Seven Days - Wednesday

Leah

"Stay here," Edward commanded in a whisper as he stepped away from me.

Ugh. As if I actually would, the high-handed bastard. I hadn't invited myself along to stay back and play lookout.

"Leah." He held out his arm as if to block me. I could feel the anger sparking off him. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"Occupational hazard," I told him flippantly, daring him to tell me to stay put. "Put down the martyr's palm and let me help, Edward- I'm pretty durable in a fight."

He glared for a moment, then dropped his arm and starting walking again. "Fine. On your own head, then."

I couldn't contain the snort. "Oh, please. You're way too type-A to let a helpless little girl take responsibility for herself."

Edward whirled and stopped so abruptly that even with my wolfy reflexes I bumped smack into him. His eyes were livid with anger. "In case you've forgotten, Leah," he ground out between clenched teeth, "against him, hundreds of girls couldn't take care of themselves. And neither can this one. Pardon me for caring." Turning on his heel, he stalked off without waiting for an answer from me.

Well, crap. Nice one, Leah. Way to forget the selfless mission dude is on. Yeah, I was an insensitive bitch. Blowing out a sigh, I jogged to catch up.

It didn't take us long to find them, all we had to do was follow his scent…and the scent of blood. A lot of blood.

I saw the vampire crouched over her body just beside the ledge. Her hands were limp at her sides and her eyes stared without really seeing.

We were too late.

"Don't move," Edward whispered.

This time I listened. I couldn't find it in me to move anyways. I'd seen vampires. I'd killed vampires. But I'd never seen one kill…and I'd never seen a dead human. That made a difference. The smell of her blood nauseated me. It felt like her eyes were watching me, pleading with me to save her. But I couldn't.

The vampire stopped feeding from the girl as Edward stepped forward. His body moved so quickly his hands were around Edward's throat before I could blink. My little gasp of surprise didn't go unnoticed by either one of them.

"I knew you'd come for me." His voice was raspy and dripping with malice, his red eyes predatory as they flashed from me to Edward. I watched Edward's hand reach up almost casually and, with one swift movement, push the other vampire away. He went flying into the brick wall and Edward adjusted his shirt in a cocky, nonchalant sort of way before ambling over to him.

"I've been following you for a long time, James," he said quietly as James lifted himself to his feet.

"Caught your eye, did I? I apologize. I shouldn't have kept you waiting." James said with a teasing smile. Edward's jaw tightened. I clenched my hands into fists, feeling my nails digging into my palms. James wasn't nearly as tall as Edward, but he was broader, stockier, a bull to Edward's big cat. I was nervous.

Of course, I shouldn't have been. Edward was quick and, as it turned out, very strong. As I wondered what would happen he was already in motion, so fast he was naught but a blur of pale skin and fabric. I couldn't figure out where to watch. I knew I should have probably moved before something happened, but I couldn't, superhuman reflexes or not. My terror had frozen me in place just a few feet away from the dead girl.

I heard the concrete under my feet crack, and I peeled my eyes from the girl's staring eyes. James was on the ground with Edward's slim form towering over him. "I should make you beg for your life like you made them do. I should tear you limb from limb– make you suffer as much as they did." Edward's voice was a low whisper, but I could hear him as clear as day. It sent a shiver through my body and made my blood run cold.

The look in Edward's eyes was deadly, their soft gold almost black, like empty pits in his preternaturally handsome face. It frightened me even more than James' red ones. It frightened me because this was the first time I'd seen him look like what he really was: a predator, one as deadly as he was beautiful.

"Do it then," James whispered tauntingly, blood-tinged mucus bubbling between his lips as he laughed. "I deserve it, don't I? I killed them, I drained them and watched their life leave–"

James didn't quite finish his last sentence because Edward bent down, quickly, efficiently, and ripped off his head first.

I didn't realize I'd been holding my breath until I exhaled. Then I fell to the ground. My hands were on the concrete and my heart was in my throat. I was vaguely aware of Edward moving around me, of the all-too-familiar smell of a burning vampire, and then of his voice in my ear.

"We have to move quickly. Do you need help?" he asked, holding his hand out.

I recoiled from him before I could stop myself and lurched to my feet, avoiding his eyes the whole time.

"I'm fine," I mumbled as I brushed my hands off and cast a last glance at the lifeless form next to a smoldering pile of ashes.

"It's better if you don't look," Edward said softly.

