Distance-part 1

Chapter 3

~* The sun is filling up the room and I can hear you dreaming *~

do you feel the way I do

right now?

~I should have died~

DEATH

IT'S ONE word that held more meaning than its sound. Something every being fear alike, rather visibly or in impassive silence. It could be for themselves or for others. That alone could drive that being to try to prevent it at all costs. They would give anything.

That seemed to sum up my life story. A time line that - at first - seemed bland until I moved to Forks with my father, Charlie, and met Edward Cullen and his family- who I soon visualized as my own. They were the definition of perfection and beauty, unworldly more likely. And I still wonder if meeting them would all just be a dream I didn't deserve to grace my mind. But they were real, and though I didn't deserve it, they all cared for me and were everything I would want, that I could have been, the family of my Romeo, my Edward.

Edward. My angel, my love, my vampire. Though I thought this, I felt colder, spreading from the inside out. But I willed the words true, just as they were before.

Then there was Jacob Black.

My body thawed and filled with bitter sweet warmth at the mere thought of his name. But what did it matter now? It didn't change the truth. He was still Jacob. My best friend, my air, my sun, my anchor - the list could possibly go on and on. He was simply my Jake, my wolf of a best friend who I knew was madly in love with me... and somehow...I loved him back. Though how much is still in question.

Jacob was just a mere Quileute boy that lived on the Rez in La Push. He was young, bright, and full of life, simply enjoying his teenage years before it was all snatched from him to take on the roll as a protector of his land and people. He was forced into harsh mythical reality where legends roared to life and wolves and vampires alike existed. It seemed like centuries ago that his only worries were studying for an oncoming test, fixing cars, and teenage hormones. You wouldn't even think that he was a mere sixteen year old boy with all the years that was dumped onto his now largely ingrown muscles.

But I couldn't deny that part of me was grateful for his change. Now, it just seems like a part of him that was missing. His wolf I mean. Jacob and his pack were now held as dear as a family as well next to the Cullens and I couldn't help lately but feel more - free around them. I'm not quite sure, but they just held this free spirit and earthly glow of beauty about them, their own beauty. Though some are liked more than others and vice versa, I loved them all the same and I know they have to care some way to lay their lives on the line and fight my battles.

A battle of Wolf and Vampires. Blood and revenge. Every special individual fighting for me, for my life. Did they know that it was too late? That they now fought in vain?

In the mist of my last dying thoughts, I could faintly hear voices softly rousing from the deepest depths of my numbing mind. The thought of going crazy while my life slipped through my fingers was suddenly hilarious. Maybe when I get on the other side, I would laugh about this.

But the voices only got louder, now whispering to me. One, I instantly recognized as Edward's melodic voice, gently telling me to wake up, beckoning me to him. I wanted to lift blind hands to wrap around him. But I couldn't feel anything. My body felt surrounded by the numbing snow. The actual dead couldn't move anyway. If only he would have changed me when I wanted, we would be together now.

The other voice was different. It whispered frantically for me to move, that I wasn't dead, that I couldn't be dead. The sound would have turned my lips into a smile. It was so warm, so reassuring – so real. It reminded me of someone...Someone who was warm too.

The voices became louder, bouncing off the walls of my mind, echoing. One smooth and caressing, like water, while the other, dancing frantically, like fire.

Wake up love, come back...please sweetheart, please move, please get up! You aren't done yet, please!

The voices swirled and battled back and forth, now like sirens going off in my mind. It nearly hurt.

Bells!

'J...Jake..?' That voice, Jake was calling me. Was he dead too? I found sudden grief in the thought. Didn't I tell him not to die?

Honey please, you can't give up on me...

Give up? Give up on what? What was he talking about?

You're not dead, love. Come back…come back…

My eyes suddenly flew open to meet the sullen grey skies of Forks.

As if my life crashed back into me, everything rushed at once, overwhelming my entire being.

My lungs kicked into gear as I roughly forced in lungs full of crisp air before spitting it out in a wheezing huff again. My heart thumped loudly in my ears, muting the whistling sound of the howling wind...or was that hissing? Growling?

I blinked, dazed, numb. I was supposed to be remembering something...something. I tried to grip my surroundings, but instantly wished I didn't when my eyes filled with gleaming waters of red.

