 tomorrow, what 
would be the problem with that, from Jacob's perspective? Charlie had given me a little grief 
about missing a day of school so close to finals, but I'd convinced him that one Friday wasn't 
going to derail my studies. Jake would hardly care about that. 

My brain refused to come up with any brilliant insights. Maybe I was missing some vital 

 

piece of information. 

What could have changed in the past three days that was so important that Jacob would 
break his long streak of refusing to answer my phone calls and contact me? What difference 
could three days make? 

I froze in the middle of the kitchen. The package of icy hamburger in my hands slipped 
through my numb fingers. It took me a slow second to miss the thud it should have made 
against the floor. 

Edward had caught it and thrown it onto the counter. His arms were already around me, his 
lips at my ear. 

"What's wrong?" 

I shook my head, dazed. 

Three days could change everything. 

Hadn't I just been thinking about how impossible college was? How I couldn't be anywhere 
near people after I'd gone through the painful three-day conversion that would set me free 
from mortality, so that I could spend eternity with Edward? The conversion that would make 
me forever a prisoner to my own thirst. . . . 

Had Charlie told Billy that I'd vanished for three days? Had Billy jumped to conclusions? 
Had Jacob really been asking me if I was still human? Making sure that the werewolves' 
treaty was unbroken - that none of the Cullens had dared to bite a human . . . bite, not kill . . 
.? 

But did he honestly think I would come home to Charlie if that was the case? 

Edward shook me. "Bella?" he asked, truly anxious now. 

"I think . . . I think he was checking," I mumbled. "Checking to make sure. That I'm human, I 
mean." 

Edward stiffened, and a low hiss sounded in my ear. 

"We'll have to leave," I whispered. "Before. So that it doesn't break the treaty. We won't ever 
be able to come back." 

His arms tightened around me. "I know." 

"Ahem." Charlie cleared his voice loudly behind us. 

I jumped, and then pulled free of Edward's arms, my face getting hot. Edward leaned back 
against the counter. His eyes were tight. I could see worry in them, and anger. 

 

"If you don't want to make dinner, I can call for a pizza," Charlie hinted. 

"No, that's okay, I'm already started." 

"Okay," Charlie said. He propped himself against the doorframe, folding his arms. 

I sighed and got to work, trying to ignore my audience. 

"If I asked you to do something, would you trust me?" Edward asked, an edge to his soft 
voice. 

We were almost to school. Edward had been relaxed and joking just a moment ago, and now 
suddenly his hands were clenched tight on the steering wheel, his knuckles straining in an 
effort not to snap it into pieces. 

I stared at his anxious expression - his eyes were far away, like he was listening to distant 
voices. 

My pulse sped in response to his stress, but I answered carefully. "That depends." 

We pulled into the school lot. 

"I was afraid you would say that." 

"What do you want me to do, Edward?" 

"I want you to stay in the car." He pulled into his usual spot and turned the engine off as he 
spoke. "I want you to wait here until I come back for you." 

"But . . .why ?" 

That was when I saw him. He would have been hard to miss, towering over the students the 
way he did, even if he hadn't been leaning against his black motorcycle, parked illegally on 
the sidewalk. 

"Oh." 

Jacob's face was a calm mask that I recognized well. It was the face he used when he was 
determined to keep his emotions in check, to keep himself under control. It made him look 
like Sam, the oldest of the wolves, the leader of the Quileute pack. But Jacob could never 
quite manage the perfect serenity Sam always exuded. 

I'd forgotten how much this face bothered me. Though I'd gotten to know Sam pretty well 
before the Cullens had come back - to like him, even - I'd never been able to completely 
shake the resentment I felt when Jacob mimicked Sam's expression. It was a stranger's face. 
He wasn't my Jacob when he wore it. 

"You jumped to the wrong conclusion last night," Edward murmured. "He asked about 

 

school because he knew that I would be where you were. He was looking for a safe place to 
talk to me. A place with witnesses." 

So I'd misinterpreted Jacob's motives last night. Missing information, that was the problem. 
Information like why in the world Jacob would want to talk to Edward. 

"I'm not staying in the car," I said. 

Edward groaned quietly. "Of course not. Well, let's get this over with." 

Jacob's face hardened as we walked toward him, hand in hand. 

