A/N: Those of you waiting for the vampires to get some justice, please note: it'll take some time and I have to amp up the stakes, but it will happen. I won't spoiler you, dear readers, but rest assured that your outrage at some of the things happening in this story will not be in vain. Patience, padawans.

Chapter Eleven

1 "Good. Now, I'm gonna turn you around so we can have a proper conversation, but we're gonna stay down here just a tad longer. Don't do anything stupid. You won't have time to phase without losing a couple of limbs. Understood?"

Leah wanted to tell Creepula he could rip off her arm and shove it up his own ass, but she had a job to do. Reminding herself of Yuppie Boy's promise to rid the Earth of all Cullens (two days only two days and they would be safe it would be over done with over forever), she bit down the reply and forced herself to keep her ire in check. "Understood."

"Good girl," he said, and before she knew it, he'd spun her around, slammed her back into the forest ground, and pressed himself on top of her, pinning her arms above her head.

She hit her head on the ground and inhaled sharply. Stars danced before her eyes. As she blinked them away, she saw that his face couldn't be ten inches away from hers. The overpoweringly sweet, cinnamon-like smell of his skin burned in her nostrils. It was all she could do not do pull up her knee, wipe the smirk off this creep's stupid vampire face. She glowered up at him. "What the fuck do you want, you little shit?" The asshole gave off cold like she was being buried under an ice-block. Fun times, these were not.

"This is something I like about you," he said in that patented Southern drawl of his she had a feeling he cultivated on purpose. "You don't banter. You cut right to the chase."

"Return the favour and do the same. I don't like being crushed to death by an ice-cold lump of sugar."

"You say the sweetest things," he said, pulling up one corner of his mouth in a crooked grin.

She grimaced at him over the bad, bad pun, opened her mouth to tell him to cut it out, and…

…oh, God.

Her mouth stayed open on her frozen expression as she stared at him, wide-eyed, chilled to the bone for more than one reason.

His eyes were brightly crimson.

"You killed someone," she whispered. For a moment, she almost lost control. Her body started trembling. Her face got burning hot. Bile shot up her throat. Her heartbeat was frantic.

"Sh, calm down; calm down," he said, straddling her, crushing his thighs against hers, immobilising her. "Don't make it even worse for yourself."

"I'm gonna fucking end you, you-"

"Well, if you're like that, then I have to be like this," he said, calm as ever, grinning.

That was when she felt it: her whole body relaxed, was drowned in tranquillity. She stopped struggling. Motherfucker. "Tell me what you want and get away from me." After a little pause, she added, "I hate your guts so goddamn much."

The grin morphed into a very self-satisfied smile. These things really were all in love with themselves, weren't they? Son of a bitch. "Where were you?"

Glaring up into that perfectly symmetrical, pouty-lipped face of his, she snapped, "Trying to convince Sam to not curb-stomp your sparkly asses," through clenched teeth. "I'm glad he didn't budge, though. You don't deserve being saved."

"Wrong answer, sunshine. I actually scouted out the reservation, and you were a very glaring no-show."

"You did what?"

"Don't deflect. You are up to no good, and things being as they are, I kind of have a zero tolerance policy toward liars and traitors," he said, squeezing her wrists harshly, making her flinch and suck in a sharp breath. "To put it colloquially: jig's up, peaches. Confess your sins."

By God, did he have to be this melodramatic? Christ. "Fuck you. I don't need to tell you anything, you little jerk. I wanted some space, and I don't need to have one of you ass-clowns sniffing after me every time I step out. I can't betray you, now, can I? Jacob won't let me."

The longest, most uncomfortable pause ensued, during which he just kept pinning her down, squeezing her legs with his thighs, crushing her upper body with his, smiling right into her face. Good Lord. At least the close proximity to her high temperature was warming him up a bit. Thankfully, these things weren't heat-sinks, on top of everything else. "You never knew me before I stared dumbing myself down with that disgusting animal crap. Look at me now, Miss Clearwater. I just got a very healthy dose of lost hikers into my body." He bore down on her even more, leaning in so close that his nose was almost touching hers. "I'm not an idiot. You want the kid dead above all. You met someone to talk about this, to make arrangements – to save yourself and your kin." Again, he squeezed her wrists. Blinding, searing pain shot down her arms, but she remained impassive. "Tell me who."

