“I had a vision.”

“Of what?” I asked trying to hide my high anxiety.

I obviously didn’t do a good job because Alice looked at me and said, “Calm down, Bella. I didn’t see anything. . .bad happening. . .its just that we might be having a few more. . . visitors than expected.”

“By visitors you mean vampires?” I asked.

She nodded.

“Are they dangerous,” I asked slowly, not really wanting to know the answer.

“No,” she said a little too quickly. I raised an eyebrow at her. “Ok yes and no,” she admitted. “Its the Volturi.”

“Explain,” I said exasperatedly, as I slumped down in a chair. There was always something new to learn about vampires.

“The Volturi are sort of like. . .guards,” she began. “ They live in Volterra, Italy and are the oldest of our kind. They pretty much make sure everything is running smoothly like protecting our secrecy by keeping other vampires in line.”

“And their dangerous because. . .?”

“Well, they don’t exactly share in our way of life,” she said.

I gulped. “So you mean their not vegetarian?” I asked.

She shook her head and I leaned forward covering my face in my hands. Why did this have to happen? Just when I thought the wedding was going to be perfect. . .

Alice was instantly at my side comforting me. “Bella, don’t worry the Volturi are very experienced in controlling their thirst. They wouldn’t break their own rules and you know that if anything really bad was going to happen I would see it,” she said reassuringly.

Wait. What was I doing? This was her wedding day.Wasn’t I supposed to be comforting her? She had trusted me to give her an incredible wedding and now at the first problem that arises I was sitting in a chair having some kind of breakdown. I was the best wedding planner in our company- well next to Alice of course- and this was really pathetic. I quickly regained my bearings.

“What do they want?” I asked trying to sound confident. Alice saw my face and relaxed as well.

“Oh, they probably just want to see if Jasper and I will join their guard,” she said a little annoyed, “and probably to check on our coven. We haven’t all lived together in a long time, so this is a good chance for them to check up on all of us.”