In an attempt at normalcy, after we ate breakfast, I called Angela to see if she wanted to go up to Port Angeles to do some last minute Christmas shopping, which translated to all of my Christmas shopping. Between school and Jake, I hadn't had time to do anything.

Jake was extremely hesitant for me to go off without him, and I could tell he was really struggling to keep from telling me not to go, but whatever it was that was going on, I told him I would be in public, always have Angela with me, and I would have my phone with me the whole time, which didn't appease him as much as I thought it would, but of course he knew he couldn't stop me.

On the way up, I told Angela as much as I could, I just pretty much stuck with my original story that there had been some kind of tribal thing, but now it was over, and everything should be back to normal.

"And you're ok with this?"

"Well, I'm as ok as can be expected I guess. I mean, it's not like he was partying the whole time, he was miserable the whole time too. And he was supposed to be gone for three weeks, but he told them he couldn't do it, and broke out of it early. So that helps calm me a little about the whole thing."

"Well you know I think Jacob is great, but I also love you, and I remember how broken you were. I also remember that you went through something pretty traumatic with Cullen, and he wasn't there for you."

"It wasn't his fault though. I know it sounds like I'm some abused girlfriend making excuses, but you know me better than that."

"That's exactly why I want to make sure you're ok with this. I know you don't put up with crap usually, so I want to make sure that this isn't 'crap' that you're putting up with."

I couldn't help but laugh at her.

"I promise. And I will admit, of course I'm still a little bitter about being left like that, but now that I know the whole story, now that I know exactly what happened, I know I can't blame him. I know who I can blame though, but I haven't calmed down enough to speak with him." I said through gritted teeth.

"Obviously." Angela said with a smirk.

The rest of the car ride was kept much lighter, talking about holiday plans, and gifts she was getting, and what she thought Ben was going to get her.

The mall was absolutely ridiculous, of course. I'm not really sure what else I expected, with it being the weekend before Christmas. We spent the next several hours pushing through crowds, avoiding stepping on children, and trying to get everything we needed.

Mom didn't usually come home for Christmas, so that was one less gift I had to think about. This time of year she stayed busy visiting different countries, collecting pictures of the many different celebrations each nationality had. So as far as gifts went, I only had Jake, Billy, Rachel, Leah, Ben and Angela, although Angela was the easiest.

Basically every year, we went out shopping together, and we picked out our own gifts, and just paid for each other. And because we were technically just buying our own gifts, we usually splurged. I ended up with a new pair of Doc Marten's, and Ange got a new Michael Kors bag. As for everyone else on my list, Rachel got perfume, Leah got a couple hoodies and some running pants, and Ben got a couple flannel shirts.

We decided to separate to try and find something for our own boyfriends, agreeing to meet in an hour at the food court. I was heading toward one of the jewelry stores to look at watches, when I felt that same horrible feeling I had felt before, of being watched. I looked all around, but of course it was so crowded, there was no way I could have determined if someone was staring or not. I continued pushing myself through the crowd, when I saw a familiar face.

Rosalie Hale was standing in front of the store I was headed for, and she seemed to be staring right at me. As I walked up to her, she gave me a small smile.

"Hey Bella."

"Hi Rosalie. Umm, I never got a chance to tell you, but thanks for helping me-"

"It's ok." She shrugged. "I'm just sorry you fell onto his radar." She looked honestly apologetic.

"Is he gone?" I asked, sounding much more nervous than I meant to. I didn't like the look on her face. It was regret.

"I don't think so. But we are doing our best to keep an eye out for him." Just then the guy that I remembered having Edward by the throat that day walked up, and gave me a small smile.

"Hey Bella."

"Hi…...Emmett?"

He grinned bigger.

"Yeah. You doin' ok?" He asked, sounding hopeful. I tried smiling a little, but I think it still came out a little weak.

"Well, I was until just now." I said with a small laugh, gesturing toward Rose. He gave her a hard look, but she just rolled her eyes.

