Author's Note

Just a head's up (oh yes, pun intended. Come on, read this chapter and then tell me that's not funny!)

Considering what's coming in this chapter and the next several, I'm just going to warn you now that some of it may be kind of graphic.

I'm not going to lie, this chapter and the ones that follow were some difficult ones to write. Meyer, much though I adore the universe and characters she's created, loves to just gloss over things. Complicated fight scene? Oh, I know! They'll move too fast for Bella to see. Convoluted medical conversation between Carlisle and Edward? Oh, I know! Jacob will fall asleep. Problem solved. *pinches bridge of nose* So there's a lot of choreography that I had to come up with. Add to that the pack plural... Ugh! Picture me, sitting at the desk, mostly bald, with piles of hair heaped around my chair from when I pulled it out. Oh, and dents in my forehead that look suspiciously like keyboard imprints... Yeah.

So anyway, the pack plural. I just hope that it's clear and not confusing. I edited this chapter many (many, many) times since I first wrote it. Hopefully it works.

Oh, and happy birthday to me! Being a Leo is *awesome*. I'm on vacation (well, not at work for a change), the kids are going back to school next week, and life is good. Hopefully, I can start making good progress with Dawn again. Between working extra hours, the kids being home, swim team, and life in general, it's been slow going over the summer. I still hope to reach my goal of having Nessie born by the time Eclipse is all up, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be. Chances are, IF I can get through her pregnancy by then, I'm only going to take a month off from posting before I start putting up Dawn. How's that sound, eh? Dawn breaks in November?

Who has two thumbs and is excited to start posting Dawn? This Girl! \o/

Wait, wait, wait. First, we've got vampires to kill. One story at a time, L. ;)

~L

Attack

Jacob's horrible playback of Bella's kiss over at last, I stared at the girl I loved while she lay on the sleeping bag in front of me and trembled, keeping her face hidden. My entire body stung in reaction to what I'd witnessed, but it was surely no more than I deserved. How many times and in how many ways had I caused Bella pain? That I ached now wasn't even her fault.

I had all but given Jacob step-by-step instructions on how to steal Bella away from me. Imitating my actions, he'd lied and told the truth as it suited him. He'd manipulated her feelings and used the coming battle to make her fear that she would lose him forever, just as she had once lost me. He'd taken my advice – though I hadn't meant it as such – and stopped allowing her to see his jealousy. He'd been confident and cocky, rude and ruthless, selfless and self-sacrificing as the need arose, and she'd believed every bit of it.

I had to give him credit, his plan had worked perfectly.

Jacob's display seemed to shine a light on every one of my flaws as I recognized myself in his threats and lies. My only saving grace was that everything I had done had always been with her best interests in mind. Of course, Jacob certainly believed something similar: that taking her from me was saving her from a fate worse than death. However it seemed to me that his words weren't genuine. His threats had been calculated, and I'd detected an undercurrent of falseness to his words - he'd had no intention of killing himself.

Sacrificing himself to save her life was one thing. There was no way he would sacrifice himself just so that I could be free to turn her into a killer. When I'd attempted suicide, I had desperately wanted to die, and Bella knew this. In threatening the same thing, Jacob had used her pain to his advantage. Whatever his motives and methods, they had still resulted in Bella coming to terms at last with her feelings for him. They may have been cruel, but if his actions saved her life, could I really condemn them? And now that she knew she had another option, why wouldn't she take it? Anything was better than being turned into a murderer.

Wasn't it?

I wasn't sure how long I stared at her, trying to figure out what she was thinking when I couldn't see her expression, but I finally decided that my speculations didn't matter. Yes, I wanted her to live her human life, but I couldn't deny that I wanted her to be my wife more than I had ever wanted anything else. I wasn't going to concede defeat unless she told me flat out that she wanted him, not me.

"And I thought I fought dirty. He makes me look like the patron saint of ethics." I laughed ruefully and saw her body tense, but she kept her face hidden. Her wild hair was thrown off to one side, and I could just see her soft cheek. Needing to touch her, I trailed my fingers along the exposed skin and shivered at the tingle of electricity that touching her sent through me.

I knew how she always blamed herself and assured her, "I'm not mad at you, love. Jacob's more cunning than I gave him credit for. I do wish you hadn't asked him, though," I added bitterly.

"Edward. I… I… I'm – " Bella's words were whispered and halting, full of pain and shame.

