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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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A/N:- Banner by FatesLoveQueen http:/yfrog(dot)com/oed60p

I own nothing. Boydblog helped me with this and I'll be forever thankful.

She fixed. I fiddled. Any mistakes that remain are on me.

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A/N: FFn was having a little bit of a fail moment when I updated the last chapter. If you didn't get the alert & have missed the AH world chapter, go back a chapter.

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A feral growl built in my chest as Bella's intruder stopped at the window below her room. He was upset that the wolves had delayed him; he hadn't been able to watch over her during the night. The tenderness in his mind as he thought of her made me burn with jealousy but also made me soften my stance slightly.

He caught my scent just before Bella's house and debated coming to her rescue, worried about what I might be doing. His panic was genuine—if unjustified. In the end, he decided to try to draw me out, throwing pebbles lightly against the glass before running back to seek the cover of the forest, close enough that he could keep a watchful eye on her, but far enough that we wouldn't be seen by the prying eyes of neighbors.

It provided me with some relief. It made me think once again that possibly Bella didn't know about him. Maybe she didn't have feelings for him. Maybe she would listen to me long enough to let me beg her for forgiveness.

I had to know for certain.

I reluctantly climbed from Bella's bedroom window, dropping to the ground almost silently. I followed the intruder without attempting to be circumspect.

He stopped suddenly and turned to face me.

"You must be the famous—or should I say infamous—Edward." As he spoke aloud I noticed his voice held a subtle Scottish lilt.

I stopped myself from asking the multitude of questions running through my mind until I could think about the repercussions of each one. I needed to get information from him without giving away anything of myself. The fact that he knew who I was when I knew nothing about him was worrying enough.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet Bella's first love," he said, his voice full of derision.

My jaw clenched and my body locked into place at being described in such a fashion. I knew from his thoughts that he was deliberately goading me, but I couldn't figure out why. It made me pause momentarily. It would have been easy to use him as a target to focus all of my regret for leaving Bella, but I knew I couldn't…yet. I needed information, and I was determined to make him answer every question I had.

I took in a deep breath to try to calm my voice so that it had an air of civility.

"I seem to be at a disadvantage, you know my name but I know nothing about you."

He smiled. "I know more than just your name."

I thought he was bluffing, but flashes of the night I said goodbye to Bella ran through his memory. He also had an image of me as a human, my green eyes burning brightly against my lightly freckled skin. It wasn't a real image, and it wasn't a memory, I could tell by my age—if I had to hazard a guess, it was what I would have looked like had I lived to my mid-to-late-twenties.

His thoughts without words were making me impatient. I knew it was what he wanted, but I couldn't resist.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "And why are you here?"

He smiled. "I'm a…friend of Bella's. I'm here for her."

"Why?"

"Because she's my mate."

A growl ripped through my chest before I was able to suppress it. I didn't want him know he had an effect on me, although truthfully his words were nothing on the images that were running through his mind. He could envisage her as an immortal, running carefree through the forests by his side—her crimson eyes sparkling with life and excitement.

I wanted to proclaim that she was mine but I knew I'd lost that right the instant that I'd left her.

"Does she feel the same way?" I seethed.

His smile faltered momentarily, but was quickly set back in place.

'She will,' he thought. "Of course," he said.

I wanted to confront him on the direction of his thoughts, but I didn't want to give away the one secret I was certain he didn't know. I realized I had to trick the information I wanted out of him.

"Has she actually told you that?"

His thoughts showed me what I needed to know. She hadn't.

"Does it matter?" he quipped.

Venom rose in my throat as he used the words I'd been forced to utter in an attempt to resist Bella's pleas to stay. He knew the power in those words and relished in the flash of agony that crossed my features.

"You know what? I don't think you get to do this," he said after a moment.

"Do what?"

"You left her," he said.

His voice held no anger; he was simply stating the horrific facts that he knew I was unable to deny.

"She was hurt and bleeding, and yet you left her anyway. I bet you don't even know that she cried herself to sleep after you left. You did that to her, and you have to gall to ask why I am here."

