Siren Of The Twilight
Chapter 28
Warning: very dark and graphic, for me at least.
Bella
I didn't know how long I lay there, my head throbbing as the darkness receded. I groaned, then froze as alertness slowly came back, and I heard the pad of human feet in front of me.
Forcing myself to concentrate through the pain, I kept my eyes shut as slowly, over the buzz of the most monumental headache, I realised my attacker was talking.
"I'll wait for him, yes. He'll come for her, and then I'll do it….
Damon.
Memories of the tanned, Italian-looking boy filtered back, and I felt fear creep through my body. Something about him had terrified me from that day, in the sun, when Aro hadn't been there.
But why? Why me?
Why?
Then Damon's words filtered into my head, and I had to fight not to stiffen from disgust and fear.
The throbbing in my head and ankle wasn't helping.
"…I'll tear him apart, keep him alive just long enough for him to see me take his precious human, then I'll tear her apart in front of him. I'll make her scream and cry and beg, then I'll taste her blood. Yes, that's what I'll do Arina…"
Arina?
But before I could think what he was talking about, I had to fight not to stiffen as I felt his hot, stinking breath on my cheek, whispering again in my ear.
"Why shouldn't I have some fun now? She smells so good…just like that night, the night she first came here. I would have had her then, if it hadn't been for him, Arina! He'll pay for taking you away from me, and she…this little human whore will see how pathetic her leech is…maybe I'll keep her alive to see him burn or, perhaps I'll bring her over, make him see his great love become his greatest nightmare…" he continued to babble, and I couldn't help it, I tensed at the thought of him hurting Aro.
No one was going to hurt my mate.
As that primal thought crossed my mind, I felt Damon lean over me, before the slick hardness of his teeth scraping over my cheek, his tongue lapping at my skin like a dog. It was sickening, and I had to struggle not to tense.
"You're not pretending to be unconscious, are you Isabella?" Damon snarled into my ear, and I felt his hand suddenly grab at my breast. I sucked in a breath, crying out in pain as I felt his nails dig in like claws. I opened my eyes to see his feral yellow eyes, alight with satisfaction and sick anticipation. "You tricky little bitch, Isabella!"
"My name is Bella!" I snapped, head butting him sideways. My temple connected with his cheek, and he yelped as he fell backwards. Gritting my teeth, I tried to stand on my sprained ankle but I collapsed with a cry as white-hot pain seared through me.
Panting, I forced myself not to cry out again as a hard hand gripped the nape of my neck, the nails digging into my skin. It dragged me upright, my useless ankle swinging in midair like a pendulum as Damon's furious growl grated in my ear.
"You're not getting away that easily. You're going to suffer, you're going to beg for death, and you're going to realise how much you wish that parasite had never come into your life," he snarled, with a twisted kind of relish. "You're going to wish you never moved to Forks."
"Why?" I choked out, Damon's nails pressing on my windpipe. "Why me? What did Aro do to you? Who's Arina?"
Despite the fact my mind was slowly succumbing to oxygen deprivation, I focussed on one thing.
Aro.
I had to stall Damon until he got here, had to buy time. Plus, my captor sounded so crazy, and sounded like he loved the sound of his own voice that he probably would jump at the chance to keep talking.
I think I read that in some psychology text somewhere.
That errant thought was all I had time for, before I was suddenly thrown forward and onto the hard ground. My head bashed the forest floor, and I tasted my own blood as my teeth bit into my tongue.
Damon's foot came down in the middle of my back, holding me still as he leaned down to growl in my ear.
"So many questions, so little time. Arina was my pack-sister, until he had her killed. Aro of the Volturi," he spat out Aro's name, stroking my hair at the same time. It felt bizarrely like he was petting me. "So I decided to destroy everything he ever loved. The Volturi were out of my reach, but not his wife. Oh her screams and moans were so delicious as I took her then tore her apart…"
"You sick bastard," I breathed, before I gasped in pain as Damon's foot pressed down and I felt a rib crack. I was flipped over and yanked up to him by my hair, held tightly so my neck was arched back at an excruciating angle. Damon leaned down, his fetid breath washing over me as I felt his nails rake down my neck, drawing blood. I refused to cry out, refused to let him see my pain as he grinned and bent his mouth to the cuts, licking the blood up.
