Bella's Babe

35) Phantom Beat Part 2

Alice/Rosalie pairing

You never notice how taxing it is to pretend to be human until you're able to move at full speed, launch yourself from tree top to tree top, and wet your fangs with the crimson life-giving fluid that makes up a vampire's diet.

Out here on the Rez,-a reserve for big game located deep in the mountains a few miles from the house-I feel free. I feel powerful.

I feel as though Rosalie is way too close for comfort again.

She looms over me, grinning, a rabbit cradled in her hands. "Look at what I just saved." The creature is wide-eyed, its pelt matted with dirt and leaves. I can hear its little heart racing and that makes the hunter's instinct within me howl with hunger.

"From...?"

Her grin gets bigger and she jerks a thumb towards her right. "It's a present."

My fangs throb, nostrils flaring as I register the carcass of a big cat lying at the base of a cluster of trees, its neck at an odd angle-a mountain lion as promised. I wet my lips, suddenly finding it difficult to swallow as hunger presses in, almost paralyzing in its urgency. "Rose..."

"Have at it." She smirks. "I won't peek, I promise."

I smile gratefully and cross the distance between myself and my meal in a single bound, lifting the rather large animal and sinking my fangs into its jugular. We vampires have a thin veneer of cool elegance-deep down, we're really just particularly clever, savage beasts.

By the time I'm done feeding, there's not much of a throat left.

As I plop down on a rock outcropping, hunger completely sated, I can feel Rose's golden gaze upon me like a physical touch-despite her earlier assurance-and my vision swims a bit, my muscles tensing as my mind's eyes conjures up-

"Alice..." Rosalie coos, cupping my face as she leans in.

I don't move, too shell-shocked by the proximity and the way the female's eyes burn with a hunger that has nothing to do with blood. "Rose, you shouldn't-"

"Shouldn't what?" she questions, amusement warming her tone. "You knew this was going to happen, after all. You had a chance to stop it."

I'm rendered speechless by the simple truth of the statement. Why hadn't I stopped her if I knew what was coming?

Then, she leans in even closer... and kisses me.

When the vision fades, I am met with golden eyes-normally honey-toned, now darkened to a shade of ochre-and a knowing, confident smirk. "You had a vision."

It's not a question, but I nod anyway.

She reaches out and traces her fingertips along the curve of my jaw, her eyes darkening a shade further as she grips my chin in gentle, firm fingers and angles my face upwards. "You seem confused."

I am. "Why... Would you want to kiss me?"

"Come now, Alice. You're my dear "sister." I know I'm not the easiest to get along with at times-"

She could say that again.

"-but I'd love it if we could become close."

I can't deny her-not when she's got me trapped in that predatory gaze. Her lips are so close to mine that they almost brush with each word and my head swims, an odd sinking feeling pushing at the bottom of my stomach. "Rose-"

"Shush." She presses her lips to mine and, though I had known that that had been her intention, I'm still completely flabbergasted by the soft touch of flesh. Her tongue flicks out and traces over my bottom lip and, when I gasp-more a reflex than an actual desire for more oxygen-, she takes that as an invitation to slip right in, the cunning muscle swirling against my own in a playful dance.