Chapter 6 - Stalker

Her!

After so much useless searching in Pleasantville, I found her here, in Manhattan. I had registered to audit classes at Dyson College and spent many weeks there - not only because of the psychology course I was supposed to follow, but also looking into every lecture hall the college had, just to find her.

I parked my bike around the corner, and searched for the mind of her companion - the tall girl my target had embraced. She was obviously a Native American, and she absolutely shouldn't see me. Fortunately the dirty smell of exhaust gases pervaded the air, so there was nothing to give me away, if she were one of the Quileutes.

As the sun had gone for the day I removed my helmet and followed the two girls at a distance, reading the tall one's mind. Through her eyes I could follow their route, see the streets they were crossing, until they reached a three story building, and I saw them getting in. In her head she was calling her friend Bella, so I finally had a name to go by.

Circling around the building, I was able to climb to the roof undetected – it was quite dark by then - and I set about listening. The third floor apartment was deserted, so I found the two girls easily on the second floor. I couldn't sense Bella's mind; she was a blank to me, and this was very puzzling. But, however muffled, I could hear them speaking, and of course I could follow the Indian girl's thoughts. I found out her name was Leah.

Before I could settle on the roof, they had been already speaking, and the first sentence I heard had me almost jumping.

No, we aren't safe, no. Nobody is safe yet. But we moved to the East Coast for a while and Allie asked me to come and see you. Seth is with her now, until I get back.

For a while their conversation became inconsequential: they spoke of dresses – as females, human or not, are wont to do. Boring, until Bella went to make some more tea, and her friend was left to her own devices.

The memory her mind was dwelling on now was weird: she was in a forest, walking with a girl. I froze, because I knew her. Alice Cullen, no doubt about it. They got to a pond. Alice undressed to basics and went into the water, until she was completely submerged. And her companion… how could I describe what she did? Her body tingled and expanded, while she made a movement in the air very similar to diving. I felt in Leah's mind her powerful muscles pumping while she started to run. From the corner of her eyes I could see giant paws covered in gray fur moving in front of her. She was a wolf, one of the shape-shifting Quileutes, and I had experienced her metamorphosis. Amazing. Then I saw that other thoughts were present in her brain, but I couldn't make any sense of them. Was she hearing voices? Only one actually, I soon realized. I was utterly confused; in a sense it was like I felt when I first discovered I could read minds, after my change. What was going on in the wolf-girl's head?

I was so absorbed in my wonder, that I didn't realize Bella was back and they had resumed talking. I'd missed part of what had been said, and now they had decided to go out for dinner. Bella was talking about a Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood. I decided not to follow them, as they would surely come back.

As I felt their chatter vanishing, I wondered if I should visit the apartment. Breaking and entering wouldn't be a problem, but then I realized that the Quileute would probably be able to sniff the presence of a vampire. No, I wouldn't risk it while she was still with Bella.

After a long wait, much longer than it would have been necessary to eat a dinner, I saw Bella in the street below. But she was alone. Where had the native girl gone? I had thought to follow her, because I wanted to discover where Alice was staying, but Leah had unwittingly fooled me. I should have imagined it – she didn't have any kind of luggage, no overnight bag, so she must have gone back to whatever place she was staying.

Later, when everybody in the building was obviously sleeping, I risked going down the fire escape till I reached Bella's window.

Her bedroom was a cubicle, almost. There was space for a queen sized bed, a single night stand, a combined chest of drawers and secretary, and a chair. The room's door opened, and I flattened myself against the window's side, damning the fact that I couldn't read Bella's intentions.

They were manifest in a second, however: sliding up the glass pane, she opened her window, leaned on the sill and inhaled. I did the same, and I was lost.

At first I thought it was thirst. I'd never smelled anything so good in my whole existence, and I'd never been so thirsty; at least after my newborn stage, that is. Drinking her blood would have been easy, that side of her house looked on a small alley and the back of a super market, deserted at night. Nobody would see me; I could take her and drain her in seconds. But, if she died, I would never discover her secrets. And I didn't want to do the Volturi's dirty work for them. The very idea pissed me off. So I stopped breathing and, at the same time, Bella retreated and closed the window. Not that it would stop me, but I was grateful for the barrier. Carefully, I inhaled.

Her delicious scent lingered, and I wasn't all right, not at all. After I'd swallowed the scorching venom filling my mouth, I became aware of the rest of my body. Stunned, I recognized a craving that had nothing to do with bloodlust. Desire coursed in my dry veins - a desire to have, to possess and to know this mysterious girl with the alluring scent and the closed mind.

Later on I hoped it was safe for me to peep inside. The room was empty till Bella re-entered the room and fished under her cushion for her night clothes. Oh hell, she was undressing. I knew I shouldn't watch but, mesmerized, I did. She was beautiful, and I ogled her perfect little frame. I was ashamed, but not enough to shut my eyes, while a bolt of lust coursed through me.

Once she had put on a makeshift pajama – sweat pants and an oversized t-shirt - she went to her secretary, which had a laptop on the opened flap. I watched her hands intently while she activated the computer, trying to commit to memory what her fingers were doing. I surely was going to have a look at the laptop when I could get into her rooms, because I might discover in it what her silent brain wouldn't tell me.

After she had written for some time, she shut the computer and went to bed.

My throat raged; I needed to hunt, this was certain, but leaving Bella's window caused me pain. I would be back as soon as I could.

