Play the Fox

Epilogue: Eternity with Her

With foxes, we must play the fox. – Thomas Fuller

It had been exactly six months to the day when we changed Bella. She was in her human form, and we had spent the hour before telling each other how much we loved one another. They were the sweetest words to have ever left her lips. With every passing second, I loved her more, and I made sure to let her know it.

The three days she spent writhing in pain and screaming for death were agony to me – they brought back the memory of my own change, and I knew all too well the pain she was going through. I wished desperately that there was a way I could take the pain away from her, but I just had to deal with Jasper dealing with what he could. I was never happier to have my brother by my side.

When the three days were over, though, is when things began to get strange. Bella and I's relationship had never exactly been a normal one, but I hadn't expected her to have to spend another day and a half in agony. She woke up, just as well all knew she would, but before anything could happen, she was forced into a phase. I was shocked as I watched her morph into her fox form, and when she did, her heart began beating once again.

And the screaming returned.

Carlisle theorized that now that her human form had gone through the change, her fox form had to do the same. Separately.

I was glad that she would be able to switch forms still, but the extra time she spent with my venom coursing through her veins and burning her was horrible. With her in her fox form, making whimpers and yelps, and screams of the dying, I found it worse than when she was in human form. This was the form I had met her in, and though I loved when she was human, I adored her in fox form. It was hard to see her squirming around as if trying to escape from the thing that was burning her alive.

In a day and a half, though – after she had spent almost five days going through the worst torture imaginable – she awoke for the final time. Never again would she be able to sleep, and never again – hopefully – would she ever feel anywhere close to that amount of pain.

She took to hunting easily, as we all knew she would, though she preferred to do it in human form.

"When I'm in fox form, it feels like I'm murdering my family, even though there aren't that many foxes around here," she explained, and we all understood – it's how we felt about killing humans. She still didn't like killing the animals while she was human, but she dealt with it – knowing that the only other option was to kill humans. And she didn't even want to think about that.

It didn't take her very long to gain control over her newborn hunger, and before long we all decided to move. It wasn't a hard decision – Carlisle and Esme had promised our 'cousins' up in Denali to visit when they got the chance. So we packed up our home in Forks, and headed for Alaska.

On the drive up, Bella and I got to be alone. The others didn't want to have to deal with it if we had to pull over and satisfy our cravings for each other – another reason I was quite glad we had changed her; I didn't have to worry about hurting her, now that she was just as strong and indestructible as I was. She argued that even when she was mortal, I wouldn't have hurt her because I loved her that much.

We discovered that when Bella had been changed, she had imprinted on me, just as I had her. There was never any doubt that we were meant for each other, but we didn't know how her unique genes would react with the venom – whether there would be significant changes between regular vampires and her. There were changes – not many of us can change into a fox at will – but they weren't too noticeable. We informed the Volturi about her, and thought they were curious, they found no need to come and investigate. Carlisle assured them that it was as if we had two vampires in one, an animal and a person. Bella did not have irregular strength or speed; she was as normal as she could be, given the circumstances.

Tanya, the leader of the Denali coven, was a little put off that I had finally found my mate, but she accepted that I had imprinted. They all asked endless questions about Bella's ability to shift, Eleazer especially. He had been a member of the Volturi, centuries ago, and had never lost the need to quench his curiosity for all things different and unusual.

Eleazer's power helped explain something, as well. His ability to sense the powers in other vampires, and sometimes humans, let us know the reason I could not read Bella's mind. She was a type of shield, he wagered, as he couldn't quite get a sense on her. It was enough for me to know the reason why my love's mind was barred from me. He reckoned that, with practise, Bella might be able to control it. She didn't really care all that much, though she did promise me that she would try it in the future.

I was just glad that she was, possibly, giving me a chance to read the only creature's mind in the universe I wanted to read. When she was my elation at her promise, she leaned up and kissed me, and though I heard the taunting in my brother's minds, and the slight embarrassment in my parents', and the happiness in my sisters', and – of course – the disgust in the mind of Tanya, I wouldn't stop kissing Bella for anything.

She was my imprint, and as strange as we are, I love her with everything I have.

Sorry for the horrible ending, I just couldn't think of another way to end it.

As I said before, this story is part of a universe of stories called 'Strange Imprints'. The next story is called 'A Lion Sleeps' – or, if you want to get technical, 'Strange Imprints: A Lion Sleeps'. Put me on Author Alert so you can read it as soon as I put it up! I plan to have it up today.

Visit my blog for more information on upcoming stories, and for anything else – there is also links to the different ways you can get in touch with me, and a link to my NaNoWriMo story, 'Curse of Life'. My blog is .

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