Her driving was just fine, I had to admit— when she kept the speed reasonable. Like so many things, it seemed to be effortless for her. She barely looked at the road, yet the truck was always perfectly centered in her lane.

She drove one-handed, because I was holding her other hand between us.

Sometimes she gazed into the setting sun, which glittered off her skin in ruby-tinged shimmers. Sometimes she glanced at me—stared into my eyes or looked down at our hands twined together.

She had tuned the radio to an oldies station, and she sang along with a song I'd never heard. Her voice was as perfect as everything else about her, soaring an octave above the melody. She knew every line.

"You like fifties music?" I asked.

"Music in the fifties was good. Much better than the sixties, or the seventies, ugh!" She shuddered delicately. "The eighties were bearable."

"Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?"

I wondered if my question would upset her buoyant mood, but she just smiled.

"Does it matter very much?"

"No, but I want to know everything about you."

"I wonder if it will upset you," she said to herself. She stared straight into

the sun; a minute passed.

"Try me," I finally said.

She looked into my eyes, seeming to forget the road completely for a while. Whatever she saw must have encouraged her. She turned to face the last blood red rays of the dying sun and sighed.

"I was born on September 13th, 1900 in Phoenix, Arizona." She paused and glanced at me from the corner of her eye. My face was carefully arranged, unsurprised, patient for the rest. She smiled a tiny smile and continued. "My parents were Charlie and Renée Swan. I was an only child.

"My parents and I were visiting my aunt in Seattle when I fell down the stairs of her home. My spine was broken, I had lost a lot of blood, and broke several bones, like my rib and Pelvis.

"Carlisle was working there as a doctor. He saw me, broken and dying, and took pity on me. He was lonely, and wanted a companion.

"The Spanish flu was starting, and hospitals were starting to fill up, so no one would notice if I went missing. My mom had a heart attack when I fell down the stairs, and my dad got into a car crash on the way to the hospital. It was my aunt who took me there.

"Carlisle took me to his apartment. I remember it. It felt like I was flying when he ran. He changed me, and I became his companion."

"How did he… save you?"

A few seconds passed, and when she spoke again she seemed to be choosing her words very carefully.

"It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of all of us.… I don't think you could find his equal anywhere in history." She paused. "For me, it was merely very, very painful."

She set her jaw, and I could tell she wasn't going to say anything more about it. I filed it away for later. My curiosity on the subject was hardly idle.

There were lots of angles I needed to think through on this particular issue, angles that were only beginning to occur to me.

Her soft voice interrupted my thoughts. "He acted from loneliness. That's usually the reason behind the choice. I was the first in Carlisle's family, though he found Esme soon after. She fell from a cliff. They took her straight to the hospital morgue, though, somehow, his heart was still beating."

"So you have to be dying, then.…"

"No, that's just Carlizle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice, any other choice." The respect in her voice was profound whenever she spoke of her adoptive father. "It is easier, he says, though, if the heart is weak." She stared at the now-dark road, and I could feel the subject closing again.

"And Emmett and Rosalie?"

"Carlisle brought Rosalie to our family next. Esme had sent me to the hospital to see why Carlisle wasn't home yet.

"On our way home, we smelled blood. My self-control could rival Carlisle's, actually." She turned to grin at me. "There, on the street, was a dying and broken girl. I begged Carlisle to change her, telling him that I wanted a sister and a girl closer to my age to talk with.

"So he did. We became like sisters, and though she knew it was my fault she was a Vampire, she didn't blame me. She had all brothers, and she wanted a sister.

"It was only two years later that she found Emmett. Rose was hunting—we were in Appalachia at the time—and found a bear about to finish him off. He carried her back to Carlisle, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself. I'm only beginning to guess how difficult that journey was for him." She threw a pointed glance in my direction and raised our hands, still folded together, to brush her cheek against my hand.

"But he made it."

"Yes. She saw something in her face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place. Forks is perfect in many ways, so we all enrolled in high school." She laughed. "I suppose we'll have to go to the wedding in a few years. Again."

"Alice and Jasper?"

"Alice and Jasper are two very rare creatures. They both developed a conscience, as we refer to it, with no

outside guidance. Jasper belonged to another… family, a very different kind of family. He became. depressed, and he wandered on his own. Alice found him. Like me, she has certain gifts above and beyond. the norm for our kind."

"Really?" I interrupted, fascinated. "But you said you were the only one who could shield people."

"That's true. She knows other things. She sees things—things that might happen, things that are coming. But it's very subjective. The future isn't set in stone. Things change."

