My apologies for how long this chapter took . . . it was loooong. Hope you all enjoy the hunt scene. Be back tomorrow with more. Thanks again for all of the new reviews! I appreciate you all! ~Jen
"The window?" she asked me uncertainly as I stood waiting for her.
"It's the most convenient exit. If your frightened, I can carry you," I said. I didn't want to get into why we needed to exit from this window; I didn't want to make her think about Renesmee again. I knew that it would hurt her.
"We have all eternity, and you're worried about the time it would take to walk to the back door?" she asked and I frowned. No, of course she wouldn't make it easy. When had she ever?
"Renesmee and Jacob are downstairs . . ."
"Oh," she said and her face fell. I hated to hurt her this way.
"Is Renesmee . . . okay . . . with Jacob there?" she whispered. "He doesn't like her much."
It was almost funny, really. Would have been funny if the situation wasn't so ridiculous. How was I ever going to explain this to her? I gave myself the excuse that now wasn't the time; I could put it off until later. Really, I was a coward and didn't want to tell her. Leave it to Jacob to tell her, my father soothed me. I steeled myself to put her off. It was always difficult for me not to give her what she wanted.
"Trust me, she is perfectly safe. I know exactly what Jacob is thinking."
That should mollify her. She couldn't argue with me that I knew his thoughts.
"Of course," she said, hanging her head. What in the world was going through her head now? The same frustration washing through me. I pushed it back and tried to make light.
"Stalling?" I challenged her. She was so stubborn, I was sure it would work. But she surprised me.
"A little. I don't know how . . ."
Ah, I thought. She was afraid of not doing it right . . . in front of everyone. My previous thought about the clumsy vampire occurred to me and I chuckled silently to myself. Even though she was always surprising me, just watching her small movements convinced me that she would be excellent at this.
"Watch me," I said and stepped out the window. It was easy to judge the distance that I would be falling, measuring exactly the right time to bend my legs to absorb the impact. I made a soft thud as I landing on the ground. I looked up to see that she had watched everything. She had a familiar look on her face. Determination.
She stepped out of the window and positioned her legs perfectly, judging the distance as she fell as I had. It gave my stomach a slight turn to see her jumping from a second story window, but the beauty of her fall was breathtaking. She landed next to me and righted herself immediately. Her landing was even quieter than mine had been. She beamed at me in pleasure and surprise.
"Right. Easy," she said.
I smiled warmly back at her. "Bella?"
"Yes?" she asked.
"That was quite graceful--even for a vampire."
She seemed to be considering my words and listening for something. Then she smiled radiantly up at me.
"Thank you," she said.
She immediately took the ridiculous shoes that Alice had placed on her feet off and lobbed them through the window. Whoa! Alice thought as she caught them.
"Her fashion sense hasn't improved as much as her balance," Alice grumbled.
I took her hand and together we darted away from the house.
It was exhilarating to run with her by my side and I had trouble taking my eyes off of this creature running next to me. We reached the river in under a second.
"Are we swimming?" she asked him, interested but not deterred.
"And ruin your pretty dress? No. We're jumping."
She considered and seemed to be judging in her head.
"You first," she countered.
I touched her cheek, pained just to be leaving her side for a barest second. Then I took two strides backward and leapt over the river. I decided at the last minute to add a slight flourish to my jump, somersaulting in the air. I was so overwhelmed with happiness. I wasn't exactly showing off for her. I was just over exuberant in my joy. She disappeared from view and I landed on the other side, behind the tree line.
I heard her clear bell-like voice mutter "show-off" as I landed. I laughed, full of pleasure and hope.
I heard a ripping sound and guessed that she had ripped part of her dress as she took her first stride. I was intrigued and a bit excited at the thought of her ripped dress. The possibilities now seemed endless for our relationship, but like a hormonal teenager, I seemed to keep coming back to one thought. I smiled at myself. There would be time enough for that. I heard another rip followed by laughter coming from the house.
So they were watching her. It didn't surprise me. They had thought of Bella as part of the family from the moment I had decided that I wanted her with me. Now that she could fully join our family, they were almost as excited as I was for her to start her new life. There had been a lot of tension over the past few days and they were just as relieved as I was to have her back with us. Well, almost as much as I was.
I watched Bella as she seemed to be considering something. Was she unsure of whether she could make it? I was sure from the display of power she showed in hugging me earlier that she could clear the river and possibly the trees as well. But perhaps she doubted what she didn't know. And she certainly didn't know the power she possessed yet.
"Bella?" I called to her. "Do you want to watch again?"
In the next instant she was flying through the air over my head, swinging from the branch of a tree only to land on the points of her toes in a Spruce. She was lovely and she was mine. She took my breath away again. She was laughing with delight as she dipped down to my side.
