You are worth it.

For a fraction of a second, everyone was frozen, Alice and Jasper on the stairs, Rosalie with her arms around Emmett's neck, Esme and Carl caught mid-kiss.

Then all hell broke loose.

Emmett lurched in front of Rosalie protectively, seeming to puff himself up like a threatened animal. Rosalie herself seized a pair of iron tongs from the cold fireplace and tossed the iron poker across to Carl, who caught it deftly. Esme backed toward a locker in under the stairs, which I instinctively knew contained weapons of some sort. Upstairs, only Alice's restraining grip prevented Jasper from flying down the stairs to protect his adopted family.

Eddie shoved me backwards, and I stumbled out through the doors. I knew that I could without a doubt spring off the patio and be cleanly out of sight before the Collins' even realised it, but it was time to stop running.

Now all I had to do was convince a family of vampire hunters that this vampire was trying to save their lives.

I heard a thump, and looked back to see that Carl and Jasper had tackled Eddie to the ground, instincts telling them that there was only one reason why he would have purposely brought a vampire into the house. I saw knives emerging, and pushed my way back inside.

"Stop it!" I tried to shout. "I need to talk to you!"

And that's when Emmett took a swing at me with Carl's poker.

Before I even realised I was moving, I spun around and caught the poker just before it would have smashed into my face. A massive jolt raced up through my wrist and through my arm, but I ignored it and levelled the poker under Emmett's chin, slamming him back into the bookcase. Various priceless volumes tumbled down on our heads and for a moment Emmett actually looked like he might have been afraid.

That was when I stopped and dropped the poker, wondering what the hell I was doing. I took Eddie's brother by the collar and pushed him back toward his family.

"I'm not here to kill you." I said. "Well, technically..." I trailed off, my eyes finding Eddie laid out on the floor, Jasper kneeling on his chest. "Get off him." I said. "He's... innocent."

"Innocent of what?" Rosalie was the first to cut in, this time not bothering to conceal her contempt for me. "Fraternising with the enemy? Oh, wait... that's why you're here in the first place."

I met her icy eyes unflinchingly. "You know, right now I'm actually trying to save your lives." I spat. "And it'd be so much easier if you didn't decide to be a bitch."

For a fraction of a second, she actually took taken aback.

"How do we know that?" Carl asked in his always-amazingly-calm voice. "How do any of us know that once we turn our backs on you, you won't kill us?"

"If I was going to kill you, I would have done it months before." I replied curtly. "I figured out what you were pretty much the same time Eddie figured out what I was."

Emmett looked like he could have killed Eddie as Jasper carefully let him get up. "And you still went and did her anyway? You're sick, man. I'm pretty sure that's illegal."

On his hands and knees, Eddie couldn't meet anyone's eyes. Not even mine. "She's... different." He said in a hoarse whisper. "She feels. She has real emotions for people."

"Damn it, Edward. She got close to you so she could get close to the family. Don't you see that?" Carl exploded at his adopted son.

"When I was seventeen, I got drunk at this party." I said softly. "And I got bit. Whoever it was just pissed off and left me there. The next day I thought I was just hung over. And then I suddenly had all this strength and speed and stuff that freaked me out, so I went to the doctor. I only started to figure out what happened when he said he couldn't find a heartbeat." I met Carl's eyes and held his stare.

"I'm a vampire. But I don't know how to be a vampire."

"I think we should take a chance, Carl." Esme said into the silence.

Finally Carl's shoulders dropped in defeat. "Of course." He mumbled. "It's just been so long, I-" He looked at me.

"Since taking Eddie in, I have never had a reason not to slay a vampire." He said.

"Yes, sir. I understand that."

"You risk your very like coming here. Why?"

"Because I'm not a murderer." I said simply.

Carl waved a hand, inviting me to take a seat on the lounge. In a moment Eddie sat down beside me.

"Is there anywhere you can go that's better fortified than this?" I asked carefully. "Some place you can defend fully?"

"Why?"

"The vampires are coming." I sighed. "They think you're responsible for the Fawkes disappearances and they want... to get rid of you. I think I can stop what's going on, but I don't know when they're planning to attack, and I wanted to make sure you were all still safe when I got back."

