Author's Note: As promised, some EPOV to go along with the Culwoode Hall story! This drabble covers what happens after Edward and Bella's first meeting in the drive at the end of chapter 2.

I've titled this fic with a phrase from Rochester and Jane's first meeting in Chapter 14 of Jane Eyre. I'm also naming each chapter with a quote from Rochester…just cuz it's fun. :)

"I see at intervals the glance of a curious sort of bird through the close-set bars of a cage: a vivid, restless, resolute captive is there; were it but free, it would soar cloud-high."

- One: The Very Devil -

"To women who please me only by their faces, I am the very devil…"
Jane Eyre, Chapter 24

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

It haunted me. Tortured me.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

The sound was nothing but a ghost, I knew; I could no more hear that muscle contracting at this distance than I could make my own heart beat again.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

I wanted to rage, to howl, to rip the throat from every red-blooded being in existence. Whatever it took to silence the incessant sound of her heartbeat, permanently echoing in my brain.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

My traitorous mind recreated the rhythm in my churning footsteps as I ran, in the whipping of the branches blown aside by my passing, in the flapping of the wings of the birds sent flying in terror as I approached.

Blood. The kind I could not have ever imagined existed. The kind that I would never be able to resist.

The kind that would ruin all of my careful planning, my one shot at redemption for my most terrible, unforgivable crime.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

I would have it. I must. I would burn to ash without it.

Thump-thump, thump-thump.

I couldn't. I mustn't. I would be damned if I took it.

Edward!

In my red haze of agony, I barely recognized Carlisle's mind, shouting out to me.

Thump-thu—

Edward, please! Stop!

It was enough to interrupt the incessant echo of the girl's heartbeat that had been reverberating in my ear since I'd done the impossible—left her.

I slowed enough for Carlisle to catch me, but I knew I couldn't stop. If I did, I would turn back and the girl would be dead by morning.

"You did right," Carlisle said as he reached my side. "I'm proud of you."

A different kind of pain filled my chest—shame, deep shame. But my father's voice cleared some of the thick fog of bloodlust clouding my rational side; I felt steadier, more in control already.

"Nessie was the only thing that made me hesitate at all," I whispered. "If she weren't there, I would have ripped that girl's throat out before Alice could reach me."

But even in that moment, you were able to think of Nessie's safety.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" I snapped. "That I had enough self-control to wait until the child was out of sight to murder her tutor?"

Carlisle sighed but made no reply. Still, I could see the memories flashing through his head of the times Jasper and Emmett had not been able to wait—and the consequences that followed.

This, though, would be another level of consequence, and I knew it.

"Come to the house," Carlisle said. "Esme would love to see you."

He couldn't stop the underlying thought, that he would keep me from returning to Washington. I saw in his mind that they'd prepared for every possibility, including putting Jasper on patrol around Culwoode, just in case I slipped the net.

I felt the sting of it, though I knew it was necessary. If my family didn't stop me, I would almost certainly break.

"I need to hunt," I said. I hadn't had the self-control to pause long enough to feed until now.

Carlisle nodded, steering me east toward the mountains on the horizon. I was surprised to realize I'd run almost to the border of the Yukon Territory, far past where the rest family had built their latest residence on Fraser Lake in central British Columbia.

Emmett says the Northern Rockies are prime for bears, Carlisle thought wryly.

But I knew no animal on earth could slake the unbearable thirst that Isabella Swan had awakened in me.