Bella

I walked through the woods today, and was nearly half way to my usual abandoned building. I was walking, taking back roads to ensure I was safe and as out of the police's eye as possible. I saw a white van come close to me on one open street; and I changed my course of direction.

I walked through a brick alley instead, between between a completely abandoned building when I'd noticed something strange in the middle of the brick alley. When I approached it, it looked like a strange looking metal cuff that was forgotten. I thought it was perhaps a piece of jewelry someone had dropped. Once I got closer, I recognized the jagged edges and the stamped imprint that I didn't have to read to know it once belonged to me. A chill went down my spine. As if ice cold water had been dumped on me. And that was when I realized I'd been corralled.

The van had followed me the whole tome.

"1906. What a surprise," A deep voice boomed from behind me, with an exotic accent, that sent his r's rolling.

I knew that accent from anywhere. Demetri.

"How did you find me?" I demanded quietly, too afraid to turn to face him.

"Silly girl. If you thought we wouldn't have been able to find you, you truly are as strange as Aro says." I felt the tremor quake through my body, from the tip of my hair to the bottom of my soles. I kept it at bay; hoping it would stay there until I had to change over completely.

"What do you want." I growled, tasting the bitter venom that instinctively leaked into my mouth.

"You are missed at VOLTURI." He said with a hint of mockery. "We are here to bring you back." He smiled darkly. I could barely find my own voice, it was racked with fear.

"I don't want to come back." I felt the tremors reach the surface; the corners of my vision blurred red.

"We didn't ask." He spoke with malice this time. "Just as Aro says. You are good for one thing only. You destroy everything you touch. We simply can't let that happen."

His words were the last straw, and I roared, feeling the change take over me. Time suddenly became slower; the colors around me brighter. I felt my jaw crack as it expanded, I only saw the 7-foot man in front of me in red, and I needed to destroy him. Flay him alive. I took a long stride, ready to charge at him, but I felt strong arms grab me from behind. I struggled, hard, realizing Demetri had not come alone, and I hissed, exposing my fangs at him as I did. Whoever held me back had a silver suit, and I realized I was losing my strength. I hissed at him, and struggled hard but the suit wouldn't let me budge. Demetri approached me calmly and in an unexpectedly graceful stride he uncapped a long needle.

I could see a black liquid on the inside of the syringe , it could only mean one thing: death. I thrashed in the silver suit's arms desperately though my strength was matched.

I tried to kick the syringe out of his hand but it was no use. Demetri came up close to me, until I could smell the suffocating cologne and the crisp scent of cigarette smoke on his breath.

"You are the first to try this—let us know what you think. If you ever wake up, that is."

He stabbed the needle into my thigh and I screamed, unable to hold back my pain as he pressed down on the plunger. The mystery liquid burned inside of me and it's flames seemed to take away my strength--I felt myself weaken almost instantly. I felt myself dancing on the edge of consciousness, my vision swam before me. The silver armored man let go of me, and I fell to the ground, yet I had no strength to move my arms to stop my fall. My head recoiled against the ground.

I was moments away from unconsciousness when the sound of a roaring car pulled me back. A black car pulled into a screeching stop behind Demetri, blocking the alley. My throat burned when the door opened and I knew who it was before I could see him. I could smell him. Never was I so grateful for the distinctive blood that called to me.

Edward sprinted out of his car with long strides, his eyes looked dark as they trained on Demetri. Edward was a near foot shorter than Demetri was, I instantly feared for his life.

Did I see Demetri grin at him? Why didn't he look surprised to see him?

I watched Demetri take a small step back as he threw his full body into his punch. Edward swiftly dodged Demetri's powerful fist with a duck and used the wasted momentum to kick a leg out from under him. Demetri didn't fall; but stumbled. His face looked amused, as if he enjoyed fighting with Edward.

Edward took advantage of Demetri's amusement. He used his leg to strike him, kicking him straight in the face. Demetri swung a fist that finally connected with Edward, and I saw him gasp and grab his rib cage.

