KISS ME, KILL YOU
Chapter Ten: The WhiteBird Cries
Bella grabbed her clothes and headed for the bathroom. She cranked up the hot water and began removing her clothes.
She laughed out loud as she caught a glimpse of herself in the full length mirror. Her thong was in shreds up around her waist and her bra was, well, not a bra anymore having been ripped by Edward's passion earlier in the woods. Tossing them into the little pink trash basket, she hopped into the warm spray.
A quick soap and rinse, a pair of black jeans, turtleneck and undergarments, hiking boots and hat throwing stars and butterfly knife and soon they were speeding along in Esme's Ferrari. While Bella showered, Esme had changed out of her very bright clothes into dark cammo pants and black turtleneck sweater, machete and hiking boots.
They flew out of Forks towards the beach for a long while. Esme parked the car in a secluded spot and got out.
"Wait a minute," Bella got out, looked around and commented, "We're on the other side of the Rez."
"Yes, we'll have to walk from here. It's only about a mile and a half through the woods."
She went to the trunk and got out two backpacks full of supplies. She gave one to Bella and slung the other one on her back.
They came to an old, beat up fish cabin that had seen better days about 50 years ago. They approached carefully from the rear. Esme knocked 2 times, paused then knocked 2 more times.
"Yes?" A gruff sounding woman's voice came through the door.
"The WhiteBird cries," Esme whispered loudly.
The door creaked open. They walked into a windowless cabin that was pitch black inside. When the door closed behind them, a single candle was lit in the corner, flooding the small space with its yellow glow.
"Bella!" She heard the most beautiful voices in the world. Alice and Rosalie whispered from the corner of the cabin. The three of them met in the middle of the cabin and hugged each other in a tight embrace.
"I was so worried," Bella cried softly, kissing their cheeks on both sides.
"It's worse than we thought, Bella," Alice said softly, "There's no courts, no hearings. They're just arresting people and carting them away."
"To where??"
"That we don't know," Esme said, "We just reached Alice and Rosalie before they were taken by the Wolves to the holding tent. We are trying to establish at least three more safe houses between here and our house in Canada, which is the last stop. From there, we have friends that will help hide the citizens until we can clean up this mess. Time is of the essence. We need to get as many people out before the Volturi decide to intervene." She looked at Bella. "They are not obligated to preserve anyone but those of their own species."
She removed Bella's backpack and her own and handed them to two older Vampire Females that were in the corner sorting through food and weapons on an old wooden table and filling empty backpacks, nap sacks and duffel bags, then stacking them against the wall.
"The next house is 15 miles north east of here." Esme continued. "Carlisle will be coming by to take Rosalie and Alice here up there within the next day or so, after I get the next group out of Forks."
"Bella," Rosalie grabbed a hold of her arm, "You've got to come with us now."
"Oh man, I can't," Bella's words choked in her throat, "Edward will come looking for me and..."
"Bella..." Alice said sheepishly, "Rose and I, we..." She held up her left index finger so Bella could see her silver Mating ring. Rosalie fingered her ring.
"I know, I met your 'Mates' this morning. We'll talk about that later." Bella scowled. "I'll make up some excuse why you guys aren't around, then, send them to you once you are established in Canada." Bella said. Then her eyes widened and tears started to well up in her eyes." Oh my gods, you'll have to go without me. How will I find you?"
The three sisters held onto each other and wept softly. Esme, caught up in the grief she felt from the sisters, sobbed, "Carlisle will help them get settled. He won't lose touch with them or us. I promise. Bella, we've got to go. I'll be back to take your sisters and the next group to the next stop tonight after dark. There Carlisle will guide them the rest of the way."
Bella let go of her sisters after kissing them each on the cheek then left.
In the car again, they drove back to Forks in silence.
"We've never been apart," was all that Bella said. Then she stared out the side window watching the blur of green go by.
Bella went home and collapsed on the couch. Exhaustion took over and she soon fell into a deep sleep.
The clock on the mantle chimed five times, waking her up. Quickly, she went to the hall closet and got out her light duffel bag. She began to fill it with essentials: Weapons, ammunition, first aid supplies, K rations, a couple of hoodies, extra underwear and socks, toothbrushes and protein bars.
She slung it over her back and headed to the fish shack before dark came and her sisters would be starting their long journey North.
Bella reached the shack, knocked like Esme had and waited. "What?" the Vampire on the other side answered.
"The WhiteBird Cries."
The door creaked open. Bella stepped inside. Lighting the candle, one of the Females greeted her. Bella looked around at the empty cabin. Confused, she turned to the Females.
"They left about 2 hours ago," she said, "Esme and the group came early."
"What??"
"Yeah, seems like the Pack started moving people out in trucks sooner than expected."
A quiet rapping sounded on the cabin door. The secret knock. One of the Females walked over to the door and said, "What?"
A man answered softly, "The WhiteBird cries."
Five people looking scared as hell, came in, all huddled together. Suddenly, the little room was filled to capacity. The Male who spoke went over to the far wall and grabbed five full backpacks and passed them out to his charges. "Sit down and get comfortable, we've got to wait until Esme gets back. It may be a while."
"I'm going to try and catch up to my sisters," Bella said and headed out.
