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Prelude	By : belladonnacullen Category: Twilight Series > Het > Bella/Edward Views: 5838 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 17
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- 19
Rose pulled her hand from mine.
"Rose?"
"Emmett, don't worry about me, I can do this." She turned back toward the scene unfolding in front of the three of us and a low hiss escaped from her mouth.
There was no more time to talk. No time to embrace. No time to consider why we were outnumbered five to one. The ragtag army was quickly making their way toward us, fifteen pairs of wild red eyes glinting in the rays of the early morning sun. Their eyes all seemed slightly unfocused and rolled in their sockets, and their teeth were bared and ready.
Venom filled my mouth and my upper lip pulled into a snarl. From deep in my chest I felt a rumble build, and without willing it, I was roaring and crouching, my arms extended. Jasper and Rose's voices joined mine. Then in a coordinated move, we removed our desert coverings and the strong desert sun shattered off of our skin, scattering rays in a million directions. The newborns shielded their eyes and slowed their pace. I couldn't stay on the wall if I tried, and felt my feet hit the hot sand before I was consciously aware that I jumped.
Three were coming at me from my right. Their eyes were red, their mouths were open, and their teeth were dripping with venom. I heard Rose's snarl ring out in the desert air as she hit the ground. I was on fire. I charged at the three vamps, and just before running head on into them, I dove into the sand like I was diving for home base back at a family baseball game in Forks. Sand flew at my attackers, momentarily blinding them.
"Woo!" This might be fun.
I took this split second advantage to tear the head off of one. I had no time to completely do away with each attacking vamp. This fight had to be over fast enough to so that we could completely shred and burn our opponents when it was all over, before they could literally reassemble. Metallic snaps and tears rang out as I quickly pulled limb from limb and flung each in a different direction.
While the two in front of me clawed at the sand in their eyes like wild animals, I heard rapidly approaching footsteps from behind. I stayed still and breathed, working to time my hearing with the actions of my muscles. I listened to approaching breaths to calculate where his head and neck would be. I leapt, and with a bian tui kick, managed to catch the approaching vampire in the neck, sending him flying in an arc and knocking over the other two vampires. My shin crushed his windpipe and he was stunned enough to give me another second. It was all the time I needed to tear his head off.
But I'd given the other two vamps more than enough chance to recover. Before I could dislodge arms and legs from the body I was holding, my head was pushed under the sand and two vampires were on top of me. My other senses were heightened as my sight was cut off. I could hear footfalls; hisses, growls, and the sounds of metal shredding metal filled the desert air. I felt claws on my back and knew that teeth would be next to pierce my skin.
I closed my eyes and took two quick, sand-filled breaths, enough to ground me. Then, since I was pinned on my back and had no physical leverage, I pulled force from within myself and exploded upward from my position. My fists neatly punched each of my attackers directly in the face and I landed on my feet. They each flew back about fifty yards, and then slid another ten, easy.
I looked around and saw Jasper to my left, a neat blur as he deftly maneuvered himself around his attackers and struck precise debilitating blows with ease. He was faster than anyone I had ever seen, besides maybe Alice. Rose was just beyond him. I was floored. She was grace in motion. While she didn't have my strength or Jasper's precision, the fluidity of her movement was the closest to Chun-Tao and Dung-Mei's teachings out of the three of us. She was able to effortlessly dodge and weave, keeping her attackers at bay until the moment when she could go in for the kill.
I looked between the two of the vamps I was fighting and quickly judged who needed to go first. The one to my left was more muscular, but the one on my right was already back on his feet. So, the little one it was. I ran at him head on and when we were within striking distance he lunged. I stopped, and with his hands inches from my face I stepped to the side and caught him across his abdomen with my arm. He folded in two and fell to the ground. I grabbed him by the head, but his hands quickly found my neck.
The shock of not breathing stopped me for a millisecond. Like all newborns, his strength was staggering. The little vampire's hands tightened their grip, so I had to focus and work fast. He struggled and kicked with his feet, almost knocking us both to the ground and his hands continued to tighten around my neck.
I pulled him up by his head so that his neck was level with my mouth. He was snarling and snapping at my wrists, leaving a long expanse of neck exposed in front of my face. I tore into it. I bit through his neck with my teeth, and his strangle hold started to loosen. My teeth ground their way through granite flesh and bone. I clutched harder as the vamp's grasp continued to weaken and I had his head off quickly after that. I continued ripping into his torso, tearing at his shoulder, pulling away stony white flesh bit by bit.
