Bella screamed. Her voice echoed through the hall of the empty cement garage in a strange, hoarse ripping sound.

"Don't look, Bella" I spoke low into her ear. She sobbed, breathing in short quick bursts.

"Dr. Luke," she looked wildly into my eyes, as if looking for confirmation. "He killed him."

He?

Confused, her eyes moved frantically, searching for a threat. She clung to me, pulling on my jacket, trying to pull me away and closer to her at the same time.

I hugged her to me, shushing her as I walked her away from the gruesome scene. "Victoria killed him," I whispered.

She buried her face in my shirt, her body trembling. I rubbed her back. She began taking deep measured breaths, her eyes closed. I heard her softly begin counting. After a minute she whispered to me. "I thought James ... never mind. I've never seen a dead person like that before. It's so horrible."

"It's all right, you're safe," I chanted, "I wish you hadn't seen that."

Bella suddenly stiffened "My Mom!"

I sensed Jasper as he ran to us, stopping a foot from where I held Bella. She yelped.

"I apologize for startling you," Jasper said, inclining his head toward her, an old habit. "Your mother is fine. Carlisle and Esme haven't left her side. Alice saw Victoria kill the doctor early this morning. She sent me and Emmett to help get rid of - the body."

Emmett rounded the corner of the garage in the tinted sedan.

We need to get Bella to a neutral location. Take her to the Villa.

"Where we're keeping Bree?"I asked him, too quietly for Bella to hear.

Rosalie insists she has the newborn immortal child under control. She's keeping her away from the villa, but not as far as I'd like. Jaspers thoughts were unsettled, his military mind calculating the risk, the vulnerability of our position. Bella was the golden goose, and our nearest safe house had a ravenous tiger next door. Having her out in the open posed an equal risk, by his assessment.

I nodded to him, imperceptible to Bella's eyes. He left us then, meeting Emmett in the stairwell as he carried Dr. Luke's corpse over his shoulder.

"We have to call the police," Bella was muttering as she pulled away from me, pacing. "Oh god, what if he had a family?" She was beginning to pull herself together, and I was momentarily impressed by her clarity of mind under such duress. Unfortunately, her conclusions were wrong; we would not let anyone find the body of Dr. Luke. We could not risk exposure. This was the darkest part of my world, and Bella was coming face to face with it, merely hours after we had come so close to bliss.

I tried not to think about what would have happened if we had arrived earlier. Perhaps Bella was right, the universe appeared to be trying to extinguish her life.

"We can't involve the police. This won't be seen as an animal attack, like in Forks." I explained. "We don't want to attract more attention."

"You mean the Volturi." She stopped pacing. I was surprised she remembered.

"Yes."

She looked to the stairwell. I knew she wanted to see her mother, to confirm that she was well.

I placed my hand on her cheek, turned her to look at me. "We will see Renee, but after that, I'm begging you to come with me to the beach house with me. I want to get you away from here. I know I don't deserve your trust, but I need it now. Will you trust me, Bella?"

She blinked, her lashes casting shadows on her cheeks in the dim light. She put her hand over mine on her cheek. "Okay."

Bella was lost in thought during our car ride, gathering herself together. She still wore the same sweatshirt from yesterday and commented that she would kill for a shower. I opened the door of the truck for Bella, relieved once more as she took my extended hand. She gasped as she took in the beachside Villa the Cullen's obtained for the next several months. Carlisle spared no expense. The three-story robin's egg blue building towered over the forest of palm trees that flanked it, surrounded by a gigantic lazy river, protecting the Floridian sanctuary that would become our fort in this war.

Bella had once joked that she expected our estate in Forks to have a moat. I wondered if she made the same connection now.

"Huh." Bella said. "There's a moat after all" she smiled sweetly at me. I couldn't help but grin at her. Despite everything that had gone wrong, being with her felt so right.

