I made sure we were situated in the living room – the only room that hadn’t been taken over by us – and lit down in the middle of the dusty old floorboards. “So why did he send you to come get me?” Bella asked, obviously wanting the answer quite badly, as I was sure she was never this persistent in her questioning.

“Because,” I started, deciding to tell her half right now. I stared into her butterscotch eyes with my crimson ones, drawing nearer to her, my words barely audible. I knew she would catch them. “They want your power.”

I wanted to say the whole truth, but I was too embarrassed to say what I knew I had to in order to get the truth out. She could sense my indecision, and called me on it just as I looked away. She leaned in even closer to me and put her cold hand on my own, willing me to say it all. “There’s more, isn’t there?” Her eyes smoldered as she coaxed me, and I found her overall appearance nearly drawing me in, but I was not a human, and I was definitely not her prey.

I suppose I looked off kilter for a second, but I was too embarrassed to have to admit what I had to. I crossed my arms deliberately, breaking off the contact between us, and went to stand on the other side of the filthy room. “Yes, there is, unfortunately,” I could tell I was going to have trouble getting this out, though I had no idea why. The crown prince of Volterra, afraid of admitting a proposal to a female – albeit a stunning female at that. But still, I had trouble doing it. “They want you to… I mean, they want us to… Well, it would seem Carlisle believes it to be prudent if…” Yes, I most definitely was hoping at this point that she would take the hint, just to save me from this lack of coherency.

I wanted so desperately to hear her thoughts now, to make sure she had understood, but she filled in the blanks soon enough. “He wants us to marry,” she whispered sympathetically, and I loved her for taking this seriously.