A/N: I'm back! Told you this one would be fast. I would have had this out yesterday, but fanfiction decided it would have a jolly fun time deleting every single line break I've ever used, so I had to go back through every single chapter and re-insert all new line breaks.

I've broken 20 reviews! Yay! And speaking of reviews, here are my responses to some.

butterfinger45: You don't know what was going through Kenz's head - maybe she was thinking about reluctance. I'm special - I DO know what was going through her head. Am I going to tell you? Nope. You'll have to wait one more chapter for that.

Talvana: Yes, I'm aware that the last chapter was cheesy. Didn't I warn you from the beginning that I was not in this for the romance? Well, if not, here you go: I AM NOT IN THIS FOR THE ROMANCE. I wrote that scene once and never looked at it again. And Ninja C refused to look at it too. I am really hoping this chapter will make up for the last one, because it's much better, in my opinion at least.

Zukaddy: Thanks for the heads-up with the line breaks! Your review was what helped me catch the mistake so early. It's been fixed now, for anyone who was confused last chapter and wants to go reread. And you said I was doing amazing! Hear that, people? THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR OF THIS STORY SAYS I'M DOING AMAZING! That makes me feel warm and fuzzy!

This chapter is dedicated to Italiangurlinamessedupworld and Zukaddy for reviewing every chapter! (Excluding the last one, since it's still new.) You two are awesome! As are all my other reviewers!

Disclaimer #1: I don't own any Twilight characters, I just stick them in impossible fights against their mortal enemies.

Disclaimer #2: I don't own Ashton either, I just put him in several life-or-death situations. Er, more than several.

Disclaimer #3: I don't own Kenz either, but I DO know her thoughts, and no one else does. And I'm not telling where she is. XD

Warning: This is, potentially, a very scary chapter. Or at least, my beta was, in her words, "screaming and spitting out my macaroni!"

Now, on with the longest chapter yet!

The vampire called Demetri flashed away into the trees. I broke away from the rest of the pack and flew after him, fear fluttering in my stomach like a frantic bird. How did they know? Emily, Kim, Claire, and Angela were all in danger now. The first leech's words echoed in my mind: kill her first.

I felt the other wolves fighting behind me. Sam had two bloodsuckers coming for him, but Leah rammed one out of the way. Paul was thrashing under the gaze of a leering, sinister young girl before Quil attacked her, and Seth's back left leg had been shattered. Embry was snarling at a huge leech before receiving a blow to the flank. The parasites seemed to know that Sam was the alpha; he was now snapping and snarling, surrounded by three leeches until Jared smashed one into a tree.

I tore after the one named Demetri with his frozen scent in my nostrils, but he was fast and had a head start. My heart was thumping erratically with a combination of adrenaline and overwhelming fear. Demetri was heading towards town – the part of town where Angela lived. How could he know where she was?! It was impossible. I couldn't let him get to her. But we were drawing closer and closer to Forks every second. I estimated that only five miles separated monster from angel, us from Angela. I had less than a minute to catch him, but I was never very athletic... I couldn't catch him. But I had to.

Only three miles... I pushed my paws faster, but I still wasn't quite close enough to jump at the despicable creature.

Two miles... No, no, no! He won't get there! He can't!

One mile... My breathing was labored, and my body was screaming at me to stop. I would collapse if I didn't rest soon. But I remembered the terrible crime that Demetri had been commanded to commit, and I couldn't stop. I sprinted toward my angel, though I longed to be rushing away with the vampire at my heels.

Half a mile... There were only seconds left, and he was still too far ahead, and my heart was pumping faster than a hummingbird's wings, so fast I thought maybe it would explode, and still I pushed myself even faster, forever faster, and surely I would die within seconds, whether from a vampire's blow or my own overexertion I did not know...

I could see the houses and he was heading right for hers, straight into town, but I galloped after him anyway, knowing I couldn't halt until one of us died.

Abruptly, a huge tree sprung up in front of me, and momentum carried me through it. A sharp, grinding crunch echoed as my left shoulder crashed through the trunk, and suddenly that leg was screaming in agony too, even more than before. I felt several layers of muscle rip and my leg yanked out if its socket.

But still, I had to keep running, even though surely he had reached her while I was recovering from the tree, and drained her blood while she screamed, while she wondered, in the last few seconds of her life, if that was how Ben had died... I had to keep running anyway, even though I was leaving a trail of blood, and each breath felt like my lungs were collapsing, and every step was a stumble, and with each one pain shot up my left foreleg and tore through me like a bullet. And with every beat of my heart, my pain was intensified by that of those that I had left behind to be slaughtered.