But then I was hit on the back from behind. My face was in the sand. I felt sharp teeth pierce into my shoulder blade. Damn. I got carried away. Blood or no blood, it was hard to keep a level head when teeth became involved.
I pressed my hands into the sand and pushed my body off of the ground. The vampire behind me was locked onto my back with his jaws, and he wound his hands around my body. The pain was searing, and radiated out from my shoulder like a sunburst. I stretched my hands over my head and managed to reach under his arms. With all the strength I had, I pulled and flipped him over my head, and he fell to the ground in front of me.
I was on my knees. A large piece of my upper back was in his mouth. The pain was so intense I didn't know if I'd be able to stand. I tried to concentrate and struggle to hold him down, but he was a newborn and stronger than me. I released my grip and he was back on his feet. But I anticipated that, and as soon as he was standing my fist hit him in the diaphragm. He flew backwards, and collided with a sand dune. I charged, had his neck in my hands, and it was over for him quickly.
I turned, ready for more oncoming vampires, but didn't see any. I looked for Rose, she was doing the final dance with her attacker, jumping in, breaking an arm, jumping back, and so forth, wearing him down. It would be over soon for him. Maybe this whole episode was almost over.
But that's when I heard a piercing wail from the other side of the main gate. A chorus of snarls erupted in response, almost in celebration. I looked over to see that all of the remaining newborns had refocused their attention on Jasper. He was surrounded, and three newborns had clamped on to him from behind, trying to take him down.
His face was contorted into a fierce grimace of pain and anger. He was able to tear at the attackers on his back, even as they tore into him with their sharp teeth. I had a sneaking suspicion that someone had passed along information about Sakhmet's preferences. But there was no time to think about that.
Rose shouted, "Go help Jazz, now!"
Immediately I was running, growling, lunging for the vamps surrounding my brother, and then pain seared through the wound on my shoulder and I was down, my face in the sand. A voice I knew only too well snarled in my ear, "I'm going to turn you over so you can watch me kill you." I was immediately wound as tightly as a spring, and my fingers flexed into claws. I let him turn me over. I wanted to see this face one more time before I ripped it to shreds. I glared and snarled as Valentino stared down at me.
My fingers clawed at his face, dug into his eyes and he roared with fury. But his hands were around my throat and refused to let go, his legs were braced around my body holding me down. Jasper cried out in pain. I could hear the final grunts and a low moan as Rose finished off her attacker.
"Jazz, hold on!" she cried and her footsteps faded in Jasper's direction. Then there was a flurry of activity and Rose cried out with a thunderous snarl, "Get off my brother you fuckers!"
I was pushing Valentino off of me with all my might, but he had every advantage and it was all I could do to keep my head and limbs attached. Valentino was using his hands and legs to pin me down completely while his face lunged for my neck. I was able to pull one arm free and I hooked a finger into his eye socket. Valentino gasped and loosened his grip just enough for me to free my other arm. He lunged for my neck with his teeth, but I punched him across the face with enough force to send his body sailing sideways.
I was on my feet, our bodies collided with a thunderous crack, and we were back on the ground wrestling with a vengeance. I was able to grab an ear with my teeth, pull it off and spit it out on the sand. I jumped to my feet and Valentino's piercing shriek of agony seemed to echo in stereo within Sakhmet's compound. He lunged at me again, and I realized that there had actually been someone else crying out. The shrieks from the compound intensified and I thought dimly that I recognized the voice.
Suddenly, Sakhmet's voice could be heard over the din. "No, she will be fine. Go to him, now!"
And in fractions of a second Dong-Mei was at Jasper's side. Her movements were almost delicate as she found the best points of purchase and tossed the vampires off of Jasper one after the other. Of course, they came running back, but Jasper and Dong-Mei were ready for them. In reality, Jasper didn't have to even move. With a quickness and agility that was difficult to track, she deftly tore the head off of each of the three attacking vampires one by one. Jasper went to work quickly, tearing them all into smaller pieces.
By this time, I had Valentino weakened and broken. His head, left arm, and right leg looked like they were attached to his body at odd angles. I lunged at him, and he sprung out of my way, as if to run for it. I grabbed him by the ankle, and pulled him toward me. Little by little, starting with his foot, I tore him into small white vampires chunks.