"Shh," I stopped her. "That's not what I meant. It's just that he would have kissed you anyway – even if you hadn't fallen for it – and now I don't have an excuse to break his face. I would have really enjoyed that, too." I grimaced, disappointed. After the previous night, and then especially after having to experience him kissing her, breaking his jaw at the very least would have been so satisfying.

"Fallen for it?" Her voice sounded confused, and I saw her tense again with what I guessed was surprise.

"Bella, did you really believe he was that noble? That he would go out in a flame of glory just to clear the way for me?"

She finally raised her head, slowly looking up to meet my gaze. Her tear streaked face was confused and wary. I smiled, pleased to be able to see her eyes again, and waited patiently for her to see how he had used the situation to his advantage.

"Yes," she muttered, seemingly embarrassed. "I did believe that."

I laughed, amused at how trusting she was, and teased, "You're such a bad liar, you'll believe anyone who has the least bit of skill."

"Why aren't you angry with me?" she asked in a low, pain-filled whisper. "Why don't you hate me? Or haven't you heard the whole story, yet?"

Fighting back my pain at the memory of her lips on his, I forced my voice to sound unconcerned. Like I had told Jacob, showing jealousy didn't help his case, and nor would it help mine. "I think I got a fairly comprehensive look. Jacob makes vivid mental pictures. I feel almost as bad for his pack as I do for myself. Poor Seth was getting nauseated. But Sam is making him focus, now."

I focused on Seth's connection to the pack for a moment, grateful that no longer meant hearing Jacob's recounting of his moment in Heaven with an angel. Through Jacob's eyes, I saw the forest passing in a blur as he sprinted with joy toward where his pack waited for the coming army. He was taking a longer route than the one he'd taken with Bella in his arms, closer to the one I had taken to get to the camp site, making sure to avoid the army's northern path. Alice was no longer with the pack, and I wondered how much longer it would be before my family would be fighting for their lives and mine. I wished it would have been possible for one of the wolves to join my family so that I could at least see them.

Bella's groan brought my attention back to her and I watched her close her eyes and shake her head, her face twisted and angry.

"You're only human," I said softly, reaching out to run my hand through her silky hair again. No matter how much I wanted to be, I wasn't human anymore. The differences between our two species were more than dietary, and were the very reasons I had thought she would heal and move on after my betrayal. Humans could fall into and out of love many times over the course of their lives. The very fact that she loved Jacob at all proved that I had been right to leave. What Jacob had said the previous night was true; she could have healed - would have healed. If Bella hadn't come to Italy to save my life, I was certain that she would have learned to be happy with him.

"That's the most miserable defense I've ever heard," she muttered in disgust.

"But you are human, Bella. And, as much as I might wish otherwise, so is he… There are holes in your life that I can't fill. I understand that."

"But that's not true," she protested fiercely. "That's what makes me so horrible. There are no holes."

If we were ever going to move past this, she needed to be honest with herself, and with me. I had to make her admit it to me, just as she had admitted it to him.

"You love him," I insisted.

She trembled again, and I was sure she was trying to say otherwise. Finally, unable to argue with the truth, she said firmly, "I love you more."

A wave of relief broke over me. She had admitted her feelings for him – and dismissed them. Determined to reaffirm what her choices meant, I had to push the matter. Now that she had acknowledged her feelings for him, she had to be made to see exactly what I was, to admit to the damage my actions had done to all of us, to accept them and move on, or to go with the wolf who had always been there.

"Yes, I know that, too," I said, unable to hide the relief in my voice. "But… when I left you, Bella, I left you bleeding. Jacob was the one to stitch you back up again. That was bound to leave its mark – on both of you. I'm not sure those kinds of stitches dissolve on their own. I can't blame either of you for something I made necessary. I may gain forgiveness, but that doesn't let me escape the consequences."

"I should have known you'd find some way to blame yourself. Please stop. I can't stand it."

As always, she had it backward. She thought I was blaming myself unnecessarily, when I was to blame. If not for my betrayal, she would never have fallen in love with him. She knew that I had lied to her before, but surely she couldn't want to be lied to. If she didn't want to hear the truth, then what else was left?

"What would you like me to say?"

"I want you to call me every bad name you can think of, in every language you know. I want you to tell me that you're disgusted with me and that you're going to leave so that I can beg and grovel on my knees for you to stay."

