Chapter 1: Temptation

A/N: I own nothing. Characters are all Stephenie Meyers' creations. Please take the time to leave some words if you really loved it or really hated it!

I know the title is about Bella (or at least it is for now) but the story is in Edward's POV (or at least it is for now). In case you are wondering about the title I got my inspiration for this piece (or at least the beginning of it) from the Kylie Minogue/Nick Cave song "Where the wild roses grow"

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I pulled up in front of the house that was nestled up against the forest. The small two-story, white house with a picturesque front garden. I knew whose house it was, and I knew what would happen when I went inside. What I didn't understand was what I was doing there. In my mind, I was racing to Alaska; racing to avoid the delicious, overpowering scent of that girl; racing to avoid falling prey to the monster within me. In my mind, that was the right thing to do. So why was I there? I put the car into drive and passed the house. It was not safe to park in front. Scratch that-it was not safe to be here at all. I had seen the vision Alice had of me visiting the small white house. I had seen the inevitable end that would come to the girl if I allowed myself to go inside.

I was in Carlisle's car; a black Mercedes, pretty noticeable in most places but more so in the sleepy town of Forks which was mostly occupied by ancient trucks and SUVs. No, it was too noticeable to park the car in front. I pushed my foot onto the accelerator, gunning for the interstate. I would run, Alice's vision had shown me that was possible. I would visit our relatives in Alaska. I would stay there for as long as needed. My decision was final. That is what I would do.

I didn't understand how I ended up on the back stoop of the house I had been fleeing from, but I knew Carlisle's car was safely hidden miles away with nothing to suggest a link to what was going to happen there. But nothing was going to happen there; I was determined I wouldn't be the monster. I wouldn't kill the girl; it would kill her father if I did. So why did I open the back door?

As I stepped into the house, I saw the scene from Alice's vision. The bright yellow cabinets and the girl, Isabella Swan-Bella she'd told everyone to call her-standing over the counter. I could hear the rise and fall of the knife as she prepared some trivial food, presumably for her father's evening meal.

So many parts of my brain were screaming at me, telling me this was not my decision. My decision was to go to Alaska. Even as she stood not three feet away from me my mind screamed my decision to leave. Leave now before...

Before, I thought sadly. Before I killed the innocent child before me. Before I destroyed her father's world. I almost left, I wanted to leave, but something compelled me forward. Some magnetic force drew me to this sweet-smelling girl.

I thought about the events of the day. It had started out so mind-numbingly boring, as everyday of high school did. Then she came, which ordinarily wouldn't have been a problem. Okay, new students were rare at Forks High School. In fact, my family were the last new students to have arrived and that was two years ago. But in and of itself the arrival of a new student was not a problem. The problem didn't even stem from her apparent silence to me. I was used to being able to read the thoughts of every person within a three mile radius, but even three feet away from her, I couldn't hear her. It aroused my curiosity even though there was no reason it should, but that wasn't the problem.

The problem was the scent of her blood. As I had discovered in biology earlier, her scent was the single most scintillating thing I had ever smelled. Even though I was currently not breathing, I could remember the scent as it danced on my tongue, igniting my throat with a sense of need. I closed my eyes and remembered the scent, not daring to trust myself to a fresh, concentrated dose of breathing it while she stood right in front of me.

It had been nearly seventy years since I last drank human blood. I was proud of that fact, my family was proud of me for that fact, and I was going to destroy that pride and their faith in me.

No! The rational part of my brain screamed in response. You don't have to. You can still leave. A few short years and she will leave to go to college and you will be free to resume what life you can.

My mind battled with itself as I watched the lithe figure of the girl in front of me, listening to Clare de Lune on her iPod. Her choice of music surprised me, not many girls her age appreciated the classics. That piece of information bought her a few precious seconds.

I stood entranced, watching the way her neck curved down delicately into her long spine. I longed to run my hand along that back and trace it up to her neck. Her neck, where I could see the pulse of the sweetest smelling blood I had ever encountered.

I had never known such a smell could exist. In the entire decade I allowed myself to hunt humans I had never once encountered anything with remotely the draw of it. If only I could taste it. Just a small taste. But who was I kidding? I knew if I stepped towards her, covering the mere three feet between us in fractions of a second, if I did that and pulled her throat to my mouth I wouldn't be able to stop. I continued to watch, my mind still made up. I would leave. Soon. I would go to Denali and stay with Tanya, and Kate, and their family.

It was easy to stay in control while I wasn't breathing. I was sure I was in control, I could leave anytime I wanted to.

I watched her long brown hair shimmy from side to side as she slid back and forth along the counter collecting and preparing all the ingredients she needed. There was something so graceful about her as she glided without moving her feet. Then she took one step in the direction of the refrigerator, tripped on nothing in particular and ended up colliding with it instead.

A small chuckle escaped my lips involuntarily.

