Hello, this idea came to me today at lunchtime, and I have neglected all the things I needed to get done today to write this. I hope you enjoy it.

My Angel Chapter 1

I cannot pull myself any father. This cave will be my refuge until my body can repair itself, or until something or someone else finds me. The pain is excruciating. It comes close to rivaling the burn of venom during the change from human to vampire.

My only consolation at this moment is that I slaughtered every single one of those abominations. They were the last in our area, spreading their disease and madness. The deranged beasts unfortunately mangled me quite thoroughly before my task was complete. My regeneration would progress more quickly if I had a fresh supply of blood to flush their poison from my system. Given my current location-an isolated cave, and situation-motion impaired, I will be residing here with only my thoughts for company for the foreseeable future. Fabulous.

I think I will soon expire of boredom. I have cataloged every surface of this infernal cave, identified all the local wildlife I can hear outside of said cave. How long is my body going to take to heal? I wish I could lift my head or even twist my neck enough to assess the damage those beasts inflicted. I know it is severe. I've never taken this long to heal before, and I am becoming concerned. It is not normal for one of my kind to be rendered helpless and if I were discovered by some, in this situation, my existence would be ended swiftly and with a smile.

A week. It has been seven days and I have not improved enough to even lift my still partially severed arms. I have reached the conclusion that I do not have enough blood in my system to sustain healing, let along combat the werewolf poison left behind in the multitude of gaping wounds. How long will I rot in this dank cave? Surely I've not been missed yet, no one would consider an absence of a week odd for me while hunting those beasts. I have been known to take much longer.

A new sound has reached my ears. Footsteps are approaching. Will this mystery visitor mean my salvation, or my destruction? I groan internally. The visitor has a heartbeat. This is even worse. It could mean the exposure of our world. That this potential exposure could be my fault is highly ironic. But, try as I might, I can not make my limbs obey my urgent need to escape. Closer and closer the human comes until finally I can see the silhouette of a woman in the mouth of the cave. Hoping that perhaps she would take me for a mangled corpse and leave, I close my eyes. She comes closer still. If only I could move enough to get my teeth on her and gain access to her life saving blood.

I heard a soft intake of breath when she noticed me lying mauled and broken on the floor of the cave. Assuming that instinct would have her flee I was startled when I heard her kneel above my head and felt her smooth back a lock of hair that had been stuck to my brow. After releasing a long sigh, she rose again and made her way back out of the cave. I was relieved and perturbed at the same time. If it was so easy for one human to find me, how soon would it be before I was discovered by another?

The rest of the day passed and night fell as it had every day since the beginning of my entombment in this disgusting cave. In the early hours of the next morning a gun shot rang out, breaking the peace with its booming echo. Less than a half hour later I could again hear someone approaching. As I had yesterday, I closed my eyes, hoping to imitate one who had met an unfortunate end. I drew in the smallest breath I could manage without my chest moving enough for human eyes to register and discovered that my visitor was the same woman from yesterday. Why has she returned?

She approached me directly, this time sitting to the beside me, and once more her hand glided across my forehead. Did she return to perform burial rites or some such nonsense? When warm liquid entered my mouth the charade was over. My, now coal black, eyes snapped open and I choked on the dirt flavored liquid as I gasped in shock. Still the woman, young lady I corrected now that I'd gotten a closer look at her, remained where she was as if it were a common occurrence for her to find a severely mangled, cold, hard, but still not dead creature that drank blood. Her calm brown eyes continued to look upon me and a moment later she raised her eyebrows and lifted the clear container with the warm, red, but obviously not human blood as if to ask if I would drink it. Had she really shot and bled an animal to feed me?

Feeling my lip curl automatically at the thought of drinking something so vile, but not wanting to risk such an attempt at restoring myself, I opened my mouth in acceptance. She poured the blood slowly, stopping often to let me swallow until there was no more. Her attention then turned to my wounds. She looked with her face slightly scrunched as if displeased.

How does this human know about vampires? She obviously expects the blood to start healing me. But more importantly, since she knows what I am and what I eat, why is she trying to help me? Is she insane? I normally do not lower myself to speak to the cattle that sustain me, but I had to know. "Why are you doing this?" I asked weakly. The damage to my throat was extensive and it left my voice without its usual commanding presence.

Her only response was a sigh and a half-hearted shrug. If I had been at full health I would have held her by her throat and shaken her until she had provided me with the information I desired. Insolent human! I restrained myself from verbally lashing her however, knowing that however foolish, this girl was bringing me blood. After a few more minutes and one more inspection of my injuries, she left the cave once more.

