I couldn't swallow. My foot started to ease back, but I froze when his red eyes flickered down to catch the movement.

"Oh," I said in a faint voice. "Jasper has problems with that, too."

Jasper bowed his head at that – it wasn't just the mention of his weakness, but the reminder that if he hadn't... this never would have had to happen.

"Don't move," the voice whispered. I tried to do what he instructed. It was hard; the instinct to take flight was nearly uncontrollable.

"Really?" Laurent seemed interested. "Is that why they left?"

"No," I answered honestly. "Jasper is more careful at home."

"Yes," Laurent agreed. "I am, too."

The step forward he took now was quite deliberate.

"Did Victoria ever find you?" I asked, breathless, desperate to distract him.

Jasper became almost as stiff as Edward at the mention of this. His eyes were calculating and suspicious.

It was the first question that popped into my head, and I regretted it as soon as the words were spoken.

Victoria – who had hunted me with James, and then disappeared – was not someone I wanted to think of at this particular moment.

But the question did stop him.

"Yes," he said, hesitating on that step. "I actually came here as a favor to her." He made a face. "She won't be happy about this."

"Damn," Jasper said.

"What?" Emmett asked.

"Victoria...she's after Bella," Jasper said.

"What?" several people shouted and then looked at Edward. He was still frozen, and even his eyes where now lifeless.

"About what?" I said eagerly, inviting him to continue. He was glaring into the trees, away from me. I took advantage of his diversion, taking a furtive step back.

He looked back at me and smiled – the expression made him look like a black-haired angel.

"About me killing you," he answered in a seductive purr.

Everyone let out another hiss.

I staggered back another step. The frantic growling in my head made it hard to hear.

"She wanted to save that part for herself," he went on blithely. "She's sort of…put out with you, Bella."

"Me?" I squeaked.

He shook his head and chuckled. "I know, it seems a little backward to me, too. But James was her mate, and your Edward killed him."

At that Esme got up and wrapped her arms around the Edward statue – he didn't move or acknowledge her at all – he was beyond pain now, realizing that everything about his decision to leave had been wrong.

Even here, on the point of death, his name tore against my unhealed wounds like a serrated edge.

Laurent was oblivious to my reaction. "She thought it more appropriate to kill you than Edward – fair turnabout, mate for mate. She asked me to get the lay of the land for her, so to speak. I didn't imagine you would be so easy to get to. So maybe her plan was flawed –apparently it wouldn't be the revenge she imagined, since you must not mean very much to him if he left you here unprotected."

An involuntary shiver ran through Edward's body.

Another blow, another tear through my chest.

Laurent's weight shifted slightly, and I stumbled another step back.

He frowned. "I suppose she'll be angry, all the same."

"Then why not wait for her?" I choked out.

A mischievous grin rearranged his features. "Well, you've caught me at a bad time, Bella. I didn't come to this place on Victoria's mission – I was hunting. I'm quite thirsty, and you do smell… simply mouthwatering."

The growl that came from Edward was unexpected and all the louder because of it. The blame and pain seem to be taking a backstage as the rage broke through at those words. It looked like he was planning on going to find James' coven now and kill each and every one of them…which wasn't a bad idea at all.

He got up and started pacing the room as he gritted his teeth, his hands balled into fists at his sides. It was obvious to everyone watching him that he was beyond frustrated that he couldn't do anything; which was only made worse by the fact that even his book self wouldn't be there to help.

Laurent looked at me with approval, as if he meant it as a compliment.

"Threaten him," the beautiful delusion ordered, his voice distorted with dread.

"He'll know it was you," I whispered obediently. "You won't get away with this."

"And why not?" Laurent's smile widened. He gazed around the small opening in the trees. "The scent will wash away with the next rain. No one will find your body – you'll simply go missing, like so many, many other humans. There's no reason for Edward to think of me, if he cares enough to investigate.

"I would figure it out and kill you for this!" Edward shouted.

Alice bowed her head as she thought of what the book Edward had said in the first chapter…about suicide and thought that might not be true...

"He would not live!" Edward shouted.

This is nothing personal, let me assure you, Bella. Just thirst."

"Beg," my hallucination begged.

"Please," I gasped.

