(Disclaimer- i own nothing.)

I'm sorry it has been such a long time since i've updated, though I'm sure no one really noticed. haha.
this is probably not going to be very good. I didn't think much about it or plan it out like i normally try to, and it wasn't
even part of my original plan. I have no idea where I'm going with it. This story is getting out of hand.
Still no guarantees on finishing it. and Megan, you owe me a new chapter of your story.
please review if you read it. i need to know whether i'm writing this story for a reason or not.

The Hunt

I hadn't hunted in weeks. The burn rose from my stomach and into my mouth, taunting me as I drew closer to my potential prey. Lips curling up over my teeth, I crept onward through the twilight air, concealed by black shadows, the stone wall grazing my right arm like the tender wisps of flower petals. The scent of their breath struck the tip of my tongue, curling up and into my nostrils, feeding my craze. My fingers shook sporadically with need, so dissimilar from the strong, still, practiced creature I used to be. Succulent breath flung out once more, sharper this time, a pierce to the heart with a flaming aero, gripping me.

I feinted to the left, eyes zeroed in on the women. It took much effort to keep the aroused sigh from passing my lips, to keep myself silent as I slowly closed the distance. The one to the right was wearing a turtleneck—that would make it difficult—but the one straight ahead…Her neck was fully exposed and nearly glistening in the streetlight, tanned and pulsing with warmth.

I took a moment to savor the aroma, letting my stomach expand in anticipation, eyelids pulling down over pitch black irises. My mouth pulled up into a vicious, selfish smile. I could taste them in the air. I could almost feel their lush nectar slipping past my lips.

One more step…

The shock sounded in her head before she could even process the words to cover it. Her olive fingers gripped her friend's arm, shaking her and nodding in my direction. Alarms buzzed loudly in her mind, telling her to run, to hide, to pray to God that the demon man before her didn't get too close. Her friend in the turtleneck snapped her little face to peer at me, shocked and awed all at once. They didn't move. They simply stared at me.

I had already straightened out of my crouch. The second her thoughts wound in through the chaotic thirst, I snapped out of the trance, melting into the shadows once again. What was I doing here? What was I doing here?

Shaking my head to clear it, I stepped away from the darkness and into the light of the lamp, nodding politely in their direction. There was nothing else that I could do. They had already seen me lurking there, making the alley I'd been headed for an impossibility. I didn't want to stir up too much fear and suspicion yet, so disappearing into the night was no longer an option. I'd been spotted.

I held my breath as I passed the women, trying not to stare too intently, keeping my head down. Their thoughts were filled with consideration and excitement now, tainted only faintly with the fear that had once existed so strongly in both. They were transfixed by the pale, dangerous man in the dusk. I chuckled darkly at how lucky they both were that I didn't decide to come back and give them what they wanted. A kiss on the lips…a kiss on the neck…My teeth would be much more inclined than they imagined.

I found a different alley not too long after I left them.

Pressing myself into the shadowed cobwebs, I ducked through the narrow opening in the stone wall and flitted through the night, not daring to stop until I neared the very end of the street. I had to find something to quench my thirst. I'd passed a housecat earlier, but the scent did nothing for me, nor could I dispel the image of Tom and Jerry from my delirious mind. What kind of vampire was I, afraid to eat a cat because of a foolish cartoon?

Bella had watched the show once when she was sick. That was why.

I shook away the thought, demanding from myself the focus that always seemed to stray back to her face. Bella was no longer mine, and I should not have let myself reach this point. I nearly murdered two innocent women—and for what? Anger, betrayal, rebellion? I'd controlled hungers before, maybe not quite as strong as this, but still, I had been able to control myself. This had nothing to do with the hot iron burning through my neck. I wanted to hurt, to kill, to make someone suffer. Like a bully ripping down an awkward child to build himself up, I wanted to force my pain onto someone else. If I could just strip away the ache like an ill-fitted suit, dress up another in my place…

Clenching my teeth, I thought of my family. What would Carlisle have thought of me at this moment? What would my father think of the way my fingers clung to the wall, digging through and grinding the stone into dust just to keep me from racing back to the warmth I'd left behind…the warmth that still marked the air around me…?

I felt the sudden need to call Carlisle, to cry like a boy and complain about my weaknesses, to apologize in tears for having almost destroyed the immaculate way he viewed me, the devoted faith he had in my so-called soul. The thought was pointless, though. I seriously doubted that anyone would appreciate my apology for having nearly killed two innocent women when almost directly after that atonement I ran off and killed myself.

And I'd already thrown the phone away, anyway.

I was truly a monster. And I was getting worse…

I pushed up from the ground angrily, flipping backwards away from the wall. No one was around to see me move this way; there were no traces of thought left at all where I was now. And even if there was, I don't think it would have stopped me. I was tired of attempting to leave my pain. I refused to act in such a cowardly way. It was time to start acting like what I was. No fear. I was going to get this done—for good.

