A/N – I do not own

Chapter 10

I stared at Jacob, dumbfounded and at a complete loss for words. He had spent the last 20 minutes rambling about his tribe, wolf legends and how the "cold ones" were their enemies. When he saw the mark that Edward left on my neck, he lost it, pulling me outside and into the woods behind the house, mumbling about secrets and how much trouble he would be in for telling me. He was strong and it felt like my arm was being torn from its socket. This was not starting off well.

He looked like he was having an intense, internal battle before he turned to me and started talking. He was very animated, pacing back and forth, waving his arms around, and all I could do was listen and try to make sense of what he was saying.

"Jacob, I'm sorry, but I still don't understand what you are saying. You lost me at cold ones."

He huffed and turned his back to me, like he didn't want to face me when he spoke again. "Edward Cullen and his family are the cold ones, or at least some of them. There are a lot of them out there. Don't you see? It's dangerous for you to be around them." He turned around as he said that last part and grabbed my shoulders. He was pleading and I still had no idea why.

"So, these cold ones are dangerous? To just me?"

"No, to everyone." I shuddered. "It's our tribe's mission – to protect the humans."

Now this is where he really lost me.

"The humans? What are you saying, these cold ones are not human?" Edward wasn't human? I begged to differ…

"Exactly!" And he smiled, looking relieved, thinking I now understood the situation. He couldn't be further from the truth.

"You're insane!" That was all I could manage to say at the moment. He did not look happy, but then neither was I. I felt like a shiny, new toy he was fighting over, making up stories so I wouldn't date the competition.

"How could Edward not be human? I spent time with him, alone," I pointing at my neck when I said this, trying to make the point that Edward and I had been close recently and I was fine. "I would have noticed." Would I have? Did I?

When I thought back over the time I spent with him I tried to remember all of the oddities, which when appearing separate were no big deal. Pale, cold skin; golden eyes; lack of appetite. But when put together like that…did it mean anything?

Wait a minute. Cold Ones. Edward was cold. Very cold. I had just assumed he had poor circulation. Same with the pale skin. He was so lovely, I hadn't thought that any of it was really that odd.

"Maybe, maybe not," Jacob said. "They are very good at deceiving their prey."

"Prey?" That word horrified me. Jacob thought I was Edward's prey? This was just getting ridiculous. I was going to call him on it and make him admit this was just some lunatic rant borne out of jealousy. The two of them probably had a history of it for all I knew.

"Yes, Bella. The cold ones prey on humans…for their…" he was looking down at his feet, shaking his head.

"For their what?" I prompted.

"Their blood."

Oh.

My head started to spin. Jacob really was insane. How could he think that Edward wanted my blood? He was just letting these legends get the better of him. He was still young, probably very impressionable. I needed to sit down, so I plopped down on the nearest tree stump and put my head between my knees. I had wanted to stop this before it got too far, but I may have been too late.

"Are you ok?" Jacob squatted down in front of me and placed a tentative hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him. He looked so serious, but I was hoping he would smile and say "Gotcha!"

"I don't know. I have to go. I can't think here." I got up but he kept his hand on my shoulder so I couldn't move away.

"You have to stay away from him. Promise me." I don't know why, but that made me mad. I felt a twinge of possessiveness run through me, how dare he try to keep me from Edward?! This may have even strengthened my resolve to find him and see him again.

"I need to think. Jacob, what you told me is just so…unreal. I can't promise you anything. Not right now." He let me shrug off his hand and followed me back to the house.

When we got back, Charlie was coming from the kitchen with a couple of beers. "There you are. I was starting to worry." I think he noticed I was upset. "Everything ok with you two?"

"Yeah, dad. I'm kinda tired. It's been a long day. If you guys are just going to watch the game then I'm going to head up to bed."

"Sure Bells. We can finish catching up tomorrow. Just you and me."

I turned my back on Charlie and Jacob and headed up the stairs without so much as a goodbye to Billy.

