Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight and its characters. No copyright infringement is intended.
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Chapter Fifteen
I thought I heard my name, and I opened my eyes. I listened for a moment, but there was no sound to be heard, so I closed them again. The darkness there was no less painful, but it was a little less scary. It was supposed to be dark when my eyes were closed. Darkness with my eyes open was terrifying.
A little while later I thought I heard my name again, and this time it was accompanied by a tugging in my chest. A tugging completely separate from the pain that boiled there with every breath I took. I knew that feeling; I knew it down to the very marrow of my bones. Edward.
Edward…
My lips moved to say his name, but no sound came out. The tugging became more insistent, and I blinked my eyes several times, trying to see through the black fog that surrounded me. I had to get up, I had to…
Slowly drifting, and a sick feeling of dizziness. I found that I was able to turn my head and the harsh scratch of pine needles and frozen dirt against my cheek pulled me back a little more. Oh, the pain was worse here, so much worse, but I had to find Edward…
I slowly became aware of my body again. I was shaking, uncontrollable shivering that wouldn't stop even as I slowly came back to myself. I was panting too, but I couldn't get enough air. It hurt. Not just the angry pain in my ribs, but the actual act of breathing was excruciatingly painful.
The pain, as it intensified, sharpened my consciousness and began wiping away the fog that was wrapped around my brain.
Accident, there'd been an accident. Did I get my shield down? Could Alice see my future now? Could she see me?
Phone, where was my phone? Could I call? Could I…
I coughed weakly, the panting breaths interrupted only by panic as, for a moment, I was completely unable to draw in air. And oh God, the pain… burning in my chest, thudding through my head. The black fog threatened to come back then, and I fought it, willing my eyes to stay open.
I was lying on my right side; I finally managed to scrabble an elbow under my body and pushed against it, moaning faintly as excruciating claws dug deeper into me. I started panting again, so desperate to draw in just one good lungful of air, but it eluded me.
Edward…
I fixated on that thought, shoving it hard above any others. The tug in my chest strained harder in response, an undeniable pull that demanded more attention than even the pain. I grasped it desperately, because the tug was tied to Edward, and it brought me some measure of calm. I felt myself slumping back down to the icy ground, but I held fast to the tug in my chest, grasping it like a lifeline that could be my only hope now.
The darkness didn't come back, although I could feel the strength leaking out of my body, the narrowing of my consciousness. Edward's name beat steadily through my head, but I had a vague realization now that I might be dying. The thought brought no panic, only a fixed resolve that his name would cradle me, would take care of me, just as he always had…
My name again. Different this time, though, muted and foggy, but echoing in my ears. Someone was there, someone was calling my name. The tug in my chest suddenly snapped as hard arms wrapped around me, the desperation in that voice forcing me back when no other power on earth could.
"Bella, oh God, Bella…"
Edward…
And it was his arms, his voice, his hands. I could feel his panic as acutely as I could feel my own pain, and it pulled me towards the source, desperate to erase it. Edward was here, I was safe now.
"Nooo… please Bella, please stay with me, don't leave me…" A body I knew as well as my own, his arms pulling me up into a sitting position, rough bark of a tree against my back. His hands running over my face and neck, his sweet scent surrounding me.
"Bella, can you hear me?"
I tried to respond to him now, but my efforts only resulted in more coughing, wet gasping, and then a warm wetness filling my mouth, bubbling out over my lips.
"Carlisle is coming with the car now, love. We'll get you to the hospital. I promise you, you'll be okay." The panic in his voice belied his words, and I managed to bring up a hand to grab weakly at the arm around me, to reassure him I'd be okay. Immediately his own fingers had surrounded mine, and the strangest thought occurred to me: he no longer felt cold.
His voice was a low hum now. I couldn't understand him. Was he still talking to me? Or someone else? Had he found my phone? I felt the darkness starting to creep back in around the edges of my vision and I fought it, the effort almost too much. I felt my head sag forward, his fingers under my chin tipped it back up.