Unable and very much unwilling to help herself, she spat into his face. "Go to hell," she said, enunciating every word slowly, separately. Then, she laughed. "You think you can intimidate me by threatening to rip my arms off, by crushing me into the ground, by mind-doping me? You can't. Either get on with it, or get lost. You ain't the boss of me, jackass."

Her spittle right below his right eye didn't seem to faze him at all. Calmly, carefully, he just completely lay down on her, so that they were cheek to cheek and she basically had her head pinned between his head and his shoulder. She did her best to not flip out.

"You want the kid to bite it?" he whispered. "You want us off your land?"

This was getting ridiculous. Staring up at the crowns of the trees, glimpsing specs of radiant blue sky, she sighed inwardly, and said, "Are those trick questions?"

He chuckled. "If that's what you want, Miss Clearwater, then you and I, for once, want the same thing. Count me in."

She froze. "What?"

"Keep your voice down." He whispered this directly into her ear, his lips brushing her skin, making her whole body break out in gooseflesh. Yikes. "I have, over the past year, but especially during the last four months, made several realisations, and I've come to the conclusion that I need to move on with my life. That child is dangerous. I don't want to be a drone, and I don't want to get my head ripped off by either the Volturi or your wolf friends. I like being undead. I want to stay that way if I can help it."

When he backed off a little again so he could face her, it dawned on her what he was really saying. Her eyes went wide again. It was as if her heart had skipped a beat. "You're immune," she mouthed, not even daring to whisper it.

The tiniest smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth. "Just made use of a natural advantage I have over the others, is all."

Leah had no idea whether he meant his abilities or his blatant psychopathy, but she didn't care. This could be a ruse, even though she didn't think so. Still, being careful was the obvious way to go, here. "You got a plan?" The whole situation was getting so absurdly convoluted, it was almost comical.

"You're not gonna tell me, but I'm smart enough to guess that you contacted the Volturi on Irina's behalf. That little performance of yours earlier was cute, but didn't convince me."

"Right. You're just that awesome." Asshole.

He cracked a toothy smile of pure and unadulterated merriment. Human blood from the vein really did it for these wankers, didn't it? He looked like he was high. "They'll be here to kill the child and us. Since you obviously worked out a deal with them, you're gonna include me and whoever is willing to off the brat. After that, I'll walk away and never come back. Simple logic is the best, after all."

She frowned. Had he just quoted Star Trek? Never mind that right now, though. "No-one's gonna be willing to off the brat apart from maybe Bella, and you'd leave your family here to die? Your girlfriend?"

"These people are not my family, and I am through with being lied to and manipulated." He shrugged. "I'm a vampire, Miss Clearwater. No point pretending otherwise. Now" – He lightened up on all the limb-crushing, even if just a little bit – "do we have an understanding?"

Each man for himself was all these guys' motto, wasn't it? Lordy. Also, if he wasn't being operated by the demon-spawn, that meant he'd just used her imperative to drink humans as an excuse. What a guy. Deal with the devil was her own motto these days, and no mistake. "We do. Now get the fuck off of me, you sadistic psycho."

"Such a pretty girl with such bad manners," he said, rolled off of her, and got to his feet in a flash. "It's a shame, really. You could really use some direction."

She jumped up, tugged down on her sweater, and wiped her face furiously. "Don't ever do that again. I'll kill you next time, and that's a promise."

Infuriatingly, this made him laugh. "Come on, now. Let's go back home and pay our respects to the Borg Queen." He set into motion without waiting for a reply.

After a few seconds, she trudged after him, irritated to the extreme. Not only was the situation FUBAR, but this was the second human-drinking leech to reference a beloved fandom of hers in her face. Nothing was sacred, anymore, was it? Goddamn it. Goddamn. Maybe when this was over, she'd get to kill him, despite everything. She'd be doing humanity a huge favour.

