AN: See note at bottom of chapter for exciting info.

Standard disclaimers apply. Author owns nothing but the idea for this story. Mature content. Character Death ahead.

Chapter 36

Alice POV

I knew before I told him 'go' that Charlie wouldn't leave me, but I just had to try. Seeing him emotionally hurt like that was intensely painful… I felt like I was killing a part of myself to push him away; but seeing him ripped apart and being powerless to help him… that was beyond unbearable.

I found that if I didn't force myself to focus elsewhere, my mates pain played on a loop in my mind. Thoughts of Charlie and his agony plagued me.

I shook myself internally and focused my thoughts instead on the present situation.

I knew that recent events were meant to teach me to be less… cocky… but I was finding it very difficult to not laugh in James' pathetic face.

Charlie had nearly decapitated James; my mate, an untrained newborn had been so beautifully fierce. If it hadn't been for Victoria's interference, Charlie would have had the sadistic fucker in pieces. Instead… he was torn to…

No. Stop, Alice.

I could not keep thinking about that. I refused to focus on what happened to my mate right before James had grabbed me and run away. Once Bella showed up to save Charlie, he had vanished from my sight due to her shield. If it wasn't for my vision of what was soon to come, I'd be much more worried about my mate. As it was, I was relieved beyond measure to know that the other half of my soul was safe and with people who would help him heal in my absence. True, it grated to not be the one to personally see to my mate's wounds… but I took great comfort in knowing someone I trusted was tending to him.

Being away from under Bella's shield was not nearly as wonderful as I'd hoped. While I did see a few visions of Charlie and I and our future that had me excited, I also saw each time James planned to torture me either physically or with tidbits about my past. He had yet to actually say much, and had not touched me since he'd flung me to the ground when they stopped running, but he'd decided a great deal. He was waiting to try and figure out the perfect way to torture me… and his ego and sadistic nature were actually working in my favor.

I had gathered a great deal of previously unknown information about myself from each of his decisions. I learned that James had known of me when I was still a human. He had been hunting near an insane asylum outside of Biloxi, Mississippi when he'd smelled me. I was his singer. He was a tracker. He started to hunt me, but hadn't accounted for the vampire orderly that worked in the asylum that had befriended me… the man who would ultimately become my maker. When he learned of James' plans, he started my change and hid me away. James killed my maker in a fury and had always lamented… my loss.

Before James could begin his poorly planned bullshit game of cat and mouse (always a foolish game to play with one who has the ability to see the future based on decisions) his mate had to make absolutely sure his miniscule wounds were healed. She'd fussed over him and licked his wounds and I hated her for each swipe of her stupid tongue.

She'd ripped my mate limb from limb. Literally. And I'd been unable to help him. I had to watch as my Charlie wept.

I owe her.

Meanwhile, she nursed a fucking scratch on her mate's neck like it was a case of the goddamn man-flu.

In her near manic efforts to heal him, she'd run off somewhere and found a poor human; a camper or backpacker who'd been in the woods somewhere for a while, by the smell of the poor man (he smelled… quite odiferous). James huffed no small amount about the smell before he begrudgingly ate the man. After James had drained him, they'd raided his pockets and taken his money. They threw his wallet to the forest floor. I couldn't help but notice his name.

Drew Pine.

I knew I should feel more… something… for the needless loss of human life, but I was unable to summon the proper sympathy for the dead.

I had to close my eyes. I couldn't continue to look at the body. It would not close its eyes; could not close its eyes.

I struggled not to slip back into the mate guilt spiral. All too soon, I had a brief vision that almost made me smile, but I quickly schooled my features.

Not much longer.

I knew I wasn't in a good situation. I knew running would end badly for me. I knew I needed to be careful. The assholes that took me were extremely volatile.

I also knew that my captors were falling apart.

James was still grousing about his stupid neck and Victoria was still fussing over him. She wanted to leave. She kept planning to leave. She'd planned over five hundred escapes already.

At least my time with the three stooges had not been boring. In addition to my many visions, I had at least been gifted with amazing entertainment.

To my utter delight, I wasn't the only unwilling captive in the group; when James grabbed me to flee from my approaching family, Laurent grabbed Edward. Edward had, of course, freaked out and bit Laurent. That went over like a lead balloon. Edward was subdued and carried away as easily as I was.

But, Edward finally, literally, bit off more than he could chew and was paying for it dearly.

