Title: You Found Me

Full Summary: Edward Masen has lived the life of a nomadic vampire, travelling with James and Victoria since he awoke an immortal. His ability to read minds has had the unusual side effect of making him a vampire with a conscience. Despite the ridicule from his coven mates, he's confident he's making the best of his existence and doing what's morally right... until he stumbles upon a brown-eyed girl reading in a meadow in Forks. As he attempts to befriend her and learns more about the sleepy town of Forks, Edward finds there's a lot more to being a vampire than he ever thought possible.

Pairings: Canon

Rating: M, for language and future sexing.

Chapter: Three; Surprise

POV: Edward

AN: Back to Edward, today. He's more fun to write, anyway…

Hope you all like :) Thanks for the continued support through faves, alerts and most of all reviews. I smile at my computer like a crazy person when I read them.

xx

I sprinted through the forest purposefully, my strides long and efficient. I headed for the pretty little meadow, avoiding the tangle of branches and leaves that littered my path with ease.

When I had first stumbled upon the meadow a week ago, I had been too consumed with the girl who occupied it to take in my surroundings. Since, I had learned to appreciate the little meadow for the oasis that it was.

Since my change I had been hyper-aware of my environment at all times; it was a force of my predatory nature, part of the drive to survive embedded in every living creature. But there was something about the girl with the brown eyes that acted like an electrical short to my system, shutting down all my senses, forcing me to see nothing but her. It was intoxicating, to be entirely truthful. I wondered offhandedly if that was what it felt like to be drunk, having no recollection of feeling that way as a human.

I knew it wasn't wise to want to know her. In other circumstances she might be a part of my diet, but fuck it all if she wasn't the most intriguing person I'd met in the last century. How had one so young and fragile constructed such a mind shield more formidable than my vampire companions, who had been alive for centuries?

James and Victoria had been rather nonchalant about the entire debacle. My mind lapsed back to the week prior.

"Back from your tantrum?" James asked snidely as I approached him and Victoria, having followed their scents from the bar to the lounge of the small bed and breakfast they'd rented for our stay in Forks. "How many trees suffered this time? Or are you an environmentalist as well as a humanitarian?"

I kept quiet. James was just trying to bait me. An angry response would be more satisfying to him than none at all.

"Edward?" Victoria looked me up and down carefully. "You look off. Is everything all right?"

"Of course he looks off, baby," James answered sweetly. "He's been romping around the forest for the last few hours. You know Eddie prefers not to get dirty." His tone reeked of innocence, despite the horribly unimaginative innuendo.

Victoria rolled her eyes. "Beyond that, James. You're a vampire. Use your senses," she chided. "I hear they're supposed to be quite impeccable."

James paused, his scarlet eyes scanning me more carefully than before, a frown overtaking his previously crude smile. "Vic's right, dude. You look fucked up."

I sighed at the unnecessary concern. "I'm fine. I just had a bit of an out of body experience."

"An out of body experience?" Victoria asked, confused. She exchanged glances with James who looked equally perplexed.

"Yeah. You know, where you don't feel quite like yourself, and it seems as if you're watching someone else live your life?" I explained, knowing I wasn't answering the question she was actually asking. I just wasn't sure I was ready to talk about it, yet.

"We know what an out of body experience is, dumbass." James rolled his eyes in a gesture that might have qualified as playful, were he anyone else. "How did you have one?"

"I ran into this human in the woods," I confessed. "She has some serious mind power, more than any vampire I've ever met. She prevented me from reading her mind. It was as if she didn't even have to think about doing it. She was reading a book at the same time. Humans usually aren't so good with multi-tasking. Except mothers. Boys are the worst. But this girl, she was amazing," I rambled. "I don't think she even knew I was there at first. And she smelled fucking incredible. Like strawberries and freesia."

"Freesia?" James' lip curled in disgust. "That's what it takes to get you to call a human scent 'fucking incredible?' That's a flower, dude. Your ideal food is fucking flowers?"

I bit my lip, irritated by the pointless tangent. "Yes, because that was the point of my story. Did you not listen to anything else I just said?"

"Of course. You're overreacting, as usual. You've always had a flair for the dramatics, Edward." He gave me a once over and a sly smirk that indicated he was about to attempt to offend me. "That, paired with the way you dress… and with the fact you think flowers smell delicious… are you sure you're not gay?"

