Waxing Crescent (Alice Cullen x Bella Swan)

Chapter 18 - Practice

"Can you see anything yet?" She asked, lips quivering from concentration.

I fought the urge to lean forward and press my lips between her brows, smoothing away the frustration furrowed there. 

There were always far too many reasons to luxuriate in her warmth. I was spoiled for choice.

Instead, deciding against my true nature, I focused, seeking forward into the unknown - trying to find the threads that had come so easily to me before, but now were locked away behind a near impenetrable wall of smog. 

I'd never met a vampire in my long immortal life that thwarted me so completely like Bella did. As much as her uncanny talents inconvenienced my own gifts, the thought still brought a small smile to my lips. My mate, just as human as the day she was born, was more preternaturally gifted than even me.

"I... Hmm," I puzzled.

Bella let out a large disgruntled huff of air. It had only just occurred to me that she had been holding her breath the entire time. That certainly could not be good for her fragile constitution. 

She snapped her eyes open in a blaze of fire, and the briefest hint of clarity snapped back right along with her like an elastic band. 

Her chest rose and fell in heavy bursts of exhaustion - or was that ire? After all this time, you would think I would have a better read on human emotions by now. I chalked it up to Bella being a walking-talking enigma. 

"Well?" Her frown more exaggerated by the second, "Did you or didn't you see anything?"

"Well," I paused, trying to find the right words that would impress upon her the brilliance of her efforts, "I would not go so far as to say that the image was particularly clear, although I swore I could see some sort of... Oh, I am not too sure. Perhaps it was a party? I think that there were streamers, and I swore I spied some worn-out Christmas lights repurposed to hang from the ceiling like fairy lights... I did not get the best look at the room, or even the bodies in it, but, despite forms appearing fairly immaterial, there was plenty of movement and color to indicate the possibility of dancing. How exciting!"

Bella let out another loud huff of air and collapsed backwards into the large plush bedcovers of my king-sized bed, her hands rubbing at her eyes in fitful bursts. I was pleased with my purchase, as she looked so small and endearing, half-swallowed up by the mattress' gargantuan size. 

I opened my mouth to say so, but readily closed it, well aware that she would complain if she ever knew that I had bought it just for her.  She was so perceptive about all the wrong things... Why on earth would a sleepless vampire ever require a mattress and fluffy pillows?

I moved out of my cross-legged position and laid by her side, draping one of my arms over her waist delicately as I gazed down at her. The way her lashes fluttered over her near translucent, milky skin, was more beautiful than any Monet or even one of Debussy's symphonies. 

Her beauty, just as awe-inspiring, was also ever so fragile. 

She was always falling over, or stumbling clumsily into accident after accident. I could count all the times that I had to zip in and save her from cracking her skull on icy sidewalks on both hands, and then some. I was honestly starting to fret over whether she would make it through the school year in one piece!

Thankfully, now that we were nearing the end of the year, I could start to say she was probably going to make it.

I took advantage of her silence, mapping the plains of her face - trailing the thin silvery-blue veins under her skin, imperceptible to the human eye but made clear to me. I let in a deep breath through my nose, admiring the complex bouquet.