Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
Bella Swan is still grounded from disappearing for three days to stop her vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen from exposing himself in Italy and being destroyed by the Volturi, the ruling family of vampires. While Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie doesn't know about the public exposure, he does know that his daughter disappeared and that she recklessly drove motorcycles and cliff jumped and now she's grounded. He's decided that he's going to unground her because, in his words, she's "amazingly non-whiney," but he wants her to spend time with friends other than Edward, particularly Jacob Black, but Jacob is a werewolf and he hates Edward and Edward hates Jacob just the same. Edward refuses to let Bella spend time with Jacob on account of him being a werewolf, but Bella is insistent.
Other than squabbling about being grounded and spending time with friends, Bella also has to decide where to go to college because graduation is coming soon. She receives an acceptance letter to the University of Alaska and wouldn't you know it, Edward did, too! Bella is obviously using Alaska as an excuse because she has no plans of going to college at all and instead is planning for her imminent transformation into a vampire, which will happen after she graduates. Carlisle has agreed to turn her, and Edward has, too, but in order for Edward to do it, they have to get married.
Since Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie has ungrounded Bella, Edward suggests a shopping trip with his sister Alice. Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie doesn't want them going to Seattle because there have been lots of murders there recently, so Edward suggests Portland instead. After Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie goes to watch sports, Edward reveals that the murders in Seattle are because of a newborn vampire and then talk changes from that to werewolves. Jacob and several of his friends on the Quileute reservation have recently become werewolves and they say it's because of the Cullens coming back to the area. Edward thinks that Carlisle, his father for all intents and purposes, will find this interesting.
At school the next day, Bella makes plans for her new freedom and offers to help Angela, one of her only friends that still speaks to her after the sitting-in-a-chair-for-three-months depression, address graduation invitations. While they're all chatting at lunch, Alice has a vision that Edward refuses to tell Bella about and purposefully talks about anything other than that for the rest of the day. He even talks to Mike which is basically unheard of.
After school, Edward reminds Bella that his parents, Carlisle and Esme, bought them plane tickets to visit her mother, Renée, in Florida, and this weekend will be a good weekend to do that since she's newly ungrounded, but she doesn't think that's going to go over well with Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie. It doesn't. He says that Billy Black is planning to have a get together at La Push, which doesn't go over well with Edward.
They decide to go to the Cullen house for a little bit, then when Edward drops Bella back off at her house, he goes hunting while Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie has the sex talk with Bella. Don't worry, Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie, Edward is v traditional and Bella is still v virgin. After this awkward conversation, Bella tries to go to La Push to see Jacob, but Edward has dismantled the engine of her truck. He says she can lock her window if she doesn't want him to stare at her all night that night because she's mad, but she's only mad for like two seconds, so she flings her window open.
Somehow the weekend has passed and Bella and Edward are flying back to Washington from Florida, even though we all thought that wasn't going to happen. Renée tries to convince Bella to go to college in Florida, but she refuses, then Renée has her own awkward conversation with Bella about magnets and gravity that's really about Bella and Edward. Bella distracts Renée from this conversation by dangling something shiny in front of her face, I mean, asking her about mystery books, and then the weekend is over and they're back in Forks.
It's a good thing that they were only gone for three days because Jacob has been freaking out since they left. Even though he refuses to talk to Bella, he's been calling nonstop. Bella calls him back and he asks if she's going to school the next day. Uh... Yeah? Jacob is at school waiting on Bella when she gets there and is a very menacing giant in his tight, tight black t-shirt leaning against his black motorcycle. Jacob actually wanted to see Edward, not Bella, to warn him about the Cullen family coming onto the Quileute territory. Wait, what?
Apparently Victoria, evil red-headed vampire with a nonsensical vengeance against Edward, was back in the area over the weekend which is why Alice had a vision and why Edward took Bella to Florida. The Cullens and the werewolves tried to get her but she evaded everyone again and Edward's brother Emmett may have crossed the boundary and may have gotten into a fight with werewolf Paul. Bella gets mad about not knowing that Victoria was back around, but then the principal comes by and breaks up the potential fight between Edward and Jacob that all the other students were making bets over. In class, after having found out that Victoria is back, Bella freaks out and scribbles notes to Edward about how they should just change her because it’s clearly too dangerous for her to still be human, but he’s like, nah, one vampire is nothing. We can take her.