"Was that good?" she asked in excitement.
"Very good," I nodded and smiled. But I was surprised by her grace and . . . how natural it all seemed for her. She surprised me again, then.
"Can we do it again?"
"Focus, Bella--we're on a hunting trip."
"Oh, right." she nodded. "Hunting."
Had she really forgotten the purpose of our trip? Was that possible?
"Follow me . . . if you can." I grinned at her in challenge. If I had to keep her focused by challenging her, I would. Frankly, she made me a bit nervous with her control as well. Was she really a vampire without bloodlust? The thought was unsettling.
I was still faster than her I thought, but she was stronger and she matched my speed with her enormous strides. She flew with me through the old growth of the forest around us, pealing her bell like laughter as she flew. It lightened my heart to hear her happiness. Had I ever doubted that this life would please her? Had I ever doubted that she would love this?
I stopped after several minutes of running. We had covered miles in that short time, far enough from human borders to be a safe distance from where there might be hunters. I didn't bother to check the scent, eager to get the hunt under way. I hadn't thought about it as her change had been nearing the end, but I was thirsty as well.
Bella continued streaking through the trees after I had stopped. If I didn't call her soon, she would be miles away. It was hard to call her back to me though. She was enjoying herself so much.
"Bella," I called, dry humor light in my voice.
She whirled around at the sound of my voice and was next to me a bare second after I had spoken.
"Did you want to stay in the country?" I asked her pleasantly. "Or were you planning to continue on to Canada this afternoon?"
"This is fine," she said, focused on my face, not on what she was saying. "What are we hunting?"
"Elk. I thought something easy for your first time . . ." I knew she would be indignant about easy, but I counted on her being too thirsty to argue with me.
"Where?" I had guessed right.
"Hold still for a minute," I said, touching her shoulders evenly. It wouldn't take much to bring forth her natural hunting instincts, but she seemed to have them more under control than most. It seemed I would need to direct her in some ways.
"Now close your eyes," I murmured gently. When her eyes had closed, I lifted my hands to her face, touching the smooth surface of her face. Her breathing sped as I touched her, but I was sure it was in anticipation of the hunt, not the touch of my skin.
"Listen," I told her. "What do you hear?"
I was sure that there were a multitude of sounds in her ears right now. I heard them, splashing and lapping the water with their tongues and the hot, heavy pumping of their big hearts. Would she know what to listen for?
"By the creek, to the northeast?" she asked, still with eyes closed.
"Yes," I said with pleasure. She was good. "Now . . . wait for the breeze again and . . . what do you smell?"
Again, I was sure there was an assault on her new immortal senses. Part of the allure of the forest was the perfume that surrounded it. The living carpet of the grass, the clean crispness of the lapping water. But the warm blood smelled the strongest to me. How long would it take her to smell the rich reek of the herbivores and recognize it for what it was. Not long, apparently. Her nose turned up appealingly in mild disgust and I chuckled at her.
"I know--it takes some getting used to."
"Three?" she guessed.
"Five. There are two more in the trees behind them."
"What do I do now?"
I smiled at her closed eyes. Could I let her do this? Of course. "What do you feel like doing?"
Her eyes opened and she, finally, looked thirsty. She also looked a bit conflicted. I thought it was strange, but I wanted her to forget that now.
"Don't think about it," I suggested to her. "Just follow your instincts."
Immediately she was on the move, ghosting gracefully through the trees, inching ever closer to the quarry. She crouched herself, prepared to take the largest male when the wind shifted. I smelled it first.
NO! I screamed in panic now. It couldn't possibly be. We were too far. But I had been too careless, too caught up in showing her everything. Rushing and being foolish. There were hunters on the trail of the elk and she had smelled them from miles away. She was off on their scent as soon as the wind blew her way.
"BELLA!" I bellowed, knowing that she wouldn't hear me or care.
I hurtled after her, following her careful course as she stalked her prey. Would I get to her in time? Would I be able to stop her if I caught her? What would she do to me to get to what she wanted? And how would she feel after?
I had to catch her. I caught sight of her as she ghosted along the ridge, closer and closer. She tensed as soon as she felt my presence. I would be unknown to her now, caught up in her senses as I told her to be. I had to prey on the fact that she would be defensive, possibly divert her enough that I could drag her away from the scent to calm her down.
She turned on me then, crouched in a hunting posture, ready to strike at me and defend her prey. An animal like snarl ripped through her throat and out of her mouth, startling her enough to let her really see me. At the same moment the wind shifted direction, bringing with it the earthy smell of the forest and dissipating the haze of human scent in the air.
