But which someone?
Riley lurched toward me, his red eyes brilliant with fury. He glared at the limp mountain of sand-colored fur between us, and his hands — mangled, broken hands — curled into talons. His mouth opened, widened, his teeth glistening, as he prepared to rip out Seth’s throat.
A second kick of adrenaline hit like an electric shock, and everything was suddenly very clear.
Both fights were too close. Seth was about to lose his, and I had no idea if Edward was winning or losing. They needed help. A distraction. Something to give them an edge.
My hand gripped the stone spike so tightly that a support in the brace snapped.
Was I strong enough? Was I brave enough? How hard could I shove the rough stone into my body? Would this buy Seth enough time to get back on his feet? Would he heal fast enough for my sacrifice to do him any good?
I raked the point of the shard up my arm, yanking my thick sweater back to expose the skin, and then pressed the sharp tip to the crease at my elbow. I already had a long scar there from my last birthday. That night, my flowing blood had been enough to catch every vampire’s attention, to freeze them all in place for an instant. I prayed it would work that way again. I steeled myself and sucked in one deep breath.
Victoria was distracted by the sound of my gasp. Her eyes, holding still for one tiny portion of a second, met mine. Fury and curiosity mingled strangely in her expression.
I wasn’t sure how I heard the low sound with all the other noises echoing off the stone wall and hammering inside my head. My own heartbeat should have been enough to drown it out. But, in the split second that I stared into Victoria’s eyes, I thought I heard a familiar, exasperated sigh.
In that same short second, the dance broke violently apart. It happened so quickly that it was over before I could follow the sequence of events. I tried to catch up in my head.
Victoria had flown out of the blurred formation and smashed into a tall spruce about halfway up the tree. She dropped back to the earth already crouched to spring.
Simultaneously, Edward — all but invisible with speed — had twisted backward and caught the unsuspecting Riley by the arm. It had looked like Edward planted his foot against Riley’s back, and heaved —
The little campsite was filled with Riley’s piercing shriek of agony.
At the same time, Seth leaped to his feet, cutting off most of my view.
But I could still see Victoria. And, though she looked oddly deformed — as if she were unable to straighten up completely — I could see the smile I’d been dreaming of flash across her wild face.
She coiled and sprang.
Something small and white whistled through the air and collided with her mid-flight. The impact sounded like an explosion, and it threw her against another tree — this one snapped in half. She landed on her feet again, crouched and ready, but Edward was already in place. Relief swelled in my heart when I saw that he stood straight and perfect.
Victoria kicked something aside with a flick of her bare foot — the missile that had crippled her attack. It rolled toward me, and I realized what it was.
My stomach lurched.
The fingers were still twitching; grasping at blades of grass, Riley’s arm began to drag itself mindlessly across the ground.
Seth was circling Riley again, and now Riley was retreating. He backed away from the advancing werewolf, his face rigid with pain. He raised his one arm defensively.
Seth rushed Riley, and the vampire was clearly off-balance. I saw Seth sink his teeth into Riley’s shoulder and tear, jumping back again.
With an earsplitting metallic screech, Riley lost his other arm.
Seth shook his head, flinging the arm into the woods. The broken hissing noise that came through Seth’s teeth sounded like snickering.
Riley screamed out a tortured plea. “Victoria!”
Victoria did not even flinch to the sound of her name. Her eyes did not flicker once toward her partner.
Seth launched himself forward with the force of a wrecking ball. The thrust carried both Seth and Riley into the trees, where the metallic screeching was matched by Riley’s screams. Screams that abruptly cut off, while the sounds of rock being ripped to shreds continued.
Though she spared Riley no farewell glance, Victoria seemed to realize that she was on her own. She began to back away from Edward, frenzied disappointment blazing in her eyes. She threw me one short, agonized stare of longing, and then she started to retreat faster.
“No,” Edward crooned, his voice seductive. “Stay just a little longer.”