It wouldn't be hard to irritate the Volturi; it had been a long time since they'd arranged any type of extermination—and what better than one of the Cullens?

Continuing down the alley, making a turn that would be almost entirely invisible to human eyes, I struck out randomly with a clenched fist, punching holes into the concrete walls. I nearly wished that I could feel the sore stinging of bleeding knuckles, the crunch of bone beneath malleable skin. It was irrational to want to feel physical pain. Most creatures avoided such things. Perhaps at this point I just needed something to distract me from the pain in my chest—the pain that swallowed completely the one piece of me that was vulnerable, my heart.

And the pain was getting worse, because, of course, she was in my head.

I had thought it was slightly strange when she had told me so many centuries ago about the voices. It was oddly sweet in a way, thinking that she had yearned for me so much that she had conjured illusions of my voice to keep her whole. What wasn't sweet, however, was the reason she had been broken in the first place. I should never have left her the way that I had. Perhaps that was where it had all started…where she had lost a piece of her faith in me. Perhaps that was the reason she wasn't here in my arms now. I'd made a mistake that was far too large for her to forgive, though she tried. I'd left her broken down, shattered, with nothing but a mangy mutt to cure her wounds.

I could understand it now, though—the voices. Hers was always there, in the back of my mind, perfect and clear, her face exquisite behind my burning eyelids.

Bella. Beautiful Bella.

I pulled my curled hands to my face, wishing I could wipe away the tears that wouldn't fall. My eyes burned as though moisture should swell in them, but nothing happened.

And then I saw her.

A girl, standing in the corner. Her eyes were wide and chocolate-colored, aimed directly at my face. She seemed to be straining her slight figure away from me as she leaned into the corner of the alleyway, her shoulders slumped, cowering. Her hair waved freely from crown to waist, the exact shade of mahogany. She was subtle and shocking and sweet all at once. Blush filled her white face like the petals of a rose.

Insanity gripped me. I hadn't heard her—not a wisp of sound. Her mind was silent, but her expression was full of thought. The street swirled in front of my face, unusual for me, unexpected.

I heard her gasp as I tilted toward the ground.

I froze mid-fall, realizing what was happening to me, and tried not to breathe again. My breath was coming too quickly and I was verging on impossible things like panic attacks. I had the unnecessary urge to put my head between my knees.

"Hello," I attempted weakly. She stared at me, guilt in her remarkably familiar eyes.

"I didn't mean to startle you. Sorry."

She didn't belong here. Her accent was entirely American, her skin as pale as mine was. And she smelled like roses, fresh ones, tied in with honey and something else…something delicious. I wanted to reach out and touch her face, one smooth finger on soft skin. The pain was crushing my chest.

"It's alright," I assured, stepping cautiously closer.

She cringed into the wall as I moved and, though her face remained frightened and guilty, there was curiosity there. She didn't remove her eyes from mine.

"Are you one of them?" she whispered. I pursed my lips. She smelled so lovely, and my throat was burning. I didn't know what she meant, but I had no oxygen left to speak, and I was too afraid to taste the air again. My instincts were too unstructured for this torture; I feared for the small woman.

Holding her eyes with mine, I held one finger up for her to wait before I turned and sprinted away from her at human-speed. When I felt I was far enough away to safely take in the oxygen to speak, I ran back to her.

"My name is Edward Cullen," I said slowly, trying not to reach out for her hand.

Her eyebrows met in confusion—or perhaps mistrust—and she shook her head. "Are you one of them?"

"One of whom?"

Her small white hand pushed the hair from her face in frustration and she glared at me. "You are, aren't you?" she growled. "You're so pale and still…I know you are. You're one of them."

Shaking my head in perplexity, I stepped closer to her, meaning to assure her, to hold her shaking body until she felt safe again. She looked so fragile, so scared. My head was screaming names that weren't hers, but she was so similar…

"Stay away from me!" she half-shouted, pushing impossibly further into the cornered walls. "Please, just…leave me alone. Please?" She was pleading now, nearing tears. Her perfect little lips trembled so hard that I wanted to kiss her, and she bit a white line of teeth down into her pink flesh, cringing.

"I won't hurt you." I assured her, surrendering my hands to the air in a sign of peace. "I promise. Tell me who you are talking about."

"You're lying. They all lie," she spit. As she spoke, her shoulders rose around the sides of her face as though to shield her. She was like a turtle that'd lost its shell, still trying to hide inside of it though it no longer remained.

I lifted a brow. "Who?"

"Vampires." The word was a terrified whisper, almost inaudible to even my ears.

Instinctively, my expression smoothed out into a poker face, my mind already calculating every single story I could come up with to lie to her and deny the truth of what I was.

"Vampires?" I retorted a little sarcastically. If my heart had been able to beat, it would have been thumping like a jackhammer—perhaps due to anxiety, perhaps due to her face. I couldn't be sure of it.

