Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.
Chapter 75 Fire
"You don't need to thank me for that, bloodsucker. I love her, too, remember!" he said, hanging up the phone.
. . . stay in control . . . cover all possibilities . . . keep it together . . .
Victoria POV
There is something strange about that damned girl. How many times have I gone down there, intending to have a little fun, scare her to death, rough her up a bit and maybe even cause her to go into labor with that spawn she's carrying . . . yet each time I do, something stops me. I don't know what the hell changes . . . I just get caught up in my head with other things . . .
Fear? Hell no. Who would I be afraid of, her? Is a lion afraid of a lamb? Cullen's, am I afraid of what they will do to me? No, even if they could catch me . . . just, no.
Regret? No, couldn't be that, except that I regret our ever coming across the Cullen's at that damned baseball game. If we had never met them, then my James would still be with me. Ummmm, I'd like that.
Compassion? No. I adore torturing humans, always have, especially when they beg for their pathetic little lives, or their mates.
Sympathy? No. I have no sympathy for her, I am not capable of sharing feelings with her. She is food, I am a predator . . . and I like to play with my food.
I just have got no clue why I haven't treated her as I have pets in the past . . . I torture them, like pulling the wings off a fly. I only need her to be able to utter a word on the phone, that's all . . . and only twice more before the money comes in! She can fucking talk with broken bones.
I headed downstairs, intent on having my usual fun. I had been left on my own since yesterday afternoon when I sent Riley to the Cullen's with the note from her, until this morning when the weather outside cleared and the asshole's phone would work. She called him. Made no sense to me, mumbling how much he loved her. James never wallowed in all that mushy shit. He loved me, I knew and that was all there was. She's delusional anyway, mumbling shit about the fireplace. Maybe I had better check the food supply for them, she could be dehydrated or something from thirst . . . or fear. I hope it's fear. Had to be, there was plenty of water and I was sure there was nasty smelling human food for them to eat.
That was going to be the only draw back to having shit loads of money . . . it would put me in closer contact with fucking humans. I would fly first class, stay at hotels, buy cars and shop, but all of that made me deal with them in one form or another. James and I had preferred to stay to ourselves in the woods, dealing with humans only when we were thirsty. Perhaps I could make a game of it in my mind, you know, see just how far I could go with them and how outrageous my behavior could get before they suspected something. Stupid cattle. I'd have to come up with something to tolerate being around them.
"So, enjoying the fire, bitch?" I spat when I reached the room where they sat. The snack for Riley was on the sofa looking whiter than me. She actually looked like she might die before we ever even drained her.
"What do you want? Is it time to call? What?" the scared little human said, taking steps backwards as I sauntered towards her. Something glistened around her neck. I had it in my hand before she even reacted to my stare.
"Diamonds? The boy buys you diamonds and puts your initials on a necklace? How sweet. They say that diamonds cut. I have personally never tried, but let's do an experiment," I said, grasping her arm and shoving the sweater up off of her forearm.
"Wonder if I can carve your husband's initials with this?" I said as I pressed the pendant into her arm and . . ."
"Riley! What the hell are you doing back here?" I asked as I turned to see him entering the room, leaving the door open behind him.
"Babe, aren't you glad to see me?" he asked as he put his fucking arm around me and attempted to kiss me.
"You idiot! You weren't supposed to come back here! They will have tracked your scent!" I yelled.
"Not a chance. I drove. Picked up a new car in Atlanta for us, baby. Oh, and I brought another battery for her phone, in case you needed it," he said.
I handed her the phone, the torture I had planned forgotten . . . Riley would never be able to resist the smell of blood if I drew it from her so she might just as well go ahead and make her phone call.
"Edward," I heard her in a small part of my brain.
Mostly I was concentrating on Riley. "Where did you get the battery, pet?" I questioned. He was sniffing the girl on the sofa, obviously interested in not wasting her if she was going to die soon. "The little black haired one, Alice. She gave me the battery at their house as I was leaving," he said calmly, still sniffing the girl.
"No. I'm fine, really. I'm okay. Victoria and Riley are in the room with me, though," she told him.
"You stupid son of a bitch! You brought it here? From her?," I said as I kicked the sofa he was leaning against all the way to the staircase on the other side of the room, flipping the girl up and onto the stairs. "You idiot!" I continued to scream as I stalked towards him, shoving the chair he stood behind off towards the fireplace.
