AN: I don't own Twilight, S.M does. I just like to play with the characters. This story will contain adult themes like torture and many others. It is not my intention to insult or offend anyone and if anything in the story does, I ask that you stop reading because it will probably get worse before it gets better.
Over time it had gotten easier to care. I'd found new things to care about, Jacob was one of those things. He and I had become very close, never labeling what we were, never expecting more than the other could give, never pushing for commitment. We went to each other for certain needs, friendship, sex, care, even sometimes love.
It was that two year mark since they left that fucked everything up again. The house had burned, along with my parents, a year after the Cullens ran away, three days after my birthday. The year after that was difficult because my anger ruled and I was often knocking the wolves down and once I almost crushed Sam to death with whatever it was that the energy should have been called. I had to learn to control it, to focus it so I didn't kill anyone I had no intention of killing. I'd accidentally knocked Emily down with it, Sam lunged to attack me for hurting his mate but found his canine body pinned to the ground by an unknown force, I glared and the force tightened. His eyes bulged and nearly burst before Jake had diverted my attention by stepping forward and ramming his tongue down my throat. That kiss had saved Sam's life and he knew it, though it had been stupid on Jacob's part.
The pack wanted to hold a bonfire to honor my parents, so we were on the beach surrounded by people. I'd allowed myself to grow attached, to love those around me, to care. I should have never allowed myself to care. Seth was patrolling the forest while everyone else set up the bonfire. I wandered, ending up on the cliffs, staring at the raging waters below. They churned and swirled, seeming every bit like the anger that still boiled in my veins, the anger I was barely capable of holding in, the anger that had somehow manifested into something physical, though I wasn't sure how.
I heard something behind me, something like someone choking, I spun to see what was going on. Red hair was what I noticed first, red hair and red eyes, then that vicious smirk that I fucking hated beyond anything I had ever hated in my entire existence. She stepped out of the trees, clutching Seth by his throat, he was immobile and unable to fight back because of her grip on his arms.
"I thought it would be fitting to end our little game a year from the day it began. I've been waiting a very long time, Isabella." She said smoothly, as if she were a fucking kindergarten teacher reading a story to her students.
"Let him go." I snapped, my eyes flashing to the panic in Seth's eyes, he would not end, I would not allow it.
"Your life for his?" She asked simply.
"Let him go." I repeated, my anger licking my insides angrily.
She kicked the back of his knees, making him drop before her. "He tried to bite me, I can't let him go." She muttered, that was when I heard the bone in his shoulder snap as she jerked his arm upwards. He shouted out in pain, it came out as half of a growl.
She used his already damaged arm to toss him aside, "Remember I can catch you easily in this form and you cannot phase with a break like that." She glowered at him.
My anger erupted forth and she dropped to the ground. "What the fuck?" She screamed, panicked.
"You do not hurt what is mine." I said blankly and her terrified eyes rolled to look at me.
"You're just a human." She whimpered.
"And you've gone and pissed me off." I said darkly, forcing more of the anger and hatred I felt into the force that surrounded her, I watched the fissures begin forming in her granite skin with fascination and listened to her shriek in sudden agony. I applied more pressure to the force and the fissures became cracks, her venom spilling out and soaking the dirt beneath her, but also working to knit her body back together. I watched as the cracks on her body healed, fusing to other cracks, in essence, fusing her arms to her sides and her legs together. It wasn't long before she was just a mass of unidentifiable parts vaguely shaped like a body, and a head.
"What have you done?" She screeched.
Paul and a few of the others were running up the path to us, I smiled to myself, the perfect plan forming in my mind. "Paul, give me your pack of smokes and your lighter." I said, he didn't question me. "Drag her into a clear spot in the forest by her fucking hair." I said to Jared and Embry, they looked startled but nodded. For some reason no one in the pack questioned me anymore. Paul never even made anymore jokes about me being human, because according to him, I no longer was. He had said it was like when I snapped, when that intangible thing inside me had broken and been lost, it took my humanity with it, and part of me believed him. The wolves told me I barely smelled human anymore, but it was there.
"Paul, get Seth to Sue, she has to set his shoulder. The bonfire tonight won't be happening, I'll be honoring my parents in a very different way. Make Sam and Jacob stay with you in case it needs to be re-broken."
"Yes Ma'am." He smirked, his eyes alight with the same thing that had remained there since I had put him in his place the first time. Lust. I was strong, I was powerful, he wanted me because of it, more so because I was a commanding little bitch. Paul needed a woman who would tell him what to do.
