Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew it would have to end. My love for Edward was too strong and pure—the cruelty of the world would never let us be. Like Romeo and Juliet. Like Catherine and Heathcliff. Like all the lovers whose souls touched too deeply, our love had to be stopped.

Fate certainly did its best to tear us apart. Edward's deadly thirst, fate's vengeful hand. The vampiric threat from James, the Volturi, and the newborns. And our biggest obstacles: my obstinance and his self-loathing. Both fought against us from the very beginning.

He didn't believe I should love him back.

I didn't believe he could love me back.

Of course, even after we fought through all that, our love could not persevere. Fate sent Victoria to finish us off. The poison on his lips; the dagger in my heart.

As I awaited fate to settle the score, I saw Edward's glorious face. The clean cut of his jaw. The bronze hair falling in his eyes, no matter how often I pushed it back. Those golden eyes—the windows to his brilliant, beautiful soul—were tender with love. The longing in my heart gnashed and snarled, desperate to see him again.

Fate be damned. I had to be with him. There was no other option.

I gathered my strength, ignoring the fact that I could no longer see out of my right eye. Victoria stood above me, powerful in her vampiric beauty. The sort of beauty one might behold in a tiger before it ripped out their throat. Her features were sharp and knife-like, and her red hair billowed about her like a live flame. Everything about her screamed predator.

In one, swift motion, I hopped up onto my feet. Only to have them swept out from under me immediately. Victoria grinned from her feline crouch. Her black eyes sparkled with glee. This was a game for her. No different than the wrestling matches between Jasper and Emmett.

I hooked my foot around her outstretched leg, tangling her legs with mine. She faltered. We grappled in the dirt like two alley cats, hissing and clawing. I couldn't tell if I was truly holding my own, or if she was handicapping her abilities to prolong the game. Eventually, she rolled on top of me and pinned my wrists to the ground.

"I thought it would be more difficult to catch you once you turned, but here you are," her high-pitched voice was more befitting of a floozy flapper girl or a Pink Lady, "as helpless as a vampire as you were a human."

I bit her nose. She cried out, from surprise more than pain. I nearly twisted out of her grip, but she caught me again and slammed me into the ground.

"I'll kill you slowly, piece by piece. Give that mind reader of yours a show."

I bit her again. This time, on her chin, sinking the top row of teeth into her lower lip. Disgusted with my technique, she shoved herself off me. Fury twisted her features into a horrific mask. I half expected her to start frothing at the mouth. I was no longer a thing to play with, but a source of strife.

Perhaps my only victory.

She stomped down, hard, on my neck.

I could no longer breathe.

Horrified, I reached up to find my neck was completely flattened, my throat crushed. My lower body convulsed as it tried to rid the air in my lungs, to no avail. Victoria stood triumphantly over me.

Fight, I reminded myself.

But I was no fighter, especially in this state. My limbs flailed uselessly as I arched my back. My skull lulled back on my broken neck. My snarls were nothing but choked garbles. I looked and felt like I was possessed.

"That's more like it," Victoria's lips spread into a wolfish smile, amused by my tragic attempt. She leaned forward, letting her red curls brush across my face as my fingers feebly grazed her neck. "He'll rue the day he killed my James."

She grabbed my chin and forced me to look at her. "But what do we have here? Whoops. Someone has been naughty."

Another garbled snarl only amused her further.

"Will it even hurt him to see you gone in this state?" she affectionately caressed my cheek. "Or would he be pleased to rid the world of another little beast?"

Leaving me writhing on the ground, she gathered kindling for a fire. As she built up the flames, she told me in vivid detail how she would break me down and feed me to the flame. Each time she mentioned Edward, and how he would feel to lose the hand he once held or the ear he once nuzzled, I bared my teeth. The only way to display my fury.

When her fire was finished, she turned to me; her eyes black with a ravenous hunger that could not be satisfied with blood. The fire roared behind her, reaching high into the sky. The flames tickled the dried leaves in the trees—as well as the dried leaves in her hair.

She picked me up by the chest like it was the fabric of my shirt, digging her fingers through the skin with a horrifying crack of bone, and tossed me into the fire. I clung to her. Awkwardly, but it was enough. I dragged her into the fire with me. If I was to go, she would come right with me. She would never touch a single strand of bronze hair.

The fire happily devoured us with a whoosh.

Something cool and hard wrapped against my waist and heaved. A dull smolder was left in the wake of Victoria's burning touch. Past the smoke and pine, I caught the unmistakable honey-orange scent of Edward.

"Oh, Bella! Dear god!"

My head lulled back on my neck. I couldn't properly see him.

A sickening shriek interrupted our reunion. The sound brought all the hair on my body to stand on end.

Victoria erupted from the fire. Her clothes smoldered, her hair in literal flames. She threw herself onto me, knocking me out of Edward's embrace. Her weight was gone as quickly as it landed on me as Edward seized her and threw her back. Her smoldering body hit the ground with a thunderous boom. I pitifully rolled onto my side to finally see my forever savior.

