I awoke with a start. There was an unfamiliar sensation running through my body. After a few seconds, I remembered it to be pain. I hadn't felt pain since my transformation nearly a hundred years ago.

But this wasn't a burning, fiery pain like my transformation. No, this was dull and aching, like an old wound.

"Edward!" I heard Bella's voice call my name, and I immediately felt her warm arms embrace me.

Something didn't make sense. My eyes were open, but I could not see. I was in total darkness. "Bella?" I said haggardly. "Are we in a dark room?"

Bella seemed to pause before answering, "No. I mean, it's not the brightest of rooms, but I can see you. There's a window above us. Light's coming in from that. The sun is going down."

The sun was going down? The last thing I remembered was being in the forest with Clark, waiting for Rosalie and Bella. "How long have I been out of it?" I sat up and leaned against whatever was behind me.

"About two days. Rosalie is still...Comatose. They say she's alive, but how do they even know? I mean, vampires are dead to begin with. It's not like there are any life signs they can check," Bella said, the worry evident in her voice, "I was so worried about you, Edward. I thought you were dead. Like I said, there wasn't really a way I could check to make sure you were still alive." I felt her hands holding mine. "They took Clark somewhere else. I don't know what they've done with him."

"Bella," I inhaled, "I can't see."

"What? Like anything at all?"

"Nothing," I shook my head. "What have they done to me?"

"I don't know. They haven't touched you or Rosalie since they brought us here, at least not while I'm awake. Once I thought I heard the door close while I was sleeping, but when I woke up, there was no one. They've given me food, but they've just shoved it through the bars."

"Can you describe where we are?" I asked. If I could at least have an idea as to where we were, it would help me feel more sure.

"Um, okay," Bella seemed to be thinking of how to describe our surroundings. "Well, we're in a basement. Actually, basement is kinda an understatement. If anything it's more like a dungeon. Stone walls, stone floors, there's a window about twenty feet above us. It's slightly like a jail cell, too, the doors...Well they're bars. But they're made of silver. Or at least it looks like silver. I don't know." I heard Bella's voice slightly crack. Her hand was still in mine, so I squeezed it and ran my thumb over hers.

"Well, it seems we stumbled upon some full-fledged hunters," I sighed. "Guess we can thank your friend Clark for that."

"We don't know that for sure," Bella said quietly.

"No, but the chances of us just happening upon a half-hunter child and then being captured by hunters within twenty-four hours are a bit slim."

"Stranger things have happened."

I shrugged my shoulders. With the loss of my sight, my already sharp senses were even more heightened. I could smell the river on Bella's skin. The blood beneath that skin smelled even more strongly than usual. Her heartbeat roared in my ears. The touch of her skin felt feverishly hot.

"How did they get you?" Bella asked. I felt her brush a bit of hair from my face.

"I...I don't remember. One minute, Clark and I were just waiting for you and Rosalie, and the next...Here I am with you. How did they get you two?"

"We were on our way back from the river. They shot Rosalie and then took us to you. The hunters- There's two, a man and a girl. The man carried you and Rosalie, while the girl carried me. Clark," Bella paused, as if her next statement would confirm my suspicions about Clark, "ran with them. We ran for maybe a half hour, I think. I couldn't really keep track of time. They brought us here, and took Clark with them."

I was quietly tallying up our position.

Rosalie was out cold, I was blind, we were being held by hunters in what was essentially a vampire-proof cage. I could not see this ending well.

"I'm sure the blindness is just temporary," Bella said hopefully, "It has to be."

"It probably is. But even when I can see again, I doubt we'll be able to get out of here. They're not going to let Rosalie or me walk out of here alive."

"They didn't let you in here alive, so it only makes sense," Bella teased. I could imagine the smile across her lips. It brought a smile to my own face. She was cuddled up next to me. "Is this okay?" she asked.

"It's perfect."

We sat in the quiet for a few minutes. "We're going to die in here, aren't we?" Bella asked. She didn't seem afraid. She asked it in a very 'matter of fact' tone, almost as if it didn't matter to her. "I mean, I'm caged with two vampires. We stay in here long enough, and one or both of you are going to kill me. And then they'll kill the both of you."

"Don't say things like that," I said, the thought of either Rosalie or myself killing Bella made my stomach churn. But at the same time, it brought a surge of venom to my mouth. "I would have them kill me before I ever hurt you."

"How sweet," a feminine voice I did not recognize said from a few feet away. I heard a door open and soft footsteps against the stone floor. "So you're finally awake. Did you rest well? I know you bloodsuckers don't get much sleep."

