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note: the new characters name is pronounced as it sounds...
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Chapter 4: Uninvited
I ran from the house, leaving Carlisle gob-smacked. I needed to get out of Forks before Edward returned. If I saw him then … no I couldn't even think of him anymore. I needed to get out of here. If the powers-that-be had wanted us to be together. If it was our fate then we would have been by now. Traveling the world for twenty years makes it look a lot smaller. Edward just needed to get rid of his guilty conscious then he could move on… like I needed too.
The trees bent out of my way as the wind blew faster around me as I ran further and further towards the Forks border. Truth be told I didn't know where I was going. I just knew I needed to get out of here. I needed to remove myself from this whole situation.
I couldn't seem to remove Carlisle's face from my mind. My human vision really hadn't seen him at all and it surely didn't remember him clearly. I couldn't help but let my mind wonder to what Edward would really look like. How beautiful would he really be.
I didn't stop running all night or the next day, or the next. I kept to the forests during the day and only used the roads or towns during the night, when I had too.
The night had settled in and the clouds were no where to be seen. Florida was the complete opposite to Forks in everyway. I watched carefully from the windows and listened intently to all the noises, only the bugs were moving. Knowing my mother all too well and knowing exactly where the spare keys were kept, I walked straight in the back door. I had come to visit Renee much more often than Charlie. Charlie was in Forks, a place where fairytales seemed to come true only to be ruined by nightmares. Here in Florida, everyone was blissfully normal with no clue as to what really went bump in the night. I stood outside my mom's bedroom door peering through the small crack, I could understand why Edward liked to watch me sleep when I watched her. She spoke and turned, shouted and cried. She even spoke my name a few times. I knew it was selfish, that I shouldn't want her to be sad over me but I couldn't help myself. I needed to know that someone really missed me and cared for me, for real reasons apart from guilt. I wanted to know that somewhere in this world someone still loved me. Here with Renee, I got that. I slid down the wall till my back was leaning on the wall just outside her room. Here I could still hear and see everything but I could also be peaceful enough to know that if she suddenly woke up I would have time to hide. There was wanting to know I was missed and then dragging her into this mess, I didn't want her to be afraid.
As I sat, I thought. And as I thought, time passed without me realizing. A short knock woke me from my daydream and I found myself hiding as Renee went to open the door. The wind blew up the stairs and smacked me hard. It was a scent I recognized. Charlie. What was he doing here?
"How was the flight?" Renee asked as I heard banging and what sounded like steam. I concluded she was making him a drink.
"Long. Boring. The usual." Charlie responded. Nothing had changed with him, personality wise.
They continued to talk about the weather, about the leak that had been driving Renee crazy for weeks before they finally approached the subject of me. He spoke about sightings and about evidence that had turned up and yet, he was still no closer to finding me. I couldn't help but laugh. If they knew I was sitting at the top of the stairs listening in on every word… if they knew just how close. I laughed again, and although it was funny I couldn't help but feel guilty. Of course the guilt made me think back to Carlisle's face, which led me straight to thinking of Him.
I was snapped straight out of those thoughts when my memory picked up on a sound I had only heard in her sleep. Renee was crying. I wanted to run to her, to tell her I was fine but I wouldn't be able to explain, it wasn't possible. So instead I did what I seemed to be good at… I ran away.
For the next few days, I found myself running, stopping occasionally but mainly running. All I wanted was to not think about anything but to let the inner animal take over… I tried… it didn't work. Before I knew it I found myself heading back towards Forks but then sanity kicked in and before I knew it I was running even quicker in the opposite direction. This happened continuously for two weeks.
I knew I needed to go back. I knew it but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't want Edward to feel like he had to be with me. I didn't want to be included in that family in less they really wanted me too.
Over the time I spent traveling, I had met others like myself and one by one they tried to get me to give into my blood lust and one by one, it drove me further from it. I was thankful for that. I hadn't met any of our kind - apart from Carlisle - in a while and so when I picked up a familiar scent, I ran towards it. Xafner was like no other I knew. She ate to survive and for no other reason, she took no joy in the kill or the hunt. It was why we got on, why I trusted her… Tall, Blonde and with a figure that would make even Rosalie jealous, the supermodel was the only one I really felt connected too. After a quick hello, she saw straight through my false happiness and had me explaining everything. I had told her previously about everything that had happened and she had insisted on me trying to use my 'abilities' to help me move on. It had worked as well. For six years I was distracted with a 'distraction' of my own… training, but even then I found my thoughts wondering to Edward and what he would think. To Carlisle and the many questions. Even to Emmett, I could imagine all the ways he would call me a cheater and his continuous attempts to play fight with me. Not to mention the jokes. Even with the extra vampire abilities, Xafner always said I was the clumsiest being on the earth. At least I wasn't a danger magnet anymore.
"So tell me everything?" She flashed her perfect glowing grin at me in an attempt to get my attention.
"I don't know where to begin…" I answered honestly. She gave me a look I recognized and before I knew it I was spilling every detail. She had mastered her powers many years ago and so it took very little effort.
"You need to go back" she finally concluded.
"No way!"
"Bella, are you not curious? What if your wrong about his motives?" I shrugged. She was right, as usual, and I knew it.
I spent the next few days hunting with her. Unlike the Cullen's she would occasionally feed from a human but she wasn't picky. When she was with me she hunted as I did, she often tried to stay away from civilization and so her eyes were very rarely red. I couldn't seem to get her question off my mind - what if I was wrong about his motives? - is it possible that I could be. That he left for me and would still want me. I pondered over it.
"Are we going back yet? I've always wanted to see this Forks place?" Xafner interrupted my thoughts as she threw the drained deer away from her.
"We?" she had caught me off guard. "You would come?"
"Of course! You didn't think I would let you walk into that by yourself. Besides this way you wont be able to deny his motives!" she laughed, turning the whole thing into a joke.
"I don't know. Maybe." I began hunting again wanting the conversation to be over, to give myself time to think.
I searched for a smell in the distance, the further the better. While Xafner jumped on the closest deer. I picked up a mountain lion in the distance and ran as fast as I could towards it. As I hit it, something hit me.
Iron tight hands gripped me to the floor as I tried to shake the hair from my face. The inner survival trait took over and I found myself calculating ways to kill what ever was holding me. My back curved, my teeth bared, my body began to coil in order to spring free. It was then that the wind blew and my hair ruffled off my face and away from my eyes.
