Disclaimer: A Big Surprise! I do not own Twilight

Chapter 3 - A Haphazard Acquaintance

Bella's POV

Oh god, I walk away, not trusting myself to run, I can't control going over into vampire speed and that would only make him more curious. Oh, what have I got myself into? I hear speeding footsteps and move into a quick walk, my shoes clicking on the cobbles, deafeningly loud to my ears as I slip into and alley. Dead end.

Oh crap.

I turn round slowly at the silence of his footsteps stopping and look into the face of…

I gasp. Big mistake.

Edward's POV

I follow her as she turns and walks away. She slips into an alley and I follow, stopping at the mouth as I know it to be a dead end. She turns slowly to face me, her eyes grow wide and she gasps.

After that… she seems to disappear only to reappear at my neck, her small mouth opened and positioned near the crease where my neck meets my shoulder. I can't feel her breath. I freeze, not daring to move as her small body is racked with violent convulsions. She appears to gain some control as her eyes dart everywhere and her head pulls away infinitesimally. I smoothly take a step back, watching her wearily. I feel no fear, just a compulsion to stay and make sure she is alright, she looks so lost and unsure. I have no idea what could be wrong with her but she obviously needs someone and I am adamant that that someone will be me.

As she stands there, reasoning with herself within the confines of her mind I assume, I look at her. She is tiny, only a few inches taller than 5 feet I would think. She is perfectly proportioned and so very fair. Her skin seems to glow almost stark white from the limited light reaching her, contrasting perfectly with the mahogany waves that frame her face and cascade to her waist. Her eyes – still completely black I notice – stand out perfectly. Although it is unnatural, I pay no heed to them, the light is still gloomy.

Her clothes are black and made out of materials I have never seen before. They fit perfectly to her shapely body. She wears a button less shirt in a stretchy material and her trousers also seem to stretch to fit her. It is beautiful and I feel ashamed to have seen anyone this way. She should be mortified at being seen without the customary dress of fifteen layers (yes I am exaggerating) reaching to the ground. Her feet are bare. They must be frozen on these cobbles…

Suddenly she has disappeared and I hear the strangled bark of a dog.

Bella's POV

I catch myself just in time; I shut down all muscles but that of my jaw. I freeze it; cramp it into obedience and stay there, collecting my scattered thoughts. My mouth is filled with venom, the repulsive burning of it coating my tongue. I focus on that awful taste to block out his sweet scent, refusing to acknowledge the thirst screaming through me demanding the blood of this boy in front of me. My eyes look at each option, scenes playing out in my minds eye against the bricks surrounding me, how easy it would be to just reach out. No one would see. But what about his family? His death could be easily arranged. No one knows me so they couldn't accuse me. But who would they pin the blame on? The consequences for that innocent person?

As I continue to argue with myself, my thoughts getting more and more graphic and my defences getting more and more painful I do not notice him take a step back but continue with the inner turmoil putting off his imminent death.

I spot a dog trotting down the road and instinct takes over.

Edward's POV

I follow the noise, shock plain on my face as I pull out of the alley. I look to my right and see the hind legs of the dog fall limply to the ground. The rest disappears behind a black figure, hunched over. The sounds of a work-house boy finishing off a bowl of soup is heard from what I can only assume is her. What she is doing to the dog I can only imagine, but I believe it to be dead.

She turns round to face me and her shoulders sag as her head droops in shame. The palms of her hands go to meet her eyes as she lets out a loud sob. I peek over at the dog and find it to be quite hollow; there is no blood in it whatsoever. I realise quite unwillingly that it must be her who has rid this animal of life but I cannot seem to place a name to the emotions I am feeling. I appear to be quite numb at the moment. All I know is that she is crying and I yearn to comfort her.

"Don't cry" I take a step forward as her beautifully abnormal eyes look up to meet mine. I am lost in the depth of the wisdom held there. There are no tears in her eyes as she peers at me. She acts with small, slow, cautious movements, testing herself, it would seem as much as trying not to scare me. As absurd as it sounds I don't believe her to be any normal person. It is stranger still but it would surprise me if she were merely human. She radiates beauty and I find myself inching forward. She realises at about the same moment and brings her knees to her chest, enveloping her arms around herself in protection. I hear her breath catch in her throat and I stop. Instead I crouch down to her level and hold my hands up, palm facing her trying to relay I hold no threat. She lifts her head up and smiles meekly. She looks like a child like this.

"As if you could hurt me – Ha!" she exclaims. I straighten my neck and widen my eyes at her unexpected sarcasm. She clamps her hands over her mouth, eyes wide in shocked apology. I grin. She lowers her hands and her eyes. I stand up and proffer my hand to help her up. She gingerly reaches out and cups her hand around mine, looking up at me quickly as if afraid she's hurt me. On the contrary, I barely realised she was touching me. Her hand was ice cold, but I found I didn't mind, and her skin so smooth. She put no pressure on me as she hoisted herself up and we started walking. I looked behind at the dog; she noticed and hung her head. I reached for her chin to tilt her face towards me but she once again disappeared only to show on the other side of the road.

"I'm sorry. That was rude of me. May I be forgiven" I apologised, I had been too forward. I watched as she tentatively stepped towards me. I may have imagined it, but I believe she whispered under her breath:

"If only that were the problem…"

I looked at her, eyebrows raised but she carried on looking at our hands, I had instinctively wrapped my big, warm hand around her petite porcelain one. She was concentrating hard but this felt right and I didn't want to let go.

