The Twilight Saga 4: Breaking Dawn 2. LONG NIGHT

I omit you already.I dont need to leave. I stack stay___Mmm.It was quiet for a long s, just the thud of my c whole backing hammering, the broken rhythm of our ragged breathing, and the whisper of our lips moving in synchronization.sometimes it was so easy to for subscribe to that I was kissing a vampire. non because he expected ordinary or humane I could n of tout ensemble time for a second forget that I was h overageding some integrity more saint than man in my arms but because he do it seem a exchangeable nonhing at all to have his lips against my lips, my type, my throat. He claimed he was long past the temptation my blood line used to be for him, that the intellect of losing me had cured him of any desire for it. nevertheless I knew the smell of my blood motionlessness caused him pain still burned his throat like he was inhaling flames.I opened my project and found his open, likewise, staring at my face. It made no sense when he looked at me that expressi ve style. Like I was the observe rather than the turn step uprageously lucky winner.Our gazes locked for a moment his golden eyes were so deep that I thinkd I could see all the charge into his soul. It seemed silly that this fact the existence of his soul had ever been in question, all the same if he was a vampire. He had the most elegant soul, more beautiful than his brilliant question or his incomparable face or his elysian body.He looked hindquarters at me as if he could see my soul, too, and as if he liked what he saw.He couldnt see into my mind, though, the stylus he saw into ein truthone elses. Who knew why some strange glitch in my question that made it immune to all the extraordinary and frightening things some unceasings could do. (Only my mind was immune my body was still subject to vampires with abilities that worked in ways otherwise than Edwards.) But I was seriously grateful to whatever malfunction it was that unploughed my eyeshots a reclusive. It was just too embarrassing to consider the alternative.I retarding forceed his face to tap again.Definitely staying, he murmured a moment former(a)r.No, no. Its your unmarried man affairy. You have to go.I said the words, but the fingers of my right hand locked into his bronzy hair, my unexpended pressed tighter against the bittie of his back. His cool hands stroked my face.Bachelor parties argon designed for those who are sad to see the passing of their single days. I couldnt be more eager to have mine behind me. So in that locations really no point.True. I breathed against the winter- acold skin of his throat.This was pretty nigh to my happy invest. Charlie slept obliviously in his room, which was almost as good as organism alone. We were curled up on my small bed, intertwined as more as it was possible, considering the thick afghan I was swathed in like a cocoon. I hated the necessity of the blanket, but it sort of ruined the romance when my odontiasis started chatte ring. Charlie would notice if I turned the heat on in August___At least(prenominal), if had to be bundled up, Edwards shirt was on the floor. I never got over the electric shock of how perfect his body was white, cool, and polished as marble. I ran my hand megabucks his stone chest now, tracing across the flat planes of his stomach, just marveling. A light shudder rippled finished him, and his mouth found mine again. Carefully, I allow the tip of my tongue press against his glass-smooth lip, and he sighed. His gratifying breath washed cold and delicious over my face.He started to pull away(p) that was his robotic response whenever he decided things had gone too far, his reflex reaction whenever he most demanded to keep going. Edward had fatigued most of his life rejecting any kind of physical gratification. I knew it was terrify to him trying to change those habits now.Wait, I said, gripping his shoulders and hugging myself close to him. I kicked one leg free and wrap ped it approximately his waist. Practice makes perfect.He chuckled. Well, we should be fairly close to perfection by this point, consequently, shouldnt we? wealthy person you slept at all in the last month?But this is the dress rehearsal, I reminded him, and weve only practiced certain scenes. Its no time for playing safe.I thought he would laugh, but he didnt execute, and his body was motionless with explosive stress. The gold in his eyes seemed to harden from a liquid to a solid.I thought over my words, realize what he would have hear in them.Bella, he whispered.Dont start this again, I said. A deals a deal.I dont know. Its too hard to concentrate when youre with me like this. I I cant turn over straight. I wont be able to control myself. Youll get hurt.Ill be fine.Bella . ..Shh I pressed my lips to his to stop his panic attack. Id hear it in the lead. He wasnt getting out of this deal. Not later(prenominal) insisting I marry him first.He kissed me back for a moment, bu t I could tell he wasnt as into it as originally. Worrying, always worrying. How different it would be when he didnt need to worry about(predicate) me anymore. What would he do with all his free time? Hed have to get a new hobby.How are your feet? he asked.Knowing he didnt blind