A/N: Surprise!

Carlisle glared at me from across the room. Upon returning home and making sure I hadn't crushed Bella in my passion, he called me into his study. Bella had been tucked into the large comforters, smiling, and though Carlisle could not see, her thighs were clamped together as if to keep what had just happened from slipping away.

Esme was sprawled across a chaise longue, looking more human than I'd seen her. Eyes closed, she tuned us out and began singing folk songs in her head. The white noise of voice made me wish for sleep. If only I could lie down and fall into unconsciousness like Bella was at the moment. The combination of Esme's soothing lullaby and Bella's rhythmic breathing had my eyes drooping.

"Can you justify the way you lied to her?" Carlisle interrupted my simulated sleep.

"I thought you left the surrounding area. I couldn't hear you," I murmured, not opening my eyes.

"I came closer to the house, you were otherwise occupied. But we both know you were telling her what she wanted to hear. And by doing so you're hurting her more. What is the exact motivation for lying to her this gravely? Do you want to crush her spirit, or do you just want to push the ring of her life further down your finger?"

"Maybe I meant it," I reasoned.

"After all the things you've put her through—all the emotional and physical torture how can you say that, Edward?"

"Don't you think I'm capable of love, Carlisle?"

His mind raced ahead of what he tried to keep from his tongue. No. Not when you're still acting so childish. Not when you've made it apparent that—

"Made it apparent that what, Carlisle?" I opened my eyes and met his heated gaze. "I evacuated her from the town she grew up in to protect her. I could easily hand her over, have the three of them take her away and go back to my nomadic life."

He didn't back down at my words, only held up a challenge. "If you love her, you'll change her."

I hadn't expected any less. "Fine then."

Esme opened one eye and rolled it around to find me. "Think about what you just said, Edward."

I didn't have room to think. She needed to be changed. As much as I feared her newborn strength being used against me, I had her trust at the moment and Bella didn't betray those she trusted. She'd be uncoordinated in a fight, susceptible to three experienced fighters, but if they managed to get a hold of her they wouldn't be able to easily rip newborn skin apart. It would take hours to separate every part of the body into three inch chunks and then wait around for them to burn.

Esme cracked open her other eye and turned her head to face me. She waited expectantly. I wouldn't be using her for the sole purpose of winning a fight or eliminating a casualty. I would take her as my mate, get her acclimated to the surrounding world and be a vessel for her insatiable sexual need upon waking up to a new life. She wouldn't need to repress and abstain like I was forced to.

"I've thought plenty about it, Esme. She wants it anyway. If you don't believe me than ask her about it. We've gone through arguments for months prior to this and I'm sure she'd be delighted to hear my change of heart."

Carlisle immediately interjected. "Are you willing to keep her by your side for all of eternity? Forsake all others and do nothing but cater to her every need?"

I smirked. "I do."

He didn't find me amusing. "What changed since you first heard of her feelings? Surely you didn't have such a quick change of heart."

The sheets in Bella's room rustled and I heard her bones pop in place from sleep. I left the room quickly, glad to escape the scorching heat of Carlisle's interrogation and glare.

Bella was sitting up in bed by the time I made it to the room. The sheets were pooled around her thighs, making her appear to be some Grecian Goddess awoken from a glimmering dream. I could imagine a painting done in her image.

She looked up at me, noticing for the first time that someone else was in the room. Instead of modestly covering herself, she smiled and fell to her back, hair scattering around a pillow. Arms outstretched to the headboard, she gestured for me to come closer. I did so, hesitantly.

Carlisle's thoughts echoed through my head as I made my way over. Ask her. I want to hear this with my own ears.

I climbed over Bella while settling into the heat of her open thighs. The warmth was blistering, welcoming. She pressed against my cock and rubbed heartily. She took control of everything, kissing me, pulling, scratching, and biting. The role reversal was strange and almost as if I was hovering above the bed watching a different woman.

"Bella," I mumbled against her lips. "Stop for a moment."

She took a breath and fell back. "Why?"

"We need to talk." Her eyes widened and I brushed my fingers through her hair. "Nothing bad. Well, I guess that's dependent on how you take the discussion."

"What? What is it?" I allowed her to sit up, backing myself against the headboard. "Did something happen?"

I could read the terror on her face. Did I change my mind? Was everything for naught? "No. Everything is as it should be for the moment. Though I have had some very enlightening conversations and have something to ask you."

Once again, Carlisle's thoughts came to me. He's really going to do it. I just can't believe…

"Oh," she breathed. "Ask away."

It was easier to do this side by side. I didn't look at her, instead focused on the top of her head in the mirror. From her angle she'd be able to see my face and that was enough. It was better to do this fast, like killing a victim, break the neck before the thoughts became too much.

