Paul swore.  “Why don’t we just invite the whole damn family?”

A chill swept through my arms and into my fingers.  Edward had been allowed into LaPush before only once when he’d helped Carlisle to nurse Jacob back to health.  Alice had never been over the boundary before, but the information that she was about to provide outweighed any hesitance the pack had about her sudden appearance.  Jasper, however, was an entirely different story.  I was pretty sure that the wolves would have felt more comfortable walking naked and human into a war zone than allowing Jasper within ten miles of Billy’s house.  They had always had an especially enhanced hatred of him.  They knew a natural born killer when they saw one.  It was an instinct they shared. 

A general unease seemed to blow in from the south with the breeze.  Everyone around me turned toward it, their heads high and human noses working just as hard as their wolf ones would have been, searching for the first sign of enemy approach—an enemy that just happened to be my new family.  Frustrated, I pushed past all of them, out into the crisp night air.

Nothing in the night around me gave any sign that things were even the slightest bit awry.  The moon had gone down nearly an hour ago and the pre-dawn had taken on the darker grey tinge that hinted at morning on this side of the Cascades.  It threatened to paint the pines green once again as I tried to make my way down the porch stairs and toward the place on the edge of the yard where I was sure Edward would appear.  A sentry of wolves stopped me, growling uneasily toward a place just to the right of where I’d been headed.   Seth came up behind me, still human, and pulled me back up onto the porch as the growling turned to a series of threatened barks and Embry and Paul left us to join the rest of the pack in wolf form.  Every eye was focused on the same dark patch of trees.

Sam emerged first—his large black wolf eyes reflecting the porch light as he strode into the yard.  He was followed, not quite so confidently, by Carlisle and Edward with Alice close behind.   Jasper had taken the rear, trying to see in every direction at once and looking more like a vampire than I’d ever seen him.  Carlisle, Alice, and Jasper stopped just past the tree line, back to back in a triangle of protection that did not allow any wolves to their flank.  Edward appeared at my side on the porch, surprising Leah, who’d been standing only inches away from me, and causing her to phase instantly.  She snapped at him as the remnants of her clothes fell down around us.

“My apologies,” Edward said to her, folding his arms around me protectively.  He was visibly distracted and staring out into the tree line as if expecting Tanya and Irina to show up at any second.  Leah let out an almost human growl in response, but a short angry yip from Sam overruled her protest and seemed to take all of the threat out of her stance.

“What’s this about, Carlisle?”  Billy’s voice rang out from behind me.  He directed his inquiry instinctively toward the figure of greatest authority in such a dangerous assembly.  “Are we just saying to hell with the treaty now?”

Carlisle’s voice reflected none of the tension in the air as he addressed Billy. 

“Actually, Mr. Black, I’m hoping that I’ll be able to preserve the treaty with my presence here today.”  It didn’t sound right, hearing Mr. Black coming from the mouth of someone who had 300 years on Billy.  “We’re here at Sam’s request.” 

“Sam asked that one there to come to my house?”  Billy indicated Jasper with a jerk of his chin, looking to Sam dubiously.  Jasper remained unaffected and eerily motionless, his eyes taking in every position like a chess player planning his next move. 

“Sam asked Edward and Alice to accompany him,” Carlisle clarified with a diplomatic smile.  “I’m afraid that Jasper and I are incredibly protective of our loved ones.  I’m sure you understand.  Please, think of us as a package deal.”

Billy snorted.  “That’s a package I think I’d have to pass on.”

“You should probably listen to what Alice has to say before you make up your mind on that, Billy,” Seth interjected.  He was the only wolf who had yet to phase. 

Billy looked cautiously from Alice to Jasper and back to Seth. 

“I thought she couldn’t see you boys.” 

Seth flinched.  Alice and Edward did too.  It was Carlisle who picked up the slack. “The vision she had tonight affects us all, unfortunately.  If it comes to pass, it will be devastating for all of us—not only your boys—and it will be because of a member of our family.  We would prefer to avoid such an end.”

Billy nodded, turning his attention finally toward Alice.  “And what end would that be exactly?”

 All eyes, every last claw and fang in the clearing—all full of loathing, and all of them willing and able to leap into a murderous blur in a fraction of a second—turned towards my tiny sister-in-law for answers as she prepared to describe a mass murder that hadn’t happened yet.  I felt Edward’s arms tense around me in anticipation and I was suddenly overwhelmingly grateful for Jasper’s presence.   Jasper, however, was no longer focused on Alice.  His eyes had drifted to the tree line behind us, toward the side of the house.  I looked up and saw that Edward’s attention was directed entirely toward that position as well.  Alice and Carlisle turned almost nonchalantly toward the same place, not sensing anything.  Only following suit.  The first words didn’t come from Alice’s mouth, but from the trees where all four of them were now looking. 

