I knew I had come looking for something specific, though, and it went past all of these surface wants. I think I just wanted to see her, I realized, as I sat in the driver's seat. I had just wanted to be sure she was whole and real in this strange world where someone like she and I could exist at once.

What a strange phenomenon.

I took one last look at her in her bright red uniform耀tartling against the dull weather worn brick and black sky葉o ground myself again, and then pulled away from the curb and headed east.

My Lady

Teeny Tiny Twilight

It was days like today that I almost hated Carlisle for having condemned me to this life. Almost.

I continued my torture ritual on the old, now dilapidated Christmas tree that I myself had heaved into the forest the day after Christmas. It looked the same as it had three weeks ago, too cold for the needles to lose too much water. One side was flattened, and as I plucked the smooth, green needles from the rough wood of the tree, they felt smooth against my hand. A cool caress, though I found no comfort in the touch.

It had begun as a simple plucking of individual pine needles from the branches曜ust out of boredom as my mind wandered傭ut somewhere along the way I started a little childish chanting game.

"She hates me. She hates me not. She hates me..."

It was not a good day. It would not be a good night, and I hated that I knew this. I hated that I knew that the days were too long and the nights were useless. Most of all though, I hated that this tree solidified my misery. Concrete evidence that what I felt now was the truth.

By this point in the year, I've usually forced amnesia on myself, blanking the images of all seven of us on the floor, forty-two presents wrapped in bright cheerful wrapping paper. Six for each of us, naturally.

I'm not a miser. I don't begrudge gift giving, sentiments of love, or family bonding over a holiday that lost its meaning during the industrial revolution. Probably even before then.

The consider the image, though, of sitting on the floor watching everyone else lean against someone, twine their fingers together with another, or look at their significant other with such adoration for the thoughtfulness of knowing what they wanted. Now imagine being alone. Christmas was a lonely place to be as a seventh wheel.

On Christmas, I sat and faked happy while Jasper did his best to ignore me. He, like the rest of our family, had become accustomed to my mood. My greatest gift to them in the season was to smile and feign the same joy as the rest of them. Even as Jasper occasionally made little sounds to let everyone else know I was approaching near suicidal levels of misery.

"She hates me.I stopped on the last needle of the branch. Chime's anger seemed to have seeped into the fauna. I pushed my thumb against where the branch met the trunk, and I watched as it collapsed under the most gentle of touches. It turned from wood to mulch effortlessly, destroyed by barely a caress. I started a new branch with clenched teeth. It occurred to me that if I changed the name of the game just a little, I'd be loved, and perhaps less frustrated.

As I came home the night before, it seemed as though the weight of the Christmas season had again descended on us. No, worse than Christmas, somehow. It seemed more like I had been cut from all my ties, all the reasons for being seemed...dimmed. Like trying to look through a brilliant light to see a much duller one.

Alice had been so sorry that I could not be angry with her. That could have been Jasper's doing though. His want to please her was felt so deeply, he subconsciously reached his gift out. Calming tense air, bringing joy where there would otherwise be anger. Gratifying her no matter the cost. Love was such a strange phenomenon sometimes, neither perfect virtue nor absolute vice.

There was no real reason to have the reoccurring response to the holiday season. There were no decorations hanging. The mistletoe, no longer fresh, had been long since tossed with the tree. Despite this, the same sense of being the extra in a house full of happy, absolutely in love couples, returned.

The moment I had left Chime, I had wanted to return. I wasn't sure that this could be explained away by the idea of the after affects of physical love. Shouldn't it be fading, rather than growing in strength? Besides, when had Tanya ever experienced this? Where were the stories of Vampires plagued with remorse over the humans they killed during copulation?

There were none.

No, I was starting to understand that this might be some long buried instinct from my human life預 protective instinct.

It was not particularly new. Decades ago, with the rebellion against the restraint required to exist as a vegetarian, I had left with the romantic idea of protecting the innocent. I could drink human blood without being a monster. I soon learned that a hero in a black cloak always becomes the villian.

What was different from that dark period of my life was where my attention was directed. I did not focus so much on the monsters as I now did the victims. Or rather, victim, since the girl seemed to be the only human I was particularly concerned with.