Later, Edward goes hunting and Bella’s supposed to go to work at Mike Newton’s store but they don’t need her, so she decides she’s going to sneak away to visit Jacob. Even though he’s happy to see her, he’s also mad because she just forgave Edward for abandoning her and allowing her sitting-in-a-chair-for-three-months depression. Bella tries to explain that Edward left because he thought her life would be better, which, let’s face it, it kinda was, but he came back so whatever. Jacob is sure that if Edward had not come back, he and Bella would be happy together, and he’s probably like 97% correct.
After this kind of awkward conversation, it gets even more awkward! Jacob tells Bella about what's been going on in La Push. His friend Quil finally became a werewolf, so that's good, or, well, it's good for him and most of the others except forJacob and the pack leader Sam. They don't really like being werewolves, especially Sam, because of what being a werewolf made him do. Bella thinks immediately that Jacob is referring to when Sam wolfed out and mangled his fiancee Emily's face, but no. He's talking about imprinting, which is what it's called when you have werewolf insta-love. Sam used to date another member of the tribe, Leah Clearwater, but then he saw her cousin Emily and bam! Imprint! Bella asks if Jacob has imprinted on anyone with a great big gulp and sweaty palms, but luckily he hasn't.
When Bella leaves La Push headed for Angela's house to help her with her graduation invitations, as soon as she's out of the reservation and across the vampire/werewolf border, Edward drives up behind her. He stalkily follows her to Angela's and Bella seems literally terrified of how upset he will be that she went to see Jacob. When she gets to Angela's house, Edward drives on. Bella and Angela have a nice human afternoon talking about college and jealous boyfriends and Bella seems to begin to regret her decision to become a vampire right after graduation. When she gets back home later, of course Edward is already in her room and is seething and full of wrath. He tells Bella that she almost made him break the treaty to rescue her from the wolves. Bella gets mad and declares that she is Switzerland and that vampires and werewolves don't matter to her.
Since Bella disappeared to La Push and Edward was a creep about it, he didn't go hunting as was his plan, so he has to go again. Bella of course decides to sneak around and go to La Push again, but Edward bribes Alice with a Porsche like the one she stole in Italy to babysit/kidnap/hold Bella hostage whenever he has to go away. It's very extreme and Bella hates it. The Cullens claim it is to keep her safe, but she doesn't think a vampire slumber party is any less safe than hanging out with a pack of teenage werewolves. We question her opposition to a vampire slumber party. As Bella is sulking on the couch in Edward's room that has been remodeled to hold a king-sized bed just for her, Rosalie comes in and asks to tell Bella her human story in hopes of convincing her that her desire to become a vampire is the wrong decision.
Rosalie explains that she was the most beautiful woman and she was courted by the wealthiest and most eligible bachelor, but even more than being the prettiest richest young woman in town, which yes she definitely wanted, she also wanted to have babies like her poor best friend. As she walked home from her poor friend's house, her fiance, Royce, and his sleazy drunken pals raped her and left her for dead. Carlisle came across her almost lifeless body and decided to turn her in hopes that she would make a good companion for Edward. That didn't work out, but she did don a wedding dress and slaughter all the men who raped her saving Royce for last. Even though things didn't turn out how she wanted, at least now she has Emmett, though she still wishes that she could have had babies and grown old with someone. She wants that life for Bella even though that's not at all what Bella wants.
At school the next day, Jacob rides up on his motorcycle and helps Bella flee her captors. Alice sees through the window of the cafeteria and is upset at the thought of losing her bribe-Porsche because she let her prisoner escape, but what is she going to do? She can't go to La Push. Oh well. When they get to the beach at La Push, Jacob tells Bella about Quil imprinting with a two year old. Babysitting to best friend to lover. It's ... Perfect? After this, talk changes to the possibility of Jacob imprinting and how that's not going to happen because of his obsession with Bella, but she's not interested in that because, you know, she's going to be a vampire in just a few weeks. This crushes Jacob and he tells her that he would rather her be dead than be a vampire. Bella leaves in a huff, riding her motorcycle to the Cullen house.
