Chapter 7
Hours later
Bella sat on the kitchen table, legs crossed, after hearing Edward tell her everything that had happened.
She hadn't responded or reacted once.
"Soon, it will wear out," he promised. "You will be another regular human being. I'll foresee your future and I can even tell you what may yet come. What beautiful things you will go through in this life."
She watched him strangely.
He didn't blame her.
"You're still young," he said optimistically. "Only twenty years old. You've got your whole life in front of you."
He craved for a drop of blood, but he couldn't leave now.
Not yet.
He needed to assure she was okay. So he waited, with her, until his venom would wear out.
It ought to wear out any minute now.
Right?
More hours later
Bella had shifted towards the front yard, lying on the pavement and stared at the stars for hours.
Edward stared at the little girl in return, and waited for the moment he'd finally hear her thoughts.
"What are you thinking?" he asked, when the silence had lasted for too long.
She didn't respond immediately.
But once she did, her voice was just as he had memorized. The voice of an angel.
"I've never seen the stars like this. It's mesmerizing. I can see them much more clearly now than ever before."
He glanced up at the stars too, briefly, until he looked back at her.
The stars looked just the same to Edward as they always did. Perhaps for the eyes of hers, they looked different now. He had forgotten what stars looked like for a human.
Mesmerizing.
It was the word he'd thought of her.
She was mesmerizing. But that was merely when he'd thought she's extraordinary.
For thinking his gifts didn't work on her for some special reason.
For thinking his venom made her stronger for some special reason.
For thinking her blood made him human for some special reason.
There was no special reason. It had all been the poising pushed inside her body.
It wasn't wearing out.
When the fuck would it wear out?
They had been waiting for hours already.
More and more hours later
"Edward."
Her eyes met his.
His were already locked on her face.
In fact, Edward hadn't looked away from her these past few hours. Not once.
He kept seeing that vision where she reached forward and kissed him.
He was waiting for that moment to happen.
"Is that your name?" she said. "It's what one of the vampires called you."
The first vision had shown - A comment about his name.
"It is," he swallowed.
Fuck.
There was no longer her blood in his system. Her blood no longer made him human. But still he felt strange human emotions stirring inside of him.
Something like nervosity.
"What an old name," she commented. "Your name has a beautiful meaning."
It was maddening, to not hear her mind.
What was going on in her head?
She called his name beautiful? Why?
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"Edward," she said, "it's derived from a few old English words, Ed meaning both wealth or fortune and Ward meaning guard, as in a guardian or even protector."
The girl hadn't stopped stared at the stars for the past few hours. Not even once, to glance over at him.
He felt unimportant. Or she was purposefully ignoring his presence.
"You were my protector tonight," she said absentmindedly. "A beautiful guardian."
What did she say?
He swore he saw a hint of red for the first time on her cheeks.
Was her color returning? Was she finally, finally, turning back human?
He ignored her flirt.
Her very obvious flirt.
And the effect it had on him.
"Do you know certain history lessons by heart?" he asked, confused she dissected his name into something of meaning.
He couldn't hide his surprise, not even if he tried.
"No," she muttered. "I study English literature and history. I've been reading Jane Austen's work and I've always wondered about the names the author used."
Ah.
"Cool," he replied.
More than cool, to be honest. She studies a history that he knew about since the beginning of 1900. And to study literature and history, she had to be an intelligent being, interested in the works of authors from the past.
He wanted to ignore the effect this human had on her, but he was drawn closer to her.
However, her face showed him that she was suddenly more reserved.
"Yeah," she muttered.
Her heart sped up and he wondered what it meant.
"Geeky, I know and also I'm very sorry for calling you... for saying you're a beautiful guardian. I don't know what came over me."
Fuck.
Whatever little human was left in his vampire body, Edward knew that her sudden reservedness, the tiniest hint of a blush, her faster heartbeat and her apology, it was all because she called him beautiful and he chose to ignore her.
But that was only because he was extremely frightened. Frightened by what he'd seen in that final vision.
Even if this made him a jackass, he ignored her apology. He had become good at simply ignoring things.
Her mind was still silent, and he could still not see her future or shift her mental status.
He yerned for his powers to work on her.
But her cheeks colored a beautiful pink red. It was no longer suppressed by his venom inside her.
It had worked out.
"Did you notice you're blushing?" he asked her. "You're human again."
She pressed her own hands against her cheeks and her eyes widened.
He couldn't stop his smile.
"You're right..." she said in disbelief.
"Welcome back."
However, her lower lip trembled and she didn't seem happy or fine.
Fuck.
"You said you could see my future, right?" she said brokenly.
The first vision showed - A comment about his name, Edward.
The second vision showed - Quotes about Jane Austen.
The third and final vision showed - A kiss between them, initiated by the tiny human.
"I still can't," he admitted, but keeping to himself those three visions.
"Will you kill me if my future is broken?"
He saw that kiss again.
He scoffed.
She brought her pained eyes to him.
"Please?" she added. "If there's nothing left for me to live, will you kill me?"
"Have a little faith, Bella," he said quietly.
Her name lingered in the air.
She shook her head, and glanced away from him. He wasn't sure why, but she seemed offended.
He couldn't give her the promise to kill her.
To be honest, he didn't want to.
He was waiting for the final vision to happen. He wondered what that kiss meant.
More and more and hours later
Edward's thirst for blood increased. And her blood kept smelling more and more divine.
He still couldn't hear her, or see her future, or alter her emotions.
What on earth did they inject her with?
"How much longer do we wait?" she asked.
He was honest with her. "I don't know."
"My faith is running out."
He hated to hear her say that. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"I feel like I should feel horrible, but I don't. Which is strange."
Because of his venom and the strange effect it had on her.
It made her stronger, it healed her, probably because of that injection.
"Can you remember what you felt after they injected you?"
She flinched. "A euphoric feeling... warm fuzzy and I felt less afraid."
He felt his eyes narrow.
"Sounds like drugs, little girl."
It didn't sound much like a supernatural injection. Which was also quite odd to Edward.
The girl gasped. "That's right. It was cocaine. He wanted me to comply, because I- I guess I didn't listen and was in shock."
She stared at him with her big brown eyes.
And Edward, he was abhorred.
The had injected her with cocaine?
He imagined it was something much more than that, a new concoction that made this human from ordinary to something extraordinary.
He had noticed her pupils - dilated. Cocaine did that.
The little human had said to him, It's probably the reason you were able to find me in that alley with those men. The other vampire told me to keep thinking help, help.
James had told her to think. Because Edward would be able to hear her mind...
Meaning they had never injected something in this human to alter her body and mind from his gifts.
Meaning they had never injected something that would make her blood sing to him.
Meaning that had never injected something that would change her blood into something so special, it turned him human.
Meaning they had never injected something inside her that would cause his venom to hurt her so.
The three vampires had said so themselves; What have you done to her? And saying that her shift to a vampire is; Impossible.
Fuck.
No, this could not be.
They were waiting for nothing? Because if they shot her up with cocaine, that meant everything this human girl was, it was her.
She was immune to his gifts.
She possessed blood that was special.
She reacted to his venom.
This girl was special.
She was not any ordinary human being.
He would never be able to hear her thoughts or see her future or shift her emotions.
The only glimpse of her future, that was in fact, his future, he'd seen in that alley that he prevented... and those three visions.
Who is this young woman?