"You can't go alone!" Eddie interrupted. "It's too dangerous. I'll come with you."

I looked into his handsome, tired face. "You know that's not practical. I'm sorry, but taking you as well would only slow me down."

"Taking him where?" It was the first time I had heard Jasper speak, and he was watching me shrewdly.

"To find the skinwalkers." I said.

The family retreated to the basement, arming themselves to the teeth. Finally I stood in the deserted lounge. I hoped Eddie would keep his head down. And I hoped my dad had enough brains to stay out of it all. And I hoped my suspicions were right and that I'd still be alive to see the morning.

I'd never given much thought to how I would die, though in the last few months I had more than enough reason to. I suppose it was good, offering yourself in the place of someone who was important to you.

I only hoped that counted wherever I was ultimately headed.

There were footsteps behind me. I immediately knew it was Eddie because of his spicy smell.

"You shouldn't be up here." I warned.

"No." He agreed. "You're going to kill yourself."

"We'll see." I turned to him. It didn't seem fair that I only had a few months to really live before it all went to crap.

"I'm going with you." He said firmly.

"No, you're not."

"I know where you're going. I'll just follow you anyway."

"You are insufferable." My brows knitted together.

"You know me."

"Okay, then." I said challengingly. "Let's see if you can keep up."

I barely glanced at my car as I strode past it, knowing I wouldn't need it. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Eddie disdain his truck for Rosalie's red convertible. As I hit the bush at the edge of the Collins' land, I began to run. I heard the gunning of the convertible's engine as it flew out of the garage.

Before I was bitten, I wouldn't have won any marathons anytime soon, but now I flew. My feet found the smallest purchase in the rocks and the dirt and propelled me on at ever increasing speeds. I knew if I really bothered to think about what I was doing, I'd probably smack into a tree.

I reached the reservation lands sooner than I anticipated, and slowed myself down a little at a time so I wouldn't be thrown completely off-balance. Massive gum trees towered high above me, blocking out the sun, and the undergrowth had grown together so completely that it was practically the one plant. The place looked like it hadn't changed since the native tribes had first settled there.

For all I knew, it hadn't.

Eddie was panting as he caught up to me. He must have ditched Rosalie's car at the edge of the bush and run to meet me. I put my finger to my lips and pressed my palms against the smooth bark of one of the trees as I made out the sounds of a voice, getting closer and closer. I shrunk into the shadows, embracing my vampire side. I felt Eddie's hand in the small of my back.

The young Jack Black was walking along the path, practically shouting into his phone something about bears. I bent my knees and sprung down into his path.

"Hi, Jack."

He stared at me a minute before excusing himself to the person on the other end, and hanging up. Sometime about the way his eyes darted forward and back told me that I was definitely on the right track here. He knew something.

"Hi, Ella." He said cautiously. He took a step backwards, and smacked against Eddie's chest.

"Hello, Jack."

Jack made a strangled sound as he looked between the both of us. I smiled my most predatory smile and sauntered down the path toward him. "How're you doing?" Despite myself, I felt a bit better knowing Eddie had my back.

"Fine." Jack gripped his school backpack like it was a shield.

"You know what I've just realised, Jack?"

"What?"

"I've realised that I've been played a fool since coming into town." I said flatly. "By myself, then by the Fawkes vampires, and then by the Collins' family. But that's not all. You see, all of us have been played by someone else. Someone who's been here even longer than we have, someone who wanted us all off their lands, for good."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Like hell!" I didn't mean to shout, but it felt like everything that had happened in the months I'd been in Fawkes was crumbling around me. "Don't mess with me, Jack. I'm not in the mood. Someone's been stirring trouble between my vampire buddies and vampire hunter buddies, and I think we all know who that somebody is. The skinwalkers are trying to force everybody out of town, aren't they? Maybe you call them something different, like werewolves."

Jack seemed taken aback as I recalled the story he had told me in the vain hope he could creep me out.

"You're nuts."

I lunged forwards, my forearm pinning him back against a tree. "Do you think I'm not serious? Good people are going to die. Speak, or I'll swear to God, I'll go all vampire on your ass."

Jack stared into my face, temporarily shocked into paralysis.

