Chapter 22

TRIGGER WARNING: Sexual assault. You can go straight to the next section, separated by a line, if you don't want to read the first one of this chapter.

Bella opened her eyes. Her head hurt like crazy, and she didn't remember where she was. What the hell had happened to her?

She bolted up from the cold ground. She was lying under a blanket on a thin mattress wearing white underwear, panties, and a bra. Her hair was braided, and she had a clip attached to her hair with a long white veil-like fabric. What the hell?

"You are my bride," she heard Edward's voice behind her.

She turned and saw Edward wearing only black boxers.

"Edward, please don't do this," she said and moved away from him. She glanced back and saw they were in the cave. No point in trying to get away. Like she could outrun him even if she tried.

"Please, Edward, let me go," she repeated. Her throat hurt. It was hard to speak.

"My love, now is the time to change you," Edward said. His eyes were black, and he looked absolutely terrifying. Bella tried to scream, but nothing came out of her mouth. She was petrified.

Edward came to her and lifted her into his icy arms. Bella tried to get away, but his grip around her was so tight she couldn't move. She tried to bite his arm, but it was hard as a rock. She tried to kick him, but it did nothing other than her breaking something in her leg. It hurt bad.

"Don't do that. You'll only hurt yourself," Edward cooed.

He carried her to the water. It was warm, almost hot.

"Ple... please, don't," Bella sobbed.

Edward moved her, so her back was against his frozen frontside. He spun them around the pool, and her stiff legs moved along them. She felt like a puppet. He was so cold, but the hot water warmed her little. Edward's other arm was tight around her waist, pinning her arms against her sides, and the other one started to move, skimming her body.

Her body was aching everywhere now.

"Please, Edward, you are hurting me," Bella pleaded.

"Not much longer. Soon you will be free from the pain for the rest of your existence."

God, this was not happening. She closed her eyes and saw Paul's face. His deep loving eyes and plump rosy lips. Paul, I love you, I love you, I love you.

"I rather you kill me than change me," she said. "Please drain me and let me die."

She felt Edward's erection poking her ass as his hips started to pump against her. She felt revulsion and terror.

His cold breath skimmed her ear, and he whispered, "oh no, beautiful Isabella. You will be mine forever."

Edward's other hand moved under her panties, and his cold finger slid over her slit while he pressed his erection harder against her backside. Oh God, let me die.

She tried to squirm, do anything to get him to withdraw his hand off her panties, but he was just too strong. She was unable to move.

"I'm going to make love to you now and change you, my love," Edward whispered into her ear, and then she felt his teeth on her neck and the pain when they pierced her skin same time as his finger slid inside her.

She screamed, and then all went black.

Nothing Paul had thought about what they might find when they finally got to Bella couldn't have prepared him for what he saw.

The fucking leech was holding her against him in the hot pool while he took off his boxers, ready to rape her. Bella was unconscious. Her head was lulling over the water. She had a veil on her head, and it floated on the water with Bella's long braided hair. Paul felt sick, and rage filled him.

When the motherfucker realized they'd been caught, he bolted from the water, leaving Bella in the pool. Rosalie was fast, and she caught her before going under the water.

Paul lunged after him, and just before he ripped his head off his shoulders, he saw terrifying red eyes, and it fueled his rage; the motherfucker had drunk from her. He shredded him into small pieces, and after he was nothing but small pieces scattered all over the place, he lunged at the next leech.

"Whoa, whoa, dog. Enough! You don't need to kill me," the giant leech shouted and pushed him away, but his arm was ripped off. Paul had got his jaws around it without even noticing.

Paul stopped and shook his head. Then he looked at Bella and phased back to human. Just when Paul was back to being human, he felt a strange shift in his body. It was like he'd suddenly gotten more powerful and had been filled with all the ancient wisdom shapeshifters had carried throughout the centuries. Alongside the nine separate entities was molding into his being. It was weird shit.

And Sam, who phased back too, collapsed on the ground.

"What the fuck Sam?"

He went to Sam and helped him up. Sam was shaking his head, a stunned look on his face. He didn't have time to ponder what the fuck just happened. He needed to see what was going on with Bella.

