TODAY'S QUOTE:

I'm hiding from exercise. I'm in the fitness program.

Chapter Fourteen

We arrived at the airport, and I had to wear my sunglasses to stop my eyes from dying from the harsh lighting. It was just as I remembered - whitewashed walls, blinding lighting systems, large crowds and little shops.

The Cullen's plane was landing in terminal four, the largest terminal, where most flights landed — so it wasn't surprising that it was theirs.

Bella and I sat on one of the couches, me laying obnoxiously across it and flipping off the people that moaned about it. I was tired, damn it. Carlisle and Alice spent a long time looking at the departing flights board. I could hear them discussing the pros and cons of New York, Atlanta, Chicago.

Several times they offered to go get breakfast with us. Later, Bella told them. I didn't answer, preferring to pick at my nails scratch off the polish. Rude yes, but at that point I was worried as hell. I didn't even like my mother. Risking my safety for Bella's I could do. For mums? I'd rather not.

"I think I'll eat now," Bella said, poking my leg draped on her lap. She gave me a pointed look, and I rolled off her, standing up.

"I'll come with you girls," Carlisle said, smiling tightly. Alice gave a little wave with her hand, sending us forward. Bella walked a little in front of us, and Carlisle had his hand on the small of my back, holding me to his side protectively. It was kinda sweet, I guess.

We walked slowly, Bella dismissing all the cafes we passed, despite seeing a few that looked pretty decent. She finally stopped us in front of a bathroom.

"Do you mind?" she asked.

"Not at all," Carlisle said.

"I'll go with you," I said to her, before turning back to him. "It's a girl thing."

"I'll take your word for it," he said softly, his mouth tugging up into a small smile. His hand lingered on my back before I pushed forward, following Bella in.

As soon as the door shut behind us, Bella grabbed my hand tightly and started running with me.

"Bella, what-"

I trailed off as she pulled me through a second door, an exit out into the carpark. If Carlisle stayed where he said he would, we'd never be in his line of sight. I didn't look behind me as I ran. This was our only chance, and even if he saw me, I had to keep going. People stared, and I glared harshly at them.

Around the corner the elevators were waiting, and we dashed forward, throwing my hand between the closing doors of a full elevator headed down. We squeezed in beside the irritated passengers, and Bella checked to make sure that the button for level one had been pushed.

One woman huffed at me, and I 'accidentally' stomped on her foot.

As soon as the door opened we were off again, to the sound of annoyed murmurs behind me. I slowed myself as I passed the security guards by the luggage carousels, only to break into a run again as the exit doors came into view. I had no way of knowing if Carlisle was looking for me yet. I would have only seconds if he was following my scent.

Along the crowded curb there wasn't a cab in sight. A shuttle to the Hyatt was just closing its doors a few feet behind me. I dragged Bella forward, and we just caught up to it.

"Wait!" she called, running, waving at the driver.

"This is the shuttle to the Hyatt," the driver said in confusion as he opened the doors.

"Yes," Bella huffed, "that's where we're going."

He looked askance at our luggage-less state, but then shrugged, not caring enough to ask. Most of the seats were empty. Bella sat as far from the other travelers as possible, but I prefer to sit up at the front, watching my surroundings carefully to see if I could spot Carlisle yet.

When we stopped, we got out and ran to a cab, sliding into the seat behind the driver. Bella told the surprised cabbie my mother's address. "I need to get there as soon as possible."

"That's in Scottsdale," he complained. I growled under my breath and Bella threw four twenties over the seat.

"Will that be enough?"

"Sure, kid, no problem."

The garden had grown wildly, and I snapped a branch of a tree that hung over the footpath. Bella ran to the door, but I stayed at the tree, fingering the sticks that I now held in my hands. I removed a glove and held the branch between my fingers, willing ribbens of fire to curl around the leaves and burn it to a fine ash that fell onto my boots.

"Morgana?" Bella called, her face a pale white. "Come on."

It was dark inside, empty, normal. I followed Bella to the phone, turning on the kitchen light on my way. There, on the whiteboard, was a ten-digit number written in a small, neat hand. Bella held the phone to her ear. It rang only once, and then she put it on speaker.

