Title: Reckless
Author: marjorie16
Fandom: Twilight
Summary: Edward leaves Bella in NM. She desperately needs to find him. So at the age of 19, she successfully writes and publishes a bestselling book, 'Twilight', to catch his attention. Unfortunately, not only does she catch his attention but also that of other vampires. And these immortals are not so happy about it.

When you're "forbidden to remember" but "terrified to forget", what do you do?

You write.

What if it were all true?

* Third Person POV

CHAPTER 9

The first thing she felt was his fingertips tracing random patterns across her skin. She sighed but didn't open her eyes. She could feel the sheets enveloping their bodies. No part of his body was touching hers, only his fingers. She, on the other hand, was hugging the pillow that separated them. She felt great, satisfied but most of all, peaceful. She would remember this night for as long as she lived. The thought made her brows crease.

"Are you awake?" Edward said. His cool breath brushed her face.

"No." She smiled then, felt him move closer to her, kneading her arms. Carefully, he kissed her forehead and held her in his arms. She was, now more than ever, the most precious thing in his world.

Neither wanted the moment to end. They held each other close until a loud knock disturbed them.

"Lily is really getting on my nerves."

"You don't have to answer it."

And he wouldn't have if the knock hadn't grown louder. Reluctantly, he broke the embrace, grabbed his jeans and went to answer the door.

"Boy howdy." Lily's eyes widened as she took in the sight of Robert Patterson half-naked. She gulped. "I-is M-Miss. Swan awake?"

"Lily?" Bella's sweet voice echoed in the room. And then Lily saw her. Bella was wearing nothing but a Navy blue buttoned shirt.

"Boy howdy." Everything became apparent. Lily could not begin to form a coherent sentence.

"Everything's okay here, Lily. I'm all right."

She moved closer to Edward, locking her left arm around his waist. His right arm closed over her shoulder tenderly.

"Bella won't be attending any more conventions or interviews anymore, Lily," Edward said, reading the chaotic thoughts running through her head.

"How did you --? Wait, what? She has a book fair to go to tomorrow. They're all waiting for her. Her fans, her investors, even the Hollywood people will be there. It's an important event."

"She won't be going anywhere but back to Phoenix."

Bella looked at him questioningly. But she didn't argue. He was trying to keep her as safe as possible.

"Phoenix? Is there an emergency?"

"No, no, no," Bella corrected. "I just want to go home. Italy's great but, I --" She looked to Edward for some help. After all this time, she still couldn't make up a plausible excuse.

"She's not feeling well," Edward continued.

A second later, Bella's eyes darkened in shocking disbelief. Her mind short-circuited. She couldn't speak. Did he know? How could he have known?

"Not feeling well?" Lily exclaimed. "Do you take your medicine as instructed by your mother, Miss?"

Edward looked at Bella swiftly then at Lily, reading her thoughts. He tensed. "Yes. Bella, do you take your medicine regularly? Like your mother said?"

Bella played it cool and swallowed loudly. "Yeah. As a matter of fact, I just took some." She shrugged, trying to lighten the atmosphere. Ignoring Edward staring at her, she said, "So, Lily, I need you to schedule a flight to Phoenix tomorrow morning. Give my regrets to my appointments tomorrow and for the rest of the book tour in Italy." She paused, the tension unfurling.

"We're already booked," Edward interrupted. His eyes still locked on her. But she still refused to look back at him.

"Well then, that's great." Bella smiled at Lily. "Lily, do you remember the vacation Cathy keeps nagging me about?"

"Yes, Mrs. Spencer mentions that constantly, yes."

"Tell her I'll take one now."

"But this is short notice. There's a lot to go through before you disappear in the public eye. Miss. Swan..."

"You heard what she said," Edward's voice commanded. He sounded mad. "She wants a vacation, she'll take one."

At that, Lily couldn't protest. "What am I supposed to tell the media?"

Edward started to close the door. "Tell them there's a family thing going on. Very personal. Can't be disturbed." Then the door shut behind him.

"Are you sick?" he asked without preamble.

Time to decide. "N-no."

"What was that medicine Renee wanted you take regularly?"

She supposed she could take the lie back. "It's for my headaches. I've been having serious migraines since the dawn of time. And --" she gulped, " --I've been having nightmares constantly. I don't sleep well at night."

