There was no perfect way to describe it, to describe what our lives had become in the last three months. 

All of us, wolves and vampires, were completely entwined in one another's lives. Renesmee and I had joined the families in ways I had never thought were possible. Boundaries, though slight and less strict, were still enforced - the Cullens could not cross over onto Quileute lands - but the Cullens took no offence to it. It was just the atmosphere between the two groups had completely relaxed. 

A mere week after Jake and I's reunion with our family and friends, Quil and Embry took it upon themselves to join Jacob's pack. Gratefully, Sam wasn't even against the change. They were Jacob's best friends, it made sense for them all to be together. 

Sue had also seemed to have taken it upon herself to smooth Uncle Charlie's transition into the world of make-believe. She came with him to the Cullens' most days, though she never seemed truly comfortable there the way her son and daughter and the rest of Jake's pack did. She did not speak often; she just hovered protectively near Uncle Charlie. She was always the first person he looked to when Renesmee did something disturbingly advanced - which was often. 

Renesmee spoke her first word when she was exactly one week old. The word was Momma. It was hard to react joyously, we smiled stiffly at her, trying to keep the happy atmosphere flowing and to not upset Renesmee. It didn't help that she continued from her first word to her first sentence in the same breath. "Momma, where is Grandpa?" she'd asked in a clear, high voice, only bothering to speak aloud because Bella was across the room from her. She'd already asked Rosalie, using her normal means of touch communication. Rosalie hadn't known the answer, so Renesmee had turned to Bella. 

When she walked for the first time, fewer than three weeks later, it was similar. She'd simply stared at Alice for a long moment, watching intently as her aunt arranged bouquets in the vases scattered around the room, dancing back and forth across the floor with her arms full of flowers. Renesmee got to her feet, not in the least bit shaky, and crossed the floor almost as gracefully. 

Seth had burst into applause, because that was clearly the response Renesmee wanted. The way he was tied to her made his own reactions secondary; his first reflex was always to give Renesmee whatever she needed. But our eyes met, and I saw all the panic in mine echoed in his. I made my hands clap together, too, trying to hide my fear from her. The rest of the family applauded quietly as well, and we didn't need to speak our thoughts to know they were the same. 

Edward and Carlisle threw themselves into research, looking for any answers, anything to expect. There was very little to be found, and none of it verifiable. 

Alice and Rosalie usually began everyone's day with a fashion show. Renesmee never wore the same clothes twice, (quite like myself when I was staying here at the Cullens') partly because she outgrew her clothes almost immediately and partly because Alice and Rosalie were trying to create a baby album that appeared to span years rather than weeks. They took thousands of pictures, documenting every phase of her accelerated childhood.  

At three months, Renesmee could have been a big one-year-old, or a small two-year-old. She wasn't shaped exactly like a toddler; she was leaner and more graceful, her proportions were more even, like an adult's. Her bronze ringlets hung to her waist; we couldn't bring ourselves to cut them. Renesmee could speak with flawless grammar and articulation, but she rarely bothered, preferring to simply show people what she wanted. She could not only walk but run and dance. She could even read. 

By Carlisle's calculations, the growth of her body was gradually slowing; her mind continued to race on ahead. Even if the rate of decrease held steady, she'd still be an adult in no more than four years. 

Four years. And an old woman by fifteen. 

Just fifteen years of life. 

Carlisle and Edward discussed our options for the future from every angle in low voices that the rest of us tried not to hear. They never had these discussions when Jacob or Seth were around, because there was one sure way to halt ageing, and that wasn't something Jacob or Seth were likely to be excited about. 

And Bella wasn't either. She thought that it was too dangerous. Renesmee and I were alike in so many ways, but I was bitten before the wolf gene had activated so that's why I was what I was. The similarities between myself, Renesmee and the wolves due to our chromosome count made Bella fear that the outcome to venom would be catastrophic for Renesmee... just like it would be for the wolves.  

Carlisle and Edward had exhausted the research they could do from a distance, and now we were preparing to follow old legends at their source. We were going to Brazil, starting there. The Ticunas had legends about children like Renesmee... If other children like her had ever existed, perhaps some tale of the life span of half-mortal children still lingered...  

The only real question left was exactly when we would go. 

Bella was the holdup. A small part of it was that she wanted to stay near Forks until after the holidays, for Uncle Charlie's sake. But more than that, there was a different journey that we all knew had to come first - that was the clear priority. 

