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As always, huge thanks go to my pre-reader/cheerleader team Gredelina1 and IamTheAlleyCat. Also to Snarkymuch for beta'ing this chapter and listening to all my bitching when the words wouldn't flow. I love you all.

~ Chapter Twenty — Defenseless ~

Edward POV

There were no words to describe how I felt the moment she stepped off of the boat. She was impossibly alive and impossibly beautiful. I had seen her face in Carlisle and Esme's thoughts, but nothing could have prepared me for seeing her in person. She was an angel.

I breathed her name and her golden eyes snapped to mine. Then she was walking towards me, her expression uncertain. Her eyes searched mine for I did not know what. The only thought I could discern from her mind was my name. She was repeating it as a mantra.

Then everything changed. Bella's eyes snapped from me to Esme when she choked a small sob, and then they passed onto Carlisle. And then, all hell broke loose.

She ran forward her arms outstretched. I thought it was to embrace me, but I was wrong. With speed I was not sure I could match myself, she launched herself at Carlisle and tackled him to the ground.

I heard her intent a split second before she acted and I called out to her, but I was too late. Her teeth sank into Carlisle's throat like a knife through butter. Carlisle's look of astonishment turned to pain as she wrenched her head back and spat a chunk of his flesh onto the ground.

Esme was screaming, and Emmett bellowing, but it was all white noise to me. All I could focus on was Bella's thoughts and they were terrifying.

I will kill him!

Jasper looped his arms around Bella's waist and dragged her off of Carlisle. She struggled against him, snarling and snapping her teeth. She almost broke his grip but Emmett came to his aid. I stood frozen in horror, unable to move an inch. This was not how I envisaged our reunion.

Emmett took one of Bella's arms and Jasper the other. She was trapped between them, but she didn't stop struggling for a second. Her eyes were black with fury. She thrust herself forward again and again attempting to get to Carlisle, who was still lying on the floor. Esme was knelt beside him with her hand pressed over the wound on his neck as if to staunch bleeding.

Alice reached for the chunk of flesh Bella had torn out of Carlisle, but Bella kicked it, and it flew away onto the beach. She laughed a cruel laugh as it sailed away and thrust herself forward once more.

"Edward, help us!" Jasper grunted as Bella fought against his grip. I could see small hairline cracks forming at her shoulders, and it was that not Jasper's words that snapped me out of my stupor.

"Let her go!" I snarled at them.

"Not a chance," Emmett said through gritted teeth. "She'll kill him."

"You're hurting her!"

"And she hurt Carlisle," Rosalie said scathingly.

I would have liked to have struck her, but both of my mothers had raised me better than that. Instead, I punched her husband on the jaw. He rocked back and released Bella who screamed triumphantly and surged forward. Jasper's grip was not enough to hold her; she broke free of him and leapt at Carlisle once again.

I stepped in her path, and she hit me with the force of a wrecking ball. Instead of fighting me, she yanked my arm and pulled me behind her and then dropped into to a crouch. She was defending me!

"Grab her, Edward!" Jasper ordered coming forward.

Bella snapped her teeth and missed his reaching hand by mere millimeters.

"What is she doing?"

"What has happened to her?"

"Why would she do this?"

"I thought you said she wanted Carlisle to kill her, not the other way round."

The questions were being thrown at me, and I could make sense of nothing. Their thoughts were chaotic and the one voice I wanted to hear was lost in the confusion.

Bella reached a hand behind her and pulled me flush against her back.

"Shut up!" I bellowed and everyone fell silent, everyone except Bella. She was still growling a low continuous growl deep in her throat. I had never heard something so animalistic or so shocking.

"Edward, what is happening?" Carlisle asked, brushing off Esme's restraining hands and getting to his feet. "What is she thinking?"

I concentrated on blocking out all minds but hers. He hurt him. I will kill him. My Edward. Evil man. She was cycling between my face and Carlisle's, and I finally understood.

"She thinks you hurt me, Carlisle."

He looked horrified and stepped back automatically. Which was good, as Bella had dropped a little lower as if preparing to spring at him at any moment.

"Everyone, calm down," Alice said. "Jasper, Emmett, step away from her slowly."

Jasper and Emmett obeyed unthinkingly. They stepped back to stand against the door to the house beside Alice.

"That's good," she said softly. "See, Bella, they aren't going to hurt you."

Her words did not reach Bella. She remained taut against me, ready to spring at any moment.

Carlisle and Esme edged away slowly until they were standing at the door too.

Not enough! Bella thought. They can still come.

"It's not enough," I said. "She's still scared. You need to go further away."

"Sure, we'll just pop across to Rio shall we?" Rosalie said scathingly.

