A/N: Here's the conclusion! Thanks to KayMarieXW for beta-reading. I'm very glad to have you! Thanks to those who made the effort to write a review. I can't tell you how much I appreciate them. They keep me going!

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga and all its characters are property of Stephenie Meyer. I'm only borrowing.

22. GHOSTS, PART 3

BELLA

Every time I tried to remember what happened after I'd found the vampire in a torn United States Marine Corps uniform sitting on Liv's sofa, Eden's limp body draped over her legs like a discarded rag doll, I could never quite piece it together. I recalled the despair that had surged through me and the fury that had followed it. I even recalled going straight for the vampire's jugular, although I must have been aware of the fact that she was much better trained than I was and that I was no match for her at all.

After that I only remembered fragments, colours mostly and sounds and the rage that had driven me to run faster than I'd ever run before, to go into pursuit and damn the consequences.

The first complete memory I had after entering Liv's house was that of Edward wrapping his arms around my torso like steel cables and yanking me back mid-run. I was smashed into him so hard that our bodies collided with the sound of an avalanche breaking loose. I fought to bring my arms up, tried to free myself out of his grip, but Edward held on, wrestling me into the muddy ground until my feet couldn't find any more purchase. I slipped, staggering to regain my balance, which gave Edward time to wrap his arms around me even more securely.

I snarled and hissed and swore and still Edward wouldn't let go. I felt his lips at my ear, knew he was whispering to me urgently, pleadingly, but through the crimson haze of rage his words didn't make any sense.

Eden was dead, murdered by a vampire because she'd happened to be home, because she'd happened to know me. And that was what it came down to really. Me. If it wasn't for me, Liv would never have been abducted. If it wasn't for me, Hannah Osprey, Camille Reed, Hannah Green, Izobel Martinez and Antonia Swann would still be alive. If it wasn't for me, Freya would still be human.

If I didn't exist, none of this ever would have happened.

You could have ended it, you know, a voice in the back of my mind remarked snidely. You could have let those vampires tear you apart and that would have been the end of it. Eden wouldn't have been murdered. Or, better yet, you could have gone looking for Victoria and let her kill you. Liv would never have been taken if you weren't such a coward.

Yes, I thought bitterly, finally going limp in Edward's arms as realisation hit me, that's exactly what I am. A coward. And because I was so many others had to suffer, innocents who didn't deserve to die, didn't deserve to lose people they loved, daughters, wives and children.

If Jake hadn't been with me when Victoria found me and I'd have died like I was supposed to, they'd all still be alive.

"…to me, please." Edward's urgent words slowly trickled into my awareness as he shook me, cradling me against his chest. "…have to listen to me," he urged again.

Slowly I lifted my head, half turning in his arms to meet his eyes. They flashed with relief when I finally responded, his arms falling away as if he'd suddenly remembered that he didn't know if I wanted him so close to me, almost intimately close.

"They're on their way," he explained quickly. "They're only four of them, so we might be able to take them with a little luck. The vampire you were pursuing is their leader." He paused, his eyes briefly scanning the trees behind me, searching for movement. "I can't read her mind," he continued quickly, "and the others don't know anything aside from the fact that they are to ambush us, so I have no idea what exactly she's intending to do. What happened, Bella?" he asked then, frowning slightly. "I heard you scream, so I went to find out what was going on and realised you must have gone off after another vampire. Why would you do that? I almost didn't reach you in time. You're incredibly fast."

"You should have left me alone," I whispered, balling my hands. I didn't remember screaming, but even so I wished that I hadn't, wished that Edward wasn't so fast, because then I'd have gotten her and she would have killed me and this nightmare would have been over. "Eden is dead. We were right next door and she killed her anyway. I want it to end, Edward. I want it to be over!"

"Bella, we…" Edward began, his expression pained with just the barest hint of exasperation, then his head suddenly snapped around, his lips curled back and his teeth bared in a vicious snarl. His eyes were unreadable as he briefly glanced at me, then stepped in front of me, slipping into a defensive crouch.

Why? I wanted to ask him. Why are you doing this? Why won't you let them kill me? But I couldn't bring myself to utter the words aloud. And so I said nothing as I stared over Edward's shoulder into the woods. The park around us was quiet except for the soft whisper of several vampires' swift passage, the animals having fled as they usually did.

We'd run into a trap we'd intended to run into all along, but I couldn't shake the sudden feeling of unease that wrapped itself around my bones. What if Edward wasn't strong enough to defend us both? I was no help, having spent every single training session I'd had so far learning how to escape rather than attack. I wasn't afraid to die, because then it would be over and while the damage caused by Victoria couldn't be undone, she'd have no reason to continue to kill, not because of me. Edward, however, despite everything he'd done to me, despite all the pain he'd put me through, had put us both through, didn't deserve to die. Especially not because I was incapable of protecting myself.

Edward growled, shifting his weight so that he stood even closer to me, and then it began.

