~ Chapter Thirty-Two — Grief ~

Isabella POV

Roaring and snarling with battle lust, we surged forward as one. The newborns reacted instinctively, shrinking back from us.

Maria's voice called over their shouts and screams even as the first of her troops fell foul to our army. "Fight, you cowards!"

Her words worked on some level. The newborns stopped shrinking away and began to attack us in turn. I ran forward through the battling vampires to where Tanya, Kate and Irina were being held hostage. Marcus and Eleazar were right behind me.

Demetri rushed ahead of me and launched himself at Maria. They collided with the force of racing cars, creating a echoing bang that swept over the clearing.

To our great benefit, and Maria's folly, the newborns she had selected were not intellectually gifted. They continued to hold Tanya and her sisters in their grip, but did not make the final move that would decapitate them. A decapitation would be unfortunate, but not the worst thing that could happen.

I paid no attention to the fights around me. All my attention was focused on getting to Tanya and her sisters before they could be slain.

I crashed into the vampire holding Tanya and knocked him to the floor. He snarled at me and growled, but with a swift run of my teeth against his neck he was silenced.

Marcus and Eleazar had copied my actions with the vampires holding Kate and Irina, decapitating them; they were busy checking over Tanya, Kate and Irina for sign of injury.

"Not now!" I hissed between my teeth.

The battle around us was growing ever more desperate. The island's inhabitants would think there was a fierce storm here, as the sounds of our fight was like claps of thunder. All across the clearing, pieces of vampires twitched and crept back towards their fallen owner. There were no fires burning, for which I was grateful. It was one of my rules of combat. As long as a vampire had not been burned we could save them. It was a risk, as a dismembered enemy could repair themselves, but that took time. I forbade fires in battles until the very end. I alone was armed with the igniter that Caius created. It looked like the Romanian newborns either did not know, or did not care that fire was necessary to destroy us.

Tanya was clasping hands with her sisters. I could see the marks of her capture on her arms and neck. She had been bitten many times. She looked thoroughly shell-shocked. I gripped her face in my hands and gave her a sharp shake. "Listen to me, Tanya!" I snapped. "You must go to the coast and into the water. You will find our scent path. Go to the castle."

She began to speak but I cut her off.

"Do as I say. Go to the castle and to Carlisle. He will take care of you."

"I w–w–want to fight," she stuttered.

"You are a liability," I said coolly. "You have suffered too much, now—"

My words were cut off as someone collided with me and knocked me to the floor.

"Don't go anywhere," a cruel voice hissed. "We haven't nearly finished playing with you."

Maria! I leapt to my feet and searched for a sign of Demetri. With a thrill of horror I recognized one of the disembodied heads rolling across the grass as his own. This was too much.

"Go!" I shouted to Tanya, and began circling Maria. Marcus and Eleazar were no good to me. They were each locked in combat with a vampire of their own.

Maria feinted left and came at my right side. She was powerful and gifted in combat, but I was better. I caught her arm as she passed and yanked her wrist back, breaking her hand away from her arm. She shrieked in pain and I reveled in the sound.

"Isabella!" Jane screamed my name but I could not go to her now. Maria injured was more dangerous than if she were well. She came at me again and I dodged her reaching hand with a laugh.

"You're getting old, Maria, out of practice."

She screamed inarticulately in response. I allowed her to come at me again and I caught her hair as she passed and dragged back her head. I was tempted to prolong the moment, but the battle still waged around me and I was needed elsewhere. I gripped her head in my hands and run my teeth across her throat. With an anticlimactic thud her head fell to the ground. I kicked it away from me.

Freed of my opponent, I turned my attention to the rest of the combatants surrounding me. There were many slain on the ground. Some in the rough dirty clothing of the Romanians army, and others in the grey cloaks of the Volturi. I recognized the dark cloak of Demetri on one body and I dragged it away from the fray and hid it behind a heavy boulder, then returned with his head. He would be safe there.

The newborns Marcus and Eleazar had been fighting were slain and piled. I could see Eleazar fighting a newborn a short distance away, but Marcus was nowhere to be seen.

I searched for Jane and saw her locked in combat with the shield that had foiled our last fight. Rage surged in me at the sight of her. This was the woman that had made me a coward.

Running forward I tackled her to the ground. She was not merely gifted mentally, she was a ferocious fighter, too. No matter where I aimed my blows she dodged them. I could see now why Jane had called for me; she was no great fighter. She had relied on her gift for too long.

With a kick to my chest, I was knocked to the floor. The shield bore down on me, teeth bared. For the second time in my life, I prepared myself for death and called to mind the image of my Jasper's face to ease my passage.

"I'm so sorry, love," I whispered.

