Ok. I know some of you (the ones that have been following this story for a while) may be mad because I haven't updated in close to a month. I just haven't thought of how I wanted to move forward with the story line yet. I just had an ending in mind. I didn't feel like writing an outline for this story because I got a good idea, so I ran with it. Good news: I now have a rough outline in my head for the sequence of events for the next few chapters!!!!!!

Last chapter: Everyone arrived in Oregon, they hunted, and Bella told Edward she wasn't ready to take their "new" relationship to the next level yet. They're getting ready to find Samantha (the undercover spy from the government that knows about vampires) and convince her not to spill the beans. Oh the drama!

Chapter Eight

"Bella, are you sure you want to do this alone?" Edward asked. "What if something happens? What if she's already told the government and we're too late? What if she-"

I cut him off, "What if everything goes as planned? Hmm? What if I find this woman, silence her, and we return to Italy to find out our next mission?" Edward knew he was defeated, but tried not to show it.

"But there are thousands, no millions, of things that could go wrong." He argued.

"But you shouldn't think about those things. Look at it this way: If I can stop thinking about you biting into me after that moment of passion, changing both of our lives, we wouldn't be together now." Immediately after the words left my mouth I knew I had taken it too far. I looked down at my feet. "I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. I was just trying to-"

"No, it's okay. You're right. You should probably get a move on. We don't have much time."

We had been staying in a house the Volturi set up for us. It was much like the Cullens' old house, but smaller. It was beautiful inside, a contradiction to the mission we were supposed to do.

After Edward and I met up with the rest of our family yesterday, we came here and began planning. Before we left, Aro told me that Samantha lived on Holland Street, two blocks up from where our temporary home was. I shared the information with the group. I had decided already that I wanted to meet her alone, since I was the one doing the "convincing." Although, my eyes still had the slightest tint of red around the edges. It was unfortunate, but once I did the job it wouldn't matter. Of course, Edward protested, saying that he wanted to go along too. Now that I had spent times away from him, I learned that I could be independent. As much as I wanted him to come with me, I needed this for myself. I wanted to show him what I was capable of. I pulled him off to the side after the planning was done to explain this to him.

"I would love it if you accompanied me and helped, but I want to do it alone. As much as I hate to admit this, I don't need you by my side all the time now. When I was human, it seemed as though I was dog. I couldn't go a few hours without seeing you or hearing from you."

"You even needed my permission to go to the bathroom." He joked, although he had a far off look on his face, remembering the easier times. I know it's cliché, but those were the days.

I laughed with him. "Exactly. Maybe in another mission we'll, you know, be together, but not this one." I winced at the hidden meaning behind my words. My generation was always finding the latent sexual meanings behind harmless phrases. I'd wondered if Edward did too.

He didn't seem to, and voiced his thoughts, "You know, it seems so weird. I never would have thought I would work with, or even for, the Volturi. If Alice had told me this twenty years ago, I would not have believed her. But you, you lead me here. You always were full of surprises. Even when I thought I would loose you, countless times, you fought through and came back to me. It's a miracle we're still together." He looked meaningfully into my eyes, waiting for my reaction. He knew I still harbored feelings of distrust because of his actions.

The truth is, I didn't know what to say. What could you say? Yeah, Edward, you're right. How eloquent. So instead of words, I used actions. I leaned in and hugged him, hard.

"I…love you." He whispered into my hair. I smiled as I remembered I had uttered these words long ago for the first time.

"You are my life now." I returned without hesitation. Edward had said this to me after I confessed my love. It seemed so perfect then, as it did now. We pulled back and shared a moment.

"I was just going to say you should get to bed now, but I keep forgetting." He laughed. I smiled sadly. I had missed sleep, but some days it was convenient to be awake for the whole day. We were in a room with a bed, and we were sitting on the couch in the sitting area. I looked at the bed with my eyes, signaling to Edward that we should change location. He smiled and took my hand as we got up.

We lay down in bed in each other's arms. It felt so right to be with him at that moment, realizing this is what I'd be doing for the rest of my life.

"Do I get to give a good-night kiss?" He asked softly. I smiled in spite of myself. Wasn't I supposed to play hard to get? I nodded, also in spite of my self. I had just recently told him, yesterday in fact, that I didn't want to move as fast as he did in the physical sense of our relationship. Maybe it was a confirmation I wanted, that he would still wait for me.

He leaned in, and my breath hitched. It felt just like when I was 17, and he was doing this for the first time. Only this time, it was much better.

Unfortunately, I couldn't relive last night over and over. Edward's voice woke me from my reverie.

"Are you ready?" I looked up at him; I'm sure looking as dazed as I felt.

"Um, yes. Oh, and Edward?"

"What?" I smiled. He sounded so bitter.

"I love you." He was looking down at his feet before I said this, still mad at my comment a minute ago. Now he smirked and tried to hide it.

"I can see you, you know. You're not as sneaky as you think."

"Haha, very funny." He pulled me into a bear hug. "But, in all seriousness, I want you to be careful. Are you sure you don't want me to even trail along behind in case anything happens?"

"Yes, I'm sure." I jumped up and quickly kissed him on the lips. He tried to deepen it, but I just laughed and pulled away.

