Synching With the Devil's Son

Chapter 17

Bella's P.O.V.

I stand in stunned silence when I listen to Lucien list what he believes my attributes are. Is he serious? Suddenly I don't feel so confident he's only pretending to be nice. He has no reason to tell me I'm beautiful, he's not trying to cop a feel or get into my pants. He's just being a stoically supportive friend, and when I realize this, I feel my eyes sting and tears run down my face again. What have I missed these past few months, has he always been like this? I've heard the rumors of him being loose with the girls in our school, heard them waxing poetic about his prowess between the sheets, and I always rolled my eyes in disgust. What the hell do they know? They're only kids with very limited experiences. But the one thing I'm sure of is I have never heard anybody compliment his personality...he must not show this compassionate side of himself very often. When he pulls me against his chest, I wrap my arms around his waist and bury my face into his warm skin again. I could stand like this forever, he smells divine and my desire for him roars to life. I want this man...why do I want him? I convinced myself I would never let another man touch me, ever, but Lucien is proving not all men are bad, not all men want to inflict pain and humiliation. As I'm thinking this, I feel him stiffen, and he releases me, looking into the woods.

"What's wrong?" I ask quietly. He shakes his head and when I try to say something else, he gently places his hand over my mouth, continuing to stare into the woods. I sense a change in him, like he's sinking into his feet, ready to fight. I grab his wrist and try to pull his hand away from my mouth, but I cannot move it a millimeter. Why am I unable to move his hand? I want to get his attention, so I lick his palm, and when he looks at me, startled, I remove his hand from my mouth and smile at him. He shakes his head, putting a finger to his lips in the universal sign to be quiet. I've never seen him act this way, and that is when I hear it. A scuffling, a snort, the breaking of twigs as something large ambles in our direction. He suddenly grabs my hand, pulling me urgently uphill toward the trees surrounding the clearing. As we are fleeing I see it, a large black bear is headed toward the water. It spots us, roars, and starts heading in our direction. My heart is in my throat as a wave of panic crashes over me. "OhmyGod, OhmyGod, OhmyGod, OhmyGod," I chant as Lucien propels me forward, up the mountain slope. We can both hear the crashing behind us, and the grunts of the animal as it gives chase. Bile rises in my throat, every hair raises on my skin, and the tingling at the back of my neck propels me faster up the hill.

We are in big trouble.

I can detect every minuscule detail of the space around me, how the ground looks, how the moon casts shadows over even the smallest of rocks, how the creatures of the night scamper away at our intrusion. To my utter dismay, we find ourselves on a ledge, our path blocked from going further up the mountain by a sheer rock wall. Lucien pulls me behind him and turns to face the bear as it breaks into the clearing we just passed through. "We need to look as big as possible," I squeak. "If it charges, crunch into a ball and cover your head with your arms," I manage to utter through my terror, but Lucien doesn't seem to be listening, or maybe he doesn't believe we are about to be mauled. I frantically look around for something to defend ourselves with but come up short. The only things within reach are a few small rocks. Even if I was a professional pitcher, a thrown rock will do nothing but piss the bear off more. We are totally screwed.