Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight. I had the joyful experience (not) of spending the last day and a half in hospital, trying to discover why I am constantly exhausted and short of breath. Probably just anemia, but it's frustrating as I take so much iron I should be able to spit nails. Sigh...

Thanks to my lovely betas, Chloe Cougar and Squeaky Zorro, for their awesome betaing and amazingly quick turn arounds.

Thanks so much for the great reviews, but seriously, you guys are diabolical! I laughed so hard at some of your suggestions for how James & Co should meet their end, (napalm, wolf pits, vampire bowling using dismembered heads to knock down trees, a modified wood-chipper to reduce the body parts to dust which could then be melted in with tar for road surfacing, all three heads propped up to watch the bonfire and then left to suffer bodiless for all eternity - can't you just picture their disembodied heads, perched on some remote mountain ledge, squabbling amongst themselves? - and my favorite, snapping off all available appendages and shoving them up James'...er...orifice). I'm worried you're going to think my offering is rather tame in comparison to the exotic ideas you lot came up with...but here it is.

Words: 3993 (Nothing drabblish about that!)

Chapter 36

Offensive

BPOV

Once the decision was made to go on the offensive rather than wait for James, Victoria, and Laurent to come for me, everything moved quickly. Emmett, Rose, and Esme traveled to Seattle to collect Renee and Phil from the airport. I wanted to go with them but could see the sense in staying away. I was the target, and the last thing I wanted to do was lead James to my parents.

"I'll come visit you as soon as this is over," I assured Renee over the phone once she and Phil were settled with a reluctant and grumbling Charlie at Billy's house.

"This isn't right," she argued. "Your father and I should be the ones protecting you, not sending our teenage daughter off to fight the animals that abducted her."

"I'll be fine, Mom. Edward's family and the wolves will be the ones taking the risks." I crossed my fingers behind my back.

"Please, stay safe," she urged. "You've been sounding so happy when we've talked. I just want you to be able to move on from what happened to you and make the most of your new life. Charlie tells me that Edward is treating you well."

"He is, Mom," I assured her while trying not to become distracted by his lips nuzzling at my neck. "Stop it!" I hissed at him, rolling my eyes.

"Sorry." He shrugged and contented himself with resting his chin on my shoulder, his arms wrapped around me from behind.

"I am happy, Mom...with Edward and living with his family. I miss you, of course, and I can't wait until this is over and we can catch up. But please, don't worry about me."

"If you say so," she sighed. "I have to admit, this is a lovely place. I'm really enjoying hearing all about the history of the tribe from Billy, and Sue Clearwater has offered to show me some of their beautiful handicrafts."

"That's great," I encouraged. "Tell Phil I'm sorry for dragging him away from spring training. I hope he won't get into trouble."

"Honey...you did it to save our lives. You don't need to apologize." Renee's tone was dry. "The timing's actually pretty good as he needs to rest his arm, so please...stop worrying about us and concentrate on keeping yourself and that lovely young man of yours safe. I still wish your father could just call in a SWAT team or something."

"Me, too," Charlie grumbled from where I could hear he was sitting watching a game with Billy and Phil.

He'd insisted on taking his flat-screen TV with him even though we weren't expecting this to drag on for too long. In hindsight it had been a good idea, as Sam and Jasper had quickly vetoed Charlie's plans to go fishing. Sam and Jared were coming with us to Seattle, but Paul would be remaining behind to guard my parents, and it would be easier for him if they stayed together at Billy's house.

"Don't worry, Bella," Sam stated gruffly when I suggested he should leave Jared behind as well to ensure my folk's safety. "Paul won't leave his post."

"But what if something changes, and they come here instead?" I fretted even though we'd been over this already. "One wolf against three vampires is not good odds."

"I'll keep checking the future to make sure your parents are safe." Alice appeared at my side, linking our arms. "But now isn't the time to change the plan."

Reluctantly agreeing, I checked the battery and signal on my cell phone for the fifth time. Since we'd be splitting up, we'd need them to keep in touch.

