Nothing Twilighty is mine…obviously.

Big thanks to Gondolier who turned this around so fast my head is still spinning. And to all my lovelies who review…it's almost over…but not time to take a breath yet.

Chapter 27

Caught

Edward hadn't uttered a sound since that horrific scream. He hadn't moved, or blinked, or exhaled. I was listening. I could hear the she-wolf, Leah, panting regularly behind as if she carried no burden at all. In fact, if it weren't for the stagnant odor of his venom-doused clothing, I wouldn't have really believed he was behind me at all. Even still, I was having a hard time wrapping my mind around it. It was too simple.

But as we reached the main hall of the castle, my love's tortured scent burned away. The air was much warmer. I could feel it beating into my battered body. The smoke was so thick that instead of pitch blackness, everything was shielded by a thick haze of steely gray. Not that I had my eyes open for more than a moment, but when I realized he was heading for the front doors, they shot wide.

"We're going to make it," Felix whispered when he felt my body tense against his.

"What about Vlad?" Panic raged in my weak voice.

We couldn't just leave. Vlad would be on us again and we'd never see him coming. This had to end here.

Without pause, Felix kept moving through the boiling smoke. The fire roared on all sides just behind the smoldering stone walls. It echoed over everything, even the howling wolves.

"We're getting out of here, Bella. We'll figure that shit out later."

I couldn't even respond. I was nearly blinded by the brightness as Felix shoved open the ancient wooden doors. Beaten, bitten, and thoroughly abused, my body responded, gathering strength from the warmth of the sun's strong rays and basking in the short reprieve from the dark castle.

But relief is too often fleeting.

My head snapped up when the dissension of sounds made it through the confusion in my head. The crashing and ripping was deafening and my eyes scoured over the fray. Werewolves were lunging as zombies bit into multicolored fur. The air outside stank of death and venom with the sharp ammonia from the wolves, but there was only a moment for everything to penetrate my dulled senses. Felix was already racing through the center of it, straight for the tree line through the bloody battle.

I was jostled roughly in his thick arms as a headless zombie stepped right into our path. Its blackened hands only grazed Felix's jacket as he spun us both to the left. I watched over his thick shoulder as the zombie stumbled and fell, just as Leah's foot smashed into the wriggling thing when she came sprinting up behind us. She used the burned body for leverage and sprang forward an extra few steps.

I stared at Edward, still slung over Leah's shoulder. The bleeding had slowed from his torn feet, but the woman's shirt and pants were stained black. Felix was bounding forward again, and Leah easily kept pace. But they didn't see the werewolf lunging for one of the zombies and ran directly into their path. The black wolf smashed into us hard and Felix lost his grip when he fell toward the ground.

I crashed in a heap and rolled before finally coming to a rest on my face. I inhaled deeply, tasting the dirt on my lips. Felix would be right there to pick me up again.

But he didn't come.

There was the ripping sound, the sound of vampire flesh being torn, much closer than it had been. There was a soft canine whimper, very low. Then Leah was shouting. Like a ton of bricks, her voice slammed into me and wiped the haze away. She was speaking German, calling for help.

Placing my aching hands on the dusty ground next to my face, I pushed up with a pained grunt. My eyes widened instantly.

Felix was on his stomach, the zombie on top of him, tearing at his broad back with its shining teeth. The wolf lay a few meters off, whining now with a visible claw mark in its hide. Leah was bent over it, dark hair falling in front of her face, pressing a piece of cloth against another wound. That one was much worse. Deep red blood seeped between her fingers as she called out desperately.

I turned my head around frantically, looking for Edward only to see he had landed right next to me. Fresh venom was pooling beneath him and I watched it slide over the blackened earth and inch downhill until I was almost on top of it.

I only took that one moment to stare at Edward's life slipping toward me. I was weak. I could barely hold my head from the earth, but there was no other choice. I had let myself become so absorbed in this past life, I'd forgotten everything that meant anything. And everything was Edward. He'd endured my mindless infidelity, no matter if I'd been under Vlad's twisted mind games and I had to make that up to him. Reparations could come later, but it all meant nothing if I didn't get Edward to safety. Felix being eaten by the zombie, the she-wolf bereaving the wounds of her pack, meant nothing unless I could save him.

I forced my aching muscles to move and slithered closer to Edward's broken body. He reeked of venom and wolf and death as stagnant and bitter as the taste in my mouth, but somehow I found enough energy inside myself to pull closer and wrap heavy arms around him.

My tendons and bones mutinied against my brain as I pulled us up. Holding him was straining, but the feel of his weight against my body was grounding. I could feel my feet and see the trees through the low smog.

