Moving Forward - J. Black

xvii.

EDITED

The Cullen family stood on the battlefield awaiting the newborn army while the wolves hid in the trees, but a few were missing. Seth and Jacob went to check on Edward and Bella and should be arriving back soon, but Eliza was missing since the morning. "Where's Eliza?" Esme looked around the area for the blonde who had yet to return home after her argument with Edward. "She'll be here." Jasper knew that Eliza wouldn't miss the opportunity to partake in the battle. "She's late, they'll be here soon." Carlisle shared his mate's concern for the blonde. "Wherever she is, I'm sure she's fine." Alice was confident that Jasper knew best if Eliza was safe or not.

"They're coming." Alice got a vision of the army emerging from the river less than a mile away. Eliza was nowhere in sight, but the family had to prepare for the battle. It didn't take long for the army to come running up from the small hill ahead and the Cullens immediately moved to attack as well. Eliza could hear the commotion as she approached the battlefield. The blonde felt bad that she had disappeared and possibly worried her family but she was no good fighting angry, anger led to mistakes. Eliza scanned the field as she evaluated where she was need.

One of the wolves was being hit at all angles by multiple newborns and Eliza immediately went to jump in. Using the advantage of coming up behind the vampires, Eliza started off in a run and launched herself over the fight, twisting off one newborn's head as she flipped over Paul's wolf. Now that there was one less opponent, Paul easily shook off the newborns and Eliza left him to complete the kills. Eliza had taken another newborn down by the time Paul won his own battle. With the wolves' help, the newborns were dwindling in numbers and the battle would end soon.

Eliza wasted no time taking down any newborn that crossed paths with her, bringing her kills to at least 5. Eliza kept alert as she had taken down all of the newborns in her area, but she knew there had to be more that had yet to attack. Eliza caught movement in a nearby bush and she slowly made her way over. A young girl, maybe fifteen, looked mortified when Eliza stopped in front of her. Eliza's eyes soften as she looked between the newborn and the battlefield. "You're not here to fight us, are you?" Eliza noticed how the newborn desperately looked around for an escape, shaking her head as her brown hair whipped with the wind. "N-no, please-please, just-just let me go." the young girl begged Eliza. "What's your name?" Eliza realized just how similar this army was to Jasper's creators. "Her name is Bree." a small blonde boy came from around the other side of the bush. "And you are?" Eliza grew worried that she didn't pick up on the second presence. "Tanner." the young blonde couldn't have been older than 13.

"Do you know who created you?" Eliza glanced between the two teenagers and their surrounding area. "Riley didn't tell us, I don't want to be here. He made me kill someone." Tanner would be in tears if the ability wasn't taken away with his life. Eliza looked a the two newborns with pity, they reminded her of her own younger sibling. Eliza remembered how her brother would always push his older sister behind him when they were younger, ready to take whatever punishment their father had coming. "Tanner, do you think you and Bree can find somewhere to hide? Somewhere really hard for anyone to find you?" Eliza's eyes remained soft as Bree still looked down at the snowy floor, Tanner let out a big, yet rushed, nod. "Good, don't come out unless you hear me say so. I promise to come find you, go now." Eliza noticed another newborn approaching as the two teenagers took off into the trees.

Eliza took care of her last newborn and the battle was basically won. "How long?" Edward came running down from the mountains with Bella as he heard Alice had a new vision, the Volturi were coming. "A few minutes, maybe ten." Alice tried to estimate the group's arrival as the Cullens burned the newborn bodies. "The pack needs to leave, the Volturi won't honor a truce with the werewolves." Carlisle looked over at the wolves that remained spread around the tree line. Jacob made his own way down the mountain and stopped a few yards away from Leah's wolf. A stray newborn came out of the tree line near Leah and the shifter immediately let out a growl. Eliza watched the wolf lunge at the newborn, her attack too forward.