BellaxEdward fic, about Bella's change. A year or so later. The "graduation promise" was obviously postponed…
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"They're coming." Emmett's voice was rough and far too loud – Rosalie behind him stood poised with her eyes wide and searching. Edward rose swiftly from beside me on the couch, in one of his too quick, fluid movements that always caught me off guard.
Alice charged into the room a moment later, a familiar small silver cell phone clutched in her hand.
I could tell that Edward was reading her thoughts, and as he recognized what had happened, his lip curled slightly, and a small, feral growl ripped quietly from the bottom of his throat.
"Who?" I asked softly, clambering to my feet. I knew right away who it was, but I needed conformation.
"The Volturi. They've come to see if we've met our end of the bargain. Bella, we need to leave," Edward told me calmly, his hand catching my wrist as I stepped forward. I tore my hand from his grasp, knowing that in truth it was he who let me go, or I never would have managed it.
"No," I replied firmly, staring hard into his eyes. Rosalie snapped her head around, looking behind her at something I couldn't see.
"Bella, please," Edward murmured, his voice strained. The tension in the air was growing. I took a deep breath.
"I won't go, Edward. Not this time. I am not going to put this family in danger again. I can't." I tried to keep my voice steady, but it wavered, and I knew with an acute sense of embarrassment that every vampire in the house could tell that panic was setting in.
Edward's gaze grew hard. "It doesn't matter Bella," he snapped, and I could have sworn that is eyes grew a shade darker as he spoke the words. Alice's eyes flickered back and forth between us, and Rosalie hissed flippantly, "Will somebody please make a decision?"
I folded my arms, waiting. Edward was frozen between Emmett, his pale skin glittering, and me.
"They'll kill you," he whispered, his lips barely moving. Nobody moved.
"Unless you-"
"Bella, we've been over this!" he fairly screamed, and his hands flopped to his sides, his stance on the edge of a crouch.
"They are nearly to the river, Edward," Alice murmured, twirling the cell phone over and over in her hand. After a moment's deliberation, she flipped it open and dialed a number too swiftly for me to even discern the tones of the numbers as she pressed them.
"Edward, I refuse to have to face them again," I said once more, remembering with a cold fear that day in Volterra, standing in the damp stone chamber watching Edward writhe on the ground.
He hovered, never taking his eyes off me. "I won't do that to you. I can't watch…it's not…"
"Don't think about why you can't watch, Edward!" I practically shouted. "This is my choice after all. I know what I'm getting myself into. I choose eternal damnation," I added with the hint of a smile. Nobody laughed.
"Bella…" Edward moaned, and for once I could see pure, uncovered agony in his face. My heart stuttered. Even in torture, Edward seemed like my own personal, grounded angel, and I could barely manage causing him any sort of pain.
"Bella what?" I replied in a soft undertone, knowing that I was touching on a rough spot of Edward's carefully constructed calm composure.
"You have no more time to decide, Edward. Bite her now, or we will all fight. The Volturi are coming to make sure we've done our part – if we haven't, they'll do it for us, or just kill her for compensation. You don't have three decades. They are nearing the house," Emmett growled.
Edward bent to his knees, resting his head in hands, rocking back and forth. I wanted to go to him, to put a hand on his cheek and tell him that it didn't matter, that everything would be okay, but my stubborn nature told me that it would only hurt him more. Rosalie glared and Emmett frowned, while Alice murmured rapidly into her phone. Three seconds later she flicked it closed, and raised her head to me, her wide eyes full of an indiscernible future.
"Edward, do it now. Carlisle is on his way, but he will not get here in time. You no longer have a choice. If you can't-"
"I'll do it!" Edward snarled, leaping to his feet. "I'll do it, just…" Once again, lucid misery washed over his marble-pale face, and his topaz eyes flashed darker than ever.
"There are no decisions to be made, Edward!" Rosalie cried, baring her teeth. "Bite her already!"
A shudder ran down my spine. The words suddenly sounded harsh and unfamiliar, very wrong coming from Rosalie's stunning face. Bite her already… It sounded like a gross cross between a teen fiction novel and a horror movie. Kiss her already – Bite her already, they were one and the same at the moment.
