Disclaimer: These are not Stephanie's vampires.

Chapter Seventeen

Isabella Swan

I wake up to soft morning light and gentle kisses on my neck. It's been a few days since my meltdown and I slept with a tampon last night, having felt cramps the night before. Edward looked positively disappointed when he saw me take out the box, though I'm not sure why – I couldn't think of any reason. Now, he is cold, hard and heavy against my back, his arms wrapped tightly around me.

"Wake up, princess."

I sigh, blinking my eyes open, looking for my alarm. I scowl when I see the time; Edward caught on quick and realized that I slept by different alarm times based on my work and school schedule. Usually, this meant I missed breakfast.

He didn't like that.

He had developed a nasty habit of waking me up an hour and a half before my alarm went off. It had only been three days since this started and I already hated it.

"I need sleep, Edward."

I did. He kept me up past my bedtime last night with soft kisses and eager touches. Edward adamantly claimed that he, the male, needed to frequently connect with me, his female.

Whatever. It was a vampire thing and yeah, it was fun having orgasms all the time but it was catching up to me. And, I suspected he was using it as an excuse to scent the room – another vampire thing.

The point is, I'm exhausted. It's a good thing I don't actually need to study like other students, which Edward had also picked up on.

"I see children with books all the time," he'd told me, inspecting my blank desk. "Why don't you ever have books?"

I had shrugged, stuffing my face with food that Jasper had meekly dropped by. I wasn't sure Edward ever left my room at this point or if he secretly followed me around to classes and work. "I remember things."

"How well do you remember, Bella?"

"I remember everything," I had told him.

He nodded like he understood and that was the end of that discussion.

As much as Edward noticed habits about me, I noticed habits about him, too. Like how he messed with his hair all the time; or how he glared at other men; the way he spoke in this blunt but oblivious way and how he let news or information roll off his shoulders. My super memory didn't phase him in the slightest.

I attributed it to him being five hundred years old – really. Five hundred. I'd asked. His physical age was around twenty-four when he had stopped aging and he'd been that way for five hundred years. He was alive during the colonization of America; the black plague in England; Protestant churches beating out the Catholics; he'd even seen Shakespeare and the original plays. It blew my mind, frequently, how much history he had seen and lived through.

And then there was me, just barely nineteen and reincarnated.

Mated to a vampire Prince.

During class, I sometimes wondered if I was going crazy and making it all up. It was very easy to write off the past week and a half of my life as a dream or hallucination when I was listening to professors droning on and on about Freud studies.

But then I would start to feel this pull – this tugging sensation in my blood and this awareness in my head that would put my theories to sleep.

According to Edward, my body had finally accepted and metabolized his blood and from that first exchange, it now recognized Edward as my mate. Having another male vampire's blood at this point would probably kill me.

That's good to know, of course. I kind of wish I knew about that before I drank his blood but hindsight is twenty-twenty and I really didn't regret drinking his blood in the first place. If anything, I sort of craved it – but I wouldn't tell him that. If Edward even had the inkling that I wanted another exchange, he would jump all over it since he's an all or nothing kind of guy.

And I wasn't really ready for him to be able to feel my emotions.

I sigh again, rolling onto my back; Edward gives me just enough room to do so before wrapping me up in his arms again. I confess to being the most comfortable in his embrace, even if I did sometimes feel like Ann Darrow in King Kong's clutches. As his arms tighten gently around me, a flash of sun hits the ever-present ring on his left hand's ring finger; the ring is made of bright platinum, wide and thick and inlayed with dark black and red swirling jewels. Each time light hits the stones, the black streaks seem to move in slow, easy circles.

I'd noticed the ring in passing, being more drawn to his eyes and face – which said something to how attractive he is. But now that I had, my curiosity was peaked.

My finger traces over the curve of the stone. "What is this?"

"Hmm? Oh," he murmurs, drawing his eyes away from the exposed skin of my stomach where my Navy shirt had ridden up in my sleep. His eyes focus on the ring. "It's a bloodstone."

I quirk a brow. "And?"

Edward blinks at me. "It protects me from the sun."

Oh. Another vampire thing.

"The sun," I say blankly.

For some reason, he's being really reluctant with the information; I feel like I'm pulling teeth. With a flash of intuition, I realize he's holding back because this information could be dangerous for me to have and Edward is just trying to protect me.

I reach up, pushing his hair away from his forehead because I like it better that way. The strands are thick and silky and warm against my palm. "You can tell me."

His face is pensive for a moment before he sighs. "I know. But, Bella, if anyone found out that you knew…"

"You'll protect me," I tell him confidently.

I believe it with my whole being, too – he'd protected me from Paul, mistakenly from Jasper and from myself.

Edward smiles slowly, exposing his bright teeth. "I will," he vows, kissing me sweetly, just barely nudging my lips open with his own.

I have to pull back before we get carried away – which was easy, especially since I knew what it felt like to hold him in my hand and what he sounded like when I was pleasuring him.

I am almost as addicted to Edward as he is to me.

"Tell me," I breathe, scooting back a few inches.

Edward waits until his eyes revert to mint before he starts. "Bloodstones are important to vampires and very personal. No two bloodstones are alike since they are the product of a vampire's exposed blood." Edward pauses, gauging the confusion on my face. "When my blood is exposed to air, it doesn't remain a liquid like yours does, Bella. Mine become a solid – crystallized, even."

My eyes dart back to the bloodstone and a new appreciation for it's strange beauty is born – the stone is part of Edward.

"After the birth of a vampire, born or made, blood is drawn and set into a piece of jewelry to protect the vampire from the effects of sun exposure, which is a really bad, sometimes life threatening sun burn."

