I nodded, trying to hide the sudden terror - how much more could I handle before I collapsed? "No reason to be afraid. Got it."

He pursed his lips for a second, deciding what to say. And then he glanced abruptly at Seth, as if the wolf had called him.

"What's she doing?" Edward asked.

"Er... staring at you, waiting for you to answer her," Emmett said.

"I think he's talking about someone the boy..." Jasper started.

"The cub," Emmett corrected him.

"Whatever," Jasper rolled his eyes. "Something the cub was thinking about."

"Oh," Emmett said.

Seth whined; it was an anxious, uneasy sound. It made the hair on the back of my neck rise.

Everything was dead silent for one endless second.

And then Edward gasped, "No!" and one of his hands flew out as if to grab something that I couldn't see. "Don't -!"

A spasm rocked through Seth's body, and a howl, blistering with agony, ripped from his lungs.

Edward fell to his knees at the exact same moment, gripping the sides of his head with two hands, his face furrowed in pain.

"Oh, dear... what's happening?" Esme gasped.

"I don't know," Carlisle looked a bit worried too.

I screamed once in bewildered terror, and dropped to my knees beside him. Stupidly, I tried to pull his hands from his face; my palms, clammy with sweat, slid off his marble skin.

"Edward! Edward!"

His eyes focused on me; with obvious effort, he pulled his clenched teeth apart.

"It's okay. We're going to be fine. It's -" He broke off, and winced again.

"We...you don't think one of the wolves could be hurt," Esme fretted.

"Maybe," Carlisle said. "Hmm... It seems like their link causes them to literally feel each other's pain...at least to some extent."

"What's happening?" I cried out while Seth howled in anguish.

"We're fine. We're going to be okay," Edward gasped. "Sam - help him -"

And I realized in that instant, when he said Sam's name, that he was not speaking of himself and Seth. No unseen force was attacking them. This time, the crisis was not here.

At the mention of unseen forces, almost everyone shivered. They were all thinking about Jane.

He was using the pack plural.

I'd burned through all my adrenaline. My body had nothing left. I sagged, and Edward caught me before I could hit the rocks. He sprang to his feet, me in his arms.

"Seth!" Edward shouted.

Seth was crouched, still tensed in agony, looking as if he meant to launch himself into the forest.

"No!" Edward ordered. "You go straight home. Now. As fast as you can!"

Seth whimpered, shaking his great head from side to side.

"Seth. Trust me."

The huge wolf stared into Edward's agonized eyes for one long second, and then he straightened up and flew into the trees, disappearing like a ghost.

"He really seems to trust you," Carlisle said. In this sense, he was really pleased with this book.

Edward cradled me tightly against his chest, and then we were also hurtling through the shadowy forest, taking a different path than the wolf.

"Edward." I fought to force the words through my constricted throat. "What happened, Edward? What happened to Sam? Where are we going? What's happening?"

"We have to go back to the clearing," he told me in a low voice. "We knew there was a good probability of this happening. Earlier this morning, Alice saw it and passed it through Sam to Seth. The Volturi decided it was time to intercede."

There were several hisses at that.

"And they just stood by and waited to see if we would get destroyed," Jasper said angrily.

The Volturi.

Too much. My mind refused to make sense of the words, pretended it couldn't understand.

The trees jolted past us. He was running downhill so fast that it felt as if we were plummeting, falling out of control.

"Don't panic. They aren't coming for us. It's just the normal contingent of the guard that usually cleans up this kind of mess. Nothing momentous, they're merely doing their job. Of course, they seem to have timed their arrival very carefully. Which leads me to believe that no one in Italy would mourn if these newborns had reduced the size of the Cullen family."

Esme shuddered as she read this.

The words came through his teeth, hard and bleak. "I'll know for sure what they were thinking when they get to the clearing."

"Is that why we're going back?" I whispered. Could I handle this? Images of flowing black robes crept into my unwilling mind, and I flinched away from them. I was close to a breaking point.