I stood still in front of her, arms raised, ready to grab her if she began to run again. I was fairly sure that I could catch her, but she would hurt me if she decided to fight. It was worth it to me to prevent her from doing something that would so disgust her.
She was holding her breath! Impossible! I thought, immediately. I took a step toward her, testing out what she would allow of me.
"I have to get away from here," she hissed through her teeth, barely enough breath for an audible whisper. But it just didn't make sense.
"Can you leave?" I asked in complete shock.
She didn't answer me. She darted away from me in the opposite direction and I was left to chase her again. I caught her in almost no time this time. She wasn't trying to evade me this time. Without any warning, she stopped short and I had to stop on a dime and return to her in complete confusion.
"How did you do that?" I demanded of her as soon as I got near her. She was still holding her breath but she would need to inhale in order to answer me. No longer reckless, I had already checked. The scent was gone.
"You let me beat you before, didn't you?" she accused me. What? Could she be joking with me right now?
I shrugged absentmindedly and shook my head.
"Bella, how did you do it?"
"Run away?" she said casually. "I held my breath." She said it like it was the obvious answer. Of course, it was. But . . .
"But how did you stop hunting?"
"When you came up behind me . . . I'm so sorry about that." She hung her head immediately, ashamed of something. What could she possibly be ashamed of?
"Why are you apologizing to me? I'm the one who was horribly careless. I assumed that no one would be so far from the trails, but I should have checked first. Such a stupid mistake! You have nothing to apologize for."
"But I growled at you!" she said in horror.
"Of course you did," I said dismissively. "That's only natural. But I can't understand how you ran away."
"What else could I do?" she asked, helplessly. "It might have been someone I know!"
I couldn't help myself. I immediately burst into laughter, throwing my head back in relief. She couldn't possibly be a newborn. She was something completely other. But she was getting angry at me now.
"Why are you laughing at me?"
I stopped laughing instantly and looked at her soberly, warily. Would she snap now? Of course not. I watched the emotion drain out of her face as she, yet again, reined herself in.
"I'm not laughing at you, Bella. I'm laughing because I am in shock. And I am in shock because I am completely amazed."
"Why?" She honestly didn't know. Of course, how could she know? She'd never really known a newborn before, only seen them as they were about to die.
"You shouldn't be able to do any of this," I explained. "You shouldn't be so . . . so rational. You shouldn't be able to stand here discussing this with me calmly and coolly. And, much more than any of that, you should not have been able to break off mid-hunt with the scent of human blood in the air. Even mature vampires have difficulty with that--we're always very careful of where we hunt so as not to put ourselves in the path of temptation. Bella, you are behaving like you're decades rather than days old."
"Oh." She looked confused. Didn't she understand how unique and special what she was doing made her? I put my hands along the sides of her face and looked deep into her eyes, trying desperately to hear what was going on inside her mind at this moment. Nothing.
"What I wouldn't give to be able to see into your mind for just this one moment."
Her face was working as if she was trying to form words around some powerful emotion. She reached her hands up to my face, tracing to shape of my lips. It was intoxicating.
"I thought I wouldn't feel this way for a long time?" she almost asked me, unsure of how to frame what she was feeling. "But I still want you."
I didn't understand at all how deep this new control over her emotions ran. I didn't understand anything, it seemed.
"How can you even concentrate on that? Aren't you unbearably thirsty?"
She seemed annoyed at me for redirecting her focus, but honestly, I was worried about her. She closed her eyes and I could see her body focusing on its senses: smell being the foremost one.
Suddenly her blood red eyes shot open and she turned and darted away from me. She had caught the scent of a mountain lion stalking deer about five miles to the east. I followed closely behind her, letting her senses lead the way, impressed again by how natural this seemed to her. All the while wondering over her unusual control. Perhaps all the time that she had to prepare had helped her to forego the newborn frenzy . . . but I didn't really believe that. Bella was going to break the mold and shock us in many ways it seemed.
She was the ultimate hunter tracking the predator who thought it was about to net its prey. The lion was silently treading the wide lower branch of a spruce. Bella was above him, to his right. He was very big. Suddenly something that I had only guessed at filled my gut. I was considering getting between Bella and the lion. It seemed so unnatural to let her go up against a mountain lion. In her former life, she wouldn't have lasted more than a minute or two. He would give her new skills a work-out, but she would easily take him. And I knew that it would be fun for her. But, I realized, it was going to be torture for me. I took a place in a nearby tree to watch my wife wrestle a lion.
