30 Days of Night
Disclaimer:
I own absolutely nothing. Twilight belongs to Stephenie Meyer and 30 Days of Night belongs to Steve Niles.
Note:
I just wanted to thank all of my reviewers for being so incredibly cool. I really appreciate the reviews. They keep me inspired to update so often. I especially want to thank Jo Souilliere for the great reviews. It's cool to have someone reading who has read so many of my other stories. Also, SynergyFox, your reviews always have me laughing. Finally, kaulitztwilightlover for the idea to bring the Denali coven into this. I believe I owe you partial credit. Thanks again guys!
Chapter Twelve: The One Who Fights:
Bella POV
The first thing I noticed was that I didn't have to breathe. My heart wasn't beating. My lungs weren't straining for oxygen. I was dead. I didn't know how I knew that or how my brain was still functioning if I was dead. But I just knew. I didn't have to breathe, but it felt kinda weird not to. So I took in a shaky breath and that was when I smelled it. Blood. My God, I had never smelled anything so completely enticing before. Even the best smelling meal couldn't possibly compare. It wasn't the rust and salt smell that I was accustomed to. No, it was something different entirely. An array of delicious scents. My throat immediately started burning and my mouth filled with venom. I swallowed it down. My body instinctively wanted to seek out that amazing smell, but I wasn't ready to get up yet. I didn't know why the smell of blood was so appealing to me. It had always made me feel sick. I was laying on the floor, but I couldn't remember why. I couldn't really remember much right away.
Fuzzy bits and pieces started to come back to me. I remembered a wedding. I remembered a vampire trying to beat in the roof of a truck. I remembered being in an attic for what seemed like forever. But the details escaped me. Other things came back to me too. Charlie and the way his eyes crinkled when he smiled. Edward and how the sun looked sparkling off of his diamond coated skin. I vaguely remembered Phoenix and the baking hot sun blazing off of a parking lot. I also remembered the day Renee and Phil drove me to the airport. I remembered feeling so sad to be leaving, but resigned that Forks was going to be my new home. I remembered my first day at Forks high school and how everyone had stared at me. If they could only see me now, I'd give them something to stare at. Then I remembered the transformation, the pain. The burning in my throat made so much more sense now. I was a vampire.
I looked around and felt completely overwhelmed. I could see so much more than I had been able to as a human. I saw all of the particles of dust floating in the air. I could see the little cracks in the concrete floor. All of the colors were so vibrant. The congealing blood on the floor was the darkest of reds, like dark red wine. That blood didn't smell so good as the other blood, the blood rushing through the veins of the human in the room with me. I looked around for her and my eyes fell on Stella. I could hear her heartbeat. I could see her veins twitching in her neck and her wrists. I could see the blood rushing just underneath of her skin. God, how did Edward stand it? How had he been able to be around me? How could he have stood to be so close to me? I must have driven him crazy.
I didn't appreciate what he went through to be with me before. But I did now. The burning in my throat consumed my thoughts. Before I knew what I was doing, I jumped to my feet. Stella had been watching me warily. Now she looked completely terrified. I moved so fast, she didn't even see me coming. Grabbing her by the throat, I slammed her up against the wall, her feet six inches off the floor. A low hiss formed in the back of my throat. I couldn't take my eyes off of the vein throbbing in her neck. One little bite. All I would need was one little bite and her blood would start pouring into my mouth. So warm. And I was so thirsty. I leaned in closer, not even realizing what I was doing. The only thing that stopped me was her voice.
"Bella!" She yelled as loudly as she could with my fingers squeezing on her airway. "Bella! It's me. You know who I am. You really don't want to do this," she argued. Her voice was pleading with me. Her eyes were pleading with me. Her whole body was tense and she could have grabbed her gun. I don't know how much damage it would have done, but she could have tried shooting me. She didn't though, she was waiting for something. She was waiting for me. She still had faith in me. That shook me.
I faltered. Loosening my grip on her neck, I let her slide back down so her feet were touching the floor. Our eyes met. I could see the little flecks of color in them. I breathed in again and the smell of her blood assaulted me. I closed my eyes, trying to swallow down the venom, trying to block it out. I think she knew what I was doing because all of the sudden she was holding my hands. She was trying to comfort me. She should have been running away from me; instead she was trying to help me. I suddenly felt so guilty for almost eating her. Shame washed over my features. "It's okay, Bella," she was saying. "Look at me." I opened my eyes. "You're doing good," she praised, smiling a little. She didn't look quite so afraid now, though her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. She was still unnerved by me.
