Chapter Three
The first thing I noticed when I came to was the hard, cool cradle I was in. I was shocked when I opened my eyes to register Bella's face above my own. She was carrying me. Me, who had to outweigh her by twenty pounds. She held me as if I weighed no more than a baby. The next thing that registered was the speed. I could literally hear the wind whistling by as she ran. I could feel the panic welling up in my chest again, but before I could choke out an exclamation, we were on the front porch of her house.
"Chrissy, are you okay?" Nessie's concerned voice caught me and held back the panic. I couldn't break down in front of this beautiful, innocent girl. She didn't need to be touched by my horror. Suddenly Edward's face was hovering over me. He touched my face with cool fingers and his smile was dazzling.
"Don't worry about Nessie, Christine. She's not as fragile as you think." His use of my real name confirmed my worst fears and I fought hard against the blackness that threatned to pull me under again. Bella set me down on the couch and suggested I put my head between my knees. I noticed one thing, however, as I was trying to remember how to breathe. My danger sense was completely quiet. Not a ping. That did more to soothe me than any words.
"Daniel left?"
"No." That single word, stated in a bass voice that made my spine tingle, came from across the room. My head came up and I saw him sitting on the stairs to the second story, his long, wavy black hair down around his broad shoulders. He looked even better in a pair of blue jeans and a crew neck t-shirt than any man should be allowed. My danger sense chose that moment to ping, but it was weak. Yes, he was still a danger to me, but it was a nebulous thing now, not the raging certainty it had been this afternoon. I relaxed back against the couch and stared at the four people who where now the most important people in my life. Did they really know who I was?
"Christine Farlow." Edward's words made my eyes snap to his face. I frowned. He had the uncanny ability to answer my questions before I even asked them. I narrowed my eyes. I'm not the only one with weird mental abilities, am I? When his mouth tightened, as if he'd heard the question I'd only thought, I considered putting my head between my knees again. How much stranger could this situation get? Edward snorted softly and mouthed something that looked vaguely like 'You have no idea.' I glared at the beautiful man with the bronze hair.
"It was a rhetorical question." I snapped the words, a little angry at him. Instead of being shocked, remorseful or angry, Edward smiled. He crouched in front of me and looked me in the eyes.
"Now you know something about me, too. I trust you with my secret, you can trust us with yours." And suddenly I knew how they knew who I was. It wasn't because they'd recognized me. It was because Edward was meddling in thoughts. He threw up both hands and shook his head.
"Involuntary, I swear. It's not something I can control, really." His tone was laced with resignation and frustration. I relaxed a little and tried my best to think of absolutely nothing. A little hard when my life was swinging over a wide chasm of loneliness and death. A little melodramatic? I glanced at Edward and he wore an expression of complete understanding. So, he knew a little bit about loneliness and death.
"Okay, so what exactly are you going to tell your friend Fran about us?" Bella's voice was soft. She was sitting on the other end of the couch from me. Nessie's warm body was beside me, her thin arm wrapped around my shoulders. I sighed.
"Well, I suppose I could try absolutely nothing, but Fran already knows I came up here for dinner. If I don't check in with her by nine o'clock, she's going to call me." I didn't see any more reason for secrecy. All they had to do was google 'Christine Farlow' and they'd have the larger part of the story anyway. Now I had to decide if I lied to my handler and got to stay at Dartmouth with these people that knew exactly who I was or if I told the truth and ended up in Nome, Alaska until the end of time. Edward's lips twitched again and I rolled my eyes.
"What?"
"Alaska's really nice this time of year."
For some reason, I found this extremely funny. I laughed. Okay, so it bordered on hysterical, but I pulled myself together before the sobs started.
"I don't want to leave." I said this and it was true. I had a reason to stay here now. People that I felt safe with…well, maybe not Daniel…but I would miss them if I had to go. After months of being isolated, suddenly I had a reason to do more than stare at the walls and sigh. I had songs bouncing around in my head that I had to compose before I burst. Happy songs, thoughtful songs, even a couple of scary songs, but for the first time since the mess with the stalker began, over a year ago, I felt truly alive and I wanted play my music.
"Daniel, are you okay over there?" Bella's quiet question made me look up. My eyes met Daniel's and I was shocked by the look of pain that spread across his beautiful face. Our gazes locked and my heart stuttered. His eyes, which I thought had been black only two hours ago, were in fact a deep burnished gold. I couldn't help but wonder what it was about me that made him into a tortured, dangerous man. He was a college professor. Teachers, by definition, usually liked being around people. Didn't they?
"I'm fine. In control, I think." His voice feathered across my brain and down my spine, as it always seemed to. Earlier, it had caused alarm. Now, it was something different. I sighed softly and had the nearly overwhelming urge to comfort this man. Edward cleared his throat and I looked away, blushing like a teenager caught staring at her first crush. Okay, so I was still a teenager, but I wasn't exactly a typical naïve, easily impressed youth. I couldn't really tell how old Daniel was. His smooth, pale face was ageless, but it still bore a youthful cast. But he had a doctorate, so I guessed at least thirty. I glanced at Renesmee and adjusted my estimate to at least twenty five. But the main issue here was my attraction to this dangerous man. I wasn't usually a glutton for punishment.