This was the only argument that Edward and Bella had gotten in since she'd become a vampire. The main point of contention was that she wanted to make this particular journey alone. But the facts were what they were, and her plan was the only one that made rational sense. She had to go see the Volturi, and she believed she had to do it absolutely alone. 

Until the day that Aro's present showed up, Bella didn't know that Alice had sent a wedding announcement to the Volturi leaders; Bella and Edward had been far away on Esme's island when she'd seen a vision of Volturi soldiers - Jane and Alec, the devastatingly powerful twins, among them. Caius was planning to send a hunting party to see if Bella was still human, if I was keeping my promise at remaining distant from the humans as much as possible. So, Alice had mailed the announcement, seeing that this would delay them as they deciphered the meaning behind it. But they would come eventually. That was certain. 

The present itself was not overtly threatening. Extravagant, yes, almost frightening in that very extravagance. The threat was in the parting line of Aro's congratulatory note, written in black ink on a square of heavy, plain white paper in Aro's own hand: 

I so look forward to seeing the new Mrs. Cullen in person.

The gift was presented in an ornately carved, ancient wooden box inlaid with gold and pearls, ornamented with a rainbow of gemstones. Alice said the box itself was a priceless treasure, that it would have outshone just about any piece of jewellery besides the one inside it. 

"I always wondered where the crown jewels disappeared to after John of England pawned them in the thirteenth century," Carlisle said. "I suppose it doesn't surprise me that the Volturi have their share." 

The necklace was simple - gold woven into a thick rope of a chain, almost scaled, like a smooth snake that would curl close around the throat. One jewel hung suspended from the rope: a white diamond the size of a golf ball. 

The unsubtle reminder in Aro's note interested us more than the jewel. The Volturi needed to see that Bella was immortal, that the Cullens had been obedient to the Volturi's orders, and they needed to see this soon. They could not be allowed near Forks. There was only one way to keep our life here safe. 

"You're not going alone," Edward had insisted through his teeth, his hands clenching into fists. 

"They won't hurt me," she'd said as soothingly as she could manage, forcing her voice to sound sure. "They have no reason to. I'm a vampire. Case closed." 

"No. Absolutely no." 

"Edward, it's the only way to protect her." 

And he hadn't been able to argue with that. Bella's logic was watertight. 

Even in the short time I'd known Aro, I'd been able to see that he was a collector - and his most prized treasures were his living pieces. He coveted beauty, talent, and rarity in his immortal followers more than any jewel locked in his vaults. It was unfortunate enough that he'd begun to covet Alice's, Edward's and my own abilities. We would give him no more reason to be jealous of Carlisle's family. Renesmee was beautiful and gifted and unique - she was one of a kind. He could not be allowed to see her, not even through someone's thoughts. 

So, I offered my verdict: "We all know my thoughts are safe, I'll go with Bella." 

Jacob didn't like that idea one bit. "Don't be ridiculous."  

Before he could continue Edward cut in. "He's right. Seeing you might interest them more. The two of you having the same blocking ability will make you quite the pair. They will want you to stay longer to understand you. It's not an option, Aria."  

Alice did not see any trouble with Bella's agreed solo trip, but she was worried by the indistinct quality of her visions. She said they were sometimes hazy when there were outside decisions that might conflict but that had not been certainly resolved. This uncertainty made Edward, already hesitant, extremely opposed to what Bella had to do. He wanted to come with her as far as her connection in London, but Bella wouldn't leave Renesmee without both her parents. Carlisle was coming instead. It made both Edward and Bella a little more relaxed, knowing that Carlisle would be only a few hours away from her. 

Alice kept searching for the future, but the things she found were unrelated to what she was looking for. A new trend in the stock market; a possible visit of reconciliation from Irina, though her decision was not firm; a snowstorm that wouldn't hit for another six weeks; a call from Aunt Renee, my decision to continue my training...  

A few days since Alice's revelation I decided to go ahead with it and ask Carlisle to help train me again. It was hard, painful work. Jake even intervened once when I was close to collapsing, Carlisle thought I had burst a blood vessel in my brain, but of course I healed back up after a few minutes. 

Eventually I returned to the level I had achieved with Carlisle back in the summer, and I persevered until finally I had achieved my goal. I could now read minds through my barrier, that way I didn't have to invade people's privacy all the time, and I could still block Edward out whilst reading his mind. That was a marvellous advantage that he of course hated. 