They shot out of the trees like bullets, just as quietly and lethal, their plan of attack painfully obvious even to me: come at us from two sides and separate us if possible. There were four of them, as Edward had said, one male and three females, one of them the woman who'd once been a Marine. The leader. The male, who was very tall and gangly and couldn't have been older than fifteen years when he was turned, didn't stray from her side, mirroring her every movement as if they were but a single entity. It was these two that Edward focused on, leaving me to deal with the two females, who were running side by side as well. They were both petite, with very delicate features framed by soft curls the colour of copper. They looked so much alike that I was sure they were related, sisters maybe.

The trees and bushes around us stood so close that we had very little room to effectively evade them. Forced to rely on his instincts and his experience alone, Edward was watching the Marine very closely, carefully analysing the way she moved. The male left her side for just a moment, darting forward to take a playful swipe at Edward as if to test the water. Edward ducked out of the way almost lazily at which the male laughed, quite obviously amused, and returned to his leader's side.

The sisters were still coming straight at me, their teeth bared. I was very much aware that if I broke away from Edward's side I would do exactly what they intended, but I also knew that I had no choice. Jasper's warning not to let any attacker get their hands on me rang loud and clear through my mind. If I didn't start moving soon, they'd almost certainly catch me.

Let them, that persistent voice in the back of my mind insisted. It'll end then!

I hesitated. Would it? I hadn't forgotten that Victoria wanted to kill me only to get back at Edward. Despite all she'd done to me, all the pain she'd caused me for her I was still just a means to an end. What if they didn't stop just because I was dead? What if they killed Edward as well? I knew that the rest of his family had been just in James' death as well, but Victoria didn't seem to care about that. Maybe she didn't know. Maybe she simply believed that James' death was ultimately Edward's fault, because he never would have died if Edward hadn't tried so desperately to protect me.

That settled it.

I spun around, heading for the underbrush, but I wasn't fast enough. Hands seized my shoulders and I was yanked back, landing on my back and skidding through the mud into a tree. The impact caused the trunk to split, its two halves slowly leaning apart, resisting gravity for just a moment before they fell earthward with a deafening crack. I scrambled to my feet, narrowly avoiding the clutching hands of one of the sisters at me and sending mud and splinter of woods flying everywhere. The second sister materialised in front of me in a flash, already swinging around to gather momentum, and although I knew exactly what she had in mind it was too late to do anything about it. Her foot hit me squarely in the chest and I stumbled backwards. Falling, I twisted around without really knowing what I was hoping to achieve. My brain hadn't yet automated the moves I'd been shown and remembering took too much time. In the end I simply slithered ungracefully out of the way. I leapt up, slipping in a little, but the sisters were having a hard time gaining foothold as well. I dashed off again, risking a hurried glance over my shoulder to see how Edward was doing.

They seemed to be dancing a dance only they knew the steps of. Despite the fact that Edward couldn't rely on his gift to anticipate her next moves, he was able to land blows and dodge them more often than the Marine, who must have received excellent training when she was still human. This spoke volumes about his fighting skills. Edward drove his fist into the Marine's stomach, slamming his knee into her face when she folded up like a jack-knife, which sent her flying. The male was nowhere to be seen.

I found out why a nanosecond later. Turning, I found myself directly in front of him. I dug my heels into the ground, gasping, and spun around again, but the sisters were behind me and I suddenly had nowhere to go but up. I jumped. The male swore violently and leapt after me, gesturing wildly at the sisters as he did.

The Marine screeched in panic.

I craned my neck to see what was going on. Edward had managed to get his arms around the Marine's head, his knee pressing her into the ground as he pulled. Snarling furiously, the male dropped back to earth to come to his leader's aid. Edward's grip suddenly loosened, then his arms fell away and he sank into the mud, his eyes wide with horror.

Panic surged through my body. His body was still and unmoving. When the male picked him up by the collar of his shirt as if he was a misbehaving puppy, grabbed his head and slowly began twisting it around, Edward didn't even flinch.

I screamed, dropping back down as well and tripping over my own feet in my haste to help him, to save him. The sisters were on either side of me in a flash, seizing my arms and yanking me back. I tried to pull them out of their grip, tried with all the strength I had, but it wasn't enough. They were too strong and they held me down unrelentingly, forcing me to watch as Edward's skin began to crack, fine black lines slowly spreading from his left clavicle up to his right ear like a spider web.

The male was going to kill him and there was nothing at all I could do about it.

No! No. No. NO! He couldn't. He couldn't kill him. If he did, I'd be alone again, I would never find out if I was able to forgive him eventually or what the future might have in store for us. The lies he'd told me had almost destroyed me, but I'd never wanted him to die.

And in that very moment I realised that we would work things out eventually, that I'd find a way to forgive him in the end, because I loved him and would always love him for as long as we both lived.

Inside my mind something snapped.