Rosalie was holding her, and they had found a blanket to cover her to give her warmth.

"Give her to me," Paul said and knelt beside Rosalie.

"Oh, baby, dear God, what has happened to you?" Paul whispered. His hands shook when he moved wet hair off her face. She was breathing shallow breaths, but she looked dead.

"What the fuck is wrong with her?!" He shouted, looking at Carlisle and Rosalie, who were standing by them.

"Edward has bitten her," Rosalie said, pointing to the puncture wounds in her neck. Paul moved her hair and saw the teeth marks. They were on the exact spot his wolf had wanted to bite her. The wolf growled and then whined.

All the strength left Paul. He'd come too late. He had failed her, and she would die. If she were going to become one of the leeches, he would have to kill her. Bella wouldn't want to become one of them. He would have to kill her. Agony filled him, and he threw his head back and let the pain out with an ear-splitting roar.

"NO!"

Bella was dead.

"There is a way.." Carlisle said.

"What..." Paul snapped out of his anguish, "what can we do!?"

"I can try to suck the venom out of her," Carlisle said.

"Can you do that?" Paul asked. At this point, he was willing to try anything, even letting a leech suck blood out of her to make her come back to him alive as a human.

"Yes, it should help her. Let me help."

But it went against all his instincts, both the man's and the wolf's, to let a leech suck her blood. The wolf growled.

"Paul, we are running out of time. I can see the venom making its way through her blood system. Edward's venom has paralyzed her. She is in excruciating pain, but it doesn't show."

Paul didn't have another choice but to trust them, and so far, they hadn't given him any reason not to.

He got up and let Carlisle take his place. He was unable to watch. Sam came to stand by him and put his hand on his shoulder.

"She'll be alright," Sam said.

Paul nodded. She had to. He couldn't think of an alternative.

"Hey, we need to talk about what happened when we phased back," Sam said quietly.

Paul nodded again, "but not now." He had a terrible feeling that he knew exactly what had happened, but he couldn't figure out how the fuck it could have and, even more so, why.

"Where are Jasper and Alice?" Rosalie asked, looking around. Oh yeah, those two were missing.

"I haven't seen them either, and now that I think about it, not for the last two to three hours," Emmett said.

"Why would they leave us?" Rosalie asked. "Did Alice see something?"

Emmett just shrugged.

"I got all the venom out. Bella's blood is clear now," Carlisle told them as he wiped his mouth. His hand was covered in blood, in Bella's blood. The ground was covered with her blood as the doc hadn't swallowed the blood but spitted it out. It felt oddly comforting to Paul. The doc was a good person.

Paul went to Bella, knelt, took her into his arms, and moved them away from the gruesome-looking blood. She looked so pale, and her whole body was covered in bruises. He pressed her against his hot body, hoping to make her warm. She was so cold.

"Do you think he...?" Paul couldn't finish the sentence.

"I don't smell him on her, not that way," Carlisle said. "I don't think he raped her. In that sense, we came just in time."

Thank fuck for that.

He pressed her against his chest and whispered, "Poor baby, wake up. You need to open those beautiful eyes. I need to see them. Please, baby."

"Should she wake up now?" Paul asked Carlisle.

"This is the first time I have ever done this. I don't know how long it takes Bella to wake up. She had gone through terrible trauma. She's in a coma, and she had lost a lot of blood."

"What the fuck are we going to do now?" Paul was terrified to think what this all meant. They were more than ten hours away from home, and it wasn't like they could pack her into the car and drive to the nearest hospital.

"She needs medical care, she's lost a lot of blood, as I said, and I don't know if she had any internal damage. There is a lot of bruising, and that one on her stomach looks worrisome. And she has broken her leg. We can take her either to the hospital in Forks or to our place. I have everything I need at our house."

"Yes, Yes," Paul said impatiently, "but how? How the fuck are we going to get her there?" It had taken them almost five hours to get here from the cars, and the terrain was very challenging. They would have to carry her.

"She won't survive the distance back to the cars, and after that, it takes us six hours to drive to Forks," he said out loud, the thing everybody must be thinking about.