Laurent had spent the time since we'd stopped in the best way… he'd been beating the ever loving shit out of Edward. I was actually jealous of him for being able to do that. I sent Edward every nasty thought I had and made no effort to hide any of my visions from him.

He knew what was coming. He kept trying to stop Laurent from the incessant beating, but each time Edward tried to talk, Laurent punched him again, continually re-breaking his jaw. It hadn't had time to recover. He couldn't speak.

I kind of fucking loved the irony of that.

Victoria's spoke, interrupting my delight at the Laurent and Eddie show… her high pitched voice was grating on what was left of my last damn nerve. "James, we need to go. It's not safe. She's not worth it." When her mate growled, she corrected. "Look, you know you can always find her again. We can make a game of it. You know how you love our games, Baby. We can even play 'catch and release and catch again' if you want, but, we really need to go."

Laurent stopped mid punch and looked at James with concern. "It is unusual for you to not heed Victoria's advice." He looked around uneasily.

Now you're catching on, smart guy.

I couldn't help my taunting thoughts and didn't want to. Edward tried again to speak but his face had Laurent-fist-shaped dents all over it and his words were mushy. I knew he was trying to tell them what I already knew.

I looked at Edward and gave him a cocky smirk.

He shuddered and tried to stand. Laurent punched him without even looking his way and knocked Ed right back to the ground.

"I… will check the perimeter," Laurent offered. I knew he planned to run away. He was scared.

"Laurent," I batted my eyelashes at him as he turned to look my way. "Try not to lose your head out there, okay?"

He shuddered and ran into the trees.

James looked at me and growled. He planned to punish me for my impertinence. I looked at him and grinned. He had been ultimately responsible for my human death.

We were about to come full circle.

He was the only one of us that hadn't figured it out yet.

Charlie POV

Our strategy meeting had been pretty successful. We had the bare bones of a plan. I had been given a few tips on quicker beheading and a few other vampire battle basics.

And… I thought I had done a pretty good job of blocking out the… not-so-quiet antics of my daughter and her mate.

They'd… kind of settled down now.

And I had waited long enough.

"Peter," I looked at the older vampire and had zero hesitation ordering his ass around… especially since I sure as fuck wasn't going to go out there… "Go get Jasper and Bella. They've had their time. We need to go."

Peter made to object when my growl stopped him. He shook his head and pulled his hat lower.

"Shit. Teach a motherfucker how to properly behead someone and suddenly he thinks he's Charles in Charge or some shit…" As usual, he mumbled quietly knowing full well we could hear him. He continued to grouse as he walked away. I knew he was doing as I asked, but I couldn't help the growl of irritation at him as he walked to do as I'd asked.

It didn't help when Emmett started to sing the Charles in Charge theme song.

I was near my snapping point.

I heard the growls and protests of my daughter and her mate outside, as well as a frustrated groan from Peter.

I shuddered…

I understood more than I wanted to about what was going on out there. It was a special, actually magical feeling connection they had completed out there.

I understood… logically. A tiny part of me felt bad for… the interruption. But… the other half of my own magic was missing… and I needed my own mate back.

They could get back to that later. After we'd saved my Alice and had killed the pieces of shit responsible for taking her.

I just hoped Carlisle and Esme truly understood that their 'son's' life was forfeit.

It took less time than I thought it would for Peter to come back. He looked… pissed. He smelled… off.

"Fuck you, Chief," he groused.

Emmett laughed. "What'd ya see, Giggles?"

"Fuck off, asshole. It's fuckin' Professor Chuckles to you, Shit Stain. It's not what I saw… It's what I felt. Fucker wasn't happy to be interrupted. Made sure I fuckin' knew it, too."

That's when I realized what I smelled.

The front of Peter's pants were… soiled.

We all seemed to notice the jizz stain front and center on Peter's pants at the same time and the room erupted in laughter. He ran to his room and quickly changed, muttering the whole way. He returned as our laughter died down, still muttering and being pissy.

"Fuck you, every goddamn one of ya," he pouted. "You too, Charlotte. Fucking traitor." He crossed his arms and continued to mumble under his breath, "Buncha assholes, laughing at my plight. Ingrates. Every goddamn one of 'em. Fucking see how their asses handle a blast like that."

Bella and Jasper entered holding hands and both looking thoroughly disheveled and more at ease than I'd ever seen either of them.

"What's wrong, Mr. Giggles, need a plumber? Got a drainage pipe leaking dong water on your Levis?" Jasper laughed.

