He didn’t mean to sound the way that he did. It just happened, his words came out that way and he couldn’t have stopped them even if he’d tried. How many days had he been here? Two? Three? And in that short amount of time, how many bodies had he seen? Five. Five bodies, men and women, one child, curled up in an alley, with puncture marks on her neck. Her blood had been drained by one of those things , and Edward had picked her up, carried her into a building and left her resting against the wall. For some reason, he could not leave her there, to grow cold and wet with the rain. She was tiny and he’d pitied her and the parents who were probably hysterical and searching for the daughter who they would never see alive again.
It made him angry, just knowing that there were creatures walking the streets of this city, calling themselves vampires but being nothing more than dim, soulless murderers, with little power compared to his own, compared to the abilities possessed by Alice and Carlisle and even Victoria. They killed constantly, and he was certain that the bodies which he had come across were all victims drained by such creatures and left to rot or be discovered by some unsuspecting human being.
So of course L.A was the last place that he wanted Bella to be. A small, cold town was better, for there lingered no demons there, no evil law firms, no buzzing city streets, just waiting to entrap and destroy human girls. He feared for her safety more than he did anybody else’s. If she were to be hurt, he would blame himself. If she were to be killed, he would go with her.
“I didn’t… I didn’t mean it like that Bella. It’s just that, this city… you shouldn’t be here. It’s dangerous.” The hurt in her voice was unmistakable. It was like a hard slap to the face, if in fact, a slap could do him damage.
His expression softened, his voice followed suit and his eyes dropped to her arm, reaching out, and then dropping. At that moment he wished that she had touched him. Her warmth would have been welcoming, he would have accepted it. But he did move closer to her, without getting too close, without invading her space completely.