"So, we need to get you back to campus by nine o'clock. That gives us…about an hour." Nessie was looking at me with concern, her gaze flickering between me and her brother. Edward shook his head at her and I realized she asked him a silent question. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the couch, just breathing for a moment. My mind was running in circles, but I needed to make some decisions. My fingers twitched. It was times like these I really mourned the loss of my beautiful baby grand. I shuddered as I remembered my stalker hacking away at the beautiful instrument with a fireman's axe.
"Christine?" Edward's voice was quiet and I heard an echo of my pain in his tone. I opened my eyes and looked at him. His smile was one of kindred soul to kindred soul. "I think we're going to be very good friends. Let me show you something." He gestured towards the rest of the house and I scooted forward and Renesmee pushed me up from the couch. I trailed after Edward, pleased that my legs seemed happy to support my weight again. He led me through the kitchen and large formal dining room and pushed open a pair of beautiful mahogany double doors. This room hadn't been on the tour earlier. He stood back and let me proceed him into what I would have thought to be an office. Instead, I walked into a music room. My gasp of wonder brought Edward to my side.
"This is…wow. This is all yours?" I stepped forward and gently brushed my fingers over the glossy black top of the grand piano. I realized that since these people knew who I was, playing in their house was not forbidden. There were other instruments along the walls, shelves full of recording and playback equipment, stacks and stacks of CDs, but I had eyes only for the piano. Edward reached out and lifted the cover from the keys.
"I'll leave you to your thoughts," he said softly and retreated from the room, pulling the doors almost closed behind him. I slid behind the keys and caressed a scale. The sound was beautiful. I launched into my favorite guilty pleasure, Fur Elise, and quickly blended into one of my own compositions. I just let my fingers fly, the feel of the keys under my fingers and the sounds working their magic on my brain. I let my thoughts drift.
By the time Edward knocked politely on the door and let himself back into the room, I had made a couple of decisions. One, I would not be telling Fran that the Cullens knew about me. Two, I wasn't going to be dropping Creative Writing. This little family was too intriguing for me to lose any amount of time with them. What I was still having trouble deciding was exactly what the Cullen's *were*. There were a lot of little things that didn't add up about them. Renesmee's intelligence could be explained away. There were enough examples of smart youngsters in the world. I suppose most people thought I qualified as one myself, but in regards to music instead of general intelligence. But what didn't add up was Edward's telepathy, Bella's strength and speed, and both of their incredibly cool, hard, pale skin. It was a puzzle that I just couldn't leave in the box. My mind kept trying to put the pieces together in a manner that made sense.
"Aliens?" Edward's incredulous laughter made me glare at him.
"Just wait. I'm sure that's the least embarrassing thing my mind will come up with over the length of our acquaintance. I'm hoping to shock you with a few, Mr. Cullen." He sobered and tilted his head as I began to think through a list of outrageous possibilities. He chuckled.
"You're running through comic books." He didn't sound impressed. So I wasn't terribly original. Just wait until I started running through episodes of Supernatural and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Aha! He grimaced. I had a starting place. His face hardened and I felt just a tingle of danger shiver down my spine. Okay, so maybe Daniel wasn't the only dangerous person in this house. I jumped up from the piano and gently closed the lid before sidling past Edward and out the door. I beelined for the living room where I heard Renesmee's voice.
Bella and I drove with Daniel down the mountain so we could pick up the Ferrari. I stayed quiet for the drive, watching Daniel from the back seat of his roomy black Lexus. He was tense and still, almost as if he wasn't breathing. Surely I was just missing the rise and fall of his chest due to the dark and the angle I was watching from. He didn't speak at all until we stopped by Bella's car. Then he turned and looked at me.
"You play beautifully, Christine. I really hope you'll continue coming to my class. I'd…like to get to know you better." His eyes tightened throughout his speech, as if talking caused him pain. But his smile looked genuine so I returned it and nodded.
"I'll see you on Wednesday, then." And then Bella and I stepped out of his car and he was gone.
Over the next few weeks, I was almost relieved not to get another invite to the Cullen home. I needed time to adjust to my classes and settle into dorm life. Renesmee and I still spent Monday and Friday afternoons together, just talking about nonsensical things and having lunch before our Creative Writing classes. The classes themselves were the highlight of my days. As much as I tried not to, I counted the hours until I could chat with Edward and Bella again. And to see Daniel. He still remained firmly planted behind the desk in the front of the room, but as the classes progressed, he seemed to lose that pained tightness behind his eyes. I began to enjoy just listening to him talk between our brainstorming and thirty minute writing blitzes.
