though they had appeared out of thin air in one of the castle's private areas.

"This is most unusual," Carlisle murmured worriedly; he had joined the party this time along with almost every other member of his family, with only Esme and Rosalie staying behind to watch over the patients. "Aro may not have answered my last call, but teleporting into their home should have gotten someone's attention."

The door leading inside was bolted shut, but with Peter's help, they were able to walk right through it - into a dark room that was equally devoid of any sign of life.

"Okay," Emmett muttered, "where is everybody?"

They stuck close together as they proceeded through the eerily silent halls, moving as quietly as possible to minimize the creepy echoes that seemed to follow every step. The attack came without warning - a black-veined, black-eyed vampire lunging out of one of the many rooms they passed, fingers hooked into claws and grabbing mindlessly at Alice, who happened to be closest.

A lightning bolt fired from Elle's fingertips sent him staggering back a second before Peter's telekinesis severed his head, and Emmett and Jasper made short work of the rest of his body.

"Looks like their guy was infected after all," Elle commented as she ignited the pieces, which they had tossed into an ornate fireplace in the room he'd come from.

"This wasn't Santiago, though," Carlisle said. At her blank look, he explained that Santiago was the friend of Eleazar's who had been bitten at Irina's wedding, but the man they had just killed was named Felix.

"Then I guess they didn't do so great at containing the infection either." Turning to Edward, she asked, "Didn't you tell me these guys were supposed to be a team of unbeatable badasses? And now they've all been wiped out just like that?"

"I'm not so sure they have," he said distractedly, head cocked as if he was trying to home in on a sound that was just barely within his range of hearing. Reaching out for Elle's hand, he pulled her to the far side of the room, where the faint whispers in his head seemed to originate.

"Babe, there's nothing here," she protested as she followed him, "except proof that it's been way too long since the Volturi updated their decor. Who has actual tapestries hanging on their walls anymore?"

"It's a very old castle," Edward reminded her, "full of very old things...possibly including secret passages and hidden rooms." Letting go of her, he began feeling around behind the tapestries.

Peter came over to join the search, except he was able to stick his hand right through the wall, and by doing so soon found a hollow space behind it. A little more groping revealed a cleverly concealed lever that caused a section of the wall to swing outward, opening into a narrow stone passageway that was so dark even the vampires had trouble seeing, though Peter and Elle remedied that by forming sparks at their fingertips, allowing the electrical arcs to coalesce into balls of flickering light in their palms.

The passage led them to a cluster of small, windowless rooms, where they found Aro, Caius, Demetri, Jane, and Alec. Once the rooms' occupants realized they weren't under attack and the greetings were out of the way, Carlisle asked, "My friends, what happened here?"

Aro's face, which had lit up with happiness and no small amount of relief at seeing him, instantly fell into a somber, downcast expression. "You were right, old friend," he said sadly. "Santiago's wound festered just as you said it would, and within hours he became confused, incoherent...then violent. He attacked Felix and Afton, forcing them to kill him, though he managed to bite them first. Then they began exhibiting the same symptoms..." His voice trailed off, a look of horror creeping over him as he recalled what had followed, which was apparently too awful to describe in detail, though Edward and Peter caught flashes of it in his and his companions' thoughts. "Those of us who escaped retreated here."

His story received mixed reactions; Carlisle appeared sympathetic, while Emmett muttered, "Told you," barely disguising the words with an obviously fake cough, and Jasper asked, "Are you all that's left, then? Everyone else is dead?"

"Of course not," Aro said quickly. "Sulpicia and Athenodora were in their tower when the chaos began, so they should be perfectly safe. When the sun sets, they'll be able to make their escape by climbing down."

"So as far as you know, they were the only other survivors?"

"No." This time the answer came from Demetri, the psychic tracker. "Some fled when things got out of control - Renata, Corin, Heidi, as well as a few others. I can feel them out there."

"Were they infected?" Edward asked sharply.

"We don't think so."

"And the ones who were?" Alice pressed. "What did you do with them?"

