"I want to hunt with Edward."

Aro looks up in surprise at Sarah's unexpected announcement. Since her arrival, she has kept very quiet and very much to herself. She appears nervous, flighty, still overcome with grief and fear. Underneath this facade, she exists as nothing but seething rage. My few snatched words with her when we've found ourselves alone have done little to calm the situation. My only success has been in convincing her not to run.

Yet.

My motives are entirely selfish.

Caius sneers, "Another vegetarian? Really, Sarah. I'm not even sure why we overlook Edward's idiosyncrasies. We do not expect them to spread."

She draws herself up a little taller, seemingly with effort, and turns to face him, her voice slightly more confident. She is such a contradiction. Every thought is of his brutal death, and yet she looks like a contrite, scared young woman. The robe she has been given is too big for her, and pools around her ankles. Her hair is limp and tangled. She looks...harmless. Pathetic, even. "I have never been a city dweller. I miss the outdoors. I miss the hunt."

Caius gives her a disinterested nod, and returns to the papers he is reading. Aro is staring at me, and it makes me uncomfortable. Once again his thoughts are light and empty. I've had no indication that he distrusts me. Or Sarah, for that matter. But the way he continues to conceal his thinking is disturbing. "Edward. Is there any reason why Sarah should not accompany you?"

I stumble over the possible double meaning behind his words. Is he asking if I care whether she comes along, or is he testing her sincerity? I don't even glance in Sarah's direction, aiming for a neutral tone. "She thinks of forests, and of running. She longs to stretch her legs. I would be glad of the company."

Sarah has no way of knowing the strength or extent of her gift. She says to Aro at least once a day that she would prefer not to be touched, and so far it seems to have held. But despite her repeated assurances of devotion and delight, it still occasionally seems to occur to him to check with me that her thoughts are aligned. The uncertainty makes me feel ill. We cannot possibly keep up this charade for any serious length of time. And time is against me. Chelsea's creeping apathy continues to water down my memories and pluck at the strings of my commitment to leaving.

"Let her go with the boy." The sound of Marcus' voice causes heads to turn. He has kept to the library more and more often, and it is unexpected to see him enter the Hall. As he sinks to his chair, his usually effortless grace seems stilted. If it were possible, I would think he was feeling his age. His thoughts are also of running, and of forests, but they are not happy memories. And they are pervaded with an unarticulated weakness. Something I can't quite put my finger on.

The rear doors swing open with a thud, and Jane and Alec breeze in. Aro is instantly distracted. "Very well, take her. Hunt your filthy beasts." He waves a hand at me, attempting a bored expression. But his eyes are sharp and fixated on Jane, and disguised thoughts are rumbling below his carefully cultivated veneer like thunderclouds. "Clear the Hall."

I take Sarah's wrist and lead her quickly from the town.

We loop back on our own trail several times on the run north; until I can be as certain as I can that no one is tracking us into the craggy foothills. Sarah wrinkles her nose at the prospect of our evening meal. "This is really disgusting. How do you live like this?"

"It's the only way I can live with myself," I answer honestly.

She sighs, and slakes her thirst reluctantly with the boar. She kicks the carcass into the narrow ravine, and sinks to the soft earth, her back against the bark of a tree. "Why don't we run, Edward? We could be halfway to Russia before they realized."

I sigh in frustration. "Believe me, I think about it everyday. But they have the best trackers in the world. They would be on us before we had our next meal."

She scuffs her boot in the earth as she thinks, back and forth. "So I tell them that we are leaving and they should let us go. We know it's worked so far. He hasn't touched me once."

This had been her first thought, the night we met. That we return immediately to the Grand Hall so that she could order Aro to let us both leave unharmed. But without any assurance that she could convince all of them, or that it would last, I believed it to be too dangerous. We needed to make sure that the moment we left the room, the spell wouldn't be broken and the whole Guard on our trail.

I argued that we needed to test her gift, to be sure, before we made our move. Now I was beginning to wonder how we would ever have the confidence we needed.

