Posted 2020-05-17
Bella heard Edward roar, "Emmett!" just before her brother-in-law landed on top of her, hurling both of them to the ground. His bellowed, "Give me a hand!" to Edward was so loud as to be painful in Bella's ear.
Edward responded by leaping towards Bella and Emmett and yanking his brother off of his wife. He tossed Emmett into a small stand of trees, which exploded into a shower of crackling splinters.
Jasper stopped Emmett from a second attempt, though much more gently. He stretched out his hand to prevent his brother from moving forward, speaking a quiet and soothing, "She's fine."
Standing in front of Bella, Edward gave Emmett a brief growl.
As she reached for the hand her husband offered, Bella watched Emmett stare at her, his uncertain posture something between standing and crouching. His chest wasn't moving, and as her gaze moved around the forest space, she saw that neither were those of Jasper, Alice or Rose. They were all holding their breath.
A moment later, she realized that she was the unwise one who was not.
"Oh," she said, when the smell of humans, and then human blood reached her. "Oh, no." And then she turned back over and retched profusely into the dirt.
Edward's hands rubbed at her sides, his voice low and melodious. "It's alright. You're okay. Try to hold your breath."
Emmett seemed to have forgotten to take this advice. "Jesus. She—seriously?"
The wind brought more of the scent, and Bella steeled herself for more reaction. But the worst seemed to have passed. It was much, much fainter, and more strongly covered with that of some sort of animal blood. "Moose hunters," Edward mumbled. "Clumsy ones, apparently."
Wiping at her mouth and sucking up her mortification, Bella stood up to face the rest of her family. "Whatever the crack is, Emmett, make it now. While you have people around to keep me from ripping your head off." She'd gotten over her initial and profound emotional reaction to the blood when she'd encountered it with Edward, but he'd been only concerned and supportive. Emmett was not known for his subtlety, and her human insecurities were not so far gone that they didn't want to be felt in this new form.
Rose had also joined Bella in glaring at Emmett, and wisely, oh so unusually wisely, he looked to his wife and then back at Bella before he shook his head and said nothing.
"It makes you ill," Jasper whispered. "Physically ill. The revulsion is . . ." He swallowed hard a couple of times, clearly able to feel what Bella was feeling. "Incredible." His hand moved instinctively to his stomach and he frowned.
Alice looked at her husband with worry, eyebrows lifting in surprise. Then she turned to Edward, and he nodded.
"What?" Bella asked. She was thinking once again how these were the least favourite moments between her husband and sister-in-law.
Edward's hand squeezed hers. "It's not pleasant for you, love, but you have to admit the reaction has unique benefits in helping maintain our diet." He looked to Jasper.
Right. The memory of her eighteenth birthday traipsed fuzzily across her consciousness. Yes. She could see that. Not that she was enjoying the physical effects at the moment. She felt like she was going to vomit again.
Rose's voice broke the silence, her voice almost reverent. "You can see your children," she said. "So much sooner than we thought would be possible."
Bella's eyes widened. Of course. How stupid did she have to be not to have seen this? "I didn't even—I thought there was something wrong with me. Do you really think—?"
"Maybe," Edward said, nodding. "I think we need to test this more extensively first, but maybe."
His eyes were bright and intent on her, freshly lightened to that amber whose depths she'd never really been able to appreciate bef—
"We should go," Jasper announced. His lips twitching in a knowing smirk.
Edward frowned in his direction.
Bella decided she didn't want to know what Jasper was thinking at him. Then she felt a stab of sympathy for Edward. Did they do this to him all the time?
She didn't keep track of the time as they ran, but she did realize at some point that the sun was now at a completely different angle from when she'd last given it any attention. They'd traversed valleys, forest and mountain, zigzagging in their path to avoid the human populations and their roads, and were now close to their destination. Ahead of them, Alice pointed to a mountain range in the distance. It was distinct, a set of lopsided triangles against the horizon. Bella could understand why Alice and Edward would have recognized it.
At the harder points of her life, time was something she'd measured in tortured minutes and days, sometimes the two seemingly intermixed without distinction, but now time was marked simply by the arc of the sun and the presence of the man beside her. Time was theirs. And Victoria's time was almost up. She could just about taste the joy this vengeance would bring. The woman had robbed her of so many things, and Bella would relish making her pay—
"Stop," Jasper called, his voice quiet but authoritative.
They did, each person each parked in the divots their feet had made, Bella's the least elegant of all. Damn, she needed to get a handle—
"You need to find a focal point, Bella," Jasper said, not approaching, but using his voice to reach her. "The way you're feeling is dangerous."