"Hello, Bella," that easy voice answered. "Morgana. That was very quick. I'm impressed."

"Is my mum all right?" Bella asked, chewing her lip. I took the phone from her when I noticed her hand shaking.

"She's perfectly fine. Don't worry, Bella, I have no quarrel with her. Unless you didn't come alone, of course." Light, amused.

"I'm alone."

"Very good. Now, do you know the ballet studio just around the corner from your home?"

"Yes. We know how to get there," Bella said.

"Well, then, I'll see you very soon."

He hung up on us, and I shared a look with Bella. "Are you okay?" I asked, noting her paleness.

She nodded, but didn't speak. She reached out with her fingers and lightly touched my cheek. "Morg, if someth-"

"Don't, Bella," I warned. "We'll be fine."

"But -"

"Nope. Come on - you'll have to lead."

She smiled tightly, and pulled off the glove I still had on, folding it neatly with the other one and placing it on the bench.

I followed her out the house, rolling my eyes when she locked the door and put the keys under a flowerpot before breaking into a run. It was a short run - Bella was slow, and it was easy to keep up. I could have overtaken her, but I didn't know where we were going. Not that it was that hard, though. Just around the corner, and then taking a right.

The parking lot in front was empty, the vertical blinds in all the windows drawn. As I got closer, I could see the sign inside the door. It was handwritten on hot pink paper; it said the dance studio was closed for spring break. I touched the handle, tugged on it cautiously. It was unlocked. The lobby was dark and empty, cool, the air conditioner thrumming. The plastic molded chairs were stacked along the walls, and the carpet smells like shampoo. The west dance floor was dark, I could see through the open viewing window. The east dance floor, the bigger room, was lit. But the blinds were closed on the window.

Mother's voice called. "Bella? Bella?" That same tone of hysterical panic. The exactly same words I had heard so, so many times before. "Bella, you scared me! Don't you ever do that to me again!"

Her voice continued as we ran into the long, high-ceilinged room. I stared around me, trying to find where her voice was coming from. There she was, on the TV screen, tousling Bella's hair in relief.

It was Thanksgiving time, and Bella looked like she was maybe twelve. She'd gone to see my grandmother in California, the last year before she died. Bella had told me about it months later, when she came to visit.

And then the TV screen was blue. I turned quickly, my hands out in front of me in fists.

"Can I say I told you so, now?" I asked Bella, who seemed yet to realise the danger we were in.

"Wha- shit."

"Little late, Sister Dear," I said through gritted teeth. I told her it would be a trap, that mum would be fine.

We stared at each other for a long moment, and then he smiled. He walked toward me, quite close, and then passed me to put the remote down next to the VCR.

"You should be nicer to your sister, Morgana," he said. His words were soft and velvety. I tried to keep my palms a steady heat - too much and I'd have to attack, and I didn't have him in a close enough position yet.

"I'm good," I said, pivoting on my foot as he circled us. He laughed, and it made me shiver.

"Very well. Sorry about that, Bella, but isn't it better that your mother didn't really have to be involved in all this?"

"Yes," she answered.

"You don't sound angry that I tricked you."

"I'm not."

"Neither am I," I added. "Just disappointed in Bella's stupidity."

She kicked me in the shin, and my knee almost buckled.

"How odd. You really mean it. And you, Morgana, are just a mystery as ever." His dark eyes assessed me with interest. The irises were nearly black, just a hint of ruby around the edges. Thirsty. "I will give your strange coven this much, you humans can be quite interesting. I guess I can see the draw of observing you. It's amazing — some of you seem to have no sense of your own self-interest at all. Some are quite dangerous in their own ways."

"I suppose you're going to tell me that your boyfriends will avenge you?" he asked, hopefully it seemed to me.

"No, I don't think so. At least, I asked him not to."

"Not my boyfriend," I muttered.

He ignored me. "And what was his reply to that?" he asked Bella.

"I don't know. I left him a letter."