Life carried on, Jake and I had moved into the Cullen home, only returning to La Push for a day or two during a week. Renesmee was just growing so fast we didn't want to miss a thing, not until she started to slow down at least. Plus, the wolves' patrol routes had expanded. Jake and Sam had come to a patrol shift agreement. Instead of just guarding just La Push, they now patrolled around Forks as well, including the Cullen lands. 

There was no immediate threat other than the looming pressure of the Volturi, the wider route that the wolves took just acted like a protective cushion... just in case. 

The tickets were bought for Italy the day after Renesmee turned three months. Bells planned for it to be a very short trip, so she hadn't told Uncle Charlie about it. Jacob and Seth knew, and they took Edward's view on things not wanting to let one of their best friends descend into hell alone after hearing my stories about the Volturi. However, today the argument was about Brazil. Jacob and Seth were determined to come with us. 

The five of us, Bella, Seth, Jacob, Renesmee, and I, were hunting together. The diet of animal blood wasn't Renesmee's favourite thing - and that was why Seth and Jacob were allowed to come along. Seth had made it a contest between all of them, and that made her more willing than anything else. 

I was still opposed to the thought of drinking blood - animal or not - but I still tagged along. Bella and I had grown so much closer, we could keep each other's secrets hidden from everyone else. She was the only person, except for Edward, that I had talked to about my brief thirst for blood. 

Renesmee was quite clear on the whole good vs. bad as it applied to hunting humans; she just thought that donated blood made a nice compromise. Human food filled her, and it seemed compatible with her system, but she reacted to all varieties of solid food with the same distaste I had once given cauliflower and carrots. Animal blood was better than that, at least I heard it was. She had a competitive nature, and the challenge of beating Seth and Jacob made her excited to hunt. 

"Seth," Bella said, trying to reason with him again while Renesmee danced ahead of us into the long clearing, searching for a scent she liked. "You've got obligations here. Your mom, Leah - " 

He snorted. "I'm not a little kid anymore." 

"Are you officially dropping out of high school, then? If you're going to keep up with Renesmee, you're going to have to study a lot harder." 

"It's just a sabbatical. I'll get back to school when things... slow down." 

"Don't worry Bells, I'll make sure he finishes school. That's one thing I learnt from Sam, he made sure we got through it so I'm going to do the same. But yeah, we can hold up on it for now." Jake promised, the smile that was previously on his face weakened as I clung onto his arm as we walked. 

We all looked at Renesmee then, we were never going to get over it knowing we only had fifteen years. She was staring at the snowflakes fluttering high above her head, melting before they could stick to the yellowed grass in the long pointed meadow that we were standing in. Her ruffled ivory dress was just a shade darker than the snow, and her reddish-brown curls managed to shimmer, though the sun was buried deeply behind the clouds.

As we watched, she crouched for an instant and then sprang fifteen feet up into the air. Her little hands closed around a flake, and she dropped lightly to her feet.

She turned to us with her shocking smile - truly, it wasn't something you could get used to - and opened her hands to show us the perfectly formed eight-pointed ice star in her palm before it melted. 

"Pretty," Seth called to her appreciatively. "But I think you're stalling, Nessie." 

She bounded back to Seth; he held his arms out at exactly the moment she leapt into them. They had the move perfectly synchronised. She did this when she had something to say. She still preferred not to speak aloud. 

Renesmee touched his face, scowling adorably as we all listened to the sound of a small herd of elk moving farther into the wood. With my new skill I listened in and smirked at her feigning her need for something to drink. 

"Suuuure you're not thirsty, Nessie," Seth answered a little sarcastically, but more indulgently than anything else. "You're just afraid I'll catch the biggest one again!" 

"Excuse me," Jacob prodded getting involved. "I think I caught the biggest one, it's only fair seeing as I'm much bigger than the both of you." 

"Show off." I mumbled, nudging Jacob's arm as I rolled my eyes.  

Ness then flipped backward out of Seth's arms, landing lightly on her feet, and rolled her eyes - she looked so much like Edward when she did that. Then she darted off toward the trees. 

"Got it," Seth said when Bella leaned as if to follow. He yanked his t-shirt off as he charged after her into the forest, already trembling. "It doesn't count if you cheat," he called to Renesmee. 

"You know you want to go as well." I said to Jake as he lingered. 

His smile broadened and then he pulled his shirt off as well and bounded after them, phasing after three strides.

I smiled at the leaves they left fluttering behind them, shaking my head. The boys were more like children than Renesmee sometimes.

"It's embarrassing really. Having a boyfriend is like having a child. You're lucky Edward is so... mature." I laughed as I picked Jacob's t-shirt up from the floor and shook the dirt off of it. 

