A/N Thanks for the continued love! Also, a quasi-requisite reminder that none of the characters are mine. Alas.

Chapter 10

Bella was at Emily's helping to make a huge feast for that night. Alice was fairly certain that the following afternoon was the time the newborns would arrive, so they were feasting together for dinner and breakfast.

"What if you had a flame-thrower?" Quil suggested to Bella. He'd been throwing out stupid ideas for a while about how she could help them besides just being bait.

Bella stopped cutting veggies. "I don't hate that idea, actually. Do we know anyone who has a flame thrower?"

"The reaction time is no good," Embry spoke up. Ever the logical one. "As a human, you just don't have the reflexes to react to vamps. They're too quick. A weapon would give you a false sense of confidence."

Bella's shoulders slumped. She didn't want to die. A part of her had thought for a long time that her death would help, or at least not hurt too much, the people around her. But the last few days with Paul...she really didn't want to die. However, she would do whatever she needed to do to help win this battle.

"Fire's not a bad idea, though," Embry continued, thoughtfully.

Before Bella could ask him more about it, Paul walked in and she felt like her whole soul lit up. He came right to her in just a few strides across the room and picked her up in a hug. Bella giggled at the gesture, but this sort of uninhibited physical affection made her so very happy. The fact that she could touch just because she wanted to and whenever she wanted to made her giddy. And Paul liked to touch. She purred a little moan of contentment. Paul chuckled.

"Oh, lovebirds?" Embry interrupted, "If you could focus over here for a moment, let's discuss a ring of fire."

"You been listening to Johnny Cash again?" Emily teased from the stove.

Embry rolled his eyes. "Well, yes. Obviously. But the flame thrower idea made me think of fire. We could dig a moat kinda thing. A giant trench. Fill it with dry wood-"

"Where are we gonna get that much dry wood around here, man?" Quil quipped.

"Go on," Bella said looking intently at Embry. "What next?"

"Put you in the middle and then let the vamps run straight for you. Light it on fire, so in order to get to you, they have to run through fire."

"What the hell?" Paul growled.

"Not only is dry wood an issue, but also, they can jump. But...if there were a couple of wolves in the ring with me…" Bella trailed off.

"We're not putting you in the middle of the damn battlefield, Bella!" Jake yelled.

She sighed. "Jake. We've been over this before. We can control things with me. The tribe will be safe. Forks will be safe. Because you guys are going to win. Not only are you made for this, you've trained for this, AND formed an alliance that nobody will be expecting."

"We've already agreed to lay a trail using your hair and blood, not to you being in the middle of the fight!"

Bella knew Jacob. He wasn't mad at her. He was worried. She stepped closer to him and held his shoulders. "Jake, they're coming because of me." She stopped him before he could interrupt. "Whether or not you think that's my fault, I need to do this. I refuse to let you all go into battle to risk your lives when I'm not doing at least as much. I refuse to lay a trail and then hide safe and sound. This is my battle more than it's yours, the fact that I'm less equipped doesn't make that any less true."

Jake scowled. Then looked over her shoulder towards Paul who was trembling. He got a smirk on his face and turned back to her. "Tell you what, Bells. If you can convince Paul, Sam, and Jasper, I'll go along with it. But I get to be one of the wolves guarding you." He stared into her eyes.

Bella smiled up at him. "Always being my hero, Jake." She pulled him in for a giant hug and they both whispered "love you" at the same time and then chuckled.

Paul thought it was weird that his wolf was okay with this display of physical affection. He knew the wolf thought of her as his mate, and was usually a territorial ass, but only the human bit of Paul ever got pissy over Jacob and Bella. And he couldn't even muster that right now. Especially, when she turned from Jacob and came to him. Intertwining their fingers as she put her small, pale hand in his. He calmed right down from worry, looked in her eyes, then said, "Embry, how 'bout we take your crazy idea to Sam and call Jasper?"

And that was how Bella found herself standing in a field, seemingly alone. She'd wandered through the woods earlier that morning to lay a trail leading right here. Right to this moment. Last night after Bella called them, the Cullens had quickly dug a pit. And procured dry wood. (Emmett said they cleaned out every hardware store and gas station of logs in a 100 mile radius.) And doused the wood in gasoline. And drank animal blood procured from the butcher. They said it wasn't as good, but it got the job done to keep their strength up.

Meanwhile, the wolves were hiding in the woods. Except for Jacob and Paul who were down in the "moat" as Embry had called it. Edward was also hiding down had hated the idea and was pissed when he realized he was outvoted. Even moreso when he heard that she'd be guarded by wolves. He demanded to also be included. Bella demurred to Sam and Jasper on that, but sought Paul's eyes, too. He wasn't happy, but he exhaled loudly and nodded. Bella smiled and squeezed his hand as if she knew what it cost him to work with Edward. Paul felt mildly better knowing that Jake would bitch and moan about it for him.