It really had been a long day and I couldn't process this combination of feelings. I was beyond pissed at Jacob for that little stunt he just played, but at the same time, what he said sent shivers down my spine as if my body recognized it was the truth. And then the petulance took over and I felt that regardless of what I had discovered about Edward, I didn't want to give Jacob the satisfaction of being right. And then I came full circle, pissed again at Jacob. Who was he to tell me who I could and could not date?

I heard footsteps ascending the stairs and groaned a little. I just wanted some peace right now, to sift through what I just learned and try to make some sense of it. Before I could even start to issue a "go away", a piece of paper flew under my door, followed by footsteps descending the stairs. A minute later I could hear Billy's truck starting as they left.

Obviously the note was from Jacob and I knew I had to read it. I opened it and there were only two words:

Be safe.

I sighed and sat on the bed. I wondered if he really did just have my best interests at heart and if he really did believe all that stuff about cold ones and drinking human blood.

Drinking human blood…would that make them vampires? Was he telling me that Edward and his family were vampires?

I can't believe I'm about to do this. I unpacked my laptop from my backpack and turned it on. Amazingly I found a wireless signal and ignored the nagging guilt I got whenever I had to steal someone else's internet. This was all for a good cause, right?

What was I looking for, I asked myself as I looked blankly at the Google home page. I decided to start with Jacob and his tribe's superstitions so I looked up cold ones and Quileutes. I found UW's American Indian Studies site, which offered a whole section on the Quileutes and local legends.

It talked about how the men in the tribe were descended from wolves and that those wolves' sole purpose was to defend the woman and children from their mortal enemies, the cold ones, who sought to feed off of their blood. The wolves' existence was tied to these enemies: if there were no cold ones, then there were no wolves, and the men would lead normal human lives.

I needed to know more about these cold ones. Were they indeed vampires? And if so, then why didn't Edward kill me when he had the chance? He spent all day with me, getting to know me, kissing me, kissing my neck even. And then fleeing after what I could only assume was an unplanned ejaculation (given the speed in which he fled). Not exactly canon behavior for a vampire. Shouldn't he have been sleeping it off in a coffin somewhere?

What was I missing about this? It was clear that I wouldn't find it on the internet. This site gave little detail into the cold ones themselves. The other sites in the search list linked them to vampires but added nothing I didn't already know from books and movies. Everything was just pure speculation.

It was almost midnight and I decided to give up for now and see how I felt about all this in the morning, see what Charlie had to say about the Cullens. I was half tempted to call Edward and share with him what Jacob told me. Then we'd laugh at the ridiculousness of it all and make love. Huh, horny much?

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Indeed, I must have been. I opened my eyes as I tried to calm my breathing. I felt gross, the window was closed and I was sweaty now from my dream. It was only the hundredth erotic dream starring Edward Cullen that I've had since I met him - only two days ago.

Wait, the window was closed? I could have sworn I left it open. There was a breeze coming in and it felt nice to have it open when I slept, something I could never do in Phoenix and still didn't want to do in the student housing in Seattle.

As I got up to open the window and let in some much needed air, I noticed something against the wall, near the floor. It looked like a person, but before I had a chance to figure out what it was, it was on me, one hand reached around me at my lower back, the other covering my mouth and stifling my scream.

"No, Bella, it's just me." Me? Me, who? I was too scared to process the voice. "Edward."

He held me a minute longer as I calmed down, not wanting to remove his hand too soon for fear that I would still scream. Once he was convinced that I would stay quiet, he dropped his hand from my mouth.

We just stood there staring at each other. I had so many questions and I didn't know where to start. Funny enough, the last thing that crossed my mind was that Edward was possibly a vampire.

"How did you get in here? Why are you even here? I should just call the police, or Charlie. He would skin you alive." I decided to stop after that and give him a chance to offer some answers.

He was still silent and I thought for a second that he wasn't going to talk. But just as I was about to lay in to him again, he spoke.

"I climbed in, through the window."

"And…" I prompted. I needed to know why he was here but he didn't seem too eager to tell me. "Why?"

