𝘊𝘏𝘈𝘗𝘛𝘌𝘙 𝘚𝘐𝘟𝘛𝘌𝘌𝘕

(the cursed witch, act one)

NINA HAD GIVEN UP ON HER VENTURE TO DRIVE. She was worried that by the time they had trekked down the mountain, her legs would have turned to mush.

Edward could drive well, when he kept the speed reasonable, she had to admit. Like so many things, it seemed to be effortless to him. He barely looked at the road, yet the tires never deviated so much as a centimeter from the center of the lane. He drove one-handed, holding her hand on the seat. Sometimes he gazed into the setting sun, sometimes he glanced at her— her face, her hair blowing out the open window, their hands twined together.

He had turned the radio to an oldies station, and he sang along with a song she'd never heard. He knew every line.

"You like fifties music?" She asked, having completely forgotten her worries.

"Music in the fifties was good. Much better than the sixties, or the seventies, ugh!" He shuddered. "The eighties were bearable."

"Are you ever going to tell me how old you are?" She asked,  grinning in amusement as his musical rant. 

"Does it matter much?" His smile remained. 

"No," She shook her head. "But I would like to know which insult I should be using to describe you. Does dinosaur work? Antique? Or would dirt be better? Ooh, what about an atom? Or should I call you the big bang?... No, that one sounds like a sex reference and Jessica wouldn't shut up about it."

Edward chuckled at her. "Well, I can assure you I'm not 13 million years old so we can cross big bang off the list. I suppose..." He didn't want to say it but he said it for her, "Antique would be best."

"Come on," She egged him on. "Just tell me a number."

"I wonder if it will upset you," He reflected to himself. He gazed into the sun; the minutes passed.

"Try me," She finally said, squeezing his hand in reassurance. He sighed, and then looked into her eyes, seeming to forget the road completely for a time. Whatever he saw there must have encouraged him. He looked into the sun — the light of the setting orb glittered off his skin in ruby-tinged sparkles — and spoke.

"I was born in Chicago in 1901." He paused and glanced at her from the corner of his eyes. Her face was carefully unsurprised, patient for the rest. He smiled a tiny smile and continued. "Carlisle found me in a hospital in the summer of 1918. I was seventeen, and dying of the Spanish influenza."

He heard her intake of breath, though it was barely audible to her own ears. He looked down into her eyes again.

"I don't remember it well — it was a very long time ago, and human memories fade." He was lost in his thoughts for a short time before he went on. "I do remember how it felt, when Carlisle saved me. It's not an easy thing, not something you could forget."

"Your parents?"

"They had already died from the disease. I was alone. That was why he chose me. In all the chaos of the epidemic, no one would ever realize I was gone."

"How did he... save you?"

A few seconds passed before he answered. He seemed to choose his words carefully.

"It was difficult. Not many of us have the restraint necessary to accomplish it. But Carlisle has always been the most humane, the most compassionate of us... I don't think you could find his equal throughout all of history." He paused. "For me, it was merely very, very painful."

Nina could tell from the set of his lips, he would say no more on this subject. She suppressed her curiosity, though it was far from idle. There were many things she needed to think through on this particular issue, things that were only beginning to occur to her. No doubt his quick mind had already comprehended every aspect that eluded her.

His soft voice interrupted her thoughts. "He acted from loneliness. That's usually the reason behind the choice. I was the first in Carlisle's family, though he found Esme soon after. She fell from a cliff. They brought her straight to the hospital morgue, though, somehow, her heart was still beating."

"So you must be dying, then, to become like you..."

"No, that's just Carlisle. He would never do that to someone who had another choice."

The respect in his voice was profound whenever he spoke of his father figure. "It is easier, he says, though," He continued, "if the blood is weak." He looked at the now-dark road, and she could feel the subject closing again.

"And Emmett and Rosalie?"

"Carlisle brought Rosalie to our family next. I didn't realize till much later that he was hoping she would be to me what Esme was to him — he was careful with his thoughts around me." He rolled his eyes. "But she was never more than a sister. It was only two years later that she found Emmett. She was hunting — we were in Appalachia at the time — and found a bear about to finish him off. She carried him back to Carlisle, more than a hundred miles, afraid she wouldn't be able to do it herself. I'm only beginning to guess how difficult that journey was for her." He threw a pointed glance in her direction, and raised their hands, still folded together, to brush her cheek with the back of his hand.

