Based on the characters created by Stephanie Meyer, in her Twilight Saga series of books

HOME BY TWILIGHT

Chapter 5

The sound that pierced the air was a shrill, Earth shattering, screech. Bella had been listening to the slow but steady rhythm of Jenna's heart beat, and her constant shallow breathing. They gave no indication that she was awake, or about to awaken. The scream was so sudden, it had set both her and Edward into an instant defensive stance. They watched as Jenna sprouted wings that lifted her from the bed as she screamed. The scream altered, as her form began to change. She shimmered and shifted from human, to that of a huge black lion, to that of a horse with huge black wings. She looked the same way her horse had looked the night before; black and furious, but this time with wings. For a short moment she looked straight into Bella's eyes, and Bella felt and saw pain. Then she was gone. Now Bella understood the open roof, as the tarp was shredded and fell away in pieces.

"She's headed for the horses," Bella yelled, as she and Edward dived out one of the windows on the south side of the room.

They hit the ground, and took off like runners on a race track, to follow her. Jenna set a fast pace. Bella had difficulty keeping up with her, and Edward refused to leave Bella's side. Carlisle soon caught up with the two runners. Esme had stayed behind to keep watch over the children, with Rose.

Connie was already up and in the kitchen long before all hell broke loose upstairs. She handed out biscuits filled with ham and eggs, as the human contingent headed out to their vehicles. Jacob was in the jeep, when Bill arrived. He had been up when Connie had started cooking and had eaten a half dozen of the huge biscuits, before the alarm went off. Bill swallowed his down as fast as he could. Jacob was impressed. Only two bites, and the Jeep was roaring out into the desert.

Tony followed along much more slowly. Alice had been near the house when the alarm went off. She and Jasper, after the Jeep had left, chose to help Tony and Connie, with the medical supplies and extra food Tony would be taking there in his truck. Buckets and a large container of drinking water had already been loaded onto the truck the night before. When the last of the supplies was loaded, Alice joined Tony in the truck. Jasper ran along the driver's side, keeping watch over the slow moving supply truck. Connie stayed behind to prepare breakfast for the children and see to any needs that Rosalie or Esme might have.

Jasper wanted to kick himself for not saying anything to anyone else, about his suspicions, when he spotted the wolves. At about the same time Alice smelled them. There were only two. "They don't expect much resistance," Jasper said to Alice.

The truck was loud, and they were separated by about 20 feet, so Alice was the only one that could hear him.

"No matter what," she told Tony, "keep going. Don't stop till you reach the others." Alice opened the passenger side door and jumped to the truck bed among the supplies. She made sure that the passenger door was shut tight, then jumped out of the bed, to join Jasper. "Maybe Bill's right. These guys are dumb."

"Don't bet on it," Jasper responded. "They were smart enough to find the weakest part of the chain." He looked around and verified the distance between them and the two wolves approaching the truck from the passenger side. "Tony is the one that does all the medical operations. He did a good job on Jenna. That's why she healed so fast. He also takes care of the horses. My guess is that they've done something like this before and studied the routine.

They ran on in silence for a few seconds.

"Ready?" Jasper smiled at Alice. She smiled back in response.

"Now!" Jasper whispered through his teeth.

Alice and Jasper jumped over the truck, in unison, and landed face -to-face with the surprised werewolves. Alice ripped the head off of the wolf in front of her, then turned to Jasper. He was having a little more difficulty. His wolf was almost twice the size of hers, and angrier. Jasper had it around the neck, but couldn't get a hand free to finish the job. Alice stepped over to face Jasper.

"Trouble, my love?" she asked gently.

"Just a little," Jasper struggled to get a hand free, as the werewolf tried to take his arm off for the third time.

Alice took a step closer and the wolf snapped at her.

"Bad werewolf," Alice reprimanded him. "If any of our friends were to see you behave like that, they would rip you to shreds... slowly," and Alice's hands snaked out and grabbed the upper and lower parts of the werewolves muzzle and pulled it apart like a wishbone.

Jasper was finally able to finish the job by ripping the werewolves head off. As the two returned to human form, Alice started a fire while Jasper made sure that the heads and bodies did not rejoin.

"I don't know that much about werewolves," he confided to Alice.

"I don't either," Alice replied. "Just some old fairy tales." She had the fire going good. "I know that Caius had them exterminated about 500 years ago. But that may have only been in Europe. I think it was about 500 years," she mused as they threw in the heads, and then the bodies of the men who had been werewolves a moment ago. "Better safe than sorry."

They stayed long enough to be sure that the bodies were completely destroyed. Then they raced to catch up with the truck.

Bella and Edward spotted Emmett in the distance. They raced to get to him, as Jenna flew past him, and dropped out of sight. Bella tried to fly past Emmett, but he grabbed her and swung her around to face Edward.

"It's alright," Edward told her, "Take a look."

Bella took a look at the cliff she had been about to jump over. It was not that the cliff was high, 30 to 40 foot. It was what was at the bottom. To the east a thin trickle of water fed narrow swathes of grass on each side of it. A few horses had made it to that end of the canyon, but most of them were directly below the cliff where Bella stood. The smell of blood was strong, but she kept her blood lust under control. Several horses were laying down. Bella counted at least four that were dead. Two of the four had been ripped to pieces. To the left, about six horses were limping toward a figure. A naked figure. Bella smiled a sad smile and jumped into the canyon. Most of the horses still alive, seemed to be in too much pain to care that a vampire was in their midst. Bella slowly made her way to the naked figure at the center of the canyon.

