Lotus Fervor

By Lucine Raven

"Victoria"

Bella

My ghost-like body propelled her toward the Cullen's log cabin. Pausing only when the dark wood that made up the walls of said log cabin came into sight, I debated over whether or not I could actually go in. Was I honestly ready to face the vampires - ones who I had begun to consider to be my second family - who had abandoned me? Was I actually ready to see them? Was I really ready to see him?

I forced down my fear and pushed myself forward. It didn't matter that I was worried about doing this - even if I wasn't ready. This wasn't about me. This was about Victoria. That bitch needed to die and I needed to make sure, no matter what, that it was going to happen. Soon.

The first person I came across when entering the cabin was Esme. She was sitting in front of an easel in a small room filled with a myriad of art supplies. Opened paint bottles and brushes of varying sizes scattered around a cup of black water resting on a table to her right. When I move around the easel, my eyes took in a wet, dark sunset descending behind soft mountains. I was awed by her work and yet, saddened.

Esme paused mid-stroke and starred at the spot just centimeters from the tip of her brush. I turned to face the vampire, and watched as the hard skin of her face visibly sunk. For the first time, Esme actually looked old enough to be Edward's mother. She was still a goddess, chiseled out of the prettiest of marble, but there was a weight on her shoulders that had aged her. The signs culminated primarily in her eyes, which starred at her melancholy piece in a gaze devoid of life and hope. I struggled to not look away.

Her grief was palpable, like a demon ridding the air, choking out the light. It was almost too much for me to take. I felt like I was suffocating under the weight of her depression, unable to find any relief. Tears began to slip from my eyes and it was only when they had nearly broken from my cheeks that I noticed something was off about them. I could feel them and they didn't feel wet. They felt hard.

My body froze as my solidified tears fell to the floor. As they moved down through the air, I willed the rest away, refusing to allow anymore to fall. Though it was pointless, I squeezed my lungs in anticipation as they hit the ground and bounced lightly several times. The sound was too soft for a human to detect, but there was no doubt in my mind that a vampire could hear it. My suspicions were confirmed when Esme's head instantly snapped up at the noise.

"What on Earth?" she whispered quietly to herself as her head darted left and right. I prayed that Esme wouldn't see what appeared to be tear-drop crystals on the floor. Unfortunately, today was just not my lucky day.

Esme bent down and picked up the several odd pieces of crystal. She let them fall into the center of her cupped palm and then she rolled her wrist. The vampire stared at them in both admiration and wonder. I was certain that it would be only a matter of time before she would go ask Carlisle about the pieces. After all, Jasper did tell me that Carlisle was the walking dictionary of all things supernatural and otherwise out-of-the-ordinary. Whenever anything was too difficult for the Cullens to puzzle out, they turned to Carlisle.

As if on cue, the vampire exited what I assumed to be her private, art room. I followed after Esme, wishing against all odds that I could turn back time. I wanted to curse my maker for not telling me about this part of my change, but considered that maybe she didn't know. Even if she did, there was no use in crying over spilled milk now.

Mrs. Cullen made her way down a small hall and into a bedroom. Judging from the flawless interior, which was lacking in personality, I assumed it was the master bedroom she shared with Carlisle. I didn't have much time to ponder the room much, however, before she was down a hall and a flight of stairs. She was making her way toward a closed, wooden door on the first floor, which she raped on several times with the hand that wasn't clutching my crystal tears.

"Come in, Esme," Carlisle's unmistakable voice responded immediately. It was one so gentle and yet so full of authority. For a moment of nostalgia I recalled a kinder time, when Dr. Cullen had engaged me in a philosophical debate. Almost instantly, he had been like another father to me.

I felt my eyes begin to water and forced my thoughts back. I would not think about my own father right now.

"Carlisle, do you recognize these?" Esme asked, extending the hand cupping my tears toward him.

For several moments he stared at the pieces, his brows lightly scrunched together, puzzling out the strange objects. I watched him intently, so strongly that I didn't notice Edward come into the room.

"Are they Rosalie's perhaps?" he asked. His voice possessed a monotone that never was present before. It was infinitely worse and more painful than it had been the days before he left Forks.

I watched Carlisle shake his head, before plucking one of the crystals off of Esme's palm and bringing it closer to his eyes to better examine. So fiercely, I wanted to keep my eyes glued to the Doctor in his full on scientist mode, but my curiosity betrayed me. Ignoring my will, my head turned toward the eternal seventeen-year-old.

Shit. I wanted so strongly to tear my head away from Edward, but I couldn't. His eyes were sunken in, much more so than Esme's and the spark of life that I had always watched from behind those golden eyes was nonexistent. He looked like a zombie. Even though he was still immortal and, as much as I wanted to ignore it, undeniably beautiful, Edward looked like he was dying.

