I am very, very grateful that more and more people seem to have noticed my little story and that so many of you are putting it on favourite and story alert... thank you, thank you!! Special thanks and hugs to dawnvochatzer who never fails to give me ego-boo after every installment :)

As usual, I don't own these characters, they belong to Stephenie... I just like to play!!

And... just to forewarn... this chapter contains a prime example of why this story is rated M... if it's not your thang, you can skip to the last five paragraphs to pick up the story...

Chapter Six: The Hunt

I crouched on the low outcropping of rock, my attention on the herd of gazelle-like creatures below me. Bella was some distance from me, poised to spring at the herd from a different direction, to increase our chances of success.

My thirst was acute, and so I did not mind so much that our prey was not as appealing as I would have liked. The wait had been almost too long again for Bella; I'd carried her here in my arms after we'd run the first few miles, to keep her from falling behind too far. She looked very pale, the circles under her eyes dark. I worried that she'd grown too weak to hunt, though she held her pose perfectly. She smiled back at me reassuringly.

We sprang off our perches at the same time. I dropped onto a young buck and made short work of him, then sprang to a second buck, bringing him down quickly. Sparing a look in Bella's direction, I saw her feeding on a large doe, and I felt a certain measure of tension leave my body at the sight of her. She was so beautiful, a faint flush creeping over her cheeks as she gorged herself on the beast beneath her.

I glutted myself, going for a third kill after polishing off the second. The blood seemed sweeter than I recalled it being in similar animals on Earth; I wondered how much of that was due to the length of time it had been since last we hunted.

Finally, feeling sloshy, I straightened up and stretched languidly, then walked over to a large boulder and leaned against it to wait for Bella. I watched her graceful form as she sprang on her last kill and finished it off neatly. So very beautiful, not to mention exquisitely sensual. I smiled to myself, aroused. She straightened and headed over to me fluidly, looking none the worse for wear. There was something about her eyes… what was different?

She stopped in front of me and wrapped her arms around my waist, laying her head on my chest with a happy sigh. I put my hand under her chin and tilted her face up to mine for a kiss, and immediately we both gasped.

"Your eyes…" we breathed in unison. Our gazes locked on each other in wonder.

Two luminous chocolate brown eyes stared back at me. They glowed as if lit up from inside. I had thought I had lost those eyes forever when she went through the transformation; I gazed into their depths, entranced.

It occurred to me that my eyes had changed color as well. Bella knew that my eyes had been green when I was human, but she had never seen them that way. Did she find the change shocking?

Bella reached up hesitantly and stroked my face gently. "I didn't even realize what I was missing," she murmured.

I took her hand and kissed it, smiling. "Is it an improvement?"

She cocked her head, her smile suddenly impish. "Hmmn… I don't know… try to dazzle me."

I closed my eyes, still smiling, and put my head down as I took her face between my hands gently. Then I looked up at her through my lashes, focusing intently on her eyes with a solemn expression on my face, and murmured, "You have no idea how badly I want you right now."

Her eyes became unfocused and her breathing quickened; I must have succeeded. Chuckling, I kissed her gently, and she melted against me, molding herself to my form. The kiss quickly became more urgent, our bodies both responding readily, and I pulled her gently into a small cave cut into the rock, out of the sun. We shed our clothes, still kissing, and I brought us both down to the floor of the cave roughly as my hands began to explore her soft curves, suddenly greedy. She moaned and whispered my name against my shoulder as I took her without further preamble. The arousal we both felt from the hunt was preparation enough, and her body more than ready for me as she pulled me deeper inside her. Our rhythm was slow at first, as we let the passion build. After several minutes I rolled to lie beneath her, my hands gripping at her hips as she crouched over me, still impaled on my length, grinding into me repeatedly; she was tracing the muscles of my chest and belly with paradoxically gentle fingers, her eyes tightly closed in concentration, her breath coming in shallow pants. I could feel the pressure building rapidly within me as I watched her moving lithely above me, felt her tightening around me. She opened her eyes and looked down at me as she stilled for a moment, murmuring her love for me. Groaning, I pulled her down to me as I answered her in kind so that I could kiss her throat, nuzzling along her neck. She moaned again huskily and I rolled over swiftly to pin her beneath me, thrusting deeply again and again in my rising primal need for her.

"Aaaah... Edward!" she cried out as she began to shudder against me. I picked up the rate and intensity, and she kept crying and moaning out my name, straining and clutching at me, clamping rhythmically around me. And then it was I who was calling out her name over and over, as my own release came moments later. She clung to me tightly, both of us spasming as we rode out the wave of passion until it spent itself, and then we lay together breathing raggedly as we came down from the heights of our passion.

As soon as our breathing had slowed, we started moving against each other again, still aroused. I felt glorious, privileged to be holding such a beautiful, loving angel in my arms. I could not get enough of her, and she appeared to feel the same way. We spent the next several hours re-acquainting ourselves with each other's bodies.

The coming dusk finally caught my attention as we lay in each other's arms, and I murmured that it was time to hunt again as I kissed her. She agreed reluctantly. As we were dressing, she tensed suddenly, peering out of the cave, glancing about quickly at the gathering shadows. I also felt uneasy, as though we were being watched. I scanned out, listening for any sentient minds nearby, but came up empty.

We left the cave quickly and ran due west for a time. The feeling of being watched vanished, and I began to feel better as we scaled a huge rock face and I caught the scent of something that smelled similar to mountain lions. Bella shared my grin as we started to track the scent to its source.

In a matter of minutes we found our prey: two large feline-like creatures, males, stalking some large rodents. We brought them down together, catching them in mid-strike. Again, the taste seemed better, sweeter, than it ever had on Earth.

Bella finished draining her kill and stood up gracefully. I stood as well and went to her side, taking her hand and lacing our fingers together. "Are you ready to go home, love?" She nodded. Ordinarily I would have been content to pick up where we left off in our love-making, under the stars, but the earlier sensation of being watched had set me on edge, and I wanted Bella back in the protection only our family could provide.

At home, we compared notes with the rest of the family. Emmett had found the resident equivalent of a grizzly bear, and was quite pleased. Everyone's eyes had returned to their original color from their time as humans. It took some getting used to, but we all agreed that if this was the only difference we could expect from living on this new planet, it was an acceptable price to pay, and it made us look more human. Well, except for the fact that our eyes glowed in the dark now, just as our skin sparkled in the sunlight.

Bella asked if anyone else had had the sensation of being watched, and we were surprised to find that the answer was unanimously affirmative. No one had caught a glimpse of who or what could be spying on us, though. We decided that for hunting trips in the future, we should all stay together, at least until we knew what the cause of our mutual feeling was. There were just too many unknowns on this new world for us to feel at all confident of our continued immortal status, if indeed we even still were.

Oooo... a mystery! well, it *is* a new world, time for some intrigue!

Please let me know what you thought! I'm curious to see what people think of the eyes...