“You all die.” 

The reaction was instantaneous.  The air filled with confused and furious barking as the wolves closest to the dark patch of forest lunged blindly toward the source of the voice.  Seth phased—I heard the liquid sound of his clothes tearing before Edward swung me unceremoniously around, placing his own body between me and the minor chaos just past the porch steps.  My view half obscured by his rigid form, I watched as Irina stepped serenely out of the trees.  She made one quick, simple side step as the wolves charged, her body blurring for a moment as she slipped effortlessly out of their path.  She came into focus again about eight feet from her attackers. To my surprise, not one wolf turned to pursue her.  They continued into the woods where she had emerged, fur bristling.

“I go to our elders,” Irina continued softly.  “And I tell them what I’ve observed here.”

At the sound of her voice, Leah, Jarred, and Paul turned on their haunches and lunged toward her again, teeth gnashing.  She faced them without an appearance of concern, pivoting smoothly just out of their bite range, taunting them.

“Irina, this is ludicrous.” Carlisle’s voice was indignant as he moved forward toward her.  “What good can come from this game?”  He was not watching her, but the wolves in her pursuit.

“I tell them that you do not depend on the phases of the moon to transform,” Irina persisted without the slightest acknowledgement that Carlisle had spoken.  Once again the wolves reacted only after she had responded, lunging impulsively.

“And that you are able to choose your victims with human logic.”  She spun through the space in between two of them. 

“That you can communicate without speech, and how it seems that only a single wolf can tear one of our kind limb from limb.”  Leah dove at the air where Irina had passed.  The hollow snap of empty jaws echoed as Irina moved away calmly.  The wolves further up did not seem to notice her passing at all.

 “And most disturbing of all,” she swerved around Paul, close enough to ruffle the fur of his back, “I tell them how you seem to curb your instinct and alter your strategies to honor the will and the impulses of humans.”  Her eyes flitted momentarily toward me and Billy as she danced circles around her pursuers. “Some more than others.” 

Edward tensed further.  “Have you descended that far since we last met, Irina?”

I noticed that, though it looked as though he was following her movements, he was not focused on his cousin.  “Have you allowed one weak-willed fledgling vampire to affect you so much?”  He seemed to be watching through her eyes instead, his head turning to follow her, his eyes arriving seconds before she came to her planned position.  “That you would bend others’ perceptions to feed your own hate?  That you would lie to get revenge for him?”

She ignored him.   “I tell them this, and they kill you all.” 

Her expression darkened and her eyes fell toward Carlisle almost apologetically.  “They decimate your family….my family...even me, if Alice’s recounting of the vision is an honest one.”  Edward’s eyes mirrored hers.  He looked toward Alice with reflected reverence only a fraction of a second before Irina did, “And I believe that she is incapable of such a deception.  I trust her completely.” 

Alice was not watching Irina either, but observing the wolves as they sniffed cautiously at the place where the intruder had been moments ago.  In fact, the only ones who seemed to notice Irina’s progress through the crowd at all were Edward and I. The growling had not ceased, but the wolves were no longer following her, or even attempting to attack.  They seemed subdued, unorganized in contrast to Irina’s strange overconfidence, with ears perked up in alarm and noses working furiously.  Not one of them was tracking her as she advanced casually across the yard, only inches from several pairs of deadly jaws.  They had chosen defense over attack.

It occurred to me then with some surprise that no one there could see or smell her.  Irina had gone untraceable again, and everyone was operating purely on what she was allowing them to hear of her voice—even Edward.  Though the echoes of her own mind in his probably served almost as well as sight, I was the only one in the crowd who was privy to her slow plotted procession through enemy territory.

“I can see her,” I confessed in a whisper.  Edward was watching Alice now, his eyes flickering from one wolf to the next as Irina’s did the same, his body rotating around my own to compensate for Irina’s forward movement. 

“She knows.”

 His face was a mask of disgust as he directed his next words toward where he judged Irina must be positioned.

“I know what you think you’re doing.”  His voice was cautionary.  “I know what you hope to achieve.  It won’t end well.” 

Her rancor was only evident to me as she moved silently away from the pack and toward the place on the outskirts where Alice and Jasper were both crouched.  I saw with relief that Jasper was also tracking her—not following her physical form, I guessed, but the emotion that she must have been emitting in inevitable waves.  His eyes were jet black, like those of a leopard about to strike.

