Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to my other half, Yang. (I'm Yin, you see.) You all might know him by the name Leon McFrenchington. Not only was he fabulous enough to beta this chapter but he also provides me with hours of amusement. Yang, you're my favourite!!!!!!!!
Last time:
"Edward!"
He turned around for a moment trying to discern where that cry had come from before he realized he hadn't heard it with his ears, but in his mind. And yet they had called him directly.
The only person who knew he could hear thoughts was Bella.
"Edward! Oh god, can he even hear me? Is he too far or am I just not doing this right? Oh god… Edward!!" It was definitely her voice, and she definitely sounded panicked, like she was in trouble.
She must have taken down her mental barriers specifically to contact him. Not wasting another moment he jumped into her mind.
Yes. Yes, she was definitely in trouble.
He pulled over and jumped out of his car, running as fast as he could. He would deal with James later… the bastard.
Chapter Nine: The Recovery
He hadn't been far from the school when he'd left his car. It had been a good thing as well, because inside he hadn't been able to smell her. Now that he was outside, he caught her scent, reassuringly nearby.
Edward continued to listen to Bella's thoughts. She'd been tied up and gagged, so she couldn't have called for help in the normal way. He really had been her only option.
Guided by her vague and frantic pleas and his own keen senses, he found the darkened supply cupboard in which she'd been put. He knew it had to be the one because there was a chair propped under the handle, preventing anyone on the inside from getting out.
He was going to let her out, but then he stopped.
Think it through, he told himself. If he released her now, he still had to deal with James, waiting for him at his apartment. Not only that but he'd have to find a safe place to keep Bella while he killed the other vampire, without raising her suspicions that that was what he was doing. He'd also have to convince her not to go to the police while he was gone. On the other hand, if he went after James now, killed him, then went to retrieve Bella, there should be no problems. However, if he didn't come out victorious, then Bella would remained trapped in a closet and would doubtlessly be devoured by James later.
This image bothered him.
But even if he did free her first, if Edward lost, James could still easily track her down again and kill her.
Could he leave her with the wolf? That seemed the best option, though he wasn't exactly sure why. Still, the boy was stronger than humans, had better senses than humans. He'd be able to tell when danger was coming and take her away.
Yes, that was what he would do. Get Bella out now, take her to the wolf, go hunt down James, hopefully win, then…
Then he had to explain himself, which might be doable.
He could tell Bella that he was going to take her to Black, that she shouldn't say anything to him because he was going to go and try to scan for her abductor in the city, something they couldn't admit to her friend. That would work. And after he'd killed James he could come back and simply say he couldn't find him at all. He'd tell her the man must have left town, and that would be that.
That was the plan.
Or it had been the plan before James realized that Edward was already with Bella at the school.
Damn, that man had unfairly good senses. Already the other vampire was on his way.
Edward snarled and left the school to meet him. Thoughts of Bella left his mind completely, replaced by fey excitement at the impending encounter.
Staying securely in James' head, he also felt the other vampire's exhilaration. As he drew closer he felt a frisson of ecstasy. This was far more exciting than any normal hunt.
They met, perhaps fortunately, atop an abandoned construction sight. What was going to be a super shopping center had been abandoned, a year or so before, having been deemed unprofitable half-way into its development. The skeleton of the project remained however, and that was where Edward found him, standing on a naked steel beam waiting for him.
"After I kill you, I'm going to celebrate by eating her, you know. Your little pet human. I don't know if that's hilarious or just sad."
Edward was suddenly disappointed, realizing that this would be easier than he expected. Already he could hear what James was planning on doing. Edward was faster, dodging or escaping any attack the other vampire could come up with would be too simple. The only tricky bit was finding out just how, exactly, one killed a vampire.
He learned by experiment.
For example…
Ramming him into a wall of concrete with a steel beam did not work.
Naturally, pushing him off a three storey structure didn't work.
Pounding his face into the ground with his fist didn't work.
Pushing him out into the sunlight served only to increase James' temper, and while it might have helped, it too, didn't work.
When Edward started getting angry himself, his animal instinct took over and he bit at other the vampire's neck, tearing into it and eventually, with effort, ripped his head right off.
"Well then," said Edward aloud. "That's good to know."