I saw a flash of white; he hadn't made it there yet! I tried to push myself harder, but my beaten body wasn't physically capable of anything more. Against my will, my legs slowed; I started sinking toward the ground. NO! my mind screamed. NO! HE CAN'T GET TO HER! ANGELA! THINK OF ANGELA! Then I saw what had detained the parasite.

I had smashed through the tree with enough force to tear its roots from the ground. It was falling, and the bloodsucker had swerved only slightly to avoid it. It was enough. Staggering upright, I pounced.

The jarring impact scraped my dislocated leg against another bone and ripped open again the skin and sinew that had started to mend. He had avoided me, of course, but now I was between him and the town. I faced him, and at the same time I was looking up as one leech bore down on me, and trying to throw another off my back, and dodging yet another one as it aimed for my throat, as all my packmates were doing.

We stared at each other for a moment; then he was gone, darting between the trees with blinding speed. I leapt at him but missed, and rushed backward to keep my position between him and the city. I was on the defensive, never being able to get too far forward for fear of him getting around me.

I snapped at the blurry white shape again, and my teeth closed on his arm. It was like carrying dry ice in my mouth, burning my tongue with frost, but before I could rip off the limb, his foot connected with my chest. Several of my ribs cracked; I flew away from him and smashed into a tree, but scrambled up again, chanting to myself, Angela. You have to protect Angela. You have to get up for Angela.

He rammed into me, probably breaking my other shoulder, but I was prepared this time. I twisted and trapped him against a tree with my left side. He stomped, hard, on my left hind foot before freeing a hand, grabbing my tree-maimed leg, and twisting violently. I howled with pain and tried to shake him off, but he kept twisting, and more and more of the sinew was tearing apart. I snapped wildly and managed to connect, ripping off three of his fingers. He released my leg and staggered backward.

By now, my ribs and right shoulder had healed, but I was off balance with both of my left legs injured. He was taking advantage of that, continually attacking my left side to keep my wounds open. Every time I took a clumsy leap at him, he darted around a tree and appeared on the other side of me, and I would experience another heavy attack.

The leeches had chosen their fighting grounds well. We were just as fast as them, but they were smaller, more agile, and could maneuver among the close-growing trees much more easily. I knew that a battle like this was supposed to be instinctual, but all instinct seemed to have abandoned me - I was fighting on desperation alone. I had dulled all my wolfish instincts by caging my other self around the Cullens, and now I was paying for it.

The parasite had rebroken both of my left legs and was now darting away after slamming into my right side. Must... protect... Angela... My blood was splattered all over the ground and up some of the trees, and the only damage I had done to him was the few fingers and a rip in his shirt... Angela... Everything hurt... Protect...

I was exhausted, and I didn't twist away from his next blow fast enough. My paws suddenly weren't underneath me any longer. All the air escaped from my lungs in one sharp huff as I landed on my back, and I tasted blood. I tried feebly to rise, but a foot slammed down on my side, holding me prisoner against the ground. No... Angela... He can't... get... Angela... No... The leech was above me, baring his teeth, and as I looked at him I heard the thoughts of the other wolves and knew I wasn't the only one on the ground... Not Angela... The icy scent was everywhere... No... There was a flash of white and red, the colors of vampire and blood...

I braced myself, but the weight disappeared from my side. I staggered upright. We had been joined by one vampire and one werewolf – Jacob. I sniffed the air to identify the new vampire. It was Kenz. Together they were attacking Demetri, who was looking surprised but holding his own. I lurched over to join in the fight, but Demetri, seeing the uneven numbers, took off back toward the big battle. All three of us bounded after him, me rather awkwardly to compensate for my injuries.

You okay? Jacob asked.

Sort of. My right foreleg was beginning to heal. He looked sideways at me, and I caught a glimpse of myself through his eyes. My usually off-white and tan fur was soaked through with blood, making me look like an evil, bloodthirsty ghost.

But even though Angela and the others were temporarily out of danger, we still had little chance of surviving. This was not a classic match-in-the-clearing battle that was sometimes at the end of books. We were fighting in full-fledged forest, trees growing close enough together that we had to be careful not to run into them. Oops. And the vampires didn't need oxygen. They, quite literally, could not get tired, still at one hundred percent energy. I saw their strategy now – they weren't even fighting to their fullest, only wearing us down until we were as easily disposed of as an irksome mosquito.