Ignoring my better judgment, I took a peek into Edward's mind. Big, humongous mistake! His focus on the current issue at hand comprised about ten percent of his overall thoughts. The other ninety percent centered on one thing: me. I was nearly his every thought, swirling around in his head like the fuel behind his every firing neuron.

Never more thankful to be able to shut my mind-reading ability off, I quickly closed my door to Edward's, internal, so-very-dark place. I still loathed him, but it was hard to actually hate such a pathetic creature. Since my transformation, I was so more fucked up than I had ever been, straddling the line between insanity and sanity, tipping just a little too far toward the former. Regardless, my own mental state did not even compared to the deluded place that was Edward Cullen's mind.

"Carlisle, we need to remain focused on the threat at hand. This can wait," Edward said to Carlisle in a tone that spoke more of companionship and less of a Father and son relationship. It was surprising to Bella, but less so than the words.

After nodding to Edward, Carlisle asked, "Esme, have you been able to get a hold of Alice?"

Dropping her head, she shook it sadly from side to side. Edward sighed loudly in frustration and Carlisle scanned the shelves of his office, deep in thought.

"We are going into this blind then," Carlisle said softly after a minute.

"The Denali's have agreed to lend their strength in the battle, sans Tanya of course," Edward said. He added as an afterthought, "She is still mysteriously absent."

Before I could hear anymore, I felt myself being torn from the house, rushing backward at impossible speeds. Within seconds, I had fallen back into my solid body and was blinking my eyes open. A wave of calm rushed at me and I tugged at it greedily, trying to assuage the throbbing feeling that clawed its talons through my insides. Since my change, I had never felt this much need. I felt like I was losing my mind.

"They're going after Victoria," I whispered before collapsing back against Metis.


Jasper

It was a simple plan. Victoria and her companions - including at least one other mature vampire - had frequented these forests for the last several weeks. Even though I had traveled the area for years, it didn't grant me an advantage. That gave us only one option: the element of surprise, which left me tracking the bitch and her minions. And while I hadn't had much time to train Bella in the art of destroying newborns, she was still my secret, impenetrable weapon.

Bella had sent the wolves away, vowing that we would find them again when the battle was over. I had run my hands over Artemis' snout before the two departed and had marveled at the affection she'd shown back. If someone would have told me years ago that I would have bonded with an animal - my very source of sustenance - I would have asked them where their marbles had gotten to. Then again, I never would have dreamed that I would be planning to attack a newborn army with only a half-faerie Bella.

After the bushy, gray tails had disappeared about a mile away, I turned to Bella.

"Keep close," I ordered and she nodded, allowing me to take command without protest.

Her emotions were behind a brick wall I couldn't break, but I could read the steady resolve in her shoulders and the strong determination in the tight line that was her mouth. She was ready for this and I felt a burst of confidence in our ability to succeed. As of today, Victoria would no longer be a threat to our families.

After about an hour of searching, my eyes fell on a disturbance some way off. I cut off the air flow to my lungs and signaled for Bella to do the same. In the distance, several bodies of various colors and sizes came into focus. They marched forward, looking hungry and committed in a manner that looked otherworldly. It was unnatural and, in the moment, my suspicions that Victoria indeed had a newborn army were confirmed.

I signaled for her to wait. Only when several bodies had crossed the invisible line around forty feet from our hiding place did I give the hand motion for "go". She took off, cutting through the air silently, only appearing again when her hands were tearing off the heads of two newborns. Another head was dismembered before I could even blink, but the element of surprise was now gone.

I moved from behind my rock and sprung forward onto the newborn army. They attacked Bella, but their blows didn't damage her and they were starting to panic. I tackled one to my left, pulling the head from his shoulders with less ease than Bella possessed. Another was at me from my right, but I bested it after a small struggle.

A vampire sunk her teeth into my right shoulder and I let out a scream. Bella was upon her before I could flip the girl over my shoulder. My friend ripped the head from the girl's body as I took off to decapitate a newborn who was fleeing. Few were remaining, most having taken off into the surrounding woods in blind fury upon seeing Bella in action.

"Don't let them get away," I snapped as I took off after another one.

The newborn, a tall, black man, sunk his teeth into my shoulder as I pulled the right arm from his body. I flipped him over and dropped my knees to the earth to behead the vampire immediately after. Tossing the head away from the body, I turned, seeking out another opponent, smiling when they landed on the brown hair of a boy.

He smiled back and didn't immediately storm me. From his scent and behavior, I knew he was the only other mature vampire in Victoria's charge. We moved in circles, sizing one another up. When his eyes brushed over my many scars, he showed a flicker of respect and I matched it when I took in his own.

"You are alive." There was no mistaking the feline voice of Victoria.

The gaze of the boy before me danced over to the redhead and I felt his love and concern waft over to me. When our eyes met again he looked at my oddly and I wondered if my own expression betrayed my thoughts. I had been in his shoes with Maria.