No. Edward is going to be killed. My instant thought shook a fear so deep into me, I felt myself struggle to move forward, as if I could somehow protect him.

I was so surprised to see he had a counter attack and dodged a second blow from Demetri, this time striking him straight in the nose. I heard a sickening crack wmd blood began spurting from his nose, like a tap. As Demetrius took a moment to recoil, Edward took the second to run to me. He knelt down for only a moment and before I recognized what was happening, he pulled my body into his arms, like he did at biology. He looked over me briefly, but when his eyes met mine, he'd understood before I'd said it. I was drugged. I heard him growl at Demetri.

"Get the fuck away from her." If I could have, I would've jumped at his tone. He was angry; with a rage I didn't know happy-go-lucky Edward Cullen was capable of. I opened my eyes to see Demetri burst out with a fit of laughter. It reverberated the brick walls around us. He wiped the blood off of his swelling nose on the back of his hand.

"Stop trying so hard little boy, it's making me laugh." The laughter melted off of his face, turning into a cold sneer. "1906 is ours; anyway."

"I won't let you take her." He seethed iceily, he turned my face towards his chest, as if to protect me from all of VOLT with his large hand.

"You poor thing," I heard Demetri tsk. "You don't even know what she is. And here you are, trying to save her. Funny little love story you are writing, no?"

Edward

"Get. The fuck. Away from her." I growled the words, barely in control of myself. I didn't know I was capable of sounding like this, and the threat in my voice surprised me as it nearly vibrated in its fury. I felt the need to hurt him; make him suffer. The huge man towered over me. Somehow he was even larger than Emmett.

"You poor thing," he chided sarcastically. "You don't even know what she is. And here you are. Trying to save her." The way he referenced Bella, as if she were a thing, made my blood boil. "Take my advice. She is not worth saving." He and his other man laughed cruelly.

These two shits could drop go to hell.

"She Is to me." I said with a lift to my jaw. "Back away."

"Not that fast. She's needed back at VOLTURI. Rather, I should say, she needs to be kept away from you." He stared at men narrowing his eyes as if to gauge my reaction. I let him see nothing in my face, I only reflected malice back at him. Thirty seconds had passed, before a sudden wave of calm seemed to take over Demetri's demeanor.

"You know what," He mused evenly. "Take her. She's good for dead anyway. It'll only be five minutes. Make the most of it." He winked at me and made kissing sound sarcastically. He tilted his head towards the other man in the modern day knight suit, and they clambered back into the van on the opposite side of the alleyway to speed away. I noted the man in silver even wore silver gloves, and could not make sense of it.

They drove so fast I couldn't even catch a liscence plate or recall if there was one.

Only after they'd disappeared did I turn my attention to Bella. She was sheet white, like the way she was in my dreams.

Deja vu?

The strange men from Voltura? Wherever they'd claimed they were from, had clearly drugged her. Her skin was ashen and even her lips didn't hold a trace of color. Her breathing was so shallow I could barely see it. "Bella..." I gently shook her in my arms. "Can you hear me, Bella?" I whipped out my cell phone to call an ambulance, but my heart sank when I saw I had no reception.

This area of town is the old industrial zone, uninhabited. The men from VOLTURI really had thought of everything.

They really were trying to murder her. I began to carry her through a door in the alleyway, when my foot caught on something in the ground. I shifted Bella to a single arm as I picked it up. I shivered when I realized I'd seen this bracelet before; in my dreams. It was the one around Bella's wrist, that I couldn't read.

The metal around it looked twisted away from itself, as if someone had broken it off with a metal breaker.

#1906 08/07/2003 Half Breed.

Half breed?

Bella

Blood.

I focused on anything other than the sinking feeling that this drug was pulling me into. I felt warm arms surround my body, gently rocking me. "Bella," the voice that called sounded like it was underwater, I struggled to attach it to a face, a name, even a memory. Nothing. But I remembered a vague feeling of warmth associated with the voice.

