Disclaimer: Not mine.

Chapter Twenty- Buried Myself Alive

"You almost always pick the best times
To drop the worst lines
You almost made me cry again this time
Another false alarm
Red flashing lights
Well this time I'm not going to watch myself die

I think I made it a game to play your game
And let myself cry
I buried myself alive on the inside
So I could shut you out
And let you go away for a long time"

-The Used- "Buried Myself Alive"

Bella's POV

I sat at the Cullen's dining room watching the wolves eat their dinner, Seth and Leah on either side of me and Jacob across from me. Even though I didn't eat human food anymore, I still sat by Leah when she ate. I couldn't help myself, I just can't stand to be away from her even for a minute.

Carlisle was in the living room with Jasper, Emmett and Esme. Alice and Rosalie were upstairs somewhere. We were all pretty confused as to why the Denali clan decided to kidnap some of the imprints from the reservation, but Carlisle was determined to find out.

He'd been calling them all day, with no answer. We were all anxiously awaiting for that conversation.

Leah finished her meal and rose to take her plate into the kitchen, I stood up as well, following two steps behind her. She started to wash her plate, but I took it and did it for her.

"I can do that myself, you know," she told me, her voice laced with mock anger.

I smiled, "I like doing stuff for you."

She started to thank me, but Carlisle's voice cut her off, "Hello? Tanya?" I shut off the water and dropped the plate in the sink. In the next second, Leah and I were both in the living room. Carlisle, Emmett and Esme were on their feet. Jacob and Seth came in a moment later, then Alice and Rosalie appeared behind Leah and I.

Jasper remained seated on the couch, calm and cool. It was hard to believe that sweet looking vampire was the same person who had brought Sam Uley to his knees earlier. I smiled at the mere thought of Sam being knocked down a peg or two. After all, he did deserve that and more after what he did to Leah.

"Carlisle! How are you?" came the voice from the other end of the call. She sounded friendly enough, but from the look on Rosalie's face I could only assume that wasn't her natural tone.

"Tanya, I'm afraid I'm not calling on good terms," Carlisle stated.

Tanya was quiet for a long moment. "Stay out of this, Carlisle. You're a good friend and I don't want to see you hurt," she said.

"Why did you take them?" Carlisle asked.

She ignored his question and replied, "The wolves deserve what's coming to them." Leah stiffened next to me, I reached out and took her hand. She relaxed the slightest bit from my touch.

"What do you mean?" Carlisle asked.

"They killed Laurent!" Another voice shouted from the other end of the line.

Carlisle remained calmer than I would have in that moment, "Irina, they were protecting Bella and their reservation. And no matter what they did, it's no excuse for you to kidnap innocent human girls who have nothing to do with what the wolves did."

"What about Edward?" Tanya asked, her voice colder than her vampire skin.

I could see Carlisle was becoming more irritated now. "My son kidnapped a human girl and turned her against her will, while I'm not happy about his choice or the result of his actions, his demise was his because of his own actions." I felt a little pang of sadness when he said he wasn't happy about the result of Edward's actions, because well, my vampire status was the result of Edward's actions. Leah picked up on my sadness and squeezed my hand.

Tanya snarled. "She was never good enough for him, and now he's dead because of her."

Leah's eyes flashed with anger, I started to fear I was going to have to hold her back myself.

Carlisle spoke louder into the phone. "That's your opinion. What do the imprints have to do with anything? They're just innocent human girls, and one is only a child."

Tanya laughed a sinister laugh that chilled my undead heart. "Yes, the little one was especially tasty. The other two are sitting by and waiting for when we decide to end their miserable existence. You won't find them, so I wouldn't even try. However, if you can convince the wolves to surrender their lives to us, maybe we'll let the other two go. You have forty-eight hours to decide. Then one of them will die. If I'm feeling generous, maybe I'll turn her instead and return her to her wolf. How would the Alpha of the La Push pack like to have a vampire for a bride?" The phone line went dead at that moment.

