I was struck when we arrived at the small, Alaskan school, by how seriously the humans seemed to be taking this experience. I sighed in confusion, and could feel Edward's puzzled eyes trained on my own.

"What are you thinking?" he asked me, speaking too quickly for the humans around us to hear. Even after all the years we'd been together, he was still morbidly fascinated by my thoughts. I replied, also too fast for human ears.

"I was just wondering why everyone is taking such a trivial event so seriously. They're acting as though it's going to be their final act before they move on to sleep in a coffin." Edward's eyes were amused, and he shook his head slightly, chuckling to himself. He brought his lips up to my ear, and the feeling of them moving over my skin there as he spoke had me shivering.

"Not everyone has the pleasure of going to prom multiple times," he reminded me, the proximity of his mouth to mine not missed by my seemingly single-track mind.

"I know that," I explained, "it's just, prom has never really been something I've jumped up and down to attend, you know?" He shook his head in teasing exasperation.

"Only you, Bella. Only you." I took such pleasure in the way my name sounded in his beautiful voice, that I decided to be kind and let the unintentional insult in his last sentence slide. I pecked him quickly on the lips, surprising him into silence, and allowed myself a celebratory grin as I pulled him towards the front doors, eager for this night to be over.

I failed to notice as the rest of our family, minus Esme and Carlisle of course, came up behind us. I jumped at Emmett's booming voice, as he greeted me with a happy,

"Hey little sis!" His words were accompanied with a pat on the shoulder, that actually hurt, even though I was a vampire as well. I winced as I popped my shoulder back into place, giving Emmett a playful smile.

"You've got to be more careful, Emmett," I teased. "What happens if you do that to Rosalie during your 'quality time?' Emmett, seemingly unbothered by my obvious mention of his sex life, only laughed and ruffled my hair playfully. He yelped in surprise as Alice grabbed his wrist suddenly, threatening in a low voice to bleach his hair in his sleep, something that would be permanent for a vampire. I was amused at how seriously Alice took messing up my hair, even if she worked on it for hours. I shuddered at the not so distant memory. We all laughed, knowing that Alice's threat was empty, seeing that vampire didn't sleep.

We entered the school under the watchful eyes of Mr. Copperfield, the Principal. Edward confirmed my suspicion that he was on the lookout for drunks and stoners by clutching me tighter and whispering in my ear,

"She's not heroine, buddy. You're over seventy years too late for that." I laughed at his reference to our first day in the meadow while the rest of our family stared at us with confused expressions on their faces. "Shall we?" Edward's glorious voice snapped my head up to look my butterscotch eyes with his hypnotizing ones. His arm, I realized, was held out for me to grab hold of, and I do. I allow him to lead us to the middle of the dance floor, years of proms having erased most of my fears about dancing in a crowd.

"For old times sake," I whispered in his ear, stepping lightly onto his toes with my own. He put his arms around me, and began to dance. Eventually, I stepped off of his feet, and we began twirling with abandon to the beat of the song. At the start of the first slow song, Edward wrapped his arms around me more securely, and I placed my chin on his shoulder comfortably. It's then that I saw him.

With my enhanced vision, the unfamiliar boy's crimson irises weren't hard to spot amongst the human's. He had ear-length, inky-black hair, that waved gently. His red eyes were focused on mine, and I couldn't seem to pull my gaze away. His expression was somewhat hungry, and it reminded me of an old friend. It reminded me of Jacob's right before he kissed me for the last time. I unconsciously shrunk into Edward as much as I possibly could, the admiring eyes unnerving.

Noticing my distress, Edward asked me what's wrong. I pondered my options, and decided that a jealous boyfriend was better than an obsessive man staring at me for the rest of the night.

"That vampire over there is staring at me," I murmured, cowering into Edward.

"Emmett?" he asked, amusement evident in his voice. I shook my head fast.

"No, the one with red eyes." Edward went rigid suddenly, and whipped around to face behind him. The man was still staring at me, a smirk situated on his face. His gaze, I noticed, was trained on my breasts, and I moved self-consciously so that I was standing behind Edward. He let out a low, warning growl, and I didn't stop him for once. I nearly whimpered when the man began moving towards us through the crowd, and it didn't escape my notice that Edward was holding a protective stance in front of me.