"Not now, Rose," I said impatiently. There was a time and a place for her to have her little bitch fits but this was not it. Bella was scared and ready to attack them at any moment with the least provocation. They needed to get away from here. Rio was in fact the perfect place.

"Bella, tell us what you need," Alice said softly.

Bella shook her head jerkily. She was still too caught in her rage to answer coherently. All her focus was directed to protecting me. It was the most bizarre reversal of roles. This time she was the protector, although she was protecting me from the wrong people.

"Bella, love, calm down," I whispered in her ear. "We're safe now. No one is going to hurt us. They would never hurt us."

She snarled. Hurt him.

Esme looked at me imploringly. What do we do?

"You need to leave," I said. "She thinks she is protecting me. I can't calm her down until we are alone."

"We can't leave you with her," Jasper said reasonably. "She isn't sane. She could kill you."

Bella snarled at him, and he looked back with stony faced determination. He was a brave man, my brother, but bravery was not needed here. I just needed to be alone with my Bella.

"At least go into the house," I said. "If you are out of sight, she may relax a little."

Alice nodded her agreement. "He's right. We need to give them space. Edward will be fine with Bella."

"Have you seen this?" Carlisle asked.

"No, it's just a feeling I have."

Rosalie sneered. "You are willing to trust your brother's life to a feeling?"

"No, I am willing to trust my brother's life to his mate," Alice said stonily.

"Enough of this!" I snapped. "Get inside the house. Now."

Alice was the first to go. She opened the door and slipped inside. After giving Bella and I a disdainful look, Rosalie followed, and then Esme, Emmett, and Jasper. Carlisle was the last to leave, and he seemed reluctant to go.

Are you sure about this, Son? he asked.

I nodded. "It's my Bella." That was explanation enough. Bella could never hurt me anymore than I could her. She was protecting me.

Carlisle slipped into the house and the door snapped closed.

Bella remained crouched in front of me for a minute longer and then she straightened and turned to me.

Her small hands cupped my face, and her eyes raked my face. She traced the shadows of my eyes and the hollows of my cheeks with one finger, and I understood. I looked—to use Carlisle's words—terrible. She thought that Carlisle had done this to me.

"I'm thirsty, Bella. That's all. No one has hurt me."

Thirsty.

She considered the word for a moment. First she thought of the water of the ocean and then she discounted that idea, and then she thought of the stream she could hear bubbling away close by, then she discounted that idea too. Finally a connection was made in her mind, and I saw an image of a jaguar flash through her mind.

She yanked on my hand and we began running. I tried to keep pace with her as we ran, but she was fast. Soon I was tugging against her hold on me. She ground to a halt and looked at me with confusion.

"You're too fast, Bella," I said. "I can't keep up."

A vision of me slung over her shoulder flashed through her mind, but thankfully she didn't act upon it. She looked back towards the house fretfully and set off at a fast trot, pulling me along with her.

I wondered if she would run until we reached the north shore of the island. It would probably be a good thing if she did. We could swim back to the mainland and lose ourselves in the forest bordering the city. That would put enough distance between us and the family. Though I knew they would worry, they were not my main concern, Bella was.

Bella seemed to be searching for something. I listened to her thoughts, but they were still chaotic with her overpowering need to protect me. An image of a cave came to the forefront of her mind; I assumed it was the one she had taken refuge in when she was in the jungle. There were no caves on the island, but there was something similar.

Perhaps the roar of the water drew her there, or some vestige of survival instinct, whatever it was we were soon headed towards the one place she could possibly feel safe: The waterfall at the lake. Behind the falls was a small cavern accessible only through a steep rock face.

Bella slowed our pace as we approached the lake and stared longingly at the falls, where the cavern was barely visible through the rush of water.

Can he swim?

I would have laughed if the situation was less dire. Of course I could swim. I was a vampire, steeped with supernatural abilities. It wasn't as if I could drown.

"We don't need to swim, Bella." I tugged on her hand and led her to the rocky face that flanked the cavern. She allowed me to lead her, though she kept a firm grip on my hand.

I jumped onto the first rock and pulled her up beside me. The path was clear to her now, and she began to lead me again. We moved swiftly across the rocks and jumped down into the cavern. The roar of the water pounding the rocks was too loud in my ears, but Bella didn't seem to notice. She seemed more at ease here than I had seen her thus far.

She led me to the far wall of the cavern and pushed against me. I didn't understand what she wanted. She swept my feet out from under me sending me sprawling to the floor. I huffed a laugh at the obscurity of the scene. Bella, my fragile Bella, had just knocked me on my ass. It was not a little ironic. I was glad Emmett and Jasper weren't here to witness it.

