Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Author's note: Sorry this is late...again. Serious bout of writer's block this time. This was a very important chapter and everything needed to be just right. Let me know what you think!
James looked bored as he waited for Bella to react. He kept his arm outstretched over Billy, his hand clutching the lit lighter far too casually considering Billy, like everything else in this room, was drenched in flammable gasoline.
If Bella wasn't aware of Billy's presence, if she could keep her thoughts away from the hundreds of people above them who were unaware of the ticking time bomb that was literally below their feet, Bella's discovery of a limitation in her powers might have paralyzed her. It might have shocked her to a point beyond thought. But Billy Black was lying inches from a human drinking vampire...should he incapacitate her in any way, he'd be able to wipe out the student body above them...and Charlie...Charlie was at the mercy of vampires just like James.
Bella had always felt small. Small and...apart. All her life she was held hostage by her own body and what it could do. Despite the extraordinary gifts she possessed, helplessness was Bella's usual state of being. As a small child, she had difficulty understanding what was so wrong about the bits of sparks she could make sometimes. When the monster inside her unleashed itself on her ninth birthday...and those endless years after...Bella ran, literally trying to escape from her own unstable body. As for her new family...well she was without question happy for the first time in her life. But she still perceived the world in one-day doses; she found it dubiously difficult to think far ahead, to plan or seriously contemplate any sort of future in part because she was still, even now, a hostage of her gifts.
Helplessness flooded her again now as she looked into James' eyes. What could she do to ensure Billy's safety? The students'?
"All right," she whispered. "Why are you doing this? Why are you so interested in me?"
James put out the lighter and disappeared around the room again. He doesn't know...Bella carefully masked her expression of relief. He does't know she can't light him up on her own. She must keep that information hidden.
"You've attracted me. Even though I think your friends are fools, I must commend them. Especially the blonde. I would not have been able to resist being so close to you for so long."
Bella's eyes roamed the room. It was no use. Stopping him in his tracks was impossible. "How long?" And how did he fool the Cullens? Even if tracking and stealth were his gifts, the thought of him fooling Edward, Alice, and Jasper, not to mention all the vampires' natural super senses was just too unbelievable.
"Seven months."
Bella gasped. Seven months? She did the math. If he's been watching her for seven months, that means-
"Canada," she whispered, stunned.
"You can't imagine my surprise," James laughed. "There we were in the middle of nowhere when the sky lights up. Our kind don't have faith, but for a moment I actually thought the lord's wrath was upon us. But it wasn't god. It was just you."
There are nomads everywhere, especially in cold places. Alice's phone call and her warning played back in her mind. Despite the dire situation, Bella felt a bubble of laughter inside her. Even when she can't see, Alice is still right.
"You and the blonde were too far away. We didn't know where you were or that it was you who was responsible. But then you decided to take a trip."
Alice and Rosalie will kill me, she thought. If I make it out of here alive that is.
"You saw me run to Denali?"
"Back to your cabin," he corrected her. "And what a show you and your girlfriend put on for us..."
Rosalie and Bella's fight. The fire that looked like ruins of a city. Bella's cheeks turned red when she remembered what else they did. They made love in the shadows of the flames that night.
"A human with the most powerful gift any of us has ever heard of. And she's...friendly," though she couldn't see him, the teasing in his voice rang loud and clear, "with a vampire. She's pals with a whole coven of them. You can't blame me for becoming very, very curious about you Bella."
"You followed us back to Forks," Bella said. She searched her memory for red eyes, but found none.
"Yes. Oh, Bella...it's been a struggle. Every day...every day my throat burned for you. Seven months having to keep my distance...not even getting to play with you a little...it was torture."
"So sorry to inconvenience you," she snapped. After he killed her, what will he do next? Does he really think he can take down every member of the Cullen coven? He might not have to. All he has to do is contact the Volturi and tell him of their crimes.
James cannot be allowed to live.
"There's no need for that temper," James tisked mockingly. "You should be proud, human. Nobody has lived as long as you have once I made them my prey. Well, save for one...and that was because the fun wore off."
"I'm honored" she said bitterly.
He didn't answer at first. Bella shuddered. He ran so close this time she felt the wind on her face.
"Your novelty wore off too, after a while," James replied. She pictured him pouting like a child. "I tire easily of the same old game," he laughed. "I watched you strengthen your gifts. The better you got, the more boring you became. You were loads more fun before you controlled it, weren't you? Shame we didn't meet then."