The rest of the Cullens were in a tree in the middle of the field a couple hundred yards in front of Bella. To the naked eye, it really did appear that she was alone.

It was a rare day of sunshine and she found herself appreciating the warmth of the sun and the gentle breeze blowing. She thought again about how she didn't want to die. But she would if it meant none of her friends or Charlie had to. She and Paul had spent hours holding each other in the quiet darkness of the middle of the previous night. They both knew that there were no guarantees today, so they didn't make promises - just held on tightly to one another and their fledgling relationship. When it was time, he walked her to the trailhead and let her wander. He moved parallel to her. Too far for her to see him, but she knew he could see her and she found comfort in that.

"Thank you," she whispered, knowing that the 3 most important men in her life (that weren't her father) were there waiting to literally fight monsters for her. She'd had no idea what she was getting into those many months ago when she pursued Edward Cullen, and while she wished she'd done things differently, simply knowing the Cullens and the pack had been mostly good. Although...the fact that she was currently using herself as bait did perhaps not illustrate that point too well. She chuckled to herself, then shook her head. All her protectors waiting silently were going to think she was crazy.

And then she heard a howl. Bella's stomach dropped. It was on. For better or worse.

Paul was vibrating with the need to kill his enemy. What sucked was that he had to be side by side with his enemy to defeat the greater of evils. He had been right. Jacob had thrown a fit about Edward. Bella listened to his tirade and then said, "Thank you for worrying about me, Jake. I know you don't like him. And he really did put me through some messed up shit, whether he meant to or not, but I think he really does truly care about my safety. And isn't that a good thing?"

Paul snorted as Jacob harrumphed. "I'll work with him, but I don't like it, Bells. You are my priority, so if he puts a single toenail out of line, I'll rip off his head."

"Jake," she said sweetly. "Say, does the son of the chief get any sort of lessons in diplomacy?"

Paul laughed out loud and Jake scowled, but Paul took pity on Jacob Black. "I'll help you, if it comes to that, Black. You know I will." And Jake relaxed a bit.

"Yeah, ok," he conceded, knowing full well that being there with the best fighter in the pack who had even more reason to hate Edward Cullen on Bella's behalf was as good as he was going to get on this.

The 2 wolves and the vampire reacted as soon as they heard the howl, too, which made a nice change from glowering at each other.

"Light it now," Edward hissed.

"Already on it, bloodsucker," Jacob growled back. Paul remained silent, but everyone could see his focus was on Bella and what was coming. Both phased to wolves as soon as the fire was lit and jumped up next to Bella.

As predicted, the vampires were coming at her fast. But also as predicted, they were so focused on her, they had no idea what was happening when they started to be attacked. Bella couldn't see details to know how things were going, even less now that the flames were really getting higher, but she could see that it was moving closer to her. She was so focused on the scene in front of her, that she was utterly surprised when she heard Edward yell out.

"No! You stay away from her!" he screamed. Bella turned and saw him launch himself at Victoria. Jake and Paul positioned themselves closer to her, but were in fighting stance.

The fighting between the two vampires was almost too fast for Bella to really follow, but she could feel the tension of the wolves next to her, so she figured this wasn't going to be an easy victory. She could vaguely make out some of the fighting around her between the wolves, Cullens, and the newborn vampires, but through the heat of the fire, she couldn't really discern details.

Everyone else around her was so tense, but Bella found herself observing tiny things as if the world had slowed down around her. She heard shrieking and growling. She noticed the heat from the flames surrounding her. She was turning in a circle trying to take it all in.

She felt it before she saw it. 3 vamps leaping over the flames as if to jump on each of them. Jacob and Paul were ready for it, though. One of the vamps was immediately dispatched by Alice who'd also lept over in pursuit and quite literally picked up the newborn and threw him into the fire moat. Vampires were excessively flammable. It was like watching a dried out Christmas tree go up in flames! Jacob and Paul were dealing with the other 2 but there wasn't much room in the circle. Alice, coming to the same conclusion, picked Bella up and went back over the flames with her. She called out to the wolves below, "I've got her. Do your thing!"

Bella hated being carried while vampires ran. She couldn't see anything around her and it made her motion sick. It didn't help that Alice was fastest, but Bella also understood that her once bff was taking care of her. And that's when something slammed into them HARD and though Bella knew Alice was wrapping herself around Bella to protect her from the inevitable fall, Bella still screamed.

There was pain. Then blackness. A sickening giggle. Yelling. Fighting. So much pain, though. And then blessed blackness again.