(A/N: I apologize ahead of time for my mangling of the Spanish language! And thanks to all who reviewed/favorite/alerted this story… This chapter's dedicated to Horlo246 whose review got me to post this right away!)

3.

Bella

I awoke into darkness. Overwhelming pain and discomfort brought me out of my haze; my wrists were bound behind my back with a rough rope. Wherever I was, the room was swelteringly hot. My body was covered in sweat and my left arm was numb where I was leaning on the ground.

From the smell of the room, I'd been unconscious there for some time.

All I could hear was my own breathing. Whenever I moved my head the slightest bit, dizziness overcame me, blurring my vision and tilting the floor.

At some point, I passed out again.

The second time I came around, I woke up afraid, knowing right away that something was happening. Beads of sweat ran down my neck, tickling my over-sensitive skin. Metal clanged around somewhere close to me, and I began to cry… I desperately wanted this to just be a dream.

I heard vampire-quick footsteps coming toward me in the darkness, before a light bulb hanging from the ceiling blinked on.

Squinting against the light, I made out a short Mexican woman looming over me. Her small hand reached down and fisted my hair at the back of my neck, twisting it painfully. "Hola. Como te llamas, chiquita? Como el conoces a Peter? Tu eres su mimada, si? Debes esperar que el viniendo para ti." Her voice was soft, falsely sweet.

I recognized her words as Spanish, eliciting in me hazy thoughts of my childhood in Arizona, but I was confused – she knew Peter?

"Who - who are you?" I stuttered as her grip on me tightened. "Why the fuck am I here?" My voice became increasingly hysterical.

"Me llamo Maria, putita… y soy tu duena nueva. Peter es la posesion de mi. No es tuyo." She moved her hand to my throat and dragged me to my feet – her voice had become a threatening hiss, and I understood her meaning – Peter is her possession.

Well, shit. Was I dealing with a jealous and possessive mate? I felt nauseous at the thought of Peter with her, with other women…

This Maria continued in English, pushing her face so close to mine I could see the dried blood at the corners of her dark mouth. "Peter took Jasper from me, and that bastard will die for it. As will you for standing by his side, you little whore. My scouts told me what he did for you…"

Maria rubbed her hard fingers on the new scar on my neck from Peter's venom. "So I know he'll come for you. And Jasper will come for him. Then you will all die." Jasper? What the fuck does Jasper have to do with this?

"Pero ahora…" her voice sinisterly playful again, my fear began to build, "tu eres mi juguete, puta."

Nausea spread through me as she leaned toward my neck, a sick smell wafting off her. She licked across my collarbone – her touch so different from Peter's – and sank her incisors into my shoulder, which fuck, hurt like a bitch, then dragged her sharp teeth down in a zigzag pattern.

She pulled away for a moment to inspect her work – I clenched my eyes shut; I didn't want to see the bloody mess, didn't want to be aware anymore – then I felt her mouth sucking at the wound.

Oh my god, ohmygod, my mind screamed but I could only choke – then I felt a sick pressure underneath my tongue, and I vomited.

Maria froze, then disappeared, leaving me once again alone in my dark cell, only this time more bloody, nauseous and covered in puke.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…. I couldn't get my mind to shut up.

The skin on my wrists was on fire, and every time I moved my hands, trying to wriggle them out of the loosening ropes, sharp pains shot up my arms and the rough fibers of the rope dug further into my skin. I tried not to think too far ahead – how the hell would I get out of here if I did manage get my hands loose? – and focused only on my most immediate problem: I couldn't fucking move!

To distract myself from the pain, rising hysteria, and the sour taste of adrenalin in my mouth, I focused on the ever-present pain in my shoulder; I replayed Maria's mouth on me, her rancid-smelling hair up in my face, all the while twisting my wrists loose.

The ropes had loosened the tiniest bit when I heard heavy footsteps approaching the door. I tried to sit up, struggling from my position on my side with my arms behind my back.

A deadbolt clanged, then the door heaved open, and I looked up in fear. Not Maria this time – a dirty-looking male vampire stared at me from the doorway, a sick grin on his dark face.

"Now this is what I call a treat…" he murmured, stepping toward me.

"Get the fuck away from me!" I screamed, but he reached down and hauled me up by my arms and set me on my feet. I backed into the moist, slimy wall behind me, then jumped away from the gross texture.

"Whatever you say, pet," he laughed, "Let's get you out of those clothes." He reached for the neck of my shirt, but I jerked back.

"Are you fucking kidding me? Leave me alone!"

"Yeah, you really don't have any say in that…" This time he roughly grabbed the neck of my shirt with both hands and ripped it down the middle and threw it away from me onto the floor, then did the same with my shorts.

I stood before him clad in nothing but my underwear and bra, and my stomach turned at the sick way he eyed my body. Lifting my chin in pride, I stared back at him, trying to pretend at least that I wasn't fucking terrified at what he would do to me.

But thank god, at least something went my way today – the vampire muttered, "it's too damn bad Maria won't let me fuck you… you have one tight little body, human." Then more loudly, he said, "But she's right – you need a fucking bath. Your stench's getting pretty pungent."

He turned, grabbed a bucket filled with water from the hallway behind him, then splashed me with the bucketful of freezing water. I choked, not having expected the sudden deluge, and squinted my eyes, trying once again to pull my hands free in order to wipe the water from my eyes. "What the fuck!" I sputtered… which the vampire didn't appreciate.