He continued before Bella could retort. "But then something changed," he whispered. "You turned out to be far more interesting than you let on."
What the hell is he talking about?
"The boring, goody two-shoes, powerful but stunted little girl goes and mutilates a helpless little animal...for fun!" He laughed.
Bella's breath hitches in her throat. The memory of that day rushes to the front of her mind, and while the familiar disgust with herself wells up, another feeling, long kept buried, peaks up from the pit of her core: unbridled, sickening delight.
"My next meal turns out to be as much of a sociopath as me!" James giggles uncontrollably.
Bella's heart pounds faster. "I'm not like you," she growls.
James laughed. "You're a miserable liar," he said.
"I saw you, Bella," her name rolls off his tongue like a purr. "The way you slammed it into the tree. When you melted off its fur. Those pitiful screams were music to my ears and to yours. I know. I recognized it."
"I threw up a-after," Bella stammered. "Did you see that?!"
He dismissed her with a grunt. "You're still a weak-willed human. But you tell me...what really made you feel sick that day? Was it what you did? Or was it fear of discovery and judgement?"
Bella stared blankly into the dark shadows in front of her. Her mind would never let her forget, but Bella was nonetheless highly skilled at compartmentalizing her thoughts and memories. While everything resided permanently in her head, Bella could and did put things away that she couldn't bear to think of. The faces of the dead. The long days spent in fear and loneliness. The crumbling house of cards that was her relationship with her father. The painful minutes right before she killed her mother and 327 other people.
She did not want to dig up her memories of the day in the woods. Not after all the effort it took to bury it. But James was leaving her no choice.
She was in complete control. Over herself, over her gift, and over her victim. And as she pictured the details of that day she found herself thinking the question that lingered just below the surface: if it was a human being that she came across that day instead of a squirrel, would it have made any difference?
"You have such potential," said James breathlessly. "I wonder...if this hunt's conclusion isn't set in stone..."
Bella finally got her voice back. "What?"
"Some of our kind make it our business to collect specimen like yourself," said James. "I've never warmed to that lifestyle. But I admit Bella, you have me conflicted. It would be such a shame to put you down..."
Bella curled her lip back and shook as she spoke. "You will not-"
"I will do whatever I like," James interrupted tersely. "You keep forgetting your place, young Bella."
Still invisible to her human eyes, she never saw him reach Billy. But the cry of pain from the man reached her ears a split second later, telling her the vampire was close to him. She winced. No blood was spilled but there was an audible crack as at least one of Billy's ribs broke from the impact of James' shoes.
"Stop!" She screamed, but James had already moved away.
"Stop?" James' fake confusion sounded from behind her before he travelled around the room again. "You don't want me to stop, Bella. I told you, I can see your potential. Your heartbeats...your dilated pupils…you're practically salivating. You're enjoying this as much as me…"
"You're out of your mind," Bella whispered. "That's revulsion you're observing, not obsession!"
"Tsk, tsk. 'Destruction be your only goal!'" he sang. "My instincts say you're just as sadistic as me. And Bella...my instincts are always right!"
Suddenly his cold hands were on her, embracing her from behind like a lover. She stifled a shudder. Being inside this man's arms was so different from Rosalie's. His coldness traveled through her skin like they were both made of smoke...tendrils of him twisting through her being with total ease.
"Don't you want to feel the way you used to?" He whispered softly into her ear. "Don't you miss the power? You must have felt like a god before...to have all that power at your fingertips, and then you go and stifle it like it's a sin?! You have a connection to fire. You are not an accident, Bella, you are not a mistake. Nature doesn't make mistakes. What you feel...what I know you want to do...it's ok. You're allowed to use your gifts the way your body says you should. Take all that frustration and anger and kill him."
Kill Billy? But Bella didn't want to kill Billy. She didn't want to add anyone else to the long list of dead she's responsible for. She didn't want…
It would be nice though. Not the killing part…But it would be nice to feel the extent of her fire again. To really let it smoulder and-and destroy something. That's it. It's when her powers come together to destroy that Bella feels strongest. Controlling it as she has done for the last seven months just wasn't...satisfying enough. It's not a bad feeling, but it's not good either. So...bland, like stale bread that can never satisfy a gnawing hunger.
