AUTHOR'S NOTE: WOW! I am completely taken aback from the overwhelming response to the last chapter. It inspired me to write the next chapter as fast as I could! So, here it is! I hope you all like it and it explains some things. As always, thank you so so so much for all your lovely feedback. The overwhelming response to this story has taken me completely by surprise, but I am so happy that everyone loves it as much as I do.

IMPORTANT: I have figured out that the summary I have of this story on the main page, no longer makes much sense. So if any one has any suggestions please put them in a comment. THANK YOU!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything that is recognizable as being from the Twilight books by the amazing Stephenie Meyer. I also do not own The Phantom of the Opera or anything associated with it.

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Chapter Twenty

Natasha's POV…

I had always had this vision of hell as being fire and brimstone, not Carlisle's study. I didn't even allow myself to think it was heaven for a split second. There were too many factors to take into consideration to even think that.

First was the insurmountable level of pain I had suffered. I didn't know how much time I had spent tripped in my mind as my body burned.

The last thing I remembered was hugging Carlisle after the show and falling unconscious. Then there was the burning, throbbing, and excruciating agony that followed.

During that time, I often wondered what I had done wrong in my life to deserve this. I had been a smoker (I had given that up though) and surely God didn't send people to hell for smoking. I didn't drink and I hadn't had sex in over three years. I hadn't killed anyone (at least not that I knew of) and I hadn't stole anything. Maybe it was for not listening to the one person (Carlisle) who wanted to do everything good for me.

The next thing I remembered where I was fully conscious of myself, I was laying on something soft. I felt nothing, there was no more pain. It was like I was hollow shell of myself. I had grown so accustomed to pain after I stopped my meds, that feeling nothing was an overwhelming sensation.

My hands were folded under my head. I wiggled my fingers enjoying the feeling of the movement. The sheets were cool and smooth under my fingertips. Then I moved my toes to see if those worked as well. They did.

This was odd, especially since I thought I was dead. There was no other way to think of it. There was pain and then there was nothing. Death was the only reasonable explanation for it.

I slowly moved my hand up to my throat and felt for a pulse. There was nothing. I was definitely dead.

Blinking several times, I opened my eyes. Everything was so clear and focused. Swirls of dust flicked before my eyes and I could see every particle. I could count the strands of fiber in the sheets or the grains in the wood paneling on the walls.

I pushed myself up slowly, when I caught sight of my hands. I was pale white. I brought my hands to my face. It was smooth and hard.

Looking down, I noticed that I was in a red dress that left very little to the imagination. I didn't remember changing or even owning an article of clothing like this. I touched the silky material, marveling in its texture.

I sat back on my legs, folding my hands in my lap. While I felt completely numb inside, there was a burning sensation that was creeping up from the back of my throat. Wrapping my hand around my neck, I tried to will the pain away. But it didn't go anyway. It burned terribly.

It was then I saw Carlisle sitting behind his desk, his nose in a book. I was taken aback by his presence.

"Carlisle?" I whispered, my voice hoarse. The burning probably didn't help with that.

If I was in hell, as I thought I was, what was he doing here? Maybe I was having hallucinations. I didn't make sense for him to be there.

A confused look graced his prefect face for a split second because it broke out into a bright smile. Our eyes locked and I noticed that his eyes were no longer liquid gold, but a bright blue. This helped reinforce my idea that none of this was real.

Carlisle didn't say anything as he came over to my side. He sat down in front of me. With remarkably steady hands, I reached out to touch his face, just to prove to myself that he was real.

My fingertips skimmed lightly over his cheekbones. He was warm, warmer than I had ever felt before. His skin was perfectly smooth and hard. I removed one hand and touched my own face. It felt the same. I trailed a hand down his neck, wrapping my long fingers around the back. He held perfectly still as I sat up more and pressed my forehead against his.

I could feel his eyes still boring down on me. I was so worried that he would disappear, but he felt so real. I closed my eyes when I felt his own hand stroke my cheek.

"Is this real? Or is the Devil playing tricks with me?" I whispered when I found the strength for form coherent sentences.

