Darkest Before the Dawn
Summary: Bella has survived her brush with the creatures of the night, and begins building herself a new life surrounded by the tribal protectors. But what happens when a single decision unravels her entire world? When circumstance forces her and Edward back together, and she sees no way out, will she be forced to join the world of the undying, or will she find a way to fight for the ones she truly loves? WARNING: LANGUAGE, VIOLENCE, DOMESTIC ABUSE
Copyright Disclaimer: As always, this is a work of fanfiction, which means I obviously do not own the source material which this is centered around. Stephanie Meyer is the sole owner of all Twilight Saga characters, plotlines, quotes, etc. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 1: Broken Chains
February, 2005
~ Bella's POV ~
It's been six months.
Six months since my life changed forever. Six months since I was freed from the chains he bound me in. Six months since I've been able to breathe without fear of being drained dry. Six months since that leech finally walked out of my life for good.
Edward Cullen. To the rest of the world he was perfect. A gorgeous, brilliant, well-mannered, and wealthy teenage boy with the perfect family and a promising future.
To me… not so much.
Edward was a vampire, a blood drinker, a cold one. He was a real-life, flesh and blood (or marble and venom… whatever) monster.
And I was his blood singer. My blood called to the monster inside of him like no human's blood ever had before. If we had met anywhere other than a classroom crowded with innocent, human teenagers, anywhere without so many witnesses, he would have killed me right then and there. As it stood though, he was forced to resist, not for my sake, but to protect his coven from exposure. And when he realized he could resist killing me, he became obsessed.
I was the ultimate challenge to his control, and the only exception to his gift. And he had heard rumors that a singer's blood could ripen, becoming more and more potent with age; he wanted to keep me alive, keep me human, and keep me close, so that one day, he could have my blood when it was absolutely perfect.
Yeah, I thought it was seriously fucked up too…
He was volatile and dangerous. He was stronger than any human man, which often meant 'accidentally' grabbing me so hard I bruised. He was faster than a speeding bullet, which meant I could never get away from him no matter how hard I tried. It coincidentally also meant shooting him with Charlie's gun wouldn't be any help at all. His eyesight, hearing, and sense of smell were so much more acute than a normal man's, an advantage he used to spy on me in the few occasions when I was alone or spending time with my human friends.
Then there was the 'dazzling'. His eyes held some sort of power over humans, especially human women, which he often used to distract me or stop me from resisting something he wanted from me. It took a long time to learn how to fight that particular parlor trick. No one else ever seemed to be able to though, so going to a teacher, friend, police, etc. would have been fairly pointless given he could literally talk himself out of anything.
Think that's bad enough? Think again. Edward could read minds. Luckily, he couldn't decipher my thoughts; if he knew just how much I despised him, he would have killed me long ago. Unfortunately, he could still read the minds of everyone around me. Which meant absolutely zero privacy. I could not talk to anyone about my concerns with regard to our 'relationship' without it getting back to him. I was completely alone in the world with no options and nowhere to turn.
His 'darling sister', Alice, was just as bad. She had all of the same vamp skills, but instead of telepathy, she could see the future. That's right ladies and gentlemen, the little pixie leech was a damn psychic. I couldn't just run away because she would 'see' me decide to go and stop me before I even took a step out the door. Even if I did get away, her visions would always lead her straight to me.
So, in the interest of staying alive for as long as possible, I played along. I did anything and everything that Alice and Edward demanded of me.
I grew out my hair and let Alice pick out my clothes and play 'Bella Barbie', like I was some kind of damned doll.
I stopped spending time with my few human friends in favor of spending every waking moment with the Cullen 'family'.
I didn't kick up a fuss when Edward started staying in my room every night to watch me sleep, despite the fact that that was damned creepy as hell. I adopted their love of classical music and devoted myself to being the perfect student.
I kept their secrets, avoided drawing attention to myself, and covered for them when they couldn't come to school on the few occasions the sun actually dared to shine on this desolate little town.
I even curbed my vocabulary to avoid the use of any 'unflattering vulgar language' that might offend the delicate sensibilities of the Victorian era throwbacks.
And when spending all this time with them meant being exposed to the others of their kind, I broke my dad's heart in order to protect him rather than expose the secrets and lies. I let them run me south and lock me up in a tiny hotel room for days, while they dealt with the threat. I was honestly ok with this part of the arrangement, as I was hopeful that James and his little coven of nomads would finally be enough to make the Cullens leave me alone.
They weren't of course. I ended up beaten within an inch of my life, bitten with venom that coursed through me veins, making me feel as though I was burning alive, bleeding out on the floor of some old ballet studio. But Edward couldn't let me die; that would be a waste of perfectly good singer's blood. And he couldn't let me turn for the same reason; though it may have also crossed his mind that if I suddenly awoke with super human speed and strength, I would probably kill him myself. So, of course, he decided to suck the venom back out, along with a fair amount of my delicious red nectar, kill James, and then bring my broken body to a hospital. Fan-fucking-tastic idea.
Of course none of them even considered hunting down the other two nomads who would surely want revenge. It wasn't worth the effort to them to kill Laurent and Victoria when they weren't planning on keeping me around long term anyway.
So I started to plan. I knew the only thing that would get the Cullens to leave Forks would be if Edward saw them as a threat to his hold on my blood. I had to do something that would make him believe it was too dangerous to keep me around the rest of his coven. I had to do something to get one of them to attack me, with the intention of drinking my blood. Should have been easy enough, right? No.
It had to be something spur of the moment so Alice wouldn't do anything to avoid it ahead of time. And it had to be something that everyone would assume was an accident so Edward wouldn't suspect my intention to drive them away. My blood spilt in any scenario would be enough to spark the desired effect, especially if the resident badass, and former human-drinker, Jasper Whitlock, was present. But the rest of the family had to be there too so a) someone could stop Jasper before he actually killed me and b) Edward could see in one instant that the entire family was a threat.
My perfect moment had come while opening presents, none of which I wanted or had asked for, at my eighteenth birthday party at the Cullen home, a party I didn't want in the first place by the way. I simply gave myself a small papercut, and that was that. Jasper attacked. The Cullens stopped him, but were overcome with their own bloodlust and had to leave. Edward was properly flustered, 'broke up with me', and the resident vampire Adam's family up and left within a matter of days.
Six months ago today.