Chapter 5 – I Was Born To Love You

Charlie's POV

The pain was unbearable. I couldn't make out night from day anymore; remember who I was, or where I was. The only thing that I could sense was some movement from who I was sure were my killers every once in a while, though the sound was so soft and low, I had no idea how I even made out the sounds.

I passed time now by counting each tortured inhalation and exhalation that wheezed through my incinerating lungs. I heard the sounds of screams from far away, but couldn't quite make out who was making such a shudder-inducing sound. The fire seemed to smolder for an eternity and all that truly existed was my roasting flesh.

I became aware of everyone around me as time inched onward, how their movements were swift and smooth, but controlled, as if they were holding back around me. It seemed odd to me that I could hear them though as they moved about the other parts of the house. Further off in the distance, I could make out the sound of waves crashing onto a beach, and I idly wondered if it was a television I was hearing or if it was the real thing.

My answer came when I heard a boat pull up and drop off two more of their kind, and they came in to visit me too, saying things like, "Everyone is safe now, Charlie," and "It'll be over soon, my friend. Please don't forget who we all are. Bella would be so heartbroken."

Bella.

That caused my heart to lurch with a feeling that I couldn't quite place. Who was this Bella, and why did the name seem so familiar, yet so far away to me? Was she someone important to me in my past? A tiny flicker of something passed through my brain and then fizzled out once again as I heard the sounds of screaming. Who was hurting that person so badly? I just wanted to reach out and comfort them, but the pain in my body was too intense.

I could feel the tension in the room only increase as time lurched on. They were waiting for my transformation to be completed, that much I had compiled, but transforming into what? What sort of monster could I possibly be when I felt like I was sizzling like a sausage.

And as quickly as the pain came into my body, it left it, with my body jerking upward and my heartbeat speeding up only to come to an abrupt and complete halt.

I was dead.

Edward's POV

I heard nothing significant from Charlie but small snippets of his thoughts, even when straining. Alice had given up on attempting to foresee what would happen in his future. It was too indeterminate is what we had decided. Carlisle's brain was working overtime, trying to figure out what was going on with him, all to no avail. Esme just sat beside Charlie, reminding him softly of Bella, Sophie and Alex. She also threw in our family, the pack and what was taking place inside of his body. You could see the concern on each of our faces, but each of us kept it to ourselves, knowing that he was likely to hear us now, as he surely was at the end of his transformation.

Three days had come and gone, and Charlie was still lying in his "death" bed, screaming and writhing in torment almost constantly. The only thing we could decipher about it was that the venom mixing with the cancerous cells in his body were causing him worse pain than any of us had felt in our changes.

And then, just like that, it was over, and Charlie's heart was no longer beating. Esme immediately was behind Carlisle, which was where she felt most comfortable, being more of a nurturer by nature and not someone who was ready to fight if necessary. Alice moved closer to me, knowing that a newborns sudden decision making trait made her power almost completely useless right now.

"Can you get anything from him, Son?" Carlisle asked me through his thoughts. I shook my head minutely in response, still not hearing anything but a random word occasionally.

"UP!"

And then Charlie was out of the bed, his crimson eyes assessing the four of us in our non-threatening stances. His body immediately was pressed back against the wall, and crouched down, hissing and growling as he continued to watch us.

He had no idea who we were.

His hands clutched at the wall behind him, pulling at the drywall, trying to find some way to get away from us, as you could see the fear and determination cross over his countenance. He was zeroing in on our eyes each individually, as if he was studying them, and then he was off the wall, moving towards the only mirror in the room.

He stood in front of the mirror, assessing the man he had become, and for a moment, I thought he would come to his senses. Regain whatever it seemed he had lost in the change.

I was wrong.

In the next second, Charlie was out the window, fleeing from what I can only imagine, was the scene in the mirror. I sighed deeply and looked at Carlisle.

"I believe we have quite the newborn on our hands now."

JPOV

I couldn't help but chuckle as Bella and Peter continued to banter back and forth, adding in Emmett occasionally for good measure, and a touch of Rosie's dry sarcasm. The plane ride would have been completely boring had I not had my best friends, my brother and sister, and most importantly, my beautiful new bride along for the ride.

