Disclaimer: I don't own these characters.

AN: Want to make a quick shout out to the guests that regular review my chapters. I see you, anonymous babes.

Sorry for the double cliff hangers yesterday. Thanks for sticking with me and playing my ransom game.

Enjoy the read.

- Rosalie

Chapter 25

Blood

Edward's POV

I held my breath. Beau's blood saturated the air. He was strung out on the floor. Three large and fatal gashes cut deep across his chest diagonally.

Samantha had followed us from the clearing and let Carlisle and I cross into their land, considering the circumstances. The rest of the werewolves had taken down and destroyed Laurent and were chasing after James now. Once Sam had registered Julie's transformation, she veered off to help the new pack dog phase back into human form.

-Julie. It's Sam. Take deep breaths. Find a way to get outside. You need to get out of the house. Don't worry about the door. We'll fix it. You need to get out now. Don't look down. No, don't look down. Just get out of the house.-

If Jules looked down she would see Beau's mangled body, causing her panic to worsen. Julie in her anger couldn't process anything but Sam and I both saw what she could not. Julie needed to be diffused and she needed to get the hell away from Beau.

Sam lead Julie to the ocean and away from Beau and Bonnie. Away from Carlisle and I. If Julie was still there when Carlisle and I arrived, she would attack us instantly. It was her nature.

Bonnie had crawled onto the floor and held Beau's head in her weathered bronze arms. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she wailed uncontrollably.

"Move!" I yelled while I flung myself to his side. Blood was spilling profusely out of three large gashes ranging across his chest. His shirt, my shirt, was ripped to shreds.

"Beau. Beau!" I shouted. He wasn't responding. "Carlisle?"

My father assessed the damage.

"Edward, he's still alive. My medical bag is in the car. Beau drove my car here. Grab it."

I didn't want to leave his side, but I wrenched myself away. We needed to stop the bleeding.

I brought the bag in and Carlisle started putting pressure where the bleeding was the worst. I was already preparing the stitches. Carlisle grabbed the needle and began to pull the ragged edges of Beau's skin together. Carlisle's impulse thought shattered me to my core.

-Beau is not going to live through this. . . Wounds are too deep. . . already in shock.-

"No." I ran to my father's side. "Carlisle, you have to bite him. You have to bite him now."

If Beau was dying. There was no time.

Carlisle nodded and stopped trying to sew Beau's chest. "Get the morphine."

Bonnie stopped her wailing. "The treaty." She hissed out.

"Treaty be damned." I yelled back while drawing the pain killer from the vial into the needle.

"If you change Beau into one of you filth, the treaty will be null and void and you won't be able to run far enough away to escape. No matter how long it takes, the wolves will find you."

"Julie broke the treaty first." I growled and jammed the needle into Beau's shoulder. He was still out cold and not feeling a thing.

"What?" Bonnie raised her eyes.

Carlisle stood up now. "Julie attacked our family. She broke the treaty. We have no obligations to uphold our end now."

"Beau isn't. . . "

"Beau is our family." Carlisle emphasized every word.

"If Beau is your family, then he shouldn't have stepped foot on our land." Bonnie bit back.

My snarls and growls didn't drown out the argument. Beau was dying and they were debating over semantics.

Beau's heartbeat slowed. So much blood loss. Soon there wouldn't be enough blood for his heart to pump.

Bonnie and Carlisle were still arguing. It's as if we didn't exist anymore.

I touched Beau's cheek with the back of my hand and his eyelids fluttered open. Blue eyes latched onto me fiercely. I had seen this look before. I had seen this light in the memories Carlisle had of my mother before she died. "Save him in the way only you can." Sky blue and fading quickly. With what little strength he had left, Beau moved his lips. No sound came out but I knew what he said. "Do it."

I leaned forward and placed a kiss on his forehead. I was afraid. What if I wasn't strong enough? What if I couldn't stop? Beau's blood sang to me like no one else's. I should wait for Carlisle. He was the one that had to do it. I might not be able to stop. Carlisle had to do it.

Beau closed his eyes again wearily. I felt his life force fading beneath me. Beau was dying.

