I stared down at the tiny human girl in clear peasants’ dress, want for her blood stealing my every attempt at being rational.

“Edward, you know how upset Esme gets if we miss a ball…” Emmett’s voice was calm and level, though he was far away, but his thoughts betrayed his real feelings. What is he doing? Yes, my brother was on the verge of panic.

The way I saw it, I had two options at the moment: Walk away, or sate the incorrigible thirst burning in every fiber of my being. It wasn’t like I had never given in before, and I’d been forgiven for my previous actions. Besides, no human’s blood or scent smelled as delicious as the girl’s who was cowering on the dirt and moss in front of me now.

Her mahogany hair danced in the wind; she whimpered softly and shivered as the cool fall air caressed her bare arms. She stared up at me in wonder and fear, her entrancing brown eyes brimming with tears as she took in my macabre appearance – I had just been hunting moose and deer, and my brothers and I had found a stray bear wandering around; I now had blood dried on the front of my tunic, and I didn’t doubt that I looked very much like a vampire at the moment, what with my outward appearance and the way I knew my eyes were sparking like liquid topaz on fire. “Prince Edward?” she whispered in shock and recognition; she had every right to be shocked. No one expected the Cullen family to be a coven of vampires…

This reminded me again of the burning sensation in the back of my throat, heavily prominent and begging to be appeased.

Jasper and Emmett would be here in mere seconds; Jasper’s thoughts were distraught as he felt the emotions I was emanating: longing, indecision, anger… The wind blew by again, rustling the fall leaves and the folds of her plain cream dress, and her scent stung my nostrils as I breathed it in deeply, exhaling with a sigh.

“No!” Emmett cried as he entered the little clear patch of the forest, but it was too late. I was already at her neck, relishing in the satisfaction her blood held. She soon lost consciousness, and her pale eyelids glittered slightly in the dim light of the clearing. She had been just as silent before then, however: apparently, the shock had stunned her into silence. I choose ‘apparently’ because I could in no way read her thoughts, try as I might, and if her scent had not been so inviting, I would have studied her intensely to discover as to why she appeared to be immune.