This chapter took forever to write. Sorry about the block. I am also sorry about the Volturi misspelling. I am not sure why my fingers keep doing that. I think I caught it this time. Remember I love reviews.

Chapter 19: The calm before the storm.

The ride home was not so quick. Esme drove with Angela in the passenger seat. Alice and I were on either side of a passed out Stephanie. We knew we had to leave Seattle as fast as possible. The police, or someone, would be attracted to the flames and we did not want to get detained for questioning. I'm not sure what Stephanie is going to do, but I know that the police would only escalate the problem. As we neared Marks, Stephanie started to awaken. She looked at us a little groggy. I hoped for a half second that she believed she had dreamed the whole thing up. She slowly looked at me, then Alice. Suddenly she opened her mouth, and let out the shrillest scream. Her scream lasted less than a half of a second, Alice was somewhat expecting it. Alice wrapped her hand around Stephanie's mouth.

"Please don't scream." Alice soothingly spoke. "You're going to be okay." Stephanie looked at her. "I know what you're going to say. Trust me on that. I assure you, we are not going to attack you or your family. We don't hurt humans." Stephanie gave her a look. "We're vegetarians." She stated matter of factly. "Now, if I remove my hand, will you please calmly discuss this with our family and not scream?" Stephanie nodded. Alice frowned. "You're still considering screaming when I let my hand off of your mouth." Alice sounded hurt. Stephanie relaxed and Alice let her hand fall from her mouth. "That's better."

"How did you know I wanted to scream still?" Stephanie asked, bewildered. I thought I better explain that.

"Alice can see the future."

"Conditionally" Alice added in. Stephanie nodded, once again, numb. Stephanie looked at everyone in the car, again.

"If you're really vampires, why don't your fangs hang down?" Esme laughed, a little relieved to hear Stephanie talking again.

"It's a myth. Our teeth are just like yours, only sharper, and we have venom that excretes from them. Stephanie gulped and went on with her questions.

"How old are you?" She had given a shy look around, awe, taking the place of fear.

"Did you notice that question is always in the top five?" I asked lightening the mood. Alice smiled, and Angela turned around. She didn't really know the Cullen's real ages.

"We died the ages that we look." I started. "Edward, Alice, Rosalie, Jasper, Emmet and I are all in our late teens. Esme and Carlisle are in their late twenties or early thirties. Exact ages are hard to remember for Carlisle. Alice and Edward were born at the first of the century, Esme was born a few years afterwards, but outlived Edward and Alice. Rosalie and Emmet were born around 1910 or so, Jasper was born near the Civil War era, and Carlisle was born in the 1600's, so he believes." Stephanie looked shocked.

"What about you?" She asked. I had completely forgotten to include myself.

"I was born in 1985. I died four days short of my 19th birthday." I looked at Alice who was intent on focusing on Stephanie. "Renesmee was born four years ago." Stephanie's eyes bulged. "She's part human and part vampire." I explained. "I died giving birth to her." Stephanie still looked confused. "We'll explain it better once we get to the house." I noticed that it was probably near eleven O'clock. Esme looked at Stephanie in the rearview mirror.

"Will you please call your husband and tell him that we're staying in Seattle for the night? We have to explain all this to you before you go home." She noticed Stephanie hesitating. "I promise everything is all right and you'll be okay. It's just, you need to know how severe this really is." Stephanie nodded and took out her phone and dialed.

~*~

We pulled into the driveway. All the lights were on. I could see a bit of movement near the second story window. I then smelled the musky smell of wolves.

"Jake and a few of his friends are here." I responded, automatically.

"I know," Alice grumbled. "I can't see a thing." Once we entered the house I was nearly knocked over by Edward.

"Bella, my love, are you all right?" He pushed me away enough to look at me. His eyes immediately went to my disshelved look and the bite mark on my arm." Renesmee ran up to me and hugged me also.

"I'm okay." I mumbled into his chest. I pushed him away so that I could look at him. "We killed one, but the other vampire got away. We brought Angela and Stephanie here."

"Jake, Seth, and Leah are going to stay with us for back up, Sam will be here with in a phone call, and..." He comprehended what I had said about Stephanie, who was looking at us with new eyes.

