Welcome back! I want to thank Kyr, JessPots1704, Magda94, Mariana, Ptool, , William Francies-Newman, and myfanficaddiction, Ladysylphide, 3moons, and Sharpeyes, Quaquaquaqua, KittenAlice2, SpeedForce 1229, and Noee for reviewing!
Yes, Kyr, Bella is dealing with so much that is out of the ordinary in this small town of Forks. If only she could have just been able to live a normal life, but that would be boring, too (; I also want to thank you for reading my other story and reviewing it!
Ptool, Mariana, , and William Francies-Newman, Ronja Sofia I'm glad you are enjoying the story! I'm glad Chapter 6 was able to appeal to your emotions! Typing it was hard enough!
JessPots1704, I'm glad you liked it! Updating is hard at the moment because of the fast-paced environment of college right now during the pandemic. It's a bit tricky to get writing done right now, but just know, I would never abandon this story!
Magda94! This person had left a lovely review, but also had pointed out certain parts that I had caused the story to bounce around too much during the monologue. Originally, I spoke very briefly about damnation and then contradicted myself in a different paragraph. Magda94 advised me that I should go in more depth about that—more in depth about Bella's thoughts on it since she is a Christian who did think about these themes throughout the series! So, I revised it and edited the last chapter! Thank you Magda94!
Myfanficaddiction, do you know how DEVASTATED I was when you didn't review the last chapter? Oh my goodness I thought I lost you for leaving your thoughts on individual portions of the chapter like always! I'm glad you point those things out and notice them. With Ben, that is a good theory why he isn't charmed by Bella. There are always mysteries to the supernatural and why things do and don't occur! (No, I don't have an answer either, but your justification is good enough for me.)
Ladysylphide, thank you SO much! That was so nice of you! I would love to, honestly. I really enjoy this story, but I definitely think I would need to go to years' worth of writing workshops to improve myself. I'm glad you're optimistic about the wolve's way of thinking, but when have they ever given the Cullens a chance (; So we will have to see!
3moons, glad to see you back and reviewing my other chapter! I hope I was able to clear that question up for you. Chapter 6 was a very rough chapter to emotionally type for me.
Sharpeyes, I see your concerns and actually wanted to appease you a little bit. I can't do that fully with my story, but I did want to revert you to a story that I'm really enjoying reading right now. It is called Claws by BetterinTexas. It is a Bella and Leah pairing, but it takes its time before getting into romantic themes and explores the major supernatural themes first that you said you enjoy. It definitely is a one-of-a-kind story. But, please continue reading mine, too!(: Also I know with her perceptiveness that it could have been possible she would have realized what they were, but I also want to extend the idea that if she had knowledge of what a shapeshifter was, she most likely would have put 2-and-2 together faster. With the damnation thing, read my A/N above for Magda94.
Quaquaquaqua, I know, poor Bella having to deal with hostile wolves... But yes, they are protectors and would be worried about her being on their land.
KittenAlice2, weird that my story isn't showing that it's updated! I find myself having problems with fanfiction all the time though, like sometimes it won't even let me update new chapters! I'm glad you had the gut urge to come back and see if I updated anyways! Glad to see you back!(:
Noee, hello friend! Ah yes, the overprotective wolves. Bothersome they can be.
SpeedForce 1229, Someone in one of the previous chapters actually mentioned Lost Girl. I've never actually heard of it but I did capture this idea from a previous story I read which I had given credits to in my prologue. I had re-created her image of a succubus a tad bit, though she may have gotten the idea from Lost Girl. It's funny because I just recommended Claws to another reader above in my A/N! Also to answer your question, check out the NOTICE below!
NOTICE… the reason why Bella couldn't mind manipulate Jared to let her go is because Sam already had ordered him to not let her go. Alpha orders. Of course, Bella doesn't know that, but it's not really a spoiler so it should be fine for me to notify you guys with that information.
All rights to the characters and the Twilight Saga go to Stephenie Meyer. Enjoy!(:
Sam looked at me confused and placed his finger under my chin and lifted my head up to look at him. I didn't stare directly at him, but I kept my glance on his wrist.
"Her eyes," Sam said.
"Are they red?" Billy and Jared asked in unison.
"No, they are purple."
Chapter 7: My Line
Adrenaline.
I grasped my hand against his fingers under my chin, quickly crushing his fingertips in my grip and yanked them away from my face. I could feel the veins rippling under his skin as it seemed to want to bounce back at me, too. I grabbed onto his shoulder, turning his body around and folding his arm behind his back. In the same moment, I kicked my foot up from underneath me, and shoved it against his popliteal, causing him to lose his balance as he collided his knees against the wooden floor of the room. He grunted in disbelief.
Gasps erupted in the moment as the action had taken place in almost under a second. I turned whipping my leg around in the same movement, colliding my calf against the side of his head, knocking him onto the ground. I could see a pulsing vein in his temple. What had gotten into me? What was this odd sense of strength and speed that had run through my body at the very moment? I had no recollection of self-defense. I had never trained in this art, so how did my body automatically know what to do? I felt a tingling sensation flowing down my neck, over my shoulders all the way down to my fingertips and toes. It was as if my body knew what it was doing without my self-awareness of it.
Jared had hesitated, looking down at Sam. His body seemed to be fighting against itself as his neck jerked his head back and forth before looking directly at me.
"Jared, don't!" I yelled at him with my raised hand. "I don't know what is happening to me right now, but I am warning you that I will not be able to control myself if you lunge at me."
Billy's eyes continued to stare at me until he had broken his eye contact and looked over at Jared who seemed conflicted with himself on whether to head my warning or fall into his own urges and come towards me.
"Jared, stand down," Billy ordered him. Billy glanced back at me with fright in his eyes. I looked over at him, pressing my lips together, furrowing my eyebrows. I shook my head at him and looked back at Jared who still looked conflicted as his body seemed to be vibrating. This was a possible sign that he was going to uncontrollably shift into his wolf form.
I placed my foot on top of Sam's rib cage and forced his body to stay down against the ground.
