Author's Note: I do not own Twilight or New Moon. You should know that by now.

Freesia Juliet

Part One: My Ancient, My Only

Chapter Two: Rescue

(Edward's Point of View)

I smiled involuntarily as I ran towards Bella's house. Alice had dragged me all the way back to the house just to congratulate me. She had 'seen' Bella's acceptance the moment she made up her mind.

It had been a close one. For a moment, I had been certain that Bella was going to say no, again. She was so determined to become one of us. To throw her life away as a normal human and live as a monster, like me. My Bella had one small flaw, if you could even call it that. She was just so determined that they only way I would ever love her was if she was forever young. I had tried to explain to her that I wouldn't care if she was ninety five and smothered in wrinkles like a raisin- I would still love her, because she was Bella.

Charlie's squad car was still in the drive way. Funny, I had heard in his thoughts that he was going out to keep the werewolves away from Forks. Stupid dogs. They had gotten it into their heads that Victoria had returned, and now they were straining to go after her like mutts on leashes. Alice had assured me that she hadn't seen anything in the near future with Victoria in it.

I snuck in the kitchen door and moved like a shadow up towards Bella's room. Usually I came in through her bedroom window, but tonight I wanted to surprise her by going through the door.

As I was about to go up the stairs, I smelled something in the living room that hit my senses like a cannon ball. Blood. Human blood. Even though I had gone hunting this morning, I still had to fight against every instinct and emotion to keep myself under control.

Afraid of what I might find in the living room, I went in cautiously, no longer breathing. My fears were confirmed. Sprawled across the coffee table was Charlie Swan, a look of surprise on his contorted face. His chest was ripped open. Dead.

"Bella!" I screamed in a roar, upstairs in her room in an instant. I was sure I saw a flash of red hair before the glass of the window exploded outward. Victoria!! shouted my mind in a blind fury. But I commanded myself to stop and go to Bella.

My Bella. My poor, poor Bella. Limp at the foot of her bed, her body strangely twisted in a pool of her own blood, which soaked all the way through her blue satin prom dress. Her neck was backwards and sideways at the same time. She was dead.

She was dead.

She was dead.

With a roar of agony I collapsed next to her, sobbing dryly as I cradled her mangled form. This was just like before, just like James's attack in the ballet studio, where I had had to find her dying from the wound on her head.

But this time was different. This time her neck was broken. This time there was no Carlisle to stop the bleeding.

"Edward, oh no!" said a voice with pain and shock from the doorway. Carlisle. Carlisle, who was ever calm in a crisis.

"Carlisle?" I said with confusion. How the hell had he gotten here? Then Alice was next to him, her face white and taunt as she fought back both her anguish and the scent of Bella's blood, which now covered me. Funny, it didn't seem to be bothering me. And I was the one it had always tempted the most. She smelled like freesia and wine… floral and rich.

"Edward, you need to let me help her," said Carlisle with urgency as he pried her bloody corpse from by stiff fingers. He placed to fingers to her neck. "Still alive," he announced with relief as he found a fluttery faint pulse. "But she's too weak to turn," he said grimly, dashing my slight hopes to pieces. "Alice, grab the bed sheets. One goes around her back, to stop the bleeding from her spine. The other needs to be around her neck, for support. Edward, get the headboard."

Numb, I frantically tore the headboard from the bed and nearly smashed Alice in the face with it as she ripped at the bed for the sheets. Carlisle gave commands as Alice and I helped him tie her securely to the wooden board we were using as a stretcher.

Alice had to retreat from the room after a minute or two, because the smell of blood was getting to her. It still wasn't bothering me. Probably because I was too focused on saving my Bella to let my instincts take hold. Perhaps this was how Carlisle fought off his vampire instincts enough to be an emergency room doctor.

"We'll run her to the hospital," pronounced Carlisle, "because it's faster than driving."

Rosalie was downstairs in the kitchen, her face deep in an angry frown. "Jasper and Emmett are still after her," Rose told me, "but she did have a head start. I came back to see if I could help here."

