Thanks to all those who are reading and leaving reviews! I am so excited everytime I find out one of you has added me and my story to your favorites and alerts- it is a really great feeling!

If you haven't read it, go check out "That Girl" by u2shay. Awesome story. Feeling the love.

I think this might be the longest chapter yet. That's not saying much because none of my chapters are very long, but more than 2,000 words is a big deal for me!

Enjoy!

You could give yourself to another, but none could love you more purely or more completely than I did. To none could your happiness be holier, as it was to me, and always will be. My whole existence, everything that lives within me, everything, my most precious, I devote to you, and if I try to ennoble myself, that is done, in order to become ever worthier of you, to make you ever happier. Nobility of souls is a beautiful and indestructible bond of friendship and of love. Our friendship and love become indestructible and eternal like the feelings upon which we establish them. -Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

Chapter 7: Revelations

BPOV

The ride to the hospital was tense. Edward kept running his hand over me, checking for injuries, I guessed. I couldn't even speak to him. My mind kept replaying that day in La Push with Jacob. His stories didn't seem quite so far-fetched anymore. Edward's recent super-hero maneuver had been like a wake-up call for me. Suddenly, a million little things that I had never thought to notice before were piling up in front of me, demanding to be considered.

His eyes changing color, the way he seemed to be so still sometimes- unnaturally still. He was incredibly fast- I had just witnessed that first hand. His body had felt like a cold stone under mine, not soft and warm like a human body. His skin was cold. I had been so focused before on the touching, and the electricity sparking between our fingers, that I hadn't even thought about how cold his skin had been. When he held my hand in his, I hadn't noticed. Cold and hard, like a marble statue. Was it possible? Could Edward really be a vampire?

EPOV

"I told you I was fine," she said to me impatiently.

I looked into her eyes and replied, "And I told you that I would feel much better if Carlisle examined you, and I do." A look of concern washed over her face as she broke away from my gaze.

"Bella," Carlisle said, "everything looks fine. I would still like you to get plenty of rest over the next couple of days. You're body has had quite a shock today."

"Thanks, Dr. Cullen." She turned and looked at me finally. "Edward, I think we need to talk." This was the part where she would tell me she knew what a monster I was, and run screaming from the building.

"Of course- should we go somewhere more private?" I had no idea how heated this might get.

"Why don't you two use my office," Carlisle offered. "Bella, I can stall your father, if you think you might need a ride home?"

"No, thanks. Please make up an excuse for me? I'm not sure how long this will take. I can find another ride home." Was she just trying to be brave in front of my father? I hated, now more than ever, that I could not read her thoughts.

"No problem, Bella. Edward, I'll be on rounds if you need me." Carlisle always knew what I needed, even if I wasn't sure of it myself.

"Thank you, Carlisle. I think we'll be alright." I sat, watching Bella, as she watched him walk out the door.

"Tell me what you know." I wasn't going to let her stall- we needed things out in the open.

"I don't know anything." Her answer was much too quick.

"Yes, you do, or we would not be having this conversation right now."

"Fine." She said, giving in to my demand. "I heard something about you, weeks ago, but it seemed so ridiculous that I just pushed it out of my mind, but-"

"But it doesn't seem so ridiculous anymore?" What had she heard? I really wasn't sure where this was going. "Bella, please. Tell me."

"It was down at La Push-" This was worse than I thought. "I was talking with my friend, Jacob? He was telling me some local legends, just trying to scare me, I think. He didn't seem to actually believe any of them. And like I said, I had pushed it to the back of my mind- until today." Our treaty with the Quileutes was old, and we hadn't found any wolves in the area, but it did make sense for them to pass the stories down through the generations. Poor Jacob probably didn't even realize that his actions had actually broken that treaty- not that we would do anything about it.

"And what is it, exactly, that he told you Bella? And, why now, do you suddenly choose to believe it?" I wanted her to say it, so that I didn't have to. I was such a coward.

"Well," she began hesitantly, the words coming more quickly as she went along, "there were a lot of things that I never thought about before. And when you pushed me out of harm's way, I suddenly started thinking about them." She couldn't meet my eyes, and the blush was rising in her cheeks. Would she run when this was over? Before I could form a reply, she continued. "You're incredibly fast- superhero fast. Your skin is cold and hard as stone. I've never seen you eat, or go out in the sun. Edward, I didn't feel a pulse when you held my hand. What are you?"

"What do you think I am?" A monster? The devil himself? My dead heart felt as though it might break.

She met my eyes and whispered, "They call you 'the cold ones'." I tried to keep the mask in place, so as not to show her the fear I was feeling at that moment.

I returned her gaze and asked carefully, "Are you afraid?" I heard her heartbeat speed up at my question, and she looked down at her hands, wringing them together nervously. As she raised her eyes again to mine, there were questions there, but no fear.

"No, I'm not."

She had a lot of questions, and I tried to answer her as honestly as possible. Her first question, to my surprise, was not about my diet. "How can you be out in the daytime?" She was smiling. My heart was singing.

"Most of the things you think you know about us are myths. Sunlight, garlic, crosses- all myth. I quite enjoy the daytime, but I never let humans see me in the sunlight."

