I do not own Twilight or any of its' characters

BPOV

Chapter 46

Run

It felt wonderful being beside Edward on the couch, we just sat affectionately side by side, talking about Forks and our families, it felt like we had all the time in the world. There was an ease and appreciation radiating off of him as the hours went by, an ease that I had not seen in his pretty green eyes for months. There wasn't a moment that passed where some part of him was touching me in some loving way. I almost didn't want to go back home to Forks, I couldn't bear the thought of being separated from him, but not in the needy, childish way I had once before when we had first met. He was my family now, he was my support system and I was his, we were home to each other and it became more certain to me that the bond between us was extraordinary. Edward was my sanctuary and I was his.

The time was nearing ten o'clock and I was beginning to get sleepy, Edward was lying back against the couch and I had my back against him and his arms around me. I listened to his slow breaths and I knew he was starting to doze off, I wasn't far behind him. My eyelids grew heavy and my head jerked as I tried to stay awake, but I couldn't fight it any longer.

Something woke me up. Something unsettling, like I was being watched, I opened my eyes and saw Topaz sitting on the arm of the couch, staring at me. I gasped out loud, startled by his presence, then I felt that Edward was behind me, no longer holding me, and no longer in a reclined position.

"Topaz," I heard him whisper uncertainly.

Topaz stared at us, and then without warning, I heard a low rumble in his throat followed by a growl and a long hiss. His tail puffed up to twice its' size and his hackles stood up on end. I sat up quickly, frightened by him, he glanced at me one more time, his pupils wide with intuition and then Topaz leapt off the couch and ran away.

"Bella, get up," Edward said quickly, his voice rising in alarm.

I jumped off of him and whirled around, he was already off the couch. "What's the matter?!" I hissed at him.

"We need to get out of here, now." He said moving across the room quickly and putting his shoes on.

"What?!" I cried, "What's going on?"

"No time to explain," he said throwing my jacket at me. "We're running out of time."

"Edward! What is going on?" I asked shrilly.

He stopped what he was doing and strode over to me, he placed his hands on either side of my face and spoke rapidly, his face was fearful and distraught. "Bella, we need to leave because someone is coming, someone is almost here. Someone who wants to hurt me. I'm not sure exactly why, but, they are nearly here, and we need to get away. Get your coat and your shoes on; we don't have much time left."

My chest tightened in fear, why hadn't Alice called? Surely she would have seen this. I hastily threw on my sneakers and coat, trying to think as I did so. I hopped around the room wedging my untied sneaker onto my foot, nearly falling over in the process. What could I do? How could I prepare for this? I needed some kind of control, I needed to think, I needed…the syringe. The syringe that Alice had given me months ago, in case I needed it she had said, this must be what she meant. I knew exactly where it was, I had to grab it before it was too late.

"Bella, come on!" Edward urged, drawing out the words slightly for emphasis.

"Hold on, I need to get something upstairs!" I blurted out. Edward was incredulous, "it's important." I pleaded. He gestured at me to go.

I flew up the stairs, and skidded down the hallway into the bedroom. I had hidden the syringe at the bottom of a trunk that contained some old photo albums I had brought with me. I rifled through it, finally reaching the bottom and finding the syringe. It was still freezing to the touch and still had its' mesmerizing opal quality to it. I would need to keep it on my person somehow without it being detected. I looked down at my feet and wished I had a pair of boots. Then I remembered that I had a pair of doc martins that I wore in the cold weather. I ripped my sneakers off and threw the boots on, lacing them up furiously. I took the needle off the syringe and stuffed it into my pocket and slipped the syringe into my boot, tightening the laces to the point of cutting off my circulation.

I headed back out the bedroom door, passing the bed on the way. On top of the mattress, lay Edward's cell phone. It was on vibrate, 20 missed calls, Alice. So she did try to call. I grabbed the phone and shut it off and shoved it into my other boot. It couldn't hurt to have right? I ran back down the stairs, Edward waited nervously for me; I'd never seen him so unbalanced.

