He had called it a cabin, but Bella was pretty sure that cabin was the last word she would have used to describe the small villa quite a ways outside of Drummond. The modern house with its large windows and slightly overgrown lawn had obviously not been visited in quite a while. The furniture was covered by sheets and dust had settled everywhere. The windows too refused to let much light in, as the grime had darkened the glass.

The vampire seemed embarrassed by the state of the house, but it somehow relaxed her to see something imperfect. Until this point everything belonging to him had been nothing short of the best of the best and though the house - once clean - would certainly be the same for the time being it seemed less.

It was also a relief to see that Vampires did not live in dark dungeons as rumours would have it. Although Edward had been surprised by how much she knew, her knowledge was actually a great deal more select than she would have liked. Most of what she knew, she knew from hearsay and such tales rarely gave information about a Vampires daily life.

He led her to a room which he claimed was his sisters. It was certainly stylish and a great deal of love for detail seemed to have gone into the rather girly room. Little lamps could be found hanging from the ceiling and placed in the bookshelves, of which there were rather few. One side of the room was dominated by a large bed, while the others largest feature was a double door. Seeing her stare at the doors, Edward stepped forward, opening them with a quiet click.

"It's a walk in closet, but I'm afraid we might have to clean it out a bit first before you can put your own things in." Ruefully, he added: "Alice rather likes to shop."

Bella slowly moved closer, glancing into the closet, which turned out to be almost as large as the room and was filled to the brim with clothing. She had no idea about styles, but judging from the state of the house no one had been here in at least a few years, if not longer. Why would anyone leave a full wardrobe - rather ten full wardrobes - behind in a house they weren't planning to come back to any time soon?

"She always claims that it's a bad sign to bring old clothes into a new house, but at the same time refuses to throw them away, since she has barely worn any of the clothes she has. She claims it would be a waste and that she could wear them again once they come back into style. Somehow that never really happens though. Something is always wrong with them giving her an excuse to buy new things."

"Oh." Her meagre collection of five T-Shirts, socks, pairs of underwear and two jeans would truly look pathetic next to the expansive and expensive collection and she had only gotten so much at the Vampires insistence.

"Are you hungry?" What was it with him and food? After their short excursion to Walmart he had insisted on getting her something for lunch and an early dinner on the road. Now, when it was close to midnight he was asking again! "I'm afraid the kitchen is probably in no better condition than the rest of the house. I had forgotten how long it has been since we last stayed here. Maybe we should stay in one of the motels close to town for a few days. I have an appointment tomorrow which I shouldn't miss and it doesn't feel right to leave you in this mess."

"Oh no, it's fine. I don't mind cleaning things up a bit and I can just eat some bread with eggs and sausages tomorrow morning, I had a large dinner after all."

He seemed to still dislike the idea, but finally caved in. She was surprised that he would leave her alone this quickly though. They had barely met and she would have figured he would keep her under close watch for a while until he was certain she wouldn't attempt anything. He was probably rather sure though that she wouldn't be able to try anything. He would be taking the only car and they were too far out of town to get there on foot. The telephone was probably still disconnected as well and she had yet to see a computer in the house. They probably vacated the house before such devices became widely popular. Well at least it would give her some time to sort herself out.

The next morning the Vampire left the house before she woke and she couldn't claim to be sad about it. Before going to bed he had asked her over and over again, if she would be all right on her own and had even given her a cell phone. It was an older model, but it had his number saved on speed dial - in case she needed him. He had said something about having to meet the family to discuss the next weeks. She hoped that it meant that they hadn't come up to Seattle as seemed to have been the plan originally. She didn't want them there. If they came too close to Forks… There were so few of them left as it was. So many had died because of her - because they had protected her when no one else would or could have. If they met a vampire with her smell on him, who knew what kind of conclusions they would draw? At least they rarely left their reservoir so they should never even meet.

She spent the time on her own cleaning home although her keeper had already done quite a bit of the work, having vacuumed the floors and removed the covers from the furniture. She cleaned the windows, dusted and aired out the house. The repetitive work kept her hands busy without taking up her concentration, allowing her to think properly for the first time since the sudden twist in her fate.

The foremost question on her mind was why. Why was the vampire going through such obvious effort to make her comfortable? Why was he letting her live at all? Why were they vegetarians?

What did he want from her?

She had known for years that she would be a primary target for any and every vampire around, her blood making her into the perfect prey. It wouldn't have surprised her if even a vegetarian vampire had used her as a snack, but somehow he didn't seem to be all that interested in her blood. Otherwise she would already be dead. In the beginning she had thought that maybe he knew what she was and was keeping her for possible uses, after all someone immune to almost all special abilities could be very handy depending on one's enemies. Still, he had seemed far too surprised to hear her admit that she smelled great to everyone and not just him. He had probably thought it to be only a personal preference perhaps caused by their first meeting.

Since he knew that she was immune to his gift, how long would it take him to figure out that she was immune to others as well? How long until he would think about the why? What would he do to her once he understood just exactly she was? No longer human, but not one of them either.

