Chapter twenty-eight

Bella

A woman with wild fiery red hair was standing in the middle of the room. First, I noticed her clothes, that were torn in places, and she wore no shoes. My eyes then went up to her face. Her bright red eyes were shining in surprise by what she was seeing but then her lips broke into an evil smile.

"So it's because of you!" she exclaimed in high, girly voice and then she launched at us.

She didn't get very far. My shield stopped her – she crashed into it and bounced back, landing gracefully on her feet.

Her eyes went wide, and she screeched in fury.

Right then, something inside me snapped and all fear suddenly vanished. It felt like Jasper was nearby, and I briefly wondered if the others were closer than I'd thought. Either way, I was determined to last as long as it took before the others got back. So I closed my eyes, concentrating fully on my shield, feeling the energy flowing from my hand into the wand.

I felt another slight tremor of the shield as the Redhead crashed into it again. I opened my eyes to see her furious expression and couldn't help the slight smirk that escaped my lips.

"Let us out, Bella," hissed Rosalie, still crouched in front of me.

"No," I growled. The Redhead looked insane, her expression reminding me of Bellatrix Lestrange – a witch who was capable of unimaginably horrible things. I was sure Esme wasn't a fighter and I wasn't about to test Rosalie's fighting skills against this apparently crazy woman right now.

Again and again the Redhead tried to get through my shield but failed. I was angry now. At the Redhead and her unwavering stubbornness to get to me, at myself for not being able to do more, and even a little at Edward and the others for letting her escape. The last one was irrational, I knew that, but anger was still better than fear and panic. I didn't want to think about why she had escaped – I knew that if I thought that any of them was hurt or worse, my will would crumble and so would my shield.

My hand started shaking slightly and I fought back the panic that I could feel started squeezing my chest. I had to concentrate harder. I couldn't let go now, not just for me, but for Esme and Rosalie too.

The Redhead made another attempt to break through my shield and I stared in horror as it started to crumble. But then suddenly – she was gone. The next thing I was aware of was the sound of a tree falling down.

I blinked, barely catching a streak of bronze colour before it was gone too.

Esme and Rosalie visibly relaxed and it was then when my half-frozen brain started to work again.

It was Edward. He had gotten here just in time to safe us. The relief I felt at the moment was indescribable. Rosalie and Esme both ran out after him and I followed them automatically. I carefully stepped over the shattered glass on the floor – the last thing I needed was bleeding right in front of an enraged human-drinking vampire. And I didn't think Edward would be able to control himself either.

I heard Edward now, talking to the Redhead. His back was to me, and he was blocking her attempts to get back to the house. She was fast but Edward was faster. I didn't see them moving – I only knew they did because every now and then they suddenly appeared a step or two from their previous spot.

"You killed him and I'll kill her!" the Redhead shrieked after something Edward had said but I didn't catch what it was.

The others were there too, standing in a circle around Edward and the Redhead, Esme and Rosalie joining them. I walked right after Esme, trying to get past her to have a better view.

"No, Bella," she said, stopping me before I could get any further.

"But I want to see it," I argued but Esme wouldn't budge. She gently shoved me behind her back, effectively keeping me from any possible harm. I still managed to peek from behind her though.

The Redhead had apparently noticed me because the next second she lunged at me. Or tried to. Again, Edward was faster and prevented her from getting more than a step my direction. He spoke again and this time I could hear him.

"Give up, Victoria," he said, his velvet voice low, nearly purring. "You can see you're outnumbered." He pointed at his family, but Victoria kept her eyes on me. "You can still leave without getting hurt."

I suppressed a snort. She really didn't look like she wanted to leave. And it was confirmed by her shrieking "Never!" at the top of her lungs.

Edward started to move then, circling around Victoria while she did the same. He spoke again, his voice still low, seductive even. It made me shiver, a strange, surprisingly pleasant feeling flowing through my body. I shook my head to clear it and tried to concentrate on his words.

"He never even loved you," he said. "He was using you for your talent. He didn't even think about you before we killed him."

Victoria snapped her eyes at him. "Liar!" she screeched again. I wondered if she ever did something else than shriek or screech.

"You know I'm not lying. You could see it too, couldn't you? But you still hoped that if you did what he wanted, he would love you back."

Before I could blink, they moved so fast that I could only guess what had happened. Victoria apparently lunged at me again, or at him, I didn't know, but the next second Edward had his arm under her throat, his lips right next to her ear.

It was the first time I could see his face since he'd gotten here mere ten minutes ago. His face was cold, lethal. He never looked more terrifying. Or more beautiful.

I saw his lips move slightly, but I couldn't hear what he said. He spoke soundlessly again and then there was a loud, screeching noise and then…

Victoria's head was rolling on the ground next to her feet, her eyes still open but blank, her expression still livid.