"Wow, James," I dead-panned. "Your knowledge of gay culture is overwhelming. Did you learn all of that on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?"

"Edward," Victoria interrupted the banter that was quickly brewing into a battle of wills. "Jamie's right. Who cares? She's a human. What good is she to us? You ran into her in the woods. What are the chances you'll see her again? She was probably a tourist who thought hiking would be fun and got lost."

"Nothing, I suppose," I sighed, not bothering to correct Victoria or explain that it was more likely she was a local. "I just found it interesting."

Victoria was quick to change the subject, gesturing around us.

"We've booked this place for the next four weeks. Jamie likes it here, so we're going to stay a little longer than we originally planned. You're okay with that, aren't you?" she asked, in such a way that indicated my opinion wouldn't impact her decision.

I nodded, mildly distracted. My mind was still on the brown eyed girl.

"That's fine. I think I could get accustomed to this place. Forks isn't so bad, after all," I admitted, already making plans to cross paths with the brown eyed girl the next day. I had every intention of unraveling her mystery, even if James and Victoria thought she was unimportant.

James regarded me suspiciously, "Yesterday you called it 'a podunk little hick town that no one but old hillbillies set in their hillbilly ways and those in a vegetative state would willingly stay in.'"

"I changed my mind, okay?" I snapped. "I thought it would make you happy. Sorry for trying to be nice."

"Since when have you cared if I was happy?" James retorted indignantly.

"I don't know," I muttered sarcastically. "Since when have you cared if I was happy? I'd say about the same length of time…"

"Boys, boys," Victoria interrupted, slithering over to James and latching onto his arm, wrapping herself around him. "Let's play nice, shall we? I don't like my boys when they're naughty."

James opened his mouth to reply, but I had snatched a room key from Victoria's hand, disappearing to the room listed, before I could hear James tell Victoria how, yes, she did like her boys naughty.

I slowed my stride as I approached the clearing, allowing the memory to fade to the back recesses of my mind. The closer I came to the meadow, the more hollow my chest felt. It ached as if it were a physical wound. If I'd still had a heart it would have been beating frantically, I was so nervous.

I supposed that was the right word to describe the feeling that encompassed me now. I hadn't felt the emotion in decades. Thrills, anticipation, yes, but never nervousness. That would indicate an underlying worry. Immortal, virtually unbreakable and at the top of the food chain, I'd had nothing to be nervous of until now. Funny that all it took was a pretty brown-eyed girl.

The foliage overhead was thinning, the light from the clearing beginning to penetrate the forest, so I lithely hopped into a sturdy looking oak to commence my wait.

I didn't have to wait more than ten minutes.

The girl with the brown eyes was like a clockwork. She staggered, and I suppose I meant that literally, into the little meadow every day at approximately fifteen minutes after three. Instead of being off-putting, her clumsiness was adorable. It was all too human, a contrast to the calculated grace of vampires.

She was likely coming from school, as each day she carried with her a worn navy backpack, that looked to be one trip away from falling apart. Yet, every day, there it was, loaded with new books and papers.

I was a little ashamed to admit how obsessed I was with her. I knew everything I could know about her, based on the limited contact I had with her. I didn't even know her name, but I knew the kind of books she liked to read, how she dressed and what she was studying in her classes. After my monumental failure during our first meeting, if it could even be called that, I had started paying careful attention, gleaning any and every detail I could about the mysterious brown-eyed girl.

Her reading material implied she was intelligent. The books she chose to read often seemed to surpass that of a typical high school curriculum, suggesting she read them willingly. She was independent and self-sufficient, perhaps an only child or an eldest sibling.

Her choice in clothing was simple and unadorned. She wore faded, well-worn jeans and practical sweaters most days. I had yet to see her in a skirt or anything remotely frilly or lacy. I stifled that thought quickly, the mental images were unbearably pleasant. Her face, too, was clear of any adornments; none were necessary, anyway. Her wide brown eyes drew more than enough interest. They had captured mine, indefinitely.

I wasn't sure what I'd do when she stopped appearing, as she inevitably would. It was already September, and the weather would begin to drop soon. Eventually snow would begin to coat the ground. No human in their right mind would sit around in that.

I hadn't even mustered up the courage to talk to her. I'd tried, but my body simply wasn't willing to cooperate.