"I've told them that you are safe, that you won't hurt them," Her quiet voice sounded like Bella's. "You or your friends. I'm not sure how they'll take Jacob, though. They aren't likely to trust a wolf, no matter what I say."

"What do you suggest?" Bella asked.

"The far north end of the canyon. He can patrol the opening of the canyon. If he doesn't mind." Jenna buried her face in the neck of another horse.

Bella watched as the horses seemed to feel better, walk better. After she did this, they would walk gingerly to the stream to drink and nibble at the grass. She watched as Jenna grabbed hold of another horse. She saw how the horses hooves seemed to rise slightly, and stop bleeding. She also saw how Jenna seemed to grow weaker, more tired.

"You should rest for a while," Bella started.

"To many to heal," Jenna's voice began to convey the exhaustion she was feeling.

Bella knew she had to think of another approach to this strange woman. "Are you really my mother?"

Jenna gave a groan and fell to her knees. About that time, Bill drove slowly through the injured and freshly healed horses.

"Jake is at the mouth of the canyon," he grabbed the bag that Connie had packed and ran to Jenna. "No blood lust in that one. Just revenge for the ones that did this, just like the rest of us." Bill slid to his knees next to Jenna and helped her dress.

"She's OK,"Bella told him. "Just exhausted."

"I don't know how you did it, but thank you," Bill looked at Bella. "We usually have to wait until she nearly drops dead, before we can make her stop."

By the time Jenna was dressed, and had stomped her feet into her boots, everyone was there. Emmett chose to remain on the cliff above. Jasper and Alice were helping Tony unload the truck, and feed and water the horses that couldn't make it to the stream. Carlisle was examining the horses. Using the supplies that Tony had brought he had begun to clean and dress wounds that had nothing to do with their hooves. Edward helped Carlisle with the horses, leaving Bella to have a talk with Jenna.

They walked to the far west of the canyon, beyond the carnage, and blood. "I was in an accident when I was young," Jenna started. "They said that I was dead. Things like that didn't happen very often, back then. Dead was dead."

Bella listened in silence. She simply let Jenna talk, as they walked the canyon.

"I didn't have any family," Jenna continued. "My mother died when I was born. It wasn't until years later that I began to dig into her story. All I really know about her was that she was found on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. Odd, I know. And that she died of heart failure. That's what they call it when you can't breath, and your heart dies from lack of oxygen. I did find the doctor that delivered me. He remembered her. He said it was the strangest case he had ever worked on. He said that there was no reason for her to have died. She appeared perfectly healthy. No signs of asthma. No reason for her to have any trouble breathing. He said "... it was as if gravity was crushing her..." I was never able to find out anything more. Back then, they cremated the bodies that weren't claimed after about a year.

I went about my life, as anyone would. Well, stumbled through it was more like it. Yeah, we have that in common too." Jenna smiled at Bella. "Was it really necessary to become a vampire, to feel like you belonged?"

Bella was surprised by the question. "It seemed the thing..."

"Bullshit," Jenna interrupted. "I should have contacted you sooner. This was all completely indulgent on your part.'

"I was dying!" Bella protested.

"Maybe, but you wouldn't have stayed that way."

"We didn't know that."

"And that was my fault." Jenna stopped and looked down at the ground. "There are so many things you need to know," she took Bella by the arm and started back to the horses. "But first I need to finish here. There's only a few horses left to heal."

"You heal yourself. You come back from the dead. You're a shape shifter, and you heal animals." Bella stopped Jenna and made her look at her. "What are you?"

"Your mother, my dear Bells. I'm your mother." and Jenna walked over to a horse, laid her head against it's neck to begin the rapid healing of the suffering animals hooves.

Bella went to help Carlisle and Edward.

"Get anything useful?" Edward asked, as they worked side by side.

"Not much. No grandparents on her side. She doesn't know where she came from. She's going to give me more, when this is all taken care of." Bella stopped what she was doing and looked around the canyon.

It took the rest of the day, to complete the work that the horses required. When they were finished with all they could do, Jasper set up a watch for the canyon. Emmett had refused to leave his post. Jacob was replaced because he was still making the horses nervous. Carlisle took up his post. He wanted to keep an eye on a couple of horses that had more severe injuries. Jasper and Alice helped Tony and Bill repack the truck. When that final chore was completed, Bill and Jake were the first to leave. Jasper and Alice hopped in the truck with Tony, and they followed the Jeep out. Edward, Bella, and Jenna brought up the rear by running behind the truck. After the attack earlier that morning, they all used more caution on the way back to the house.

They could all smell the food that Connie was cooking, long before they arrived at the house. As they all walked through the front door, Connie had the girls handing out towels and wash clothes for everyone. There would be no discussion or food, until they were all clean. The humans were pushed into the basement, while the Cullen's all went to their rooms. Bella looked back at Jenna, as she went up the stairs to clean up. Jenna shimmered and was instantly clean, body, hair, and clothes. Bella turned back to the stairs.

"Edward?" she whispered.

"Yeah!" He whispered back. "Let's get cleaned up."

During their showers they were both caught up in their own thoughts. They did not talk again until they had all gathered down stairs.