Bella

Personal affection is a luxury you can have only after all your enemies are eliminated.
Until then, everyone you love is a hostage, sapping your courage and corrupting
your judgment
Orson Scott Card
Empire

PREFACE


No longer just a nightmare, the line of black advanced on us through the icy mist
stirred up by their feet.
We're going to die,I thought in panic. I was desperate for the precious one I
guarded, but even to think of that was a lapse in attention I could not afford.
They ghosted closer, their dark robes billowing slightly with the movement. I saw
their hands curl into bone-colored claws. They drifted apart, angling to come at
us from all sides. We were outnumbered. It was over.
And then, like a burst of light from a flash, the whole scene was different. Yet
nothing changed – the Volturi still stalked toward us, poised to kill. All that really
changed was how the picture looked to me. Suddenly, I was hungry for it. I wanfed
them to charge. The panic changed to bloodlust as I crouched forward, a
smile on my face, and a growl ripped through my bared teeth.