Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer created the universe and all recognizable characters. I'm just tweaking them a little.
A/N: Many thanks to my beta, Dances With Vampires, for her help with this chapter!
"Mom, it's getting dark. Don't you think we should go back to the hotel?" I suggested in an attempt to drag Mom from yet another "adorable" shop in the historic Riverside district of Jacksonville, Florida. "Phil's probably done with tryouts, and we could get something to eat."
My mother, Renee Dwyer, recently married and bubbly as ever, grinned over her shoulder at where I stood next to a display of handmade shell jewelry and music boxes. I crossed my arms and tapped the toe of my shoe on the polished hardwood floor. That just caused her to laugh and roll her eyes.
"Really, Bella, Phil won't expect us for at least another hour, and it'll take just a few minutes to walk back. Relax and enjoy the shopping, okay?" she teased.
Not that I didn't like pretty things, but usually I shopped with purpose, knowing exactly what I wanted and leaving a few minutes later. Renee's browsing drove me crazy, and she knew it.
I huffed, then smiled back. "Okay, but I really am hungry. I think I'll go across the street to that little bakery and grab a snack while I wait."
Maybe I should have asked permission instead, since I was still a couple months shy of seventeen, but as the responsible one in our relationship I hadn't bothered for years. Mom didn't expect it anymore, which actually made me a little sad. Weren't parents supposed to try to control their teenagers? Renee always made a point of saying how much she trusted me, though, so maybe she was using some kind of psychology.
"Sounds good, baby. I'll see you in a few minutes," she promised, although it would be more like twenty. Kissing her cheek, I reflected that I probably had time to sit outside at one of those delicate-looking wrought-iron tables and relax in the humid twilight.
I headed out of the shop while she considered a rack of brightly colored t-shirts with ridiculous yet kitschy beach themes, the tinkling of the door chime echoing behind me. My smile faded as I crossed the street to the bakery a couple shops down. I had serious things to consider. Since this was Phil's second tryout in the last month, even further from our Arizona home than the last, I needed to start thinking about what was best for him and Mom. They were newlyweds but had spent almost half a year apart while Renee stayed with me in Arizona so I could finish my sophomore year of high school. They talked about moving if he got a spot on one of the teams, and I was fine with that. Renee would be in the same position, though. She missed Phil horribly when he traveled. I'd watched their romance bloom in the months before their marriage, and as a romantic at heart I recognized true love. She lit up when he entered a room, and the only thing threatening to eclipse the glow in her eyes was the one in his.
That's why I was coming to a conclusion that I'd avoided all summer. Perhaps it was time to come to my senses and admit that I should call Dad to see if he would mind if I wanted to move there for the next two years. Just the thought of that chilly, rainy town in the middle of nowhere depressed me so much that I bought two brownies instead of the one I'd intended to indulge in. After paying, I trudged into the deepening shadows, absently catching myself as I tripped over the leg of an empty chair next to the shallow steps before flopping into it and staring unseeing at the street around me, no longer quite so bustling as when Renee and I came here hours ago but still fairly full. My fingers pulled a brownie out of the brown paper bag I carried almost of their own volition, unwrapping the wax paper and smoothing it out to lay the fudgy square onto it.
Forks. Seriously, who named a town after cutlery? What in the world were they thinking, those long-dead settlers who somehow decided that naming their quaint settlement "Forks" was a good idea? I never understood, even though I'd visited the place once a year until I was twelve, after which I put my foot down and insisted that Charlie-Dad-meet me in California instead. I hadn't really cared where else we spent time together, as long as it wasn't the dreary dot on a map where I'd been born and spent the first few months of my life.
Now it looked like returning for longer than a couple weeks was my only option. Charlie would welcome me with open arms. He wasn't the most demonstrative father, but it was no secret that he wished I would spend more time with him. Well, if he wanted that he could have moved somewhere warmer.
I sighed and bit into my brownie. It tasted fantastic, but I was in no mood to enjoy it, so I wrapped it in its wax paper and shoved it into my bag.
