AN: I do not own Twilight or any of the Twilight characters. They belong to Stephenie Meyer.
Chapter 2: Ill-Fated
Crash! I had stumbled backward, tripping over the rocking chair and knocking over the lamp. I barely managed to stifle the scream that fought to escape my throat. "No! You're dead!" I gasped.
"Bella? What's going on in there?" Charlie's voice called sleepily from his bedroom down the hall.
James held one finger to his lips. "Shhh…" he said softly, "You don't want daddy coming in here to check up on you, do you? Tell him you're alright."
I could hear the blood pounding in my ears as I scrambled to my feet. My eyes did not leave James as I edged around my bed to the door. Charlie can't come in right now. There's still a chance that James will leave him alone after he finishes me. I cracked the door open and struggled to keep my voice steady as I called out, "I just fell out of bed. I'm okay. Go back to sleep, Dad."
With shaking hands and an intense desire to be sick, I carefully shut the door. James hasn't changed. Not really. His formerly long hair is cropped short and he's lost that leather jacket. He isn't wearing anything but a worn out pair of blue jeans. But his eyes still glow crimson. He is watching me silently, his head cocked to the side. I remember that look from the ballet studio. He's curious about something. Silently, I pray that his interest will keep me alive for a little bit longer. Long enough for Edward to go back on his word and send someone to check on me. No – I don't want that. I can't bear the thought of a member of my family trying to take on James.
"I see that you haven't given up that loyal, protective attitude yet. Most girls would have run for their daddy by now," James said with a smirk. He sauntered the short distance across the room to me. Revulsion flooded through me as he brushed the fingers of his right hand up and down my arm. "But you aren't like other girls, are you, Bella? That's very convenient. For me, of course, not you."
I shut my eyes as my breath came out in short gasps. "Th-they killed you," I stammered, struggling to wake myself from this nightmare. "Jasper and Emmett. They ripped you apart, and they burned you. You're dead. You're dead."
"Really? Well, in that case, death is rather disappointing." I opened my eyes to see him raise his eyebrows at my insistence of his demise. "Actually," he continued, "I have you to thank for my continued existence. You're the reason that the job was not done as thoroughly as it should have been. You see, your blood just smelled so damn good that your friends had to leave before they attacked you. Vampires have remarkable powers of healing, you know, as long as we are not completely reduced to ashes. It took a while, of course, until I was able to fully recover." He paused briefly. "Well, maybe not fully. I couldn't find a couple of pieces."
He held up his left hand as he spoke and waved three fingers at me. I hadn't noticed his hand before as it hung at his side. His ring finger and pinky were missing. The skin where they should have been attached was blackened and charred. Oh, crap. I wasn't having a nightmare. This was very real. I never would have dreamed that he was missing fingers. In my nightmares, he is whole and terrifying and deadly.
I began to weep silent tears. This is it, I thought. Edward's right. I am jinxed. Edward, my heart cried. The thought of never seeing him again, never hearing his sweet voice was enough to wrench a sob from my chest. Frantically, I covered my mouth and stifled any other cries. I couldn't risk Charlie hearing me.
"Please," I wept, "Please don't hurt Charlie. Kill me and leave. Please!"
James's head jerked back in surprise. He cocked his head to the side again. "Kill you? Bella, Bella, Bella, I'm not going to kill you. Don't you remember? It's the hunt that I love. And once again, catching you has been a little too easy. There would be no satisfaction in your death."
My breath caught as I looked at him in confusion. What did he want? Was he just going to wait here for Edward? Is that his plan? Terror shot through me at the memory of the last time they had fought. I had been in so much pain that I hardly understood what was happening. But I knew that his brothers were there to help him that time. I didn't know if Edward could survive by himself.
James began to circle me slowly with a disturbingly sociable expression on his face. I cringed when I saw his eyes running up and down my body. He continued speaking, "Don't worry, I'm not planning on killing your boyfriend either." He paused, glancing at my left hand. "Pardon me, your fiancé. I've got some new plans. As you know, revenge didn't work well for Victoria."
I was shocked to see a spasm momentarily contort his face as he mentioned his deceased mate. Briefly, I thought I saw something like grief flash through his eyes. I had believed Edward when he told Victoria that she nothing more than a useful partner to James. I had not imagined James to be capable of actual emotion. I quickly squashed down any traitorous feelings of compassion for the monster circling me.
"I didn't recover in time to save her," James said as he twirled a lock of my hair around his finger. "She died for me. I won't disrespect her memory by allowing your precious Edward to go unpunished. But I've decided that he wouldn't suffer enough if you simply died. I heard about what happened the last time he thought you were dead. His own death would follow too quickly. I want to him to suffer forever."