I followed the other two into the forest with the pack of cigarettes and lighter in my hand, I found them in a nice little clearing and sat on a fallen log, no doubt from one of the tussles between the wolves. I motioned for them to drag Victoria over toward me and then for them to leave. I was certain they would keep their distance but they were too curious to simply leave, they'd never seen me so distant and held together all at once and they had never seen a vampire fused together the way she was. The fissures and cracks were nearly gone and I watched her struggle, barely flinching, but struggling nonetheless to free her arms and legs.
"Extraordinary, isn't it? I didn't even know that it was possible for it to happen either. I figured you would, but apparently your kind isn't strong enough to do such a thing. Rip, tear, destroy, crush, yes, but to force the pressure to surround you in such away that you are nothing but a lump of mottled flesh, not possible." My voice was quiet and I let loose a chuckle. I slid a cigarette out of the pack and lit it, inhaling deeply. I examined her face more closely and snorted out a laugh, her nose was completely flattened and she was breathing through her mouth, her skull was misshapen much like my mother's had been, one of her eyes forced almost closed. "God you are ugly now." I told her, "Killing you would only be a service."
She gasped and hope filled her one eye, the other I couldn't see. I smiled wickedly at her, "Oh, you're going to die, definitely going to die, but we are going to have a little girl chat first. You've fucked up big time and I think you should be made aware of your mistakes." I thought over all the things I wanted to say to her and practically felt my eyes darken as I stared into her single remaining eye. I watched with glee as it filled with terror.
"That is an amazing reaction for a vampire to have to a weak little human." I chuckled.
"You aren't weak, and not human, I don't know what the fuck you are." Her words had come out distorted and slurred, her jaw was healed in a funky shape, so it gave her a speech impediment. I understood what she was saying, regardless.
"Where shall we begin?" I asked her, then I smirked, "How about with James. He was really your first mistake. He wasn't your mate, was he? He couldn't have been."
"Don't say that!" She squealed.
"If he were he would never have needed his games. The truth is, Vicky, that your boy James wanted me more than he ever wanted you." I sneered.
"Shut up!" She yelled, I took another draw off my cigarette before flicking it so that it landed on her, burning a hole in her shirt and searing a hole into her back. She screamed out in agony and I merely smiled.
"See, I like this, gives us plenty of time to talk." I said to her, "Now shut up with the screaming before I fuse your mouth together as well."
Her scream died into tiny whimpers. I pulled out another cigarette and lit it. "Now, let's see, your second mistake, that would have to be helping James to track me. Allowing me to believe, even for a second that my mother was in danger." She wriggled again, trying to get the still burning cigarette butt off of her spine, but it had already burned into her flesh leaving a hole large enough for it to sit inside, feeding the embers that were deepening the hole. I watched as the hole deepened too much for oxygen to reach them and one by one they died out, she sighed in relief. "Another mistake you made was thinking that you could fuck with me after your precious boy was killed. He simply pissed off my brothers, they were the ones who killed him, so really you should have gone for Alice or Rosalie. You are too much of a coward for that though, aren't you?" I asked her sweetly, blowing smoke in her face. "Edward could never kill anyone, he's too much of a coward." I spat.
"Now, I'm getting a little off track aren't I. Another mistake, oh yes, that would be taking my parents from me, at the time they were the very last things left for me to care about. Do you know what that does to a person, to lose the only thing they love?"
"James!" She shrieked.
"You didn't love him anymore than he loved you. Another mistake you made was thinking you could play his games to be closer to him. Taunting me, really, Vicky? That's in poor taste." I inhaled the last draw off of that cigarette and flicked it at her as well, it landed close to where the other had, the embers burning to connect to the other hole and making it twice as large. She didn't do more than cry out, weakly trying to contain it and I smiled, "good girl Vicky, know your place."
"The only thing your little game did was piss me off; royally. Did you not factor in that I play with fucking shape shifters? They won't go against me and you think that is for no reason? They fear my anger, they fear me losing control." I whispered, as if it was a secret, "I'm one bitch you do not want to piss off, Vicky. You fucked up by underestimating me because you believed I was just a meek and easily broken little girl. Obviously, considering our positions at the moment, that is not the case."
I could see her spine inside the hole on her back, so I smiled and lit another cigarette. "You fucked up again when you came sniffing back here. You see, I've developed a family once more, those boys, Leah, and all the mates, that whole pack, they are mine, and anyone who fucks with them, well, they deal with me." I shrugged nonchalantly as I exhaled into her face again. "It didn't have to be this way Vicky." I said with mock disappointment in my voice, "If you had just let Seth go, none of this would have happened. You see, you fucked up again right there, by even touching a hair on that boy's head. I'm close to his sister, very close, she's a sister to me, which makes him what, Vicky?"
She mumbled painfully and it was unintelligible. "Speak up Vicky I didn't fucking hear you!" I nudged her face with the toe of my boot.