I turned away from her and met his eyes for the first time since he'd stormed off a few minutes ago. The black was gone now; his eyes were gold again, but tinged with resignation: he'd noticed me flinching. I nodded and followed him back down into the bar. We slipped back through the crowd unnoticed until we were standing out on the sidewalk.

"What are you going to do about the– about the girl?" I asked, grabbing Edward's arm to stop him from walking away.

"I'll call the cops, but I need to get you somewhere safe first," he said as he pulled himself away from my grasp.

"You killed him. There's no danger. And besides, I'm not a kid," I huffed.

"I didn't mean from him, Leah…I meant from me." Edward turned away again and began walking quickly, almost too quickly to be a human pace, up the deserted street.

I started to follow, but then decided against it. Kim's apartment was in the opposite direction, and if Edward wanted to treat me like a kid…well, I wasn't going to put up with that.

"Where are you going?" Edward called, not even five seconds after I'd turned around.

"I'm not your property to worry about," I yelled back.

"Leah!" His footsteps were close behind until I felt him next to me.

"You've done what you came to do, Edward. Now we can go our separate ways," I said, turning away quickly. Edward recoiled as if I'd slapped him and his eyes widened. It took me a moment to realize why.

The images in my head at the moment were not pleasant: the dead girl, James being ripped apart, Edward's black eyes as he watched the fire burn.

"I'm sorry," he choked out before turning on his heel. I watched him retreat with slumped shoulders, rather like a defeated guardian angel than a hero.

xXx

Edward

I made it back to the house quickly after leaving Leah in front of the club. I ran, choosing to leave the car behind, though I was distracted the entire time. The thoughts she threw at me had been too vivid and real. I could hear her while I dismembered James- she was terrified.

She was terrified of me.

I wanted her to let me take her somewhere safe, to take her somewhere away from me.

When I reached the house, the feeling was anticlimactic. I'd been searching for James for almost my entire unnatural existence, and now that he was dead I found myself feeling…empty.

The articles seemed to mock me as they fluttered in the breeze from the open back door. I pulled them all off the wall and set them in a neat stack on the table along with the maps and my journals. My phone rang, but I didn't need to look to know it was Alice. Leah was away, so she could see me now. She knew that I'd finally done what I'd set out to do so many years ago.

I didn't answer it. I couldn't just yet. Part of me was still in shock that I'd actually done it. I'd killed the vampire who had taken something precious from me. He took the only girl I'd ever loved. He drained her and left her to die and then did the same with hundreds, maybe even thousands more. Killing James was more of a personal victory than it had been with the others. With them it was about saving people…with James it had been about revenge.

But now I'd had my revenge, and I felt nothing.

Wait. That wasn't completely true.

I was frustrated and angry. Over eighty-years spent chasing revenge, and now I had nothing. Nothing to live for and nothing to find. That was all fine, though, considering I myself was due to be ripped apart and burned to ash very soon, if I didn't do as Aro asked.

After staring at the pile of papers and contemplating my demise for a while, I finally shoved myself away from the table. I found myself in my bedroom with Katherine's picture in my hands again. Her pretty smile and bright eyes looked out at me, ripe with hope and promise. She'd had so much life in her, even at seventeen. Our future had stretched in front of us like an ocean, vast and wide with endless possibilities.

And then I'd let her die.

I sighed and sat down on the old chaise lounge before turning to the door. She may have moved like a ghost, but, hey, there were two of us here with superhuman hearing, after all.

"I'm glad you made it home safely," I said softly.

Leah nodded from her spot in the doorway and then looked at her feet.

"I wasn't afraid of you," she muttered.

"Your thoughts begged to differ, Leah." I gave her a small, tight smile and waved her in.

She came slowly and joined me, folding herself cross-legged at the opposite end of the chaise longue. I took in her bare feet and the pretty color of the skin of her long legs. She wore battered cut-off jean shorts and a tank top, much like she had the first time she'd shown up at the house.

"Fine, I was a little afraid," she admitted quietly.

"I'm sorry I frightened you," I told her.

Leah finally looked at me then, her dark brown eyes searching mine for a long time, looking for a hint of the monster within. Her mind was blank, however.

"It's fine." She shrugged and picked at a fraying edge of her shorts. "Do you think there are others like him?"

"What do you mean?" I asked, glancing down at Katherine's picture still in my hands.

