Disclaimer: Edward isn't mine. Can you believe it? I keep peeking around behind me and opening the books ever so quietly, but he still won't appear and pledge his undying love. sigh They just don't make guys like Edward anymore, do they?

Wood in snow,
Dead of night,
How bright you glow.

Breathe in, breathe out. Exhale and Inhale.
Breathe in, breathe out. Exhale and Inhale.

Feather moon,
Scarlet sky,
I love you endlessly,
Not knowing why.
Feather Moon by Vienna Teng

He pulled me close, closer than he'd ever allowed for fear of this very moment. My heart pounded and climbed further into my throat.
"Bella..." He exhaled once. "I love you and whatever happens, you must... you must remember that."
I closed my eyes, desperately trying to hold back the tears I knew were coming. How could he doubt that I'd ever forget him? I was giving up everything for him, just as he was giving up something for me- the hope that he could see me live as a normal girl, happy, carefree... mortal.
His hands clenched mine harder, almost painfully. His breath fanned against my neck.
"I know," I whispered, all semblance of eloquence forgotten. Oh, what else could I have said? You're the one? I'll love you forever? I'll never forget that? It all sounded so cliched, so unworthy of this moment. But there had to be something, didn't there? This deserved some monumental line that would be ours for all eternity, immortalized in our very existence.
At that moment, as I opened my mouth to speak, Edward's teeth sunk into my shoulder, quick and soft, as gracefully precise as only the Cullens could be. I gasped against the shock and the sudden pull that seemed to climb down into my arms and up to my head. It felt as if someone had hooked a finger beneath a vein and begun to play with it, gently but not enough so that I couldn't notice.
I tensed as the pull came again, this time with a slight sting following it. "Edward..." I squeezed his hands as hard as I could. "Edward..." The pain was growing now, circling outward from my shoulder and quickly overwhelming my poor excuse for coherence. "Edward!"
He drew back abruptly, out of breath and shaking his head as if waking from a daze. Slowly, he looked up at me. I smiled- weakly, I'm sure- and pressed my face into his hand as he reached towards me.
"Bella." His voice had a sort of pang to it, like he could feel the precipice of some horrible tidings approaching even now.
My shoulder twinged again, sharper. He winced with me and captured my face between his hands. I'd never seen him look so desperate, so frightened.
"Bella... I'm so sorry."
I forced myself to raise my head so I could see him once more before I was gone. All around me a darkness was closing in, dulling my world as the pain sharpened further still. I smiled again as my eyes finally settled upon him, his lean physique, his alabaster skin, his angelic beauty. Soon, I'd be like him. I'd be his Bella in the most complete sense of the words... his...
"Edward." I stroked his cheek, hoping just to hold on for the shortest moment longer. "I..." The words died as my body tensed, my blood suddenly alight with a fiery pain, burning...consuming me from within.

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I couldn't think anymore or remember who I was. Everything was lost in the dizzying pain so determined to destroy me. How long had it been like this? Hours? Months? It didn't matter. I couldn't imagine it ever ending, no matter what the angel was telling me.
"Bella."
The voice was soft, tinted by just the smallest amount of strength, as if the angel speaking was fighting against something. Who... who was hurting my angel? The only comfort in this painful reality?
I collapsed further into myself as another surge of fire racked my nerves and my body twisted in agony, ready to end itself.
"Bella."
Was I... Bella? A flash of light swirled around me. I was Bella and the angel was my Edward, mine as surely as I was his. The binds were loosening. Something was rushing to meet me, and as the darkness began to weaken, a new ache lurched to the forefront of my mind... a thirst so powerful, I feared it would never be sated.