I hadn't stopped screaming in who knows how long.

Did hanging yourself really hurt this bad? Since the first second I kicked the chair out from under me, I felt pain. There was a point when something jabbed into my neck—the rope, no doubt—and then I was so unaware of anything other than the pain to notice where it was that the hurt was becoming more potent. My throat was sore as hell, but I continued to scream.

The pain was indescribably excruciating and nothing could make it stop. Was this what dying felt like? Was the pain so terrible? Alice had always told me that dying hurt—but this dying was different wasn't it? I wasn't being—for lack of a better word—reborn into vampirism, but I was actually dying. I wouldn't return as a beautiful creature with eyes red as rubies that would, if I chose to go down that path, one day turn to gold.

If I was lucky, I'd find myself in Seth's arms again, with Nayeli hugging my leg. Maybe my dream had been trying to tell me something. Maybe I'd find myself face to face with the humanity of the Cullens, the Denalis, and maybe even the Volturi.

I continued to scream. I couldn't lose myself in my thoughts this time. The pain was too great for that.

I heard myself scream words I could scarcely understand and I could vaguely feel myself squeezing the life out of something in my hand. I knew it was warm, really warm.

"MAKE IT STOP!" I heard myself scream. "PLEASE, MAKE IT STOP!"

I could've sworn I heard the most familiar voice in the world whisper, "Don't worry, Jasmine. It'll stop, it'll stop," but the only reason I knew I was hallucinating was because I knew it was impossible to hear over my shrieks. Unless, of course, you had the vampire hearing, but I didn't have that, so there.

"Just a few more minutes," I thought I heard another voice say.

Stupid head, stop messing with me, I thought to myself. Alice isn't even here.

My stupid, overactive imagination hated me.

The pain seemed to get worse as the seconds ticked by. Could I bear it any longer? Could I keep holding on? Or would I just lose myself and die without making it to the other side, to Seth, to Nayeli? No way, I would not let that happen. I had to keep fighting. There was no way I was giving up on this.

My heart felt as if it was ready to jump out of my chest. I could feel it beat faster, and faster, and faster, until it seemed perfectly reasonable for it to explode.

But it wasn't long before everything just… stopped.

My breathing stopped, the pain stopped, my heart stopped. It was like someone pushed the OFF button in me, and everything turned off. I could hear things… lots of things, things on earth. Was it possible that I really hadn't made it to the other side and I'd stayed on land as a ghost or something? I didn't think so—that was too much of a horror movie.

Besides, I opened my eyes, and I knew I'd made it. There was no other explanation for the brilliance everything seem to hold. My vision had increased and everything held more color than it used to, more brightness. I saw colors I had no name for, and heard the sounds of things I usually couldn't hear when confined within four walls. There was a burning in my throat that I thought I wouldn't be able to ignore for the world. But there was a face in front of me, and it meant more to me than the world. It was the face I'd taken my life for—the face I feared I'd never see again.

"Seth," I whispered. My voice sounded different—like… wind chimes, or something equally beautiful. I sounded surprisingly like Alice. An effect of death, perhaps? "I made it."

I threw my arms around his neck, sobbing, though no tears came out of my eyes. Plenty of tears were coming out of Seth's eyes, though.

"I made it," I sobbed. "I found you."

"Jasmine, you're hurting him." My head snapped up quicker than I thought possible, and I saw Alice and the rest of the Cullens. So, my dream had been trying to tell me something. These were obviously the souls of the family I left behind. But, something was different. Their eyes were still the same warm gold I remembered.

But I didn't care. I'd made it, and in Rosalie's arms was Nayeli, bouncing just as happily as she had when we'd been alive.

"Nana," I said. Within less that half a second, I was in front of her, reaching out. Rosalie pulled her away from me. I growled.

Wait. Growled? I couldn't growl—not like this. I was growling like a vampire. What the hell?

"Rose, get Nayeli out of here," Seth said. I spun around and stared into his eyes. He smiled sadly at me.

"Oh, God," I whispered, taking slow steps toward him. "I really made it."

