Thank you for all those that read and reviewed, they are the only reason I keep writing. The more reviews there are for me to read, the faster the chapters get uploaded. =)

Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns Twilight and all characters depicted herein. I own a pack of Camels and a schizophrenic cat.

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Oh. Fuck. Me. Running.

I was fucked. I was completely screwed; there was nothing I could do. I may as well hand her the stake to kill me. In the metaphorical sense, of course. When she said those words to me I literally felt as if the clouds had opened up and a chorus of cherub faced angels had started singing "Hallelujah."

Until that cockblocking little voice in the back of my mind piped up and reared his ugly little head.

You CAN'T do this Edward. What if you can't control yourself? What if her blood sings to you too sweet for you to suppress? Will you be able to let it just be sex?

I groaned audibly, and she shifted uncomfortably in the passenger seat of my car. She was staring at me with a pained look on her face as I pinched the bridge of my nose shut with two fingers. That shit-eating little voice was right. I couldn't risk this girl's life, not just for sex. And I knew that I didn't deserve anything more than that.

My voice was pained, and the next sentence I spoke felt like I was ripping my own heart in two. Why did I feel this connection, this spark with someone I didn't even know?

"I'm sorry, Bella. I wasn't thinking. You should go inside. I don't deserve someone like you."

I expected her face to fall, or to be angry at the rejection, or any other emotion. But the next thing to leave those gorgeous lips had me rock hard and fantasizing all sorts of things I could do to this girl.

"Don't worry about what you deserve. I'm not asking you to have wild, crazy, primal grunting and moaning sex with me. I'm just asking you to join me for a drink. In my house. Alone."

Now how could I say no to that?

An hour later and we were sitting in her kitchen as she chugged down her eleventh Budweiser straight. To say I was amazed would have been an understatement. She was the only person I had ever met who could make me wish to be a beer bottle. To feel those lips pursed around the tip, fell the suction as she took a deep pull… I spent the entire time in varying states of sexual frustration. Thankfully, she was too engorged with her story and too intoxicated from the alcohol to notice my lack of conversation.

She had stopped asking me if I wanted anything after I declined the fourth time. I was content to just sit there and listen, and watch her eyes sparkle in the moonlight. She spoke of her father, Charlie, the Chief of Police here in Forks. Her mother, Renee, back in Arizona, and her mother's new husband, Phil. I heard every word. The only problem was I caught myself staring at her throat more times than I could count. It was time to get going.

Just as I thought that I could hear someone walking up drive quietly. She had apparently not heard it yet, and when I stood up she followed suit. I held a finger to my lips as I motioned with my head to the front door. She understood immediately, and tiptoed over to the back door. She leaned into me, with her tiny hands covering my forearms.

"Will I see you at school on Monday?"

Such a silly question. We had Biology together on Monday, and I would move mountains and trudged through Hell and High Water to be there with her.

"Of course you will. You can see me anytime you want to. I live less than fifteen minutes away from here, and I'm only a phone call away."

The smile she held, quite literally, lit up the room we were standing in. I didn't know what it was about this girl, but I vowed then and there that I would tame the monster. I would do anything I could to get closer to this brown-haired angel, and may God have mercy on whoever thought to stand in my way.

I began making my way out of the back of the house, just as I heard someone trying the knob on the front door. Something registered in my mind then, but it was lost. I couldn't concentrate on anything but the small girl in my arms, and the fact that she had just raised her lips to meet mine.

My world was tilted on its axis. Everything around me stopped, and time seemed to stand still. She was kissing me, Bella was kissing me. It was the most amazing thing I had ever felt, and I knew it had to end.

"Bella, I have to go. If your father catches us in here like this he'll never let you see me again. I will see you soon. You can count on that."

I raced through the back door, remembering to tone down my speed so as to not seem out of the ordinary, and I had made it to the darkened side of the house before my mind registered what had happened just minutes ago.

Charlie wouldn't turn the knob on the front door. He would use a key.

And something else clicked as I was sprinting back to the back door…

My car was parked in front of her house.

Now I knew something was wrong. If the Chief of Police had seen a strange car parked in his driveway at close to one in the morning, he would have burst into that house with hellfire on his mind. I had to get back in there. I had to protect her. I had to save my Bella.

In seconds, I had rounded the entire house and stood in front of the sliding glass door in the back. Finding it locked, I reached out with my senses to try and pick up something…anything that would let me know what was happening. Finally, after a full sixty seconds of getting nothing, I listened to the voices in my head. I hadn't heard anything all night, because Bella's mind was closed to me, and subconsciously I had shut that part of my brain off, and just enjoyed the company. I took me less than two seconds to find what I was looking for. A male "voice", coming from inside her house. But something wasn't right. The mind thought like nothing I had ever heard before. Thoughts of rending flesh with teeth, of dominating the frightened girl in the house. This thing lusted for flesh like I lusted for blood, and today, he wanted Bella.