Just in case, he ripped the rest of the carcass to pieces and scattered them about, burying them. It wasn't as if he was as superstitious as humans who read farcical fiction, but in this case, Edward decided to err on the side of caution. The head, however, he tossed into the sun to sizzle and fester. He could only grin, imaging the poor human who found it later. If there was any head left to find, that is.
"That's that then," he said complacently, dusting off himself. His clothes, he found did not come out of the encounter as well as he did.
Once he came fully out of his battle haze, he heard her again, weaker this time, but still persistently there. Chanting one thing over again.
"Edward, please hear me. Help. Edward. Please hear me. Please hear me."
Oh right, he thought. He still had Bella to rescue.
"Well I can't get her looking like this," he said reasonably, and went back to his apartment to change. Another few minutes wouldn't hurt her.
He could hear her panicked thoughts as he approached. She thought his footsteps might have been those of her kidnapper, so he quickly put her mind at ease.
"Bella," he called through the door. "It's me, I'm going to get you out."
Moving the chair aside, he opened the door. Bella's face was pale white (even for her) with fear, but her eyes were filled with almost euphoric relief. 'Edward! Oh thank God. Thank you,' she thought at him.
Edward supposed he was a god, in a way.
He acted as if he was just then responding to her call and didn't know about James, giving no indication that he'd encountered anyone else. He removed the gag, the blindfold and the rope that tied her hands behind her back.
"What happened?" he asked. Her mind was a blur of thankful relief.
"I don't know. I… I was going to work when someone grabbed me and… and locked me in here." She sounded hysterical. She was hysterical.
"Who?" he asked, though he knew perfectly well. He just needed to determine exactly how savvy Bella was.
"I… I don't know." She was shaking, clinging to him, and now that he was there, crying. She hadn't been crying before, damnit, why did she turn on the waterworks only after he arrived? Crying with relief? What a bother.
"Did you get a good look at him? Could you describe him to the police?"
"No," she shook her head rapidly, perhaps as result of the trembling. "He... This is going to sound so stupid but he moved so fast I never..."
"Shh... it's okay." Perfect actually, but he doubted that would sound as assuring.
Bella gasped. "We have to get out of here! He could come back at any moment! Hurry Edward let's go to the police!"
"Hold on, let me listen."
She began pulling on his shirt. "Please, let's go."
"Shh Bella, shh." He pretended to listen for her mad attacker for a minute. "I don't hear him. There's nothing unusual out there."
Oh, but his acting skills were superb! He could make a career in theatre, he told himself. Who better? He was the consummate actor, the constant liar, and the ultimate pretender.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course. He's long gone."
"But he said he'd come back and--" She abruptly cut off.
"And what?" He already knew, however. She had yet to close her mind again since reopening it to send out her distress signal.
"He said he'd come back and… have me." He saw the flash of memory in her mind.
Edward did not laugh, but it was a near thing. He, of course, knew what James had meant when he said he'd have Bella, but the girl had obviously interpreted the threat a different way. And why shouldn't she? It wasn't as normal people would assume if they were kidnapped and locked away that their attacker planned to eat them.
"Well he won't," said Edward, just about the only thing he could say.
"Come on, let's go to the police."
"And tell them what, exactly?" he asked, annoyed.
"Tell them what happened! That there's a dangerous person out there!"
"That you can't describe at all?"
"Doesn't matter, you have to report these things, no matter what."
Edward remembered that Bella's father had been chief of police. Of course his daughter would insist on involving them.
"They won't believe you."
"Why not?"
"How did you get out of that closet you were locked in?" he asked.
"You let me out," she said, bemused.
"And how did I know you there in the first place?"
"I… oh," she said, realization hit. "I could say that I called you."
"Even though you were bound, gagged, and don't even own a cell phone?"
She frowned, but was still shaking. Damn, damn, damn. What do I do?
Edward opened his mouth to tell her he could still hear her thoughts, but shut it again almost immediately. He helped her to her feet and they walked swiftly (for a human, anyway) out of the school and towards Edward's car.
He talked as they spoke. "If you can think of a reason, any reason of why I knew how and where to find you, I'll take you to the station. But Bella, if you tell anyone about me, I will leave town and I would not thank you for that."
'No!' she thought desperately. 'He can't leave.'
