BELLA'S PERSPECTIVE
That arm, that smooth, cool arm held me so tightly my lungs began to ache a little. My arm collided smoothly with their stomach, forcing them to stumble backwards from my powerful blow. I was afraid, not only for myself and Jake, but for the Cullen's. The clenching in my stomach didn't help either, it was almost enough to make me ill. I shut my eyes to keep the smoke from irritating them further. This was the chance I was waiting for…to use my senses and test out how much I really have changed.
"Bella!" I heard my name being called very faintly which made my heart jump a little. The feeling of loneliness really made this that much harder since I knew I was all on my own. There would be no knight in shining armor to come and protect me. My feet moved backwards and then I felt my back hit a wall. This was getting ridiculous…I had to get out of this smoke filled room.
I breathed out through my nostrils and felt around the wall. My feet moved quickly and quietly, much to my surprise, and before I knew it I felt the old metal door pressed firmly against my hands. The temperature was rising all around me causing my already normally hot skin to break out in a small sweat. I need to get out of here. My heart was pounding with adrenaline as I stepped back and kicked the door down with a loud crash.
My eyes picked up a flash of tan skin and black hair falling backwards under the weight of the door. I felt suddenly sick to my stomach.
"NO!" I screamed as I ran forward and ripped the door backwards again. I heard it distantly clatter down the hallway, but my attention rested on my boyfriend who was wincing in pain.
"J-Jake. Are you okay?" My words felt tied and I couldn't think straight. My hand went to his chest while the other one landed on his cheek. His skin was clammy and I wasn't sure how long it would take for Jacob to heal up all the way. My arms went around his midsection to pull him up but he let out a cry of agony. I winced in response since I couldn't bear to hurt him.
"Bells I'm fine." He managed to say as he shifted from the floor. "I'll heal. You need to go help them. It's a god damn mess in there." I moved my hand back to his cheek and he leaned into the touch. Jacob was emitting off so much pain that I felt it in my bones, but when I touched him, the pain ebbed away a little. My eyebrows creased together in thought, but I snapped out of it when I heard Jake say my name again.
"You okay?" He asked thoughtfully. I just nodded my head distractedly before running my fingers from his face to his neck, and then slowly to his chest. Jacob groaned.
"Didn't you hear me Bella? Go. Go help them!"
"Not without you! I won't leave you here unprotected like this. The Cullen's can handle themselves right now." I stated firmly while positioning Jacob on the ground so his body could heal properly. He clenched his eyes shut and I leaned down to kiss his forehead.
"You'll be okay." He just nodded his head and let his head fall back against the marble floor.
* * * * * * * * * *
EDWARDS PERSPECTIVE
I followed Esme closely, taking comfort in the words she portrayed to me through her mind.
"You're okay Edward. You're arm will heal as well as your back." She was just doing her job as being my mother. I knew I would be scarred. For the first time in over ten decades I would be imperfect. My feet continued to walk, but my mind was elsewhere. So much destruction was surrounding us as we walked, but I couldn't be bothered. Voices of confusion and loneliness began to eat at my skull, but I couldn't help them…I needed to help my family and get them out of here.
"Esme!" Alice ran over to hug our mother. A panicked look crossed her face as another wave of smoke swirled around us.
"I can't find anyone in this fog!" She yelled and rested her head on Esme's shoulder. Alice doesn't panic like this; usually she knows exactly what's going to happen so I immediately knew this was going to end badly.
"I'm going on ahead." I stated with an air of finality as I began to walk forward.
"No, no you're not." Esme said as she pulled me back rather roughly. "We lost you once, and that was enough. You will stay with us, understood?" She looked angry…furious even. When you mess with her family, the end results aren't pretty. We continued to walk in silence, Alice's eyes saturated with the golden color that we've all come to adapt, but she looked far away. Lost in the future that each of us were bound to follow eventually.
"This way," came her soft voice as she pointed left. We followed her without question and came upon Bella who was crouched over Jacob. My body tingled with hatred as my gut kept screaming to do something. She sensed our presence and flipped her head to the side, her long coffee tinted hair falling over her shoulders.
"Help?" Her voice came out as a choked sob and my dead heart immediately broke. I loved her, and I didn't care that she loved another…because at the end of the day, she was mine, and she came all the way here to save me.
Quick as a flash, Alice had Jacob propped up against the wall on his feet, him groaning like a girl the entire time.