"It is very real." I could hear the smile in his words.

Then I asked the one question that I most wanted the answer to. "What has happened to me?"

"What do you think has happened, my darling?" he replied gently.

"Up until a few minutes ago, I honestly thought I was dead and in hell."

It sounded like he was choking back a laugh.

"Hell? If you were in hell, what would I be doing here, as I cannot die?"

I opened my eyes and look at him. He was smiling at me.

"You could just be a figment of my imagination."

"I am no figment."

"Then what are you, if not a figment?"

"I am what I always have been, Natasha, as you are now."

I snapped my head up and glared at him. This was not what I had been expected. Granted I didn't expect much, since I couldn't explain it to myself.

"So, am I a…" I could get myself to say it.

"A vampire?" He offered, his eyes sparkling. "Yes, Natasha. You are one of us, now."

"How?" I whispered.

I couldn't decide if I was surprised or excited about all of this. I mean, I did tempt fate in my own way. But becoming a vampire was not something I had thought would happen. Carlisle and I had never talked about it or even what it took to become one. I had made the choice that I would do whatever it took to keep Carlisle.

He explained to me how I had passed out in his arms and how he brought me back to the house. Apparently there was no hope for me except for vampirism. So, Carlisle had bitten me and it appears that explained the fire. While it felt like it had been an eternity, according to Carlisle it was only three days.

I took this all in rather well, listening intently on every word. So far everything made sense to me.

"Why are your eyes blue?" I asked.

"I wish I knew."

"What do you mean?"

Carlisle continued explaining how it seemed that after he had bitten me, he had fallen into some sort of coma for a little over six hours. When he woke up, his eyes were blue.

"Like yours," he said. "It is normal for a newborn vampire to have crimson red eyes, but yours retained their natural color. I am not certain if my eyes reverted to their natural color or turned the color of yours. I don't remember what color they were when I was human."

"Why?"

He shrugged slightly. "I am not 100% certain yet. I have my theories however. I think that my venom reacted oddly with your blood."

"Because of my cancer?" I was slowly putting the pieces of the puzzle together.

"Yes. As you know, leukemia is when the bone marrow starts to make a lot of abnormal white blood cells. They don't do the work of normal white blood cells, they grow faster than normal cells, and they don't stop growing when they should. And since you stopped taking your mediation, you would have a lot more of these cells. My theory is that because these white blood cells don't react in the same ways than normal ones, they had a stranger reaction with my venom. It is hard to say whether or not these changes are permanent. For you they might be, since it was the blood that was coursing through your veins. For me, it might not be because I only ingested a small amount."

While that did make some sense to me, my head was swimming nonetheless. So, I was an oddity among vampires? Great! This is exactly what I wanted, not really.

"What sort of other changes were there?"

"Well, for me, besides the eyes, is that I don't sparkle anymore."

"Do I sparkle?" I asked, genuinely interested.

Carlisle slipped off the edge of the bed and taking hold of my hand he helped me up as well.

It was strange standing up again. But I felt a new strength that I didn't know I had. He led me over the floor to ceiling window and pulled aside the curtain.

Sunbeams streamed in, bathing me completely in its light. I lifted my hand, which was still in Carlisle's, to look at it.

Unfortunately, I didn't sparkle. Our intertwined fingers looked like brilliant pearls and they glowed.

"No sparkle," Carlisle said, as if he was registering that information for later use. He turned to me then and seeing my disappointed expression, took my face between his hands. "But always beautiful."

He touched his lips to mine then as one of his hands tangled into my hair. I kissed him back with equal fervor. Wrapping my arms around his broad shoulders, I pulled him closer.

A shudder ran through me when I felt the tip of his tongue trail along my bottom lip, begging for entrance. My lips parted slightly under his as he slipped his tongue into my mouth.

He tasted so sweet but I could feel the masculine strength of him under my fingers.

Now, his arms were wrapped tightly around my waist, like he never wanted to let me go.