His jaw set when he said that, and his eyes darted to my face and away so quickly that I wasn't sure if I only imagined it.

"What kinds of things does she see?"

"She saw Jasper and knew that he was looking for her before he knew it himself. She saw Carlisle and our family, and they came together to find us. She's most sensitive to non-humans. She always sees, for example, when another group of our kind is coming near. And any threat they may pose."

"Right."

We were finally in front of my house.

"I'm going to go through your window, all right?"

"Okay." I got out and went inside of the house. Mom was cooking, and dad was talking on the phone. I walked into the kitchen and saw Mom pulling the Chicken Fajitas off the stove. "Hey, mom. Smells good."

"Thank you. Are you hungry?"

"Yes."

Dinner was the usual family event.

"Where are all the things you bought?" Dad asked.

I shrugged. "I forgot my money so at home, so I just decided to go sight-seeing."

"Not a bad idea."

After dinner, I went upstairs to my bedroom. Bella laid on my giant bed.

"You have a very nice room, you know."

"Thanks. Can I have a human moment?"

"Sure."

I grabbed my pajamas out of their drawer and hurried to my private bathroom.

I turned on the shower and stepped in. It's a habit to shower everyday, anyways.

When I stepped out, I tried myself before pulling on my pjs. It was a plain white t-shirt and grey sweatpants. I brushed my teeth twice.

"Hey," I murmured. I took a seat on my bed. "How did you know where my room was, anyways?"

"I, well, I….I watch you sleep." She admitted.

"Why?"

"Because you talk."

"What?! I do?!"

"Calm down!"

"What do I talk about?"

She shrugged. "Chicago, your old friends, me….."

I paled. I talked about her?

She laughed. "Calm down. It wasn't anything major. Just my name."

"Oh," I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Moving at human speed, she unfolded her legs and draped them across mine. Then she curled up against my chest again the way she seemed to prefer, with her ear against my heart, which was reacting probably more than was necessary. I folded my arms around her and pressed my lips to her hair.

"Mmm," she hummed.

"This…," I murmured into her hair, "… is much easier than I thought it would be."

"Does it seem easy to you?" It sounded like she was smiling. She angled her face up, and I felt her nose trace a cold line up the side of my neck.

"Well," I said breathlessly. Her lips were brushing the edge of my jaw. "It seems to be easier than it was this morning, at least."

"Hmm," she said. Her arms slid over my shoulders and then wrapped around my neck. She pulled herself up until her lips were brushing my ear.

"Why is that"—my voice shook embarrassingly—"do you think?"

"Mind over matter," she breathed right into my ear.

A tremor ran down my body. She froze, then leaned carefully back. One hand brushed across the skin just under the sleeve of my t-shirt.

"Are you going to leave?" I asked.

She shrugged. "If you want me to."

"And why would I? I want you to stay."

"Okay. Now, you should get to sleep." She said.

I grabbed her and pulled her into a laying down position with me. I wrapped the blanket around us and buried my face into her thick hair.

It was a minute before I could talk again. "Are you sure you won't vanish in the morning? You are mythical, after all."

"I won't leave you," she promised solemnly, and that same feeling, even stronger than before, washed through me.

When I could speak, I said, "One more, then, tonight.…" And then the blood rushed up my neck. The darkness was no help. I was sure she could feel the heat.

"What is it?"

"Um, nope, forget it. I changed my mind."

"Edward, you can ask me anything." I didn't speak, and she groaned. "I keep thinking it will get less frustrating, not hearing your thoughts. But it just gets worse and worse."

"It's bad enough that you eavesdrop on my sleep-talking," I muttered.

"Please tell me?" she murmured, her silver glass wind chimes voice taking on that mesmerizing intensity that I never could resist.

I tried. I shook my head.

"If you don't tell me, I'll just assume it's something much worse than it is," she threatened.

"I shouldn't have brought it up," I said, then locked my teeth.

"Please?" Again in that hypnotic voice.

I sighed. "You won't get…offended?"

"Of course not."

I took a deep breath. "Well… so, obviously, I don't know a lot that's true about vampires" —the word slipped out accidentally, I was just thinking so hard about how to ask my question, and then I realized what I'd said and I froze.

"Yes?"

She sounded normal, like the word didn't mean anything.

I exhaled in relief.

"Okay, I mean, I just know the things you've told me, and it seems like we're pretty… different. Physically. You look human—only better—but you don't eat or sleep, you know. You don't need the same things."

"Debatable on some levels, but there are definitely truths in what you're saying. What's your question?"

