Chapter 36

Edward's P.O.V.

We were running through the woods towards Toni's location after Alice received a startling and shockingly scary vision regarding Toni and three nomadic vampires. It started out with Toni sitting on a rock in the forest and ended with Toni getting drained by two of the three vampires. I was scared for Toni's life and I knew that if I didn't get there in time, I would lose her. After the Port Angeles incident, I told myself that no matter how much the bestial side of me wanted Bella, I would focus on winning Toni.

She was my mate and the way I had been treating her was not acceptable. She was supposed to be my forever, yet I treated her as if she was just a summer fling. I knew I was hurting her, what with my switching back and forth between her and her sister; Jasper reminded me every time he felt the emotion emit from her. It hurt me every time I hurt her, but I feared what she would think of me and our situation. Of course, she was almost completely okay with it, but at the time, I wasn't sure how she would feel. I was a vampire and she was a human; I would live for millenniums if I wasn't burned and she would die within decades; I was almost indestructible while she was very fragile. We were complete opposites, regarding species, and it seemed like our relationship would never work out. I knew that I could turn her and condemn her to this damned life, but I wasn't sure if she wanted to be one of us.

We heard the nomadic vampires before we saw them. They were taunting Toni and were laughing as she begged for her life. My fists clenched and I almost let out a growl. I refrained, though, because I didn't want them to know we were coming. I looked through Toni's mind and saw that she was thinking of her family, my family, and me. She thought she was going to die, so she wanted to see something beautiful before she did. Though I was saddened by her thoughts, I was even more determined to reach her in time.

I saw through one of the vampire's minds, Victoria was her name, that she and her mate, James, were about to sink their teeth into Toni's throat. I ran faster than I ever had and yelled out as I finally reached them.

"No!" I yelled. I saw one of the vampires slink away and surprise flicker throughout the two who had ahold of Toni before I pushed them away from my mate. I crouched defensively in front of Toni and bared my teeth in warning. I was snarling loudly; so loud that I almost didn't hear the rest of my family approach. James and Victoria were crouched in a defensive position, as well, but they were not in a position to try to fight. My siblings rushed to my side, causing Victoria to grow cautious. James was not cautious at all. In fact, his thoughts were focused only on getting to Toni. He seemed frustrated and a bit worried, but not about us. He seemed worried about ruining a plan and about someone else, someone who wasn't present with them, yet was part of their group. The face that popped in and out of James' head seemed familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had seen it before.

"So, we meet again, sister," Cecilia said snarkily.

"So it seems," Victoria cautiously replied.

We stood there sizing each other up, waiting for Carlisle to give the signal. In these types of situations, Carlisle was always the one to decide whether we should fight. All of us knew how he felt about killing another of our kind, but we also knew that he knew sometimes it was the only way.

"We have to do it, Carlisle," I said quietly so Toni wouldn't hear. I didn't want to freak her out more than necessary as I knew she was already shaken up.

"Edward's right. He's not going to give in," Jasper said with a snarl to his voice.

Carlisle sighed before he said, "Do what you must."

We shot after them as they tried to escape our clutches. The woman, Victoria, was very fast and we had a hard time keeping up with her. James, however, was not as fast as his female counterpart and I quickly caught up to him. I grabbed him and threw him into a tree, causing the tree to break. He got back up and snarled as I stalked towards him. I was going to rip him to pieces and show no mercy.

Every vampire in the world knew that harming another vampire's mate was unacceptable. We had laws regarding mates as they were one of the most valued things in our world. No vampire was allowed to harm another vampire's mate unless they wanted to be burned. The law was put in place after Marcus lost Didyme during the war with the Children of the Moon. After Didyme was killed, Marcus had tried to expose himself to the humans as a means to die, but Aro and Caius wouldn't allow it. They didn't want any vampires doing anything irrational due to the loss of their mate, so they put in the law to try to diminish the chances of a mate dying. The only way you could die from harming a mate is if you plotted against one to purposely hurt a vampire.

Jasper and Emmett took up the positions beside me, while Alice, Rosalie, and Cecilia ran after the woman. James looked at each of us in our eyes before he started laughing. Jasper and Emmett were confused as to why he was laughing, but I knew why from his thoughts. He knew he was going to die and he thought we weren't going to succeed in stopping them from the plan they plotted against Toni.

"You won't stop him; you can't," James said. "Nothing will stop him from getting her."

I growled, hissed, and snarled all at once. I had had enough with him and his thoughts. I grabbed his head in my heads and started squeezing. Cracks started to form on his face and I took satisfaction in the fear that was shown on his face. I smirked as the cracks grew in size before my own eyes. James started clawing at me and scratched my face a few times before Jasper and Emmett took ahold of his arms and ripped them off. He screamed in agony, but I ignored it as Ii focused on ridding him from the earth. I felt his head caving in and knew that I was almost done.

"Have fun in Hell," I said to him as his head gave out and shattered. His body dropped to the ground as it was no longer held up by anything. Jasper and Emmett finished tearing him apart and when they were done, I took a lighter out of my pocket and set him on fire. I tried to find peace as I watched the flames lick at his skin, but I couldn't. I knew that it wasn't over yet and I dreaded what was to come next.

A.N.

It's been awhile, but I am back with an update. I hope you guys like it!