"I'm sorry," I choked out and my voice sounded so different to me that I wasn't quite sure it was me who had spoken. She noticed the difference too. My voice seemed richer, more musical, more like Alice's voice than my own. She laughed a little.
"Who knew?" She said, chuckling. "Being a vampire agrees with you, Bella. You actually look really amazing."
I wasn't sure what she was talking about because there weren't any mirrors around. But if my voice sounded so different, I knew I must have looked different too. I definitely felt different. I was so much stronger. I could feel the strength running through my muscles. I had so much more energy. I felt like I could run for miles and not get tired. Stella's hand was so warm in mine, I knew my hand must have felt ice cold, like Edward's hand. "How long?" I finally asked. I was still studying her face. She didn't seemed to mind that I was scrutinizing her. It was rather rude of me, actually. But I couldn't look away from her. She was my lifeline, my link to who I was before I had let myself become a vampire.
"You were out for a day and a half," she said.
I raised my eyebrow in surprise. "That's all? Edward said it took three days."
She shrugged. "I guess not," she replied. "I kinda can't believe it worked at all."
I breathed again and the venom pooled in my mouth. But it was easier to swallow down this time. The longer I spent with Stella, the less I wanted to bite her. The more I talked with her, the more the person in me came forward, the more the monster retreated. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and turned my head sharply. I jumped away from Stella, moving so fast she didn't even see me doing it. One second I was standing right in front of her, the next I was across the room, my back to the wall. I had forgotten about Lucy. She shuffled out of the office anxiously. My sudden movement made her freeze, terrified that I was about to attack her. She was almost right. The smell of two humans was nearly too much for me. I closed my eyes again and tried to calm down. My heart would have been pounding in my chest had it been capable of beating anymore.
"Bella?" Lucy asked hesitantly.
"Just stay there…for now," I said, swallowing quickly. My hands were clenched at my sides and I was shaking a little. Stella ignored my words and moved forward, very slowly though. I opened my eyes and she was standing in front of me again. Reaching out, she very lightly touched the side of my face.
"Your skin is so cold," she murmured. "And your eyes," she trailed off.
"What do my eyes look like?" I asked, curious.
"They're red," she replied. "Your skin doesn't give like it should. It's harder, like marble. And so pale."
I sighed. Before I knew what she was doing, she had pulled me into a hug. I was so close to her neck now. I stopped breathing entirely. When I didn't breathe, the burning wasn't quite so bad. Hesitantly, I hugged her back. The contact felt good. It reminded me that I was still alive, well, sort of. "I think I'm okay," I murmured when she pulled away. "I mean, I really wanted to bite you at first."
She smirked. "Yeah, the whole grabbing me in a choke hold thing clued me in on that."
"Sorry," I muttered sheepishly.
"But you don't want to bite me now?" She asked.
"Well," I said thoughtfully, "I wouldn't quite go that far. A part of me still wants to drain you. But another part of me knows who you are. It remembers. And it knows that I don't really want to kill you. That's the part that I'm listening to."
"I think that's the Bella in you," Stella said quietly.
"I guess so," I said. I turned to Lucy. "It's okay. You don't have to be afraid."
She nodded and moved a little closer. I was getting used to the burning now. It sort of faded into the background of my consciousness. It was always there, but it wasn't all consuming like I'd thought it would be. Edward had said that newborn vampires only thought of blood. It was all they wanted. I must have been an exception to the rule. I guess my brain was wired differently. Maybe that was why Edward had never been able to read my thoughts. There was something in me that was wrong…or right. Maybe being a vampire was what my mind and body had been designed for. The thirst was bad, but it wasn't so bad. It wasn't the only thing on my mind. I found that I was able to focus on many different things at the same time. So many things, actually, that I felt a little ADD.
My mind kept jumping around from Stella to Lucy to my surroundings to the dust particles in the air to the memories that occasionally bubbled to the forefront of my mind. "Uh, Bella?" Stella said, pulling me from my thoughts.
"What?" I asked.
"Not to rush you or anything," she said. "I know that all this must be a lot for you to get used to. But Eben and Beau…," she trailed off when a look of understanding passed across my features.
