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Bella closed the book in her lap, took a look around the conservatory, then closed her eyes before picking up the next one in the stack at her right.

Two months she'd been here. Two months alone with nothing to fill the endless hours but reading and the occasional run through the door that lead out into the forest where she hunted. Two months to figure out why her family had known so much about so many things.

She was also fairly sure she knew why Alice was such a fashion junkie and Esme redecorated the house, or threw herself into renovating a broken down old cottage. Those things changed, evolved, and there was always more to learn, to read, to master.

The only thing Bella had been able to do was read her way through the hotel's library of nearly everything but biographies and even now, those were starting to look good. Her head shook and she knew she had to find something, anything, to occupy herself. At the same time, she didn't feel right taking a paying job from someone who needed it to pay for food or clothing. And there wasn't anything that really called for the limited skill set she had.

Sighing, Bella laid her hand on the next book and spoke out loud.

"Anyone who said there weren't enough hours in the day was dead wrong."

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"Well, currently one of the humans I have a strong connection with is in danger. It's something she's prone to," Eric said fondly. "Sometimes it's me who has put her in danger and other times she finds it on her own but she is...very difficult to resist by most vampires. It's alarming how we fall over her."

Bella gave an involuntary shiver, one from the memory of fear more than a chill she wasn't able to feel anymore. "That can be a terrifying place to be," she said in sympathy for the girl. "Does she have any way of defending herself or is she just another fragile human in a sea of superstrong vampires?"

"She is part Fae," Eric confirmed, thinking that it wasn't really dangerous to tell Bella of Sookie's particular gift since she knew neither her name nor appearance. "She has certain gifts as a result of that particular inheritance."

"Lucky girl then," Bella said and tried to keep a smile on her face. "It's no fun being a soap bubble in a world full of spikes, if you know what I mean."

"An apt metaphor," Eric said, smiling back just a tiny bit. Bella amused him even if he normally found new vampires exhausting.

"You seem to speak from experience?"

"I do," Bella nodded. "There was something about my blood that was almost irresistible to vampires. It was hard enough for Edward to resist, but for others of his kind? Well, they didn't have the whole not wanting to kill the girl they loved restraint thing going for them. I was targeted a few times."

"Maybe you are Fae as well. My...friend never knew about her heritage until after she was an adult woman. It explained quite a few abnormalities," Eric said, grinning a little.

"And her blood tasted divine. Like sunshine and flowers and the finest wine."

Bella considered that for a moment then shook her head. If there had been any such thing, Carlisle would have known. Or Aro. Or Eleazar. None of them had seen her as anything other than human. "Pretty sure I was just a human. We only found out after I was changed that I was a shield."

She gave a little shiver and tried not to think about how human blood smelled. Once was close enough. "I've never tasted human blood, so I'll take your word on it."

"Delicious but, then again, you wouldn't know. You are a curious little creature, Bella. I can't believe you've never even tasted it. A complete vegetarian."

Eric laughed and shook his head. "You are what we refer to as mainstreaming. Some vampires aspire to it and want to be as much a part of society as they were when alive. Some reject it completely. And some, like me, fall in the middle."

"Probably just a side effect of where I'm from, how it works there. I don't want to kill people, and I can't look at humans and not see friends, family, instead of food."

Bella pressed her lips together because the burn in her throat was doing nothing but intensifying. "Maybe if I could drink without...without killing? Maybe it would be different."

"Probably. I can very easily feed on someone without bringing them near death," Eric conceded.

"And my blood is a drug to humans. I have to wonder if it would affect you, though, since you are vampire. A different kind of vampire, to be sure, but a vampire all the same."

Bella's head shook immediately, violently, and in a blur of motion. "I think that could go epically wrong really, really fast. I don't know how the venom would affect you and I'm not really in a hurry to find out."

"It's not like you'd have to bite me. How uncivilized," Eric said, shaking his head. "You can use a needle to draw it out. My skin is far from impervious."

