Chapter 6

Edward insisted he go first, to make sure it was safe. It felt natural to argue, but I held my tongue.

I perched on my tote bag, refusing to let my new, white, shorts become covered in dirt.

The view was brilliant; cool shadows hiding me in the din of the alley, but the sun's full blown force above. Edward contemplated the wall directly opposite me and I could not help myself staring at the back of his figure, admiring the muscles in his arms.

The wall was tall, much larger than the small one against my back.

I gave an exaggerated yawn. "Are you going to start climbing anytime soon?"

"It's hardly a climb," he grinned back, cocky.

'Climb' was a strange word for it. I knew we vampires could clear the wall- and maybe six buildings over as well- with just one jump, but the amount of spring had to be just right, or we could land in another block, right in the sun.

"Well?" I asked after another five minutes had passed.

"You're so impatient," he complained, his voice high and childish. A grin coated his lips though. "Yes, I've figured it out."

I leaned against the wall, eager to watch this unfold, but more eager to carry out my devilish plan. His ego had to be deflated somehow...

He bent his legs, elbows following. His arms swung back for momentum. Then he stood straight. He bent his legs again, and I saw the his heels twitch in his sneakers as his leg muscles tightened repeatedly, trying different coils.

It was like the pressure put on a spring. More pressure, and the higher the spring would jump. The tighter the muscle coiled and the higher he would fling himself.

Being a vampire was more difficult than it seemed.

He finally finished gauging and flashed me a quick grin before bending his knees and swinging his arms, hopefully for the last time. The toe of his shoes pressed into the ground hard and he was about to jump...

I watched his form, swinging into motion just as he pushed his feet into the dirt.

My eyelids fluttered closed, blocking out the world's noise, and the sun's light as I focused on my power.

A band of energy- invisible to all but myself- suddenly connected us. I could feel everything in his muscles, how tight they were, how strong they were, how exhausted they were. His mind suddenly poured into mine. His thoughts were unreadable, like brail or gibberish.

I could not understand what his mind was saying, but I knew what it did. And I blocked it all off. I blocked his power- a mind reader- and I blocked his vampire energy.

...just as he sprung. He lifted less than a foot off the ground, then tumbled back to earth, falling on his backside.

My eyelids flickered open. A small cloud of dust particles, each separate and visible, hovered in the air. I lifted an arm and it felt as light as air. I brushed hair from my eyes, but felt nothing.

My movements flowed, graceful as a stream of water. The strength of two was now my own.

Edward sat on the ground, watching as I lifted myself into standing. His jaw dropped. He saw something in me that I could not see myself, perhaps the way I moved, the lithe, graceful steps. Twice as graceful as a normal vampire, twice as lithe, twice as light.

"What... happened?" he sounded drunk.

A twinkling laugh, silent as the wind, beautiful as a harp lifted from my throat.

I floated over to Edward, feeling as though my feet were not even touching the ground, but when I glanced down to check, they were simply gliding across it. Each footstep, just the tiny twitch of a muscle, carried me further and further.

I moved back and forth in front of Edward twice; I felt like a balloon, the thinnest of strings holding me to the ground, as if I could go floating above the horizon. The third time, I stopped in front of Edward. He still sat on his backside, the exact position he had fallen in when I had stolen his strength. His eyes were wide, unmoving, mouth agape.

I pressed one finger beneath his jaw and flicked it upward with the tiniest sliver of strength. His jaws snapped together immediately.

"Wow..." I breathed, captivated by the feel of it all. "I've never done this before," I confessed.

Edward finally recovered, shaking his head as if there was water clogging his ears. "How did you even know about it... and what did you do to me? I feel so... weak."

I smiled sympathetically. "I took your strength."

"My power?"

"No, your power resides in your mind, most people's does. And our minds are all like pieces of a puzzle, but different puzzles. We can't fit together. I would never be able to take power from your mind, because I don't understand it."

"So you took my... strength?"

"I've never done it before," I said again, shaking my head. Even my hair felt lighter, moving in the invisible breeze. "I've only used it once before, and only part of the way."

"When?" Edward leaned forward, his gaze fixed on me. It was both unnerving and elating.

"I met a vampire two decades ago. He was... well, he was making me unhappy. When he finally pushed me to the breaking point, I felt something inside me break. Suddenly he couldn't hold my arms anymore. I broke his grip so easily. He was so... weak. As weak as a human, I realized.

"So you can take other vampire's strengths?"

"And block their powers."

Edward breathed a sigh of understanding. "Which is why I can't read your mind." He nodded.

