Disclaimer: I own nothing of Stephanie Meyer's stories, however all original characters and story concepts solely belong to me.

Author Note: Normally I try to start with a dynamic event which grips the reader, but for some reason Carlisle and his musings kept getting in the way, so I let him have his head. It seemed appropriate to begin the story with their thoughts considering that it will be told primarily through the eyes of the two fathers, Carlisle Cullen and Charlie Swann.

ooOoo

" I'm the kind to sit up in his room.
Heart sick an' eyes filled up with blue.
I don't know what you've done to me,
But I know this much is true:
I wanna do bad things with you."

- Jace Everett, 'Bad Things' from True Blood

The Winds of Change

Chapter 1 – Filled up with doubt

Forks High School, Washington State...early afternoon...

Bella waited impatiently in the car park. They had a half day off and most of the student body couldn't wait to get out of class, Bella included. She was going to the Cullen's house for tea, or at least she would drink tea and they wouldn't which sometimes made her feel rather strange, but then they weren't exactly normal people.

She sighed and looked at her watch, Edward wasn't usually this late, in fact he had a very unfashionable hatred of tardiness which was rather endearing. She put it down to the times he had been born and grew up in. She found herself daydreaming both of a time long since gone by and also her usual daydream, so far unfulfilled, of being in Edward's arms and him making love to her. In the way of young teenage girls, her fantasies were partially from things she had read or discussed with her friends and partially from her wildest imaginings triggered off by the raging hormones that lived in every teenage girl from whatever era, rather than actual hands-on experience with men and sex.

Oddly enough her fantasies, some of them very intense, never seemed to lead to her wondering about the actual mechanics of a frail human making love to a vampire whose bodily fluids were actually venomous. However since she fully intended for Edward to turn her into the same as he was, it seemed to be a rather moot point in her eyes.

"I thought you were going home with Edward after school." The voice of Jessica Stanley, her erstwhile friend at Forks High broke into her reverie. She found herself blushing furiously under Jessica's amused and quizzical gaze.

"I..I was...I am. He's a bit late."

Bella was furious with herself for stammering like that. To her relief she spotted Edward's sister Alice bouncing down the steps followed by her much more dignified boyfriend. Husband. She thought to herself. Jasper was Alice's husband. What must that be like? To be married; to be with Edward forever.

"No need to see where your mind is at the moment." Jessica grinned slyly. "But don't worry, I don't think he deserted you. I saw him outside the Principal's office as I was walking out."

As if in confirmation Alice came up with Jasper, following behind her as he always did with that strangely repressed and stiff way of holding himself. In her innocence it never occurred to Bella that she was the reason for his strange behaviour. "Hi Bella...he's with the Principal, something to do with one of his classes, he'll be out in a few minutes. See you over at the house, okay?"

Bella sighed and nodded. "Okay." Alice danced over to where the other two Cullens were waiting beside their car, then turned and waved cheerfully. For a moment Jasper turned and fixed her with that unnerving gaze which made Bella's smile waver. She waved back without enthusiasm and sat down on a low wall to wait for Edward.

"Do you want me to wait with you?" Jessica asked, hoping that Bella would say no. Bella laughed softly and shook her head when she realised that Jessica had one eye on her and the other on Mike Newton.

"No..it's okay, really it is. You go with Mike. I'll be fine."

"Well... if you're sure."

Bella's attention was already drifting into the realms of imagination. "It's okay Jessica, I'll be fine." She repeated.

Jessica stood for a moment watching her. Maybe she should stay. Forks was a pretty safe place most of the time, but once everyone had left school for the day it could be rather bleak and forbidding. The school wasn't in the middle of the town but on the outskirts. She was about to say just that when Mike Newton waved at her. She looked into Bella's eyes again and saw that she had already entered her daydream world so she shrugged.

"Okay...see you tomorrow."

Bella smiled dreamily but did not answer her. As the last student but one left the campus for the day, Bella, deep in her daydream world where she and Edward lived in utter bliss, did not see the tall dark figure watching her from the edge of the woods over the road to the school.

ooOoo

The Cullen Residence...

Pale shafts of watery late afternoon sunlight struggled through the leaf canopy high overhead. Eventually after struggling for a few hours of the day, they surrendered to the habitual gloom and gave up entirely, although their light behind the thick cloud cover gave out a sickly light all of its own.

