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Chapter 6:

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"I wanted us to have a talk, you and I," she said, her voice suspiciously soft and mysterious. "After all, we've been through a lot together these last couple weeks. I admit you've caused me far more trouble than I thought you would. I'm almost impressed."

I sat there with the phone, frowning and guarded. "Well, you didn't expect me to just give myself up to die, did you?"

"Actually, I did. I suppose I've developed a rather low opinion of humans over the years. After a while they all seem so weak. You in particular. I thought you were just some stupid girl."

"And what do you think now?"

"Now I think you're stupid and lucky."

"Is that all?"

"Well…perhaps you are a little stronger than I gave you credit for."

My stomach fluttered. I didn't trust her tone at all, but I couldn't help being strangely flattered. Just a little. The phone had been pressing into my ear and now I eased it up.

"Yeah, well," I said. "Yay, me. I got lucky."

"Yes. Next time I won't underestimate you."

"Neither will I. From now on I'm not taking any chances. I'm gonna be looking out for you more than ever and the wolves will too. And guess what? Alice came to see me today. She said her visions had been blocked by the Quileutes, but she knows about you now."

"Is that so?"

"Yeah, that's so. And she said she'd never let anything happen to me, so you might as well just give up. I might be nothing but a stupid girl with a blowtorch, but I don't think you want to take your chances against an entire coven of vampires and a pack of pissed off shapeshifters."

Victoria responded to my threats with nothing but another low and throaty chuckle. It frightened me because I thought I had been making some effective points. The part about the Cullens looking out for me was a little exaggerated, but Victoria had no way of knowing Alice had basically just abandoned me again.

"What so funny?" I demanded.

"Not funny," she said. "Cute."

Slowly a hot blush began to engulf my face.

Cute?

It was probably just some scare tactic, but her voice—her voice was sexy as fuck. High and lilting, even higher than Alice's. So soft and gentle. So deceptive. From the tone of her voice, I could picture her chilling on a bed like a teenager, relaxing on her stomach with her feet in the air as she enjoyed a casual phone conversation with a treasured bestie—whom she really wanted to kill.

"You have no idea what I'm going to do to you, do you?" she asked in that same soft beautiful voice.

I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat. "I think I do."

"No," she said. "You don't."

I didn't know what she meant. I was sitting there on the edge of the bed, with my feet on the floor, and I waited very tensely for her to continue.

"When I first came after you," she began softly, "it was simply because you were involved in James's death. As minor as your role was, it was enough to target you for revenge. You were the first step. The least important step. But now…"

My chest tightened as a soft inhaling sound came over the phone. She was breathing in, slowly and deeply, as if she could smell my scent over the phone and wanted to savour it.

"Now it's different," she continued, practically in a whisper. "You've put me at considerable inconvenience, Ms Swan."

"I've been a little inconvenienced as well," I said guardedly.

"Yes," she said, her voice going even softer, more sinister. "And soon it'll be more than mere inconvenience. I'm going to find you, Bella. Not now. But soon. I'm going to find you and I'm going to rend you limb from limb. I'm going to break every bone in your body…and rip open your rib cage…and twist your head until your spine comes loose…and pry apart your legs until your body splits directly down the center. I'm going to make you scream in agony and cry your eyes out upon the ground and beg for death until your throat bleeds and then, and only then, will your death be satisfactory to me. And do you know why?"

I was sitting absolutely still and my voice broke slightly as I said:

"Why?"

"Because you survived," she hissed.

I blinked and waited for more. But that was it. My throat was almost closed over and yet I didn't think I was as afraid as I was supposed to be.

"I didn't survive," I said. "You let me go."

She didn't reply. Her silence dispelled even more of my fear.

"You could've kill me if you wanted," I said.

"Yes," she finally replied. "But it would've been very quick, wouldn't it?"

"Is that the only reason? I thought maybe you felt sorry for me."

"Hardly. The truth is, that moment made a very deep impression on me. I had never been hurt to that extent in my life. Never. Survival is my specialty. I've never been taken off-guard. Never been burnt. Yet the agony of the burns paled in comparison to everything I wanted to do to you. In all the years I've been alive I have never experienced such an extreme…passion for my prey. The feeling was…sublime."

Her words freaked me out in more ways than one.

I mean…passion?

Yikes. It was one thing to kill in hate and revenge, but she was moving into full-blown psycho territory here. Her low tone of voice was pure seductiveness, as if killing and torturing me wouldn't be enough and maybe she would have to fuck me as well. Or my corpse. And the most disturbing thing about that was the tiny twitch of excitement I felt deep in the dark part of my heart.

That's what scared me the most.

"Then why did you let me go?" I asked.

A surprisingly sweet giggle came from the other end of the phone. "Because I wanted to keep the feeling," she said, all bubbly like a girl with a crush. "Is that silly, do you think?"

"No," I said. "It's insane."

Another giggle, softer this time. "I think you're right. I do feel very different. I feel like something has snapped inside me. Honestly, it feels…nice. It's been a while since I've felt anything but grief and anger. Oh, I can't wait to see you again, Ms Swan. To see you and get my hands on you. It's going to feel soooo good…"

She trailed off with a low and sexy groan. As if the anticipation was just too much. My face began to heat again and I found myself clenching my knees together. What the fuck was she doing to me? I didn't know what to say and after a while I heard her heave a sigh.

