Edward's POV
The store was full of dreadful sounds. There was the ear-piercing, mind-boggling, head-spinning, heart-stopping scream that made me sick to my stomach and left me dead in my tracks.
And as if that weren't enough, there was the sickening crack of Bella's wrist as James (I knew his name from reading his thoughts) snapped it with a slight twitch of his hand.
With a snarl, I flew into the air and tackled James in a tight chokehold. I heard voices yelling, but I was too intent on James' death to hear what they said. I realized that the voices were shouting my name. I tuned back into earth and became conscious that my whole family was screaming at me.
"What?" I shouted back at them.
"Edward, we've got…" Alice trailed off.
I realized I hadn't told them his name yet.
"James."
"We've got James," she continued frantically. "You get Bella."
I hesitated, and then got off of James. Alice and Emmett quickly pounced on him before he could get up.
I ran over to Bella and leaned over her. She was writhing in a pool of fresh blood from her neck, hand, and all her scratches. I held my breath and stroked her contorted face.
"It burns," she whispered so faintly that only a vampire could hear her.
"I know, Bella, darling. It'll go away soon, I promise." It was hard to convince someone of something if you didn't actually believe it yourself. But I had to try.
Bella gasped and suddenly convulsed, screaming.
"Carlisle!" I called.
He rushed over to my side.
"The venom's spreading."
He sighed. Then, a hopeful expression lit up his face. "Edward, we can get it out. Drink it out of her."
I gasped. "Carlisle, I'm not strong enough. It smells too delicious. And she's already losing so much blood." I nodded my head at Bella, covered in blood. She was still thrashing on the ground.
"Edward, it's either that or for her to become one of us. Which one is it?"
I sighed. "Okay, fine. But stop me." He nodded.
I took a deep breath. I gently pressed my lips to her open wound and sucked.
I was instantly in heaven. It was the most wonderful thing I'd ever tasted, and even better. I had no intention of stopping, and I lost all other feeling besides thirst. This was the best and the only thing in the world.
If a car had crashed through the mall at that moment, I wouldn't have even noticed. I knew Carlisle was telling me to stop, but there was no reason. Everything I'd ever know was gone and this was all that was left. And I was fine with that. It was the most wonderful feeling in the world.
"Edward, stop." Carlisle yelled in my ear, but I ignored him. Why should I stop?
"Think about what you're doing!" Still nothing.
"Edward, you're killing her!"
At those words, I suddenly snapped back into reality. I thought about was I was doing, and I was traumatized. I tried to pull my lips from Bella's skin with much difficulty, but I managed.
Carlisle patted me on the back. "Pretty good, pretty good."
I sighed. I looked over to Bella, and saw that she was no longer struggling, but was now limp.
"Carlisle, we need to get her to a hospital."
"I'll call 911. We need to get out of the mall, though. It's been closed hours ago. We'll need a story."
"Where's James?"
"They took care of him," Carlisle nodded at the rest of the family, who was busing coaxing the fire that was used to burn James.
I looked around.
"We'll need to clean up."
"I'm on it." He quickly zipped around, cleaning everything up as went, and in a couple of seconds, it looked like we were never here, besides the fact that there was an unconscious girl lying in a pool of blood and a extinguishing fire in the corner.
When the fire was out, Carlisle and I carefully lifted Bella from the blood while Alice and Esme cleaned it up.
"C'mon, lets get out of here," Jasper whispered. I looked around. Jasper was nowhere to be seen. Then I saw him cowering in a corner.
Jasper was the most sensitive out of all of us to blood. It was very hard for him to control himself. I knew that if he was anywhere near Bella, he would go crazy. By his thoughts, I knew he wondered how I did it, how I could stand being near her. I guess when you love someone, you have to be with them no matter what. But I couldn't really tell him that.
"He's right, Carlisle. We should head out before someone comes," Rosalie agreed. That was the first time she had said anything either. She wasn't in a corner, but she wasn't helping either.
"Rose, could you help out a bit?" I asked, motioning to everyone else cleaning up.
"Why?" she snapped. "She doesn't mean anything to me."
"Yes, but if this store is still messy by tomorrow, don't you think people might get a little suspicious?"
She huffed, but still did nothing.
I sighed. I looked around. It seemed as if everything was spotless.
"Let's go!" Carlisle called.
Emmett ran towards the door opened the metal bars for us. Trying not to move her too much, Carlisle and I carried Bella through the doors of the store and out of the mall. We gently placed her on the ground.
"So what's our back-up story for the police?" Alice asked.
"Hmm," Carlisle pondered, "How about she was going down the escalator and she fell? That sounds like something she would do. And these wounds could work for that."
"Sounds good!" I rushed my words together, trying to hurry things up. "Now can we call the hospital?"