With a lithe jump, she jumped perfectly onto the big cat's branch making it shiver slightly. The cat's whiskers quivered as the wood reverberated and he turned and shrieked in surprise. I held tight to my own tree, letting Bella work. He clawed at the branch beneath him, furious at this interruption and eyes bright with the promise of a larger meal. This was one of the benefits of hunting predators. They didn't expect to become the prey.
He bared his fangs at her and continued to paw at the branch beneath him, challenging her. She was so far gone with thirst that she ignored the predatory warnings and launched herself at him. She tackled him easily and brought him to the forest floor with a crunch of broken ribs. He began raking at her skin, finding no purchase or give. Her dressed, dirtied from our run was now hanging off of her body in appealing tatters. Now, along with the agony of watching her struggle with mountain lions, I had another emotion coursing through my veins. She was beautiful to watch, she was mine, and I wanted her very badly.
Her perfect mouth parted over the spot where I knew the hot blood would be pulsing the strongest. She easily bit through the sinew and began drinking the liquid down greedily. When the cat had gurgled his last scream and she had thrown him off in disgust, looking around her for more I assumed, I lightly jumped out of my tree and leaned casually against the tree, waiting for her to look for me.
She was stunning. The dress was no more than a hint of fabric in most places. She was smeared in dirt and blood. She looked like a vampire goddess and I couldn't help myself from grinning in pride. She wiped her face clean of the excess blood and attempted to fix the dress to cover more of her body. It was a futile attempt, but I didn't mind at all.
"Hmmm," I finally said.
"I guess I could have done that better," she said, looking herself over once again.
"You did perfectly fine," I said immediately. I was rather proud of her. "It's just that . . . it was much more difficult for me to watch than it should have been."
She raised her eyebrows questioning me. I guessed that she didn't understand what was so difficult for me.
"It goes against the grain," I explained, "letting you wrestle with lions. I was having an anxiety attack the whole time." Along with several impure thoughts as well.
"Silly."
"I know. Old habits die hard. I like the improvements on your dress, though," I admitted.
She seemed embarrassed by this, although I couldn't fathom why. "Why am I still thirsty?"
"Because you're young."
She sighed. "And I don't suppose there are any other mountain lions nearby."
"Plenty of deer, though."
She crinkled her nose again. "They don't smell as good."
"Herbivores," I explained. "The meat-eaters smell more like humans."
"Not that much like humans," she disagreed, shaking her head to dislodge the memory.
"We could go back," I said seriously, but with only humor in my eyes. "Whoever it was out there, if they were men, they probably wouldn't even mind death if you were the one delivering it." My eyes raked over her mostly naked form, hungrily taking it in. "In fact, they would think they were already dead and gone to heaven the moment they saw you."
She rolled her eyes and snorted a tiny laugh.
"Let's go hunt some stinking herbivores," she said.
We hunted down a large heard of deer on our way back to the house. She took down a large buck easily, while I took down two of the smaller males. When I had finished with the last one, I looked up to find her eyeing me.
"No longer thirsty?" I asked.
She shrugged. "You distracted me. You're much better at it than I am."
"Centuries of practice." I smiled at her, amazed anew that she didn't realize just how good she was at all of this.
"Just one," she reminded me.
I laughed then. "Are you done for today? Or did you want to continue?"
"Done, I think," she said, seeming to test herself as she said it. She made some decision instantly.
"I want to see Renesmee," she said with resolve.
I reached out my hand to her and she took it without hesitation. She ran her hand across my face and the touch, though much different from the heat that she had trailed over my skin before her change, was very familiar.
She stretched her body up to me slowly, remembering to go carefully with me. I, however, was unable to restrain myself. I no longer felt the need to hold back with Bella. She was not the uncontrollable newborn that we had all feared. She was just Bella, but unbreakable. I took her in my arms and pulled her to my chest, crushing my lips to hers in a desperate plea to get closer to her.
The love crashing over me in that moment swept me away. I knew then that our love had changed again. Both immortal now, we could love in a way that was closed to us before. Both without fear; both equals. She was losing herself in the kiss as fully as I was and before long we had crashed to the ground in an embrace.
I laughed lightly underneath of her as she whispered lightly, "oops," again. "I didn't mean to tackle you like that. Are you okay?"
"Slightly better than okay," I answered her, pure joy resounding in my head. But, I remembered her original request. "Renesmee?" I asked now, unsure of where her desires lay. I was not at all opposed to prolonging our stay in the woods. But I was anxious to see Renesmee and to let Bella finally meet our daughter. I knew that the fleeting human memory that she had of her daughter was paling minute by immortal minute. She wanted to see her with her immortal eyes. I was wary of what she would think, but I owed it to her to let her see for herself.
"Renesmee," she agreed finally, pulling me up to standing. We began to run back to reunite our family.
