Escaping Sol

Disturbing Visions

A Twilight Fanfiction

By Ranma15177

I took the time out of my schedule to write a little smut, but I'm back on the horse now, and feeling refreshed.

For those of you that didn't guess…and someone pointed it out o- the smutlett I wrote "Quick Decisions" was what occurred the day before Bella was whisked away on her whirlwind trip. Poor Edward! Never parted huh? I must be all sorts of EVIL.

I can't tell all of you how much I appreciate the reviews and the support you've given me. For those of you that added me to updates and made me a favorite author I'm incredibly honored. Please feel free to PM me any time with questions or comments. I'm writing this story to broaden my horizons as a writer, but also to make people happy. It makes me smile when I see that people are actually still reading this!

I now have two small personal fic challenges for myself along with a third that was asked for by one of my readers. She wanted to see the conversation between Renee and "the individual" that spilled the beans on the vampire thing. I also want to write that. It's a story that kind of needs to be told anyway right: ) I wouldn't want that left in the dark. The other one is the Alice/Jasper scene that Edward walks in on them in his bathroom. The final one is a stand alone like my yogurt story but a bit more risqué. It's kind of original in so far as I haven't seen anything like it around here. We'll see what you think when I release it.

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EPOV:

I stood there with Jacob and Leah for the longest moments. The darkness around us was lifting; becoming light, but the fire leapt with purple flames and cast an eerie light that added to the horror of Leah's news. Sam had been married for only a little over one month, and Emily was pregnant. Sam would never know the joy of seeing his wife heavy with his child…would never be able to hold the future of his life in his hands. I had said that Sam was a good man, and I had meant it. Despite what the wolves were to us, and despite our natural differences I felt pity for the families that had lost sons and daughters and now…fathers. Leah looked into Jacob's eyes with fear and pain, not for herself, but her cousin. Jacob just put his arms around Leah and hugged her. Their minds were quiet. The new pack leader didn't make any other moves and was stoic. He stood with his arms tightly wound around her body until she started to shake with unrestrained sobs. Esme had walked over with her hand delicately placed over her mouth in shock. She had heard Leah's news as well and she put her hand on my shoulder. I nodded my head at my mother's acknowledgement of the situation. What was there for us to say? Would they even want our comfort? We were not members of Sam's pack. For all intents and purposes we were still their enemy in the broadest sense of the word. We had no way of helping them.

I turned from them and walked back through the smoke as Maria's group tended the flames. It was then that I concentrated on Maria. She was smallish and dark for our kind. She directed her people like troops on a battlefield at all times. Nothing she said to any one of the remaining six vampires she had with her was a suggestion or an endearment. She spoke in orders. I tried to imagine Jasper with her, beside her, and I could hardly do it. I couldn't help wondering what Alice had done to make him so much easier around others. I didn't think that Maria's way of life would lead to interpersonal relationships, and despite Jasper's frequent slips and scrapes with our way of life he wasn't a hard individual. He laughed easily with our family. Maybe Alice was his smile.

Her thoughts were simply focused on the task of controlling the flames and getting the last of her people under control, and just when I thought I would never hear anything of use her mind went beyond her work, 'I have to get back to Texas, the timing is perfect. These vampires have done half of the work for me already, everyone is out of Dodge. Jasper looks well; I think their strange lifestyle might suit him. Humans were starting to make him moody. Hell, everything was making him moody .That Alice can have him. It keeps me from having to defend my territory from such an aggressive force. Jasper would be one hell of a thorn in my side if he decided to return. So much land all at my disposal and all I have to do is get out of here before the coming shit-storm.' That comment had me worried. What was going to happen next? Maybe she was talking about the Volturri. Her mind had gone to them earlier; maybe she knew they were on their way. Still, we had no idea why they had attacked and I was about to question Maria when another voice made itself prominent in my head.

Jacob's mind, which had been momentarily silent, talked to me in my head. 'I know you can hear me…I'm not sure how this situation is going to go on. We need to regroup. Figure out if there is more to come or if that was it. Those weren't the vamps that killed Bella. We still have work to do." I wanted to tell him the revelation we had received from the phone call at Charlie's house, but I wasn't sure he would consider it "good" news. Jacob continued to talk, "I need to get out…run…and then tell Emily about Sam. I can't let the pack see me weak, but I have to break down for a second. I already told Leah that no one is allowed to make the change unless it's an emergency, it'll give me the five minutes I need to grieve. No one should have the burden to tell Emily but me. Maybe I'll go to Emily first.

I went to look for Sam's body and quickly realized that somehow in all of the commotion Rosalie and Emmett and perhaps even Alice and Jasper had probably taken them back to La Push already, because the bodies were all gone, and Emmett was walking out of the woods coming from the direction of the Reservation.

Jacob continued to speak in his mind and I saw him out of the corner of my eye, not as a man, but a wolf, entering the forest on the far side of the clearing.' Either way, I saw you coming to stop her from telling me about Sam's kid. I appreciate what you tried to do just now. I don't need anyone to take care of me though. I don't need a vampire to baby-sit me. I'm going to have to stand on my own…especially if I'm going to lead them. I'm glad Sam took that responsibility for as long as he could. He gave me time to be a kid for a little longer, and to hide from my responsibilities. I should have known it would eventually come to claim me.'

I silently agreed. Fate was something that was undeniable. Unfortunately this time it came with loss. We would need to speak to the pack at length about the things we had learned once we spoke with Maria, and to tell Jacob about Bella. I noticed that the ambulance was driving away with either Rosalie or Carlisle at the wheel and I looked over my shoulder to see Emmett walking toward me favoring his arm. I had to ask him about the fallen wolf boys first. It was only right that I make sure that none of them had been wrongfully taken by some other third party in the confusion. "Did you take the dead back to their homes?"

