Disclaimers: I do NOT own The short second life of Bree Tanner, Eclipse or any other book written by Stephenie Meyer, this is just fanmade!
Chapter 2: Beginning of the search
"Where are we going?" Diego and I were running for almost an hour and he hadn't spoken to me.
"You'll see," he said, still running through the dark. After a few minutes he slowed his pace and was slowly walking towards a cave.
"Where are we?" I asked him. He finally turned around and looked at me, I kinda liked his dark eyes.
"I found this place two days ago, I like it," he said. Suddenly I wasn't standing on my feet anymore but he carried me into his arms while we were walking inside. He could be a bit strange sometimes, but I liked it that way.
The cave was full of crystals and it was absolutely beautiful. I wondered what it would look like for a human since my vampire eyes were much better. It looked as if there was a vampire standing in front of me in the sunlight, but of course it was still dark outside, it were just the crystals that gave all this beautiful light.
"Do you like it?" Diego asked. He had a hopeful look in his deep eyes.
I nodded once. "It's beautiful." He smiled to me and walked over to me. Less than a second later we were sitting on the floor of the cave, looking at the crystals around us. I was lying in his arms and it felt good, if this was hell than I didn't mind to die. It was different between us now there weren't any other vampires. It was just him and me.
"You should wait until the sun comes out. It's real strange to see yourself standing in here then, it's like your being the sun." His head rested upon mine while he talked to me.
"Don't we need to find out where we are?" I asked him. "I thought we were going on this big ninja adventure."
"Bree, I think we have enough time to figure that out. Just relax a bit, will you. Or don't you want to sit here with me?" I could hear a bit of disappointment in the dark haired vampire's voice.
"Of course not, I like to sit here with you. I thought I would never see you again." I felt his embrace tighten and he sighed.
"I was scared too, I couldn't bear the thought of losing you. But I just wanted to see you again Bree, it was like something inside of me told me you were going to be here too." His words sounded strange, it felt like we were bonded in some way, maybe it was something else.
"How long is it until the sun comes out?"
"About an hour I guess." He looked at a designer watch around his wrist and I gave him a questioning look. I stood up and looked down at him. I hadn't noticed it before but he sure looked good. He wore a white jacket that was open to reveal his bare white, smooth chest. The bottom of his black skinny jeans disappeared in two high, white sneakers and he smiled at me.
"Is there something wrong, Bree?" I looked at my own clothes. I wore a normal jeans and a black sweater, I must've looked plane next to him. Of course, vampires weren't ugly compared to humans, but to each other they could look more beautiful or less beautiful.
"Maybe I should get some new clothes too," I whispered. He looked at me and started to laugh while I took my sweater and looked at the holes in it. It must've been because of all the running.
"Maybe you should." He was still laughing and I laughed with him, not because I thought it was so funny, just because his laughter sounded like a beautiful song.
"Don't you think it's strange without the thirst?" I walked to the entrance of the cave and looked outside, it was already become less dark.
"I think it's better," he said while he walked over to me. "There's much more room to think in my head, maybe a little bit too much." He started laughing again.
We stood there until the sun came up and I smiled at him. I always thought there was nothing more beautiful than seeing him in the sunlight but once I turned around and saw all the crystals shining in our light, it was more beautiful. Until I looked at him again. It was like he was the sun, but a hundred times stronger, I looked him deep in his eyes.
"So that's what it's like to look from the outside in," he said while he caressed my cheek. I stretched out my arm and I could see my white skin, it seemed like I was a diamond, or maybe a gemstone. Because of the crystals in the cave my skin had a slight blue touch, it was a color I didn't even have a name for.
"It's beautiful," I said while I was admiring his skin instead of mine now. I could've stayed there a whole day but we needed to do something, didn't we? We needed to find out why we were here and I wasn't sure if we would ever find the answer.
"So my little ninja, where are we going first?" he asked me, knowing what I was thinking.
"Maybe we should go to the people with their yellow eyes, where I last saw them. It's the last place I saw anyone but you." He nodded once and started to follow me to the open field.
"So tell me about the vampires with their yellow eyes, what can they do?" he asked while we were running.
