Angel POV

"I'm really very sorry we brought no present," Carmen fretted, touching my shoulder gently. "Carlisle was very cryptic when he asked us to visit."

"Oh, it's perfectly fine!" I shook my head vehemently, some of my hair coming out of it's place and falling to frame my face. "Seriously, I told the Cullens themselves that I didn't want any presents!" With a sigh, I added, "They never listen."

Carmen laughed. "Oh, don't I know it! Well, there will be other birthdays, more holidays." She pulled me into another hug, then flitted to the door to join the rest of the Denalis, the last vampires to leave Forks.

Tanya smiled warmly at me, then at the rest of the vampires and even Jacob and Seth. "Farewell, Family." she said. "We shall visit soon."

As soon as they were gone, and the sound of tires pulled away from the house, I flopped onto a couch and covered my face with my hands with a sigh, my wings wrapping around me like a blanket.

"What time is it?" I asked Seth, who'd settled down beside me.

"A little past one," he replied softly, touching my wing. Knowing what he wanted, I opened it up and let him pull me to him. My wing went around him, and we sat much like Nessie and I had my first night with the Cullens.

"I told you we should have made them leave earlier," Jasper sighed, probably in Alice's direction, and even though the couch didn't dip in the slightest, I know he'd sat down on the couch on my other side.

"Well, it would have been rude," Alice said. I peeked through my fingers to see her kneel down in front of me, resting her elbows on my knees and her head on her hands. "Sorry, though," she added.

"Mm," I mumbled, leaning my head against Seth's shoulder. After a moment - or what seemed like a moment; in actuality, I dozed off - Seth said something in my ear about Alice taking me up to my room. I pulled in my wings and allowed myself to be carried for the first time since I was a child.

When I woke up late the next morning, I found Nessie was already up, and reading one of my new books beside my bed. She had to know I was awake, but she didn't say anything as I examined the pile of gifts I hadn't asked for.

The books - a mix between science and non fiction - were from Carlisle and Esme. From Alice and Jasper, I'd gotten clothes - her idea - and a locket with a picture of all of the Cullens, myself, Seth, and Jake in it - his idea.

From the rest, my first car waited downstairs in the garage. A car!

"They're out hunting?" I finally asked.

Nessie closed the book with a snap before looking at me and answering, "Yep! We'll have the house mostly to ourselves today. Want to go to La Push to see Jake and Seth?"

"You just want to ride in my car," I accused her.

"Duh!" she rolled her eyes. "I know I'm more mature than I look, but I only look fourteen! Ugh, it'll be at least four more years until I'm fully matured."

I had been grinning at her, but now my smile faded. "Yeah...four more years and you stop aging forever. It's gonna be so strange, for me, to be older than my 'parents' in two years. If I don't..."

Nessie shifted uncomfortably in her chair. We discussed my possible expiration a lot when I first got here, but as I got older, the reality got more and more frightening until we stopped talking about it altogether.

"You won't," Nessie said, though she sounded unsure. "And, I mean, even if you were going to...don't you think venom could stop it?"

I shrugged. "Who knows. Anyway, let's stop talking about it. I'll shower and be downstairs in a few minutes."

Nessie stood. "Okay. I'm going to scramble some eggs and make toast."

"Sounds delicious,"

Thirty minutes later, and we were on the road to La Push in my brand new, silver, Porsche 918 Spyder.

"Wow, I hope I get a car like this one day!" Nessie sighed, stroking the leather seat.

"You can take this one when your parents think you're old enough," Angel sighed. "Seriously, all I wanted is a car that worked. A used car. But no."

"Well, it is my family we're talking about here," Nessie shrugged.

I just grumbled.

"Man, you got such a nice car..." Jacob said, in greeting.

If I remembered correctly, Seth and Jacob had been the most excited about my new car. Jacob had even looked jealous when he realized that Seth had second dibs on my car, only after me.

I didn't have the heart to crush him even further by telling him Seth would probably put the most miles on the car. I did tell him, however, that I planned to one day give the car to Nessie, which put him closer to the driver's seat.

After this, Ness and I stood off to the side while the two of them obsessed over the car. She made a big show of checking her watch now and again, but they were too engrossed in what they were doing to pay attention.

Finally, I threw my hands in the air. "You two, go for a drive already! We didn't come all the way to La Push to be ignored by our boyfriends! Shoo, and hurry back so we can hang out, like Ness and I actually planned!"