"I swear I will break right through his rib cage if you come any closer," I said with an authoritative but shaken voice. I didn't want to do that, but it was as if I had no control of my body anymore. I was reluctant to defend myself to keep myself alive. The command I had used against him earlier when he had his hand wrapped around my arm hadn't worked, so I assumed trying to manipulate him to back away at this moment wouldn't either, especially with him being so close to turning.
I noticed that he was not not going to hesitate anymore or head to mine or Billy's warning. When I could see Jared beginning to lunge, I smashed my foot farther into Sam's rib cage causing him to hurl out a curdling scream from his throat as the sounds of the cracking ribs had vibrated up my ankle. Jared was quick when he came towards me, holding his fist back to anticipate the force he was going to direct at me, but I had already found my hand on his shoulder, pressing my two fingers against the pressure point in his neck, rendering his body to go slack underneath me. I used my other hand and grasped it against his other shoulder, pushing him down to the ground to fall on top of Sam's body. Groans emitted from him as the quick numbness rendered through his body as it was trying to recuperate itself. I bounced on my toes, wiggling my fingers to the side of my body before I had noticed that my foot had collided against his chest, forcing his back against the ground next to Sam.
I looked over at Billy whose eyes were boring into me. Shock and panic ran across his face as he had frozen in his chair. I knew I didn't want to hurt him. He was a crippled old man who cared about me as a child and cared about my father. He had offered me advice growing up and helped me when I hurt myself at a young age. He was just an old man sitting in a wheelchair that posed no threat to me. There was no reason to lunge at him. I shook my head, looking at the two rendered boys who were slightly groaning but were already shaking it off as they were trying to push themselves off the ground onto their feet.
In a quick movement, I was at the front door, pulling it open and causing the top hinge of the door to snap off. I seared air through my teeth, trying to calm my body down from the sporadic energy that was coursing through me, but it wasn't going away. It tingled over my body, but it wasn't uncomfortable. The high was coursing through me, coursing through my body as I could feel the energy ripple over my skin, scorching in my cheeks. It wasn't visible, nothing to be seen through the naked eye, but I could feel it.
Over my shoulder, I could hear Jared scattering to his feet boring his eyes directly onto me. Sam was having a much more difficult time as he was rolling his body against the floor, trying to capture his hand from underneath him to lift himself up. He was trying to fight against the pain that was emitting from his side where I had broken several of his ribs. I felt the threat as I could hear Jared's teeth grinding over each other, slipping past the rivets of his molars. They were inside. They were not going to phase in there as long as Billy was in close range. I could imagine the change from man to wolf wasn't the most controlled and possibly volatile. They would have to charge after me on their feet towards the door to get to me, but that wasn't an option for them in their human forms. I could simply outrun them as long as they were not 'phased.' But if I left this threshold, and had escaped from them, they would eventually make it outside, and then shift into their wolf and easily catch up to me.
The odds were not in my favor at either option. The option is to escape. Escape? That's what I do best. Hide the scent. Get to the trees. Get home.
If they ran after me to my home, they could hurt Charlie. Would they hurt Charlie? They had called themselves protectors. They would supposedly have rational thoughts in their wolf forms, correct? No, not a chance. That wasn't a risk I could take right now.
The Cullens. They spoke ill of them as if Cullens were a threat to them. Whatever they knew about the secrets of the Cullens, it only meant that they were afraid of them. Get to their house. Hide.
I looked over my shoulder seeing that Jared was following my jerking motions of where I was swaying closer to the threshold and away from it. He was trying to anticipate my movements of which decision I would make. To run or to stay. Either way, only fury and hatred fueled his eyes.
Then I could see them. My eyes. They were glowing in the reflection of the mirror on the farthest wall. There was no pupil that lingered in between the amethyst irises, only the solid but glowing amethyst hue. My breath held deep into my lungs. What was happening to me? I tore my glance away from myself in the mirror but peaked back at it again. I trailed my fingers underneath the bottom lids, tugging on them and dragging it down to inspect my eye more. My fingers were trembling against my skin. If I've never thought of myself to be a monster or to at least look like one, then I definitely did now.
"Bella!" A boy's voice called to me far away from down the beach. I could hear his feet shuffling through the grains of the sand while he trailed closer. I didn't take my eyes off of the farthest wall— shock. But that shock had run dry. I rubbed my hands repeatedly over my face, over my eyes, trying to breathe through it. Breathe through the high that courses through me. I exhaled and inhaled deeply as Jacob called out to me again. Embry and Quil weren't too far behind him, and no one inside of the house moved.
"Bella, my boy does not believe in the spirits or the entities that inhabit Forks. He has heard the stories about them, but I still would appreciate it if you left right now before he was to fully come across one."
"I wouldn't hurt him, Billy," I hissed through my teeth. Unbelievable.
"Maybe not consciously," he replied. "Leave these lands and do not come back." I peeked over my shoulder looking at Jake through my peripheral view who slowed his pace to a walk. Him, Embry, and Quil were holding blankets and the litter from the smores. I let my hand go off the door frame, flexing my fingers and shaking my wrist back and forth, trying to focus on my breathing.
"What are you going to tell him when he sees Sam?" I asked.
"Let me handle that. Now leave." I turned away from the threshold and quickly scattered down the stairs leaving their front yard and escaping through the side.
I looked over my shoulder again where Jake and his friends were getting closer to the front of the house. Jacob had stopped, and looked at me with a confused expression. "Sorry, Jake," I said to him in a monotone voice, not facing my body towards his direction. "Charlie is mad at me. I got to head home."
"Oh," Jacob frowned. "I—I'll see you later?" The poor boy had no clue how almost guilt tripping his pleas were, so I nodded at him.
"Yeah, later." I walked towards my truck, pulling out my keys and drove home.
-Edited: I had taken pieces of Sharpeye's review of this chapter and had incorporated it into the above scenes of this story. Thank you!