Edward turned and looked sharply at her. "What are you thinking right now?"
"How good it's going to feel to kill Victoria." It stumbled from her lips before she could think of not saying it.
"You won't be killing Victoria. You won't be killing anyone, because you promised me you wouldn't do anything of the sort." Edward's voice was like a hammer to each word, as if he could impress them into her mind by force. His eyes glinted dangerously.
"And I won't," Bella said.
Jasper shook his head.
"I'm not going to." Her voice rose slightly.
Something passed between Jasper and Edward.
God, those silent exchanges were even more maddening now that their presence was so obvious. She watched Edward nod to his brother and then turn his gaze back on her. It was blistering.
"I promised you," she said, her voice low and level . . . and sincere. "And I meant it."
She knew his trust was not something she'd yet earned, but the thought of being left behind while they ran on, to have to wait and have her gut twist on the outcome, was unbearable. Even with such good odds—
"I trust you," Edward said, his hand reaching for hers. He sounded apologetic as he spoke. "I do, and I know you're trying to keep your promise, but I don't think you've had enough time to learn exactly what it means to be what you are."
This truth stung, even though the words were gently framed. His fingers rose to her cheek, the tips trailing lightly up and down her jaw bone. The sensation made her forget why they were standing between musky pines and the skeletons of huckleberry bushes, their scents only a compliment to the spicy and intoxicating one of the man before her, his gaze so mesmerizing that she—
Emmett's laughter, and the sound of a loud smack brought Bella up short. While she couldn't blush, her eyes still widened and the muscles of her cheeks lifted, revealing her discomfort as clearly as if her face had reddened. She realized what Edward had been doing, and she couldn't fault him for trying to help, but that didn't make her any less embarrassed. Apparently, his ability to dazzle her had not been lost to her change.
The momentary calm fled abruptly though, as bodies stiffened around her. Only Edward remained relaxed.
"It's our cousins," he said softly, and Emmett, Rose, Jasper and Alice relaxed, too. And to Bella he added quietly, "Grant is with them."
Her surprise gave way to nervousness. "You can hear him? How does he . . . sound?"
"Focused," was Edward's only reply. She didn't have time to ask for clarification.
Even with Bella's new vision, the six approaching vampires seemed to melt out of the trees. Almost all of them were unfamiliar, and as with her kind, hauntingly beautiful. She found herself holding her breath.
Grant actually looked pleased to see her, his "Bella!" the first word out of any of them. Anything else he might have been planning to say died on his lips as one of the Denali's held a protective arm in front of him, effectively keeping him from advancing. He didn't seem offended by it.
Edward took a step forward, drawing her with him, his posture just as protective. "Irina, Kate, and Tanya," he indicated with a sweep of his hand for her benefit, "and Eleazar and Carmen, this is my wife, Bella. Grant, I'm glad to see you're doing well." The two men nodded at each other.
There were kind smiles and briefly murmured pleasantries as the rest of them greeted Bella, although the one woman who had stopped Grant earlier only gave an abrupt nod. Sensing the need to allay the woman's obvious concerns, and surprised to find she might have similar ones, Bella slipped her arm around Edward's waist and waved awkwardly. "Hello."
The other Cullens had been more effusive in their greetings, Rosalie and the tall red-haired woman exchanging an obviously heart-felt hug and murmured words.
Still several people away, Grant caught her eye. "How're you doing?" He looked concerned..
Bella exhaled, imagining why he would be. She was sure everyone here had heard about her offering herself to Victoria and all that had followed. She felt Edward's arm tighten around her, although she suspected it wasn't intentional, and she saw Irina also looking at her then. "I'm good, really."
Grant nodded in reply and offered her a gentle smile. She knew they both had more to say, though it would have to come later.
For now there was an unspoken urgency which, for Bella, made her feet itch to run and her fingers to claw. She took in a deep breath and released it, catching Jasper's eye as he nodded, obviously sensing her shifting mood.
"We need to go," Edward urged the group. "We'll fill you in on the way." His eyes had darkened subtly, not in hunger, but with some stronger feeling Bella could understand all too well. They were so close to ending this.
Behind the clouds, the sun was slanting low in the sky, and Bella watched her skin glow dully as they ran. She'd thought her preoccupation would send her straight into a tree, but her mind seemed to split its attention as needed, letting her body curve around the skinny and thick trunks that made up the obstacle course through which they flew.
Ahead, Alice pointed. The mountains towards which they ran overlooked a violently blue lake, its depths green and sinister where they disappeared in the distance.