"What are your thoughts on becoming a vampire?"

Bella's breath hitched, her heart double-timed and she jumped onto my outstretched legs, staring at my face while trying to find any sign that I was joking. For several moments she waited for the punch line and when I only sat silently and waited, she figured it out.

"You're serious," she breathed.

I nodded. "I am."

Tears began to well in her eyes. "I feel like this all a dream. Like at any moment the rug could be swept from under me. I can't… if that happens, Edward—" she took in a shuddering breath and closed her eyes. "I don't think I'll be able to take it if that happens."

"Come here," I whispered. She leaned forward and I embraced her, my lips touched the shell of her ear and she shuddered. "This is no dream."

"If it is, I want it to last," she whispered back.

She pressed her face into my shoulder. I moved hair away and saw only the glowing white expanse of her throat. "And what if I put you to sleep right now? In a short time you'd wake up with new eyes. The dream could continue for eternity."

She swallowed. "I want that."

Her barely audible reply meant little. I already unhinged my jaw and even with the forfeit of her consent there was no stopping me. My front two teeth grazed her skin and my senses went wild. So much more sensitive than my tongue, the hunger swirled all around, up and down my nervous system. Bella's fingers tightened in my hair and I moved in, scraping gently and then biting.

The body in my arms stiffened. There, buried in soft white skin and frazzled nerves, red wine poured out and saturated my tongue. It was a divine rapture on my taste buds. After three years of abstaining from my incessant need, to have it right here was too much. I retracted my teeth and took a strong pull.

"It hurts."

"Stay still, Bella. Don't fight." Oh God, oh God. "Carlisle, do something!"

Like hell they'd take this away from me. I was forced to abstain before, but now that I had it—swallowed it down like a parched man—I would never part with it. Not until the very last drop was sliding down my clenching gullet.

My jaw was forced open, unhinging my attempts at breathing in blood. I was on the floor. A body was over mine. Someone was screaming when they should have been dead.

"Was this some kind of joke, Edward?" Right in my ear. "Did you think you could drain her and that would solve everything? Well it doesn't matter anymore. The change is happening and you'll have to live up to your promises."

"God, Carlisle. So much blood. I-I don't even know if she has enough strength to make it through…"

"Keep her conscious, Esme."

Not like them to keep the area unguarded.

I smell human. And blood. Maybe they decided to off the kid.

My senses sobered up quickly. Two distinct voices ran through my head and a third that I couldn't recognize. But I caught sight of what he saw, who the other saw. I stiffened under Carlisle, bloodlust at the back of my throat but no longer clouding my vision.

Bella was on the bed, writhing and groaning. A gash in her throat caught my attention, barely contained by ripped sheets soaked in the heavenly excrement. She gasped out, blinked furiously, but nothing more than tiny sounds escaped her throat. It was like watching the scene with the volume turned off.

"Carlisle," I whispered, hoping against all reason that maybe the three nomads wouldn't hear me. "They're here."

For the first time since I'd met him, he swore like the Devil. His forearm lifted from my throat and before I could even think to move, he had me out of the room and down the hall. Several blood packets were thrown haphazardly in my direction. I tore into them, sating myself to a small portion of control.

"How far?" he asked, not looking up from his desk.

"A few miles. They'll be here in two and a half minutes."

"How many?"

"Three."

"They'll be frenzied by her blood. This will only motivate them more to attack with all their strength. You couldn't have decided on this before? Maybe waited a while before making stupid decisions."

He pulled out a rusted key and darted to a safe. Always the careful and controlled Carlisle, he opened it with care and took out more blood packs—animal this time. He drank greedily and I followed him down the hall to Esme. She was bent over Bella, not breathing and focused on creating a tight enough tourniquet that wouldn't choke her.

I spoke without inhaling. "If we fight them off long enough she might be able to get through the change. She doesn't have much blood in her system and the venom latches on to every platelet before eventually becoming a substitute. The transformation might be cut in half—"

"We can't go on what-ifs." He lifted her eyelids and noted the already blackened pupil that eclipsed her eyes. Red veins flooded the white. "It's already happening. There's no way to stop it. We just have to hope for the best. Even more so for our own well-beings."

Carlisle froze as we both heard the quiet landing of feet on the gravel driveway. He placed a leather pad between Bella's teeth to keep from biting her tongue. The gag suppressed her breathing a little more, but it would do no good against their hearing.

Arriving downstairs, Esme stood in the foyer, changed from her floor sweeping skirt into something better for flexing and running. I couldn't imagine such a petite, motherly woman going into head-to-head with three murderous bastards.

Carlisle led our group out onto the porch and slowly I was faced with the group. I hadn't seen Victoria and James since Washington, but they looked no different. The third man who had stood guard was off to the side, looking reluctant to do anything more than run away.