"Exactly." I laughed. "Is that what's been bothering you?"

"I've never met anyone like you. It makes me nervous," he admitted, "not knowing what you're thinking."

I grinned widely. "Here."

I shut my eyes, the world dark behind my eyelids. I could hear Edward panting, feel his emotions, but unable to decode them. The connection was back, a thin band between us. His strength flowed through it like an electric current.

When I opened my eyes, he was examining his hands, as if he was surprised they were there. He curled his fingers once, twice, then stood up wordlessly.

I was afraid I had frightened him off. After all, I was rusty in social ethic. Maybe it was rude to steal someone's strength. It was, after all, what we vampires relied on. Without our strength, even a human could kill us.

But he only moved to the dumpster. I watched with growing curiosity as he took the side of it in his hand. He tightened his grip on the edge and then pulled down with just a flick of his arm. The entire side pulled away, a loud screech as the steel tore from its home.

"All right." He grinned, throwing the four-foot plate of metal among the piles of garbage.

I rolled my eyes, but relief coursed through me like a good feeding- I still had a companion.

"So, ready to try 'climbing' again?" I asked excitedly.

"As long as you don't take my powers away. It was a bad move, Miss Swan, you better watch your back." Edward's warning was marred by the grin between his cheeks.

"And you better watch your mouth." I licked my lips nervously, wondering if he read the double message.

We bent our knees, both invigorated by the unnatural experience we had shared, and jumped the length of the building, catching the roof and rolling over the edge simultaneously.

It was like climbing into heaven from hell. Or it could have been from the peaceful darkness of heaven to the furious heat of hell. I wasn't exactly sure, but either way, once the sun hit our skin, we were hot and scintillating.

"What now?" I asked, pressed flat against the roof. There was a one-foot tall boundary around the edge of the building. We lay with our stomachs sucked in, hoping no one would notice the sparkles coming from above.

"Well...I hadn't actually thought past this in my brilliant plan." Edward said, uneasy.

I flipped like a pancake, suddenly on my stomach, and turned my head towards him. My eyes lingered on the shimmering muscles of his arm, the light emitted from his cheeks.

"That's wonderful. I'm glad we came up here for no reason. I mean, the sun feels dandy and I think I might even be getting a tan, though I'm not sure ladies should be tan. 'Fair is fair,' I think that's what they say nowadays. I, on the other hand, have always envied those lovely complexions the natives have. If I were-"

"Bella," Edward began, tired of my sarcasm.

"Sorry," I sighed. "I'm so scared."-The word tasted foul- "What if someone sees us?"

"Then we have a wonderful meal without much trouble."

I grimaced. "While we're up here attempting to think of how to escape- again- would you care to tell me the mysterious story of the golden-eyed vampires. It's something I've been longing to hear."

Edward pretended to think, tapping the side of his angular jaw with a pale finger. "I suppose since you told me- even demonstrated- your power... I could share something as well."

"Thank you," I sighed sweetly. I relaxed into the concrete that covered the building's roof, suddenly enjoying the sun's warmth on my skin.

"I told you before, we of the golden eyes refer to ourselves as vegetarians." He grinned at me, teeth flashing. "We drink from animals instead of humans, and it keeps us more sane. The vicious thirst that drives human drinkers becomes less dominant, and the monster is...trained as well."

"Tortured into obedience?" I asked. Those were the words I had thought when I met them almost a decade before.

"I wouldn't say it's torture, really, but you're right; it's not exactly a walk in the park."

"We've already walked in the park," I mumbled, the sun feverish on my skin.

Edward chuckled, "Perhaps we should find some shade."

"And if we could find some shade on the top of a building, we would have done that, remember?" I shook my head to clear it. "Go on, keep talking."

"There's not much more to say on the subject. There's no long, complicated form you need to fill out." He laughed again.

I thought of this. It sounded fairly simple. So simple to rid yourself of the monster that tortured you so. The nightmares would be gone. The guilt... the bloodbaths... the murder...

"So," I forced my voice into nonchalance. "How do you learn to be avegetarian?"

Edward paused for a very long time, the seconds ticking away in my head. It was not until he began speaking that I realized I had not been breathing.

"It takes... some time...," he said slowly. I refused to look at him. "It requires some training. You need to have patience, because it won't come right away. And it requires a lot of practice and strength. Not physical, but mental," he added.

I inhaled deeply, held the breath for a very long time, then let it out as slowly as possible.

I turned to my side, careful to keep beneath the one-foot border.

Squaring my shoulders, for the first time I willingly looked him in the eye; burgundy to burgundy. "I want to be an animal-drinker."