A/N: This will be a Jasperella, eventually. I enjoy the slow build of tension, and that will be very present in this story. If you enjoy the story, please review! I know that's an old song, but it really is inspiring to get feedback. So, I hope you Enjoy!

DISLAIMER: I do not own nor claim rights to Twilght & it's charaters.

Chapter 1: Welcome to Forks

Bella:

I can do this. I can do this.

I stood at the threshold of my new high school and willed myself to step inside.

"C'mon, Bella," I muttered to myself. "Pull it together."

I smoothed my white sleeveless shirt, trimmed high in ivory lace that tickled my throat, and wiped my damp palms down my jeans. I was transferring into Forks High after moving in with my dad. I had lived with my mother, Renee, up till now, but had banished myself to Forks in order give her some space. She was a newlywed and she and her new husband tended to be… loud.

The final warning bell rang and the few students that littered the hallway scuffled off to their first period classes. I peered into the now barren hallway and in my anxious state it seemed to stretch on forever.

I can do this.

Right?

"No time like the present."

I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, stepped into the building and immediately tripped over the doorjamb. My eyes flew open as I fell and I saw a white flash as two arms swooped under me and kept me from colliding with the ground. The hands tightened around my wrists and I shivered. They were so cold. I noticed how my light skin no longer looked so white next to the arms of my catcher. They were so pale.

"Thanks, I…" My voice trailed off as I lifted my head and looked into the most beautiful set of topaz eyes I has ever seen. They sparkled like sunlight filtered through ancient amber, and I couldn't remember how to speak, let alone what I had been saying. The most beautiful eyes I had ever seen…

And they glared back at me with immense and unbridled hate.

Edward:

What hell is this?

The wisp of a human that had blindly stumbled into my arms lifted her head, and as her hair parted over her face, I breathed in and my throat burned, my eyes narrowed, and venom pooled in my mouth.

It was the most tempting scent I had ever encountered.

It was mouthwatering.

It was horrifying.

I flicked my tongue out and moistened my lips with venom. The girl's slow human eyes followed the motion, and she leaned into my arms more deeply.

That's right.

I didn't break eye contact as I drew her up and into me. Her eyes fluttered for a moment, and closed. Her head dropped slowly back, stretching her long neck, pale and shot through with light blue veins.

Goodbye.

I bared my teeth and reached for her pulse point where her blood rushed back and forth, quick with anticipation and fear. No matter how seductive we are, we are still predators and our prey--they always feel that fear. My teeth grazed her neck as I anticipated the moment they would rend her smooth skin and her blood would leak into my mouth. I was just about to snap my jaw shut.

Then she hiccupped.

Bella:

If this was the welcoming committee, I think I'm gonna like it here.

My rescuer still had his arms twined around me, and he was just about to ravish me in the middle of the empty hallway.

I wasn't complaining.

I thought he was going to kiss me, but then he twisted and his teeth grazed my neck.

Hey. That works too.

Right as he was about to kiss my neck, all of my nervous energy bubbled up and before I could help it, a tiny hiccup rocked through me.

Before I knew what was happening, I was flying through the air. I collided with a wall of lockers and the momentum made my head snap back hard enough to leave a dent. I crumpled to the floor.

My eyes wouldn't focus. The beautiful boy who had rescued me was a fuzzy outline in the lit doorway. I blinked twice and shut my eyes against the pain. I was slightly dazed. What had just happened?

I reached my hand up to rub where my head had bounced of the lockers. My fingers got tangled in the hair matted with thick blood.

Great. I'm going to get a concussion on my first day of school. I had to admit, its something I would do.

As I gauged the pain to see how I felt about standing up and finding the nurse's office, I felt a strong arm wrap around my waist and hoist me into the air. I was thrown over a hard shoulder and rushed out of the school and across the parking lot at impossible speeds.

My rescuer had become my abductor.

I remembered what had happened and finally had the sense to struggle. He had thrown me against the locker wall like I was a Nerf ball, and now he was sprinting away with me draped over his shoulder.

I took a deep breath and started screaming, twisting, and hitting. He didn't falter in a single step. I arched my back, threw my weight to the side and managed to turn to the poing where I was certain I could land a punch to the side of his face. I balled up my hand and put all of my weight into the swing.

I heard a pop and a crunch when my fingers connected.

I had broken my hand. Shattered it.

I stopped fighting.

I didn't know where I was going, but I was pretty sure I wasn't coming back from wherever it was.

I couldn't even muster the strength to cry.

Welcome to Forks.

Edward:

I wanted to laugh. I had come so close to denying myself this insignificant little girl's life. I had shoved her away from me, thinking only of getting away from the hellish temptation.

I had misjudged my strength, and when the skin on her scalp split under the impact of her head against the locker, when the smell of her blood hit the open air, it was decided.

She was mine.

As she lay trying to recover, I grabbed her with one arm and threw her over my shoulder, her limp body slapping against mine with every stride. I didn't care about maintaining human speed. Our cover was finally blown. And it wasn't Alice, who was too proud of her vampiric grace and speed to ever fully play the bumbling human, or Emmett, who kicked field goals from the opposite end zone when he thought none of his mortal classmates were looking, or Rose, who liked to come close enough to the female students to feel their jealousy, to callously infatuate and abandon the males, or even Jasper, for whom the pull of blood was often too much to handle.

It was me.

The perfect son; so calm, so collected, and so damn in control.

I couldn't even bring myself to feel shame. Not even for my father and creator Carlisle.

I just felt relieved.

I was about to break our biggest and only law. I was going to drain this girl until her empty body was light enough to float away on the wind. I was going to end her life and ruin the lives of my family.

And I was thrilled.

I would commit this sin and a weight would be lifted. I would no longer have the impossible expectations. I would no longer be perfect.

I couldn't wait.

I reached a clearing in the forest and dropped the girl to the ground.

I knelt next to her body and saw her chest rising with the quick shallow breaths of absolute panic.

Lovely.

Should I break her neck, first?

I considered making it easier for her, ending her life before I drained her of her blood.

No, I was too selfish. I wanted her heart to push her blood into my throat—wanted to feel her pulse falter and stop.

I plunged my teeth into her neck and felt, more than saw, her eyes fly open in shock and pain.

"No…" I heard her faintly whisper.

No.

It was laughable.

I felt the easy tide of blood flow over my tongue. My eyes rolled back and I wanted to moan.

So delicious.

So worth it.

"No," she said again, weaker and farther away.

I felt her heart stutter, catch, and slow down with each beat.

"No…" she exhaled the word and I could feel her begin to descend into defeat, though her eyes never closed.

I was almost finished when something slammed into my side, ripping my teeth from the girl's neck and throwing me against the trunk of an oak. My body jolted the tree and I sunk at least three inches deep into the wood before I stopped.

I looked at my interruption. His eyes were dark with hunger as he stared at the bright blood that coated my mouth and jaw. He was physically shaking with the need to pounce and devour. I could read it in his mind. He wanted nothing more than to finish what I had started.

"Do it." I hissed. "Don't fight the inevitable."

My words did not have the intended effect. He growled, and I read his resolve strengthen. He shoved me back against the tree, harder, and I heard what he was going to say a second before he snarled, unknowingly echoing my victim:

"No."