Jake answers the phone on the first ring, his tone light and hopeful. My heart sinks. His responses become terse as soon as I explain what has happened. He agrees to gather the pack immediately and disconnects without saying goodbye.

Jasper paces around my room, running an agitated hand through his hair. "Is anything missing?"

I look around, puzzled by the idea that a vampire might have burgled the house. Everything seems to be in its place. I even dig the shoebox from the back of the closet, but my mementos of Edward are right where I left them.

As I close the closet door I look at the stuffed laundry hamper. Despite the gravity of the situation, it occurs to me that it's been too long since I did the wash. A thought itches at the back of my mind, and I rush out onto the landing. "Dad, have you done laundry this week?"

"Ah, no," Charlie calls back, sounding a little confused. "Did you want me to?"

"No, no. I got it. I've just misplaced a sweater."

Jasper's eyes are as wide as mine when I step back into the room.

"It's red," I gasp. "I think it's been missing since the night Victoria was here."

He curses under his breath. I hate seeing Jasper so flustered, and I don't understand what Victoria, or any vampire, would want with my clothes. "Stay here. Emmett's outside. One of us will be back for you as soon as your father's asleep."

He dashes down the stairs before I can protest, calling a hurried good-bye over his shoulder to Charlie. His tires squeal as he pulls away from the house. I slump onto the bed in frustration, my mind racing with the possibilities. A vampire has been here. In the house, in my room. Maybe more than once. Maybe more than one. The thought makes me feel ill. I tug my quilt around me and wait, calling out a weak goodnight as Charlie heads to bed an hour later.

Unusually, it is Esme who comes to collect me. She hugs me close, and even though her cold embrace is nothing like my mother's it makes me ache for Renee. "This will be over soon, Bella," she soothes. It doesn't make me feel any better.

The need for neutral ground seems to have passed, and the pack is at the Cullens' house when we arrive. Those in wolf form are running slow loops around the property. Sam and Jake are inside, and neither looks happy. Jake is arguing with Alice, who is standing her ground, despite the almost comical differences in their sizes.

"I don't know. I can't see anything clearly with you dogs around."

Jake scowls at the slur, leaning over her. "It was in her room."

Jasper steps swiftly between them, placing a cautioning palm against Jake's chest, with a look that causes Jake to step sharply backwards. "I promised your alpha I wouldn't move your emotions. In return, you will respect my wife and my family."

I reach for Jake's arm, and he whirls toward me a little too quickly, the pent up energy causing his shape to thrum and shimmer. When he realizes that it's me, his expression softens. His agitation settles into concern. "It's okay, Jake. I'm okay. Don't take it out on Alice."

Before Jake can respond, Emmett and Rose burst through the kitchen door. "Nothing. The trail is cold." Emmett can't mask his disappointment, clearly spoiling for a fight.

Carlisle sits in an overstuffed armchair in the corner, wearing a subdued expression with his fingers steepled at his chin. "Let's think about this logically. It may be that the Volturi are here already, checking on Bella?"

Alice shakes her head emphatically. "No, I've been watching Aro's decisions. He has never given any thought to sending someone after Bella."

An involuntary shudder runs through me, just at the mere thought of the ancient leader and his evil retinue. "What about...one of the others? Jane...or...Caius?" Their bright red eyes, flowing hair and robes. The idea that any of those monsters could have been so close to Charlie is unthinkable. The danger I've put him in.

Carlisle pauses to consider this for a moment. "No. If the Volturi were here, I believe they would have called on me. Out of formality, if not courtesy."

"A nomad, then?" Esme seems as confused as the rest of them. Jake huffs in irritation, and this time it is Sam who gives him a warning look. The atmosphere in the room is thick and uncomfortable.

Jasper suddenly gets to his feet and leaves abruptly, returning to drop a newspaper on the coffee table. The headline blares about further deaths in Seattle. "It's not a nomad." The room stills. Jasper has everyone's attention. "The vampire in Bella's room took an item of her clothing." Jake sucks in his breath with a hiss. "This was not a nomad or a newborn. Neither would have left Charlie alive. This was someone who came to take something of Bella's. Something that carried Bella's scent."

My stomach turns at the thought. Suddenly the personal violation seems even worse than I'd imagined.

"The news coverage tells us that we have a bigger problem than we thought. Seattle isn't the work of one newborn, and if someone is making newborns and isn't teaching them the rules..." Jasper trails off, looking meaningfully at Carlisle whose eyebrows have shot up near his hairline in surprise.

"An army?"

Jasper nods slowly. "I thought I had to be wrong. There is no reason for anyone to create an army here, no motive. But there's no other explanation. Someone is creating an army of newborn vampires in Seattle."

My eyes dart around the room. The Cullens all look more worried than I've ever seen them. Jake and Sam seem as confused as I am. "What are you talking about?" I ask, my voice coming out shaky. "What sort of army? I thought all other vampires were nomadic? Not...organized in any way?"

Carlisle gives Jasper a meaningful look. He looks down at Alice, who gives his hand a reassuring squeeze and nods at him. He drops her hand and rolls up one of the sleeves of his button-down as he walks toward me, sitting down on the sofa beside me and offering me his arm. At first I just stare at it blankly, before my eyes adjust, and I notice the silver patterning on his skin. I reach out to trace it before gasping in surprise. "Jasper! These are...these are scars?"

He nods, lacing his fingers through mine and covering my anxiety with a blanket of calm as he tells his story of origin and betrayal. My heart aches for him, for all the pain that he has witnessed, but underneath that fear murmurs. If Italy taught me anything, it was that my idealized view of vampires was wholly misplaced. Jasper's devastating history confirms this. Maybe Jake has been right all along. The Cullens are not monsters. But the rest of their kind?