Carlisle Cullen had brought his vampire family here to the north west Pacific area of the United States for that very reason and a few others it had to be said; the forests were almost virgin, some parts not even fully explored yet, and abounded with wildlife. There was more than enough to satisfy their needs and far fewer human beings to get involved with than in any of the larger cities, although he was as involved as any person could be with the lives of those in the small town of Forks given that he was a doctor.

For his family it was a good place to be and even the presence of the Quileute tribe on their reservation at La Push did not spoil their peace. Carlisle knew of the tribe of course, he also knew that their legends and myths tended to centre around wolves, he also knew that they were, in reality a lot more than myth and legend.. In Quileute legend it was Q'wati who created the first of the Quileute tribe after travelling the world teaching people how to act and giving them instructions for their futures. When Q'wati reached the Quileute land there were no people other than two wolves, so he created two humans from them and said, "For this reason you Quileute shall be brave, for you came from wolves".

Thus the legends of the shape shifters came into being; a legend which wasn't as much of a legend as people roundabout seemed to think. Only the Cullens and the Quileutes knew the real truth, that when they reached a certain stage in their development, the Quileutes gained the ability to shape-shift into wolf form and they were the natural enemies of the vampires. Their presence so close to the place where Carlisle Cullen settled his family had caused some alarm and despondency on both sides but eventually a treaty was created which gave each side some measure of peace, although mutual suspicion remained a primary factor.

Carlisle sighed and ran his fingers through already dishevelled fair hair. He had been reading up on his long-standing interest in how his people originally came about. They were anomalies among humankind, that much was true, and because of that they kept themselves aloof from ordinary people for the most part. His little family were very different from the mainstream group in that they had eschewed the taking of human life and only did so in order to turn someone who was already dying. The same could not be said for their kin who had no such fine sensibilities. The groups lived and existed apart from each other in the main, only coming together out of necessity.

The question of the origins of their vampire species which had fascinated Carlisle from the very beginning of his turning was quite simple. How? How had the Cold Ones, being the name they were known by among themselves and in myth, actually come about in the first place? He had recently come across a very ancient tome in a queer little book store in Seattle that might be of some use. It had cost a small fortune, but it was worth it. He suspected that the leathern cover was actually real skin and the pages were brittle on the corners. It now sat in his safe awaiting him. He had intended to pore over it that day but it was not to be.

The sounds of voices raised in play alerted him to the return of his children, who were not so much his and his wife's biological offspring, but rather adoptive children since vampires could not reproduce except by turning, like those Carlisle had sought to help down through the years. He heard his wife, Esme's voice also raised in greeting and when he opened the door to his study, he knew in one split second that the children had someone else with them. It wasn't a huge stretch to realise that it was the human girl who had apparently driven Edward crazy with the sweet, tangy, intoxicating aroma of her blood and who had fallen passionately in love with him.

And therein lay the root of Carlisle's disquiet. However, he formed his face into its usual pleasant lines and curved his lips into a welcoming smile as he strode out of the door to give his own words of welcome only to find that the group had filtered down into the wide area that formed the garden of the house and were sitting on the garden furniture chatting with each other. He could hear Esme in the kitchen clattering glasses and dishes which meant that she was preparing some form of refreshment for their human guest and would usually have gone in to offer her some help, but instead he stopped at the large glass doors which led onto the terrace and stood watching the by-play down below. He was not unseen...Alice's pixie face immediately turned to the figure standing quietly by the door and an anxious expression momentarily flitted across her eyes, however she said nothing to the others which allowed Carlisle to watch them undisturbed. At least for the moment.

Alice's husband, Jasper, sat stiff and upright beside his vivacious wife, occasionally his nostrils flared and more than once Alice put a gentle calming hand on his arm. Carlisle smiled wryly. Jasper's entire posture broadcasted his discomfort with being so close to Bella Swan, their human guest. Out of all of them he was possibly the most dangerous where she was concerned. He was finding it very hard to ignore the sweet yet metallic tang of her blood. It disturbed him and aroused his natural instinct to feed, hence the flared nostrils. It did the boy credit that he managed to keep his composure at all.

Rosalie was sharp-eyed and sharp voiced. She had made no bones about how she felt. Bella's presence among them put them all in great danger, although a lot of her ire was fuelled by the fact that when Carlisle had turned her after she had been raped and left dying by her fiancée, it had been originally intended for her to be Edward's mate, a desire that Edward had not shared much to Rose's anger. Even though she herself had no feelings for him, the rejection still stung.