Interesting. It appeared that she was more attached to him than she let on. Good.
"Alright. No police," she said. 'My father would be so disappointed in me.' "Just take me home."
.
Until then she was just revisiting the hours she spent locked away in the school's closet but as they drew near her house she began to panic again.
'What if he knows where I live and comes back to get me?'
And yet he couldn't tell her she didn't need to worry, because then he'd have to explain why. Actually, my dear, I killed him, ripped off his head, toasted it, and buried the rest of the pieces. Now isn't that a comfort to know? Yes, I knew you would be pleased. No, no, please. No need to thank me.
Right…
He pulled into her driveway, or what passed for a driveway - it was more weeds than anything. He was waiting for her to disembark, but she seemed reluctant to do so. He could hear her inner struggle as she had not yet thought to block him out again.
"Stay with me," she said at last. She had finally decided to beg rather than brave her house alone. "I don't want to be by myself."
"You could ask your hairy friend to stay with you."
She didn't even question the hairy comment, an indicator of just how distracted with fear she was. "But--but…"
Edward nodded. "Alright, alright. I'll stay. If I hear him come anywhere near here, I'll tell you and we can leave."
"Oh thank you, Edward!" she said, and hugged him tightly. Edward stiffened, hoping that the contact would end sooner rather than later. Once again, she either didn't notice, or simply didn't comment on his coldness.
"Could you play the piano?" she asked timidly.
"With pleasure," he said. "I was just about to do that anyway." That way he wouldn't be troubled to converse with her or feel obliged to say comforting things. Truth was that he played piano rather well and comforted distraught young women rather poorly.
He'd let the music do the comforting.
.
He'd played just about all the Bach in his repertoire (not an inconsiderable amount, in other words) and stood, preparing himself to return to his apartment, all the while contemplating the purchase of a cello. It had been 25 years since he'd owned or played one. Plus, it was easier to move around to a new location than was a piano. After the afternoon he had a longing to get his hands on the instrument and play some preludes (Suite no. 1 in G major, to be precise). Plus, it would be a pleasant way to spend a class period come autumn. That was one lesson that never got dull. Despite his love of literature, English classes bored with repetition. Math hadn't changed in the century he'd been undead, and science was likewise simple and unchallenging. Music, however, only improved with repeat performances. Practice made perfect, and playing pieces to perfection was a true delight.
"You're going!?" Bella asked, startled from her drowsy Bach-induced sleep into a state of alarm.
"I had planned to, yes," he replied casually, putting his hands in his pockets.
Bella stood up quickly. "And leave me alone?"
"Quite alone," he said remorselessly, enjoying the look of panic in her eyes. He felt a familiar tingle at the sight. He thrived on that look. Except, strangely enough, he wasn't the one causing it. That might have been a first.
"Edward, please?"
"Please what? Please play guard dog? You've got someone better suited to the task than me. Black would be all too happy to sit on your porch with a shot-gun, I have no doubt."
She began to tremble visible with fear. "But he won't know like you will. Please Edward?"
He rolled his eyes. "I suppose I can stay for a while longer," he conceded.
.
She went upstairs to shower while he sat below, dutifully listening for a threat that had already been dealt with. Now that he could listen in on her thoughts again, he did so with even more attention than he ever had before. Now that he had been denied her mind, hearing it again was like a child sneaking sweets he knows he should not have. Knowing it would infuriate her made it all the more delicious, not that she would find out, if he had anything to say about it (which he did, of course).
Her mind, at that moment in time, was filled with bizarre and improbably silly scenarios about her attacker breaking in while she was in the shower, killing him and proceeding upstairs to finish her. Someone has been reading too much gothic fiction, Edward thought. Her imagination was far too active. Luckily for him, it wasn't active in a fantastical way. She didn't believe in things like vampires (all the better for him), only deranged and depraved human beings. And yet surprisingly, she accepted the fact that he could read minds. Quite the contradiction. Edward thought that eventually she'd find out the whole truth. Oddly, he was looking forward to it.
Bella continued to contemplate the possible actions of her deranged attacker. Well, being well acquainted with the human mind, Edward had to admit that deranged and depraved abounded. Their own music teacher was one such deviant.
His eavesdropping was interrupted when he heard another person's thoughts approaching.
'Well, well, well, what do we have here?' he thought.