"Someone go find Carlisle; we need to get out of here as fast as we can…Jasper's probably with him too." Alice looked over at Bella before turning back to Esme and nodding her head. She was gone within seconds and the four of us stood in awkward silence. Thankfully though, Emmett made an appearance with a terrified look across his face. If he were human I'd imagine he'd be close to hysterics by now.
"Jane has Rosalie," We all stood motionless, all of us thinking a mile a minute.
"I'll go get Blondie." Bella looked at Jacob with an expression of complete terror etched into her face.
"Oh no you're not. Look at you! You're completely not up to anything involving movement, let alone fighting off a she-bitch." Bella rested her hand against his cheek and bit her lower lip. "I'll go though; this has been a long time coming and I can't wait to rip her pretty hair out of her head." I never knew Bella could be so cynical…
I turned to Jacob and growled at him, my eyes glinting something fierce and dangerous. "Keep your thoughts to yourself." I bit out. He was thinking about how sexy Bella looked when she was determined.
"Shut up blood sucker."
"Make me pup."
Bella placed her hand on Jacob's cheek and raised both eyebrows. "Stop." That was all it took for the two of us to stop arguing. She stared at me before turning back to Jacob and kissing him on the cheek, he just smiled like the asshole he was.
"I'll be back before you know it," she turned to Esme, "take care of him for me, okay?" With that last statement she was gone, down the long; dark corridor and possibly into a Volturi trap. I turned back to Esme with a horrified look on my face.
"You're just going to let her go by herself?! And possible get killed!" I felt so completely swelled with anger that I punched the nearest wall. My hand sliced through the rock wall like butter and yet it didn't make me feel any better.
"She's a big girl, she can handle herself." Emmett stated before turning the other way.
"Where are you going?" asked Esme in a small, fearful voice. Everyone was just doing their own thing…not sticking together, and her maternal instinct was telling her that this was all wrong.
"Going to get Raphael, he's currently distracting Caius with his ability to start fires." Emmett stated distractedly as he walked away. The two grew a father-son like bond over the past couple of months, it was rather nice to see Emmett grow into this role, and he played it out so well. I raised my eyebrows though at the mention of Raphael's power.
"Raphael grew a power?" I asked genuinely curious about the newest Cullen.
"He's had it, just not much control over how it works. You can thank him for the fires." I whipped my head around when I heard that familiar voice in my head.
"Jasper?!" I smiled because in all honesty I missed my brother and I could sense Carlisle and Alice were not far behind. He walked over to us and immediately sent out a wave of content. This helped Esme from not freaking out, me from not killing someone, Jacob from obsessing over Bella's safety, and Alice from losing herself in the jumbled mess of the future.
"It's good to see you guys and all, but can we please go save Bella…"came Jacob's voice. "The faster we get out of here the better." He said before stretching his back and looking at the rest of the Cullen's. Alice looked down at her feet before nodding her head in agreement.
"This chaos needs to end. Let's go." The air of finality in her voice started something in all of us, an anger that led to the revenge each of us deserved.
* * * * * * * * *
BELLA'S PERSPECTIVE
The blood sucking bitch was ridiculously hard to reason with. Rosalie was sprawled out on the ground with a determined look on her face, but unable to move. Jane had her heel against her throat threateningly while I stood there ready to pounce at any moment. I bit my lip and looked at the blonde vampire for any sign.
"Alright I'm sick of this. You want to fight Jane?" I lifted my shirt over my head. "Well you sure as hell got one." My pants were next and I tossed my clothes to the floor. Jane twitched her head to the side and smirked slightly. She was beyond infuriating, so before she could even utter I word I let out a growl. I flung myself into the air, my bones cracking and popping into different joints. Fur spread across my skin and before Jane could even bat an eyelash, I was in full on shape shifter form. I bared my teeth menacingly, but she paid no mind to my attempt at being threatening.
"Fine, let's play pup." She took a running leap at me, her cold hands pulling at my fur as she tried to claw at me. I bent my neck to the side and took her small child-like body between my teeth and threw her into the wall. She left a pretty good dent, but the small vampire was persistent. I took a glance over at Rosalie who seemed to have disappeared. Jane took that moment to leap back at me and sit right on my back. Snarling and scratching, the girl would not move off of me. So, I slammed my back into the wall crushing her under my large body.
'Take that bitch.' That angered her more for she stretched her hand towards me. I knew what was coming, but that didn't help because the pain that washed over me was so intense I felt like my heart would explode from the pressure. Only to add to that was the pain in my head. It was like a knife scrapping against my skull over and over and slid down over the tip of my spinal cord. My body was twitching and moving uncontrollably before she released me. I felt myself unconsciously change back into my human form as I fell, but as I waited to feel the ground beneath me, but it never came. Two muscular, searing arms wrapped around my bare waist and held onto me tightly.