Laurent shook his head, his face kind. "Look at it this way, Bella. You're very lucky I was the one to find you."

"Am I?" I mouthed, faltering another step back.

Laurent followed, lithe and graceful.

"Yes," he assured me. "I'll be very quick. You won't feel a thing, I promise. Oh, I'll lie to Victoria about that later, naturally, just to placate her. But if you knew what she had planned for you, Bella…" He shook his head with a slow movement, almost as if in disgust. "I swear you'd be thanking me for this."

Edward eyes were on fire...thinking of the torture that was promised or the quick fate that Laurent was offering like it was some sort of gift.

I stared at him in horror.

He sniffed at the breeze that blew threads of my hair in his direction. "Mouthwatering," he repeated, inhaling deeply.

I tensed for the spring, my eyes squinting as I cringed away, and the sound of Edward's furious roar echoed distantly in the back of my head. His name burst through all the walls I'd built to contain it. Edward, Edward, Edward. I was going to die. It shouldn't matter if I thought of him now. Edward, I love you.

The feeling of utter uselessness caused Edward's fists to ball so tightly that his fingers were digging into his palms.

Through my narrowed eyes, I watched as Laurent paused in the act of inhaling and whipped his head abruptly to the left. I was afraid to look away from him, to follow his glance, though he hardly needed a distraction or any other trick to overpower me. I was too amazed to feel relief when he started slowly backing away from me.

"What is it?" Emmett asked confused by this reaction.

"IT'S THE WEREWOLVES!" Edward shouted – his complete relief and elation evident all over his face.

"YES!" several people cheered.

"I guess they finally have a use," Rosalie muttered, though she was looking just as relieved as everyone else.

"I guess this will make it even harder for you to hate the pup," Emmett laughed.

"Who cares! She's okay," Edward said almost buoyantly. "I'll have a chance to make this up to her..."

"Er... isn't this all irrelevant anyways?" Emmett questioned. "I mean, you know that you're never going to leave her in real life, so this will never happen."

"And you waited until now to bring that up," Edward hissed as he remember that fact.

"I just thought of it," Emmett shrugged.

"I will never be able to hear about Bella in a dangerous situation and not be worried about her," Edward admitted. "It doesn't matter if it will never happen like this. I don't like knowing that she'll be hurt by anything."

"I think this pain is good for you," Jasper offered.

"Geez…thanks Jazz," Edward grumbled.

"I have to say this now, seeing as you're so relieved at the moment and are probably going to go back to desire soon enough," Jasper said and Edward made a face at that. "What you're going through…it's going to make it easier when you do meet her."

"Because I'm already changed for her," Edward said, looking thoughtful.

"Yes," Jasper agreed.

"I don't believe it," he said, his voice so low that I barely heard it.

I had to look then. My eyes scanned the meadow, searching for the interruption that had extended my life by a few seconds. At first I saw nothing, and my gaze flickered back to Laurent. He was retreating more quickly now, his eyes boring into the forest.

Then I saw it; a huge black shape eased out of the trees, quiet as a shadow, and stalked deliberately toward the vampire. It was enormous – as tall as a horse, but thicker, much more muscular. The long muzzle grimaced, revealing a line of dagger-like incisors. A grisly snarl rolled out from between the teeth, rumbling across the clearing like a prolonged crack of thunder.

"Oh dear... I hope she doesn't get hurt," Esme said.

"If there's only one, it will be a close fight," Edward said, already starting to slip back into panic. "But if the pack is there, it will be easy for them."

The bear. Only, it wasn't a bear at all. Still, this gigantic black monster had to be the creature causing all the alarm. From a distance, anyone would assume it was a bear. What else could be so vast, so powerfully built?

"Don't move an inch," Edward's voice whispered.

"Hmmm... I'm not sure you would have said that one," Carlisle mused, cocking his head to the side. "You would know that the wolf wouldn't hurt her. Especially not with a vampire right in front of them."

"But she doesn't know that…and it's just a voice in her head telling her what she thought I would say," Edward said. "And if I didn't know what the wolves were...I might have said that."

"Good point," Carlisle agreed, nodding his head. "I just got used to the voice saying exactly what you would say, I guess," he added, looking amused.