"Are there others as dangerous as him? As James?"

"Probably." A beat. "You knew that already, though."

"Are you going to go after them? Like you did the others?" she asked with a certain hope in her voice. Like she wanted to make sure I was going to finish saving the world. Like she wanted to help me save it. Like she might even have believed in me.

I shook my head and stood up. "No." I set Katherine's picture back on the shelf and turned away from her pleading eyes.

"What do you mean, 'no'?" She shot up and tugged on my sleeve.

"I can't, Leah. You wouldn't understand." I pulled myself away from her and headed downstairs.

"Like hell I wouldn't understand!" Leah practically yelled as she followed me.

"You're naive, Leah. You don't get it." I spun around, stopping her in her tracks and ultimately ending the conversation.

"You're right," she said coldly. She pushed past me with a glare and then didn't look back as she walked out the back door.

Fuck you. Her thoughts were plenty clear that time.

I groaned and ran out the door after her, not even knowing why I was doing it. For some reason beyond my control I didn't want her to be angry with me. A dying man's last wish, maybe: I needed her to know that stopping now wasn't my call. I needed her to know it was out of my hands. Ego te absolvo, and all that.

"Wait!" I called. Leah turned around to glare at me again before taking a running leap over the river. She landed on her feet and took off running. I caught up with her quickly, grabbing her by the elbow and turning her to face me.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled, pushing me away.

"I'm sorry about what I said," I told her.

Leah narrowed her eyes at me and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"You think I don't understand, Edward? You're right. I don't understand how you could just stop saving people. You have a choice and you're making the wrong one."

"You don't know anything about my choices," I said through my clenched teeth.

"At least you have a choice," she whispered. Then she opened her mind- I mean really opened it. Her thoughts and the images she created flooded my head like a movie reel and I gasped.

There was a boy and a girl, smiling and kissing.

Then a crying girl, her mother comforting her.

A wedding and the same girl, standing alone with her feet in the ocean while tears stained her lovely cheeks.

A funeral. Tears again. A headstone wreathed in white roses.

A gray wolf.

The images kept coming along with the feelings they invoked: pain, sadness, disappointment, anger…so much anger. Compared to the slow-growing smolder of my anger, cultivated for decades, Leah's rage was volcanic, consuming in its immediacy.

And I wanted to burn.

"Stop," I pled finally; my hands were wet, for a reason I couldn't understand, until I realized that her memories had quite literally forced me to my knees.

"Don't tell me I don't understand," she said quietly.

"Leah…" I stood and stepped toward her with my hand outstretched. I knew she didn't want my comfort. In fact, I was almost positive Leah didn't want anyone's comfort.

She let me take her hand, though, and pull her closer to me.

"I don't have a choice, Edward. But if I did I'd still choose to save people. Always," she explained.

I nodded and focused my eyes on hers. They were sad, but dry, and the dark color of them reflected the rising sun. Something about them drew me in, made me want to touch her, to feel her beneath my fingertips like at the club.

Cautiously, I raised my hand and brushed her short hair from her face. Her eyes went wide as I touched her skin and I could hear her pulse pick up, loud as a river in flood. The blood rose in her cheeks, honey tinged with wine, making her look even more beautiful.

She sighed quietly as my fingertips brushed over her cheekbones and under her chin, tipping her face up to mine. I didn't even notice that our bodies had moved across the forest floor until there was nowhere else to go; I'd unknowingly backed her up against a tree. Leah gasped slightly when my body pressed against hers. The heat of her body seemed to radiate through my cold skin, blanketing me like direct sunlight.

My eyes traveled down and focused on her mouth. Before I could do anything she moved. It was quick, inhuman. Her arms were around my neck and her lips were pressed to mine in less than a second.

It was like worlds colliding. I could feel the earth trembling beneath our feet but as her body curved against mine nothing else seemed to matter. My hands slid from her face as I pulled back. Her eyes were wide with astonishment as they focused on my mouth again.

"You taste sweet," Leah said through heavy breaths. I smiled and left a teasing kiss on the corner of her mouth as my hands slipped under her t-shirt. I moved slowly so as not to rip the flimsy material, but I wanted nothing more than to see her. She let me remove her shirt, revealing bare skin, and pulled me closer. I braced my hands behind her, trying to keep myself from touching her though that's all I could think about.

