hat i want to do," i told him. "i want to hear more about you."

"ask me anything."

i sifted through my questions for the most vital. "why do you do it?" i said. "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."

i lay unmoving, locked in awed silence.

"did you fall asleep?" he whispered after a few minutes.

"no."

"is that all you were curious about?"

i rolled my eyes. "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?"

i 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."

i considered the impossibilities he described, trying to take it in. he waited patiently while i thought.

"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 my hair - his lips?

i wanted to turn toward him, to see if it was really his lips against my hair. but i had to be good; i didn't want to make this any harder for him than it already was.

"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 me. i smiled, euphoric at the thought.

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

"i won't leave you." his voice had the seal of a promise in it.

"one more, then, tonight..." and i blushed. the darkness was no help - i'm sure he could feel the sudden warmth under my skin.

"what is it?"

"no, forget it. i changed my mind."

"bella, you can ask me anything."

i didn't answer, and he groaned.

"i keep thinking it will get less frustrating, not hearing your thoughts. but it just gets worse and worse."

"i'm glad you can't read my thoughts. it's bad enough that you eavesdrop on my sleep-talking."

"please?" his voice was so persuasive, so impossible to resist.

i shook my 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.

"well," i began, glad that he couldn't see my 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?"

i 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."

"oh," was all i could say.

"was there a purpose behind your curiosity?"

"well, i did wonder... about you and me... someday..."

he was instantly serious, i could tell by the sudden stillness of his body. i froze, too, reacting automatically.

"i don't think that... that... would be possible for us."

"because it would be too hard for you, if i were that... close?"

"that's certainly a problem. but that's not what i was thinking of. it's just that 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, bella, simply by accident." his voice had become just a soft murmur. he moved his icy palm to rest it against my cheek. "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 me to respond, growing anxious when i didn't. "are you scared?" he asked.

i waited for a minute to answer, so the words would be true. "no. i'm fine."

he seemed to deliberate for a moment. "i'm curious now, though," he said, his voice light again. "have you ever... ?" he trailed off suggestively.

"of course not." i flushed. "i told you i've never felt like this about anyone before, not even close."

"i know. it's just that i know other people's thoughts. i know love and lust don't always keep the same company."

"they do for me. now, anyway, that they exist for me at all," i sighed.

"that's nice. we have that one thing in common, at least." he sounded satisfied.

"your human instincts..." i began. he waited. "well, do you find me attractive, in that way, at all?"

he laughed and lightly rumpled my nearly dry hair.

"i may not be a human, but i am a man," he assured me.

i yawned involuntarily.

"i've answered your questions, now you should sleep," he insisted.

"i'm not sure if i can."

"do you want me to leave?"

"no!" i said too loudly.

he laughed, and then began to hum that same, unfamiliar lullaby; the voice of an archangel, soft in my ear.

more tired than i realized, exhausted from the long day of mental and emotional stress like i'd never felt before, i drifted to sleep in his cold arms.