"Was that an earthquake?" Edward's head snapped up, his neck ached and his eyes strained as smoke began to billow in the north.
They'd found an old house a few months ago, and made it their own.
Some days they sat on the porch holding hands and others they'd hunt. Today had been the hand holding. Edward had been desperate for contact she'd been content to withhold.
Bella enjoyed the hunting. Her hunger had grown so much in the last year and rotting fur covered animals didn't fill her the way fresh flesh had. She would take him deeper into the woods that surrounded them, her heart set and hope soaring that they'd run across a beating heart. Something on two legs with more fight than a wild cat.
Bella wasn't a fool. She knew she'd been risen from the grave, awoken because someone couldn't let go. Even though her mind grew fuzzier everyday, she knew Edward had loved that girl. She also knew that that he'd lost his mind and that he was just as much her anchor to this bleak reality as he was hers.
Bella was selfish in her manipulation of him. She hungered for his meat as much as his touches. He'd been an amazing lover and had offered his blood enough to sustain and keep her alive.
He did it for himself and she liked that about him.
"Volcano." Edward pointed high above the trees and her eyes shot wide, amazed at the site.
"Are we close? Can we go look?"
"Soon." He'd said, but she knew he wasn't talking about the volcano, just like he wasn't talking about the ocean when she'd asked the same.