She wheeled and flew toward the refuge of the forest like an arrow from a bow.
But Edward was faster — a bullet from a gun.
He caught her unprotected back at the edge of the trees and, with one last, simple step, the dance was over.
Edward’s mouth brushed once across her neck, like a caress. The squealing clamor coming from Seth’s efforts covered every other noise, so there was no discernible sound to make the image one of violence. He could have been kissing her.
And then the fiery tangle of hair was no longer connected to the rest of her body. The shivering orange waves fell to the ground, and bounced once before rolling toward the trees.
25. MIRROR
I FORCED MY EYES — FROZEN WIDE OPEN WITH SHOCK — to move, so that I could not examine too closely the oval object wrapped in tendrils of shivering, fiery hair.
Edward was in motion again. Swift and coolly businesslike, he dismembered the headless corpse.
I could not go to him — I could not make my feet respond; they were bolted to the stone beneath them. But I scrutinized his every action minutely, looking for any evidence that he had been harmed. My heart slowed to a healthier rhythm when I found nothing. He was lithe and graceful as ever. I couldn’t even see a tear in his clothes.
He did not look at me — where I stood frozen to the cliff wall, horrified — while he piled the quivering, twitching limbs and then covered them with dry pine needles. He still did not meet my shocked gaze as he darted into the forest after Seth.
I didn’t have time to recover before both he and Seth were back, Edward with his arms full of Riley. Seth was carrying a large chunk — the torso — in his mouth. They added their burden to the pile, and Edward pulled a silver rectangle from his pocket. He flipped open the butane lighter and held the flame to the dry tinder. It caught at once; long tongues of orange fire licked rapidly across the pyre.
“Get every piece,” Edward said in a low aside to Seth.
Together, the vampire and the werewolf scoured the campsite, occasionally tossing small lumps of white stone into the blaze. Seth handled the pieces with his teeth. My brain wasn’t working well enough for me to understand why he didn’t change back to a form with hands.
Edward kept his eyes on his work.
And then they were done, and the raging fire was sending a pillar of choking purple toward the sky. The thick smoke curled up slowly, looking more solid than it should; it smelled like burning incense, and the scent was uncomfortable. It was heavy, too strong.
Seth made that snickering sound again, deep in his chest.
A smile flickered across Edward’s tense face.
Edward stretched out his arm, his hand curled into a fist. Seth grinned, revealing the long row of dagger teeth, and bumped his nose against Edward’s hand.
“Nice teamwork,” Edward murmured.
Seth coughed a laugh.
Then Edward took a deep breath, and turned slowly to face me.
I did not understand his expression. His eyes were as wary as if I were another enemy — more than wary, they were afraid. Yet he’d shown no fear at all when he’d faced Victoria and Riley. . . . My mind was stuck, stunned and useless as my body. I stared at him, bewildered.
“Bella, love,” he said in his softest tone, walking toward me with exaggerated slowness, his hands held up, palms forward. Dazed as I was, it reminded me oddly of a suspect approaching
a policeman, showing that he wasn’t armed. . . .
“Bella, can you drop the rock, please? Carefully. Don’t hurt yourself.”
I’d forgotten all about my crude weapon, though I realized now that I was grasping it so hard that my knuckle was screaming in protest. Was it rebroken? Carlisle would put me in a cast for sure this time.
Edward hesitated a few feet from me, his hands still in the air, his eyes still fearful.
It took me a few long seconds to remember how to move my fingers. Then the rock clattered to the ground, while my hand stayed frozen in the same position.
Edward relaxed slightly when my hands were empty, but came no closer.
“You don’t have to be afraid, Bella,” Edward murmured. “You’re safe. I won’t hurt you.”
The mystifying promise only confused me further. I stared at him like an imbecile, trying to understand.
“It’s going to be all right, Bella. I know you’re frightened now, but it’s over. No one is going to hurt you. I won’t touch you. I won’t hurt you,” he said again.
