I stroke my hand over Bella's hair and stare at her in amazement. It worked. She's alive. Maybe the curse is broken?

"Not quite."

I turn around at the sound of the familiar voice, and my eyes widen when I see the figure standing in the doorway.

"It's not possible."

"And yet…here I am."

I step towards her, my hand outstretched. I brush my fingertips along her cheek, her skin, once dappled with freckles and sunlight, is now alabaster pale and her eyes are crimson.

"Isabella"

She holds my hand against her cheek and I am transported back to our days on the river.

"No!"

I step away from her, back towards the bed where Bella lies sleeping. I look from one to the other. "I don't understand."

"Reincarnation is a tricky thing," Isabella says, "Especially for vampires."

Her voice is cold steel, as though it lost its warm, musical quality in death.

"You see, when I died, I should never have came back, but the vampire who bit me had a very special gift – the power to bring back the dead. I didn't have enough venom in my system and the transformation halted when I jumped off the balcony, but he found me after and brought me back."

"But…we buried you."

"And he dug me up."

I look at Bella's face and I see her eyelid twitch. Something tells me that if she wakes up now, things will be bad. I turn back to Isabella.

"But then…why the reincarnates?"

"My creator can bring back the body, but not the soul. Mine moved on, I became Mabel, Annabelle and finally, Bella."

I shift my body in front of Bella, shielding her from Isabella. The vampire standing before me is not the girl I fell in love with, there is something cold and uncaring about her, and her red eyes are wilder than the eyes of any other vampire I've seen before.

"That hurts, Edward," She sticks out her bottom lip. "I'm still your Isabella."

"How did you know what I was thinking?"

"I have my own little vampire gift, Edward. I can take on the powers of other vampires. I just have to be near them. Right now I have your ability to read minds and you're wondering what threat I pose to your Bella."

"You won't get near her."

"Oh, I will, Edward, because I want back what she took from me, what the others before her took from me. I want my soul."

"You stay away from her."

"Don't you understand, Edward? I'm doing this for us, so we can be together again."

She glides towards me and wraps her arms around my waist. Her touch is as hard as stone, but something stirs within me.

"Think about it, Edward, my soul doesn't belong to her, it's trapped in the wrong body. I have to take it back."

"Why now?"

Isabella releases me with an exasperated sigh. "The others died before I had a chance to extract my soul. But something is different with this one."

Isabella slides around me and leans over Bella, their faces inches apart.

"She is very pretty, in a common, human kind of way."

Isabella presses her lips to Bella's. A growl starts low in my throat. I grab Isabella's arm and throw her against the wall, my hand closes around her neck, but she just laughs.

"Relax! What, did you think I was going to suck her soul out through her mouth?"

I let go of her and she dips her head from side to side, as a tiny fissure in her skin heals itself.

"The process is much more complicated than that. She has to die in a specific way."

"I'll never let that happen."

"You won't have a choice. You can't stop me, because you would never kill me. I can hear it in your thoughts."

"Maybe not, but we will."

I turn to find Alice standing in the doorway, Emmet, Carlisle and Esme behind her.

"I've seen it," Alice folds her arms across her chest. "Bella is under our protection, you'll die before she does."

Emmet cracks his knuckles threateningly, but Isabella just laughs. "I know what you have seen, Alice. I've seen it too, but the visions are subjective."

Alice looks confused.

"Isabella has the ability to use our gifts." I explain.

"That's right," Isabella says, "And I think I'll stay close. The ability to see the future and read minds, is going to come in very handy."

She pushes past Alice and stalks out of the room.

"Edward, we have to go after her," Alice says, "We have to stop her."

I grit my teeth. "I know, but not yet. We have to give her a chance to back down."

"She won't back down! She'll keep going until she gets what she wants."

"Edward's right," Esme says, laying a hand on Alice's shoulder, "We have to give her a chance."

"Carlisle?" Alice looks pleadingly at my Father, but his eyes are on me.

"Edward must be the one to choose."

I look at Bella, still lying peacefully in her hospital bed. I know that Isabella's soul is there, that I can't let her die, but I can't kill Isabella either, I won't. Watching her die was too hard before.

The rain starts to splatter against the window like wet sand, and the sky begins to darken. With a heavy heart, I realise that there's only one thing I can do to keep them both alive. It won't be easy, but it's the only way.

"I know what I have to do."

Thank you for reading A Neverlasting Love.

Coming soon: A Neverlasting Love: What Goes Around