(Disclaimer- i dont own beautiful creatures like edward and jacob. i
do own kyle though.. i guess hes kind of pretty. :D)

:D hey! so that last chapter got quite a few reviews! i was really surprised about that, too,
because i figured everyone would be off savoring the pages of BD! but thanks SO MUCH to
all of you who reviewed! and, as always, paleviolet and watermelonflavored gve me some great ones.
and queenoftheviciousvines who FINALLY read my new chapters! haha. :) and all the rest of you.
i really really appreciate it. its so much easier not to doubt myself when i have all of you being all nice
like that. and guess what?! i tracked down the copy of BD thats being sent to me from amazon, and its CLOSEEEE!
im really excited. haha. okay. sorry. go on and read. plenty of edward in this chapter.
wolf fans don't be upset. jake is a part of this story. i promise.
oh. and, after reading this chapter again, i realized that it starts off REALLY slow and boring.
i apologize for that. it definitely is not my best writing, but I have to kind of add some buffers before i get
into the real drama. so yeah. sorry about that.

Edward

His voice was too sweet, the scent of it so powerful, so long-awaited, that it reached my nose from across the room. It was a separate smell than the one that the rest of his kind, the vampires around me, shared. It was so much better, so much more alluring. Every inch of me ached to cross the space between us, to push myself into the confines of his strong arms and disappear there, lose myself in the touch of him, the scent, the sight.

Tears sadly left my eyes as my fingers tightened on Emmett's shoulder. His arms, too, tightened around my waist, comforting me. He loved me, even though he wasn't sure I was who I said. He was still my brother.

Edward looked at Emmett, his blackened eyes searching the length of his brother's arms, wrapped around me as they were, until they reached his face. They stared at each other for a moment, Edward's features tightening with concentration. They were conversing silently. Going over something they didn't want me to hear.

I attempted to slow my breathing while his focus slid back over to me. My lower lip trembled, watching the look of meditation narrow his eyes, crease his forehead. He stared at me as though he was halfheartedly attempting to piece together a complicated puzzle, like he was focusing very hard on something without really wanting to understand.

He was trying to read my mind.

My eyes widened as a small smile pulled over his mouth. I felt relieved by the tiny grin on his mouth, but his eyes confused me. They were hesitant, perplexed, as he walked, so gracefully, to stand by the couch where I sat with Emmett, seeming to hear my heart beat faster with every forward step of his foot. His stare remained on my face, looking over my forehead, my eyes, my nose, my lips. He repeated the search of my features, looking for something. I couldn't comprehend his actions, and they terrified me.

Emmett's fingers rubbed lightly at my back, noticing my tension, the subtle shake of my form. My head lolled back and forth. I felt as though I'd pass out if Edward came any closer.

As I was thinking this, Edward stopped.

I gasped.

He couldn't possibly read my mind, could he? I'd known before that he'd been trying to, but I'd never really suspected that he'd be able to. He'd never been able to before…but how else would he have known to stop the way that he did? How would he have known what I'd wanted? I'd been trying hard to keep the emotion from my face. How would he have known had he not been listening to the wishes in my head?

Did that mean that I wasn't Bella, if he was able to hear my unspoken thoughts? Or was it possible for me to still be Bella, even if he could now read my mind? Would my rebirth change me that way, too? I'd thought my mind had remained the same, but could it really have changed? Could I really no longer be the only exception to Edward's talents?

I panicked, my breath coming faster now than it had even before, my mouth popping open and my eyes growing large.

If you can hear this, smile, please, I begged him through my thoughts, my eyes searching his face desperately. His brow puckered in confusion as I stared at him. The horror I'd been trying hard to conceal suddenly broke free across my face and I started to hyperventilate. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn't stop. Edward's eyes grew with concern and one white hand shot out in front of him as to comfort me from afar. He stole closer to me where I sat on the couch, but only one small step.

He didn't come any further, and he definitely didn't smile.

For a long moment, the room was silent but for my breathing, each set of eyes zeroed in on my face, their expressions a common display of shock, confusion, caution.

Finally, as my hectic breath calmed, Edward cleared his throat.

"Tanya, Irina," He nodded once at them — a late, polite gesture of greeting — his eyes on my face. Irina nodded back, but Tanya's reaction wasn't quite as subtle. The small smile on her face became much more prominent as she looked at him, and she stood, wrapping her thin white arms over his shoulders, pulling him close to her, pretending to forget my presence. He flinched in surprise and irritation, looking at me for my reaction.

