Title: Dusk to Dawn (6/?)
Rating: PG for now.
Genre: Drama/Romance
Characters/Pairings: Edward/Bella, all characters
Summary: Post-New Moon. Bella and Edward deal with Jacob, Victoria, the issue of Bella's transformation, and...whatever else I decide to throw in.
Disclaimer: The whole fabulous world of Forks, WA belongs to Stephenie Meyer and whoever she sells it to. I, unfortunately, am not one of them; just taking it out for a test drive.

Victoria slung me over her shoulder, and none too gently, before she darted out of the bathroom and into Charlie's bedroom. From my vantage point, I could see Rosalie and Alice flying out of my room, following close behind. Victoria made for the window in my dad's room and dropped to the ground; she took off with me through the forest.

I tried to calm my heart that was beating like crazy in my chest, afraid that Victoria wouldn't be able to stop herself from eating me – if she didn't intend to already, although carrying me off like this seemed an awful lot of trouble to go through for someone who just wanted a snack.

Alice and Rosalie were blurs behind us, although I suppose we were probably blurry, too, at the speed with which Victoria was running. I wondered where she intended to take me, and what she would do with me when we got there. I wondered if Alice and Rose would be able to keep up and stop her from doing whatever she meant to do – probably not something very pleasant. I worried that Charlie would check on me and realize I wasn't there, and that he would think I'd run off again – how could I ever explain to him that I'd been taken by force?

The trees whipped by us. Victoria wasn't nearly as careful as Edward, and a few times stray branches would catch my face or arms, scratching me. It hurt much worse at that speed, and I was terrified I would bleed and Victoria would catch the scent.

I heard vicious snarls and realized a second later that two young male vampires were attacking Alice and Rosalie, but I could only see them momentarily – a half-second later, Victoria made a turn in the forest and they were out of sight. I wished I had some way to leave a trail for them to follow, but there was nothing I could do.

After what seemed like hours of running, but was probably only minutes, we came to a stop in a clearing of trees. She dropped me in the center, effectively bruising my bottom. I heard rustling in the ferns around the edges and realized with horror that more vampires were stepping into the clearing – keeping their distance, but that didn't give me much hope. Like Victoria, their eyes glowed red, menacing. There were a half-dozen of them – and there were at least two more, I realized, fighting Alice and Rose. Even if Carlisle had joined the hunting party and Esme had followed us as well, there were only seven Cullens. I cringed inwardly, half hoping the trail was lost and that they wouldn't find me – at least, until after the vampires were gone.

But then the thought of the look on Edward's face if he found me dead – the thought of him going back to Italy and stepping out into the bright, burning sunlight – broke my heart, and I didn't think about it anymore.

Victoria had been whispering with a young, dark-haired vampire – maybe in his twenties when he'd been changed – but now she turned to me, grinning. On her, it looked like she was baring her teeth in preparation for a kill.

"Good to see you again, Bella. You don't know how long I've waited for this." Her voice was something between a hiss and a purr, not at all sweet or musical. "On second thought, maybe you do. It's been over a year now – a year and a month since my mate was killed over you."

She turned her nose up at me in disgust, as if I smelled foul (although, I was pretty sure I didn't). "You weren't worth it, you tiny insignificant…thing. Sort of mousy, really. I don't know why they covet you so."

She shrugged as though it didn't really matter, in the end – and I suppose it didn't. "But your vampire mate went to great lengths to save you from James, and from this, now. I would imagine you mean something to him."

Then she crouched before me, bringing us eye to eye, and I had to fight not to flinch back. "He should have changed you sooner. If he had, it would have been a lot harder to make him watch me kill you."

I swallowed involuntarily, and she laughed. "You just be patient, Bella. I'm sure he'll be here soon."

So I sat on the damp, muddy ground, shivering in my sweats and T-shirt. My feet were bare as they always were before I went to bed; slippers had never seemed all that important before. I studied the vampires that prowled the perimeter of the clearing. Four male, two female. They all looked to be in their early twenties, none changed as young as Edward or Alice. I wondered how new they were – Victoria had to have changed them fairly recently. Amassing a little army to take on the Cullens, I realized. They were young and volatile, then, untrained in taming their bloodlust. I toyed with the idea of deliberately bleeding to taunt them into biting me; then there would be no point in waiting around for the Cullens to arrive. Maybe, if I was lucky, the sight of the blood would make me pass out and I wouldn't even know I was dying.

I laid that idea aside for the moment. Could I do that to Edward? It was better than him getting himself killed trying to save me, of course, but that wouldn't really matter if his plan was to commit suicide if I died anyway. And he'd said that he could take Victoria – that she was young and less skilled. If her new vampires were as young as I thought they were, would they be as easy to defeat?

I sized the fledglings up and sighed to myself. Why did the vampires like me so much?

The wait seemed to last forever in my anxious mind. Were Alice and Rosalie okay? Were they all together now? How close were they to finding me?

Finally, I heard the growl – the sound of my furious, destroying angel come to set things right. As much as I wanted him to be safe, I was glad to hear it.

"Oh, good," Victoria whispered, and I realized she was crouched behind me, whispering in my ear. "Your mate has finally arrived. Get ready, little human, because this is going to hurt, and I want you to scream good and loud for him."

I steeled myself for the promised pain and resolved not to utter a sound. I wouldn't help her hurt Edward.

The growling and snarling increased, the sounds of a fight just inside the trees, out of my line of sight. The noise grew to enormous proportions, and I realized that the guard vampires were fighting now – Rosalie fighting one of the females to my right, Jasper taking on a short male to my left. I heard more sounds behind me, and I knew that Alice and Emmett, at least, must be there, too.

