Moving Forward - J. Black

v.

EDITED

The Cullens returned to the house and waited for Edward and Bella to get back from her house. Eliza remained calm until her senses picked up an unexpected guest. "Laurent." Eliza warned the family, recognizing his scent and making her way to the door. Eliza kept a threatening expression on her face when she opened the door. "I've come to warn you." Laurent looked at the blonde in surrender. "We can talk upstairs." Carlisle stepped next to Eliza, gesturing the nomad into the house. Eliza moved out of the doorway and watched as Carlisle and Laurent disappeared up the stairs.

Carlisle and Laurent were still upstairs when Edward's car rolled up to the house. Edward came bursting in at the scent of Laurent, Bella following him in doe-eyed. Laurent finally came back down the stairs and Edward looked about to pounce. "Wait!" Carlisle stopped his adoptive son. "He came to warn us." Eliza looked over the nomad wearily, explaining the situation to Edward. "This isn't my fight and I've grown tired of his games, but he's got unparalleled senses, absolutely lethal. I've never seen anything like him in my 300 years. And the woman, Victoria, don't underestimate her." Laurent gave a final warning before he left the home.

"I've had to fight our kind before, they're not easy to kill, but not impossible." Jasper explained as the family moved out to the garage to formulate a plan. "We'll tear them apart and burn the pieces." Emmett revealed his eagerness to fight. "I don't relish the thought of killing another creature, even a sadistic one like James." Carlisle shared his distaste for Emmett's enthusiasm. "What if he kills one of us first?" Eliza worried as she sat up on the counter, waiting for instructions on how to help.

"I'm going to run Bella south, can you lead the tracker away from here?" Edward came up with his own plan, looking to Carlisle for support. "No, Edward. James knows you would never leave Bella. He'll follow you." Carlisle denied the proposition. "I'll go with Bella. Jasper and I will drive her south." Alice volunteered her protection. "Jasper may be better here, why don't you take Eliza?" Carlisle valued Jasper's knowledge of battling their kind. Eliza looked at Carlisle a bit surprised, no one in the family seemed to hide their surprise at Carlisle's suggestion.

Edward looked over at Eliza, scanning her expressions with hesitance. "We'll keep her safe, Edward." Alice promised, but Eliza still had doubts in her mind when it came to protecting the human. "Seriously?" Edward hissed at Eliza when he looked into her thought. "Get the hell out of my head, Edward." Eliza's neutral look turned to a glare as Edward violated her mind.

"Come on." Eliza lightly pulled the human girl away from Edward. Eliza could hear Rosalie's own protest when it came to protecting Bella, arguing with Carlisle and glaring at Edward. "We protect our family." Carlisle shut the argument down with few words as Eliza started the car from the driver's seat. Edward made his way over to Bella's open window and Eliza tried her best to tune out the sappy conversation that was going to occur.

Eliza's hands flexed around the steering wheel and her grip tightened as replayed Edward listening into her thoughts. Edward never invaded Eliza's mind, at least not on purpose, it was a line he promised never to cross. Alice leaned forward from the back and gave Eliza's shoulder a small squeeze. Eliza glanced at the woman in her mirror, giving Alice a thankful smile.

The two women from the Cullen Coven had successfully driven Bella south, very close to where the human's mother previously lived. Eliza and Alice sat in a random hotel room as Bella paced back and forth. Eliza looked over at the human with an annoyed expression, tired of hearing her constant footsteps. Alice suddenly let out a gasp and Eliza turned to Alice get sucked into a vision. "What-what do you see?" Eliza could see Alice trying to navigate the vision. "The tracker, he just changed course." Alice revealed the first part of her vision. Alice tapped her manicured fingers and Eliza quickly searched the area for something that the vampire could write with. "Here." Eliza placed a pen in Alice's open hand while Bella set down a piece of paper.

"Mirrors, a room full of mirrors." Alice began to sketch out her surroundings in a high-quality illustration. "Edward said the visions weren't always certain." Bella looked unnerved and Eliza couldn't tell if Bella was being optimistic or just annoying. "She sees the course people are on while they're on it, if the course changes then so does the vision. But James doesn't seem like the kind to veer from his course." Eliza kept her gaze on the picture that was being illustrated.