"Whatever you did, you missed one," Elle informed them. "Felix jumped us when we came in, but don't worry - we took care of him."

"We put as many of our brethren out of their misery as we could," Aro said solemnly, "but subduing them was no easy task. There was no reasoning with them, yet they retained their strength and speed after their minds were gone. They spread their taint to Chelsea, Felix, even Marcus... Then, fortunately, they were distracted when the human cleaning staff arrived. Recognizing the futility of the situation, we-"

"Ran in here and hid like a bunch of chickens," Elle finished for him. "You know, for the last three years I've been hearing stories about how awesome and unstoppable you guys are, and now that I'm meeting you in the flesh...I gotta say I'm pretty disappointed."

"It kind of looks like the emperors have no clothes, doesn't it?" Bella murmured from beside her, making the blonde grin.

"How dare you?" Caius complained. "We have ruled this city for centuries, all the while working tirelessly to maintain order among our kind, to safeguard our world from the ever-growing incursions of humans as they proliferate like vermin and overrun the earth - an area in which I see your coven has not been so vigilant, foolishly choosing to consort with one of them in violation of our laws-"

"Peter is no ordinary human," Carlisle interjected, seeing the angry looks from his family and stepping in before the situation could escalate. "He's part of a small subset of the human population - though their numbers appear to be growing - that have far more in common with us than the rest of their kind."

"Preposterous," Caius began, only to fall silent when Peter held up a hand with electricity arcing between his thumb and forefinger.

"Fascinating," Aro whispered, practically pushing his brother out of the way to get a closer look. "To manifest such an ability so clearly while still human... A remarkable find. May I ask why you haven't changed him yet?"

"Because he hasn't asked me to," Bella snapped, moving in front of Peter and glaring at the man who had been the de facto leader of the Volturi, either because of his extensive mind-reading powers or simply because he was the most loquacious of the three brothers. "It's his choice whether he wants to be a vampire or not."

"But my dear girl, imagine how powerful he could be with his gift enhanced by the change," Aro said impatiently.

"He is right here," Peter broke in rather loudly, "and I've already got enough power to deal with. I don't want any more."

This statement seemed to utterly confound both of the remaining Volturi brothers; Aro's mouth actually fell slightly open, and though Caius merely raised his eyebrows, it was clear he was no less bewildered. "But something must be done with him," he insisted, now appealing to Carlisle. "Now that you've exposed our existence to him, he must be either changed or killed in accordance with the law."

"And if we don't, what're you gonna do about it?" Emmett demanded, folding his massive arms over his chest. "Most of your guard is gone; you're down to just five people cowering in a secret room, and maybe another two in a tower. The way I see it, you're in no position to enforce shit."

"That's not true!" Jane, who until that point had sat passively in a corner with her twin, shot to her feet and scowled at Emmett. "They still have us."

"Yeah, and you're hiding in here too."

The diminutive vampire puffed up indignantly and was about to unleash her agonizing mental power on him when Alec laid a calming hand on her arm and Bella stepped forward, placing herself between them. "Guys, enough! All that matters right now is that there are infected vampires roaming through this castle, and we need to do something about them before they wander out into the city."

"You're right, of course, Bella," Carlisle agreed, before looking around at what remained of the powerful Volturi coven and their fearsome guard. "I don't suppose any of you might join us?"

"We can't go out there," Caius protested. "It's too dangerous! This strange plague, whatever it is, decimated our entire coven in a matter of hours!"

Aro nodded, which seemed to be enough for Jane and Alec, though Demetri appeared more conflicted.

Sensing his doubt, Peter addressed him directly. "You guys' whole purpose is to protect other vampires, right? You can still do that. There's never been a bigger threat to your kind than this."

Still the tracker hesitated, seemingly fighting a fierce internal battle. "I guess I could go with you," he said at last, even as his eyes darted guiltily between his coven mates, "just to help you find them."