My eyes grew wide and I stared at her in horror. If anyone should be groveling it was me! I had caused her so much pain and was the source of her pain, even now. Her relationship with Jacob and what had just happened between them was my doing. I had left her, lied to her, manipulated her, and she had forgiven me so easily every time. How could she expect me to willingly add to the pain she was already obviously in?

"I'm sorry. I can't do that."

"At least stop trying to make me feel better. Let me suffer. I deserve it."

Firmly, I said, "No."

She nodded, twisting things around again. "You're right. Keep on being too understanding. That's probably worse."

Sighing in frustration, I tried to think of a way to stop her self-disgust, to stop her from blaming herself, but was distracted by Seth's thoughts. He was pacing around the edge of the campsite, not wanting to be too close to my reaction to Jacob kissing Bella. Our murmured words were just below his level of hearing, and he was paying attention to his duty as our guard and to his connection with the pack.

Briefly focusing on the wolves, I looked through their eyes, smelled through their noses, listened through their ears. I was aware that the sounds of the forest that surrounded them had grown hushed, as if all of the creatures that inhabited it could sense the army of death that was on its way. Their sensitive wolf ears detected a faint thumping, as of many feet hitting the forest floor all at the same time. The newborns hadn't yet reached the trail Bella had left, but the pack was ready and waiting – except for Jacob, who was getting closer.

"It's getting close," Bella observed, seeing through my silence.

"Yes," I agreed. "A few more minutes now. Just enough time to say one more thing…"

I thought for a moment of how to phrase what I needed to say. Months ago, when I'd asked Alice to look for Bella's future with Jacob, Bella hadn't acknowledged him as a possibility. She'd refused to see that she loved him, and so Alice couldn't see any possibility of Bella having a future with him. Now though, Bella knew how she felt, and how Jacob felt. If I asked Alice to look at what was to happen were I to leave again, I was certain that she would see a happy, living Bella. I was also certain that she would see the fire I had imagined before, knowing that there was no way I could live without Bella anymore.

But for Bella to be happy, and for Bella to live… I would give anything.

I had proven already that, if I thought it was the best thing for her, I could force myself to leave. I couldn't live without her, but if I didn't plan on living, that didn't matter. As long as I knew she'd live - and be happy - I would do whatever was necessary. And if she wanted Jacob, but still wanted me in her life, I would be grateful for just her presence, though I loved her and wanted her for my wife. I'd known the truth of that in Rio. I'd known then that just to look at her face would make my existence worthwhile.

Unable to force my voice any louder than a whisper, I spoke slowly. "I can be noble, Bella. I'm not going to make you choose between us. Just be happy, and you can have whatever part of me you want, or none at all, if that's better. Don't let any debt you feel you owe me influence your decision."

She suddenly sat up onto her knees, her face inches from mine. Bella's expression was angry - livid. Her chocolate eyes were wide and her forehead creased as she yelled, "Dammit, stop that!"

I blinked at her, shocked. She so rarely expressed any real anger toward me that I was temporarily at a loss for words. "No – " I finally said. "You don't understand. I'm not just trying to make you feel better, Bella, I really mean it."

"I know you do," she groaned, shaking her head in frustration. "What happened to fighting back? Don't start with the noble self-sacrifice now! Fight!"

"How?"

I'd told Jacob that I would fight for her, had told them both that I didn't plan on fighting fair, and look where that had gotten me.

I had done everything I could think of to keep my Bella. I'd bribed my sister to kidnap her, had forbidden Bella to see Jacob, even going so far as to dismantle her truck to keep her from him, and later had relented and told her she could see him if she wanted to. Not only had I allowed it, I had delivered her to him myself. I had lied and told the truth. I'd striven to get into Charlie's good graces, and indeed he had stopped hating me quite so much lately. I had manipulated her friends to keep her away from that horrid Newton boy I hated and encouraged her to spend time with her girlfriends. I'd tried to protect her from Alice's exuberance, while still allowing them to spend time together.

I had written my love for her into music, given her my time, and time to herself. I had used my voice, my mouth, and my hands to encourage the physical reactions Bella's body had to me. I had done all that was in my power to make her want me including agreeing to end her human life and change her into a vampire. I had even agreed to make love to her - something that would both risk her life and our future together - and thus won her agreement to be my wife. And after everything, not two days after securing her promise, she had kissed Jacob Black in a way that she had never kissed me.

I had tried to fight for her. I had lost. What did she want me to do now?

