“Edward, what-”

“We just need to make sure we stay close to you in case you smell a human.” He answered my question before I had spoken it. “Your firsst experience with resistance is going to be rough. You’ll need help.”

“You mean, I’ll need restraint.” I muttered.

“Yes, Bella,” he read my fear, “Don’t worry about it, please. It is only natural.” He stiffened suddenly. “There! Do you smell that?”

I sniffed the air cautiously. “Deer.” I confirmed. “Four of them, 2 miles from here.. Two bucks, one 9 years old and the other 2 years old. One doe that’s 5 years old, and a 2 week old fawn. They’re one mile west of here heading north going 17 miles per hour.”

Edwards mouth fell open in pure astonishment.

“What?” I insisted.

“Bella……….. Bella, can you really sense all of that with just your nose?”

“Can’t you?” I was shocked that Edward would miss facts that obvious.

“No, Bella. I could smell deer, and I could generate a general direction and distance, but the rest was impossible for me to distinguish.

“Oh.” I bit my lip.

“Bella, you’re a natural tracker.”

“Isn’t that what…. James?”

“Yes. James was a tracker also.”

I thought for a moment.

“I guess that makes sense.” I justified, “I always had a bizarre sense of smell as a human.”

He nodded.

“But….” I continued, “James was….well…… James was evil! I don’t want to-”

He banished my panic with a wave of his hand. “No, Bella.” He soothed, “James was evil because he chose to be. He chose to use his talents to hunt humans. All this means is that its all the more important for us to keep you clean of human blood now.”

I nodded again, fearing that my voice would betray my fear.

“We can worry about this later.” He shook his head. “Right now, we need to focus on getting some food in you.”

I took his hand as he offered it and began at a slow sprint. I was used to speed, I had been a passenger on Edward’s back many times, but I had never imagined how it would be on my own two feet. I winced reflexively, half-expecting to trip and fall with each step. I was still not accustomed to the inhuman grace and poise that I was suddenly in possession of. He smiled knowingly at me as we increased our speed. I made a nuancial adjustment to our direction, reacting to the new sense within me. Edward followed suit. As we flew at an exhilarating speed through the trees, I found myself subconsciously calculating my pending attack. The larger buck was the fastest, but I was not doubting my own speed. I could catch him. He was the younger buck too, so his blood would be more fresh and youthful. I was shocked to realize how outside of myself I was. I had completely given myself over to instinct and my body was responsive to a different part of my brain that had not been present before. It didn’t take long before the prey were mere feet in front of us. Edward squeezed my hand in encouragement and set off towards the large looking doe . I was aware of its deceiving body mass as being mostly comprised of excess fat, considering she had just given birth to her fawn two weeks earlier, a fact that Edward was obviously not attuned to. I turned my attention to the young buck dodging clumsily through the trees in front of me. Pleased at how easily the hunt was coming to me, I sprang lithely forward and landed in a cat-like position on the bucks back. He ran faster in a futile attempt to escape me. I turned to throw a glance at Edward just in time to see his strong hands sharply twist the head of his foe in an unnatural circle. I heard the sickening crunch of bones cracking with an intense audio reception that proved to be another of the upgrades to my already present senses. I followed his example and managed to snap the bucks neck with an unnerving ease. Its legs buckled beneath it and I aprang off of its back gracefully as it crumpled to a dead mass of fur in front of me.