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Chapter Twenty-one
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The van crept along the darkened street and slid into a parking spot a block or so away from their intended destination. Emmett turned the off the ignition and the engine coughed and sputtered as though struggling to stay alive. Jacob gritted his teeth. He didn't know why he'd let Emmett talk him into using their father's van instead of renting a vehicle. Even using Bella's new Bentley would have been a better option.
The engine finally fell silent. All of them sat there, quietly, for a long moment. Bella spoke up. "Ahlss, you stay here, guard car."
Alice opened her mouth to argue and Bella captured her gaze. That soft, dreamy expression of the bespelled settled over her features and Alice nodded. "I'll stay here," she agreed.
"Shasper, stay with Ahlss," Bella ordered and there was no need to overpower his mind to ensure his compliance. He readily agreed and put his arm around Alice's shoulders. She gave him a small, tentative smile, uncharacteristically shy.
Bella reached down and retrieved her sword from under the seat. "If anyone scared, you not have to go." She opened the door and climbed out. Her new boots seemed to glow under the light from the street lamps. She'd refused to wear any of the shoes in her closet because they were all made from "dead skin" and they'd had to make a quick stop at Walmart. Bella's feet were so small that they ended up having to shop in the children's section. Jacob had tried to gently dissuade Bella from her choice, but Bella had set her jaw stubbornly and said, "Want these!" And that's how the Dark Goddess ended up setting out on their rescue mission, wearing red rubber rain boots with a grinning red puppet with googly eyes on the toe.
Rose, who'd been waiting in the car for them, had to bite her lip when she caught sight of Bella's new footwear. "I should have known Bella's ass-kicking boots would have Elmo on them."
Jacob took his grandfather's hunting knife out of the protective case he stored it in and slipped it into a sheath on his belt. "Let's go."
Edward hid the pipe under the edge of his blanket before he lay down on the cot and closed his eyes. He tossed an arm up to cover them. He felt a little better after blocking out the light. He knew he had a concussion from his symptoms, but he had no way of knowing how bad it was. He doubted that Tanya would take him to a doctor in any case. If he was going to survive this, he had to get out of here as quickly as possible.
The basement door opened and he heard the clack of heels on the stairs. "I'm back!" Tanya chirped.
Oh, joy! Edward thought sourly.
She peered down at him. "Hey, you don't look so good."
"A traumatic brain injury will do that for you," Edward muttered.
Tanya rolled her eyes. "Don't you watch TV? People get hit over the head all the time and they're fine."
He was tempted to explain that TV shows weren't always the best place to glean accurate medical information, but decided it was too much effort.
"You don't have amnesia, do you?" she asked, a hint of hope in her voice.
"Sorry, no. Listen, I need to go to the bathroom. I feel like I'm going to throw up."
She wrinkled her nose. "Ugh! Well, I'm not cleaning it up if you do. Come on." She grabbed the front of his shirt and yanked him to his feet so abruptly that Edward's lie about vomiting almost became a reality. She turned to lead him up the stairs and he snatched up the pipe. He brought it down on the back of her head with all of his strength. She fell face-down with a small cry.
He bolted for the stairs and had almost made it to the top when she snarled and grabbed him by the arm. He lifted the pipe to bring it down again and she caught him by the wrist and twisted it cruelly until he lost his grip. The stairs had no rail; they were comprised of treads nailed in the center to a pair of two-by-fours. She threw him off the side of the staircase and he landed on his back on the concrete floor. His vision blanked out in a flash of blinding silver as his head cracked against the floor.
Tanya was atop Edward in a flash, moving with vampire speed. Fury blazed in her eyes and she backhanded him across the face, so hard that his nose crunched and a gush of blood spattered across the floor by his head. He felt it pour down the back of his throat and choked when he tried to inhale his next breath. Instinctively he tried to throw her aside so that he could turn over and clear his airway, before he drowned in his own blood, but he could not budge her. She had vampire strength as well as speed.
That's when he realized he was going to die, even before her eyes widened as the smell of blood hit her and her fangs extended like daggers. He could do nothing but gasp and choke at the burning agony as her teeth ripped into his throat. She didn't know what she was doing. She gnawed at him with those fangs, instead of using them to create a puncture and then withdraw. The pain was excruciating. Either she didn't yet have the pleasure-inducing drug in her saliva, or she meant for it to hurt.