"Why not?" She asked curiously.

"Our skin is translucent, and reflects the sunlight like a prism. It is a mark of what we are. Actually, one of the reasons we like this particular area is that the weather conditions are conducive to us not being housebound during daylight hours. I must say, Bella, you are taking this all very well- I wasn't expecting that."

"Well," she replied, "I told you, I'm not afraid of you. I'm not sure why- it's just an instinct, I guess, telling me that you'd never hurt me. Isn't it hard to be around people though? And Carlisle? Working here, around all that blood?" Now she was getting to the point.

"Sometimes, yes, it can be difficult. We- my family and I- feed on animals instead of humans. We consider ourselves 'vegetarians'. Over time, we become less sensitive to the smell of human blood. There are times, for some of us, when the call of a human's blood is too strong. There have been........accidents. But nothing for the last fifty years or so." I watched her, gauging her reaction before I continued. "I thought, at first, that it might be safer for you if I kept my distance and didn't get involved with you, but I was too weak."

"What do you mean?" She looked at me with nothing but concern in her eyes- concern for me.

"I mean- I knew from the first moment our eyes met all those weeks ago, that I wanted you. And I tried to convince myself that I was too dangerous to be in your life- that I might hurt you if I got too close. But I couldn't stay away from you, Bella. The pull was too strong; but it wasn't your blood that called to me- it was your soul." I didn't want to push her too far, but I couldn't stop the words at that point.

"I wanted you, too." She replied. "I thought, at first, that you hated me. I couldn't understand why- you didn't even know me. I'm glad you changed your mind." Her soft smile had returned. "You never answered me, about Carlisle. How can he work as a doctor?"

"Carlisle has lived this life a very long time- he has never fed from a human. In fact, the only time he has ever even tasted human blood was when he changed the four of us- Esme, Rosalie, Emmett, and myself." Maybe she was in shock, but she still didn't recoil at my matter-of-factness.

"What about Alice and Jasper? He didn't change them as well?"

"No- they came to us on their own. Alice can see the future. She woke from her transformation and had a vision, first of finding Jasper, and then of our family. They came to us a few years later, and have been a part of our family ever since." I loved being this honest with her. I had never felt more hope than I did right now- not since I had been human.

"Bella, there is more that I should tell you. First, I think you should know that I love you. I do not expect a reply; I just needed to tell you. I have felt it and kept it to myself for so long- I just need for you to know." I searched her face for the answers I had longed for since that very first day.

She looked down suddenly, grasping my hand and holding it firmly in her own. Slowly, she raised her eyes back to meet mine. "I love you too, Edward." My heart felt like it would burst out of my chest at this revelation. I could not contain the smile that was forming on my lips.

"There's more, Bella," I said, seriously this time, "and I'm not sure of how you will react. I need for you to hear me out."

"Okay. Whatever it is, Edward, I can deal with it. I mean, I'm in love with a vampire- how much worse can it get?" She had a point.

"Do you believe in reincarnation?" Her expression was confused, but still open to my words.

"Yes, I guess. I've never really thought about it before. What is this about?"

I took a deep breath- not because I needed the air, but to steady myself. "It's about you and me, and our history."

"I'm not sure I follow." She was still confused, and starting to look a little worried.

"Before I was changed, I was in love with a young woman. She was beautiful- a lot like you in so many ways. Her name was Isabel, and I intended to marry her. But I fell ill, and was very close to death. Carlisle saved me, but Isabel died from the same disease that almost took me- that did take both of my parents. I was devastated. I thought I would never recover from her loss, but-" I couldn't continue. I felt the tearless sob building in my chest.

"Is that why you're here, Edward? Because of her? Because I remind you of her?" There was a note of panic in her voice that was building with each word she spoke. "Is it really me that you love, Edward? Do you love me for me? Or because I look like someone you once loved?"

"Bella, love, you are her. You have her soul. It's not the first time we have found each other. I knew the minute our eyes met-"

"STOP!" she yelled, inching away from me now. "You said you loved me. How can I believe that after you just finished telling me how much I reminded you of your dead fiancée?"

"Bella, please," I begged her, "don't run from me! I need you to understand. I need you to tell me what you are feeling."

"I don't know what I feel right now, Edward. I'm confused and a little hurt. I just feel like I can't be near you right now. I need time to think." How had this gone so wrong so quickly?

"I can take you home, if you like?"

"No, I'll call Alice. I need to be away from you for a little while."

BPOV

I knew that my words had hurt him, but I was so confused. I knew if I let him near me right now, that his touch, the feel of his breath on my face, would only distract me from the feelings I was trying to sort out. I reached for my phone as I opened the door, but she was already there, waiting. "I saw that you might need a ride?" Alice- my psychic vampire best friend.

"Thanks Alice. Edward-", I said, turning to face him again, "please, give me some time. I can't process all of this right now."

The expression on his face nearly had me undone- he said nothing, only nodding to confirm that he understood my wishes.

"Goodbye, Edward." I love you.

I heard him whisper as I turned to walk out the door, "Goodbye, my love."

Notes: Too sad? Not sad enough? Leave a review! I love them!