I'm really excited that some people seem to like this story so far. I hope that you keep liking it!

And although Bella and Edward don't meet in this chapter they will be interacting soon. I'm going to be telling some of Bella's back story first. Enjoy the chapter!

Edward

Forks, Washington
September 2008

My father, Edward Senior, refused to by me a fancy car. Actually, he refused to by me a car at all. In the city, it really wasn't a necessity but here in Forks I knew I would need one. He huffed at me when I asked, saying, "Junior, you are seventeen years old. When I was seventeen, I had to ride a bike to and from my after school job. You want a car than you're on your own."

Yeah, okay Dad. What I didn't say (but should have) was, "That was a hundred years ago. Times have changed old man."

So I bought the cheapest piece of crap I could find that ran. I did odd jobs for one of my dad's buddies during the school year and I decided to save the money rather than spend. It wasn't much but my '94 mustang was my child. I cleaned it up a bit and now it was a shiny piece of crap that barely ran. Still, I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I frowned at the sky as I jumped in my car. Cloudy. A heavy fog settled through the town making my hair and face wet. Forks was every bit as gloomy as I felt.

I ran a hand through my hair, touching it for the first time since last night. Most new kids would've probably dressed up or at least tried to look nice for the first day. I was definitely not most new kids.

Forks High School was nothing compared to my huge high school in Chicago. It was designed of three small buildings; one (I assumed) was the gym and the other two for classes. Thankfully, I was early. I wasn't eager to have people's eyes on me all day so whatever way I could put it off longer was better.

I entered the main building and found my way to the administration office. A woman in her late forties sat with her hair in a scary bleached bob. She had blue eye shadow on her small eyes and a floral print dress. She smiled warmly at me as I entered, her teeth a disarming white. "Hello, can I help you?"

"Um, yeah… I'm Edward Masen. I'm new." That, I suspected, was the sentence that I would repeat numerously throughout the day.

"Ah, yes! Doctor Masen's son. We've been hearing so much about his great work in Chicago, it's an honor to have him here." She paused, "I'm Mrs. Helby. Here's your roster…" She handed me a small paper with my schedule. She continued to ramble on excitedly about my father and the hospital but I was too lost in my thoughts to pay attention.

Then, I heard the shuffle of feet in the hallway behind me and realized I had only five minutes to class. I politely said thanks and goodbye to the woman and went off in search of my class. Mrs. Helby had mercifully pointed out that my first class, Algebra II, was just down the hall. I walked to class, feeling every eye as I passed. Girls whispered and guys grumbled to each other. A new kid in a small town was big news obviously.

--

My first three classes were pretty simple. I was a week behind, but most things were fairly catch-up-able. I sat in the back and no teacher made me go through the painful torture that is introducing yourself to the class. In the midst of this, I had made a "friend". Jessica was a small, curly haired girl who sat in the row in front of me in History. She had leaned back in her chair to get a look at me.

"Hi, you must be Ed Masen." She smiled and fluttered her eyes lashes. She was cute but her eyes held a strange edge to them. It was like she wasn't just being friendly to the new kid…Like there was some ulterior motive behind it.

"Um, Edward actually." I had always gone as Edward. Partially because I hated "Ed" and partially because I just didn't look like anything other than Edward. My mother said I had an old soul feel about me.

Her face fell with embarrassment for a mere second before she bounced back. "Oh, right. I'm Jessica Stanley." She then went on to snatch my class schedule and squeal that we have three more classes together. I forced a smile but was thankful that I'd found a friendly face.

--

At lunch I had barely bought my food before Jessica had found me. She took me by the arm and sat me right next to her at her lunch table. I looked around awkwardly and noticed a few faces from my earlier classes.

"Everyone, this is Edward." She paused before launching into full-scale introductions. Every name was lost as she spouted them out quicker than I could look at them. When she stopped, I noticed everyone staring at me expectantly.

I shrugged. "Hey."