“Nothing involving these creatures ever ends well,” Irina hissed.

As she danced around Sam, headed toward the safety pocket behind Alice and Jasper, I felt the tension in the air around her plummet.  It rose again as she passed the porch, converting into an overwhelming desire to react violently.  I understood why Carlisle had needed Jasper to come.  He wasn’t only here to defend Alice.  He was manipulating every emotion on the field right now, trying to keep the situation from turning into a bloodbath.  As I watched, Irina drifted behind him, falling into his circle of protection.  He let her come, maintaining a constant vigilance on the wolves.  Irina was family.  She was not the threat. Not to him, at least. 

Sam, who had been watching me as I followed Irina, started warily toward the two—now three—vampires on the edge of the yard.  The invisible border of Jasper’s protective sphere seemed to glow in my mind as Sam treaded dangerously…stupidly…into attack range.  Jasper hissed and his deluge of false tranquility wavered for a fraction of a second.   The wolves snarled back at him, and twitched from their strange stupor for a moment, as if Jasper’s strained force field was the only thing preventing them from beginning World War III.

“Don’t Sam,” Edward cautioned, detaining the alpha wolf with only a tense shake of his head. “It’s what she wants.”  Sam growled grudgingly, not looking away from the place behind Jasper where my eyes told him Irina must be. 

“Use your senses.  Look around you.  We’re evenly matched.”  Edward’s voice was soothing, like a man trying to negotiate terms with a suicide bomber, and once again, I was sure I hit the nail on the head.  The wolves were all giant time bombs…and Sam was the trigger. “How many of you would die tonight?  Who would stand to benefit?”

Sam eyed Jasper like a seasoned gambler sizes up his opposition, seeming to finally fully grasp the situation.  A poorly masked anticipation had bloomed on Irina’s face as she stood, poised in attack stance and focused entirely on Sam, behind her double immortal wall.  I did not miss her disappointment as he backed off bitterly. 

Evenly matched. 

The same amount of wolves and vampires.  The words made me wonder how far off Rosalie and Emmett were.  I imagined them perched on the border, hanging on every distant word and poised to intervene at the slightest sign of disarray.  Esme would be with them, I guessed, worried and just as ready to fight. 

Carlisle had been observing from the sidelines, his eyes shifting between the only three of us who seemed to know Irina’s position with relative certainty. 

“Irina, be reasonable,” he said now in as tactful a tone as the situation would allow.  “This can’t be your aim.  You’ve been a part of my family for nearly a century.  I’ve known you for much longer.  You can’t possibly desire the deaths of so many only to carry out a vengeance that you already achieved ages ago.”

“She does,” Edward replied flatly.

“No…I don’t.”

The contradiction stopped everyone in their tracks.  Only Edward was not taken aback.  His eyes reflected the coldness I saw in hers, and then they darted to the forest as Irina’s did the same.

“I’ve seen enough death to last ten eternities.  There are others among you who would understand.”  She looked to Carlisle and she let her hand slide casually over the back of Jasper’s shoulders.  Jasper’s lips curled into an involuntary snarl. It was becoming obvious that he did not like operating blind on any level.  His frustration radiated in tiny subconscious jolts through his wall of forced peace.  “There are those who should already know that I could never desire the extermination of my family.”

“And what about the extermination of ours?”  

My head jerked toward the sound of the voice and I had to look away instantly, blushing in spite of the circumstances.    Sam, naked as the day he was born, was standing in the middle of a protective circle of his pack members, glaring at the blank space behind Jasper where instinct told him Irina should be. His skin glowed a dark silver in the fading moonlight.

“Sam!  What are you doing?” I screeched, trying to pull away without thinking.  What, exactly, I would have done if Edward had allowed me to run to Sam’s side didn’t cross my mind once.  It didn’t need to.  I made it one frantic step before I was yanked backward like a yo-yo and held steady, the bulk of Edward’s form between me and Irina.

“Smart move, pup,” he whispered.   From the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper’s head dip in agreement.  Both of them seemed almost impressed as they watched the wolf pack close in to cover their leader’s nakedness. 

“How is asking to be killed a smart move?” I whispered back.

“Irina has never seen a threatened wolf turn back into a human and place himself in such a vulnerable state.  She’s been acting under the premise that they can’t control themselves and has refused to see any other possibility.  Sam’s thrown her off.”  Indeed, Irina had stopped moving and was glaring at Sam, clearly shaken.  “Now that she’s seen him transform, she cannot mask it from Aro if she retreats to the Volturi. It weakens her case against them.” 

