23. The Fight

We stepped through the gate into the largest, most confusing terminal I've ever seen. Throngs of passengers waiting for departing flights. Happy families, smiling boyfriends, girlfriends, waiting eagerly for their arriving loved ones.

I quickly scanned the unfamiliar terminal for two dark haired girls but did not see Bella or Alice anywhere.

"We have to meet them on the third-level garage," Carlisle spoke from behind me.

Our pace was quicker than normal human pace but it went unnoticed. After all, we were in an airport. We probably had a connecting flight to catch.

There were people everywhere, slowing up the way. I was getting impatient as their loud thoughts flooded my head. I didn't care if they would make their flight or how expensive the food was. And I couldn't ignore them. It was one of the main reason I hated airports. I wondered if I could convince Carlisle that we needed a private plane.

We finally reached the parking garage. Jasper and Alice stood, miserably, by Carlisle's Mercedes.

Uh-oh, Alice thought and then I saw on that Bella was not with them.

"Where is she?" I demanded.

"She's gone, Edward," Alice answered. A low growl escaped my lips. Jasper stepped protectively in front of her.

"What happened?" Carlisle asked.

"I don't know," Alice wailed. "In the hotel I saw her with the tracker. It scared me. We tried to keep our eyes on her…"

"What is she doing with him? How does she get with him?"

"She meets him, at the ballet studio," Jasper answered.

"There's a ballet studio? I thought we were going to her house," Emmett inquired.

"The room with the mirrors," Alice spoke. "Bella recognized it as her old ballet studio…though I can't imagine Bella taking ballet. She's so…"

"Alice, focus!" I yelled. "How did she get past you and where is this ballet studio?"

"I don't know how she did it. I see the future, not the past," she yelled back.

I slumped against the sleek car, my entire world crashing down around me. I put my hands to my head and groaned.

"Why? Why would she go to him?"

Alice reached her hand out to me. In it was an envelope.

"This might explain it. She told me it was for her mother but now, I don't think it is."

I ripped the envelope open. Alice was right. It was a letter to me. The handwriting was hardly legible. Bella's hand had been shaking as she wrote.

"No!" I yelled. "I won't let her do this!" I threw the letter to the ground. I would not honor such a ridiculous request. It was suicide. I would not let Bella die because of me.

Alice caught the letter before it hit the ground. She quickly stuffed in back in the envelope.

"Where is the ballet studio?"

"58th and Cactus," Alice answered. "It's near her house."

I spotted a nondescript grey corvette parked two cars down. I ran towards it. The door was unlocked. I removed the wiring cover, touched two wires together and it started right away. I peeled out of the spot and stopped at the Mercedes.

"Go to her house. See if her mother is okay. I'm going to the ballet studio."

"Edward, wait!" I heard Emmett yell but I did not stop. I sped out of the parking deck and on to the highway. Luckily the car had a GPS system. I plugged the address into the system and it spat out the directions.

The sun shone brightly, reflecting off of the tiled rooftops in the Valley of the Sun, only slightly subdued by a thin layer of smog. This was dangerous. The windows of the Corvette were tinted but nowhere as dark as I needed them to be. I looked at my arms. Not sparkling yet but I knew I would be as soon as I stepped out of the car. I could not wait until dusk. Bella would be dead by then.

The road flew by. How I wished I could take the time to enjoy the passing palm trees, the scrubby creosote, the green swaths of the golf courses…all the things that Bella had once told me she loved.

Finally! My exit!

I swerved the car expertly off the freeway. A few miles later I was in a small residential neighborhood. This was the place! I rolled down the windows, trying to catch Bella's scent. Was it possible? Could I have made it before her?

I pulled the car to a four way stop at 58th and Cactus, waiting impatiently for the other two drivers ahead of me to go. Then I heard it, the mental voice I'd been searching for!

That's a very nice effect. I thought this room would be visually dramatic for my little film.

A woman pushing a baby carriage was crossing the street, holding up the progress at the stop sign. Swearing, I maneuvered the car up the sidewalk and cut through somebody's lawn, frightening the little old lady who was pruning her bushes. I pulled onto Cactus at full speed.

The noises were getting closer as I searched for any building that could have been a ballet studio.

Poor little girl. I bet that hurts.

I heard a piercing scream. I realized it belonged to Bella and came from the building I was right in front of. I put the car in park and jumped out.

I heard glass break and another bloodcurdling scream. I ran faster.

