The fights Jamie and Bella had had before were vicious. He hadn't held back, saying that would just encourage weakness. A couple times it had been for real, and the ensuing carnage had been devastating.
Those were nothing compared to the fight now.
Jamie clearly didn't want to kill her, but was willing to if it was necessary. Bella, too, was willing to kill, but had the added burden of protecting Esme, who tried to pull Jamie off of Bella at one point and earned a blistering backhand.
Bella had learned a lot from Jasper, and felt like she may have a chance.
She slid close to the ground, kicking out Jamie's feet. He fell with a snarl, but rolled away just as Bella was about to pin him.
Bella let out a yell of pain as his teeth grazed her neck. She didn't have a chance to recover, as he was heading straight for Esme again, Bella getting between them just in time.
"Esme, you need to run, or we are both going to die!" Bella yelled as Jamie grabbed her around the waist and slammed her into the ground. All she felt was pain, but it was better than seeing him lay a hand on Esme.
Finally, to Bella's immense relief, Esme took off back the way they had come.
Jamie stayed, as she knew he would.
"Bella, I'm very disappointed in you," he crooned, but she could hear the danger beneath his charm.
"I'm not too thrilled with you, either."
She was on her feet again, circling him.
"You're coming with me," he said, matching her stance. All she needed to do was give Esme enough of a head start to make sure she'd make it to Jasper. It didn't matter what happened here after that.
"I'd rather die than go back with you."
He roared in anger and lunged. She wasn't quick enough this time. His arms encircled her and they both crashed into one of the trees. The trunk split with a groan.
She brought up a knee and struck out with her teeth at the same time, and he stumbled back in pain, clutching his cheek.
She spit out the chunk of flesh and turned to run the opposite direction Esme had gone, but he caught her before she went two feet. She spun out before he got a good grip, kicking off the tree to land an elbow to his face.
And so it continued, both of them lunging and biting and twisting and pinning. They were much more evenly matched than the last time. Bella had more motivation than before.
But he still had more than a century on her.
He had gotten her to the ground, his knees pinning her arms, his hands gripped tightly around her neck.
She tried to snarl, but it was cut off by the pressure of his grip, cutting off her airway. It was uncomfortable and painful, but certainly not fatal. The true pain was where his knee pressed into her left arm, which he had nearly ripped off earlier.
"You think you can leave me, you little bitch? You think I'm going to let one ridiculous, mewling, poor excuse for a vampire come between us? Hmm? I created you." He ground his knee into her arm again, and her yelp of pain came out as a pathetic croak. "I made you what you are. You are mine."
He tightened his grip and leaned down. For half a second, she thought he was going to rip her head off. Instead, he pressed a soft kiss into her cheek, which he had bitten into earlier. She tried to cringe away.
"You're going to come back, love. Or else I'm going to drag you home, then track down whoever that 'Esme' was and kill her just as slowly as I'll kill you if you ever run from me again."
Bella nodded as much as she could with his hands around her neck. He stayed there for another second before standing, dragging her roughly to her feet.
"Be a good little girl and come quietly."
Bella nodded again, unable to speak. She massaged her neck, which was sore and achy, but was glad to have her sense of smell back.
They walked like that for another half a minute, Jamie dragging her by the arm, which was screaming in agony.
Just a little further, Bella thought.
Another nine seconds passed, and Bella saw what she had been waiting for. The forest floor dropped steeply off just to the right. A ravine that she and Esme had passed earlier.
Without hesitation, Bella yanked the arm Jamie was holding, dragging him closer to her. She screamed in pain, but didn't abandon her plan. She jumped up at the same time, and she put all of her strength into a two-footed kick, pulling her injured arm out of his grip, which had loosened in surprise.
He yelled in fury, but had no time to react.
He fell down the sheer drop, but Bella didn't pause to see if he managed to catch himself. Instead, she turned and ran.
Without having to slow to Esme's pace, she knew she could outrun Jamie.
The only issue was where to go now.
She couldn't lead him back to the Cullens. She wouldn't be able to stand anything happening to them because of her. It was bad enough Esme had been caught in the middle.
She knew that Esme was close enough to Seattle by now that she was safe, so she wouldn't head that way.
East. She would go east.
The decision was made in a quarter of a second, and she only had to adjust her trajectory slightly.
She pushed her body with everything she had, feeling the forest floor fly beneath her feet so fast, it was almost as if she weren't touching it at all. At one point, she was fairly certain she brought down a small sapling, but didn't turn to see if it was still upright.
The pain in her arm was background noise, still there, but not the focus. The concern for Esme was faint; she was almost positive that Esme was with Jasper by now. The overwhelming sense that she had right now was that she had been utterly, disastrously, so fucking stupid, and Esme had paid for it.