I lay there throughout another mind numbing night, wondering how long animal blood would take to heal me, or if it were even possible. I knew of vampires that chose animals as their diet, but I had never heard of a vampire recovering from a werewolf attack without human blood. By the next morning I knew it was hopeless. The blood had not helped me in any way over all those hours. I was still in tremendous pain and highly immobile.

She came again about mid morning that day. As per her habit she lowered herself to the floor and softly rubbed my head. I was beginning to see it as her greeting, and wondered why she had not once attempted to speak to me. She looked over my wounds and seemed disappointed by the lack of improvement but still she said nothing.

Wondering if I would get any information out of her today, I asked again, "Why are you doing this?" Still she said nothing. I had to bite back a snarl. How dare she defy me! Unwilling to give up just yet I tried a different inquiry. "How did you know what I am?" Someone was to blame for sharing our secrets and I fully intended to punish them. If I ever get out of this infernal cave that is.

Not really expecting a reply I hadn't been watching the girl, and the next thing I knew she had bared her right wrist and presented me with a scar that any of my kind would recognize. There were two silver-white crescent shapes embedded in her skin. A distinctive mark which could only have been left by a vampire.

Pushing past my shock at seeing such a mark on this still very much alive young woman, I choked out, "How are you still human?" Her reply was a sigh an a small shake of her head. I couldn't stand any more of this foolishness. "Why won't you speak you infernal woman?" I shouted as loud as my damaged throat would let me.

Gone was the softness in those brown eyes that I had become accustomed to seeing, instead there was a hardness, an anger that did not seem suited to her, I grudgingly admitted, attractive features. She straightened her back, took a deep breath, and slowly lifted her hands to the rich brown curtain of hair that spilled forward over her shoulders. Her hair was so long and thick, in fact, that it covered almost the entirety of her upper body and as her hands pulled the curtain of hair open and defiantly brushed it behind her shoulders, I understood why she had worn it so.

Marring the skin of her pale throat were four deep pink marks, that were obviously not new, but old, deep scars. They began at the top of her neck just under the left side of her jaw and traveled down diagonally ending at her right collar bone. She really was lucky to be alive. Two injuries that should have ended her life, but here she was caring for a vampire of all things.

"I'm sorry." The words were foreign to me, but I did mean them. She must have seen the sincerity written all over my face because she seemed to lose her steam and with a long sigh she settled back down into her normal slightly hunched position beside me. "Don't" I said quickly as she reached up to pull her hair forward once more, "don't hide them. They are a sign of power, of what you have endured and survived. You should be proud of the marks you bear." The look she graced me with was obviously questioning my sanity. "In my world", I continued, "you would be regarded as a warrior, for though you have attained scars you have still survived your battle."

For my impassioned speech, I was rewarded with a small smile, a smile that transformed her face from one of good looks to a thing of pure beauty. It highlighted a tiny spark in her eyes that had not been present before in her gentle but stoic demeanor. She reached forward and gently squeezed my hand. She seemed to be saying thank you.

After a somewhat awkward silence, since now I knew she couldn't respond verbally, she pointed to some of my injuries and I related to her what I suspected to be the truth. "They were inflicted by Children of the Moon-werewolves, and it is unlikely I will heal enough to become mobile without human blood, though I appreciate your earlier effort."

She ran a hand back and forth across her forehead, like someone trying to ease an oncoming headache. Then with her elbows supported on her knees she dropped her face into her hands. I didn't know what so say. Obviously I couldn't send her to my home for help. She would be drained before she knocked twice on the door. Sure she could grab someone off the street and assist me in murdering one of her own kind-right I can definitely see that one panning out.

When she lifted her head again she looked determined. First she shook her head 'no', then she bared her teeth and chomped them twice. Before I could ask her what she was getting at, of course I wouldn't bite her, I couldn't even move, she had slipped a small knife out of her boot, stabbed her wrist just above the vampire bite and pushed the now flowing blood to my lips.

To say I was astounded would not even begin to describe what I felt in that moment. This lovely, caring, obviously insane, warrior woman has just offered me her life's blood. As her warm, delectable, healing blood made its way through my battered body I was nourished in a way I had not known in centuries.

Not much time had passed when she swayed heavily to the side pulling her wrist away with the action, and barely supporting herself with the other arm. She looked incredibly white, and once she had balanced herself somewhat, instantly wrapped her shaking left hand around her punctured right wrist. She looked terrible, and I was beginning to think perhaps she had lost too much blood. I panicked at the thought. I wanted to know her story.

"Are you alright?" I queried, she needed to be ok. This brave idiot woman has to be ok. She took a deep breath and started to nod to assure me she was fine, when her eyes rolled into her head and she crashed to the floor. "No!" I cried. No, she can't die, not before I learn her secrets.

