We began the steep climb, and the road grew congested. As we wound higher, the cars became too close together for Alice to weave insanely between them anymore. We slowed to a crawl behind a tan little Peugeot.

"Alice," I moaned. My eyes flashed to the clock on the dash. It seemed like it was speeding up.

"It's the only way in," she tried to soothe me. But her voice was too strained for comfort.

The cars continued to edge forward, one car length at a time. The sun beamed down brilliantly, seeming already overhead.

The cars crept by one by one toward the city. As we got closer, I could see the cars parked by the side of the road with people getting out to walk the rest of the way. At first I thought it was just impatience—something I could easily understand. But then we came around a switchback, and I could see the filled parking lot outside the city wall, the crowds of people walking through the gates. No one was being allowed to drive through.

"Alice," I whispered urgently.

"I know," she said. Her face was chiseled from ice.

Now that I was looking, and we were crawling slowly enough to see, I could tell that it was very windy. The people crowding toward the gate gripped their hats and tugged their hair out of their faces. Their clothes billowed around them. I also noticed that the color red was everywhere. Red shirts, red hats, red flags dripping like long ribbons beside the gate, whipping in the wind. As I watched, the brilliant crimson scarf one woman had tied around her hair was caught in a sudden gust. It twisted up in the air above her, writhing like it was alive. She reached for it, jumping in the air, but it continued to flutter higher, a patch of bloody color against the dull ancient walls.

"Bella." Alice spoke quickly in a fierce, low voice. "I can't see what the guard here will decide now—if this doesn't work, you're going to have to go in alone. You're going to have to run. Just keep asking for the Palazzo dei Priori, and running in the direction they tell you. Don't get lost."

"Palazzo dei Priori, Palazzo dei Priori," I repeated the name over and over again, trying to get it down.

"Or 'the clock tower,' if they speak English. I'll go around and try to find a secluded spot somewhere behind the city where I can go over the wall."

I nodded. "Pallazo dei Priori."

"Edyth will be under the clock tower, to the north of the square. There's a narrow alleyway on the right, and she'll be in shadow there. You have to get her attention before she can move into the sun."

I nodded furiously.

Alice was near the front of the line. A man in a navy blue uniform was directing the flow of traffic, turning the cars away from the full lot. They U-turned and headed back to find a place beside the road. Then it was Alice's turn.

The uniformed man motioned, lazily, not paying attention. Alice accelerated, edging around him and heading for the gate. He shouted something at us, but held his ground, waving frantically to keep the next car from following our bad example.

The man at the gate wore a matching uniform. As we approached him, the throngs of tourists passed, crowding the sidewalks, staring curiously at the pushy, flashy Porsche.

The guard stepped in the middle of the street. Alice angled the car carefully before she came to a full stop. The sun beat against my window, and she was in shadow. She swiftly reached behind the seat and grabbed something from her bag.

The guard came around the car with an irritated expression, and tapped on her window angrily.

She rolled the window down halfway, and I watched him do a double take when he saw the face behind the dark glass.

"I'm sorry, only tour busses allowed in the city today, miss," he said in English, with a heavy accent. He was apologetic now, as if he wished he had better news for the strikingly beautiful woman.

"It's a private tour," Alice said, flashing an alluring smile. She reached her hand out of the window, into the sunlight. I froze, until I realized she was wearing an elbow length, tan glove. She took his hand, still raised from tapping her window, and pulled it into the car. She put something into his palm, and folded his fingers around it.

His face was dazed as he retrieved his hand and stared at the thick roll of money he now held. The outside bill was a 500 Euro.

"Is this a joke?" he mumbled.

Alice's smile was blinding. "Only if you think it's funny."

He looked at her, his eyes staring wide. I glanced nervously at the clock on the dash. If Edyth stuck to her plan, we had only five minutes left.

"I'm in a wee bit of a hurry," she hinted, still smiling.

The guard blinked twice, and then shoved the money inside his vest. He took a step away from the window and waved us on. None of the passing people seemed to notice the quiet exchange. Alice drove into the city, and we both sighed in relief.

The street was very narrow, cobbled with the same color stones as the faded cinnamon brown buildings that darkened the street with their shade. It had the feel of an alleyway. Red flags decorated the walls, spaced only a few yards apart, flapping in the wind that whistled through the narrow lane.

It was crowded, and the foot traffic slowed our progress.

