Another week passed, and our lives returned to normal, other than the husbands staying permanently by their wives sides. No one hunted toward the west.

Emmett and I were playing a car-racing game on our new Gamecube — shipped from Japan ahead of the US release date — and I was beating him for the third time. Of course, my winning streak might be attributed to the fact that Rosalie was sitting on the back of the couch behind Emmett, running her fingers through his hair.

"C'mon, c'mon!" Emmett yelled at the TV.

I grinned as I pulled another car-length ahead of him. "You know, a Lamborghini handles much better than this in real life."

"I know," he growled. "I'd be beating you otherwise."

Rosalie wrapped her arms around Emmett's neck. "Well if you asked really nicely, Emmett, I just might program a game that would actually challenge you."

He tensed and the controller disintegrated in his hands. Rosalie chuckled as Emmett threw the pieces down in disgust. "Only if you make the paddles out of something tougher than plastic!"

I laughed. "I win!" Self-control was as much a part of video games for us as any other skill.

"Rematch?" Emmett asked hopefully, opening the drawer on the entertainment center where we kept a a stash of controllers. In a bad week, we went through more than a dozen. His shoulders sagged. "That was the last one!"

I stood up and casually stretched. "There's another shipment on the way."

"Well what do you want to do in the meantime?"

"I was going to work on my latest composition." The Alaskan wilderness was a constant source of inspiration.

Emmett was annoyed. "What about me?"

"I guess you get to give Rosalie the specs for her game."

She gave me a wicked grin. "He hasn't asked really nicely yet."

I rolled my eyes. Time for another run.

Eleazar had better be right.

Are you sure this is worth it, Tanya?

You saw them. You tell me.

Besides, we haven't had a challenge like this in ages!

"Trouble." When I heard their minds, I almost bolted, but I decided my first loyalty was to my family. They might need an unencumbered male to come to their rescue.

"What kind?" Emmett growled eagerly.

"Carlisle?" I called softly.

Emmett's hands flexed in anticipation. After losing all those Gamecube games, he was ready for a tussle. Carlisle flew into the living room, Esme at his side. "What's wrong, Edward?"

"Tanya's coven. They're practically here. I didn't realize because I was focused on the game."

Carlisle took a deep breath, meeting my gaze. We could leave, but that won't resolve anything. He looked then at Esme. And maybe she'll finally believe me. "Where are Alice and Jasper?"

"They're still out hunting," Rosalie answered. Why didn't she warn us? Maybe that's why she's conveniently away on a hunt now. She didn't want to deal with this, or put Jasper in harm's way.

I gave Rosalie a disgusted look. "I'm sure their decision to come here was made after Alice left."

Rosalie glared at me.

In my mind, I could hear Tanya's coven drawing nearer, but all I could hear with my ears was a growling sound. Surely it wasn't one of them making that racket! I moved to answer to the door.

Tanya stood at the head of her clan, regal as before. Behind her, the other four were carrying a snarling bear between them. She smiled up at me, taking in my shock with amusement. "Is the lady of the house available?"

"Umm..." I looked over my shoulder. "Esme?"

She walked out onto the porch, her eyebrows arching in surprise.

"Hello, Mrs. Cullen. We've brought you something of a belated house-warming gift."

"In lieu of cookies," Irina chimed.

Kate winked at me. "We come bearing gifts."

I groaned at the pun.

"Oh." Esme was stunned — and flattered. "Thank you." She turned to Emmett and me. "Why don't you boys stow that bear out back. We'll save him for later."

Stow a bear? Emmett gave me a look that clearly questioned our mother's sanity. What are we supposed to do, tie it to a tree?

I shrugged and went to take the bear's forepaws from Kate and Irina, ignoring him when he snapped at me. What game was Tanya playing at? She was obviously trying to throw Esme off-balance, but to what purpose? And what talents were they concealing? All the females were thinking rather licentious things about the men in my family, so they were no help. Maybe Eleazar would reveal something.

Esme held the door open for Tanya. "Please, do come in."

Emmett looked at me hopefully, taking the back end of the bear from Carmen and Eleazar. Hey Edward, do you think we could just eat it?

Eleazar shook Carlisle's hand as he entered the house. Compassionate and utterly selfless. Amazing!

I narrowed my eyes at Emmett. He was distracting me. The stupid bear was distracting me. I needed to focus! "It doesn't belong to us."

Aw, come on! She wouldn't mind!

I ignored him. "Carlisle? Do you have any sedatives on hand?"

"Yes." That's not a bad idea, with Tanya here, but they wouldn't be effective on Esme, you know that.

I looked meaningfully at the bear.

Oh. Of course. "In my emergency bag in the office." Your guess is as good as mine on the dosage.

We hauled the bear around back while Rosalie dashed up the stairs to the office. This was going to be imprecise at best, but a sedative was better than putting a grizzly in our back yard and telling it to stay.

