Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, plot, etc. are the property of their respective owners. This is a complete fictional story. The author does not own anything. No money is being made with this work. This is merely meant as a tribute to the inspiring work of Stephenie Meyer and the world she created.

Drawn by Instinct

Chapter 1: Truly Dedicated

Some scientist say that human, like any animal, plant or any other living being on the planet, down to the most simple single cell organism, is only driven by his two basic instincts, self-preservation and reproduction. Humans may be more complex in there motivations, there desires and decision than a plant or a insect, but at the end of day any action a human makes is founded in one or both of these urges.

Well there is a exception to any rule and this one is no different. For there are does that have a whole other reason to do the things they do. A drive, easily overlooked, to help does not able to help themselves, to understand, even if there is no personal benefit to it, and generally to do everything as good as they possibly can, no matter if there is a need for such quality or not.

Dedicated, is what those kind of people are called. Perfectionists. Passionists. Married to there jobs.

Dr. Isabella Swan has often asked herself what Edward would say when someone told him that she was married to her job. After all he was her job.

Most obvious guess would be that he would not say much about it, even if he could be made to understand the topic. It would most likely sound like a quiet growling, or, closer to meal times, like a ear shattering roar that would shake the very foundation of the research centre and let the residents of the other compounds cower in fear.

To understand this you'd probably have to know that Edward isn't human.

He is one of the more 'mystical' beings that roam the savage, untamed lands outside of the numerous, well guarded and walled in human cities. A creature with a astounding number of remarkable skills and abilities of great interest for humankind.

Edward is a vampire.

Regardless of what you have heard about vampires and there numerous legends, what is true about them is as follows: Vampires, like werewolves, shapeshifters and demons, belong to the group of the fae, meaning magical (magic is a sort of reality-warping energy that humans can't use or control) creatures with abilities beyond what modern science can explain.

To the naked eyes of a human, who's blood is a vampires natural food source, the vampire appears like a especially beautiful, alluring human, maybe even a friend, a relative, someone or something they think they know and would approach without a second thought.

Enticement-illusion is what this is called. The vampires ability to appear human even though they weren't. How they do it, isn't understood yet, but given the vampires wild and feral nature it's not likely that it's something they can control consciously. It is commonly believed that it's a naturally formed magical ability, a sort of telepathic diversion, with which the vampire is messing with it's preys mind, showing them a picture of whatever the victims deems enticing or trustworthy to draw them in and leave them helpless.

A vampires true form, as it can be seen on video, or even just trough the lens of a camera, is that of a big, hulking beast of more than ten foot height, covered in long, scraggy fur in black, brown or bronze color, as well as silver-white scales around the uncovered parts on chest and arms. They have it all: The fangs, the claws, the brute strength, a impressive size, incredible speed as well as the enticement-illusion. And of course one of there most distinctive feature, the fact that they only drink the blood of there prey without ever even tasting the flesh.

But beyond all that, what makes the vampires really interesting, and from a social point-of-few controversial, is that all of that only describes the male vampires.

Because the female vampire is only about a tenth of the males weight and body mass and therefore about the size and shape of a human. Other than the muscled mass of the males, the female vampire is slender and athletic. However, they too are almost completely covered in silver-grey or white scales that are even thicker and more spicky than with there male conterpart giving them impenetrable bodyarmor that makes them look like natural white limestone. They also have long dark fur growing from there heads and back.

They haven't the males strength or speed but there claws and teeth are even longer, sharper and most of all, deathlier and they could still kill a human with almost no effort. Neither do they have the males stamina, as they are unbelievable fast on a short distance, but because of there heavy weight and the statur it's nearly impossible to for them to travel large distances by themselves. They are, however excellent climbers who can scale the smoothest, completely vertical walls within seconds and hold on to it for days without moving.

The reason for the blatant difference in male and female vampires had long been discussed. Most likely is it one of natures more ingenious strategies, because having male and female the same size would also require the double amount of food available. As it is, a female vampire eats almost nothing as long as they are not pregnant and can completely rely on the males protection when they are.

Vampires are monogram, meaning once a male finds a female they are mated for life, with the male protecting and providing the female in every way possible. The males usually get there females directly from there fathers or steal them from other males, often after they killed them first. Once a male has found his mate they are... Well they are dedicated.

