Soul Fliers

Chapter 1: Sapphire

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight – that particular masterpiece belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

"Oh, the summer night, Has a smile of light, And she sits on a sapphire throne." – Barry Cornwall

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Being vampires, we should have assumed that there was more to the supernatural world than us and werewolves. Being a mythical creature yourself should block out all thoughts that certain things shouldn't exist.

Now, after finding her, it opened up our minds – what else is out there? Ghosts? Demons? Witches? If we could exist, and she could exist, and the wolves could exist, why couldn't other things exist?

If you had told me, a year ago, that I was going to have the most perfect woman in the entire world as a mate, I probably would have laughed in your face. There was no way a monster such as I could deserve her, but I was the one she wanted. Not that human boy, Mike Newton. Not that stinking wolf, Jacob Black. She wanted me, and I will never stop wondering why. How she could have chosen me, what I did to deserve her, they are all unknown to me. But I do know this; I will forever cherish her, and if one day she decides to leave me for someone else, I will be happy for her, even when on the inside I would be dying.

The moment she stopped breathing, I would follow. I could promise that.

This is the story of how I, Edward Cullen, found my soul's mate inside the tiny body of Isabella Swan.

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She came suddenly and quickly; one day, the citizens of Forks were spending their time complaining about the weather, and the next day, their thoughts were consumed about the new addition to our population.

Isabella Swan, an emancipated sixteen year-old from somewhere up in Canada. She had, apparently, been spotted as she bought food from the Thriftway, and she had made a phone call into the school to register. The town filled with rumours about her, rumours about her parents, rumours about why she was emancipated, rumours about her being an orphan, and the like. The one to spot her was Cassandra Stanley – one of the most known gossips in town. As you may guess, half of the things she said about this Isabella were most likely untrue – I hadn't bothered to check through her mind.

My family and I didn't show much interest; we couldn't get too close to the humans, so what was the point about learning of the new girl? Alice would sometimes mention something she had heard, and we would all roll our eyes about the ridiculousness of small town rumours. We highly doubted that this girl was as special as they were making her out to be.

None of us had ever been so wrong.

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Isabella Swan's first day of school was like anyone else's, I suppose, when it pertains to the standards set at Forks High. There were even more rumours spread, every human was talking and thinking about her, the attention was – for once – away from us and completely on her. I almost felt bad for her; none of the teenagers here in Forks would make good friends.

All the boys were fantasizing all morning, and I saw her face and body many times, though never with my own eyes. In fact, lunch showed me that none of my siblings had gotten a glimpse of her. Through the humans' thoughts, I could tell that she didn't fit in very well. As the weather usually had people feeling more gloomy than anything here, though many people tried to go past the wet and cold, people here generally dressed in more neutral colours – browns, greys, beiges, light yellows, dark blues; nothing that 'popped' too much.

In the mind of the teenagers, I had seen that she was wearing very bright things – emerald green converses, matched with an emerald green backpack and tee-shirt. She wore white skinny jeans, and a midnight blue sweater. All of her accessories – a necklace, earrings, and bracelets, were either sky blue or black. Definitely more colour than anybody in Forks had seen in quite a long time.

The horde of students, typically, got quiet as the doors opened; it was easy to assume that Isabella Swan had just entered the cafeteria. We glanced up, a little curious, and took her in.

The students had been actually quite accurate in their mental pictures; not too much had been exaggerated. I could hear Alice beside me, squealing about her 'awesome taste in clothes'; Rosalie was mentally comparing Isabella to her own image, and was angered at how beautiful this human was; Emmett was making fun of her size – she was only an inch or two taller than Alice; Jasper was hoping he didn't harm her.

And I... well, in a way, I was agreeing with Rosalie – something unheard of. This girl, this Isabella Swan, was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. The bright colours she surrounded herself in were obviously a character trait: the smile on her face complimented the vibrant tones perfectly. Her mahogany hair hung in waves down to the small of her back, and I could see headphones hanging around her neck, most likely leading to an iPod.

She walked gracefully – and happily – over to the queue, buying a small salad, before turning around and looking around the cafeteria. She bit her lip, her smile fading a little, and I felt a pull in my chest. For some reason, I didn't like it when she seemed sad. I didn't know why, though...

Her eyes met mine, and she froze. I counted exactly seventeen seconds before she began moving again. She walked in our direction – completely ignoring the people who were calling her name. I made a mental note that she had told the people she had already spoken to that she preferred to be called 'Bella', claiming that she thought her full given name was too formal; how ironic that she would have a name that meant 'beautiful', when she was much more than that.

Jasper and Rosalie were in a slight panic – Jasper because he didn't want to slip up, and Rosalie because she didn't want a human coming to talk to us. Emmett seemed curious – most humans avoided us, their instincts preventing them from approaching us. Alice seemed excited, but then again when was she not? I didn't take my eyes off of the girl as she approached, watching her every move.

Finally, she was right in front of us, and her smile was bright again. The feeling in my chest lifted as I observed that she was happy again, and again I wondered where it had come from. I hadn't felt anything like that again, but I suppose I just thought that such a beautiful girl shouldn't be sad, even if it was only a little bit.

She looked at us again, biting her lip – but her smile never dimmed – before taking a breath and speaking. "Hi, my name's Bella Swan. Do you mind if I sit with you?"

