REVIEW! two chapters to make up for the incredibly long delay, i'm so sorry, people.

"Edward?" I whisper. That sweet, soft, velvet voice still echoes in my ears. I can hear the perfect sound, ringing eternally, a whisper to be cherished as long as I have memory to hold it close.

"Bella, my dearest, it's just that way. To the left."

"Where are you?"

"Go where I tell you, Bella. Listen to me. The left, love, the left."

Utterly bewildered, I obey, running as fast as I can to the street on my left as commanded. I feel the cobblestones, hard and unfamiliar beneath my aching feet. This run is burningly familiar- I've sprinted through this passage once before. Last time I was slower, and human… but last time Edward was there waiting for me at the end.

I didn't know it then, but the fact remains that my love was nearby and praying for my return for him. Now I am again unsure that he is mine- and that he is here. Last time, at least, I could see him. Yet I can hear his voice, ringing like a perfect bell in my ear.

I run still faster as he urges me on. "I need you to go faster, Bella, for me, love. Please, run, run, now, please…"

It's practically gibberish, this pleading, but I heed the emotion behind it nonetheless- he wants me to run. So I do. It's really fairly simple.

The streets are dark and empty. No human sees me run by. The only thing I notice is a girl, about twenty, with short, dark hair and a white laptop. She is writing something, her fingers sprinting across the keys as fast as my feet dash across the street. She is utterly absorbed in what she's writing, but she does look up and at me for one moment. Her green eyes see me, and I wince.

"Hello," she whispers, almost a gasp, and then stares.

"Hi…"

I wonder if she'll comment on my extraordinary speed. There is a moment, but she does after a while, though it is not as I expected. "I won't tell anyone, you know."

"All… all right."

"And I'll bring him back soon."

She smiles. I revise her age down to about fourteen when I see the glint of braces on her teeth.

I gasp. "Do you know about…"

"Edward?"

I wince. "Yes."

"Sorry. I forgot you don't like to hear the name. You should go now. They're right behind you."

I run again, trying to forget this strange encounter. As soon as the girl is gone from my sight, Edward's voice continues to berate me. "Run, love, run."

I do exactly as he says, of course. I have to. Unlike my fears the last time this happened, his voice doesn't fade when I obey him. It remains a constant velvet whisper in my ear, whispering sweetly and softly as I run.

"You're almost safe now, sweetest. My heart, almost, almost. A little faster…"

"Edward?"

"Yes, my dear… no, don't slow down!"

I ask, "Edward, what am I running from?"

I can hear the sigh in my ear, can almost feel the hiss of cool breath as he exhales. "The…" and then he screams.

"Run, love. RUN!"

"Edward…" What was going on? He's scaring me. I can hear my lungs seizing up as I run and run. It's a good thing I don't need to breathe, and it's a good thing my heart doesn't beat, and dear God it hurts to hear Edward scream like this, beg me like this, for things I don't know how to give him. I run on, of course, as he commands, sprint through the Italian streets, felt the air whiz by my head.

"Bella, don't… run. Run!"

I can hear, distinctly, footsteps behind me. They are as fast and light as mine. It is a vampire behind me, I know that much. And I realize something. I stop dead.

"What are you doing? You need to keep…"

"No, I don't. I need to know what the hell I'm running away from!"

He sighs. "It's a vampire."

"Obviously. I'm not stupid, Edward. Which vampire? Is it the Denali clan again? More Volturi?"

"No."

"Does it have something to do with that girl?" I ask. She was weird, totally freakish, as far as I could tell. She seemed to know exactly what was going on, who I was, what I was thinking.

"Bella, you need to run."

"No."

"Bella…"

"No. I'm not so easily swayed anymore, Edward, my love. I'm a vampire now, and you aren't here to dazzle me anyway."

I heard a heavy exhalation of breath in my ear. "Please, Bella… trust me."

"Nope!" I pop the "p" sound, as I remember Jake used to when I was human. Edward didn't answer. I began to fear he'd left, and I calmed myself with effort.

It wasn't real. It was only a voice in my head. The real Edward loved me, or… didn't, entirely independently of what this delusion did.

But it sounded so much like him… that velvet voice, like sweet relief, like cool hands to a feverish forehead, like a kiss in the night, like air to a drowning man or food to a starving one… I needed his voice. I needed him, and if all I could get was pretending, I'd pretend.

Because I couldn't have my real Edward. I could only have this delusion, because of Alice. My sister. She deserved a consideration, didn't she? Only twenty more years, and I could have my real Edward, all of him, all I wanted and needed could be mine.

I only had to wait. And I would, I would be able to. I had to be able to.

I turn and see the tower of the Volturi, looming ahead of me. I knock on the great iron door. I hear a loud call. "Who goes there?"

"Isabella Swan. Let me in."

There is a loud silence. It rings in my ears, as I hear the footsteps behind me grow louder. I had almost forgotten my pursuer- my mystery enemy. Don't I have enough of them?

"Yes. Come on in," says the bored voice of Gianna's replacement, and I sigh in relief, just before I hear the footsteps stop.

There is an unexpected voice in my ear.

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