Bella was in pain.

I threw my body against the locked studio door and crashed through it. The smell of blood – Bella's blood – jolted me like a wave of fire.

I ran down the hallway and crashed through another door. The mirror room!

The tracker was crouched over Bella, her hand dangerously close to his face. Outrage coursed through me as I slammed into him, knocking him about thirty feet away from her.

I knelt down beside her. There was blood in her hair from a deep gash. Her leg was twisted underneath her.

A wave of shock…then relief washed over Bella's face.

"Edward," she whispered.

"I'm sorry." Anguish filled my voice.

I reached for her but I was pushed from behind with such force that I flew into a wall of mirrors. The glass scraped across my skin, ripping my shirt.

James held me against the mirror, snarling.

"You're alone…because you're faster than the others."

His red eyes shown with pure evil as he bashed my head into the mirrors. That was painful.

"But not stronger," he added.

"I'm strong enough to kill you," I growled as I stretched my leg out and kicked him. Glass shattered as he flew into a freestanding mirror. For a second he was immobilized. I tried to run to back to Bella, to move her to a safer location until I finished off the tracker.

I didn't make it.

James ran over to me and grabbed the back of my shirt. It ripped when he flung me in the air, away from Bella. I crashed through a second story window. I reached for the window pane and held on tightly to keep from crashing to the sidewalk below. The glass screeched across the palms of my hands as I swung myself back through the now glassless window.

An animalistic roar left my throat as I leapt from the window sill. I was no longer Edward. I was a predator attacking his prey. A painful yell came from James when I slammed into him, hurtling us both across the wooden floor, ripping up floorboards that would make great kindling for the fire I would have to start.

The tracker was not a good fighter. He relied mainly on his strength. I wondered how old he was. It didn't matter though because his life was going to end.

With another growl I hurled him into a wooden column. It cracked upon impact and the building seemed to rumble. I lunged for his neck. He shrieked in pain as I bit down. My sharp teeth sliced through this granite skin and I spat a piece of him on the floor.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, restraining me.

Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett, and Alice had arrived.

"Son, enough," Carlisle ordered. When I turned to look at him, a wild, crazed animal reflected in his eyes.

"Remember who you are."

I looked around. The tracker was panting in pain. The only thing that can really hurt a vampire is another vampire.

Carlisle was staring at me, urging me to release my grip on the monster. Emmett and Jasper were in control, each had a hand on the tracker's arms.

"Your brothers will take care of him," Carlisle said to me and looked towards Bella.

Alice was kneeling over her, holding her head in her arms. I could see that Bella was losing consciousness.

I forgot about James.

I ran to Bella's side. Carlisle was right beside me. She was bleeding profusely.

"Bella, please!" I yelled. "Bella, listen to me, please, please, Bella, please."

I pleaded with her to keep her eyes open. It was too hard for her. Her eyelids kept fluttering closed.

"Carlisle!" I needed him. I couldn't fix her, not by myself. In a second Carlisle was lifting Bella's head as I sobbed tearless sobs. She was dying…and so was I.

"Bella, Bella, no, oh please, no, no!" I wept as she slowly drifted away.

Carlisle touched the tender area around the gash in her head. Bella screamed in pain.

She wasn't dead!

"Bella!"

"She's lost some blood but the head wound isn't deep," Carlisle said with the calm and ease of a seasoned professional.

"Watch out for her leg, it's broken."

A howl of rage strangled me as I angled myself away from her twisted leg.

Carlisle moved his hand along Bella's side, concerned about her raspy breathing.

"Some ribs, too, I think," he informed me.

"Edward," Bella moaned. I leaned down towards her face.

"Bella, you're going to be fine. Can you hear me, Bella?" I asked. "I love you."

"Edward," she moaned again. A little ray of hope began to shine dimly in my soul.

"Yes, I'm here."

"It hurts," she whispered.

"I know, Bella, I know." I turned to Carlisle. "Can't you do anything?"

"My bag, please…" I slid him medical bag across the floor.

"Hold your breath, Alice, it will help."

I had completely forgotten Alice was there. I glanced around. Jasper and Emmett had started a small bonfire. I heard the cackling of rocks and fire. They were destroying a vampire.

I saw Alice close her eyes. The smell of Bella's blood had to have been driving her crazy. I could tell she was holding her breath.

"Alice?" Bella groaned.

I turned my attention back to her.

"She's here. She knew where to find you."