"There's a red haired boy, the human's mate and he's a mind reader. But I didn't hear his name though. His mate's name is Bella at least that's what Alice named her. Alice is a short, dark haired girl. I think she's the one who can look in the future since she knew when Bella would wake up after she fainted. Her mate's name is Jasper, he's very strange. He has all these scars of vampire bites and it's like he can change my mood. He was angry and suddenly I felt angry too, for no reason. There's also a blonde girl, and she's the most beautiful vampire I've ever seen. The big dark haired guy is her mate I think, they stood real close. The two that wanted to save me are Carlisle and Esmé. Carlisle has an intelligent look, dark and blond. He looks a bit like the people you hear of in myths. His mate is a woman with brown hair and it's like she has this strange feeling of love around her. She wanted to save me, to take me in their family."
Diego gave me a questioning look. "Family?"
"Yes, they aren't a clan. They are like a family and Carlisle and Esmé are like the parents. That's what it seemed like to me."
"These vampires are different than us. Would there be others like them?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I don't know, maybe."
"It seems to me like they're very controlled. Especially the red haired one, if he can love a human."
"Maybe love can be even stronger than thirst." Now that my thirst was gone, it was different to think about her and my answer seemed so simple. They were in love, even a blind man could see that. He wouldn't kill her, he wouldn't want her to die, he would die too. Like I wouldn't mind dying because Diego had died.
"Maybe." He took my hand and we ran further.
We ran for hours and when we arrived there still wasn't anything there. I looked over to Diego and saw a shiver running down his spine. That was strange, vampires couldn't get cold, could they? And it didn't seem cold to me.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"I don't know, it just feels strange to be here. I can feel that a lot of beings have died here." He had a scared look in his eyes, as if he could feel the dead walking around him.
"Are you okay?" I looked deep into his eyes and laid my hand on his forehead. It was an old habit, to see if someone was sick. Of course I wouldn't feel his temperature rising, but maybe it would calm him down and so it did.
"It's better now, it was just when we first arrived here. Maybe it was just the thought of being at a place where vampires were killed. It's strange, isn't it? To think that someone could kill a vampire. Well, of course, one isn't that hard but if you can kill twenty of them…" He was lost in his thoughts while he looked across the field. Suddenly he walked over to the forest and stood still. "This is where you died," he whispered.
I looked over to him and saw that he was standing at the exact same spot I had been standing when the vampire walked towards me to kill me. His name was Felix, at least that's what the little blonde girl had named him.
"How do you know?" I asked him.
He shrugged his shoulders. "I just know Bree, I can feel it." He walked over to another place and smiled. "So this is where the Hulk died."
I tried to remember the fight and I could see Kevin and the dark haired, yellow-eyes vampire fighting. "Kevin?"
He nodded and walked back to me. "Come." He took my hand and started running. We arrived at another open spot in the forest and I could see a huge stone wall, with a lot of cracks in it. It seemed like someone had been smashed into it. A tree was lying across the field and Diego walked around the field. "Strange," he mumbled.
"What?" I asked.
"I can feel Riley and our creator here too, well not alive, but I can feel that they died here." I gave him a questioning look.
"I can't feel this, so it must be just you, why? And if you can feel everyone who's dead and you felt I was dead, then that means I am dead, doesn't it? Then why am I here? Then where are we? And where are the other dead people?"
"That are a lot of questions Bree." He smiled at me and walked towards me. "Maybe it's a special ability, that I can feel dead people. I don't know. And I guess it means that you're dead but I don't know why you're here, why I am here and what this place is. That's what we need to find out, isn't it?"
I nodded at him and was glad that I wasn't alone. It was better to think when we were together, and he was good company too. "But if the others aren't here, then that means that you're stuck with me." I poured him in the ribs and he took a step back.
"I don't mind being alone with you," he said with a smirk on his face. Suddenly I was hanging over his shoulder like a little kid and we were both laughing, ending up fighting on the grass. Of course we didn't fight to hurt each other, just to tease each other. Something about him made everything seem so normal, as if we were human.
"So, what are we going to do now?" I asked him.
"Let's do some shopping, since you were whining about the holes in your sweater," he teased me while he pulled me onto my feet. I didn't need his help, it was just a nice gesture.