Suddenly Edward could move again. He twisted in the male's grip, his teeth easily piercing the skin of his neck. His head slowly tilted backwards, then fell away and rolled in front of the Marine's feet. She stared down at it in disbelief and shock, wasting valuable seconds. Edward lunged at her, taking her completely by surprise.

The sisters cried out in shock and fear. I used their distraction to yank my arms free, spun around and tackled the female on my left, slamming her into the ground. I saw dread flash up in her eyes when she realised that my teeth were just millimetres away from her throat. A whimper escaped her lips. Her sister, who'd turned around and thrown herself at me, stopped dead in her tracks, her beautiful face twisted in panic. She was confused because she didn't understand why Hugh, the male and the strongest vampire she'd ever met in her very short existence aside from her, was dead and scared because she feared for her sister's life, the only one who'd ever stood up for her.

I had no idea how I knew that, but I'd worry about that later.

"Don't step any closer," I growled, sparing a moment to glance at Edward. The Marine didn't seem to have fully recovered from her surprise yet. Looking more closely, I saw that Edward wasn't simply matching her swift, efficient movement anymore; he was countering them before she had fully executed them, as if he suddenly had access to her mind.

"Please don't hurt her," the sister whimpered, her voice shaking. "If you let her go, we'll leave you and your friend alone. If we knew what we were getting ourselves into, we never would have said yes when she found us."

"She?"

"Sarah," she replied hastily, jerking her chin at the Marine. "She came to Lynn and me and told us that we would never have to go hungry again if we joined her. We didn't know what she was or what we'd signed up for until afterwards. That other vampire, the redhead, changed us."

I knew that she was telling the truth just as I seemed to have known what she had been thinking only moments ago.

"Where's the human?" I demanded, though for some reason I was sure that neither of them knew anything about Liv's disappearance. Still, it couldn't hurt to ask.

"I don't know." She swallowed visibly, but her voice was firmer now. "We're not that high up in the chain of command, so we didn't even know that Sarah had been ordered to abduct the human until it was all over. Hugh was furious when he found out that she hadn't told him about it. They are…," her eyes briefly travelled to where the remains of Hugh's body were lying, his crimson eyes staring emptily at the sky, "were very close. Sarah handed the human over the redhead, but I don't know where she took her. After that Sarah moved us to Chicago. She ordered us to ambush the vampire who would come looking for the human and her mate, who'd most likely be with her, and kill them if we got the chance. It wasn't what Sarah herself had been ordered to do, though. Lynn overheard her admitting to Hugh that we were to take you alive. I don't know why she lied to us and I really don't care."

"Are there more of you?" I asked.

"I honestly don't know. I'd tell you if I did, I swear. Please, you have to believe me." Her shoulders slumped in defeat. "Let her go. Lynn's all I have left. We promise to leave you alone."

"I believe you," I said eventually, though for the life of me I had no idea why I was convinced that she'd told me the truth and that she meant what she'd promised. I shook my head, which seemed to be filled with thoughts that weren't my own, trying to clear it. Was I losing my mind? "You can go, but I wouldn't come near us again if I were you."

"We won't," Lynn assured me as she sat up, visibly relieved that I hadn't decided to kill her after all. The two of them didn't spare me a second look as they disappeared into the trees.

Sarah shrieked. I whipped around, startled. The Marine had managed to shake Edward off momentarily and came barrelling at me like a bull. I dodged her easily, rage making her movements clumsy and easy to anticipate even for me. Edward threw himself at her again and dragged her down with brute force. He buried his hand in her dark hair, yanking her head back so hard it would have broken her neck had she still been human and briefly bringing his lips to her throat as if he was kissing her. Edward sat back as she suddenly went very still, spitting venom and small chunks of white flesh into the mud.

Inside my mind something snapped back into place and silence fell again, the voices gone.

I slowly went to Edward's side, sinking down beside him. His clothes were torn and dripping with mud and water, as were mine, but his fractured skin had healed. I brushed softly over where the fine black lines had been, then buried my head in his shoulder, relief overwhelming me when I realised that it was over. Edward tentatively closed his arms around me.

"He almost killed you," I whispered coarsely.

"He had me paralysed," Edward explained softly. "If his gift hadn't suddenly failed to function properly, he would have destroyed me. I'm very glad that he didn't succeed."

I sat up, my hands still on his back. "Me too," I said. "If he'd killed you…"

"He didn't kill me," Edward replied firmly, "and that's all that matters." He glanced at the patch of overcast sky visible between the trees. "Let's burn the remains before it starts raining again."

I nodded, but I couldn't bring myself to move away from him. I'd come horrifyingly close to losing him today. I didn't know what I would have done if I had. I knew that I didn't want to live without him anymore, now that he'd entered my life again. I couldn't.

And even though I knew that I probably shouldn't I wrapped my arms around his neck and I desperately crushed my lips against his.

—

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