2 When they stepped into the tacky mansion (calling it a house would only sound faux-humble) together, they walked in on the Cullens yet again sitting around inactively. Dear God, was this their go-to response to everything? Sit around uselessly and mope? Do something, Leah wanted to scream at them. Anything! Pluck your thumbs out of your butts and do something!

Then again, their inaction was a good thing, since it left them ripe for the picking of more active people – actual fighters. There really was a bright side to everything. You just had to look really hard to see it, sometimes. Again, she sighed inwardly, but decided not to snap out of sarcasm mode anymore. Fuck it. Chances were, everyone would double-cross everyone else, anyway, and she'd die within the next three days.

"You weren't actually successful, were you?" Rosalie said. She was sitting on one of the armchairs with the demon-spawn on her lap.

Jacob was right. She really was Barbie, the Queen Bitch from Hell. Good thing he was patrolling the perimeter (or simply trying to fight the imprint, the poor sucker). Otherwise, unholy alliance or no, the leech's condescension might end up being a deal-breaker. It still might, one day – one day in the foreseeable future.

All those present – Clyde and his trophy wife, Barbie and Chucklehead, Wardo and Bella, Twee Twit and Alaska Blonde, not to forget the demon-spawn itself – turned to face Leah almost instantaneously. Had they rehearsed this? Looked like it. It wasn't like they did anything else, apparently.

"No, but I'd like to see you do better," Leah replied sweetly. "In fact, I'd like to see you do anything, Rosalie, apart from carrying the kid around all day and simpering or, alternatively, bitching me and my pack out."

Rosalie only rolled her eyes and exchanged a very obnoxious look with her boyfriend, who shrugged. Big help he was, too.

"It was worth a try," Carlisle said seriously, frowning. He gave Leah an acknowledging little nod. "Thank you, Leah. We appreciate the effort."

"Of course we do," Trophy Wife declared, flash-moved right in front of Leah, and meant to reach out to touch her. Leah's expression must've been particularly uninviting, though, since Esme let her hand hover about two inches away from Leah's shoulder for a couple of seconds, before crossing her arms. Instead, she took a whiff and exchanged an almost imperceptible, obviously irritated look with Jasper, before smiling deferentially at Leah again. "Thank you for being so patient with our shortcomings."

Was she serious? More important: what had she…oh, God, was Leah smelling of vampire now? Christ. "Sure," she said curtly. "Gonna take a shower. Excuse me." Making an effort not to look like she was trying to escape, she headed upstairs, hoping the vamps had got the message – no such luck though. Light, hopping steps followed her to the top of the staircase. She stopped, closed her eyes for a moment, collected herself. Damn it. "What is it, Alice? I really need to-"

"What really happened? Why do you smell like Jasper?"

Not in the mood for playing dumb or indulging any of this crap, Leah turned around and looked down at the tiny little porcelain doll that was the – now power-castrated – precog. "Because he tackled me in the woods. Ask him about the details."

Alice pouted up at her. Man, these creatures' expressions were usually a little weird, but with Twee Twit, it looked artificial; it looked like acting. Everything Alice did left the impression that she had read about natural reactions in a book and was hell-bent on emulating them convincingly. The result could be, well…bizarre, to put it mildly – such as her obsession with clothing and fashion. The media told her that looks were important, for example, and she took that concept to its logical extreme, to the point where it mattered almost as much as life itself. The same thing went for her (inconsistent) animal diet. Alice never came across as someone who gave a damn about preserving life. Instead, she seemed to be under the impression that she was supposed to not drink humans, and therefore didn't do it. It was fashionable.

Seriously, it was as if she knew what motions she had to go through to vaguely resemble a living, breathing person living a regular, normal life, but never asked herself why. This was an empty shell of a woman who did things because she was supposed to, but felt nothing.

That would explain her weird faux-fashionista deal, in any case, as well as her incredibly nonchalant reaction to Bella's little killing spree yesterday.

