Come away little lamb come away to the water

To the arms that are waiting only for you

Come away little lamb come away to the slaughter

To the one appointed to see this through

We are coming for you

Chapter 30: One Small Drop

Bella POV:

"Bella breathe! Come on!" Something extremely hard hit my chest and I involuntarily coughed up my lungful of water.

It took me a solid minute or two to completely regain my vision and proper breathing again. My lungs burned horribly after the ordeal and my body ached. It felt like someone had wrung the life out of me as if I were a towel, and then left one small drop. One small drop of life that I had to hang onto and recover from.

Alice looked just as bad as I probably did, like a cat that fell into a pool of water. Her face was full of relief at my consciousness however. Her eyes were filled with tears and her body was drenched. I could tell she wanted to speak to me, but thankfully she let me cough my lungs up before trying to do so.

"Bella." Alice finally croaked out, barely above the sound of a whisper. Her fingers went to stroke my face, but I tried to turn my head and figure of what the hell happened. Bad move. The most pathetic whine came from me at this simple movement, everything was on fire.

"Wha-what happened?" I tried to get up again only to groan painfully once more. Alice softly pushed my shoulders back and started checking me for any other wounds.

Her work was methodical and careful, poking and prodding to make sure I was satisfactory to her needs. After a while I grew slightly annoyed at her lack of response.

"Alice?" She merely growled at me, not in a threatening manner, and continued her assessment.

After several more minutes, and it seemed her check of approval on my health, she returned back to my head with loving eyes.

"What happened?" I repeated a little stronger than before. She only bit her lip in response. Not good. "Al?"

"Well Benjamin kind of went out of control, a-and there was water everywhere-"

"Alice I know that part. How am I still alive?" She bit her lip again and turned her gaze away from me, still keeping her hand on my shoulder though.

"Bella, you were going to die."

"That's not an answer…" I said through clenched teeth. There was something big that she was avoiding to tell me.

"The Romanians showed up." Her statement was grim to say the least. I had to close my eyes and take a deep breath so I wouldn't explode on her.

"And?"

"They kind of- well they sort of- they killed Benjamin."

"WHAT?" In my anger and shock I had jumped up into a sitting position and immediately regretted it, and not just because of the pain that came along with it.

The damage around me was severe. Rubble everywhere, a few smoking piles of what I presumed where former living vampires, and water still dripping and puddling around the previously upright compound. Fucking A.

I collapsed forward into my hands in defeat. Alice tried to rub my back in an effort to comfort, but I was beyond pissed. Once again, my well thought plan had failed.

"He would have killed you Bella. I know it's horrible to say, but if they hadn't stepped in, you would be dead right now."

"Who are they?" I ignored her comment and pointed to the smoking remains scattered around us.

"Benjamin, Amun, Kebi, Chelsea, and Heidi. Jane and Felix got away."

"Fuck." I sighed and thought of the carnage that just occurred. "Well, at least we got two."

"No no my dear. We got two. You two did absolutely nothing." All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the sound of Stefan's arrogant voice.

"You son of a bitch –" Alice caught me as I lunged for them, holding me back before I created some more piles of ash.

"You're not strong enough right now Bells. Just stand down. Please." She whispered quietly into my ear. I growled and contemplated it, and unfortunately she was right. Also I didn't want to upset her anymore for the day. She looked like her sanity was wearing pretty thin.

"What the fuck did you do? You just ruined our only hope!"

"Well your only hope seemed to be perfectly fine killing you." Vladimir sneered at the ground, probably where Benjamin used to be.

"That doesn't matter! It's not like I can actually die!"

"Yes, but your poor dear wife would have been if we hadn't shown up. The guard was beginning to stir. And you would have left her all alone." The thought made me shiver. But they did not have to kill Benjamin to stop him.

"You still had options. Murder is final. Now he's gone."

"Says the woman who's hunting down the Volturi, taking no survivors."

"He was innocent!"

"And he had potential to not be."

"He was distraught! His parents were just ripped apart in front of him!" Alice tugged at me again as I grew restless once more. It was getting pretty personal. Her hand curled up my abdomen and rested there to calm me down.

"It was just the Egyptian coven. Not a loss at all." Stefan spoke with distaste. The Romanians and the Egyptians had fought over power long ago, but I had figured it was well forgotten by now. Obviously not.

"You hold a fucking grudge like no other covens. No wonder why the Volturi hates you. Is that why you killed them? Were you just waiting for an excuse to wipe them from the map?" Both of them just smirked and Alice had to press her entire front into my back to keep me back. "We're done. I'm fucking done with you. You crossed the line."

"Don't be so dramatic pup." It was Alice's turn to growl at Vladimir's taunt.

"No. That's it. You come in my way again and you just see what happens." They both laughed manically and tossed me a lighter.

"Good luck." I let out a loud sigh when they left and Alice relaxed, kissing my neck as she did so.

"I'm so sorry love. I should never have put you in this much danger. This is all my fault." I turned to face Alice as I spoke with guilt riddling my body. As much as I hated them, the Romanians were right. She would have been killed if they hadn't shown up.

"Stop." She pointed a threatening finger at me, all worry and sympathy gone from her face. "Stop that now. I'm really tired of that Bella. I told you we were a team, you need to start acting like it, highs and lows."

My exhaustion finally took over and I collapsed back onto the ground. Alice, much more gracefully, lowered herself down next to me.

"I'm sorry." She whispered in a much gentler tone. "I didn't mean it to sound so harsh, it's been a long day. But you have to understand how tired I am of having this conversation with you." I began to say something, but she hushed me with a finger. "Look, I know how much we've grown together, I still can't believe we're here together now. But it's really frustrating to have the same conversation with you time and time again. I understand that you worry about me, trust me I do, so please stop, and I mean this lovingly, being an ass."

She was honestly so perfect, even when telling me I was an ass, that I couldn't help but smile and pull her into my side.

"You're right. Thank you for constantly putting up with me. And I'm going to really work hard on myself so I deserve you. But for the time being, you can save yourself some trouble and just give me a good kick if I do it again." A muffled giggle came from her as she squeezed me tighter.

"Well I'm not that mean. I think a good elbow will do." I laughed and took her hands, standing us both upright again.

"Alright boss lady, that kind of blew up in our faces." We started walking away from the carnage around us. "But we're still in this. What now?"