Rose had been incensed when Edward had rashly saved Bella from being crushed by a van, simply because in doing so, and his subsequent actions towards Bella, he had given away their secret. Nobody among the humans was meant to know of their existence and Rose felt that Edward had put them all in danger with his obsession. The other thing that baffled her was Bella's apparent eagerness to push aside her mortal life for an immortal life with none of the normal pleasures, such as children. Rose simply couldn't understand that anyone would willingly choose such a life.

The situation was a highly inflammable one that could, and most likely would, explode right in their faces. Even if they survived, they would have to leave the lives they had created for themselves here in Forks and begin again.

Rosalie had a point of course. It suddenly occurred to Carlisle that Bella also knew full well by now what danger she put them all, and more importantly herself, in by being just as obsessed as Edward was yet she persisted. His gaze shifted to the slender girl with her pale heart shaped face framed in lightly curled locks of rich brown hair caught back over her ears with two brown clips. As he watched, he saw Rosalie's husband Emmett make some joking gesture accompanied by a comment that instantly caused Edward to bristle and Bella to look up at him with a shy, slightly tremulous smile. Carlisle held his breath for a moment as the air between Edward and Emmett grew slightly darker and more contentious and then let it out as the impending storm calmed as quickly as it had begun, probably thanks to Jasper's innate ability to calm people which was the gift he had brought with him when he was turned.

He was also suddenly struck by the fact that Bella was still standing there stuck to Edward's side. Most girls would have taken flight at the flare up of feral anger between the two boys...no...not boys...men. However the expression in her large shining brown eyes remained the same as it always did and always reminded Carlisle of a doe caught in a deer-trap; she always looked in turn, adoring, desperate, pleading and afraid and yet strangely elated at the same time. And she would have been right to be afraid and to flee. Despite the vegetarian nature of the Cullen family, she was still with a group of extremely efficient predators who could tear her apart without a moment's compunction and whose natural prey she was.

Any ordinary human with an ounce of sense would have been afraid enough to run away as far as they could and stay away. Carlisle couldn't for the life of him work out why, despite her obvious fear, she clung to Edward and his family as if she was a drowning girl clinging to a life-raft. Was her life as a human and a mortal so dreadful that cleaving to a hundred and seven year old man stuck in a seventeen year old's body was the better alternative? He shook his head, and not for the first time since Edward had brought his awkward, clumsy girl to them. She herself had made no secret of the fact that she wanted Edward to turn her so they could be together in this all consuming, drowning love. An act which Edward refused to carry out, much to Bella's frustration.

The trouble was that there was absolutely no real reason for Bella to be turned other than her declaration that she couldn't live without Edward. She wasn't dying, she wasn't hurt, she just wanted him and life with him...even if all she got was an un-life with him.

Why? Carlisle asked the question that he had been asking himself since the whole business began. Why would a lovely young girl, filled with life and with her blood pounding through her veins with all her life laid out in front of her, a fulfilling career, love, children, grandchildren, choose to be frozen in time and to have that blood cease to flow? Being a vampire was not a valid personal life choice as far as Carlisle was concerned. It was something that was uninvited, usually inflicted on an unsuspecting human by a supreme act of violence, but which shouldn't have ever happened to anyone. He could recall his own turning at a moment's notice; he could still feel the horrific pain and then the even more horrific realisation of the aberration he had become.

No...nobody should be actively seeking this fate, especially not a vital, lovely young girl with everything to live for. Every time he considered Bella's desperate contention that she loved Edward desperately and wished to become a vampire to remain with him, and as much as he wanted happiness for the son he loved, Carlisle's senses screamed the wrongness of it to him.

"What troubles you?" The soft voice of his wife intruded on his thoughts. "Is it Bella again?"

He rubbed at his jaw distractedly. "It's nothing." He leaned towards his wife and kissed her on the top of her head. "I just wonder why someone so young, vital and full of life would choose..."

"She loves him." Esme interrupted abruptly. It was as simple as that for her. She was an innately kind soul and for her, the happiness of those around and close to her was paramount. If Bella made Edward happy, then she was fine in Esme's book.

"Does she though?" Carlisle offered Esme a small grin of mollification as he sensed what his mate of long years was thinking.

Esme stood holding the tray with a confused expression on her face. "Does who what?"

