Hit and Run Chapter 21 plus added bonus excerpt

Author: lifelesslyndsey

Summary : After a car crash in the middle of nowhere, Bella is faced with yet another force in her life. Left on the ground in the middle of nowhere in the rain, crying after a painful and crushing blow to her life. But this time, she gets up, and meets the man that will change her life.

Pairing: Bella and Alistair

Warning: M for language, lemons, violence, gore, questionable content, swearing, and other stuff, maybe. I don't know. Minor alcohol/medication use.

Word Count: It's a bit of a baby at 2.5k, but there is an extra snippet at the bottom to make up for it.

Beta: MsEerieChastain, She gives good bj's. Beta Jobs, people. You perverts. (*Beta note – I'm not too shabby at the other kind too, if I say so myself*)

Disclaimer: I own nearly nothing; not the characters, not the Bella, not the England. I do however, own the plot. The plot is mine! Mine Dammit!

A/N READ ME! I'M IMPORTANT: So, this chapter is kind of tiny, and it's all Alistair, which I think we missed. But! There is something very important going on at the end of this chapter. It is **drum role** an excerpt from a one-shot called 'BRIG', a story that entails Alistair's change from Pirate to Vampire and exactly what he did to anger Aro way back when. This is only an excerpt. You can find the full story in the PDF at the Fandom Gives Back Autism Awareness page (google search "Fandom Gives Back Autism", first link for directions). There is a minimum donation of $5 which I endeavor you to donate, and as this is a rated M, you are all 18+, yes? Over 600 people have this story on their faves; if every one of you donated $5, we could raise $3,000 dollars! Wishful thinking, I am sure, but I would love to see some of you throwing down for a good cause and getting Alistair's Change (along with a whole bunch of other awesome stories) in return!

ALISTAIR

!#$%&

The shop-keep was bound safely in the cellar as the sun began to rise, the sky exploding in shades of pink like candy-floss clouds. I was wet, bloody, and slightly battered, but my excessive feeding had seemed to prove me well, for I had it in me to fight harder, faster, longer, and had already long since begun to heal.

I could see the gates of Volterra from the kitchen window and the double-guard that stood watch at its doors, their hearts beating lazily in their chests as they waved cars by through the wrought-iron gates. From the bedroom window, I could see Aro's tower, tall, proud and pristine, it's elaborately carved stone gargoyles staring down from their perches. Deep beneath those parapets pieces was she, the girl, freshly awoken if my estimations were correct.

Bella.

I hoped she was giving them hell; she had certainly given me as much.

I snarled, softly and to myself as I sensed the fast approach of the Reader. I hadn't expected him, especially alone. I suspected that Demetri did not want to search for me; it was as if they did not want me anywhere near Bella.

All the more reason I would find myself doing the very opposite, I should think.

I let him as far as the bedroom door before acknowledging his presence. "You," I said, all snarls and growls. "What do you want?"

"We have to get her out of there." I'd give him points for wasting none of my time with his usual bout of pretty words. "They'll turn her into a monster. She's-," his face hardened mid-sentence as our eyes were drawn to the stairwell.

"You were followed," I accused, eyes hardening. The smell of human filled the air, tainted by the too-familiar scent of Volturi.

The boy shook his head minutely. "Not with intention," he said solemnly. "It's one of the servants. She helped me get word to Alice."

"That does not mean she can be trusted, foolish boy," I snarled, even as a lilting soprano echoed out in the empty house.

"Hello?" The girl called. "It's...Astrid. Alice sent me."

The boy was down the stairs in a flash and there was little I could do but follow. I sensed no others, save for the bound shop-keep, and lingering passers-by wading through the rainy streets.

"Astrid," Edward greeted, and I said nothing. "Alice had a vision?"

"They've moved the Lady Bella," Astrid said in way of reply. "They've taken her beneath ground, to the underbelly of the city of Volterra. I've only been there once; most humans are not taken there. But it's...heavily guarded. More I cannot describe."