Nature balanced the females absolute dependents on a male vampire by making it virtually impossible for the male vampire to leave or lose there mate once they found and bounded with them. If the mated male dies the female usually gets claimed by a other male, or dies on her own if no other male finds her in time, but if the female dies first, the male usually follows her, starving itself to death in it's grief. The males are absolutely devoted to there mates, carrying her on his back at all times while they are active during the night, or lies down on top of her hiding her underneath his body while they rest during the daylight-hours. The female has a sixth sense for staying on her mates back hold on even while she is sleeps. They even bring them into fights against rivals or other enemies as the female has the female senses where she have to move around the males body to always have them between themselves and the opponent or other obstacle without getting into the way. A female with a big, strong and experienced male is almost invisible, being hidden on there backs at all times in massive amount of hair and fur the male brings into the mix.

Vampires are, in many ways, fascinating creatures and Isabella Swan was mesmerised by them from the very first moment she saw one of them. She remembers this like it has been yesterday instead of the almost twenty years now since that day when she visited her father in the lab he worked at and showed her the vampire they just caught inside the walls of the city the month before.

She had heard stories before that, stories of mighty, terrifying beasts as big as a bus that swallow people whole. She remembers exactly how she fearfully eyed through a little peephole, watching a pig standing in the little spotlight in the otherwise dark habitat and listening to her father, Charlie, telling her about how the vampire was getting closer. She was almost too scared to watch and was about to pull away when a little boy about her age with pale skin and messy bronze hair stepped into view. She was confused and irritated, certain that her dad had pulled a prank on her. Still she could no longer pull away and watched the boy as he stepped closer to the bait. What he did there, she couldn't say. It was like the pig was there and in the next moment it was gone. Just the boy was standing there in the light, unmoving, like a statue. Then he turned his head and even though it was impossible, even though there was no way he could have seen her, he stared at her out of two endlessly deep, beautiful green eyes. Looking at her and down into her soul, doing things to her she would never understand. The next moment he was gone and in his place was the drained corpse of the pig.

Isabella may have been only twelfe then. Still she understood right away. She listened as her father told her everything about the camouflage vampires use and the purpose of it. She looked at the images the cameras recorded, showing the beasts true face. She felt the fear going through her body at the sight of the almost nearly thirteen foot big monster, the biggest vampire ever seen so far, packed with muscles, white scales and rost-red fur, tearing into the pig and sucking it dry in seconds. She went home with the boys face in her mind and the knowledge that he wasn't real.

And the next day she woke up with nothing but the intention of seeing him again clear in her mind.

The years that followed she figured out how easy it was to do the things that brought her closer to that goal, and how hard it was to life for anything else.

The tragedy of loosing her mother shortly before her fiveteenth birthday, and the way Charlie isolated himself from everything that remembered him of his late wife, most off all his daughter, made it really easy for her to find a reason to escape reality and to life for a illusion instead.

Years later, with a ton of additional knowledge, a doctor's decree in her pocket and a reputation of being smart and dedicated but somewhat of a oddball and loner, she stood once again at the very same place looking though the peephole at a young man with bronze hair watching her with is beautiful, endlessly green eyes.

Yes, she understood that even though he has never seen her, even though he has no concept of her existence Edward was able to catch her, and even though it was nothing but a illusion, he not a man but a wild beast and would only ever be interested in sucking her dry, this very thought made her tremble in fear and excitement.

It was early morning, just minutes away from sunrise.

Isabella sitting on her computer in her laboratory. Fighting the urge to just close her eyes grew harder with every passing minute. Working overtime for more than thirty hours took there toll, even on her. But she was not yet ready to let herself rest, too scared she could forget something important. She was so close.

She was so focused on her work that she neither heard the door open and a man enter nor the footsteps with which he snuck up on her from behind.

„Dr. Swan.", he said and nearly made he jump up to the ceiling. „You are still here?"

„James!", Isabella yelled out between grasps as she hyperventilated with her hands on her chest. „Please don't do that."

„Sorry.", James said and with a bright smile. Isabella looked at the blond man with the long hair he had bound into a ponytail, then her sight fell on the floor. She could not hold his gaze for long, especially when he was smiling. She didn't know what but it had something very unsettling to it.

This was unjustified and unfair of course. James Hunter, her lab assistant, was a nice man and in all the three years he worked for her now, he never did anything that implied he wasn't to trust.

She breathed calm for a moment to compose herself. Then she looked up at him again. „I'm very sorry, James. I was working and... I was...uhh... The time? Mm, is there anything I can help you with?", she asked.

„Yes.", James said, somewhat louder than necessary while he snipped his fingers at her, making her jump again so that she almost fell from the chair.

