Chapter 07. Savior

For three days I have managed to find the most nonchalant of ways to run into Isabella.

For three days, she has remained a conundrum.

She's shown no aversion to my presence in her life. In fact I don't frighten her at all now, when I show up at random places she visits throughout the day.

She seems to have accepted my insinuation into her life without much ado. However, she's also had a justification for rejecting every invitation I've extended to her in joining me for a more intimate setting.

It's as though I've entered what humans would call the friend zone.

Which is unacceptable and yet, I find myself taking whatever I can get from Isabella.

"That's the most disgusting thing I've seen in my entire existence."

Maybe not the most disgusting thing. But it's close.

She scoffs before taking a bite of the food truck sandwich she's ordered herself.

"Stop being so dramatic," she tells me. "You act like you've never had a grilled cheese before."

Not one single time.

And I never will.

"Of course I have, but that-"

"I realize your expectations of a meal are… probably pretty high up there, Edward, but in this part of town, these are considered a sacred commodity."

Blech.

Not happening.

"I could take you to an actual restaurant you know, one that's-"

"Nope. I have everything I need right here." She takes another bite as we walk and then holds it out toward me. "Wanna bite?"

"No way in the depths of Hell am I eating that."

"Edward…"

"I'd rather swim in the sea of lost souls for a thousand years, Isabella."

She giggles and continues her assault on the sandwich as she mumbles. "So weird."

"If you won't let me take you to a restaurant now, then let me take you later."

"Can't," she answers as she chews and although part of me realizes this should repel me, I find it endearing somehow. She resembles one of those animals from that far fetched cartoon long ago... what are they called?

Chipmunks!

"Why not?"

She shrugs.

Now she's speechless?

"Isabella?"

She shoves the entire remainder of the grilled cheese into her mouth and chews, looking quite desperate to not answer me.

She causes my patience to thin, this woman.

"M-be we can talk more later," she tells me with her mouth full of carbohydrates and dairy product. As she picks up her pace, I follow behind.

She steps into the street to cross over to the other side.

"I wouldn't consider running from me to be the most intellectual thing you've ever done."

She sniggers over her shoulder. "I'm not running away. I have to get back to work."

I check the watch I borrowed from the penthouse this morning.

"You have an entire half hour left, Isabella."

As she crosses the road, she has given no thought to any cars that might be coming. As one in particular is about to strike her down, I stop it with nothing but a flick of my wrist and an urgent thought.

Tires screech, the back-end lifts up off of the ground and the car in back of him swerves to miss a destructive collision.

Isabella is stunned into stillness.

"What the…"

The glare I shoot at the driver for being so careless with his angry words for the woman he nearly hit commits him to silence as well before he speeds off out again.

I guide Isabella to the sidewalk calmly. She's still staring off at where the car had been just moments ago.

"Did you see that?"

"What?" I have learned over the millennia, at times, it's best to play dumb. This is one of those times.

"That car was… and then… how did it stop on a dime like that?"

"I have no idea what you're referring to."

Isabella studies me for a bit, attempting to decipher if she believes me or her own experience. My expression does not waiver, save perhaps a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to realize what she saw and heard was simply the result of an overactive imagination.

Once she breathes a bit easier, and shrugs it off, I resume our conversation.

"You have nowhere left to run off to, Isabella. Perhaps you can answer my question now."

A slight blush rises to her cheeks.

"I can't quite figure you out, you know," she admits. And I wonder, if only momentarily, if she's speaking to me, Hades, or Edward Cullen, the vampire.

But if can't be me, can it? She hasn't the slightest idea who she's interacting with.

Which perhaps, is entirely her point.

"The best way to learn about someone is to spend time with them," I tell her quietly. I feel a small grin begin to escape. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with it yet. Smiling that is. But with Isabella here, I cannot seem to help myself.

She traps my stare in her own and smiles up at me. Then pushes up onto her tip toes and before I know what's happening, she places her lips against my cheek.

It burns. In both a good and bad way.

As she pulls away, I lean forward like a magnet to her but instead of feeling elated, fear grips me at the thoughts beginning to form deep inside me.

And now it's me who's become speechless.

The small kiss was meant as a thank you, perhaps. For the car? I suppose. Although, I'm certain she still doesn't quite understand what happened. But it could also be a goodbye I realize, as she starts to walk away from me, once again.

"Always walking away."

Control is lost on me as I catch her hand in mine and pull her back toward me.

As I try my best to quiet my heart rate, I direct my attention to the green of her irises.

"Come to the bar tonight," I request in a softer tone than my instincts would have liked. She narrows her eyes at me in contemplation but eventually…

"Okay," she barely whispers and before I even understand what is happening to me, she adds, "You really have the nicest smile, Edward."

There's a part of me. The true nature inside, that feels the warmth of what she's said and I have the most sensational sense of acceptance bubbling up within.

But the other part of me. The liar. Feels disgusted with myself as the name I've taken falls from her lips.

The urge to tell her who I am is right there, on the tip of my tangled tongue. But I cannot bring myself to say the words.

Instead, I let her fingers slip from mine as she finally goes with a friendly wave.

I'm satisfied at least, in that I will see her later.

Before that, however, perhaps I will visit the vampire to see what we can do about me being… me again.

It occurs to me that I'm still smiling as I stand there. My jaw aches from it, as a matter of fact. But I don't care. I'm too busy adoring in the creature who has invaded my mind so much lately.

When I can no longer see her, I finally take my leave and make my way down the street to my car in a much more buoyant mood than one might expect of me. I don't even mind that a very rude individual has apparently left a ticket of some sort on the windshield.

Nothing can break me right now. A hopefulness spreads inside of me and I realize just exactly what I've been missing out on for so long.

I suddenly regret not leaving the depths of the underworld before this.

I suddenly have an entirely new outlook on what I've been denied.

So when the ground beneath me rumbles a bit, I don't think much of it.

Or when the world around me begins to vibrate.

It's not until I feel the searing pain behind my ears that I'm aware of what's happening.

Pound.

Pound.

Pound.

Scrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeech.

Fucking. A.

He's early.

PSA: Hi. Thanks for continuing to read. You are tremendous human beings for your support. Seriously. And thanks to my pre-reader savior, Chrisann. sunshine heart hands. Music this week is a throwback to the O.G. - Supermassive Black Hole by Muse.