"But you have seen it?" Edward asked, pushing forward. His familiarity with humans baffled me, but he showed no sign of struggle in the servant girl's presence. "Think on it. Show me."

"Not from outside, I haven't. But, I was there once, on the ground level. Inside an old building..." Astrid closed her eyes; whatever the boy saw, I was not privy to. His face contorted, awe and wonder and fear flashing across his hard features.

"They've taken her deep, Alistair, and they're keeping her...sated. I watched her feed twice only hours ago and I do seriously doubt that they've kept her wanting. They'll use her blood lust as her distraction."

"And he'll use her as my bait," I snarled, fingers clenching. "She is a prize to him on merit alone I am sure, but if she showed any inclination as to being important to me, or I to her, he would hold back to it against me. It is like he knows you've come for me and the girl here," I pointed to Astrid who shrank back where she stood, "is part of the plan to lure me."

"If she is," Edward acceded, defending the girl, "she was unaware of it. She is but a pawn."

I knew this to be true, but it should not have mattered. It was a testament to how I had come to change in the face of Bella Swan that I let the girl live. "Even so," I conceded, "she is a Volturi pawn. By her being here, I believe it is safe to assume that the girl did not...forget me, during her change."

At this, the Reader balked, a bitter snort escaping him. "Unlikely as you were all she thought about while burning, and she demanded, several time so, that we return her unto you, when she woke. Her words, Alistair, were 'give me back to him'. Not 'take me back', but 'give me back'. I believe she is under the assumption that she belongs to you."

"Then let her believe it," I responded coolly, challenge written in every word and while he did not protest, the flinch was there, in the flicker of his weak, amber eyes. The girl was mine, and he would not attest to the fact.

Mine.

"You don't even love her," the Cullen boy said with a tired, broken laugh. "I can see as much; you don't love her."

To that, I could say nothing. It was true enough, I didn't love her. She'd been a human, weak and tainted when I'd known her. But I had promised her that I would not let the Volturi scum have her, and a pirate makes no promises he does not intend to keep; a pirate made few promises at all. "We must need find her before they destroy any Bella left within her," I said instead.

"I don't know..." Astrid cut in, biting her tongue at once. Aro had her well trained. "I've heard speak of her power. They call it a shield. Aro said she is un-findable."

"Show me," Edward all but demanded, rounding on her. "Please," he added, always with the angst-filled propriety. Again, I was tossed from the loop, as the Reader drew back from the girl to look at me.

"You can't," he said, sighing as petulantly as could be expected from the perpetual teen. I pitied Carlisle for his dear heart and his clan of children. "She's in deep, even a tracker won't find her. Her gift-."

"I can find her," I hissed vehemently. "No matter where she is, or what guard lay before her, I can find her!"

"You don't understand," Edward, the pissy mind-reader said, lips pulled back into a snarl. "She can't be found by anyone. Her shield...she's incredible. She can't be heard, scented, or seen for Christ sakes, unless she chooses to be. She cannot be tracked, not by you, not by anyone."

"No, you don't understand!" I snarled, shoving the child back. He stumbled beneath the force of my push, slapping hard against the brick wall. "I can find her. I need not a scent or a picture in my mind to find her. Just tell me what you know? What did you see in the servant girl's mind?"

"She's with lesser guard. Faces I cannot recognize by name amongst the minds here. Strong men and women, smart enough to keep her back. She's proven to be tricky; she can make herself invisible. From what," the boy pauses, face pulled into a grimace. "From what I understand, as long as they are keeping her sedated by over-feeding she won't be inclined to run without reason. She's working off baser needs. She wants blood and...well. She wants you."

"They'll turn her into a monster," I growled. "She'll be of no use to them."

"They're willing to risk it," the little girl chimed. "Alice told me Aro saw it in her mind that there was a chance she'd prevail. Lady Bella has been known to prove stronger than expected."

That was true; I had seen it, time and again. She was stronger than any man or vampire I'd come across in my man years. "Tell me of the building, what do you know?"