"You feel it, don't you?" She felt his lips on her ear widen. He was smiling. "You were born to destroy. That's your real gift. Fire is the greatest destroyer after all. Tell me...didn't it feel good killing this man's wife? I bet it would feel heavenly to pluck out his family one by one...you can start with him…"
Her mind played back her emotions during every flammable episode of her life. Her mind may not have understood what was happening, but her heart did. Blind panic before and after each instance, but during….the feeling was exquisite.
"Either you see it or you don't," James continued to whisper. His hands caressed her sides softly and as he shifted, he kissed her softly on her pulse point. "You deserve death you know, for everything you've done. If you live by the morals of people like him and your pathetic vampires, then those morals say your death is justice. Do you want to die, Bella? Or do you want to live? Because if you do, you might as well let go of what you think is right and wrong. Do what feels good. And you know...you know licking this foolish man with your flames will feel very, very good."
He freed one of his hands from her side and held out the lighter, lit. She shivered. His mouth continued to lightly run over the nape of her neck.
The chants Rosalie taught her ran through her mind. Think of Rosalie's hair. Esme's creative hands. Emmett's strong arms, Alice's bright laughs and Jasper's warm smile. The memories of their faces lit a warmth through her, but was it enough to overpower the warmth of the flames? Was there anything left that could prevail over that?
They kept telling her she was a good person, and she had let their beliefs carry her through each day like a lifeboat. The Cullens saved her from the fire. But they did not-they could not save her from herself. Only Bella could do that.
The fingers of one of his hands lingered right under the hem of her shirt. Bella felt something hard against her back and she realized it was James' arousal. "Prove me right about you," he whispered longingly, "and I promise to set you free from fools like him. Do what you were born for. Light. Him. Up!"
Bella lifted her hand to take the offered lighter. She watched the dancing flame and for a second drew comfort from it. She pictured the flame multiplied by thousands, imagined her heart swelling to match its triumph, and felt both exhilaration and loneliness; exhilaration because most people spent their entire lives searching for what makes them whole, and Bella has already found it; loneliness because the only real choice before her meant ignoring that pull even though it was so close she could taste it.
She turned her head to look at the vampire who had watched her from afar for so long. She thought of the terror he had put her through, the self doubt...and now, even if she managed to get out of this alive she knew she'd bear scars from this ordeal that would take far longer to heal than her crushed arm and stinging chest, if they healed at all.
She looked into his crimson eyes, so different from her family's. Beyond the glee, the arousal, and the drive for pleasure she saw...nothing. There was nothing beyond that. She drew herself closer to him, closer and closer until her lips were on his. Surprised, he paused but smiled through the kiss a moment later and deepened it. He closed his eyes but Bella kept hers wide open.
Now.
Bella dropped the lighter.
Flames erupted on the ground, aided by the gasoline. She kept it from touching her, but they grabbed onto James' feet and travelled up his body. He roared and snatched for her neck but Bella was already gone. Her power propelled her across the room to where Billy was still lying down. She landed hard, her feet missing the ground and instead crashing into Billy. She winced in pain, momentarily blinded by bright lights in front of her pupils. She had overshot her landing and hit her head hard on the column by Billy. Bella gritted her teeth and blinked back tears. She couldn't afford distractions.
Bella kept the flames from reaching Billy and covered his body with her own just in case. Twenty feet away, James continued to scream in rage. He was covered from head to toe now and he tried to brush himself free of the flames. He screamed so loudly she wondered if the kids upstairs could hear. How long does it take for a vampire's body to crumble to dust?
James lunged for her and Billy but was stopped cold. Bella had thought ahead and erected a barrier of air all around herself and Billy. He would be safe, for now. She grinned triumphantly to herself and met James' eyes. It was childish, but she wanted him to see that she had the upper hand this time. He was going to die. She was going to live.
James snarled and hissed and spat at her. But Bella's shield stayed true. She gripped at Billy's shirt hard while she watched the vampire tear at his skin in agony. He ripped his own clothes to shreds but still, fire clung to him like a magnet. Bella watched, fascinated and gleeful. She couldn't help herself. She'd never seen a vampire burn before. What did it say about her that she was curious, eager to see it?
But it was not going to be quick. James, as if reading her mind, snarled again and screamed, "you will not get get to enjoy this!" And then...he took off. Faster than Bella could blink, James zoomed around the room at vampire speed, faster than Bella could hope to catch him. But he wasn't running around aimlessly like before. He ran, and spread the flames on his body to every surface he touched.
