CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
(BPOV)
The sharp pain in my head was secondary to the burning in my lungs, as the iron clad grip around my throat tightened further with Demetri's lethal hiss of satisfaction.
"Finally, Bella. We are face to face. I can't tell you how long I've waited for this very moment to come."
I couldn't keep my focus on his words as the thick smoke swiftly lingered out further into our home, the fire now crawling up the baseboards and creeping rapidly over the walls without pause.
Demetri's eyes wildly searched mine with his narrowed gaze of aggravation then, as if my unwillingness to give him something had pissed him off, his next hiss reaching me as the kitchen table became engulfed in the flames.
"I can't see into that pretty head of yours. How infuriating!"
He dropped me then, releasing me so quickly that my body fell limp at his feet on the floor. I gasped, choking loudly on the air that I dragged into my deprived lungs with heaving breaths. The suffocating thick smoke filled them as I forced myself upright.
I crawled on the floor, choking and gasping with every move forward I made.
Demetri snickered at this, the sound of his laugh eerie and cold when it left him as I tried to keep moving. The solid kick of his boot to my side then knocked the wind from me, but I refused to make a sound despite the stabbing pain his blow had sent through my ribs. I felt them break and I inhaled sharply, barely able to lift my body back up there beneath him.
Their names all flickered through my mind at once then...-Clarissa-... Mason-... Madison.
I forced myself to uncurl from the floor. I wanted his focus on me and not the kids. Not our children. He'd have to kill me first and I'd gladly let him.
I would keep them safe for as long as I could or I'd die trying.
Clarissa would be his first target and I'd rather him turn me right now than see him lay a single marble hand on her.
I bit back the cry that threatened to leave me when Demetri's firm hand dove into my long hair and tugged, forcing me to look up at him as he crouched down over me.
"I can't decide now whether to kill you or take you as my own. Both choices are appealing and your fear smells delicious in your blood, Bella. Decisions... Decisions. What would you have me do?"
Tears ran down my cheeks with my hoarse answer to him, the one I could hardly gather enough breath to give.
"I'll go w-with y-you." I managed.
He tilted his head to the side at this, his hand leaving my hair as he wiped the blood dripping slowly down the side of my face and traced it over his lips with a lustful glint in his crimson stare.
"You'll go willingly with me, you say? Just like that?"
I nodded, careful not to provoke him any further as he continued to eye me curiously.
"Yes."
"Are you always this submissive?" He darkly questioned, tilting my face further up in his direction. "I could have good use for that later."
I inwardly cringed at this and tried not to let the terror take me, as he hauled me to my feet and inched himself even closer. I wanted to scream, but I kept my mouth shut when he ran his icy fingertips along my jaw and trailed them down to my collar bone.
"Too bad the mutt that's partially responsible for ending my dear family years ago won't be here now to see this. He's missing a real show. What a shame." He darkly hedged.
At the mention of Jacob, and against my better judgement, I dared to speak to him again.
"Where is he?" I breathed, not taking my eyes away from his as he smirked, the look of it un-natural, like it didn't belong on his face at all.
"Headed to the mercy of the slaughter." He coldly informed. "Just like the rest of them all- dogs that they are. The Volturi I built is untouchable. There's no getting through it. Those who I've acquired and recruited are lethal. One of them can even blind you while unleashing his torture on his prey from the inside out. It's fascinating to watch. Truthfully, I hope your Jacob survives, he'll be of great use to me if he does. His abilities would make him an asset to our new guard. Who knows, maybe I'll even like him better than Edward and Alice."
I swallowed hard, and looked away from him as his words filled my head with the unwanted images I loathed, and giving me an instant clarity that I hated even more.
"Edward and Alice traded their promised servitude for something you hungered for more." I choked out in understanding.
"Indeed...-Revenge." He hissed. "Seems you're quicker than I mistook you for."
"Betrayal." I shuddered.
"At it's finest. Alice seemed less willing to participate than her bronze haired brother. If that's any comfort to you."
"It's not." I spat his way. "What are you gonna do?"
"Oh, I have plans for you, Bella. Great ones. Seems it might be your lucky day after all. I'm not much in the mood for killing you- right now."
"How kind of you." I bitterly retorted.
"I have been known to have my moments." He replied, gesturing to the spreading fire. "We are running out of time, dear Bella. What do you say we get on with this show?"
With a turn of blinding speed, he spun back around and took me by the throat again, hurdling me to the ground hard enough that black spots filled my vision.