That, I guess, was enough for them. Most of them went about their business again. I stared at them all talking animatedly to each other, looking like they'd all been friends forever. I felt the small nagging of jealousy in my head… I missed Chicago and the people I left in it. I didn't have a huge group of friends but they were people I've known for years. They knew me better than my parents.

Jessica turned her whole body to me, ignoring her food. I could almost see the thoughts in her head. I frowned, noticing her body language and general flirting. I wasn't good at flirting... or dating, for that matter. But I guess you can't be bad at something you've never tried.

I wasn't what you would call a ladies man but Jessica looked really interested in me. I suddenly felt uncomfortable… I'd never been so blatantly flirted with before. Actually, I don't think I've been flirted with at all before. Not that I'm hideous or anything but I consider myself pretty average looking.

That's when I noticed them. All train of thought ceased. I stopped talking to Jessica to stare as they entered.

There were five of them walking in a pack: three girls and two boys. They were unbelievably graceful as they walked through the cafeteria. All five of them were decked out in expensive looking clothes with perfectly coifed hair. It looked like they were models arriving on set for their next photo shoot. I gaped.

The kid across from me followed my eyes and laughed jovially at my expression. He scratched his blonde hair and turned back to me. "Who're they?" I asked before he could speak.

"The Cullens. They were all adopted by Doctor and Mrs. Cullen. They just moved here last year." I watched them as he named them off. "Emmett's the big guy," My eyes found the body of a hulking man (you really couldn't call him a boy) with curly brown hair and arms the size of my leg. "Rosalie Hale is the blonde..." Rosalie sat next to Emmett, her red lips in a pout as she curled a blonde hair around her fingers. "Jasper's the other blonde. He and Rosalie are twins." Jasper was long and slender but still had supple muscle showing beneath his grey sweater. "Alice is the short one," Alice was laying a hand on Jasper's shoulder, who looked slightly distressed. She was petite and had short, dark, inky hair that pointed in every direction. She looked like a fairy. "Those four are...together, if you catch my drift."

I watched the last Cullen seat herself quietly, not drawing attention from any of the others. She played with a fork idly, looking extremely bored. Her long hair was a dark chocolate with a deliberate wave to it. She had fair skin—almost too fair—with full pink lips. Her face was heart shaped and while she wasn't as petite as Alice she had a definite delicate quality to her. She was beautiful. Breathtaking even. I couldn't tear my eyes away. "Who's that?"

The guy looked back again and suddenly his happy demeanor soured. "Oh. Uh, that's Isabella Cullen."

Her eyes snapped up in our direction, almost like she heard us. Her eyes, a charred amber color, found mine. Almost as quickly as she had seen me she suddenly looked away, looking disinterested. I frowned.

"They're all pretty anti-social... well, with anyone except for each other. They think they're better than everyone." He sounded annoyed again. I tore my eyes away to look at him. I was good at reading people; I prided myself on it. I suspected this guy had been turned down by one of the Cullen girls and since two were already taken that only left one.

He shrugged. "I'm Mike Newton, by the way." Taking a bite of his pizza, he looked friendly again.

I smiled at him. "So…They all live together?" I couldn't help being weirdly curious.

"Yeah. They live in some huge mansion out in the woods somewhere. No one's ever seen it." This seemed to be a source of town gossip. Go figure.

I heard a feminine scoff beside me. Jessica's usually bright flirty voice sounded angry. Jealousy. People were easy to read. "Don't pay attention to the Cullen's, Edward. They don't give anyone the time of day. They're freaks."

I nearly laughed. The freaks in my old school were overly-depressed batch of people who wrote suicide poems for class assignments and were made fun of by the most beautiful people in school... and now at my new school the freaks were the most beautiful people in school. This town has got to be the weirdest place I've ever been.

I turned to look at the Cullen's again. None of them were speaking or eating. They all looked tired and irritable. I saw that they also shared the same smooth, painfully pale skin. My eyes landed on the lone Cullen, Isabella, as she looked out the window in to the world with a wistful gaze.