Jacob Black was speeding towards the house on a sputtering motorized contraption that the less initiated might call a motorcycle.
Edward quickly learned what had the wereboy in a huff. He could smell Bella in town, could smell her fear. Edward could too, and rather liked the aroma, but apparently it had the unfortunate effect of bringing out the gallant side of Black.
Edward was waiting just behind the oak door when the bell rang. Bella heard the noise and started to panic, thinking her attacker had returned.
"I know you're there, Cullen. Let me in!" the big bad wolf demanded.
Edward snorted at the mental image.
"Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin," he replied.
"Very fuckin' funny. Now open the door."
"Shan't!" he practically sang. Aggravating Black was intensely satisfying for reasons he couldn't quite discern.
Upstairs the water turned off and Bella hastily donned some clothes. Black chose this moment to start pounding angrily at the door, which only caused Bella to panic even more.
Edward leapt up the stairs (no one was there to see him, after all) and said through the bathroom door, "It's your hot-headed mongrel friend. He wants in."
Relief spread throughout Bella's mind and she opened the door. She clutched the bathroom scale to her chest as if she had been planning to wield it, bashing it over her attackers head.
"Black is here."
"What does he want?"
"To get in, apparently."
"Why didn't you let him?"
"Not my place."
"You just like being mean to him."
Edward shrugged, unable to deny this.
"Jake," said Bella when she opened the door. "What are you doing here?"
This had been the part Edward had been waiting for. The mutt hadn't thought it through and the resulting awkwardness was delicious. Edward enjoyed every moment of the boy fumbling over his words as he tried to explain why he had arrived all in a hurry over an incident he shouldn't know anything about. He could hardly say, 'I smelt you were afraid and thought I'd come check on you…'
"I, uh… Well I had the feeling that... uh… I mean… I thought…" Black began to breathe hard, panicking. "He's not normal!" he shouted finally, pointing an accusing finger at Edward. "I don't know what he is, Bella, but he's unnatural and you shouldn't be around him. He's dangerous!"
"Nah ah ah!" said Edward smoothly, shaking a finger back and forth. "You don't get out of it that easily. As it so happens, Bella already knows of my defect. Sorry, pup."
Black turned his astounded gaze to Bella. "You know?" he asked incredulously.
"Yes, I know," she said calmly.
"Well then, what the hell is he?" Black demanded.
Bella swiveled her head to look at Edward. 'I can't tell Jake. It's not fair to use Edward's secret as a bargaining chip to learn Jake's. That's not fair.' She turned back to her friend. "That doesn't matter. The point is that I trust him and you have no right to barge in here throwing accusations around when you yourself don't even know the truth."
Only marginally and momentarily discomfited by shame, Jacob Black returned to the argument with predictable ineptitude. "He's still an ass-hole."
"Be that as it may," said Bella. Edward was slightly shocked. He couldn't deny the truth of the insult but he'd still thought Bella would defend him. She'd only acknowledged the point and moved on. "You, Jacob Black, have yet to explain why you came."
Black looked uneasy.
'I can't deal with this today. It's too much. Too much, too much.'
Edward wasn't the only one who could hear Bella's heart pounding in her chest from stress. Black picked up on it too.
"I only came because I was worried for you, Bella. What happened to you?" He was looking directly at her, his eyes were bulging with combined anger and concern. Bella noticed this too.
"Your eyes are huge," she commented.
"All the better to see you with, I'd imagine," Edward couldn't help but remark wryly from the corner.
Black whipped around angrily, pointing a finger at him. "You shut the fuck up, Cullen. Stay out of this."
"Jake," she began, her eyes closed in fatigue. "Apart from being ridiculously tired, I'm fine. You can go back home."
"But--!"
"Look, if you aren't going to tell me how you even knew something was wrong, then you can just go. I'm tired of waiting around for you to trust me enough to tell me the truth."
"I… but… You honestly aren't going to let him stay with you alone? He… he might…"
Bella closed the door in Black's face. "I'm going back upstairs," she said shortly.
Edward, grinning broadly by this point, bade her a cheerful "have fun then," and waved her up the stairs.