The sane part of me told me to walk away, that it wasn't my problem. If she died, she died, and that's the way it was meant to be. But something had my feet moving to the trellis adorning her house, and climbing with inhuman speed to the top window. Thankfully, that was unlocked. I slipped inside and followed the thoughts downstairs, back to the kitchen where I had been less than five minutes before. I saw Bella, back against the stove, and her would-be assailant standing directly in front of me, between her and me.

His back was to me, and he apparently hadn't noticed I was there yet. I took advantage of the element of surprise and asked my question to Bella, in a very low tone, almost a growl.

"Bella? Is everything okay? Is this a friend of yours?"

I had apparently startled the other man as he turned to me for the first time. His skin was the color of mahogany, finely chiseled features and hair that was black as night. He stiffened at the sight of me, and his nostrils flared. I realized what it was about him that was off. He smelled of wilderness.

The scent coming off this man was of pine needles and grass, woodlands and trees. I knew his scent, I knew it like I knew the moon would rise in the night sky.

Werewolf.

She shook her head at me as tears started falling down her face. He was no friend, and with the glimpse inside his mind, I knew that there was nothing friendly about this visit. Bella was motionless, mouth agape in shock, and I knew that this could not happen here.

Her phone rang, and all three of us jumped. I heard the click of the answering machine, and suddenly the house was filled with her father's voice.

"Bells, I'm just calling to tell you I'm on my way down to Mason County, they had an animal attack that matches one of the victims from up here, so I won't be in before tomorrow night. Be good."

I sighed. Well, at least that was one hurdle that we wouldn't have to face. I turned my attention back to the dog in front of me.

"You have two choices right now, mutt; Walk away and don't ever look in the direction of this house or this girl again, or we go outside and find out just how much you want her."

My voice had dropped to a low growl by the time I had finished speaking, and I could tell that the mutt would be taking option number two. I walked to the back door, opening it and stepping outside. I never once took my eyes of the man in front of me, and he followed me without a word. We stood, circling each other in Bella's backyard, making it look as if we were fighting for dominance. Which, in a sense, I guess we were.

Bella had followed us, still completely silent. Her eyes were on my opponent as he stripped the shirt off his body. This seemed to snap her out of whatever trance she was in, and she shouted, just as he leapt and shifted, in mid-air.

"Jake, don't!!"

I was floored. She knew this mutt? Did she know what he was, what he wanted to do to her? I couldn't let that cloud my senses right now. I had to focus, had to stop whatever intentions this thing had with Bella.

Because if I failed, she would die.

I vaguely heard her scream over the sounds of "Jake's" growling and pacing.

"Edward, you can't fight him! Don't you see what he is?! He'll kill you!"

I heard all of this in slow motion as Jake lunged for me, swiping at my chest with his claws. I heard the screech of his claws as they shredded my shirt, and the sound obviously hurt his ears. He turned to look at me with the amber eyes of his wolf, and thought one word.

Vampire!

And he turned, and bolted through the woods. I was baffled. I hadn't even done any damage yet, and he was already running away? I turned back towards the woman standing on the balcony, and her face was contorted. I could see the ribbons of torn material where the beast's claws had raked me, but there was not a scratch on my porcelain skin.

And she had seen it. She had seen my speed when I moved, seen my strength when I vaulted the trellis, and she had seen the way razor sharp claws raked across my body hadn't even left a mark. She knew. She had to know.

She looked frightened of her words, and took a deep breath.

"You're impossibly fast, and strong. Your skin is pale white and ice-cold. Your eyes change color, and sometimes you speak like you're from a different time. You never eat or drink anything, you never go out in the sunlight… How old are you?"

She was shaking by this point, and I couldn't blame her. I was about to confirm her deepest fear.

"I'm seventeen." I replied, in a breathy voice.

"How long have you been seventeen?"

I stared intently at her as I said this, letting the words sink in.

"A while."

Her breath was coming in pants now, and she looked almost on the verge of tears.

"I know what you are."

"Say it… out loud. Say it." My breath was little more than a whisper now, but I had to make sure she understood.

Her hands were shaking when she said the one word I was looking for;

"Vampire."

The monster in me smiled when he heard his name called out. I squashed that part of me down, and continued.

"Are you afraid?"

She had responded no, and I proceeded to ask her the one question that could change her mind.

"Then ask me the most basic question. What do we eat?"

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