AN: Hello all! I'd like to say thank you for all the reviews I got on the last chapter! This past week has been insanely rough for me in my personal life and each review made it just a bit better! As always, thank you GlitchedWitch for editing, discussing, and hanging around to help with this story! Don't forget to enjoy and review the chapter!

Chapter 27: EPOV

"Alice!" I bark loudly. Bella stumbles behind me, and I can't control my muscles enough to slow them down for her. Alice appears in front of me quickly, reaching to wrap her arms around Bella before I've even asked what I needed of her. "Take care of her." My voice is swept away as I dart to Carlisle office. I enter through the thick wooden door before I've even knocked.

"Jacob Black is convincing Sam and the pack to fight with us."

"What?" Carlisle stands, his book falling from his hands. "What did you say?"

"He wants the pack to fight with us, Carlisle. He swore he would break from the pack if Sam refused."

"That's impossible." Jasper enters the room, his eyes quizzically narrowed at me. "How did you convince him of that?"

Rosalie is right on his heels, her expression covered in shock.

"Not me." I shake my head, refusing responsibility. "Bella did. He wants to do it for her. His own retribution for what happened."

Rosalie snorts quietly. "You two are more alike than I've given you credit for."

"Rosalie." Carlisle holds his hand up to her, almost begging her not to start a conflict with me now. It was only for Carlisle's sake that I ignored Rosalie's comment, turning back to Carlisle to continue.

"They've been tracking vampire scents all over Quileute lands. It's the same scents that have been around for weeks."

"And we want them on our side?" Rosalie demands, chuckling. "If they can't catch those vampires, who's to say they'll manage an army intending to fight to the death?"

"They're playing with the border line." I hiss at her, glaring until she rolls her eyes at me. I turn to Carlisle, then to Jasper. "The wolves can't kill outside their land. Whoever these vampires are. . . They know that."

"That's impossible. Others are oblivious to our treaty." Carlisle insists quietly. "Did Jacob say this to you?"

"He was thinking it. It's the only reason I interrupted their conversation. Whatever is happening on Quileute lands is connected. . . Somehow."

"Edward, only the Denali's know about our treaty." Carlisle sighs tiredly, placing his fallen book on the table.

"Well, then it must be them." Jasper mutters.

"I hardly think so." Carlisle disagrees, thinking back to our long friendship with the Alaskan coven. They were our closest friends - our family.

"They have the motive to, Carlisle." I remind him. The Denali's were on edge with the wolves after Laurent was killed. Their feud with the wolves was enough to stop them from helping us fight based purely on our association with them through Bella.

The door opens and Alice quietly slips in, bouncing towards Jasper.

"Bella?"

With Esme. Alice reassures me. She wraps her dainty arms around Jasper's thick one. "Let's not forget Laurent was with the Denali's for quite some time, Jasper. Victoria has been sniffing around ever since we killed James. We know she was in contact with Laurent while he was in Denali, which is precisely the reason he returned to Forks only to be promptly killed by the wolves. He could have easily relayed information about the treaty line to Victoria."

Carlisle sighs besides me, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Have you seen something about this, Alice?"

"Well, whoever it is is playing with the treaty line. That makes it easy for them to slip through the wolves grasp and . . . through my visions."

"I thought we ruled Victoria out of this." Rosalie questions incredulously. "Is there anyone else we want to consider? We have the Volturi, Bella's attacker, the Denali's, and now Victoria again."

"We ruled Victoria out of the attack on Bella specifically." Jasper corrects harshly. "We never ruled her out of the army in Seattle. Bella's idea that the Volturi is involved is only speculation."

"Which is what this is, too." Rosalie raises an eyebrow, challenging Jasper to contradict her.

Bella's theory that Aro was using her attack to distract us while they created an army to break our family was plausible, but it certainly didn't explain the vampires in La Push or who attacked her. It also didn't explain Victoria's involvement, if she was involved.

"Maybe none of this is related." I suggest quietly. "We've disagreed about whether to consider these events independently of each other, and nothing quite fits except Bella's explanation. . .Until now. Aro wants Alice and I to join him. Victoria wants Bella dead. Bella's attacker wants her, Carlisle and I dead. The army being created in Seattle began before the attack on Bella. Victoria – if it is her and her pawns – is going after the wolves. No one's motives or timelines are aligned."

