Be warned, friends. This one is a violent one. There are mentions of human trafficking and rape, neither of which are described in any sort of detail. However, there is violence and murder. And those things are described in detail. The vampires are on the hunt.

Bella rushed out of the club, desperate for fresh air.

She needed a moment.

She lifted her face into the soft, steady rainfall that seemed constant in the Pacific Northwest. At that moment, she appreciated it. It washed the sweat from her forehead. Along with cleansing her face in the rain, she took a cleansing deep breath. She knew she was being ridiculous. Edward was hers. He made it clear. He saw Rosalie as a sister and nothing more.

But watching Edward and Rosalie dance…

Bella pushed the image out of her mind.

She went into their relationship with the knowledge that Edward was better than her in every conceivable way. A pretty face did not match up to his porcelain perfection. Her silly hobbies did not match up with his wit, wisdom, and seemingly endless knowledge of the world around him. His worst trait was that his job as an escort, but Bella couldn't even complain about that. Not while she couldn't get a single job offer after weeks of applications and interviews.

Looking down at her simple navy dress, large, white button-down, and sneakers, Bella sighed. She thought she looked cute when she got ready for her date with Edward. He smiled so big when he saw her. Told her how beautiful she was. At the time, Bella could have sworn she saw love glinting in his piercing, onyx eyes.

She wanted his love more than anything.

She wasn't sure she deserved such a prize.

Especially not while he could spend his days gracefully twirling around a beautiful Rosalie rather than lugging around Bella's dead weight.

A groan, low and miserable, sounded from deeper in the alley, pulling Bella from her train of thought.

"Hello?" Bella asked into the darkness.

Another groan responded.

Tentatively, Bella moved towards the sound. "Do you need help?"

A body lay prone on the ground. Bella only noticed the person because they raised a single hand in the air. "Please."

"Oh my goodness," Bella hurried to assist this poor person who had been left in the gloom and muck. "Here, sir, let me help."

She grabbed his hand with both of hers, bracing herself to help him stand, but instead, he pulled her down. Suddenly, Bella was on her back among the bags of trash. His large hand covered her mouth.

"You're a pretty thing," he leered. His breath smelled of beer and taquitos.

Bella screamed into his hand.

Calling to mind what Emmett had taught her before they moved to a city, Bella kicked the man where it counted. Either he wasn't used to his victims fighting back or Bella was stronger than she thought because the man yowled in pain. His hands instinctively went to the pain, giving Bella a chance to escape. She rolled out of the trash, ready to run when another set of hands grabbed her.

"Oh, I like girls with a little fight in 'em."

This second man pinned her to the wet, dirty wall. His elbow pressed against her throat; his large hand held her down by the waist.

Bella attempted the pull the same maneuver, but he stepped out of the way. Using another move from Emmett, Bella elbowed her oppressor in the stomach, throwing all her weight into it. Bella lurched forward, as he, too, released her. She almost sent herself sprawling on the ground but steadied herself enough to scramble away. Bella only managed a few steps before two more men blocked the exit. Her eyes widened as Bella realized how horribly outnumbered she truly was.

A set of hands clamped over her mouth. Another pinned her wrists behind her back.

"Make this one pay, Kent," a voice said from behind. Bella had no idea whether it was the first or second man. All she could see were the two before her, slowly closing in on her.

"Don't worry, I'll be the one to break her in," the man named Kent whispered into Bella's ear.

She squirmed and flailed the best she could, refusing to go down easily. But four men were too strong against one girl. They took turns pushing her down and shoving her forward as they corralled her towards a large van with the trunk open.

One moment, she was being pushed and shoved.

The next, she was on the cold, wet ground.

Confused, she looked up and saw the four men scattering, slipping through doors and scaling up scaffolding.

A cool, solid hand gently tugged Bella's waist, helping her stand. The must of the dank alleyway was replaced with the scent of warm spice and citrus.

That scent only belonged to one person.

"Edward," she cried, wrapping her arms around him. She played the scene in her head: Edward would enclose her into his embrace. She would rest her head against his chest, allowing the sweet scent of him to wash over her. He would calm her with sweet nothings in a voice smooth as silk.

But when he opened his mouth, the words were rough and commanding. "Get inside." He shoved her in the direction of the club, no better than the brutes he rescued her from.

Bella dug her fingers into Edward's sweater, appalled by how rough he was. He never regarded her in such a way. "I want to go home."

He didn't blink at the quiver in her voice—barely spared her a glance as she shook with fright. "I will take you home soon, now please."

When Bella made no attempt to move, Edward dragged her himself. The arm that was once a comforting blanket was now an iron vice around Bella's waist. "Go back inside. Find Emmett. Stay in a crowd. I'll be back for you in ten minutes." Edward's instructions were void of any emotion, as if he had already detached himself from the situation.

