The Taming

Author's Note: We're almost done with this story! Went on vacation with my family down to the shore, so sorry this didn't come earlier. Felt obliged to give you all something, so I wrote this up today in my freetime.

Chapter Twenty Five: The Queen

I stumble around through the dust, holding my knife in my hands. I'm foolish. I can't believe that because of my actions, I watched Rosalie die before me. The smoke is clearing slightly but it's still hard to see correctly. My heart is pounding in my chest.

Pools of blood soak the ground. There are slain animals and people lying around the town like litter and debris. I'd never imagined it was so bad, I'd never thought that I'd be one to get another killed. The scar on my wrist throbs like never before and I gasp in pain, clamping a hand over it to apply pressure.

It shines silver in the pale sunlight, burning my skin as if that particular place was touched to the flame. A gust of wind blows the fog away from the clearing before me and to my horror, an immortal crouches over a body. My heart drops into my stomach and I back away in terror.

Pale skin, black eyes, covered in blood. That body is one I recognize. One of the guard, named Ateara. The immortal stands, now distracted from its meal. Tears bud at the corner of my eyes, horrified. I have no weapons, nothing to defend myself with.

In three seconds flat, the immortal is in front of my, smiling devilishly in my wake. I sob. It opens its powerful jaws, bloody fangs revealed to me. Something catches in the corner of my eye. A dagger, glinting in the sunlight.

I drop to the ground and grab the dagger as fast as I can. The immortal is on top of my body trying to wrestle me to the ground. I'm screaming, pointing the dagger upwards, trying to pierce the immortal's skin.

With a snap, my arm is pinned to the ground and the dagger clatters onto the dirt. I can feel my bone crunch under the immortal's powerful grip. It opens its mouth again, baring its fangs. It goes to my arm, ready to rip out a chunk of my flesh. I panic with its teeth nearing my skin, ripping my arm out of its grasp and grabbing the dagger while it's being distracted.

I stab the dagger into the immortal's eye, blood spurting out at me. It stumbles backward, in shock most likely, and it gives me the perfect opportunity to kill. I drive the dagger into the head of the immortal repeatedly with one intent-to end its killing spree.

My dagger is lodged into the skull of the immortal. Blood covers my body, but it's not mine. I yank the dagger out of the immortal's head and stand up, wiping my mouth. I look down at it, beginning to cry. I'm so relieved that I just can't help myself

I drop the dagger onto the ground and stumble towards Ateara. He's still breathing, yes, he's still alive. He lays naked in the dirt, bleeding from deep wounds to his torso and arms. I drop to my knees before him and cup his face in my hands. "Quil," I whisper. "I have to get you out of here." I tell him.

I wrap an arm around his neck and help him sit up. He cries out in pain, tears pouring down his face. I help him onto his feet and he limps with me towards the castle. He groans loudly, leading me to rest against the side of a house. He pushes me away and lays back down. "No," he says in exhaustion. "I can't do it. I can't do it, Isabella. You need to go back to the castle and save yourself. If anything happened to you, Jacob would die."

I'm about to protest when he coughs up blood, the red substance dribbling down his chin. His eyes turn cloudy and he stops moving. I breathe out in shock, my heart pounding. "Q-Quil?" I shake his shoulders. His body is limp and he lays unmoving in the dirt. "Oh no. No...dammit."

I curse again quietly and move away from him, tears coming faster now. Two dead in a matter of minutes. No, no, no. I'd never imagined it was this bad again. But I'm naive. I don't know much of anything.

I scream when I feel two hands on my shoulders. I'm spun around quickly and a hand is clamped over my mouth. I struggle until I realize that it's Jacob. "I told you to stay in the study!" he hisses at me. "And here I find you, with Ateara's corpse at your feet."

I feel like I want to retch. My knees almost give out and he sweeps me into his arms like I'm the equivalent of a doll. "I'm sorry...I'm so...sorry."

0o0o0o0o

"I was so worried. I saw Rosalie dead at the exit of the study and I thought the worst. If I would've found you there dead, I don't know what I would've done." Jacob tells me. He's tucked me into my bed, locking the door behind us. He dips the rag into the warm water and wipes the blood off of my face.

"It was my fault," I murmur. "I didn't listen to Rosalie and I got her killed. I didn't want to hide while innocents were being killed. Gods, I was so foolish to think that I could help." I wipe the tears from my eyes. "I feel horrid."

He sighs and washes the side of my face with the rag. "You wanted to help," he whispers. "I understand. It's hard watching people you know and love die. That's why I wanted you safe in here. If you died out there, I'd lose the only thing important to me. Your protection is my hope, knowing I can come back to you. That I have to come back to you."

