Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Twilight. They all belong to Stephanie Meyers.
Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who has read my story. Please review!!!
Almazuna18: Thank you for all you encouraging reviews!!! I am happy that I can break the mold sometimes.
Chapter 14: Round 2
Bella's POV
Looking at Edward after I blindfolded him made me unsure how to word this correctly. Explaining exactly what I am when I didn't even know was not something I had ever done before.
He deserved to know before things went any further between us. And I wanted him to know so if he wanted to leave after finding out, it won't hurt as much…I hope. Looking at him now from a new perspective after the last eight years made me see we in fact did come from different worlds.
Taking a deep breath, I started with the familiar, "Edward, this is going to be hard to explain so please bear with me while I try to make this make sense to you." Another deep breath "If I could stay exactly the way I am now, what would you think about that?"
"Bella, you can choose to stay the way you are and I will still love you." Edward answered.
"Now, being a vampire verses a human has certain advantages like durability, speed, strength, the most important eternity. Would you agree?" He looked uncomfortable talking about this.
"There are more disadvantages to being a monster like I am. Please can I just talk to you about this without the blindfold?" He started to reach for the blindfold and I stopped his hand.
"Please, just answer, if you agree with those advantages. I need you to trust me." He lowered his hands back into his lap.
"Yes I would agree that those are some of the advantages vampires have." He hesitatingly answered.
This is where it will get tricky for him to understand. "Edward, what if you could have the best of both worlds? If I could stay with you forever just like I am and you never have to worry about me getting killed or hurt or changed?" He was confused by my question.
"That's impossible…I don't understand what you are asking me?" He replied.
"I guess this is harder to tell you so maybe I need to show you." I took off my shirt and had my bra on so I could show him. He was still blindfolded but he heard me taking off my top.
"Bella, what are you doing?" He shifted in the chair.
"Just trust me." I took both of his cold hands into my warm hands. I placed one over my heart and he exhaled a breath. Then I placed the other hand on my cheek. "I want you to feel what I am trying to tell you before you see it. Hopeful it will be easier this way." I slowly took his hand that was on my cheek and started moving it down my neck. Right before I reached my scars I whispered. "No matter what I will always love you" and brought his hand down to where Victoria had bitten me on my neck.
He gasped and I knew he felt them, "Are….those…bite marks?" he whispered. In a flash, he was across the room with the blindfold off looking at me like I had gone mad. He was staring at the marks on my neck and shoulder. "How?" He whispered so softly I almost couldn't hear him.
"Yes they are bite marks. How? I don't know. Can you please sit down so we can talk about this?" I motioned back to the chair he was just in.
"Vampire Bite Marks? That's impossible" He hadn't moved from the corner in the living room. "You can't still be human if you were bitten. And you have been bitten more than once. How can that be?" He was talking to himself more than me. Then he looked up at me with agony radiating from his golden eyes. "What are you?"
The way he said the question hurt deep in me. "Honestly, I don't know. What I do know is I can't die and I can't really be hurt by anything, even vampires" after saying that he inhaled in shock. His eyes darted to the back door and he wanted to get away from me. He looked into my eyes and I could tell he didn't want to leave and hurt my feelings but, he was having a hard time with this information. "Go Edward, I understand you need time. Don't worry about me just go." I said this staying as composed as possible.
He took off out the back door and glanced back to me as he left. Knowing that this could happen was one thing but to have it happen was another. I knew that there was no real easy way to tell him. Hell, I thought I was insane when Victoria first attacked me. At least now he knows and if he doesn't want to come back then I can move on, alone. This is probability easier in the long run.
Edward's POV
Heading west away from Bella's house, I didn't know where I was going but I had to get away. I saw my Bella with bite marks and she was still human. Impossible! Nothing that I just witnessed was logical.
Within miles of the house I heard my family approaching from the south. "Edward, what happened?" Alice shouted and I stopped dead in my tracks.
"I can't explain it. She told me…unbelievable…not possible…" I needed to think and couldn't answer her.
"Wait, Edward please tell us what was said?" Carlisle reached his hand to my shoulder.
"I don't know how, I need to clear my head. Please let me go and be alone for awhile." I begged Carlisle to understand. He nodded and I began running again. I just needed time to try and rationalize this new part of the woman fell in love with so long ago.
Rosalie's POV
Looking at my brother now, I saw a pain and agony in his eyes that tore my heart apart. I needed to know what happened to cause this. Before any of my family realized, I took off back to Bella's house to confront her about what she had said. My family and brother had been through enough for the last eight years for this to start again. I was going to get to the bottom of what was going on.
Bursting through the back door of her house I saw her and she seem liked nothing just happened, "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU TELL HIM, BELLA?" I screamed at her and my rage was getting the better of me.
