DISCLAIMER: SM owns everything…I like to play with them!
AN: Sorry this one is so short, but I moved some of the information in this chapter to the next to give you a longer chapter there.
Give props to wuthering-ivy for her obsession which brought back Maria's head. ;) And an awesome shout out to my beta VixenNator!
Thanks for all the support and understanding recently. I have the best readers!
Thanks to whitewolflegend for naming the chapter.
Last time on MUE:
"Son, what are you doing?"
"Jasper, do you sense anyone out there? Alice, do you see any vampires coming to the house?" Edward ran outside and was listening intently walking around the backyard. Everyone followed including Bella when I offered her exit first she rolled her eyes at me.
Bella took her normal stance in the same spot I noticed the other day; I went in her direction standing by her side and the rest of the Cullen's were scattered around the yard watching Edward's weird behavior.
Jasper and Bella both had the same stance as if they were expecting an army to come from the bushes. Alice was behind Jasper peeking from underneath his arm. She's so short it's very funny to have them standing next to each other. Jasper and Alice stayed on the front porch.
Rosalie and Emmett also stayed on the front porch leaning against the railings next to each other. Esme was at the bottom of the broken stairs watching her oldest son running around like a mad man. Tanya and Carlisle were the closest to Edward trying to figure out what he was thinking.
Finally Edward stopped and looked at Carlisle. "I hear someone." Edward whispered.
UNEXPECTED VISTOR
"I hear someone," Edward whispered. "The tone sounds female."
At this information Bella, tensed up and stood her ground, trying not to draw attention to her, but I noticed the tension in her shoulders. "She's in agony," Edward whispered, and then settled over the area of ground that housed Maria's head. Realization dawned on me that he had found Maria's grave. "With all the commotion I missed it, but she's crying for help within her mind. Who would bury a vampire in the backyard? Why can't the vampire get out from the ground?" Edward continued to mumble questions to himself as Bella started breathing heavily.
"I guess we should dig her up and see what happened, right?" Edward flitted over to the garage, and Bella took his place on Maria's grave with murder and authority in her eyes. She positioned herself like the Major in his dark days; Jasper recognized her stance too, immediately removed Alice from his side and placed her by Emmett before coming down to join the rest of us in the back yard. Edward stopped in his tracks as he took in the demon goddess guarding her territory.
"Be…Lucy, what are you doing?" Edward asked in confusion.
"Walk away Edward." A deathly calm flowed from Bella, and everyone besides Jasper and I took a step back. Crazy bastards we were, we took a step forward. Edward was looking at Jasper, horrified by whatever he heard.
"Lucy?" Jasper started. "I have been waiting a long time for Maria's demise, would you mind giving me the honor of destroying Maria?" Jasper asked respectfully.
"What the hell is going on?" Rosalie yelled.
"When Peter ran into Bella, she had Maria's head and apparently buried it in our backyard." Bella growled as Alice filled in the rest of the family. Bella crouched ready to spring on whoever encroached on her territory. The whole family looked horrified at this information. I thought it was hysterical in a morbid kind of way, but still funny.
"How could you do that? That is beyond cruel! How sick are you?" Rosalie didn't realize she was digging her own grave, but the girl had to learn respect and I had a feeling Bella was going to teach this lesson to her eventually.
"She deserves everything I chose to do to her," Bella said in a nonchalant tone that didn't fit the situation, but then I remembered she's a bad ass vampire that's not scared of the Cullen's.
"Can we put her back together and let her explain herself?" Esme asked. Bella's growls continued, but this time it was Jasper that shook his head.
"No. First of all, Maria is not someone you let loose and secondly," He paused, looking at Bella with respect and admiration. "Bella burned her body back in Texas. If you were looking to be merciful, burning her head would be the route to go with." Esme muttered a few 'my gods' while Jasper was speaking, in total disbelief at what Bella was capable of.
"Lucy, I would like my justice," Jasper demanded. They stared each other down, and all I could think was not this again. The fucking alpha dance was getting old; I didn't even bother counting how long it took this time, but eventually Bella gave into his demand and moved away from Maria's grave.
