I watched Alice first. She broke the necks of her victims, then drank daintily. Jasper simply sunk his teeth into the neck, squeezing, draining the animal far too quickly. Edward was a combination of both. He drank so fast I wondered if he'd get the hiccups. Edward with the hiccups. It was a funny picture. Emmett with the hiccups was funnier. They had all finished drinking and I still hadn't moved, I was just standing there trying not to laugh.
"What are you finding so funny?" Jasper asked, exasperated. I simply turned away, trying to catch the breath I didn't need. Alice came over.
"I think she's gone insane. Wonderful." She chimed, clapping her hands.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to picture Emmett with the hiccups." I said. This got all of them laughing.
"What in God's name does that have to do with hunting?" Edward asked, not following my train of thought.
"You drink very quickly. When humans do that they get the hiccups. I was trying to picture you with the hiccups, then Emmett, and it was just funny." I tried to explain my thinking. It was a very 'left at the traffic lights' (A/N – Eddie Izzard quote!) sort of thought trail. Alice chuckled though.
"No wonder Edward can't read your mind. It's positively convoluted."
Edward had to feed again and I hadn't even fed once, so we split off first. He led me away, saying that I may enjoy the predators more. I set my sights on a mountain lion, while he watched, wanting to know my tactic. As I began moving forward, my nose caught the scent of something else. Something far more appealing. I turned instantly, following the smell. I heard Edward call my name once, before I was completely out of my mind.
Nothing mattered except the glorious scent. It smelled of warm bread, baking I supposed, the most delicious smell I had ever encountered. I was drawn to it. I closed down on it, only to begin hearing human voices nearby. They didn't matter, all I wanted was the scent. And then something clicked in my head. They were the scent. It almost didn't matter, except I could hear another vampire close by. I turned, ready to defend my prize and my eyes met a pair of gold ones. Edward's eyes. He looked resigned again, as if he expected this. He was here to steal my prey. I couldn't allow that.
I crouched snarling at him and he stood, serene, unattacking, with fear in his eyes. He was afraid of me. I was a monster. I could do better than this. I had done so with Charlie, what made these men so different? They had families and lives. Edward shouldn't be scared of me. I didn't want to be dangerous.
I turned and ran away, away from the glorious scent and back to where I remembered the mountain lion was. I had to feed soon. The pain was becoming unbearable. I kept my breathing halted and simply looked for it. As soon as I saw it I pounced. I broke its neck and began to drink greedily. Anything to keep my mind away from the hikers.
After the lion, which tasted much better than the deer, was dead, I heard Edward come up behind me.
"How the hell did you do that?" he asked, crouching, his voice low and in awe.
"Do what?" I asked.
"Run? Run away from the scent. Mid hunt, you simply stopped. It's difficult for us and we've been around a hell of a lot longer than you have."
"I just thought about what I was doing. Honestly if you hadn't have stopped me I would've attacked." I mumbled sheepishly. I felt so weak. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snarl at you and get so angry."
"Are you kidding? Jasper would've ripped my arms off before he stopped." He paused and stuck his hand in his hair. "I'm shocked you were able to stop at all." I looked at the dead mountain lion and back up at Edward.
"What do we do with the carcasses?" I asked. What an odd question. It sounded so stupid out loud.
"Usually? Leave them. If you're closer to a town then you'd bury them." He leaned against a tree. His eyes looked much better gold than they did black. He looked incredible. Like the god I remembered him to be, the first day I had seen him.
He wasn't dirty, unlike me, his hair was in the casual disarray I remembered. He looked like he was studying me. His eyes were still shadowed, he was still haunted by what he had done to me. Honestly, so was I – but since I couldn't do anything to change it, I thought I may as well accept it.
Edward and I walked home together, calmly and silently. It was as if both of us wanted to say things, but couldn't. It took us a while to walk home, but still neither of us had spoken. I pushed my sadness back, trying to keep a positive attitude.
When we got home I found Emmett and Jasper watching one of my favourite movies, so I jumped across the sofa, curling up on their laps. Rose immediately left the couch she was on, pushing my legs off of Emmett's lap and sitting there instead. Emmett mouthed 'sorry' to me and I chuckled.
Edward came in a few moments later, looking at me nestled in Jasper's lap. Alice hopped in and sat on me, making me laugh. I let her sit there as we watched the rest of the movie. Edward never sat down. I gave a look to Alice, my eyes asking if he was always like this. She nodded once. I had probably only made it worse by being here at all. I started to get very sad as I thought of all the trouble I had caused. Soon enough Jasper was looking confusedly at me. I simply stared adamantly at the television. When the movie was finished I took off, pushing Alice off first, and going to sit in my room.
I hunted around for the iPod, then remembered that it wasn't mine and that I had left it in Edward's room where it belonged. As I walked calmly to his room I heard him talking to the others downstairs. The others were obviously replying mentally because I only heard half of the conversation. It made him sound insane.
"She stopped."
"Just stopped. She held her breath and ran as fast as she could in the opposite direction. She found a lion instead and drained her."
"Two men, they smelled good for humans too. Their heart rates were sped up also, as they had obviously been hiking or cycling or something."
"She's done this before? You said she wasn't hunting."
"Her father I can understand though, some connection could have overruled the urge to kill." I flinched at the sound of that.
