Alice saw it before it happened. There were two distinct timelines; one where her brother risked everything for a girl he barely knew, and one in which that same girl would take her last breath in this rain-soaked parking lot. Alice was determined not to influence this choice or to let any of the others see her golden brown eyes go wide as the vision overcame her. She stood perfectly still, allowing the wave of voices, images, emotions, and the scent of human blood to crash on top of her. She felt Jasper grab her hand and squeeze it, and she ran her thumb over his, trying to reassure him. Jasper relaxed his grip, but at the same time she felt her body release the tension it had been holding, and knew that he had used his pathokinesis to take away the sickening feeling that always followed her visions. She should have known he would have been able to see right through her. They had a deep, unbreakable bond, and she realized he probably picked up on the nature of the vision already.
She looked up at him, finally able to take in his face after the last images of death had left her eyes, and saw he was looking at the girl, a grimace fixed on his pale, unblemished face. The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, not actually knowing if he was upset about what was going to happen, or if he was choking down a bloodlust that he was still struggling to control. The wind was blowing slightly, and she herself could smell the new girl; a delicious, intoxicating aroma that had to be sending Jasper's mind into overdrive. She was proud of him for his control, but getting more and more worried about the aftermath of what was going to happen next. If that girl's blood spilled, she wasn't sure if he could still stand so stoic, so silent. They had all eaten recently, but the call of human blood (especially one so pungent) would never be able to go unanswered in some way. If she had breath left in her lungs, she would sigh now. Jasper's power was numbing her senses, and she closed her eyes in relief.
Jasper could smell her. This small, timid girl who held her shoulders even higher than he did, who had captured the attention of his newfound brother, who was a new, shiny toy to all of the brainless boys he shared this school with. They didn't care that their attention made her uncomfortable. He felt her anxiety and fear bubbling under her skin. He felt the excitement and thrill of the hunt from the boys; dogs tired of chasing the same rabbits they'd been unable to catch for years. If only they knew how uninterested she was, how every joke, every question about herself or the weather pushed her farther and farther away. She felt things so strongly that no matter how he tried to ignore her, she pushed into his mind like a battering ram beating down a castle door. He felt her fascination and her desire when he and his family walked into the lunchroom her first day. He smelled her then too, and had stiffened under Alice's grip. She threw him a bemused smile, and distracted him by twirling herself with his hand. It diverted his focus long enough for him to sit at their table, where he had to struggle to remember to make his chest rise and fall to resemble breathing while attempting to ignore that DAMN smell and feeling the girl's confusion over Edward.
Jasper shot a glance at him, and felt his hunger; his thirst. He knew Edward must smell her too. Even in this crowded parking lot, it was overwhelming. He suddenly realized Alice had gone still beside him, and that was unlike her. She was in every way his direct opposite; bubbly, outgoing, and talkative to the point of annoyance for most of their clan. But not for Jasper. He reveled in listening to her chatter, knowing she didn't expect him to do anything but be there. He loved her deeply, and if there was anything that caused him greater pain than fighting his inner beast, it was the toll her visions took on her. He could smell the fear dripping off of her, and took her hand. He couldn't read thoughts like Edward could, but he was an empath. He surmised that something bad was on the way, and as Alice's unblinking stare was fixed on the old orange truck and its owner, he knew just who she was seeing in her mind's eye. He sent a thread of calming energy to his mate, readying them for whatever was to come. He cut his eyes to Edward suddenly, standing on the other side of the Volvo. He too was staring at the girl.
Edward had never felt this way before. He had nothing but disinterest for the girls he went to school with, and was usually able to control his thirst around them, even when it had been so long since he'd eaten that his eyes took on the color of an eclipse. A week ago in the cafeteria, and then again in biology class, he had been so sincerely close to losing himself that he had tried anything to get away from this girl. Bella. The smell of her catapulted all of his senses into overdrive. He wanted her, badly. She looked at him with this unreadable intensity, and when he tried to probe her mind, he found a wall as strong as steel holding him back. She was driving him mad, and he had to escape. He took a few days off of school to eat, to think, and to talk to Carlisle. He told Edward to stay away from her. He told him to switch seats with someone in biology. Anything he could do to cut down on any provocations caused by this girl, Bella, the better. They couldn't afford to leave right now. There were deaths happening all around them, and if anything happened to Bella because of Edward, they risked being found out. Edward had set out to follow Carlisle's advice, he really had. But he couldn't stand hearing silence from her mind as everyone else's was screaming at him. She was an enigma, a puzzle that he couldn't leave without finishing. So, he took his seat in biology, and that was that. She was beautiful. She was funny. She was— different. Edward felt something stir within him, and it wasn't the thirst he had lived with for centuries now.
