AN: Glad you guys loved the eyepatch, lol. I was a little nervous about it. ;)

Chapter 9:

James turned back to Victoria, a little wearily, as if she had already harshed his happy-hunt buzz. "Now isn't the time, Victoria," he said. "Let's focus on business shall we?"

Victoria shook her head in disbelief, still staring at him. I watched them, nibbling my lip. The three of us were standing almost directly in the center of the parking lot, the two vampires cast in an ethereal florescent glow from the streetlamps.

"I can't believe you," Victoria said. "All this time…and you let me believe you were dead? How could you, James? Do you have any idea how badly I was hurting?"

"It couldn't have been as bad as being dismembered and half-incinerated by a rival coven of vampires."

Victoria didn't seem to appreciate his witty retort, and in fairness, it did trivialize her feelings—which was rarely a good tactic when dealing with a hurt and confused girlfriend. Victoria's one eye blinked—her yellow eye—and she shook her head sadly.

"No," she said. "It was worse. And in case you haven't noticed, I've been injured as well."

She lifted the eyepatch she was wearing and my stomach went queasy. Underneath was nothing but a pink raw hole. I suppose an eye was a little too intricate even for vampire powers to regenerate.

James finally lost his smile, but he didn't seem all that concerned or worried about her. He even frowned. At first I thought it was protectiveness over his mate, but I'm not sure it was even that.

"What happened?" he demanded.

Victoria swung her remaining eye to me bitterly and tossed her chin.

"Her," she said.

James raised his eyebrows and looked at me. "You?"

"I got her with a blowtorch," I admitted cautiously.

Vampires were notoriously territorial over their mates—Victoria's drive for vengeance was clear proof—but James only snorted. He looked at me. He looked at Victoria. A car had entered the parking lot and the driver honked his horn for us to move. None of us did and the driver went around. Victoria was lowering her eyepatch self-consciously and James just shook his head.

"And I thought my own survival instincts were under par lately," he said. "What's wrong with you, Victoria? How could you possibly let this pathetic human do that to you?"

"I wasn't thinking clearly," she muttered.

"No, and you certainly aren't thinking clearly now, either," James went on. "You know, our partnership was always exactly that: a partnership. With my tracking instincts and your survival instincts, we were virtually unstoppable. And now look at you. You show up here, manipulated by prey into coming to her rescue, injured, deformed, and hurling petty accusations at me like a jealous teenager."

Victoria's eye tightened in thinly withheld fury. Even I was somewhat stunned at James's callousness. He had insulted her feelings, her talents, and her physical appearance of all things, in one swift fit of asshole-ishness. I watched Victoria, praying she was as hurt and angry as she looked, and I was encouraged by her next words.

"How dare you," she whispered.

But James was getting tired of relationship talk. "We'll talk about this later," he snapped. "For now let's just dispose of the girl. I had planned to take my time with her, but I'm not so much in a playful mood anymore, thanks to you."

That seemed to infuriate Victoria even more—but not as much as when James grabbed my arm.

His fingers dug into my bicep and something strange passed over Victoria's face that wiped away all the hurt and confusion and left nothing but a cold mask of possessiveness. Until now she had hardly noticed me, but she noticed me now, and all in an instant she seemed to remember how badly she wanted me.

"Wait," I said, struggling against James's grip. "Victoria. Victoria, please—"

James dug his fingers tighter, tight enough to make me cry out in pain. "Enough games, Ms Swan. Victoria belongs to me. She's not going to do anything you say."

"Wait, don't—"

James slapped me.

If he had wanted to, he probably could've knocked my head clean off my shoulders, but this was more of a slap to make me settle down. It did, by half knocking me out. My head rolled and my eyes went blurry. My body went slack. I would've fell if he hadn't been gripping my arm so tightly. When my sight came back, I saw Victoria seething at James.

"You fucking bastard," she said.

"What did you say?"

"You let her go right now."

James's lip curled in disgust at his estranged mate and he lifted his hand to smack Victoria as well. I could see it coming, and the sight filled me with so much rage and protectiveness, that I snatched my arm away from him and spat in his face.

