Breaking Tides
4 February 2010
Sum: What if Edward wasn't the first vampire Bella met?
Chapter 4
The hallway was deserted when she entered the building holding her first period lit class, from the door to the room, was the entire stretch of corridor and she sighed, she was late, and going to be even later no doubt. She had barely taken a few steps when she wasn't alone anymore, the door closest to her burst open and then slammed shut and she was in a pair of cold arms and hugged against an equally cold chest.
Bella tried to disentangle herself from the embrace but it was no use, she had no strength compared to the one holding her. All she did know however was that it was a female vampire that was holding her so tightly, but she knew it wasn't anywhere near as tight as the being could be holding her. She tried to angle her head to see which one of the two that she'd learned about that first day, and for some reason she wasn't surprised to see a dark head of hair.
"Alice!" A male voice called from behind her and she was released instantly, but the distance was still within touching. As she moved to see the newcomer, her arm brushed Alice's.
Edward stalled to a halt in front of her and his eyes searched Bella's face as if he couldn't believe it, trying to find something wrong. "Are you ok?" He asked, it sounded as if he was breathless, but he only needed breathing to talk and to use one of his senses. Why should he sound that way at all, and towards her?
"Yeah, fine. Why?" Bella looked between the two vampires in confusion. "What's happened? Why do you both look so relieved to find me standing here?"
"You disappeared!" Alice cried before Edward could stop her from admitting too much.
Bella shook her head in her own confusion. "What do you mean I disappeared? Nothing I did today was any different than anything that I don't normally do."
"You-"
"Alice!" Edward warned.
"Oh come on, she knows so much about us already, do you really think it's going to matter if we share another secret with her?" Alice grumbled before taking Bella's hands in her own. "You were there one moment, having the typical futures I always see you having and then the next, you were just gone. It wasn't like I saw you die or anything, you just disappeared off the face of my visions, I had to believe something happened to you. We were so worried."
Bella tried to remove her hands from Alice and she was allowed, and then crossed them against her stomach. "Why would you be worried? And what do you mean my future was just gone?"
"Everything was, no future, not even the next breath you take in, could I see. I see the future in regards to decisions people make. It was very worrisome that someone could just drop off the face of my views like that." Alice looked at Edward, she wanted to say so much more, but had strict instructions from Edward that she wasn't allowed.
Bella took a moment to reflect on that. Typical vampire, only concerned about themselves. She only cared that she thought her visions were failing. She swallowed, she'd never had any involvement with this vampire, she'd only been called to from a distance by her, and the weird thing was, was that Alice seemed like the most approachable of all the vampires, but Bella knew better, the smaller the vampire, sometimes the more dangerous they were. Edward took a cautious step forward.
"We were worried-" He took a strangled breath away from her. "Because as crazy as it is, you're important to all of us."
"Because I know your secret?" She huffed, turning towards him.
"No!" He fought with himself for a moment and came even closer. Bella backed up, she might trust these vampires more, and for a reason wasn't scared of them like she should be, but she would be damned if she let herself be caged between the two of them, not that she could stop it. He stopped and he dropped his head and shook it, looking down, coming to gripes with something. He looked up at her and implored her. "Please Bella, just believe me when I saw that I can't explain it, but you are important and we will worry about you no matter what happens."
"I've seen it, Bella." Alice ignored Edward's warning glare. "We become the best of friends, we're practically sisters in all of my visions. I would never want to hurt you, and I would like to be friends with you, if you'd let me."
Bella snorted. "I knew there was some ploy between you guys, if you honestly think I'll believe this crap? Why can't you just leave me alone and not care what happens to me?"
"What has happened to turn you so far against us?" Alice looked hurt. "Why can't you believe that there can be trust, and that we have no alternative motive?"
Bella sighed and leaned against the wall. "I'm just so tired of all of this. I don't want to be part of any more plans, any more deceptions." Bella's eyes snapped to Edward. "And why the hell are you so freaking weird?"
Edward and Alice just stared at her before they started laughing. "I've heard that before, but from Emmett." Edward shook his head and looked imploringly at Alice. She seemed unsure herself and it only frustrated Edward some more. "Come on, we need to have a chat."
He gestured for her to return back out the doors they just came in through and she hesitated, but knew in the end, there was no way she could fight against them if they really wanted her to do something. She went back out through the doors and Alice was by her side but then she sniffed and frowned deeply. "Ew. Why do you smell horrible?"
