Chapter 14

Two days passed, two eternities, every second felt like a century. We have ended every possibility of understanding what or who Henry was. I was sure he was part of my human life, but I couldn't connect him to any particular event.

I could remember perfectly why I once left her. This is exactly what I was trying to avoid. Once again she was in risk and once again the blame was on me. How selfish could I be? For how long can I keep this going? Can I bear to risk her life time and time again just to keep me sane?

Before my phone could ring I was already picking it up.

"Hello?" Everyone was around me listening to what he had to say

"Eddie boy! How are you?" His amusement triggered the anger inside me.

"Where is she." I growled

"She is fine… for now. I don´t think any of us would want that to change."

"What do you want?"

"Well, you see… I already have what I want."

"You said two days." My fists curled in to balls

"Okay, okay I´m a man of my word. Meet me at her place in 15 minutes. Alone, I must add. If you are late or bring someone with you I can´t guarantee her safety" He hung up

"I´m not sure you should go alone Edward, it might be a trap" Jasper was the first one to say

"I don´t care Jasper, I´m not taking risks with her life. Please understand" And he did, along these two days every one of them had imagined more than once if they were in my situation. They understood the agony.

"We understand son, but we don´t know what we are dealing with here."

"The only thing that needs to be understood is that Bella is in danger." I left the room without saying more. They didn´t follow. None of them would bear to be the guilty if something happened to Bella. None of them could be blamed ,none, but me. I raced to her place as fast as I could. I had memorized what her last encounter with him had done to her, more I remembered faster I ran.

Julie wasn´t home so I rushed myself in. He was not there, there was just her laptop sitting on her bed. I was able to see on the screen that he was standing in a dark room. I could see him very well he had a sadistic smile on his face. It was clear he was enjoying the agony I was going through.

"Where is she?" The only reason I had to keep myself in control was Bella, if anything had happened to her, I would snap. Tracking him would be an issue but as soon as I had my eyes on him he would be dead.

"She is perfectly fine." He promised stepping aside so I could see her. She was in that hypnotic state, staring blank to nowhere.

"What do you want? Why are you doing this?"

"Let´s call it payback." He smiled, a dark smile filled with excitement.

"Payback?" I was confused.

"I knew you wouldn´t remember." He was calm now, all the humor was gone. It was about me then why involve Bella in this.

"I don´t know what I have done, but please leave her out of this, she has nothing to do with whatever happened."

"Oh, but you ARE wrong. She has everything to do with what happened." The smile was there again. What could I have possibly have done to deserve such torture "You know, I always thought you would remember a good friend, even for eternity, but I see I was wrong."

"Friends?" If we were something close to friends why would he do this?

"Yes, at some point we were friends. In fact we were practically raised together." It sunk in, his mother and mine were very close friends, we were raised like brothers. Henry Curtis. I remember the nice boy, always polite, always gentle to everyone. We were best friends until weeks before I turned 17, when he left to join the army. That was as much as I could remember of him

"But why…?"

" Let me refresh your memory. When I left to join the army you were supposed to come along, at least that was the plan wasn't it? After all it was YOUR dream." I could pick up the change in his voice, it was filled with anger and resentment now.

"Yes, but…" He interrupted me

"You can´t imagine what I´ve been through. All that pain… it was a pain full "death"" He laughed with no humor. I felt terrible for what I have done, indeed we planned to go to the army together, but days after he left I was already in this life.

"You died…I know I was supposed to join you but I got sick and not long after I died too. I am truly sorry." I tried to make amends.

"Well. Don't need to worry about apologizing. We will get even now, since you got me into that mess.

"Why bring her into this? I still don´t see where she fits into your revenge plot."

"Well, for a vampire you are kind of slow aren´t you Eddie boy?" He chuckled I growled

"Easy, easy, we don´t want OUR Bella getting hurt, do we?" He moved next to her and put his hand around her neck. I froze.

"Please, tell me what I must do. I´ll do anything." I begged

"Anything?" I nodded in defeat

"Okay, that makes everything easier. I want you to give up." He smiled, like he was asking a simple favor from his best friend.

"That´s out of question." I tensed, I could see where this was going.

"You said anything." He tightened his grip around her neck I could see she was having a hard time breathing I hung my shoulders in defeat.

"See, that wasn´t so hard, after all she is just a human."

"No, she isn't. She is my life." As I said the words I could understand the meaning of his plan, he blamed me for taking his life now he was taking mine. My eyes widened in horror. There was no winning here, he was taking her no matter what I did.

"Finally, that took you a while." He smiled

"I´ll do anything, you don´t need to do that. You can kill me, but leave her alone, she is not the one to be punished for what I have done" I was desperate, I would die a million time for Bella.

"Well, I could…" He paused I felt hope.

"But that wouldn´t be funny" My hope was gone. He wanted suffering and pain.

"Please…." I begged

"Well, time is running out, but don´t worry, Bella will be fine. I will take good care of her, she will finally get what she always wanted." He smiled

"There must be something I can do, please Henry…"

"The only thing you can do is give up. Well, hope we never meet again, but I did leave you a gift. For old time sake you know?" and he was gone. I stood frozen in place. He wouldn´t give her up, no matter what I did I couldn't see a different outcome.

Maybe he would treat her nicely after all if he wanted to kill her to make me suffer he lost the perfect opportunity. I was hoping he had fallen for her, if he felt a bit like I did he would never harm her. I closed her laptop and saw a small notebook with black cover lying on her bed. As soon as I had it on my hand I could sense her smell, I flipped the pages and let the gush of wind with her scent wash over my face. "My dear Bella, what have I done?" I felt a small note falling on my lap. I recognized the handwriting.

"Be safe."

I wrote that to her years ago when we lived in forks. She kept it after all those years. "Be safe". She wasn´t safe right now, it was my fault.

I ran back home, and describing what happened to my family was even harder than watching it. I could hear the defeat thoughts in everyone´s mind. They too didn´t see a different outcome for the situation. Maybe I should just give…

"I have an idea" Carlisle prompted "Maybe I can get a friend of mine to track them. I know is not much of a start but if we know where they are at least we can come up with a plan to rescue her"

My eyes sparkled. I already had a simple plan in mind. Kill him and get her back home safe.

"It might take some time Edward, don´t get your hopes up so fast" He warned me, I nodded, some time was better than no time, I know how I failed miserably when I tried to track Victoria and I wouldn´t allow myself to make the same mistake again.

Carlisle rushed through his contacts until he got a few hints where Alistair might be. This would require a force task. We all made preparations to leave.

"Son, I don't think you should go."

"But Carlisle it´s Bella we are talking about here."

"I know Edward, but he could contact you again, from what you have told us, I don't think he is ready to let you go on without more torture and if he contact you and see you are not here he might notice we are on the hunt." I nodded

"We are departing right now. Just wait for us to come back, I don't want you rushing through things and end up doing something you might regret later"

With that said Carlisle and the others departed, I was alone. Being alone was harder considering the events. Was there anything I could have done differently? I shouldn´t have left her. Every time I leave her some sort of disaster happens, first with James, than Victoria, now this. She was right, I smiled, she was always right, we were meant to be, everything is perfect when we are together but the second we are apart the entire world start a conspiracy to drive us apart. We belong together.

Wow, I´m sorry that took a long time but there it is. Please Review