DISCLAIMER: I do not own Twilight, any of the characters, or anything else Twilight related. Stephenie Meyers is the genius behind it all. The only thing that I own is the plot. Also, no criticism for the non-canon pairing.

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Carmen hushed me and rubbed soothing circles on my back as Eleazar opened the door. We were all stunned to find Edward standing there with frantic eyes. He gave me a sympathetic smile - probably in reaction to my scream – and then pushed his way into the room.

"We need to move you, Bella, and we don't have time to waste."

"What's wrong?" Eleazar placed himself between Edward and I and took on a defensive posture.

Edward glanced between Carmen and Eleazar warily, judging from their stances what he was about to say. "Irina is tracking Bella."

Someone gasped. It might have been Carmen. All that I knew was that the room was suddenly spinning as I tried to come to terms with that little tidbit. Would it never end? Did it even matter if I lived anymore when there were so many creatures intent on my destruction?

"Why?" Eleazar asked, confusion evident in his tone.

"The wolves," Edward responded. "She is holding Bella personally responsible for her association with the wolves that killed Laurent."

There was a hiss at my side but I couldn't find it in me to care who it was. The room began to spin faster and everything blurred at the edges. I was vaguely aware that Edward had moved to stand in front of me and his lips were moving as if he were speaking to me. But I couldn't hear anything other than the buzzing in my ears as a gray tunnel clouded everything in the room. His golden eyes, wide with panic, were the last things that I saw before the gray consumed everything and I felt my body collapse.

I'm not sure how long I was out, but it couldn't have been too long. I could feel cool hands on my arms, several pairs of them. One set of hands was brushing against my forehead and down my cheek with a feather soft touch.

It was Edward's voice that I heard first. "Bella? Bella, come back to me. You have to wake up, sweetheart."

I groaned, feeling a painful throb in my head. Edward let out a sigh of relief from beside me. My eyes opened to find him staring back at me intently. From my periphery I could see Carmen and Eleazar huddled together and watching me. I didn't have time for them, though. There was something more pressing than their concern for my human weakness. Edward had said that I needed to be moved before Irina found me.

"How do you know she's looking for me?"

He didn't have to answer. I should have known before I asked. Still, he answered anyway.

"Alice. She caught a vision of her finding you here while we were distracted."

"And the others?"

Did it really matter what happened to me? Edward being here left them one person short in the fight against the newborns. What if that made a difference in the odds? What if that was the difference between life and death for someone I knew? Someone I loved.

"We still have some time. But first I have to get you to safety."

Another thought occurred to me as I stared at his outstretched hands. "Why are you the one here?" I asked. "And why didn't Emmett come? I mean, if I'm in danger, wouldn't he care?"

This was quickly moving into dangerous territory. I had allowed myself to become too dependent upon Emmett. If he didn't even care to come whisk me away now rather than ripping apart newborns, could I ever really trust him? Perhaps I had deluded myself into thinking that he cared for me more than he actually did.

"I had to move quickly. There wasn't time for explanation. We need to move now, Bella."

Again, his hand stretched out towards me. He was begging, pleading with me to take it and not question what was happening. My mind knew that this was no time to have second thoughts about his intentions. Regardless what his feelings were for me, and how I would later convince him that I felt otherwise, I needed to trust him to keep me safe. Still, I hesitated.

I would be placing my safety in Edward's hands, not Emmett's. It almost felt like a betrayal to me. It was right on par with the kiss that Edward and I shared just a few nights before. I didn't want to do anything that jeopardized my relationship with Emmett. While Edward would still be there, waiting for me, I did not think that I could physically survive the heartbreak should Emmett walk away from me. And he might he leave me if I chose to place my faith in Edward. He might leave if he thought that I chose someone other than him.

Edward did not wait for me to finish my internal war. And I did not resist because my mind was aware that it I was going to survive to make it back to Emmett, I would have to trust Edward. Even Emmett would have to understand that reasoning. He was not here so I would have to go along with his rival, his brother, to keep myself safe and alive until he could find me again.

He slipped my parka on my arms before I had time to register the movement. In one swift movement, he slung me over his back and took off in a full sprint towards the ominous forest. The wind whipped across my face so I buried my face down against his marble neck. I was thankful that Edward had enough foresight to have me put on my parka. The outside air was cold enough but the wind factor was blistering. Edward's normally frigid body temperature seemed warm compared to the bone-chilling wind that his speed created. I shivered against him and clung on tighter in case my limbs numbed from the cold and I slipped off.