"Love, please stay with me… Bella, please…" Terror laced his words, and I knew I couldn't let him think… I summoned all my energy and the precious little breath I had.
"Edward…" Just the weakest of whispers, but it reached him.
"Yes, love, yes… talk to me, stay with me, oh God please just keep talking to me…"
A screeching of tires from a distance, and then another voice. The recognition came to me sluggishly: Carlisle. His fingers running over my body, and then another pressure: his ear pressed against my chest.
"Hemopneumothorax. Her left lung has collapsed, and she has several broken ribs. I don't know about the head injury, but she's in shock …"
The arms surrounding me shook even as careful fingers wiped at the warm wetness on my lips and chin. "We've got to…"
"Edward, she's dying. Moving her could cause an embolism; I don't think she'll make it to either hospital in this condition."
The briefest beat of silence, and then Edward's voice, grief and fury ripping through every word. "Not here, not like this. Please Carlisle, isn't there…"
"Edward, I know her wishes as well as you do. If you can't do it, I will, but I need you to decide now. I don't know how much longer she'll be able to hold on. She's been out here too long…"
Sobs wracked through the arms around me now, and I tried to tell him to listen to Carlisle, but I could no longer push the words to my lips, they were too far away…
"We'll leave from here, immediately. Bella, can you hear me?"
I tried to reply, but the effort brought another weak cough, and more liquid heat spilling from my lips.
"Edward, you must do it now or I will. She has only minutes left at the most."
The gentlest of fingertips, the sweetest of touches, sweeping across my face, my eyelids, my lips. "My love, my Bella, I'm so sorry… I never meant for it to be like this…"
The hard arms shifted so that one was around my waist, the other pulled my hair back over my shoulder as he carefully tucked my body closer against his; I was sitting in his lap. The firm pressure of his lips and tongue against my pulse point, a sensation I would recognize anywhere. A sudden quick sucking there, and then the sharp give and tear of my flesh under his teeth, a penetration. His lips gripping and fastening firmly to my neck, pulling, and a tingling feeling. A weak gurgle that I recognized as my own when his lips finally released me and his tongue swiped rapidly over the bite.
Wrists now, lifted one at a time, the same sucking and piercing as before. And a slow tingle from all three points, starting as a sting, quickly growing into a painful burn. A low moan wrenched from my throat.
"Carlisle…" Edward's voice, panicky.
"Carry her up to the car and get into the backseat. I'll call Alice and ask her to look ahead for us."
The firm arms slid around my thighs and shoulders, and then I was floating. "Is she…"
"I don't know. I think you may have found her just in time; her heartbeat is faint but fairly steady. You'll have to monitor her condition, if you want me to drive."
The burning was intensifying, running like molten metal just below my skin, the pain bringing me fully awake. I was panting harder as I opened my eyes, but bringing in less breath than even before.
Edward… Edward's arms around me. I blinked slowly, his face blurring and then coming into focus as my head throbbed in protest. Carlisle just over his shoulder, opening the rear door of his black Mercedes. As Edward ducked with me in his arms, sliding into the rear seat, this new position shifted something in my chest and suddenly I couldn't breathe at all. Terror clawed at me and I began struggling in Edward's arms, desperate to find just a tiny pocket of air.
"Hold her sitting upright against you," Carlisle ordered, suddenly in the back seat with us. Stone arms moved me, my back now pressed against his chest. The movement brought excruciating pain and a tiny cry left my lips, but I was able to draw in short jerky pants again.
"Can't you give her something…"
Carlisle shook his head. "All I have is morphine, and with the respiratory distress it will do more harm than good. Bella…" His capable fingers were quickly examining me again, bringing forth more agony, but his calm voice gave me something to focus on. "I know you probably can't talk right now, but can you hear me?"
I gave him a nod, a tiny movement, and my vision swung drunkenly with it.