Will he stay?

It hurt me that she thought I would leave her. I would not, could not, leave her again.

"I'll stay, Bella. I promise." I forced as much emotion into my tone as I could. I needed her to believe me.

She was unexpectedly accepting. She patted my shoulder the way you would an obedient pet, and then she began scaling the rocks out of the cavern again.

"Where are you going?" I asked, jumping to my feet. I was afraid she was going to make a second attempt at killing Carlisle now I was somewhere she deemed safe.

She looked back at me, and I saw the gold returning to her onyx eyes. Hunting.

"You can't hurt him, Bella," I said fervently, though it was not that long ago that I had been attempting to throw him off a cliff.

Carlisle's face appeared in her mind, and she shook her head. Thirsty.

Of course she would be thirsty. I didn't know how and when she had last hunted, but her eyes were still dark. After that little episode, she would have spent whatever reserves she had.

"You're going to hunt?" I confirmed.

Hunt. Another flash of a jaguar flitted through her mind.

She was going to be disappointed if she thought she was going to find a jaguar on the island. There wasn't much wildlife here and little of it was appetizing. The best she could hope for was a tapir or perhaps one of the marsh deer Carlisle once shipped over in hopes of creating a breeding program for the endangered animal.

"I'll come with you," I said, getting to my feet.

She shoved against me sending me sprawling to the floor again. This was becoming a little embarrassing.

Has to stay!

"If I stay, do you promise not to hurt anyone?" I asked.

She nodded impatiently; I was frustrating her with my delays.

"Fine, I'll wait here and you go hunt." As little as I wanted to be apart from her, I had to let her control this situation. She was running on instinct, and she could leave me behind as easily as she had the family if the fancy took her. She would never hurt me physically, but emotionally was another matter.

She nodded in approval and scaled the rocks and disappeared out of sight.

I sat back against the wall of the cavern and pulled my knees up to my chest.

The first sound that presaged her return was doleful bleating and the sound of a rapid heartbeat. I leapt to my feet and jumped onto the rocks that led to our cavern. She appeared a moment later with a marsh deer slung over her shoulder.

She frowned when she saw me, and her thoughts lingered over my promise to stay. Apparently she had meant it in the literal sense. Eager to please her, I went back into the cavern and settled myself on the rocky floor again. She moved nimbly over the rocks, despite her burden, and into the cavern.

With a satisfied smile, she snapped the neck of the deer and dropped it down beside me. I looked from her to the dead deer with utmost confusion. She huffed impatiently and kicked the deer so its limp head nudged against my leg.

Thirsty.

I was. The scent of the deer, though unappetizing, was making my throat burn. I knew better than to take another vampire's kill though.

She seemed to growing more and more frustrated with me. She nudged the deer again and looked at me expectantly. I wished I knew what she wanted. I would do anything to please her if only I knew what to do.

Thirsty! The thought was accompanied by an image of me with my teeth embedded in the throat of the deer.

That was what she wanted. She wasn't hunting for herself; she was hunting for me. No one had ever done this for me before—I would never have let them—but it was Bella and I would do anything to make her happy. She was taking care of me the only way she knew how, and I was overwhelmed with love for her.

"You want me to feed?" I wanted to be sure before I took the kill.

She nodded enthusiastically.

My thirst was growing greater by the second, demanding to be sated. I lowered my head and sank my teeth into the throat of the deer. Fur and flesh parted before my teeth and rich earthly blood filled my mouth. I gulped it down, feeling it soothe the burn.

Bella knelt beside me. I was aware of her close proximity, but rather than making me defensive of my meal as was usual, I was comforted by her presence. She reached out and ran her fingers through my hair. The sensation was exquisite.

When the deer was drained completely, I pushed it away from me and raised my head. She was smiling at me and her thoughts were filled with satisfaction. I saw through her eyes that my eyes had returned to deep honeyed gold. I would need to feed more to return them to their lightest, but if I was to feed more at that time I feared I would burst.

"Thank you, Bella."

I hoped my thanks would draw her to speak, but I was disappointed. She merely nodded and continued her tactile assault on my hair. I relaxed into her touch. My eyes wanted to slip closed, but I refused to waste any chance to look upon her. She was a miracle.

I found with my thirst sated I was able to think a little more clearly, and my immediate situation was brought home to me. I was figuratively trapped here. The only way to keep Carlisle safe from Bella was to remain here with her. It was not an unpleasant prospect—as long as I had my Bella with me I could be happy anywhere—but I knew the family would be worried.

They were not my concern in that moment however. The woman running her hands through my hair was.

Thanks for reading. As always, if you would like a teaser of the next chapter, let me know in a review or a PM.

Simaril x