It was Leah's pet theory.

"I can't See anything because of you people!" Alice snapped through gritted teeth. "Do you have any idea how exasperating that is? I didn't even See that he'd come back with red eyes. He killed humans, after years of restraint, and I could do nothing to prevent it because I couldn't See!" The only thing missing was her stomping her tiny little foot on the lush carpeting.

Leah crossed her arms and arched an eyebrow. "Before blaming me and mine for it, why don't you try that again and include the unholy demon-spawn? With her around, you're just as blind. Also, stop treating your boyfriend like an infant who just needs the gentle touch of a loving woman. He's a grown-ass man and not a little boy. He does what he does because he thinks it's fun. Third, what makes you think I give a hoot about your relationship troubles? Get lost."

She left Alice standing there and marched straight into the big bathroom. The only thing she regretted was not having a mic to drop right now.

3 "No-one's gonna mention the elephant in the room?" Edward said, pointing at Jasper, who was still standing by the front door, without even looking at him. "He fed on humans."

"Good on him," Emmett said, placing a hand on his wife's shoulder. He was standing behind the armchair she and the child were occupying. "At least he'll be able to think clearly and to fight properly when the dogs come to tear us to pieces."

"We shouldn't abandon our principles just because it would be the easier route to take," Carlisle said, massaging his throat, making a face.

Irina, who hadn't had to fight the urge to kill humans in decades, could hardly keep herself sitting on that stupid couch. As Leah had walked through the door, Irina had hoped to find out if she'd been successful, but it was impossible. The woman was a good actress. She probably excelled at poker. Ever since Irina had stopped drinking human blood, her mind had become too slow for that particular game, which was a shame, but the least of her sacrifices.

Bella, who was sitting to Irina's left, said, "I agree."

"It's easy for you to say that," Rosalie said, giving Bella a pretty black look. "You just gorged on four people yesterday. Let's also not forget the fact that you need about half as much as we do to get to your full strength."

Renesmee, with a very displeased expression on her perfect doll's face, slapped a hand to Rosalie's cheek.

Immediately, Rosalie hugged her tighter, kissed the top of her head, and smiled again. "No, honey. We won't let any of the bad men get close to you, no matter what happens. Of course we'll kill them first. That really goes without saying."

"With Jasper and Bella fuelled up, the rest of us won't need to-"

Again, Renesmee touched Rosalie's face, and the latter said, "We're still vastly outnumbered and outgunned, Edward. If we don't do all we can to protect Nessie and we lose…" She trailed off, visibly anguished. Her eyes were completely black and stood in stark contrast to her lily-white skin.

"It's only because we're forced to fight," Jasper piped up, calm and composed and noticeably very much at ease with himself. "We wouldn't be doing it otherwise, of course."

Irina couldn't help but feel a hot stab of jealousy, looking at him like this. He clearly felt great in his skin. His senses were sharp, his intelligence was tuned up, his thirst was quenched. He mastered his body and his mind, owned it, revelled in it. There was nothing as glorious as filling oneself up with living human blood – nothing. Ever. At this point, the pain in her throat was so bad, it was all she could do not to jump up and try to rip his head off for flaunting his satisfaction so smugly in all their faces. She could smell the human blood enhancing the natural scent of him, and it was the most alluring thing she'd smelled ever since talking to Demetri. Not even the traces of Leah's musky wolf-scent lingering on his skin and clothes could mar the appeal. It made her own thirst even worse.

"I agree," she heard herself saying. She and Jasper locked eyes. "If we don't power up, we will lose. It's the only likely outcome, and you all know it."

"I can't," Carlisle said, grimacing, flinching. He gave Renesmee, who was glaring at him, a truly miserable look. "I'm sorry. Please don't insist. I'll do it if there's no other choice, but if there's any other way…"

Once more, Renesmee flattened her palm against Rosalie's face.

