"You may now kiss the bride."

Edward lifted the veil from my face and leaned in to kiss me. As I prepared for the heart-stopping touch of his cold lips, something went horribly wrong. Edward's eyes turned red, his grip tightened to the point of breaking my arm-and as he leaned in to suck my body dry of its blood, I woke up screaming.

I felt a cold stone touch my hand before I could really understand what was going on in the waking world. I realized quickly that it was Edward's hand, and opened my eyes to see his face gazing into mine, his eyes the lightest color of topaz. I was grateful for this sign that he had gone hunting last night.

But his eyes will never be red, I assured myself. He's a vegetarian.

"Is there something wrong, love?" he asked, and I practically melted listening to his velvety voice.

"No…no…" I lied, despite knowing that it was worthless to try to lie to him.

"Bella-" He stopped speaking suddenly and looked to the door. "Charlie's coming," he muttered, and disappeared.

Just as Edward had predicted, Charlie walked in only a few seconds later, absolutely unaware, as usual, that Edward had spent the night. Casually, he said, "Bella, wake up and get ready-Alice called and said the two of you were going to go out shopping today…" He raised an eyebrow. "How come you didn't tell me before that you two were going to go out today?"

"Sorry, I must have forgotten," I said apologetically, rising from my bed. But truthfully, Alice had told me weeks ago that she was going to take me on an expedition for my wedding dress-she just hadn't told me the date so that I wouldn't be able to weasel my way out of it. If it had been anyone else taking me, I would have planned something to do every day so when she called, I would be busy, but Alice would know when I had given that up. So I hadn't even bothered trying to avoid her taking me away.

"Well, just hurry up and get ready-she'll be coming over in a few," Charlie told me, and left the room.

I was sure that she would come over as soon as possible, to avoid any attempts at escape that I might make. I wanted to groan, but kept it to myself in case Charlie heard. I didn't need any questions about why I wasn't looking forward to this certain shopping expenditure.