A really quick note:

I am SO greatful for the follows, hearts and reviews, guys - thank you, thank you, thank you! It is truly wonderful to be able to share my enthusiasm for this story - a story that started as nothing more than a quarantine self-project back in May - with you.

Since I have decided to join the Twilight fanfiction scene a decade later (well, I did lurk around here back in the day, but I was too afraid and too self-conscious to write stories back then, because English wasn't - and still isn't - my main language), each small reaction counts and truly makes my day, so kudos to you!


In my century of existing on Earth, I had seen an uncountable number of women. Some of them, at one point or another, fell in lust with me. They were tall, short, slim, curvy, tan, pale, bubbly, sad, human, vampire - but their faces were foggy in my mind, as time and my own disinterest had erased most of their features from my memory. While I could recognize their beauty at the time, I never felt desire. Never felt the need to let my fingers trace the contour of their cheeks. Never wondered how their lips might have tasted. Never felt the unbearable ache to possess them.

Seeing Bella now was as if I had never seen a beautiful woman in my life. And in all honesty, I hadn't. Because no eyes had ever been as deep as the curious garnet eyes that locked their glance with mine, no lips as sin-inviting as hers. Her skin was endlessly perfect, the colour of the pearly sky at dawn, and it contrasted with the glorious auburn of her locks. I had never managed to get used to her beauty in human form, how could I ever get used to this? I didn't realize I was holding my breath until I heard Bella inhale. Her pupils dilated in a second, as she saw my red eyes and took in her overwhelming sense of smell.

I followed suit and I took a deep breath as well. Her scent filled up my lungs, and I could not control the lustful growl that escaped my lips. It was delicious. There was still the ever-present lavender note, but it was more potent and sugary. And there was something else, that I could not pinpoint - but something about it made my entire body aware of how close we were and how easily it would have been to rip off her clothes and sink inside her body. No, I will wait for her, I will wait until her thirst will be under control. I inhaled even deeper, letting her new scent wash over me. Pure joy powered through my body, as I realized that her smell will no longer control me - at least not in a way that meant I could be dangerous to her.

Bella remained unmoved, her gaze still glued to mine. I tried to find my words, but it was impossible. I was completely dazzled. If Carlisle's premonition that she might have tried to run away after waking up would have been true, I would've been lost.

"Hello," Bella's voice was a soft jingle, clear and melodic as the song of a hummingbird.

The sound was so new, yet so familiar, that it caught me off-guard. It rolled out of her luscious lips in a single breath and all of a sudden I could not concentrate on anything else but those lips. I wanted to feel if they were as plump as they looked and it seemed that my body was making decisions before my brain, because before I knew it, my palms were already on her face and I was leaning down.

I was so used to being gentle that I was surprised when my lips yielded to hers, and hers to mine. Velvet giving in to velvet. This was so new, but so right. I knew then that my control was no longer needed for what we were doing and for the first time in my existence, I let go.

This might as well have been our very first kiss. There was no fear between us as our mouths opened and started dancing a frenzied dance. There was nothing at stake as I sucked on the tip of her tongue. There was no restraining when I bit her lower lip, nor when she did the same with me. It was all very natural to kiss her like this and I couldn't help but savour the fact that I no longer felt the usual thirst for her blood. I was, however, prisoner to a different kind of thirst. One that was a million times more powerful in that moment, but that presented no threat to her.

I felt her hands exploring my bare chest and it took me a great amount of willpower to not let my hands explore her body as well. I knew that if I did, there was no going back, considering that I was already as hard as a rock underneath my pants. I had to use physical force to separate myself from her. Her red eyes were burning and I could see in their reflection that mine did too.

"Hello," I said to her, smiling.

She smiled in return and I was once again mesmerized. There had never been and never will be a woman on this Earth more beautiful than my Bella. Men would fall to their knees to simply catch a glimpse of her, but she was all mine. And I was hers just the same.

"Welcome back, my love," I told her.

Before I realized what was happening, she was standing up in front of me. It was a surprise to see Bella move at my pace - and something I had to get accustomed to. I stood up as well, taking her hand in mine.

"How do you feel?"