Rosalie calmly looked at Carlisle and said, "We have to do what we can to protect Nessie, but if you are unable to get off your high horse, the rest of us won't be as squeamish. It won't even make a difference if a few of us remain slow and stupid. We need the strongest and most talented to be ready: Jasper, Emmett, Bella, and Edward. Everyone else is allowed to drink whatever they please."

Immediately, Carlisle relaxed. He stood up straight. The grimace of agony melted off his face. "Very well, then. If we can all live with this compromise-"

"It's decided, then," Edward cut in tonelessly. "We'll set out to Seattle in-"

"Not together, we won't," Jasper said, reacting to Edward's scowl with a beatific smile. "Too conspicuous. You go with Emmett and Rose. I'll take Bella and Irina with me." He gave Irina a meaningful look. "That is, if I interpreted your remark correctly."

The pain in Irina's throat was unimaginable. It felt as if her skin were boiling, melting, blistering, sloughing off. She breathed in through her mouth, but even if she couldn't smell Jasper and Bella's scents of life and promise, she could taste them. The images Renesmee had placed in her mind bubbled to the surface: blood, power, strength, joy, clarity, satisfaction. God help her.

"You did," she said, her voice hoarse and her tone pained.

He smirked. "Wonderful. Personally, I think it'd be smarter to tackle campers at Mount Olympus rather than traipsing into Seattle, but whatever the majority decides, I'll graciously bow to it. We'll leave immediately, before the lovely Miss Clearwater knows we're gone."

In a split second, Edward was right in front of him, probably wanting to make him back off and failing. "I won't even ask you why you snuck off on your own, killed humans, and came back with Leah, smelling like her. No, I just want to make one thing perfectly clear: I'm looking after my wife."

"Like you looked after her the past three months? Like you looked after her yesterday morning?"

Edward's face was a mask of badly repressed fury. "Don't you dare-"

"He's right, Edward." Everyone's heads snapped around to Bella, who looked down at her hands and then made a visible effort to face her husband. "I need to be strong and clear-headed. I want to live. I need to…to be a real vampire for this, at least until this nightmare is over. I can't control myself, though, and you can't do it, either. I need him." She shrugged, helpless. "I guess I'm just asking you not to make this harder than it needs to be."

Edward gave Bella the most wounded look Irina had ever seen him wear, and he was a bit of a complainer on his best day. "As you wish," he said. "Emmett, Rosalie, we'll set out tomorrow morning after Jasper and his women return. If anyone else wants to join, they are welcome to do so." Woodenly, he stomped out of the room and headed upstairs.

Irina couldn't help but feel a little malevolent glee at this, some good and old-fashioned schadenfreude. These pompous morons flaunted their romance as if it were the truest love to ever true love, but in the end, they were down on the ground with all the rest of the flawed, multi-faceted couples. At the same time, she sympathised with Bella and had to congratulate her on standing up to Edward the Moping Bully. Good for her. Her situation was hard enough as it was without him having to add to her misery.

The pain in Irina's throat flared up again. Before she knew it, she was on her feet. "When are we leaving?"

"Whenever you ladies please," Jasper said, chipper, completely unimpressed by Edward's anger and the general tension. He'd consumed living blood. Of course he was euphoric. Of course he was high.

"The ladies would like to leave right now," Irina said, pushing thoughts of right and wrong and consequences aside because by God, that thirst that awful thirst if she only drank she'd remember she'd know she'd feel she owed it to him her love the only human part of her she needed must have craved wanted by God. She forced herself to focus, to not look at Nessie, to focus all her attention on Bella. "You're joining us?"

"Yes." Jerkily, Bella shot to her feet. No, learning to control one's senses was not exactly a walk in the park. "Let's go, before I start thinking again."

"Oh, no, anything but that," Jasper said, and graciously motioned toward the door. "Ladies first."

4 Outside, the three of them took a moment before heading off. Bella had no idea if she felt bad about what she was going to do, because any and all stirrings of her conscience were being drowned out by screaming anticipation. Just thinking about the taste of fresh, warm blood in her mouth made her want to sing and scream and run and break and kill. God, she wanted to kill. This was so wrong. It wasn't going to stop her, though. No, today, she needed to gather her strength. Jasper was right: she wanted to live. She wanted her coven to survive. She didn't want to watch someone tear them limb from limb and set their remains on fire. Even if she didn't place that much value on her own life, simply sitting back and letting them die for her was out of the question.