"Please," she whispered and touched my face softly. I let my hands fall from the broad oak to her warm skin, the imprint of my palms evident in the bark. I watched her face as my fingers met her skin again. They moved over her collarbone and rested over her pounding heart. That was the main way Leah was different than the other women I'd encountered in my years. She was alive. Blood pumped through her veins, calling to me. It flooded her skin when I touched her. It let me know that I was doing something right with her.

My hands ran over the swell of her breasts and she arched against me with a soft moan. I smiled and bent toward her, letting my nose skim the side of her face. Her smell was different than a human. Underneath the woodsy, musky scent was something so distinct to Leah. It was sweet but spicy, like cinnamon. Carefully, I let my tongue trace her skin just under her ear.

"You taste sweet, too," I said with my lips to her ear. Leah froze at the contact; I pulled back and, for the first time since we'd kissed, her eyes showed something besides a desperate want and need.

She was afraid.

"I won't hurt you," I whispered, cupping her face gently. She nodded, running her hands down my chest and yanking my shirt over my head, tugging me closer until her overheated skin met mine. Then she kissed me hard with her hands tugging at my hair. My breath left me at the force of it, and I was vaguely aware of the sound of fabric ripping.

"Those were my favorite," Leah said with a little smirk. I looked down to see the remnants of her denim shorts in my hands.

"Whoops." I grinned and let my eyes sweep over her body, drinking her in like a drowning man gasping for air. "Beautiful," I murmured, capturing her mouth with my own again and letting my hand travel down her stomach. Sharp nails scored half-moons into my shoulders when I slipped two fingers inside her, gasping aloud at the slick heat. Leah whimpered against my lips before pushing me away just far enough to yank down my pants. I grabbed her hips, bracing her against the tree where we'd taken refuge, and pressed my forehead to hers.

Leah sensed my hesitation and was quick to frame my face and kiss me gently. I pulled away from her kiss and watched her face as I pushed inside. I watched the surprise fill her eyes at our joining, the temperature change clearly something we'd never experienced before. Her eyes fluttered closed and her head fell back, exposing her slender neck. I could see her pulse moving beneath the thin layer of skin and I pressed my lips to it. She shuddered and tightened her legs around my waist, her hips moving against mine.

I thrust harder, pinning her between my body and the tree. She cried out loudly and her hands tugged at my hair again.

"I'm sorry," I muttered as I pulled back, afraid that I'd hurt her.

"Don't be. Not human, remember?" she gasped, removing her legs from around me and giving me a gentle shove. Of course, a gentle shove from a werewolf landed me on my back on the dirt floor of the forest with Leah hovering over me. She kissed my nose and smiled endearingly before settling her body over mine. I groaned as she moved over me, taking me inside again and resting her hands on my chest.

Leah's movements were slow, savoring me, us, the moment, all of it. My hands settled on her hips, feeling the muscles in her stomach flex as she rocked over me. Her lips were parted, her body slick with sweat. Murmurs fell from her parted lips and her eyelids fluttered, as if she had completely given in to her body.

Feeling a little mischievous, I slid my thumb over a few inches and touched her where we were joined, making feathery circles over the slick skin. She gasped and shivered; her muscles clenched around me, and I gasped a little myself. "Yeah?" I murmured, grinning crookedly up into her stunned-wide eyes, and increased the pressure of my thumb ever so slightly. "Is that a good 'oh'?"

Leah smiled at me slyly and murmured, "I don't know. Better keep doing it so I can be sure...Oh, God." Shuddering, clenching around me, babbling nonsense, she ground herself against me as she came, digging her nails into my chest.

I grabbed her shoulders and rolled us quickly, until I was hovering over her and trying to keep my weight from crushing her, but Leah pulled me closer, hooking her ankles around my waist, and pressed her lips to my neck. I rested my hands next to her head as I pushed myself deeper. She cried out and dug her hands into the dirt. Leaning down, I kissed her gently and tried to control my instincts.

It was a difficult task. I hadn't been enticed by Leah's blood since the first day we met, but being with her like this was different. Every fiber in my body was screaming to take her, to make her mine on a different level. Venom pooled in my mouth and I swallowed it, panting, then buried my face in Leah's hair. I breathed her in and tried to calm myself, to focus on the feeling of her around me– breathing, beautiful, living.