It took her half a second to respond:

"Perfect."

Another surprise. I expected her to at least acknowledge the burning sensation in her throat, but she didn't. I had to ask:

"Thirsty?"

A small frown darkened her face, as she took a deep breath in. I knew how powerful the thirst could be for a newborn.

"I suppose I am," she murmured.

I wanted more than ever to hear what she was thinking. There was still radio silence on her part - so this feature of her remained unchanged. She bit her lip and I wanted to do the same, so I took her face in my hands and kissed her once again, unable to keep away. She responded with enthusiasm, pressing her whole body against mine.

Every curve of her was so defined and perfectly sculpted, that I could easily make out what was hidden underneath her clothes. Her breasts were incredibly tender as they squashed against my chest, and I could not help but wonder how her buttocks felt. My hands roamed her body, finding delight in tracing the fine wave of her waist, until they found what they were looking for. Her buttocks felt perfectly buxom and rotund in my hands, and I squeezed them hard.

Her response took us both by surprise. She moaned - a sound so full and so filled with desire - and in an instant I was on the ground, with Bella sitting on top of me, straddling my hips with her thighs.

"Careful, my love," I laughed. "You are way more powerful than you remember now."

My hands were still cupping her butt and I thought of a hundred ways in which I could kiss and caress that area of her body. Bella, on the other hand, was not as lost in thoughts as I was. She was already grinding herself against my erection, which made it incredibly difficult for me to concentrate enough to say:

"We should probably go hunting first."

She looked at me, her face vexed and full of questions. Before she could say anything, I continued:

"Believe me, I want you. You have no idea how much, actually."

It was such a travesty to turn her down, but I wanted her to be as comfortable as possible - and her thirst provided anything but comfort. I grabbed a fistful of her hair - a gesture that reminded me too much of all the times she went down on me - and I lowered her head, so that her face was inches away from mine.

"It's been driving me crazy, love," I confessed, trailing my lips across her velvet cheek. "To be frank, I don't want to do anything else but make love to you right now."

I moved my lips to the side of her neck, right where I bit her. The scar was no longer there. It felt strange to not have her heartbeat as a signal for her rising excitement. But her breath quickly became irregular, just as it used to when she was human, and suddenly there was no more need for her heartbeat.

"I need to have you, Bella," I whispered before I traced the contour of her neck with my tongue. "And this might take us… a while," - I had to be a gentleman - "but you need to hunt first."

I removed my mouth from her neck, and I looked at her face. She didn't seem mad.

"Where?" she finally said and I was thankful that she didn't push further, because I didn't have much power to resist if she did.

"I know just the place."

Bella got up and I followed her. I went to the closet to put a shirt on me.

"Will you… teach me?" the uncertainty in her voice somehow still sounded melodic.

"Of course. You will find that it comes very… naturally. Surprisingly so."

I grabbed her waist, guiding her towards the door. I noticed her walk was different. She no longer looked ready to stumble. Instead, she looked more confident. More graceful. There was grace even in the way she tied the shoelaces of her boots.

"You are so incredibly beautiful, Bella," I told her, as we walked outside into the forest. "Remind me to get you in front of a mirror when we get back."

A few days ago, my remark would have made her blush. Now there was no blush, only satin white, but she smiled and lowered her glance with bashfulness when she said 'thank you'. Still my Bella.

The rain hadn't started yet, but the air was permeated with the smell of anticipation. The patches of snow that welcomed us two days ago were still there, albeit smaller. Meanwhile, Bella was analyzing everything with a face full of awe, and it made me happy to see her like this: as if she was seeing the beauty of the world we were living in for the first time.

"Wow," she managed.

"I know, right?"

"It's like I could never see properly until now."

Her excitement was contagious. I planted a kiss on top of her head and I took her hand in mine.

"All right, it's time for your first lesson, love," I said with a grin.

She raised her eyebrows, waiting.

"We are now at the base of the mountain," I explained. "We need to go up, towards the valleys where the mountain goats live. It is a rocky, icy path that is quite far from the usual hiking trails, so there will be no humans nearby."

