My kids start school in two days so updates should come a lot quicker from now on. Thanks for all your reviews and PMs, you have no idea how much they mean to me. Special thanks to Tobey for helping me get through the last month, and pushing me to continue my writing.

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Peter POV

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I smiled at my human girl's light snores as I pulled into the mile-long driveway that led to my cabin. It had been a long ride and Betta had been asleep for the last few hours of it.

Of course, that was only after she had insisted we stop at a 'fast food' restaurant. I had tried my damnedest to get her to go inside and eat but she was having none of it. So the drive-thru it was, which meant that I spent the last six hours of the trip home smelling the rancid scent of McDonalds' burnt hamburger meat and greasy french fries.

After only a few minutes, I was seriously resisting the urge to hang my head out the window and pant at the fresh air like a dog. Thankfully, I resisted the temptation, placating myself by cracking the window slightly and not breathing. Betta had smirked at me, and by that one fucking look, I was certain that she knew exactly what the fuck-awful smell was doing to my poor nose...and she thought it was funny as hell.

I chuckled at the memory as I eased the truck into park in front of my home...our home. Bella stirred slightly and groggily looked out the window. Her eyes went wide and she stared in shock at my cabin. I watched her for a moment, wondering what had caused this reaction.

"That's your cabin?" she finally asked, two minutes and forty-nine seconds later. I snorted.

"Yes," I answered shortly, half-way offended. What did she find so wrong with my home?

"It's just so...small," she breathed, almost in awe. What a strange, strange creature my Betta was.

"It's not that small," I said defensively, gazing up at my home affectionately. Sure, it wasn't big by any means, but it was nice and homey and more house than a vampire like me needed. I was very happy here.

Before I had time to ponder on it any more, Betta reached over and turned my truck off, grabbed the keys, and was up and out of the truck, running towards the porch at full human speed. I sighed and shook my head. Strange human, indeed.

I slowly made my way towards her, chuckling quietly as she grew more and more frustrated with each key that didn't fit the lock on the door. After six more tries, she squealed with glee as she finally found the correct key and the door popped open.

I felt oddly shy as she walked from room to room, inspecting my home for the first time. I glanced around with her, trying to imagine how she was seeing my humble abode. From the comfortable and well-worn sofa in the living room, to the small futon in the bedroom that held a ratty old quilt that had once been stitched by my mother's hands, she saw it all. I was a simple man and my home reflected that fact. I was suddenly very nervous about her reaction.

"Wow," she finally said as we entered the living room once more. "It's...perfect. I love it."

I cocked an eyebrow and stared at her in disbelief. Was she being sarcastic? She sounded like she was being honest, but...

"I thought you said it was small?"

"It is, and that's part of the reason why I like it. It's so nice and homey...not at all like the huge, ostentatious house that the other vamp-" she cut herself off. A small pause and then she continued. "Not at all like I was expecting a vampire to live in." She walked over to the sofa and plopped down ungracefully, grinning widely as she did so.

"I really, really like it," she said again. "I just feel like I can actually enjoy being here. I'm not worried about accidently moving something out of it's precious little place."

I smiled as I noticed the bitter bite of her last words. Somewhere along her short life, she had met and accompanied a vampire to their home...and she found it huge, unpersonal, and lacking. My smile grew wider- my human girl enjoyed the simple pleasures in life as well.

"Tell me more about yourself. What happened after you arrived in Spoons?" I murmured as I sat down beside her, purposely using the wrong town name just to hear the giggle it caused. Before she had fallen asleep on the way here, she had told me all about her childhood with her flighty mother. She had continued her tale all the way until her mother had remarried and she decided to go live with her father to give her mother and Phil more time to spend together. So selfless, my Betta.

"It was Forks," she chuckled softly. "I met Charlie at the airport and he brought me home in his cruiser, which was embarrassing at the time. He's the chief of police...at least, he was." A haunted look passed over her face and she literally shook herself before she started speaking again.

"It was nice spending time with him. He couldn't cook at all," she whispered with a small smile and shiny eyes. "The man couldn't boil water without burning it. He loved to fish, which meant that I cooked fish for him at least once a week. The deep freeze was always full of it."

"What happened to him?" I asked softly after she had been quiet a few minutes. Her expressive eyes seemed to go dead, the vast nothingness behind them was fathomless.

"He died." She spoke sharply, clearly letting me know that the subject was off limits. I nodded my head slightly in acceptance and tentatively placed my hand on her arm, just below the thick bracelet that she was wearing. Bella's eyes met my own and I silently bore witness to the tears that were streaming down her face.

"It was all my fault," she whimpered. And then she completely broke down. Sobs racked her trembling body as she gasped raggedly for air. I did the only thing I could think to do; I scooped her up and sat her in my lap, wrapping my arms around her and just holding her as she continued to sob. I slowly ran my hands up and down her back in what I hoped was a comforting gesture.

I didn't know what else to do for her. I felt totally helpless. It was a feeling that I knew all too well, and I simply loathed it. I should just drain this little human girl and be done with all the grief that she was sure to bring me. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, my whole being rebelled against it. I tightened my arms around my Betta, for that was what she was...mine.

I had never felt like this before. Something odd was pulling in my chest and I didn't know what was happening anymore. I felt like I was losing control of something inside me and to be brutally honest, I wasn't too sure if I liked it. In fact, I was pretty damn sure that I did not like it at all...although, it was oddly pleasant in a way. It felt as if a part of me had been ripped away and yet, at the same time, I felt as if I was finally complete. I was so confused.

Bella was still sobbing into my chest, completely unaware of the turmoil that was tearing me apart. I both felt the need to hold and comfort her, and the need to sink my teeth into her delicate little neck and finally end this suffering. What in hell was wrong with me?

I sat her back on the sofa as gently as I could, each of my movements feeling stiff and robotic. I launched myself out the door and to my truck, grabbing the bottle of sleeping pills out. I quickly shook one into my hand and grabbed Bella's bottle of water from the cup holder. In an instant I was back before her, my hands extended out in a silent offering.

She took the pill without question, grabbing the water and swiftly swallowing it down. Her eyes so full of grief met my own, and I was once again lost in the conflicting feelings that were raging through my body. I really needed to go feed.

I forced back the urge to chomp on her juicy little neck and gathered my Betta in my arms. I rocked her gently for a time as her trembling and sobbing slowly eased and tapered off. She mumbled a sleepy apology before she finally closed her eyes and let the darkness take her.

Strangely enough, I felt better as well. The unsettling pull was still there, but it no longer held the blustering force that it had only hours ago. Was this simply the price of staying in the presence of a human for a prolonged amount of time? Yes, I finally decided. That was what had happened. I simply needed to feed.

I continued to tell myself this as I gently laid my Betta down and covered her with my mother's quilt. I slipped out the cabin's door to go hunting, still trying to silence the little voice in the back of my mind that was screaming that this was no simple hunger pain.

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So, yeah, Peter's a confused little vampire. What, oh what, could that strange pull be...