Paul and Quil were just as injured as I was. Sam had three leeches on him at once. Embry and Leah were back to back, snarling at the four bloodsuckers surrounding them, and I couldn't hear Jared or Seth at all. I couldn't really tell what was going on very well – everyone was too focused on their own opponents. But finally, we arrived at the gruesome scene and I saw the action for myself.

Sam was cornered against a tree, seven parasites advancing on him from different sides. The tiny girl was now smiling sinisterly at Leah, who was on the ground shrieking in a wolf's voice. Quil was barely avoiding being bitten by another four of them, growing more and more sluggish by the second. Embry had an immense gash on his hindquarters and was losing blood swiftly, while trying to fight three at the same time – it was clear that he was not going to remain conscious for much longer. Jared's unmoving, dark brown fur was visible behind Paul, who was defending him viciously but gruelingly against another four. Yet another vampire was baring her teeth above Seth, who was lying on the ground between two trees, unconscious or...

The most infuriating fact was that five of them were standing among the fighters, just standing and watching, occasionally leaning around trunks to get a better look, as if watching my pack brothers get torn apart was some kind of daily amusement. But I had no time to growl at them - I vaulted myself at the leech above Seth.

My teeth made contact with her shoulder, but I couldn't get a good enough grip before my momentum carried me past her. Most of my injuries had healed, so I landed on all four paws, turned, and threw myself at her again. She darted out of the way, and I hit the tree she had been standing in front of. I felt her brush past my tail; I whirled around, snapping, but she wasn't there.

Suddenly, she slammed her entire body into the side of my head, timing it exactly right so that the speed of my spin brought me right to her. Stars erupted in my vision, and the whole world reeled dangerously.

She seemed to be everywhere at once. Or rather, everywhere except where my teeth were. I whipped around and chased her around trees, swinging my head and snapping my jaws, but she was never where I expected her to be. It was as if she wasn't even there, like I was fighting no one but expecting an enemy to jump out of the air... Except every few seconds, I would catch a glimpse of her inching toward Seth's unmoving body again.

There was no doubt about it; she was not as strong as Demetri, but she was smarter and much, much faster. Like the leeches that were just teasing us, wearing us down before moving in for the easy kill, she was confusing me – and very effectively. She had obviously learned our instincts and was using them against me. My size, too, she was taking advantage of; running around so rapidly that I had no chance of twisting around quickly enough to catch her.

I realized that my earlier assumption about instinct had been incorrect. I had smothered enough of my impulses that they were useless in a normal fight, but this vampire was fighting with a style specifically designed to arouse wolflike tendencies: she intentionally and repeatedly wafted her scent under my nose and allowed me to spot her unnaturally white skin before employing her speed and disappearing again.

I felt her behind me once more, and pitted my mind against all the instinct I possessed. It took a lot of willpower to launch myself forward instead of pivoting around and grabbing with my teeth, but I was rewarded. There was a harsh, grating, crunching sound as I seized part of her hand and yanked. She stopped for a split second, an expression of shock and fury on her face, and then she was off again, even faster and more deadly than before.

Now that I had figured out how to thwart her strategy (although it was still succeeding more than half the time), she wasn't withholding her attacks. Like a cobra, she was impossibly fast, striking again and again. Sharp, jabbing pains erupted all over my body, one after another. I was exhausted, and she was preparing to take me down.

"Knock them out!" someone called. Involuntarily, I turned to see who it was. Kenz was standing beside the black-haired bloodsucker, the one who had spoken when we first approached. "Don't kill them yet," he called. "Our young friend here wishes to speak."

The female I was fighting took advantage of my distraction. She rolled under my belly and kicked out with both feet. I flew through the air, all traces of oxygen gone from my lungs, but I hadn't even started to recover before I slammed onto my back, the impact leaving me breathless. One thought sprinted through my mind: If I play dead, she'll think I'm unconscious. Utterly spent, I let my eyelids drift close.

A/N: So, was it scary enough? Action-y?

Unfortunately, I may be leaving on vacation next week, and I'm not sure if I'll have computer access or not. So, the next chapter may take a little longer.

Vote in my new poll! I just want to know what you think of the last two chapters.

Ninja C is the awesomest beta ever, except with romance. Then... well, it's even worse than me.

REVIEW! How did I do with action? Did it actually seem like Ash was in danger? Or did it totally stink? Tell me!