I'm not dead! It's been forever since I updated, but rest assured I'm still here, just busy.

Part XIII: The Obligatory Epic Battle Scene

Werewolf pack & Peter Petrelli - outside the vampires' hideout

Exactly why Victoria's army of newborns chose to hole up in one of the area's many abandoned buildings was anyone's guess - it wasn't like they needed protection from the elements or a place to sleep - but Peter thought he knew why. Until very recently these creatures had been human, and seeking shelter was a human thing to do.

Beside Peter, the enormous black wolf that was Sam Uley was thinking along a different line. Them all being inside that building will make containment easier. Spread out! Surround it! I want you all to stick together in pairs: Jared and Paul, Quil and Embry, Leah and Seth. He hesitated ever so slightly on the last name; if Sam had had his way Seth wouldn't be in this fight and Jacob would have been paired with Leah - which would've made Jacob's night - but that plan came crashing down around Sam's furred ears when Bella requested Jacob as her personal guard for the night. The alpha's thick dark coat rippled as he shook himself and gave his last order. Peter, you're with me. Be ready to teleport when I give the word.

Where to? Peter asked via thought-speak; he'd been told that the vampires' super-hearing made it too risky to speak aloud.

Right into the middle of the bloodsuckers, Sam replied. They'll converge on us, and then the others will come at them from the outside. We'll box them in.

When the other pairs were ringed around vampire central, Peter transported himself and the pack leader into the center of a large room where about twenty vampires, so new their ruby eyes almost glowed, were clustered in a rough circle to watch as three more attempted to rip one another apart. To say they were surprised when a werewolf and a human appeared out of nowhere in the midst of that tangle of limbs and teeth was a gross understatement. Not giving them a single second to get their wits about them, the intruders took out the fighting trio in short order - Sam crushed the head of one in his powerful jaws, while Peter skipped the dismemberment and simply incinerated a second. Having destroyed his vampire's brain, Sam flung the body on top of the shrieking, burning one so that it caught fire as well. Then he and Peter each grabbed one of the third fighter's arms and yanked in opposite directions, tearing him apart.

By then the other newborns had come to themselves, processed the fact that they were under attack by a monster they'd never even known existed and a human who should be a midnight snack but appeared to be making mincemeat of them instead - and the fact that he could shoot fire from his hands as well made fighting him an even less inviting prospect. The so-called 'army' did the only thing they could think of and ran for their lives - only to find their escape blocked by the rest of the pack.

It was an all-out melee after that, but the wolves had a clear advantage. They had practiced for this and had teamwork on their side whereas the vampires were disorganized and undisciplined, totally incapable of working together. The pack had one more thing working for them: the vast arsenal of powers at Peter's disposal. Too fast for any of the discombobulated newborns to catch, he dodged their poorly-aimed swipes at him and telekinetically decapitated several; with no brains attached, the vampires' bodies were like B-movie zombies, making them much easier for the wolves to take apart. Then they just piled the pieces on top of those Peter had already set afire.

Everything seemed under control until one vampire who was a few weeks older and therefore had more presence of mind than the rest feinted at Seth. Leah moved to protect her little brother, giving the vamp an opening to slip past them and jump Peter from behind. He instinctively teleported outside the building; his attacker was disoriented but held on, fingernails like raptor claws shredding his skin everywhere they could reach. Peter caught the white, hard-skinned wrist and sent a powerful electric blast through the vampire's body; the monster let go, yowling in pain.

Peter took advantage of the vamp's momentary incapacitation to let the worst of his scratches heal, then turned to face him or her or it...and froze. The vampire was a petite female with longish brown hair who bore a disconcerting resemblance to Bella. She huddled on the ground, her feral red eyes hidden under the dark curtain of her hair, and for an instant Peter felt some slight remorse for hurting her. Then she rebounded and leaped at him, snarling, her stony hands reaching for his throat; he grabbed her by the wrists again - and her skin crumbled away where he touched her. She screamed and then, as Peter watched in astonishment, her body degraded rapidly until nothing remained but a small pile of white dust that shimmered faintly in the moonlight.

"You killed Breanna!"

"I didn't do anything to her that she wouldn't have done to me," Peter retorted as he quickly sized up his latest challenger. This one was a male whose vampiric pallor was made more colorful by extensive tattoos left over from his human life as well as piercings in both ears, one eyebrow, and his lip. Even stranger, his eyes were deep purple instead of red. Peter knew who this must be and slammed every mental barrier he could muster into place; having Sylar's ability buried somewhere in his mind was bad enough without becoming a psychic vampire too. "It's Jax, right?"