Rosalie was fuming as she came down the stairs. Not out of my sight again, not for half a second. Not with those females sitting in our living room.

I injected the irritable bear with four times the dose for a human and ended up giving it another three doses. Emmett was disappointed that we would have to wait to feed, until Rosalie pointed out that the bear would be ready to kill somebody when it came to. That perked him up considerably.

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, let's go inside."

I knew we'd be short on seating, so Emmett and I grabbed three chairs from the kitchen before joining the others in the living room. Carlisle and Esme sat together on the love seat facing the others, and I couldn't help but feel that there was a battle-line drawn just a few inches beyond Esme's feet. Tanya sat on the arm rest, with Kate, Carmen and Eleazar sitting beside her on the couch. Irina leaned against the wall beside them.

Carlisle was talking about how our family came to be, so I tuned him out. It was more important for me to learn about our guests.

Kate glanced at us when we came in, her gaze settling on Emmett and Rosalie. Ooo! Irina's met her match in this female!

Eleazar's thoughts were rather unusual for a male who was checking out Rosalie. She's sharp and shrewd. And she'll kill whoever makes a move for her mate. But she's proud of her looks and her smarts, so that could be exploited. This is going to be much more complicated than the girls thought.

Eleazar tried for a moment to subtly catch Emmett's attention, but Emmett was wisely keeping his eyes on the floor and his arm around Rosalie. He wasn't taking any chances.

Eleazar mentally shrugged. He'll look this way eventually and then I'll decide.

So Eleazar, at least, was gifted, but I couldn't tell how exactly. His gift operated outside the mind, like Jasper's somehow. When Jasper was reading someone's emotions, I didn't experience it firsthand like I did Alice's visions. I could only hear him processing what he perceived. Eleazar's gift was similar. I had a sense that gears were turning somewhere, and what I was hearing was him processing what his talent was telling him.

Eleazar met and held my gaze then. His mind was silent for a moment. Arrogant. Unattached and whole in and of himself. Interesting. I can't remember the last time I saw that. The girls can't take hunting this one lightly.

Whatever his gift, Eleazar's accuracy was frightening — with one exception. I wasn't arrogant. My high opinion of my abilities was well-founded. But why didn't he 'read' me when we first met?

Carlisle introduced us as we sat down. "You've already met Edward. This is Rosalie, and her husband Emmett. And these are Tanya, Kate, Carmen, Eleazar, and Irina."

Tanya addressed Esme. "I recall you mentioning that there are seven in your family, Mrs. Cullen. Will we get to meet the other two?"

Esme smiled graciously. So long as they respect that title 'Mrs.' and everything it entails, then we'll get along just fine. "Alice and Jasper are out hunting at the moment."

"But I imagine they'll be joining us shortly," I added.

Rosalie eyes were hard. They had better be!

"So, tell us a little more about you and your family, Tanya," Esme said. Her smile was bright, but there was a shrewdness there too. Let's see what they have to say for themselves.

Tanya spoke carefully. "Irina, Kate, and I were born in Slovakia a thousand years ago, more or less. The same vampire changed all three of us, but we were... not fond of him. We eventually parted ways, hunting through most of Europe until a rather unfortunate incident sent us to our homeland again for a time. It was there we discovered we could live without killing men. There were many large predators in that corner of the world — bears, wolves, tigers — and we experimented with living off of them. We gradually grew experienced enough to regularly abstain. At that point, we worked our way back toward Europe. In the middle of the seventeenth century, we came across Carmen and Eleazar, who embraced our peculiar lifestyle."

"It's been more than two hundred years since any of us have tasted human blood," Kate declared proudly.

"And until now," Irina added, "we have walked alone in the human world."

"If you don't mind my asking," Carlisle said hesitantly, "how do you manage financially in the human world? Do you all have vocations?"

Tanya grew very still. He would have to ask that! "Our original nest-egg came from our pillaging days, and we invested it wisely."

Irina grinned wickedly. "You're too humble, Tanya. In the last century or so, she's made a good living writing novels."

Esme blinked in surprise. "Novels?"

"Romance novels," Carmen explained, relishing each word.

Irina smirked. "Really trashy ones."

Tanya looked thoroughly embarrassed. "Well, a best-seller would be disastrous for us, now wouldn't it? Book signings, public appearances, pictures on dust-covers. Hardly low profile. We've all taken turns publishing under various pen names, except Eleazar of course."

"Don't worry," Kate consoled, laughter in her eyes. "We're just jealous of your resounding success."

Esme huffed a little. Still no mention of the fact that those romance novels come from personal experience.

Carlisle told Tanya's coven about his own change and some of his adventures both before and after coming to the New World. He hadn't gotten past the Civil War when Alice and Jasper quietly entered. Seeing every seat taken, Jasper ducked into the kitchen for another chair.

