Do I even need to mention the awesome beta skills of SarcasticBimbo?

My beautiful and delicate Lotus flower ensured that the chapter is perfect before giving me the green light to post.

Chapter XVII: Narrow Escape

James POV

FUCK!

I sprint away from the scene of flesh tearing, maneuvering between the thick tree trunks, trying to escape.

I hiss at the pain in my shoulder and face where Edward bit a piece of my flesh out and then scratched at the wound.

I hear the sound of light footsteps following me.

I growl in annoyance.

I immediately turn east trying to throw them off. Using the trees to my advantage, I jump into one and use my momentum to jump from one tree to another.

The footsteps are on either side of me, closing in to trap me.

The next tree I jump on I use both my legs and flip backwards, landing on my feet and running south.

The footsteps behind me falter and stop. I hear a hiss and a curse as they both slide to stop.

This nanosecond gives me the opportunity to gain headway.

Wind blows the scent of a human from ahead of me. My senses sharpen, venom coats my teeth, and my claws lengthen.

Blood.

In the clearing, I see a man sitting in front of a fire.

Oh, look, he's all by himself. Might as well get a snack on the way.

I hiss, taunting my prey to get that adrenaline flowing through his veins.

Upon hearing me, his heart begins to beat wildly.

Ah, there it is; the rushing flow of the blood through his veins excites me.

It's not hot enough.

Yet.

I make myself visible to him, just to nudge that fear up a notch.

The man's face contorts with terror as if he recognizes what I am.

Too bad I can't play with this one. I'll have to make it quick.

I bare my teeth and poise to attack when his heart begins to pound at an alarming rate and a sudden whoosh of a disgusting smell hits me.

It smells like a wet dog.

I almost gag at the smell and hiss as the scent triggers my instincts to attack and kill this thing.

Tremors run through his body as the man gasps and falls to his knees screaming in pain.

A second later, his skin bursts and a black wolf is standing where the human used to be.

It whimpers and yaps as it takes its surroundings.

Upon seeing me, it snarls and pounds its front paw on the ground.

The wind blows the wolf's scent at me. Its stench is more concentrated and intensified.

I hiss at it.

Kill it, kill it now.

The wolf howls, then suddenly charges baring its long, sharp teeth.

Its attack is predictable as it aims to lunge for my neck.

When it's a few inches away from me, I claw at its face, the force of my blow causing the disgusting animal to slam against a tree.

I hear its ribs breaking and it whines in pain.

"You're dead," I say, smiling at it.

The giant black wolf shakes himself, and I can hear the broken bones of his ribs shifting against each other, but instead of falling to the ground, or running away from me, he gets up and starts running toward me at a speed as fast as a vampire's.

There is no fear in his eyes, and the adrenaline I smelled in his blood before is gone.

I quickly evaluate my course of action. I have two vampires chasing behind me, and a giant wolf that used to be human in front of me. I can't go back, and I can't go forward.

Tear its throat out, now!

The wolf's already injured and the odds of me killing it are better. I run toward him and try to find a weak spot to exploit. I know there were some broken ribs, but he doesn't seem to be bothered by them.

I use both of my hands to try to rip his throat out, but he turns his head and uses his teeth to tear into my shoulder, and I hiss in pain. The claws on his front right paw tear into my leg as he tries to gnaw my arm off.

I get my shoulder out of his mouth, bring both my hands together and club him over the head. When he falls I dig into the fur at his throat and start to gouge into the flesh there. My hands are covered with his foul-smelling blood when I tear open his throat. The satisfying sound of flesh tearing and the wolf howling in pain fills me with euphoria. As I tear out the muscled flesh, I, simultaneously, stomp as hard as I can on his right front leg.

I pant and laugh knowing that I'm seconds away from killing this mutt.

Suddenly, I'm slammed into from behind and I lose my grip on the giant dog's throat. I find myself on my back with the giant vampire from before holding me down and roar at the pain from him tearing into my injured shoulder with his claws. The blond one is standing behind the giant, watching the wolf intently.

The wolf begins to howl and starts to limp toward me, licking his chops. I notice his wounds healing at quickly before my eyes.

The wolf's advance distracts the behemoth and I manage to bring my legs up and kick him off of me. I flip up and run as far away from them as fast as I can possibly go.

~E&I~

I punch the nearest rock causing it to split in half.

I'm usually satisfied by the sound of a rock being shattered, but right now nothing can get rid of this, this fury.

No! I did not almost lose my life at the hands of those vampires.

I didn't, for the first time, flee for my life like a coward.

You're weak, you let your fear almost kill you.

I'm not weak.

You are, you lost!

No, no, no, no, NO!

"AAAAAARRGH!"

I uproot a tree and throw it at another.

I need to bite, to tear.

I need to kill.

No, you need to avenge; to tear them to pieces and burn their ashes. First, you have to instill fear in them.

The one covered with scars killed Victoria, tore her head off with his teeth. The subsequent distraction cost Laurent his life at the hands of the giant one.

How did the blond one do it? Victoria's gift of evasion should have helped her escape.

Her skill was a valuable asset to me, but she turned out to be useless against a fight, just like Laurent. No matter, I don't need weaklings in my coven.

What was that wolf anyway? I've never come across anything like that one before. The one I hunted across Europe, decades ago, was larger and had anthropomorphic features, like longer limbs and clawed fingers instead of paws.

After I kill those vampires, he'll be fun to hunt. Now that I have smelled that disgusting odor, I store his scent in my mind, my senses immediately attuning to it. The familiar energy flows into my body like a swirling rope, then extends outward, like a compass needle pointing to due north.

As for those vampires, they will pay dearly. All of them.

I can't lose, I never lose. And I won't allow them to get away with this.

If it weren't for that human fainting, I would've been dead by now. I have to kill her, she's an essential piece in the game now.

I would've preferred to enjoy the taste of her sweet-smelling blood, but that will be too easy. Easy for Edward, so I'll just have to torture her and make him watch as his mate screams in agony.

She smells almost as divine as little Alice; the one that got away.

I need a plan.

I have the perfect one.

This will be my most challenging game yet.

Let the games begin.

Yeah, so that's James. He was fun to write, lol! That says a lot…

And now y'all know what happened. :3

*runs to hide after leaving another cliffie*

SB here: You didn't leave another cliffie, you just didn't resolve the cliffie from last chapter. There's a difference. LOL

Snow: Whatever, they still don't know what's going to happen. MWAHAHAHAH!

SB: OOH! Your evil laugh is scary...not.

Snow: That still doesn't refute my claim :P Hey! I have a reputation to uphold! Don't ruin it! And it IS scary! Ask Lotus.

SB: Whatever...James.

Snow: James is a sore loser. I'm like Aro, evil but still have legions of vamps obeying me. *wiggles eyebrows*

SB: Sorry to bust in on your author note, but I had to correct your egregious error regarding the cliffie. It's what I do.

Snow: Just can't rein it in, can you? :P tsk tsk. I know I love working with you for a reason :v

SB: I can't rein it in. My imaginary red pen is always full of ink.

Snow: Clearly :P :D :*

Okay, show's over, folks, go back to doing whatever y'all were doing.