The names are not mine, the rest is. Well, except for those two lines...

AN: The finale

You Call It Madness, But I Call It Love

James tried to take my mother from me. He attempted to destroy my family, to dispose of our every reason. He should have gone right ahead and ripped out each of our hearts. But of course, that's why he chose her, and we all knew it. As Bella began to change, I didn't hesitate. I found James, lying in wait like the animal that he was, and I took his life from him. I ripped his dead heart from his chest, and held it up for him to see. Where my own dead heart lies, one soul beats for me. James, he was soulless. I know the difference now. I see the difference now.

Carlisle fought beside me, the most precious parts of his existence at risk, and he was relentless. I held my own, perhaps more than was needed. Still, my father stood with me, as if to bring me back from the edges of nowhere. It was simple really, letting go. Much easier than I had imagined, tearing through the restraints I had been held in for so long. So now, James is no longer, and the rest of them, along with Maggie, have been handed over to the elders of their coven. Carlisle insisted. Though, I wanted to keep on fighting.

Alice and Jasper have since gone back to school. Having newborns in the house again is no novelty for them, nor has it discouraged them in the slightest from following up on their previous affections. The ever excitable nymph that is Nettie. To go, please.

Bella has professed her excitement at having her best friend join us. Rosalie merely rolled her eyes and said nothing. If I'm honest, watching my brother with her, I see clearly that he has much work cut out for him. She is hostile, aggressive. Even when at home. Even after feeding. Feeding was a group trip for a while: Emmett and I standing by as the new vampires among us went about their carnage. Where Rose preferred mountain lions, Bella hadn't the stomach for it, opting only for my blood.

The lines, they paint lovely and wicked as they course through her, flowing uninterrupted along her skin, leaving a path for me to follow. My blood mixing with her own. She sings to me for more, and together we feed from each other, our lust no longer being something we have to fight.

-o-

"Charlie says my mom asked to see me, but honestly, the thought just makes me angry, and I'm afraid making the trip... Well, I see it ending badly."

"It would be wise to wait." Edward sits at the piano, hovering over the keys. I'm waiting for him to play, he's waiting for me to stop waiting. He doesn't want to disappoint me. I feel like since the transformation, I know things. I understand the abilities that come along with this new life. The strength in my senses. But sometimes, I don't have to wait for his answers. I just know. As if he has said it to me already, before he speaks. It's not as clear as knowing someone's thoughts, or how I imagine reading their mind might be. But it is getting stronger.

"I know, you're right. I feel guilty. And I know, I know, everything I feel is multiplied by a thousand right now, but...I'm starting to feel like it's right. However heavy it has become, however much it's not really real, it feels right."

"Jasper's bringing your things from campus. Perhaps you should write to her, better still, paint something. Less words, the better."

"I know what you're waiting for. I don't know how I know. I just know you're becoming clearer. Everyone is becoming so clear to me." He's talking about my mom still, I'm talking about the piano.

"You're a reader." He says, simply. Like he hasn't just realised this. Like it's not some revelation.

"What?" I ask, and he is watching me now. His eyes are a dark redwood colour, like my own. My blood stills him. His blood, in me, causes a frenzy. I'm catching up, they all tell me.

"Esme is a reader. I am a reader. Though, sometimes I don't feel as if I can see anything clearly."

"Like Alice, and the future?"

"It's not a gift. Not exactly. More like a heightened ability." He's back to the keys. One soft note, followed by an even quieter one, sounds the room like tiny drops of water.

I feel more confident since the transformation. Like knowing he won't reject me makes anything I have to ask him, anything I want, okay.

My hands find his shoulders before I can even think it. His fingers begin playing along the whites and blacks of a song I don't know. He is warm to me now, somehow like a fire beneath my skin, I rip his shirt from his back, and he stops playing momentarily. As he begins again, my own fingers pull at his hair, my mouth at his neck. I don't drink, not this time. I find sweet relief in all the tastes of him. But now, it's time. And I am ready.

-o-

She rips my shirt, and I know she doesn't want this to come easy. She finds power in exploring the edges of what she can and can't have. Though, I'm certain I will give her everything.

The song underneath my fingers no longer makes sense, her body is the only thing I see as I pull her to me, and lift her onto the piano, the keys crashing in ugly yet perfect harmony.

"Kiss me." She begs, and I take her mouth, hungry. My teeth slip over her lips, tasting the smallest drop of blood as I go. My tongue wipes it away as we pant for the air we don't need.

I could breathe her in a thousand times, and not be satisfied. She is delicious honey in my mouth as I rip her dress away, exposing her breasts to me. Suckling for pleasure, her fingers find no relief as they dig into my back, my neck, my hair.

I laugh into her soft flesh, my fingers spreading. She laughs as she pushes me away.

She's gone. Through the sliding doors and out into the green.

She is calling to me with much more now, body, soul, heart. The very same as mine. At last.

-o-

I don't know how fast I'm running but I know it's not fast enough. And I don't want it to be. I know where I'm going, and I know he'll chase me, find me there. My laughter falls from me like a crazy child playing hide and seek. I feel effortless. I feel alive, for the very first time.

