Charlie had no idea where his daughter Bella could have gone. She didn't leave a note. He hadn't missed any calls at home or the station.
He heard that her boyfriend and his family, The Cullens, had left town. Surely Bella wouldn't follow them without saying goodbye to her father, or at least taking some clothes or her wallet, which was still in her truck.
Charlie was a calm, rational man, so he decided to wait until late that evening just in case she had left in a hurry with a friend or something. After all, she was eighteen years old now, and he knew that she had at least made it safely home.
Kidnappings were almost unheard of in Forks, as was violent crime, thankfully. Most of his business was traffic related, maybe the occasional petty theft or vandalism. He truly didn't believe that anything violent had happened to his Bella.
Teenagers were known to be impulsive, especially when dealing with something emotional like friends moving away. Or maybe the kid had broken up with her. Charlie didn't know. But it would explain her rash behavior either way.
He sat in front of the TV and ate some of the pizza he brought home, doing his best not to worry. He certainly remembered what he was like as a teenager and spent a while reminiscing on what trouble he had been for his own parents.
Bella was a good kid. She'd come home soon.
Alice saw Edward's decision to change Bella only seconds before he took off running through the woods with her on his back. There was no time to stop him, not that she wanted to.
Finally, the family drama would be resolved. There wouldn't be any more back and forth between Edward debating whether he should stay or leave. The self-loathing would be at a minimum, or maybe not even exist once he got over what he had done. The Cullens would have a new family member who they already loved dearly. Even Rosalie would warm up to Bella in time. Everyone would be happy. Especially Edward. Everyone except for Charlie Swan that is.
The Cullens knew the importance of avoiding unwanted attention into Bella's disappearance, but unfortunately, they were already a few hours away from Forks when Edward decided to change Bella, rather than leaving her. There was no time for them to cover his tracks.
They were grateful that Edward had decided to ride home from school with Bella in her truck, intending to run and not stop once he left her. This at least made sure that his car wasn't there, thankfully not making it obvious who had taken her. That would have been too much scrutiny for even the Cullens perfect alibies.
As ten o'clock neared, Charlie grew more anxious about the whereabouts of his daughter. He called a few of her friends, Angela, Jessica, Mike, but they didn't know anything beyond seeing her at school. He called the Cullen residence, but they were long gone, and their phone was disconnected. He called the hospital, begging for a forwarding number or address for Dr. Carlisle Cullen, but they wouldn't disclose it.
His phone rang a few minutes after eleven.
"Hello?" he answered gruffly, trying to disguise his anxiety and the fact that he was nearly crying, fearing the worst, and had been getting ready to call the police, well, the rest of the police.
"Hi Charlie!" said Alice in her usual cheery voice.
"Alice! Have you heard from Bella? She's missing!"
"I have. She's alright-"
"Oh, thank God! She's with you!"
"Not exactly."
Charlie didn't miss the finality in her voice. Though still cheery, she was clearly hesitant to tell him something. Whatever it was couldn't be good.
"Where is she?"
"With Edward."
"And where is Edward?" he had a sinking feeling in his stomach, having a very good idea where this was headed.
"We aren't sure."
"What do you mean you aren't sure?!" he exclaimed, gripping the phone until his knuckles were white. Carlisle took the phone from Alice and started speaking.
"Hi Charlie. The kids are alright, I promise. I spoke with Edward earlier."
"What the hell are they doing?!"
"We aren't exactly sure but I'm guessing we both have a pretty good idea. They are young and in love. And Edward was supposed to tell Bella about my job offer and our moving away today. Truthfully, he had been putting it off all week…" he trailed off.
"We have to stop them!"
"We don't know where to start." Carlisle said calmly, completely lacking the panic that was consuming Charlie.
"He better not hurt my daughter!"
"He won't. He loves her more than anything. But I don't think we'll be hearing from them for a while."
"This is all your fault!" Charlie insisted. "I'm going to call the station-"
"You can't." Carlisle interrupted. "Bella is eighteen and Edward turns eighteen in just a couple of months. There's nothing we can do, especially not if they go get married like we suspect they are."
"She didn't even take her wallet. You mean to tell me that she planned this?!"
"No, likely not. In fact, I'm positive they didn't. Edward has been so distraught at having to move away from her. We believe it was a split-second decision on both of their parts."
Charlie was losing his composure. He sank down into a chair, sobbing. "She didn't even take any clothes or say goodbye or anything."
He thought of all the things that Bella might need that she might not have. It should have been the least of his worries, really. He should have been angry. But he hated that she might have to go through the same discomfort and trouble that he had when he ran off and got married.