"Watch your mouth, you little bitch." He spat, stepping up until only inches separated us and grabbing my chin, forcing me to meet his red eyes, "Don't think you're anything but a plaything to Maria – and to me – until you've served your purpose."

He dipped his head down to my throat, sniffing for my blood along the way, then licked back up to my ear. I held my breath, trying not to move, as my heart pounded and fear blocked my throat. I didn't want to let myself think it, but I wished Peter were here to help me…

Moving me quickly to the point of disorientation, he spun me around by my shoulders, then ripped away the rope binding my hands and spun me back around to face him again. He grabbed both of my wrists in one hand, his tight grip crunching my bones together, and lifted my arms above my head and secured them with the remaining scraps of rope to what looked like a rusty hook jutting out from the wall about a foot above my head.

Fuck, fuck, shit, fuck, oh my God, "Hey!" I yelled, my mind racing, "You can't do this to me!" I tried to kick him but he just grabbed my legs and brought himself closer to me, pressing his lower body into mine and effectively pinning me against the wall.

"Little girl, you have so much to learn," his voice lowered, becoming husky, and he pressed an open-mouthed kiss on my neck. His hand moved to my chest, his fingers pinching my nipple – so I screamed. And screamed.

He didn't like that at all – he growled and bit into my as-yet-unmarked left shoulder. I screamed and tried to kick but only managed to buck my hips into his and rip the skin of my shoulder against his teeth.

His mouth retreated enough for me to see my blood running down his chin - bile rose in my mouth but I feared his reaction if I vomited again – and then he smirked at me, revealing his blood-stained teeth, and moved down to kneel at my feet.

Hands on my inner thighs, he forced my legs up and apart until my feet left the ground and I hung painfully from the ropes around my wrists. "Please, please no," I begged hoarsely.

But the vampire just laughed, pressed my legs further apart until I felt completely exposed to him. He nuzzled his nose up to my panties and breathed in deeply. Please no. I began to cry.

My eyes clenched tightly shut as I shuddered with repressed gasps and sobs until he bit violently into my inner thigh, growling and biting deeper as he sucked.

A guttural scream burst from my throat – I wanted to struggle, to hurt him, but my strength left me along with my blood. My head fell back against the hard wall, and I passed out once again.

...

Peter

...

He'd spent the day trying to distract himself – Bella had left a buzzing in his head, an unrelenting barrage of his memories of Bella going through his mind. He wanted nothing more than to track down Bella and demand she explain what the hell was going on between them, because he sure as fuck couldn't figure it out – but he'd managed to waste the day with repairs around his house, ripping up the old puke-green shag carpets and refinishing the hardwood floors beneath.

Night fell; his predatory instincts awoke and fueled his restlessness.

When Peter reached Bella's apartment and realized she was gone, he promptly freaked the fuck out. Her apartment was empty – just her furniture and belongings, curtains fluttering in the afternoon breeze. A hint of wildflowers and marijuana tinged the air, but both scents were hours old…

His stomach sank, and his mind went back to the last time he'd seen her – he'd decided against warning her of more newborns coming for her now that she'd been seen with him. He'd tracked both of the attacking newborns' scents several miles south toward Maria's territory, as far as he dared, but he hadn't picked up any fresh scents to worry about.

Peter walked around Bella's apartment, hoping to find something that might indicate what had happened here – her spilled blood dried in puddles on the hardwood floor of the living room, a half-drank bottle of beer sat on the round dining table, and her leather-fringed purse tossed haphazardly on the floor.

The room – the scene of Bella's possible death – looked worse and worse, and Peter's frustration and panic grew. The quiet, rational part of his brain felt slightly surprised, considering this was just a woman, a pretty little human to be fed on. Most likely with some sweet motherfuckin' blood.

But only when he noticed scattered scraps of wood littering the floor, and stooped down to collect one of the chunks of the broken door frame did he recognize the faint scent on them – a musty, rotting apple smell.

"Fuck," he breathed, "Maria's got her."

Focusing on Maria's scent where it mixed with Bella's, he followed her trail out the door of the apartment and down the stairs to the noisy street to where it dissipated into the humid night air.

She was just… gone. Peter's chest felt heavy, and the world around him seemed to slow. Desolation crept up his spine – and yet he felt confused at where these emotions were coming from, all for Bella. He bent over, bracing his arms on his knees, and thought wryly that Jasper was lucky he wasn't here for the secondhand experience of Peter's shitstorm of emotions.

But – Peter couldn't grasp how he hadn't thought of this before – Jasper. If anything could help him take on Maria, it was Jasper.

Straightening up, Peter fumbled for his phone, his mood bolstered by the thought of Jasper's dark power and might combined with Peter's own fierce strength and experience – the time had come for Maria to get what was comin' to her.

Jasper answered on the second ring. "Peter. Haven't heard from you in a while."

"I need you in New Mexico. It's Maria."

"What the hell, Peter? You know better than anyone to stay away from her territory," Jasper said, sounding confused.

Peter growled, frustrated. "She took someone I need to get back. Right fucking away." He paused, closing his eyes and thinking of Bella's beautiful smile. "Please, Jasper."

Peter heard nothing but silence on the phone line for several seconds, then Jasper's low voice: "Meet me at our old house south of Roswell around dawn."