Page 50 of Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined (The Twilight Saga)

T HE MUTED LIGHT OF ANOTHER CLOUDY DAY EVENTUALLY WOKE me.

I lay with my arm across my eyes, groggy and dazed.

Something, a dream trying to be remembered, struggled to break into my consciousness.

I moaned and rolled on my side, hoping more sleep would come.

And then yesterday came flooding back into my memory.

“Oh!” I sat up so fast it made my head spin.

“Your hair also has the ability to defy gravity.” Her amused voice came from the rocking chair in the corner. “It’s like your own superpower.”

Automatically, I reached up to pat my hair down.

She sat crossed-legged in the chair, a perfect smile on her perfect face.

“You stayed.” It was like I hadn’t woken up after all.

“Of course. That’s what you wanted, correct?”

I nodded.

She smiled wider. “It’s what I wanted, too.”

I staggered out of the bed, not sure where I was going, only that I needed to be closer to her.

She waited for me, and there was no surprise in her face when I sank to my knees in front of her.

I reached up slowly and laid my palm against the side of her face.

She leaned into my hand, her eyes slipping closed.

“Charlie?” I asked. We’d both been speaking at normal volume.

“He left an hour ago, with an amazing amount of gear.”

He’d be gone all day. So it was just me and Edythe, in an empty house, with no need to go anywhere. So much time. I felt like some crazy old miser, gloating over his piles of gold coins, only instead of coins, it was seconds that I hoarded.

It was only then that I realized she’d changed her clothes. Instead of the thin-strapped tank top, she wore a peach-colored sweater.

“You left?” I asked.

She opened her eyes and smiled, putting one of her hands up to keep mine against her face. “I could hardly leave in the clothes I came in—what would the neighbors think? In any case, I was only gone for a few minutes and you were very deeply asleep at that point, so I know I didn’t miss anything.”

I groaned. “What did I say?”

Her eyes got a little wider, her face more vulnerable. “You said you loved me,” she whispered.

“You already knew that.”

“It was different, hearing the words.”

I stared into her eyes. “I love you,” I said.

She leaned down and rested her forehead carefully against mine. “You are my life now.”

We sat like that for a long time, until finally my stomach grumbled. She sat up, laughing.

“Humanity is so overrated,” I complained.

“Should we begin with breakfast?”

I threw my free hand over my jugular, my eyes wild.

She flinched; then her eyes narrowed and she scowled at me.

I laughed. “Come on, you know that was funny.”

She was still frowning. “I disagree. Shall I rephrase? Breakfast time for the human?”

“Okay. I need another human minute first, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.”

“Stay.”

She smiled.

I brushed my teeth twice again, then rushed through my shower. I ripped through my wet hair with a comb, trying to make it lie flat. It ignored me pretty thoroughly. And then I hit a wall. I’d forgotten to bring clothes with me .

I hesitated for a minute, but I was too impatient to panic long.

There was no help for it. I tucked the towel securely around my waist and then marched into the hall with my face blazing red.

Even better—the patch of red on my chest was exposed, too.

I stuck my head around the edge of the doorframe.

“Um . . .”

She was still in the rocking chair. She laughed at my expression.

“Shall we meet in the kitchen, then?”

“Yes, please.”

She was past me in a rush of cool air, down the stairs before a second had passed. I was barely able to follow the motion—she was just a streak of pale color, then nothing.

“Thanks,” I called after her, then hurried to my dresser.

I knew I should probably put some thought into what I wore, but I was in a hurry to get downstairs. I did think to grab a pullover, so she wouldn’t worry about me getting cold.

I raked my fingers through my hair to calm it again, then ran down the stairs.

She was leaning against the counter, looking very at home.

“What’s for breakfast?” I asked.

That threw her for a minute. Her brows pulled together. “I’m not sure. . . . What would you like?”

I laughed. “That’s all right, I fend for myself pretty well. You’re allowed to watch me hunt.”

I got a bowl and a box of cereal. She returned to the chair she’d sat in last night, watching as I poured the milk and grabbed a spoon. I set my food on the table, then paused. The empty space in front of her on the table made me feel rude.

“Um, can I . . . get you anything?”

She rolled her eyes. “Just eat, Beau.”

I sat at the table, watching her as I took a bite. She was gazing at me, studying my every movement. It made me self-conscious. I swallowed so I could speak, wanting to distract her.

“Anything on the agenda today?”

“Maybe,” she said. “That depends on whether or not you like my idea.”