I suddenly remembered why I had done this in the first place. Eben and Beau were trapped out in the snow, surrounded by vampires. I was going to try to save them. I moved passed Stella, moving much quicker than a human would have, and went into the office. I mentally reminded myself to try to act a little more human around the humans. I could tell that my speed was freaking them out. They filed in after me. I was staring out of the window and I was a little surprised to find that I didn't need the binoculars. I could see the distance just fine. Eben and Beau were still trapped under the wreck. They both looked so cold. They were going to freeze to death if they had to stay out there much longer. I could already see their eyes drooping.
I scanned the rooftops for the vampires. I immediately spotted six of them. They were crouched on the rooftops, waiting. But their eyes were continually scanning. They were looking for Eben and Beau, but they couldn't find them. I still didn't know why. Movement caught my eye and I saw other vampires flitting in between the buildings. They were searching through them. Sniffing. One of the vampires stood out more than the rest. I knew without question that he was their leader. The other vampires gave him a wide berth. He strode right down Main Street so confidently, like he owned the whole place, which at the moment he did. His hair was cut short and he looked to be in his forties maybe. His eyes were bright red. He moved like a predator would and I wondered how much human contact he'd had. He didn't seem human at all, not like the Cullens. Granted, they'd had their moments of seeming incredibly inhuman. The baseball game briefly flashed through my mind. But they moved like human beings and they talked like human beings…most of the time. This vampire, he was like no other vampire I'd seen. Even James was more human than he was.
I smiled a little. He was the one I needed to go after. He was the alpha male, so to speak, and I knew if I could kill him the others would be afraid of me. "I know what I need to do," I said. I looked back over at Stella and Lucy. "You should stay here," I said.
But Stella shook her head. "No," she replied. "I'm going with you."
"It's not safe," I argued.
"Eben is my husband. And, for all intents and purposes, you're my sister now. You're not going out there alone. I don't care if you are a vampire," she argued back. "If you die, we all die anyway. I'd rather go out fighting than sitting here waiting to die."
"You won't be fighting," I said, looking back out of the window. "I will."
"Well, if you're going, I might as well go too," Lucy said, sighing a little. "I'm not staying here by myself. This place is creeping me out."
"Come on," I said, purposefully slowing down my pace to match theirs. I think they appreciated my effort. Stella smiled a little over at me. The fear was gone from her eyes now. We left the Utilidor the same way we'd come in. I remembered being so cold when I was running behind Stella, trying to get to the place. But as I stepped outside, I was surprised to find that I didn't feel cold at all. I wasn't even wearing a jacket. I wondered if Edward had ever actually needed his jacket in Forks, or if he only wore it to blend in better. Stella and Lucy started shivering right away. I guess it would have looked a bit odd for him to be strolling around in a t-shirt while everyone else had on winter coats.
We started walking back to town. I was itching to race forward, but I didn't want to leave them behind. I didn't know what else was out here. I would never forgive myself if I left them to save Eben and Beau only to come back and find that they had been killed in my absence. So we walked, so very slowly. I think Stella sensed my agitation because she started quietly laughing. I rolled my eyes at her. "What?" I said defensively. "I'm not used to being able to move so fast. It's kinda cool."
"Only you would think that being a vampire is kinda cool," Stella shot back.
I snorted. Emmett had never seemed to have a problem with what he was. "Well," I said, "it does have its benefits."
We were getting closer to town and we fell silent. I wondered how strong I really was. I felt strong. But I hadn't fed and the other vampires had been eating people in town for nearly a month now. Would I even be able to fight their leader? Or would he overpower me? I couldn't answer those questions and I didn't want to try. I just knew that if I didn't challenge him the people I cared about would die. When we came in sight of the buildings, the vampires on the rooftops straightened up. They looked at Stella and Lucy first. They obviously wanted to attack them, but then their eyes settled on me. They hadn't been expecting another vampire, much less a vampire freely walking in the company of two humans. I threw them off. Instead of jumping down to attack, they all turned to look at the vampire standing in the center of the street.
We passed near the wreck. I stopped and looked over at it. I could hear Eben and Beau both pull in shocked breaths when they saw my red eyes. "Jesus, Bella," Eben muttered. "What did you do?" He looked absolutely astonished. But he saw how closely I was standing to Lucy and Stella. He saw how relaxed I was with them and he didn't look afraid. My eyes shifted to Beau. He looked sad. I sniffed the air and realized then why the vampires hadn't been able to find them. I couldn't smell them. All I could smell was gasoline. When they drove the ditch driller into the building, the gas tank must have leaked all over them as they were trying to escape. They didn't even remotely smell human.