The furry I felt when Michael thought about touching her? Protective. The intense agony I rarely dwelt on for its intensity at the thought of her body being used by others? Definitely protective. The rage I endured because she placed herself there, night after night? Well, that one was a much more natural response to stupidity.

I was trying to live as a hero again, but not by murdering the guilty; rather, I was protecting the weak. It suddenly made sense, that desire to step before the harsh thoughts of Lauren Mallory and Annabel. Or to warn her of the deceptive friendship in Jessica Stanley. It was all my long buried human instincts rising to meet her very obvious vulnerability with strength.

She had grabbed my attention as a burning fire in my throat and kept it with a silent mind with impossibly tempting puzzles to solve. She had enticed my more intrepid side with her obvious frailty through the translucence of her skin, and the glass of her bones.

Then there was the damn stubbornness that was born from her unending bravery.

I could almost smile thinking about the way she had determinedly marched through the parking lot to where I stood. I could remember envious stares of the male population of Marshal Metropolitan High School as they watched Annabel stride towards me, some thing I thought might be anger fuelling her brisk pace. I felt the same smug grin that I had tried to suppress trying again to break across my face at the memory alone.

The look of the mistrust in her dark eyes had bothered me more than the strange fluttering in my stomach as she approached. I wondered if she was still angry, even as I saw the strange mischievous flash in her light her face. A light that seemed to me, strangely nocturnal. This flame, capering in the both opaque and startlingly clear waters of her eyes, seemed to be more like Chime than Annabel. It was more night than day.

"Edward,she called. She was trying very hard to sound pleasant, to not draw attention to ourselves, though that was impossible. All eyes were on her. The effect of affability was spoiled by the undertones of the anger clear in her voice. I nearly laughed seeing it in her narrowed eyes aswell.

Despite the fact that I was, without a doubt, in trouble with her, I'd had to press my lips together to keep from smiling. Her anger was endearing. I liked watching the mask slip, the warmth of the passion that bubbled up to take its place.

"Annabel,I murmured softly, soothingly, 塗ow are your toes?"

I'd gotten some strange looks from my family for that, but it was so easy to ignore them. She seemed to consume the whole of my conscious mind. Between the battle to breath normally through my mouth, the constant curiosity of her silent mind that kept my own searching her face for infinitesimal changes that might suggest the direction of her thoughts, and then the amazing way her hips moved unconsciously as she walked was alone enough to drive every rational thought from me. Forcibly.

"Oh, they've turned a lovely shade of black, thank you,she growled, trying to smile around clenched teeth. I wanted to laugh again watching that thread bare smile. She was a terrible liar.

Her sharp eyes watched my face cautiously as she closed the distance between us. I saw a piece of paper in her hand, the one she had been trying to hide. I stopped breathing as she stepped close enough to clap her hand against my back with more force than I was expecting. Her hand smoothed down my back slightly afterwards.

Emmett moved to get a better look at the note she had stuck to my back at the same moment she moved away. The sudden distance between our bodies made me feel colder, her body heat having warmed me marginally. It was enough for me to notice, and I missed it the moment it was gone.

Jasper joined Emmett's view point, and they both tried to hold back their laughter. Annabel suppressed her own smile watching them, then she started to back away, her smile really happy as she waved goodbye. 鉄ee you in class."

I nodded, and waited until she disappearing into the school before I reached behind me to pull off the note.

I need a girlfriend

'Oh,' Emmett thought with a wide grin, 'I like her, Eddie.'

I smiled widely too. I was so caught up in the memory it was a strange shock to remember where I was.

I looked down now and could see how many needles were left on the branch I was on. Two-hundred-and-forty-four.

She hates me.

I growled and ripped off a huge section of the tree and then hurled it into the trees. It cracked against another tree, thin, dry branches snapping in delicate little pops.

I hesitated for a moment, looking off at the sky that was just starting to set葉he stars not quite visible in the blue預nd felt the folded square of her note in my pocket. Playful, as if I was one of her kind, like a joke between friends. I looked at the deep finger marks from where I had torn at the wood傭earing an uncanny resemblance to the claw marks of some savage beast葉hrough the thick centre of the tree.

I hesitated, looking at all the other trees in this forest. I could decimate them in a touch. I looked again at the marks in the tree, and then I left to find more durable company.

When I walked into the huge white house, Rosalie and Emmett were on the couch. Rose was curled up in his lap, playing with his fingers.

