I do not own Twilight or any of its' characters

BPOV

Chapter 48

Lazarus

"Bella! Bella! What happened? Where's Edward?" I felt a familiar coolness on my face and hands and heard a husky voice in my ear.

I opened my eyes and saw Tanya beside me, trying to pull whatever lucid phrase she could from me. It took me a moment to register what was happening around me; she stared questioningly at me with her mesmerizing gold eyes. "Edward's dead," I sobbed shrilly.

"What?" She asked, her eyes wide with fear.

I stood up and grabbed her shirt and pulled her to the window and pointed at his body piled on the floor in the empty room. Without even seeing her move, she took one fist and tapped the glass and it shattered everywhere. A new energy overcame me as I desperately scrambled up over the wall and through the now gaping window. I hadn't even noticed that I had sliced open my hands on the broken glass as I entered into the dank room and rushed over to him, Tanya followed close behind.

She grabbed the sides of his face roughly and shook him, "Edward! Edward! Edward Cullen open your eyes now! Look at me damn it!" Tanya's voice cracked as she said his name again. He didn't open his eyes, but we both heard a shallow, tiny breath, that seemed to snap Tanya out of her desperation.

"He's still alive, he still has a heartbeat, he has a severe arrhythmia, but it's there!"

I remembered the syringe in my boot, and how Alice said that I would know precisely when to use it. It occurred to me at that moment what was in the syringe, it was cold and silver and dangerous to humans, suddenly it all made sense. Alice had given me a syringe of venom to use on him. I pulled it out and screwed the needle back on and showed it to Tanya.

"Where did you get that?" She hissed, apparently, she knew what it was too.

"Alice." I answered. She stared at me skeptically, "I swear, it's from Alice," I assured her.

She nodded at me, "you need to get it right into his heart, that's the only way this will work, do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Stab him as hard as you can, even if you need to break his sternum," She implored.

"Okay." I said squeamishly raising the syringe over his chest. I uncapped the needle and poised the syringe directly over his heart and then slammed it into him. The impact of the needle and the negative pressure in his chest caused the plunger to drop drastically and I thought I heard a crunch when it made contact. I had broken something on him.

I didn't know what I had expected to happen at that moment. I certainly didn't expect him to hop up and recite the Declaration of Independence, but I thought something significant would happen. All I could think of was the scene in Pulp Fiction when Uma Thurman's character gets the epinephrine injection and wakes up gasping. Tanya and I watched carefully for several moments, and nothing happened. Then, we noticed Edward's chest moving up and down, first slowly, then at a normal pace and then it began heaving, like he was in pain. His eyes snapped open and his breaths were quick and shallow, like he was hyperventilating. He saw the empty syringe, still sticking in his chest and he pulled it out, looking at me horrified.

"What is happening?" He whispered between breaths.

"I don't know." I answered, sitting up on my knees close to him.

His chest pumped hard and he closed his eyes tightly, tears squeezing out from the corners, he lay down on his side and wrapped his arms around his chest. I felt like this was a prelude to something that was just about to become much more unpleasant.

Edward's back arched sharply almost into a letter C and he cried out in pain. His body became rigid and he resembled somebody about to have a seizure. He whimpered and more tears rolled out of his eyes, he clenched his jaw and began to shake and then it seemed like all of the pain was gone.

As I began to feel relieved for him, it seemed like Tanya grew tenser. "It's not working," she whispered.

"What?! What do we do?" I asked helplessly as Edward moaned beside me.

"I don't know." She said shaking her head slowly and biting her lip. Then she suddenly looked like she had an epiphany, "blood," she whispered, "he needs blood, he's lost too much, he needs more blood to carry the venom."

I stared at her in horror as I realized what needed to be done. I glanced over at Edward and he tried to sit up, "Tanya, don't…" he gasped lowly.

His reaction seemed to give her further clearance to speak; she looked at me and grabbed my arm, "he needs blood Bella, human blood."

"Tanya!" Edward snarled weakly from the floor, "Bella, don't, don't listen to her."

My eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. I made my decision and sprang up from where I was crouching on the floor and grabbed a shard of broken glass. Before anything else could be said, I pulled up my sleeve and did all I could to stop my hands from shaking. I glanced over at Tanya and she nodded at me, "you're safe, I won't let anything happen to you." Edward let out another growl in the corner.

I couldn't feel anything as I pulled the shard of glass along my pale skin, a thin red line appeared instantaneously and the blood began to drip down my arm onto my boots. I bent down beside Edward and he weakly pushed himself away from me.

"Don't do this," he said between gasps.

"Edward please!" I shouted at him, my voice trembled; the blood was making a spattering sound as it hit the ground, and I was starting to feel dizzy. "I won't spend the rest of my life without you." I whispered. Then, I scooted up next to him and grabbed his damp, sweaty head roughly, and pulled his face toward my wrist.

Tanya came up behind him and steadied him and he had no choice but to drink. His hands shook violently and were clammy with sweat and dried blood that had leaked from his catheter site. He slowly curled them around my arm and closed his eyes. I felt his mouth open slightly and within moments, I felt his tongue lapping at the wound. He groaned and I could feel his frail grip on my arm tighten and become more forceful, it was working, he was getting stronger. He sat up a little straighter and rose to his knees, his mouth moved hard against me and he groaned again with pleasure. I started to feel lightheaded, and as he grew stronger, I began growing weaker. I started to lose my balance and I felt him snake his arm around my waist and pull me forcefully against him. My wrist began to throb and my head grew heavy.

