previously titled beserk
A young gay witch with deadly powers on the fringe is traveling the U.S. in search of a substitute for suppressing his magic and a way to control his powers. Ezra Pierce was born into a religiously strict family with no one...
"you were forged in fire and you rose from the ashes, murder and mercy rolled into one." w o r d c o u n t : 1,347
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Bella was silent, clutching the hand Ezra had offered her at the beginning of their ride. With his free hand, he rapidly texted a group chat that had been created because he didn't have the same mind link with the shifters.
Embry and Jared patrolled the border and kept an eye to see when the vampires left while Sam and Paul helped get their attention off of Bella.
They rented a moderate room from a small hotel with two twin sized beds, one of which, Ezra promptly collapsed on. He had a feeling he'd need the strength.
He insisted on the one near the window, wanting to see the sky as he fell asleep. It was comforting.
The group stayed there for only a night before Alice secured plane tickets for Bella and Edward when the group reached them.
Ezra let out a small groan, stretching lightly as he heard Bella talking on the phone in a hushed voice. "Where should I meet you?" Bella asked in a hushed voice, sending nervous a glance at Ezra's frozen form.
On the other end of the call was an unfamiliar man, directing Bella to her old ballet studio right in Phoenix. As soon as Bella left the room, Ezra jumped up, following her with careful steps as he tugged on his jacket and sneakers.
He followed her as she got into a cab, taking the one just behind it, trembling with nerves as the ride seemed painfully dragged out.
By the time he reached the run-down, abandoned building, Bella's cab had already disappeared into the night, as had the human.
He rushed toward the building before suddenly a force seized his body, harsh wind shoving him back. Ezra turned abruptly and across the street, he saw a woman. The same woman he had been seeing around Forks for a while. And while he had brushed it off as a mere coincidence then, there was no denying what was right in front of his face.
While he would normally be ecstatic and full of questions, Ezra was angry. This woman was delaying him and this delay could lead to the death of an innocent human.
"You cannot interfere with fate, Ezra Pierce." She called, crossing the street with slow, deliberate steps. Traffic seemed to bow to the woman without complaint. "Isabella has cheated death one too many times. We forgive you, Ezra. No one has been there to teach you the code. You have learned from beasts. We welcome you, with open arms, Ezra Pierce. It is time to turn away from the savages and embrace your own destiny. It is Isabella's time to die and it is your time to thrive."
"She's innocent," Ezra argued as the wind picked up around them and lightning crackled in the sky.
"She is a flaw. She is the product of the tampering of too many beings who believe themselves to be divine. Come now, Ezra. Today is the day Isabella dies." The woman reached him, her hand ghosting his face. "Even you cannot fight fate forever."
Ezra leaned forward with a snarl. "We were supposed to protect them." He was right. More right than most witches that grew up in covens. Witches were thought to be created to set balance to the world and protect humans from the vicious monsters hiding in the shadows.
"We owe them nothing. We follow the hand of fate." The woman said harshly, her hand twitching like she had the desire to slap him.
Ezra shook, taking a strenuous step forward against the harsh wind that held him in place. Then another, then another before her powers fell from him and Ezra stumbled forward. He lifted his head to glare at her. "We should be protecting them."
"We need to protect ourselves first, Ezra Pierce." Her final words were blown away in a gust of wind and when Ezra turned around the woman was gone.
Ezra shoved through the doors and the tracker turned to him abruptly. "Ah, another human that thinks themselves to be heroic." He cackled. "I'll make quick work of you."
Ezra had never seen a vampire on a human diet and no amount of reading could prepare him for how unsettling those vermillion eyes were. Framed with light eyelashes that appeared nonexistent and even lighter eyebrows that disappeared into his porcelain skin. His torn and tattered jean jacket was stained with Bella's blood and glass was embedded in it.
His presence made Ezra far more uneasy than the Cullens ever had. Maybe it was because of his human diet or maybe it was due to his wicked intentions. Either way, Ezra could feel his hair prickling the minute he entered the room.
Electricity crackled in the air and James flew back as the first bolt struck at his feet. The vampire slammed through a set of mirrors, standing with a little effort and shaking the shards of glass from his slicked back blonde hair.
The vampire lurched forward, seizing Ezra by the throat and tossing him like a doll into a large wooden pillar. The air was knocked from his lungs as Edward shoved through the doors, his saving grace as Bella writhed on the floor.
He slammed into James before scooping Bella into his arms. James grabbed the vampire narrowly, tossing him and the human to the ground.
Ezra shot up, taking careful steps to regain his strength as James grabbed him yet again, slamming him into a mirror and holding him by his throat. Ezra struggled for air as his hands found James' neck, sending bolts of electricity through his stone flesh.
His hands trembled and seized and his grip loosened, allowing Ezra to hit the ground, gulping down as much air as he could as Cullens filled the room.
Bella was screaming and Ezra could hear the sound of steel being wrenched apart just by nails as he stood on shaky feet, stumbling toward the restrained vampire.
"Ezra, fire." Emmett barked and Ezra gripped the edge of one of the training bars, hauling himself to his feet.
Every muscle protested these actions, begging for him to hit his knees and not get back up. He shuffled forward, each step carefully to keep himself steady. He fought his exhaustion with determination, stumbling forward and grabbing the tracker's head between his hands, dark with ash and blood.
James snarled, his jaw snapping at Ezra, fangs only inches from his face. Emmett grabbed him roughly by his ponytail, jerking James' head away from Ezra. Suddenly his face changed from rage to shock, to immense pain as he began to scream so terribly Ezra heard ringing as Emmett and Jasper were forced to clamp their hands over their ears.
His sudden release did nothing, too overcome with pain as his mouth and eyes began to glow bright white and it became apparent he was being fried from the inside out.
His vision went blurry but Ezra pushed on, not stopping until the tracker's stone flesh faded from his hands, dropping to the ground in a pile of dust.
Ezra hit his knees, gasping for air as he crawled to Bella like a child, fingers grappling for a pulse despite Carlisle's words of comfort. He needed to find it for himself. He didn't need someone else's word for it.
Waves were crashing in his mind, obscuring his hearing as he fell back onto his butt on the ground, struggling to even maintain sitting as he watched Bella pass out and Edward drop her wrist from his venomous lips.
"Ezra, c'mon." The words sounded miles away but he knew they came from Alice as she lifted him effortlessly, slinging his arm around her shoulders as she carried him out to the car. "Sleep Ezra, Bella's going to be okay."