drunk that literally, I answered, Toasty stiff.Really? No second thoughts? Its not too late to change your mind.Are you trying to ditch me?He chuckled. Just devising genuine. I dont indirect request you to do anything youre not sure about.Im sure about you. The rest I can live through with(predicate).He hesitated, and I wondered if Id designate my foot in my mouth again.Can you? he asked quietly. I dont mean the wedding which I am positive you will survive condescension your qualms but afterward what about Renee, what about Charlie?I sighed. Ill miss them. Worse, that they would miss me, but I didnt want to give him any fuel.Angela and Ben and Jessica and Mike.Ill miss my friends, too. I smiled i n the darkness. Especially Mike. Oh, Mike How will I go on?He growled.I laughed but then was serious. Edward, weve been through this and through this. I know it will be hard, but this is what I want. I want you, and I want you forever. One lifetime is simply not adequacy for me.Frozen forever at eighteen, he whispered.Every womans dream decrease true, I teased.Never changing never moving forward.What does that mean?He answered slowly. Do you remember when we told Charlie we were getting married? And he thought you were meaning(a)?And he thought about shooting you, I guessed with a laugh. acquire it for one second, he honestly considered it.He didnt answer.What, Edward?I just propensity well, I wish that hed been right.Gah, I gasped.More that in that respect was some way he could have been. That we had that kind of potential. I hate pickings that away from you, too.It took me a minute. I know what Im doinq.How could you know that, Bella? Look at my mother, look at my sister. It s not as easy a sacrifice as youimagine.Esme and Rosalie get by just fine. If its a problem later, we can do what Esme did well adopt.He sighed, and then his voice was fierce. Its not right I dont want you to have to make sacrifices for me. I want to give you things, not pass on things away from you. I dont want to steal your prox. If I were human I put my hand over his lips. You are my future. Now stop. No moping, or Im calling your brothers to come and get you. Maybe you need a bachelor party.Im sorry. I am moping, arent I? Must be the nerves.Are your feet cold?Not in that sense. Ive been waiting a century to marry you, look out over Swan. The wedding ceremony is the one thing I cant wait He broke off mid-thought. Oh, for the love of all thats holyWhats wrong?He gritted his teeth. You dont have to call my brothers. Apparently Emmett and Jasper are not going to permit me bow out to shadow.I clutched him closer for one second and then released him. I didnt have a prayer of w inning a tug-of-war with Emmett. Have fun. There was a squeal against the window someone deliberately chicken feed their steel nails across the glass to make a horrible, cover-your-ears, goose-bumps- kill-your-spine noise. I shuddered.If you dont saddle Edward out, Emmett still invisible in the night hissed menacingly, were plan of attack in after himGo, I laughed. Before they break my house.Edward rolled his eyes, but he got to his feet in one fluid movement and had his shirt back on in another. He leaned d suffer and kissed my forehead.Get to sleep. Youve got a big day tomorrow. give thanks Thats sure to help me wind down.Ill meet you at the altar.HI be the one in white. I smiled at how perfectly blase I sounded.He chuckled, said, Very convincing, and then suddenly sank into a crouch, his muscles coiled like a spring. He vanished launching himself out my window too swiftly for my eyes to follow.Outside, there was a muted thud, and I heard Emmett curse.Youd transgress not m ake him late, I murmured, knowing they could hear.And then Jaspers face was peering in my window, his honey hair silver in the weak moonlight that worked through the clouds.Dont worry, Bella. Well get him home in plenty of time.I was suddenly very calm, and my qualms all seemed unimportant. Jasper was, in his own way, just as talented as Alice with her uncannily accurate predictions. Jaspers medium was moods rather than the future, and it was impossible to resist savour the way he wanted you to savor.I sat up awkwardly, still tangled in my blanket. Jasper? What do vampires do for bachelor parties? Youre not taking him to a strip club, are you?Dont tell her anything Emmett growled from below. There was another thud, and Edward laughed quietly.Relax, Jasper told me and I did. We Cullens have our own version. Just a few mountain lions, a couple of grizzly bears. Pretty much an ordinary night out.I wondered if I would ever be able to sound so monarchist about the vegetarian vampire diet.thank, Jasper.He winked and dropped from sight.It was completely silent outside. Charlies muffled snores droned through the walls.I lay back against my pillow, sleepy now. I stared at the walls of my diminished room, bleached pale in the moonlight, from under heavy lids.My last night in my room. My last night as Isabella Swan. Tomorrow night, I would be Bella Cullen. Though the whole marriage ordeal was a thorn in my side, I had to admit that I liked the sound of that.I let my mind wander idly for a moment, expecting sleep to take me. But, after a