Disclaimer: Characters are borrowed for funs.
Bella is OOC and immortal in the least glamorous of ways. Rest of characters are more or less canon. Hope you like it!
Before he reached the house he could feel the wrongness. The stillness, the smell of death, and the mangled rush of his family's thoughts into jumbled words, panics and names. His own being one of the majors tossed about in old minds. 'Edward's here. What will he say? How do I explain this? Stop thinking!' It was Alice. She was always panicking but it wasn't like her not to know what to do. And then he heard the other name, whispered in other minds that all seemed to be standing in the dining room. 'Bella.'
He stopped near the front door when he heard that name, when he breathed deep that heavy stench of death that lingered in the once safe walls of his home. If his heart beat it might have stopped. A second later he was standing in the dining room. He had wanted to stay calm, wanted not to care, but there she was- or what was left of her- laid out on the dining table. Of all the places, how could they put her there?
"What have you done?" He hissed, not even sure who it was aimed at. Her dark hair was tangled in filth, her face bloody and distorted by swollen flesh and mashed bones. Her lips were parted, blood crusted in their corners. There was no heartbeat, no breath, no warmth. Her arm was broken, bent grotesquely and leaving her pale hand to dangle off the edge of the large table. Her clothes were torn and he could tell where they had been pulled into place again to cover the parts of her that should never have been exposed. There was some awful relief beneath the wave of crippling rage. It wasn't his family. Edward could have understood with time if one of his clan had slipped up and she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, if they had drained her of blood and life. But his brother's would never have raped her, would never have beaten her with such brutality.
"We found her." Alice spoke, he wasn't even sure whether it was aloud or in her thoughts. "I saw it but it was too late."
He stood tense as he listened carefully. Four men, gone by the time she and Jasper reached the spot. "Why would you see her future anyway?" Edward tried to sound cold, but his voice begged to break either with rage or misery.
"I was keeping an eye on her." Alice admitted, sounding ashamed of her obvious failure. "She was important to you."
His chest hurt at the sadness in her voice and now more than ever she was his sister. "I didn't even know her."
"You watched her at school." Alice persisted, Jasper rubbing her arm gently either to sooth her or keep her from approaching her brother. "We've all noticed. You even took that art class just to be closer, just to watch her longer."
His jaw ticked, but he wouldn't admit it. If he hadn't been willing before, he certainly wasn't going to say it now. Carlisle was standing nearest to the table but on the other side, his eyes downcast and his face grave. Esme looked like she was going to cry, pressed into the corner of the kitchen and watching him. "Where are Em and Rosalie?" Edward spoke but he was still staring at the girl on the table.
"Hunting the men that did this." Jasper said quietly, he was standing close to his wife and just barely blocking her from Edward in case things turned ugly. Sometimes it was hurtful that Jasper still couldn't always trust them, but on nights like this he understood why.
"They won't do anything unless you say so." Carlisle added.
Edward forced himself to harden like the stone he was. "What do I care?" He shook his head when Carlisle started to walk toward him, concern etched across his perfect features. "I didn't know her. Tell them to leave the humans and come home." He shivered as he forced himself to turn away from the table, from her body. His lips curled as he hissed at Alice. "Why would you bring the body here? You know what will happen if they find us with it!" It was so much easier to be angry.
Jasper bared his teeth, sliding easily into that space between his brother and his wife. Alice was grabbing at his shoulder to glare pleadingly at Edward. "I didn't think you'd want me to leave her there like that on some dirt road. I thought you'd want to see her, say goodbye, something…"
"You thought wrong, Alice." He hissed before walking away. His legs had never wanted to buckle more, but he made it out of the house. It wasn't true, that he didn't know Bella, he knew her plenty- it was just that she had never known him. He knew the way she shied away from large groups, how she would lose time when painting in those dingy art classes, how she smiled during a thunder storm but sulked when it was too windy. He knew how she wished that she could play the piano, how she would sit at the shabby one in the music room when no one was around and place her fingers on the keys- how her headphones would fill her head with the sound of the notes but she would never bring herself to press down.
He had watched and dreamed in a way that he never had before, but he knew his rule well enough to leave it at that. No humans. He couldn't do that to another person, couldn't be the cause of that misery whether it was the death or the longing to be.
