Chapter 14~ After Our War
The wolves looked uneasy when they saw Carlisle approaching. They seemed like they were getting ready to attack but something happened that filled Carlisle with some relief, the grey wolf -obviously the alpha- was not letting them. They all looked to him for the approval which he did not give.
So instead the wolves growled at Carlisle, fiercely now. Carlisle responded by with a gesture of peace. Now he was standing face to face with a massive pack of over sized wolves, the only creatures powerful enough to actually pose a legitimate threat to his kind. Carlisle counted 13 of them, all of them snarling viciously at him until their leader gave a bark of reprimand, and they went silent.
Carlisle spoke,
"I know what you all have come here for, and believe me or not, but my intentions are not to harm any of you. There has been a great misunderstanding which I have come to sort out, verbally that is. Sometime in the 1920s when my family and I first moved here, your ancestor, Ephraim Black and I had made a pact, a treaty which we have upholder for almost a century. Now, you can throw away 100 years of peace between the humans on your reservation and us, and wage a war against my family which will certainly account for lost lives, or I will willingly discuss this with your leader, in human form. The choice is yours."
Carlisle watched as the wolves seemed to communicate among themselves; mentally they were able to share each other's thoughts. Carlisle couldn't help but think of his family, what did it mean if the wolves decided to go through with their first plan? Did it mean his end, their end?
Knowing his stubbornly loyal companions, he was not so sure they would take his order to run, with full knowledge that he's in danger. Emmett and Rosalie would be reluctant; they held an intense connection from so many years with him. They became vampires through Carlisle; being a member of the Cullen family was the only thing they knew in this life. Jasper would go wherever Alice went; they would be alright as long as they were together. Esmé would do whatever it takes to keep her family safe, although it would rip her apart to leave her mate behind.
The alpha looked at Carlisle for a minute and one wolf that had left, came back to bring the grey wolf his jeans which he tossed to him. The large wolf then transformed back into his natural human form and put on the clothing. Carlisle recognized him as Sam Uley, he was the descendant of the beta wolf in the 20's, Levi Uley. He turned to Carlisle with an unfriendly face. He was ready to talk, but the hate radiating from the pack was palpable.
"Alright let's talk. But just know, that if there is anything you or the others are planning, my pack will descend upon your coven, just to make that clear."
"Agreed," said Carlisle. "I assure you, I plan no ill towards you or your pack."
"So tell me vampire, what makes you think my pack should spare you and your coven after what you did to the Swan girl?"
~o~o~o~
Bella ran as fast as she could in darkness, tracing back over the parts of the forest with familiar scents and using her photographic memory to make her way back to the isolated Cullen house. She couldn't wait in safety while those around her were putting their lives on the line. She had a feeling Edward would follow her; although she had not sensed his presence yet, she did not lose any speed, taking advantage of her strength and agility.
She came upon a part of the forest which she did not know but recognized, as if she had been there in a dream long ago. The little clearing was perfectly round, and filled with wildflowers - violet, yellow and soft white. Somewhere nearby, she heard the music of a stream. It was a meadow, but not just any meadow.
"Bella?" a voice from behind called softly.
She spun around, her eyes narrowed in at Edward, he was approaching her.
"I remember this place, I came here once. It feels strange, somewhat... haunted," she said.
"This is where I first told you I loved you. We used to come here often." Edward said, walking closer to her and gently moving away the strand of hair covering her face.
Bella's face went rigid, she felt dizzy if that was even possible for a vampire. She looked up at the vampire in front of her. She turned and faced the other direction, letting out a gasp of shock, surprising Edward.
"Are you alright?" Edward asked; concern laced his voice.
The wind roughly blew her hair back over her face, she didn't notice; she was having too many memories rushing back to her all at once. Their first time meeting in biology class, the conversation in the restaurant after he saved her, meeting his family, their first kiss, James, Victoria, Laurent, her birthday party, when he told her he'd never leave her, and when he left her. She remembered everything. She remembered the grieving, the nightmares, the loss of interest, the suicidal thoughts... She remembered forgetting him, as if her brain had put up its wall of defense from all the pain. After the first few months, she had wondered if she had ever known a family of vampires, ever loved before. She had lost track of that period of her life, and after she jumped off the cliff, fell into the coma, and was turned into a vampire, it had only made that memory loss worse.
