CHAPTER THIRTEEN

(JPOV)

The torment that flooded through me made the darkness cloud my vision in a heavy and unyielding veil, as I crawled across the prison floor, held captive by the pain her gaze brought forth with just one look. I couldn't catch my breath. My insides feeling as if they had been set on fire with a lit match and chased through my veins by kerosene. I was being burned alive from the inside out. No other pain that I'd felt before could touch it.

Charlie screamed at her, but she didn't relent and I felt something inside me suddenly shift when the two of them became locked in a heated glare. Charlie didn't budge as he stared her down, the silence between them carrying on and the pain erasing itself from me so fast that I was almost certain I was hallucinating. That my body had taken all it could and my mind was shutting down to protect me from the rest.

Jane lurched forward when she saw me drag myself up, the screaming dying out in a distant echo as she shouted at Charlie.

"What are you!?"

He didn't answer her and this only enraged her further.

Jane's offer told me that the Volturi knew what was coming for them, and that they were aware of being evenly matched and it made them uncomfortable. This played highly in our favor.

"Do we have a deal or not?" Jane angrily hedged, her face twitching with her clear impatience now. She wasn't keen on waiting. "I don't have all day."

"I have my own demands." I choked out to her in reply, looking over to Charlie and noting his alarmed expression. "I want to see her. Now."

"Out of the question."

"Then you don't have jack shit, do you?" I bit back.

She glared at me, her lips set into a thin line and her eyes becoming dark with a seething rage. She was trying to inflict more pain but for some reason, she couldn't. Charlie's expression was full of triumph and a bit of confusion, as he tore his gaze from her and met my own.

"Are you daring to challenge us?" Jane then questioned. "Maybe, you're not as smart as we first took you for? Seems to me only a damn fool would play that hand because they will lose. Surely you know this!?"

"You know we won't lose! That's why you're down here trying to convince me to call off the war that's headed straight for you. If you were confident in the battle going only in your favor when all is said and done, then you'd be up there with Aro, preparing for the twisted fucking show you have planned for all those innocent people you plan on slaughtering tomorrow. Am I right?"

"You know nothing!" She snapped.

"I know a hell of a lot more than you think." I angrily countered.

"Don't be so overly confident. Things may not go the way you think, Jacob."

"I think they will."

"Tell me... do you think the venom we injected you with would play out the same way for Bella? That her change would be immediate? She isn't nearly as strong as you are. She's weak and vulnerable. A mere human. It could prove more fatal for her."

"Don't you touch her!" I roared. "I swear I'll-..."

"You'll what, Jacob? Tell me just what you're going to do behind prison bars?"

"Don't you dare hurt her."

"Then make the deal with us. Join Aro here in Voltera and give your loyalty to the guard. We have more to offer you than you think."

"I want nothing from any of you monsters except Bella."

"She's not yours anymore. She signed her fate over to us a long time ago. If you're so eager to see her, we can surely arrange that, but I'm not sure you'll like what you see. Aro has plans for her, too. He intends to let you watch. She will be of great use to him."

"What have you done to her? Tell me!" I shouted, the white hot rage I felt from her words now enough to make me rattle the prison bars that caged us in front of her. She stepped back, her red irises going wide when she saw the small pieces of concrete fall from above us at the force of my hands. "Looks like your venom cocktail is wearing off quicker than you thought it would."

I drew in a steadying breath as the fire wove it's way hastily up my spine and settled into my limbs, my eyes locking on hers while the fine concrete dust continued to fall. I embraced the fury and felt my skin heat, and the tremors I'd missed, come back to me with a renewed vigor. The furiosity of my movements made her dart forward with a hissed threat on her lips.

"I will kill her myself if you try and break free! I promise you that I will. She will die a slow and painful death."

I stilled my hands instantly at the sound of her promise and brought my face inches from hers. The stomach heaving and revolting stench from her closeness making me want to puke.

"I'm going to destroy you, Jane."

"You're stronger than all the others in your pack, but none of them, including you, will ever touch me. It's a true shame we're enemies, we could've had a little fun you and I. Now, you'll be nothing more than Aro's killer. That's what he'll use you for. To chase down the innocent. To guard what we have built here. "

I pulled away from her and moved myself in front of Charlie as she looked between us.

"I'll never work for him. You'll have to kill me first." I spat back to her.

"Your renewed strength doesn't mean what you think it does."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"It means, your body will continue to wear down over the next three days before your heart gives out from the venom. These bouts of strength you're having are fleeting and they won't last. Even if you manage to shift and escape, you won't be able to do what you did before. Each bout of energy you have will only weaken you more when it's gone, until there's nothing left of you. Unless, of course, you choose to take the deal I've offered and accept the antidote I still have with me?"

"Go to hell." I replied, turning away from her as she offered her final and parting words to us.

"I surely will and I'll be taking Bella with me."

I whipped around to see her vanish from sight, her fast exit making my head spin from the speed and my anger flare again, as I thought of what she was planning to do to Bella.

"You can't accept her offer." Charlie stated. "There has to be another way."

"I can't live without Bella and I told you from the start of this trip that I wasn't leaving Voltera without her. If I take her deal, they'll set the both of you free."

"No!" Charlie yelled. "You listen to me! I don't know a whole hell of a lot about all this, but I do know that Bella would want the chance to fight before she would ever want you to stay here a prisoner! Give her that much!"

I placed my head against the bars, thinking of how he'd just stopped Jane from her painful wrath and not understanding how he'd done it.

"What was that before? With Jane? Tell me how you stopped her?"

"I don't even know. It's like... I focused on the pain she was causing you and how much I wanted her to stop and it pulled something out of me. I can't explain it."

"I've seen something similar happen with Bella. She stopped an attack with her mind. Some kind of mental shield. I think you've been the key all along, Charlie. I think you gave it to her. She's different. Special. That's why Aro wants her so bad. She has something that intrigues him, but I think we still have the element of surprise."

"How so?" Charlie hesitantly questioned.

"I don't think they know she's one of us. That she can phase. If that's the case, Bella can turn this around and switch the hand at play without Aro expecting it. This would change everything."

"Do you think they'll figure it out before she can act?"

"I don't know. Bella barely has her own abilities under control. She's stills so new to phasing. She would have to keep it hidden from them somehow."

"She could do it." Charlie confidently stated. "She could save us. Get us out of here."

"Yeah, she could." I agreed, meeting his optimistic gaze and glancing up toward the concrete ceiling as a sound I hadn't heard in week filtered in through the chaos in my head.

Bella's heartbeat.

The rhythm of it steady and even. I gripped the bars tightly in my hands, focusing on the sound that I had achingly missed more than my next breath since she'd been gone.

I'm here, honey. I'm closer than you even know.

A/N: Thank you for reading and for all the kind reviews. There will be another update tomorrow. Till then...