AN: I'd like to take this chance to thank twilightHarryPotterFreak for her enthusiasm in the last few chapters!!! She was the one that got these next two chapters posted. i'd thought everyone had lost interest in FALLING STARS, but here she comes, begging me to post. So anyone still following, plz take a leaf from her book and review. even if you absolutely hate the story!!! Let me know what i might be able to do to make it appeal to you! Thank You to all those who do review!!!

anyway, on with the story. This is actually one of the scenes that got me actually thinking about writing Selene into the story. This chapter and the next one were pretty fun to write. I don't think it's my best work (usually that's my first chapter that's the best) but hopefully it'll satisfy you all!!!

REVIEW PLEASE!!!!!!

Story my seem almost down, but wait, there is a lot more to come. Probably estimate another five to eight more chapters. Then it's on to MOONLESS NIGHT!!!! ;-}

Chapter Twenty-Four: Fear Beyond Words

(Selene's POV)

We were five miles above the airport when I caught Alice and Jasper's minds. To my horror, they were frantic.

Without even thinking it through before I acted, I was beside myself with worry.

What the hell is wrong Alice!? I sent.

I couldn't believe they were being so worried, but if that's what they were, something was wrong. Looking quickly over at my brother, seeing that he was still leaning back in his seat, eyes closed and his hands clenched into tight fists, I knew he just wanted to land. His forehead was scrunched in a way that made it apparent there was nothing peaceful about his thoughts. I already knew without looking what his mind was seeing though. I didn't need to look. He was still thinking about the danger Bella was in.

Selene? OH MY GOD! She's gone! Alice was screaming to me. I got a shot of Jasper walking away with Bella, she needing to go to the bathroom. And then, Jasper returning in a rage as Alice had a vision of Bella running out of the airport.

What are you talking about Alice? What do you mean she's gone? It was hard to form the words, even in my mind. How was it possible for two vampires, on guard, to let a human slip away? It wasn't! That's what made it so terrifying, and the fact that James probably had a lot to do with it. Stay there and we'll be there in a few minutes.

I sighed internally. Every one of my already fried nerves was sparking again, no matter how dead I was.

With Bella not in our sights, it changed the whole game. We no longer had the control over the situation. And I had no intentions of telling…

"Selene? What's wrong?" my brother's voice was strained, matching his tense features.

Wondering what I looked like to make him ask me that, I glanced into his mind to see myself through his eyes. To my horror, I was almost a mirror image of his expression. My eyebrows were scrunched tightly, my lips were pursed and fear danced dangerously in my eyes. My hair was a mess from my grasping at it the whole flight, trying to push my telepathy range out further.

Helplessly, I searched for an answer to his question. What was I supposed to tell him? There was nothing he could do until we landed, and if I told him now, somebody on the plane might get hurt. But, then again, if he didn't find out until we landed, he would never forgive me for not telling him. Why was I cursed with the ability to read minds so far away?

"Um…Edward, don't do anything stupid, but Bella is not at the airport." I didn't know how else to say it other than plain and simple. There really was no right way to say something like that. I wasn't going to say Yeah, Edward, by the way, your human girlfriend just took off into Phoenix and we have no idea where she's going. No. I didn't think so.

His face contorted into something far from the human appearance we were supposed to be keeping up. His thoughts all turned red, as did his sight. Bloodlust for the cold throat of James clouded everything.

"Excuse me?" Edward's words came out in a low, dangerous hiss, too low for any human ears to pick up on.

"We need to leave as soon as we step off of the plane," I said calmly, but I couldn't disguise the tight undertone in my words.

My brother didn't ask any more questions, but it was very apparent that he was beyond outraged. His fragile human girlfriend was God knew where in the huge city of Phoenix, with a sadistic vampire looking for her blood. Understandably, it would cause him to be hell bent on getting out of the air, on the ground, and on Bella's trail. I didn't have much experience with protecting one specific human out of love, but I was pretty sure it constituted quite a bit of insanity as well. I was getting my own taste of that insanity as I let the anxiety settle in even more.

Seconds were separating us from getting off the aircraft. Seconds that allowed Bella to get further and further away. Seconds that permitted James to close closer and closer in on Bella. Those mere seconds could be the difference between us finding Bella alive, and finding her drained dry and dead.

Not caring who noticed that we disappeared into thin air, the moment the doors opened, the four of us were off the plane and into the crowded airport terminal. Neither one of us stopped as we dodged invisibly between unsuspecting humans greeting their families and saying good-bye to others. Only when we saw Alice and Jasper waiting at the doors leading outside did we slow down at all. But none of us actually came close to stopping. It was dark outside already and as soon as we came even with my brother and sister, they were running with us, out into the desert air.

We could only follow Bella's scent out to the curb, and then it disappeared, as if she'd gotten into a cab there. Nobody stopped though. We had to keep moving, no matter what. We needed to find Bella and quickly.

Throwing my telepathy out as far as I could, I scourged the city for any hint of James' or even, as unlikely as it was that I would, a taste of Bella's thoughts. It only took seconds to connect James' vague thoughts of torture and the visions from earlier in the day that Alice was now sending me. Silently, we took off in the direction of the ballet studio just a few blocks from Bella's old house. It had been the scene of Alice's visions of failure, but this was the one time I would bet against Alice. We had to make it before James could kill Bella.

