Chapter Five: The Singer - Edward
"Every breath you take. Every move you make. Every bond you break. Every step you take.
I'll be watching you." - The Police (Every Breath You Take)
Sunday, August 29, 2004
"It's been six days Edward, are you ever going to tell us why you're here?" Tanya's voice carried down across the snowbank from the house. I clenched my eyes closed, attempting to drown out her question. I knew I could only avoid the issue for so long. Even after nearly a week, the scent of that girl hung in my mind. The temptation, the intoxication of her aroma was imprinted on my senses like acid on glass.
I couldn't imagine what she thought of me, how I reacted to her. It must've appeared as though I suddenly hated her, drawing back from her as if she smelled like death. Although quite the opposite was true, I still couldn't quite wrap my head around her. She seemed designed to trigger me in every conceivable way. Her curiously blocked off mind, her clear soprano voice that reminded me of the finest singers of my youth, and those deep chocolate brown eyes that bewitched me with but a glance.
I could not stop thinking about her.
I hadn't exchanged one word with the girl, and yet she had captivated me. I knew it was tied to her scent, which Emmett was convinced was what he called a "Singer". I'd heard the story before, a human who had natural fragrance that was an impossible draw for a vampire. Emmett's own experience with a Singer sounded somewhat hyperbolic when he had related the story some sixty odd years ago. Now that I knew it was real, I realized I should've listened to his story as a warning.
The ground had a thin blanket of snow that was all powder, and felt a bit like velvet as I laid down. The small fragile crystals crushed beneath me, but stayed frozen as my internal body temperature lowered to match the ice. It was an odd sensation but felt right against my mood. Tanya's presence only compounded my confusion due to her continued pursuit of me as her permanent mate. I fit the bill perfectly, despite there being no affection beyond familial to connect us.
"I am hiding." I finally admitted, although I was ashamed to own it.
"From what pray tell are you hiding? One of our kind? Have you crossed paths with a violent one?" Tanya asked with more than a bit of concern and a touch of incredulity. The implication being that I was putting her family at risk over my own.
"Worse, I've encountered a Singer." I spit out the word as though it were a curse.
"Ah, then why not partake? I doubt you will come across one again in another dozen lifetimes." Tanya let loose a short blast of mocking laughter as though it were not a serious issue. Her flippant response made me even more angry than before. At least now it was directed towards someone far more sturdy than the frail human. Yet I forced myself to calm down before responding.
"Tanya, I thought you would respect human life more than that." I said with a low neutral voice.
"I do, I simply meant that to resist such a draw is a pain that none of us can be expected to withstand." She sounded more sympathetic, but it was impossible to gauge from just her tone.
"Perhaps, but this is different. She…" I paused feeling a sudden worry that I shouldn't explain further. Yet I had to voice it out loud, no matter how concerning or confusing. "How unlikely is it that I have encountered both my singer and my opposite?" I asked, pondering the snowflakes as they began to fall from the cloudy gray sky. How different it was to be so far north, when winter took hold so early.
"Opposite, please explain." Her voice took on a sharpness to it, as if the question had an underlying urgency.
"She can counter my abilities somehow." I stated rather flatly, I didn't want to get their hopes up. After losing their mother to the Volturi, the sisters Tanya, Kate and Irina had become extremely worried about the law. Given the Volturi's lack of mercy, and insistence that none should be granted a second chance, the threat of any perceived infraction could mean the end of their entire coven. So the idea of someone blocking Aro's gifts as even a thought exercise, could provide them the freedom of thought and a level of peace and security they had longed to have for centuries.
"A mortal, with the power to block your gift. That's impossible." Tanya sounded shocked and perhaps slightly offended. Yet her thoughts betrayed something else, "a way to block a telepath, could this mean an end to...?" She stopped herself, refusing to betray her family or coven by finishing that thought.
"And yet." I let the sarcasm through my tone, ignoring her inner question. Yet I did not bother to repress a heavy sigh. Damn Isabella Swan and her curious and impossible mind.