"Yeah, although they insisted on keeping the bodies at the lodge until Jacob returns…Apparently he needs to do some kind of ceremony. I feel bad for him. Do you think he's ready for all that? He is just a kid no matter how old his body might be." Emmett asked as looked to me with concern. 'Do you think he'll turn on us if he finds out about Bella?'

"No. I don't think that's going to happen. He'll be angry perhaps but what is done is done. He can't make her human again any more than I can." I looked to the ground and then back up at my brother, but I couldn't wipe the mask of grief off of my face.

Emmett placed his hand on my shoulder and gave me a comforting squeeze before continuing his thoughts. 'There are worse things than her being like us. She still loves you right? You still love her? Now you have an eternity to share that, and you don't have the burden of guilt for having to turn her. I know your sadistic streak begged for that to be you, but on some level you must be relieved? Now you won't have to find the strength to keep yourself from killing her.'

I was surprised that some part of me was actually relieved just as Emmett had said, and then another part of me railed against the concept of anyone having their essence flowing through her. I wanted to be a part of her, inside and out. I thought about Bella's blood flowing like a river down my throat binding her forever to me in the sense that she was flowing into me and my venom flowing into her marking her as mine. It was not just my vanity although that was part of it. It was symbolic of who we were to each other, not to mention that the very idea of us sharing such a bond was erotic. It was not to be though.

Before I got any further in my musingsEmmett continued out loud, "This looks like its back on right…but I want you to look at it. Carlisle was too busy, and I'm not asking Rosie because she's already touchy about it." He rotated the limb that he had recently lost and held the shoulder. I checked it noticing the pucker of skin that would eventually fade until it was nothing. I held my hand to the shoulder as he continued to roll it. I nodded my head.

"Everything feels right. Just keep moving it and the detachment shouldn't cause you any trouble. It looks mostly healed. Did Rosalie have a heart attack?" He nodded his head and began to walk off as I snickered.

Emmett laughed out a response, "Yep! She was horrified that I was losing my bits and pieces. She's going to reward me for living by giving me a tour of the bedroom though, so I can't complain. On some level she knows we're detachable, but it still made her pretty upset. I'll have to "comfort" her for a while." Emmett looked over his shoulder at me with a huge smile on his face and he wiggled his eyebrows.

"The lot of you are a bunch of sex maniacs." I rolled my eyes at my brother.

"Don't knock it till you've tried it…and since it's come to Alice's attention that you're going to be doing it soon…I'll get back to you on that." Emmett's tone was suggestive to his desire for me to share with him. He honestly thought I would talk openly about anything I would do in my bedroom? Had we honestly lived in the same house for the last fifty years? 'I promise not to make fun of you...much.'

"I'm not going to be having an open dialog with you about any of my physical activities with my wife Emmett, you'll just have to make assertions the same way everyone in the rest of the house does. Go with what you hear and then gossip." I assured him with a very wicked grin.

"I'm not one to hear and tell Edward!" He turned around and shrugged.

"Yes, and that's why you torture me with the many faces of you and my sister in the throws of passion?" I let my voice carry my disbelief.

"I'm just watching what I want to see behind my eyelids, if you happen to be tuning in and eavesdropping it isn't my fault." Emmett scolded.

"Certainly not, please excuse my rudeness." My voice was dripping with sarcasm. He and my other siblings were constantly using their sexual escapades to drive me from their heads. They knew it worked, showing me things that I didn't want to see, I had evidence to the contrary about his statement though, "And the time just two weeks ago with Jasper and Alice in my bathroom? What of that? You seemed more than happy to discuss that with everyone within earshot."

Emmett simply shrugged his shoulders and added, "Fine. I gossip. Sue me."

Unfortunately we had more pressing issues than my family's carnal desires. "Will you tend the remains with Maria's coven until they are finished burning up?"

Emmett nodded his head and spoke, "Then I'm going back to the house with Esme and the crew from the south. I figure we can keep them busy while you go into La Push and take care of the wounded." He nodded in the direction of home. He spoke quietly, "If you have any problems let me know. I've got my cell."

I changed direction and ran up next to Emmett and began to speak rapidly and very quietly. "You as well, Emmett, don't trust them. Maria and her crew have their own agenda. They are not here for altruistic reasons. I don't want them hurting you or Esme. If they start causing trouble we need to hear about it. As soon as I can get Rosalie back to you I will…but she's just as certified as I am in medicine and I fear we'll need her help. If they want to go let them leave. We can always try to find out more later by ourselves. We don't absolutely need them." I said this at the barest of whispers so that no one could hear but Emmett. "If you can get them to talk…do it. We can get back up to speed when we return home."

"Not a problem. You should get going so you can help Carlisle." Emmett rolled his arm again as he said this clapping me on the shoulder and smiling. I nodded in agreement to Emmett's statement.

"I will see you soon." I lifted my voice slightly and looked toward Esme who was standing with a very despondent looking Leah Clearwater. "Esme, I'm leaving now." I turned and took off as fast as I could run for the coast and La Push. I smelled the salt in the air and felt my legs pumping desperately, rapidly. I understood Jacob's desire to run as far and fast as he could. The darkness of early morning was all around me. The smell of the dew on the grass and the upcoming rain, in the distance I could smell a heard of deer running through the woods. I decided to fell one of them. My thirst was extreme although I hadn't really thought much about it. It had been a grueling week. A doe was drinking away from the rest of the herd and she went down with very little fight, her legs thrashing momentarily before the venom stilled her and I heard the rest of the deer running in terror. The welcome blood was flowing down my throat and filling the void of my hunger before they could even truly get away. If I had more time I would have drunk from another, but as it stood I may have already stayed away too long. I hid the carcass amongst the bushes for scavengers and continued my journey to La Push.

