considerably compelling. "Isn't there some other section I could switch to? I'm sure there has to be an
open slot somewhere? Sixth hour biology can't be the only option..."
I smiled at her, careful not to flash my teeth so widely that it would scare her, letting the expression
soften my face.
Her heart drummed faster. Too young, she reminded herself frantically. "Well, maybe I could talk to
Bob-I mean Mr. Banner. I could see if-"
A second was all it took to change everything: the atmosphere in the room, my mission here, the reason
I leaned toward the red-haired woman... What had been for one purpose before was now for another.
A second was all it took for Samantha Wells to open the door and place a signed tardy slip in the basket
by the door, and hurry out again, in a rush to be away from school.
A second was all it took for the sudden gust of wind through the open door to crash into me. A second
was all it took for me to realize why that first person through the door had not interrupted me with her
thoughts.
I turned, though I did not need to make sure. I turned slowly, fighting to control the muscles that
rebelled against me.
Bella Swan stood with her back pressed to the wall beside the door, a piece of paper clutched in her
hands. Her eyes were even wider than usual as she took in my ferocious, inhuman glare.
The smell of her blood saturated every particle of air in the tiny, hot room. My throat burst into flames.
The monster glared back at me from the mirror of her eyes again, a mask of evil. My hand hesitated in
the air above the counter. I would not have to look back in order to reach across it and slam Mrs. Cope's
head into her desk with enough force to kill her.
Two lives, rather than twenty. A trade.
The monster waited anxiously, hungrily, for me to do it. But there was always a choice-there had to be.
I cut off the motion of my lungs, and fixed Carlisle's face in front of my eyes. I turned back to face Mrs.
Cope, and heard her internal surprise at the change in my expression. She shrank away from me, but her
fear did not form into coherent words.
Using all the control I'd mastered in my decades of self-denial, I made my voice even and smooth. There
was just enough air left in my lungs to speak once more, rushing through the words.
"Never mind, then. I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help."
I spun and launched myself from the room, trying not to feel the warm-blooded heat of the girl's body
as I passed within inches of it.
I didn't stop until I was in my car, moving too fast the entire way there. Most of the humans had cleared
out already, so there weren't a lot of witnesses. I heard a sophomore, D.J. Garrett, notice, and then
disregard...
Where did Cullen come from-it was like he just came out of thin air... There I go, with the imagination
again. Mom always says...
When I slid into my Volvo, the others were already there. I tried to control my breathing, but I was
gasping at the fresh air like I'd been suffocated.
"Edward?" Alice asked, alarm in her voice.
I just shook my head at her.
"What the hell happened to you?" Emmett demanded, distracted, for the moment, from the fact that
Jasper was not in the mood for his rematch.
Instead of answering, I threw the car into reverse. I had to get out of this lot before Bella Swan could
follow me here, too. My own person demon, haunting me... I swung the car around and accelerated. I
hit forty before I was on the road. On the road, I hit seventy before I made the corner.
Without looking, I knew that Emmett, Rosalie and Jasper had all turned to stare at Alice. She shrugged.
She couldn't see what had passed, only what was coming.
She looked ahead for me now. We both processed what she saw in her head, and we were both
surprised.
"You're leaving?" she whispered.
The others stared at me now.
"Am I?" I hissed through my teeth.
She saw it then, as my resolve wavered and another choice spun my future in a darker direction.
"Oh."
Bella Swan, dead. My eyes, glowing crimson with fresh blood. The search that would follow. The careful
time we would wait before it was safe for us to pull out and start again...
"Oh," she said again. The picture grew more specific. I saw the inside of Chief Swan's house for the first
time, saw Bella in a small kitchen with the yellow cupboards, her back to me as I stalked her from the
shadows...let the scent pull me toward her...
"Stop!" I groaned, not able to bear more.
"Sorry," she whispered, her eyes wide.
The monster rejoiced. And the vision in her head shifted again. An empty highway at night, the trees
beside it coated in snow, flashing by at almost two hundred miles per hour.
"I'll miss you," she said. "No matter how short a time you're gone."
Emmett and Rosalie exchanged an apprehensive glance.
We were almost to the turn off onto the long drive that led to our home.