Victoria kicked something aside with a flick of her bare foot - the missile that had crippled her attack. It rolled toward me, and I realized what it was.

My stomach lurched.

The fingers were still twitching; grasping at blades of grass, Riley's arm began to drag itself mindlessly across the ground.

"I wonder if it's really mindlessly... or does it know where to go," Carlisle mused.

"Now's not the time for that," Esme interrupted his ramblings.

"Right... sorry," Carlisle sighed.

Seth was circling Riley again, and now Riley was retreating. He backed away from the advancing werewolf, his face rigid with pain. He raised his one arm defensively.

Seth rushed Riley, and the vampire was clearly off-balance. I saw Seth sink his teeth into Riley's shoulder and tear, jumping back again.

With an earsplitting metallic screech, Riley lost his other arm.

Seth shook his head, flinging the arm into the woods. The broken hissing noise that came through Seth's teeth sounded like snickering.

Riley screamed out a tortured plea. "Victoria!"

"Yeah...good luck with that one," Emmett chuckled. "You should have listened to Eddy before."

Victoria did not even flinch to the sound of her name. Her eyes did not flicker once toward her partner.

Seth launched himself forward with the force of a wrecking ball. The thrust carried both Seth and Riley into the trees, where the metallic screeching was matched by Riley's screams.

Screams that abruptly cut off, while the sounds of rock being ripped to shreds continued.

Though she spared Riley no farewell glance, Victoria seemed to realize that she was on her own. She began to back away from Edward, frenzied disappointment blazing in her eyes. She threw me one short, agonized stare of longing, and then she started to retreat faster.

"As if I would let her go," Edward said darkly.

"No," Edward crooned, his voice seductive. "Stay just a little longer."

She wheeled and flew toward the refuge of the forest like an arrow from a bow.

But Edward was faster - a bullet from a gun.

He caught her unprotected back at the edge of the trees and, with one last, simple step, the dance was over.

Edward's mouth brushed once across her neck, like a caress. The squealing clamor coming from Seth's efforts covered every other noise, so there was no discernible sound to make the image one of violence. He could have been kissing her.

"Er...well, that went better than I would have imagined," Edward said, almost smiling and then his eyes went hollow again.

And then the fiery tangle of hair was no longer connected to the rest of her body. The shivering orange waves fell to the ground, and bounced once before rolling toward the trees.

"That's the end of the chapter," Jasper said, holding out the book.

"I think I can read this time... especially since the fighting should be over with," Esme said talking the book from him, but her eyes were still sad.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Mirror

"Mirror," Esme read.

I forced my eyes - frozen wide open with shock - to move, so that I could not examine too closely the oval object wrapped in tendrils of shivering, fiery hair.

"That's right, pay no attention to the head rolling on the floor," Emmett chuckled.

Edward was in motion again. Swift and coolly businesslike, he dismembered the headless corpse.

I could not go to him - I could not make my feet respond; they were bolted to the stone beneath them. But I scrutinized his every action minutely, looking for any evidence that he had been harmed. My heart slowed to a healthier rhythm when I found nothing. He was lithe and graceful as ever. I couldn't even see a tear in his clothes.

"Ah...she's worried," Esme smiled sadly.

"Yeah, she doesn't even care that you're disembodying someone," Emmett laughed.

He did not look at me - where I stood frozen to the cliff wall, horrified - while he piled the quivering, twitching limbs and then covered them with dry pine needles. He still did not meet my shocked gaze as he darted into the forest after Seth.

I didn't have time to recover before both he and Seth were back, Edward with his arms full of Riley. Seth was carrying a large chunk - the torso - in his mouth.

"Well, that's a lovely image for her to see," Emmett chuckled. "Playing fetch with your werewolf, Eddy?"

They added their burden to the pile, and Edward pulled a silver rectangle from his pocket. He flipped open the butane lighter and held the flame to the dry tinder. It caught at once; long tongues of orange fire licked rapidly across the pyre.

"Get every piece," Edward said in a low aside to Seth.

Together, the vampire and the werewolf scoured the campsite, occasionally tossing small lumps of white stone into the blaze. Seth handled the pieces with his teeth. My brain wasn't working well enough for me to understand why he didn't change back to a form with hands.

Edward kept his eyes on his work.

And then they were done, and the raging fire was sending a pillar of choking purple toward the sky. The thick smoke curled up slowly, looking more solid than it should; it smelled like burning incense, and the scent was uncomfortable. It was heavy, too strong.