James was facing me once again, his face mere inches from mine. The friendly expression was completely erased. I could see the tension in his jaw and the tight set of his mouth. His eyes, which had been crimson when he first entered the room, had deepened in his anger to a sinister black. I gulped nervously and unconsciously took a small step back. "W-what's the new plan?" I whispered, hardly audible even to myself. He smiled crookedly at my question, his anger disappearing as quickly as it had appeared.
"Why not punish perfect Edward and secure a new companion for myself at the same time? I won't kill you, Bella, but I will take you from him. You will be mine. You will love me, and hunt with me, and fight for me. That is the new plan," he finished with a smirk.
Huh? Did he just say what I thought he said?
"You're completely insane!" I gasped. I dug my fingernails into my fists in a last attempt to wake myself from this bizarre, unending dream. "You can't possibly believe that you could make me love you. You're a monster."
"Now, now, Bella, you're not giving me a fair chance," James argued. He reached for my arm with his disfigured left hand. His remaining fingers slid down my arm to my wrist. "The last time we saw each other, I was trying to kill you. That's hardly a good experience to base the future of our relationship on. I can be a whole lotta fun, once you get to know me." He gave me a quick wink as he lightly stroked the side of my wrist.
"No, no, no, NO!" I yanked my wrist away from James and covered my face in my hands in disbelief and frustration. "I am marrying Edward. If Jacob couldn't take me away from him, then you certainly can't!"
"Oh, there's a Jacob now, too? Aren't you popular these days?" James sneered. "I'm not worried. Once we spend a little time together, I'm sure you'll come around to my point of view." He reached for my hands and carefully pulled them from my face.
"Time? What are you talking about? Edward won't ever let you come anywhere near me again." I struggled to reason with him. He was clearly unbalanced. Some nerve endings obviously hadn't reattached when he was putting himself back together. Did he honestly believe that he could win me over?
"Yes, I've thought of that. It would be difficult to entice you with the fiancée hanging around. But I've picked up some useful information about the two of you. He can't read your mind like he can with everyone else, can he?" James raised his eyebrow, looking at me for confirmation. I reluctantly nodded my head once. "So, if you don't tell him, he'll never know that I'm stopping by occasionally. Normally, he'd be able to pick up my scent a mile away, but there are some definite benefits to practically growing a new body. My skin doesn't have that distinctive vampire scent just yet. I expect that it will return in time, but for now, I'm free to move without detection."
"No, you're not," I declared triumphantly. How had I forgotten about Alice? Surely, she must have seen a vision of James by now. "Alice will see you and bring help. Right now, a coven of angry vampires is on their way."
"Oh, yes, pretty little Alice," James said with a sigh. "May I point out that if she had in fact seen a vision of me, your friends would have made their entrance quite a while ago? No, I don't think that Alice can see me. I suspect that it also has something to do with my revival. Now, I have a bargain to make with you. Hear me out?"
He paused then, waiting expectantly for some time of reply from me. How do I respond to that? Um, no thanks, James. Maybe later! Yeah, right. I shrugged my shoulders, which seemed to be enough for him.
"Here's the deal. You will not tell Edward or anyone else that I am alive. In turn, I will not kill Edward," he explained. "You're protective nature is very convenient. Do you realize that you always underrate the abilities of those around you? Never willing to let them risk their lives for you." He grinned broadly. "That's how I know you won't tell anyone about me. If you tell, they will come after me, and you can't guarantee that I won't kill one of them before they finish me." He was right. I wouldn't risk anyone's life if I could help it.
"How long is it until the happy day?" James asked. I looked at him blankly. "The wedding day…" he prompted me.
Oh, right. Happy. "Um, two months."
He took time to consider this information, rubbing the light stubble on his chin with his thumb. Finally, he looked back at me with a nod. Had I unknowingly agreed to something? "Alright. That'll work. I'll be stopping by from time to time. Like I said, you just need to time to get to know me. It would be convenient if you arranged to spend some nights away from Edward. Just tell him you want to make the wedding night more special or some other kind of sentimental drivel."
What happened to my life? A few hours ago, I was a happily, if reluctantly, engaged woman with not a care in the world. And now James, my attempted murderer, is trying to schedule some quality time for us? Frantically, I struggled to find a way out of his twisted arrangement. I wanted to cry when I realized that I couldn't, I held back the tears. I won't give him the satisfaction of seeing me weep again. Suddenly, James took in a deep breath, nostrils flaring.
"You have a visitor. Time for me to make my exit. Aw, don't look so depressed, babe. I'll be back soon," James said, giving me a small pout before grinning broadly. "We're gonna have lots of fun together, Bella. I promise."
With that, he quickly grabbed my right hand, flipped it over and pressed a kiss to the crescent shaped scar exposed on my wrist. Before I could react, he had leapt fluidly out my window and into the dark night.
