A perfect porcelain princess met my stare in the mirror.

It had been two months since my transition, and I still was not used to my reflection. I was no Edward or Rosalie, but I was more beautiful than any human I would ever encounter. My breath would catch at my own beauty.

It was ridiculous.

Edward liked to claim that I was beautiful enough as a human that the venom did not affect my features, but Alice was more honest. With the dull, bored tone of an instructor, she dutifully pointed out every one of my human flaws and how the venom altered them to create the symmetrical face that gazed back at me.

I pulled my eternally pin-straight and luminescent hair back into a ponytail, the way Edward preferred. Usually, I didn't consider Edward's preferences towards my appearance. Mainly because he didn't really have any besides keeping my hair off my face and exposing my collarbones. However, that day I needed to steer Edward in a specific direction.

The prank Rosalie planned to pull on Edward had gone according to plan. Better than I expected, really. Part of me didn't believe that my siblings discovered a way around the gifted vampires in the family. But each step of the prank fell into place, unbeknownst to Alice and Edward both.

The prank was set to go off on my birthday or my wedding night—whichever happened first. Since I would not allow Edward to bind his heart to anything less than perfection and I was still a far cry from perfection, it would be my birthday.

Which was still two months away.

Rosalie and Emmett were both keen to wait, muttering some nonsense about patience and vampirism and maturity. But I was technically a newborn. I didn't need to be mature. Which meant I could prank my boyfriend whenever I pleased.

It didn't need to be my birthday or my wedding for the prank to work—we simply needed Edward in a romantic, nostalgic mood.

And I believed I knew just how to get him there.

I knew from many pathetic attempts at progressing our physical relationship that Edward was not a lewd man. No amount of skin nor lacy adornments was able to break his steel-plated control. I knew. As a human, I had tried them all. An embarrassing number of times.

The closest we had ever gotten to physical intimacy before Edward finally cast aside all his inhibitions was on a rainy afternoon in my bedroom. I had spent the day holed up in my room, unable to put down the book Edward had given me the day before until it was complete. My hair had been thrown into a tangled knot on the top of my head. I wore an old sweatshirt of Charlie's with a graphic fish print on it. I probably smelled like the salt and vinegar chips I had spent the day snacking on.

Edward returned from his hunt as a storm rolled in. He crawled through my window to find me working on that day's crossword puzzle. I had just finished the book and wasn't ready to leave my warm bed quite yet. With an adoring smile shining on his beautiful face, he removed his wet clothes and replaced them with the cotton sweatpants and T-shirt he hid in my room for moments such as that. He snuggled into bed beside me and watched me complete the puzzle, feeding me chips when I asked.

When I filled in Canal of Schlemm on my first guess, his hands were under the sweatshirt. When I figured out that day's riddle with only one hint, his lips were on my skin. The puzzle fell to the floor, unfinished, when I was unable to breathe due to Edward's advances. My bedroom became a sauna, it was so steamy. To this day, I swore it would have concluded with our first time if Charlie hadn't come home from work early.

My plan to coax Edward into a romantic mood was to replicate that day to the best of my ability. If reminding him of the human he fell in love with didn't do the trick, nothing would.

I dug through the walk-in closet off the bedroom Edward and I shared. Though they were in the back behind stylish designer pieces, Alice had been true to her word and brought me all my clothes—no matter how ugly. Which was ideal because I needed that ugly fish sweatshirt. With that, I pulled on a pair of biker shorts. They were the closest thing to the boxer shorts I wore that afternoon that I would be comfortable wearing in front of anyone but Edward. A pair of thick, wool socks completed the look. Looking down at myself, I had no idea what Edward saw that day, but I had no idea what he saw in me in general while I was still human. I supposed it was something I would never understand.

Edward was due to return from his daily patrol at any moment. I pushed the chaise lounge chair in our bedroom closer to the fireplace. I set the book I had been reading toward the foot on the chair, flipped down, open to the page I was on. As I waited, I stood as close to the fire as I dared—a hopeless attempt to make myself somewhat warm. Edward might not miss the scent that scorched his throat, but I knew deep inside he missed cuddling his soft, warm human.

My backside faced the fire when Edward stepped through the kitchen door to the chateau. As he did every day, he checked on Esme first. He asked about her progress on her latest work and listened to her explain the process of everything she did since the last time he asked. When the two parted ways, I threw myself into the lounge, arranging myself in a comfortable position, and pulled the day's crossword into my lap. I expected Edward to find me next, but he stopped at Carlisle's study, first. I heard Edward's vague whispers but couldn't follow the conversation, for half of it was silent to everyone but Edward, no matter how good their vampire hearing was.