Eleazar took them in with an appraising glance. I ignored Carlisle's introductions, focusing on Eleazar's thoughts. I can't do it. I won't. It'll break these males to be hunted, and when the girls realize what they'd done, they'd never forgive themselves. These males are out of bounds, as far as I'm concerned.

Alice's breath suddenly caught, and a series of scenes-in-motion flashed through her mind. Rosalie and Kate hunting together. Irina and Alice shopping. Esme painting Tanya's portrait.

Everyone in the room watched Alice anxiously. When she blinked quickly and bestowed a serene smile on Tanya, there was a collective sigh of relief.

"Alice, are you well?" Tanya watched her closely.

"Oh yes." Alice settled comfortably onto Jasper's lap. "Quite well, thank you."

My entire family bombarded me with a single thought. What changed? I tipped my head slightly toward Eleazar.

"It's just that..." Tanya continued, "you seemed to have something of an episode just now."

Alice was beaming. "It's just something that carried over from my human life, apparently."

Tanya smiled slyly at Alice. "You are not a commonplace person are you, even among our kind?"

She shrugged. "We all have our talents. I can see forward but not back."

"And a sublime riddler, I see." I haven't been this vexed in centuries!

The feeling was mutual. I grinned in spite of myself.

Alice knew exactly what she was doing. After a long moment, she smiled smugly. "I see possibilities, things that could eventually come to pass."

Tanya's eyes widened in surprise. "You see the future?"

"Future is too rigid a word," Alice said off-handedly. "Choices, sometimes even little ones, can unexpectedly and dramatically change things. For instance, I saw your family and mine as dear friends just now — all of us — when not long ago it was a very different future. It's not certain until it is the past, of course, but it's what I expect will happen. Other things, like weather or earthquakes, are easier to predict."

Tanya rocked back. "Astounding." That trumps Kate and Eleazar put together! But I wonder what she meant by that. We'll be friends? She searched our faces one by one. "A physician and a psychic. What other gifts does your phenomenal family possess, Mrs. Cullen?" She met Esme's gaze again with a wry smile. "As if that weren't quite enough."

A smile twitched on Esme's lips. "Some gifts are more visible than others. Emmett and Rosalie, for instance," she nodded toward them with maternal pride, "have rather noticeable talents, whereas Jasper's and Edward's are more subtle."

Tanya's gaze whipped from Jasper to me. Subtle? How? What does she mean? I'd bet anything that her rising panic was Jasper's contribution. Ah, sweet revenge.

Jasper grinned at me. "Why don't you go first, Edward." How long do you think we can spin this out before she explodes?

I chuckled but decided we'd better not provoke Tanya too much, especially when Eleazar had already decided to take pity on us. I didn't want him to change his mind. "By all means, you first."

"I have influence over people's emotions." Jasper grinned with satisfaction and Tanya's shoulders slumped in relief as Jasper released her.

She raised one of her perfect eyebrows. "Impressive. A fit mate for the remarkable Alice." Imagine what he could do in a passionate moment!

I almost laughed. "I'd rather you didn't."

Tanya shot me an wary look. "Pardon?"

"I'd rather you didn't imagine." Now it was my turn for a smug smile. Sometimes being a freak had its advantages. "I hear the thoughts of others."

Tanya gave me a sidelong look. "You jest." It can't be! He and Aro sharing the same gift? Impossible!

I shook my head. "No. Not very much like Aro from what I understand. Although I've never met him, so I can't say for certain how dissimilar our gifts might be."

Her jaw slowly dropped, and Kate burst out laughing. "All our innermost thoughts..." she giggled. "You hear them?"

I nodded.

"And our past?" Carmen asked, disbelief on her face.

"No. Just what you're thinking in the present moment."

Kate's eyes sparkled. So Edward, I could sit here in front of your mother and tell you all the things I'd love to do to your delicious...

I glowered at her. "As I said. I'd rather you didn't."

She winked. Another time, then, sweetheart.

I ignored her. "But I noticed that at least one of your family is gifted as well, Tanya."

Eleazar hung his head with an embarrassed smile. So you've been eavesdropping, Edward? This will take some getting used to, and not just for us. These girls are corrupting enough when you only hear the thoughts they say aloud!

I snorted, and he finally met my gaze, thoroughly amused. "It took your mind-reading abilities to realize I'm gifted? The only male in this coven couldn't survive without a talent or two. I should think that would be obvious." Then he looked to Carlisle. "When I was human, I was a merchant, one of the very best. A perfect salesman, you could say. I could tell by looking at a buyer exactly how to handle him. That skill carried over — I see the levers that move people." His eyes darted to Emmett. "Unfortunately, it requires eye contact."

"That," Esme said hesitantly, "could be a devastating talent."

He gave Carmen an apologetic smile."It has been, at times. But I like to think I've become a bit more judicious in when and where I use it." He met my gaze. And I'll not use it at all with your family. You understand that, no? You heard before I knew what you could do?

I nodded, shuddering at the thought of my family at the mercy of Eleazar's talent. "Thank you."