They never followed me home that night after I had left in my car. They didn't stalk me at my house the following day, either. I didn't know what they were up to, but Billy had seemed very firm before about seeing me today. Maybe he had changed his mind when he realized I was able to incapacitate the two large men in their human forms, but they should know I would basically be useless when it came to fighting them in their wolf form. I could only run an escape if they were to come after me. I would escape easily but staying on the run forever from them seemed to be the most nerve-wracking plan.
They saw my eyes. No one had seen my eyes before and now they had seen them. Even I didn't know what caused them to do such a thing. Adrenaline? Maybe. Maybe my senses were heightened from the threat that I was facing, but Vilinsea had never told me about this. She had never told me anything at all about the supernatural world. From the perspective she had told me of, it seemed only we were the nonhuman beings in this world and the only threat that posed against us were if humans found out. I wonder if she even knew there were bronze skinned boys in the world that had brute strength and could turn into giant wolves that were almost as large as my own truck. I wonder if she had the answer to what the Cullens were considering Billy was no help, but Vilinsea wasn't around. I had no way of contacting her. She had abandoned me—leaving me with only the hope that I could handle this way of life on my own without her guidance.
She didn't realize how much I needed answers, but she was alone when she had found me, so maybe she was abandoned, too.
I spent my Sunday morning in my bedroom. Charlie had left the house before I had woken up and now the house was empty and quiet. Still, no pine smell was nearby, so I had hopes that they hadn't come after me. Maybe they were worried that I could actually stand on my own against them and it had caused them to stand down until they could figure out their own motives to attack.
Jacob had called me twice today wanting to apologize for keeping me out too late and causing Charlie to be mad at me for it. Charlie wasn't mad at all, actually. Charlie liked Jacob and Billy a lot and hanging out in La Push was possibly my only interaction I would be able to receive outside of this house while I was grounded. But telling Jacob that was the only lie I could make up on the spot. I spent my day doing whatever homework assignments that the teachers had provided over the syllabus. It wasn't much work it was mostly putting our signature on pieces of paper to acknowledge that we understood academic honesty and lab safety along with small assignments for trig for understanding the most basic new material. Possibly the easiest portion of the class. I had also made sure to turn on the computer and go online and order more cheap contact lenses. They were cheaper to buy in bulk and surprisingly there was a large discount sale on them. That pleased me.
The week had gone by easy enough, except for the non-casual staring that the Cullens offered throughout the lunch periods and Edward's irritated grumbles throughout each biology period. It had annoyed me that I had irritated him so easily when we barely ever spoke other than when he would correct my notes when I had written something down wrong. He thought I was an idiot and incapable of handling that myself. Maybe I was an idiot though. I had no clue of the supernatural world or what it entailed. I so far was able to figure out that the Quileute boys could turn into wolves, but that was only because I finally put the pieces together when Jared's body was pressed against me and the scents of both forms were the same.
Whenever I had worked up the courage on Tuesday to fulfil promises, I had followed what Teddy had asked of me. I had fed the ducks that Tuesday and Friday evening. They seemed a little uncomfortable to approach me at first as if they were expecting someone else, but I was all they had at this point. Though, I didn't mind feeding them. I could see why Teddy and Lucille enjoyed this activity. It was calming in a way that there were other animals just enjoying their life with something so simple as food being offered to them.
That Friday evening, I realized I needed to figure out what to do about Teddy's unmarked grave and how to get in contact with his family about his death. I had found a general store nearby that held the Yellow Pages along with a booklet of the town residents in it. I flipped through the pages to find the section for the H's and found Theodore Eugene Halliday in it. His home phone number and nearby address was listed in it. This town must be very small if it is so trusting to give away information like that in just a book. I wondered if Forks had something like that. I knew more resort neighborhoods with gated communities had books like this handed out to residents, but I didn't know this was a thing for regular towns, too, that were given so freely in general stores.
I had followed the roads, looking around to find the street where the address was. He had lived in a small home that was placed next to the street and his yard had been slightly overgrown with dead grass patches scattered in several places. His mailbox held a bunch of subscriptions to gardening magazines and art ones that were soiled from the rain that seeped in between the metal cracks. They must have been left in here for quite some time. There was also a note that had been stamped with a nearby clinic seal. He must have had someone taking care of him these past couple of years because the billing statement dated back to two thousand two. I felt bad about interrogating his privacy, but I supposed at the same time he didn't need it anymore. It was important for me to get this done.
The door was locked, so I used my subtle force to break the deadbolt and I looked around me to check if anyone was near, but to no surprise, there was no one near. It was late at night, around close to midnight, so I had expected that no one would have been prowling the streets anyways. I walked inside, smelling in the rustic but ancient scents that older people usually held in their homes. Old furniture along with old books were encased in the bookshelves in the living room. The house looked to have been cleaned recently, which I supposed was done by the home nurse that was billing him. The note had read that she would need to be notified next time Mr. Halliday had left to go out of town. I frowned at this. He was not going to be coming home anytime soon.
I drifted aimlessly around the house, not touching anything that was nearby. I didn't want to leave anything that would cause any authorities to trace back to me, not that I had a record for them to trace the DNA to me. I followed up a creaky staircase that went to a bathroom and two separate bedrooms. One was obviously the bedroom that was used the most. It still held his sweet honey but masculine old scent in it, and the other one was used as a study.
Inside was a large mahogany desk with the walls covered in large bookcases filled with books that I have already read or were not too interested in reading. Most of the books were nonfiction, but I had mostly enjoyed the fiction and romantic aspects of publishing. I opened a few of the drawers, trailing my fingers through different files trying to find anything that would lead me to bank statements or even an address book. I sighed when my efforts became null. There was a smaller side desk near the drawer which held a plastic box on top of it filled with paperwork. I walked over to it, noticing there was a small phone address book in it. It seemed stuff was thrown in here without any kind of neatness to it.
I shuffled through the address book finding one of his children in there. He had their ages, their date of birth, emails, phone numbers, street addresses, and the names of his grandchildren under each child. I quickly found the oldest of his children and looked at the number. I walked over to his mahogany desk and placed the phone address book down and grabbed the rotary dial phone on his desk and called the number.
