Vengeance

Chapter Twenty Three

Chapter 23

Last Breath

Two days passed effortlessly in the wonderland surrounding the Denali’s home.  If I was being honest with myself, I had grown to love the massive cabin, tucked snugly into the Alaskan wilderness, surrounded by the crisp, clean snow.  As a human, I had detested anything wet or cold, but as a vampire, I found myself inadvertently frolicking through the flakes.

The first day following the revelation of my plan was filled with drills and practice fights to hone our skills.  At six in the morning, we all stole away to the bare patch of land and began working.  As I watched the fighting commence, I began to notice that each coven had their own specific style of movement.  The Denali sisters were very seductive when the leapt through the air and pounced on their prey, while my family was very edgy and slightly technical about executing maneuvers.  The Amazons were crafty and used their surroundings as much as possible, while Maria was slightly haphazard and direct about her approach.

Emmett was very surprised to see the growth in my fighting ability, and found it very difficult to defeat me.  He would rush forward, using his massive weight as his ultimate tool, but I would simply bound away, rush behind him, and knock him on his behind.  My giant brother-in-law grew frustrated and irritated, and, when he attacked again, he didn’t hold back.  I didn’t hesitate—as I had prior to my lessons with Jasper—to initiate the first move, shocking everyone by spiraling through the air, just like a bullet, headed straight for Emmett.

One encounter left me kind of frazzled; Emmett was able to shift in my direction and, before I could catch my bearings, slash at my unguarded stomach.  I rolled backwards, a cloud of snow puffing around me, and groaned in pain.  Of course, by the time I glanced down to inspect the damage, it was already healed.  After that incident, I decided to let someone else have a turn with the behemoth. 

“Good job, Bella,” Rosalie said, after I had taken a seat on the ground to watch the Amazons duke it out.  My feelings were still mixed, in regards to my family, so I didn’t respond to her.  After a few seconds, she sighed angrily and sat down next to me.  “All right, what is it?”

“What?” I barely looked at her.

“You know what,” she growled, and I finally turned to look at her.  “You haven’t spoken to any of us since your little hunting excursion.  What’s your malfunction?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied and turned back to the fight in front of me; Kachiri and Zafrina were slashing at one another while flipping through the air acrobatically.  In all honesty, I was avoiding them, mainly because I didn’t want them attempting to hijack my plan again. “I’m fine.”

“Right,” Rosalie scoffed and added, “keep telling yourself that.”

I rolled my eyes as she pushed off the ground and headed to Emmett, who was challenging Kate to a fight.  It wasn’t that I didn’t care about my family anymore—I just had to keep my priorities straight.  However, regardless of my focus, I still felt bad for treating Rosalie that way; she had been one of the most supportive of my plan.

The thoughts of my family quickly retreated as I was called to practice with Tanya—something I had been looking forward to.  Despite her explanation for her actions with Edward, I still held a certain level of distrust for the strawberry blonde vampire.  Maybe it was her closeness to Edward, or her allegiance to Carlisle; whatever it was, I wanted to keep her at arm’s length.

Fighting Tanya was an interesting and educating experience, since her technique was different than the Amazons’ and Jasper’s.  Her body looked like it was carried by the wind as it twisted and swirled around me, every now and then striking like a snake.  However, her sinuous movements were no match for my strength; I quickly subdued her by using her own tactics against her.  I swayed and swept around her, confusing her, and finally struck her from behind.