Eventually, their conversation ended. I had to fight a smile when Edward's footsteps grew louder in my direction. I settled into the chaise, hoping I looked natural. I almost laughed when he opened the door but bit my tongue.

Just as he did that fateful day I was attempting to replicate, Edward crossed the room at a human pace, as reverent as if he were approaching a holy monument. Though I did not need protection from his skin, Edward wrapped a blanket around my shoulders. Old habits die hard.

He didn't say anything as he joined me on the chaise. He watched as I filled in a few words, probably solving the whole puzzle in his mind in half the time. As I got closer to completion, I felt his hands slide closer to the inside of my legs. I smiled. It wasn't difficult to get Edward in the mood anymore. However, I needed him to be in the right mood.

Which he would be in after the next clue. I selected this particular day because of the crossword. The day's riddle was common phrases with a country's name in them. The answer to a lively country was Viva la France.

It was difficult to hide my smile when I filled in the answer to the question a beautiful country.

Bella Italia.

The name of the restaurant Edward took me to in Port Angeles.

I sighed in contentment and rested my head against Edward's shoulder. "Will you tell me about our first date?" The memory was perfectly clear in my head, but Edward didn't know that.

As I knew he would, Edward smiled. "After rescuing my newest obsession from impending doom, I wasn't about to let you out of my sight. So, I offered to take you to dinner…"

He only lasted until the moment he complimented my blouse until his lips were on mine. Above my sweatshirt, his thumbs traced the collarbones he lusted after in the booth across from me. He kissed the neck the worst part of him wished to drink from. He whispered the name of the girl he loved so deeply, he did not know what to do with himself.

I crawled on top of him and kissed him back. The unfinished crossword puzzle fell to the floor. The book was kicked off the end of the chaise. Edward's hand squeezed my unbreakable body in the places he had been too afraid to touch before. Just as Edward's thumb traced the waistband of my biker shorts—silently asking if he could remove them—he flinched. His lips froze.

"Ugh, he knows that I hate that…" he muttered to himself, flinching harder.

I had to bite my lips to hide my smile. Just as I hoped he would, Emmett caught on to my scheme. Somewhere I could not hear, Emmett played a CD of music Edward hated. I figured I would request more privacy at the right time, but I was grateful for Emmett's nudge in the right direction.

"Bella, my love," Edward's voice was deep with desire and sweeter than honey, "Would you mind if we took this elsewhere?"

It was exactly what I wanted. "Not at all."

With one more lingering kiss, Edward cradled me against his chest and got up from our prone position on the chaise. He set me down on my feet after placing a gentler kiss on my forehead. Despite the grace every vampire promised I would have, my wool socks slipped on the slick hardwood floors. I tried to stabilize myself with the small, wooden end table beside the chaise. Naturally, my hand crushed through the top of the surface, and I brought the whole thing down with me as I fell to the floor.

My breakable, human body was no longer a concern, so Edward stood there and let me fall, amused adoration plain on his face.

He laughed.

Loudly and without restraint.

"You love this," I accused him, "You love that I'm like this." It might have been the reason I had been so determined to prank him.

"I love everything about you," he said, simply.

I rolled my eyes.

Once more, Edward helped me stand, his golden eyes still sparkling with humor. Now, I was more determined to prank him than ever. I let him take my hand and lead me toward the French doors in our room. With no reason to fear the cold, Edward and I leaped from the upstairs balcony to the snowy ground below. Still holding my hand, Edward guided me North, though we usually ran East.

All according to plan.

Every so often, we paused so Edward could pull me in for a kiss that made my insides burst and my breath ragged. Eventually, we made it to our destination: a tiny tree house.

"What is this place?" I asked, though I had been here with Emmett and Rosalie a few weeks prior.

He grinned, "An escape."

During our first summer together, Edward told me he often created small sanctuaries for himself. It made perfect sense. If I were a mind reader with four siblings, I would need an escape from it all, too. In Forks, it was the meadow. In Rochester, it had been a boat.

In Alaska, he had a treehouse.

With no need for a ladder, Edward and I scaled the tree. Ever the gentleman, Edward pushed away the trap door at the bottom and pulled me up by my hand. We huddled in the cramped space together.

It was clearly a structure built for one. A sleek, leather bench like the one in his room in Forks took up half the space. On the other side of the narrow walkway, a sound system was hooked up to a generator. Next to that was a large stack of CDs and a smaller stack of books.

If he took me here as a human, I would have been miserable. My human eyes wouldn't have been able to see anything in the windowless structure. I would have been huddled under multiple layers, but still cold. However, as a vampire, the space was small and intimate. It was a thrill to know anywhere I went, Edward would be pressed up against me.