"Sweetheart..." Edward drew me away from his sister and into his arms, an ongoing tug-of-war between the two of them with me the prize. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"It's not me I'm worried about," I muttered, my mind a maelstrom of worries. If anything happened to...anyone...it would be my fault.

EPOV

"They're not coming. I should have come alone," Bella fretted, her movements jerky. She seemed torn between the human desire to pace and the vampire urge to freeze statue-like with stress. It had been her suggestion to lure James to the warehouse where she'd been held captive, but it didn't mean she was comfortable with the location. I certainly wasn't and kept flinching as memories of Bella's time here assaulted me.

"We've been over this, Bella." I came as close to snapping as I ever had with her. "There was no way in hell I was letting you come alone."

"Hell?" Bella echoed, raising an eyebrow.

I never swore or cursed, so saying "hell" was a big deal for me.

"Whatever," I muttered, and she burst out laughing, surprising us both.

She'd told me on more than one occasion that I could give Mr. Darcy a run for his money in the respectability and straight-laced stakes, but every now and then I managed to sound like a petulant teenager. It wasn't intentional, but she seemed to like the contrast.

"Sorry, baby," she murmured, closing the distance between us and wrapping her arms around me. I didn't hesitate to reciprocate, breathing in her scent and trying to dispel the images of her, screaming in pain, that tormented me...or the thought that it could be about to happen again.

"You don't have to be sorry," I murmured. "I shouldn't have spoken to you like that. I just..." Uncharacteristically speechless, I lifted a hand to run it raggedly through my hair.

"I know," she crooned. "If the tables were turned, I couldn't have let you come alone, either. I just want this to be over, and I'm worried they're not going to show because you're here with me."

"They'll come." I held her close, my voice sounding grim even to my own ears. "James won't be able to resist. In fact, I think he'll enjoy the idea of having an audience."

"He'll have an audience all right," Bella muttered, squeezing me tightly while I rocked her in my arms.

Bella and I had split from the rest of the family in Forks, heading straight for the city. We'd chosen to run across country, advised by Alice that our being on foot would make it easier for James to sense Bella's approach. The rest of the family met up with Sam and Jared in the forest on the edge of town. Splitting into two groups when they reached the outskirts of the city, both contained a wolf companion to block James' awareness of their presence...or so we hoped.

"It will work, won't it?" Bella fretted. "Edward?" she added when I didn't reply, then hushed when my muscles tensed.

"They're here," I whispered into her ear.

"All of them?" she mouthed, and I nodded, pressing send on the text I'd written earlier. It was just two words. Come now.

"Please let everything turn out all right, please let everything turn out all right," Bella chanted in a faint whisper, even though her talent didn't really work that way.

I smiled reassuringly, but then my expression changed to one of icy fury as our soon-to-be-extinct guests arrived.

"Isabella Marie Swan," James drawled, sauntering into the room as if he didn't have a care in the world. My chest rumbled involuntarily, and Bella squeezed my hand. Strangely, I was the wild card in this hand, and I had to keep it together...a difficult thing to do when my mate was being threatened.

Victoria followed close behind James, tossing her hair defiantly, her lip curled in a sneer. Laurent, on the other hand, looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here, his eyes flitting to Bella's and then dropping to where her hand was linked with mine.

Damn, I'm too late. His thoughts betrayed his sick and superficial desire to win her over. James wasn't the only one of the trio who was delusional, and I hid a shudder at the perversity of their thoughts.

"Aren't you going to say hello, Bella?" James continued, ignoring me. "If not to me, then surely you owe your mate...your creator...a salutation?"

I tensed, but let Bella answer for herself.

"Laurent is not my mate." She raised her chin, stepping closer to my side. Pride at having this beautiful women on my arm welled within me. "If he was, he wouldn't have stood by while you beat me, and he wouldn't have been able to stay away all this time. He only came back because you made him. Not that I expect a lowlife like you to understand how a mate is supposed to be treated. You can't even remain faithful to yours."

Victoria hissed, Bella's words hitting painfully close to the mark. I could have almost felt sorry for her, except for the fact that she took great pleasure in causing fear and suffering in her victims and was anticipating Bella's brutal rape and torture at her mate's hands with relish.