He knew he wasn't strong enough to fight her off, but his body tried anyway, as though on auto-pilot, a deep-seated survival instinct that wouldn't let him stop until his limbs lost their strength and fell limply to his sides.
Bella, he thought. Her image flashed through his mind ... The first time he had seen her, so pale and perfect in her sarcophagus, the look in her eyes when she first told him she loved him, the mischievous light in her eyes before she jumped into the swimming pool ... I love you. I love you ...
"TANYA!" a male voice screamed. Edward moved his gaze with an effort to the top of the stairs and saw a man he'd never seen before, a tall man with dark hair and eyes, his face paper-white and twisted in anger. He rushed down the stairs and kicked Tanya, hard, in the ribs. She went sprawling.
"Oh, fuck! Fuck!" the man shouted. He stared at Edward in dismay.
Tanya pushed herself up off the floor. Blood coated the bottom half of her face and ran down her neck to stain the front of her shirt with a red bib. She looked surprised to find herself there. "Edward? Oh no!"
"What did I tell you?" the man shouted. "I told you to stay away from him. You don't have the control over your bloodlust yet!"
Their voices came from a distance. Edward's vision was dimming. He was cold, but lacked the strength to shiver. Bella ...
"We can still save him!" Tanya crawled over to Edward. He closed his eyes, but she hit him again. "Stay with me!" she shouted. But he could barely see. Dark spots were crowding out his vision. Something cool and wet and metallic was crammed into his mouth. He grimaced at the taste and tried to turn his head, but he didn't have the strength. Even drawing another breath was too much ...
Bella ...
Bella ...
... I love you ...
The house was a small, one-story brick ranch with a large picture window in the living room. It had a tiny square patio in front of the door, one step up from the sidewalk, which was bordered by holly bushes. Not exactly the kind of place Jacob would have expected an elf and his millionaire boyfriend to reside. He didn't know what he'd been expecting: a tree house or a Hobbit burrow or something. Not blue collar suburbia.
"What kind of game is Jinx playing?," Rose mused as she stuffed her blonde hair up into a knit cap. "He made sure that Paul saw him. He could have knocked him out and taken what he wanted if it was just the license he was after. But he wanted Paul to get a good look at him, fully aware we'd know exactly whom Paul was describing. And he knew I'd be able to track him down to this address."
"He wanted us to know we're walking into a trap," Nessa said. Jacob glanced over at her and saw that Nessa had tugged a cap of her own down over her curls. She actually looked kind of cute wearing it, an observation Jacob almost blurted out before thinking the better of it. Her face was pale, but the tilt of her chin showed determination.
"You sure you're up for this?" Jacob asked her. His eyes flicked to the cast on her foot.
"Absolutely," Nessa said, and Jacob could help but feel admiration for her. Admiration and gratitude. This wasn't her fight, after all. She had no reason to risk her neck for Edward. As he gazed at her, his mind wandered back to what Bella had said about the women warriors of her people. He could picture Nessa in battle armor, carrying a spear and shield, her eyes hot and fierce as she charged toward the enemy.
He shook his head a little to clear it and checked his watch. Nearly midnight.
"Showtime, honey," he said to Bella and she nodded. She lifted her hands and the breeze began to swirl, lifting dust from the nearby lawns to carry to the sky. Dark clouds roiled in to hide the moon and plunge the street into deeper darkness.
"That should do it."
Bella dropped her hands and the wind fell still, leaving the heavy, lowering clouds to hover above. Rose opened the passenger door and propped her crossbow on the top of the window frame. She took careful aim and fired an arrow. The street lamp shattered and a small shower of sparks fell. With a small smile of satisfaction, Rose slung the crossbow over her back. No one would see them now if they happened to look out their window, which fortunate because all of them dressed in black with knit caps, and the mini arsenal each carried, pretty much shouted that they were up to no good.
Emmett led the way, tiptoeing down the sidewalk at the head of their little group. Something occurred to Jacob: "Psst, Emmett! Are you still on probation?"
Emmett paused. "Probably."
"You don't know?"