Tears are streaming down my face again. They've been coming in a steady stream for a good half hour now. "I am so sorry," I whisper. "I never meant for this."

He nods his head, black eyes searching out mine. "I know. I know, Bella. But please promise me this. Stay here and wait for me, because I promise I'll come back for you no matter what."

I wrap my hand around his. "I promise you."

"I will return to you," he tells me. "And I will find you."

0o0o0o0o

JACOB

"These things come from nowhere," Cameron hisses. "They just appear and demolish everything in their wake."

I sit at the head of the table, leaning my chin into my hand. Their numbers are growing and the casualty rate of the people is steadily increasing. So many innocents and it's all because we can't find the source of this immortal overpopulation.

"And now Ateara's dead," Call groans. "We're down a man now. I wouldn't be surprised if one of us got injured or worse very soon. These things are becoming too much to handle and the trainees? It'll take them years to build up the skill that we have. They're as good as dead."

"They're like bait for us," Clearwater agrees sullenly. "That poor kid-Littlesea-got his leg ripped right in half so I could make a clean kill."

They all look to me. Me, their king, for guidance. "What should we do?" Uley asks me. "Keep fighting?"

I shake my head and sigh, leaning forward in the table. I stare at them through the darkness. "At this rate we're getting nowhere. We need the source of this problem and we need to stop it." I tell everyone. "Now I've looked in the documents. They document a Queen, turning humans to immortals to build an army."

Call scrunches his eyebrows together. "You think these things are building an army?"

"They already have," Uley says, folding his hands over his chest. "And so far they're winning."

The whole room sparks up in conversation. "What'll we do?"

"I can't keep going like this!"

"One immortal dead, one's created."

"This is madness!"

I slam my fist onto the table, startling everyone. "Shut up, all of you! Arguing and complaining won't change this!" I yell. "Now if you'd listen for a minute, I'll tell you what I think."

There's a good solid moment of silence. Everybody waits for me.

I sigh and lean back in my chair. "This Queen-I think I've seen her running through the forests at night. I was killing a whole swarm of immortals at the Intersection of the Ives when I heard this song. All of them coming at me, they just turned around and followed the song. I started after 'em, killing them while they were distracted. They just ignored me."

"If you say that's the Queen," begins Clearwater. "Then I've heard that same song. It was beautiful."

I nod my head. "I followed the song deeper into the darker parts of the forest. I shifted into a bird so I could follow them and not be seen. From the treetops I saw her, one with skin as pale as the moon and hair as bright and red as fire. They followed her through the forest. They moved so fast and I couldn't keep up. I lost them that night, but I hear that same goddamn song every night in the forest. If we all were to follow it, we could take her down."

Uley chews on his lip. "I'll do it," he says. Everyone else chimes in after him, agreeing to the mission.

"Good," I say. "But I'm going to warn you now. Those immortals will do anything to protect their Queen. In the scripture it says that they'd willingly sacrifice themselves for her. They see her as some sort of Mother. She's the hardest to kill. Cunning and fast and very protected, she's nearly impossible to kill."

Call speaks up, his face paling. "When are we going to do this?"

"Tonight." I tell him. "She sings at midnight."

0o0o0o0o

JACOB

We shift into the form of giant wolves and move into the forest at an alarming speed. It's merely minutes from midnight. We descend into the forest, our dark coats allowing us to blend into the night. Our agility allows us to run fast through the forest, jumping over fallen logs and skillfully moving over rocks and small streams.

Be ready, I tell them. Listen for the song, keep formation, and kill any immortals you see. When they don't pay attention, they're by far the most vulnerable.

My men move behind me, covering all of my blindspots. I look on, listening for any sound of immortal footwork. I lift my nose and smell the air, trying to smell their sickeningly sweet scent on the wind. I drill on forward.

This way,I tell them. I can smell them north.

We race through the trees, my men following my lead. Suddenly, something doesn't feel right about this. I keep moving, but there's a dreadful feeling in my stomach.

Jacob, there's a band of immortals on the right flank. Call tells me. They're moving in quickly!

We turn around to aid Embry on the right flank. There's about twenty entering the forest from the direction of our kingdom. They are hissing like snakes and baring their fangs. They are disgusting creatures, each and every one of them.

Attack! I tell my man. Don't let a single creature escape.

We descend upon the immortals, with our enormous jaws open. Embry takes one down first, ripping off its head and hurling it deep into the heart of the forest. He shreds it apart, leaving arms and legs flying around on the ground. With my ten men behind me, we take two each and quickly rid the forest of that group.

My jaws crunch the skull of an immortal and it pops like a cherry tomato, rotting brains spilling out over the ground. Gross.

They are all dead, my king. Fuller tells me.