"We have to take her to the first hospital on the way to get first aid," he said.

They heard a helicopter approaching.

Rosalie's phone buzzed, and she answered.

She listened for a while. "Jasper and Alice are flying here with a helicopter. They can take three people. Paul and Carlisle, you take Bella and ensure she gets the care she needs. We clean up here and go to get the cars."

Paul couldn't believe what he had heard. He looked up but couldn't see the helicopter from the trees.

"Well, that's the answer to our problem," Carlisle said, chuckling in relief. "I bet Alice saw what would happen to Bella if we couldn't get her back fast."

Paul glanced at Sam. He shrugged and smiled, looking a bit lost. Yes, they really needed to talk about what had happened, but after Bella was safely back home.

"We need to go one mile that way. There is a spot where they can land," Rosalie said.

Paul got up and pressed Bella close to his chest. She weighed nothing. Has she always been this light, this fragile?

He followed Rosalie and Carlisle. Whispering in Bella's ear, "baby, we're getting you to the hospital. You'll get the treatment you need, and then you'll wake up, hmm. I'm free of the bitch. The imprint broke when she tried to kill you."

Paul felt tears prickling in his eyes. Bella had to wake up. He needed her back. Now that they were free, they could get married, and Bella could go to New York if she wanted to. She didn't have to hold back because the imprint made him weak. They could start their life together. No one could ever come between them again. Never!

"Please, baby, wake up."

They arrived at the spot where the helicopter had landed.

The pixie came to meet them.

"Let's go fast. We need to get Bella to the hospital."

Paul nodded and climbed into the helicopter.

"I'll see you pack at the Res!" Sam shouted after him and waved.

Paul looked at him and nodded. Carlisle sat by him and Bella and closed the door. The chopper took off. The scarred leech seemed to know well what he was doing. He would be in debt to these leeches for the rest of his life. But he didn't care if it brought Bella back to him healthy and human.

Carlisle gave him the headphones.

"It takes an hour and a half to get to the Forks hospital. It is best to take her there now," Alice said.

"I agree. Flying to our place would drag too much attention," Carlisle said. "I take her over in the hospital, so no other doctors are needed."

"Thank you for doing this," Paul said. He kissed the top of Bella's head.

"I feel responsible for what happened. I had to do what I could to save her," the pixie said.

Huh?

"What did you do?" Carlisle asked, closing his eyes.

"I told Edward that he and Isabella would be together. That I saw them together, I wanted to see them together. But I didn't see them, not really."

"Alice, why would you do something like that?" Carlisle asked.

"I wanted him to be happy, and Isabella was the first woman he ever wanted. They looked so good together and were so good playing together, and I thought... I'm so sorry," Alice said.

Paul didn't know what to say. He was too tired to think anything but how to get Bella to the hospital and get her better. Paul should probably be mad, but he didn't have the energy for that. And he didn't quite understand what the pixie had said either. Had she fed the fucker the future she wanted for him, made him go after her? He would get back to this some other time.

"I saw that Isabella would die," the pixie continued, "if we didn't get her out of here fast. We ran over the border to Alaska and found a travel firm that takes tourists on the flights, and we snatched the helicopter from there. We must get Isabella to get the blood transfusion fast."

Paul closed his eyes. He tried to concentrate on Bella's weight on his lap. Her heartbeat was slow.

"I didn't see Isabella at all, you know Paul," Alice said.

Paul's eyes snapped open. "What do you mean?"

"I think that it's a shapeshifter thing, I can't see any of you, and whenever she was with you, and her choices had something to do with you, I couldn't see her. Last few months I didn't see her at all. She really loves you; you know that, don't you?"

"Yeah. And she is my life."

AN:

You know what, I hadn't planned to give the Cullens this big role in rescuing Bella, to make them such good guys. I don't like the Cullens much, Alice is the one I like the least along with Edward, but she ended up helping and not being as bad as I wanted her to be. It is funny how you can't always control where the story takes you, eh.

And as always: thank you for your reviews, favs and follows. They mean a lot.