Bella listened very closely to each word, taking in every information with a serious face. I decided to lighten the mood:

"It's not the easiest path for humans, but for us? It won't be that much of a challenge. To make this exciting, I'll race you."

A devious smile blossomed on her lips.

"Sounds like a plan," Bella said. "But how will I know which way to go?"

"That is the first lesson. Follow the direction of the wind and the scents of the forest."

"Easy for you to say," she mumbled.

"And it will be easy for you to do, you just don't know that yet."

A thunder broke the silence above us.

"Let's go," I said.

"You want a head start?"

I smiled.

"Ladies first."

By the time the next thunder boomed, Bella was already gone from my view.


If Bella was a newborn, I was a reborn. Witnessing the newness of her life was an experience in itself for me and I felt as if everything made more sense now that she was equal to me in terms of physicality. Seeing her run was a blast: there was elegance and precision in her movements, as she was treading on the ground with her boots, as her hair was flowing like a thick veil behind her. She held nothing back as she meandered through the forest, she made no effort to climb on the pointy rocks - rocks that would have meant an instant death in her previous life. She didn't slip on the icy portions and, most importantly, she managed to outrun me.

I made real efforts to overtake her, and I even managed to at one point, but Bella was simply too powerful. She might have thought that I was letting her win, but it was not the case. Later that day, I had to make sure she knew that as well, even if that meant stepping on my ego.

Bella followed my previous instructions. She finally understood what I meant when I told her to follow the direction of the wind and the scents of the forest. When she sensed the very first traces of the mountain goats, she grew even more confident in her quest. In a few minutes, we were already where we needed to be. Bella stopped, and a few seconds later I was right by her side.

"I won," she announced with a victorious smile.

"Indeed you won, congratulations!"

"You know I have to tell everyone about this when we get home, right? And then race with each of them, as well?"

"I didn't expect anything less from you."

I leaned down to kiss her and I felt overwhelmed yet again. Her lips were somehow as soft as they had always been, but also firm enough not to get crushed into oblivion by my own. Not having to worry about her fragility was a constant blessing, and that was the only thought that went through my head when her hands sneaked underneath my shirt, caressing my chest and abdomen. My God, I needed her like never before! My erection was almost painful at that moment.

The crisp air was sweetened with the scent of her arousal, and I could not help but remember the lacy black lingerie she had underneath, the one I had picked for her after her bath. I was willing to bet that she was soaking through her underwear right now, but I had to make a tremendous effort to not check. I could taste the surplus of venom in her mouth and I remembered that she had to hunt. I had to wait.

Disengaging from our kiss was difficult, but necessary.

"You are making it incredibly tough not to ravish you right now," I murmured into her ear.

"Is there a good reason not to?"

Her voice, thick with yearning and full of invitations, was not helping me at all.

"There is," I managed, but my body was not working together with my reason, because I pushed my hard member against her belly. "Your thirst won't let you concentrate on sex for long."

She couldn't breathe properly as I ripped the top portion of her blouse with my teeth, to gain access to her breasts. I cupped them and pinched her nipples hard through the lace bra.

"And you see, I will need your full and undivided attention, Bella."

As her hands explored my back, I felt desperate to put her down on her knees right there on the snow and enter her from behind. Instead, I resigned myself to kissing her collarbone.

"Because the things I will do to you…" I went on, savouring the anticipation a little too much. "Let's just say they won't leave much room for distractions."

I took her wrists in my hand, because if she kept touching me like that, I would have lost it completely. Having her wrists locked like this gave me a few ideas.

"Now behave, love," I warned her.

I separated my body from hers, to gain back some sensibility, but electricity continued to surge between us despite my best intentions.

"It is time for lesson two," I said, in a bid to change the path of the discussion.

She regained a normal breathing pattern quicker than I was used to. Her nostrils moved ever so slightly, searching the air for new scents.

"What do you smell now?"

She closed her eyes and focused only on her breathing.

"Wet rocks… and pines. And… well, I think snow. Is this normal? Does snow even have a smell?"

"Yes, but I will need you to concentrate some more. What else is there?"