It was the quietest of sounds but it was enough. The girl turned around, startled by my presence in her kitchen. She didn't cry out though, she just stared at me with those big brown doe eyes of hers. I found myself falling into the pools that existed deep within those eyes. The magnet started on me again and I found myself unwillingly closing the distance, one painfully slow step at a time.

She looked at me, confused. So she had seen the murderous glares I had sent her way earlier. Perhaps my coming here was the right thing to do. Perhaps I would save my family from a premature exit. This girl would gossip about us, which would risk stirring up memories or stories that were better off forgotten. If she simply vanished there would be nothing to link her to us. We could stay here. It would be as if she had never arrived.

I knew I was just trying to find false justification for killing this girl. As I looked into her eyes, I felt my face soften. I was silently pleading for her to understand. I didn't want to do this, but I had to. I had to know the sensation of her blood in my throat. I couldn't live another minute without satisfying that craving, the urge, the magnetic pull that it had for me.

I had closed the distance between us and reached my arms out for her, grabbing her shoulders gently. She still hadn't made any move to cry out or fought me off in any way, as useless as that effort would have been. Still, her silence and stillness felt like an approval for what I was doing. Maybe she realised the impossibility of her situation and relented. The movement towards her felt almost sensual, like a seduction rather than a feast.

I stared into her eyes, then took in every detail of her face. Her lips were blood red, the same colour as wild roses and a further reminder of the blood running underneath her nearly translucent skin. I don't know why I did it but a strange compulsion drove me and I pressed my lips to hers gently, barely grazing the surface. I pulled back from her and noticed a single tear running down her face. I wiped it carefully with my thumb. A blush rose over her face, the pooling of blood was the final straw for me. I pulled her close to me again, this time crushing my face into her neck and taking a deep breath.

A whimper of pleasure issued from this doe eyed beauty as she felt my breath against her neck. Then another whimper, this time of pain, as she felt my teeth penetrate the soft skin and the gentle tug as I drank the sweet nectar contained within.

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I fell in front of Carlisle's car, tearless sobs racking my whole body. I couldn't understand what just happened. I played the scene over and over in my head. I could still feel her in my arms, still smell the delicious scent that surrounded her. And the taste! Part of me was whispering that I had been right to take that part of her into me, that it would have haunted my days if I had never tasted it but I wondered how accurate that part was. After tasting the most divine flavour in the world, how can you give it up? How could I possibly go back to hunting deer after that sensation? I knew I had lost my grip on my self-control. The worst part was I couldn't even go face my family and get their support. My red eyes burned back at me from my reflection on every surface of the black car, evidence of my betrayal.

What scared me the most of the whole event was not being able to finish. Usually once the bloodlust has taken hold, there is nothing that can stop it but I just couldn't draw the last of the blood before I ran away. Something inside me snapped halfway through and I dropped the crumpled heap that used to be Bella Swan on the ground. I didn't even consider the consequences as I fled from the house. I would have to go back of course. Make sure there was nothing left there to link me or my family to her disappearance. I would have to clean up and dispose of the evidence. Destroy the evidence, our fundamental rule.

I considered the consequences of my action. The treaty with the Quileutes would be dead. I had broken the cardinal rule there, in the worst possible way – killing a human. At least none of the dogs were around anymore protecting them. We had made sure of that before we moved to Forks.

I tried not to picture the doe-eyed beauty or what I had done to her, but images came uncalled for. I thought about the riddle that had been her thoughts, how had she kept them so well hidden. I knew it didn't matter, there was nothing I could do to figure it out now. Another sob escaped my lips.

I felt like I would be sick over what I had done, but the taste kept ringing on my tongue, assaulting my senses. Oh God the taste! What I wouldn't do for someone else who smelled like that and who tasted like that. I would hunt the entire earth to find it again if I thought I could, and yet I had wasted it. I hadn't even finished. Bella Swan was dead and I wasn't even satisfied.

I knew her father would take the loss of his daughter hard. I could also hear the rumours that would start to circulate about him - Police Chief Swan, protector of Forks but unable to protect his own daughter. Perhaps if I could fake a runaway. After all, how much could she have meant to Chief Swan if she only moved back recently. She seemed unhappy today, although not knowing her thoughts did make that difficult to know for sure.

I tried to console myself with the knowledge that Chief Swan would be fine eventually. After all, he was human; human memories fade. He would get past this and move on. I felt an irritating buzz from my pocket. I pulled out my cell phone and checked the caller ID.

"Alice." I sobbed.

"Edward. I saw. I was too late to change anything but I saw. Jasper and I will clean this up. You do what you need to do."

"Don't tell Carlisle. Please." My voice was a hoarse whisper in my shame.

"I won't Edward, but you know he will figure it out."

I nodded numbly, not able to form complete words. I clicked the phone shut without any further conversation and slide into the driver's seat of the car, refusing to look at myself in any of the mirrors. I would drive without them, I didn't need to see the monster staring back at me with his burning red eyes. I started the car and drove, with no specific destination in mind.