"You're safe now. I know you're frightened and in pain, and that it's hard to breathe, but I need you to remain as still as you possibly can. Edward will stay back here with you."
Within a second he was gone from the backseat, the door slamming behind him even as he was already settled into the front. The car started immediately, a slight bump as it crawled back up onto the pavement, and then the engine roared in a hard acceleration.
Edward's arms were bracketed around me, holding me up against his body, but not gripping me. He seemed to be aware that any touch brought pain. I let my head fall back against his shoulder, my ear pressed against his neck, grateful that I could still pull in little gasps of air from this position.
"Edw…"
"I'm here, love."
The pain was all over me, no longer in isolated spots in my body. I was shaking uncontrollably now. "Change…"
A raw moan came from deep within him. "Yes love, you're changing. I'm so sorry Bella, I'm so sorry…"
His words confirmed what I'd vaguely realized at the time. I was dying. And he'd bitten me to save me; nothing else in the world would have convinced him to change me under anything but the most tightly-controlled circumstances. The scalding fury running through my bloodstream was his venom, seeking to heal my injuries even as it subsequently burnt me alive.
"We're going straight to Alaska. Carlisle is talking to Alice right now, to make sure we aren't stopped for any reason on the way there." He'd turned his head, I could feel his lips moving against my temple as he spoke. "We'll get there as fast as we can, love. Just hold onto me, listen to my voice. I'm not letting you go."
"Alice…"
"Yes, she saw you…" His voice broke. "She didn't see until afterwards, and then she couldn't see where you were. I'm sorry I didn't get to you faster."
I panted for a few minutes, the burning taking away my ability to speak even more than the lack of air. The flames were slowly eclipsing the deep, thick pain in my chest and the throbbing in my head. But there was one more thing I had to know…
"Wol…"
He kissed my temple carefully. "You don't need to worry about the wolves, love. They don't know. Just be still and hold onto me."
***
It was strange, ever since Edward had first told me about the mechanics of the change itself, I'd assumed that it was something so excruciatingly painful that everything around you just blurred out. Like a fever so high that you weren't aware of your surroundings, only seeing reality in the vaguest, most confused sense.
Not so with this. It was as though my senses were sharpened by the agony, I was aware of everything. The terse words between Edward and Carlisle, the regular phone calls to and from Alice.
I'd also thought that after reaching a certain threshold of pain, that it would be a constant fixed quantity. I'd had enough broken bones and other injuries over the years to know pain. I assumed there was only so much that the human mind could register before it simply was unquantifiable pain; as though there was a certain degree of suffering beyond which it was just "as bad as it gets." This was probably because every time I'd been in the hospital a doctor had always asked "On a scale of one through ten, with one being mild discomfort and ten being the worst pain imaginable, how do you feel?" I thought ten would be the most anyone could ever understand, that ten just was; that there was no infinity to pain.
I was wrong.
This was pain that folded and multiplied upon itself. Pain that was so close, I couldn't get away from it, in the same way that an ear infection could be as painful as a broken leg. Pain that simply didn't relent. Pain that, just as I thought I'd managed some kind of grasp on understanding it, began raging through another part of my body at twice the strength of before.
As much as I desperately tried to control it, after a time, my panting and shaking changed to writhing in Edward's unmoving arms. The burning had moved to my chest, obliterating the sickening ache there, but replacing it with its own brand of agony. I didn't cry out or scream; those reactions seemed too pitiful to express what was boiling through me. So instead, I pressed my head hard against Edward's neck, his shoulder, his arm. I alternated between complete rigidity and thrashing as his arms held me tight.
I wasn't aware when or how we passed into Canada undetected, but just before we had to stop for gas the first time, Edward began whispering in my ear. Up until then he'd hummed non-stop, crooning to me so quietly that I almost couldn't hear him.
"My love, my Bella, we have to stop now. We can't let anyone see you and think you're anything but asleep in my arms. Can you do that? Hold onto me, hold on as tightly as you can."
