I woke up some time later, feeling like I hadn't slept at all. My entire body was sore, and it felt like every inch of my body was on fire. I let out another piercing scream, and Edward immediately scooted closer to me, the cold of his body comforting me some. I realized then that we were lying in our bed. How I had gotten here, I wasn't entirely sure.

"Edward…" my voice didn't even sound like mine. It sounded hoarse, and scratchy, and it sounded nothing like my usual high pitched tone.

"Shh love," he said, kissing my neck, where Victoria had bitten me. "I'm here. You're going to be fine, darling."

"It hurts…" I rasped. The fire was no longer just on my neck, the venom was spreading, and my whole body was aching, and burning.

"I'm sorry, Bella," his usual beautiful velvet voice was tainted with despair. "I should have been able to protect you."

"No," I retorted, my voice weak and gruff. "This was what I wanted… well, more or less."

Another wave of pain washed over me, as the burning was suddenly intensified. I let out another scream of pain, and Edward started stroking my hair again. He kissed my forehead, and sighed.

"I'm sorry Bella," his voice broke, "I'm so, so sorry,"

"Don't be," I croaked, holding in another scream. He sensed my pain, and he pulled the blankets off of me, and holding me as close to him as he could, trying to cool me down. It worked a little, but the fire was still burning my skin.

"Your shirt," I heard Alice's voice, coming from the other side of the bed. I realized then that she was sitting at the edge of the bed, watching me sadly.

"What…?" Edward sounded confused.

Alice sighed, "Your skin, its cold," she said, "It will help the fire some, hopefully."

Edward pulled away from me, and I whimpered, not liking the idea of him leaving me. Alice was immediately at my side, placing a cold hand on my forehead.

"I'm here Bella," Edward's velvet voice called to be, softly. Suddenly I felt him pulling me back into his arms, cradling me close, stomach to stomach. He was much cooler now. I felt myself blush when I realized that he had taken off his shirt. Alice giggled, and Edward kissed one of my red cheeks.

"I'm going to miss that," he said, mostly to himself.

Embarrassed, I burrowed my face beneath his cold neck. Since the pain was internal, the cold didn't dim the fire dramatically, but it helped a little. And with such intense pain, even a little relief was good.

"Sleep Bella," Alice's soft voice cooed, "The transformation is a lot more bearable when you sleep."

Edward held me closer to his bare, frigid skin. "She's right Bella," I felt him press his lips to the top of my head. "Jasper can help with the pain, once you sleep."

Alice sighed, "He can't stand to be in the room unless you sleep," I could tell she was feeling sympathetic for both me, and her husband. "He can feel your pain. But if you sleep, he won't feel it, since you won't."

I nodded into Edward's chest, and slowly felt myself drifting back into unconsciousness.

When I woke up again, I felt the most excruciating pain I had ever felt before, in my life. The pain of the fire had doubled, and I felt it throughout my entire body. But the worst part was the soreness in my chest. My heart was beating at twice its normal rate, and it felt like it was going to fly out of my chest at any moment.

I screamed again, and sat up, pulling away from the safety of Edward's cold arms, clutching my chest, and taking in large, heaving breaths. My heart was speeding up, getting faster as the seconds passed. Another scream flew from my lips, and Edward sat up too, pulling me close to him again, trying to console me as the pain wracked through my body. I writhed in pain, until Edward eventually had to let go of me, because I couldn't keep still.

I coiled into a tiny ball, and screamed once more, before suddenly, everything stopped. The pain stopped, and my heart stopped too. I took in a huge breath of relief, and uncurled myself, looking back at Edward.

"Hello," I said, a grin spreading across my face.

Edward's frown disappeared, as he looked at my grin, and chuckled. "Hello,"

I looked around the room, noticing that Alice had left sometime during the transformation. Then something hit me.

"Wait, a second," I said, confused. "The last time I woke up, it was still my first day. How on earth am I… it's only the second day."

"Nope," Edward chuckled, "Jasper used his power to dull the pain, and help you sleep. You slept through the whole second day. You screamed a lot in your sleep though, but apparently, you didn't feel very much of it."

"Remind me to thank him later," I smiled. "I think I'll owe him for eternity now, I don't know how you survived three days of that."

Edward smiled gravely, "The worst pain is the heart stopping," he shook his head, "The pain that you feel is your body trying to fight the venom, your body resisting—" he hesitated at the last word, "death. The venom is trying to stop your heart, and your body is fighting to keep it beating. It's a painful struggle."

I opened my mouth to say something, but a squealing Alice interrupted me. She dashed towards me, landing next to me on the bed, on her knees. She was beaming, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"Bella, Bella, Isabella!" she sang, still bouncing on her knees. "My vision finally came true! You're finally a permanent member of our family!"

I grinned, "Not exactly the way I wanted it to happen," I shrugged, "But either way, I got my eternity with Edward,"

Edward sighed, and pulled me into his lap. "I love you Bella," he cooed, kissing my neck. "But I never wanted this life for you, and I'm so sorry that I couldn't save you from it…"

"Edward stop," I sighed, "This is what I wanted. I want this. And we get to spend forever together, so can you really complain?"

I turned my head to see Edward smiling. "No," he said, "I guess I can't."

Suddenly, a knock at the door made the three of us turn our heads. Carlisle was standing in the doorway, smiling.

"The others are anxious to see Bella make her grand entrance," he said, with a quiet chuckle. "Hurry up and come downstairs."

I grinned, and hopped off Edward's lap, and stepped backwards, gracefully off of the bed, without the use of a stepstool.

"Ta-da!" I smirked, proud of my new found poise.

Edward and Alice laughed, getting off the bed as well. They both smiled at me, eyes examining me, head to toe. Edward's eyes lingering in a way that it was almost perverted.