That caused another round of laughter… and while it was funny, I had waited long enough.

"Okay. Fun's over. Alice is out there with those fuckers. Jasper, you're with me. I understand the range of your gift sometimes is a bit further than our senses?" He nodded, so I continued. "Good. You and I will follow the scent trail and you'll help me pinpoint them with your gift at a distance. Once we've verified their location, you and Bella will split off with Rosalie and Emmett. You'll go around and come in behind them. We'll all go in head on, same time. We surround them. Catch any runners. No survivors." I growled. "James is mine."

A few more clarifications about who was running with who and quick detail clarifications (that were frankly repeats and pissing me off with the delay they caused) and we finally fucking left.

The run back to the place I'd been dismembered was shorter than I thought it would be. I smelled my mate and stifled a sob. Her finger wriggled in my pocket and I vowed that I would soon put it back on her dainty hand.

It was too easy to follow their scent trail. Every so often, a tiny bit of James' venom was splattered hither and yon, telling me I'd injured him more than I initially thought. Soon, Jasper signaled that we were getting close and without word, the other four split off and ran to circumvent our prey. We were going to surround them so they had no chance to escape.

So… imagine our surprise when one of them came to us. Laurent ran into the trees, his head turned back as if to look for pursuers when he ran almost right into Esme. The kind matriarch's face morphed and she looked the vampiress she was. She swept the larger vampire's legs and landed atop him in one fell swoop. He didn't even have time to utter his surprised cry before her mate had decapitated him.

I smiled.

One down.

Esme jumped up from the body and her mate handed her the head. Peter and Char made quick work of dismantling the rest of the body and holding on to the pieces. They actually looked like they were having fun… even stopping mid-rip to give each other a light peck on the lips.

We moved forward and were closing in on their makeshift camp when Esme surprised us all and threw the decapitated head straight at Edward's kneeling form. He looked like he was trying to stand when the head hit him in the face and the dreadlocks wrapped around the back of his head, knocking him flat on his back.

One and a half down.

My eyes left Deadward and I immediately found my mate. Her captors were caught unaware, but she was not. My mate smiled sweetly at me as we entered the small clearing at the same time as the others of our party, from the opposite direction. Victoria looked like she wanted to flee and James looked angry as fuck and ready to fight.

I didn't know why the fuck the asshole thought he had any right to fight me for my mate, but I was pretty fucking certain he wouldn't like the outcome quite so much this time.

"Was the last ass kicking i gave you not thorough enough?" he sneered at me and growled in derision before he tried to meet me head on.

This time, I was more than ready for him.

Peter's beheading tutorial had been very informative and I was literally itching to put it to the test. This time, instead of leading with my hands, my hands and mouth met his neck simultaneously. I bit his neck where it met his shoulder and ripped it from his body. His venom coated my hands and splashed all over my face and the shrieking of his mate at his demise was a fucking symphony to my ears.

It felt fucking glorious.

The rest of his torso was easy enough to dismember in short order.

Two and a half down.

When I looked up, my mate was also soaked in venom. Victoria's venom.

Only… Victoria was still mobile. But, only just.

Alice looked… feral. She looked completely and utterly enchanting in her fury. In one hand, she held the redhead's right arm; in the other hand, she had a fistful of red curls that she dropped dismissively. Victoria stood lopsided in the center of a circle of her enemies… our family had closed in around her and were allowing Alice to… do her beautifully demented work. One of Victoria's feet lie near Emmett, so it looked like ol' Red wasn't doing so great.

My mate, on the other hand, looked whole and healthy and majestically lethal.

I had to adjust myself in my pants.

"You dumb fucking cunt." Alice jeered.

I was under her spell. Seeing her again… whole… mobile… I wanted to run to her and gather her into my arms. Watching her though… she owned me all over again on an entirely new level. Her eyes were alight with the fire of her emotions and her movements were precise yet playful. Each hit causing another bit of damage to her opponent. I could do nothing but admire her as she eloquently dismantled her less skilled foe.

"You know, I thought of many, many ways to kill you." Another swipe. This time, my mate came away with another arm. She tossed the pieces to Rosalie. "So many options." Alice trilled. "I… had the hardest time deciding." Another swipe. More hair. She dropped it into the wind. Victoria was whimpering and growling and looking towards the pieces of her mate. And me.

Alice growled again. "Like fuck you'll ever get your hands on my mate again." And with that, my mate ripped Victoria's head from her shoulders.

