Bella took slow unnecessary breaths as she stood calmly in the field waiting for the battle to begin. It was just before twilight and the army and whoever had made it would be arriving very soon. She glanced around herself at the group that had chosen to stand beside her in this endeavor.
Jasper, her mate and probably the only creature able to calm her when she was worked up, stood immediately beside her his hand brushing hers but not grasping her fingers so that she could react that much faster when the newborns entered the clearing. On her other side stood Emmett, the first person, immortal or otherwise that had treated her as more than just a means to an end. Her first friend upon entering Forks, the big brother that she had always wished for when she wanted somebody to come and take care of her when she was living with her mother in Phoenix.
Every face her eyes landed on Rosalie, Edward, Carlisle, Esme, Alice, even Jacob and the rest of the wolves made her heart swell. Her eyes, still red despite the recent hunting experience where she tried animal blood for the first time, stung with excess venom and she had to work to fight back the tearless sobs of joy she felt knowing that all of them had seen past every preconceived notion that they might have had about her from being either Charlie's daughter, from a Southern Coven, or just a vampire in general, and decided that she was worth it and that they would follow her into this battle.
Every person here cared enough about her to put their lives on the line for some reason or another, against an army of Newborn vampires that was created by some unknown entity that had a grudge against her. Not that they would be unknown for much longer, she could hear them approaching now they'd be in sight in no time at all. All around her, the vampire half of her family tensed into statues while the wolf half shifted restlessly.
Then they were stepping through the trees. Thanks to Alice they knew that the count was down to 18 Newborns plus their creator, so the size of the crowd at least wasn't horribly startling though the wolves were probably at least a little unnerved by the number of red eyes all in one place so close to the land they were bound to protect.
Bella didn't focus on the majority of the Newborns though. There was only one that she let even a fraction of her mind focus on. Jason's arm was held in a tight grip by the vampires on either side of him, obviously struggling to get free. Bella was pleased to note that he didn't appear to want anything to do with attacking them, that meant his memories of her had likely survived his change though they were likely to be fuzzier now that he had made the change.
She couldn't spend long on Jason though, she forced herself to focus on the 2 vampires that had duller eyes obviously past their Newborn year marking them as the creators of the army they were now presented with. A low hiss escaped her when she locked eyes with them, having only met them briefly when she was only weeks old. Not even Maria had wanted anything to do with them, fearing that too much exposure to them would bring about the wrath of the Volturi who had until that point ignored her continuation of her army.
Really nobody ever wanted to deal with the Romanian brothers if they didn't have to but apparently Bella had managed to do something to piss them off if they were here now with an army of Newborn vampires.
"Vladimir, Stefan. To what do I owe such contempt that you would go to such lengths to try and disable me?" Bella asked raising an eyebrow at the two of them, keeping a calm exterior even as she could feel panic welling inside of her.
"We have heard that you destroyed your creator and her army before turning over others to the Volturi." Stefan hissed while Vladimir glared at her.
"Please tell me you're joking." Bella said not even flinching under the glare.
"We are not joking. We have brought this army to destroy you for your betrayal." Vladimir growled.
"As if you even crossed my mind when I was doing it. Seriously we've only met once and I'm pretty sure I never pledged loyalty to you. However, if this is really how you want to die then that's on you. I feel like I should warn you though that the entire Volturi Guard refused to stand against me and I decimated an entire army in less than a day without assistance and never received a scratch so I'm just going to follow your lead on whether or not we continue this pissing contest."
"We have always been stronger than the Volturi. You insult us by thinking that their weakness would deter us from destroying you." Stefan scoffed.
"If you're so much stronger than them then why are they still ruling while you start petty disputes as a form of temper tantrum?" Bella rolled her eyes in a show of contempt while keeping a tight hold on the panic she felt over the fact that they obviously knew that Jason was her friend and were planning to use that to their advantage.
"We have never participated in the petty disputes of the southern covens. However, you were born into that life as was your mate. It would only make sense that it is you that have started this army which will bring the Volturi here to destroy you and while they are distracted, we will take back our rightful places as Kings." Vladimir snarled contemptuously.
"There are literally so many flaws with that plan that I don't even know where to start." Bella wanted badly to roll her eyes, but she didn't dare take her gaze away from the group in front of her.
"You know not of what you speak girl. We have lived many years this in this life waiting for the time that we would once more rule and now we will not miss our chance because you were too stupid to take out the competition like you were supposed to. Maria promised that you would help us, and you will whether you like it or not!"
"Seriously how dumb are you? Like I knew you were pretty stupid, but I didn't think that it was this bad. You literally kidnapped one of my best friends and turned him into a vampire against his will and then just expect me to drop at your feet all complacently?" Bella snorted catching Jason's eye briefly enough that she hoped the two holding him wouldn't realize.
"If you want your friend to keep his head attached to the rest of his body then you will."
"You really don't know me very well at all then. Honestly, did Maria tell you anything about me, not that she knew the full extent of my power, probably nobody knows just what my potential is if I'm being completely truthful. But really that isn't the point at hand at the moment, right now we're discussing how much you don't know a single thing about me and how I operate. I plan continuously. It's kind of a hobby of mine. I plan and then I make a back-up plan and then I make a back-up plan for my back-up plan and the cycle just goes on and on until I've gotten past whatever I was planning to begin with. So, no I'm not just going to drop at your feet begging for mercy."
Time seemed to slow as the word 'drop' left her mouth for the second time. As she spoke both Vladimir and Stefan had loosened their holds ever so slightly on Jason and as soon as she came towards the close of her little monologue he let his entire body go lax, slipping easily out of their grasp as he dropped to the ground between them. Then before either of them could properly react he'd rolled out of reach and darted to stand between Bella and Emmett looking for all the world as though he'd been there the entire time as opposed to ever having been held hostage.
"Lovely," Bella grinned dangerously as the two older vampires stared in shock at what had just happened. "Now Demetri dear, would you like to take care of this, or shall I?" She asked Demetri, Felix, and Jane appeared at the tree line.
A loud snarl cut across the clearing before Demetri could respond and both Vladimir and Stefan surged towards Bella their eyes clouded with rage. Bella, now completely unconcerned with Jason safely on their side of the clearing didn't even bat an eyelash as the two enraged vampires slammed hard into her shield. There was a flash of light similar to that of lightning and when it dissipated there was nothing, but ash left where the two had been.
"Hmm, it's never done that before, interesting." Bella said thoughtfully as she stared at the ash. "I wonder if it's a product of having found my mate."
"That was simultaneously terrifying and anticlimactic somehow." Demetri said staring at Bella with narrowed eyes.
"Indeed," Bella agreed. "Now are you going to do your job for once?"
"I don't know why you're complaining, it's not like it's all that much work for you anyway. All you ever do is stand around acting superior." Demetri shot back, even as he and Felix set to work on the newborns who were all still staring in shock where their creators had seemingly been vaporized.
Bella arched an eyebrow imperiously. "It's really not my fault that I'm better than you at everything. Try not to be so jealous, it's really not very attractive." She turned to leave as she said that, the rest of the Cullen's as well as the wolves and Jason following her lead. "Now if you'll excuse us, we really have much better things we could be doing right now."
XxXx
Okay, so I honestly had every intention of writing this big fighting sequence but honestly I've had the beginning part of this chapter on my laptop since almost immediately after I posted the last update forever ago and it just wasn't coming and wasn't coming so this is what we ended up with instead. Hopefully you enjoyed it even though it's so completely not what I initially wanted.
Reviews are life.
Love always,
Emily Rai