I wanted to defend myself, but words were inadequate to express the depth of regret I felt over my decisions.

I honestly thought it was the best thing for her.

"I've helped Bella," he said, his voice soothing and calm. "I've helped her in ways you couldn't even imagine."

I couldn't argue. He must have been helping Bella. Jacob's thoughts showed her getting better after a time; he had claimed responsibility for that, by maybe it was because of her visitor.

"You should leave before your presence upsets her."

He's right, I thought to myself. I'm only going to hurt her more if I stay in Forks.

I had a sudden desire to find the rest of my family in Alaska. My whole body tensed in preparation to run. It was only a tiny voice deep down that urged me to go back to Bella's side that stopped me. I turned toward her house.

'I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.'

My mind seemed to snap out of a daze in reaction to his thoughts.

What wouldn't be that easy? I wondered.

He tilted his head in confusion, his mind processing what he had seen.

'That's right; he did mention that their coven had talented members. I wonder if he is the mind reader.'

I needed to know who had told this stranger about my family. I needed to find out so much information. I decided to change tack. "I just want to know that Bella is safe."

He smiled wryly. "Since I've been watching over her, she hasn't been hurt once. And the wounds from her last encounter with you are all healed."

I ground my teeth against each other; the sound shattered the silence between us. It seemed to satisfy him for some reason.

"I want her to be happy," I said, reminding myself why I couldn't simply kill him and eliminate the threat to Bella's life.

"She is happy."

"I want Bella to tell me that. If she tells me she's happy now, I'll leave you both in peace."

"I could just kill you now. Bella would never know and you could never upset her again."

I growled and crouched in self-defense. I wasn't afraid of him. If I was fighting for Bella, I knew I would win.

"If you tried, you would never see her again—my family would ensure it," I said.

"I don't see them here now. How would they even know it was me?"

"They would know." I knew I was left with no choice but to show my hand. "He was right, some of us are talented."

My words made the intruder replay the memory of being told of us. I froze in place at what I saw. I felt a stab of betrayal as I realized who'd given him that information—the person who had most recently entered our lives.

"Laurent told you?" I asked, even though his thoughts had all but confirmed it. "Why?"

"How do you know it was Laurent?" he asked. He was suddenly on the back-foot and was becoming defensive. He clearly wasn't comfortable when he wasn't in control of the conversation.

"That doesn't matter," I muttered through clenched teeth. "Why did you want to know about us?"

Another memory played in his mind. The horror of it instantly had me reaching for him. Nothing could have held me in place when I saw the true reason for his being in Forks.

A feral growl ripped through my chest as I leapt madly for him. My teeth were bared and I used every ounce of my strength to try to capture him. He dodged quickly when he realized I was about to attack, but I read the shift in direction from his thoughts and easily redirected myself midair.

I hit him hard from one side, knocking him to the ground; a fistful of his hair clutched in my hand and my teeth pressed against the column of his throat. My knee pushed against his body and I knew it would all be over in an instant.

I was about to bite and rip a hole in his throat—all thoughts of not hurting him because it would hurt Bella vanished as soon as I'd witnessed him calmly discussing her downfall with Victoria.

"Stop!" His voice was demanding but surprisingly not panicked. "You don't want to do that."

I moved my mouth away from his throat. The images of him discussing ways to hurt Bella floated back into my mind and I bent to attack again.

I pulled his hair, yanking his head higher off the ground and extending his neck to the point where his vocal cords were strained. My teeth were inches away, it would take less than a second to tear his head from his shoulders.

"Only I can bring Bella's consciousness back." His voice was high and strained, his words suddenly filled with panic.

I paused again.

"You've seen it yourself, I know you have. The vacant expression in her eyes."

"If you've hurt her…"

"She's safe. I swear she's safe. She's healing." His thoughts conflicted with the images of his conversation with Victoria. "But if you kill me, she'll be stuck there. She's so deep now she'll need me to help guide her out."

I took a moment to consider what he was saying, and how his thoughts compared with his words. He honestly had feelings for Bella. I could see the way he thought of her. The mere idea that I might kill him and he'd never see her again caused him anguish.

