There were distant sounds of a fight, the loud noise of a vampire being torn apart, but my eyes were only able to see one thing �C Bella. She was lying on the ground, crumpled, broken, while the pool of blood continued to grow wider underneath her. The red fluid, spilling, wasting, on the floor, the scent pulsing through the air. The amount was cataclysmic, as each second passed a distinctive, yet intangible, spice of the most delicious aroma left burning lacerations in my aching throat. My knee was placed resolutely in the middle of the puddle, soaking me in her blood...her life. I took a deep breath and ignored my longing, my lust, my ravenous desire - I focused on the angel.
"Bella," I soothed her. "You're going to be fine." Unresponsive, detached. A plea entered my voice. "Can you hear me, Bella? I love you." I sent a reverent petition to which ever god would answer a creature like me.
"Edward," she croaked, answering my silent request.
"Yes, I'm here," I declared earnestly.
Slow, small, and irregular quantity of tears trickled down her cheeks. "It hurts," she uttered many inarticulate lamentations of grief as her eyes closed tightly.
Her words plagued and tormented me. I lightly brushed her hair from her face. "I know, Bella, I know." I shifted my posture to Carlisle. "Can't you do anything?" I asked him urgently, peremptorily.
This doesn't look good. I need you to prepare yourself for the worst. "My bag please," Carlisle reached his hand out.
The scent...Alice's eyes were wild when she passed the bag to him.
"Hold your breath, Alice, it will help," Carlisle declared while grabbing his bag.
"Alice?" Bella questioned in a sustained mournful cry.
Alice continued to hold her breath, unable to answer her. Bella, she lamented a sigh silently.
"She's here," I assured her. "She knew where to find you," I silently thanked Alice as our eyes met for a fraction of a second.
Alice made a slight and quick bend of her head. Not soon enough, her eyes were deep with sorrow.
A quick glance around the room brought the total devastation and destruction back into focus. The mirror was cracked and shiny blood was smeared across the floor and mirrors.
"My hand hurts," Bella mumbled in an almost unintelligible extent, bringing me back from my distraction.
"I know, Bella." Another scorch mark broke down my throat as I took in another breath to answer the angel who was lying in front of me.
I'm about to administer some morphine into her system. Her pain should go away fairly quick after that.
"Carlisle will give you something, it will stop."
All the noise, the fighting, the sound of cracking wood, it was all drowned out when a sharp and piercing cry echoed through the Ballet Studio. "My hand is burning," Bella shouted, her eyes fluttering, trying to open but were restricted because of the blood.
"Bella?" I cried out, frightened. I felt a great mental suffering, as her screams were slowly torturing me.
The morphine should be working.
Another loud wail. "The fire! Someone stop the fire!" she screamed and moaned in paroxysms of grief.
I looked over my shoulder as Emmett was starting a fire to burn James �C but it was nowhere near us. I turned back to her, going to the source of her first cries. There were perfect teeth imprints on her wrist where a vampire, I growled in rage, had bit her.
"Carlisle! Her hand!" I yelled in disgust, hoping he might have a remedy or that I was wrong all together. An icy surge of terror filled my lungs.
I watched as his eyes looked over the outline of the mark. "He bit her." Carlisle stated in revulsion.
A deep breath entered my lungs as her scent rippled down my flaming throat, the horror entering my body. My view was obliterated by anger �C I was seeing red.
I can't do it. "Edward, you have to do it," Alice commanded while wiping the blood out of Bella's eyes. Her stare was so intent you would think she was trying to force Bella to mend just by looking at her.
"No," I roared, looking at Carlisle, hoping he would tell me something different.
"Alice," Bella cried in a low, mournful sound.
Edward, if you want her to stay human... "There may be a chance," Carlisle persisted.
"What?" I begged, not understanding why they wanted me to do it.
"See if you can suck the venom back out. The wound is fairly clean," Carlisle explained as he stitched Bella's head wound.
The shock from this statement was so huge it rooted me to the spot for several seconds.
"Will that work?" Alice's throat was obstructed by the fear of losing her friend.
I assume it would work the same as a snake bite. "I don't know," he admitted. "But we have to hurry." You have to do this, Edward; I can't do this for you.
The thought of consuming her blood, even if it was saving her life sent pleasure and pain flooding into my body. To taste her would be wrong...fallacious. I felt utterly disgusted with myself but the temptation was growing. My veins felt like they were being filled with acid as I contemplated putting her life in more danger...the liability...to place her in mortal peril, where she may never come back to me... I felt like I was choking. "Carlisle...I," I faltered. The thoughts tilted back and forth in my mind like a see saw. "I don't know if I can do that," the words were laced with the agony that was consuming me, I felt like I was being strangled, desperate for air.
