We stayed in Goderich for a little over two years, and while I'm not one hundred percent sure that we left because of my constant complaining, I have a pretty good idea that that was at least a contributing factor. We went further than on our last move, all the way into southern half of the Appalachian Mountains, more specifically, Roan Mountain, North Carolina. It may very well be my favorite place we've ever gone. It was there that I found what I had given up looking for.

Oh, and North Carolina is in bobcat territory.

I was out hunting when everything changed. Usually bobcat is my favorite fare, their blood has a real kick to it, but that day I was after something bigger, maybe something like a bear. Since bears are not exactly a dime a dozen, I had gone all the way across the state line into Tennessee, and I was alone. It was funny; it seemed like since I had changed I was alone more than I ever had been in my real life. I didn't even really notice much after a while, just felt a kind of dislocation that no vampire foster family could fix.

As I was pondering what I now know was loneliness, a smell so enticing it was almost a physical force hit me like a speeding train. My feet turned of their own accord and I went sprinting towards that divinely inspired scent. It was something I had never smelled before, not really, something that I knew only from my darkest, most primal urgings. That smell that dragged me on like a hand in my chest was the ultimate forbidden fruit, freshly spilled human blood. As I got closer, automatically dodging trees and undergrowth, I distractedly noticed that there was more than just human blood ahead, two large hearts were thumping and sending blood through large bodies. One was the human, but hiding beneath that scent was a hot earthy odor that I knew meant bear.

As soon as my vision was unobstructed I saw the exact tableau that I had already constructed in my mind by smell, a human man being purposefully mauled by a black bear. I burst into the clearing planning to kill the bear first, then, if I could possibly muster the self-control (which I doubted) I would save the human for dessert. No thoughts of trying to resist that siren smell even entered my mind, from the sheer force of the smell I thought he or she was as good as dead already.

In a fraction of the blink of an eye I was airborne. My shoulder caught the bear with a satisfying thump just as anticipated, but then something extraordinary happened. As I floated over the man all of that glowingly red blood drew my gaze, but that's not what held it. As I looked at that man's face I had a priceless, perfect memory from my life. Something about his dark curly hair and his dimples, visible even as he was wracked with pain, brought a crystallized image of Vera's little Henry to my mind so strongly that I could have sworn I was actually back in Rochester. The bear's claws screeched as they raked across my skin and, trance-like, I reached out and snapped its neck. I was transfixed by my recollection.

The blood still beat at my control like waves against a damn, but deep down I knew I could not kill this man, I could not savage this grown little boy. I was going to have to save him the only way I knew how. First I glutted myself on the bear's blood, trying to dull my thirst. Then I stopped breathing. I scooped him up in my arms and was already running by the time I cradled his broken body against my own. None of my safeguards helped, my every nerve was singing with desire. I wanted nothing more than to bite, to taste. I couldn't take it; my head was dropping closer and closer to the wellspring of blood.

But then he opened his eyes. They looked up at me, blue and awestruck, as he mouthed something. For a moment no sound escaped him but for a feeble moan, but then I made out one single word, "Angel…" before he slid back into blessed unconsciousness.

And with that one word he rewove his destiny. Somehow, after what seemed to be an eternity of temptation, I made it back to Carlisle so that he would do what I couldn't.

A/N: So after months and months, a surprise update! Hooray! And Rose has finally encountered Emmett, so double hooray! Please review if you liked it or even if you didn't. Oh, and if you are feeling SUPER nice please please please check out my Harry Potter fic called "Golden Girl", it is lonely and review-less and I actually like it more than "Skin Deep". So yeah, please review and I will try to update soon. Cheers!