Warning: this chapter contains some rather suggestive scenes, including what I guess could be called bloodplay which seemed fitting for a scene with two vampires, but looking back over it I realize some of you might find it yucky and disturbing. I tried to keep it within the bounds of what's acceptable for a T-rated story, but if anyone thinks I strayed too far let me know and I'll change the rating accordingly.

Chapter 39: Bloodlust

Elle's head snapped up. The sound of someone running toward her had just reached her ears. Strange new instincts took over, pushing all her newly restored memories, emotions, and thoughts about her situation to the back of her mind and sending her into a defensive crouch. She bared her teeth and flared her nostrils, sniffing the air. The person coming her way - it had to be a person because they seemed to have only two legs, not four - was still hidden in the trees, but she could smell them.

Their scent told her they weren't prey - Elle was baffled and a little horrified to hear the word 'prey' in her thoughts, like she was going to eat whoever crossed paths with her, yet unable to stop herself from thinking this way - so maybe it was another vampire, like her. They smelled…nice. Part of her wanted to seek out the origin of this pleasant scent, but a more cautious part said the intruder wasn't necessarily a friend just because they were one of her kind, so Elle remained frozen, torn between conflicting instincts until the other vampire came into view.

Once she saw that it was Edward, she straightened up and ran to meet him, noticing as she got closer that he didn't appear happy to see her. The look on his face - like she was some wild animal he expected to attack him - stopped her cold. "Edward…what's wrong?"

"Everything. I thought I was saving you - please understand that. I had no idea how changing you would affect your memory, and if I had known… I love you too much to ever intentionally do anything to cause you pain, Elle. Can you ever forgive me?"

She studied his face for several long minutes, concluded that he was telling the truth…and slowly shook her head. "No, Edward, I should be asking you to forgive me. You're the only one who's ever really cared about me. I thought my dad did, but he just used me, put me down all the time, and screwed up my mind until I thought that was love. Then I met you, the one person who actually loves me, and I've pretty much treated you like crap the whole time we've been together."

Edward automatically tried to make her feel better by denying that she'd ever treated him like crap, but she obviously wasn't buying it. "I loved you anyway," he said instead, "though if you'd like to stop electrocuting me every time you're in a bad mood, I won't object."

"I didn't zap you every time…did I?" Through the lens of her enhanced new vampire senses, Elle's human memories seemed very hazy, as if she'd had cotton stuffed in her ears and film over her eyes, but she recalled several instances in which she'd used her ability on Edward. Sometimes he'd deserved it - not always. There were plenty of times he hadn't even had anything to do with whatever made her want to fry something; she'd just taken it out on him because he happened to be there, and because she knew she could get away with it. No matter what she did to him, he kept coming back for more even when any sensible man would've run for the hills.

"Haven't we already established that being sensible is not my strong point?" Keeping Carlisle's and Jasper's warnings about the unpredictable, volatile nature of newborns in mind, he slowly edged closer to her while they talked, taking pains not to do anything that might set her off.

Of course, taking things slow and being careful wasn't Elle's style. Bored with waiting for him to come to her, she darted forward, crossing the remaining distance between them in a single bound, and threw herself at him, forgetting that she was a lot stronger than she used to be. The force of their collision sent the two vampires crashing into a centuries-old spruce tree, shattering its enormous trunk; its fall to the forest floor caused tremors worthy of a not-so-small earthquake, and they ended up in a heap of tangled limbs on the ground.

Elle quickly got her arms underneath her and used her elbows to prop herself up so she could lean over Edward. Neither made any effort to further disentangle themselves. "No, it's not," she agreed. "That's one of the things I love most about you." It was strange how easily that rolled off her tongue - 'love' had always been Elle's least favorite four-letter word, but it was the only one that adequately described what she was feeling. She loved Edward Cullen more than she'd ever thought she could love anything - more than anyone anywhere in the world had ever loved anything. What an un-Elle-like thing for her to think. Had her conversion totally gutted her personality?

Sensing her distress, Edward assured her that nothing apart from her memories had been altered. "You are the same person you always were…but you will feel things more intensely now. You've noticed how much your vision, hearing, and reflexes have improved since you woke up?" She nodded. "Our emotions are heightened along with our physical senses, particularly those we feel most strongly." Apparently her love for him ranked among her strongest emotions. He tried not to show his pleasure at that, feeling that it might be too soon to test the seriousness of her resolution to use her power on him less.

Elle withdrew slightly as she pondered this information. So she was going to spend the rest of eternity as a lovestruck teenager, and it didn't even freak her out. At least she wouldn't go through it alone. "I'm still gonna work on not randomly zapping you even if you do love me anyway," she decided. "Hurting somebody you're supposed to love is what my father would do, and I don't want to be like him anymore. I should be nicer to you."

Edward turned onto his side, pushing her halfway off him, and curled his hand around the back of her neck. "You're nothing like him, and you don't have to change anything for me. The only person I want you to change for is yourself."

