CHAPTER FOUR.

ERROR

My confidence continued until I stood right outside the door. La was already at our desk pushing her bag underneath with her toe. She sat on the stool and gripped the fingers of her right hand tightly with her left. I took one last deep breath, held it, and walked in.

The closer I got, the tenser she became, all friendliness from her smile at break was gone. By the time I was next to the desk, her knuckles had gone pale where her fingers bent into the grip of her other hand. Her face was a mask of serenity and her heartbeat sounded normal if a bit quick. She could have been scared or angry and I wouldn't have been able to tell.

To announce my presence, I pulled my stool out heavily, allowing it to scrape against the floor. A slight crack in one of her knuckles indicated she heard it, but she didn't acknowledge me. I went about putting my things away, hoping she would look up from the glare she was pointing at her hands. When she didn't, I decided to draw her out.

"Hey," I tilted my head down, trying to peer into her face. She waited a beat then looked up. Her face was still carefully blank like she was trying very hard not to communicate anything through her expressions. I swallowed, wholly unprepared for the intensity of her glare. While her expression betrayed no emotion, her eyes shot fierce questions at me.

"Hi," she said, warily. When I smiled, her eyes narrowed dramatically and roamed over my face as if she was trying to puzzle something out. When she didn't continue, I decided on a different tactic.

"I'm Emmett," I tried again. "You must be La."

She tilted her head and pressed her lips together lightly, eyes still very narrow. "Have we met before?"

Uhh, why…? I thought to myself, wholly unable to fathom why she would ask me that. Out loud I said, "I don't think so, why do you ask?" I was nearly out of air.

"I just wasn't sure how you would know my nickname," she said casually.

Oh shit. I made a huge oversight. Why didn't I think of that? I scrambled for an answer, but I would have to take a breath soon. This would be very, very painful. "Oh," I said. Well, that's a genius response, and I was out of air. Shit shit shit. I turned away from her and took a small breath of air through my mouth, keeping my olfactory tightly closed like a swimmer underwater. As a test, I took in just enough for a sentence or two.

Holy mother of god it was terrible. The pain of it seared through me. Even without smelling her, I could taste her, and it set my throat on fire, burning with thirst. This craving was every bit as consuming as the first time I'd encountered her. I concentrated very hard on Esme's face before turning back to the girl. Was I quick enough to keep her from noticing? I glanced back to find her waiting for my explanation. It must have only been a second.

"I heard someone use it in reference to you…" I finished lamely, and only just caught myself at the last second when I nearly lifted the last word into a question.

La's lingering confusion settled on her face, replacing the false mask of disinterest. I could see her trying to accept my words, and her determination to keep her face expressionless was made very apparent over the next few seconds as she went through several different responses. She couldn't hide a damn thing - her face would give her away every time.

I grinned at her again, but she'd already turned toward her workstation at the TA's word and started setting up her burette with very deliberate movements. Everything she did had an air of methodical practice. It was obvious she knew her way around a chemistry lab and was comfortable with all of the equipment. I watched her from the corner of my eye as she worked through the steps of our experiment, then slowly broke each piece of equipment down at the end. She didn't talk to me during the whole lab, too focused on her work.

At that moment, I longed for Edward's ability. I suddenly wanted to know everything that was going through her head. The reason for every minute facial change, for every sweep of her hair, knuckle crack, and ear tug. I wanted to know why she smiled at the things she did and frowned at others. I wanted to hear her laugh but had no idea what she would find funny.

Once my station was clean I settled onto the stool to wait for the rest of the class to finish, most of whom were still working. La was spraying ethanol on a cloth to wipe down her station when she turned on me suddenly. Her eyes bored into mine, unflinching. She seemed to not even be remotely frightened of me as a normal human should be. I leaned back involuntarily.

"Did you get contacts?" She shot out. The question was so aggressive and random that it shocked me into answering honestly without thinking.

"Nope! Why?" She started wiping down the counter again. I wanted to stop her, to make her look at me so I could keep watching the emotions that flicked across her face.

"I could have sworn your eyes were a different color last time I saw you," she mumbled, then met my eyes again.

Fuck. That is not good. I scrambled to think of something witty to say.

"Oh," is what came out. I could have kicked myself. I thought, Great, Emmett. Great conversation skills, today.

"I don't wear contacts," I said. WHAT? Or maybe, 'yeah! I was trying a new set last week,' or 'Yes, these are brand new,' how about literally anything else?

La frowned. I needed to get out of here before I gave anything else away. This was agony. Again! Her scent was making me do stupid things, and I was quickly losing control of the situation. Just as I started to bend to get my bag, La spoke again.

"So, umm… What did you get for pH 4 and 6? I'm not sure I calibrated my burette properly…" She had done it correctly. I'd watched her. I opened my prop notebook, and moved hers closer to mine for "comparison."

"No, I think you've got it right," I said gently. "Those are definitely within the frame of error…." I quickly went through her list checking her calculations. They were all perfect.

"Shame about the snow letting off, isn't it?" There you go! That sounded normal like a normal human would say it. Nothing to see here, folks, totally normal human talking about the weather…

She laughed. It was not a kind laugh. It came out in a sarcastic bark that sounded almost derisive. "No."

