Chapter Thirteen: Promise

(EDWARD'S POV)

Now was my chance to get Bella alone to talk about what she had just heard, but she only trudged back to the party without ever glancing back.

In seconds I was inside. In the midst of the uproar in search for her, and then I heard Jessica Stanley and him again – Jacob Black. They disappeared after a short time to my relief, but then Mike Newton came into the scene. Although I was a considerable length away I could hear how he lusted over Bella.

It took me none too long to see that Bella was beside him now – her countenance in a state of near tears.

Had I caused this?

I must have. Why else would she look so distraught? I hated myself right at this moment. My family was right; all I would do was hurt. I wanted to flee from this place, and never come back. I never wanted to hurt Bella again.

The petulant human was leading Bella to dance now, and I couldn't help but be awakened by a pang of jealousy. How he held her by the waist as if he had already won her affections. She looked inhumanly beautiful standing next to this pedestrian.

The frustration I felt at the fact that I would bow at the knees for Bella – the human I most wanted to kill – made me come to a most horrible conclusion.

I was in love with her.

In love with a human. It was clear to me now what I wanted, but what did Bella want?

The possibility that she could deny me because I was a vampire hurt me more than I ever expected it to. The possibility that she could so easily be with a human like Mike Newton hardened my woes even more. I walked away from the scene of Bella and her should-be future.

I stood to the side of the stereo; the music was the loudest there. Such discordant noises came from it yet everyone seemed to enjoy it. It was then that I noticed an old piano lying to the side of it, and had a somewhat careless idea. I turned down the volume of the horrendous music to the disgruntled faces of the crowd, and walked over to the piano as it lay like an abandoned remnant from the past.

I sat down on the wooden bench, cleared the keys from accumulated dust with one blow and began to play.

I played to her, her lullaby.

The one which organically formed during the nights I watched her sleep. I hummed it to her when she was especially uneasy. Little did she know how it soothed her thumping heart.

It was a simple melody, but it encapsulated everything I saw in Bella.

Her brown hair that stopped slightly above her waist was the swaying chord I played now. Her pale skin like the ivory keys as my hands trickled down them like rain water. Her large brown eyes the low quarter notes that blinked repeatedly, telling me she was human.

The constant bass notes, Bella's heartbeat, stayed with me throughout the entire song and kept me searching for her everywhere I went. If ever it should stop the song would never continue.

And then I heard a change in Bella. This time she sounded more excited, anxious?

I stopped my song, turned around and saw that she was leaving with Mike Newton. Up the stairs.

In seconds I was out of the house, leaping to a window of a room Bella and Mike entered. He was propping her down on a bed, and my gut ached in fury.

I didn't need to read his mind to know what he wanted to do to her, but Bella remained upset and dulled Mike's excitement.

"Is it about Edward?" he asked. I flinched at the sound of my name once again. I haunted her life more than protected it.

"Why do you think that?" she asked.

"I don't know. I can tell you kind of like him."

I tried hard not to let a smile etch my face, but it did. It felt silly to want such a human and petty thing. I rejoined the conversation again.

"You're so beautiful, Bella, and Edward doesn't deserve you," Mike said, taking Bella's face in his hands,

And then, just like that, he kissed her. And she kissed him back.

The fact that Bella did not protest, but accepted Mike's advances blew my mind. It pained me to know that I could not read her thoughts right then and there. When she parted there were obvious tears in her eyes, and my mind was still in confusion.

She fled the room in anger, and I followed her once again to the same window I stood at just hours ago.

There, Jessica Stanley and Jacob Black were situated on Bella's bed. When Bella entered she ordered them out. Jessica, of course, was furious.

"What the hell, Bella!" Jessica yelled.

"Get out," Bella said.

Jacob, meanwhile the coward, fled out the door.

"Wait, Jacob!" Jessica called to him.

What the hell was that!?" Jessica screamed as humans began to form outside the door.

"Get out," Bella said again sternly, "tell everyone to get out of here!"

"How dare you!"

"You're just jealous!" Jessica screamed furiously for the forming audience to hear, "You're just pissed that you're stupid Edward didn't care enough to come! I know you secretly invited him! Well, guess what? He's not here! He doesn't want you! Don't take out the fact that you're a whore out on me and everyone else!"