"It's logical." Jasper agrees, nodding his head. "Which means we have to deal with each one as a separate event." We have to respond to the army in Seattle with the wolves. They'll have to respond to the vampires on their land, regardless of the treaty line. We know nothing of Bella's attacker and that will remain a mystery since she has no information that will help our search. Victoria will have to be dealt with whenever she resurfaces.

"Does anyone think there is little point to figuring out who is behind this?" Rosalie questions. "Every single threat mentioned wants someone dead or this family broken. We know what we have to do."

"We need to know what we're up against." Jasper responds cooly. "If the Volturi is behind any of these attacks, we may be going against Alec and Jane. Victoria is ruthless, too. Let's not forget Alice and Edward seem to have no knowledge of Bella's attacker, either, which puts us at a disadvantage. We can't go into anything unprepared unless we're prepared to have casualties."

"Which we won't." Carlisle says firmly, as if he could speak his family's safety into existence.

"My point is this: we keep standing here trying to discuss things, trying to figure out what happened and why. It's a waste of time, Jasper. Every conversation we have is just a circle of us gambling on information that's not been confirmed." Rosalie insists, her voice as hard as her darkened eyes.

"What would you have us do?" I question.

"Nothing. We can't do anything. The wolves are on our side now, but we can't just march into Seattle with wolves and wage a war in the streets."

"They're coming here." Alice squeaks in her shrill voice. "I can see that."

Carlisle snaps his head toward Alice. Had she not shared this vision with anyone else besides me? "When?"

"Soon. It's becoming clearer the more I look. Decisions are changing, but they're finally being made."

"We're training with the wolves tonight." Jasper insists. "Tell Jacob Black that he has until nightfall to convince the pack."

"I'll relay the message."

"It shouldn't be a problem." Alice quips, her enthusiastic voice contradicting the frown set deeply on her face. "They have made their decision. What little I was seeing disappeared, which is certainly inconvenient."

Jasper nods in understanding at Alice's comment, his thoughts a flurry of liking that we wouldn't be so evenly matched anymore. "We'll keep speculating, Rosalie. Until we have a solid answer, we can't settle with gambling on our information and with our lives." Jasper says in a hard voice. He says nothing more as he quietly leaves the room.

"You should hunt." Alice tells me pointedly. I only nod in response, not bothering to mention the deep hues of her own eyes that stared at me.

"It's a good idea for all of us to keep our strength up until we know for sure when things will take place. We shouldn't become complacent." Carlisle tells us quietly.

"Shall we go now?" Alice questions, skipping over to me. We need to talk.

"Let me go see Bella first." I answer. I shoot Carlisle a quick look, but he doesn't respond. He's turned toward the large windows at the back wall, deep in through about the situation we were all in. Rather than interrupting him, I quietly slip out of the room behind Rosalie and Alice.

Bella was with Esme when I broached the third floor. They're sitting across from each other in my room, quiet words interrupting the scratching of pencils on paper. I'm almost a little surprised to see Bella holding one of Esme's sketch pads and a pencil. She's watched Esme engage in various forms of creative expression countless times, but this is the first time she's ever tried it herself.

"Edward!" Bella's pencil stops moving when she spots me, and a small smile spreads over her face. "What happened to you earlier?"

Guilt courses through me. I'd brushed her off so quickly with no explanation in my haste to talk to Carlisle. The fact that we still lacked a concrete understanding of the situation following the conversation made me even guiltier.

"Nothing. Just talking to Carlisle about what Jacob said."

Bella's smile turns into a frown instantly and she drops her pencil onto the paper. I can't see what she's drawing, and part of me is tempted to lean over to see what's on the paper even if I know I should respect her privacy.

"He's not going to change his mind, is he?"

"No, love. He won't." I walk towards her, planting a short kiss on her cheek. "I know you worry, but you shouldn't. The wolves are perfectly capable of killing vampires."