"No, you can't," Jane snapped. "We don't go anywhere until Aro says we do. Why are you listening to this human anyway?" Turning back to the Cullens, she added, "If you can't keep your pet from speaking out of turn, I will."

Her threat drew a furious growl from Bella, but Peter, recalling how she had partially dismembered the guy who suggested having him for a snack at Irina's wedding, quickly closed the short distance between them and grabbed her by the shoulders before she could say or do anything to further increase the palpable tension in the air.

"Bella, don't; she's not worth it. None of them are, if they're only brave enough to fight when everything's rigged in their favor. We don't need them." With one last dismissive glance at the Volturi, he shifted his hold on Bella, wrapping his arm around her and steering her away.

The others followed, though he could feel that Carlisle and Jasper in particular were bitterly disappointed; Jasper had always admired and been grateful to the Volturi for imposing at least a degree of order on the vampire world, limiting the damage they could have wrought if they were free to indulge their appetites with no regard for secrecy, while Carlisle had expected better of his old friends. When they were about halfway through the secret passage, however, he sensed their moods lightening and caught a flash of Bella's dazzlingly white teeth as her expression of grim determination gave way to a brief grin.

"They're following us," she whispered in response to his inquisitive look. "I guess they couldn't stand a human showing them up."

"Good. Now let's just hope they can make themselves useful."

###

Demetri immediately proved his value by locating the infected members of the guard, who were scattered throughout the castle's vast halls. Several of them were moving around aimlessly in that shambling, disturbingly jerky gait the infected developed as their brains deteriorated, while those in more advanced stages of disease lay on the floor, staring at nothing just as Patient Zero had done in his last hours.

"Some of these infections resulted from wounds in areas that could have been easily treated," Carlisle observed with obvious distress after examining one who had somehow managed to get bitten on the leg. "Was no attempt made to curb the virus' spread by removing the tainted tissue?"

"We were unsure whether it was safe to touch them," Aro replied, earning looks of thinly veiled scorn from the rest of the Cullens. Though he and Caius obviously regretted the destruction of their coven, it was less clear whether they actually cared for any of the people it was comprised of or if they were merely upset at losing the power their collection of formidably gifted disciples had bestowed on them. Whatever their feelings may have been, they certainly hadn't tried to help any of them when doing so might have posed a risk to themselves. Carlisle just pressed his lips together and said nothing, though his severely disapproving frown spoke volumes.

Aro seemed genuinely perturbed at receiving such a look from him and started to say something else, perhaps to offer more excuses for his inaction, but before he could get a word out, the largest group of the infected they had encountered yet stumbled onto the scene, and all serious conversation ceased as they were forced to fight for their lives.

"Too bad Peter hasn't mastered the time-stopping aspect of that samurai guy's power as well as the teleportation," Elle remarked as she zapped a vampire who was lunging for Edward's neck, the shock sending spasms through his muscles and allowing Edward to take him down. "Being able to freeze these guys would really come in handy right now."

"But then you wouldn't get to fight them," Alice countered while backflipping neatly over her own attacker, landing on the taller woman's shoulders and removing her head with a quick twist. "Don't try to pretend you're not enjoying yourself almost as much as Emmett."

"She has a point, love," Edward agreed, glancing up from the vampire he was in the process of dismembering just long enough to catch sight of Elle's pout and flash her a grin in return.

"I guess," she reluctantly conceded as, sensing someone else coming up behind her, she snapped her left leg up and back in a vicious mule kick. "When you can move like this, good old-fashioned fisticuffs can be almost as much fun as frying somebody."

Others, however, weren't faring so well; unlike Elle, Jane and Alec had never learned to use their enhanced physical abilities in combat, preferring instead to rely solely on their mental powers, so when Jane's illusory torture failed to stop the infected vampire whose attention she'd caught from lurching toward her, all she could do was back away until she hit a wall. She had just enough time to determine that he was advancing on her faster than she would be able to tear a large enough hole in the thick stone to escape through before he was on top of her, his gaping jaws mere inches from clamping down on her shoulder... Then he flew backward, hurled away by some invisible, irresistible force, and she looked around to see the human standing there, hand raised as if he had just shoved her assailant, though she knew he hadn't been close enough to touch him.

