Disclaimer: Not mine

A/N: Thanks again to Dalloway5906, my beta extraordinaire, who is fascinated by big shoes and the feet that fill them :)

Chapter 4

BPOV

I was still waiting patiently, looking into his perfect face. In all of my nineteen years I had never seen such a flawless arrangement of features. His full lips were centered perfectly between his strong jaw and his nose, which sported a slight bump along its bridge. His skin was immaculate and was so pale it seemed translucent. His hair was a wonderful mixture of bronze, brown and red, and it stuck up in all directions. As if he knew my attention was directed at that mop, his hands ran through it, making it even more haphazard. Now that I could take the time and really look at his eyes, I could see that they were really more of an amber color, with a black ring around the outside. The beauty was not restricted to his face. His long, lean body was clad in a grey long-sleeved shirt and fitted black slacks, ending in black boots on his rather large feet.

Edward seemed to be having a hard time deciding what he was going to say next, so I tried to make things easier on him.

"Ok, I know that you all are not human, so let's start there."

He looked shocked that I had already come to that conclusion.

"Well how did you figure that out?" He questioned.

"When someone can use just her finger to rip my shirt, bra and jeans off it kind of eliminates that possibility. Add to that the way that douche broke my wrist and the fact that they all had blood red eyes, you kinda have to come to the same deduction." I stated calmly.

I suddenly remembered that I was still wearing the same blue dress from the auction and just pretty much told him I was not wearing a bra. I might be scared shitless, but he was still a gorgeous guy and I was a girl. Thankfully the sling supporting my aching shoulder covered most of my chest, so you could not notice the support-less girls. When I looked back up, I caught him looking at my chest as well. He had the good graces to look embarrassed to have been caught ogling the goods.

"I am not sure what you want to hear. You seem to have come to your own conclusions based on your experiences today. Can we just leave it at that?" He implored.

"No, I want to know what is going on. You all seem to be very nice, taking care of my injuries and making me feel comfortable. But, I am still lost as to why you would pay $250,000 for me. How do you have that kind of money and what is expected of me?"

"My family has done very well with investments in the past, my sister Alice is amazing with the stock market. We have a large amount of funds at our disposal to do with as we please. And it pleased me to be able to save you from the other bidders at that auction."

How could he have known what the other bidders would have done with me? "Wait didn't Carlisle say something about you being a mind reader?"

A look of defeat settled across his face. "Yes, I can read the minds of the people that are around me. With the exception of you, I cannot hear what you are thinking."

"Well that is good, because you would be totally embarrassed by my earlier thoughts!" Shit, what is good about him not being able to hear my thoughts if I am constantly broadcasting them to the world anyway!

He chuckled quietly and shook his head. Ugh, the way his hair bounced when he did that made me want to run my fingers through it. Stop Bella, remember that you are currently being held against your will by this... whatever he was. Even though he was extremely hot, I had no idea if I could trust him, if he was safe.

Figuring that he would not mind if I got up off of the couch and stretched my legs, I stood up, catching the heel of my shoe on the throw rug and promptly fell, hitting my head on the end table. Stupid heels, just another reason for me to hate you. I reached up to feel the growing knot on my forehead when a gasping breath caught my attention. I looked up to where Edward was standing to see him backing up in fear. He looked petrified, and I had no idea what the problem was.

I pulled my hand from my head and found that it was covered in blood. Nothing bleeds as badly as head wounds, I have had enough blows to the head to know. I looked back up to where Edward had been standing but he was gone. I noticed that the drapes at the window were flapping, so I figured he opened the window, having some sort of issue with blood. I slowly got up off of the floor, still woozy from my knock on the head and made my way over to reassure him that I was fine. The window was open, but he was not there, the room was empty.

Grabbing a towel off of the floor to try and stop the bleeding, I hunkered down on the couch to wait for someone to come back and give me more answers.

EPOV

As soon as I saw her start to topple over on those high heels I knew what was going to happen. I could have gotten to her, I was fast enough. However, it was with morbid curiosity that I wanted to see which one of Alice's visions would be correct. Was I going to smell the blood and be forced to drain her? Or was I strong enough to withstand the desire? Venom flooded my mouth as I watched her.

She put her hand up to her head and I gasped as I smelled the fresh blood oozing from the wound. I saw her head jerk up to where I was standing, but before she could finish the movement, I was already out the window. I landed softly on the ground below and sprinted into the woods.

It had been so hard not to go to her and make sure she was fine, but the temptation of her blood was too strong. I was hopeful that since I was able to resist her spilled blood, it would be easier to be around her now. I hated feeling so distant and standoffish, but I had not been able to trust myself around her. She was so strong and beautiful, I had never seen anyone take everything in stride as she did. She had no idea that she had been thrust into the middle of a coven of vampires and should fear for her life.

I finally stopped running as I got close to the Canadian border. I had hoped that Alice would have alerted Carlisle to Isabella's accident, and he would have her cleaned up before I returned. A buzzing in my pocket confirmed that yes my dear sister had done just that. Figuring it was safe to return, I started to head back at a much slower pace.

How was I going to deal with this? Was I going to have to tell her the truth, or could I deflect her questions and keep our lifestyle quiet. I had a feeling that she was not going to let this drop until she had the truth. However, there was no way I could share my family's secret with a virtual stranger. I hope she enjoyed disappointment.