Her smell was unbearable. It was painful to move too close to her, though I'd attempted it multiple times. I'd creep through the trees like a deranged but astoundingly nimble stalker, until a mere thirty feet and a few bothersome maples stood between us, but venom would always pool in the back of my throat, and I'd feel guilty for putting her in danger. It was the same routine each time. My blood thirst would kick in and I'd pull away, shamefaced. That never stopped me from trying again the next day though.

When it came down to it, I wasn't willing to risk her life in order to satisfy my selfish need to be closer to her, so I settled on watching her from afar.

I huffed out a breath, blowing a dozen leaves off the branch nearest me. I snatched the pile of leaves from the air, with careful dexterity, before they could fall to the meadow below and alert the brown-eyed girl to my presence.

Perhaps I was crazy, but I think she wanted to see me, too. The day after our unbearably tense and awkward first encounter, she'd tripped into the meadow with purpose in her chocolate eyes. She'd been looking for me, I swear it.

The whole four hours and twenty-one minutes that she'd sat crossed-legged amidst the long grass, she had glanced up periodically, as if expecting someone. The only exception was one bizarre, entirely perplexing excursion up a tree, from which she'd promptly fallen. It had taken an excessive amount of willpower to prevent myself from catching her, though I held back, not wanting to unwittingly do more damage than the short fall to soft grass would.

The sensation of hope that curled through my body at the thought she might want to see me was amazing. I wanted her to want me. I just wished I could want her, too.

I hadn't ever really felt the desire to be human, not since the hours shortly after I awoke a vampire, and was flooded with extrasensory perception I didn't know what to do with. Now, though, it seemed like it would be a blessing. I'd give up my thought hearing, and all my heightened senses just to be able to talk to her like a normal boy.

Usually talking was the least of my worries. I was bombarded with thoughts, ideas and internal dialogue, all without the need to make conversation. The girl with the brown eyes made that impossible.

It was strange being unable to penetrate her mind-barrier. I'd spent much of my time watching her the past week trying to wedge my mind past the blockade she'd constructed, waiting patiently for a lapse in her control, but it remained ever solid.

It was extremely frustrating. Almost as much as the blood lust.

The girl was sin incarnate and innocence all rolled into one.

Everything she did drew me in, yet everything about her made it impossible to act on my desire to be close to her, to get to know her.

I kicked a branch, childishly, watching with satisfaction as it arced into the sky, dozens of metres above, before eventually landing amongst the trees on the other side of the clearing. I didn't care if she noticed. That was the closest I was going to get to having contact with her, anyway. I'd take what I could get.

My tolerance to the smell of her blood might be improving slightly, the more time I spent around her, but I was still a far cry away from being able to approach her safely.

I wasn't used to not being able to get what I'd wanted. The agonizingly slow progress I was making inched by at a snail's pace. After a century as an immortal, one started to become a little overconfident in his or her ability to get things done.

Prepared to accept that I would need more time, I settled in to watch her from afar for the sixth day in a row. Far too soon, the sun began to descend in the sky, behind the shroud of cloud-cover. I watched moodily as the brown-eyed girl began to pack up her books and the other belongings she had spread out like a ring around her.

I might have been imagining it, but her eyes seemed a little more downcast each day. The warm, vibrant brown I'd seen that first day seemed to become progressively muted. Sure, the fundamental colour was the same, but the fire that lit them wasn't and it ruined the whole presentation. I'd fix them, I swore to myself, if it was the last thing I did.

The world needed those warm brown eyes.

xx

"You've been disappearing every afternoon. What the fuck are you doing? Where are you going?" James asked, or rather demanded, two afternoons later. He'd cornered me just as I was about to leave for the meadow I'd been visiting each afternoon with unerring devotion.

I shrugged, careful to keep my expression nonchalant. James might not always be the most perceptive, but he had an eerie habit of catching on to the things you least wanted him to notice.

"Nowhere important," I lied, "just surveying the area."

I'd only been surveying one area, where long grass and wild flowers grew, and mysterious girls with brown eyes happened to visit daily.

"Sometimes I go to Seattle, try to track crime, you know, the usual," I continued, attempting to sound unconcerned with the line of questioning. I had gone to Seattle a few times, after the sun had set, but it only made up a fraction of my disappearances. Crime was usually only prevalent under the cloak of night. My afternoons were all spent in the meadow.