Suddenly, she was yanked backwards from me and thrown to the floor. I looked for my savior and saw a shock of red hair.

"Tomas!" I gasped.

"I'm sorry, Isabella," he said fervently. "I didn't mean to tell them, but they forced me."

Standing behind him, clutching his arm, was a petite female I assumed was his Lucy. I was momentarily torn. By Volturi law he was a traitor and must be killed for it, but he had saved me from certain death.

"Run, Tomas," I hissed. "Run from this place and never look back."

He nodded jerkily and he and his mate ran away toward the trees.

Someone had started a fire, and already the cloying scent of burning vampire hung over the clearing. The smell repulsed me as the sight of the purple smoke infuriated me. I threw myself back into the fray.

There was no way of telling how many of my army had been slain and how many of the Romanians'. The confusion of battle was great. I did not trouble myself trying to calculate our loss. I focused instead on the immediate fight around me. A large newborn in tattered jeans and a sweatshirt drenched in human blood charged at me. I dodged its attack by stepping sideways and tugged on its arm as it passed. It tore away at the socket. I used the detached arms as a cudgel to beat at the vampire's face. Physically it would do nothing to it, but mentally it would be torturous.

I was actually beginning to enjoy myself when a pain filled cry caught my attention. I turned to see Chelsea kneeling on the ground cradling the decapitated head of Afton in her arms. Her keening cries were heart wrenching. I left the disabled vampire and hastened to her side.

"They killed him, Isabella," she moaned.

"Stop this!" I slapped her cheek. "He is not dead yet. Find his body and we can save him."

I don't know why I did it, why I was so distracted by Chelsea's pain when I cared little for her, but something in her desperation tore at my heart. It split my focus and made me vulnerable. I shook off my stupor and slapped her again. "Focus, Chelsea. Find his body and take him somewhere safe to mend."

She clambered ungracefully to her feet, still cradling Afton's head in her arms, and began searching for a sign of the ashy cloak Afton wore.

Another newborn came at me, and I began to fight once again. This one was young and had considerable strength but no finesse. I was able to best him with a few well placed blows and soon my teeth were making the familiar swoop across the neck.

I turned and search the clearing for another opponent, but something else drew my attention. A soft voice spoke my name like a sigh. There was no reason I should have been able to hear it over the roars and snarls filling the clearing but hear it I did. Perhaps it was the decades of friendship and love that made it audible to me.

I spun on my heel and spotted the person calling me just in time to see his decapitated head being thrown into the flames. Icy horror swept through me and a howl of misery passed my lips.

"Marcus!"

I ran towards the flames, caring nothing for the fight still waging around me. All my focus was on the flames consuming the head of my oldest friend. Arms caught me around the waist and held me back. I screamed in fury. I did not want to be stopped; I wanted to save Marcus.

"It's too late, Isabella," Eleazar's voice crooned in my ear. "He's gone."

"No!" I screeched. "There is still time."

Time for what I did not know. The rational part of me knew it was too late to do anything. Even as I watched, I saw Marcus' body being tossed into the fire. I watched the flames licking at his flesh turning all to ash. Part of me died with him. I felt a splinter of my heart break away and turn to ash too. Marcus was gone. My oldest friend, my closest confidante, had been stolen away from me. My shoulders began to shake with sobs and I became limp in Eleazar's arms. He eased me to the ground and cradled me in his arms. The sounds of battle still waged around us, but it seemed unimportant now in the face of our loss.

Suddenly, Eleazar's arms were torn away from me as a trio of newborns fell upon us. I leapt to my feet, my grief not forgotten but relegated in my mind for the moment, and threw myself into the fight once again.

Marcus' death created a burning thirst for revenge inside of me. My blows landed harder than ever and my teeth were soon at the throat of my attacker. When he fell I threw him onto the fire and turned searching for more victims.

My teeth sought and found more enemies for me to slay. More than once I found myself preparing for the killing blow only to recognize the ashy cloaks of my allies at the last moment. I cared little for who fell at my hands though, and many a limb was torn away wearing the colors of my brothers in arms. They would heal, Marcus wouldn't.

The fight was almost over. I could see many of my army locked in combat, but there were others that were occupying themselves with the healing of others and feeding the fires with the slain Romanians.

Eyes caught mine over the clearing, and I saw Eleazar's grave face. He seemed to be saying something to me but I was distracted by the newborn approaching him from behind.

"Eleazar!" I screamed his name, but it was too late. The newborn was at his throat. With a thrill of horror I saw his head fall away and land on the grass with an inconsequential thud.

I tried to run forward to rescue him before the flames took him as they had Marcus, but I couldn't more. Someone's arms were locked around my chest and hot breath was at my neck.

I felt teeth cut through my skin.