"Are you okay?"

Later, she would ponder how strange it was that the human had inquired after her wellbeing, especially when she had been nothing but contemptuous toward him earlier, but at the moment all she could do was stammer, "I don't- He just kept coming, like he didn't feel my power at all..."

Her failure to incapacitate the man who would have killed her - or worse, infected her - had finally cracked her stony, apathetic attitude, leaving her visibly shaken, and despite her rudeness, Peter couldn't help feeling a flicker of sympathy. "I guess when your body's rotting from the inside out, you're already in so much pain that a little more doesn't make that much difference," he said with all the gentleness he could muster. It helped when he took note of the fact that, underneath her cloak and dark makeup, she appeared to be around Claire's age, maybe a year or two younger.

Turning away from the look of consternation she gave him to assess the situation, he saw that all of the infected guard members were either dead or, in the case of the few who looked like they could still be saved if a cure was found, restrained. Better yet, everyone seemed to be okay, except for... "Hey, where'd Aro and Caius go?"

His question snapped the others out of the haze of battle, and they all looked around, confirming that the brothers had indeed vanished.

"While we were occupied, they made their way to the garage beneath the castle and escaped in one of the cars," Demetri answered after taking a moment to mentally trace the path of their exodus. "Athenodora and Sulpicia are gone from their tower, but they aren't with them. The wives are farther away, so they must have found a way out earlier. I suppose they'll wait for Aro and Caius outside the city."

Given what he had learned about the Volturi wives' circumstances from the others' thoughts - how they were virtually imprisoned in their tower and attended by someone named Corin whose gift for inducing an addictive sense of complacency forced them to be content with the situation - Peter thought it was equally likely that with their guardian's influence removed, they had seized the chance to get away from their husbands, and he wasn't alone. Although Carlisle didn't think it was his place to judge how his friends handled their private affairs, he had never approved of how they took away their wives' freedom.

Jane and Alec, on the other hand, were less concerned with how and when the brothers reunited with their wives than with the fact that they had abandoned the remnants of their coven.

"They just left? Without us?"

"While we were risking our lives fighting people who used to be our friends? Their friends?"

"Are you sure about that last part?" Demetri asked quietly. "I know Aro saved the two of you from being burnt at the stake, but for most of us, he used Chelsea's gift to compel and reinforce our loyalty to him. Now that her influence is wearing off, I can't help wondering if he and his brothers were ever loyal to us."

"I'm afraid not," Edward informed him in an equally quiet tone, clearly trying to soften the blow as much as possible. "I heard Aro's and Caius' thoughts when they described how so many of your friends met their end - there was a measure of sorrow there, but there were also thoughts of how useful you all were to them, what valuable tools they had lost. But this shouldn't come as a great shock to you; after all, you knew they had another tracker before you, who they disposed of when your talent proved greater. Aro didn't surround himself with second-bests."

The familiar phrase, which he had heard Aro himself utter more than once - usually as a compliment, when he was assuring a new recruit that they deserved their place by his side - seemed to convince Demetri that Edward was telling the truth, and he let out a sigh, his attitude shifting from doubt to resignation. "You're right; I suppose that deep down I always knew where I and the others stood with him. Still I was happy to serve him, and not just because Chelsea had bound me to him. As part of the Volturi guard, I had a mission I believed in, a purpose for my gifts. Now that that's gone...I don't know what I'll do."

"If you're looking for purpose, you could come with us," Jasper suggested. "Peter wasn't wrong when he said this virus is the greatest threat our kind's ever faced, and there are a lot more potentially infected people out there that we could use a hand in tracking down. That's actually why we came here in the first place - we were hoping Aro might let us borrow you."

"Only temporarily," Carlisle clarified when he saw the tracker's hesitation. "We won't demand your loyalty or try to coerce you. All we want is to stop this disease from destroying any more lives."