From his distance in the trees he saw Emmett and Rosalie arrive home. Both paused at the front door, looking back at him. He listened and heard the names of scumbags unfold in Emmett's head, along with street names and an address. It was a small blessing to be understood by his family in the case of Em, and a curse in the case of Alice.
He took off into the forest, the image of her ruined body dancing in his head just beside those sweet ones of her fingers hovering over tarnished keys. How long had it been since he killed someone? Would they still have her stolen scent on them? Would he feel any better after they were dead?
Alice sighed and stared at the body on the table. She had had such hopes for her, for the happiness of her brother.
"What should we do with her?" Esme whispered.
Carlisle reached out for his wife and ushered her toward the stairs. "Leave her here for now. I have a feeling he'll want to say goodbye when he's alone. We'll deal with the rest in the morning."
Darkness only got darker as evening set into midnight. Lightning streaked the sky as though to give desperate shreds of light to the black. When thunder cracked, the body on the table convulsed. But no one was around to see it. Rain was pouring down outside when Bella's eyes burst open. Bruises had already faded, along with scrapes and cuts. She saw the strange ceiling, the odd walls and tall windows. Her ribs cracked back into their rightful places, forcing her to bite back a scream as she rolled off of the table. A dining room table. Bella shuddered at the idea, gasping when her knees and palms hit the floor. One of her arms gave way with the sickly snapping of already cracked bones.
She screamed. She hadn't meant to, hadn't really been able to think. But then there she was, faster than any human could be- Rosalie. Bella looked up, lips still blood crusted and parted to swallow at air, tears streaming down her face. The blond that stood over her looked completely horrified, and sadly, horror of any kind came wrapped in anger for that particular vampire.
"What are you?" Rose snarled, shoulders drawn back as she looked at the girl on the floor with sharp eyes.
"Babe?" Emmett had come into the room, his body lurching to a stop as he too saw the now living girl. "What the-"
Bella sucked a breath and forced herself to her feet, lunging for the backdoor. Rose hissed, too fast for her, those perfect cold fingers wrapping around Bella's neck and slamming her back against one of the tall windows. It cracked, spider webs running along the entire panel. "What are you?" The blond shouted this time and Bella could feel others moving in the house. That was when she realized fully whose house she was in. Tears streaked down her face as she gasped for air around that tight grip. It was her own fault for not running when she had the chance, before they found out what she was. She had known what they were, had known to keep her distance.
"Rose!" Esme screamed.
Emmett was beside the blond, his hand on her outstretched arm but he wasn't looking at the oddity pinned to the glass, no, his gaze was only for his wife. "Baby." He whispered, desperate to calm her. "Let her go."
"What is she?" Rosalie jerked Bella forward, the toes of her shoes scraping the floor. "What are you?" The blonde hissed in her face.
Bella shivered, it wasn't the first time she'd been captured by vampires. "I'm alive." She couldn't help herself, the words came up through the gravel of her throat, her eyes wild with pain. "What are you?"
It was a taunt, meant to dig deep. She couldn't say she was entirely surprised when the blond goddess slammed her to the glass again, this time the window shattered, throwing her body out into the rain. She rolled across the grass, over the yard and landed in a heap near the edge of the forest.
"Rosalie!" Esme cried, grabbing onto the blond before she could charge out into the rain.
Bella lay in the grass for the beat of thunder and then forced herself upright again. It was pointless running from vampires, she knew that. Even when she wasn't half dead, she was faster than a human, but never faster than a vampire. They always found her. Always. And always she would run anyway. She was in the midst of trees when the bone in her arm started cracking back into place, sending screams from her throat and forcing her knees to buckle in the mud.
A leg hit her back, pushing her down flat before a hand rolled her over. The blond was straddling her suddenly, rage and rain still painting that face. Bella could hear others shouting at the vampire, but all she could watch was that fist rearing back, sharp knuckles aimed at her face. The same question poured from her lips and Bella shivered in the mud. All she could hope was that that fist could do the job, could finally put her down- but she knew it wouldn't, none before it ever had.
