PART 3

Bella had no idea, but in the hours since he'd first seen her face, pale against her dark hair and the night sky, Edward had been shredded by gratitude and lust and violence. It was almost a shame she didn't know, because the amount of control it took to not act on his impulses was beyond anything he'd ever asked of himself before. When he'd crawled up to the surface, he'd wanted to drag her jeans down and press his face to her skin so that the blood and decay and the anger went away and there was nothing but the scent of her.

Clearly gratitude and lust had bled into one another.

The violence had an easy target as well. There was a goddamned Volturi guard standing over him. At Bella's side. He wanted to toss Demetri down to spend a few days in the pit. It didn't matter that Demetri knew nothing about his kidnapping. It was enough that his fellow guards had done it – the short Irishman, Corin, with his vivid shock of orange hair, and the slower, heavier Santiago, whose quick temper meant that he'd rearranged Edward's ribs until the ginger had finally pulled him back. They were long gone, but Demetri was right here, right now, and Edward wanted to tear something apart, something that wasn't weak and already dying. Something that would fight back and still lose.

Instead, he lay quietly at Bella's feet until she sent the tracker away, and when she finally touched him, he did not flip her over and press her into the moss and lick up the inside of her thigh.

He was a saint, a pillar of control, and the hell of it was that he couldn't tell her, because if she knew half the things he wanted to do – to her, or to Enkidu and Marcus – she would find a way to lock him up somewhere while she dealt with her maker. He wasn't going to take his eyes off of her now. He'd faced his bloodlust in a sinkhole and lost, but in failing, he learned that it was not his fault; God knew he had tried to save the man who'd made it to the bottom with a pulse. Even as the bloodlust swept away his resolve, he hadn't wanted to kill, so Bella was wrong to think he was too young to know what he did and didn't want. Stuck down there in a stew of corpses, there was only one person he knew would come for him, no matter what. She was his mate, or if she wasn't then he would bend the rules to make it true.

Right now, bending the rules meant playing it cool despite the fact that her scent was all around, and her mind was offering up new secrets, and he owed her his freedom, and she'd accused him of thinking this was all a joke. So far he'd kept the brunt of his emotion from her. It felt like thrashing in a straight jacket, but the payoff for his self control was that he was allowed to be here now, pacing back and forth by her side, downwind of Enkidu's camp.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Waiting." He made himself stop wearing a track into the mud. He was barefoot, and after the water that he'd been in before, the mud made his feet feel cleaner. He'd left his shirt back at the edge of the sinkhole, but he resisted the urge to take his jeans off and smear clay all over himself. Assuming he didn't die tonight, he was hoping to take a very long shower in the near future.

"No change at the camp?" she asked.

They'd moved in just close enough for Edward to be able to know what Enkidu was thinking, but hopefully not so close that the wolves could catch their scent.

"The werewolves are chanting something; I don't know the language," he said. "Ginnie's still giving me a headache." The girl had the loudest thoughts of anyone he'd ever met, and they were all over the map: she was scared, creeped out, and generally raving in her head about the things she did to make her grandfather happy. Everyone kept telling Edward he was out of control, but personally, he thought her head was a bit like a pack of hyperactive brats. It was Lord of the Flies in there.

For all her drama, Ginnie's mind was still more hospitable than Enkidu's. His was like an inkwell, as though he were the one in a pit looking up into a dimly lit world. His every thought led to suspicion. He looked around himself and imagined betrayal everywhere. Even the wolves who chanted and bowed at his feet – they were completely devoted, but Enkidu didn't trust them. The fact that he wouldn't rely on anyone was a weakness, and Edward could only hope it would prove useful.

The werewolf leader brought his forehead off the ground and crouched. Though his chant was foreign, some of the thoughts behind it were in English. The man considered Enkidu a 'Dark Savior', and Edward would've given money to be the one to show him how dark a place his supposed savior's head really was. All of the werewolves were rising to their feet in a way so choreographed that it was clear they'd done this before. Enkidu went to the leader first, placed a hand against his shoulder and pressed his head to the side, baring the man's neck. Was he going to…

"He is. He's drinking."

Bella didn't understand. "They have a human?"

"He's drinking from the werewolves, one after the other," Edward said. "Just a little. He's calling it a ceremony of connection, but there's another reason, something Enkidu's smug about, something he's not thinking… Oh. There it is."