Laurent's thoughts, which fortunately were an open book as he replayed recent events and outlined his expectations, were almost as deviant as those of the other two. He fully intended to stand and watch while James forced Bella, hoping to pick up the pieces—literally—of her brutalized and dismembered body once her punishment was over. Laurent actually hoped that Bella would be so broken by what James planned to do to her, she'd turn to him afterward. He planned to woo her with pseudo-kindness and the threat of James' ongoing punishments.

Any doubts I'd had about whether Laurent should be allowed to live vanished. The vermin was complicit in James' intention to harm Bella, and for that he would die.

"Aren't you going to introduce me to your young friend?" James smiled slyly, ignoring Bella's comments.

"I'm Edward, Bella's mate," I ground out between clenched teeth. "And you are going to pay for what you did to her."

"Pay?" James barked a laugh. "You should be thanking me...or more correctly, thanking Laurent. If I'd had my way, she would have been supper...well, a late night snack, actually."

I growled, preparing to lunge as my limit of endurance was reached, but Bella tugged me back.

"Not yet," she hissed.

"What is it about you, Bella?" James slithered closer, seemingly dismissive of my presence...an underestimation on his part for which he would pay dearly. "I admit you were greatly improved by the change, and I am looking forward to having you...repeatedly...and none too gently, before I hand you over to Laurent. But to have found anotherchampion so quickly? It puzzles me. I really don't understand the allure."

"Of course you don't." Bella shrugged. "You're a soulless psychopath who doesn't care about anyone but yourself."

James echoed her shrug. "You obviously don't care for the boy very much since you must know I won't allow him to live. Or has he come to join my coven? He'll have to be satisfied with leftovers...that's if he still wants you after we're done."

It took everything within me not to launch myself at the bastard for both his words and the images filling his sick mind...that and Bella's shield operating to assist me. I could feel it's calming influence bolstering my self control though nothing could prevent the tremors of rage that shook my body.

"Stupid Jerk," Bella muttered, stroking my hand. "Edward came with me because he cares about me, not because he wants anything to do with your scummy little band."

"Then you'll get to watch him die, or I might wait to kill him. Watching me have my way with you is an experience he really shouldn't miss."

Victoria wrapped herself sinuously around James' body, murmuring quietly in his ear. She offered to have her way with my partially dismembered body while Bella watched on.

James laughed, an evil sound, not at all offended by his supposed mates suggestion, and my mind boggled at the depth of their depravity.

"Take no notice," Bella murmured, stunning me with her courage and control.

Mine was slipping.

Growling quietly but continuously, I knew I couldn't take much more of the vicious images flooding the perverted trio's minds. If it wasn't for the influence of Bella's talent and her firm hold on my arm, I would have attacked. We were biding time. I knew that...but it was torture.

Sensing I was close to losing it, Bella shot me a smirk. "Let me," she whispered.

"I'm not a terrified little newborn anymore, James. Neither am I alone. Plus I've still got my newborn strength," she taunted him. "Or are you forgetting what I did to you last time you tried to force me to do your bidding?"

"Of course I haven't forgotten," James shouted, stalking closer, his control finally slipping. "I scoured the oceans in agony searching for my leg, you bitch!"

In that moment I caught a most satisfying glimpse of just how agonizing the previous weeks had been for James, and an even more satisfying revelation from Victoria. She didn't know as much about us as we'd assumed, having only picked up Bella's and my scent—from a post hunt mating session, which galled—when she'd ventured close to Forks before being chased off by the wolves. They thought Bella and I were alone.

"Enough!" I roared, hearing the thoughts of my approaching family members and their canine companions. Shoving Bella behind me, an action I was sure to pay for later, I rushed James, easily countering his moves and sending us both crashing to the concrete floor. The fool had convinced himself that all he needed to defeat Bella's newborn strength was to be forewarned—his confidence in his superiority and fighting ability absolute. Me he'd discounted on sight, a significant miscalculation on his part.

