She glowered at me. “A young werewolf? Even worse! Edward was right—you’re a magnet for danger. Weren’t you supposed to be staying out of trouble?”
“There’s nothing wrong with werewolves,” I grumbled, stung by her critical tone.
“Until they lose their tempers.” She shook her head sharply from side to side. “Leave it to you, Bella. Anyone else would be better off when the vampires left town. But you have to start hanging out with the first monsters you can find.”
I didn’t want to argue with Alice—I was still trembling with joy that she was really, truly here, that I could touch her marble skin and hear her wind-chime voice—but she had it all wrong.
“No, Alice, the vampires didn’t really leave—not all of them, anyway. That’s the whole trouble. If it weren’t for the werewolves, Victoria would have gotten me by now. Well, if it weren’t for Jake and his friends, Laurent would have gotten me before she could, I guess, so—”
“Victoria?” she hissed. “Laurent?”
I nodded, a teensy bit alarmed by the expression in her black eyes. I pointed at my chest. “Danger magnet, remember?”
She shook her head again. “Tell me everything—start at the beginning.”
I glossed over the beginning, skipping the motorcycles and the voices, but telling her everything else right up to today’s misadventure. Alice didn’t like my thin explanation about boredom and the cliffs, so I hurried on to the strange flame I’d seen on the water and what I thought it meant. Her eyes narrowed almost to slits at that part. It was strange to see her look so...so dangerous—like a vampire. I swallowed hard and went on with the rest about Harry.
She listened to my story without interrupting. Occasionally, she would shake her head, and the crease in her forehead deepened until it looked like it was carved permanently into the marble of her skin. She didn’t speak and, finally, I fell quiet, struck again by the borrowed grief at Harry’s passing. I thought of Charlie; he would be home soon. What condition would he be in?
“Our leaving didn’t do you any good at all, did it?” Alice murmured.
I laughed once—it was a slightly hysterical sound. “That was never the point, though, was it? It’s not like you left for my benefit.”
Alice scowled at the floor for a moment. “Well...I guess I acted impulsively today. I probably shouldn’t have intruded.”
I could feel the blood draining from my face. My stomach dropped. “Don’t go, Alice,” I whispered. My fingers locked around the collar of her white shirt and I began to hyperventilate. “Please don’t leave me.”
Her eyes opened wider. “All right,” she said, enunciating each word with slow precision. “I’m not going anywhere tonight. Take a deep breath.”
I tried to obey, though I couldn’t quite locate my lungs.
She watched my face while I concentrated on my breathing. She waited till I was calmer to comment.
“You look like hell, Bella.”
“I drowned today,” I reminded her.
“It goes deeper than that. You’re a mess.”
I flinched. “Look, I’m doing my best.”
“What do you mean?”
“It hasn’t been easy. I’m working on it.”
She frowned. “I told him,” she said to herself.
“Alice,” I sighed. “What did you think you were going to find? I mean, besides me dead? Did you expect to find me skipping around and whistling show tunes? You know me better than that.”
“I do. But I hoped.”
“Then I guess I don’t have the corner on the idiocy market.”
The phone rang.
“That has to be Charlie,” I said, staggering to my feet. I grabbed Alice’s stone hand and dragged her with me to the kitchen. I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight.
“Charlie?” I answered the phone.
“No, it’s me,” Jacob said.
“Jake!”
Alice scrutinized my expression.
“Just making sure you were still alive,” Jacob said sourly.
“I’m fine. I told you that it wasn’t—”
“Yeah. I got it. ’Bye.”
Jacob hung up on me.
I sighed and let my head hang back, staring at the ceiling. “That’s going to be a problem.”
Alice squeezed my hand. “They aren’t excited I’m here.”
“Not especially. But it’s none of their business anyway.”
Alice put her arm around me. “So what do we do now?” she mused. She seemed to talk to herself for a moment. “Things to do. Loose ends to tie.”
“What things to do?”