"What?" Bella asked. She got in front of him, and he realized that he must have started pacing again, because he had to stop to not run into her.

"It's the werewolf blood that strengthens him. That's how he was able to turn Jane's power back on her." Apparently the blood tasted as sour and bitter as it smelled. Edward had spent days subjected to the stench of the woman who threw his 'meals' down to him. Her scent was sharp as ammonia, and it reminded him of stale cat piss. As sick as it sounded, Enkidu seemed to enjoy the burning taste of their blood. He got some perverse pleasure from the fact that he could make himself drink it. It was convoluted, but now Edward had a small understanding of how it was that Enkidu could feel fear from Bella and not have the instinct to back down.

The chanting had stopped and the moon was rising.

"I thought you said the werewolves were wild creatures in their wolf form."

Bella nodded.

"He doesn't fear them," Edward said. She started to speak, to tell him that Enkidu didn't fear anyone, but he held up a hand. "I mean, he's done this before. They don't attack him."

"Instinct must still tell them that Enkidu is their alpha."

The werewolves' minds were disappearing as though sinking into dark water, first murky, then silent.

"They've turned, I think," he said.

"Let's go then." Bella started off toward the camp, but then stopped so abruptly he almost crashed into the back of her. "I need you to stay in control no matter what happens," she said.

He wrapped a hand around her wrist with perhaps more force than he should have. "I'm not completely without my uses." He couldn't have been more surprised by her reaction to his touch. She wanted to lean into him, lean on him, and then she pulled her hand away as if she'd been burned. He would have been offended by her scowl, but for the first time he could see that what she feared was not so much his weakness but her own.

He makes me soft, she thought, and I cannot afford it now.

"One day you might find that you can lean on me," he said.

Her face went blank before she turned away, but he didn't want to make it harder for her to prepare for what lay ahead of them, so he followed her without a word and hoped that his actions would prove his point. He wasn't really afraid of Enkidu, though he probably should have been. Jealousy and resentment had pushed everything else he could have felt for the man aside. Enkidu was possessive of Bella, but in a careless way, as though she belonged to him. It didn't help that Bella felt she owed him for her life.

They were getting close, and the stench of wolves was overwhelming. They'd seen no sign of the Volturi guards, and Edward couldn't say he was sorry. Even if they could have taken down a wolf or two, he'd prefer to do this without their help.

"There," Bella whispered, and Edward got his first look through the trees at Bat's granddaughter, dressed for the city instead of a jungle and sticking as close as she could to a large bonfire, as though it were the least threatening thing in the circle. It probably was.

Bella's mind cleared of anything other than the sound of the fire crackling and the feel of ridged bark beneath her hand. Her breathing slowed to a near stop. He waited, unable to match her concentration, but at least understanding why she needed this. There was her now-familiar focus on her breath moving in and out. A damp vine pressed against her ankle. Air, warm and rank with wolf.

Almost before her mind could give her intentions away, she strode into the circle.

The mismatched group of enormous wolves – and they were wolves now, brown and black and one even larger grey wolf – seemed to have the usual response to being near her, because they growled and moved closer together. Enkidu jerked his forearm out and down with his palm flat, and the snarling subsided.

"Isabella." Her name was almost a sigh on Ginnie's lips. After only a few hours, she'd started to wonder if anyone would return for her, and Edward wanted to smack her for it. Did she not know Bella at all?

"Dae," Enkidu said.

Bella flinched at the use of her oldest name, but when he held out a hand with an ostentatious twist of his wrist that was nothing like the arm movement he used to control the wolves, she stepped closer. Edward moved with her until he was at Ginnie's side. Bella's thoughts were telling him to stay back, and for the moment at least, he was willing to live with it, if only to show her that he could.

"Your errand did not keep you far from me for long," Enkidu said.

Bella's mind had that hard stone quality Edward had felt from her after he'd pushed her up against the wall that first day, but her face was convincingly soft. "My errand is not complete. I must take these two back where they belong."

Enkidu didn't even cast a glance Edward's way when Bella gestured toward him and Ginnie. He'd taken Bella's hand, and his thumb was rubbing a slow circle on her palm. He was so sure of her, and yet his image of Bella was nothing like the woman Edward had come to know. He almost thought of her as a doll to be picked up or cast aside as the mood struck him.