His voice was hoarse, not from overuse, but from anguish, and for the first time I realized what my change was doing to him as well. Even if he couldn't read my thoughts at the moment, he could feel every emotion, every bit of my torture. I turned my face into his neck and gripped his arm tightly, feeling my fingernails bend slightly as I dug them into the marble of his skin. I clenched my body from head to toe, vowing that if I could do nothing else, I would do this one small thing he asked of me.
He lay back too, and I thought faintly that we might look like exhausted travelers, one of us perhaps having just traded off driving with Carlisle for our own shift of sleep. As Carlisle rapidly fueled up the car I could feel the trembling inside my body as I tried to lock down the pain, to hide it from Edward as much as possible.
We were on the road again for no more than a few minutes before Carlisle pulled off to the side and opened the rear door to check on me.
"Carlisle… is she…"
"Yes, her change is progressing normally." A modicum of relief flickered across his face. "Bella, you're going to be fine. Please believe me."
I looked at him, begging silently that he understand I couldn't answer him now. There were only so many things I could do at once, and minimizing the outward signs of my suffering was taking the last vestiges of mental and physical energy I had in my broken body. He sighed softly, regret in his soft golden eyes, before gently running a hand over my hair. Then the car was moving again, so rapidly that I couldn't even see the trees we passed, only a green blurry haze.
Like a fever, sometimes it felt as though seconds were passing, and then days. I felt split in two: part of me was mindlessly boiling alive; part of me was hyper-aware of every noise, every stop we made, every note Edward sang softly into my ear. And still I burned.
When the car finally began to slow for the last time, I was staring out the window I faced with unblinking eyes. The pain had intensified so much that I was incapable of doing anything but lying unresponsive in Edward's arms, locked into a hell of pain that I had no intention of sharing with him.
The car stopped, and immediately Carlisle was there, reaching out a hand that Edward ignored as he cradled me in his arms, holding me close. I saw Esme and Alice in the background, their faces creased with worry. Suddenly we were inside somewhere, rapidly moving up a staircase, and then I was lying on a bed with Edward stretched out beside me. It was quiet and dark, and could almost have been reassuring if not for the pain.
"We're here, my love. You're so brave, so strong." Edward's voice was barely a whisper, but his lips were against my ear, and my entire being turned towards his voice as though I were a compass needle and he represented magnetic north. For eternity, I would always be turning to him.
"This isn't how it was supposed to happen, but I remember what you asked me. You wanted me to talk to you, and I will. Now that it's just you and I, I will talk to you for the next two days and tell you every single moment since you came into my life and how it has affected me."
He sighed softly against my ear and then lightly wrapped his arms around me as I lay prone on the bed, but humming in response to him like a tuning fork. The pain was still there, no less furious, but his voice gave me a place to cringe against, a wall against the furious shrieking that was the blazing in my veins, my bones, down to each cell in my body.
"The first time I had any awareness of your existence was when you made the decision to come to Forks. Alice saw you, and managed to keep it from me for the few weeks until you arrived. I had no idea what was so important that she refused to share it with me, but I was so numb to the world, I didn't really care either.
"I heard your name in the minds of others before school even started that day: 'Isabella Swan'. Over and over. And then I heard you correcting them, telling them you preferred 'Bella'. I could see your face in their minds; everyone was thinking about you.
"At lunch, I heard you ask Jessica about me, and for the first time I was perplexed because I was unable to hear your thoughts. I had a general grasp of emotions from you, like a mist, but nothing more concrete. I was so arrogant, Bella, so frustrated and bored and egotistical. I was annoyed that I couldn't read your mind. I'd dismissed you up until then as merely a distraction, something for the students to stare at instead of us.
"When you came into biology class, I would have given anything in the world for just one tiny taste of your blood. I would have destroyed everything. And while I was fighting with myself, you looked over at me, just once. Do you remember that, my love? I'm sure I must have looked utterly terrifying, but you looked directly into my eyes and for just that moment, I could read your mind.