"Well, you're in luck, since it looks like I'm available for freelance work," Demetri said wryly, before looking at the twins. "What will you two do? Are you coming with us, or will you rejoin Aro and Caius? Or go your own way?"

Most of the Cullens, plus Bella, Elle, and Peter, were secretly hoping the creepy twins would choose one of the second options, but Carlisle, ever the diplomat, said, "Of course you're both welcome to join us; I have a feeling we'll need all the help we can get to weather this crisis, and Alec's gift would be particularly helpful in easing our patients' suffering. Jane... Well, I'm sure we can find something for you to do." He even managed to make the invitation sound, if not quite enthusiastic, at least sincere.

Jane and Alec took a moment to mull it over, Peter and Edward listening in on their silent deliberations as they did. Their loyalty to Aro was stronger than Demetri's since it was based on genuine gratitude as well as Chelsea's influence, but they were also extremely miffed at him for leaving them behind in the lurch, as well as not taking Carlisle's warning seriously in time to save more of the guard, some of whom they had been friendly with. The horrors they had witnessed as the outbreak swept through the castle had also made a strong impression on them; like Demetri, they truly believed in the Volturi's self-proclaimed mission to protect their kind, and right now that meant doing everything in their power to halt the spread of this mysterious virus.

Their thoughts ran in nearly identical tracks, and after reaching the same conclusion they gave their answer in perfect unison: "We're with you."

"Thank you. Your help will be much appreciated," Carlisle said politely while shooting a warning glance at Emmett and Elle, the two he deemed most likely to protest.

Demetri, on the other hand, responded to their decision with genuine happiness. "Great! Now let's get out of here," he said with a dark look at the fireplaces where his comrades in arms' remains were burning. "There are plenty of cars still in the garage, and night should have fallen by the time we reach the airport-"

"That won't be necessary," Alice cut him off. "Peter can teleport us home, although he might need to make a few trips to get all of us."

"Teleportation?" Jane echoed, her scarlet eyes narrowing skeptically. "I thought his gift was making lightning?" But he could do more than that, she suddenly realized; she had seen him throw the vampire who'd almost bitten her across the room without touching him.

"That's only one of them," Bella said proudly. "His primary ability is copying powers from other people. He got the lightning from Elle."

"How does that work?" Alec wondered aloud, eyeing Peter with keen interest. "Does he need to touch the person like Aro does, or...?"

Peter didn't answer, shoving his hands in his pockets and looking down at the floor; while he couldn't see any particular harm in them knowing how his power worked, explaining the full extent of what he was capable of felt strangely like bragging.

Sensing his reticence, Edward answered for him. "The process is automatic - all he needs is a certain degree of proximity. I've estimated his range to be around ten feet, give or take."

A stunned silence fell over the trio of former guard members as it dawned on them that they had all come within ten feet of him in the last hour.

"So," Demetri ventured at last, "he can..."

"Do everything everybody in this room can, plus a bunch of other stuff he's picked up over the last few months," Emmett finished, smirking at the thunderstruck and slightly worried looks on their faces. "So I wouldn't call him a pet again if I were you. I bet he and Bella aren't even into that kind of roleplay."

###

Carlisle wasted no time finding jobs for their new allies, immediately putting Jane and Alec to work caring for the bitten humans and sick vampires - all of whom had had their hands and feet removed, rendering them harmless - under Esme's supervision while he went to check on the possibly infected humans in the fishing village, taking Jasper with him to ensure their cooperation, and Alice, Bella, Demetri, Edward, Elle, Emmett, Peter, and Rosalie began the task of tracking down everyone who'd fled the hospital the previous night. Demetri was still teaching Peter how to use his tracking ability when Alice froze, her eyes sliding out of focus as a vision filled her mind.

"You'll have to put a pin in the tracking lessons for now," she said grimly once it ended. "We have another fire to put out. Remember that guy from the little town who ran into the ocean after he was bitten and got swept away?"