"Why are you leaving me?" she whined. Her feet dragged along the slick pavement as Edward pulled her along. "Are you going after them?"

He said nothing. The only indication he heard her at all was his thumb stroking her bottom lip, gently requesting her silence.

As Edward opened the door to the club, Bella clawed at his arm. "No, please! There were four of them, Edward."

Ignoring her pleas, Edward shoved Bella inside. He had enough care to keep her from falling down the staircase, but that was it. His eyes did not meet hers as he pressed a goodbye kiss to her temple.

"Let it go. Please! Don't get yourself hurt." Bella cried out raggedly.

"I will not let them get away with this," he said without looking at her. His low voice was almost a growl.

Bella knew how this scene would play out. She had read scenes just like it dozens of times before. She had been in grave peril, rescued by her love. Unable to quell his need for revenge, Edward would leave her, alone in the dark and rain. Edward's dismissal of Bella's needs would never be mentioned again. Brushed aside because his rugged, untamable behavior was something Bella understood she could not tame. He would return as her hero, and they would make love like he didn't throw her to the side like yesterday's socks.

Bella always said she wanted a love story like the ones in her favorite books, but she got the wrong one. She never wanted the rugged, untamable hero to conquer her enemies. She wanted the unwavering devotion of someone who could never bear to leave her side.

A ridiculous thing to want. Stories rarely worked that way, let alone in real life.

"Please," Bella begged in her smallest whisper, expecting nothing. "I need you."

Then, Edward did what none of the dashing heroes or misunderstood outcasts, or morally grey villains ever did.

He turned around.

Bella felt like she was in his arms the very next second. She clung to him, gratefully. Without warning, tears poured down her face. She hadn't realized how terrified she was until she was perfectly safe in Edward's arms.

"I'm right here," he whispered, lacing his fingers through her hair.

He cared, truly cared. Edward was better than all the fictional characters Bella compared him to.

"I love you. The words dripped from her lips like the rain from the sky. Had she not been so tired, Bella would have panicked for revealing the depth of her feelings for Edward.

It didn't matter.

Edward ran his thumb across her cheek, collecting the tears as they fell. "I love you, too."

oOo

Rosalie left the boys behind.

She bought Emmett another drink and told him she would be right back. Emmett would entertain himself for fifteen minutes before he began looking for her. Edward had just been on her tail and was supposed to return as backup once Bella was safely inside. However, she could hear Edward whispering his love for the little girl—he was clearly going to back out.

Which suited Rosalie just fine. A true lioness hunted alone.

According to Edward, the men she now hunted were true monsters. Not only would they stalk girls in the city and defile the innocent creatures, but they would also kidnap them and lock them up to be defiled by paying customers again and again until they broke.

It had been a mistake to allow the monsters one more breath after discovering their existence. A mistake Edward would forever regret, knowing they had their hands on his precious mate. A mistake Rosalie fully intended to rectify.

Upon hearing Edward's approach, the idiots scattered. The tactic benefited Rosalie—it allowed for clean, quiet deaths. She followed the quickest, scrappiest member of the group first. The one climbing up the scaffolding. She guessed his goal was to reach the fire escape two stories up and break into the building. Swift as wind, she beat him to the balcony. Standing in eerie stillness, she watched him pull himself up onto the metal grate.

His eyes widened when he spotted her.

For once, not with lust.

But with fear.

With no other options than to plummet to the ground or crawl towards the dark figure looming over him, the man was trapped. To Rosalie's surprise, he chose to risk it and released his hold on the metal. Rosalie would not allow him to escape so easily. She caught him by the wrist, smiling at the satisfying crack of his shoulder popping out of his socket. She didn't allow him to scream in pain before she pulled him up and bit his throat.

The bite was merely to kill. Rosalie spat the blood out, unwilling to risk her future with Emmett for some scum she found on the street. She tossed his limp body back onto the fire escape. She and Edward would clean up later. For now, she had three other men to kill.

Her second priority was the van and the unmistakable sound of jingling keys.

Rosalie peered down from her perch and spotted one of the men struggling to open the door to his van. The van they stuffed girls into—the van Edward's mate had almost been stuffed into. She leaped over the railing of the fire escape and landed behind him like a cat—silent and still. The man didn't even hear her.

Rosalie waited until he opened the door, and immediately slammed it shut on his face. He howled in pain and confusion for a second until Rosalie broke his neck with a twist of his head. She plucked the keys from his hand, shoved him inside the driver's seat, and locked the door. For extra precaution, Rosalie crushed the keys into dust by merely squeezing the metal in her fist. She threw the dust against the brick wall behind her. No one would be kidnapping girls in this can anytime soon.

The third and fourth were going to be harder to find, now that they had longer to escape. But nothing was too difficult for a vampire. It was only in the next building over when she came across their hushed whispers. Cowering in a dark corner like the spineless rodents they were.