They leaned closer together; then, just before their lips met, a wounded animal's scent reached them on the wind. Elle stiffened as the smell of blood entered her nose, bringing her unsatisfied thirst back to the forefront of her mind. She tore herself away from Edward and charged off in pursuit of her first meal while he followed at a safe distance - getting in her way while she hunted would be unwise, possibly even dangerous.

By the time he caught up, she had brought down her prey - a white-tailed deer - and was slurping blood from a long cut in its stomach. He cringed at the mess she was making - while feeding on an herbivore! Everyone knows large carnivores taste better. We'll have to work on refining her palate…and her table manners.

Fifteen minutes later, the carcass was almost completely drained and Elle's thirst, while not entirely gone, was reduced to a dull ache in her throat - uncomfortable but manageable. Seeing that the feeding frenzy was over, Edward finally approached her. "Congratulations on your first hunt; you were magnificent."

She rose and turned to face him in one fluid move. "The deer was a piece of cake after some of the missions I've been on. Now, where were we before I got distracted?" A predatory gleam lit her bright red eyes as she stalked up to her mate and wrapped her arms around him. "I think we were about to do this…" She put her hand around his neck and pulled his head down, bringing their faces within millimeters of each other, but their attempt at a kiss was once again aborted, this time by him.

"As much as I hate to spoil the mood, you really need to wash your face, darling."

"Seriously?" She couldn't believe he was refusing to kiss her over a little blood on her face. They were vampires for pete's sake!

"Let me take care of it for you." His tongue flicked against her skin, lapping up the blood. He paused to see if she objected to being licked, but she didn't; in fact, she rather seemed to enjoy it.

"Are you gonna use your tongue on me every time I get blood on myself?" she asked when he'd finished cleaning her face.

"If you'd like me to - at least until you learn to be neater in your eating habits."

"Remind me not to get too neat then." She suddenly left his side, returned to the dead deer, tore its stomach wound open wider, reached in, and rummaged through its insides. When she pulled her arm back, the deer's heart was clutched in her hand.

Edward watched disapprovingly but with definite interest as she brought the heart to the base of her throat and squeezed it like a sponge, sending blood cascading down her front. "Didn't anyone ever teach you not to play with your food?"

"Nope. What're you gonna do about it?" His reasons for refusing to sleep with her had been invalidated - there was no longer even a shadow of a doubt about her emotional investment in their relationship, and her body was a lot less breakable than it used to be - and she intended to take full advantage of that fact.

He responded to her challenge more enthusiastically than she'd expected, ripping her ruined blouse off and throwing her to the ground. While she lay there, too shocked to react to this new, rougher side of her boyfriend, he got on top of her, pinning her with his larger frame, took hold of her wrist, and brought her right hand to his mouth. "You're absolutely right - you are much less breakable now," he informed her in between spreading her fingers and thoroughly cleaning the sensitive web of skin between them, "which means I don't need to be gentle with you."

When he used his teeth to sever the strap holding the front of her bra together and turned his attention to licking up the blood that had oozed down her chest, Elle decided gentleness was overrated.

###

They spent the next day exploring their new level of intimacy, until Elle's thirst once again compelled her to break away from Edward and go hunting. This time he joined her; it had been a while since he'd fed, not counting the small amount of deer blood he'd removed from her yesterday, and he was getting thirsty too. She was surprisingly amenable to having a hunting partner (probably because said partner also happened to be her mate), so he was able to guide her to prey more appetizing than a deer.

She subsequently agreed that black bear and cougar tasted better, but this time she didn't feel a need to cover herself in their blood, much to Edward's relief - after their activities over the past day, their clothing couldn't take much more ill treatment. Both their jeans were torn and dirty from all the times they'd made forceful contact with the forest floor, and Elle had almost turned the front of his shirt into confetti while impatiently 'helping' him remove it. As for her blouse…

"It looks like evidence in a murder trial," she observed, holding up the shredded rag, its original color hardly visible under all the dried blood, at arm's length. "We could leave it somewhere for the rangers to find and have them combing the forest for a body for months. Or we can leave it with the animals we just killed and watch them try to figure out what the hell went down out here."

"No. We can't leave any trace of our presence or give the humans reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary has occurred. It's dangerous."

"Why? It's not like anybody would think of vampires, and even if they did, they wouldn't know it was us."

"I'd still rather you didn't fall into bad habits where cleaning up after yourself is concerned. Our world has rules, and it is imperative that you follow them. Part of being a Cullen is being meticulously responsible."

"And not having any fun," Elle griped under her breath, knowing he would hear. At her normal volume, she added, "I'm not a Cullen."

"Perhaps not in name, but you are one of us. To me, you are much more than family. I thought you knew by now that everything I tell you is for your own good."

"Okay, okay. We'll burn the top or something. Somewhere we won't accidentally start a forest fire. Responsible enough for you?"

"You're getting there."

