Chapter Seven:

Epov

When Jazz called us in there, my first thought was horror, then revulsion. I just thanked everything that was holy that Bella didn't find this when she was still here alone. I didn't think she could take it, and the last thing I needed right now was for Bella to be injured as well as grief-stricken.

Behind the over-turned couch was a body. Or what resembled a body. Really it was just a pile of blood and skin, that made even my stomach turn. Bella was two steps behind me, and though I was no Alice, I could see what was going to happen if she saw this.

"No, Bella, honey, don't," I tried to stop her, but she was determined.

She stopped.

She sucked in a breath.

And she collapsed.

I moved faster than humanly possible to catch her, her fragile head barely missing the corner of the glass sidetable that would have surely given her a concussion, if not a gruesome hole in her head.

I could see my brothers holding their breath, Jasper looking very uncomfortable as he struggled with our violent nature. I lifted Bella in my arms and carried her up the stairs gently to place her on her bed. My heart twisted at the sight of her innocent face, gorgeous brown locks fanned out of the pillow, skin like sparkling silver. She looked like an angel.

"My perfect, little angel," I whispered, tucking a strand of shiny hair around her tiny, little ear. "So beautiful." And with so much responsibility on her small shoulders. She had a toddler to take care of, who was now missing and possibly injured, and deal with being a werewolf and performing her tribe duties, and throwing a vampire mate on top of it just made for a very weary young woman who desperatly needs some good luck.

I tucked her in, kissed her forehead, and left after making sure the window was locked tight and nothing hid in any dark corners.

"Did you find anything else?" I asked when arriving downstairs. Carlisle and Alice were now there, carefully going over the shattered window, trying to find a few strands of hair or different smelling blood. Anything that can be used in a D.N.A. test.

Jasper shook his head as he and Emmett picked up the body and tossed it in a container. I read in their thoughts that they were going to weigh it down and toss it in the ocean. I left them all to it and retreated back upstairs for the third time that night.

Realizing there was nothing for me to do and aching that it was true, I was left alone to wallow in my own grief and anger. I paced back and forth outside Bella's door, thoughts intent on the torture and murder of who conducted this heinous act.

A picture, one of many, caught my attention. It was of Bella and Jamie, at the beach. It showed Bella's shoulders and up, enough to see the bikini strands and her flawless neck. Jamie was dressed in a flowery one-piece, grinning at the camera with her two front teeth missing. She was on Bella's back, tiny arms wrapped around her foster mother's neck. They looked perfect.

My two perfect angels.

And one was missing.

A crash and Bella's scream raked through my eardrums, then all was silent.