Sorry this took so long, I've been busy. I think I'm going to start devoting my after midnight hours to new chapters. Thank you for your patience.
Bella's POV
At first I thought I was still dreaming, yet the ache throbbing through my body was all too real to be a figment of my imagination. I tried to swallow past the sandpaper that was my throat, and coughed instead. The pain that seared through not only my throat but my neck as well sent hot tears spilling out of my eyes. I was lying on my back on something that felt like a bed, and my eyes were open - I knew this much, as I blinked several times to set my tears free – but I could see only darkness. Had I gone blind? Could I be dead? No, death couldn't be this painful, and I had never done anything to earn me eternity in Hell. Or had I? Was falling in love with a vampire a sin worthy of punishment by Satan himself? Somehow, I didn't think so.
At the thought of Edward, fresh tears spilled from my eyes, and a forlorn sob tore from my throat. I welcomed the searing pain this time, willing it to drown out my thoughts, the ache in my heart. If not in Hell, than where was I? I felt like there was something vitally important that I was missing. I closed my eyes, willing the ache in my head to subside long enough to allow a moment of clarity.
I had jumped off the cliff. I had nearly drowned. Yet I was alive. I couldn't make sense of it, and when I tried to, all I could think of was red. What was red, a fire truck? But why would a fire truck be sent to save me if I was drowning? Red… red… what's red…?
I gave up and instead let my thoughts wander to Edward, thinking of the time I had spent with him, of his velvet voice, of the anger in it when I was being tossed this way and that by the current. I had forgotten precisely how comforting his voice was, how it soothed me when nothing else could. The last time I had heard him that angry was at the baseball game, when James, Laurent and Vic- I froze. Red. What's red.
I started hyperventilating, ignoring the pain in my chest. I clutched at the sheets to stop my hands from shaking as my wide eyes searched the blackness. The pain subsided as adrenaline burst into my system, driven by my fear of this place, of who could be here with me. MUST be here with me. As if on cue, a hiss came from the darkness, and a light flicked on. I shut my eyes to protect them from the searing white light, and then left them closed, willing myself to be dead; anything but this. Hell would be better than this.
"Rise and shine, princess." Victoria hadn't spoken a word that day in the field, yet her voice sounded all too familiar to me, all to like the voice that had haunted my dreams since learning she was after me.
I shuddered, knowing there would be no one to save me this time. Resigned to my death, I opened my eyes to face it with courage. At the sight of Victoria, of her black, hungry glare, of her somehow cat like demeanor, her flowing, fiery red hair, I simply shut my eyes again. I would have turn my head away, but my neck felt locked in place, and when I tried to move it, white hot agony blazed through the muscles. So I simply lay there like I child waiting to be struck, my eyes shut tight, clutching handfuls of the rough sheets in a death grip.
"Where's your pretty boyfriend?" she sneered, like a jealous school girl talking to the arch enemy who stole her first crush. I didn't think anything could overcome my fear at this point, but I surprised myself as my anger flared, and I opened my eyes, glaring at her defiantly. I said nothing.
She smiled a victorious smile and came slowly towards me, like a cheetah slowly creeping along before launching into attack. Instead she simply sat on the edge of my bed in a lightning fast motion, the black tunnels that were her eyes boring into mine. Her perfect brow creased in frustration, and I vaguely wondered what she saw there that had irked her. But the expression smoothed almost instantly, and she spoke softly like a mother to a sleeping child.
"Oh, you poor thing… Did he leave you all alone? How frustrating, to think that I lost my mate over a mere trinket like you… Why, he didn't leave you any protection at all, did he? What did you do to drive him away? Did you find a human that appealed to you more than him?"
To my horror, more tears fell from my eyes. "N-n-no…" I stammered in a scratchy voice, trying not to cough.
Victoria smiled coldly at this, and the smile turned into a terrifying grimace that bared her shiny, perfect, venom coated teeth.
"I guess he didn't care for you as much as I thought… Yet he must, still, if he left you alive. I'll never understand his coven; how they can be so in touch with human emotion."
That stumped me. Why HAD Edward left me alive? I was so appealing to him… No. His parents. He must not have wanted to disappoint Carlisle and Esme. The little flame of hope that he still cared for me went out in a puff of acrid, unforgiving smoke. I was nothing to Edward.
Victoria studied me a moment. She seemed to be enjoying the pain in my expression. This reignited my anger, and I found my voice again, gravelly and unpleasant as it sounded. "You win, then. Kill me. Get it over with."
She smiled, baring those horribly perfect teeth once more. "No… I don't think I'm going to kill you, Bella." She sounded amused, like I was missing something incredibly obvious.
"Then why am I here? Why have you been hunting me? Why did you drag me out of the water?"
She smiled wider. In a movement too fast for my eyes to follow, she snatched my wrist, pressing it to her face. She inhaled deeply, gripping me too hard to allow me to shiver at the coldness of her touch, or in fear. I felt my bones would snap beneath her slender, snowy fingers if she even marginally increased the pressure.
"Killing you wouldn't be good enough. Your life is hardly worth the life of my mate, who died at the hands of your friends… No. Killing you would be much too simple, much too fast. If I want to get back at Edward…" She smiled wider as I winced at the sound of his name, and repeated it our of sheer cruelty. "If I want to get back at your precious Edward, I need to do something much more lasting than that. I want to savor my victory. For eternity."
I watched in wide eyed horror as her venomous teeth sank into my wrist. I waited for the door to burst open, for one of the Cullen's to burst in and save my life. No one came. No one was going to save me this time. With that final thought, the pain hit me, the burning in my veins, and the ache in my throat was nothing but the distant ghost of a memory. When I screamed, I could taste the tang of my own blood in the back of my throat. Distantly, I heard Victoria's shrill, soprano laughter, echoing in the windowless room as I writhed on the bed, the painful beginning of my last three days as a human.
Hope you enjoyed it, R&R please!
Annie.