"Hello, is this Jimmy I'm speaking with?" I asked, trying to convey as much authority and confidence in my throat.
"Yes, yes. Is this a new at home nurse?" Jimmy asked on the other end of the phone. This might be helpful with easing into the terrible news.
"No, I apologize. That service will no longer be needed," I said pausing. The man let out a heavy sigh through the phone before I continued. "You see, your father has passed, but we had gone ahead and buried him in the grave plot next to your mother that he had been paying expenses for."
"Wait," Jimmy stuttered. "You already buried him without his family holding a funeral for him? Who is this?"
I paused, taking in a deep breath. "Sir, we found him on the ground where his body had already seemed to be decaying, so we went ahead and buried him because his deteriorating condition would make it impossible for there to be an open casket funeral. My team had found his will on his desk, and he wished to have been buried at the plot that was listed. My condolences for your family."
"You still haven't said who you are? You could've contacted us earlier and you chose not to, now who the hell is this?" His voice sounded more irritated through the phone as it continued to raise.
I ignored his question. "His body had shown signs that he had died during the early hours of January fifteenth. That would be his expected day of death." Jimmy started shouting for his wife after taking the phone briefly away from his ear. "Have a good day, Jimmy Halliday. I am very sorry."
"Now wait a minute—" I hung up the phone. That was much more emotionally deteriorating than I had dreamed it would be. I rubbed my cheek over the shoulder of my shirt, wiping away the incoming tears that I knew would have soon broken the surface. I had reminded myself to breathe through this. It had to be done. Now Teddy would have a marked grave and it gave the chance for his family to say their proper goodbyes.
The small tears that filled in my eyes had ended when I had come across the smell of sunshine, lilac, and sweeter than usual decadent honey. I was being followed. I used the sleeve of my shirt and wiped whatever fingerprints I could have left on the phone.
I had left the house and jumped into my truck, trying to ignore the scent that seemed close by that smelled like Edward. I turned the key of my truck and drove off.
It was Monday again and the scent of Edward hadn't returned since that night in that small town after he had followed me. Was he trying to stalk me and finally had fulfilled an idea of a plan to kill me? I already had wolves to worry about finishing that demand, and having Edward following me out of town at Halliday's home was not something I had expected.
If I had expected anyone to have been following me recently, it would've been Sam and Jared, but their scents surprisingly hadn't lingered by any time since the incident.
It was snowing outside which I loathed. The cold only partially bothered me, though not as much as it had when I was human. In these conditions I would have normally needed to double up on layers, but now, it was not needed. I did anyways for appearances and grabbed my jean jacket to wrap around me along with a cream sweater and ill-fitting jeans and long socks with my rain boots. I noticed after the week that my hair held less of the red hue that coarse through the strands after my recent feeding. It was still there, just not as vibrant as it was last week. Charlie had already left the house this morning, leaving behind a note that he had put together my lunch for today. That was oddly nice of him, even if it was just the leftover sausage and bean soup I had made for the both of us last night.
When I had arrived at the school, Mike, Ethan, and Eric were waiting for me like they usually do. Their hair was spiked with snow and the same with their clothes as if they had a war only a few moments ago with snowballs. Mike was tossing one in his hand as he looked at me, but I gave him a look that I directed at the bridge of his nose between his eyes to warn him to not dare throw one at me.
The periods before lunch went by normally. Jessica spoke to me briefly during the Spanish class that we had together and then she had walked with me to lunch like she did before on the first day of school. She seemed nice enough, but I could feel her rigidness when we sat down at the table with Mike already smiling at me. I supposed she had been infatuated with him before I moved here, and even more so now.
The microwave in the cafeteria was unsurprisingly broken so I had to eat the soup cold which didn't bother me. The coldness of it had soothed my throat. I wasn't entirely too hungry for more energy, but I hadn't fed in over a week so there was the faintest tickle in my throat. It seemed the more frequent I fed, the more often I needed it. I shook my head at the idea.
"The Cullens are staring at you, again, Bella." Jessica said, nudging me with her arm to look over at them.
"They always seem to do that, don't they?" Mike said, turning his face and scowling at them. I chuckled at his reaction when he looked at their table. Whatever they were, I knew Mike wouldn't have a chance against them if it came to a fight, but his efforts were comical. I briefly glanced over, following Mike's eyes and noticed that Alice had a slight smile on her face as she was rubbing her hands with a folded-up napkin as she spoke to Jasper. Edward had hidden his glance almost immediately when I laid my eyes onto him. I grew frustrated. So, he could follow me all the way out of the town of Forks but then becomes a coward when I look at him?
"Bella, how's your soup?" Ethan asked, shyly. He was like an adorable puppy that I didn't mind having around. Kind of like a shy little brother that I never had but had disturbingly had a crush on me. I smiled at him and pushed my soup over to him with my spoon.
"Want to try?" I asked. His face lit up along with the edges of his lips. He leaned forward grabbing onto the tupperware bowl and pulled it towards him. He looked at me for permission to use my spoon and I nodded, leaning against the table. He lifted the spoon into his mouth, and I could faintly hear a low moan escape his throat.
"Oh my god, Bella. This is amazing," Ethan said, adoringly. "Is this homemade?"
"It's from a recipe I found in a cookbook," I replied.
"Well, you're a really good cook," his shy voice came back instantly as he pushed the soup bowl back to me, though not before Mike had grabbed it from him and tried it. He also agreed it was good, but I was annoyed that he didn't ask me first before diving into it. I felt empathy towards Jessica's troubled expression at Mike's forwardness. I wished I could stop what he was feeling towards me so he could properly give Jessica the time of day that she deserved from him. She was very persistent when showing her affections towards him that I was sure he had acknowledged before I moved here.
I stood up at the annoying sound of the bell and gathered the tupperware back into my lunch box and put it into my bookbag. Mike and Angela had followed me to the classroom trying to persist in conversation with me. Angela was shyer than him and only nodded at the things he would say but she would occasionally offer a soft smile towards me.