"I had to see you again. I hated the way we left things last night and now this thing with the dog…"

There was very little space between us; he was looking down at me, his golden eyes boring into mine. I could feel his breathing on my face as mine picked up speed. And then, out of nowhere, his hand was cupping my cheek, tenderly, almost reverently. I thought he was going to kiss me. Everything else seemed to drift away.

What was he saying? Something about a dog? No kiss came but reality slammed back into me with the weight of a ton of bricks.

"What thing with what dog? That doesn't make sense." He dropped his hand from my face and stepped away from me.

Although it was dark in the room, my eyes were starting to adjust and I could see Edward's nostrils start to flare. He reached up a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly in annoyance.

"That dog you were with tonight." He spat and I could tell that it took everything he had to keep his voice down. "The one who warned you to stay away from me." I could feel the anger radiating off of him. What the hell was going on here?

It was my turn to be annoyed. "You mean Jacob? You knew I was with him? Did you follow me and listen in on our conversation?" He was silent again and I took that to mean yes, he did follow me and yes, he did listen in on my conversation with Jacob.

I didn't know what to do or say next. Edward, a beautiful man I met two days ago who may or may not be a vampire was following me and eavesdropping on my conversations. Oh, and let's not forget, sneaking in to my bedroom at night while I slept.

I took this standoff as an opportunity to create a plan of action. What did I want to address first? The vampire part? The eavesdropping part? The sneaking into my room part? I figured it was more important to find out if Edward was a vampire first; the rest might not matter if he killed me then for my blood. Considering he overheard my conversation with Jacob I decided to just blurt it out.

"Are you a vampire?" It sounded funny coming out of my mouth. So much so that I found myself starting to laugh, and I don't think Edward appreciated it, the question or the laugh.

"And if I am?" I wasn't expecting that, but it was a good question.

"I don't know. It's not something I thought I would have to deal with. Vampires don't exist, at least that is what I was raised to believe."

"Are you afraid?"

"No." And I meant it. I listened to Jacob's stories, I found Edward hiding in my bedroom, but I wasn't afraid. I truly believed that he wouldn't hurt me. I smiled at that thought, like I was having an epiphany.

Edward stepped forward again, to be closer to me. "You should be." It was a warning, but his voice did not carry any threat, only…I don't know, regret maybe. My smile faded a little and he brought a finger up to trace my bottom lip causing me to sigh softly.

There were still so many things I wanted to know. The most important being why he didn't kill me.

"You're curious about my diet." It wasn't a question. "My family, we don't live like others of our kind. We survive off of the blood of animals, not humans." Of course. Why didn't I think of that?

"It's not as satisfying, but it keeps us fed."

"So…there are real vampires out there that kill people and drink their blood. But you and your family just kill animals. Why? Why are you different?"

We were still standing in the middle of the bedroom, with Charlie less than 50 feet away, but somehow this conversation needed to happen here and now. So it surprised me when Edward stepped back again, several steps this time, and gestured toward the bed. So I sat down on the edge and he followed, sitting next to me.

I wanted to reach out and touch his hand but they were clasped together.

"We are monsters, the worst kind of monsters. Anything we can do to lessen that reality…well, it's a small price to pay, to feel more human, less monster. Does that make sense?"

I nodded and felt a yawn creeping up and I was unable to stop it.

"You're tired, you should sleep-"

"No, I'm fine, really. I still have so many questions." But it was after 3 o'clock and the yawns would not stop.

Edward pushed me back down on to the bed and I laid down as he pulled the covers up over me. "Don't fight it. We can talk tomorrow." Then he backed up toward the window, opened it and started to crawl out. "Sweet dreams," he said and he was gone.

Tomorrow. The idea of it somehow scared me and thrilled me at the same time.

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A/N – Thanks for reading! I have a few rec's: I just finished up Behind Enemy Lines by adorablecullens and all I can say is WOW! It is AH and I cannot recommend it enough. If you're looking for a vamp story then check out Lolashoes' Let Your Light Shine/A Life Extraordinary. IMHO they are better than canon!! Enjoy!