Irina snarled.  “One example of self sacrifice cannot blot out years of spilling human blood and killing without remorse or control.”

Sam made a move to respond, but Edward was too quick. 

“You’ve observed them now for quite some time,” he cut in.  “You’ve had the opportunity to see that they are in control of their transformations.  They’ve never killed at random, and they’ve never hunted humans.”

“Which is more than you can say.” Sam.

Paul and Embry had taken advantage of the distraction to break away from the pack and were creeping slowly toward the tree line, giving Jasper a wide berth as they tried to find a more favorable position to attack what they couldn’t see or smell.  Irina’s stance shifted toward them with frightening grace.

 “They die first, then?” she asked the all-too-human alpha.   Alice saw the two wolves as they tried to enter the trees and her crouch deepened.  Irina appeared—only to me—directly behind her, a frightening eagerness in her posture.

“Stand down!” Sam yelled, and even in his human form, his orders took on a barking quality.  He was not looking at his two rogue members, or even at the two vampire women poised to defend, but rather at Jasper, who had stopped blinking or even breathing when the two wolves had started for the trees.  Sam understood that Jasper’s defensive stance had never been against Irina.  He was waiting for the wolves to break, already planning for the battle that would be inevitable once his emotional barrier fell…and there was no doubt in anyone’s mind which side he would be on. 

“Are you seeing this?”  Sam called into the empty space behind Alice and Jasper.  “Do you see how they protect you?  You’ve just broken a treaty that’s been standing for eighty years.  Things can never go back to how they were.  You’ve just destroyed their life here.” 

He pointed at Alice, agitated. “That one had visions of how you kill off everyone here!  Even her!  And they still want to make sure you walk out of here alive.  How can you talk about killing without remorse or control?”

“The loyalty that I have for my family extends beyond a strained canine instinct, wolf.  It is a bond formed around the acquisition of a control that a half-breed would never be able to understand.”  There was a smirk on her face that no one else could see.  “Least of all you…if the scars across the face of your mate are any indication of the control you wish to portray.”

Surprisingly enough, it was Leah who reacted first, lunging a few yards forward on her imaginary leash.  Sam restricted her with more of a twisted yelp than a discernible order as his resolve shook and his entire body shimmered.  He took a reactive step toward Jasper before what I could only imagine was pure stubborn will stopped him. I’d never seen anyone as close to phasing without actually doing so. 

“Control it, Sam,” Edward said, his hand iron around my wrist.  “She’s testing you.”

“She’s doing a good job.  What does she want?” The words were low and spoken through clenched teeth, disregarding Irina entirely.  Apparently, direct peace talks were over. 

There was a moment’s hesitation as Edward fought past whatever distractions Irina had filled her mind with to keep him out for the past week.

“She wants you to react. Attack.” His face was blank.  His eyes moved from wolf to wolf, mirroring every one of Irina’s movements with frightening accuracy. “She wants to show us that you can’t control yourselves.”  His entire body suddenly tensed and his view jerked from the wolves back past Jasper and once more into the trees beyond.  “She needs you to convince her sister.”

Jasper swore under his breath.  I saw both him and Alice tense visibly in preparation, and then all attention was turned toward the place in the trees where Edward was looking as Tanya emerged from the darkness. The reaction was instantaneous.  There was barrage of barking and several attempts to break away from the pack and lunge toward the new arrival.  It took every bit of alpha control that Sam had to rally them around him again and avoid exactly the situation that Edward had just warned him against.  I discovered in that moment a wholly new respect for the young pack leader, but the general reaction left no question about it…Tanya, at least, was visible to everyone.

“You’re mistaken, Edward,” she interjected, gliding to a halt beside her sister.  “You’re reading things that are not there.”    

“How certain are you of that?” Edward asked.  “Would you lay your life on it? Or Carlisle’s? I’ve been reading thoughts for a long time now.” 

Tanya pondered her bronze-haired opponent gravely.  Edward’s abilities were not something to take lightly.  

“I am,” she said finally.  “Irina would never risk so many casualties for such a fruitless endeavor.  What you’ve seen in her thoughts is only a passing idea.  One that has already been discarded as foolish.  She’s come here now only to make peace.  Neither of us desire the end that Alice has seen. Who could?”

Sam snarled.  “From what I’ve heard, you’ve got to want it pretty bad for that one there to see it happening.”  He indicated Alice.  Tanya turned murderous eyes on him.

