Bella PoV

As I watched Sam and Carlisle discuss their plan of attack, surrounded by the wolves and the rest of the Cullens, I knew my part here was done. I had brought them together, had put the idea in their heads that they needed to fight together if they would want to win. The rest was in their hands. I felt like I would only disturb and so I stayed.

At my side Jake looked at me, his eyes full of unspoken questions. I smiled weakly. "It's up to them now. I would be no help anyways." My gaze swept over the clearing, seeing the vampires and the wolves, creatures of a world I had stumbled inside without realising what I had gotten myself into. A small, breakable human in a world of the two deadliest creatures. "I don't know the least thing about hunting vampires, and other than being bait I am no use." When I heard Jacob growl with protest, I shook my head. "You know it's true. Vampires, werewolves, they belong to another world, a dangerous one. There is a reason most humans don't know of their existence. This world is too dangerous for them. Each and every one of them could kill five humans in a heartbeat. I felt safe around the Cullens because I knew they were good people but when James, Laurent and Victoria arrived, I realised how dangerous this world really is. I could do nothing than stand around and watch and wait for the Cullens to save me. Then they left and Laurent came back and you fought them and I could once again just stand and watch and wait for someone to save me. That's my fate if I want to be part of your world. Any don't you look at me like that because you know it's true," I scolded him lightly. "But I'm okay with that. I do whatever I can to help and protect you as you always help and protect me. After all, that's what a relationship is, isn't it? Care and protect your partner." I knelt down so that I could press my face in his soft and warm fur. I felt him lying down too so I could lean against him.

While the negotiations continued, I, enwrapped by his heat and the feeling that everything was going to be okay, slowly but surely drifted into sleep.

I dreamt. I wasn't on the meadow as I had been during the last weeks but was standing on a platform. It was covered in snow. Even though I was wearing a warm jacket the cold winter wind blew heavily and I shivered.

I thought I was alone at first but when I turned my head I saw a line of werewolves and vampires standing side by side. The wolves were growling and bared their teeth while the vampires had their hands clenched into fists. I recognised the Cullens, Carlisle and Esme and Jasper and Alice and Emmet and Rosalie, but this wasn't the loving and nice family I knew. They showed what they really were. Deadly creatures, capable of killing with a blow of their hands. The wolves were familiar too, at least most of them. I saw Sam, a huge black wolf with teeth as long as my forearm and Seth, the smaller wolf with fur the colour of sand. And of course Jacob with his red fur looking as deadly as his brothers. Their eyes were fixed on the other side of the platform where, after some time, shadows appeared.

As they came closer and closer I saw who they were. Or more clearly what they were. Vampires. Monsters. Dressed in bloody, torn clothes, their faces pale and blood-stained. They were young, mostly in their twenties and looked like an army of the undead. They were led by a beautiful red-haired woman, bloodred eyes, a snarl on her marble face.

Without a word the vampires began to run, to attack and so did the Cullens and the wolves. They clashed together right in the middle of the platform and immediately the fight began.

The vampires used their bare hands and their fangs to tear at the wolves which in turn bit them with their sharp teeth and huge claws.

I was doomed to watch, like countless times before. I saw Emmet fighting a small brunette girl who slashed at him with sharp fingers and managed to rip a huge part of his thigh open. He roared and lifted her up, throwing her down so hard her body snapped in the middle. Alice and Esme were fighting a dark-skinned vampire with dreadlocks who snarled and bled from several wounds.

Seth and a wolf with dark silver fur I didn't recognise fought against three vampires, two males and a female. Everywhere I looked, fights were breaking out. The wolves and the Cullens fought so bravely but it seemed like the flow of enemy vampires never stopped.

Suddenly I felt something cold touch my neck and a low voice at my ear. "My, my what do we have here? A snack?" The voice laughed an ice-cold laughter that shook me to my bone.

Victoria came to stand before me, her marble features drawn into a hateful grimace. Blood covered her mouth and made it shine like rubies. "And no one to protect you. So it's true, he really left you, all alone and unprotected. His love for you couldn't have been very great."

I tried to shake her off, shout at her, do something but I was frozen like a pile of ice. "It's a pity," Victoria continued. "It would have been so much fun seeing him suffer because he couldn't protect the woman he loved. Well, it seems like I would have to draw my satisfaction elsewhere. Like from the fact that the girl who caused my beloved's death has met her rightful fate." She smiled coldly and both of her hands crept along my neck. "I grant you one mercy, human. I am not going to kill you slowly as I had intended first. I can see the fact he has left you in the woods at the mercy of every monster there is has hurt you beyond everything I could do to you. So I will end your misery now." Victoria's hands squeezed and I could feel the muscles and the bones protest from the rough treatment. I couldn't even close my eyes, had to endure her satisfied look while I felt my life slowly drifting out of my body...