Her face still fierce, Bella threw herself into my arms. She climbed into my lap and locked her arms around my neck. "I don't care that it's cold here. I don't care that I stink like a dog right now. Make me forget how awful I am. Make me forget him. Make me forget my own name. Fight back!"

She kissed me. Bella's hands in my hair weren't gentle, her mouth wasn't soft and yielding, but she crushed herself to me with all of her human strength. I sucked in a sharp breath, felt a flame of desire burning through me, and had to fight not to crush her body against mine. Her warmth surrounded me and I heard her heart racing, smelled the adrenaline and hormones which were rapidly flowing throughout her body. Her mouth opened against mine and I felt her warm tongue tracing my lips.

I wanted – desperately – to kiss her back, but I knew that if I opened my mouth to hers, I would taste him. Her sweet freesia scent, enhanced as it was by her lust, was marred by Jacob's death stench. With an army on the way to fight my family, a wolf prowling around the boulders to which I had attached the tent, and another who would return shortly, this was not the best time to get distracted.

I forced myself to push her away, murmuring, "Careful, love."

"No." Bella knew what I had just seen and appeared to be determined to erase that memory with one of our own. She pressed herself back against me, panting. Her hands moved all over me, sliding out of my hair, across my shoulders, and down my back. Her chest was pressed against mine and she squirmed until she wrapped her legs around me. This kiss was nothing like the one she had shared with Jacob. Though there had seemed to be a fiery joy in her then and the excitement of newly discovered love, there was a raging furnace within her now. Every place she touched me felt as though my skin was scalded by the heat of her emotions.

Taking hold of her face before I could succumb to her, I pushed her firmly away. "You don't have to prove anything to me."

"I'm not trying to prove something. You said I could have any part of you I wanted. I want this part. I want every part." Still determined, she secured her arms around my neck and pulled my face back to hers.

The sting I'd felt from watching Jacob's memory was swept away and replaced with the thrill of victory. As had always been the case, Bella wanted me. Not Jacob. Me! Like I had told the mutt, I was hers and had always been, and Bella was mine. He could claim that I didn't own her, but if she willingly gave herself to me, who was I to argue? A fierce joy filling every part of me, I kissed her back, reveling in the feeling of her hands on my body, her lips against mine, and her heart beating against my chest. I shoved my hands into her silky hair and slowly let them trail down her back, curling my arms about her waist. I wanted very much to shift her body to the sleeping bag, to feel the length of her pressed against me, and to lose myself in her embrace, but Seth's mind showed me that he was drawing closer to us, and I didn't exactly want an audience.

My hands made their way back up to rest against her petal-soft cheeks. Stubbornly, I pushed her away from me a third time and firmly insisted, "Perhaps this isn't the best moment for that."

She narrowed her eyes and stopped trying to pull me against her. Her mouth twisted into an unhappy grimace, recognizing that I wasn't going to be swayed. "Why not?"

"Firstly, because it is cold," I began.

"Wrong," she interrupted me. "First, because you are bizarrely moral for a vampire."

Laughing at her sour tone, I agreed with her, "All right, I'll give you that. The cold is second." The morals and ethics I had grown up with were sadly lacking from most of the males of today's era. I doubted that any of the other boys Bella knew - Jacob included - would have refrained from acting when the girl they loved wanted to be intimate, no matter the circumstance. I, however, knew that there was a proper time and place for certain things, and this was not one of them.

"And thirdly… well, you do stink, love." I felt my face twisting in disgust at the smell which lingered in her hair and clothes, and worse, the rotten taste of him which was now on my lips and tongue. Although kissing her had felt like Heaven, she had tasted like death.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. Knowing that it was going to happen, that she wanted it just as she wanted me, for once I couldn't wait for her to become a vampire and smell him for herself. Then she'd understand.

"Fourthly." Knowing the young wolf was just outside of the tent, I moved my lips to her ear and whispered, "We will try, Bella. I'll make good on my promise. But I'd much rather it wasn't in reaction to Jacob Black," I couldn't help saying sourly.

I saw her wince before she hid her face in my shoulder.

"And fifthly…"

"This is a very long list," she grumbled.

"Yes," I agreed with a laugh, "but did you want to listen to the fight, or not?"