"How romantic, a last letter. And do you think he will honor it?" His voice was just a little harder now, a hint of sarcasm marring his polite tone.

"I hope so."

"Hmmm. Well, our hopes differ then. You see, this was all just a little too easy, too quick. To be quite honest, I'm disappointed. I expected a much greater challenge. And, after all, I only needed a little luck. When Victoria couldn't get to your father, I had her find out more about you. There was no sense in running all over the planet chasing you down when I could comfortably wait for you in a place of my choosing. So, after I talked to Victoria, I decided to come to Phoenix to pay your mother a visit. I'd heard you say you were going home. At first, I never dreamed you meant it. But then I wondered. Humans can be very predictable; they like to be somewhere familiar, somewhere safe. And wouldn't it be the perfect ploy, to go to the last place you should be when you're hiding — the place that you said you'd be.

"But of course I wasn't sure, it was just a hunch. I usually get a feeling about the prey that I'm hunting, a sixth sense, if you will. I listened to your message when I got to your mother's house, but of course I couldn't be sure where you'd called from. It was very useful to have your number, but you could have been in Antarctica for all I knew, and the game wouldn't work unless you were close by.

"Then your boyfriend got on a plane to Phoenix. Victoria was monitoring them for me, naturally; in a game with this many players, I couldn't be working alone. And so they told me what I'd hoped, that you were here after all. I was prepared; I'd already been through your charming home movies. And then it was simply a matter of the bluff.

"Very easy, you know, not really up to my standards. So, you see, I'm hoping you're wrong about your boyfriend. Edward, isn't it? And your not-boyfriend, Carlisle? Would you mind, very much, if I left a little letter of my own for your mates?" He took a step back and touched a palm-sized digital video camera balanced carefully on top of the stereo. A small red light indicated that it was already running. He adjusted it a few times, widened the frame. I stared at him in horror. "I'm sorry, but I just don't think they'll be able to resist hunting me after he watches this. And I wouldn't want him to miss anything. It was all for him, of course. You're simply a human, who unfortunately was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and indisputably running with the wrong crowd, I might add." He stepped toward me, smiling. I curled my fists tighter, holding them up just above my belly button.

"Before we begin…" I felt a curl of nausea in the pit of my stomach as he spoke. "I would just like to rub it in, just a visions. In the nineteen-twenties it was the asylum and the shock treatments. When she opened her eyes, strong with her fresh youth, it was like she'd never seen the sun before. The old vampire made her a strong new vampire, and there was no reason for me to touch her then." He sighed. "I destroyed the old one in vengeance."

"Alice," Bella breathed, astonished.

"Yes, your little friend. I was surprised to see her in the clearing. So I guess her coven ought to be able to derive some comfort from this experience. I get you, but they get her. The one victim who escaped me, quite an honor, actually. And she did smell so delicious. I still regret that I never got to taste… She smelled even better than you do. Sorry — I don't mean to be offensive. You have a very nice smell. Floral, somehow… Not you though. For sisters, you don't smell at all the same. You're like… ash, and coal?"

"I've been told," I said drily. "There's a reason for that, if you'd like to know?"

He took another step toward me, till he was just inches away. He lifted a lock of my hair and sniffed at it delicately. Then he gently patted the strand back into place, and I felt his cool fingertips against my throat. He reached up to stroke my cheek once quickly with his thumb, his face curious.

"Why not?" he asked. His thumb rested just above a vein. He clearly had no problem with me. Obviously he didn't know what I could do.

My fingers twisted themselves in the buttons of his shirt, ghosting against his chest. "Are you sure?" I asked, my voice a little husky. Bella made a whimpering sound behind me.

"Sure."

I pressed my hand to his skin, putting all my fire power into it, and I could smell a sickly sweet smoke fill the air.

"Argh!" He shouted, pushing himself off me, speeding to the mirror and holding a hand to his chest. I didn't know how fast it would work, but my hands burned through pretty quickly. Imagine the hole in Iron Man's chest, but in a handprint shape, I guess. It was a little gruesome - there was no blood, just a hollow. "Bitch!"

