A/N: Twilight is Meyer's. No copyright infringement intended.
Note: This is not a single story, but a collection of alternate/extended scenes. These scenes are posted in the order in which I wrote them, NOT in the saga's chronological order.
This first scene is an alternate version of the Victoria battle scene in Eclipse: Bella uses the rock to draw blood.
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BPOV
I squeezed the rock in my hand so tightly my arm shook. A support in my brace snapped under the strain. It should have hurt. But it didn't.
I didn't feel it. I didn't feel anything but the terror, the desperation. Riley's lips curled back over his teeth as he closed in on Seth. The wolf still didn't move. Edward and Victoria continued to struggle a few feet away; Edward couldn't help Seth. It had to be me. I had to do this. I had to do it now.
With the point of the stone, I pushed up my sleeve. The scar in the crease of my elbow beckoned to me, showing me where to strike, where the blood was sure to run freely. A cut there was all it had taken to have every friendly vampire's attention riveted to me. Victoria wanted my blood more than anyone. She wouldn't be able to resist. But Edward could; Edward would. The distraction would save him. And Seth.
I clenched my jaw and pressed the jagged rock to the vein beneath my scar. My eyes lifted, found Edward. I watched him as I bit down hard on my lip and drove the spike into my skin. I didn't look away from him as I traced the scar's entire length, tearing open the flesh and letting the blood run.
Pain registered, dull beneath the throbbing fear. The scent hit me immediately. Rust and salt had me gagging. But I didn't have time to react.
The blow came from the side. A blur flew at me, not from the direction I was watching. It wasn't Victoria.
Riley.
His body slammed into mine full-force. I felt my ribs splinter with the impact, but I couldn't even gasp before my back hit the cliff wall behind me and my lungs were emptied of air. My head cracked against stone. The world swam. Mangled hands clawed at me, grabbing my bleeding arm and wrenching it forward. I felt a snap in my shoulder as I was jerked away from the cliff, toward another hard surface. My arm was turned upward, blood streaming. I heard the predatory snarl low in my ear, anticipatory, gleeful.
Then I heard the roar.
The hands were ripped away from me when an impact exploded inches from my face. The shriek was delayed, following the blow. I fell to the ground, panting, trying to breathe around the pain in my ribs. My head felt heavy, disconnected. I struggled to lift it, to see.
An arm twitched in the grass near me. It wasn't attached to a body. Riley was gone. But it wasn't his arm – it was female. Victoria's.
I looked toward where she last had been, but a pained howl drew my attention. I turned toward the sound. Riley was struggling with Seth…. Riley was biting Seth.
A streak blurred into my vision, flame and snow. A growl rattled beside me. Then, suddenly, a shrieking, a grating, and the sound of another explosion, rock hitting rock, a few feet away. Seth whimpered, then snarled. Riley screamed. Edward's voice flowed under the sound, liquid and fast, enraged. More grating sounded, closer this time. I tried to lift my head, but I could only turn it. I could see movement, too fast to make out, then there was another loud squealing. With a thud, something landed and rolled into my line of vision.
A head, with a mane of wavy red hair.
I closed my eyes then, listening to the sounds of rock being shredded. Seth's growls grew louder, then tapered off as Riley's screams faded into gargles and silenced. Seth was still working when a cold hand found my hair, my face. "Bella? Bella, love, please, look at me. Open your eyes, Bella."
It took all my energy to open them, but when I did, the topaz shining only inches away was worth the struggle. The panic there eased a tiny bit when I met his gaze. "Edward," I whispered.
His face contorted. "Seth's been bitten," he said shortly. I felt his wintry hands wrapping something around my arm, tying it tightly to slow the bleeding. "I have to help him. Stay with me, Bella." His lips pressed against my forehead, and his voice cracked with his next desperate whisper. "I'll be right back. Please, stay with me."
I tried to speak again, to tell him I wasn't going anywhere. But I couldn't move my lips. My entire body felt numb. I was aware of the gentle breeze of his departure as I let my eyes drift closed.
It was the last thing I knew.