Three and a half down.

I waited a fraction of a second after she finished tearing the larger woman apart before I rushed to my mate and gathered her in my arms. I wanted to inspect her, but first, I needed to hold her, feel her. She seemed to feel the same. We breathed each other in for a moment before she wiggled out of my arms and started fussing over me. She ripped my shirt from my body and inspected my new, still sore wounds and kissed each shoulder. I ran my hands over her face, now marred by scars but somehow more beautiful to me because of those scars. She kissed the palms of my hands and sniffed. I smiled and reached into the pocket of my jeans and grabbed the last piece she needed…

I licked the finger in my pocket and placed it in the correct place on her outstretched hand. She winced for a moment and then flexed her fingers and smiled up at me. She grasped my hand in her own and we turned around together.

And then there was… the halfpire.

After Esme had incapacitated Headward, Peter had rushed over to his prone form and promptly… sat on him. He sat there smiling for the whole… fight… if it could even be called that... with Edward trying in vain to get up.

Once the three nomads were dismembered, Char and Rosalie happily started a fire and started to toss the pieces of the vampires into it. Purple, sweet smoke began to rise into the air and without word, the rest of us formed a circle around Peter and Edward. Once we surrounded them, Peter put his hand on Edwards head and pushed it into the dirt as he got off him.

Peter lazily strolled over to his mate and smacked her smartly on the ass when she bent over to poke at the vampire-fire with a stick. She swatted at him playfully and the two leaned against each other and looked at us, as if waiting for a show.

I guess, we all were, in a way.

Edward slowly made his way up and looked around. He seemed to deflate when he found zero friendly faces. He rubbed his healing jaw. His mouth opened and closed several times before Bella finally had enough and spoke to him.

"You know, you really, really fucked up big time when you fucked with the Swans, you know that, Edwin?" Bella laughed.

Edward looked over at me and shrugged dismissively. His jaw was obviously broken. His voice was… not quite right when he spoke. "Ithabella, you are perbectly aware that my name is Eward. Blease address me ath thuch. Your fadder is fine. I thee no reas…"

Bella rolled her eyes and interrupted the pompous ass. "I wasn't talking about my dad, fuckface. I was talking about Alice." Both my mate and I gasped in surprise at my daughter's words, but she continued on, getting angrier with each word. "Fun fact, Swans mate for life. And… well… Charlie Swan just so happens to be mated to Alice. That makes her a Swan by my calculation." I beamed at my daughter as she grew more glorious in her fury. "So… that means Charlie and Alice are kind of like a buy-one-get-one deal. A BOGO, if you will." My mate was bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Funny thing is… Charlie and Bella are also a BOGO deal." Bella winced playfully. "Gee, Eddie, this is looking worse for you by the second… because the Bella that comes with the Charlie? Yeah? She's Bella Whitlock. That means, via a great vampire BOGO, you fuck with Alice Swan, you've fucked with one Bella Whitlock. Yikes. Do you even know what comes with a Bella Whitlock, you twat nugget?"

At that, Bella simply looked at her mate. I didn't know when the change had taken place, but in the place of Jasper stood the fucking God of War.

And he was fucking chuckling.

I'd never known a laugh to sound so fucking scary in my whole fucking life.

Bella smiled at her mate sweetly before she looked back at Edward and clicked her tongue. "I am still a newborn and all… and so… my vampire math sucks… but… you look like the kind of dick yank who loves to talk about how fucking smart he is. So, smart guy, be a pal and help a dumb bitch figure it out. You've really racked up the vampire vendettas. Our only issue now, is figuring out which one of us is gonna get to you first." She looked at her mate again and narrowed her eyes. "Though… if some of us are smart, we'll remember that others have already called dibs on certain bits and respect said dibs." She scrunched up her nose and put her hands on her hips as she finished.

I couldn't help the bark of laughter that escaped and I shrunk back as I looked at the God of War, who simply smirked at me and nodded before he chuckled.

Bella bit her lip and scrunched her brow; a sure sign she was deep in thought. Her mate looked at her and waited, a scary as fuck smile plastered on his scarred face. When she finally figured out how to articulate whatever she'd been thinking about, Bella's eyes focused and she looked at her mate.

"Can you make people feel anything? Like… any combination of things or any intensity? Shit like that?" When he nodded in the affirmative, Bella smiled and continued. "Nice. Do you remember how scared I was? Before the shower?" He growled and his face distorted in a way that made my asshole pucker up. "I want him to feel that." The God of War gathered my daughter gently in his arms and he glared at Edward, who's face soon crumpled before he curled into a fetal position on the forest floor and began to sob in sheer terror.