"But she made it," Nina encouraged, looking away from the unbearable beauty of his eyes.

"Yes," He murmured. "She saw something in his face that made her strong enough. And they've been together ever since. Sometimes they live separately from us, as a married couple. But the younger we pretend to be, the longer we can stay in any given place. Forks seemed perfect, so we all enrolled in high school." He laughed. "I suppose we'll have to go to their wedding in a few years, again."

"Alice and Jasper?"

"Alice and Jasper are two very rare creatures. They both developed a conscience, as we refer to it, with no outside guidance. Jasper belonged to another... family, a very different kind of family. He became depressed, and he wandered on his own. Alice found him. As you know, like me, she has certain gifts above and beyond the norm for our kind."

"How does that work exactly? Seeing the future?"

"She sees things — things that might happen, things that are coming. But it's very subjective. The future isn't set in stone. Things change."

His jaw set when he said that, and his eyes darted to her face and away so quickly that she wasn't sure if she only imagined it.

"What kinds of things does she see?"

"She saw Jasper and knew that he was looking for her before he knew it himself. She saw Carlisle and our family, and they came together to find us. She's most sensitive to non-humans. She always sees, for example, when another group of our kind is coming near. And any threat they may pose."

"Are there a lot of... your kind?"

"No, not many. But most won't settle in any one place. Only those like us, who've given up hunting you people" — a sly glance in her direction — "can live together with humans for any length of time. We've only found one other family like ours, in a small village in Alaska. We lived together for a time, but there were so many of us that we became too noticeable. Those of us who live... differently tend to band together."

"And the others?"

"Nomads, for the most part. We've all lived that way at times. It gets tedious, like anything else. But we run across the others now and then, because most of us prefer the North."

"Why is that?"

They were parked in front of her house now, and he'd turned off the car. It was very quiet and dark; there was no moon. The porch light was off so she knew her mother wasn't home yet.

"Did you have your eyes open this afternoon?" He teased. "Do you think I could walk down the street in the sunlight without causing traffic accidents? There's a reason why we chose the Olympic Peninsula, one of the most sunless places in the world. It's nice to be able to go outside during the day. You wouldn't believe how tired you can get of nighttime in eighty-odd years."

"So that's where the legends came from?"

"Probably."

"And Alice came from another family, like Jasper?"

"No, and that is a mystery. Alice doesn't remember her human life at all. And she doesn't know who created her. She awoke alone. Whoever made her walked away, and none of us understand why, or how, he could. If she hadn't had that other sense, if she hadn't seen Jasper and Carlisle and known that she would someday become one of us, she probably would have turned into a total savage."

There was so much to think through, so much she still wanted to ask. But, to her great embarrassment, her stomach growled. She'd been so intrigued, she hadn't even noticed she was hungry.

"I'm sorry, I'm keeping you from dinner."

"I'm fine, really."

"I've never spent much time around anyone who eats food. I forget."

"I want to stay with you." It was easier to say in the darkness, knowing as she spoke how her voice would betray her, her hopeless addiction to him.

"Can't I come in?" He asked.

"Would you like to?"

"Yes, if it's all right." She heard the door close quietly, and almost simultaneously he was outside her door, opening it for her. "Very human," She complimented him.

"It's definitely resurfacing."

He walked beside her in the night, so quietly she had to peek at him constantly to be sure he was still there. In the darkness he looked much more normal. Still pale, still dreamlike in his beauty, but no longer the fantastic sparkling creature of our sunlit afternoon.

He reached the door ahead of her and opened it for her. She paused halfway through the frame.

"The door was unlocked?"

"No, I used the key from under the eave."

She stepped inside, flicked on the porch light, and turned to look at him with her eyebrows raised. She was sure she'd never used that key in front of him.

"I was curious about you."

"You spied on me?" She paused. "...Before I started leaving the window unlocked?"

"What else is there to do at night?" She let it go for the moment and went down the hall to the kitchen. He was there before her, needing no guide. He sat in the chair Natalie usually sat in.