The deep rush of my breathing cut off - too frightened to make them work any longer as I realized that I was gazing at two pools of blood for the second time today.

I wished that I really was dead. Or maybe I was and this was a new hell.

But as my mind started to spin with reality, I remembered everything. The battle, the kiss, Jacob, Edward, and these eyes...

Victoria

My first thought was that I was being tortured. That Victoria did kill me and somehow brought be back only to enjoy it this time. But these eyes...they were different. They weren't the same gleaming ruby red eyes that would gaze at me, restless and wild before fading into a vicious black with thirst and hunger for blood and revenge. No, in the strangest sense, these eyes were calm, curious even, as if they were simply halfheartedly observing my own eyes for answers to questions only they knew. They were a bright red with a strange mixture of mahogany swimming beyond its bloodied seas. They were frightening but beautiful and mesmerizing. They held a strange sense of scuffed out warmth, like a fire that was put out long ago and wise beyond their years.

Eyes widening, I realized this person was a woman, and if I thought Rosalie was the most beautiful vampire ever to grace the earth, well even she dulled in comparison to this Indian goddess that gazed at me now.

I gazed back, enthralled and faintly noting that the numbing of my body came from her glacier arms, and not the snow that lied beneath my slouched body that was effortlessly held up by her hands.

'Who is this?'

Her almond shaped eyes then widened the smallest of a fraction, as if she suddenly found something, or was shocked at something, but before I could take in any more of her flawless and overly perfect features, I was ripped from her grasp and felt as if I was being thrown through the air. But chilled hands never let go of me - I was only being moved, so quickly that it felt like I was falling sideways.

I suddenly found my back pressed firmly against the sheer cliff face. Edward – I realized with relief – stood in front of me, holding a posture that I knew at once.

Another wave of relief washed through my mind at the same time my stomach dropped to the soles of my feet.

I'd misunderstood, relishing and cringing at two things:

Relief – nothing had gone wrong in the clearing.

Horror – the crisis was still here.

It crushed a small and foolish part of me that all of this was only a nightmare and that I'd miraculously wake up to find Edward gazing at me fondly from my bedside.

Edward held a defensive position – half-crouched, his arms extended slightly – that I recognized with sickened certainty. The rock at my back could have been the Italian alley where he had stood between me and the black-cloaked Volturi warriors.

Something was coming for us.

I swallowed thickly. I didn't have to ask, I already knew. I could feel her spiteful presence in the clearing. Reluctantly, I lifted my eyes, prepared to see what my heart feared.

I wasn't let down as I instantly came to see two vampires standing near the edge of the opening of our camp, eyes intent, missing nothing. They glistened like diamonds in the sun. My attention was instantly focused on Victoria, her beautifully pale face pulled back into a scowl as she glowered at Edward, the only obstacle in way of her prize. I could barely look at the blonde boy – yes, he was just a boy, though he was muscular and tall, maybe my age when he was changed. His eyes – a more vivid red than I had ever seen before – could not hold mine. Though he was closest to Edward, the nearest danger, I could not watch him.

"Victoria," Edward said, spitting the word, making it a curse. "She's not alone." 'Obviously' "she has two or more with her." He spoke lowly, unmoving and tense. My eyes widened, my lungs shutting down. 'Two or more?'I then remember that Indian goddess. I didn't see her anywhere. Did she leave, perhaps a fragment of my imagination? Edward continued, "She crossed my scent, following the newborns in to watch – she never meant to fight with them. She made a spur-of-the-moment decision to find me, guessing that you would be wherever I was. She was right. It was always Victoria."

She was close enough that he could hear her thoughts.

Relief again. If it had been the Volturi, we were both dead. But with Victoria, it didn't have to be both. Edward could survive this. He was a good fighter, as good as Jasper. If she didn't bring too many others, and if that mystery woman really did leave, he could fight his way out, back to his family. Edward was faster than any vampire. He could make it; he didn't need me to cause the end of his existence.

I took notice that Seth wasn't in the clearing either. For that, I was so glad, hoping that Edward sent him away. But of course, there was no one Seth could run to for help. Victoria had timed her decision perfectly. But at least Seth was safe; I couldn't see the huge sandy wolf in my head when I thought his name – just the gangly fifteen-year-old boy.

