Phoenix

Battles

Seth was lying on the ground wounded. Riley was hovering over him - distracted by my smell. This reminded me of my disastrous 18th birthday party. One drop of blood had turned a room full of civilized vampires into a war crowd thirsting for sweet human blood. I had to act fast. Distract Riley some more and buy Seth some time to recover. Edward and Victoria were still doing their tango-ballett kind of thing. I grabbed the rock tighter in my hand and a support in the brace snapped. I tried to ignore the pain and ripped up the sweater on my arm, put the rock to my wrist and looked Riley straight in the eye as I sliced the skin from my wrist up to the crook of my elbow. It took a moment before I even felt the pain. And as it finally hit, I gasped. I met Victorias gaze. Curiosity, confusion and rage mingled in her strangely raw but beautiful features.

Everything happened so fast then. The last thing I saw of her was how she was thrown into a tree and landed on the ground with a dull thump. Then I was roughly thrown to the ground myself and as I opened my eyes Riley's face was just inches away, his eyes halfway closed deeply inhaling the scent of my blood radiating from the vein of my neck. My heart was pumping furiously in my chest. What was taking Seth so long? Was he off worse than I had thought? Or did it just feel so long to me? Was the time just dragging in my mind. Then I felt Riley's razor sharp teeth sinking in my neck. And I heard myself moan in pain. Was this it? Was my time finally up? I thought I could take it. I thought I could just die in the place of someone I loved, like I could before. But I couldn't do that anymore. I had too much to loose now. I had a life now. I was soon supposed to have a different kind of life with my new family. I felt adrenalin rushing threw my veins. My body was burning up like with some kind of fever. And I felt all my muscles tense. I suddenly felt so strong. I had to get him off of me. So I pushed. And he flew. He flew up to the sky and came crashing down. I sat up shaking furiously. He glared at me enraged and confused. My body was burning all over. I was radiating with pure rage and I squinted my eyes at him. His body bend to strange angles, his face a blurry mass of pain and fear. His mouth moved like he was screaming but no sound was coming out or the beating of my heart just drowned it out. However, I liked it. I loved it. It was beautiful and I felt so ... invincible. And then he burst. Like literally. Pieces of his body flew all over the place.

And I collapsed. My hands sunk into the wet ground. My hair fell like a curtain around my face - blocking everything else from my vision. I stared down at the ground. My breathing came in shallow gasps. I felt familiar cold hands wrap carefully around my shoulders and I heard his velvety voice. "Bella? Bella, are you in pain? Bella?" He sounded anxious. I looked up nodded. "He bid you, Bella. I have to suck out the venom. Do you understand?" I nodded again. I felt so tired. Spend. Like all the energy was drained from me. He bent his head down to my neck. His cool breath felt so good. Then his lips touched my wounded flesh and my blood was seeping out into his mouth. When he was done I felt so dizzy. He brushed back the hair from my face and kissed my forehead. His cool lips felt so good against it.

A strong scent of something like burning incense made me gag and I glance over to the raging fire that was sending thick purple smoke into the sky. Seth was standing next to it, throwing glittering pieces into the flames, studiously ignoring us. I felt Edward's eyes on me and turned my head to face him. He took a deep breath. His face had an unreadable kind of pained expression. It made feel like another enemy and I gulped. My mind was stuck. I just stared at him. "I'm so sorry Bella, but you're safe now. It's over. You don't have to be afraid. It's gonna be alright." He rambled. I stared at him confused. "I know ... Why? ... What are you talking about?" I stammered. "The fight. Your injuries. Aren't you scared? Aren't you in pain?" He asked confused. I shook my head slowly "No ... I think I'm just really tired." He nodded. "I'm so sorry. I failed to protect you jet again-" "No! You won't go there again. You killed Victoria for me. You've done all could." I cut him off. His self-loathing was getting to me. It was frustrating and it made me angry. He looked a little taken aback by my outburst although my voice was kind of weak. I buried my face in his chest and breathed in his scent. I clung to him and then I kissed him desperately - his chest, his hand, his neck until I reached his lips. And then he kissed me back fiercely. I had to come up for air eventually and panted leaning my forehead against his. "Are YOU OK? Did she hurt you?" I whispered. He smiled. "I'm fine. Not a scratch." A smile of relieve spread over my face. And I turned my head. "What about Seth?" "He's fine. It wasn't that bad and he's a fast healer. But we can have Carlisle check him out if he agrees." I nodded again. "And the others? Alice? Esme? Jake?" "All fine. It's all over, really. We had the worst of it here." He frowned. I reached out to brush it from his face letting the information slowly sink in. And sighing in relieve.