"Does Bella make Edward happy? I see intense desire, I see torment, possessiveness, protectiveness and even fear all of which she accepts readily in him, but happiness?" He sighed. "I'm just not sure that I see happiness in him...or her for that matter. In fact they seem to me to be indulging in a tragedy rather than actual love. It's like watching some dark Shakespearean play with star-crossed lovers that always ends in gloom, doom and despair."

"Are you reading my mind? I thought compassion, not mind reading, was the ability you brought over with you!" She scolded, but returned his grin. Then her face turned solemn. "I do see what you mean though. Although it is Edward we are talking about here isn't it? He always has been about the tragedy. Bella is good for him. Perhaps with her he won't go off and brood as much as he does." She put the tray down on a table. "Anyway, I thought you liked Bella...we all like her...don't we?"

Carlisle sensed the sudden distress in this mate of his, a woman who he loved dearly in his own way and who only wanted to please and look after the people she cared about and immediately banished his doubts to the back of his mind.

"Of course I like her. And you're right. She is good for Edward and she has my gratitude for giving him what has been absent in his life and something I always wanted for him." He picked up the tray and headed through the door to the garden. "Let's go and join the others."

It was a brightly smiling Carlisle, armed with tray and a beaming Esme who joined the group in the garden and when Bella turned her shy tremulous gaze onto Carlisle, he did his very best to make her feel comfortable. Alice's immediate relief wasn't lost on him though and during the afternoon he could see that same anxious look in her eyes that he had spotted from the house whenever she looked at Bella.

What was she seeing that disturbed her so? And why couldn't he quieten down that little voice in the back of his mind that told him something terrible was waiting for them all around the corner?

ooOoo

Chief of Police's residence, Forks, Washington State...

Charlie Swan would have been the first to admit that he didn't understand his daughter at all. Never had and never would as long as he drew breath. All he did know was that from the moment that perfect pale scrap of humanity with its thatch of silky dark hair was put into his arms he was lost. Her cloudy blue eyes had latched onto his and he felt like he was drowning in love for her.

"Those eyes will probably change." The nurse had smiled at him. She had seen the exact same confused look so many times on the faces of new fathers. "All newborns have those blue eyes. I think maybe hers will be brown."

Charlie had smiled but said nothing. He knew that his daughter's eyes would be brown, like his. Probably the only part of him that she would inherit. He had no idea just how true that would turn out to be.

The two things every parent wants for their child is for them to walk and talk. They live for the day their baby says the first word or takes the first step. Isabella Marie Swan, however, had her own ideas on that. When all the children around her were taking those all important first steps and saying the first words, Bella remained silent and, for the most part, unmoving. Renee had been terrified that she would never do either. It frustrated Charlie all the more because he wasn't there with her all the time. Seeing his child for a couple of weeks a year meant that any hands on fathering was non existent.

For the first year of her life it didn't really matter all that much. Bella was a lovely child and sat like a queen receiving her subjects in her stroller. If she wanted something she merely smiled that enchanting smile and held out her hand and someone would fetch it for her. There was nothing wrong with her, she simply knew that she didn't need to make the effort.

She was alone with her father who was making one of the his visits to Riverdale in California the first time she spoke a full sentence at the age of two and her subsequent actions electrified her already stunned father as she staggered up to her feet, holding onto the edge of the couch and made her way along to where her doll lay at the other end. Charlie's mouth dropped open as she grasped the doll and then abruptly sat down bumping herself hard on the edge of the coffee table, the first of many clumsy actions that were to litter her journey through life. Her mouth opened and the tears trickled down her cheeks. It was the sight of that distress that jerked him from the shock of both actions happening at once and galvanised him into leaping forward and picking her up.

"Watch the table sweetheart." He clasped his sobbing daughter to him. "You could have hurt your head."

She thrust the doll at him. "I wanted my dolly." She said firmly, thereby declaring the stubbornness that was part of her make-up...the same stubbornness that would keep her glued to Edward Cullen's side through shocking and painful events that would alter her life irretrievably.

All Charlie could think of was the elation that his princess had finally done the two most important things in her life, both at the same time. At least they knew now that there was no longer a danger of them introducing their daughter, the adult who still sat in a stroller and couldn't speak at social events. He immediately, wanted to go and tell Renee, who was having a nap in the bedroom but he knew that there were only two reasons to interrupt a woman in her sleep...the death of a celebrity and snow in July, neither of which had occurred in California that day. So instead he leaned back with his daughter on his knee and looked forward to a long life of companionship with her.

