Four

Renesmee slept fitfully into the night. Carlisle came back twice to administer more antibiotics and check on her vitals. Each time he came Bella and Edward were hopeful that things had changed for the better, but each time Carlisle shook his head. The last time he said, "Just a few more hours… I'm sure her fever will drop in a few hours."

The vampires could hear Jacob growling from beyond the window.

"Jacob, that's enough!" Bella snarled, dragging her hands through her tangled locks. Edward steadied her with a comforting hand on her shoulder.

Carlisle made eye contact with Edward. A silent conversation became the undercurrent of the room.

Bella reacted immediately, "What? What aren't you telling me?"

Jacob leaned closer against the glass. His cheek and forehead flushed with the windowpane.

Edward frowned before pulling Bella tighter. "Carlisle needs to take more blood."

Although she tried not to, Bella's knees sank under the weight of the scent memory of blood. Edward held her up.

"It's necessary," Carlisle reasoned. "I need to see if the medicine is doing anything to improve the infection."

Bella squared her shoulders. "Okay, I'm ready."

Pulling her aside, Edward whispered. "Bella, you're not. You barely had control last time. You're even hungrier now. I can see it in your eyes."

Bella raised her hand up to her face, instinctively, rubbing her eyes as though she could change their color with a forceful touch. It had been hours since she looked at herself, hours since she'd left Ness' bedside. Had she really been in class just a few hours earlier?

Edward knew what she would say. She could see it in his face that he would know what she would say. "I can't leave her." It was a whisper, a breath, a prayer.

He gripped her tighter, steadying her. "I know. You have to take care of this, though. You have to feed. You have to keep up your strength for her. For me." He kissed her forehead. "Alice will be here in a second."

Before Bella could breathe another word Alice sashayed through the cottage doorway. She moved to Carlisle first, a quick dart, feathering across the room. She handed him a vile and syringe, which he seemingly forgot back at the house. He smiled in gratitude. "You didn't know you would need it when you left the house." She told him, confidentially.

"Bella," Alice continued. "We'll be as quick as we can. You shouldn't be here when he draws blood again. We should go hunt."

Bella's voice was matter of fact. "Did you see something?"

Alice was equally nonplused. "Yes!"

"I would never hurt my child." Her tone was threatening.

Alice shrugged. "You're a vampire and a mother. The hunger can outweigh a maternal bond when you're hungry enough. There is nothing stronger than the pull of blood. It takes centuries of strength to hold up against it."

Bella prickled, her temper flaring. "I can't leave her."

"Yes," Edward told her. "You can. I want you to. I saw…"

He didn't need to finish the thought. Bella knew that Edward had a constant tether to Alice's visions. Whatever she saw flowed through him like water running through a fissure of rock. It was like gravity.

"Edward…?" She argued, helplessly.

He held her. Her body molding against his. She held onto him with equal force. "Go," his voice was heavy, raw. "Go. You'll be back before she wakes up."

Alice grabbed her hand. "We'll be quick."

Grasping for anything that she could use, Bella said, "Jacob?"

But even Jacob could see how much she needed to feed. Bella was petite; even know, in her vampiric shell she seemed breakable. Looking at her now he was reminded of her gauntness during her last few days of human life when she was still carrying Ness. "You need to go, Bells. I won't leave her."

His conviction was immovable. She couldn't argue with it.

Alice squeezed her fingertips. "Let's hurry. I know just where to go?"

As she and Alice ran from the cottage and into the woods, Bella looked back. From her position in the trees she could see Edward hovering at the window opposite Jacob. His body was bent over, heavy with trepidation and grief. She felt her own body calling out for him, desperate to return, but she knew that she had to hunt tonight.

Once sated, she could return to her family.