I wished I were lucky enough to see it from a distance. Instead, it padded silently through the grass a mere ten feet from where I stood.

I stared at the monstrous creature, my mind boggling as I tried to put a name to it. There was a distinctly canine cast to the shape of it, the way it moved. I could only think of one possibility, locked in horror as I was. Yet I'd never imagined that a wolf could get so big.

Another growl rumbled in its throat, and I shuddered away from the sound.

Laurent was backing toward the edge of the trees, and, under the freezing terror, confusion swept through me. Why was Laurent retreating? Granted, the wolf was monstrous in size, but it was just an animal. What reason would a vampire have for fearing an animal? And Laurent was afraid. His eyes were wide with horror, just like mine.

"Because our survival instincts are very strong, and he could sense that he was in danger," Jasper said.

As if in answer to my question, suddenly the mammoth wolf was not alone.

"Good," Esme let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah," Edward agreed, he wouldn't want any of the wolves getting her when they were protecting Bella for him.

Flanking it on either side, another two gigantic beasts prowled silently into the meadow. One was a deep gray, the other brown, neither one quite as tall as the first. The gray wolf came through the trees only a few feet from me, its eyes locked on Laurent.

Before I could even react, two more wolves followed, lined up in a V, like geese flying south. Which meant that the rusty brown monster that shrugged through the brush last was close enough for me to touch.

I gave an involuntary gasp and jumped back – which was the stupidest thing I could have done. I froze again, waiting for the wolves to turn on me, the much weaker of the available prey. I wished briefly that Laurent would get on with it and crush the wolf pack – it should be so simple for him. I guessed that, between the two choices before me, being eaten by wolves was almost certainly the worse option.

"That would be true if she was right," Emmett said. "Much quicker with the vampire."

The wolf closest to me, the reddish brown one, turned its head slightly at the sound of my gasp.

The wolf's eyes were dark, nearly black. It gazed at me for a fraction of a second, the deep eyes seeming too intelligent for a wild animal.

As it stared at me, I suddenly thought of Jacob

"So I take it, that one is Jacob," Edward said as his mouth become thin.

"Obviously," Alice agreed.

– again, with gratitude. At least I'd come here alone, to this fairytale meadow filled with dark monsters. At least Jacob wasn't going to die, too. At least I wouldn't have his death on my hands.

"It wouldn't have been on her hands anyway," Edward snapped.

"It wouldn't have been on yours either," Esme said – knowing where his mind was going. He didn't say anything to that.

Then another low growl from the leader caused the russet wolf to whip his head around, back toward Laurent.

Laurent was staring at the pack of monster wolves with unconcealed shock and fear. The first I could understand. But I was stunned when, without warning, he spun and disappeared into the trees.

He ran away.

The wolves were after him in a second, sprinting across the open grass with a few powerful bounds, snarling and snapping so loudly that my hands flew up instinctively to cover my ears.

The sound faded with surprising swiftness once they disappeared into the woods.

And then I was alone again.

My knees buckled under me, and I fell onto my hands, sobs building in my throat.

I knew I needed to leave, and leave now. How long would the wolves chase Laurent before they doubled back for me? Or would Laurent turn on them? Would he be the one that came looking?

"No, I don't think good old Laurent will be making it out of the forest," Emmett said, grinning.

"Yeah, the wolves will catch him in a second," Edward said.

"They're that fast?" Alice asked, raising an eyebrow – she and Jasper have never seen the werewolves before.

"Yes, they're faster than us, but not stronger," Edward said. "They'll definitely catch him."

I couldn't move at first, though; my arms and legs were shaking, and I didn't know how to get back to my feet.

My mind couldn't move past the fear, the horror or the confusion. I didn't understand what I'd just witnessed.

A vampire should not have run from overgrown dogs like that. What good would their teeth be against his granite skin?

"Very good actually," Carlisle said. "Their teeth are almost as strong as ours."

And the wolves should have given Laurent a wide berth. Even if their extraordinary size had taught them to fear nothing, it still made no sense that they would pursue him. I doubted his icy marble skin would smell anything like food.

"You're right about that; they hate our smell," Edward said.

"Just like we hate theirs," Emmett said, making a face.