Edward's body shifted – only infinitesimally, but I caught the sight of his golden irises flickering up and then over slightly for the fracture of a second before focusing his attention back on Victoria and the newborn that stood near her. Following where Edward's gaze had previously been, I glanced up to only see the barren limbs of oak trees. The hairs on the back on my neck stood up, he was searching for something, or someone.

"Neither one of them has any power." Edward spoke again, his voice only soft enough for me to hear, so soft that I had to strain to hear. I waited for his implication, my mind too frazzled with fear to understand on my own and my heart kicking up a notch as Victoria's eyes flickered to meet mine.

"An invisible force attacked me so that Victoria could get to you. That invisible force is a newborn…I can hear its thoughts." Edward finished.

That pulled my attention to him, my hope of him at least escaping dwindling the more he spoke. A newborn that can control invisibility wasn't good. How could he fight someone he couldn't see? I never thought it possible. But I guess everything truly is possible for vampires.

My attention was pulled back to Victoria, her black eyes fixed on me, her mouth now pressed into a thin line. There was a striking feline quality to the way she held her coiled body, a lioness waiting for an opening to spring. Her restless, wild gaze finally flickered to Edward but then back to me. She could not keep her eyes from my face any more than I could keep mine from hers.

Tension rolled off of her, nearly visible in the air. I could feel the desire, the all-consuming passion held her in its grip. Almost as if I could hear her thoughts too, I knew what she was thinking.

She was so close to what she wanted – was closer before – the focus of her whole existence for more than a year now was just so close.

My death

Her plan was as obvious as it was practical. The invisible newborn would attack Edward. As soon as Edward was sufficiently distracted, Victoria would finish me while using the big blonde boy to guard and protect her from any unnoticed harm.

It would be quick – she no longer had any time for games here – but it would be thorough. Something that even vampire venom could not repair.

She'd have to stop my heart. Perhaps a hand shoved through my chest, crushing it. Something along those lines. And what of the invisible newborn, and the other mysterious woman I saw only minutes – if not seconds – prior?

My heart beat furiously, loudly, as if to make Victoria's target more obvious. This would be the second time that I resented my very-alive heart. I was starting to realize with a sinking feeling that neither one of us – Edward or I – would make it out of this alive, that in the end Victoria would get what she wants.

An immense distance away, from far across the black forest, a wolf's howl echoed in the still air. My heart beat solidly at the sound. Maybe it was Jacob; I prayed he was still alright. With Seth gone, there was no way to interpret the sound.

The blonde boy looked at Victoria from the corner of his eye, waiting for her command.

He was young in more ways than one. I guessed from his brilliant crimson irises that he couldn't have been a vampire for very long. He would be strong, but inept. Edward would know how to fight him. Maybe there I hope that he would survive.

Victoria jerked her chin toward Edward, wordlessly, ordering the boy toward Edward. I partially expected Edward to be knocked away by an invisible force again, but when it didn't come, I held my breath and hoped and prayed it would stay away.

"Riley," Edward spoke in a soft, pleading voice.

The blonde boy froze, his red eyes widening.

"She's lying to you, Riley." Edward told him, "Listen to me. She's lying to you just like she lied to others who are dying now in the clearing. You know that she's lied to them, that she had you lie to them, that neither of you were ever going to help them. Is it so hard to believe that she lied to you too?"

Confusion swept across Riley's face.

Edward shifted a few inches to the side, and Riley automatically compensated with an adjustment of his own.

"She doesn't love you, Riley." Edward's soft voice was compelling, almost hypnotic. I grimaced as I felt my stomach curl at the sound. "She never has. She loved someone named James, and you're no more than a tool to her."

When he said James's name, Victoria's lips pulled back in a teeth-baring grimace. Her eyes stayed locked on me.

Riley cast a frantic glance in her direction.

"Riley?" Edward said.

Riley automatically refocused on Edward.

"She knows that I will kill you, Riley. She wants you to die so that she doesn't have to keep up the pretense anymore. Yes - you've seen that, haven't you? You've read the reluctance in her eyes, suspected a false note in her promises. You were right. She's never wanted you. Every kiss, every touch was a lie." Edward moved again, moved a few inches toward the boy, a few inches away from me.