And just as suddenly, their glowing array of vampire skin was mirrored on the other side of the water, a group of vampires running, trying to gain distance by rounding the far end of the body of water. Their speed told Bella that they weren't just running, but running with purpose, clearly trying to escape. Even under the cloud-muted sun, they were glowing beacons, drawing her eyes.
The predator in Bella growled, knowing her prey was in front of her.
"Stay behind us!" Edward called back to Bella. His jaw was tight, and she slowed down, giving him and the others space to run ahead.
The bodily shapes ahead were clearer, and Bella was more sure of hair colour, and then, facial features. Bella's mouth watered as the Cullens closed the gap, her hands curling into eager fists as the distance shrunk. She was gaining ground, she was so close . . .
"Back off!" Edward shouted at her. Even though he had assured her he still couldn't read her mind, he was doing a frustratingly good job of it anyway. Bella slowed her pace—again.
When Victoria turned her fiery head and hissed in their direction, the Denalis and Cullens around Bella responded in kind as they began to spread out through the trees, surrounding her and her meager and panicked army of newborns. Bella wanted nothing so badly as to plant her teeth in the woman's neck and—
"Stop here!" Edward snapped. Bella stopped running, snarling as she did. The urges were powerful ones, but she stilled them, watching the others run past. Keeping her fisted hands beside her, and focusing on her promise to Edward, she made herself be only a witness to the violence that exploded around her. Chunks of dirt, rocks and wood flew, some obscuring her line of sight. But Bella's eyes were able to follow the two shades of red hair, one crimson, one bronze, that were central to the outcome at hand and were currently about to collide.
Then her visual trajectory was interrupted by Jasper hurtling out from almost beside her, neatly evading the forward attack of an oncoming vampire, pivoting on one foot and using his momentum to knock his opponent sideways. She watched Jasper's teeth slice into the man's neck, the screech of metal making her turn away. It felt almost instinctual to not watch that final act.
Yet her flinch only lasted a fraction of a section, her attention grabbed by Alice launching herself onto a man's shoulders. His nature didn't allow for him to be clumsy, but he almost looked it as he took two tumbling steps under the top-heavy weight while Alice's hands gripped his head on both sides and began to twist. His last staggering step was involuntary, and this time Bella watched the head bounce on the ground, mud splattering over it before a flame that seemed to come out of nowhere made it disappear in a swirl of smoke.
With their experienced force both outnumbering and outfighting Victoria's defenders, the battlefield was rapidly clearing. As Grant and Irina together dispatched one of the last of them, Bella returned her focus to where she'd last seen Edward and Victoria dancing in the distance—and her breath caught. It wasn't just the two of them facing off. Victoria's arms made a vicious and deathly vice around Bella's father's head. She was using Charlie as a shield.
As the Cullens and their cousins dispensed with Victoria's helpers, they spread themselves around the trio, whose movements were more and more curtailed by this tightening circle.
Bella didn't need to hear Victoria's words to know the threat she'd made—and was probably still making silently, if the rage and frustration on her husband's face was any indication. He was obviously looking for an opening, but the lethal hold Victoria had on Charlie was too easily deployed for Edward to take a chance. Killing Victoria would mean killing Bella's father.
"Do it, Edward!" Charlie yelled. "The bitch can't kill me twice! Do it!"
She could tell the moment Edward made his decision and she saw him nod at Charlie as if they had come to some understanding. Then, he planted his foot in preparation to launch himself and in the same moment, Bella watched Victoria's fingers tighten over Charlie's forehead as she began to twist.
She couldn't stand it. She could not watch this creature take one more person from her, definitely not her father, nor could she watch Edward be the catalyst for Charlie's destruction. Unable to tear her eyes from the scene, all she could think was that she wanted to block all of it out—push away the images before her and make it all stop. In desperation, she flung her hands out in front of her, all of her terror and helpless fury channelling themselves into her horrified "NO!"
It was so quick, she would have doubted herself seeing it in human form, but the entire assembly of vampires before her flew backwards, slamming to the ground, scattered about the clearing like so many bowling pins. Bella gasped in disbelief.
Edward and Jasper scrambled to their feet first, snake-like in their reflexes as Edward reached for Victoria and Jasper snatched at Charlie. No sooner had they wrenched the two apart when a series of eerie creaks and crackling groans splintered the air, making them all look up in time to see the surrounding trees begin a slow descent, increasing in speed as, one by one, they followed their inexorable trajectories to the forest floor. The deafening whooshes, thumps, and booms caused everyone in the clearing to scramble out of the way—all except Edward and his captive, left standing in the center of the chaos. He held Victoria by the neck from behind, both of them frozen in place, both of them staring at Bella.