"Maybe you should take her home," Esme fretted. "She needs some rest."

"She really does," Carlisle agreed, but he was shaking his head. "But it wouldn't be good for Bella to be alone...or for Bella and Edward to come together. No, it's best we met them as a family."

"It's part of the reason. Mostly, it will be safer for us to present a united front at this point. They have no reason to harass us, but . . . Jane's with them. If she thought we were alone somewhere away from the others, it might tempt her. Like Victoria, Jane will probably guess that I'm with you. Demetri, of course, is with her. He could find me, if Jane asked him to."

I didn't want to think that name. I didn't want to see that blindingly exquisite, childlike face in my head. A strange sound came out of my throat.

"Perhaps you should stop talking about this," Esme said, still worrying.

"No," Emmett pouted. "How else are we to know what's coming next?"

"Shh, Bella, shh. It's all going to be fine. Alice can see that."

Alice could see? But . . . then where were the wolves? Where was the pack?

"The pack?"

"They had to leave quickly. The Volturi do not honor truces with werewolves."

I could hear my breathing get faster, but I couldn't control it. I started to gasp.

"I swear they will be fine," Edward promised me. "The Volturi won't recognize the scent - they won't realize the wolves are here; this isn't a species they are familiar with. The pack will be fine."

"How could they miss the stench, though?" Rosalie scoffed.

"They probably can't," Jasper said. "but that doesn't mean they'll know what it is."

I couldn't process his explanation. My concentration was ripped to shreds by my fears. We're going to be fine, he had said before . . . and Seth, howling in agony . . . Edward had avoided my first question, distracted me with the Volturi. . . .

I was very close to the edge - just clinging by my fingertips.

The trees were a racing blur that flowed around him like jade waters.

"What happened?" I whispered again. "Before. When Seth was howling? When you were hurt?"

Edward hesitated.

"Edward! Tell me!"

"It was all over," he whispered. I could barely hear him over the wind his speed created. "The wolves didn't count their half . . . they thought they had them all. Of course, Alice couldn't see. . . ."

"What happened?"

"One of the newborns was hiding. . . . Leah found him - she was being stupid, cocky, trying to prove something. She engaged him alone. . . ."

"Leah," I repeated, and I was too weak to feel shame for the relief that flooded through me.

"Oh, I don't think you will get off that easy... he said him," Emmett said. "I'm sure it's the pup."

"You don't think that's he's seriously hurt, do you?" Esme asked in a worried voice.

"Who cares," Rosalie said with venom in her voice.

"I'm sure he's fine," Carlisle soothed.

"Is she going to be okay?"

"Leah wasn't hurt," Edward mumbled.

I stared at him for a long second.

Sam - help him - Edward had gasped. Him, not her.

"We're almost there," Edward said, and he stared at a fixed point in the sky.

Automatically, my eyes followed his. There was a dark purple cloud hanging low over the trees. A cloud? But it was so abnormally sunny. . . . No, not a cloud - I recognized the thick column of smoke, just like the one at our campsite.

"Edward," I said, my voice nearly inaudible. "Edward, someone got hurt."

I'd heard Seth's agony, seen the torture in Edward's face.

"Yes," he whispered.

"Who?" I asked, though, of course, I already knew the answer.

Of course I did. Of course.

"The mutt can't even keep himself safe after that despicable act," Rosalie hissed.

The trees were slowing around us as we came to our destination.

It took him a long moment to answer me.

"Jacob," he said.

I was able to nod once.

"Of course," I whispered.

And then I slipped off the edge I was clinging to inside my head.

Everything went black.

"It caused her to pass out?" Emmett asked.

"I think it was a combination of everything that made her pass out," Carlisle sighed. "It really was a lot for a human to handle in one day."

I was first aware of the cool hands touching me. More than one pair of hands. Arms holding me, a palm curved to fit my cheek, fingers stroking my forehead, and more fingers pressed lightly into my wrist.

Then I was aware of the voices. They were just a humming at first, and then they grew in volume and clarity like someone was turning up a radio.

