A/N – This is how Edward should have reacted to Bella. It changes everything.

Disclaimer – I don't own any Twilight related thing.


Chap. 1 Mind Games

Edward POV

It was a slightly more interesting day- I could tell by the student's more pent up thoughts that were circulating. The daughter of Chief Swan had arrived in Forks yesterday and was apparently in attendance at school. She was in my class- that is the junior class, and I briefly wondered if I would finally get a lab partner in Biology.

I didn't come across her until lunch. When she entered the cafeteria many people turned their heads to stare at the newcomer. We didn't. I sifted through the thoughts of those around me and was initially appalled at some of the thoughts from the male populace. I quickly stopped honing in on the guys minds and I felt a spark of jealousy from Rosalie-that is I saw her jealousy through Jasper- and it distracted me.

"She's quite the attraction, isn't she?" she muttered barely moving her lips.

Emmett was on top of it. "Nothing compared to you babe." He quickly defused the situation. I heard Rosalie's lust coming from Jasper then and quickly decided to exit the mind of my siblings. I shot a look of sympathy to poor Jasper who always had a hard time trying to not feel certain emotions coming from us. Surprisingly, he was gazing at Alice intently. Apparently Rosalie's lust was contagious.

Alice smiled, and I couldn't stop myself from catching her vision when her eyes misted over. I yanked my powers away as quickly as I could, but I still caught some images I did not care to see. I let out a small curse and physically turned my head- as if that would help.

'Sorry' Alice thought. As much as I was trying to keep out of their minds I always heard them when they directed a comment at me.

"It's fine"I sighed. It was nothing I hadn't seen before. I mentally cursed my gift for the billionth time. I threw it away to my usual spot. Angela Weber's mind. She was a safe haven from the immaturity of the students and – well… the maturity of my family. Angela would have a heart attack if she knew how much I had learned about her during my tactful retreats into her head.

I barely noticed Alice when she left. I didn't dare try to read her to find out why, but she usually left early so it wasn't abnormal. I occupied myself trying to compose a song that represented Alice. Something light and quick, but mysterious…

Jessica Stanley interrupted my focus by thinking my name. I looked at her, unwillingly catching her thoughts for a bit. She was talking to the new girl Bella Swan, who had inquired about us. I switched to Bella's mind, eager to hear someone new for a change.

Nothing. I looked at her briefly. She was obviously thinking something because she immediately ducked her head when I turned to her. It was just blank though. I stopped looking at her and started mumbling what just happened to Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie.

"Strange, bro" Emmett whispered after I had finished. Rosalie was glaring at a blank spot in the wall wondering why I should care so much about what the girl was thinking.

"I'm not having any problems" Jasper said, and I immediately read him to see what he meant. Jasper could feel Bella. She had mixed emotions, there was pity - pity for us?- and some sort of relief as well. I looked back at her to try delving into her mind again. Nothing. I watched her look away and my curiosity got the better of me, so I returned to Jessica's mind to find out what she had said to spark those feelings in her.

'Me and Edward… alone' Jessica was daydreaming. I hastily returned to my safe haven and resolved to just eavesdrop on their verbal conversation.

"…the boy with the reddish brown hair?" Bella was asking about me. I looked back at her fruitlessly picking at her brain for a third time. It was starting to get frustrating. I looked back at Jasper who could feel some bashfulness coming from her now- she was embarrassed because I caught her looking- and a bit of infatuation. The normal reaction when girls looked at us – or at least that's what Jasper was thinking.

I smiled as I heard Jessica talk about how I 'don't date'. Having to turn down Jessica's advances was annoying at first, but my brothers had made me see the humor in it eventually, even if they were constantly jibing at the fact that I didn't have a mate.

My thoughts returned to the enigma that was Isabella Swan for the remainder of the period. I wondered what Carlisle would think- he would probably come up with some theory. I suddenly hoped she would be in my Biology class. The irony of her being my lab partner and also an experiment would be quite comical.