I stared at her head, unable to move or speak or tear my eyes off it. I didn't even blink. I could feel my heart beating wildly in my chest and then a sudden flood of emotions crashed into me.

Relief. Happiness. Gratitude. Fear. Anxiety. Confusion.

Exhaustion.

The last one hit me like a freight train. I nearly dropped on my knees before I heard someone saying to get me out of here. Then everything went black.

I was standing in a dark room. Or was it a room? I wasn't sure, but it was dark. My hair was flying around my face, so I was outside then. I tried to walk but couldn't move. Suddenly I heard a high-pitched girly laughter and a set of bright red eyes appeared in front of me. The eyes were surrounded by a mane of fiery red hair. She was coming closer but all I could see was the hair and the eyes. There was no body attached to her head. When she was just a few steps from me, the face suddenly melted, and another pair of red eyes was staring at me. But the face was different. It was greyishly pale and the nose had a snake-like shape. He reached his hand toward me and laughed…

I woke up, gasping for air. The room was dim but not completely dark and I realized that I was laying in a bed. A dream. It was a dream. I still could feel my heart pounding in my ears, so I took a deep breath to calm down. Then I sat up, looking around the room.

It was Edward's room, of course. I could hear a thunder in the distance and rain was pounding on the roof, so that explained the dim light. I wondered what time it was and looked up to look at the clock on the wall opposite the bed. That was when I noticed him.

Edward was sitting on the couch on the side farthest from me. He sat still as a statue, his eyes on me, watching me anxiously.

I felt suddenly calm, just seeing him always did it to me. I briefly wondered why he was on the couch and not on the bed with me, but then I decided it didn't matter and scrambled out of the bed so I could get to him.

I didn't get too far though.

My feet got tangled in the sheets so naturally I tripped and fell face first on the floor. Or I would have if a pair of strong arms didn't stop the fall.

He steadied me carefully, holding me at arm's length the whole time, and then stepped back. I kicked the sheets aside and automatically reached for Edward, but he took another step back. I frowned, confused, and then looked up to see his face.

His eyes were still gold, so he wasn't thirsty, but maybe he was away for too long and it was uncomfortable for him. Yes, that must be it, I decided. Except, he was still watching me anxiously and I saw a flicker of fear in his face. Was he afraid he would hurt me if I were too close?

"Sorry," I mumbled, dropping my hand.

Now it was him who looked confused. "For what?" There was a hard edge in his voice I couldn't decipher.

"Um, it's harder for you to be that close today, right?" I smiled apologetically.

He stared at me as if I'd grown a second head. "No."

"Okay, so why the distance, then?"

"Why the…" he started but then shook his head. "Bella, aren't you… afraid of me?"

I blinked in surprise. "What? Why?"

His features turned hard then. "I beheaded someone right in front of you."

Oh. That.

Then the memories of last night came to me. Victoria… Edward saving us at the last moment… Edward standing behind her at one moment and her head on the ground the next.

"It really happened," I whispered, my eyes on his chest but not really seeing him.

"Yes," he said curtly, taking another step back.

I shuddered, biting my lower lip. Then I thought of something else. Something important.

"Are you alright? And the others?" I asked anxiously, my eyes back on his face now.

"Yes." He still stared at me, probably expecting me to run away screaming. I chuckled at the thought, and he threw me another confused look.

"Thank God," I said, relieved. Then I realized something. "So… it's over? They're all dead?"

He rubbed his face in frustration, mumbling something that sounded like "…it's shock. Has to be."

I sighed, closing the distance between us, and taking his free hand into both of mine. "Edward," I said, waiting for him to look at me. When he finally did, I took a deep breath and continued. "I'm not afraid of you. How can I? You saved me, again." I rolled my eyes, still frustrated that I hadn't been able to do more. "Though, I have to admit that seeing her head on the ground was slightly disturbing."

"Slightly," he repeated blankly.

"Okay, a lot." I grimaced. "But she would have killed me, so I'm not really upset that you killed her first."

"I didn't want you to see me like that," he admitted sheepishly but then his eyes narrowed at me. "Why didn't you stay in the house?"

"I don't know," I said, and it was true. I remembered my legs carrying me outside on their own accord and my probably masochistic urge to see him.

He sighed and went to sit on the bed, pulling me onto his lap. "Are you sure you're not afraid?" he asked again, chuckling when I rolled my eyes at him. "But you fainted. I thought it was out of fear."