I could feel her hands on my back, nails digging across my impermeable skin. With my face still buried in her hair I let my hand travel down to hold her hip in place. I had no limit really, but Leah was mostly human and I knew enough about humans to know what she needed. I pushed harder, deeper, until she was shuddering around me again. The feel of her rippling around me sent me over the edge until we were both gasping for breath, though I didn't even really need it.

Perfect.

I wasn't sure if I thought that or she did, so I turned us and pulled her onto my chest. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pressed her nose to my skin, breathing deeply.

"I thought I repulsed you," I teased, feeling pretty damn proud to have put that look of sated, dazed abandon on her face.

A sly glint appeared in her eyes. "Oh, but you did...repulse me, Edward," she breathed, closing her teeth around my earlobe, "twice." She nuzzled at my throat when I laughed, inhaling deeply. "You smell like…sunshine."

"Sunshine? Really? You couldn't think of something a little more masculine?" I asked, shoving her off me in mock-disgust and plucking my clothes off the ground. Leah laughed behind me and then stopped suddenly.

"I don't have any pants!" she yelled. I turned to see her glaring at me with her hands on her hips.

"What? You don't have any extra clothes shoved in a tree trunk somewhere?" I asked, smirking.

She narrowed her eyes and sauntered towards me, gloriously naked and more beautiful than any woman or vampire I'd ever seen.

"No. I don't. I'll expect you to make it up to me," she said as she walked past me.

"With what? A trip to the mall?" I joked.

"You'll see," she called and cast a quick glance back at me. "Come get me."

Then she ran. As she ran her body seemed to burst apart and then she was a blur of gray. I grabbed what was left of our clothes and followed her…quickly.

xXx

When I finally caught up with Leah she was human again, and standing in my backyard. Her words echoed in my head as I made my way to her: Come get me. For once in my life I didn't have to think twice about something. I pulled her into my arms and was upstairs before she even had a chance to exhale.

Leah laughed as she pawed impatiently at my pants before pushing them off and pulling me between her legs. I laughed with her. The sound of it startled me. It was loud and carefree and…happy. I couldn't remember the last time I was happy.

The second time was more intense than the first. I knew I didn't have to be careful with her and she was, by no means, careful with me. It occurred to me, sometime between Leah ripping the 400-thread-count Egyptian cotton sheets Alice had bought in Milan and me pressing her against the hardwood floor, that what we were doing was incredibly unnatural. We were mortal enemies, right? That's what the Quileute legends told me.

I couldn't find it in me to care, though.

"What are you thinking?" Leah asked sometime later, raising herself up on her elbow and turning to face me.

"What are you thinking?" I returned, mirroring her stance and resting my hand on her hip.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" she teased before leaning in to kiss me. Her teeth grazed the skin of my chin and I bit back a moan.

"I would, actually. How do you do it?"

Leah frowned and lifted herself off the floor, grabbing what was left of the sheets and wrapping them around her body.

"I don't know, I just do." She shrugged.

"It's like you've been practicing for a long time. You know how to open and close off your thoughts…it's fascinating."

She snorted delicately and turned to the window. It was dark, the sun had set hours ago, and yet I still wasn't finished with her. At that moment I wasn't sure if I'd ever be finished with her.

"I have to go," Leah said quietly without looking at me.

"Are you sure?" I asked as I stepped toward her. She turned and smiled sadly, before nodding and letting the sheet puddle at her feet. My eyes raked over her body, an action that did not go unnoticed by Leah. I watched as a blush crept up her entire body and fought to control what every fiber of my being was telling me to do.

"I'll have to be sneaky though, considering I don't have any clothes," she said with the corners of her mouth turned up. I shrugged and handed her the shirt that I'd thrown on the floor. "Keep it," she said. "Call it a souvenir."

Leah made her way downstairs slowly and I followed. She made it to the door and turned to me, suddenly nervous, with a little smile. I touched her cheek and gently kissed her forehead.

"Goodbye, Edward."

I watched her walk away until I couldn't see her anymore. She leapt over the stream and darted into the woods, then was just a blur again.

"She's lovely. Very much out of your league," a voice said from behind me.

"Still following me?" I pushed myself past Demetri and walked quickly into the house.

"Aro's still waiting, Cullen."

"Oh, I think I need a little more time. You'll tell him that for me, won't you?" I tossed him an overconfident grin and opened the front door. "Wonderful to see you again, of course."

"Go to hell," he called as he made it down the stairs and up the driveway.

I laughed to myself at his words. "Soon enough, if your boss has his way," I muttered.