Chapter Thirteen
Edward's car pulled up in front of Bella's house and she braced herself for his next attempt to try and push her away. It never came.
"Are you going to be okay?" he asked, having turned to look at her with concern in both his voice and on his face.
"In the long run or tonight?" she asked, sounding as tired as she felt.
"Both."
"In the long run I'll be okay but tonight…" she trailed off, her cheeks filling with blush. "I have nightmares sometimes. Tonight is going to be hard."
She almost didn't tell him but saw no reason to keep it a secret. She was who she was, nightmares and all.
"Do you have something you can take?" he asked, ever the doctor.
"Not anymore." She'd been on sleeping pills in the months following her attack but not even a change of dorm rooms or the drugs had been able to keep the nightmares at bay, eventually she'd given the pills up as she was tired of the drowsiness they brought.
He sat for a minute, his eyes on her face as though searching for something before making his decision. She bit her lip and he took in a low breath before opening his mouth to speak, decision made.
"Give me your cell phone," he ordered softly and she hesitated for a moment before handing it over. He fiddled with it for a few moments and she heard the low buzzing of his own phone in his pocket before he handed hers back to her. She looked at the screen to find his contact details saved under his name and looked up at him, surprised.
"Call me if you need me," he urged, his voice low and his eyes liquid. "I don't start my shift until midnight so there's plenty of time."
She nodded in response, not trusting herself enough to speak. She could barely think when he looked at her that way and she wondered when he'd pull away again.
"Okay," she said softly.
An hour later found Bella in bed, wearing one of her favourite old t-shirts, desperately trying to pull some comfort from the worn fabric. She was more than a little tired but the thought of closing her eyes terrified her.
Her phone was in her hand, Edward's contact information at the ready but she couldn't bring herself to press call.
She was afraid of falling any further into Edward Cullen than she already had.
"Silly girl, just close your eyes," she whispered to herself, wishing she could just will the nightmares and feelings away.
Her phone vibrated then, the words Edward Cullen flashing on her screen and a small gasp of surprise fell from her mouth.
"Hello," she said, answering.
"Are you okay?" he asked without greeting her, warmth and concern radiating from his tone. She let out a low breath, her throat starting to ache with tears again.
"How'd you know?" she asked him, turning onto her side and lifting her thighs to her chest.
"I had a feeling and I knew you wouldn't call me," he told her, his voice sad but resigned. She was glad he acknowledged it.
"You've been so inconsistent, Edward. I don't even know if you actually like me or if you're still just feeling guilty about that day at the hospital," she admitted, her tone matching his.
There was pause then and the line was completely silent, she couldn't even hear him breathe.
"I like you, Bella," he whispered so softly she almost didn't hear.
The pause this time was her own doing and she hugged her knees tighter to her, a small smile playing on her mouth.
"What are you doing right now?" she asked him.
"I'm in my office, waiting for my shift to start," he told her, his voice more upbeat than it had been since she'd answered the phone.
"Tell me about being a doctor," she told him.
"What do you want to know?" he asked her, sounding surprised but not displeased.
"Everything. Tell me everything," she said, finally closing her eyes.
He complied and she fell asleep listening to Edward Cullen's soft voice in her ear.
The dreams she had that night might not have been the ones she had been expecting but that didn't mean that they were any less terrifying.
When Bella woke, her eyes immediately fell to a photo she'd paid no attention to in her time back in Forks. It was a picture of herself and her former best friend, Jacob Black.
He was the son of Charlie's best friend and when she'd been in Forks as a child they'd played together. It had been only natural that when she moved there as a teenager that they remain being friends.
They'd been close for months after she'd arrived, their friendship only ending after Jacob had forced Bella's first kiss upon her after she'd been adamant that she didn't see him that way.
That wasn't the reason she was looking at the picture then, however. No, she was remembering the day it had been taken.
The day that Jacob had told her about the Quileute legends. The day she'd just dreamed about.
He had told her about how his ancestors were believed descended from wolves and could shape-shift at will, to defend their tribe from their sworn enemy, the Cold Ones.
The Cold Ones.
An enemy that was lightning fast, stronger than a hundred men and had impenetrable, cold skin.
They were immortal and beautiful, Jacob had told her that afternoon as they'd walked along first beach while their fathers fished a few miles away and his shapeshifting ancestors had been the only ones who had been able to stop them from drinking the blood of their entire tribe.
"Vampires?" a seventeen-year-old Bella had scoffed at her friend. "Werewolves? Come on Jake, surely you have better legends than that."
She had teased him and he'd laughed, not believing it any more than she had.
But she believed him now.
Because there was no other explanation for Edward's cold, unyielding skin, the fact that Alice had felt exactly the same when she'd hugged her and how Edward had managed to incapacitate the four men who were attacking her in seconds. Or even the fact that every member of his family that she had met had the exact same colour eyes despite the fact that they weren't biologically related.
It explained how he'd been able to find her the night before and why he'd made it to her meadow wearing a pair of dress shoes.
Edward Cullen was a vampire.