"Brother!" She shrieked.
"That's correct. That would make him my brother." I smiled yet again and continued, "He may look every bit a man and older than me, but he's only sixteen Vicks. Sixteen years old and that makes him my baby brother. Now, I think it is incredibly stupid to mess with someone's baby brother, regardless of who they are, but it's even more stupid to fuck with mine, as you can plainly see now!" I nudged her with my boot again and added a third butt to the growing pile on her back.
"I'm sorry! God I'm so sorry! I would take it all back if I could!" She screamed.
I kicked her hard, it wouldn't hurt her, but that didn't matter, she shut her fucking mouth immediately. I lit another cigarette and inhaled deeply, as if collecting my thoughts. I heard rustling in the surrounding trees, the wind wasn't blowing, so I knew at least one wolf was watching, recording in a way, to show to Sam later. That didn't matter. They would be thrilled this bitch was dead, no matter how it happened. "Fear is a funny thing, suddenly you are having regrets, you are feeling ashamed, and you feel like a moron." I chuckled.
"Please." She whispered.
"You tried to take something precious to me, something I had gained after you took everything else. That is where the simple mistake comes in and I'm sure I've mentioned it already. The mistake of ever fucking with me!" I growled, bending down and putting the ember of my cigarette to her back, just enough to start a new hole burning, I drew it back and took another drag. "You want to know what my favorite mistake that you made was?" I asked her.
I was crouched low and close to her face, a mere six inches away, her terrified and pain filled eye found mine, shining with venom that would never escape. "I'm not Edward's mate."
"You worshipped him!" She argued.
"He used his little thrall, he used his vampire tricks." I whispered to her, "I was never his and I never wanted him to be mine. I was completely under his control, a puppet. It took me months to come back into myself when that little faggot completely relinquished his control and let me free! When I did, I still hadn't realized what he had done, after the realization hit me, like a truck I might add, I hated him with every fiber of my being. I would have gladly helped you to kill him, I would have let you change me and gone to seek him out for my vengeance and you would have had your hollow sense of it as well."
Her eye filled with another emotion, regret. I didn't care which part she was regretting. "I would have allowed you to turn me into an enemy of the wolves just to get a fucking taste of that revenge. You have no idea how badly I wish to see him burn, Vicky, I want it and I want it bad. I don't care what it does to his perfect little family, he took something that wasn't his to take and he will surely pay for that mistake. Hell, I don't even consider it revenge, it is purely justice. I'll have my taste of justice once more after I'm finished with you. That was the other mistake that you made." I told her, putting the still burning cigarette against her granite flesh once more.
"You made the mistake of thinking I was, in any way, shape, or form, completely sane. There isn't anything sane left inside me, I'm sure you understand. Once this would have bothered me, torturing you, hearing your whimpers and whines, listening when you lose control and scream. It would have hurt me to hurt someone else, but there is nothing left, nothing left of the poor pitiful human girl that cared about everything. The girl that cared is dead, you killed her. I guess you were just finishing the job after Edward though, not like the semantics matter." I shrugged, taking out the lighter and holding out her hair, I lit it and it fizzled all the way up to her scalp, scorching it, but not devouring it, the flames didn't catch on her skull. That was good, that was what I wanted. I smiled at her high pitched keening and the venom that had once again puddled in her eye.
"I do believe I warned you about being quiet." I told her, "Bald is not a good look for you." I full out laughed. "Hell, there isn't much left to say, is there?" I asked her, she just sobbed dryly. "Aw, don't be like that, we had fun, didn't we?" I asked her, her sobs rose in volume and became rougher, harder. "Fine, be a selfish cunt, I don't care, I thoroughly enjoyed myself during our little girl chat." I practically danced around the clearing, picking up piles of dry leaves and making a circle right against her body with them, well, an oval. I then made a line leading directly away from her face and crouched down at the end where her eye was focused. It was wide and filled with panic. "I'm being polite here, bitch, don't look at me like that!" I snapped, "I'm letting you watch death come to you. I bet it is a beautiful thing to witness, your death, your final moments in this existence. I flicked the butt of the cigarette onto her again and she cried out as it landed right in the hole already created and began to burn it even deeper. I took out a final cigarette from the pack and lit it while holding it in my mouth, then without letting the flame on the lighter go out, I stuck it down to the leaves. They caught immediately and I sat back down on the log to watch the line of fire go straight to her face, ignite it, and then surround her entire body. The flames hungrily consumed her from outside in and I sat back calmly and just watched. I continued to watch until the flames died completely and nothing remained but dust I pulled the cellophane from Paul's cigarettes and picked up a handful of her black ashes and stuck them inside, folding the top over to prevent them from getting out. There was a project I planned on working on. I wanted the rest of the ashes, apparently, the wolves understood that and Embry entered the clearing with an empty mason jar with the lid on. I smiled at him, he was just radiating fear and pride. He handed me the jar and I uncapped it, pouring the ashes from the cellophane inside and he helped me to scoop the rest into the jar. The jar was three fourths of the way filled when we were finished and he assured me it was pure vampire, except the clothes she was wearing and the small amount of tobacco, but the essence wasn't changed.
