Disclaimer: ^^^ Owns nothing Twilight. Just her OCs, and the story.

A/N: And so we draw closer to the end of the beginning of what may become a series... I still gathered no one's opinion on that, so tell me what you think, guys! And this chapter holds a fat lemon. Just warning you.

AlicePOV:

I knew she couldn't mean that. I knew she had to be kidding me, teasing, joking. I didn't think it was funny. "Andie... you don't mean that."

"I do," she said, stepping forward with her eyes trained on mine, never leaving. "I'm ready to get through this. I'm ready to be with you, to be tied to you. I need your venom in my veins, and your ring on my finger." She took a step closer, and I didn't move, though everything in me screamed for me to either take her or run from her. I couldn't decide which, so I remained very still.

"Andie, think about it... we only just got here. We would have to leave–"

"No, you wouldn't," I heard Esme say softly from down in the living room, where I knew that she, Rose, and Emmett were listening intently.

I switched tracks. "What if I lose control in an unplanned transition? I mean, knowing I'm going to do it–"

"Not on my watch. You could do it, Alice, there are no real reasons to not do it," Rosalie huffed, and I could see her arms lock across her chest stubbornly.

"Rose, I'm scared," I whispered down to my sister, feeling despair roll through me. What if I killed her? I knew the outcome of the planned bite... Andie would be fine. This split-decision bite was another story, completely. I wouldn't be able to have a vision of it, because Andie had made up her mind on the spot.

"We won't let you hurt her, Alice," Esme said in a promising tone, and I looked at Andie, who was staring at me patiently.

"Andie," I whispered painfully, torn between her safety and my selfishness, because I wanted to give her what she wanted, no doubt about that. I just needed her to survive what she wanted. She closed the distance between us and pulled me to her, and my face automatically sought its refuge in that place on her neck that ticked with every pump her heart gave. The sweet fluids rushing through her flesh right there mocked me, telling me that I was a coward, and that I should just bite. I turned my face away, leaving my left cheek on her shoulder. "I love you, you know that, right?" I said, my throat thick with the venom pooling in my mouth.

Her hands pulled me closer to her, and her face pressed against my neck. "I wouldn't ask, if you didn't. I love you, too, Alice."

I squeezed my eyes shut, sure that if I could still cry, that tears would be sliding down my face. How could I have ever thought this would be easy? How could I have written Edward's struggle off as his own selfishness, when it was so plain that Bella wanted nothing more than him? I couldn't appreciate his position at the time, but GOD did I fit in his shoes now. One bite, and she would be mine forever. One bite that I might not be able to pull away from when her blood touched the palate of my tongue.

"Alice?" she murmured from my neck, pulling back to look at me, and it was all I could do to open my eyes. "Kiss me?" She sounded so unsure of herself, so shy. God, how I loved her. I couldn't bear to see her hurt, to see her dejection, to feel her sorrow that I was causing by not answering her straight or giving in. So when her lips brushed against mine and started the pyre inside me that it always struck, I gave myself an answer. I would do this, tonight. But I was going to do it the right way.

After kissing her for a few moments, I gently pulled back and wrapped a hand around her wrist, leading her to my bathroom. I turned the hot water on, and then some cold, to make her bath warm, her eyes never leaving me as I performed these actions. Then as the water ran and the tub filled, I turned back to her and kissed her again, her heart speeding up like it always did. I felt a pang of sadness, thinking that this was among the last moments I would ever hear it, but I pushed the sad feeling away with the notion that she would be mine forever, that Andie would be beside me for eternity. I could trade her heart beat for that, I thought to myself with a chuckle, pulling back from her lips to smile at her. "You'll want to shave," I whispered, my eyes floating down her body, letting her know that I meant everything. She had an aversion to her own body hair, and I don't think there was ever a time she had been naked and I saw anything more than the ends poking through the pores, and they would've been invisible to human eyes. I was changed in a time before women were self-conscious enough to remove pubic hairs, and would restrict the razor and scissors to their legs and underarms. So while my arm pits and my legs were virtually hairless, my sex was not, but Andie never showed any sort of disgust when she touched me there, so I never fully understood the motion of shaving her own.

"Yes, I do," she said, biting her lip against a thought in her mind, and I caught a flash in my head of her asking me to do it for her. Oh, the intimacy...

