Alright Lovelies! Here's another update just for you!
Special shout out to inuyashademons14!
"I'm afraid I'll have to skip," I said, immediately. Talking about Edward was fine, I mean everyone knew…in my world that is but no one knew about me and I couldn't afford it either.
"That's not fair," he complained.
"Life never is," I murmured. If it was, I'd probably be in my own bed reading about Bella and Edward having this inane conversation. "Aren't we past all the evasiveness?" he asked, gently. I glanced at him. "Do not try to dazzle me, it won't work." I said and he grinned looking out the windshield.
I opened my mouth to look for an excuse and decided to copy off Twilight yet again. "Do you always drive like this?" I asked lightly.
He raised an eyebrow, "Do you have a problem with that?" he asked in the same tone. "No, but Bella might be a little upset if you turn me into a road pretzel," I said. "It won't happen," he raised a hand and rapped his knuckles against his forehead, "Built-in radar," he said.
"Charlie's a cop, you know. I could just blab to him," I said and he rolled his eyes. "You didn't answer my question in the restaurant. What do you think are we?" he said.
"Does it matter? I think you know," I said, tired.
"What do you mean, 'does it matter'? You don't think it matters that you're here alone with me even when you know I'm not human?" he asked, scowling at the road.
I rolled my eyes. "You're a vampire. There, happy…?" I asked. He shook his head.
"I find this difficult to believe. I knew you were strange…unique, even one of a kind if I had to grate out…but I never took you for blasé," he said.
"How am I being blasé?" I asked, angrily. "You don't seem to have a drop of self preservation. If you're willing to be in a car with me alone," He said. "Christ Edward, you brought me with you. I didn't beg on my hands and knees for you to drive me home. I'd be happy to call Charlie or get a ride back home if it such a bother!" I snapped, crossing my arms sulkily.
There was a pause.
"I didn't mean to offend you."
I sniffed. "It's just that the thought of you knowing about us has me unsettled. I am sorry if I'm being harsher than usual." He said sincere.
"You should've kept with Bella. At least she would be a much better conversationalist for you. With all that fluff in her head," I said rudely.
"You are a little too obsessed with her," he noted.
"Because it's her story," I muttered and he frowned looking at me.
Damn, superhuman hearing…damn, superhuman mind hearing too…
I carefully pulled my mind blank and began thinking of chocolate…yum…
"You're doing it again," he muttered and I glanced at him. "Giving me bad signals; why are you thinking of chocolate rivers?" he asked in bemusement.
"Do you know the Quileute?" I asked. He frowned, nodding. "Tell me about them," I said. He shrugged. "There's not much to tell. We keep off their lands, they keep off ours, it has been going on for generations," he told me.
"They don't think you're dangerous; at least not this generation, not yet anyways." I said, thinking of Jacob.
"What they think doesn't matter, we are still dangerous. To them and to everyone else," he said. I didn't have to look at him to know that he was looking at me when he said that.
"Why do they call you cold ones? I mean, did they touch you or take your temperature?" I asked.
He laughed at that.
"No, they call us the cold ones because they used to call their dead the cold ones. They literally had a cemetery which they called the cold lands. Anything dead is cold to them," he said.
"Then they should've called you White Walkers," I said. He looked surprised at that but I just giggled at my silly joke.
"You know because you're cold and white…and you also do that weird sparkle thing." I explained. "What weird sparkle thing?" he asked. "In the sun, don't you sparkle like glitter?" I asked, trying hard not to laugh.
Edward turned his head to look at me like I had gone mad.
"We do not sparkle and we maybe pale but we're not always cold, not when we have fresh blood in our systems or we eat something cold." He said.
That stopped me short.
"You can eat?" I asked. "Of course we can eat. We're not really dead; our organs function as long as we have enough blood." He said, sounding miffed.
"Oh," was my only reply.
"So, you don't sparkle, you can eat, do you sleep?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I can, but that doesn't mean that we don't wake up. We can go awake for a long time but eventually even we get tired." He said.
I sat in a daze, my mouth hanging open. What was he doing? No, what had Meyer done? This wasn't a glittery veggie joke of a vampire…this was, "You're a real vampire," I whispered.
"Apparently," he said, rolling my eyes.
I slumped back, leaning my head back on the leather seats as he drove on.
"Are you scared of me?" he asked.
"I…don't know; no. I mean, I really don't have a reason to be scared of you."
He didn't answer.
"You know, I meant it when I said that I wanted you to be careful over the weekend," he said, casually. "I know, and I was," I said. "I survived and came out unscathed." I said proudly.
"Not completely unscathed," he said, looking down at my arm. I followed his gaze to where I'd hiked up his jacket sleeves to free my hands. There were shallow scrapes where I'd landed on the hard wooden floor up the inside of my arm. "Ah, yeah, I kind of had a nightmare and fell." I said.
"About what…?" he asked.
