Chapter NINE

Author's Note – I would like to mention something to you about my take on Edward before getting into this chapter. In Twilight, when Edward first encounters Bella, he tries his best to stay away from her thinking that she should have a 'normal' life.

In this purely fan fiction version of the story, Edward has met Bella away from the school setting. He already knows that her life will never be normal again already. Her father has been turned and Alice sees Bella joining the family as Edward's mate. This Edward is trying to go with the flow so to speak and is not fighting the pull he feels towards Bella.

EPOV

"So tell me" she asked, "are you going to bite my neck or what?"

I zoned out for a moment. She didn't truly ask me that did she?

Bella's mouth turned up on one side giving me a wry smile before she let loose a little giggle. "I didn't scare you, did I?"

Again, I was glad that I didn't blush.

"Actually, you did. You are a very forthright girl."

I attempted to continue our conversation. "In my day, young ladies of good breeding were not to speak of such things."

I was immediately rewarded with another giggle and smile. She gave me a quizzical expression. "Young ladies weren't to ask about you biting their necks?"

I had misspoken, I opened my month to rectify my comment when it struck me that she was teasing.

Intrusively, Alice's thoughts pop up - she had no doubt been eavesdropping on my conversation with Bella. She's flirting with you, Edward. Get with it!

I took an unnecessary breath before I spoke.

"Young ladies weren't supposed to dine alone with gentlemen; they weren't even supposed to show their ankles. I think it is safe to extrapolate that allowing a vampire to bite their necks, as you say, would also be prohibited."

My answer seemed to satisfy her because she smiled.

"Edward, how old are you?" She placed a great emphasis on the 'are'.

I pulled back from her and sat up straight. I thought I was bolstering myself against her rejection although I didn't fully abandon our banter.

"I am seventeen, Bella. Remember I'll be in school with you."

Her chocolate eyes narrowed, "Edward, what year were you born in?"

I shrugged my shoulders but I managed to maintain eye contact with her despite worry over my revelation.

"I was born in the year of our Lord Nineteen Hundred at the dawn of the twentieth century."

She was quiet for a moment or two and I thought I had already lost her. It was simply too much for her to absorb but she surprised me by reaching across the table for my hand – my cold, hard hand.

She squeezed it almost in reassurance.

"You clean up pretty well for an old man."

I couldn't help but smile at her. "You think I clean up pretty well, Carlisle is over three hundred and fifty!" I announced with little consideration about how much information she could handle at one time.

She looked surprised and then her face grew serious and she held my hand tightly, "It's true, isn't it? All of it?"

I didn't release her hand but came around the table to kneel in front of her. I took her other hand too. "All of it," I whispered.

She shuttered and slid out of her chair and back into my arms.

I took her into my arms. She overwhelms me – her touch, her smell, the sound of her blood running right under my hands. She was a precious thing - and she ignited such feelings!

As we knelt there by Esme's kitchen table, I felt something waking in me. I wished that I could say it was some forgotten piece of my humanity but no, it was definitely fierce and primitive.

I let out a soft growl and felt my face mold into a snarl as I held her. Surprisingly, this sound didn't seem to alarm her. She continued to hug me.

The less my body seemed to yield to her, the harder she pushed herself against me. While attempting to settle her into a comfortable postion, my hand brushed against her small but exquisitely shaped breast.

Before I could murmur an apology for my forwardness, her heart slowed and I noticed that my overly familiar touch seemed to sooth her. I yielded to my impulse and left my hand between us while the saline of more tears wet my collar.

She quieted after a time and pulled back for me. She smileds once more – a brave, little smile.

She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and I finally removed my hands from her, drawing a handkerchief out of my pocket for her.

She wiped her face and laughed, "Well, this proves it! No seventeen year old boy from this century would carry a freshly ironed, linen handkerchief in the pocket of his jeans."

Bella's laughter was interrupted by the most ungodly sound pouring in from outside. I immediately recognized the howling for what it is – that damned wolf. It couldn't be more than a quarter of a mile from our house.

While it had wounded Charlie and banged up the car, I could't imagine that it would be any match for our strength, speed and intellect. It didn't particularly trouble me.