"So I've heard." She spits out bitterly, twirling her pencil in her hands. "Apparently you are, too."

"I've killed my fair share, but I've already promised you I'm not fighting. I won't go back on that."

Bella nods slowly. "Is Jasper confident that everyone will be alright with the pack fighting too?"

"Yes. He's quite confident, actually. More than I thought he would be."

"Good."

"I'm going for a hunt with Alice. I'll be back soon." I murmur, brushing my hand over her hair. She falls into my embrace but nods regardless. She leans up, silently asking me for a kiss which I happily plant against her warm lips.

Esme grasps my hand softly in hers as I leave the two of them to return to their drawings and quiet words.

Alice jumps up from the porch steps when I make it outside. We exchange no words as we break off into a run, heading North towards the Canadian border where the pickings won't be so slim.

My mind is a frazzled mess of the day's events. Jacob Black convincing the pack to work with us is strange and hysterically against nature, but it's exactly what we need to ensure a less than fatal result to our side. There's little we'd have to do to train them. Killing vampires was practically their nature, even if they hadn't had much experience in Forks since our arrival.

The conversation we had entertained earlier was entirely different. The complexity of so many events occurring at the same time was suspicious. They hardly seemed connected – given those who we assumed were standing behind the chaos being made and their motives for creating such disorder. At the same time, nothing made sense except that they were related. The vampires in La Push must certainly be the newborns from Seattle, and Bella's attack nearly coincided with the beginnings of the newborn army; and yet, none of it made sense.

Alice's thoughts beside me are a quiet echo of my own. She's full of concern for each block of the anarchy around us, wondering how each of it fits in with another into a perfect geometric shape. She's not used to being so confused and disoriented by the future. She's never been acquainted with the unknown.

We slow as we begin to feel the air around us chill with the arctic breeze. I hang back as Alice continues forward in search of her own meal – she'd caught the scent of a small herd of deer. The less than mouth-watering aroma seemed to captivate Alice. She had hunted enough that she felt she could settle for herbivores. I, on the other hand, had not. The chilly breeze wafted appetizing scents of predators around me, reminding me that it had been far too long since I had last hunted properly.

Today, I'd completely satiate my thirst. I'm overdoing it. I'm gluttoning myself on the blood of every animal I could find. The strength that Carlisle brought up earlier was a desperate need for the monster that wanted revenge. If I ever had the opportunity for it, I would take it. Bella said I couldn't hunt, but I would kill if he found me.

I shifted into my hunting crouch, letting the wind cross over me until I caught scent of my own victim. The monster in me, finally let loose after being trapped in chains for weeks, completely takes over my logical and rational thought. It lunges for the first opportunity to take down an animal, ferociously biting into the carotid artery of a mountain lion.

I feel somewhat swollen by the blood I'd consumed. I'd neglected my immortal body. A mountain lion, two bobcats, and a small group of elk had been enough to quench the thirst in my throat that felt almost natural after my long weeks away… ignoring the temptations of my monstrous body.

I perched quietly on a nearby boulder, waiting patiently for Alice to finish. She was slower than me, even if she had been hunting more frequently. I didn't mind – the Earth was practically velvet beneath my limbs and the wisps of heat from the sun were comforting.

The sun was heartily setting, casting long golden shadows across the wooden plains around me. We had several hours until we would meet the wolves – which Carlisle had dutifully informed Alice that he had spoken to on my behalf. Carlisle was a much better peacekeeper than I was, and that was a role he had fortunately taken the duty to assume.

"Done?" Alice asks, wiping her mouth free of blood. There was none there. Alice wouldn't waste a drop.

"Yes."

"Refreshing, isn't it? To hunt after so long."

"I suppose."

Alice and I slip into a slow pace. We were crawling, essentially. The twilight forest around us was peaceful enough that neither of us seemed to want to leave it.

"Alice,"

Yes?

"Has it changed at all?"

Alice frowns, pressing her tiny lips into a thin line. "No."

I can feel the tightening of my jaw as Alice's mind automatically floats to her newest vision. Charlie standing over Bella's gravestone. He's holding wilted flowers. He's not saying a word.

