Chapter 12: Finding her and toasting the SOB

Alice POV

Three months - that's the amount of time that had passed since Laurent captured Bella. Three horrible months filled with pain and horror. I had seen at least half what he had done to our Bella, how he slowly destroyed her step by step.

I saw him rape her, torture her, stick a needle in her and make her do things to pleasure him. And after a while, Bella seemed to gave in - it seemed as if she did it to get the drugs he gave her - and did things to him willingly. All those visions, all those images I could never forget for the rest of my immortal life.

With each vision I saw her retreat more and more into herself as she got weaker and weaker. All those visions I received, and not one of them could lead me to Bella's location. I hated myself for not being able to find her, for being so useless. What good was having a talent like mine if it wasn't of any use in a situation like this?! I honestly failed as if my visions had failed me and were now taunting me with horrible images because they wouldn't show anything helpfull.

These last three months have been awfull for everyone - vampire, human and wolf. Edward was slowly loosing his mind in his obsessed search for Bella, consumed by blame for leaving her and burdened with the possibility that he may never get her back. Jasper was also blaming himself, still, for what happened at the birthday party - he believed if he hadn't lost control that day, Bella wouldn't be in Laurent's hands right now. He hardly ever spoke to anyone anymore, even me, and when he did speak, it was only of Bella and leads of her possible whereabouts. Rosalie was more angry than ever, this whole situation bringing back many painful memories she had tried to surpress for decades. Emmett was torn between helping his wife get through her struggles and leaving on his own search for Bella, his little sister. He decided to stay; he didn't want to leave the family behind at such a difficult time. Esme cleaned a lot, much more than she used to, and didn't say much to anyone. I think it was her way of trying to deal with things. Carlise had tried to throw himself back into work, but found it more hard than ever, because every time he saw someone at the hospital who was beaten or worse, his thoughts would immediately shift to Bella. I had overheard him talk about this to Esme, he was considering quitting his doctor ways.

Then there was Charlie, who no one really knew how he was doing. After they stopped the search for Bella, about 4 weeks after her disappearence, he basicaly locked himself into his house. He quit his job and only ever came out to go to the store. He looked bad, from what I'd seen in my visions.

The Quillettes were still searching alongside us, but I could tell they didn't believe she was still alive, or thought she was better of dead. Only Jacob held on to his belief that they would find her alive. I got the impression that he was deeply inlove with her and would be devestated if we couldn't get to Bella in time. I didn't really care for him because of the whole wolf thing, but he showed he cared for Bella so that earned him a few points in my book.

Jasper came in the room, barely glanced at me and layed down on the bed. I sighed, I missed my husband terribly. I felt like I was all alone in this and it was hurting me.

"Jazz...," I started, but stopped when a vision hit me. A vision I had been waiting for for three months.

I saw Laurent. He was standing before a burning cabin, smirking, then he ran. As he ran, I saw him cross the border for California - that was all, but it was enough. I turned to Jazz, a smile on my face for the first time since this happened and he looked at me with concerned, questioning eyes.

"I know where she is," I said and I heard several gasps. One coming from beside me, Jasper, and the others coming from all my other family members in the house, and even some of the mutts who were there to discuss Bella.

Jazz and I rushed downstairs and met the others in the living room. The entire family was there, along with Seth, Sam and Jacob.

"Where?" Edward asked, his voice strained with grief and a small sparkle of hope.

"California, a cabin not far from the border. He's planning on destroying it, we need to move fast," I answered, everyone nodded.

"Anything else?" Sam, the pack wolf leader asked. I closed my eyes hoping I would get another vision. Edward was listening to my thoughts, I knew that. He gasped when I saw what I saw.

It was Bella, blowing out her last breath. Even if we did make it in time, which I had seen we would, we wouldn't be able to save Bella. If we didn't turn her, she was going to die.

"What did you see, Alice?" Carlisle asked, seeing my horrified expression.

"We can get there in time to stop Laurent from setting the cabin on fire, but not to save Bella. If we don't turn her when we find her, she'll die," I voiced and everyone had several different emotions running through them. Pain, sadness, anger, hate, despair... I don't think any of us knew exactly what to feel.

"No..., not like that. Not again," Rosalie whispered in agony. To her, this was very similair to how she was changed. Emmett enveloped her in a hug and whispered soothing words in her ear.

"Then we change her. If that's the only option, we do it," Edward voiced with a firm tone. If anything, I'd have thought he'd be the one to protest her change, as usual, but he didn't because he couldn't loose her. I would do the same if it were Jasper.

"The treaty states a war has to come if you bite a human," Sam, the pack leader said, though he seemed to say it with struggle, as if he didn't want to follow the treaty anymore.

"That doesn't have to happen, Sam. You can decide against a war. You can give them permission. We can't just let her die," Jacob, who was the second in command as I understood it, pleaded with his leader.

"He's right Sam." The younger and most likeable wolf, said. Sam thought for a few moments, then sighed.

"If we find her, I, as leader of the pack, give you the permission to change her. There will be no consequences. But we cannot be involved in this if that is the case." The entire family nodded and thanked him. We didn't need his help anyway. We were just grateful this wouldn't mean a war between us.

"Sam, I can't just walk away from this," Jacob said, his eyes pleading for his leader to understand. Sam nodded.

"I understand. You may stay if you wish, it's your free will and I won't take it from you. Just remember where your place is," Sam said and with that he led Seth out of the house and left Jacob with us. I was right, Jacob did love Bella.

