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"Charlie, we’ve still got that strictly need-to-know co I know it’s been more than a week since you saw Renesht no about I bring Renes that I wondered if he heard the strain beneath h" and I realized it was just his wariness of the supernatural that made hi her over thisas you hen you first showed up"

Charlie laughed and then sighed for the old days

"Thiswill be perfect" The sooner the better I’d already put this off too long

"Is Jake co about olf i, no one could be oblivious to the attachment between Jacob and Renesmee

"Probably" There was no way Jacob would voluntarily miss an afternoon with Renesmee sans bloodsuckers

"Maybe I should invite Billy, too," Charlie mused "But h attention to Charlie - enough to notice the strange reluctance in his voice when he spoke of Billy, but not enough to worry what that was about Charlie and Billy were grown-ups; if there was soure it out for thes to obsess over

"See you in a few," I told hi my father from the twenty-seven oddly matched vampires - who all had sworn not to kill anyone in a three-hundred-et anywhere near this group This was the excuse I’d given Edward: I was taking Renesmee to Charlie so that he wouldn’t decide

to co the house, but not my real reason at all

"Why can’t we take your Ferrari?" Jacob coe I was already in Edward’s Volvo with Renes my after car; as he’d suspected, I had not been capable of showing the appropriate enthusiasm Sure, it was pretty and fast, but I liked to run

"Too conspicuous," I answered "We could go on foot, but that would freak Charlie out"

Jacob gruot into the front seat Renesmee climbed from my lap to his

"How are you?" I asked hie

"How do you think?" Jacob asked bitingly "I’ bloodsuckers" He saw my expression and spoke before I could answer "Yeah, I know, I know They’re the good guys, they’re here to help, they’re going to save us all Etcetera, etcetera Say what you want, I still think Dracula One and Dracula Two are creep-tacular"

I had to suests, either "I don’t disagree with you there"

Renes; unlike the rest of us, she found the Ro She’d made the effort to speak to them aloud since they would not let her touch theh I was afraid they lad she’d asked I was curious, too

They hadn’t seemed upset by her interest Maybe a little rueful

"We sat still for a very long ti but not continuing Vladi our own divinity It was a sign of our power that everything ca our favor We sat on our thrones and thought ourselves gods We didn’t notice for a long ti I suppose the Volturi did us one favor when they burned our castles Stefan and I, at least, did not continue to petrify Now the Volturi’s eyes are filine that will give us an advantage e gouge theirs from their sockets"

I tried to keep Renes out with Charlie?" Jacob asked, interruptingas we pulled away from the house and all its new inmates It made me happy that I didn’t really count as a vampire to him I was still just Bella

"For quite a while, actually"

The tone ofon here besides visiting your dad?"

"Jake, you kno you’re pretty good at controlling your thoughts around Edward?"

He raised one thick black brow "Yeah?"

I just nodded, cuttingout the , and I couldn’t tell how interested she was in our conversation, but I decided not to risk going any further

Jacob waited forelse, and then his lower lip pushed out while he thought about what little

I’d said

As we drove in silence, I squinted through the annoying contacts into the cold rain; it wasn’t quite cold enough for snow My eyes were not as ghoulish as they had been in the beginning - definitely closer to a dull reddish orange than to bright crih for e wouldn’t upset Charlie tooover our truncated conversation e got to Charlie’s We didn’t talk as alked at a quick hu for us; he had the door open before I could knock

"Hey, guys! It seems like it’s been years! Look at you, Nessie! Corown half a foot And you look skinny, Ness" He glared atyou up there?"

"It’s just the growth spurt," I muttered "Hey, Sue," I called over his shoulder The sarlic, and cheese issued froood to everyone else I could also s dust

Renesmee flashed her dimples She never spoke in front of Charlie

"Well, come on in out of the cold, kids Where’sfriends," Jacob said, and then snorted "You’re so lucky you’re out of the loop, Charlie That’s all I’htly in the kidney while Charlie cringed

"Ow," Jacob coht I’d punched lightly

"Actually, Charlie, I have solance at , Bells? You only have a few days, you know"

"Yeah, Christ dust Charlie must have put the old decorations up

"Don’t worry, Nessie," he whispered in her ear "I got you covered if your mom drops the ball"

I rolled ht about the holidays at all

"Lunch’s on the table," Sue called frouys"

"See you later, Dad," I said, and exchanged a quick look with Jacob Even if he couldn’t help but think about this near Edward, at least there wasn’t much for him to share He had no idea what I was up to

Of course, I thought to ot into the car, it wasn’t like I had much idea, either

The roads were slick and dark, but driving didn’t intimidate me anymore My reflexes ell up to the job, and I barely paid attention to the road The proble attention when I had company I wanted to be done with today’s et back to the vital task of learning Learning to protect so better and better with my shield Kate didn’t feel the need to motivate ry, now that I knew that was the key - and so I mostly worked with Zafrina She was

pleased with my extension; I was able to cover alh it exhaustedto find out if I could push the shield away froether I didn’t see what the use of that would be, but Zafrina thought it would help strengthenmuscles in the stomach and back rather than just the arht when all the ood at it I had only gotten one gli to show me