I often noticed Edward watching me with a frown when I'd been staring at Daniel too long. He had even kicked my chair a few times when my mind wandered down paths that he most definitely should not be eavesdropping on. At which point I would concentrate on some recent composition or on Renesmee. At least she didn't seem to disapprove of my fascination with Daniel. Not that I talked about him much. Our conversations usually revolved around Nessie. She was very good at turning the conversation when it suited her, but she did it rarely. We talked a lot about her family and Jacob, with Jacob being a safer subject. I was still trying to piece together the puzzle that was the Cullen's and Nessie was careful not to give me any new pieces. And so I learned that Jacob was not only Nessie's best friend, but that she harbored an affection bordering on love for the tall, Native American man.
"We've been together since I can remember. Our families pretty much expect us to be a couple." Nessie sounded content with that. I was shocked. This beautiful, smart creature was content to settle for the boy next door, as it were, at age fourteen. Okay, so Jacob seemed like a very grounded, incredibly wise young man from all accounts, but still. I felt the need to offer some advice.
"You talk about him so much, I feel like I know him. But you're only fourteen, Nessie. Don't you think you, or him, might consider dating other people? Just to make sure you want to spend the rest of your lives together?" I was shocked when Nessie frowned angrily. Evidently I wasn't the only one that had suggested this and she wasn't having any of it. I decided to change the subject.
"Speaking of fourteen, I heard Bella mention you're birthday is coming up soon. Are you having a party?" This was a subject that Nessie bubbled over about. Her entire family was coming to New Hampshire for the party. I really wanted to go, not just because I wanted to be there to celebrate with Nessie, but because I was hoping that I would get more pieces for the Cullen puzzle.
"Oh, we're going to be late for class." Nessie's exclamation shocked me. I still had to run back to the dorm and get my homework assignment. I thought I could just make it if I sprinted. Nessie grinned.
"I'll cover for you with Daniel." I chuckled softly at that and almost hoped that the man would call me out for being late. He was a teacher, so I suppose that being friends with him was somehow forbidden, but he fascinated me as much as the Cullen's. Or maybe he fascinated me because I knew that somehow he was another piece of the puzzle in my head.
I was out of breath by the time I made it to the classroom and I paused outside the open door to catch my breath. I didn't want to walk in gasping like a landed fish. I leaned against the wall outside the door and I could hear Nessie talking to Bella. Our table was the closest to the door.
"Mom, she wouldn't be the only human there. Jake and the pack will be eating too. I want her to come." Despite the hushed tone of Renesmee's voice, for some reason the acoustics were perfect to carry her words to me. Words that slammed into my pile of Cullen puzzle pieces and scattered them to kingdom come. I had been trying my best to keep the edges of my puzzle grounded in reality but now the possibilities were endless.
"Hello, Chrissy." My thoughts stuttered to a stop as the familiar voice cut through my musings. Daniel was standing in the doorway, smiling at me. I inhaled his scent, an intoxicating blend of woodsmoke and something that hinted at cinnamon and chocolate. His posture was tense, but his voice was almost teasing. "A bit out of breath, are we? Nessie mentioned you'd left your homework and we were betting whether or not you'd make it to class on time."
"I'm a fast runner, when the situation calls for it." I said quietly. Something flashed across his face then, anger? My danger sense wasn't making much noise so maybe I was mistaken. Whatever it was melted into something akin to concern and I felt an overwhelming urge to reach up and brush back the lock of hair that was falling into his eyes as he leaned close to me.
"Aside from forgetting your homework, I hope the situation never arises." His cool breath feathered across my face and I had to give my heart a pep talk to keep it from tripping a crazy rhythm in my chest. My brain knew that he was making a reference to my stalker, but my heart was only interested in the fact that he was concerned for my well being. And less than six inches from me with his hard, gorgeous body. The pep talk failed miserably as my heartbeat sped up and a blush rose in my cheeks.
"Thank you." It was the most I could manage at that moment. I heard his sharp intake of breath a split second before he moved so quickly it was almost a blur. His eyes were pained as he gazed at me from six feet away. I ducked my head and slipped into the room, stealing into my chair.
"You made it on time! Maybe you should go out for track." Renesmee's words were teasing. Obviously she didn't know I'd overheard her talking to her mother. I was trying to wrap my head around that bit of information. She had called Bella 'Mom'. Nessie had always alluded to the fact that she thought of Edward and Bella as parents more than siblings. It seemed impossible. I quickly glanced over at Bella and she seemed as unconcerned as Nessie. Edward was notably absent. I was grateful, because I didn't know how he would react to my jumbled thoughts.
"Where's Edward?" I asked softly as I unzipped my backpack and pulled out my notebook. Bella chuckled. As always, I was mesmerized by the musical tones she made when she was amused. I had composed a piece earlier this week inspired by the sound of her laughter. I had once pondered that maybe they were angels in disguise and that had sent Edward into a laughing fit in the middle of class a week ago.
"He and Jacob were working on a project when I left and he decided to ditch. He's always maintained that it's healthy to ditch class occasionally." Bella's words made me relax completely. At least I had another couple of days to sort my thoughts. Little did I know that by the time I saw Edward again, the least of my worries would be the Cullen puzzle.