A/N - You have to love summer break. I was able to write this chapter with no problem. :D
Please read and review! I enjoy the feedback.
Chapter 29
Third Person POV
They met one final time at the training field to go over their plan and make final preparations. Tensions and tempers were running high as they all knew what was truly at stake, their entire existence. If they were unsuccessful at defeating the newborn army, it was not only Bella whose life was at stake, but every member of the Quileute tribe, the Cullens and the Pack all stood to lose everything that they love.
Sam and Carlisle detailed the final attack plans. They placed Emmett, Rosalie, Sam, Jacob, Jared and Paul at the beach front. Jasper, Alice, Embry and Leah were stationed at the old saw mill. Esme, Carlisle, Quil and Seth were watching the Reservations border with Forks. This meant that Tia, Brady and Collin were to watch over the imprints who would all be staying at Emily's place in the center of the res. If any newborn was to break loose and head inland towards Bella, the pack's mind link would be used to silently alert all of those available to retreat to lend assistance there.
With the preparations complete, they all headed home to spend the remaining daylight hours relaxing with their loved ones and mentally fortifying themselves for the fight that was to come…soon.
The Pack worked together to assemble the imprints. Emily had planned a sleepover to help disguise the seriousness of the situation from Claire. The older imprints knew to play along for her sake. No one wanted to upset the young one. They all spent time together as a family rather than the Pack, sharing a meal and some laughs as the girls settled in for the night. Each of them spent time with his girl on his lap, whispering assurances that everything would be ok, that they would be back soon.
Tia POV
I couldn't take it anymore. This forced joviality before the battle was more than I could handle. I stood up, leaving everyone behind in the living room, to take a walk through Emily's garden out back. Once the door closed behind me, I started to pace from one corner to another, trying to burn off some pent up energy as I tried to calm my nerves. I heard the door open and close. I had no need to turn to see who it was. I knew the second his scent reached me. He came to me, wrapping his arms securely, lovingly around me. I drew strength from our embrace.
"Please Tia; being upset is not helping either of us. Breathe honey. We will have our tomorrow." He breathed into my ear. His voice ran down my spine like a drug, slowly pulling the tension from my system. I turned to face him, looking into his eyes and what I saw was his determination and love shining back at me. He would do everything in his power to ensure that our tomorrow was safe.
I lean my forehead into his as my fingers work into his hair. "I love you more than life itself Quil." I breathe. "I'm scared."
"I know honey, and you are not alone." He replies as he tightens his arms around me, snuggling me closer to his chest. "You have one of the most important jobs as far as the Pack is concerned. The welfare of the imprints isn't taken lightly. You need to do your best to keep the others from seeing how upset you are. Can you do that for me?"
I nod. "I will. I just needed a moment alone with you Quil." I sigh as I bring his lips to mine in a sweet, poignant kiss. He holds me close and I hear our hearts beating as one.
Victoria POV
Lying across her bed, she watches her latest toy as he stares out the window, thinking about the invasion and his role in it. She watches him as he paces in nervous energy, eager to go after the Pack, to do the bidding of his maker, his love.
"Riley dear, I'll tell you everything right before it is time to leave. I've explained to you before the importance of keeping things under wraps until the last moment." I stand, walking towards him. I drape my arms around him in what appeared to be a loving embrace, pulling him closer.
He grits his teeth in frustration. "I hate that we're even dealing with that bastard Cullen. He's too good to get his hands dirty to get what he wants. He's using us Victoria."
"No my love, that is not so. You'll see. Have some faith in me." I crush his mouth to mine, kissing him deeply, blinding him to my true intentions through his lust.
Third Person POV
As night time started to fall, they all took their positions, hidden, watchful, and waiting. The second that one vampire stepped foot on the Reservation, the entire pack would know, giving a silent recognition that their fight had begun.
The first to arrive were the vampires coming in through the west by the saw mill. Leah sent the message through the link as the fighting began. Across the reservation, the wolves tensed which in turn, caused the Cullens to focus their abilities. The first group was small and not nearly as powerful as expected. Between Jasper and Leah, they made relatively short work of the newborns. As Embry worked on burning the remains, watching the flames rise, Alice's face went blank, a vision coming. "The beach, he's here." Immediately, they all turned to join the forces at the La Push.
Within seconds of those flames flying into the night air, the second wave began, at both the Forks and the Beach front. The forces were larger, stronger and focused on their true purpose, to get to Bella. With the doubled forces on the beach, the fight was almost evenly matched. The only thing that the newborns lacked was true conviction which the Cullens and Pack possessed. They fought tooth and nail until the numbers of the newborns slowly began to decrease.
