Chapter 10 -
I had always been a worrier when I was human and it seems that since my change, this part of me enhanced greatly, just like everything else.
"How could I be so stupid" I whispered hastily to myself as I continued my pace from one side of the room to the other "He probably hates me now, what if that was his favorite shirt or something and I know everybody saw I how reacted to him and his half nakedness"
I closed my eyes and plopped myself on the couch set in my room as I replayed Edwards beauty in my minds eye, I couldn't help but smile when the sun came out from the clouds just for a minute and his body sparkled like a million diamonds. I longed to reach my hands out and trace his chiseled abs with my fingers. I couldn't help the sighs that escaped my lips as I opened my eyes to the reality in front of me. I could hear the others in different areas of the house.
Emmett was in the family room, I could hear the baseball game he was watching. The Yankees' were up by 2 against the Sox. I laughed quietly to myself as he growled in frustration as the score changed, yet again, into the Yankees' favor. I knew I couldn't hold off the inevitable, I had to apologize to Edward sooner or later or I was never going to feel better about it. I was anxious to see him again, but I had no idea how to voice my apology to make it at least sound sincere.
Deep in my mind I knew I wasn't as sorry as I should have felt, but my more rational side always won in situations such as these. I rose from the couch and made my way to the door, I was going to find Edward, and I had no idea where his room was so I would have to do some 'adventuring' . . . how exciting.
I made my way out of the room and into the hallway. I knew enough that the room next to mine was Alice and Jasper's I could her running around doing …Only god knows what. I smiled as I walked pass their room. I had never met anyone like Alice, she was truly one of a kind, and I knew that when I did leave here we would keep in contact.
As I continued my walk down to the front room, thinking maybe Edward was down there with Emmett watching the game, I heard the most beautiful sound of music ever coming from the opposite end of the hall away from the staircase. My search for Edward would have to wait until I found where this beautiful music was coming from.
I hated that since my change I was always easily distracted, but I shook off my annoyance to myself as I silently crept closer to the door the music was coming from. Slowly I opened the door and looked inside; Edward was sitting with his back to me as he played this magnificent piano set in the corner of his room. His fingers floated over the keys in a ghostly manner as he continued the beautiful piece he was playing. I was in utter awe when he stopped and raised his head turning around to face me confusion etched on his beautiful features once again. I had killed two birds with one stone it seemed, I had found the source of the beautiful music and the man I was longing to see and, to my chagrin, apologize to.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to disturb you." I said hastily. I didn't want him to be mad at me, but I watched in awe as his features transformed into a breath taking smile.
"No please, accept my apology, Bella. I'm not accustomed to not hearing anyone's thoughts, and you just surprised Me." he said flashing his perfect grin at me again.
It was a minute before I had realized I never replied back. I was still struggling with his smile and the sound of my name coming out of his lips like a melody.
"Um…" I started lamely as I tried to form a sentence in my coherent thoughts, "I actually came to apologize." I said softly, taking a peek out from under my hair that hung around my face. "I didn't mean to tear your shirt; I can replace it if you want."
I was shocked to hear him laugh and muss my hair with little waves of energy that traveled over me as his skin came in contact with mine.
"Don't worry," he said, as he took one finger and tilted my chin up toward his. If I was able to blush I'm sure I would've had my customary shade of red like always.
"You look thirsty." he said as I inhaled his scent. Until now, I wasn't paying attention to my thirst, but now that it was mentioned I could feel the unmistakable fire in the back my throat.
I'm sure my eyes had to be as black as endless pools when he looked into them. What he said next though made me feel the disgust with myself that I felt ever since finding out how they handled their thirst in ways that had tortured them just like it did for me.
"I can take you out somewhere to hunt, but I can't let you hunt in Forks, unfortunately" he said with a grim smile.
I watched in horror as my fears were confirmed. He did think of me as a monster. Did he think that after what I learned that I would still keep to the more traditional diet?
I never would, but even the thought of him thinking that about me, made me cringe in horror. I was horrified enough with myself, I hated that he thought the same way. I watched as Edwards eyebrows came together.
"Did you think I would go back to the same diet after what I just learned?" I whispered quietly to him as his eyebrows relaxed "I don't want to be a monster."
