A/N: Thanks so much for all your wonderful thoughts!

I know there were lots of questions after the last chapter, and I meant to clear them up with this chapter, but it grew way too long. So, I'm going to TRY to update with the rest of this chapter as soon as I'm done with it, hopefully, either tonight or sometime this weekend. :)

Most characters belong to S. Meyer. The rest belong to me. All mistakes are mine.


Chapter 11 - Separation


October 28, 1692

Edward grabs mine hips and sits up under me, rocking me faster. I anchor mineself to his shoulders and cradle his waist with mine thighs as we chase a friction that teases us with no mercy. And so when, with his crimson eyes locked on mine, Edward's hips buck, I come undone. Bursting into flames, I cry out to the heavens because Dear Lord, the heat is overwhelming. It be so intense that no doubt have I 'twould set the forest aflame if it escaped the confines of my core.

Afterward, I sleep. Only for a short while, for we must return to Andover soon. But for that short while, safe and sated, over and under warm animal skins and within my Soaring Eagle's embrace, I be in a place close to heaven. Edward's strong hands continuously stroke me, tracing my bare spine, massaging mine shoulders, and lips brushing my nape, while I sigh in contentment.

These days have been pure rapture. Edward has taken me away from Andover several evenings and into the earliest hours of the morn, returning while there still be sufficient darkness in the village shadows to shield us as he restores me quietly and inconspicuously to my bed. There, with breathless, impassioned whispers and kisses, we surrender to a daily separation that grows more difficult with each passing day.

Yet, 'tis I who holds us back from the escape to which we have both agreed.

In the meanwhile, we visit our midnight Eden. 'Tis what I have termed the tent, which lays surrounded by a field of wildflowers in an inland part of the country further from the coast and, therefore, much less frigid than our colonies in Massachusetts Bay. Edward tells me we be in a territory named Lenapehoking, where the Lenape people make their home. Here, we spend hours talking freely without whispering or regulating our voices.

We make love loudly and in ways that sometimes make me wonder whether God really be frowning upon us. For Edward beds me in manners I never could have imagined, some of them shocking and all breathtakingly thrilling. Our mouths are now familiar with every intimate part of one another's bodies. He enjoys skimming his lips across my spine and then to my backside, which he cradles in both hands as his tongue delves into every hidden crevice. I have found one has no mind to wallow in shame while screaming in pleasure. I, as well, have put my mouth on Edward's manhood, tentatively at first. Yet my confidence grew when Edward threw his head back and roared so loudly that I heard the birds outside take flight.

A se'en night ago, my courses came. I had thought…

Well, I had felt lightheaded at times, with a peculiar sensation as if my mind was not all mine, and I had thought that, perhaps…

Suffice it to say I felt a measure of disappointment. Edward, however, was elated, for this he takes as proof that we shall never procreate.

And so, betwixt conversation and lovemaking, we plan for our escape. Edward tells me that when I am ready, he shall go find his Aunt Aquinnah, whom most of the time he calls by the name the English who know her have given her: Alice. Then, he shall come to claim me and take me even further inland, to land more than two days hence, where even now, with winter at our backs, the sun kindles the land. There, also when I am ready, he shall perform the act which will make me like he.

Yet, for all our discussions, when I ask for details of what the act that shall make me like he entails, Edward, my Soaring Eagle, be vague. When I ask how long it shall take, he tells me 'twill take days for the transformation to complete once it begins.

"Shall it be painful?" ask I, with my head resting on his firm chest.

He does not reply immediately, then only with an "Aye."

"Why so vague, my love?" wonder I, drawing circles on his chest with a finger.

When he snorts, then swallows, I rise and fall with his chest's movements.

"'Tis…difficult," says he, "to not merely speak of the affliction that keeps me alive yet concealed, away from most, indeed from those who would neither understand nor accept what you accept in me so readily. And so, 'tis even more difficult to speak of it when soon, ye shall be afflicted as well, and by my hand."

A long moment passes before I raise my head and meet his now darkened gaze.

"That all savors more of good fortune than affliction, for what benefit to us are those who would not accept us?"

He chuckles, but there is little mirth in it. "Wonder I if ye will still see it such when you have experienced decades, perhaps centuries, in such a manner."

I cup his cheek, "Edward…times, circumstances, views – these all change. Perhaps gradually, but they do alter. Six centuries ago, there was no such thing as law. Then came jurisprudence, and the belief in the rights of men, if not women, as individuals. The Plague set back this forward-thinking, but then this new land was invaded-"

"You call it invasion?" frowns he.

"I call it invasion, aye," I nod, "for were there not people already living here when my grandfather…and when your father arrived? How could ye, as half Wampanoag, not name it invasion?"

"I do name it invasion, Isabella," he confirms, his hand raking through the length of mine hair. "I be merely startled to hear you say it, for I have met few settlers, even fewer women, who would name it such. And I wonder how came you to that conclusion?"