"Stop it, Alice." I hiss at her. She shoots me an apologetic look, immediately vanishing the vision from her head.

I know you had hoped Jacob Black would fix this. You're right – she needs him, but she needs you more.

I turn away from her, swallowing thickly. I was hoping she wouldn't see through my pathetic and cowardly attempt to remove my responsibility to Bella. I was hoping Bella's forgiveness towards Jacob Black would be enough to save her life. I couldn't do what Alice told me to, what Bella needed me to. I risked killing her.

Jacob will never satisfy what Bella needs. He's a friend to her, but there's a limit.

"He saved her while I was gone. If you only knew. . ."

I know, Edward , but I also know this is different from that. She truly felt you didn't love her. What she feels now . . . Jacob can't change that.

"If he does?"

Alice breathes in a patient breath. "If you lose Bella, neither one of you will get her, Edward."

"So, nothing has changed?"

No.

Alice is quiet for the remainder of the run home, and I don't prompt her to say anything. There was nothing more that I needed, or wanted, to hear from her. What was needed of me was clear. What was needed to save Bella was clear. My own shortcomings and the monster that raged inside me, as always, stood between everything I could do to protect Bella.

The lights in the house light the clearing as we return home. I can hear the gentle words of conversation between my adopted parents, quietly discussing their most recent daughter. Apparently, Bella had opened up for a brief moment to Esme, timidly revealing the similarities between Carlisle and her attacker. She had clamped right back up again when Esme asked her to elaborate.

The thoughts of my siblings were nowhere to be found.

"They went for a hunt." Alice tells me quietly. "I think I might find them. . . Jasper and I haven't spent much time together recently, which has been a loss. Should I ask Carlisle and Esme to join me?"

I shake my head. "I need to talk to Carlisle."

Alice nods in noiseless understanding, skipping into the house to retrieve Esme. I wait outside, standing quietly by the river as the sun heavily balks towards the horizon. It seemed like twilight was dragging on today. As if the sun would never set and grace us with the peace of a new night.

"Edward, did you hunt enough?" Esme's question pulls me from my thoughts. She stands with Alice, her features etched with motherly concern. If my heart beat, surely it would be dying by the pain I'd caused my mother. Esme's thoughts were a frenzy of fear for me.

I try to offer her a convincing smile. "I'll be fine. I'm about to go inside."

Esme nods in response, watching me wordlessly as I make my way towards the lit mansion stolen from the pages of a magazine.

The front door closes heavily behind me as I spot Bella sitting by the piano. Her delicate fingers are running over the ivory keys, light enough that not a sound erupts from the strings of my piano. Her eyes are focused on the white and black of the instrument's features, though they're distantly deep in thoughts I don't wish to interrupt.

I try to hide my amusement as she hits a key accidently, sending waves of shock through her frame.

"You're supposed to play the notes together, love." I murmur, steering to her side at once. I place my hand over hers on the piano keys before she can move it, pressing it down so the piano strings vibrate again. "That way, they sound beautiful rather than frightening."

I can smell the blush deep in Bella's cheeks. "It scared me."

"I'm sorry."

"You used to play for me a lot." She murmurs quietly, smiling in a serene, distant kind of way. "You don't play anymore."

"There's not a lot of time for it right now."

"Esme said you hadn't played in a long time . . . Before you met me."

"New changes in my life gave me perspective." My words make Bella's head turn to face me. There's a strange emotion buzzing in her eyes, and I can't quite pinpoint if it's something I should be happy about. I almost wished Jasper was here to help me understand the puzzle before me.

"Esme said you wrote my lullaby after meeting me. You don't hum that anymore." Bella's tone has a touch of sadness that makes my frozen heart want to shatter. "Esme said you used to play it for her, too."

"I didn't realize you wanted to hear it."

"I always want to hear it." I'd hum it to her for eternity without pause if that's what she needed. "Sometimes when I wake up at night you're humming it. I don't think you realize it though. You're always looking out the window thinking about things. Why don't you hold me at night?"

I struggle to answer at first. My surprise at how much she was talking seemed to twist my mind until no words formed. "You get uncomfortable with your nightmares. You get scared when I hold you."