I laid there, unable to find the strength needed to lift my head as it pounded fiercely.
"You're a lot tougher than I thought you'd be." He humorlessly joked.
"Don't judge a book by its cover."
"Sure you're not hiding a supernatural ability, too? Hmm?" He menacingly hedged, crossing the room in a blur, as my eyes caught a glimpse of his fleeting form before he towered above me, his granite hand taking hold of my ankle while he dragged me forward.
I forced myself to rise on my hands and knees and it hurt like hell to do so.
The smoke was disorienting and as much as I knew that escaping would be impossible, nothing was going to stop me from trying to get to the other side of the house where the kids were. The fire was already reaching out into the kitchen archway and I feared that if I didn't act fast, I would lose my chance altogether.
"Maybe I am." I coughed, hearing the sickening wheeze that came from my chest, and cringing from the sound that told me without an X-ray that his kick to my ribs had fractured enough of them to puncture a lung. Breathing wasn't something I was taking for granted right now, because I knew the next few could be my last with a possible pneumothorax coming. Flail chest could be fatal, I remembered how many times I'd seen it back at Pen Bay Medical as a trauma nurse, and I knew the outcome of it wasn't always great for the patient on the gurney.
There was no medical team to help me now.
I was on my own.
"Don't play games with me, Bella. It won't end well."
"As long as you promise it will end- I don't need it to end well."
Demetri's face contorted into an ugly glare at this. He didn't like that I wasn't giving into him.
"Do you not value your own mortality? Most humans do."
I saw his eager red irises flare wildly at this. He was getting off on the pleasure of my torment, and I refused to give him anymore satisfaction out of it. I still had that much control left and I was damn sure going to use it.
"I'm not most humans."
"Pity." He angrily countered.
"For you."
He grabbed me like a rag doll then, hauling me with jarring force to my feet and spinning me around to look him in the face.
"You're not in a place to win this war of words."
A frantic howl far off in the distance stole his immediate attention suddenly, as he looked to the door now covered in flames and released me with another feral hiss.
I took this fleeting chance and ran from him, gasping in the smoke and dodging the flames that reached for me when I stumbled through the black haze.
I barely made it to the hall, only feet away from the living room when he caught hold of me, slamming me to the wall as he pulled his lips back over his venom soaked fangs in violent rage. The black spots filled more of my vision. I was fading, coming in and out of consciousness as he threw me to the floor, his iron hand forcefully clamping down on my leg. The bone snapped and I let out a scream I couldn't control as he seethed.
"Come on, Bella! Beg for your life. I'm sure your dog will hear you! Unless he's already dead!"
"No!" I choked out.
Demetri hissed and rose to his feet suddenly, his head turning toward the living room as he sniffed the air.
"There's more than just you here."
"No...-No." I half cried. "It's me you want. Take me."
"Oh- what fun this is going to be!" He thrilled aloud. "Guess I missed something! You and the mutt have pups here at home? How sweet!"
"No!" I screamed at him. "Don't!"
"They'll make a good addition to the Volturi! Immortal children- so much potential there. At this rate, if your mutt survives the mass slaughter out there, I'll be able to collect all of you for Volterra. Just like a family reunion. How delightful."
He headed for Clarissa then and my adrenaline kicked in, pushing me onward to do the unthinkable - to get in his way.
I was on my feet, running after him, as he entered the living room and turned it upside down in search of her.
Clarissa wasn't there.
A rush of relief and confusion left me disoriented while he upended our couch and coffee table with little to no effort, his glowing blood red gaze wide as he looked around.L in every which direction.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are little ones. How many of you are there? One... two...-three maybe?"
He ripped the curtains down and turned his glare to me when he discovered no one was there.
They were already out of this house.
I let out a sob as I thought of Clarissa, of how she'd gotten Mason and Madison out with Demetri being none the wiser. She'd acted all on her own. It was just the two of us now and I didn't care if he turned me or if he left me in here to become ash. Our children were safe from him and I'd die with that assurance. That was enough for me.
I watched as he paused by the window, his rage evident on his face now.
"They're not here." I smugly told him. "You will never touch them. You lose, Demetri."
He moved quicker than I could react or anticipate with his seething answer to this.
"I'll kill you instead!"
He heaved me backwards, throwing me into the window and shattering it from the force. I landed with the scattered glass, and felt the warmth soak through my shirt as the rustic tinge filled the air. I reached for my middle, pulling out the large shard that had sliced me open when I landed on it with a cry that filled our burning house.
