Chapter X L'ETRE ET L'AME -- A Twilight Fanfiction
Thanks to Ava Sinclair for her wonderful Beta
CHAPTER X
Dusk again, and Bella’s hands no longer glittered on the steering wheel. It had taken only three hours on the road for her to decide where she was headed. Or, if Bella had been honest with herself, she had known from the moment she slipped the key into the ignition.
The wheels spun gravel as she whipped into the drive leading to the Cullen home, and she braced herself for whatever welcome she would receive. Would there be open arms and cries of delight or an awkward silence and more awkward maneuverings designed to give the impression that, “it’s good to see you, but. . . well, this just isn’t going to work out.” Either way, Bella decided, she wanted to know and get it out of the way. She wouldn’t pine away for a man who didn’t love her, but she would damn well face him. The idea of him not loving her had burned like a saw through her ribs during the long miles through Canada, and she thought she had it under control now. But despite her attempts at detachment, Bella’s heart leapt when she saw the familiar Volvo come into view, but the excitement was quashed catching sight of Irina’s vehicle just behind it. Jasper had already arrived, of course. What would she say to him? Bella didn’t know whether she was more angry or hurt; that sense of abandonment ran marrow-deep. Well, he’ll know how I feel, even if I don’t, she thought bitterly.
In spite of her misgivings, Bella hesitated for only a minute before forcing herself out of the car and marching to the porch.
There was no movement anywhere around, even the air was still. Dead. It hung sticky and heavy with a horrible stink, like laundry left on the line and mildewing. Just when I thought I was getting used to the smells.
Bella gave a perfunctory knock before trying the door. It was locked. There was a light on, though; certainly someone would have the guts to open the damned door.
“Hello?” she said. There came the sound of light, quick steps, and a haunted, hopeful voice.
“Bella?”
The door was thrown open suddenly, and Alice appeared wide-eyed in the emptiness. She grabbed Bella by the arm and hauled her over the threshold before crushing her in a peculiar one-armed embrace.
“What are you doing here? You shouldn’t be here!”
Bella pulled away, stunned. The world spun. Alice had embraced her, and then told her she didn’t belong. Alice must have read the look on her face.
“I’m so glad you are, though. Bella, I’ve missed you so much!” But Bella blinked, benumbed, as Alice took her arm and brought her in. “I’m so glad you’re here. How can you doubt it?” And the second embrace nearly crushed Bella’s ribs, and Bella let herself dissolve into it. She was loved and wanted, and her best friend was clinging to her, not only in joy but in a frightening desperation--and with just one arm.
“You’re hurt! What happened?” Bella pulled away and ghosted one hand beside Alice’s body, where her other arm should have been. Without waiting for an explanation, she barreled on. “Where is everyone?” Was it just Alice now? What if Alice had the best of it, and the smell. . . . What the hell was that? Bella’s guts crawled with fear.
“They’ve gone, Bella. They’ve gone to hunt Victoria,” Alice explained. Suddenly, Esme sailed down the stairs behind her and pulled Bella in to a fervent hug. Conflicting emotions warred inside Bella’s head, joy at being accepted but bewilderment as she fought to grasp whatever explanation Alice was giving her for the mostly empty house that night.
Wolves, yes, that make sense, Bella felt herself nodding dumbly, now seated on the couch, her hand in Esme’s. That was the smell is. And Carlisle, Edward and Jasper have gone to hunt Victoria with them? The very idea cut her breath, even if she didn’t need it to breath, the sensation was still painful at first. She didn’t know anything about the wolves really, other than that they were deadly to vampires--and that one had taken Alice’s arm.
Bella tried hard to not stare down at Alice’s empty sleeve. Please, don’t let Jacob have been the one.
She wanted to sob with the sheer horror of it.
“They should be home soon, I think,” Alice said, sounding frantic, and more hopeful than certain. “There’s only a few hours left. But--” she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and flipped it open with a deft snap of her wrist. “I don’t know, I can’t get anyone on the cell!” She demonstrated, hitting speed dial 1 for Jasper, and a dull dusty voice informed them that the user was out of range or had no service.
Bella jumped to her feet.
“I have to go, then. I can show them that I’m all right! That’s what they’re mad at, isn’t it? The treaty was about someone dying.”
Esme shook her head and reached again for her hand. “It’s splitting hairs, Bella. For Charlie, and the pack, you aren’t all right. You’re dead, Sweetheart.”
