[exsanguinate (v.) - to completely drain of blood]

Because this one of my favorite words, and it may just come in handy for you to know someday... someday very soon ;)

I let out a stale breath I had been holding ever since I first saw the extent of Fred's injuries. He's going to get help. He's going to be okay. I just have to get him upstairs.

I move in front of Fred, who has nearly finished exsanguinating the creature before him at this point. He sits in a puddle of useless animal blood, his shirt darkly stained and drooping off of his body. Unused blood drips off his chin, trailing down his front. He tightly grips handfuls of his own hair, matting the blond strands with blood. It is a gory sight straight out of a monster movie, but the truly frightening part is his eyes. His irises are completely black now, with no trace of the dull red I'd seen before. There is none of Fred's quiet kindness in them, only base animal instinct: hunt, eat, survive. He fixes me with a disconcerting stare, and I wonder if I will even be able to reason with him.

"Bree," Jasper warns before I can get a word out. "You need to be careful. He's wounded, confused, unstable. Dangerous," he adds with quiet vehemence. "He is not the Fred you know."

I give him a look that says, You think I don't know that? and gesture towards my absent chunk of cranium. He gives an exasperated sigh and says, "Please, just let me -"

"Sorry," Fred interrupts. All eyes snap to him. He is still looking at me, his eyes dark and unnerving. But he seems to have control, for the moment. "I didn't mean... to..." he gestures vaguely at my head.

"Oh, this?" I ask. "It's nothing. You know I've had worse." I smile at him. "Besides, you fight like a girl."

He lets out a surprised laugh. "I'll take that as a compliment."

There is a short pause before Jasper cuts in. "Fred, we have to get you upstairs. Do you understand?"

He twitches. "Go to the house, jump in a window."

Jasper nods curtly. "Do you think you can do it?"

Fred does not respond. His black eyes dart every which way, unfocused. He is losing his momentary control, becoming a predator again.

"Just don't take in any air through your nose," Jasper recommends. He steps forward slowly and offers his hand benignly to help Fred stand up. Fred eyes Jasper suspiciously, hesitating. He looks at me, raises an eyebrow. I nod. You can trust him. Slowly, Fred takes the offered hand.

Crack! Lightning quick, Jasper rips Fred's arm from his body and tosses it to Alice. Before I can react, Emmett is on Fred's other side. He wrenches off the remaining arm and throws it my way as Fred roars in pain and outrage. I catch the arm on instinct, shocked into inaction but yelling my protests loudly. "Hey!" I scream. "What are you doing?!" Emmett wastes no time throwing a writhing, defenseless Fred over his shoulder and booking it towards the house.

Blind white rage courses through me. How dare they attack my best friend? I throw the disembodied arm to Rosalie without warning, grab Jasper by the collar and throw him to the ground. "What do you think you're doing?!" I demand. I've caught him by surprise, and as he tries to regroup and crouch into a fighting position, I deliver a powerful kick to his gut, sending him flying backward against a tree, which splinters and cracks in half. I advance on him again, my face a mask of deadly anger, but I find my way barred by Alice and Rosalie, crouched defensively before him.

"Back off, Bree," Alice growls, somehow managing to look threatening, even with her small stature.

I crack my knuckles loudly in response and roll my shoulders. "Bring it, sister," I say coldly.

"Rose, Alice, get upstairs and bring Carlisle the arms," Jasper commands. "I'll deal with this... child." He spits the last word, leaving a plethora of unpleasant implications in the air.

Alice blinks a few times, slowly easing out of her crouch. I raise an eyebrow; I had not expected her to give up so readily. "They'll be fine, Rose," she says softly. "Let's go." They gather up the arms and take off.

Leaving just me and Jasper. He begins moving slowly, tracing a large invisible circle on the ground. I counter his movements, poised and ready to fight at any moment. I want to lunge at him, but logic holds me back. Watch him. Be ready. "I'll make you pay for this," I promise him. "Fred's my best friend."

"Oh, really now?" Jasper asks sardonically. "Is he? The one who abandoned you in the hands of some unknown, radical, potentially dangerous coven - alone, to defend yourself? The one you haven't seen in months? The one who only returned to you when he was the most desperate, when he literally had nowhere else to turn. He is your best friend? Then tell me, Bree, what are we?"

My heart is a fist in my chest, solid and tense. How dare he say these things to me? He betrayed me! He attacked Fred! Anger bubbles up in my throat, but I swallow it down as best I can. "I thought you were my friends," I growl. "Clearly, I was wrong."

