Chapter 26 – Heads Up
When Rosalie's eyes locked on Emmett, she erupted in a fit of rage and violence. Her attack on him was swift and vicious, and Emmett did more than just try to defend himself, he fought back, and he fought without mercy.
Shrilling screams, thunderous growls, and deafening pounding filled the countryside where we were currently located. The terrifying noises carried over the hills and into the valley below, which definitely alarmed Eleazar.
"We have to stop them."
"Nah, let them go," Jacob disagreed. "It's not like they can actually kill each other without fire."
I looked to Edward for his reaction, and although he was watching the fight intently, he didn't look too concerned about their safety.
"No, it's not about them potentially killing each other," Eleazar argued. "The noise. If someone hears…"
"We are out in the boonies," Jake cut him off. "Who is going to hear them? Let them go. This is the most entertainment I've had in months."
"Edward?" I asked, looking for his opinion.
"They can't really hurt each other…" Edward's words were halted mid-sentence when Rosalie disappeared into the cottage, and she reemerged with a lighter. How she knew where it was, I had no idea.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Edward yelled at her, finally stepping in to intervene. "Stop it."
"Move out of the way, Beasty, I'm going to make a nice big bonfire to warm you up," Rosalie said sadistically, but with a hint of underlying sweetness.
"It's rather hot here actually," Edward told her. "No need for any fires. Emmett is my friend, you can't just kill him."
"She is sick and twisted, Edward!" Em shouted angrily. "I think she has rabies, or maybe it's mad cow disease."
"Can vampires even contract those diseases?" I asked Edward quietly. He shook his head no.
"We should put her out of her misery," Em continued. "Get the lighter from her so I can end this before someone important gets killed."
"Someone like you," Rose replied condescendingly. "The poor pathetic little creature is scared. Trust me Beasty, you don't want, or need, friends like him. Let me set him ablaze and be done with it."
When Rosalie clicked the lighter on, and lunged forward like she was about to attack him with it, Eleazar had enough.
"Rosalie!" he shouted at her. "Your father would be ashamed of you right now."
She finally paused. "Eleazar? Oh my, what are you doing here?" she cried, clearly emotional to see her coven-member. I expected them to hug, but instead they lifted their hands up towards each other, so that all their fingertips were touching, and then they gently rested their foreheads together. It was an odd greeting, but it seemed to be just what they did.
"What are you doing here?" Rosalie asked Eleazar when they finally pulled away from their version of an embrace. "I never thought I'd see you outside of South America."
"Edward found me and told me what happened to you and your father. How could I not come?"
"Oh, you met Beasty," she said, just coming to that realization. "Isn't he so handsome? He is so much bigger than he was the last time I saw him. You should see all the amazing things he can do. Beasty, show Eleazar how you can share your visions."
"I have already experienced his incredible mind many times since we met," Eleazar assured her.
"Oh… Well, of course you have. He certainly has a way of stealing the hearts of everyone who meets him," she said adoringly.
I raised a brow at Edward, who had previously claimed he hardly ever met anyone as a child because of how protective his parents were. As a response to my questioningly look, Edward rolled his eyes and shook his head no, which I took to mean Rosalie was either just telling a story, or greatly exaggerating in her pride for her baby brother.
Rose gushed about Edward to Eleazar for a few more minutes, before she was distracted by her family's new cohorts.
"Okay, what is up with the shifter?" Rose questioned while glaring at Jacob. "He is a shifter, right? He smells to high heavens. I faced one a few years back, and they are nasty creatures."
"You fought a shifter?" Jake asked concerned. "Who was it? Did you lose bad, or did the shifter let you put up a fight?"
Rose laughed once. "Oh, it talks. That's cute… kind of."
"Was the shifter hurt at all?" Jake pressed eagerly with underlying concern.
"Maybe it's not so cute that it talks after all," Rose countered herself.
"Please, that could have been my family you fought. I need this information."
"Is this your pet, or something?" Rose asked Edward.