"God, even this one is grinned and then kissed his pinky finger.

Emmett grinned back. 添ou know what they say about big hands.

Rosalie laughed, a sound that resonated deep in her throat, almost a playful growl. 泥on't I know it, Baby.

I rolled my eyes, uncomfortable by their obvious display of affection. 敵et a room,I growled under my breath, and then darted up the stairs to my room.

I could still hear then murmuring to each other, so I flicked on some music. It wouldn't drown them out溶ot completely傭ut it was a distraction.

Once there though, I realized there really was nothing to do. I felt tug, a want to be some other place but here. So I started to reorganize my CDs as a distraction. A Mundane talk, but not mind numbing. I liked looking back over the years, each piece of music stood out to me like a date in a journal. There were always memories in music. Usually, it was a good distraction. Today it wasn't.

Not because the memories of the years spent gathering this music was unwelcome, but the idea of music itself.

I had given Annabel the damned iPod after agonizing over it the night before when I had known it was waiting in the back seat for morning. It was a reminder that Chime had walked away謡illingly擁nto the arms of other men. I had thought, and worried, and tortured myself imagining scenarios in which she didn't come to school the next day. These ranged from being beaten and left in a ditch somewhere, all the way to laying dismembered in a dumpster in a rotting alley.

I was so afraid that it would turn into one of Alice's dark visions that I could not go to her, though I desperately wanted to. Even if I just to followed her, just to check on her quickly. If I got too close, if she was hurt, her blood would be open to the air. The idea haunted me enough that I paced my room, terrified that she would spend her night in the dumpster thanks to one of the sadistic human predators that roamed the streets, yet I was more terrified still that I might be the one to put her there.

It was selfish, but the idea of my taking her life was almost more terrifying than just the general idea of her dying. I was so many thousands of times stronger than she could ever be, and the idea of her fragile silk skin, her bones as frail in my hands as thin glass, breaking because of me...It was horrifying. The idea of another human taking her life, was both terrifying and infuriating beyond comprehension. I was so angry I'd been struck into absolute stillness, muscles locked against the rage; the feeling so thick it imitated something of the taste of blood on my tongue耀harp, metallic傭ut without the accompanying sweetness.

No, if any human hurt her, they had better pray that someone else should find them before I did.

But she had been in school, I reminded myself, and she had been fine and whole. Once I started to agonize over her though, I couldn't seem to stop.

It was just as few hours after school ended, and the sky was beginning to darken. She could be out there now. Someone who wanted to hurt her溶ot even knowing who she was洋ight be on his way. Perhaps already held her.

I stopped, my hand tightening, just fractionally, around the case I was holding. I wasn't even sure which one at the moment, my mind went blank with a strange combination of rage and dread. A spider web of cracks raced across the plastic cover where my thumb was pressed just a little too tightly. I hardly noticed.

If I'd had a heart beat, it would have been racing now.

So I moved backwards, forcing myself to sit. Concentrating on what I did was good. It meant I wouldn't do something stupid. Something thoughtless.

Like running to find her.

Logically, I knew she was not my responsibility. Logically, I knew she had probably lived this life long enough to have a grasp of who was dangerous and who was not耀he was smart. She would see that.

Emotionally, I was a wreak. She was not my responsibility, and yet I couldn't stop thinking about her. I hated that she probably did have enough experience on the street to have been hurt before. I hated that she had been touched at all in that way, though I had become one of those hands.

I tried very hard to push away the feeling. If she didn't deserve my rage預nd she must not, because I felt none directed towards her though she was the one to place herself in such situations葉hen she should deserve none of my fear. She was so shockingly virtuous though, to be playing such a corrupt role. She was essentially good, kind, and surprisingly sensitive to the threats posed to others. Maybe that was the distinction for me. She seemed to have none of the skills necessary for protecting herself on the street.

Again, it was protective instinct.

Even today, as she had raged at me for breaking her rules, I could see her concern rather than the anger of a thick-skinned, street-wise prostitute.

God, her rules. What prostitute had rules, other than the obvious no murder, no rape, no abuse?

"You're a minor,"she had accused.

"So are hadn't mattered to her. She didn't see herself as the victim, or wouldn't see herself that way. I wasn't sure yet which one it was.