He thought he had taught her better. She knew that she could have come to him with anything. He would have done anything for her. He would have even considered letting the boy stay with them a while if it meant he got to keep his daughter too.
"Edward will take care of her Charlie, trust me. We may not be happy about the situation, but he absolutely adores her. He won't let her do without anything she needs or even wants."
"A seventeen-year-old with no job that hasn't even graduated high school is going to take care of my daughter?"
"He has plenty of money. She will be taken care of. I promise."
"I wanted better for her, Carlisle. Better than me. She was supposed to graduate and go to college, not run off and get married like I did…"
"We will find them, and we will see that they live good lives and finish school, even if it's not right now. Esme and I are watching for Edward to use one of his bank accounts so we can start looking. It's going to be alright." he lied, but the lie soothed Charlie, and that was all that mattered. The men hung up, with Carlisle telling Charlie to call him at that number any time if he needed anything. Charlie simply mustered up all of his strength and went to bed defeated.
Alice was in a state of panic. Her visions were blurry and confused. Bella was clearly changing, but that was all she could see. Edward wasn't making any decisions at all.
They weren't lying when they told Charlie that they had no idea where to start looking for him. She frantically searched her visions, hoping for any clues to find them but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The family was driving her crazy for updates, just as worried as she was, but she could only see the future, not change it. They debated going back to Forks. They ultimately decided it was best to maintain their cover story, pretending to move to Los Angeles while really settling somewhere hundreds of miles away.
Emmett and Rosalie were going to sneak back to Forks, hopefully unseen by humans, and try to follow Edward's trail away from Bella's house and through the woods. They would take a message from Carlisle that no one was upset with Edward and offers of help. Rosalie was pissed, naturally, believing that Edward had just taken Bella's life and all of her choices away from her, but she would still do anything for her brother.
The rest of the family chose to go to their home in Canada for now, still close enough to Forks to hopefully find Edward and Bella, though they knew it would fruitless if they truly chose to hide from even them. For now, all most of the Cullens could do was wait. And all Alice could do was watch.
Charlie Swan, Forks Chief of Police, didn't usually have nightmares despite the sometimes gruesome nature of his work. When he did, they were mostly normal, like forgetting to put on pants before he went to the station or capsizing his boat while he was fishing. But tonight, he trembled in terror of a fiery redhead with a high-pitched voice, tormenting him in his slumber. She laughed at his fear, enjoying it, savoring it.
Her hair reminded him of an inferno, and he feared being set aflame himself should he get too close. For all he knew, she was a long lost relative of the devil himself. She certainly laughed like him.
She had long nails that made screeching sounds as they scraped across the furniture. Charlie briefly wondered if she was a banshee come to take him into the night with her.
Her figure was slim, but strong enough to be menacing. Her clothes were inconsequential, but took nothing away from the sheer, evil aura of her. He had no doubts that she could pick him up and toss him across the room with one hand if she wanted to.
If he jumped, she laughed, the trill of it echoing all around them. When his heart hammered, she smiled with delight. If she couldn't have Bella, she could certainly torture the next best thing. It was a very personal matter, after all. Why not keep it in the family?
Tonight, Charlie would spend his every unconscious moment fighting against her, running from her, a demon sent from his own personal Hell. And in the morning, he would face yet another terror, the continued disappearance of his beloved daughter. Eighteen years of age. Run off with some boy without a trace. He wasn't sure which was worse.
Bella was burning, but Edward was in heaven, high on what he had once described as his own personal brand of heroin. Where hours ago had been the black hole of his cursed heart was now a warm liveliness unlike any he had ever felt, an indescribable bliss. He swore he felt his frozen heart pumping vigorously in his chest despite the fact it hadn't beat in decades.
Colors had new vibrancy. He happily watched the sun rise and set, admiring mother nature's palette. He also spent a good amount of his time admiring Bella. Her hair had natural highlights he had never truly noticed, or perhaps the venom, his venom, was bringing them out, enhancing her natural beauty.
The sounds of the woods had new notes and depth. Each bird in the distance sang a little differently. Bella's soft breathing and her heart beating were his constant companions. If he had his piano, he would have composed a symphony.
Her screams brought him pleasure, rather than the pain he anticipated. He had successfully changed her. His mate. And he was incredibly possessive of her now that he had stopped fighting his most basic instincts.
He had everything he had ever wanted, his mate changed by his own venom, and his singer's blood pumping through his veins, renewing his strength in ways that animal blood never could.