As Bella walked in through the sliding glass door, she was immediately swept off her feet by Emmett, her feet dangling in the air as he hugged her hard.

"Hi Bella!" He bellowed. Bella was taken so by surprise that she did not make a sound as he swung her around once and planted her on the floor in front of him. "I didn't get a chance to say hey to you at the hospital, cuz' I had to get rid of the corpse and all." I shot him a warning glance and watched as she flinched at the word, corpse.

"Hello Emmett, it's good to see you too," she said. "Where is Rosalie?"

"She's with the munchkin," Emmett grinned. He thought of the small raven-haired girl, pictured Rosalie brushing her long hair with a golden hairbrush lovingly, as the child sat on her lap and played with Rosalie's makeup brushes, her red eyes glowing in delight.

"Oh." Bella said, unsure and clearly conflicted. "How is she?"

"Adjusting really well," Emmett said as he sat on the white leather couch, totally at ease. "She's got awesome control, considering she's a newborn." Plus, the fact that she can't go home, he thought. "Rosalie is over the moon. She's always wanted to be a mom."

"Oh," Bella said again, processing.

I decided to give her an out. "Jasper and Alice will be here in a moment, Bella. You've been through hell in the last 24 hours, do you want to take a human moment? There are plenty of rooms upstairs, they should have everything you might need stocked. I'm sure Esme wouldn't mind if you wanted a change of clothes."

She looked at me with gratitude. "That sounds great, actually." Began walking toward the stairs, and hesitated as she looked at the vast hallway. "Um, could you show me?"

"Certainly," I walked with her, leading her to the largest bedroom.

Have fun up there, don't do anything I wouldn't, Emmett directed his thoughts toward me, coupled with unsolicited images of various sexual scenarios that I blocked immediately from my mind. Without Bella noticing, I grabbed a vase from the shelf beside the stairs and hurled it at incredible speed at his head. The sound of him laughing followed us up the stairs.

As we entered the bedroom, an awkward moment transpired between us. We both paused as we looked at the king-sized four poster bed with a golden comforter that took up the majority of the room. Emmett's vivid imagination had more of an effect on me than I would have liked to admit. A blush appeared on Bella's cheeks, the rose color spreading down the length of her neck.

Without taking her eyes off of me, she removed her sweatshirt and tossed it onto the chair beside her. I watched as the blush continued to swirl and spread, coloring her delicate collar bones, disappearing behind her black tank top. I tried not to notice how her top clung to her curves. As she breathed, one of the straps fell from her shoulder.

My body was in motion before my mind allowed it to do so. I moved to stand close behind her, and gently touched the fallen strap of clothing, my fingers brushing her velvet soft shoulder. I counted the freckles on her neck, brushing my lips against her hair, letting my nose run along the length of her exposed shoulder. Bella's breathing sped. I placed the strap back on her shoulder, telling myself that it was time to step away from her. I dipped my head and kissed her shoulder where the strap rested. I had planned to give her space. My body didn't comply, and I moved closer to her instead, sweeping her hair to the side, giving myself greater access to watching the blush move across her delectable collar bones, across her back.

Bella turned then, and we stood chest to chest. I prepared to apologize for my behavior, but Bella swallowed my words in that moment by throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me, hard. I reached down and lifted her, holding her as Emmett did, never breaking the contact of the kiss. We kissed slowly this time, luxuriating in one another. I felt her tongue slide across my lower lip, asking for access. I was more than thrilled to grant her that wish. I tasted her, the whisper of my lips showing her how I desired her.

"God Bella," I groaned. In my century of life, nothing had ever been able to take me by surprise as much as this woman did. I felt her smile against my mouth. I was breathing as hard as she was.

Edward, we need to talk.

I nearly growled at Jasper's terrible timing.

"You have to go," Bella guessed, reading my expression. I set her on her feet reluctant to let her go. I made sure she knew that, holding her face in my hands and kissing her softly again, once, and twice. Bella turned and with one last glance at me, walked into the master bathroom. I heard the shower turn on.

