"They went after her." the words came out in a whisper, nearly choking me on their way out.
I knew only two things in that moment.
Either she would be destroyed.
Or this family... I... would continue to be in danger.
Whatever happened today would change everything.
"You don't look well Bella," I fought the urge to roll my eyes at the tender voice, at the echo of concern that I had heard throughout the night. I had spent hours awake now, sometimes pacing the plush living room carpet of the Denali's house, which was completely different in style to the Cullen's but somehow similar. Sometimes the worry and fear became too much and I found myself disappearing to the bathroom... to the only room that I was allowed the illusion of privacy where I could fall apart and really cry.
"I feel fine." it didn't come out as calm as I had intended, the stress of waiting for news, seeping through in my simple words.
"Bella..." Alice's voice held a hint of a warning and this time I did roll my eyes at her before she continued. "You're paler than us Bella and your eyes keep closing... if you keep going you're just going to collapse in exhaustion. You've been awake practically all night..."
"I said I'm fine Alice." I didn't mean to snap at her and she sighed loudly, most likely frustrated with my stubbornness which at the moment was matching her own.
I continued my walking silently after that, none of the other women in the room attempting to stop me even though they were right. I was tired. I wasn't feeling well. I also knew that if I stopped pacing, if I let myself sit down and rest then I would fall apart completely. Because it ached.
My chest had never hurt this badly. Even when Edward and I were apart and I was suffering miserably alone, it had ached and pulled and it felt like I had been punched in the chest, but it never made me feel like this, like I was only a half to a whole, my other half ripped apart and shredded... burned and unable to be repaired. It was an entirely new level of pain that I was experiencing.
I knew that something was wrong and I knew that I wasn't the only one who recognized it and was in pain. As much as they all tried not to show it, occasionally one of them would raise their hand, their palm resting over their heart before they realized it and pulled it down again, glancing quickly at me to see if I noticed it.
I did.
The night wore on slowly while they tried to convince me that everything was going to be alright and I continued to pace the floor.
"Bella..." I didn't want to hear it. I was barely keeping myself together. When simply pacing had stopped working to distract me I had begun to focus on the room as I walked. I focused on the intricate pattern on the antique vase that sat on the coffee table, the curving lines of the furniture, the different meanings behind the pieces of interpretive artwork that hung on the wall.
"Bella..." Carmen looked at me with concern when I turned and began walking the same path back towards her. I knew that it wouldn't take much more before I fell to pieces. Turning abruptly I ignored their continuing questions and moved back towards the bathroom, closing the door softly behind me and spinning around, sliding my back against the door and unlocking the tears, letting out just a small amount of the worry that I was feeling.
When I had cried all of the tears that I would allow myself I pulled my thoughts, my emotions together and took a deep breath, ignoring the pulling and tearing that still caused my chest to ache uncontrollably. When I began to look at the night, at the hours we had all spent worrying for our mates I realized that I wasn't just upset. I was angry.
I was fed up of having to run from Victoria. I was fed up of being a fragile human. I was fed up of putting everyone else in danger because of my presence.
For just a brief moment I considered going to find Victoria myself.
"Oh no you don't Bella." The thought had been so fleeting in my mind that at first I was confused by her sudden pounding on the door, the panic and fear in her voice.
"What are you talking about Alice?" I groaned and then the thought resurfaced. "It was only a passing thought... it wasn't a decision Alice."
I could sense her still standing on the other side of the door and knew that she wouldn't leave me alone now after seeing my brief thoughts. Any sense of privacy I had was dissolved now, my frustration returning ten-fold.
"Have you seen anything from them yet?" I pressed my hands against my thighs and stood back up, blinking back the remaining tears and forcing myself to try and act calmly, rationally. Just as I turned to open the door a wave of pain hit me that was so intense it knocked me right back down to where I had been previously crouched, a strangled cry breaking out of my mouth.
"Move away from the door Bella." I heard a click as the lock on the door was broken and felt a slight pressure in my back as the door was nudged carefully open behind me, pushing me further into the washroom. I didn't look up at Alice as she knelt down in front of me, prying my hands away from my chest and asking me to tell me what hurt, what was wrong.
"Tell me what you know Alice. Where are they? What's happening to them?" I choked out the words like puffs of smoke and when I finally looked up I saw her face more composed than mine but still in pain as her own hand cradled her chest. I felt the presence of the others behind me and I fought the urge to scream from the agony I was feeling, the sudden crack I felt that reverberated throughout my body like nothing in comparison to the pull of whatever was happening currently to my mate.
"Come on Bella," Rosalie's arms were around my waist before Alice could answer my question and I tried to resist her as she lead me out of the room and down the hallway but it was impossible. The pain was too great and she was insistent.
I was slightly surprised and extremely grateful when instead of taking me back to the living room she led me into the same bedroom I had slept in earlier and closed the door behind us, helping me collapse onto the bed before speaking again.
"Let me look at you Bella... it sounded like something broke." she pulled my hands down and helped me shift to my back, a position that was even more painful to stay in.
"What has Alice seen?" it sounded pathetic, my voice raspy and pained as I begged Rosalie to just tell me what was going on. I was tired of them all sheltering me.
"She hasn't seen very much." She was pressing softly around my ribs but when she hit the sore spot I had to suck in a deep breath, my teeth sinking into my tongue accidentally. Her hands were cold as she continued to press and examine around my belly and my ribs and I was slightly surprised that it didn't bother me that she was here doing this, that she seemed to know exactly what she was doing.
"He's strong," it was a cross between awe and sadness as her hands stopped moving and rested for a moment where my son was still kicking me, just below my sore rib.
"Is it broken?" I asked and it seemed to snap her out of wherever she had disappeared to.
"I think so, I don't have enough experience to know for sure but I it feels like it. I'll wrap it up until Carlisle gets back and can look at it." she answered and left the room, coming back before I could ask where she was going. Minutes later my ribs were wrapped up tightly and I was back to waiting anxiously for news.
"Alice has only been seeing bits and pieces... there haven't been enough conscious decisions for her to get a solid vision." Again she surprised me by the tenderness in her voice as she sat with me, the space and silence in the room something that I needed.
"What has she seen? Why does it hurt?" I had noticed while Rosalie had wrapped my ribs that the pain in my chest had been gradually lessening but it was still there, still pulling.
"When they left it was because they had found evidence of young vampires a little way east of here. Victoria's trail also was leading that way." I felt my anxiety growing at the mention of more vampires. "It's going to be okay Bella. The last vision that she had showed glimpses of them destroying the newborns." I didn't feel any better by her reassurances, just wanting it to be over, for Edward and the rest of my family to come back. "It hurts because they've made the decision not to come back until Victoria is destroyed."
"Can I come in Bella?" Esme's voice floated in from the doorway and I looked over to see her carrying a tray of food into the room.
I thanked her softly as she handed me the cup first and I drank it quickly, the pain fading slightly and my body feeling much better as I picked slowly at the food, not really hungry but wanting to keep doing what I could to keep my babies healthy.
"They will come back Bella. All of them." I wasn't expecting Esme's words and the force with which she spoke them also surprised me. "They know what they are doing... Jasper, Emmett, Carlisle, Eleazar, Laurent and..."
"They're on their way back." Alice's voice chimed loudly throughout the house interrupting Esme and I rubbed my chest absently, the pain still aching but relief flooding through me at her words.
"Victoria?" I heard Tanya ask from the hallway and the silence brought my mood instantly back down.
"I don't know... but no... I don't think they got her yet." Alice's voice still held an element of excitement but it was much more subdued now as the rest of the family joined us in the bedroom. I didn't care. I just wanted Edward here.
"When will they be back?" I asked quietly and both Esme and Rosalie turned back to me.
"Not for a couple of hours... they just made the decision and they were pretty far east." Alice answered apologetically and I winced slightly as I shifted down a little bit.
"How bad is the pain Bella?" I tried to tell Rosalie that it wasn't too bad but baby boy shifted and I felt it as he kicked my broken rib, my face contorting and giving me away as he did so.
"Come on little guy, let's see if we can get you to shift a little bit so you aren't hurting your mama." Rosalie's voice was tender and I was shocked as she moved her hands back to my stomach and pressed around gently and I felt the baby shift slightly lower, no longer kicking me in the sore spot, her hands working like ice to soothe some of the pain. While she sat like that a while longer I saw Esme reach into her pocket, her phone coming up to her ear.