As a human, she would have convinced herself that she was being utterly selfless and burdening herself with sin and guilt for the sake of others. Now she knew that she was egocentric and terminally afraid of losing not only her own life, but also the only people she had left. That wouldn't be too bad – her fear – if it didn't mean humans would have to lose their lives over it, but it did, and she was still going to kill. At least she was walking into it with open eyes.

There were no easy solutions.

Irina had told her that she needed to be strong, which could only mean one thing: Bella was, of all the vampires here, the only one who could stop Renesmee's influence from spreading. Right now, the girl's power was purely tactile, and a few touches were not enough to wipe all free will away. Bella had observed that continued exposure made the mind-control easier, though, as was evident with Rosalie and Jacob. Who was to say that Renesmee's powers wouldn't grow as she matured? They already had. What if she became a true hive queen, ready and willing and capable of subjugating thousands, millions of people?

Yes, Bella knew that something had to be done, and loath as she was to admit this to herself, it was her responsibility. This was her child. She needed to step up and take action. For that, she needed to be strong. For that, she needed to help defeat the threat of the wolves. Who knew, if the wolves came to attack and realised that it wouldn't be a curb-stomp battle, maybe they'd agree to a compromise.

Bella didn't even know what kind of action she was supposed to take in regard to her daughter, but something had to give, and the problem wouldn't solve itself. She'd worry about that after the werewolf situation had been dealt with. Yes, it was procrastination with maybe a dash of cowardice, but for now, she decided to remind herself of her shortcomings and simply call it a day. She'd have to face her problems anyway, eventually.

As they stood outside, in the cold sunshine, Jasper placed himself in front of Bella and cupped her face, looking her straight in the eye without blinking. "You know what's gonna happen, now, don't you?"

She returned his look impassively, taking in the way his granite skin sparkled, unsure of how she felt about this – about any of it. It would be nice to have a heartbeat to clue her in on how to interpret her emotions accurately, wouldn't it? Like this, she had no idea whether she was nervous or just eager. It felt neither good, nor bad.

"Do what you have to," she said flatly. "We can't afford another melt-down from me."

"No, we can't," he said, the corners of his mouth curving up a little. "Just try to relax. It's so much easier when you're relaxed."

Calmness and contentment washed over her full-force, blending the entire world out for a moment. This was incredible and so much stronger than she remembered it being. Holy crow.

"Can we go, now?" Irina said, crushing her fist to her throat, grimacing. "I don't think I can take it much longer."

"Absolutely, ma'am," Jasper said, and motioned at the direction of the woods with a gracious move of his hand. "After you."

5 A whole camp full of people. Three families. How many? Bella didn't count. At least fifteen. So many beating hearts. So many arteries. So much blood. Gone in under five minutes. The three vampires descended on them like a hurricane. Screaming. Running. Fighting. None of it mattered. Killing them was as easy as falling. Drinking them…

…oh, God. Oh, how to describe it? No words. There were no words. Too many words. None of them. All of them. So good, so fulfilling exciting quenching quieting ecstatic joyful exhilarating alive so satisfying so perfect so high feeling being power strength life oh God.

As Bella and Irina stood by, Jasper burned the remains of the drained humans, along with their camp. Dazed, her head spinning, her body feeling light and agile and complete and sated, Bella watched him move with incredible speed and well-practiced precision. There was something amazingly graceful about this horrible spectacle. Fire started crackling, licking at the corpses, the tents, the gear. It shone brightly, painting Jasper's face in stark shadows and red contrasts. He looked…

…beautiful.