"No? Why do you say it like that?"

"If it's cold enough to snow, it's too damn cold," she spat. Was that a Southern accent I detected? I hadn't heard it before that sentence. Maybe it only came and went with particular words.

"And you don't like the cold, I take it?"

"I do not. Cold is nearly the worst thing," she explained with some heat. This was clearly a familiar rant. "The only thing that can make it more miserable is wet and cold."

I was chuckling before she finished. "How on earth did you end up in Forks?"

"I…" her eyes dropped to her hands, which she was squeezing again. Her shoulders fell forward, and she let her hair fall into her face. For a split second, I wasn't sure if she would continue, but eventually, she pulled herself together and picked up the sentence from where she'd dropped it. "...wanted a change and I have some family here. And this is a good school."

Not that good. Not good enough for perfect calculations on the first try. "Even though you hate the wet and cold?"

"It's pretty here," she rebutted. "Stunning, actually."

I wanted to shake my head in disbelief, or hug her, or ask a thousand more questions, but I couldn't bring myself to do any of those things. Instead, I stared at her, trying to catch every flicker of facial movement, every tiny tilt of the mouth. Humans were not interesting. So why was I so interested? I was hanging on to her every word like a lovesick puppy.

She trembled a little and dug her fingers into her hair, then shook it out behind her. The motion sent a fresh wave of concentrated scent bombarding me. It nearly knocked me backward with its intensity. For a second I thought it was over, that I would kill her right then, and I almost rejoiced that it was finally done with, but then she spoke.

"Are you okay?" She asked. It was in the same tone of voice I'd heard that first day in the pavilion; carefully controlled, the question only being asked because it seemed like the thing to do.

Why did she sound like that? Curiosity may have just saved the cat.

With a quick nod and a forced smile, I ran from the room. Alice was outside waiting for me as I expected. Her eyes were wide and fearful.

"That close, huh?" I stalked down the hall away from her. Once she caught me she nodded, owl-eyed.

"But you didn't. What changed?"

"I don't know, munchkin," I opened the door to the stairwell and flitted down to the first level. "I'm starting to think I might have."

"Hmm…" she jabbed me in the ribs for the moniker, but grabbed my hand and lifted it to twirl underneath, expression pensive. "Well, you made it anyway. Maybe it will get easier?"

I shuddered, unable to imagine a scenario where it could ever be easier to sit in the presence of that scent.

Alice, Jasper, and I shared our last class of the day. As we made our way toward it, Jasper approached from the other side of the hall. He didn't show any surprise, relief, or even disappointment, affecting a disinterest I didn't believe.

"So," he said. "You made it, then."

"Yep!" Alice trilled for me. I smiled down at the annoying little pixie and tried to grab her to muss her hair again. She dodged easily and fled into the classroom. The professor was the sole inhabitant inside. We each gave him a slight nod, or "good afternoon," which he ignored, then moved to our seats at the back of the class.

We sat in silence as students filed in. Each of us arranged our props, placed our bags on the floor, and pulled out empty notebooks. Alice had a leather pencil case full of ridiculously expensive pens. She set it carefully on the desk, assessing the angle against her notebook, then tried a different angle. I shook my head. Alice loved to pretend she was overly concerned with trivial things. We all had our ways of dealing with the monotony.

Though, my life seemed far from monotonous now. This human female had dropped into my existence out of nowhere and thrown everything out of perspective.

"She has no fear," I suddenly whispered to Jasper. "It's like whatever internal warning system most humans have has been turned off in her. Why isn't she scared of me?"

Jasper remained quiet for some time. "It has happened occasionally…" he let the thought drift off.

"What does it mean?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said vaguely and reshuffled the props on his desk. I looked past him to see Alice had gone still and starry-eyed.

"Alice?"

"Well," she muttered quietly, "her future is just as tangled up as yours. It looks a little like it's tangled up with yours, but humans are hard to see sometimes. It could be her lack of instinctual aversion is because whatever is happening right now was always going to happen."

"Then why didn't you see it before now?"

"I barely see it now," she frowned at me. "And you know it doesn't work like that. From the way you've got the future all upended, it's still a possibility you'll kill her."

"Would that be so bad?" Jasper said quietly. Alice stared at him, appalled, but I understood where he was coming from. "I'm just saying you wouldn't be the first one to slip and not a single one of us would judge you. I'm already impressed you've been able to hold out as long as you have."

Alice continued to watch him narrowly. Jasper took the scrutiny comfortably. "What do you know?" she asked.

The first signs of discomfort broke through his calm veneer. "I don't…"

"You know something?" I hissed just a little too loudly. The professor snatched his head around the class but didn't quite look in our direction, as humans tended to do... which is why it was so weird that this La Davis didn't seem to notice how wrong we were.

"I've seen humans respond like her before," he finally admitted. "It was one of the things the southern tribes looked for."

Jasper came from a part of the country where vampirism was steeped in war and blood. Their clans had one purpose; to control more of the human population than the other clans. Larger territories meant better hunting. The wars were constant and violent. Jasper barely escaped with his life after more than a century doused in gore.