"Just a little farther," Alice encouraged me; I was gripping the door handle, ready to throw myself into the street as soon as she spoke the word.

She drove in quick spurts and sudden stops, and the people in the crowd shook their fists at us and said angry words that I was glad I couldn't understand. She turned onto a little path that couldn't have been meant for cars; shocked people had to squeeze into doorways as we scrape by. We found another street at the end. The buildings were taller here; they leaned together overhead so that no sunlight touched the pavement—the thrashing red flags on either side nearly met. The crowd was thicker here than anywhere else. Alice stopped the car. I had the door open before we were at a stand still.

She pointed to where the street widened into a patch of bright openness. "There—we're at the southern end of the square. Run straight across, to the right of the clock tower. I'll find a way around—"

Her breath caught suddenly, and when she spoke again, her voice was a hiss. "They're everywhere!"

I froze in place, but she pushed me out of the car. "Forget about them. You have two minutes. Go, Bella, go!" she shouted, climbing out of the car as she spoke.

I didn't pause to watch Alice melt into the shadows. I didn't stop to close my door behind me. I shoved a heavy man out of my way and ran flat out, head down, paying little attention to anything but the uneven stones beneath my feet.

Coming out of the dark lane, I was blinded by the brilliant sunlight beating down into the principle plaza. The wind whooshed into me, twisting my hair, and drying out my eyes, blinding me further. It was no wonder that I didn't see the wall of flesh until I'd smacked into it.

There was no pathway, no crevice between the close pressed bodies. I pushed against them furiously, fighting the hands that shoved back. I heard exclamations of irritation and even pain as I battled my way through, but none were in a language I understood. The faces were a blur of anger and surprise, surrounded by the ever-present red. A blond woman scowled at me, and the red scarf coiled around her neck looked like a gruesome wound. A child, lifted on a man's shoulders to see over the crowd, grinned down at me, his lips distended over a set of plastic vampire fangs.

The throng jostled around me, spinning me the wrong direction. I was glad the clock was so visible, or I'd never keep my course straight. But both hands on the clock pointed up toward the pitiless sun, and, though I shoved viciously against the crowd, I knew I was too late. I wasn't halfway across. I wasn't going to make it. I was too slow, too human, and we were all going to die because of it.

I hoped Alice would get out. I hoped that she would see me from some dark shadow and know that I had failed, so she could go home to Jasper.

I listened, above the angry exclamations, trying to hear the sound of discovery: the gasp, maybe the scream, as Edyth came into someone's view. But there was a break in the crowd— I could see a bubble of space ahead. I pushed urgently toward it, not realizing till I bruised my shins against the bricks that there was a wide, square fountain set into the center of the plaza.

I was nearly crying with relief as I flung my leg over the edge and ran through the knee-deep water. It sprayed all around me as I thrashed my way across the pool. Even in the sun, the wind was glacial, and the wet made the cold actually painful. But the fountain was very wide; it let me cross the center of the square and then some in mere seconds. I didn't pause when I hit the far edge— I used the low wall as a springboard, throwing myself into the crowd.

They moved more readily for me now, avoiding the icy water that splattered from my dripping clothes as I ran. I glanced up at the clock again.

A deep, booming chime echoed through the square. It throbbed in the stones under my feet. Children cried, covering their ears. And I started shouting as I ran.

"Edyth!" I shouted, knowing it was useless. The crowd was too loud, and my voice was breathless with exertion. But I couldn't stop shouting.

The clock tolled again. I ran past a child in his mother's arms— his hair was almost white in the dazzling sunlight. A circle of tall men, all wearing red blazers, called out warnings as I barreled through them. The clock tolled again.

On the other side of the men in blazers, there was a break in the throng, space between the sightseers who milled aimlessly around me. My eyes searched the dark narrow passage to the right of the wide square edifice under the tower. I couldn't see the street level— there were still too many people in the way. The clock tolled again.

It was hard to see now. Without the crowd to break the wind, it whipped at my face and burned my eyes. I couldn't be sure if that was the reason behind my tears, or if I was crying in defeat as the clock tolled again.

A little family of four stood nearest to the alley's mouth. The two girls wore crimson dresses, with matching ribbons tying their dark hair back. The father wasn't tall. It seemed like I could see something bright in the shadows, just over his shoulder. I hurtled toward them, trying to see past the stinging tears. The clock tolled, and the littlest girl clamped her hands over her ears.