I noticed other faces, too - the faces of my classmates. I noticed how their eyes widened as 
they took in all six foot seven inches of Jacob's long body, muscled up the way no normal 
sixteen-and-a-half-year-old ever had been. I saw those eyes rake over his tight black t-shirt - 
short-sleeved, though the day was unseasonably cool - his ragged, grease-smeared jeans, and 
the glossy black bike he leaned against. Their eyes didn't linger on his face - something about 
his expression had them glancing quickly away. And I noticed the wide berth everyone gave 
him, the bubble of space that no one dared to encroach on. 

With a sense of astonishment, I realized that Jacob looked dangerous to them. How odd. 

Edward stopped a few yards away from Jacob, and I could tell that he was uncomfortable 
having me so close to a werewolf. He drew his hand back slightly, pulling me halfway behind 
his body. 

"You could have called us," Edward said in a steel-hard voice. 

"Sorry," Jacob answered, his face twisting into a sneer. "I don't have any leeches on my speed 
dial." 

"You could have reached me at Bella's house, of course." 

Jacob's jaw flexed, and his brows pulled together. He didn't answer. 

"This is hardly the place, Jacob. Could we discuss this later?" 

"Sure, sure. I'll stop by your crypt after school." Jacob snorted. "What's wrong with now?" 

Edward looked around pointedly, his eyes resting on the witnesses who were just barely out 
of hearing range. A few people were hesitating on the sidewalk, their eyes bright with 
expectation. Like they were hoping a fight might break out to alleviate the tedium of another 
Monday morning. I saw Tyler Crowley nudge Austin Marks, and they both paused on their 
way to class. 

"I already know what you came to say," Edward reminded Jacob in voice so low that I could 
barely make it out. "Message delivered. Consider us warned." 

 

Edward glanced down at me for a fleeting second with worried eyes. 

"Warned?" I asked blankly. "What are you talking about?" 

"You didn't tell her?" Jacob asked, his eyes widening with disbelief. "What, were you afraid 
she'd take our side?" 

"Please drop it, Jacob," Edward said in an even voice. 

"Why?" Jacob challenged. 

I frowned in confusion. "What don't I know? Edward?" 

Edward just glared at Jacob as if he hadn't heard me. 

"Jake?" 

Jacob raised his eyebrow at me. "He didn't tell you that his big . . .brother crossed the line 
Saturday night?" he asked, his tone thickly layered with sarcasm. Then his eyes flickered 
back to Edward. "Paul was totally justified in -" 

"It was no-man's land!" Edward hissed. 

"Was not!" 

Jacob was fuming visibly. His hands trembled. He shook his head and sucked in two deep 
lungfuls of air. 

"Emmett and Paul?" I whispered. Paul was Jacob's most volatile pack brother. He was the 
one who'd lost control that day in the woods - the memory of the snarling gray wolf was 
suddenly vivid in my head. "What happened? Were they fighting?" My voice strained higher 
in panic. "Why? Did Paul get hurt?" 

"No one fought," Edward said quietly, only to me. "No one got hurt. Don't be anxious." 

Jacob was staring at us with incredulous eyes. "You didn't tell her anything at all, did you? Is 
that why you took her away? So she wouldn't know that -?" 

"Leave now." Edward cut him off mid-sentence, and his face was abruptly frightening - truly 
frightening. For a second, he looked like . . . like a vampire . He glared at Jacob with vicious, 
unveiled loathing. 

Jacob raised his eyebrows, but made no other move. "Why haven't you told her?" 

They faced each other in silence for a long moment. More students gathered behind Tyler 
and Austin. I saw Mike next to Ben - Mike had one hand on Ben's shoulder, like he was 
holding him in place. 

 

In the dead silence, all the details suddenly fell into place for me with a burst of intuition. 

Something Edward didn't want me to know. 

Something that Jacob wouldn't have kept from me. 

Something that had the Cullens and the wolves both in the woods, moving in hazardous 
proximity to each other. 

Something that would cause Edward to insist that I fly across the country. 

Something that Alice had seen in a vision last week - a vision Edward had lied to me about. 

Something I'd been waiting for anyway. Something I knew would happen again, as much as I 
might wish it never would. It was never going to end, was it? 

I heard the quick gasp, gasp, gasp, gasp of the air dragging through my lips, but I couldn't 
stop it. It looked like the school was shaking, like there was an earthquake, but I knew it was 
my own trembling that caused the illusion. 

"She came back for me," I choked out. 

Victoria was never going to give up till I was dead. She would keep repeating the same 
pattern - feint and run, feint and run - until she found a hole through my defenders. 

Maybe I'd get lucky. Maybe the Volturi would come for me first - they'd kill me quicker, at 
least. 

Edward held me tight to his side, angling