"Interesting." Eleazar broke into the conversation. "I imagine she would have a powerful gift if she were ever turned."
"I wonder if she could block me?" Kate said with a grunt of a laugh as the rest of the family revealed themselves.
"I do not know the scope of her…" I tried to search for a word other than the one we used to describe our own powers, but couldn't come up with one. "Gift. As far as her being turned, well that is part of the reason I am here. My sister saw her as one of us, as my mate."
"Then why on earth did you run?" Tanya scolded, as the entire family gathered on the patio taking seats around the sunken fire pit. I sighed again and got up brushing off the powder as I made my way over to them.
"I had planned on talking to her, maybe getting to know her a bit. But then I encountered her scent for the first time. It was as if she had been sent to destroy me, by forcing me to betray myself. I spent an entire hour coming up with ways to kill her and the children surrounding me. Including the possibility of killing one of the sweetest souls I've ever encountered. No, I had to run." I furrowed my brow, not sure why I confessed so much. Or why I mentioned, even off hand, my impression of the Webber girl.
"Sweetest souls you've ever encountered? This girl, I thought you said you never interacted with her and her mind is hidden from you." Carmen asked with a curious look on her face and a slight tilt of her head.
"I haven't. I was referring to another, someone whose mind is so kind, honest, and outright beautiful that I tend to focus on it to drown out the other voices of that hormone drenched din." I knew it was wrong and invasive to use Angela's mind as a refuge. But listening to her was like a balm. Her thoughts were always introspective and thoughtful, her observations interesting and her patience nearly as vast as my own.
"Has this other girl ever sparked your interest?" Irina asked, leaning forward, a wide smile dominating her features and a twinkle of excitement. After as many years alone as the three sisters had endured, living vicariously through my non-romance must've been titillating.
I shook my head. At best I could only ever think of Angela as a friend, maybe a sister if she were turned. I respected her, but did not find myself romantically interested in her. "I've always felt her soul is pure. To even risk interacting with her, putting her on a path that could conceivably lead to her being turned and losing that soul, it would be a crime."
"Fascinating, sounds like you are interested." Tanya gave me a playful smile and her teasing tone of voice hit my buttons. Yet I continued to shake my head incredulously, not letting my anger overwhelm my reason.
"No, well at least not romantically. Angela could be a good friend, but I want her to retain her humanity, and god willing I hope she will have a blessed life."
"Hmmm. Oh kay." Kate chuckled again, this time louder as she sat back and crossed her arms.
"So who is this Singer? When we come to visit I will have to meet her." Tanya said, setting aside the teasing for a moment.
"What is the point? If I have anything to say about it, she will remain human and you will never interact with her." I knew as soon as it was out of my mouth that it was a poor choice to declare the future as set. It was a pernicious statement, dependent entirely on refusing to accept my own attraction for the mortal. The mortal, why did I keep calling her that?
"Edward, if Alice saw this girl as one of us, then what reason do you believe she will not become one of us? Alice is rarely wrong." Irina countered, her insistence was frustrating because that had only been one possible future. I preferred Bella's human life, getting married and having children. It was too short, but her death at forty-seven was still thirty years away. In perspective, a mortal life was so short that even an extra twenty or thirty years more would hardly make a difference.
"Perhaps, but she is wrong about this future. I will not allow my impulses to ruin another life." I shook my head again, lowering my eyes towards the fire that Kate had started before I had moved up to the patio.
"Are you still on about your time as a vigilante?" Kate's frustration could be heard clearly, and I couldn't blame her. In comparison to their death count, my brief dalliance with vigilantism was but a passing phase. Yet all twenty-seven faces of the men I killed still haunted me more than seven decades after I had laid them to rest.
"I was playing god. I was no better than the animals we hunt." I let a hint of the shame and sorrow I felt over my actions come through in my voice and I could tell they picked up on it.
"Animals hunt because they need to eat, it is what they are. We hunt because it is what we need to eat, it is what we are. As you well know, our families' are working against nature, and as such our willpower, on occasion, may lose the battle against our instincts. The difference is that you were able to use your amazing talent to find the worst of this world." Carmen said almost in reverence for my actions. I knew from Alice that by killing those men, and ridding the world of some murderers I had affected hundreds of lives. Yet no matter how much genuine good came from the consequences of my actions, I could still taste their blood on my lips.
"Then why do I still feel guilty?" I turned my gaze towards Carmen then, as if questioning the very nature of morality with a look.
"Edward, the cosmic balance sheet is tipped in your favor. You actively seek to be a better man, one who refuses to find happiness because you killed some people nearly three quarters of a century ago. Not just people I might add, but men who were actively hunting women for pleasure. Were the lives of those murders more intrinsically valuable then those you saved? You turned a natural instinct into something positive, moral. That is perhaps the most basic tenet of humanity, striving to make the best of something horrible." Carmen argued, her passionate words did hit rather deeply and I closed my eyes trying to let them sink into a place they could actually do some good. Yet my rational mind warred against her thesis, there was no moral justification for killing.
"What is your point?" I snapped at her, and she shook her head with a disappointed frown on her face.
"That you deserve happiness, and perhaps letting this Singer in, may be the answer." Irina continued in Carmen's stead, followed by each member of the family nodding in agreement.
"It's time Edward, you have been alone for long enough." Tanya added, reaching out and squeezing my right hand. I nodded once and tried to smile appreciatively, but I knew it came out as forced.
"Isabella, her name is Isabella. She prefers Bella though." I said after several seconds of thought. They were family after all, and they deserved to know the name of the person who may be entering their lives in the future. I wasn't stubborn enough to completely write off my sister's visions.
"I cannot wait to meet her." Tanya gave me a wide hopeful smile, and squeezed my hand again before standing. I followed suit and looked around once before taking a deep breath as I came to the decision to go home.
"I should go, I think I have enough distance now." I said with a confidence I hadn't felt since before we arrived in Forks a year ago.
"You show up, spend six days in silence and now you want to leave just as things get interesting." Irina said with a friendly, teasing grin and a short silent giggle. I gave her a look of mild irritation and she just began to laugh harder. "Right cousin, family is family no matter what."
"I was going to beg your pardon, but now I'm not sure." I said with a straight face, but couldn't hold it and let out my own laugh. This broke whatever tension was between us and I could see everyone relax visibly. "I know it is breaking manners to spend such little time in your company, but I am needed back home. Appearances being what they are, I cannot stay away from school for too much longer. I have already missed most of my first week and I will have to lie about who was lost for the next two years if anyone asks."
"I have never understood your insistence on pretending to be a teenager." Eleazar said, shaking his head from the continued confusion of this question. The argument was an old one, and more than once we had been required to defend our need to blend in. Tanya and her family spent most of the time in isolation. They had a private air strip a mile from their vast estate and a private plane for when they wanted to go out into the world. There was but one road to their house, and it was impassable for many months out of the year. Most of the locals, the closest of which was over fifty miles away, thought the house was a vacation home, only in residence during the summers. The family was so out of touch with their neighbors that any interaction was generally decades apart.
"I'll admit that Rosalie, Emmett and Jasper stretch credibility, but Alice's age is indeterminate enough for her to pass for as young as fifteen. You all have the advantage of a certain maturity, we have a relatively small window where we can pass for anything approaching our physical ages."
"I suppose that makes sense, but to endure high school again and again. It sounds like torture." Tanya scrunched up her nose in distaste and I had to shrug and nod in agreement.
"I was actually thinking of joining you on your next cycle, just to see how it is. I never went to a modern school, and I was only eighteen when I was turned." Kate suggested a bit out of the blue, she had never expressed an interest before.
"And you would be more than welcome." I gave her an appreciative smile. While two to three years wasn't very long for us, I knew her presence would make my entire family very happy.
"I'll keep that in mind. Alright, goodbye Edward. We hope to see you again before our visit after graduation." Kate returned the smile, and her expression looked set on the visit.
"We were thinking of Maine for our next location, but that is still about seven or so years out. As for a visit, Esme mentioned making the trip this summer just last week." I gave everyone a hug as I spoke, finding it oddly difficult to say goodbye. Perhaps we did need to spend more time with our cousins.
"Well, send everyone our love." Tanya added, and with one last look I left. Waving just as I crested a hill taking me out of their line of sight.
Admittedly I knew I could run fast, at my top speed Emmett clocked me at just over 190 miles per hour. I could sustain that speed for hours, and yet it still took most of the day to return home. I arrived around 9pm local time, and the family was waiting for me in the living room. I ducked into my room first to shower and change, my clothes were frayed and worn through in several spots. Although mud and dirt did not cling to us the way it did to humans, I had trudged along the edges of a few ponds and lakes and several dozen miles of coastline leaving sand and small stones embedded in places no human could endure.
I almost hesitated at the top of the stairs before heading down, I knew it would be difficult to explain my actions. I had left in such a rush. Yet when I entered the living room I found not a single cross expression on any of my family. Save maybe Alice, who looked a bit pensive.
"Edward." Carlisle said with a casual smile. I nodded and moved over to the piano bench as usual. Esme was already there and pulled me into a hug as I sat next to her.
"We missed you." Esme said, kissing my temple gently. Even after so many years it felt good to have her in my life, a mother who had spent more time in that role than my biological parents. To say she was anything less than my mother would be insulting not only to her but to our relationship.
"So did you finally sleep with Tanya?" Emmett said with a big grin, Rosalie elbowed him in the ribs hard enough that it could be heard across the room, causing him to flash her an angry frown. Her mind was focused on the moment, but I could tell she was hiding something. She did not seem nearly as angry as she was when I left for Alaska, but her thoughts didn't betray the reasons why.
"Sorry babe." Emmett quickly followed up, but Rosalie just shook her head at him and didn't look him in the eyes. "I'm gonna get it later." Emmett glanced outside towards the back lawn, trying to obscure the worry on his face, and then after a second looked over at me.
"Emmett knows better, damn it." Rosalie said internally, so I gave him an imperceptible shrug, and he sighed in response.
"No, actually I ended up talking with everyone. Perhaps they gave me a little perspective, but I am resolved to return to school tomorrow and face my temptation." My announcement mostly brought general nods of acceptance but Alice's twisted upward into a wide devilish grin.
"Good, because we cannot avoid the acquaintance now. I reached out to Bella last week while you were moping." Alice said almost casually despite the smile, as if interacting with a human in a social manner was at all acceptable.
"You approached a mortal for no reason except for my actions? To what end?" I felt the sharpness in my tone and my eyes were wide with a mix of surprise and anger.
"Please Edward, you know me by now." Alice said in her mind before answering aloud. "I wanted to get to know her. She will be my sister, and I am not going to give into your more petulant impulses. Tomorrow will go fine, I am sure of it."
"And what if I did not return from Denali?" I asked, countering her argument with the fundamental flaw in her visions, choice.
"That was an inevitability. In every version of the future you returned home. Tomorrow will cement things in one direction, it may be a bit fuzzy but you and Bella will be mated. She will be one of us. There is almost no point in arguing." She turned her head slightly and tilted it as she spoke, but couldn't quite meet my eyes. I could tell she was hiding something, her mental voice was oddly quiet.
"You are awfully sure for someone whose visions are dependent on choice. What if I do not pursue her?" I knew it was a circular argument, and I had already chosen to at least attempt to speak to Isabella. Yet I had to fight Alice on this point, there had to be another option that did not include sacrificing Bella's mortal life.
"That won't work." Alice shook her head in protest.
"How so?" I said frowning heavily, yet I felt my curiosity weighing out over my frustration with the entire situation.
"Because her human life is all but erased at this point. There is a single variable that I cannot see clearly, but otherwise she is in your future, our future. To what degree is shifting as the future unfolds, but in most instances you move she moves and vice versa. There are some major swaths of time that I cannot see, but your fates are intertwined no matter what you do." I had seen enough of her visions to know that she was not exaggerating. While I had not seen this specific vision, I knew she was telling me the truth as far as she could see it.
"How is that possible? I admit I am attracted to her, but she is human. I would never accept a situation where she is turned." It was my turn to argue in protest, but Alice simply shrugged.
"And yet." She said with almost resigned sarcasm.
"That's my line." I replied in monotone.
"Buffy said it first, anyway just follow your own instincts and things will work out fine." Alice moved over to me and patted me on the shoulder. I looked up at her and searched her face for an answer, hoping I could see the vision she had seen. She sighed slightly, and reached into the future. Laid out was several moments in the tapestry of the future, represented like a multi-layered maze of possible branching realities. There were three entrances to this maze, but two seemed irrelevant including Bella's human life. The main path forward was bright and dominant. While my choices created several potential outcomes to events, there were things that seemed inevitable, and every solution to that maze seemed to end with Isabella Swan turning into a vampire. "Trust me." Alice conveyed through her mental voice as she ended the vision, and I nodded in defeat.
"Speaking of instincts, where is Jasper?" I jabbed at Alice feeling a bit defensive.
"Seriously Edward, that isn't funny." Alice thought at me, but didn't let her irritation show on her face and replied out loud with worry. "He still hasn't returned."
"I wouldn't worry about it. Jasper always returns." Carlisle's reassurance would've felt more sincere if this was the first time. Jasper's sojourns out into the wild were becoming more frequent. To top it off, we recently found out he had been spending his time with Peter and Charlotte. While not bad company, they were both somewhat squirrelly, and their lifestyle was not conducive towards solving his struggles with our diet.
"Right, well I'm going to retreat for the evening." I said and headed straight to my room and put on earphones to block out their voices. I could still pick up a stray thought, but it was easier to ignore with distractions. I sat down and began to update my most recent diary with my most recent experiences up in Denali. Around 3am Jasper returned home quietly, he asked to be left alone and spent the next few hours getting himself mentally prepared for school.
When we left for school I was feeling optimistic. Perhaps my interaction with the Swan girl would be a positive one.
Monday, August 30, 2004
"I don't understand, why did you choose to come here if it makes you miserable?" I shook my head slightly. Bella's answers to my questions only seemed to open up additional paths of information that I just had to know more about. Except the bell would be ringing in just a minute, and we were nowhere near either of our next classes. I didn't care about attendance, but I didn't want to get her in trouble in her second week.
"My mother got married." She said off hand, gathering her bag up and slung it over her shoulder. Slamming her locker with a bit of aggression and more than a little frustration.
"And you didn't like her new husband?" I guessed, but she shook her head with a slight smile.
"No, Phil's a good guy. Treats her well, and he's always been nice to me." She didn't have a hint of deceit in her tone, which confused me even more. What were her reasons, I had to ask one more question before we parted.
"So you didn't come here because of your home life, you had no troubles at school, and yet here you are." I pushed a little more than I normally would have, my excitement had been building for an hour as I interacted with her.
"Look, I'm gonna be late but if you wanna know my life story why not meet me after school for dinner. Angela and I were planning on inviting Alice and Rose anyway. We're going to the Little Vitos." I was curious if Alice and Rosalie would accept, but I shook my head in response. We had a hard enough time pretending not to eat in the school cafeteria. Going to dinner would be nigh impossible to keep up the pretense.
"Thank you, but no. My family and I are on a strict diet and Italian food is definitely on the bad list." It was our usual excuse, but I wasn't sure she bought it.
"Alright. Look, the short answer is this; Mom was miserable because Phil has a lot of away games. Dad was miserable because I haven't been in his life more than a few weeks a year since I was basically a toddler. This solves both of those problems, and now my family is happy." She said it as if that answered every question and closed off any possible reaction I might have. Instead it was quite the opposite.
"But you are not happy." It was rhetorical, but I had to ask.
"What's your point?" She shrugged and looked over at me with mild impatience.
"I'll see you tomorrow Bella." I gave her a brief smile and she blushed a little.
"Right, later Edward." She turned without another word and began to power walk towards class. I watched after her and realized why Alice had been seeing her in our future. She was selfless to a fault. Kind, smart, beautiful. I could easily see myself falling in love with her.
"No." I whispered to myself and immediately left the school grounds. I made it home before I realized what I was doing. Esme was in her studio, her current painting hidden from view from the doorway.
"Edward?" She called out as I entered her private space, setting down her palette and brush. "What's wrong?"
"Mom, I'm confused. I don't know what to do. Tanya feels that it is pointless to resist something like this. Yet every fiber in my being is telling me that this is wrong. I am robbing this girl of her human life, and destroying any chance she has of having children." I knew I was being melodramatic, but I was deeply torn. My interest in Bella was only intensified by our discussion during class, and I didn't know how to move forward or even if I should.
"Immortality has it's cost. But you mustn't impose your own worries on this girl. She may not feel the same as you about these things." Her words didn't make sense to me and I began to shake my head.
"How could she feel anything else?" I said in exasperation, I was feeling like I was at my wits end.
"Edward, do not be so old fashioned. Modern girls are striving to build a career for themselves first before even thinking about a family or children." Esme reached out a hand to me and I moved over. She easily pulled me into a hug, before leading us to the couch set against the far wall by the window.
"According to Alice she has thirty more years, writes ten best selling books and has two beautiful girls. Her life is good." I knew it was an excuse, but it had been my defense. Her life had I never shown up.
"I know, a short and normal human life. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that." Esme said a little flatly. Her intonation was clear, it didn't sound good to her.
"Mother, you would condemn this girl to our life given the option?" I met her eyes and she nodded once before elaborating.
"I am not Rosalie, I love this life. I love my husband, my children. I wouldn't trade it for anything." She radiated warmth and confidence but I couldn't back down.
"Even your son." My question made her expression falter for a second. But she recovered and reached out to take hold of my shoulder.
"That wound has long since healed. I began to piece myself together starting the day you accepted me as your mother. Then when Rosalie cried in my arms after killing Royce, begging me to forgive her. The first time Emmett asked me for advice about talking to Rose. When Alice waltzed into our lives and hugged me first, calling me Mom as though I had always been that to her. Tell me, should I trade those things for pain and death?" She leveled a serious glare in my direction and it forced me to look at things from her perspective.
"No. You make this life better. You know that I love you, and feel grateful everyday that Carlisle found you. But you were dying when he turned you." She smiled for a second or so but her expression shifted back to the serious and mildly disappointed look she had before.
"Let me put it this way. You say this girl will live a short mortal life, but in contrast, what life will she have with us?" The question caught me off guard. It took some time to recall that other life I had been so opposed to.
"It was but a flash, but she was with us. She and I were married and happy. Alice thought of her as a sister. You had another daughter to love. Even Rosalie accepted her as family. Alice saw us maintaining that happiness for a thousand years. It was beautiful. But that future is already erased, and Alice refuses to show me anything else." I felt a pang of regret as I detailed that lost future. My own reaction had stolen that fate from more than just Bella. I felt ashamed for the first time about that choice.
"I see. So your whole position is based on fear. You do not know what will happen so you are pushing for the easy answer." Her counter was sharp and it was clear that she was very disappointed in me. I shook my head again and stood to leave.
"You aren't helping, maybe I shouldn't have come back." I started to make my way out of the room but she grabbed my hand and spun me to face her.
"I'm sorry. I don't mean to force you into a decision, especially over something like this. I've just been consumed with the idea of Bella joining our family for a week now. Now seeing you so unhappy, it is painful to me. It makes me want to just go over to her house and turn her now. I know it is silly and perhaps even stupid to obsess about this mortal, hell I'm even painting her portrait. To hang in our collection." She motioned towards the canvas and I moved around to look at it. It wasn't a quick landscape or a fast sketch. She was doing a full portrait, with the level of detail that could only come with the memories of our kind. Meaning only one thing.
"You've met her?" I glanced around the painting accusingly. She nodded once but kept her head and eyes lowered while speaking.
"Bella and Angela came over on Friday before going to Los Angeles with Alice and Rosalie." She explained, and the missing pieces fell into place. Rosalie's attitude difference, the casual indifference to my plight. They had already formed designs on her, and started to form relationships with her. Not just Alice, all of them.
"So the entire family has already met her?" I asked although it was a rhetorical question.
"Yes, and she is delightful. So is her friend. I can see why all of you speak highly of Angela Webber." Esme's voice was full of affection, she didn't just like Bella she had already started to accept her as her future daughter. One fucking visit and my family were already obsessed. I faked a smile back at her, but inside I was reeling.
"I really should make an effort to interact with Angela as a friend, I do use her mind as a refuge after all." I said, unable to talk about anything else. My rage was starting to make things difficult to focus.
"Really, you would do well with either of them. But Edward, I do not wish to pressure you into doing something prematurely. I only ask you to think of your own feelings, then act as you see fit." Her words made sense, but I didn't fully believe them. Alice had made the first move before I had, and my interactions with Bella only made things harder. I felt I had to do something to separate myself and my family from this mortal before it was too late.
"That's just the thing, I have no idea what I'm feeling." I admitted, which was partially accurate. I still felt the attraction but I couldn't accept it as real. A byproduct of her strange mind and powerful scent. I refused to believe it was anything more.
"I trust you will figure it out. There is plenty of time to make a choice." She said and moved over to give me a hug. I rested my chin on her shoulder and took a deep breath.
"Right, all the time in the world." I said absently, hoping it was the truth.
Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Finally seeing Alice's vision cinched it. My attraction to Bella was going to consume her life in every possible way. I could hear Tyler singing to himself, he wasn't paying attention. He took the turn into the school too fast, and I could see the patch of black ice he was heading for. It was simple trigonometry, speed, angle, friction. He would spin into the side of Bella's truck. It could take the abuse, in fact I was fairly certain Tyler's van would be the worse for wear.
I glanced over and found Bella standing right where the impact would be, I could make it over to her. My mind was reeling with the desire to save her. Instead I tried to get her to see the danger, only to realize I made the wrong choice. I had a second to act and there were two choices before me; Save this girl who I hardly knew or protect my family secret. It was an easy choice to rationalize. Who was I to expose the vampire world to humanity over an impulse. Attraction, even Alice's future visions of us together were not enough. I could not risk myself and my family for one human life…
Except it was Bella's life.
Alice began to scream in her mind. Her steady stream of obscenity was difficult to hear, yet her vision is what threw me out of my complacency. I hadn't just doomed this mortal… I had doomed all of us to that strange dark path I had ignored when Alice shared her visions. I started to move, hoping my body could get there in time. I was a split second too late for the initial impact. All I could do was get her onto the ground gently to avoid further damage and to prevent the two metal hulks from running over her.
I couldn't face Alice or Emmett who were both staring at me in anger and shock. I couldn't help Bella who was beginning to bleed from several small lacerations. So I ran, as far and as fast as I could manage.
Author's Notes:
I hope you enjoyed diving into Edward's psyche a bit. He is hard to write in one respect, and the language used in dialogue is intentionally old fashioned and formal to a degree. I also wanted a solid introduction to the Denali, because we will not see them again for quite a while.
Until next time, next up will be titled: Moments Between Silence - Angela (POV)
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Thank you for reading!