well here you go everyone! sorry i didn't get it up earlier. busy day. also, i'm gonna note that in the prologue of DIVIDED, i changed all of Mayze's piercings and tattoos simply because i just didn't like them. so, i changed them. if that makes you mad, i'm truly sorry, but i just felt that what i changed it to was better.

anyways, without pointless rambling, here it is. please read, review, and enjoy. :)

01. Five Years: Tonight Alive
02. Stay Close: Fireflight
03. Bite My Tongue feat. Oli Sykes: You Me at Six
04. Obvious: Hey Monday

Brynk slept perfectly, but as my family left to meet with the pack, I couldn't sleep a wink. I began pacing around the entirety of the house while clutching my stomach. Like before, I had a bad feeling, and it made my stomach hurt—a lot. Pacing made my legs hurt, but I was terrified and didn't know what else to do. Sure, they weren't going off yet to stop him, but they were strategizing, and more than that, they were arguing. A lot.

Around two, maybe, they arrived. By they, I mean everyone. All of the Cullens and a lot of the pack came rushing through the doors.

I was sitting on the bottom stair helplessly, and surprisingly, Alice was the first to notice me, despite all of the others who usually noticed me first.

She gracefully danced her way over to sit beside me before softly kissing my cheek. "Everything's going to be okay. I still see our future, and you're still in it. We're all still okay."

I grimaced a little and began holding my stomach again. "Something doesn't feel right."

She nodded. "I know what you mean. It seems to easy."

I just took a deep breath as I ran my fingers through my hair. "What'd you guys decide?"

"They're driving out tonight," she said softly. "Esme, Alistair, and I are staying here to watch over you and Brynk. Sam, Paul, Leah, Embry, Brady, and Jared are going. The rest are staying here, and they're protecting you, Brynk, and Bella. If we ever need them, Seth will stay here, and he'll let the remaining know. Jacob's in charge while they're away."

"So many going," I said quietly. "I was thinking about the pack simply because it would surprise him."

"I don't know, but the numbers alone might scare him away or be the end of him," she assured me. "I can't really tell. Everything's too clouded."

I just nodded, uncertain how to respond. The more I thought about it, the more I began to wonder if I made the right call. Calling in the pack did, yes, increase the numbers and increase the odds for them, but what if it was bad to have more? Blade could find out their deepest fears, find out how to torture them the worst, and they may survive, but they'll never forget what he did to them. They'll never accept that not all vampires are bad.

I felt Edward begin softly massaging my shoulders, which surprised me. At some point while I was lost in thought, Alice left, and Edward sat down behind me. It was incredible, and immediately, so much tension just disappeared.

"Can I talk to you?" he whispered softly in my ear before tenderly kissing it.

My eyes fluttered shut, and a smile actually made its way onto my lips. "Sure."

He actually laughed, despite the circumstances, and playfully began biting my ear. "I meant alone, silly girl."

I felt my cheeks warming up for whatever reason. Edward and I had been alone so many times that I literally lost count. Soon, we would be married, and being alone would consist of different things than it did now—sometimes, of course, because not all the time—but still, for whatever reason, I was blushing.

He took me by the hand and led me out the front door, and before I knew it, I was being pulled onto his back as he took off running into the woods. The wind on my face was incredible, and despite the fact that I really didn't care too much about not being able to see right, I was very happy about going off alone with him for just a minute.

We arrived at the meadow shortly, and honestly, I should've known that's where we were going. Still, I couldn't help but look at how beautiful it looked at dawn. It was beautiful the way the skies, lit up faintly orange, pink, and a beautiful blue, changed the colors of the water as well.

Edward, surprisingly, wasn't looking at me. The last time we were here, he asked me to marry him, he made the decision to change me, and we had a very steamy night,. I wasn't sure about him, but that's where my thoughts were, and it was the reason for my smile.

"I talked to Carlisle about this, and he thinks maybe it'll be okay," he said quietly. "After the honeymoon, I'm going to change you."

This surprised me, especially considering the source, who was all for delaying it as long as possible. When he turned around to see my reaction, he saw a wide-eyed Mayze.

"This worry I'm constantly feeling," he began to explain. "It's driving me crazy! I'm tired of Blade successfully torturing me. He needs to die, and maybe we'll take care of that, but I'm sick of worrying, and . . . what if we don't get him? The possibilities are endless. The pack doesn't know yet, so we're going to have to move off, but—"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," I said quickly, cutting him off immediately. "No."

He was surprised now, so much that he began feeling my cheeks and forehead. "Uh . . . what?"

"I'm not leaving Charlie," I said firmly. "Not only that, but think about the risk this would put our family at . . . or Embry, Seth, and Quil. If we can wait until I have to be changed, why not do it? Carlisle can speak to Sam about changing me then so that it won't break the treaty."

"Sam won't ever agree to that," he sighed. "Either way, anyone in the Cullen family doing it breaks the treaty."

My lips pressed together in thought as I began pacing around him, rubbing my hands on my chin as I did. Sam would never agree. That much was true. Was there another way that didn't involve someone besides Edward doing it?

No. No one else could give—wait, yes!

My blue gaze was wide again as I eagerly rushed to face Edward. "Not necessarily! One person can agree to it."

"Oh yes, because that's way more likely to happen," he agreed sarcastically. "You do remember our last encounter with him, right?"

I nodded. Despite the fact that he was right, I couldn't let myself lose hope. "Yes, but we can work on that, specifically me."