"Father does not mince words on certain beliefs when we are within our walls. And so, we invaded this new land, and our great philosophers realized that there was an entire world of which we knew nothing and peoples of which we knew nothing. People whom our fellow invaders have pilfered and plundered from because we knew nothing of them. 'Then, we wonder why they raid us?' says he. 'And so,' says he further, 'we can no longer pretend that they do not exist and must find a way to co-exist.'"

Edward holds my gaze with something akin to awe. "I shall not deny that I am amazed that thy father thinks this way. And see I now what ye have further inferred from this. You believe it shall be so with your kind…and my kind-"

"Your kind shall soon be my kind as well," I remind him with a smile.

"Aye," he snorts. "You believe that hundreds of years from now, Hobomock, such as I be, such as ye shall be, shall live in harmony with others."

"Aye, but ye are not Hobomock. And neither shall I be."

"Aye," nods he, "despite our eyes that go from crimson to black, our pallid and cold skin, and our habit of feeding on the blood of our fellow man until they are dead."

The sudden bluntness shocks me, and I cannot disguise it as my eyes grow round and my breath hitches. Yet, concurrently to shock, I also feel such hypocrisy. Was I not just lamenting, even if only in my mind, his lack of openness with me now that we have decided to make me like him?

"Isabella, my love," says he more gently. For aye, he meant to shock me, to pull me out of what I now see as, perhaps, an overly-romanticized, love-infused view of what awaits me.

"We shall not be able to show ourselves to most of the world save those few like us or who accept us – yet still fear us." I swallow hard as he continues. "We would instantly be perceived as…Other, be proclaimed evil, demon, witch. They would try to destroy us, and they would go mad when an entire village could not overpower us. We would have to do unspeakable things to keep them from spreading the secret of our existence."

I cannot speak, and my breaths have grown long and deep.

"Your heart races," notes he, "and I suspect 'tis not from our earlier lovemaking. And I cannot blame ye for thy fear of the unknown-"

"Aye, if that was thy aim, ye have succeeded in causing me fear."

Remorse infuses his features, and he pulls me up to sit on his lap. "Pray, forgive the method, but I had to-"

"But though you see the fear in my eyes and hear it in the rapid beat of my heart, what you do not know, Edward," say I, "is that I fear the known more than I fear the unknown." Taking his hand, I place it on my breast. "I fear never knowing the feel of your touch more than I fear feeling it in the shadows or in darkness. I fear not having you with whom to share my entire self, without need for artifice, more than I fear pain…or blood."

"Isabella…" he cradles my face within his hands, his gaze full of an adoration he does not attempt to conceal, "ye are the bravest of women."

"If that is how ye see me, I shall not attempt to change thy mind."

He leans in, his eyes falling to my mouth, but I pull back slightly.

"I do have…a question."

"You may ask me anything," he confirms.

"There are phrases you say sometimes…thoughts you convey, that make me wonder…"

He tilts his head, waiting.

"Edward, have ye lain with other women?"

His eyes hold mine. "Aye."

Pain lances through me like a sharp sword and spears my very soul. Somehow, I manage to speak through it.

"With women like me…or like you?"

Edward watches me warily. "Like me."

I nod languidly and force my voice to remain steady. Regardless of my desire to hurl screams and curses, and despite my undeniable hurt, I pride myself on being a sensible creature.

"Who were they?"

"Why, Isabella?"

"I am a curious creature," I smile. "Indulge me."

He sighs. "They are women who shall never cross our paths, for they live far, far, far from here, in a part of the world where winter be endless."

"Good." Again, I nod. "I assume I need not say I had not performed the act before."

He brushes his lips softly to my forehead, tightening his hold around my waist as if he fears I may run off.

"Nay, you need not say."

"I say this not to grant you assurance nor gratification, for you are an intelligent and discerning creature, and I know you knew this."

He tips his head sideways, followed by a nod indicating he awaits further illumination.

"I aim to elucidate the unjust imbalance of your reply as compared to mine."

He does not immediately speak. When he does, his tone is less apologetic and warier.

"I know not what rejoinder to such a statement ye await. As I have wholly admitted and admired more than once, ye are also an intelligent and discerning creature, my Isabella." He traces my mouth with one finger. "I do not believe ye expect me to suggest we balance the inequity."

"I-"

His finger ceases circling my mouth and instead presses firmly to my lips.

"What is more," adds he, his voice lower, nostrils now slightly flared, "while I do admit there be an imbalance, do keep in mind that, although I may be in many ways an enhanced form of man, I am not, in fact, a wizard or a soothsayer nor any form of deity. I had no notion of your existence, which must be some excuse for my bedding others."

"A poor excuse when I lacked such knowledge of you as well," hiss I, pulling his finger away from my mouth.

