Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
A/N: I do not reread what I write because I'm insanely lazy; I just write, hit spell check, correct what Word tells me to and then I post it. So there are probably lots of errors including wrong and missing words and simple grammatical issues, please excuse and ignore them.
I couldn't see what was happening. The forest was much too quiet. I was running as fast as I could in the direction that Esme had pointed me in, but it was slow going because of my leg. At least I wouldn't have to worry about tripping because of how slow I was moving; the downside was the burning pain in my leg. I could actually feel the blood dripping down my leg and I was worried that the freed blood would make James work even harder to get to me.
After I had eaten breakfast earlier, the boys had already left for their hunt; the rest of us went to spend the afternoon in the meadow Alice had previously talked about. Everyone had still expected to fight James in the meadow, so when we arrived there, the girls all arranged themselves in a way that seemed they had just laid there randomly but I knew that they had actually spend a few minutes before leaving the house discussing where everyone would be sitting.
Esme had packed a picnic basket to play along in our plan; it was also there just in case James didn't actually attack. Since it was already decided that Esme would stick with me, Esme and I stayed in the dead center of the meadow to read while Rosalie and Alice did their own thing as they walked the perimeter of the meadow at certain pre-arranged, intervals. We had spent about an hour until both Rosalie and Alice moved to Esme and I and crouched in a defensive stance, while Esme and I stood up. Esme seemed ready to grab me and run, but we stayed still.
I hadn't expected it, but James was the type of bad guy that apparently liked to talk. I wasn't sure if he was doing it on purpose to try and exploit or find an opening, or if he was actually happy to gloat about how easy it was to divide our numbers. He also gloated that the boys were easy to take down; that immediately agitated everyone, particularly Alice since that would mean that Jasper, her mate, was taken down. I didn't want to believe him; I wanted to think that it was just a tactic he was using to get to us. The one thing I really didn't want to happen, one of the Cullen's getting hurt, supposedly happened.
It didn't take long after James mentioned that the boys were hurt for Alice to attack. Once Alice attacked, Rosalie followed her as back up… she also wanted to make sure she was able to land the final blow on James instead of Alice. I couldn't help but think that Alice and Rosalie were now in a race to get rid of James. In a matter of seconds, the three vampires had vanished from my sight, but definitely not Esme's. She kept her eyes trained on one of them because her head would move every so often, like she was following someone's movements.
"Can you see them?" I asked after I scanned the tree line and couldn't see anything; though I could hear what sounded like boulders smashing together and could only guess that that was the sound of vampires colliding in some way.
"Yes I can." Esme answered, clearly too focused to give more of an answer, the answer I was looking for.
"What's happening." I asked, hoping she would answer me.
"They're not doing too badly, but James is very skilled." Esme said. "We need to move."
Esme spoke just slowly enough for me to be able to hear what she said before she picked me up bridal style and started running at vampire speed in what I assumed was the opposite direction of where Rosalie and Alice were fighting with James. We ran for a few seconds before Esme and I were roughly shoved into the ground. Thanks to Esme's fast reflexes, she was able to take the brunt of the land instead of me; even though I'd rather her not get hurt, I was glad that she got the brunt of the land because a vampire could damage a lot better than a human could; and they heal a lot faster as well.
Instead of standing back up and running again, Esme released me and stood just to be tackled by James.
"Esme!" I yelled as I stood up and just barely stopped myself from running to help her.
I looked around the forest and hoped to see a couple vampires running our way; I was desperately looking for long blonde hair to come help. I didn't doubt Esme could fight, but I wasn't sure how she would fair up against James; someone who probably fought all the time.
"Don't move Bella." Esme warned as she and James squared off.
"Those other two, they put up quite the fight." James said with a chuckle. "Too bad it wasn't enough; they didn't stand a chance."
"No." I gasped; that meant that Rosalie was, no, I couldn't think; I wouldn't let myself think it.
"Don't believe him Bella; the girls wouldn't have gone down that easily. He must have lost them somehow." Esme quickly said, trying to comfort me with just her words.
"Is that why you ran away?" James said in an amused tone. "If you were so confident that they would be able to beat me, why did you run?"
James started to move to the side and Esme matched every step he took. When he took a step closer to me, Esme growled and James moved back and held up his hands in mock surrender, looking more amused than ever.
"I have to admit though." James said as he and Esme started walking again; Esme making sure that she stayed in between me and James. "This is turning out to be a lot more fun than I had thought it would be. I was almost convinced that you would have taken her and run off someplace and leave the protection of your large coven. But, staying here and making me work around your coven has made it a lot more fun for me."
Esme didn't bother responding and that seemed to piss James off more than any words could. James stopped moving and glared at Esme, which prompted Esme to stop moving as well, but she made sure to keep her face impassive. After a few seconds of them just staring at each other, the two charged at each other, but they stayed at human pace; why they would do that, I had no idea.
I saw them dance around each other. Esme seemed to be doing all she could to avoid getting hit and to make sure he stayed away from me; she was on the defensive. While James, he was savagely doing all he could to hurt Esme. This went on for several minutes. It wasn't until I saw Esme take a brutal hit to the face and lines streaking around her face that I actually became afraid. I suppose it only took me realizing that this could very well be the end for fear to grip onto me.
