Bella:

The run home was one of high spirits. Rolling their eyes in unison, Alice and Jasper had raced ahead to give us some privacy. Emmett tried to hang around like a bad smell, but Edward threatened to key his jeep if he didn't get lost, so he too went to catch up with his siblings.

"Alone at last," Edward said in a low voice, slowing our run to a normal speed...for a gold-medal winning Olympian. Still clinging to his back, I kissed his hard throat softly, catching his ear between my teeth.

He gasped so sharply that he missed a step. "Bella..." he growled, "Must you distract me so?"

"I thought running was second nature," I protested, not ready to relinquish his skin from my lips' ambush.

"Yes, but...it's really, really distracting," he explained. "What with your sweet blood, your delectable warmth, your soft, wet lips on my cold skin... You're simply irresistible. I can hardly remember where my feet are located, let alone how exactly to run."

"Well, when you put it that way..." I murmured, instead sliding one of my hands to his chest, dragging my nails across the skin there.

And again, he tripped, rolling us into the wet grass beneath an old tree. "You have no mercy," he accused, landing on top of me.

After he'd kissed me so thoroughly I had to be reminded to breathe, he lifted himself slightly and just stared at my face.

"I thought I was never going to see you again..." I whispered.

"And I, you."

The rain had not fully stopped from a few hours before. I shivered beneath him, but for two entirely different reasons. "Would you have really joined the Volturi?" I asked him weakly. The thought scared me more than anything, to see Edward's face beneath a robe, with glowing crimson eyes... launching himself at unexpected tourists who'd been lured to the corridor -

Stop it, Bella.

He looked serious. "You cannot imagine the lengths I would go to, to guarantee your safety - half of which I could never even admit to myself, let alone to you."

I frowned.

"I'm sorry about the fight we had..." I said. "Before I got... you know. Human-napped."

"It's a discussion we will calmly have again whenever you see fit," he promised me.

"Even now?" I tested.

He sighed. "If that is what you truly wish..."

I smiled. "You're off the hook for now, Edward Cullen. But we will have that discussion."

"I did give you my word that we would try before your transformation," he felt the need to remind himself. "And at the moment of truth, I went back on that word. You were right to be furious with me for lying to you. I'm sorry that I made you leave the house...and even sorrier that I did not run after you, begging your forgiveness."

"Don't you dare claim all the guilt here, mister," I said savagely. "We are equals in this relationship, and will share our masochism accordingly."

Morbidly amused, he agreed. "Strange girl..."

By this point, my shivering had become so pronounced that his mouth set into a grim line. I went to protest to moving even an inch, but he told me to hush as he swept me up once more, and we were then pelting through the storming Italian countryside. As much as he could, he protected me from the rain.

I shared most of the properties of a vampire by the time we had made it to a modest, remote country house. "Carlisle owns a place in just about every country in the world," he explained to me with a smile. "Two in Italy, in fact. But the other is too far away – and Tuscany is much more picturesque this time of year..."

He was quite right. As dismal as the weather was, it only seemed to make the house look even more beautiful in the breaking dawn. Pale spills of creamy blue light smeared the sky light the light touch of watercolour paint. He opened the door, and then laid me down on the closest couch he could locate, arming me with two quilts and a battalion of pillows.

"Would you like something warm to drink?" he asked me, concern creasing the perfection of his face. I shook my head and snuggled deeper into the blankets. It was silly to ask him to hold me when I was so cold, but I still wanted him to. Reading the forlorn look on my face, he promised, "When your heart is beating more normally, I will. It's...worryingly slow at the moment."

Whatever agent of sleep had been trying to lull me, I suddenly fought it as I sat up in the couch, wild. I wasn't the only one who had a worryingly slow heart. "Oh my God, Edward... Jacob! Where's Jacob? Is he okay? He was–"

Another grim line crossed his face, and his head twitched in the direction of a room deeper into the house. "He's...being looked after. He's not doing too well, love."

My pupils shrank. Before he could stop me – and that's saying something – I was marching to the other end of the house. Edward followed me stoically, opening the door behind which the rest of his family were hidden. I came to a halt as I saw Jacob lying on a table, his shirt ripped open to reveal wounds that were far worse than I had imagined. The darkness of the Volturi tunnels had been kind to me; they had hidden a truth which was too grim to process.

Someone screamed, and it took me a moment to realise it had been me. Carlisle nodded at Edward, sending him some kind of thought which Edward shook his head at, and looked at me. With a beaming smile, Esme moved forward to give Edward a tender embrace. The eldest Cullen then began monitoring Jacob's pulse again with his index finger.

"What's happening?" I demanded.

Carlisle looked weary. "We don't really have the most sophisticated medical equipment here, Bella, but I am doing what I can with the limited supply that I have. His wounds are refusing to close and he's lost a lot of blood. I didn't know that our venom had this effect on werewolves."

I replayed his words in my head, checking and then double checking to see if I could detect any indication whether Jacob would be all right. He hadn't said anything very positive.

"You know," Rosalie mused aloud, "It's really a marker of how bad the dog smells that we're all not ravenous with thirst at the moment..."

From the farthest corner of the room, Leah Clearwater snarled at her. She and Seth were in wolf form. Her little brother nudged her with his nose, and she growled in return, obviously not welcoming the reprimand.

"So what's happening to him?" Jasper wanted to know, genuinely curious. His curiosity was too clinical for my liking, which was why I shot a glare in his direction that he didn't notice at first. However, a wave of my anger must have hit him with violence, because he turned around in surprise and then looked apologetic.