When Bella arrives, she finds that no vampires are mad about her departure, so that's good. She and Edward curl up in the king-sized bed and start to make out. Bella thinks that Edward is going to give up being a virgin, but no. Sex is too dangerous (Or, you know, he could just let her be on top or they could enjoy each other in other ways without intercourse, but no, we are strictly avoiding all sexual health lessons again. Abstinence is the only way! Insert eyeroll here.). Even though Edward and Bella remain v virgin, Edward does decide to let go of one of the other things he's been keeping Bella from. He allows her to spend time with Jacob, but like, now she doesn't want to because Jacob said he'd rather her be dead than be what she wants to be.
When Bella goes home from the vampire slumber party, Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie tells her that Jacob called to apologize. She doesn't care. Bella goes to her room and discovers that someone has been in there and that some things are missing, but she just assumes that Alice must have tidied up when she came to get her slumber party stuff. Luckily, Edward gets there soon and realizes that an unknown vampire stranger has been in her room. After talking with Alice, they don't think it's Victoria so Edward assumes it's someone from the Volturi. He decides to call a meeting. The rest of the Cullens also decide that it must be the Volturi because a stranger probably wouldn't have left Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie alive. Bella thinks they're after her because she is still human, but Edward thinks they're after his whole family.
Later, Jacob calls again and Bella agrees to speak to him. She grudgingly accepts his apologies and then Edward asks to talk to him about the intruder. They decide to loosen the treaty lines a little bit so they can both search, and then Jacob agrees to come over to catch the scent. Jacob suggests that Bella and Smokin' Hot Billy Burke/Charlie would be safer if they spent all their extra time at La Push surrounded by wolves when Edward's not around. When Jacob arrives at Bella's, Edward leaves, uneasy truce set, and Bella and Jacob talk about her becoming a vampire again. As one does, Jacob squeezes a knife when he thinks about the transformation, but he heals before Bella's eyes. When Edward gets back, Jacob asks Edward to let Bella come to a werewolf bonfire and then he leaves.
When Edward got back, he brought with him an acceptance letter to Dartmouth which has to have resulted from a bribe, so she refuses to go to school there and insists on keeping up with the ruse of going to the University of Alaska. Edward wants Bella to consider spending more time as a human, but then they go to her bedroom where she realizes the stuff she thought was misplaced the other day has completely gone missing. They agree that the vampire who came snooping took her items to track her scent. They also discuss the newborn vampire situation in Seattle and how it's getting exponentially worse because it seems like it's an army of newborns, not just one, and that maybe the Volturi will come investigate. If they come to Seattle, what's stopping them from coming to Forks?
Bella suggests the werewolf bonfire and Edward agrees to let her attend as long as he can drive her to the treaty line. He breathes on Bella’s hair before letting her go which grosses Jacob out, but he finds it hilarious. All the werewolves are at the werewolf bonfire plus Sue Clearwater and her teenage children Leah, who was Sam’s former love before the imprint and Seth, who is a little bit younger than everyone else. Sue took her husband Harry’s place as tribe elder after he died from a heart attack in New Moon. After they eat approximately 1000 hot dogs, Billy Black begins to tell the story of the tribe’s history. It will be the first time several of the wolves will hear it and know that it’s actually true.
The Quileute tribe were not always werewolves, but instead, they were spirit warriors. They had the ability to leave their bodies and battle intruders by using the elements and some animals to attack their foes. The chief, Taka Aki, led the spirit warriors well, but one day, a power-hungry warrior, Utlapa, stole Taka Aki’s body when he was out in his spirit form, then he killed his former body with Taka Aki’s hands. Utlapa, as Taka Aki, then began to lead the tribe and forbade them from using their spirit forms ever again. Taka Aki, now a bodiless spirit, asked a wolf to share his body with him. As the wolf, Taka Aki visited his tribe and when Utlapa killed one of the best warriors, Taka Aki Wolf transformed into Taka Aki Human Spirit Form and killed Utlapa. From then on, all of Taka Aki’s children would also have the ability to become wolves, leading to the current werewolves sitting around the bonfire right now eating too many hot dogs.
