Prologue

It was the first day of school…again. This summer went by way too quickly. But I have to admit that it was probably one of the best summers I've ever had. No, actually, it was the best summer I've ever had. Damien and I officially became a 'couple' according to Bella and I have to say that I don't disagree with her. She was always happy to see that I found someone I could love again. And yes, we did become friends, like Alice said. We did a lot together over the summer actually, which was one of the reasons why it was the best summer ever. But the main reason why it was such a good period of time was because of Damien. He made me want to live forever and he made me realize that being a vampire wasn't so bad.

Damien was finally getting the hang of being a vegetarian vampire. So today he would be starting school with the rest of us. It didn't take him long to gain good control and when he was finally able to meet Bella I was more than thrilled when he actually seemed to like her. I was afraid that he wouldn't get along with her, but he did. And he did get along with the rest of my family, well our family, too. He became especially close to Jasper. Probably because they used to be in the newborn army together, or at least that's what I thought.

Oh, and I finally got my driver's license. I currently don't have a car, yet, but Damien told me he would buy me one soon. He wanted it to be a surprise I guess.

But this was a whole new school year and I hoped that there would be nothing ruining my life right now…because my life was better than ever…and I didn't want it to change….

Chapter 1

A Gift

"How much more immature can you get Emmett?!"

I ran up to my room and took off the shirt I had on that was now full of dirt because Emmett decided to try and get his Jeep out of the mud. And I stupidly agreed to help him. I should've known that he would do that.

I could hear Emmett's laughter.

"Ugh, this was new too," I held up the shirt and stared at the mud stains on it now.

Someone knocked on the door. I quickly made myself presentable.

"It's open," I yelled.

Damien came into the room, trying to hide his laughter by coughing.

"You ok?" he asked.

I sighed, "I'll be fine."

He walked over to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. I looked up at him and stared into his beautiful golden eyes, I had to admit that I didn't miss the red so much. It was really intimidating…

"You seem calm for a vampire who's going to be in a room full of humans in just a little while," I said.

"I'm not going to pay attention to the humans," he leaned down to give me a kiss.

I reached up a little, since I was slightly shorter than him and pressed my lips to his.

"Gross."

I pulled away and looked over at my door. Of course it had to be Emmett standing there in the doorway.

Damien made the door close and he turned back to me. I smiled and went back to kissing him. When I could taste the venom on his teeth I had to pull away slightly because the venom wasn't very appetizing. And when he finally pulled away I stood there staring at him and wishing that I could make today any easier for him.

"I think we should get going soon," I said, "They're probably waiting for us downstairs."

"One more minute," he leaned down for another kiss. I didn't reject him, but I quickly pulled away because I knew I would lose track of time if I let him kiss me for too long.

"We have to go downstairs," I pulled out of his grip and directed him down the stairs, meeting up with the rest of my siblings. Edward was most likely at Bella's house and taking her to school so I was going in Rosalie's new car.

"Wait," Damien stopped me before I could open the garage door.

I glared at him.

"What am I waiting for?"

"Close your eyes," he said.

I sighed and did what he said. I heard him open the door and he took my hand, leading me into the garage. When he stopped me from walking anymore I started to get suspicious.

"Can I open my eyes now?"

"Hold on," I heard him walking around the garage and something was jingling in his hand.

"Ok, now open them."

I slowly opened one eye at a time and gasped at what I saw. In front of me was a Ferrari F430. The exterior was silver and the interior was black.

"Are you serious?" I walked towards him with a smile on my face.

He nodded his head and handed me the keys. I started to jump up and down and kissed him once on the lips.

"You like it?"

"Are you kidding, Damien, I love it."

I couldn't stop smiling as I unlocked the door and sat inside. I put my hands on the wheel and screamed a little bit. He came in on the passenger's side and I hugged him.

"Thank you," I said.

"Anything for you," he replied and kissed me on the cheek.

