Previously on Kidnapped:

Her pulse raced. To be honest, I was amazed that she was still alive. I was gasping for air, not that I needed it, but I couldn't stop. My hands shook and my head was spinning.

Silk skin brushed against my hand, trembling. Bella looked up from our hands, and whispered, "You can do it, Edward."

She must have meant it as encouragement, a vote of confidence that I wouldn't kill her, but it sounded almost like… permission to go ahead.

"No," I stumbled backwards- one step, then two. The world was shaking, or maybe it was my head.

"I can't." I dug my heels, twisting, while a part of me was still longing to break that silk skin. "I won't."

Like the coward I was, I turned and fled the girl in the woods.

.
.

Had I been thinking lucidly, I would have immediately recognized the pure idiocy of my hapless and hasty act. In the moment, however, I was in no fraction a man - in that moment, I was an animal, a stricken one with fire in its bones, needles in its joints, and a thick, dry, suffocating syrup coating its entire olfactory system.

This animal was in pain and ready to strike out. It wove between and around trees, making sport of millimeters.

I caught a glint of gold flashing through the haze of trees, and I realized I was hunting. Hunting not an animal - nor a human - but a creature like unto myself.

Vampire.

My brother, to be precise.

.

.

.

Inspired by its newfound clarity, my body acted out of pure instinct as it launched itself at the moving target. I wanted to believe I acted out of a desire to protect the girl, but I knew I had resorted to one of nature's most primal inclinations - to strike out when struck.

With such pain at both the scent of the girl and the knowledge of being unable to protect her, I was filled with rabid animal agony. I was ready to stop any responsible party from ever making me feel this way again.

Our bodies made contact, and they sounded nature's strangest anomaly: thunder on the driest night. We grappled for a moment, and I navigated to the upper hand. I would have delivered the ending blow were it not for another stream of blonde whirring past us in that moment. I roared.

I took off after the second threat, weaving to avoid Jasper's countless attempts, realizing the gravity of my opponents' intended destination.

They were after my prey.

I was livid, unchained, dangerous. My feet wove an alternate path to circumvent the creatures. The girl was mine; no threat would be left standing.

The vampire fighting me now was a different one - less skilled, but stronger. Easily disengaged. Vague shouts of indistinct meanings echoed in the back of my consciousness. Laughter echoed through the trees. How thrilling to feel so free!

A wide grin spanned my face. So unburdened - all the worries which had so tightly encircled me fell loose, heavy chains fallen to the ground. I would need hold back no longer; no longer caught in the thralls of protecting the girl.

No purpose in protecting a cadaver, I thought sardonically.

I was facing the girl from behind now; how strange, she didn't seem startled or jarred in the least. The old flame of curiosity burned into me - almost enough to break through and reach consciousness.

Almost, but not quite. I let out a cavernous roar and sprang toward the girl in a movement far quicker than her gasping attempt to turn to face me.

My hands, arched like fierce talons, brushed her chin as an unknown force plucked me from the air. I fought back - one, two, three - of them, growling in a timbre that shook the forest. The salt-sweet bouquet of her blood rushed up to meet me, my roars evermore wild and ferocious. Who dared spill her blood? It was mine. I would rip them apart for this!

I struggled wildly against my captors. My roars mixed with incoherent shouts. I had been waiting so long. Would I never be freed?

"Edward."

The heady combination of thoughts, cries, and whispers rushed up to assault my consciousness yet still I fought the bondage of my brothers and sisters. With the single, simple murmured word of an angel, cognizance crashed into my being, yet I was still a roaring lunatic, entirely out of control.

Ten yards from me was an angel who had fallen to her knees. Doe-eyes froze wide. Forehead crumpled. Mirroring the angel was a perfect devil - roaring, wild-eyed, clawing desperately for the freedom to destroy her. My roars doubled as the agony of my cognizance ripped through me.

Or I liked to think that was the reason for the increased fervor of my cries. I realized, however, that there was a physical stimulus. Still unable to fully regain my faculties, I found my eyes inspecting the girl more carefully yet even as I fought to take her. There it was. On her neck, a small incision bled profusely. Had I been growling? Now, a splitting keening poured out from me. The girl was bleeding from the laceration she'd received at my hand. Nausea crippled me. I felt my resistance drop a notch as I looked down at my own hand to find her blood on my skin.

Red and white. Crimson and wool. Scarlet and snow. All the Biblical verses in the world could not save me now. I held out my hand before my eyes, and softly flexed the fingers, seeing the blood glisten and slide along the marble phalange.

These stains would never be wiped clean. I raised my eyes slowly to the girl once more.

"Edward," she whispered again softly. She stumbled forward.

I tensed and shrunk from her.

"Let him go." Her low voice was inconceivably stable. "He's better now," but her voice cracked on the last word.

I winced. "Bella," I mouthed and shook my head.

No. I struggled against them as they began to take me away. What about the girl? Jasper? Were they going to kill her?

"No. Bella." I whispered, reaching out a pathetic arm. Vampires couldn't get tired, right? Why did I feel so weak?

Her blood glistened across my extended phalange, and I shuddered once more. I had been so very close to...

In a manner not dissimilar to that of a psychopath, I barked a rabid laugh through pursed lips as my thoughts flitted back to the musings of a more innocent Edward. I wasn't sure how to manage that, though—kidnapping her. I wouldn't be able to stand being close to her for very long, I'd thought.

Ding, ding, ding! Lottery bells rang in my mind.

Congratulations, Edward. Right on the money.