But it was all back now. Forks brought back the memories of this beautiful clearing which she'd had nightmares about every night after Edward said he didn't love her, and left.
"Bella, please tell me what's going on," Edward said as he watched her look like she was about to have a minor panic attack. It felt as if her heart was ripped out and all that was left was the scar tissue as a reminder of Edward Cullen. She couldn't look at him now; it was too much for her to bear. So when she felt a hand on her arm and a dark, sensual fragrance of desire lurking in the air, she broke free of his grasp. And she ran.
~o~o~o~
"You should know that it was always my intention to save Bella through proper medical treatment. However, I did intend to save her at all costs, and for that I do not apologize. She would have died if she was not turned into a vampire," said Carlisle.
"So you turned her into a monster instead?" Sam said, his rash and dismissive accusations were testing Carlisle's patience.
"My family are not monsters; we do not kill humans, as I've made clear. We would have left peacefully if you'd let us. Our things are packed, we were just about to leave town when you and your pack decided to start a battle."
"You started this battle, vampire. You decided to create this family, of... of demons. You are the one responsible," said Sam.
"Maybe so, but remember that you are a descendant of an original wolf who thought otherwise of my family and I. They made that treaty, because they saw something in us that they saw in none of the other covens that had passed into their land, humanity. That is something demons and monsters cannot possess. You may believe the bright young girl filled with selflessness and compassion is gone now that Bella is one of us, but I assure you that she is still in there. You only have to look past your judgments and biases to see that," Carlisle said.
Sam looked at the coven leader before him, "Maybe," Sam said, his glare softening. "But that still doesn't change what she is. It is true, you are wiser than the other vampires I've come across, you show skillful reasoning, but that still doesn't change what you are."
"None of us can change what we are; we can only make a choice. It's the choice to hold onto the good or invite in the bad, same as with humans, same as with your kind."
All of a sudden, some of the wolves turned their heads to the right of them. They became defensive again. They had heard someone, or something."
"What is that?" Sam said, a glare forming his features once again.
Carlisle listened to the sounds, picked up a scent, then another. They were none other than vampire scents. And he knew exactly whose."
"You swore to me you intended no attack," said Sam, who was quickly looking like he was going to erupt.'
Carlisle tried to calm him down, "I kept to my word, these vampires intend no harm."
"Lies, you said your family would not come close to us, I was warned of your tricks. And why am I surprised I was lied to by a vampire. Well don't worry, now you won't have another chance to play any more of your twisted games."
"All of you, run," Carlisle said, knowing his family would hear him. Then he took off back towards the direction he'd come from, there was no way he could take on all these wolves alone and survive.
"Now!" said Sam, and with that, his pack took off after him and his family, in the direction of the house.
A war had erupted.
~o~o~o~
Edward could hear the snarls and the shuffling a midst the trees; feel the shaking of the ground beneath him as he felt the pack of shape-shifters make their way towards his home. He had lost Bella's scent and right now, he couldn't ignore the fact that his family was in danger nearby. His feet practically carried him towards the house and he was much faster than the wolves, so he arrived there before they could.
"Edward!" Esme exclaimed, running towards him as he approached the house, "What are you doing here?"
"The wolves, I can hear their thoughts. They have been ordered to kill us," said Edward.
"You all heard what Carlisle said," said Esme. "We must go now."
"I can't do that Esme," replied Edward. "Not without Carlisle, my family is in danger, so I will fight to protect it."
"Like we always have," Emmett said.
"We're not going to let these new mutts drive us out of our town, we were here before them," Rosalie said.
"I'm with you," said Alice.
"Me too," Jasper said.
"Carlisle is near," said Edward.
They stood at different places in front of their home, they could hear the wolves getting closer and closer, and then Carlisle took his place with them, accepting that this had come what he feared the most. Seconds later, the beasts emerged out of the forested area, and the battle commenced.
~o~o~o~
To the naked human eye, they would have looked like windmills of destruction, dancing around gracefully as they fought like machines. The wolves, with their natural inclinations towards slaughtering vampires, had an edge to their fighting. However the Cullen's, with the survival of their family as their motivation, combined with their years of skill and practice, matched with their own unique abilities, were just as good if not better. However they were still outnumbered and it was going to be quite difficult to end this battle with all of their family alive and well.