“What would you know of her talents, boy?” she hissed.  “All you see is another creature to mangle.”

Sam moved another step forward and the pack moved with him, reacting in fluid unison around him.  Alice drew in a hissed breath and Jasper’s crouch deepened.  His eyes flitted from wolf to wolf, marking the changes on his new chessboard…plotting alternative strategies. His focus was on Quil.  Quil would be the first to fall.  I held my breath as Edward tensed beside me. 

“Sam’s right, Tanya, and you know it,” he said, staring at her now with such miserable certainty that she could not ignore him.  “The Volturi are the only ones that could provoke the kind of destruction in Alice’s vision.  Irina knows that.  Can you deny that she’s tried to convince you to go with her to speak to them?” 

Tanya had no answer, but Edward had never needed a verbal response as validation.  His voice was almost sad as he continued.  “She’ll go to them with or without you.  Her decision has been made.  She’s come here to convince you…and to save as many of us as she can before she sentences the wolves to extinction...by inciting an attack.”

Tanya shook her head and held her hand out blindly in the direction of her invisible sister.  “You presume too much.”  I was the only one who was witness to the internal debate that took place before Irina finally took the hand offered her.   “A battle of such magnitude would take the lives of too many of us…”

“I don’t presume, Tanya, I see it!”  Edward’s grip was threatening to cut off my circulation.  His eyes were livid. “You’ve had years to hide your thoughts from me, but I’ve had years to find my way around your distractions!  Irina is convinced that our interactions with the wolves are the cause of Alice’s vision.  She thinks that their presence here will provoke a disciplinary action by the Volturi that will kill us all unless the Quileutes are eliminated here…tonight.”

This elicited a round of protest from the wolf pack.  My stomach churned with fresh disgust and I half wished that Sam could have his chance at Irina’s throat.

“She thinks that once Sam loses control of his pack and attacks her, we’ll all rally in her defense—that if my brothers and sisters are at stake, I will be forced to choose sides.  She’s convinced that I would turn against the wolves.” He looked to Irina coldly.  “But you already know all of this, don’t you Tanya?  You knew it when you joined her tonight.”

Tanya was holding on to Irina’s hand like a drowning swimmer clings to a lifesaver, but her face reflected a doubt in her sister that had probably never been there before in a millennium of undeath.  She had known.  That much was obvious, but I donn’t think that she had believed it.

“Are you implying that she’s incorrect in such an assumption?”  The doubt disappeared, replaced with something much worse—shock, revulsion…fear?  “That you would stand against your own family?  Because of the wishes of a human girl?”

“We would prefer never to have to know that answer to that.” Carlisle made a final attempt at intervention. “And none of us would desire to have to make that decision.  Would you?”

“Answer the question, Edward,” Irina pressed.  She looked vindicated.

Edward’s eyes reflected all of the tension that had to be screaming at him from every mind in the clearing, but his face was grim and determined.  He glanced quickly from Alice, wide-eyed and disbelieving, to Carlisle, whose expression was unreadable and whose mind, I guessed, was most certainly not.  After a moment’s pause, Edward nodded almost too slightly to notice in his father’s direction and he drew a slow, controlled breath.

“That is exactly what I’m implying,” he said, directing his next comment at Irina with cold determination.  “If a battle must be fought today because of your inability to see reason, then I will do my best to make sure that no one innocent dies.  I’ll fight with the wolves.”

The words rang across the yard like a gunshot.  They were a bold faced lie.  If Edward’s loyalty had been that ephemeral, the conflict would have ended in the car ride home from Seattle.  I could see that.  Jasper and Carlisle could see it.  Even the wolves were privy to the deception.  Their all-too-human leader’s face crumpled as he tried to hide his own disbelief, but Tanya looked like she had been hit by a freight train. 

“We’ve been a part of your family since you were a newborn!” she croaked, stumbling back toward her sister.  “You don’t truly expect us to believe that you would fight against Alice…against your own father…to save a pack of mongrels that have caused you nothing but misfortune since you took up residence here?”

Edward turned to his sister with perfectly feigned solemnity.  “Alice?”

Once again, Alice found herself at the center of attention as Tanya and Irina turned in unison to listen to the night’s newest finale.  Once again, it seemed to be only her talent that could create or avoid a massacre.  I wondered if she ever tired of being the center of random bouts of chaos. 

Alice nodded painfully, her eyes lost in an all too malleable future.  “He fights on their side…and I fight with him.”  The admission was not a decision on her part, but a detached portion of a vision.  She was only playing the narrator now.  I couldn’t tell if this was her piece of the deception or not. 