Bella turned away and gripped her head in her hands. It was true, but she hated hearing it, hated living in a corpse.
It was Alice’s cold hand, pulling Bella’s from her eyes. “Where are the Denalis? How did the Denalis let you come alone?” she asked.
Bella shook her head, as if to toss the idea from her head. “They went out. I came alone.” She didn’t mention how she had all but driven Irina away, feeling the weight of that drop into her belly like an anvil. “I’m so sorry for this. I never wanted any of you to get into trouble, and I have to do what I can to make it up to you.”
“What you have to do is stay here, Bella!”
Bella gripped her friend by the one good shoulder, the other hand on her Alice’s cheek. She knew then how wrong she had been. They had truly been in danger, and they would have been with her if they could have. And yet, couldn’t they have called, at least? Anything? Bella felt herself sliding away from the moment, and forced herself back to the most pressing issue.
“I can’t. If they’re out there, I can’t hide here, Alice,” she insisted.
Alice’s face tightened with anger and embarrassment. If she could have flushed, she would have.
“Then, I’m coming with you too!”
“You’re hurt, Alice! And this isn’t about you,” objected Bella.
“How dare you say that! This is about my family. I’m not letting you go alone. If you’re going, I’m going with you.”
“Well, I won’t be left here waiting to see who comes home again.” Alice and Bella turned to Esme in shock. Her jaw was set in a stern, determined way that Bella had never before seen on her. “I couldn’t bear it,” she said in a hoarse whisper. Alice finished sizing Esme up too, and didn’t even bother arguing, she just turned to Bella, waiting for her to give in. But she wasn’t ready, just yet. She could still plead.
“Please, let me go, just me. They won’t hurt me.”
Alice shook her head, frustrated. “You’re a vampire, Bella. They don’t want vampires around. That’s the point!”
Bella blinked. She hadn’t really thought of it like that before, she assumed it would be enough simply to be a victim of these vampires, as if that would somehow give her immunity. She doubted it now, but refused to give in.
“Jacob’s my friend. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me,” she argued.
Esme and Alice looked dubious.
“Then, by that same measure, they shouldn’t hurt us if we’re with you,” said Esme, firmly.
Bella just shook her head, but not in negation, in flat helplessness. She had never seen Esme put her foot down, because whenever she did, she would win every time, Bella realized. And now there was no time to lose. Something in the woods seemed to claw at her and pull her into the gathering darkness. Edward was out there, Jasper and Carlisle. Bella wanted to save them all.
“Ok, let’s go then,” she breathed.
Outside, the women tested the wind for the best path. Bella flinched, at first, finding it hard to breath deeply with the stench of the wolves so thick in the air. It took a deal of concentration and she was painfully drawn to where Edward’s scent was the strongest, a path leading south from the house. It was agonizing how much she wanted to follow it, but she knew she had to turn away when Alice pointed out Sam’s scent.
“Jasper said he’s their war chief. He’ll be the one to show yourself to,” she said.
“Then that’s where we’ll go,” Bella said, determinedly. She clenched her teeth, honed in on Sam’s scent, and tore off into the darkening forest. Emse and Alice were running close to her, fleet and deer-footed. Their presences were warm and comforting as a new fleece blanket, even in spite of the peril of the situation. Bella’s senses were drawn tight as piano strings, and she thought for a moment that she felt the rumble of a car on the drive now distant behind them. Alice paused, threw a glance over her shoulder, but brushed it off to keep pace with Bella and Esme.
Bella had been amazed by her new senses before, but it was nothing like this, now when she was truly focusing on hunting, not just prey--not just anything with blood in its veins--but an actual, specific target. Her nerves thrummed. She could feel each irregularity in the ground beneath her feet, hear the octaves of sound as a breeze fingered the long pine needle, distinguish between the gamey scent of Sam, and other oppressive, wolfish funk, and the more pleasant scents that had mingled in the Cullen home. A less disciplined part of her mind was amused, and wondered whether the patchouli scent was Carlisle’s.
She was tearing along weaving in and out of pines, when she became aware of something behind her, and the sensation was like daggers in her back.
Esme felt it too. “Someone’s following us,” she said, losing a step.
“Behind us doesn’t mean they’re following us,” replied Alice, sounding uncertain.