On the Forks front, the attack was more spread out but not nearly as fierce. The surrounding trees turned it into more of a cat and mouse game with the newborns able to hide and ambush. Thanks to Jasper's training and the natural abilities of the Pack, the newborns were going slowly down.
Unknown POV
This was too easy. They were so distracted with the fighting that they never even noticed as I slipped by them through First Beach. Once I came through the water, I went straight to my target. She would be mine. I would have both her and my revenge tonight.
Tia POV
I saw the flames rise through Embry's eyes knowing that one front was won. However, the flames in his eyes called me. Rather than a full vision, I saw a very quick flash of a wolf's body falling through the water. I stood in wolf form, growling and snarling outside of Emily's home. Brady and Collin were by my side, and immediately went into ready stance, not understanding fully what was going on. It was at that time, we smelled the sweet bleach stench of the vampire approaching.
He was fast. He burst through the door of Emily's house, grabbing Bella. I heard her scream knowing exactly what was happening. He had her. I go with my gut reaction and give chase, noting that he was heading to the northwest corner of the Reservation, away from any of the current fighting.
Quil POV
I ripped the head off of another leech with an aggression that I never thought I had in me. The mere thought that someone could hurt my Tia was enough to make my wolf go feral. He wouldn't allow that to happen. Suddenly, through the link, I see Tia chasing a vampire, flying through the reservation towards what I recognized as Carson's Ridge….water.
Sam, Jacob…we've got to move. He has Bella and Tia is on his heels. I alert my pack brothers. I turn on my heel to help my imprint with Sam and Jacob only seconds behind me. Tonight, we would have our victory when we had our girls safe once again, and that bastard Cullen burning in the flames.
I pushed myself as fast as I could to reach Tia and Bella, knowing that every second we held back was putting them in even worse danger. I could see my pack brothers approaching through the link. As we reached the waterfall, Sam had us go in as stealthily as possible to give us the element of surprise. They were not expecting us to be there so we had to use it to our advantage. We split up to surround the vampires in front of us.
Third Person POV
Edward had Bella pinned to his side with one of his arms when Tia caught up to them at the waterfall. He turned as the red headed leach appeared, laughing on her way. Victoria could almost taste the victory laying like a haze over the night. She stepped out onto a large boulder looking down at Edward as he held Bella to him. He was so unbelievably blinded by his lust for this human that he couldn't see the truth in front of him. She had him where she wanted him. With a smirk, she hopped down to greet Edward and congratulate him on his…victory.
"Oh look Edward…you brought us a pup to play with. How sweet." She smiled as she approached him.
Tia growled and planted her paws, ready to lunge if the red head took one more step towards Bella, who was now dumbfounded in shock over what was happening. She stared at Edward, not about to back down. A flicker of recognition went through Tia's mind. Her brothers were near. No words were spoken through the link for fear that Edward would hear them.
Victoria laughs at the antics of this young werewolf. "What? Do you honestly think that you would ever have a chance at attacking me and surviving? "Her laughter rings through the forest just like in Tia's dream, surrounding her. It's almost time.
"Thank you Victoria for helping me get my Bella back. You can do what you want with that pack of filthy mutts. Do us all a favor and wipe them out completely." Edward spoke calmly. Bella goes stiff with rage in his arms as he threatens the Pack and Jacob. Suddenly, she begins to struggle against him.
In her peripheral vision, Tia sees the slightest movement to her right and feels the approach of another pack member at a very fast speed, Jared. Her brothers are almost in position. The vampires in front of her are too wrapped up in their discussion to notice. Tia takes a step to the right trying to put herself between Bella and Victoria.
Snarling at the movement of the young wolf, the red headed leach reaches out grabbing Bella by the hair, pulling her away from Edward. "You fool; do you think I would be your puppet? Simply do your bidding because you are one of the Cullens?" She laughs as she sees the realization of what is truly happening sinks into Edward's mind. "I'm getting my complete revenge all in one shot. I plan to kill Bella slowly in front of you, and then Riley will finish you. My newborns will feast on Quileute blood tonight. In the end, I win."
Tia lunges at Victoria, trying to free Bella. Rage fills Edward and he reacts as the wolf comes too close to his Bella, grabs one of Tia's front paws, throwing her hard into the closest tree. Tia crumples to the ground. What happened next was a blur. Quil goes after Edward for having hurt his imprint as Riley comes out of nowhere, climbing up Edward's back. Riley punches Quil in the face, knocking him out. Victoria grabs the unconscious Quil and throws him over the falls to the pool below.
Riley chuckled as he pulled Edward's head off. "This is for thinking for even one second that you were ever better than us, you bastard." He then pulls Edward's limbs from his body. Victoria, enraged that her plan was not going as planned, turns on Riley. She had really wanted that exquisite, pleasurable moment of watching Edward as she tortured Bella. "What did I tell you? Have faith in me! Why couldn't you do things the way I told you?" she screamed.