We dashed toward the kitchen and the garage door, then Edward stopped, "they're here. They're blocking the garage," he whispered. He took a deep breath and turned to me, "we need to go on foot."

I said nothing to him; I just nodded as bravely as I could.

He placed his hands on either side of my shoulders and said very seriously, staring hard at me, "Bella, whatever you do, stay ahead of me. Stay in my view at all times, and if something happens to me, you need to get away. You need to run as fast as you can and get away and get to Denali. Do you understand?" He was barely holding himself together, his hands trembled slightly against my shoulders and his beautiful eyes were brimming with tears.

Whoever was coming for Edward, intended to do something permanent and damaging to him, and he knew it. I felt a knot in my throat as I croaked out helplessly, "Edward…" tears were starting to well up in my eyes, as the thought sunk in that I was going to lose him.

"Bella, please…" he said his voice cracking horribly as he stared at me, "it is imperative that you listen to me now, they want me, they don't want you." His voice cracked again pathetically, "you're going to be safe." Tears started to fall from his eyes, "just please, promise me that you'll keep it that way."

I rushed into his arms and clung to him, he hugged me tightly against him and kissed the top of my head, "you are the only thing that has been right in all I've done. You are the good part of me, the brightest, and most meaningful part, please don't let anything happen to that." He choked, "you have made my life worthwhile."

I wanted to tell him so many things, I wanted to tell him how much he meant to me, how much I loved him, admired him, respected him. I needed him, I needed him to know that he was my heartbeat; he was my light and reason. But we had run out of time, now the thoughts I knew he had been hearing were becoming more pronounced, in the form of a knock on our front door. My blood ran cold, I felt like I would vomit from anxiety, but I couldn't let Edward see that. He was falling apart at the seams, if we didn't move both of us would soon be a tearful pile on the floor.

I tried to pull away from him, but he wouldn't let me, finally, he let me go and stared at me sadly. "We should go." I said my voice trembling, fresh tears in my eyes. Edward gave me one more meaningful glance and then all of the color drained from his face and his eyes grew dark, all emotion from his expression gone. He was trying to focus; he nodded slowly at me and then placed his hand on the small of my back, and pushed me toward the back door.

"We'll need to move toward the woods, over the river and down the trail, if we follow it long enough it'll lead us out to a main road." He said briefing me methodically.

I nodded in agreement at him, the queasy, nauseous feeling was creeping its' way into my throat and I swallowed it down. This was going to be extremely dangerous; Alaska in the springtime was no nature walk. Animals were coming out of hibernation, things were thawing, and everything was damp and cold even though the air was mild. But, given our other options, we really had no other option.

The knocking at the front door became louder and we hurried onto the back porch quietly. When we got outside, the air had a sting in it from the rawness all around us. I shuddered and Edward rubbed my arm briskly. He climbed up onto the railing and lapsed into a crouch that I had seen him do a hundred times, for a brief moment, he looked like the predator he used to be as opposed to the prey he was becoming. He carefully leapt down off the railing onto the ground landing silently and beckoned for me to follow. I tried to mimic his crouch the best I could and followed suit as I jumped down off the porch landing with a quiet thud and a grunt.

He smiled crookedly at me and then became very serious again. He was very still and appeared to be listening to something.

"Where are they?" I whispered.

"Close behind, they stopped trying at the door. Someone's in the house now. Come on." He gestured for me to move, "stay ahead of me."

"But how will I know…" I started.

"I will be fine Bella; my concern right now is getting you out of here."

I started to jog ahead of him and he was right at my heels, muttering directions to me as to where to go next. For now, my movements were careful and controlled. Once we got to the middle of the yard, I heard the back door of the house open and Edward's pace pick up.

"Bella move! Run!" he shouted at me and I burst into a sprint.

The cold air snapped and bit at my face, my chest heaved as I ran faster, fresh tears blurring my vision and burning my eyes. My hair whipped behind me and the sound of my heavy, clumsy footfalls pounded in my ears. Edward's footsteps echoed behind mine, but were distinctively softer and more regulated, maybe it was the boots I was wearing.