The second rule I had broken耀omething I had never considered might offend her morals揺ad been that I was 'innocent'. Virtuous. Virginal. She had known I was new to the corporeal world of pleasures in the most embarrassing way. She had tried to tiptoe delicately around it, but I hadn't let it go.

"Well,she looked reluctant. I narrowed my eyes, waiting. She had inhaled a deeply, and then seemed to force it all out in one breath. 添ou finished really fast.I raised an eyebrow, and she had ducked her head, smiling a little. 鄭nd your technique was...lacking."

"Lacking?I'd deadpanned. We were in the hallway, alone and far enough away from the babble of the cafeteria that I was sure none of my family could hear this. Nonetheless, I felt like I had failed her as a lover.

Lacking.

"Lacking experience,she had added quickly. 添ou're well hung, if that makes you feel then she'd blushed a little, trying to look blase about the frankness of her statement, and not quite succeeding. She'd turned away quickly, to hide the both painfully alluring, and somehow very beautiful blush as it spread across her cheeks.

"Much,I agreed sarcastically.

Despite the fact I was still more than mildly offended耀o I was naive not lacking, the difference being naivety could be easily remedied悠'd had to restrain my laughter at her. She played a role, just as much as our family did.

The more I thought about it though, the more embarrassed I had become. That first night...I'd had no thought of her pleasure. The forces that had driven me to her were purely selfish. I'd wanted her body, and then her life.

If I had been better, maybe she would not be so reluctant.

I couldn't even think about this.

I pulled in a deep breath, looking at the CD that was now crushed into plastic splinters in my hands. The air felt strangely stale when it wasn't laced with fire.

There was a quiet knock on my door, and I looked up despite the familiarity of the thoughts.

"Come in, Alice."

"Hey,she said, dancing in with a bright smile, ignoring my sullen expression. 展hat do you want to do after you get back? If you ask really nicely, I'll bet Jasper can be coerced into playing a little grinned, one naturally thin eyebrow raised expectantly at me.

"Get back? Alice, where am I going?I asked, though I had an inkling. The same pull as last night to just see the girl. Just know she continued to exist. But had I yet really resolved myself? There was a thin, but growing more pronounced, feeling of fluttering anxiousness in my chest.

Alice raised a delicate eyebrow at me, 摘dward, I already see you going to her. Don't pretend you haven't decided yet."

"I hadn't...not really.I looked away, ashamed of this. It was embarrassing, this sudden fixation on what the others simply considered a human. Chime shouldn't have kept my attention for as long as she had. She was different though, and, unlike the others, I had no other distractions to dissuade my interest.

The others were consumed with their other half. Their days were more or less as monotonous, as invariable as my own, but it never seemed that way to them. I had nothing to concentrate on so wholly, so the days stood out to me more than to the others.

This girl was different, and after eighty years of the sameness, even such a small change would become central to me. What was worse was that she was an absolute mystery to me. Even her name揺er real one謡as unknown. Her past, her real life...she seemed as mythological to me as I my kind must seem to humans. There seemed to be nothing concrete to hold her in this reality.

I hesitated before looking back at Alice. She watched me contemplatively. 摘verything is changing around you. Something big is happening,she finally murmured.

I leaned back, smirking. 展ould you like a crystal ball, Alice? A circus tent maybe?"

Alice's serious expression melted, and she stuck her tongue out at me.

I smiled a little, and then the worry plagued me again. 鼎an you see...I hesitated, not quite knowing how to ask her.

Alice nodded. 鉄he's fine."

"And later?"

She hesitated, 的 think so. And about what I said last night...that really wasn't fair. There were good visions too, Edward. Better ones."

I wasn't sure I could trust that. Not when I could barely trust myself. 典hank you,I murmured quietly.

Her hope was not something I was particularly sure I should take with me. Leaving though, I thought I was just a little hopeful.

When I arrived at the worn building, the lights on and music thrumming with the rhythmic bass of a fast song, I wasn't quite sure what to do.

Adam, the thick bouncer from the night before, was waiting on the steps.

There were other ways to get around him. This building must have other doors, and if not, at least a window. I'll bet I could still bribe him. Everyone had a folding price, and without Chime standing nearby, he'd probably feel less guilty for taking it.

But then what? Should I wait for her in the building? The first time I had met her, she had been standing outside in the cold. Maybe that was where she would be tonight.

