Disclaimer: I do not own twilight; all of the characters you don't recognize are mine.

Chapter 17:

The Tattered Body in the Woods

"Alice, who is coming," I gasped.

"The newborns," She said looking over at Jasper who was at her side the moment her face went dull.

Carlisle, Emmett and Rosalie were now at our side, Edward and Esme went to go tell the wolves what was going on. "When will they be here?" Carlisle said concerned.

"Within the hour," Alice said as her face came back to normal.

"What are we going to do?" I asked thinking about how we didn't really prepare for this because of my Ayden troubles.

"Ok, Emmett ask the wolves to stay here, also make sure Jake is in contact with his pack. We are going to need everyone. Alice did you see how many there were?" Jasper took the rains and was completely in charge.

"Dozens," She said with no confidence.

"Bella, we need to get you somewhere safe, as soon as they smell you they will be gunning for you." Jasper said and looked around to see who could be my escort.

"I'm not leaving, I won't let everyone risk there life for me while I wait in the wings for news that someone has died." I did everything but stomp my foot, but I immediately started to feel ok with leaving, content with what everyone was saying. "Jasper, stop it!" I said realizing that he was controlling my emotions.

"Sorry Bella, but you have to leave. None of us will be 100% if we have to worry about whether or not you're safe." He put a hand on the top of my head like an older brother would his kid sister. I couldn't argue anymore.

Reese hearing the news ran over to us and interrupted Jasper and mine's one and only moment. "What are we going to do about Torrance, if she's hurt we don't know how long she has?" He said panting with anticipation; I could tell the fight that was coming was causing him some excitement.

We all looked at Jasper for some sort of solution, "Alice you know where she might be?" Alice nodded, "ok this is good, Alice you take Bella to find Torrance and get them both to Bella's house, and we will make sure that no one can get to the house. This way everyone can stay safe while we try and fight them off." Everyone looked around the circle then to Carlisle who nodded in agreement. The plan was set and we had little time to implement it.

Alice whisked me away to the car and got into the driver's side, but as we zoomed down the drive way past my truck I saw Jacob talking to the rest of the Hoh pack. "Alice, stop the car!" I screamed and we skidded to a halt. I jumped out of the car and ran over to Jacob and threw my arms around his neck. In his ear I whispered, "Stay safe, come back to me," and kissed him on the cheek.

"I promise, I'll come back," He said and swung me around to kiss my eagerly awaiting lips. Alice honked the horn and I knew I had to leave him; I felt his arms drop from my waist, but I just couldn't let go, "Bella, you have to go," he said and took my arms from around his neck. It took him no effort at all to remove me as I struggled with every inch of my strength to hang on. "Ill be fine," he reassured me, "go."

I turned away and got a glimpse of Edward whose eyes were pinned on me, and I couldn't move. My heart sunk when I saw the sorrow in his eyes, but that wasn't the only thing that rested there, I don't know what it was. In my gut I felt that he wasn't going to be careful, that maybe the pleading I had with Jacob should have been re-directed. I heard the car horn once again and it popped me back into reality, I knew we didn't have much time but I had to talk to him.

I ran over to where he stood by himself, "Edward…" I said but couldn't find the words.

"Alice is waiting Bella," He said turning away from me.

I grabbed his arm, and though I know it wasn't my own strength that did it, he spun around, "Please Edward, be safe. Don't do anything that could get you hurt."

"No worries Bella," he said but I was still unconvinced.

"Really, please. When I come back here, you need to be here. I know you're angry with me, and I know I've hurt you, but I can't live without you Edward." Tears started to form in my eyes but I blinked them away.

"You seem to be doing a very good job so far. What do you need me for?" He said bitterly looking over at Jacob.

Tears started to stream down my face, "Please Edward, if not for me then for your family. They need you."

"Even if you don't?" he said with acid in his mouth.

"I do need you Edward," I said and before I could stop him he pulled me into him and slammed his lips against my own. Instant fury grabbed hold of me, then melted away. If this is what I needed to do to keep him alive then fine, Jacob (I hope) would understand. I didn't kiss him back and he let me go, as he pulled away I looked up at him with angry eyes, but they were only met by the crooked smile I loved so much.

I quickly turned away from him at looked around for Jacob, but he was nowhere to be seen. Alice was getting impatient and honked several more times. I ran to the car and got in and we were off.

"Sorry," I said as we made our way to the street from their driveway.

"He's toying with you Bella, you can't let him win." She said looking straight ahead to the road ahead.

I was taken aback at this, I knew that Alice was fond of me, but for her to take my side over his was… odd. "What do you mean?"

"He knows he lost you, he knows why. It hurts him, but he's just being jealous. Don't jeopardize what you have with Jacob Bella, it's special, we can all see that."

"Um… ok," I said not knowing what else there was to say to a comment like that.