The older girl, just waist high on her mother, hugged her mother's leg and stared into the shadows behind them. As I watched, she tugged on her mother's elbow and pointed toward the darkness. The clock tolled, and I was so close now.

I was close enough to hear her high-pitched voice. Her father stared at me in surprise as I bore down on them, rasping out Edyth's name over and over again.

The older girl giggled and said something to her mother, gesturing toward the shadows again impatiently.

I swerved around the father— he clutched the baby out of my way— and sprinted for the gloomy breach behind them as the clock tolled over my head.

"Edyth, no!" I shouted, but my voice was lost in the roar of the chime.

I could see her now. And I could see that she could not see me.

It was really her, not a phantom voice in my head, not a dying hallucination. Really, truly her.

Edyth stood, motionless as a statue, just a few feet from the mouth of the alley. Her eyes were closed, the rings underneath them deep purple, her arms relaxed at her sides, her palms turned forward. Her expression was very peaceful, like she was dreaming pleasant things. The marble skin of her chest was bare tho she kept on a blue bra i wondered if she took her shirt off to have a bigger effect— there was a small pile of white fabric at her feet. The light reflecting from the pavement of the square gleamed dimly from her skin.

I'd never seen anything more supernaturally beautiful— even as I ran, gasping and shouting, I could appreciate that. I'd forgotten the little details that added up and made her so beautiful. The pain and the heartache of the last 7 months burned inside of me as I willed my failing body to move faster.

The clock tolled, and she took a large stride toward the light.

"No!" I shouted. "Edyth, look at me!"

She wasn't listening. She smiled very slightly. She raised her foot to take the step that would put her directly in the path of the sun.

I slammed into her so hard that the force would have hurled me to the ground if her arms hadn't caught me and held me up. It knocked my breath out of me and snapped my head back.

Her dark eyes opened slowly as the clock tolled again.

She looked down at me with quiet surprise.

"Amazing," she said, her voice full of wonder, slightly amused. "Carlisle was right."

"Edyth," I tried to gasp, but I was struggling to get the air back into my lungs. "You've got to get back into the shadows. You have to move!"

She seemed bemused. Her hand brushed softly against my cheek. She didn't appear to notice that I was trying to force her back. I could have been pushing against the alley walls for all the progress I was making. The clock tolled, but she didn't react.

It was very strange, for I knew we were both in mortal danger. Still, in that instant, I felt relieved. I could feel my heart racing in my chest, the blood pulsing hot and fast through my veins again. My lungs filled deep with the sweet scent that came off her skin. I felt, for the briefest moment, like the last seven months had never happened.

"I can't believe how quick it was. I didn't feel a thing—they're very good," she mused, closing her eyes again and pressing her lips against my hair. Her voice was like honey and velvet. "Death, that hath sucked the honey of thy breath, hath no power yet upon thy beauty," she murmured, and I recognized the line spoken by Romeo in the tomb. The clock boomed out its final chime. "You smell just exactly the same as always," she went on. "So maybe this is hell. I don't care. I'll take it."

"I'm not dead," I interrupted. "And neither are you! Please, Edyth, we have to move. They can't be far away!"

I struggled in her arms, and her brow furrowed in confusion.

"What was that?' she asked politely.

"We're not dead, you stupid idiot, not yet! But we have to get out of here before the Volturi—"

Comprehension flickered on her face as I spoke. Before I could finish, she suddenly yanked me away from the edge of the shadows, spinning me effortlessly so that my back was tight against the brick wall, and her back was to me as she faced away into the alley. Her arms spread wide, protectively, in front of me.

I peeked under her arm to see two dark shapes detach themselves from the gloom.

"Greetings, gentlemen," Edyth's voice was clam and pleasant, on the surface. "I don't think I'll be requiring your services today. I would appreciate it very much, however, if you would send my thanks to your masters."

"Shall we take this conversation to a more appropriate venue?" a smooth voice whispered menacingly.

"I don't believe that will be necessary." Edyth's voice was harder now. "I know your instructions, Felix. I haven't broken any rules."

"Felix merely meant to point out the proximity of the sun," the other shadow said in a soothing tone. They were both concealed within smoky gray cloaks that reached to the ground and undulated in the wind. "Let us seek better cover."

"I'll be right behind you," Elsa said dryly. "Bella, why don't you go back to the square and enjoy the festival?"