After I walked into the class, the sunshine, the lilac, and the overly sweet decadent honey scent had filled into my nostrils causing the slight tingle in my throat to erupt more. It wasn't severe and was very much easy to control. I had no need to feed, at least not yet.
I swung my book bag off of my shoulder and laid it next to my seat before I sat down. There was a microscope in between Edward and I, and I had quickly taken the plastic sheet off of it and uncoiled the cord and plugged it into the outlet in the desk, turning on the microscope to prepare for the lab. Mr. Banner walked down the aisles, passing around the lab sheet for the class period, handing two for Edward and me. I quickly took my sheet and passed one over to his. Silence stayed between us as it had normally done the past week. I was annoyed with him. Annoyed that he had followed me, and I wanted to get answers from him without seeming too hostile.
He grabbed out one of the slides from the side box and placed it into the stage in between the stage clips. I looked at him, exhaling uneasy breaths when he had offered for me to go first. I flattened my lips together and pulled the microscope closer to me, hearing the unsteady wobble of it as the rubber grips at the bottom didn't too easily glide across the table. I looked at him before placing my eyes on the ocular lenses and examined the slide. I could see the nuclear envelope along with the spindle fibers on the other side.
"Prophase," I stated.
"Do you mind if I look?" He asked as I was removing the slide. His intoxicating energy that glazed inside of my throat as he spoke had distracted me. His hand caught mine, to stop me from removing the slide. His fingers were ice-cold, like he'd been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn't why I jerked my hand away so quickly. When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us. His body had flinched at the same time mine had. He quickly glanced at me and then looked away.
"What are you?" I asked sternly through my gritted teeth. His body tensed, though he didn't answer. A small lift on the side of his mouth forming into an almost smile indicated he heard me. I furrowed my eyebrows in his direction, pursing my lips together. A small chuckle escaped through his lips when he looked at my expression and then had pulled the microscope towards him. He inspected the slide through the ocular lenses and nodded, indicating that he agreed with my assessment. He wrote down prophase onto the lab sheet. "You know it can be very rude to ignore someone who is trying to have a conversation with you."
His eyes closed as he looked down on his desk. A crooked smile formed on his face as he glanced out of the window and then to me. "That's my line," he chuckled softly. "It occurred to me that you were unable to form cordial conversations with me before. I hate to succumb to my curiosity, but what could be running through your mind to impose an idea in your head that would assume I'm anything but a person who sits next to you in a high school biology class?"
"I have my reasons," I muttered, flicking my eyes up to Mr. Banner who was writing the names of the phases of mitosis on the chalkboard in front of him while the rest of the class continued working on the blastula lab. Edward's eyebrows had furrowed, and the small smile was gone. I had many reasons. One, he was inhumanely fast—faster than me. Two, he was undeniably gorgeous. I could blame it on good traits, but it was more concerning that these traits all ran in his family that did not have direct blood line relations to him. Three, the golden eyes that they all shared. Four, his cold touch. Five, he followed me. Six, the way he spoke as if he was from a different time, along with his talent in calligraphy. Seven, he had no heartbeat or pulse under that pale white skin of his. And my eighth reason, he had an unlimited amount of energy coursing through him instead of the limited amount that humans normally have.
"Well, for whatever reasons you possibly have, I find it would be much more entertaining to wait for you to figure it out." His eyebrow raised as the crooked smile formed again. He let out a heavy breath from his chest. "Should be easier for you to figure it out considering…" he trailed off. He replaced the slide into the slide box and then grabbed a new one, placing it onto the microscope stage.
"Considering?" I asked, looking at him as he pressed his eyes into the ocular lenses to analyze the new slide. He clicked his tongue between his teeth and then grazed it over his lower lip.
"My father called Chief Swan while I was out sick the first week," his eyes glanced at my face as he pushed the microscope over to me. "That's anaphase by the way. I have no doubt you'd be able to figure that out on your own."
"Your father called my dad," I said, confirming what he had said, waiting for him to reiterate. I took the microscope from him and glanced at his chin and then pressed my eyes against the ocular lenses of the microscope. Anaphase. He was right.
"Yes. Interesting conversation. He called to ask if you had made it home after you had run out of the school in distress." His eyes glanced at me and the corners of his mouth had slightly raised less. "Which happened to be the day I was gone myself." He crossed his arms against his chest as he leaned back in his chair that was angled slightly towards me.
I hitched my breath. "Oh? You were gone? Thought you said you were sick." I said contradicting him, lacing my words with sarcasm. I replaced the slide on the stage of the microscope. He nodded at me, flaring his nostrils. He looked a tad annoyed with me. Good. I was glad I could annoy him the same way he annoyed me. I knew where he was going with this. He was going to try to corner me with the idea that I was gone, too. That I was in Alaska the same day he left. I knew better than to let him try to pry into me.
He shook his head and grazed one of his fingers along his jawline. "The first conversation was that you were home safe, though then he had called my father again later after that asking if he could speak to me." He paused, looking at me attentively, trying to study my reaction to his words. "Consequently, you had run off again. Something about you calling from an unknown number saying that you would be gone the rest of the day." He apparently was no fool either. His eyebrow was raised towards my reaction, trying to analyze if I too was understanding what he was saying. Trying to see into my thoughts on whether I knew he had realized it was me that they were chasing that day.
"What are you trying to say, Edward?" I asked, quivering my top lip in irritation. Why did he have to pretend to be so vague?
"Just strange for a seventeen-year-old girl to just continue to disappear without her father knowing it, is all." He clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Then again, I don't know your home life and I have seen enough cases of runaways." Who the hell does he think he is? I muttered gibberish under my breath. I pressed my eyes against the ocular lenses and wrote down 'interphase' without confirming it to him. This conversation was going nowhere. I had asked him a question that he did not answer, so he deserved nothing from me in return.
He seemed to have been waiting on a response from me but took it upon himself to grab the microscope in front of me and pull it towards him. He checked the slide himself and wrote it down on his lab sheet.