My non-pulsing heart dropped to my stomach. The words felt acidic to my ears. Why didn't I go to Bella? What was I so afraid of? All this time I had been the reason why Bella was so upset. I wanted nothing more, but to go through the window and protect her from the words of this horrible human.

"You heard me! Bella's a whore everyone! Yep, I know you're secret. Why you left Phoenix, why no one in your old town talks to you anymore! Why your mom couldn't wait to get rid of you! Because you screwed some guy at a party when he didn't even want you!"

Whore? What was this terrible human thinking? What she said surely isn't true, but why did Bella's face look so struck?

"Stop it, Jessica!" Angela cut in.
"Shut up! Bella needs to hear this."
"They called her Bella the Slut Swan," Jessica said as she approached me, "And now you want to use Edward Cullen for your stupid games."

Bella left then. She simply walked away as if what had been said by that vile human was but a mere whispering about the weather. This was my chance to act.

She was outside before I knew it, and I leapt back down to the ground. Her face was stone cold. It held absolutely no emotion.

She walked out of the front yard; her dress blue in the darkness as she walked, and soon she was in my arms. Her warm body clashing with the coldness of my skin.

"Bella," I whispered, "I'm here."
"Let go of me!" she screamed and it pierced my heart.
"Shh, sweetheart," I cooed into her hair as she began to cry now.
"Make them go away."
"Is that what you want?"
"Yes," she breathed her heart pounding painfully.

And I had no choice, but to submit to her wishes. I was hers now.

I carefully laid Bella down by a tree. Her limbs felt stiff and empty, and I walked into the house where humans were milling about what had just taken place upstairs.

I took my mask off then, and with a great voice yelled.
"Get out. Now."

Their faces turned to me some frightened, some admiring, and then they all started to leave.

I eyed Jessica Stanley with all the fury I could muster before she ambled her way out the door. As soon I saw that the house was finally clearing up I came back to Bella, who sat motionless in the exact spot I had left her.

"It's over," I whispered into her ear, but she remained silent. I lifted her up in my arms and carried her fragile frame into the warm house and tucked her body into her bed.

Finally she broke her silence.
"Why are you still here?" she sniffled through her falling tears, but sounded surprisingly angry.
"I can not leave you, Bella, not when you are so upset," I replied.
"But you can leave any other time?" and her words struck me again.
"I've been here the whole time."

A tear began to slide down her cheek, but I pushed it back up. I never wanted her tears to be shed on my account. I laid a kiss on her soft forehead, and then I finally told her the truth.

"I love you, Bella. I can never leave you."

Bella reached out a hand and pulled me into her. Her warm, human lips connected with my cold ones. Bliss was all I felt, and I never wanted to remember a time before this moment. Soon she made her way to the base of my jaw where she planted the softest kisses. We remained kissing and embracing for a moment, and then she blurted out a truth.

"You're a vampire," she said so self-assured, and I knew that when I answered there was no turning back.
"Yes."
The truth finally revealed, it had never felt so terrifying and at the same time liberating.
"Would you like me to leave now?" I asked when her stillness nearly assured me that she might be afraid.
"No," she said, "Stay, because I'm ready to tell you everything."

"We have all night," I said. I looked down at her figure then. At the haphazard way her dress now dangled on her rather than formed with her body. I looked down at the ribbon that once spiraled down her slender arm. Now it was crumpled at her wrist. Every cut and bruise in her skin shining marks in the darkness.

"Wait," she said horrified.
"I saw, Bella. That day in class. You thought I hadn't"
"What did you think?" she breathed heavily.
"I thought you were beautiful and stronger than I am in many ways, but I did not know why it was there. Why you hid it. I can not read what you're thinking like I can with others."

Something took over me, and I lifted her arm up to me. I started at the base, where the scars were the heaviest and laid a kiss over the area that looked more battlefield than flesh. I could smell her heavenly blood with each kiss, but something in me made the thought of Bella's heart stopping prevent me from ever wanting her blood again. I made my way up her arm until it finally faded away into her alabaster skin.

When I looked up at her, she was crying freely.
"Well, I guess you know now," she said.
"Do you think I would take Jessica Stanley's word as irrefutable truth?" she laughed a little.
"Do you promise not to tell anyone?" she asked me.
"I promise. Will you do the same for me?"
"Yes, Edward. I promise."

With that I took her face in my hands and kissed her until her tears had run dry.