'Cullen: 2 Black: 0'
However, he could hear that the mutt hadn't left, he was waiting outside. Waiting for him to come out, it seemed. Scanning his mind, Edward could see he wanted to talk, but the boy didn't even know what he wanted to talk about. He was confused.
Well, he might find some amusement in this, Edward thought, so he joined the young pup outside.
"You knew what I was but you didn't tell her? Why?" Jacob asked, as if out of everything, this was the most perplexing thing he'd heard that day.
Edward shrugged. "I wanted to," he admitted. "But she didn't want to know it if you didn't want to tell her. A girlish sentiment, but I humored her and kept it to myself."
"So she's been waiting all this time for me to tell her?"
"Yep. And you keep disappointing her again and again," said Edward happily. "Very amusing for me though. Thanks for that."
For once, Black didn't rise to his taunting.
"You think she'd accept me?"
"Well, it's not as if you ate her grandmother and stole her nightdress for yourself…"
"Will you stop that!?"
"Just one more, then I'll desist."
Black groaned. "Fine, get it out of your system."
"I can't do it now, I have to wait until the opportunity presents itself."
Jacob turned to stare at him evenly. "You know, you are the most annoying person I've ever met."
"I assure you, the feeling is entirely mutual."
"And talk like a normal person, will you!"
"What, like you? Because you're so normal?"
Black pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes in frustration. "What the hell are you?" he whined.
Edward fluttered his eyelashes coquettishly. "I'm not the kind that tells."
"I hate you," he said dejectedly.
.
First thing they did after that was get Bella a cell phone. After the day's incident she suddenly saw the benefit of having one. She tried to convince Edward to purchase one as well but he was adamant.
It would just be another thing which tied him to a particular place and made him easier to find. He didn't need that or want a phone, so ruthlessly refused.
"But what if I need to call you?"
"Assuming that you ever detach yourself from my side after this?" he sneered disapprovingly. Bella looked down, and he listened to the stream of guilty thoughts that crossed her mind. Guilty, but desperate.
"You weren't there. You don't know what it was like," she said, sounding on the verge of tears. Yes, she had been bound and gagged and taken away and locked in a closet for hours under the apprehension of suffering 'a fate worse than death' but really, surely it wasn't that bad. That was hours ago, she should be over it by now.
"I don't need a phone," he reiterated. "If you want to contact me, you know how," he said, tapping his index finger to her temple.
'Oh,' she thought. 'How did I open my mind to him? I was so panicked I don't remember. How did I clo… Wait!' Her head shot up and her eyes flashed angrily. Once again Edward was painfully evicted, so to speak, from her thoughts, and he flinched tellingly.
"You were eavesdropping again! How dare you! Why didn't you tell me?" she demanded.
"I assumed you knew. I thought you were keeping the connection open on purpose," Edward lied easily. "You're so paranoid, I figured you wanted me in."
She huffed with indignation, which was now the only clue Edward had as to her thoughts. Her head was silent now. He didn't mind her being furious with him.
"So, since you're angry with me, is it safe to assume that you want me to go?" he asked hopefully. Free to go, more like, he thought.
Unfortunately, Edward wasn't as lucky as that. She maintained her temper, but still refused to leave his side. He found the dichotomy particularly annoying. Things improved, however, as her temper wore off and things returned to as normal as they could be, given the situation.
.
"Why have I never been to your place before?" she asked as they pulled into his apartment complex.
Edward shrugged. "I like my own space."
"Really? I hadn't noticed," Bella quipped sarcastically.
"Yes, yes, very clever. But people force themselves inside my head whether I want them to or not. My personal space, however, is something I can control."
"Oh," she mused, considering the point. "That… makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it."
"Don't think about it too much," he warned, unlocking his door and opening it. "Will you step into my parlor?" he asked over-politely. He even gave her a mocking bow.
Bella must not have ever heard the story of the spider and the fly, for she entered without any second thoughts, merely a shy smile.
Apart from the sofa, electronic keyboard and bench, desk, and television, there was nothing in the room. Obviously the kitchen was completely bare. The bedroom didn't even have a bed, just stacks upon stacks of books.
"What are those? Pictures? Let me see," she said eagerly, walking toward a pile of scattered thin squares on the ground.
A flash of memory. James fanning himself with polaroids as he sat in this very room, waiting for Edward to return.