"Bella…." Edward seemed to be asking me a question, his face much more serene and his hands clenched tightly by his sides. His eyebrows were arched, and he motioned gently towards me, a half smile on his lips.
I understood what he meant. He had to bite me, here, now – like Rosalie had said, there were no more decisions to be made. I was going to become a vampire whether I liked it or not. I nodded to him, and slumped back onto the couch, my gaze trained on Emmett and Rosalie, and Alice with her tiny cell phone. They seemed to understand what I wanted, and quietly left us, the door clicking almost inaudibly shut behind them.
Edward did not sit down. He was on the cusp of a life-changing action for both of us – I couldn't have imagined how difficult this was for him. None-the-less, after a moment's hesitation he came forward to me, resting a hand on my thigh and sitting down opposite me on the black leather couch.
"It will-"
"Hurt, I know," I replied as calmly as possible, but my voice was two or three notes too high. He laughed, a clear, bell-like sound, and smiled. It did not reach his eyes.
Edward carefully traced the curve of my collarbone, ran his fingers down my arm to my wrist, and stopped there, his cold hand lightly touching mine. And then, as my heart beat erratically in my chest, he leaned forward, and his marble lips pressed gently to my neck. I stayed perfectly still, knowing how hard it must be for him to keep control. And then in a second that was too fast for me to catch, Edward's razor teeth sliced my neck, my shoulder, the crook of my arm, and finally cut deep into my wrist. For a moment I sat there, uncomprehending, staring down at the crimson blood, my blood, that was oozing from my wounds, and up at Edward, wiping scarlet liquid from his lips, fighting, or so it seemed to me in my half-conscious state, to keep his eyes the same color as before.
And then a blackness swallowed me, and the last thing I felt were Edward's cool hands gently lifting me from the couch, and the stony chill of my forehead pressed against his chest.
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Consciousness reached me a few times in the next few days, a strange, hazy consciousness where Edward seemed to be floating very high above me, his lips moving without sound. During these times, I was absented from the lightning pain, and I relished them, reaching up for Edward's face with shaking hands. I never reached him, and I would quickly sink back down into my little hole of pain, curling into a ball and releasing screams of agony.
The pain was like nothing on this earth, and in my deliriousness I supposed that this was the case – the oddity of vampires and werewolves and other such monsters that must be hidden somewhere in the forest of Washington came from far away in outer space too.
I briefly, during a painless moment, wondered what on earth I was going to tell Charlie, but once again I was plunged back into to the abyss that had claimed me what seemed like ages ago, and I forgot it.
The unadulterated pain lasted for three complete days, or so Edward told me later on, and on the morning of the fourth day, it finally began to subside. The fire that had consumed me for what seemed like multiple lifetimes or more faded into a dull throbbing, I regained feeling in my flesh, and slowly, ever so slowly, I was buoyed up to the real world once more.
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"Edward," was the first word that escaped my dry lips on the day that I could see again. I wanted so badly to feel the coldness of his arms against my face, his golden eyes shining into mine.
"Right here, Bella, sweetheart," came his smooth, rich voice, but I moaned, because it thundered painfully in my mind.
"Quieter," I gasped, and for some reason one of the vampires pressed cold hands to my ears.
I could see Edward's face, barely, and his lips were pursed, his eyes hard, his face drawn.
"What's wrong?" I asked, wishing he would smile for me. That would make everything better.
"Nothing, love. Go back to sleep. You'll feel better soon."
"I feel better now, Edward. Smile?" I whimpered, but he was gone. I crumpled, and sleep claimed me again.
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The next time I awoke, I did not go back to sleep. I couldn't, because deep down, burning in my throat, was a monstrous thirst. I rose from bed, strangely fast, and wondered at the new perspective. I was taller, I could feel thick, wiry muscles beneath my skin, heightened senses, and an overall freshness to my being. I jumped experimentally, and had to duck so as not to punch a hole in the roof of the room I was in. At first I had thought it was my own room at home, but after I moment I recognized it as Esme's study, where I had spent a day working on an essay when my computer at home had crashed.
"Edward?" I called, and instantly clamped my mouth shut, because my voice was extraordinarily loud, and vibrated excruciatingly in my ears. I called again, softer, "Edward? Alice?" What might have been a whisper was now a regular voice, and I marveled at all of the changes.