"And you think someone is doing this again? Creating a barely-controlled band of newborns? For...territory?" Sam's brow is furrowed. He's listened silently to Jasper's story with a look of disgust on his face. Now he needs to understand the threat.

"No," Jasper shakes his head, and doesn't let go of my hand. I'm comforted by the gesture, but I can't tell if that's his gift or just the sense of safety I have from a cool, solid touch so much like Edward's. "At first, that's what I assumed. Territory, or perhaps just the threat that a coven of our size might pose. Now I think it's something different. I think this army is coming for Bella. Victoria won't rest until she has her revenge."

"I've been watching Victoria!" Alice protests, her eyes bright and fierce. I want to comfort her. I know she's been trying her level best to keep us all safe. Jasper gets up and crosses the room in a stride, drawing her to him and smoothing her hair.

"I know, I know. I think she's worked that out. I think she's using someone else to do this. And whoever that is was in Bella's room."

I jump at a sudden slam, as Jake thunders from the room, letting the door crack against the molding. Sam moves to go after him, but I am already on my feet. "Let me." As I leave the room I hear Carlisle say, "We're going to need help."

I fear that Jake will have already taken off into the forest, but instead he is sitting on the front step, hunched over in an almost defeated pose. I sink to sit beside him, nudging him gently with my shoulder.

"God, Bella. I don't want this for you. I wish..." He turns to look at me. His eyes are dark and pleading. "Come back to the Rez. We'll get Charlie to come too; Billy can make up some excuse for a fishing trip or something. I can keep you safethere, Bella. Let's leave these bloodsuckers to their stupid war."

I give him a small, rueful smile. "You don't mean that."

His answering grin has a little of the old Jacob around the edges. "No, I guess I don't. I really want the chance to kill at least some of these leeches. But I do want you to be safe." He puts both his hands on my shoulders, and his voice is low and sure. "I love you, Bella. I'm in love with you. And I know that when you had the choice, you chose him. But he's not here anymore, and I am. I'll wait for you, Bella. I'll wait for you to be ready."

I shiver, even under his over-heated touch. It's too much. All of it. The unknown threat that heads toward us, the giant wolves loping along the tree line, the room full of agitated vampires inside. I don't know what to think, what to feel. I certainly don't know what to say.

Emmett throws the front door open, interrupting the silence that stretches between us.

"Alice has seen the newborns. They have Bella's sweater, and they're on their way."

Jake hauls me up to my feet and ushers me back into the house.

"How much time do we have?"

"Two nights, maybe three. I don't see them travelling during the day." Alice is sitting cross-legged on the floor with a sketchpad. Sometimes drawing what she sees helps her to focus, and her pencil is flying across the page as she tears one off and starts again. There are cityscapes, an overturned car on fire, an ocean. Tall figures in long robes. I rush to her side, clutching at the picture. "Is this...?"

Alice's mouth is pursed in concentration. "Sometimes," she concedes with a sigh. "But Bella, these pictures are changing every minute. Sometimes the Volturi don't come at all. And sometimes he doesn't come with them."

Edward. Edward could be coming. I trace her charcoal sketch with one finger and don't look up, afraid to show Jake my expression.

"We need to train," Jasper says to Sam. "There are things I need to show you, about fighting newborns. It will be different to chasing Victoria. We have to get Bella away from here. She's the center of this threat."

Esme suddenly raises her hand to her mouth, as if something has just occurred to her. "There may be a way. We gave Bella flights to Florida for her birthday."

Carlisle is nodding, but I'm still in the dark. "I'm not sure about her going on her own."

"I don't understand..."

Esme ignores my confusion, concentrating on Carlisle. "Renee wouldn't find that unexpected? That she'd visit before Graduation?"

My heart sinks. "You can't just send me away like a child!"

I look at Jake for back-up, but find none. Even he is nodding at Esme.

"I have to be there," I protest. "You're all like family to me. I can't not be there when you're putting everything on the line for me." Anxiety is surging through my veins. I can'tbe sent away. Not this close to seeing Edward again.

"No," Jake says, finally. "It's going to be a short fight. We'll deal with it easily. There's no need for you to be there."

Suddenly a dreadful idea occurs to me. Desperation is turning me into someone I don't even want to recognize. I step closer to him, placing one hand on his arm. Struck for the thousandth time at his warm strength. "And everybody will be fine?"

He nods, his jaw flexing. As if he can't trust himself to speak the lie aloud.

I take a deep breath. It's this or nothing. "And so if it is going to be so easy, you could sit the fight out?"

His dark eyes flash in confusion. "I...uh..." He looks to Alice and Esme, a trapped expression on his face.

"You could take me to Florida. And then we would both be safe."

The guilt is overwhelming. I feel sick to my stomach. It's taking awful advantage of his feelings for me, but there's no other way. I won't be exiled. I won't miss what's about to happen.

Jacob's jaw drops. He looks around at the Cullens for help, but everyone seems to be frozen in place. "You'd ask me to let the pack fight without my help?"

I nod. "Or to let me be there. Either way, so long as we're together." I lace my fingers through his, and give him what I hope is an imploring expression. I hate myself for doing this.

Jacob sighs, and draws himself up to his full height before turning to Carlisle. "She stays. We'll work out a way to keep her safe."

I exhale slowly, tuning out the preparations for battle that start to whirl around me. Smoothing my fingertips over Alice's sketch of a young man with wild hair, striding across a field, his dark robe swirling around his ankles.

I know it with a heart's certainty, even if Alice does not. Edward is on his way.