My jaw clenched.

Before I could even comprehend what had happened, Tanya skidded back into the wall, her mouth opening in shock before she snapped it shut and scowled. Edward crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking a little smug, glaring balefully at her. She pouted and leaned against the wall, kicking her feet out in front of her and crossing her ankles. She sneered at the three of us, her sister abruptly at her side again.

Emmett snorted, amused by the strawberry-blonde vampire's pathetic efforts, and her head whipped to the side so that she could snarl at him. My eyebrows rose.

"Tanya, Irina, would you mind giving us some privacy?" Edward asked them, gesturing with his chin for them to go through the door, which he'd left open. Irina raised an eyebrow, disbelief causing her to snort. Tanya's jaw muscles flexed, looking quickly, anxiously, at my face before she spoke.

"I'm really enjoying the view from your room, Edward." She cooed, almost frantically. When she looked back at me, that worried expression still plastered to her face, she seemed pleased with my reaction. I knew what she would see on my features: hatred, jealousy — everything she'd hoped to find, everything her words were meant to trigger.

My nostrils flared. I couldn't believe that she had been in his room. No one claimed his room as their own besides him and me. How dare she say that? How dare she even think to mention it in front of me?

I hated her. I wanted to wring her neck.

"It was so nice of you to let me stay there." She continued sweetly, throwing an antagonizing glare over her shoulder at me as she crossed the room to stand just inches before him.

He grinded his teeth, eyes narrowed.

I couldn't believe her, acting the way she was. The way she behaved was that of a jealous ex-girlfriend, and while she may have been an ex, she definitely had no reason to be jealous. So why was she so blatantly going out of her way to inflict pain on me? She seemed to enjoy it when I cringed at the words, happy with the fact that she was able to say something that would make me jealous of her. Like I didn't have enough reason to be jealous in the first place.

I sighed, trying to rid of the irritation before anyone noticed it. I knew that there was really no chance of that happening. Each of them had hearing sensitive enough to pick up on my quiet reactions. They'd probably already heard the quickening pace of my heart, the silent gasp that came from my mouth, the click of my teeth as they came together behind the tight line of my lips.

Edward looked at me again, careful.

"That's nice, Tanya." He said to her, meeting her desperate eyes with a bored expression. "But please, I'd like to speak to my brother alone."

As I figured she might, Tanya leaned toward me, her arms extended as though to scoop me up like a bag of flour. I knew the second that he said the word 'alone' she'd snag me and take me with her, determined to keep me away from him. I knew what a pathetic girl like her would be thinking, how she wasn't about to let me stay here with him if she didn't get to stay, too. She was such a petty little thing, insecure in her superior beauty so much so that she'd do anything just to eliminate her competition, when really, I was no competition at all.

"No, she can stay." Edward looked pointedly at me, allowing no room for mistakes to be made, because, from what I could tell of Tanya, she'd have tried to pretend like she didn't know who he was talking about. Her eyes widened innocently, and she cocked her head at him, deciding to play dumb anyway.

Her hand struck my arm harshly, her poorly veiled anger leaking into the action. The impact of her cold appendage stung and I flinched, curling away from her before she could get a hold of me. Emmett's arms tugged me to the right, out of the way, as she grinded her teeth, reaching for me again.

"Don't touch her." Edward growled, snatching up Tanya's wrist and tossing her away from me. She fell to the ground behind him, a stunned gasp forming on her full mouth. Her head shot to the left, stabbing him with her cold glare, and she scowled angrily, pushing up from the wooden floor and brushing off her skirt. She glowered at me for a moment before tossing her hair over her shoulder and marching over to Irina.

Huffing, she grabbed her sister's hand and left the room, unsatisfied and humiliated.

I pursed my lips, slightly amused, but not sure if it was reasonable to be feeling that way. My eyes darted from the slammed door to Emmett's jeans below me, avoiding all eye contact. My breath was shaky in the silence of the living room.

Emmett chuckled, his shoulders vibrating against my back, and I looked up to see that both he and Edward were smiling. Edward's smile, sheepish as it was, was beautiful. I'd missed that crooked smile, the one that I'd never seen quite to its fullest in my imagination. Nothing I could ever have dreamt would compare to his smile. Not one thing.

I drew in a deep breath, steadying myself while Emmett quieted.