"So is this how we're getting to school or what?"

"That was the plan, I think everyone else already left."

I immediately put the key in the ignition and opened the garage door. Then I sped down the street and went really fast to see how much speed I could get with this car. It ran pretty smoothly and it went faster than I expected.

"Happy," he looked at me.

"Yes," I smiled.

"Good," he replied.

I sped down the road that led to the town, but unfortunately I would have to slow down soon. It would already make people suspicious when they saw a Ferrari going down the street and I wouldn't want to make them even more suspicious if they saw me speeding as fast as I could go.

"Are you nervous at all?" I asked.

"No, not really," he answered.

I shook my head in disbelief. Maybe I was hoping for him to act a little bit nervous so that I wouldn't feel so stupid about myself when it was my first day and I was freaking out over it.

"You're unbelievable," I muttered.

"Maybe," he smiled.

I laughed and kept on driving through Forks. We finally reached the school and I pulled into the parking lot. Everyone was staring at my car as I drove into the parking spot next to Edward's car. I took the key out of the ignition and turned towards Damien putting my hand on top of his hand.

"You ready?"

He nodded his head. I kissed him on the cheek.

"You'll do great just remember not to breathe too much, unless a teacher asks you something. Edward said he arranged for you and me to be in most of our classes together," I said.

He took one deep breath. I patted his hand and opened my car door. I looked around at all of the people, who were staring at my car, and then I grabbed my bag off of the seat.

I walked around my car and took Damien's hand. Everyone was now staring at him, the new kid in school. I knew that all of the girls would be drooling over him, but I hoped that when they saw us two holding hands I would hope that they would back off.

"Nice car," Edward commented.

I giggled.

"That's not fair, I don't even have a car yet," Alice pouted.

"Hey Bella," I said, ignoring Alice's comment.

She smiled, "I see you got a car." She didn't look surprised.

I nodded my head and looked up at Damien. He was staring at all of the people that were walking past him. I nudged him and tried to make him pay attention to something else. He quickly looked away and stared down at me.

"How are you Damien?" Bella asked.

He didn't speak because I knew that he wasn't breathing.

"Oh, sorry," she said.

I smiled genuinely and started walking towards the school. Edward had already gotten our new schedules. He handed my schedule to me.

I scanned it over and looked at what classes I had this year.

"Gross I have an honors Spanish class," I stuck out my tongue and glanced at Damien's schedule.

It looked almost exactly like mine except I didn't have history with him.

The bell suddenly rang. I quickly looked down at my schedule and saw that Damien and I had literature first. I looked up at him, he was staring at me.

"You ok?"

He nodded his head and we hurried to our first class together. I quickly told my new teacher about Damien and he directed us towards our seats. Damien sat behind me.

I looked around at all the other students that were sitting in their seats next to me. The girl that was sitting on my right was staring back at Damien. I shook my head as she twirled her hair in her fingers. Humans can act so stupid sometimes…

***

Finally it was lunch time. The first couple of periods seemed like they would never end. It was exhausting to have to make sure Damien didn't kill someone. It was hard especially sometimes when I had to try and pull him away because he was stronger than me.

We walked into the cafeteria together and I kept my eyes on him.

"We have to buy food," I whispered.

I directed him towards the lunch line and helped him get food. He threw a sandwich and a water bottle onto his tray and we went to sit down. It wasn't our usual table though; we were sitting with Bella and the rest of her friends. Well, actually, it seemed like there was some sort of boundary line between Edward, Bella, Alice, Damien, Angela and I and Jessica, Lauren, Eric, and Mike. The only nice humans were Angela and Bella. Since Emmett, Jasper, and Rosalie were supposed to be playing an older role, they weren't here anymore. They 'graduated' already.

I sat down next to Alice and Damien sat in the empty seat next to me, away from all of Bella's friends.

"How are you holding up?" I asked.

He finally breathed.