Taking it upon myself, I started a small fire in the backyard preparing for Jasper's justice. Jasper took the shovel from a stunned Edward, whose eyes were still glued to Bella's form, and dug out Maria. "Huh? How weird is that? I can't feel anything coming from her," Jasper mused as he continued digging. Bella and I were the only ones to laugh at this; I guess the Cullens were too horrified at the turn of events to laugh at anything or have any kind of sense of humor.
The look in Rosalie's eye told me her respect for Bella was growing quickly. Rosalie was staring at Bella with disbelief and fear. Emmett seemed to be divided on his feelings towards Bella. I could tell he saw his baby sister when he looked at Bella, but her actions were making it hard for him to remember that human girl.
Carlisle and Esme were heartbroken seeing their 'daughter' in this state. They were peaceful beings, so imagining the horror she'd seen must have been a hard pill to swallow. Tanya didn't really seem concerned since she didn't know Bella; although every now and then I saw possessiveness pour from her eyes. Edward was a hard man to read; he was stuck trying to grasp that his long lost love was alive, and remember the fact that he is married.
Alice still looked like a child being scolded by an older sibling or something and Jasper was right there with me mentally regarding Bella; accepting and plotting how to heal her; after leaving Maria it's hard to accept that you need a change, whether physical or mental. Jasper had a harder time with it since he was alone after he left Maria, but I had Charlotte, and that made a world of difference. Hopefully, Bella would allow me to stick around long enough to help her heal.
"What could she have done that was so horrible that you felt the need to bury her head for eternity?" Esme asked, honestly trying to understand Bella's motivates.
Bella was back in her designated area in a leader's stance watching over the yard and the Cullens. "She turned on me. We had the majority of Texas, and I was becoming too strong or too dominant for her. She joined the two armies that were left after my destruction; one was in Mexico and the other army had southern Texas. Those leaders knew they didn't stand a chance against me with their pathetic armies and Maria was afraid to lose control of her army. She was too dumb to realize that I was going to overthrow everything and everyone. She joined forces with these other two armies to get rid of me. Obviously, that was the wrong move." Bella finished nodding her head towards Jasper and Maria.
At that moment Jasper pulled Maria's dirty head from the ground. Esme looked like she was going to be sick. "Finally, got what was coming to you, huh?" Jasper asked Maria with a smile on his face. The majority of the Cullens looked disgusted with Jasper and Bella's behavior, but they couldn't possibly understand what these two have been through. Maria started screaming bloody murder, and Bella tensed looking like she was getting ready to rip the head away from Jasper. Who would have thought that Bella would be territorial over Maria's head, like it was her property? Maybe it has become an obsession of hers?
"JASPER! Please kill me! Please! Don't give me back to her! I'm sorry!" Jasper's mouth was hanging open because we had never heard Maria talk this way. Bella really must have done a number to her. Bella growled louder with every word Maria spoke. Maria made eye contact with Bella, and fear dominated her face, speech and emotions as she screamed and begged for death. "She burned my body in front of me! She made me watch, Jasper!" It was Maria's turn to dry sob as she released all this information. "She laughed the whole time as I cried!"
Faster than any vampire I'd seen, Bella ripped Maria's head from Jasper and started smashing it against a tree like it was a doormat that she was attempting to clean. During her smashing, she continued saying, "You deserve to be down there a lot longer than that. If you weren't such a greedy bitch, you would be my right hand man with all the territory! You would have all the blood; more blood than you could possibly imagined. You could have had the Volturi's throne like you used to talk about! But, no!" Bella said the last part dramatically. "Did you really think you could kill me?" She stopped slamming her head against the tree long enough to let her answer.
"Yes, I did. You never told me half the shit you could do or the fact that you are a true immortal!" Bella started laughing as she walked Maria's head over to Jasper.
"Surprise, bitch!" She tossed Maria's head to Jasper, who immediately threw it in the fire, effectively ending the cruel and unusual punishment that Bella condemned Maria too.
"Bullshit, Bella!" Edward yelled out of nowhere; does he have a death wish. "Losing your son did not turn you into the soulless monster that stands before us!" God this woman was strong and talented. Before anyone could even think about reacting to Edward's words, Bella froze everyone in place and threw Edward across the yard against a tree. What is it with Bella and trees? She was holding onto his neck for effect yelling in his face.