"I thought you were banned from the stove?" He asked in a teasing tone.

"If there's a fire, I'm sure you'll save me."

She concentrated on getting her dinner, taking last night's frozen lasagna from the freezer, placing it in the preheating oven.

Soon enough, the smell of tomatoes and oregano filled the room.

"How often?" Nina asked casually, leaning her back against the countertop.

"Hmmm?" He sounded as if she had pulled him from some other train of thought.

"How often did you come here?"

"I come here almost every night."

"Why?"

"You're interesting when you sleep." He spoke matter-of-factly. "You talk."

"No!" She gasped, heat flooding her face all the way to her hairline. She gripped the kitchen counter for support. She knew she talked in her sleep, of course; her mother teased her about it. She hadn't even thought it was something she needed to worry about.

His expression shifted instantly to chagrin. "Are you very angry with me?"

"That depends!" She felt and sounded like she'd had the breath knocked out of her.

He waited.

"On?" He urged.

"What you heard, you creepy fuck!"

"Hurtful."

"You're the one that broke into my house."

"You knew about it eventually."

"Yeah, I didn't know about it before! You can't just break into people's homes, Edward! It's weird!"

"You think I'm weird?"

"Yeah! Clearly!" The oven dinged. "Turn around while I eat."

"What?"

"Turn around. You've looked at me enough for the last four months."

"This is petty," He told her, complying and turning his chair in the opposite direction.

"You're in time out, creep," She warned as she plated her food before sitting across from his back. "You deserve this."

"Don't be upset," He pleaded. "I didn't hear much of anything. It's all jumbled when you sleep. You quoted the office a few times–"

"Which scene?"

"Stay fucking calm."

She couldn't hold back her laugh hearing him say a curse word.

"What else?" She asked, smiling now.

"You missed your magic. When it's windy, the sound makes you restless. You talk about how you want a home... a forever home that you won't leave..."

"Anything else?"

He knew what she was getting at. "You did say my name," He admitted.

Nina sighed in defeat. "A lot?"

"How much do you mean by 'a lot,' exactly?"

"Oh god!" She hung her head.

He went to turn around but when she saw the slight movement, her icy glare made him stop in his tracks. "Don't be self-conscious," He told her, his head sideways letting her see the side of his face. "If I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I'm not ashamed of it."

Then they both heard the sound of tires on the brick driveway, saw the headlights flash through the front windows, down the hall to them. She stiffened in her seat.

"Should your mother know I'm here?" He asked.

"I'm not sure..." She tried to think it through quickly.

"Another time then..."

And she was alone.

"Edward!" Nina hissed. She heard a ghostly chuckle, then nothing else.

Her mother's key turned in the door.

"Nia?" She called.

"In this kitchen." She hoped Natalie couldn't hear the hysterical edge to her voice. She played with the food on her place as she walked in.

Natalie glanced at her daughter as she served herself some of the lasagna for herself before sitting down in the seat Edward had sat in moments before.

"Nice day?" She asked.

"It was alright," Nina shrugged. "How was the hospital?"

"Busy as always..." – Nina stood and put her plate in the dishwasher – "Honey, I was hoping you and I could talk about your father–"

"Mom, I know we should but I really don't want to think about it right now. I'm tired and I've still got to work on my Spanish project."

Natalie nodded, "Alright. Later then?"

"Yeah," The young witch nodded, walking over and kissing her mothers head, "Goodnight."

Before she could walk out, Natalie stopped her. "Are you alright, hun? You look a little frazzled."

Nina tripped, banging her hip against the counter. "Huh? Oh, yeah. I'm fine! So fine. I am more fine than the word fine..." She trailed off her words, seeing her mother's confused look. "Sorry. I have a test on Monday that I'm stressed about."

Natalie nodded. "Alright. Don't stress too much. You'll do great. Goodnight."

As Nina walked out of the kitchen, she called out a quick, "Love you!" before retreating into her bedroom.

When Nina walked into her room, all the lights were off just as she had left it. "Edward?" She whispered as she stumbled over to her desk, accidentally tripping on a rock she had left out, "Fucking shit!" She screeched, clutching her toes. "What dumb bitch put that there?"

