AN: Only one more chapter to go...
Thank you to babylopez2008 for pre-reading, and to DreamOfTheEndless for making me write this. I've been a little reluctant to let go!
Bella
Before I can even think about what I'm doing, I run towards the smell, her disgustingly sweet scent.
"Bella!" Carlisle calls out. I can hear him running after me. "Think for a moment about what you're doing," he pleads.
"I have to find her," is all I can reply with.
He catches up to me, careful not to touch me.
"Could you at least act human? I know you aren't as aware of them, but they are around. If they saw you running at vampire speed, then questions will be asked. We cannot afford for that to happen."
I slow down.
"I'm sorry."
We quickly walk further down the alleyway. Its then that the scent changes.
"We're near water," Carlisle explains. "That's the saltiness of the water you can smell."
"Where is she?" I ask.
"I think I've caught her scent. This way," Carlisle directs me. He's had more experience with tracking so I let him lead. I can still smell her though so we must be headed in the right direction.
We walk towards a marina where her scent is getting more potent. I must be wearing a confused expression when Carlisle starts talking.
"Gas Works Park," I hear Carlisle say.
We're surrounded by water on one side of us and grassy fields on the other. It's good that it's getting late in the city as there is no one here. Up over the hill is what looks like an old industrial gas facility.
"Do people still work in that building?" I ask Carlisle.
"Not that I'm aware of. This is just a park now."
The trace of scent by the water is faint. It's towards the hill that it gets stronger.
"I'm going to call Esme and let her know where we are. Thankfully she isn't too far away."
I nod and let him go about making the phone call. I debate whether or not to call Edward, but I'm distracted easily by the weak but pungent scent of blood. It's human and coming from the nomad's direction. I would imagine it's as if there's an open wound bleeding somewhere. My mouth begins to fill with venom which I try to swallow, but it's quickly replaced by more. If Carlisle's shield theory is correct, then I can handle this… but I haven't experience free flowing blood yet.
I snap out of my reverie when I hear Carlisle call out my name from the bottom of the hill. I then begin to realise that while thinking about the oozing blood, I had inadvertently travelled towards it, as if my instincts had over taken my body.
Carlisle is by my side in a flash.
"I'm sorry," I tell him. "I had no idea-"
"Bella, it's okay. You stopped. You're okay."
"Yeah… I stopped."
"I'm worried about the amount of blood I can smell though. I don't think we can wait for the others to arrive. Bella, I need you to prepare yourself. The closer we get, the stronger the smell will be. You've probably noticed that already."
"I'm okay," I tell him. "Really, I am."
"Do you not recognise the scent? Or who it belongs to?" Carlisle asks me. He places his hands on my shoulders, as if to ground me, and he looks in to my eyes.
"Should I?"
"Bella… I think it's your father."
"What? No… what is she doing to him?"
I use my strength to push Carlisle away from me. I need to get to my dad and he isn't helping me to do that.
"Bella!" he calls after me.
I don't reply. I won't stop. I'm faster and stronger than any of the Cullens anyway. I can do this.
I get closer to the industrial building, but so does Carlisle who runs behind me. I turn to face him.
"Please, Carlisle. I need to do this. Don't follow me. I can handle her."
"Bella, you don't know what you're getting yourself in to. I am not leaving you to do this alone. Please don't ask me to either. I cannot stand aside and watch harm come to one of my children, not when I can do something about it."
I realise he's right. I can't ask him to do that. It's not like he would listen or agree to it anyway.
"We're wasting time," I reply.
He nods in response and doesn't push me to say anything else. Instead, we head towards the building, side by side, ready to face the nomad together.
The scent of the vampire is strong here, but the smell of my father's blood is even thicker. I can hear a heartbeat though, meaning that he must still be alive.
Carlisle pries open an entry way. You can tell that this building hasn't been used for decades, apart from the vampire that's taken up residence here. Her stench is all over this place.
I head in before Carlisle does.