Bella shifted some of her hair up to take a whiff, but she didn't smell anything odd, both of these siblings seemed to have an adverse reaction to the smell of her, perhaps it would keep her alive then if she smelt bad to most vampires...? "Alice!" Edward snapped and then caught a whiff himself and his face scrunched up in distaste, it was a different reaction to the one she had witnessed thus far from him. It made her start questioning the validity of her small comfort. "Who were you with?" He demanded fiercely.
"Why does it matter?" She knew about the treaty, and she'd be damned if she would be the one to cause it to break and put Jacob up on a plate for these vampires to have fun killing all of her friends down there and every other human in Forks.
"Where were you?" He tried a different tactic.
"I went swimming."
"Where?"
"Why does it matter?" Bella repeated.
"Alice leave." Edward waved his sister away and she hesitated. "Go on, it'll be fine." She looked inwardly for a moment before she nodded with a smile and dashed off. How they hadn't alerted any of the humans inside was beyond her knowledge. "Look, sit down." He pointed to a log in the trees and Bella sank with a sigh of defeat. She was now throughly out of view.
"If you're going to kill me, just get it over with." She stretched her head back so he had access to her throat. He flew backwards away from her. "What's you deal? I've never seen a vampire so repulsed by an offering of human sacrifice."
"So you do know the term." He mused softly. "I wasn't sure if you knew exactly what we were or were just making guesses." Edward shook his head. "Look. I'm going to be honest with you." He lowered himself to his haunches so he could look her in the eye without her head having to strain backwards to see him. "I'm going to try not to hurt you, my family, as far as I can predict and understand won't hurt you either. The only one that concerns me is Jasper, but that's only because he's the newest to this form of life, and has had a lot of experience with the other. He's controlling it and hasn't slipped since he's joined us, which is a miracle, I know." He shook his head in thought. "I am the other loose connection in this situation. I can't be near you, your blood calls to me like none other, it is physical pain to deny the demon the most sweet reward there could ever be for it, but I am trying. As of right now, I can't say I'm succeeding, but I am holding it at bay. Do you understand why we can't be near each other, can't be friends?"
"Not like I wanted to be friends with you anyways." Bella cut in. "If you haven't noticed, you're a vampire, I'm what you're supposed to eat, and from the way it sounds, I'm worse than heroine for you." Bella rolled her eyes. "I can't see why on Earth any of that would want me to be around you."
"Look!" Edward grumbled. "I already told you, we're not like that."
Bella looked away from him, she did have to admit they were honorable for vampires. She understood the difficulty they were in, and she knew that most vampires didn't chose their fate, and she'd never met any that regretted it. But the way he talked, it almost seemed like he hated this life, the immortality's consequences, and not the choices he's made since. He made it very hard to dislike him, even with his short fuse, which was probably her fault anyways, considering she only made a starving man see the most wonderful feast there could possibly be and he had to deny himself from tasting it. Not to mention her attitude towards him and his family, any human would be pissed at her too, but he understood where she was coming from and he still handled it better than any human would.
"What are you thinking?" He questioned, trying to break into her thoughts.
"That you're admirable despite my dislike for your kind. That maybe you aren't so bad after all."
"You are a very strange human, Bella. You aren't scared of me or my kind properly."
Bella lifted her eyes to his, they were that same warm gold color that she'd seen the first day he'd returned. "I am scared of your kind, but I've come to recognize that if you wanted something, there was nothing I could do to stop you."
He shook his head. "Yes, but your heart doesn't thump like it should."
"It's probably because I'm not scared of you, or any of your family really. You've made a lifestyle choice and you've stuck with it. It's probably close to impossible to do, but that determination and willpower is strangely appealing." Bella looked away and a blush rode up her skin at what she'd said and heard a groan and then a tree splintering. "Sorry." She mumbled, she'd forgotten that she was so potent to his senses.
"No, it's getting... easier, I just wasn't prepared for the blush is all. Though I should be, you do it often enough."
"I've blushed before you?" Bella's eyes swung back to his and they both took a moment before any more words were stated.
"No. Thank god, I don't think I could have handled it before today. I guess it's time to share my special talent with you." He laughed at himself. "I can read minds, what someone is thinking, whether it is a conscious thought to themselves about what they need to do or dialogue or just a vague reference and the process the mind is working on, like a math problem. I tune most of them out, some I'm more familiar with, I keep tabs on, in case they need me or are worrisome."
