a/n: Alright, making progress here. Chapter three up and running! I think maybe just a few more Bella POVs and then we'll move on to our Angel's POV, no? ¡Bueno! Oh, I can't wait! Hope you're all enjoying it! Leave me a review if you get the chance! :)

Disclaimer: All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer. I just made them speak dirty Spanish. ;)

Jordi Brooke ~ Adidasgrl328

El Angel De Las Tinieblas
Chapter 3: Respirar

There was never going to be some sort of miracle cure for the pain I'd suffered at the hands of my father. Leaving the apartment for good would not suddenly make me normal. I didn't even dare hope for it, but I supposed maybe no one else knew that.

My angel and I were absorbed entirely in our moment as he spoke my name. His hand was still warm in my own, sending heat into my heart. His eyes were locked to mine, and mine to his. I'd probably never be healed, not fully, but already I could feel his life force, his unique energy, infiltrating my body in that wave of heat and healing a few fissures within.

But nothing could have helped my reaction when a loud bang reverberated off the walls of my Heaven. Fear clutched my soul and paralyzed every muscle in my body for one horribly long second. Then instinct curled me into a tight ball, my hands winding themselves into a soft fabric and my face tucking into my knees. I registered, just slightly, that I had gripped onto my angel's shirt and that his body now hovered protectively above mine.

I could feel the vibrations of his voice in his chest where my fingers made the lightest contact and could hear the sound of it rushing angrily from his lips. The words he spewed weren't all ones I entirely knew, nor cared to interpret, as they were in Spanish and not English, and were spoken so rapidly and venomously that I wasn't sure I'd ever even want to know what he was saying.

Another voice swiped apologetically over my ears, an almost pleading tone laced in with his own Hispanic accent. Unlike my angel, he spoke in English, and very slowly. One could assume he was speaking to a frightened animal, one that wouldn't understand what was being said, but would hopefully realize from the somewhat soothing nature of the noises that the person meant no harm.

I wanted to relax, to turn toward whoever stood at the door and face them, but I couldn't. Instead, I gasped for breath as my chest tightened. It was like I suddenly had lost the ability to breathe. My heart attacked my ribcage with rapid, unsteady burst. It was probable that the organ was going to escape right through the skin and bones protecting it. I begged it to calm, much the same as I did with my shuddering lungs.

The voices stopped about the same moment I felt my throat constrict and my angel's protective stance relaxed from over top of me. His presence was likely the only thing that kept me from fully blacking out, at that point. Knowing he was there was just enough to take the edge off of the consuming panic from which I suffered, and would continue to suffer.

I wasn't sure how long it was after the second person left that my angel's voice and soothing words finally penetrated the wall of fear.

"My beautiful one, please calm down. Breathe with me, please. Please, Bella, I beg you, breathe."

His tone was stricken. It thoroughly startled me, forcing me to finally gasp in a much-needed breath. The air felt amazing once it settled into my lungs, as if I were a fish, being returned to the water.

"With me, Bella. Breathe with me. Bueno, bueno." He loosened one of my hands, still tightly grasping the fabric of his shirt, and flattened it to his chest between his heavily beating heart and his large, roughly calloused hand. The steady thump, thump thump against my palm was an easy rhythm to help find my breath again. In, out. In, out.

"Easy, now. That is good." His other hand smoothed down my hair while he stared deeply into my eyes. Behind his now darkened irises, I could see the soul of my angel. Surely, it was as beautiful as my angel himself was in appearance. His protective nature was an incredibly handsome facet to his personality, while this soothing voice and ability he possessed were fantastically attractive. I smiled with through my still-labored breaths. "Bueno. Respira, y ahora exhala. Y una vez más. Bueno."

His fingers combed through my brown tangles.

"Feeling better now?"

I nodded. I wanted to speak to respond, but my throat was burning. I needed some water, because I could not have possibly spoken a word in my condition.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded again, but brought one of my hands, the one he was not still pressing over top his heart, to my throat as I tried to croak out the word, "Water," only to fail in a miserably, hoarse groan.

"Shh, do not speak yet, my beautiful one." I smiled at what seemed to be his name for me. His body once again hovered over mine, but only for the briefest moment. Unfortunately, in the process of doing whatever it was he was doing, he was forced to drop my hand from his muscular chest in order to balance himself without crushing me.

When he returned to his previous position, he handed me a glass of water. It was the glass from the nightstand that I had left untouched when I'd dry-swallowed the medication earlier. Still holding it in one hand, he used his free arm to coax me into a sitting position.

Every cell of my body seemed to object to the movement, but I couldn't have resisted my angel's insistence if I had wanted to. And I certainly didn't want to.

He touched the rim of the glass to my chapped bottom lip, silently requesting that I begin to sip. Both my hands moved up to take hold of the glass, but my angel still did not release it from his own hold. I was thankful though, because my hands trembled with the left over adrenaline of the panic attack. I had no doubt that I could not have held it steady to save my life.

The liquid within the glass was no longer cool, but I assumed it had once been at some point last night. Still, as it slid down my throat, the fire extinguished. When half of it was gone, I pushed it away from my lips and he set the glass on a nightstand on his other side.

His soft smile was reassuring, once he resettled. "Now, my beautiful one, how do you feel?"

"Better, thank you…" I wanted to know his name, so that I didn't have to trail off at the end of the sentence. I assumed continuing to call him "my angel" aloud was not something I should do.

"Edward. My name is Edward," he told me instantly, and his hand wrapped around mine, warming me again.

I mulled it over in my mind. The name didn't quite sound right to me. It was too English. The way he said it, he forced his Spanish accent away to say it like an American. It sounded so wrong, coming from him.

Still, I let the name flip off my tongue as I reverently whispered, "Edward."

His gemstone eyes glowed, instantly.

a/n2: Alright so how'd we like that? Good? Bad? Or are we at the "alright move on with the story and get to the Spanishwardness" attitude! Drop me a review and let me know what you're thinking!

Spanish in this chapter:

Bueno, bueno. ~ Good, good.

Bueno. Respira, y ahora exhala. Y una vez más. Bueno. ~ Good. Inhale, and now exhale. And again (one more time). Good.

Alright, everybody have some awesome holidays now! Go eat chocolate or jelly beans, or have an awesome passover!

I'm off to go give my best friends giant, 2-foot-tall, chocolate bunnies!

Jordi Brooke ~ Adidasgrl328