Rosalie stumbled into the doorway of the building, making herself known. She leaned against the doorframe heavily, as if she couldn't stand without its support. Just as she hoped, the two of them left their hiding spot the second they saw her. There was no way they would resist her. Her blonde hair was tried up in a stylish knot on the top of her head, perfect to be pulled. Her low-cut, pink dress left nothing to the imagination and was short enough to be easily pushed out of the way.

They regarded her as if she were a gift sent from God.

Unfortunately, she was a punishment unleashed from hell.

The first walked up to her with a dangerously hideous leer. She kept the vacant expression on her face. Whether they thought she was intoxicated or stupid, it didn't matter. What mattered was that they came closer for an easy takedown.

Once the second stepped forward, Rosalie's muscles tightened, ready to kill.

He opened his mouth to speak, but Rosalie cut him off with a karate chop to the throat, shattering his Adam's apple. She smiled as he hunched over, gasping for air. His friend tried to run, but she grabbed him by the collar and threw him back into the building, tearing his shirt in the process.

Rosalie loved destroying their personal property.

The left the runaway to scramble to his feet while she approached Adam's Apple, choking on his own breath. He looked like a rat as much as he acted like one. She made a little show of her slow approach, adding a creepy smile, feeling the blood from his companion drip down her chin. The smell of urine permeated the air.

"Get your bitch on a lease," The runaway growled from behind her.

Rosalie rolled her eyes. She could kick all their asses to the moon and back, and yet they would rather threaten the man than perceive her as a threat. It seemed that Edward wasn't going to let Rosalie have all the fun, after all. He must have sent the humans home and followed her into the building.

To prove to her vampire companion she did not need his assistance, she cut the dramatics and bit down on her victim's throat, killing him instantly. She caught him as he collapsed to the ground, removed his forearm by pinching his elbow, and turned the throw the arm at Edward.

But Edward was not the one standing behind her.

"Emmett," she breathed.

Her human mate stared at her with wide eyes and a slack jaw.

Not fear, not lust. Pure astonishment.

"Holy fuck," he said right before he received a punch to the face from the runaway.

"Hey!" Rosalie dropped the dead body and the arm.

The runaway adjusted his stance and wound his arm back to punch Emmett again. Rosalie crossed the room in a breath. She used the heel of her hand to hit him at the base of the skull. He crumpled to the floor. Unconscious, but not dead.

"You're lucky my partner will want someone alive to talk to," she growled. Using the point of her high heel, Rosalie stepped on both of his feet, crushing through the shoe down to the bone. She didn't want him to run away before Edward could deal with him.

Though the victims were taken care of, Rosalie had much bigger problems.

"Emmett, what are you doing here?" He was supposed to be down at the bar, safe and sound.

"Edward asked where my sister was and immediately ran away. Five seconds later, you ran after him. What was I supposed to think?"

Again, Rosalie underestimated Emmett's perception. It was going to be her downfall.

"You really shouldn't be here." Without any knowledge of how to handle the situation, Rosalie defaulted to aggression. Edward was going to be furious if Emmett took Bella and took off. She didn't even want to think of her own heartbreak. A life without Emmett would be as useless as the life of the man crumpled on the ground at her feet.

"You're…" Emmett swallowed. "Did you just kill that guy?"

She had. Rosalie had killed a man in front of her human boyfriend. Using her teeth. Rosalie wiped her face and groaned at the blood on her hand. She went back again, wiping with both hands.

"They were sex traffickers," she said, as if that were the explanation for everything Emmett had witnessed.

"Is that where…" Emmett stopped the question when he saw the guilty look on Rosalie's face. "Damn. Is Bella alright now?"

"She's safe. She's with Edward."

"And… Is it safe for her to be with Edward?"

It was the correct question to ask. "Believe me. With Edward is the absolute safest that girl can be."

"What," Again, Emmett rephrased his question after he started, "Can I ask what you are?"

Rosalie looked into the deep, chocolate eyes of her human mate, committing them to memory. Each flake of gold, each swirl of brown. For she knew there was a solid chance she would never see those eyes again after what she was about to reveal. She spoke slowly, cautiously, raising her hands in the air as if she were an unarmed criminal.

"Edward and I are vampires."

Emmett pressed his hand against his forehead, "Oh, shit." He looked like he was about to collapse.

In a flash, Rosalie caught him, swung him into his arms, and flew to the closed restaurant across the street. Emmett hadn't realized he moved until he was sitting in a booth in the dark and then he gasped. Rosalie switched on the lights. She had broken into a sandwich shop with a heavy chicken theme. Neon signs of a cartoon rooster flicked on along with the harsh, fluorescent lighting above. Rosalie remained near the light switch, far away from the door and from Emmett. She figured it would be best to give him a wide berth and an easy escape.

"Vampire?" Emmett said to the room. "This whole time?"