"Well, I suppose if you had lived over one hundred years you'd gain some wisdom." She proposed with a shrug of her shoulders, though I could tell she agreed with my statement in general. "Alice said that the snow won't stick for a few more weeks." 

The narrow meadow was very still, very empty. The fluttering snow was thinning above me, almost gone. "Your first winter where we know for a fact that you won't find yourself slipping up on ice. I miss clumsy Bella." 

"Sometimes I miss her too." 

I had decided to join Bella today as Edward was preoccupied planning the trip to Rio with Carlisle, talking behind Seth's back... I frowned. "So, what's your opinion on Seth coming with us?" Jacob coming was already a firm yes, in terms of Seth it was still unclear. 

"I'm going to take his side. He should come with us. He has as big a stake in this as any of us - his entire life is at stake, just like mine." Bella sighed, lost inside her own head. 

My eyes swept the mountainside routinely, and my vampire instincts kicked in, searching for prey that I didn't want, searching for danger. I didn't think about it; the urge was an automatic thing. 

Or perhaps there was a reason for my scanning, some tiny trigger that my razor-sharp senses had caught before I realised it consciously. Bella noticed too, there was a shift in there and she took two quick steps forward towards the mountains. 

As my eyes flitted across the edge of a distant cliff, standing out starkly blue grey against the green-black forest, a glint of silver - or was it gold? - gripped my attention.  

My gaze zeroed in on the colour that shouldn't have been there, so far away in the haze that an eagle wouldn't have been able to make it out. We stared. 

She stared back. 

That she was a vampire was obvious. Her skin was marble white, the texture a million times smoother than human skin. Even under the clouds, she glistened ever so slightly. If her skin had not given her away, her stillness would have. Only vampires and statues could be so perfectly motionless. 

Her hair was pale, pale blond, almost silver. This was the gleam that had caught my eye. It hung straight as a ruler to a blunt edge at her chin, parted evenly down the centre. I had seen this face before. 

I let my mind focus, to see if there was a glint of recognition in her face. "Irina." I breathed and Bella's face snapped back to me. 

"She decided to come after all." Bella concluded.  

For one moment we stared at her, and she stared back. Bella half-raised her hand, about to wave, but her lip twisted the tiniest bit, making her face suddenly hostile. I moved forward to stand beside Bella, my stomach twisting uncomfortably as I listened through my barrier then. 

We heard Renesmee's cry of victory from the forest, heard Jacob and Seth's echoing howls, and saw Irina's face jerk reflexively to the sound when it echoed to her a few seconds later. Her gaze cut slightly to the right, and I knew what she was seeing. Two enormous werewolves, though her mind was clearly more focused on the much larger russet one, perhaps the very one who had killed her Laurent. How long had she been watching us? Long enough to see our affectionate exchange before, I was sure. 

Her face twisted in pain. Bella came to the same conclusion just from seeing her face as I got the information from her mind. Seeing Jacob and Seth had brought the hatred back. 

Instinctively, Bella opened her hands in front of herself in an apologetic gesture. She turned back to us, and her lip curled back over her teeth. Her jaw unlocked as she growled. 

When the faint sound reached us, she had already turned and disappeared into the forest. 

"Crap!" Bella groaned. "Come on." 

I was reluctant to follow, Irina and I didn't really get along the last time we met. And from this turn out as well I didn't think she was in the mood to talk. 

We sprinted into the forest after Renesmee, Seth and Jacob, unwilling to have them out of our sight. We didn't know which direction Irina had taken, or exactly how furious she was right now. Vengeance was a common obsession for vampires, one that was not easy to suppress. 

Running at full speed, it only took us two seconds to reach them. 

"Mine is bigger," I heard Renesmee insist as we burst through the thick thorn bushes to the small open space where they stood. 

Jacob's ears flattened as he took in my expression; he crouched forward, baring his teeth - his muzzle was streaked with blood from his kill. His eyes raked the forest. I could hear the growl building in his throat. Seth copied his motions, unsure to what the threat suddenly was. 

Renesmee was every bit as alert as the boys. Abandoning the dead stag at her feet, she leapt into Bella's waiting arms, pressing her curious hands against her cheeks. 

"We're overreacting," Bella assured them quickly. "It's okay, I think. Hold on." 

"What is it? I know you both well enough to know this isn't nothing." Jacob pressed, moving swiftly towards me with Seth on his flank, moving closer towards Renesmee and Bella. 

