Stephenie Meyer owns all the rights.
"Which is tempting you more, my body or my blood?"
– New Moon
Carlisle crossed the space that was between us in a matter of seconds. He paused for a second, watching me, before pulling me away from Alice and into a hug. I saw over Carlisle's shoulder that Emmett was stifling a laugh and Jasper had hit him for it. As I thought about it, I was pretty sure that me not wanting to let go of Alice and Carlisle pulling on me was quite funny.
"Bella, it's been so many years," Carlisle said, though I could tell that he was happy to see me.
"Yes, it has," I agreed with Carlisle. He released me from his hug and motioned for me to sit down again. He took the opportunity to sit between Emmett and Jasper– it seemed that they were too content on hitting each other at the moment.
Boys.
Rose walked past me, to the other couch. She held her head high and her lips pursed. "Bella," I heard her say indifferently. I couldn't understand why she was angry at me. I never understood why she had been angry at me before, either, come to think of it. No one had ever explained that one to me. I was just starting to believe that it was Rose's character flaw.
Edward was the last to break the original formation. In three strides, Edward was standing in front of me. A millisecond later, he was crouched down in front of me. It hurt so bad to look at him, so I didn't. I pulled my eyes away from him and focused on the big screen TV that sat to my left side. By the looks of the entertainment center they had here in the house hold, Emmett still loved to play video games. I was better that Jasper loved to play them, too.
"Bella," called the voice that belonged to the angel. "Bella, can you please look at me?"
I shook my head once negatively. How could I look at him? I wasn't worthy. I hung my head, tearing it from the large TV. Here was my one shot at redemption with Edward the Angel, and I couldn't even bring myself to look at him! Anger flourished within me, but it was soon quelled by Jasper. I shot him a look somewhere between annoyance and thanks.
"Bella, please," Edward murmured. He gently touched my hands that were sitting in my lap. I pulled them away as if I had been burned by his touch. 50 years was far too long to go with nothing. I wasn't going to let Edward crush my heart again when he decided that I was unworthy five minutes from now.
I didn't think it was worth it.
Okay, maybe it was worth it.
I pulled my eyes up to meet his. Instantly a smile broke out on his face. I returned it unsurely. Why was Edward Cullen smiling at me? That was something that my brain couldn't comprehend.
Jasper cleared his throat and Edward turned to look at him. For a moment it looked as if Jasper and Edward were having a silent conversation. Before long, Edward jerked his head to the side with a pained expression on his face. Jasper must have said something to him. Perhaps he mentioned to Edward the emotions that were running through my body. To name a few, there were: anger, confusion, hurt, love, lust, fear. There were many more than that coursing through my body, but those were the six that I felt most. It was almost as if it were a cycle; I would feel one emotion for a certain amount of time before the other one would roll in, closely followed by the next and then the next one after that.
Edward stood up and retreated to leaning his arm on the mantle above the fireplace. His eyes never left me, though. I could tell that Jasper was doing his best to help me with my emotions, because soon afterwards, I was starting to feel a bit more calm and reassured. I'm sure that was all thanks to Jasper.
Carlisle seemed to be having a conversation with Edward silently, though Edward's eyes hadn't left me. I had a feeling that my thoughts were still silent to Edward, and for that I was forever glad. I would just die if he could hear my thoughts. Okay, dying was out of the picture... but it would have been the only comforting thing to me. A moment or two later, Edward's eyes flashed to Carlisle. Edward then nodded a quick 'yes' to Carlisle before promptly returning his eyes to me.
"Bella, can I ask you some questions?"
I had figured that this time would come. Carlisle always seemed to thirst knowledge. I would give him the answers that I knew. "Of course," I replied wholeheartedly.
"How long have you been a vampire?" was his first question, although I knew that he probably already knew the answer. He would have had to have known the answer. I didn't look much different from when they had left. Certainly not old enough to get into a bar or anything, so he probably knew that I was still somewhere in my teens. He was unsure as to if that meant 18 or 19, I guessed.
"I was 18 when I was changed. That was 50 years ago."
I let that register with everyone for a moment. My hands were now resting at my side, and I was immensely pleased when one of Alice's hands found my hand. I looked over to my old friend and smiled for her. It was important to me that she knew that I appreciated her and her friendship.
"Who changed you?"
Well, wasn't that the million dollar question? I was very unsure how the Cullen family would react to the news that it had been Victoria. They all had fought so hard to keep me safe from her mate, James.