"What the hell, Victoria. I thought it was a good idea! The battery in the damned phone could have died and you are hell bent on getting money from the fucker," he screamed in return, his tendons tensed and teeth glaring at me.
"They probably bugged it you ass! You have been nothing but a constant thorn in my ass since I made you, and I think your usefulness is over you little prick," I screamed as I lunged for him. He was an easy target.
"Shit! What the hell are you doing Victoria?" he said as I threw the arm I had just removed into the growing flames. I had inadvertently shoved the damned chair into the fire and it had flamed up instantly.
"I thought you loved me!" he screamed.
"Loved you! Loved you?" I had to stop and stifle my laughter, "You stupid boy. I loved a man . . .a man that the Cullen's killed over that little human," I said, noticing that she was over beside the injured girl on the stairs. It didn't matter. We would have to leave this house as soon as I ended Riley, and she stood no chance of getting away from me. I laughed even harder . . . the fat little thing seemed to be trying to get the injured girl up the stairs with her. Stupid fucking little human. They really did have no more sense than the cattle that they themselves bred for their own food.
I took my time stalking him, tossing things out of the way as I went, backing him into a corner. he was pleading, just like most of the little humans that we fed from as I ripped his head off and tossed it into the fireplace. Stupid little shit, had to complicate things. Whatever. Saved me the trouble of lighting another fire for him later. I headed up the stairs without giving his burning body a second glance.
"Oh girls!" I called out to them, stooping to pick up the phone that the stupid little cow dropped. Was there any limit to how dumb humans really were? Honestly, what the hell did he see in her? He was a vampire for goodness sake, she was beneath him in every way! Her only chance, take the phone and get outside so that she could tell him where she was, and she leaves it. Probably couldn't hold onto it and the other girl.
I quietly went to the room I had been using and gathered my things into my bag. No more Riley to have to fuck! God, I was so thrilled to finally be rid of him. All I had to do was grab the girls from wherever they were hiding, have my snack, throw the other girl in the car and find us another house, maybe further out this time. The money was being wired so it was no longer necessary for me to be close by. I had only chosen this house because we could drive to it before they could set up surveillance and watch the roads by satellite for the fucking silver Volvo that they were bound to figure out that I had. This new car that Riley had taken would fly under their radar. Huh, at least he had helped in that regard. I walked out of the bedroom.
"Girls! Ready to go? Come out, you can't hide!" I called to them. The asshole had left the front door open, though there was no scent that the girls had gone out it. I started to close it when I saw movement in the brush at the far side of the yard.
Werewolf! What the fuck was a werewolf doing here. Well, we would just see about that. I dropped my bag and headed out the front door. Werewolves had killed my friend and I would end this fucker here and now, but what the hell was a werewolf doing on the East coast? Too bad I didn't have time to alert him to the Cullens, maybe there were more of them and they could take them out for me, save me the trouble! Whatever. At least I would have the fun of ending this one before I had to deal with anything to do with the Cullens or the girl or the money. This was for Laurent.
~oooOooo~
Jacob POV
"You don't need to thank me for that, bloodsucker. I love her, too, remember!" he said, hanging up the phone.
I swear, to be so smart, sometimes that leach could be just plain stupid. I remembered the conversation I had just had with him as I phased back to wolf.
"That's my Chica! Brilliant! I'm not going nuts, it is her that I smell!"
I loved wolf telepathy. We could run and track and smell while we communicated. No problem. It didn't matter if the wind was whipping around and howling or if there was rain and thunder because we were actually inside each other's heads. There was no distortion, no static or interference with the signal, just pure thoughts.
"Sam, we're close . . . I knew that was her I've been smelling!"
"Jake, the wind is shifting so much, I can't be sure which way the smell is coming from. We better be safe and keep following these tracks."
"The tracks are so crusted over it's going to take us forever, Sam . . . and she doesn't have forever."
"Fine. You go on ahead, I'll keep following the tracks, see what you can find and keep talking to me, so I know what's going on."