The light blue haze of dawn was coming and the sun would rise soon. However the shadows still kept me from plain sight. I reveled in this aspect of my existence, the freedom of real speed. I could almost imagine Bella running with me in the pre-dawn light, her hair bouncing in the wind as she wound between the trees and ducking just out of sight as we chased each other. I was so wrapped up in the illusion of her that I could almost see the shadow of her running ahead of me her beautiful laugh a haunting melody in my head. I broke through the tree-line and was in La Push faster than I would have imagined. The town was alive with activity. If there had ever been questions about the clandestine wolf people before, now there would be harder evidence to their existence. They would have to come up with something to tell the people who were not in on the secret if there was anyone left who didn't know. At this point I was hard pressed to believe that the whole reservation wasn't aware of the situation.

It didn't take me long to find the meeting building. It was drawing a large crowd and I was startled to see Billy Black by the door waiting for me he was watching my approach with shadowed eyes. "Thank you for coming here." I walked past the side of the building where a tarp was down and I could smell the dead bodies under them. It was a horrible loss, especially since most of the wolves that had died were very young.

"I'm glad to be of help. I know we're here against your better judgment." I understood why Billy was nervous of us.

"I'm an old man. Everything is against my better judgment. I'm here to watch over them. They shouldn't be alone. I guess we are finding ourselves in your debt now more often than my ancestors would have ever been comfortable with, but they probably didn't know you as well as us. I'm not so closed minded as to think that we aren't growing to need each other." Billy Black surprised me even further when he paused and said something that I would have never expected him to say, "I'm sorry for your loss." He looked truly saddened by my fiancée's death.

Billy continued to speak with a familiar tone, as if we had never been enemies. "I knew Bella as a little girl. I watched her grow up, and I was protective of her like any father. She used to play with my daughters while Charlie and I fished. I was afraid that you would hurt her, that you would kill her. I believed the stories more than what I saw from your reality. She was a beautiful woman, and she would have been a fine wife." He looked away from me, his weathered face looking even more distraught by the moment. He looked at the dead bodies and tears gathered in his eyes. "They were all too young to die. Hell, I thought Harry was awfully young to die."

"Billy. I appreciate your consolation and your acceptance." I gathered my courage and continued. "A few hours ago we learned that Bella was not killed as we had thought. She was taken from us and she is returning as we speak." I didn't want this person who cared so deeply for someone I loved to hurt, especially since his motivations had always been her safety.

"That seems impossible. Didn't Jacob see them kill her?" He looked astonished and troubled as he questioned me.

"The group that assaulted her must have someone with them that can warp memories. What Jacob saw was not real, but an illusion. What the Volturri wanted him to see." I wasn't sure if I should tell Billy Black that my fiancée was one of the undead. I didn't know if I could handle his reaction when I felt so awful about the situation myself. She didn't deserve to be turned by those strangers after being kidnapped. She had probably been so frightened, so alone. I didn't want to imagine the suffering of her transformation. What comforts had they allowed her? What were her circumstances then and now?

I continued after my pause, deciding that I would let him ask if he wanted to know the status of her change. I wasn't going to volunteer any information until I had more knowledge of the situation at large, "I have not told Jacob yet. I was distracted by this turn of events, as well as other grim situations that have come to light." I kept my face schooled into a grim and impassive hard line.

"Yes. Poor Emily will be inconsolable. She was a newly married woman. When a warrior goes beyond his flesh there is no comfort for those left behind, but the hope that we will return to each other when we reach eternity." He said this with deep sadness tingeing his voice. "As to your finding Bella alive, I'm happy to hear that we will still have something to celebrate when all of this has settled down." It was said in a very matter of fact way. There was no contempt for me. I was surprised.

"Thank you Billy. I need to get in and help my father. The dawn is breaking and I'm afraid that there is more injury than even Carlisle can handle alone." I stated this with grim uncertainty. I started to walk into the building and I heard Billy comment behind me.

"Yes, I remember what a handful Jacob was when he was injured last May. Please feel free to ask anyone here for help. Everyone is at your disposal. Thank you for fighting with them, and for helping us to defend the people." Billy stated solemnly. He stayed where he was outside of the hall and I passed through the doors into the main room.

Carlisle's shirt was covered in blood from Collin's operation. I could see that he was quietly lying on his side. The ravaged flesh from his wounds had been expertly wrapped and stitched and my father looked slightly less harangued although he still looked sad. "Edward. I'm glad you've arrived. I assume that means that the others are finishing up in the field. Can you look into the last two injuries? Jasper and Alice are with them in the other room. If I need you in here I will let you know. I um uncertain that we will be able to save Collin…I've been replacing his blood but his rib had, as you had guessed, punctured his heart and as he moved it would further tear the tissue."

Carlisle gave me a grave look and continued in his head, 'If he makes it through the next few hours he'll have a better chance of survival. The wolves bodies are made to repair damage; it may be that he'll pull through. The prognosis is grim.'

"I will pray for him." I put my fingers in Collin's spiky hair in a familiar way and checked the dilation of his eyes and looked at the papers that my father had placed next to the bed as a makeshift patient chart. A heart monitor beeped slowly and weakly at his side, his blood pressure was extremely low, and I could almost taste the trauma of his situation on my tongue. Especially with blood that did not smell as horrible being injected into his bloodstream making his scent more tolerable. From what I could read on his chart Carlisle was right. I went into the back room where Alice was talking gently to Embry and Quill while Jasper stood on the opposite side of the room trying to calm the general panic in the small space.

"Rosalie is returning the ambulance to the hospital and then returning to the house. She was able to help a good number of the injured in the room before your arrival. I believe the only situations left to be dealt with in there are the two last beds on the right." Jasper said to me from the corner with a serious look.

Alice continued speaking, "No more wolfing out. Trust me; it's bad for your health right now."

"I just want to see where Jake is…he said he would be coming back here, but he isn't, and I'm starting to worry." It was Quill, he had an ace bandage wrapped tightly around his leg and arm. The room had been arranged with cots and I realized that this was probably used as an emergency shelter in the case of storms with high winds and waves…especially this close to the shore. The wolf people of La Push were too big for the small beds, but they were already in varying degrees of pain.

