Chapter 6
The photos in Captain Masen's profile made the man look attractive, but Bella finds him more so in person. His immediate reaction to Emmett's snark adds to Bella's perceptions of the new leader. Edward Masen is exactly what the team needs. She absently fingers the silver oleander charm hanging around her neck.
An unease fills the Pen as the door shuts behind the Colonel. The meeting is an interruption for the team, who was preparing to do some weapons training. With Edward and Emmett still eye-to-eye, Bella acts.
"Captain Masen, I'm First Lieutenant Bella Swan. Welcome to Gamma Team and Lilim."
Edward finally steps away from Emmett and shakes Bella's hand. She is struck by his warmth; he by her coolness. "I'm glad to be here."
"I'm Specialist Jacob Black."
"You were the bear."
"Yessir," Jacob beams, "I was the bear."
"Okay, Specialist," Edward says, stepping back, "So are you a were-bear or something?"
Jacob laughs. "Call me Jacob, sir. And no."
"So what are you?"
"A shapeshifter."
Sure, he thinks. Makes perfect sense. Like fairies and elves and unicorns. Out of the corner of his eye, Edward catches Bella's smile, which sets him at ease.
"He's really more of an animorph," Bella says. "There are limits to his ability."
"Right," Jacob says. "Only a mammal. And I can't go too small or too big."
"Why is that?"
Still coming to terms with his abilities, Jacob doesn't fully know how to answer the question. He looks at Bella.
"It ties into the physics of his ability," she explains. "There's only so much mass available for his transformation and his mass can only contract so much."
Emmett shakes his head. "Half-baked werewolf."
Jacob laughs. "What Bella said. So, no whales and no mice. But almost anything in between."
"Are werewolves real then?" Edward asks, trying to soak up as much information as possible.
"They are, sir," Alice says, interjecting herself into the conversation. "They're not native to America but fairly common in Europe."
"So, a psychic and a were-anything," Edward says. He still finds the situation hard to believe, but he can't deny what he's already seen. He turns to Bella. "What are you, LT?"
"Please, call me Bella." She wants to hear him say her name.
"Bella, what do you do?"
"I'm a mandurugo."
"A what?"
"She's a vampire," Emmett says.
"Dammit, Emmett." It's a comment Bella has heard him say hundreds of times. He does it to upset her.
"Asian vampire." He sarcastically corrects.
"I'm not a vampire." She stops and composes herself. "At night I turn into a flying creature."
"And..." Emmett prods her to continue.
"The details are in my profile, Captain." Bella typically has little concern about explaining her affliction, but this time feels different. Edward obviously hasn't seen what a mandurugo looks like, or knows the details of the monstrosity. She doesn't want that aspect of her being his first impression of her.
"Fair enough," Edward says. He finally returns his focus to Emmett. "You?"
"Read the profile… Sir."
"I would prefer you tell me."
"I would prefer not."
"Master Sergeant Emmett McCarty is what's known as an addonexus," Bella says before things escalate. Emmett is always surly when meeting team leaders, but last night exacerbated his attitude. "He's an incredibly rare, powerful being with immense healing abilities."
"You're the medic," Edward says.
"I'm far more than a medic."
"Agent Vejo," Bella says, hoping to diffuse the situation by placating Emmett's ego, "Is also an immensely skilled hand-to-hand fighter and one of the oldest members of the Lilim Division."
"Interesting." Edward's eyes narrow as his a clearer assessment of Emmett comes together. "I look forward to sparring with you."
"We don't spar, sir. We fight. And that's not something to look forward to."
"Lilim Division policy enforces full-contact training," Bella clarifies. "It ensures we are accustomed to the full range of our abilities and how to use them under stress. Emmett's healing abilities are something that we take full advantage of."
"By under stress," Edward asks, knowing the answer but feeling a need for clarification, "What do you mean?"
"Shot, maimed, disemboweled" Emmett says.
"Crushed, burned," Jacob adds.
Bella grins. "As long as someone doesn't die, Emmett can heal them."
"I don't like it," Edward finally says after a moment of consideration.
"Why not, sir?" Bella asks, ignoring Emmett's scoff.
"I don't want to weaken you for the field."
"It doesn't weaken us."
"You stabbed him with a sword last night," Emmett says, his volume increasing. "He's fine. If you're going to lead us you need to get use to a whole lot of pain."
A spark of indignation flares in Edward. I can handle anything you things throw at me, he thinks, that doesn't mean I'm going to let you kill each other.
"Edward, trust us," Bella says. Her use of his name catches Edward off-guard. "What we deal with isn't something you've seen."
"If he doesn't believe us, show him," Emmett says to Bella.
"No," Edward says, "I'm not fighting her. My own team."
"This is the best way to show you," Bella says, walking past Edward to a wall locker in the corner. She withdrawals a .45-caliber pistol, far heavier and more powerful than standard military-issue, and a magazine.
