Bella's Pov
EVERYTHING WAS SO CLEAR.
Sharp. Defined.
The brilliant light overhead was still blinding,bright and yet I could plainly still see the glowing strands of the filaments inside the bulb. I could see each color of the rainbow in the white light and at the very edge of the spectrum, an eighth color I had no name for.
Behind the light, I could distinguish the indivdual grains in the dark wood ceiling above. In front of it, I could see the dust moles in the air the sides, distinct and separate. They spun like little planets moving around each other in a celestial dance.
Just then I realised I heard the breathing of someone else in the room, but who?
I sat up and there on the other side of the room was a boy.
He had beautiful jet black hair, pale white skin with golden eyes. With those eyes I knew he was a ' vegetarian ', I didn't even need to ask.
He had to be a vampire for he was just too perfect.
He looked hesitent, then he spoke."Hi my name is Nathan, do you know what you are?"
When I spoke I couldn't believe my voice it sounded just like bells. "Hi Nathan, I'm Bella, and yes I know what I am, I'm a vampire."
He looked a little surprised "I wasn't expecting you to realise that, so then do you who changed you?" He asked with great interest.
"It's a long story..." my voice broke off, at first I wasn't sure if I should trust him, but his smile broke the tension and for a reason I couldn't pin point I felt safe with him.
So I told him about why I moved to Forks about the Cullens and their move to who knows where and my love for Edward. About James, Victoria and how she found me in the forest, only to turn me, to get back at Edward.
"Thats quite a story I'm sorry to hear that you feel so alone, but since you told me your story I'll tell you mine."
"I was born in 1812 in New York, I had 2 brothers and 3 sisters. I was youngest, we lived farther away from everybody else, are closest neighbors had to be at least 6 miles away. When the lamp with kerosene tipped over the house wents up in flames in the middle of the night, paniced I ran from the house searching for my family. Within minutes the house was all but a cinder and I was the only one to get out. A vampire named Peter saw the flames and came to the house to try and help but it was too late. Blacked with soot and burned on most of my body from trying to get back into the house, Peter found me exusted and dying by the well and there he change me in order to save my life. He stayed with me till I was done the change and then after my first hunt we went are seperate ways...due to special circumstances" His voice trailed off as if there was more but the look on his face told me not to inquire.
"I'm sorry for the loss of your family" I said.
"It's okay. So are you ready for your first hunt?"
"Yeah lets go."
"Oh. Do you want to see yourself first?"
"...Sure"
We went to the huge full sized mirror and I looked at myself.
My first reaction was an unthinking pleasure. The alien creature in the glass was indisputably beautiful, every bit as beautiful as Alice or Esme. She was fluid even in stillness, and her flawless face was pale as the moon against the frame of her dark, heavy hair. Her limbs were smooth and strong, skin glistening subtly, luminous as a pearl.
My second reaction was horror.
Who was she? At first galnce, I couldn't find my face anywhere in the smooth, prefect planes of her features.
And her eyes! Though I'd known to expect them, her eyes still sent a thrill of terror through me.
All the while I studied and reacted, her face was perfectly composed, a carving of a goddess, showing nothing of the turmoil roiling inside me. And her full lips moved.
"The eyes?" I whispered, unwilling to say my eyes. "How long?"
"They'll darken up in a few months," Nathan said in a soft, comforting voice. "Animal blood dilutes the color more quickly than a diet of human blood. They'll turn amber first, than gold."
My eyes would blaze like vicious red flames for months?
"Months?" My voice was higher now, stressed. In the mirror, the perfect eyebrows lifted incredulously above her glowing crisom eyes- brighter than any I'd ever seen.
He didn't answer.
"I'm fine lets go hunting."
We darted through the backyard to the edge of the river. I went along with him effortlessly.
Everything physical seemed very simple.
"Are we swimming?" I asked him when we stopped beside the water.
"No we're jumping."
"You first," I said.
He took two quick backward strides, and then ran back those two steps, launching himself from a flat stone firmly embedded in the riverbank. I studied the flash of movement as he arced over the water, disappeared into the thick trees on the other side of the river.
I backed up five paces, just in case, and took a deep breath.
Suddenly, I was anxious again. Not about falling or getting hurt I was more worried about the forest getting hurt.
"Bella?" Nathan called from the woods, his voice moving closer. "Do you want to watch me do it again?"
But I remebered everything perfectly. So I took a deep breath and ran for the river.
An entire second had yet to pass, and I was across.
We broke out into a run
"Close your eyes," Nathan said when we reached the pefect spot.
"Listen," Nathan instructed. "What do you hear?"
There was an open space near us- the wind had a different sound across the exposed grass- and a small creek, with a rocky bed. And there, near the noise of the water was the splash of lapping tongues, the loud thudding of heavy hearts, pumping thick streams of blood....
It felt like the sides of my throat had sucked closed.
"By the creek, to the northest?" I asked, my eyes still shut.
"Yes." His tone was approving. "Now...wait for the breeze again and...what do you smell?"
I focused toward the water and found the scent that must have gone with the lapping noise and the pounding heart. Another warm smell, rich and tangy, stronger than the others. And yet nearly unappealing as the brook. I wrinkled my nose.
He chuckled "I know- it takes some getting used to."
"Three?" I gussed.
"Five. There are two more in the trees behind them."
"What do I do now?"
"Don't think about it," he suggested. "Just follow your instincts."
My body shifted forward automatically into a low crouch. As I hesitated at the fern fringed edge of the trees. I could see a big buck, two dozen antler points crowning his head, at the streams's edge and the shadow- spotted shapes of the four others heading eastward into the forest a leisurely pace.
I launched myself at him, knocking us both to the forest floor.
It wasn't much of a fight.
My teeth unerringly sought his throat. My jaw locked easily over the precise point where the heat flow croncentrated.
My teeth were steel razors; they cut through the fur and fat and sinews like they weren't there. The flavor was wrong, but the blood was hot and wet and it soothed the ragged, itching thirst as I drank in a eager rush. the buck's struggles grew more and more feeble, and his screams chocked off with a gurgle. The warmth of the blood radiated throughout my whole body, heating even my fingertips and toes.
"How was that?" I asked.
"Perfect."
We headed back to the house, the wind had picked up and the rain fell heavily on the old roof. The house provided a place of sancuary for the time being, I was beginning to wonder what my life would hold next now that going home was not an option.
"So that was some hunt hun?"
His voice broke my thoughtful daze
"Yea, I guess not that I have much to compare it too, well nothing really...I bet you consider yourself pretty experienced" my eyebrow raised as I asked the question
With a smirk he replied " Well sure but I not nearly as good as some of the covens I've met in Europe, now when they hunt wow" Nathan leaned back in the rather expensive looking lounge chair, looking quite comfortable with himself
"Europe? what are the vampires like there"
"Pretty much the same as North American ones but with better accents, you know the usual happens seperate covens, some are not as friendly as other and some don't have any issue helping themselves to the general population from time to time"
"So why did you leave?" I asked, at that moment his face took on a reminisent look of time gone by.
"I never truly left, I still own a home in london and I'm heading back there this week...you just happened to be a interesting turn of events. I was thinking while we were running through the forest hunting that due to your recent change, going home isen't an option and you might consider coming with me to London."
The thought of leaving Forks never immediatly crossed my mind as an option and suddenly it wasn't that scary, sure, I would have to leave my parents and my friends but after everything that has happened nothing would ever be the same as it was before. The question remained of how I was going to keep my parents from trying to find me?