After this story, another tribal elder, Old Quil, tells the story of The Third Wife vs. The Cold Ones. Some time has passed and Taka Aki is an old man. He’s stopped transforming into a wolf and has aged with his imprinted wife. Their sons are the werewolf guardians of the tribe and things are going well. Then people start disappearing. The werewolves investigate and discover a Cold One, aka a vampire, killing people. The werewolves learn to fight the vampires by tearing them to pieces and burning the remains. One day, a vampire lady comes to the village and kills pretty much everyone, including the werewolves. Taka Aki’s wife, aka The Third Wife, sees her sons die and Taka Aki transforms one final time to attack the vampire. The Third Wife sees as her husband is about to die, too, so she stabs herself in the heart to distract the vampire. Taka Aki, plus their young sons who just transformed, kill the vampire. Taka Aki never returns to human form after that. Bella is enthralled with the human sacrifice part of the story. Some time later, the Cullens come to town and Carlisle promises the tribal elder, Ephraim Black, that his vampire family will not bite any humans, so they create the treaty that still exists.
A little while after the werewolf bonfire, Alice plans to throw a graduation party even though there’s a lot of terrible things potentially happening, like the newborn vampire army decimating Seattle and the Volturi swinging by for a visit. Bella is shocked to realize that graduation is only one week away and begins to doubt her desire to be transformed immediately afterward. Of course Edward is super excited that Bella’s getting scared, but he doesn’t want her to turn just because she’s afraid of the newborns and the Volturi. Bella kinda thinks that Edward doesn’t want to change her because she won’t be soft and squishy anymore, but he doesn’t care about that. Talk then changes to them getting married, which Bella is still against because she doesn’t want to be one of those girls who gets knocked up and married right after high school. In Edward’s time, that’s what people did and he appreciates the tradition and tells Bella again that if she wants him to change her, not Carlisle or Alice, she has to marry him. Ugh.
Later that night, they learn that the newborn army is getting wildly out of control, so Edward decides they need to talk newborn army strategy with Jasper. He tells Bella the story of him being turned into a vampire during the Civil War. A vampire called Benito decided to create an army of newborns to take over more territory so he could feed whenever he wanted. The newborns are super strong in their first year, but they’re not very talented, so he used them to take out other vampire clans and didn’t care whether they lived or died. Soon, other vampires started doing the same thing, so there were vampire wars all over the place, so the Volturi stepped in. One day, a vampire named Maria decided she wanted to take over land once conquered by Benito, so she created her own army. She and her two friends saw young human Confederate Soldier Jasper and turned him, then they realized he had emotional manipulation control and used him to train newborn vampire recruits. After a long time doing this, Jasper started to hate himself, so he left Maria and found Alice and then they found the rest of the Cullens.
Now, Jasper thinks they need to take out the newborn army in Seattle before the Volturi step in, but Edward thinks the Volturi might be responsible. The rest of the family don’t really think that’s true. They decide that if they’re going to try to fight an army, they’re going to need assistance, so they call up their vampire friends in Alaska to see if they will help. Nah. One of them was in love with Laurent and is mad about the werewolves killing him because he was going to kill Bella, so the entire Denali clan declines Carlisle’s request for help. Hmm…
Edward needs to go hunting, so he takes Bella to La Push. In retaliation probably for the hair breathing from the last drop off, Jacob starts thinking saucy things about Bella because he knows Edward is going to be listening in on his thoughts. Jacob and Bella go to his house because he’s super exhausted. It turns out, the rest of the werewolves don’t care to keep Bella as suffocatingly safe as Jacob does, so he’s been watching her house every night in addition to trying to hunt the vampire that came to her room. Bella invites Jacob to the graduation party even though he’s a werewolf and it’s at the vampires’ house, so he’s not super interested in going. Then, he takes a nap. While Jacob is resting, Bella decides that she’s going to marry Edward, but then Jacob wakes up and declares his love for her. It’s awkward and painful because then he kisses her and she punches him in the face, breaking her hand.
