A/N: Eternal disclaimer, made-up kido, ass-kicking Bella.

Oh, and I skip any descriptions of things already known, like Emily's house, because I'm LAZY. Yeah.

Oh, and about the gayness mentioned… she's not actually serious. But if the mere idea squicks you, you might wanna stop reading here, as it's mentioned as a joke. Enjoy!

I only got a glimpse of the other fours' stunned faces before Paul charged. My eyes narrowed, and I dodged to the right, not even bothering to use flash. Out the corner of my eye I saw Jacob running back toward us; a quick incantation, a hand thrown out, and he was blocked by an invisible shield. I turned as Paul skidded around and ran for me another time, taking the blunt side of Nemesis and slamming her into his side; he was blown back across the road into a tree. He slid down the side of the birch. I watched to make sure he wouldn't get back up.

"Th-that's enough," Sam stepped in. He looked down at me like he'd never quite seen anything like me before… and he probably hadn't. "Jacob and I can handle it from here…" he hesitated. He jerked his head towards the woods with a look to Jacob. I released the kido and Jacob trotted over, looked at me for a minute, then picked Paul—who looked downright shellshocked—up by the scruff of his neck and dragged him into the woods. "Take her to Emily's," Sam muttered at the others, then ran into the woods, kicking off his shoes as he went.

I turned around. The other two boys stood staring at me. One of them had his mouth open. I raised Nemesis—they all flinched—and let her vanish in her telltale flash of white. I raised an eyebrow at them as they merely stood there and watched me.

This was the problem with men, you see.

"So you guys going to take me to this Emily or what?" I asked at last, walking over to them.

They stepped back a little as I approached. I rolled my eyes.

"G-get Sam's shoes, will you?" Jared mumbled, bending down and picking up strips of fabric from the ground. Embry jogged into the trees while Jared wadded the shredded clothing into a ball.

Once the boys were moving again, suddenly I was bombarded as they all returned.

"Holy shit!"

"What the hell happened to you, Bella?"

"You just pwned Paul!"

"That was unbelievable."

"Where'd you get the sword from?"

"Did you really kill that bloodsucker from the meadow?"

I held up my hands. "One at a time, please?" I sighed, answering all their questions in turn. They chattered in excitement once they were over the shock.

"Paul's going to be so pissed when he gets back," Jared said with relish, looking at me with something like hero-worship in his eyes.

"Let's go see Emily, I'm hungry." Embry looked down at me. "Mind giving us a ride?"

"Mind giving me instructions?" I asked sarcastically, walking around to the driver's side. I heard them talking as I climbed in.

"You think she could take Jacob?"

"She'd kick his ass." Jared said confidently.

"I would kick his ass," I agreed.

"Yeah, right!" Embry disagreed. "Did you see Jake? Even Sam couldn't have phased on the fly like that."

I rolled my eyes. "I already asked him to fight me, so we'll see."

"Come on, she caught Paul by surprise. I'll bet you ten bucks Jacob gets her by the neck."

What was it with people saying I caught them by surprise? They just didn't want to admit they'd been beat.

"You're on. Jake doesn't have a prayer." They shook hands, grinning. Embry climbed in the passenger seat.

"You'll have to ride in the back," he told Jared.

"That's fine."

Embry directed me back toward the village.

"Hey, how did Jake get around the injunction anyway?"

"Excuse me?"

"Er, the order. You know, not to spill the beans. How'd he tell you?"

"I'd seen one of you the other day when I killed Laurent," I shrugged. "I put the pieces together."

Embry pursed his lips, looking surprised. "Hmm. S'pose that would work."

"So who's Emily?"

"Sam's fiancée. They'll meet us back there after Sam gives it to them for what just happened. And after Paul and Jake scrounge up some new clothes, if Paul even has any left."

"Does Emily know about…?"

"Yeah. And hey, don't stare at her. That bugs Sam."

I frowned at him. "Why would I stare?"

Embry looked uncomfortable. "Well, you already know hanging around werewolves has its risks." He quickly changed the subject. "It's good that you killed that black-haired bloodsucker back there. We didn't want to start anything, break the treaty, you know."

"Why would killing Laurent break the treaty?"

"Well, we were technically on Cullen turf. We're not allowed to attack any of them, the Cullens, at least, off our land—unless they break the treaty first. We didn't know if the black-haired one was a relative of theirs or something."

"How would they go about breaking the treaty?"

"If they bite a human."

I almost laughed. "Good thing I wasn't one anymore, then."

He grinned at me. "Yeah."

We pulled into a narrow dirt road with a tiny house at the end of the lane. Embry opened the truck door and inhaled. "Mmm, Emily's cooking."

