Disclaimer: Stephanie Meyer owns all.

Rated M for several reasons.

Chpt 48 Darkness

BPOV

Felix, Edward, Alice, Tanya and I brace ourselves in a sort of inhuman shield as the first wave of the attack chases Jasper back into our ranks.

He hurdles us easily, rebounding off the rock wall and materialising at our flank just in time for them to crash into us.

One, already injured, makes the mistake of wading through the fire and as he goes up like a torch the others pause giving us an easy chance to repel their first rank before the next one crashes in.

Sophisticated they're not. The two waves get in each other's way, the first lot staggering from our robust defence and tripping up the second lot, hampering their attack.

Unfortunately with only six of us it doesn't make much of a difference.

Soon our last stand is broken up into pairs.

Jasper and Alice work well together, her speed, his skill and their intimate connection make them a deadly combination.

Tanya and Edward aren't doing badly either despite taking the odd hit as the least experienced fighters.

Felix and I are moving as one. United by artificially combined experience and a strong desire to stop anyone making it down into the caves after a still missing Garrett and Maria.

I'm trying not to get distracted by their absence, there are any number of less horrifying reasons for it than the ones that immediately spring to mind.

"Duck!" Felix roars.

I dip down and his fist flashes out, sending a vampire hurtling back across the bowl. Using his body like a maypole I whirl around him kicking out at the two vampires sneaking up from behind. The lead vampire staggers back into his friend, the two of them tangling together and crashing to the ground.

And for a moment I understand the wild joy sometimes described in Jasper's war poems.

All in all we're being very effective. The problem is we're only being effective at repelling the attacks. We're not actually inflicting any permanent damage and while we're never going to get tired our attackers have time to heal and we don't, every bite, tear or blow we suffer is accumulating, weakening us. We can't afford to leave it too long before we counter attack or flee.

As we fight on, like a well-oiled machine, my mind computes the options. There are several things we could do but first we need our missing friends. For the numbers. That thought makes we wince, very Felix, and because they are what brought us here in together in the first place.

"What the fuck is keeping them?" Felix growls, neatly decapitating a vampire who was foolish enough to rush him head on.

I'm about to answer when the world around us explodes into a ball of flame.

The next thing I'm consciously aware of is Felix hurling me to the ground and flattening me with his enormous body.

Even as the searing heat recedes, sucked back is if by a magical hand, Felix starts rolling us around in the smouldering dirt, an activity I can get involved with enthusiasm as I feel my venom start to bubble.

"ROLL!" He roars and I find myself joining in.

"ROLL! Roll, Roll, Roll, Roll!"

Eventually we cease our frantic movements and Felix turns me over to face him.

"You are laughing?" He enquires.

"Stop, drop and roll." I snort helplessly, my body racked with laughter. "It's a cartoon. It's supposed to save your life."

"You are alive, are you not?"

"Nope. Dead. Dead, dead, dead."

His slap almost separates my head from my shoulders but it sobers me immediately.

"Ouch. Thanks."

"Do not mention it." He drawls, dragging me up with him as he rises.

The bowl is a mess of flaming ruin, littered with burning body parts and staggering, fiery torsos.

Thank god I can't throw up any more. What a shame this is one more thing I'll never forget.

Beside us Jasper and Alice clamber to their feet.

Edward is still rolling Tanya into the ground, putting out the last of the flames seeking her flammable venom.

Felix and Jasper leap forward to help while I turn my attention to the smoke pouring out of the cave entrance.

"Felix?"

"Felix!"

"What do you need Be . . . . Oh shit. Fuck!"

"Felix?" I whimper. Not like this, please god, not like this.

"Go!" He orders. "Find them."

"But what . . . ." Around us vampires are getting to their feet, looking around in bewilderment before finally focussing their attention on us. And they're not happy.

"Go!" He repeats, giving me a shove. "We will manage."

With one last glance back at Edward I dart into the cave.

"And find that shirker Clarion while you are it!" Felix hollers after me.

Immediately I slow to a walk, unable to penetrate the murky smog with my eyes and too afraid to call out.

Not needing to breathe I shut my mouth and mentally will my lungs to stillness as I start down the passage.

As the available light dwindles I'm uncomfortably reminded of my weak human eyesight, other than being able to walk through the thick black smoke without breathing it in, being a vampire has suddenly ceased to have any benefits.

Feeling foolish I reach out to the still hot rough walls on either side of me and feel my way forward at barely more than a shuffle.

A few steps in my invisible foot kicks something and I bend down to examine it more closely.

A hardening pool of what was probably once a plastic barrel.

With a shiver I straighten up and continue on.

Even with my acute hearing the smoked filled cave effectively muffles any sound. Within a few more feet and sharp turn I can no longer hear the battle outside, just barely my own tentative footsteps.

I don't think I've ever felt more vulnerable in either of my lives. Especially not when a little further down, I can feel the floor sloping away from me now, I stumble into an intact barrel which on closer inspection is still full of gas and wired up.