Victoria's gaze zeroed in on the gap between us. It would take her less than a second to kill me - she only needed the tiniest margin of opportunity.

Slower this time, Riley repositioned himself.

"You don't have to die," Edward promised, his eyes holding Riley's. "There are other ways to live than the way she's shown you. It's not all lies and blood, Riley. You can walk away right now. You don't have to die for her lies." For the barest second, Riley seemed to be searching the tree tops. His jaw tightened. I felt uneasy, was he looking for the hidden newborn? But Edward didn't look, his eyes watched the boy.

"She agrees, you know. You both can get out of here with no losses on your end" Edward spoke as he slid his feet forward and to the side. There was a foot of space between us now. Riley snapped his attention back to Edward. He circled too far, overcompensating this time. Victoria leaned forward onto the balls of her feet. I tensed. Who was 'she', a female newborn? Why would she agree if she's here to do just as Victoria says?

"Last chance, Riley," Edward whispered.

Riley's face was desperate as he looked to Victoria for answers.

"He's the liar, Riley," Victoria said, and I know I never paid it much attention the first time, but my mouth fell open in shock at the sound of her voice. "I told you about their mind tricks. You know I love only you."

Her voice was not the strong, wild, catlike growl I would have put with her face and stance. It was soft; it was high - a babyish, soprano tinkling, the kind of voice that went with blond curls and pink bubble gum. It made no sense coming through her bared, glistening teeth.

Riley's jaw tightened, and he squared his shoulders. His eyes emptied - there was no more confusion, no more suspicion. There was no thought at all. He tensed himself to attack.

Victoria's body seemed to be trembling, she was so tightly wound. Her fingers were ready claws, waiting for Edward to move just one more inch away from me.

The snarl came from none of them.

Two things happened.

The first was seeing a mammoth tan shape fly through the center of the opening, throwing Riley to the ground.

"No!" Victoria cried, her baby voice shrill with disbelief.

A yard and a half in front of me, the huge wolf ripped and tore at the blond vampire beneath him. Something white and hard smacked into the rocks by my feet. I didn't dare look at it as I backed away.

Violent hissing and growls sounded through the air as I turned just in time to see a tan and white ball of blur crash into the tree and fade into the tree line.

Victoria did not spare one glance for the boy she'd just pledged her love to. Her eyes were still on me, filled with a disappointment so ferocious that she looked deranged.

"No," she said again, through her teeth, as Edward started to move toward her, blocking her path to me.

There was an animalistic whine and I flinched at the sound, my eyes swerving to the tree line in worry and watched in horror as Riley quickly stepped out, looking misshapen and haggard and his eyes feral, darting for Seth.

I swallowed thickly, he was still here? Why hadn't Seth run away? Why didn't he run now? I noticed that I was breathing hard – nearly panting. My fingertips itched as if they were being lightly burned as an odd craving to defend Seth scarcely climbed then receded inside me like a tide. I sucked in a long breath, no. There was still Victoria. I tried to focus on the said vampire, but I found it quite hard to peel my eyes away from Seth and Riley.

Seth darted from the left, jaw opened as he clamped onto Riley with a fierce growl just as he turned but he was able to fling a vicious kick into Seth's shoulder. I heard the bone crunch. I clenched my hands, the sensation building but shook it off. I should have been questioning it, but the feeling was the least of my problems right now. Seth backed off and started to circle, limping. Riley had his arms out, ready, though he seemed to be missing part of one hand. . . .

Only a few yards away from that fight, Edward and Victoria were dancing.

(Now I will be using a bit from the book to help play out a bit here)

Not quite circling, because Edward was not allowing her to position herself closer to me. She sashayed back, moving from side to side, trying to find a hole in his defense. He shadowed her footwork lithely, stalking her with perfect concentration. He began to move just a fraction of a second before she moved, reading her intentions in her thoughts.

Seth lunged at Riley from the side, and something tore with a hideous, grating screech. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Another heavy white chunk flew into the forest with a thud. Riley roared in fury, and Seth skipped back - amazingly light on his feet for his size - as Riley took a swipe at him with one mangled hand.

Victoria was weaving through the tree trunks at the far end of the little opening now. She was torn, her feet pulling her toward safety while her eyes yearned toward me as if I were a magnet, reeling her in. I could see the burning desire to kill warring with her survival instinct.