She inhaled deeper, right when a gust of wind blew at our feet. There it was, as obvious as I wanted it to be: the warm blood pulsing under the fur of the mountain goats, a couple of miles away from us. The memory of me drinking Bella's blood made this scent unappetizing and almost revolting. But to Bella, this smell wasn't unappetizing and revolting, it was the promise of a good meal, so she opened her eyes immediately.

"It's…" she didn't finish. Her pupils dilated and I could tell that she was entering a state of frenzy.

"Exactly. Now follow this scent - but be careful. You don't want to scare them away."

Bella started to run towards the source of the smell, her feet barely touching the ice - that's how fast she was. I went after her, and I stopped when she stopped, at the very base of a high vertical rock wall. She looked up and her eyes became feral when she spotted what her nose sensed from miles away: a fluffy mountain goat, riding on the rocks, unaware of the impending doom awaiting.

She no longer seemed to be aware that I was standing right next to her. A small growl was growing on her lips, as she calculated her next move. I could not help but stare at her. She was a different creature now and I had to remind myself that she didn't need my help. I forced myself to remain unmoved as Bella threw herself on to the steep rock wall and began climbing towards her prey. It was a fascinating sight, if not completely unusual to what I was used to.

Her hands and legs were fast and silent - so much so that the innocent goat didn't even flinch when Bella grabbed it and, guided by her instinct, broke its neck, in order to spare it from unnecessary pain. Bella jumped back to the ground, carrying the goat, and in an instant she was hunched over its body, with her teeth sinking through the animal's fur. She moaned when she swallowed the first mouthful of blood. I watched as she fed, and there was almost something voyeuristic in my doing so, because the scene in front of my eyes was so personal, so intimate, that it felt as if I should not have been a witness.

The sounds she made as she drank the blood from the lifeless body of the animal were unlike any other sounds she ever made. They were not like the usual 'mmm's she let out when she ate a particularly good pizza, they were the sounds of a winning predator. I felt an unusual high feeling in my chest. Was it pride?

Hours could have passed, because I had lost all sense of time in studying Bella. All I know is that at some point, she rose up and turned around, seeming almost surprised to see me there. Her white blouse was now splattered with blood, and the liquid managed to slide to her cleavage and bra, staining the delicate lace. She looked down with embarrassed eyes, but her cheeks remained snow-white.

"You… watched?" she managed.

"I did."

There was no shame in my voice.

"Oh…"

I walked towards her, puzzled by the edge in her tone.

"I'm sorry if…" she didn't finish her sentence.

"Bella, it's all right."

I took her face in my hands and made her look me in the eyes. Hers were still red and I knew they would remain like that for a while.

"No," she protested. "You seeing me like that, it's…"

"It is normal," I interrupted her before she could worry any more. "I've seen vampires hunt countless times, love. I am not appalled, if that's what you think. In fact, I am kind of amazed. You are a natural."

Bella let out a long sigh. A million emotions seemed to cross her face at that moment. When she looked at me, her big red eyes had a childlike confusion in them.

"When I smelled the blood, I felt out of control, Edward."

"Completely normal," I assured her.

"I think I even phased out at some point."

She bit her lip anxiously, but she didn't look away.

"I'm sorry, I know I look disgusting right now," she said.

"On the contrary, you look absolutely ravishing," I countered.

She half-smiled.

"How do you feel?" I demanded.

"Surprisingly full."

"Already? Don't you need some more?"

"Not really," Bella grimaced. "Besides, now it's your turn, right?"

She seemed to regain some of her good spirits.

"Well, not really."

Truth be told, I felt deprived of any thirst. My throat wasn't burning, my mouth wasn't flooded with venom. It seemed that drinking her blood - although not nearly in the quantities I usually required to quench my thirst - had had an unusual satiating effect on my system. I had no idea how long that would last, but I felt thankful nonetheless.

"Why not?" she asked.

"You might not remember all the details, but I had quite a feast a couple of days ago."

I expected a grimace from her upon hearing my dark remark, but instead her eyes glistened with curiosity.

"About that… My memories are quite foggy, so I was hoping you would help me fill in the gaps."

Her voice was oddly inviting - almost seducing. Was this turning her on? And if it did, how could it? She had been in so much pain... I knew for a fact that there had been no room for pleasure. Not for her.