"Can you just answer his question?" Edward asked her. "He has been helping us, and in return we promised to try to help him find his family. Any information you could give him on the shifter you fought, would be appreciated."
Rosalie sighed. "I wouldn't really consider it a fight. I basically snapped the thing in two after a minute of it huffing around the ring."
Jacob's eyes grew in panic.
Edward stepped towards his sister, and held out his hand to her before demanding – "Show me."
She knew exactly what he was asking, so she grudgingly agreed. Their minds were only connected briefly, but apparently it was enough for Edward to get a clear image of her past opponent in his mind. He then took that image, and brought it to Jacob. The moment he put it in Jake's mind, Jake visibly relaxed. "I don't know that shifter."
"Thank god," I told him supportively, but I was also thankful for the fact that our group would not need to be separated by an old match that was out of any of our control.
Rosalie's reunion with Eleazar, followed by her exchange with Jacob, had calmed her, but more importantly, distracted her from her scuffle with Emmett. However, when Em moved from his previous position to head into the cottage, Rosalie took notice, and the anger between them reignited.
"Eleazar, please protect my baby brother for a minute while I take care of that issue," Rose said while pointing at Emmett.
Em's line of sight locked back on her, and like the first roll of thunder after the eye of the storm, the two collided in fury once more.
Between snarls and growling from both sides, I could hear Emmett trying to convince Rosalie to stop before he snapped her neck. She didn't listen, and she didn't give him even the smallest chance to overcome her. Granted, Em seemed to be mostly defensive at that point, but they were both only getting angrier with every blow.
"Rosalie, you need to stop!" Eleazar tried getting through to her again, but it wasn't working.
Edward tried getting between them too, but they were like two wild animals fighting for survival. With vampires' limitless energy and time, I was beginning to wonder what it would take to finally get them to stop.
But then it happened. I had an incessant itch on my shin that wouldn't allow me to ignore it for a moment longer. The second I bent over to scratch it, a buzzing sound whizzed just over my head, and struck Rosalie right in her shoulder.
"What the hell?" she hissed as she pulled out what looked like a sparkling bullet. It was obviously painful to her since she threw it immediately like it was scolding hot. We all froze in shock for an unbearably long moment, before everything erupted in pure chaos.
The sound of guns firing was the only thing I seemed to be able to focus on as a group of around ten armed men invaded our space. Rose and Em stopped fighting each other, and mutually turned their attack on the men. Jacob was fighting too, as was Eleazar.
With bullets continuously whizzing past my head, I ducked under the picnic table on the cottage porch, and as crazy as it sounded, no one seemed to take notice of me there. The men clearly weren't there for me anyway, so I was able to take a couple moments to assess the situation. I initially assumed our assailants were the creature hunters, however they didn't wear the uniforms, and seemed far less trained. They did, however, appear to possess the same weapons the hunters had. How, or why, they were attacking us, I didn't know, but what I did know was that my friends sure as hell weren't going down without a fight.
The yard of our little rented cottage was a battle field. All of my cohorts were taking hits, but thankfully they seemed like they were just the painful shocking types of bullets, and nothing lethal. Even still, it had to have been tough to remain fighting, which they all did. They took out several of the men rather quickly, but seemingly out of nowhere, another van pulled up, and out poured another group of armed men to join the battle.
Amid the chaos, I locked eyes with Edward. He was across the field next to Emmett, who appeared to be shielding the far too vulnerable, mostly human hybrid. Edward would move to try to get closer to where I was, and thankfully Emmett would move with him. I knew he was trying to get to me, but we were just too far apart.
When a third group of men arrived on the scene, it became too much, so we needed to get out of there if we wanted to survive. In the cloud of smoke and dust caused by the confrontation, I lost sight of Edward, but I knew Em was with him, so I began creeping towards our rented car behind the cottage. I was within sight of it, when suddenly the car exploded.
"Holy shit!" I gasped.