"Oh."

The lightness of Bella's voice has me deeply concerned. She sounds as if she doesn't care, as if she's not talking about herself. She talks as if the Bella and Edward of our conversation are aloof strangers that have no impact on us.

"I wish I would stop doing that. I liked when you used to hold me. Now you're always standing by the window or sitting across the room. What do you think about at night when I'm sleeping?"

"You."

"Why?"

"Because I love you, Bella."

She turns towards the piano again, shyly hiding her smile. "Oh."

I want to smile, too, but I'm most concerned about how out of reality she is right now. "I'll play for you now." I murmur, gently scooting her aside on the bench so I can sit next to her. She smiles again, watching me as I place my hands professionally over the keys.

The tender melody that begins at my touch seems to soothe her, which soothes me. I can see her muscles relaxing, physically changing the stiff form of her body. The deepness of her brown eyes disappear behind her eyelids as she sinks her head against my shoulder.

The keys I scarcely touched were hardly on my mind. I can play this melody in my sleep, if that was an action I could engage in as a vampire. Now, I am more focused on the feel of Bella's body leaning against mine than the ivory keys beneath the pads of my fingertips.

She craved me holding her at night, which I neglected to do. She desired the sound of my love, which I had withheld.

Hesitantly, Bella's fingers move towards the keys. Her finger presses firmly onto one ivory note, interrupting the song I had been playing.

"Do you want me to teach you?"

Bella's frail body jumps in surprise, her eyes turning towards me with a humiliated blush present against her pale skin. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I forgot you were playing."

I can feel my hands pull away from the keys, planting themselves firmly against her face instead. "Interrupt whenever you want, love." I murmur, pressing my lips to hers. I run my fingers over the heat of her cheeks, enjoying the scarlet look of them. "I need to go talk to Carlisle. Can you entertain yourself for a few minutes?"

Bella nods slowly, wincing slightly as she does so. "Can you play for me again later?"

"The moment I finish talking to Carlisle." I promise her, brushing a soft strand of her hair through my fingers. I slip off the bench and upstairs to Carlisle's office before Bella can even blink. This conversation would be quick. I would return to Bella and play for her until she begged me not to.

"Edward," Carlisle greets. He's standing by the window where I'd left him earlier before my hunt with Alice.

I hesitate now, unsure of how to approach this with him.

"You can speak freely." He hums, sensing my hesitation.

"I'm almost afraid of what you might think of me if I do."

I watch myself through the filter of his thoughts, see my eyes wild with conflict and concern. You know I would never think less of you, no matter what you say. Tell me what you must, son. I'll try to help as much as I can.

"Have you . . . How long did you wait with Esme?"

Carlisle turns to face me, his thoughts buzzing with understanding. "I see. What encouraged this?"

"It's too early, isn't it?"

Carlisle frowns. No, not necessarily.

"Has Alice told you?" I question. I cringe as the visions play back in my head. Visions I'd never be able to forget. Visions that would haunt me if I could sleep. For once, I'm thankful I can't slip into unconsciousness the way humans do.

Carlisle frowns, sighing deeply. "Only a part of it. I certainly don't know the consequences she saw. She intentionally withheld the most vital part of her vision, I'm sure."

"I didn't want to. . .I don't know how to do this, Carlisle."

You can't assume this situation is anything like what Esme and I went through.

"I don't know what she needs."

I think you do.

"Can I?" I whisper. The idea of it – the idea of loving Bella in that way – was appealing. I wanted her more than anything. I wanted to love her, to know her body the way I knew her soul. I wanted her, and I always had, but the monster wanted her more. He wanted her until she was nothing. Nothing but a crumpled pile of bones killed by the sheer force of my desire. "Can she?"

Her most private wounds are healed. You would not be at any risk of furthering her pain.

"Do you know that, truly?"

I haven't examined her again. I can't imagine she would agree to such a thing, and I won't ask her. She's had no issues that I've noticed. Her wounds were mostly superficial that would have healed quickly.

"She's not ready. Not physically." I disagree, shaking my head.