Edward wasted no time. The moment the trap door was shut, his lips were on mine. He wrapped his hand around my ponytail several times and pulled—hard—opening me up to the kiss. It was the sweetest pain. I trembled before him. He would have never pulled that move when I was a human.

Slowly, the kisses softened. I could practically hear the introspection in Edward's mind. He released my hair and loosened his tight grip on my waist. I was his human once more. Bones of glass, skin of paper. His fingers trailed lightly down my spine, barely touching the sweatshirt.

He pressed one more kiss against my bottom lip before he stood upright. The tips of this hair touched the ceiling of the treehouse.

"Bella…" Edward pushed back the sleeves of the sweatshirt so he could take my hands in his. His golden eyes were pensive, and his half-smile was wistful.

My own smile was triumphant.

I had successfully tricked Edward. Seduced him straight into a trap.

Adorably unaware, Edward continued, "Originally, I had planned to wait for a special occasion to give this to you. But we're immortal now. Time doesn't matter to us."

I stroked his cheek with my thumb. Such a statement would have sent Edward spiraling two years ago. Now, he spoke the words with a sparkle in his eye and curl on his lips.

"You are the shooting star across my midnight sky and the wish that came with it. I love you more than words can express. When I turned to song to express my love, my piano couldn't capture the depth of what I feel." He released one of my hands and reached for the CD at the top of the pile.

It took a herculean amount of strength not to laugh. Luckily, I had it now.

"I composed and recorded an entire symphony in your honor."

I kept my face down, unsure if I could trust my eyes to not give me away.

He placed the CD in my hand. "Play it whenever we're apart so you can always feel my love."

I removed my hand, placing it back in his. "Play it now," I whispered, afraid that if I added too much volume my voice would quake. "Please."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

There was a smile in his voice. It wouldn't be there for much longer.

I couldn't watch as Edward's long, graceful fingers switched out the CD in the stereo for my gift. I held my breath when he pressed play to hold back my laughter. Where once Edward's talent shone, capturing his professional-level skill of approximately forty instruments, now was Emmett's clumsy attempt and soft shrieks.

Unbeknownst to Edward, Rosalie had stolen his gift to me while the two of us enjoyed a "spontaneous" intimate moment in a hot spring. Over the past few weeks, Emmett had rerecorded every one of Edward's compositions. The best human musicians could not properly play something Edward wrote, let alone a backwoods vampire who had never touched a single piano key.

What was meant to be a declaration of Edward's love now sounded like someone had let a group of monkeys loose into an orchestra pit.

Grasping onto my composure by a string, I looked up at Edward. His handsome face was twisted into confused horror that might have been the most adorable thing I had ever seen in my life.

"Oh, Edward..."

"It's not me! I—I—I swear!" he stammered.

Embarrassment mucked up his movements. When Edward attempted to turn down the volume, he accidentally broke the button. The volume shot up to its highest setting, blasting the treehouse with Emmett's voice as his shrieks turned into a full-out scream. It wasn't part of the plan, and it caught me off guard. The laughter broke through. Once I started, I wasn't able to stop. I barreled over with laughter just as Edward smashed the entire stereo to pieces in his desperation to get Emmett's screaming to stop.

"Bella, do you have any…?" his question cut short, as the voices no doubt came into his range.

"I should have known it was you!" he snarled. He swung out of the trap door to the treehouse. At this point, I had fallen to my hands and knees, unable to even stand from laughing at Edward.

"Lovely performance!" Rosalie clapped.

"One of your best!" Emmett agreed.

"Do you know how many months it took me to record that!?" Edward practically shrieked.

"Good thing you're immortal," Emmett responded, unperturbed. His casual tone sent me over once again. "You have all the time in the world."

"You will pay for this." And Edward leaped over the balcony and landed on Emmett's shoulder. Emmett attempted to grab Edward, but he was too quick. Behind his back, Edward slipped down, taking hold of Emmett's pants on his way down, and took them with him until they were a pile of fabric around Emmett's ankles.

Emmett bellowed with laughter. "Now, it's on little brother!"

Edward was already off. Realizing how far Edward had already gotten away, Emmett kicked his pants off his feet instead of pulling them back up. The two boys chased each other, deeper into the woods.

Following Edward, I swung down from the trap door and landed next to Rosalie, as light as a cat. She appraised me with a quirked eyebrow. When Emmett informed her that I seduced Edward for our prank, I doubted she envisioned me in a fish sweatshirt and wool socks.

"Good work," she offered.

I beamed, proud of my accomplishment. It was odd to think that I was a natural at messing with Edward, but the universe did give me a silent mind and the blood of his singer. It certainly seemed like I was placed on this Earth to be the bane of his existence as well as the love of his life.