"You're fiery, Bella. I like that. Not like Sulpicia…she cried and begged for mercy, but I gave her none. But then, I realised when I let him follow me here that he never loved her, not like he loves you. You are his greatest weakness, Bella, and I am going to enjoy every moment, every sweet moment as I break him," he replied calmly, raising his head and looking me in the eye.
Damon was shaking now, his incisors lengthening, his yellow eyes glowing with insanity and lust, and I felt his nails grow into claws against my skin.
"You taste so…exquisite, Bella…I'm going to enjoy this," he grinned, as I stared at him, unable to hold back the fear any longer.
He saw it, saw the pain and the terror, as he hauled me up, hands still at my throat and flung me back against the rock face again. I saw stars as I slumped to the ground, blood flowing freely from the wounds on my head and neck. Forcing myself to focus through the pain, trying not to black out, I concentrated on the fire in my nerves, let it flood me.
It gave me enough clarity of mind to stay alert.
Ish.
"You're a werewolf…how come-?" I began to ask but he cut across me with an amused smirk. It was terrifying how quickly he could change from animal to human again.
"Little Bella, always so curious. Didn't they tell you curiosity killed the cat?" he asked, with a canine grin. "I am over three hundred years old, Bella. Werewolves of my age may change at will during the week of the full moon. Now hush, little girl. Your lover approaches!"
He strode over to me, his claws digging into my arm as he hauled me upright, and I heard a little snick like something sliding into a lock, before utter pain made me cry out.
He'd dislocated my arm.
"Oh, sorry Bella," he muttered, clearly not sorry at all as I finally cried out this time.
Suddenly the hand holding my injured arm in a death grip disappeared, a black blur propelling him backwards as I fell to the ground. Suddenly, my vision was taken up by raven hair and porcelain skin, and comforting crimson eyes.
Aro.
"Bella!" he murmured in my ear, catching me up in his arms and cradling me against his chest. In the moment he smelt my blood his eyes turned to onyx black. "Forgive me."
I felt only extreme pain for a minute more, then a subsided throbbing as Aro popped my arm back into its socket, and he hefted me into his arms.
"Demetri? Jasper?" I asked quietly, forgetting everything now I was back in Aro's arms, supporting my quivering body.
"Safe. They're safe," he murmured, and I felt relief well within me. "Hold on."
"Not so fast!" a horrible familiar voice snarled, and just as Aro made to leap away, someone caught his shoulder and tore him away from me. I fell again on the hard ground, with an oof, the cold stone sending juddering trembles through every bone in my body. I was fairly certain I felt another rib crack.
I rolled over, groaning, every cell in my tortured body protesting loudly as my eyes settled on the two fighting figures in front of me.
Damon had changed back fully into his wolf form, and Aro for all his strength could not match his speed.
The horrific creature tearing at Aro was almost malformed, not all that lupine in appearance. More like an elongated version of a wolf, with some humanoid features.
It's skin was stretched oddly over staring ribs and leg bones, the taut sinews straining as they fought. Venom dripped from its yellowing teeth, and nothing human shone from Damon's eyes now.
He was all beast.
Suddenly Damon caught Aro in his clawed hands, and held him up. Aro looked down on him defiantly.
"You're faster than the others, but not stronger. Now you'll watch your little human die, in pain and cursing your name, just like my Arina did. Then I'll kill you," he snarled, through canine teeth, sounding hollow, dead.
"I'm strong enough to kill you, Damon, if you ever touch her again," Aro snarled in defiance, his hands like white shackles over Damon's, but the werewolf merely threw him back into the rock face.
Abruptly, I felt him rush to my side, grinning at Aro who was struggling to get free of the tor, desperation on his angelic face.
I tried to struggle, but Damon straddled my body, pinning my wrists to the ground, trying not to vomit from his stench.
The stench of rotting meat.
He tore my sweater open, slicing right through the thin material, and right down to the skin. He paused, and with horrified comprehension I realised what he was going to do; as my eyes met Aro's furious, flashing black ones.
Damon glanced once at Aro, gloating and taunting, before biting into the soft, vulnerable flesh of my breast.
I screamed, arching up as sharp teeth ripped mercilessly into my chest, sucking the blood away greedily.