As she turned on her salt lamp, a quiet, laughing response came from behind her. "Yes?"

She whirled, one hand flying to her throat in surprise.

He lay, smiling hugely, across her bed, his hands behind his head, his feet dangling off the end, the picture of ease.

"Oh!" Nina breathed, sinking unsteadily to the floor.

"I'm sorry." He pressed his lips together, trying to hide his amusement.

"Just give me a minute to restart my heart."

He sat up slowly, so as not to startle her again. Then he leaned forward and reached out with his long arms to pick her up, gripping the tops of her arms like she was a toddler. He sat her on the bed beside him.

"Why don't you sit with me," He suggested, putting a cold hand on hers. "How's the heart?"

"You tell me — I'm sure you hear it better than I do."

She felt his quiet laughter shake the bed.

"You're a terrible actress," He told her quietly.

"You're such a creep," She rolled her eyes.

They sat there for a moment in silence, both listening to her heartbeat slow.

"Can I have a minute to be human?" She asked.

"Certainly." He gestured with one hand that she should proceed.

"Stay," Nina said, trying to look severe.

"Yes, ma'am." And he made a show of becoming a statue on the edge of her bed.

Hopping up, grabbing her pajamas from off the floor, her bag of toiletries off the desk. She slipped out soundly, closing the door behind her.

She could hear the sound from the TV flowing through the halls. She banged the bathroom door loudly, so Natalie wouldn't think to go into her bedroom. She meant to hurry. She brushed her teeth fiercely, trying to be thorough and speedy, removing all traces of lasagna. But the hot water of the shower couldn't be rushed. It unknotted the muscles in her back, calmed her pulse. The familiar smell of her shampoo made her feel like she might be the same person she had been that morning. Nina tried not to think of Edward, sitting in her room, waiting, because then she had to start all over with the calming process. Finally, she couldn't delay anymore. She shut off the water, toweling hastily, rushing again. She pulled on an old t-shirt with a graphic image of a space launch and gray sweatpants. Too late to regret not owning any nice pajamas.

She rubbed the towel through her hair again, and then yanked the brush through it quickly. She threw the towel in the hamper, flung her brush and toothpaste into her bag. Then she dashed down the hallway and back into her room.

Edward hadn't moved a fraction of an inch. Nina smiled, and his lips twitched, the statue coming to life. His eyes appraised her, taking in the damp hair and the old shirt. He raised one eyebrow. "Cute."

She grimaced.

"No, it looks good on you."

"Thanks," She whispered. She glanced down at the shirt, it had always been her favourite. The fabric was soft and didn't cling to her skin which made it the perfect sleep shirt. She went back to his side, getting under the covers. Nina smiled when she saw he had already turned on her heated blanket for her.

"Are you going to stay?" She asked.

"Only if you want me to."

Nina thought it over for a minute. "I want you to stay. I sleep better when you're with me."

Edward smiled at her words as he guided her to get comfortable, letting her lay down beneath the covers while he laid above them.

He lifted her chin, examining her face. "You look very warm." He bent his face slowly to hers, laying his cool cheek against her skin. Nina held perfectly still.

He breathed out softly. It was very difficult, while he was touching her, to frame a coherent question. It took her a minute of scattered concentration to begin.

"It seems to be... much easier for you, now, to be close to me."

"Does it seem that way to you?" He murmured, his nose gliding to the corner of her jaw.

She felt his hand, lighter than a moth's wing, brushing her damp hair back, so that his lips could touch the hollow beneath her ear.

"Much, much easier," She said, trying to exhale.

"Hmm. I've given up trying to push you away." He kissed her neck and she shuddered from the lightness of the touch.

"You seem more... optimistic than usual," She observed. "I haven't seen you like this before."

"Isn't it supposed to be like this?" He smiled. "The glory of first love, and all that. It's incredible, isn't it, the difference between reading about something, seeing it in the pictures, and experiencing it?"

"Very different," She agreed. "I never imagined I'd date a blood sucker."

He ignored her comment. "For example" — his words flowed swiftly now, she had to concentrate to catch it all — "the emotion of jealousy. I've read about it a hundred thousand times, seen actors portray it in a thousand different plays and movies. I believed I understood that one pretty clearly. But it shocked me..." He grimaced. "Do you remember the day that Kit asked you to the dance?"