We finally reached the edge of the forest and I saw lights reflecting off the tree line behind us. Whoever was after us was getting closer, having the unfair advantage of illumination. Edward and I were side by side now, entering the dark woods. We did what we could to dodge rocks and fallen trees, jumping simultaneously like two track runners over all of the undergrowth of the Alaskan wilderness. Tree branches and evergreen caught on my clothes and sliced at my face; I put my head down and threw my arms in front of me to protect myself while Edward continued to run seemingly unaffected by the snags the unfriendly branches greeted him with.

Then our desperate situation threw us another curveball, Edward's ankle that he had been nursing for a month gave out and a sickening fear overcame me as I realized that there was no hope now. He had gone to jump over a tree trunk and landed the wrong way and fell to the ground.

"Edward!" I whispered, hurrying over to him.

He held his knee against his chest, squeezing his leg so tightly that I thought it would fall off. "It's alright," he assured, "I'm fine, keep going, I'll catch up."

"I'm not leaving you here." I said tightly, placing my hands on his leg.

"You need to." He said lowly, placing emphasis on the word need.

"No," I said defiantly, "not without you." I could hear footsteps somewhere around us, but couldn't pinpoint where.

"Bella," he whispered, trying to stand up, "I can't go with you this time." He said trying to steady his shaking voice.

"Let me help you." I demanded, putting my hand out to help him, "I'm stronger than you think."

And then, surprisingly, Edward Cullen, my sworn and loyal protector for so long, put his hand out to let me help him up. Just as he did that, that was when the shot coming in from the left hit him in the ankle.

Edward growled loudly and let his head fall back, seething from the pain.

I gasped out loud and Edward shouted at me, "get out of here now Bella!"

I wanted to stay, but how could I be any help to him dead? I hesitantly got up and backed away.

"Go now! Hurry!"

Tears welled up in my eyes, and I turned and ran, leaving him there. I ran as fast as I could, I would run until my chest exploded, I would run all the way to Denali and I would find him again and I would save him. This wasn't the end, it couldn't be the end, we had overcome so much, how could this be the end? He was my rock, my life, and I was his, we had a future together, we were supposed to live forever together or grow old together, this was not supposed to happen, this was not my destiny, it was not his. If anything, I was the one who always needed rescuing, not Edward. I laughed bitterly to myself as I thought of all the instances in which I had cheated death because of him; my own personal bodyguard. I would find him again, and I would save him, I wasn't going to let all of his efforts and sacrifices and fights to keep me safe be in vain. I owed him so much more than I could give back to him, but I would try.

I was starting to reach a clearing, I could hear rustling around me, probably just an animal, right? Anxiety and fear crept over me, it was so dark, and the forest floor was littered with roots and stones and broken things, my legs were getting heavy, my throat hurt. I was beginning to panic because I was starting to get lost in these woods, the clearing had disappeared and I was confused. I felt like Alice in Wonderland when she trying to get home and the path kept disappearing. I refocused and found my way back to the clearing, I had nearly reached it when I heard a shot and then a stabbing feeling in my hip, I cried out loud and gripped my side, gritting my teeth in anger.

I felt my side, and found no blood, I had assumed that I would either be bleeding everywhere or my hip was fractured, neither option seemed to be the case. I fell to the ground as a woozy feeling came over me, the few sounds that I could hear in the forest were becoming slower and monotone, my head was swimming. I crawled on the forest floor, dragging myself toward the clearing up ahead, everything felt so dense; I realized I had been drugged.

No, I wasn't going to die here, in the dampness and the nothingness. I wasn't going to die without him by my side. I uttered some kind of sound of resistance as I pulled myself along the ground. I was mostly using my arms now, my legs felt like a burden. I dug my fingers into the dirt and dragged myself along toward the clearing, when my hand caught on something leather; a shoe, I was at somebody's feet. I looked up slowly; trying to match up a face, all I saw was a man, with indistinct features as my consciousness left me.

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