They cleared a small area of fallen leaves and other flammable matter, built a circle of rocks suitable for containing a campfire, placed the bloody shirt in the center, and incinerated it with a well-aimed lightning bolt from Elle. "Too bad we don't have marshmallows," she remarked as they watched it burn.

Edward wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and pulled her close. "You wouldn't like marshmallows now. One of the disadvantages of becoming a vampire is that we lose our taste for human food."

"Crap. Wanna have sex again?"

Elle felt the vibrations from his answering low laugh deep in his chest where it pressed against her back. "Very much so." He caught her wrists, stilling her hands before she could start undressing herself. "Maybe you should let me do that. The fact that our clothes are in tatters is largely your doing, and we can't afford for you to get carried away again."

"Yeah, it'd be tragic if I ruined this thing." She was currently wearing a Primatech t-shirt they'd found in the van, which, being plain, wrinkled, and two sizes too big, was an affront to her fashion sense.

"Quite tragic…unless you want to walk around half-naked."

"I wouldn't mind- Ah!" She gasped as he pulled the offending shirt over her head, threw it aside, and caressed her exposed skin while trailing his fingers down to the fastenings of her jeans. "I wouldn't mind if you were the only one around, but I'll need clothes when we get out of this forest."

Edward made a noncommittal noise that could be interpreted as agreement, but said nothing about when they might be leaving or where they would go. Elle didn't pursue the matter right away - there were other things she'd much rather focus on - but when they took a break several hours later, she asked, "So what's next? Where do we go after this?"

"Why are you in such a hurry to leave? Do you not like Quebec?"

Elle's red eyes narrowed; he'd taken his time answering, and when he did, his reply struck her as evasive. "I don't hate it. The temperature and nature-y stuff doesn't bug me like it did when I was human, but I don't want to stay here forever. You don't, do you?"

"Certainly not."

"So where're we going? Back to your family's place in Forks?"

"No, we can't go back there." The sharp response made Elle flinch, so Edward softened his tone. "Going back would mean a war with the Quileute wolves; the peace between us was always fragile, and I broke our treaty by changing you."

"I'd be dead if you hadn't."

"There are no provisions in the treaty for life-or-death situations, Elle. In fact, they would probably think you'd be better off dead. Technically there aren't any geographic limits either, but they hardly ever leave the reservation at La Push, preferring to protect their own territory rather than travel the world hunting vampires. As long as we stay well away from their domain, it's unlikely they'll ever know you've become one of us."

Remembering her previous encounter with the pack's meddling, condescending leader, Elle growled softly. "So you're gonna let those mutts run you out of your home? You know, I could always give the dogs a little obedience training."

"Tempting, but unnecessary. Forks isn't our only home; we have dozens of them, so why fight over that area when we can easily relocate?"

"Okay, so if we're not going back there…then maybe we could go back to New York. I'd like to pay a little visit to my dad." She expected Edward to object - he would know she wasn't planning a friendly family reunion - but instead he surprised her by asking if he could come along. "You're not going to try and stop me? You know I intend to kill him, right?"

He nodded. "Yes, and while I'm normally opposed to killing humans, after what he did to you I will happily make an exception in your father's case." He paused to kiss her neck. "I can help you."

"I'm open to suggestions." Although she had decided at some point that she wanted revenge for all the deception and damage Bob had inflicted on her, Elle hadn't given much thought to how she would do the deed. All she knew was that she wanted to make him suffer, to hurt him as badly as he'd hurt her. Luckily, Edward was full of creative ideas about how to end someone's life slowly and painfully. "Wow, your mind is more twisted than I gave you credit for," she said when he finished outlining exactly how he thought they should deal with Bob.

"No, actually Rosalie's mind is."

Elle's nose wrinkled at the mention of Edward's gorgeous sister. She hoped she wouldn't be required to pretend Rosalie was her sister too. "What does Rosalie have to do with it?"

"I don't wish to betray my sister's confidence; let's just say that shortly after joining our family she decided to take revenge on a man who had wronged her in her human life, and she was quite ingenious in how she carried it out."

"Wow. I'm impressed. And you'll really help me do all that stuff to my dad?"

"For you, my love, I would do anything. Besides, I'm afraid your perception of my flawless moral character may be slightly unrealistic. I do have one request, though - I don't want to go to New York until you've had time to get control of your appetite and learn to resist human blood. I don't believe Bob will be any great loss to society, but I'd rather you didn't attack innocent people."

"Of course you wouldn't, Mr. Flawless Moral Character," Elle said with a fond smile. "All right, I'll learn to be a good little vegetarian vampire; it's not like there's any rush. We've got forever, right?"

Edward happily agreed that they did indeed have forever, then pulled Elle closer and kissed her again. In that moment she didn't care if they ever got around to killing Bob or doing anything else. What they were doing right then seemed like a perfectly good way to spend eternity.

So Bob will finally get his comeuppance for being a (insert your favorite word for people like him).

Next up: the epilogue, which will not be about Elle and Edward killing Bob, because then it'd be torture porn and I really would have to raise the rating. It'll be fairly short, so I'll get right to work on it.