The spit was red.

Oh god.

The inside of my mouth must've been busted open. What happened next was only a blur. The scent of fresh blood sent them both into a frenzy. In that one split second, I was sure I was going to die. That they were going to rip me to shreds right there in the parking lot and then maybe arrange some sessions with a therapist to repair their relationship. But I didn't die. There was a blur and a snarl and suddenly James's face was right in front of mine with gnashing teeth that gleamed with venom. He would've killed me—

—if Victoria hadn't grabbed his throat.

It all happened in one savage instant. Victoria snatched her lover's face into hers by the throat and glared into his eyes.

"She's mine," she growled.

James glared back, seething. I watched, breathlessly. The three of us stood there like that, with Victoria's hand around James's throat, until a voice called out across the parking lot.

"Hey, what's going on over there?"

It was the guy who'd driven his car around us earlier. He had gotten out of his car, leaving the door open, and now he was approaching us with a cautious frown, a fat guy with a beard. The interruption was enough to snap them out of their frenzy. Victoria slowly let go of James's throat. James even forced a smile for the good samaritan, although he still looked like he'd prefer to kill him.

"Everything's fine, thank you," he said, wiping the spit off face with his sleeve.

The man didn't seem convinced. He looked at me, at how frightened I was. He looked at the adults. I wanted to yell for him to run but I thought he had a better chance at not getting killed if the situation could simply be brushed off. I didn't know how much he had seen but he must've seen Victoria choking James because it was James that he spoke to.

"This woman giving you trouble, buddy? You want me to call the cops?"

I had a sickening feeling. Thank you anti-feminism for spreading awareness that men can be victims of domestic abuse too. Only this time it had been me who got hit first and Victoria was only defending me. James shook his head, his patience completely worn out, and spared his whiteknight one of his creepy smiles.

"You should've just minded your own business," he said, and then lunged at him.

The man didn't stand a chance. He fell backwards with James on top of him. I didn't see exactly what happened but there was a scream and a sudden fountain of blood that erupted into the air all red and bright in the fluorescent lights of the parking lot.

Victoria's eye had gone completely black and dilated at the scent but she didn't seem to have much difficulty controlling herself. Instead she grabbed my arm, even more roughly than James had, and dragged me over to the dead man's car. The door was still open and the keys were still in the ignition. Victoria threw me in and climbed behind the wheel and turned the key. Through the windshield she looked at James, hulked over the corpse like a zombie with a pool of blood spreading around them, and then she hit the gas and peeled out of the parking lot. I spun around to look out the back and the last thing I saw was people inside the fast food place flocking to the plateglass windows, some with cellphones out, to watch the horror in the parking lot.

Victoria drove in utter silence. I could almost hear her teeth grinding. I couldn't even imagine what was going through her head, but then again, I had no idea what was going through mine either. Was I saved? Or was my death only delayed?

I had no idea and I couldn't think straight. I kept turning around and looking out the windows, terrified that James was going to come after us. It took a long time before I could rationalize that he probably wouldn't. Victoria was in unstable mood, to say the least, and the sun would be up soon. Not to mention he'd just fed, which would likely take the edge off his appetite for me. At least for the moment. So, yeah. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that I really was safe for now. Safe from James, at least. But Victoria?

I glanced at her as she drove. The eyepatch was on the other side and her visible eye was fixed and unblinking, staring out the windshield. And yellow. How did it get yellow? There had to be some kind of explanation for that. I couldn't imagine Victoria willingly choosing a vegetarian lifestyle like the Cullens. She had already made it abundantly clear to me that she had very little respect for human life, if any at all. But for her eye to turn yellow like that, she would've had to have fed from animals a few times, enough to dilute her drive for human blood, or else there's no way she would've been able to restrain herself like she did in the parking lot. Especially when it came to my blood when I had spat on James. It had sent her into a frenzy, sure. But it was a frenzy of protectiveness. It was almost exactly how Edward had protected me when Jasper snapped over my papercut. Only Victoria didn't protect me because she loved me. She just wanted to save me for herself.