"I don't like that word," I said. I felt Bella grip my arm tightly, and I let it warm enough that she backed off. "Run," I told her.

"I-"

"Run."

She listened that time, bolting to the door. James chased after her, throwing her against the wall with a sickening crack. I threw my hands out in front of me, and ribbens of fire twisted through the air, wrapping themselves around James.

He screamed loudly, trying to pull them off. He decided that that wouldn't work, and began running around the room, making the fire wrap itself around me, singeing my clothes before I forced it to turn off.

He laughed. "An impressive trick," he said, as though he wasn't wearing tattered clothes, and he had deep indents in his body where chunks has been squeezed(?) off.. I tried to ignore the white spots in my vision, trying to guess his next move. I guessed wrong, expecting him to escape when he in fact raced to Bella, cradling her in his arms and biting into her neck.

"What the actual fuck?" I asked no one in particular, more than a little disturbed by the sticky blood falling out his mouth.

He smiled at me through a mouthful of blood, dropping Bella on the ground when she started screeching and convulsing. I spared her a quick look before focusing on the biggest problem.

I held my hands together, feeling a ball of fire grow in my palms. I chucked it at James and he ducked as it soared above his head, shattering the mirror from the heat.

"So cool," I said, looking at my hands. I don't think I had ever done that before then. I flicked my hands out again, and the fire wrapped itself around throat, pulling tighter as it went.

"Morgana!" Carlisle called from behind me, and my head instinctively snapped around to see him, accidentally breaking my concentration.

I stared at Carlisle for a fraction of a moment, noting his tousled hair, and his crumpled shirt, and a look of absolute fear and love (and oh god love) and everything in between, and James slammed into me, pushing me into a wall.

"Holy Christ on a bike," I groaned, pressing my palms against his face and melting it. It dripped onto me like candle wax, and I gagged.

He was thrown off me and Carlisle appeared in front of me, holding my chin and looking at my eyes. He dragged me out of the plaster and sat me down so I was leaning against an undestroyed wall. "It's alright, Morgana, you can rest now. Just, let's count, alright. You'll be right, okay. One, two, three-"

I gave him an annoyed look. "Carlisle, shut up," I said, scrambling to get off the floor. He kept me down.

"Morgana, it's been a long day, you need -"

"I'll be fine," I said. My face softened, and I saw the true extent of his worry in his eyes. "Really. No broken bones, no pain."

Bella screamed loudly, making my ears ring. "Okay," I amended, pushing him off me. He let me this time. "I have no pain. What's wrong with her?"

"She's changing," he said softly. "James bit her."

"Carlisle!" Edward yelled. My eyes flicked over to him, him sobbing dramatically over Bella's still convulsing body.

"That looks painful," I said. "Sorry."

"No, it is," he said. He kissed my forehead. "It's-"

"Carlisle!"

"Go on, save my sister," I said. I was very clearly out of it. Generally I'd freak out at least a little more. He nodded solemnly, before disappearing and reappearing in front of the two.

"You look well," Rosalie said sarcastically, walking up to me. She bumped my hip with hers, draping my jacket over my shoulders.

"Oh good, I missed you."

"I misse -"

"I was talking to the jacket," I interrupted. I held a steady face for a moment, before laughing. "Kidding," I said. I hugged her side, my face barely reaching her shoulder.

"You'd better be," she warned. Somehow she still looked amazing. She was wearing tights and a shredded purple shirt, and her hair was knotted and frayed at a few ends, and she still rocked it.

I looked over at Edward, gagging again at the sight. He looked like he was sucking her dry.

"He's taking the venom out of her," she explained. I raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. "Wanna help burn the place down?"

"Excuse me?"

"It won't be tied to you - we just want to get rid of any evidence. We get to blow it up," she teased.

"Why not?" I said, already walking to the next room, ready to set it ablaze.

REVIEW PLEASE!

Thanks to DxGRAYxMAN, who gave me the idea for this chapter's name. Hope you don't mind! ;)

Yes, I updated this exact same chapter 3 times, I had a problem with the paragraphs. Sorry.