"Did you want to take Maria's place?" The fear was taking over his instincts, and he was becoming submissive. "I have an open grave ready to go, asshole. The pathetic human you knew died two hundred years ago. Take time to yourself if you need to, get it through your thick skull. The death of my son was a contributing factor to the woman that stands before you today. It took two hundred years for the bad mother fucker that stands before you. Show some fucking respect." Bella was shaking in her fury, and I had to chime in otherwise she was going to rip him to pieces.
"Bella? Stop!" I half pleaded, half demanded. She turned her head to look at me, and glared hard at me. "Please?" Everyone dropped to the ground except for Jasper and I; we were prepared for her release. When Tanya had control over her body she ran over to Edward begging him to stop this. He murmured that Bella wouldn't hurt him, and this caused Bella to laugh. "You stupid boy! I feel nothing for you or your family. Test me again and I'll show you how I received my nicknames," Bella promised. Finally, the boy had fear in his eyes and a shiver rocked his body in response to her threat.
"Is this over yet? Now what do we do? Can we go home yet?" Rosalie started shooting off questions, looking at Carlisle for answers.
"Are you ever going to burn Maria's head?" Edward asked from his place on the ground with Tanya wrapped around him.
Jasper and I looked at each other confused, then around the fire to make sure her head was in the fire. The purple smoke was thinning out, letting us know that she was burnt up and her ashes were the only thing left in the fire. "Yeah, I threw her in there," Jasper said, still confused by Edward's question.
Edward started looking around again like he did with Maria, and Bella immediately took off to her area in the backyard. "God damn it, Edward! Walk away!" Bella yelled, demanding his respect for once.
"Can you hear it?" Edward asked as if she held all the answers.
"No, block out the thoughts Edward." Curiosity was getting the best of me; what were they talking about? What, did she have someone else buried in the backyard? That'd be like a dog collecting bones and burying them for safe keeping.
"There are more thoughts, they are incoherent though. There's nothing but darkness surrounding her and she sounds insane. There is not one clear thought in her head; it's like an infant's mind. There are colors and shapes and even so, these are dimmer and less intelligent than an infant's mind." Speaking of dogs Edward looked like a bloodhound sniffing the backyard looking for the gold or something. He stopped in front of Bella and looked horrified again. "Who is under their Isabella?"
Not liking the direction of their confrontation or the angry stance Edward held himself in, I flanked Bella's right side and Jasper quickly made his way to her left. Alice looked confused when Jasper flanked Bella's side instead of Edward's. They may have been family, but they had nothing on what Jasper and I shared; something they never will be able to: venom.
The solider in us kept us alert in this form all the time. I'm pretty sure Bella's my mate, and Jasper being my brother by venom made him protective of Bella too.
"You cannot have both of them! I gave you Maria, now walk away!" Bella roared in a new voice that shouted leader.
"Have who? What's he talking about?" I rushed out to Bella, becoming more confused by the moment. She didn't take her fiery eyes off of Edward when she answered me.
"Victoria." The name sounded like a curse, and I expected another gasp from the Cullens, but instead I was met with silence. Several of the Cullens looked as if they were about to throw up. Bella was breathing heavily the sudden wind picking up her hair and twirling it in the air around her. She was like a wild elemental Bella; the wind was kicking her hair in every direction. The dirt from the ground was picking up and swirling in the air due to the wind. The trees were swaying faster, and then the wind started whistling through the backyard.
"V…Victoria?" Esme whispered. Edward inched closer, and Bella's frame started shaking with her fury. "Has she been down there for two hundred years?" Esme looked up to Carlisle.
"Edward, step away!" Bella shouted and then in a calmer voice she warned him again. "I don't want to hurt you right now Edward.
"Isabella," Edward scolded her like a child caught in the act of doing something wrong. Bella growled in response to her name, but didn't say anything. "You can't keep her there. It's cruel to have kept her there all these years."
His words brought me back to my time in the wars; watching countless humans and vampires killed, women raped daily; the memories were horrifying, but I sided with Bella on this matter. The woman got what she deserved. I may be a human drinker, but I don't play with my food the way Victoria did with Bella and her son.