Seth could hear me and Bella now, but he continued not to pay our murmured conversation any attention; his concentration was focused on the senses of his pack. Through them, I could at last smell the burning sweetness of the approaching army. Seth howled in frustration. Here he was, standing around bored on the mountain, while miles away, his family got to rip vampires apart. He could smell me, and his instincts were telling him to fight, too.

Bella's body jerked against mine and she scooted off my lap to sit stiffly beside me. I guessed she had forgotten the whole reason for our uncomfortable camping situation and chuckled again. Her fists were tightly clenched and I slid my hand into one of hers, carefully forcing it to loosen. I spread her fingers out, tracing each finger with my own until it relaxed.

"It's going to be fine, Bella. We've got skill, training, and surprise on our side. It will be over very soon. If I didn't truly believe that, I would be down there now – and you'd be here, chained to a tree or something along those lines," I teased her.

"Alice is so small," she said in a fearful voice.

I snickered. "That might be a problem… if it were possible for someone to catch her."

I should be there! I'm not a child. Seth whimpered, his body yearning to throw itself after Jacob's trail to join in on the fight.

"What's wrong?" Bella cried, misinterpreting him.

"He's just angry that he's stuck here with us. He knows the pack kept him out of the action to protect him. He's salivating to join them."

Though he was outside of the tent and couldn't see it, Bella shot Seth a dirty look. I wasn't surprised. Bella was always more concerned with the safety of others than she was with her own, and I had little doubt that the young wolf's enthusiasm was irritating to her. Regardless of his frustration, he knew there was more to his post here than Sam's desire to protect him. They understood that, through him, I was able to keep track of what was happening with the army - or, at least, the half that the wolves would be fighting.

Ever since Carlisle had changed me, I had been forced to experience the senses of others. It had been useful to know what the humans around us were thinking since we'd needed to leave any time our anonymity had been threatened, but I didn't enjoy my ability and had always tried to block out what I perceived. Despite my efforts, I had never been truly successful. There had always been a certain degree of separation - a distinct difference between what I experienced for myself and what I experienced through someone else - but if they were within my range, there was nothing I could do to stop myself from hearing someone's thoughts.

However, when I'd been younger, I had actively attempted to surround myself with the senses of another person, tuning out my own senses until they were the echo that the others' normally were. It had been an experiment in learning to control my gift, and interesting as far as such things went, but hadn't really been useful as more than that. It wasn't a pleasant experience, nor one that I had cared to repeat, until now.

Concentrating on Seth's thoughts, I deliberately immersed myself in his senses. Though Seth was the only wolf there, his link to the pack meant that I was touching ten different minds. When I'd done this experiment with multiple people before, the subjects had been separate and distinct. Attempting to fully experience more than one mind at a time had been conflicting and disconcerting and ultimately self-defeating. It had only truly worked when I'd been able to focus on a single individual. Allowing what the wolves experienced to fill me was quite a different sensation, since Seth's mind and the pack's were interconnected. Their senses were open to each other so that what I found in one mind was multiplied, accentuated, and enhanced by seeing the same thing repeated in each of the others'.

Seth could hear my words as I began to describe to Bella what was happening. Through him, my voice was relayed to the rest of the pack, which only reinforced the sensation that I was there, with them, miles away from where my body sat. Only a vague part of me remaining in the tent with Bella, I felt strangely like a specter floating over the area of the forest where the pack waited. Seeing, hearing, and smelling through so many minds, the entire peninsula was revealed to me, from the mountain where Seth kept watch, to the forest near the clearing, and all the way to the coast where our youngest brothers protected the reservation. We waited patiently for the burning sweetness to get closer, wanting to be certain that it was the army this time, and not one of our allies again. We saw a sparkle hit a tree - an unnatural rainbow thrown from the skin of a monster.

Embry had been sent to wait by the head of the trail where Bella had left her scent. He stayed far away from the path where she had walked and, since he didn't act, we believed the future-seer's vision could not have been affected. We watched from our hidden vantage points while the army approached the scent-trail Bella had left. Without her trail, they would have continued directly on toward Forks, bypassing the ones they had been created to kill. Jacob may not have approved of the blond leech's suggestion to use Bella as bait, but his intimate knowledge of the newly made vampires' hunting instincts showed what a brilliant strategy it had been.

A ripple of excitement flowed between us in anticipation. The army followed Bella's scent until they seemed to grow wary and began to mill about. Apparently, they had found the scent of the others. Half of them continued on toward the clearing where the monsters-we-weren't-allowed-to-kill waited. The other half gave the clearing a wide berth, and we knew from the future-seer that they intended to attack from the opposite direction, forcing those we were allied with to fight on two fronts. To head them off, our Alpha had us circle around to where the future-seer had said her vision of them disappeared.