"What has such a pretty girl so upset?" a smooth voice asked quietly.
I jumped and nearly toppled out of my chair, which he righted with a low laugh. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
A tall boy, somehow even paler than I was, stood next to me. His short, light brown hair was mostly hidden under a baseball cap. The bill created shadows across his square face in the streetlights' yellow glow. He gave off a boy-next-door air, so I figured his eyes must be blue or brown, although I couldn't see them clearly.
It would be nice if I could reply to his compliment or even just his apology, but all I managed to do was open my mouth slightly before closing it again. Words were trapped by my shyness, something I didn't worry about on a daily basis but was cursing just then.
"I'm James," he prompted, holding out his hand and flashing a bright white smile as if I'd said the funniest thing in the world instead of staring like an idiot.
"B-Bella," I stuttered, cursing silently once again. Why couldn't I think up something flirty? Of course, I had no practice, but all my favorite novels were romances. Shouldn't that give me an edge?
I placed my right hand in his and jumped again at how cold it felt, as if he'd been carrying ice. I raised my startled eyes to meet his-this time I noticed their color. A dark red ring surrounded black as deep and flat as an open pit. Even the alien color didn't hide their hunger. A scream rose in my throat, strangled by fear as his face appeared inches from mine before I could blink, his grip crushing mine until I felt my bones crack. Panicking, I wondered how he could be so strong.
"Be good and quiet now, pet. We're going on a little walk," he snarled at me. He transferred his fingers to create a vice around my wrist, and I was on my feet and being dragged at an impossible speed down the deserted street into what looked like a dark alley. My brain said to scream, but I couldn't get anything past the lump in my throat other than a strangled screech as he pulled me further into the gloom.
With his free hand, James-or whoever he was-seized my throat and squeezed warningly. "What did I tell you, pet? Not a sound. I know you're here with your mother. Such a sweet-smelling woman, although not nearly as good as you." To my horror he leaned towards my neck and drew a long, deep breath. I felt something cold and slimy slide along my collarbone just above the neckline of my bright blue tank top. I flinched away.
"Good little pet," he murmured as he raised his head a bit, a sadistic grin lighting his face even in the darkness. "I'm going to enjoy this, although I can't say the same for you."
Fingers still tight around my neck, James lifted my wrist towards his mouth. His dark red eyes held mine as he adjusted his grip so that he was once more crushing my hand. I shuddered when his lips touched the sensitive skin, probably bruised now. I wanted to stay quiet for Renee, scared of what he'd do to her if I made a sound, but a whimper escaped when I felt his teeth tear through my skin as if it wasn't even there. The whimper became a shriek as he began to suck. His eyes flashed to mine in fury, and I clamped my mouth shut around the next shout. His eyes smiled as he continued.
Vampires aren't real, I tried to tell myself even as I felt him pulling my blood, heard loud gulps as he drank. They're figments of the collective human imagination, scary stories we've told ourselves for generations, boogeymen used to keep little children from running out into the night and getting into trouble. They're not real.
Only they were, and I knew it even as I clenched my teeth against the screams that wanted to tear through me. I began to struggle even as a funny dizzy feeling settled over me, something I knew from too many childhood accidents meant blood loss. To my surprise James was drawing this out, taking small sips after the initial long swallows he drew from my arm as if savoring his meal.
I watched through foggy eyes as five people appeared behind James. They stood silent, then one large man reached out a pale hand and lifted James by the back of his neck, breaking his hold. I collapsed on the hot concrete, unable to move. He held James in the air. James growled and swung at him, demanding that he be allowed to finish his meal. The newcomer laughed. It should have been a beautiful sound, musical and pure, but I experienced another shiver at the malicious undertones.
"James, James, James," a high, thin voice said almost too softly for me to hear. "You've been a very bad boy. Your indiscriminate feeding in this pitiful warren has drawn undue attention. You know what happens to those who do so, I am assuming."
A small cloaked figure stepped forward, taking down her hood. Her face should have surprised me. That voice was too cold to belong to someone so lovely. However, her red eyes-so much brighter than James's-told me that this was another vampire.