Seth spoke first, "We have to save them."

"How? We don't know where they are," Rosalie told him. She was still against helping the wolves, but I knew if we were able to save the girls then she would gloat to the wolves that we were able to accomplish what they weren't.

"I know where they are!" Emmett exclaimed. We all turned to him questioningly. He took in our questioning glances and asked, "What?"

"How do you know, Emmett?" Rosalie asked, exasperated.

A look of hurt passed over his features at Rosalie's angry tone, but then he perked up and excitement crossed his face once again. "Well, earlier when Carlisle and Jasper were talking about getting in touch with Tanya, I knew that the frigid bitch wasn't going to tell us anything helpful. Well, last month remember I bought this spy tool that lets you know the exact location of anyone who calls you." He reached over and turned his laptop towards us and pointed at the map that was displayed on the screen.

"This is where they are," he smiled.

Alice jumped up and down, "Oh Emmett, you're a genius!" She hopped over the couch and tackled him into a hug.

Carlisle went over and studied the map, Jasper right behind him. Carlisle turned to us, "They're in what appears to be an abandon house. It's about fifty miles away from their house, so it shouldn't be too hard to find."

Jasper nodded, "Let's work out an attack plan and we can set out."

"Should we include the pack in this?" Leah asked.

"No," Jasper said, "we can do this without them. We have more than enough of us here. Plus the emotions of Quil, Sam and Jared would be too heavy to handle. They could act out and hurt one of us." He looked down at his feet, then back at Leah. "Tanya said that the little one was especially tasty, so she was implying that she killed Claire. I don't think she was telling the truth, but if she was it would be too much for Quil to handle, should he find her. They will have no knowledge of this until we have the imprints safe."

Leah nodded. "I understand."

Jasper smiled, "Good." He turned back to Carlisle and Emmett, the boys crowding around plotting out our attack plan.

Leah tugged my hand, pulling me through the kitchen and out the backdoor. She sat down on the porch steps, and I sat next to her.

"What's wrong?" I asked her.

"Nothing, I just want you to stay behind me when we go get the girls. At this point, we only know about the two of them being there, but they could have more vampires waiting for us that we don't know about. So I want you to stay behind me, so I can protect you," she told me, staring deep into my eyes as she spoke.

I took a deep, unneeded breath and let it out slowly. "Leah, I'm invincible now, I don't need you to protect me."

"I want to, Bells," she told me. "I've been in fights before, I know what I'm doing. You're inexperienced, since you're only a few months old, you would be best just staying behind me."

"Actually, I would prefer if you stayed behind me," came Jasper's voice from behind us.

I gritted my teeth. "Seriously, I don't need you guys to protect me, I can take care of myself. I'm a newborn, so I'm stronger than you guys," I said.

"For now, you are, but that doesn't mean you know how to fight. I'm the most experienced fighter, you'll be safest behind me," Jasper said. "Besides, I've already plotted it out." He held up a piece of paper that had the map on it. I took it and Leah leaned over to study it with me.

"Fine," I gave in. "But if anyone tries to attack you from behind, I'm all over 'em," I said,

Jasper laughed. "I should hope so," he said, then looked at us seriously. "We're ready to go now, are you two ready?" Leah and I both nodded as the rest of the family came out of the house.

A/N: I know this isn't the greatest chapter, and I also know it's been forever since I've updated and I apologize for both. The reason it's taken so long is because I've been working on a new story, which is up now on my profile if you'd like to read it. (It's Jasper and Edward)

So there are only two chapters left until the end. *sniffle* BUT, here's the thing, I have two endings. I'm not sure which one to use, so tell me, do you want the little dramatic ending or do you want the BIG dramatic ending. I know which one I like best, but I'd like to hear from you guys. And yes, I have both endings complete, they're just waiting to be posted right now. Let me know which you'd like.

~LCM~