It was a companionship that was doomed from the start. His separation and subsequent divorce from Renee had meant that Bella had lived for a while in Riverdale until she was five and then moved to Arizona with her mother and her stepfather who was a baseball player. Charlie got to see her for holidays, but he found that his relationship with her was quite strained. His little girl had grown up and turned into a stranger and she seemed equally unable to bridge the chasm that now yawned between them as he was. Perhaps if either of them had even attempted to do so, the events of Bella's life may not have taken the tragic path that they finally did.

Charlie was sitting in the living room with a can of beer when he heard a car drive up and pull to a halt outside their small house with a screech of brakes. It had been a rough day what with those recent animal attacks and he was tired, but not too tired to notice that his daughter was conspicuous by her absence when he arrived back home from work...again. He put the beer down and walked over to the window, looping the net back just far enough to see the silver car belonging to that Cullen boy outside and his daughter emerging from the car. He chuckled when she caught her foot in the seat belt and almost fell out of the car, but his amusement was immediately tinged with concern when Edward seemed to flash to her side with impossible speed.

Concern turned to irritation when he saw Edward lift Bella up, albeit very tenderly as if she was made of porcelain, and carry her to the front door. Part of him wanted to rush to the door, open it and snarl that his daughter wasn't some cripple and that she was quite capable of walking up her own path to her own front door thank you very much. However he didn't simply because a larger and much more unwelcome part of his mind was still trying to justify movement the speed of light in an ordinary human. Also he knew that his fears about Bella went straight back to those days in her early years when he and Renee had feared that she would never walk at all. He still swore down that was why she was so clumsy now in later life.

He sat back down and gritted his teeth, although anyone close enough would have seen the small muscle jumping in his jaw. No, he had no reason to really dislike Edward, other than the fact that he was weird and actually had the nerve to date his daughter. He would be calm. Perhaps there was another reason for the appearance of unusual speed. He picked up the beer can and examined it curiously. Maybe they were making beer stronger these days.

It was a few fairly long minutes before he heard Bella saying goodnight. He switched the channel over on the television and sighed when the opening credits for True Blood rolled up with the accompanying song Bad Things by a country singer called Jace Everett. Who in the hell believed in damn vampires anyway? No wonder kids did crazy things these days, they were filled up with all this dark stuff every day. Society was heading for hell on a hand cart.

"Dad?" Bella's soft voice interrupted his dark thoughts.

He made as if he had just woken up from a nap. "What? Oh hey sweetie. Did you have a good time over at the Cullens?"

She came and stood in front of him. "You should go to bed Dad." Her tone was mildly accusing and he felt a tinge of guilt. She thought that he had been waiting up for her.

"No..no..I just sat for a minute. I only came in about an hour ago. I'm gonna get a shower and then turn in." He got to his feet and headed for the stairs. "Did you have a good time today?"

Bella had picked up the half empty beer can. "Do you want the rest of this?"

Charlie shook his head. It occurred to him that she was becoming the master of the evasive answer. She obviously didn't want to discuss the Cullens with him. "No, just pour it down the sink honey. See you in the morning."

"Night Dad."

He turned to smile at her, to tell her he loved her, but she was already in the kitchen and he could hear the sound of water running as she swilled the beer down the sink. His heart sank. He desperately wanted a better relationship with her and he'd jumped at the chance of having her to live with him when Renee had explained that she was going on the road with her husband and could he take Bella for a while. Things had almost taken off between them until the appearance of Edward Cullen in her life, then it had all gone downhill again. She had become secretive and uncommunicative. Sometimes...during the night...he heard her cry out and moan and he suspected that her relationship with the Cullen boy was responsible for her distress. He would lie in bed unable to sleep, with his hands balled into fists. Every fibre in his being told him to go and knock on the door and talk to her, but instead he remained rooted in his bed unable to move. Some sixth sense warned him that his interference would not be welcome.

As much as he wanted to like the boy Bella had picked to love, there was something strangely unwholesome about him.

He showered, put on a pair of sweats and climbed into bed. After a minute of lying there listening to the sounds of his daughter putting dishes away and probably tidying up any mess he had made, he reached over and switched off his bedside lamp and closed his eyes, determined to at least try and fall asleep.