She pushed her shield out as far as she ever had and still couldn't find Jamie. He was at least a couple miles away from her.
She didn't slow down. She couldn't chance it. She needed to get away, buy herself some time, and figure out how Jamie had found her. That was the next step, and she could only focus on the next step or else she'd lose her mind.
She leapt over the road cleanly, barely registering the red car speeding much too fast towards her.
She heard the car screech to a stop, but didn't process what that meant. All she heard through the haze of her focus was the sound of pursuit, and she pushed herself faster again.
One of them cut her off from the left, and she spun to stop in a defensive crouch, baring her teeth with a warning hiss, holding her left arm protectively at her side.
As soon as she saw Jasper, hands up as a sign of peace, his face steady, moving very slowly, it broke her out of it.
Safe.
She was safe.
She stood up, taking a deep breath, then turned to Esme.
"Esme," she cried out, running for her. "You're okay."
"I'm okay." Esme pulled her into a hug, and Bella gave a sharp yelp of pain when that jarred her arm.
Esme wanted to examine it right then and there, but Bella was scanning their surroundings with wide eyes.
"No, we need to go." She turned to Jasper and said, "We need to go right now."
They were in the car and driving in less than a second, this time with Esme in the back seat next to Bella.
It took everything Bella had to choke down a sob. She couldn't break down. They were still in danger. Jasper at least was putting Rosalie's precious engine to proper use. The forest was flying by much faster than it had on their way down.
"We can still go to the airport and pick up your friends. I'll take a flight out of here. Whichever one is leaving soonest."
Jasper met her eyes in the rearview mirror, but they were unreadable.
Esme, though, made her feelings known immediately.
"Bella, what do you mean you'll leave? You'll do no such thing." She sounded as fierce as she had back in the forest with Jamie, refusing to leave Bella alone. It comforted Bella, and the selfish side of her wanted to listen, to curl up and let Esme comfort her with her mother's touch and Carlisle to help her with her arm.
She wanted to be taken care of, to be the child Esme had painted in their little happy family scenario.
But that picture could never be. Bella was a vampire. They all were. She could outrun her violent past all she wanted, but it would always catch up to her. This family would always be in danger because of her.
She couldn't hold back the sob anymore. Thinking it was her arm, Esme gently rubbed her shoulder, whispering to her about how Carlisle would be able to fix her up.
"I can't stay with you," Bella said once she had her voice back. She recognized where they were, only a few minutes before they'd be home. "You're all in danger because of me. I'm so sorry."
"We can discuss it at home," Jasper said, his voice, like his expression, blank and unreadable. "Alice will be able to help."
Bella nodded, letting her head rest on Esme's shoulder. She knew how the conversation was going to go, so she allowed herself to take the matriarch's ready comfort while she still could. Esme wrapped an arm around her, careful not to jostle her cradled side.
The house was alive with activity when they pulled up. Carlisle was out first, followed quickly by Edward, whose expression was thunderous.
"Come on now, gently." Carlisle was helping Bella out of the car, but his eyes were on Esme.
"I'm okay," Esme whispered over Bella's shoulder, a comforting hand still on her back.
Once confident that his wife was unhurt, Carlisle turned his entire focus onto Bella, who was ushered quickly into the house. Bella noticed briefly that the south windows were now shuttered in metal.
Once she was sitting on the couch, it was Edward instead of Esme at her side.
"Can you move your fingers?" Bella complied with Carlisle's request, wincing at the shooting pain. "Good, that's good, Bella."
He poked and prodded some more and told her that she'd be fine in a couple hours.
Bella despaired even at that length of time. She needed to be gone in an hour, tops, and an injured arm was going to slow her down.
"Bella, stop that," Alice said. She had her arms around Jasper, who was still stoic as ever.
"Alice, there's no other choice."
"What are you planning?" Edward's impatient tone was much less benign than it usually was when he was asking her questions. Bella realized it had become such second nature to shield Alice that she had done so subconsciously, leaving Edward blind to her plans.
"I have to leave."
Edward's grip on her shoulder tightened. "No, you don't."
"I'm the one Jamie wants."
"Then we'll stop him." Edward saying that as if it were so simple set Bella off.
She stood, kicking the table out of the way as she turned to face Edward.
"You don't know him, none of you do!" She snarled. "He won't stop. He'll never stop."
"There's one way to stop him. Permanently."
Bella had been wondering what was going through Jasper's mind. When he shared what it was, she stopped short.
She hadn't pictured that before. Jamie had always seemed so indestructible, so unbeatable, that a world without Jamie in it seemed impossible.
