"You would have come."

"Without a doubt."

Chapter 4

I couldn't stop staring at Bella Swan. The smell of her blood drove every other thought out of my head, but then I saw my reflection in her eyes. I saw my face, the face of a monster, and then in her other eye, Carlisle's face. The man I looked up to as my father, my role model, my hero. I wasn't anywhere at Carlisle's level, though I tried. Otherwise, I knew, I would end up slaughtering this entire classroom.

And I tried again. I held it together during biology and ran to my car instead of class. Any human smell would probably set me off. Alice hadn't seen my struggle – Jasper's moment at lunch was still on her mind, all her thoughts were on making sure he didn't kill anyone. And why should she focus on me? I hadn't killed anyone since returning to Carlisle and Esme in the late twenties.

So all I had to do now was avoid Bella Swan. I went straight to the office with the idea of switching my entire schedule around if I had to in order to get away from her. As long as I didn't have to sit right next to her, I thought I could endure. Maybe. Hopefully.

Mrs. Cope was easy enough to charm – her thoughts of me didn't hurt – but physics was full. I kept trying to win her over, but then Samantha Wells opened the door, put a signed tardy slip down, and rushed right out.

The wind through the open door hit my nose with the scent of Bella Swan.

NO, I thought to myself, and stopped breathing. It didn't matter. The smell was still there, and I turned and there was she. I was almost frozen, and used the last of my breath as I turned back to Mrs. Cope and said, "Never mind, I can see it's impossible." I gave the Swan girl one last glare and left the room.

I knew that if I hadn't held it together, I would have killed Mrs. Cope and the Swan girl. She would have merely been in the wrong place at the wrong time, just like Banner and his class, if I hadn't been able to focus. I was focusing on Bella Swan. She was going home to an empty house – the Chief was working all day today – and I could get her then. No witnesses, no other victims. Perfection.

Although now that I was outside, I was thinking a little more clearly. On the other hand, I didn't think I'd be able to go through today again. And again. Every day for the rest of the term. No, it was better to kill her now, than to have to deal with this. I threw my keys hard toward the Volvo, and could hear Emmett's thoughts as he caught them. He was wondering what the hell was wrong with me. He looked in the direction the keys had come from, but as I was downwind, and lying flat, he couldn't see me.

"Guess Edward's staying after school or something," he shrugged, and started driving everyone back home.

I was arguing with myself to get out of the truck bed, when the girl's scent hit me again. Flames coursing through my veins, my throat, nothing else mattered but sating this thirst. Hold on, I told myself, till she's home.

To me it seemed the longest of rides. The truck was slow to start, and she let the heater run for a bit anyway, which intensified her smell. I crawled into a ball at the very end of the truck bed, nose pressed against the tailgate. The Detroit iron calmed me, but her smell was still leaking from the cab. I tried to picture the scene. I would ring her doorbell, ask if she'd like to come for a walk with me. I wasn't positive she would come, as I didn't know what she was thinking, but I had no reason to think I couldn't charm her, as I charmed any human I wanted, even the men.

Finally, finally her truck sputtered to a halt. She went inside, and I sighed. Her smell lingered in the cab, of course, but it wasn't quite as painful when it wasn't fresh. Not that it mattered – I hadn't fed in two weeks and any scent at all had been annoying, whereas this… this was hell. Pure torture. It was so difficult to focus on any other matter beyond quenching this unbearable thirst with the blood of Bella Swan.

I waited about twenty minutes. She had started preparing dinner, it was cooking in the oven, so she was doing homework. Or something. I could hear keyboard keys clicking and smell the charring of the repulsive human food. I decided to wait till she took the food out of the oven – it wouldn't do for the Chief to come home to a burnt casserole or whatever, that would be far too suspicious.

Time seemed to be crawling. I got out of the truck and dusted myself off. I ran around the house too fast for human eyes to see, fifty times. I reviewed the script in my head that would seduce and end Bella Swan's life.

And then I heard a beeping noise. She slammed a book shut and ran into the kitchen. I heard the oven door open and something being put on the counter, then the oven door closing and being turned off. I inwardly cheered, attempted to rearrange my hair, and walked to the front door.

"Hello, I'm sorry I was so rude earlier. My name is Edward Cullen, from your Biology class? I had a terrible headache, and I was feeling just awful. I'd like to apologize."

The very sight of me made her blush, it seemed, and the more I spoke, the redder she got. It was nearly impossible to restrain myself there and then, but I kept thinking about Charlie coming home to find his daughter as a corpse.

"Um. That's ok. I get headaches sometimes too," she stammered.

"And you're Bella Swan?" I continued, holding my hand out to shake.

"Uh, yeah." As she shook my head she frowned. Was my hand too cold for her? I had just been outside. "How did you know my name?"

I chuckled. "Everyone knows who you are."

"No, I mean, you called me Bella."

"Isn't that your name?"

She rolled her eyes. "Everyone else today called me Isabella, but I do prefer Bella."

Oops. Mindreader trick nearly outed. "Well, I'm unusually observant," I said. "Anyway, like I said, I felt terrible for being so rude to such a beautiful girl."

Ah, there was that blush again. I was almost getting to like the way it fanned the flames in my throat. "You – really?"

I nodded. "Why don't we go for a walk and get to know each other better?"

Her eyes widened. "Let me write Charlie a note."

She did so, as well as putting her dinner back in the oven to keep it warm.

We went out the back door, which was closer to the woods. She'd pulled on an extra coat, despite the fact that it wasn't actually raining at the moment.

"Not a fan of the cold?"

"Or the wet," she agreed.

"I can't see why you'd come to Forks then," I said, puzzled.

"It's complicated," she sighed.

I entreated her and she told me about how her mother had remarried a minor league ballplayer, and couldn't really travel with him while Bella lived with them, so she decided to make things easier for them. At the end of the story, I looked her in the eyes. "You're suffering more than you let anyone see."

She turned crimson and looked away. "What difference does it make?"

"None at all," I admitted. "Although it makes this easier," I told her just before sinking my teeth into her throat.

The sweetness was even more exquisite than her smell had been. I drank deeply, ignoring her struggles and mewling cries, till there was no more blood to be had.

She had died with her brown eyes opened, staring accusatorily at me.

In one eye I saw a monster.

In the other, Carlisle's face.

The lunch bell rang – it was time to go to biology. I felt rather disoriented as I walked off.