Chapter 9
It seemed like a week had passed since the talk I had with the Theon, when in fact it had only been yesterday. Although I tried to keep my mind on other things throughout the day, my mind constantly wondered back to the events of the night before. The way that each of the ancient vampires looked, all different, but all too incredibly beautiful to believe were really there. As I sat in my bedroom, staring at the mass of emails Renee had sent within the past twenty four hours. I stared directly at one she had sent the night before, when I had been at the Cullens house, meeting with the Theon. It was almost as if she had known what I was doing, as if she knew I was in the presence of something incredible. Bella, honey, how are you? I haven't heard from you in a couple of hours. Just wanted to check in. Phil says hi! We were wondering what you have been up to? Anything exciting happening? Please respond! I read the email several times over and over, my eyes stuck to the words 'anything exciting happening' I thought for a moment on this, what could I tell her that would be appropriate. There was always the option of telling her the truth, Hey mom, nothing is up. But something fascinating that has happened to me is that I met a group of four vampires. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that Edward was a vampire. But, anyways, the four vampires that came are beautiful, and want to turn me into one of them. That's all my exciting news, how about you? I rolled my eyes then deleted the message I had written to my mother. It would be nice to know that I could tell my mom this kind of stuff, without her thinking I had completely lost it, so I wrote a simple email, to encompass everything not involving vampires. Hey mom, nothing exciting is happening here, I'm in Forks, remember? Nothing else is happening, can't wait to go off to school, but still enjoying the summer. I'll talk to you soon, I love you.
"Catching up on your email?" Edward's voice came from over my shoulder, which surprised me and sent me off my seat. When I had finally landed on the floor, I turned to see him smirking. A Greek god standing at the end of my desk chair, but then it dawned on me. I had met four Greek gods yesterday, real Greek gods. I shook my head slightly, shaking the thought from my head as Edward pulled me from the floor and into his arms. I always cherished the moments Edward held me in his arms, because I always had the feeling that it wouldn't last forever, even before he had left me for my own good.
"You know how Renee gets if I don't reply to her emails the second she hits send." Edward nodded solemnly, his arms wrapped around me. I looked into his topaz eyes; the black was ebbing into the color I had loved so much, since his hunt was cut short. I couldn't help but notice Edward's expression; he fixated on something, thinking intently on something to which I could not know. I suddenly felt angry that I couldn't know his thoughts, but Artemis could. I bit my lip and turned my face away from his.
"What's wrong?" Edward's fingers touched my jaw line, pulling my face closer to his. His touch sent a shock through my body, I had to remind myself to breathe, inhale, and exhale. I shook my head with a weak smile.
"Nothing is wrong." I leaned closer to him, placing my head on his chest in an attempt to hide my face from his eyes. Even though he couldn't read my thoughts, his eyes could still read my expressions. Edward let out a long sigh and placed his chin on the top of my head. We sat there for a minute in silence, I had no thoughts of my own, and I only wondered what his thoughts were and wondered if Artemis, wherever she was, could hear them. I looked up to Edward, not sure what to do. "So, what brings you here?" This question pulled Edward out of his thoughts and he looked down at me with a smile.
"I thought we could go for a walk…" Edward smirked, something else was behind his plan and I knew he could be diabolical. I looked over to my nightstand where the picture of us from prom sat. I was about to say no, but the excitement in Edward's eyes was contagious and I began to feel excited about taking a walk. I nodded with a coy smile.
"I guess we could go for a walk." I tried to play down the fact that the only reason I agreed to something so dangerous for me was because of his eyes, his excitement. I thought for a minute on what I had just agreed to; the inevitability that I was going to fall down and possibly hurt myself. "Where are we going on this walk of yours?" Edward smiled.
"Just through the forest. I thought we could use some alone time. How about we go to our meadow?" If I hadn't known any better, I would have thought that Edward had read my mind. We hadn't spent time alone in so long, not including our secret sleepovers. I though patiently then looked at Edward.
"Will we be walking, or will you be carrying me?" Edward looked at me intently for a minute then laughed. His laughter was like honey, delicious and sweet. I smiled as he continued to laugh, no doubt thinking about the first time we took a trip to the meadow. He nodded
"I guess it would be safer and less time consuming if I carried you, but I think walking will be good enough." Edward took my face in his hands and looked into my eyes, thinking about his next move. My heart began to race and slow down at the first time; my breathing became heavy as he placed his cold lips against mine. I tried to control my body, refusing to move unless Edward gave a hint that I could, but when his body pinned me against my bed and his kiss became more passionate, my body went limp. The kiss didn't last as long as I had wanted, but when Edward pulled away from me, he rose from the bed quickly and went by the window. "I'll be at your door shortly…." His eyes were strained out the window; he was trying to control himself, which seemed to be getting harder and harder as time went on. I nodded, feeling slightly powerful at this point, and then he was gone.