I wanted to scramble away from the tableau, but my ankle must have broken on my fall because when I tried to push myself on my feet to run, it couldn't support my weight. My wrist was aching and on fire, as if James's bite had torn out a chunk instead of slicing the skin. Thinking of Renee, how worried she must be and how much I didn't want her near these monsters, I clenched my jaw once again and huddled in the shadows, cradling my injured arm with my uninjured hand.
"Don't the Volturi believe in a final meal?" James sneered. I wondered how he could keep up his bravado while being held as if he weighed nothing.
The girl's eyes flickered toward me, and I cringed away from her stare. "We will take care of her momentarily. She should make a fitting snack before the flight home. But first we are going to take care of you. It's too bad your pretty little mate decided to hunt on her own tonight, isn't it?" she intoned, turning her attention back to James. "Don't worry, we took care of her already. She won't suffer, knowing that you're dead." Her eyes narrowed with what would seem like pleasure in anyone else as James renewed his futile effort to escape the giant's grasp, apparently driven to an insane rage.
Flames started to lick up my arm from the bite, but the scene in front of me almost managed to distract me from the excruciating pain. The small girl nodded to the figure closest to her. He too removed his hood and stepped forward, red eyes dancing as he stretched out his hands. Impossibly, a thick gray cloud began to stream from his pale fingertips. Within seconds it engulfed James, who stopped kicking and became unnaturally still. A third man, almost as large as the first, pulled James's head from his shoulders in one quick motion.
I did shriek then, although I tried not to. While the other four ripped off James's limbs, the girl crouched in front of me, impassive. I stared back in terror, trying to quiet myself again despite the pain now creeping towards my shoulder.
"We might as well ensure her silence before we kill her. Alec," she murmured. Her voice was too quiet to be heard even a few feet away, where the men piled the pieces of James into a metal trash can, but the one who'd caused the strange cloud came over.
"On it, sister," he said. At this distance I could see that he was more boy than man, but that didn't relieve the dread coursing through me almost as quickly as the fire when he held his hands out once more, this time in my direction.
The cloud began to engulf me, but I wasn't sure what it was supposed to be doing. His cool look turned into a frown, while gasps of pain made their way past my lips no matter how tightly I pressed them together.
"Alec?" The girl shot a surprised glance at her brother-the most emotion I'd seen from her so far. When he dropped his hands and shook his head, she glared down at me with frightening intensity.
"Nothing, sister. It's as if she can't even feel it."
The corners of the girl's mouth curled slightly in a cruel smile. "Maybe the venom isn't strong enough yet to distract her. I suppose we'll have to provide more pain." Her voice rose slightly on the last word, eyes narrowed. I tensed. Crazy amounts of strength, mist clouds that seemed to immobilize other vampires…what else were these people capable of?
After a minute of silence she hissed and reached toward me as if she was going to use that unnatural strength to rend me in two with her bare hands. With what I had just witnessed, I believed she could. Her brother caught her by both arms, and she turned on him with a surprisingly deep growl.
"Aro will want to see this one. She could resist us both while still human. He will want to know." I couldn't understand the significant look that passed between them, but whatever he was talking about swayed her. She stood and turned her back, washing her hands of us both.
"Demetri," Jane called out, causing the one who'd ripped off James's head to look up from throwing a lighter onto the pile of arms and legs sticking out of the trash can. "Get the new one when you're done and meet us at the airstrip."
As if he had been aware of Jane and Alec's actions all along, Demetri nodded and turned his attention back to the flames. I closed my eyes, not caring how quickly death would take me but hoping that it would be soon because the flames had reached my collarbone, just where James had licked me earlier, and it was all I could do to hold in the screams.
Somewhere in the back of my mind I felt myself being lifted, but all that mattered by that point was the fire pouring into my chest, being pumped by my heart into the rest of my body. I was vaguely aware of a hand clamped over my mouth, and then there was nothing but the flames.