She nodded, though she remembered that day for a different reason. "The day you started talking to me again."

"I was surprised by the flare of resentment, almost fury, that I felt — I didn't recognize what it was at first. I was even more aggravated than usual that I couldn't know what you were thinking, why you refused him. Was there someone else? I knew I had no right to care either way. I tried not to care. And then the line started forming," He chuckled. She rolled her eyes at the memory.

"I waited, unreasonably anxious to hear what you would say to them, to watch your expressions. I couldn't deny the relief I felt, watching the annoyance on your face. But I couldn't be sure. That was the first night I came here. I wrestled all night, while watching you sleep, with the chasm between what I knew was right, moral, ethical, and what I wanted. I knew that if I continued to ignore you as I should, or if I left for a few years, till you were gone, that someday you would say yes to Kit, or someone like him. It made me angry. And then," He whispered, "as you were sleeping, you said my name. You spoke so clearly, at first I thought you'd woken. But you rolled over restlessly and mumbled my name once more, and sighed. The feeling that coursed through me then was unnerving, staggering. And I knew I couldn't ignore you any longer." 

He was silent for a moment, probably listening to the suddenly uneven pounding of her heart. "But jealousy... It's a strange thing. So much more powerful than I would have thought. And irrational! Just the other day, when Kit and Mike were waiting for you at Bella's truck..." He shook his head angrily.

"I should have known you'd be watching," Nina groaned.

"Of course."

"That made you feel jealous, though, really?"

"I'm new at this; you're resurrecting the human in me, and everything feels stronger because it's fresh."

"But honestly," She teased, "for that to bother you, after I have to hear that Rosalie — Rosalie, the incarnation of pure beauty, Rosalie — was meant for you. Emmett or no Emmett, how can I compete with that?"

"There's no competition." His teeth gleamed. He drew her trapped hands around his back, holding her to his chest. She sighed softly, leaning into his embrace.

"I know there's no competition," She mumbled into his cold skin. "That's the problem."

"Of course Rosalie is beautiful in her way, but even if she wasn't like a sister to me, even if Emmett didn't belong with her, she could never have one tenth, no, one hundredth of the attraction you hold for me." He was serious now, thoughtful. "For almost ninety years I've walked among my kind, and yours... all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you weren't alive yet."

"It hardly seems fair," She whispered, her face still resting on his chest, listening to his breath come and go. "I haven't had to wait at all. Why should I get off so easily?"

"You're right," He agreed with amusement. "I should make this harder for you, definitely." He freed one of his hands, released her wrist, only to gather it carefully into his other hand. He stroked her wet hair softly, from the top of her head to her waist. "You only have to risk your life every second you spend with me, that's surely not much. You only have to turn your back on nature, on humanity... what's that worth?"

"Very little — I don't feel deprived of anything."

"Not yet."

"Edward, my life was already on the line before we met," She admitted. "I haven't had to turn my back on nature or my humanity and even if I do, it wouldn't be your fault."

He sighed, holding her closer. "You should go to sleep. It's late."

"I'm not tired," Nina grumbled,

"So if you don't want to sleep..." He suggested, ignoring her tone. 

Nina's breath caught. "If I don't want to sleep... ?"

He chuckled when he heard her heart beat raise in speed. "What do you want to do then?"

The witch thought about it for a moment before she quickly rose from the bed. Edward groaned at the loss of contact, "You elbowed me in the stomach."

"Get over it, Sparkles," She teased as she ran her finger across the spines of books that were placed neatly on a shelf by her window. Deciding on one, she picked it up and moved back to the bed, this time sitting upwards with her legs draped over his lap.

Edward's cool hands immediately pulled her closer before one settled on her lower back while the other resided on her thigh. "What's this?" He asked, glancing at the book she had begun to sift through.

She smiled nervously. "Since you're my mate and you're practically in love with me..." Her words were rushed but he only smiled and nodded. "I've always wanted to try this but I've never had someone to test it on."

"You want me to be a guinea pig for you?" His voice was teasing.

"Please?"

Shrugging, his hand gently stoked along her back as he looked at the clock on her desk across the room. "I've got some time. Go ahead."