"That explains the sun myths," I mutter.

Edward nods. "The younger the vampire is, the more dangerous the sun can be. You won't ever see a vampire without a bloodstone, Bella. But the reason I am hesitant to tell you about bloodstone isn't because every vampire has one," he says gravely.

"Then why?"

"If you take a bloodstone from a vampire and leave them for the sun, it's deadly. Even a vampire as old as myself can die in four hours exposed to the sun without my bloodstone."

My heart clenches and I automatically squeeze my fingers over his hand, as if I can hold the ring there myself to protect him.

Edward smiles softly. "You don't need to worry about that, Bella. I'm a prince."

I snort, unable to stop. "Right. Like that's going to protect you!"

"It does," he promises. "Vampire royalty have a special operation involving bloodstones. I have five bloodstones in my body."

"In your body," I repeat.

"One in my torso, one in each arm and one in each leg," he clarifies.

I push up the sleeve of his shirt, searching for scars like Dad has from past surgeries, and Edward laughs.

"You won't find it."

"Why not?"

His eyes dart to the closed and curtained window. "Not many know about the operation. It's strictly for royal born vampires. An extra precaution."

I understand what he's saying and nod, softly kissing the exposed skin of his arm before pulling down his sleeve. Learning something this important has got my mind going and I'm thinking of other questions and myths that I can ask.

Edward is watching me with a content smile, as if he can see the thoughts working through my head.

"What else can kill a vampire?" I blurt out, thinking that this is the most important question.

Edward doesn't flinch – he was obviously expecting this question. "Many things. We are not immortal, we simply age very, very slowly and live for a very long time. Fire or decapitation for a quick death. A lack of bloodstone and sun exposure, of course. Great loss of blood, thought that would take about as long as starvation."

"You're not immortal?"

For some reason, the thought worries me greatly. I'd thought he was permanent.

He sees the worry on my face and quietly soothes me. "It would be very hard to kill me, Bella. Trust me. Many have tried."

My eyes are wide with alarm. "What?"

"It's okay, princess."

I sit up, pushing the covers off me quickly, forgetting that I'd conveniently opted out of wearing pants last night and now my legs were cold and exposed to the chilling air of my dorm. Edward snarls beside me but I ignore it. "It's not okay. Someone has tried to kill you?"

Edward sits up too, shrugging. "It's no big deal, Bella. The last attempt was fifty years ago, I think."

"You think?"

I'm shrill.

I can't help it.

Someone tried to kill Edward.

Edward is holding me in his arms quicker than I can process, his vampire speed taking me by surprise. I hadn't realized that I started crying or that I was beginning to hyperventilate – but just the thought of his death was killing me.

God, was this how he felt when I died the first time?

It was horrible.

There hadn't been any doubt in my mind that my feelings for Edward were growing by leaps and bounds but my own reaction is cementing the intense emotions.

I can't live without him.

It would be impossible – and I'm still human.

Still human.

I shake my head; but of course I was planning on changing into a vampire eventually. How could I not?

I catch Edward's eyes and, before he can stop my hands, I begin pushing his tight black shirt off his body. Edward complies soundlessly, staring at me with large mint eyes as I throw his shirt on the floor, operating on my most basic of instincts – tie myself to him.

I toss my hair over my shoulder and tilt my head to the side, exposing my neck to him. "Drink," I order, reaching my arms around his neck, trying to pull his mouth down several inches so he could sink his teeth into me.

But Edward is resistant, carefully holding my body. "Bella, what's wrong?"

My eyes water – damn hormones.

"I can't lose you," I tell him, as if it explains everything.

In my mind, it does.

For Edward, though, it only serves to make him more confused. "You won't lose me, princess. I am yours. You are mine."

Rapidly, I shake my head. "No. No, it's not permanent. We need to exchange blood."

Edward's face hardens. "No," he says resolutely.

My stomach drops, my heart stutters painfully and I process this rejection, unable to understand it. "Why? Why not? I want you to."

"Not under duress."

"There is none! I want you to. I just want you."

Edward strokes my cheek. "You do have me, princess."

"I want more of you. And I know you want more of me."

He must see the conviction on my face because he doesn't hesitate any longer – his fangs click down and he holds me tight against his chest, leaving me immobile.

Yes.

A/N: What? Oh, damn. Cliffhanger. My bad, my bad.

And the first ten reviews plus guest reviews are…

BedwardCullen – I do use aristocratic a lot lol The model I use for the Edward character looks like an aristocrat and he's really hot so…But welcome to the story!

Guest – Thanks for reading the last chapter!

alc1002 – Glad you liked it!

Lilypad10 – Men, right? They all think with the peen.

Night script – You got that right, about the tempting… ;) More to come!

Breenda15 – Nope. Bella doesn't have to turn to have his babies. It was a couple of chapters ago….Born vampires can have babies with born vampires or blood bonded humans. Made vampires can have babies with born vampires if the vampire was made from a love bond. The second option applies to Bella! :D

Lizakimiko – I get sad, too! And really moody! I feel bad for my family lol

Glitter Poisoned My Blood – Well, I updated ;) Tell Coach to shut his trap! Lol

Headinthecloudsss – lol he did avoid that question, huh? I guess we'll see….

Camilla10 – Promise that we'll all get there!

Debslmac - :D

Super special shout out to the first review of the last chapter, Nalia-R – lol Independence day usually does, though, right?

And thank you to Camilla for rec'ing this story on ADifferentForest!

As always, be brutally honest. I can take it.

~cupcakeriot