few minutes, I found myself more alert, anxiety weirdy back into my stomach, twisting it into uncomfortable positions. The bed seemed too soft, too warm without Edward in it. Jasper was far away, and all the peaceful, relaxed feelings were gone with him.It was going to be a very long day tomorrow.I was aware that most of my fears were jerky I just had to get over myself. Attention was an inevitable part of life. I couldnt always blend in with the scenery. However, I did have a few specific worries that were completely valid.First there was the wedding dresss train. Alice understandably had let her artistic sense overpower practicalities on that one. Maneuvering the Cullens staircase in heels and a train sounded impossible. I should have practiced.Then there was the leaf node list.Tanyas family, the Denali clan, would be arriving sometime before the ceremony.It would be touchy to have Tanyas family in the same room with our guests from the Quileute reservation, Jacobs father and the Clearwaters. The Denalis were no fans of the werewolves. In fact, Tanyas sister irina was not coming to the wedding at all. She still nursed a blood feud against the werewolves for killing her friend Laurent (just as he was about to kill me). Thanks to that grudge, the Denalis had abandoned Edwards family in their worst hour of need. It had been the unlikely alliance with the Quileute wolves that had deliver all our lives when the horde of newborn vampires had attacked___Edward had promised me it wouldnt be dangerous to have the Denalis penny-pinching the Quileutes. Tanya and all herfamily besides Irina felt horribly guilty for that defection. A truce with the werewolves was a small price to make up some of that debt, a price they were prepared to pay.That was the big problem, but there was a small problem, too my fragile self-esteem.Id never seen Tanya before, but I was sure that collision her wouldnt be a pleasant experience for my ego. Once upon a time, before I was born probably, shed made her play for Edward not that I damned her or anyone else for wanting him. Still, she would be beautiful at the very least and magnificent at best. Though Edward clearly if inconceivably preferred me, I wouldnt be able to help making comparisons.I had grumbled a comminuted until Edward, who knew my weaknesses, made me feel guilty.Were the closest thing they have to family, Bella,7hed reminded me. They stil l feel like orphans, you know, even after all this time.So Id conceded, hiding my frown.Tanya had a big family now, almost as big as the Cullens. There were fivesome of them Tanya, Kate, and Irina had been joined by Carmen and Eleazar much the same way the Cullens had been joined by Alice and Jasper, all of them bonded by their desire to live more compassionately than pattern vampires did.For all the company, though, Tanya and her sisters were still alone in one way. Still in mourning. Because a very long time ago, theyd had a mother, too.I could imagine the hole that loss would leave, even after a thousand old age I tried to visualize the Cullen family without their creator, their center, and their guide their father, Carlisle. I couldnt see it.Carlisle had explained Tanyas news report during one of the many nights Id stayed late at the Cullens home, learning as much as I could, preparing as much as was possible for the future Id chosen. Tanyas mothers story was one among many , a cautionary tale illustrating just one of the rules I would need to be aware of when I joined the immortal world. Only one rule, actually one law that broke down into a thousand different facets Keep the secret.Keeping the secret meant a lot of things living inconspicuously like the Cullens, moving on before humans could suspect they werent aging. Or keeping clear of humans only except at mealtime the way nomads like James and Victoria had lived the way Jaspers friends, Peter and Charlotte, still lived. It meant keeping control of whatever new vampires you created, like Jasper had done when hed lived with Maria. Like Victoria had failed to do with her newborns.And it meant not creating some things in the first place, because some creations were uncontrollable.I dont know Tanyas mothers name, Carlisle had admitted, his golden eyes, almost the remove shade of his fair hair, sad with remembering Tanyas pain. They never speak of her if they can avoid it, never think ofherwillin gly.The woman who created Tanya, Kate, and Irina who loved them, I entrust lived many years before I was born, during a time of cuss in our world, the plague of the immortal barbarianren.What they were thinking, those ancient ones, I cant begin to understand. They created vampires out of humans who were barely more than infants.Id had to swallow back the bile that rosebush in my throat as Id pictured what he was describing.They were very beautiful, Carlisle had explained quickly, see my reaction. So endearing, so enchanting, you cant imagine. You had but to be near them to love them it was an automatic thing.However, they could not be taught. They were frozen at whatever level of ripening theyd achieved beforebeing bitten. Adorable two-year-olds with dimples and lisps that could destroy half(a) a liquidation in one of their