She stood for a while, looking at our hands, I was holding on tight and I could feel my pulse against her marble skin. Eventually she started walking. I let her lead our way into the woods and stop in a clearing. She sat down on a tree stump and I did the same. We faced each other in the dark for what seemed like hours until the sun illuminated the clouds it was hiding behind and I could see a little better in the grim light.

Bella's POV

The dog tasted… unlike anything I had ever tasted before. I was too thirsty to taste it properly but it had a bitter-sweet aftertaste. I was too ashamed at myself to enjoy it.

Thankfully it eased the pain in my stomach by a huge amount for something so small and I found the man offering me his hand quite easy to cope with. I had always been good at controlling myself be it my emotions or actions and it was paying off.

Admittedly holding his hand strained my control with my imagination gallivanting off to scenarios containing his death without my permission as his pulse drummed through me. I regained my rigid control and set off walking, this man in tow.

Once in the woods I sat and looked at him. He looked familiar, like someone out of a dream. He looked like him… I just couldn't place his face. He had bronze hair, contrasting perfectly with his sparkling green eyes. He was tall and lanky, I imagined him to be no more or less than seventeen years of age. I scrutinised every aspect of him from his messy hair which had a hand run through it every few minutes to his well-off clothing until the birds came out and the sun made an appearance. I was glad of another cloudy day otherwise how I would get home was a mystery to me.

"I'm Bella. Any idea what I am?" I blurted out, causing him to jump. I hadn't meant to say it, but I did not regret my sudden question.

Edward's POV

"I do have one theory." I conceded, "but you'll think I'm crazy… unless it's true" I mused.

"Go on then" she prompted, picking at her bitten fingernails, feigning nonchalance.

"Well - as far as I know - only one thing drinks blood" I began , thinking of the dog. She stopped picking at her fingernails and looked into the distance.

"And what's that?" she breathed.

"Vampires?" I replied. She looked at me then and I knew it was true. That's what she was. But I thought they snuck up in the middle of the night and murdered people in night clothes showing no remorse. A far cry from what I had seen. I voiced my query.

"Ha! Myths and legends! Other vampires may do such things. But not me." She replied all in one breath. I asked her why she did that, try to breath as little as possible.

She gouged a chunk of a tree behind her out and squashed it flat between her small palms. She produced… a pen? from her pocket and within 10 seconds had handed me the squashed bark, covered in a small, elegant script much plainer than any writing I had seen before. There were no lavish curls on each letter, just a simpler, straight forward version. It read:

Before I became like this I remember vaguely other vampires. They were 'vegetarians' drinking only animal blood that's the only influence of vampires I have ever had and so that is how I choose to live my life. I don't want to be a murderer. But that doesn't mean it's easy. Every breath brings a whiff of human my way and it's all I can do not to attack right then and there. I have no need to breathe and don't do so unless necessary or I forget to stop. It's a strange concept. Understand?

"It makes sense…" I agreed. And it did.

"Why aren't you running and screaming? I brought you up to fear vampires." She rushed out in a single breath. I had to concentrate to catch it all.

"You brought me up? What? Oh and no, I'm not running. I don't know why. I'll have to think on it." She signalled for the pen and panel.

Maybe it's because you don't know what I'm capable of… and yes. I egged on evolution. Wait a few years and science will tell you what that's about. I shaped your hopes, aspirations and fears so you are exactly the same as what I remember from when I was human. I am older than you can even imagine. Aren't you tired?

"Nope" I yawned. That got a smile out of her. She tested how she was with breathing and she shook her head.

"Sorry" she said as she ran into the trees. I heard a distant crack and the sounds of what I now knew to be her sucking the blood of the unfortunate animal. I wondered what animal it was. She came back and I inquired:

"Do animals taste similar raw as they do cooked?" she thought on it then took a breath, smiled and continued:

"Not as a vampire, it would just taste like dirt, but compared from before and after… I'm not sure. I would assume so." She sat down again looking calmer than I had ever seen her and closed her eyes. I yawned again. She smiled and opened her eyes as she raised her head from the tree trunk on which she was resting. Her eyes sparkled as she took in my somewhat ruffled appearance, no longer completely black but now enclosed with white giving a less creepy appearance than before. She stood up so gracefully and fit in perfectly with the dim clearing in which we were. I smiled in awe as she gingerly raised me from the floor, setting me on my feet and wiping my shoulder in a motherly fashion. She was strong. I commented on it and she told me about the speed, sight, hearing strength and some of the extras that came with being a vampire. Although now I was fully aware of what she was capable of (she showed me in the clearing, the trees didn't stand a chance) I couldn't muster up the fear I was sure should come from her presence.

In my tired and probably still slightly drunk state stumbled on the way home, I was so tired. She picked me up, and placed me on her back, telling me to hold on tight, that she wasn't used to the gentle touch that she had to use around us fragile people. She then ran through the streets to my house. When asked how she knew where it was, she was speechless: she just knew.

Next I know she is placing me under the downy cover although quite how we arrived in my room is beyond me. I fell asleep almost as soon as my head touched the pillow, imagining the smile upon her face as she left through the window.

Hope you liked!

A