Her eyes narrowed. "Yes. I can hear it in your voice. It's what you are, isn't it? You're one of them—one of the things that tricked me here?"

"Tricked you here? What are you talking about?" I tried futilely to read her mind again, my eyes narrowing with the effort. She cringed away from my glare, ducking her face into the skin of her arm.

My face crumpled as I watched her, my chest squeezing around its empty organs. I wanted to step closer and hold her, to stroke her hair and kiss her blushing face. Her eyes were so round and deep; there was so much to see in them—they went on endlessly, forever. With my own eyes burning, I swayed against the opposite wall, transfixed. She was so magnificent and unexpected, a perfect imitation-Bella. I hated myself for considering it. Bella Swan could not be replaced.

But I couldn't help the insanity from spreading. My head was swirling with a combination of impossible things. I was too focused on the path this girl opened up to me, the selfish need for Bella pulling at each string of my attention. I hated to think of it, hated it so much that I wished Aro would show up and turn me to ash for thinking it. But this girl, this wonderful girl, showed such potential. She could so easily be mistaken for Bella. Surely I could overlook the different curve of her nose, the thinner lips. I could delude myself into a false state of happiness. I could delude myself into thinking she was who I wanted her to be. I could pretend.

I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't hear the warnings.

His feet made no sound to my preoccupied ears; his thoughts were mute. By the time I saw his long, white arm fling out at her face, it was already too late.

The Bella-girl's head landed by my feet, tossed by Felix's crazed hand.

"Hello, Edward," he said politely, licking at the blood on his fingers. His eyes sparkled with red while he grinned, stepping casually closer. "What brings you back here, hmm?"

I was frozen, eyes locked on his face and hers, all at once. Her body had fallen over in the corner, her delicious blood leaking out over the cobblestones. The predator in me responded vaguely to the burn in my throat, but the part of me that was already convincing itself that she was Bella was too torn apart to notice. My impossible future was defeated with one volatile swipe of his hand.

A growl rose in my throat.

Felix raised a brow, snorting at me. "I'm sorry. Did I offend you? We were just playing a little bit of hide and seek. It's a new game of ours. You see, we let some of our food free during the nighttime—so we can chase them. Hunting isn't so much fun unless you can actually hunt." He grinned, pausing. "She wasn't a pet of yours, was she?" He stuck a thumb in the direction of the body.

I could see by the way that his eyes lit up when he spoke that he was excited by the idea of it. He hoped she was something to me. He'd been longing to hurt me for so long.

I couldn't give him the pleasure.

"No," I muttered through clenched teeth. "Not a pet."

"Hm," he murmured, visibly disappointed. "That's too bad. I was almost hoping she was…well, you know who I'm talking about." He laid a hand on the wall beside me, leaning casually, and winked. "She looked like her. Are you sure she wasn't?"

Clenching my teeth, I spun away from him. "Bella is dead," I growled, lying. The Volturi had been told long ago about Bella's death, but I hadn't told them about the Quileute legend. We'd had Alice go and "show" Aro, keeping the legend a secret from her until after she'd come back. I had to continue it now—continue to keep the secret from them so that Bella would be safe.

Or did I? She wasn't my problem anymore, after all. She was Jacob's problem. Did I have to lie for her?

Yes, I did.

"Dead?" Felix scoffed, raising his brows. "No, not dead."

I blinked at him, confused. "Yes, she is." I argued.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes." The word spit from my mouth angrily. Why was he toying with me?

The creature stretched his fingers out hungrily, chuckling. "Haven't you ever heard of a little thing called Reincarnation?" His smile twisted menacingly, opening into more of a scowl, flashing his teeth. Slowly, he stepped toward me, pleased with my shocked expression.

He'd been hiding his thoughts from me, thinking of nothing but the scent of the blood in the air and Bella's face. But now there was more…so much more.

I saw the legend in his head, the story played out the way he'd pictured it thousands of times over the years. I saw them waiting, waiting, waiting for Bella to return. I heard the news of her rebirth in my head, saw the greed in Aro's eyes, felt the excitement of the clan. I saw the miniature group boarding the plane to Forks, planning to wait to get her alone. I heard their interest in the wolves, Aro's selfish plans to either acquire or destroy them. And then I saw their most malicious plan, worse than the image of dead wolves in a meadow, worse than the menacing smile on Marcus' mouth: I saw Bella, pale, white and unmoving, her white shirt stained by the pool of blood that seeped from her neck.

My breath came up through my chest like an avalanche, leaving my mouth in the form of vicious, mind-shattering growls, and before I even realized what I was doing, before either of us could react, Felix's head plopped down into the dirt at my feet.

He was nothing but a trail of purple smoke in the air only five minutes later. The matches I'd found in his pocket fell from my fingers numbly, and with them, I sunk to the cold ground. I had to get back to Forks, to call someone, to do something. I had to help Bella.

Or was I already too late?