There was no time. It had to be now and Carlisle and Bonnie weren't paying any attention. Carlisle would not act unless this matter was cleared up.

I took a deep breath and let the smell of blood burn down my throat. Gently, I placed a kiss on his neck as if we were alone on my couch away from all the blood and the yelling and the confusion. His complexion was turning more grey with every passing second.

My lips parted on his pallid skin. I opened my mouth wide and clamped my teeth down, tearing into his skin.

The taste hit me like a shot of heroin. It smacked me into a different dimension.

I never could have imagined what his blood would do to me. I'd had human before, of course. But nothing could have prepared me for this. Not even all those weeks of misery sitting by his side. The desire for him paled in comparison to the actual deliciousness of his red blood. Better than sex. This was on a completely different planet. My eyes rolled back and for two seconds I forgot where I was. I forgot who I was.

-Let go, Edward.- Carlisle thought towards me.

No. No. Leave me alone. Mine. Like one hoarding their kill,My thoughts were animalistic and possessive.

"Edward." Carlisle hissed.

My eyes shot open and I was catapulted back into reality.

Beau. Oh no, Beau. I released my jaw and flung myself to the other side of the room. I wiped off the remaining blood on my sleeve, horrified with myself.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I muttered into my hands. Did I make it worse? He already lost so much blood. Oh my god. I was going to lose him.

-It's fine, Edward. You stopped in time. He's still alive. Your venom will keep his heart beating. You did a good job. I'm proud of you.-

Carlisle sealed my bite on his neck.

-I'm just going to go back over with more venom so his wounds will close faster.- Then he ripped off the remaining rags of Beau's shirt and bit him gently on his wrists and above his heart, between the gashes. He moved with such control and precision. He didn't even let the blood touch his tongue.

I still couldn't breath. Beau's heartbeat was so faint. What if this didn't work? His heartbeat was so pitiful I feared that at any moment, it would give up.

Then Beau sputtered, coughing up blood. Pain distorted his face. "Fire." He murmured while his heart rate accelerated. His eyes were foggy with the morphine.

It was happening. It worked. Too many emotions washed over me.

"Burning. I'm burning!" Beau slurred through hoarse vocal chords.

Bonnie quietly seethed in the corner. She couldn't do anything now. He was changing. We were only righting a wrong. Julie was the one that killed him. She would have killed Bonnie but Beau stepped between them. Beau saved her life.

"Edward?" Beau flung his head wildly, searching for me.

"I'm right here." I kneeled beside him, holding his hand. "I'm right here."

"You bit me?" Beau asked quietly through jagged breaths.

"Yes, Beau. You were dying. I had to."

Beau gritted his teeth with pain, but he managed to pull the corners of his lips up into a sloppy grin. "I'm gonna be like you now?"

God, I wish I knew what he were thinking. He never responded the way I thought he should. "You're starting the transformation process." I confirmed.

He pushed back into the floor and said no more, fighting off the pain or accepting the morphine. I couldn't tell which.

Carlisle and Bonnie agreed that the extenuating circumstances would fall outside the treaty's jurisdiction. No one would be found at fault. They didn't have the manpower, or the wolf power, to enforce anything even if we breached the treaty first. The wolves were too busy with the nomads and the new member to worry about treaty guidelines.

Bonnie was well aware that if it came down to a fight over Beau, the blood of four kids would be on her hands. And they were already stained with Beau's blood.

Carlisle promised that we would leave the Olympic Peninsula within the next year. Bonnie promised the wolves would leave us and Beau alone.

We would forgive the pack for attacking one of our own. They in turn would look the other way to us biting a human.

Bonnie's tears streaming silently down now were for Charlie. A sentiment I anguished over myself. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. Taking Beau's humanity away would never be perfect, but this was so sudden. He didn't get to say goodbye.

I scooped Beau into my arms. He shook with pain and grasped at my collar weakly.

"Stay with me." He sputtered between ragged breaths.

I carried him to the back seat of the car and leaned him against my chest.

My lips at his ear, I whispered back, "Forever."