We drove the rest of the way talking about Jacob and what it was about him that made me feel like I did. Apparently Jasper had been feeling some new things today when we came over. We talked about my first time with him and where I wanted to go with it, I even told her about Grace and her story. Some part of me did feel like I was giving information to he enemy, like she would go and tell Edward all of this, but I pushed that part aside. I truly missed all the talks me and Alice once had.

She pulled over to the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and for the life of me I couldn't place it. She said this was where she found me, but I had no memory of this place, nothing familiar, no landmarks, nothing. We entered the woods apprehensively and started our search. Though she did find me here, she did not find me in the shed; the daylight was coming in, which helped me out a lot. I couldn't get Edward out of my head though, that kiss, he has never kissed me like that before. It was fierce and unbridled, completely unexpected, and just not Edward.

Before I could analyze it more I heard Alice scream from farther ahead, "IT"S OVER HERE, I FOUND IT!"

I ran at full speed to her position and stopped dead in my tracks when I saw the shed. The light of dawn made the chipping paint less eerie and the wood panels less ominous, but I still felt a jolt of pain through my entire body. Everyone around me always told me how brave I was, how strong I was, I never believed them. I wasn't brave enough to go back in there, I wasn't strong enough to help out a new friend who was in trouble, I was weak and scared, I couldn't do it.

"Bella?" Alice said coming over to me and placing her hand on my back, "It's ok, I'm right here."

"I can't do it Alice," I said shaking my head, "I'm not strong enough."

"We have to do this Bella; you need to do this, for Torrance and for yourself. Come on." She ushered me to the closed door and put my hand on the handle.

I took a huge breath in and swung open the door with all my energy. Torrance shot out of the opening and flew at Alice, knocking her onto the ground. Alice was pinned and Torrance just stared at me growling and barring her teeth. Her fur was raised in the back and she looked back down at Alice who couldn't shake her off.

"TORRANCE WAIT!" I screamed, and the huge wolf's eyes darted back at me with full force, "WERE HERE TO SAVE YOU, STOP!" the growling stopped and I heard a soft whimper, her eyes darted around the forest. "No, it's ok. Ayden's dead, we came to make sure you were ok."

She slowly got off of Alice, who brushed her shirt off and gave a scoff, "I'm going to smell like dog all day now."

Torrance turned back human and huddled her naked body against a tree. I heard sobs and I ran over to her. When I got to her I noticed that almost every inch of her body was black and blue. Blood was coming out in waves from her left leg and she had tiny little cuts all over her arms. "Torrance, what did he do to you?" I asked kneeling in front of her pulling her close to me.

"I went to go find him, I caught his scent and I followed it here. When I got here and opened the door, it looked like he was preparing it for something. He was laying down pillows and blankets, and next to it all was this table with knives and I think it was for you-"

"It's ok Torrance he can't hurt anyone anymore." I helped her get up off of the ground and put my coat around her.

Alice and I helped her to the car and we started to drive back to Charlie's house. We pulled up and rushed Torrance into the house. I swung open the door and yelled, "DAD!" Charlie rushed into the foyer and his mouth dropped when he looked over at Torrance's disheveled and cut up body. "Can you take her to my room please Alice, dad can you get the first aid kit in the bathroom, her leg is bleeding really bad," He nodded his head and started to run up the stairs.

He stopped and turned on his heels, "Your mother is on the phone with someone in the kitchen, they said they needed to talk to Alice," and he continued up the stairs.

Alice looked at me with worried eyes and my heart stopped beating, this was bad, something was wrong. I took Torrance from her and she dashed into the kitchen. I made my way upstairs slowly and into my bedroom with Torrance. I helped her lay on the bed and placed all of my pillows under her bleeding leg. Charlie ran in with the first aid kit and looked around for what to do. He opened it and I grabbed a roll of gauze, as I wrapped her leg the blood just seemed to seep through every layer I was adding. I looked at Charlie for advice and he shoved me out of the way and placed a strong hand on the wound, Torrance let out a cry that resounded all over my room.

Alice burst through the door panicked, "Bella, we have to go."

"What happened, is everyone ok," I said getting up from my spot by the bed and following her downstairs. Renee caught me before I got out of the front door, "Charlie is with Torrance right now, but I really think she needs a doctor."

"We'll take her to the hospital," Renee said being more supportive than I had expected.

"If they ask about anything, just tell them that she was attacked by a dog," I said and watched Renee's face stagger.

Alice ushered me to the car faster than my legs could carry me, I buckled in and waited for Alice to get into the car before I asked again, "What happened?"

"The Volturi found us."

Thank you all for reading and for the awesome reviews, keep um coming, I love hearing what is good or bad about the story. Also if you have time I have another story I'm working on called Mother Nature's Nemesis, it's only got one chapter but will have constant updates. Let me know what you think.