His voice brought me out of my thoughts again. "Bella?" He asked hesitantly. "About before ... what was that. What happened back there?" I knew what he meant but I couldn't quite wrap my mind around it myself. It was so confusing and I was just so tired. I shook my head and mouthed "I don't know" He carresed my cheek and let it go for now. I leaned my head on his chest when I suddenly remembered something. "Wait. About before. What did you mean about a complication and Alice and Sam? He sighed. "Well ..." "What?" I urged. "It's nothing really" "Define 'nothing'." I was getting agitated. "We don't have much time, so please don't panic. Everything's gonna be alright." "Spit. It. Out. Already." A look of confusion washed over his face. I usually didn't talk to him like that. But he quickly recovered. He pursed his lips choosing his words carefully. This couldn't be good. But then his head snapped to Seth - his eyes wide. "What is she doing?" Seth winced. He was anxious. It made me feel tense and uneasy. Something was wrong. "What is it?" I demanded. Loking back and forth between the wolf and Edward, feeling left out. I didn't like it. It made me angry.

They both winced again and their faces scrambled in pain. It took Edward's face in my hands. "Edward! Talk to me! What's going on?" But his gaze was far off. "Help them, Sam" He breathed. And I finally understood. The crisis was somewhere else. Something was wrong were the wolves were. "Edward!" I shrieked weakly. And he snapped out of it. He pulled me close and kissed me fiercely on the head. Then he gathered me in his arms and turned to Seth. "Go straight home now." He ordered. Seth hesitated. "Hurry." Edward enforced. And Seth took off. And before I knew it we were running as well. "What happened? Were are we going?" "We're going back to the clearing. The Volturi are coming." I gasped. I was too tired for another fight. I couldn't take anymore of this. Was it never going to stop? "It's not like you think." He tried to refrain. "They're not coming for us. They're here because of the newborns. Just the usual contingent to clean up the mess. Although they seem to have timed their arrival very carefully. Apparently they wouldn't have minded if the size of our family would have been reduced." He concluded grimly through clenched teeth.

"But why do we have to go back if they're not gonna harm us?" I asked. I really didn't feel like putting up with the Volturi today. Not that I ever felt like doing that. But today it was just the icing on my cake. "Well they're not gonna harass us but it will be safer for us to present a united front ... Jane is with them. If we were alone somewhere, she might be tempted." He explained. I sighed bracing myself. "It's gonna be ok." He soothed. "Alice saw that." Wait. Alice saw? "What about the wolves?" "They had to leave. The Volturi don't appreciate truces with Werewolves." "Oh." I felt a little relieved. I trusted Alice. And Jake and his friends were safe. Wait. "What about before. What happened to the wolves?" He hesitated. "Tell me!" I shrieked. "They thought they had them all but one of the newborns was hiding. Leah found him. She was being stupid - attacked him alone." He shook his head in disapproval. "Is she gonna be ok?" I asked anxiously. "She wasn't hurt." He answered. "But someone was. Who?" I demanded. He shook his head. "Maybe we should discuss this later. We're almost there." He evaded. "Edward ..." This was so annoying. Did I have to drag every single word out of him. All this patronizing was really setting me off. It took him some time, but he finally answered. "Jakob" He whispered. I gasped. "NO!" And buried my head in his chest.

A/N: Kind of retold the story from the book in the second half. I know. But I wanted to keep that & use it to discretly introduce the change in B's attitude.