Things You Can't Help
Edward Cullen's POV
It had been months since I had fed and Bella's blood call was becoming unbearable to withstand. I had never left her side for more than 10 minutes ever since our near death experience in Volterra and her ridiculous vote over her mortality. She didn't seem to understand that her soul's innocence was at stake. Being a vampire wasn't as peachy as she thought. She went to Volterra and saw that you idiot. She still wants this, she wants you . . . . A glimmer of hope ran through my body before pain took its place. But she said no to your proposal. Shut up! I screamed furiously at my thoughts. I took an unnecessary deep breath to calm myself. Either way, I'm never leaving her again. I won't make the same mistake twice. Alice had misinterpreted a vision of Bella cliff diving for a jump to her death to find release of her pain when I left her and I ran off to the Volturi (a powerful vampire covenant) to end my …… existence. There was no reason to go on without my Bella. On my way there, it hit me that Bella was just as unhappy living without me as I was without her. I never thought that her love could ever equal mine. I came to realize that all the words that she said were true, my dead heart swelled at the thought. "…well you knew how I feel, I'd rather die than be away from you…", "…the only thing that will hurt me to loose is you…". I would never deny her words again.
Carlisle's voice pulled me back from my reverie,
"Edward, Bella's working tonight. Why don't you go hunting?" his brow furrowed with concern, "It'll be easier for you … And safer." I smiled half heartedly and obeyed, quietly leaving at our non-human speed into the woods giving into my senses with Alice at my heels.
Bella Swan's POV
I stumbled into the house tripping on the rug on my way in. I had called in sick at work and I was anxious to get to the Cullen's house (more like mansion) to talk to Carlisle about my being changed, knowing that Edward would be out hunting tonight with Alice to keep him busy. I snickered at the last thought. I'd asked Alice to keep Edward busy long enough to have all my questions answered by Carlisle before I left.
"Honey, is that you?" My dad's voice came from the living room. A pang went through my body when I remembered that I had to lie to Charlie. I hated lying.
"Hi, dad," I said walking into the kitchen thinking of a plausible reason as to why I was leaving so early. "I uuummm……. I'm leaving early for work tonight." I yelled hoping that he'd buy it. "Someone took their day off early and I was the only one available."
"Sure, hun. Don't stay too late though." I grimaced at his obvious trust in my lie. But what could I say? "Hi dad," I could see that fake smile plastered on my face, "I gotta go over Edward's house to see his family, who are actually vampires, about what will happen to me when they sink their teeth into my neck." I could see the shade of purple his face would turn and shuddered.
"Well, see you later." I gave him a quick peck on the cheek and skipped out the door. I breathed a sigh of relief as my car roared to life and sped off to the main road.
I quickly parked and ran to the front door. It swung open right before I could make my first knock and Carlisle stepped out making me jump and fall back.
"Oooww," I winced. Why did I always have to be such a klutz on all the wrong days? I could tell that Carlisle was trying to suppress a smile.
"Come in." He said. I brushed myself off and smiled weakly and passed through the door praying not to trip again. Carlisle guided me to the living room which wasn't necessary since I already knew the place by heart. I loved this house. It was like a second home to me. But the gentleman never failed in him.
"So," he trailed off trying to find a casual way to start our conversation. I frowned when I saw the obvious difference between myself and my "second family". If someone were watching, they would have laughed seeing me plop down on the couch and Carlisle move gracefully to the chair across from me and sit quietly. I felt silly and tried my best to smile.
"I wanted to know exactly what happens over the three day period of….. change. What happens to my body? Why does it hurt so much? Why does it feel like I'm on fire?" Questions spilled out of my mouth before I could catch myself. I flushed tomato red.
"Well," he grinned, "when I penetrate the skin; the venom goes through your blood stream. Your body will react to it like it would any virus or bacteria and attack it with antibodies or surround it with white blood cells. But because the venom fights back, killing everything alive, creating your burning feeling, more and more white blood cells are made causing you to swell up. The venom then travels to your bones to stop the renewal of blood. Then it hurts to move." I winced. Carlisle frowned in concern. I just shook my head and indicated him to keep going. "Now that it's killed all the white and red blood cells and the renewal system, it stops your heart so there is no more blood flow. The venom then strengthens your senses; sense of smell, hearing, sight. Your strength and speed more than triples, food tastes awful and becomes meaningless. Of course you become very pale because of no blood flow and it also makes it so you're supposed prey finds you more attractive and appealing." I shivered at the thought of killing someone.
"And of course the platelets will stop me from bleeding to death out of my neck." I said trying to add some humor into our conversation.
"Precisely," he grinned. I looked down at my watch and jumped up.
"Oh my god, I'm gonna be so late! Thanks so much for the talk. Bye!" I called as I ran out the door and sped towards home, my truck whining in protest as I past the speed limit.
I parked my truck in the driveway and ran upstairs, grabbed my bag of toiletries, threw off my clothes and turned the shower on. I relaxed under the warm water and racked my brain for anything that I had learned about blood. Red and white blood cells only lived to about a week or so, hemoglobin is what makes the red cells red, plasma, a clear straw yellow like liquid that made up most of the blood, platelets were clear and kept you from bleeding to death by forming scabs. It'd be nice not to have anymore of those, I laughed. Scabs tended to make daily appearances because of my cursed clumsiness. But they started to disappear because Edward was back to catch me whenever I fell. I sighed at the thought of his god-like appearance; pale skin, copper hair and beautiful smoldering topaz eyes. How could I be of any value to such beautiful creatures? I sighed again and stepped out of the shower. I pulled on my holey night shirt and sweat pants not bothering to dry my hair and walked to my room and plopped on my bed. I thought back to my conversation with Carlisle, I really wanted Edward to be the one to change me, but the only way that he would agree to that would be if I married him. He didn't seem to understand that that was what my parents did and they ended up divorced. I'd hate for that to happen to me and Edward. My parents were also very much against marrying before the age of 30. But you love Edward. I know, but what if he decides to leave again? He promised he wouldn't and you could see how hurt he was when you said "no". My parents are going to kill me. Does it matter that much?