"I showed him the truth and he needs time to deal with it his way." She was too relaxed about this.
"BULLSHIT! You mindfucked him and I doubt anything you have said had been the truth, so what did you say!!!" She was not going to mess with my family like this and not deal with my wraith.
"I told him what I was and it was too much for him to process right now." She responded.
"YOU'RE A BITCH! What kind of sick game is this?" About then I heard my family behind me.'
"You want to know what happened. FINE! This is the mindfuck and sick game my life as dealt me." She screamed at me as she pulled back her shirt collar to show the scars on her neck and shoulder. They were bite marks. "This is what I showed Edward in the best way I could and he still couldn't handle it." She was up in my face by this point.
"Those can't be real. What did you do scar yourself up to make it look like you were bitten so your lies could be more believable." The scars on her neck were over her jugular and looked real but couldn't be.
"All 5 of my bite marks are real. Just like the two dozen times I have been shot, stabbed, and blow up are real. Having every bone in my body broken. Almost being decapitated and Victoria trying to crush my skull with her bare hands. All of it has been the hell I have lived for the last 8 years and never got granted death from any of it. That is my reality and the truth." Bella looked me dead in the eye when she spoke these words to me.
"Lies, they have to be lies. You're human." That was all I could say.
Then she did something that shocked me more than anything in my entire existence. She pulled back and landed a hard right hook on my jaw. I ACTUALLY FELT A SHIFT IN MY JAW FROM HER PUNCH!!! The sound of multiple bones cracking inside her hand was heard throughout the house.
"Oh my god Bella let me see your hand. I know it's broken we all heard it." Carlisle was at Bella's side looking at her with concern.
"I'm fine Carlisle" she stepped away from him and flexed her hand out and we heard another crackling sound again.
"Are you crazy? You just hit me and all you accomplished is hurting yourself." I shouted at her.
"Bella let me see your hand and no arguing." Carlisle grabbed her hand to inspect it. He gasped and was feeling the bones in her hands over and over. "This can't be right" he whispered.
"Carlisle, you won't find any broken bones in my hand so can I have it back now" Bella insisted.
"We all heard the bones break, but I can't find anything wrong with your hand at all" He was still checking it for the umpteenth time. Then he looked up at her neck and gasped again. "They are real vampire bite marks, but how?" He was feeling the area with his mouth hanging open in awe.
Jasper's POV
I was in shock when we returned to Bella's home as we saw Bella pull her shirt away from her neck where we all saw the scars. She had said she had battle scars that she didn't want us to see. Looking at her soft flesh where the scars showed I knew that they were real. My body was covered in the same scars she had now.
The screaming match between Rose and Bella keep going and I was feeling the anger coming off of Rose. I was trying to control it so it didn't influence the rest of the family.
Before any of us could react, Bella swung and hit Rose in the jaw. Rose's anger switched to now astonishment.
Carlisle was trying to tend to Bella's had that was now broken. What I detected is that Bella should have been in tremendous pain at this point but, she didn't even shed a tear. She flexed her hand and didn't even flinch. This was not normal behavior.
After Carlisle asked Bella how she got the bit marks on her neck, I responded for her, "Victoria and Laurent gave you those scars, right Bella? Your battle scars" She looked at me and smiled.
"Yes they did. I am glad someone finally believes me." She whispered.
"Please don't take this the wrong way; do you know what you are?" I asked her.
"Edward already asked before he left. I told him I didn't know. The pack calls me the freak of the supernatural world. From what I have read, the closest description that matches is Immortal Human." She said this and moved her shirt back to cover her scars.
I had been trying to calm everyone down and it seemed like it was finally working. Most of the family was still frozen like statues near the backdoor. I sat down near Bella and wanted her to know that I believed her story. I took hold of her hand and she looked at me. I could tell she appreciated the kindness I was showing her.
"Why haven't you told us sooner?" I asked.
"Because I haven't told you the best part of me not being able to die, I am an all-you-can-eat buffet for vampires. I know you all would never intentionally hurt me but, other vampires would love to get their hands on me. That is what Victoria had planned the day I killed her. She knew she couldn't kill me and so she changed her plans to capture me and never have to hunt again." That's when Bella finally broke her shell and I saw tears come out of the corner of her eyes. "The reality of this is a fate worse than death for me. And pretty much is my only fear." She looked down and wiped her eyes with the back of her sleeve.
She was getting her armor back on and didn't want to show her weakness anymore. About then she looked up toward the front door. I heard the approach when she said, "Edward hasn't been very far and heard everything. I think he might actually want to join the conversation now." She knew he was there before any of us did.