Edward was truly and gloriously alive for the first time in nearly a century.
There was no sign of Bella nor Edward anywhere in Forks. No one had any idea where they could have run off to. Town gossip spread quickly and included phrases like married and pregnant. Charlie prayed that wasn't the case.
He couldn't do much, with Bella being of age and Edward not far from it. He interviewed her friends. He spoke to her teachers. He inquired if she had taken any money from her account at the bank. There were no clues to be found in her truck and no notes hidden in her bookbag or in her bedroom.
They hadn't filed anywhere for a marriage license yet, at least not that he could tell.
Everything was a dead end.
That night Charlie again had nightmares of the redhead. Some would say that it was his unconscious mind trying to tell him something. Others would say that's just superstition. Charlie wasn't sure what to think, but he did start sleeping with his shotgun, even though a part of him seemed to understand that it would be useless against her.
Edward hadn't moved a muscle in nearly twenty-four hours. There was no need. While vampires preferred warmth, they didn't get too cold or too hot. He didn't need to eat or sleep or even worry about cramps. Instead, he rested his head on Bella's chest while she burned, closed his eyes, and enjoyed the high.
He still felt as if he had just conquered his biggest demon, embraced his biggest fear. He was king of the world, standing on top of the grandest mountain.
Occasionally, Bella would cry out or scream, but he quickly calmed her with only the touch of his hand or his lips on her face. She would settle into a quiet whimper, almost sleeping as her heart pumped his venom through her body.
His breath still very much tasted like her and he savored it, just as he did each beat of her heart that told him that she was his. Finally his.
Laurent left Denali, tired of trying to subsist on the vile substance that was animal blood. Just the thought of what he had been drinking nearly made him vomit profusely despite the lack of a functioning digestive system.
He called Victoria seeking to rejoin her now that James was eliminated. He had always liked her presence. Where James was impulsive, she was mostly rational. She liked to play with her food, but nowhere near as much as James did. She made hunting easy, luring their prey with her beauty. And she was fun to explore the world with.
Victoria asked a favor of him, that he try to locate the Swan girl that was Edward Cullen's mate and see if she was still alive. Victoria couldn't wait to torture her as they had her James. Laurent wanted to get back into her good graces, so he readily agreed.
He wasn't much of a tracker, but he had all of the time in the world to search for her now that he had no coven and no qualms about being around humans. He rather loved the taste of them.
Sure, he had fun with the women of the Denali clan, and Eleazar was nice enough, but his more primal urges needed satisfied too. He needed blood.
For the third night in a row, now two full days of Bella being missing, Charlie had nightmares of the fiery redhead. Her maniacal laugh was gone tonight. Instead, she cursed. He found it odd that she could be annoyed or afraid of anything, but she was. She was absolutely ranting, talking too low and fast for Charlie to understand.
She didn't seem to be interested in chasing or torturing him tonight and he was glad. Bella's disappearance was really taking a toll on him. It was as if he had aged a decade in just a couple of days.
He was startled awake by cold fingers brushing against his cheek. It felt like a ghost was in the room with him. His eyes flew open and his breath caught in his throat.
His heart pounded as he searched his room for the intruder, but finding no one, he fell back into an uneasy sleep, shotgun at his side.
Edward still hadn't moved from his comfortable spot resting his head on Bella's chest. She was approximately fifty-four hours into her change. He was running his fingers along her waist, just under her shirt, relishing the soft warmth of her skin.
She was everything to him. His love for her consumed his every thought. There was no anxiety or fear, not when her blood still ran so strongly through his veins. It was her gift to him, and he fully intended to savor it. They were finally both getting everything they wanted.
Edward heard the thoughts of a man approaching and growled loudly, possessively, springing to his feet, and crouching over his conquered prey, his mate.
How dare anyone distract him from his elated high and their time together.
Laurent recognized the dangerous growls of a newly mated vampire and tried to run away, but it was futile. Edward could read his thoughts and sense his every move before he made it.
Edward was also incredibly strong, way stronger than normal, from the blood of not just a human, but his blood singer. He remembered Laurent and saw in his thoughts exactly what he intended to do if he found Edward's precious Bella.
Laurent was quickly nothing more than a pile of smoldering ash littering the ground as Edward returned to his spot at Bella's side, loving her, holding her, protecting her as she finished her change. He was still blissfully lost inside of his high. He didn't give Laurent a second thought.
On the third full day of Bella being missing, Charlie Swan couldn't sleep. Instead, he sat awake all night, holding his shotgun for dear life. The redhead was nowhere in sight and that suited him just fine. He started to wonder if she had been a figment of his imagination. If he had driven himself crazy worrying about Bella.
