CHAPTER SEVEN
ɴɪɢʜᴛᴍᴀʀᴇ ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴀsᴛ

I once said I didn't know how I ended up in Forks. But I do know. Every moment before then was leading up to my place here. From the moment I was changed to the second I drove past the welcome sign, it was all predestined, already decided by the will of something bigger.

I was running. Forks itself didn't matter- it never did. It was the people who mattered. That's what made everything so much worse. I should have left the minute I felt an attachment, I should have run as fast as my legs could take me, just as Edward did, except I wouldn't have come home. I made everything worse. I shouldn't have been surprised when my troubles came back to bite me.

The forest was painted an amber light, mixing the colours of greens and browns like a sepia film. In twilight, the drowning lullaby of the sun would always stretch further than the silence, suffocating the quietness until its golden song was all that could be heard. Down by the stream, the sweet sound was louder, as if the last of the trickling rays had followed me there, illuminating the flow of water as it trailed over the rocks.

I sat by the edge of the mossy boulders, letting my feet dip into the brook.

I hadn't truly noticed the newly come darkness until I felt the air around me shift. It was subtle, but noticeable to my senses, appealing to the keenness of my ears and nose and fingers. The noise had stopped, freezing still into a deafening kind of silence that even the water couldn't break. Then came the coolness to the air. And then the smell.

I could recognise that stench anywhere. It was molten iron, metallic, and what I imagined the colour grey to smell like. It clung to you like smoke to fabric, needing to be scrubbed away by time and effort before it could truly disappear. It burned the air, cutting my nose like a poisonous gas.

And all at once, it was consuming me, eating me whole.

I jumped to the side before the figure could tackle me, sliding against the forest floor on the side of my knees. Spinning to stand, I stood straight, eyes easily finding him across the stream.

His name hissed from my lips before I could stop them. "William."

He was everything that I remembered: ice blonde hair, tricky red eyes, a long, lithe figure that towered over me like a tree. In his human youth, he'd never been called attractive or handsome, but after his change, an intricate sense of beauty had remained with him. It was not a beauty in terms of Rosalie's or Alice's allure. His immortal appeal came in terms of his motions, so smooth and eerie, and his air of mysteriousness, strong and unwavering.

I was biased, but William's face looked withered and worn from the long age he'd been on the hunt, his skin frayed and beaten like a rock on a beach, grated into slippery sand. The dark expression on his face didn't help in making him look deranged.

He grinned that impossible grin. "Miss me?"

William came upon me again before I could move, twisting his body around mine until his hands were against my neck. I lashed out, nails digging into his hard skin, pulling him forward with all my strength until he was toppling over my shoulder. He unfurled from within himself, shoulders spreading like an angry bear awakening from sleep, arms spreading dauntingly like the wigs of a dragon, preparing an attack.

That was always his opening move, going straight to my neck hoping to gain an advantage of shock. But I couldn't be surprised if he'd used the manoeuvre more than once before. William was the purest example that time couldn't gain a fool wisdom. But I was also proof that time could not give a person good fortune. Not without deserving it, at least.

My deflection didn't stop him. We went through his violent movements like a choreographed dance, dodging at each advancement until it was one fluid movement. We must have crossed miles, going back and forth, never exhausting thanks to our dangerous way of being. I could see the flash of his teeth, like marble with the strength of diamond.

It had all been some game for him, waiting with his cards shuffled, dealt out in a cheating manner. William was good at slow, feeding his hunger until it pleaded for nothing but one. His ace was played, here and now, when I was alone with my guard down, not expecting a thing.

Had I seen them in the trees, lurking like a shadow? Had I seen him in the faces of my friends in school, in the burning darkness of night when I stayed by Bella's window? I would have sensed him. I should have. The uncertainty boiled under my skin, taunting me like a bold prey to the predator, jumping like venom added to a fire.

The thoughts had made my concentration slip. In one sly movement, William came on top of me, letting his teeth battle against the toughness of my skin, the venom ripping through my hardened nerves, the only thing that could bring a vampire physical pain. I grunted, ripping away, slipping under the pressure of my feet against the damp earth, feeling him latch onto me again, this time by my neck.

This was his trick, the flip of a hidden card. He used the stinging numbness of the venom to wrap his hands around my waist, dragging them until they were lingering by the base of my shoulders, just by his face. Like a toy in the mouth of a rabid dog, I forced myself to still, freezing against his touch. Then, in one sudden, vigorous movement, I dropped, letting the power of my weight bring him down.

Taking him by the jacket, I pulled him backwards, hurling him against a far tree, his back wrapping around the base. William growled a low animalistic snarl, the sound building fiercely from the bottom of his throat. His eyes snapped toward me, a knowing smirk spreading across his lips.

This was when the talking would come, the provoking taunting that reduced me to nothing but blinding, arrogant anger.

This time it would be different. I would make it different, pulling my own cards to manipulate his cruel game.

I could hear the intensity of his words building before he'd even said them, and before he could, I jumped forward, rushing toward him with all the pummeling speed I could gather, knocking him back again. I let the frustration out. He, like me, was a vampire who could not be hurt or killed, only destroyed. It didn't matter how many times I threw him or how many venomous bites he marked my skin with, the fight would persist like a war.

He needed to know that I had the capability to destroy him as much as he did me. Hands twisted against his neck, the momentum building in my legs as I pushed against the trunk of a tree, diving forward. William let out a howl of anger, his brute strength stopping me mid-movement as he skidded backwards smoothly on the edges of his heels, stopping in a tall crouch.