"I will," I answered before she could even ask, and she blushed darkly, ducking her head, but she looked at me from beneath her eyelids gratefully, before dashing back into our bedroom for toiletries.

Back in almost vampiric speed, she was standing in front of me with her face still red, but her shower bag clutched in her right hand. I reached for it, and she gave it over to me, clearing her throat. "How long, again?" she asked in a whisper, not looking at me, but taking off her clothes.

"A few days," I answered softly, knowing what she meant. "It's different for everyone." I turned the water off and straightened up, looking at her until her for-now amethyst eyes met mine. "Are you sure, Andie? You can say no, you can change your mind, you can–"

Her embrace silenced me, her lips kept me quiet, and when she pulled back and smiled at me, I felt the ice around my heart break. "Alice, I'm yours. I'm yours, and I have never been so sure of anything in my life. The only thing I fear is the unknown."

"I'll be right beside you," I promised her. I wouldn't leave for a second. "I'll be there, and the first thing you'll see with vampire eyes will be my face."

"Sounds perfect," she sighed, releasing me and stepping into the water. She sat with her back against a round corner of the tub and looked at me. "Aren't you coming in?"

I hesitated for a half of a second, then placed her bag on the counter to remove the clothes I wore. I would keep these clothes, and the ones Andie wore, as a keepsake of the special event taking place. Her glasses, as well as her father's, would find a place in the trunk I planned to buy, to keep Andie's humanity safe and intact, as it was leaving her this night. I took her razor out of the pouch, and her small can of cream, and placed them on the lip of the tub before I slid into the water with her, and she pulled me to her, burying her nose in my hair. "Stop worrying," she scolded me playfully, and I couldn't help but give a small smile into her shoulder. "I know you can do this, love. You wouldn't hurt me."

I reached up and wound the wet fingers of my right hand in her long hair, my eyes shutting again at the pain of perhaps losing her. I was glad she had faith in me; and once I would have thought so rightly. Now I wasn't so sure. "Andie, I'm scared," I whispered, my voice cracking in my pain. "I don't want this to go badly. I wouldn't ever forgive myself, even as the flames turned me to ash."

"Stop that, Alice," she scolded again, only now not so playfully, and I knew she envisioned me burning. "In a few days, you're going to be schooling me in Hunting 101, and Human Etiquette 101, and all the things I need to learn to be a respectable immortal."

"Maybe you should let me do the schooling in Vampire Gaming 101, so she doesn't continue to whip my ass in CoD," I heard Emmett mutter from the room three doors down, and I heard Rosalie's answering smack, making me snicker despite myself.

"What's funny?" Andie said, pulling my face up to look at her.

I shook my head. "Emmett and Rose. Emmett is still sour about losing to a human, and now that you're about to be immortal, he's not happy with the idea of you humiliating him further." I grinned, despite my efforts not to when I heard Emmett's impatient scoff. "He wants to instruct the classes on Vampire Gaming 101, he said."

Andie rolled her eyes, grinning as well. "You wish, Em," she said, knowing he could hear her. "I'm going to pwn your ass so hard that you'll swear Rose has gotten you with a strap-on."

She didn't need vampiric ears to hear Rosalie's loud laughter, or Emmett's growl of masculine insecurity, and she laughed, too, only stopping when she saw my hand reach for the items on the edge of my bathtub, a serious expression crossing her beautiful face. "What do you want me to shave first?" I asked quietly, and she lifted her leg out of the water and placed the heel of her foot on the edge.

"Bottom to top," she whispered, and I felt something go through me at the tone, not unlike arousal, but not exactly that either. This was something new, a sensation I'd never felt with her before. This was the beginning of the ultimate bond, and the instinctual part of me recognized it for what it was, telling me that it was okay to do this. I took my time lathering her leg, running both my hands up and down her calf, the bend of her knee, all the way to where they met the water that rode to her mid thigh. I heard the soft gasps coming from her, telling me that she was as involved in this new feeling as I, and I gave her small smile as I rinsed my hands free and picked up her razor. "Careful," she whispered, looking at me pointedly. "No accidents to ruin our night, okay?"