"Finally!" I hear a woman shout in the distance. "It took you long enough."
I speed towards the sound. I remember that voice in my hazy human memory. She has a name… James said her name when I opened the door to him before he knocked me out.
What is it?
V…
Vanessa?
Valery?
Verity?
No… Vic-
"Victoria!" I yell.
I hear a male voice softly say, "Bella?"
"Dad!"
"Bella, be careful," Carlisle warns me. "She's using your father as bait."
"It worked, didn't it?" I hear Victoria say. "Come on, Bella, come and get your daddy! He's just dying to see you again."
I clamber over some discarded boxes and vault myself down some stairs. It's dark but I can see clearly with my vampire vision.
I can see him, alone and bleeding from his neck, huddled in the far corner of the basement.
"Tell me she didn't bite you," I say, hoping he can answer me.
"Bella? Is that you? You sound… different."
"It's me, Dad. I'm sorry… I'm so, so sorry."
I walk over to him. I'm aware that he may not be able to see me properly in this dim light. I think that will work to my advantage for the time being. I don't want to scare him anymore than he must be. I can smell the adrenaline and endorphins running through his bloodstream. At least he has some form of pain killer.
"Why did you leave me?" he asks. "I'm sorry I wasn't good enough. I tried, but I should have tried harder-"
"Dad," I interrupt him.
"No, let me finish. I love you, Bells. Always have, always will."
Why does this sound like a good bye?
I rip off the sleeve of my t-shirt easily and press the material to the oozing wound on his neck.
"Carlisle? Can you please take a look at this?" I ask.
"He's a little… indisposed right now," Victoria says, followed by a maniacal laugh.
I turn around after making sure my dad is applying pressure to his wound.
"What did you do to him? Where is he?" I ask, bewildered as to what could have happened while I was distracted by taking care of my dad.
"That's none of your concern right now," she replies. "I figured that after I was finished with you daddy here would make a nice snack."
"You're not getting anywhere near him."
"Think again, little girl."
She moves quickly to the side, as if to test my reactions to her. I side step every time she does, protecting my father from her view.
"Isn't that smell of blood just driving you crazy?" she asks when she sees I'm not going to give up.
"Not particularly," I lie.
The longer I'm near the liquid, the harder it becomes for me to be around it.
"Well aren't you a special little new born?" she replies sarcastically.
"New born?" Charlie asks a little breathlessly. "What the hell is she talking about, Bells?"
"Oh, surely you've noticed that there's something a little strange about all of this, Daddy?"
"Don't patronise him," I growl.
"I'm sorry, did that hit a nerve?" she asks. "I imagine you must be feeling quite angry with me, probably similar to how irritated I felt when you escaped from me the first time. That doesn't happen often, I can tell you.
"I can't even begin to describe to you how distraught I was when I arrived in Forks to find the ashes of my mate, burned in a fire. Gone… just like that." She snaps her fingers to illustrate her point.
She stops her movements and stares at me straight in the eye. "Or how about the time that I travelled to Forks to find you were no longer human! I had plans, you know? It didn't have to happen this way, but someone has to pay. I'll even let you choose. What do you say, hmmm? Will it be you or him?" She points to my father.
"You're crazy if you think I'm going to let you anywhere near him."
She laughs. "Oh, darling… I've been called worse."
She screams, no doubt letting out all of the pain and frustration that she just described to me. I don't have time to dwell on it before she comes barrelling towards me.
I stand my ground. If I jump out of the way, she'll crush my dad.
I put my arms out just in time to grab on to her and throw her to the side. She hits a wall and falls to the ground.
"Bella!" my father exclaims.
I don't have time to explain this to him. I have to protect him.
Victoria climbs to her feet quickly.
"Still got that new born strength I see," she muses. I choose not to answer. "I'd love to stay here and chat with you, but I have better things to do. Riley!"
Riley? Who the hell is that?
"It is done," says a tall, young looking man as he stands at the top of the stairs.
