d me 
faster toward the house. 

My handwas broken, but there wasn't any serious damage, just a tiny fissure in one knuckle. I 
didn't want a cast, and Carlisle said I'd be fine in a brace if I promised to keep it on. I 
promised. 

Edward could tell I was out of it as Carlisle worked to fit a brace carefully to my hand. He 
worried aloud a few times that I was in pain, but I assured him that that wasn't it. 

As if I needed - or even had room for - one more thing to worry about. 

All of Jasper's stories about newly created vampires had been percolating in my head since 
he'd explained his past. Now those stories jumped into sharp focus with the news of his and 
Emmett's wager. I wondered randomly what they were betting. What was a motivating prize 
when you had everything? 

I'd always known that I would be different. I hoped that I would be as strong as Edward said 
I would be. Strong and fast and, most of all, beautiful. Someone who could stand next to 
Edward and feel like she belonged there. 

I'd been trying not to think too much about the other things that I would be. Wild. 
Bloodthirsty. Maybe I would not be able to stop myself from killing people. Strangers, people 
who had never harmed me. People like the growing number of victims in Seattle, who'd had 
families and friends and futures. People who'd hadlives. And I could be the monster who 
took that away from them. 

But, in truth, I could handle that part - because I trusted Edward, trusted him absolutely, to 
keep me from doing anything I would regret. I knew he'd take me to Antarctica and hunt 

 

penguins if I asked him to. And I would do whatever it took to be a good person. A good 
vampire. That thought would have made me giggle, if not for this new worry. 

Because, if I really were somehow like that - like the nightmarish images of newborns that 
Jasper had painted in my head - could I possibly beme ? And if all I wanted was to kill 
people, what would happen to the things I wantednow ? 

Edward was so obsessed with me not missing anything while I was human. Usually, it 
seemed kind of silly. There weren't many human experiences that I worried about missing. As 
long as I got to be with Edward, what else could I ask for? 

I stared at his face while he watched Carlisle fix my hand. There was nothing in this world 
that I wanted more than him. Would that,could that, change? 

Was there a human experience that I wasnot willing to give up? 

 

16. EPOCH 

"IHAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!" I MOANED TO MYSELF. 

Every item of clothing I owned was strewn across my bed; my drawers and closets were bare. 
I stared into the empty recesses, willing something suitable to appear. 

My khaki skirt lay over the back of the rocking chair, waiting for me to discover something 
that went with it just exactly right. Something that would make me look beautiful and grown 
up. Something that saidspecial occasion. I was coming up empty. 

It was almost time to go, and I was still wearing my favorite old sweats. Unless I could find 
something better here - and the odds weren't looking good at this point - I was going to 
graduate in them. 

I scowled at the pile of clothes on my bed. 

The kicker was that I knew exactly what I would have worn if it were still available - my 
kidnapped red blouse. I punched the wall with my good hand. 

"Stupid, thieving, annoying vampire!" I growled. 

"What did I do?" Alice demanded. 

She was leaning casually beside the open window as if she'd been there the whole time. 

"Knock, knock," she added with a grin. 

"Is it really so hard to wait for me to get the door?" 

She threw a flat, white box onto my bed. "I'm just passing through. I thought you might need 
something to wear." 

I looked at the big package lying on top of my unsatisfying wardrobe and grimaced. 

"Admit it," Alice said. "I'm a lifesaver." 

"You're a lifesaver," I muttered. "Thanks." 

"Well, it's nice to get something right for a change. You don't know how irritating it is - 
missing things the way I have been. I feel so useless. So . . . normal." She cringed in horror of 
the word. 

"I can't imagine how awful that must feel. Being normal? Ugh." 

She laughed. "Well, at least this makes up for missing your annoying thief - now I just have 
to figure out what I'm not seeing in Seattle." 

 

When she said the words that way - putting the two situations together in one sentence - 
right then it clicked. The elusive something that had been bothering me for days, the 
important connection that I couldn't quite put together, suddenly became clear. I stared at 
her, my face frozen with whatever expression was already in place. 

"Aren't you going to open it?" she asked. She sighed when I didn't move immediately, and 
tugged the top of the box off herself. She pulled something out and held it up, but I couldn't 
concentrate on what it was. "Pretty, don't you think? I picked blue, because I know it's 
Edward's favorite on you." 

I wasn't listening. 