He was looking at her now, watching her with the same intensity as a hawk watches a field mouse. He was so consumed in his own thoughts, trying to piece this girl together in his head, that he almost didn't hear the screeching of tires on the far end of the parking lot. He was incredibly fast, but he felt like he was moving underwater as he turned his head to see Tyler's black van hydroplaning into the lot. A car of the same shade tried to back out, noticing the van careening towards the end of the vehicle just in time. The driver slammed on their brakes, and blared their horn in warning. Edward followed the motion of the van, seeing where it would end its journey in one swift, gut wrenching moment. His eyes snapped back to Bella, who had obviously came to the same realization. Her face was a mask of pure terror, and he felt his heart drop. He heard Rosalie and Emmett's voices behind him, but couldn't make out the words. Edward could hear Tyler praying in his head. Begging his god to let the car stop, to spare Bella, to just let him live and he would be a saint for the rest of his life. Edward didn't consider himself a god, but he sure as hell was going to answer Tyler. He knew what consequences this might have for his family, be he couldn't stop himself from taking a step forward.
Rosalie was bored. She was in high school for the umpteenth time, and though there were all new people with new names and faces, they were all the same underneath. Shallow, mortal, and boring. And then, there was the girl. She seemed to have an effect on all of her family. There was an odor to her; sweet like honeysuckles in spring. It pissed her off. As bored as she was, it was a comfortable sort of boredom; one that she knew would keep her clan safe. This girl threw a wrench into the gears, and she did not like the way she stared at them as if they were science experiments, and she especially did not like the way she stared at Edward, unflinching and curious. She knew Edward was interested in her too; she saw him follow her out of biology class, begging for her life story like a dog desperate for a treat. It was disgusting. She felt as though her whole family was staring at the girl now, even Emmett, who was standing beside her smiling his goofy smile.
All of the sudden, the sky filled with a strange sort of foreboding. The wind was called away, the rain had stopped, and the only smell in the air was burning rubber. The van came into the lot like a bat out of hell, trailed by smoke and echoed screams. She lazily traced its path, but snapped to attention when she saw there was one person, just one, who was in danger. She felt Edward move before she saw it, and Emmett's voiced chorused with her own as they shouted at their brother to stop. She reached out a hand, flailing to grab her brother's arm. She made contact, balling up his gray jacket in her hand and yanking him backwards before he could find traction on the ground to run towards the girl. She flung him at Emmett, who locked him into the prison of his arms, looking at his brother apologetically. She heard the impact behind her, and almost immediately after, a piercing and monstrous keening lifted out of Edward's mouth. Confusion filled Emmett's face, and he brought his eyes to Rosalie's, who knew the sound. She knew something had broken in him, and felt instant regret. She saved her family, but did she kill her brother in its place? Was this girl more to him than she thought?
Bella was overwhelmed. This move had been the hardest thing she had ever done, and it hadn't gotten any easier in her short time in Forks. Her classmates were insistent on making her their new best friend, their girlfriend, their front page story. But she wasn't interested in any of that. In fact, she wished she could be invisible. After that first day, when the boy in her biology class had acted like she had been sprayed by 25 skunks at once and then requested that he be taken out of her class, she had been mortified. What kind of cruel joke was he pulling? She was glad when he had disappeared for a few days after that, but felt a small longing inside of her to see his face again. She had asked Mr. Molina to give her seat to someone else, but he was a firm believer in assigned seating, and if he did it for her, he would have to change everyone until they were sitting next to their best friends. So she was stuck. When Edward returned, however, he was jovial, and they fell into conversation like old friends, and by the time she left the school building, her mind was suffering whiplash from the complete 180 he had made.
She was in a daze, collecting her things to begin the trek home, when she saw the van. She heard a flurry of voices, all of whom had realized her fate before she did. Looking around, she caught Edward's eyes, and his golden brown irises were shining and his mouth was twisted in a scowl, and he moved. She felt a gust of air hit her, and turned. The van was sideways now, as if Tyler had made an attempt to turn the vehicle away from hitting her head on. It was still on course to collide with her, sure to sandwich her between the orange metal of her truck and the black abyss of Tyler's van. There was nothing that she could do, nowhere that she could run. This was it. Her mother would be devastated, and her dad would never able to live with himself. She cried then, not for herself, but for her family. She surrendered, closing her eyes and setting her jaw, feeling the wind get knocked out of her and her head smacking something hard, and then she could feel nothing at all.