"I've never really told you what it feels like for me, when I'm inside your mind. It's completely different from reading the mind of anyone else I've ever met. It's like an actual place for me. I can feel myself physically inside of you. I was too mad with the bloodlust to recognize it that first time, but when I'm in your mind, I can feel you, Bella, and it's the most beautiful feeling in the world. It's more powerful than any blood will ever be. I could just crawl inside your mind and live there eternally. It's what I imagine heaven must be like. Surrounded by the essence of you.
"When I left Forks, I came here, to Alaska, and stayed with friends of ours. You'll meet them; they live the same lifestyle as we do. Carlisle very much wants you to meet Eleazar; he has a keen ability to detect and understand a vampire's gift. He'll be able to help you better understand your shield; help you to utilize it with more ease and strength. It makes me happy to know you have that to protect you… in addition to me, of course.
"Eleazar's mate is named Carmen, she's very much like Esme. I'm sure you'll love her. They also have three sisters in their family, named Tanya, Kate, and Irina. I'm sure Esme or Alice has been in contact with them, so they're probably very excited to meet you. You'll probably hear about this from Emmett, so I'll tell you now...Tanya has expressed…interest in me in the past. She never held any appeal for me, love. I've never even looked at her in that way. She's come to understand that she and I are not meant to be.
"I've told you most of what it was like for me when I went back to Forks. I truly thought I would go mad, seeing you every day and having to feign disinterest. But I will never ever be able to forget Alice's visions; the ones where she saw me lose control with you. I wish I could burn them out of my brain, but vampires have perfect memories, as you'll soon find out. We'll make new memories though, love, and I can bury the old ones under those."
He talked on and on, never once stopping. He recalled the past two years for me, rambling at times, interrupting his recollections with explanations, and sometimes told stories about what the rest of the family had been doing while he waited for me. His voice curled around my body, trying its best to distract me from the fire that still raged through me. It didn't ease the pain, but it gave my mind something else to lock onto, to focus on.
Time slipped by without meaning, measured only by the burning and by his voice. He talked all the way through events up until the night of the accident, and there he left off for a moment, his voice ceasing for the first time.
Finally I felt his fingers run gently across my cheek. "Oh Bella. I have no words for what I felt when Alice called me. She was utterly frantic. I don't know why she didn't see the accident in time, unless maybe you had your shield up? All she could see was you alone in the dark, that you were bleeding, that you were dying alone in the forest. I called Rosalie…" Here he stopped again and took in several breaths. "She told me you'd decided to drive to Forks yourself. I don't blame you, love. Rosalie told me that you genuinely felt there was no danger to you from the Quileutes, and you were right about that, of course. I don't know if you'll remember what caused the accident, or if you'll want to talk about it when you do. Maybe it was just fate, trying to get in our way again.
"I ran through the forest, alongside the road, looking for you. Alice couldn't tell where you were. Carlisle was following behind in the car. We knew you were hurt, but we didn't know how badly. I had no idea how close to Forks you'd gotten, but I could feel you. Do you remember when I told you that I feel a pull towards you, like gravity? I could feel it as I was running; I could feel you pulling me in. I knew you were waiting for me, that you would hold on for me.
"But when I finally got close enough… all I could smell was your blood. And it was horrifying, my worst nightmare in front of me, even before I saw you. I could smell so much blood, and I knew that it was too much for you to have lost and…"
His voice cracked and he stopped again for a long time, I lay silent beside him. "But then I heard your heart beating. Your little heart was still pounding away, and it was the most beautiful sound I'd ever heard. You were holding on for me, I knew it. And even when your heart is no longer beating, I'll carry the memory of that sound in my mind for all eternity."