"Did you know that there were evaluations being conducted in the 1940's that are still being conducted today over height distance and fall damage?" I clenched my fingers around my pencil at his statement. "They had examined that the fall height at which fifty percent of patients tested are expected to die has been estimated to be around forty feet. Some survived even past that."
I inhaled a quick force of air into my throat, boring my eyes into the lab sheet in front of me, shuffling my hair over the side of my face to hide my eyes from him. Was he threatening me with the knowledge he knew about me? Clearly this was an attack of what he knew and saw that day in Alaska when I had thrown myself off of the mountain. He was testing me—trying to get under my skin.
"Did you know that the average max speed a person can run is about twelve miles per hour?" I smirked, though he didn't shift in his seat or seem to be shocked by my evaluation either. I suppose he wasn't too surprised by my response or had already expected that I knew this fact about him that he could run at impossible speeds.
"I did know that, actually," he offered an amused smile. "So, tell me because I am awfully curious. Why did you decide to move to Forks?" He asked, possibly attempting to keep the conversation going. There was no need for it to continue any further. Any small talk about my homelife was nothing that he needed to know about me, and it's possible that he could care less about what my life consisted of before I had moved here, nor did he possibly care for my reasons for leaving Phoenix. I was just a pawn in his game.
"And I am awfully curious why you had dodged my previous question, Edward." I said, determined to get an answer from him. I could see his eyebrows shift upward as he rolled his eyes at my statement. His amusement was growing only further with my response. He liked this. If I was a pawn in his game, then he would move the losing piece.
He glanced his eyes out the window, furrowing his eyebrows as he stared into the tree line outside of the school parking lot. He snorted and I could see his glistening white teeth escape through the middle of his lips. He nodded as he turned his head back to the lab paper that had been finished.
"Made any friends, recently?" He asked. His eyes glanced out the window and then he turned his head back to me, lightly nodding towards Mike's direction behind us casually. "Seems to me you have some wrapped around your little finger." I made a sound of disgust in my throat. I clenched my fingers around my pencil a little tighter, causing the wood to begin splintering. I didn't like the fact that I had drawn a crowd of boys at school already. I hadn't made direct eye contact with any of them, but it seemed they were still drawn to me either way. It wasn't as strong of a force as it had happened in my last semester in Phoenix. Those boys were intimately attacking me any chance they had.
I ignored his question. I was tired of him asking questions and having him expecting for me to respond to him with the answers. If he couldn't be polite enough to do the same for me, then I wouldn't be cordial about it. I pursed my lips together, tightening them to the side of my face. Him and I had finished the last two slides in silence. After he placed the last slide of the lab back into the box, I leaned over to turn the light off of the microscope and grabbed the plugin attached to the desk and disconnected it. I wrapped the cord around my hand and tied it together with the Velcro strap and placed it at the base of the microscope. I looked around on my side of the desk for the microscope protective plastic cover and realized it wasn't where I had placed it last. I looked over at Edward who had it lightly clenched in his hand. He had a smirk on his face that I wanted to claw off.
When did I become so mentally violent?
He held out the plastic protective cover to me and I glanced at his raised eyebrows. I rolled my own eyes and had quickly snatched the sheet from him and continued to ignore him as I placed the plastic covering over the microscope.
A low growl erupted from his chest as his eyes quickly glanced towards the window again. But before I could register where his glance was directed towards, his eyes then settled back at me. What had caused that deranged sound that crept in his throat? I couldn't have possibly been the reason he was so angry, unless he let frustration overcome him. So, the guy had an uncontrollable temper? Great.
He shook his head slightly as his eyes traced the words on the paper. I was curious what was being exchanged through him, what was causing this anger to settle through his fingertips that had continued to tap against the desk. I wasn't going to pretend that I hadn't noticed his quick glances through the window. As if he was speaking to someone without words.
Curiosity overcame me, causing my eyebrow to raise as I had leaned my body back in the chair to glance behind him into the window nearest to him. With my shortness of height, I couldn't see past the first panel of the window and used my hands instead. I clenched my hands and fingers to the bottom of my seat to raise myself up higher in the chair. I was able to find a new height and was able to now take a peek past the first panel of the window, but Edward had swayed his body in the direction of my stare, blocking my view.
"Move," I hissed at him. An amused smile came across his face as I moved my head back and forth to see past him, but he continued to lag behind, but still had been able to follow the directions that my interested stare were going in. "Oh my god, can you be any more frustrating?" I let go of my grip in the seat and let my bottom slide back down against the chair. I crossed my arms in frustration then looked over at Mr. Banner who was eyeing the both of us.
"You both finished with your lab?" He asked, glancing down at my lab sheet that was filled in. "So, Edward, didn't you think Isabella should get a chance with the microscope?"
"Bella," Edward corrected automatically. "Actually, she identified three of the five." I glared at him but had appreciated that he had acknowledged that I did most of the work for the lab.
Mr. Banner looked at me now; his expression was skeptical. "Have you done this lab before?" he asked.
I smiled sheepishly. "Not with onion root."
"Whitefish blastula?"
"Yeah," I replied with a nod and handed him the lab sheet on my desk.
Mr. Banner had taken it from my fingers and looked down at it, assessing my answers. "Were you in an advanced placement program in Phoenix?" I nodded at his question. "Well," he said after a moment, "I guess it's good you two are lab partners." He mumbled underneath his breath as he walked away, "Wish our curriculum was better suited for the both of them."
I leaned back in my chair again, looking around at the students in the classroom. I glanced at Mike who had his pencil in between his teeth as he was forming bite marks against the yellow coated wood. He seemed to be having a hard time with the lab. If there was any possible way for me to escape Edward right now, then I could possibly walk over to Mike and his partner and help them out. I scooted my chair back and began to stand up out of my chair, but Edward had cleared his throat. I hesitated as I was barely off of my chair and looked back at him. He held his hands balled together and had them placed against his mouth. I slowly sat back down and looked over at him.