After maybe ten or fifteen minutes Edward slowed to a walk. He gently pried me from my stiff position on his back and cradled me against his chest. I pressed my ear up against the hollow where his heart was, the same way that he had done so many times with me, and listened. I knew that I would not hear a heartbeat. I had hoped that if I listened hard enough, his heart would give me some inclination about what he wanted, why he was here.

He chuckled softly sending vibrations through my body as he held me against him. "Bella, love, you do realize that you won't hear anything. Right?"

I glanced up at him to find his eyes dancing with delight and amusement. It was easy to remember every reason that I had fallen in love with Edward in the first place when he was in this mood. He was light and carefree. It was just the two of us. There were no worries, no concerns, no heated debates about souls and immortality. We were just Edward and Bella.

Correction; we were Edward and Bella. He had made it quite clear that it was possible for him to leave me because he did so twice. Until then, I had never conceived it possible that anything could tear me away from him. I was wrong. Edward was the reason that I left him. I could not waste my life waiting for someone that was afraid to commit to me, to us, because of irrational fears over my soul and the danger that I was in.

Carmen and Eleazar caught up with us then and surveyed the area. There was nothing special about the spot we were in. It was just a clearing in the trees next to a small stream of water. It might have been pretty if we were in any other sort of situation. I sat down on the damp grass and waited for someone, anyone, to explain to me what was happening and what I was supposed to do.

It was Carmen that broke the silence. "You should return, Edward. We will keep your Bella safe. Don't let your family down. Go fight for their safety and hers."

Edward shook his head adamantly. "They can manage without me."

"Edward." Eleazar's voice was condescending. "Irina will never harm her. She won't look for us here. Go."

Edward hesitated for a moment before turning to face me then with a pained expression. His brilliant eyes, normally sparkling with emotion, were darker at the edges. He took my hands in his own and held them firmly between us. It felt intimate and immediately I tried to pull my hands back but his iron grip held them in place.

"This feels wrong," he began. "But they're right. I do need to return for the fight." His eyes became bright with emotion. "I promise you, Bella, that I will do everything in my power to ensure your safety. Just promise me that you'll listen to Carmen and Eleazar. Don't try to do anything brave to save anyone."

I wasn't entirely sure what he meant but I nodded anyway. He placed a soft kiss on my forehead before releasing my hands and sprinting off through the trees.

Everything felt surreal. Carmen and Eleazar scanned the trees surrounding us vigilantly while I slumped to the ground. Here I had all but been whisked away despite my protests in order to protect me from bloodthirsty newborns, all of whom were hell bent upon drinking my blood. Then, because that wasn't bad enough, I had to escape my hiding place so that Irina wouldn't find me and punish me for my association to Laurent's death. And if all of that wasn't enough to scare me to my grave, the Volturi were still on their way. Even if I survived the first two, would I survive their inspection? I seriously doubted it. It seemed as though, one way or another, today would be the death of me.

I was snapped out of my morbid reverie by Carmen's flashing movement. One moment she had been to my right, silently pacing. The next she was at Eleazar's side on my left and whispering in his ear. He whispered something back to her and gave her a gentle nudge. She looked at him warily before she, too, disappeared into the thick cover of the forest.

"Eleazar?"

"Hush now, Bella."

It didn't seem that I was going to be getting any explanation, though I feared that I knew the answer already. There was only one reason that Eleazar would send away his mate at a time like this. He would never risk Carmen in a fight. Irina must have found us anyway and been closer than I ever thought she would be.

Oddly, this revelation relieved me. While I didn't want any harm to come to either Eleazar or Carmen, it was easier to think about them here than someone that I cared about like Emmett. If I could just convince Eleazar that I wasn't worth dying over, then no one would be hurt. Except for me, naturally. But it wasn't as if I honestly expected to make it out of this unscathed. Death had claimed my life long before and now I was expected to pay my debt.

A shadowy figure emerged from the line of trees before I could speak another word. Her silhouette was enough to make any woman jealous, curves in all the right places. Her pale skin contrasted beautifully against the raven color of her long, sleek hair. While her eyes were the same tawny color of a vegetarian, they were filled with anger.

"Irina," Eleazar greeted coolly.

"Move aside, brother. I mean you no harm."

He shook his head. "I've been instructed to protect the girl. Not even you are exempt from that."

She hissed and pulled her lips back over her gleaming teeth. "You know that she deserves to die."

