"Wait."

I had nearly reached the door when Christopher's hand closed over my wrist, pulling me back. I turned to face him.

"I thought maybe we could talk some more." He glanced meaningfully toward the door. "Away from prying ears."

Without waiting for a response or refusal, Christopher pulled me toward the window wall, pushing against one of the panes. To my surprise, it swung open. He grinned at me, letting go of my hand and taking one step into the open air, gracefully gliding to the ground. A moment's hesitation was all it took for me to follow him, stepping forward through the open window.

The fall was short, and I landed as gracefully on the balls of my feet as he had. I stood straight and pulled a hair tie from my pocket, hoisting my still-damp hair behind my head and securing it into a messy bun. Christopher stood patiently, smiling, holding one hand out for me to take. I placed my palm in his, but I knew he could read the conflict on my face as I pressed my teeth into my bottom lip.

"Relax," he breathed, his face suddenly inches from mine. His breath tickled my skin as he brushed his lips lightly against mine, pulling away too soon. With a jerk of his head toward the house, he wove his fingers through mine. "I know you promised to talk to Carlisle about some things. We'll be back soon."

He pulled me toward him before letting go of my hand and placing both of his hands on my hips and slowly turning me around, so I faced away from him. I could feel my heart beating faster in my chest as he moved close enough that his chest was almost pressed against my back. Goosebumps raised along my skin as his breath tickled my neck.

"Close your eyes," he said, his hair brushing against my ear. His low voice vibrated from within his chest, sending a shiver down my spine as I instinctively leaned back into him. He watched the side of my face until I did as I was told. When my eyes were closed, he kissed my temple, then whispered into my hair.

"Take a deep breath."

I followed this instruction as well, inhaling deeply. His fingertips fluttered against my hip bones.

"Good," he said, kissing the space between my neck and shoulders. "Now, pick a direction, and run."

This direction confused me slightly, breaking through the meditative state I'd felt myself slipping into. I hesitated, and he pressed another kiss against my neck.

"Trust me, love," he murmured against my skin. "You lead; I'll follow."

There was no question in my mind that I trusted him. I picked a direction, and I ran. He gave me several seconds' head start, and then I could feel him behind me, keeping pace easily across the icy, snow-covered ground. We wove between the trees, leaped off cliffs, and jumped over frozen rivers. I realized as I pushed my legs to move faster and further that it had been forever since I'd felt this kind of freedom. I yanked the elastic band out of my hair and let it fly freely behind me, not caring about the mess that I would have to deal with whenever we finally stopped.

At some point, I became vaguely aware that we were probably close to crossing into Canada. It was only then that I considered slowing down, but just as the thought occurred to me, my foot hit a patch of ice wrong, setting me off balance and sending me airborne like an off-kilter rocket. Before I knew it, Christopher had launched himself into the path of my flailing body, and we toppled into a snow drift together as he caught me.

We were both laughing hysterically as I struggled to sit up against the way our arms and legs had tangled together in the fall. He managed to get to his feet, pulling me up with him and brushing snow out of my hair. He was still chuckling when I found myself captivated by the way his snow-damped hair hung in thick curls around his face. Reaching up on my tiptoes, I grasped his face in my hands and pulled him to me, pressing my lips to his. He pulled away too soon, chuckling when I pouted.

"Come this way," he said, stroking my protruding lower lip with his thumb before taking my hand and leading me toward a cliff. When we reached the edge, I followed his gaze with my own, spying two cougars ambling through a clearing below us. I looked at him curiously.

"I told you," he said softly, in a voice too low to spook the animals, "that Garrett and I talked mostly about you. We also talked about this." It only took me a second to understand what he meant as he nodded toward the clearing.

"But you don't…." I turned and reached for his face again, looking more closely at his eyes. His iris were dark, the mark of a vampire who hadn't fed recently. But even in the onyx, I could see flecks of rubies. Christopher smiled and kissed my forehead.

"You're a doctor. You said yourself you prefer eating human food to…well…eating humans."

I shook my head. "But that doesn't mean you have to change anything."

"That's just it, Els. I've already changed." He held his hand up to my face, letting the back of his fingers drift along my cheek. My head tilted automatically, leaning into his touch. His eyes probed mine, and I knew it before he could say anymore. We were both changed. The universe was shifting around us, recreating itself to fit into this new existence.

"Everything is different now," I whispered, looking over my shoulder down into the clearing. I stepped toward the edge, clutching one of his hands in mine. I shot a sideways glance at him, and he grinned. As if reading each other's minds, we jumped off the cliff together, taking off after the cougars as soon as our feet touched the ground below.

Christopher was right, of course, when he noted my preference not to hunt humans. Drinking blood for nourishment had never been appealing to me, even as a child and lifetimes before I had the ability to provide medical care. But it wasn't hard for my hunting instinct to take over, especially when trailing just a few feet behind Christopher in our pursuit of the magnificent beasts. I might have been nervous about not knowing what to do once I caught up to one, but again, instinct took over. And when we'd each had our fill, other instincts took hold.

"Are you cold?" I could feel the smirk on Christopher's lips as he left a trail of kisses along my collarbone, his hands wandering lazily over my skin. I tightened my arms around him, my fingers tangling in his hair and pulling his face back to mine.

