Chapter Forty Five

Charlie

I watched Jasper as he disappeared into the cabin ready to shoot any wolf who moved but there was a silent stillness over both wolves and vampires then Sam phased to human and came to my side,

"You know he's breaking the treaty if he changes her?"

"I know she'll die if he doesn't."

"She dies either way Charlie."

"No one stops him. I won't let Bella die, not at my hand."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you brought the mutts up here"

I looked at Peter who had stepped forward with Garrett.

"I wanted my daughter back."

"She didn't want to go back Charlie and forcing her with a pack of flea ridden mutts wasn't a good idea. Now she has no choice but to become like us. Slick move daddy."

I walked forward until we were feet apart and lifted my rifle to touch his chest, my finger on the trigger ready for him.

"She's my daughter and you stole her away."

"You don't scare me Charlie. If you're going to pull the fucking trigger get it over with. Shit or get off the pot."

Bella screamed at that moment and I flinched, my finger completing the pull and the bullets came out fast thudding into his chest one after the other. He was knocked backwards onto the snow as the other vampires ran forward and the battle started all over again as I watched in horror. It soon became obvious that the wolves were outmatched and their numbers started to dwindle, a new carcass being added to the heap regularly. Two made a bid for freedom but although they were fast they weren't fast enough and they too joined what had become a funeral pyre. The vampires making sure the Quileute wolf pack was finished before seeing to their own injured and it was all my fault, the carnage and the death of the wolves all because of my action. I dropped the rifle and sank to my knees unable to bear the thought that Sam, Jake, Paul, Leah, and the rest of the pack were dead and I still didn't have my daughter back.

Edward

I watched from a safe distance having no intention of being caught by either side, the vampires would see me as a threat just as much as the wolves. I had hoped Jake and his pack of wolves would defeat Jasper and his friends or keep them busy enough for me to get Bella away but it looked like they were warned and had time to call in reinforcements, Alice! There was no way of getting close to Bella now and I wasn't sticking around to be torn to pieces by the victors but I wasn't finished yet, Jasper may have changed her but that didn't mean he would get to keep her, I had other tricks up my sleeve. I knew his friends had seen me but they were too busy picking up the pieces and I was faster than any of them so with a whispered

"She'll still be mine in the end Major"

I ran making for a safe place, after all I had plans to make.

Garrett

The fight was soon over, we were just too seasoned for the wolves, not like the odd nomad they usually encountered. While Hawk and Walker collected the dead wolves and started the pyre Charlotte ran over to Peter and Annora helped Lake fuse her hand back on while Reeve and Saffron tried to locate Dallas leg which had been ripped off by one of the wolves and tossed into the trees. I went to Peter's side, his chest was a colander, venom leaking through the bullet holes stitched across his upper torso.

"You OK?"

"Do I look OK to you Garrett? I've just been fucking shot and it stings like hell. Now stop asking stupid questions and get your butt in the cabin, I need to know how Bella is."

I nodded and got up picking the rifle from the snow and bending it in half, just in case Charlie decided to try anything else, he was just crazy enough to.

I went into the cabin and knew The Major had bitten Bella, her heart rate was accelerated and her breath coming in pained gasps. She lay in the bed with Jasper holding her close to him and from the look on his face, helping her with the pain. Charlie sat the other side looking dazed but he glanced up at me as I came in.

"How is the guy I shot?"

"Pissed."

"But he'll be OK"

"Yes, he'll mend so I'd be well away from here sharpish or he might just shoot you full of holes."

"I can't leave until I know Bella is safe. How long does it take? How long before you know she'll make it?"

I shrugged,

"The Major will do everything he can but the transformation usually takes about three days. You don't want to be here when she wakes up though."

"Why? I need to apologise."

There was a pained laugh from the door and Peter staggered in, a towel held to his still leaking chest,

"That's a good one. Sorry honey that I shot you but you got in the way. I was trying to kill the man you love"

Charlie flinched,

"I still have to speak to her, explain."

"There's nothing left to explain and when she wakes up she's gonna be thirsty, poetic justice I guess, you could be her first meal."

Charlie bowed his head.

Charlie

How had things gone so badly wrong when all I was trying to do was save my daughter from vampires. Now she lay in a vampires arms dying or changing into one of them because I shot her. Now she was lost to me for ever and her boyfriend hated me more than anyone else. The wolves were dead, all of them and I had Billy and Harry to face it not to mention Emily when, no if, I made it back alive. Could I go back? Could I leave Bella not knowing if she made it and if she blamed me for her conversion. I walked out of the cabin to see the other vampires who had stood to protect Bella looking at me. Garrett was with them and I turned to walk back to the snowmobile which lay where I'd abandoned it in my hurry to get to Bella.

"Wait"

I turned as Garrett caught up with me, it seemed he had something else to say,

"Yeah? Is there a problem with Bella?"

"There might be and that's why I chased you, you ought to know seeing as how you're responsible, but I wasn't going to say anything in there, he already knows. There's a chance she won't make it through the conversion, if she bleeds out before the venom takes a good enough hold of her tissues."

That stopped me, I'd assumed once she'd been bitten she would be fine.

"When will you know?"

"Could happen any time till she wakes. Usually there's enough to stop the organs failing too quickly but her body needs the blood to carry the venom to all her tissues and if there isn't enough then the venom doesn't reach to all the tissues and those that don't get enough start to die off. It's not a good way to die, I've seen it once and I hope to God I never see it again."

I turned round and went back to the cabin praying they'd found a way to stop the bleeding although she'd lost so much before Jasper bit her. Inside nothing had changed except Peter and his partner Charlotte were sitting on the couch and he was moaning quietly but sat up when he saw me.

"Come back for another go Charlie? Go ahead, after all you shot your own daughter."

Charlotte tried to hush him but he hadn't finished yet,

"Do you have any idea how difficult you've made it for him to change Bella. You just about signed her death warrant, you hit a major vein so she lost a bucketful before he could bite her. If she dies I hope he kills you because if he doesn't it will only be because he's killed himself to join her and then I'll be the one coming for you and I'll make you suffer before you die, trust me"

I didn't answer, what could I say to him? I pushed open the door of the bedroom and stepped in, Bella was still in his arms her face contorted with pain and her body shuddering but most worrying of all was the blood seeping through her shirt between his fingers. She was still losing blood and now I knew what that might mean.