"Good boy," replies Victoria. "Well, this has been fun." She starts to walk towards the stairs.
"Where are you going?" I say.
"I'm not stupid, little girl. I just want you dead."
With that, she takes out a book of matches that were concealed in her back pocket.
"What are you doing?" I ask, worried as to what could happen.
"This is a gas works, Bella… you do the math."
She throws the book of matches to Riley at the top of the stairs as she begins to climb them.
"Do it," she tells him.
He takes out one of the matches.
"I don't think so," I hear a thunderous voice say.
Edward.
Edward sweeps Riley off his feet, knocking Victoria back down the stairs in the process. I can no longer see him. I hear him throw Riley in to the wall, and immediately detach parts of his body. The screams of pain chill me to the bone.
I grab Victoria by the back of her shirt and swing her with all I can head first into the wall. Before she makes contact, she propels herself in to a somersault while in the air, landing against the wall feet first. She pushes off, heading directly for me. I wait until the last millisecond before moving out of the way, jumping in to the air, and landing directly on top of her back. My added weight brings us to the floor.
She snarls and growls, trying with all of her might to get away from me.
I grab on to both of her arms and pull. I imagine it's like pulling the arms off of a Barbie doll. They separate from her upper body easily. I throw them as far away as possible, just in case they crawl over and try to reattach.
Edward jumps down the stairs to join me.
"Take him," I demand as I point to my father.
He nods, lifts him and leaves.
"Just you and me now, Carrot top. I think I might enjoy this."
She screams as I focus on removing both of her legs, one at a time.
Edward
I lay Charlie on the grass outside of the building. In the background I see Jasper and Emmett adding body parts to a fire.
"Carlisle, I need to go back for her," I tell my father.
I hear a scream, but it's not Bella's.
"I think she'll be just fine, son."
We arrived at the scene as soon as we could. Alice showed us where we could find Carlisle. One of his legs and both hands had been taken off to prevent him from getting close to the fight going on inside. Alice found his appendages and quickly attached them. Esme turned up shortly after that and hasn't left my father's side since.
"He's weak," Carlisle says, now in doctor mode.
"His breathing is shallow," I reply.
He nods.
We look at each other before we both say, "Blood loss."
"It's not extreme. I can use my venom to seal the wound," Carlisle says.
"Dad." I stop him. "Are you strong enough? Losing your body parts takes up a lot of strength."
He looks at me and replies, "You'd better."
It's then that Bella makes her way back out of the building, cradling the nomad's body parts, or at least as many as she could carry herself.
"Guys, knock yourselves out," she tells Jasper and Emmett as she dumps the appendages at their feet.
She looks over to us. Her eyes immediately focus on her father. She's by our side within a second.
"Dad?" she says. "I'm here. You're okay. You're going to be okay." She looks back up to me. "Right?"
I nod slowly.
"What does he need?" she asks.
"He's lost some blood," Carlisle replies. "We need to seal his neck wound."
"Okay, how?"
"With our venom. It has healing properties when applied to the skin."
"But won't it enter his bloodstream?" she questions.
"I'll be careful," I reply.
"You're going to do it?" she asks.
"Yes."
She looks at me closely for a brief second. Finally, she relents.
"Okay, quickly, please."
I focus on the scent of the blood to get my venom flowing. I discretely spit it on to the palms of my hands and get to work, sealing the wound as best as I can.
"We'll take him back to ours," Carlisle says. "Jasper, persuade someone to let us borrow their car, would you?"
Jasper leaves to do as he is asked.
"He'll be okay, Bella," I soothe her.
She doesn't say anything. She just stares at her father's weak body.
"He knows," she whispers.
"We'll deal with it," I tell her. "When he's better."
And we will, together.
AN: The 2nd chapter of my new fic has been posted, check it out. I've been told it's good :) http: / www .fanfiction. net/s / 6969607 / 1 / The_Long_Walk_Home (just remove the spaces, or go to my profile page)