FluffyLiz called this one. Rita01tx named the same a chapter back.
Prompt #53: Dogs of War
There was a long moment of absolute, stunned silence. No one spoke. No one moved. No one even breathed (except my Bella, of course, because, well, she had to). Instead, we all just stood there, frozen in place like the stone statues that we were.
Really, who expected that?
Certainly not any of us. And as the brown-haired boy's bellowed question slowly sank in to our collective consciousness, a loud chorus of complete and utter bafflement suddenly blasted through both the meadow and my mind.
"What the…" (Jacob)
"Huh?" (another dog)
"Are you fucking kidding me?" (Rosalie, go figure)
"What in the world does that young man mean?" (Carlisle)
"He's lying." (the huge, black alpha)
"Don't trust him. Don't trust any of them." (General Hale)
"Do we attack? Can we?" (the brown, fuzzy mutt)
"Yeah! Let's tear them all to bits!" (the little gray pup)
"I'm confused." (That'd be Emmett… of course)
Even Esme – sweet, demure Esme – cut loose with a certain four-lettered word.
You know, the one that rhymes with duck.
And were we not in such a dangerous situation, I probably would have laughed at that, too. I definitely caught Carlisle's twitching lips.
As it were, instead, still maintaining my low protective stance in front of my Bella, I glanced over to our supposed Oracle, searching for some kind of answer. With a nod, Alice stilled and again gazed off into nothingness, but after a second of consideration, she just shrugged and continued to eyeball the growling newborns with as much confusion as the rest of us.
Eventually, I found my voice. "We live in Seattle and found out you were coming this way. Why are you here?" Pfft. As if I didn't already know. I stroked the back of my Bella's hand with my thumb, reassuring both her and me (okay, mostly me) that she was still there and safe.
Just as the brown-haired boy opened his mouth to speak again, one of the newborns – a stringy-haired blonde with dried blood all over her face – let out a starving howl and started toward the only source of food in the vicinity (my luscious-smelling human). Right as she passed, the boy's arm whipped out in a hard clothesline, knocking the creature to the ground. His boot smashed down on her throat with a resounding crack! and he growled out something unintelligible. She flailed against him, snapping and snarling, all the while still reaching toward my mate and shrieking for sustenance. The boy stomped on her wrist, and then wrenched her arm from its socket.
Grateful for the assist (albeit a fairly gruesome one), I was even more so when as he dealt with the miscreant, his thoughts slipped beyond the immediate present and darted to the one vampire who'd yet to make her appearance.
"She's west of here, lurking in the trees," I mumbled over to Jasper, who slid a few feet further in that direction.
Without warning, there was an abrupt sickening crunch! as the boy – Riley, according to the broken, disjointed thoughts now coming from the rest of the horde – ripped the vampire's head off her neck when she wouldn't stop fighting.
"Holy shit," Bella whispered behind me. "Can you do that?"
I sighed.
Because, of course, now of all times, she'd want to know that.
And why wouldn't she?
It wasn't like my Bella was a normal woman.
Noooo, I certainly couldn't fall in love with a normal woman. Nothing could ever be that easy for me.
No, instead, I had to fall for… her.
Not that I was complaining or anything.
"Really, can you?" she asked me again, as we continued to patiently watch the boy tear the other vampire to pieces. When I peeked over my shoulder, my love's eyes were as wide as saucers and there was a sick kind of fascination floating around in her expression.
"Um, yes?" I said, rolling my eyes. "Now be quiet, will you?"
Bella being Bella – in other words, the confounding creature she was – she just grinned at me then. "Hot damn, I'm dating a bad ass."
I shook my head and sighed again.
Okay, fine, yes, and my chest may or may not have puffed up a little at that. I mean, who doesn't like hearing that?
Before I could revel too much in my love's approval, the sickening crunches finally ceased. With an almost exasperated air, the boy dusted off his palms and returned his attention to our line. "Sorry about that. They're…" He thumbed toward the newborns. "A handful."
I just nodded.
Because seriously, what can you really say to that?
His gaze slid past my shoulder to the shotgun-toting woman behind me. Brows lifting, his body turned, ever so slightly, but it was more than enough to give away his maker to the west yet again. I slowly dropped my hand to my side, signaling the dogs at the opposite side of the meadow to get ready.
"We're here for her," Riley said, apparently not having any clue what kind of hell he was asking for as he motioned toward my mate.
At once, unable to stop it, a low, subsonic growl rumbled through my chest and my fists curled into steel hammers that just begged to destroy.
Oblivious to my reaction – or maybe too stupid to care – he continued, "The girl belongs to a local pack of werewolves. They took someone very important from my mistress…" A bone-white face framed in fire-red curls flashed across his thoughts. "So now we're here to take someone important from them and then… to kill them all." He grinned an evil grin and his voice dropped into something out of a cheesy horror movie. "We have no fight with your coven. Now hand the girl over."
Words spilled out of my mouth before I could stop them. "Like hell, I will!"
And then a pair of ironclad arms came out of nowhere and clamped around my torso as a red, hot rage like I'd never known to exist scoured my vision.
In my mind, in a violent, welcome symphony, the pack – still down-wind and out of sight – simultaneously howled their fury. Hints of other thoughts – memories of racing through the forest, tearing through vampire flesh, crushing vampire bones – filtered through, as well, and in that moment, I wanted nothing more than to rip every single one of those godforsaken vampires to pieces and burn them to hell where they belonged.
"Chill out, dude," Emmett barked, squeezing me tight enough that cracks splintered down my sides. "Keep to the plan."
Blind with ever-mounting rage, I fought against his grip, desperate to break free and destroy those that would threaten the meaning of my existence. And with each passing millisecond, more of the pack's memories poured through my mind – more tearing and breaking and ripping body parts – and all it did was add fuel to a near-exploding inferno.
But then, something else altogether passed through the cacophony of images and thoughts, and I immediately froze.
It was just a glimmer, a brief, momentary flicker of the pale white vampire male who'd been the redheaded bitch's mate before the pack had taken him down. Only this memory didn't belong to the wolves.
No, this one belonged to the creature still hiding in the trees.
Through the redhead's crimson eyes, I watched as deep in the forest, her mate – James, apparently – knelt beneath the sweeping canopy of an ancient oak. A wicked, bloody smirk lit his expression as he shoved away the still pink, dripping wrist of another man. As he stood and walked toward me (her), I (she) glanced down.
There at his feet, lying on the ground, I saw my mate's father… preserved for all time in perfect vampiric recall, still alive, screaming in agony, and begging for the fire in his veins to stop. When my love's father cried out, James threw back his head with laughter and told him to, "Be patient, Chief. You'll only suffer for a couple of days. But then… you'll thank me– "
Before James could finish, the bushes behind them abruptly parted, making way for a familiar, hulking, snarling, slobbering, black-furred beast.
A beast meant and sworn to kill vampires.
All vampires.
Every vampire.
Even the not quite yet made ones.
Even if it meant killing someone they…
To use my mate's very own and very recently used expression…
Holy shit.
PROMPT #54?
ETA: And yes, that bit at the end was intentionally oblique. Feel free to throw me your theories :D