Then I no longer needed to make the decision, because there she was, getting off a city bus at the end of the street.

She stepped off in clothing that, while not suitable for the temperature, wasn't wholly ridiculous. She wore a fluttery skirt and a tight white blouse. The picture of deceptive innocence.

Immediately, as if chastising her for her lack of coat, the wind snapped at her and her hair lifted to swirl in the wind before coming back down.

I turned the heat up in my car. Then realized I would need to get out and drag her back here for her to benefit at all from it. I turned the engine off, the heat that I had been previously running for her, just in case, still warmed the car. When I stepped out of the car, I felt the chill of the cold before my skin quickly adjusted to the temperature.

She hadn't seen me yet. She struggled to keep her hair that was tangling in the wind out of her face. I came up beside her and laid my almost warm coat across her shoulders.

She jumped , spinning to face me, and the motion sent a current of slightly warmer air towards me. I hesitated until it passed before taking a breath.

Instantly, my muscles clenched, my body thrilling with the expectation of a hunt that I would not allow. I burned for it.

Her face went from shock, to something akin to relief as she recognized me, and then irritation as she realized where we were.

"You looked cold.

She had looked like she was about to say something not quite nice, but then blew a long breath out instead, huffing her hair away from her face.

"Look,she started, pulling my coat around her a little tighter. I smiled. She took another deep breath, and I wondered if she was really struggling to compose herself. She didn't look angry anymore. 添ou have the valiant knight on a noble steed bit down. That really is great for you, you'll make a princess happy hesitated, pulling the jacket closer to her for one more second, and then pulling it off, and handing it back. 的f you haven't noticed though, I'm not exactly waving a handkerchief at you, so thanks, but no thanks."

I hesitated before taking the jacket back, but then she shook it at me and I realized揺owever much I was loathed to admit it悠 couldn't just let her stand there holding it. I considered folding it over my arm, but put it on instead, feeling the heat of her body cling to the material. I took a deep breath of her scent.

I was beginning to understand another piece of Chime. She didn't like to show weakness.

So as she started towards the building, I tagged along beside her. 擢ine. Duly noted. You are not the princess.I let that sit, waiting for her to take the bait. She didn't right away, so I continued. 釘ut what if you're something else?"

Her shoulders slumped suddenly. 徹h God, I'm the dragon,she sounded dismayed by this concept. I was baffled by the leap. Why would she be the dragon? Did she usually go off to plunder villages and wreak havoc?

I considered the mayhem she brought about in my own life and laughed.

A little too loudly, apparently. The sound caught Adam's attention. He watched us謡ell me蓉ntrustingly. There was a protective edge to his thoughts. Not possessive, but more...paternal almost. Maybe fraternal was the better word洋ore like a brother than a father.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized there was nothing sexual about the way he watched her. Last night even, he had not been irritated that I knew her, only becoming upset when he realized that I made her angry.

I hardly dared to hope that maybe that was one less bed she shared.

Suddenly, I liked him a little bit more.

"No, you're not the dragon,I assured her, still amused.

She finally turned a little to face me, 典hen I'm..."

I hesitated. I couldn't quite deny the comfort she had around her here, like a monarch ruling a throne. 添ou're the Queen.I smiled at the thought.

"Which is still pretty much a princess."

"No,I corrected her, a sudden inspiration striking me. 典he Queen doesn't need saving...but maybe she wouldn't mind a little help now and then.I smiled innocently. Just take it. Take the bait.

She was staring at me with her dark, opaque eyes again. They were unreadable as she searched my face for something. I had no idea what she was looking for, and so I had no idea what to hide. I felt suddenly vulnerable to her gaze.

"Queen,she repeated. A smile pulled her lips up, and it nearly stole my breath. Her smile changed her whole face.

She was pretty, I wouldn't deny that. There was just something about her that took her face from simply interesting to look at, to pretty in a strange, mesmerizing way.

But when she smiled...

Her eyes, just a little too big for her face, creased around the corners, and her high cheek bones, coupled with her smile, brought out the faint blush on her cheeks. Her teeth were white against her full red lips, chapped from the cold.

She was beautiful, I realized with a start. I couldn't believe I hadn't seen the depth of it until now, when that brilliant beaming smile was directed at me, but now, oh how I did now.

