Disclaimer: All the characters of the Twilight universe are the property of Stephenie Meyer. This is a work of fan-fiction and intended purely for the purpose of entertainment.
The flames licked into every corner of my being, forcing their way into every bone and cell as the venom worked. I had long since lost track of time; my heartbeat was the only indication that I even still existed in the real world and not some fiery plain of hell.
I wasn't sure what my limbs were doing, whether I was thrashing about or lying still, floating in the air or sinking into the ground; the heat consumed every sense.
I'd had a trial of this before – courtesy of James – and even that was a walk in the park by comparison. Back then I could retreat from it – mentally distance myself from the burn in my hand. But now that it was everywhere, there was nowhere left for me to run to.
I focused on memories, trying to force myself back into half-remembered moments from years ago, when I had never imagined pain like this could have even existed. Random moments flashed by, I grasped onto anything I could, and held it – lived it – for as long as I could stand before the pain ripped it from my clutches. Sitting on the floor of the kitchen as mom hopelessly tried to braid my hair a few months before I left for Forks – Watching football on the couch with Charlie while we ate in silence on some random summer night – A long forgotten conversation with Angela about a book report – The final words he said to me – Charlie looking ten years older as the doctor gave my prognosis.
When a memory wasn't lucid enough to distract me, I counted my heartbeats, pausing and resuming as new memories blew across my consciousness.
Eventually I began to gain some semblance of the world going on around me; the muffled tweet of a bird, a strong gust of wind through the trees. Over time, the sounds grew sharper, more intense, as I began to comprehend the myriad of other things going on around me.
As the last of my memories became murky and distant I began to focus on the bird. It would disappear from time to time before returning to the same tree about twenty yards away some time later. Soon enough I could make out its rapid heartbeat, like the banging of a tiny drum, as it flitted to-and-fro overhead; then the delicate patter of its feet as it landed on a branch and the whoosh of air as it flight once more.
After what felt like an eternity, the fire began to recede, starting in the very tips of my fingers. It was such a minute difference that I wondered if I could be imagining it at first; finally losing my sanity. But as the same sensation worked it's way past my fingernails, a similar feeling began in my toes. I sighed inwardly in relief and immediately cursed my loss of focus as the pain clawed for my attention once more.
Agonizingly slowly, the fire retreated up past my forearms and up through my legs. And though I had thought worse was impossible, it began to grow in intensity in my chest – twisting and wrenching my already charred heart and lungs.
My heart took off as the venom receded further from my extremities and seemed to force its way back towards my core. Soon, the beats came so fast it almost sounded like a single tone as the fire released my abdomen and shoulders, leaving only my heart and lungs with the searing heat.
There was a surge in the agony as I felt my back arch upwards. The beats dropped their pace, slowing to a quiet murmur. Soon after, there was a quiet sputtering sound and a choked thud as my heart beat for the final time – the last of the flames dying with it.
For a second, all I could register was the lack of heat. I took a breath.
The air was rich with the moisture of fresh rain. I was surprised at the number of scents I could pick out purely by taste as the air flowed through my mouth – damp earth, fallen leaves, wet moss, sap, oak, pine needles, and innumerable ones I couldn't place.
There was a searing pain as the breath reached the back of my throat, as my eyes flew open in response. My jaw dropped in awe at the world around me. I could see everything.
I sat up – Before I even consciously thought about it. I was just suddenly up.
Despite being overcast, the forest around me glowed with more colors than I had ever imagined, every tiny speck of water of every leaf glowed like a miniature rainbow that included a faint eighth color I didn't have a name for. I could see the bugs in the air for a good hundred yards and hear every one of them.
There was a quiet thump as something landed behind me. I spun around before the sound even finished echoing in my ears, immediately springing into a defensive crouch. A quiet snarl reverberated through my chest.
Victoria was rising from her landing, having dropped from a still swaying branch in the canopy above, 'Well, I'd be lying if I said you didn't turn out pretty,' her voice flowed like smooth honey, magnitudes more beautiful than when I had heard her as a human.
I stayed low to the ground, taking a step backwards to put some distance between us.
Her hands raised in an I surrender motion as a smirk pulled at her lips, 'I wouldn't have bothered changing you if I intended to kill you Bella,' she leaned against the trunk of a tree in a purposefully casual manner as she folded her arms, 'I'd like you to see this as an opportunity, darling'
I stared her down.
She sighed, 'I want Edward dead, the rest of the Cullens too but I'll keep my sights narrowed on him for now. You're gifted. Correct?'
'Yes, I'm immune to Edwards gift' my hand shot up to my mouth; the voice I had spoken with flowed from me like liquid silk; thick and sultry, nothing like my own. As I lowered my hand I looked at it for the first time; clean of any blemishes, my skin glowed like perfect porcelain vase.
'I know this is a lot to take in all at once, Bella' she took a step forward at human speed, 'but it just didn't seem right for me to let you waste away in hospital somewhere. Especially when I thought we might be able to come to an agreement of sorts' her face had softened but her eyes betrayed a hint of excitement.
I studied her carefully; realistically, I knew without a doubt that she hadn't changed me out of pity; she saw an opportunity to further her revenge plot and took it. "Not with such a valuable gift and such a burning resentment for a common enemy" would probably have been more fitting conclusion to her sympathies. Despite that, there was a huge part of me that wanted to hug her and thank her for giving me a second chance at life. A life that Edward and the rest of the Cullens cut painfully short. I took another breath, more deeply this time, savoring the feeling of being able to clearly fill my lungs for the first time in months. I may have jumped from one half-life to the next but at least this one came without an expiry date on my existence – and set me on equal footing to stand against the Cullens.