"What are you going to do for a whole week on a deserted island, with no other humans to sate your thirst, Petie?" Bella asked, half mockingly, half curiously.

Peter grinned wide, and I could feel the mischief rolling off of him. "Well, maybe we will just turn you into a blood donor, Jelly Belly."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. He was obviously trying to rile me up now, as well as Bella, but I just wasn't falling for it.

"I do already have a bite mark scar that you could open up, so that I'm not even more marked," Bella teased back.

"You'd do that for us?" Peter asked skeptically, one eyebrow arched high on his forehead.

"Why not? I mean, I make more blood anyways, so why not donate it to a good cause?"

I kept a steady calm over Rose and Emmett, so that they didn't freak out over Bella's joke, because I could feel their agitation rising as the joking went on.

"I don't know, B. I've heard that your blood is pretty potent. I wouldn't want to accidentally drain you."

Bella snickered. "Jasper, have you been sharing things?" she asked, turning towards me with a brow raised.

"No, I haven't been. But now that you've said something about it, they are all going to be wondering." I snorted out a laugh.

Bella turned ten shades of red and dropped her face into her hands, groaning into them.

"Something sexy you wanna share there, B?" Charlotte finally asked, giggling.

"No!" Bella said into her hands. "I don't want to share that with anyone except for Jasper."

I rubbed her back, but still couldn't help the chuckle that escaped at her embarrassment. I knew it would take some getting used to for her to feel comfortable enough to talk about things like this in front of the others. Hell, I was a guy, and it had taken me a long time to be alright with it. Of course, those were much different times.

"Okay then. Back to you being a donor. I think that's a bad idea," Charlotte said, her eyes meeting mine. "Jasper would very likely get overly territorial over you, as you are his mate, and anything that could potentially hurt you will trigger his instinct to protect you. Also, seeing as you have already shared your blood with him..." she coughed and Peter let out a laugh. "...he will be territorial over that as well."

Bella looked up from her hands at Charlotte and Peter, shaking her head. "I was just pulling on your legs! Sheesh. You guys take me way too seriously sometimes. I'm not a human blood bank for Jasper, obviously, since his eyes are still beautifully golden. Though yes, he has tasted my blood."

My mind wandered back to the taste of the few drops of Bella's exquisite blood, and I had to remind myself that we were sitting on a plane, on our way to our honeymoon destination. Which was slowly, but surely, coming into view, though Bella wouldn't be able to see much due to the shroud of darkness. The plane had begun its descent now, and as the conversation continued merrily around me, I just sat back quietly and enjoyed the scene.

My thoughts moved to Charlie, and how he was doing with his change into our damned world. I wondered if he had woken yet, and if he was doing alright. Honestly, I had wished I could have been there for him during this time, as I could deal with a newborn better than most could. I'd done so much of it in my past; it was like second nature to me now. But, Bella wouldn't be able to be around him, and there was no way I was willing to be away from her for any protracted length of time.

Edward's pain distorted face came into my memory then, and I almost winced at the thought. I knew what I had was necessary, but it still didn't make the guilt any less. What if Bella did something like that in her newborn stage and someone killed her? I would surely follow along behind her because there was no way that I was spending the rest of my eternity without her. The thought alone brought treacherous venom into my eyes, and, instead of being asked what was the matter, I shut my eyes and laid my head back against the seat, seeming to be resting my head.

It would have been nice if that had worked.

I felt Bella's fingers grip mine tighter, and the fingers of her other hand slide up my arm, her intent clearly to gain my attention. She already had it. Opening my eyes, I saw two beautiful brown eyes staring back at me, full of love and concern.

"Are you alright, baby?" she asked, her voice lowered, though every person on the flight, save for the pilot could hear her. They had the common courtesy to carry on their own private conversations though, for which I appreciated.

I released my grip on her hand and slid my arm around her shoulder, drawing her body into mine. "I am. I was just allowing my thoughts to wander more than I really should. I should be focusing on how happy I am. And you have made me the happiest man in the world, Isabella Whitlock."

She giggled and scooted in closer to me. "You used my full name. I'm not sure I remember you doing that before."

I grinned down at her as the plane touched down on the tarmac, our bodies pressing closer together with the force of the touchdown. "Oh, I have, my dearest Bella. You just don't remember hearing it because you were crying out my name at the same time too."

