Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Author's note: Eek that took forever. Me sorries. It's hard setting up for all the things that will come. And let me tell you, simply thinking takes a lot of effort.
Author's note II: Happy 1 year anniversary, Gifted! (1 year + 11 days to be exact) To celebrate, I've created a youtube playlist called The Music of "Gifted". There, if you're so inclined, you can find music mentioned in my author's notes, music that may or may not be mentioned in future chapters, and other pieces that I've listened to way too much over the past year as I've dreamed of and written this story. Odds are if you're cool enough (hehe) for a ffnet account you're cool enough for a youtube account. So...if you've enjoyed the pieces I've recommend, find me on youtube and subscribe! My handle is (surprise, surprise) darcythe2nd.
The glow that had settled over Bella, though still very much abuzz and aflame, was not enough to keep her from stirring yet again. Rosalie released a throaty chuckle and pulled her closer even though the distance between them was, at this point, inconsequential.
"I thought you humans needed your sleep," Rosalie murmured teasingly.
Bella smiled into the kiss she gave her, but otherwise paid no heed to the blonde's words. She'd pay for this in the morning perhaps, but in the meantime Rosalie was here beside her, and Bella's need coursed through her with such a power her very skin vibrated from the excess.
Sleep be damned.
Before she knew it she was sitting on top of Rosalie, straddling her and deepening her kisses like her very life depended on it.
Rosalie's teasing was only that. Her annoyance with Bella's need for sleep was no secret. She grumbled about it enough after lovemaking when Bella closed her eyes and waited for the darkness to claim her. It was a source of amusement for the young girl that Rosalie complained so vocally about a human trait when all the others carried for her such high esteem.
By all rights, Bella should've succumbed from exhaustion hours ago. A few times when Rosalie had brought her over the edge, she had clung to her, damp with sweat that made her shiver as it left her skin, and nearly drifted away only for her desire to well up again and overtake her like a tsunami wave.
She needed to touch her. She needed to feel.
Rosalie moaned. Bella showered her with deeper, fuller kisses as her hand travelled south. Bella's body shuddered when she made contact with the cool wetness there, and she whimpered incoherently as she inched inside. Her eyes fluttered all the while until she couldn't sink in any further. She was completely enveloped; completely surrounded. Rosalie's arms caged her in, compounding the consummation and warming her from the inside.
Rosalie trembled as Bella accelerated her movements, pulling out and pushing in as deeply as Rosalie's flesh would allow her, and with all the fervor her own mortal body could muster. Soon a fresh layer of sweat coated Bella's skin that betrayed that mortality. Along with it, her heart drummed madly in her chest.
The change on Rosalie's face was enough to make it skip a few beats, but Rosalie immediately followed through on her intentions and roughly pulled Bella's thighs apart as she-
"Mmmm..." Bella groaned. She lost the beat of her own ministrations to Rosalie's sex, but soon picked it up again; Rosalie's unrelenting pace in and out of her was guidance enough. She clutched at her face, closed the remaining gap and kissed her wildly. The sounds coming out of her mouth, and out of Rosalie's too were raw, unsullied and unfiltered. The hum in her throat complimented the thrumming in her ears; together creating what felt like an electric current through Bella's entire body.
Her eyes remained open. Centimeters apart from Rosalie, she could see her own silhouette reflected back at her in her golden eyes. The reflection's hue brightened for an instant before darkening markedly. Tiny creases appeared on Rosalie's otherwise perfect forehead. Bella knew the signs; she was about to come.
She held her. They held each other. Blood roared in Bella's ears as she too felt the band inside her getting tauter and tauter until it finally snapped.
Rosalie was the first to speak after long minutes of breathlessness. "It's not a competition you know."
Bella looked up. "What?"
"This frenzy you're in," Rosalie continued softly. "It's not like it's a competition between you two."
Bella stared, wondering what to make of Rosalie's words when their meaning registered. She blushed and hoped the illusion of awkwardness would disguise her relief. Rosalie had it wrong.
"I know t-that," she stammered and playfully swatted her lover's shoulder. "Can't a girl just be plain horny?"
Rosalie smiled. "Certainly," she said then kissed her firmly on the mouth. "But..."
"No buts," Bella tisked, then with a mischievous spark in her eyes she wiggled her fingers...fingers that were still lodged deep inside Rosalie. As she knew she would, the older girl squirmed and trembled, surprised. "And I'm not done with you."