I very much enjoyed watching him cry. I did not enjoy knowing my daughter had felt that way; knowing she'd felt that way because off him made his pain that much sweeter to me.

Soon, my Bells spoke again. "Do you remember how Dad felt when we found him?" she paused and took in a shaky breath, "When we found him torn apart and his mate taken from him?" At his nod, she smiled a shaky smile. "Please, pretty please, would you please let Edmund feel that?"

I shuddered and my mate wrapped her arms around me. I held her close and kept telling myself that I had her and she was in my arms… but it was still… too fucking fresh in my mind.

This time, Edward screamed. His one hand tore at his chest and he screamed as if he were on fire. His face was an agonized mask and soon seeing the physical representation of what I'd felt on the inside was too much and I was about to beg The God of War to stop when suddenly, he did.

Edward's form sagged to the ground and Bella looked disappointed, until she followed her mate's gaze to me. She nodded in understanding and kissed his chest, humming in appreciation.

"How about how he made his family feel? Can you make him feel that? How they feel knowing one of their own did this?" At that, Edward shook his head and I could tell that this was what he feared worst of all. The God of War simply nodded and again, Edward was soon clawing at the dirt, drawing increasingly ragged breaths and begging for him to stop.

As much fun as it was watching him squirm, each moment he was alive was another moment he might squirm his way out of something and live. I couldn't have that.

I said no survivors. I meant no survivors.

I looked at Carlisle and Esme. "Do you have anything to say to your son before he dies?"

Carlisle gathered his mate in his arms and looked down his nose at the vampire crying in the dirt. "Our sons are not dying today." Edward took in a shaky breath and looked hopeful. Carlisle looked at Edward and shook his head. "Our children stand up for their family. Our children do not breed mistrust and lies or plant seeds of animosity. Our sons, Emmett and Jasper, will walk away from here today unscathed."

With that, he and Esme turned and walked over to Peter and Char by the fire.

The God of War sauntered up to Edward and bent down and grabbed his right knee with both hands and swiftly twisted the leg off. He ignored his victim's screams as he roughly repositioned him and tore away his remaining whole arm.

Parts in hand, he turned and presented them to my daughter as if he was presenting a gift. And Bella lit up like a goddamn kid at Christmas. She squealed and grabbed the pieces, swiftly kissing her mate's cheek in thanks.

The God of War smiled and I was proud that I didn't shudder that time. I saw Emmett shudder.

The God of War turned to my mate and I and with a quirk of his eyebrow, he gestured to Edward in a 'have at it' kind of way.

Part of me had wanted more of a challenge, but it wasn't exactly like the fucker was whole before the God of War got ahold of him anyway.

I was lucky to get a chance to tear this much of him up.

But…

Ladies First.

I looked at Alice and she smiled sweetly and kissed my cheek. And then walked over to Edward…

...and punched his head clean off of his shoulders.

She walked demurely back over to me and used her dainty hand to close my gaping mouth. "Charlie, would you be a dear and throw that on the fire for me?" I smiled like an idiot loon at my mate and was happy to gather up the bits that my daughter wasn't working over studiously with her mate.

It was over. He was gone. Finally. Once all of the non-Bella-claimed bits were in the fire, we all watched them burn until they weren't even smoke any more.

AN: Sorry it has taken so long to update. *Insert random excuses here*

I DO have something to offer though... MrsAlderaan & I have been working on a bit of a project. We have created a website where we can post all of our stories, even those of the non-fanfic variety. If you are interested, go to www DOT fictionated DOT com (Remove DOT and spaces and insert .) The site is still new-ish... so... be patient. We are not website builders by any stretch of the imagination. But... we DO both have quite a bit of our works posted there.

A few notes - Membership is required and we have to approve each member manually (please be patient); the site is a work in progress, so things are still clunkier than we'd like (Wordpress is harder than we thought); we are open to tips and tricks to make our site run & look better, but we are limited in skills & time (read - we won't follow every suggestion, nor will we have the know-how to do so).

That being said, I will ALWAYS have an extra chapter posted there. I have chapter 37 posted right now. I also have a cover image for the story as well as "POV Pics" for each character. (I made my own Peter, Char & Garrett) Will make sure to post the link in my ffn profile, too. Hope to see some of you there!