Charlie's POV

I ran. My legs carried me until I hit water and then I turned, sand crunching under my bare feet. Confusion muddled my brain. What in the blue hell had happened to me? How was I running so fast? Things should have been blurring at this speed, but I could make out every speck and molecule around me.

I could hear the sound of two distinct and separate footfalls behind me, but I was able to run faster than them. They were calling my name, but I didn't respond. I was in search of something to squelch this burning in the back of my throat. My eyes darted from side to side, my ears perked for the sound of anything.

And then it came.

A gentle thrum of what could only be a heartbeat. I jumped over a small mound of sand, and there they were, a small group of mountain goats, feeding on a patch of grass. My presence must've made them nervous, because they all looked up from their feeding.

My teeth barred without my consent, gleaming in the moonlight as a ferocious growl escaped out of my mouth. It would have frightened me, had I not needed to sate the burn in my throat so badly.

In a blur of trees, gray fur and my pale white skin, I was on top of my first goat before I could even blink again. I tore into its flesh before the animal could even protest my movements, and felt the warmth of its blood trickle down my throat. For a second, the burning feeling was gone, but then the taste of the blood made its way into my subconscious.

My lips slowed their sucking momentarily, but still continued to take the nourishment. When the blood slowed to a stop from the now lifeless carcass, I dropped it and was immediately running after another.

I didn't stop until I cleared four goats, their bodies mangled and covered in blood. The burn in my throat seemed to have stopped for now, but I could tell that it wasn't sated.

The sun began to rise up over the horizon, and as it hit my body, I noticed how my skin glistened like diamonds in the sunlight. And then, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I felt what I was sure was a predator moving around behind me. Spinning around, I let out a frightened hiss.

I was confronted with two of the four people that had been there when I had woken up. The men had their bodies in non-confrontational poses, which seemed to ease my mind only slightly. The blonde man struck me as someone I could trust, whereas the golden-haired man seemed to be assessing me more. I felt exposed and laid bare to him.

The blonde-haired man took a cautious step towards me, his hands coming up in front of him to ease my frayed nerves even more.

"Charlie...I'm Carlisle. Do you remember me?" he asked, his voice as smooth and soothing as a lullaby.

Shaking my head, I responded to his question. "No. I don't even remember who I am."

Carlisle and the one whose name I hadn't learned yet shared a look of concern between the two of them.

"Is that unusual? And what was wrong with that blood? Why do I feel like I'm still..." I paused, unsure of the words I was even searching for.

"That was goats you were drinking. They are herbivores. They are not going to quench your thirst as much as something like a lion or a bear. Unfortunately, the island we are stationed on right now doesn't have anything of that sort. You didn't finish your last question, but I'm assuming you were going to ask, 'Why do I feel like I'm still thirsty?' I'm sure you are very confused about everything, especially since you can't remember who you are. To answer your question, you still feel thirsty because of the nature of being a newborn vampire, which is what you are."

He stopped there, allowing me time to soak in all that he had just told me. I was a vampire, which I had already surmised by the instinct to drink blood; but to actually hear the news from his lips made it real. I felt like the blood sitting in my gut was made of lead, weighing me down. How did I become this monster? And why couldn't I remember anything about myself? This obviously wasn't normal for someone of their kind.

I felt the need to throw up the goat blood now, but also didn't want to give up the nourishment that it had provided me.

"You know, goat tastes about as horrible as it smells. If I'm going to be staying here, I'm going to have to find something better to suck on then that."

Both men laughed at my comment, seeming to ease up a little bit from their rigid stances. The gold-haired man seemed to still be assessing me, but it also seemed like he had given up too.

"We will see what we can do, Charlie. In the meantime, how about we get you back to the house and answer some more of those questions that I know you have floating around in your head, okay?"

I nodded, moving a step closer to the two men. "Okay."

"By the way," the gold-haired one said, "my name is Edward."

A deep growl ripped from my chest at the name without my consent.

"Edward?"

A/N: Thank you to the wonderful NCChris for beta'ing this chapter for me. She really inspires me to work hard at this little tale I am telling. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think by clicking that little button down below. =)