Heartbeat pounding away {sequel to 'I.U.F'}

{20}

Edward tapped his cold fingers lightly on the coffee table as he waited for Drake. His patience was growing thinner by each passing second.

He saw a swift movement and Drake was suddenly in front of him with an expressionless face. Edward tried to enter his mind, but got nothing from him. This made Drake smile wide.

"I'm different, Edward." Drake spoke.

"I see that now." Edward said through his teeth.

"It's not that you can't read my mind, you can, it's just I'm not allowing you in my mind." He spoke as if he was hundreds of years old.

"We came here to talk about Ella. Before, she joined... your coven," Edward managed to say. "I knew you were trying to help her. Alice, my sister, saw you trying to get her to leave."

Drake became silent and thought his words carefully.

"I was... I am. I don't want her to be here against her will. So, I know a way you can break the 'illusion' she is in." He used air quotes and a semi-sarcastic tone.

"Do enlighten me, Drake." Edward glared.

Drake laughed. "I know more about Ella than you. I know little things about her that you don't."

"You mean the way she twirls her hair with a single finger when she's thinking of a song?" Edward offered and Drake was indeed surprised but didn't show it. "Or maybe that when she is nervous she bites her bottom lip or could it be that she has this smile when she finally figures out a name for her song?"

"I do love her, Edward. You have no idea how much I love her." Drake's voice darkens. "She was and is my everything, faults and all. I was there whenever she needed me."

"Except when she needed you the most, at the murder of her family." Edward retorted.

"I was a newborn, I could not be near her without wanting to rip her throat and drain her dry." He growled in a whisper that held so much power. "You're not exactly good either, Edward. You left her without saying a word. Breaking her cousin's heart and her own."

Edward didn't need to be reminded of this.

"And where were you? In the shadows, hiding from her, why? You had chances, a lot of them." Edward said back.

"If I went to her then Damien would've tracked me and found her. I stayed in Italy for her sake." Once again his voice was baleful.

"Why are you helping me? Don't you want her to stay with you?" Edward asked.

Drake took several deep breaths. "Of course I want her to stay with me, but I want her to want to stay with me. Not the way Aro and Caius want it. I won't force her into something she is against. Ever."

"What is your plan to break her out her illusion, then?"

"You, it wasn't easy for Chelsea to break the bond between you and her. It took her two humans to recover from Ella and that's saying something. Your bond with her is strong. At the night of her transformation there will be a small party, which you all are invited to see-"

"I won't allow for that to happen!" Edward growled. "I won't allow them to take what's left of her soul."

"You really believe we lose our souls when we are turned?" Drake said his head tilted to the side in curiosity.

"We died."

"Our bodies did."

"And with it our souls."

"Such pessimism." Drake smirked; his smile faded in went back to serious. "Remind Ella of her gift. Her gift to sing. Bring back memories you two share, kisses, a place, who knows?" Drake shrugged.