Rose was finishing off one of the vampires that she pulled off Jasper, and now that I was finished with Valentino, I looked around trying to count all of the corpses. We had to gather them, shred them and burn them in short order, before heads, limbs and bodies could reunite and attack again.
I jogged over to Rose. I wanted to be next to her and touch her, even if I'd be tearing apart vampires in the meantime. I didn't believe it was over yet, but victory bubbles were beginning to make their way into my consciousness.
Rose finished off her attacker, hugged me, and hung on me a little. We didn't speak. Then she saw the hole in the back of my shirt and the wound there. "Oh, Emmett. I didn't know."
"It will heal."
"You'll have a scar." I felt her soft tongue flick over my wound, helping the healing process along, and she placed her hand over my chest. I noticed pieces of hard white vampire flesh under her manicured nails.
But then from behind us we heard Jasper cry out. Rose and I spun around to see Jane extending her right hand in his direction. Jasper was on the ground writhing. Dong-Mei glared at Jane.
"So now we know how the Cullens win fights. They cheat." Jane seemed to take her punishment up a notch and Jasper's body jumped and twitched. Rose and I headed straight for Jane, but Felix jumped into our path, crouching and snarling.
Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Chun-Tao jump down from the wall, and Dong- Mei ran to her. They spoke in quick whispers to one another and in a blur of color and sparkle they were on top of Jane. Jasper was on his feet and running toward Felix, an angry grimace clouding his countenance.
"Felix!" Jane commanded, fighting for her life. Felix turned to her, but Jasper was closing in on him. There was nothing for Felix to do but fight Jasper. Jane didn't have a chance. I smiled, waiting to see the evil little thing finally get her due. We'd all be a lot safer with her out of the picture.
Dong-Mei's question carried out to us all on the dessert air. "Do I finish her?"
"No. That will be enough, thank you."
We all froze. The commanding voice was coming from the direction of the main gate. It was a voice I had heard only one other time. We all turned to watch the large gates of the compound open. Marcus, the owner of the voice was there. At his side were Aro, Caius and ten Volturi guardsmen. Sakhmet stood off to the side, behind their contingent. It appeared Marcus had a gift for stopping violence with a simple command.
Aro stepped forward. "Jane, Felix, please join us." They walked forward, their eyes on the ground. Caius snarled as they walked past.
I gripped Rose's hand and she squeezed back. This wasn't good. This wasn't good at all. I looked over at Jasper. He was glaring at the Volturi contingent, his eyes bright with fury. There were some strips of his upper back that looked like they were hanging away from his body.
"It appears the army was put down." Aro started.
"We have some clean-up to do," I said, "or they won't be down for long." To myself I silently added, "except for Valentino."
Aro gave an almost imperceptible nod to three of the guards armed with torches. They began the job of collecting and burning body parts.
"It appears you have acquired some unorthodox fighting techniques." Aro raised his eyebrows.
"What did you expect when you sent us here?" Jasper challenged, with a bit more malice in his voice than I felt was safe.
"Fair question. I expected a little less from those two," Aro glowered in the direction of Chun-Tao and Dong-Mei.
"Yes, Aro, they had help. They did not follow the rules." Jane managed to look imperious despite the fact that she had been a split second from annihilation.
"I didn't see Valentino following any rules either." I interjected.
"I don't see Valentino at all," Aro countered. "It appears you have dismembered my guard again. This time, with a bit more finality."
"What was he doing out here, anyway?" Chun-Tao demanded.
"What were you doing?" Aro actually took a step in the direction of the two fighters and they looked as if they were ready to pounce.
"I allowed it." Sakhmet stood forward. All eyes were suddenly on her. "It was my responsibility to keep my fighters out of the battle. But Jasper was targeted more than the other two. So I let them go. I fear there may have been some bias among Abu Nuwas' converts." Sakhmet walked slowly toward Jasper with a very cautious look on her face. As she came closer she reached her right hand up just slightly from her waist. Jasper hissed and bared his teeth, as tension radiated off of him in waves. Sakhmet stopped in her tracks, but continued to stare in his direction.
The look of shock on Aro and Caius's faces was priceless. Their eyebrows were raised so high I thought their parchment-like skin might tear.