She didn't close her eyes when it fell, wanting to see this one coming because she was sure it'd kill her at least for a while. A hand came from nowhere and caught that seemingly delicate arm. The blond hissed but was pulled up from the ground and thrown to the side all too easily. Bella stared in shock as he stepped over her with one leg and roared at the other woman, the sound breaking through the forest like another roll of thunder. She blinked up through the rain to look at him, her heart pounding against the cage of her chest until her ribs ached.
Edward looked down at her, surprise and confusion playing across his features. She hadn't been turned. Just as surely as she had been dead hours ago, she was now alive. He watched the smallest miserable smile crawl over her lips before her eyes closed and her body collapsed into unconsciousness.
Alice and Jasper were waiting at the house when he carried her back, Esme following him from the yard and Emmett stayed in the woods to work his wife through her temper.
"How is this possible?" He whispered as he stepped back into the house.
Alice looked just as mesmerized as her mate, both staring at the girl in his arms. "I don't know." He heard their fruitless thoughts.
"I'm calling Carlisle." Esme said in a hushed tone as she went to the phone. He had left to take care of an emergency patient only an hour before. "Take her to the office. Alice, honey, clean her up."
He tensed when Alice stepped up to take the girl from his arms and instead of handing her over, he walked to the office, knowing that his sister would have to follow. The body he held was human, he was sure of it, it felt fragile and he could hear her pulse flowing to the rhythm of her heart. But it wasn't possible. Eventually Alice talked him into setting her down and leaving the room but he didn't go far- lingering in the main hall all night and exchanging brief words with his adoptive father as the man rushed home.
Bella woke with a start, but this time without the lightning or the pain. She stared at a different ceiling, florescent lights glaring with the sort of intensity only ever found in doctor's offices or dentists. She sat up slowly. Her hair was wet and she was wearing scrubs. Had someone bathed her? She shuddered at the idea, swinging her legs over the edge of the exam table. It was a doctor's office, a private one from what she could tell.
When she noticed Dr. Cullen sitting off to the side at the desk, looking over papers with a scrunched face, she sucked a breath and remembered where she was and who had found her out. He sat back and looked at her, as though they had been in the midst of a deep conversation. "You seem to be in perfect health, Miss Swan."
She shivered but stayed where she was, sitting on the exam bed. He stood and she tightened her grip on the edge of the bed. She wanted to look for a door but couldn't bear the thought of looking away as he approached. "You could say that."
"I have a few questions, I hope you won't mind if I ask."
Bella sat rigid. Did she have a choice?
Edward was standing in the living room, staring down the corridor toward the office door.
"How could you not know there was something wrong with her?" Rose was standing nearest the stairs, Emmett looking tired but patient nearby. "Couldn't you hear her thoughts? All that time you spent staring at her and you couldn't bother to listen in a little?" She was still raging through her hush.
He understood her panic. Rosalie never liked being surprised and if she thought her family was threatened she was first to defend. They were usually good qualities.
"Can't you hear her thoughts?" Alice whispered, finding a kinder way to phrase her sister's inquiry.
"Of course." He stared at the hall and sighed. "Sometimes." Edward amended and felt his family staring at him. "I just thought she was quiet or…"
"Crazy?" Rose snapped.
Esme sighed.
"Jazz, can you still feel her?" Edward asked softly, the blond man was standing nearby at the gape of the hall, but with his back to it.
"Yes." He offered. "She isn't as afraid anymore, but there's something… defeated, about it."
"Is there anything different about her?" Alice asked her mate.
He hesitated and then answered carefully. "If I don't reach out, I can't feel her at all." Jasper admitted uneasily. "I should have noticed before but... I just thought she was calm."
Rosalie scoffed and Esme finally stood with a growl. "I think we're going to alarm her if we're crowding her like this. You two go upstairs." She waved off Rose and Emmett. It took some arguing but eventually the blond stormed off, her mate in her wake.
They all tensed when the office door opened and Carlisle slipped out, joining them in the living room. "Alice, can you get her some of your clothes. I don't want to send her home in scrubs."
The dark haired woman nodded and vanished.
"What is she?" Esme asked quietly, as though the question might be rude.
Carlisle took a moment to organize his thoughts and it was all Edward needed to shift uneasily. "She's immortal. But she doesn't need to feed, isn't dead at all."
Esme looked astonished. "How could we not have seen one like her before?"
