"Who's Renata? What does she do?" Bella asked. Renesmee was interested, too, leaning away from Carmen so that she could see around Kate. Demetri had climbed into Rosalie's arms tired after the excitement of the day.

"Renata is Aro's personal bodyguard," Eleazar told me. "A very practical kind of shield, and a very strong one."

"I wonder...," Eleazar mused. "You see, Renata is a powerful shield against a physical attack. If someone approaches her - or Aro, as she is always close beside him in a hostile situation - they find themselves... diverted. There's a force around her that repels, though it's almost unnoticeable. You simply find yourself going a different direction than you planned, with a confused memory as to why you wanted to go that other way in the first place. She can project her shield several meters out from herself. She also protects Caius and Marcus, too, when they have a need, but Aro is her priority. What she does isn't actually physical, though. Like the vast majority of our gifts, it takes place inside the mind. If she tried to keep you back, I wonder who would win?" He shook his head. "I've never heard of Aro's or Jane's gifts being thwarted."

"Momma and aunt Bella are special," Demetri said sleepily, like it was an everyday occurrence.

"Can you project?" Kate asked interestedly looking at Bella, though she glanced at me.

"Project?" I asked.

"Push it out from yourself," Kate explained. "Shield someone besides yourself."

"Alex was able to cover Bella's scent when we we're hiding from Victoria" Edward spoke.

"Yeah, but I thought you guys said you could still smell her?" I asked.

"barely" Edward amended "and that was Jasper and Lucia, they've been trained for it"

We looked at Bella, "I don't know. I've never tried. I didn't know I should do that."

"Oh, you might not be able to," Kate said quickly. "Heavens knows I've been working on it for centuries and the best I can do is run a current over my skin."

"Kate's got an offensive skill," Edward said. "Sort of like Jane."

"I'm not sadistic about it," she assured. "It's just something that comes in handy during a fight. It's what I was doing to Alex, though it didn't affect her."

"You have to teach me what to do!" Bella insisted, unthinkingly grabbing Kate's arm. "You have to show me how!"

Kate winced. "Maybe - if you stop trying to crush my radius."

"Oops! Sorry!"

"You're shielding, all right," Kate said. "That move should have about shocked your arm off. You didn't feel anything just now?"

"That wasn't really necessary, Kate. She didn't mean any harm," Edward muttered under his breath. Neither of us paid attention to him.

"No, I didn't feel anything. Were you doing your electric current thing?"

"I was. Hmm. I've never met anyone who couldn't feel it, immortal or otherwise." She looked between Bella and I.

"I felt it, but just the power behind it, not pain. Like I knew it was there"

"another shielding, your body absorbed and relocated it" Eleazar added. I grimaced and looked at Rose, I didn't mean to hurt her, but she didn't seem too concerned about it.

"You said you project it? On your skin?" Bella asked.

Kate nodded. "It used to be just in my palms. Kind of like Aro."

"Or Renesmee," Edward interjected.

"But after a lot of practice, I can radiate the current all over my body. It's a good defense. Anyone who tries to touch me drops like a human that's been Tasered. It only downs him for a second, but that's long enough." She looked at me, her expression almost giddy "maybe you could project the electricity from the ground and use it too"

This gave me more information to think about, maybe I could hide more people. I hid Bella, maybe I could mask Demetri and Renesmee. But then again the tracker could find anyone, and neither were capable of hiding like Bella and I. Maybe if I killed the tracker – then no one would be able to find them, Leah and Seth could take them away, they could keep them safe.

"maybe, but I think a 7-foot-tall wolf adds more in the offensive."

Kate thought for a moment "yes, but what if you could do it even then, you'd never have to worry about being grabbed. An electrical shock to the enemy"

Because I was so preoccupied talking with Kate, I didn't notice the silent exchange going on between Edward and Eleazar until it became a spoken conversation.

"Can you think of even one exception, though?" Edward asked.

I looked over to make sense of his comment and realized that everyone else was already staring at the two men. They were leaning toward each other intently, Edward's expression tight with suspicion, Eleazar's unhappy and reluctant.

"I don't want to think of them that way," Eleazar said through his teeth. I was surprised at the sudden change in the atmosphere. "If you're right -," Eleazar began again.

Edward cut him off. "The thought was yours, not mine."

"If I'm right... I can't even grasp what that would mean. It would change everything about the world we've created. It would change the meaning of my life. What I have been a part of."

"Your intentions were always the best, Eleazar."

"Would that even matter? What have I done? How many lives ..."

Tanya put her hand on Eleazar's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "What did we miss, my friend? I want to know so that I can argue with these thoughts. You've never done anything worth castigating yourself this way."

"Oh, haven't I?" Eleazar muttered. Then he shrugged out from under her hand and began his pacing again, faster even than before.

Tanya watched him for half a second and then focused on Edward. "Explain."

Edward nodded, his tense eyes following Eleazar as he spoke. "He was trying to understand why so many of the Volturi would come to punish us. It's not the way they do things. Certainly, we are the biggest mature coven they've dealt with, but in the past other covens have joined to protect themselves, and they never presented much of a challenge despite their numbers. We are more closely bonded, and that's a factor, but not a huge one." I looked at Rose and I knew that she was indeed bonded to her family.

"He was remembering other times that covens have been punished, for one thing or the other, and a pattern occurred to him. It was a pattern that the rest of the guard would never have noticed, since Eleazar was the one passing the pertinent intelligence privately to Aro. A pattern that only repeated every other century or so."

