What if Edward hurt Bella when he prevented Tyler's van from crushing her. Could he help her and resist the urge to take her life?


Prologue: The Accident

"I'd never được trao much thought to how I would die... but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this."

When the horrible mechanical screaming grabbed my attention, I looked up to see Edward Cullen, my enigmatic lab partner, staring at me as he stood several parking spaces away. The intensity of his shocked expression registered in my mind at the same moment I identified that the nguồn of the noise was Tyler Crowley's van. It was sliding across the school parking lot directly toward my truck and I was in the way. I was about to be crushed. I was going to die.

It occurred to me that I should close my eyes, but there wasn't time. And just as I thought the van would hit me, something knocked me to the ground. Hard. Too hard. The black ice under my head shattered. I struggled to focus, but I could only see the eminent danger that reached for me. I couldn't find the breath to scream hoặc utter a swear word like the voice at my side contained. The voice at my side. Edward's voice.

Although my attention to the careening van did not diminish, I was suddenly thêm aware of his presence beside me than I had ever been aware of anything ever before. For a few seconds, nothing mattered except Edward.

Edward's pale hands appeared protectively in front of me, pushing the van. It lashed out at me again, but Edward blocked its path and dragged me away. Foiled, the van heaved and settled with a groan onto the pavement where my legs had been only a chẻ, phân chia, split một giây before. The cacophony of grinding metal and breaking glass was followed bởi silence and then bởi a strange buzzing. I searched for Edward's face.

"Bella, are bạn alright?" Words wrenched from his tight lips.

"I'm fine," I mumbled, unsure if the tingling in my body was due to some injury hoặc the fact that the Edward was holding me. I recalled the strange charged feeling that the slight touch of his fingers had elicited in Biology and I attempted to sit.

"Be careful," Edward cautioned. "I think bạn hit your head pretty hard." His voice was thick with concern.

My head did hurt, but bởi all rights shouldn't I be mangled beyond feeling anything at all? "How did bạn get over here so fast?" I asked.

For an instant Edward looked relieved, but as he spoke, the relief fell from his features, giving way to a practiced innocence. "I was standing right tiếp theo to you, Bella," he whispered as he released me.

I looked deep into Edward's amber eyes. I wanted to get Mất tích there. I wanted to forget the sounds of the gathering crowd. I wanted to ignore their shouts and reclaim the không gian he had created between us. I wanted. I wanted....

I wanted to throw up.

Several things happened at once. First, the ache in my head began to grow as the blood pounding in my veins started beating at my closed head wound from the inside. Everything began to spin and I tasted this morning's cereal and trái cam, màu da cam nước ép, nước trái cây on the back of my tongue. I closed my eyes.

"Bella?" Edward đã đưa ý kiến returning to me. I tried to stand, but he placed a hand --- the same one that lifted the van away from us --- on my shoulder. "You shouldn't move," he admonished. Very gently, Edward put his icy hand over the rising knot on my head. "I'm so sorry, Bella. I never meant to hurt you."

I leaned back against him. What was he saying? "What are bạn talking about?" I asked him. I was starting to sweat. I opened my eyes again. He wasn't breathing. In fact, Edward looked like he was in thêm pain and closer to regurgitating than I was. "Are bạn hurt?"

Edward seemed unable or, perhaps, unwilling to anwer. For a long time, he đã đưa ý kiến nothing.

"You were over there," I declared, wanting to hear him speak again. "You were bởi your car."

"Bella, I was standing right tiếp theo to you, and pulled bạn out of the way. bạn hit your head," he insisted, although far less vigorously than before. "Please, Bella."

Maybe I didn't really want to argue. I only wanted to rest and stare into Edward's pleading eyes; I đã đưa ý kiến nothing more, merely nodding when Edward related his version of events to everyone who asked. No one seemed to even consider the possibility that he also might have been injured, even his family.

When I began to vomit, I decided his lies didn't matter, because I knew with the greatest certainty that I was going to die. If from nothing else, I was going to die of embarrassment.

"Bella, don't go to sleep. Talk to me, Bella." I heard Edward's urgent voice from the somewhere nearby. So close. Too far. A curtain was dropping. I closed my eyes and slipped under.

**********************

In the tiếp theo chapter: (Edward's POV)

Completely relaxing, she leaned back against me, enveloping me in her warmth and softness. The gentleness of her movements contradicted the raw power of the feelings produced bởi her nearness; I floundered under the monumental effort needed to form coherent thoughts. She finally opened her eyes, trapping me. I was transfixed bởi her trusting gaze, the moisture on her lips, the motion of her muscles as she swallowed, and the sight of her subtle inhalations. Silken strands of her hair brushed my face.

Sensing my debility, the monster crouched, preparing to savage her exposed neck. He calculated the time needed to sample his feast and then create evidence that the van had killed her.

Please! The foreigner asserted himself in my mind, begging for Bella's life.

I allowed my other arm to bọc itself protectively around her waist once more, concentrating on the duty to keep her safe. But the rhythmic pulse of her tim, trái tim transferred itself to my fingers, and my mind writhed almost helplessly as the traitorous appendages began to curl menacingly around her rib cage.

Only the depth of her sudden concern saved us.

"Are bạn hurt?" Bella implored.



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