Three seconds later, far too quickly for a human being, Alice came dancing into the room, her eyes bright.
"Bella!" she cried, and clasped me into a hug. I flinched, used to bracing myself against the crushing force of the Cullen's hugs, but this time it was Alice who felt weak to me. I shifted, and she let go, gasping slightly. "You're stronger than I thought you would be! Carlisle said that you would be strong, being a newborn and all, but you could beat Emmett!" She smiled dazzlingly.
"Where's Edward?" I asked, happy as I was to see her.
She frowned, her lips pouting. "Hunting. He stayed up with you all four days, and he didn't want to be…thirsty when you woke up."
My heart stammered, but I smiled anyway, half-heartedly. "Charlie?" I asked, afraid of her answer.
Alice bent to inspect a particularly large scratch on the floor, and I watched her. Suddenly, staring at the gouge marks in the wood, it dawned on me. "Did I…did I do that to the floor?"
Alice nodded swiftly, but I caught the movement as easily as if I was watching a snail move. It surprised me. Usually Alice's quick little gestures were impossible for me to see.
"Charlie's worried, naturally," Alice muttered, straightening. "But we knew he would be. That's something you'll have to deal with yourself, Bella Swan."
From her expression, I knew that wasn't all. And I could guess at what else was one her mind.
"The wolves?"
Alice shook her head. "We don't know what they'll do…"
"Jacob?" I asked quietly, raising my hand to eye level. It was marble white, glistening like thousands of tiny diamonds in the electric light of the study.
"Outside."
Her answer surprised me, and my eyes snapped open wide. At that moment I happened to look into the mirror on Esme's wall, and staring back at me were a pair of wide, scarlet eyes, with white rims and a wild, crazed look. A feral yelp tore from my throat, loud and screeching. I looked some more, fingering my new face. I was beautiful, perhaps even lovelier than Rosalie herself. I had the same facial structure as before – high cheekbones, a small, delicate nose, but now they were more refined, and pale, snowy white. I had long, rich, flowing russet hair, and a thin, beautiful neck, with slender shoulders and taught muscles. I looked like a hybrid cross between a model, a gymnast, and an angel. I almost fainted, but the only thing keeping me in reality was the pair of ruby-red, staring eyes. I looked like a vampire. No surprises there.
"Alice?" I asked, a sudden, frightening thought coming to me as I turned away from my brand new reflection.
"Yes?" she answered, dropping from her seat on the desk.
"What about the Volturi?"
Luckily, her expression didn't darken. She shrugged, and replied, "They were at the door this morning, I assume they knew that Edward had bitten you as soon as they had arrived on the first day, and left us in peace because of it, and we explained it to them as best we could. One or two of their party were angry that we hadn't completely followed our bargain, but Aro agreed that as long as you had been bitten, it wouldn't matter. You hadn't told their secret to anyone, anyway. Aro asked to come inside, and he brought Jane…Edward was there with you…" she trailed off, looking past me at the wall.
"What happened?" I asked her. I knew it couldn't have been that bad, because I could tell that she was only thinking, not worrying.
"Edward got into a bit of a fight with Jane…."
I shuddered, remembering the last time that had happened. "And?"
"It was so weird…she was reaching out, just about to…to hurt him, and then she stopped. Just, stopped."
I frowned. "Why? She changed her mind?"
Alice shook her head innocently, "No. She was furious. And then you spoke up."
I raised my eyebrows, "I spoke up?"
"I guess you were almost finished with the process, and it was during one of your quiet times anyway, and you said, 'Don't hurt him, please.' And as soon as you were unconscious again Jane found that she was able to use her 'power'."
I stared at her, not understanding.
"Carlisle did some figuring, we all discussed it, and the only answer we could reach was, well…"
"What?" I insisted
"That's your special talent." Alice shrugged, looking just as bewildered as I felt.
"Mine? What is it?"
"Carlisle thinks that, since you're so rare in that neither Jane's, Edward's, or Aro's talents work on you, that when you were changed, that ability, like everything else, was magnified. So your talent is that you are able to shield others, as well as yourself, from other thought-related talents."