"Surely they can get themselves home without your help. They're not children."

"That one is a newborn," Bella said, throwing out her free arm to point at Edward.

The wolves circled one another, barely held back by the command to be still. Enkidu didn't take his eyes from Bella's face. "Let the Norse woman take care of him."

"It's my responsibility."

"I have need of you here."

"And I've told you… I can't be of service to you until I have fulfilled my oath to another. Let me return them to where they belong, and I will come back to you."

She was lying, but speaking so sincerely that if Edward hadn't had access to her mind he would have been convinced that she meant it. Enkidu believed her completely. He even thought that she longed to be back by his side. It was that strange combination of unreasoning arrogance layered over a deeper voice of self loathing that whispered so constantly that Edward suspected Enkidu no longer even knew he was listening. Despite his conviction that she'd come back, Enkidu wanted her to stay by his side now, and he wanted to impress upon her that the timing would be his choice, not hers. He reached out and ran his knuckles across her chest. This time Edward did growl, though it was bronze and not skin he was touching.

"You still remember the old ways," Enkidu said. "You still carry the pendant." He lifted it from her chest and curled his fingers around it. Then he tugged lightly, forcing Bella to lean forward, and Edward had moved half the distance to her before he realized he was in motion.

"Back. The fuck. Off," he said, and Enkidu was actually startled. It would have been the perfect moment for Bella to strike if that had been her intention, but before Edward could even catch her eye, Enkidu recovered, and for the first time, he looked directly at Edward.

"You're far too young to understand what this represents," Enkidu said, still fingering the dagger. "It's not simply a tool for the ritual offering of blood. It's more revolutionary than anything your age has conjured. An alloy of brittle tin and soft copper worked together to create the first metal blades. It brought man out of the Stone Age. It was reserved for those powerful enough to forge the trade routes that could bring the two opposing metals together, reserved for those with the knowledge of how to work them into bronze. I brought this with me from Nineveh and into the wilderness of Europe where I found Dae's people. She was living in a village of perhaps sixty, fumbling about with wool and thatch and standing stones at the Solstice. Like all the others, they were eager to bow down to knowledge greater than their own. I didn't even bother hunting them. They cut their own skin with knives like this one, offering their blood up to me. And Dae…" he said, turning back to Bella, "Remember what I made you," he told her. "After they almost killed you, you were more than happy to accept your due from humans right along with me."

Finally he paused for the breath it took to form more words, and Edward said, "I know one thing. You like to hear yourself talk."

Again the momentary surprise – did no one ever tell this man off? – and again Bella either failed to see or refused to take advantage of the moment and strike. She was worried about what the wolves would do – eleven against three – if she raised a hand to Enkidu, and she was still hoping to talk her way out of here, though Edward could have saved her the trouble. There was no way Enkidu would let her go again without a fight.

"Enough," Bella said, and she pulled back until the chain broke and Enkidu was left holding the pendant. She'd had the clunky thing around her neck so long, that she almost looked naked without it. "I've told you what I have to do. I'll go and then I'll come back."

Ginnie hadn't said a word since "Isabella," but now she let out a startled cry. For a moment Edward thought she was reacting to Bella's lie, but while he'd been distracted, Demetri had arrived along with Jane and Alec. Edward wasn't sure whether they were here to help or hurt, but Enkidu's paranoia kicked in the moment he saw them.

"You've gone to them," he told Bella. "After everything I've done for you."

"I haven't," she said, but she could see that words wouldn't stand a chance of reaching him now. She edged closer to Edward, and as her stress level rose, the fear started to crackle in the air, making the wolves howl and snarl and the Volturi guards stop in their tracks. Ginnie fell back to the far side of the fire.

Edward reached his hand out to hold her underneath her elbow as though he was supporting her weight. Enkidu raised his eyebrows into his dark hairline and looked at Edward for a long moment. He shot a glance toward the wolves, and Edward knew he was going to order them to attack him, but Bella had seen that look too.

"Don't," she said. "Don't do this."

But he'd already sliced his hand through the air, and the large grey wolf leapt toward Edward while Enkidu tugged Bella forward into his arms.

All the usual characters, settings, etc. are the property of S. Meyer. Original characters and plot are mine. No copyright infringement is intended. May not be reprinted without express written permission.