The, what feels like, sudden influx of comments has given me some motivation so here's the next chapter!
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To say I was nervous was an understatement. I was standing between Jasper and Alice, waiting for the newborns to break the treeline. If I still had a heartbeat, I'm sure it would be beating a mile-a-minute. As it is, it was quiet in my chest, the only sign of my nervousness in the tremble of my hands.
I could hear them now, they were close. I reached out and took ahold of Jasper and Alice's hands, giving a quick squeeze before dropping them again. My eyes narrowed as I saw movement. Then they appeared through the treeline, running full speed. The rest of the family was faster than I was, already running the moment they caught sight of them, but I was quick to follow.
The first one I took down was a woman that almost got the drop on Emmett. I barreled straight into her, knocking her off her path towards Emmett. I attempted to pull her head off, but she struggled and managed to flip us. She reached for my neck but I grabbed her wrist and twisted, taking her hand with me; she screamed but before she could lunge for me, her head was gone. I looked up to see Emmett.
"I appreciate the save, but maybe have a bit of a plan next time," He teased as he helped me up, then proceeded to smash through three more newborns on his way to Rosalie. I rolled my eyes at his obvious enjoyment of the fight before having to quickly dodge another newborn coming straight at me. Being a little more elegant this time, I jumped onto the back of the newborn and wretched his head off. As the newborn dropped I jumped off and straight back into the fight.
As a relatively inexperienced fighter, I attempted to stay at a distance and help the more capable fighters; tackle a newborn here, rip off a head there. However, I then saw Sam surrounded by quite a bit of newborns. Instead of thinking rationally and maybe calling for some help, I dove straight into the fray, killing a few vampires before making it to the werewolf's side.
"Hey Sam, how's it going?" I asked nonchalantly as I snapped the neck of another newborn. He made a sort of grumbling noise and gave me a deadpan stare. "What? I thought you could use some help," I jumped over him to kill one that was about to attack him. He huffed, rolled his eyes, then nodded in thanks before biting off the head of another vampire. I flipped over a couple that attempted to grab me, heading towards where I thought I caught a glimpse of Alice. However, when I landed she was nowhere to be found.
As I looked around I realized another thing: I was completely surrounded. I cursed as said newborns also seemed to realize this and lunged for me. I jumped again, but instead of landing on the ground, I started to land on the shoulders of newborns, pulling their heads off as I went. The other newborns kept lunging at me, uncaring of their comrades I was perched on. I started to panic as more kept coming, I was losing my balance. I stopped pulling heads off and kept jumping from one vampire to another.
Suddenly, I was tackled to the ground. A newborn was on top of me with more surrounding me. I struggled, flailing my limbs and body in an attempt to get them away from me. My chest felt heavy like someone dropped a lead ball into it, then the feeling traveled to arms and them my hands. I flung my hands at the nearest newborn and felt a wave of energy as the circle of newborns around me were thrown back, most of them without heads. I quickly stood up, looking at my hands wide-eyed. When I looked around Rosalie was staring at me, I stared back.
"You think you could do that again?" Was all she asked.
"I can try?" I said, though it sounded more like a question. She then nodded in the direction behind me.
"Good because it looks like some of your dog friends need some help."
I whirled around and sure enough, Embry seemed to have bitten off a little more than he could chew. Pun not intended. I ran towards him, hands out and ready to do whatever the fuck I had done before. However, as the heavy feeling made its way down my arms, my mind flashed back to what had happened to the newborns surrounded me. I hesitated, unsure if I would hurt Embry in the process, my hands dropping. The energy hadn't stopped though and blasted into the ground, throwing me back into a nearby tree. I landed on the ground with a groan, I lifted my hands to my face and felt the small cracks along my right cheekbone. Testing newfound powers in the middle of a battlefield? Probably not the smartest idea.