"Stay to the path and be careful." The Male said.
"I will. Good luck to you all."
Bella took off into the forest running and then walking for miles until she had to rest or fall over. It was way after dark. She tried not to panic as she realized she should have come to the next stop by now.
"I'm lost," she said to herself pounding the dirt in her frustration,"Fucking hell I'm fucking fuck fuck fucking lost!! FUCK!!"
Looking down she realized she was at a crossroads where two dirt paths intersected.
"Now what do I do?" Then something shiny caught in the moonlight got her attention. She walked 20 feet down the path to the left and picked up the tiny gold chain with the letter R in diamonds.
"Rose's ankle bracelet," Bella picked up the delicate piece of jewelry, kissed it, put it in her pocket and followed the path. Sure enough there were broken twigs and pieces of cloth ripped by the thorny branches along the way.
She stopped to examine a torn sandal strap when she heard the faint sounds of...a crowd roaring? She stealthily made her way down the path, looking around as she went. The crowd sounds got louder. Human shouts mixed with Wolf yowls. And cheering mixed with screaming.
Bella approached the clearing carefully. She fell to her knees, as her mind tried to make sense of what she was looking at. Was this real? Her eyes were looking at the unthinkable and her mind didn't know whether she was hallucinating or not because if it was really happening it was going to change her life forever and be the main attraction of her nightmares.
Humans. Wolves. LeStats. Blood. Running. Screaming. Growling. Blood. Blood. Blood.
She got a little closer to the campsite. Half of her vision was obscured by a huge green camouflage designed canvas canopy. Cheers and howls erupted from within along with clapping and barking. The sound died quickly followed by another burst of excited cheering and barking, like the inhabitants were watching a football game.
Using the tent as cover, Bella approached the arena set up in the middle.
Four bloody, beaten, crying humans were being secured to tree trucks in the middle of the arena. Their faces were beaten beyond recognition but from their bodies she could see it was 3 young men and an old woman.
At the opposite end, four Quileute women were climbing up on the backs of four huge Wolves. Bella recognized two of the women as Leah Clearwater and Claire Ateara. Grabbing hold of the thick fur at their necks, they lined up and waited. Jacob Black appeared from under the canopy. He was naked except for a short pair of black cut off sweats and his muscled chest and abdomen were streaked with blood. He was carrying four long, pointed sticks towards the women.
"Oh fuck," Bella breathed as she recalled Alice's vision of jousting matches.
After delivering the sticks, he led the crowd in a chant then screamed
"GO!"
The Wolves charged the shackled humans as their riders positioned their spears. In one coordinated movement all four women thrust their weapons into the chests of their targets at once as they galloped by.
The crowd went crazy with excited cheering. Immediately, a group of six to ten LeStats descended upon the writhing humans, tore their throats out with their teeth and sucked the blood out of them until it ran down their faces.
The LeStats were enjoying the attention, doing a little happy dance and holding up their blood soaked hands as the crowd cheered. Two of the males French kissed, letting the blood flow from one mouth to the next to the absolute delight of the crowd.
After the LeStats were done showing off, eight younger Wolves ripped the bodies from the tree trunks. The sounds of bones cracking as they bit the heads off the humans and devoured the torsos sickened Bella to her soul. A bunch of frolicking cubs came out from the sidelines, kicking the discarded heads like soccer balls into a pile by the edge of the arena.
Bella pulled back into the woods and made her way over to the other end of the canopy. There she saw about 50 humans chained together in a holding corral. They were bruised and exhausted, some were crying, some praying, huddling together in groups. She got as close as she dared, scanning the captives for her sisters. Her heart stopped until she was done looking for them. She sighed uneasily, her sisters weren't there in the pen.
Tears came to her eyes as it dawned on her she needed to go check the pile of heads. She shook all over, making her way over to the pile. She made it about half way before she broke down. If she saw her sisters faces staring at her, she didn't know what she would do, but it would involve a lot of Wolf taxidermy.
She knelt in the forest floor. Covering her mouth with her hands, she tried to get a grip on her emotions. She felt the air move near her. She was grabbed from behind around her waist and at the same time a hand came around her mouth. For a split second she panicked until the angelic face of Edward Cullen appeared before her.
He let her mouth go, replacing his hand with his lips. Edward let go of her lips and held her to him as she silently wept on his chest.
"Edward," she choked out softly.
"I know, shh, my Love, I know," he said gently, kissing the top of her head.
"My sisters, Edward."
He lifted her chin with his fingers so she was looking into his eyes, "Are safe with my parents."
Her whole body sagged in relief. She fell against him as if she suddenly had no strength left. Then it all went black.
A/N: This was a fun yet difficult chapter to write. But your kind words of encouragement and even the lovely threats of being de-boweled if I didn't update soonly warmed the frozen tundra that is my heart and actually spurred me on. Ouch! Spurs. Hehe.
So, where are we? The Wolves and LeStats are enjoying a little outdoor entertainment, Alice and Rosalie are supposedly safe, but according to whom? According to a sexy Vampire who may or may not be working for the good guys. And where is the vile Mike Newton (spit)? He's about to show Bella why you never shit where you eat.
As always...Love and Lemondrops to you all...BSL