Motivated by murderous intent, I put everything I had into incapacitating James as quickly as possible. Following the rest of the fight through the eyes and thoughts of the dozen participants, I watched my family, Sam, and Jared joined the melee. To say that James and his cohort were shocked by the sudden onslaught was a comical understatement...not that I was in the mood for laughter. I'd have preferred Bella stay out of harm's way, but of course, she was at my side in an instant. James was strong and experienced, landing a few quick blows that sent me reeling, but he was no match for Bella and I working as a team...or the other members of my family determined to help...or the enormous wolf snapping at his heels.

Laurent's and Victoria's destruction came with surprising ease, making me wonder why every attempt at rescuing Bella we'd foreseen had ended badly. Whether it was the wolves' involvement—they were fierce fighters, I'd give them that—the element of surprise, or just that Bella was now fighting as one of us rather than being a terrified, traumatized victim caught in the crossfire...we had the upper hand and used it mercilessly.

Rose targeted Laurent with all her latent fury, and he didn't stand a chance.

"This is for what you did to Bella, an innocent human," she hissed in his ear, pinning his arms behind him while Emmett tore off his legs. After ripping off his arms, she tossed the rest of him aside, letting Jared finish him off. The wolf took great delight in tearing the screaming vampire apart with his teeth.

It wasn't a pleasant sound...the screaming or the screeching, metallic sound of vampire flesh and limbs being torn asunder.

Victoria almost got away, but every talent has its limits, and hers was overwhelmed by sheer numbers and determination. It took Carlisle, Esme, and Sam to corner her and Jasper, using his talent at full strength in an attempt to subdue her, to begin to get the upper hand. But it was Alice that took her down. Predicting the wily female's moves, she threaded her way through thrashing limbs and snarling jaws and almost nonchalantly ripped Victoria's head from her shoulders. The others took care of her dismemberment, depositing the squirming, writhing limbs and body parts in the separate bags we'd brought for this purpose. A purple smoke-spewing fire in the middle of the city would have drawn too much attention, and we'd already determined to burn the remains outside the city.

While registering everything that was going on around us, my focus was on our own battle with James...or more importantly, my mate. If she got so much as a scratch on her, I fully intended to reassemble James' body and then dismember him again for sport.

"Do you want the honors?" I offered Bella the option to decapitate James herself when the time came. Missing both arms at the shoulder and both legs from mid-thigh, he continued to spew invectives. But Bella's tormentor was surrounded, defeated, and soon to die.

The look of a vampire in full and ferocious rage blazed in my beloved's eyes, and I wouldn't have blamed her for choosing to end James' life herself. But I wasn't surprised when the fire dimmed, the light of reason and her precious humanity returning to her expression.

"You do it, or let one of the others if you prefer." She shrugged and averted her gaze, standing and walking away from where she'd been helping me to hold James' still struggling torso.

I signaled to Emmett and Jasper who quickly took my place and dispatched James with ruthless efficiency. Spending whatever time it took for us to reach the destination of our intended bonfire would have to be punishment enough for my vanquished foe—dismembered but still aware, in agony and instinctively attempting to reassemble despite the fact that his body parts had been deliberately placed in separate bags—as I put my original plan to torture him aside. I'd wanted to hold his head aloft so that he could watch his own body burn...which could still happen though I imagined Carlisle would intervene. I no longer cared. The desire for retribution waned at the sight of Bella standing with her arms wrapped around her middle, her shoulders shaking. All I wanted to do was comfort her.

"Hey, it's okay," I murmured, gathering her close and rocking her in my arms while she sobbed. "It's over...you're safe...we're all safe."

"I know." She nodded against my chest. "I'm just so relieved." Leaning back, her eyes widened in panic and she began to run her hands over my chest and down my arms. "You're not hurt, are you? He hit you so hard and kept trying to bite you."

"I'm fine, I'm fine," I assured her as the family gathered around us. "See? We're all fine. Everyone's safe, and the threat is over."

Bella sagged against me as our family offered their own assurances.

"Thank you...all of you." She included the wolves who nodded their huge heads in response. While recognizing that we weren't the enemy, they felt more comfortable remaining in wolf form and would do so until our task was completed and we all met back at the house to debrief.