He carefully cradled me in his arms and hummed softly to me for a while, I recognized it as Liebesträume #3, the song from my lullaby cd, the song he'd played for me many times on the piano. When he finished, he kissed my hair. "Bella, do you remember you said that you couldn't listen to Clair de Lune because it reminded you of me and it made you sad? Liebesträume always made me sad, up until you asked me to change you. And then I realized I wouldn't have to look back with any regrets, because you wanted me as eternally as I wanted you.
"My only regret is that your change came about this way. Could you hear Carlisle and I talking, in the forest? I thought surely if we got you to the hospital you could recuperate, that I could spare you all this agony now. Carlisle was willing to change you if I couldn't. I think he would have even if I wouldn't. He knew this was what you wanted, that it was your choice. And he knew that it would destroy me if I lost you. There is no me without you. Everything that I am is wrapped up in you.
"Do you remember when we laid in bed and went back and forth on love poetry? Do you remember the first one you quoted to me?
'I have no life but this,
To lead it here;
Nor any death, but lest
Dispelled from there;
Nor tie to earths to come,
Nor action new,
Except through this extent,
The realm of you!'
"It says so simply exactly how I feel about you. I have nothing except through you."
His fingers moved lightly over my face. "Beautiful Bella. My life, my love, my mate. Do you remember when we laid on the couch, when I made you come just before you decided to drag me off to go necking in the woods? Do you remember thinking about Alaska, wondering what it would be like? I can't wait to experience it through your eyes for the first time. Every part of it: I want to make love to you out in the snow, in front of a fire, in our bed, in our cottage. Esme is out there right now, frantically trying to complete all the renovations and decorating for us. She's concerned it'll be a little unfinished, but I somehow think you and I won't be looking at the details. I may not allow my beautiful, unbreakable wife out of our home for some time.
"We're in the main house now, in my room. You were right when you imagined this home as logs and glass. Everywhere you look is light and space. At night you can stand at the windows and look up to see the northern lights and shooting stars by the dozen. We actually rent this property out as a hunting lodge when we aren't spending time here, just for the upkeep. We're surrounded by miles and miles of forest. You and I can run for hours and not see a single human. There is an incredible variety of game, though. It's a perfect place for you to get used to your new life."
He hummed again to me for a while, his fingers never stopping their gentle stroking over my face. "We won't have to worry about the Quileutes any longer," he said finally. "Rosalie said that she told you they requested a treaty renegotiation. It was ludicrous… first they wanted assurance after assurance that we were indeed leaving the area, then they wanted to change the treaty to include no-fraternization with the humans. It was ridiculous, and Carlisle pointed that out to them. We would stick out more if we didn't make an effort to blend in with the humans. They were thinking of you, of course. It was clear in their minds. It was interesting, reading their minds and learning quite a bit that we didn't know. Evidently none of them ever once came to Port Angeles to check on you. They were running circles around our property like mad, but they seemed to be convinced you were safe far away. It would have been humorous if it wasn't such a great relief to hear.
"In the end, Carlisle stood fast and said there was no reason whatsoever for changing a treaty we've abided by for decades. I was glad he did that. I sometimes felt he was too generous with them in the interest of keeping peace between us. We may not ever return to Forks again, Bella. Or if we do, it won't be for a very long time.
"We have forever in front of us now, love. There is so much I want to show you; places I want to take you, experiences I want you to have. I want to make love to you for days, as I promised. I want to teach you to hunt. For so long I could only see what I felt were horrid ugly things about our existence, but knowing that you will be part of that existence… it brings a whole new meaning to it. At one time, I would have thought my actions damned your soul, and I would have hated myself for it. Now I feel hope, I feel joy. I've been given the greatest gift in the world, and that is you, eternally. I don't know what I did to deserve such a gift, but I'm more grateful for it than you'll ever know."
After a time I heard quiet footsteps approach the bed, and kind fingers I recognized as Carlisle's touched my forehead.
"She's quite cool already."
"Yes, she has been changing more quickly for the past hour." They were talking rapidly in that low hum I'd never been able to understand before, but now I could just barely catch their words and I found myself straining to listen.