But there were different ways to prepare for as coht be neglecting the ht

I’dmy way to the address that didn’t exist online, the one for J Jenks My next step would be Jason Jenks at the other address, the one Alice had not given hborhood would be an understatement The eous on this street My old Chevy would have looked healthy here During my human years, I would have locked the doors and driven away as fast as I dared As it was, I was a little fascinated I tried to iine Alice in this place for any reason, and failed

The buildings - all three stories, all narrow, all leaning slightly as if bowed by the pounding rain - were mostly old houses divided up into multiple apart paint was supposed to be Everything had faded to shades of gray A few of the buildings had businesses on the first floor: a dirty bar with the s painted black, a psychic’s supply store with neon hands and tarot cards glowing fitfully on the door, a tattoo parlor, and a daycare with duct tape holding the broken fronttogether There were no lah outside that the huht I could hear the lowof voices in the distance; it sounded like TV

There were a few people about, two shuffling through the rain in opposite directions and one sitting on the shallow porch of a boarded-up cut-rate law office, reading a wet newspaper and whistling The sound was

I was so bemused by the carefree whistler, I didn’t realize at first that the abandoned building was right where the address I was looking for should exist There were no numbers on the dilapidated place, but the tattoo parlor beside it was just two numbers off

I pulled up to the curb and idled for a second I was getting into that dump one way or another, but how to do so without the whistler noticing h the back There ht be more witnesses on that side Maybe the rooftops? Was it dark enough for that kind of thing?

"Hey, lady," the whistler called to er n as if I couldn’t hear him

The man laid his paper aside, and his clothes surprised ed duster, he was a little too well dressed There was no breeze to give me the scent, but the sheen on his dark red shirt looked like silk His crinkly black hair was tangled and wild, but his dark skin was sht A contradiction

"Maybe you shouldn’t park that car there, lady," he said "It et back"

"Thanks for the warning," I said

I shut off the engine and got out Perhaps iveI opened ray u cashmere sweater-dress I wore It hat a huh the rain at my face, and then his eyes widened He sed, and I heard his heart accelerate as I approached

Tan

"I’m someone," he offered with a smile "What can I do for you, beautiful?"

"Are you J Jenks?" I asked

"Oh," he said, and his expression changed froot to his feet and exa for J?"

"That’s my business" Besides, I didn’t have a clue "Are you J?"

"No"

We faced each other for a long ray sheath I wore His gaze finally made it to my face "You don’t look like the usual customer"

"I’m probably not the usual," I admitted "But I do need to see him as soon as possible"

"I’m not sure what to do," he adrinned "Max"

"Nice to meet you, Max Nohy don’t you tell rin became a frown "Well, J’s usual clients don’t look a thing like you Your kind doesn’t bother with the don office You just go straight up to his fancy office in the skyscraper"

I repeated the other address I had,the list of numbers a question

"Yeah, that’s the place," he said, suspicious again "How coiven - by a very dependable source"

"If you were up to any good, you wouldn’t be here"

I pursed , but Alice hadn’t left ood"

Max’s face turned apologetic "Look, lady - "

"Bella"

"Right Bella See, I need this job J paysout here all day I want to help you, I do, but - and of course Tht? Or off the record, or whatever works for you - but if I pass soet him in trouble, I’ht for aon my lip "You’ve never seen anyone like me here before? Well, sort of like me

My sister is a lot shorter than me, and she has dark spiky black hair"

"J knows your sister?"

"I think so"

Max pondered this forastuttered"Tell you what I’ll doHI give Ja call and describe you to him Let him make the decision"

What did J Jenks know? Wouldthought

"My last na if that was too et irritated with Alice Did I really have to be quite this blind? She could have given ot it"

I watched as he dialed, easily picking out the number Well, I could call J Jenks myself if this didn’t work

"HeyJ, it’s Max I know I’ency___"

Is there an eency?1 heard faintly froirl ants to see you___"

fail to see the eency in that Why didn’t you follow normal procedure?

"I didn’t follow normal procedure ’cause she don’t look like any kind of nore?!

"No - "

You can’t be sure about that Does she look like one ofKubarev’s - ?

"No - let "

Not likely What does she look like?

"She looks like" His eyes ran from my face tosupermodel, that’s what she looks like" I s body, pale as a sheet, dark brown hair alht’s sleep - any of this soundingfamiliar?"

No, it doesn’t I’m not happy that you let your weakness for pretty women interrupt -

"Yeah,so I’ with that? I’et it"

"Naht Wait," Max said "She says her name is Bella Cullen That help?"

There was a beat of dead silence, and then the voice on the other end was abruptly screa a lot of words you didn’t often hear outside of truck stops Max’s whole expression changed; all the joking vanished and his lips went pale

"Because you didn’t ask!" Max yelled back, panicked

There was another pause while J collected himself

Beautiful and pale?J asked, a tiny bit calmer

"I said that, didn’t I?"