Summery
Eight years after Bella’s abandonment in New Moon, she is thrust back into a life of the supernatural… but as she soon finds out, not all vampires are created equal. AU.
Rated: Mature - Romance/Supernatural - Chapters: 6 - Peter/Bella
Rated: Mature - Romance/Supernatural - Chapters: 6 - Peter/Bella
~ Teaser ~
I screamed as a blood covered hand landed at my feet and the meager lunch I had forced myself to eat this afternoon threatened its way up my throat. Burning tears streamed down my face as I pressed my body tighter against the unforgiving wall at my back. There was nowhere to go and for a fleeting moment as I starred at the black woolen coat of what I knew to be a vampire I thought maybe it would have been better for those men to have just shot me after all.
Whether it was minutes or hours before the screams finally died and the snarling suddenly stopped I didn’t know, but as the silence encroached on my fragile state I almost willed them to return.
The figure in the shadows was most assuredly a man, it was easy to tell by the way he moved and by the tall frame of his body. He was crouched low, blocking me from seeing the massacred bodies of those men, all but a tan hand poking out of a black down winter coat that had finally gone limp. He stood then, tall…
So tall… and turned to face me.
My heart lept into my chest as he strode out of the darkness of the shadows and towards me, his movements graceful like that of a fluid stream of the calmest waters. When the light hit his face for the very first time, the world seemed to stop and my heart ceased to beat in my chest. I sat, arrested to the core. I couldn’t move at all, and in truth I was afraid even to blink, frightened that he would attack or worse, disappear from sight.
He was still standing there, motionless as a statue and staring intently at me with those chocolate-cherry eyes. His face was an emotionless mask as he continued to blatantly ogle me where he stood. Uncomfortable by his unwavering gaze I tightened my shredded coat tighter around my body. It unnerved me that this man, this being could be so tranquil at a time like this, after he had just slaughtered those men, bad though they were.
As the lamp from the street flickered to life, I gasped. With the light shining on his face I could only describe him as stunning, but he was so much more than that. In the moments before those beasts were torn away from me I never caught sight of his pale features, only the long black coat on his shoulders and the shiny patent dress shoes that covered his feet. But now, with the time to scrutinize I struggled to describe him beyond his obvious beauty.
Deadly. Yes, that was far more accurate, I thought to myself with an internal nod.
He was a well built man, that much was obvious by the broadness of his shoulders and tone of his chest that taunted me even through his crisp button-up and blood red cravat. I couldn’t help but stare at him. His rich, milk-chocolate hair that fell in razor-like layers to his shoulders, shining with highlights of the crimson blood of my attackers, framing his pale, lean face and sharp, straight nose.
But it was those eyes…
Those eyes that reminded me of chocolate-covered cherries at Christmas time… those eyes that were so warm in color and yet so cold, captivated me.
Flawless, I thought with a grimace. If there had been any doubt before as to what he was, there was no doubt now. It was obvious to me as my own name… vampire. He had only one imperfection on his gorgeous face and I don’t think I would have ever noticed it if I hadn’t been so drawn to his eyes in the first place. It was neat and thin, and hardly traceable but it was there. In the upper left corner of his right brow, was a scar about an inch in length and had he been blonde I don’t think any human would ever notice it. It peeked my curiosity, that small thin scar. How it was even possible for a vampire to obtain a scar like that, with there accelerated healing and tough skin was beyond me.
As my mind continued to wander, lost in thought over that damnable scar I failed to see him move. Slowly, elegant fingers attached to a pale-white hand extended to my vision, a simple gesture and one that warmed me. Hesitant as I was to trust this vampire, or any vampire for that matter, I found that I had no control over my own movements or my skinned and bleeding hand that slipped into his. Cool, long fingers encased mine gently, like I was made of homespun glass and with no effort at all he pulled me to stand on quivering legs.
My eyes only left his briefly during this exchange but when my gaze lifted to his once more those hard crimson chocolates had softened into a look of wonderment. “Are you alright?” He asks me in a voice smoother than glass.