Carefully, none of the memories I've absorbed contain any information on modern warfare or bombs, I pull the wire out and continue on.

To my disappointment, but not my surprise, the smoke gets thicker the further down I go. It doesn't seem to be escaping, it's almost as if it's deliberately hanging around to freak me out. And it's doing a good job.

A little further on my foot comes down on something that crumples to dust under the pressure.

My dead stomach leaps into my dead mouth as I bend down and scoop my hand through what is now a pile of ashes. Grimacing I lift the handful to my face and take a deep breath. All I get initially is noxious smoke, swiftly followed by the scent of unknown vampire. Relieved and horrified at the same time I shut my lungs down and stand up to reach my hands back out to trace the walls.

And on I go.

This is taking forever. I'm desperate to find Garrett and Maria, full of terror for Edward and the others above. Yet here I am creeping along this rock passage like a mouse.

Even so, I've learned enough from the memories of others not to rush headlong into the unknown.

I shudder as I inadvertently crush another body into dust. Going through the whole process of olfactory inspection again. Not one of mine. Oh god. Garrett, where are you?

How ridiculous is it that every horror movie Garrett ever made me sit through is now scrolling across my mind? I'm virtually indestructible, the only thing that can hurt me is fire.

My questing foot bumps into another intact barrel, but though I feel around for what seems an age I can't find a wire, maybe it's already been pulled. Fire. Now I'm frowning into the impenetrable dark, surely this smoke will dissipate soon?

With a deep and wasteful exhale of the last precious breath in my body I start forward again.

So when the two arms wrap expertly around my neck, bending it an ominous angle, I have nothing left to scream with.

Awash with whatever the vampire equivalent of adrenaline is, I will have to ask someone one day, I struggle and writhe with all my might. But it does no good. The more I struggle the worse the pressure on my neck and the closer I come to decapitating myself. Whoever this is knows what he's doing. With a great effort I will myself to go limp.

"You must be Bella." A harsh voice grates in my ear.

I'm not a position to nod, never mind answer.

"You certainly inspire a lot of loyalty." The voice continues. "Bringing The Volturi here with you. Interfering with my Master's plan."

My very constricted throat manages a 'gah' sound which he's clearly going to interpret however he likes. Whoever he is.

"It seems to me that you will be a very useful hostage to ensure my Master's escape."

I've no ability to protest as he starts dragging me back up to the surface.

Knowing what a disaster a hostage will be, and very much focussed on my need to find Garrett and Maria I start thrashing again. Jabbing with my elbows, kicking back with my heels, attempting to head-butt him in the same way the female vampire did to me. But nothing works, except to endanger my neck even further.

If the power of my feelings alone were enough he'd be dead on the cave floor by now but this isn't a fairy story and slowly but surely we continue to move back up the tunnel.

My panic and frustration are rising rapidly when suddenly we come to a dead stop.

The seconds tick by and a second is a long time when you're trapped in the dark in a deadly embrace.

I blink my eyes rapidly but it does nothing to help them penetrate the dense smoke around me.

After ten long seconds I experiment with the frantic struggling again but although his grip doesn't tighten threateningly this time I can't get free, my head is trapped.

What the fuck?

"Keep still while I untangle you." A vaguely familiar voice insists.

I hitch in a breath, mostly foul tasting smoke although it matters not to my lungs, so I can speak.

"Clarion?" I croak.

"Humph." Is the only response, the voice owner must be avoiding breathing the smoke too.

Abruptly a hand is thrust under my nose and I take a tentative sniff. It is Clarion and I sag with relief, immediately straightening again when the headlock I'm still in causes my neck to stretch painfully.

Great. I'm being hung by a frozen statue.

Clarion fiddles around for a moment and emits a few soft grunts. I don't suppose he can see anything to work out how to free me. What a ludicrous situation to be in. Eventually a succession of snapping noises reveals that he's freeing me the hard way, one piece of whoever attacked me at a time. I wonder if you can feel that while you are frozen? I hope not, that's just nasty.

And finally I'm free. Automatically I reach up and massage my poor abused neck.

"What now?" I rasp with the last of my breath, resigned to the fact that I'll have to take another one.

He breathes in to reply.

"Ugh. There are other enemy down here, I do not know if they survived, I have been following this one."

My turn. Jeez, that's disgusting, my lungs will never be clean again.

"Garrett and Maria are down here, I have to find them."

"Lead on then." He huffs. "But let us keep the speaking to a minimum."

"K. How did you survive the explosion?"

"Humph. We were below it, which means that your Garrett and Mistress Maria will probably have been too."

"Thanks." I use up the last of my air to respond. They're alive!

He snags his hand into the back of my jeans and I turn until I can feel the floor sloping downwards again, stretching out my hands in a now familiar gesture.

With slightly more hope in my heart we continue down into the pernicious darkness. The blind leading the blind.

Gradually my skin begins to register the rising heat and an ominous orange glow begins to suffuse the smoke.

Fire.