To say she was belligerent would be the largest possible understatement in the entirety of human history. Endless questions. Endless accusations. Endless bitching and endless mood swings. We'd been arguing about having to leave for three hours and my patience – and our good fortune that my family were yet to arrive – was running out.

She didn't want to leave her home. I didn't give her a choice and instructed her to go to my car. She stood her ground. We argued some more.

In the end, just before the sun came up, I frog marched her to the front door and shoved her out of it. She let me so I knew she realised the wisdom in my reasoning. But she wasn't going to give in it that easily.

A fact I realised when she stood in her driveway hands on hips beside my car and outright refused to get into the passenger seat.

"Alright," I growl as I move towards her. "If you think you can handle that on your own you're welcome to try, but I'm leaving," I tell her firmly as I throw my head in the direction of number nineteen where Stuart is sleepily wandering towards his car to head to work.

His scent hits me full force half a second before it hits her and I see her noticeably stiffen. I have her penned in between the open passenger door and myself, but with her newborn strength she had half a chance to get by me. But she won't. I can tell she won't because had she still be able to shed tears she would've right then as the magnitude of what I'd been trying to explain to her for hours became the truth for her.

She is a predator now and her natural prey are humans.

She tune sad, crimson eyes to me and nods minutely before climbing into my car.

I shut the door behind her and slide into the driver's seat. She reaches for her seatbelt and I chuckle a little as I slam the car into reverse and tear out of her driveway. By the time we reach the same corner where the SUV had barrelled past me a few days earlier she is gripping the dash with her nails – denting my lovely Volvo horridly – and swearing at me to slow the fuck down.

"No need," I tell her as I slide the car around the next corner too.

She is quiet for hours and I am grateful. I want to talk to her, to learn about her, but she isn't ready. She hadn't had enough time to embrace what she was now, or what had led her to needing to be changed into what she was now. That would come. The questions and the recriminations. I was ready for that when the time came.

For now we drive in silence while she stares out her window at the passing scenery.

We wouldn't ever need to stop for food or to relieve ourselves as humans would, but we did need to stop for fuel. I warn her I am going stop in the next town so she's prepared for the human scents when I open my door and she does nod that she understands me, but says nothing.

No matter. I like the silence.

It is refreshing.

I'd spent fifty years listening to the women in my life chatter. Her silence was a nice change for me.

I'd never be able to escape the thoughts of those around me, but with her – with or without her brain injury which was yet to be proved or denied sufficiently – I thought I might find a little peace.

I filled the car, paid for the fuel and on we drove. Four hours later I repeat the process. And still she is silent. I am really enjoying myself!

When she puts her hand to her throat I venture off the main highway and take smaller roads until we are once again surrounded by forest. I hadn't seen another car for a good half hour so pull mine to the shoulder of the track and tell her to wait for me before she ran off.

As was becoming the norm she ignores me and is off and running before I'd even closed my door.

I take off behind her and follow her strengthening scent as she dodges and weaves her way through the thick trees.

I find her with her meal well in hand a few minutes later and get up into a tree to watch. This time she keeps her eyes on me as she feeds. I don't know if she is seeing me as a threat to her kill but I didn't want to take the chance to find out. Many a vampire had been ended by a newborn for seeming to be coveting a kill. I stay right where I am, my eyes locked to hers, as she drinks.

She wipes her mouth when she is done and sits beside the creature with a thud. I jump from my perch and move towards her carefully. I sit down beside her and wait for her to speak. I think she will now.

"Can I ever go back again?" she asks quietly.

I don't quite know to where she is referring so I tell her the simple answer. "One day yes. When your thirst is well under control."

"Can I go back to work?"

"One day."

"Can I get married?" she asks, startling me but I don't get the chance to ask what she's asking for when the next round of questions begins. "Is it legal for me to get married now? Can a vampire marry a human? Can I have kids? Can I adopt? Can I pee? Why aren't I tired? How long until I can go out on my own?"

It's a hell of a list. Some of it I don't want to even think about, so I address the questions pertaining to her new nature only. "It's not that you can't pee, you just don't need to anymore. So you won't. You won't ever need to sleep again. We don't tire. Ever. And you can go out on your own once I'm sure you're no threat to humans."

I try to put out of mind the part about marriage. Its true I hadn't seen any evidence of a boyfriend or lover, but having only just moved to the area perhaps she wasn't through decorating and hadn't put those things on view yet. I began to worry. Maybe I'd just taken her away from someone who loved her and whom she loved in return.

"Is someone going to be looking for you?" I ask hesitantly. She shakes her head and to me it seems sadly. "A boyfriend, lover? A casual date?" I ask cautiously but she's still shaking her head. I feel ridiculously relieved.

