"Look at the arrogance! We need to end this now! How can he presume to make all of these vampires and let them expose our kind?" Felix growled beside me. I was just as irate as he was but I saw opportunity.

"Yes. I agree with you. But Aro wants us to watch first. We must know what we are dealing with before we conduct judgment." The scent of the blood being spilled in the streets of Seattle was delicious and was making me thirsty. As much as I loved the plush life of the castle, including my food being brought in fresh, there was nothing like hunting your own food down. And the blood in the open air only made me want to join in on the hunt that we were watching below.

"Others will begin to question the purpose of the Volturi if we continue to let this happen. We must act now." I turned to face Felix since he had walked away from our perch.

I'd heard enough. I sent a jolt of pain in Felix's brain and heard his bones crack as he bent over in agony. "To question my motives, is to question Aro. Aro says wait, we wait." I took a deep breath and slowly let it out as I also released Felix from the grip of my gift. "If you wish, I can have you replaced from this mission if you disagree with my methods."

"No, Jane. I do not disagree with your methods. We'll wait."

"I don't think we'll have to wait much longer. He's running away and leaving the newborns. What should we do?" Demetri's voice called out to me, and I turned back to the ledge that we were watching from.

"Do you have the newborns signature?" I waited for Demetri to confirm with a nod of his head. "Then we follow the leader. These newborns were created with a purpose in mind and I intend to find out what it is. We'll deal with them when we know more." I looked back at Felix who only nodded his consignment to me.

We allowed Demetri to lead the way and the city lights soon turned to rustic trees. We ran with our hoods up until we came across a cabin in the middle of a clearing. I looked at Demetri as he indicated with his head that he was in the cabin.

"My sweet Riley, you know I won't be able to follow you there. Those Cullen's have a mind reader and will know my secrets the second they spot me. They will know that I want to reclaim this area for you and me. You are more than ready to lead our army to victory. Only then can we finally be together without my irrational fear hanging over us." A female voice called out to the one we followed named Riley.

"But Victoria, why would the Cullen's care about what we do here?" said Riley's voice sounding unsure.

"Because they think they can rule over all vampires and claim this area just because they were here first. Well, I say not anymore. We should be able to stay where we want, right?" This Victoria implored.

"I hear what you're saying. Maybe it was them that I felt in the area before." I looked at Felix with a moment of fury behind my eyes. If Felix's rant alerted Riley of our presence, I was going to kill him myself. I wanted to know more about this army. I was disappointed in the two vampires that were so caught up in their affairs that they didn't hear us right outside their door.

"I don't know baby, but something is coming, and wouldn't it be better if we caught the Cullen's off guard?"

"Oh something is coming alright." I stepped through the threshold of the cabin, Felix and Demetri flanked my sides. "But it definitely isn't the Cullen's." I lowered my head and my hood so that the two vampires I was staring at could get a full look of me.

"Who the hell are you?" Riley screamed as he tried to charge at me. My lips curled into a slight smile as I instantly collapsed him with pain.

"Challenging me is something you should never do. You will learn to respect that if you wish to live."

I stepped over him; never taking my eyes off of the one he called Victoria. I released him from his pain as he lay there, whimpering with aftershocks.

"You created an army to attack the Cullen's? To the Volturi's knowledge, they eat animals and want nothing to do with the natural order of our life." I asked in earnest.

"They terrorized me and my friends. I wanted a little payback." My eyebrow rose at her lie. I'd never met the entire family; however I remember hearing stories from Aro about the gold eyed vampire, Carlisle Cullen. Terrorizing was that last thing that he would tolerate; at least according to what I know from Aro.

"Pain," I said simply as she fell to her knees, trying not to scream out in anguish. I lifted her chin and lolled my head around to look at her sweetly. As Aro said I was a living doll that turned everything into a nightmare because of my love for torture. "Now, Victoria, you can tell me the truth, or I can hold you like this indefinitely. It's your choice really."

I took the pain away as I watched her contemplate the offer I gave her. She looked at me and then to Riley's eyes with a look of panic that only made me thirsty again for torture. I gave her a quick jolt to remind her who she was dealing with.

"They killed my mate for a human. A human who knows what they are. I was simply avenging my mate and taking care of their rule breaking in one fell swoop." she pushed the words through her teeth, snarling.

"Hmm, a human. Most interesting. But I'm afraid you broke a great rule. Your plan was misguided in allowing your army to roam Seattle with no guidance or rules. They cause chaos in the streets as we speak. You didn't even teach them to fear the Volturi!" I looked back at Riley who was now on his knees, his head in Felix's palms. "This is inexcusable."

I nodded once to Demetri who stepped forward and ripped off Victoria's head, separating it from her flawless body. Riley watched in horror as his beloved's body fell headless to the ground.