It felt like the climax of some sort of action sci-fi movie, but the reality of it was terrifying. I didn't know what to do or where to go from there, and I found myself locked in some sort of surrealistic daze. A couple of the men rounded the back to where I was, and everything felt like it was in slow motion as I watched them running towards me with their guns pointed directly at my head.
I wanted to run. I told myself to move, but the connection between my brain and legs seemed to be temporarily out of order. I heard one of the men's guns go off, so I instinctively squeezed my eyes shut, and then suddenly I was flying.
I felt the wind in my face first, and then the gentle, yet firm, grasp to my waist. I didn't understand it, so I peeked my eyes opened and was shocked to see who had me.
"Hi," Rosalie's silky voice said through her wide smile.
"Uh-hi," I replied, at a loss as to what else to say or do. We came to rest a little ways away, and I had trouble taking my eyes off of her. The blonde vampire was even more beautiful up close, but I couldn't forget the fact that she was absolutely deadly, and we had yet to even have a single conversation. She didn't know who I was, and I didn't know if she was going to try to eat me.
Since we seemed to be at a safe distance from the battle, she turned to look at me questionably. "Why do you smell like my brother?"
I couldn't decipher her tone, so I wasn't exactly sure how to respond. "Um…"
"Oh look, another van is coming," she said, pointing towards the road at the bottom of the hill we were on. "I think it's time to move to a new location. That big oaf better have Beasty like he said he did, or I'm going to rip off both his arms, and then his head, and burn the pieces before Eleazar has a chance to put him back together." Without me having a chance to respond to her, she changed topics. "You know, you look familiar. You're not one of those nasty Higginbotham humans, are you?"
"Uh… no," I lied. Technically, and rather unfortunately, I was a Higginbotham by blood, but it certainly wasn't anything I'd be willing to admit, especially to her.
"I just don't understand why my baby brother has surrounded himself with such weird creatures. A shifter, a strange smelling human with an odd heartbeat, and that pitiful vampire who thinks he is tough. What is Eleazar thinking allowing any of it?"
"Eleazar didn't allow it. Everyone is here because Edward asked them to help him rescue your family," I told her timidly. "This is all mostly his idea."
"Well, it goes to show how silly and simple minded you creatures are to follow a child. Now that I'm here I will take over his care."
"Uh, Edward isn't a child. He is older than my grandfather."
Rosalie rolled her eyes. "Your lifespan is much shorter than ours. In vampire years, Edward is an adolescent at most."
"Oh," I said, not knowing how else to respond.
"As soon as we get back to Eleazar, we will head to Brazil. That's where my father would want us to go," she added.
"Edward is not going to want to go back there. At least not until he frees Esme and your father. And we promised to help our friend find his imprint."
"Hush now, human. I'm going to go back to find Edward, and I need you to be quiet, just in case those little maggots with guns are still hanging around. I don't want to have to snap your neck, since I think my brother must feed off of you, or something, but I will if you make too much noise. Okay?"
I bit my bottom lip nervously, but did as I was told. She carried me effortlessly back to the cottage, and we hid behind a bush as we surveyed the damage. The men were still there, but thankfully they were no longer fighting, and didn't appear to have any of our friends in their custody. They were just going through our things, and walking around aimlessly. We didn't watch them long, after only a couple minutes, Rose grabbed me again and we were on our way.
She must have been following a scent, because after several miles, we entered a small ravine where all of our friends were convened.
Edward and I locked eyes, and the relief in his was immeasurable. "Are you okay?" he asked intensely as he closed the distance between us. He wrapped me in his arms and kissed my head sweetly. "I'm so sorry I couldn't get to you," he murmured against my skin.
"I'm just glad everyone is okay," I told him. Then I pulled away to check him for wounds. "Are you okay? Were you hit?"
"Nothing bad," he replied through gritted teeth. "I can't believe this happened. How the hell did they find us?"
"Do you think they were the creature hunters?" I asked, not believing it myself. "They weren't like the ones that chased us away from my house."
