He put his finger to my lips.

    I went back upstairs to search under my bed. Nothing but dust bunnies. I started to dig through my
dresser. Maybe I’d put the red shirt away and forgotten.
    I gave up when the doorbell rang. That would be Edward.
    “Door,” Charlie informed me from the couch as I skipped past him.
    “Don’t strain yourself, Dad.”
    I pulled the door open with a big smile on my face.
    Edward’s golden eyes were wide, his nostrils flared, his lips pulled back over his teeth.
    “Edward?” My voice was sharp with shock as I read his expression. “What —?”
    He put his finger to my lips. “Give me two seconds,” he whispered. “Don’t move.”
    I stood frozen on the doorstep and he . . . disappeared. He moved so quickly that Charlie wouldn’t even
have seen him pass.
    Before I could compose myself enough to count to two, he was back. He put his arm around my waist
and pulled me swiftly toward the kitchen. His eyes darted around the room, and he held me against his body
as if he were shielding me from something. I threw a glance toward Charlie on the couch, but he was
studiously ignoring us.
    “Someone’s been here,” he murmured in my ear after he pulled me to the back of the kitchen. His voice
was strained; it was difficult to hear him over the thumping of the washing machine.
    “I swear that no werewolves —” I started to say.
    “Not one of them,” he interrupted me quickly, shaking his head. “One of us.”
    His tone made it clear that he didn’t mean a member of his family.
    I felt the blood empty from my face.
    “Victoria?” I choked.
    “It’s not a scent I recognize.”
    “One of the Volturi,” I guessed.
    “Probably.”
    “When?”
    “That’s why I think it must have been them — it wasn’t long ago, early this morning while Charlie was
sleeping. And whoever it was didn’t touch him, so there must have been another purpose.”
    “Looking for me.”
    He didn’t answer. His body was frozen, a statue.
    “What are you two hissing about in here?” Charlie asked suspiciously, rounding the corner with an empty
popcorn bowl in his hands.