"Can I hear your reasons?" He asked, but his voice now held a kinder but stiff tone.
"My reasons?" I asked.
"About the reason you think of me to not be just another person sitting next to you in a high school biology class."
"Oh," I said, exhaling a breath of air through my lips. "You haven't told me what you are, so I don't think you deserve some kind of reward from me." I glanced at the bridge of his nose, assessing that his eyes were a slightly darker than the day he had come back from his trip in Alaska.
"Fine, then I'll give you mine," he said, moving his clasped hands away from his mouth.
"Yours?" I asked, confused. He was going to list the reasons why he was not human?
"Yes, the reasons why I know you aren't just a girl who wanders the halls and sits through their scheduled classes like the rest of the people at this school." He looked at me intently and I glanced my eyes away from him, staring at the board, muttering the names of the different stages of mitosis through my lips. He chuckled slightly and I glanced back at him, mesmerized by his crooked smile that emitted the sweet honey through his lips. Damnit, Bella. Control yourself.
He stared at me, waiting for my response but sighed as he glanced out the window once more and looked back at me. "One of the main reasons so far is your eyes." My eyes? Had he noticed the facade that is my contact lens? "They have a deep aubergine purple to them, but what had intrigued me more was the film that surrounded them. A film that people who wear contacts have." He smiled as I glanced away again, trying to control my breathing but I could already hear the fast rhythm of my heart increasing.
"So what? I wear contacts. Ever heard of prescriptions for poor eyesight?" I snapped at him.
"Oh, no I have," he chuckled. "But what I was skeptical about was the true color of your eyes. That maybe it was possible that you purposely wore deep purple colored contacts." He grazed his tongue along his lower lip. "But from what I can see from the side view of your eyes, and past the annoying strands of hair you use to cover them, I can see that the true color of the contact lenses are actually a deep chocolate brown. Almost black, even."
My breathing had hiccupped, only to finally be saved by the irritating chime of the school bell to dismiss us from our classes. I quickly grabbed onto the strap of my bag and hoisted it over my shoulder as I stood up. I didn't look back at Edward. I didn't try to sense if he was following me at all. I could hear Mike shouting to catch up with me, but I continued my quick pace past the threshold of the classroom door. He was becoming too perceptive. He had followed me on Friday and now was asking too many questions about me without providing answers to mine.
I quickly started my pace to the gym but realized I needed to go to my locker to grab my gym clothes. I cursed under my breath as I halted my pace through the halls, causing someone to collide into me. They grunted displeasingly as they slid past me and continued their walk down the hall. I turned around on the heels of my shoes and tilted my chin towards the floor and paced myself back to my locker. When I arrived, I noticed a nice pair of glossy black loafers were stanced near my locker. I grinded my teeth together and slowly followed my eyes up the figure for it to be none other than Edward Cullen.
In his hand was the prize of the golden onion. He held it in one of his extended hands towards me. "I think this is yours, lab partner." His voice held a comical tone to it that irritated me. I grabbed it out of his hand and shoved past his cold and stiff body. I quickly turned the combination of my locker and opened it. I placed the golden onion on one of the shelves and grabbed my bag of gym clothes. When I slammed the locker door closed, he was still there leaning against the one next to mine.
"Mind if I walk you to class?" He asked with a coy smile on his lips.
"Yes, I do mind," I replied coldly to him. I turned on the heels of my shoes and walked away. Mike was standing about fifteen feet away with a confused expression on his face as he eyed Edward down, but it quickly lightened when he saw me walking towards him.
"I heard we are playing volleyball today in the gym and you're going to be on my team," he grinned at me.
"Oh joy," I replied in an irritated tone that wasn't aimed towards him. It was aimed towards my carelessness with Edward, allowing him to assess me.
The corners of Mike's lips turned downwards. "Do you not want to be on my team? It'll be the winning one if I'm in it."
I felt bad now. "No, it's fine Mike. Edward just irritates me."
"You and me both," he replied and wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I didn't shrug him off like I normally would. I turned my neck and glanced back at Edward whose facial expression exuberated pure hatred towards us. I gasped at it and turned my head back towards the students walking in front of us.
After I had gotten home from school, I had decided to make steak and potatoes for Charlie and then brushed up on some homework that I hadn't finished from this weekend. The trig homework was the only one that kept stumping me. Even as an immortal, I still couldn't solve these problems on my own and it had been irritating. I would probably have to call Jessica at some point to come over or for I to come over to her house so she could tutor me. I haven't thought of a reward for that, yet though.
I also came into an issue with money. While I still had a couple thousand left in my savings, I did want to be able to use that towards college. Not that a degree would be helpful towards me in the future since I couldn't use it considering I was stuck in a never aging sixteen year old body, but I wouldn't mind experiencing it, even if it's just once.
I had thought about it more frequently this past week, a way to make money but also be able to satisfy the subconscious monster that craved more energy. I had thought that maybe I could work at a retirement home and be able to help those who feel there is no more reason to go on and have given up. If I didn't bring those to damnation, I could do for them what the other succubus had done for Lucille. It would be a job that I could continue making money at but also feeding myself when requested to. If I were going to be able to keep myself from attacking the students at Forks and my friends, I would have to feed, or at least try working on not killing those that I take energy from. That was a skill the Vilinsea said would be hard to do. Takes years and possibly decades to practice. I shivered at the thought of how many people she had killed if that was the case.
Charlie and I had sat down for dinner together. We discussed work and how my day at school had been. He asked if I ever managed to bring muffins over to the Newtons and Cullens but I told him I had forgotten about it. Which was true, the only reason I had brought that idea up was to get information of where the Cullens had lived.
Charlie had done his normal routine of retiring to the couch while I cleaned the dishes and cleaned the counters down. I sat on the couch with him for a little while since my homework was now completed, but we mostly sat in silence. He watched whatever was on the television that I was hardly paying attention to. My mind was somewhere else. I had rethought of all the things that had happened today. From the staring, the conversation, the glances in the window, his cold touch, all the information I have so far gathered about his family, his assessments about me, and that electrical shock that had erupted when our hands had met.