"Can you hear me Bella?" I barely managed to lift my heavy eyelids. I saw pools of green in a pair of irises and dark brows pulled up in a concerned furrow against his forehead. The incredible scent was no less potent than it usually was and it was an evident sign I was still alive; I was still suffering.

I could hear Edward's heartbeat. I tried to let it calm me, but his heart was pounding hard. Perhaps the VOLTURI from earlier did have some effect on him and he wasn't just crazy with no hope of self preservation.

"Bella. Thank god. Hang in there. I don't know what kind of shit they put into you, but I'm getting you help."

Edward shifted me to one arm abruptly, and I heard a door squeak open.

"Help!! We need an ambulance!" I heard him cry out desperately, and though I'd never stepped foot in this building in my life, I knew this building was abandoned. VOLTURI wouldn't have picked a inhabited place to try to drug me and kill me.

"Edward..." I groaned. His eyes seemed to be scanning, intent on finding something. I wasn't sure if he heard me. I moved my fingertips to his cheek for his attention. The moment I touched him, my fingers tingled, charged with an electricity I couldn't see. His skin was so soft, I left my fingertips there, hoping I could remember how it felt. His eyes were on me instantly as soon as we touched.

"Stop.. moving." I begged. He immediately complied, and set me down in the middle of an empty corridor. When the vinyl floors touched my skin, I shivered. He held my upper body upright with his arm and must've taken notice.

"Bella, you're shaking—we need to warm you up." He pulled me into his lap instead, against his body, I assumed for the transfer of body heat. He zipped his jacket off with his free hand and wrapped it tightly around my shoulders. He rested his back against a wall and motioned to his left shoulder.

"Rest your head against me. Use as little energy as you can." He instructed. I was vaguely impressed by his experience with medical training, although I could no longer remember how he had obtained it. He began rubbing my arms, as if to bring heat into them but it was too late. I knew I was dying.

Strangely, I wasn't afraid.

Against his strong shoulder, so incredibly close to his neck and so deprived, his jugular seemed to amplify, both in size and sound. It was beating a pulse in his strong neck in tandem with the pounding heartbeats and my mouth watered involuntarily. I contemplated it.

Is it justified if I do it, for one final attempt at life? ...If I can manage to do this cleanly, I can drag him to a nearby restroom to stage an 'accident'...

He didn't realize I was toying with the idea of his life, he continued to hold me against him and allow me to steal his body heat. I felt guilty.

He was so focused on saving my life and all I could do was think about ending his. The guilt that boiled inside of me was overwhelming. It made me angry that I was this way--I didn't ask to be born like this.

But you don't have to stay this way.

You're better than that. You can change.

Spare Edward. He saved your life. Now it's your turn.

My eyelids fluttered as I struggled to keep my eyes open. I was so cold.

"Goddamn it Bella, stay with me!" He jerked me closer to him, and pressed me flush against his skin. My icy lips were pressed against his warm neck. He smelled incredible especially perspiring and with adrenaline coursing through him! Apples and a smell like rain. No, maybe something floral?

God if this was how good he smelled I could only imagine how good he would taste, the rich warm liquid going down my aching throat.

No. Stop. I forced myself.

Against my will, I felt my body try to muster the strength to change... I felt the hairs stand, the small quake from within... but, nothing.

Shit. I didn't realize it'd gotten so deep in my system I couldn't even change. I probably wasn't capable of processing the energy from the blood either if I was in this state. That only meant one thing to me.

I was dying.

I was fine with it. Satisfied even. If I could save this boy's life, I'd happily die. If I could die "good", that was all I could ask for. I was tired of all the death that surrounded me. Maybe it was my "time to go" anyway. I closed my eyes, hoped for something painless.

"Bella!" Edward was panicking. It was so endearing how human he was. I opened my eyes weakly and tried to offer what little explanation I could.