"Yeah. I'm guessing he didn't drown after all?" Peter asked, trying to hide his dismay. Although it felt very wrong to be disappointed that someone wasn't dead, he couldn't deny that it would have been easier if the man had died - and, considering what was happening to the others in his condition, he probably would have been better off.

"No, he didn't - I don't know how he survived, but he did, and based on the currents, it looks like he'll wash up in a day or two."

"Great. Any idea where?"

"You'll love this." Alice turned her gaze on Bella. "Unless he gets it into his addled brain to swim somewhere else, he'll end up on the Washington coastline...not too far from Forks."

"Forks?" Bella whispered, her already pallid face turning positively ashen. "But that's where Charlie is!" She squeezed her eyes shut as images of the carnage she'd seen infected vampires leave behind flashed to the forefront of her mind. If anything like that happened in Forks, of course her father would be first on the scene, and then... But no, that eventuality was too horrible to contemplate.

"I have to go," she decided, pushing the thought of Charlie confronting a deranged vampire away before it could fully form. "I can't let another massacre happen there. Peter, will you take me? Then you can come straight back."

"And leave you alone?"

"It's just one guy - nothing I can't handle by myself. Besides, they need you here more."

He could see the logic in her argument, but with his precognitive nightmares still terrifyingly fresh in his mind, the idea of her dealing with the situation on her own was almost as frightening to him as leaving Charlie to do the same was to her.

Reading his inner turmoil in his eyes and correctly guessing the reason for it, Edward came to the rescue. "Actually, Bella, I'm not sure we do need him more. It's true that he's more powerful than all of us, but he's still only one person; sometimes numbers can make a greater difference than talent." Without looking at Peter, he silently added, Besides, you won't do much good here if you're distracted by worrying about her.

Thank you.

Edward acknowledged the telepathic message with a barely perceptible dip of his head while continuing to speak aloud to Bella. "You can stay in our Forks residence while you wait for your target to show himself; you remember where it is, don't you?"

"I think so," she said with a slightly hesitant nod after searching her human memories. "Anyway, if I can't find it, I'm sure Peter and I will be able to see it from the air. Thanks, Edward. You guys be careful."

"I'll be as careful as I always am," Elle promised with a look of wide-eyed innocence, which didn't fool Bella for a second.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"Don't worry, Bella, Edward and I will keep our eyes on her," Alice said brightly. "Enjoy your alone time with Peter. It'll be a chance for you both to catch your breath...and maybe do some of those human things you haven't found time for in the last couple of days, like showering and changing your clothes."

Forks, WA

Since vampires didn't sweat, Alice's comment about showering had obviously been directed more at Peter, and after taking a whiff of his shirt, he agreed that she had a point. Luckily, the Cullens had left some clothes behind when they relocated - they knew it wouldn't be long before Alice bought new wardrobes for everyone, so there was no need to take everything with them - and Edward had said Peter was welcome to anything from his, Carlisle's, or Jasper's closets that fit him.

Most of what he found there was too expensive for his taste, but after several minutes of searching through the ridiculous amount of clothing they all seemed to have, he managed to uncover a pair of non-designer jeans that looked acceptably worn. He was still looking for a suitable shirt when a soft voice from behind him said, "You need to check out their hunting clothes. They don't wear the good stuff when they're running through the woods, tackling animals," and he turned around to see that Bella had returned from wherever she'd disappeared to while he was in the shower.

"And how do I find those?"

"I'd tell you to sniff out where the outdoorsy smells are concentrated, but you'd need a vampire nose for that, especially after the clothes have been washed."

"Guess I'll have to use yours then. Do you mind...?"

"Not at all," she murmured, but she made no move to help him navigate Edward's vast closet; she just lingered there in the doorway, eyeing his bare chest with an almost hungry look that made his heart skip a beat.