As the man approached, I could almost feel an energy coming from him. It was a bad energy. He grinned, extending a hand around Edward and towards me.

"Nice to meet you. My name is Nicholas." His voice, which I was sure was meant to be seductive, only sounded slimy to me and I shrunk away from his hand. He let it drop eventually, completely ignoring Edward who stood right beside me, a constant growl coming from him.

"It's nice to meet you, Edward, Bella." He paused, looking genuinely troubled. "I'm only sorry I don't know you're family's names. I'm afraid I haven't come into contact with them yet, but I can see that you're all very close." His eyes, I've noticed, are fixated on my torso, but I keep up the nerve to not hide this time.

"I'd appreciate it if you kept your eyes away from where they shouldn't be straying," I requested, crossing my arms over my chest. Edward's displeasure increased immensely at that, and I was sure he was going to dismember the man right here, right now. Not that I would have protested, but there were humans around, so I figured it best to make them stop.

"Would you guys mind taking this to the woods near the building?" I pleaded, wrapping my arms around Edward's waist in an attempt to keep him from doing anything stupid. Edward nodded tensely, and with that we began walking to the hallway. Once out the exit door, which we propped open with a brick, we sprinted quickly into the cover of the woods to talk.

"I would appreciate it if you would stop looking at my wife in such a vulgar way," Edward told Nicholas, the strain in his voice showed how hard he had to work not to lose it. Nicholas nodded, but didn't comply at first. He eventually sighed, and brought his gaze up from my chest. I shivered, and Edward pulled me to him harder in a protective manner. I snuggled into him, breathing in his relaxing aroma.

"I've come to warn you for the Volturi…"

"Yes, I know," hissed Edward. "I know what you're going to say, now please leave." Nicholas simply shrugged, not looking the least bit surprised. He winked at me as he turned to go, licking his lips once before running off into the night.

"Holy crow," I mumbled, feeling extremely violated. Edward pulled me to him viciously, burying my head into the crook of his neck. "So, what did the Volturi have to say?" I asked. The memory of the human drinking, peacekeepers had my voice shaking. Edward didn't say anything for a while, seemingly hesitant to worry me. I pulled away from him slightly to press a lingering kiss to his lips, and he sighed. He ran a hand through his hair anxiously as he told me what Nicholas had been sent to say.

"The Volturi have told us that we must turn a certain someone into them, or they'll kill the rest of our family. They're interested in that certain person's power, thinking it could be of great use to them." I swallowed against the huge lump that had formed in my throat. I was shaking, but my eyes would never leak tears.

"Who?" I asked, needing to know which of my siblings I was going to die for. Edward's eyes looked pained, as he answered me slowly, as if I might lose it if he told me things too fast.

"They want you." My head reeled, but I was relieved that my family wasn't at risk. If it came down to it, I would simply give myself up to save everyone else.

"But I have no powers?" My statement came out as a question, as I wondered why they would want me for my powers if I had none. Edward nodded solemnly, and I looked at him hard.

"What do you mean, yes?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper. He looked as though he would be throwing up were he a human, and he clutched me closer as if to assure himself that I was real.

"Well," he began, but I cut him off.

"Are you saying that I do have a power? That everyone has been hiding the truth from me for over seventy years?" My voice is quiet, colored with despair. Betrayal is prominent in my feelings, and it makes me feel sick. He nodded again, looking for all the world like he was about to start sobbing. He began to speak quickly, clutching me tightly to his chest, stroking my hair.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I should have told you earlier. We all should have, but we thought you would feel guilty if you knew, and we all love you too much to let you do that to yourself, and I love you so much more than I ever thought was possible, and…" he trailed off. I placed my finger over his lips and looked into his eyes.

"Edward," I asked, my voice shaky, "what exactly is my power?"

"Bella," he told me, "when you touch someone, they can't use their power." I sigh, not seeing how bad it was until Edward verified. "That would be highly beneficial to the Volturi."

"Oh, yah." I realized, numbness filling my being. "I suppose it would."