Sun and Moon

Ch. 1: The Road to Hell…

EsPOV

Before the sound of the third gunshot died, I burst through the front door, flashed up the stairs and was in Bella's room as the gun hit the floor with a thump. The image in front of me was tragic; Charlie Swan's lifeless body say in the rocking chair at the foot of the bed, while my poor Bella lay in her bed hooked to some kind of monitor with her precious life's blood seeping from two holes in her abdomen. Still using vampire speed, I raced to my daughter and rolled her over carefully. Thankfully, the bullets had gone straight through.

Without hesitation, I violated the Treaty that had allowed my family to live peacefully in this town in order to save Bella's life. The poor girl did not have much time left. My teeth first pierced her neck, wrists and ankles, then finally, her heart. I tried to get as much venom into her system as I could before it was too late. A sense of joy flooded through me as I watched the bullet wounds close. My baby would be fine.

Movement and the familiar scent alerted me to Kate Denali's presence. Without being told, she had already started to fill a duffle bag with clothing and some personal items. As I picked Bella up, I noticed Kate looking at a teddy bear on the dresser. My vampire vision was able to pick up the subtle glint off the tiny lens that served as one of the toys eyes. Charlie had obviously felt the need for a Nanny Cam.

The middle Denali sister flashed over to Charlie's room then came back; her hand shoved a stack of thin black cases into the bag. A medical chart had hung from the foot of the bed and that was the last thing I grabbed as we rushed back out to the Mercedes. Kate got behind the wheel because I automatically slid into the backseat with Bella. My baby should have started screaming by now, but all she did was whimper softly.

I stroked Bella's hair while my mind caught up to everything it had just witnessed. My loving, caring, all-too-human daughter had her life destroyed. Even without looking over the medical chart, she looked like she had been put through Hell and back. This was all Edward's fault, his constant blather about how he had only the best intentions for Bella's welfare were meaningless.

Kate parked the car back in the garage of my former home. While it would be best to wait out the transformation, I wanted as much distance between my daughter and this God forsaken place as possible. We ran all the way back to Denali and arrived just after midday. Kate had already called ahead so that a room was ready for Bella when we got back.

I laid her on the down bed in the room that had been set aside for her, and then kissed her forehead. The others had questions that needed answers so reluctantly left and went down to the living room where they waited.

KPOV

When Esme left our home, I followed her. Even though she claimed she needed to hunt, she hadn't fooled us. We all knew she was headed back to Forks to check on the mysterious Bella Swan. It had been no surprise to learn the Cullen's fell apart after they were forced to leave this girl behind. The human had touched all of them. Even Rosalie, who'd argued in favor of Edward's plan, was devastated.

During the time they stayed with my Coven after that fateful choice, Rose had confided why she sided with her masochistic brother. She had seen a lot of herself in the other girl. To the point that she didn't want the human to suffer the same fate. Rose had ignored the bad feelings she had about her fiancé, Royce, and paid with her life. She couldn't watch Bella do the same with Edward. He'd dazzled her into glossing over the fact that a controlling, obsessed stalker.

I'd been curious about the human that galvanized a Coven of vegetarian vampires into a real family. When Esme stopped the Mercedes in front of what must've been the Swan home, I wasn't exactly sure what to do. The three gunshots pretty much decided for me. I rushed in milliseconds behind her.

By the time I reached the top of the stairs, the scent of fresh human blood was almost overpowering. Esme had already bit the girl and was watching her bullet wounds close. Her senses told her I was there, without waiting to be told I started to gather clothes, books and pictures. There was a teddy bear on the dresser, when I went to pick it up I noticed the Nanny Cam.

The obvious place for the receiver was the other bedroom. I flashed over there, the DVR and disks were in plain site. Still at vampire speed, I ejected the current disk from the recorder and grabbed all the others. They were being stuffed into the bag when I got back to Bella's room.

I called Tanya and told her we were coming back with Bella in the midst of transformation. She seemed uptight about it but agreed to have a room waiting for us. It was next to Esme's, because she wanted to be as close to her daughter as she could.

We got back home at midday, Bella was put in her room then Esme joined us. My family wanted to know what was going to happen next. She told us that once Bella finished her transformation, the two of them would go to the Cullen home at the other end of Denali so they wouldn't be a bother. The rest of her family was not to be notified until she was ready for them to know.

Instead of the normal three-day experience we'd all gone through, it had taken Bella eight days. Esme rarely left her side the entire time. The only time she left was when we watched the recordings from the Nanny Cam. The contents of those disks weren't just startling, they pissed everyone off. Whatever infatuation Tanya had had with Edward Cullen went right out the window when confronted with the results of his callous actions.

The disks showed that she had been catatonic from the moment she'd been found in the woods. The heartless bastard had left her alone in the woods! For the first week, she didn't eat or drink. The doctor put her on an IV just to keep her nourished. After that, she only ate or drank if fed. During the day, she never moved or acknowledged anything. During the night, she had terrible nightmares in which she continued to apologize for not being good enough before screaming herself awake.

One of the disks recorded a month later showed two Native American boys most likely from the local reservation enter the house while Charlie Swan was at work. The boys identified each other as Jacob and Paul. For several hours the raped the non-responsive girl. The Jacob boy commented that it had to be better than spreading her legs for filthy bloodsuckers.

They'd been so enthralled with their fun that they failed to hear Charlie come home. Two headshots ended everything. A later disk showed a doctor confirms that Bella had become pregnant and her father orders an abortion. The remaining disks were exactly like those from the beginning.

Tanya, Irina and Laurent left for a few days, we never questioned the news reports about a string of mutilations on the La Push Reservation.

I spent the bulk of the eight-day transformation with Esme as we watched Bella. The two of us traded off cooling the dying human off with cold compresses. She still hadn't made a sound above a whimper. The moment her heart started to beat with the speed of a helicopter blade, the others joined us. Soon Bella would open her eyes to her new life. We all hoped it would be happier than her last.

My mind thought about the book of Grimm's Fairy Tales that was a particular favorite of mine. Those stories generally didn't end well for the monsters. Fuck the Brothers Grimm. Monsters deserved happy endings too, I thought. Bella had endured too much not to get a happily ever after. Her mortal life had been the embodiment of a Marque De Sade story; her immortal one should be like a Disney Princess movie.

Bella's heart gave its final thump and we waited patiently for her eyes to open for the first time on a whole new world. The anticipation started to build as her eyes started to flutter.