Emmett shuffled his feet and gave his brother a sheepish smile. "Not really. I mean, I meet up with my probation officer at least once a month for lunch, because we're friends, but I don't know if that means I'm still officially - "
Jacob sighed and motioned them forward. He supposed if they got caught, going back to jail was the least of Emmett's worries.
They approached the door of Jinx's house. Rose slipped through the shrubbery beneath the picture window and peeked inside. She held up her hand, index finger and thumb forming a "0" to show that she saw no one inside. Jacob nodded. He gestured for Bella, Nessa and Emmett to step to the side. He cocked his shotgun and then gave the front door a brutally hard kick next to the doorknob. The thin wood splintered around the knob and swung open. Jacob stepped forward ... right as the door hit the stopper on the wall and bounced back, connecting painfully with his nose.
Rose snickered and Jacob gave her the finger as he cupped his injured schnozz with the other hand.
They all followed Jacob (who was still rubbing his nose and cursing under his breath) into the living room. Bella pushed her way to the front of the group, her sword drawn, her eyes darting around swiftly as she took in their surroundings. The place was a "kountry" nightmare of powder blue and teddy bears, with antiqued American flag motifs on just about every flat surface. The sofa was blue and beige plaid and it stood next to a wood magazine rack with heart-shaped handles. Rose looked horrified.
"Are you sure Jinx lives here?" Emmett whispered. "It looks like Martha Stewart's personal version of hell."
Bella silently crept toward the kitchen and narrowly missed being hit by a crowbar swung at her head. She ducked and spun at the same time, lashing out with her foot to catch the man behind his knee. His legs crumpled and he fell down to the floor. She heard pounding feet as Jinx rushed into the room and a word shouted in Elvish.
The windows burst in a spray of glass and tree roots exploded up through the floor. The roots swayed like pallid snakes as they sought a target. Whatever they touched, they wrapped around tightly and Jacob blanched when he saw two of them rip apart a bar stool. Bella hacked at them with her sword and Jacob tried blasting them with his shotgun, but the roots didn't seem to notice the injury.
Nessa gave a little scream and swung her crutch at them to no avail. She pulled a small handgun from her belt, but a root wrapped around her wrist with crushing pressure and it clattered from her hand to the kitchen floor. One of the roots wound its way around her neck and jerked her down. Red-faced and gasping, she reached for the gun, only to find it an inch or so out of reach. Bella spun again and brought her sword down on the root around Nessa's neck, chopping it neatly in half. Nessa pulled the severed end off her neck, coughing out a thanks.
The man with the crowbar had scooted back across the floor to sit with his back against the counter under the sink. He watched as Bella hacked and slashed at the roots, while Jacob sawed at them with his grandfather's hunting knife. Rose let out a cry as both of her arms were captured by roots and one of the branches swung to hit her across the side of the head. The blow split the skin of her temple and blood dribbled down over her cheek.
"ROSE!" Emmett bellowed and tried to run to her. A root tripped him and he sprawled on the floor, kicking at the pale thing wrapping its way around his ankle.
The shotgun was wrenched from Jacob's hands and he heard the clatter of Bella's sword hit the ground as the roots wrapped around their limbs, too many to fight off.
The elf whispered a word of magic and the roots froze, quivering slightly as they awaited further instructions.
"Shinx," Bella spat.
"My apologies, Goddess, but I couldn't allow you to kill my boyfriend." Jinx's strange green eyes glowed in the dim light of the kitchen.
"Brady," Rose said, glaring at the man who sat with his back to the cabinet doors. "What the fuck are you doing here, anyway?"
"I'm helping Jinx, obviously." Brady got to his feet and took Jinx's hand in his own. "I think you can tell the tree to release them now."
"No, I don't think that's a good idea," Jinx said. "Not yet. Not until we've gone."
Bella glanced down at her sword. A look of confusion flitted over her features and she seemed to concentrate, though nothing happened.
"Didn't Jinx tell you?" Brady asked pleasantly. "I'm a null."
"A what?" Emmett asked.
"A null. I nullify the powers of those around me. Except for Jinx, of course, but it took a while before I could learn how to turn it off at will."
"Why are you doing this?" Rose demanded. "What the hell is your angle?"
"I'm doing it because someone has to," Jinx said. "Someone has to make sure that fate plays out as it is supposed to."