Edward could see that, too.

"Don't go, Victoria," he murmured in that same hypnotic tone as before. I tightened my jaw against the feeling. "You'll never get another chance like this."

She showed her teeth and hissed at him, but she seemed unable to move farther away from me.

"You can always run later," Edward purred. "Plenty of time for that, it's what you do, isn't it? It's why James kept you around. Useful, if you like to play deadly games, a partner with an uncanny instinct for escaping. He shouldn't have left you - he could have used your skills when we caught up to him in Phoenix."

A snarl ripped from between her lips.

"That's all you ever were to him, though. Silly to waste so much energy avenging someone who had less affection for you than a hunter for his mount. You were never more than a convenience to him. I would know."

Edward's lips pulled up on one side as he tapped his temple.

With a strangled screech, Victoria darted out of the trees again, feinting to the side. Edward responded, and the dance began again.

Just then, Riley's fist caught Seth's flank, and a low yelp coughed out of Seth's throat. I tensed as Seth backed away, his shoulders twitching as if he were trying to shake off the pain.

Anger was slowly boiling inside me as I watched the two. Oh how much I wanted to maybe plead for Riley to stop, to consider that Seth was merely a child! But I was frozen, unable to find the muscles to make my mouth open – much less to pull the air up from my lungs. For the fracture of a second, i surprised myself with a longing to hold the same powerful gene as Seth, to rip Riley to shreds with my teeth, to feel the rush. Though I knew the strength of a vampire would be just as effective, I wanted the surging feeling of tearing him apart with a savoring animalistic rage.

I blinked, and forced myself to look away, feeling sick. What was I thinking? Though the thought was as deserving to him as it was bothersome, I needed to stay realistic.

My eyes dated back to Seth and Riley. 'But still…'

Riley was closing the distance between them again, driving Seth toward the cliff face beside me. Victoria was suddenly interested in her partner's fate. I could see her, from the corner of her eyes, judge the distance between Riley and me. Seth snapped at Riley, forcing him back again, and Victoria hissed.

Seth wasn't limping anymore. For that, a flicker of relief sparked in my chest. His circling took him within inches of Edward; his tail brushed Edward's back, and Victoria's eyes bulged.

"No, he won't turn on me," Edward said, answering the question in Victoria's head. He used her distraction to slide closer. "You provided us with a common enemy. You allied us."

She clenched her teeth, trying to keep her focus on Edward alone.

"Look more closely, Victoria," he murmured, pulling at the threads of her concentration. "Is he really so much like the monster James tracked across Siberia?"

Her eyes popped wide open, and then began flickering wildly from Edward to Seth to me, around and around. "Not the same?" she snarled in her little girl's soprano. "Impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible," Edward murmured, voice velvet soft as he moved another inch closer to her. "Except what you want. You'll never touch her."

She shook her head, fast and jerky, fighting his diversions, and tried to duck around him, but he was in place to block her as soon as she'd thought of the plan. Her face contorted in frustration, and then she shifted lower into her crouch, a lioness again, and stalked deliberately forward.

Victoria was no inexperienced, instinct-driven newborn. She was lethal. Even I could tell the difference between her and Riley, and I knew that Seth wouldn't have lasted so long if he'd been fighting this vampire.

Edward shifted, too, as they closed on each other, and it was lion versus lioness.

The dance increased in tempo.

It was like Alice and Jasper in the meadow, a blurred spiraling of movement, only this dance was not as perfectly choreographed. Sharp crunches and cracklings reverberated off the cliff face whenever someone slipped in their formation. But they were moving too fast for me to see who was making the mistakes. . . .

Riley was distracted by the violent ballet, his eyes anxious for his partner. Seth struck, crunching off another small piece of the vampire. Riley bellowed and launched a massive backhanded blow that caught Seth full in his broad chest. Seth's huge body soared ten feet and crashed into the rocky wall over my head with a force that seemed to shake the whole peak. I heard the breath whoosh from his lungs, and I ducked out of the way as he rebounded off the stone and collapsed on the ground a few feet in front of me. My eyes widened in horror and I moved closer to his large frame slowly, my eyes scanning.

He wasn't moving.