We heard a fierce roar, a voice we recognized as belonging to the biggest of them. We could detect an excitement that matched our own in his bellow. The newborns must have reached those who waited in the clearing. The half of the army that we were closing in on heard him as well, and veered to join the fight. The time had come for us to act. We would rip the monsters apart and take them to be burned. We were strong, fast, and the unnatural, dead creatures didn't even know we existed. We moved quickly, our huge paws gripping the earth, our bodies gliding between the trees like the wind. In front of us, there, at last, was a monster we could kill!

It had been months since the last one - the black-haired leech - and there had been only one that time. We knew the stories of our tribe, the legends of the pack-before-us who had killed the stone creature the first time. Our teeth could severe their limbs, our strength could crush their bodies, but only fire could destroy them.

Aware of a strange, hard thumping that wasn't heard through our ears, I pulled away from the pack mind and looked at Bella. Her heart was pounding, trying to circulate the oxygen that remained in her system from her last breath, which had apparently been some time ago.

"Breathe, Bella."

Her beautiful melted chocolate eyes were wide and anxious, and were fixed on my face, but she pulled in a shaky breath and nodded at me. Reassured that Bella was okay, I immersed myself into the minds of the wolves, once again losing any sense of me among the pack's many.

We could hear sounds of rocks colliding and heard a big, booming laugh that echoed through the forest. There was a horrid, metallic screeching that hurt our ears. One of us, Paul, whined in frustrated excitement.

…get on with the fight already.

Patience, our Alpha counseled.

We were getting closer to the dead monsters. They moved with unnatural speed, blurs of white against the green background of the forest, their skin throwing rainbows through the trees every time the sun shattered against their stone skin. We didn't want them to see us before we were in position to attack. Gaining on them as we ran through the forest, we were stealthy, we were swift, we were Death seeking the dead. We were going to end them!

They paused their approach to the clearing and we got close enough to hear their softly spoken words, which were high pitched and strangely musical, yet they were more like broken instruments. The sound was jarring to our sensitive ears.

"Remember what we agreed: their pet is yours and mine! We're not gonna share her with any of them."

"We need to hurry, then. Riley said the girl'd be there fer sure, but you know how much Raoul wanted to drink her. If he gets to her first, there'll be none left for us."

"That idiot? He's prob'ly too busy tryin' to keep hisself alive."

"Well, we should hurry, anyways. The human won't last long if any of the others gets to her before us."

"Oh, man, I can smell her from here, I swear!"

"I know, I know. Her blood smells... Mmmm." A shudder ran through the bloodsucker's body.

"C'mon, c'mon! Hurry up, you all! We're gonna miss the fun!"

"Sounds like they're tearin' those weird yellow-eyes apart, alright."

"Their fate ain't important! The girl. We gotta kill the girl."

"Damn right, we do. Her blood is mine!"

"Ours."

"Er, yeah. Ours. What I meant."

Furious, I pulled myself out of the pack mind again, needing to see that Bella was still safe. I couldn't shake the sense of impending danger, despite the fact that we were miles away from the fight.

Bella's eyes were still locked on my face. "What?"

"They're talking about you." I forced the words through my clenched teeth. "They're supposed to make sure you don't escape…"

My attention was caught when I felt Seth's fear for and jealousy of his sister.

We saw the dead creatures grin at each other, and crouch in preparation to sprint toward the clearing. Jacob was running at a full sprint, coming at the army from the south. He had nearly joined us, but his speed wasn't as silent as our stealthy pursuit had been. We saw one of their heads whip toward us, its nostrils flaring. Determined to keep the leech from giving away our position, our sister launched herself at it. She was faster than the dead monster and it never had the chance to see her before her teeth were locked around its throat.

Nice move, Leah!

We felt her pleasure in our leader's frank approval. She shook her head, her teeth tearing through his cold, stone flesh with a loud, metallic screech like the ones we were hearing from the clearing. Not quite severed, his head flopped off to one side, and an expression of shock crossed his face.

Ugh! Gross. It burns! Blech, blech. She flicked her tongue, trying to spit out the horrid taste. How can they taste worse than they smell?! Yuck!

