Breaking Dawn

It was like I had been born to be a vampire. The idea made me want to laugh, but it also made me want to sing. I had found my true place in the world, the place I fit, the place I shined.

"'Bout time somebody scored around here."

"I'm not even sure she's really a vampire, let alone a newborn," Emmett called from under the stairs. "She's too tame."

It probably wasn't very mature. But I figured it would take Aro about half a second to guess — if he hadn't already — that my shield was more powerful than Edward had known. [...] So I grinned a huge, smug smile right at Jane.

"How do I look?"

Edward smiled. "Gorgeous, of course—"

"Yes, yes, she always looks gorgeous," Alice finished his thought impatiently.

I lifted my head and kissed [Edward] with a passion that might possibly set the forest on fire.

I wouldn't have noticed.

"If we live through this," Garrett whispered to Kate, "I'll follow you anywhere, woman."

"Now he tells me," she muttered.

"Bella's supposed to be a grown-up. Married and a mom and all that. Shouldn't there be more dignity?"

Renesmee frowned, and touched Edward's face.

"What does she want?" I asked.

"Less dignity," Edward said with a grin.

"Goodbye, Jacob, my brother...my son."

"So there are real werewolves?" I asked. "With the full moon and silver bullets and all that?"

Jacob snorted. "Real. Does that make me imaginary?"

"Have you heard this one, Psycho? How do a blonde's brain cells die? [... A] blonde's brain cells die alone."

It was really too bad [Edward] couldn't hear Bella's thoughts. Then he'd annoy the crap out of her, too, and she'd get tired of him.

James, snapping my leg under his foot. That was nothing. That was a soft place to rest on a feather bed. I'd take that now, a hundred times. A hundred snaps. I'd take it and be grateful.

The brilliant light overhead was still blinding-bright, and yet I could plainly see the glowing strands of the filaments inside the bulb. I could see each color of the rainbow in the white light, and, at the very edge of the spectrum, an eighth color I had no name for.

Carlisle Cullen. Looking at him without that hate clouding my eyes, I couldn't deny that killing him was murder. He was good. Good as any human we protected. Maybe better. Too much better.

Shut up, please, Seth.

Shutting.

"You. Got. Food. In. My. Hair."

"I'll play you for it," Alice suggested. "Rock, paper, scissors." [...]

"Why don't you just tell me who wins?" Edward said wryly.

Alice beamed. "I do. Excellent."

"You ever think about dating?" [...]

"I don't see them either, Quil. I don't see their faces."

How did people do this — swallow all their fears and trust someone else so implicitly with every imperfection and fear they had — with less than the absolute commitment Edward had given me?

Life sucks, and then you die.

Yeah, I should be so lucky.

Bella's sacrifice is a heavy price, and we will all recognize that. It is against everything we stand for to take a human life. Making an exception to that code is a bleak thing. We will all mourn for what we do tonight.

"I told you—," I started to say.

"Did you know that 'I told you so' has a brother, Jacob?" she asked, cutting me off. "His name is 'Shut the hell up.'"

All I wanted was to die. To never have been born. The whole of my existence did not outweigh this pain. Wasn't worth living through it for one more heartbeat.

He smiled the kind of smile that would have stopped my heart if it were still beating.

"You stupid mutt! How could you? My baby!

[Jacob] backed out the front door now as I stalked him, half-running backward down the stairs. "It wasn't my idea, Bella!"

"I've held her all of one time, and already you think you have some moronic wolfy claim to her? She's mine. [...] How dare you imprint on my baby? Have you lost your mind?"

From upstairs, there was a new sound. The only sound that could touch me in this endless instant.

A frantic pounding, a racing beat...

A changing heart.

"You nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness Monster?" I screeched.

And then I lunged for his throat.

"We're going to tell Alice that I ran right to the clothes," I whispered, twisting my fingers into his hair and pulling my face closer to his. "We're going to tell her I spent hours in there playing dress-up. We're going to lie."

"Hey, do you know what you call a blonde with a brain?" I asked, and then continued on the same breath, "a golden retriever."