"No accidents," I breathed back, glad that my heart was still, or the beating would make my hand unsteady, causing the slip she feared. Slowly I pulled the razor up her shin, and she closed her eyes and let the back of her head rest against the side of the tub as I took care of her bodily preparations, hearing the hair being sliced free beneath the coat of cream, a fascination with the movement seeping through me. Had I ever shaved my legs when I was human? The lack of hair on them now told me they had been shaved, but was I really the one who did it? I doubted it, as I had been in an insane asylum, where I'm sure razors were not common amongst patients. My creator probably shaved me clean before he bit me. Ninety lonely years later, I shaved my mate in love, for the bite that we both wanted her to have.

Painstakingly, I cleared Andie's legs of the offensive hairs, and then it was time for her sex to be void of it, as well. I looked at her as I slid my hands beneath her to lift her out of the water, and she helped me perch her on the side of the tub, with me still in the water moving between her thighs, eye level with her pink folds, the ones I knew like the back of my hand. I saw the pattern with which she shaved, as it hadn't been but a few days, and was sure I could easily follow it without cutting her. It was hell to keep my mind on the task at hand, however, as I fought the urge to lean in and kiss her there, to make her gasp and moan my name like I had numerous times before. I felt a surge of vicious pride. Mine, all of her is mine. I couldn't help but grin again, and Andie chuckled as she watched me carefully work the razor on her.

"What are you grinning about down there?" she asked in a loving tone, and I glanced up at her with a sheepish look.

"I'm happy," I replied simply with a one shouldered shrug, and Andie tinkled a laugh.

"It took you being face to face with my who-ha to get that smile from you?" she teased and I rolled my eyes, not at her remark but at the muffled laughter from my siblings down the hall.

"No," I said, nudging her knee with my shoulder. "I'm just... proud. This is mine," I replied, gesturing to her nearly clean shaven sex. Then I pressed my lips to her inner thigh. "Just like this is mine..." I moved up to her lower abdomen, kissing her there. "And this is mine..." Up to her breasts, a moment's attention on each. "These beautiful girls are mine," I whispered against her left nipple, my tongue flashing out to run across it. I pushed my ear against her heart right above it, hearing the thump that would soon cease to be, and pressed my lips there the longest. Then I stood on my knees so that I was face to face with her, cupping her face and pulling it to mine slowly. "I'm just proud that you are mine." I kissed her slowly, not really wanting her to get worked up, and she behaved, knowing it was crucial.

"Alice..." she whispered as I kissed my way back down to my work, picking up the razor again and giving her an innocent smile, one that she returned.

Once I had finished with her underarms, she suggested the shower that we planned, only there wasn't as much lustful touching as the one we'd discussed as a sexual promise. Instead we merely bathed each other, and scrubbed each other's hair. I'd be lying if I said there weren't a few kisses and some heavy petting, but that's nothing compared to what we had been planning. I shut the water off and reached for a towel, wrapping it around my Andie, rubbing her upper arms to create a friction of heat. It was cool in the house for a human, and I knew that, and here she was dripping wet and snuggling against my icy flesh. "How do you want this to happen?" I whispered, and she shook her head because she didn't know.

"I'll tell you what," she whispered back, looking up at me. "Take a picture with me right now."

"Why?"

She looked at her feet for a second, then back up at me with tears in her eyes. "I want to remember that I had my father's eyes."

I nodded jerkily, holding in the dry sob that compressed my lungs, and went to my room, Andie following me closely, towel still wrapped around her tightly, as I dripped free of the water, and was almost dry, except my hair. I retrieved my camera from the shelf the case rested on, and unzipped it, having it ready as fast as I could. "You ready?" I asked her, moving to stand beside her and holding the camera up and away from us.

She pushed her face into the frame with mine, and she did something I wasn't expecting her to do: she smiled radiantly, which my own smile stretched in response. I took the picture, and looked back at Andie, expecting the smile to be faded, but it had merely dimmed, and I knew it was genuine. "Another?" she asked, and I nodded, holding the camera back above us. She pressed her lips to my cheek, and I snapped the picture. She took the camera from me and held it back out above us once more, looking nowhere near the lens, and said in that voice, "Kiss me." Not request. A demand, and one I was more than willing to fulfill. I kissed her, and she snapped the picture, only when she lowered the camera, she pulled away from me long enough to slide it onto my vanity before utilizing that hand in my hair, and returning to my lips.

