Believe Me Chapter 22

All Victoria could see was red. Everyone and everything was a threat. If she had only paid more attention, hadn’t written off James so easily, she would be in the situation she found herself in. James knew her a lot better than she had given him credit for. He knew her focus, her main attention would be on Bella, to keep her safe and to hell with everyone else, including herself. James may not have known the connection of a mate, but he knew enough to bet on it.

And he won.

Victoria was sure her life was over when she saw the fear in her mates eyes.

When the newborns first arrived, going exactly where Kate wanted and Peter had said would happen. The newborns were already in bloodlust thanks to Bella being so close to them. They waited as long as they dared to make sure everyone was out of the woods and in the clearing so they could fight better with the wolves. The clearing allowed the wolves more space to move and not be so cramped. It allowed the two species to work comfortably together to fight the common enemy.

James lurked in the back of the newborns, making sure to keep his distance, trying to circle the whole area to get to his prize. He kept moving as fast as he could, making sure no one could easily target him. He had one goal in mind and nothing would take his prize from him. He had only ever lost one prize, he wouldn’t suffer that kind of loss again. It was why he worked so hard and waited so long to attack instead of just turning everyone at once and letting them all lose the day after they were turned. He needed to make sure they were able to at least keep his plan in mind while the blood lust tried to take control.

Everything depended on his first turned not losing control. He had been careful with his choice, he was sure the newborn would at least make it far enough to give him his opportunity to do what he wanted.

Leah practically curled herself around the two women, constantly moving so her back wouldn’t face one direction for long. She knew if someone got past the vampires and pack, she was the first directed defense for Bella. She wouldn’t mess up again. She would prove to herself, to her pack and mostly importantly, to her mate, she was a good protector.

As the newborns cleared the tree line, the vampires took off running, the Denali’s leading the charge, barely seconds in front of the others. They would make sure their daughter was safe and would have nothing to worry about. Kate was sure her sisters could handle the newborns, they were all well trained and more than old enough to be able to handle their own; especially with all the back up they had. Kate though, her goal was to get to James. He was the man behind everything and all the worry Bella had for her safety. Kate’s mission was to make sure Bella would never have to fear him again. She would take great pleasure in killing the sadistic man.

Kate split off from her sisters as they engaged in their own fights. Kate turned her power up to full blast, not worried about hurting someone on her side, they all knew not to touch her. Having her power full blast would make sure when a newborn tried to attack her, they would instantly be electrocuted and let go of her immediately. As soon as she spotted James skirting around the edge of the tree line, likely trying to figure out the safest route for him to get to Bella, Kate was tackled by a newborn. It took her a moment to realize that while her power was on full blast, the newborn who was attacking her didn’t seem entirely fazed by it. One look into the newborns eyes and Kate could tell the newborn was not only in bloodlust but she was also starved. No amount of pain Kate could cause the newborn, it wouldn’t be worse than the starvation of blood the newborn was feeling. Kate wasn’t going to able to go after James as quickly as she thought and that pissed her off; good thing she had a newborn to take out her anger on.

The Cullen’s were doing their best to make amends for what they allowed to happen. They knew there was a lot to fix from their mistakes. Carlisle was both doing his best to not get hurt in the fight while trying to incapacitate the newborns, and he was thinking over everything everyone had accused him and Edward of. It wasn’t the best place or time to talk about his entire relationship with the boy, with the man since he was over a century old. He knew what he believed in, he knew his love for Esme was never faked. Perhaps he would need to take some time for himself and truly reflect on what everyone was accusing him and Edward of. A sudden pain in his shoulder grabbed his attention from his troubled thoughts the battlefield he was in the middle of. His retroflection would have to wait until there was no threat to his life.

Victoria’s eyes darted back and forth, her body itching to join fight if only to help end the battle sooner just so her Bella could be safe that much sooner. But she knew better than to leave her mate; her gift was Bella’s best protection available and she would be damned if she let that protection go. She saw James smirk at her as he slowly made his was closer to the middle of the field where the trio was. From the corner of her eye, she saw Kate get distracted by someone who was clearly too lost in their bloodlust to even feel the extreme pain Kate was most definitely shoveling out.

As soon as Kate was distracted, James moved just a little closer to the trio he had been hunting since he arrived in the area. They wouldn’t win this; no matter how much they thought they had the upper hand. He knew what they thought he was going after and while they weren’t entirely wrong, there was something he wanted to do first in order to truly feel satisfied when he drained the human of her blood. His once long-time friend and lover had abandoned him for a human, for his hunt, that was inexcusable. Victoria should know better than to betray him. He looked at his first turned and knew his plan was going perfectly.

Leah saw a newborn confidently run and dodge around the different vampires, his sole attention on the only blood source he could safely drink. Leah growled in warning as the newborn narrowly dodged a hit from Emmett and ran around Charlette as the petite woman tried to engage the newborn, both vampires only getting their attention nabbed by other newborns; there were definitely a lot more of them than they had originally thought there would be. Her eyes widened when the newborn made a brazen attempt to attack her.

Victoria silently cursed when Leah moved to defend them against a newborn whose attention oddly seemed more attached to the wolf than to the fresh blood like it normally would be. Without their wall made of wolf, Victoria felt a lot more exposed. She felt Bella press closer to her and Victoria doubled her will to make sure her mate remained safe and unharmed. Her eyes darted across the field, keeping a mentally tally of all the newborns as they fell. Her eyes never strayed long from James though, her gift knew he was the real left and every millisecond her eyes weren’t on him was opening up opportunities for him to attack.