He shakes his head, still circling like a bird of prey. I continue to match his every step. "You know, you're just like them," he spits. "All those newborns I once taught. I thought you were different, that you had some kind of intrinsic leg up on them all, that somehow little old Bree Tanner might be strong enough to not need special guidance through the process of vampirism. You're logical, smart, talented," sarcasm drips off his words, a stinging poison in my mind. "Let's all tell you how wonderful you are; then you'll be a perfect little vampire." He scoffs. "What you really need is a wakeup call, a reality check. This isn't all rainbows and butterflies, honey. People get hurt, and you have to deal with it as best you can."

Somehow I miss it - his first move. I was distracted; he distracted me, I realize. I had thought I was focused, but I wasn't. Now my legs have been swept out from under me. I hit the dirt hard, a sharp pain seeping out from the center of my back to my entire body. I try to fight back, but Jasper grabs my ankles and swings me through the air until I land square on my face, in the dirt. I push upward, and he kicks me back down with enough force to make a me-sized imprint in the ground. I grunt and struggle under his weight as he presses one foot into the base of my neck and one knee into my lower back. I claw at his legs as best I can under the pressure, but the rest of my body is useless to me. How was this so easy for him? I wonder dimly. I'm newer, stronger than he is!

"Had enough?" Jasper asks, amusement coloring his tone. I haven't. I grip his ankle and try to yank him off of me, summoning all the force I possess, but he is braced for it; he barely budges at all. Suddenly, his hands are on my forearms, pressing them painfully up by my ears. Bent in that way, they feel as if they may pop off at any moment. I scream into the ground. "You know I'm not above tearing these off for the time being," Jasper says, his voice a quiet threat, "but it will be more pleasant for both of us if you just stop fighting."

I weigh my options. Clearly, Jasper has the upper hand on the violence front. I do not stand a chance against him and all his experience fighting angry newborns like myself. I can't fight him, and I would prefer to keep my arms attached to my body. After all, I will need them to protect Fred.

Fred. At the thought of him, I relax in surrender, loosening my vice grip on Jasper's ankle. He releases me slowly and I sit up on my own power, spitting out clods of dirt mixed with venom.

"Now," Jasper begins, a cold expression (more tired than angry) fixed upon his features, "you are going to sit here and listen to me. If you so much as stand up before I tell you to, so help me, I will make Fred's injuries look like paper cuts. Do you understand?"

I nod, speechless. I have never seen this side of Jasper: this calculating, ruthless military man I have only heard about in the past. He has always been vigilant around me, but never has he acted like this.

"Fred is starving," Jasper explains. "The starvation process, for a human, weakens and emaciates and eventually leads to death if not taken care of. For a vampire, it's different. Starvation maddens us, makes us desperate, changes us on a fundamental level. But it won't kill us. The logical faculties of the brain switch to basic survival mode, telling us to hunt, and hunt more. Fred is at a very critical stage where he is more creature than person, and there is no helping him. He will not see reason, not until his thirst is quenched. I could see the transformation happening, right in front of me; I have seen it before. You saw it too, didn't you? How he was getting twitchy and losing focus?" I look down at the ground. Of course I saw.

"He needs help fast, Bree," Jasper continues, "or he will go on a rampage. Especially since he can't take in any blood, he simply will not be able to physically stop himself. A slaughter of that magnitude in this area would draw the Volturi straight to us. All that death, and we will be implicated. Fred is not Fred right now; he is danger. Do you understand that?"

I hadn't even considered that the Volturi might get involved; after all, it's only Fred. But then again, maybe it isn't...

"The logical thing for me to do in a situation like this," Jasper goes on, "would be to incapacitate him until Carlisle can fix him up, and we can get him fed. We did not attack your friend; we had to neutralize a threat in order to protect the family. And," he adds, "to protect Fred from himself."

There is a pause. "Bree?" he asks. "Bree, look at me." Slowly, I meet his gaze. His eyes are kind again; he is no longer a dictator. He is not Riley anymore; he is Jasper. I can trust Jasper... right?

He sighs and sinks down into a half-squat so that his eyes are on my level. "Listen, I didn't mean anything I said earlier: about you not being special. I was angry; in fact, I think I was feeling your anger, at least in part. You really are the most incredible newborn I have ever encountered. The potency of your emotions alone..." he shakes his head. "It's truly astounding. So please, if there is any of that practical, logical vampire still in there, find her. Ask her if what I'm saying makes sense. Because Fred needs you right now, and we're wasting our time out here."

Slowly, I come to terms with what he's saying. Fred... Fred is in the house, undergoing tedious, painful surgery in a room full of strangers! And where am I? I am out here, throwing a temper tantrum! What is wrong with me? I need to get inside that house, now. "Um," I say, "so, can I stand up now please?"

Jasper gives a short laugh. "Of course."

I am already in the house before he finishes speaking.

And there we have it! Thoughts?