"Can I help you three?" Carlisle immediately took control. Every one of his three hundred years came forward in the most authoritative voice I'd heard from him.

James took control of his group, cutting off the third member—Laurent. "Just need to clear up some business with your boy. Or you can hand over the dying human." He smiled.

Carlisle's shoulders widened with his straighter stance. "She's dying. No more than a few hours and her heart will stop. Can't you leave and let us give her peaceful death?"

"If she's doomed to die, couldn't I just snap her neck and be on my way?" James asked.

The blood in my stomach churned. Carlisle half-stepped in front of me to stop any active move. He was looking to control the situation without a fight. The three of them acted clam enough now, played along with Carlisle's reasoning, but the thoughts running through James's head betrayed the cool expression on his face.

"She's in great pain," Carlisle said lowly. "She'll be gone soon enough, please, leave us be."

"We would be willing to kill her quickly—no more pain than she's already in," Laurent spoke for the first time. He seemed eager to end this conflict, eyes darting between Victoria and James. "We have no vested interest in her life or her death, but I'm afraid after the rowdy display in Washington it's against my friend's stubborn instincts to let things go."

"All will be forgiven with her dying pulse," James said quickly, shrugging nonchalantly. "And if that's too much to ask, I could always forcibly make my way into the house and do it myself."

A snarl ripped from my chest. The bastard was looking for a fight, egging on my protective instincts and territorial greed. It was bad enough they'd followed me across the country, but to give a shoddy ultimatum instead of going in for the kill made anger swell in my eyes.

Victoria cocked her head. Red…

Laurent caught my gaze and then looked to Carlisle and Esme. Victoria stuttered in her confidence. After our fight last time, my female stalker was unsure of her ability to kill. With just animal blood I had succeeded in ridding both her and James. With human blood I'd have more power, and while all these thoughts ran through her head, a cocky smile formed on my lips. James was immediately put off.

"Smile all you want, one more chance: let us in or we force you out of the way."

"Try it," I sneered.

James threw himself at me, red eyes feral and teeth bared. Carlisle ducked out of his way and tackled Victoria to the ground before she could get to Esme. I left the two of them to fend off the others and chased James into the woods.

Unaware of my intruding mind, his thoughts led him up to a rocky cliff where he was sure to out-maneuver me on the terrain. On my way by, I knocked over a series of trees; the domino effect led to a quick trail of oaks blocking off the mountains exit.

James turned stopped and turned. I was thirty feet away, crouched low enough to coil my leg muscles. "No more running then," he growled. "Let's have a rematch."

I sprang from my position and narrowly missed grabbing him by the waist. James rolled away and repositioned himself. I mirrored his movements and saw an attack plan forming in his head.

For minutes we attacked and defended. I saw the ideas in his head before he could act and countered easily. Frustration was winning him over, each attack soon followed by a cry of outrage. Wary of my prior knowledge, he stopped thinking and acted only on instinct.

"How do you know!" he cried. I swept his legs out but he quickly bounded backwards.

Circling now, I tried to find Carlisle. He was far from his home, out in the mountains somewhere. Victoria was everywhere at once, hiding in caverns and bursting through the other side, dropping trees, boulders and anything else she could find. He hadn't managed more than to bring her to the ground, almost decapitating her before Laurent twisted his arm away.

Esme was at the house. She was speaking calmly to Laurent, trying to persuade him not to fight with his two friends. Torn between duty and indecision he chose to neither help nor sabotage the two.

"What will you do when your mate's dead?" I asked James.

"What the hell does that mean? Victoria can fend for herself, your human can't," he growled. "Aren't you concerned about that dying girl? By the time we're finished here she'll probably be cold and lifeless."

I smiled. "That's the plan."

He looked baffled for a moment, mind racing to figure out why I'd want to kill her. And then, suddenly, it came to a screeching halt as a conclusion rounded.

"She's changing."

I lunged while he was distracted. My arms wrapped around his waist and I managed to open my jaw wide enough to latch onto his ribcage. Howling in pain, his hands pushed at my head, twisted my neck and dented my shoulders. I bit off a chuck of skin and spit it out and drove my fist inside his hollow chest.

The fact that so many organs had been removed from previous fights wavered the possibility that this would end quickly. Experienced as James was, my concern rose. My collarbone snapped with his fighting hand and I continually dug inside his body, breaking bones and when I'd uncovered the treasure my hand broke through his chest cavity.

A wail of agony broke through the small clearing and I rolled away before he got to my neck. It was a mess of venom and skin on the ground. His body was contorted into a shapeless lump. Popping my bones back into place and waiting for the painful sting of regeneration, I gathered brush and snapped stones together until they sparked.

