Hello there! Here it is! The chapter you've all been waiting for...and will be sorely disappointed in! Honestly, I think this was the hardest chapter I have ever written, for ANYTHING. But meh, that's the breaks, kis.

Please Enjoy!

Foregin Venom and Dulling Eyes

Bella PoV

For one stifling long moment, my mind flashed to a softer kiss. On that was full of care, sweetness and politeness only one from the early twenty century could have. My thoughts fleeting went to a mouth that made my body sizzle and my mind short-circuit. A pair of lips that were so full of passion, intensity and misplaced loved.

Love for me. And this is how his love was return.

My whole body is frozen, memories of a forgotten eons ago invading my sub-conscious; James' tongue lashing out from his space into mine - violating my trembling cold lips, his bated breath overtaking mine, his white, sharp teeth gnawing at my top and bottom lip switching so often trying to get me to yield. He was trying to get me to separate, trying to control me. To invade me.

James was having his fun. And in my mind, this was his last wish; his last sweet touch of life, after this pathetic and perverse act was the last thing James' will ever do. But he had other ideas; he had moronic views of a suddenly brighter life, with me by his side. His mind was filled of sweet delights and riding off into the sunset with his prize. That was not about to happen, I was not his, my body was not his! My lips were certainly not his. They were not anyone's but mine! No part of my body was privy to the likes of this lunatic. He was doing all the work in this 'locking of lips' and I had no part in this. I wasn't even a willing participant, as he would soon realise.

James' mouth ripped themselves from my roughened lips, showing me his predatorily vicious smirk and his desire-slackened red eyes. He slowly lowered his lips to my neck, loving every second of my submission, but by God it was unwilling. I didn't choose to be in this position; I was racking my brain to ways to get the Hell out of his grasp except my body wasn't listening to my screaming brain. My fingers were locked in a stalemate with my palms, neither yielding.

He let out a groan of pleasure. His body in glee with my compliance, his mind loving every second of our "connection".

And suddenly in a burst of adrenaline and fury, my inner systems began to function again. My brain willed my different body part to work. Rapidly, my limbs weren't sunk in liquid nitrogen, they weren't bond by leather straps and they weren't stuck to my side- they worked!

His tongue dipping towards my collar bone, licking my skin, suddenly I wished for nothing but some corrosive acid to pour over my body. But alas, I had to use the tools around me, and for all I could see were my trembling fists curling and uncurling. They didn't need any more time to reaction to the raping of my mouth and upper-body – this was ending now. My shaking fists slowly parted from my sides and to behind James' over-enthusiastic head that was currently necking me.

"You really shouldn't have done that..." I rasped out as my mouth was so dry in disgusted I don't think I could I spoke anymore. I clenched my jaw, and with a force I forgot I possessed, I plunged my fists into his neck. He let out a yelp of pain before falling to the floor. Not feeling any qualms about kicking a "man" while he was down, I jerked my soot covered shoe into his gut.

Running a hand over my face and neck, trying desperately to rid myself of his stench and the feeling of his lips on me, I moved swiftly away from his crumple form. I knew he would not be down for long and I sure as Hell needed to move away because I knew he would be not exactly tickled by me kicking him in the side.

Cautiously, I moved away from James' groaning form and the increasingly violent flames. The heat inside the once beautiful dance studio was stifling, and I knew if I were still a human that I would have already have passed out either from the airless heat or the smothering smoke.

I knew as soon as I had walked into the building that I was in trouble, but I had been too brash and persistent at the time to realise how deep and cutting hold James' terrifying mind had on my memories. The mere sight of his murdering smirk had me in delved in a nightmare-like memory from my human life. There were many things that my mind had locked up, air-tight in the deepest part of my psyche, as to protect me. It was like my shield had been working on blocking out my own memories as well as stealing other people's recollections.

Quickly becoming tiresome with James' groans in seeming pain, I yanked at his arm, "Stop playing with me, Whiterdale." I warned with a biting cold tone and glaring eyes.

His covered head stopped moaning and gave out a low humourlessly chuckle, "But Bella, honey, I thought you like me playing with you.." He softly whined, implying much more to our hate/stalk relationship. "And I thought this was a game to you, my love. Am I wrong?"

I dropped my grip from his arm like he burned me. I slowly backed up further, knowing James had something up his mile-long sleeve. "Come on, Bella, you're suddenly so distance, why is that? Do you not enjoy the way I make you feel?" He said teasingly, moving to stand up. And before I knew thoughts of a afternoon long passed invaded my mind...

I turned my head in a snuff to his increasing distasteful advances. "Stop it, Jim, you're making me uncomfortable." I whispered out, my throat to tight to speak. Never a man come so close without permission, in fact, no man had come close to touching so boldly.

