I'm not Stephenie Meyer, and I'm okay with that. Finally: Bella finds out about vampires! I tried hard to do this scene justice and I think I like the final result. If you have any opinions—good, bad, or neutral, please share them via reviews or messages! As a note, chapters one through five have been touched up for some very minor continuity errors and to improve the writing. Chapters six through present should be finished by the next time I update.

What the hell?

"Are you okay?" Edward was abruptly at my side, carefully not touching me. I was grateful that he was respecting my personal space.

"M-m-maybe." I was still focusing on just breathing. The terror was receding, leaving behind relief so intense it was nauseating.

"Can you stand up?" He offered a hand to support me. I ignored it, struggling to my feet by myself. I was shaky but upright as he rose gracefully to tower over me once more. Emmett and Jasper were nowhere to be seen, but it was dark enough that they could be ten feet away and I wouldn't have been able to pick them out.

"W-w-what are you d-doing here?" My heart was slowing down a little, but I was not even close to being over the situation.

Edward shrugged, looking a little uncomfortable. "We were just… passing by, and we thought we saw something weird going on, so we stopped."

"Where's your car?" I demanded, seizing on a tiny detail to put off confronting everything for one more minute.

"It's right over there," he waved in the direction of the highway.

"You tried that on me before and it didn't work, what makes you think it will this time?" I snapped, aware that I was becoming irrationally angry, but somehow it helped. "What did Emmett mean when he said 'our land?' What did that guy mean about eating people?"

"Bella, none of that is what it sounded like." I recognized his tone from the car accident. This time I was sure that he was lying, and I wasn't going to let it go.

"The hell it wasn't," I snapped, my terror forgotten. "He talked like he knew you guys. That man knew who you were! What did he mean about eating people?!"

"Bella," Edward said, sounding desperate now, "Bella, please calm down. You're in shock."

I yanked my phone out of my bag. "I'm calling the police."

Edward reached out a hand as if to stop me, and I realized how close we were standing. Then I remembered how that guy, the one who had manhandled me like a sack of potatoes, had been afraid… and maybe I should be scared too. Edward must have read my expression because he pulled the hand back, palm out as if to indicate that I had nothing to fear. "Please don't do that, Bella," he said, and his voice sounded more sincere than I'd ever heard from him before. "We're on your side."

"How can that be possible when he talked about eating people like you'd just understand? And you answered him! I don't think I'm overreacting!" My phone was still in my hands; what were the odds that I could dial 911 before Edward could stop me? No, I realized suddenly with my heart sinking to my stomach, I have to call Jessica first. She might get here even without directions. She has to be safe.

As if summoned, my phone began to ring. Edward met my gaze, grimaced, and then shrugged, looking defeated. "I'll give you answers if you tell Jessica you're safe, so she doesn't come looking for you and run into him."

I stared at him calculatingly. "We go to a public place and you tell me everything."

"Deal," he said, too quickly.

I answered the phone. "Hi, Jessica, sorry. I ran into Edward Cullen—" I met his gaze, but he didn't seem upset that I had let her know who I was with "—and started talking. I'm actually going to a thing with him? He promised me a ride back to Forks, too, so you and Angela don't have to worry about me."

"Oh!" She sounded surprised and relieved. "You have to tell me everything tomorrow! Do you want us to hang around town to make sure you're okay? Because we can totally do that."

"No, no, that's okay," I hastily reassured her.

"We ate while we were waiting for you so if you're sure you're good, we'll probably be leaving for Forks in a few minutes."

"Safe drive!"

"You too!"

We both hung up and then I turned to face Edward again, morbidly glad that no matter what else happened this evening Jessica and Angela wouldn't be involved. "Public place. Answers."

"I'll take you to my car and we'll drive to a restaurant," he promised.

"I have pepper spray," I threatened. He looked like he was hiding a smile, but gestured toward the highway. I gathered what dignity I had left and walked in the direction he had indicated.

True to his word, the silver car that I had seen him drive was parked on the verge. Jasper and Emmett stood next to it, arguing quietly.

Edward cleared his throat, loudly, and both of them looked up. Was I imagining it, or did Jasper look guilty?

"He got away," Emmett complained. "But I called Rosie—she and Carlisle are coming up and we'll have us a good hunt."

"What would Carlisle do?" Edward asked quietly, staring at Jasper.

Jasper frowned and turned away. Emmett made a face and followed him, the two quickly disappearing into the darkness. I was past caring about cryptic conversations, though. I was ready for some answers. Edward opened the side door for me and I sat down, gratefully leaning my head back. I belatedly realized that I was shaking and also very cold. Edward looked my way as he slid into the car, turned the heat all the way up, and then rolled down his window.

"Do you like Italian food?" he asked, pulling onto the highway in the direction that I had come from.

The question startled me and I laughed shakily. "Yes."

We sat in silence until Edward pulled smoothly into a parking space in front of La Belle Italia. He got out of the car and headed around to my side, but I had already opened the door and was climbing out. We headed into the restaurant, still silent. Edward asked for a quiet table and the server seated us in a dim corner of the restaurant, flirting rather more than was necessary. It would be silly to mind that, but I did. I ascribed it to a desire to get straight to the conversation and focused on ignoring her until she brought over two Cokes.

"Tell me what you know," Edward began, pushing one of the Cokes towards me. I sipped it eagerly, attempting to organize my thoughts into something coherent.

"The car crash," I said, trying to create a timeline, "it—you—you came out of nowhere. You moved too fast and—and then you lied about it. You lied about it and you made me think I was crazy."

"Anything else?" Edward wasn't quite meeting my eyes.

"Someone—a friend—" I didn't want to drag Jacob's name into this "—told me that you were dangerous. He seemed really sure about being right."