"I couldn't stop both of the fighters." Jane's voice was gritty and angry. "Felix couldn't stop even one," she offered without prompting. She was acting like a child. Aro seemed to ignore her.
"What do we do with the three of you now?" Aro asked out loud. I had a funny feeling that he knew exactly what he wanted to do with us.
"We followed your orders and we defeated the army. We can leave." It was as clear as that.
"Not so fast." He looked at the collection of vampires in front of him. Rose and I had our arms around one another, and Rose was also clasping Jasper's hand tightly. Sakhmet was on the other side of Jasper, and looked for all the world like she would like to embrace him. Chun-Tao and Dong-Mei stood with us, facing the council, clearly conveying that they were on our side.
"I have learned quite a bit about your coven from this experience. At the very least it seems that you make unlikely allies."
"But you have us in a bit of a bind. You aided us. You killed the rogue vampires in this region like we asked you to. But you did receive aid that we didn't count on in our bargain. And more importantly, you destroyed the guard that brought you here in the first place. That changes things considerably." A chorus of hisses went up from the guards assembled before us. A few smiled and bared their teeth, anxious for a fight.
Aro reached out to touch the hands of Caius and Marcus. They each gave a solemn nod without so much as looking at one another. I got the distinct impression that this had all been discussed before hand. But there was no proof.
"We are feeling inclined to give Bella some more time." I heard a hiss from Jane's direction.
"Valentino's death is not her fault. If she isn't changed by the end of the year, your coven will have a choice. Either Bella must give her life, or I will accept a member of your family as forfeit. There is much I could benefit from having one of you work for me. I would prefer it to wasting a gift like Bella's. Of course, her death may be inevitable. We are naturally selfish creatures."
The protectiveness I felt for Edward and Bella took hold of me. Bella had to live, no matter what. If Edward got his wish and could keep her from changing for some time, I would not let Aro get in the way. I squeezed Rose's hand and looked toward her. She looked back at me and I could see a look of shock registered on her face.
I couldn't read her mind, and I know she couldn't read mine, but I tried my best to let her know what I was thinking. I shouted silently that I needed to help them. That I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything prevented their happiness. That I had been blessed with so much, and Edward had had none of it until now. I knew what I had to do. I said that all with my eyes, with my heart. Rose nodded.
I looked back to Aro and stepped forward. Rose stepped forward too. I looked at her. She nodded at me again.
I turned back to Aro. His eyebrows were raised in a question, and a smirk was playing on his lips.
"Take me."
"And me, you don't get Emmett without me." I looked at Rose, stunned. She smiled at me and seemed quite peaceful.
"Rose, no."
Aro's face was lit with malevolent satisfaction. "Wonderful, how would you say it? Two Cullens for the price of one."
"Emmett, I would do this, not just to be with you, but for my family. Without this we would fall apart." She clutched my hand tighter, and then looked back toward the council.
"Fabulous. And Jasper, would you join as well?"
Jasper's expression was unreadable. He glanced at Rose and I and cast his eyes toward the ground.
"You have more than you asked for Aro. Certainly we've satisfied your requirements. It's time you let us go."
"You are right, Emmett. For my sake I hope Alice is wrong and Bella decides to remain human. I hope that you might join our ranks. But be warned. We will be watching your family closely. If there is any hint of a transgression before the year is up, we will know and we will find you."
With that, the Volturi started filing slowly past us into the bright sun of the dessert morning. Jane snarled as she walked by. Anther guard moved past and dropped our cell phones and personal possessions to the ground. We turned to watch them slowly disappear over the horizon.
"It's over," Jasper whispered.
"Goddamn! We did it!" I grabbed Rose and spun her around. "It's over baby. Let's go home." I reached over to pat Jasper on the shoulder. He winced slightly.
"Dude, sorry."
"It's nothing. Let's go." I felt homesickness hit me like a tidal wave.
"Hey, hey, calm down. We're leaving, you don't need to be so blatant about it!" I joked weakly.
We rummaged through the possession that had been thrown in the sand. We hugged Dong-Mei and Chun-Tao. They promised to come visit as soon as they could get away. We thanked them for saving Jasper's life.
"Jasper." It was Sakhmet. "You are welcome here whenever you wish to return."
"I won't be coming back, ever."
"I know."
Rose and I gently wound our arms around Jasper's waist to help to support him. We walked due north into the empty, open dessert.
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Prelude