Edward came through the front door a second later, "I'm sorry for the way I acted when you tried to tell me about this" he was looking at her with so much love.
"No apologies No regrets just the truth" she said again. "I knew this couldn't be easy for you to hear and I understand if you can't accept me for what I am now. I can never be like you and I am not really human now either. I don't really belong anywhere, not like I ever did before." She stood and started heading upstairs.
Edward pulled her into his arms before she reached the first step and held her. She didn't resist him and just laid her head against his chest. She still looked so fragile but, we all knew she had been through so much that we could never entirely identify with.
"You have always been an angel to me and the love you have given me is nothing short of a miracle. If you can find it in your heart to forgive me one day, I will love you forever" Edward whispered to her and kiss her hair.
She looked up at him "Edward when you will hear me? Stop asking to be forgiven and just be happy. You need to understand that I have never stopped loving you so, forever is starting now." She reached up and kissed him.
"Come on you guys! Enough with the lovey, dovey stuff. We want to hear about how much a 'Freak' Bella is." Emmett interrupted. Edward let a low growl out. Bella laughed whole heartedly.
Carlisle's POV
After hundreds of years on this planet, this was a new one in my book. The past few minutes had altered the reality that I once thought myself an expert. All of my medical knowledge and supernatural history had never prepared me for what we all had discovered.
"Bella, was your hand broken after you hit Rose?" I asked her. She was still in Edward's arms but my fascination was overwhelming me.
"Yes, Carlisle I did break my hand on Rose's face. Nothing personal Rose, I was just trying to prove my point." She smiled towards Rose whom already forgiven her.
"How did it heal so fast then? Did it hurt? Can you tell me anything else about what happens when you're injured?" I rambled off the questions so fast she missed part of it.
"Carlisle, I think you need to see for yourself. Explaining this shit is too hard." She pulled out of Edwards arms and walked to the kitchen. When she came back she had a large cutting knife and washcloth in her hands. "Please trust me and don't flip out. I have had 8 years dealing with my freak abilities as Jake calls it. This is a demonstration but if someone snaps at me, I will be ok. If some of you need to leave, please do so now. No one in this room can hurt me, even if you tried." She handed me the wet washcloth at this point.
"What exactly are you planning on doing?" I figured out she was going to cut herself but I asked anyways.
"I want to show you how quickly I can heal and trust me it's fast." She looked at Edward. "Can you handle this or do you need to leave?" She asked Edward.
"I'll be fine, but this goes against the grain to let you purposely hurt yourself." Edward was uneasy about this.
"Stop worrying Edward." She looked back at me. "Carlisle, so you can see exactly what happens, I need you to wipe my arm clear of the blood as soon as I cut myself. I can heal cuts in less than a minute." I nodded to her letting her know I understood. "Ready? Hold your breath if you need to"
She took the butcher knife and sliced into her arm. I froze and she didn't seem in pain at all. "Carlisle, wipe the blood please" she instructed and in a flash the blood was gone and her arm was perfectly normal. "One more time, but this time I will go deeper if you can wipe up the blood quickly you will actually see the skin healing."
She pressed the knife into her arm all the way to the bone and I didn't falter this time. As soon as the surface blood was clear of the wound, the skin was healing back to normal rapidly.
"Fascinating" I said as I watched in wonder. I cleaned the area on her arm again and there was no scar or signs of injury at all.
"Too bad you couldn't have that cool trick when you were so clumsy Bella" Emmett joked with her.
"It doesn't hurt at all? How about the bites and venom?" That was the most interesting of all.
"Nope it doesn't hurt. Sometimes I don't even know that I have broken something or am bleeding. The bites sting a little but the only thing I really feel is the pull as my blood is getting sucked from me." The family looked horrified at this comment Bella made.
"A Vampire has feed off you? Seriously?" Alice asked her.
"Laurent only got a little out of me when I was still human but his bite is what caused me to change into what I am now. Victoria got 3 meals for free off of me." She was joking about this appalling fact.
"That must have been horrible. And to live through it must have been devastating." Esme hugged Bella.
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Bella replied. My daughter had to be the strongest one of the whole family. "I really want to tell you all everything but this has been one hell of a day for all of us. We have a lot more time to cover all of this, I promise. I would like to head to bed now and try this again tomorrow if it's ok with you." We forgot she needed her rest.
"Of Course, dear. Sweet Dreams" Esme kissed her temple.
"Thank you for telling us about yourself. We know this couldn't have been easy on you and we appreciate you trusting us with your secret." I hugged her and wished her a good night.
She started up the stairs and turned to Edward, "You coming or are you just going to stand there?" Smiling at my son. He took off up the stairs grabbing her in his arms and they were gone for the night into her room. It was good to see them happy again.