"Oh," I replied. I would have to think about it later. Right now, I wanted something to eat.
"Er, Alice…" I cautiously began, but she smiled and finished my sentence for me.
"You're starving, right? I knew you would be. We all did. Come and see, we have a present for you." I smiled nervously, and followed her as she dashed from the study.
At first I didn't think about, but as soon as we reached the door I realized that I had forgotten about Jacob. I almost stopped running, but something kept me going. Alice ran down the front step and took a flying leap onto the grass, running five times as fast as the average human. I kept up with her as easily as if we were shuffling slowly, and just to test things a little bit, set my own pace. I sprinted, my muscles flowing easily beneath my stone-like skin, and looked cautiously out onto the lawn. Jacob was not there.
Alice ran beside me for a while, and then she began to fall behind, and I laughed as I slowed to allow her to keep up. "This is great!" I cried, avoiding a tree, a log, soaring across a stream.
"I've always thought so too," she grinned, laughing along with me.
A minute later, Alice placed a hand on my shoulder and I shuddered to stop, momentum nearly toppling me headfirst over a cliff.
"A cliff?" I questioned her, smirking.
Alice smiled. "Look down." I complied, fearlessly stepping to the edge of the cliff. What might have given me a heart attack a few days ago now felt exhilarating and commonplace – I would have thrown myself off it without fear. Below me was a wide strip of beach, and directly underneath me was a corral. I know it sounds weird, but that's what it was, like a horse pen except, instead of horses, there were bears milling about in the fenced area.
I laughed, because for some reason, the thought of three or four angry black bears penned up on a beach was funny at the moment.
"Dinner is served," Alice said with a flourish.
"Thank you," I replied, equally as mocking of the strangeness of the statement. With a bound that no human could be capable of, I leaped from the cliff edge, falling swiftly, and landed with a great thud in the very center of the corral. I did not feel any pain, even when Alice landed directly on top of me. She let out a groan and toppled sideways, holding her knee. I stood quickly, worried, but she stood as well, and laughed.
"Time to eat?" She asked, gesturing at a small bear who sat warming itself in the corner. It noticed us and growled, but with a fierce smile, I pulled back my lips and uttered a brutal snarl in reply. The bear whimpered and fell silent. Alice laughed.
"How did you catch them all?" I asked, stretching out my arms and flexing my fingers to test my strength.
"Oh, Emmett and Jasper helped a bit. Once you teach them a lesson or two they're quite easy to manage." Alice flashed her razor sharp teeth menacingly, and I crouched down in reply, winking at her.
"Let's see what this thing can do," I muttered, knowingly perfectly well that she could hear me, though I attempted at speaking as quickly as she sometimes did. It didn't feel any different.
I singled out the bear that I had barked at, and circled it slowly, bending low with my arms outstretched. As a human I would have felt ridiculous in the position, my knees bent almost to squatting, my hands flat out before me, but knowing the damage that those hands could do, the strength in the muscles of those bent legs, I could only help but forget about looking ridiculous.
I suddenly saw my chance –the bear bent to sniff at the ground – and with a startling quick movement I thrust myself forward and slammed my rock-hard shoulder directly into the bear's neck. Again, from a human viewpoint it would have seemed like a vicious, gross action, but as I felt my quarry go limp beside me, I laughed. I heard a similar jarring crunch from my left, and saw that Alice had jumped up and landed squarely on her prey's back, crushing the bear to the ground before it could even emit a cry of surprise. I stepped back, surveying my kill.
Hardly knowing what I was doing, submitting entirely to instinct, I dropped to my knees beside the unmoving black bear, sniffing, inhaling its scent. And speedily, in a movement so inhuman it would be indiscernible to any man or woman, average or exceptional, I leaned forward, pressed my hands to the bear's neck, and brushed the hair from my face before tilting further and slicing into the skin with my dagger-like incisors.
The whole job was done in less than a minute, and when I stood up, even more energized and refreshed then before, I realized that Alice was still drinking. It was odd, finally watching what I had so long been curious about. But now, from my new point of view, it seemed as natural as breathing. Perhaps, in a vampire sense, it was even more natural.
"Done before me?" Alice questioned, and I realized that she was finished, and standing.