"I wasn't even sure they really existed. The Volturi spoke of them, said they were the best of companions for vampires because…" His thoughts trailed and Edward curled his lips with a snarl and finished his father's sentence. "Because they're an endless fountain."
"But they were only a fairytale, a dream of theirs. I never thought they were real." Carlisle sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Alice passed them as she returned to the office with an armful of clothing, including shoes.
"She's getting anxious again." Jasper whispered before shivering, his back tight to the wall as he looked around.
Edward moved closer to his brother. "What is it?"
"Trapped. I feel trapped." Jasper hissed as though he had been the one cornered. "She feels like we've caught her."
Esme moved closer to her husband, looking at him with those pleading eyes of hers, begging him to make it right. Carlisle stroked her cheek gently. "Alright. It's been a long night. Edward, can you drive her home?"
Edward turned around to look at his father. "But she knows what we are-"
"And we know what she is." Carlisle said with his unwavering calm. "Take her home, son?"
She thought it was a cruel trick when she got into the car, but soon enough he was sitting in the driver's seat and they were speeding through the night that edged on morning. It felt like hours that they didn't speak, her hand came up to stifle a yawn.
Edward glanced at her curiously, though his face wouldn't have given it away. "Do you sleep?"
Bella tensed when he spoke, focusing her eyes ahead on the road. "Sometimes."
"How old are you?" He asked, the speed of the car slowing to make her even more uneasy.
"Seventeen." She said. 'Seventy-two' slipped across her usually quiet thoughts.
He stroked the steering wheel with his thumb. "You live with your father?"
"Adoptive." She tensed and looked at him, her eyes wider. "He doesn't know. You don't have to…" Bella swallowed hard and forced her gaze forward again. "He doesn't know."
"What do you do when they realize you don't age?" Edward continued to probe, hopeful that more revealing truths would slip through her thoughts, though they seemed carefully quiet.
She didn't answer right away, seeming to be trying to decide whether or not to lie. "I usually get placed in a family and say that I'm fifteen. It gives me two or three years with them, and then I can pull a few on my own. Eventually I go to another State and start over again."
"How many times have you died?"
Bella smiled before she could help herself. "Today?" She joked but as soon as she realized that she had, her smile quickly vanished. "A few times, I guess." 'Too many.'
"You don't know the number?" He tried again, hearing her thoughts and wondering if she knew he could.
"Twenty or thirty." She said too quickly. 'This decade.' Her thoughts added darkly as though to mock herself. She definitely didn't know he could hear those, but it seemed that she needed prompting before he could catch something flowing through her calm.
Suddenly she tensed as they rounded a corner and started up a dirt road. "This is close enough." She looked at him and when their eyes met, she blanched. Even an immortal was afraid of him, and why wouldn't she be? She was breakable and full of what his kind loved most. She was prey that could heal, blood that could regenerate. She was the cup that would never empty, the toy that would never need replacing. Looking at her now, her face so human but so comfortable in the shadows, he could see why she would hide, why she would be afraid of them. "I don't want to wake Jim."
He tried not to growl. "Jim?"
She was holding onto her seatbelt, trapped in his stare. "My adoptive father…"
The car slowed and stopped. He could see her house down the road, a shabby little place surrounded by trees and mud.
Bella undid her seatbelt but his hand grabbed hers before she could reach for the door handle and jump out of the car. She felt warm to him and he wondered if he felt cold to her. He could feel her pulse pick up, hear her heart throb with dread. "We aren't going to hurt you." He wanted to clarify that 'he' wouldn't hurt her, but somehow that felt too intimate. "But we'd like to know you better." She was still tense, so he let go of her hand, even though it pained him to do so.
She opened the door but waited on the edge of her seat when he spoke again.
"Can I pick you up for class tomorrow?"
"Do I have a choice?" Her voice was small, resigned to something grim.
He wanted to frown but resisted. "Of course."
She swallowed and got out of the car. "Then no." Bella paused, squeezing the cold metal of the doors edge. "But I'll see you in class." She added before closing it.
He watched her disappear down the street. She was fast, faster than any human could dream, and light on her feet. There was more than just immortality there. He stared at the house on the dark street long after she had slipped inside. She wasn't human, couldn't be ruined by him like that, and had a lifetime like his own behind her. For the first time in decades, he couldn't wait for class tomorrow.