I never wanted to let him go either. It seemed so long ago that I had been in his arms and now I didn't want to leave them. While I was technically dead, I felt so alive with him. He touched a special part of my heart and now that we were together again. This was something that was hard for be to believe. But the feeling of his hard body pressed to me and the taste of him on my lips was enough for me to believe it.

With our mouths never separating, my hands found the button on the top of his shirt and started to slowly undo it. His skin was warm and smooth underneath my fingers as they skimmed over his chest. I slowly pushed his shirt off of his shoulders.

Pulling back, I could see the fire burning in Carlisle's eyes as I leaned down and pressed my lips to his bare shoulder.

He groaned. "You will be the death of me."

I smiled slightly. "Too bad you are already dead," I whispered against his skin.

I could feel the rumble of his laugh against my cheek as I pressed it to his bare chest. He softly ran his fingers through my hair again.

The burning in the back of my throat was becoming completely unbearable. I tried swallowing a couple of times, but that didn't really do anything. Again, I reached up a hand and wrapped it around my throat.

Carlisle noticed my motion. "What's wrong?"

"My throat burns like it is on fire," I admitted.

"I am so sorry," he proclaimed emphatically as he pulled away from me. "You see what you do to me; you make me forget that you are just a new vampire. You must be terribly thirsty."

He reached down to pick up his shirt, before pulling it on, but he didn't bother to do up the buttons.

"Thirsty?"

Carlisle held his hand out to me again. "I need to take you hunting."

Thirsty? Hunting? It took me a moment to remember that now that I was a vampire, I needed blood. The idea didn't sound too appealing, but if it made the burning go away I would do anything.

Placing my hand in his, Carlisle led me over the window and pushed it open. Without warning, he pulled the two of us out. It was at last three stories down, but we landed effortlessly on our feet.

I gasped loudly, not believe of it. "Wow! That is something I am going to have to get used to."

Looking over to Carlisle's profile, I saw him smiling again. "Just you wait! Come!"

With my hand still in his, we took off into a run into the woods surrounding the house.

I learned so much about being a vampire from Carlisle in the next three hours that we spent together. He taught me how to use my senses to track down "food". Instinct played a large role. Granted, I didn't think I normally had an instinct that drew me like a magnet to the source of blood.

The fire flared in my throat when I caught my first smell of a deer. The warm blood trickling down was almost a euphoric experience. This was something I could get used to rather easily.

Sometime later with a stomach full of blood, Carlisle and I settled back against a pair of rocks. The sun was setting off in the distance, shards of light filtering down through the trees.

We were silent for sometime. I was lost in my own thoughts. How much was my life going to change because I had changed? It was then I remembered about Grandma. She must be completely beside herself with worry.

I suddenly sprung to my feet in an instant. Carlisle was also then on his feet.

"What's the matter?" he asked softly.

"I need to go home. Grandma must be frantic as to my whereabouts."

"I can't let you do that." While his voice was completely calm, there was a sense that it was quite serious.

"Why not?" I demanded, moving back from him slightly.

He sighed heavily. "You are a vampire now, Natasha. The first year of this is the hardest."

"Are you suggesting that I would be so overcome with bloodlust that I would kill my own grandma?" He nodded slightly. "I don't believe it."

"Do you remember that feeling when you were drawn to that deer?"

I swallowed the lump that was growing in my throat as it began to burn against just thinking about it.

"Yes."

"It would be like that but only a hundred times worse. I can't put you in a position that will compromise your control at the moment."

I thought about that for a moment, not sure what to make of it. "Then what are we going to do?" I crossed my arms across my chest.

"Don't worry about it. I took care of it," he said as he stepped slowly to me and placed a hand on my cheek.

"What did you do?"

The corners of his perfect lips twitched upwards. "I sent Edward over with a letter that I wrote, which he 'found'."

This couldn't come to any good. "What did you tell her?"

There was mischievous sparkle in his eyes that was slightly unsettling.

"We eloped."

My mouth dropped open. I sputtered for a moment completely at a loss for words.

TO BE CONTINUED…

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How did it go? Though, I don't think you can wrong go with a shirtless Carlisle! lol