"Why did you look for them?" Alice prodded.

"Because it usually meant those humans would have a more positive capacity to take on vampirism. Frequently, these types of humans would have an unusual or hidden talent. Occasionally, it meant the turn was a little quicker, meaning they could join the army faster. They're rarer than those of us with talents, and once turned tend to be particularly powerful."

I switched my gaze to Alice. "So she's meant to be a vampire?"

"I don't think anyone is meant to be a vampire, Emmett."

"Says the Seer."

"I told you it doesn't work like that!" She said impatiently.

The professor was conjugating verbs at the front of the room. Jasper's words tumbled around in my head, as though they were trying to make connections that I couldn't quite see.

Was all of this a sick coincidence?

"Has this ever happened to you?" I asked through the side of my mouth. I didn't look at him, didn't want to see the answer on his face.

"Yes, twice."

He didn't continue for quite some time. We pretended to listen to the professor in silence. The sounds of paper shuffling and the light scritches of pens surrounded us.

"There was no reason for me to resist," he said. "This was before Alice found me, before we came to find the Cullens."

"What was it like?"

"It was every dream we can no longer have." He sounded more wistful than regretful. It was clear what I was missing was even better than I knew.

I savored the memory of her scent, imagining what it would feel like to have her warm body in my arms as I drank from her. She would be compliant, and soft; happy to be near me. Emotions I didn't recognize stirred in my gut. I imagined the possibility that I could feel her skin beneath my fingers but not bite her, or maybe I could taste her and not kill her.

A groan escaped me. It was all becoming too much. The other two looked at me expectantly.

"I've got to go," I popped up and fled toward the door. As I reached the front doors of the building, Edward caught up with me.

"Please don't," I said and sped toward the car. He didn't answer, but he kept pace with me. When we reached the car I gave up.

Where is she? I opened the hatch and tossed my bag in, then slammed it shut and leaned against it heavily.

"Her biology class is just letting out," he answered.

Did you hear what Jasper said?

"Yes," he leaned against the car shoulder to shoulder with me. I appreciated the support.

What do you think? I felt him shrug. Students were starting to trickle out of various buildings and make their way to their cars.

"There's no use dwelling on it. We won't know unless she becomes one of us," he said.

Yeah, I can't imagine any reason that would ever happen. If I bite her, I will kill her, no question.

"As you say," he agreed. "She's coming now."

A small gaggle of students made their way down to the parking lot. I picked her out immediately, eyes drawn to her as though she were the only one in a group of a thousand. It was raining very slightly. The dribbling water had soaked into my hair and was dripping down the back of my neck into my shirt.

La glared up at the sky and pulled the hood of her jacket over her head, keeping it right at her hairline, so she could still see around it to her companion. She was walking with the enthusiastic blonde fellow from her group of lunch friends. He was hovering around her proprietarily. La kept skittering sideways to create more space between them. The kid had no self-awareness. It should have been obvious to him that she didn't want him around.

A particularly large drop of water splashed against her cheek. Little droplets caught in her eyelashes and shined like microscopic diamonds. She glared up at the sky again, frown so deep it cut crevices along the sides of her mouth. Next to me, Edward chuckled.

"She is cursing rather spectacularly at the rain," he explained, amused. I smiled but continued to concentrate on taking very shallow breaths. Any moment she would be close enough for the wind to carry her scent to me. I needed to be careful. I had to be ready to stop breathing.

La and her companion spoke animatedly, though La still looked uncomfortable as they made their way through the line of cars. The male tilted his head in my direction, and La followed his gaze, meeting my eyes for a prolonged second.

"I don't know what that's about," I heard her squeak and watched as she fumbled her bag off her shoulder. "I'll see you tomorrow, Mike."

She jumped into the black Fiat Abarth they were standing next to, unceremoniously throwing her bag into the passenger seat, and turned the engine over without hesitation. Once the car was happily puttering she seemed to relax, taking the time to plug in her phone, queue some music, and get the vents turned in the right direction. The air was blowing so ferociously that strands of her hair were flying around her head like a living thing, fighting to get free of the hood she still had pulled over it.

Alice and Jasper were now making their way down toward our car. I could hear them whispering sweet nothings to each other. It would have been cute if it wasn't so vomit-inducing.

Inside the car, La pulled her hood back and shook out her hair, pulling some of the mass through her fingers to untangle it in the blowing air. I shuddered, imagining the power of the scent that must be swirling around in that car. My mouth began to flood with venom involuntarily. To be surrounded by that scent would be the most delicious torture.

As Alice and Jasper reached us, La met my eyes in the rearview mirror one last time. She stared at me as I blatantly watched her, questions dancing around in her face, then she dropped the emergency brake, put the car in reverse, and backed out of her space… right into a Corolla.

The Toyota only missed her by swerving dramatically. The driver honked its horn as an obnoxious reprimand, then took off out of the north exit. Inside the Fiat, La made an exaggerated grimace and proceeded to back out much more carefully. She checked her mirrors, and blind spots several times before pulling entirely out of the space and taking off with a low rumble.