Bella

I awoke in darkness, even though it was already morning. I ran to the window and saw that the sky was full of dark clouds, and the ground covered in thick mist. I grinned. For the first time ever, I felt elated at the disappearance of the sun. I knew I would see Evie again today.

Everything had changed overnight. When I saw Evie jump to place herself in between me and danger, I knew in that moment that I could trust her. When I saw her face change as she leapt impossibly fast onto our attacker, I knew without a doubt that she truly is a vampire. A second later, I realized it doesn't matter. She has proven three times now that her first instinct is always to protect me. Whether or not she realizes this, she is a good person through and through.

Our time together last night had felt like an eternity, and yet at the same time it was over in an instant. I wanted to know everything about her life as a vampire, her family, her past. I couldn't wait to get to school and see her. It turned out I didn't even have to wait that long.

I stumbled out of the house with a half-unwrapped granola bar in between my teeth as I twisted my wet hair into a messy bun on top of my head. I rounded the corner of the house, squinting through the dense fog. Walking to school was not going to be fun.

But when I reached the end of the driveway I stopped in my tracks. There, parked in front of my house, was a shiny silver Volvo. The driver stood leaning against the hood watching me, a small smile playing on her lips as she took in my haggard appearance. She looked flawless, as always. Her auburn hair fell loosely around her shoulders. Little beads of mist clung to the strands, making her curls glisten in the faint light that made its way through the cloud cover. She wore a deep purple V-neck sweater that looked barely thick enough for even the warmest day in Forks, let alone a stormy day like this one. Do vampires even get cold? I added it to my list of questions.

"Would you like to ride to school with me today?" Her soft voice was like music.

"S-sure." I stammered. She opened the passenger door for me and was in her seat putting the car into gear before I'd even finished buckling my seat belt. Once in the car, all the questions I'd been dying to ask her vanished from my mind. I found myself just staring at her, at the impossibility of this creature sitting next to me driving a car like everything was normal. I couldn't help but wonder if our time yesterday- with all of the walls between us gone for once- was a one time deal. Would she be as open again today?

I was starting to feel awkward and tongue-tied as we sped through the fog shrouded streets. Finally I found my voice again and blurted out the first question that popped into my head.

"Where's your family?"

"They are finding their own transportation this morning," she answered cryptically.

"Do they know, you know, that I know? About them?" I sounded idiotic even to myself.

"It's impossible to keep secrets in my house." She smirked.

I was starting to worry now. It was one thing to converse with Evie. I knew she had good intentions. But the others were foreign to me. How would they feel about their identities being discovered?

She seemed to sense my unease. "They don't understand my fascination with you." She told me, and her words sent a little thrill through me. Fear, or excitement? I couldn't tell. Surely it couldn't be a good thing to have a vampire be fascinated with me, right? "But they are giving us space, for now." I took that to mean that our time together was contingent on something. But what? Obviously I wasn't going to betray their trust or I would have done it already. Maybe they had reason to be paranoid. I could understand that.

Getting out of Evie's car in the school parking lot felt a lot like the day after the accident: everyone stared. I kept my head down, wishing I had left my hair down to cover the red splotches that appeared all over my face and neck. We walked to English together and took our separate seats.

I sat down in my usual seat next to Jessica and turned toward her. She sat facing the front of the classroom, glowering.

"Hey Jess," I greeted her, wondering what was wrong. She ignored me but heaved a heavy sigh, so I knew she had heard me. "Um, did you bring my jacket? I think I left it in your car yesterday." She pulled my jacket out of her bag and handed it to me, still not looking at me, then crossed her arms and stared fixedly at the blackboard. Behind her on the other side of the room I could see Evie laughing. What was going on?

The rest of my classes went pretty much the same. Luckily, Angela seemed to be perfectly normal today so I talked to her in between classes.

"Hey Ang, what's up with Jess today? Is she mad at me?"

Angela looked embarrassed. "She thinks you ditched us on purpose yesterday. I told her there was no way, but she wouldn't listen to me." She shrugged.

I felt bad that Jessica was upset, but I couldn't bring myself to feel guilty. Yesterday had been a breakthrough with Evie, there was no way I would have passed that up. But was I willing to give up my newfound friends for this- friendship?- with Evie? The word friendship didn't feel quite right for what we were. It felt too familiar, and at the same time not meaningful enough. Confidante maybe? I shook my head. That wasn't right either. Maybe I was her confidante, at least I hoped I was. Protector? That was close, but I didn't think there was a word in the English language to describe what Evie was to me.