"Whoa there, you're going to start bleeding if you bite any harder down on your lip there," Charlie said, concerned. I hadn't realized that I had been doing that. I was completely lost in thought. I began tapping my fingers together trying to refocus myself back onto the present.
"Sorry," I said. I leaned myself forward and pushed myself up off of the couch. I pretended to stretch my arms and legs and shake my hands around. "I'm a little tired so I think I'm going to go ahead and take a shower and head to bed." He looked at me with his eyebrow raised but didn't seem to want to ask further questions. He nodded at me and turned his glance back to the television. I treaded up the stairs to keep the facade that I was tired and had taken a quick shower. The water held its same soothing effects, but it didn't calm me down from my thoughts. The electricity, the frustration, the attraction, the smile, the energy. Edward Cullen.
I gasped at the thought, rubbing my hands against my face repeatedly. Stop it, Bella. Stop it. It's because of what you are, that is all that it is.
I jumped out of the shower and walked to my room to put on my sweatpants and tank top. I combed through my hair as usual but was halted when I noticed a faint smell of sunshine, lilac and sweeter than normal decadent honey. I inhaled it and felt that my body had become lighter as it had oddly soothed me. But he was here? Why on Earth would he have come into my room? I looked over noticing my computer was in the process of shutting down, I raced over to it to stop the process, though first seeing my emails with Renee opened before the screen had gone black.
"That conniving, privacy invading, little…" I gritted my teeth. He had asked earlier about why I had moved here, maybe he was curious and was annoyed with the lack of information I had given him the same as he did to me. Sill doesn't give him the right to snoop through my computer to learn anything. That was wrong on numerous levels.
I looked over at my window that was closed, but not locked. That was a mistake of my own. Leaving it unlocked led the opportunity for the wolves or any of the Cullens to attack me in my sleep at any time. How could I have been so stupid? I walked over towards it, turning over the lock and let out a frustrated sigh.
I sat in my bed for the next couple of hours waiting for Charlie to go to sleep. He came less often now to check on me before bed, though it seemed he was still afraid I would up and leave again like I did before. He had skipped that routine the past couple of days until tonight, so I suppose my worrisome earlier in the living room had caused him to feel troubled.
After I heard his snoring, I got up off my bed and went to grab my pair of rainboots. The snow was still icing on the ground and I didn't want to get my sneakers drenched in it. I grabbed Jacob's sweatshirt that I had forgotten to give back to him and pulled it over my head. I looked out of the window, unlocking it and cracked it open just a tad. I breathed in, inhaling the scents that were outside. Still no wolfy pine smell. They must not have made any plans to come after me yet, but the sweet lilac honey smell was still there, just becoming stale as the snow continued to fall.
I was going to follow him. I inhaled a breath and let my gift trickle over my skin as it began to cover the epidermis of my skin, disguising my scent. The last pair of contacts that I had left in incase Charlie came to check up on me, had fallen out as the gift continued to ripple over my body. It began disguising my scent from my room and from my clothes, as well. As soon as I noticed my scent was completely ridden, I jumped out of the window, landing onto the ground without breaking my fall from grabbing onto the tree. I was angry. I was angry at him.
I didn't want to run through the trees as I had felt at disadvantage with the forest surrounding me, so instead I had jumped into them, climbing to the top and traveling that way following his scent. It wasn't too hard to follow. Sometimes it became more stale than other portions where there were openings in the trees as snow had fallen through them onto the ground, but since the forest was so densely covered in greenery, it still had helped hold his scent.
The scent was getting closer towards his house, but it veered North. I followed it, swinging myself through the trees and landing on top of branches. I kept my movements light to avoid making too much sound. If anything, I possibly sounded more like a squirrel climbing through the trees or a bat that continued to land on the branches, rustling the leaves. There was a larger mountain towards the North that I had passed before when going to Alaska, but his scent was becoming stronger so I knew that he must not have gotten past there.
Then the scent was abrupt and as strong as it ever was when tracking him tonight. I slowly hung myself on the branch with my two arms carrying my dangling body and swung my legs around the trunk of the tree to wrap around it. My left hand let go of the branch and reached towards the trunk of the tree to grab onto it and then I let go of the branch with my right arm and had my body completely straddled around the trunk of the tree. I looked around at my surroundings trying to find him. When I found a branch that seemed sturdy enough on the other side, I shifted my foot over towards it, lighting tapping it. It didn't sway when I did so, so it should be sturdy enough. I rotated my straddled body around on the trunk of the tree and had stepped onto the branch, balancing myself. I crouched down onto it and peered around the forest floor until I finally had laid my eyes on him.
He was crouched on the forest floor, with growls erupting from his chest. He was hovering over something that I couldn't make out before, but the smell of blood was noticed. Did he just kill someone? I internally panicked at the thought but narrowed my eyes more. The blood didn't smell like ordinary human blood, but I also didn't know what the blood that was pooling from beneath him had come from.
Oportet te currere, Isabella. It is not safe. You must go. Nunc! The subconscious monster had shouted at me. Est vampire quod alioquin interficiemus te. The subconcious monster was speaking much too fast for me to understand in Latin tongue, but there was one word that was clear.
Edward had lifted himself up from his crouch. Blood had dripped from the corners of his mouth as he wiped it off with his sleeve. There lying by his feet was a deer that clearly had been drained of its blood. Drained lifeless.
"Vampire," I whispered in a silent gasp.
A/N
Translation: portet te currere, Isabella. It is not safe. You must go. Nunc! Est vampire quod alioquin interficiemus te.You must run, Isabella. It is not safe. You must go. Now! There is a vampire that will kill you!
Wow! I hope you guys liked that chapter! I got so many reviews on the last one that my A/N were so long! You have no idea how much I appreciated all your kind words and thoughts! It was incredible, and I thank you so much for bringing me that joy! As always, I would love to see 5 reviews on this chapter before I update! Thank you, guys again, and until next time! (: