Hit and Run
Author : Lifeless Lyndsey
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.
Word Count: just south of 3k
Beta: Mrs EerieChastain – the only hands beside mine to ever touch this story.
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/NTried to make this chapter a tiny bit longer. Finally, my Piratey Muse is back. Working on Chapter 26 already. We might not hear from Bella for a bit. Can you guys believe we're at the end? I need some Vamp-Bella/Alistair interaction! And slaughter. Lets not forget slaughter. Speaking of which, this chapter gets gory. Be warned.
"Take this," I gruffed, shoving the hilt-end of my short, curved bone blade into her surprised hand. "Use it wisely."
She held it up, her fingers careful of the knife's edge, and eyed it with an almost morbid curiosity. "This smells like Aro," she commented, wrapping her hands around the smooth handle. It looked massive in her little hand, glinting and all the more menacing for it.
I grinned at her, the wicked thing beside me. "Yes, it does."
Pushing past me with delicate ease, she cast me a dark smile. "I'll just go ahead, shall I?" she asked, pointing to the staircase with the knife's tip.
"You have a plan," I inquired, watching her cock her head to the side like a curious dog. I held little faith in others, but I'd allow the little vampire the benefit of the doubt if only because she knew the lay of the land, so to speak. Still, I would not doubt her for double-crossing, and watched her closely.
"I cannot place them at all. However your girl's shield works, it is most confusing." She nodded, turning her eyes toward the descending stairs. "They know you are here but not where, and they won't suspect me. Listen closely, pirate, you'll know when to make your move."
Descending the stairs carefully, I waited to follow suit 'til I heard her voice carrying up the stone corridor.
"You have to help me," she cried out, shrill and terrified. "They ran! The guards left with me. The pirate...he's coming. He's coming! And he isn't alone! Please, you have to help me!"
"Whoa, slow down," a deep voice said, coming closer to where I was tucked away in the stair-case. "Who's with him?"
Silence stretched on for a moment before the terrible skin-crawling sound of flesh being cut open -vampire flesh- filled the air. I knew that sound; I had personally handcrafted that sound from the bones of my own sire. It rang like church bells to my ear. "Me," the little fae said quite clearly. "Pirate!"
Rushing the stairs, I sailed into the room in a blur of pearly white. There were four, as she predicted, though one was quite magnificently gutted, and in the slow process of being beheaded with a very short knife. One hand still clutched in the Cullen's hair, head bobbing as she sprang for attack, she let loose a feral kitten's growl, and continued her meticulous hacking. The vampire had no chance as every time he grappled for her, she slipped and spun easily from his fingers.
The other three were still quite fledgling, but no less lethal with it, their eyes bright and freshly fed. Two men, one woman, with matching faces. They were a family; it was clear in the shape of their mouths and the cut of their cheek bones. They'd been made together, and moved with the fluidity that screamed at me familiarity.
"The family who betrays together stays together," I offered with a rakish grin, as the shorter of the brothers took the first swipe, sharp claws slicing through the curve of my jaw. It stung, venom welling in my mouth almost instantly. I spat it on the ground, never taking my eyes from the trio. "And by that of course I mean no heads will roll should you consider siding with I."
"We are Volturi!" The taller of the men snarled at me, mirroring her siblings' battle-stance. These were not untested bait, as I had slaughtered only moments before, but trained Vampires who fought together, and fought together well.
"Fae," I said slowly, just as she finished hacking her way through her vampire's meaty neck. Thick, black blood like tar coated her front, smeared down her chin and throat where she had bit him.
Wiping the blade off carefully on a clean spot of her dress, she smiled almost daintily. "I'm ready," she said, as the other circled us. The mind-reader was still hissing and spitting, clutched quite covetously in her knife-less hand.
They attacked in triplicate, each one moving to complete the other's action. It could only be compared to poking at a three-headed snake and praying you did not get bitten. Fae took her swipes, careful and calculated, each one sliding through the thick hide of our foe, but they mostly went unhindered. Each time I manage to sink my own claws into their flesh, another would be there, prying me off. This was not a battle to be won with hands, no. This fight would be dirty.
"Fae!" I snapped, feeling her small form at my back. "Knife!" She gave me a mostly distrustful look over her shoulder while sliding the knife through my hand
" Go for the sister," she said, almost benignly.