Stella moved a little closer to the wreck and gestured with her hand. "Come on," she whispered. "We're making a stand."
Beau and Eben crawled out from underneath the wreck. I smirked a little when I saw the vampires' eyes widen in shock. They hadn't expected to find the two humans they had been searching for hidden right underneath of their very noses. My eyes shifted to the vampire in the street. He was studying me. It was disheartening at first to see how casually he was looking at me. But then I noticed the tension in his muscles. I wasn't something he had planned for. Eben and Beau joined us. I was standing in front of the four of them, my arms folded across my chest. We must have been quite a sight, four humans and a vampire.
"What is this?" The vampire finally asked. He was moving closer. But I held my ground. I wasn't going to show weakness in front of him.
"You come to my town," I said, my voice ringing clearly out into the night. "You kill my people. And you have the nerve to question me?" I asked indignantly, putting on a little show for him. Really, I was terrified of him. But he didn't need to know that. "What did you think I would do? Just sit back and watch?"
"We didn't know there was a vampire in this town already," he said hesitantly. He didn't recognize me as one of the humans he had been hunting.
I smiled at that. "There wasn't," I said, letting that sink in. His eyes lit up in amazement.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"You've been trying to kill me all this time," I said, lowering my arms, my hands clenched into fists. "Now it's my turn to kill you. This," I said gesturing to myself, "was the only way."
He didn't quite know what to say to that. I think he understood at that moment that I hadn't been turned by one of his people. No, I had done this to myself. He growled lowly his throat and pushed forward. When the other vampires moved as though to join him, he held up his hand. "No," he said. His eyes were fixed on my face and he was angry. "I handle this."
"No matter what happens," I said quietly to the others. "Don't interfere." I looked back at them. "And don't get in my way." They nodded.
"You are one kick ass girl, Bella Swan," Beau replied, chuckling a little and shaking his head.
I smiled. "Let's just hope I'm a little more coordinated now that I'm a vampire." Turning back to the vampire moving slowly toward me, I stepped forward. He flashed a twisted grin at me for a moment and a split second later he was rushing toward me. He was so fast, much faster than I was. But even so, I could see his every moment. My eyes kept up with him perfectly. As a human, all I would have been able to see of him was a blur. Now I saw everything. I ran to meet him and we collided. Thunder echoed through the town, or at least I thought it was thunder, until I realized it was just the sound of us running into each other. Amazingly, neither of us fell down. I grabbed him by the collar of his jacket and threw him into the nearest building. It shook from the impact, several bricks dropping loose.
But that didn't seem to faze him. He was on his feet in seconds, coming back at me. This time, he tackled me, burying his head in my stomach. The air whooshed out of my lungs. I would have been in trouble if I actually needed to breathe. But, since I didn't, it just felt uncomfortable, but nothing more. Pain flashed through me when I slammed into another building. He held me in place, reaching back with his fist and bringing it down onto my head. He did that several times before I could recover myself. Wedging my knee up between us, I pushed him away. He flew out into the snow, rolled over, and was on his feet. I took a little bit longer to regain my footing and he was on me again.
He flung me through the air and I landed face first on the hood of a car. The hood dented with the impact. It hurt, but not nearly as much as it should have. What really hurt was when he grabbed my hair and started banging my face into the metal. I wondered if I could scar as a vampire. Then the vampire grabbed my hand and started squeezing. My skin was rock hard, but he was so strong. The bones in my hand started snapping. I cried out in pain. He had my head pressed down on the hood of the car. Leaning down, he whispered in my ear, "Once I'm done with you, I'm going to drain all of your friends, starting with the blonde one first." My eyes drifted over to Stella. All four of them looked terrified. They knew that their lives depended on my being able to defeat the vampire that was so clearly winning our fight. Stella's eyes met mine and, despite the fear in them, they flashed with confidence. She truly did believe in me. I saw the same thing in Beau's eyes and in Eben's eyes. Not so much Lucy. She was just terrified. Something in me hardened. I couldn't, no I wouldn't, let him touch any of them.
Struggling out of his grasp, I managed to turn around so I was facing him. I head butted him, rather pleased with myself when he stumbled backwards. Despite the pain in my now mangled hand, I grabbed the vampire by the neck. With all of the force I could muster, I reached back with my broken hand and shoved it directly into his mouth. The other vampires watched in horror as I ripped through his brains, my hand coming out on the other side of his skull. And with the hand still holding his throat, I tore off his head. His body fell to the ground, twitching a little. I knew I would have to dismember it and probably burn it to ensure that he wouldn't get up again.