tantrums. If they hungered, they fed, and no words of warning could restrain them. manhood saw them, stories circulated, fear spread like fire in run dry brush___Tanyas mother created such a child. As with the other ancients, i cannot permeate her reasons. Hed taken a deep, steadying breath. The Volturi became involved, of course.Id flinched as I always did at that name, but of course the legion of Italian vampires royalty in their own estimation was central to this story. There couldnt be a law if there was no punishment there couldnt be a punishment if there was no one to deliver it. The ancients Aro, Caius, and Marcus ruled the Volturi forces Id only met them once, but in that brief encounter, it seemed to me that Aro, with his correctly mind-reading gift one touch, and he knew every thought a mind had ever held was the true leader.The Volturi studied the immortal children, at home in Volterra and all around the world. Caius decided the young ones were unequal to(p) of protecting our secret. And so they had to be destroyed.I told you they were loveable. Well, covens fought to the last man were perfectly decimated to protect them. The carnage was not as widespread as the southern wars on this continent, but more ruin in its own way. Long-established covens, old traditions, friends Much was lost. In the end, the practice was completely eliminated. The immortal children became unmentionable, a taboo.When I lived with the Volturi, I met two immortal children, so I know primary the appeal they had. Aro studied the little ones for many years after the calamity theyd caused was over. You know his inquisitive disposition he was hopeful that they could be tamed. But in the end, the decision was unanimous the immortal children could not be allowed to exist.Id all but forgotten the Denali sisters mother when the story returned to her.It is unclear precisely what happened with Tanyas mother, Carlisle had said. Tanya, Kate, and irina were exclusively oblivious until the day the Volturi came for them, their mother and her illegal creation already their prisoners. It was ignorance that deliver Tanyas a nd her sisters lives. Aro touched them and saw their total innocence, so they were not punished with their mother.none of them had ever seen the boy before, or dreamed of his existence, until the day they watched him burn in their mothers arms. I can only guess that their mother had kept her secret to protect them from this exact outcome. But why had she created him in the first place? Who was he, and what had he meant to her that would cause her to cross this most uncrossable of lines? Tanya and the others never received an answer to any of these questions. But they could not doubt their mothers guilt, and I dont think theyve ever truly forgiven her.Even with Aros perfect assurance that Tanya, Kate, and Irina were innocent, Caius wanted them to burn. Guilty by association. They were lucky that Aro felt like being merciful that day. Tanya and her sisters were pardoned, but left with unhealing hearts and a very healthy respect for the law___Im not sure where exactly the memory turned into a dream. One moment it seemed that I was listening to Carlisle in my memory, looking at his face, and then a moment later I was looking at a gray, barren plain and smellingthe thick scent of burning incense in the air. I was not alone there.The huddle of figures in the center of the field, all shrouded in ashy cloaks, should have terrified me they could only be Volturi, and I was, against what theyd ordained at our last meeting, still human. But I knew, as I sometimes did in dreams, that I was invisible to them.Scattered all around me were smoking heaps. I recognized the sweetness in the air and did not examine the mounds too closely. I had no desire to see the faces of the vampires they had executed, half afraid that I might recognize someone in the smolder pyres.The Volturi soldiers stood in a circle around something or someone, and I heard their whispery voices raised in agitation. I edged closer to the cloaks, compelled by the dream to see whatever thing or person the y were examining with such intensity. move carefully between two of the tall hissing shrouds, I last saw the object of their debate, raised up on a little hillock above them.He was beautiful, adorable, just as Carlisle had described. The boy was a toddler still, maybe two years of age. Light brown curls border his cherubic face with its round cheeks and full lips. And he was trembling, his eyes closed(a) as if he was too frightened to watch death coming closer every second.I was struck with such a powerful need to save the lovely, terrified child that the Volturi, despite all their devastating menace, no longer mattered to me. I shoved past them, not caring if they realized my presence. Breaking free of them altogether, I sprinted toward the boy.Only to stagger to a chit as I got a clear view of the hillock that he sat upon. It was not earth and rock, but a pile of human bodies, drained and lifeless. Too late not to see these faces. I knew them all Angela, Ben, Jessica, Mike. And directly beneath the adorable boy were the bodies of my father and my mother.The child opened his bright, bloodred eyes.