"Can you hear her thoughts?"
"No, she's been blocking me out for some time now. I can only assume she's trying to spare me the pain."
"Rosalie is back."
A soft growl was the response.
"She's devastated, Edward. I haven't seen her so upset since she brought Emmett to us. She's blaming herself."
"As well she should."
"Would Bella agree with that?"
There was silence for a moment. "Probably not."
"She wants to talk to you, and to Bella, when the time comes."
"I certainly have no way of stopping her."
"Please forgive her, Edward. Her actions weren't malicious. It was an accident."
"An accident that could have taken my wife away from me forever." Edward's voice was cold.
"She's well aware of that. Just consider my words, for the sake of our family? And for its newest member?" Carlisle's gentle hand touched my forehead again. "I think she may awaken in a few hours. Everyone is very excited. They can't wait to see her."
"Just please give us a few minutes after she wakes up?"
"Of course. I'll be downstairs if you need me." His near-silent footfalls moved away, and then a door clicked quietly shut.
Edward sighed softly, and then began talking to me again. "You don't have to block me out, love. Carlisle thinks your change is almost over. You'll find that the pain will start going away soon. I hope I helped, even a little, since you wanted my voice to be the first thing you heard when you woke up again. All I want is to be able to look into your eyes, and see you looking back at me, and hear you telling me that you love me, in your mind. Just like you did when we were married, when you repeated your vows in your mind for me to hear. When you wake up, look in my eyes and tell me you love me, and we'll start a whole new life together."
On and on he talked, until finally I noticed something odd: the fire was no longer burning in my extremities. I wasn't sure exactly when it had stopped, since it still raged fiercely in my head and torso, and especially in my chest. My breathing had slowed dramatically as well, unless time was playing tricks on my mind again, but my heartbeat had sped up considerably. For a moment a strange thought crossed my mind as I felt it thumping uncontrollably: Charlie.
Inch by tiny inch, moving slower than the sun across the sky, the pain began fading away from my head and abdomen. Unfortunately, like a sponge, it seemed as though all the burning that had been spread throughout my body had been drawn straight into my chest, pooling directly into my frantically-beating heart. My arms and legs went rigid again as the pain screamed at a higher level than before, and I convulsed involuntarily.
Edward's arms tightened around me. "I'm here, love. I'm here… it's almost over…"
Over? When would it all be over? I couldn't stand it anymore; I couldn't take any more pain without shattering into a million pieces. I couldn't believe what my own body and mind was telling me. All I could do was trust Edward, to believe him when he told me I'd soon be opening my eyes…
My heart coughed once, then again. Then silence, deafening in my ears. The pain centered in my chest cooled almost immediately, and I could have wept for joy at the release from the hell I'd burned in for so long.
"Bella…?" The sweetest whisper in the world, right next to my ear.
Edward. He was waiting for me.
I opened my eyes.
A/N: So am I forgiven now? I know that was a wicked evil mean horrible cliffhanger I left you with in the last chapter, but remember that life doesn't always go according to plan, even for these two. Surely I've redeemed myself by getting this chapter out to you early?
So now we have Bella as a vampire! What will her first few moments be like? Will these two finally catch a break…or will Bella find herself having to keep Edward from throttling Rosalie?
I got incredible news today that truly knocked my handknit socks off…I Don't Believe in Vampires has been nominated for an Indie Twific Award! You can see the entire preliminary list of nominated fics at www(DOT)theindietwificawards(DOT)com, be sure to go over and check them all out!!!
Many thanks to my beta Stratan, who continues to have faith in me even when I send him wicked evil mean horrible cliffhangers, to all of you who take the time to review and speculate on what the next chapter may bring, and to the ladies I chat with…you know who you are, and you make my day! A BIG smooch and a high-five to my FF-twin Brits23…you all ARE reading our collaboration Dirty Little Secrets, aren't you? Click on my profile to find it!