"J-Jake." I knew it was him; the comfort in his touch was enough to heal the soreness in my muscles. He didn't say a word, only set me down gently on the floor and that was the last thing I remembered before succumbing to the dark abyss of my subconscious.
* * * * * * * *
Light caresses over my cheek brought me back from my dreamless sleep. I gasped for a breath and opened my eyes violently. A couple of coughs later and Jacob's face came into view and I gave him a small smile. He answered me with my smile.
"How ya feeling?" he asked while probing me for any sign of serious injury.
"I'm fine now," I stated while rolling my shoulders back to see for any sign of discomfort. "Where is everyone? What happened?" I finally noticed where we were located. The soft green grass below me and the trees that rustled silently in the breeze. It was rather lovely to say the least. I shifted slightly and noticed how I was wearing Jacob's shirt; that alone made me smile.
"Well, things got really bad in there," he paused to rub the back of his neck, "and that little vamp dude started to burn down everything in that place." I knew I smelt soot, "everyone ran out of there, but I didn't really see where they went because you were still unconscious." Jacob sighed and pulled me into his lap more, securing his arms around my waist. "You had me so scared Bells, I mean when you were passed out I just—I couldn't handle it. Please don't ever do something so stupid like that again. It will kill me." He said the last part so seriously that it made my heart hurt a little.
"I know…," I murmured quietly before kissing his cheek softly. My lips stayed there for a few seconds since it felt so go to be wrapped up in his embrace. "I love you." He pulled back to stare into my face, such a serious expression donning his appearance. The heat between our bodies made us both feel…hot. I shifted in his lap and he grunted tenderly against my cheek before pulling back.
"I love you too," and with that, he leaned in and we shared a fervent kiss that left us both in heated spirits. Just as it was getting heavy though, I pulled back. He whimpered at the loss, but quickly found my neck. His lips were wonderful, but I could sense that if we didn't stop now, we may never.
"Mmm," Jacob ground his obvious arousal into me and it took so much control to pull myself away from him.
"We should go find the others," I stated through labored breathing. He nuzzled his face into my cheek and I could only smile. Jacob was so affectionate and that's what I really wanted in a guy…someone not afraid to touch me.
"I guess you're right." I was shocked at his willingness to stop, but that's another reason why I loved him; he had control. We both stood up from the ground and I could feel myself get a little colder. This tee shirt just wasn't going to cut it. I pulled it down as far as it could go and frowned, but just as I was going to say something about a quick trip to the town, Alice appeared.
"Ah! Finally found you two." There were smudges of soot on her beautiful face, and parts of her clothes were torn off or just scorched. She looked relatively okay though because she hugged me tightly.
"How are you doing? Last I saw you were passed out…and well…" She didn't finish her sentence she just looked at me with a smile because she was genuinely happy I was okay. "Anyway," she continued, "Everyone else is on the other side of the castle. Emmett got singed pretty badly and Carlisle is working on him as we speak, and Rosalie…is a mess," Alice cringed at the thought of her sister, " Jasper is going insane with all the emotions floating around, and Edward is…well Edward. He wanted to know if you were okay and such." I felt Jacob's arm snake around my waist and pull me close to him. Edward's concern definitely affected him.
"I'm fine, but let's go, I don't want to keep them waiting. Oh and do you maybe have some extra clothes I can borrow?" I asked feeling insanely self conscious. Alice smiled at me.
"You're not the only one in need of some clothes," she said pointing to her own attire, "We are going to make a quick trip to the town before heading back to the states. There's no way I'm dealing with this." I nodded in agreement, because in all honesty who would allow two half naked people along with people who had scorch marks marring their clothes, onto a plane?
"Good idea." I took Jacob's hand and followed her back to where the Cullen's were. Both of us were in considerable pain, but fought through it enough to return to everyone. This may have been the trip from hell, but I had a feeling of pride wrap itself around me. We beat some of the most powerful vampires around, and I got the Cullen's back together as a whole.
It really was a beautiful thing.
* * * * * * * * * *
Shut up, I know. Where have I been? I really don't know actually.
Anyway, I probably will only write one more chapter for this…sorry. I refuse to kill this whole story because I'll end up writing something bad.
Let's move on to new and exciting stories.
Yaaaay
And a review would make me feel like this was all worth something :)