He put his arms around my waist, and I hugged him, trying not to hurt him like Alice said I could. I didn't understand what she'd meant by that, but I didn't care. I had my family with me, wherever I was.

"Jasmine, you're not dead," I heard Edward say. "Not the dead you think you are."

I tried to ignore him, but he kept talking.

"Alice found you before your heart stopped beating completely."

"What are you talking about?" I asked him. "Of course I'm dead. There's not other explanation."

"Damn it, Jasmine, look!" Rosalie screamed. I realized she hadn't taken Alice's order and taken Nayeli from the room. She was still holding her, but she was standing next to a mirror. I turned and stared at my reflection.

Oh. My. God.

"You bit me," I said. "You actually bit me."

My skin was white, a huge contrast to my ruby red eyes. My brown hair seemed more voluminous than it had before, and I was excruciatingly, devastatingly, inhumanly gorgeous. If my hair had been shorter, I really could've been Alice's twin.

"I had to," Alice whispered. "I couldn't let you leave. Especially not when I ran into Jane and Nayeli on my way back home."

"Jane," I snarled. "That stupid witch. She took my daughter!"

Alice nodded soberly. "She did—and by her own will, no doubt. Aro's taken care of her by now, no doubt. He sends his regards, by the way."

"Oh, honey, we're just so glad you're alright," Esme sighed. "We were so afraid when Alice told us the vision."

"Thank goodness she made it in time," Carlisle agreed.

I wanted so badly to cry and let out all the emotion I was feeling, since there was so much of it, but now that I knew what I was, I knew it wouldn't be possible. All I could manage was falling to my knees and dry sobbing. Seth crouched down next to me, putting his arms around me.

"I love you," he whispered in my ear. "I'm home."

I rested my head on his chest and inhaled his familiar scent, unable to hold back a cough.

"What?" he chuckled.

"You smell like dog," I said, wrinkling my nose. Not appetizing, at all.

"Momma?" Nayeli's familiar voice asked. She waddled over to me, and I saw Rosalie trying to stop her.

"No," Alice said. "Let her. Werewolf obviously isn't too appetizing to Jasmine, anyway."

"But—" Rosalie started to argue, but Alice shook her head.

"Momma, who that?" she asked me, pointing at Seth.

I laughed a real laugh—something I hadn't done in a while. And even though it was a different laugh than what I'd heard all my life, it was still my laugh, and I was so thankful I could finally enjoy it again. I was much too happy to be disgusted by the werewolf smell that filled the air, even though it was extremely unpleasant. I knew that, despite the ugly smell, I should still want to feel the blood in my mouth, but I didn't. Not really, anyway. I'd gone through too much to get my family back that I was so not going to end their lives, no matter how much I kind of wanted to… The blood smelled so sweet…

Focus, Jasmine, answer Nayeli's question. I forced the pain in my throat to the back of my mind and smiled. "That's your daddy, Nana."

Nayeli smiled widely. "Daddy!" She threw herself at Seth and he caught her in his arms, stroking her hair.

"So beautiful," Seth whispered. "She has your mother's eyes, Jasmine."

"And she has her daddy's good looks," I added.

"No, I think she got that from her mom." Seth smiled.

I touched Nayeli's head and immediately her skin seemed to burn my hand. It felt nice, but she flinched away.

"Momma, why your hand so cold?" she asked.

"I'll tell you when you're older," I said. She nodded—she'd been hearing that a lot lately.

And then it hit me. If I wasn't dead, then how was Seth here? Not that I was complaining, of course.

"Seth, should you tell her, or should I?" Edward asked.

"I'll tell her," Seth said, once he understood. "When I was in my tent, I smelled the bomb, and heard it, too. I knew I had to get out of there, so I went wolf. When I went back the next morning to see how things turned out, I saw that the bomb had been enough to turn all the men to ashes. I ran as fast as I could to get here. I guess I didn't run fast enough."

"Seth, but what if they find you?" I asked, sobs creeping up on me again. "They'll take you back to Switzerland, won't they?"