"I'll do it Quill I'm not laid up with a broken leg." Embry patted his friend on the shoulder. "Jake never said we couldn't turn back…he just gave the order for us to become human. No time limit. It's a bit open ended."

"No." Leah walked in behind me and I realized that she must have been the only one allowed to change back so that she could return to La Push. "Jacob ordered us to stay human. We're going to stay human till he gets back." I began checking the broken arm, and just as I had suspected it had healed wrongly. I would need to break the bone again and then set it. No plaster…there wouldn't be time and who were we fooling anyway? "I'll be in here with Doctor Cullen looking after the people who are actually hurt." She turned on her heel and walked out.

"Great…wonderful. I was looking forward to this day. Leah Clearwater. Evil Bitch Second in Command! I can't wait for her to start ordering me around. That will be exciting." Quill bit out as he rolled his eyes. I got the hilarious vision of Leah Clearwater with a whip barking orders quite literally as the rest of the pack tried to avoid getting hit. He looked at me with a wide grin on his face and I smiled back.

"Really? I had no idea she was up for promotion." I said blithely as I continued talking to Embry, "This might sting a bit. How about you look the other way?" I smiled reassuringly into Embry's worried glance.

"Yeah. She's Harry's daughter. The Clearwaters are an old family and they sit second on the council. Obviously Seth is younger. This is the way it's going to go. Hey, It really doesn't hurt that bad now. I think it healed up." Embry changed the subject while he flexed his fingers trying to look convincing. Quill started laughing as I unwound the ace bandage around the break so that I could feel exactly where the crack was and where I would have to re-break it.

"Don't tell me you're afraid of Dr. Fang Jr. here? Come on…what's the worst he could do?" Quill taunted as Jasper laughed and Alice rolled her eyes.

"Do I look like an idiot? What he's gonna' do is gonna' hurt like hell! How about we let him break your arm and see if you like it." Embry snarled at Quill

"How do you know he's going to break your arm?" Alice asked with a smile. "I can see the future…and I haven't seen him do that…" She trailed off and I nearly started laughing. Alice couldn't see the wolves at all. Of course she couldn't see me breaking his arm.

"Fine, but whatever he's going to do better not hurt!" Embry shouted in the silence as everyone else watched him. I looked over my shoulder at Jasper and pointed with my eyes at Embry, and then I looked at Quill and mouthed the words 'hold him'.

'He better not break my damn arm again. He better not break my damn arm again. He better not…' Embry repeated in his head like a sutra. I got ready to apply pressure to the bone and told Alice in a fast whisper to back away.

'On the count of three then…' I thought as he ended the sentence and I snapped the abused arm. It was an audible "SNAP!"

"FUCK!! MOTHER MARY! WHAT THE HELL!" Embry was already being held down by my brother and his friend but the force of his struggles was shaking the cot to almost the point of breaking. "What the FUCK happened to seeing the future?!?" Embry continued to resist as I began stabilizing the break with splints and wrapping it in an ace bandage again.

"Did I forget to mention that I can't see your future?" Alice gave a smug smile and she continued, "I don't need to see the future to know that you need to stop moving around though. Do you want him to have to do that again?"

"I don't know if your bones can take that kind of trauma in the same place more than twice in a day…we might have to put a metal plate in your arm if you don't start behaving." I smiled wickedly. "Surgery."

Embry immediately stopped moving around. I smiled at the two men holding him down and looked at Embry's leg. "NEXT!" Quill shouted with a small grimacing smile.

"Gentlemen?" I situated myself so that I could feel the fractured femur. It too had grown back at an unacceptable angle. Quill and Jasper pushed his shoulders against the cot so that he was lying down.

"AWWW! Hell no! Get me outta' this bed! Get your hands off of me Dr. PAIN! NO! YOU CAN'T BREAK MY DAMN LEG!" He had an image of himself hopping out of the room and us being drug along behind him and I very nearly laughed. Jasper, Quill and Alice had gone beyond that point though and the three of them were howling with laughter. In fact the entire room was watching us with no small amount of amusement.

"It will only last a second. I will be as humane as I possibly can." I promised the wolf boy with the broken leg in as soft and gentle a tone as I could muster.

"Humane? You lied to me!" He accused as he tried in vain to pull his leg away from me.

"No. Alice lied to you, and she really didn't lie, she told unrelated facts and you chose to believe them as relevant. I chose to stay silent. Now stay still." I took him a bit harder in my grasp feeling the break under my hand and this too audibly snapped. Everyone in the room flinched.

"MOTHERFU…" Alice had stuffed the end of a pillow in Embry's mouth to stop his expletive. He blinked and looked slightly dazed and confused.

"There are ladies present!" Alice laughed. "Besides…such language isn't meant for such small puppies!" My tiny sister was shaking her finger threateningly at the huge young man and he nodded his head with a look of disbelief. Quill and Jasper began laughing again. I worked quickly splinting and wrapping so that I could get on with the work ahead of me. The wolves had excellent healing capabilities. Embry would be back on his feet in the day. Probably by mid-afternoon if I allowed it. I would really rather he waited a bit longer to make sure we wouldn't have more of the same.

"Don't put any pressure on it until nightfall. We don't want to see you again." I gave him an encouraging smile and moved on. When I walked up to the next bed the young girl shook her head. "Now, who do we have here?" I asked the girl, although I knew already that her name was Sheila.

"Sheila, I was just knocked out. I'm getting over a concussion. No touching!" She smiled but I could see the fear in her eyes. I wasn't sure if she was more afraid of me as a vampire or me as a doctor.

"See that? Embry Call you should be ashamed of yourself! Look at that poor little girl. Now she's afraid to see a doctor!" Alice tapped her foot.

"Sorry." Embry smiled hesitantly at the young girl. "It really wasn't that bad."