He lunged for her, but with his head hanging at an angle, the leech's aim was off. Avoiding the grasping arms, she sprang at his neck a second time and his head fell to the ground. We saw that the creature's body wasn't dead, though his head was grimacing at her from where it lay at her feet. She stared at it in horror, meeting its bright red eyes. We watched it blink and move its mouth in what were obviously meant to be screamed insults, but with no lungs to push air through the creature's ruined throat, it was soundless.

Transfixed by the sight of the severed head that was still somehow alive - or at least moving - Leah was oblivious to the danger his body still presented. We saw it stumbling toward her and Sam crashed into the creature, throwing it away from Leah, whom it had been about to grab onto and crush.

Concentrate! We have to make sure it can't get its head back.

Tearing herself away from the creature's red eyes, she spun to help Sam destroy the rest of it. The two of us grabbed an arm each and pulled, our teeth tearing through the stone skin. The arm Sam held came off first, and the vile parasite fell as Leah shook him. Sam pounced on his chest, holding him in place so that Leah was able to twist off the arm she held. We grabbed onto its legs next, ripping it down the middle, so that one leg and half of a headless torso with the flopping stump of an arm was held in each of our mouths. The sound of metal buckling under pressure hurt our ears, but was unimportant. We threw the pieces away, making sure they weren't close to any other part of its body before bounding away to end another creature.

As we had only destroyed the one, there were still eight of them when Jacob finally joined us, bringing our number up to seven. Paul and Jacob got one of those who had been heard planning Bella's death. Emulating our brother and sister, we took hold of an arm in each of our mouths and twisted as we pulled, ripping the thing's limbs off. It screamed, but the sound of Sam and Leah tearing the first one apart had already alerted the others to our presence. The severed arm Paul held was grasping at him, and he whined as it grabbed a handful of his fur. He held it just above the elbow and shook his head vigorously. The hand lost its grip and he dropped it, using his paws to hold the arm down while he crushed its fingers. Quil and Embry saw one running toward him and moved engage her, but she hesitated. She'd seen the fate of the other one and was wary and confused.

The blond leech was right; these parasites have no idea what to make of us.

Well, I know what to make of them!

Over here!

No, let Sam lead.

There's one on your left, I'll get it.

No, stay out of the way.

This one's mine!

Drive 'em toward the clearing.

Don't let them get too close to each other.

Watch that one!

Nah, I've got it.

Careful! Those two are gonna gang up on you.

Separate them.

Uh-huh, you push her that way. I'll chase him the other.

That bloodsucker said they wouldn't be loyal to each other.

Yeah, well, he might notta been wrong, but seems they'll cooperate outta self-preservation.

Don't let them protect each other's backs.

Yup, I'll go for his arm, you get the leg, an' let Jared drive that one away.

We moved as one, pushing the remaining monsters away from each other and toward the clearing, where they would meet their end in fire.

Jared dove toward the one nearest him and took hold of a leg, crushing through the limb with his strong jaw and sharp teeth. It fell, unbalanced and screaming. It reached for us, and we danced out of the way, snarling in defiance. We grabbed for one of the outstretched arms and tore off a hand. He kicked out, catching us in the hind leg. We felt a flare of pain, but it was minor, an annoyance. The creature hadn't the leverage to do real damage, and his counter-attack only served to enrage us further. We tore his other arm away, crushing through his stone flesh while he batted at us with the stump of the one we'd already bitten.

The hand Jared had torn off was pulling itself back toward its body and we pounced on it, crushing the fingers and ending its ability to reunite with itself. Focused on the tick we were shredding, we didn't see that another of the creatures was bearing down on us. Paul sped over to help, throwing himself between the approaching tick and our brother. We circled each other and the thing lunged at us. Expecting us to be no faster than a normal wolf, it missed us and we scooted around behind it, jumping on its back, and shoving it's face into the dirt. It flailed its limbs, but we held it in place while Quil bounded over to sink his teeth into the creature's throat.

One by one, we ripped the creatures apart, crushing their extremities and flinging the bits and pieces away from the whole. We were going to win; this had been easy!

Miles away, our brother who waited with the mind-reading leech was watching the fight along with us when he smelled a burning that was a different flavor from the one who hid in the tent.

Pulling myself out of the pack's mind, I was abruptly in the small tent again with Bella's hand clasped securely in mine. I smelled the burning sweetness through Seth's senses, confirming that a vampire was close.

And it wasn't me.