"Let's go," Edward said and we all headed out to the cars. We were fast when we ran but we would get there sooner if we drove. Meanwhile, I kept going through the future seeing if anything could go wrong. So far, we were good.

Edward POV

I couldn't believe we were going to find her, my angel. Or that I was willing to condemn her to my eternal existance. But I couldn't just let her die, not after all this time. It was entirely my fault she was in the situation she was in and I owed it to her to save her from it. I owed it to her to be the one to change her.

"Carlisle," I said, he looked over at me and nodded for me to continue.

"When we get there, I'll be the one to change her. I desperately want to rip that bastard limb from limb, but if it comes to time, I'll choose Bella. She'd want it to be me, I know that," I told him, waiting for him to speak. I listened to his thoughts, but he was blocking me so I got nothing.

"If you think you can do it, of course I will let you be the one. I'll be there every step of the way,son," Carlisle assured me and I offered him my thanks.

Finally, after several hours of driving, we reached the California border and dumped the cars. Alice only knew the way she had seen Laurent take, through the forest, so we'd take that way as well. Jacob changed into his wolf form to keep up with us. We were about to head off when Alice stopped us.

"You all need to know that this isn't going to be pretty. What you'll see is sickening and there will be blood. If you can't handle it, you need to stay here. Guard the way incase Laurent gets passed us," She said, looking mostly at Jasper and Esme. Jasper, because of his troubles with the vegetarian diet. Esme, because we all knew she wouldn't want to see it.

"Jasper and I will stay here. Just bring her back to us," Esme whispered, pulling Jasper close to her. He was angry with himself for being to weak to help, but knew he had to stay behind for Bella's sake. I nodded at them and we all went off running.

While we were running, we were all thinking of how Laurent would be able to smell us once we got close, so we couldn't surprise him. At least, us vampires couldn't. We had one advantage that Laurent wouldn't expect - Jacob. If he went in first, he could fight Laurent of for at least a few seconds to give us the element of surprise.

I explained the plan to Jacob and everyone and they all agreed it was the best way. And as much as I wanted to be there for the kill, Carlisle and I had agreed to get to Bella as soon as we got in. She needed us more.

We were a couple of miles away from the house - far enough that Laurent couldn't smell us yet - and stopped running while Jacob went on. He'd be at the house withing ten seconds, we'd be there 5 seconds later. Hopefully Jacob will have restrained Laurent by that time, or at least have distracted him so he was away from my Bella.

The seconds passed, and before I realized it, we were running again and at the house in no time. I could smell my Bella, her blood, everywhere. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though, her blood smelled faul, wrong. It smelled of drugs of some sort. I snarled at the realization. Alice had told me, but I didn't know it would be this bad.

Jacob was struggling with Laurent, who seemed shocked, angry and scared as hell. Good! I thought. Emmett, Rose and Alice helped the mutt while Carlisle and I followed Bella's scent to a locked room. I could hear her heartbeat - it was very weak - she didn't have much time left. I kicked the door open and almost fell to my knees at the sight before me.

Yes, I had seen Alice' visions, but seeing Bella like this with my own two eyes was an entirely different experience. It was too horrible for words. My Bella, my angel, was lying on a dirty, blood stained bed, naked, covered in blood and bruises and shaking. I could see the name Laurent branded in her stomach and if I could have, I would have cried at the sight. She was cut everywhere, and it seemed that at least half of her bones were broken. Her right arm was covered with needle tracks, like you'd see on the arm of a junkie. Seeing her like this, I could hardly understand how she even survived the first week of this. My Bella was stronger than any of us could imagine.

"Edward," Carlisle called - he had gone to Bella and was now covering her up with his jacket.

"If you are going to do this, you need to do it now, or it'll be too late," He said and I immediately jumped to action. I bowed down next to my angel, muttered my pathetic apologies for what I was about to do and bit down on her arm, neck, chest, other arm, anywhere I could. It wasn't hard to stop this time, like it was at the ballet studio, because this time her blood hardly appealed to me because of the drugs in her system. When I could smell the venom in her body, working, I stopped and looked over at Carlisle.

"Will the drugs in her system affect her change?" I asked, needing to know. Carlisle sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know. There isn't any precedent for this," He explained, I nodded and listened to what was going on outside. I could already smell the fire, but I needed to know for sure.

'He's toast bro,' Emmett thought over and over again.

'Fucker can burn in hell now,' Rosalie was thinking to herself.

'Fucking leech,' Jacob cursed, thinking about how much he hated him.

Alice was looking into the future, but there was nothing definate yet. We just had to wait and see how things with Bella turned out.

"Edward," Carlisle said, motioning to Bella, who was moving her fingers. Then, I heard something that made me want to tear my heart out because I knew this was not normal. I heard laughter, soft laughter that would be too low for human ears to hear, but I heard it. And it was coming from my angel, from Bella. Everyone screams during this painful transformation, and she was laughing. This was not right.

Alice and the others came in looking at Bella with concern and confusion - they heard it too.

"We should take her home," Alice finally interrupted the minutelong silence. I nodded and picked Bella up - she felt so light and fragile in my arms, though I could feel the small vibrations in her chest caused by her laughter. I wasn't even thinking of how good it felt to have her with me again, I was only thinking of what was wrong with her and if we would ever be able to save her. To truly save her.

"Torch the place," I said to anyone who would listen and took of running towards Esme and Jasper, towards the cars. Bella continued to laugh her little, slightly crazy sounding laugh. And it was my fault, my doing. And I was determined to fix it, to fix her.