To her eyes, his skin wasn't grainy and greyish and full of disgusting veins anymore; it was snow-white, immaculate, smooth, flawless. Sunshine breaking through the thick tree branches painted him in an otherworldly, mesmerising shower of radiance. His relatively short hair wasn't a mess of yellowish ant-legs anymore, but artfully tousled, silky, and honey-blond. His eyes were huge and dark-red. He smelled sweet and fragrant and of exotic spices – like heaven. It was even possible for her to ignore the stench of burning flesh as she concentrated on seeing him, breathing in the scent of him. Like this, he was perfect.

He finished his work, dashed over to the two women, and grinned broadly. "We should go," he said, and that weird, metallic, screechy tinge all the vampire voices had? It was gone.

This was what Bella remembered vampires sounding like…before. She didn't need a heartbeat. She didn't need adrenaline. She didn't need human hormones. No, her entire body was drowned in exhilarated joy, in peace, in all-encompassing gratification and pure, unadulterated happiness. Everything was clear and sharp and in high-definition. She could focus and un-focus her vision as she pleased, see what she wanted to see, deliberately ignore what she cared nothing for. By God, this was the answer to everything. It was dizzying, yet brought her clarity. It was the best feeling in the entire world. Nothing could come close to this – nothing.

She reached out, in full control of her motor functions, and touched the side of his face with her fingertips. His skin felt warm and soft. "Incredible," she said, sounding like herself, feeling like herself.

His grin broadened. "Yes," he said, took her hand, and held it up to her eyes. "Look."

Blinking in wonder, Bella did. She raised both hands to her face, marvelled at how perfect they were, how unearthly flawless and immaculate, at how they sparkled in the sunlight. "My God." She turned to look at Irina, who was still standing there in complete silence, immobile. Irina's hair was a cascade of deeply golden locks. Her countenance, eerily symmetrical or not, was a thing of breath-taking beauty. Even her red eyes were shimmering rubies in her pale face. "My God."

"I don't think He had anything to do with any of this or any of us, but it doesn't matter," Jasper said, taking her hands again. "Now you see."

"Yes," she whispered, and didn't stop a huge smile from spreading across her features. Breathing in, she could differentiate a thousand scents all around her clearly, with no confusion. It was so beautiful. She laughed, unable and unwilling to help it. "You smell nice – both of you."

"We all do," he said, giving her hands a little squeeze. "I know how overwhelming this is for a first-timer – and no, your first ever feed doesn't really do this justice – but we need to leave. I'm pretty positive the forest won't catch on fire, but the authorities will see the smoke and investigate. We can't be anywhere near this place when they do."

Snapping out of the haze, Irina nodded. "Agreed. Let's go."

They set into motion.

6 Their senses were so sharp and clear, all of them smelled the werewolves at about the same time. They were still about two miles from the Cullen house.

"Can we outrun them?" Running and talking at the same time posed no problems. It was the first time Bella didn't just crash through the forest like a bulldozer, but with sharp and effortless precision. It was glorious.

"No," Irina said from behind her. "They're faster."

It was hard to believe. Still, the three of them stopped and faced outside, each looking in a different direction.

"How many?" Bella said, and took a deep breath. "Two?"

"Well done," Jasper said cheerfully. "Yes. Two."

"Keep calm," Irina said. "There's no need for violence."

"Oh, I don't know about that." The moment Jasper said this, two huge lupine forms came crashing through the trees, right ahead of Bella – the direction of the Cullen house.

One of the wolves had grey fur and blackish spots on his back. The other was darker and even bigger. Bella remembered seeing them before, interacting with them. Handsome, youthful faces and light-hearted, friendly attitudes surfaced from the depths of her memories – names, too: Embry Call and Jared Cameron. She'd met them several times. They'd been nice to her.

"We didn't hunt in your territory," Bella said, still marvelling at how much she recognised the sound of her own voice. What a relief this was! "Let us pass."

"Do it," Jasper said, stepping up to Bella, balling his hands into fists, "or die."

Both wolves bared their teeth. Their muscles were visibly coiled. They growled lowly.

"Don't do this," Irina said, flanking Bella's other side.