"It was Irina." I explained as Bella pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial. Edward answered on the first ring. The rest of us listened intently as Bella filled Edward in. 

"Come, bring Carlisle," Bella trilled so fast I wondered if the wolves could keep up. "Aria and I saw Irina, and she saw us, but then she saw Jacob and Seth and she got mad and ran away, I think. She hasn't shown up here - yet, anyway - but she looked pretty upset so maybe she will. If she doesn't, you and Carlisle have to go after her and talk to her. I feel so bad." 

Jacob rumbled. 

"We'll be there in half a minute," Edward assured her, and I could hear the whoosh of the wind his running made. 

We darted back to the long meadow and then waited silently as Jacob, Seth, Bella and I listened carefully for the sound of an approach we did not recognise. 

When the sound came, though, it was very familiar. And then Edward was at Bella's side, Carlisle a few seconds behind. Jake had called on reinforcements, and soon enough Quil and Jesse came bounding along, their heavy pad of big paws following behind Carlisle. 

"She was up on that ridge," I told them at once, pointing out the spot. If Irina was fleeing, she already had quite a head start, and she was so far even I couldn't find her thoughts anymore. Would she stop and listen to Carlisle? Her expression before made me think not. "Maybe you should call Emmett and Jasper and have them come with you. She looked... really upset. She growled at us." 

"What?" Edward said angrily. 

Carlisle put a hand on his arm. "She's grieving. I'll go after her." 

"I'm coming with you," Edward insisted. 

They exchanged a long glance - perhaps Carlisle was measuring Edward's irritation with Irina against his helpfulness as a mind reader. "I could go instead?" I insisted noticing Carlisle's slight hesitation. 

"No, if anything you'll scare her off more, plus your temper at defending your family might get in the way. Edward will be fine." Finally, Carlisle nodded, and they took off to find the trail without calling for Jasper or Emmett. 

Seth huffed impatiently and poked my back with his nose. "I don't like us all out here; we should take Ness back." 

"He thinks we should go back to the house, you know, just in case." I translated and Bella nodded, agreeing with him, and we hurried home with Jesse and Quil running at our flanks. 

Renesmee was complacent in Bella's arms, one hand still resting on Bella's face. Since the hunting trip had been aborted, she would just have to make do with donated blood. Her thoughts were a little smug. 

Carlisle and Edward had not been able to catch up with Irina before her trail disappeared into the bay. They'd swum to the other bank to see if her trail had picked up in a straight line, but there was no trace of her for miles in either direction on the eastern shore. 

There wasn't much to be done. Carlisle had called Tanya with the disappointing news. Tanya and Kate hadn't seen Irina since the wedding, and they were distraught that Irina had come so close and yet not returned home; it wasn't easy for them to lose their sister, however temporary the separation might be. I wondered if this brought back hard memories of losing their mother so many centuries ago. 

Alice was able to catch a few glimpses of Irina's immediate future, nothing too concrete. She wasn't going back to Denali, as far as Alice could tell. The picture was hazy. All Alice could see was that Irina was visibly upset; she wandered in the snow-swathed wilderness - to the north? To the east? - with a devastated expression. She made no decisions for a new course beyond her directionless grieving. 

Days passed and, though of course I forgot nothing, Irina and her pain moved to the back of my mind. There were more important things to think of now. Bella would leave for Italy in just a few days. When she got back, we would all be off to South America. 

Every detail had been gone over a hundred times already. We would start with the Ticunas, tracing their legends as well as we could at the source. Now that it was accepted that Seth would go with us as well, the boys figured prominently in the plans - it was unlikely that the people who believed in vampires would speak to any of us about their stories. If we dead-ended with the Ticunas, there were many closely related tribes in the area to research. Carlisle had some old friends in the Amazon; if we could find them, they might have information for us, too. Or at least a suggestion as to where else we might go for answers. It was unlikely that the three Amazon vampires had anything to do with the legends of vampire hybrids themselves, as they were all female. There was no way to know how long the search would take. 

Bella hadn't told Uncle Charlie about the longer trip yet; we weren't exactly sure how to break it to him. Telling him we were going away for a while again wasn't going to sit well.  

Renesmee was curled up on the sofa now, her breathing slow with heavy sleep, her tangled curls splayed wildly around her face. Usually, Edward and Bella took her back to their cottage to put her to bed, but tonight they lingered with us, Edward and Carlisle deep in their planning session. 