He ran his fingers through my hair. "My dear Jasmine," he whispered. "The war is over. I'm safe."

I smiled at him in relief. Damn, my stupid throat. Burns so bad…

"Jasmine, would you by any chance like to go hunt?" Edward chuckled.

I smiled sarcastically. "Yes, Edward, I'd like that."

"Alice skimmed the future, by the way," Emmett said. "So no worries bout any humans in the forest."

I turned to Seth. "Coming with me?"

Seth bit his lip and shook his head. "Sorry, angel. Can't do that."

I tried hard not to pout, but my bottom lip stuck out anyway.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Jasmine, Seth coming with you may not be the safest idea," Esme explained. "When we hunt, we give over to our senses. And, even though Seth may not smell too appetizing now, we're afraid that might change if he's around you when you… lose control."

"Oh," I said. "I get it."

"Alright, Jasmine, we better go," Alice said. "Before your thirst gets any worse."

"Carlisle, if you don't mind, could you stay here? There's something I need to discuss with you," Seth said.

"Of course, Seth," Carlisle answered. "I was going to stay behind with Esme anyway."

"Thank you," Seth said. I turned to face him, deciding not to ask any questions. He pressed his warm, soft lips to mine, and I couldn't help but moan against his mouth.

"I missed that so much," I whispered when he pulled away. He cupped my face in his hand, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

"So did I," he sighed. "You better go."

"Fine," I said, reluctantly turning on my heels. "See you later, then, I guess."

I followed Alice, Jasper—who had been extremely quiet the entire time—Rosalie, Emmett, Bella, and Edward out of the room. Bella was on her cell phone.

"Hey, Sue, you and Leah can come on down now.

"Yeah, bring Renesmee, too.

"She just woke up.

"Okay, I'll tell her. Bye, Sue."

Bella smiled sheepishly at me. "Sorry. We thought it would be safer for them to not be here."

I nodded and smiled understandingly at her. "I get it."

"Alright, Jasmine, we can do this two ways," Alice said. "We can walk out the back door like normal people, or we can exercise your vampire abilities and jump out the second floor."

"Jumping sounds fun!" I decided. There was nothing to be scared of, anyway. I was a vampire now. Jumping out a window wouldn't hurt me. Nayeli and Seth followed us, and stood back when Alice opened a window.

"Can I go first?" I asked.

"Sure," Emmett said. "I could use a laugh."

Alice had been staring off into space, or, in her case, the future.

"Prepare to laugh at yourself, Emmett," she muttered.

I jumped up onto the window sill and closed my eyes. No, I didn't know what I was about to do, but I decided to try and make it as fancy as I had an idea to.

I threw myself forward and flipped, landing perfectly on my feet without stumbling or so much as a thump.

"Wow," I heard Emmett gasp, even though he would've been barely audible to my human ears. I loved my improved vision, and my sparkling skin was practically blinding to my eyes. I'd seen Alice and Jasper sparkle before, but I'd seen it with human eyes—which, now that I had this enhanced vision, I knew were extremely weak—and seeing it with these new eyes made the experience so much more exhilarating.

Soon, the others had joined me, and I was actually able to see every move they made instead of just a blur. I looked up at Seth and Nayeli to wave goodbye.

"I wanna jump!" Nayeli squealed. She took a leap in the air, but was caught by Seth. If my heart had still been beating, it might've skipped a beat.

"Let's go," Rosalie urged. "We don't have all day."

We jumped the river—and it was so much more fun than it looked—and I let my senses lead me to the animals. I didn't smell a single human, and I was mildly repulsed by myself for wishing otherwise.

Alice had to help me with my first catch—a mountain lion. She showed me how to press down on his head with just the right amount of pressure to basically sedate it so that it wouldn't thrash and—sigh. Of course—ruin my clothes.

I was a bit wary when it came to sinking my teeth into its neck. Alice had to practically guide my mouth and clamp down my jaw, but from there, I did the rest.

