*** This story contains some mild language, suspense, romance, and some frightening images and situations—13 and older, please.

In the Grip of Twilight

By:

Olivia Tannis Moore

Chapter Seventy Four:

Preparations

I stared at her, uncertain of what she was asking. What did she want me to take from her? The scorn? The emptiness? Besides that, I had no guidance "Adel, I've not put myself to the test yet—I'm not even sure what to do."

"Please, Bella…you're the only one who can do this. All you would have to do is replace Aro's venom with Zeke's. Muriel said it must be perfectly timed and balanced to work, but I know you can do it."

I cringed. "Muriel?" Her name was like a douse of ice-cold water in my face. I couldn't help but feel deceived and used; Muriel with her runes and all-knowingness. She had asked me to pay her god-daughter a visit; she had considered it a personal favor. A personal favor indeed!

There was a rustle across the room and I looked up to see Ezekiel standing in the doorway, his pain-filled eyes on Adel as she groveled before me on the floor. He took a step toward her as if he would go to her, but then he stepped back and gripped the door frame, knowing that he could not.

Adeloni buried her face in her hands. "You are my only hope…I can't go on like this. The way he looks at me sometimes…I'm a monster…take it away. Oh, God, take it away."

Ezekiel looked as if the breath had been knocked from him as he turned and went back outside. The back door swung and banged loudly in his departure startling Adel, who apparently hadn't realized he was there. Her eyes widened and her mouth gaped open in horror. "Oh, no," she said as she staggered to her feet.

I grabbed her thin arm. "Let me go to him."

I walked out to the back yard knowing that I'd try to help them. I'd always been a sucker for a wounded animal and these two were as broken as humpty-dumpty. Damn you, Muriel, I cursed. Damn you. Damn you. Damn you.

**

It had been easy to sooth Zeke once I explained that I was willing to try to help them. But Adel's haunting words of 'I can't go on like this' had rattled him. The sheer panic in his face when he told me that there was no living in this world without Adeloni was too close to what Edward had always told me, and an eerie reminder of those days last year.

I found myself drawn to Ezekiel in the same way I'd been drawn to most all the Lycans I'd recently met. They were not the savages I'd been told they were, not unless you happened to be a Volturi. In fact, the more time I spent with the Lycans, the more I was inclined to view them with a heroic eye. Through the eons they had kept their promise to protect humans from the bloodlust of the vampires, the Cullens excluded of course.

And now, as Zeke sat at the edge of the sofa tying a tourniquet around his upper arm, I told him bits and pieces of what I'd been going through the past few weeks. He seemed fascinated by the turn of events and how I had dealt with them.

"I don't know how to begin to thank you for this," he said as he twisted the cloth tightly around his large bicep.

"Well, don't thank me yet," I said. "To say that I'm inexperienced is an understatement... I'm hoping that I don't do more harm than good."

He sighed good-naturedly and said, "You'll do fine. But I can't seem to tie this knot with one hand."

I helped him knot the ends of the tourniquet. "You know, I went into this reforming business with the idea of helping people. I never wanted to be Aro's plaything…so I guess erasing Aro's venom from Adel is as good a place to start as any."

He chortled lightly. "A bit of revenge, wouldn't you say?"

I thought for a short moment. "Revenge? Maybe a little, if I'm honest with myself. But it's more like a statement of independence after everything the Volturi have put me through. It's about taking this gift that the Forgotten gave me and using it for something other than war." I smiled up at him. "Or in this case, for love."

His own smile was full of hope, then, he became sober, "I'm sorry Muriel wouldn't come. She has a firm belief in staying out of affairs that are not of her own making."

I shook my head, "Yet, Muriel wants me to intervene. I don't get her sometimes."

It had been my request that Adel go and try to coax Muriel to come to Ezekiel's for support, but Adel had come back just moments ago alone. And now she was back in the bedroom getting ready for the transfusion. It was only a matter of weeks since I'd sat in my room in that prison of a castle and readied myself for the same thing.

I smiled to myself; if someone had told me at that time, when Elena was accompanying Edward back to the States, that I'd be helping her in this way, I wouldn't have believed them. But Elena was Adel now, like a split personality that you didn't quite know what to do with. I still had my reservations about reforming Adel, but I was certain I'd know Adel's true character once the process began—blood didn't lie. So if Adel was playing me for a fool, she'd have a big surprise. I hoped for Zeke's sake that wasn't the case.

I looked up to see Zeke gazing at me. "Nervous?" he asked.

"A little," I admitted.

Zeke's shoulders slumped as if the weight of the world rested on them. He looked down at his feet. "Yeah, me too. If it doesn't work…if Aro's venom is too strong…"

"Shhh, stop that," I said. "There's no room for doubt, not now." I sighed inwardly. It was something Edward would say, and it wasn't lost on me that here I was using his words to reassure a Lycan that looked a lot like Edward.

I checked the tourniquet to make sure it wasn't too loose or too tight. It seemed to be adequate. "Come on," I told him. "Let's get this over with so you two can be in the same room together."

***

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