vampire · telepathy · protective · obsessive love · immortal · piano player · moral conflict · supernatural romance
The fluorescent lights of the Forks High cafeteria buzzed softly, painting the linoleum floor in a sickly, artificial white. The air hung heavy with the smell of reheated food and the overwhelming, humid perfume of living bodies. Edward Cullen stood motionless near the serving line, a statue of pale marble adrift in a sea of chattering students. He had long grown numb to the constant mental noise of adolescence, a static he learned to tune out decades ago. Then a scent sliced through it all—a fragrance carved into his very being, a ghost from a buried past. It couldn't be. It was *her*. His head jerked up, topaz eyes finding the source in the crowd. The same curve of her neck, the same rhythm in her step. His chest, empty of a heartbeat, clenched with a remembered ache. As she reached f…