„James!", Isabella shrieked as she barely caught herself on the tabletop in time.

„Yes. Sorry.", James said some what quieter while he not once lost his smile through all that. That was part of the problem Isabella had with him. It was like he knew his behavior was making her uncomfortable and did it on purpose just to watch her squirm. „Yes. There has a question come up I wanted to ask you about."

Isabella rubbed her eyes and shuck her head in a attempt to make the slowing tiredness in her mind disappear. „What is it about?"

„Vampire venom.", James said as he turned around towards the wall mounting several monitors showing the footage of the night-vision cameras mounted to the walls in the compound next to the lab.

Isabella's eyes followed James, then she looked at the screens herself. Everything was quite and dark. Edward, like all vampires, was nocturnal but with the cycle inside the habitat reversed to that of the outside world it was earliest morning for him too. Meaning Edward was only just starting to roam the two football field big enclosure made up from armored concrete and steel plating. Vampire proof, as far as that was possible. At this time of day Edward was normally sitting by the little pond, watching the fishes. A place that Isabella, much like the inside of his den, deemed a private place to him and therefore did not allow any cameras there, even if it didn't mean much to Edward himself. „Yes, what about it?"

„Well.", James continued. „I understand that it's a lethal microorganism that, if it enters the human body, attacks the nervous system and organs, causing the victim to lose control over there body as there muscles start to spasm and there body rapidly starts to deteriorate. That it keeps on infecting the victim, killing them slowly as they writhe in agony. And in some cases, if the infected lives long enough, could turn them into a vampire themselves."

Isabella signed. She should have known. Vampires are so fascinating creatures but the only thing people are ever interested in is the story of people turning into vampires after they got bitten. Vampires don't age, and because of there physiologie and fast healing they are very, very hard to kill, making them possibly immortal. In truth no one could tell how old a vampire can become or even how old those few where they where able to catch.

„Only with a success rate of less than 0.5%.", Isabella explained. "It's so rare, there are no more than three verifiable cases of this actually happening. In all other cases the people who got bitten just died within the first few hours after the infection."

James turned around wearing a expression that showed far to much excitement for this morbid topic of conversation. „Why is that?", he asked.

Isabella was getting really uncomfortable now and tried even harder to avoid is gaze. „I...I don't understand. Why you are asking me this. You should already know about this or you could just read it in the books."

„Yes.", James said happily smiling. "Right. But most of this books have been written by you or by people who know far less then you do, so I thought I check with the expert herself. So why is there only that little success in turning a human into a vampire?"

„Because the turning comes as a extreme shock to the body. The pathogenic and mutating effect of those microorganisms in the victims body is actually only a side effect. Those microorganisms, Immutare Hemaphilia, carries next to there own genetic building plan also the one of the vampire it inhabits. In the body of the vampire those organism are the main component of there biochemical processes, like breaking the blood they consume down to usable energy and replacing damaged tissue. This is the reason a vampire is immortal and ultimately stays at the peak of his health. If the microorganism gets transfers into a other body, via a bite for example it will still continue this functions, slowly repairing what seems to be damaged to it even though it's in fact healthy tissue, replacing the infected genetic code with the one of the vampire. In a other vampire or any other being expect humans this basically works like a poison, slowly breaking down the body unless the immun system can get rid of it in time. In humans however the two DNA-strings of human and vampire fuse together in a mechanism we still don't quite understand, ending up with a new stem of Immutare Hemaphilia unique to the new vampire. For the victim however, this means being unable to move for nearly three days in which enormous genetic and phenotypical mutations take place while the body stands under constant stress, writhe in spasms and tremors. It must be unimaginably painful and costs the body beyond the point where it is able to sustained itself. Only the most healthy and strongest would have a chance to survive. Adding the fact that Immutare Hemaphilia usually gets released into the bloodstream, as in getting bitten, meaning there is most likely a injury taxing the body as well. All in all it's a wonder that there is even a single person who managed to survive that."

„Mm, I see.", James said.

„Sorry about that. You weren't the first who thought of becoming immortal by getting infected by Immutare Hemaphilia but there is no way that it would work, you would just throw your life away.", Isabella said.

James turned around and for a short moment thought she saw annoyance in the man's eyes even though he still kept his smile up.

„What are you working on?", James asked, pointing on the screen behind her.

Isabella turned around, knowing very well what was behind her. Her sight fell on the screen where her current work was still showing. In that short moment of distraction James reached her with three fasts steps and before Isabella could dodge or scream he had her in his grasp, her mouth covered with his hand and locked between the tabletop and his chest as he leaned into her.

