I do not own the idea for charmed handcuffs, that comes from Sunshine by Robin McKinely. Awesome book.

In less than an instant Edward held me sheltered behind him, "I'm so sorry, Bella."

I turned my head as far as I could, Victoria stood in front of us, marring the beauty of the meadow. "Well, that little scene was just touching; forever and ever, Bella," she said in a high pitch, mocking tone, "I'll love you forever, Bella," I blinked and she was in front of me, her face grotesquely distorted, "You're going to die, Bella."

Edward scooped me up into his arms and began to run into the forest, "I can't believe I didn't hear her, no one is that good at blocking their mind," he had slowed down quiet a bit, "Except you," he was breathing heavily, something I knew he didn't have to do.

"Are you okay, Edward?"

"I'm tired, that's it," but Edward didn't get tired.

"You could put me down, maybe she just wanted to scare us."

"Maybe she just wanted to scare us," she was back again, "Is our dear hero tired? Hasn't anyone told you to eat after you go swimming? Well, you do have a tasty little morsle right there. Take the girl."

Edward held me closer to him, it was definitely going to bruise, although I was thankful for the protection. But I was forcefully ripped out of his embrace, "Bella!"

Another vampire gripped my forearms, I pulled against the man, pointlessly.

Victoria lunged at Edward and attacked him, "No!" my voice echoed off the trees and hit me back.

I felt something swing towards my head and I blacked out.

I woke up in a cold musty room, my head and arms aching and every muscle in my body aching all topped off by the searing pain coming from on both my wrists.

I opened my eyes and surveyed the room, stone everywhere, low ceiling and a misleading wooden door. It appeared as if even I in my weak state would be able to kick it open, but Victoria and her new mate weren't that dim. A sick, cruel joke.

"Edward?" my voice echoed off the walls, I heard water drip from somewhere off in the distance.

"I'm right here, Isabella."

I turned my head and saw my angel chained to a wall, "Oh God, Edward are you okay? Why- how are you chained to a wall?"

He laughed feebly. My Edward was never feeble though. "Well, you know how vampires are real?" I nodded, to weak to come up with a sarcastic remark, "And how werewolves are real?" Again a nod. "Well, so are witches."

"Like Glinda?" I asked hopefully.

"No, more like Ursula."

I paused, shuddering for a moment. It was ironic that all the wonderful fairytale creatures I had grown up being told were good were evil and all the creatures I was told were evil turned out to be very good. Well, for the most part.

"Wait! Edward, you've seen The Little Mermaid?"

"Alice made me."

"I'm sure. Who's the stronger vampire in that situation?"

"She threatened to take me shopping," I would take Disney movies any day before an Alice Shopping Spree.

"But, what do witches have to do with those chains?" I slowly sat up, ignoring the pain; lying around and letting my muscle tense wasn't going to help them.

"They've been charmed," he turned his arms an I saw the intricate Mandela like patterns on the metal, they appeared to be crusted over in blood. I scooted closer to him, trying to get a closer look, "Please don't."

His voice sounded incredibly pained but I was still taken back with what he said, "Your wrists, the man slit them before throwing you in here. They aren't deep, already scabbed over, but it was just enough to get your scent a little stronger in the room," he mumbled something, which I thought was "Like it isn't strong enough," but I couldn't be sure and I didn't want to ask.

I took in a slow, deep breath, "They want you to kill me," he looked up at me, his eyes dark as ever. I knew that he had fed just before going to the meadow, but I guess after going swimming, the fight and my spilled blood, the prior meal was negated, "How sick. I'm sorry, Edward."

He scoffed and shook his head, "It's not your fault, Bella. The man that was with Victoria- his power is to block other people's power. Not like how I can't read your mind but- he controls whether your power works or not. That's why I didn't hear them and Alice didn't see them. There was nothing any of us could have done. We were- are hopeless"

"But we can think of something, right?"

"What, Bella?" his voice was sharp and I cringed, I suppose being an all powerful vampire and be completely hopeless was a bit of ego killer, "They have my power blocked, I don't even know if anyone knows we're missing."

"How long have we been here?"

"Two days." The figurative rain cloud above us got bigger, darker and heavier.

"Well someone would have noticed us not coming home!" Charlie would be furious when he found out I had (a) broken house rules (going out with Edward) and (b) gotten my self into a seriously dangerous situation. Again.

"Not really," it was only a mumble.