As the room fell noiseless once again, Emmett became unusually serious, repentant. His lips pursed and his eyes saddened, contracting slightly as he stared at Edward, looking guilty.

Edward smiled reassuringly, leaning in to pat his hand to his brother's shoulder.

The breath caught in my throat at the close proximity Edward had put between us, his forearm just inches from my cheek. I stared at the pale white skin there, my face deepening in color, and he, too, swiftly seemed to notice how small the space between us was. We both froze, his arm completely motionless there in the air next to me, our eyes meeting for a single second. The air thickened around me, changing, the atmosphere charged with an electricity that awakened every single cell in my body.

It was so familiar, so dizzying. It was love, obsession. It might not have been good for me — he might not have been good for me — but as Jacob had once put it, he was my drug, and I was addicted. Completely addicted.

My fingers wiggled in my palms, begging to reach for him.

Emmett cleared his throat.

"Well…?" He said, raising his brows suggestively. His gold eyes flickered quickly to mine and away, his jaw clenching when he saw me looking back, shocked that I'd caught him. Maybe I shouldn't have seen it, but there was definitely a meaningful look on his face when he tilted his head toward me, trying to be subtle.

Edward smiled again.

"I'm glad you did what you did, Emmett." He said, answering some unspoken question he'd heard in Emmett's mind. Edward looked at me when he finished speaking, his face soft and warm. A rush of red swelled up over my cheeks and I looked away, embarrassed and unreasonably nervous. There was another reason that I'd averted my eyes from his face, too. It was self-hatred.

I was starting to forget why I'd wanted to come here. I'd forgotten almost completely the struggle it was to make it here, the reason I'd committed a crime and assaulted Carol.

I was starting to forget my need to see Jacob.

No! I yelled silently at myself, shaking my head, my eyes closing. Jacob is the one that you love. He is the reason you came here. You can't forget him. He's the one you need to be with.

I couldn't let myself get caught up in Edward's charming ways. His voice alone was enough to make me melt into a puddle at his feet. I couldn't let him get to me. I needed to run away from here, run to Jacob. I needed Jacob. Jacob. Not Edward.

Maybe if I could just get Edward not to speak again…or look at me…

I opened my eyes, determined to stick to my plan of finding Jake, and gasped. Both Emmett and Edward were staring at me, Emmett with one brow raised, Edward with his head cocked a bit to the left, both looking confused and completely intrigued by my internal battle. I looked back and forth between the two lovely faces, hoping I hadn't said any of it out loud, before ducking my head.

"Well, I'm…going to give you two some privacy…" Emmett announced, pushing me gently from his lap and standing up. He stretched, twisting both of his thick arms into the air, a massive and completely phony yawn covering his mouth. He blinked lazily at the two of us, me and Edward, and looked back to the door. "I think I'm going to try and go to sleep." He said. Edward snorted, hearing the rest of the thought before Emmett could say it. Emmett continued anyway. "Maybe I'll see if I can get Tanya and Irina to join me." He elbowed his brother playfully, grinning.

Before I could even raise my eyebrows, Emmett was out the door.

I looked back at Edward, ten thousand questions furrowing my brow. Edward seemed to guess the first one almost immediately, unless he was reading my mind. I still wasn't sure if he could or not. Sure, he hadn't smiled when I'd asked him to in my head, but I'd also been hyperventilating at the time. Who could smile while staring down a psychopath?

I bit my lip. If he could hear me…well, I'd thought about Jacob so much over the past couple of minutes…and about my attacking an old woman. What would he think of me if he could hear these things running through my brain?

My stomach plummeted into the soles of my shoes.

"He's joking." Edward told me, nodding in the direction Emmett had just disappeared to. He was trying to sound casual, but his voice shook nervously. "Rosalie would eat him alive if he ever tried anything with those two. She despises them." A smile spread over his lips, leading me to believe that there was more to that story than I'd ever know. I raised an eyebrow, frowning.

"I wonder why." I muttered sarcastically.

Edward's mouth twitched.

"So," He started, his features suddenly serious. He glided over to the couch and sat beside me, his eyes resting on my hand, looking like he wanted to take it in his own. My heart ricocheted in my chest, exploding with agonized longing, matching the look on his face. My fingers shook, and I wished feverishly that he would still them with his own.

He shoved his hand in his pocket instead.

"So," He repeated. "What have you been doing with the past eighteen years of your life, Anna?"

(author's note: GASP!)