Even though Esme had been pushed back a few steps, more than enough time for James to use vampire speed to move to get a hold of me, she was still able to get to James before he touched me. Esme tackled him into the ground, as he previously done to us, and proceeded to punch his face into the ground. I had never thought Esme could ever be this violent.
"You will never hurt her." Esme growled out as her fists continued to rain down onto James' face.
I knew that Esme was just protecting me, that there was no way to be able to protect me against James without using violence; it was the only way to actually stop him. But still, seeing Esme be that violent, it was perhaps more frightening than anything James could throw at her. I hadn't thought Esme could ever be anything but gentle and loving, no matter what I knew of their kind, I didn't think she could hit like that; just like I had thought Charlie could hit like he had.
At that moment, I found Esme to be more frightening than James.
I hadn't seen it, but I assumed James had found an opening to hit Esme back. He had hit her hard enough to daze her and when he had his chance, he took it. He hit him a few more times and then literally flung her away from the both of us.
"You've turned out to be a lot more trouble than I would have originally thought." James said as he suddenly appeared right in front of, invading my personal space. "Not only has it been a lot more fun to get a hold of you, but it's also been a lot more annoying. I should punish you for that."
The smile James gave me made me sick to my bones. I knew that smile. It was the smile Charlie gave me every so often; it was the smile that let me know that the Charlie that used to care was nowhere in sight. It was the smile of a man that was about to hurt me and wouldn't have remorse for it at all. He was going to enjoy what he was about to do and I would hate it.
Without thinking, I ran. I had only ever run a few times from Charlie and had quickly learned that it was always better to stay put and to just take whatever punishment he wanted to give. I learned to stay put because I knew that he would never actually cause permanent damage or kill me because it would lead to too many people asking questions and he didn't want that. James though, he didn't care. He had nothing holding him back, except for the Cullen's and I couldn't see any Cullen's around us.
So I ran. Even though I knew it was futile.
"Why are you running away?" James yelled after me, not moving an inch from his spot. He was probably trying to give me false hope that I might actually stand a chance to get away from him. "Haven't you already learned that you won't win?" James said, right next to my ear. I hadn't even seen him move next to me.
Before I could take another step, I felt his hand roughly grab the back of my clothes and then violently flung me into a tree. When I landed on the ground, I thanked anyone who would listen that I hadn't broken anything. I knew what broken bones felt like and I didn't have any. Slowly I tried to get up so that I could try and get away, but before I could even get to my feet, James was standing over me, scaring me even more.
"I don't think so, I don't want to have to keep chasing you around." James said just before he stepped on my ankle, definitely breaking it.
I screamed louder than I ever had before. Even though I had trained myself not to scream out of fear from Charlie getting mad, but with James, I didn't even try to hold it back in hopes of drawing the attention of a vampire that could help me.
"That's right, scream; it's just music to my ears." James said as he picked me up.
He not so gently pushed me against the tree he had tossed me against and then used his hand to push me against the tree. I was briefly afraid that he was going to try and break my ribs, but quickly realized that he was actually just trying to keep me still.
"Please, let me go." I begged, fully afraid that he was going to kill me soon. "The Cullen's will be here soon and they'll kill you." Even though it was a big threat, my voice sounded anything but threatening.
"I doubt it." James licked his lips and leaned in very slowly. He sniffed the column of my neck, causing me to shiver in fear, and then pulled back just enough for me to see his face. "I'm going to love tasting your blood so much more than just smelling it."
I could see James lean in and I felt his breath on my neck and I closed my eyes as I waited for the end. Instead of feeling his teeth sink into my neck, I felt his hands being rudely pulled off of me and a ferocious growl in front of me.
"Bella, look at me." Esme, I had never been so glad to hear her voice. Tears of both relief and fear started to fall down my face and all I wanted to do was to be wrapped in her arms and go look for Rosalie. I didn't want to ever have to deal with James or Victoria again. "Listen to me my dear; you need to run that way." Esme said as she pointed in a direction she was talking about.
"B-but what about James? What about everyone else?" I asked.
"Please listen to me Bella, my love, please." Esme begged. "Run and don't stop until you're safe. Let me deal with James without having to worry about getting you hurt."
So, she wanted me out of the way so that she could fight without the fear of me getting in the way? I could understand that. I was sure that while everyone was fighting around me, everyone except for James, they had to be very careful about what they did and where they moved to make sure I didn't end up too close to them. If I did get too close, or they moved too close to me, they could accidently hurt me.
So, I ran. I ran in the direction Esme pointed me in. Even though my leg hurt, primarily my ankle, I moved as quickly as I could make myself move. I wasn't sure about who was and wasn't hurt, but I had to believe that Esme had pointed me in the direction of one of the Cullen's so I could get help, or so that I could point them in the direction of Esme and they could help her. Not that I could actually point in which direction Esme was in once I ran away, but still.
I had to hope that I would find someone soon, before Esme got hurt and before James got past her again and would hurt or kill me.