We were ten blocks away when I saw Bella enter the studio through the tracker's mind. With Edward in the lead, I showed everyone the scene, and we all picked up the pace to get there before James could carry out the brutally slow (thankful as we were for that fact) torture that inevitably led to Bella's demise.

This was the first time in the very long time that I'd know Edward that I saw him run faster than me. He was fighting every barrier that flew into his physical ability to pick up the speed. I was a block behind him, with the rest of our family two blocks behind me.

I had a feeling we were going to make it before anything more than a broken leg could be inflicted on Bella (I was watching the scene in horror) but then the tracker's mind became spiked with red, with Edward just two streets down from the studio. Every essence of James suddenly revolved around the need to drain Bella. He'd thrown her into some mirrors so hard that they'd shattered into thousands of smaller pieces. But some of the larger shards had stuck into Bella's head and the wounds, of course, had begun to bleed. Edward let out a tortured hiss as he observed the agony emanating from Bella, and the smell of her blood ripped through his throat as it ran through James' thoughts.

A few seconds later, Edward crashed through the doors of the studio and had swept James away from Bella in one swift movement. Bella dropped to the ground where James had been holding her up by the shoulders less than a second before. Edward wasn't able to keep a grip on James long enough before James got a better grip and threw my brother into one of the windows, shattering the glass.

I was still a whole block away, and helpless to help as James dashed back to Bella, and, deliberately staring at a dumbstruck Edward, sunk his sharp venom covered teeth into Bella's soft flesh. Finally, I made it through the doors just in time to watch Edward snarl and fly from the high up windowsill into James, tackling him away from Bella again. The room was filled with feral snarls, and, to my horror, screams originating from Bella. She was on the ground wreathing in overwhelming pain.

Taking one look at my brother, who had eyes wild with outrage and revenge, seeing that he had things under control, I dashed to Bella's side. She was bleeding out at the leg and her blood was everywhere around her, coming mostly from her broken leg and injuries in her head. Without even thinking about it, I shed my tee shirt, leaving me in a cami and my jeans, and pressed it to Bella's head to staunch the flow of her delicious smelling blood.

I felt the wind shift slightly as Alice, Jasper, Carlisle and Emmett entered the studio seconds behind me. Jasper and Emmett went straight to where Edward had James pinned against a mirrored wall and took an arm each, allowing Edward to join Carlisle and myself on the ground next to Bella.

"Tear up the floor boards and start a fire!" I snarled to Emmett and Jasper, as they held James still and allowed Alice to behead James with barely a sound from him. My words had come out as a hiss because of my restraint I had myself under in order not to kill Bella myself.

Alice was next to me the instant James' head had been removed from his body.

"Edward! The fire. Put it out!" Bella screamed. Alice removed her belt, so that Carlisle could use it to stop the flow of blood coming from Bella's leg. Edward smoothed the sweat-plastered hair from her face with his cold hand.

"I know sweet-heart, it'll be gone soon."

I was aghast. My mouth fell open as those words tumbled from his mouth. He'd watched James deliberately dig his teeth into her wrist, and he was going to let the venom spread? I glanced at his thoughts, and saw that that detail had completely slipped his mind.

"My wrist! Edward, my wrist is on fire!" Bella screamed again.

Edward's eyes widened as they fell on the bite marks on her wrist. Carlisle scoffed in disgust as he laid eyes on them too.

"He bit her!" he exclaimed, that same disgust written in every syllable.

I watched Edward silently as he let that sink in. He didn't know what to do.

"No! Bella, no! This can't be happening!" He moaned.

Before I could stop my father, he was speaking.

"There's still a way to stop it." Carlisle was calm, but he was in Dr. Vampire mode now.

"No. It's going to happen. I've seen it," Alice contradicted. I nodded my agreement with my sister. Holding Bella's head still as she thrashed, I still had my blood soaked shirt pressed to her head.

"How?!" Edward snapped.

"Suck it out. Like rattlesnake venom," Carlisle answered. Both Alice and I hissed our disapproval, but both men ignored us.

The fire behind me was reflected in Edward's fear-stricken eyes as he looked up and our father. He was shaking his head.

"I can't. I don't have the restraint."

"You're the only one who can, Son. Alice is controlling Bella's thrashing, Selene is staunching the flow in her head, and I'm controlling the flow in the leg. It's your choice, but you need to decide fast. The venom is spreading quickly."

My brother looked from each of our family members to the other, and then at Bella. My eyes were wide as I waited to see what he would do. I wasn't truly surprised though when he whispered,

"I'll make it go away Bella. I'll make the fire stop."

Then, before he could back down, his lips were pressed to the bite marks where the venom had entered. He sucked and sucked until I could no longer smell the venom coursing through her veins. Edward realized the venom was gone at the same moment, but didn't remove his lips. His eyes became black and frenzied with the unquenched thirst for his personal brand of heroin. He couldn't pull away.

"Edward!" I screeched as warning along side my sister's screeched, "STOP!"

"Son, the blood is clean. You're killing her. You have to stop. Remember who you are," Carlisle was coaching. But other than that, we were damn near helpless to save Bella's life. Only Edward could do that now.