"Let him go, Ella." Eddie said to me sternly. I looked down and released him almost immediately; there was a dent in the tree from how hard I had hit him. I gritted my teeth.

Jack rubbed his chest, knowing that we meant business.

"This guy wandered onto the reserve a couple of years ago." He said haltingly. "He made a bargain with the elders so he could stay on our land."

"What was the bargain?" Eddie said sharply.

"He told the elders that he could get every person who was beyond the clan off our land. He fabricated missing persons' reports and played each of you off against each other." Jack said.

"In exchange for what?"

"In exchange for you." His eyes met mine.

I wasn't sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't that. Jack spun on the heels of his boots and raked his hands through his hair.

"I know it's wrong!" He said. "It's murder whichever way you dress it, but the elders are obsessed with getting Fawkes to themselves, even though it doesn't matter. Me and my friends on the reserve, we aren't going to be in Fawkes when we graduate, so it's all a pointless waste."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

"I did! But do you think the elders listen to me? I'm still just a kid."

My eyes narrowed. "Why don't you speak up to someone who'll take notice?"

"Huh?"

"Will you?" I prodded.

Jack nodded.

"Okay." I said.

"What are you going to do?" Eddie asked.

"I'm going to the vampire council. I'll tell them the truth, and then I'll tell them that there's a member of the skinwalker tribe willing to back up my story." I said firmly. "Jack, go home and stay safe. Eddie, explain to your family and make sure they're okay."

He didn't like it, but he nodded.

"Love ya," I whispered.

I streaked back to the empty primary school. The doors were locked as it was a Saturday, but I punched the lock as hard as I could and it gave way. I pushed my way through the double doors into the assembly hall, hoping that Eddie and his family would have enough sense to keep their heads down.

"It's Ella!" I shouted to the empty room. "Spencer! Inez! Is anyone here?"

I slowly walked around in a large circle. Somewhere, a tap was dripping.

Drip, drip, drip. Suddenly I got the feeling you get when watching a movie and the helpless blonde is about to get savagely murdered. I ran my tongue over my teeth, not entirely sure how much help they'd be to me in a fight, and not sure I wanted to try them out anyway.

"Hello, Ella."

I jumped and whirled around. "Christ, Spencer!" I exploded. "Don't do that whole creeping-in-the-shadows thing. You'll give someone a heart attack."

He approached me with slow, measured steps that made it seem like he was almost gliding over the floor.

"Are you okay?" I asked cautiously. Dude was creeping me out, and I don't get creeped out easily.

"Everything's fine."

"Right." I said slowly. "Anyway, turns out we don't have to wipes out the Collins'. It's all just a stupid ploy to get everyone off skinwalker land by some crazy-ass vampire, and - Oh my God, it's you."

I made a break for it then, but Spencer was older than me and better practised. He seized my wrist before I was really aware that he had moved at all, and he spun me around in a circle and threw me against the wall.

I smacked into the bricks.

It was a moment before my head stopped ringing. The bricks were crumbled into dust with the force that I had hit them.

"You don't have to do this, Ella. All I want to do is be with you."

"Sorry, Spence. I prefer men that look like they didn't die in the Renaissance period." I growled. He raised a white, withered finger.

"First of all, my name is James Spencer Harrington." I stared at him, wondering if I should recognise him now. "You smell good, firecracker."

I was suddenly frozen to the spot, remembering that damn party when I was seventeen.

There was this one young guy who was all over me all night. He wasn't really my type, but I knew if I worked it right, I could get free drinks for me and my friends all night.

You smell good, firecracker. He'd slurred in my ear.

Spencer, James, whatever the hell his name was plucked at the wrinkles around his sunken eyes. "Sorry about the change in decor." He said absently. "Had some bad blood. There were - complications."

My face twisted. "You prick." I spat. "You made me... you made me-"

"I made you better!" Spencer insisted. "Faster, stronger. Better."

"You stole my life from me!"

"Was it really that much of a life?"

"Because of you, the chance to make my life better was taken away from me!" I screamed. "I wanted to grow up, to get a job and to get married. I wanted a house and a dog and the two-point-five kids, but you took that all away from me!"

He spread his arms wide, trying to appeal to me. "You're here because of me. You can't deny who you are, Ella. I made you!"

