A Night In the Hospital

I paced the small hospital cubicle, my nose wrinkled against the stench of blood and disinfectant and leech. Edward sat stony-faced in a chair next to Bella, who lay broken and unconscious under crinkly sheets. And it was all his fault.

"This wouldn't have happened if it'd been me," I growled.

"Go away, dog." Edward's voice was so quiet I could barely hear him. It was also full of menace, which I disregarded completely.

"If she hadn't been stupid enough to try and marry a bloodsucker"-I hissed the word, and Edward glanced at me with narrowed eyes-"this never would have happened." I spoke my anger, even though I knew he could already hear it.

"No, none of your brothers would ever do anything like this."

I cursed him under my breath and dropped down into the other chair in the room. Edward brushed his hand across Bella's lips; her heart rate kicked up on the monitor.

"So breakable…" he murmured.

"She's a little harder to break when you're not desperate to suck the life out of her every time you kiss her," I sneered.

His head turned and he shot me a revolted glare.

"Would you leave?"

"No, thanks."

"Why do you think she would even want you here?"

That remark, simple and stupid as it was, hit me like a slap in the face. My voice was low and furious when I spoke.

"She loves me."

The leech just chuckled, and turned back to Bella.

"Why do you think she's gonna give a damn about you when she wakes up? Can't even get to her own wedding without nearly getting killed," I spat.

He closed his eyes and took a deep, unnecessary breath. Then he opened them again, and a small, dangerous smile played across lips. His eyes met mine.

Then silently and ridiculously quickly, his hand was on my throat and his sickly sweet breath in my face.

"Well, atleast then I'd have a little less restriction from killing you," he growled.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on stopping the slide of fire down my spine, the heat on my tongue. After a moment the shaking had subsided somewhat, but the bloodsucker's death-pale hand was still on my throat.

My eyes opened in a fierce glare and met his. He looked amused now, under control.

"That was a close one, hmm?" he murmured.

"Get off of me," I snarled, twisting away, only to have his steely hands jerk me back against the wall. "Are you trying to make me reveal myself, and probably kill both you and Bella in the process? You idiotic, disgusting, wretched"—

And then he kissed me.

For the briefest instant, the leech Edward Cullen's lips were on mine, hard and cold and curious. When he pulled back, his face was pained, and yet the revulsion in his eyes mirrored mine. The leech whispered two words.

"So warm."

And then he vanished, leaving me gagging and trembling on the white, cold floor.

I was speeding along the wet road on my motorcycle, the wind cold in my hair. I needed to check on Bella, whether it was at the risk of being raped by a leech or not.

As I neared the border, a voice called coolly, "Treaty line rules are back in effect."

Just on the other side of the line stood the leech, relaxed and amused. I skidded my bike to a halt. Though he couldn't have missed the profanities I was screaming at him in my head, he chose to answer my second loudest thought.

"She's stable, but not awake yet," Edward said. "Carlisle thinks she should be soon."

I grunted and turned my bike around. "Tell her to call me when she wakes up."

"Jacob!" the leech called.

What the hell do you want?, was the first thought through my head.

"I wanted to apologize," the bloodsucker's voice said from behind me. "Perhaps it's just my…anxiousness for Bella taking a toll on me, but honestly, Jacob…if you were not a dog, and I not mostly straight…."

I snorted, disgusted and more than a little freaked out, and revved the engine. In an instant, Edward was in front of me, sickly white hands planted firmly on the motorcycle, preventing me from moving an inch.

"I'll run you down, leech," I threatened. "And anyway, Paul'll probably be on your tail in about a minute since you're on this side of the line—actually, stay awhile." I smirked.

The bloodsucker smiled slightly, too. He reached out and lay a freezing hand against my cheek. It repulsed me thoroughly, but somehow I couldn't pull away.

"Oh, Jacob," he murmured, eyes skimming down my face and bare chest. "I hate you just as much as you hate me, rest assured." The smile widened a bit, showing sharp, bright teeth. "But, if neither of us were what we were, and Bella did not exist…." He sighed, though a grimace contorted his face.

I revved the engine again.

Edward walked around the motorcycle, and too quickly for me to protest, took my face in his hands and kissed me very softly. Then I couldn't protest, because the kiss was so exactly the same as the last, sweet one I had shared with Bella a few months ago. When he pulled away to look at me, I tried to gather my wits and glared at him fiercely.

"Get out of my head," I growled, though my heart was thudding hard in my chest.

The bloodsucker laughed, hearing the surprise in my thoughts and my heart in my chest, and tried to pull me off the bike. I resisted and tried to pull away, but then again his lips were on mine, an exact replica of the shy and adorable way dear Bella kissed. My lips responded without another thought, and I couldn't even try to resist this time, as Edward pulled me into the dark, quiet forest.

I was against a tree and he was kissing me still, but now abandoning the deceiving technique that was all Bella's, and morphing into a harsher, faster kiss. Somehow, now that this was happening, even though Edward had come out of his masquerade, I couldn't refuse, and was kissing him fully back, reveling in the feeling of my hot lips warming his cold, his hands deliciously chilling my torso and back. His lips moved from my mouth to my jaw to my neck. I shivered instinctively, but again all thoughts of rebellion were pushed back as his sharp teeth gnawed lustily against my skin. He ran his teeth along my collarbone; I suppressed a moan. His hands slid down my chest to my thighs, tracing patterns with fingers icy cold enough to feel clearly through my jeans. He took his mouth from my neck and whispered raggedly in my ear.

"Just one night, Jacob, all I ask. I'll never be able to get away, or let myself away, from Bella once we're married"—it showed how deeply entranced I was that I didn't rip his throat out then and there—"and I just wanted to…see how it feels, I suppose. Opposites attract, no?"

And then his hand slid higher and he squeezed hard and I made a strangled noise between a gasp and a moan, and knew that as much as I loved Bella, and much as I hated him, this leech was something to be dazzled by.