As it turned out the answer was yes, I was willing to set aside my group of friends in favor of Evie's company. As Angela and I walked into the cafeteria for lunch, my heart soared when I saw Evie sitting alone at the same table where we had conversed on Friday. That conversation felt like it was eons ago.

Evie looked amused as I sat down across from her at 'our' table. She had a tray piled high with food that she pushed over to me.

"What's so funny?" I asked her.

"Your friend is devising ways to humiliate me. She seems to think I have stolen you from her," she had a playful smile dancing on her lips.

"She'll survive," I couldn't worry about Jessica right now.

"I may not give you back though." Evie said. A strange shiver that had nothing to do with fear flowed through me as I looked at her.

I shook my head, trying to dispel the feeling. I picked up a piece of pizza off the tray in front of me and took a bite. Then something occurred to me.

"I'm curious," I said.

"Aren't you always?" Evie quipped, and I had a sudden urge to stick my tongue out at her. I resisted.

"What would you do if someone dared you to eat food?"

She reached over and took the pizza out of my hand, lifted it to her lips and took a huge bite. Her eyes never left mine as she chewed slowly, as if daring me to give her a real challenge. I decided to take advantage of her momentary silence. The problem was, none of my questions could be voiced aloud in a crowded cafeteria. I exhaled, frustrated, then finally chose a question that would sound innocuous to outside listeners.

"So where do you go hunting?" Surely it was normal for people around here to hunt.

She finished chewing and swallowed so that she could answer. "Up to Goat Rocks Wilderness."

"Really?" I asked, surprised. "Charlie says they've been having problems with bears up there."

"Precisely." She sat and waited for me to catch on.

"Bears?!" I thought I was surprised before.

"Oh yes, grizzlies are Emmett's favorite. There's nothing more challenging than going head to head with an irritated grizzly."

Now it was my turn to swallow, though I hadn't eaten anything yet. I looked over at Emmett, with his broad shoulders, thick neck, and arms corded with muscle. I decided he might in fact be able to take on a grizzly. I shuddered at the mental image. I hoped I never got on his bad side.

"What's your favorite?" I asked next.

"Mountain lion."

I stared. Emmett fighting a predator was one thing, but Evie looked so...small. She was taller than me but delicate in stature. Her willowy grace belonged on a runway, not in a fighting pit. I could not wrap my mind around the idea of her attacking anything, let alone a fierce cat. But then I remembered the way she went after that man in the alley, and it suddenly made more sense.

"We try to focus on areas with an overpopulation of predators, and prevent them from moving into inhabited areas." she continued. "It's our way of paying our dues I guess. Of course there are always plenty of deer and elk in the mountains here, but where's the fun in that?"

"Where indeed." I echoed. I longed to ask her for more details, about how they hunt and how often, but it just didn't seem safe to talk about here. She must have seen the unanswered questions in my eyes.

"What do you really want to know?" She asked in a low voice.

"Everything." I whispered. She stared back at me, and I could not fathom the expression on her face.

"Later." She said, looking around at the now empty lunch room. "We're going to be late."

I stood up, disoriented. I couldn't believe our hour was already over. Time seemed to pass by in an instant whenever I was with Evie. "Later then," I agreed, and I hoped my tone conveyed that I would hold her to that.

Evie

Bella and I walked silently to biology. There was so much to discuss between the two of us, but not surrounded by all of the other schoolchildren, so instead we said nothing. I knew from observation that Bella was not one for small talk, and I was glad. It gave me time to anticipate what questions she might be coming up with, and how I would respond to them. I was convinced that there would be a point where it would all be too much for her, and she would be afraid of me again. I would try to prevent that from happening if at all possible.

We took our seats, and Mr. Banner entered dragging an ancient TV and VCR. The improved mood in the room was palpable. We settled into our chairs for an hour of blissful escape from having to pay attention to a lecture. I was thinking about trying to talk to Bella during the film, if we could get away with it.

Then Mr. Banner turned the lights out.

I did not understand the sudden electricity that coursed through my body as I sat next to Bella in the dark classroom. Of course, I could see perfectly well with the lights off. Better, even, without the fluorescence reflecting off of every surface. So why did everything feel different suddenly?

My skin felt charged, like it was alight with energy. My muscles tensed, and my nerves felt like they were trying to jolt my heart back to beating. I crossed my arms over my chest as if that would help to calm the dynamism raging inside of me.