"Let's get out of here," Jasper directed, and we all murmured our agreement. Bella and I were the only ones not encumbered with a wriggling bag of dismembered vampire body parts, and it was clear from my family's thoughts that they'd not be able to relax fully until after the coming bonfire.

Shrouded in darkness, we silently escaped the city and crossed the sound, the dawn still some hours away. It was only when we were approaching the remote area of forest, where we'd previously decided to complete our grisly task, that Bella spoke.

"Edward," she murmured, drawing me to a halt.

"What is it, love?" I smoothed her furrowed brow.

"Do you think anyone would mind if we didn't stay to watch the...the...cremation?"

"Of course not." I leaned down to kiss her softly, wanting nothing more than to reconnect with my beloved far away from the remembered sights and sounds of violence and the coming smell of death. "Do you want to go back to the house, or shall we go straight to the res so you can see your parents?"

"Neither," she surprised me by saying, her hands reaching to frame my face. "Take me to our meadow, Edward," she whispered. "Take me to our meadow and ask me to marry you."

Alice's squeal carried though the night, but I paid no notice.

"Are you sure?" I whispered, shaking my head.

"I'm sure." She smiled, but I couldn't mirror it, concerned she might be reacting to the stress and fear that had overtaken our lives.

"There's no hurry," I insisted. "We've got all the time in the world, and I don't mind waiting...honestly. I don't want you to feel pressured or be reacting to the strain of everything that's happened or..."

Bella silenced me with a kiss, a passionate kiss. It was very effective in accomplishing her purpose as when her lips captured mine, drawing me in, seducing, unraveling, my only thought was...Bella. Moaning, I opened my mouth beneath the exquisite onslaught of her lips. Welcoming her tongue as it stroked inside my mouth, I was overwhelmed by her velvet touch and wondrous taste. With her lithe, curvaceous body melting into me, my mind was as close to blank as it was possible to be by the time she broke the kiss.

"I'm ready," she repeated, gazing intently into my eyes, mesmerizing me further. "I love you. You're my best friend, my lover, my mate, and my future. I want you to be my husband, too."

"What about your parents?" I heard myself ask, wanting to kick myself for the inanity of the question. Why was I trying to discourage her from doing the very thing I wanted most in the world?

Bella surprised me...again...by shrugging. "They've practically agreed to a birthday wedding." Her smile was shy and beguiling. "And it will give Alice time to prepare something suitably over-the-top."

"You'll love it. I promise!" Alice's voice was faint as the family had gone on ahead, giving us a semblance of privacy.

For a long moment, all I could do was stare at Bella with my mouth agape. Images of her walking toward me, dressed in white, filled my mind to overflowing. I saw her committing her life to me before both our families and the God I now thanked every single day for her existence,

"Edward?" Bella's worried tone snapped me out of my reverie. "It is still what you want, isn't it? To marry me?"

"Yes!" I shouted and then lowered my tone. "Yes. I love you, and I can think of nothing I want more than to have you as my wife."

"Well that's a relief." Her shoulders sagged, but then she began chewing worriedly on her lower lip. "Just promise me one thing?" she asked, and I would have happily agreed to anything she asked...anything at all.

"Just don't go getting all Edwardian on me? I'll agree to us not sleeping together the night before the wedding, but that's it. Deal?"

"Deal," I breathed against her lips, sealing my promise with a kiss. She needn't have worried. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it to our meadow before I made love to her, let alone waiting until her birthday a few months away.

"You do realize you've gone and stolen my thunder," I groused teasingly when we finally drew apart. "Do you even want a proposal or shall we just take it as read?"

Growling, Bella leaped into my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and framing my face with her hands. "Don't you dare welch on me, Edward Anthony Cullen. I've been anticipating your proposal ever since we first went to the meadow, and I won't be denied."

"Not in that or anything else," I promised, imbuing my kiss with all the love, longing and desire I felt...and would always feel...for this most astonishing of girls.

~HIS~

Well...there you have it. Okay? I'm not much of a fight writer, but I try.

I can't believe it, but there's only one chapter of Hunted in Seattle left. Nice and long but still, only one. Sigh...

See you Thursday.

xxx TLSue