“Wolves?” Bella asked stopping hard, kicking up dirt. She tested the air. “Maybe I should go to them. If they’re wolves the point is to find them and show them I’m safe.”
But even as she said it, he scent was fading. It was probably just some air mass carrying the smell of long passed wolves.
The women exchanged glances, questioning and answering with their eyes. They had the unknown before, the unknown behind, and one goal.
“Sam,” said Alice.
“Sam’s the one we want,” Bella agreed with a nod.
They raced on for another several minutes, and Bella grew more hopeful. Sam’s scent grew more and more pronounced in her nose. Funny, Bella thought, as a human, you got used to smells relatively quickly-one became quickly used to a mild stimuli so long as it didn’t change in intensity, but as a vampire, she was constantly aware of them.
Or perhaps not.
Esme had stopped again, her ear head cocked, eyes wide, terrified to hear whatever it was something, but listening for it anyway.
Bella stopped trying to scents and listened hard. A faint cry made her stony flesh crawl--a wail that might have been the wind soughing through the uppermost pine needles. She fervently hoped it was, and Esme turned and fled toward the sound before Bella had quite convinced herself otherwise. Bella wouldn’t have believed Esme could be so fast, as she and Alice ran after her, navigating the wake of stirring leaves Esme churned up in her desperate sprint.
What? Who? Bella wondered, terrified.
Alice must have had an inkling, must have picked up on something Bella had missed. “No,” she breathed.
She could distinguish voices now, and she knew them. But it couldn’t be. . . . The Denali sisters? Had it been them on the drive? Had they followed her after all? Of course they had, and it was with terror, rather than gratitude that Bella accepted this obvious fact of their caring for her.
After what seemed like an eternity, there came one agonized scream, and Bella joined Alic and Esme in a small clearing. Bella nearly ran into Esme, so quickly had she stopped.
Esme gave a strangled cry. “No!”
Bella’s mind was numb, she could scarcely make sense of the stimuli flooding her. There was a vicious snapping, and a dull roaring sound, like a far-off jet plane. The angry rustling of branches. And an ominous popping and crackling.
Then she saw them, across the clearing. Bella’s brain scrambled to put names to the two forms, clinging to the top of an ancient denuded pine. She finally found them, and understood with dull horror what was happening. Only Tanya was clutching the tree, Kate was shrieking, flailing, as if something were attacking her. She was attempting to jump out of a tree and pounce on the tawny brown wolf below. A wolf!? It’s enormous! Bella thought with shock. Tanya was screaming and struggling furiously against her sister, her words a muddle of grief and terror and anger.
“Stop, Kate, it’s too late!”
“Irinaaa!” Kate screamed. “I’ll kill you mutts. Kill you!” Her eyes shot fiery daggers below.
Kate broke an arm free from Tanya’s hold, and she tried to launch herself to the ground.
“No, Kate. Please!” Tanya pleaded.
Where was Irina? Bella’s numbed brain mumbled. She looked to the ground, and made out a young man, stark naked. She hadn’t even noticed him at first, so startled was she by the wolf.
And there seemed to be some odd sort of ground fog. But then, Bella saw a spurt of orange flame, and the fog became a fuzzy blur of purple smoke. Only then did she know what the crackling was, the voice of the most ominous fire she had ever seen. It popped again sending embers high into the air, and the naked boy threw his forearm over his face and scurried back fromthe blaze.
“No!” Bella screamed. “Leave them alone! Stop!” Bella’s throat tore with her screams.
“Leave them alone!” Before she could think, she was running for the center of the clearing. She didn’t know what she meant to do, and the boy standing there beside it, stared at her momentarily before rippling and exploding into another wolf form.
At that, the brown wolf beneath the tree turned his back from Kate and Tanya to snarl at Bella, stopping her dead in her tracks. A breeze kicked through the fire blasting embers and smoke toward her. Irina, but she tried not to think it. The smell hit her so hard her vision blurred. Bella tried to shake off the pain when there was a sudden roar in her ears, like a distant foghorn, and her peripheral vision caught movement to her left.
Her diaphragm reacted on reflex and dragged in just enough air to scream as a third wolf, black and furious, tore out of the underbrush and charged toward her, fangs bared in a deadly grimace.
A/N I do apologize for two cliffhanger chapters in a row. There won’t be anymore as there are only 2 chapters left in this story. Besides, I don’t want to be cruel to my kind readers. Thanks for all of the encouragement; I do reply to every review.