Her voice was airy, and reminded me of the wind blowing in the forest. It seemed that Alice had seen what Rosalie was going to say, so she took control of the situation. "Or course, I'm Alice, and these are my brothers, Edward and Emmett; my boyfriend, Jasper, and his sister and Emmett's girlfriend, Rosalie. It's nice to meet you, Bella!" She chirped excitedly, as per usual.

She sat down in the empty seat to my left and Alice's right. "Thanks, it's nice to meet you, too." She looked behind her at the people who were still staring at her in awe, before turning back to us and speaking again. "You didn't seem like the type to gossip, so I figured you were my safe bet."

Alice was practically bouncing in her seat now; she must have seen something that I missed. All of her good visions always seemed to come when I was distracted by something else... though, I had never been distracted by a human girl before...

She doesn't smell very human. Jasper's thought knocked me out of my own world, convincing me to take a deep lungful in of her scent. And, he was correct. There was none of the usual burning I had always coincided with the scent of humans. Instead, I got a whiff of the ocean, and pine trees. Her scent just reminded me of nature, as if she had just been outside amongst the trees near the coast. However, I knew that was not so – lunch had only started around eight minutes before; there was no way she had time to go near the water's edge in the time between her fourth period ending and coming into the cafeteria. It was impossible even for a vampire; well, not really, but we wouldn't smell so strongly of it.

And certainly, our throats should have been burning with the presence of her blood? I could hear her heartbeat, so I knew she wasn't one of us, and besides, her eyes were brown – neither the red nor gold our kind were known for. Her skin was also slightly tanned, not the deathly pale ours' was. No, she was certainly not a vampire, but she didn't smell human.

I was carried back to the one time I had met with a creature I had previously thought did not exist – the wolves that resided along the coast, a mere fifteen miles down the road from where we sat currently. The Quileutes that lived on the reservation called La Push had some kind of magic running through their veins that caused a select few of them to have the ability to shift into abnormally large wolves. We had made a treaty with them around seventy years ago, our first time in Forks. That was back before Alice and Jasper had joined us, but we had told them about it. The treaty stated that we – our family – were not allowed to cross the border into Quileute territory, nor were we allowed to bite a human. If we broke these rules, it gave the wolves of La Push permission to tear us apart and burn the pieces.

Needless to say, none of us planned on breaking the treaty any time soon.

When we arrived back here some two years ago, we weren't sure if the pack was still around. Turns out it was, but of course the original pack we had made the treaty with was long dead. While we had made the treaty with Ephraim Black, we discussed the addition of Alice and Jasper to our family with Samuel Uley. Ephraim's pack had been only three members strong, but this wolf pack had six members – last time we checked; Samuel, of course, Jared Scott, Paul Long, Jacob Black, Embry Call, and Quil Ateara. Jacob Black was a direct descendent of Ephraim, and was second-in-command, having turned down the position to be Alpha.

The scent of the wolves was revolting to us; it was impossible for us to venture close to them without wrinkling our noses, trying to get the smell away from us. We didn't get along very well with the wolves, but we were civil. They didn't particularly smell human, either, which was why I was reminded of them when I took in the scent of Bella.

Unlike the wolves, she smelled good – very good, in fact – but like the wolves, she didn't smell human. She smelled... like something else.

Lunch passed quickly, and my other siblings had noticed her scent as well. Even Alice had uncharacteristically calmed down, not trying to begin another conversation with Bella. Their thoughts, like mine, were trying to find if they had ever smelled anything like her before. Bella ate quickly and silently, and about half way through lunch she had pulled out a sketch pad and began drawing.

When the bell ran she didn't flinch at all, just put away her things and picking up her tray as she stood. She looked at us for a moment, finally deciding to go ahead and say whatever she was thinking about. "Thanks for letting me sit with you guys; I'm sure it wouldn't have been as pleasant if I had taken up Jessica's offer," she smiled.

"It was no problem, Bella," Alice told her. "See you later?"

She bit her lip. "Well, actually, I have to go home. The last few things I had shipped over from back home are supposed to arrive sometime this afternoon, so I'll have to talk to you again tomorrow."

Alice actually looked a little sad; yes, it was quite obvious now that she had seen something pertaining to Bella. "Oh, okay. See you tomorrow, then."

"See you tomorrow, vampires," she smiled at our shocked faces, giggled and waved, before making her exit. We were too confused and worried to go after her, and by the time we did, she was no longer in the parking lot; she had already left.

Emmett spoke seriously for once. "We have to talk to Carlisle when he gets home from work," he nodded as he was saying it.

We all agreed, still shocked, before heading for our classes; we would have skipped, but we didn't want to draw attention to ourselves.

On the way to class, it hit me suddenly. Sure, I had noticed, but I hadn't thought too much of it before.

I hadn't even gotten a whisper from the mind of Isabella Swan.

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Well, I hope you guys like this story as much as you liked Tier in Geist. I, personally, really enjoyed writing this, and I hope it goes in the direction I want it to go on. In case you didn't catch it, this story will be completely in Edwards point of view.

The blog to this story is www . xlarac-sf . blogspot . com – just get rid of the spaces, and you should be fine.

Review, please; tell me what you think!

Remember me, XlaraC