"Do I feel cold to you?" I pulled my body tightly against him, pressing my mouth against his for a deep kiss.

"Mm," he murmured as his lips moved with mine. "Definitely not." The blood from our hunt on his tongue, mixed with the taste of us together, sent me spiraling. I rolled from my side to my back, pulling him over me. The frozen ground beneath me couldn't have chilled my skin even as his body sank down on top of mine. The fire he'd built when it became apparent that we would be in no fit state to return to the Cullen house any time soon crackled at our feet, but it was the heat that smoldered between our bodies that engulfed us over and over again.

"I think you said something about talking."

Christopher lay with his head resting between my breasts, his hair tickling my skin with the vibration of his quiet laughter. I stroked his chestnut curls with one hand and rested the other against his chest, his fingers tracing patterns from my knuckles to my wrist and back again. The sun had long set, and together we stared up at the stars that dotted the purple-black sky. Christopher turned his head to press a gentle kiss against the swell of one of my breasts and then slowly sat up. I propped myself up on my elbows, watching as he reached for the clothes he'd laid out near the fire to dry. I pouted when he handed me my things.

"Clothes for talking," he said with a chuckle as he leaned over to give me a quick peck on my lips.

"Fine." I sighed dramatically as I stood. The fabric was warm against my skin after drying near the fire. After we'd dressed, we sat down on a fallen log near the struggling embers, our knees almost touching as we faced each other. We smiled at the same time, both of us recalling the last time we'd sat together in almost the same configuration.

"Is this what you thought it would be?" My teeth pressed into my bottom lip. "All that time you were looking for me?" I could feel the blush creeping over my chest and up my neck as I waited for his answer.

"Yes," he said immediately, taking my hands in his. "And no."

My brow furrowed. "No?"

He shook his head, his eyes sparkling. "It's better."

"Better?"

He moved closer to me, his hands moving to my thighs and squeezing me gently. "I imagined what it would be like to find you, to take you in my arms," he paused, looking away for a second. When he looked back at me, his face was serene and confident. "I imagined what it would be like to finally tell you that I love you. From the moment I first saw you, I've always loved you."

I wasn't sure I could remember how to breathe, let alone speak. There was a part of my brain that was relieved that one of us finally spoke the word aloud because I couldn't find another word to describe the inexplicable way my entire world had shifted. I wanted to say that, but the words just wouldn't come. Instead, I reached forward, clutching the front of his shirt and pulling him forward. I poured everything I couldn't quite speak into a kiss that I hoped he understood. When I pulled away, we were both breathing heavily.

"I love you," I managed when my breathing slowed. I'd never seen a smile as brilliant as the one that spread across his face. Victory, relief, and amazement flickered in his eyes; he looked as if he'd won the most sought-after prize on the planet.

"I have," he replied unabashedly when I told him so.

I laughed, shaking my head in disbelief. My eyes dropped to focus on where I'd started anxiously picking flecks of bark off the decaying log.

"You can't possibly know that."

A few seconds passed, and then I felt two fingers touch my chin, applying the lightest pressure and urging me to look up again. When I did, I forced myself not to look away from Christopher's face. The confidence hadn't left his eyes, but they'd widened slightly with a tenderness I was starting to recognize.

"What's scaring you, love?"

"I think the better question is, what isn't?" I let out a dark laugh, but Christopher didn't laugh with me. He waited, his entire demeanor exuding tenderness and patience. I bit my lip. "I'm afraid you've spent your life looking for me, and when the thrill of finding me wears off…." I looked away, though his fingers still rested beneath my chin. I felt the absurdity of my words, but now that I'd started, I couldn't stop them from coming. "I'm scared I will have to watch you be tortured and die because my…family…is sick and twisted. And most of all, I'm scared that I already don't know what I would ever do without you."

I'd never seen a smile as brilliant as the smile on Christopher's face when I finally forced myself to look him in the eye again.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I would have thought the daughter of the Volturi would have figured it out by now."

I screwed up my face. "First of all, we will not be calling me 'the daughter of the Volturi.'"

At this, he laughed. "Fair enough." He curled the two fingers ever so slightly against my chin, giving him leverage to pull me closer as he leaned in to press a conciliatory kiss against my lips. When he pulled away, he took hold of both of my hands. "Ellie. You know what it is for vampires to mate, right?"

"But how could that be…." I shook my head in protest. "I'm not really…."

"You are," he said. "Has it ever occurred to you that you're not half of anything? You're just…both."

"But…"

He silenced me with a finger over my lips. "You aren't less vampire or less human than anyone else. I watched you hunt that cougar. You were everything I was, but…." His hand dropped to my chest, his palm resting against the center of my chest, his fingers pressing gently into the fabric of my shirt.

"You're more. Your heart beats," he smiled at the pink hue my skin took on as his hand lingered. "Your blood rushes under your skin; your lungs crave the air you breathe."

"She is a marvelous creature."

It all happened so fast. Before I could fully register that someone else was in the clearing with us, I was on my feet, standing behind a crouched and snarling Christopher.

Demetri stood a few dozen feet away, unbothered by Christopher's aggressive stance.

"There's no need for all that."