I had destination, determination, and one foot miraculously lifted from the ground. As simple as that, I was running, past Leah still shouting loudly for her pack, past Felix who now thrashed his strong arms at the zombie on his back. I saw the beads of my friend's venom stark against the brilliant white of its teeth. But he was fighting, and I had faith in Felix's strength, forgetting he'd been impaled only a few hours ago.

The battle raged on all sides as I stumbled down the steep mountain. A chocolate brown wolf defended against the onslaught of three burned undead. From nowhere, two more werewolves bounded forward, teeth gnashing and freeing their friend from death, growling happily as their mouths clamped down on their targets.

I dodged further left to stay well away from them, only to see Emmett landing a sharp uppercut into the stunned face of another zombie. Emmett's face was wild, with tattered and venom-streaked clothes draped over his massive frame, but as always, his lips were spread in a wide smile, even as he quickly dismembered the ill-fated zombie.

I didn't stop. I just kept going, praying my family and the new found alliance with the wolf pack would hold out until I could get Edward under cover and feed him. And once I was sure he would live, I'd come back to end this, once and for all.

I stepped into the shadows and fatigue attacked me. My body swayed a bit inside the gloom, but I pressed forward, desperate to claim as much distance between Edward and the castle as I could. A few hundred meters in, the thick foliage cut off the sounds of the fight still raging and silence fell over me. Aside from my ragged and pained breathing, there was nothing else.

I finally paused, cradling Edward closer to me. This kind of empty quiet had come to leave me shaken and scared. A sense of dread crept over me and my mind echoed Edward's final scream over and over, a vicious repetition of the most agonizing moments of my life. I was frozen anticipation and absolutely terrified to take another step.

Sweet heaven above, Edward chose then to groan softly in my arms. All the fear slipped away and relief shuddered through my soul. That one soft, melodic tone told me everything I needed to know, and in an instant I was on my knees, laying him gently on the moss covered ground.

Feather soft kisses touched every part of his cold face, except his lips. He needed to give me those. I pleaded with him to open his eyes, to see my desperate love. Over and over his name spilled from my lips to his as I hovered over them. That ache, the pull and desire stung as the words fell to unhearing ears. But he was in there somewhere. I had to tell myself that he could at least sense I was here and I selfishly begged for more.

A branch broke. My eyes snapped up, scanning the trees for any sign of movement, but failing to locate the source through the maze of twisted trunks and hanging vines.

There was no other warning, if you can call it much of a warning in the first place.

A white blaze of pain suddenly shot through me, knocking the breath from my lungs. Pulsing outward in waves of agony and forcing me forward, my hands braced for impact, but my body stopped with a jolt. I was left floating two feet above Edward as fresh pain roared through my ears. Excruciating pain sliced through my chest until it was everywhere. I didn't know if I was being ripped apart from the inside out or exploding, but it was worse than any torture I had yet felt. My body went limp and spasms radiated through my muscles in stabbing flashes.

Shakily, I brought a hand to my chest. I think I cried out when my fingertips hit the thing penetrating the center of my sternum, in the exact place my heart once beat. But it was a pitiful noise as the realization dawned.

I was so fucked.

It took my entire strength to lower my eyes enough to see it. My sight was hazy and tinged white around the edges. Like someone had shoved a bunch of cotton inside my skull, dizzy panic enveloped me, muffling every sense except the pain. But slowly, it came into focus.

There, buried in the earth barely missing Edward's body and stained black with the poison from my body, was a spear. It pierced through my back, between two ribs, into my long dead heart, and finally exited gruesomely from my chest. Venom sputtered out in a fine spray around it, thoroughly coating the thick impalement in black. Gravity pulled it toward my love beneath me. The world seemed to stop as my blood spattered onto his venom-covered clothes. Nothing existed but the way our poisons pooled together, absorbed each other, became one, as they were meant to be, though never like this.

A deep, wicked voice echoed around the mountain, stabbing into my head, crumbling my will even further while I watched both our lives drip slowly away.

Vladimir.

I bit my lip, effectively shutting down the flow and tried to focus my eyes on the laughter. Moving my head, even minutely, caused the shooting pain to burst through my body. A soft cry fell from my lips, but that was it. I made myself relax and waited. It was the only thing I could do. To move meant to aggravate the agony.

My muscles were painfully starting to accept the burning torture, when the wound suddenly tore open again. I was lifted from the ground, losing sight of my beloved as the world spun around me in nauseating circles of blurred greens and browns. The ground became the canopy and my body rolled open. With arms hanging limply, my scabbed fingertips grazed the sticky pool of venom below. My legs bent awkwardly beneath me without touching the ground, bowing my back in a perfect arch.

The stake slid further as my weight resettled and I couldn't stop the sobbing this time. I tormented myself by letting the emotions weep from me, but it was impossible to keep them in. The rolling pain slashed through every inch of my body, and my mind felt every agonizing sting. This was far worse than any nightmare.