Eventually, when Jasper and one of the wolves went head to head, they ended up breaking through a window and tumbling inside of the house. Some of the others had followed to help their pack member, and the rest of the Cullen's, seeing Jasper in danger had followed and held off the others as Jasper managed to grab hold of the wolf's neck, and snap it with a heavy force only a supernatural could wield. This first kill on behalf of the Cullen's was just the tip of the iceberg that threw the pack into a frenzy.
Furniture had been crushed, walls were broken, counters were reduced to piles of debris on the ground. The piano was in a heap of dust and the hardwood was ripped apart, revealing the foundation cement. None of them noticed, they were completely focused on the task at hand, kill or be killed.
The next wolf was killed by Emmett. He was by far the most useful crushing force they had, with his strength, he barely had to use any effort at all to break most of the bones in their bodies in one movement. Alice was another useful tool, she confused her opponents, moving so fast they became distracted with trying to find her, they didn't even realize the other's had sprung on them, before it was too late.
Sam was by far the strongest fighter; he was the one to look out for. The front wall of the garage had been obliterated, this was where Edward and Sam's eyes crossed. Sam's giant wolf eyes filled with fury as he saw Edward sink his sharp teeth into a member of his pack, snapping his neck and tossing the corpse away. Sam had been waiting to get to Edward this whole time. He'd been the one to carry Bella out of the woods after Edward broke her heart and left her there, he'd seen what a wreck she was before and after Charlie died, and now he stood face to face with the one responsible and he would avenge Charlie for destroying his only daughter.
Edward was reading all of Sam's flashback memories of Bella, and flinched inwardly, wanting so much for his mind to reject the images that appeared. Sam ran towards him, his powerful sharp claws had scratched out the light on the roof as he sprung across the room, letting the bulb fall to the ground and smash into a million tiny pieces. It was then that a fire started, the flame had hit the curtain and quickly spread around to the wooden table of the garage.
But none of them could worry about that now, especially Edward, who had a massive alpha wolf aiming at his throat. In seconds the flame had taken hold of the walls, isolating Sam and Edward as they fought like lightning bolts, each of them dodging one's attacks swiftly and skilfully placing their blows as best they could.
Did you really think we would let you get away with ruining an innocent girl's life?
Sam said in his thoughts as he aimed with his powerful jaw at Edward's throat. Edward replied as he looked for a way to retaliate, "It's not safe for humans and vampires to be together the way we were. I was only doing what I thought was best for her. Would you rather me turned her into a vampire instead of leaving?"
I'd rather you had stayed among your own kind in the first place and left the humans alone, Sam shot back.
Edward grabbed hold of Sam and threw the wolf at some cupboards which caused a tube of gasoline to break apart, hitting the car. The flames made their way to Emmett's jeep, igniting the car seats, travelling dangerously close to the gasoline compartment. When it finally did, Sam did not notice as he was recovering from the hard throw. With his front claws, Sam took Edward by surprise and sprung at him, digging them into Edwards as he threw the vampire to the floor.
I will kill you now, mind reader.
As Edward was pinned on the ground, Sam over top of him and ready to rip his throat out, he saw how far the flames had gotten to taking Emmett's vehicle completely. The jeep was in Edward's view behind Sam.
Edward counted down in his head, four, three, two, one. That was how long it took before Sam dug his massive giant fangs into him and how long it took before the car exploded, taking them both along with it.
Outside, the wolves realized what had happened to their leader. Instead of backing down out of fear for their own lives, their grief over the loss of alpha made them fight even harder. They made it their mission to destroy the Cullen's out of vengeance, for Sam. The Cullen's desperately needed to see if Edward was alive or not in the garage which had gone up in flames from the explosion. But they were so occupied trying to stay alive, that it was impossible.
Edward had landed across the room, underneath a searing hot piece of shelf metal which he tried to move, but his arms had been badly damaged from the bite of Sam's massive jaws. And half his body had horrible jagged cracks and burnt from the venom which tried to heal his body. He used his legs to slide out from the horrible heat of the shelf and dodged the flames around him. He clenched his teeth together and let out a cry of pain as he felt the partially unattached part of his left arm, scrape against the venom which rushed to his shoulder. His nerves were telling him no to move. Edward turned his head and saw Sam on the other side of the wall.
He had transformed back into his human form and was gasping for air through the thick smoke that was suffocating both of them. Edward didn't need to breathe, but Sam did. Sam had burns all over his body, they were healing, but it would take a while before the damage was completely healed. And with no oxygen in the room, Sam did not have long.