Staring at him for a moment, looking for a hint of worry in his eyes, she found nothing. Slowly, she raised her hands, holding them flat, pinching her right hand together before doing the same with her left, she spoke softly. "Imitantor pupulus..."

As the words left her lips, she looked him over again. His smile hadn't changed.

"What did that do?" He asked.

She raised her left arm. His followed. She laughed softly. He did as well.

"I think I see," He muttered, his hands moving on her accord, matching her movements perfectly.

"I can make you do anything I want," She told him.

"Anything?"

"And everything."

She adjusted herself so she was sitting on his lap, his hands instantly moving to rest on her hips, fingers gently squeezing the skin.

"Is this okay?" Nina asked quietly, feeling shivers run up her spine when his hands inched under her shirt. She had forgotten about the spell, letting it wear off. His hands were moving completely on his own accord.

Her pupils dilated as she stared at the vampire beneath her. "You're so perfect." She sighed softly, her hand moving down to rest on his jaw. "How can anyone be so perfect? Maybe you're just a dream."

His hand moved up and grasped hers, pulling it down to rest on his chest above his heart. "I could say the same about you."

She was unable to hold back her grin as she leaned down and heard his breath hitch. "I think you've gone soft for me, Cullen."

Edward chuckled, tightening his hold on her hips before gently tossing her onto the other side of the bed. "In your dreams, Evans."

She leaned back into his side, softly waving her hand, the action turning off the salt lamp leaving them in darkness. "I want to hear more about you."

"Ask me anything."

She sifted through her questions for the most vital. "Why do you do it?" She asked finally. "I still don't understand how you can work so hard to resist what you... are. Please don't misunderstand, of course I'm glad that you do. I just don't see why you would bother in the first place."

He hesitated before answering. "That's a good question, and you are not the first one to ask it. The others — the majority of our kind who are quite content with our lot — they, too, wonder at how we live. But you see, just because we've been... dealt a certain hand... it doesn't mean that we can't choose to rise above — to conquer the boundaries of a destiny that none of us wanted. To try to retain whatever essential humanity we can."

She lay unmoving, locked in awed silence.

"Did you fall asleep?" He whispered after a few minutes.

"No."

"Is that all you were curious about?"

"Not quite."

"What else do you want to know?"

"Why can you read minds — why only you? And Alice, seeing the future... why does that happen?" She felt him shrug in the darkness.

"We don't really know. Carlisle has a theory... he believes that we all bring something of our strongest human traits with us into the next life, where they are intensified — like our minds, and our senses. He thinks that I must have already been very sensitive to the thoughts of those around me. And that Alice had some precognition, wherever she was."

"What did he bring into the next life, and the others?"

"Carlisle brought his compassion. Esme brought her ability to love passionately. Emmett brought his strength, Rosalie her... tenacity. Or you could call it pigheadedness." He chuckled. "Jasper is very interesting. He was quite charismatic in his first life, able to influence those around him to see things his way. Now he is able to manipulate the emotions of those around him — calm down a room of angry people, for example, or excite a lethargic crowd, conversely. It's a very subtle gift."

She considered the impossibilities he described, trying to take it in. He waited patiently while she thought, comfortably wrapping his arms around her waist, holding her back to his chest. "So where did it all start? I mean, Carlisle changed you, and then someone must have changed him, and so on..."

"Well, where did you come from? Evolution? Creation? Couldn't we have evolved in the same way as other species, predator and prey? Or, if you don't believe that all this world could have just happened on its own, which is hard for me to accept myself, is it so hard to believe that the same force that created the delicate angelfish with the shark, the baby seal and the killer whale, could create both our kinds together?"

"Let me get this straight — I'm the baby seal, right?"

"Right." He laughed, and something touched her hair — his lips? She smiled warmly. "Maybe more of a house cat," He teased softly, another jab at her witchy nature. 

"Are you ready to sleep?" He asked, interrupting the short silence. "Or do you have any more questions?"

"Only a million or two."

"We have tomorrow, and the next day, and the next..." He reminded her. Nina smiled, euphoric at the thought.

"Are you sure you won't vanish in the morning?" She wanted this to be certain. "You are mythical, after all."