"I like it,she decided, the smile fading, but my epiphany on the degree of her loveliness did not. She raised her chin a fraction, and then started to strut royally down the side walk.

"Edward, my boy?she asked, and I felt a shot of warmth tingle down my bones.

Her boy, it was a joke, I realized, playing on her new title, but the idea made me shiver. Her boy. Her man. For the length of one second, it didn't even matter what I was, not when I was hers. Hell, if she so pleased, I'd be her Vampire King.

"Your Majesty?

She laughed a little, and my head spun, heady with the sound in my ears. This was not protective. I should not feel this way if I was simply protective. I didn't have the concentration to deliberate on both the feelings she enticed and the consideration on why they were wrong, so I chose the more pleasurable of the two.

Her.

"I now direct you back to whence you came,she said, still in a humorously haughty tone.

Not her Vampire King then, if I was being sent away so soon. 的 must decline your request, my Lady.I bowed a little, to hide my suddenly too wide smile.

My Lady sounded almost better than Her Boy. I shivered at the thought.

Maybe it was the concept of Mine, that was so appealing.

She stopped. 滴ey!Her full lips turned down. 的'm queen, you have to listen to me."

Adam, who had been curiously watching Chime's Royal Strut down the walk, called, 釘ossy doesn't mean royal blood!"

She blushed, though that may have been the wind whipping at her cheeks. I wasn't close enough to feel her skin warm to be sure. 哲o, you just lack instruction, Jack,she snapped back.

Again, she had gotten the name wrong, and again Adam wasn't concerned by it. She strutted up the stairs, skirt fluttering lightly, and then stopped in a dignified way before the large bouncer. 敵ood Sir Knight, may I pass?"

Adam bowed low and stepped out of her way. 徹f course, m' was grinning, the greenish hue in his eyes more apparent than the brown in that moment, especially under his thick black brows.

Now that I was beginning to see their comradeship for what it was rather than a sexual bond, I wasn't so angry. Not even when he called her his lady, because even in his voice, the humour dispelled the notion of possession.

I stepped up揺opefully葉rying to gain entrance without a scene.

Adam straightened, rising to his full height just an inch or so shorter than I. He gave me an accusing look. 鉄quire."

"Damn.I sighed, but I didn't leave to find another way in. I was certain, if Chime tried to leave, she would use this main door. Besides, if this Adam knew her so well, maybe he might know something useful.

Her name, maybe.

I waited, leaning against the opposite side of the stairs as a group of young adults got through, one of them still eighteen, waiting for an approaching birthday, slipped through with what I thought was an obvious fake ID. Then again, perhaps it was just my eye for deception.

"So...Jack.I smiled, and then let it falter on my face. 徹r are you Greg?I let the confusion colour my tone. I could start here. Gainning his name, along with a few other trivial questions before asking about Chime. Humans became more comfortable with sharing information about others if they thought someone liked them. There was comfort in congeniality.

Adam chuckled, and he was shockingly forthcoming. 鄭dam. Tinkerbell in there is just a bit protective. She's had...some run ins with some snitchy little bastards. By not saying your name in public, she doesn't expose your identity. It keeps you grinned, something I suppose that was meant to be intimidating. 的t's my job to kick your ass when you fuck up. In here, at least."

I chuckled, 擢air enough. Does she have a name?I refused to call her Tinkerbell. It didn't suit her in the least.

" wasn't looking all the friendly anymore. I realized, as his thoughts turned suspicious, that he had thought I was a friend of Chime's. Now that I was asking questions though, personal ones that had the potential to set her up for trouble, he started to get defensive.

Despite the fact that this made finding anymore about Annabel/Chime troublesome, I appreciated that someone was here who knew enough about her to know she was worth protecting. I just wish I was the one doing it. 典hank you. I meant a real name."

Adam's eyes tightened, and he pulled at the side of his jacket. The butt of a generic black handgun was protruding out of a strap by his hip. 的 like Chime. I'm trained to use this, and I have a nice little plaque on my wall for my marksmanship. Fuck with me. I dare you."

I restrained a smile so I could play the part of the scared teenager, being shown the weapon. The truth was, I was a little impressed by him, though I was rarely fond of humans who found their confidence from weapons. It was strangely comforting to find him on her side. It made a slight difference to me.

