Rating/Warning(s)/Note(s): T, Shadows
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Prompt: Reach

Edward wasn't on the flight with me to Jacksonville, but that doesn't mean I was flying alone. Alice was a few rows behind me. Whenever I looked back she was idly flipping through a magazine, but I knew what she was really looking at was me.

When the plane reached cruising altitude and the fasten-seat-belt sign off I hopped up from my seat and walked back to her. Without looking at me she scooted next to the window, making room. "You can ask, that doesn't mean I'll answer," she said barely loud enough for me to hear, still flipping through the pages.

"What…" I started, but stopped when she hissed.

Placing her mouth against my ear she spoke. "I can't tell you that, but you've got all the information. Put it together." She hesitated long enough for me to look at her and see a far-away look in her eyes. Focusing on me again she turned my head forward so she could whisper in my ear again. "Edward doesn't know this, but you are vital to our survival. There is a group that will come after us and we need you. However, asking for your help might mean the end of your human life, which is why we haven't done so yet."

My entire spine went rigid at her words. "You want me to die for you?" I thought I was quiet but the person in front of my turning in his seat showed me otherwise.

Alice smiled sweetly at him, and I could swear I heard a growl coming from her chest. The dichotomy of her expression and sound made the other passenger's eyes grow wide and turn back to the front. When she felt safe she pulled my head to her to whisper in my ear again. "There are many kinds of death. While all are permanent, some keep you walking on this earth, just changed from a human."

"What would I…"

"Think, Bella," she said, annoyance in her voice. "I know if you think you'll figure it out on this trip." She thrust an ereader into my hands, a page of text on the screen. "Read."

"It'd be easier if you just told me," I said petulantly, but started reading anyway. In no time I recognized the text.

I was afraid to raise my eyelids, but looked out and saw perfectly under the lashes. The girl went on her knees, and bent over me, simply gloating. There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive, and as she arched her neck, she actually licked her lips like an animal. . . . Lower and lower went her head as the lips went below the range of my mouth and chin and seemed about to fasten on my throat. . . . I closed my eyes in a languorous ecstasy and waited—waited with beating heart.*

Even the merest glimpse of Edward had set me to admiring his beauty, as well as those with whom he associated. I'd seen him, as well as Rosalie and Emmett, stand still in the midst of a sea of people pressing forward as the people separated to make room for them. I'd felt the intrinsic fear mixed with knowledge that the woman in the woods wanted to harm me and been frozen before her. But there was no reason to fear these strange ones with the amber eyes. Or, was there? Didn't Alice just speak of the possibility of my death?

"Why would I save you?" I asked. "Who is after you?"

Her smile told me that she knew I knew now, but wasn't saying the word. "There are royalty for our kind. They are beginning to see us as a threat, sending others out to watch us, trip us up and expose us to you humans. The woman in the woods was sent by them."

"Did she know…"

"No, you were just a very convenient meal to her." Alice leaned back some and turned my face toward hers. "She does now, or suspects."

"She's still alive?" I asked, gaping and far too loud for the first class cabin of the plane. Glancing around I noticed more than just the passenger in front of us was watching. Inspiration hit. Holding up the ereader I did my best to look sheepish. "Sorry, it's a good part of the book and she's already read it." Everyone turned back to what they were doing but I could see the person in front of us had his ear turned in our direction.

Alice was rolling her eyes at me. Pulling my ear to her mouth again she said, "Please speak under your breath. I can hear your quietest whisper. I can also read your lips, something they can't do."

The rest of the passengers must have thought our conversation was very one-sided for the rest of the flight. I would mouth my questions, she whispered the answers in my ear. For the next three hours she told me how they found me while hunting in Washington. I'd been fishing with Charlie last summer when my scent came on the breeze to Edward. It was the first time they'd all had to tackle him to make him stop hunting a human. Once he stopped breathing, apparently not necessary for them, Alice had a vision of me standing in front of the clan, protecting them. What confused her was that I was human.

The fasten-seat-belt sign came one as we began our descent into Atlanta. "But if I'm human how can I fight off a bunch of vampires?" I ask. It's a good thing I didn't have to actually speak. I was quaking so much with fear that I' sure it would come haltingly.

She looks at me, focusing on my eyes for a while before her eyes go distant, unseeing of anything in front of her. The flight attendants are opening the door of the plane when she answers me. "I don't know."

*Excerpt from Chapter 3 of Bram Stoker's Dracula. I thought something sexy would be a good passage.

Not much shopping done this weekend, but I did cut up seven pumpkins for pumpkin butter. All my kitchen counters are now covered with draining puree. Must say it smells rather divine.