Seth made that snickering sound again, deep in his chest.

A smile flickered across Edward's tense face.

Edward stretched out his arm, his hand curled into a fist. Seth grinned, revealing the long row of dagger teeth, and bumped his nose against Edward's hand.

"Nice teamwork," Edward murmured.

Seth coughed a laugh.

"Well, it looks like we've got at least one werewolf friend," Jasper laughed.

"What about the pup? I thought he was starting to warm up to us," Emmett said.

"I think what he said about trusting us not to kill him, sums up our relationship with him pretty well," Jasper shrugged.

Carlisle, in the mean time, was smiling. It was nice to see that a werewolf could really be that accepting of them and that there weren't any hostilities there.

Then Edward took a deep breath, and turned slowly to face me.

I did not understand his expression. His eyes were as wary as if I were another enemy - more than wary, they were afraid. Yet he'd shown no fear at all when he'd faced Victoria and Riley. . . . My mind was stuck, stunned and useless as my body. I stared at him, bewildered.

"Why are you afraid, Eddy?" Emmett asked, looking hopefully at his brother.

"I don't know," Edward said, his voice still hollow. Emmett sighed.

"It's going to be okay, Edward," Emmett said. "I'm sure everything will work out the right way."

Edward didn't say anything - just went back to his brooding.

"Bella, love," he said in his softest tone, walking toward me with exaggerated slowness, his hands held up, palms forward. Dazed as I was, it reminded me oddly of a suspect approaching a policeman, showing that he wasn't armed. . . .

"Bella, can you drop the rock, please? Carefully. Don't hurt yourself."

"You don't actually think that she would hurt herself now," Emmett scoffed.

I'd forgotten all about my crude weapon, though I realized now that I was grasping it so hard that my knuckle was screaming in protest. Was it rebroken? Carlisle would put me in a cast for sure this time.

Edward hesitated a few feet from me, his hands still in the air, his eyes still fearful.

It took me a few long seconds to remember how to move my fingers. Then the rock clattered to the ground, while my hand stayed frozen in the same position.

Edward relaxed slightly when my hands were empty, but came no closer.

"You don't have to be afraid, Bella," Edward murmured. "You're safe. I won't hurt you."

"What?" Emmett asked, sounding very confused.

"Oh," Edward sighed. "Naturally, I would think that."

"What?" Emmett repeated.

"You'll see," Edward sighed, not having the energy to explain.

The mystifying promise only confused me further. I stared at him like an imbecile, trying to understand.

"Yes, Em... you're doing a good impression of that," Jasper teased.

"Shut up," Emmett pouted.

"It's going to be all right, Bella. I know you're frightened now, but it's over. No one is going to hurt you. I won't touch you. I won't hurt you," he said again.

My eyes blinked furiously, and I found my voice. "Why do you keep saying that?"

I took an unsteady step toward him, and he leaned away from my advance.

"What's wrong?" I whispered. "What do you mean?"

"Are you . . ." His golden eyes were suddenly as confused as I felt. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

Emmett started chuckling.

"Come on, you would think that she would be at least a little terrified after seeing that," Jasper said. "Then again, when does Bella ever do what you think she should?"

"Afraid of you? Why?"

I staggered forward another step, and then tripped over something - my own feet probably.

Edward caught me, and I buried my face in his chest and started to sob.

"Bella, Bella, I'm so sorry. It's over, it's over."

"I'm fine," I gasped. "I'm okay. I'm just. Freaking out. Give me. A minute."

His arms tightened around me. "I'm so sorry," he murmured again and again.

I clung to him until I could breathe, and then I was kissing him - his chest, his shoulder, his neck - every part of him that I could reach. Slowly, my brain started to work again.

"Ah, that's the opposite of normal... usually her brain stops working when she's kissing you," Emmett chuckled.

"Are you okay?" I demanded between kisses. "Did she hurt you at all?"

"I am absolutely fine," he promised, burying his face in my hair.

"Seth?"

Edward chuckled. "More than fine. Very pleased with himself, in fact."

"He should be, the little guy handled himself pretty well," Jasper said.

"The others? Alice, Esme? The wolves?"

"All fine. It's over there, too. It went just as smoothly as I promised. We got the worst of it here."

"I can imagine...you had the only experienced fighter," Jasper said.