“I’ll like it,” I promised as I took a second bite.

She pursed her lips. “Are you open to meeting my family?”

I choked on my cereal.

She jumped up, one hand stretched toward me helplessly, probably thinking about how she could crush my lungs if she tried to give me the Heimlich. I shook my head and motioned for her to sit while I coughed the milk out of my windpipe.

“I’m good, I’m good,” I said when I could speak.

“Please don’t do that to me again, Beau.”

“Sorry.”

“Maybe we should have this conversation after you’re done eating.”

“Okay.” I needed a minute anyway.

She was apparently serious. And I guess I’d already met Archie and it hadn’t been that bad.

And Dr. Cullen, too. But that had been back before I’d known Dr. Cullen was a vampire, which changed things.

And while I had known with Archie, I didn’t know if he knew that I knew, and that felt like kind of an important distinction to me.

Also, Archie was the most supportive , according to Edythe.

There were others who were obviously not as generous.

“I’ve finally done it,” she murmured when I swallowed the last bite and pushed the bowl away.

“What did you do?”

“Scared you.”

I thought about that for a moment, then held up my hand, fingers spread, and waved it from side to side in the international symbol for Kinda, yeah.

“I wouldn’t let anyone hurt you,” she assured me.

But that just made me worry more that someone—Royal—would want to, and she would get in between to rescue me. I didn’t care what she said about holding her own and not fighting fair, that idea really freaked me out.

“No one would try, Beau, that was a joke.”

“I don’t want to cause you any problems. Do they even know that I know?”

She rolled her eyes. “Oh, they’re quite up to date. It’s not really possible to keep secrets in my house, what with our various parlor tricks. Archie had already seen that your dropping by was a possibility.”

I could feel a variety of expressions rippling across my face before I could control it. What all did Archie see ? Yesterday . . . last night . . . My face got hot.

I saw her eyes narrow the way they did when she was trying to read my mind.

“Just thinking about what Archie might have seen,” I explained before she could ask.

She nodded. “It can feel invasive. But he doesn’t do it on purpose.

And he sees so many different possibilities .

. . he doesn’t know which will happen. For example, he saw over a hundred different ways that yesterday could have gone, and you only survived about seventy-five percent of the scenarios.

” Her voice got very hard at the last part, her posture brittle.

“They’d taken bets, you know, as to whether I would kill you. ”

“Oh.”

Her expression was still rigid. “Do you want to know who sided for and against?”

“Um, maybe not. Tell me after I meet them. I don’t want to go into this prejudiced.”

Surprise erased the anger from her face. “Oh. You’ll go, then?”

“It seems like . . . the respectful thing to do. I don’t want them to think I’m shady.”

She laughed, a long, bell-like peal. I couldn’t help but smile.

“Does that mean I get to meet Charlie, too, then?” she asked eagerly. “He’s already suspicious, and I’d rather not be shady , either.”

“I mean, sure, but what should we tell him? I mean, how do I explain . . . ?”

She shrugged. “I doubt he’ll struggle too hard with the idea of your having a girlfriend. Though it’s a loose interpretation of the word girl , I’ll admit.”

“ Girlfriend ,” I mumbled. “It sounds . . . not enough.” Mostly, it sounded transitory. Something that didn’t last.

She stroked one finger down the side of my face. “Well, I don’t know if we need to give him all the gory details, but he will need some explanation for why I’m around here so much. I don’t want Chief Swan putting a restraining order on me.”

“Will you really be here?” I asked, suddenly anxious. It seemed too good to be true, something only a fool would count on.

“As long as you want me.”

“I’ll always want you,” I warned her. “I’m talking about forever here.”

She put her fingers against my lips, and her eyes closed. It was almost like she wished I hadn’t said that.

“Does that make you . . . sad?” I asked, trying to put a name to the expression on her face. Sad seemed closest.

Her eyes opened slowly. She didn’t answer, she just stared into my eyes for a long time. Finally she sighed.

“Shall we?”

I glanced at the clock on the microwave automatically. “Isn’t it a little ear—wait, forget I asked that.”

“Forgotten.”

“Is this okay?” I wondered, gesturing to my clothes. “Should I dress up more?”

“You look . . .” She suddenly dimpled up. “Delicious.”

“So you’re saying I should change?”

She laughed and shook her head. “Never change, Beau.”

Then she stood and took a step toward me, so that her knees were pressed against mine. She put her hands on either side of my face and leaned down till her face was just an inch from mine.

“Carefully,” she reminded me.