"Yes, you and your interesting meal choices," he rolled his eyes. They flicked to me briefly. "Run into anyone who smells like freesia, lately?" I knew he was asking just to irritate me. That didn't stop my involuntary reaction. I felt my skin prickle, preparing for a fight.

"No," I said tonelessly.

"Oh, well, that's too bad. Did you find anything edible? You don't look hungry," he said, nodding towards the colour of my eyes, "It's been a while for you, hasn't it?"

"I ate yesterday," I said flatly, thankful that, that wasn't a lie, at least. I'd stumbled upon a man raping a woman in an alley. He was no more, while the woman was probably scarred for life thanks to my turn as her avenger. At least she lived to tell the tale, unlike her attacker. "Is there a reason we're discussing if I've eaten recently? Have you decided to be my father as well as my annoying older brother, now?"

"Vic and I just haven't seen you around much, lately," he explained, sounding surprisingly sincere. "We never used to be able to get rid of your scrawny little ass, unless you were hunting. We were just wondering what's up, if you're turning off us, wanting to go your own way." His eyes were sharp, belying his casual tone.

"Nothing like that," I assured. A few days of space, and time to myself, as far as he knew, anyway, and James made it out to be abandonment. "You and Vicky are my covenmates, no matter how much you conspire to drive me insane."

The hardness in his expression evaporated instantly.

"Are we done here?"

At his nod, I turned, heading for the forest at a sprint, once I was certain he was no longer watching me. It was already three minutes past the time my brown-eyed girl made her appearance, and I'd be damned if I was going to miss any more time with her than necessary.

By the time I'd made it to the meadow, she was already sitting cross-legged in the long grass, writing in a notebook, determination in her eyes. From the angle at which I was perched, I couldn't make out what she was writing.

Stealthily, I navigated to a better viewing angle, and peered over her shoulder curiously, thankful for my improved long-distance sight. It was probably just homework, but I had resigned myself to the fact I was a stalker, and that meant I had to know.

'…days. I wish I knew. I can't stop thinking about him. My beautiful boy is still a mystery to me. I know I'm probably crazy for hanging my dreams on a thread like this, but I can't let it go. He's like most of the male species, I guess. Un-freaking-reliable. My dad is the only reliable man I know. He's been in love with my mother for two decades. Sometimes I wonder what Mom was thinking giving that up. I'd die for that kind of dedication. Heathcliff and Cathy did. Romeo and Juliet did. All the great tragedies have that kind of devotion at their core. I'm afraid I'm never going to get my great love story. Mike Newton can't give me my great love story. Neither could Tyler or Eric or even Jake. There's no spark. It figures when I finally find someone who might fit the bill, he might not even be... I can't say it. I know it's silly, but I can't allow myself to write that thought down. Maybe I really am insane.'

My eyes bugged as she closed the notebook with a loud, resigned sigh.

I seethed. I think I might have even seen a little red. I certainly felt murderous.

Her beautiful boy? She wasn't supposed to be in love with some high school boy. Who the fuck calls a boy beautiful anyway? Boys are supposed to be rugged and handsome. What great literary heroine has ever called her leading man beautiful? Fuck that.

At least no one was going to describe me as fucking beautiful. If anything, I was handsome. My mother told me so. One of my few retained memories was of her straightening a pint sized bow-tie on my five-year-old neck, as we arrived at one of father's lawyer friend's soirées, a proud smile on her face as she declared how handsome I looked.

I could be my brown eyed girl's great love story, and we'd do it right: minus any man who could be described as beautiful. Yes, she was human and I was a vampire, and that put a damper on things, but in the past couple of weeks, she'd been mine, and goddamnit, I was hers.

This wasn't how the story was supposed to go. Angry that this stupid, motherfucking beautiful boy had forced my hand, I held my breath, determined to get close enough to say hello today, at the very least. No pain, no gain. That was practically James' motto, brutal tracker that he was. Who knew the bastard doubled as a walking fortune cookie?

I didn't even stop to think that it might not be wise to approach her while I was so wound up. I knew I wouldn't hurt her. I couldn't. I stepped into her line of sight silently, with a sense of purpose, all the while holding my breath. It was uncomfortable, but I was a lot more uncomfortable with my brown-eyed girl finding herself a beautiful boy.

"Hello."

The smile that lit up her face was fucking priceless.

Take that, beautiful boy.

I would have paid every cent I owned to have that smile emblazoned in my memory for the rest of eternity. Thank god I was a vampire and that shit was free.