"And you are dead," Bella growled back at the same moment that the boy attacked me.

He got several bites in, - two to my arms and one to my shoulder - but he was no match for my years of training. I had done this song and dance for much longer then he had been living. In a moment that he was distracted, probably by the hiss of pain coming from Victoria, I was able to tear his head from my neck. I laid it down gently, a sign of respect to the mirror to my past, and looked over at Bella.

I felt fingers curl around my neck and tried to flip my assailant over me to no avail. She had me in a tight hold, I couldn't break and I was losing my focus in the wake of the complete wrath that had consumed her.

"Come closer and I will kill him, Bella," Victoria barked.

Bella tensed, the anger swirling wildly in her eyes. They were flashing a violent red, indicative of the effect Victoria was having on Bella. I tried to send some calm to her, but felt myself getting too swept up in the rage to do it.

"Let. Him. Go," Bella growled, each word punctuated by a step forward. She was about to burst and I knew it. Victoria seemed to know as well, for her hands tensed and I felt everything go black as a searing pain burst from my neck.


An Unknown

I watched in terror, peeking out from behind a boulder, as the redhead tore the head from the neck of the golden-eyed vampire and threw it forward. I pulled my knees in tighter to my chest, fearing what was likely to happen to me regardless of whichever side won. We had been taught to fear the golden-eyed vampires by a boy who tore the limbs from those who angered him and killed mercilessly whenever he appeared to feel like doing so. Either way, I knew I was done.

The brunette who had accompanied him - a human from what I could tell - let out a very inhuman scream. I covered my ears, but still felt them ringing when her roar had died. At a speed my eyes couldn't process she snatched the body of her companion into her arms. The redhead's eyes filled with terror matching my own as she stared down at her hands, processing the fact that nothing was in them anymore. After a second, she bolted as the brunette gently laid the body of her companion down on the ground.

The redhead was out of my sight, when the brunette turned to take off after the retreating woman. Once again, the human who was definitely not a human, moved at a speed my eyes couldn't see. After several seconds I heard a scream that wasn't the brunette's, followed by unending shredding noises. It didn't sound like the brunette was just tearing her foe to pieces. She was turning the redhead's body into confetti.

Before long the pungent smell of searing vampire flesh stung my nose. While it was a familiar scent - the amount of death I had witnessed since my turning was staggering - that did little to soothe my fears. I knew I should run now, but knowing and doing were two completely different things. As it was, I couldn't seem to move. The unyielding fear had me glued to the forest floor.

The brunette returned to the side of her companion. She looked around, her face contorted in panic, until her eyes fell on the man's head. After that, it was in her hands so fast, that I wondered if she moved at all or if she had simply willed it to her.

"Please," she begged aloud to no one in particular, as she held the head in the right position over the neck. Her hands pressed it down several times and she groaned loudly in frustration when nothing happened.

I knew limbs could take days to stitch back on. I also knew how painful the process was, having been on the receiving end of that particular form of torture twice. Fortunately - or not so much for the victims - nobody received the particular punishment that her friend had undergone. Those who had been decapitated in my camp were burned shortly thereafter.

I knew the man needed blood to help the process. I also knew, that voicing that aloud with undoubtedly get me killed. In silence, I might have a chance at surviving.

The brunette's head darted up and turned in my direction. Unintentionally, I sucked in an air of breath. Before I could blink, she was before me, her eyes blazing with a madness I had only ever read about it books.

"Please. I can help your friend," I said quickly when her fingers had curled around my neck.

My feet dangled in the air, as I prayed that my plan would work. I just needed her to spare me. Perhaps if I helped her friend to heal, she would let me live as well. After all, I had never wanted to help Riley and the redhead in the first place. I had never even wanted to become a vampire.

I felt my feet touch the earth and sent my thanks up to the heavens.

"How?" The woman demanded in a cold voice. I felt tendrils of something ghost across my mind as she said this and shivered uncomfortably.

She cocked her head to the side and opened her mouth as if to speak before something stopped her. Her head tilted to the side and her eyes went wide with panic. Turning abruptly, she raced to her companion's side and swung him over her right shoulder. In the left, she clutched his head tightly.

"You," she paused, waiting expectantly, her finger pointed to my chest.

"Bree," I supplied.

"Bree, follow me. Now," she growled and, without question, I followed her into the surrounding wood.

To Be Continued...


A/N: I know Victoria's death was a little anticlimactic, but come on! Did you really think the idiotic, little redhead was going to be the big bad of this story? ;)

I haven't read "The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella" - and don't plan on doing so after the horrible reviews. That being said, my Bree isn't going to fit with that story's cannon. If there are similarities between my Bree and Meyer's Bree then it wasn't intentional.

Please read and review! Any ideas on what is going to happen to Jasper...?

~ Lucine Raven