To my gratification, Bella talked to Angela a few times during lunch period. Mostly introductory pleasantries were exchanged. I learned that she was in Forks to give some space to her mother and her new husband, who lived in Arizona, as well as spend more time with her father. As we left the cafeteria for our next classes I heard they were discussing their schedules and discovered that Bella was in my Biology class. I may have walked a little quicker than necessary to the Biology lab in anticipation and Jasper was a little curious, but decided to mind his own business.

I sat in my seat and grinned. Finally an experiment to conduct in this class that I've never done. I hadn't felt this excited about something in a very long time.

I hid my smile as more people entered the room behind me. There was no need to scare people with my teeth. The thirsty part of me said there was a definite need to scare people, but I had long since been able to control that part of me.

Jinx.

The breath I had just taken felt like I was swallowing molten hot lava instead of air and the only way to cool it was by the immediate ingestion of every last drop of Bella Swan's blood. There were no compromises. I glared at her with wide eyes and an aggressive look on my face. My throat was on fire as I swallowed the excess venom in my mouth, and tensed even more when she blushed, her blood pumping faster.

There was no stopping it. Bella Swan was mine. All of my immediate desire shifted to furious plotting on how to suck her dry with no one looking. It only took three seconds to come up with a plan, and I swiftly pulled myself away from the glorious smell to exit the classroom before the bell rang.

Everything was at a one-track pace now. I could care less about what people thought of my departure, I missed class all the time. As I headed for the front office I noticed I had a tail.

"Alice…" I cursed under my breath but didn't stop. My one-track mind immediately came up with a few more plans and started to decidedly shift between them.

Alice slowed, but kept following; at the very least she would make sure I didn't expose the family.

'You'll regret it' she threw at me, sad and angry at the same time.

Like my mind could comprehend regret at a time like this. It took me about ten seconds to get from the biology lab to the front office. I had to go quick or nothing would work. Thankfully Mrs. Cope wasn't there and I sat behind the desk. I knew the administrative password and quickly messed with Bella's schedule so Mr. Banner would observe a mistake. This should get her sent to the office for a double-check. It was all I could hope that she came alone.

'Think about what you're doing!' Alice was outside the building waiting for me. I met her instantaneously and stared her down.

"It can't be stopped!" I whispered intensely dark. She looked at me for a second as she considered plans of her own. She had a vision, but she knew how to block me out just as much as I knew how to block her out. We had never had a battle of power this crazy before and sure enough I could only hear the Russian alphabet playing through backwards in her brain as she darted off.

I didn't follow her. Bella would be coming this way. Venom poured through me again as I recalled the delectable smell of her blood. I decided to wait before I actually killed her, to really play it up like the monster I was.

My real reason for doing this was to throw Alice off. She would think she would have more time than she really did. I started fantasizing how I would approach her, how I would smell her. I would scare her, and ensnare her. Then I would tear her. I enjoyed my mental fantasies and somewhat cheesy rhyming, but they were really only for Alice. I was only after the blood.

I grinned in anticipation for the second time that day.

I watched Bella exit the building across the way. No Alice. I continued my crazed scheming of the delicious girl's death as she crossed the sidewalks.

She tripped on the curb, and her knees hit the concrete hard.

The smell of her blood hit me like it would a shark- only 100 times more intense- and that was it.

I was still in the open, so I think the analytical side of my mind made it look like I was helping her up after her fall, but there were no coherent thoughts. If anyone was looking too closely they would have noticed I basically teleported. I scooped her up placing one hand over her mouth to stop the scream, which didn't come immediately, only a confused then terrified look in her eyes.

I suddenly realized how convenient her mental silence was to me. I wouldn't have to hear the pain and suffering. She was like a little gift from the vampire gods just for me.

The muffled screaming and struggling started, but I was already around the corner to a secluded place between buildings.

There was no climactic build like I led Alice to believe. I bit into her neck softly and was surprised at my ability to savor it, instead of gulp it straight down.

Only pleasure. The feeling of complete bliss and euphoria as I killed her. Regret was laughable. Surely this was meant to be. Everything felt right.

Until I was knocked to the ground. I was doing it too softly, I hadn't had a tight enough grip on my prey. Jasper formed an iron cage around me as he looked up to Bella's bloody neck and snarled.