"I'm afraid," Bella admitted, hating herself for it.
"We'll protect you," Edward said.
"I'm afraid for you. All of you." She looked around the room. Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Alice, Jasper.
She thought of Rosalie and Emmett, racing home now after a phone call from Carlisle. She thought of that stranger leaving a scent up north, convinced now that it was either Leanne or Xavi or both, who may have been close enough to see Rosalie and Emmett. It almost made Bella shudder.
"We don't have to make a decision right this moment, Bella. Let's wait for Rosalie and Emmett to get back; Eleazar and Carmen should be here shortly as well. They rented a car and are coming as quickly as possible. We can regroup when everyone is here, and decide then," Carlisle said, reasonable as ever. But there was still the issue of him not knowing how dangerous Jamie was, how stubborn.
"We might not have that long," Bella said.
"But we do," Alice said confidently. "He isn't going to come back for at least a few days, most likely longer. Something spooked him."
Bella thought about how Jamie probably had been expecting her to be alone, but had found her with an unknown companion. She thought about how there was no way Leanne and Xavi, or whoever he had sent to the north, had missed the scent of the werewolves. Regardless of whether they knew what that smell meant, it was an unknown variable. Jamie's least favorite thing to be up against.
She found some solace in that analysis, as well as in Alice's confidence. She nodded, agreeing to wait until they regrouped.
Alice then took her turn at Bella's other side, taking her uninjured hand and guiding her back to sit on the couch.
Rosalie and Emmett arrived then, clearly alarmed and anxious to see that everyone was okay. Once they had, Emmett was as furious as Bella had ever seen him.
"What are we waiting for then?" He was pacing back and forth. "Let's go kill this motherfucker and show him who he's dealing with."
"Language, Emmett," Esme whispered.
"We can't just charge into a battle with this one, Em. We need to have a plan," Jasper said.
Rosalie stood stone still through all this, her eyes wide, her hand in Esme's. Bella hoped this didn't tear down all the progress they had made in their friendship.
What does it matter? She thought to herself. Not like I'm going to be around for much longer.
Emmett and Jasper kept going back and forth, Alice interjecting with her observations of the future every so often.
"I need a shower." Bella stood suddenly. It wasn't so much that she cared about how she looked, but rather that she wanted to be out of the room.
"I'll come with you," Rosalie said, following Bella upstairs.
Bella was too upset to even be surprised by this.
Rosalie seemed to know exactly what Bella needed. She didn't say a word as she guided Bella to sit on the toilet of her and Emmett's bathroom suite, since Bella's room didn't have one. They sat in silence as they both pulled twigs from her hair, Bella limited to one hand. Rosalie started the water and went to get some fresh clothes while Bella showered, not even noticing the temperature of the water.
Then, once Bella had toweled off and put on the leggings and sweater that Rosalie had brought, she sat her back down and combed through her hair with an old-fashioned vanity comb, carefully arranging Bella's drying waves.
Bella heard commotion downstairs and guessed that the newcomers had arrived.
Before they left the safety of the quiet bathroom, Bella placed her right hand on Rosalie's and met her eyes in the mirror, a silent thank you that she couldn't bring herself to verbalize. Rosalie seemed to understand, squeezing Bella's hand gently.
When they came downstairs, there were two additions, a male and female, both with dark hair.
"We followed the trail south to the state border, and it kept going. We made sure he hadn't doubled back," the male was finishing an explanation. Bella clenched her jaw when she realized what she was hearing. They had tracked Jamie. She wondered if they had had a plan in case they actually caught him.
"Bella, please come meet Carmen and Eleazar." Carlisle waved her over, and she approached them a little warily, her instincts still buzzing.
"Hello, dear," the female said, and the male nodded at her, smiling kindly. Neither of them offered a hand to shake, probably sensing how high strung she was at the moment.
"Hello," Bella said.
Bella listened to their discussion that followed, not able to contribute much. It seemed like the same things were being repeated over and over again, but they were content going in circles, apparently. Bella was not.
As soon as it was late enough, Carlisle was on the phone, apologizing to the school for Edward and Alice's erratic attendance, and explaining that they would once again need to be excused due to a family emergency.
Bella's arm was already feeling better, and she was sick of sitting still.
"I need to go for a hunt," she muttered, standing.
Everyone looked to Alice, whose eyes were out of focus.
"You'll be fine. But stay close, just in case."
"I'll come with you." Edward stood, too.
"You don't have to," Bella said, not wanting them to think that she needed caring for.
"I know," he answered, but waited for her to nod her head.
Once they were running, Bella felt a little better. It was the sitting and waiting that was making her anxious. She wasn't accustomed to inactivity in the face of a threat.