"Hmm... it's not that serious then," he stated, looking back again at the image of a very worried Renee reminding Lily, yet again, to remind Bella to take her pills. Maybe Renee was just very concerned about her only daughter. That was reasonable. "Okay... why didn't you tell me?"

Edward put his arm around her and unconsciously kissed her cheek lightly. She felt his tension ease. "It didn't come up. Plus now I can sleep through the night with you around. The nightmares didn't come tonight."

He chuckled, then lifted her up and carried her back to the big bed. "Don't worry. I'll always be here to keep them away."

"Deal?"

"Deal." He kissed her soundly against the pillows. He had to be careful with her. He had pushed his self-control to the limit tonight. So far, he'd done well. He was proud of himself for that. He broke the kiss and propped himself up to see her flushed face. A blush painting her cheeks.

She wound her arms around his neck. "What are you thinking?" she asked.

"That's my line."

"I'm sorry if you feel robbed, but you have a rather odd look on your face."

"I was just thinking that I'm the luckiest man on the face of the planet, which is pretty ironic since we're probably the most wanted couple on the face of the planet."

Bella glanced away for a second, and then looked at him straight in the eyes. "There's a solution to all this you know."

"Oh really?" He kissed the tip of her nose. "And what would that be?" He sprayed more kisses on her face.

She chuckled, hoping against hope that her voice wouldn't break. "You could bite me."

Edward stopped. The seconds passed. They simply looked at each other. Then, he smiled. "That wouldn't be practical right now." Then, he lay down on her side, looking at the patterns of the ceiling.

"But would you do it?" Bella propped herself up on one side. "Would you change me?"

He was still not paying attention to her. It was getting irritating. And then, to her surprise, he smiled at her and said, "Maybe."

"Maybe?" She gasped. It wasn't a yes, but it wasn't a no either. "What do you mean, maybe?"

"I want to make something official first. After that, we'll see."

"I'm confused. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"A little bit of both. Now go to sleep, we've got a long day tomorrow."

With that Bella couldn't argue. She felt as weak as she always does these days. She needed her sleep to revive her strength and hopefully, not seem like a dying person. Edward wrapped his arms around her and she slept peacefully for the rest of the night.

* * *

"Bella!" Alice stormed inside the hotel room like a predator pouncing on her prey.

"Alice!" Bella was just as excited but the strength of Alice's arms around her was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. "Hey, take it easy!"

"Alice, stop crushing her." Edward moved closer to ease Alice's over-excited embrace. "What took you so long?"

But Alice didn't answer. She simply looked at Edward, no doubt answering his question in her mind. To Bella's surprise, Edward smirked and looked away. She wondered what is was, but knew that she wasn't going to get any answers any time soon.

Bella turned to Edward's brother who was standing next to Alice. "Hey Jasper, it's been a long time."

"Bella, I---" he started. "I'm extremely sorry for... for attempting to --"

"Don't worry about it. It's water under the bridge."

"If there's anything I can do for you, anything at all. Please don't hesitate."

"Oh yeah? Would you bite me if I asked you to?"

"Bella," Edward warned.

"What?" she said. "He said anything."

Jasper chuckled. It seemed very bizarre to him that a human could lightly say this. And after what Bella has gone through, he couldn't imagine her smiling this way, looking happy. He wondered why her countenance didn't match with her mood. He could feel her tension beneath the calm facade. "Unfortunately, Bella, if I bit you, I wouldn't be able to stop."

"Hmm..." She thought silently. "But if you could stop, would you bite me?"

"Yes," Jasper answered. "But you have to be sure. There's no going back if I turn you."

"Thanks, Jasper." Bella smiled at him. "What about you, Alice?

"Bella, would you please stop asking every vampire to bite you already?" Edward said. "We talked about this."

"You gave me a maybe. That's hardly a certainty."

"We'll talk about this again later. I'll get your bags and we'll be off."

"I'll come with you, Edward," Alice said.

Bella wondered what Alice wanted to tell Edward. She obviously wanted to get him alone. Jasper gestured her outside the room. It was time to leave. She reluctantly stepped out of the room.

"Jasper!" Alice called from behind. "Wear your shades outside. You've got company."

Jasper nodded and put on a pair of dark glasses. Then he pulled out a long white scarf that complimented his jacket and wrapped it around his neck. Next, there was this big fashionable hat that he put on. It surreptitiously hid his face. Bella realized that he was concealing his skin that would surely sparkle outside. Bella looked at a nearby window. It wasn't that sunny. But it wasn't that cloudy either.