Or did she? After all, James was alive. Therefore conventional wisdom would suggest that there was no longer any need to avenge him. He was even kind of a dick, which made him even less worthy of vengeance. But then again, it's not like vengeance was Victoria's only reason to kill me. Vampires were compulsive about their prey. They never liked to let them go. Especially one like me, who was actually proving to be somewhat of a challenge. Not only had I fought back, I had taken her eye. And like the old expression said: an eye for an eye. She could always avenge that, and honestly, I think I'd rather take death than painful disfigurement.

By now I became aware that we were headed out of town. We had left behind the city until we were coasting at high speeds along the highway that led out into the Arizona desert. It made me nervous. My dad was back there in Phoenix. Did James know about him? Was he in danger? And Jake. What about Jake? James said he didn't kill him, but did Jake get out of there? I glanced wildly out the window. The dust of the desert was blue in the moonlight, like the surface of the moon. There was nothing out there. Just rocks and desert. I turned back to Victoria. Until now I had been too terrified to speak, but now I had no choice.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

She didn't answer. Maybe she didn't even know herself. She just continued staring out the windshield at the dark and endless road before us. I swallowed and tried again.

"Victoria? We have to go back. Jake's hurt. And my dad…"

Suddenly she stomped on the brake. The car wobbled and skidded to the side of the road and before it even stopped she turned and kicked open the door. The door flew off and skidded across the road.

"Victoria?! Victoria, what are you—"

She had gotten out of the car and now she reached back inside and grabbed my hair. I wasn't wearing a seatbelt and I started screaming as she dragged me over the gearshift and out into the road.

"No! Stop it! Please!"

Victoria said nothing. She only growled under her breath, as if lugging me was a strain. I came out of the car twisting and writhing with my hair coming out at the roots. Victoria threw me down and I scrabbled backwards across the asphalt.

"Victoria," I pleaded. "Victoria, please."

I was beginning to cry, sitting in the road and staring up at this fierce redhead who was approaching me with one eye covered in a black patch and the other eye so dilated it was equally opaque and black. Behind her I could see the stars, bright and boundless in the clear desert sky.

"Victoria, don't. Victoria—"

She reached and grabbed me and wrenched me to my feet. I sobbed in pain and tried to bash her with the cast on my arm. It didn't faze her. Her hand was clenched in my hair and her eye was wild.

"Is this what you want?" she hissed. "You wanted me to kill you instead?"

"Victoria, please. Please don't—"

She wrenched my head back and gripped my exposed throat with her other hand. "You stupid little bitch," she said. "You did this. Everything is your—"

fault.

That was her unspoken word but she didn't get to say it. I used one final burst of energy to lift on my toes and press my lips onto hers.

I don't know why I did it. It was just instinct. My eyes fell closed and in that kiss I felt everything I needed to feel. Serenity. Surrender. Sweetness. I had no idea what affect it would have on her, but it didn't matter, because for that one moment, I didn't have to be afraid anymore or hurt or confused. In that one moment I was giving in to something more powerful than myself, more powerful than the will to live, more powerful than the fear of death.

And Victoria seemed to feel it as well. Her grip in my hair loosened. The hand at my throat fell away. My own hand came up to her face and caressed the coolness there. It was the first time I had ever kissed a girl. A woman. A vampire who wanted to kill me. The sensations that over took my body were as indescribable as they were alien. Lightness. Dizziness. I made a soft sound into her mouth and cupped the nape of her neck. I pressed my lips firmer. I made another sound. I lifted higher onto my toes and—

She wrenched away with a gasp. My eyes snapped open. The gasp sounded more like a sob. She stumbled a few steps away and lifted her lost yellow eye to mine. I blinked my own swimming eyes.

"Victoria, please," I said. "You don't have to do this."

She didn't answer me. Her face crinkled. She looked like she wanted to cry but wasn't able to. Finally she ripped her eye away from mine and stumbled over to the car. She stood there with her back to me, staring at the car and heaving with emotions that she had no idea how to process. James was alive. I had kissed her. Nothing in her world was the same anymore.