"I'm here for my friends." I said softly. "I'm here because of my friends."

"Vampires don't have friends." He scoffed. "They have food."

"Then I guess I'm something new."

That was when the crossbow bolt thudded into his back, knocking him onto his knees. I looked toward the doors, startled.

Eddie and Jack were standing just inside the hall, and both of them were armed.

"Come on, Ella!" Jack shouted. Eyes wide, I took a step toward them.

I cold hand curled around my ankle.

"Ah!"

Spencer had risen to a crouch, pulling me back, his teeth bared in a grimace of hate. Jack grabbed my arms as Eddie unsheathed the machete he was carrying, his face determined as he raised it above the vampire's head.

When I noticed Spencer had changed his position, it was too late.

"Eddie, no!"

Jack and I stumbled back as Spencer sprang back to his feet, slamming Eddie back into the wall, one hand around his throat. He seized Eddie's arm and began bending it back at him, the tip of the machete shy of carving out an eyeball. Spencer lent forward and took a long whiff of his throat.

"I smell my girl on you," He hissed. Eddie's eyes were glassy, slowly strangling to death.

"Let him go, Spencer." I said warningly.

"You were with a human?" He was enraged.

"I said, let him go!" I lurched forward, hitting Jack's hands away. My hands curled around the crossbow bolt in Spencer's back, and with all the strength I could muster, I forced it up through his chest. I wasn't sure whether a stake through the heart would actually kill him, but I was certainly going to try.

My hands were covered in blood. I didn't realise that it wasn't all Spencer's until the body fell out of the way.

Eddie was leaning against the wall, hands over a bloody hole in his chest.

"No."

I caught him as he fell, leaving a sticky red smear down the wall. I felt one of his hands gently on the back of my neck as he breathed something that might have been my name.

"No!"

I stared down at him, shocked. This wasn't right! This wasn't how it was supposed to end!

I closed my eyes. There had to be something I could do.

"Ella?" Jack asked. My eyes snapped open with a cold determination.

Jack watched in a morbid fascination as I bit into my own palm, ignoring the searing pain it caused, until dark blood welled up thickly in the wound.

"What the hell are you doing?"

"Vampires are supposed to be immortal, right?" I said. "I think I can afford to give up some immortality."

I didn't know how much longer he would live, so I placed my hand flat against his chest, my blood mingling with his. After a moment, I smeared some of my blood on his bottom lip.

"Come on, babe. You don't get to give up on me now." It was a good thing I really didn't need oxygen, because I did forget to breathe for a few terse minutes there. Finally, Eddie coughed and jerked in my arms.

"Am I dead yet?" He croaked.

I didn't know until I spoke to Inez later that what I'd done had long-reaching effects for Eddie, ones I wasn't entirely sure he'd be able to handle by himself.

"What did you say?" He whispered as Inez sipped a cup of Esme's tea. "I'm part vampire?"

Inez put her cup down. "In the strictest sense, yes. Our kind possesses strong regenerative abilities, however, they are that strong that if passed along to lesser beings, our blood will very literally rewrite that creature's own mortality."

"So I can't die?"

"You will eventually, I expect." Inez said absently, smoothing her dress over her knees. "You weren't bitten, after all."

"When?"

"It could be a hundred years from now, or it could be a thousand. I don't tell the future, boy."

Alice pursed her lips, but stayed silent.

Eddie stared down at the floor. A muscle twitched in his eyelid, and I knew that his utter revulsion for vampires was battling his feelings for me and what he now was.

I refused to apologise, because if I hadn't done what I did, he would have died on the floor of the school assembly hall.

"Inez," Esme interrupted smoothly. "Perhaps you would like to see the guest room now?"

"Of course."

Gracefully the little girl followed Esme up the stairs and out of sight. I could hear the rest of the unseen Collins family slip away. Eddie was still looking down at the floor.

"I'm a freak." He finally muttered.

I reached for his hand, and he didn't shy away from my touch.

"But not the only freak."

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Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight and don't pretend to.

AN: I know I should be working on other stories, but I actually really enjoyed this. So much that I've already got an outline for a potential sequel, Breaking Down, with Eddie, Ella, Volturi, and mysterious demon babies.

Thanks for reading.