The classroom smelled like wet paper, pencil shavings, and teenage anxiety. The latter was the most potent—insecurities, desires, fears all tangled into an invisible haze that filled the air.
Humans were easy to read. Their emotions clung to them like a second skin, raw and unguarded. Some radiated confidence, some simmered with resentment, but most were just… there. Insignificant.
Except her.
Bella Swan.
She sat at the front of the classroom, absentmindedly twirling a strand of hair between her fingers as the teacher droned on about cellular structures. I wasn't listening. I had taken this form countless times, lived in human skin, pretended to be one of them when it suited me. But her?
She fascinated me.
I could feel her soul even from across the room. It wasn't like others. It didn't feel weak, easily corruptible. No, it burned—radiant, pulsing with something neither divine nor infernal. She was an anomaly, a contradiction. And I hated contradictions.
She hadn't noticed me yet, but he had.
Edward Cullen sat beside her, stiff as a corpse, golden eyes locked on me with the intensity of a predator sizing up a threat. I met his gaze, smirking just enough to let him know—yes, I see you, and I do not care.
His jaw clenched. Good. He could feel it, even if he didn't understand it. He could sense what I was, lurking just outside his understanding. He didn't have a name for me, but instinct screamed at him that I wasn't something he could ignore.
And then, she turned to look at me.
It was subtle. A shift in her posture, a slight furrow of her brow as if she had felt something. Her brown eyes met mine, and for a fraction of a second, the world narrowed.
The air between us buzzed.
Recognition.
Not in the way mortals recognize each other, but something deeper. Something ancient. It was as if her very essence knew me, even if her mind had yet to catch up.
Interesting.
I smiled, slow and deliberate. She blinked, lips parting slightly before she tore her gaze away, her heartbeat stuttering in her chest.
Edward noticed.
His hand curled into a fist on the desk, and I could almost hear the internal struggle raging inside him. He was too controlled to lash out here, too composed to reveal his true nature in front of mortals. But I could taste the frustration rolling off him.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
After Class
I was waiting by the lockers when she walked out, books clutched to her chest, eyes scanning the hallway like she was searching for something. Or someone.
I stepped into her path before she could find him.
"Bella, right?"
She startled, nearly dropping her books. Cute.
"Uh—yeah?" She looked up at me, brow furrowing again like she was trying to place me. "You're… new?"
I leaned against the locker, letting my presence settle around her. Not too much—just enough to press, to make her aware of me in a way she wouldn't understand. "Something like that."
She frowned, tilting her head slightly. "You have a name?"
I chuckled. "Many."
Her confusion deepened, but before she could ask, a shadow loomed behind her.
Edward.
He moved too quickly for human standards, but I was faster. I caught his wrist before he could pull her away, my grip firm but casual. His skin was ice against mine, his unnatural stillness betraying what he was.
"Careful," I murmured, my voice laced with something ancient, something wrong. "You wouldn't want to cause a scene, would you?"
His golden eyes burned with barely restrained fury. "Let. Go."
Bella glanced between us, unaware of the silent war raging beneath the surface.
I smiled wider, leaning in just enough for only him to hear. "I know what you are, leech. And I know what's mine."
His pupils dilated. His instincts screamed at him to attack, to rip me apart, but he hesitated. Because he knew. On some primal, instinctual level, he knew I was something he couldn't fight.
Not yet.
Not ever.
I released his wrist, letting my fingers drag over his cold skin just to make him feel the difference between us. He stepped back immediately, jaw tight, muscles coiled like a spring.
Bella looked at him, then at me. "Uh… am I missing something?"
I grinned, stepping past her, my voice a whisper just for him.
"Oh, Edward. You have no idea."
And with that, I walked away.