With inhuman speed he was in front of her, blocking her view of the photos. She gasped at his too sudden appearance, and he quickly tried to distract her. "Why don't you look in the backroom, pick out something you like."
"Huh?"
"Books, my dear. Hundreds of books." Actually it was probably wasn't hundreds, but he had to bait the hook well enough so the fish would bite.
And bite she did, hook, line, and sinker. He ushered her into the backroom and closed the door, then zipped back to the sitting room to inspect those polaroids.
They were pictures of Bella, bound and gagged. No doubt they were taken in order to taunt him.
Edward swore furiously in his head. Talk about damning evidence. He wouldn't be able to claim ignorance if those were ever seen. Those photos even seemed to scream compliance. Hell, it might even look as if he done the whole thing himself. That's how it would look if the police ever found out. Who else but her attacker could have known where she was? He wasted no time shredding them and burning the pieces. Just like I did with dear Jamie boy, Edward thought drily.
Lucky for him that Bella had announced her intention of looking at them before she did, instead of quietly stooping over to inspect one. How would he have explained that? Fortunately, that wasn't a problem, and the last of the evidence burned into smelly charred pieces on the stove.
Finally useful for something, he remarked. Naturally, he'd never used the appliance.
He'd never cooked a day in his existence. Even before he became a vampire he'd never attempted it. He'd been a pampered boy, with a doting mother and a plump cook who fed him. The closest thing Edward had ever come to preparing food was picking crabapples from the trees to fling at the other boys (or the school master) after lessons. That was such a vague and blurry memory, but he didn't think he imagined it.
"What's that smell?" Bella asked, sashaying from the room with a book in each hand.
"Burning polaroids," was his simple reply.
"You're burning the pictures? Why? I wanted to see them."
"I know."
"So why did you burn them?"
He turned to her and fixed her with a dead-even stare, quirking an eyebrow up. "A rhetorical question, I'm assuming."
She huffed and rolled her eyes. "Right, because you didn't want me to see them. I suppose you won't tell me why?"
"You suppose correctly."
"You know, for someone who has no regard for anyone's privacy, you certainly are particular about your own."
"Number one, I don't disregard other people's privacy. As I've said time and time again, I have. No. Choice. Secondly, yes, I am particular about my privacy. You should be grateful I allowed you to come here at all."
That had the desired effect. Like most women, she liked to feel special.
.
Once again, he had to argue with Bella about leaving.
"I have work in the next town. Unless you'd like to take your pillow and sleep in the backseat of the Volvo all night, then you'll just have to…" Her eyes glistened pleadingly. "I don't believe it. You actually want to sleep in the back of my car, don't you?"
She nodded.
Edward groaned. "Bella, just go home and go to sleep."
"But Edward, he's out there somewhere!"
"No he's not, I told you. I can't hear him anywhere."
"But what if he comes back when you're at work! You'd be so far away you wouldn't be able to hear him!" Her heart began to beat in true fear and her palms began to sweat. She smelled just like prey smelled before he devoured them. Edward licked his lips, trying to force that delicious vision from his mind. Too soon.
Reasonably, Edward could understand her sense of danger. Bella didn't know, as he did, that she was out of danger. How long until she would feel comfortable? Or would she be traumatized for the rest of her (admittedly short) life? (She only had a year to live, after all, before he planned to eat her.) Could he handle her clinginess for a year? He rather doubted it.
He'd have to see how long this fit of nerves lasted. If it turned out to be too much, or it took her too long to recover, he'd throw caution to the wind, eat her and bolt out of town ahead of schedule. He hated doing that though, it ruined his plan and 10 year cycle. It was right in the middle of a cycle, and if he left now he'd have to start again at the beginning of high school in a new place, instead of graduating and going ahead to college, which was always more interesting.
And so it was that Edward and Bella went back to her house. He had insisted they return so she could retrieve her own pillow and blanket. Bella had thought this was a sweet and sensitive gesture on his part, when in reality it was simply because he had no such provisions of his own to offer her. He certainly wouldn't have wasted the time and gas to go all the way back to her house if he had. Another reason he hurried her out of his apartment was that she mentioned the bathroom. Naturally, he didn't have toilet paper either, or food, or anything that she might need. They were, therefore, forced to return to hers.
.