Back when Charlotte and I were first trying our new diet away from Maria and the Major, we saved countless people. Charlotte being about girl power saved…probably thousands of women from being raped and murdered. She was always so proud of herself for her accomplishments; it made her feel that her existence was worth living. In turn, I was always proud of her.
Bella's words brought my attention back to the matter at hand. "You have no idea what evil is, Edward!" She yelled his name. "Have you ever truly looked evil in the eye? I have! Has pure evil ever come knocking on your door? It didn't just knock on my door, it pounded and banged until the door fell off the fucking hinges!" These questions were obviously rhetorical, but she paused letting him think about each one. "I have! Pure unadulterated evil stalked me, then looked me in the eye and laughed. Everything that was pure in my life was ripped away without hesitation. There is no mercy in this world! There is only death and destruction!" Bella's voice started shaking from her fury. Or pain?
"You were pure and good. You were selfless and compassionate; you should have risen above it." Edward continued to piss me off. Why did he even care?
Bella growled so loudly that all in the area visibly flinched away from her, including myself. She was beyond enraged. "I watched as Anthony was torn apart like a fucking rag doll!" Edward finally heard something and froze at her words. Actually, we all did. So it seemed she was editing her story for the Cullens. Of course, I remembered Bella saying they were tortured, but I had no idea a vampire could take such pleasure from killing a human as helpless as a child. "She kept biting him and sucking out the venom. She probably broke every bone in his tiny body! She kept rubbing his blood in my face, ensuring that I tasted my son's blood! Do you have any idea what blood tastes like to a human? Do you have any fucking idea what it's like knowing that his blood was in my mouth? Do you have any idea what it's like to hear your child screaming for you, and not being able to do a damn thing about it! Don't tell me what I should have risen above! Don't tell me what is cruel! Victoria is underground taking a fucking pleasure cruise compared to what she left me in!" Edward was about to open his big fucking mouth again when he was cut off.
"Edward, stop!" Shock ran through my system when the blonde beauty, known as Rosalie stepped up beside Bella. Edward looked dumbfounded as one of his sisters took a side. "Leave Bella be! This is the justice she decided, and we will respect it." Edward started shaking his head.
"This isn't right Rose. Carlisle? Certainly, you agree with me?" Speaking directly to Carlisle seemed to snap him out of his trance. He took a step forward, and looked Bella in the eye.
"I do agree with you, Edward!" Bella roared at this, and went into an attack stance ready to spring at the first offensive move. Bella looked like a mother bear protecting her young, and she was not about to give up without a fight. Carlisle put his hands up in surrender. "However, I also think Rosalie is right. Bella chose her justice for her maker, and we will respect her wishes. We never said anything when Rose took justice for the end of her human life. We will respect Bella's wishes," Carlisle finished giving Edward a pointed stare.
"Carlisle…" Suddenly, my back was against a tree. Looking around, I noticed all the Cullens were against a solid object, whether it was a tree like me or some part of the house. The only one not pushed against an object was Edward, and Bella started stalking her prey. Edward was terrified; it showed in his eyes, but he stood his ground.
"This is the end of the conversation Edward; I don't want to hear another word about it. If Victoria goes missing it will be your head in there next. I can sense Victoria from Mexico, so don't test me boy."
AN: Sorry, this was shorter than my other chapters. It was a hard chapter to write. Plus, some readers want to see certain things and I'm trying to rearrange my story a little bit and I needed to cut this short in order to do that.
I'm at a crossroad with this story guys. I'm not sure which direction I want to go. So here's what I'm going to do. Unfortunately, I will be taking a two weeks break and I will be placing a poll on my profile to see where you guys want it to go.
Sorry about the break guys, but I have graduations and birthdays to attend to on the weekends. With my new job I have been working 12 hour days, sometimes more. It's exhausting. Within the two weeks I may post chapter 12 just because. But, I'm having a hard time with chapter 13 so hold on tight and I'll be back before you know it.
Hopefully, I will get a burst of creativity and really kick out the chapters. If you guys want to PM or review with any ideas or something you want to see let me know!
See you on the flipside…