Immortal Beloved

Chapter 14

Edward and I sat on opposite sides of my living room couch stiffly, the both of us waiting for me to speak. The air was thick with tension, and I felt Edward's dark eyes on me as I stared at my hands, trying to put together words that could make this whole experience easier on the both of us. I could see how on edge Edward was, even out of the corner of my eye. His body was rigid, and his hands were clenched in white-knuckled fists.

"Bella," he said through gritted teeth, "Tell me now what's going on with Jacob." I could see his worry turn to frustration, and his frustration turn to anger. It was almost palatable, and it was undeniably directed at me.

I knew I couldn't leave him in the dark any longer, so I just spoke. "Jacob's life is endangered by a vampire that has become obsessed with hunting him down. We've been trying to stop him all day, but he's very hard to track and-"

"We?" Edward interrupted me to ask.

"Ana and I," I said, recalling that I hadn't told him much about her, other than that she was my older sister who took care of me. It really wasn't that far from the truth.

Edward's mouth became a tight, thin line, and he stared at me with hard eyes. "Vampire," he said, his jaw set so the word almost came out in a hiss. "I knew it."

I let out a breath, almost a chuckle, although I felt no humor. "You...you know." I shook my head slowly. All my fears the past few weeks had been totally founded, even when Ana had assured me they weren't. Edward had figured it out all along. "Of course you know," I said in a growl.

"I knew you were different," he said quietly. "No one's mouth is cold."

I stared at him for a moment, bemused by his words, until I recalled our private moments alone in his car earlier that day. It didn't even occur to me that, with his hands all over me like that, he would have noticed the icy feel of my skin. I found myself wondering if my mouth tasted differently to him than other humans, and just how many human mouths he's tasted in his life and—focus, Bella. I shook my head.

"You're also hard," he said, his brow furrowing. He suddenly reached out and took hold of my hand. I was startled by this, but I didn't pull away. "Like marble," he said, gazing down at my hand.

I nodded grimly, wondering how I hadn't remembered any of these things about my body when I'd thrown myself all over him. "That's another symptom," I said quietly.

"Yes it is," I heard him mutter under his breath, and I was immediately put on edge. How did he know what a vampire was like? Most people believed we turned to ash in the sunlight and lacked reflections in mirrors. Very few mortals knew the vampire traits, and vampires as a whole liked to keep it that way. "What else can you do?" he asked me, releasing my hand.

"What have you heard I can do?" I countered, wondering just what he knew. His eyes narrowed, and I wondered if he'd dance around my question as I did.

But Edward was not avoidant. He answered my question without hesitation. "I've heard you're fast and strong. You have sensitive hearing and sense of smell. You don't sleep."

"Anything else?" I asked. Superhuman strength and speed were rather common in vampire legends, but there was one trait that barely anyone outside of vampires knew about. I wanted to know if he knew about it.

He glanced off to the side, his brow furrowing again. "You're meant to be attractive. You're supposed to smell good, look good, as that's how you lure your...your prey in." He paused and swallowed, and I couldn't help but watch the muscles in his neck work. "You can come out in the day, but you're never seen in the sun." He met my eyes once again. "And you're incredibly violent."