--

Bella

Paris, France
April 1874

"Tonight is the night, Isabella. Are you ready?"

I smiled up at him as I spread red rouge on my lips. I sat at the vanity, staring at myself in the mirror. "Of course." As he turned away with a wink, I frowned. My outward appearance was a deceiving mask. I looked calm, relaxed, and beautiful. Inside my stomach was in knots and my heart…my dead heart…was cold.

It had only been a little over a year since its last thump.

Nicholas, or Nicky as I called him, was my maker, my sire. He was the angel of death that kissed me before he took my life. After I awoke from the three day fire inside my skin, I found his face before me.

"What am I?" I said in a breathy voice. I sounded different. I felt different. Strong, like living stone.

The angel of death smiled coolly. He took my hand and pulled me off the bed I lay on and steered me in front of a long mirror. After a strange gasp escaped my throat, I simply stared. There I was, just as gorgeous and appealing as my killer himself. My dull brown hair, that was previously too thin to do anything with, was full and long with a beautiful hue that was so much richer than it used to be. My skin was porcelain, smooth and cold. I looked like a doll. That's when I looked in to my own eyes and realized I was no doll. The red orbs stared back at me. I was a monster.

Nicholas sat me down and explained to me what had happened. The venom he carried went in to my blood stream, literally burning the humanity out of me. I was a vampire.

The first year of my afterlife I could hardly control my insatiable hunger. Nicky did the hunting for me. I was unused to the kill, inexperienced and so eager for blood I probably would have slaughtered an entire room of people in broad day light. Nicky assured me it was normal among newborns. We traveled often the first year, staying from anywhere to high-end hotels to sleazy apartments. Nicholas would set out at night and always brought back someone for us to share.

That year the only thing I knew was my hunger. There was nothing else. No thoughts, no feelings, just thirst. Nicky promised this wouldn't last forever.

He was right. I was a little over a year old and I was feeling better. The thirst was always there, but not so consuming. I could stand to be around humans, to converse with them, to sit near them. It was getting easier. Nicky was delighted.

I had heard ghost stories of vampires as a child. They were soulless creatures that drank your blood. That's what I was: a creature. This was to be my life: killing innocents. Seducing them first, as Nicky instructed me, and then leading them to their death.

Nicky held a debonair charm about him, a delightful smirk and a unique sense of direction. He always steered us to our most delicious meals. He usually lived on a whim. He confided in me soon after my change that he had never intended to make me his mate. He was passing through the area and smelled something delightful. He followed the smell and came upon my quant home, thirsty and eager to kill. For some reason, he said, he was simply compelled by me... something inside him saw great things in me. I scoffed at the time. What was so great about me?

Tonight was my first kill. Nicolas had been testing me for months and we'd been going in to public more often to see how weak I was. This night, Nicky deemed, was the night. Nicholas had left me to choose our meal. All I had to do was lure him to our apartment. I was absolutely horrified.

Deep within me this felt wrong. But my thirst was so anxious, so overpowering… all other emotions were pushed aside. I was never anything close to seductive in my human life so this would certainly prove to be a challenge. I was nervous and I didn't want to let Nicky down. He was all I had.

Nicholas caught my uneasy look in the mirror and rested his hand on my neck. He brushed his fingers down my skin, light as a feather. I inhaled deeply and closed my eyes. He kissed where his hands had just been and then leaned to whisper in to my ear. "Don't be afraid, love… It's what you are made to do."

And then he kissed me hard on the lips, nearly knocking me over with its power. He hoisted me to my feet and carried me toward the bed. Just like that I forgot completely about my predicament.

--

Nicholas grew up in Paris years and years ago. He never did tell me how old he was or much of anything of his past, claiming his human memories were too hazy to really remember. But he had long since lost his French accent which led me to believe he was much older than me. He had also picked up English in all his travels. He was actually quite good at mimicking any brogue. But he taught me little… He easily got impatient. Nicky didn't think I would need to know much French to trick some poor fool in to following me. I wasn't so sure.