"This explains the camping trips your family takes when the sun is out." She began. "and why I never see anyone eating, or the strange decline in the deer population. My husband has been complaining about that." She sat down on the couch exhausted. Renesmee sat down next to her.

"She's taking this better than Charlie." Emmet laughed.

"But not as good as Bella." Alice remembered. Stephanie shut her eyes.

"Are you feeling nauseous? Do you need a cold compress?" Carlisle asked.

"She's not going into shock, she's just processing everything she's been told, and she's tired." Edward sat on the ottoman.

"Alice can see the future. What other powers does your family posses? Are you even called a family? What do people call a group of vampires?" Stephanie seemed to be rambling.

"A group of vampires is called a coven." Angela replied. "but the Cullens are a family."

"Not all vampires are born with extra abilities." Edward started. "Alice can see the future, I can read minds, Bella can shield people from her mind, Jasper can control moods, and Renesmee can show others her thoughts." Stephanie let out a short laugh.

"Of course" She didn't seem to believe us.

"Don't forget us." Jacob brought attention to himself. Stephanie looked to the unfamiliar voice. "We're shape shifters. We're sworn enemies of vampires. Well, except the Cullens." Stephanie laughed again.

"Sure you are." Carlisle looked amused.

"She's gone into denial."Carlisle continued watching as Jacob walked to the middle of the room, and started taking his shirt off. Stephanie looked at him as if he had gone insane, and then in an instant, his body had contorted and he burst into a russet colored wolf. Stephanie screeched, and Jacob started barking. His bark sounded like a laugh. He padded off toward his room.

"He's changing back and getting some more clothes." Edward assured her. Stephanie shut her eyes again. Angela left the room.

"Good job, mutt, now she's going into shock!" Rosalie yelled into the other room.

"She's fine." Edward assured her. "Now, Bella, what happened?"

"We were walking back towards the car, when we noticed we were being followed. At first, we thought they might be boys up to trouble, but then we noticed that the man following us, didn't have a heart beat. We dashed, he followed, and in the time it took him to find us, Esme and I had hidden Stephanie and Angela. They attacked and we fought back. Stephanie cut her hand and that distracted them, long enough for us to get the upper hand, and then Angela cut her hand to save the man from hunting out Stephanie. The man got away and we burned the female." Edward looked deep in thought.

"The Volturi is going to assume we attacked a hunting vampire. It's going to look as if we chose a human over our own kind."

"But he attacked us. They didn't get close enough to Stephanie or Angela to really know they were human." I defended.

"But, Bella, the Volturi doesn't need much provocation to attack. Edward is just warning us what the Volturi are going to base their charges on." Carlisle walked over to Esme and hugged her. I turned my gaze to Renesmee, who was sitting next to a sleeping Stephanie. Renesmee was holding her hand.

"If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here, whilst these visions did appear." Edward muttered, musically. Leave it to Edward to quote Shakespeare at a time like this.

"Stephanie isn't going to think she dreamed the whole thing up." I whispered. He smiled while watching her.

"I know, Renesmee is showing her how our family came to be. She's starting with how you came to Forks. It's her favorite story."

"We've told it to her often." I replied as I watched Renesmee stare at Stephanie. I heard Angela reenter the room.

"I just called Ms. Wintours. She is on her way back. I'm afraid she didn't find many witches that would follow her." Alice hugged Angela.

"Any help would be in our favor." Jasper added calmly. Jacob came back into the room, fully dressed. He started to growl.

"Someone's coming." He glared at the door. "It smells like a leach." Edward's head shot up and he stared at the door.

"It's Eleazar." As soon as he said his name, the doorbell rang. Carlisile answered the door and Eleazar walked in.

"Carlisle, my friend, I'm so sorry to barge in, but my family just received a visit from the Volturi. They were doing a surprise inspection of the covens in America. They are not thrilled with the Cullen clans, as they are calling us. They haven't found anything to attack us for, but I think it is only a matter of time." He paused to look at our faces, gauging our reactions before he went on. "While they were inspecting, a vampire with one arm ran up to them, one of their spies. He said he was mercilessly attacked by a group of Cullens while he was hunting. He said his mate was killed. Aro was furious. He wanted me to deliver a message to you myself. They are coming to meet with you to charge you for your crimes. They want the entire coven there. He emphasized the word 'coven'. He said that if your entire coven wasn't there, then your precious town of Marks would burn, and they would hunt you down, along with your pet wolves." Eleazar looked beaten. The message seemed to have aged him. "Carlisle, I don't see your family talking their way out of this one, even with a daughter as wonderful as Bella, or a granddaughter like Renesmee." Jasper started into full war tactics mode.

