Cullen's Hound
Disclaimer: You already know what I'm going to say.
Ch. 12: Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting
EmPOV
Me, my family and the wolves caught up with Bella right as she leapt, snarling, at three vampires that were on a ledge just above her. The Nomads were a red headed female and two dudes. One dude had greasy blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and the other one had dark hair and looked like a pansy. As soon as my new little sister landed on the ledge, all hell broke loose.
The pansy jumped to the ground and was about to make an escape when Jasper stepped in front of him and shook his head. One look at my brother and another vampire would see just how much of a badass he really was; bite scars covered quite a bit of his body from when he fought with the Newborn Armies in the South. My gaze shifted back to the ledge and I, along with everyone else, discovered there was more than one badass in the family.
It looked like the remaining Nomads had the upper hand because the first couple of milliseconds, Bella acted on pure rage. Then she stopped and the whole fight looked like something out of an old Kung Fu Theatre flick. They were moving at vampire speed but we could see every motion thanks to our enhanced vision. Levi had phased back into his human form and was enthralled like the rest of us.
The chick managed to land a lucky strike and claws Bella's side and Rose entered the fight. With the odds now evened up, I thought everything would end quickly but I was wrong. While Rose knew the basics of fighting, she was definitely not in the same weight class as the other three. As a result, Bella was getting more injuries as she tried to protect her mate and deal with both opponents at the same time.
Rose attempted to attack Red, but the chick dodged as Bella did a twisty-flip thing. The female Nomad's torn off head was in her hands when she landed. The move was so fast that not even my enhanced eyesight had caught it. The male screamed and was about to attack Rose when his nostrils flared. He spun to face us then pounced at my Alice. The greasy fucker was blindsided by me and Jasper. I barely registered Dina's face frozen in a mask of rage and horror as Jazz and me tore the bastard apart.
Levi and Tanya already had the remains of the red head burning so we added the pieces of Greasy to the flames. Carlisle and Rose were both learning over Bella, who had collapsed when the fighting stopped. I could hear about seven heart beats from inside the cave as well whimpers of fear. My family moved Bella back into the trees while the wolves, now human, dealt with the human girls in the cave.
My little sister was in a bad way and needed blood. I ran off and had gotten lucky; there was a grizzly bear not that far away. Normally I liked to have a little fun with bears but Yogi over there was just the over-stuffed picnic basket that Bella needed. I snapped its neck then hauled back to where my family was and dropped the carcass at the Newborn's feet.
DPOV
When Bella had completed her transformation in the space of minutes instead of days, I was shocked. What shocked me more was the fact that I was able to read her mind. The shield that had protected her mind since the moment we met was gone, just for an instant. Through her thoughts I saw exactly how her power worked and it was amazing.
It was like floating in the air while being surrounded by a sphere of thousands of hundreds of video monitors and speakers. I was used to dealing with multiple lines of input thanks to my telepathy but it still took me a minute to get my bearings. Suddenly one monitor in particular became her primary focus. It appeared that a young girl was huddled with six others in a cave, at its mouth were three vampires discussing how they were going to divide up their snacks.
Bella was instantly out of the window with me not far behind. When she landed, I watched as different screens flashed in her mind and she calculated the general direction and distance to the cave. I watched as more screens flashed then her brain took snippets from several screens, as well as speakers, and connect them to become the brunette's sight and hearing. When that happened, her shield went back up but I was on the inside. Somehow, I knew that her shield would not be a problem for me anymore unless she concentrated hard to keep me out.
My new sister and Levi were in the lead as the rest of us rushed after him. There was a moment when I thought about linking my family's minds together but I doubted that they could handle the overload at the moment. By the time we reached the location of the cave, the fight had already started. When the dark haired male tried to escape, my Jasper cut him off. The Nomad had wisely chosen not to try anything else. With him no longer a threat, I linked to Jazz but put up a buffer so we wouldn't distract our sister.
What the… - Jazz
I know, it's amazing. – Me
Definitely, but a bit distracting if you didn't have powers like ours. – Jazz
Baby, link me out because it looks like Blondie is about to go for Alice. – Jazz
I focused on the thoughts of the blonde male and was horrified. The bastard had been hunting Alice when she was human. The last seconds of his existence I learned all I could so I could pass the information on. My attention switched back to Bella, she'd collapsed after the fighting had stopped. My father and Sissy were bent over her trying to assess the damage and comfort the prone girl.
Through my connection with the Newborn, I watched as her power slowly fizzled out until she was deaf and blind again. We moved her back into the woods so the rescued humans wouldn't see her, or us. Bella was in desperate need of blood so Emmett had taken it upon himself to hunt. He came back a few minutes later with a dead grizzly bear over his shoulder, and then dropped it at her feet.
BPOV
I was mentally and physically exhausted from the fight and my injuries hurt like hell. Every time I tried to use my power to connect to my family it felt like my head was going to explode, so after a few attempts I just stopped. The only other thing I felt was a burning in my throat. I'd felt Emmett leave then come back.
There was an impact of something large and dead at my feet. The smell made me instinctively crawl forward. My hand explored the furry form until I reached its face then I recognized the thing as a bear. The burn in my throat became a fire; I weakly lunged at the carcass and my teeth cut through fur and flesh. Hot salty blood pumped into my mouth and I swallowed it down greedily. It cooled the flames to the point where I could push the discomfort into the background of my thoughts.
My mind felt fuzzy, but somehow Dina was now able to read my mind and linked us together with the rest of the family. I started to mentally fade out, soon all the voices were out of my head and I just drifted in the scent and arms of my Rose.
RPOV
I carried Bella back home where it had taken her two days to fully recover. Carlisle theorized that it had taken that long because she hadn't fully completed the Change when her power manifested fully and she felt the need to protect the innocent girls. In her only lucid moment during that time, she weakly attempted to seduce me; it was almost funny.
While Bella healed, Carlisle and I decided to fill in the rest of the family, and Tanya and Levi, about the real cause of her condition. They had been just as pissed off when they learned the truth as the two of us had been. They were equally pissed off at us for not mentioning sooner. We apologized then all of us tried to figure out the best way to explain it to Bella because my mate had the right to know.
It was the general consensus that she should be told as soon as she was fully recovered. The next issue we debated was if the family should move. In the end, it had been considered a wise choice to move as far as possible from the illicit Volturi activity in Seattle. Carlisle suggested we go to Isle Esme, the island he'd bought as an anniversary present for Esme about thirty years ago. After a while, we'd use it as sort of a home port while we traveled the world. Tanya and Levi agreed to bring the rest of the Denali's down for a visit in a couple of months.