It was a cool spring night. The smell in the air was of flowers and food as I walked the streets. It wasn't very crowded but there was a small restaurant that got busy around this hour. Nicholas thought I'd find a suitable meal in there somewhere.

Although Nicky had successfully distracted me earlier now there was nothing between me and my thoughts. A vampire's mind works different than a humans. We are in every sense faster than a human pace and that includes the brain. My thoughts were literally a mile a minute as I entered the smoky restaurant. I took a breath full of air, smelling the people in the room. I looked around at the faces, all of them smiling and laughing. I suddenly wanted to turn around and escape at full speed. But I knew I couldn't abandon Nicky. I needed him. The outside world seemed a fearsome and vast place without guidance.

Thinking of Nicky made me concentrate harder. I had to do this. I had to pass this test. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath. When I felt a pair of eyes on me and I looked up to find green eyes on mine. My feast had found me.

"M'excuser, madame." He smiled at me warmly. This green eyed man was not much older than I was. He had slick copper hair and a militia uniform on. "Quel est une belle femme comme vous faisant ici seul?" He stared at me as if I were something that fell out of the sky. I knew how good I must've looked and smelled to him. I still remembered how beautiful Nicholas was to human eyes.

I only knew a few words that he had said to me. I smiled my most innocent smile. "Bonjour," I paused. "Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas le français." I sounded genuinely apologetic.

He nodded but continued in broken English, "Ah, I see. What is a beau girl doing alone?"

I shrugged delicately, "I'm lost. Do you think you could help me?"

He grinned readily and held his arm out for me. I accepted it and told him where I was staying. He led me out of the smoke and in to the night. Whenever he would look down at me he would smile winningly. I smiled shyly back but when he looked away my grin faltered. Even with the perfume of his blood so close my thoughts were everywhere.

He stopped at the classy hotel Nicholas had planted us in. He nodded to it and let go of my arm. "Here we are madame."

I bit my lip. How to lure him up? I instantly remembered the late hour. "Would you mind walking me up?" I gestured to the hotel, pointing up the stairs. "It's terribly late."

He understood me and took my hand. We were walking up the staircase hand in hand. He shivered from my touch but didn't seem to mind after that. When we arrived I knew what I had to do.

We stopped at the door. The hall way was dimly lit but I could see every curve of his face. I gave him a small quirk of my lips and pulled him gently toward me. He obeyed, looking dreamy. I stood on my toes to reach his lips. My kiss was a soft, chaste one. I looked up at him and opened the door, slowly pulling him inside. My eyes never left his. I wondered briefly if he saw their lingering ruby tints or if they simply looked black to him.

The room was dark as I closed the door and pushed him against the wall. I kissed him again, this time with fervor and a lingering aggression that I hadn't had before. I put my hands on his cheeks and he shuddered. I looked at him again. His expressive green eyes were animate and excited. I thought that this must've been how I looked to Nicholas before he killed me. Alive…so very alive. I trembled and the boy put his arms around me. He thought I had shivered from the cold and he was trying to warm me. I wanted to cry but I knew I had no tears. Monsters don't cry.

My ears heard the rustle of clothes in the bedroom. I knew Nicky was waiting in the wings. The very thought of him shut off my mind. My thoughts were closed with a snap. I removed my brain from my body as I leaned to kiss this poor souls neck. He breathed heavily, the rush of the moment exhilarating to him. I listened to his blood pump beneath my lips and I breathed in his smell. When the burning in my throat roared angrily, I bit down on him. He gasped and moved to try and pry me off of him. His attempts were feeble compared to my vice grip. I blocked out the image of his lively vivid eyes that swam in my brain as I got my fill.

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French Translations
Excuse me, ma'am (or miss).
What is a beautiful woman like you doing here alone?
Hello. I'm sorry, I don't speak French.Beautiful
Ma'am, miss