The blood exploded in my mouth and I kept my mouth pressed to the lion's neck until every ounce of blood was out.

The bear we found next I took down on my own. Everyone was surprised of how neat I kept myself. Even Emmett's bear was ripped a little more than necessary.

"You're a natural," Edward complimented. "Carlisle himself couldn't have done better."

I smiled. I felt a lot more confident in this new skin—though that might just have been the invulnerability giving me mental posture.

"Hello?" I heard a voice call. "Hello?"

I knew that voice—I'd heard it three days before. It was the voice that had tried to stop me from hanging myself.

Mike.

Soft, breakable, blood-filled, human Mike.

I snarled, and all the gold-eyed vampires around me took a few steps back. I crouched before starting to run absentmindedly toward the scent of blood; human blood.

"He—Jasmine?" He obviously recognized me. "Wow. You look… different, than when I saw you the other day." He looked into my red eyes and cursed.

I didn't give him time to react any more. I lunged at him, right for his throat. As I sunk my teeth into his neck, his screams filled the woods.

And there it was. The image that filled my mind that made me drop him to the floor, more than halfway drained.

I saw Mike's entire life flash before my eyes. It was a vision, but not one of the future. It was one of the past. I saw his time in school, when he first met Jessica, when the Cullens first moved to Forks and enrolled in school from "Alaska," I even saw Bella, and when she first started Forks High. I saw him marry Jessica, then get divorced when she became even more obsessed with making Edward hers—still disturbing—and getting custody of one of their kids. Bella came to crouch down beside me.

"Oh, Mike," she sighed, pressed her fingers to his neck. "He still has a slight pulse. May as well end his suffering now. Don't want him to wake up as one of us."

"Oh, God, Bells, I'm so sorry," I whispered.

She put one arm around me, and I felt several other arms join hers. "Don't worry, Jasmine, we don't blame you," Rosalie said. "You're a newborn. It was only expected."

"Jasmine, he only has seconds before he starts the transformation," Jasper said. "Drink his blood."

"But—"

"Do it!"

I sighed and bent my head to drink from him. I had to admit, the taste of human blood was much more delicious than animal blood, but I definitely wasn't going to stick to that diet. I wanted my gold eyes—I didn't want to be a monster.

I finished him off, and Bella dragged his body away. I really didn't want to see what she was going to do to it. Edward went with her, and so did Alice. Rosalie and Emmet went to continue their hunt, which left me alone with Jasper.

"Jazz, can I talk to you for a sec?" I asked.

"Sure," he sighed. "What's up?"

"You're upset," I said. "Why?"

"Why don't we answer this using your power?" he suggested. He took my hand and I saw his past—too much of it. I cringed.

"Try to fast forward," he said. "Don't stay on my past past for too long. Go back to just three days before today."

I did as he told, and saw what he meant. He came home with Alice, and I saw him fall to his knees when he saw my almost lifeless body hanging from the rope. His body shook with sobs as Alice—equally sobbing—bit my neck, my wrist, my ankles. He closed the wounds.

I pulled my hand away.

"Jasmine, you tried to kill yourself," he said. "And we weren't there to stop you."

"But you did stop me," I said. "If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't be here to see my family all back together."

He took down two nearby bears and we drank in silence until we finished them.

"You could've died," he whispered. "I could've lost my only daughter."

"But you didn't," I said. "Isn't that all that matters? I'm alive and stronger than ever, and we're all together again. Jazz, everything happens for a reason. It was bound to happen someday anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"I saw it in your past—the conversation you had with Alice on Christmas that had been too fast for me to understand. She said she saw me as a vampire anyway. It would've happened, one way or another."

He sighed and stared at apparently nothing. "You're more or less alive," he said. "We're a family. I guess that is all that matters."

"Jasmine, Jasper!" we heard Alice call. "It's getting late! Let's get back to the house!"

We stood from our seat on the grass.

"Race ya," I said. He chuckled.

"Fine," he said. "On your marks…"

"Get set…"

"Go!"

And we were off, running back to our returned happiness.