Bella's intake of breath was lost among the sounds of popping flames. She couldn't find him. She couldn't stop him! Instead she tried to quell the flames but she no sooner than put out the fires then he returned to re-ignite them. The gasoline that saturated every corner worked to his advantage and soon Bella had to give up on stopping the fires and instead concentrate on keeping the flames from licking at the ceiling and columns. Suddenly the danger loomed right in front of her. If these walls crumble…
He has to be stopped. But how? It's impossible…
Nothing is impossible. Not for you...Carlisle's words to her when he was convinced, before she was, that she could use fire without seeing her target. Focus...all you have to do is focus.
She squeezed Billy's warm hand and made sure the barrier between them and the growing inferno all around them was impenetrable. She closed her eyes...and she focused. She focused on the feel of the heat, its caressing touch. She focused on every spark in the room, every square inch of fire. You have a connection to fire, James had said. Yes, she did. She could see every ember even though her eyes were shut. She could feel each one like it were an extension of her body. And she could feel the strange new combination of fire and vampire skin. She could feel...James.
Gotcha.
Bella plucked the screaming figure and levitated him right in front of her. When she opened her eyes, she saw that she couldn't make out his face anymore. The flames were too thick, the smoke too dense to see past it. But he was still alive, though paralyzed now thanks to Bella.
Crack!
The sound reached into the pit of her stomach. She looked up, terror overcoming her sense of victory. The column across from her...the whole ceiling started moving before her eyes, spider cracks appearing and parts of it tenting in places that used to be flat. She stopped paying attention to what was happening in the room while she put all her focus on finding James. And now it looked like the fire did significant damage while she was distracted.
She put out all the flames except the ones consuming James and shifted her focus to the room around her. If she could just put up her barrier of air...If she could mold it to fit this room and support the ceiling and what had to be the foundation of the gymnasium above...then maybe she could hold out long enough for James to die.
The minutes passed. James' screams continued to rip through her like a knife, so much that if he were human his vocal cords would have long ago worn away from exertion. Another column cracked in half, this time the one right above herself and Billy. Bella strengthened her shield and stopped it from falling apart. A large chunk made its way through before she put up the shield however and crashed on top of them, piercing the space above Bella's right eye. Spots and tears blocked her vision once again. Between the pain from her forehead, the pain from her temple from the impact on the column earlier, and the pain in her chest and her arm, it was a miracle Bella could concentrate on anything outside her own body.
This wasn't going to work. She could barely keep her eyes open. And what then, if she closed her eyes and fell to sleep? What would James do, unencumbered by her grip on him?
Pain seeped up from her arm, the arm not injured by James. She looked down only to see Billy about to punch her again. His eyes, wide open and alert, communicate the desperation of the situation. You must stay conscious, they say. Bella nods, and redoubles her efforts.
Meanwhile, James is still screaming. Still alive. How is he still alive, Bella wondered. She thought back to a conversation she had with Jasper and Carlisle about vampire physiology. "The only way to a kill a vampire is to tear him apart and burn the pieces…" Well, burning he is, but perhaps Bella could help with the former requirement. Once again, Bella strained herself well past what she thought she could bear and focused on the burning, suspended figure in front of her. This time she made sure to keep some of her strength with the shields that kept the structure at bay. How hard could tearing off a limb be? Pretty hard, it turned out, if it's a vampire. She plead with the wind that has always helped her, the wind that saved her from the same fate as Billy's wife; that, were it not for it, she likely would have succumbed to starvation or prison long ago. If it's strong enough to help me cross the country in hours, it's strong enough for this. It has to be. It has to be…
Break...break! James screamed a blood-curdling cry. He cursed and shouted unintelligibly. Bella pushed on, at this point just wanting him to stop making that awful noise. She didn't know if he deserved this kind of suffering, but she also knew she didn't deserve to make that judgement.
Break!
Billy squeezed her hand and shouted something, but Bella was beyond hearing. Her vision dotted with black spots that continued to get bigger. The fire engulfing James seemed to grow more fierce. And an impossibly loud crunch of a sound erupted seemingly from every corner of the room. Bella felt herself going limp in Billy's arms as her vision finally ceased. The last thing she thought she saw before black took over is a flash of gold.
Author's note: ... so, thoughts? Obviously there are still questions, but many of them will be answered soon. Oh and in case you're wondering, this is not the climax of the story. I think if Gifted were a trilogy, this here would be the climax and approaching the end of book 2.