Virgin Blood

Chapter 16

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Bella stared at Edward's face a long moment before speaking, the look on her face clearly revealing that she was choosing her words carefully. Finally, she spoke, her voice quiet.

"It's not true."

"What's not true?" Edward was affronted. He had meant every single word.

"That you care about me."

"Bella," Edward said seriously, preparing to convince her, "I-" but Bella cut him off.

"It's not true because you don't care about anyone but yourself. You don't think about anyone but yourself."

"How can you say that?" Edward demanded, but felt stupid for it as soon as he did. Bella was perfectly in the right to say what she did, because that was all he had shown her.

"You treat me like I belong to you, like I'm just an object you can do whatever you want with. Even when you were being nice to me, you still acted like you owned me. You never listened when I said 'no.'"

"You didn't say 'no'" Edward growled out cockily.

"You like me. You think I'm interesting, entertaining. You're angry that I haven't been responding to you, but you don't care about my best interests, not really, only what will make you happy."

It was like the dam broke and Bella started sputtering out all the things she had been holding inside, all the things she had wanted to say.

"It's disgusting the way you act. Right now, my being happy would make you happy, so you want to achieve that. If my being miserable made you happy, well then that's what you would go after. You're selfish."

"Bella, how can you be angry at me because your happiness brings me mine? I don't want you to be miserable, that's the key."

Now Bella fixed him with a steady stare. "And what if what would make me happy would be to leave this place and you and never come back?"

Edward felt a deep ache in the pit of his stomach as soon as she said the words. He would never let her leave.

"Is that what would make you happy?" he asked, his voice carefully emotionless.

"Yes."

The word struck like a bullet.

So here was the test, he thought, one he couldn't win. Let her go and secure her happiness, whilst simultaneously making himself miserable with longing for her. . . or force her to stay.

But, Edward reasoned quickly, he didn't have to choose. Yes, she said leaving would make her happy, but she could also be happy here with him. Bella was staring at his face, waiting for his next words.

"Bella, I could make you happy here."

She scowled and looked away. "See? You're a selfish bastard."

The words stung, because he knew she was right. He was selfish. He couldn't give her up.

"I'll buy you dresses, as many as you want. And jewels to. I'll take you to the opera and ballet. I'll make love to you every night. You'll want for nothing, Beautiful girl."

But Edward's words did nothing to assuage the ache in Bella's chest. She wasn't sure what she had been expecting, or hoping for really.

"I don't want those things."

"What do you want, my lovely?"

Bella didn't hesitate before she spoke, the words flowing out of her like she had been prepared to say them.

"I want you to never hit me again, or have Jasper do it for you. I want you to never touch me unless I say you can. I want a dress that you don't tear from my body. I want a room that is mine that you can't enter without permission. And I don't want to be locked in it."

Edward stared at her fierce and pretty little face.

"Alright. I agree. And in return, you'll promise me not to run away."

The words were heavy: "I promise."

Bella pulled out of Edward's lap, and he let her go. She wrapped the sheet around herself and sat on the other side of the bed. Edward missed having her in his arms.

"And I want the truth," she added belatedly.

"Truth?"

"Answers to the questions I have."

Edward sighed. "I bet you won't be asking me my favorite color?"

Bella didn't laugh, though.

"Five questions," Edward bargained. "I promise to answer any five questions you have as truthfully as I can."

"I want answer to them all," Bella was stubborn.

"Five for now. Maybe more later, hmm?"

Edward felt like he had aged more in the last five days than he had in the last 200 years. He suddenly felt very tired, his shoulders hunched. He felt like an old man, in a way he never had before, as he looked over at such a bright, vivacious young woman, with fire in her eyes.

"Fine. Why is the other girl here? The other virgin?" Bella asked harshly.

"What?" Edward couldn't have been more surprised. "How did you know about her?"

"I heard you and Jasper talking. I want to know why she's here, what you're going to do with her."

Edward's mind raced. When had she heard them talking? It must have been before she ran away. With a sudden dread in his heart, he asked quietly, "Bella. Is that why you left? Because of what you heard?"

Bella nodded.

She hadn't been running away simply to get away from him. He had acted out of hurt and anger in his perceived sense of her betrayal, but that wasn't the case. There had been more to the story.

Edward thought back to her laughing in his arms. He thought about her sweet little voice asking to see him naked. She hadn't been afraid of him then. What would have happened if he had just let her explain, instead of beating her like he had?

"Jasper found the girl tied to a tree, quite unexpectedly actually. I went down the the village to try to figure out why, since they usually didn't leave girls unsolicited. It wasn't hard to learn what happened, nearly every household was talking about it. They thought the girl was a witch. They blamed her for the death of a boy in the village. She had no family and no friends. They simply wanted to be rid of her, so they gave her to me."

Bella gasped, then said quietly, almost to herself, "I thought you had wanted to get a new girl since I was no longer a virgin."