Carlisle frowned. "I thought werewolves were totally immune to the venom; that it was just like the saliva of any animal to them." He looked pointedly at Leah. She obviously didn't know, as she remained still under his puzzled gaze. He tried stitching some more of Jacob's wounds again but they would not budge. The skin seemed to have gone rock hard in those places, blood oozing out slowly but steadily.

In the corner, Alice was frowning as if she had a headache. The proximity of the werewolves must have been really getting to her. I knew how she hated being blind.

Seth began whining. Leah's head twisted around in what I could plainly tell was a death glare. Whatever conversation they were having through their pack communication was a not a pleasant one. Meanwhile, Carlisle continued to quietly try and do all he could for Jacob, injecting him with medicines to lessen the pain even though he was completely out for the count.

"Jacob's going to die, isn't he," I whispered to Edward.

He turned me around, his hands sliding to my shoulders as he kissed my forehead.

I couldn't help but notice that there was no answer there.

My heart wept bitterly. "He shouldn't have come," I scowled, the pain liquefying at my eyes as I pressed into Edward's chest. "I'll never forgive him if he leaves me."

With an abrupt roar of fury that began animal and became human, I was suddenly shoved against the wall by a very angry, very naked Leah. Her eyes were like Amazons in furious attack.

"How dare you?" she screamed, slapping me hard across the face. Within seconds, Emmett had seized her around the waist and was pulling her away from me while Edward leapt before me protectively, his lips pulled back over his teeth in an aggressive hiss. Alice helpfully brought her jeans and tank top over which Leah snatched away with no gratitude. It irritated Jasper to see his wife disrespected, but Alice shook her head at him and he settled reluctantly.

My face stung.

Sliding into her clothes, Leah swore at me under her breath. "You are so lucky you have a room full of leeches babysitting you," she sneered. "I could break your spine–"

"That's enough," Carlisle said loudly. "Leah, I understand how painful this is for you. Bella is just as upset over Jacob's injuries. It is not helping to argue over whose fault it is. We must remember that the Volturi are entirely to blame, and we've done the best we could in a dire situation. Jacob was very brave to come all the way with us to Italy to save Bella."

Ending on one of her least favourite words, Leah again tried to rush me but was blocked by a ridiculously grinning Emmett. Judging by Edward's queasy face, his big brother was still rotating images of Leah's lithe, nude form in his mind. Leah may have been a werewolf, but she was no dog.

With another snarl, she turned on her heel and thundered out. Whining again, Seth followed.

"All we can do is wait to see if there's a change," Carlisle said quietly to me. "He is exactly the same as when Rosalie and the Clearwaters brought him in – no better, no worse. I'm almost thankful he's unconscious; he'd be in the most terrible pain if he were awake."

While this didn't alleviate my mental anguish, I forced myself to find comfort in that fact also. I wouldn't know what to do with myself if he was in pain.

"No!" Alice shouted.

Edward whipped around to face her. She was sitting in an unnaturally tense way on one of the wooden seats, staring ahead blankly. Edward gasped and looked at me.

"I can't see much," she whispered to him. "It's fragmented for some reason, which doesn't make sense because the decision has been made so absolutely."

"What is it?" Jasper asked quickly. "Aro has changed his mind?"

Esme came to stand next to me. "Bella, would you like something to eat? You must be famished after–"

"I appreciate the sentiment," I said as gently as I could in my annoyance, "But I'm not leaving the room. Sorry."

Looking pretty amused, Emmett sniggered. "Who wants to kill Bella now? Or did our buddy James come back from the afterdeath?"

"Emmett," Carlisle said quietly, "Please. Alice, what's coming?"

She bit her lip. "Jane. She is after vengeance for Alec's death. And she wants Bella."

Staggered, I said, "Why?"

Edward looked furious with himself. "Of course," he groaned. "She threatened this before – I forgot about it. We have to get you out of here, Bella. Jane is no longer under Aro's control for the moment – she is too stricken with grief."

I breathed in deeply, frowning. "Edward, wait..."

"We can't!" he argued, moving to sweep me up, but I stood back, shaking my head.

Suddenly, everything made sense. Jacob came to rescue me because, even if he wasn't in love with me anymore, he still cared for me.

...But Leah came because she was in love with Jacob.

It was the only thing that fit. She had already made if quiet apparent that she was not here out of any concern for me. And I doubted that Jacob would have given her an Alpha order to follow him – he liked to play the lone wolf. Seth and Leah had chosen to back him up...

"She's not after me," I whispered. "She wants Leah."

Edward froze, replaying dialogue through his mind. He stared at Alice in wonder. "Could that be why your visions are fragmented? You are only seeing Jane's hunt...not the actual act of her killing..."

"Because there is a werewolf involved!" she cried. "Of course!"

"Leah'll be okay," Emmett shrugged. "She's already in a pissy mood – Janet Bratson doesn't stand a chance against that kind of PMS. She'll totally have the upper hand."

Jasper added solemnly, "At least until Jane hits her with an illusion of pain."

Emmett slumped. "Oh...right."

Clearing his throat, Carlisle looked back at Edward and me. "Esme and I will stay here with Jacob. You need to go and bring Leah back safely. Don't underestimate Jane – she's small, but she's the most lethal of the Volturi's entire arsenal."

Edward sniffed. "Bella, you're not coming."

"Why not?" I demanded.

"Because," Alice replied, "Then Edward won't be able to fight, because he'll be too busy wondering if you're okay. Stay here – it's the only way we'll get Leah back safely, Bella."

I couldn't argue. I didn't want to hinder them with my lousy humanity.

Miserable all the same, I nodded sadly. "Go make sure Jane hasn't gotten her," I said, kissing him. "And please...be careful."