Meanwhile, Emmett and Jasper were more excited about planning the hunting possibilities. The Amazon offered a change from their normal menu. Jaguars and panthers, for example. Emmett had a whim to wrestle with an anaconda. Esme and Rosalie were planning what they would pack. Jacob and Seth were off with Sam's pack, setting things up for their own absence.  

Alice moved slowly - for her - around the big room, unnecessarily tidying the already immaculate space, straightening Esme's perfectly hung garlands. She was re-centring Esme's vases on the console at the moment. I could see from the way her face fluctuated - aware, then blank, then aware again - that she was searching the future. I assumed she was trying to see through the blind spots that Jacob, Seth and Renesmee made in her visions as to what was waiting for us in South America until Jasper said, "Let it go, Alice; she's not our concern," and a cloud of serenity stole silently and invisibly through the room. 

Alice must have been worrying about Irina again. 

She stuck her tongue out at Jasper and then lifted one crystal vase that was filled with white and red roses and turned toward the kitchen. There was just the barest hint of wilt to one of the white flowers, but Alice seemed intent on utter perfection as a distraction to her lack of vision tonight. 

Staring at Renesmee again, I didn't see it when the vase slipped from Alice's fingers. I only heard the whoosh of the air whistling past the crystal, and my eyes flickered up in time to see the vase shatter into ten thousand diamond shards against the edge of the kitchen's marble floor. 

We were perfectly still as the fragmented crystal bounced and skittered in every direction with an unmusical tinkling, all eyes on Alice's back. 

My first illogical thought was that Alice was playing some joke on us. Because there was no way that Alice could have dropped the vase by accident, I could have darted across the room to catch the vase in plenty of time myself, if I hadn't assumed she would get it. And how would it fall through her fingers in the first place? Her perfectly sure fingers... 

I had never seen a vampire drop anything by accident. Ever. 

And then Alice was facing us, twisting in a move so fast it didn't exist. 

Her eyes were halfway here and halfway locked on the future, wide, staring, filling her thin face till they seemed to overflow it. Looking into her eyes was like looking out of a grave from the inside; I was buried in the terror and despair and agony of her gaze.

I looked and as soon as I did, I wished that I hadn't. The Volturi were coming for us... all of them. With nothing but destruction being their goal. 

I heard myself gasp; it was a broken, half-choked sound. 

"What?" Jasper growled, leaping to Alice's side in a blurred rush of movement, crushing the broken crystal under his feet. He grabbed her shoulders and shook her sharply. She seemed to rattle silently in his hands. "What Alice?"

I felt like I couldn't breathe, my eyes pooled with tears. This wasn't happening. Emmett moved into my peripheral vision, his teeth bared while his eyes darted toward the window, anticipating an attack.

There was only silence from Esme, Carlisle, and Rose and Bella. 

Jasper shook Alice again. "What is it?" 

"They're coming for us," Alice, Edward and I whispered together, perfectly synchronised, not intentional. "All of them." Alice continued. 

Silence. 

"The Volturi," Alice moaned. 

"All of them," Edward groaned at the same time.

"Why?" Alice whispered to herself.

"How?" I whispered, my hands shaking as I balled them into fists.

"Why?" Esme echoed.

"When?" Jasper repeated in a voice like splintering ice. 

Alice's eyes didn't blink, but it was as if a veil covered them; they became perfectly blank. Only her mouth held on to her expression of horror. 

"Not long," Edward and i said together. 

Then Alice spoke. "There's snow on the forest, snow on the town. Little more than a month."  

"Why?" Carlisle was the one to ask this time. 

Esme answered. "They must have a reason. Maybe to see..." 

"This isn't about Bella," Alice said hollowly. "They're all coming - Aro, Caius, Marcus, every member of the guard, even the wives." 

A shiver ran down my spine, coating my arms in goosebumps. 

"The wives never leave the tower," Jasper contradicted her in a flat voice. "Never. Not during the southern rebellion. Not when the Romanians tried to overthrow them. Not even when they were hunting the immortal children. Never."  

"They're coming now," Edward whispered. 

"But why?" Carlisle said again. "We've done nothing! And if we had, what could we possibly do that would bring all this down on us?" 

"There are so many of us," Edward answered dully. "They must want to make sure that..." He didn't finish, I knew what he meant. They need all of them to ensure that not a single one of us was going to be left alive. 

"That doesn't answer the crucial question! Why?" Carlisle stressed. 

"Go back, Alice," Jasper pleaded. "Look for the trigger. Search." 