"Yes, I've been a vampire this whole time."

"Did you take me to that weird house to drink my blood?"

"No," Rosalie said, honestly. Though, it was another good question. "That was never our intention. Edward and I never…" she looked for an appropriate word. Kill, eat, feed from all felt too grim. The entire truth was grim. "…use innocent people. Only people like that." She gestured towards the vacant building across from them.

"You mean you only kill and eat sex traffickers?" Emmett asked, bluntly.

"Along with other criminals. But, yes. Edward has a special talent that allows him to discern whether or not we could feed from someone."

"Like… criminal gay-dar." He said it in a tone that implied criminal gay-dar was a commonly used phrase.

"Sure," Rosalie offered. Whatever it took to help Emmett process the situation.

"For how long?"

"A really long time."

"A hundred years?"

It had been about that long. Emmett read that on Rosalie's face and collapsed onto his back, laying prone on the booth. Rosalie feared for a moment that he had truly fainted this time, but then he stuck both legs in the air, so he could stare at his feet. She knew she needed to give him some time to process, but Rosalie couldn't help but plead her case. "We haven't fed from humans for a while, now. Not since we started dating."

"Why?" Emmett asked. Again, bluntly. Emmett did everything bluntly.

"We wanted to be… worthy of you."

"So, you killed a bunch of people to be worthy?"

Rosalie opened her mouth to offer an excuse but realized she didn't have one. She was a murderer, through and through.

"I'm joking, Rosie. If those guys had taken Bella, I would have wanted to kill them. I'm kinda happy they can't take somebody else's Bella."

Rosalie sighed the teeniest breath of relief. "Edward will go talk to the guy I left alive later. He'll find out where they were going to take Bella, take down anyone else involved in their operation."

Emmett sat up straight again. "Like superheroes," he said like he had the night of their first date.

"Sort of."

He ignored that. His eye affixed to a faraway place. "Wow, a real-life superhero. Do you wear a little outfit?"

"No."

Emmett's lips curled into the smile she'd seen many times before in his bedroom, "Can I convince you to wear a little outfit?"

Rosalie could not believe Emmett could regard her in such a way at a moment like this. She supposed it was better than him running away from her. "Only for you."

"Mmm," he moaned and stretched. "I think I'm gonna need a lot of rescuing."

She smiled. Even though he was most likely traumatized, Emmett still managed to get a smile out of Rosalie.

"You're really okay with this?" she pressed.

Emmett rose from the booth, cautiously. Rosalie remained perfectly still as Emmett crossed the empty restaurant, narrowly avoiding tripping on chairs, for his eyes were locked onto hers.

"You're the same Rosalie you've been this whole time, aren't you?"

Rosalie didn't dare to even breathe as Emmett stepped into place before her. She left her hands visible, and kept her posture vulnerable, to let him know she had no intention of hurting him. She nodded—the slightest bob of her head—too afraid to make any other movement.

"I always knew you were a girl of impossibilities. It was the reason I fell for you. Dark chocolate with a soft, caramel center." He squeezed her forearm, knowing how hard and cold her skin would feel, "Rock solid and still precious." His thumb traced down towards her wrist. "Tough and tender." He took her hand in his. "The most beautiful girl I'd ever seen and a badass motherfucking monster."

Smiling, Rosalie laughed at the conclusion. The sound was strained with relief.

"I love you, Rose. I'll love you in any shape, in any form. Including this one."

He leaned in for a kiss.

Since the beginning, Rosalie had called Emmett an idiot. She knew better now. She had seen the care and heart behind his seemingly reckless way of floating through life. She knew how much more those deep, chocolate eyes perceived of the world around him. At that moment, she couldn't deny that Emmett was an idiot. For there was nothing more idiotic for a human than to willingly lock lips with a vampire.

But, if Emmett were an idiot, so was Rosalie. Because there was nothing more idiotic for a vampire than to willingly give their heart to a human. For it was as futile as tethering herself to a wayward breeze.

Embracing their idiocy, Rosalie let Emmett kiss her. Though they had kissed hundreds of times and done much more than a kiss, it felt like their first. A declaration of choice. Of want.

She kissed him back, not bothering with the pretenses usually exhibited in a first kiss. With her lips, Rosalie expressed her gratitude, her joy, her pleasure. And above all else, her unrelenting love for him in return.

A low growl escaped Rosalie's throat. Playful and light.

At the sound, his lips crashed onto hers. Now that Emmett knew who she truly was, he couldn't get enough. Kissing, nipping, teeth flashing as he drew her lower lip into his mouth, swallowing her soft exhale. His tongue slipped between her lips and licked the top row of her teeth, unafraid of what he would find.

It was more than their first kiss. It was Emmett's acceptance of who she was, of what she was.

When they broke apart, Rosalie cradled Emmett's face in her hands. "I love you, too."