I heard the sound of Bella discarding her clothing. The mental image of Bella showering and that kiss was a heady combination. I quickly ran downstairs, shaking my head to clear the images and trying to get my head back in the game.

Jasper and Emmett appeared to be arguing. Alice rubbed her temples, experiencing vision after vision as my brothers changed their plan of attack. Once I picked up on the crux of the disagreement, I immediately stood in front of Jasper. I bared my teeth. Emmett stood beside me, prepared to hold me back.

"I will not allow you to use Bella as bait."

"It would be foolish not to."

"Absolutely not."

"In the theater of war, you have to use every tactical advantage-" I cut Jasper's argument short, outraged that he saw Bella as a tool in this.

"She is not going to be used for anything. I won't deliberately put her in danger."

"She's already in enough danger," Emmett pointed out, he created distance between us, and sat back on the couch once he was sure I wouldn't start a brawl in the living room. "We also need to find Victoria before she changes more people. Alice said she saw the Victoria changed what - eleven? It's like she is starting a small army. We don't want the Volturi to intervene and decide to pay a visit." I am not sure they would respond well to knowing about Bella.

"Precisely. This way we can accelerate the timeline, control where and when the conflict takes place. Victoria has repeatedly escaped us when we pursued her." Jasper thought of her slipping away from him. "We need a different strategy."

Alice groaned, the kaleidoscope of images dizzying and hard to follow. We continued to argue for several minutes. It was clear that Emmett was beginning to see Jasper's perspective on this.

I watched the visions as they continued to splinter. Images of me taking Bella and running with her ending in disaster, images of ongoing and unrelenting mass slaughter, and new dark images of figures in ancient black cloaks arriving in the night, sometime in the not too distant future.

"This protection detail is unsustainable," Jasper said as he paced, crossing his arms behind his back, a habit from his days as a major in the Texas Cavalry. "I felt her desire for revenge when I fought her, Edward. She wants more than to just kill you. She's made it clear that her interest is taking Bella away from you, mate for mate, tit for tat. She wants you to suffer. I'm suggesting we set a trap-"

"No."

"This last attack was unlike the others, it was personal," Jasper reasoned with me, leaning against the doorframe. He would not relent in this debate. Neither would I.

"No," I said more firmly.

Alice suddenly sat up, her hands dropping to the couch in a loud smack. A singular future snapped into place like a rubber band. I watched it play out through her thoughts. Bella deliberately placing drops of her own blood along a green grassy path, merely days from now.

"That's better," Alice sighed in relief.

"I said no!" I shouted at my siblings.

"That is not up to you." Bella's voice carried through the living room, amplified by the acoustics of high ceilings.

She walked downstairs, dressed in slacks and Esme's light caramel silk blouse, her businesslike attire matching her tone. She stopped at the foot of the stairs and crossed her arms.

"Jasper," she said politely. "Edward told me you fought in the civil war. And that you have experience with battling newborn vampires."

He stood at attention. "yes, mam'."

Bella nodded once. "I'm listening."

I walked toward her with my hands extended. "I promised I would keep you safe, Jasper's plan will put you directly in harm's way," I pleaded with her.

"You unilaterally decided what was best for me," Bella's voice dropped to a hurt whisper. "You also promised you wouldn't make that kind of choice for me again."

I was floored. Here I was making the same mistake, foolishly leaving her out of decisions about her own life. In 100 years, I seemed to have forgotten the ability to learn from my mistakes.

"Please, forgive me," I said, thoroughly admonished. "It runs counter to my nature, letting you be in danger."

"I know." Bella's eyes softened.

Jasper took that moment to re-focus on the mission. He turned to Alice. "When did you see Victoria decide to act exactly?"

"At Sunrise."

"As I was saying, this last attack was different. It was meant to punish you specifically, Bella. Why was this morning different, what changed?"