Jacob takes Bella home where Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie is pretty unperturbed by Jacob forcing himself on his daughter, but then Edward arrives and threatens to break Jacob’s jaw if he ever kisses Bella again. Jacob is determined that Bella loves him, too, and asks what will happen if Bella wants him to kiss her. If that’s the case, Edward won’t object, but he won’t just let Bella go easily. Edward then takes Bella to see Carlisle so he can fix her hand. Jasper and Emmett are delighted that Bella punched Jacob and decide to place bets on how many people she will kill when she’s a newborn vampire. Bella worries that she’s going to become a bloodthirsty monster who doesn’t want to do anything but eat people, which makes her think that she might not want to give up being a human just yet. She’s got some *things* she wants to do before becoming a monster.
Soon enough, it’s time for graduation. Since the vampire intruder stole some of Bella’s clothes, Alice gives her an outfit to wear to the ceremony. For some reason, Bella decides that the intruder is part of the newborn army and they are after her and were created to kill her, not the Cullen family. Alice agrees, but they decide not to tell Edward until after graduation and the party. To keep Edward from reading her mind, Alice translates the Battle Hymn of the Republic to Arabic and then Korean sign language. The ceremony goes well, but Bella decides to tell Edward before the party about her thoughts. He almost goes bonkers in the graduation auditorium but manages to not flip out. He does immediately leave though, but that’s fine because Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie has plans to take Bella out to dinner to celebrate before the party at the Cullens. Before he drops Bella off at the party, he tells her that he’s proud of her and is sorry that he’s not been the best dad. Aww, sure you have Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie.
The party at the Cullens’ is insane. Alice has of course gone all out with the decorations and nearly everyone from school is there. Bella’s not into parties and just wants it to end, especially when she finds out that no other vampire clans are going to help them fight the newborns. Soon enough, Jacob and his werewolf buddies Quil and Embry arrive at the party. Bella was sure Jacob wasn’t going to come, you know, because she punched him in the face the last time she saw him, but here he is. He gives her a tiny carved wolf bracelet as a graduation gift and apologizes. She forgives him, but then her attention turns to Alice who’s just had a vision. They go to investigate.
Alice reveals that she saw the newborn army coming to Forks for Bella which is bad for everyone. Well, almost everyone. Jacob and his werewolf buddies are excited that they’ll have a chance to kill some vampires, so they agree to team up. Jasper sets up a meeting after the party to teach his family and the werewolves about fighting the newborns. Everyone is excited about the team up because they’re pretty sure they’re not going to have any trouble at all taking out the army, but Bella’s worried about everyone’s safety. She then remembers that Victoria wants to kill her, too, and then she realizes that she’s probably the one pulling all the strings. Edward doesn’t think so, though.
The strategy meeting goes pretty well and the Cullens are surprised that there are ten werewolves in attendance. They refuse to turn into their human forms, but Edward translates for them and they all watch the vampires fight each other and learn tactics. Afterward, the werewolves sniff all the Cullens and then Jacob transforms so he and Edward can discuss where they’re going to hide Bella to keep her away from the fray. They decide that she’s going to create a false trail to lead the newborns to the Cullens and werewolves who will be waiting to ambush them in the meadow where Edward wore his sleeveless white unbuttoned button down shirt. Jacob will then carry her elsewhere, concealing her human scent with his dog smell. Sounds like a great plan, though Jasper suggests it would be super distracting to the newborns if Bella was there. Edward and Jacob shoot this idea down immediately.
The next day, Bella tells Edward she wants to help in the battle and that she likes Jasper’s idea of having her there as a distraction. Edward assures her they don’t need her help because it’s going to be a super easy fight. Well, she suggests, if it’s going to be so super easy, then he should just stay out of the fight with her. She tells him that if he doesn’t, she’ll convince Seth, tiny baby werewolf who has been assigned Bella-guarding duties during the battle, to let her leave, but Seth wouldn’t do that. If Jacob commands him to stay, he has to listen because Jacob is second in command of the tribe. Wait, what? Edward agrees to stay with her during the fight but doesn’t say anything about Jacob.