"No!"

Some two hours later Charlie was jerked fully awake by the distressed sound of Bella's voice. Once again the desire to go to her was dampened by something else. His heart was hammering and he was cursing his inaction. Anyone could be in there hurting her, but deep down he knew that there was no one. He wasn't sure whether he could actually hear the soft murmur of voices, but eventually he heard a deep sigh and then the night was silent once more.

ooOoo

Edward Cullen sat behind the wheel of his car after ensuring that his Bella was safely asleep in her room trying desperately not to wrench it out of its housing. She had no idea what she did to him when she gazed pleadingly into his eyes and begged him to make love to her, turn her...anything just as long as it meant that she was his forever.

"I don't want to grow old while you stay forever young." She wept when he held her and told her that they would always be together. "I want to be with you forever."

He slammed his hands down on the poor inoffensive steering wheel and only just caught himself in time from damaging it beyond repair. Did she actually realise what the word forever meant? That her family and friends would all grow old and die and she would remain...alone?

"I won't be alone." She had insisted, huge tears rolling down her face. "I'll have you and your family."

He stared down at her implacably. "I won't turn you Bella, you have no idea what you are asking of me. I want a better life for you; a normal life with children or a career."

"No!" She had cried out and he had to place his fingers against her lips. Charlie Swan was certainly not deaf and he was just down the passage in his bedroom. "Why can't you understand? I don't want a normal life, I just want you. If you won't turn me I'll ask one of the others to do it."

He sat back and stared at her aghast. "Why do you wish to give up what you haven't even experienced yet?" He asked sadly. "Wait a while, just a couple of years, go out into the world and experience life. If you still feel the same way about being turned afterwards, then I will do what you ask."

"I can't." She whispered.

He shook his head. "Why not? It wouldn't be for long and I can wait forever. It's not like I'll run out of time."

"I won't have forever if you don't turn me." She said slowly, the tears were falling in earnest now and they tugged at him. "And in a few years...even one year...I will then be older than you are now."

He sighed deeply, there was no reasoning with her especially when she was as distressed as this.

"I must go." He said quietly. "I have stayed long enough and your father is awake now."

She pushed the bedclothes back revealing her short nightshirt and long slender legs. She smiled enticingly and her luminous brown eyes seduced him. "He won't come in."

Edward turned away and opened the window sash. He turned back to her and smiled faintly.

"He should."

Then he was gone into the night leaving Bella to dry her tears and futilely try and sleep.

He got back out of the car and paced restlessly for a little while and then abruptly stopped and looked around him. His senses were far better developed than that of the average human and he was aware, just at the edge of his senses, that something was a little off. His head swivelled around and he concentrated hard. There...that faint darkness, that wisp of a thought instantly blocked tugged at the edge of his inner sight again and his eyes snapped open. Instead of being their normal golden colour, his eyes were black. He silently searched the area around the house, but found nothing untoward although his suspicions leaned heavily towards Jacob a Quileute friend of Bella's who was obviously smitten with her. He wouldn't have put it past Jacob to stand outside Bella's window like a stalker.

He cast his mind reading abilities out into the night. As usual he got nothing from Bella, but her father's thoughts were interesting to say the least, Charlie Swan did not approve of him as a suitor for Bella at all. According to Charlie, Edward was unwholesome, which drew an unwilling chuckle out of the vampire. If only Charlie knew just how unwholesome he was and what his daughter was pleading for he would have a fit! However Charlie was actually more worried about the fact that he couldn't get his daughter to trust him than whether Edward was wholesome or not.

He drew his mind away from the Swann house, concentrated a little harder and caught a few drifting thoughts from a neighbouring house not far away from where he was standing, but they were more fragments of dreams than active thoughts. After a while even the darkness on the edge of his inner sight cleared and he went back to the car. Perhaps he was just hungry and needed to hunt. He shrugged and got back into the car. Yes, that was it. He just needed to hunt. He would ditch the car at home and go and do just that. Anyway...it would do him good to run off some of the overwhelming and conflicting emotions Bella always aroused in him every time they were together.

As his car disappeared down the road from Bella's house, a dark figure stepped out of the trees and watched it until it wasn't even a speck on the horizon, then it turned its attention to a window on the second storey of the house belonging to the Chief of Forks Police; a window of a room where the daughter of the Chief of Police slept.

ooOoo