"Perhaps the Roman division is just different than the American one," Eleazar suggested.
"Those weren't creature hunters," Rose chimed in. "I recognized some of them."
"You did?" Edward asked her surprised. "Who were they?"
"My owner is the richest man in Italy, and he doesn't like to always follow the rules, so he hires goons to do his dirty work. I'm sure those men were there to take me back illegally."
Edward was absolutely fuming, and even though I wasn't exactly surprised since all the owners were moral-less jackasses, I was mad too. We sat with that man. He acted like a gracious host, and regardless of knowing none of those people were trustworthy, we weren't expecting such dirty poor sportsmanship among the more "sophisticated" owners. We should have known better.
As angry as I was, I was still infinitely grateful our entire group made it out of there intact. Edward, on the other-hand, wasn't willing to let it go.
"Where are you going?" I asked him in a slight panic when he began walking off without explanation.
"I'm going to confront him," he said without pausing his stride.
I ran to catch up with him. "Edward, that's crazy. Why would you even think to do something like that?"
"Because this is ridiculous, and I'm not letting him get away with it."
"Edward, Rosalie's former owner just tried to have us killed. If you walk into his place, he will kill you for sure."
He shook his head. "He didn't try to kill us, Bella, he wanted to scare us, and he wanted his vampire back. If we just look the other way when stuff like this happens, it will keep happening. The other owners don't respect us, so I need to go down there and demand their respect."
I looked to our friends, hoping for someone to step up and talk some sense into him, but they all seemed perfectly fine with it. It was crazy.
"I can't believe none of you are concerned about this," I said incredulously.
"Mister Moretti is a power hungry buffoon, but he's not stupid," Rose said. "He would never attack someone in his home, with all of the real creature hunters around, and the tournament committee close by. Edward should be okay."
"Fine, I'm going with you," I said to Edward. I didn't agree with Rosalie at all, so I needed to be with Edward just in case something happened. Why I thought I could protect Edward, I had no idea, but it was something I felt deep inside my gut, and I had been feeling that way since I first saw him in my basement, locked in his cage. Somehow, someway, someday, I was going to save Edward from something, I just sincerely hoped that day hadn't come just yet.
"Bella, it's too dangerous," Edward tried arguing with me, but I wasn't going to take it.
"Either it's too dangerous for both of us, or we will both be fine. Regardless, we stay together," I said unwaveringly.
Edward locked his jaw, and then spoke through it. "Fine, let's go."
Eleazar ran ahead at vampire speed, and met us a mile down the road with a new car. He drove us into the heart of Rome, where the tournament facility was hidden below ground.
Once we got inside, I was surprised to see how bustling it still was. Staff members were moving about, cleaning up from the week's event, which made sense, I suppose I just wasn't expecting so many people around. It made me feel better and worse at the same time. If anything happened there would be witnesses, then again, they were all Mr. Moretti's witnesses, so I wasn't sure if they would detour him from attacking us.
Edward and I walked past everyone, and used our temporary access codes to get into the lower level. Luckily, they were still active and we were able to make our way right to the business offices. Without even knocking, Edward stormed right in, and luckily, we caught Mr. Moretti alone, sitting at his desk.
"Well, this is a surprise," he said with his slithery creepy voice.
"It's a surprise because we survived your attack?" Edward spat.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he feigned ignorance.
"Bullshit," I said, keeping calm but refusing to listen to his lies.
"We know they were your men," Edward added. "And we know you sent them to steal The Vixen back from us."
Mr. Moretti smirked, and slyly clicked a button under his desk, assumedly signaling his guards to come rescue him. His next words shocked them hell out of me…
"Tell me, Miss Swan, how do you keep the hybrid under control?"
My eyes grew large, but Edward's face didn't change. He just stared him down, and refused to give away even a hint of whatever he was thinking through his expression.
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied, trying to play dumb the way he had. I wasn't very convincing.
