Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

BPOV

Edward and Alice had kept the contents of that vision from us, but whatever it was it had galvanized them into taking action. We followed Demetri who was helping us as promised. He said he knew where Felix was, and that his trail was clear. We were taking a risk in trusting him, but his eyes were gold. If they were red I wouldn't go near him. I'm sure there are vampires who have red eyes who aren't all that bad, but I wasn't going to take that risk. Red equals bad. Gold equals good. End of.

Trees sped by as we ran. Edward followed Demetri closely, Carlisle close by. Alice and I ran together next, Jasper and Esme behind us. At the rear were Emmett and Rosalie.

Demetri halted, and us with him, his face upturned to the sky with a glazed look in his eyes.

"He is near," he murmured, "But I cannot find him. Why can I not find him?"

"Where do you think he is?" Carlisle asked.

"Approaching us. If we stay here, then he will come,"

"Alice, will that stop it?" Edward's voice trembled with anxiety.

"Yes…"Alice replied softly, but there was a thread of uncertainty weaving through her words.

"What is it Edward?" I asked not for the first time.

"It's just a future I don't want to happen," was his reply. A reply I had heard numerous times.

"What kind of future?" a booming voice called to us. I knew that voice, and everyone else did too. The owner stalked from the trees, dragging something with him. Next to him glided Victoria, her cat-like grace making him seem inelegant in comparison.

"Would it be a future without Bella?" Felix continued mockingly, "Or is it the one where Bronagh dies?" he threw something towards us, so it was in the middle of the distance between us, but objects don't gasp in pain when they hit the ground.

Bronagh lifted herself up a little to look at us, but her arms collapsed underneath her weight. They were criss-crossed with cuts, much like the ones on my own arms. Growls erupted around me, but I ignored them and hurried towards the human girl.

"Hey Bronagh," I said softly, causing her to look up at me.

"Vampires?" she croaked, "Couldn't you just do drugs like normal people?"

"I'm sorry," I whispered, stroking the hair out of her eyes. Purple bruises decorated her cheeks and neck, her arms a mass of yellow and greenish splotches.

"You could save her you know," Felix told me, "All you have to do is trade places,"

Feral snarls greeted his statement, but I looked up at him with cool eyes and my face carefully blank.

"You'll leave her alone?" I clarified.

"Of course," Victoria replied for him. I took a steadying breath and closed my eyes. Someone had died for my freedom once, and I didn't want it to happen again. I felt Victoria come closer, then staying still when the Cullens hissed at her from behind me. I was still stroking Bronagh's hair, and her breathing was in time to my movements. I opened my eyes to meet hers, and made my choice.

I held out my arm for Victoria, and she pulled me roughly off the ground. Bronagh clasped my ankle tightly and I looked down at her. She was young, human and full of life. I wouldn't be the reason it was taken away from her. In that moment I had an understanding of what Edward went through. He wouldn't change me, because he didn't want to condemn me to a life unchanged by time. I shook my ankle gently and she let go, but Victoria reached down and threw her back into Felix's waiting arms.

A triumphant smile crossed his lips as he bit down and Bronagh cried out in pain.

"Only I said that I would leave her alone," Victoria sneered viscously as black rage embraced me. It crashed over me like the weight of the sea, rolling me in a screaming tempest of anger. It sang along the threads of my shield like lightening on a copper rod. They thrummed with it and they burst like fireworks, the force of it colliding with Felix and Victoria. She crashed into a tree, snapping it in half like a twig, whilst he was wrenched from Bronagh, leaving her gasping on the ground with her blood dripping from the tear in her neck.

I was aware of only Felix, my fury focusing on my target, plunging the rest into darkness. I flexed my shield around him, separating it until it circled his limbs. With a high pitched keening noise they snapped in unnatural places, and Felix screamed in anguish. The sound did not move me, and with each shriek another piece was ripped away. My face was impassive and my eyes cold. I felt nothing for this man. Nothing but unadulterated hatred and a need for vengeance.

"Bella!" Edward's voice pulled me away from the cold place created by my anger, "It's okay! You've done enough, you don't need to tear him apart anymore," his voice was my anchor in the tumult. It calmed me, cleared my sight until I could take what I had done. Edward stood in front of me, his beauty in the forefront of my vision; I had to take a step back to survey the scene around me. If I had not known what he had once been, I would have said that the ground was covered in white stone, not the body parts of a sentient being. I had torn him to shreds beyond any recognition, and I felt nothing.

"Do you have matches?" I asked in an empty voice. He nodded, and I felt a pang of shame that he had to see me like this. I closed the distance between us and buried my face against the crook of his neck, breathing in his unbelievable scent, grounding myself further.

"Sorry," I mumbled against his skin. His arms folded around me, giving me strength.

"If you hadn't done it then I would," he told me quietly. I pulled back and searched his eyes, but they showed nothing but sincerity.

A scream pierced the air and I turned in time to see Emmett and Jasper tossing bits of Victoria onto a pyre. I glanced at the ground around me, but it was clear of body parts, and I realized they must have already burnt. Bronagh writhed on the forest floor, cries and whimpers ripping from her throat. Demetri picked her up tenderly in his arms, his eyes never once leaving her face. It was like a blind man seeing color for the first time, even if that color was in the shades of pain.

We ran from the place of killing, Bronagh screams echoing through the trees.

Originally Bronagh was just going to disappear and not be mentioned. She gives Bella the letter and never appears again. Then I decided to kill her, but she's too stubborn to die so she ends up like this.

Hmmm…I struggled to write the last few chapters, and yet I can write about people being ripped to shreds with ease…I should really stop reading horror books. But I don't want to. Ho hum.

By the way I made a mistake in a previous chapter. Bella was with the Volturi for five years. Not one. Silly me. Sorry about that.

One last thing, promise, is that this is the penultimate chapter! Sooooooooooooooooooooooo if you haven't already go vote on my poll for what you want to read next because it will be closed when I post the last chapter.

Please? With sugar and cherries and icing and cake?