"What is wrong with you?" Edward asks. He turns to Alice, "Is this normal?"
Alice nods with a huge smile before joining Jacob off to the side of the room.
"Just try and stop her," Emmett says to Edward. "It shouldn't be too hard for you. She won't even transform for you today."
"No. Alice, get the Colonel."
"I'm sure he is watching, Captain," Alice says.
Bella forces the pistol into Edward's hands. "It's fine. Just give me a second before you try to shoot me."
"The hell?" Edward watches her, dumbfounded, as she does her hair in a ponytail and removes her necklace while putting space between them. If the situation weren't surreal, he would find her confidence undeniably sexy. He pulls back the slide. "It's loaded."
"No shit," Bella says. In an instant, her welcoming face morphs into a scowl as she bounds quickly toward Edward.
She grabs his forearm, wrenching his hand and the gun above them and delivers a brief combo of elbows and knees to his neck and abdomen. After a final uppercut that shakes Edward's chin, she throws his hand back down and jumps away. The sound of the pistol bouncing at his feet covers his surprised panting.
"You're not trying," Emmett says to Bella, who responds with a quick shrug.
"Shoot me," she says to Edward.
He drops his hands and ignores the statement.
Bella shakes her head, before delivering a hard side-kick to Edward's face. The impact elicits loud 'Ooohs' from Jacob and Alice as Edward flies back, his head slamming against the floor.
"You're not impressing me, Edward," Bella says. She wants him to fight. She wants him to fight her. She wants to help him survive.
"Alice may have gotten this guy wrong," Emmett says.
Through the ringing in Edward's head, he hears both statements. Embarrassment and anger fuel a rush of adrenaline that overwhelms the pain. He wants to defend Alice. He wants to prove Emmett wrong. He wants to impress Bella. Standing up, he grabs the weapon.
Bella smiles.
In a single motion, Edward stands and fires at the lunging Bella, missing wide. The sound is louder than he is use to, causing his mind to become lost in the reverberation.
A loud crack follows as Bella punches the gun out of his hand. With fingernails bared, she swings her other hand towards his face.
Anticipating her second strike, Edward leans back and spins his knee hard into Bella's gut. It's like kneeing a pillar, hard and painful.
She throws an elbow to his temple and rakes her nails across his neck.
"Jesus," he says as a burning sting emanates from his neck.
She head-butts him, then delivers a vicious combination of punches and scratches before delivering a front kick that pushes him away. She glances at her fingernails, the warm red of Edward's blood covering the tips. A cruel joke that she can't help pops into her mind, and she flirtatiously sticks a finger against her lips.
"Your blood is delicious."
In pain from her strikes and overwhelmed by her speed, a sudden fear overtakes Edward and the look of hunger in Bella's eyes. I'm fighting a monster, he thinks. He takes a deep breath, forcing the doubt out of his mind, and allows instinct to take over.
He rushes her and they exchange blows and evasions for several minutes, Bella landing two strikes for every one of his. Every time she connects, Edward becomes a little more winded. She brushes off each of his blows with a smile.
"Stop messing around, Bella," Emmett says from the side.
Taking the comment in stride, Bella locks her hands behind Edward's head before raising her leg and pressing her boot hard into Edward's hip. The pressure drives Edward's head down, as her other leg wraps around his neck driving his face to the hard floor. While sitting on his head, she pats his back before standing up.
"That's it?" Emmett asks as Bella walks over.
"I think that's enough."
Edward rolls over, revealing the scratches and bruising that cover his face. A black eye begins to swell. The high ceiling is a blur through teary eyes. It wasn't that he lost, it was how badly he lost. Through the whole thing, it was obvious to him she wasn't trying while he gave everything he had.
"I definitely think he needs more practice at full speed," Jacob says as he and Alice help him up.
"Sorry, Captain," Bella says. "He's right."
"That was easy for you?" Edward asks, thinking of nothing else to say.
Bella nods. "You get to where the pain doesn't bother you. You want to heal him, Emmett?"
"He's not hurt."
"Just let him feel it what it's like," she says.
Emmett scowls and moves toward the heaving Edward. The fight was disappointing. He could tell Bella didn't want to hurt the new team leader. Asking Emmett to heal some superficial scratches were a waste of his abilities, and those wouldn't be wasted.
Standing in front of Edward, Emmett delivers a solid right jab to Edward's chest.
A cracking pain fills Edward's chest at the impact. As his body crumples, he loses all breath. Thick spurts of blood shoot from his lips as he struggles to breath. Heat and tightness well up inside him and his punctured lung fills with fluid. He hears the team shouting.
"Holy shit!"
"Oh my god!"
"Emmett!" Bella's voice, "The fuck is your problem?"
Through tears and shivers Edward watches the stone-faced Emmett, as he kneels beside him. Emmett's eyes darken and cloud into black orbs.
"Now I'll heal him."