"I still say you are being ridiculous," he said rather tartly as he stepped out of his car to go into work.
She merely grinned at him and snuggled into the little nest she'd made of his back seat.
He rolled his eyes and shut the door, locking her in.
.
The car was irresistibly fragrant when he returned to it at the end of his shift. Bella had done nothing but sit and breathe and sweat in its confined space for hours, filling it with her scent. He nearly drooled at the intensity of the odor as it washed over him when he opened the car door. Luckily it was summer and he had a perfectly legitimate reason for driving with the windows down.
.
Luckily, over the next two weeks Bella slowly began to relax. She didn't constantly need Edward at her side but she did ring his home phone, and when he wasn't there, left messages reminding him to scan about for the crazy kidnapper.
He didn't bother telling her that there were a lot more than just one crazy kidnapper in the world. If she knew just how many dangerous people there were, she'd never leave him alone, and he couldn't have that. Let her think the world was better than it was. Most people did, even the pessimists.
He'd dropped by her place to borrow her piano. She'd been working on clearing out that old room all week, and he had gallantly declined to help, but came over all the same for 'moral support.' "Cleaning is a spectator sport," he'd claimed. She'd rolled her eyes but didn't say anything. She'd wander in and out as he played, carrying boxes or other odd bits of memorabilia up to the attic.
Her phone rang and she put down the box she was currently lifting and left the room to answer. He'd never heard her phone ring before and it was an unnatural, unwanted noise in this usually quiet and peaceful house. He wondered if he could convince Bella to trade homes. He rather doubted it, but it might be worth a try. He paused in his playing so he could better hear the conversation.
"Hello?"
"Iz! Hey, how're you?"
Edward recognized that voice, even through the earpiece. Kevin. He'd been in their biology class last year and frequently stopped by the store to see Bella.
"I'm good. What's up?"
"I was just wondering. A group of us is going camping for a few nights. Wanna come?"
"Camping?" she asked, uncertainty in her voice. "Um… sure, I guess."
"Cool!"
"When are we going?"
"We were thinking Thursday night until Sunday afternoon."
"I have work Thursday. I could meet up with you after, though. Where?"
"Same place as last time. Remember?"
"By the reservation, right?"
"Yeah. I could give you a ride, if you want."
"No no, that's cool. I have the truck."
"Alright. Awesome. I'll call you later with more details."
"Who else is going?" she asked.
"Everyone!" he replied happily. "'cept Kacey. She's on vacation with her family."
"Oh, alright. I guess I'll talk to you later."
"'Kay. Bye."
"Bye."
Edward shook his head and started playing again. Youths these days had atrocious speech patterns. It was all, 'um.. so… cool… awesome." Surprised though they may be to hear it, there were other positive adjectives in the English language.
Bella came downstairs, pushing the phone back into her pocket as she entered the room.
"Hey Edward, do you want to go--"
"No," he answered immediately.
"You don't even know what I was going to suggest."
"I know the answer is no," he replied, continuing to play unconcernedly.
"Edward, have you been reading my mind again?" she asked angrily.
"No. But I don't need to be a mind reader to know that I don't want to join you in whatever you've just been invited to by whoever just called you."
Bella sighed. "Doesn't misanthropy ever get tiring?"
Edward stopped playing for a moment, but didn't turn around. "No," he said, and before he started playing again, added, "Humanity does."
For a long time, she didn't say anything. In fact, he rather thought the subject was dropped until she stated, "That's really sad, you know. Being that bitter."
Indignant, he spun around on the piano bench to face her.
"Can you blame me for being this way? I wasn't born heartless, you know. This level of jadedness can only be achieved by too much truth. I have the unwanted truth foisted upon me all the time. You don't know what a curse it is. You try knowing what everyone around you truly thinks and not hate the world. Believe me, ma belle, ignorance is bliss and silence is the only truly beautiful thing in this world. And you are the only silence I have--"
He stopped suddenly, aware of what he had said and how she might take it. He hadn't meant to put it just that way, hadn't meant to imply she was beautiful to him. She wasn't.
Bella simply looked at him, not speaking, and that silence he had just been praising grew around them, amplifying. Her face might have been curious, or perhaps slightly pleased, or maybe it was displeasure he read there. He couldn't tell. The ambiguity was delicious, the awkwardness, the not knowing... for once.