James Whiterdale blushed lightly before moving slightly further away from me, his palm still dangerously close to my inner thigh, "Forgive me, I thought of you wrongly. Sweet Isabella, you spoke of becoming a woman and I'm afraid my mind went wandering."

"You misheard, James. I speak continuously of my tiresomeness of being treated like an out-casted child, if you choose to keep my company, I wish you to listen." I said as if talking to my Nurse. That sourly woman was forever correcting the way I spoke.

"Bella, you seem flushed.." Jim's smirked, "Did I cause that beetroot colour?" I grimaced, this man does not understand me. Why did I agree to meet with him alone? Ah, yes, Carlisle is sick and I am alone.

"Do not misunderstand." I said firmly, standing up, "Carlisle has caught a fever and I'm afraid I might have been infected. You cause naught my feelings."

"Do you not enjoy the way I make you feel?"

"That look..." James said, inkling towards me, "You saw something, no?"

"Don't speak to me as if we are friends." I growled out.

James' eyes hardened, "Or what, my dear? You'll bite me?" He laughed, causing my body to freeze again, "If only.." he whispered against my ear, lifting strands of my hair and smelled the clump gently. He then put it back into place, his hands brushing over my throat. He murmured into her neck, "You smell the same, you know. So deliciously innocent - floral." He put his hand on face and before I had time to even process it myself, I growled, twisting his neck around in a tragic way, one that a human wouldn't survive but James was no human.

He never was.

Edward PoV

"What is it, Alice?" I growled down the device in my hand. Let me go, let me deal with this myself. Let me get Bella back. And by God let me scream and her for leaving.

"Oh... You know, checking on my favourite big brother... s'all." She said nonchalantly in reply.

I sighed, "Okay, Ali, what did you see?" I sighed, running my hand through my hair in distress. Carlisle, Jasper and I had stopped running. We were just outside Phoenix and were supposed to be awaiting Alice's go ahead.

Alice, in times of crisis, was very straight and blunt, and didn't like to stall or go without a plan. She liked to plan and get things down quickly and efficiently. She also liked groups, small groups of two and three that got more done in less time. Divide-and-conquer-esque.

"Just something things you may need to know.."

"Then stop stalling and speak something useful." I snarled before sighing when she didn't reply, "Alice, come on, we're nearly there.."

She let out a small whimper, "Just be careful and get her home..."

"Alice?"

"Hurry, she needs you, Edward."

I heard James before I saw him. Heard his disgusting thoughts do a running commentary of the events taking place, as if he knew I was right outside.

He took a step toward Bella, so close to her face, so dangerously close. He lifted a piece of her hair and smelled it gently. He then put it back into place, his hands brushing her throat. He murmured into her neck, "You smell the same, you know. So deliciously innocent - floral." He put his hand in her face, and in a blink of an eyes, he was on the ground, his neck twisted in a grotesque way.

My Bella did that.

I could only listen in horror as James got up again, lightly twisting his neck back into place and threw Bella to the soot cover floor. It was like she was letting him do this to her! As if she didn't care, but I knew better... She was biding her time. I got that, I really did but..

She looked like she was going to faint, an almost impossible task for a vampire.

I moved slightly towards the door, wanting for nothing more than to go in there and tear him to shreds, but Jasper's tightening hold on my elbow told me otherwise. James Whiterdale began to circle her like a tiger circling its prey - or better yet, a vampire circling its dinner. James crouched in front of her, his grin growing into a snarl of his teeth.

I felt like I was dying and the worst was yet to come. She was zooming toward the emergency door, the fire had reached over there and she was luring him towards it. He flew over her head, thinking she was running from him, and landed in front of her on the wooden floors. The sound of his landing, the echoing crack of rotting, charred wood vibrated through the large room. He struck her in the chest with his fist and she flew backward into the mirror. Glass shattered and skittered across the floor. Bella looked as if she expected it, like she wanted him to hurt her first. The bitch, did she not know that Jasper and I were outside? Did she not realise that Carlisle, Alice and Jasper had already met up and were driving here?

Bella looked peace, in the middle of a burning building with a stalker vampire in front of her. Perfect.

For a fraction of a second, I was humoured by the thought of Bella tearing his limbs and them being thrown to a pile and burned. But the amusement was killed by the thoughts of rage, helplessness, guilt and sorrow. My mind was screaming at her to fight back.

Bella made to get up, before shrinking down into the floor, James letting out a great laugh before grabbing her right arm roughly and tugging it. A great crack echoed through the hall, the sound of Bella's shoulder blade shattering and slowly reforming. I winced, once again moving towards the building. Jasper pulled more forcefully this time, literally holding me by the scruff of my neck.

"I heard that it was you who Changed the Terrible Twosome." Images of Alec and Jane floating through James' mind.

