If one were out in the woods in the middle of the night in Alaska, they might have seen a gorgeous young woman walking alone through the dense trees, sprinkled with freshly fallen snow. One might notice the immense beauty of this woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties, with long, flowing blonde hair & eyes blacker than the night around her. One might also notice the stealth in her walk, moving like a tiger approaching it's prey. Or possibly one might recognize that such a young, pretty little thing should have no business out in the snow covered forestry, creeping along at 3 A.M., more than one hundred miles away from civilization.
But there was nobody around to notice all these things, to notice that this particular beauty had every reason to be out among the bears, & the pitch black sky, among the soft snow & thick trees. There was nobody out to see what she saw. There was no one else to see the snow proof tent, torn to shreds, the camp fire that had near fizzled out. Nobody but her saw the huge, white polar bear with a silky coat, an angry disposition, & hungry eyes. Had this woman not been there, searching for bears such as this one, nobody would have seen the handsome, well built young man whose leg the bear had been gnawing on, the man still alive & crying out in pain & desperation. There would be no one to hear his screams or see the horror in his eyes, shocking blue in color, & no one to smell the human blood, so wonderful, so terrible, & so very tempting.
Any other vampire would have killed the bear, claiming his meal. But not this vampire, who went by the name of Rosalie. No, she didn't drink up the human blood, attempting to quench an insatiable thirst. She went with her first reaction, killing the bear, snapping his neck with one hand. She looked down at the object of his hunger, contemplating giving up everything he stood for, just to feel the blood trickle down her throat & renew her quickly fading strength. She looked down at the tortured face of the man on the snow white forest floor, in so much pain that he was unable to register that a super model had just defeated an angry polar bear to save him, with little to no effort. She stared straight into the face of her looming decision, & understood to a degree the pain that he was in, & she thought about the people in his life that must love him, & everything he would miss out on if she were to take the remainder of his fading life.
She realized that his fate must be set in stone, his number up. Had the bear continued on him, undisturbed, he would have died. If she left him there to bleed, he would die. If she drank the remaining blood within him, he would die. This gave her some incentive to give into his urges, thinking that he would die anyway, it didn't matter how. Before she did though, a fourth option came to mind. There was something that he could become, where the wrath of an angry polar bear would no phase him. She could bite him.
But she didn't trust herself well enough for that. Surely, she wouldn't be able to control herself if she were to sink her teeth into him. It was hard enough being captivated by the scent of his open wound without actually tasting it.
There was someone though. Someone who was all but immune to the effects of human blood. Someone who had created many a vampire, making no mistake. She had to get him home to see Carlisle., & it had to be fast. He was fading quickly. The numbness began to set in & his screaming subsided.
She scooped up the man, nearly twice her size, effortlessly in her arms, & began running back to her families house. He blinked his eyes sleepily, on the verge of unconsciousness. He was oblivious to her impossible speed & strength, growing delirious.
She held him out as far away from her body as possible, the smell of his open wound becoming increasingly more tempting. She was ravenous. She looked down at him & saw that his eyes were closed, yet his heart still beating. She knew there was a good chance that they wouldn't make it back in time for him. Rosalie thought about holding her breath, but her speed would decrease, & it was simply not an option.
She looked long & hard at his face. He was incredibly handsome. She was surprised that in such a circumstance, she felt the tingling of butterflies within her. It was nothing like what she felt around her should-be mate, Edward.
She wished she could set him down & hunt a bear, making it easier to withstand the smell, but with the said tempting blood escaping so quickly from his near severed leg, every second counted. Her house was then only a few miles away.
She tried to focus all of her senses on pushing herself to run faster, but it was useless. It was second nature. Plus, a running vampire is a lot like a car - going five miles an hour took the same amount of energy as going one-hundred & five, but once at full speed, it's unable to move an faster.
So she focused on looking at him, thinking about him, as a person with a family, with feelings, with a desire to live. He probably had a wife or a girlfriend somewhere, & a family who loved him. She couldn't kill him. She tried to convince herself this, that she absolutely could not do it. How terrible it would be for him to never feel sunlight upon his face again, or hear the song of laughter, or smell the sweet aroma of wild flowers in the spring. Selflessness usually wasn't her forte, so she tried to think about the benefit she would have from letting him live. He was gorgeous, & he was giving her the uncommon feeling of butterflies, although unconscious. She wanted to get to know him well, to sit around for days & just talk about anything & everything. She couldn't do that if she killed him. She realized though, that her desire to be selfless was prevailing, because her thoughts drifted back to the pain that he must have been in.
She saw the house in the distance. To her it was home. The light shining through the windows was inviting, a promise of warmth & unconditional love that shone from the inside. To the man in her arms, it would be torture, a chamber of unfamiliarity & searing pain. It was where his chest would be punctured with razor sharp teeth, he would feel the venom seeping through his veins, slowly replacing his blood with fire, where he would be transformed into a creature of the night. He would wake up with a dry throat, thirsting for blood. But after all said things subside, he would find that the woman of his dreams had rescued him, & that house would become to him too, a sanctuary of love, infinite & beautiful.