~
"Bree, have you found anything yet?" We were in one of the many stores in Seattle and I just took a bunch of clothes to one of the dressing rooms. We were almost in there for an hour, and he was sitting at one of the couches, reading a car magazine.
"I don't know, I took a lot of skirts and dresses, I didn't really look what I was taking. I don't think I should take them though, it isn't really comfortable to run with them." He rolled his eyes and I stepped out of the dressing room, wearing one of the dresses, on my way to the sweaters and shirts. I was going to pick something good this time. The sound of the magazine hitting the ground caught my attention and I looked over to Diego. Did something happen to him? Before I could even see him sitting down he was already standing in front of me. "Is there something wrong?" I asked. He looked at me with a strange look in his eyes.
"You look dazzling." I didn't know what to say but I didn't need to. His lips were pressed against mine and I laid my arms around his neck. We stood there for about an hour I guess, it could've been forever, we wouldn't notice. We didn't need air, we didn't need food, we didn't need the comfort of sitting or we didn't need to sleep. He finally let go of me and whispered something into my ear. "Maybe dressers aren't convenient to run in, but maybe you should just take one with you, I'll go and get you a bag." Before I could answer he already stood at the other side of the store and was looking at some racks. I smiled and looked for some clothes that I liked. Eventually I wore a jeans short and a black top covered with a green jacket.
"Ready to go?" I asked Diego and he smiled at me.
"Sure, but let's go in ninja style." He made some crazy moves with his arms, swung the bag over his shoulder and jumped into the air. I hadn't seen it at first, but there was a window in the roof and he had jumped through it. Glass was falling down to the ground and I was glad it didn't have any feelings. It would hurt if a vampire jumped through you, you know. I jumped into the air and landed on the roof of the store. Diego was already running on the roofs a few hundreds of meters further.
"I'm still faster than you!" I screamed and I ran after him as fast as I could. He leaped onto the next roof, I thought, but then he suddenly disappeared. I stood at the edge of the building and looked down at the ally underneath me. He was nowhere to be found and suddenly I heard the sound of a motor on my right. I jumped down and walked to the street. A huge, red Ferrari was standing in front of me and Diego was sitting behind the wheel.
"Hey pretty lady, do you need a ride?" he asked with a seductive voice. I started to laugh when he showed me his puppy eyes and I stepped into the car.
"Where did you get this?"
"I already found it a couple of days ago and I just went to get it. We'll be much faster in this then when we're running. And our clothes will stay in one piece." I smiled at him and he started the car.
"Wow," I said. Everything blurred by and yet I could still see everything clearly, if I was a human I would definitely just see a blur of trees. This was so different. When we were with Riley we needed to follow the rules, now we could do whatever we wanted, even racing across the road at 150 miles an hour.
"Cool isn't it, it's like flying." Diego laid one hand upon mine and looked deep into my eyes. A part of me told me that it was safer if he looked at the road, but we were vampires, our reflexes were faster than those from a human. And if we crashed, the car would be hurt more than us.
"Yeah, where are we going?" I asked.
"We're going to stop in every city that crosses our path to the south and see if we can find anyone there."
"Sounds like a good idea. What if we don't find anyone?"
"I guess that I'm stuck with you then," he teased me.
I stuck out my tongue and suddenly the car stopped. "What was that for?"
"You shouldn't have done that," he said while he grabbed my face into his hands. His lips touched mine again and his tongue found mine. We were struggling to win a battle and he tasted so good. It was like chocolate with an extra sweet taste. I could feel his warm breath in my face and his scent made me go crazy. His skin felt strong and soft at the same time. Suddenly he let go of me and smiled.
"Bree?" his voice seemed a bit anxious.
"Yes Diego?"
"I think…" he was looking for his words. It was strange to see him like this. Most of the time he already knew what to say before he had even thought about it.
"Yes?"
"I don't think," he corrected himself. "I know that…"
"What?" I said while I tickled him. "You're making me courious."
He got a serious look in his eyes and caressed my cheek. "I love you, Bree." My dead heart became twice as big. I couldn't believe that he was really saying that. I kissed him on the lips and smiled when I let him go.
"I love you too."
