Chapter Twelve – Feelings
I forgot the pain. His music soothed my cuts, the sunlight healed my bruises, his smile healed my broken soul.
"Are you scared of heights Bella?" he asked, his hands moving fluidly across the pale piano, each finger creating beauty.
"What do you mean by heights, exactly?" I asked, concerned. If he meant hiking up a mountain I'd be in trouble. I'm not exactly graceful, especially not when I'm dying, and the thought of all those little rocks just waiting for me to trip over them… I shuddered.
Edward stopped playing, his amused expression making my heart beat a thousand times quicker – a fact I knew he would be aware of.
"Well… it would be much better if I showed you than told you." He grabbed my waist and jumped into thin air, and so I did what any normal person would do: I screamed. A lot.
My eyes stung as we settled down in the canopy of a large oak. Edward looked at me with that annoying half smile and I could feel a blush starting to form. I hated hormones just then.
"How come you faced off Maria without even flinching, but you screamed on the way here?" Edward played with my hair teasingly. "And it was very high pitched, if I may add."
"Not everyone is a stupid spider-monkey vampire, you know. Some people like being on land." I gripped the branches of the tree tightly. "And if you tell anyone about the scream I will…"
"What? Scream at me?" He chuckled lightly; his golden eyes stared into my brown ones and into my soul. "It must have been hard pushing everyone away. Did you ever just want to run away from it all?"
I blinked. "Is it 'Ask deep, probing questions that are none of your business' day? Because if it is, I haven't noticed."
"Bella, I'm sorry, it's just that I'm curious about you. No one has ever made me feel this way. You make me feel like I'm almost human and I prize you above everything for that." Edward looked at me in a way that made want to die inside, to do anything to make him happy.
"Too bad that's not going to last." I said half smiling, attempting to lift the mood. I looked out to the sky. "I had a friend; her name was Laura. She sat next to me in school, even talked to me sometimes… her dad was driving the van that was going to smash into her. Until I got in the way and saved her life. Then she ran away from me calling me a freak and other less…savoury names. So we left and I had learnt my lesson: never trust anyone."
Edward touched my hand, his ice cold skin like a burst of electricity, and I shivered involuntarily. He tried to pull his hand away but I held on, craving the companionship I had never had.
"What about you?" I asked, resting my head on his smooth, hard shoulder.
"Well, before I get to that, there's this tiny piece of information you don't know about me." Edward traced his fingers around my hand. "I can read minds."
"What?" I exploded, nearly falling off the tree. "And you didn't tell me that? You've been listening in to my deepest thoughts and playing around with my mind. This is why I shouldn't trust people!"
"Except you." Edward's voice was calm, soothing me from my little outburst. "I can't read your mind. It's like your on a different frequency like AM and I can only hear FM."
"Or maybe I'm a freak, just like Laura said."
"Wait a second, I'm the vampire who can read minds but you're a freak?"
"I'm the freaky, genetically modified something that just happens to be near invincible. I think that qualifies as a mega freak." I smirked at his lack of a comeback. "Are there any more like you?"
Edward laughed, the sound travelling through the air like the vibrations of a church bell. "Like me? Well, Jasper can manipulate emotions and Alice can see the future."
Absorbing this new information I said, "You never told me about what you thought of being a vampire and of your diet."
His eyes darkened. "I think that story can wait another day."
"There won't be another day."
"Well then time is running out, isn't it?"
I couldn't wait any longer. I just had to do it.
Our lips met, the cold electricity travelling down my spine and making me want more. I gripped his hair tighter, closing the small distance between us when he pushed me away roughly, his fists clenching.
"Sorry," I said, wringing my hands, wondering if I had done something wrong.
"Don't be." He smiled wryly. "I didn't think I could manage it. Your blood calls to me above all others. I could have killed you just then."
"So that's why you hated me on the first day," I said, mostly to myself.
"Well…" He started but I cut him off, reaching forward to his pale lips. "We're running out of time Bella, we have to…"
"Time doesn't exist," I whispered. "You can Google it."
We moved in a discordant rhythm, electricity filling our veins and making us feel more than alive. We moved to the other side of the tree, leaves filling our hair until we slipped and tumbled to the ground.
Reaching for his hand as we lay there in that muddy ditch, I spoke. "You make me feel Edward; you make me feel about people about you. Thank you," I whispered.
"Bella," Edward started, "I need to tell you something. I…" Edward was cut off by the sound of my cell phone's ringtone. I jumped to my feet.
"I need to take this. I'll meet you at the house, everyone will be waiting." Edward nodded, speeding off into the distance.
I flipped open my phone. It was a blocked number, but I answered anyway. "Hello, Bella Swan speaking."
"My little beauty. I'm sure your father's very proud of you, although he seems to be a little… tied up at the moment," the voice from my nightmares whispered in my ear, chilling me to my bones.
"What have you done to Charlie? What do you want? Tell me!" Tears trickled down my cheeks.
"Nothing…yet. But if you don't come to your house in one hour alone, you won't particularly have a father anymore. Got it?"
"I…I…" I stuttered. "I'll be there and I'll do whatever you want, just don't hurt Charlie." I heard a click; he had disconnected.
Brushing the leaves out of my hair, I ran to my certain death.