"They killed Laurent, Irina," Jasper said, briefly glancing at her, his teeth bared in a contemptuous and, at the same time, strangely gleeful leer. "They will try to kill us. Do you really want to sit back and let them tear you apart? Have you grown this…soft?"

"Go to hell," Irina whispered, her eyes trained on the wolves. "Attack us and you die. This isn't a threat; it's a fact. You cannot defeat us – not like this."

Growling, their hackles on end, the wolves leapt.

Bella dodged Jared at the last second, crashing into the earth. Both Irina and Jasper stood their ground. Irina jumped on Jared's back, hugged her arms and legs around him, squeezed, buried her face in his fur. He howled loudly and went down.

Jasper nimbly side-stepped Embry, spun around, kicked him in the snout, sent him flying, bounded after him, dodged his snapping jaws, stabbed a finger into his eye. Embry yowled and tried to jump him, but against a battle-hardened vampire with the blood of at least five humans fresh in his body, the young wolf had little chance.

Jared buckled. Irina lost her grip and went down. Her face was covered in blood. Her fangs were out. She was growling. Immediately, she scrambled to her feet and jumped as Jared tried to bite her mid-section. He hit her with his front paw. She crashed into a big cedar, got on all fours, leapt on top of him.

Bella just sat on the earth, wide-eyed and unable to believe that any of this was actually happening, that these boys she'd been fond of were battling her own people to the death. She watched Jasper ram his body against Embry's side, kicking him hard in the stomach, sending him crashing into the trees. He tackled Embry, sank his teeth into the boy's throat, put his arms around his neck, and crushed him. There was a sickening crunch. Embry's body flopped lifelessly to the floor. Jasper got up to his feet and spat.

"One down," he said, dashing over to Jared and Irina.

With something that was both a groan and a cry, she rolled on her back, taking Jared with her. Jasper didn't hesitate. He pushed himself off the ground, landed on top of the huge wolf, grabbed his head, and broke his neck, before kicking the corpse off Irina. She gladly took the hand he offered and let him pull her to her feet.

"Damn it," she cried out, grimaced, and spat on the earth just like Jasper had. "Damn it."

"It's disgusting, isn't it?"

Irina shook back her unkempt mane of hair, wiped her mouth, tucked down on her shirt, and glowered at him. "That's not what I meant, and you know it."

"Oh, I know it," he said, running his fingers through his own messy hair and then ambling over to Bella. "Enjoy the show?"

She stared up at him, blinking, and tried hard to convince herself that this had not really happened. "They're dead," she whispered. "They're gone. You killed them. We killed them."

"You actually just sat on your ass and watched, if it makes you feel any better," he said, grabbed her by the armpits, and hauled her to her feet. "We got to go now, before more of these suicidal idiots pop up and test my patience."

"Or more than two rather inexperienced boys come along and rip us to shreds," Irina said, "which is pretty likely."

Bella just kept on staring dumbly at Jasper for a few seconds. They were dead. Embry and Jared, Jacob's friends (one of them possibly even Jacob's brother), his former pack members, were dead. Jasper had snapped their necks. They were gone. It was over. "This is the point of no return."

"Actually, you ripping through those four campers yesterday was the point of no return, but let's not nit-pick," he said, wearing the most elated smile on his blood-smeared face. His hair was painted red, too. It looked like he was donning some kind of bizarre war-paint. There was nothing even remotely human about him. "Sweetheart, we got to go. Do you hear me?" When she found it impossible to answer, to even properly gather her thoughts, he crushed her face between his hands and slammed her into the nearest tree, basically pushing himself against her, blocking out the rest of the world. "Do you hear me? Focus!"

"Yes," she whispered, grabbing his jacket with both hands and not even realising it. "I hear you."

"Then stop flouncing and come with me." Obviously not expecting too much from her, he took her hand and set into motion. Irina followed them closely. They didn't even bother trying to hide the bodies; it would be utterly pointless.

This was it. No matter what might have happened before, there was simply no way that Sam would now not want to kill every Cullen in existence. There was no turning back. The only way out was through.