"I can't..." I breathed. "let you die." He was hysteric but somehow it dawned on him that I wasn't concerned for me. I could see the shift of understanding in his eyes. He suddenly was so remorseful.

"No, no I won't let you." He sounded like a child, so stubborn.

"Remember?" I thought about the first words I ever wrote to him. "I'm fine." I breathed, trying to reassure him with the faintest smile.

I was fading. I barely managed to feel his arms around me, or the cold seeping through Edward's jacket. I send a hopeful last wish, that it would be painless. I didn't know we could die of poisoning, but it wasn't the worst way to go...

Not after everything from the lab... no. This was far better. At least I had my dignity intact, and I finally wasn't alone. I could even say I died in a friend's arms. That was a nice way to depart, wasn't it?

Edward

"Bella?" Her small frame quaked in my arms and she mouthed something silent between her pale lips. They quivered too much for me to understand what she was trying to say.

"What? I can't hear you."

"I can't.. I cant let you die." She had whispered. I froze. There couldn't be many reasons why she would say that. She genuinely thought she was going to die. "No. No, I won't let you." I nearly pleaded.

"Remember? I'm fine." She offered me a soft curve in the corner of her lips; a smile. She made a joke. She smiled. The first one I'd ever seen from her. I felt stunned, both by her beauty and by the graciousness in her effort to reassure me though she was the one dying.

I was determined now. I would save her.

Her faint smile slowly relaxed to her usual parted lips. The light in her eyes, the intensity somehow was fading. I was aware of shouting. I didn't realize it was mine until her eyes were so dark the black in them held so little life. Her barely there breath left her lips, that were turning a faint blue. She breathed in sharply once, as if to tell me something. Her eyes focused on me. And then the light was gone as her eyes slowly closed on their own. She was gone, still as stone.

"No no no no no!!" I chanted to myself as I set her body down from my arms as gently as I could. I whirled around to find the nearest AED.

It was in a glass compartment in the wall that I shattered with an elbow. The glass broke under my bare arm, yet I couldn't feel any pain as I sprinted the short distance back to her. I turned it on, and ripped open her button down blouse to prepare for the AED pads and compressions.

With my fathers instructions of use being muttered under my breath, I pulled apart her blouse on either side and clasped my hands on top of each other over her sternum and locked my elbows.

What I saw horrified me, to the point that I released my locked elbows.

I knew Bella was malnourished. But I didn't think she was dying of starvation. Her stomach was barely there over a thin concave skin that also covered her skeletal ribs.

"Please god no..." I fell back on my haunches.

I couldn't bear to break her already fragile body. I realized with a mortified shake of my head that I never got her real help. I told her I was a friend, an ally, and even asked for her trust, yet I did nothing to stop this.

I never told her how I felt about her, how I was certain I was connected to her, predestined to meet her. My thoughts stopped abruptly as I saw a drop of blood roll off of my elbow and spatter down onto the vinyl floor. I watched as it shimmered then settled against the ground.

My mind went blank as a slate as I stared into the drop of red epiphany on the floor. The memories of Bella flashed at me like a full roll of film that was thrown into my sight, confirming that what I'd seen was true.

I remembered some things.

All the things that didn't add up.

Bella didn't have a pulse.

That she managed to leave the school campus into the woods today yet I couldn't fathom how I'd lost her from my sight and how she'd gotten there so fast.

All of those dreams of the blood. "Save me." She'd day. "You swim you sink."

"You don't even know what she is." Demetri'svoice snarled in my head.

I blinked to full consciousness as I realized I knew what she needed all along. Against all rationale in my mind, I didn't hesitate. I knew I would do whatever it took to keep Bella alive.

"Heavenly Father..." I muttered to myself as I pulled my Swiss army pocketknife from out of my pocket. "if I may die, may I be cleansed of my sins." I slit my wrist with extreme caution, careful to avoid the radial artery or median nerve my dad told me about. It began bleeding the moment I cut into it and I bit down on my lip in pain and focused on keeping my incision straight. Easier recovery this way. I pushed my bleeding wrist between Bella's mouth, not knowing what to expect.