I nod my head. Good wor-

A woman's heavenly voice floods the forest at that very moment. Suddenly, movement stirs up everywhere as they begin to flock towards their Queen. Even the corpses on the ground by us itch to move to her, their limbs twitching. Uley growls and tears an arm apart in annoyance. I listen to the song, my ears turning to find out which direction it's coming from.

Northeast, I tell them. Follow my lead and maintain formation. If there's any immortal activity on your flank, notify us all at once.

We move deeper into the forest, following that sweet song. Immortals burst from each corner. Call growls at one, but it completely ignores us. They follow the song, their eyes opened wide and their mouths gaping.

Should we kill? Clearwater asks.

Kill all but one. Don't fool around, either. Decapitate and move on. I say.

I open my jaws to the one in front of me, my sharp teeth piercing the back of its neck and ripping its head clean off. It sails away behind me. I watch the rest of my men take out the easy targets, like picking weeds out of a garden.

We leave one female immortal to stumble through the forest and lead us to the Queen. She moves fairly quickly through the trees, following the song. Others emerge from the trees, following the female towards the sound of the voice.

We take them down.

It's a fairly simple process, since they ignore us all in order to get to their Queen. I love the blood on my muzzle, seeing the dead bodies littered around the forest. It gives me some sick pleasure, knowing that we're getting closer and closer to our goal.

She leads us twists in the forest, places we'd never been before. A tunnel of twisting vines and sharp thorns covering the entrance. The female pushes past the thorns, ignoring the fact that the thorns are shredding her skin and clothes.

We move effectively past the thorns, cautiously making our way into the tunnel. The singing is getting louder as we get closer to her.

The immortal gets to the end of the path and stares down a huge hole in the ground. Then, head first, falls down the hole to the Queen. There are no immortals coming after the female; we'd killed all of the ones exiting the village and heading northeast. However, lots more had come before the female one. I can smell their disgusting stench from where I stand.

We're going to shift into mice to fit through this hole and remain virtually unseen, I tell my men. Hide yourselves around the room. And then on my command, shift into various creatures to slip past the immortals and kill this Queen of theirs.

Smoke drifts from the hole as the singing stops. I throw a glance back over my shoulder to the men as a signal to shift. We shift our skin to that of a mouse's and carefully make our way down into the darkness. Thick roots surround the hole and our small feet dig into the dirt, curling our way down the hole and towards the light.

I can smell a fire. As I get down further, I can see that this underground room stretches far back. There's a fire roaring for light and heat and immortals standing dormant, like statues, in front of a red throne. The throne is covered in human blood.

I'm startled when I hear the wretched scream of a human being. My head snaps toward the sound. The young man spasms on the floor, his blue eyes turning blood red and his teeth elongating into sharp fangs. So this is how it happens.

Suddenly, the young man stops moving and lays on the floor still. His teeth stop growing and his eyes return to blue. But he doesn't restore life. I can hear an angry growl. "You imbecile!" I hear the screech and the crowd rumbles. "I told you one bite and here I see three."

I thought they couldn't talk, Uley comments.

They can't. Call replies. I've never heard one speak.

You just heard her goddamn speak, I hiss at everyone else. Now quiet your thoughts. Listen to what she's saying.

"Something's not right," she whispers and all of my men cease to move. "Everyone quiet down, it's alright. Mother will find the source of this problem."

The sea of immortals parts as she begins to walk through. And that was when I caught my first glimpse of the Immortal Queen. Fiery red hair and blood colored eyes stare back at me.

"Look here, my children. Mice." She turns her back and laughs a little, the dumbfounded immortals just blankly staring back at her.

Be ready, I warn my men. She knows.

I'm staring into the face of a monster and I don't bother to budge. "Mice in these parts of the forest," she softly drawls to the crowd that looks on. "Or should we say shapeshifters?"

In the flash of a second, her teeth are elongated to their full length and her hand slaps down onto the wall that we cling to, scattering us all onto the floor. She stomps her foot down onto the dirt ground, aiming for my small body. I dart into a small hole in the wall and my men find shelter in small cracks.

Hold steady, I tell them. You have to think faster than her.

She's no fool of a Queen, that's for sure. Clearwater says.

"Come out!" she screams. "Join us! I've never seen one up close before!" She gives a sinister laugh, clawing at the walls viciously. I back into the shadows of the crack, trying to think out a plan.

Suddenly everything goes quiet. My heart pounds in my chest. I wonder what she's doing in there and why it's so incredibly silent. I inch towards the light of the crack, trying to catch a glimpse of what's going on. Suddenly, a bright red eye appears before me. I scamper backwards in shock.

"Come now, King Jacob. Don't be shy."

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Reviews would be awesome. I creeped myself out by just writing this chapter. Tell me how it went.

Courtney xx