Hunting: The only time I could really lose myself, and become a slave to my senses.

I followed close behind Edward as he ran, the scent of our desired prey flowing through my nostrils and making the back of my throat burn increasingly as I did so.

“How much farther?” I asked in earnest as I caught up to him. My newborn strength had only recently begun to subside.

“Not long, love,” He smiled sideways at me, sympathizing with me.

“Good,” I smiled back, refusing to think of the thirst threatening to engulf me.

Then I saw them: two lynxes in a clearing about 100 meters away, a male and a female, unaware of any impending danger. I smirked at the irony of their number and gender, and waited for Edward’s signal, slowing to a careful walk until he told me otherwise.

Slowly I allowed the thirst to impede on my ability to think clearly, and in due time my senses triumphed over my mind. However voluntarily I did this it would always bother me, but I couldn’t hunt if my mind was in coherent thought mode. To hunt like this, one’s mind had to be allowed to become more simplistic, cruder, and more savage.

“Ready Bella?” Edward growled nearly inaudibly as he positioned himself to my far left, crouched just underneath the shelter of the snow covered trees, waiting for the right moment to attack.

I gave him the smallest of nods before I crouched low in the underbrush, poised to lunge. We’d done this many instances before, and I knew our plan well: Edward would ask if I was ready, I would nod, crouch, and then he would pounce. I would soon follow suit. This worked well for a variety of reasons, including the fact that he was faster than me, so he was essentially the element of surprise.

That being said, Edward’s first spring was never aimed for the jugular, it was merely a ferocious lunge designed to startle the prey, a lunge which he had just effectively executed.

Now it was my turn. The two lynxesgrowled at Edward and poised to attack, paying no mind to me – at least for the moment.

I began to listen for Edward’s thoughts, knowing that if he turned his eyes away from the prey to communicate with me, no matter how slightly he did so, they would take advantage and pounce.