"How many of the Volturi are here?" He asked.

"Aro, Demetri, Caius, Jane, Alec, and the body guards, that would be about fifteen to twenty. They may even have more that didn't join them to search our house." Jasper was counting us in his head.

"If all the wolves join, we should be fairly evenly matched. The Volturi would not allow that. I must be missing something." He started to muse to himself.

"Jasper, they just need to take one of you out to have you all beaten." Eleazar reminded him. Jasper took the information in and turned to stare at me.

"If they get to Bella, then Alec and Jane can render us defenseless. She must be their first target."

"She was the target this evening." Eleazar added. "I followed Aro and the vampire spy. He took him deep into the woods and reprimanded him for not disposing of the shield. Then he destroyed the vampire for his incompetency." I shuddered. I was the first one on the Volturi hit list. Edward hugged me tightly. He then grabbed a pen and paper, and started scribbling furiously. He finished, and sealed the letter in and envelope and handed it to Eleazar.

"Thank you for all of your help." Edward hugged him, slipping the instructions into his back pocket, so that Eleazar would not see it. "Do not touch Aro, if you can avoid it. We haven't given away too many of our strategies, just in case. After the Volturi leave, have your family pack. You will know where to go. We will send word, somehow. When it is safe to return to your house, we will let you know." Eleazar nodded, somewhat understanding what Edward was talking about. He then hugged everyone in the family, saving me for last. As Eleazar embraced me he whispered in my ear.

"We'll be praying for you, sweet Bella." His breath was raspy, as if he was trying not to cry. I felt my stomach tighten into a knot. The cold moon, which was supposed to be in a month, was now here. Eleazar left, and his absence sent the family into silence. Renesmee broke the silence.

"Eleazar never said where the Volturi wanted to meet." Alice looked up and her eyes glazed. She was having a vision.

"The Wal-mart at the edge of town, near midnight, tomorrow." Alice looked at Renesmee and then she went back to having another vision. "If we try to hide, they will set the Wal-mart on fire. They will kill the firemen that come to save the store, then they will help the fire spread throughout the town, killing everyone." She looked down, avoiding everyone's eyes. Jacob picked up his phone and walked to the other room. Renesmee removed her hand from Stephanie's.

"What about Stephanie?" She asked, looking at Stephanie's sleeping form. Angela smiled.

"We'll get her home tomorrow. We'll get her relocation started. The witches will take care of her." She assured us. "Okay," She said trying to change the subject. "The people in the house that need to sleep should get to sleep, it's late, and tomorrow is going to be busy." I smiled at her attempt to lighten the air. Even Jasper had given up on trying to make the mood merrier. Jacob walked back into the room and sat on the sofa next to Renesmee.

"Sam and the pack are on their way now, they'll be here soon. I think I'll let Leah and Sam sleep. I'll scare them in the morning with the news." I then remembered the presents I had gotten for Renesmee and Angela. I moved away from Edward and went for my purse. I pulled out the package and walked over to Angela.

"In case we don't all make it to Christmas, I wanted to give you your Christmas present early." I handed Renesmee her choker and she smiled as she fastened it to her neck. I then took out the other necklace and walked towards Angela. I handed her the family crest necklace. She unfastened the loop and I put it around her neck.

"Our family would like to extend a welcome for you to join us; you can move with us and never have to worry about leaving your family behind again." Angela looked at the crest. Her fingers touched the symbols lightly. She hugged me tightly and then looked at the rest of the family.

"I'm a Cullen now." She whispered. Emmet looked over at her skeptically.

"I don't know if you want to brag about that, now." Angela looked at the necklace.

"It's an honor that I intend to fight for."

~*~

Hows it going so far? I am nervous to write the battle scenes. I want it to last a while, but I don't want it to drag out over a lot of chapters. Maybe one long chapter, or two. I'm still debating. Let me know your ideas.