"Carlisle - it's been five minutes." Edward's voice, anxious.

"Ah...of course...Edward, the mothering hen," Emmett laughed. "I think he even has you beat, Mom, on how he worries about Bella."

"She'll come around when she's ready, Edward." Carlisle's voice, always calm and sure.

"She's had too much to deal with today. Let her mind protect itself."

But my mind was not protected. It was trapped in the knowledge that had not left me, even in unconsciousness - the pain that was part of the blackness.

I felt totally disconnected from my body. Like I was caged in some small corner of my head, no longer at the controls. But I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't think. The agony was too strong for that. There was no escape from it.

Jacob.

The word seemed to cut at Edward and everyone frowned.

Jacob.

No, no, no, no, no . . .

"Alice, how long do we have?" Edward demanded, his voice still tense; Carlisle's soothing words had not helped.

From farther away, Alice's voice. It was brightly chipper. "Another five minutes. And Bella will open her eyes in thirty-seven seconds. I wouldn't doubt that she can hear us now."

"Yes, she seems to be able to do that," Emmett said, his voice sounded strained.

"Bella, honey?" This was Esme's soft, comforting voice. "Can you hear me? You're safe now, dear."

Yes, I was safe. Did that really matter?

Then cool lips were at my ear, and Edward was speaking the words that allowed me to escape from the torture that had me caged inside my own head.

"He's going to live, Bella. Jacob Black is healing as I speak. He'll be fine."

Edwards eyes became more downcast than ever.

As the pain and dread eased, I found my way back to my body. My eyelids fluttered.

"Oh, Bella," Edward sighed in relief, and his lips touched mine.

"Edward," I whispered.

"Yes, I'm here."

I got my lids to open, and I stared into warm gold.

"Jacob is okay?" I asked.

"Yes," he promised.

I watched his eyes carefully for some sign that he was placating me, but they were perfectly clear.

"I examined him myself," Carlisle said then; I turned my head to find his face, only a few feet away. Carlisle's expression was serious and reassuring at the same time. It was impossible to doubt him.

"Well, that's most certainly true," Emmett smiled. "And he hardly ever lies...well, except for the basics, that is."

"His life is not in any danger. He was healing at an incredible rate, though his injuries were extensive enough that it will still be a few days before he is back to normal, even if the rate of repair holds steady. As soon as we're done here, I will do what I can to help him. Sam is trying to get him to phase back to his human form. That will make treating him easier." Carlisle smiled slightly. "I've never been to veterinarian school."

Carlisle chuckled for a few seconds - it was an interesting idea.

"What happened to him?" I whispered. "How bad are his injuries?"

Carlisle's face was serious again. "Another wolf was in trouble -"

"Leah," I breathed.

"Yes. He knocked her out of the way, but he didn't have time to defend himself. The newborn got his arms around him. Most of the bones on the right half of his body were shattered."

"That's what you get for being manipulative," Rosalie muttered.

"Rose," Esme reprimanded, though her heart didn't seem to be in it this time.

I flinched.

"Sam and Paul got there in time. He was already improving when they took him back to La Push."

"He'll be back to normal?" I asked.

"Yes, Bella. He won't have any permanent damage."

I took a deep breath.

"Three minutes," Alice said quietly.

I struggled, trying to get vertical. Edward realized what I was doing and helped me to my feet.

I stared at the scene in front of me.

The Cullens stood in a loose semicircle around the bonfire. There were hardly any flames visible, just the thick, purple-black smoke, hovering like a disease against the bright grass.

Jasper stood closest to the solid-seeming haze, in its shadow so that his skin did not glitter brilliantly in the sun the way the others did. He had his back to me, his shoulders tense, his arms slightly extended. There was something there, in his shadow. Something he crouched over with wary intensity. . . .

"What?" Jasper asked, narrowing his eyes. "Is there another vampire there? Someone from the army?"

"It seems like it," Emmett said.

"Why?" Jasper asked.

"How should I know?" Emmett shrugged.