And then [Edward and I] continued blissfully into this small but perfect piece of our forever.

Jake, Seth thought, they aren't our enemies.

Shut up, kid! Just 'cause you've got some kind of sick hero worship thing going on with that bloodsucker, it doesn't change the law. They are our enemies. [...] I don't care if you had fun fighting alongside Edward Cullen once upon a time.

"S'not so hard to erase a blonde's memory," I countered. "Just blow in her ear."

"Get some new jokes," she snapped.

"Why am I covered in feathers?"

When you loved the one who was killing you, it left you no options. How could you run, how could you fight, when doing so would hurt that beloved one? If your life was all you had to give your beloved, how could you not give it?

If it was someone you truly loved?

This was the problem with hanging out with vampires — you got used to them. They started messing up the way you saw the world. They started feeling like friends.

"You're scared of Leah, but you're best buds with the psychopath blonde?"

There was a low hiss from the second floor. Cool, she'd heard me.

Seth, are you gonna get mad at me if I kill your sister?

He pretended to think about it for a minute. Well... yeah, probably.

This is about Bella. She has never been the one for you, she has never chosen you, but you continue to destroy your life for her! [...]

Maybe you're right. But you're going to destroy the pack over her, Sam. No matter how many of them survive tonight, they will always have murder on their hands.

"Jasper? What do vampires do for bachelor parties? You're not taking him to a strip club, are you?"

They are vampires, I guess, Seth allowed after a minute, compensating for Leah's reaction. I mean, it makes sense. And if [drinking blood] helps Bella, it's a good thing, right?

Both Leah and I stared at him. [...]

Mom dropped him a lot when he was a baby, Leah told me.

On his head, apparently.

I could see that now — how the universe swirled around this one point. I'd never seen the symmetry of the universe before, but now it was plain.

The gravity of the earth no longer tied me to the place where I stood.

It was the baby girl in the blonde vampire's arms that held me here now.

Renesmee.

Jeez, she was running true to form. Of course, die for the monster spawn. It was so Bella.

I'd seen him angry, and I'd seen him arrogant, and once I'd seen him in pain. But this — this was beyond agony. His eyes were half-crazed. [...] He stared down at the couch beside him with an expression like someone had lit him on fire.

Instinctively, I tensed to defend myself. Any vampire who saw Jasper would have had the same reaction. The scars were like a lighted billboard. Dangerous, they screamed. How many vampires had tried to kill Jasper? Hundreds? Thousands? The same number that had died in the attempt.

"You know how you drown a blonde, Rosalie?" I asked without stopping or turning to look at her. "Glue a mirror to the bottom of a pool."

"Don't be afraid," I murmured. "We belong together."

I was abruptly overwhelmed by the truth of my own words. This moment was so perfect, so right, there was no way to doubt it.

"You're awfully small to be so hugely irritating."

"Over my pile of ashes," Rosalie hissed at him.

"Who rules you, nomads? Do you answer to someone's will besides your own? Are you free to choose your own path, or will the Volturi decide how you will live?

"I came to witness. I stay to fight. The Volturi care nothing for the death of a child. They seek the death of our free will."

"No one will dare to call you plain when I'm through with you."

"Only because they're afraid you'll suck their blood," I muttered.

"Do you want me to sing to you? I'll sing all night if it will keep the bad dreams away."

That would go away, you know, if you imprinted. You wouldn't have to hurt over [Bella] anymore.

Do you want to forget the way you feel about Sam?

She deliberated for a moment. I think I do.

I sighed. She was in a healthier place than I was.

It wasn't nearly as easy to dance with Charlie. He was no better at it than I was, so we moved safely from side to side in a tiny square formation. Edward and Esme spun around us like Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

"Don't be afraid," I muttered. "We belong together."

I was abruptly overwhelmed by the truth of my own words. This moment was so perfect, so right, there was no way to doubt it.

Jacob — you can't turn your back on the tribe. [...]

I stared into his furious eyes. Ephraim Black's son was not born to follow Levi Uley's.