I took a few steps toward her and I was about to speak when a guttural yell came out of her and she lifted a fist and smashed it down onto the roof of the car. I jumped at the metallic crash. The whole left side of the car had caved in but she didn't stop there. She lifted her fist again and pounded on the car again and again, grunting and snarling with rage each time, until finally she just grabbed the car and flipped it up into the air where it revolved twice in the starlight before crashing on its roof into the desert floor.

Victoria was standing by the side of the road. There was shattered glass all around her, as shattered as her emotions. I froze halfway across the road, not knowing if it was safe. Victoria shook her head and her voice came out very quiet.

"I can't believe it," she said. "He was alive all this time. And he never… He never even…"

She trailed off. I took a step closer. My sneaker scraped across the blacktop. She must've heard it because she turned around. There was no more anger in her face. No more rage. I went closer again, slowly, like approaching an injured dog, and when I was close enough I reached to hug her tentatively. Like the kiss, I didn't really know why. I just wanted to make her feel better. Her eye went slightly suspicious but she didn't resist. My arms wrapped around her. She was cold. So cold. She didn't hug me back and after a while she shrugged out of it and started walking up the road.

I watched her go. Then I jogged to catch up and fell in beside her.

We walked for a long time in silence and after a while the anxiousness began to creep back in. We were going away from the city and my father and Jake were still back there. I didn't know what I was going to do. I was struggling to even keep myself alive. That kiss had bought me some time, but how long? God, this was so fucked up. Why won't she even speak to me? I know she was going through a lot, but so was I.

I sighed and looked up at the sky. So many stars. In the city there were hardly any. Out here in the desert, there were hundreds.

"It must be close to morning by now," I said. "I'm so tired."

Victoria didn't answer. I looked at her as we trudged along. She could've moved at superspeed if she wanted to, but she wasn't. Was it because she had no idea where to go? Or because she didn't want to leave me behind?

I sighed again and, in trying to arrive at a subject of conversation, I realized I was still curious about the color of her eye.

"Why is your eye yellow?" I asked. "Have you stopped feeding from humans?"

She glanced at me. She seemed to be deciding if she should speak or not and evidently she decided in the affirmative. "When I was injured, I was forced to feed from a deer not far from the house," she said. "I found the experience more palpable than I would've thought."

"I thought animal blood is less tasty than human blood?"

"It is," she said. "But humans themselves…" She made a gesture with her hand that was dismissive and slightly disgusted. "Some of the slobs I've been forced to feed from truly test the bounds of dignity. In comparison, animals are almost an elegant alternative."

I almost smiled. I knew it wasn't likely that she'd had some kind of epiphany about the preciousness of human life, but it was kind of ironic that it was her resentment of humans that ultimately dissuaded her from them.

But that wasn't all because she spoke again, reluctantly and with a sigh.

"And to be absolutely honest," she went on, "since our last meeting I've been repelled by any scent that isn't yours."

I didn't reply for a minute. I didn't know if the tightness in my chest was fear or flattery. She hadn't looked at me as she said it but I was glad the subject of my demise had been bought up because I could really use some closure on that.

"But now you don't have to kill me, right?" I asked. "I mean, the only reason you came after me was for revenge. But James is alive. So…"

She frowned at the reminder but she still didn't look at me. Her eye was fixed in the distance and beyond the mountains there was a pale reach of dawn. I waited to see if she would say anything, the anxiety welling in my stomach, and then I went on.

"Victoria, please," I said. "I'm losing my fucking mind with all this. Just please tell me you don't want to kill me anymore. I mean, what's the point? What did I ever do to you? And now you don't even feed from humans anymore. Please, just…"

Victoria still didn't look at me but she did lower her eye to the road. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

By now her selfishness was beginning to hurt. My eyes filled with tears and I fought to keep my voice strong. "What about me?" I said. "What am I supposed to do? My mother's dead. My boyfriend left me. Alice left me. Jake almost got killed twice because of me. And in the end, I'm probably gonna die too. Either because of you or James. So what about me? How about some fucking sympathy for me?"

