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"She has surrendered," the redhead explained

"Surrendered?" Jane snapped

I peeked up to see the dark-cloaks exchanging glances The redhead had said that he’d never seen anyone surrender before Maybe the dark-cloaks hadn’t, either

"Carlisle gave her the option," the redhead said He seeht Carlisle ht be the leader

"There are no options for those who break the rules," Jane said, her voice dead again

My bones felt like ice, but I didn’t feel panicked anymore It al seemed so inevitable now

Carlisle answered Jane in a soft voice "That’s in your hands As long as she il ing to halt her attack on us, I saw no need to destroy her She was never taught"

Though his words were neutral, I al for me But, as he had said, my fate was not up to him

"That is irrelevant," Jane confirmed

"As you wish"

Jane was staring at Carlisle with an expression that was half confusion and half frustration She shook her head, and her face was unreadable again

"Aro hoped that ould get far enough west to see you, Carlisle," she said "He sends his regards"

"I would appreciate it if you would convey mine to him," he answered

Jane sain, with the corners of herthe smile "It appears that you’ve done our work for us today for the most part Just out of professional curiosity, how many were there?

They left quite a wake of destruction in Seattle"

She spoke of jobs and professionals I was right, then, that it was her profession to punish And if there were punishers, then there must be rules Carlisle had said before, We follow their rules, and also, There is no law against creating vampires if you control them Riley and my creator had been afraid but not exactly surprised by the arrival of the dark-cloaks, these Volturi They knew about the laws, and they knew they were breaking them Why hadn’t they told us? And there were more Volturi than just these four Someone named Aro and probably many more There must have been a lot for everyone to fear thehteen, including this one"

There was a barely audible hteen?" Jane repeated, a note of surprise in her voice Our creator had never told Jane how many of us she’d created Was Jane real y surprised, or just faking it?

"Al brand-new," Carlisle said "They were unskil ed"

Unskil ed and uninforet a sense of how these older vampires viewed us Newborn, Jasper had cal ed me Like a baby

"Al ?" Jane snapped "Then as their creator?"

As if they hadn’t already been introduced This Jane was a bigger liar than Riley, and she was so much better at it than he was

"Her name was Victoria," the redhead answered

How did he know that when even I didn’t? I reroup Was that how they knew everything? Or was that another of Riley’s lies?

"Was?" Jane asked

The redhead jerked his head toward the east like he was pointing I looked up and saw a cloud of thick lilac s from the side of the mountain

Was I felt a si vareater

"This Victoria," Jane asked slowly "She was in addition to the eighteen here?"

"Yes," the redhead confir as this one here, but no older than a year"

Riley My fierce pleasure intensified If - okay, when - I died today, at least I didn’t leave that loose thread Diego had been avenged I almost smiled

"Twenty," Jane breathed Either this was more than she had expected, or she was a kil er actress "Who dealt with the creator?"

"I did," the redhead said coldly

Whoever this vampire hether he kept a pet human or no, he was a friend of mine Even if he were the one to kil me in the end, I would stil owe him

Jane turned to stare at me with narrowed eyes

"You there," she snarled "Your naive this lying valared at her Jane sht, happy smile of an innocent child, and suddenly I was on fire It was like I’d gone back in tiht ofevery inch of h the marrow of every bone It felt like I was buried in the middle of my coven’s funeral bonfire, with the flale cel in inable I could barely hear myself screaain, and as she spoke the fire disappeared Gone like that, as if I’d only been i though the pain wasn’t there anyain and the fire was everywhere How much pain would it take before I would die of it? The screa from me anymore Why wouldn’t soh for that, wasn’t he? Or whoever their mind reader was Couldn’t he or she understand andyou want to know," the redhead growled "You don’t have to do that"

The pain vanished again, like Jane had turned off a light switch I foundas if I needed air

"Oh, I know," I heard Jane say cheerful y "Bree?"

I shuddered when she cal ed ain

"Is his story true?" she asked me "Were there twenty of you?"

The words flew out of my mouth "Nineteen or twenty, maybe more, I don’t know! Sara and the one whose naht on the way"

I waited for the pain to punish ain

"And this Victoria - did she create you?"