I took a deep breath. "I'm sorry."

"Ask me."

I blurted it all out in a rush. "So I'm just an ordinary human guy, and you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and I am just… overwhelmed by you, and a part of that, naturally, is that I'm insanely attracted to you, which I'm sure you can't have helped but notice, what with your being, like, super aware of my circulatory system, but what I don't know is, if it's like that for you. Or is it like sleeping and eating, which you don't need and I do—though I don't want them nearly as much as I want you? That even means the same thing for vampires? And this question is totally offside, completely not first date appropriate, and I'm sorry and you don't have to answer." I sucked in a huge breath.

"Hmm… I would have said this was our second date."

"You're right."

She laughed. "Are you asking me about sex, Edward?"

My face got hot again. "Yes. I shouldn't have."

She laughed again. "I did climb into your bed, Darling. I believe that makes this line of inquiry quite understandable."

"You still don't have to answer."

"I told you that you could ask me anything." She paused, and then her voice was different. Kind of formal, like a teacher lecturing. "So… in the general sense—Sex and Vampires One-Oh-One. We all started out human, Edward, and most of those human desires are still there—just obscured behind more powerful desires. But we're not thirsty all the time, and we tend to form… very strong bonds. Physical as well as emotional. Rosalie and Emmett are just like any human couple who are attracted to each other, by which I mean, very, very annoying for those of us who have to live with them, and even more so for the one who can hear their minds."

I laughed quietly, and she joined in.

"Awkward," I murmured.

"You have no idea," she said darkly, then sighed. "And now in the specific sense… Sex and Vampires One-Oh-Two, Edward and Bella." She sighed again, more slowly this time. "I don't think… that would be possible for us."

"Because I would have to get too….close?" I guessed.

"That would be a problem, but that's not the main problem. Beau, you don't know how… well, fragile you are. I don't mean that as an insult to your manliness, anyone human is fragile to me. I have to mind my actions every moment that we're together so that I don't hurt you. I could kill you quite easily, simply by accident."

I thought about the first few times that she'd touched me, how cautiously she'd moved, how much it had seemed to frighten her.

"If I were too hasty… if I were at all distracted, I could reach out, meaning to touch your face, and crush your skull by mistake. You don't realize how incredibly breakable you are. I can never, never afford to lose any kind of control when I'm with you."

She turned and buried her face into my chest.

If her life were in my hands that way, would I have already killed her? I cringed at the thought.

"I think I could be very distracted by you," she murmured.

"I am never not distracted by you."

"Can I ask you something now—something potentially offensive?"

"It's your turn."

"Do you have any experience with sex and humans?"

I was a little surprised that my face didn't go hot again. It felt natural to tell her everything. "Not even a little bit. This is all firsts for me. I've never felt like this about anyone before, not even close."

"I know. It's just that I hear what other people think. I know that love and lust don't always keep the same company."

"They do for me."

"That's nice. We have that one thing in common, at least."

"Oh." When she'd been talking before, about how we tend to form very strong bonds, physical as well as emotional, I couldn't help but wonder if she was speaking from experience. I found that I was surprisingly relieved to know that wasn't the case.

"So, you do find me distracting?"

"Indeed." She was smiling again. "Would you like me to tell you the things that distract me?"

"You don't have to."

"It was your eyes first. You have lovely eyes, Edward, like emeralds."

"Er, thanks?"

She giggled. "I'm not alone. Sixteen of your twenty admirers started with your eyes, too."

"Ten?"

"They're not all so forward as Jessica and Lauren. Do you want a list? You have options."

"I think you're making fun of me. And either way, there is no other option." And never would be again.

"Next it was your arms—I'm very fond of your arms, Beau—this includes your shoulders and hands." She ran her hand down my arm, then back up to my shoulder, and back down to my hand again. "Or maybe it was your chin that was second…" Her fingers touched my face, like she thought I might not know what she meant. "I'm not entirely sure. It all took me quite by surprise when I realized that not only did I find you delicious, but also beautiful."

My face and neck were burning. I knew it couldn't be true, but in the moment, she was pretty convincing.

"Oh, and I didn't even mention your hair." she ran her fingers through my thick messy hair.

"Okay, now I know you're making fun."

I yawned involuntarily.

She laughed. "Did I answer your question to your satisfaction?"

"Er, yes."

"Then you should sleep."

"I'm not sure if I can."

"Do you want me to leave?"

"No!" I said a little too loudly.

More tired than I realized, exhausted from a day of mental and emotional stress like I'd never felt before, I drifted to sleep with her cold body in my arms.