"What fate?" Jacob demanded. "Can you just give a straight answer, for once?"
Jinx nodded in Bella's direction. "That one is meant to rule the world, rule over humans, vampires and fae alike. She will restore the Balance. She will make world what it should be once more. And if she will not do this willingly, I must force her hand. I will make winning the war her only option for survival."
"What war?" Nessa demanded.
Jinx smiled at her, a gentle, pitying smile. "The war I have created. By the end of the evening, Bella will have signed her own death warrant and she will have no choice but to fight the Queen and the Volturi if she doesn't want to be destroyed. I have only had to nudge fate in the proper direction, for all of this was meant to be."
"Shinx," Bella said.
"Goddess?"
She nodded toward her friends. "Tell them what happen when we break promise to fae."
Jinx frowned slightly, but he complied. "Promises made to the fae are binding. If you break it, you die."
She met his eyes squarely. "I swear I kill you, Shinx. You die screaming, I promise."
A gust of breeze passed through the kitchen. Jinx was startled and unsettled by Bella's words. He regained his composure and bowed. "If I must sacrifice my life to restore the balance, so be it."
There was a soft gasp and all of the heads in the kitchen turned to see who had made the sound. Tanya stood in a doorway, blood caked on her skin and blouse. Bella's nostrils flared as she took in the scent and she let out a long, low cry of anguish. Jacob felt it like a punch to the solar plexus; there was only one thing that could have wrenched such a sound from her.
No, oh God, please, no ...
With a surge of tremendous strength and power, Bella broke free from the roots and sprang toward Tanya. She plowed into the other woman and they fell back into darkness. Jacob heard descending thuds and loud cracks as they tumbled down a staircase.
"We've got to go ... now," Brady said to Jinx urgently, and he and Jinx bolted for the door. Seconds later, the roots released them and Jacob ran for the basement stairs, slapping the wall around the doorway to find a light switch. He was glad he had; some of the stairs had been broken when Bella and Tanya fell down them and he probably would have fallen through and snapped a leg at the very least. Emmett ran after Jinx and Brady, but that barely registered on the periphery of Jacob's mind.
He ran down the stairs, jumping over the broken treads. Bella and Tanya were fighting at the bottom. Bella was on top of, her knees pinning Tanya's arms to the concrete floor and she was beating the ever-loving shit out of Edward's ex-fiance while the woman screamed and pleaded. Rose hurried down the stairs behind Jacob, holding Bella's sword in one hand, a pistol in the other, prepared to intervene if necessary.
Jacob paid them little heed. He walked over and knelt down next to Edward's body.
No.
No.
Jacob felt for a pulse, though he knew he wouldn't find one. The side of Edward's throat looked like it had been hit with a chainsaw and he lay, silent and still, in a pool of congealing blood. His green eyes had already dulled and stared sightlessly at the ceiling. His lips were gray-blue, his skin blanched and ashen. Jacob gently brushed his thumbs over Edward's eyelids to close them. He lifted Edward's shoulders from the floor and his head fell back limply, widening that terrible gash. Jacob slipped an arm beneath his neck to support his head.
Jacob stared down into the face of the man who had been his best friend, his brother. For a moment, he saw in his mind's eye that silent little boy that had finally trusted him enough to offer him a cookie from his lunch box. That same little boy, so shy that it was painful for him to speak to strangers, had helped Jacob go door-to-door in the neighborhood that summer when Jacob's cat went missing. He saw Edward in their college apartment, standing on the back of the sofa, feverishly writing on the wall with a Sharpie, trying to get the numbers out of his head before his mind drifted to something else and he forgot, but still so shy that he needed Jacob to take his completed paper to the head of the physics department. And then the moment when he had looked into Edward's eyes and had seen that Edward loved Bella and there would now be a second person who shared Edward's life.
There was a horrible, rending pain in his chest and Jacob heard someone sob. It was a moment before he realized the sound had come from himself, and that the tears that splashed onto Edward's cheeks were his own.