Still not having full use of my arms, I used my fingers to pull my right hand in her direction. My arm was just long enough to reach her bleeding wrist and clamp my hand closed around it. She could not lose any more. As much as I needed it, for once I wanted a human body to keep the majority of its blood. I could already feel my power returning, thanks to her most generous gift, but will I be able to get her help in time?

I looked at her once more, peaceful and beautiful with her hair in a wild halo surrounding her. She is an angel. My angel, and I will do all in my power to see that she does not fall.

Minutes have never seemed so long. The gashes are still open, but I believe I will be able to carry her momentarily. Even at a slow run I should be able to get her to my home in just over an hour, I only hope we will be able to get her medical treatment in time. I will not be able to take her myself looking as I do currently, and there are few others I would trust with the task.

Wincing, I pulled her tiny frame into my arms and made my way out of the cave. I was amazed at how potent her blood was. I should have needed twice the amount she gave to reach this level of healing. 'She would have great potential as an immortal' my mind whispered. Such powerful blood usually indicated a high likelihood of creating a 'gifted' vampire, though there are exceptions to the rule. I should know, I am one such exception.

With as much speed as I was able I ran with her body cradled securely to my damaged chest, the pain from the contact rendered inconsequential by my need to see her well again. We arrived at my home just as the sun was setting and she still hasn't regained consciousness. Her heart was beating more quickly than was normal for her, and her skin had a clammy feel to it. With no thought to the scene I would cause I ran directly to the front gate which was thrown open at my arrival. "Master!", the guard exclaimed, "you're injured!" Not slowing, I flew down the familiar corridors, passing a few more gaping faces until I reached the massive wooden doors that would lead me to my brothers.

Bursting in and panting from my exertion in such a weakened state, I thoroughly shocked my brothers who were instantly at my side. Aro gasped after touching my hand.

"I will take her myself brother," he said quickly." Finish your healing and join us at the hospital when you are able." Knowing that he would get her the best medical help available, I gave in and crashed to my knees from the physical and emotional burden of the last few hours. "Come, let us get you fed," Marcus said as he took my arm to help me to my feet. "You will soon be well again."

In the shower, after my feeding, I watched as the last of the gashes closed and faded. A vampire would still see the marks but they would not be noticeable to humans. I could now rejoin my angel. I was anxious to see to her condition. The trip to the hospital took only a few minutes, and once inside I was able to track her to her room.

"You look much better brother. If I had not seen for myself what you have been through this past week I don't know that I would have believed you." Aro glanced at my angel, "she is a fascinating creature, is she not?"

"Indeed she is," I replied. "She intrigues me."

"In this you are not alone, brother. I have yet to tell you of a fascinating discovery I have made about your little friend here."

"What is it?" I snapped, jealous that he know something of her that I did not.

"Peace, brother. It was not my intention to rile you. I think you will be astonished to hear that I cannot see into this young lady's mind."

"Truly?"

Aro's smile almost split his face as he replied, "not one little peek."

He is right. I am astonished. Never before in our thousands of years have we come across anyone who capable of thwarting Aro's gift, no vampire, and certainly not a human.

"She will make a stunning immortal." He added offhandedly.

"If she wants to be changed I will change her, but if she does not, she will not be forced. I will assume full responsibility for her."

"She's softened a heart of stone" he whispered still watching her sleep.

"Tell me what has been done for her" I demanded of my brother, uncomfortable with discussing the strange feelings I have begun to associate with the, still too pale, woman lying in a stark white hospital bed.

"Well, to begin with, they have given her blood to replace what she lost, when she 'fell and cut her wrist', and they are also giving her fluids. I was told she is most likely tired from the strain on her body and will awake on her own in a few hours."

"Thank you, brother, for seeing to her when I could not." I was ridiculously grateful that she would be well soon. "I wonder of her voice could be restored?"

"I have no way of knowing, the damage was obviously extensive. If you like, I will call Carlisle. He could perhaps give us a realistic medical assessment without personally having to deal with too many 'outside' humans."

I thought about his suggestion for a few moments. I would love to be able to do something for her after all she risked to aid me in my time of need. Venom would certainly heal her, but I wanted to present her with options. "Yes, call him." I decided.

"Very well, I will see you both tomorrow." With that he rose and left me with my tiny warrior.

Two hours later she began to stir. Her eyes flew open wide when she realized he was in an unfamiliar setting.

"All is well, il mio angelo" I reassured her from the chair I had pulled close to her bed. Her soft brown eyes found mine and she slowly raised her hand to trace the path across my cheek where a terrible gash had been just that morning. "You cared for me, and now I will care for you. Rest, little warrior, the doctor days you can leave in the morning." She gave me a sweet smile, nodded her head and drifted back off to sleep.