"That would've been interesting to see. He truly believed she was..." he trailed off.
"No I'm not lying; you'd be able to feel it. She simply stopped. Her control is incredible."
Great – I was a freak amongst freaks. I clamped my hands over my ears and walked into his room, searching for the stupid iPod. He had relocated it since he had been home. His room looked identical, except for a small leather notebook he had resting on the black leather couch. I picked it up curious. He didn't seem like the type to own a journal. I opened it and sheets of musical notes were revealed. I hummed one of the simpler tunes slowly, trying to remember the sounds of notes and relate them to the dots on the paper.
"You shouldn't snoop." A velvet voice sounded from the corner. I flinched. What was I to say now? The truth, however bluntly put would probably be best.
"Actually I was coming to steal from you. I was looking for your iPod." I admitted. His golden eyes bore into mine as he moved his muscular body further into the room. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the small object, letting it dangle from his fingers. I stared at it, knowing that had I been human my cheeks would've been red. I wondered if he knew I had been using it previously. I kept my eyes on the object as it slowly stopped moving. Edward was holding perfectly still, as if waiting for me to say something.
"I've heard you're the one I need to thank for setting up all of my CDs. Thank you, for keeping them in the same order, it's always time consuming when I have to rearrange them after my siblings have tried to reorganize them." He eventually said, his voice low and controlled. It still had an undertone of pity and guilt.
"I figured out that you organized them by year. After that I couldn't figure out the sub-category." I replied, trying to be calm.
"Personal favourites within that year." He replied, still focused on me. I put the book back on the couch where I'd found it. I held out my hand for the iPod.
"May I please borrow your iPod?" I asked quietly. He threw it to me. I caught it open handed, afraid that if I grabbed for it I would crush it.
"You can keep it if it pleases you. I only listen to it when I'm hunting alone. According to my siblings you're too much fun to let any of them alone long enough to be bored." How was that possible? I thought I had done nothing but sulk. They hadn't yet seen me hyper.
It could get interesting. What would it take to get me hyper? Usually, some pumped up music, and an adrenaline rush. I could settle for one of the two, I knew exactly where the rock section on Edward's iPod was. Alice would be the easiest to get hyper; she was already stuck in overdrive. Emmett wouldn't be too far behind. Rosalie and Jasper would be harder. Esme and Carlisle weren't home currently.
I left his room and went to my own spinning slowly while I worked myself up to being hyper. I tried to remember what sugar rushes felt like, holding onto that feeling, that buzz.
I found a few of the rock songs and immersed myself in them. Soon enough I was bubbling. I went and found Alice and she picked up on my mood faster than Jasper could've. Instantly we were dancing together. Jasper appeared and stole his wife. Emmett came in and took me as a dance partner. Rose soon enough swept him away from me. I was now dancing alone. I placed my hands on an invisible partner.
"Steve, meet the gang. Everyone meet Steve." I chuckled Emmett held his hand out to my invisible partner and pretended to shake his hand.
"Nice to meet you Steve."
Alice laughed. "Pleasure." She nodded to the air.
We were all dancing around again when I suddenly squeaked. I was hyper and wanted to do something ridiculous.
"Keep your hands to yourself Steve."
"He did what?" Emmett let go of Rose to roll up his sleeves, threateningly, trying to contain the huge grin on his face.
I pretended to let go of Steve and wouldn't stop laughing as Emmett proceeded to tell Steve off. If I had been human my eyes would've been brimming with tears. Emmett went back to Rose as Steve promised to behave, (apparently).
Soon after I noticed Edward standing at the door watching me sadly. Now we had even numbers, but he wasn't offering to dance. Steve grabbed my but again, (at least in my head), and I slapped him hard. Yelling at him to get out. Emmett was guffawing with laughter, and Jasper was chuckling blackly. Edward cracked a smile. I pretended to be sad.
"Now I have no one to dance with." I looked pointedly at Edward who frowned and walked forward slightly. He held out his hands and I practically jumped into his arms, until we were all dancing. Edward was searching my face, my eyes, for something. I stared back adamantly, wanting to keep the happiness alive for a little. We were so intently focused on each other that we hadn't noticed the others leave. Edward stopped dancing, but didn't let go of me.
"I can't figure you out." He whispered to me.
"What is there to figure?" I asked just as quietly.
"You don't seem offended by my presence at all, I who so violently stole your life from you."
"Are we going to go over this again?" I asked rolling my eyes. He didn't move. "Edward, I do not blame you, I hold no grudge. Your family hasn't been able to actually have fun in a long while, thanks to you and I." He opened his mouth to say something, but I pressed my fingers to his lips, ignoring the electricity that shot through me.
"I don't know about you, but I didn't spend my human years sulking around. Why should the vampire years be any different? If anything it should be better. All the things we can do. Ever have snowball fights?" I asked. He nodded.
"Snow mobile races?" He shook his head.
"Snowmen making competitions? Ice carving competitions? Swimming races? Have you ever just sat down and had a movie night? Ever played Marco Polo? Hide and seek? Edward, just because we're different physically doesn't mean you are forbidden to have fun." My eyes pleaded with him.
His topaz eyes bore into mine again and I swear at that moment he could see straight into my soul. We stared at each other and I could see something changing. His eyes seemed to get lighter, the frown decreased as he stared. I knew that my smile was growing at the same rate his frown was fading.