"What do you want me to do, lie to her?" She turned back to me. "Listen Bella, I just want you to know, Edward hasn't always been like this. If he had, I would have ground him to dust, long ago." She growled. "But something has changed in him, and please believe me when I say, he's extremely dangerous. We've been able to keep him away so far, but we think he may be trying to get others to help him try to get to you."

Something in my head clicked, and suddenly I felt extremely dizzy. I vaguely heard Emmett say something, and they walked me over to a bench to sit down.

"Bella? Bella are you ok?" Emmett asked with concern.

"In the woods…..there was a guy…."

"What did he look like Bella?" Rosalie asked, crouched down in front of me.

"He….he was….different. His eyes, they were red. And he was fast. Too fast. He said he had been sent to get me. To collect me." I could feel myself start to shake. Rose sat next to me, wrapping an arm around me, rubbing my back.

"Bella, how did you get away from him?" Emmett asked slowly, furrowing his brow.

"The wolves." I answered without thinking. But instead of looking at me funny, they both exhaled in relief.

"Oh thank God." Emmett said. He looked back to Rose with a smirk. "Well that's one down!"

"Yeah, but who knows how many more are left." She grumbled.

"Wait a minute, you….you know about the wolves?" I still wanted to be careful how I phrased my words, these people could just be screwing with me. Rose just looked at me with a sad smile.

"Unfortunately, yes. But in this case, we are extremely glad they exist. Just, please, can you make me a promise? Please promise you will stay with at least one of them at all times? Other than Emmett and me, they are the only ones that can protect you from Edward."

"But, I went to the police, they are watching for him too."

They gave each other a look before turning back to me.

"Bella," Emmett started. "Did you ever watch the Friday the 13th movies?" He asked thoughtfully.

"Of course." I answered, which came out sounding more like a question.

"Ok, well you know how Jason was basically unkillable? Well, that's pretty much Edward."

"Emmett, that's a movie. I'm aware of how the human body works, and what it takes to stop it."

"Bella, you just said that man you saw was different. Well so is Edward. There isn't much that can stop him, but the wolves can."

"Ok, but wait, if Edward is different, and you are part of his family, does that mean you guys are…." I looked up and they were both looking at each other with worried glances. I stiffened slightly, although I was given no reason to fear them, in fact I felt like I could trust them.

"Yes Bella." She said after a few seconds. "We are different, BUT, I promise you that we would never hurt you, or want to hurt you."

"Then why does Edward?" My question came out as whisper.

"It gets a little more complicated. Has Jacob told you anything about us?"

"Jacob? You mean he knows?" Suddenly I was furious that he had kept such important information from me.

"Yes, but don't be mad at him, he isn't supposed to tell you. He doesn't have the right to tell you, technically. But in this case, you definitely need to know, so we'll make sure an exception will be made." Rose said. I shook my head, absolutely nothing was making sense. "You see, we are actually Vampires, although our coven doesn't feed on humans. We only drink the blood of animals."

"Umm, ok." I said, a little shell shocked, but probably not as surprised as I should have been at this point.

"The one you saw this morning, you said he had red eyes?" Emmett asked. I just nodded. "That means he's a human drinker. That's how you can tell an animal drinker from a human drinker; their eyes."

"But...but Edward's eyes were the same as yours, weren't they?"

"Yes," Rosalie answered, "because his normal diet consists of animals. He has become obsessed with you for many different reasons, not just for your blood."

"Please, I can't hear any more of this." I said, holding up my hand. "I'm sorry, I just…this has been a lot to absorb." I dropped my shoulders. "I mean, I just found out about Jake, I'm still having trouble with that, and now there's all this other stuff…." I could feel my eyes stinging. I felt Rosalie rub on my arm.

"I'm sorry too, I wasn't thinking about how it was affecting you." I nodded and rubbed at my face. I felt her stiffen, and looked up to see her and Emmett with furious looks on their faces.