"She lied to you." I said sweetly as I went to stand in front of him. "I can see it in your eyes. If she had obeyed the rules that have been laid out for eons of time, this outcome never would have happened. She was foolish to think she could defy the Volturi and get away with it. I wouldn't waste my energy in mourning her."

"Who are the Volturi?"

"I could tell you, but-" I started but was interrupted by Riley.

"But you'd have to kill me. I get it."

His poor innocence made me burst out laughing harder than I had in centuries. "I don't think you do dear Riley. I was going to kill you anyway."

At that moment I plunged my hand into his chest, and pulled out his dead heart. "I always wondered what our dead hearts looked like." Riley looked at the gaping hole in his chest to the withered organ as I dropped it before him. I let out a huge sigh out of extreme boredom. "We can go now."

Demetri twisted Riley's head around until it cracked off in his hands. "I take it we're going to Forks?"

"No, first we deal with the newborn army and then we talk with Aro."

-OO-

"Bella, I can't believe you forgot that graduation is just two weeks away!" Angela shrilled in excitement. We were in the parking lot by my car waiting for Edward and Ben to get out of class. For whatever reason, Alice didn't show up for school. "You've been kind of preoccupied for the last few months actually. Is everything ok?" I smiled at Angela's concern for me.

Since the Cullen's return to Forks, I was able to develop the perfect balance between Edward and his family, my friends at school, and the reservation. Jacob was still not talking to me because I chose to go back to Edward, but I was still on good terms with his pack mates. I was extremely glad that Angela and Ben would even come with me sometimes to visit the Cullen's at their home.

"Yeah everything is fine. I just kind of blocked graduation out, I guess." Angela gave me a death glare as she leaned against the hood of my car.

"How could you possibly forget about graduation? It's got to be one of the single most important days of a teenager's life."

To be honest I blocked out graduation because I was trying to hide how scared I was. I couldn't let Edward know that I was the tiniest bit nervous that he was going to turn me into a vampire. Of course, I was really nervous because he was only going to turn me if we were married first.

Edward was now walking out of the building, scanning the parking lot for me.

"Can you keep a secret?" We both knew she could, but she nodded anyway. "I think Edward is planning on asking me to marry him after graduation." It was close to the truth, and was only after some stupid negotiating on my part that got me engaged in the first place. All because I wanted to have sex as a human, Edward twisted it around so that I would marry him first. Somehow my carefully planned negotiations benefitted him more in the end.

"Oh my gosh, seriously? Why aren't you excited? You should be excited!" Angela was practically jumping up and down like Alice. The only difference was Angela knew how to bounce without drawing too much attention. I think she's been hanging around the Cullen's too long.

"We're only eighteen. People are going to think that I got knocked up, which could never happen because we've never had sex." I explained, hissing the last part.

"Well I think that's sweet. Kids hardly ever wait till they're freshman in high school before having sex, let alone marriage. And just think, the sooner you two get married, the quicker you get to spend the rest of your life with your best friend." Angela smiled off into dreamy land and saw Edward walking towards us. I couldn't help but smile at her. There was nothing spoken more truly; Edward was my best friend and I'd have an eternity to be with him.

"Besides, whether you get married at eighteen or at twenty-eight, people are going to talk. So why worry about what they're going to say?" She said absently as Edward came up to us.

"Hey, Ang. Ben said he'll be out in a minute, he had to run back to his locker and get his comic book." Angela rolled her eyes as she pushed herself from my car.

"Oh, alright, I'll see you two on Monday. Have a good weekend!" She called as she made her way back towards the school.

Something was definitely up with Edward, he wouldn't look at me and his body was tense. "What's wrong?"

"Follow us to the manor." Edward was still not looking at me. Panic was making my heart beat faster than normal and Edward didn't even show signs that he noticed.

"Us?"

Just then, Rosalie pulled up in her cherry red BMW and Edward got in the car without another word before Rose drove off. I ran to the driver side of my car and started the engine. I didn't actually need to follow them, but with the fear that this was going to be the last time I saw my family again, I pushed the accelerator faster than I'd ever driven before.

Rose allowed me to catch up to her when we got closer to the long, curving driveway that led to the house. And the closer we got, the more my heart and stomach started doing flip-flops with anxiety.

"Will someone tell me what's wrong?" I asked when I got out of the car.

"Hello Bella." Rose offered a smile that had a taint of sympathy around it. I was glad that Rosalie had finally warmed up to me.

"Bella, Rose is going to stay here with you. I'll be at the baseball clearing with the others." Edward finally looked at me.

"No. One of you will tell me what's going on. Why is Rose babysitting me, and why are we being separated? What's going on at the clearing?"

There seemed to be a one-way mental battle between Edward and Rose; with Rose challenging Edward to tell me something that it was clear he was trying to keep from me.

Edward finally let out a sigh and looked back at me. "It seems we have visitors."

A/N: I hope you guys enjoy! My beta StarChild23 is amazing, so let's have a round of applause for her! Don't forget your reviews!