Edward's expression sharpened, but he made no comment except for "Is that all?"

"Of course not!" I spluttered. "I was just sent to the middle of nowhere by a librarian, who followed me, grabbed me, shook off pepper spray like it was nothing, and tried to eat me. And then you guys just showed up out of nowhere, at just the right moment, and… and he ran. The scariest person—the strongest person—I've ever met in my entire life ran away from three high schoolers."

"What do you think is going on?" he asked, sounding too patient.

Beautiful. Strong. Fast. People-eating. The words flew through my head over and over, and I could only think of one explanation, as crazy as it sounded. "You're vampires," I blurted before I even knew what I was saying.

Edward's face changed, somehow, and—impossibly—I knew that I had scored a hit. "You've seen me in daylight," he said, and I heard the evasion.

Here was the one occasion that my familiarity with classic literature was useful. "Carmilla was fine in daylight," I argued.

"Carmilla was a fictional character."

"You haven't told me I'm wrong," I said, leaning in.

He picked up the other Coke, looked at it, and set it back down. "You don't want to know."

"I do," I insisted. "If you don't tell me, I'll find out another way."

Edward winced. "That would be… unwise."

"You promised me answers."

He met my gaze squarely across the table. "You'll be better off if I don't tell you. Most people don't really want to know that there's anything unbelievable in the world, even if they think that they do."

I took a deep breath and thought about it, doing my best to ignore the butterflies and cottonmouth that always struck me when I looked too closely at him. I considered my aspirations to be a journalist, my frustration with secrets and lies, my need for knowledge, and I came to a definite conclusion. "I can't do that."

Edward sighed and rubbed long fingers across the bridge of his nose. "I shouldn't be surprised."

I felt momentarily pleased that this boy, with golden—no, I corrected myself, they were black—eyes that looked like they could see straight through to my soul, was surprised by anything I might do, but the feeling vanished as quickly as it had come. "Tell me."

He grimaced. "You're right."

Somehow, this wasn't what I had been expecting. My stomach tied itself into a knot, but before I could say anything he continued.

"Vampires," he dropped his voice slightly, as if to avoid eavesdroppers, "exist. Maybe a few thousand."

"How?" I asked. It was the only word I could seem to form.

His mouth twisted, almost mockingly. "It depends on who you ask."

"How is it a secret?" I couldn't understand how something this big could be hidden.

"The laws surrounding secrecy are strictly enforced and those who break them are harshly punished."

"There are laws?" I understood, belatedly, that he was breaking those laws by telling me any of this. "Made by governments?"

His eyes shifted to the side. "Not human ones."

I could feel myself beginning to hyperventilate and I made an effort to control my breathing. "What parts of the stories are true?"

"Wait," he said, looking in the direction of the kitchen. "I think your food is coming."

I frowned, seeing nothing, but before I could open my mouth the waitress appeared with my plate of mushroom ravioli. I picked at in in silence as she asked Edward if she could get him anything, refilled my Coke, and then disappeared again.

"We don't age." He looked into his glass like it contained the answer to some question he didn't know how to ask.

"You're immortal?" I shouldn't have been surprised, but the concept was foreign to my mind.

"We can perish," he corrected, and my eyebrows furrowed at his choice of words, "but not of old age."

"How old are you?" I asked, though I wasn't sure that I wanted to know the answer.

"Seventeen."

"No, I mean—"

"I was born in 1901," he said gently. "I died in 1918."

"Died?"

"Yes." His tone was still kind, but final.

"What—I mean, how do you—do you eat people?"

"No… and yes." Edward finally looked up from his glass, and my stomach fluttered as we stared into each other's eyes. "My family doesn't. Some others don't. The rest… yes."

"What do you eat?"

Edward made a vague gesture. "Overpopulated animals, troublesome predators. When animal blood gets too unbearable, blood bank surplus."

"Blood, then." I laughed, the sound strangled in my suddenly-tight throat. "I'm a vegetarian." It was all I could think of to say.

"I know," he said, his smile rueful. "For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

"Blood," I repeated. "He would have…" I trailed off, unable to finish my sentence as nausea and revulsion roiled. "I almost—"

"You didn't," he said quickly.

"But Waylon, and the hikers—was that him?" I pushed my plate away, no longer able to face food.

Edward grimaced. "Yes."

"I guess he's not really a librarian, then."

He let out a startled chuckle. "No, he's not. Most vampires don't stay in one place for too long, so it's difficult to have jobs."

"But you do? Stay in one place, I mean." I reached for my Coke but it was empty, though I hadn't remembered drinking it all. Edward, seeing my abbreviated action, pushed his undrunk glass toward me and I sipped thankfully.

"We do."

"Why?"

"Carlisle thinks we can make the world a better place, a little bit at a time." He smiled wistfully and looked at his hands, folded on top of the table. "The rest of us would like to believe him."

I reached across the table impulsively, touching his cold hands. "Maybe you can." Like Renee, I always wanted to believe the best of people. As our eyes met my fear and confusion disappeared, replaced by a calm certainty that everything was going to work out, somehow. For the first time in my life, I didn't need lists to be sure of what I was doing.

The moment evaporated as the waitress reappeared to ask if we wanted dessert and we hastily separated. Edward asked for the check and paid with a single bill when it arrived a moment later, handing it to the waitress with a smile that made her blush. He didn't seem to notice, though; his attention was focused on me. A part of me was flattered, but the rest recognized that he was waiting to see if I was about to scream or run.

I wasn't. As we made our way back to his car, my mind was racing, turning over the possibilities of what I had just discovered. I was sure of one thing: I wasn't about to leave this revelation unexplored.