"Rosie," Emmett said in a dark voice that sent chills down my back. "Why don't you take Bella and help her finish up her Christmas shopping?" I heard Rosalie whisper something quickly to Emmett, and he nodded, never breaking eye contact with whatever he was looking at. I turned in the direction he was looking, but only saw a sea of unrecognizable people. I let Rose lead me away. We walked in silence for a couple minutes before she visibly relaxed.

"You gonna tell me what that was about?" I asked, not really knowing if I really wanted to know.

"Nope." She answered quickly. "Now what else do you need to get?" I rolled my eyes but let it go for now.

We found a jewelry store on the other side of the mall, and she helped me pick out a good watch for Jacob, one that not only looked good, but was military grade too. Rosalie advised he needed something that was as close to indestructible as possible.

"It seems a little weird that you know my boyfriend better than I do." I said as we walked toward to food court.

"Nah, I don't know him, really, I just know about him. Well, about all of them."

I nodded silently, and we both turned to keep walking.

"Well, I guess I need to go meet Angela. Thanks for the talk."

"How about I tag along with you guys?" She said, a little too perky.

"You mean walk us around, make sure we get out of here ok?" I said suspiciously.

"Yeah, something like that." She narrowed her eyes at me with a smirk.

"What happened back there?" I demanded in a whisper.

"I will tell you later, I promise." She said quietly, and motioned to where Angela was waiting.

"Hey Ange! Look who I ran into." I tried to say as normal as possible. Her eyes bugged out when she saw Rosalie.

"Hi Rosalie. You doing some Christmas shopping too?"

"Yeah, Emmett's around here somewhere. He may have already taken the bags out to the car." I was just finishing up when I ran into Bella."

"Did you find everything you needed?" I asked Angela.

"Yep, I ended up finding a nice coat for Ben, what did you get for Jake?"

"A watch, although I don't know if he'll actually wear it, but outside of car parts, I don't ever know what to get him." I shrugged.

"Yeah, Jake's a pretty simple guy. Well, you ready to head back? Ben's been blowing up my phone waiting on me to get home."

"Yeah, let's go. Rosalie, you leaving too?" I returned the smirk she had sent me before, knowing she would need an excuse to walk us out to the car.

"Yeah, Emmett's probably waiting on me in the car anyway. He hates stuff like this." We all laughed as we went out. Rosalie continued talking, but I could tell she was on alert.

"Well, Merry Christmas Rosalie!" Angela said as we got into the car. Rosalie stopped me before I got in.

"Are you going to your house after you drop her off?"

"Yeah, and then I'll probably go over to Jake's afterward, I just need to drop off these presents at the house first."

"Alright. Well, we'll be sure to follow you, and we'll be around your house while you're there. But please be sure to tell Jake that you ran into us. I don't want him thinking we're trying to do anything behind his back."

"Ok." I nodded. "No problem."

"Ok, so when did you and Rosalie Hale become such good friends?" Angela asked once we got onto the highway. I glanced into my rearview

and saw a Jeep merge into traffic about 5 cars behind me.

"I ran into her at the jewelry store, and I stopped to thank her and Emmett for saving me last week. We just got to talking, and that was that."

"Did she said anything about you-know-who?"

"Yeah," I grimaced. "Apparently he isn't as 'gone' as we thought."

"Well, we definitely need to let the police know then!"

"Unless they specifically put a restraining order on him, then it doesn't matter where he is. He could camp out across the street from my house and they couldn't do anything."

"Well I feel like we should be doing something." She huffed.

"Yeah, avoiding him as much as possible. But don't worry, Rosalie and Emmett said they've been trying to keep an eye on him when they can."

"What's with him? I mean, did they explain why he's so crazy?"

"They said he hadn't always been like this, that something changed him, and he just got really fixated on me of all people, for some reason."

Angela just shook her head and stared out the windshield.

"I mean, the only thing I can think of is that I was his lab partner. Otherwise, he would have never known I exist."

"I knew there was a reason Bio was evil!" She said in an intense voice, shaking her fist. We both started laughing, and moved on to much lighter conversation. After I dropped her off, I decided to call Jake.

"Are you on your way yet?" He asked as soon as he answered.