But it got me worried, "What do you mean?"

"It was supposed to be a surprise," he appeared as if he didn't want to talk.

"Edward. I'm in love with a vampire. I've been bitten by a sadistic vampire and threatened by an extremely old royal vampire. And now I'm locked in a bomb shelter with the love of my life who I recently said had it all only to find out that you do a little scribble on a piece of metal and- boom!- no more Superman powers. My surprise threshold has gone down considerably since we first met."

"I was going to take you to Paris for a week and purpose to you there. A real proposal; with wine and a ring."

"I don't like wine," I said pathetically, trying to help him get over his wasted plans.

"It's what your supposed to drink on a romantic date."

"Charlie would of never fallen for it, he wouldn't let you take me Paris or anywhere for that matter."

"Charlie won a trip to go fishing on a private boat and all calls to the house are set up to be transferred to a cell phone I have- had."

"So Charlie doesn't know I'm missing?"

"No. Victoria said that he talked to Carlisle and Carlisle said you were shopping with Alice and he would explain everything once you got back. But I don't know if that's true," I don't think he wanted it to be true.

We were in such a desperate situation that Edward was hoping that maybe Charlie would find a way to save us.

"So, I've been out of it for two days?"

"Two and a half. It took us awhile to get here."

"And you just figured I was napping?"

"What did you want me to do, Bella? I could hear your pulse," I cringed, it wasn't his fault he couldn't come near me right now, "Besides, you were talking. You were dreaming about something. I think I was teaching you how to dance."

"I would like that," spending any time with Edward out of this basement would be nice.

"But you hate dancing?" he shook his head in confusion.

"I told you, with you it's not so bad."

"You were standing on my feet the entire time at Prom."

I smiled at the memory, "And I didn't trip at all."

The memory floated away and the cold walls of the room pushed around my consciousness.

My eyes fell back onto the chains surrounding Edward's wrists, "Do you know how to get those off?"

"I can't, only a vampire can break them or unlock them but they are blood bonded to be which means I can't be the one to break them."

"But another vampire could."

"Yeah, sure. But no one knows where we are."

It was perfect. Edward wanted to propose to me, I wanted to be a vampire, but he would only change me if we were planning to get married.

Okay, planning weren't his original words… he wanted us to be married before I was changed, but there has to be an emergency situation loophole. Now I only had to hope that Edward wasn't going to be so stubborn.

Coincidentally, I could be just as stubborn, if not more.

"I know where we are," I said, not getting to the point quite so quickly as I probably should.

"Of course you do, Bella. But unless you have a cell phone with amazing reception that isn't going to help us," I wasn't appreciating his short tone.

"Edward, don't be blind right now. This may be are only option. If no one is going to find us we can't just let ourselves rot here. It has to be the perfect plan; you need to eat something, I want to be with you forever… and neither of those things can happen if we just sit here. I highly doubt Victoria is a nice enough host to bring us anything to eat."

Edward's jaw tightened, I was sure if blood was able to pump through his system I would of seen a vein pop somewhere, "No," his voice deep and barely more than a growl.

"But, Edward-"

"No! I won't sacrifice you for this. Besides, you don't understand what happens after you are changed. The only thing on your mind when you first awaken is to find food, and by doing that you could kill me. And that's even I would be able to stop myself from drinking you dry. It's taking every dose of strength and love I have to not sink my teeth into your neck right now, Isabella."

Tears were running down my face, no matter how much I tried, begged and pleaded, I would never truly understand what Edward was going through.

"Edward!" I cried out, wanting so badly to go over to him and kiss away his frustration.

"No. And that's it. You aren't going to argue about this one."

I stood up, grasping the wall for support, "Yes I am. Don't you get it? This is what they want, they want you to lose control and kill me, but if you have control it won't be a problem. I trust you, Edward."

"I don't trust myself, Bella," of course he didn't, he always talked about how I didn't see myself for who I really was, but he didn't really see himself for who he was and I told him that, "Don't be ridiculous, I'm a vampire. I can never trust myself."

I looked at him, slowly, staring too deeply into his eyes, "Maybe you have to now. I trust you, Edward. I believe you can do this, I know you can do this. You have to change to me."

"Bella, it won't matter. Even if I do change you, I don't think I can take three more days without blood."