"One more experiment." The solution I hit upon isn't perfect, but it's better than fleeing and finding out the hard way that we're wrong. Sarah scowls at me. Volterra makes her scratchy and claustrophobic. She still feels the pain of the loss of her coven vividly, and her thoughts turn frequently to violent revenge. Only my stories of what the Guard is capable of have tempered her plans toward flight rather than fight.

"God, Edward. It's like you don't even want to leave any more," Sarah snaps at me. "You tell me that you love your family, your human. And yet every time I suggest getting back to them, you stall!"

Her words send a shudder down my spine. Can that be what's happening? Am I being cautious because this place and these vampires are seeping under my skin, poisoning the last of my free will? I think of Bella, and a game of baseball. Before this all went wrong. The wide smile on her face; the way she bounced and clapped in delight as we played. Bella.

"Hear me out," I groan, as the image fades, like a half-developed Polaroid. "The next time Aro sends a detachment, you tell him that we are to go as well. We accompany them on whatever errand he has in store. If it's your presence that's required to keep up the control, we'll know as soon as we return. It will have dissipated in your absence."

She frowns, considering my proposal.

"One side trip, Sarah. One mindless task of retribution for these animals, and we'll know for sure. If we come back and everything is as we left it, you can tell Aro straight away that it's time for us to go."

She sighs, shaking her head slowly and extending one hand up to me to help her to her feet. It's a curiously human gesture, and as I tug her up to stand in front of me I give her an impulsive hug. I want to keep her safe. I want to keep us bothsafe. "One trip," she agrees against my shoulder. "Then I'm leaving, with or without you."

I figure we will have a couple of days to plan before the next time the Guard is ordered out on reconnaissance, and so I head straight to the Library to carry on my research. The Volturi collection is an unprecedented chance to learn as much as I can about vampires and their gifts. Vampires and their relationships.

Vampires...and their humans.

It is neither uncommon, nor particularly dangerous.

Marcus is reclining on a chaise against one wall, his back supported by a pile of velvet pillows. As impossible as it seems, he looks frail. I'm momentarily confused about what he's thinking. It must show on my face.

Your beloved. You worry that you cannot be united before her change. That's why you read these books. But in the centuries I have lived, I have seen few bonds as strong as yours.

I give a short, unhappy laugh. "If I stay here much longer, I doubt that will remain true."

Marcus doesn't smile. We are all manipulated, in various ways. You must decide for yourself your own path.

His eyes are blacker than midnight. I wonder how I haven't picked up on this before now.

"You're not feeding."

A flicker of recognition dances across his pale features and disappears. His thoughts return to those of his wife, laughing and smiling, her skin dancing in a Tuscan sunset. Self-determination is its own reward.

My stomach sinks in horror and disbelief. "Why don't you leave?"

His answering smile settles into more of a grimace, his thoughts all too familiar. There's no reason for anyone to leave.

I stand with a start, slamming closed the book in front of me and backing away to the door. Marcus doesn't move, his dark eyes drifting closed. This is a nightmare. I've been wrong. I need to find Sarah. Every day we stay here is another shackle we may never unlock.

I break into a jog as I head through the ornate corridors back to the Great Hall. Aro and Caius are discussing something quietly at the podium with Jane and Demetri. Sarah looks up as I enter. This is it. They are about to send out a group.

Already? Hope soars in my chest, even as the rational part of my brain searches for an explanation. Demetri only returned from Mexico yesterday. It's not like Aro to send him out again so quickly.

"Very well. Jane, you will take Alec, Demetri and Felix. You will leave tonight."

Sarah steps forward tentatively. I'm suddenly overcome with anxiety. There are pieces of this puzzle I am missing, and I can't shake the feeling we are about to make a terrible mistake.

"Lord Aro?" Jane whirls on her heel to glare at Sarah's interruption. She begins to raise one hand, and for a dreadful second I think she is about to strike. "I think you should send Edward and me as w..." Sarah crumples to the floor with a dreadful thud. I am at her side in an instant, expecting her to be writhing in pain, but her eyes are distant and unfocused. I look up in shock.

Aro is even more horrified than I am.

"Alec? What is the meaning of this?" Aro strides across the room to a slightly bewildered looking Alec, who does indeed seem to be holding Sarah in his thrall. "Let her go at once."

