Chapter 2

Bella gasped and the dog made a beeline towards the man named Cullen.

"What are you doing here?"

He silently watched her as her eyes moved around the room taking everything in.

"I'm alone," He said quietly. He then gave a hand signal and the dog sat next to him, facing her. "You know why I'm here."

Bella frowned, confusion laced her features.

"You're mistaken."

"I know what you are," he bit out. "I've been watching you for a while. I know you're not from here. That you're different."

"You're a scrapper?"

He flinched at the word, hating it. "No. I work for the government."

Scrappers were aplenty though, and they usually grabbed the powers that the person knowingly or unknowingly had and kept them for themselves. They would then keep their protectors for themselves, usually killing them, too.

"The government is watching me?"

"All of you, yes. Specifically you more than most, its seems."

His words hit her like the floor broke open and she fell into harsh, icy water.

"Tell me what you know."

She moved forward slowly but she could see his green watching her as well as Luna's dark brown.

"Don't signal." He said coldly and she stilled. "I know that you want to-"

"My time is up here." She said carefully, "I have no reason to stay."

Faster than she could even think, he had moved through the room and right up against her body. He enjoyed her sharp intake of breath and the slight way she shivered at his closeness. He knew she could feel exactly what he had been feeling when he first touched her.

It took everything in him to leave her that night, but he knew that if they found her, she would quickly be quarantined and they would most likely subject her to the same testing that the last Starlight (as they were referred) had been and he couldn't handle that.

"You have many reasons to stay," he whispered. It was then that he touched her arm, the same place as he did the night before and they both felt the slightly painful buzzing sensation.

"You marked me."

"I saved you."

"By marking me?"

He nodded.

It was then that he bared his teeth and she could see two long incisors.

"You bit me."

He chomped down, effectively closing his mouth. "It'll show up as a tattoo. I make no apologies."

She looked at the mark on her skin. It was blues and greens, though when turned under the light it gave a slight pearly iridescent look to it. It looked like a design she had seen before, though not quite the same. It was definitely a mark of a dragon, though the symbols looked Celtic.

"Once sealed, there will be two dragons intertwined."

"Sealed."

Cullen raised an eyebrow waiting for her to understand.

"Oh," she felt the flush from her feet to her face and she knew he could see it, too.

Wracking her brain she tried to remember where she had seen a similar tattoo. It was then that it all started coming back to her. "You know Alice."

"I do."

She could vaguely remember the small spritely girl with a vivid imagination. She was small with a bluish look about her, though it wasn't calming, but like glacier ice. She had a man that was close by often, but he had more of a greyish glow, though it didn't last and his colors shifted easily based on his moods.

"How?"

"She's a sister."

"Impossible." Bella scoffed.

"I'm telling the truth. She married my brother. "

Bella took a closer look at him, not seeing any array of color about him. She tried to pick up on his mood, though she couldn't seem to feel that either. When she tried to get into his head, though, he said "stop" without his mouth even moving.

"Get out of my head, then." She thought.

He smirked.

"That's how you found me." She mused. "You could hear my thoughts? You are like me?"

Cullen shrugged slightly, looking uncomfortable. "It was one of the many tells I had to find you. Had you not been my mate, I wouldn't have easily found you. Luna also, if you remember, alerted your presence."

"You work for the government to find others like us and trap us, while being one of us?"

"Not exactly, but yes. It's complicated. We go after scrappers, mostly."

"Why?"

"It's the enemy you know," he sighed. "That and they took my sister."

"Alice?" Bella gasped, cupping her mouth. She had often thought that Alice was like her, from the stars, but she wasn't. She was gifted as an oracle, of course, but she was something other. "Is she okay?"

"She is now that she has been placed."

"What does that mean?" But then it dawned on her. "You came to take me."

"You have to be collected, dead, or you have to be placed. Those are your three choices. If collected, they will experiment on you, which is their intention. If dead," he shrugged again. "If you are placed, I can insure your safety. But you won't be here anymore."

"I'll be in hiding." She said, seeing it all play out in his mind. He was to take her to a small cottage that was in an unknown location in a forest. There seemed to be other cottages of various sizes. People mulling around there, collecting flowers, tending a garden, painting and all seemingly like her- though some were not.

"How is this even a possibility?"

"Magic." He smirked. He then waved a hand and bits of sparkling lights followed.

She was very familiar with magic, having been gifted with some aspects of the talent herself. Not really as grandiose as hiding an entire village, though.

"I can't go with you," She finally said though her brown eyes betrayed her. She was scared and she loved her home and the lot of land behind her house. She enjoyed the trees and how they seemed to greet her, talk to her.

"You can have all this there."

"Hide me here." She whispered.

"They know-" He bit out. "Everything about you. If you don't go, they will take you. I can't let that happen! I saw-"

All the sudden flashes of memories witnessed from someone else's mind was projected into hers and she could see her lying on a table, motionless, tubes running all over her as various substances were being injected into her. She watched in horror as one substance, something green, was injected by a man in a doctor's coat that had slipped into the room. There was a woman with lush red hair lying on the table close to Bella and once he injected Bella, he went to her and started to unhook her tubing's and placing them into Bella. Bella's body shook, like she was having a seizure, but the man didn't seem to care. He took the woman's limp body onto a gurney and wheeled her out of the room, unnoticed.

Bella then could hear the machines as they showed her heart beating rapidly for several minutes until it stopped. The machine showed a thin line and a high pitched ring.

"I die."

"You're killed, yes."

"And the woman if I am not caught?"

Edward sighed. "I don't know. It only shows what would happen if you're there. I would assume her mate would do everything in his power to save her, still. Though I can't risk it-"

He slipped.

"You can't risk it?"

His eyes were large and had she been able to read his facial expressions better, she would have seen the pleading look about him.

"No," He says. "I won't risk your safety."

"Why?" She whispered. Her hair fell halfway over her face like a shield. "Why me?"

His fingers lightly touched the part of her arm which stung the night before when he touched her.

"What-" are you? She finished in her mind. But had she realized what was coming next, she may have never asked.

All of a sudden, before her eyes, he shifted right in front of her. Scales, almost like it had been tattooed into him, appeared all over his skin in white pearly iridescent shimmers. It was like a slight rainbow effect, like a mist in the sunshine and she couldn't help the impressed gasp. She looked at him, his hair a slight reddish Mohawk that went from the top of his head and moved down his back, while beautifully cautious green and gold eyes watched, waiting for her reaction. She could see a sliver of his pupil that matched the sharp shape of his teeth.

"Dragon," She whispered, and then looked at Luna who was completely unimpressed. She sat there bored and waiting command. She was obviously used to her person in this form.

She turned her head and looked out the window, seeing the slight shimmer of blue light that showed where her protector was watching.

"You're my new protector?"

"No." He hissed, though it was mostly due to his draconian voice. He took a step closer, hating the way his clothes fit him in this form. He was lucky that he could manage the size element of his change, though his brother, Emmett, was not as fortunate.

Everything in him was demanding for him to grab her and claim her, but he rejected the notion, shaking instead.

"Change back." She demanded and he instantly did with a simple thought and motion of his hand.

"You wish to claim me as yours. I heard." Her mouth pinched. "We haven't even been on a date, let alone do I know your first name."

"Edward. Edward Cullen." Edward laughed. "Rest and shower and pack, I'll be back for you at eight tonight. We won't be coming back."