"Got it," I thought as I took off towards the direction the smell was coming from. Half an hour later, the smell was stronger than ever, but I couldn't really get a read on exactly where it was coming from. I decided to do a loop around a small area of houses that seemed to be scattered some distance apart. All the roads to these fuckers were already plowed and some of them even dry pavement they had been cleaned so well and salted. Fuck, people with money. You really could buy just about anything it seemed.
Huh. The smell was stronger over this way, but it only lasted for just a short time before . . . bingo. I followed a particularly strong whiff that I got, and there was only one house on the entire ridge, completely isolated several miles from all the other homes. I circled it, just to be sure, and when I crossed Riley's smell, it became a sure thing. Riley's scent went up to what appeared to be the front door. Well, I only went as far as the edge of the woods, but it had to go on up to the house, there was nothing else to go to. There were no other scents though, not anywhere around the entire house. I circled it to be sure as I waited for Sam to catch up to me. I heard her before I saw her. She was screeching at the girls.
"Girls! ready to go? Come out, you can't hide!"
At least it meant they were still alive! Then I saw her. Fiery red curls on her shoulders as she stuck her head out the door. She saw me as well, though I was just in the shadow of the forest outside the front of the house. I stepped out into the clearing and she moved down the front steps. She maintained a slightly crouched position, tensed and ready to fight as her lip seemed to curl up into what was probably intended to be a smile.
This was it. This was the leech that had killed my father and taken the girl I loved hostage. I had every intention of ending her here and now.
Sam screamed in my head, telling me to wait, ordering me to wait. Ordering me? What the hell was that about anyway?
Victoria approached, stalking me, and Sam was running full tilt to get to me, only moments away. A moment was a lifetime when it involved a vampire, though. I noticed behind Victoria that flames had started to lick the doorway she had exited from and smoke from the house was becoming heavy.
She lunged at me as I grabbed her torso in my mouth and flung her several yards away. She was on her feet in an instant and had her arms grasping me by the neck as I bit at her shoulder. Sam came flying out of the woods and took her by surprise, grabbing her head in his mouth as I pulled on her shoulder . . . and it was over. She lay in two separate pieces on the ground in front of us as I heard another vampire approaching.
Edward.
"Alright, Jake. This is our chance. We end him and blame it on the redhead." Sam thought.
"What? No!" I told him.
He used the alpha command as he ran towards Edward, forcing me to follow. I watched in horror as he grabbed the unsuspecting bloodsucker by the arm. The leech had obviously been totally consumed and focused on the house that he believed Bella to be held in, which was now obviously starting to burn and hadn't bothered to as much as read Sam's thoughts.
"NO!" I screamed at Sam, but he insisted, my steps getting closer to where he and Edward were fighting and his voice forcing me to do his will.
As I approached the fight, it was obvious that Edward was trying not to hurt Sam, but the same could not be said of Sam. His thoughts were murderous and he wanted nothing more than to rip the vampire to shreds and burn the pieces along with the redhead's.
This was not happening. Sam was the acting leader of my tribe and the alpha of the pack . . . but Edward was my friend. He and Bella were my best friends and Sam had no justification for his actions, other than years of legends and traditions based in fear and hatred. This wasn't happening. I could not allow this to happen.
"Stop fighting. Release him," I demanded.
I felt the power surge in my bones and I think I actually grew in stature. I was the rightful heir to be Chief and I was the rightful alpha. I knew it. I had known it all along, I had just been running away from my responsibilities, from anything that reminded me of my father. My words could not be overlooked. Sam had been acting in my stead and the words of him as the alpha had been hard to resist . . . but not impossible. My word was different. It felt like law . . . it was absolute and could not be ignored, not by a pack member anyway.
Sam backed off and ran into the woods as I phased to human form. Edward had run towards the house, circling it and trying desperately to find a way into the home that was now fully engulfed in flame. One arm was already burned badly as I tried not to grab it while I held him back from entering the flames.
"Edward, no. You can't go in there. We have to hope she got out, Edward. We have to hope," I told him as he dropped to his knees, tears streaming down his face.
Emmett, Rose and Esme arrived as I was holding him back, Esme moving quickly to hold on to him trying to comfort him. I slipped to the bushes and slid on my pants as I saw Jasper and Alice arrive as well.