"She's earned no such fate. Bella had nothing to do with the deaths of either James or Laurent. It was not her fault that they pursued her. You know this as well as I."

"Laurent did not pursue her," Irina protested. Her glare focused on me.

"Regardless, it was not Bella that was responsible for his death."

"You're right," she conceded, her eyes moving back to Eleazar. "Those vile dogs are to blame."

Her eyes glinted and she cocked her head to the side. She pursed her lips up into an almost amused smirk. She seemed to be considering something, though I wasn't sure what and was almost certain that I wouldn't like whatever it was.

"I am willing to make a trade," Irina finally said. "If I am allowed to exterminate the wolves, I will forgive your role in Laurent's demise."

"That is out of the question," Eleazar answered for me.

"They're my friends," I whispered weakly. "I would never let anyone harm them."

"Then it seems that we have a bit of a dilemma here," she sang. "Either you or the wolves will pay in blood for Laurent's death. Which will it be?"

"Irina, I will defend her even against you. You have one last chance to escape. I consider you my sister and it will pain me to be forced to destroy you now."

"Then stand down, Eleazar," she hissed back at him with a pointed glare in my direction. "No one will know the difference."

He growled in response. Irina did not respond. Instead, she sank down into her own crouch and began a slow sidestep that Eleazar matched. It was slow and methodical. Each step she took was matched in time with one of his. Every now and then her gaze would flicker away from him to catch a glimpse of me, motionless behind him. She jumped forward, towards me, and Eleazar knocked her back into the trees just as swiftly.

"Don't move," he commanded quietly.

I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or not, but I adhered to his command. Even if I wanted to, my legs were not functioning. I could not run if my life depended on it; and it most certainly did.

Ice cold fingers grasped around my arm and jerked me back into a stone embrace. Before I could scream, a second hand clamped over my mouth to silence the sound. My heart beat frantically in my chest, a sure sign of my distress. There was no pain but I could feel the wind whipping past me and I was aware that we were running. I had no idea for how long, in what direction, or even if we were being followed.

When I finally opened my eyes, I found that we were back inside the hotel room. Carmen watched me carefully. I felt very self-conscious under her watchful gaze. She reached towards me when I sat up and I immediately flinched back.

"No one is going to hurt you, Bella," she reassured.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Eleazar dealt with her." It was obvious that this was painful for her to admit. "I had to leave so that I could circle around and get you out of there without her seeing me."

"And Eleazar?"

"Perfectly fine, not even a scratch."

We both looked up to see him standing in the doorway with a grim smile. Carmen exhaled in relief and threw herself into his waiting arms. I let out my own sigh of relief. So far it looked as though no one was going to be hurt on my behalf. That was promising.

"Did you…?" Carmen's questioned trailed off when Eleazer shook his head.

"She is our sister, after all. She ran off shortly after you took Bella."

My eyes widened as I realized that Irina was still out there and probably still seeking revenge. If her rage wasn't directed at me, that only left the wolves. How could Eleazar have been so careless as to let her get away?

"But the wolves!" I protested. "She'll go after them!"

"And the wolves are more than capable of defending themselves against a lone vampire," he responded in a detached voice. He didn't like the idea of harm coming to her more than the idea of her hunting the wolves.

"Well, it should all be over soon," Carmen said while holding her mate closely. "Then we can go home and forget about this wretched day."

While I was a nervous wreck inside, I couldn't have agreed with her more. I just wanted this day to be over with so that I could go home and see Emmett again. I wanted the fight to be done so that I could be sure that no one I loved was injured… or worse. And I wanted to put an end to the rivalry between Emmett and Edward.

I had no desire to ever be in this sort of danger again, particularly not as a human. However, even I could recognize the fact that danger followed me regardless how I tried to escape it. In the future, it should be Emmett running to my rescue, not Edward.

A few hours later we finally got the call that we had been waiting for. Esme called to let us know that everything had happened as Alice predicted, minus the blind spots caused by the wolves. Only Jacob had been injured but it wasn't life threatening. My stomach twisted in sickening ways when I heard that he was hurt. No one deserved to be hurt because of me.

I was eager to get back home and check on Jacob. My feet tapped impatiently against the floor of the car while Eleazar sped down the highway. Thankfully neither he nor Carmen asked me to stop. I didn't know that I would have been able to control myself anyway.

Watching the scenery fly by at alarming speeds, I had never wished so desperately for someone to drive faster. Even at more than a hundred miles an hour, it felt like we were crawling back instead of racing.