His eyes softened and he pulled his hand away from under my chin.
"Would you like to try our way of hunting then?" he spoke softly his eyes smoldering as his scent washed over me again. "I can accompany you . . . if you don't mind."
I smiled at the thought of learning to hunt with him. Before I could answer I heard light footsteps coming toward us. Alice had stopped in front of us. Her eyes sparkling with intrigue as she assessed the scene in front of her "If you're going hunting; then I'm coming too." she said flashing that brilliant smile at us.
"Then it's settled," Edward said, as he motioned us toward the stair case.
"What's settled?" Emmett asked as he walked up the stairs with Jasper. I figured the Sox lost because didn't have his usual jovial grin spread across his face.
"We're taking Bella hunting." Alice explained, excitement showing all over her features.
"Well if you're going hunting, then I'm coming." Emmett said, his smile returning as Jasper nodded in agreement
"I'll be right back I'll go ask Rose if she wants to come to" Emmett finished as he dashed off towards his bedroom.
"We'll be in the car," Edward spoke to Emmett in the general area he had retreated from.
Edward turned toward the staircase and led us towards the garage. I hadn't really taken a good look at the cars when I first arrived, but I felt my jaw drop when Edward came to a huge red Jeep. It was monstrous, from the tires that were higher than my waist, to the shiny metal guards over the headlights and taillights, and to the four spotlights attached to the crash bar. How did I miss this when we pulled in? I was still looking in wonder at the monster jeep in front of me when Emmett came behind me and placed his huge hand on my shoulder. I turned to look up at him seeing a mock expression of awe on face before he whispered quietly in fascination "She's beautiful isn't she" he walked toward the Rose and placed a kiss on her cheek. "I was actually thinking about the car" I said as I stood still in awe at the monstrosity "Oh this.." he said before lightly stroking his hand on the side "Rose does a lot of work on all of our cars, it's her thing I guess you can say" He said smiling before jumping into the drivers seat, while Rosalie leapt into the passenger seat. It was then that I noticed I was the only one not in the car. I hurriedly ran to the side of the car and jumped in next to Alice who smiled at me before cuddling up against Jasper's side.
I turned to look out at the scenery of Forks as we sped around the trees down the Cullen drive, at a speed any normal human would not be capable of doing.
The ride was mainly quiet as we sped toward our unknown destination. Every now and then Edward would start to hum to himself and Emmett would turn around and smile at him. Edward glared out of his window and clenched and unclenched his fist at this gesture. Jasper would then put a calm wave over us and everything would settle down again. It was bizarre to say the least but I was surprised how comfortable I was becoming.
After traveling for a while, I decided to ask where we going since I had no idea and everybody else probably did. I hated surprises and hoped that they wouldn't want to spring this as one.
"Where are we going?" I asked quietly, as seven pairs of topaz eyes flashed toward me.
"Goat Rocks Wilderness." Emmett said, his voice booming. "It's just south of Mt. Rainer" I frowned in confusion and before I could think about my reply my mouth had started to move on its own accord.
"Why would we go there? I heard it's full of bears and Mountain Lions . . ." I trailed off as Alice looked at me and coked an eyebrow, making me hyper aware that I had once again missed the obvious.
"Oh yeah." I said smiling and putting my head down to hide my embarrassment.
"Don't be embarrassed." Jasper said to me in his heavy southern accent, smiling and he leaned over his wife. "It can take some time to get used to it."
With the crescent markings adorning his neck, face, and arms, not to mention the heavy Texan accent, it wasn't hard to notice that Jasper came from the South before he came up here. I couldn't help but tense at his closeness a little before Alice gave me a reassuring smile when he leaned back and she cuddled more into his embrace. Left to my thoughts I wondered about Jaspers past and what had happened to him, but many vampires never liked to share there history and I figured it would be rude to ask. He probably grew tired of all the wars that were down in the south, some still raging away from the human eyes, I remembered all that I had heard from past associates, and I couldn't blame him if that was the case even with the my short time being here I could tell that living with the Cullens was quite peaceful.