Isabella struggled against him but her strength was no match against his, she screamed but only a mumble could be heard. It was useless. Isabella felt herself panic, tears starting to pool in her eyes and then she felt James's breath on her ear.

„Little bitch.", James hissed. „You think you are so smart. So superior to anyone else, don't you." His fingers dug into her jaw, forcing her to nod. „Let me tell you a secret. You are not. You are not even equal, you are nothing but a petty, weak, little girl who has forgotten her place. But I'll show you."

Isabella tensed at his words and paled as he brought a syringe into her line of sight. It was a small medical syringe with a long needle, containing less than a milliliter of a semi-clear, silver liquid that Isabella recognized immediately, she struggled even harder and tried to scream again but it was useless as James had predicted this and held her even tighter.

„Yes, you know what that is, don't you?", James hissed as he removed the cap from the needle. "Isn't it wonderful that it will be the vampire jus of your precious lover that will do you in."

He pulled her away from the table and stabbed the syringe into her chest. Isabella grasped when she felt the pain explode in her heart. James emptied the contend of the syringe into her flesh without hesitation and then let go, dropping Isabella to the floor.

„Not so smart anymore, are you?", James asked with a grin on his face.

Isabella was lying on the floor. Her eyes big, all color trained from her face. She was already breathing in grasps unable to get to get the muscles of her ribcage back under control. As her hand on her chest started to cramp and her whole body tensed her breathing got even shallower.

„Wh...why?", she pressed out.

„Why?", James laughed. He crouched down next to her and pulled a USB-stick from his back pocked. „See this? This is a spy-program. I installed it on your computer when I started working for you three years ago. See, there where quite a few people out there who had great hopes in you and your work so we rigged your equipment to see what you came up with. And I have to say you did us proud. Figuring out how to reprogram those little critters so that they would carry human DNA instead of vampire ones. Great work. Looks like you have found the fountain of eternal youth. Too bad that you are still only a woman, so your smartest was still not smart enough to beat the smarts of a man. See, my bosses don't trust you would be smart enough to take the deal they would offer you for sharing this knowledge, so we decided to take you off the research. Permanently. Look, we are actually doing you a favor here. You just aren't cut out to be famous anyway. Woman never get any attention for being smart. The only reason bitches like you ever get attention is for looking good and fucking great and you just don't cut it in either way."

James sat down on the chair.

„Oh don't look at me like that. I'm the good guy here. Everyone always assumed that a emo like you would sooner or later jump in front of a train or off a bridge. You know, even your father was sure that would eventually happen. But I always knew that you would be too much of a coward for something like that, even if you wanted to. So this is me giving you a helping hand. You don't mind if I stay and watch you die? No hurry, I have time."

There was a growling sound to be heard coming from the big enclosure through the wall. James smiles. „And you are dieing close to your Edward, isn't that nice. Too bad he is just a dumb beast and will never know abo... ohh."

James looked up at the hatch at the end of the room from which a slide lead direct into the compound. A feeding hatch usually used to deliver sheep and pigs into the habitat.

„Know what?", James asked and showed his most disgusting grin. „Let's not be cruel here." He stood up „Come here.", he said and grabbed Isabella by her hair.

„N...n..", Isabella said but her body was already shacking so badly she was unable to do anything as James dragged her through the room throwing her back on the ground right next to the hatch. He hit a button next to it and the hatch opened.

„Well, Izzi. That's it. I wish you a very nice journey. It's too bad I can't show you the tape yet. You know, the one showing you entering the cage by your own choice, I am going to fake one for your father. I am sure he is going to love it."

With this he gave her a kick and she fell into the hatch and down the slide. James closed the door again and walked over to the little window. The peephole that allowed spectators to see down into the other room. He pressed a other button, switching on the single spotlight. He smiled when he saw Isabella trying to crawl to the exit, collapsing only a few moment later. The room shuck when Edward let out a other roar.

„Not looking good for you, girlie.", James said and then he watched the person that stepped into the light. „Well, hello grandmother. What big teeth you have.", he said with a chuckle.

He turned around towards the screens showing the big figure packed in muscles, scales and fur that was Edward towering over the little shaking body that was Isabella. Edward leaned down, sniffing ones or twice, then grabbed the little woman and just carried her away.

„Bon appetite.", James said and smiled. „Try not to make too much of a mess."

AN/: Good? Not good? More? Less?