"Then take some of mine! Human blood is stronger right," it was only slightly morbid that we were talking so lightly about drinking blood, "drink some of mine, maybe it'll speed the venom from going through my veins, you know? Get my blood pumping or something."

"Bella," he scoffed in disgust, "That's sick."

"We're locked in a bomb shelter, your chained to a wall and my wrists have been slit. That's sick. Changing me in order to save both us is much different. I've told you before, Edward, I don't always want to be the Lois Lane, I wanna be Superman sometimes to… or Buffy," I paused, sorry I couldn't think of more female heroines, "You can be my Angel, of course I wouldn't be killing vampires… unless they were Victoria or one of the Volturi. But, oh, that's not the point, Edward! I can't always be this helpless little china doll you have to protect!"

Edward looked up at me with sad, dark eyes, his lips a thin line across his face, "It's painful."

"I've been there before."

"It's a forever thing."

"I thought that was kinda the point."

"Are you sure?"

"Edward. I don't want to die in a basement. Well… the permanent kind of die," I smiled, hoping he would see the light in the dreary situation.

"Only you would risk everything to save someone," Edward rubbed his hands down his pants, as if his hands were clammy.

"I'm kind of crazy like that," I laughed, "Maybe my power will have something to do with that."

"Semi-suicidal activities in order to save people?" a joke, he had agreed. I walked closer to him and sat down beside him, my hand, dried blood crusted on it, "Can I have a few moments?"

"Sure. Just keep in mind we both have to eat at some point," I laid my head on his shoulder and he pulled me closer, breathing in my scent.

"I hope that doesn't disappear," he thought out loud.

"Maybe it won't."

"Shhh."

And we sat there, I wasn't sure for how long. Edward's hands combed through my hair, brushed across my face, memorizing my human features, features that would soon be sharper and prettier.

I was slowly falling asleep to his gentle strokes, "Do you want to do this now?"

"Edward, I've wanted to do this since the day in the meadow, you know that."

Edward pulled me onto his lap, "I'm going to bite you as many times as I can handle, to get as much venom into your system. Hopefully it will take less than three days," Edward kissed me tenderly on the lips, our last kiss with boundaries, he pulled away and tucked his head into my neck, I leaned over to the side, my head falling into his hand.

He kissed my neck softly, I could feel his cold, wet teeth against my neck, the venom already pumping away, a cold trail of venom fell down my neck, "I love you, Isabella."

Edward's inhuman teeth slid into my neck, puncturing the layers of skin and popping the vein. I felt the blood seeping out of the wound into his mouth like a popped water balloon, fast at first and then slowing down.

It didn't hurt, not like I knew the venom soon would. But I never felt that expected pain.

I placed my hand gently on Edward's tensed arm, he had me wrapped in his arms with no room to move, only my left arm was free, "Edward?" I said, my head becoming dizzy, "Edward, I think you need to stop."

I felt and heard him sigh after every gulp of my blood, I knew that Edward desperately needed to eat something and sure, since I was going to be a vampire in three days what was a liter or two as far as immortality was concerned? But by now he had definitely taken more than my body could handle.

My neck and shoulders were had lost all sensation and my hands were just beginning to tingle. I tried to flail my legs to get his attention, since my grasping hand obviously wasn't doing the trick, but he grabbed them in his free hand stopping all movement.

Tears began to fall down my numb face, what Edward had feared had happened, due to hunger and temptation he had lost control.

Through my tears I uselessly mumbled his name, "Edward, you need to stop," hoping some semblance of human emotion of thought was still running through him. But, like he had always told me, when blood thirst- blood lust takes over his vampire side takes over.

How could I have been so stupid as to think that he could control himself? He knew himself better than I did, he had repeatedly told me how dangerous he was to me and yet I pushed him to hard. I had forced him to believe in something that was false… I had dazzled him into this pretense.

And yet, as my eyelids closed and my head fell back as Edward looked at me, disgust all over his face and a bloody, red tinge on his lips I knew three things for certain. One, Edward would be able to survive this, even without me. Two, I would see Edward, ever the dramatic, very soon. And three, Edward would always be the love of my life.

"It's okay, Edward. I love you."

Apparently I like to kill Bella off. Hm, oh well. I might write a sequel to this to see what Edward does afterwards… but I don't know, it wouldn't be a part of the Dark Bella Trilogy (the first in the series is Bleeding Pain.) We'll see what happens. Go check out Bleeding PainSundown and Maybe it was Fate. shameless plugger