Black & Blue |C. Cullen|

TEN

"I don't have anything for vampires, nothing works on vampires except for yourselves," I explained, frazzled while looking under my seat for anything to use on James.

"That's fine, Jess," Jasper calmed me down.

"Wait," I said as I dug further down into the pile of weapons and herbs. "Fire, does fire work?"

"Yeah, that's the best way to completely get rid of a vampire," Jasper explained.

"Okay, I have this thing," I pulled it out and held it up, it was a sphere that, upon contact with a vampire, would explode. Jasper reached for it, I recoiled, "Don't!" I took a deep breath of relief when he pulled his hand back. "Don't touch it, it explodes on contact with vampires."

"Good to know, do you have a bag you could put it in?" He asked.

"Yeah,"I dug around in my car and found my old, denim, hunting bag. My parents tried to get me to go with leather, I insisted on a denim backpack with a bunch of sew on patches and pins. The contents consisted of wolf's bane grenades, syringes filled with the serum, and the one exploding sphere. There was also an assortment of knives.

"The '80s called, they want their bag back," Emmett chuckled as he passed me.

"I was thirteen!" I whined.

"I'll drive Bella and Jess down south, lead them away from the tracker," Edward said.

"No Edward, James knows you would never leave Bella, just as he knows I would never leave Jessamine. Someone else needs to drive," Carlisle interjected.

"I'll do it, Jasper and I can drive them down. I'll keep them safe," Alice offered.

"Can you just keep your thoughts to yourself," Edward asked.

"Of course," Alice breathed.

Bella was ushered to the black Mercedes and sat down in the back, she and Edward began talking with one another. I went up to Carlisle who possessed a worried look.

"Where do you need me? I'm the only one that can touch this," I held up my bag.

"Go with Alice and Jasper, keep the bag with you, god forbid something happens and you need to use it," he started.

"Okay," I placed my hand on the side of his face to provide comfort. He held it to his face for a moment and took a breath.

"I need you to stay safe, can you promise me that?" He questioned.

"I will do my best, but I need you to promise me the same thing," I replied.

"I will do my best," he mirrored me with a small smile.

I love you, I wanted to say, but I didn't want to plague his mind with more to worry about. I settled for kissing him before parting and taking my seat in the car.

"You should tell him," Edward whispered across Bella to me.

"Stop doing that," I whined.

He turned his attention back to Bella and the car started. Carlisle came to my window and leant down, "Tell me what?"

My jaw dropped as I tried to find a way to say it in which I wouldn't sound completely lame. The car started moving, "I love you," I got out before the car tore off out of the parking garage. "Oh my god," I groaned, "That's not how I wanted that to go down."

Bella grabbed my hand and squeezed it for support. We then went back to doing our own things. I placed my earbuds in my ears and listened to music as I waited for us to enter Phoenix. Bella made several calls to her mother, she attempted to explain her situation, but every time she called, her mother wouldn't answer.

After hours passed, we were almost to Phoenix. The sun had both risen and began its descent by the time we reached Phoenix. "Hey, mum, I'm not in Forks, but everything is okay. I'll explain later," Bella left a voicemail as we pulled into the covered entrance to the hotel. I took the chance to lay down in bed, even though I never truly fell asleep, due to feeling both physically and mentally exhausted.

I heard a commotion from the other room, but I figured if they actually needed me, they would call for me. I then heard Bella answer a call and walk closer to the bedroom portion of the hotel room. I pretended to be asleep, hoping that I could actually get some level of sleep. I heard Jasper and Alice say that they were going to go downstairs and check out of the hotel. A few minutes after they left, Bella was packing her things in a bag and she answered another call.

"Mum?" She questioned, then she got worried. "What did you do? Don't hurt her!" She whisper-yelled. "Where should I meet you?" She hung up the phone and started scribbling something on a piece of paper, I wasn't watching it, I could hear it.

She left the room and I tailed her, hunting bag in hand, without her noticing. She grabbed a cab and drove off, I asked the next cab to follow her. I showed up a few minutes after she did. I pulled out the sphere from my bag, tossed it up in the air, and then caught it. I set my bag on one shoulder and walked into the ballet studio with confidence radiating through me.

James looked over at me, he had just thrown Edward into a window. "Don't you smell divine, I thought you were too scared to show up," he grinned.

"You seem to have a misconceived notion about me. See, there's one thing you're missing; I don't give a fuck," I tossed the ball at him with all of my strength, he caught it and the sphere exploded; it knocked him back and he crashed to the ground, giving Emmett and Jasper enough time to get their hands on him.

I rushed over to Bella at the same time as Carlisle, Alice, and Edward. "The femoral artery has been severed, Alice, make me a tourniquet; your belt," Carlisle ordered, his hand over the wound on Bella's thigh. "Tie it above my hand," Alice did as she was told and then she was pushed away so that her bloodlust wouldn't get the best of her.

"I'm gonna make it stop, Bella, I'm gonna make it go away," Edward told her while grabbing her hand. I must have missed something, but I quickly understood once I saw the silver lining the bite mark on her wrist. Edward put her wrist up to his mouth and started sucking the venom out of her blood. She quickly started to fade out of consciousness.

"Edward, stop. Her blood is clean, you're killing her," Edward continued to take in her blood as though it was water to a man that had been hiking for miles without it. "Find the will, son," Carlisle begged.

After a moment, Edward pulled her hand away from his mouth and started to freak out internally. "We have to get her to a hospital, preferably before this place burns down," Carlisle picked her up and darted out of the building, everyone trailed behind him; Alice carried me.