Seeing as I had lived in Forks when I was human, I knew how long it should take to drive from Forks to Goat Rocks, but as I had looked at the speedometer a few times, I wasn't surprised when we pulled off the main road to a dirt road in a less than the normal fifteen hour drive.
It was Monday, late afternoon, when we pulled away from the house and now it was early morning Tuesday. I wasn't jostled in my seat as I would have been when I was human. We rolled over the uneven path away from the road so we wouldn't run into any humans near by. There were some tight spots when the trees came closer together, if it hadn't been for my advanced eyesight I would have never thought that the Jeep would have fit through the spaces.
We drove deeper into the forest until Emmett stopped and turned the Jeep off bringing silence to the engine and the forest surrounding us. We each jumped out, and I watched as the Cullens started to inhale the fresh air that surrounded us.
"What time should we get back?" Rosalie said, addressing Edward.
"It's going to be sunny today, so we really can't go anywhere. So I figured we can stay here." Alice said, as she looked up at the early morning sky and sighed.
"Well, since the sun will make an appearance, we will leave at dusk. Is that ok with everybody?" Edward asked, and each of them responded with a nod and took off in pairs.
Emmett and Rosalie running south with a backpack on Emmett's back, Jasper and Alice turned south with a similar bag on Jaspers back leaving me and Edward alone. He stood leaning against the Jeep looking like a Greek Adonis with a similar bag the other two had, just the sight of him took my breath away. I watched each of his muscles flex as he pushed himself away from the Jeep, hoisted the bag over his shoulders and came over to stand in front of me, his golden eyes full of inquisitive fascination.
"I'm quite sure I will not have to teach you how to hunt. Am I correct?" he asked in his perfect formal articulation. I sighed internally at his voice as I nodded my head in response.
"Well, let's get started. Close your eyes, please." he requested softly. I could feel him circling me as I closed my eyes and inhaled.
There were many things I could hear and smell. The tree's moving in the light breeze, the smell of dew on the grass from the last rain, a babbling brook somewhere to my left about three miles out. It smelled disgusting, there was also another smell that I wasn't to keen on. I wrinkled my nose up as it started to move closer to Edward and me. I opened my eyes to see Edward laughing quietly to himself at my expression.
"It can take some time to get used to." he chuckled quietly, before shifting into a crouch and motioning me to follow him.
As we got closer to the animals, I could hear the beat of their heart and though the smell of their blood was disgusting, venom still pooled my mouth as the thought of its warm blood, and the acceleration of his heartbeat was almost hypnotic as we made our approach.
I crept closer moving around a bush as I watched Edward hunt down the animal, which I then noticed was two huge male caribou licking at the grass. I figured we had to be extra quiet of not scaring the animal away considering how Edward was ghosting his moves toward his prey. It stopped and looked around, as if it were sensing the danger that was in front of him. Edward then motioned me closer to him and whispered in my ear. I froze slightly as his breath tickled my ear. "Would you like for me to show you first or do you think you can do it yourself?" he whispered
I nodded, not taking my eyes off the largest two and regained composure I hastily whispered "dibs." and leapt from my hiding place and tackled the largest before snapping its neck quickly before letting my teeth tear through the muscle and tissue.
I was right, it was disgusting, it had more of an earthy taste and I almost gagged, but it was still quenching the fire that was in my throat so I was content. I watched Edward as I cleaned up my mess; he leapt from his space after me toward the other caribou that had attempted to escape and tackled it bringing it roughly down under him. He was strong and confident when he snapped the neck of the other caribou and brought its neck to his teeth. He was beautiful when he was hunting, I pondered on just following him around and watching him all day while ignoring my own thirst.
After hiding the caribou under some bushes where scavenger animals would probably find them, Edward turned to me smiling.
"Well, what did you think?"
I didn't want to disappoint him, but I never lied before in my life or even in this existence.
"Disgusting!" I said bluntly.
His smile grew even wider as he looked at me, I was sure his cheek bones would break
"I know its nothing compared to human blood, but it works, and the herbivores taste a little less appetizing than the carnivores." he said flashing me another one of his dazzling smiles as he turned and ran father into the woods.
So, he had decided to let me have the least appetizing first. I smiled at my own admission and followed him deeper into the forest convinced that I would find something that would taste better.