I loosened my hold a little. "What have you done to her?"

"She needed an escape," he said quickly, relief coloring his tone. "I offered her a place where she can be safe and loved."

"How?"

He swallowed heavily but didn't answer. I tightened my fist and yanked his head backward again.

"How!" I demanded.

"I guess you'd call it my talent," he said. He pictured himself exploring Bella's mind in ways I could only imagine.

"You can see her thoughts?" I asked quietly.

'Dreams, not thoughts.'

"But you can see Bella's dreams?"

I couldn't deny the pain that I felt hearing that Bella's silent mind was only silent to me. Did she somehow block me? If so, did she allow him in?

The agony of knowing that he had seen Bella in ways I could only imagine made me weak with sadness. He took advantage of that weakness, pulling himself to his feet almost instantly. He brushed his clothes off and stepped away from me.

"I don't see how it affects you. It's not like you care for her beyond having her as a pet."

"She's not a pet!" I roared. "I love her."

He laughed sarcastically, a bitter hard bark. "Well, you have an odd way of showing it."

"I left her so that she'd be safe. I don't want her soul to be destroyed because of me."

He scoffed "You'd leave her as a human? Why?"

I responded with stony silence.

How could he even think about destroying her perfect soul? Her innate goodness is what makes her so wonderful.

"She has so much potential as an immortal. If you close your eyes and imagined it, you'd see how perfect she could be." He pictured it himself, her chestnut hair thick and luxurious as it flowed behind her as she ran without a care in the world. Bella's laughter rang through his mind and I had to close my eyes for just a moment and revel in the image. Everything about my Bella was still in her recognizable, but she had the polished, unnatural look of my kind. It enhanced her, the thought thrilled and terrified me equally.

"She's perfect as she is," I said defensively.

"Oh, don't get me wrong, I agree, but there are so many dangers faced by humans; ones which our kind doesn't have to consider."

"I won't allow her to be changed. You can't make that decision for her."

He laughed. "I can't make decisions for her, but you won't allow her to be changed?" He turned his eyes to me. "All I want is to offer her a choice."

His conversation with Victoria played in my mind again.

"What choice?" I asked. "Your way or death?"

He blanched at the thought. "Of course not."

"Why did you agree to hurt her?"

"That's what that little show of masculinity before was about?" He rolled his eyes. "Vickie asked me to do her a favor and torture the pet of the monster that killed her mate James."

I clenched my fists and my jaw was locked tightly.

"I agreed, but that was before I saw her. Once I saw the way you treated her, I knew Vickie had her story wrong. That was when I decided to help the poor girl."

A look of disgust crept over his features as he pictured the way I had casually dismissed Bella's tears and pain when I'd left her. The disgust in his thoughts was nothing compared to my own.

"And you, you have a lot of nerve coming back after everything you put her through. She honestly believes that you loved her. I don't know what sort of sick, twisted jokes you yellow-eyes play on people. Just because you don't prey on humans, doesn't mean you get to mess with their heads."

I couldn't take any more of his incorrect assumptions and false accusations. "I am not going to stand here and justify myself to you. There is only one person in the world who I need to explain myself to."

"You're mad if you think I'm going to let you hurt her again."

"I'm not going to hurt her. I love her."

He shook his head in disbelief.

We'd reached something of an impasse. My initial rage at seeing his conspiring with Victoria to hurt Bella had worn off. Now that I knew it was no longer his goal, I knew I couldn't kill him. I had no idea if he was lying about being the only one who could bring Bella back, but nothing in his thoughts indicated he was.

"I think you're right," I said finally. "I think the decision should be Bella's."

He tilted his head in inquisition.

"I want to see Bella and she can decide whether she wants me to stay or go."

He grinned slyly.

"That sounds like a very noble proposition." I know she'll tell him to leave after what she's just been though.

"Be that as it may, I want to see her," I said. "Tonight."

"Perfect," he said. "My name is Kieran, by the way."

I turned my back on him.

"It doesn't matter."

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A/N: I've decided to try to post 2 chapters at a time (or close together) for the moment.

*runs back to hide*