My eyes blinked furiously, and I found my voice. “Why do you keep saying that?”
I took an unsteady step toward him, and he leaned away from my advance.
“What’s wrong?” I whispered. “What do you mean?”
“Are you . . .” His golden eyes were suddenly as confused as I felt. “Aren’t you afraid of me?”
“Afraid of you? Why?”
I staggered forward another step, and then tripped over something — my own feet probably. Edward caught me, and I buried my face in his chest and started to sob.
“Bella, Bella, I’m so sorry. It’s over, it’s over.”
“I’m fine,” I gasped. “I’m okay. I’m just. Freaking out. Give me. A minute.”
His arms tightened around me. “I’m so sorry,” he murmured again and again.
I clung to him until I could breathe, and then I was kissing him — his chest, his shoulder, his neck — every part of him that I could reach. Slowly, my brain started to work again.
“Are you okay?” I demanded between kisses. “Did she hurt you at all?”
“I am absolutely fine,” he promised, burying his face in my hair.
“Seth?”
Edward chuckled. “More than fine. Very pleased with himself, in fact.”
“The others? Alice, Esme? The wolves?
“All fine. It’s over there, too. It went just as smoothly as I promised. We got the worst of it here.”
I let myself absorb that for a moment, let it sink in and settle in my head.
My family and my friends were safe. Victoria was never coming after me again. It was over.
We were all going to be fine.
But I couldn’t completely take in the good news while I was still so confused.
“Tell me why,” I insisted. “Why did you think I would be afraid of you?”
“I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing yet again — for what? I had no idea. “So sorry. I didn’t want you to see that. See me like that. I know I must have terrified you.”
I had to think about that for another minute, about the hesitant way he’d approached me, his hands in the air. Like I was going to run if he moved too fast. . . .
“Seriously?” I finally asked. “You . . . what? Thought you’d scared me off?” I snorted. Snorting was good; a voice couldn’t tremble or break during a snort. It sounded impressively offhand.
He put his hand under my chin and tilted my head back to read my face.
“Bella, I just” — he hesitated and then forced the words out — “I just beheaded and dismembered a sentient creature not twenty yards from you. That doesn’t bother you?”
He frowned at me.
I shrugged. Shrugging was good, too. Very blasé. “Not really. I was only afraid that you and Seth were going to get hurt. I wanted to help, but there’s only so much I can do. . . .”
His suddenly livid expression made my voice fade out.
“Yes,” he said, his tone clipped. “Your little stunt with the rock. You know that you nearly gave me a heart attack? Not the easiest thing to do, that.”
His furious glower made it hard to answer.
“I wanted to help . . . Seth was hurt. . . .”
“Seth was only feigning that he was hurt, Bella. It was a trick. And then you . . . !” He shook his head, unable to finish. “Seth couldn’t see what you were doing, so I had to step in. Seth’s a bit disgruntled that he can’t claim a single-handed defeat now.”
“Seth was . . . faking?”
Edward nodded sternly.
“Oh.”
We both looked at Seth, who was studiously ignoring us, watching the flames. Smugness radiated from every hair in his fur.
“Well, I didn’t know that,” I said, on the offense now. “And it’s not easy being the only helpless person around. Just you wait till I’m a vampire! I’m not going to be sitting on the sidelines next time.”
A dozen emotions flitted across his face before he settled on being amused. “Next time? Did you anticipate another war soon?”
“With my luck? Who knows?”
He rolled his eyes, but I could see that he was flying — the relief was making us both lightheaded. It was over.
Or . . . was it?
“Hold on. Didn’t you say something before — ?” I flinched, remembering what exactly it had been before — what was I going to say to Jacob? My splintered heart throbbed out a painful, aching beat. It was hard to believe, almost impossible, but the hardest part of this day was not behind me — and then I soldiered on. “About a complication? And Alice, needing to nail down the schedule for Sam. You said it was going to be close. What was going to be close?”