"Edward, please - " he choked. He glanced up, as though looking for help. Bella had ripped Tanya to shreds. Literally. As he watched, she took Tanya's head in her hands and savagely tore it from her body, flinging it to the side with a last, wrenching cry of grief. Bella stood, trembling, soaked in blood. She stumbled over to them and sank to her knees beside Jacob and Edward. Her shaking hands cupped his cheeks, wiped away Jacob's tears, leaving smears of blood in their wake. She tried to wipe them away, but only smeared more onto his skin. She gave a little moan of distress and Jacob laid a hand on her shoulder to still her. She looked up at him, helpless in her anguish.
Jacob took off his t-shirt. The front of it was bloody, but the back was clean. He used it to gently clean Edward's face for her. Bella sank to the ground and laid her head on Edward's motionless chest. Too grief-stricken to cry, all she could do was curl up against Edward and stare blankly at him.
"Jacob," Nessa said. She repeated it and he realized she had been repeating it for some time now. He dragged his eyes away from Edward and Bella and looked up at her. Nessa's eyes shimmered with tears and he wondered why.
"Jacob, we need to go now," Nessa said. "Someone may have heard the shots ..."
He looked back at Edward.
"Jake." Nessa crouched down beside him. "You can't do anything for him now."
He knew that was true, but he couldn't go. Not just yet. Soon, the police would come and they would take Edward to the morgue and from there to the funeral home. Jacob closed his eyes.
No.
Edward on a metal slab in a drawer. In a coffin ...
He let out another sob and Nessa threw her arms around him. "Oh, Jake ... Jake, I'm so sorry." He let her hold him and was surprised that he did find it comforting. His mind cleared a little and he glanced up to see Rose sobbing against Emmett's chest and Emmett with tears streaming unchecked down his face.
He looked back down at Bella. He took her shoulders gently in his hands. "Honey, they're right. We have to go."
"No," Bella said.
He tried to lift her and Bella slapped his hands away. "Go. Leave."
"Not without you, honey. Edward -"
She gave a soft, keening moan at the sound of the name.
"Edward would want me to take care of you." Jacob's voice didn't sound like his own.
"No," she whispered, and he knew it wasn't a denial of what he had said. "No. No. No-no-no!" She was screaming by the last word and the dam holding back her tears broke. Her sobs were horrible, sounds of soul-deep agony. Jacob sobbed with her, pulling her into his arms as they wept.
The storm passed, as all storms must. Emmett helped them to their feet, and they all walked toward the stairs, their arms clutched around one another for support. There was a pile of ash at the the bottom of the stairs, all that was left of Tanya. Jacob spit at it, a childish gesture which eased a little of the burning hate in his heart.
"I'm glad you killed her," Jacob said bitterly. "I only wished you would have stretched it out a little longer."
They started up the stairs, but Bella couldn't do it. She wrenched herself free and ran back to Edward's body, sobbing. Jacob gestured to the others to continue and turned back.
"Jake?" Nessa said.
He shook his head. "Go on without us, Nessa. Bella will find our own way home, all right?"
She didn't believe him. Jake gave her a small smile. Smart girl. "Jake ... What are you going to do?"
"Dunno. Suppose I'll find out when I do it." He surprised himself by leaning in to press a quick kiss to her lips. "Go on, now."
Nessa shook her head. "No ... I'm staying, too. I won't bother you, I promise. But I won't leave you here."
Jacob met Emmett's eyes over Nessa's head. Emmett nodded. He put an arm around Rose's shoulders and they headed slowly up the stairs. Nessa sat down on the last step, beside the pile of Tanya's ashes.
Jacob walked slowly back over to Bella. She had pulled Edward's head and shoulders into her lap and she gently stroked his hair back from his forehead. Jacob noticed at Edward's socks didn't match and it made him chuckle even as tears welled in his eyes again. He sat down beside Bella and she laid her head against his shoulder.
"Shaykob, what do?" Bella asked.
"I dunno, honey. I really don't."
She was crying again. Tears dripped onto his chest.
The cops never came. Either no one had heard the shots, or no one had cared to report them. In the wee hours of the morning, Jacob finally had Bella talked into going home. She fought. She cried. She even hit him once, but she finally acquiesced. She bent down and pressed a soft, lingering kiss to Edward's lips and let Jacob draw her to her feet. It was harder for her to let go of his hand. She laid it on his chest and brushed his hair back from his forehead one last time. "Love you, Edwurr," she said.
Edward opened his eyes.