She turns her eyes to Bella who had lain quiet through it all, hoping that they would forget of her existence as she slowly made her way away from the fray and into the woods. She walks slowly towards Bella, fangs exposed, dripping venom. "Now I get the final revenge for my beloved James' death. Did you really think that I would allow you to live while I had to live with the memory of my fallen beloved every day for the rest of eternity? Well bitch, you are wrong!" She says as she prepares to lunge at Bella.
"Your fallen beloved? What the hell! I thought you loved me!" screamed Riley. His anger growing by the second as he begins to see that he has also been nothing more than a pawn in Victoria's little game. He lunges for Victoria in fury.
At that second, Sam and Jacob break through the trees going after Riley as Jared launches himself into the pool in human form to pull Quil out. Bella quickly scrambles away from the fighting and watches as Sam and her beloved Jacob make quick work of the vampires. As they collect the strewn pieces of vampire, Bella stands shakily to walk towards Tia who was lying naked in human form on the ground, unmoving. She takes off her sweat shirt to cover Tia. "Sam! Jacob! Tia's badly hurt!" she yells, knowing no other way to help the wolf who had gone through this frightening ordeal with her.
Below, Jared pulls an unconscious Quil from the water. "Sam! Quil's out! I'm going to need a hand here." After making sure that Quil hadn't swallowed water, he checks Quil's vitals. He sees that Quil is breathing on his own but it is shallow and his pulse is racing. It looked as though his best friend was in shock.
Jacob, quickly kisses Bella on the head, and says "I'll be right back." He phases to call his available pack brothers and Carlisle to the scene. Within a few seconds, Embry and Seth stood in the clearing along with Carlisle. Through the pack mind, they knew that Tia and Quil were injured but only Carlisle could determine to what extent.
Carlisle rushes to her side to check her over. He looks at Sam. "Given her injuries, I think the side of her head is what hit the tree. She most likely has a concussion. I'll need to take some x-rays to be sure though." He moves at vamp speed to Quil. After looking at him, a look of confusion crosses his face. "He doesn't show any signs of injury other than that bruise on his jaw. I don't know why he's unconscious." Jared picks up Quil, carrying him up to where Tia laid.
Sam thinks for a moment. "Part of this is their double imprint. He's unconscious because she is. He's in shock because she is. We need to get them home." Jared and Seth pick up their friends, ready to take them home.
Sam adds "We'll be over as soon as we ensure that the newborns are all gone and that everyone is safe." Seth and Jared nod once in understanding before taking off for Quil's cabin.
Jared POV
Pulling the unconscious body of my best friend of out that water was one of the scariest things I've ever done. He had always been a huge part of my life and now, I'm looking down at his prone form on the ground in front of me, wondering if those days were gone.
I ran with Seth back to Quil's place, holding our friends in our arms. We took them straight to their bedroom, tucking them in bed. Carlisle was right behind us, carrying his medical supplies that he had brought on the Res in case of emergencies during the battle. He did a more thorough check of Tia to find that her left arm was broken and verified that she did have a concussion based on the size of the swelling he found on her head just above left head. Seth stood by as Carlisle rebroke her arm bone so that he could set her arm properly. For once, it was a good thing that Tia was unconscious. She wasn't aware of the addition of this new pain to what she was already experiencing.
I look over at Seth as he stood in a somber mood as the vampire doctor worked on our pack members. "Seth, I should probably go get Uma. I know she would want to be here for them. She'll help us look after them until they're better." He nods his reply as I head out the door.
Sam POV
The newborns had been dispatched and remains handed over to the flames. The threat was gone for Bella and our Tribe. The Cullens had all gone home, leaving the Pack to look over their wounded Tia and Quil. I stood at the foot of their bed wondering how long it would be before they woke.
Uma, sensing my discomfort, walked over, putting her weathered hand on my arm. "They need time Sam. Tia is physically hurt and the emotional damage done by her vision hasn't truly healed either. Quil's soul is so tightly bound to hers that he will only come back to us when she does. All we can do now is wait." She leads me back out into the living room where Jake sat with Bella on his lap. She had been crying from her ordeal and her concern for Tia. Emily was busy cooking in the kitchen, knowing that there would be a steady stream of hungry visitors here as long as Tia and Quil were still down.
I sat down at the kitchen table, placing my head in my hands, thinking just how close we had come to losing both of them. If it weren't for the warning in Tia's dream, they could have both died. I could have lost my little sister. We all would have lost our pack brother. The grief would have run deep. For all that we were all eaten up with worry for them now, it was far better than the alternative had we not received that warning.