He shuddered to even think of the redhead and the cold touch of her hand on his cheek, real or imagined. The police chief wasn't supposed to believe in ghosts and demons, but Charlie did. He had no choice to now that he had been haunted by one. He wondered if she would ever return.
Edward waited excitedly for Bella to wake up. Her heart was still beating steadily in her chest and they were nearing 72 hours from his first bite. It should only be a matter of minutes now.
He couldn't wait to hold her in his arms and spend the entire night kissing her. He wanted to tell her how much he loved her and thank her for the precious gift of her blood. He wanted to ask her how she had been able to let him read her mind and beg her to show him again.
Her heart gradually slowed to just a couple of beats per minute, and then stopped with a final resounding thud.
She opened her eyes and launched herself at Edward in an instant, tackling him to the ground and staring at him intently with wild, red eyes.
Her newborn strength was the only possible match for his own in that moment and she held him pinned to the ground. He couldn't move a muscle. He didn't want to. She was painfully gorgeous, and he happily admired her. Her pale skin was flawless. Her hair was full and soft, framing her delicate face just so. Her eyes sparkled with life.
After a long minute of staring at him, her jaw tight and expression unreadable, Bella slapped him across the face with all of her strength. The sound her hand made echoed off of distant trees.
Edward was in shock and for the first time in many years, physical pain. He brought a hand up to hold his face, hoping to sooth some of the stinging. He hadn't expected her to wake up angry at him, but he understood why she did. He had just taken away her life. He deserved her anger.
Her eyes still glowed with a fiery passion as she reached out to hit him again, but he carefully captured her hand in his and held it still, quickly grabbing her other as well. She probably could have broken free if she wanted to with her newborn strength, but she held still, watching his face.
"Bella…" he whispered. He kissed each of her hands and then released them, putting himself again in a vulnerable position against her.
"I know you don't love me. You should have just killed me while you had the chance!" she growled, jumping off of him, picking him up in one swift motion and throwing him hard, toppling a couple of trees with the force of his impact.
"You're wrong!" Edward shouted. "I do love you! More than you will ever understand!"
"Liar!"
"No, not about this. Never again about this." he said, appearing at his full speed to stand in front of her. He brushed his fingers against her cheek.
"Tell the truth for once in your life." she insisted, more as a growl than spoken word.
"Bella, if I wanted to kill you, I would have. Why do you think I stopped? Why did I kiss you first before I hurt you?"
"Guilt!" she snarled.
"No. Although I am guilty of taking your life, I'm not guilty for not killing you. I don't regret changing you. I want you!"
"That's not what you said!" she insisted.
He kneeled down in front of her, reaching to hold her hands, but she snatched them away in an instant, glaring at him. He lost himself temporarily in her large, ruby eyes. "I'm at your mercy. I'm sorry that I hurt you in more ways than one. Hurt me. Kill me if you must. I won't fight back. But please realize that I love you. Try to understand why I was leaving. Think about what I did to you. I was trying to prevent that."
She was quiet for a moment, considering what he said. Her entire world was turning on its axis, shifting more rapidly than she could follow. She wanted him, needed him, no matter how angry she was with him. "If you break my heart again-!"
"I won't! I promise I won't. I can't." he insisted.
Bella grabbed his shoulders roughly, pulling him to his feet and crashing her lips to his, the need for closeness returned now that a tiny fraction of her anger had subsided. Her newborn emotions were wild and fragile, racing through her mind faster than she could understand them. Desire was one she was familiar with though and she embraced it.
She had given Edward his greatest pleasure and he wanted to give her the world. He wouldn't deny her anything she asked of him and so when she forcefully knocked him backwards into a tree, pinning his body with hers, he didn't protest. There were no thoughts of purity and virtue. Marriage wasn't even on his mind.
Instead, he gladly gave himself over to her, his mate. She was still his personal brand of heroin. He was blissfully happy to lose himself in her, not caring if he were never found again.
Author's Note: What a ride, right? I hope you enjoyed the first full chapter. I am having so much fun with this one!
Attraction is rated T, so no lemons. If you like lemons though, there are a ton of them on my profile.
The character switching will settle after the next few chapters as the loose ends start to weave into each other. For instance, now we're done with Laurent. I'm hoping to only switch once or twice per chapter after the next few. The chaos is necessary to set the scene.
Thank you all so much for your overwhelming response to the Intro! I decided to go ahead and put up Chapter 1 but I'm going to try to update at least weekly.