"And so our level of experience did vary, aye. Yet now that I know of thee, I have no wish to bed others. Can ye not claim the same?"

Of course, I have no desire to bed others. Not only do I love him, but though I may have been a maiden and sheltered, I am not stupid. Though he claims he be no deity, he admits he be more than a mere man. And so how can a mere mortal ever compare to a demi-god's prowess?

As these thoughts rush through my mind, I hold his fiery gaze. "Before I reply, I would ask you to compartmentalize your feelings for me; set them aside within a box in your mind."

"'Tis an impossible request ye make of me," he replies brusquely. "For I can no longer separate what I feel for ye from every other sensation within me. Nor do I wish to."

"Attempt it, I pray you, for just a moment. Ye be possessed of a strong mind. It can be done."

He grins mirthlessly. "Thy flattery at this moment falls flat indeed in light of the discussion. Either way, I cannot comply."

"Your brisk negation of my request I find insulting."

"Isabella…" he sighs, "I do not wish to argue, my love. I did not know-"

"Have you ever, in your long life, ever loved-?"

Before I may finish my question, he has me on my back as he hovers above me with a frenzied gaze and a desperate hold. When he speaks, his words tumble forth in a heated rush.

"Nay. Never. I have never loved any woman other than my aunt, and even the affection I hold her in falls far short of what I feel for you. Isabella, though I be only half of this monstrous creation, I know I was born without a soul, and without a soul, I remained…until I met you. You are my soul, and I pray that by changing you, I am not robbing you of it."

I cup his cheek. "You are not," I assure him with a smile. "You are not."

"Forgive me, my love. Before you, my life seemed to me as if it would stretch out for an innumerable number of years, all marked by loneliness, so I aimed to minimize it, if not change it. I do wish I had known," he nods wistfully, "for I would have waited for ye. Forgive me."

"There is nothing to forgive," say I. "We are one another's souls, and that is all that matters."

He expels a series of breaths, then returns my smile with a nod. "Aye."

"Edward…I am ready."

His smile fades, but understanding is etched in the brightening of his eyes.

"Ready to leave behind thy village, thy way of life? Thy friends and family? Thy father?" he stresses, for he knows…he knows 'twas having to forever leave my father behind, which held me back. But I am ready.

I offer him a slow yet confident nod. "I told ye, there are things I fear more than the unknown. I fear knowing my life in Andover, being forced to marry into an existence where my mind does not matter, where my thoughts must be my secrets, where my body does not belong to me…or to you."

"I vow to you, ye shall live an existence where you are forever cherished for the beauty of your mind. And your body…aye, it shall belong to both of us, just as my body is as much yours as it is mine."

"By choice."

"Aye, by choice."

With our bodies, we seal our vows and the joining of our lifelong desires. And afterward, when Edward returns me to Andover in the early hours, he leaves to find his aunt in the wilds of this ancient land. For 'tis she who shall assist him in changing me. We shall be separated, and he knows not precisely how long he shall be gone, but we know that this time when he returns for me, 'tis forever.


A/N: Thoughts?

Chapter Song Rec: How Deep Is Your Love? Covered by: the bird and the bee (originally by the AMAZING Bee Gees :) :

I believe in you

You know the door to my very soul

You're the light in my deepest, darkest hour

You're my savior when I fall

And you may not think I care for you

When you know down inside that I really do

And it's me you need to show

How deep is your love?

How deep is your love?

How deep is your love?

I really mean to learn

'Cause we're living in a world of fools

Breaking us down when they all should let us be

We belong to you and me...

A couple of things:

First:

A Little Bit of History (for those who are interested):

The Lenape of New York and New Jersey.

The land where Edward took Bella in the beginning of this chapter, (and a couple of chapters ago) is Lenape (leh-NAH-pay). The Lenape occupied a territory they termed Lenapehoking that stretched from present-day Ulster County and New York City to New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and eastern Delaware. Translated roughly as "the original people," the Lenape were referred to by European colonists as the Delawares.

The clan occupying the Hudson Valley region spoke a dialect known as Munsee. They were known alternatively as the Munsee Indians, the Esopus ("small river"), or the Esopus Munsee.

The Lenape followed a matrilineal lineage. Unlike some cultures, women were not treated as a man's property and were considered the owner of the home. :)

I live on what was once Lenape Land. The name of my town, "Manalapan," is derived from a word in the Lenape language that would mean either "land of good bread", "good land to settle upon", "good bread" or "covered swamp with edible roots."

Second:

I've started to update last year's Christmas story again, 'The Ghost of Christmas Past.' For various reasons, I wasn't able to complete it last year, but I'm hoping to do so this holiday season. It updated yesterday, and I hope to update again in the next couple of days.

And like I said, I'm going to TRY to update this one again either this afternoon or tomorrow. We shall see. ;)

Facebook: Stories by PattyRose

Twitter: PattyRosa817

"See" you soon!