"I'm not sure about that, my love."

We were entering a dangerous territory. The memory of drinking her blood was something I had tried to banish from my thoughts for the past two days and a half. Of course I loved it and it was the single most delicious meal in my entire existence. But I also hated it, because it had been so good that I almost didn't stop.

"Was it good for you?" she insisted.

I didn't respond.

"Come on, you can't keep that to yourself."

"Isabella..."

She raised her eyebrows when she heard me say her full name.

"Good does not begin to cover it," I said. "You were out-of-this-world delicious, of course."

I immediately scolded myself for allowing those crass words to escape my mouth.

"It was everything I'd hoped for and more."

I took her in my arms and I pressed my lips on her forehead.

"I can't tell you how much I loved doing that to you," I confessed. "It's scary how much, actually."

I felt her breath on my neck, calm and collected. Having her safe in my arms made the memory more bearable, but not entirely.

"Don't feel bad, please," she murmured. "You did stop. Otherwise I wouldn't be here."

True. I did stop. But she had to call out my name twice in order to pull me from my frenzy.

„And I might not remember everything, but I do remember feeling quite good myself," she said.

My mind took me back to that fateful moment in an instant. One moment I was making love to her, then the next my teeth were deep inside her throat. Then the screams... The trembling. Her pleas.

"I think your memory might be a tad too foggy, if that's what you remember."

My voice sounded harsher than I intended. I held her closer in my arms, to attenuate my own rudeness.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. "Let me try again."

I felt a few drops of water on my skin - the rain that ran late.

"I know that drinking your blood was not really part of the original plan, my love," I began. "But it had been on my mind for weeks."

"I kind of assumed it was an implied notion."

I laughed bitterly.

"So you always thought that I had the right to feed from you, since I was the one changing you?"

"In a nutshell, yes," she said.

I distanced myself a bit from her, to look into her eyes. They were warm and playful. The rain grew thicker, and for once I didn't have to worry that Bella might get cold and wet.

"To resume, Alice had seen me do it in her visions. She saw positive outcomes each time."

"But you still had to ask," Bella mocked me, breaking whatever tension I had managed to build.

"Of course."

"Always the gentleman."

Her blouse was now wet from the rain, and the blood stains grew wider in size from the moisture. But I could not pay much attention to the stains, because her ripped blouse revealed the most alluring cleavage, and the thoughts that ran through my head upon seeing it were anything but gentlemanly. She caught me staring and she smiled:

"You want me to cover up, so that I don't distract you?"

"Oh, on the contrary, love… I think you are wearing far too many clothes."

As I said that, I made sure to rip the rest of her blouse, along with her bra, and threw them on the ground. Her nipples were no longer rosy, they were now the colour of peonies in bloom, and the contrast with her snow-white skin made for an extremely erotic sight.

Bella's lips parted in anticipation.

"And you've made such a mess," I said, as I traced my fingers on the waistband of her pants and noticed that some blood got on them as well. "It's too bad for your clothes, don't you think?"

With a swift move, I tore her jeans right where they were hugging her hips, and they fell down, leaving Bella wearing nothing else but the black lace thong I had picked for her.

"I liked those jeans," she murmured, but her eyes weren't looking at me, but rather at the growing mass in my pants.

"Well, that's a shame, because I like you better without them."

I pulled her closer to me, grabbing her by her waist. She was so incredibly beautiful.

"Do you mind the rain?" I asked her.

"Not in the slightest."

I leaned down to kiss her neck, inhaling its glorious lavender sugar scent. Once again, my lips found the place where I bit her and this time I allowed myself to be reckless, so I bit. Hard. Her moan was the most amazing sound my ears had ever heard. I could no longer contain my curiosity, so I reached down with one hand between her legs. Just as I expected, the lace was doused from her excitement. Even more than when she was human, to my surprise.

"You don't know how long I've waited for this, Bella," I murmured into her ear, as I slid my fingers beneath her underwear, into her inviting wetness, and found her clitoris. "I should probably warn you that I'm not gonna hold back this time."

"I really hope you don't."

And, faithful to my word, I didn't.


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