“Carlisle won’t fight against his own children.  He doesn’t want to resort to violence, but he defends us well.  Rose and Emmett fight with us, of course.  They’re not far off.  Esme joins the fight, and Jasper…”  She trailed off and her eyes came back into focus.  It did not need to be confirmed.  Jasper would never fight against Alice.  “No one dies.  Not tonight at least.  Only minor wounds and injured pride.  Nothing changes.”

Edward’s face was dead somber.  I hoped it was enough to be convincing. 

Tanya was frozen, her expression a twisted mask of betrayal as the confirmation of each reaction appeared in the faces around her.  Her voice was weak with that betrayal as she turned back to Edward.

“I wonder, cousin, if you are aware of the consequences your decision will bring over time?” 

“I’m aware of the deaths that it will avoid tonight,” Edward replied smoothly.

“And you know the course of action that you are forcing upon us,” she cast a cutting glance over the wolves, who writhed in their defensive line but did not advance, “by choosing a pack of animals and a human girl over your own kind—your own family.”  She was trembling with repressed emotion.

“Your decisions are your own, Tanya.  Don’t try to pass them onto me.  It is not my actions tonight that will sentence our family to death.  I’ve tried to reason with you.  I’ve tried to make you see what this choice will do to us, but you are blinded by a prejudice that should have ended centuries ago.  If your choice is to go to the Volturi and kill us all over a treaty you refuse to understand, then leave.  Tonight.  Carlisle and Jasper will accompany you to the airport.”

“Edward!” Sam’s voice rang out in protest. “I can’t let them leave!”

“Do you prefer to sacrifice a few of your pack?” Edward snapped.  “They are both over one thousand years old and you can’t even see one of them to fight her!” His glanced flitted to Jasper for only a moment.  “If you attack now, Quil and Paul are dead before you can even phase.” 

Both wolves moved in closer to their leader.  Jasper made his adjustments.

“Please!  Sam! Tanya!”  Carlisle stepped forward then, his eyes full of something that too closely resembled desperation.  “We’ll go now.  All of us.  Right now.  Esme and I will accompany you and Irina to Alaska.  We can discuss this with the rest of your family before any rash decisions are made.”

Both of the sister’s expressions had changed.  The glittering hatred and determination had disappeared from Irina’s eyes, leaving only a bland confusion.  Tanya was hurt, conflicted and glaring at Edward as if he had just made an attempt on her life.  After a long moment, she seemed to arrive at a painful conclusion.  Nodding, she began to back towards the tree line, dragging Irina with her. 

“I’m afraid that the rash decisions have all been made tonight in this clearing,” she said, grieving.  “But you are welcome in our home, Carlisle…however futile your efforts promise to be.” 

Irina showed none of her sister’s composure as she followed her and Carlisle from the yard.  She went with eyes blazing, though I was still the only one who could see them.  As they neared the trees, Jasper started to back away slowly as well, taking Alice’s hand and leaving a lingering relief that washed over the crowd like a cooling mist.  My heartbeat slowly started to sink below heart attack levels again, though Edward’s hand remained tight enough around my wrist to stop the pulse altogether in one hand.   Then his eyes closed slowly and he drew in a penitent breath. 

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered, pulling me into his arms and guiding me backwards toward the door.  “He heard the end…it was enough.”  There was a profound regret on his face that confused me for only a moment until I felt a warm hand close over my left shoulder.

“What’s going on out here, Bells?” 

 My heart sank.  I turned in regretful surprise to face my father, who was wide awake and looking around suspiciously, his hair plastered to the side of his head that he had been sleeping on.

“What’s everyone doing here?  And why the Hell is Sam naked?” This seemed to puzzle him more than the pack of wolves that were now struggling against the will of their leader or the group of pale figures disappearing, entirely too quickly and gracefully, into the forest. 

It happened so fast that I didn’t have time to react. 

Edward, who had been concentrating entirely on Charlie, noticed the oncoming attack only moments before it happened, and only seconds before the scent and sound of the approaching wolf—putting an end to any hope of a peaceful end to the evening.  Edward stiffened and his eyes went blank.  There was time for both him and Carlisle to utter a unified “no!” before Jacob emerged—actually more like flew—from behind the retreating party, headed straight for Tanya’s throat.  He would have claimed the first kill of the night if Jasper hadn’t been there twice as fast, knocking Jacob away.

“Jacob!  Jasper! STOP!” 