Jasper had sent me all the information he could find about her so I knew that she had family, but nobody close like a sibling or parent. They were all gone. There were cousins and an aunt or two, but nobody that I thought was close enough to mount a search party.

"Where are we going?" she asks, finally, after long moments of silence.

"I have a place in mind, but I'm open to suggestion," I tell her as I get to my feet.

She comes to hers too but shakes her head. "I guess it doesn't matter where I end up anymore."

"Where would you like to go? If you could just go anywhere, anywhere at all on a whim. Where would you head?" I ask as we begin to walk back towards the car.

"I don't have any money," she whispers, but I hear her and grin to myself.

"I didn't ask where you'd go if you could afford it. I just want to know where your first choice would be."

She doesn't answer and as we get to the car she enters the passenger side without comment. I let it go. She has a lot going on in her head. Decisions were hard to make at the start. I remembered that from when I'd been changed myself. Sensory overload it was called.

I drive us back out to the main road and rejoin the highway, all the while we sit in silence. But for the thoughts of humans coming in the other direction it was once again peaceful.

Out of the blue she says one word and a fluttering in my chest rises inside me that I hadn't felt in a very, very long time. Intrigue. I feel intrigued that she's said this word. Forks. She says Forks.

To anyone else it might have seemed as though she was speaking of the utensil but to me I knew exactly what she meant. And where she meant. Forks Washington. I knew it well.

"Any particular reason?" I ask as I turn the car around and head back in the direction we'd come.

"I was shot," she says simply.

"And that is related to Forks somehow?" I ask as I take the exit that will take us west.

"Oh yeah," she hisses before turning to face me in her seat. "I think the motherfucker who shot me or paid to have me shot is from Forks."

I grin then. It turns to a full on smile within seconds. She's utterly ruthless. She's vengeful. She's a handful and she's confusing but she's fucking perfect. "Motherfuckers do need to learn their place," I chuckle as I put my foot to the floor.

Whilst I was up for a spot of vengeance, and if truthful up for anything this woman cared to name, I did have some concerns about setting foot in Forks once again. We'd lived there as a family forty odd years ago and although we hadn't been back there might be one or two humans left there that might recognise me. After all I hadn't changed even a little bit since last being there. Physically anyway.

Mentally possibly.

"Do you know who this motherfucker is already?" I ask as I speed through another bend.

"No clue," she laughs. "But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out that if I want to find out I have to go to Forks," she says, shedding her shoes and propping her feet on my dash.

I scowl at her, she grins sweetly at me and I return my eyes to the road. She isn't at all what I expected her to be. "Tell me why you think that way."

"My father was the Chief of Police in Forks for twenty years. He was killed eight months ago. In Forks. On duty. It had all the hallmarks of a professional hit but I was told it was an accident. I think that's bullshit and after reading some of his case notes I think I'm sure its bullshit."

"Was he investigating something?" I ask, my interest now fully piqued.

"He was always investigating something," she replies quickly. "But he never stepped outside his jurisdiction so whatever happened to him had to have been done by someone in Forks. I want to know who that is."

I look to her and see the grin on her face. It's predatory. It's unnerving. It's fucking gorgeous.

"Then we'll head to Forks and find out," I say simply.

"Why?" she asks.

It's an interesting question. I'm not fully sure why, but I'm not fully sure why not either. "I'm up for the hunt," I tell her with a shrug.

She thinks on it and then turns to me a little more. "But you said we couldn't stay where we were because I was a danger to the humans around me. Now you're condoning going to hunt one down. I don't get it."

"You are a danger to the humans around us. But back there," I say, throwing a look over my shoulder in the direction we'd come from, "those humans are decent. They were nice people. They never hurt anyone, they just went about their lives.

"There are a lot out there who aren't so nice. I have no problem eradicating a few of those."

"You're very odd," she states matter of factly, and not for the first time.

"I prefer enigma," I chuckle as I change lanes and curse at the idiot human doing half the speed limit.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," I tell her.

"Who's going to come looking for you?"

The question takes me by surprise. "I never said anyone would."

"You were eager to leave, and I know you said it's because I'm a threat, but we could've stayed a little longer in my house. Or yours. We could've just hunted in our own forest for a little while."

It's a good argument and she's thought it through. No point lying so I don't. "My family, for want of a better description, would have come. They are probably already there now."

"You don't want to see them?"She asks.

"Not right now, no." I tell her honestly, though I don't explain why.

She thinks on it a moment. "Are they dangerous to me?"

"Not at all," I chuckle. "They are the least threatening of all the vampires I know. Very peaceful. Very peaceable. Very normal."

"Then why did we run? Would they not approve of me?"

Cards on the table time I think to myself as I pull off the main highway onto yet another dirt track to take us into the neighbouring forest. I talk as I navigate.

"It's nothing to do with you, I promise," I tell her. "And they'd love you. All of them would love you on sight."

"So why run then? Am I dangerous to them for some reason?"

"No. You aren't. It's complicated."

"I think I can keep up. My brain feels huge," she laughs.

"It's no bigger," I assure her with a smile. "It just feels like it is because now you're using all of it."

"Stop hedging," she warns and I take it on face value. She has a right to know why we ran.

"It's your blood, or the human blood you used to have," I tell her straight up. "It's your blood and my possessiveness that's the problem. There's a little understood phenomenon amongst our kind. There are some humans who are irresistible to us. Individually though. Not as a species, or subspecies. Particular humans smell particularly good to us individually. You did to me.

"I smelled your blood and couldn't help it. I wanted it. I wanted you. It's a compulsion. Your blood called to me. Sang for me. Just for me. And I was powerless to do anything other than try to save you."

"And because my blood was calling to you your family will not like that?" she asks, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

"I told you it was complicated," I sigh. "You're my singer. As in your blood sings for me. That's incredibly rare. I've heard of it but never witnessed it. Never."

"Are you my singer too?" she asks.

"No idea," I tell her honestly. "I don't know enough about it to know whether both parties need to be the others singer. I just know that you're mine. My singer I mean."

"This compulsion you felt, do you still feel it now that I'm not bleeding anymore?"

"You'll never bleed again," I remind her, "And yes. I still feel it. I always will."

"Weird," she sniggers and I wonder which part she finds weird. "Would your family think I tricked you or something? Is that it?"

"No," I laugh. "You'd be hard pressed to trick me," I tell her, tapping my temple. She stares at me blankly and it takes me a moment to realise she has no idea why I did that. I'd always done it. "I can hear thoughts," I tell her by way of explanation. "All thoughts. Until now. Until you. Yours I can't hear."

"That's fucking weird too," she snorts.

"You're telling me," I agree.

"Tangents," she whispers and I laugh. She'll do this a lot in the first months, go off track during discussions. "Explain to me exactly why you don't want me near your family."

"I never said I didn't want you near them," I huff. "My family would be ecstatic to learn I'd found my singer. Truly they would. They'd be so happy for me, and for you. Well maybe not Rosalie, but she's difficult at any time."

"So apart from Rosalie, whoever that is, they'd be happy you found me and saved me?" she asks. When I nod she shakes her head. "Then I don't get it. They'd be happy but you would not."

"I'd have to share you," I hiss. "They'd smother you. Us. They'd take you away from me for long hours, probably days, while they got to know you. My sisters and mother would drag you off and play dress ups with you. They'd want to shop with you and for you and they'd want to make you over. They'd have you redecorating our rooms and choosing china patterns," I hiss again, a little more loudly now that I'd hit my stride within my rant. "My brothers would rag on me constantly about having finally found someone and my father would wear an idiotic, satisfied grin for months.

"They'd invite the cousins to come meet you and you'd be taken from me again so that you could be shown off to them. They'd learn all about you before I had a chance to learn about you for myself."

"So, you're possessive," she says with a grin in answer to my rant.

"We all are," I point out.

"We'll see," she counters and I wonder what she's thinking for the millionth time. "I don't do dress ups and I don't think we need china, do we?" she laughs.

It breaks the tension I'm feeling and I laugh too. Just a little. She's glossed over the heavy, emotional parts of my rant and I'm grateful. "I guess we will."

I leave it at that and leave her to digest what I'd said and concentrated on getting my beloved car through the dirt track safely. We'd survive any crash without a scratch, but the Volvo wouldn't.

"Would I have died if you hadn't bitten me?" she asks out of nowhere.

"Definitely," I tell her sadly.

She's quiet for a long time then. I pull over once I'm sure we're far enough away from the last human thought I'd heard while driving. Once again she's out the door and running before I've had a chance to ask her to stay near me.

I shake my head as I begin the chase. Her scent is easy to follow and I admit I'm not really concerned that she'll come to any harm as she hunts. But I do admit to myself that I'd be pissed if I missed it. She fascinated me.

When I spot her I also admit to myself that she made me crazy. I felt like a teenager again. A stupid, hormone crazed teenager who got erections at inappropriate times.

And I hadn't had that happen in over a hundred years. Not since before I was turned at seventeen years old. But she did it. She made me ache in places I knew I could ache but had never experienced.

I climb the tree and watch her as she watches me. Our eyes never waiver as she drinks. She isn't growling, just watching me watch her. When she's done she wipes her mouth, throws me a smile and waits for me at the foot of the tree.

"Had enough?" I ask and she nods.

"Why don't you hunt?" she asks as we walk back to the car.

"I do. I did a lot while you were changing. But I don't need as much as you do right now. I go every few days."

"How long till I can go that long?"

"A few months, maybe a year," I tell her as we get back inside the car.

"Why do you get up a tree?"

What to tell her? That she's most dangerous to me while she's feeding, or that I get an uncomfortable hard on watching her feed? "It's safer," I chicken out.

"Bullshit," she laughs.

I run a hand through my hair and groan. "Why do you think I get up a tree while you feed?"

She cocks her head to the side before answering. "I don't know for sure. The first time I thought you were standing guard but the more you tell me about what I am now I think that might not be totally true.

"I can hear or smell anything approaching so I don't think I need you to guard."

"Alright," I say with a grin. "So it's not to guard you. What other theories do you have?" I chuckle as I take the correct exit that puts us on a straight path to Forks.

"The second time I thought it might be because you wanted me to learn for myself how to do it. But I think I did it right the first time."

"You did. It's instinctual. There's very little I can teach you about it. You're right," I tell her as I slow down as we approach a town. "Next theory."

"I've thought you might want to share but that seems unlikely."

"Correct," I tell her truthfully. "We can share later on, but not yet. Anymore?"

"A couple," she laughs. "Your smell changes while I'm feeding. Does mine?" she asks.

The question takes me by complete surprise. I grip the wheel tighter and count to ten before answering. "It does," I tell her eventually.

"It makes me horny. I thought it might make you horny too," she announces simply.

I swerve to the left and almost hit an oncoming car. "Fuck!" I shout as I correct the steering.

"Take it easy. It's just a question. It's okay if it doesn't," she laughs.

"I never said it doesn't," I tell her as I bring the car to a mere crawl on the outskirts of Forks. "A discussion for another time," I tell her while pointing to the marker ahead that tells me Forks is just ten miles ahead. "I have to tell you some things about this place before we get there.

"I lived here once. With my family. Forty years ago give or take. There might be some humans still alive here who remember me, or the name I went by back then. We need a good explanation for that when they ask. And they will. They always ask," I sigh.

"What was your name then?"

"Edward Cullen."

"And now?"

"Edward Masen at the moment."

"Any reason you can't be Masen here right now?" she asks.

"My family will probably be looking for me by that name so it's probably not a good idea. I'll revert to Cullen while we're here. It's been decades since I was last a Cullen anyway. It'll help to explain why I look exactly like the Edward Cullen they remember. I'll be his grandson."

"Who will I be?" she asks as we start to come into familiar surroundings.

"Anyone you want. Will anyone know you here? If your father was Chief of Police here how much time did you spend here?"

"Not a lot. Mostly a couple of weeks in the summer. Sometimes a few days in winter. Is there any harm in me being exactly who I am right now?"

"Not that I can foresee," I tell her as I take the turn off to my residence.

"Who are we to each other?" she asks and I baulk. My hesitation must be noticeable because she continues for me. "I mean, your grandfather lived here once and my father did up until recently. If anyone recognises either of us we better have a story ready for why we're here together. Pretty big coincidence otherwise."

"Simple reasoning is often the best when dealing with gossipy humans," I tell her. "They thrive on it so it's best not to make it too complicated. We'll say we met in Seattle and found we had Forks in common. Me because of my grandfather's fondness for the place, you because of your dad."

"How long have we been dating?" she giggles.

It's the first girly sound she's made in my presence and it makes her seem much younger than her actual years. It's quite wonderful. "A few months. That way any awkwardness between us will seem right in the humans eyes."

"Are we awkward?" she asks and I can hear the cheekiness in her voice as she does. "After all, you've seen me naked. You've had your lips all over my body. Technically we've been in the shower together. I've seen the size of your erection through your jeans and you've seen my tits. We're pretty comfortable wouldn't you say?" she laughs.

I cough and jerk the wheel to the left again. "Fuck," I shout as I come to a skidding halt in the driveway of my house and throw the car into park. "You can't just say shit like that to me," I hiss as I put my forehead to the wheel and close my eyes.

Her scent has bloomed in the confines of the car. She's aroused and I can smell it. She's been licking her lips and wetting them with her venom for the last twenty miles and I'm at the end of my tolerance.

When her fingers touch my forearm I jump. The sting of the contact takes my breath away. "I'm only teasing," she whispers. "If we're going to pull this off and blend in we need to be comfortable with each other. Is nudity an issue for you?" she asks seriously.

I bark out a laugh then. I can't help it. "It's not an issue for me," I tell her. "And just so you know, watching you feed does make me horny too," I say as I exit the car and head for the front door.