The purple-eyed vamp nodded. "And you're the fucker that killed my mate! You're gonna die, asshole. I'm gonna suck the life outta you - all your power'll make me strong enough to ditch Victoria, and there won't be nothin' she can do about it." He lunged, only to fall flat on his face when Peter turned intangible. When he'd cleared the concrete dust from his eyes, he found that the human had disappeared. "Hey, get back here, asshole!"

"Stop calling me that." Peter's voice came from the seemingly empty air less than a foot away; Jax looked around wildly but saw nothing. An invisible hand dragged him upright, and then burning pain exploded in his dead heart - Peter had phased his fist inside the vampire's chest.

Quil and Embry, who had poked their heads outside to search for Peter, were treated to an incredible sight: a vampire being nuked from the inside out. Pieces of rock-hard skin flew in all directions like shrapnel, and then Peter materialized out of thin air with his fist still glowing. That was awesome! the wolves chorused in unison.

"That was improvised," Peter corrected. "I wasn't even sure it would work. How're things inside?"

We've taken the bloodsuckers apart; now Sam wants you to torch the place before-

The night's relative stillness was shattered by an approaching wail of sirens.

-The cops get here, Embry finished.

But the cops never arrived, not even with the vampire nest going up in flames. "This isn't right. Even if this part of town isn't the cops' highest priority, they should be here by now. You guys can find your own way home, can't you? I want to check this out."

A collective grumble went up from the pack when they heard that they would be taking the long way home.

Sam cut them off. Go on, and whatever you do, don't let yourselves be seen. I'll stick with Peter.

None of the pack had brought any clothing, so Sam was stuck in wolf form. This didn't make a great deal of difference as Peter kept them both invisible, it just meant Sam had to be more careful not to bump into anyone. They followed the flashing red and blue lights and found four police cars parked on the same block, their occupants stringing yellow crime scene tape in front of one of the many abandoned construction projects.

This is where we left Jacob and Bella, isn't it? Sam asked worriedly.

"Yeah. Blend into the shadows for a minute; I'm gonna go find out what happened here." Leaving Sam to skulk out of sight as best he could, Peter went over and pulled the nearest policeman away from the others. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Listen buddy, this isn't free entertainment. A girl was just murdered and-"

What girl? Tell me everything.

The cop blinked. "Well, we don't have a name yet - no ID on the vic. But we got here in time to catch the perp red-handed. Sickest thing I've ever seen in my life... We get a ton of calls about some huge commotion in the projects, which isn't that odd - all these abandoned buildings make this place a regular crime hotbed, but there were too many complaints coming in for us to put it off till morning - so we drive up and find this dead girl lying right there-" he pointed "-with her heart ripped out!"

"What?"

"I know, sounds like something from one of those bad horror flicks, doesn't it? But I'm not making this up - the girl's ribcage was totally busted, and her heart was crushed and torn all the way out of her chest. And there was this big naked guy, covered in her blood, holding the body. We don't know what to make of it - necrophilia, cannibalism? Who knows? The ME still has to sign off on this, but based on the way the girl's chest was crushed, we think this guy's behind the whole string of murders; at least I hope he is. I'd hate to think he's only a copycat, and the real killer's still out there-"

"Where are they now?" Peter interrupted.

"Who?"

"The girl! Has she been taken to the morgue already?"

"Yeah, and the perp's already been taken downtown..." The cop's voice trailed off as Peter erased his memory of their conversation and vanished. "Huh? How'd I get way over here?"

###

After rejoining Sam and making him invisible again Peter asked, "How much of that did you hear?"

Everything. The alpha wolf shuffled his paws, clearly agitated.

"Bella's dead!"

You don't know it was her body the police found, Sam reasoned. His attempt at calming the empath fell flat.

"Give me a break," Peter snapped. "Who else could it have been, huh? You know Victoria wanted to kill Bella, you know she wasn't one of the vampires we killed, and who else's body would Jacob have stayed with?"

No one's, of course - and now he's been arrested for staying with her. Can you do anything about that?

"Get Jacob out of jail? I could, but what makes you think I want to? It was supposed to be his job to keep this from happening!" Peter gestured furiously at the street, which was still stained with Bella's blood.

Sam regarded him with a steady calmness that made Peter want to light a fire under his tail. I understand your anger, I really do. Even so, Jacob did not kill Bella and doesn't deserve to be blamed for a crime he didn't commit.

"He might as well have," Peter muttered. "He didn't protect her. I should've stayed with her myself instead of letting you talk me into leaving her with him. Okay, I'll bail him out - but I'm taking care of her first."

Puzzlement showed clearly on Sam's wolfish face. Bella's already dead. There's nothing you can do for her now.

"We'll see about that."

The next chapter will pick up immediately after this and I think I'll write it right away - I'm on a roll here! You can expect it sometime next week.