"You must have forgotten. You are mythical as well... As long as you don't leave me, I won't leave you." His voice had the seal of a promise in it.

"One more, then, tonight..." And she blushed. The darkness was no help — she was sure he could feel the sudden warmth under her skin.

"What is it?"

"No, forget it. I changed my mind."

"Nina, you can ask me anything." She didn't answer, and he groaned.

"I keep thinking it will get less frustrating, you blocking your thoughts. But it just gets worse and worse."

"I'm glad I can block you from hearing them. It's bad enough that you eavesdrop on my sleep-talking."

"Please?" His voice was so persuasive, so impossible to resist. She shook her head. "If you don't tell me, I'll just assume it's something much worse than it is," He threatened darkly. "Please?" Again, that pleading voice.

The witch sighed. "Well," She began, glad that he couldn't see her face.

"Yes?"

"You said that Rosalie and Emmett will get married soon... Is that... marriage... the same as it is for humans?" He laughed in earnest now, understanding.

"Is that what you're getting at?"

She fidgeted, unable to answer.

"Yes, I suppose it is much the same," He said. "I told you, most of those human desires are there, just hidden behind more powerful desires." She hummed. "Was there a purpose behind your curiosity?"

Her blush deepened, her fingers toying with his that were delicately wrapped around her waist. "Well, I did wonder... about you and me... someday..."

"You would want to marry me?" He asked.

"I mean..." She was lost for words. "Yeah? I guess. Not right now, of course. I've gotta have known you for at least a couple more years... But with the whole mate thing I just figured... Would it be possible?"

Edward breathed out slowly. "You are so soft, so fragile. I have to mind my actions every moment that we're together so that I don't hurt you. I could kill you quite easily, Nina, simply by accident." His voice had become just a soft murmur. He grasped her nervous fingers. "If I was too hasty... if for one second I wasn't paying enough attention, I could reach out, meaning to touch your face, and crush your skull by mistake. You don't realize how incredibly breakable you are. I can never, never afford to lose any kind of control when I'm with you."

He waited for her to respond, growing anxious when she didn't. "Are you scared?" He asked vulnerably.

Nina waited for a minute to answer, so the words would be true. "No. I'm fine."

"All I need to do to be with you..." She chose her words carefully, "is to become more durable?"

He seemed to deliberate for a moment. "Essentially."

"I've answered your questions, now you should sleep," He insisted when he felt her yawn against him.

The witch nodded slowly. "May I ask one question?" Edward asked suddenly, making her tilt her head to meet his gaze. "Anything."

"The spell you mentioned earlier – I can't get it out of my head. Can you show it to me?"

She smiled. "Of course." She kept her hands intertwined with his, holding them softly together as they began to glow a familiar soft orange. Edward could feel the warmth of her magic rush through him like a wildfire. It was invigorating. The light flowed from their hands, butterflies forming, wings fluttering as they flew, surrounding the vampire and witch.

"Beautiful," Edward muttered, staring up at the butterflies, kissing Nina's shoulder as she leaned into him. "Almost as much as you."

"Flirt," She teased. The warmth from her hands began to fade. Edward craved to feel the flood of heat once more. "There is something else I'd like to try. If you don't mind," She whispered quietly in the darkness.

He hummed in response, silently telling her he was listening.

"There's this spell... It's a sleep spell. If I were to say the spell – theoretically, the person I cast it on would immediately fall asleep. Would you... I mean, you don't have to– um I could..."

"You want to put me to sleep?" He asked.

"Well that makes it sound like I'm bringing you to the vet and putting you down... I don't know if it will work but I don't know. I just think it must suck having to be awake all the time. Having a break from the world can be nice."

"Are you going soft of me, Evans?" He teased, earning an elbow to his stomach. "Hurtful," He tsked. "Go ahead. Try and put me to sleep. I've been craving a good nap since 1918."

Nina giggled softly, turning around to face him, legs tangling with his. "Somnus," She whispered softly.

His eyes closed instantly, breaths calming to almost nothing. His arms slacked around her. She could hear soft snores escape his lips as he nuzzled into her pillows.

The witch smiled. "Goodnight, Eeyore," She muttered sleepily before she drifted asleep in his cool arms.