"And you had to be on the defensive...that would make it more of a challenge," Emmett said. "Man, why couldn't I have been the one that stayed behind."

"I'm sure you had plenty of fun in the clearing too," Rosalie said.

"Yeah, probably," Emmett shrugged and then smiled.

I let myself absorb that for a moment, let it sink in and settle in my head.

My family and my friends were safe.

Edward eyes flashed pain and happiness at that...but still he looked glum.

Victoria was never coming after me again. It was over.

We were all going to be fine.

But I couldn't completely take in the good news while I was still so confused.

"Tell me why," I insisted. "Why did you think I would be afraid of you?"

"I'm sorry," he said, apologizing yet again - for what? I had no idea. "So sorry. I didn't want you to see that. See me like that. I know I must have terrified you."

"Nope...you really didn't," Emmett said. "It looks like Bella isn't the only one that looks at things pessimistically."

I had to think about that for another minute, about the hesitant way he'd approached me, his hands in the air. Like I was going to run if he moved too fast. . . .

"Seriously?" I finally asked. "You . . . what? Thought you'd scared me off?" I snorted.

Snorting was good; a voice couldn't tremble or break during a snort. It sounded impressively offhand.

He put his hand under my chin and tilted my head back to read my face.

"Bella, I just" - he hesitated and then forced the words out - "I just beheaded and dismembered a sentient creature not twenty yards from you. That doesn't bother you?"

Carlisle seemed to be bothered by this, judging by his frown, but no one else was.

He frowned at me.

I shrugged. Shrugging was good, too. Very blasé. "Not really. I was only afraid that you and Seth were going to get hurt. I wanted to help, but there's only so much I can do. . . ."

"No... there was nothing you could do," Edward corrected - his voice still hollow sounding, but there was a flicker of amusement in it this time.

His suddenly livid expression made my voice fade out.

"Yes," he said, his tone clipped. "Your little stunt with the rock. You know that you nearly gave me a heart attack? Not the easiest thing to do, that."

"An impossible thing to do," Carlisle corrected.

His furious glower made it hard to answer.

"I wanted to help . . . Seth was hurt. . . ."

"Seth was only feigning that he was hurt, Bella. It was a trick. And then you . . . !" He shook his head, unable to finish. "Seth couldn't see what you were doing, so I had to step in. Seth's a bit disgruntled that he can't claim a single-handed defeat now."

"Ah... too bad, cub," Emmett said.

"Cub?" Alice questioned.

"Well, I like this Seth kid, I think he deserves his own nickname," Emmett shrugged. "What do you think?"

"You're crazy," Alice shrugged, "but I guess it's okay."

"Seth was . . . faking?"

Edward nodded sternly.

"Oh."

We both looked at Seth, who was studiously ignoring us, watching the flames. Smugness radiated from every hair in his fur.

"See... he's cool," Emmett chuckled.

"Well, I didn't know that," I said, on the offense now. "And it's not easy being the only helpless person around. Just you wait till I'm a vampire! I'm not going to be sitting on the sidelines next time."

"That would be interesting... I wonder what you would do then," Emmett mused, but the laughter usually accompanying a statement like that wasn't there.

A dozen emotions flitted across his face before he settled on being amused. "Next time? Did you anticipate another war soon?"

"With her luck, who knows?" Emmett chuckled.

"With my luck? Who knows?"

"That's right, Bella!" Emmett laughed.

He rolled his eyes, but I could see that he was flying - the relief was making us both lightheaded. It was over.

Or . . . was it?

"Hold on. Didn't you say something before - ?" I flinched, remembering what exactly it had been before - what was I going to say to Jacob? My splintered heart throbbed out a painful, aching beat. It was hard to believe, almost impossible, but the hardest part of this day was not behind me - and then I soldiered on.

Everyone grimaced at that thought.

"About a complication? And Alice, needing to nail down the schedule for Sam. You said it was going to be close. What was going to be close?"

Edward's eyes flickered back to Seth, and they exchanged a loaded glance.

"Well?" I asked.

"It's nothing, really," Edward said quickly. "But we do need to be on our way. . . ."

"Why don't you ever just answer her, Eddy?" Emmett huffed.

He started to pull me into place on his back, but I stiffened and drew away.

"Define nothing."

Edward took my face between his palms. "We only have a minute, so don't panic, all right? I told you that you had no reason to be afraid. Trust me on that, please?"

"Yeah... now's the time to start panicking," Emmett chucked.