I felt relief wash over me, knowing I wasn't alone anymore, that there was a chance. Victoria let out a low, rumbling growl close to my ear, and I realized she was frustrated – this wasn't going the way she wanted.

I heard a shriek and looked up to see Rosalie's foe missing an arm, which went flying across the clearing. I grimaced. So the tearing-to-pieces thing was literal. At least there was no blood – which was strange. Surely someone who drank blood ought to have some.

All these thoughts disappeared, however, when Edward came crashing through the trees.

He did look furious – murderous, really. His hair was more tousled than usual and his shirt was torn open at one shoulder; it made him look like a wild animal – a mountain lion or a cheetah on the hunt. He still looked completely beautiful to me.

He paused – froze, more like, into a tense statue – his eyes flitting from me and probably the scratches on my face to Victoria, who was snarling rather loudly in response.

"I don't care if you kill me," she growled at him, and I started, surprised by her closeness again, "but you're going to watch your mate suffer first!"

I felt an excruciating burst of pain spread from my hand up my shoulder, and then suddenly I was shoved aside, hard. My head landed on something jagged, and I felt a trickle of warm blood on my scalp. Oh hell. I glanced at the offending object my head had landed on. A rock, of course. I couldn't possibly land on any of the softer ground around it. I winced as my head throbbed, and I looked down at my hand, which had gone strangely numb. I blinked through my dizziness as I realized my index and middle finger were bent the wrong way. Looking at it made it hurt again, so I looked away.

I saw Emmett holding down one unfortunate vampire with his foot on his back. I winced and moved my gaze as he started tugging on the vampire's legs. Alice was helping Jasper now, still with the shorter vampire who was ducking their blows rather well. I lifted my head enough to see Edward. He and Victoria fought like two felines, rolling on the ground and snarling as they tugged and bit and did whatever else vampires did while fighting. I couldn't tell who was winning; all I could see was the flame-red hair flying between flashes of bronze.

My vision started going fuzzy and I felt lightheaded; I must have lost a lot of blood. I fought for consciousness. I wasn't going to lie around snoozing while Edward risked his life for me, even if I couldn't help him.

I heard high-pitched screaming then, and I realized all the others were helping Edward now, and Victoria was the one crying out. I allowed my eyes to close, know things were well under control now.

I didn't pass out right away, though. I could still hear the screeching and I was vaguely aware of the moment when all sound ceased. I fought back the blackness to hear his voice; it was calling to me, urgently, and I couldn't not respond.

"…need to wake up, Bella, please…" he was saying, and I forced my eyes open to see worry etched all over Edward's face.

"I hit a rock," I mumbled blearily, feeling his cool hand on my face.

"I know, sweetheart, I'm sorry. I'm going to bandage up your head now – we'll take you to Carlisle and he'll fix you," he said, trying to reassure me, although he didn't sound sure at all.

"'S nothing that hasn't happened before, Edward," I said as he took off his torn shirt and tore it some more, into a bandage that he wrapped around my pounding head. For once, I was too groggy to pay much attention to his perfect bare chest.

"Doesn't mean it's not bad," he muttered as he finished his work and then scooped me up. I was quite content to let him cradle me against his chest and close my eyes as he started running – and then I happily lost consciousness.

I ran as quickly as I could back to the house, praying that Carlisle was home by now. It was hard to ignore the blood seeping through her makeshift bandage, and I had to hold my breath to avoid the smell. It was too overpowering, and I hated myself for those instincts that wouldn't go away, even when the most precious thing in my world was hurt and needed my help.

I'd hated James for all that he'd done to Bella, for trying to take her from me, and I'd been happy to help kill him…but I'd never hated anyone more than I did Victoria, in that moment when she snapped Bella's poor delicate fingers. The sound of cracking bone was excruciating, and the glee in Victoria's mind made it that much worse.

I'd acted on instinct, pushing Bella out of the way, focusing all my anger on that sick, twisted creature that had hurt my sweet, innocent Bella.

I blocked out my memories of the fight. While I wasn't at all sorry for what I'd done, I didn't like what I'd become to do it; I didn't like that violent creature that might one day lose control and hurt someone – Bella especially.

The run home felt like forever, but I finally saw the large house waiting for me through the trees. Carlisle and Esme were at the door already, waiting. Esme's hand flew to her mouth as she took in Bella's state, and Carlisle's face set in what we jokingly referred to as "Doctor Mode." He took Bella out of my arms and placed her on the dining room table, of all places to do his work.

"What happened?" Esme asked me as we both followed Carlisle into the dining room to watch. "Where are the others?"

"Victoria had created her own little band of vampires, thinking they'd be enough to hold us off," I sighed. "The others are there taking care of the pieces."

Esme scowled. "You shouldn't look so happy about it, Edward."

I wouldn't be scolded. "I am happy. Victoria broke her fingers, Esme, just to make me watch her suffer."

"Well, when you put it that way," she winced, looking sympathetically at Bella's still form. Carlisle had removed the bandage from her head and was now disinfecting the wound. I held my breath again.

"How did Victoria even get to her?" Esme asked.

"Alice said she got her in the bathroom, while they were waiting for her in her room. They sensed her presence a second too late. If I had been there…" I would have known immediately. I would have known her thoughts.

"You mustn't blame yourself, Edward. She's safe now."

I nodded and blocked out Esme's worried thoughts, knowing they would only aggravate my own. Carlisle's mind was more comforting as he stitched her up – a lot of medical sort of thoughts that I only half-understood.

"Will she be all right?" I asked him. She was very pale, and her pulse was weaker than it should be.

Carlisle looked up and smiled faintly. "She'll be fine."