"Victoria," I replied nonchalantly.
"Victoria, that red haired witch?" I heard Emmett's sharp intake of breath as he asked this question.
"Yes, James' mate," came my response. It sounded so cool and natural and so... not me. It was as if I was disconnected from these thoughts and feelings that were swirling around in my head.
"Why did she change you?" Carlisle asked the next question. I could tell that he thought that this was important.
"Well, she didn't mean to change me. But it was, in her eyes, a mate for a mate. James was dead, that was our fault. We had killed her mate. She wanted to hurt Edward more than anything. She wanted me dead. A mate for a mate, she said."
"What do you mean, she didn't want to change you?" Carlisle was puzzled by this, and I could see why. Normally when a vampire wanted to change someone, there was a problem. And that problem was because they would continue to drink the blood until it was all gone. It was rather hard to stop drinking blood once you had started. It was very hard to create a new vampire – especially when you weren't trying to!
"She didn't mean to change me. See, I went to find the meadow... and I found her there instead. She was looking for food, I guess. She started talking to me, and I tried to lie as best as I could – which you know isn't very good – and she knew that you were gone. She knew that I was all alone.
"'How odd,' she said to me, 'that they would leave you behind like that. I thought you were that boy's special person or something. I thought he really loved you.' And I didn't really know how to respond to that.
"'Well, that makes it all the more easier for me, I guess. No one will come after me because no one will know you're dead. You don't fear death, do you? No, I don't suppose you do, Bella. You do run with vampires,' she told me.
"And I was already starting to back away from her. I didn't want to die, not really. And so I'm like, walking backwards, right? And what do I do? I trip and fall! You remember my gracefulness!" I could help but grin as I said that. It got a couple of appreciative chuckles from the Cullen family. I couldn't help but notice that my angel looked appalled.
"Anyway, so I'm sitting there. And I know that it's gonna be the death of me because Victoria is closing in. And she's saying all of these awful things to me. The next thing I know, she's started to bite me, and I was losing consciousness from it. It hurt so bad – it hurt worse than I ever imagined that it could. I never believed you when you said that it hurt, Edward," I told him with an apologetic smile before casting my glance back at the floor. Alice gave my hand a gentle squeeze to let me know that she was there for me.
"So why did she stop if she wanted to kill you?" Esme asked Carlisle's unasked question.
"She didn't account for one thing: the werewolves. My best friend, Jacob Black, was part of the gang down on La Push. I didn't know it at the time, but there was a young pack of werewolves. He was one of them. Anyway, he saw her start to attack and so they attacked her and finished her off. But by the time they had intervened, it was too late. Jacob, I guess, dragged me off to a hiding area while I changed. It was secluded from everywhere. He never came back for me, and I knew that I couldn't stay in Forks."
"So where did you go?" Esme asked. I could hear the sadness in her voice. I wanted to just hug her and tell her that it was okay.
"I stayed hidden, mostly to myself, for the first few years until I knew that I was better at being around people. Then I started posing as a wayward teen, runaway teen, orphan, whatever. I started moving from shelter to shelter, giving them false birthdays and what not. The longest I ever stayed in one shelter was a year and a half. I was constantly on the move." I finished lamely with a shrug.
Carlisle continued to fire questions at me for quite some time. Just simple questions like where I was staying, what my diet consisted of. That sort of thing. The whole Cullen family, including Rose, seemed to be listening to what I had to say intently, as if it were the most important thing in the whole world.
Of course, this was all taking place while I was supposed to be at school. You can imagine my surprise when I looked at the clock and noticed that it was already 4:15. School ended at 2:45. Oh, was I ever going to be in crap with the shelter director!
"Carlisle," I interrupted his question urgently, "I hate to interrupt you and all, but I need to get going. I'm going to get into a lot of trouble if I don't get back to the shelter. I've already skipped school, I'm sure they're really mad at me! They expect us to be on our best behavior and everything. I'm sorry," I apologized again.
"I'll walk you back to the shelter," offered Edward.
"Oh, no. You don't have to do that. I'm sure that you have a million better things to be doing with your time. Don't worry about me. It's not a long walk, I can handle myself," I rambled off to him.
"It's not a problem, Bella. I want to talk to you, anyway."
That's what I had been afraid of. "Fine," I muttered, though I didn't sound enthused at all.
And with that, Alice gave me a firm shove towards the door... and Edward.