Sheila narrowed her eyes at Embry. "Really, because I remember a lot of cussing and flailing…are you some kinda' whimp?"

Embry sighed and looked away and the room burst into laughter again and it only just died down when everyone heard someone screaming outside. "NO! NO! NO! NO! YOU PROMISED ME! GOD! NO!" Everyone became deathly quiet and those that could rise got up and looked out the windows. Embry was leaning against Quill with pain on his face…but not for his wounds, and he helped Embry hop across the room.

"Oh…Emily." Embry shook his head as he whispered her name. It was a world of hurt and loss inside of a name. Embry and Quill leaned against each other as they stared out the window waiting for the girl to come into view.

Alice, Jasper, and I ran out the door and saw a woman with a ruined face running across the muddy ground. She had left her car running with the door open. She slipped twice as she ran through puddles and uneven ground. She was still beautiful despite having been mauled. I realized at once that it had been one of the werewolves that had done it. Sam. He had torn his claws down her face, deadening the nerves and destroying her beauty. "It's going to be fine Emily. We won't leave you alone." Billy said as he sat unflinching in his chair. She had lost her uncle to a weak heart, and now she was losing her husband.

"FINE? No, SAM!" Emily screamed. She tore the tarp off of the bodies and crawled to him. His lips and skin had taken on a blue cast and his body still had the look of being broken over and over again, he was truly a mess and I saw Quill and Embry wince in the window. She lay next to him and sobbed. "This will never be okay…THIS WILL NEVER BE OKAY! Sam…open your eyes. Please? I promise to do anything. I don't care who I have to sell my soul to. Just don't leave me. I'm not ready yet!" She sat on her hip and ran her fingers over his chest both hands coming back bloody.

Leah Clearwater stepped toward her cousin with sadness and a trace of fear on her face and in her thoughts, 'This is all my fault Emily. I'm so sorry. I wish it was me. I wish you weren't going through this. No one would miss me.'

"Where were you? Where were you when he died? You promised me you wouldn't let him die Leah!" Emily accused her cousin. Her hands grabbed at Leah, but she couldn't gain any purchase because her hands were slippery with her dead husband's blood. "WHERE!" It came out as a statement.

"I'm so sorry Emily…I tried to help him." Leah whispered to her cousin with horror as she looked at the blood she now had smeared across her belly. She had rushed past me to fight for Sam. I had seen it, but I was silent. I knew how Emily was feeling. I too had lost Bella only last week, the only difference was that Sam was not going to be coming back. Never. I was the lucky one this time. Leah stared at Emily in horror as she forced out the words, "I tried."

"I don't want to hear it! SAM!" Emily shook his dead shoulders and began sobbing in earnest. Her hands once again holding her lover and her arms and hands were covered in the sticky blood that covered his body from the scores of gashes on his frame. Her hair was covering her face and she leaned down over his heart and pressed her face into his chest as if to listen for it's thundering beat. Once again there was a sob that tore roughly through her chest. When she looked up at us again his blood stuck to her hair and face.

"You look fine to me! Look at him. Look at him and tell me you tried! Is there something on his body that they didn't break? You let them destroy him Leah!" Emily stood up on wobbly legs, and I looked up watching as my father stepped from the building. Leah saw Carlisle grimace in sympathy and she looked back at my father as if to ask for help. The newly widowed woman walked toward Leah, grabbed her shoulders, and glared at the wolf woman. "You let them do this to him on purpose!" Emily's hand went back and I moved to stop her; my hand catching Emily's before she could hit her cousin.

"Please…she's telling the truth. There was no way she could have helped any more than she already had." I said the words in the most calming way imaginable. Her thoughts were murderous. She wanted to hurt Leah, but she would only end up hurting herself.

"What would you know about it you walking cadaver?" The widow spit the words in my face with malice and turned toward me. "How dare you come here without his permission?" She pointed to Sam and shuddered. "What would you know about what they have sacrificed for the sake of your presence? Why are you still here?"

"We are here because there are people here who need our care, and when we are done I promise you that we will leave." Carlisle spoke with a quiet voice. He understood that she was in pain, and as a doctor I could see the desire to ease her suffering.

"NO! I mean WHY? Why are you HERE?" She held her blood covered arms out around her. "You're all nothing more than myths, legends, and children's nightmares! None of this can possibly be real!" Emily was losing her hold on sanity and as Billy went to slowly cover the bodies of the dead she rushed over and stood defiantly over the tarp. "They look human…" The widow looked desperately at Carlsile and pleaded, "Why would I be given his love if I wasn't allowed to keep it? Shouldn't you be able to bring him back? You could kill him…like you…so that he could live like you!"

"That isn't possible." Carlisle walked forward and put his hands onto Emily's shoulders, and staring deeply into her eyes. He steered her off of the tarp so that Billy could continue in covering the dead and began to speak, "the werewolves are incapable of becoming one of us…their entire nature is to be the opposite of what we are. We are cold and dead, and they are alive and beyond the warmth of humanity. Sam was a great man, even more so because he was alone when he became a monster and there was no one to hold his hand but you. He looked beyond his very nature to help us. You sacrificed much for your husband, and now he has returned that love to protect you. Please Emily, don't blame your cousin for his death. She fought valiantly, and is grieving just as…"

Emily pushed Carlisle's hands away and interrupted his words, "Yes, you would understand grief wouldn't you? You monsters don't care about human lives do you?" She was angry at Carlisle for not being able to turn Sam, and even angrier at the world for having to wish he was one of the living dead.

Leah spoke as she pointed to Alice, who looked dazed, and Jasper, "Yes, because they would know nothing of love right? They don't look like they might understand the concept right? You know why Sam was ready to do this…you know why he was fighting! They aren't like the other vampires, and if there were more like them there would be no need to fight. We could live without the burden of being monsters. Sam didn't believe that the Cullen family was the reason we were becoming wolves at such an alarming rate. He believed that there was something bigger coming for all of us, and with them on our side we might have an advantage, however small it is."