When the video started, there was enough light for Bella's human eyes to see by. She turned to look at me, her arms crossed over her chest much like mine were. She looked at our identical postures and had to stifle a giggle. I grinned back at her.

I looked into her deep brown eyes that seemed full of warm invitations and felt something stir inside me, unfamiliar and alarming. As I stared, I watched as heat blossomed across her cheeks. I heard her breath catch and her heart start hammering inside her ribcage. I imagined mine would have been doing the same, had it still been beating.

What are you thinking? Now more than ever I was dying to read her thoughts. Did she feel this bizarre and tangible energy as I did? The electricity was practically humming between her body and mine. It had been so long since I had felt anything new, I wished I could sit here for days and experience this feeling fully. The hour ended too soon.

Mr. Banner flipped the lights back on and the room filled with chatter. I stood slowly, and the electricity receded. I felt drained.

"Well that was interesting." I looked at Bella, trying to discern if she had sensed any measure of the tension I had just experienced.

"Hmmm," was her only response. What did that mean?

I walked her to the door of the gym before departing for Spanish class. This time our silence was charged with unspoken intensity. I paused before saying goodbye, my hand raised halfway toward her as if I would reach out and touch her. I regained control of myself before I did anything rash. Touching her would not help my self control right now. The hunger for her blood was always right under the surface, ready to break through at any moment of weakness. I couldn't take that chance.

"See you after class?" She asked me hesitantly.

"Yes, see you then." I answered, then turned and strode away before I could do something I would regret.

I met up with Alice and Emmett for Spanish.

"I can see it's going to be sunny again on Saturday," she told me darkly, "with a thunderstorm Sunday night."

I recalled her vision about the visitors coming during a thunderstorm and my blood went cold. Bella would be at risk.

Alice and I spent the last hour of class conversing silently about what to do. The best thing to do would be to keep her with us all weekend. They wouldn't dare go after her against the seven of us. Alice was thinking. But then I won't be able to scan ahead for us at all. I feel so helpless. Her mental tone was full of anguish. I started to write my answer- I'm sure I can convince her to stay with us- Yes, well good job because all of our futures just disappeared she answered before I'd even finished. Her vision had changed the instant I made the decision to invite Bella over to our home.

I sat back in my chair, feeling better knowing that Bella would be with me when danger was near. It seemed there was no end to the need for protecting this girl. Danger was waiting for her around every corner. I smiled at that thought, then shook my head. I should not take delight in her peril. But I knew why I was happy- it meant that I had a concrete reason to spend time with her.

I ducked out of class a few seconds early and raced to the gym. I caught the tail end of her volleyball practice- she had managed to knock both herself and Mike Newton over the head in one fell swoop. I was still laughing when she exited.

She saw me smiling and answered with a wide grin. The happiness I felt when she smiled at me was unprecedented. My laughter faltered as I grappled with these new emotions once again, but I quickly recovered.

"How was gym?" I teased her, and her smile fell. It was easier to converse with her when she wasn't grinning at me like I'd just made her day simply by being where I said I'd be after school.

"Fine," she lied.

"Really?" I couldn't help myself. "How's your head?"

She looked mortified now. "You weren't….listening?!" My grin widened in response. "You're unbelievable!" She cried, and stomped off in the general direction of my car. I followed at a slow pace, waiting for her anger to subside. She was clearly embarrassed- her skin had turned a dark red color. I kept my distance, knowing all too well how the blood rushing to her face would affect my darker side. She leaned against the passenger door of my car, arms crossed in a pout.

I stood at the driver's side door of my car, determined to wait her out. I didn't have to wait long. After a few minutes she turned back around to face me, her skin returned to it's lovely cream color.

"Is it later yet?" She asked curtly, and I knew she was referring to my promise to answer any question for her once we were away from school.

"Yes, I suppose it is." I unlocked the car and we both got in.

"What is it like for you, when you hunt?" She was still thinking about the bears.

"Just imagine two grizzlies fighting, and that's Emmett hunting." I told her. I worried about letting her know too much about us, about how monstrous we can be. But I also wanted her to know the truth.

"And for you?"

"I've been told I'm more like the lion, swift and silent. Perhaps our preferences are indicative."

She nodded, then moved on to her next question. "But what is it like for you? What do you experience?"