Edward’s eyes flickered back to Seth, and they exchanged a loaded glance.
“Well?” I asked.
“It’s nothing, really,” Edward said quickly. “But we do need to be on our way. . . .”
He started to pull me into place on his back, but I stiffened and drew away.
“Define nothing.”
Edward took my face between his palms. “We only have a minute, so don’t panic, all right? I told you that you had no reason to be afraid. Trust me on that, please?”
I nodded, trying to hide the sudden terror — how much more could I handle before I collapsed? “No reason to be afraid. Got it.”
He pursed his lips for a second, deciding what to say. And then he glanced abruptly at Seth, as if the wolf had called him.
“What’s she doing?” Edward asked.
Seth whined; it was an anxious, uneasy sound. It made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
Everything was dead silent for one endless second.
And then Edward gasped, “No!” and one of his hands flew out as if to grab something that I couldn’t see. “Don’t —!”
A spasm rocked through Seth’s body, and a howl, blistering with agony, ripped from his lungs.
Edward fell to his knees at the exact same moment, gripping the sides of his head with two hands, his face furrowed in pain.
I screamed once in bewildered terror, and dropped to my knees beside him. Stupidly, I tried to pull his hands from his face; my palms, clammy with sweat, slid off his marble skin.
“Edward! Edward!”
His eyes focused on me; with obvious effort, he pulled his clenched teeth apart.
“It’s okay. We’re going to be fine. It’s —” He broke off, and winced again.
“What’s happening?” I cried out while Seth howled in anguish.
“We’re fine. We’re going to be okay,” Edward gasped. “Sam — help him —”
And I realized in that instant, when he said Sam’s name, that he was not speaking of himself and Seth. No unseen force was attacking them. This time, the crisis was not here.
He was using the pack plural.
I’d burned through all my adrenaline. My body had nothing left. I sagged, and Edward caught me before I could hit the rocks. He spran
g to his feet, me in his arms.
“Seth!” Edward shouted.
Seth was crouched, still tensed in agony, looking as if he meant to launch himself into the forest.
“No!” Edward ordered. “You go straight home. Now. As fast as you can!”
Seth whimpered, shaking his great head from side to side.
“Seth. Trust me.”
The huge wolf stared into Edward’s agonized eyes for one long second, and then he straightened up and flew into the trees, disappearing like a ghost.
Edward cradled me tightly against his chest, and then we were also hurtling through the shadowy forest, taking a different path than the wolf.
“Edward.” I fought to force the words through my constricted throat. “What happened, Edward? What happened to Sam? Where are we going? What’s happening?”
“We have to go back to the clearing,” he told me in a low voice. “We knew there was a good probability of this happening. Earlier this morning, Alice saw it and passed it through Sam to Seth. The Volturi decided it was time to intercede.”
The Volturi.
Too much. My mind refused to make sense of the words, pretended it couldn’t understand.
The trees jolted past us. He was running downhill so fast that it felt as if we were plummeting, falling out of control.
“Don’t panic. They aren’t coming for us. It’s just the normal contingent of the guard that usually cleans up this kind of mess. Nothing momentous, they’re merely doing their job. Of course, they seem to have timed their arrival very carefully. Which leads me to believe that no one in Italy would mourn if these newborns had reduced the size of the Cullen family.” The words came through his teeth, hard and bleak. “I’ll know for sure what they were thinking when they get to the clearing.”
“Is that why we’re going back?” I whispered. Could I handle this? Images of flowing black robes crept into my unwilling mind, and I flinched away from them. I was close to a breaking point.
“It’s part of the reason. Mostly, it will be safer for us to present a united front at this point. They have no reason to harass us, but . . . Jane’s with them. If she thought we were alone somewhere away from the others, it might tempt her. Like Victoria, Jane will probably guess that I’m with you. Demetri, of course, is with her. He could find me, if Jane asked him to.”
The Twilight Saga Collection Page 124