Edward could move no further, that bite had done serious damage and as the force of the explosion had thrown them both from where they were, Sam's teeth had come close to splitting Edward in half as his refused to loosen his grip, determined to see his ill through. Those were due to natural wolf instincts; always make sure the vampire is dead. But even if he did manage to get out, the walls were consumed by fire and he didn't have the strength or the ability to break through it, at the moment, they were both trapped.
Edward lay on the floor in agony from the deep gashes in his upper half. He knew he had to try and escape. If the fire reached his vampire skin, it could kill him if it wasn't put out fast enough. He looked at Sam, he wasn't moving anymore, the smoke, combined with the pain and damage of the burns had made him unconscious. Edward moved his wrist away from touching the fire and when he turned his head, he saw a figure through the smoke. She knelt to carefully grab him to drag get him out. Edward knew who it was, her long, dark brown hair fell over him as he looked at her, feeling a sense of calm come over him.
He wanted to say something, but the smoke was much too thick to even breathe let alone speak. Edward couldn't really move his injured neck, but he tried anyways and tilted his head towards Sam's body. Then he looked to the fire blanket that was always stored in the cabinets near the gasoline which had been smashed. The blanket was unscathed on the floor and Bella hesitantly looked away from Edward, and grabbed it. Then she went over to Sam and threw it over his wounded body and was gone with him in a flash, reluctantly having left a terribly injured Edward in a burning building.
When she got outside she was at the side of the garage, the part hidden from the rest of the house. A few of the wolves surrounded her. They saw her drop Sam to the ground gently and back away slowly from Sam's body. They all looked at each other as if they just witnessed something profound. When she saw that they weren't going to try and kill her, she got back inside the garage. The flames had risen since she'd last been in there. She saw Edward, who struggled to get up and she went over to him, dodging flames, she supported him as they got out through the narrow opening in the wall in which she came. Once outside, Edward dropped to the grass, panting in pain and he looked at Bella who stared at his face, she looked as if she was about to fall apart before she regained control and said to Edward,
"I have to leave now."
"What?" Edward managed to say through struggled breaths. "What do you mean?"
"I'm sorry, I can't stay with you and the others when there is so many memories I have to deal with. I just need some time," she said.
"I don't understand," Edward replied.
"I remember everything Edward. Seeing you now only brings back the pain which I experienced as a human. Tonight we shared a connection, there was something there between us, I cannot stay here as we are now pretending as if the past never happened. It would, overtime, eat away at our relationship until all that's left is guilt and regret and resentment. I'm sorry Edward, but I can't stay. For once I need to figure things out alone, and... you should do the same."
"We can figure things out, everything will work itself out eventually."
She replied, "I don't think it will."
"Bella, I love you," he said with truthfulness and meaning attached to it.
Bella got up and looked away,
"Don't do this. Don't turn off your feelings toward me," he pleaded.
"Goodbye Edward." With that she disappeared into the trees. He was left lying on the grass, broken and wounded, physically and emotionally.
Edward could hear the thoughts of a few of the wolves, they were communicating with the others, telling them what had happened with Sam and Bella and to round up all the injured and the dead from their pack and take off.
And that's what they did, to the rest of the Cullen family's surprise and confusion. And as quickly as the battle had started, it was over. And the destruction it had caused was made clear by just looking around.
Edward's family sped over to look for him when they found him injured. Edward groaned in pain as he was put in the backseat of one of the car's that had been parked outside and had remained unscathed throughout the ordeal. It was Carlisle's black Mercedes and Alice's Porsche they were using to leave.
"Bella was here I can smell her scent, she saved you and Sam didn't she? That's why the wolves spared our family?" asked Carlisle.
Edward weakly nodded.
"Where is she now?" Carlisle asked.
"Gone."
Everyone looked at each other worriedly, but seeing as Edward looked more focused on the pain and looked more upset, than worried for her safety, they figured it would be best if they asked no further questions at the moment.
They gathered into both cars wordlessly, not caring after a night like tonight, to look back at what used to be their home, their family. It was now the symbol of a shattered, burning image of the seemingly never ending struggle they had found themselves in.
A/N: Next chapter is almost fully written. Please, tell me what you thought of this chapter, any suggestions for the future ones maybe? Let me know;)