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Visitors
"Just watch what I do and try to follow," Edward said, gracefully running his hands across the keys in an elaborate scale. I studied his fingers, intimidated.
"Both hands?" I asked.
"We'll start with the right hand for now." I reached timidly toward the piano, then pulled my hand back. "Oh, not this," he rushed, pulling his hands away as well. "I was only warming up."
I quirked an eyebrow. "You don't really…need to warm up…do you?"
"No" - he smirked - "but old habits die hard."
"Century old habits," I muttered. He elbowed me in the ribs. I nudged him back.
"Owwww." Edward flinched away, rubbing his left side. "Newborn," he scolded.
"Awwwwww," Alice crooned from upstairs.
"Shut up!" I hissed, but couldn't quite hide my grin.
When he'd finished pretending to warm up, he demonstrated the first thirty seconds of the song I was meant to learn, which I immediately identified as Clair de Lune, by Debussy. Upon interrogation I admitted that, no, I wasn't extremely familiar with classical music; I was only able to name the few songs that Renee had frequently played back in Phoenix. I imagined that the number of songs I could actually recognize and properly identify had decreased significantly since my change. As it happened, though, Clair de Lune was one of my favorites.
One of Edward's too, he'd told me.
Edward played the left hand of the song while I played the right. The left hand usually went first, and sometimes both hands played chords together. Our fingers moved side by side in an almost call-and-answer, each note building up to the moments when we'd softly play together. I was in the heaven I'd thought impossible to reach as an immortal. When I'd learned the first thirty seconds, Edward suggested that we take a break.
"If it were eighty years ago," he said, "I'd have offered you an iced-tea or lemonade, and perhaps some cookies. None of those things would interest you now, of course."
I smiled sadly. The thought of human food still did interest me, to be truthful. I often thought of getting a snack – a piece of fruit, or a handful of pretzels – eating popcorn while watching a movie, or relaxing in my reading chair with a cup of tea. Of course if I got anywhere near those things now, they wouldn't even smell the same.
"Bella?" I'd been daydreaming. I lifted my chin, meeting Edward's eye. "I suppose we could go through the motions if you'd like. I'll even eat a cookie if you wish, though I wouldn't advise you playing along – you'll have to spit it up later."
My answering laugh was like a bark. "Seriously?"
"Oh yes. I'm surprised no one mentioned it to you."
"We can't enjoy food since we're dead," Rosalie muttered from upstairs, her voice thick with sarcasm. "But we can suffer through swallowing it only to heave it back up. Would you like me to impress you with a demonstration?"
"Rosalie," Edward growled.
"That's how you sound." She sneered. "Why even remind her of food? She still misses it. It's obvious. Or can't you imagine what someone might be feeling without picking it out of their head."
"Rose." The firm voice was Carlisle's. The muttering from upstairs ceased, but Edward's expression remained tight and withdrawn.
"If that's how you feel," he shouted, suddenly, "then you take it up with her. Say what you will if you absolutely must, but for now, if you please, would you shut up! I dealt with your selfish musings for nearly half a century before Emmett without a single word. If you can't keep your thoughts to yourself, the least you could do is make yourself scarce."
"Who on Earth are you arguing with?" The deep voice literally froze me in place. I hadn't even smelled another vampire until now, when I deliberately inhaled and let the smell sweep into my nostrils and down my throat. I must have been so focused on the exchange between Edward and Rosalie. In fact, I might have been holding my breath.
I turned my head slowly now, though I already knew who I would see behind me. Though my nose confirmed he was the only one here, I was still surprised, in a way, to find him there alone.
"James," I said, my voice barely audible.
"How lovely to see you again, Bella," he purred.
…
The afternoon had been awkward to say the least. Though James's visit was unexpected, it was not unwelcome, and no one seemed to have a problem with his stopping by unannounced…with one exception; Edward seemed unusually bothered by his presence, and determined to make the recent shift in our relationship apparent. This didn't bother me at first. After all, I was thrilled at finally – I guess…dating? – Edward Cullen, and felt a certain satisfaction at having him broadcast it. What bothered me was the effect it had on James. I would have thought Edward's new demeanor would have discouraged James from pursuing me. In reality…
"So, Bella," he whispered, placing his hand at the small of my back. His fingers lingered there, closing tightly around my waist, as he applied a gentle pressure and led me in the direction of the conference room. "By now I'm sure you've noticed I'm…well…interested in you?"
I cringed; the way he'd said interested he could have been talking about an entrée on a steak house menu.
"Um, James, thank you. I'm flattered, but actually Edward and I have just started to – "
"Edward?" He looked over his shoulder as he spoke, eyeing Edward, who was still at the piano in the living room, a smug expression on his face.