Hearing James's screaming, Victoria changed her attack and was rushing in my direction. I gathered pieces of his body threw them in and began to snap off limbs. I had only managed his legs and one arm by the time she rounded the corner.

She wasted no time running at me, releasing a battle cry that would make a human's ears bleed. We grappled on the ground, her hands grabbed onto anything, and soon enough she found something to pelt me with. Rocks of all sizes and polishes dented my flesh as she pounded them in, shattering on impact but not without damage.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw James's mangled body making a roll for us. He moved his scrap of flesh closer with one arm. The sizzling pop of flesh and bone in the bonfire beside me only served to enhance the fact that he should have been incapacitated. Victoria relentlessly pummeled me with anything within her reach, her teeth bit into my shoulder and neck while almost decapitating me.

While the thought, Where the hell is Carlisle? Crossed my mind, a flash of white rammed into our small twosome. Victoria was knocked away. Hitting a few trees on her journey, she landed on her feet and settled into a fighting stance. She ignored Carlisle and flew to me once more.

No longer on the ground, I found my balance and successfully met her hit-for-hit. We circled like predators and though I was her enemy, Victoria's gaze was riveted on James, who now crawled away from Carlisle.

Carlisle shot off like a bullet, appearing in front of James and lifting him by the one arm. Victoria ran closer and I pushed her into a boulder. On impact it crumpled but did little to stop her. I managed to get her to the ground and Carlisle tore off James's final limb, tossing it into the bonfire.

It was like a scene out of a horror movie. A stump of a body wriggled around on the ground as if it were a fish without water. Lightly tinted purple venom fell from the wounds which were starting to heal over, trying to call back the burning pieces in the fire.

Victoria shrieked beneath me, tried desperately to crawl out at the sight of her mate's beheading. I wrapped myself around her and cuffed her to the ground. I could think of no greater punishment than watching the one she loved die before her.

Wild thoughts entered my head as James's faded out. Once his remains were thrown away I only had the violent, merciless sounds of Victoria. The pain pulsing in my temples was unbearable.

"Hurry up, Carlisle!" I yelled. "Kill her already!"

He grimaced but otherwise kept his morbid thoughts about life and death to himself. I was appalled when he murmured a quick prayer before snapping Victoria's head off. They'd brought this on themselves and didn't deserve mercy or praise.

Though her head was removed, the body still squirmed and fought. The frantic strength of helplessness made the impact stronger. I could feel the bones in my legs shattering with each kick. Carlisle worked slowly until he'd broken her body into smaller parts and then sat on the ground to watch it burn.

A large plume of purple smoke filled the air and I laid back to watch it disappear into the clouds. It was thicker than regular smoke. The venom would kill anything within a mile radius. I could already hear deer carcasses hitting the ground, saw birds fall out of the sky.

Carlisle and I watched the bodies burn and the smoke dwindle away until our bones were healed. The sickening twist of muscle and skeletal regulation died away with the last ember and looking closer, there was no piece of flesh left unburned.

"Do you think she's done?" I asked Carlisle.

He fell to his back and closed his eyes. "She's not a turkey in the oven. When she's finished, you'll know."

"Esme's wondering where we are. She held off Laurent but when he saw the smoke, he left."

"Good," he murmured. "I don't think we'll have any trouble from him."

We sat in silence for a few moments and I looked to the heavens. "Carlisle?"

"Yes, Edward?"

"I'm sorry."

"I know you are." He opened his eyes and looked sideways at me.

I swallowed down the way rejection rose in my chest at the idea of cutting off my diet. "I'd like to go back. I don't want this—to prey on humans, I mean. If Bella's going into this world it'll be hard enough to control her without having to worry about myself."

"I think she can do it," he wondered aloud. "I think she was meant to become one of us. I had a feeling as soon as I saw her."

"She'll make a great immortal," I agreed.

"Were you truthful when you said you loved her?" Carlisle asked. His mind told me not to lie, that if I lied to him one more time he wouldn't be able to trust me. I couldn't sever the bond I had with my sire. Not after what he'd done for me.

"I didn't at the time," I answered honestly. "But I think I could learn to love her. She's a good woman. When I say it aloud I think back to the past three years and the time wasted. If I had matured, think of all that could have been, Carlisle."

He sat up on his elbows. "You can make it up to her," he said with conviction. "Make the next three years count. Stay by her side, introduce her to this world, help her and then you'll have eternity to make everything up and more."

I nodded my head and stood, extending my hand in a humanly gesture to help him up. We walked back to the house at a leisurely pace and as Esme came into view, worried eyes set on the two of us, I heard the last beat of Bella's heart.

A/N: I think this goes by quickly, but once I started writing it I couldn't stop. I think there's going to be one more chapter and an epilogue, but it's subject to change.

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