"Sorry, Ange," Seth looked apologetic, but right after he'd kissed me shyly he was in the passenger's seat of the car. Jacob wasn't allowed to kiss Nessie yet - pretty much all the Cullens had threatened death - but he gave her a big hug before hopping into the car beside Seth.

And, like that, the two were gone in a puff of dust.

After a quick drive - ahem, an hour - Jacob and Seth returned, and we headed down to the beach, followed by Embry and the girl he imprinted on, Mica, Quil, five year old Claire, Paul, and Rachel.

On the beach, we all separated into four pairs to spend what time we could together. Claire and Quil skipped rocks, Embry taught Mica - an African American girl who'd lived in a desert in New Mexico her entire life and had never seen the ocean - to swim, Paul and Rachel hiked a short way up the cliff to have a picnic, and Seth and I built a sandcastle.

"You know, I've never tried this," I said, watching my side of the castle finally slump into the sand. I leaned back on my haunches and frowned at it.

"No kidding?" Seth teased. With the patience of a tribe elder, he showed me how to mix just enough water into the sand to make the grains stick together, but not so much that it became a soupy, useless mess. Next, he gave me one of Claire's sand buckets, in the shape of a turret, and instructed me to pack it with sand.

After maybe ten minutes, my sandcastle - just the one turret made by the bucket - stopped falling down, and I looked at Seth's, only to find he'd made an entire castle now, and only by hand.

When he saw my expression, he laughed. "Don't worry," he said. "I practically grew up on the beach, so I've had lots of practice. Here, if you just rinse the bucket out, I'll show you..."

"Bye!" Nessie and I waved one last time to the figures down on the beach, silhouetted by the setting sun.

With a small sigh, Nessie leaned her seat back and closed her eyes, while I pulled out of the beach parking lot and turned towards home.

"Tired?" I asked.

"Sleepy," Nessie shrugged.

"And, the difference is...?"

"Nothing, really."

I rolled my eyes. "Jacob's annoying nature is rubbing off on you."

She just snorted in reply, and things were silent from then on, until the soft sound of half-snores came from Nessie's side of the car.

With a small smile, I glanced over at her...and the blur charging towards the car.

I had absolutely no time to even cry out a warning to Nessie when the blur hit the side of the car, forcing it to the other side of the road, where the tires caught. I had just enough sense to somehow escape my buckle, throw myself over Nessie, and cover my head before the car started to roll.

Over the crunching and screaming of metal, I was aware of two other noises; my cries of fear, and Nessie's. Where she was held into the car by her belt, the only thing keeping me from flying out was my death grip on her, and, with every flip, the pain made me loosen my grip a little more.

When the car finally shuddered to a stop, five rolls later, it was upside down, and I let go of Nessie, touching the ground and shards of glass with a soft cry. Meanwhile, Nessie was upside down, and I rolled out of the way in time for her to get loose from her seat belt.

"Angel?" she croaked.

I was too much in pain to answer; just a quick assessment led me to believe that I had at least two broken ribs, a deep gash on my forehead, a deeper gash on my right forearm, and other little cuts from glass pretty much everywhere, with shards of or powdered glass ground into them.

Never had I been so grateful for the leather jacket padded on the back that I'd gotten from Jasper two years ago, after taking a tumble from Seth's motorcycle and fracturing a bone in my left wing.

"Angel?" she asked again. "Are you okay?"

"No," I gasped. "Not really. You?"

"Okay. Why...why'd you jump on top of me like that? My skin's pretty much as strong as Mom's, or Dad's, or Uncle Jaz, or, or..." she had crawled over to me as she babbled, and helped me into a sitting position, where I leaned against her shoulder, overcome by dizziness.

"Just...an instinct. Sorry. What...what on Earth hit us?" I asked in reply.

She might have been opening her mouth to reply, but at that exact moment, the car flipped over us, flying a few hundred yards before it hit the tree with a monumental crash.

At the same time, our heads turned to see two figures in robes as black as night, both with hoods up. As one, they reached back and threw back their hoods.

"Felix!" Nessie gasped. "Angel, that's..." but the brunette quickly realized that I had no interest in this enemy of the past, for my eyes were focused on the slimmer figure to the left of the bulky vampire.

A small, agonized groan fell from my lips.

"Fang."