Carlisle was at the hospital when it happened. He was checking on a comatose patient's vitals when he felt the telltale rush of wind that followed their kind's velocity. He turned around, a smile growing on his face, happy for a surprise visit from one of his clan. The joy was short lived, however. He smelled it before he saw it. The overwhelming scent of free flowing human blood. That sickly sweet, tantalizing smell. It turned his spine to stone when he finally faced Edward, carrying a girl. The girl. Bella. Her limbs were limp, some hanging in the wrong direction. Her head lolled back across Edward's forearm, eyes closed and mouth agape. Carlisle would have thought she were dead, except for the slight movement in her chest. He met Edward's eyes then, and they were full of pain and fury.
"Save her, Carlisle. Please."
Bella's vision came and went, like she were looking at the world through a strobe light. She saw Edward's face, eyes wet and gaunt, before her own, mouth moving but accompanied by no sound, at least none that she could hear. Then she saw a very blonde, very handsome man in white take his place, and he shined a light into her eyes, looking grim. Was he a doctor? Was this a hospital? He moved out of view, and Bella tried to follow him with her head, but found herself rooted to the spot; and it sent a shockwave of pain through her spine. Everything came back at once then. Sound, pain, memories. The crash. She was dying. She knew it. She panicked, breath hitching, lungs refusing to fill with air. Suddenly, her dad was in front of her, touching her face. She caught her breath, but it was shallow now. Too shallow. Her dad stood, removing his touch. She noticed his hand came away red. He spoke then, looking at the doctor.
"Do it. If it will save her, please do it. She's all I have."
She heard the man's calm and calculated answer follow.
"She's going to be much different, at first. We can help her; teach her, but just know that you may never get your child back as you know her. She won't age. Her heart will no longer beat. Her consciousness and a need unlike any other will be all that's left. I can't even guarantee the person she is right now will survive. Do you understand this?"
She didn't catch a reply, but a choked sob loosened itself from her dad's throat. She heard the doctor sigh.
"You should know; this is not the norm for us. I don't particularly like to share our plight with others. You never quite know how it will turn out. All of my family members were alone when they were turned. They were sick, and dying, and truth be told, forever is a long time, Mr. Swan. I was asked by a mother a very long time ago to do the same thing you're asking of me now. Edward's mother. Then I met Esme, and there was a— bond between us. We found Rosalie, and had hoped Edward would find that same bond with her. Without telling you my whole family history, because we are running out of time, I would like to summarize by saying Edward has never felt that pull towards anyone, until your daughter. I can't say that I know if these feelings are reciprocated, however, because your daughter has an uncanny ability to block certain— talents that we posses. All this to say, no matter what, she will be taken care of. She is like family, as far as I am concerned, and will be treated as such whether she accepts this bond with Edward or not. She will be unable to come back to you for a time. I am relying on you for a cover story. It could be years before she is able to be introduced back into civilized society."
Bella felt a hand grab hers, and her dad bent down to kiss her forehead. He tried his best to smile at her, but it came out as more of a scowl.
"I love you so much, Bells. Dr. Cullen is going to help you."
He opened his mouth to continue, but all that came out was a wheeze, and he clapped his hand over his mouth and sucked in a shuddering breath. She watched as Dr. Cullen put his hands gently on her dad's shoulders and led him towards the door, murmuring things that were too low for her to comprehend. Edward knelt down by her side then, seemingly coming out of thin air. She didn't even know he was still in the room. He took her arm in his hands and whispered to her.
"I'm so sorry, Bella."
Edward bit down gently into her skin, teeth sliding effortlessly under the tissue and into her veins, letting loose a poison that he knew would course through her slowly, burning her from the inside until she was little more than a shell filled with nothing but the thirst. He kept his tongue on the roof of his mouth, trying desperately to keep as much of her blood as possible from getting into his mouth. He wasn't sure what would happen if he began to drink. She had a sort of power over him, something primal, and he could not see her destroyed any more than she already was, especially not at his hands. He hated himself for allowing her to get hurt, for ending the life she could have had. He was selfish. He should have let her die there in the parking lot, but he wasn't strong enough for that. He knew if he took her to Carlisle, he would save her without question. He was glad they had found her father so quickly and that they had confused their secret to him. It comforted him to know that he wasn't the only one counting on Bella's survival, in any way possible.
At that thought, she was suddenly convulsing, changing. Carlisle appeared back in the room, grabbing her feet as Edward tightened his grip on her arms, feeling the warmth being sucked out of her. Froth formed at the edges of her mouth, and Edward screwed his eyes shut, cursing himself for his cowardice. The shaking stopped, and he opened them again to see her bones resetting themselves. Her cuts, bruises, and blemishes smoothed, returning itself to her beautiful porcelain complexion. She sat up in a quick, imperceptible motion; opening her eyes. They were the color of unfinished rubies; a dark red that gave away the predator that lay sleeping inside that beautiful prison. She looked at Carlisle, then Edward, brows furrowed and nostrils flaring. She snarled, a low, predatory sound.
"What did you do to me?"