Like a shadow, Vladimir steeped from the trees. The impalement stuck sickeningly through the middle of my vision, severing his malicious smile as he came closer, reminding me too much of the cracked gargoyle burning while the zombies ate my flesh. He stopped only when he was too close and his smell antagonized my tongue.

Unable to do anything other than gasp, I stared at him.

And hated him.

Vlad's smile widened and he leaned closer.

"Tell me, Bella," he sneered with a voice cloaked in anger, "do you honestly think I would run from our little game?"

A choked gurgle sputtered from my mouth, but even my mind didn't know what I was trying to say. Instead, I wept.

Vladimir cackled again, a raw, angry sound. His madness seeped to the surface and boiled through that strained and wicked sound. He really did seem pleased to have me impaled at his feet. My body shuddered with my thoughts and he only laughed harder for my misery.

"Such a shame. You are so beautiful when given over to the beast within. You should have let it out to play awhile longer. We always have so much fun."

This time the noise from my throat sounded like the snarl I intended.

"How very like Elizabeta when you murdered the innocent," he mused further. "Ah, the memories. You are every bit the woman she was, there is no mistake. I saw her escape your restraints in the torture chamber, and I see her burning in your eyes now."

Vlad move closer, his cinnamon scent tingling my senses. His face was close enough I could almost feel his mustache against my cheek.

"You are the very same passionate and vengeful soul."

I tried to shake my head. I couldn't be that person. I'd fought so hard to put the sins of my existence behind me. I didn't want him to dredge up the foulness that tainted my soul. I didn't want him to remind me that no matter how hard I tried, I would never be able to rid myself of that blackness. That it would always be there, no matter whose light I attempted to hide behind. Over the past decade I'd tried to bleach myself clean of all that darkness. The moment I met Edward it became possible, if only for a moment, and for the first time I wanted to be better. I had reason to try.

"The same soul," he crooned softly.

Staring into the cold dead eyes of a real life nightmare, I was ashamed I had ever tried to be something other than what I was. How could I deny the truth when it was staring me in the face? I was everything Vlad implied. I was horrible, unworthy, and so veiled that no amount of love would ever be able to cleanse it away.

But even if I was unlovable based on centuries, and perhaps complete existences, of sin and impiety, I still loved. I was still capable of that, and that love ran deeper than the call of the most innocent of blood, further than the most exciting and lustful transgression. And that part of me, that aching, torn and decimated part, belonged to Edward.

"No." My voice was dry, a croak.

Vladimir Tepes smiled wickedly. "Oh, but you are," he whispered, a sweet, maniacal sound that hissed through my ear. "You're every bit the monster you suspect. Possibly even beyond what your mind is capable of admitting. I look forward to rearing that the next time I have you."

His fingers brushed the sticky hair from my face and he pressed his lips to my skin. It was unnerving that for the first time, his mouth felt warm against me. I felt him stretch my shield outward. It pressed against my body, pushing it further onto the wood. Bits of impalement splintered against my stone flesh, digging into my chest and driving into ribs. The gasp that came out was more of a gurgle as my thinned venom began to seep into my lungs.

"You'll have to tell me, my sweet Isabella, what it feels like to die," his hissed into my ear. "Again."

His teeth ripped into me and his hands mauled at my skin, tearing gouges into the hardened flesh. He shredded through my breasts and face as if it were butter. Torturous anguish ruptured into my core, seizing all my senses at once, leaving only the hum of agony reaping my mind. I knew it would be soon. He wasn't apt to linger in the final moments.

My mind found Edward and held him, imagining the feel of his body against mine, his wicked smirk that was a sin in its own right. How far I'd come since I first saw my bronze haired Adonis. How immediate and altering his presence in my life had been. If only it had been enough. I made the decision once to sacrifice myself for him, and the time had come to follow through. Once it was over, Vlad would move on. He had to move on and let Edward live. Those were my dying thoughts. Edward had to survive.

As if answering the call of my mind, I heard the sweetest sound in my centuries of life. My heart fluttered viciously around the stake as the tone caressed my dying soul. It was low, a threat, but at least I'd have that. I could take his voice to eternity.

"It was you!"

A crash.

Snarling.

Nothing focused.

Were my eyes open?

What was happening?

Panic flooded through me. I couldn't see. I was dying!

Where was Edward!?

Chaos erupted everywhere, but I was drifting. The tethers binding me to my pale, undead body unraveled. Only one remained, and with all my might, I clung to that love for Edward. I was so weak, ready to let go, but he had to survive. I could hold on until I saw it through.