I held it there for a minute, figuring I'd give her a few moments to attempt to get some nutrition back into her system. It didn't make sense to me logically, yet somehow, I intrinsically knew.

This was what she needed, and this would save Bella's life.

However, despite the blood rapidly seeping from my wrist, she lay unmoving, her eyes remained closed. "Come on, Bella..." I murmured subconsciously, my eyes focused in on the dark blood that trickled from the side of her mouth. She lay as still as the dead.

Suddenly, I saw her lavender eyelids twitch.

Her ice cold hands, as if they had a life of their own, abruptly attacked my wrist at lightning speed, and curled around my arm. Her fingers put a deathly amount of pressure into my wrist as if to squeeze me dry. Her lips graced my skin lovingly for only a moment and I felt strangely euphoric in the moment—I would've mistaken it for a tender kiss if not for the sharp, knife-like teeth that sunk into my arm. It went through the tendons like a soft butter and I winced from the sharp pain. She began sucking, and with every pull, I sucked in a breath through my teeth but I couldn't help but feel satisfied with bringing her back. It involuntarily curved my lips into a half smile.

I did whatever I could to distract myself from the pain. I tried to observe everything about Bella in this moment.

I noticed that every time she drew blood, a drastic change would ensue, appearing slowly and magically across her face.

Rosy cheeks blended into her pale face. the dark hollows beneath her eyes and under her cheeks grew lighter and filled themselves in somehow, as if she were resting.

It appeared her body was recovering at a lightning speed. Even her frail body seemed to grow more full before my eyes, her arms, legs even chest softened. And I couldn't help but stare in amazement even through the pain that my leg was involuntarily twitching from.

No matter what this confirmed Bella was... It didn't matter to me. She entranced me even more than before, now that things were connecting like puzzle pieces in my mind.

There was a reason for her cold gazes.

She avoided confiding in anyone to keep a low profile.

She had pushed me away to protect me.

She was afraid of the VOLTURI chasing her down—I didn't blame her, I couldn't imagine the things they'd be capable of after what I'd seen today.

She had smiled at me before she had passed.

That had to mean she was more than indifferent to my presence, right? At best, it could've signified she was glad of my presence. I'd like to think so.

I was amazed at the revelations I was able to make in this moment despite seeing my vision swim. I alone was bringing her back to life and she would be safe because of me.

I'd never risked so much for another person, and yet the reward was well worth it. If this didn't prove it to myself, I knew it was true now.

I was falling for her.

My wrist was numb now, and going purple in the shape of her fingers where she fiercely gripped me. I tried not to focus on it, but instead, on Bella. With my unoccupied hand, I stroked her cheek with the back of my knuckles. It was so soft, and I wouldn't have minded if this was the last sight I'd ever see. If she was the last sight I'd ever see.

Save for her mouth that was still sucking gently on my punctured wrist, she looked as if she could've been a mythical creature from an oil painting. Her most striking features were finally relaxed; with no angrily arched eyebrows, it was easier to see the delicate structure of her face.

Her dark eyelashes sat peacefully against high, and now rosy, cheekbones. The dark hair that surrounded her pale face reminded me of the dark colors from the oil paintings at home... a dark, oily black, a color so ethereal. Something too beautiful to be real.

A shiver abruptly rippled through me. I felt cold. I struggled to remember what my father had told me about major blood loss when we'd driven by a traffic accident years ago... something along the lines of low temperature... hypovolemia? Immediate care? Death...

Wow. Was I dying? I struggled to comprehend the thought, and what sort of thing would be most appropriate to wish for, but only one thing came to mind. I stroked her cheek a final time.

At least I know you're safe.

"Bella... Wake up." I managed to mumble. I felt sleepy and felt my eyelids finally close. I wondered idly if I'd wake up after this.

It was worth it.