Falling To The Sun | B. Swan + E. Cullen

vingt-deux

All she could see was red. Fire that stung her eyes as she struggled to breathe. She was alone this time, there was no Jacob to save her as she slowly lost the fight to live as it was choked from her lungs -- squeezed from her helpless, fragile body.

Victoria smiles, pretty, alluring. Eyes sharp and calculating like a cat. She was close. She was so close, leaning into her, nose pressed to the slope of her jaw.

No, she wanted to scream, leave me alone! But her tongue was too heavy, thick and swallow, drowned by the taste of blood.

A hand curls in her hair, yanking on the tangled strands, and she jerks, gargling a scream. 

"Scream," she whispers, teeth grazing her skin, "No one will be able to find you."

Jerking awake, Roman flings herself from the bed, stumbling over her feet as she claws at her throat, fingering the camisole that stuck to her chest. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe.

The room was spinning around her, the ground swaying at her feet. It was so realistic, so disgustingly real, that it was like she could feel her hand steely around her throat still.

"Roman, it's all right. Breathe," he says, golden eyes cutting straight into the darkness swimming in her vision. "It was just a dream. Breathe."

She tried to comply, swallowing greedy mouthfuls of air as he pried her hands away from her clawing, smoothing her fingers out with cold hands that draw her out of her sleepy daze. He was a sturdy place to focus on, a shock to the system that cleared her cloudy mind.

Collapsing into him, she gasped, eyes clenching to keep the tears away as she quivered against him — unable to get the image of crimson eyes and red hair made of fire from her mind.

"It's okay," he repeats, letting her cling to him as she shook. "She won't get anywhere near you."

"It's not that. I know that you guys won't let her close, but--" she shivers, wiping her tears away-- "But I... just that one time, I can't get it out of my head. The wolves talk about her all the time and they want my help plotting a route to find her, and I can't get her out of my head."

"You don't have to help them if it gives you nightmares," he says, smoothing the tears from her cheeks.

"It's not nightmares. It's- it's the same memory ever time, but instead of getting away Jacob doesn't come and my mind just goes wild with possibilities on what could have happened."

Edward winces, hands becoming more rigid on her cheeks. It takes him a moment to answer, the silence a comfort as she feels his coolness against her exposed skin.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" he asks softly as if he had to force the words out.

Roman looks at him closely, taking in the shadowed, metallic look in his eyes. "It wasn't that... she came out of nowhere. We were in a hunting party and she just showed up out of nowhere."

The memory comes up unwelcome and she breathes in sharply at the scene, forcing it to play out slowly, accurately, for his sake. Phantom pains shoot across her scalp, back aching at the reminder of being thrown against the slope just before Jacob arrives lashing at out at her.

She stops it there, refusing to let herself dwell on what happens next. "She was so close, you know, right there, and I have no idea why she didn't just kill me when she had the chance but..."

"She won't touch you again," he promises, touching the top of her head.

"I know. I know that, I do. Maybe I'm just worried."