AN: *drumroll* Here it is folks, the moment you've all been waiting for . . .

Chapter Eleven - Witnessing Devastation

"I'm coming with you," Emmett immediately insisted, waves of protectiveness billowing out from him. "My little sister needs me. I can wait my turn with Assward and pound on him later, after Bella has been taken care of properly."

Rose simply nodded and grabbed Emmett's hand, running out the door with him. I could feel her sorrow and regret, along with acceptance and kinship for Bella. Rose knew what it was like to be tricked into believing a good looking, wealthy guy wanted you to be his forever and join his family, only to turn his back and selfishly break you, before your dreams of love and happy ever after could be fulfilled.

As we ran to Bella's, I questioned them. "How did you get here so quickly? I thought you'd be hours behind me."

"It didn't take us long to figure out you had the right idea. We left all the cars at the ferry dock parking lot. None of us had the patience to wait, so we all ran and swam from there," Emmett confided. "We figured we'd have plenty of time to go back for the vehicles while Bella was sleeping."

I smiled at both of them, appreciating their help and companionship. Being around Bella with the way she was currently feeling was going to be extremely difficult for me. I'd definitely need their help in convincing Bella we all still loved her, even if Edward was a total prick.

We were back to Bella's house in mere minutes, but her truck was gone. Where has Bella gone? Where would she go? As far as I know, she doesn't have any friends or family here other than Charlie. Would she have gone to the police station? No, not feeling the way she did. It would call too much attention to her. So where? Our house? Maybe. Would she just run away?

"We need to track Bella's truck. The exhaust from that rusty monster has a unique scent. I never thought I'd be thankful for that heap of junk before, but it'll help us find her now. I have a bad feeling about this. Where would she go? She doesn't have any other friends around here, since she devotes all her time and attention to us. I'm hoping we just missed her at our house, but something is telling me we need to find her fast before she does something stupid."

Rose and Emmett stared at me in horrified understanding and immediately began trying to track her scent. We went in different directions until I caught the scent, feeling oddly like a bloodhound. Emmett made a harrowing U-turn in the middle of the road when he heard me shout, kicking up asphalt with his heels and toes as he spun around and tore off in my direction. We ran faster than we ever had down the road, hoping any humans that might see us would only witness a slight blur. Alarm bells were sounding off inside me, warning me we didn't have time to keep up our pretenses right now. The scent was getting fresher, and we had nearly caught up with her, when we all heard the unmistakable retort of a gunshot.

Before any of us could even process the meaning of the sound, we rounded the bend and saw Bella in the distance, perched on the railing of scenic overlook at the edge of a cliff. I could see the smoke rising from the barrel of the revolver as it recoiled away from her temple and the entrance hole of the bullet. I could see the bullet pierce the sign beside her and her brains exploding all over the metal and the surrounding area. We were all frozen mentally and emotionally, not even breathing in those seconds as our bodies continued speeding toward the dying human girl, running on autopilot.

She dropped the gun over the edge, her body falling forward to follow it as she lost her balance on the railing. Bella didn't even make a sound as she fell, though I could hear the wind whistling past her plummeting form, as well as her fading heartbeat and gasping breaths. We reached the railing just as her body crunched on the rocks below and the scent of her fresh blood flooded the air around us, even more than from the bloody bits of brains decorating the punctured road sign.

"NOOOOO!" I screamed, jumping down after her. I wasn't going to let her die, not if I could save her. It wasn't going to be pretty, but I had to try. I couldn't just let her go.

I heard a pained keening from the two vampires behind me and spared a momentary thought of gratitude that the difference in height was great enough to keep their grief and despair from drowning me. I also wouldn't suffer from their bloodlust. I felt the Major beating against my mental wall, and I deliberately let him out of his maximum security prison, knowing I would need his cold detachment to do what was necessary. The Major was never overwhelmed by bloodlust when there was a potential vampire to be made. I felt my brain adjusting, all on the brief drop down to the bottom of the cliff, beside the broken, crumpled form of the girl we all loved.

My mouth filled with venom as I knelt beside her and forcibly spit the venom into gaping hole of the exit wound on the left side of her skull. I quickly licked the wound shut, spitting out chunks of flesh, bones, and brains, then flipped her over onto her back. Her limbs were all lying in odd, crooked ways from multiple breaks. I ignored that, focusing on the most serious injuries first. I forced more venom into the bullet's entrance hole and sealed it shut. The brain was the most important, but the heart was next on the list. I could hear the very slow, faint beats as it prepared to give up the ghost. I ripped open her shirt and bit down right above her heart, using my tongue and breath to force as much venom in as possible. I sealed it and moved right on to her neck, knowing it too was broken and her spinal cord severed.

I bit both sides of her neck, injecting my venom, and as I sealed the second bite, I heard the venom finally hit her heart. It had only been a couple of seconds, but it was the difference between life and death, or really death and undeath. The venom forced her heart to pick up pace and begin beating hard again. There was still no time to waste, as the rocks had punctured her limbs in various places, and her brain would take a long time to heal, so it wasn't controlling her functions at the moment. She was still losing blood at much too rapid a pace. She could still lose the battle in the fight for her continued existence.

I ripped off her pants and went straight for the large blood vessels in the inner thighs. I spared no thought for the intimate placement of these bites, thinking only of the rapid dissemination of the venom throughout her system. I moved next to the insides of her elbows. Having hit all her major spots, I then focused on sealing each and every wound I could find all over her body. The whole process was finished in under three minutes.

As soon as I was secure in the knowledge her change would progress, I glared up at the still keening vampires above me. They were wrapped in each other's arms, their faces full of anguish and woe, overwhelmed with grief and lost in one another. I grimaced and stripped the remains of Bella's outfit off of her, then covered her with my own shirt. Some small portion of my brain registered how much I, man and vampire, liked seeing her dressed in my clothes, feeling both possessive and protective. She was mine now. I had saved her, sired her. I would raise her, teach her, guide her, protect her, love her. There was no time to reflect on any of these thoughts though. I had bigger fish to fry.

"Shut up!" I fiercely commanded the vampires above me, having no patience with their nervous breakdown. Don't they know to save the emotional response until after the battle is over, and everyone has safely returned to base? We aren't free and clear yet. There are still too many loose ends that need to be addressed before any of us can relax.

The keening stopped abruptly and the sudden silence allowed them to hear the rapid beats of a changing heart. They both stared down at us in shock, their keen vision picking out her new scars from where I had injected my venom.

"You changed her?" Rose asked in disbelief. "How could you? She obviously wanted to die and you took that away from her!"

I heard animalistic growling from the trees on the other side of the river and felt an overwhelming amount of rage coming from that direction. I glared up at Rose. "Yes, Rose, I changed her. Unlike you, I don't think death is preferable to this existence."

A Quileute man stepped out of the forest. "Well, WE do think death is preferable to becoming a leech, and you've just broken the treaty!"

xxxxxxx

AN: Boy, never a dull moment, eh? Jasper's having one hell of a day, isn't he? Oh, well. No rest for the weary.