"What are you going to do with it?" He asked me.
"Oh I have big plans, and they involve little miss Vicky serving me in her afterlife."
"Bella?" He asked, his eyes filling with dread.
"Relax, you know that little trade I've been learning?" I asked him with a smirk. I had dropped out of school and started creating things, metal things, blades, knives, even a few swords. I had studied the trade over the previous year and it turned out I had a knack for it. My pieces were always beautifully made and dangerously sharp, most of the wolves and some other tribe members not associated with the pack had requested pieces. The pack members got them as rewards for long patrols or gifts for no reason at all, I was always keeping busy. Paul had made the joke when I first began learning that I was going back to the dark ages, but when he saw my first good piece he literally got on his knees and begged to have it.
I did it a bit differently than anyone else, especially the person who had taught me the trade. I began with super heated, liquid metal and used cooled casts to form the base shape of the blade, then I reheated it and shaped it the way I needed. It was unique and required special and expensive equipment, it was one of the main things I had purchased from the settlement from Renee and Charlie's life insurance and the insurance on the house plus Charlie's pension. The fact of the matter was that I had quite a bit of money at my disposal, no interest in finishing high school, an interest in going to trade school in Seattle, and a shit load of spare time on my hands along with aggression to get out. It had happened accidentally, I was planning to go to trade school, discovered the course, and my curiosity was piqued. As I created, my mind could blank out completely, I never began with a plan and just let the metal shape itself in a way. My results were always beautiful and deadly. As I made more pieces, ideas began forming in my mind and I wanted to try them out.
The handles were always very detailed or made from the bones of animals. Jacob had a piece where the handle was made from the spine of a deer he'd found dead. Leah had a blade with wolves carved in the handle, it was the only wooden handled dagger I made. The metal handles were always created from liquid hot metal poured into casts that I had created myself. Anything from dragons, to wolves, to fucking intertwined hearts, like the anniversary gift to Emily and Sam. Emily had loved the hearts, Sam had loved that it was a dagger. Jacob made the stands or sheaths for my pieces and it was something he thoroughly enjoyed doing.
Embry and I walked calmly back down to the beach, I collected my jacket where I had hung it on a tree and we headed back toward Jake's. "You're fucking scary as hell, you know that?" Embry told me after a long, drawn out silence.
"Yeah, but I'm not all together, am I?" I frowned, "I would never purposefully hurt any of you, you know that, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, but it doesn't make you any less fucking terrifying."
I sighed, "It can't be helped. I don't even know what I am, Embry, that and the things I've witnessed, it has taken a huge toll on my mind."
"I've noticed." He murmured, "There is still enough of you there, though, and that makes me happy. You're capable of loving something, someone, all is not lost."
"All will never be lost, a lot has been already, but I won't allow myself to lose anymore." I promised, the words coming out harsher than intended.
"Seth is at home, by the way, he's going to take a week or two to heal. He wants to see you as soon as possible though. Sue's got him on bed rest."
"Why does he want to see me?" I asked.
"While you were watching her burn, Jared went and told him everything you said to her. He told him that you called him your baby brother and that it was really her injuring him that set you off." He explained.
"It was, but I'd have killed the bitch anyways." I growled.
"You do realize what the rest of us do, don't you?" He asked, stopping and looking at me with the strangest look on his face.
"Hm?" I asked him.
"Bells, as far as everyone knows, you are human, you have this amazing ability and with it you just took down a vampire that has been evading us for more than two years." He pointed out.
"I guess I did." I shrugged, feeling no joy, no pride. No I wouldn't feel pride until my business with those ashes was done.
"Tell Jake I'll be out in my shop and it would be best not to bother me for awhile. Also, tell whoever patrols tonight that if they come across any leeches, I want the ashes."
"Are you going to start making weapons out of all of them?"
"Some of them." I chuckled, "You forget I can make jewelry too with my casts." I thumped the Leo pendent I'd made for him that hung heavily around his neck. The chain was long enough to survive the phase and he loved having it. I'd done Leo because of his horoscope. He smiled at me and ruffled my hair.
"I'll tell Jake." He smiled, "What should I tell Seth?"
"Tell him I'll try to be there by morning." I sighed, walking around the side of the house and going into the building to start my work.