Off in the distance, we heard Emmett scream, followed by his cackling laughter. At that, Rosalie bounded in that direction to give Emmett her support. I figured I, too, should help Edward now that he finally had a partner.

Laughing, I ran behind them. As I trotted after my family, the breeze picked up and an enticing scent picked up along with it.

It was like nothing I had ever experienced, in both my mortal and immortal lives. The most decadent of delicacies. Whatever it was, I needed it. More than the air in my lungs.

I took off in the direction of the scent like a bullet.

My limbs moved with a purposeful power that made my already unstoppable body grow stronger. There were no distractions from the beauty of the world around me like on previous runs. My instincts homed in on a single target and maintained a laser focus as I ducked under branches and raced around trees.

At an incomprehensible speed, I reached my target. The wafting scent drew together to one, delicious point. At its epicenter stood my prey.

My prey stared at me with large, pale eyes, unable to comprehend the creature that stood before it. Before it could blink—or move—I leaped onto my prey and wrestled it down onto the snowy ground. There was the smallest attempt at a struggle as the soft, pathetic limbs tried to push me away. It was nothing I couldn't handle. I simply pressed down with a fraction of my strength and with a crack and a shatter, the struggle stopped. My sharp teeth sank into the warm, pulsing flesh.

I drank.

Like tentacles emerging from the depth of the ocean. Like claws ripping through an impenetrable barrier. Like fangs protruding from a gaping maw.

Something tore out of me.

A monster of my own.

Too soon, my prey had been drained of its sweet nectar. I swallowed. Where I had been fully satiated mere seconds ago, I was now desperate for more.

Instinct instructed me to trace the scent of the original source, knowing wherever it came from, there would be more. I sniffed the air. It was faint, but I could detect which direction it came from. When I lowered my nose closer to the ground, the scent became stronger. On all fours, I prowled through the snow, sticking my nose through the slush. Something deep inside warned me that I was behaving like a beast, but the much stronger part simply didn't care. My prey was at the end of this scent, and I didn't care what it took to get to it.

Continuing down the path, I got to a point where the scent grew stronger. Not because I was closer to it, but because there was simply more, doubling over itself in some places. And—better yet—a new scent. I spotted my next prey before they spotted me.

There was a scream. Then, a sinister growl in response. I realized with a smile that the growl came from me.

I silenced the scream with a single swipe to its neck and my prey crumpled to the snow. Before I could indulge in my victory, something grabbed me by my neck and threw me onto my back in the snow. I screamed in fury.

It was another vampire.

Warning sirens wailed in my mind, instructing me to fight back or this rival vampire would take my well-deserved prey from me. I lashed out in desperation.

"Stay the fuck down," the vampire demanded—a female.

I grabbed the ends of her long, blonde hair—curling delicately into my face—and pulled. She yelped, and I used the brief distraction to swipe at her ruby-red lips. Something sinister inside of me wanted to claw the beauty from her perfect porcelain face.

With a final scream of pain, she released me. I managed to slip out from under her. I hoisted my prey over my shoulder, planning to feed far from the imminent threat of this cruel thief. I only managed to take a few steps before I was slammed onto the ground by an insurmountable mass. Another vampire. This one was stronger than the other, due to its great size.

"Got her!" the new vampire called out, calmly.

I roared in frustration. I wriggled and writhed against this other vampire, but they were so much larger than me, their weight alone kept me pinned into the snow. My prey lay on the ground before me just out of my reach. Its precious, red nectar dripped onto the snow. Wasted. I whimpered at the fire in my throat, begging for the blood before me.

"Bella!" another male voice called, this one strained with worry. This voice gave me pause. There was a time in my mortal life when I craved to hear that voice. Somehow, it meant more to me than anything else. I stopped clawing at the vampire on top of me. My hands fell limp into the snow.

"That's right, sweetheart. I'm right here," the voice beckoned.

A glorious face came into my view, like the sun rising over the horizon. Tousled bronze hair. Sharp features that could cut glass. Gold eyes that sang the song to soothe the savage beast.

"Emmett, let her up. Let her come to me."

With a deep, crushing sigh of reluctance, the vampire on top of me stood. I remained where I was, sprawled out in the snow.

"Love?"

Tentatively, I stretched out my limbs in front of me. When no other vampires attacked me, I curled my fingers into the snow.

Again, nothing happened.

I bolted, taking my prey with me.

"Bella!" the voice called out once more. Pleading.

As much as I desired the silky-smooth voice and the brilliant face it belonged to, the promise of the thick, red drink was far more tempting.

She's here! The beautiful, feral Bella we all wanted!