She grimaced, "What of it?" Her voice a contrast to her surroundings – Ice Cold in the Burning Building.

"I heard you are exiled by Caius." He crouched down beside her, "Why is that? I wonder, what would cause one of the three Volturi leaders to send you away, to tell you to never return when you gave them their most prized gifts... Do you know, Bella?" This was hardly question time..but once again I felt as if I were the only one in the world who didn't know Bella. She only ever told me snippets of her pasts, and won't tell me if I'm in her future.

She spat slithers of sliver venom out onto his face, "Fuck you." I couldn't help but feel overwhelming pride at her answer. My girl, my fighter, my Bella.

And then she was screaming, screaming out loud, calling bloody murder. Something between a scream and a snarl and a growl of rage enraptured me. He hurt her, and I wanted to kill him when I saw what exactly he had done.

He had bitten her, right into her left wrist. He bit into her so deep that he broke the skin, and send his venom into her veins. It was common knowledge that when on vampire bites into another, it left a scar. Jasper was living proof of that gruesome practice.

Vampires were never allowed to let their venom into another's veins, were never allowed to pierce the skin of another. Their foreign venom was not allowed to intercept the bitten vampire's own venom, it would cause a pain worth a thousand Changes and would certainly cause frenzy unless taken out. It was against the law and James Whiterdale knew that. He knew it and that's why he was enjoying it so much.

Now I was vowing to rip the pleased smile off of his face, he didn't deserve to touch her, didn't deserve to look at her, to be in the same room as her or think of her. He didn't deserve life, or pleasure, or blood. He deserved nothing and I was going to make sure he understood that. His eyes turned black with uncontrollable thirst, not the thirst for a human but for control. He couldn't hold back his smile now, he knew he had won. And she felt it as her veins burned into battle with his venom, her own so desperate to get rid of his unfamiliar venom that was mixing.

"You wait for them, I'll go in." I growled out and before he could argue I was gone. Crouching down, bouncing into the air and crashing into the stained glass window.

Bella's eyes started fluttering; the pain was becoming too much for her, but they held a shred of hope at the sound of the windows crashing. I was here and I was going to fix this. James turned around to face the sound, predator's snarl let out into the air. He was not going to be interrupted, he only just got started. His eyes seemed to focus on me and before my own eyes he smiled pleasantly at me. As if showing Bella's withering body off to me.

And I could take it no longer, the sound of James' thoughts; the images of James...and Bella... Oh God... His lips enveloping hers... Dominance showing as his tongue wet her lips... Disgust laced in her face.

Anger sweat off me in reams. He touched something that wasn't his. Mine. If I hadn't want to kill him before I certainly did now. Quickly, James' face was colliding with my foot, or perhaps I had aimed my foot into his shit-eating grin, and it was suddenly his turn to crash through the mirror.

Abruptly, a car was easily heard skidding and the sound of feet crashing through the unstable wall. In a blink of an eye, Jasper and Emmett were on James, taking over my job. As much as I wanted to kill him, I need to be with Bella. I didn't need to see it to know it but Alice were standing next to me, their hands gripping my shoulders, guarding m pulling me to Bella and Carlisle who was setting her wilted shoulder back into place. Her body was burning from the inside out, for the first time I had ever seen, her skin red with her burst blood vessels. Wordlessly, I knelt beside her, pulling her limp body into my arms. Ignoring Jasper and Emmett's torture of James, ignoring Alice's sobs and Carlisle's incomprehensible mumbles.

My Bella. My love. My life. Beaten. Tortured. Almost killed. For what? For nothing.

"Bella, love, please answer me?" I was chanting frantically, I didn't know if it was aloud or in my head but I didn't care, "Bella, can you hear me?"

Bella... please be alright. I love you, always had. Ever since I saw you in that cafeteria, I thought you were beautiful and different. I was right, but you are much more than that. You are so much more. I need you, Bella. Come back to me. I need you.

Her lips barely moved, just a twitch, but it was an answer. A response. And that was one of the worst and best moments of my useless life. And for the first time in my lonely existence, I believed perhaps there was a God. Maybe someone up there was granting me the experience of seeing her come back to me, seeing the golden hues speckles in the black of her irises.

Before sealing them shut, trapping her beautiful dulling eyes away from me, and making her body began to shiver and shake.

Sorry for the small F-bomb. But seriously, if any of you actually read my ANs then you should probably be used to my lovely vocabulary.

Seriously, I'm a lady.

So I was thinking, one maybe two chapters left (including Epilogue) No more than Forty Chapter anyway.. But I have a week of tests next week, so lack of update reason: "STUDYING"

Did you like it? Or hate it? Because I sort of hate it... a lot.

Please review :)

~YMCM