Bella's fingers were wrapped around her throat by this point. "I really, really need to stop talking about this now. I've got strong control, but it's starting to feel like I'm an alcoholic you're walking through a bar on jello shot night. My self-control only goes so far."

"I would be lying if I did not admit to wanting to see you lose it," Eric said, shrugging. "Very little amuses me at this age."

"You'd find it amusing?" Bella said, jaw dropping as she took a step backwards. "If I went completely newborn and started slaughtering innocent people?"

"Not all vampires are good little girls, Bella. Surely you've figured that one out? It's been a long time since I had even a toe out of line, though."

Eric laughed. "Maybe I have reformed. You're a good influence."

"I figured that one out pretty early," Bella snorted in reply. "When one decided that I'd be a tasty little snack and that stalking me and killing me on videotape to show my boyfriend what happened would be the highlight of his decade. If it's all the same, I'd rather not have that kind of fun again."

"I think, the older one gets, the more one loses touch with their human self. Their morality. There are some who say that vampires don't have souls anymore," Eric said, thinking about the religious persecution they'd always endured.

"But I'm not sure that's the case. I know right from wrong. Wrong just feels more fun sometimes."

"My father in law thought it was the human blood thing. That because we drank from animals instead, because we didn't kill, we were able to live together like a family. To stay closer to the humans we used to be." Bella remembered that talk over her bleeding arm, Carlisle stitching her gash shut. "From the nomads I met? I can believe it."

"In my world, if vampires live in a nest or a coven, they tend to be more insane than those who live alone. More than one vampire in a house and...shit gets real, to quote a friend of mine," Eric explained.

"I have never liked the company of other vampires."

"That's the way the regular vampires are where I'm from, too. You might see three together, but usually vampries are alone or with a mate only. Nomads. The only ones that can maintain any sort of familial living arrangements are the ones like us, vegetarians." She considered for a moment, then gave a shiver of memory. "Except the ruling family, the Volturi, but they're only kept that way by a vampire named Chelsea. She has an ability to sense bonds between people. And maintain them...or break them."

"Interesting. I have flight and glamour, of course, but most older vampires tend to be strong in that sense. I have only ever known one other to fly, though. My progeny, Pam. The others haven't gotten the hang of it."

Eric hoped they never would because he liked having that escape mechanism all to himself. "And what about you, Bella. What makes you special?"

"As far as my gift goes, it's not all that spectacular, but since not all vampires get gifts, I'm grateful for what I have. I mean, my husband can read minds, my sister in law can see the future and her husband can affect emotions. For me, I'm a shield, a strong one. No one can get into my mind unless I consciously lift my shield. I can also project it and shield others around me from mental attacks."

"An interesting talent. Useless, in my world, since vampires do not have brainwaves to be susceptible to telepathy. My friend, the one who is part Fae? She reads minds and has never been able to read a vampire."

It was strange, just how different they were.

"I wouldn't mind that part of your world," Bella answered with a shiver. "There's a vampire in the ruling family with a very twisted gift. She can look at you and make you feel unimaginable pain."

A twisted smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. "Unless I'm around."

"A very useful gift you have, then. Unusual that so many would be so gifted. Personally, I would take being able to daywalk over all of them," Eric said wistfully. "I miss the sun."

"Not all gifts are like ours, though. Some are as subtle as being able to tell when you hear a lie, or sensing the gifts of others. That kind of thing." Bella nodded a hearty agreement to his last statement. "I don't know if I'd have been able to say goodbye to the sun. I spent most of my human life in Phoenix, moving to Forks was hard enough with all the rain."

She said the words, but she also knew they were only partially true. She would have chosen the same course even if it meant living in a cave for eternity.

"I never thought about it until I could no longer endure it," Eric said, closing his eyes and drifting in memory for a moment.

"Sometimes you only realize how much you love something until you can no longer have it."

That brought a smile to her lips. "If it makes you feel any better about my ability to walk around in the sun, I probably miss food the way you miss daylight."

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