It had been one of the reasons why she had left Forks. Although Jake had tried hard to keep the whispers to a minimum and her cleared of any suspicions, she had still heard them talk about her unnaturalness at times. Several underhanded threats had been made towards her, when her then best friend hadn't been watching.

One way or another though, she wanted to know why he was helping her. If not for her abilities or her blood, what other reason could a single, obviously old and settled Vampire want with a twenty year old girl? Yes, they couldn't let her roam free when she knew about them, though she had a feeling that the old order had grown weaker over the years, but keeping her until she died naturally didn't make much sense either; especially not if the rest of the family wouldn't be able to control themselves in her presence. A stable vampire clan, especially one as large as Edward had described was a rare gift, making them incredibly safe from any harm. No halfway sensible vampire would risk such a binding. Then again nobody could really claim not drinking human blood as a vampire to be the most sensible of decisions.

Her musings where abruptly interrupted by a noise outside. She quickly glanced at the clock, it was eight o'clock, the Vampire had said he wouldn't be home before ten at the earliest. Maybe he had lied to see if she would do anything untoward in his absence, but he would certainly not announce himself by stumbling around noisily if that were the case. She knew from experience just how quietly his kind could move if they wanted to.

For a moment the thought which had hunted her for the past years came back: "What if they had found her?" It was quickly dismissed though. If it was them, then they would not approach another's territory during his absence, especially not if said other came from as powerful a clan as he claimed to be.

She listened once more to the light shuffling noise and slowly moved towards the window which seemed closest to the noise. As she peeked outside, she almost had to laugh at her own fearfulness. A fox from the forest had found its way into the garden and was moving along the stony path, making low shuffling noises whenever moving along the uneven ground, obviously not stalking any prey at the moment.

None the less she was almost glad when, two and a half hours later the rumbling of a car announced the vampires return. She hadn't realized just how exposed she felt out here in the unknown area. In the large cities, even though she knew no human would be able to help her and that humans could be quite a threat, she had felt somehow safer. The arrival of any vampire at all should have set her nerves on fire, but somehow it didn't. At least not as much as it should.

What a strange world.

She slept uneasily that night though, tossing and turning between dreams of fangs and claws and coldness and heat and running. Lots and lots of running.

The next morning she was once again greeted by the smell of coffee. Besides making coffee though he hadn't managed anything but putting out the toast. He stood in the kitchen, smiling ruefully when he saw her coming through the door. "Sorry," he announced in the gently whispering wind, which served as his voice: "I'm afraid I don't know how to cook. When I was still human, men generally didn't and afterwards no one saw any necessity in teaching me."

"It's fine. Actually just coffee is great! I'll whip something together once I've had a cup. How come you know how to use a coffee machine though, if you don't know how to cook?"

"Oh, I sometimes work as a lawyer. If I didn't know how to make coffee no one would ever believe me when I show them my certificates. Somehow people seem to think the only way to achieve halfway decent grades in law school is with a rather large quantity of caffeine in your blood. Can't say I would agree, but with as much as we stand out without doing anything unusual, imagine the mayhem if I weren't constantly seen with a cup of the brown drink. We can't really afford additional suspicion and it's not like using a coffee maker is rocket science."

"Not as long as you don't have two left feet." Mumbled Bella in return, forgetting the vampires supernatural hearing.

"What do you mean?"

She flushed red and tried to hide behind her steaming hot mug. "I may have had a mishap or two involving boiling hot liquids and cables…"

He seemed to consider the matter for a moment before deciding that not knowing would be better for his sanity – or maybe he simply meant to spare her the indignity of having to recount an obviously highly embarrassing story.

Trying to quickly change the subject she asked, pointing at the freshly brewed liquid gold: "How did you know I was about to come down anyways?"

This time it was his turn to be shuffling embarrassedly. If vampires had had any blood to turn red with, she was certain he would be wearing a pretty flush right about now. "A person's heartbeat and breathing normally changes before they wake up, so if we pay attention we can tell when a person is about to wake up. I didn't mean to spy on you or anything, but the house and its surroundings are rather quiet."

"It's fine. I don't mind, especially when it means I can get hot coffee first thing in the morning." She almost would have admitted to being used to supernatural hearing from her companions, but quickly bit on her tongue; No sense in letting him know more about her and her past than necessary.

As she began preparing her breakfast, she noticed him watching her intently and finally asked him rather brashly: "Do you need anything?"

"Not really, no. I was just wondering, what you wanted to do today? I finished housecleaning tonight, so I was wondering if you wanted to play a game or go outside for a walk?"

He almost seemed hesitant to ask her, as if she might bite off his nose at the mere suggestion of doing something together.

Hi,

Thanks for your reviews! I'm afraid not a whole lot happened in this chapter, but that will change soon. Thank the holidays for giving me a chance to actually work on this story a bit .

I would love to hear what you think! Greetings

Yorushike