Jared jumped out of the back of the door and they both entered without knocking. I followed behind them, still somewhat irritable over the fact that Embry thought I couldn't take Jacob. A young woman with satiny copper skin and long black hair was standing at the counter by the sink, popping big muffins out of a tin and putting them on a paper plate. For a second I thought the reason Embry told me not to stare was because the girl was so beautiful.

Then she asked, "You guys hungry?" in a melodic voice, and she turned to face us full on, a smile on half of her face.

The right side of her face was marred by three thick, red lines, still bright in color even though long healed. One pulled down the corner of her eye, another pulled the side of her mouth into a permanent grimace.

As I turned my eyes to the food in her hands, she asked, sounding surprised, "Who's this?"

"Bella Swan," Jared told her, shrugging. "Who else?"

"Leave it to Jacob to find a way around," Emily murmured. She stared at me, and neither half of her once-beautiful face was friendly. "So, you're the vampire girl."

"Are you the wolf girl?"

She laughed, as did Embry and Jared. The left half of her face warmed. "I guess I am."

"Well, she's not the vampire girl anymore, Emily," Embry snickered. "She killed one."

"What?" she asked, shocked. "How?"

"With her sword of ultimate epic death, Nemesis. So don't piss her off."

Emily smacked him on the head. "Don't tease."

"Yeah, Embry, don't tease," I smirked, waving Nemesis a few inches from his face. "Someone might cut that cheeky tongue right out of your mouth."

Nemesis took up almost the whole room when I took her out. Emily's eyes just about bugged out of her head. I put her away carefully, smiling at Emily genially.

"I'm not going to ask just yet," she said after a moment, putting the muffins down on the table. "But I expect a full explanation from one of you." She turned to Jared. "Where's Sam?"

"Bella… er… surprised Paul this morning."

Emily rolled her good eye. "Ah, Paul," she sighed. "Do you think they'll be long? I was just about to start the eggs."

"Don't worry," Embry told her. "If they're late, we won't let anything go to waste."

Emily chuckled, then opened the fridge. "No doubt," she agreed. "Bella, are you hungry? Go ahead and help yourself to a muffin."

"Thanks." I took one from the plate and swallowed a good half of it at once. It was great.

"She even eats like a guy," Jared muttered. I decided to let that one slide. Embry picked up his third and shoved it into his mouth whole.

"Save some for your brothers," Emily chastised him, hitting him on the head again with a wooden spoon.

The front door opened while she was mixing the eggs in a big yellow bowl, and Sam stepped through.

"Emily," he said, his voice saturated with love. He crossed the room in one stride and took her face in his wide hands, leaning down and kissed the dark scars on her right cheek before he kissed her lips.

I turned my head away. My temper was boiling again.

I used to be that. The domestic girlfriend, maybe even one day fiancée. Letting a man touch me and kiss me because I believed the lies that spilled from his mouth.

But love was for the weak. I had no doubt that they were both good people, but they were weak.

I was strong, too strong for any innately misogynistic man to play around with me for physical gratification and temporary emotional attachment. And that was all it was, in the end. The man wooed the woman with pretty words and promises, and she fell for it, thinking she was loved when she was just being used.

I wouldn't fall for that again.

"Hey, none of that," Jared complained. "I'm eating."

"Then shut up and eat," Sam muttered, kissing Emily's ruined mouth again.

"Ugh," Embry groaned.

I did my best to reign myself in until Jacob and Paul came in. Men were good things to have as friends, but in the end romance just wasn't an option.

Maybe I should consider the fairer sex.

I almost laughed out loud at how the Cullens would react if I ever told them I was a lesbian.

Jacob and Paul came in, laughing, tussling playfully. They both stopped when they saw me, but only for a moment. Paul came over to me, ignoring Jacob's warning look, and grinned.

"You're kind of a beast, you know that?"

I grinned right back.

"Rematch sometime?"

"You're on," he offered his fist, and I tapped it with my own.

Jacob walked up to me, grabbing two muffins as he went. "Hey, Bells," he greeted cheerfully. "Paul was right about before, you know. Very impressive."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Thanks."

"But that was Paul. I could beat him easily."

"You wanna put your money where your mouth is?" Paul called from the other side of the kitchen.

Jacob ignored him. "So if you're still up for that fight—"

"Still up for it? You're going down, my friend." I took the uneaten muffin from his hands. "If you like, I'll tie my hands behind my back."

"Let's not make this too humiliating for you," he teased.

"Fine. I was going to go easy on you, but you're just asking for it now," I looked him over. "Hey… what happened to the ribs I broke yesterday?"

Embry's eyes went wide as saucers and Jared looked at him smugly. "It's not too late to withdraw your bet."