"I did?" I frowned, trying to remember what happened right after he'd killed Victoria. "I remember being exhausted, and it was all so… overwhelming, I guess. But I wasn't afraid of you," I said again, putting my palm on his cheek. He raised his eyebrow sceptically and I backpedalled a little. "Okay, I was, a little. You looked quite terrifying at that point." He looked anxious again, so I quickly added, "But I was mostly relieved that it was over and that you seemed to be okay."

"I'm sorry I scared you," he murmured, resting his forehead against mine. "I would never hurt you."

"I know." Then I decided that it was time to improve his mood a little. "But you also looked very sexy." He snorted and pulled back, as if to see if I was being serious. I heard a booming laughter from downstairs and groaned. "I love the sense of privacy in this house."

Edward pinched the bridge of his nose, a disgusted look on his face.

"Do I want to know what he's thinking?" I asked, amused and glad that the mood had lifted considerably. He shook his head vehemently and I laughed. "You're a pig, Emmett!" I shouted in the direction of the door and another booming laughter answered me.

I shook my head, returning my attention back to Edward, who was watching me intently. "So, are you going to tell me what had happened before the crazy Redhead turned up here?"

"Aren't you hungry? You missed breakfast and lunch; you must be starving."

My growling stomach answered for me and before I could protest Edward was gone. He was back not even a minute later with a plate full of sandwiches and a glass of orange juice.

"Esme made them for you," he explained, placing the plate onto my lap and the juice on the bedside table. "The others thought we'd like some privacy."

Yeah, like it was possible to have a private life in this house. Edward laughed at my expression and added, "Emmett and Rosalie left. And unlike them, the rest of my family actually respect privacy."

I took a bite of one of the sandwiches and patted the bed next to me. Edward smiled and sat down beside me, leaning back against the headboard. "So, what happened?" I asked, trying not to sound so desperately impatient, but Edward wasn't fooled.

He smirked but finally started to talk.

When he finished, I sat there in silence for a few minutes, trying to process everything he had said. I wanted to ask some questions, but I really didn't know where to start.

"Bella?" said Edward after a while, sounding frustrated. "Please, tell me what you're thinking."

"I should have known it was her," I whispered, my eyes fixed on the wall opposite the bed. An impatient sigh next to me told me that Edward wasn't happy with my answer. "Umbridge," I explained, turning my head to him. "The woman who'd sent James after me. It was Umbridge. She did say she would find those who had been hiding abroad. Why didn't I think of it?"

"It wouldn't have changed anything, Bella."

"I know, but still. I should have made the connection."

"It doesn't matter now. We took care of James and Victoria so you're safe."

"And the third one? Laurent? Are you sure he won't come back for me?"

Edward put an arm around my shoulders and kissed my temple. "He didn't even know about you. He travelled with them out of convenience. He had already planned on leaving them before they met us." Then he paused, lifting my chin so I would look in his eyes. "Carlisle called Tanya and told her about Laurent's visit. They would warn us if he decided to come back. And we have Alice, she would know."

"Who's Tanya?" I lifted my eyebrows curiously.

"The leader of the Denali coven." A flicker of annoyance shot across his face, and I wondered if it was caused by my questions, or it was something about Tanya that he found annoying. He didn't say anything else about the Denali though, so I decided to let it go for the moment.

I was quiet for a while, much to Edward's increasing frustration, resting my head on his shoulder. After a minute or two I lifted my head to look at him. "What about Alice? Is she okay?" It had shocked me when Edward told me that James had known Alice as human.

Edward sighed. "Yes. She's with Jasper now, trying to figure out what to do next. She wants to know more about her human family so she's thinking about going to Mississippi to look for more information."

"Poor Alice," I mumbled, placing my head back on Edward's shoulder. "What kind of a family would put their daughter in that place?" I shuddered, imagining poor little Alice in a mental asylum.

"We don't know why they put her there," said Edward. "It didn't have to be because they didn't love her, Bella. She had probably some kind of visions even as a human and it might have scared her family so much that they didn't know what else to do."

"But if they loved her - "

"Bella, even today she would have been perceived as strange, if not put into a mental facility. People have always feared what they didn't understand. I thought you, of all people, would know that."

I did know that. Even my own mother had been treating me a little differently since she found out I was a witch. "It still doesn't make it right," I said aloud.

"No, but we don't know what had happened that Alice ended up in that asylum. There could have been many reasons for that. Maybe they couldn't control her, or her visions caused some sort of accident."

I frowned. "Are you defending them?"

"Of course I'm not," he said with an impatient sigh. "But I'm not judging them either. We simply don't know the facts."

I didn't know what to say to that because of course he was right again. I snuggled closer to him, pressing my lips against his throat. His breathing paused for a second, but he relaxed immediately, pulling me even closer to him. I smiled. It looked like he'd finally accepted the fact that I wasn't afraid of him.