To keep Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie safe during the battle, they tell him that the Cullens minus Alice are going camping and that Alice wants Bella to keep her company, so he should hang out in La Push with Billy Black while Bella is away. Instead of this, all the Cullens minus Edward go hunting and get ready for war while he and Bella stay behind in his king-sized bed. Edward gives Bella a family heirloom to add to her tiny wolf bracelet, a “crystal” heart, and then she tries to have sex with him. He turns her down again, swearing that they’ll do it all the time when she’s less breakable. She’s not into that, though, because she’s sure all she’s going to want is to eat everyone and won’t even be thinking about banging Edward anymore. He finally relents and says they’ll try to have sex at least once before he turns her into a vampire, but, remember, in order for him to turn her, they have to be married. Though she wants to do him now, she finally agrees. Edward gets down on one knee and properly proposes, giving Bella his mother’s ring. They plan to elope in Vegas.
The next day is the battle and Alice warns Bella and Edward that she’s seen that it’s going to be snowing where they’re going to be hiding in the mountains, so they need to take coats and stuff with them. She’s also seen that Edward and Bella are going to elope, so she guilt trips Bella into letting her plan the wedding instead. Fine Alice, whatever. Jacob arrives soon to dog smell Bella to the tent in the snowy mountains. They talk along the way about the kiss, but Bella hasn’t even thought about it. Jacob thinks Bella likes him better when he’s in wolf form because she doesn’t have to pretend that she doesn’t love him when he’s like that, but no, she assures him that she likes him better in wolf form because he can’t talk.
Bella then tells Jacob that she convinced Edward to stay with her during the fight which leads to her asking about him being second-in-command. He explains that he should actually be chief of the tribe and head werewolf, because, if you remember, he’s double werewolf and also the grandson of former werewolf chief Ephraim Black. He didn’t want to be the chief though because he doesn’t like being a wolf very much and Sam’s already been leading everyone so well.
They make it to the tent and Jacob decides to stay with them overnight and switch places with Seth in the morning. It’s a good thing he decided to stay because a huge snowstorm blows in and Edward was not as prepared for the cold weather as he should have been. Edward and Jacob think they should leave because frail Bella can’t handle the cold, but she declines saying they will have wasted all their dog smell and fake trails. As the night gets colder and colder, Jacob convinces Edward that he should snuggle up with Bella to keep her alive. Nice and toasty, Bella can finally go to sleep.
While Bella is drifting off, Edward asks Jacob to keep his sexy Bella thoughts to himself and Jacob agrees if they can have a conversation. Edward admits that he’s just being nice to Jacob for Bella’s sake because if he forces her to choose between the two of them, she’ll get mad and pick Jacob. Then he tells Jacob that he wants Bella to stay human and that, really, Jacob is better for her than he is, but he’ll always be there watching if that happens. He also says that if they weren’t enemies, they might be friends. Nah…
The next morning, Bella and Edward chat about their top ten moments together while Jacob leaves to join the fight. Edward mentions one of his favorites was when Bella agreed to marry him and Wolf Jacob, using his wolf hearing, overhears and howls in anguish. Ugh… Bella realizes that Edward knew Jacob was listening and she gets pissed. Edward offers to go get Jacob and bring him back so Bella can apologize and explain. She tells him that soon enough she’ll be out of his life as a vampire and they’ll leave town and never come back. Jacob instead says he plans to die in battle so she won’t have to worry about him anymore, unless she asks him to kiss her. She agrees and, though it’s awkward at first, the kiss soon deepens and Bella realizes that she loves Jacob, too. Edward comes back as Jacob happily trots away and is replaced by Seth and Bella confesses that she loves Jacob, but that she loves Edward more. He knows this already and is perfectly fine with it.
