分节阅读_139

  h
  under jasper's careful supervision.
  but alie casually, as if by some ce she had grown
  tired of the front room at the same time. i was beginning to wonder
  exactly what sort of instrus edward had given her. i lay across the
  bed, a, legs folded, o me. i ig first,
  suddenly tired enough to sleep. but after a few mihat
  had held off in jasper's preseo make itself kno
  on the idea of sleep qui, g up into a small ball, ing
  my arms around my legs.
  ”alice?” i asked.
  ”yes?”
  i kept my voice very calm. ”what do you think they're doing?”
  ”carlisle waracker as far north as possible, wait for
  him to get d then turn and ambush him. esme and rosalie were
  supposed to head west as long as they could keep the female behind them.
  if she turned arouo head back to forks and keep an eye on
  your dad. so i imagihings are goihey 't call. it means
  the tracker is ough that they don't want him to overhear.”
  ”and esme?”
  ”i thi be ba forks. she won't call if there's any ce
  the female will overhear. i expect they're all just being very careful.”
  ”do you think they're safe, really?”
  ”bella, how many times do we have to tell you that there's o
  us?”
  ”would you tell me the truth, though?”
  ”yes. i will always tell you the truth.” her voice was ear.
  i deliberated for a moment, and decided she meant it.
  ”tell me then… how do you bepire?”
  my question caught her off guard. she was quiet. i rolled over to look at
  her, and her expression seemed ambivalent.
  ”edward doesn't waell you that,” she said firmly, but i sensed
  she didn't agree.
  ”that's not fair. i thi to know.”
  ”i know.”
  i looked at her, waiting.
  she sighed. ”he'll be extremely angry.”
  ”it's none of his busihis is between you and me. alice, as a
  friend, i'm begging you.” and we were friends now, somehow — as she must
  have knoould be all along.
  she looked at me with her splendid, wise eyes… g.
  ”i'll tell you the meics of it,” she said finally, ”but i don't
  remember it myself, and i've or seen it done, so keep in
  mind that i ly tell you the theory.”
  i waited.
  ”as predators, we have a glut of ons in our physial — much,
  much more than really he strehe acute
  seo mention those of us like eder, and i, who have
  extra sehen, like a ivorous flower, we are
  physically attractive to our prey.”
  i was very still, remembering how pointedly edward had demohe
  same e in the meadow.
  she smiled a wide, ominous smile. ”we have another fairly superfluous
  on. we're also venomous,” she said, her teeth glistening. ”the venom
  doesn't kill — it's merely incapag. it works sl
  through the bloodstream, so that, oeoo much
  physi to escape us. mostly superfluous, as i said. if we're that
  close, the prey doesn't escape. of course, there are altions.
  carlisle, for example.”
  ”so… if the veo spread…” i murmured.
  ”it takes a few days for the transformatioe, depending on
  how mu is iream, how close the vehe
  heart. as lo keeps beating, the poison spreads, healing,
  g the body as it mh it. eventually the heart stops, and
  the is fi all that time, every mi, a
  victim would be wishih.”
  i shivered.
  ”it's , you see.”
  ”edward said that it was very hard to do… i don't quite uand,” i
  said.
  ”we're also like sharks in a way. ohe blood, or even smell
  it for that matter, it bees very hard to keep from feediimes
  impos