The towel dropped to the floor, forever forgotten, then we were in our bed a second later, and Andie was pulling me on top of her, opening herself to me like hundreds of times before. The blast of heat from the juncture of her thighs made me shiver into the kiss we were still sharing, and she wrenched her face away from mine before she passed out from the lack of oxygen. "Make love to me," she panted, swallowing hard and licking her lips. "Using your whole body, Alice, not just your hands or your mouth... I want the last human thing I feel to be you moving against me."

I nodded. My reservations of my strength would be null and void after this night, anyway. "Okay," I agreed, and she smiled.

"You know this is going to be amazing, right?" she whimpered as I shifted, now fully against her, not supporting myself at all.

"I hope so. I don't like going into this blind," I said into her ear as I kissed it.

She moaned when I lightly scraped my teeth across the shell of her ear, and the venom pooled up at the noise, but I swallowed it. Not yet. "I'll tell you when," she gasped as I continued the affection, only down her neck this time. "But you can't hesitate, okay?"

I nodded. "Okay."

"Alice," she said my name in a clear voice, and I pulled my face from her neck to see a serious look on her face. "I mean it. When I tell you, you bite. Promise me."

I reached a hand up and pushed a few stray hairs from her face. "I promise, love." A soft kiss sealed my end of the contract, and then she smiled into it, pulling me into her harder, her hips beginning to move against me, and I reciprocated, still careful in not wanting to hurt her. The way she felt beneath me was glorious in itself, even if I still could not do some of the things I wanted to do, I still had to touch her like she was made of the thinnest pane of glass that could turn to dust at the brushing of ones fingers. Her heart told me when she was ready for me to touch her, and I leaned my belly up just enough to be able slide my hand down between us, and Andie's breath picked up as she felt me against her there, slipping inside of her easily. I adjusted so that my knuckles across the top of my hand was flush against myself as my hips began to drive into her, rather than my wrist this time, and whimpered with her at the friction on my clit. I'd learned this move from Andie, as she often did it when she was topping me, on the rare occasion I allowed it; I'd so much rather be on top, making her squirm below me with hot frustration, knowing that it was only my touch that could stoke her passion as such.

"Faster," she requested breathily, moving her hips to show me the rhythm she wanted me to match, one of her hands clutched onto my neck, the other against the small of my back, where her short nails were scraping at the stone flesh, but it was a sensation I rather enjoyed. When I picked up the pace, also sliding a third finger into her in the same motion, she let out one hell of a yell for the added pressure inside. When I pressed my thumb onto the bundle of nerves at the top, she keened, her head throwing itself back against the mattress, the hand on the small of my back sliding lower to cup my left butt cheek as she pulled herself into me even more. "Oh, God, Alice!" she gasped as I pounded her harder than I ever had before, hearing it making me push a little bit more. "Oh... fuck..."

"Say you're mine," I growled in her ear, the Mate Mode kicking in at her noises and her oncoming orgasm.

"I'm yours," she answered without hesitation, throwing her head to the left, exposing her neck to me, and the venom pooled... I knew it was coming, as soon as she came...

"I love you," I panted, going rigid with my own orgasm, a noise coming from deep within my throat, and she thrusted up once more and held herself against me, rolling her hips in three long thrusts that seemed to last forever, each one telling me that it was near...

Grabbing my hair to pull my face to hers as she came, she kissed me hard, like it could be the last one she ever gave me... I knew she had seriously considered the risk when she kissed me like that. When she pulled back and went limp beneath me, I pushed myself off of her a bit, scared I would relax too much and crush her, and she reached up to touch my face, and I turned my mouth to kiss her palm. "I love you... and I'm ready," she whispered, turning her face once more, the length of her throat exposed, that vein pulsing just below the thin sheet of skin. I had to bite there. I had to taste her blood, her blood that smelled like ripe cherries. I promised her I would not hesitate, but I had to try to at least collect myself.

I took a deep breath and whispered to tell Rose to be near. "Don't let me kill her," I pleaded through sounds Andie could not yet hear.

"I'm outside the door," she whispered back, and I felt a bit braver.

I leaned down and pressed my lips over her heart, kissing her humanity as it was leaving, truly sorry to see it go, but extremely relieved that she would be mine. There was a beautiful tragedy in this act, and we were both aware of it. I continued upwards to her neck and said softly as my lips brushed the flesh, "I'll be right here with you. Don't be afraid."

"I'm not afraid of you," she whispered, pushing her neck harder against my teeth.

I did the only thing I could do. I bit her.