"No, bring the girl" The pretense of civility disappeared. Edyth's voice was flat and icy. Her weight shifted infinitesimally, and I could see that she was preparing to fight.

"No." I hissed, grabbing onto her arm.

"Shh," she murmured, only for me.

"Felix," the second, more reasonable shadow cautioned. "Not here." He turned to Edyth. "Aro would simply like to speak with you again, if you have decided not to force our hand after all."

"Certainly," Edyth agreed. "But Bella goes free."

"I'm afraid that's not possible," the polite shadow said regretfully. "We do have rules to obey."

"Then I'm afraid that I'll be unable to accept Aro's invitation, Demetri."

"That's just fine," Felix purred. My eyes were adjusting to the deep shade, and I could see that Felix was very big, tall and thick through the shoulders. His size reminded me of Emmett.

"Aro will be disappointed," Demetri sighed.

"I'm sure he'll survive the letdown," Edyth replied.

Felix and Demetri stole closer toward the mouth of the alley, spreading out slightly so they could come at Edyth from two sides. They meant to force her deeper into the alley, to avoid a scene. No reflected light found access to their skin; they were safe inside their cloaks.

Edyth didn't move an inch. She was dooming herself by protecting me.

Abruptly, Edyth's head whipped around, toward the darkness of the winding alley, and Demetri and Felix did the same, in response to some sound or movement too subtle for my senses.

"Now, boys, let's behave ourselves, shall we?" A lilting voice suggested. "There's ladies present."

Alice tripped lightly to Edyth's side, her stance casual. There was no hint of any underlying tension. She looked so tiny, so fragile. Her little arms swung like a child's.

Yet Demetri and Felix both straightened up, their cloaks swirling slightly as a gust of wind funneled through the alley. Felix's face soured. Apparently, they didn't like even numbers.

"We're not alone," she reminded them.

Demetri glanced over his shoulder. A few yards into the square, the little family, with the girls in their red dresses, was watching us. The mother was speaking urgently to her husband, her eyes on the five of us. She looked away when Demetri met her gaze. The man walked a few steps farther into the plaza, and tapped one of the red-blazered men on the shoulder.

Demetri shook his head. "Please, Edyth, let's be reasonable," he said.

"Let's," Edyth agreed. "And we'll leave quietly no, with no one the wiser."

Demetri sighed in frustration. "At least let us discuss this more privately.

Six men in red now joined the family as they watched us with anxious expressions. I was very conscious of Edyth's protective stance in front of me—feeling that this was what caused their alarm. I wanted to scream to them to run.

Edyth's teeth came together audibly. "No."

Felix smiled.

"Enough."

The voice was high, reedy, and it came from behind us.

I peeked under Edyth's other arm to see a small, dark shape coming toward us. By the way the edges billowed, I knew it would be another one of them. Who else?

At first I thought it was a young boy. The newcomer was as tiny as Alice, with lank, pale brown hair trimmed short. The body under the cloak—which was darker, almost black—was slim and androgynous. But the face was too pretty for a boy. The wide-eyed, full-lipped face would make a Botticelli angel look like a gargoyle. Even allowing for the full crimson irises.

Her size was so insignificant that the reaction to her appearance confused me. Felix and Demetri relaxed immediately, stepping back from their offensive positions to blend again with the shadows of the overhanging walls.

Edyth dropped her arms and relaxed her position as well—but in defeat.

"Jane," she sighed in recognition and resignation.

Alice folded her arms across her chest, her expression impassive.

"Follow me," Jane spoke again, her childish voice a monotone. She turned her back on us and drifted silently into the dark.

Felix gestured for us to go first, smirking.

Alice walked after the little Jane at once. Edyth wrapped her arm around my waist and pulled me along beside her. The alley angled slightly downward as it narrowed. I looked up at her with frantic questions in my eyes, but she just shook her head. Though I couldn't hear the others behind us, I was sure they were there.

"Well, Alice," Edyth said conversationally as we walked. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to see you here."

"It was my mistake," Alice answered in the same tone. "It was my job to set it right."

"What happened?" Her voice was polite, as if she were barely interested. I imagined this was due to the listening ears behind us.

"It's a long story." Alice's eyes flickered toward me and away. "In summary, she did jump off a cliff, but she wasn't trying to kill herself. Bella's all about the extreme sports these days."

I flushed and turned my eyes straight ahead, looking after the dark shadow that I could no longer see. I could imagine what she was hearing in Alice's thoughts now. Near-drownings, stalking vampires, werewolf friends… Julie…

"Hm," Edyth said curtly, and the casual tone of her voice was gone.