I nodded dumbly as my throat tightened and grew dry but my shaking legs had other ideas, as the weight of the evening finally hit, my knees buckled with it and gave, sending me crashing to the ground. As I expected the pain of the fall never reaches me and instead I found myself pressed to a chest as hard as stone as he heaves out a breath that sounds like relief.
“Troublesome woman,” he mutters quietly. He doesn’t sound half as irritated as he makes out to be as he slides a strong arm under my thighs and lifts me into the air.
I wanted so badly to be aggravated, to huff indignantly at being carried away like some damsel in distress from a fairy tale, but I cannot find the will to even put up a fight. I’m tired, and thinking about it, a damsel in distress was exactly what I was at the moment.
“Where- where are you t-taking me?” I ask him shakily as he starts form the ally in a quick but steady pace.
He sighs heavily, like it is bothersome for him to have to answer the question but he answers nonetheless. “My home.”
He is looking straight ahead with no sign of looking my way as I stare at his sharp jaw, gaping like a fish out of water. “W-why?”
Without stopping his eyes flash down to mine, glowing red. “Isn’t it obvious?” He asked with an air of arrogance so strong it left me struggling to tramp down my rising temper.
My eyes narrowed. “Not really,” I spat at him. “Perhaps it is because I’m only a simple minded human, but please do enlighten me.”
He stops suddenly, and it is only then that I realize how fast we had actually been traveling as my head slams hard into his chest. Looking around quickly I notice that we are in fact standing on a roof top garden of a high rise. How hadn’t I noticed?
“You know what I am?” He states. Though it was not a question I nod anyways with wide eyes, any trace of courage I had is now long gone.
A pregnant pause passes in silence with only the noise of comfort being the busy street below. “Those men, though they attacked you at random are now a danger to you, you cannot return home.” He tells me quietly and in his eyes, concern reads clear.
As his words ring like a mantra in my head my eyes widen when they process what it is that he means. I can’t return home.
Later I would come to realize just how true those words were.
Desperate at this point I grab the collar of his soft coat with both hands. “B-but, you k-killed them! I mean didn’t you?” I end in a whisper, my head lowering in defeat.
“Yes.” he says in an emotionless monotone.
“Then why?” I cry, tugging on his collar with more force than before and his eyes that had been staring off into the distance turn to nail me still.
“One got away, and as I did not find your belongings on any of the dead or in the ally it is easy to assume that they now know where you live. They may only return to thieve you blind but then again they may also come seeking revenge for their fallen comrades.” He paused slightly to run the cool pad of his thumb across my blushing cheek. “This is a risk I refuse to take.”
Shocked to the core by his omission my eyes squinted in scrutiny, thinking of any way possible that I might know this man. That maybe the answers I so desperately need are written in the planes of his beautiful face. I’ve known my fair share of the undead and they are not by nature caring creatures. Confused and overwhelmed I stutter out the only thing I can think to ask at the time. “Who are you?”
He looks slightly taken back by the question but just as slowly as the sun rises and just as breath-taking his thin lips curve upwards in a subtle smile as he whispers. “Peter.”
I’m not sure if I was disappointed or thrilled by his answer, as it was I was hoping for a little more than just his first name. But for now I guess it had to do. In just an hour this man had entered my drab and meaningless life and turned my world on its axis once again. I had vowed to myself eight years ago, on a snowy night in the mountains where I nearly lost my life to stay away from vampires; the creatures that nearly ended me. But never the less, here I was in the arms of one blushing like I was still eighteen. Such a masochist.
Chuckling as if he heard my thoughts he removes my hands from his collar and rests them in my lap. “Sleep now.” he commands me, and before I can protest his hand winds its way into my hair and his lips press against mine. The were warm, smooth and caused an electric current against my skin akin to being completely inebriated but I couldn’t ponder them anymore. My eyes grew heavy and the world seemed to melt away.
“Forgive me.”
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