She grinned internally at the conflicting emotions that passed over Rosalie's face: mild annoyance and unmistakable arousal. Bella's evasions were not lost on the vampire, but as perceptive as Rosalie was where her girlfriend was concerned, even she couldn't pass up the prospect of more love making.
A sigh, a deep moan, and Bella was once again lost in her adulation of Rosalie's body.
"I don't think this is such a good idea."
Jasper wore his reluctance like a second skin, but Esme would have none of it. She turned to him in the passenger seat beside her and gave him the best definitive look she could muster.
"You know why we're here, and you know it's an excellent idea." He started to protest but she shushed him. "We all went through this, Jasper. You just need to practice."
He gulped. Esme watched him struggle to hide his fear; he was a soldier after all...fear was something you locked inside a box that only you can open. She wished there was another way, but unfortunately the only other ways involved waiting at least a couple of decades. The family's experiences over the last year convinced her that they needed to shore up their (and she hated to put it this way) weakest link, Jasper.
He still wouldn't budge though. Ok then, Esme thought regretfully. She knew how to convince him.
"We can't have you losing control like that again," she said. As predicted, Jasper looked down in shame. "If the nomads return, or others, we all need to be able to walk into a crowded building to do our part."
Was it his regret she was feeling? Or her own for speaking such words? Whomever was the source, the emotion tore through her like a blade.
But it worked. Jasper nodded hastily and opened his door. Esme stopped him with a slight hand on his. "I won't leave your side," she whispered softly. Tenderness for the young man slowly eclipsed her shame. "It will be all right."
A small weary smile from him and a nod, and with that they strolled inside the crowded supermarket.
"Don't breathe," she whispered once they crossed the threshold.
She took an empty cart from the kiosk and, with Jasper following closely behind her, proceeded to fill it with food.
"Focus on the vegetables, not the blood," she said.
It was true that human food smelled bitter to the vampires. Vegetables, processed food, cooked meat-anything that wasn't raw and bloody really, were not things a vampire would ever willingly gravitate to. They weren't completely atrocious however, and the scents were relatively easy to accustom oneself to. These were things that could not be avoided when living among humans after all.
Jasper scrunched his face and did as she suggested. A few people gave them queer glances; Jasper really did look like he was constipated, so she made a show of asking after his stomach and inquiring about the appropriate medication.
It was in the pharmacy section where they spotted Charlie.
Esme, not Jasper, nearly lost control right there. She suppressed her growl barely in time when Jasper clasped her arm, and she tried to steer them away but it was too late. He saw them too.
"Es-Mrs. Cullen?" Charlie's voice rang out across the short aisle. He fumbled with the receipt at the counter and walked towards them, but Esme would have none of that.
"We can't just ignore him," Jasper whispered. Charlie's presence, though not welcomed by either of them, was nonetheless for Jasper a welcomed distraction from the rest of the humans.
"Oh yes we can," Esme hissed.
"Wait!" He begged her, and she stopped trying to leave when she heard the urgency in his voice. "I want a chance to read him. Please."
She huffed. Fine. But she wasn't going to play nice.
"Mr. Swan," was the cool greeting from her when Charlie reached them. The man stopped in his tracks now that he was face to face with them. He glanced from Esme's face, not even trying to hide her disdain, to Jasper's.
"I, uh…" He gulped. "How is Bella?"
"She's fine," Esme practically spat out. "She's safe, healthy, and happy."
Charlie looked to Jasper-Esme's venomous glare was too unsettling-but found his face devoid of emotion. Jasper stood still and watched him struggle to speak. Charlie clearly wanted to say more but Esme might well have a force field in front of her. She was impenetrable.
"She's staying in a cottage on our property," Jasper spoke up. Charlie's eyes widened, eager for more details.
"Would it be alright if I stop by sometime?" He asked, hopeful. "To say hello?"
This time Esme really did growl, a low rumbling from her chest that reverberated up her throat. Charlie looked ready to wet his pants as he took a step back.
"Get a hold of yourself!" Jasper whispered in the space between Charlie's racing heartbeats.
She blinked. Took a breath. "That's not up to me" she said. "If she wants to see you, of course you can come."
Fear transformed to despair. "She won't answer any of my calls," he murmured. "I don't know what to do."
The steel returned to Esme's voice. "You can hardly blame her. After the way you treated her. Your accusations! She was injured trying to prove her innocence. Trying to prove it to you!"