My heart constricted. 'No. No, no, no, no, no! Please, get up.' My thoughts urged frantically. It was a strange feeling, like for the fracture of a second; I was a mother gazing at her son. But I didn't reject the feeling.

There was a terrifying second that allowed the thought that this young boy could really be dead, his life stolen before he could even begin to live.

Seth's large chest expanded then released, a low whimper escaping through his teeth and my heart soothed but the itching sensation in my fingertips flared through my palms, it burned but I could care less.

Sharp fragments of gray stone showered down on my head, scratching my exposed skin. But all of it went unnoticed as I glared at the tall blonde with a boiling hate. Seth could have died, and Riley – just like Victoria – could've cared less. I don't know what it was exactly, but my chest felt like it was clogged with a burning smoke, and I struggled to breathe around it. But that too was ignored, I was feeling numb again. I wanted Riley dead.

A jagged spike of rock that came from the fragments of gray stone rolled down my right arm and I caught it reflexively. My fingers clenched around the long shard as my own survival instincts kicked in; since there was no chance of flight, my body - not caring how ineffectual the gesture was - prepared for a fight.

Adrenaline jolted through my veins. I knew the brace was cutting into my palm. I knew the crack in my knuckle was protesting. I knew it, but I could not feel the pain.

Behind Riley, all I could see was the twisting flame of Victoria's hair and a blur of white. The increasingly frequent metallic snaps and tears, the gasps and shocked hissings, made it clear that the dance was turning deadly for someone.

But which someone?

Riley lurched toward me, his red eyes brilliant with fury. He glared at the limp mountain of sand-colored fur between us, and his hands - mangled, broken hands - curled into talons. His mouth opened, widened, his teeth glistening, as he prepared to rip out Seth's throat.

A second kick of adrenaline hit like an electric shock, and everything was suddenly very clear.

Both fights were too close. Seth was about to lose his, and I had no idea if Edward was winning or losing. They needed help. A distraction. Something to give them an edge.

My hand gripped the stone spike so tightly that a support in the brace – wrapped around the hand I broke on Jake's face – snapped.

My heart raced. Was I strong enough? Was I brave enough? How hard could I shove the rough stone into my body? Would this buy Seth enough time to get back on his feet? Would he heal fast enough for my sacrifice to do him any good?

I raked the point of the shard up my arm, yanking my thick sweater back to expose the skin, and then pressed the sharp tip to the crease at my elbow. I already had a long scar there from my last birthday. That night, my flowing blood had been enough to catch every vampire's attention, to freeze them all in place for an instant. I prayed it would work that way again. I steeled myself and sucked in one deep breath.

Victoria was distracted by the sound of my gasp. Her eyes, holding still for one tiny portion of a second, met mine. Fury and curiosity mingled strangely in her expression.

I wasn't sure how I heard the low sound with all the other noises echoing off the stone wall and hammering inside my head. My own heartbeat should have been enough to drown it out. But, in the split second that I stared into Victoria's eyes, I thought I heard a familiar, exasperated sigh.

In that same short second, the dance broke violently apart. It happened so quickly that it was over before I could follow the sequence of events. I tried to catch up in my head.

Victoria had flown out of the blurred formation and smashed into a tall spruce about halfway up the tree. She dropped back to the earth already crouched to spring.

Simultaneously, Edward - all but invisible with speed - had twisted backward and caught the unsuspecting Riley by the arm. It had looked like Edward planted his foot against Riley's back, and heaved -

The little campsite was filled with Riley's piercing shriek of agony.

At the same time, Seth leaped to his feet, cutting off most of my view.

But I could still see Victoria. And, though she looked oddly deformed - as if she were unable to straighten up completely - I could see the smile I'd been dreaming of flash across her wild face.

She coiled and sprang.

In the same instant, a gust of wind blew pass me, throwing strands of hair into my eyes as a growl vibrated through the air, through me. The sound was fierce, chilling, but it held the most powerful beauty I've ever heard. The growl belonged to a large cream blur that sliced through the air and collided with Victoria in mid-flight. The impact sounded like a muted explosion, a bolder grating against muscle. It threw Victoria against another tree – this one snapped in half. She landed on her feet again, crouched and ready, yet her eyes wide with bewildered rage as she gazed intently at her newest opponent.