The fire department siren was blaring as the trucks rolled in. Sam had stayed in wolf form while I had restrained Edward and had managed to throw Victoria's parts into the flames before anyone else arrived. He had then left, or at least he was keeping his distance in the woods. Charlie arrived with Sue and Emily in tow. I explained briefly what had happened as they all broke into tears as well.
We stood, herded back by the fire department and Charlie fielding questions as to why the hell we were out in all this weather anyway. All we could do was wait. The fire department would put out the flames and look for bodies. We couldn't go near the flames anyway, the result of trying was evident on Edward's arm. Alice retrieved bandages from the first aid box the fireman carried to wrap the arm so that it would not be seen. It wasn't like it looked like a normal burn, anyway, and they had to try and reduce the risk of exposure where they could.
"Ma'am, I'll take a look at his arm myself, if you don't mind," the fireman told Alice as she started to walk back towards Edward.
"No need. We're Dr. Cullen's kids. Dr. Carlisle Cullen, Highlands Hospital? It's not a severe burn and we're driving him there to meet my father momentarily. Thanks anyway!" she said as she flitted back to Edward.
"Victoria ran out of the house and fought with me. Sam and I took her out and threw the pieces on the fire," I told Jasper as the rest of the family listened. I left out the part about Sam trying to kill Edward, though I knew the teeth marks were there in his arm and shoulder for all to see.
"I tracked her scent here, Jasper. The scent had stopped coming from the house by the time Victoria emerged, but it's all around. She had apparently been throwing pieces of hair in the fire for quite some time for it to be all around like this," I told them.
I had seen a lot of things in my short life that were sad, my father after my mother died, my fathers death, his funeral, Bella when Edward had left her . . . but nothing compared to how he was as he sat there on his heels.
Edward was completely devoid of life. Tears stained his face and his black eyes showed bottomless pools of pain and torment as he stared at the burning house. Alice and Esme tried to cover the arm in venom to help it heal before they covered it in gauze to stop the onlookers.
"I can't see anything, Edward. Nothing. It's probably just because the dogs are here. Honestly, let me go off by myself and see. We just don't know yet, Edward. Please don't give up hope yet, we just don't know!" Alice begged him.
Charlie talked to Carlisle at the hospital, telling him there was no point in coming out till they heard something, especially since he could not leave the hospital anyway. There had been an enormous accident and injuries from a bus that wrecked while travelling in the storm.
The fire was dying down somewhat as night approached. The flames were confined to the rear of the house and what appeared to be an underground area, still burning. A fireman approached, "Excuse me folks. This was lying just inside the front door and we were wondering if any of you recognized it?" he asked as he held out the ash covered necklace that Edward had designed and had made for Bella.
Other than a few sharp intakes of breath, it was stone still and quiet as we all looked at the too familiar necklace.
Edward moved for the first time since he had sunk to his knees, hours ago. He stood and, shaking, took the necklace in his hand like it was the most delicate flower that had ever bloomed. He stared at Alice for a moment, then Esme, before turning to walk slowly away in the direction of home.
~oooOooo~
Carlisle POV
I had stayed with him on the road to Cashiers when it first happened and he was frantic. I stood protectively in front of him on Tuesday when his irate father in law had threatened him. I had stocked the house with her blood type and all the surgical gear that I thought might be needed and medical supplies to deliver the baby, but I felt completely useless to my family.
"I know, Petal, but I need to be there with Edward. He's far more important than any damned position at the hospital," I insisted.
"Of course he is. That's not why you're there and you know it. This family goes to great lengths to protect ourselves from being discovered, from standing out among the humans and you are there, covering for us just as you always do . . . protecting all of us, Carlisle," Esme told me insistently.
"But if I had just gotten to the road in time, Petal. If Edward had been able to reach me when he first called we could have stopped them," I mused.
"No. You don't know that. It might have forced Victoria's hand and she could have killed Bella there in front of you. Stop this this minute. Rose and I are leaving for the courthouse in Franklin momentarily. It's only Wednesday morning and we have until Friday, Carlisle. She has to keep her alive to talk to Edward every eight hours if she wants the money," my wife reminded me.
"You're right. I know you're right," I admitted. "Is everything prepared for when the power goes, gas for the generator, food for the hu . . ., I mean our guests?"
"Yes. Sue went down to Walmart in Clayton with Edward last night and stocked up."