Right on cue, Edward was knocking at the door. Surely he knew Charlie wasn't home, so he didn't have to put on an act of being normal, but he seemed to do it for himself more than any one else. When I had opened the door, Edward was standing there, he looked like he had managed to control himself with the few seconds he had before I came bounding down the stairs. He gave me a crooked smile as we made our way to his car. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. Edward seemed to have found this amusing, because he let out a little chuckle as he opened my door for me, his hand lingering in mine to help me into the seat, then he made his way around at a human pace. When he got in, he threw the car into gear immediately.
"You make self control so difficult." Edward said, not directly to me, but I assumed it was meant for me because of the way he said it. The words came out with a bit of frustration, but there was something else there. Something I couldn't quite figure out. The drive to the location where the trail started was short, especially with the way Edward drove. We didn't speak, we just sat together, enjoying the alone time, our hands wrapped together in on my lap, his cold thumb tracing circles in the middle of my palm. Even though his body was cold to the touch, his slight touch could send a heat wave through my body.
"So, what made you want to go for a walk? You trying to enjoy my human slowness while it's still here?" Part of me meant this seriously; another part meant it as a joke, but no matter what part Edward listened to, this made him mad. The idea of me becoming immortal and being able to live with him forever seemed to aggravate him, and a part of me wondered why.
"Bella, don't talk like that. You're going to be human for a very long time. You understand me?" I hadn't noticed, but Edward's gaze shifted from the road ahead of him to me, his eyes were pleading, like he was begging me to stay human. I sighed and slinked back in my seat. I couldn't understand why he didn't want to be with me forever, like I wanted to be with him. I tried not to think too much on it, but Edward shook my hand to get my attention back to him.
"I was just saying, Edward," I tried to keep my eyes from watering, my thoughts were running wild, the idea of him not wanting me for eternity was killing me. I shook my head and turned back to the window. "I was just saying as a joke." I tried to play it off as if Edward had taken what I had said too far, but in reality, he had the right idea. From what I could tell, I wasn't going to be human long, the Volturi want me changed immediately, so they sent vampires that had become professionals at changing humans from what I understood. There was no way I was going to stay human. Just as my thoughts were coming to a close, we pulled into the entrance of the trail to the meadow. Edward was already at my door before I noticed the car had stopped.
"Ready?" Edward's crooked smile was so beautiful, I felt dazed for a minute. I couldn't move, and then his hand took mine and lifted me from the car with no effort. I nodded and smiled.
"I'm ready." Edward nodded happily, but what he didn't get was that this statement was meant more for my mind. I was ready to be a vampire; I was ready to be with him forever. Edward nodded happily, unaware of what my thoughts held, and then our walk through the forest began.
Edward in the sun was always the highlight of my life, the sparkles all over his body, the beauty of his body compared to the beauty of the flowers in the meadow. As we lay down on our sides, facing one another, I could only imagine what I would look like as a vampire, would I be incredibly beautiful like Aphrodite, or would I be the first plain looking vampire? I couldn't imagine myself beautiful, not like Aphrodite. She was the pinnacle of beauty, even for her kind where everyone was beautiful. I sighed and leaned in closer to Edward, placing my head close to his chest. His hand rose and began twirling my plain brown hair, but he seemed to enjoy it. We just sat for a long time, not talking, just enjoying each other's company. The doubt in my mind on whether or not Edward wanted to be with me forever had faded as he lay together in the field. We were completely peaceful until Edward's body became stiff and he jolted upright, leaving me in the flowers alone.
"Someone's coming…." Edward looked through the trees with his eyes narrowed; his body was in a protective stance, blocking me from view of anything that could possibly be in the forest around us. There was long pause until I noticed that Edward had slightly relaxed, not much, but he seemed more calm that he had a moment ago. Just as Edward began to relax, someone had stepped out of the trees and was standing at the edge of the forest, looking at us intently, a smile across their face.