Someone was screaming and it took me another second to realize that it was me.  A reaction executed long before my mind could comrehend what had happened.  Without thinking, I pushed forward, trying in vain to slip through Edward’s grasp.  I heard Billy beside me as he called out to Sam.

“It’s Jacob!  Help him!”

By the time I’d looked back toward the wolves, Sam had phased, his voice turning into a bark in mid-battle-cry and so I didn’t actually hear the order freeing the wolves from their previous forced sentinel.  They exploded toward their prodigal pack member, leaping in every direction like a pressure mine, all headed toward one final destination.

I did not even have time to process the beginning of a battle before the night was filled with furious half snarls and the sickening crash of indestructible bodies colliding—the same sounds that had taken up residence in my nightmares ever since the confrontation with Victoria’s newborn army.   Edward turned in a blur and pushed me roughly into Charlie’s arms, ignoring my protests completely.  Charlie complied, oblivious.  Police training had made his reactions quick, but nothing could have prepared him for the situation he had just stumbled into.

“What the Hell am I seeing here?” he demanded. 

There was no time to waste in explanation.  Edward’s face was grim.  He met Charlie’s eyes the way a father instructing a son would.  “Hold her here, Charlie,” he commanded.  “Don’t let her go, please…no matter what you see.”  There was a horrific shaking snarl as one of the wolves jaws struck home.  “If she comes after me, she’ll die.  Can you see that?”

Charlie nodded.

“Edward, no!” I screamed at him, redoubling my efforts to escape, but my father’s grip was adrenaline powered and almost as firm as Edward’s.  His eyes shifted to the mob of fur and blurred white monsters. 

“You’re not getting in the middle of that, are…?”

“Edward!” 

It was Esme.  As predicted, the rest of the Cullens had been waiting on the border to intervene.  It had taken them seconds to arrive.  As I fought in Charlie’s grip, Rosalie and Emmett appeared on the sidelines of the skirmish.  Emmett rushed in with an air of joy that made my stomach lurch.  Jasper was struggling against Jacob on the edge of the yard.  I saw Seth and Paul dive in to defend their pack member, and I caught a brief glimpse of Alice and the Denali sisters as they rushed in on Jasper’s behalf before the rest of the battle became a strange haze of fangs and fur and the blur of frighteningly white teeth with only flashes registering in my frustratingly human eyes.  Edward and Esme exchanged dismayed glances.  I knew what happened next.

“No!  Edward, don’t go!” I pleaded, knowing it would do no good. 

“Don’t let her come after me,” he said to Esme, and then with a quick evaluating glance at Charlie, “Don’t let him go for his gun.”

“My gun!”  Charlie jerked as if he’d just awoken from a nightmare.  His arms dropped and he turned for the porch door.  I lurched toward the battle, but Esme stopped me after only a foot, detaining both me and my father with one cold gesture. I squealed in frustration, but Charlie seemed to realize exactly how little his gun would serve him and turned back without protest.  He grabbed me around the shoulders again.

 “Be careful,” Esme said to Edward.  She was shaking—whether from fear for her family or desire to join her son I couldn’t be sure—and her eyes were following something in the crowd, moving impossibly fast.  Carlisle perhaps, or one of her daughters.  

Edward nodded, his face bleak and distant as if his mind had already joined the fight.  His gaze slipped back to me.

“I love you,” he said.  “I’m sorry.”

I felt a lingering kiss on my forehead and reached out to grip his arm—to hold him there with me, but he was already gone into the fray.  I fought furiously against Charlie, but I was forced to concede when he lost his hold on my shoulders and Esme took over.   Charlie came up beside Billy, rubbing an elbow that I had just kicked in my efforts.  He didn’t look at me or at his frantic friend.  He was fixed on the battle as if in a trance.

“Did your son just…disappear?” he asked Esme simply.  There was no reply.    

“Are your kids in the middle of that?” he tried again.

As if in response, Emmett was thrown free of the group, flung onto his back by a snarling black blur.  Charlie’s hand went instinctively for the gun that, thankfully, wasn’t on his hip.   Esme’s slipped to her heart and she took an instinctive step toward her son.  I took two before she pulled me back.   Charlie’s attention flickered from the fight to the mother, and he stared at her finally with wide eyes as if seeing her for the first time. 

“What the hell are you?”

Esme flinched, but continued to stand unnaturally still and silent, her vampire eyes catching every move that our human ones could not.  The battle took on a flowing chaos that I could only watch from a distance.  The wolves moved just as fluently as the vampires, and though most of them had fanned out and gone after different strategic targets, there was the impression that they were all moving as one instrument, all set on defending their home.  It was perfectly choreographed, terrifying.