"CONCEPTS! LOVE? GOOD VS EVIL! It's all a bunch of nonsense! I heard him talking to Jacob about it, but I refuse to believe that a monster can love anything more than itself!" Emily spun around and pointed an accusing finger at me. "And DON'T give me any nonsense about Bella! There is more than one reason we were calling her Vampire Girl. She was just as miserable and dead inside as he was when I met her. She threw herself over a cliff for god's sake! Are we really going to use her as a measure for a normal person? Don't forget that it was her connection to them that got her killed!"

I looked down at the mud at my feet and winced at the vision of Bella sick, wan, and deathly thin coming into my mind from Emily. She was standing in a sunny kitchen full of food and people but my love looked out of place and she would from time to time force a small piece of muffin into her mouth and chew as if she couldn't taste it. She was right. Bella looked like a vampire amongst the robust and healthy men around the table right down to the dark black and blue circles under her eyes. She looked dead. I had done that to her. Maybe Billy was wrong, maybe I hadn't physically killed her, but I nearly did and now the Volturri had done the rest of the job.

"None of you will talk about it! None of you wants to bring it up, but I don't have any problem showing contempt for a bunch of blood sucking monsters! What were your plans for Bella? What were you going to do to her after you were married? Was she going to play Little Suzie Homemaker while you went out into the world and killed, or was she going to add herself to your already strong coven? What if they were to decide that we were a threat? What if they decided to kill all of us? You were all going to let them do that just for the sake of what, something that might be a hunch?" Emily turned back toward Carlisle. "I don't care if you are a doctor there is proof all around us that you're willing to drink the blood of others."

I looked at Emily with pain in my eyes; I knew what she was feeling. She was blaming them, and herself, and us. I wanted to help her desperately and so I tried to convey a small bit of what I was feeling about Bella. "Carlisle has never taken a human life that was not already endangered! I can tell you what it is like to take the life of another person who was not already going to die. I am more of a monster than he'll ever be, and I loved Bella dearly just as she was."

Carlisle interrupted me before I could go on. "You are not a monster Edward. You know what Bella would say to that."

I cut my father off and continued looking deeply into Emily's ruined face. "No, I was a monster, but she reminded me what it was like to love someone more than life. I cared for her so much that I was willing to separate myself from the only person that I have ever loved for the sake of her safety. I wanted Bella to stay safe and human. I wanted her to get older and have children and die like everyone else. If I could give her those things in myself, I would, but I can't. That is how you came to see her looking so destroyed. We were both like that."

"So that's your alibi? That is how you would have justified making her one of the legions of the undead?" Emily bit the words out and I heard her thoughts, 'He doesn't know what it's like…to be alone…to have this responsibility to someone you'll never see again. How will I raise this baby without Sam? I'm disfigured and ugly…I never felt that way when Sam was here with me, but my child will see it, and he will get the wrong idea about who and what Sam was.'

I continued as if I had not heard her mental words. "Do you have any idea what it's like to wish you were something else? I wish to God I could be human again! All I want is to give her a family and my warmth, and to see her have our children and grow old together. If it was her wish to be human…I would have done anything for that to remain true. I argued with her about it daily. It was the thing that followed her into sleep and sometimes it was the first thing on her lips in the morning. I didn't want to damn her soul, and she didn't want to live without me." I looked up at my family and they had sorrowful looks on their faces. Carlisle most of all, and I wished that I could comfort him against my feelings.

"I don't want to live without Sam either. I can't live without him." The widow looked at Leah with the anguish evident in her eyes and voice. "Please Leah…don't make me go on without him."

Leah shook her head in a horrified stupor. "Are you asking me to hurt you?"

"No…I'm asking you to kill me." The newly widowed woman was completely lost to her grief. I had wished for the same release only days before and I understood her pain. Quill was out the door before any decision could be made; ready to stop Leah if she were to go on. He stood bristling next to Carlisle.

"No one here is EVER going to hurt a hair on your head. You are going to be strong and I'm going to be there with you every single step of the way. We are going to die crazy old ladies, together, just like we promised when we were twelve and there was none of this between us." Leah looked up with conviction on her face. She continued, "No matter what happens you are going to have the single biggest family you've ever seen and nobody is going to be alone. Not you or me or even Quill."

Emily shook her blood matted hair and she looked back up at me and thought the strangest single words I had ever heard for who we were. 'Solution, you are my sweet solution.'

"No…I won't hurt you. I wouldn't even if you begged me. Take care of yourself because that's what he would have wanted. For Sam…" I looked at Jasper meaningfully and he nodded his head. Alice stood aside her eyes looking clear again as Jasper walked forward and everyone tensed. I realized too late that it almost looked like he was willing to help her die. Leah began to fairly vibrate with hostility and I put my hand on her shoulder and shook my head.

"Thank you. I can't tell you how much this means to me." Emily was covered in blood and Jasper was not breathing even though the blood was dead she was very much alive and very tempting in her state of fear and pain.

Jasper brushed the hair away from her face and tears traced down over her cheeks. One side of her face ruined by the man she loved so dearly. "Tell me when you wake up." She slumped almost immediately and Jasper had to catch her in his arms and then gave her quickly to Alice who walked toward Quill and handed her over gently to the young man who smiled at the woman in his arms.

"Thank you Jasper. When she's not feeling as rough you're gonna' pay for that. Trust me she's a little hellcat" Quill smiled warily as he walked toward the vehicle and placed her in the back seat. "I'll drive her home and Embry can come with me. He can baby-sit her while he heals up. That way if she needs anything he can hop around the house and she can laugh at him." Alice, Jasper, Carlisle, Leah, Billy and I stood outside as the rain began to fall again.

"I'm sorry she said those things to you. She was grieving." Billy looked at Carlisle with a true apology in the tenor of his voice.