"I'm ok right now," he opened up the water bottle.

It was the first time I heard him speak ever since we came to school. He grabbed my hand from under the table.

"Bella, what do you want for your birthday?" I asked.

She shook her head, "Nothing, please don't remind me about that."

"Well I'm buying you a present whether you like it or not."

"Please don't," she said.

"Aw come on why are you being so bitter, it's your birthday and you're only eighteen once," I replied.

"I don't want anything," she snapped.

I looked down in disappointment. Oh well, I'll just make it a surprise.

Edward chuckled.

I glared at him; you better not tell her what I'm getting.

He rolled his eyes and went back to talking to Bella and I turned my attention to Damien, who was staring at Jessica. Jessica stared back at him and smiled. I laughed to myself knowing that it really wasn't a compliment when a vampire stares at you that way.

I hit his arm to get his attention and he immediately turned away from her and looked at me. I stared at him and started to worry. I didn't know if he would be able to handle this.

"Do you want to leave?" I asked.

He quickly breathed.

"No, I'll be fine…"

I nodded my head and didn't take my eyes off of him for the rest of the lunch period.

***

It was finally ninth period and Damien and I had physics. I hated this class…it was probably the most boring class out of all the other classes. Damien was sort of having a hard time with all of this. It seemed really overwhelming for him. I wonder why it was so much harder for him. Maybe because he's been killing humans for so long and now it was just too much for him. I felt really bad because I had to watch him go through so much pain. It was hard to just sit there and not do anything about it. I watched the clock and counted down the time, twenty minutes, then fifteen minutes, then seven minutes, and finally two minutes. I glanced back at Damien who was now gripping his desk and staring at the girl in front of him as if he were about to attack her. I looked back up at the clock and watched as it seemed to start to move slower and slower.

"Come on," I whispered.

Then finally it rang and I quickly got out of my seat and went to Damien's side, taking his hand and staring up at him. His eyes were black now.

"Let's get out of here."

I quickly ran out of the school with him and said a quick goodbye to everyone. Then I went into my car and Damien sat next to me, finally breathing.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't think it would get that bad, I should've known-"

"Stop," he whispered.

I calmed down for a second.

"How are you feeling now?" I asked.

"Thirsty," he admitted staring out the windshield at the people.

I quickly put my key into the ignition and drove out of the parking lot, heading for our house. Once we passed the town I quickly went speeding down the road. And when we got into the garage I parked the car and ran into the woods with Damien so we could hunt.

We quickly found some elk like always and I found a mountain lion, but let Damien have it because he needed it more than I did. Then when we were finished with hunting him and I ran to the clearing to have a minute alone before we went back to the house. We walked.

"I feel terrible," I said.

"Why?" he stared at me.

"Because of the pain you had to go through today…it hurt me to see you in so much pain. I would understand if you wanted to leave now and get it over with…"

He stopped me and held my arms so I could look at him.

"I am not going to leave you…don't ever say that."

"Ok," I replied.

We started walking again.

"But I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to…you could probably do so much better…" I sighed.

"You're crazy you know that, why would I want to leave you? You're the best I could ever dream of having…I don't deserve you," he shook his head.

"Well, I'm yours," I smiled, "So you got what you don't deserve I guess."

He stopped walking again and stared out into the distance and then back at me, holding me tight.

"I'll follow you and make a heaven out of hell, and I'll die by your hand which I love so well…" he stated.

I chuckled.

"Stealing Shakespeare lines I see."

"You noticed," he smiled.

"I know Shakespeare very well."

He laughed, "I should've known."

Then he kissed me with as much meaning and as much love as he could ever give me, I thought at least. And I tried to show the same compassion as I kissed him back. And when he pulled away it only left me wanting him more. And then we walked back to our house, cherishing our only moments we had alone by walking as slowly as possible. He was perfect and he was mine…and I was his…nothing else seemed to make sense anymore except for that fact…