He was majestic. I didn't want to think about what I looked like to him. No better than Victoria, whose body lay crumpled at his feet. I whimpered with relief. The sound caught his attention, giving Victoria one last chance. She attempted to flee, but Edward caught her arm and flung her back, towards the edge of the cliff. Heels hanging off the edge, she caught her balance. Then, glared at him.

"Aren't you supposed to be Aro's object?"

"That was your mistake," Edward grinned. "Aro is Carlisle's object. He cannot refuse my father."

She settled back on her haunches, waiting for the perfect opening to pounce.

"What was your plan?" he demanded, his tone smug and belittling. "That I would be trapped there? That fear for my own life would keep me from her? I'm not you. I would always come for her. I would let Aro rip me to shreds for desertion, but I would save her first."

Doubt flickered across her face, unnerved by this discovery. She hissed.

"You can't even fathom such a thing. How can you say you loved James if you weren't willing to risk your life for the chance to save him? You took the coward's route of revenge instead." He turned to me, "Isn't that right, love?"

It was an obvious trap, but Victoria fell for it. Blind with rage at the mention of her mate, Victoria lunged for mine. Claws out, hair still smoking. It was exactly what Edward wanted. He flew towards her, catching the burnt ends of her hair, and yanked her back. Together, they toppled down the cliff, down into the river. Their bodies hit the water with a painful-sounding slap. I cried out his name, but it came out harsh and garbled.

It was agony to wait for my body to heal, knowing my life was on the line far below. First, my charred skin smoothed and hardened. Something in my abdomen twisted back into place. Finally, I was able to gulp down air. I stood on shaking limbs, rotating my mended neck.

I peered down. There were no obvious signs of a scuffle. It was as relieving as it was unnerving. Determined to finally be an asset for Edward, I dropped down the sheer cliff face onto the riverbank. I landed without a jolt, but my legs sank into the deep mud halfway up my shins. It wasn't exactly the heroic entrance I envisioned, but nothing about me was how I envisioned it. Taking one, short moment to sigh with discontent, I extracted myself from the mud, somehow muddier than I was before.

There was a shift in the water. I sank into a defensive crouch.

And met a vision of pure loveliness.

He was soaking wet. He stepped out of the water with casual elegance, like the Greek god of the sea. His white button-down was see-through enough that I could see how low his wet jeans hung. Low enough to expose his hip bones.

A quiet gasp, a warm breeze.

And I was in his arms.

Edward's hand cupped the back of my neck. His other arm held me aloft as I clung to him with my arms and legs.

"Bella…" he whispered, reverently.

There was no time for comfort. I gripped his shoulders and shot up straight. "Victoria!"

His eyes hardened; his mouth softened. "Taken care of."

He tried to guide my head back down to rest against his shoulder. I fought against it, too acquainted with Victoria's talent for evasion to be comforted. "We need to burn her body! We need to…" My sentence dropped off when I noticed the hard set of his jaw.

He chose his words carefully. "There is nothing left to burn."

I felt the shock clearly on my face as the meaning of his words clicked in my head. Edward obliterated her.

"It's all over now."

I wished that were true, but it was only the beginning. Any second, the glory of finding me alive would fade, and Edward would face the tragedy of finding me with red eyes. He would realize he fought viciously to be reunited with a liar and a killer.

However, he looked right into my eyes, saw the death staring back at him, and softened his gaze. "Are you alright?" he asked with too much tenderness.

"I can answer that question with a nod of my head, so I'd say I'm better than I was ten minutes ago."

He frowned, clearly not in the mood for humor.

I ducked my head. "I'm fine."

"Bella…" he ran his knuckle under my jaw, coaxing me to look at him. "Please don't hide from me again."

The unyielding devotion of his countenance was my final undoing. I realized I wanted him to be upset. I wanted him to curse my name, fling me in the river, and threaten to leave me forever if I couldn't get my act together. This gentle acceptance was a torture I hadn't anticipated.

Though he requested I no longer hide, I pressed my face into his neck. "Oh, Edward…"

"Talk to me," he cooed. He pressed a kiss on the top of my head, then my temple. The gesture was a pleasure and a punishment. The selfish part of me won more and more these days, because I settled into his touch rather than shy from it.

The sun's rays carefully peeked over the cliff above us, the light chasing away the shadows. Edward walked us further into the shade before our skin could react. Whether by impulse or conscious thought, I did not know. He set me on the squishy moss of a fallen tree. The canopy of colored leaves looked like stained glass in the illuminating sun.

"I wish I could cry,"

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them, knowing how much pain they would cause Edward. He would hate himself, curse his name, for being the cause of such anguish in my life.

To my complete and utter shock, Edward choked out a humorless laugh. "Believe me. I know the feeling."

My mouth fell open. I snapped it shut before Edward could see.

"As much as you would hope it would, it doesn't help to break things, either," he continued, pressing another kiss on my head. "You can try screaming, if you'd like."

