When Ends Meet (Marcus & Aro Volturi)

Chapter 25: I Suppose Not.

My face scrunches in concentration. I can feel the force of my shield surrounding me, but it keeps faltering. "Dammit." I curse, feeling myself losing my focus.

            "Get ready, Ana!" Emmett charges towards me.

            "N-no, wait—" Emmett collides with me, and we both fly a few feet back and into a tree trunk. "I said wait." I groan, shoving the bear-like man off of me.

            With an embarrassed chuckle, Emmett helps me back up to my feet. "Sorry Ana. You weren't fast enough."

            I suck a breath. "Eleazar, we've been at this for days! I can't get it."

            Eleazar looks at me with a small smile. "I think you need something to help you focus. Bella has already harnessed her gift well...but maybe that's just it. When trying to protect Edward her focus was strengthened." Glancing over his shoulder, he see's Charlotte playing with Henry. "Perhaps with the right motivation..." In a blur, he snatches Charlotte and reappears with her in the treetops.

            "Eleazar, what are you—"

            Holding under her arms, he holds her out in the air. "Focus, Ana—and you'll be able to save her." He says.

            "Eleazar this isn't funny! Put her down!" I scream. At this point everyone is gathering and heckling for him to release my daughter safely.

            "I will, but you will catch her." He says again, letting go of one of her arms.

            With my daughter's screech of terror, I cry out just as horrified. "Please, Eleazar, this isn't going to help me focus!"

            "Time is ticking Ana. Concentrate!" He yells. Feeling the pressure, I stare up at Charlotte, feeling my shield forming from within, but it isn't reaching far enough. "Catch." He finally says.

            "No!" I scream, watching helplessly as my daughter falls. With one final cry of frustration, my shield spans out. Charlotte continues to fall, but when her body comes to the level of my feet, she is preserved in an invisible bubble of my making. I gasp as she is gently sat onto the floor. My knees buckle and I crawl down to her, pulling her into my arms. I could feel the sharp and shallow breaths of my worry swimming past my lips.

            "Mama, you're hurting me."

            I gasp, loosening my grip on her. "I'm sorry baby, I'm sorry." I say while stroking her face with relief and guilt.

            "I knew you had it in you." My head snaps up to see Eleazar's face peering down at me.

            Getting up, I hand Charlotte to Henry, who immediately picks her up. "You could have killed her!" I shove him, making him collide into a trunk of a tree. "You could have used any other method—but not my daughter!" I shout, shoving into him again. With so much force, Eleazar's body merged further into the trunk, making the tree split and fold over him. With the debris floating in the air, Carmen, and Tanya rush to lift the tree from Eleazar. 

            With cracks scattering his face, Carmen tries to comfort him, but Eleazar looks at me with a smirk. "I told you that you had it in you."

            "What?" I glare.

            "That entire time you shoved me...not once did you use your hands. Just look."

            I blink the confusion away and follow his gaze. Surrounding me was nothing, but a glint from the sun catches my eye—it glares slightly from the corner of something that cannot be seen. "My shield..."