"Shut up," he muttered.

"I'm fine. Wolf thing."

"So I'll really have to kick you while you're down, then," I glanced up at him with a smirk. "There's still time to set rules. You sure you don't want to limit me to hand-to-hand combat?"

"I'll take you on, freaky spells and all."

"Hey, guys," Sam said in a loud voice, interrupting all the conversations going on in the small room. "Jacob has information for us."

"I know what the redhead wants." Jacob directed his words toward Jared and Embry. "That's what I was trying to tell you before." He kicked the leg of the chair Paul was sitting in.

"And?" Jared asked.

"She is trying to avenge her mate—only it wasn't the black-haired leech Bella killed. The Cullens got her mate last year, and she's after Bella now."

Familiar anticipation settled in as he spoke.

Jared, Embry, and Emily stared at me with open-mouthed surprise.

"She's just a girl," Embry protested.

"You wanna say that again?" I muttered.

"I didn't say it made sense. But that's why the bloodsucker's been trying to get past us. She's been heading for Forks."

They continued to stare at me, mouths still hanging open, for a long moment. I looked determinedly at Jacob, but he avoided my gaze.

"So we'll be changing our patterns," Sam said. "We'll try leaving a few holes, see if she's falls for it. We'll have to split up, and I don't like that. But if she's really after Bella, she probably won't try to take advantage of our divided numbers."

"Quil's got to be close to joining us," Embry murmured. "Then we'll be able to split evenly."

Everyone looked down.

"Hold on just a minute," I interrupted. "If you're not going to be evenly split, then I should definitely join in the hunt."

"Bella, I said no," Jacob growled.

"Are you in charge of me, Jacob?" I asked him coldly.

"This isn't some play-fight, Bella—"

"Oh, so you think I was just playing with Laurent, then?" I snarled.

"She has a point, Jacob," Sam put in. "If she joined us, we'd both have a means to lure out Victoria and have teams of balanced numbers."

Jacob's eyes flickered from me to Sam, and after a moment, he nodded tensely.

"All right," Sam continued in a businesslike voice. "Paul, Jared, and Embry will take the outer perimeter, and Jacob, Bella, and I will take the inner. During the night it'll just be Jacob and I. And that way we won't have to worry about watching Bella's house,"

I was dying to say I didn't sleep anymore, but I knew that would sound suspicious, so I held my tongue.

Sam caught my eye. "Jacob thinks it would be best if you spent as much time as possible here in La Push. She won't know where to find you so easily, just in case."

"And Charlie?" I demanded.

"March Madness is still going on," Jacob said. "I think Billy and Harry can manage to keep Charlie down here when he's not at work."

"Fine, sure." I agreed. "But I want to make one thing clear." I looked around at them all, feeling heat pumping through me at the words I was about to say. "When we find Victoria, I want you to leave her to me."

"We can't do that," Sam cut in immediately.

"No," I disagreed in a quiet but firm voice. "This has a personal value to me. She's mine."

"Bella, this is our job—to protect the reserve. Besides, this one's different from the dark-haired one you killed—"

I could feel my control slipping. "So you think I can't handle her, is that it?" I hissed. "You think I'm too weak."

"That's not what I'm saying—" He protested.

"That's exactly what you're saying!" I snarled back. "And you're not the first one to tell me—at least, not in so many words." I sucked in a deep breath.

"Jeez, Bella, don't go pulling a Paul on us," mumbled Jacob, putting a hand on my shoulder. Paul threw him an irritated look as I shrugged off Jake's hand.

I looked to Sam stubbornly. "If you won't let me have her, I won't work with you. Simple as that. I'll find her myself."

He stared down at me studiously. "Why does she matter to you so much?" he asked me softly.

I glared right back into his eyes. "That… is none of your fucking business."

There was a tense silence. At last Sam smiled slowly. "All right. I understand. Since I can't guarantee we'll leave her to you when we catch her, you are under no obligation to assist us on our patrols. However, we'll leave the protection of your home to you, and if she's on the Cullen's side, she's fair game between us. How's that?"

"Fine, I guess," I agreed sullenly. I figured I wouldn't get a deal any better than that.

"Food's ready," Emily announced then, and the strategic conversation was history.

After the wolves devoured the food, I pulled Jake aside.

"So, before you patrol," I said conversationally. "You ready to get your ass kicked?"

He grinned at me. "Bring it on."

A/N: In the words of Justin Timberlake, "And that's it!" Hopefully you liked it… I know this chapter wasn't very eventful, but as the original storyline picks up, so will mine. Review even if you hated it! Flame me if you like, I don't mind! It's all feedback!

See you in 10 days! Bye-nee!