"There are people who would miss you if you were gone." I said in a quiet voice to Leah. "The list would surprise you, and I'm on it."

She nodded her head and headed back toward the doors.

"It's nothing we haven't heard before. She needs time to get better, to heal…I will go back inside and tend to the rest of the wounded. Leah, please aid me." Carlisle spoke and Leah nodded her head and went inside. "Edward, Alice, and Jasper will return home." My father gave the words gently and looked directly at me. 'I want you to find out everything you can from Maria and her group. Sam and Jacob both felt a rising tide of evil, and I think they are right.'

"I would feel more comfortable if you were to let me stay." I didn't like the idea of Carlisle being alone in their home undefended. I didn't, at this point, believe they would try to hurt him, but if something were to happen at all I would blame myself.

Jasper surprised me when he looked at Carlisle and asked to stay. "Please sir, I'd like to stay and help out. You might still need me, and I want to be here when the rest of the families come. I would like to bring them some form of comfort. We couldn't save them on the field…I would like to bring their families some measure of peace. Also, Edward will get more out of Maria than I will. That woman is so full of convolution you can hardly tell her head from her nethers." He was blaming himself for the losses again, but his intentions were good. Alice closed her eyes and we both saw that it was a good idea. Carlsile immediately agreed.

"Jasper. Do me a favor and see that Sheila is given some Tylenol and kept awake. From what I can tell the trauma to her head wasn't serious, and she is probably going to do fine on her own. Her kind is more than resilient enough to deal with a little concussion." I turned back toward home immediately looking forward to getting the information from Maria.

I called over my shoulder and looked at Billy. "If you wouldn't mind I would like for Jacob to come by our house as soon as he can. We will discuss the situation further. If he's uncomfortable coming alone he can bring Quill and Leah. I think the treaty is void at the moment. There might be something far more pressing than our sensibilities right now." The old man nodded his head in agreement.

Alice was already running for home but I caught up with her quickly. "West Side Story" into Yiddish, really Alice? Is it that bad?" Her mind had been far away throughout the entire situation outside. I'd seen her eyes glaze over and she had immediately focused on keeping me out of her head.

"Edward, I've been having the strangest visions since all of that started. I'm kind of concerned…" My sister looked hesitant to share with me.

"Please Alice. I'm high strung enough at this point. What did you see?" I asked as she slowed down and put her hands on my shoulders.

"Promise me you aren't going to freak out?" Alice muttered with a look of pure concern on her face.

"I'll react accordingly." I answered with a small snarl.

"Okay, but it isn't pretty." Alice let the images run through her head and a roar was on my lips before I had seen them for seconds. Alice immediately went back to singing "Tonight" in Yiddish in her head.

"Why is Felix fighting with Bella? Alice…she has no idea what she's doing. She's always been so uncoordinated, and she decides to fight with the head of the Volturri guard? Why…" I fell to my knees and leaned my forehead against the tree in front of me. "Did she live?" I feared the answer. The future was becoming hazy for me again. Would I ever see her again? "Just tell me she lived."

"Oh, Edward. She's fine. It was the Volturri's way of training her to fight. It was actually a little funny. She's still a little bit clumsy." Alice was petting my hair.

"If that was the case why didn't you just tell me instead of giving me a heart attack?" I glared at my small sister. We got up and began running again.

"Don't be ridiculous, you can't have a heart attack, and well…because that wasn't the disturbing bit…this was." Alice looked at me with a bit of panic in her eyes and we both watched as Aro stood before an assemblage of hundreds and put a dark cloak over my love's shoulders. Felix bowed and kissed the hands of all three vampires that stood at an airport that I was fairly certain was in Port Angeles. Bella did the same as Felix bowing, but not touching them as they did not seem to want her to touch them.

All three were smiling wickedly and as always Aro spoke, "They will go together to ferret out our prey. I believe they will be surprised to find Bella alive and whole. When we have arrived I expect a quick victory. She will hold back their abilities and we will be victorious. Felix, Bella, go now and be ready to win our war."

"What if they have possessed her mind Edward? What if Bella doesn't remember us? She couldn't possibly be so far gone that she would kill you. I don't believe it." Alice ran faster as if getting home would change anything we had just seen.

"No, I think we aren't seeing the whole picture. Can you see anything else?" I asked and my sister shook her head no.

"The wolves must be involved because I can't see anything about that. I can see Emmett…and Esme…and THE HOUSE IS ON FIRE!" We both ran faster, I was leaving Alice behind as she spoke and I ran toward our home. When I broke through the lush greens and browns of the forest into the early grey morning light of the fields by our house I saw that indeed the house was leaping with flames. The windows in my room were breaking and shattering from the heat of the conflagration. I passed around to the front of the house when I heard the voices of my family in my head. Esme was sitting on the front lawn looking like she had rolled in soot. Emmett stood to her right over her and seemed to be yelling at Esme. Standing next to him was Rosalie whom looked absolutely furious.

"What the hell happened?" I ran up to them and they turned around. "Was it Maria? Jasper's going to be pissed."

"I didn't do this!" Maria walked over from the Garage, which I was thankful at the moment was detached. At the very least my cars would live. "No way no how!"

"Esme…how about you explain this situation. I'm too pissed." Emmett folded his hands over his massive chest and I could immediately see in his mind's eye why he was angry. Esme had leapt into the blazing inferno into the second floor window. I knew immediately why. Esme was clutching the slightly charred cross against her chest and looking at me with guilt.

I felt relief wash over me. The situation had passed, and Esme was unharmed. Emmett was angry, but he had been frightened beyond reason when she had jumped into our burning home, and even more so when he learned that it was all for the sake of any part of the building. "What were you thinking?" I admonished my mother.

"I wasn't. Oh, I'm so sorry. Carlisle is going to be livid with me. I just didn't want that last part of his human life going up into ashes." The house gave an awful groan and my room went crashing into the floors below.