Bella's eyes met mine as it was obvious that she recognized the howl as well.

"It's back?"

I moved to reassure her. I stood pulling her up with me. I kept her hand and led her back to the den.

Esme and Carlisle were there and Emmett and Rosalie were just coming into the room from upstairs. Jasper and Alice were keeping an eye on on a restless but still quiet Charlie.

We took the loveseat near the fireplace again. And again, Bella drew her legs up underneath her body and moved to my side as if this was her place. I thought to myself, that this was her place. It was her place now and forever.

Esme and Carlisle's thoughts stayed away from the physical proximity between Bella and me but I am bombarded by Emmett's thoughts. Why to go Bro! A little muffin' for Eddie, it's about damn time.

The little muffin comment angered me and before I could stop myself, I let out a deep growl. It was so low I didn't think that it had even registered with Bella but it obviously did with everyone else in the room.

And in response, everyone had a thought to toss my way. Rosalie wished that I would take - my 'freak show' somewhere else; Emmett was ecstatic that I was showing my attachment to Bella in such a typical male manner; and Carlisle was excited that I was demonstrating what he considered to be normal behavior for a mated adult male vampire. Esme didn't direct her thoughts at me per say but I could clearly see that she was relieved. She had worried that I would never find anyone.

And me, I had to filter through everyone else's thoughts – except for Bella's - the one I wished to hear – to get to my own.

What was I thinking?

I was thinking uncharacteristically lecherous thoughts toward a girl who could be my great-granddaughter had I lived.

I had convinced myself that I was a singular being – a rather asexual singular being. But now words, impulses, actions that I had pretty much ignored for one hundred years were running through my brain.

Sometimes, I would catch Esme and Carlisle talking about whether I was changed too soon, that something frozen in me was simply too immature to make such an attachment. I believed that I too had subscribed to this line of thinking more than I had admitted but now…

Now…I found that a beast in my chest had awakened, he had always been there, he had simply been waiting for Bella. It was going to take all of my control to not press her to give me more than she was ready for because I wanted to mark my mate even more than I wanted to taste her blood.

BPOV

I found myself back at 'command central' as I was starting to think of the Cullen den. This seemed to be the gathering point for my friendly neighborhood vampires.

I had so many questions. I felt myself becoming more and more anxious. However, one thing that I had learned over the past hours was that the closer I stayed to Edward, the better I felt both physically and emotionally.

It made no sense but nothing did so I decided to just go with my intuition. My gut said to trust Edward so that was what I was going to do. I figured that this was my fairy tale so I got to pick.

I could still hear that wolf howling. I thought that without that wolf, I wouldn't even be here. I would be at Charlie's watching basketball on TV by now.

Charlie's house! That made me think – I was supposed to call Renee!

As soon as I sat down, I turned to Edward.

"I was supposed to call my mom when I got in this afternoon, I totally forgot. Can I do it now?"

Then I thought about the fact that this wasn't going to be a normal call. What was I going to say? Hi Mom, Dad is kind of busy turning into a vampire so I'm just going to hang with some other nice vampires for a while.

I found that I was turning to ask Dr. Cullen just like everyone else around here! "My mom - what should I tell her? If I tell her Charlie is hurt she will want to come and knowing my mom that's not the best idea."

Dr. Cullen spoke so definitively, I had to admit that it did ease my mind.

"I see your point Bella and I can't tell you how much we all appreciate your sensitivity to … well, our predicament. Esme and I were discussing how to handle this situation when you and Edward came in just now."

"I must also apologize for inundating you with all this immediately upon your arrival. It certainly would not have been my choice although I dare say that Edward is happy to have met you."

I blushed for the ninety-fifth time – with that comment, I mentally took back what I thought about Dr. Cullen being hot in any way. When I closed my eyes, he sounded like a thousand other dads!

I ignored his comment about Edward and he got back on the subject.

"I think that for now it would be best to simply let your mother know that you arrived safely. I detest lying but unfortunately in our case, it is often the lesser evil. Does she have any regular contact with anyone in Forks who might let her know of Charlie's situation?"