Alec shakes his head in obvious confusion, releasing Sarah who begins to stir in my arms, taking small, gasping breaths. I look back at the confrontation before me, my lungs constricted in terror. My mind races through possible exits. Can I pick Sarah up and run? How far will we get before Felix is upon us; before Jane can react? Aro's expression is thunderous. He shoves the sleeve of Alec's robe back and grabs at the bare skin of his wrist. Alec looks as terrified as I feel, as Aro's eyes widen. The Grand Hall is completely silent. Not a vampire present moves.

"Jane?" Aro's voice is small, broken with betrayal. "You asked him to do this if you gave him a sign? WHY?"

Jane's tiny figure is trembling, her lower lip pouting like a little child. She's shaking her head. "Father," she whispers, a term of endearment I never expected to hear from her. "I just thought..."

My fear starts to become a tangible thing, stretching its icy fingers over my skin. I clutch at Sarah. This is where it falls apart. This is where Jane, who must have come to understand what was happening, brings us to our end.

Aro stalks toward her. Caius' head is tilted to the side, appraising her with a mixture of irritation and surprise. This is clearly the first time she has overstepped her boundaries in such an overt way.

"Speak clearly, dear heart," Aro's tone is laced with venom. "Do you not want Sarah and Edward to go with you? Even after I gave you such...autonomy?"

And then I see it. Something in the rapid blinking of her scarlet eyes, the way she keeps giving her head a little shake, as if she's trying to clear it. She's struggling with something. "No...I...think you should send Edward and Sarah..." Her eyebrows are knitted together in confusion. It is all I can do to swallow a choked sob of relief. It worked, Sarah and I think at exactly the same instant.

Aro is brought up short. "Then whywould you ask Alec to intervene?"

Jane seems to be struck dumb. She seems no more able to contradict Sarah's wish than she is to explain herself, and Aro is losing patience. I suck in my breath as he reaches for her arm, powerless to stop him from touching her and finding out the truth.

"Wait!" Sarah squeaks hoarsely, pushing herself up from my lap. Jane's gaze swings wildly from Aro to Sarah, like a cornered animal. "Lord Aro, this is all a misunderstanding. I consider Jane my sister, and like all families, we are prone to pranksoccasionally." Sarah struggles up to her feet, pushing back her robe and throwing an arm around Jane, who looks even more startled than I do. "She was teasing me, nothing more."

My mind ranges out around the Hall, searching for a dissenting view. Someone, anyone, who sees this farce for what it is. Boredom, contempt, disinterest, impatience, hunger. Caius is thinking warily towards Jane, but even he seems only concerned that such a childish diversion has no place in the work she is expected to undertake.

I do not find a shadow of doubt.

"Fine," Aro spits finally, returning to his seat. "Keep your playtime from this Hall. Go! Make your preparations. You depart at dusk."

I trail Sarah to her room, collapsing against the door as I close it behind us. She fetches notepaper from her desk. She has me write, even within our chambers, never trusting us not to be overheard.

Sarah's hand shakes as she hands me the pen. I have no idea what to write. So this is still the plan? she thinks. We go on this mission, we return to make sure? I don't want to come back. It's too dangerous.

I nod slowly. We may be damned either way.

I write slowly: We have to be sure. We come back just long enough to tell him we are leaving.

She looks sickened by the thought.

And if it hasn't worked? Then what?

I take her hand in mine, and give it a small squeeze.

Then I'd rather die quickly here, than hunted like an animal.

She looks a lot less certain of this conclusion. But she takes the paper from me and sets it alight in the stone fireplace, casting off her robe and throwing things into a duffel for the trip.

I get to my feet wearily. "Are we returning to Mexico?" I can only assume that this hurried deployment has resulted from Demetri's recent journey. Sarah fastens her hair back in a clip, and digs around under her bed for another pair of boots.

"No. They have a newborn problem. In Seattle."

I'm so sorry for the posting schedule getting a little mucked around. A couple of weeks of work trips have made it really tough for my beta and I to touch base. Thank you so much for hanging in there, for emailing to see if I am okay, and for leaving such lovely reviews. I am on track to finish, and your regular weekly updates should now resume!