Chapter 4

Bella's POV

The car ride back to Edward's house was uncomfortably silent. I couldn't tell if he was scared or upset or nervous. He just sat there, driving, without saying a word. He wouldn't even look at me.

I stared out the window into the darkness. Every once in a while, I would see the familiar shape of a wolf break out from the trees, but it would retreat too quickly for me to recognize who it was. I knew they were probably all out there, once again protecting me from their mortal enemies, knowing that their life was the one that I had chosen.

I looked in the rearview mirror to the car behind us, where Jessica sat paralyzed in the passenger seat. I could only imagine what was going through her head at the moment. I wondered if she had already figured it out. If she hadn't she would know soon enough. I didn't even want to think about the consequences of exposing her to my world. The consequences to my knowing about Edward's existence were hard to forget: my impending immortality was only weeks away.

We made it to the Cullen's home in record time. I didn't even complain about how often Edward's lead foot crept into the triple digits. He parked the Volvo closer to the house than normal, so that we would have to enter through the garage rather than the front door. I knew this was so that we wouldn't be outside for too long. As if it mattered. No amount of deadbolts or bulletproof glass could stop a vampire from entering the house.

Alice parked next to us, and helped a visually shaken Jessica from the car. I glanced briefly at the image of my best friend, my soon-to-be real sister, leading Jessica into the garage. I reached for the door handle, but Edward had already gotten to my side of the car.

"Thank you," I said quietly as he held the door open for me. I accepted his offered hand for assistance and pulled myself from the vehicle.

He said nothing, just looked at me for a few moments before letting go of my hand. He had been gone for three days, and yet his eyes were as black as night. I vaguely recognized the strangled cry that came from my throat when I saw this.

The moment he recognized the pain that had come across my face, his gaze softened. His set jaw, tense from stress, relaxed as he whispered words of comfort.

"I am so sorry Bella," he said, and in a moment, I was in his arms. "I should have been there to protect you. I am so sorry."

Though he was infinitely stronger than I was, he still let me pull myself from his iron embrace. "Don't apologize," I said, wiping a fallen tear from my face. "You didn't know what was going to happen. I'm the one that should be apologizing right now.

His strong hands clutched my shoulders harder than normal, indicating the anxiety he felt at the moment. "You have no need to apologize either. You've done nothing wrong. Please, believe me when I say we will fix this."

He wrapped his arms around me once again, and I found comfort in the familiar scent that radiated off of him as I buried my face in his chest. "What's going on?" I asked softly. He knew more than he was letting on, that much I knew. Whether or not he would actually give it up to me, I had yet to find out.

I could feel his internal struggle as him arms cradled me, protecting me from whatever lay outside the confines of his family's garage. He brushed his lips against my hair, a reassuring gesture. He was there to protect me. "I don't know," he said, his voice taught.

I pulled my face away from his chest slightly so that I could look him in the eye. He turned his face, avoiding eye contact. "You're lying," I said.

He sighed, defeated. Apparently he didn't feel like putting up a fight tonight. "I don't know much," he revised, looking me in the eye this time. "The wolves were unable to catch the woman, but she was close enough to the forest that I could hear her thoughts for a few seconds. She is with two others, though I couldn't get a clear mental picture of who they are. Apparently, she came to Forks for the sole purpose of finding you. I don't know why, and I don't know how she found out about you. But, now that there are three humans under the protection under a powerful coven, they are even more interested."

I looked at him in confusion. "I don't understand," I said.

His grip on me tightened. "Don't you see? You're their game. You're the most interesting game they've ever played."