I run into trees and they pass me by. I don't know how. My feet find rock, and uprooted branches, wet things, sharp things. I feel nothing except what they are. I feel like I'm gliding across the earth, and all its beauty, my eyes cataloguing everything, every single thing.

As I push through the clearing, I begin to slow, as if I need to in order to take in more. I don't. But it feels right. It feels like coming home. The purple flowers make me liquid, running water to help them grow. The yellow pretty makes me smile, I am the new light, easy to be me.

"Hello, beautiful."

Edward's arms are around me, the breath he knows I like, dusting my bare shoulders. He doesn't need it, neither of us do. But I like it. It's something human that I can relate to. It tells me things without words.

"I was trying not to be scared of you. I didn't want to be." I turn in his arms to face him, his hands at my waist, in my hair. "Despite what you were showing me, when we first came here, I looked at you, into your eyes, and I just wanted you to hold me. I felt like I had been waiting so long."

"I was trying not not to scare you. Too much. A part of me wanted to steal you away. The rest of me knew it was dangerous. That I was dangerous to you."

His mouth is welcome, wet, and wanting. If I were still human, he would be breaking me right now. But I'm not, I am new now, and this is heaven.

"Bella..."

"I know." I tell him. Because I need him like he needs me.

He tears my dress right off, and pulls the rest of his shirt off along with it, discarding them on the ground. I unbutton his pants as he pushes me, and we fumble in the forest, along the soft grass of our meadow, kissing and undressing. All the parts, we want to see.

He backs me into a low hanging tree, and I hook my arms up over the branch. His hands are everywhere, his mouth follows. But suddenly he stops, his lips are red, parted, and I don't want him to stop. He's just looking at me, just holding me here, against this tree, harsh, and rough.

Before I can say anything, his fingers begin to play, just like before, on the piano. Except this is me, my skin, in the light of the flowers, and the accompaniment of the animals, scurrying away, afraid of this ferocity on display, the fierceness in our calm as we finally agree to move on, moving up and in, just like his fingers as he sheds me of everything that is left.

I am open. I am willing.

I grip the tree, waiting, the anticipation ready to explode me. I'm not afraid of him, never could be. I'm not afraid of this, though I would have been. But not now, not this me, not this version of who I am in front of this boy, my boy vampire, lifting me, pushing into me, softly, slowly. I feel immense, like this moment is filling me up to the brim of my heart, and I have nowhere to put it. I close my eyes to feel it more, if that's even possible. If it's even possible to take much more, but I do, as I feel him entering me further. His hard warmth fills me, and I am lost. Lost to his stillness as we consume each other for what this moment really is.

"You don't know how long I've waited for you."

Edward spears me with his words, his actions to match. I hold on tighter still as he begins to move beneath me, pressed into me. His dick is hard, really hard, but it doesn't hurt, and it's not weird. I feel hot, so full of wanting, each time he moves into me, I am tingly for something I haven't found yet. But, I feel cold too. The leaves flying in the softly breeze, lapping at my skin, just like Edward lapping at my soul with each thrust.

He's moving faster now, and we're fucking. The branch begins to give way but we don't fall, he's holding me, pushing us against the bark, relentless as he gives me more each time. But I'm not ready for this to be over, so I push against his shoulders, feeling stronger than him, feeling like I can control this if I want to. I push against him again and he brings us to our knees, onto his back, my hair is falling into my face, along his chest, his skin is perfect under my lips. I kiss my way to his neck, and taste where I have tasted before. I want his blood. But in this moment, I want him even more.

"What does it feel like?" I ask him as I begin to move, realising that even with my power I still haven't done this before.

"It feels, uh... Bella, slow, slower..." He grips my ass and stills me. I can tell he's holding it all in, that this is hard, not letting go.

I rock back and forth, up and down, and begin to lose control.

"I don't want you to hold back, Edward. I know this is new...but you can't break me." And before I can try again, I'm on my back, fingers caught in the grass, as if I can hold on like this, as if this ground could take me. Bits of grass, and soil dirty my hands, as I feel myself digging deeper. Edward is deeper now, my legs are wrapped around him, his arms either side of my face, his eyes penetrating me with just as much force.

"I can't..." I hold him to me now, his pace is frenzied, and I can't take this fire. I feel as though my cheeks should be lit from the sounds we're making. His growls match my whimpers. I could scream, it feels so good.

The ground is wet beneath me.

The sky is clear above me.

The pressure is caving within me.

Before I can fall, before I can choose a ledge to let go of, he is grunting, and pulsing, and trembling above me.

It's over. It's finished for him. But I'm not done. I don't want it to be over.

"This is our life now. Whenever we want." I tell him. And I've never felt so full, ever.

"You are my life now."

AN:

I am in awe of The Boy. He makes it all so much better. He makes me better.

This has been a fucking blast! Thank you for riding along to Vampire town. It was my first time.
Honestly, I don't want to say goodbye, though it fit well to end (or shall we say begin) it here. I plan to post outtakes, chapters that didn't quite fit with the pacing. They will focus on other characters as well as our main lovers.

You've been wonderful.
I like you lots.

Please and thank you!
samrosey.
XOXO