Alice shook her head slowly, her shoulders sagging. "It came out of nowhere, Jazz. I wasn't looking for them, or even for us. I was just looking for Irina. She wasn't where I expected her to be...." Alice trailed off, her eyes drifting again. She stared at nothing for a long second. 

And then her head jerked up, her eyes hard as flint. I choked on the air as a hiss ripped out from my throat. Irina. In her fit of anger at seeing us with the wolves she went to seek revenge on us by telling the Volturi.  

Everyone but Alice's and Edward's eyes darted to me, shocked and scared by my sudden vicious outburst. "What is it?" Emmett growled, moving closer to me to place his hand on my shoulder. 

"She decided to go to them," I said coldly. "Irina decided to go to the Volturi. And then they will decide... It's as if they're waiting for her. Like their decision was already made, and just waiting on her..." 

"Can we stop her?" Jasper asked. 

"There's no way. She's almost there." Alice snapped. 

"What is she doing?" Carlisle was asking, but I wasn't paying attention to the discussion now. All my focus was on the picture that was painstakingly coming together in my head. 

I pictured Irina poised on the cliff, watching. What had she seen? Two vampires and two werewolves, two of each obviously in love and together. I'd been focused on that image, one that would obviously explain her reaction. But that was not all that she'd seen. 

She'd also seen a child. An exquisitely beautiful child, showing off in the falling snow, clearly more than human... 

Irina... the orphaned sisters... Carlisle had said that losing their mother to the Volturi's justice had made Tanya, Kate, and Irina purists when it came to the law. 

Just half a minute ago, Jasper had said the words himself: Not even when they were hunting the immortal children.... The immortal children - the unmentionable words... 

With Irina's past, how could she apply any other reading to what she'd seen that day in the field? She had not been close enough to hear Renesmee's heart, to feel the heat radiating from her body. Renesmee's rosy cheeks could have been a trick on our part for all she knew. 

After all, the Cullens were in league with werewolves. From Irina's point of view, maybe this meant nothing was beyond us... 

Irina, wringing her hands in the snowy wilderness - not mourning Laurent, after all, but knowing it was her duty to turn the Cullens in, knowing what would happen to them if she did. Apparently, her conscience had won out over the centuries of friendship. 

And the Volturi's response to this kind of infraction was so automatic, it was already decided. 

"Think of what she saw that afternoon," I said in a low voice, interrupting whatever Emmett was beginning to say. "To someone who'd lost a mother because of the immortal children, what would Renesmee look like?" 

Everything was silent again as the others caught up to where I was already. 

"An immortal child," Carlisle whispered. 

Bella looked helpless and draped her body over her sleeping child. Edward knelt beside them, wrapping his arms over both of them. 

"But she's wrong," Bella said softly. "Renesmee isn't like those other children. They were frozen, but she grows so much every day. They were out of control, but she never hurts Charlie or Sue or even shows them things that would upset them. She can control herself. She's already smarter than most adults. There would be no reason..." 

No one spoke for a long time. Irina had sentenced us all to death. 

Then Edward whispered. "It's not the kind of crime they hold a trial for, love," he said quietly. "Aro's seen Irina's proof in her thoughts. They come to destroy, not to be reasoned with." 

"But they're wrong," Bella said stubbornly. 

"They won't wait for us to show them that." His voice was still quiet... and yet the pain and desolation in the sound was unavoidable. His voice was like Alice's eyes before - like the inside of a tomb. 

"What can we do?" Bella demanded. 

It was Emmett who answered her rhetorical question. "We fight," he said calmly. 

"We can't win," Jasper growled, looming protectively over Alice. 

"Well, we can't run. Not with Demetri around." Emmett made a disgusted noise, and I knew instinctively that he was not upset by the idea of the Volturi's tracker but by the idea of running away. "And I don't know that we can't win," he said. "There are a few options to consider. We don't have to fight alone." 

My head snapped up at that, my teeth bared. "We don't have to sentence the wolves to death, either Emmett!" 

"Chill, Aria." His expression was no different from when he was contemplating fighting anacondas. Even the threat of annihilation couldn't change Emmett's perspective, his ability to thrill to a challenge. "I didn't mean the pack. Be realistic, though - do you think Jacob or Sam are going to ignore an invasion? Even if it wasn't about Nessie? Not to mention that, thanks to Irina, Aro knows about our alliance with the pack now, too. But I was thinking of our other friends." 

Carlisle echoed me in a whisper. "Other friends we don't have to sentence to death." 