I would worry more about her psychological wounds. Psychological pain after sexual assault is considerably normal and quite common. She's testing boundaries, however, as Alice said. She's asking you for more. I don't think it will be a problem if she's pursuing it herself.

"It's not healthy . . . Not so soon."

You can't decide that for her, son. Healthy is relative. Her body and mind are pushing her to do this.

"Her mind was also pushing her to withhold information and lie to us."

That's not weakness, it's strength. She had the strength to carry the weight of that for weeks.

"I know, I know, but it's a misplaced strength. What if I do this and these feelings she has are also misplaced? What if I traumatized her more?"

She'll tell you if it's too much for her.

I swallow forcefully, stuffing my fists into my pockets as if that would quell my frustration and unease with this situation. "And what if she does? What if I can't control myself when she begs me to stop? What if I harm her? I could kill her, Carlisle. I don't have that control."

I have faith in you, Edward. I have faith that you will do what's best for her, and you will make this right for her.

"I might so easily betray that trust."

He measures my expression and words for a long time. "I don't believe you will." The trust and pride in his voice makes the guilt run freely through me. He trusted me so much.

"Carlisle," My voice is strangled when I try to speak again, but he quiets me easily.

"No one is asking this of you tonight, Edward. You need to prepare as much as she does, but you certainly can't discredit her when she's so clearly needing more from you."

I fall quiet at his words. They echoed the same sentiment Alice was going on about earlier. I nod slowly in mute concession. He was right… Alice was right - except I wasn't fully satisfied. The monster, locked in chains following my hunt, was hungry for more.

Carlisle moves away from the window, retrieving a folder near his desk. He hands it to me, wordlessly prompting me to open it. "I finished running her blood work. I did a full CBC. "

The words and numbers scream at me from the page in the folder. I close it, tossing it toward the desk without really digesting any of the information. Carlisle would tell me what it said and meant, anyway.

"Her iron is low. I'll need to increase the dose of her medication to get her anemia under control again. We'll work harder on dietary adjustments, too." Carlisle tells me plainly. "Her white blood cell count is high, as are some other levels."

"What does that mean, Carlisle?" I mumble, pressing my fingers to the bridge of my nose. I wasn't in the mood to pick his thoughts and figure out riddles to get the answers I coveted.

"I'm not sure yet. I would need to do more testing to make sense of the numbers. For now, we need to get control of her anemia."

"It's not usually this hard." I glance at my father. He was watching me very closely, analyzing my response to his words. "Pills should've fixed that."

"They did - for a short time, anyway." He grimaced.

He didn't speak the rest of his thoughts, but it was clear. Bella's condition was only worsening despite our efforts, and the rate that it was worsening at was concerning. It should have been months, not weeks, before her dosage needed adjustments.

"Her blood pressure is high, too. I suspect that's because she was shielding this morning, however. I'll leave her hypertension medication alone, for now."

"And her tremors? Migraines?"

"I can't be sure how much is related to hypertension, Edward. I truly believe her shielding is making the headaches worse, and causing the tremors." Carlisle sighs. I was thinking. . . Certain abilities are usually categorically mental or physical in vampires. From what little we understand, it seems Bella's shield is entirely mental.

"That would make sense. She repels mental abilities."

"I want to do another MRI to see how her brain is handling it. I'm not sure such results would show up in such a scan, but they might."

"Why?" the word is spit from between my clenched jaw. Bella hated him poking and prodding her with things, and her discomfort frustrated me. An MRI meant coercing Bella into more tests and needle pricks than she wanted.

I can feel my body only growing tenser as I think about this new information. She needed to know about all of this, even if it would stress her out. Her iron levels were dangerous, even with the medication she was on. Her hypertension was far from controlled. It was clear she had no idea she was shielding in response to the stressors around her. It was even more clear that she didn't realize how intrinsically attached some of her physical ailments were to her shielding episodes.

"Tremors and migraines point to neurological problems… you know that as well as I do, Edward." He murmurs softly. "I took an MRI the first time she shielded, so we should be able to consider changes over a few weeks time."

"What do you hope to find?"

"I hope to find nothing, son." I worry that I'm wrong, though. The sooner we know about neurological problems, the better.