I thought about my answer carefully. This was really getting into dark territory. "It's sort of like this other side of me takes over." How to explain? "My senses sharpen and this focus takes hold of me. I can't see or hear or smell anything other than my prey. There is this feeling of power, like I could take on anything and walk away victorious. It's the greatest feeling in the world," I turned to look at her, to gauge her reaction, "and the worst."

"Why the worst?" Of course she would ask me this.

"Because when that moment of power is over, I have taken a life. Even if only the life of an animal, I can feel it when it slips away. I know the exact moment that death takes them, and I am the cause."

We had reached her father's house, and the tone in the car was somber.

"Can I ask you something now Bella?" I looked at her, my silent heart suddenly tight with fear of her answer.

"Of course," she said.

"Are you determined to go to Seattle this Saturday, or was that just an excuse to avoid the dance?"

And there it was, her heartbeat slamming in her chest again. Would I ever discover the cause of her panic? "Mostly an excuse," she admitted, "but I am open to alternatives."

"The sun will be out, so I will have to stay indoors. And you could stay with me...if you wish." If I had needed to breathe, I would be holding my breath right now awaiting her answer.

"Will you promise to answer more questions?"

"Are you sure you want to know more?" I was still waiting for her to realize that I was a monster straight out of a horror film.

"Absolutely!" Her answer was immediate and emphatic, and the elation I'd felt last night when she'd accepted the truth swept through me again.

"Then yes, I promise." And I meant it. Whatever she wanted to know, I would tell her. "And Bella?"

"Yes, Evie?" I felt that electricity again when she said my name out loud.

"Tomorrow I'm asking the questions." I grinned at her. She looked slightly worried, and I wondered yet again what secret she held that she protected so fiercely. She got out of the car and I waited until she was out of sight before driving home.

The next day I picked her up for school again. I was beginning to enjoy our new routine, and the time alone, however short, was invaluable to me. I had not realized how much of my personality I kept contained. Aside from my family, no one in the world really knew me. Until I met Bella.

"Good morning," she said pleasantly as she got into the car. "How are you today?"

"Not a chance," I chuckled at her obvious attempt to get one question in before I did. "It's my day."

She frowned. "What do you want to know?" Another question, but I let that one slide. I was too amped up to wait even one more minute to begin questioning her. This time I had a plan.

"What is your favorite color?" I watched her face, anticipating her surprise at such a banal question. What she didn't know was that nothing about her could be banal to me.

"Purple," she told me, and I started making a mental file of all of her answers. "But not lavender or plum. More like violet."

I filed her answer without comment and moved quickly on to the next question. "What CD is in your stereo right now?" She told me the name of the band, and I had to laugh. It was the same one I had listened to last week when I couldn't sleep. I pulled it out of my CD holder and showed it to her. She laughed along with me. It seemed we had more in common than I would have thought.

I continued my rapid fire questions the entire drive to school, the walk into the building, and in between every class. My plan of attack was to overwhelm her, to ask her questions that were easy to answer and ask them quickly so she wouldn't have time to second guess her answers. This way, I might gain some insight into what her secret might be.

During lunch, she barely had time to eat in between answering me. I wasn't even halfway through my list of questions when we arrived at her house after school, and still not a single answer had given me any clue about what she was most afraid of. I was about to ask her if I could spend the afternoon with her, but my question froze on my lips when I noticed a new vehicle in her driveway.

"What's wrong?" She asked, immediately noting my sudden silence.

"A complication." I answered through gritted teeth. I could smell the occupants of the vehicle from here: Billy Black, descendant of Ephriam Black, the creator of our treaty. The young boy, presumably Jacob, had jumped out of the truck and was helping Billy out of the passenger seat and into his wheelchair.

I had told Bella that if I ever ran into Billy Black I would have words with him. But now I couldn't bring myself to be angry that Jacob had unwittingly broken the treaty. If he hadn't, Bella might not be sitting here with me right now, sportingly answering my questions and hoping to ask me hers this weekend.

My eyes met Billy's, and I watched as recognition registered in his mind as he took in my appearance. If I'd had any doubt that the tribe still believed the old legend about the Cold Ones, it was gone now. I watched as Billy's eyes narrowed when he noticed Bella beside me. It seemed that Billy wanted to have words with me, rather than the other way around. I tensed, sensing a challenge. But then he looked from Jacob to Bella and thought better of it.

When he looked back at me, he nodded once very slowly. I knew without even having to read his mind what that meant: he would be watching me.