"Well, look what I found!" The being in the trees finally stepped out from the darkness and made her presence known. Aphrodite stood at the edge of the trees, her body still in the shade of the trees, but very apparent that it was her. Just like before, upon seeing her, I cowered into myself, her beauty was too overwhelming. Her long dark red hair was now curled, heavy locks reaching slightly above where it would have reached if it were straight. Aphrodite stepped closer, carefully at a human pace. She tried to seem friendly enough, but little did she know that her mere appearance could cause animosity towards her. No one could ever be this beautiful; she was the epitome of beautiful. It was not hard to see why in her time people worshipped her as a goddess, especially now since she was wearing a beautiful white dress, very much like the red one she donned when we first met, very low cut neck line and back. Edward looked at her, then away.
"What are you doing here, Aphrodite?" Edward spoke in a pleasant tone, but it still caused Aphrodite to stop in her tracks and look as if she were wounded by his words. She stared curiously at him, not sure where his new found attitude had come from. She shrugged her shoulders, her delicately beautifully shoulders and took another step closer in her stiletto, ankle wrap silver shoes.
"Ares is out scooping the area." As she spoke she rolled her eyes, annoyed that she was left alone by her mate. She sighed, and then looked down at me with a smile. "I thought I smelled something….familiar." Aphrodite turned her gaze from me to Edward, her pouty lips curled up into a smirk. When my eyes landed on Edward, he was not looking at the goddess before him, but his eyes were on his hands intertwined with mine. "Of course, it's not so much my familiarity than my sisters. I guess her memories with you are still fresh in my mind." Aphrodite smirked, my eyes were then stuck to her face, her high cheekbones and perfectly proportional features were amazing. I could not have imagined anyone to be half of what her beauty was. She could make the most beautiful of models insecure, her height was perfect for modeling, she must have been 5'7, the perfect height for a model, but I'm sure even if she was much smaller, she could still pull off being a model, her beauty was something other worldly.
"Oh…" Edward could only muster up this one word; it came out so slowly, obvious that he could not think of something else to say to her. Aphrodite's eyebrows began to furrow in frustration, obviously she came here looking for more than this kind of conversation, and she was now highly disappointed.
"Well, Bella, how are you?" Edward's eyes shot up to Aphrodite as she spoke to me, but Aphrodite seemed to completely ignore Edward's look, which I was sure she knew was on him. Instead, she looked at me, pleasantly, as if she really cared how I was.
"I'm good…. H-how are you?" Words couldn't form when I was looking at her, all I could think of was how beautiful she was and how I would never look like that. Edward obviously noticed her beauty; it was something that no one could miss, so I wondered why he wasn't attracted to her. Aphrodite sighed and ran a hand through her hair.
"Ugh, I am just a little annoyed. Men. When you tell then you want to go for a walk, he feels the need to check the area for safety. As if I can't take care of myself." Aphrodite swept her hair behind her shoulder and rolled her eyes, then looked back to me for confirmation. "You know what I mean?" I shrugged.
"Well, I really can't take care of myself I'm kind of a klutz." Aphrodite began to laugh at this statement; her laughter was like bells, unimaginably beautiful. She is one of those people that I imagine being really beautiful but have one of the ugliest laughs in the world. Unfortunately, I was wrong, even her personality seemed sweet. Aphrodite nodded, knocking some curls loose.
"Well, when you become a vampire, you can take care of yourself." Edward flashed her a warning look, a slight growl under his breath, but Aphrodite just rolled her eyes. "I mean IF you become a vampire. Relax, Edward. You weren't this uptight with Artemis." With that, Aphrodite turned toward the forest and walked away, shaking her head in frustration. Edward didn't watch her leave, instead his eyes turned back to our hands in the grass. My eyes watched Aphrodite until she was completely out of my sites, but my eyes were still glued to where she left.
"I'm sorry about that." Edward's thumb was again tracing circles in my palm, his words brought me back to him, but then my eyes were just glued to his face, his face which wouldn't look back to me.
"Edward, what happened with you and Artemis?" The words poured out of my mouth with no control, it was like my brain sprung a leak and was pouring out my thoughts. Edward's thumb stopped moving and his eyes met mine, there was a smile on his lips, but it never touched his eyes. I watched as Edward fought for the thoughts he had pushed aside. Then he shook his head.
"Nothing, we were good friends." Edward tried to make this as convincing as possible, but I still had doubts.
"Did you love her?"
"No! Bella, I told you before, I have never felt for anyone else what I feel for you. You are the person I love." Edward took both of my hands into his frantically. "I promise you, I have never felt this way for anyone else, ever." I tried to think clearly but his eyes made everything foggy, I nodded without even knowing it and he gently kissed my lips. "Let's get you home." Edward lifted my up with one hand and threw me over his back. Before I knew it, we were in the car.