I sighed, knowing he was fishing, "Vampires and Werewolves and Serial Killers and Doppelgangers, it was a whole circus. I enjoyed it," I said, while carefully filing away any images my subconscious tried to dredge up.
He looked at me, clearly catching onto the memory erase. "You're sure about that?" he asked skeptically. I nodded and he mumbled something under his breath.
"Hey, if you want to say I'm crazy say it to my face please," I said. He grinned ruefully. "You're just…strange; it's a pleasant change." He said.
"Glad I am of service," I mock saluted him and accidentally smacked myself with his jacket.
He laughed out loud again.
This time, I laughed with him.
After a pause of silence, Edward glanced at me again.
"By the way, I was quite…taken aback by your prowess at battle tonight." He said as if the thought of me fighting back was amusing and painful to him at the same time.
"Are you sure? You look as if me punching someone upsets your manly need to protect me," I said. He growled at that. "In that situation you're right, if I had been faster you wouldn't need to fight back to protect yourself. Not only did you have to do that, you also got hurt. I could've prevented it." He said.
"You can't protect me from everything." I said softly. Even though, you would try for Bella, you'd be too busy to help me anyways…
He looked at me then. "I can try," he said quietly.
"What would you do if I fought against you?" I asked instead, playfully. He smiled then sighed. "Now what," I asked.
"I'm fighting fate with you, aren't I?" he asked ruefully. "Is it fun?" I asked. "Perhaps, I haven't reached the fun part yet," he teased and I grinned at him.
"Tell me what else can normal vampires do?" I asked.
"Well, we have speed, strength, agility, we're cold to touch unless we take care to up our body temperatures, our organs function like a human's with blood, we eat, we sleep, we do not sparkle and no we don't have coffins to sleep in." he surmised.
"So, basically Vampire Diaries instead of Twilight," I told myself.
"What is Twilight and Vampire Diaries?" he asked.
"Um, they're books…about vampires. Twilight's got it absolutely backwards." I explained, sighing in relief. He didn't sparkle, gods are kind.
"So, have you yet figured out why you were being so nasty towards me for the past couple of days?" he asked. I glanced at him in surprise. "You're still on that?" I asked. "Well, since you know our little secret, I think I should be privy to at least one of yours," he said slowly.
"I guess I just didn't like what you were. Mind you, I'm not scared but…you know, I thought you sparkled. I took it as a personal offense that a Glitter God was interested in my best friend."
He frowned. "So, when you say Dazzle people, is that a real power?" I asked.
He nodded, "It's called Persuasion. All vampires have it. In addition to it, some of us have so extra gifts too, like the mind reading." He explained. And Alice with her future seeing, I thought to myself, carefully covered under the pictures of Stephen and Damon.
"Edward…?" I asked when he pulled into the Swans' street. "Yes," he said. "What do I smell like?" I asked, purely out of curiosity. He gave me a wide eyed look. "I would rather not think about what you smell like in a closed space, Tulika." He said. I nodded in understanding.
Edward stopped the car in front of Charlie's house and I peeled off his jacket. "I didn't get to say this but…thank you, I mean it," I said, sincerely.
He nodded, "I'll see you tomorrow." He said.
I used the car door to haul my sore and exhausted body out of the car and he watched me go inside before driving off.
"Girls," Charlie called from the living room.
"Nope, just me, Bella's at a sleepover," I called back. He looked up at me when I entered the room. "She's at a sleepover and you're not…what happened to your face?" he demanded, standing up.
"I…fell, the Broadway was not really agreeable with me," I lied.
"You fell," Charlie repeated skeptically. I nodded, "I'm really tired and my feet hurt, I'm just going to make sure Bella's ok and then go to bed ok?" I asked.
He nodded, still looking hesitant but I ignored it as I went to the kitchen phone and made my call.
"Tulika, are you ok?" Bella said immediately when she picked up. "Yeah, listen, I'm home and safe. What about you?" I asked. "I'm fine," she said normally. I sighed, super repressive Bella. "Ok, I'll see you tomorrow then," I said and hung up before she could say anything else.
I didn't shower, I didn't brush my teeth, and I just curled up in my bed shaking. Ok, maybe I was going to shock after all. I picked up my phone and thumbed through the call lists before dialing my mother.
The number you're trying to call is currently unavailable.
"Mom, please…I want to come home…" I whispered.
My face was throbbing and the calm façade I'd put up in front of everyone was slowly crumbling away in my loneliness. I was alone. Completely alone…and no one was even going to help me out.
This was like Tyler all over again. Only this time, it was me who had been nearly violated. I pressed my face to the pillow, trying hard not to think about the man who had had his grimy hands on me. Panicked breaths choked me as I uneasily drifted off without my will, too exhausted to even argue with my body.
I felt so bad for my babygirl here... :(
How did you like the Twist in the Tale here? I'm sorry if I'm offending some hardcore glitter fans here but vampires DO NOT SPARKLE!
Deal with it...
And also, Review! Lots of Love!