He frowned. "This is an experiment. I'm not sure if it will be possible for us all to . . . cooperate. I don't want you in the middle of that."
As if that didn't make me all the more anxious to go. "If you won't take me, then I'll call Jacob."
His eyes tightened. That was a low blow, and I knew it. But there was no way I was being left behind.
He didn't answer; we were at Charlie's house now. The front light was on.
"See you upstairs," I muttered.
I tiptoed in the front door. Charlie was asleep in the living room, overflowing the too-small sofa, and snoring so loudly I could have ripped a chainsaw to life and it wouldn't have wakened him.
I shook his shoulder vigorously.
"Dad! Charlie!"
He grumbled, eyes still closed.
"I'm home now-you're going to hurt your back sleeping like that. C'mon, time to move."
It took a few more shakes, and his eyes never did open all the way, but I managed to get him off the couch. I helped him up to his bed, where he collapsed on top of the covers, fully dressed, and started snoring again.
He wasn't going to be looking for me anytime soon.
Edward waited in my room while I washed my face and changed into jeans and a flannel shirt. He watched me unhappily from the rocking chair as I hung the outfit Alice had given me in my closet.
"Come here," I said, taking his hand and pulling him to my bed.
I pushed him down on the bed and then curled up against his chest. Maybe he was right and I was tired enough to sleep. I wasn't going to let him sneak off without me.
He tucked my quilt in around me, and then held me close.
"Please relax."
"Sure."
"This is going to work, Bella. I can feel it."
My teeth locked together.
He was still radiating relief. Nobody but me cared if Jacob and his friends got hurt. Not even Jacob and his friends. Especially not them.
He could tell I was about to lose it. "Listen to me, Bella. This is going to be easy. The newborns will be completely taken by surprise. They'll have no more idea that werewolves even exist than you did. I've seen how they act in a group, the way Jasper remembers. I truly believe that the wolves' hunting techniques will work flawlessly against them. And with them divided and confused, there won't be enough for the rest of us to do. Someone may have to sit out," he teased.
"Piece of cake," I mumbled tonelessly against his chest.
"Shhh," he stroked my cheek. "You'll see. Don't worry now."
He started humming my lullaby, but, for once, it didn't calm me.
People-well, vampires and werewolves really, but still-people I loved were going to get hurt. Hurt because of me. Again. I wished my bad luck would focus a little more carefully. I felt like yelling up at the empty sky: It's me you want-over here! Just me!
I tried to think of a way that I could do exactly that-force my bad luck to focus on me. It wouldn't be easy. I would have to wait, bide my time . . .
I did not fall asleep. The minutes passed quickly, to my surprise, and I was still alert and tense when Edward pulled us both up into a sitting position.
"Are you sure you don't want to stay and sleep?"
I gave him a sour look.
He sighed, and scooped me up in his arms before he jumped from my window.
He raced through the black, quiet forest with me on his back, and even in his run I could feel the elation. He ran the way he did when it was just us, just for enjoyment, just for the feel of the wind in his hair. It was the kind of thing that, during less anxious times, would have made me happy.
When we got to the big open field, his family was there, talking casually, relaxed. Emmett's booming laugh echoed through the wide space now and then. Edward set me down and we walked hand in hand toward them.
It took me a minute, because it was so dark with the moon hidden behind the clouds, but I realized that we were in the baseball clearing. It was the same place where, more than a year ago, that first lighthearted evening with the Cullens had been interrupted by James and his coven. It felt strange to be here again-as if this gathering wouldn't be complete until James and Laurent and Victoria joined us. But James and Laurent were never coming back. That pattern wouldn't be repeated. Maybe all the patterns were broken.
Yes, someone had broken out of their pattern. Was it possible that the Volturi were the flexible ones in this equation?
I doubted it.
Victoria had always seemed like a force of nature to me-like a hurricane moving toward the coast in a straight line-unavoidable, implacable, but predictable. Maybe it was wrong to limit her that way. She had to be capable of adaptation.
"You know what I think?" I asked Edward.
He laughed. "No."
I almost smiled.
"What do you think?"
"I think it's all connected. Not just the two, but all three."