There was a loose curve to the alley, still slanting downward, so I didn't see the squared-off dead end coming until we reached the flat, windowless, brick face. The little one called Jane was nowhere to be seen.

Alice didn't hesitate, didn't break pace as she strode toward the wall. Then, with easy grace, she slid down an open hole in the street.

It looked like a drain, sunk into the lowest point of the paving. I hadn't noticed it until Alice disappeared, but the grate was halfway pushed aside. The hole was small, and black.

I balked.

"It's all right, Bella," Edyth said in a low voice. "Alice will catch you."

I eyed the hole doubtfully. I wondered with annoyance how difficult it would have been for them to install a ladder or something.

I crouched down, swinging my legs into the narrow gap.

"Alice?' I whispered. My voice was shaky.

"I'm right here, Bella," she reassured me. Her voice came from too far below to make me feel better.

Edyth took my wrists—her hands felt like stones in winter—and lowered me into the blackness.

"Ready?" she asked.

"Drop her," Alice called.

I closed my eyes so I couldn't see the darkness, scrunching them together in terror, clamping my mouth shut so I wouldn't scream. Edyth let me fall.

It was silent and short. The air whipped past me for just half a second, and then, with a huff as I exhaled, Alice's waiting arms caught me.

I was going to have bruises; her arms were very hard. She stood me upright.

It was dim, but not black at the bottom. The light from the hole above provided a faint glow, reflecting wetly from the stones under my feet. The light vanished for a second, and then Edyth was a faint, white radiance beside me. She put her arm around me, holding me close to her side, and began to tow me swiftly forward. I wrapped an arm around her cold waist for balance, and tripped and stumbled my way across the uneven stone surface. The sound of the heavy grate sliding over the drain hole behind us rang with metallic finality.

The dim light from the street was quickly lost in the gloom. The sound of my staggering footsteps echoed through the black space; it sounded very wide, but I couldn't be sure. There were no sounds other than my frantic heartbeat and my feet on the wet stones— except for once, when an impatient sigh whispered from behind me.

Edyth held me tightly. She reached her free hand across her body to hold my face, too, her smooth thumb tracing across my lips. Now and then, I felt her face press into my hair. I was confused by her actions, but appreciated the comfort.

For now, it felt like she wanted me, and that was enough to offset the horror of the subterranean tunnel and the prowling vampires behind us. It was probably no more than guilt— the same guilt that compelled her to come here to die when she'd believed that it was her fault that I'd killed myself. But I felt her lips press silently against my forehead, and I didn't care what the motivation was. I was scared—properly scared—and her presence was some comfort to me.

I wished I could ask her exactly what was going to happen now. I wanted desperately to know how we were going to die— as if that would somehow make it better, knowing in advance. But I couldn't speak, even in a whisper, surrounded as we were. The others could hear everything— my every breath, my every heartbeat.

The path beneath our feet continued to slant downward, taking us deeper into the ground, and it made me claustrophobic. Only Edyth's hand, soothing against my face, kept the anxiety at bay.

I couldn't tell where the light was coming from, but it slowly turned dark gray instead of black. We were in a low, arched tunnel. Long trails of ebony moisture seeped down the gray stones, like they were bleeding ink.

I was shaking, and I thought it was from fear. It wasn't until my teeth started to chatter together that I realized I was cold. My clothes were still wet, and the temperature underneath the city was wintry. As was Edyth's skin.

She realized this at the same time I did, and let go of me, keeping only my hand.

"Y-you're f-f-fine." I chattered. She put an arm back around me.

Her cold hand chafed against my arm, trying to warm me with the friction.

We hurried through the tunnel, or it felt like hurrying to me. My slow progress irritated someone— I guessed Felix— and I heard him heave a sigh now and then.

At the end of the tunnel was a grate— the iron bars were rusting, but thick as my arm. A small door made of thinner, interlaced bars was standing open. Edyth ducked through and hurried on to a larger, brighter stone room. The grille slammed shut with a clang, followed by the snap of a lock. I was too afraid to look behind me.

On the other side of the long room was a low, heavy wooden door. It was very thick—as I could tell because it, too, stood open.

We stepped through the door, and I glanced around me in surprise, relaxing automatically. Beside me, Edyth tensed, her jaw clenched tight.