"You know, first is always the best."
Alice grimaced, her eyes twinkling. "I think the saying his 'first is the worst.'"
I dropped into a crouch, my lips instinctively pulling back into a very vampire-ish grin. "Shall we test that?" I hissed, clenching and unclenching my fists.
Alice threw back her head and laughed, then looked back at me and said softly, "Not now. First there's something you need to do now that you're fed."
I sighed. "Charlie?" My chest ached at the thought. What could I possibly say to him?
Alice nodded. "He needs to know, Bella. Even if you came up with an excuse not to seem him now, you can't disappear off the face of the earth."
I nodded, aware of the truth of what she said. "What…" I scratched my wrist, blinking. "What do you see?"
Alice's eyes glazed for a fleeting second, then she blinked and focused on me once more.
"You'll tell him what you are – everything. Beyond that, I can't see. Either somebody's got a whole lot of decision-making to do, or the dogs are involved."
"It might be that."
I almost fell over at the sound of those four words. They did not come out of my mouth, and I could easily see that Alice was as surprised as I was. And after a moment's thought, I realized why the voice sounded so familiar.
"Jacob Black, come out, come out wherever you are," I whispered, a shudder passing along my spine. What would Jake think?
I saw him a second later as he emerged from the trees down the length of the beach. I wouldn't have been able to see him earlier, but my eyesight had improved as much as my hearing and my reflexes.
He was wearing a pair of knee-length sweatpants with ragged edges – no shirt, no shoes. And he was shuddering uncontrollably.
"Bella," he murmured as he clambered over the fence and advanced toward Alice and me. Alice's face was as calm and serene as ever, but I could see the muscles in her neck tensing as Jacob strode ever closer.
"You're…different," Jacob said, a nervous laugh escaping his throat. He seemed to mean it as a joke. I didn't laugh, but ducked down and once again drove my hands out in front of me, sharp claws pointing directly at his chest. I could see myself, crouched like a wild animal, my eyes sharp and yellow now that I had fed, my unnaturally pale skin glittering, my teeth protruding from beneath red lips like tiny knife points. Jacob looked as scared of me as I used to be of James or Victoria.
"What do you want, Jacob?" I asked him quietly, sorrow filling my chest. I was more separate from him now then ever before. Now I wasn't just a friend of the 'bloodsuckers' – I was one. Can you get more distant than that?
"I just wanted to see you…" he glanced at Alice. She didn't move, and I didn't flinch. I could feel, deep inside me, the urge to spring on him, to fight him…to kill him. I suppressed it, not without difficulty, and clenched my fists. "I guess we aren't exactly friends any more, huh?" He sounded sad but resigned.
I nodded stiffly, unable to completely ignore the strong sense of aversion to his now nearly overpowering scent. I shook my head, trying to clear it from my nostrils, and realized that this was how the Cullens had always felt when they had had to put up with Jacob. I felt a little sympathy then, but that didn't change much.
"I'm not the same Bella I was, Jacob. I can't…go back to the way it used to be."
Jacob nodded. "You're right. You're definitely not the same Bella. Maybe someday we'll overcome our differences, right?" He smiled. I didn't, and with a rough sigh he turned his back to me and wandered away, into the trees. I stood up, slowly, and cast my amber gaze at Alice. She shrugged.
"As far as I know, we didn't break the treaty. It was in your defense, and on our land. The wolves haven't confronted us about it yet, though I'm sure the time will come, especially since Jacob's seen you with his own eyes." Alice jumped over the fence, and I followed.
"Which means that the whole pack has seen me?" I supplied, still slightly shaken by the experience.
Alice nodded, walking slowly (though my subconscious told me we were walking as fast as a human could run) down the beach. Gray waves splashed solemnly on the yellowish sand, reflecting the gloomy gray sky.
"We really should be seeing Charlie soon," Alice spoke up after a moment of casual silence. I nodded, apprehension obvious on my face. Alice led the way up a path from the beach, into the forest. I couldn't tell where we were, but even if we'd had a long way to go, it wouldn't take us long to reach my home. Correction: the Cullen's house was my home now.