"What was this pattern?" Carmen asked, watching Eleazar as Edward was.

"Aro does not often personally attend a punishing expedition," Edward said. "But in the past, when Aro wanted something in particular, it was never long before evidence turned up proving that this coven or that coven had committed some unpardonable crime. The ancients would decide to go along to watch the guard administer justice. And then, once the coven was all but destroyed, Aro would grant a pardon to one member whose thoughts, he would claim, were particularly repentant. Always, it would turn out that this vampire had the gift Aro had admired. Always, this person was given a place with the guard. The gifted vampire was won over quickly, always so grateful for the honor. There were no exceptions."

"It must be a heady thing to be chosen," Kate suggested.

"Ha!" Eleazar snarled, still in motion.

"There is one among the guard," Edward said, explaining Eleazar's angry reaction. "Her name is Chelsea. She has influence over the emotional ties between people. She can both loosen and secure these ties. She could make someone feel bonded to the Volturi, to want to belong, to want to please them-"

Eleazar came to an abrupt halt. "We all understood why Chelsea was important. In a fight, if we could separate allegiances between allied covens, we could defeat them that much more easily. If we could distance the innocent members of a coven emotionally from the guilty, justice could be done without unnecessary brutality - the guilty could be punished without interference, and the innocent could be spared. Otherwise, it was impossible to keep the coven from fighting as a whole. So, Chelsea would break the ties that bound them together. It seemed a great kindness to me, evidence of Aro's mercy. I did suspect that Chelsea kept our own band more tightly knit, but that, too, was a good thing. It made us more effective. It helped us coexist more easily."

"How strong is her gift?" Tanya asked with an edge to her voice. Her gaze quickly touched on each member of her family. I too saw Rose, Bella and Edward look between each member of our family. None of us would leave – I was under the belief that Alice did what she did to help, and she would be back.

Eleazar shrugged. "I was able to leave with Carmen." And then he shook his head. "But anything weaker than the bond between partners is in danger. In a normal coven, at least. Those are weaker bonds than those in our family, though. Abstaining from human blood makes us more civilized - lets us form true bonds of love. I doubt she could turn our allegiances, Tanya."

Tanya nodded, seeming reassured, while Eleazar continued with his analysis.

"I could only think that the reason Aro had decided to come himself, to bring so many with him, is because his goal is not punishment but acquisition," Eleazar said. "He needs to be there to control the situation. But he needs the entire guard for protection from such a large, gifted coven. On the other hand, that leaves the other ancients unprotected in Volterra. Too risky - someone might try to take advantage. So, they all come together. How else could he be sure to preserve the gifts that he wants? He must want them very badly," Eleazar mused.

Edward's voice was low as a breath. "From what I saw of his thoughts last spring, Aro's never wanted anything more than he wants Alice."

"Is that why Alice left?" Bella asked, her voice breaking on her name.

"no" I said suddenly "Alice, would rather die than abandon us. I know this and so do you. There is another reason, something she can't tell anyone because if she does Aro will find out."

Rose looked at me I couldn't tell if she believed me or not. Edward looked pained but didn't speak of it more.

"he wants you too" Bella muttered to Edward.

Edward shrugged, his face suddenly a little too composed. "Not nearly as much. I can't really give him anything more than he already has. And of course, that's dependent on his finding a way to force me to do his will. He knows me, and he knows how unlikely that is." He raised one eyebrow sardonically.

Eleazar frowned at Edward's nonchalance. "He also knows your weaknesses," Eleazar pointed out, and then he looked at me.

"It's nothing we need to discuss now," Edward said quickly.

Eleazar ignored the hint and continued. "He probably wants your mate, too, regardless. He must have been intrigued by a talent that could defy him in its human incarnation. And I suspect once he finds out about Alex, he'll want her too. She rivals Demetri, Renata, and Bella. And Amarok are a part of our myths one of the most feared, he's sent Demetri out hundreds of times to find their hiding place."

I looked at Rose, uncomfortable with the talk, if he wanted me to do something bad enough, if he threatened Rose or Demetri would I do it. If it meant protecting them? Was death the lesser concern? Was it really capture we should fear?

Edward changed the subject. "I think the Volturi were waiting for this - for some pretext. They couldn't know what form their excuse would come in, but the plan was already in place for when it did come. That's why Alice saw their decision before Irina triggered it. The decision was already made, just waiting for the pretense of a justification."

"If the Volturi are abusing the trust all immortals have placed in them...," Carmen murmured.

"Does it matter?" Eleazar asked. "Who would believe it? And even if others could be convinced that the Volturi are exploiting their power, how would it make any difference? No one can stand against them."

"Though some of us are apparently insane enough to try," Kate muttered.

Edward shook his head. "You're only here to witness, Kate. Whatever Aro's goal, I don't think he's ready to tarnish the Volturi's reputation for it. If we can take away his argument against us, he'll be forced to leave us in peace."

"Of course," Tanya murmured.

No one looked convinced. For a few long minutes, nobody said anything.

Then I heard the sound of tires turning off the highway pavement onto the Cullens' dirt drive.

"Oh crap, Charlie," Bella muttered. "Maybe the Denali's could hang out upstairs until - "

"it's not human" I told Bella.

"Alice sent Peter and Charlotte, Afterall. Time to get ready for the next round."