Paul POV - Introduction

As I looked across the meadow, I saw only death. Blood and ash covered the ground, mingling together to form a crimson grey carpet. Not far from me a raging fire burned, giving off a putrid smoke that signalled the destruction of our enemies.

We always knew that the Volturi would return. They weren't exactly the kind of psychos to let things lie, and the Cullens had made it clear that they didn't forgive and forget. Unfortunately, what we didn't expect was for it to take them less than two years to declare war against us.

Luckily, we had been more prepared this time - the Cullen's had strong allies and our pack had grown and fully matured. As a result we had won - if you could call this winning...

Rachel was still dead - she was never coming back no matter how many battles we won.

I replayed the night she was murdered in my mind once again; we were supposed to have been celebrating, but I had stupidly been running late from patrol and failed to buy dessert. Seeing how tired I was, she insisted on going to the shops in my place. It was clear that I should never have let her go - I should have stopped her.

It was the thought of her dying moments that tormented me most of all. Knowing that she had been alone and scared broke my heart, but worse was the knowledge that she would have understood what was coming. My only gratitude was for the fact that she hadn't been changed - that would have been even more unbearable.

I'd tried to piece that night together many times, trying to see all the ways I should have saved her. All I knew was that somewhere along the drive to town the Italian bloodsuckers ran her car off the road. Her body had been found less than an hour later on the La Push border by Sam. By the time word got to me, she had already been taken to the Cullens. Of course there was nothing they could do for her. My baby had died alone in the forest, killed by the exact thing I was supposed to protect her from. I would never be able to forget the image of her drained broken body and I never wanted to. I deserved to remember my failure.

I knew a part of me had died the minute she did. The same cables that had bound me to her had snapped, but it wasn't a release it was more like drowning. She had been my life line, keeping me afloat and now that she was gone, the water was invading my lungs and I couldn't breathe.

It took me days to be able to focus on anything but the pain. The funeral was no more than a blur. Then suddenly I'd felt numb. Everything I had was gone. Everything I lived for no longer existed, and since there was nothing left I just stopped caring.

It was then that the witch twins arrived. Aro had sent them with a message that we could all either meet in battle or be picked off one by one. If we chose the latter, everything we knew and loved would also be stripped from us. Of course, that meant nothing to me because I had nothing to lose anymore, but I admit the idea of a war and the chance of revenge appealed to me greatly.

I had been so stupid to think that killing the Volturi would make things better.

Nothing had changed.

I still couldn't bring myself to feel or care, even as I looked at my injured pack dotted around the field. Instead, there was just an empty void where my heart used to be and it was impossible for it to get any bigger. Nothing could hurt more than losing Rachel.

I suddenly realised I was lying to myself; I did have one emotion left and that was anger. As I watched the Cullens clearing the field, I felt rage - once again the leeches had survived and our pack that had suffered. No, it was Rachel that had suffered.

It was then that I decided that all of the bloodsuckers could burn in hell. Good, bad, friend, or enemy, it didn't matter. They all brought death upon us in some way. I looked around me at the proof and started counting heads.

In total we had lost three of the cubs from our pack, and Jake's pack had lost someone too. I hadn't really noticed until now, but as I looked around, my eyes found Embry, Quil and Jake huddled over a shape in mourning. I gradually looked for the remaining member of their pack and finally saw her.

She was standing with her back to the group just staring at the sky. I couldn't see her face properly and to be honest I didn't want to, but for the first time in my life, I felt like I could relate to Leah Clearwater.

AN

Ok, so I know I should be working on Amaguq and then on Reality Check, but this idea came to me and I just wanted to post it when I had time. This chapter is short because it is the intro, and I have no real direction yet, only that I've been wanting to do a Paul and Leah fic for ages and this came to mind. So, let me know what you think? xxx