AN: Thanks to those who submitted reviews! It's very encouraging to know you are enjoying this so far. I hope I can continue to improve and better the story for your enjoyment. This is a bit shorter than most chapters I have so far. It's Edward's point of view. Enjoy :)
"What the hell were you all thinking? Going into a restaurant, there's no point!" Rosalie ranted waving her arms in sweeping angry gestures in the living room of our new home. Alice had barely finished recounting our little diner experience before Rosalie flew into a fit of rage. We haven't even been here for a two days and we'll have to move again. I'm so sick of this I want to settle in one place without looking over my shoulder.
"We were thinking that we were lost." I said trying to keep an angry edge from my voice. I could tell from the murmur of my family's thoughts that tensions were already tight and a family brawl was the last thing we needed at the moment. "This town has changed a lot in the last few decades, you know. It's not like we can just show up after all this time and miraculously know how to get to the local hardware store. Besides it wasn't like we walked into the diner wanting to cause trouble."
"So explain to me again why it was necessary for Alice to expose us to save some human girl's life?" Rosalie, who was leaning against the doorway that lead to our useless kitchen, clasped her hands together awaiting of some sort of clarification of the afternoon's events. I felt my body tense in response as the crisp memory flitted across my mind. I had been standing next to Alice the second that man decided to draw his gun and I saw the flash of her vision through her thoughts. The girl getting shot right through the heart and falling into the very shelves Alice had pushed her into. I had seen myself lunging at the girl without warning and exposing us for what we really were.
Alice made her decision within a fraction of a second of the gunfire and threw herself to save the girl's life and keep our secrecy in tact, although moving at her usual speed rather than a human one was rather risky. The reason for the unexpected attack in the vision became horrifyingly clear when the bullet grazed the girl's arm and tore her flesh open. Her blood was ambrosia, that much I could tell from across the room. I shudder to think of how heavenly that scent would have been if it embraced me as I drank her dry. I stood no chance against the monster that raged within me, demanding that I quench the ceaseless fires that burned in my throat. It came to surface so quickly I was completely subjected to my senses, ready to kill anyone or anything that came between me and the sweet elixir flowing down her arm.
I almost didn't register my own low warning growl – inaudible to human ears – or the quick vision of Alice's that mirrored the previous vision's attack. The monster cheered seeing it's own inevitable victory, until Alice shrieked something unintelligible. Less than a second later I felt myself slamming into something far less durable then myself. Rage swelled within me furthering the grip her blood had on my senses, yet I couldn't even think about annihilating whatever force had attempted to stop me. The blow hadn't even phased me and with every passing second another few drops of the girl blood spilled down her arm going cold. Such a waste. Before I could get more than a few steps in her direction something was dragging me in the opposite direction of her blood. I fought against the forced retreat with everything bit of strength I could until I was in the fresh air just outside the door trailing Emmett with Alice close by.
Every second since then had been filled with utter remorse and self-loathing.
"I had to step in or Edward would have killed her when the second her blood was spilled." Alice explained again her tone still held strong against Rosalie's inquisition.
"It sounds like instead of Edward killing her the two of you caused quite the scene, first you saving her needlessly then Edward still trying to attack her. If it weren't for Emmett your little life saving tactic would have been useless." Rosalie snapped. Her thoughts were racing between fearful and contemptuous at a maddening pace. "Besides, didn't it occur to you to just drag Edward away from their the second you had the vision instead of risking exposure by saving her life?"
I didn't mean any harm by it. I thought it was what was best for everyone would it have been better for me to just let her die? Alice's sheepish thoughts broadcast clearly across my mind as she chewed lightly on her lip. I felt resentment toward Rosalie rising quickly but I forced myself to keep calm. How dare she make Alice question her motives? Whether or not she did the smartest thing possible or not she had saved an innocent girl's life today, an act far more noble then my own actions. I stood from the couch I was lounged on with Esme and Jasper, who was trying desperately to neutralized the waves of anger and fear throughout the room.