After two hours I hadn't found anybody suitable: there weren't a lot of people around and nobody with criminal intentions I could detect. Of course, I could take just anybody, but I was loath to deviate from my recent feeding choices. On the other side of the street there was a hospital, however. Now, if I could find a way to sneak in…

It wasn't difficult. An easy-to-break up back door gave me access. Visitors had gone, and patients were either sleeping or too ill to pay attention, while the nurses were at their stations on the different floors. When one moved to take a new blood bag for a patient's IV, I learned where they were kept, so I went there undetected and stole three of them. Relieved, I drank.

Retracing my steps to the Village, I wondered if I could find a way to procure some bagged blood to keep at home. It would put my empty fridge to some use, at least. The taste hadn't been great – too many preservatives – and yet I felt it would be liberating. Death, I mocked, would you approve of it? If I get free of the need to hunt humans, I might reconnect with my humanity faster, maybe. Then I laughed at myself. This night was getting weirder and weirder.

In her room Bella was still sleeping, but not in a restful way. What was happening in her dreams? Surprised, I got a few unconnected images: a man laid on the grass on a solitary road … an ambulance coming, and he, the head of the Cullen's coven, speaking with the paramedics. Strange, when she wasn't conscious her mind was not completely sealed to me. While I pondered on this mystery, she muttered something that sounded like family… no more… and whimpered. A few tears escaped from her closed eyes.

Again I admired her beauty – a beauty devoid of any artifice: the mass of her mahogany hair spread on her pillow, long, dark lashes resting on pale cheeks, soft, pink lips slightly open. Bella, who are you? I'll unravel your secrets, I swore tomyself. My short vigil stopped at dawn; I knew I had to go because, once activities in the supermarket restarted, I would risk to be seen. So, very reluctantly, I reached the ground and left. Apart from everything, I'd left my motorcycle haphazardly parked, and with just the alarm lock on. Now I needed to find a better place for it and secure it better.

The night that had just passed had been an "only good guys around" one, evidently, as I had already discovered when attempting to hunt. My bike was untouched; nobody had tampered with the lock. I rode it carefully for a few blocks, till I found a place where others were parked, with the benefit of a bar to secure the bike to it with a safety chain. I then went back to Bella's house and jumped on the terraced roof, where I could stay unseen, crouched behind the parapet. Inside the building people were stirring, but of course nothing came to me from Bella's apartment. The only solution was to peep out and see her when she left the house.

To complicate things further, the sun was probably going to make an appearance today, so walking with a helmet, even with the visor raised - but still shadowing my skin – wasn't a good idea. The normal, unsuspicious thing would be to carry it under my arm. Surely, I could jump from roof to roof until I got near my motorcycle, but this part of New York was indeed like a village. People were not like elsewhere, walking fast with their ear buds on, oblivious of their surroundings. Here they might even pay attention, so I decided to stay put. Finally, Bella came out from the house and walked away. It was time to visit her home.

The delivery vans had stopped arriving, and now there was nobody in the supermarket's back yard. I flew to the fire escape landing and tried the window's glass pane. It opened easily: It was broken. Very unsafe.

Once inside, her scent hit me like a freight train. Venom pooled in my mouth and thirst raged. And not only thirst. Had she been at home… with horror I imagined myself doing unspeakable things to her, and then drinking her dry. No. I was a member of the Volturi elite, and I was used to controlling myself among humans. I had never taken a female by force, let alone a mortal one. Slowly, the frenzy receded. But, in order not to destroy her when we would be face to face, I had to desensitize myself. I'll steal something of hers, before I go.

Presently, however, it was her computer that had priority. I opened it and let it start. It was mostly empty, no e-mail, and not many saved documents. Evidently Bella cleaned her cache, her chronologies and cookies and, for e-mail, she accessed some external account with a username and a password I had yet to discover. But yesterday she had spent almost an hour writing.

I clicked on the Admin icon, then on documents. Inside there were only two folders respectively named Utilities & Contracts, and Recipes. The first one was exactly what it was supposed to be and of no interest. I opened the Recipes file. Mm, she was interested in cooking, evidently. The file list contained a few items, the names meaningless to me: Rice and zucchini pie, Lamb in sour sauce, Clam Chowder, Panzanella - probably an Italian dish - and Brownies. Slightly repelled, I read the mysterious directions one had to follow in order to prepare the disgusting concoctions. The last file, however, refused to open. It was encrypted and I needed a password.

Vampires, of course, have an almost eidetic memory. Since the window was transversal to the laptop, I had been able to see the keyboard, but not the screen, and I didn't know what folder she had clicked on. I concentrated on what Bella's fingers had been doing the night before and tried the keys she had pressed.

N…E…M…E…S…I…S

The file opened. It wasn't a recipe:

March 30

Leah came to visit me! She had to go back, I left her at Grand Central …

I had found Bella's diary – concealed, but not well enough.

.

Notes

The recipes are ones I have in my computer. Couldn't resist.

Since The oldest one posted a review to chapter 4 as "guest" and I can't answer, I want to thank her for this insightful review: Thank you for pointing out something that has bothered me about the Twilight canon: the vampires disdain humans as cattle, but they need human art, culture, even everyday things like buildings, furniture and clothes. Is Volterra full of vampire seamstresses whipping up cloaks for everyone? I don't think so. They are hypocritical parasites indeed!" In fact Edward is developing a strong contempt for the species he belongs to and the deep regret for the "different" vampires he has helped to destroy is gnawing at him,