I held my hands up, widening my eyes to suggest fear, and started to back away slowly. 展ait, wait! I like her too. I was just curious. She's...a bit of a mystery."

I hesitated as Adam dropped his jacket with a sigh. 添ou can like her all you want. She's not the most open person.I don't even know her name. God, I've known her for years and the most personal thing I know about her is she's a natural Brunette.

Well, I could have told him that.

I slowly lowered my hands. 添ou don't know her, then?I was careful only to use the suggestion of his words, trying to separate that from his thoughts. I could remember a time, long ago, when I would have struggled with that distinction. Thoughts and voices sounded so similar.

Adam was relaxing again. 鉄he's not the most open person,he repeated instead of answering me, he maintained eye contact for a moment, and then looked away. Don't fucking like this kid, Adam thought uncomfortably, there's something off about him...maybe he's carrying something. A knife maybe?

He gave me a quick once over while I pretended to chew over his statement, looking off into the street. The yellowed street lights made the cracked asphalt look dirtier than it already was. I waited for the feeling of wrongness, because this was not where I belonged, waiting outside of a club for something to happen. I should be home, ignoring Emmett's challenges, or playfully bickering with Alice about throwing all her clothes from the thirties away, already knowing she wouldn't. Nineteen-thirty was the year she finally found Jasper.

I felt around inside myself, looking for a sense of unease, of the frustration the human world imposed with the guise of normal. Nothing. Nothing felt out of place other than an impatience to be with her. I didn't even know her real name, but I felt a desperate need to be in the bar with her for no other reason than it felt good to be near her. Even the pain of burning seemed a slight price to pay for her company.

Speaking of which, the perfume of her blood was rising above the collective musk of the crowd.

I turned in time to see Chime weaving her way through the crowd towards the door. One blue light flashed on her as she made her way over, struggling to slip past two dancers who were both too drunk to care who they were grinding against. I felt my eyes narrow at this, but the moment that light flashed, I was struck by her, and everything else seemed to fall away.

It glistened glossily down her hair, the hue turning the warm brown into a liquid night, pale skin even fairer. Then she looked up at the door, meeting my eye. The blue of the light should have seemed to give everything a chilled look, cooling where it fell.

Her eyes didn't cool, and I was struck again by her. I could see her eyes perfectly well from this distance, but the spark in them as she caught my eye was enough to make want a closer look. What would it feel like, to hold her face in my hands and properly appreciate the warmth there in her face, I wondered?

And then the blue flickered off again and she broke her eye contact with me. She seemed extra cautious of all the other moving bodies as she came over, and I wondered if she was making a conscious effort to keep her eyes from mine, even as I willed her to look up.

"Adam,she called, struggling to be heard over the thundering bass of the music.

Adam looked at me, 添ou hear something?"

Chime pushed his shoulder, and he spun around instantly, face hostile until he realized who it was. 徹h, hey Tink."

She raised an eyebrow, not looking impressed with the nickname, though something about the weariness of her expression made me think this was an old argument. 笛eff's telling me you were showing濫 She hesitated, looking at me again finally, and I felt myself relax slightly欄Uh, Anthony, your gun."

I narrowed my eyes. 摘dward,I corrected, and she shot me a glare. At least it was my middle name rather than something like Clinton, or Bruce.

Adam shrugged, unperturbed by her fuming stance, arms crossed angrily across her chest

Oh!

I blinked, feeling my mouth slackening, a rush of venom behind my lips. I hadn't noticed before with the bodies of the dancers blocking my view, the light wrong outside, but her shirt was very see through in the light from the club. Hypnotizing in its transparency.

And she looked quite stunning in red. A low growl started in my throat. Neither of them seemed to hear, or, if they did, I was past noticing.

Touch me, I thought suddenly. I'd do anything in this moment if she would just reach out and pull us somewhere more private. You want my right arm? Take it. This extra leg I have kicking around? Sure, have them both, just touch me.

I shivered, realizing that there was something familiar stirring. That feeling like I was about to burst, to completely lose control, yet rather than fear, I thrilled with excitement. I just wanted to touch her, to feel how soft her hair would be in my hand, how warm her skin was against mine, to have my face close enough to hers that I would be able to see all the way down through her jewel-like irises. They were so bright and dark and deep all at once.

I felt my phone begin to vibrate in my pocket, but I didn't think I could concentrate enough to reach for it. I didn't want to, either.