"Hey, we'll let them decide," Emmett said in a placating tone. "I'm not saying they have to fight with us." I could see the plan refining itself in his head as he spoke. "If they'd just stand beside us, just long enough to make the Volturi hesitate. Bella's right, after all. If we could force them to stop and listen. Though that might take away any reason for a fight..." 

There was a hint of a smile on Emmett's face now. I was surprised no one had hit him yet. I wanted to; he was in arms reach. 

"Yes," Esme said eagerly. "That makes sense, Emmett. All we need is for the Volturi to pause for one moment. Just long enough to listen. 

"We'd need quite a show of witnesses," Rosalie said harshly, her voice brittle as glass. 

Esme nodded in agreement, as if she hadn't heard the sarcasm in Rosalie's tone. "We can ask that much of our friends. Just to witness." 

"We'd do it for them," Emmett said. 

"We'll have to ask them just right," Alice murmured. I looked to see her eyes were a dark void again. "They'll have to be shown very carefully." We couldn't scare them off, they'd need to trust us, show them me first. 

"Shown?" Jasper asked. 

Alice and Edward both looked at me and then down at Renesmee. Then Alice's eyes glazed over. "Tanya's family," she said. "Siobhan's coven. Amun's. Some of the nomads - Garrett and Mary for certain. Maybe Alistair." 

"What about Peter and Charlotte?" Jasper asked half fearfully, as if he hoped the answer was no, and his old brother could be spared from the coming carnage. 

"Maybe." 

"The Amazons?" Carlisle asked. "Kachiri, Zafrina, and Senna?" 

Alice seemed too deep into her vision to answer at first; finally, she shuddered, and her eyes flickered back to the present. She met Carlisle's gaze for the tiniest part of a second, and then looked down. She was blind, everything disappeared. "I can't see." 

"What was that?" Edward asked, his whisper a demand. "That part in the jungle. Are we going to look for them?" Confused as to why she suddenly couldn't see. 

"I can't see," Alice repeated, not meeting his eyes. A flash of confusion crossed Edward's face. "We'll have to split up and hurry - before the snow sticks to the ground. We have to round up whomever we can and get them here to show them." She zoned again. "Ask Eleazar. There is more to this than just an immortal child." 

The silence was ominous for another long moment while Alice was in her trance. She blinked slowly when it was over, her eyes peculiarly opaque despite the fact that she was clearly in the present. 

"There is so much. We have to hurry," she whispered, a flash of snow-covered ground and then the humidity and vibrant greens of a jungle crossed her mind. 

"Alice?" I asked. "That was too fast - I didn't understand. What was -?"

"I can't see!" she exploded back at me. "Jacob's almost here!" 

Rosalie took a step toward the front door. "I'll deal with--" 

"Rose..." I stressed. "He deserves-" 

"No, let him come," Alice said quickly, her voice straining higher with each word. She grabbed Jasper's hand and began pulling him toward the back door. "I'll see better away from Nessie, too. I need to go. I need to really concentrate. I need to see everything I can. I have to go. Come on, Jasper, there's no time to waste!"  

We all could hear Jacob on the stairs. Alice yanked, impatient, on Jasper's hand. He followed quickly, confusion in his eyes just like Edward's and my own. They darted out the door into the silver night.  

"Hurry!" She called back to us. "You have to find them all!" 

"Find what?" Jacob asked, shutting the front door behind himself. "Where'd Alice go?" He called up the stairs just as he began to ascend them. 

No one answered, we all just stared waiting for him to come into view. 

Jacob shook the wet from his hair and pulled his arms through the sleeves of his t-shirt, his eyes on me. "Hey, baby." And then they darted to Bella. "Hey, Bells. I thought you guys would've gone home by now..."

He looked at Bella and blinked noticing her protectiveness over Renesmee, and then looked around cautiously, noticing the atmosphere that had settled around us. Jake glanced down, his eyes widened as he took in the scattered shards of the crystal and roses.

He crossed the room to reach me. "What?" he asked flatly. "What happened?"

I couldn't find the words to explain it to him. He grabbed both my hands in his and held them against his chest. The room suddenly became so much hotter, I could feel the heat shaking off Jake's body as tremors rolled down his arms to his shaking hands.

"Is she okay?" he demanded, gesturing to Renesmee with a bob of his head. 

"Nothing's wrong with Renesmee," Bella choked out, the words breaking in strange places.

"Then who?"

"All of us, Jake," I whispered. "It's over. We've all been sentenced to die."