Rosalie still had her hand resting on my stomach but I was no longer focused on what she was doing, only needing to know who Esme was speaking to.
"Here she is Edward," Esme's voice suddenly sounded at a level that I could hear and the phone was suddenly in front of me, waiting for me to pick it up and press it to my ear.
"Edward?" I breathed suddenly nervous, not entirely confident that he would answer, that he was really alright.
"Are you alright Bella? Esme said the baby broke a rib... are you in pain?" he spoke quickly, and I had never been happier to hear his voice, even filled with worry like it was.
"I'm fine... Rose has been great, she wrapped it up for me and shifted the baby so that he's not kicking it anymore. Are you all okay? When are you going to be back?" I blurted out my questions and felt my eyes well up with tears again.
"We're fine Love, just stay in bed and we'll be back as soon as we can." I nodded my head dumbly, unable to speak due to the tears and Esme reached out, taking the phone back from me while Rosalie and Alice helped me shift to a more comfortable position on my side, Rosalie disappearing and coming back a minute later with a small white pill in her hand.
The clock slowed down as we waited.
"I want to go home Edward." I whispered the words carefully even though we were the only ones in the house at the moment. But I knew that even though we were alone inside, the others were still within hearing range outside. Far enough away to give us a little bit of privacy but close enough that we were still protected should Victoria appear the way that she did.
I couldn't quite tell what Edward was thinking but his face looked torn. We were currently sitting on the bed in the same guest bedroom of the Denali house, Edward's hands gently rubbing my round belly, soothing some of the constant pain from the babies' kicks. Since they had returned back to the house nearly a week earlier, my health had been a concern for Carlisle and Edward... and now Rosalie who since feeling them had been drawn to my side almost constantly. I had been surprised to learn that Rosalie had actually studied medicine more recently than either of the others and had almost taken up medicine with the original intent to specialize in obstetrics.
"What do you mean Bella?" His posture had stiffened and his hesitation made him seem more vulnerable than I was used to seeing. I was unsure of why he suddenly seemed so afraid.
"I want to go home... I want to go back to our house. I want to sleep in our bed in our room and not let Victoria run the rest of our lives. She's going to come back eventually and when she does..."
"So you want to go back to our place. Not Forks... with your dad?" I pulled back in surprise and looked up at his face, his questioning and fear suddenly making much more sense to me. Even now with me carrying his children he was still afraid that one day I would run away from him in fear.
"Well... I miss Charlie yeah, but Forks isn't my home anymore Edward." I shifted carefully and ran my hand along his cheek, resting it on his shoulder. "My home is up here with you... with our family." He leaned over and kissed me softly, his arms wrapping around me and pulling me into his arms, holding me close to him.
It was the first time he'd held me this intimately in so long I nearly cried at the close contact, at the longing I suddenly felt. Too much time had been spent discussing strategy, discussing Victoria's relentlessness, trying to estimate what she would do next now that her attempts at building an army had been destroyed.
When the men had returned home and I had been inspected Edward had reluctantly filled me in on their hunting trip. They had followed Victoria's scent to the same area they had been tracking newborn activity. It turned out that it was a small group of brand new vampires that Victoria had created as a way to destroy our family. With Jasper leading them, they claimed it had been easy to destroy them, but Victoria wasn't there and Edward had almost collapsed in pain immediately afterwards, something about our connection alerting him to the pain I was in and convincing him that he needed to come back to me.
Victoria hadn't made another appearance and once again our family was at a stand-still on what to do next.
"Please Edward... please can we go home?" He kissed me again before answering, murmuring a simple yes and returning his lips to mine. It was soft and firm and I lost myself in his kiss, in his touch, in his words.
The next day we said goodbye to our cousins and leaning against Edward he helped me into the back of Carlisle's car and we drove home. My body had weakened far beyond what it had been when we had arrived a week before, my mind tired, and my emotions haywire.
When we finally arrived back home the family tried to return to normal while keeping on alert for anything that might indicate that Victoria still hadn't given up.
I only continued to get weaker.
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this update. Victoria is a tricky creature... but the Cullens are good and perhaps Victoria will give up now that they have taken out a couple layers of her plans. I hope you enjoyed, please R & R!
** All twilight references, characters etc... are the property of S. Meyer I only play with her creations to see what I can do with them :)