I couldn't help but smile at the thought, 'you don't need to ask for my help. You've got it. Even if I didn't owe you for saving me, I'd want in on this anyway'
Excitement spilled across her face.
'You can have Edward for yourself on one condition, Victoria'
'Oh?'
'I want to speak with him before you kill him. I want him to know what he did to me, what they did to me. I want all of them to know, and then you can finish him' that part was true, although I wasn't yet sure if I was willing to follow through on the promise – to let her have Edward to herself.
She spoke with a triumphant smile, 'I can work with that for now. Thirsty?'
The burn grew in intensity as my hand rose again to my throat; it felt like someone was thrusting a burning flare into the back of my mouth. I nodded.
'Just take a breath and let yourself go, you can't go wrong'
A younger me might have been worried of tripping or finding that one in a million way I could go wrong, but feeling like I had power for the first time in a long time filled me to bursting with confidence. I inhaled deeply through my nose. It felt like there were a thousand different smells in the air around me, no two the same. Victoria's was the strongest, a heavy, sweet smell akin to honey and a hint of lilac.
I sorted through the rest, trying to pick out something that felt like it could quench my thirst. I could make out the crisp scent of a stream nearby but it wasn't appealing in the slightest.
Victoria's voice called away my attention for a second; I could almost hear the smile in her voice, 'I left a present for you'
It hit me. A smell so rich and luscious and warm that I was sprinting for it before I even realized I was moving.
Despite flying through the forest at staggering speeds I could avoid every tree and branch in my path with inhuman ease.
The mouth-watering scent was all I could process – how much I wanted it, how much I needed it. Some small part of me knew what Victoria had meant but a larger part kept pushing me forwards; there was no conscience screaming at me to stop, no voice scolding me for what I was about to do, just the raging inferno in my throat. I knew I should stop, turn around and run away – but as the scent grew thicker in the air, I committed to the fact that I didn't want to stop.
Venom pooled in my mouth. I dropped low to the ground and slowed just short of a small clearing; I could see a human form hunched over in the center. There was a small spattering of crimson over his face, steaming in the frigid air as it dripped through his dark hair.
I circled quickly, looking for an angle of attack, and lunged. He didn't even have time to register my presence before I was upon him. My teeth sank into his neck as I grappled him. The ungodly rich taste of his blood filled my mouth. Alice had once compared it to ambrosia, and I was now sure that even comparing it to the drink of the gods was doing it a disservice. The fire in my throat calmed as I gulped down the warm liquid. There was a muffled crunch under my hands and the human went limp.
All too soon the flow slowed to a trickle. I desperately lapped up every drop before regaining some semblance of conscious thought.
I stood and stared at the limp, broken form on the ground before me. It was wrong, so very wrong – I knew that much, but I also knew that I would absolutely want more soon. The burn in my throat had dampened down to just a bristle of heat, but I could already feel it begin to ever so slowly creep back towards smoldering warmth.
I spun defensively once more as I heard footfall approaching from behind. A few seconds later Victoria stepped forward, 'Looks like you had fun'
I wiped some of the blood from around my mouth and scowled; an alarmingly loud part of me wanted to lick my hands clean, 'He was a person; he had hopes and dreams and maybe a family. Nothing about taking that away was fun'
She scoffed dismissively, 'don't worry, with how often you'll want to hunt in the next few months it'll be good practice for you to feed on people who won't be missed – and most innocent people are missed. Although I'm afraid, Low-life rapists and drugees never taste as good because of the drugs and alcohol' she gestured to the mangled corpse between us.
I shivered at the thought of good people tasting better and quashed the flicker of an ugly impulse as far down as it could go – that was a line I was not willing to cross.
'Who was he?'
'Some scumbag pimp I found in Vancouver. I had to wait for him to stop beating one of his girls before I could get him alone and grab him, like I said; he won't be missed'
I didn't feel better but all of my sympathy for him disappeared. I had smelled a deer on my way over here and I knew that there was no way it could compete with this rapidly developing addiction of mine; I supposed I could manage constraining myself to feeding on low-life humans. But then again, was drinking from criminals not technically the right thing to do anyway? Was it not the inaction of people with power that had driven me to this point already? And if what Victoria said about the man was true then did my act not just significantly improve the life of the woman he hurt, even if it's only for a while? And what about the ones he was going to hurt?
I nodded solemnly to myself. Relieving my cravings by hunting people who brought nothing but pain and suffering into the world – that would offset the lives I was taking tenfold. Kill one; save two more. I could live like that. That wasn't much of a burden to bear.
Still though, I wasn't sure I could trust her judgement on whether or not someone was a bad person – given how her coven mates had treated me in the past. It was probably for the best that I got to pick and choose which humans to kill myself.
'How long until I can start hunting on my own?'
'Maybe three weeks if you have decent self-control – depends on how well you adjust. I'll bring you people to drink for the next few days. After that we'll hunt together somewhere more crowded for a few weeks, but I won't be here for much besides that so you'll have to amuse yourself while I'm not around'
'Where will you go?'
'I can only tell you a little for now so you don't start making decisions that the pixie girl might see. For now just know that you'll be staying here for a few days until you're in proper control of yourself' She handed me a small cell phone, 'try not to break that. Its for emergencies only; my numbers already in there. Do not call anyone else'
I nodded.
'Hang around here while I go find someone else for you to feed on,' the burn intensified at the thought of more blood, 'I'll be no more than an hour or two'
A/N: Hello! It was wonderful to see people interested in following the story. I'm busy with work at the moment so chapters may be somewhat sporadic in their release for the next month or so, but rest assured I do plan on following this story to completion (at the moment I have roughly 10 chapters worth of content outlined with room for more). I hope you enjoyed and will continue to do so! Reviews are appreciated!