"Are you ready to see the new Bella?" Alice asked, smiling widely at me still.

"Am I really that different?" I asked.

"Well…" Edward murmured.

Alice jabbed Edward in the side, with her elbow. "Keep your eyes in your head, Edward," she teased. Edward scowled at her.

"See for yourself," he said, ushering me into our bathroom.

When I saw my reflection in the mirror, I gasped.

My entire skull had shifted some, causing my forehead to angle back a little, my jaw becoming stronger, and my cheeks more prominent, they had moved upward too. My eyes had grown bigger, and were now a deep shade of crimson. The size of my nose was reduced as well, to even out my now larger doe eyes. Any flaws on my skin vanished, any blemishes gone, without any trace of them being there in the first place. Even my lips had become fuller, although they were already too large for my jaw line to begin with.

And that was only my face.

My body had changed too. I suddenly had curves. My body had completely changed, into a stunning hourglass figure. I couldn't believe my eyes. Bella Swan… with curves? The most shocking change of all though, was my skin. I thought I was pale before. My skin was now almost completely white. I was as pale as Edward now. It was something I was expecting, but it shocked me all the same.

That couldn't have been me.

Edward laughed at my reaction. "Oh come on," he said, "You're not that different,"

I gaped at him. "Edward, I'm very different…" I breathed, looking back at my reflection again. "I'm… well, I'm…"

"Beautiful?" Edward offered, "Isabella, you have always been beautiful. Now, that beauty is just intensified. You have been beautiful since the day I met you."

I sighed, and turned to smile at Edward. That was sweet, too sweet. I was always simply ordinary. Now I was beautiful. Finally worthy of being in Edward's arms.

I opened my mouth to speak, but I was yet again interrupted by one of Edward's squealing siblings. This time however, it was Emmett.

"BELLAAAAA GET DOWN HERE NOWWWWW" he whined, "STOP MAKING OUT WITH EDWARD AND COME HERE!"

If I could have, I would have blushed. I groaned, and followed as Alice and Edward led the way downstairs.

When I entered the living room, Jasper and Emmett's jaws dropped. I sighed, and hid my pale face in Edward's chest, realizing he had put a shirt on at one point.

Emmett's next words would scar me for life.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, "Bella's a BABE!"

Rosalie smacked him in the back of the head for that one, really hard. I think I heard his little brain rattle against his giant skull.

Edward laughed, "Yeah," he said, patting my back, and forcing me to face his family. "But she's my babe."

"Welcome to the family, Bella." Esme smiled warmly at me, "Although I've considered you as one of my daughters for a long time now, now we can say its official."

I grinned at her, "Thank you, Esme." I said, "I've considered you as a mother for quite a while too,"

"Um," Edward said suddenly, "Where's Laurent?"

Laurent; what happened to him? First he was helping Victoria, and then he saved me. Was he on our side… or not?

"Carlisle is talking to him," Rosalie replied. "Upstairs, in his office. After we killed Victoria and the other females, and you took Bella upstairs, we all had a lot of questions for him, but Carlisle wanted to talk to him first."

I sighed, "I don't understand him."

"He saved you, Bella," Jasper said. "Whether he has some kind of ulterior motive behind all of this or not, well, we'll find out soon enough, but he did save you."

I nodded. "I'm certainly grateful to him though, for whatever reason, he saved me, and I should thank him for that."

Alice was still practically bouncing out of her skin. "Let's race! Let's see if Edward can be outrun by Bella here, you never know."

Okay. Where the hell did that idea come from? Were we not just talking about Laurent?

Edward laughed cockily, ignoring the randomness of the suggestion. "No one can outrun me."

"Oh really," I shot him a glare. "I want to try…"

"You do, do you?" Edward chuckled, "Let's see what you got, Isabella."

In a flash, I was out the door, and standing in the front lawn. It was dark out now, just after twilight. I had awoken from my transformation just as twilight had been falling. The irony of it made me smile. The end of another day, the end of my human life, and the beginning of a new life with Edward.

"Think you can take me?" I sneered, as Edward took a spot next to me.

Edward laughed arrogantly again, "Oh, I know I can."

"Bring it, pretty boy," I shot him a playful glare.

Edward looked shocked by my words. "Oh," he said, "It's on."

"On your mark," Emmett said.

Alice clapped her hands excitedly, "Get set,"

Rosalie even looked eager for this. "GO!" she shouted.

With that, Edward and I took off. We were running, both of us at full speed. We were literally neck and neck as we dashed through the Denali snow, and into the forest that stood by the house. I was keeping good pace with him, and we were running side by side. I quickened my pace some, and ran ahead of Edward. He sped up too, and soon we were side by side again. I growled at him, and to my surprise, he growled back, as we continued running. I was almost ahead of him, when he abruptly stopped.

I stopped too, about a foot ahead of him, eyeing him curiously. "Edward, are you alright?"

He sniffed the air, and looked at me with a completely stunned expression.

"What?" I asked. "What happened?"

"You don't smell that?" the stunned expression didn't leave his face.

"Should I…?"

He blinked. "Bella, its blood, human blood. There must be a hiker in the woods somewhere near here, possibly bleeding, and you smell nothing?"

I shook my head, feeling as though I was close to tears, although that was impossible. "No, I don't smell anything…" I sniffed the air, "'cept maybe some cedar."

"Bella," he said, his voice cautious. "I think… I think we might have found your gift."

No, Bella will not be immune to blood. This won't be like Seduction, trust me. Kayleigh helped me come up with an idea. Actually, that's a lie. Kayleigh came up with a brilliant idea, and I'm using it, because she said I could.