"Underground, of course," Edward replied, biting into his lip. He looked like a child and it grated at his nerves that I thought so; loudly and specifically in English. But he was nigh past a century and I had no time for infants. "I'm thinking! It's hard to grasp solid facts from human minds. No offense, Astrid."

"Give me something! What can you see? She must have seen something!" I snarled, my finger digging into his collar bone till the shimmering flesh pops beneath my sharp nail, and I sink my thumb into his muscle, dark blood oozing and bubbling from the wound.

His face contorts with pain, as he hisses, silveresque venom sputtering from his lips. "A church! I saw a small church out the window of wherever Astrid saw Bella. There was a broken stain glass window of a rose and a raven, and the belfry was half crumbled." I watched the boy's eyes shutter to a close as he struggled to find words to his memories.

I let the boy loose, caring naught as he hissed, running venom over his shoulder wounds. A window with a rose and a raven; I let myself picture it, feeling the warm tug in my chest like a compass. It would have to be enough. "We go north."

"How do you know?" Edward asked, head cocked so the light caught his immaculate, untested skin. A green lad if I ever saw one, but with his gift he'd do well enough in a fight, I hoped. "How can you be sure?"

I faltered, if only for a moment, eyes flashing to Edward. "My tracking is not limited to the living or un-living. I can find anything. Whether it be vegetable, mineral, or animal, it is not safe from me. I needn't a clear picture in my head, only the desire to find and I will be led," I said, letting a breath of hot, acrid air escape my lungs. My secret gone, for her, I thought. I'd tell the world, if only to have her back. But she was the only thing I couldn't sense and a strange part of me felt only pride for it. If one could hide from me, one could hide from the world. But it wouldn't stop me from finding what was mine.

The boy snarled, but I shot him a look of pure loathing. He was a miniscule whelp, a thorn in my side that mattered little as I no longer had any need of him. "Hiss and spit all you want, child, but you are a kitten to my lion and I will chew you up and spit you out."

He snapped, looking all the ready to crouch and pounce. "What makes you even think you matter?"

I grinned at him, flashing my own teeth, far older and sharper then his. "Something she said to me once," I said, mouth curling up into a dangerous smirk. I let myself see it, that last day with her. She was sitting on the couch, a decidedly disheveled, fucked-out mess, smelling of my come, and bearing my marks upon her naked body. She was smiling as she spoke, cinnamon eyes alight with fire. 'I'd pick you over them any day.' It was a moment, seven words, I'd keep close to my heart for it was the day I was sure I could someday love her.

"That..." the boy swallowed, "That doesn't mean anything."

"Oh but it does. Why deny it, you've said it...seen it yourself, even. She believes she belongs to me, and I am happy to accommodate," I sneered, letting myself remember those hours prior where she'd been speared upon my cock, back arching as I fucked into her with ruthless abandon; it felt so vivid in my mind, the way her body took it, wrapped around me, tight and hot and trembling. The way she'd nigh begged for it, spread herself open to me like a galley whore. "I made her a promise I intend to keep. I will fight for her; I will lay slaughter to armies far more massive then you, boy. I will kill my own kind in cold blooded murder, and I will enjoy it. I will kill you, should you get in my way, without a blink of an eye. I will stop at nothing until she is free from her binds. Can you say the same?"

"You wouldn't," Edward dared, but his eyes betrayed him.

"He would," the girl chimed. "Edward...Alice said..."

The boy's huff was exasperated and broken. "Is it not her choice?" He cried out, throwing his hands up with a wince. "Shouldn't she have a say in it?"

I barely gave his words a second thought before my reply fell from my tongue, sharp and lilting. "No," I said, drawing myself tall, shoulders squared like any decent pirate. "Because she is mine. There isn't a force in this world that could keep her from me, not life nor death. I am a vampire, yes, and have been one for many a year, but first and bloody foremost I am a Pirate. I will pillage, plunder, and leave behind wreckage so foul your Gods will cry the blood of my victims to take what I want. I will fight for what is mine, take what is mine, and keep what is mine; no man in this world will pry her from my frigid grasp. It is a pity that you cannot say the same, for the spoils you've so nobly cast aside have become mine to keep and there is nothing in the world you can do about it." I spit a mouthful of venom at his feet, and locked my jaw. "So buck up, boy, you can either tag along, or fuck off and die for all I care. I'm going to save the lass; you're either with me, or against me."