"Alice, you did a good thing, don't doubt that for a second." I said softly to her and she gave me a small smile that didn't quite reach her usually lively eyes. I was pacing a large path across the living room lost in thought for a moment as I replayed the moments leading up to the event in my mind before I paused in my track and spoke again. "The girl was really the only one in the room in a position to notice anything out of place, everyone else was focused on the gun. I doubt she saw Alice because she was focusing her attention elsewhere, or else she would have moved from the path of the gun or Alice."
"If she did see something I don't think she'll say anything." Alice spoke up eyeing me anxiously. She was trying to dig up a vision about the girl but surprisingly instead she was finding nothing. The silence of that normally active part of her mind was unnerving to not only her but me as well. Any vision no matter how bad was at least useful as an advanced warning.
"You think" Rosalie stressed. She turned her attention back to me. I would have known the next part of her thought even if I couldn't read it before she spoke it. "What was she thinking when you left Edward?"
I froze, even though I had been expecting the question I still had no idea how to answer. The reality that I didn't know what the girl was thinking as we fled caught me off guard. I tried to push my way through the haze of chaos that the monster had brought to my mind during the day's earlier events. Many thoughts were screaming at the time but as I sifted through what I could recall, but I didn't know any of the voices so I couldn't have picked a specific person out no matter how hard I tried. None of the thoughts really stuck out as something that might pertain to the mind of teenage girl, let alone one who'd nearly been killed. Was she in shock at the moment? Who was I kidding, she could have gone unconscious and I wouldn't have even noticed through the chaos of my own sick bloodlust.
"I don't know" I frowned finally answering Rosalie's question the only way I could; honestly. She barked out a short laugh laced with a tinge of hysteria.
"This is just great. Our psychic and our mind reader both decide to take mental vacations while this child could be off telling anyone who'll listen about the freaky little girl with superpowers and the deranged psychopaths who accompany her around town! What good are your incredibly invasive powers if they can't detect a blatant threat?" Emmett strode across the room in a flash from the armchair he'd been sitting in and wrapped his arms around her trying to soothe her anger.
"I'd hate to agree with her Edward, but if Alice isn't getting anything, you're our only chance to know what she's intending to do or if she saw anything at all. You need to go back there and try and get a clue as to what she's thinking." Jasper spoke this time. I turned to him staring in outright shock.
"Absolutely not! If I get near her I'll kill her!" I snapped at him unintentionally. It was uncalled for but I couldn't help it. Jasper of all people should know just what I felt on that matter. The idea of going anywhere near her made the monster within me rejoice and that was a bad sign. I hated being helpless in the matter of my bloodlust and that girl brought out the devil within me. How preposterous that a little girl - no more than a child really - could make me so weak without intending to. The scent of her blood alone shattered my self-restraint into oblivion.
"Good! Kill her! Problem solved." Rosalie shouted.
"Hardly! That'd be a much bigger problem. Killing the girl in public would do little to diminish the attention we probably gained earlier." I noted the way my voice rose as I spoke, Rosalie always had a way of irritating me to such a point.
"Edward you need to try. You need to try your hardest, if you don't we could all be done for." Alice said softly. I felt the slowly rising irritation with Rosalie evaporate at the determination that masked Alice's face. All the determination in the world couldn't hide from me the fearful thoughts that flitted across her mind. My own resolve to never be weakened by the girl again was the next to disappear. I wouldn't let my selfish pride endanger Alice, or anyone else in my family for that matter.
"I know." The words came from me as softly as they had from Alice. The tone of the thoughts shifted to darker thoughts of hunting and how to amend the situation should I fail; everyone but Carlisle and Alice was almost certain I would do just that. My steps felt heavy as I fled from the room. On the black leather sofa against the wall I dropped my head into my hands wishing once again I could block out the discouraging words in the minds of my family. It would be hard enough knowing that even I lacked the confidence in myself. My devil wasn't one that was easily conquered.