So she wouldn't get the wrong impression from him he clarified. "You are the only person who can lie to me, and you don't know how wonderful that is."
"Lying isn't wonderful," she said with a confused scowl.
"Oh but it is. Go on, tell me something. Tell me something that may or may not be true."
She stared at him for a moment, considering, then rolled her eyes and heaved a sigh. "Fine, alright." She took a moment to compose her thoughts, then began. "I read an article once. It said that the more attractive a man is, the more likely he is to cheat in a relationship."
"Interesting."
"Don't you want to know if it's true or not?"
He shook his head assuredly. "No. Not in a hundred years would I ever want to know the truth. About anything."
She eyed him skeptically. "A hundred years is a long time..."
"It's not nearly so long as long as people say..."
.
By unhappy chance, the mutt dropped by while Edward happened to be there. It was Thursday evening, and she'd just got off work. She'd come back to her house to pack and Edward was 'house sitting' while she was away. Bella had said she didn't mind if he wanted to stay there over the weekend, seeing as how she knew that he enjoyed the distance from humanity it provided.
"You didn't tell me he was coming," Edward groused.
"He's here?" she asked.
"Not yet, but I can hear him coming. Right now he's thinking about the odd sound his car is making, and thinking he'll look under the hood when he gets here. And his ass itches."
"I didn't need to know that Edward. And yes, he's coming by for a bit to bring some of Charlie's old camping stuff he left with Billy."
"If you are camping near the reservation, why didn't you just stop there and pick it up before you went there?"
"He was in town today and is going to give me a ride there."
"Isn't that nice," he said flatly. "Here's the little gentleman now."
Bella hurried to the window and looked out and, seeing no one, turned to scowl at him. "No he's not."
He chuckled to himself. He still found it funny the following two other times he did it.
"Black's here!" he called toward the kitchen yet again. This time it was true. There was no response. Edward opened the door without Jacob even having to knock.
"Do come in," he said with false hospitality.
'Jerk acts like he owns the place,' the were-mut thought.
Bella came strolling out of the kitchen, not even glancing their way as she made for her bedroom.
"Bella," Black greeted, somewhat annoyed at being blatantly ignored.
"Oh," she said, surprised to see him. "Edward said you were here but I didn't believe him."
"Yep. I've been crying wolf all evening," he said, grinning wickedly.
Jacob silently shot Edward a murderous look before turning to Bella. "All packed?
"Nearly. Give me a minute." With that she thundered up the stairs.
Edward held his breath in the dog's presence, as he seemed to reek more than usual. Catching sight of the boy, he soon learned why.
"Your shirt," Edward began. "Is that…?"
"Cotton!" Black said angrily. "Yes, it is. Go on, say it, a wolf in sheep's clothing!"
"Actually, I was going to say is that blood, but that's a good one! Rather ashamed I didn't think of it," said Edward, frowning.
He wasn't remotely tempted by this blood though. It seemed a perversion; the exact opposite of what blood should be. Well, perhaps it's because it wasn't entirely human blood. Edward had never eaten a non-human, but he had smelled them, certainly. Even real wolves and other wild animals didn't offend his olfactory senses the way Black did.
"So what happened?" he asked, pointing to the dark stain. "Farmer catch you lurking too close to his livestock?"
"Came off my bike this afternoon," said Black, ignoring Edward's latest barb and lifting up the bloody sleeve to inspect his arm. Surprisingly, it was unmarked. Were it not for the very real proof of the blood, one would have never known he'd injured himself. It was a marvel the shirt hadn't been torn, though he did notice it was rather dusty as well as stained. "I heal quickly," Black said smugly.
'I don't even need to heal because I'm indestructible,' Edward wanted to say, but didn't. It wasn't fair that Black could brag when Edward couldn't one-up him.
"Good for you," he congratulated bitterly through clenched teeth. He didn't know why, but everything about the boy brought out the competitive side of him.
Bella came down a moment later with her bag.
"All set?" asked Black with a smile.
"Yep." She turned to Edward. "Enjoy yourself while I'm gone."
"With you gone, enjoying myself is almost guaranteed."
Black glowered at him for that, but Bella only snorted with laughter.
Review? I know it's been a while but I hope you haven't all abandoned me.