But at that moment, I was just astonished that I'd won. The other vampires, however, didn't quite react as I'd expected. I thought that if I killed their leader, they would back off, maybe rethink their stay in Barrow. Now they just looked pissed. They all started snarling at once, their voices a cacophony of rage. Their eyes all focused on me and I actually gulped. Oh yeah, I was in trouble now. I'd had a difficult time with just one vampire. There was no way I could fight them all. The ones on the rooftops jumped down and started to advance toward me. The others moved with lightning fast speed to join their friends. They were about twenty feet away from me when they suddenly all stopped, frozen in place, their eyes wide with confusion and even a little bit of fear.
There was no way they were reacting that way because of me. I felt a tingle run up my spine. Sniffing the air, I realized that I could smell something vaguely familiar, like citrus and orchids. I couldn't really place it. It definitely didn't belong in Barrow. I watched the vampires in front of me warily and realized then that they weren't really looking at me at all. They were looking behind me. Surely, Stella, Eben, Beau, and Lucy hadn't scared them that way. I turned around. No, those four were turned around too, looking behind them. Slowly, my eyes drifted passed them, over the snow, to a group of people standing about forty feet behind them. There were eleven of them. My eyes fell first on the ones that I didn't recognize.
Then I saw her and the whole world seemed to drop away from me. I felt light headed, my knees wobbling a little. She was standing in front of all of the others. She looked exactly the same. Thin, but not emaciated. She was so small anyway that her thinness didn't look out of place. Her hair was still spiky. Her eyes were liquid gold. My human eyes hadn't done her justice. I remembered how beautiful I thought she was back then. But I didn't even know how beautiful she was. I couldn't appreciate it fully until now, when I was looking at her through my vampire eyes. Her mouth was dropped open in a little O. She looked absolutely astonished. "Alice," I whispered. She heard her name and her eyes were suddenly so full of love. I had to look away. I wasn't ready for that yet. My eyes shifted from her and fell on Jasper, who was standing next to her. He looked so confused, but I didn't know why.
Emmett was standing next to him. He looked stunned. I don't think he expected to come all the way to Barrow just to find me kicking some vampire's ass. Rosalie was next to him, smirking. When her eyes met mine, she didn't look away like she normally did. Her face didn't fall into its patented scorn. She actually looked rather apologetic. Esme and Carlisle were next to her. They were holding hands. Carlisle looked incredibly tense. Esme just looked relieved to see that I wasn't dead…well, dead dead anyway. My eyes fell to the empty space next to her and I felt the pain flare up in my chest again. He wasn't here. They had all come for me. They had even brought more vampires to help them. But he hadn't come. Maybe he was too distracted to bother, I thought bitterly.
So many emotions whirled through me at once, Jasper actually staggered backward. They were too much for him. Alice had to grab his arm to keep him upright. I was so angry. If they had only come two days sooner, I wouldn't have had to literally kill myself to defend the people I loved. If they had never left, I never would have come to Barrow in the first place. I was angry, but I was also relieved. Their being here meant we were going to survive. The vampires wouldn't attack us now. There were too many of us. Part of me was also a little overjoyed. I didn't realize how much I had truly missed them until I saw them again. I wanted to launch myself at Alice and just sob in her arms. Of course, I couldn't actually cry anymore.
"Uh, Bella?" Eben asked, his voice shaking a little. "I think we're massively outnumbered."
I smirked. Eben thought the Cullens and their mystery friends were more vampires sneaking up on them. Stella knew better. She looked back at me and her eyes were gleaming. "It worked," she said, her voice soaring. Alice raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't say anything. Emmett's eyes shifted from me to the vampires standing behind me. A slow smile graced his face and I knew he wanted to fight. Carlisle literally couldn't look away from me. I fidgeted a little under his gaze.
"It's okay," I said, addressing Eben. "You don't have to be afraid of them." I turned back to the vampires still hovering in front of me. They were trying to figure out what was going on. My eyes darkened. I felt the others come up behind me. I knew they were there without even having to look. Now I wasn't just one, little, malnourished vampire standing in front of four pathetically weak humans. No, now I was a vampire standing in front of eleven other vampires. Strong vampires. "But you," I grinned, revealing my teeth to the vampires now slowly backing away from us. "Oh, you'd better be afraid."