I couldn't help myself. I lost it. My sanity was at the tip of a knife, from being the hunter to the hunted. All to end up being accepted as a murderess by my pious partner. The absurdity of it all sent me over the edge. I started laughing. So hard, I tumbled off the log and landed with a thud on the ground. Acorns and pinecones fell in a sudden burst, only making me laugh harder. Eventually, the laughter subsided. I wiped the fir needles off my face. My legs remained on the log, above my head.

"I shouldn't be laughing."

Edward joined me on the ground. "I know."

"I killed five girls yesterday."

"I know."

"They weren't the first."

"I know. The best we can do is hope that they are the last."

I still could not believe the words coming out of his mouth.

I loved Edward, fully and unconditionally. With that love came the immediate forgiveness that followed his spiraling descent into the trenches of self-pity. I knew his hatred stemmed from within and grew only because he loved me so much. He had so many amazing qualities. I never stayed irritated with him for very long.

There was no self-pity. No underlying tension brewing. His emotions were perfectly in check.

"How are you feeling?" he asked, compassionately.

I blinked, unable to comprehend what was happening. Part of me wanted to slap this imposter and demand to know what he did with the real Edward.

"I assume I understand the basics. After all, I've been in your shoes before. Countless times. There's guilt, first and foremost. Enhanced severely by the undeniable satisfaction that comes when the monster gets its way. There's shame. Sorrow. Regret. But, as I said, that's how I felt. I would like to know how you're feeling. If that's alright."

"Um. That all sounds about right."

He nodded, encouragingly.

"I feel… scared," I licked my lips and swallowed. "Scared of what I'm capable of. Scared of what I could be. It was so easy… to kill them."

"And it feels good," he commiserated.

"It feels so good," I whined. "At the campsite, the last girl held her wrists up to me, offering herself to me." I squeezed my eyes shut. "It felt so right, Edward. To hold that dominance over humans. It was awful."

He placed his hand on his forehead. "Ugh, the god complex. I've been there. Back, when I was still hunting killers, most of the women I saved would run away or cower. But one offered her throat to me."

"Oh god."

"It had been ages since a human maintained such strong eye contact with me. But she did. Unflinching. With the most startlingly green eyes. They matched the color of her scarf that she unwound from her neck." His hand slid down his face to cover his eyes. "It was the second-best blood I ever tasted."

It was the first, specific instance of his vampirism Edward ever shared.

"What did you do?"

"Nearly deforested the Indiana Dunes National Park."

"Oh."

"Obviously, I stopped myself before I caused any real damage. At the time, I wanted to feel guilty and terrible about something else, anything else. Then, I realized it would be a disgrace to offset those feelings. The least I could do for her was keep my guilt where it belonged."

"I dug their graves with my bare hands. Usually, I sit beside them until the blood fades from my eyes, but…" I had to hide from your family.

He didn't need me to finish the thought. "That sounds very reflective and meaningful. It must have helped greatly to have that time alone with your thoughts."

"I think so." It felt good to hear him speak with such candor and to be able to return it. It gave me the confidence to confess, "I now understand why you left me."

"Hey," his fingers wove through my tangled hair. "I was wrong to leave you, remember?"

He was wrong to leave me, just as I was wrong to hide from him. Knowing both those things did nothing to alleviate the agony of receiving misplaced affection from the one I loved most in the universe. Only now, I could imagine how he felt after my birthday party. When I—in my human innocence—insisted he wasn't the terror he knew he was.

"How did you stand it?" I asked, my voice beseeching. "How did you accept my love when it broke your heart?"

"It was so, so difficult, baby," he wrapped his arm around my shoulder and drew me close. "Most of the time, it felt like you were offering ostrich and cobra wine to a peasant. When it got tough, I would remind myself that you deserved to place your love wherever you wanted. And to make up for the imbalance, I swore to return it tenfold."

"Edward…"

"All I can tell you now is how happy I am loving you."

I scooched closer to him and let him wrap his arms around me. "I'm happy loving you, too."

He kissed my cheek, then my temple and hugged me close.

"What happens now?"

He nuzzled the top of my head. "That's for you to decide. We all have different ways to cope."

"What would you do?"

"I would find out as much as I could about them and try to impact the world on their behalf. Say, they were in nursing school, I would nurse for a couple of years. For an artist, I would donate enough money to erect a wing in a museum. You know, things like that."

"I like that." Of course, I did. I liked everything about Edward.

"Okay, good." He sat up, bringing me with him, and settling me on his lap. "Let's see what we can find out about the girls. Are you ready to go home?"

Home.

In my cottage with Edward. It had been so long since I had truly been home.

"Yes. Though, to be honest," I pressed my hands into my temples. "I'm waiting for another bout of hysterics."

"You've always been good at repressing bad things…"

"Yeah," I agreed with a laugh. "That's a good way to put it."

An unfathomable sadness washed over his features. Before I could ask, it was gone, replaced with a doting smile.