""Bye!" I said, and walked out the door.

As I walked down the street towards Samantha's house, I heard footsteps behind me. I tried not to seem alarmed by it. It always seemed that hearing footsteps meant something bad was about to happen.

I turned my head around to look and I saw a vampire. It was a boy, around my age, and he had red eyes. Some kids these days bought red contacts, but I knew these were his real eyes. He knew I was a vampire too, because he smiled and told me to wait up.

He ran towards me as I stared at the length of his body. He had light brown hair, red eyes of course, and was thing. He was almost just like Edward; they could've been twins.

"Um, hi." I said. I was a little wary, considering the only other vampire I knew to be in this area was the one Samantha knew about.

"I didn't know there were any other vampires living here." He said. What a coincidence.

"I just moved here. I had some business to tend to."

"Oh really?" He asked skeptically. "What's your name?"

"Isabella Sw-Cullen. And you?" I changed my mind at the last second. After all, I was part of the family now, anyway.

"Harvey Simon. And before you can ask, yes my parents were hippies. When they had me, they were going through one of those weird stages, you know smoking pot, all that." I laughed along with him as he explained. I liked him already.

"You wouldn't have any relation to Carly Simon, would you?" I joked. He shook his head, still laughing.

"If you don't mind my asking, what are you doing here? You gave the impression that you actually live here. It's not often that vampires settle down in one place." I explained. I knew all too well in the back of my mind what he was doing here, I just didn't want to admit it. Plus, there was something about Harvey Simon that compelled me to want to learn more.

"Oh, I don't mind. Actually, I came here, at first, to learn briefly about the witch trials. It was always something that interested me." I nodded my head, fascinated by the ground he stood on. He seemed so cultured, yet I knew nothing about him. "Then, like in all good stories, I fell in love." He smiled to himself, shaking his head. As for me, I was filled with a feeling of dread. This was the man Samantha knew about; it had to be. I was supposed to hate this man for letting out our secret. Oh, so you're the guy, I thought. Apparently, I didn't have the ability to control my powers yet. Harvey looked at me strangely, as if I had said the words aloud. My thoughts had been pushed into Harvey's mind, because I had wanted to know so badly who the guy was. Ugh, now I would have to come up with some hasty excuse.

"Oh, sorry about that. I…uh…have this ability to make other people hear what I'm thinking sometimes." He still seemed confused.

"Okay, but what do you mean 'So you're the guy'?" Oh, that.

"Oh, um…I have this friend that also has an ability. She can see into the future. She said that while I was here I would meet a man who fell in love. It has to be you, right?" I pulled that one right out of my butt! I hoped he went along with my story.

"So you know a lot of vampires with special powers?" I nodded, realizing that I really did. "That's cool. Well, sorry to have to end this, but I've got to go. Maybe I'll see you later?" I nodded again, wanting to get on with the mission. Oh shoot! I thought. He's probably going right now to see Samantha. That's why he was right behind me, and why we were now walking in the direction of her house. I turned around to walk back to mine, realizing that I couldn't carry out the mission today. It would be impossible.

"Where are you going? I thought you were walking this way." He pointed down along the street in the direction past Samantha's house.

"I just wanted to take a short walk. See ya!" I said, walking backwards, trying to distance myself from Harvey Simon. The less I saw of him, the better.

I walked through the door trying to remain optimistic. If I had an in with the boyfriend, maybe the mission wouldn't be as hard. I entered the small living room to find Edward and Emmett, watching TV.

They were already turned around waiting to see who walked through the door.

"What are you doing home already?" Edward asked, surprised to see me back already.

"It didn't go quite as planned." I gave a small laugh, trying to lighten the situation. The boys remained skeptical. "I ran into someone. It's actually a big someone. Oh, I mean he's big to the mission no big to the…sorry I'm rambling. It was Samantha's boyfriend."

"You met him?" Emmett screamed. "That wasn't supposed to happen. Alice!" He yelled, getting up to go find her. "Why didn't you see this?" He disappeared from the room in a huff. I went to sit beside Edward. He still hadn't reacted to my news.

"So I assume he was also on his way to see her?" He asked. I nodded. "What's he like?" His expression was guarded.

"Well, he's nice enough. He actually looks a lot like you. His name's Harvey Simon, by the way. He told me he first moved to Salem to study the witch trials." Edward raised his eyebrows. He was interested in history too. "Yeah, and then he fell in love. It didn't take me long to figure out who with. So I finally remembered I had something to do, but then Harvey walked towards Samantha's house too. So, I told him I had to go home. I can't perform the mission tonight. He's probably still over there." I left out the part where I told him about my ability. That probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done.

"I think you did the right thing. We'll just have to hope he isn't there tomorrow." He kissed the top of my head and pulled me into him. I wrapped my arms around his thing frame.

"Edward, I think I do want you to come with me tomorrow. I'd feel more comfortable." What I really didn't want to say was that if I ran into Harvey again, I might forget about the mission altogether.

AN:

I realize that at the beginning I kind of hint at them having sex (the whole "this time it was much better" thing), but they really didn't. You don't think Bella would give it up that easily, do you???