timidated by the tall, blond vampire who looked like a brooding movie star to ask him outright.

When we got to the house, we found Carlisle, Esme, and Jasper watching the news intently, though the sound was so low that it was unintelligible to me. Alice was perched on the bottom step of the grand staircase, her face in her hands and her expression discouraged. As we walked in, Emmett ambled through the kitchen door, seeming perfectly at ease. Nothing ever bothered Emmett.

Hey, Edward. Ditching, Bella? He grinned at me.

We both are, Edward reminded him.

Emmett laughed. Yes, but itsher first time through high school. She might miss something.

Edward rolled his eyes, but otherwise ignored his favorite brother. He tossed the paper to Carlisle.

Did you see that theyre considering a serial killer now? he asked.

Carlisle sighed. Theyve had two specialists debating that possibility on CNN all morning.

We cant let this go on.

Lets go now, Emmett said with sudden enthusiasm. Im dead bored.

A hiss echoed down the stairway from upstairs.

Shes such a pessimist, Emmett muttered to himself.

Edward agreed with Emmett. Well have to go sometime.

Rosalie appeared at the top of the stairs and descended slowly. Her face was smooth, expressionless.

Carlisle was shaking his head. Im concerned. Weve never involved ourselves in this kind of thing before. Its not our business. We arent the Volturi.

I dont want the Volturi to have to come here, Edward said. It gives us so much less reaction time.

And all those innocent humans in Seattle, Esme murmured. Its not right to let them die this way.

I know, Carlisle sighed.

Oh, Edward said sharply, turning his head slightly to look at Jasper. I didnt think of that. I see. Youre right, that has to be it. Well, that changes everything.

I wasnt the only one who stared at him in confusion, but I might have been the only one who didnt look slightly annoyed.

I think youd better explain to the others, Edward said to Jasper. What could be the purpose of this? Edward started to pace, staring at the floor, lost in thought.

I hadnt seen her get up, but Alice was there beside me. What is he rambling about? she asked Jasper. What are you thinking?

Jasper didnt seem to enjoy the spotlight. He hesitated, reading every face in the circle  for everyone had moved in to hear what he would say  and then his eyes paused on my face.

Youre confused, he said to me, his deep voice very quiet.

There was no question in his assumption. Jasper knew what I was feeling, what everyone was feeling.

Were all confused, Emmett grumbled.

You can afford the time to be patient, Jasper told him. Bella should understand this, too. Shes one of us now.

His words took me by surprise. As little as Id had to do with Jasper, especially since my last birthday when hed tried to kill me, I hadnt realize that he thought of me that way.

How much do you know about me, Bella? Jasper asked.

Emmett sighed theatrically, and plopped down on the couch to wait with exaggerated impatience.

Not much, I admitted.

Jasper stared at Edward, who looked up to meet his gaze.

No, Edward answered his thought. Im sure you can understand why I havent told her that story. But I suppose she needs to hear it now.

Jasper nodded thoughtfully, and then started to roll up the arm of his ivory sweater.

I watched, curious and confused, trying to figure out what he was doing. He held his wrist under the edge of the lampshade beside him, close to the light of the naked bulb, and traced his finger across a raised crescent mark on the pale skin.

It took me a minute to understand why the shape looked strangely familiar.

Oh, I breathed as realization hit. Jasper, you have a scar exactly like mine.

I held out my hand, the silvery crescent more prominent against my cream skin than against his alabaster.

Jasper smiled faintly. I have a lot of scars like yours, Bella.

Jaspers face was unreadable as he pushed the sleeve of his thin sweater higher up his arm. At first my eyes could not make sense of the texture that was layered thickly across the skin. Curved half-moons crisscrossed in a feathery pattern that was only visible, white on white as it was, because the bright glow of the lamp beside him threw the slightly raised design into relief, with shallow shadows outlining the shapes. And then I grasped that the pattern was made of individual crescents like the one on his wrist . . . the one on my hand.

I looked back at my own small, solitary scar  and remembered how Id received it. I stared at the shape of Jamess teeth, embossed forever on my skin.

And then I gasped, staring up at him. Jasper, whathappened to you?



13. NEWBORN

THE SAME THING THAT HAPPENED TO YOUR HAND,Jasper answered in a quiet voice. Repeated a thousand times. He laughed a little ruefully and brushed at his arm. Our venom is the only thing that leaves a scar.

Why?I breathed in horror, feeling rude but unable to stop staring at his subtly ravaged skin.

I didnt have quite the same . . . upbringing as my adopted siblings here. My beginning was something else entirely. His voice turned hard as he finished.

I gaped at him, appalled.

Before I tell you my story, Jasper said, you must understand that there are places inour world, Bella, where the life span of the never-aging is measured in weeks, and not centuries.

The others had heard this before. Carlisle and Emmett turned their attention to the TV again. Alice moved silently to sit at Esmes feet. But Edward was just as absorbed as I was; I could feel his eyes on my face, reading every flicker of emotion.

To really understand why, you have to look at the world from a different perspective. You have to imagine the way it looks to the powerful, the greedy . . . the perpetually thirsty.

You see, there are places in this world that are more desirable to us than others. Places where we can be less restrained, and still avoid detection.

Picture, for instance, a map of the western hemisphere. Picture on it every human life as a small red dot. The thicker the red, the more easily we  well, those who exist this way  can feed without attracting notice.

I shuddered at the image in my head, at the wordfeed. But Jasper wasnt worried about frightening me, not overprotective like Edward always was. He went on without a pause.

Not that the covens in the South care much for what the humans notice or do not. Its the Volturi that keep them in check. They are the only ones the southern covens fear. If not for the Volturi, the rest of us would be quickly exposed.

I frowned at the way he pronounced the name  with respect, almost gratitude. The idea of the Volturi as the good guys in any sense was hard to accept.

The North is, by comparison, very civilized. Mostly we are nomads here who enjoy the day as well as the night, who allow humans to interact with us unsuspectingly  anonymity is important to us all.

Its a different world in the South. The immortals there come out only at night. They spend the day plotting their next move, or anticipating their enemys. Because it has been war in the South, constant war for centuries, with never one moment of truce. The covens there barely note the existence of humans, except as soldiers notice a herd of cows by the wayside  food for the taking. They only hide from the notice of the herd because of the Volturi.

But what are they fighting for? I asked.

Jasper smiled. Remember the map with the red dots?

He waited, so I nodded.

They fight for control of the thickest red.

You see, it occurred to someone once that, if he were the only vampire in, lets say Mexico City, well then, he could feed every night, twice, three times, and no one would ever notice. He plotted ways to get rid of the competition.

Others had the same idea. Some came up with more effective tactics than others.

But themost effective tactic was invented by a fairly young vampire named Ben