Victoria kicked something aside with a flick of her bare foot - the missile that had crippled her attack. It rolled toward me, and I realized what it was.

My stomach coiled.

The fingers were still twitching; grasping at blades of grass, Riley's arm began to drag itself mindlessly across the ground.

Seth was circling Riley again, and now Riley was retreating. He backed away from the advancing werewolf, his face rigid with pain. He raised his one arm defensively.

Seth rushed Riley, and the vampire was clearly off-balance. I saw Seth sink his teeth into Riley's shoulder and tear, jumping back again.

With an earsplitting metallic screech, Riley lost his other arm.

Seth shook his head, flinging the arm into the woods. The broken hissing noise that came through Seth's teeth sounded like snickering.

I took that moment to search out Edward, and I sighed, feigning a missing relief when I saw that he stood straight and perfect. But he seemed to be stuck, frozen in place with a look of utter confusion blotching his angelic features. I turned from him and I realized the problem:

There, towering over Victoria, was nearly the last thing I expected to see…

There, towering over Victoria's crouched form, was the most unworldly, and majestic like wolf that I've ever laid eyes on. If I was being completely honest, I wouldn't say that it was a wolf. It's thick, glossy coat seemed as if it was golden as it seemed to absorb the little sunlight there was and emit a soft glow. Its eyes wasn't dark, but the purest crystal blue that burned with something too terrifying that it saw and absorbed through time – that only a fool would try to figure out. It's mammoth body, larger than even Sam Uley's wolf, stood proudly and sure, it's muscles rippling with a flowing energy that even seemed to somehow, in the strangest way, rub against me. I felt shocking tingles at the contact and the fire in my palms scuffed out as if water was thrown on it. I sucked in a breath.

Another metal screech

Riley screamed out a tortured plea. "Victoria!"

Victoria did not even flinch at the sound of her name. Her eyes did not flicker once toward her partner. And who could blame her? It seemed as if we were all trapped in a frozen web that somehow missed Seth and a quickly diminishing Riley. The sight should be nothing new to me, but at this moment in time, coupled with the lack of knowledge of and tension rolling off this creature – I don't believe I would have been able to tear my eyes away if I wanted.

"You will not touch the girl, little cold one" a withered feminine voice echoed like a powerful gust of wind that shook the surrounding area. It's strong tembre bounced off the rocky terrain but it disturbed nothing before seeming to drift and fade into nothing. The sound came from no open mouth and I turned to the giant creature, my brows furrowing and somehow knowing it came from it. Something stirred in the back of my mind.

'That voice…haven't I heard it somewhere…?'

Crystal eyes instantly trapped mines, my heart stopped and my world spun before my mind blanked.

"foolish girl.." I swore I heard a soft sigh echo before growls and metallic screeching accompanied tortured and anguish screams. The world slowly shot up around me as the sounds lowered to a dull mute as my body once again hit the sparkling snow that was stained in red. I couldn't feel it, I was paralyzed.

Lazily, my eyes watched as Edward was attacked before he started to dance in a fury with an unseeing partner.

Everything was starting to blur.

Nothing made sense anymore.

I was more than sick of it.

Okay! And that was the long awaited chapter three. Ok. I lied, I used a bit more from the book than intended but I needed to spin off MY story plot from this and it kinda just did it itself. (seriously, I needed to do that) but NOW would be the moment it took a turn for the lilmama original. I honestly have no words for my tardiness except that the ideas was hard as crap to jot down, I'm buried with schoolwork (I shouldn't even be typing or posting right now folks) and my fingertips feel raw from playing my new guitar so much that it hurts still to even type. (go figure) but hey, I hope you enjoyed it anyway and I'll get to work on the 4th chapter since I've gotten over that first small hump.

Here's a fun question for you guys to guess the answer to. If you get both right (which I am doubting since it's nearly impossible to guess unless you share a twisted mind like mwah. Lol) then I will let you email a short 1 chapter plot to somehow tie into my story and effect it greatly. If you get one right, then you get to tell me a title and I will connect a chapter to it in some way. And this is a promise folks, im not just saying it to be cruel. I thought doing this would be challenging and fun. So why not join in? or are yuu guys chicken?

But here's the question(s): Who is this new Wolf and/or vampire?