"That'll never happen, but I guess you can try," he decided almost immediately after I said it. "But, can you at least consider this option?"

I shook my head firmly, eyes matching this. "If this is gonna break the treaty anyways, I wanna spend as much time with that side of my family as I can. Not to mention, people will get suspicious if we all just disappear. They won't know what happened or anything, but they'll always wonder."

"I guess I see your point," he said softly, but still, he was shocked and not very happy with the decision. I could see that in his smoldering green eyes. "If we kill Blade today, I'll be alright."

I made a face at him and folded my arms over my chest, frowning a little. "You're trying to make me feel bad."

He nodded, flashing me an innocent and crooked grin with those perfectly white teeth. "Of course I am. I hate worrying like I do."

I was laughing when I put my arms around his neck, despite the fact that I hated feeling bad. While I smiled up at him with shining eyes, he pulled my body against his and started kissing my neck. "Well, maybe you should worry less. Get a new hobby. Ooh! You could collect shoes."

He stopped kissing my neck so that he could dubiously stare at me, but before he could say anything, I was very eagerly kissing him. It caught him off guard, especially how quickly and forcefully I did it, so I was able to push him into the tree behind him.

This really surprised him and turned him on a lot. Besides the fact that I knew him and could tell by the way he was kissing me, something was poking into my stomach much harder and much more obviously than before I pushed him into the tree.

I pulled back suddenly as a new idea occurred to me. What if I tested his ability to not kiss me?

"Let's see how well you manage to not kill me," I breathed seductively before very passionately kissing him again.

To say a fire started inside of us in that moment is no exaggeration. If it came out and began burning the forest down around us, neither of us would notice nor really care. This kiss started out similar to other passionate kisses we shared, but I had something different in mind. I had never done anything like this before, and neither had he, so we could learn together. He could learn to kiss me like this very carefully in preparation for the honeymoon.

When my tongue slid across his bottom lip, he understood what I meant, and his entire body stiffened. Still, even though it surprised him and made him stiff, he actually parted his lips enough to let my tongue slip through.

I won't tell you that it was what I expected it to be. Actually, it burned a little, but surprisingly, there was a sweet taste in my mouth as our tongues began dancing a very unfamiliar dance. Our lips knew how to dance together well, but this was something new and foreign for both of us.

He surprised me, though, when he abruptly turned to forcefully pin me into the tree, and he had to pull away to do it. Now, though, it was his turn, and when his tongue slipped into my mouth, I found myself knotting my fingers in his hair and pulling him as close to me as I could possibly get him. He noticed what I was trying to do, and he pulled me up into my arms to make it easier on both of us. After all, he is taller than me.

For my own personal convenience, I wrapped my legs around his waist and simply tightened my grip around him while his tongue continued to caress my own. His hands were very strongly grabbing me, and I could feel his body tensing and tightening with each breath I made, but when I had to pull back for air, I could see an excitement beyond what I expected.

He looked like a little kid getting a lot of his favorite candy, or catching that homerun baseball. "I did it!"

I laughed and slid back down, taking deep breaths to calm myself down. "You did."

"How was that for you?" he asked eagerly, and it actually looked like he might be bouncing in delight.

Of course, this made me laugh some more, but I didn't let him see my face because I wrapped my arms around his waist and simply hugged him. "Beyond what I can actually describe—in a very incredible way."

"Same here," he murmured. "You know, if you think about it, it seems like it would be weird and gross, and some actually say it is, but I guess if done with the right person, it's okay." He began hugging me now as he let out a sigh of content. "Ah, Mayzie, I really think I can do this!"

"You seemed to have a hard time," I noted, looking up at him but otherwise not moving my body.

He was looking off in the distance with a timid smile. "I was, but with more practice, it'll be just fine."

I started to reply, but before I could, his cell phone began ringing. At first, we both just stood there in each other's arms, continuing to enjoy our moment, but then, we remembered what was going on. We remembered that reality was here, and my family in Phoenix was in danger.

They needed Edward to come back so they could leave.

With a sigh, I let him go and gestured towards his phone. He didn't answer it; only looked at the caller ID. I'm not gonna lie. That made me happy. Still, I had to face the fact that he was leaving now, and I wasn't sure how long they would be gone. More than that, I wasn't sure what was gonna happen while they were gone. Of course, they would all come back, but would they come back the same? Would they come back, haunted by the torture Blade put on them?

I couldn't bear to look at Edward's face, so I squeezed my eyes shut. "You better come back to me."

He let out a breathless laugh. "It's five vampires and six werewolves against one vampire. We're gonna be fine."

I shook my head, hesitant. "I mean . . . come back you. Blade has a way of messing people up. You know that. Can you make sure everyone else comes back themselves as well? Warn them for me?"

"I will," he promised, and he tilted my face up to look at him. "I promise, Mayze. I'll come back, and then you and I will take a nice trip out to Jacksonville to visit Renée. After all, I think she would like to know you're getting married in two weeks."

My eyes widened in absolute horror. "I didn't tell my mom!"

He laughed softly and kissed the top of my head. "Don't worry, love. Charlie called her back when it happened and told her about it, explaining that you were busy and it simply slipped your mind. I'm sure she's emailed you, though I'm surprised she hasn't called."

I sighed and began rubbing my face. "First thing after I get up, I've gotta tell Charlie and call Renée."

"Okay, baby," he whispered. "For now, though, let's get you back home so that you can get some sleep and we can head out."

Right. Out to kill Blade and protect Oliver, Sapphire, and Karma.

Ugh. This whole mess is my fault.