James smirked as he saw Victoria’s attention being split. He knew the only thing that newborn attacking the wolf that had been with the human and Victoria was only meant to distract the wolf; originally it was supposed to distract Victoria as they hadn’t planned on a wolf being there, but regardless, it was a distraction. All he wanted was to kill either Bella or Victoria, at that point he really didn’t care who it was.

Seconds turned to minutes as the newborn tried to keep up with the wolf; James knew the weak thing wouldn’t last much longer. He also realized his starved newborns weren’t doing nearly as well as he had originally thought they would. He needed to act, even if he didn’t have as clear a shot as he would have hoped.

As James raced forward, his first newborn was able to kick Leah harshly in the ribs with enough force to throw the wolf into one of the golden eyed vampires. That action caused a chain reaction James was very thankful for.

Esme screamed as she saw her mate being thrown like a ragdoll; in her opinion at least. Esme’s distraction allowed for her to be tackled from the side. Kate had just decapitated the newborn she had been fighting and was about to go to James but when she saw the former Cullen matriarch attacked, Kate had to help. Since Kate was helping Esme, Edward took it upon himself, especially after hearing the thoughts James had about hurting his, rather, his former mate. Edward ran towards James, intent on intercepting him and ending his life if only to endear himself to Bella, but he wasn’t nearly as prepared as he had assumed he would be.

James didn’t even think as he saw the mind reader run towards him. That young vampire’s gift had been the easiest to figure out and to overcome. James was a hunter, an amazing hunter and one of the first things he learned early on in his vampire life was to go off of instinct rather than plan out his moves. Without thinking about what to do, without evening acknowledging he was about to get tackled, James allowed his body to move on its’ own accord and grabbed the running and nearly flailing vampire. James grabbed Edward by his arms, turned in quick circle and tossed the vampire towards his goal.

Edward collided into Victoria, who had been more focused on dodging attacks from the newborn who had been fighting with Leah. The newborn took the advantage Edward gave him and moved to get to the blood that every single newborn in the clearing craved. James raced towards his target, confident his wait and patience was finally about to pay off. He reached his hand out to grab the unprotected human, his hand firmly clasped around the humans wrist; he tightened his grip to keep her close and heard the sound of crushing bones. It was the most satisfying sound he had heard in quite some time.

Bella cried out as she tried to pull her wrist free but she knew there was nothing she could do. She unfortunately wasn’t a match for a vampire. She turned towards where she had barely seen her red haired angel get flung and was disheartened to see the redhead was still dealing with the newborn Leah had been fighting. She looked for Leah and saw the she-wolf racing towards her but since she was already in James’ grasp, she didn’t hold out much hope for being rescued until it was too late.

“You will be the most delicious meal I’ve ever had.” James said as he paused to smell her blood like a human would smell a fine wine.

Bella opened her mouth to give some sort of retort, she may not be able to physically fight the vampire but she could at least piss him off. Bad guys liked to gloat and waste time doing so right?

But, someone else beat her to it.

“You picked the wrong coven to piss off.” A normally calm and gentle voice said with such fierce growl, Bella had been so sure the woman wasn’t capable off. The glare Irina wore radiated such hate that Bella was actually slightly afraid of the woman; but only because she was so close to the blonde’s target.

Irina focused on all her strength, speed and training and with an unprepared James so close to her. The one think most of her enemies over the years had always done was to underestimate her. They always thought because she was soft spoken and often opted not to fight, as well as the fact she had one sister who was more than willing to fight when a fight wasn’t even necessary and another sister whose aura alone could end a fight, that she was the peaceful sister who didn’t fight. What people didn’t realize was that just because she opted not to fight, it didn’t mean she didn’t know how. And since it was Bella who was in danger, all bets were off.

Irina took hold of James arm with hand and grabbed his neck with the other. She felt him struggle and for a moment she thought she made the wrong move and her human would be hurt; thankfully, the hunter was more worried about his well being than his prey. Irina tightened her grip as her oldest sister caught up with her. Tanya wasted no time in ripping James’ head from his shoulders, which forced James’ grip on Bella to go completely lax.

“Get her to a damn hospital.” Irina commanded the redhead who was finally freed from the newborn since Leah and Esme were able to assist her. Irina was pissed the redhead, the one with a gift that promised the best protection, failed at her one job. “Try not to mess that up while we clean up here.”

Victoria growled and was about to argue and defend herself, but a small whimper shook her to her core. The red haze of anger she had been feeling since she had been forced from her mates’ side was lifted and instant and overwhelming worry took over. Victoria managed just a nod and whisked Bella into her arms to get her to the hospital as quickly as possible.

“I can help her.” Carlisle offered, he was a doctor after.

“Like hell you will.” Kate said as she joined her sisters to burn the former hunter. The other fights were nearly finished as well. Charlette, Peter, Jasper and Alice had already raced off to find the remaining newborns that had run off to get rid of them. They had won the fight, they just needed to take stock of the damages done to their side.

Victoria hadn’t waited to either give a reply or even to pay attention to Kate’s reply, she just raced off to get to the closest hospital that wouldn’t know who Bella was. If they went to the hospital in Forks, her dad would definitely find out his daughter was in the hospital and since they all hadn’t figured out how to deal with him, they couldn’t risk him getting in their way. There was no way Victoria was going to let her mate be alone and every fiber of her being wanted to take Bella away from the area she had been attacked by an army. She just needed to figure out a way to tell her mate that she kind of wanted to kidnap her and whisk her away someplace to live and be turned.