"Yes, Edward," I said, trying to sound stern.
"I see. Well surely Edward wouldn't object to a little" – he looked me up and down – "friendly competition. Or perhaps, we could even – "
Edward slammed his hands onto the keys of the piano, and, with a feral growl, launched himself at James. Before I could decide whether to get out of the way and let them fight or put myself between them, Edward had thrown James across the conference room. I was instantly amazed at what my time in the Cullen house had done to both my reflexes and my priorities. Rather than being horrified that a visiting vampire was flying across the dining room, my first instinct was panic – for the dining room table. Following his trajectory, I smacked James out of the way of the long table that Esme so loved, causing him to crash into Edward's piano instead.
I shrugged, giving Edward an apologetic face.
"I've a backup one." He winked. "Don't worry, Bella."
James was on his feet and between us in a flash. I gaped at him. I expected that he would leave now, based on what had just happened. Instead he crept toward me slowly, smirking at Edward as if daring him to challenge his actions. He reached for my hand, lifting it gently to his lips. It took every ounce of strength I had not to throw him somewhere else myself.
"It appears I've overstayed my welcome. Another time, Bella. Perhaps we could go for a meal or something?" I didn't answer. I kept my lips tightly pursed, biting down on the inside of my mouth as his lips brushed the back of my fingers. When he was finally finished with the polite gesture he'd managed to make perverse, I firmly yanked my hand away, placing it at my side.
"Good afternoon, James," Edward said, through his teeth.
"Lovely to see you, Edward." He glanced at the piano pointedly. "Let's do it again sometime."
And then he was gone.
…
"You're making this into a bigger deal than it really is," I said, picking up the last rogue piano piece and bringing it outside to the garbage. Edward had already assembled the backup piano – an exact duplicate of the first – but sat idly at the bench, not touching a single key. "Edward?"
"It is a big deal," he muttered, almost to himself. After the 'incident' earlier, most of the family had gone to hunt. Alice stayed behind for some reason, but was currently at least a mile or two from the property – out of earshot.
"I don't see how. He's interested in me – so what? I don't want him. I want you. End of story." From the certainty of my tone, one would have never guessed we'd only been a couple for a matter of hours.
"His interests are a bit more complicated than you realize."
"What aren't you telling me, Edward?"
He sighed, running his hands through his already messy hair. "James is a tracker." I squinted. "It's an extra ability," he explained, "one that allows him to find people easily, no matter how they try to hide. There are more like him – the Volturi, for example, employ a tracker. But James is different."
"Different how?"
"The things he enjoys…it's like a perversion of his natural gift. It would be like me – if I could read your mind – collecting all your secrets and using them against you."
"Cruel." I shuddered.
"Sadistic. That's what James is, Bella. The hunt is his obsession."
"I don't understand. I mean…I do understand. But Edward, it's not like I'm human. He can't hunt me."
"Don't underestimate him." Edward got up from the piano and left the house, jumping across the stream that separated the house from the forest. I didn't follow.
Alice entered at the same moment that Edward took off. She sashayed over to me, looking over my shoulder to peer out of the all-glass wall and into the forest.
"He left," I mouthed to her.
"I saw. You can never be too careful, though, with that one." We both snickered. "Bella, I need to tell you something." I nodded, having already suspected as much from the moment she stayed behind. Alice was always watching for the future; everything she did was calculated. "Edward isn't overacting right now. I saw what James would have said to you if Edward had allowed him to finish his sentence. Obviously he picked it out of his head."
"What was he going to say?"
She sighed. "He was going to ask if maybe Edward wouldn't mind sharing you."
"Ugh." Disgusting. For a split-second I wondered whether this was the truth, or something Edward had asked Alice to tell me in order to bring me over to his way of thinking. In the next split-second however, I remembered the once-over that James had given me before he'd spoken, and decided that what Alice was saying made sense. Besides, it wasn't as though James hadn't been flirting with me all afternoon. Only something as extreme as this would have caused Edward to resort to the measures he had.
Alice nodded. "He's sick, Bella. And I'm afraid his interest in you was only piqued by Edward's reaction. I would…be careful for a while, okay? I can't see James's future clearly for some reason, but I suspect he's up to something."
"Thanks, Alice." I started to reflect on the evening when I suddenly remembered something. "Oh, Alice! Before James came in, Edward was yelling…something at Rosalie. What was – ?"
"I thought you'd want to know," Rose said, casually leaning in the doorway behind me as if she'd been there all along, "so I hung back too."
I shook my head and we all began to giggle. I loved my sisters.