"Charlie's inside – reading the newspaper, I think," Alice told me as we neared the house. I could see it peering thought he trees, and a millisecond later I was standing at the edge of the yard, hidden in the trees, my mind racing. I should tell him everything.
"Good luck, Bella. Remember, he's smarter than you sometimes give him credit for. And I don't know for sure if he'll recognize you, so just…be gentle. And please, try not to give away all of our secrets." I nodded to Alice, and in a few strides, I had reached the front door.
I hesitated just a little bit as I brought my hand up to the door to knock. What would I say? What would he think? Would he believe me? I heard a small movement inside, and waited, barely breathing, as footsteps approached the door. Luckily, he didn't ask who it was, just opened the door wide and looked out. Charlie froze, looking me up and down. If I had had a heart, it would have been hammering. I think I might have fainted.
"Hi, Charlie," I greeted him, making sure not to smile with my teeth. Charlie did not move, but continued looking me up and down. "It's…" I swallowed, clenching my fists. "It's Bella."
Charlie straightened, his face pale and drawn. "Bella?" he asked, his voice breaking slightly. The muscles in his neck flexed and his cheek twitched.
"Yeah, it's me," I replied quietly, aware of how different, how much more smooth and supple, my voice was. I blinked, self-conscious of my yellow eyes and marble pale skin. I could smell him just as strongly as I might smell a fresh dish of chick-noodle-soup, but I quickly stopped breathing, reducing the strength of the scent as it washed over me in waves.
"If it is you…" he began, then stopped to clear his throat. "It it's Bella, then what happened to you?"
I drew up my shoulders, bracing myself for what I would say, when suddenly a tiny gust of air behind me made me turn. The scent alerted me first, but I only recognized it when I saw him. Edward had detached himself from the shadows at the edge of the forest, and was striding towards me swiftly, as only a vampire could.
"Edward," I breathed, relaxing slightly. I could feel Charlie cough and splutter behind me. No doubt he saw the weird resemblance between my husband (which Charlie also didn't know about) and my new look.
"What's going on? Charlie gasped. The question was clearly directed at me, but Edward answered anyway in his velvety voice as he flowed up the steps to my side.
"Bella's been through quite a few changes lately, Charlie. I think we should sit down, and we'll explain." Edward's voice was soft, but there was a touch of angry force behind it.
"No!" Charlie raged. "I don't want you in my house!" Edward merely brushed past him effortlessly, stone muscles rippling beneath his impossibly pale skin, and pulled out two seats, indicating that I should take one. I did, gratefully sinking into the old kitchen chair. Charlie followed us into the kitchen, declining the chair that Edward proffered. "Tell me what's going on!" he shouted at me, his face turning purple with fury.
I stared at the grooves in the table, my stone skin prickling as I felt Charlie's gaze on me.
"Charlie," Edward began, still standing calmly, one hand lightly grasping my shoulder. "Can I ask you something?"
Charlie's eyes were wide and filled with anger, but deep down, as I searched them anxiously, I noticed a touch of fear, of sorrow even, in their depths. A wave of guilt swept over me, but as I looked down at the ground in shame, I could not help but glance at my glittering marble skin, and I smiled to myself, knowing that I had chosen the right path in my heart.
"Depends on the question," Charlie said gruffly, stiff and pale, but with crimson cheeks.
Edward gave a soft, artificial smile, like a doctor gives you when you ask him over and over if the shot is going to hurt, and tightened his grip on my arm. I expected it to be painful, but the realization came more naturally this time, knowing that never again would I have to be careful when around him.
"Charlie…" Edward found my eyes and we exchanged a knowing look, full of everything we had done together, and seen. I poured my love for him into that one look, and I knew that he felt me answer his unspoken question: "Is this what you want? Are you sure?"
"I'm sure," I replied wordlessly, giving him a tiny nod. Edward nodded in return, and in the space of a second, I knew all of a sudden what my future held for me.
"Charlie…" Edward began again, turning his gaze once more to Charlie's face. Charlie had not noticed our swift conversation, slow as it had seemed to me, and he was still glaring at Edward, his eyes flickering to me every so often in fear and disbelief.
"Charlie," Edward purred, and I noticed with a grim delight that his eyes sparkled and his laughing smile revealed razor sharp ivory fangs, "do you believe in vampires?"