"And that's why I wanted to call," she said. "For some reason I felt the need to share this with you. To let you know. To take a sip of your fear, as it were. Are you afraid, Ms Swan?"

"Yes," I said steadily.

"Good. That's good."

But then I just shook my head. All this felt so wrong and I just wanted it to stop. "Listen, Victoria," I said. "You don't have to do this."

"You've already tried that. Twice."

"Yeah, well, maybe this time you'll listen to me. James is dead, alright? He was a scumbag and an asshole and he got what he deserved. Why can't you just get over it?"

She went silent.

Dead silent.

"Huh?" I went on. "Why? I got over the Cullens. Edward left me and do you see me crying about it and threatening to kill anyone who made him go away? No. I got over it."

"Hm," she murmured. "It's interesting you bought that up."

"Why?"

"Because it's something you and I have in common. We've both experienced the loss of a mate. Only mine was killed and yours left. Which might explain why my grief tends toward revenge, while yours tends toward pouting. And I will have my revenge, Ms Swan. Beginning with you."

I scoffed in disgust. "You know, I really don't understand you, Victoria. James was such a pathetic piece of shit. How did you even fall in love with him in the first place? Are you really that desperate?"

She didn't reply for a moment. I thought maybe I had made her angry but when she spoke her voice came over the phone soft and hesitant and even a little wistful.

"James and I met in England," she said. "He chose me as one of his victims, but of course, I wasn't some helpless little girl. I managed to evade him for months until we finally met. By then a mutual respect had grown between us and we decided on a wary partnership."

I heard all that with a peculiar feeling in my chest. Because it kind of reminded me of what was happening with me and Victoria. Victoria had chosen me as a victim, but—

"I fell in love with him shortly after," she went on softly. "He was a very fierce hunter."

"He was a monster," I retorted.

Again I thought that would've made her angry but she only chuckled. "To you, perhaps. As a human it's natural that you'd think human life is precious. But to a vampire, you're just…food."

I frowned and exhaled through my nose. This conversation was going nowhere.

"We'd play hide and seek sometimes," she continued, fading again into wistfulness. "James and I. No one can hide like me. And no one can seek like James. Some games lasted for months, but we'd always get hungry for each other. So I'd let him find me. We never could get sick of each other. We would've had forever to try…if it wasn't for you."

Now she was beginning to get angry.

"Everything went wrong because of you," she growled.

But I was sick of her shit and I just shook my head. It was nice that she could confide her feelings in me—the crazy bitch—but I had my own problems to deal with. "James's death had nothing to do with me," I said. "It could've been me or any other girl. Live by the sword, die by it. James bit off more than he could chew and he got himself killed."

"How dare you."

"You should just feel lucky that you didn't die too. And if you plan to continue living, then you might wanna just leave me the fuck alone. I have a pack of wolves and a whole coven of vampires watching my back and they're not gonna let you get anywhere near me. So if you have any sense at all, you might as well just—"

"Bella!" Charlie called from downstairs. "You sure you don't want any pizza? You really should eat something."

I cringed in embarrassment. Great timing, dad. Right when I'm trying to act brave with the woman who wanted to torture me to death. I turned back to the phone, blushing a little.

"That's my dad," I said. "He's calling me for dinner."

Victoria said nothing. I nibbled my lip anxiously.

"Well, I better go, so, um…call me back?"

Again she didn't answer. The line simply went dead and I realized she had hung up.

I lowered the phone to my lap and raked a clawed hand through my hair. My breath came out trembly and a few shivers passed over my body. It was like the adrenaline had been blocked while we were talking and now it was released to flow through my veins. It took a few moments for me to calm down and a few more to wrap my head around what had happened.

Victoria wanted to kill me.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

And, um…yeah. That kind of turned me on a little.

Shaking my head, I put the phone back on the nightstand and stood up. My legs were a little wobbly. From the fear, of course. Yeah. Just fear. Either way, I needed to stop thinking about it, so I pushed the thought away and went downstairs for a slice of pizza. I still wasn't the least bit hungry, but I didn't want dad to worry about me any more than he already was. Funnily enough, the phone call from Victoria had actually made me feel better. Or maybe it had just given me something else to worry about. Something more serious. Like the fact that there was possibly a slow and agonizing death in my near future.

It was a disturbing thought and it stayed with me the rest of the night until I went to bed. Even more disturbing was how I laid there in the dark and thought about it so calmly. Even with a little excitement. I mean, damn. I could still hear her voice in my head, seductively whispering all the horrible and violent things she wanted to do to me. And yet…I wasn't really afraid. Because somehow I didn't quite believe her. Oh, I knew she wanted to do all those things. Oh yes, she wanted to. But would she?

I didn't know. I didn't plan to let my guard down, but I had my doubts if she would actually be able to go through with all her threats. Her voice had been too soft, too eager. Especially when she was talking about that moment when she had let me go. She had said it herself: that moment had changed her. She claimed it had simply intensified her desire to kill me but I had lived through that moment as well and I had seen it in her eye. Beyond all the hatred and all the anger and all the pain, there had been something else as well. Something that wanted me in a different way. She had let me go instead of killing me and if she ever had me pinned down a second time…I bet she would let me go again.

But then I snorted at myself and rolled over.

Or maybe I'm just as crazy as she is.

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AN: Short chapter this time, but it felt like a natural break before the next block of drama. Also, I edited the summary a little to reflect Victoria's larger role in the story than I first anticipated. ;)