The next few days are a blur. I spend every moment I can with Bella, my Isabella. Now that I have her with me again I won't let her go. Alice told me that she had a vision of Bella. She saw her as a vampire, strong, even more beautiful, her pale skin sparkling in the light of the sun. While I was less than pleased about the prospect of her becoming a vampire, I was relieved that Alice hadn't seen her meet a gruesome end.

Alice was the first person to realise that Isabella was being reincarnated. Alice wasn't with our family when I met Mabel, but she was around when I found Annabelle. Alice saw a vision of her too, she saw the two of us meeting and she knew who she was, she knew that she was Isabella reincarnated once again. It explained the connection between Mabel and Isabella, but it also raised a question. Why do I always lose her? Was I being punished for failing to save Isabella? I won't fail this time. I'll protect her until her life comes to a natural end and then I'll wait for her once again.

I decide to take Bella to my home. She's met Carlisle on a couple of occasions but I want the others to meet her too. Alice will be pleased, she was good friends with Annabelle. Bella is worried about meeting my family, worried that they won't like her, but they greet her warmly. All except Jasper who struggles to hide his discomfort at being so close to a human, and Rosalie, who can't hide the look of contempt upon her face. I can't blame her. Things with Annabelle got….messy. When I met her she was already involved with another vampire. It came as a surprise. She was so unlike her former selves. Her vampire boyfriend was chaotic, unpredictable and he hurt her. I saved her from him, but he wouldn't let her go. In the end we fought with him and his coven, the Volturi threatened to get involved and Emmett was almost killed.

I take Bella to my room before Rosalie tells her everything about who she is and who she was before. I heard the threat in her mind. Bella looks around and comments on the absence of a bed. I tell her that I don't need to sleep and she barely reacts. It's old news to her. She skims her fingers along the shelves which line the wall, tracing over the titles of books and music. She presses a button on my CD player and as the music kicks in I pull her towards me. As we dance I'm reminded of the first time I danced with Isabella. She was so graceful, but she favoured a more upbeat melody. I took her to a ball, an annual charity even hosted by some friends of my Mother. As we danced, Isabella twirled faster and faster until we were racing around the dance floor, out of sync with the other guests. Her laughter caught the attention of another suitor that night, the man who would eventually kill her.

Bella twists away from me awkwardly.

"I can't dance." She says quietly.

"I could always make you."

She smiles almost challengingly and something inside of me spikes. I throw her onto my back and I race from the room, out of the window towards the trees. Bella shrieks with delight as I scale the tall conifers which surround the house. We explore the ragged mountain tops and shelter under a shelf of rock when it rains. As it starts to get dark we head back to the house and I play a song for her on the piano. It's a piece I originally composed when she was Isabella, it's the piece I had started to write the day I met her by the river. Each note was the sound of her footsteps which padded along the sandy bank, the sound of her heart beat, the tinkle of her laughter and the bell-like ring of her voice. The melody is a song of hope, shot through with sadness. The tragic deaths of Isabella, Mabel and Annabelle.

I met Annabelle at school, it was the first time I had returned to formal education since I became a vampire. I had read every book in Carlisle's study, mastered a number of foreign languages, but times had changed. Despite my age, I still looked like a teenager and teenagers were supposed to be in school. I met her on my first day. When all of the students were heading to lessons she was heading outside. As she pushed open the front doors, the breeze drifted up the corridor carrying her scent towards me and I knew it was her. I followed her into the parking lot and watched as she slid into the passenger seat of a sleek, red car which sped away with a squeal of tyres. When she came back at the end of the school day, I was waiting for her. The final bell was just about to ring and I had waited outside for the last hour, unable to concentrate as I anticipated her return.

"You were gone."

She looked surprised.

"So I ditched…what's it to you?"

I had shrugged my shoulders, unsure of what to say next as she searched my face.

"You're new right?" She asked.

I smiled then.

"Yeh. I'm Edward Cullen."

"Annabelle Woods."

"You're friend couldn't take you home?"

I nodded in the direction of the road where the red car had disappeared moments ago. Annabelle followed my gaze and frowned. She shifted a little.

"No, my Father caught me ditching before and sometimes he calls by to pick me up."

She scanned the grounds, flicking her auburn hair, shot through with streaks of gold, over her shoulder.

"I guess he's not here."

She smiled at me.

"I'll see you around." She said.

She hitched her bag further on to her shoulder and took off towards the road. I called after her.

"May I give you a ride home?"

She turned to face me.

"My Father wouldn't approve."

"I could drop you nearby?"

She looked towards the road and then up to the grey sky threatening rain.

"Um, OK great."

On the way home she told me that her Father was a judge in the city, he was fiercely protective of her. She was an only child and her Mother had died when Annabelle was a little girl. While she talked I listened intently for the sound of her thoughts but there was nothing. She had Isabella's eyes and the same freckles sprinkled across her nose. Her scent filled the car, roses and sunshine, I longed to reach across her, to stroke the delicate skin of her forearm, to trace the bluish line of her vein, but instead I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I asked her about school. She told me that she ditched out of sheer boredom. She did enough studying to keep her grades solid, but she dreamt of becoming an actress and as soon as she turned eighteen she was going to move to Hollywood.

When she got out of the car at the end of her street, I longed to grab her hand, to pull her towards me, but instead I let her close the door and walk away. Later that night, Alice had another vision, Annabelle's death.

After I've dropped Bella off at home, I wait for all of the lights to go out and then I scale the wall to her bedroom window. I crawl inside and sneak across the floor to the foot of her bed. She is startled at first, but then she looks expectant. I lean across the bed towards her and I kiss her, gently at first and then passionately. I feel a surge of longing. As my mouth presses against hers, I am overcome with love, hope, regret and loss. I have waited so long to find her again and now she's here in my arms. I feel her hands on my back and I feel the tremor of the pulse in her neck. I jump back. I don't want it to happen like this, I respect her too much and I don't know if I could control myself if I let things go any further. It's a fine line between desire and the thirst for blood. I stay with her that night, watching her sleep. The rise and fall of her chest is peaceful. She shifts closer and rests her head on me, undisturbed by my cold skin and I imagine our life together. Alice says I should change her, she says it will happen anyway, but Alice's visions are subjective. Alice doesn't understand that reincarnation itself is a kind of immortality and to change Bella would mean taking away that amazing gift. I want to leave her soul intact so that when she leaves this world as Bella she will be free to come back again and again to live who knows how many amazing lives. All of them with me.