"Well, hello to you too!" I laughed.

"Sorry, I just didn't know you were gonna be gone all day!"

"Ugh, it was crazy crowded, and traffic was just as bad. What did you do today?"

"Ah, just hung out. Did you get all your shopping done?"

"Yup! That's why I gotta stop by the house first, I need to drop off the presents, and then I'll pack a bag and be over."

"You've got stuff over here, I really don't want you going over there by yourself."

"Oh, I won't be-" I forgot I hadn't told him. "Umm, I ran into some friends from school, and they were gonna follow me home to make sure I got

there safe. I haven't got a chance to talk to you about it, but when I had that run in with Cullen," I heard a low growl on the other end. "They are the ones who got me away from him." There was silence on the other end.

"What do you mean 'got you away from him'?" He said slowly.

"He...it's a long story, one that I would rather not re-live right now, but anyway, his brother Emmett had him by the neck, and his cousin, Rosalie, got me out of the building. Anyway, I ran into them at the mall, and they said that Edward is actually not gone, that they've been keeping an eye on him, and they said they've been trying to keep him away from me-"

"And you trust them?" He roared.

"Yes, Jacob, I do! Now shut up and listen. They said they think he's been getting people to help him get to me."

"Like the leech this morning…" He said thoughtfully.

"Exactly."

"Ok, well, I don't care, I still don't trust them."

"Jake, I think you may want to talk to them."

"Like hell!"

"Jacob Black! Now you listen to me." I raised my voice as loud as I could. "Whatever the hell kind of voodoo, supernatural crap is going on here, for some crazy reason, I've got mixed up in it too, so I get a say in this! Now you are going to talk to them! You don't have to be friends, but since you're both hunting the same person, or thing, it couldn't hurt to see what they have to say!"

I had to admit, it felt good to scream and get some of that out of my system, although screaming at a volatile werewolf probably wasn't the smartest thing. I sat in silence for a minute before he answered.

"Fine. I'll meet you at your house." And he hung up the phone. I threw the phone down in the seat next to me.

I was starting to believe maybe Jacob's personality had changed somehow, because that interaction was definitely different than anything he had said or done before. He seemed so much more serious, and so much more stubborn. Then again, I had pretty much only seen him in stressful situations ever since he had changed.

A few minutes later I pulled into the driveway, followed shortly by the jeep. As I got out of the car, I saw Jacob walking through the backyard toward the driveway. Emmett stopped where he was.

"Bella, I think we're just gonna go ahead and leave." He said, staring at Jacob.

"No, please, it's ok. I called Jacob and asked him to meet us here. I figured you and him needed to talk. Maybe clarify some things." I got the rest of my bags out of the car, and headed toward the house. Emmett and Jacob just stood facing each other, arms crossed, with Rosalie standing about a foot behind Emmett.

"Talk!" I yelled before opening the door. I rolled my eyes as I stepped through the door, closing it behind me, and froze. Covering the foyer wall, from nearly floor to ceiling, were black and white 8x10 pictures put together in some sort of collage. I squinted and walked toward them slowly, but stopped with a gasp when I realized what they were pictures of.

Me.

Maybe close to a hundred pictures of me, doing various everyday things. Cooking, studying, walking into school. There was one of me walking into the kitchen, and it looked like I was looking right at the camera.

The face.

All the vantage points seemed to be from a window, except for one, it was taken of Jake and I sleeping, and it was taken from above. From someone standing above us. In the same room.

I started trembling, and suddenly couldn't get enough oxygen. I felt strong arms wrap around me and pull me backwards. I heard someone saying something but I couldn't register what the words were.

"BELLA!" Suddenly I was facing Jake. "Bella, baby, come back to me." I was shaking like I was cold, but I felt like I was burning hot.

"I think I'm gonna be sick." I managed to say before pushing past Jake and Rosalie to get outside, and somehow I made it to the railing before emptying my stomach into the yard. I fell back against the house and slid to the ground. Emmett was giving me a disgusted face, and the last thing I remember is flipping him the bird before I passed out.