I didn't reply. The steps grew closer to us, and suddenly the warmth of Bella's body against mine disappeared. I heard Bella give out a quick cry before a thud. "Don't touch her!" I demanded.

"Or what? You're not in the position to be barking out commands," the voice said. The girl inhaled deeply and slowly before giving a quick and short exhale of breath. "Alright. I'm going to need your names."

"Why?" Bella asked, her voice coming from farther away now. Apparently the girl had thrown her.

"Because if you don't tell us your names, I'm going to kill you immediately. This buys you a few days. Although, I might kill you immediately even if you do tell me your names. I'm looking for specific names here, so you better hope you're who we think you are."

"I'm Edward. The blonde one is Rosalie," I said, suddenly hoping we were the vampires for whom she was searching.

"Oh my god. You're still blind, aren't you?" the girl asked. Then after a few seconds began to laugh. "That must've been some strong stuff. Well, I'll have to get you the antidote to that. It wouldn't be as much if you can't see all the bodily pain we inflict upon your friends, would it? Hm. Or maybe it would be better if all you had were the screams and your imagination. I'll have to ask Finn," the girl seemed to talking to herself now. "Well, anyway. I was just here to check up on you. Seems like Blondie over there is having a harder time with it all. I'll be back later, maybe she'll be awake by then."

I heard the bars slam shut and the girl walk away. Bella was immediately by my side. "Are you alright?" she asked, holding first my face in her hands, then my shoulders, then forearms.

I laughed, "She didn't even touch me, Bella. Are you okay, though? She practically threw you across the room."

"Oh, I'm fine. Besides, don't hunters have a thing about killing humans? As in they frown upon it?"

I shrugged, "I've never met a hunter, so I don't really know."

Bella was quiet for a minute. "Edward, if you end up killing me, I understand."

"Bella," I said angrily, "Please don't say things like that." I didn't want to hear her say things like that for two reasons. One, I didn't want to kill her. And two, while I would trying to keep from killing her, I would remember her saying that, and would use it as an excuse to do exactly as I please. I would take her words and use them to validate what I wanted to do to her.

"I just don't want you to feel bad, if it happens. Rosalie told me how if something happened to me because of you or things related to your world that you'd blame yourself. So I'm telling you now, if something does happen to me...Just remember I've chosen to be here. I chose to come with you and Rosalie, so don't ever put that on yourself...I mean, if I hadn't had to go my professor's apartment, we would've been there when Jasper was there. We could've stopped him."

I almost laughed, "Maybe." I let a few seconds of quiet pass between us. "Bella, why did you never tell me about your professor?"

Bella didn't respond immediately. "What do you mean? What is there to tell?"

"I followed you up to your professor's apartment," I confessed. "You were acting strange in the cab, I wanted to know what was up. So I went up the stairs and listened from the other side of the door. I know about the affair or whatever it was."

"Well...This is...Embarrassing," Bella awkwardly said. "I guess I never told you because, well, I'd never told anyone. It's not exactly the kind of thing you go around telling people. It's not like I was proud of it."

"I'll admit, it was a little...Devastating. I had you up on this pedestal. Like the night we met on the street, when you were practically at death's doorstep, I looked into your eyes and, I don't know. It sounds so trite, but there just seemed to be this purity and...Innocence to you. Like you weren't scared, and you looked at me like...Like you knew I could stop myself from hurting you. You had faith in me without even knowing me. Then I got to know you, and you still seemed like this perfect creature. Then I found out about you and your professor, and it was like reality slapped me in the face."

Bella laughed, "It's funny how very far from reality our perceptions of each other fell. You thought I was some virginal school girl, and I thought you were the victim of gang bullying. I thought I could save you." She laughed to herself again.

"You have saved me."

Silence was Bella's response. Maybe what I had said was too much, too over the top. But it was how I felt about her. Being around her made me feel truly alive again.

Just as I was about to switch the topic of conversation, I felt Bella's warm lips gently graze my own. She pulled back, if only for a second, before kissing me again, but this time more assuredly and intensely.

"Oh, my head," I heard Rosalie groan from the other side of the room.

Bella immediately pulled away from me and wordlessly went to attend to Rosalie.

My lips felt like they were on fire.

A/N: Woopwoop, kissing :P Thanks for the reviews :) I didn't have my beta read over this, cause tomorrow night my best friend is coming in for the weekend, so if I didn't update tonight, I wouldn't update until Tuesday, so I figured I'd just put this up. :) I've actually already started with Chapter 26...So the next update should probably be around Tuesday-ish :) So yeah, if there are too many typos...Sorry, I read over it a few times, but Lord knows if I caught them all :| Anywho. REVIEW :D q