"You don't remember me, do you, Miss Swan?" he asked me in his heavy Italian accent. "I was sitting with your father the night you surprised him at the tournament at Swan Manor. When I met you here, you looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place you. It wasn't until I saw my vampire completely give up in the ring that it occurred to me. That hybrid is very gifted indeed. Charles told me how it has a way to control people and creatures with its mind. That is the only explanation I could have for my vampire giving up, and I assume that is how you won your previous matches as well. What amazes me is how you got it to appear so human," he said while looking at Edward. "I would have never guessed this was the same creature."
Mr. Moretti took a cautious step closer to Edward, as if he wanted a better look, and then like a strike of lightning, his neck was suddenly in Edward's hands.
I gasped, but Edward remained calm. "Look away, Bella."
"My men will be here any second, and you'll both be dead," Mr. Moretti threatened.
"Look away," Edward repeated sternly.
I was immediately shaking, but I did as he told me. I heard the snap, and I reflexively jumped. As much as I understood why he did it, it was still difficult to stand by as Edward murdered someone. A tear spilled over my cheek, before I took a deep breath, and reopened my eyes.
"His men are coming. How will we get out of here?" I asked with a shaky voice.
Before Edward had a chance to answer me, the door busted open and a group of men ran inside. Edward immediately dropped to the ground, and repositioned his hands on Mr. Moretti's neck, to make it look like he was feeling for a pulse.
"We came to thank him before we traveled home, and found him like this. My wife pressed the panic button to get help," Edward said quickly but calmly.
One of the men bent down to try to feel for a pulse himself.
"He's dead," the man confirmed. He directed a different man to go get someone, and then he proceeded to question us.
Edward didn't miss a beat as he easily, and convincingly, answered everything. The man looked a little confused, but when the other committee heads made their way into the room, they let us go. Thankfully Mr. Moretti apparently hadn't informed them about his suspicions, which also made sense. If he thought he could steal back Rosalie, and possibly take Edward for himself, he wasn't going to do it "legally".
"He must have told someone," I said, still in a panic as we hurried away from the facility.
"I don't think so," Edward disagreed. "Rosalie even said his hired goons never know why they are ordered to do anything, they just do it. And the tournament committee likes their so-called rules, so I doubt he told any of them."
"What's going to happen when they do an autopsy and discover he died of a broken neck? They're going to come after us."
"That man had a ton of underground dealings. There are a number of people who probably wanted him dead, including his own family members, who will now inherit his estate."
"But we are the ones who were with him when he died," I argued.
"No, as I told the men, we found him like that."
I was nervous about continuing on to the next tournament, but the last thing I'd want to do is give up on freeing his family needlessly. So we would tentatively move forward with our next breakout. We knew where his mother was, and we would take the risk to free her.
When we got back to where we left our friends, we were greeted with another shocking sight…
"What have you done now?" Eleazar asked exasperated as he exited the driver's seat of the car. Jacob was sitting in a tree, looking somewhere between scared and excited, and Rosalie was sitting on a rock, casually stroking Emmett's hair on his decapitated head in her lap.
"Things happened," Jacob said from up in his tree. "It got intense. I'm not staying alone with those two ever again."
"He mouthed off again. He's lucky I didn't set him on fire," Rosalie said defensively. Then she looked down at his head, and continued stroking. "But he is kind of pretty," she admitted facetiously.
Edward huffed. "Give his head to Eleazar so he can put him back together again. We need to get out of this country as soon as possible."
Eleazar went on to scold Rosalie, to which she kept rolling her eyes like a sullen teenage being berated by a parent.
It took a couple hours for Emmett to regain consciousness, and then we headed towards the airport.
Next stop was Australia to rescue Esme. The tricky part was knowing, without a doubt, that I had also previously met Esme's owner when he was with her at my home. We would need to skip the pre-tournament events, and keep a low profile if we wanted to get out of there alive. It was definitely going to be the biggest risk yet, but on the plus side, we were just that much closer to reuniting Edward's family…