AN: When I read books, I try to pay attention to the writer’s writing style. I’ve been trying to improve my own. There are a million of ways one can say the same thing. What do you think of mine so far?

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The murder I saw could have been a dream. I didn’t actually kill a girl, did I? Had I returned to this spot in the forest dazed?

The memory of her blood still burned on my tongue. The way her hair cowered from my fingertips was more tangible to me than the useless air moving to and fro between my lips. The gasping was unnecessary, but it set a certain tempo for my thinking. Some things I found particularly hard to comprehend; the phenomenal blood, her dead face, and what the hell just happened.

The bush I’d fallen on wasn’t appreciative of my presence. Its thorny branches were trying to penetrate my skin. It was like a teaspoon battling a sledgehammer. Edward remained a careful distance away from me made no attempt to hide the agony his face was drenched in.

“I can’t control my strength,” he told me hoarsely. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Is your shoulder ok?”

My eyes widened. I swiftly inspected my shoulder. I must have been dazed not to have noticed new wounds. I had killed the girl. Yet my shoulder and the fabric covering it were unharmed. I was fine.

“You didn’t hurt me,” I said befuddled.

“You sounded like you were in pain,” he offered in explanation.

I looked diagonally up at him. The tree above Edward trapped him in shadows completely. The Apollo was still acting like a beaten dog. It was almost as if he had experienced what I’d seen. But he hadn’t freaked out an additional amount after we’d touched.

“Edward,” I tried pensively. “Have you… I mean, do you know anything about a black-haired girl in the forest?”

He looked up at me with motionless sapphire eyes. “Yes, I killed her.”

I swallowed before I explained to him what I had seen. While I was describing, his expression had disintegrated, the pain turned to plain. He read my face like the open book that it was.

“Please stop worrying,” he told me in his usual tones. “You described my actions, not your own. You haven’t left this place since you arrived.” While he walked towards me, his posture straightened. It was more natural to talk without so much distance between us. It felt warmer somehow. “May I touch you to see if it happens again?”

I extended my arm towards him with determination, pining to see a different image this time. His water-streaked hand brushed mine lightly before he took it. I flinched once our skin touched. But nothing happened.

I wound my fingers around his wrist and placed his hand on my shoulder; the area where it had happened before. I shook my head.

“Nothing,” I sighed. He let go.

I chewed my lip over my following thought. “Edward, where is the body?”

He placed his hand on my back for the shortest moment to usher me back to the house.

“I buried it,” he told me. “Together with the schoolbag that she had with her, and bike that was parked further away.”

He’s lying, I thought. “I saw no schoolbag.”

“That’s probably because I didn’t notice the thing until after I drank from her. It wouldn’t have been part of the memory you saw.” I scrutinised his face and voice. It wasn’t a lie detector, but seemed honest, and the explanation was plausible. Then why did I feel uneasy?

The house was getting in sight now, looking exactly how I left it.

“After that,” he continued. “I washed myself in a creek up north. I couldn’t get her scent of my shirt, so I threw it away. I didn’t want to make resisting thirst more difficult for you.” He smiled at me, but his lips quickly descended to a grimace. “Carlisle still isn’t back?”

With my hand I directed his gaze from the house to me. “I have the feeling you’re not telling me something.”

“Bella,” he started. “You hunted an animal didn’t you?”

I nodded.

A faint smile touched his lips, not his eyes. “If hunting humans was the only option, and expected of me, normal… than I could live with it. But it isn’t and I failed. I wasn’t strong enough…” He shook his head. “No, I’m too strong and I have no control over it.

“And because of it, I hurt two girls in the first twenty-four hours.”

My eyes widened.

The first smile echoed an even fainter one. “You are the first girl, Bella. The dead Italian girl is the second,” he assured.

“But I told you that you didn’t-”

“It’s on your neck.” He said. “No, the other side.”

There was a small elevation of skin at the base of my throat - a crescent moon on the exact place he had bitten me before.

“I want to talk to Carlisle,” he continued. “To see what my other options are. I’m not as strong as you, Bella.”

Other options? The transformation couldn’t be undone. There were no other options. Then the inconceivable truth dawned on me.

He wanted to die.

The only lies he’d been feeding me were his smiles.

He couldn’t give up now! I won’t let him, I thought with desperate determination. I’d tell him what he did was natural, and that it was normal to fail on their first try. I’d tell him that I would probably have killed the girl too if I’d run in the same direction.

I needed him. I’d lost too many people. I couldn’t loose him too.

I raised my fists to hammer sense onto his chest – he could take it – when I discovered that he’d disappeared.

“Bella, what are you waiting for? Didn’t you hear me? They’re back!”

I shook my head, which was solely filled with Edward. They? Plural? I followed him in pursuit. But I would not forget what he had insinuated just now. I’d do my share of hammering when I’d get the chance. I cared too much about him.

---

He must have heard Carlisle’s thoughts, because it took another five seconds of running before I was able to hear the distant footsteps through the foliage. A little later I could see them. Carlisle and the short girl Alice, who had given me clothes. Perhaps I had somewhat expected the two’s arrival, but there were two more. The red-eyed vampire I remembered as Jasper and… a red-eyed Emmet.

If it were possible I would say that Emmet had acquired even more bulk during the change. From my right I saw Edward’s eyes shift to Jasper a moment before he crashed into in to Emmet’s arms. The sound it produced was similar to a rock avalanche.

“Emmet! I thought you were dead!” I was glad to see that Edward’s humongous grin was genuine. It eased the churning in my stomach somewhat.