"I know what you're doing," he hissed out, his voice deep and raspy as if he hadn't used it in years. "I know what you're doing. Your gift might help you to blend, to hide in plain sight, but I will have you. You're lucky I like the game."

I was smarter than him, but William had the advantage of strength and speed. As he finished his small speech, he stood rigidly, stretching to his full height. For a single moment, I expected him to jump forward to me again, as he would have done in the past, unable to stop himself from coming back for more until I could eventually run from him. But William turned in one swift movement and disappeared as if nothing had happened at all, leaving the forest to its dark silence once again. It was another ten minutes before the ache of his scent left my nose, ten minutes in which my thoughts and fears had been left to simmer.

With William gone, my awareness of the dull sting on my lower arm and on the base of my neck returned. My body was swiftly healing, but the teeth of a vampire were one of the only things that could penetrate our skin, the venom adding that extra tingling of pain. I hadn't felt this in so long- the realness of danger that only a human could feel.

My head felt dazed and heavy, my thoughts unable to gather in one coherent line. It was a dangerous state- the one in between competency and idiocy, in which I was sure to make a mistake. And make a blunder, I did. In my delusion, I did the one thing I thought to do, the one thing that had become like second nature.

The accumulated scent of the Cullens lingered far past the borders of their land. It coated each tree of the forest and painted each road in between, so strong that I wondered if William had smelled it on me between his lust-filled attempt at an attack. If it had angered him enough to want to prolong my suffering. But William was immortal too- he had an eternity to enjoy the hunt of his prey.

As I reached the house, I slipped through the front door, making my way to the voices in the living room. My whole body felt stiff, either out of the lingering effects of the bites or my own mind telling me not to go a step further. A step toward Alice and her family.

"Does it really matter who it was?" Bella's voice floated through the silence, breaking off in an awkward jut as she noticed the Cullen's sudden shift in attention.

Alice appeared first, her hands flying to grip my arms, pulling me into the living room where the rest of them were waiting. Rose lingered close to her side, Bella just a step behind, her eyebrows furrowing in what I could only hope to be worry.

"Elide," Alice breathed, her nostrils widening as she noticed that hidden smell. She tried and failed to hide her disgust. "What happened?"

"You didn't see?"

"You're kidding," she exclaimed, brushing my hair back from my face. "If I'd have seen, then whatever this is, it wouldn't have happened."

As my loose hair slipped from against my dirtied cheeks, falling behind my back, away from my shoulders, Alice went rigid, her back straightening and eyes widening. Behind her, Jasper and Carlisle did too. Alice extended her hand out, letting her fingers trail down my face until they landed on the base of my neck, tracing the marks that felt no different to the rest of my body. They were a silvery colour against my paper-white skin, decorating my arm and neck like a tattoo.

"Venom," Alice hissed, her eyes flickering to Carlisle as he bent down beside my seat.

"I thought vampires couldn't get hurt," Bella chimed in, a frown forming on her face.

"Venom stings. It can scar," Jasper said as he crossed his arms awkwardly. He added as Bella looked at him, "humans can't see the marks."

"Who the hell did this?" Alice barked.

I closed my eyes, leaning my head back against the chair as Carlisle rolled up my ripped sleeve, finding the second mark on my forearm. Sometimes the fatigue of not sleeping could catch up. It wasn't literal tiredness, just a sense of it, a mental feeling of just wanting to shut down for an hour in which your mind had time to be alone and free.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I whispered, finding Alice's delicate eyes.

"William," Edward said with a detachment, voicing my thoughts.

"William?"

Her tone of voice forced me to look at her and nod. I had never wanted to think about what they'd assumed had happened after I'd been turned, when I'd told them William had just disappeared. I still didn't want to think about it.

"The man who changed you?" Rosalie asked, folding her arms to mimic Jasper's stance. I nodded again.

"I thought he disappeared?" Alice said, shaking her head in confusion. "You need to tell us what happened?"

"What do you think happened Alice?" I said with a slight snap behind my voice as I brought a hand to rub against my face. "Once he found out I wasn't dead, he came after me. I don't move from place to place just to keep things believable, I move to run from him."

Esme came to sit on the armrest beside Carlisle, a hand resting on his shoulder. "Could he have been the one who was in Bella's room?"

"There was a vampire in Bella's room?" I asked.

Edward nodded and ran to the opposite side of the room, returning seconds later with one of her hoodies clenched in his hand. He held it out to me, and the unfamiliar scent of what was clearly a vampire reached out to me. I cringed away from it, and Edward pulled the clothing away as if expecting the reaction.

"This isn't William," I said, shaking my head sharply. "I can recognise his stench from miles away."

"Let's not worry," Carlise said, lifting from his seat. "We will figure this out."

As the rest of the Cullens accompanied Bella and Edward to the door, watching the pair to his car outside, Alice shuffled up to me. A hand was placed on either side of my face, pulling my nose closer until it touched against hers, my forehead brushing against the edges of her dark hair.

"I promise we'll figure this out," she whispered the air that moved against her lips hitting my eyelashes.

I closed my eyes again, acting in relief by pulling her closer, savouring the feeling. Alice wanted to figure this out together, but I had already decided upon my next moves by the time they'd spotted the newly formed scars.

This was the change I had dreaded, the change I'd told Alice I didn't want to come. But I couldn't control it anymore than the waves could stop themselves from crashing. Another thing that was inevitable, no doubt. But my mind was already made. There would be no figuring things out.

☾