"Hey, Romeo?her voice was flat, undecipherable without her expression as a guide.

I lifted my chin a little, wanting to meet her eyes, but my eyes were still caught by the red shape behind the gauzy white of her shirt. Her skin was almost too light for the creamy rise of her breasts to be seen.

Someone cleared their throat, and something clicked in my mind that allowed me to realize that I was staring at Chime in a completely inappropriate way.

I quickly turned away, looking at the grey concrete we stood on, ashamed.

"Please excuse me,I managed, embarrassed by my lewdness, 鍍hat was...absolutely unacceptable of me.

To my absolute shock, they started laughing. I looked up to find Adam was laughing almost as freely as Emmett, but with a little more care for who was in ear shot. Chime though, was covering her mouth, her face turned away from me, hiding in her hair as her shoulders shook with laughter. This was different from her light laughter. It was freer somehow, even as she struggled to contain it. It was as though if she wasn't in control of her reactions, of her expression, it wasn't safe to show. She reacted the same with her anger, covering it with a hard smile, or a distraction.

The image of her gathering all her silken tresses up into her hair band, then letting them fall down her back, gathering them again...

"Anthony,though Chime wasn't laughing now, she was smiling, 鍍hat is kind of what the shirt is for."

I felt my face contort with disgust at this, and looked away to smooth it. The idea of Chime willingly displaying herself溶o, not that exactly. It was the sordid idea of all those men seeing what I had, of liking it, as they would. It was clear to anyone who paused to look that she was gorgeous; I didn't think it was possible for me to deny that any longer.

I wanted to deny them that, though. I wanted to wrap my coat around her, shield her body from their hungry eyes. Maybe I would steal her away for myself.

Perhaps I wouldn't give her back.

I realized I had turned to stare at her again, though this time I held her eyes with mine. And Chime seemed just as caught by my gaze, as I was by hers.

The smile slowly faded from her lips. 的 think you should go now,she murmured lowly, not breaking eye contact.

Despite the fact that I had obviously made a fool of myself, and that I was most unwelcome here in her world, I didn't want to leave yet. Perhaps she saw this in my face, because she moved a step forward.

"Edward,she whispered quietly, and it was a miracle that she imagined I would hear her over the thundering beat of the music, though of course I could.

I felt myself respond to her proximity, moving a little closer to her myself, dragged into the dark depths of her eyes. There was so much feeling there, as there had been in her voice. I could just as well hear her fear for me, her quiet anger, her concern for the oblivious stranger that擁n her eyes at least謡as going out of his way to get himself into trouble, just as well as I could see it.

I pulled in a breath unthinkingly. With her so close to me, even in the open air, her scent scorched down my throat. Beside the pain though, there was a great breath of lightness in my chest. It was as if the air was expanding, the fiery heat forcing it against the inside of my ribs until I was sure I they would crack with the force. A deep warmth gathered solidly at the base of my throat, and I knew there was no way I would be able to speak. I wasn't even sure I could let this mighty breath out that was still expanding in my chest.

I tore my eyes from hers, watching the ground instead. I couldn't bare the sensation, like I might explode with the feeling if I kept her eyes any longer. Despite this, the feeling wasn't particularly uncomfortable. A strange piece of me hungered for it, actually. It was the newness though羊ight on the edge of pain, but more of an unfamiliar pleasure than not葉hat scared me.

I didn't understand this. I didn't know how to react.

Chime imagined shame as I stared at my feet, struggling with my expression again. 敵o home."

I believe I managed a nod. I could just as well not have in the state I was in.

I turned, escaping from her. From the foreignness of these strange emotions she enticed. First the drowning from the first night, now this strange feeling of being pulled apart at the seams.

My hands were shaking so badly as I got into my car that I didn't dare try to start it, least I actually puncture my starter with my key rather than slide it into the slot. Finally though, I managed to calm, and then I felt the purr of the engine, and then finally, the relief to find that my suddenly unreliable body was able to perform the abruptly difficult task of starting the car.

I finally drove away, glancing back once to see Chime standing guard at the entrance to the club. I felt a brief shiver of something I couldn't describe. Pleasure or uneasiness? I wasn't sure, but I knew its cause.

It was the knowledge that someone stood there, and the appreciation that she was there for me.