They left about an hour before dawn, and I retreated to my piano again. The women in my family began the week-long task of analyzing to death our neighborly chat with Tanya and company. It was distracting the way they turned over every minute detail in their minds, spinning out wild theories from things as simple as handshakes. Maybe Carlisle should have agreed to move when Esme first asked him.

On the other hand, Eleazar's parting words were worth some thought. He'd caught my eye as they left, thinking, Edward, as one man to another, I warn you. The girls may not even realize it yet, but you are the odd man out. You are fair game. I'll not help them, but it's beyond even my talents to stop them. I wish you well, my friend. I wasn't about to unleash Esme on that one.

In the meantime, however, Emmett had great fun playing with his food when the sedative finally wore off.

Tanya and her family came to visit fairly often, but Alice was the only woman comfortable with them around. For once, Esme and Rosalie didn't trust her visions.

During one such visit, Esme decided to corner Tanya on one of her more enigmatic comments. Rosalie and I were in the garage when our visitors arrived, so they all came out to see our car collection, including our current project — restoring a '65 Thunderbird for Alice.

Tanya ran her fingers lovingly over my Viper, and Esme seized her moment. "You mentioned a while back that you knew Aro."

Tanya cleared her throat and deliberately turned her back on my car. Knew in the biblical sense. "Yes. We spent some years with the Volturi."

Rosalie was more to the point. "Did they play a part in that unfortunate incident you mentioned?"

Kate gave Rosalie a shrewd look. Eleazar was right, as usual. She's much more sharp than we expected. "You could say that, yes. They weren't too happy when word reached them of a new vampire legend."

Esme was on the edge of her seat. She and my sisters had debated this one for days. "And which legend is that?"

Carmen grinned, leaning casually against Jasper's Land Rover This will be fun to watch. "The legend of the succubi."

I choked. That certainly explained a few things.

Even Alice was stunned. "The succubi. As in..."

"Demon seductresses, yes," Tanya answered calmly. "Except at first, the humans thought the succubi were vampires, since men died more often than not. Hence the Volturi's involvement."

"But you're still alive," Rosalie protested. "How did you escape the Volturi?"

"We didn't," Kate said simply. "They held us captive for sixty years."

Esme looked at Tanya's family with surprise. "I was under the impression that the Volturi took no prisoners."

Eleazar eyed Esme. "Normally they don't. But Aro's not one to waste opportunities or talents. "

Tanya sighed, embarrassed. I'm trusting you you with my life, Eleazar. You'd better be right. Then to Esme, she said, "He'd seen our..." how to put it delicately enough for her? "...unique hunting practices and thought of a good use for them."

Alice interrupted. "But I thought you were still hunting humans then."

"Oh, we were." Tanya answered. "But even then we tried to be..." kind? generous? "...humane."

Esme was intrigued. "Humane how?"

Irina smirked at her. She may as well come to grips with this, if we're going to be neighbors. "Ever heard the expression 'What a way to go?'"

Tanya was a bit more dignified, though her eyes were hard. "It was a bit easier to kill a man knowing that his final hours were his happiest. We thought of it as a kind of payment."

"Or penance," Kate said softly.

"Yes, well," Tanya continued, "when Aro saw how successful we were in our hunting, he and Caius thought that, if we could break through to Marcus, he would be able to move forward through his grief. Marcus had lost his mate less than a century before and was in the depths of the blackest melancholy imaginable."

Tanya gave Esme an appraising look. How in the world am I going to tell this story without sending her into a murderous rage? I'm going to strangle Eleazar when we get home. "Since we hadn't actually exposed ourselves or other vampires, we hadn't broken the law in the strictest sense, but they were reluctant to just release us. It wasn't until the humans invented the incubi — those misogynistic men couldn't believe they would yield to demons unless women did too — that the Volturi were finally convinced the legend had become myth. Aro came to us with the terms of our release then."

She took a deep breath. "There were three of us, and three of them, so they challenged us to a duel of sorts. If we could seduce all three of them in less than one year's time, then we'd be free to go, provided we left Europe for another century. But we..." By all that's holy, how do I say this?

"It had to be a one-on-one encounter," Irina said, a belligerent edge to her voice. "And the Volturi females couldn't find out."

Esme's lips parted in shocked alarm.

There's the lever for her! "We shouldn't be telling you this," Eleazar said suddenly, looking at Rosalie of all people with imploring eyes. "If the Volturi females ever find out, it will be our deaths."

Rosalie blinked twice. Blackmail? Did they really just hand me blackmail on a silver platter? Then she nodded slowly.

Of course. Esme would never stoop to that, but Rosalie had no such compunctions. She knew Emmett was safe now.

"So who had Marcus?" I asked. The question was vitally important to me, the odd man out.

"The most..." Kate winked at me, "persuasive of us." And the most powerful.

"You?" Rosalie was incredulous.

It really did stretch the imagination, the idea of Kate as the most powerful succubus. I'd almost forgotten that she was talented too. "What's your gift, Kate?"

She looked uncertainly at Tanya, who nodded encouragment. Kate shrugged. "I guess the best description is I'm hypnotic, more or less. It requires my subject being in a line of sight, but I can... tinker with the mind, making a person or animal feel that he is paralyzed."

"Hypnogogia."

Kate gave me a teasing look. "Can you say that in mixed company?"

I grinned. "It's the medical term for what you do. Hypnogogia is a state somewhere between sleep and waking. There are all kinds of strange sensations humans feel in hypnogogia, the most common being sleep paralysis. Modern science explains away the succubi folklore by pointing to hypnogogia as the truth behind the legend."

You're showing off, Edward, Esme scolded.

"That ought to please Aro." Tanya herself looked anything but pleased.

Irina was annoyed. If they think SCIENCE can explain us away, then clearly we need to hunt more often.

"I take it you follow in your father's footsteps?" Kate asked sweetly.

"When high school becomes too maddening, yes. I've got a couple of medical degrees. But I'm not anywhere near practiced enough to actually work as a physician. I just pass along what I learn, so Carlisle can stay up to date. " I looked at her curiously. "But we don't sleep, so your gift must not work on vampires."

Tanya and Kate exchanged an amused look, then Kate glanced shyly at her feet. When she looked up, her coy smile belied the menace I felt coming from her. Panic filled me and I was frozen in place. "It musn't?" She slowly closed the distance between us. "Then I suppose I simply have no power over you, Edward." Her breath tickled my ear as she sighed. "Too bad. Otherwise I could really have some fun with you." With a wink, she turned her back — releasing me — and returned to leaning against Emmett's Ram 3500.

I drew a shaky breath and Kate giggled. "I guess it was just dumb luck with Marcus."