Victoria's eyes widened in apparent disbelief, and then narrowed in fury. "No!" she screamed. "She should be dead!" Her snarled words choked off as Edward tightened his hold around her neck, his other hand gripping her hair, keeping her head immobile. He leaned in, his lips by her ear. It was a deceptively intimate gesture, but his fierce whisper travelled across the clearing.
"She's immortal. You'll never touch her again."
And Bella could see it then, the rage in Victoria's eyes giving way to resignation, letting them all see that she believed him. Her vindictive terror spree was over, and there was no escape for her. Her next words were choked out as a strangled, pathetic whimper. "He was my mate."
"And she's mine." Edward's vengeance played out with a directness that left Bella blinking at what she'd just witnessed. But as he dropped Victoria's head to the ground and kicked it away from her body, he pulled a lighter from his pocket and called, "Bella?" He held out the small item in his palm, a tentative offering.
She felt like she was trembling, even though she knew she wasn't. Her steps were dream-like, carrying her over a surreal landscape of ash, splinters and minor craters of mud. She might as well have been traversing the moon, it was so other-worldly. Was this really happening? The lighter looked smooth, but the imperfections in its surface were betrayed by the knowing skin on her hands. She hesitated, holding it over the broken body of the woman who had tormented them all for so long.
"Do you want me to—?" Edward asked. He sounded so uncertain, and when she looked at him, she could see the conflict in his eyes. He probably thought he was asking too much of her.
"No, I want to," she said. "I just need to make sure it's . . . real." She flicked the lighter top open carefully, activating the flint and watching the flame spark and take hold. It flickered in the tiny breeze, and as she watched it, her mind supplied a ghastly lineup of all the lives she knew that Victoria had taken. The flame dropped from her hand and took root in the body below.
Edward yanked Bella back from the blaze, his arms tight around her, his breath in her hair.
Vampire bodies burned quickly. Victoria's was no exception, and as she and Edward witnessed its final and indisputable dissolution into ash, they did so silently. There were no words worth marking Victoria's ending, and as Bella finally looked up and forward, it was to find part of her future staring back at her in apparent disbelief.
"Oh my God, Dad!" She threw her arms around him, remembering at the last moment that she could hurt him, then realizing that he was probably the only one in attendance she couldn't really hurt right now. The thought was both relieving and sobering. Her father's face contorted with emotion, his arms returning the gesture. "Bella." They held each other fiercely for a long moment.
"You're okay," Charlie breathed. "Oh, God, Bella, she told me you were—"
"It's okay, I'm okay," she said, touching his face. He was here. He was alive. Well, as alive as she was . . . and she'd never felt more so, she realized.
"And . . . the baby?" he asked hesitantly.
"She's fine," Bella assured him. "Edward got there in time." She smiled briefly at her husband over Charlie's shoulder. "Dad, She's beautiful. We're calling her Madeleine. Maddy for short."
Charlie's hand went to his throat, and for a moment, Bella couldn't tell if it was in emotion or thirst but his confusion was almost tangible. He shook his head. "I, uh . . . "
"C'mon Charlie," Emmett said, coming up and slapping his hand on Charlie's back. "Let me take you hunting."
Charlie, whose eyes, Bella saw, were almost black, shook his head again, his face crinkling in pain. "No, I can't. I don't know what you or we are, but I can't do that again, not after what she made me do—"
"It's okay," Emmett said much more gently, his hand still on Charlie's back. "We're not hunting people. But we can probably find us some deer, or even a bear, if they're not hibernating yet."
"A bear?" Charlie blinked at him in disbelief.
"We'll explain," Jasper said gently. He glanced pointedly at Edward and Bella. "There's . . . a lot to explain."
Bella found herself nodding, grateful for Jasper's offer. Yes, there was. There was going to be so much to talk over with her dad. But . . . she took another glance at the destruction around her and drew in a long, unnecessary breath. There was going to be a lot to talk about, period. She reached out to Edward, grabbing his hand with hers, knowing from his pained expression that she was squeezing too hard but not letting go because she needed an anchor. What had happened? What had she just done?
"It's okay, Bella. I've got you," Edward murmured.
"Let's go," Jasper said. He pointed out the direction for Charlie's benefit, briefly turning towards Edward, a question in his eyes.
"We'll join you in a bit," Edward told him.
"Where are we going?" Bella asked.
"Home." Edward smiled. "To Alaska."
DISCLAIMER: S. Meyer owns Twilight. No copyright infringement intended.