I bit back my wince, as I ripped it free from my flesh. "Right little darling you are," I glowered, readying myself to take the plunge. Contrary to her word, I did not go for the sister. I went instead for the larger of the brothers, sinking to my knees even as he lashed out at me. The knife sliced the Achilles tendon as easy as butter, sending the hulking man crashing to his knees.
They were not strong without partner, and not a one knew what to do when fighting without another. The fae had taken on the girl, leaving the last of the brothers alone. He made his attack, springing onto my back to sink his teeth into the meat of my shoulder. I smashed him against the nearest wall, just enough to jostle him off me. Jumping forward, I crouched over the fallen, digging my knee into the small of his back. "Fae! Take her jaw off!" I castigated, yanking the vampire's head back to expose his throat. I pressed the blade of my knife against his neck, hard enough to sink an inch deep, his dark clotted blood already beginning to drip against the cobbled floor.
The vampire who had managed to sink his teeth into me did not attack again. He was frozen in place, as my companion sank her tiny fingers into the jaw bone of the sister, tearing it free from her face. The woman gurgled, oozing bubbles of black sludge-thick blood already spitting from the gaping hole in her face. The rip was not clean, jagged tears of flesh running down her throat. Her tongue was gone, as well as her half her neck. It left her esophagus exposed, fluttering and contracting with ever pointless gasp of breath. It was a ruthless move and a tactical one as well.
Knife still poised over my own vampire's throat, I watched as the little fae held the jaw like a prize, as she had done with the Cullen's head. "What do you want me to do with this?"
I looked over at our one unharmed foe, who still stood frozen against the wall. "You'll be wanting that back yeah?" I asked, earning only a nod in response. "Then you will earn it. Fight with us for your freedom, and that of your siblings. If you do not, and we fail, she is dead. Aro will not welcome the drama that is a vampire unable to feed. What say you?"
"I'll help you," the vampire agreed at once, ignoring the agonized cries of siblings. "But what about them?"
"This one," I said, yanking the hair of the vampire beneath me, "can fight. His leg should be mostly healed by now. You're sister is unfit. Send her away." I stood, watching the fallen vampire stumble to his feet. He spit in his hand, rubbing the venom into knife-wound. He said nothing, merely shook out his leg and held his place.
"Away where?" The vampire asked at once, looking only slightly frantic. "Volterra is our home. We know no one outside these walls."
"Fae! Show her the head." She lifted her bounty up, shaking it a little. Cullen glowered, still spitting. "Scent this. You're looking for its corresponding body. Upstairs you'll find the rest of the Cullen Mind Reader. You would do well to stay with him," I ordered her, and she glared in reply.
"Helena," her brother seemed to plea. "Please do as he says. If he wins..." The girl shook her head, blood spilling out of her still, in slow, seeping lines. "You have to go."
Growling in irritation, I took the jaw from the little fae's hand, fingers biting into the wet flesh and roof of her mouth. "I've no intention of coming back for you. However, the Cullen is the son of a friend of mine, one who would be most remiss were I to leave without all his pieces. It would be in your best interest to stay with him, but it's no skin off my teeth if you don't."
The bigger brother pleaded now, neck wound mostly healed. "Helena..."
She nodded awkwardly without her chin, stealing way toward the staircase. My fae companion paid no one any mind as she gathered her skirts to secure the Cullen's head to her waist. "I have a feeling I'll need both my hands for the next round," she said reasonably, catching the knife as I threw it back at her. It cut the webbing between her thumb and forefinger and she huffed. "I suppose I deserved that."
"What did he use against you, Ilana?" The unharmed vampire asked the girl, head cocked to the side. "You have no family here. You are close to no one."
She smiled at him, full of blood-stained teeth. "You're right, I'm not."
"Enough chatter," I snapped, turning my eyes to the next descending stair case. "What can you pair tell us about what awaits?"
The larger of the two spoke. "There's four of them for sure. We don't know them personally, but I'll wager at least one or two are gifted, but with what I couldn't tell you. They're all males."
"Are you simply ignorant in your youth or does Aro truly have you that well trained? Chauvinists, the lot of you." I knew better than to underestimate women, but it seemed my coerced companions had yet to learn that lesson. Snorting, my eyes flickered towards the fae child whose look was nothing short of murderous. "I'll think you'll find that amongst vampires, there is no more delicate a gender."