"Edward stop, Edward! You're hurting her; she's going to lose consciousness!" Tanya said firmly, Edward growled at her under his breath, like a dog protecting its' food. "Edward, enough!" Tanya shouted at him. I opened my mouth to speak when suddenly, he stopped and let go of me and I fell off of him.

"Bella, back away from him now!" Tanya warned and I stumbled away backwards on my knees until I was nearly flush with the wall. Immediately, she grabbed him roughly around the chest in an attempt to hold him still. I watched him squirm against her and heard her growl in response at him. He looked frenzied and wild for a moment and I knew for sure he was going to come after me. I held my wrist so tightly that I thought I would break it. Whatever remained of my blood squished out of the wound stubbornly and dripped down my elbow. Edward stared at the drip lines longingly for a brief second and then composed himself. He shrugged Tanya off of him, and became very still.

The way he was positioned, I couldn't see the front of him, just his profile, and I saw the side of his face as he swirled the last of my blood around in his mouth with his tongue savoring it. It was slow and sensuous, and horrific at the same time. It sent chills through me to watch him, the pleasure and gratification on his face was unmistakable. I was afraid of Edward Cullen for the first time in my life. He reached up and knotted his hand in his hair and groaned carnally, dropping his head back. It looked like he was coming down off of some kind of high, no, something more powerful than that; something orgasmic. I gasped out loud and he glanced over at me, as I gripped my wrist fearfully. The look of pleasure that had been on his face was replaced by shame. He dropped his eyes away from me and looked at the floor.

Then the pain came again, he clutched his stomach and fell back onto the floor, writhing. Tanya hurried over to me and held me, wrapping my wrist in a piece of cloth she had torn from her shirt. She pulled me as far back against the wall as she could, hovering over me in a crouch. The sounds that came from Edward were unbearable to hear as his transformation became more complete, Tanya clamped her hands over my ears, like a protective parent would. Edward would sit up and fall again over and over, clawing at the floor or the wall. I remembered the way my wrist had burned that night James had attacked me and how desperate I was to make the pain stop. That must have only been a fraction of what Edward was feeling right now. I wondered how long it would last.

Tanya whispered soothing things in my ears about how it was working and he'd be alright, but her voice was tempered with anxiety, I wondered if she was afraid that he would go after me, like I was. And then I wondered if he did, if she would be able to stop him.

It seemed like we had watched him for hours, and then finally it stopped and Edward was still. He was hunched over on his knees, when he had become quiet. I saw him breathe deeply, his back to me, and then spit out a stream of bloody saliva onto the floor. He rose slowly and turned to look at us. His shirt was torn and stained with blood, mine and his, his skin was white and smooth and I gasped out loud as the purple bruises on his arms began to fade before our eyes. Even though the bruises were gone his bare forearms were soiled with dried blood and hard looking. Everything about him was hard looking, Edward the human had died and Edward the vampire had risen again. He stared at me sadly as I peered up at him from the floor, his kind, warm green eyes were gone, and in their place were unnatural, liquid crimson ones. The expression on my face must have been startled or fearful because he whipped his head away from me and shut his eyes tightly.

"Who did this?" Tanya asked darkly, changing her focus now that we were all safe.

"Does it matter?" Edward whispered tightly, his voice now lacking all of the smooth, velvety texture it normally had.

"Gordon Scott did." I said firmly.

"Scott? Eleazar and Kate will find him; chances are they may have already." Tanya said standing up.

"Not if I find him first," Edward growled. He turned and walked toward the broken window, the shattered glass crunching under his feet. I stood up shakily and leaned against the wall, I didn't know what to say to him, I wondered if he would be the same ever again. As he walked toward the window, he reached out his hand and brushed his fingertips against my cheek when he passed me, still unable to look at me. "Stay here please," he whispered roughly, climbing out of the window, Tanya close behind.

I was suddenly overwhelmed with emotion as I watched him disappear down the hallway; his once familiar human movements had become abnormally infallible and feline. And then I burst into tears, overjoyed that he was alive, but distraught over what would happen next. I had done it, I had played my part and Edward was safe but I wondered what kind of toll this would take on him mentally. I heard nothing for several moments, I wondered what was happening. Suddenly I heard a bloodcurdling scream, a man's scream, I wondered if it was Gordon Scott and secretly hoped it was. Within moments, Tanya was beside me again.

"Edward wants me to take you home," she said in an irritated tone.

"Is he alright?" I asked weakly.

"As alright as Edward can be I suppose." She said rolling her eyes, "I can't believe that I'm being excluded from a fight, even after all I've done for him. I certainly hope he appreciates you more than he does me." She grumbled, helping me up. Was this really happening? After all of the calamity and seriousness of what had just gone on, was she really complaining about him? Was she really trying to be funny?

"Well," she sighed, "can you walk?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, confused as she pulled me to my feet. She let go of my waist and I stumbled slightly, I must have looked pale as a ghost.

"No, better not chance it." She muttered, examining me and my awkward gait. Tanya wrapped her arm around me and eased me along, helping me out through the window and into the hallway. I heard another scream from somewhere in the distance. "Damn it," she grumbled, "he seriously owes me for this one."