“But I am dead,” he jeered. Emmet’s voice was still as low as when he was human, but smoother. After giving one another a manly pat on the back, they recovered from their burst of emotion and both took half a step back. Emmet turned to me for the first time.

“Bella, right?”

“That’s right,” I smiled. “Hi Emmet.” We shook hands.

A foreign sound rumbled from my right and I realised that Edward’s chest was reverberating. It sounded natural, yet odd all the same. Perhaps Edward had released more of his humanity than I was aware of.

Emmet rolled his eyes. “I didn’t really mean that.” He was addressing Edward now. “You know I prefer blonds anyway.”

Before I figured out what the exchange of thoughts and words was about, Edward had changed subject.

“How is this possible? What happened Carlisle?”

“I’ll explain everything,” Carlisle replied. “Once we are comfortable in our home.” Carlisle didn’t seem nerved, just tired.

“Five bucks says I’m faster than you,” Emmet challenged.

“Prepare yourself for defeat,” Edward grinned. “Come, Bella. Join us.”

If it would make him happy, I thought. I was never really into sports, but while hunting, I noticed that I had surprisingly impressive legs and stamina. The three of us lined up, Carlisle started the countdown automatically.

“Three…” Both young men appeared to have transformed into stone next to me, but their edge was unfrozen in their eyes.

“Two…”

“Edward will win,” Alice yawned.

Emmet turned around with his fists swinging dangerously at the air. “Seriously woman??” He turned to us again. “She’s been doing this the whole way over here. And you think that’s annoying? You know what they did to me because of her? You know what they did???”

Edward’s mouth dropped and his face whitened to a possibly lighter shade.

“Uh huh,” Emmet nodded, satisfied by his reaction. “And after…” He entwined his fingers and made a dramatic sucking noise. Edward’s face twitched in disgust.

“For somebody who claims to be courageous and strong, you are quite the baby.” Jasper commented mildly bored.

“You don’t know what it feels like to have your legs torn off!” Emmet bawled indignantly.

Jasper raised his eyebrows.

“No,” Alice commented thoughtfully. “He does know what that feels like.”

Emmet pointed his stout finger at Alice, and pun to face Edward and I. “See what I mean??”

---

We all returned to the manor. If Carlisle had any negative emotions regarding the broken door, he didn’t show them. Once we were all comfortably settled in the living room. Carlisle started speaking.

“Before I start explaining what happened today, I need to go back a little further. The Volturi lure humans they intend to eat from everywhere around the world except for their city. Edward, Bella, you were brought all the way from America. And the Volturi don’t take it lightly when their imported food is taken away from them. And this is what I have done to them by taking you two.

“Since it’s impossible to hide from them, I had to provide them with an explanation and formal apology. When you were both safe in the upstairs bathroom, I returned to them.

“Normally, if one drinks all the blood from a human, it will be sufficient to turn the iris red. But I didn’t take all your blood, just enough. So if there hadn’t been two of you, this wouldn’t have been possible.

“I told the head of the Volturi the following. After having lived on animal blood for so long, I was overcome by my thirst and lost all control. I told them I snatched you both, so that I could devour you slowly and rapturously in privacy. And of course, I apologised to them several times.

“The Volturi have been saying for years that I would cave in one day or another, and found my story plausible. They rather enjoyed it as a matter-of-fact, knowing that my control wasn’t superior to theirs.” A smile touched his lips.

“But what is important to note, is that the Volturi are similar to the human mafia. I was weary that they would state I was in debt to them for the two humans I took.” Emmet snorted but Carlisle paid it no heed. “Unlike the human mafia, they do not wish for money, for we depend on nothing that money can buy. The Volturi would have wanted the debt to be settled with blood or murder. But when I left that day, they were pleased and no debt was announced.

“I’ll now bring this story to noon this day. I had finished my shift and was in the parking lot when Alice intercepted me.” He gave her an appreciative nod. “What first struck me about her was that her eyes were ochre coloured. I had never seen a vampire – other than myself – with those eyes. She told me ‘Carlisle, if you ever want to persuade Jasper to join you, it has to be done now, while he is alone. If we hurry, we can be back at your house at two o’clock. I can help.’ I think it was the colour of her eyes that persuaded me to go to Volterra with her.”

“During the drive, she told me she was from America. Alice didn’t know who her maker was but visions of me and my… family,” There was a sparking happiness in Carlisle’s eyes. “Kept her from turning into a savage. She disciplined herself long enough until she could sit for thirteen hours on a human-filled aeroplane, in order to meet us in Italy.” Was that pride in Carlisle’s voice?

“Kind of ironic isn’t it?” Emmet mused. “She put all this effort into getting here, only so that we can all go back again.”

Alice shrugged her petit shoulders. “It was the only way.”

“We’re going home?” I asked. “All of us?”

Carlisle’s nod confirmed it.

The thought was incredible to me, but not in the positive sense of the word. Before I had stepped on that cruise, I hadn’t been to Europe. To me Italy had been the bubble that contained the painful and bloody experience of being a vampire. Going back to America, would make it much more real.

“You’ll have to go without me,” Edward spoke in a carefully plain tone. “I can’t control myself well enough.” He looked away from Carlisle, to me. A fraction of the earlier gloom seeped through his emotionless mask.

Carlisle patted Edward’s shoulder once. “If you will all let me finish, I will explain why we have to leave. And you, Edward, surely wouldn’t want to stay after hearing me out.”

“So,” Carlisle announced. “Alice and I were driving to Volterra to intercept Jasper…”