"You can read my mind?" Bella jumped to her feet, shit, if that was the case, she might be in a lot of danger and brought the danger to her father and friends' doorstep.
"No. Yours, strangely is also the only one that I cannot read."
"Oh." Bella sank back to the stump. "Is there something wrong with me?"
Edward laughed. "I can read minds, am a vampire, and whatever else you know about me and my kind and you think there is something wrong with you?"
"Well yeah, first I'm this strange bloodtype that you want more than anyone else you've ever encountered and now you tell me that I'm mentally blocking you from a talent you have no trouble using anywhere else."
"It just means you are a very special human. I'm not sure if it is just me that you affect this way or what exactly."
"But Alice couldn't see me."
Edward's stance tightened and he took a very stiff step forward. "That was not because of you, she's had visions about you, ones I don't agree with, but she has no problem seeing you if she's looking for you." Edward shook his head. "You really know how to pick the crowds you hang out with, don't you?"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Bella got to her feet in a fighting stance, he wasn't going to go around and insult her friends.
"Wolves, really, Bella? I thought you had more sense, that's why we were trying to avoid each other so much, even if it didn't do any good on either of our sides. But to hang around with volatile wolves? They're more dangerous than most vampires! At least a vampire has control over themselves once they're no longer newborns, but wolves act on instincts and act quickly. They'll hurt you!"
Bella laughed and Edward's face grew grim. "Jacob would never hurt me, he's been doing this for a few months now and has never had a problem."
"But Jacob's not the only wolf, is he?" Edward demanded, and they both realized they both knew so much more about this strange world than either had realized.
"No." Bella stated a little less dispassionately, she knew about Emily, but it had only happened that once, with Sam and he'd been the first, he'd been confused and scared and temperamental and she'd made him angry. He hadn't meant it, he'd had no control over it and it had never happened again, not with anyone. Though she did know some of the wolves were a little more hot-tempered than Jacob, he had no real reason to be. "But it doesn't change that I'm still safer with them than with you. They don't want to drink my blood."
"What happened Bella, to force you up here? If you know so much about us, then why would you come to some place that is so easy for our kind to move in and out of, all day long?"
Bella turned her head. "It doesn't matter. Don't sound so nice, I see through it."
"If you see through it, then wouldn't you see it's the truth?" He took another step forward.
Bella's eyes, though her head was still turned peaked to look at him. She was an excellent judge of character usually, but last year had rocked her foundation so much that she had to go off of what she knew about them as a species and her own experiences. She knew he wasn't lying, knew he did honestly care for her and didn't want to hurt her, but really, she couldn't share. How could she trust a vampire at all? When she knew what they were capable of? He made it so tempting to want to be friends with him, to want to share and admit and confess everything, but what could he do? He would probably offer her up to the other vampires if they wanted her, his loyalty rested with his own kind before humans and himself before his own kind.
She shook her head. "It's best you just forget it."
"I won't forget it, Bella." He said softly and reached out, but didn't touch her. "I will let it drop though, for now." He dropped his hand as he said this to his side. "Forget it, it's best if I stay away anyways. It's just-"
"I'm so interesting because you can't hear my thought. I'm a challenge." She stated dispassionately.
"No, not that, I am intrigued by what goes on in there, but it's only in interest for what you have to say. Everything we've talked about has shown me such a different view and is captivating. I just want to get to know you better. But it's safer for you, as you've pointed out, for me to stay away." He sounded frustrated as if every decision he made was wrong, but the opposite one would be just as bad.
"So I'll see you in Biology?" Bella threw in there as a peace offering. "We can at least work together in there, no hard feelings."
"All right." He gave her a parting smile and watched her walk back down the hill away from the woods. Bella was surprised that things had come to such an accord, her feelings towards these resident vampires had changed so drastically, she almost liked them, and how she was feeling now, it wouldn't be a big step until she could consider them friends. They had heart, and if it were possible, a soul, and the one behind her, was the most conflicted one of them all and had the largest conscious of the ones she had met. She knew there was an elusive two still, ones pretending to be the parents, and she had no doubt in her body that they were just like these five at the school, aware of their surroundings and not intending any harm to the population around them. It only begged the question on how they got together and how all were changed?
She needed to have her head examined, she decided, because to think of any vampire as a friend was a very sure sign that she was loony. Then there would be no point to keep her alive, she'd stop the population of people who didn't know how to protect themselves. But... they seemed almost human in someways, better than humans in other ways, like the petty human emotions weren't there so strongly.