"Are you serious?" Alice asked. Her eyes were filled with intensity.

"Yes."

"Well, finally!" she exclaimed. "How many times have I told you that you should have changed her before. See? You held out for so long when you should have done it ages ago."

"I know that," Edward said. "It's just that it felt wrong to demand this of her at that time. But now, after last night. There's no going back, Alice. She's my imperative to live. Now more than ever."

"And you won't assure her now because?"

"I want to marry her first?"

"I knew it!" She bursted. "You'd do it the old-fashioned way, won't you?"

"Yes. I'm going to ask Charlie's permission and everything. But first, I have to get things sorted out first."

"I don't know, Edward. We're caught between a war that has been going on for fifteen hundred years here. I think it'll be better for Bella to become an immortal now. She'll be harder to kill and easier to take care of."

"But she'll be uncontrollable," he reasoned. "A new born is hard to educate at such short notice. We'll just have to take extra precautions. I'm going to stay with her no matter what, just to keep her safe."

"That reminds me. Carlisle, Esme and Emmett and Rosalie are in South America. If you're going to Forks to ask Charlie for Bella's - as they say in the nineteen hundreds - hand in marriage, we're going to have to change our plans. I can see that marrying her is the first thing you'll do when you walk out that house with Charlie's approval."

"Can you see that far already? Is he going to approve?"

"No, that part's still blurry. But I can see that marrying her is just about everything you can think about. And so, it wraps your whole future to that idea. But I can't ascertain anything yet."

"Okay, this is all set." Edward effortlessly carried Bella's luggage out of the room. "What's that you're thinking of, Alice?" he said as he read the blurred images of Bella in her mind.

"I keep seeing these possibilities for Bella's future," Alice said as she followed Edward out. "It's been bothering me. I've had images of her dying in so many different ways. One in the hospital, one in the woods, one in a big old house, one in a big open space with a lot of audience. Ugh. I really don't understand it all. It's just that, my visions imply that she's not going to last any longer, Edward."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I don't see her not dying."

"I already told you that I'd turn her."

"Yes, I can see that too. But the other futures are clearer than that. My other visions of her dying are more probable at the moment than the future with you."

"Maybe that's got something to do with the Volturi and the Empire. We're going to get through this. I won't allow anything bad to happen to her."

"I'm really glad you're finally living it out, you know. In the old times, you would have blamed yourself for everything and deny yourself your own happiness just to give her hers."

"It's different now. She and I -" Edward remembered the last night "- we can't be separated now."

* * *

"Good evening, Chief Swan. My name is Jane. This is my twin, Alec."

"Oh, hi there. Are you lost? Where are your parents?"

"They've abandoned us," Alec said. His eerie voice was even colder than the night. "We're hungry."

"Well, come on in. I don't have a hot meal inside but I'd bet I could fix you two something up."

And when he opened the door wider and gestured them to go inside. It was too late for him. The monsters didn't waste any time. The door closed behind softly. The blood spilled across the floor. And throughout his futile struggle, no one heard a sound.

"This is even easier than the mother," Alec said.

"I wouldn't say that," Jane countered. "The mother was harder to find but easier to kill."

#

I'm so sorry this took a long time. A lot of things happened this past month. I've been very busy. My beta's been busy. Basically, I haven't had time to "thicken the plot." Anyway, it's summer at our county. I'm officially an alumnae of my high school and I'm seventeen already. Yay! Since I have lots of time now, I've got a lot of writing lined up. Two fan fictions (one for Twilight and The Host), some originals. I already having something in progress. (Look for 'mirage16' at fictionpress{dot}com.)

Now, first. Please go over at my Livejournal account ('marjorie16') and answer a poll. It's crucial to the story line so please help me.

Second, I've posted the Prologue of my new fanfic for Twilight entitled Remembrance. And here's the summary:

Title: Remembrance
Author: marjorie16
Fandom: Twilight
Summary: If there were such things as soul mates, then there are such things as past lives. And when Edward Masen became a vampire, his immortal soul became one with his body. But what of his soul mate? While he lives forever, her soul wonders from body to body, bound by the ties of mortality, always searching and never finding. Alone every single lifetime. After 108 years of solitude, he meets those brilliant chocolate-brown eyes for the first time--- again. Finally.

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