Disclaimer: Down own any of it. My world, their characters. Capiche?

Pre-Edit Count: 1,623 Words

Song: Robot Boy by Linkin Park

Bella is driving to Port Angeles to pick up a book that had been shipped there at her request. Her hands are tight on the steering wheel knowing she has gone outside of the area protected by the wolves. Sam and Jake will have a lot to say to her, she knew, along with Paul who has appointed himself her bodyguard. Quil, too, come to think of it. After he found out he was related to her, he had gone overboard in singing her praises and watching every wolf close to her.

But she needs the book and the boys are needed more than ever to guard the town and reservation. They are already spread so thin, it wasn’t even funny. Victoria had started attacking the town, but now she found sport in attacking the reservation. It had caused many wolves to spring up and she had almost lost her life that fateful day; though they didn’t get her, she did lose the help of the few vampires helping her. It had been a day of bonfires and much boasting as the tribe had suddenly realized that their histories were true.

Somehow, she has kept it all from Charlie, but it had actually been the brutal attacks on Forks that had made her come out of her zombie state after only a few weeks. Since then, she had been going to the Cullen mansion to read the books in Carlisle and Jasper’s library.

She mostly read in Jasper’s library, curling up in the chair that looked and smelled like the one Jasper favored. She felt comforted by the smell and the hole in her chest felt better. So she was most often found there if not at school, work or home.

At least, that had been the case until Laurent confronted her on the steps of the mansion as she was leaving one day. Her mind was full of information and she knew she was missing some piece that would help make it all make sense in her mind. But imagine her surprise to meet Laurent on the steps below her.

She had frozen, not knowing what to do.

Unknown to her, her bodyguard for the afternoon had seen the frozen look and he slowly crept forward from the tree line in order to be able to grab the leech if he went for her.

Laurent had laughed seeing her coming out of the house. “I don’t smell any of them here. Are you breaking and entering? Isabel-la?” He trilled the last part of her name as though he was tasting some fine wine.

Bella didn’t step back when he took a step up to her, remembering from Jasper’s journals when he’d noted that vampires are linked to their instincts as so few are. To give into that step would only encourage a vampire. It was a mistake many make and one that once done, there is no way to go back; the only outcome being death.

The eyes in the woods twinkle as the mind behind those strangely intelligent eyes said, “Good Girl,” as she stood firm.

Bella’s eyes never left Laurent’s, her mind going through everything Jasper had written, knowing if she survived this and saw Jasper again, then she will thank him many, many times for the save.

Laurent chuckles. “You are a brave one, aren’t you? But then, I wonder where the Cullens’ are at? They left such a tasty morsel here. I would have thought that when young Edward tired of you as his pet, he would have drained you.”

Her eyes stayed on his as her mind tries to figure out what had happened and how he knew the Cullens’ were gone.

He laughs as walks on the steps below her, watching her, taunting his prey. “But then, maybe he is just biding his time to come back and be able to eat you. It’s not that far of a run for one of us, you know? But maybe you can answer a question for me?”

She had quirked an eyebrow at him.

The other being was almost there and he let loose a lupine grin as he realizes that even though she may not know it, she is distracting the leech perfectly.

Laurent moves closer to her, breathing in her scent as his eyes roll back in his head. Then he whispers to her, “Why would they bring a warlord in to hold back a member of the family from leaving? Is it something to do with you? Right now, you smell of him…”

Gritting her teeth as she stands there, not giving an inch, she listens to him laugh as he walks around her, moving at times so fast that he appeared to be in one spot, then another before she can blink. But between those flashes she saw what only could be a wolf from Jake’s stories and she hopes he is her protector. Then suddenly, it winked at her.

She had ducked in that second and the wolf sailed over her, taking down Laurent, both of them crashing into the house. She popped her head up and looked back at the scene behind her. The wolf had taken Laurent’s head off, but the body was still moving and the wolf was growling as it held the head in its mouth.

Bella dashed into the house. Digging through a drawer, she grabbed the lighter she had seen Esme use once and grinned as she held it, spinning around to face the supernatural creatures behind her.

The wolf had moved where it could see her and keep out of the way of the vampire. She tells him, “Get it outside!”

The wolf huffs and then eying the vampire, soon jumps at it hard enough to carry it back outside. Bella ran after them and as soon as they were outside, she flipped the lighter on with a smug grin, saying, “Take that you sanctimonious asshole. And god, I hope your smell goes away! I thought you guys were supposed to lure us in, not repel us with the smell from your hair!” With that, she had dropped the lighter on the stump of his neck.

Laurent’s head looked like it would be screaming, but the bite to sever the head had been through the vocal cords. Once the fire had started to burn merrily, the wolf spit out the head into the flames and the two watched the vampire burn.

When there is nothing but ashes remaining, she turns to the wolf that towers above her, saying, “Thanks. I have no idea which one you are, but thanks.” She studies the grey wolf before her as he studies her.

Then he pushes her towards the truck. She trips and yelps, “Okay! I am going!” She jumped into the truck and once started, she began driving down the long driveway. She looks to the side, seeing the grey blur as it paced her in the trees.

That had been the start of her odd relationship with Paul. He had respected her so much for not giving an inch to the bloodsucker when she had no idea he was there. And that one second she had once spotting him, she had reacted exactly right, allowing him to attack the Cold One without hurting her in the process.

Then, as he boasts at the bonfire as they welcomed Bella to the ranks of those who knew, he was amazed she was cool as a cat as she grabbed a lighter from inside the house while his mouth was full from the dread-locked head of that leech. He happily recounted her phrasing to him once she went to light him on fire.

The only thing he had asked was why not in the house and she’d told him she was not done studying the books left there.

From the books she had been reading, she helped them form the wolves into a more lethal force, telling them the tricks that had been noted in the journals and how to counter them. Sam had been more than happy to follow the information she provided and it helped them catch the vampires and make killing them much easier.

However, it doesn’t seem she has limited supply of vampires; oh, they hurt her taking out one of the guys they had seen around a lot of the time, but it only slowed her down and they were all on edge wondering where she would strike this time…

And Bella sneaked out to grab a book. She knows it was not smart, but they needed that book!

She takes a deep breath as she pushes her POS truck as fast as it will go. She loves the truck, but right now, she wishes she had the keys to the bike in the Cullen garage. She could’ve made the trip at half the time and right now, speed is much preferred.

She is on edge when she reaches the outskirts of the city, but then her last visit had taught her she wasn’t safe. She watched around her, but her heart sank when she couldn’t find a parking spot close to the book shop.

She hurries in and making her purchase, hurries back out, telling herself that next time she will have someone, anyone, go with her. Even Jessica’s inane prattling would be better than this!

As she heads to her truck, she catches the color of red out of the corner of her eye. She whips her head around, hoping it is a new car or something else that had caught the light, but the laughter that sounds around her when she turns kills that hope inside.

Bella goes to run to her truck, wanting the little protection it can afford her. When she passes an alley, she is just gone. The sound of the book she had purchased hitting the ground with a thud is the only sign she was ever there.

Final count: 1,643 words.

Fairfarren~