"My hand hurts."

I knew it did. Everything was probably hurting her.

"I know, Bella. Carlisle will give you something…it will stop."

"My…hand…is…burning!" she screamed so loud that everyone stopped for a second. Her eyes fluttered open. She looked around, panicked.

"Bella?" What was she talking about? Was she delirious? She was nowhere near any fire?

"The fire!" she continued to scream. "Someone stop the fire!"

"Carlisle!" Alice yelled. "Her hand!"

We both looked down at the same time. Teeth marks, bloody, venomous teeth marks, were on the space between her thumb and forefinger.

I gasped in horror! I now knew why she screamed. The venom was spreading through her hand, burning…killing…everything it touched.

"He bit her," Carlisle stated, appalled.

"Edward," Alice leaned close to me, "you have to do it."

Her vision was coming true. I couldn't do it. I couldn't bite her again. I could not turn Bella into one of us.

"No!" I bellowed in anguish.

"There may be a chance," Carlisle said.

I looked at him with pleading eyes.

"See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean."

"Will that work?" Alice's voice was strained.

"I don't know but we have to hurry," Carlisle answered.

I looked down at my beautiful Bella, writhing on the floor. I'd sworn I'd do anything to save her. But this? I was almost immune to her smell, even with all the blood surrounding me. And now they were asking me to what I'd vowed I'd never do again, especially to her.

"Carlisle, I…I don't know if I can do that."

"It's your decision, Edward, either way." His voice was hurried. "I can't help you. I have to get this bleeding stopped here if you're going to be taking blood from her hand."

"Edward!" Bella screamed my name again, searching the room blindly. Finally her eyes locked with mine. She was pleading with me to stop the pain…to put out the fire. I had to help her.

"Alice," Carlisle yelled. "Get me something to brace her leg. Edward, you must do it now, or it will be too late."

All doubt in my mind had been replaced by fierce determination. I braced myself, placing her hand tightly in mine and held it securely. I had to do this. I had to focus. If I didn't, Bella would die.

I bent over and pressed my lips against the wound, not needing to bite down, and sucked.

Her blood was the most heavenly thing I'd ever tasted!

It was the venom mixed with her blood that made me completely aware of my task. It stung as it flowed down my throat. Still…I didn't want to stop.

I was lost, floating in a world where the warm liquid flowed freely. I was vaguely aware of Carlisle on one side of me, Alice on the other, ready to try to stop me if I couldn't stop myself.

Slowly, Bella's writhing and screaming calmed.

"Edward," she tried to say, snapping me back to reality.

"He's right here," Alice assured her.

There was no more venom, replaced by the medicinal taste of the morphine Carlisle had injected her with. Still, I did not stop.

Stop, Edward. She's lost too much blood, already.

Carlisle's voice was in my head. But could I?

Stop, Edward, Alice begged. Please stop.

I opened my eyes. Bella was still, motionless like a corpse. I dropped her hand.

She was still breathing!

"Stay, Edward, stay with me…" her voice was soft, her words slightly slurred.

"I will."

I'd done it! I saved her! I hadn't killed her. I hadn't bitten her. I felt triumphant!

"Is it all out?" Carlisle asked.

I nodded. "Her blood tastes clean," I answered quietly. "I can taste the morphine."

He leaned over her head.

"Bella," he called.

"Mmmm?" was her incoherent response.

"Is the fire gone?"

"Yes," she sighed. "Thank you, Edward."

"I love you."

"I…know."

Alice smiled. My laugh was quiet, weak with relief.

"Bella," Carlisle asked again.

"What?"

"Where is your mother?"

Renée! The reason Bella had fled to the tracker in the first place. My eyes flashed to Alice for an explanation.

She wasn't at the house. There was no trace that she'd even been there. The only fresh scents were Bella's and his…her eyes pointed to the bonfire.

"In Florida," Bella answered. Her voice was tried. The morphine was working.

"He tricked me, Edward. He watched our videos."

"Alice!" Bella yelled suddenly, as if she was remembering something. "Alice, the video – he knew you, Alice, he knew where you came from." She was babbling, her slurred words made no sense.

"I smell gasoline."

"It's time to move her," Carlisle said.

We'll take her to the hospital. The others will take care of this mess.

"No, I want to sleep," Bella complained.

"You can sleep, sweetheart, I'll carry you." I gingerly lifted her into my arms and walked towards the broken door.

"Sleep now, Bella."