The battle soon begins and Edward uses Seth’s connection with the pack to narrate what happens. Everything goes super well, until it doesn’t, of course. Victoria shows up and has Riley, a newborn vampire, with her. Smugly terrified, Bella realizes she was right. Victoria was behind everything all along and created an army just to kill her. Edward begins fighting Victoria while Seth takes on Riley and Bella watches, petrified with horror. The fight seems to be going in Edward and Seth’s favor, but then Riley punches Seth and he flies away and whimpers in pain. Bella, thinking that Seth’s going to die and then Edward is going to die and then she is going to die, decides to Third Wife herself with a rock. She is just about to cut her arm open and gasps, which distracts Victoria and Riley long enough for their fight to be over. Seth bites Riley into tiny pieces and Victoria plans to run, but Edward catches her and swiftly removes her head. They set the corpses on fire and leave to meet up with everyone else.
The newborn army is defeated, but there is more trouble looming. The Volturi are on their way. Bella also learns that while everyone she loves is alive, Jacob got hurt badly trying to rescue Leah who was getting squeezed by a vampire. That’s not good, but we can’t worry about that now because the Volturi will be arriving any minute. Alice counts down to their arrival. While they wait, Bella realizes that there is an extra vampire in the meadow.
A young newborn called Bree surrendered to Carlisle, so they plan to help her transition into their vegetarian ways. All Bree wants to do right now is eat Bella, though, which makes Bella worry that that’s what she’s going to be like when she is turned. No time to worry, though, because Jane and Felix of the Volturi have just arrived. They don’t know about the werewolves and are super impressed that the Cullens killed an entire army plus Victoria by themselves. Jane is surprised to see that Bella is there and still human, so she reminds them of their promise, then tries to do a little bit of torturing of her just for funsies, but it still doesn’t work. Before Jane and Felix leave, they kill Bree.
Bella desperately wants to see Jacob, but she still has to keep up the pretense of staying with Alice for the weekend. She’s also still freaked out by seeing Bree and thinking that all she’s going to want to do forever is kill people, but Alice thinks the transition might be different for Bella because she’s choosing to become a vampire.
When the fake camping trip is over and Bella gets to go home, Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie tells her that the weekend in La Push was weird and there were wolves howling all over the place. Then he tells her that he saw Carlisle and Edward visiting with Jacob who “had a bad motorcycle accident.” This changes his opinion of Edward a little bit. Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie, clever as he is, tells Bella that he feels like a change is coming and asks her to tell him before she decides to run away with Edward. She promises she will.
Finally Bella gets to visit with Jacob. He’s in horrible pain and hopped up on morphine because Carlisle had to break all the bones on one half of his body to set them all correctly because they kept healing too quickly. Jacob is miffed about Edward not being mad about the kiss they shared, but he finally agrees to let her go, even though they both know that if Edward wasn’t around, they would be soulmates. Alas, that is not to be. Bella tells Jacob that she and Edward are getting married soon and that he’s going to change her afterward. He vows to wait for her forever, maybe even after she’s a vampire.
Bella spends that night sobbing in Edward’s arms. He’s a little worried that she’s made a terrible decision, but she assures him she’s made the correct choice for her. After crying literally all night long, the next day, she’s perfectly fine. They go see Alice who shows Bella her wedding dress that she’s already designed for her. Even though she already knew it would happen, Alice is super excited when Bella asks her to be her maid of honor. Later, back in the sleeveless white unbuttoned button down shirt meadow, Edward and Bella set a date for their elaborate Alice-planned wedding: August 13, one month before her 19th birthday. They start making out and then, surprising everyone, Edward suggests they have sex, and surprising everyone even more, Bella turns him down. She puts on her engagement ring and they decide to go tell Smokin’ Hot Billy Burke/Charlie they’re getting married.
The final bit of the book is from Jacob’s point of view. He’s distraught about Bella becoming a vampire and, since all the werewolves’ brains are connected, all the rest of the wolves are upset, too. Leah, also the spurned lover, tells Jacob to just get over it and suggests that they might get lucky and Bella might not survive the transition. Billy gives Jacob his invitation to the wedding and he runs away, transforms into a wolf, and disappears into the woods.