"No," Edward's mind rebelled against the idea, overwhelmed by the new information. They had both jumped to conclusions and caused themselves a bit of misery.

"Where is the she? Still here?"

"I guess so," Edward shrugged, "I gave her to Jasper to take care of."

"You haven't done anything to her?" Bella asked suspiciously, before she could think better of it. It was really a waste of a question.

"I haven't even seen her."

Bella took a deep breath. Technically, she only had two questions left. "How can you be killed?"

The shock and hurt that flashed over Edward's face almost made Bella regret the question.

Edward was completely taken off guard. Did she want to kill him? Did she want him dead? Even if not now, she still wanted to have the information. For future reference?

The horrible idea occurred to him that perhaps she had been telling the truth when she said she would be happier if he let her go. Edward hadn't really believed it. He thought for sure that she must be as happy with him as he was with her, even if she was angry now.

Not many people knew the truth about vampires, and he liked to keep it that way, especially about their weaknesses. But he promised her the truth, and he would give it to her.

"The sun will kill us. Not right away, but it burns our skin. It's a very painful death. Most vampires will die if exposed to direct sunlight for an hour, it takes a little longer in the shade.

'We will also die from decapitation, though not many things can cut our skin. The only thing I know of that can are vampires' teeth and nails.

'We can also die from blood loss due to lack of feeding. We need blood to survive like humans need food and water, though the blood we drink doesn't just pass into our stomachs, it flows through our veins and gives us life. Every vampire is different in how long he can go without feeding, though as far as I know, no vampire can live longer than a month without blood."

Bella nodded, pleased with his answer, his openness and honesty, but she only had one question left and wanted to know so much more. There was one thing, though, that had been bothering her.

"What did you do with the other girls that were here before me? Really?"

Edward sighed. "I didn't lie to you before, Bella. I kept them and drank from them, until I was bored. Then I would take them down to a port town called Hellspont, or would have Jasper do it."

Bella nodded, she recognized the name. Hellspont was a very large, famous port harbor. It was known for its drinking, gambling, prostitution, and all around general debauchery. It was very popular.

"I know a woman there, a sort of medicine woman, a witch. She's very old and I've known her a long time, Zafrina. She is indebted to me for saving her life, and so does me favors. She has a sort of talent, it is hard to explain. She can take you into a trance, take over your mind, your memories.

The mind is a very tricky place, as is her talent. She can't erase memories completely, but she can block them. She can create illusions. I take the girls to her, to stop them from remembering, if not everything, at least my name, where I live. I then give them money and get them on a ship, a respectable one, give them a story, somewhere to go, then send them on their way."

Bella stared at him, shocked. She didn't know whether to be horrified or relieved. She was relieved that he had actually let the girls go, but was horrified at the idea of tampering with their memory. Bella would hate for anyone to mess with her head in such a way.

Those were the end of her five questions, and Edward didn't appear as though he had anything more to say on the matter, so they sat in silence before Edward spoke abruptly.

"I have something for you. I'll be right back," Edward left the room and was back mere seconds later, his arms full of large packages.

"What is it?" Bella asked.

"Open them."

Bella looked at him suspiciously before opening one of the boxes. She pulled out a lovely day dress and gasped. It was just the sort of thing she would pick out for herself, not too fancy, but still sweet and feminine.

"It's lovely, Edward, thank you," she said stiffly, politely. Though she loved the dress, she was reluctant to let herself be won over by material gifts.

"That's just one, open the others," Edward encouraged.

Bella set the dress aside, and opened the other packages. There were two more dresses, neatly folded and just as lovely and practical as the first. There was also another nightgown and dressing gown as well as both silk and cotton petticoats, stockings, leather shoes, and house slippers.

"It's too much," Bella said automatically at all the things Edward had given her. She wasn't used to getting such lovely gifts, the idea was completely foreign to her. At the orphanage, she had had to rely on donations of used dresses and fabrics, never wearing something new.

"Nonsense," Edward said, quite pleased with himself at the glowing flush on Bella's cheeks and the betraying upturn of the corners of her mouth as she opened her gifts.

"Thank you."

Edward was feeling relieved if not down right satisfied at the turn of events of the evening.

"When did you get these?"

"Last night, I ran down to a seamstress I know, who isn't upset by the late hour of my visits due to the generous tips I leave her."

Last night? It must have been after he took her, then, Bella realized. A shadow washed over her face at the memory of what he had done to her the night before.

"Bella, would you do me the honor of spending the rest of the night with me?" Edward asked. He could be quite the charmer when he wanted to be.

"No. Not tonight." Bella said, taking Edward off guard, he hadn't expected her to disagree. "I'd like to be alone, now."

He was being dismissed and he didn't like it. He wanted to tell her that she was his and take her in his arms. Tell her to stop fighting him, he would make her happy. He looked down at her frowning, troubled little face and sighed. "Goodnight then, Bella," he said and left her.