There was an animal scream and the sickening crunch of bone from somewhere on the edge of the fight.  I turned my attention toward the source in time to find Irina pulling away from the main fray.  Quil passed right by her, lunging for what I imagined was an otherwise occupied Alice and exposing himself completely, but he did not even notice the wild blond vampire.  She was still untraceable.  I whimpered and tried to wriggle out of Esme’s grasp.

Irina did not attack, however.  Her eyes turned up into a poignant glare that was unmistakably directed at me.  She turned, kicked out at a wolf that I could not identify, and pulled her sister quickly from the ground.  Then they were gone—disappearing into the forest and away from the battle that they had started.  I felt, rather than saw Esme’s head turn as she followed their progress.

“Did you see them?” I asked.

“I saw Tanya,” she admitted, releasing me.  “Was Irina with her?”

I nodded anxiously.  “We have to stop…”

But that was as far as I got.  A squeak of surprise sounded from one of the girls, followed by a rising shriek that cut off too quickly and Esme disappeared from my side without warning.  Charlie rushed over to grab me, but I slipped easily away and leapt down the porch steps in one bound, some of his choicest swear words echoing behind me.

“They’re gone!” I screamed into the blur of writhing forms. “Irina’s not here anymore!  You’re fighting each other!”    

My words had absolutely no affect, but Esme’s inside influence apparently had.  The wolves at the far side of the battle had ceased their attack.  I saw Alice and three of pack members circling each other dangerously as Carlisle and Esme stood in the center talking them down.  Alice was favoring her left hand and two of the wolves were visibly limping.

Frantically, I searched the rest of the battleground for Edward.  He appeared on the outskirts at the other end, pulling Rosalie away.  By the looks of it, he was having a difficult time.  Rosalie was clutching at her cheek and writhing in his arms.

“That bitch!” she screamed.  “I’m going to knock every one of those teeth from her flea infested jaw!”

To my surprise, Edward was grinning.  I started toward them, skirting the grappling forms of Emmett, Jasper, and several wolves.  I was desperate, but not quite stupid.  There was nothing I could do in the center of an immortal catfight but die. I was halfway to him when Edward noticed my progress.  His head snapped up and the glow of battle disappeared instantly from his face.

“Bella, stay where you are!”

Several things seemed to happen simultaneously then.  It was the same feeling that I’d had in the moments before Tyler’s runaway van had forced Edward to reveal himself to me.  Nothing moved any slower.  Nothing became more clear, but the adrenaline seemed to take over, refining my instincts and obliterating my common sense altogether. 

I saw Edward’s face melt into a mask of frustration and terror.  I saw Rosalie slip from his grasp and start toward Leah with a frightening snarl that caused the tear in her cheek to gape.  But of infinitely more importance was the huge, russet-brown blur that was headed to intercept Rosalie.  Jacob had been thrown out of the battle that was still raging between Emmett, Jasper, and four of the more stubborn members of the pack.  He’d recovered quickly and redirected his attack, barreling, out of control, toward Rosalie…and Edward was between them, completely distracted by me.

I darted toward him, almost tripping over Embry’s hindquarters as he was thrown into my path.  If I could arrive in time to put myself in between them, Jake would stop.  I was sure of it.  He’d done it before.

It took less than a second for Edward to notice the charging wolf and realize what I was trying to do.  A growl began deep in his chest as he started toward me without hesitation.  Jake, who had been focused on Rosalie, was distracted by Edward’s sudden movement and reacted with nothing more than pure reflex. He altered his course instantly and lunged toward Edward instead, arriving just as his arms closed around me. 

I felt myself being turned impossibly fast and realized that Edward was turning his back on a charging werewolf to protect me, leaving himself completely defenseless in the process.

“No, Edward!  He’ll stop if he sees me!” I screamed at him.

But Jacob didn’t stop.

There was time, in my heightened state, to register the look of terror that overtook the fury in Jacob’s lupine eyes.  There was time for me to understand my own error in my calculation of projectory force, but there wasn’t enough for Edward to fully turn and pull me into his barrier of protection before teeth collided with stone cold flesh.  I heard the growl in Edward’s chest become a cry of fury as a strange burning pressure began in my neck…heard it rise to inhuman levels as something warm began to flow from my throat and down my chest.  And then Edward’s arms were like a stone enclave around me, protecting me from being crushed under both of their weight as both figures fell on top of me and the breaking dawn was blotted out entirely.