Disclaimer: The characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.

I PUT A SPELL A ON YOU (song by Katie Melua)

Because you're mine

Nessie's POV

It's September 10, 2023 and I turned eighteen today. There would have been nothing special about it, except for the fact that it is my birthday. But more importantly, Jake, the man I was born to be with and the man I want to spend the rest of my life with has decided that this would be the day he takes me out on a real date for the first time. I can't contain my excitement. I have been ready for an hour now and my heart won't stop beating too fast. My family keeps checking on me to make sure I'm not having some sort of arrhythmia attack, and at the same time making me feel guilty because I refused to let them throw me a ridiculous party for the eighteenth time.

"Sweetheart, we don't have to invite everyone. It could just be us," my mom is begging now. I know her strategy and it always begins with 'just us'. And then the whole thing becomes a ridiculous spectacle. Behind her, are my dad and the other four crazy vampires nodding their heads in unison to what my mother suggests. I might have been defeated, but I hear the bell ring and I quietly thank Jake for being my…savior. Six heads turn simultaneously toward my bedroom door and I could have sworn I heard at least 3 or 4 of them growl.

PLEASE STOP IT! I scream in their heads.

Sometimes that talent comes in handy because my voice seems to be louder when I'm imprinting it into their crazy over protective vampire heads. For that gift, I need to remember to thank my mom and my dad.

I walk towards each one of them and give them quick pecks on their foreheads reassuring them that everything will be okay. Then as I move to the door to go downstairs, I thought my knees would buckle. What if Jake looks at me today and his thoughts of me do not change from just being his ward to being his lover? I have known how I felt about him for many years now, but according to Quileute legend, if a shape shifter imprints on a child or an infant, his feelings remain platonic and act as a mere protector of their imprint, as Jake has been with me. Then on the day that person turns eighteen, something in his brain turns on and he should see the imprint as a mate.

Oh…I pray to whoever can hear me that Jake sees me as the latter when I open that door.

Just then, my lovely mother glides over to me and reassures me that I am beautiful and Jake would see the same woman she was seeing in front of her. My mother though she is forever eighteen, has always possessed a very old and lovely soul. And when she isn't trying to growl at the thought of me and Jake being together, she is actually awesome and just my mom.

Mom and Jake were the best of friends before she became a vampire. They are still very close and she loves him. It is only when she recalls Jake imprinting on me as an infant that she wants to tear him limb from limb. Even though Jake is more than a foot taller than my mother, she would probably win that fight because she is a determined woman.

I hear the doorbell again and my train of thought is interrupted as my heart begins to beat furiously. Finally, I will my legs to move downstairs. Before I grasp the door to open it for Jake, I check the mirror to confirm my mother's complement for the fiftieth time today and mumble a prayer…

Then I hold my breath to open the door to what I hope is my new life…

Jacob's POV

Nessie is finally eighteen. Not that I've been impatient with her aging, but something inside me today has been aching to see her. I've seen her nearly everyday for the last seventeen years and three hundred and sixty-three days and so many hours and so many minutes; what was so different today except for the fact she's finally eighteen? Nessie's eighteen… I know I have repeated her age a few times in my head today. But it is only to reassure myself that this is okay. That this thing between us does not turn into some sort of perverse relationship. I have loved her, but the love has always been innocent. The thought of those feelings suddenly changing to something more is very difficult to comprehend.

I finally reach the door to the Cullen home. My index finger shakes as I raise it to ring the doorbell. Then I stand in front of the closed door and contemplate my fate again. What if nothing changes and I still feel the same way? Would I disappoint Nessie? Does my brain explode when that something in me is triggered that I not only want to protect her, but also… have sex with her? For some reason, I cringe at the thought. And for a second, I will my body to take control, to turn around and run away, as far away as possible. But my four inch index finger wins because it seems to be braver than the rest of me. So the damn thing goes up again to push the doorbell for the second time. Then I think, maybe if I'm lucky no one is home.

I am not lucky.

The door begins to open slowly. I know it is Nessie because I recognize that curly bronze colored hair peeking at the side of the door. She must be as nervous as I am, because on other days, even before I reach the door, she's already standing there ready to jump into my arms. I now see her upper arm. I close my eyes and swallow dry air. I am not prepared for this.

Would it be painful?

Would something explode?

Should I have brought a fire extinguisher?

Then I take a deep breath and open my heavy lids. I see her beautiful feet covered in sandals first because I'm looking down. Suddenly, she clears her throat and I realize that I have been staring at the same body part longer than necessary.

Oh, but what a magnificent body part…

I need to look at her face, her eyes. Just look up and get it over with, you idiot!

Somebody find me a defibrillator because my heart just stopped beating. I shut my eyes again reluctant to open them, afraid that this goddess in front of me might disappear. Suddenly, she breaks the silence by emitting the most hypnotic melody in merely two meaningful words.

"Hi Jake," uttered those most luscious lips.

I wanted to respond to them in poetry, maybe even write a song to thank them for existing and speaking my name.

"Jake?"

"She speaks. Oh speak again bright angel!" I blurted out.

What!

"Jake? Why are you quoting Shakespeare?" She laughs as her hand comes up to cover her mouth.

Now I know I have lost control over my brain and my mouth. Romeo, who I have always though of as a sissy, has possessed me.

And so, I continue to be absurd, "I am too bold, 'tis not to me she speaks. Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven, having some business, do entreat her eyes to twinkle in their spheres till they return. What if her eyes were there, they in her head? The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars, as daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven would through the airy region stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night. See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!"

Again, what!

I think I'm having a brain fart because I know I said something androgenic but I can't remember what the hell it was. Thank God!

All of a sudden, my arms take control and wound themselves around her waist. I thought I heard a soft moan of encouragement and my brain thought, why not? So we bring her closer to us, while my face buries itself into her hair. I am now feeling aroused, so I shift uncomfortably. I think hard of something to soften the situation; like the Cullens castrating the perpetrator and having the rest of me for dinner. The thought of this wakes me up and immediately diminishes the problem. But she smells like jasmine. Then as if I was not ridiculous enough, I begin to sway us side to side. I. Do. Not. Sway.

Who was this woman that was causing me to quote poetry, slow dance in the middle of a doorway with no music, and make my body parts move on their own accord? For some reason, I couldn't bring myself to care because her scent was making me dizzy and I just want to hold her until I remember my own name.

Then she pushed back a little, and I almost cried.

"Jake," she had tears in her eyes when she looked up. Did I squeeze her too hard? Why was it that even her tears where so beautiful? I wanted to catch the liquid gems in my palm and worship them. But I settle with one drop on my finger and lift it up to my mouth to savor it with reverie. It was like tasting heaven.

Then my angel continued, "Oh Jake, I was so afraid you wouldn't feel this way for me. I waited so long for you… for you to hold me like this."

She buries her face on my chest and her voice is muffled. But I understand and hear every word she says. I kiss the top of her head as I continue to sway us to the rhythm of my beating lovesick heart. When I could muster up my own words without speaking in Shakespearean idioms, I lean down to whisper closely to her ear, "Happy eighteenth birthday, Reneesme."

A/N – Poetry by Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.

This story comes in two parts. Let me know what you think of this one.

Enjoy!