"And if I'm against you?" Edward hedged, eyes flickering. "What if I'm against you?"

"I kill you where you stand."

TBC

A/N And now for that excerpt...

A storm was brewin', that much I could tell from my prison, knocking my beloved ship about on crashing waves. The heavy, thunking clunk of boots against the deck echoed above me, along with the patter of rain. I could hear garbled orders being called out over the wind, but the words were carried across the sea. It was the blood-curdling shriek that warned me, the thundering stomps shaking the planks above me as the crew seemed to scurry blindly and in every direction. A thin beam of light played from the trap door, flooding my depths of my ship along with the sounds of death.

A man took the stairs one-by-one, calm as ever, as he made his way to me, every motion as graceful as the ocean itself. "I've found another one!" he called out over his shoulder, his eyes never leaving me. "Why don't you join your crew for the party, Mr…"

"Alistair," I growled, my voice brittle as chalk from ill-use. "Captain Alistair Xavius Webb, and those men are no crew of mine."

The man looked down at me, the shaft of light catching on his pale face to reveal a pair of violent red irises staring back at me. I did not gasp, or flinch, or whimper, but of surety, my heart beat faster in the face of danger. I had heard tales, for every pirate had, of the red-eyed demon that emerged from the waters, slaughtering across the seven seas. Stories meant to scare children, not hardened men such as I. But scared I was, in that moment, caught beneath the devil's glare.

"This be your ship, then?" he asked, his gaze never wavering, his voice oddly light and musical, in contrast to his devilish appearance. I lifted my chin, defiant unto my end for sure, and he smiled. "Join me, Captain Webb, and see just how my men take offense to mutiny."

He struck my bindings with my bare fist, tearing them from the post with a flick of the wrists. The cuffs still chafed at my ankles and wrists as the chains rattled behind me against each stair I ascended. It was dark, night having long since fallen on the seas, when I emerged from the brig. The men I once called my own cried out in an orchestra of horror and pain as these things that dared to call themselves men drained them of every drop of red that pumped in their veins.

I held my head up high, following as Death himself cut a path through the dead. "Hear me!" he called out, coming to stand behind the helm, staring down upon the brutal chaos. "Hear me, brothers! Hear me, men! It has been brought to my attention that we have boarded a ship of mutiny! That which stands before you, this man," he said, forcing me forward with an iron-cold hand at the small of my back, "is Captain Alistair Xavius Webb, and for your crimes against him, he shall have the pleasure of dying last. Brothers, oh my brothers, show these humans what we think of men who turn against their own."

If I had thought it brutal before, the chaos that reined henceforth was nothing short of the darkest nightmares. Blood seeped across the sun-washed wood of the deck in a puddle, dark at the edges as it thickened and dried. The screams were sharper, though not as sharp as the teeth that I watched cutting into the flesh of the men who betrayed me. I beheld their crumpled faces, torn in agony, as they struggled fruitlessly against their captors, and watched them die one-by-one, a sick heat churning in my empty stomach. They had taken the time to save my second-in-command, the master of my mutiny, Cameron Lorimer, for the end; the lot of them, four in total, ripped into him even as he begged, his voice bloody and wet.

"Captain Webb," the beast beside me said. "Do you feel avenged?"

"You speak as if I asked for this," I snarled, my eyes skimming the sea of dead that blanketed what had once been my ship. "My vengeance can only be found in death. If you wish me to find it, then kill me as you planned."

A/N Hit and Run can be read without the extra Alistair-Fic. To be honest, I wasn't sure how to work it in to the story, so it was actually never going to be written But, if you *want* to know how he got changed, donate with Alex's Lemonade Stand. For the rest of this, Google search 'Fandom Gives back Autism' for more instructions on how you can get the pdf of this and so much more! Do it, you know you want to!