I read his thoughts. His power was making my bloodlust his bloodlust. He lunged at her. I pounced to cut him off. She was mine. No sharing.

There were now two vampires gunning for Bella's blood. We fought furiously but something in the back of our heads reminded us we needed to be quiet. A wild wrestling match ensued, each of us wanting to claim the now writhing girl's life.

Alice rocketed around the corner when we were paying attention the least. She stole the prize and made off into the woods toward the house. We both chased once we noticed, but Rosalie and Emmett cut us off in the alley.

This was no time for conversation. I was an animal. I was about to slip past Emmett but wasn't paying attention to Jasper. He tripped me, allowing Emmett to pin me down on the ground. Jasper ran to the woods after Alice, but Rosalie was hot on his heels.

"YOU CAN'T TAKE HER AWAY FROM ME!" I screamed. It was grating. It was primal. It was demonic.

It was loud.

Emmett more or less shoved my face into the dirt to keep me quiet. He was thinking of the times he couldn't resist certain human's blood. The depression it put him in had lasted months. He had wished the family had been strong enough to pull him away.

"Not when you were doing it you weren't" I snarled into the ground. I was having delusional thoughts of Alice handing Bella to Jasper with a smile on her face.

Now I was the one writhing just like the girl had been. There was no escaping a pin like this from Emmett. My only hope was mind games, and I wasn't thinking clear enough to trick him.

A little time past. My thirst never diminished and I had endless strength. So I continued writhing until I heard the minds of my family return to the school.

Esme was with them... and so was Jasper. They didn't bother hiding their plan from me. They had to return to class or the Cullens would be the prime suspects of Bella's disappearance. Esme was here to hold me while Emmett returned.

I scoffed. There was no way Esme could hold me down. She was the only one that came to me though. The others gave the scene a wide berth.

"Emmett you have to go back to class." It was a tone which could not be argued with. The stern voice of a mother that you didn't dare question.

Emmett's grip slackened. I threw him off me and started again toward the forest, my objective the same. Esme was in front of me and threw something at my face.

It was big plastic bag of blood. Human blood, I realized. There was no resisting. I was thirsty enough as it was. I sucked at the bag hungrily, while Esme took a position around me that was both like a steel prison to trap me and a warm embrace a loving mother gives to her baby as she is feeding him.

The bag satiated me to some degree. It wasn't Bella's blood, but it was still something I hadn't been able to drink a lot of in a long time. I noticed that Esme's position around me made it impossible to escape without severely hurting her. She would have to lose a limb…

If it wasn't this realization or the blood that calmed me from my rage, it was the thoughts and images Esme was filling her mind with. As I drained the last drop dry, she was thinking of the time we had together when it was just Carlisle, her, and I. I was at the piano, Carlisle and she were singing a beautiful duet. She started singing to me softly and I dropped my head.

If I could have cried ever, it would have been just then and there. Her song ended and she started cooing into my ear.

"You need to go back to class, honey" she said in the sweetest voice imaginable. "You need to go back to class."

I nodded, letting her know it was over. She slowly retreated, but kept her loving gaze as she guided me out of the space between buildings.

"You forgot your lab notebook in your locker" she said knowingly handing me something I hadn't noticed she had before.

It was my lab notebook. But this had been in my bag that was still sitting under my desk in the Biology room. I didn't question it. My new objective was to protect my family from exposure. I looked back at Esme's compassionate face. It was worth our life here. And I owed them all to glide back to class and put on the perfect act.

I wished I didn't have to think about the repercussions of my actions the rest of the day. But I was a vampire. We have way to much space in our heads to mull over things again and again all at once.

I thought about how Jasper had acted. He seemed fine if not a little shaken when they had returned. Had he finished her off? No way. Then Bella was probably still at the house enduring inconceivable pain right now. Because of me. Half of me wanted to go end it, and taste that wonderful nectar again, but the image of Esme stopped me. She was probably back with her now.

I had to keep up the façade, so I went through the motions and ended up waiting for my family in the Volvo after school like usual.

Four vampires exited the school and headed toward me. I didn't try to read them but could tell what they were thinking just by their expressions. One was murderous. One was sympathetic. One was confused. And one was disappointed.