VIOLENT DELIGHTS | Rosalie Hale

CHAPTER FIVE

"Are you trying to kill us?" my sister demanded.

"We're not going to crash, Bells." I say with absolute faith, and Edward glances at me again in the mirror.

Bella brought her volume down a notch. "Why are you in such a hurry?"

"I always drive like this." He turned to smile crookedly at her.

"Keep your eyes on the road!"

"I've never been in an accident, Bella — I've never even gotten a ticket." He grinned and tapped his forehead. "Built-in radar detector."

I laughed a little at that. "Very funny." Bella fumed. "Charlie's a cop, remember? I was raised to abide by traffic laws."

"And your sister wasn't?" He threw playfully at my expense.

"I've only driven once all month." I put my hands up in mock surrender, the alcohol buzz setting in a little more now.

"If you turn us into a Volvo pretzel around a tree trunk, you can probably just walk away." Bella glowered.

"Probably." He agreed with a short, hard laugh. "But you can't." He sighed, and Bella looked relieved as the needle gradually drifted toward eighty. "Happy?"

"Almost."

"I hate driving slow." He muttered.

"This is slow?"

"Enough commentary on my driving." He snapped. "Grace?"

I knew what he wanted. I sighed, squeezing my eyes shut and focusing very, very hard.

VAMPIRE.

His knuckles tightened convulsively on the wheel.

"Ah." He responded to the shouted thought, voice a little strained but still calm. "So you know."

Bella seemed lost. "How did you figure it out? The movies?"

"Not really." I flush that he'd seen the images in my head. I'm not really sure if he liked being compared to Brad Pitt dipped in talcum powder. "Saturday, at the beach."

He looked puzzled. "Bella ran into an old family friend — Jacob Black." I continued. "His dad and Charlie have been friends since we were babies."

He still looked confused. "His dad is one of the Quileute elders." His confusion cleared to understanding. "They went for a walk — and he told her some old legends. I think he was trying to scare her, really."

"He didn't seem to believe any of it." Bella agreed, seeming to have caught on a little. "And he told me one...about vampires."

She was whispering by the end. The car felt a little colder after that word rang in the air.

"And you immediately thought of me?" Still calm.

"No. He... mentioned your family."

He was silent, staring at the road. I was suddenly worried for the kid.

"He just thought it was a silly superstition." I covered for Jacob Black. "He didn't expect her to think anything of it."

"It was my fault, I forced him to tell me." Bella tacked on.

"Why?"

"Lauren said something about you — she was trying to provoke me. And an older boy from the tribe said your family didn't come to the reservation. Only it sounded like he meant something different. So I got Jacob alone and I tricked it out of him." Bella admitted, hanging her head. He startled me by laughing. Bella glared up at him. He was laughing, but his eyes were fierce, staring ahead.