Carlisle nodded as we maneuvered the board out the kitchen door. "Drive Edward's car down to the hospital, so it looks like we came by car. And have Alice call an ambulance for Charlie." Rosalie winced.

"What's the story?" she hissed. At first I didn't understand what she meant. Until I realized that telling the cops about a vampire killing the police chief and his daughter would probably sound a little suspicious.

"Home invasion," I said without a second thought.

"It'll work," agreed Alice. "I'll smash some stuff and throw their valuables around. Nobody will be able to tell if things are missing, because Charlie" –her voice caught- "and Bella are in no condition to speak."

"We have to go. Now," said Carlisle firmly.

We sprinted off towards the hospital at a speed invisible to humans. I was faster than Carlisle, and I strained to keep my full speed in check so that I didn't upset the board and kill Bella.

Within five minutes, we were at the auto doors of Peninsula Community Hospital's ER wing.

"Dr. Cullen," blinked the nurse on staff as she gaped at our rather unorthodox method of getting a patient to the hospital. A more competent nurse pulled a gurney from the hallway and helped us get Bella onto it.

"Bella Swan, age eighteen. Her father was killed in a home invasion tonight. Broken neck vertebra here," Carlisle pointed, "and several broken ribs. At least one artery in her spine is torn. She'll need to get into surgery right away," he commanded as other doctors and residents swarmed over my Bella and began shouting things like blood pressure and blood type.

Carlisle stayed back. "Edward," he said gently, "she'll pull through." He had read the agony on my face like an open book.

My whole body was trembling with rage and pain. "I have to go kill that bitch Victoria," I snarled in a whisper.

"No," said Carlisle, placing a strong restraining hand on my arm.

"Why?" I asked with frustration.

He gestured towards two horrified police officers who were striding quickly towards us. "You're covered in blood, Edward," he reminded me. I looked down at my once white shirt and black pants, which were stained thickly with Bella's blood. "They're going to need statements from both of us. A respected member of the Forks community was murdered tonight, and we discovered the body."

"Edward Cullen, eighteen, sir," I answered the question with a somber and saddened face. "I've known Chief Swan for two years now. I'm engaged to his daughter."

Lt. Adams looked me sternly in the face, his eyes flickering when I announced our engagement. "When did you find Chief Swan's body?" I could hear his head ringing with accusations. The boyfriend kills the father because the father objects to the engagement.

"Two forty-five, sir." I kept my eyes respectfully low, though I felt like ripping his face off. We were wasting time! Victoria could be God knows where by now!

"What were you doing at the Swan residence at practically three in the morning?" asked Lt. Maker, Adams's partner.

"I took Bella to the Forks High School prom tonight, sir. I dropped her off at her house at two thirty, and her father was angry that I got her back so late. She realized she had left her purse at my house, so I went back to get it. My father, Dr. Cullen, and my sister Alice came back to the Swan's to help me apologize better, and explain that Bella had been at our after-prom party." I paused for dramatic effect. "When we got back, the door was busted in and the lights were off. We went inside and Alice saw Chief Swan's body in the living room."

Carlisle glanced at his pager quietly while I was telling my lie, and smiled thinly.

She's out of surgery, thought Carlisle.

I tilted my head. She's going to be fine, but it was a close one.

I breathed a sigh of relief and Lt. Adams looked surprised. He had been working up an accusation.

Suddenly I didn't even care what they said. There was still that overwhelming sense of guilt and anger and hatred for the murderous she-devil that had done this to my Bella.

"We'll call you if we have any more questions, Cullen," said Adams crossly, disappointed when the officer at the scene, Bedford, had corroborated my testimony with Alice's and the neighbor, Mrs. Finnan, who had heard me drive away in my car before the 'murder.'

Jasper's thoughts drifted into my mind. Most of them were too profane to repeat. Then Emmett joined him. Sorry Edward, but Victoria got away.