"It's the same," I whispered. 

"What is?" she demanded. "You don't have anything like this. For crying out loud, you only 
own one skirt!" 

"No, Alice! Forget the clothes, listen!" 

"You don't like it?" Alice's face clouded with disappointment. 

"Listen, Alice, don't you see? It's thesame ! The one who broke in and stole my things, and 
the new vampires in Seattle. They're together!" 

The clothes slipped from her fingers and fell back into the box. 

Alice focused now, her voice suddenly sharp. "Why do you think that?" 

"Remember what Edward said? About someone using the holes in your vision to keep you 
from seeing the newborns? And then what you said before, about the timing being too 
perfect - how careful my thief was to make no contact, as if he knew you would see that. I 
think you were right, Alice, I think he did know. I think he was using those holes, too. And 
what are the odds thattwo different people not only know enough about you to do that, but 
also decided to do it at exactly the same time? No way. It's one person. The same one. The 
one who is making the army is the one who stole my scent." 

Alice wasn't accustomed to being taking by surprise. She froze, and was still for so long that 
I started counting in my head as I waited. She didn't move for two minutes straight. Then her 
eyes refocused on me. 

"You're right," she said in a hollow tone. "Of course you're right. And when you put it that 
way. . . ." 

"Edward had it wrong," I whispered. "It was a test . . . to see if it would work. If he could get 
in and out safely as long as he didn't do anything you would be watching out for. Like trying 
to kill me. . . . And he didn't take my things to prove he'd found me. He stole my scent . . . so 
thatothers could find me." 

 

Her eyes were wide with shock. I was right, and I could see that she knew it, too. 

"Oh, no," she mouthed. 

I was through expecting my emotions to make sense anymore. As I processed the fact that 
someone had created an army of vampires - the army that had gruesomely murdered dozens 
of people in Seattle - for the express purpose of destroyingme, I felt a spasm of relief. 

Part of it was finally solving that irritating feeling that I was missing something vital. 

But the larger part was something else entirely. 

"Well," I whispered, "everyone can relax. Nobody's trying to exterminate the Cullens after 
all." 

"If you think that one thing has changed, you're absolutely wrong," Alice said through her 
teeth. "If someone wants one of us, they're going to have to go through the rest of us to get 
to her." 

"Thanks, Alice. But at least we know what they're really after. That has to help." 

"Maybe," she muttered. She started pacing back and forth across my room. 

Thud, thud- a fist hammered against my door. 

I jumped. Alice didn't seem to notice. 

"Aren't you ready yet? We're gonna be late!" Charlie complained, sounding edgy. Charlie 
hated occasions about as much as I did. In his case, a lot of the problem was having to dress 
up. 

"Almost. Give me a minute," I said hoarsely. 

He was quiet for half a second. "Are you crying?" 

"No. I'm nervous. Go away." 

I heard him clump down the stairs. 

"I have to go," Alice whispered. 

"Why?" 

"Edward is coming. If he hears this . . ." 

"Go, go!" I urged immediately. Edward would go berserk when he knew. I couldn't keep it 
from him for long, but maybe the graduation ceremony wasn't the best time for his reaction. 

 

"Put it on," Alice commanded as she flitted out the window. 

I did what she said, dressing in a daze. 

I'd been planning to do something more sophisticated with my hair, but time was up, so it 
hung straight and boring as on any other day. It didn't matter. I didn't bother to look in the 
mirror, so I had no idea how Alice's sweater and skirt ensemble worked. That didn't matter, 
either. I threw the ugly yellow polyester graduation robe over my arm and hurried down the 
stairs. 

"You look nice," Charlie said, already gruff with suppressed emotion. "Is that new?" 

"Yeah," I mumbled, trying to concentrate. "Alice gave it to me. Thanks." 

Edward arrived just a few minutes after his sister left. It wasn't enough time for me to pull 
together a calm faÃ§ade. But, since we were riding in the cruiser with Charlie, he never had a 
chance to ask me what was wrong. 

Charlie had gotten stubborn last week when he'd learned that I was intending to ride with 
Edward to the graduation ceremony. And I could see his point - parents should have some 
rights come graduation day. I'd conceded with good grace, and Edward had cheerfully 
suggested that we all go together. Since Carlisle and Esme had no problem with this, Charlie 
couldn't come up with a compelling objection; he'd agreed with poor grace. And n