"I had three Prada handbags in there…you could have grabbed those!" Alice smiled and laughed. Esme gave her a "watery" smile.

"Alice! It isn't funny! She could have been killed!" Emmett rounded on Alice and she shrugged her shoulders.

"Okay, Emmett. Enough." Rosalie was still looking highly agitated, but she was finished listening to Emmett yell. "I know you were scared. She's fine. We've got to make sure this fire doesn't spread to the forest and I guess we should start now that Edward's room is in Alice's."

"Maybe it won't spread if we just remove the grass from fifteen feet or so around the building and we can just put out any fire that falls outside of the perimeter?" I suggested.

"Works for me, and I'll have the boys help. Creed, Michael, Pedro, Emanuel, Escobar, and Gavin, I want you to help them keep this fire out of the rest of the field. We're going to make a perimeter of land around the building and hopefully keep it from burning down the forest. I want two of you, Pedro and Gavin, to get buckets and keep the ground wet. Once it's saturated we'll throw water at the house." Maria pointed to Esme. "She's going to find you shovels," and then over at Alice. "She's going to get you buckets. Let's go people!"

Esme took off to the garden shed followed by her helpers, Alice started heading for the garage and she looked at me meaningfully. 'Pushy…isn't she?'

My family made quick work of the lawn and Maria's group was soaking the sides of the building already, but the heat was extreme and it seemed to do very little against the flames licking the building. Every once in a while we would hear a shuddering groan and another bit of floor would fall through. Esme was holding Carlisle's cross very closely to herself as she watched it go up in flames. Our home was gone. "Do we know who did this? I'm pretty sure the iron was off." I smiled at my mother as I said this, trying to get her to return the gesture. I was pleased to see that I could gain a positive reaction from her as she smiled back at my off color joke.

"I've got a good guess if you want to hear it." Maria volunteered as her men continued to work alongside Emmett and Rosalie. "I'm guessing it was those lovely people from Volterra. They called us up here promising to give us free reign of the south if we're willing to work with them. Everybody fears the Volturi, but this seemed like an offer we couldn't refuse. Not because it was a choice, but because they would come down on us and destroy us as usual. Of course I wasn't going to come because all those simpletons were coming up here and that left all their land down there unattended. Idiots, as if the Volturi could give them land they didn't fight for. Then, I heard them talking about the Major…and well I was feeling altruistic. Poor guy just can't seem to catch a break. So I came up here to stop them from killing Jasper."

"All out of the kindness of your un-beating heart, how giving!" Alice bit out as she glared. "How come I see you heading for the hills within the next few minutes then?"

"Everything has its season sweet cheeks. I'm going to get home now that we have stopped them from hurting anybody with half a brain." Maria smiled sweetly at Alice.

I interrupted, "You mean to say, now that the land is clear and you know it you'll be heading back to make sure of your claim to the territory."

"Potato, Po-taaa-to. I'll just consider us even." Maria tipped a nonexistent hat and wandered away from us. "Boys…we've helped the Major, killed the competition, and now were heading back and taking everything down to the Rio Grande! Move out!"

The five of us stood watching them walking away. "Is that everything we needed to know?" Emmett looked at me and then asked the other question everyone else wanted to ask. "Or, did you hear more coming out of her head?"

"Unfortunately she's a little focused on her impending victory over Texas. However, from what I could tell, she's telling us everything she knows." I said solemnly. At least now we could be sure it was the Volturi…but something was wrong with that. What Alice had seen was incongruous with the volume of people the self styled vampire army had brought. Again, I was stumped by the sheer size of the group they had brought in Alice's vision. Surely they knew we would fall under an onslaught more than half that size. These were trained and probably old vampires. We were a small family of seven. Eight if we ever found Bella again. My empty heart ached with the missing piece of our family.

"So, now we're just waiting for the "envoy," Alice winced slightly.

"What envoy? Alice did you see something? Are you less broken?" Rosalie looked hopeful.

"What does that mean Rose?" Alice glared at her sister. Rosalie just rolled her eyes as if she were above petty arguments, which was funny, because she was the one who started it. We all turned our heads toward the house as it gave another shuddering lurch and the porch fell in. Esme looked up at us and put her hand on Alice's shoulder.

"No fighting! What envoy?" Esme quietly asked Alice as we settled down. Alice had opened her mouth to talk when we were interrupted from another source.

Out front where we were we heard a very familiar voice scream from the other side of the house. I could never have been happier to hear terror in my life. I ran and saw her, cloak streaming behind like a banner as she ran straight for the house. Her face was set in a mask of pain and I began to run faster than I ever had in my life. She was still thirty feet away from the burning house when I slammed into her our bodies colliding with the sounds of boulders striking each other. End over end we rolled until finally we stopped and she continued to struggle, her body shuddering with tearless sobbing.

"Bella…it's only a house…we're safe. It's okay. Shhhh. It's over." I had never felt so complete in my life. She was the most beautiful creature I had ever beheld and her ruby eyes blinked owlishly as if she were confused to see me or simply confused. "Didn't you…" I hadn't even spoken two words and her lips crashed into mine. Our first kiss was exultant and completely unhindered by any of our old fears. She was as much my equal as I could ever have expected. Beautiful, strong, perfect, and hopefully still mine. I hoped desperately that she could still love me after everything I'd done…and everything I'd failed to do. "Shut up, stop thinking, and kiss me Edward." I did. Nothing existed but Bella and I and it was quiet even in my head, which I realized, was because the voices were gone.

Somewhere on the other side of the house from where we were still kissing passionately I audibly heard another voice, this one less welcome, because I wasn't sure how Bella would handle it. "Holy Crap! Mrs. Cullen you should have called the fire department, not that they are going to come. We're evacuating Forks because of a chemical spill up north. Time is of the essence here. Something about a styrene leak. Everybody needs to get out of here."

I saw Bella visibly shudder and hide. "Charlie…" This was not going to be good.