I rolled to my side, seeing the blood pool around me while it drenched through the flimsy cotton and seeped out onto the floor.
It was then that I saw his face in my mind. The clear image of it making my tears spill all the more, as I laid there thinking back on everything we had together.
Mud pies and First Beach, his tiny hand always reaching for mine back then whenever we were close enough. The loss of his mother. The summers I spent with him as a child on the Reservation.
Engine rebuilds on my first truck and reckless motorcycle rides. Warm sodas and cold pizza. His hearty laughter and my smile.
Movies and popcorn with Charlie and Billy. All the dinners I cherished with them.
Me leaving Forks. Maine and the hospital. All the years we spent apart only to be brought back together in the most tragic way.
Lillians death and how it gave me a newfound determination in my own life to love without apologies and to not run anymore.
Finding something new and beautiful with Jacob, even in the middle of all the brokenness of those days. We'd found our love again. We really had.
My choice to leave Maine and Pen Bay for Washington and rebuild what I'd left behind years ago. To start over with the man I couldn't live without because I no longer wanted to.
Clarissa's first steps. Her first words. The first time she called me mama.
Our wedding day. The tears in Jacobs eyes when I told him we were having twins. The painting of their nursery with him. The fun we had trying to guess if we'd have two boys or two girls, only to be stunned to find out we were having one of each instead.
The birth of Mason and Madison. How much joy they'd brought us and filled our home with. All the times I'd found Jacob asleep with them in the rocking chair, one on each arm as he held them close through the night when they were just weeks old.
Even the loss of the baby we never got to meet or name, I treasured those painful memories too, cause it was a reminder that he or she was up in heaven waiting for me there.
The petty fights. The foolish disagreements. The yelling and separation that should have never been. The real fear of losing him from the distance I'd placed there after our miscarriage. The sadness. The hurt. The anger. The remorse and regret over things we couldn't change and the choice to do things differently this time. The kisses that stole my breath away whenever we made up. The feel of his strong arms taking hold of me at the end of another long day. The way he'd reach for me when we'd lay our heads down at night.
Clarissa's infectious grin and her sweet laughter. How it would light up a whole room and leave all those around her smiling back. Her love to be wherever Jacob was.
They were all okay-... We were okay...- We'd had what most only dreamed of and prayed for. In this life, what more could a wife and mother ask for than for her children to be truly okay- truly loved, cherished, cared for, and believed in? Nothing- there was nothing more she could desire for them. They were all those things and more, and if I didn't make it out of this house alive, I knew in my heart, they'd still be okay. I knew that Jacob would make sure they were okay cause he was alive- out there still fighting- and he'd come back for them. He'd keep them safe. I had no doubt.
I believed in him, in his fierceness and determination. There was no one I'd ever believed in more on this earth and that was still true.
"Jake...- I love you." I gasped, catching sight of the wedding ring on my left hand that was now covered in the thick crimson that coated my fingers from my attempt at stemming the blood flow as it steadily left my body. "I will always love you. Forever- not a day less."
His words came back to me and I held onto them as Demetri stalked toward me with a final hiss while the fire blazed on around us.
"You and the kids, Bella-you are the best things to ever happen to me- and I'll protect all of you fiercely, until I take my last breath. No less."
I anticipated the feel of Demetris teeth sinking into my skin as he crouched down, and lifted me from the pool of my own blood, his cold hands on my face with a sickening promise in his red eyes of the searing pain I knew was coming. I drew in my last unsteady breath of smoke filled air, and heard the dark laugh leave his parted lips as they hovered over the fading pulse in my neck. The life was pouring out of me and I couldn't fight the pull of darkness that steadily tugged at me any longer.
This was it. This was the end for me.
Demetri started to say something, though I could barely hear it, my eyes fluttering closed in surrender of what I could no longer fight when it half left him.
"Isabella, I'll be waiting for you on the other side of the fire. You'll be -"
Without warning, my body was shifted. Gone was the cold set of arms that held me captive as I fell limp to the burning floor below.
Everything went dark. Pitch black. I was sure I'd drown in it.
Suffocating and terrified, I heard the roar cut through the layer of immovable darkness that was trying to consume me and it forced me to hold on a bit longer. My eyes flew open to see the fight ahead.
The white wolf plowed into Demetri, knocking him away from me seconds before his razor teeth could touch my skin. I was too weak to move, staring helplessly on while it roared viciously at him, the two of them now locked in a fight to the death.
Clarissa.
A/N: I hope you all are still with me! Please leave a review with your thoughts! Heart pounding update today!