I was barely aware of a roar as the awful pressure was torn away, but the pain didn't cease.
It got worse.
It burned higher, and higher, attacking me in waves of cold and hot, as I writhed and twisted, unable to hold back my cries now.
I didn't care if I lived or died, I just wanted the pain to stop.
Aro
I felt rage unlike anything I had ever felt before when I watched that monster bite into my Isabella's body.
It gave my strength as I leapt forward, tearing it away, as I let the animal within me take control, defending my mate.
My Isabella.
I heard her screams, her cries of agony as the werewolf venom began to take hold in her little form, and it only made my attacks more aggressive and devastating.
The werewolf could not block me, its feeble excuses for attacks falling on hardened skin, as I batted away its paws.
I crushed one, driving the wolf to its knees, before snapping it off completely, the howl of pain like balm to my ears.
I threw it away, against the rock face, hearing its bones crack as I flitted forward and snapped its other paw, before driving it to the ground with a punch to the jaw.
It whimpered and tried to get back up, but it was then that it was collapsed back to the ground, twitching and howling in pain.
Previously deaf to all but the fight, I slowly turned to see my Guard, my family erupt into the clearing, Jane first, red eyes glaring at the werewolf.
Carlisle flitted straight to Bella's side, checking her injuries. The bite on her pure, lovely skin was red raw and weeping blood as I flitted to her, almost growling at Carlisle.
"Aro, it's alright," he murmured soothingly, placing his hand on my shoulder. "It's over."
At his words I relaxed somewhat, letting the animal within me subside as I focussed on Bella. On the tainted, noxious scent of werewolf venom in her sumptuous blood.
Alice held Bella's head still, stroking her hair soothingly while Jane held the wolf incapacitated. Carlisle's expert hands ran over her, examining her quickly and efficiently.
"I can feel two if not three broken ribs. Her ankle's sprained, probably fractured, she's haemorrhaging badly from the carotid vein, and the head wound. She's infected with the werewolf's venom, Aro," he looked up at me, and I understood.
What a perfect revenge for our little friend, for me to see the love of my existence turned into what I hated most. And be forced to destroy her.
Carlisle's voice brought me back from that dark place, as Bella arched in pain beneath me, her voice growing hoarse from her screams. "Aro, you need to suck the venom out before its too late."
I stared at him. Bella was my singer, if I did and lost control…
I would kill her.
"Carlisle, no! He'll kill her!" Edward exploded from somewhere behind me, but I could not take my eyes off Bella long enough to care.
I looked down on her, twisting and shrieking in agony, each cry tearing at me, the scent of her blood calling to me.
I couldn't fail.
I would not.
"I will find the will to stop," I breathed, lowering my head to Bella's breast as Alice steadied her. How I had longed to do this, had fantasised about doing this but not like this!
Never like this.
Taking a deep breath, steeling myself, I bit down in her soft flesh, tasting the noxious, cloyingly sweet taste of the wolf's venom as I drew it out.
Finally she stilled as the last of it drained away, and I fought to let go.
Fought and failed as the monster within me rose up, demanding her blood as my due, clamping down on the cries of my heart.
But only for a moment.
She was my Isabella, my love, and I would not forgo an eternity with her for the sake of her blood.
No.
Drawing on every last tithe of my strength, I drew back, sliding my teeth from her flesh. I licked the rim of the bite marks, sealing them with my venom, moving on to the bites on her neck and head.
The breaks she would have to heal herself.
Finally it was over, as I looked up and into Carlisle's warm, ochre eyes.
"You did it," he murmured, proudly, as I cradled Isabella into my body. Her eyelids fluttered, weakly as she choked out.
"Aro?"
"Here, amore mio," I murmured, my voice a bit gravely, as I stroked her hair. She said no more as she slid into unconsciousness, but the now steady beat of her heart reassured me.
She would live.
Slowly I stood, with her in my arms, as I turned around to deal with the werewolf, still howling in agony as Jane only pressed harder with her gift, burning him as he would have burned Isabella and I.
Soon, I would see to it that he burned in the fires of hell itself.
Oh that was a bit dark, even for me. Afraid not all the darkness is done yet though, and I can't guarantee you're going to like what's coming, but there is light at the end of the tunnel promise! :)
R&R!