Why would they pass up something warm-blooded and weak like me to chase after Laurent?

I couldn't make it add up.

A cold breeze whipped through the meadow, swaying the grass like something was moving through it.

I scrambled to my feet, backing away even though the wind brushed harmlessly past me.

Stumbling in panic, I turned and ran headlong into the trees.

The next few hours were agony. It took me three times as long to escape the trees as it had to get to the meadow.

At first I paid no attention to where I was headed, focused only on what I was running from.

By the time I collected myself enough to remember the compass, I was deep in the unfamiliar and menacing forest.

"Great! Now she's lost," Edward groaned.

"She's not in danger anymore, though," Esme pointed out.

"It's not good for her to be lost though," Edward sighed.

My hands were shaking so violently that I had to set the compass on the muddy ground to be able to read it. Every few minutes I would stop to put the compass down and check that I was still heading northwest, hearing – when the sounds weren't hidden behind the frantic squelching of my footsteps – the quiet whisper of unseen things moving in the leaves.

The call of a jaybird made me leap back and fall into a thick stand of young spruce, scraping up my arms and tangling my hair with sap. The sudden rush of a squirrel up a hemlock made me scream so loud it hurt my own ears.

Edward seemed to be frowning the whole time, not liking that she was this frightened.

At last there was a break in the trees ahead. I came out onto the empty road a mile or so south of where I'd left the truck. Exhausted as I was, I jogged up the lane until I found it. By the time I pulled myself into the cab, I was sobbing again. I fiercely shoved down both stiff locks before I dug my keys out of my pocket. The roar of the engine was comforting and sane. It helped me control the tears as I sped as fast as my truck would allow toward the main highway.

I was calmer, but still a mess when I got home. Charlie's cruiser was in the driveway – I hadn't realized how late it was. The sky was already dusky.

"Bella?" Charlie asked when I slammed the front door behind me and hastily turned the locks.

"Yeah, it's me." My voice was unsteady.

"Where have you been?" he thundered, appearing through the kitchen doorway with an ominous expression.

I hesitated. He'd probably called the Stanleys. I'd better stick to the truth.

"I was hiking," I admitted.

His eyes were tight. "What happened to going to Jessica's?"

"I didn't feel like Calculus today."

Charlie folded his arms across his chest. "I thought I asked you to stay out of the forest."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry, I won't do it again." I shuddered.

Charlie seemed to really look at me for the first time. I remembered that I had spent some time on the forest floor today; I must be a mess.

"Then it's a good thing she didn't try to lie," Emmett chuckled.

"What happened?" Charlie demanded.

Again, I decided that the truth, or part of it anyway, was the best option. I was too shaken to pretend that I'd spent an uneventful day with the flora and fauna.

"I saw the bear." I tried to say it calmly, but my voice was high and shaky. "It's not a bear, though – it's some kind of wolf. And there are five of them. A big black one, and gray, and reddish-brown…"

Charlie's eyes grew round with horror. He strode quickly to me and grabbed the tops of my arms.

"Are you okay?"

My head bobbed in a weak nod.

"Tell me what happened."

"They didn't pay any attention to me. But after they were gone, I ran away and I fell down a lot."

"Well that's to be expected from her," Emmett laughed.

He let go of my shoulders and wrapped his arms around me. For a long moment, he didn't say anything.

"He must have been worried about her," Esme said

"With good reason," Edward added.

"Wolves," he murmured.

"What?"

"The rangers said the tracks were wrong for a bear – but wolves just don't get that big…"

"These were huge."

"How many did you say you saw?"

"Five."

Charlie shook his head, frowning with anxiety, He finally spoke in a tone that allowed no argument. "No more hiking."

"No problem," I promised fervently.

Charlie called the station to report what I'd seen. I fudged a little bit about where exactly I'd seen the wolves – claiming I'd been on the trail that led to the north. I didn't want my dad to know how deep I'd gone into the forest against his wishes, and, more importantly, I didn't want anyone wandering near where Laurent might be searching for me. The thought of it made me feel sick.

"It doesn't really matter where she said they were; they wouldn't stay in that area," Carlisle said.

"Are you hungry?" he asked me when he hung up the phone.