I think for a minute. "No, I don't think so. I know that Charlie usually sends her a check every month for me but she told me that she had told him to stop since I was coming up here. I think as long as she hears from me regularly she should be fine."

Esme spoke for the first time this evening and she sounded so sweet and worried. If you could put freshly baked cookies into a voice - that would be Esme. "Bella, we would very much like you to stay with us while Charlie recuperates. Quite honestly, it will take a while but I…" She smiled and made eye contact with Dr. Cullen. "But we already consider you and Charlie family but if you miss your mother, we can figure out something..."

"No," I heard myself say almost rudely.

I thought better of it and apologized, "No, thank you. I mean, I'm fine. Here, I mean." I stumbled over my words.

"I mean to say that I am fine here with you all and Charlie of course. I appreciate your hospitality."

Then I add, "And I appreciate you saving Charlie. Dr. Cullen."

Dr. Cullen seemed uncomfortable with my gratitude.

"Please Bella, call me Carlisle. I too consider you family and Dr. Cullen is much too formal. However, I would also caution you to save your thanks. I regret to tell you that he will have a long road to face."

"OK, Carlisle." It seems funny calling him by his first name but then again he didn't look more than five or six years older than me if you really paid attention, his demeanor aged him somehow.

"I thought you said that Charlie would be fine?"

Edward spoke, again reminding me that I was once again hanging all over him! Earlier today I kept referring to him as an "almost" stranger to myself but after the past few hours, I would't kid myself. He was so much more but what? OK Bells, lets' put that topic on the shelf for now.

Carlisle's voice pulls me out of my thoughts.

"Bella, when Charlie wakes up, he will be consumed by one desire, the thirst for blood – human blood. This desire is overwhelming. It will turn the most peaceful being into a killer. The first year of a vampire's life is driven by a lust for blood and nothing is more intoxicating than human blood. The need is so great that it essentially obliterates one's self. "

Looking around at this cozy scene, I couldn't help but point out that things looked pretty OK to me.

"But you guys all seem fine. I mean no one has attacked me or anything. You seem pretty normal to me. Well, except for being gorgeous!" I embarrassingly exclaimed.

"What you see before you is not the norm on several levels, I'm afraid. First of all, our family has made the decision to abstain from taking human life. We hunt wildlife to meet our needs. And secondly, all of us are well past our newborn phase."

"Newborn?"

Edward chimes in, "That is what we call those that have been newly turned. It's worst in the first year. "

Carlisle continued with his description, explaining that it wasn't going to be possible for Charlie to be around me for probably a year or more. He then went into great detail about how we were going to manage this.

It was clear that he had thought about this a lot. It seemed pretty outrageous. I mean last night I was packing my stuff in Phoenix, tonight I was plotting with supernatural creatures. Heck, this sounded like a plot off of the CW! Still, I had this profound feeling that this was for real. Every time I felt like maybe I should bolt, I looked into Edward's eyes and I was sure that I was in the right place.

Esme offered me some hot chocolate and when I opened my mouth to answer, I yawned. And not a little yawn either!

Esme looked over my shoulder at what must have been a clock and jumped up really quickly.

"Oh my goodness Bella, we didn't mean to keep you up so late! You must be exhausted – between the travel and all of this..." She made this encompassing gesture.

I started to protest but I only yawned again and decided to yield. I moved with the intention of standing and felt Edward's arm behind my back, bolstering me.

Esme looked delighted as she showed me to what would be my room for the night. It was a huge bedroom with an appealing looking bed with tons of pillows in pastel blues and grays. It adjoinsed a big bathroom with a garden tub and a free standing marble shower with jets going up and down the wall. There was a fresh stack of fluffy white towels and beside of them – my Target/toiletry bag.

I turned then and noticed that my bags were in the corner of the room.

She bid me goodnight walking over to me and asking very softly if she could hug me.

I said sure and she carefully folded her arms around me for a few moments. When she drew back she smiled warmly and said "I am so glad you are here Bella!"

She said it with more enthusiasm and warmth than you would normally greet a house guest with but all the things that I had seen and heard, I was not ready to think about that too much!

She closed the door on her way out, leaving Edward and I alone in this intimate setting.