Over the last month, their physical relationship had progressed to the point where she frequently shared his bed while he slept, but she never came in until he was fully dressed, nor did she ever change while he was around. He'd never said anything about it, not wanting to push her, and she hadn't mentioned wanting to progress beyond their current level of intimacy (her thoughts, of course, were as much of a mystery as ever), which left him blindly guessing at her intentions.

"...Bella?"

"We haven't been alone together since before the wedding," she said as she drifted closer, her eyes still glued to him. "Before Patient Zero crashed the party, I had plans for that night."

"What kind of plans?"

"Things were going really well, you know, with us - it'd been a whole week since I broke anything when you kissed me - so I thought, if the Cullens had stayed in Denali awhile and we went back to the place in Colorado, or somewhere else where it was just the two of us, maybe we could try..."

"Try what?" Maybe he was being overly cautious, but considering the sexual violence in her past, he felt it was important to be as clear as possible about what she wanted.

Unfortunately, her lack of experience with consensual intimacy left her unable to provide much clarity. "I don't know exactly," she admitted with an awkward little shrug. "Just...more than what we've been doing. I was counting on you to take the lead."

"Well, for starters, a closet probably isn't the best place for this." Taking her hand, he led her out into the bedroom, then turned to face her. She took an immediate step forward, tilting her head up to give him better access to her lips, but his free hand came up to grip her arm, holding her back. Opening her eyes again, she found him gazing down at her with a more serious expression than she would have liked. "Just tell me if you want to hit the brakes, okay?"

"Don't worry about that. I appreciate the concern, but I trust you." She ran her hands up his torso, palms flat against his skin, and discovered that she liked the feel of it. Wanting more, she tried again to close the few inches' distance remaining between them by sliding her hands around to his back and pulling him closer.

This time there was no resistance; instead, Peter's hands moved to her waist, then her back, with one finally ending up tangled in her hair as he angled her head just right before kissing her at last. She melted into his embrace, the low moan that escaped her encouraging him to keep going...until, while running his hand through her hair, he felt something rough caught in the silky locks and pulled out a leaf.

"Where did that come from?"

"I went hunting while you were in the shower," Bella said impatiently, disappointed that he had stopped to inspect the foreign object just as things were starting to get good. Plucking the leaf from between his fingers, she reached for the latch that opened a panel in the glass wall that made up one side of the Cullens' Forks abode, allowing Edward easy access to the outdoors right from his room, and slid it aside so she could throw away the offending piece of foliage. Her hand then went to Peter's face, to turn his head back toward her. "Now, where were we?"

He took the hint and resumed kissing her while the hand on her back slid up her spine, his fingers slipping under the hem of her shirt and pushing it up. She gasped at the feeling of her freshly exposed skin touching his, the sharp inhalation turning into a breathless plea to, "Don't stop," when he froze in response.

"Okay, if you're sure..." His mouth traveled to her lower jaw and then down to her neck as he continued lifting her shirt, baring more of her stomach, then her ribs. When he got to her chest, his thumb inadvertently grazed the cup of her bra, just enough for her to feel it through the thin layer of satiny material...

Her entire body went rigid, and she let out a hiss that was definitely not a sound of pleasure.

Peter instantly yanked his hands away and stepped back, already apologizing. "I'm sorry, Bella, I didn't mean to - I shouldn't have..." His voice trailed off as he realized she wasn't looking at him; her gaze was fixed on the woods beyond the open sliding glass door, her nostrils flaring as she sniffed the faint breeze that had just blown in. "Do you smell something out there?"

She nodded without looking at him, still scanning the trees for whatever her nose told her was lurking among them.

Moving back to her side, he laid a hand on her shoulder in an effort to get her attention. "What is it?"

Bella finally turned to face him once more, her eyes wide with worry as she hastily tugged her shirt back into place. "Trouble."

FYI, I found the info about the Volturi's backgrounds on the Twilight wiki, but I'm going with the movie version for physical descriptions, which means Jane and Alec have been aged up a few years since their actors were clearly not 12 or 13 at the time. I read that Dakota Fanning was 16 when New Moon was filmed, so that's what I'm going with here.