But it was impossible to discern anything. I just seemed to drift higher, despite the raw pain that told me I was still staked to the ground. Suddenly, my body was flying quick as a hurricane, a force slammed me free of the impalement. A flurry of dust rose around me when I hit. I tasted the grittiness on my tongue. There was shouting from everywhere and a thousand howls. The sounds ebbed and flowed like tides, but the only thing concrete was the dirt in my mouth.

It wasn't until the ground beneath me vibrated roughly that my eyes finally snapped open. But as soon as I realized I could see, I immediately wished I was blind again.

The battle had taken to the trees. Zombies and wolves fought everywhere, plowing through thick trunks and bombarding everything with blood and venom as they bit and tore at each other. I was almost relieved to see the black wolf that had sustained injuries earlier biting and slashing out with the others of his pack. They bounded amongst the slow zombies like well choreographed dancers, attacking with speed and precision despite taking many blows.

I could see Emmett charging. He was completely covered in venom now, swinging his huge fists into anything that dared get in his way. I caught a glimpse of little Alice running beside him, half using Emmett's cover, half taunting the army with her precise movements. But she too fought fiercely.

Alec was also nearby, eyes closed and concentrating. Felix was right at his side, protecting himself from the influx of the sandy haired vampire's ability. Around them a few zombies stood frozen, flipping their burned out eyes back and forth, but lost into Alec's imposed nothingness.

Wait, Vlad wasn't controlling his power?

I craned my neck the other direction, ignoring the stabbing pain seeping from my numerous wounds. There was Jasper. The sight of him made me both ecstatic and weary. If rage had a face, Jasper wore it well. I'd never seen anyone look as feral as he did; I could feel it palpitating in the air. With quick movements, he lunged at a dozen zombies. Grabbing one by the neck and another's reaching arm, Jasper twisted expertly. He kicked into the back of the one whose arm he clutched and it tore away with a screaming rip. The other's head was now cradled in the other arm, its body twitching beneath his feet. And he didn't even breathe before he slammed back into the remaining zombies, laying his fury out with his fists.

I continued pouring over the battle scene, glad that so far, the fighting had remained a distance from me. When I had been flung from the impalement, I'd landed in a bushy copse, somewhat concealed from the eyes of enemies. I pressed myself lower, unable to take any more pain.

It was then I saw him, on his knees, doubled over with an arm wrapped tight against his chest. He was choking. I couldn't hear him over the echoing madness, but I saw his body shake moments before a rush of thick black liquid emptied from his mouth. I wanted to cry out but my voice wouldn't open, and I realized my lungs were too full to function. No air, no voice.

Suddenly, a woman swooped low and bent next to him. Her hands comforted with tender motions, the way I ached to comfort. It wasn't obvious who she was at first, with her head hidden behind a thick furred hood. When it dropped away, I gasped. A bit of venom flew as I exhaled, but I didn't notice slide from my lips. I was too shocked to care.

Tanya. It seemed ironically natural that she would be the one.

That's when I saw the sisters. They were bent low, tearing at a body. It took an entire stunned minute for me to process whose body they assaulted, but the black silk shirt and dark cape were impossible to deny. It was Dracula, and the Cullen cousins were shredding the flesh from his bones.

While their sister comforted my Edward.

Seconds later there was a flash, and the sisters backed away from a small purple fire blazing from Vladimir's pieces. It smoldered lowly and with a sudden rush, fully ignited sending a dark violet cloud lazing toward the sky.

For the briefest instant, everything stopped. All eyes watched as the greatest living nightmare of all time went up in smoke.

All hell broke loose again, but this time, the clear advantage was at the hands of my friends. The zombies didn't even know what to do, and they were set upon like a smorgasbord. After a few more explosive minutes, no zombie was left whole.

Swiftly, fires were set all over the hillside, engulfing the trees in the sickly scent of death. All around me, the haze lingered. I shut my eyes, trying to force the sting away, but it wasn't the smoke. It was everything I had made the people I love suffer. How they fought alongside a worthless soul, a sick, demented, hateful soul. I should have protected them all when they needed it. I never should have given in so readily to the lustful images flashing in my mind, to the allure of a past life. But it served as more evidence to testify for my spoiled soul.

There was a thundering eruption from above, shaking the entire mount. Debris and stone rained from the tree tops, and a cloud of thick black smoke wafted through the forest. It was obvious what had happened. Castle Dracula was no more. There was finally an end to the dark dream.

I was crying, furious that I could have no relief from the grief. I was not good, incapable of good.

I shut my eyes, willing to die so I wouldn't have to face the man I loved.

A/N: So there's one more chapter and G has convinced me an epilogue is warranted. While I think I answered all the burning questions in the next one, I want to make sure. If anything still isn't making sense, let me know in a review and I'll make sure all is tied up nicely.

Or, just review and go with me on blind faith…

That way works, too.