"Edward? Edward went?" I asked, amazed that he would leave the mock control room that Jasper had set up.
"Yes, he insisted on going himself. Sue was telling me that he saw a young woman with a baby at the store . . . a child named Masen . . ."
"Oh dear God, no. He didn't need to have that happen to him. Is he okay?" I asked, worried sick about my oldest son.
"Carlisle, Sue said he opened his wallet and emptied it of cash, you know he keeps several thousand on hand. Anyway, she said he walked over and insisted the young woman take the money. It was heart wrenching. He told her that he had a son named Masen that was in danger and he'd like to help her son. Apparently he knew she didn't have the funds to buy what the baby needed and he wanted to help. That's the kind of man he is. That's the boy that you raised, Carlisle, and I'm so very proud of him," she told me. I knew that if she could cry, tears would be flowing as she spoke now.
The power did in fact go out during the night on Wednesday at the hospital as well as at home. Both places had emergency generators that would kick on automatically. The storm had knocked out any chance of satellite communications though, rendering the phone that Bella had with her useless, so there were no calls from her. Edward last spoke with her on Tuesday evening, allowing Charlie to speak to her as well.
It was difficult being at the hospital twenty four hours a day. A human could not continue indefinitely without sleep and I had to make a point of going to my office for a few hours at a time and pretending to rest on the sofa. It was infuriating to waste time, but necessary to keep up the pretense. Of course, any doctor worth his salt could do forty eight hours without sleep and it was Thursday morning before I retired to my office. The timing was perfect in that Edward called, telling me that he had just spoken to Bella, and that she had suggested that she was trying to get her scent out the fireplace by sitting in the draught of the fire and throwing cut bits of her hair in the updraught to get them to the outside. Brilliant. My new daughter amazed me at every turn.
Jake and Sam were still following Riley's trail and Jake had told Edward that he thought he smelled Bella . . . undoubtedly the fireplace! Edward was waiting for some confirmation back on the tracking device that Alice had managed to have Riley take with him and the two things together, along with the narrowed search area that Jasper had come up with were starting to give me real hope that she could be found. Apparently Jasper had also discovered, as he was investigating all aspects of the new satellite phones that Edward had gotten all of us back at Thanksgiving, that the phone had the ability to tell us where it was, a GPS that would give the phone's exact position when accessed. The mechanism was activated simply by pressing the correct button on the phone and Edward was sitting on ready for Bella to call again, determined to find a way to tell her about the button without Victoria understanding. If Bells could only press the button, Jasper could locate her instantly.
Jasper was amazing with electronics. Rose, Esme and Emmett were heading out to the area where Jake was searching to see if they could pick up anything and Edward was going as well. Jasper had managed to rig something so that he could listen to the call Edward was going to receive from Bella and work all his magic from a distance, allowing Edward to go and be as close s possible to where we though they were holding her. Thank God. Edward needed to be right there, staying at home was not helping his sense of uselessness.
Things had been relatively quiet at the hospital. A sprain here and a break there from people trying to play in the snow. One case of hypothermia from a child that had stayed out too long and a man had burned his hands pretty badly when a log had rolled out of his fireplace and he had lifted it to throw it back in.
We had just gotten a radio call from the authorities that a large bus had wrecked out on the highway with multiple severe injuries that were being transported in route to us. I alerted the emergency room staff and set preparations for their arrival underway, just as the call came in from Charlie.
They had found Victoria. Jake and Sam had killed her. There was no trace of Riley, other than his scent entering the house that was now totally engulfed in flames. Dear God, no . . .
They were all there. Everyone, other than me. Waiting. Edward . . . well Charlie said Edward was on his knees and hadn't moved. Jacob had apparently had to restrain him from entering the burning house to look for his wife, and one of his arms was badly burned. I realized I needed to get to him just as the ambulances started arriving. Surely I could orchestrate this and leave shortly. I methodically had the exam rooms filled, concentrating on anything that could be life threatening first. There were many. They just kept coming. God, would it never end! I had to get to my son before he did something stupid . . .
Author's note: Okay, okay! Please don't hunt me down and slay me! Riley and Victoria are dead, Jake has taken his rightful place, and we will find out what happened to Bella, honest! Renee and Phil are still on a cruise, they know nothing about this, I'm not ignoring them!