"I didn't see," Alice said.

Bella spoke up then. "I did."

Four pairs of vampire eyes focused on her. She appeared briefly uncomfortable, then squared her shoulders, her voice calm.

"I was the factor that changed," she said. Bella turned toward me. "I started to … forgive you. She must have seen us together. Happy. On the beach."

I shook my head. "I would have caught her scent."

"Unless someone else saw you," Emmett suggested, thinking of the spies that worked for the Volturi. We tensed, considering this. Bella looked around the room in confusion.

"Victoria has changed almost a dozen newborns. They aren't organized, but they are obedient, blindly following her," Alice summarized. "It might have been one of them."

"They are following their sire," Jasper's tone darkened.

"Sire?" Bella asked.

I'd hoped to never have to have this conversation with Bella. This was one of the most shameful experiences of being an immortal, something the family rarely talked about. "It's theoretical, but when we're turned, vampires experience a sort of intense bond with their 'maker' for the first year or two. After that, it appears we regain our free will."

I recalled the mayhem of my rebellion against Carlisle, my resentment toward him for the life I had no choice in living. I detected the discomfort in my siblings' expressions. Jasper thought of the dark-haired Spanish beauty that recruited him to carry out atrocities in a war for territory in the south.

If I was honest with myself, I was petrified that when I looked at Bella, I would see her repulsion. Would she still consider an eternal life with me, given the disgraceful possibility that she could lose her free will? Instead, I found Bella looking at Alice with concern.

"It was why I wandered around lost after I was changed," Alice explained. "I was likely following James's trail on a subconscious level. My visions are what helped guide me to the Cullen's, set me on a different path. Without them, I would probably have found him. I can only imagine what would have happened." She toyed with the hem of her shirt, ashamed. Jasper calmly walked over to her. He knelt before her, took her hand in his, and kissed it. Their thoughts were so intimate, I had to block them from my mind. Bella looked away as well, a blush tinting her cheeks.

"So, basically, one of Victoria's groupies saw you together, tattled, and that set her off," Emmett said, changing the subject. He was one of the only Cullen's who saw nothing wrong with the sire bond.

"Our being together, unaffected by her, it taunted her," I confirmed.

Emmett was becoming impatient. Get to the combat.

"What do we do next?" he asked.

"Victoria showed her hand" Jasper said. "We will use that weakness against her. We dangle the bait," I winced, trying to stifle my reaction, "feign retreat, and when she thinks Bella's unprotected, when she decides to act, we stage a set-up."

"Easier said than done," Alice sighed. "The only problem is that Victoria has lost her mind, so watching her decisions is like trying to catch lightening in a bottle. When I do see, it's almost always too late. The only coherent decision she has made was that she was coming after you, Bella. She doesn't have a plan on when or how."

Bella stepped forward, walking to the window.

"You said the newborn vampires are linked to their sire, to Victoria, right?" Bella asked, her expression thoughtful.

I replied cautiously. "Yes."

"Well, don't we have one of those?" Bella asked. She looked directly at Emmett, who suddenly rose from his seat.

We're not letting the munchkin anywhere near Victoria, he thought. Over my dead body.

Jasper's wheels were immediately turning. "Alice could you use Bree's mental link to focus on Victoria's mind?" Emmett visibly relaxed. Being with Bree was bringing out a new paternal side to him.

"Oh!" Alice exclaimed, another future beginning to solidly before her. "Yes, this will work."

Bella was brilliant. I could kiss her. I caught her by the waist, feeling hopeful again.

Jasper was ten steps ahead. We'll use Bella's scent to lure the newborns somewhere where we can have the higher ground.

"We'll need reinforcements," he said aloud.

I nodded. "I'll make a call."

TO BE CONTINUED. . .

All characters belong to Stephanie Meyer, the Twilight Series. No copyright infringement intended.

Plot is mine :)

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