Author's Note: I feel the need to say this now, before everyone gets attached to the romance that will surely come in Battle Scars. When it comes to writing, I'm extremely ADD. I get bored of plotlines easily, and tend to abandon the ideas that get little response. -cough-Hawaii-cough- But when I get reviews, I feel compelled to finish, because I don't want to let the people who were kind enough to review down.

I'm trying to stay more focused, and the fact that I'm making this stories chapter's shorter and that it's a rather dark tale is making it easy to keep up with right now. Reviews are love, which makes a nicer writing environment for me which makes me more compelled to stay interested in a story and finish it.

Thank you so much to those who reviewed last chapter. You really have no idea how much I appreciate it.

Chapter Music: Worlds On Fire, The Butterfly Effect

Chapter Two: Ambush

Even at night, it was hot.

At first, she had thought it would cool at night, since it was the desert. But no, the infernal and damning heat stayed. It was ever present: there when they hid in their stolen houses, there when they slaughtered each other by the moon's light.

It was always there.

The cold, distant moon stood attentively in the sky, peering down at her children as they emerged cautiously from their bases, watching for any ambush attacks.

Bella was one of those chosen.

She crept out of the house's back door, sliding the glass door – whose see-through panels were blotted out with black paint – open as quietly as she could before stepping lightly outside. If there was no one waiting for them as they exited the house, they were taking down Miguel's coven tonight. Maria wanted complete control of the south-east of Texas by the next full moon. Six days wasn't long.

Bella's heightened senses waited for a sign of an attack. She listened to the traitorous shuffling of feet, or the instinctual growl newborn's had the urge to release before pouncing, but she didn't hear it.

She took a few steps out onto the cracked earth, and still no one emerged. Feeling confident, Bella called back into the house, "It's safe!"

"That coward! He didn't even bother to try to take us out." Maria exclaimed, stepping delicately through the blackout door and into the blistering heat of hell.

"Maybe he didn't know," Bella suggested, craning her neck to keep a constant three-sixty guard on Maria.

"Of course he knew. Miguel isn't stupid, Bella. He would know." Maria frowned, her sentence trailing off.

"What?" Bella asked. She stopped, momentarily positive she saw something just on the horizon. The moonlight playing a trick on her infallible vision?

"Shit. Ambush." Maria grunted, high-tailing it back into the house and slamming the door closed behind her.

"Wait, what?" Bella called after her retreating mistress.

"Defend the base!" Maria called at her. In the glass' reflection, Bella saw him hurling at her. Not just a new born, but Miguel himself.

"Damn it, Maria, come fight me yourself!" He yelled at the glass, yanking off Bella's arm smoothly. She screeched, the pain of losing a limb oddly acute that night.

She leapt to the side, flinching as she felt him detach her five fingers before throwing the six separate pieces to the ground, ready for burning.

She could feel his mind probing somehow, searching. Maria had never told Bella what Miguel's vampiric talent was, but she could guess it had something to do with minds.

Bella's speciality.

With her remaining hand she leapt at him, her slender fingers forming lethal talons. Sharp nails dug down his back, forming five trenches. She trailed her claws down his left leg, and with an expert flick of her wrist, she cleanly severed the ankle; his left foot dropping uselessly to the ground.

Miguel spun to face Bella, his jaw clenched in pain and frustration. His gaze bore down on her, trying to burn her where she stood. Bella recognized this look: he was trying to use his mental power on her.

She smirked in a way she knew was infuriating and tapped the side of her head. "Immune."

Without any physical indication to warm her, Miguel sprung, launching himself at Bella with frightening speed and accuracy. His missing left foot did nothing to hinder him as he relieved her of her right leg from the knee down.

Her hyper-sensitive nerves screamed in protest, and the calf plus foot was added to the growing pile of limbs between the two of them.

"I need help," Bella sighed, her request floating through the air like a butterfly floats through a wind storm. It twisted and rippled, but finally, it rested on the ears of her comrades in arms.

Miguel sneered, and he lurched forward again. Bella flung her right arm out, hoping that she could catch a part of him before he took her other arm.

Fingers grasping frantically, her grip found purchase on his right leg, and with a sharp pull, the entire limb – from foot to hip – detached itself and rested in Bella's hand.

Miguel fell, unable to stay vertical without both of his feet. Bella threw the limb aside, unable to dismantle it more with only one hand.

Without a word, Bella ripped him limb from limb: both arms, the rest of the left leg, hips, torso, head. All that was Miguel came apart at the seams and laid in a neat pile with the rest of the marble body parts that had been shed during battle like layers of clothing on a hot day.

Bella retrieved her missing arm and leg, pressing them where they belonged until they fused back together into a solid mass of white limbs.

She was rolling her shoulders and kicking her leg when her fellow soldiers arrived, having dispatched of the untrained newborns before coming to help.

Yvonne and Hector gathered Miguel into two piles and set them ablaze, watching with the rest of Maria's army as the leader of the south-east disappeared in a column of smoke and a pile of ashes.

The sliding door creaked open, and Maria emerged, a victorious smile planted on her lips. Bella couldn't help the slip of disgust she felt towards her leader. Maria had abandoned her army in their time of need. No general does that to their soldiers.

"Well done, my darlings. We shall feast on the south-east tonight."

Animosity ebbed from Bella's body at the mention of a feast, and her now one-tracked mind didn't notice how skilfully Maria manipulated her army.

It didn't matter. She would be eating well that night.

Author's Note: I'm terribly sorry that this chapter took so long to get out, but I was having some issues with the fight scene. Action sequences are not my forte, and also, the document manager crapped out on me, not letting me update for an extra days.

One more day of school left and then I'm swept up into the flurry of summer jobs and last minute get-together's. I promise, writing will take a forefront in my summer activities.

Reviews are love, and I would really appreciate it if you told me what you think about this story.

-Maggie