So many lies, so many half-truths. As far as the school and the police were concerned, the official story was that Bella was present in the stands that day as a spectator. She received her injuries while evacuating the building with everyone else. On the hospitals' end, where the nature of her injuries would have been too suspicious under trained eyes, Carlisle used his influence to limit how many people actually saw the girl. After Charlie saw Billy and heard his (heavily edited) story, Carlisle convinced him to sign for her release into his care. It was easy; Charlie was in a daze that night. Carlisle told her they probably could've gotten him to sign adoption papers and he would be none the wiser. Esme had gritted her teeth after that, wishing they had had that foresight.
But as for what Charlie knew, that was more murky. James had personally attacked him after all. He never faced him or the other nomads, thank god, or their situation would be massively more complicated, but the Cullens could not hide Bella's involvement in the events of that night.
Fortunately, Billy Black saved them from having to weave more lies. He did it himself. And he did it gladly, eager to help Bella, his savior, escape scrutiny.
"She could have died!" Esme hissed angrily, and she knew Charlie knew that much at least. He could never learn of the razor thin line Bella had walked, so close to James the vampire's fangs. But thanks to Billy, he at least had some idea of how close she came to James the arsonist's madness. How close she came to being crushed under rubble.
Charlie shrank back, nodding. "I know," he choked. "I'm so sorry. Please tell her how sorry I am. I'll never let her down again, I swear. I swear it!"
Too little, too late, Esme wanted to say. But even she wasn't that cruel. So she only nodded and after stiff and awkward goodbyes, she pulled her "son's" sleeve and left.
"The nerve of him," Esme seethed once they were safely in the car. She pictured a thousand things she wanted to do to him while stepping heavily on the gas, lurching the car forward and out of the parking lot.
"Will you please calm down now?" Jasper whimpered. He gripped his seat, hard enough that it might tear if the indignation didn't fade from around him. It seeped in and out, through him, influencing his own emotions and overpowering his defences. As good as he was with emotions, he would always be thwarted by anger's power. Anger and hatred were solid and black, and they could suffocate him or worse, make him an unwilling host to their cancer.
Esme looked apologetic and, after a few moments, calmed down. The rancor in the air slowly but surely dissipated, and Jasper visibly relaxed.
"He was genuine," he said after some time. Esme looked at him. He continued. "He's disgusted with himself. He was telling the truth."
She waited but he said no more. The nurturing, caring side of her wanted to keep talking; it wanted to bring up what they both saw. But every time she tried to speak she saw Bella's wounds, healed now but imprinted forever in her memory. And those were the wounds visible to the eye...
Esme and Jasper had both seen it. His pale countenance, the heavy circles under his eyes. And under his arm, secure from humans' lines of sight but not from theirs, prescription bottles for sleep medication and antidepressants.
Bella wondered how normal people managed to shed the weight of their pain when they couldn't fly. She always wondered this when she took to the sky, before she remembered that normal people weren't weighed down by the pain she carried.
Her body warmed from the inside out; an involuntary reaction to the cold wind that rushed under and over and sometimes, through her. Higher and higher. Faster, faster, faster. Over the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Past the Canadian border. Vancouver. Provincial parks. Dozens of mountain peaks. The whole of British Columbia passed below her. Soon she was miles past the Top of the World Highway. Top of the world...she couldn't help but grin. Who's on top of the world now?
Even thousands of feet above it, the Nahoni Range was still impressive, majestic. All traces of civilization remained far, far behind Bella.
Without a change in speed, Bella suddenly dived. As she got closer to the surface she saw the markers clearly under the starlight and corrected her course.
The wreckage she and Rosalie had created was like a guiding light.
She landed on her feet, and just like that the lightness of being she felt when flying disappeared. In its place was restlessness. It burned and stung and choked its way through her. On her nights with Rosalie, she could take that energy and pour it into her lover. But tonight, as she did on many nights now, Bella elected to fly away from it...fly away and hope that prickling energy got lost.
It never did. Not by itself anyway.
The cabin stood twenty or so yards from the edge of the debris. There were still patches of snow on the roof, evidence of a long winter gone by, that had yet to melt under the summer sun. Bella liked to step inside when she came here to let the memories of that week with Rosalie wash over her, but not tonight. Tonight the energy was too strong. Her need was too powerful. Her thoughts were too toxic.
You were born to destroy, James' voice echoed in her mind.
She was airborne again but only for a few seconds. A few hundred yards away from the cabin...safe enough. Safe for the cabin...not for these trees.
Bella closed her eyes but it was no use. James was still there. Still laughing. Still touching her. Kissing her. Beseeching her to join with him.
To kill for him.
No, she thought. There will be no deaths tonight. But there will be fire. Lots of fire.
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