It didn't even matter how the deer tasted, Bella drained the one she caught clumsily with one hand, then the second one that Edward killed for her. When they were through, she found a small clearing to sit in, not wanting to go back and sit around inside. Not yet, at least.
Edward joined her wordlessly, and they sat there for several minutes.
"Your neck," he said softly, his hand coming up as if to brush at the still smarting bite mark Jamie had left there, but paused an inch from her skin.
"I told you. He's got a wicked bite." Her joke fell flat.
Bella leaned forward so that his finger brushed against the healing wound. It had to have been quite deep for it not to be fully closed yet.
"May I?" He leaned in closer, and it took her a second to realize what he meant.
She leaned her head back, exposing more of her neck to him. He moved in slowly, and Bella closed her eyes when he ran his tongue along the bite.
It was not like she hadn't done this before with Leanne and Jamie and Xavi. Venom helped with the healing. But it had never before felt like it did when Edward did it for her. The electric shock that seemed to shoot from his tongue to the pit of her stomach woke up a part of her that she had never felt before.
She missed him when he pulled back, his eyes half closed. Maybe he had felt it, too.
Bella suddenly wanted more. She climbed into his lap, straddling him so that her knees were on either side of his hips, and bent down to crash her lips to his.
He was frozen with surprise for a second, then his hands came up to her back, pulling her closer to him. It still wasn't enough. She deepened their kiss, opening her mouth to his, their tongues clashing. She let her hands thread through his bronze hair, tugging on it until she elicited a guttural groan from him.
Bella still wanted more, wanted to feel something other than turmoil and fear.
She let her hands trail down to his shoulders, gliding over his chest, past his taut abdomen, down until she found his waistband.
Edward's hands, which had slid down to rest on her hips, suddenly came around to gently pull her wrists away.
"What is it?" She gasped in his ear, surprised.
"Bella, please." His voice cracked slightly, as if it took effort for him to speak.
"Is something wrong?" She leaned back to look him in the eye. Had she so grossly misread him? He seemed interested, but…
"We can't."
If Bella could have blushed, she would have been beet red. She wasn't used to this kind of rejection. Jamie had always been ready and willing. But, then again, Jamie had been attracted to her. Maybe she had misread Edward's interest. Maybe Alice had been wildly wrong.
Bella rolled off of Edward and tried to leave, wanting nothing more than to nurse her wounded ego alone. He stood and grabbed her sleeve.
"Bella, wait a minute."
She tried to tug her hand out of his grip, but he pulled her even closer.
"Please let me go, Edward. I'm sorry, I made a mistake. I thought maybe—"
"Bella, just stop for a second, please." Edward had gotten better control of his voice. She ached at how lovely it was.
She complied, still sick to her stomach with embarrassment.
"You think I'm saying no because I don't find you attractive."
Bella held her breath, waiting for him to continue.
"It's the opposite, actually. I find you very attractive, Bella Swan. The only woman I ever have."
Bella felt as if she couldn't breathe. She let her eyes slide up to meet his for the first time. He was looking at her in a way no one else had before, as if his light topaz eyes were smoldering. His lips were parted and she wanted so badly to kiss him again.
He gave her the crooked smile that she loved so much.
"Why are you only telling me this now?" She asked.
He furrowed his brow, then laughed once. "Really? That's your question?"
She didn't reply, just waited for his answer.
"Because, once everyone in my family realized I was falling for you, they told me that you'd need time to adjust."
She snorted a laugh. "Well, consider me adjusted. Now we've just got to deal with the guy that wants to tear me apart and our way is clear."
He laughed, his hands coming up on either side of her face.
"Now answer my question: why, today of all days, do you get me alone in the forest only to try to jump me?"
"Because I'm attracted to you, too. And I like you. A lot. And…" The rest wasn't easy to admit, but he deserved the truth. "And because I'm sad and overwhelmed. And whenever I used to feel like that, sex tended to help."
He let his thumbs stroke across her cheeks, but his face didn't change at her revelation.
"Edward, you have to say something to that."
He kissed her forehead before saying, "I'm sorry that that was your only source of comfort."
It wasn't what she had been expecting, but maybe they were just really good at surprising each other. He leaned down and kissed her softly, letting his lips linger against hers.
"Someday, Bella, if you still wish to. But not today."
She nodded, leaning into his embrace. With his arms around her, his cheek leaning against the top of her head, his wonderful smell enveloping her, she realized it was not the actual act of sex that was a comfort. It was the closeness of another being.
"Do you think licking my arm will help that heal, too?" She asked, her voice muffled against his shirt.
He just laughed, his chest vibrating against her with the sound.
