Chapter 1

Chase Me

If I had my old chemical makeup, I know that adrenaline would be pumping through my entire body at this point in the game.

It was fun to try and outrun him. I could feel small droplets of water fall and glance off of my marble face; I was moving too fast for any water to maintain a hold there. My feet barely swept the ground as I ran at full speed through the miles of forest beyond the small town of Forks, Washington. I wondered what would happen if I collided with a human at this speed? Probably the same impact as a bullet train…I stopped thinking about it. The idea of a splattered human made my throat constrict with thirst.

I could hear his feet fall as lightly as mine behind me. For a time, he was the self-proclaimed "fastest" of us all. But as I matured, my speed also increased. Games like this became fun instead of no-contest. I heard him growl as he heard my thought.

I had finally learned how to manage my shield several months ago. Using powerful emotions (these days, namely love), I learned how to channel that "energy" into the force to hold out my stretchy, protective field. Sometimes, when I wanted to tease Edward, or when I would rather that we thought as one, I would envelope him in my shield so that he could hear me.

During the game, I always let my shield down at intervals when I was winning so that I could prod his ego a bit. It was a lot easier than turning around and going, "Ha!"

It was a bright, crisp fall morning. No rain, though the water that was falling from the trees was leftovers from the enormous storm that we had received the night before. Emmett and Carlisle were back at the Cullen' house fixing the damaged roof and several cracked windows. Forks had not seen a rainstorm like that in decades. Maybe longer.

In my brief deviation in thought, I made one mistake that I usually was so good at avoiding. To evade Edward best, running in a straight line was out of the question. Our run so far had been anything but straight…until two milliseconds ago.

I heard the absence of his feet on the ground, and then I felt his body crash into mine. We tumbled head long through several trees, causing the mighty oaks to smash right at their bases, and then fall.

Before they even had the chance to tip, I tried to leap up and away from Edward, but his iron arms and legs seemed to bolt around my own, and I was captured.

I growled menacingly from beneath him on the ground, but the sound was cut off as Edward closed his mouth around mine. In an instant, the mood changed. Edward let me go, but I was the one clutching myself to him. He held my arms down and kissed me more passionately than before, and we began furiously trying to unclothe each other.

The loud THUMPTHUMPTHUMP of three massive oak trees falling brought us to our senses, and we leapt to our feet defensively at the sound. We had completely forgotten about everything else, as always.

Looking around us, we saw the damage we had caused, and that the sound was nothing more than our own destruction catching up with us.

Trees, I thought.

Edward nodded, seriously.

After half of a millisecond, we both burst into laughter at our complete loss of attention. It wasn't the first time. This would live on in infamy, however. Hopefully Emmett and Jasper would never find out…we'd never hear the end of it.

"Yeah, that was pretty bad." Edward noted, still chuckling, "We'll have to make sure to keep our voices down at the cottage if we talk about it…"

I thought wistfully of wanting to hear his thoughts so that we wouldn't have to speak.

Edward smiled my favorite smile, and held out his hand to me. "I like talking to you. Hearing just your voice is sometimes a blessing."

I frowned at him. What was that supposed to mean?

Edward laughed again as he reached out and took my hand from my side anyway. "You know I get tired of hearing people talk and think all the time…with you, it's like I can get a little vacation from time to time. I love that I can have both with you now."

"That's why we're supposed to be together." I said, squeezing his hand. He brought my fingers to his lips, and kissed each one quickly before tugging me back in the direction of home.

I sighed as I followed blissfully, letting the water from the trees cascade onto my face now. Life was so beautiful; I learned quickly to appreciate every splash of color in a hidden forest flower, every ray of sun that broke through the trees near our home, every moment that I had to spend with my family (human, shape shifter, and vampire).

Though there were many times before to fear the end of such a perfect time in my life, in general, things were so good. How could I worry? Even the Volturi were out of my mind now, and they were the only possible force that could bring down my heaven.

Edward stopped walking and grabbed my arm. Curiously, I looked up at him. His face was nothing but impish as he swung my whole body around to his back. Instinctively, I clamped both of my legs and arms around him and giggled.

"I miss this." He whispered, "I want to be your hero again."

I laughed. Cheesy, much? I thought.

Edward laughed quietly, and kissed my hand before taking off at a sprint.

~*~