I slowly got up from my position on the forest floor, wiping myself off as I did. I looked over at each of the members of the Pack; they were all growling and shaking in rage, even Sam, which worried me. Obviously they realized the threat that these people—if you could call them that—in front of me posed. I then turned to look at our visitors and gasped. As the sun set behind them, the image I was presented with mirrored the one from my sorry excuse for a vision. And, of course, I hadn't been able to tell anyone about it, having been knocked out and all.

"Hello Aro." I said, my voice not betraying the feelings I felt. The Pack just growled.

"Isabella my dear, it's so nice to see you again. My brothers and I were wondering if we could have a chat with you." Aro smiled pleasantly at me.

"Unfortunately for you, my brothers don't seem to want me to. And you know you just can't refuse family." I smiled sweetly right back at him.

Aro's smile faltered a bit. I saw Caius and Marcus step closer to him. Aro opened his mouth again, but I held up a hand, stopping him.

"Unless you somehow became blind since our last encounter, which I highly doubt, you can see that the three of you are surrounded by six werewolves, your sworn enemies, the ones that can kill you in an instant, and, well me. I normally would not pose a threat, but I assume the reason you're here is because you found out what happened. But, my point is, that I suggest you leave, and fast, before I am forced to protect you from my over bearing and over protective, brothers."

Right as I finished saying this, I started to get a headache, and began hearing the whispers again, but I heard them much clearer this time. I focused my attention on the three vampires in front me again. Marcus had just reached out to touch Aro on the hand, obviously relaying some message. As I concentrated on Aro I heard soft words run across my mind. They are very willing to protect her, as are the others. This may not be as easy as we thought. I smiled slightly.

"We do realize you seem to be outnumbering us at the moment Isabella, but do not think we did not leave the safety of Volterra unprepared." As he said this, I heard footsteps all around me, approaching quickly, and soon we were all surrounded by no less than thirty vampires. This would not have phased me much—I was in the company of six of a vampires worst enemy and I wasn't exactly powerless myself anymore—except that I was fairly certain that each of these vampires had to have some kind of dangerous or deadly power. I turned to Sam who was on my left.

"You guys need to leave right now." I whispered this, but knew that the Volturi could still hear us, so instead of continuing, I concentrated on shifting back into my wolf form to finish our conversation. As I started to shake, I saw the surrounding vampires begin to approach us, but they were immediately stopped by Aro, who was studying me very intently. I continued to shift, taking the pain in stride until I finally I took on my wolf shape. Upon which time I was bombarded with the thoughts of the Pack.

Bella what do you think you're doing?

No way are we leaving you here alone!

Who do these guys think they are?

We can totally take these guys!

Guys! I yelled in my head, I need you to leave. These vampires are all really dangerous and I'm certain that they all have some kind of special ability. So you all have to leave and go get the Cullens. You may not want to, but we need help, we're vastly outnumbered here. They all started to protest, but I cut in again. No buts. Either you go, or I'll make you go. They grudgingly agreed, and slowly made to leave the meadow, growling and shaking with either anger or frustration the whole way. I then shifted back to my human form and looked at the Volturi.

"So, they're gone. How can I help you?"

"Well Isabella, we were very surprised when we found out about your…situation. Becoming a werewolf without the right hereditary lineage is one thing, but becoming a half werewolf half vampire is completely different. Immediately we decided to come see you, to see if the rumors were true and to extend our invitation. You really should be proud of yourself; the royal family hasn't left Italy in a very long time." Again he smiled at me, but I was becoming very wary after listening to him.

"What did you mean by 'extend our invitation'?"

"We'll get to that in a moment. What we really would like to know is what you can do. Obviously you can change into a wolf, albeit one that is smaller than that of your, er, brothers. Also you must have some skill with mediation, for it seems that both of your families are working together quite well. Not to mention you were able to convince your wolf friends to leave quite painlessly. But what else can you do?" They all looked at me expectantly. All thirty plus of those vampires, every single one of them with a hazardous gift, were just staring at me and waiting for me to tell them what they wanted to hear. And I laughed. Long and hard. When I finally composed myself I looked up into their now stunned faces.

"You really expect me to just tell you what you want to know? Tell you all about myself and what I've become?" I had started out with a light tone, but now this whole encounter had me on edge. "Well, you must be joking. None of you have the right to come here and ask me this, not after everything I've been through. You must be delusional." Ok, I'll admit it, I was getting a little mad.

Caius then spoke up. "I do not believe you truly understand who you are dealing with right now. Hybrid or not it is in your best interest to divulge the information we request, before we do something we might regret."

Now I was truly pissed. "Don't even try to threaten me, it will get you no where," I snapped back at him. "The scared girl you met at our first encounter doesn't exist anymore. You have no idea who you are dealing with now." I hissed through my teeth and then crossed my arms over my chest and waited, listening intently to everyone's thought. I wanted to be prepared in case they planned a surprise attack.

"Isabella," Aro began again carefully, like he was trying to woo a child away from its mother. "You seem to not comprehend what we're offering you. If we find you satisfactory enough, we plan to invite you to be a part of our guard, our family. Think about what we could do for you. Surely you can see your future with us, see how useful you could be. So please, tell us what gifts you possess."

I stared at him hard. I didn't even know all the gifts I had, but of course, he didn't need to know that. Then I clearly and loudly said, "No." I turned on my heel and walked towards the edge of the meadow.

Behind me I heard Aro say, "We're very sorry to do this to you, but we tried to tell you. It is really in your best interest. Stop her."

Upon his utterance of the last two words, the vampires that were surrounding we began forward. I quickly held up my hands and yelled "Stop!" in my commanding voice, and they all froze. I smirked as I turned back around again. Aro didn't look angry or upset though, merely resigned. He then turned to someone behind him and said quietly—though I was still able to hear every word—"Bring me Miranda."