She finally glanced at me. I stopped walking.

"Look," I said, wiping my eyes to erase the sign of weakness. "I know it must hurt that James never told you he was alive. But I told you from the beginning. He's a scumbag. He doesn't love you like you love him. He was only using you."

"Stop," Victoria said.

But I didn't.

"He even told me right to my face," I went on. "He said the only reason he even hooked up with you was for your gift and because he couldn't stand the thought of letting you get away. I guess he really did claim your life, as long as you're so pathetically obsessed with him."

Victoria took a step toward me, her face twisting in anger. "I said stop," she growled. "You know nothing about my relationship with James."

She was getting mad again, but I didn't care. I didn't care if it sabotaged my chances to live, because I didn't want to live like that. So I forced my face into a glare and told her exactly what I thought.

"You're right," I said. "I don't. But he's a pig and I know you deserve better."

That seemed to take her by surprise. It kind of took me by surprise as well. I'm pretty sure I had intended to say something more insulting than that.

Either way, it was a strange thing to say to an evil vampire murderer, so I felt I needed to explain myself so that I didn't seem totally stupid.

"Look," I said, taking a moment to try and form something coherent. "This is crazy, but I don't think you're a bad person, Victoria. I think you're just misguided. You could change if you wanted."

She rolled her eye and looked away. I went on imploringly.

"I'm serious," I said. "You already said you don't mind feeding from animals. And if you could do that, maybe you could have a real life. And find a real mate. Someone who isn't just using you. Someone who loves you for more than just your gift. Someone who just really likes you and wants to be with you. Someone like…"

Me.

The thought came to me in a subtle revelation, but I didn't dare say it out loud. It didn't even make sense. Even though I did feel something very strange and very raw for this beautiful redhead, it couldn't possibly mean that I wanted to be with her. But whatever it was, she seemed to see it in my eyes. Her face had been slowly softening as I spoke. If she could've blushed, she might of. I definitely was. I could feel the heat spreading across my face. I went silent and decided to wait for her to speak. There was nothing else I could say. Everything else was up to her.

Yet she didn't reply. Not for a long moment. She was looking down at the road and after a while she looked up. She opened her mouth to speak and—

Suddenly closed it again. She was looking off toward the horizon. As if she'd heard something in the distance. My heart started racing. When vampires get that look, it means something bad is about to happen. I followed her gaze with my eyes but at first I couldn't see anything. Just a cloud of dust that was rising off the desert into the nightsky. Then I realized it was the dust that she was looking at. The dust meant there was something moving out there. Moving fast enough to stir up an entire trail of dust. I looked at Victoria and back at the dust and I was about to ask what it was when suddenly there was a vicious suck of wind that knocked me off my feet.

I landed on my butt in a quick jab of spinal pain. As if I hadn't suffered enough tonight. When I looked up, I saw something had come screaming across the desert and tackled Victoria.

A vampire.

James?!

But no, it wasn't James. I could see that right away. Victoria had been tackled to the ground and together with her attacker they skidded and rolled at least twenty feet down the road from the force of the collision. I scrambled to my feet and ran toward them. As I got closer, I stumbled to a stop in disbelief. Victoria was facedown into the blacktop and her attacker was pinning her down by straddling her back, snarling and wrenching her head to try and twist it off. In the moonlight, I could see the other vampire very clearly, and it was a vampire I could never forget.

Alice.

My heart split in conflict. She had finally come to save me right when I wasn't sure I needed to be saved. Without thinking, I jogged another step forward and cried out.

"Alice, stop!"

AN: Lol. I've been pretty relentless with the cliffhangers lately, haven't I? Good thing I update fast. This chapter had a couple big things. The kiss, and of course, Alice. The kiss turned out pretty well, I think. I love that kind of surrendering passion. As for Alice, well, I know some of you might be a little miffed at her interference. I'd been trying to keep her away for as long as possible in order to build anticipation, but it's having the opposite effect on you guys. Most of you want her to just stay away and leave Bella with Vicky, lol. But don't worry, I've got a few things in store for all of them. It's time to finally get the triangle going. :)