The third level of this hell was as had been expected. Four male vampires, though which two were gifted was yet to be determined. As before, the child led our expedition, leaving the men behind in wait.
"Ilana, what are you doing here? You're suppose to be on guard-"
"They're dead," she sobbed, and I could only imagine the picture she painted. "All of them. They're dead. He's killing them all! It's horrible."
"The pirate?" her vampire questioned. "Where is he? The newborn's shield has all our senses cut. We can't hear a thing outside the room."
Interesting I thought; her shield was more complex than I had imagined. Leaning forward, I descended the first step, testing he limits of the girl's gift. Was it sight based? Could they neither hear nor smell me before seeing me? But then, I could hear them, so that couldn't be possible. How did it work? What were its limits? Perhaps it was proximity based? The closer to she, the higher the shield? How far did it stretch? Clearly it could encompass others but how did she control it? So many questions, and every one would wait 'til I'd seen this to the end. Only more reason to end it early, really.
"I don't know!" the fae wailed theatrically, gasping little hiccups escaping her. "I ran ahead for help! You must come, you must help them!"
"Yes, yes of course," the vampire responded immediately. "Elijah, Dante, cut the pirate off. Claudio, get Jane-"
The brothers raised their hands in question, lining up beside me as we descended down the stairs. They entered before I, welcomed and trusted. From the bottom stair, I spied upon their chaos. Without the possible double-cross I had expected, the brothers headed for the vampire racing toward the stairs, detaining and beheading him with frightening ease. Claudio had never had a chance against them.
Stepping out from the stairwell, I lashed out on the nearest of the vampires. His gift was easily learned; he froze me in place, gluing my feet to the ground with little more then his mind. The effects lasted only seconds and he wasted no time tumbling me to the ground. Far larger than I, he pinned me quickly, locking his fingers into my skull for beheading.
With haphazard aim, I slashed at him with the severed jaw still clutched in my hand, the make-shift weapon of teeth cutting open his cheek from mouth to ear. He cried out in pain, flesh hanging loose on his bones, jagged and torn. In his moment of panic, he released his grip on me, and I sent him sprawling backwards with one rough kick to the middle.
"What the hell is this?" an olive-skinned vampire asked, eying the brothers in rage. The child stood before him, curled into the protective cradle of his arms. His hands were so clearly familiar to her body; I could not help but seethe. "You betray us so freely-"
"Actually Morris, they didn't," she said, turning in his arms. "But I did." He looked down in confusion, his red eyes widening as she gutted him, thrusting my knife into his stomach and pulling it upward. His midsection gaped, intestines spilling out onto her feet. She kicked them a side, hissing in pain as his fingers latched onto her throat. With one swipe of the knife, he lost his hand too.
My own vampire rushed me again, this time prepared for my retaliation. I crouched, grinning up at him. "Dante or Elijah?" I asked, twisting out of his reaching arms to kick his feet out from beneath him.
"Dante," he said with his own answering grin, gluing me in place once more. He slammed against me when I did not move, hands grappling for my head again. Gripping it more firmly, I aimed a sharp upper-cut with the jaw, scraping a layer of flesh off his chin with my hit.
Once free from his grip, I circled him quickly, growling. "Do you think I could behead you with this, Dante?"
He stopped his attack, eyes flickering to his fellow vampires. Elijah was done-for, easily decapitated by the brothers, his body tossed beside Claudio. "Please I-"
"You what?" I asked curiously, tossing the jaw from hand to hand. I was sure with enough effort I could decapitate him; I'd done it before. "You want to live?"
"I want out."
"Dante!" the fae's Morris growled, ripping the rest of his intestines out to keep from tripping on them. He threw the immortal child across the wide room, paying no mind as she slapped against the stone walls. She rose, looking even more angry at her mistreatment, and I pitied poor Morris in that moment. "Do not betray your Master!"
"I want out," Dante growled, gluing Morris in place. He vampire's rage turned to fear as he struggled to free himself from the floor. "Do it," Dante said, eyes turning to the girl child.
"Dante-"
Her beheading was swift, and she kicked aside his body. "Gather the heads," she barked out. "We bring them with us this time. We don't want them putting themselves back together."
Both Dante and the brothers looked to me, much to my amusement and her irritation. "Do as she says," I snapped at them. "Heal your wounds and quickly. It would be a pity to keep Jane waiting."