"Okay, so the course he's on now leads to a ballet studio?" Bella looked down at the piece of paper confused. "You know this place?" Eliza's head snapped up toward the human. "I took lessons as a kid, the school I went to had an arch just like that." Bella nodded slowly, not liking the expression on Eliza's face. "Was your school here in Phoenix?" Alice's vision was over and all the attention was on Bella. "Yeah." the human confirmed, still lost. "We need to get out of here." Eliza looked at Alice alarmed as Bella's phone began to buzz. Eliza ignored the conversation that Edward was trying to have with Bella and Eliza began to gather their things. "Bella, pack and get ready, we'll go check out." Eliza instructed the human, hardly waiting for a sign of acknowledgment. Bella nodded as she watched the blonde vampire rush away.

Eliza began to worry when Bella still hadn't made her way out of the room and a good 20 minutes lapsed. Eliza went back up to the room to search for the human, but found no sign. With the help of Alice's sight, the Cullens had predicted Bella's disappearance was related to the ballet studio that was mentioned. Edward seemed to put the events together first and beat Eliza and Alice to the scene. Eliza looked around at the wall of mirrors that surrounded her, Alice's illustration was eerily accurate. A scream pulled the blonde's attention away from her reflection and she took off into another room. Bella's body was covered in glass and blood soaked through her clothing as she lay writhing in pain on the ground. , Edward and James fought each other yards away from the human's body.

"Edward!" Eliza looked at her ex-lover horrified as he ripped angrily into James' throat. Emmett and Jasper pulled the bronze-haired vampire off the nomad and began to disassemble his limbs, lighting a fire nearby. Carlisle began to calm Edward down and Eliza wearily made her way over to the bleeding human. Alice was by Bella's side, but the stench of human blood was obviously suffocating her. "Go." Eliza took over Alice's position and tried to find the source of Bella's pain. "Carlisle." Eliza called out alarmed as she took in the sight of the deep bite mark etched into Bella's skin.

Carlisle stepped away from Edward when he heard the urgency in Eliza's voice. "Her femoral artery's been severed, she's losing too much blood." Carlisle used his medical experience to prioritize her injuries. "No, no, my head is burning!" Bella grunted out in pain, her body still wiggling around. "It's the venom." Edward suddenly appeared at Bella's side, across from Eliza. "You have to make a choice, you can let the change happen." Carlisle looked over at Edward with his final analysis. "No." Edward refused to let the human transition.

"It's going to happen, Edward. I've seen it." Alice tried to support her brother as she got her thirst under control. "It doesn't have to be this way." Carlisle began to suggest another option when Bella's state began to get worse. "She's still hemorrhaging. Alice, your belt." Carlisle looked around for something that would help. "Eliza, help me make a tourniquet." Carlisle instructed as Edward watched the scene in horror. "What's my other option?" Edward pleaded as Eliza helped Carlisle place the tourniquet.

"Carlisle." Edward pushed for his the Coven leader's help as Alice stepped away from the blood again. "You could try to suck the venom out." Carlisle finally offered the final solution. "You know I won't be able to stop." Edward shook his head at the proposition. "You'll find a will to stop, but choose now." Carlisle warned as Bella began to slip away. "You'll find a will if you choose to save her, but she only has a minute left." Eliza urged Edward to choose as Bella's heartbeat dropped critically low.

Pushing past his fears, Edward placed his lips above the wound and moved to suck the venom back out. Eliza frantically scanned Bella's body for signs of the venom's effects. "Okay, Edward, stop." Carlisle noticed the venom completely leaving the human's body. "Edward her blood is clean." Carlisle tried to pull the vampire back to his surroundings. "Edward, stop, you're killing her." Eliza hissed as she wrapped her hand around Bella's wrist, gently pushing against Edward's cheek. "Edward, stop." Eliza repeated and the vampire finally seemed to hear her words, slowly pulling back. The fire around the two continued to surge as Edward's body shift away from Bella, the vampire's eyes meeting Eliza's.