Carlisle was working quickly over Bella's head, pulling a needle through her skin over and over, sewing her up. He looked at my face. "It's your decision, Edward, either way. I can't help you. I have to get this bleeding stopped here if you're going to be taking blood from her hand."
Bella jerked a quick sharp pull of her body. Another thrust and a suddenly arrested motion as she thrashed against the burning pain in her hand as my mind was racing for alternatives. "Edward!" she shouted spasmodically. Her eyes flew open and her dark brown eyes darted around in every direction until they landed on me.
Watching her writhing in burning pain, pain that I remember well, burnt me, like I could feel it too. I could take the pain away �C I could make it all stop �C but would I take her life in the process?
"Alice, get me something to brace her leg!" Carlisle shouted as he was finishing up the stitches on Bella's head. Maybe he should let her become a vampire; it would make things a whole lot easier. "Edward, you must do it now, or it will be too late."
At his thoughts �C to think of Bella as a vampire �C death would be better than this...this...life. Bella was beginning to jerk in violent spasmodic muscular movements, the abrupt motions making her leg flail limply around. Carlisle caught her leg to hold it still.
Now, Carlisle ordered in his head. I shot him a furtive look.
My fingers wrapped around her tiny and delicate wrist, preventing her involuntary reflexes, like she was pulling her hand away from a flame. The desire to taste, the agony of the bite...every second I bent closer to her my mind tittered on an unstable line of right and wrong. My mind was traveling between two different worlds. Reason, truth, maybe some standard or principle �C this had to be the solution; the right answer. Not proper, awry, not appropriate. The thoughts scattered across my already stressed mind as I bent down further.
She thrust against my hold making the prolonged pain of my intense mental suffering grow exponentially. Her breathing was harsh and ragged as her wild yells filled the studio, reverberating off the mirrors and walls. My lips touched her skin, the fresh blood soaking into my lips. Hunger. Completely ravenous. I pulled her blood from the bite wound and it rushed into my mouth. The blood was hot and wet in my mouth. Sensations I'd never felt before tingled my tongue, sending a pleasurable warmth down my frozen and dry aching throat. Each second the monster was threatening to take over as he reared his head in appreciation.
She screamed and lashed, struggling to get away from my grip. I knew it was hurting her, but my instincts had taken over, I held her tighter, intensely eager to devour the palatable, savory...delectable...I tried not to moan in pleasure. The luxuriant fullness that had consumed me brought intense satisfaction. I was ultimately determined to seize her, to have all of her, as I sucked down the blood in large gluttonous amounts.
I could feel her becoming limp in my strong grasp as I continued my consumption of her gratifyingly warm, red...crimson blood.
"Edward," Bella mumbled incoherently, bringing me from my frenzy �C like a soft voice had just whispered in my ear.
Edward! Please...please don't kill her. Stop! Alice cried in her mind, not wanting to scare Bella. "He's right here, Bella." Her voice trembled slightly, her visions showing her an unsure course.
Bella's eyes rolled in her head like marbles on an unstable surface. She was dying. With a stupendous effort I let go, placing her hand down gently, forcibly reminding myself of her delicate nature. The dazzling sunlight of the day bathed the studio with a natural light, making the pool of blood glitter.
Bella was silent and limp, her heart barely pumping the little amount of blood that was left in her body. Did I kill her? I felt like someone had just stabbed me in my heart. Would this be her brutal ending? I felt a horrible compression in my chest at my thoughts. They placed an inexcusable trust in me! I looked at her intently, waiting for another reaction with increasing desperation. She took an unsteady breath �C the small cry of pain still present. I was devoutly thankful to whatever god had been watching over her this morning.
"Stay, Edward, stay with me..." She barely breathed. I sighed heavily at the beautiful angel voice.
"I will," I promised, the stress of the situation still evident in my triumphant voice. I put her words on repeat in my mind, realizing even though I put her in this danger and almost sucked her dry of life, she still loved me...still wanted me to stay with her. I brushed my hand lightly against her cheek.
A small sigh escaped her lips, her pain obviously dulling as her eyes closed lightly.
You didn't kill her, Carlisle thought proudly. "Is it all out?" he checked.
I didn't kill her. The relief was so exquisite it was nearly pain. The ache...anxiety, my oppression was slowly dissipating. "Her blood tastes clean," I breathed a sigh of relief. "I can taste the morphine."