Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
This story has been adopted. The original was written and discontinued by Amiiix3. I was graciously given permission to continue the story as I saw fit. Thank you Amiiix3 for your trust.
As soon as I heard the quiet click of Bella's door upstairs, I turned to Tanya. She caught my eyes and a smile, a smirk rather, flicked up on one side of her cheek. She slipped off the long couch and joined me on the loveseat, sitting so that she was practically on my lap. I nudged her off as kindly as I could.
"What are you doing?" I asked, attempting to look more inquiring than annoyed and disgusted.
"Nothing at all," she replied, blinking up at me with those golden eyes. Keeping you away from that silly Isabella. She pursed her lips as soon as the thought left her mind; a sigh fell from them. She had just admitted it.
I cocked my head at her. "Really? This is about that?" She stuck her lip out until she looked absolutely absurd. Her head twisted at an awkward angle and she began twirling a lock of hair around one finger. I had absolutely no clue what she was doing.
Really, Edward, I'm not blind. I see you're getting interested in her and I just need to warn you what you might be giving up. Tanya's mind whispered in a sickly sweet voice. She leaned closer to me until her low-necked shirt fell forward to reveal her ample cleavage.
I turned away, disgusted; she was acting no better than a common whore. "I don't like what you're doing," I whispered harshly, my face turned away from her.
She pulled back and I saw her expression flicker, truly hurt. "I can't stop!" she cried suddenly, falling back on the cushions. I felt sorry for her; I knew affections could not be controlled, but she was attracted to me for all the wrong reasons.
"Last time, I told you to try harder..." I was speaking of the year right before I had left to become a 'rebel'- to drink from humans. Just before leaving, Tanya had begged me to stay, but I had refused, finally telling her- bluntly- that I did not share the same feelings she did.
"That was forever ago. Can't you give it another go?" she pleaded in a ragged whisper. I finally faced her and my resolve nearly crumbled at the desperate look in her innocent golden eyes, so very similar to a pair upstairs. But this was Tanya.
You're so much better with me...
"And what of those other men?"
"Which ones?" Her eyes were wide and innocent again, but images played in her mind. There was a tall, pale man with shoulder-length blond hair and deep brown eyes, his chest already bare as Tanya leaned over to undo his belt. There was a young man, his head shaved to show he was in the army, who gazed up at her with a fearful look in his eye, all the while caressing her bare arms in his work-roughened hands.
A much older man lay panting beside Tanya in a rumpled bed, mumbling 'Lacey' over and over again; apparently she was his wife.
I raised an eyebrow. "You don't love me, even though you may think you do. Tanya," I cut her off before she could speak, "you don't love me. You never did. Perhaps you find me attractive. Perhaps you like that I can play mind games with you, and understand you, and am tolerant of your behavior, and do not already have a mate...
"But you prefer your fun with the human men- as their succubus," she had the decency to look embarrassed, "and I prefer..." I paused. What did I prefer? I thought of Bella. "And I prefer something else."
Tanya was silent for a long time. Then she lifted her eyes from her lap and looked me straight on. Her expression was unreadable. "All right." All right, what? I wondered, but she left before I could find out, through the door and probably into the forest.