A/N: SM owns the characters. No copyright infringement is intended.

Thanks to dirtycheekymonkeys for asking me to write this for their Squeeze My Lemon segment. Thank you also to lacym3 and NCChris for pre-reading.

A Fire That Could Burn A Thousand Suns

Losing a loved one wasn't an easy thing to go through for a human, and especially not for a vampire. Victoria had been grieving the loss of her mate for months now, and making sure everyone in a fifty mile vicinity suffered right along with her.

The thing of it was, Victoria was a vampire. When she met her mate, she was supposed to have had eternity with him. There weren't many ways for a vampire's existence to end, after all - Buffy the vampire slayer was a silly fairy tale, the sun didn't burn them, and they never grew old or got sick. To end an eternity early, a vampire had to really piss someone off.

And that's just what James had done. He'd found a human that he just couldn't resist. That ridiculous girl with the brown eyes – she was the bane of Victoria's existence now. She could not comprehend, even with all the power of her vampire brain, why that stupid child was, of all things, playing baseball, with a coven of vampires. James had always loved a good game of hide and seek, and really, that's what the human had been to him – a game. But the coven fought for her. It hadn't taken long to realize that the girl belonged to the bronze-haired vampire, whose name, she'd learned, was Edward. Victoria and James had assumed that she was a pet, but they'd been wrong. No vampire would travel so far or fight so hard over a pet. Though she'd never heard of a vampire mating with a human, when she learned of James's death at Edward's hands, Victoria realized that there as no other explanation: Bella was Edward's mate.

At first, after she'd realized that her own mate was lost to her forever, Victoria had fantasized about killing Edward – ripping him apart, piece by piece, taking her time to cause him as much pain as possible before throwing every piece into a raging fire, one at a time – but then she had come to the realization that there was an even better way to get her revenge: killing Bella. If she killed Bella, she took Edward's mate from him, just as he had hers, leaving him to face an eternity of misery and heartache. If she killed him, on the other hand, he only suffered for a short time, and though Bella would suffer until she died, the truth was that she was only human; her suffering would be short.

And so it was decided. Victoria would return to Washington and exact her revenge on the golden-eyed vampire, and settle the score for James as well, by killing his prize. Some part of her knew that there was a good chance that this would be a suicide mission, but she couldn't bring herself to care. So long as she took Bella out with her, death would be a welcome escape from her pain.

Back in Washington, Bella Swan sat on top of the picnic table her father had set up in the backyard a few weeks earlier when she'd gotten home from college, and stared up at the sky. It was a sunny day in Forks, her favorite kind of day. It was the kind of day that kept mystical creatures hidden away. Bella had had enough of such creatures to last a lifetime, of that she was sure.

Her first experience with them had been the Cullens – a coven of animal-blood-drinking vampires who she'd come to think of as family after falling in love with one of them. It took a near-death experience or two before Edward had given up and walked away from Bella, telling her that she was not good enough for him. She'd believed him at first, and it had hurt deep into her soul. After a couple of months of moping around, though, Bella, with her father's help, had finally realized that no matter how many years Edward had walked the earth, he was still just a seventeen year old boy who thought he knew everything and didn't. Taking back her strength, she said good riddance to bad rubbish and stopped letting Edward dictate her life without even being in it.

Done with vampires, Bella had moved on to the nearest mythical species in the area – werewolves. Just like running with vampires, though, hanging out with a pack of overgrown, shape-shifting teenaged boys had plenty of hazards. A big one of which was falling in love with one.

Jacob had been like a ray of sunshine in Bella's life in the beginning, but after being injured while killing his first vampire in an effort to protect her, he'd changed. Jacob was moody and temperamental, and even though his recovery only took a few days, he walked with a limp for months. Bella suspected that the limp was caused by the chip on his shoulder, but said nothing.

Things had finally come to a head on the afternoon that she discovered the loose floorboard that hid the things Edward had left behind for her. When he found her, Bella was kneeling on the floor with the photographs in her hand and her back was to the window, so Jacob couldn't see the look of fury on her face that had come with the discovery, and had misinterpreted the situation. Jealousy clouded his thoughts, and anger took over his emotions. Bella had been lucky to leave her room with nothing more than a concussion caused by falling pieces of the broken roof and three six-inch-long scratches on the arm that she'd raised to shield her face when her boyfriend phased in her bedroom.

Jacob's jealousy had struck her as a form of distrust, and knowing how undeserved it was broke her heart. She couldn't forgive him for the physical and emotional hurt he'd caused. The day that Bella came home from the hospital was the day that she swore off mythical creatures, and men in general, convinced that both were hazardous to her health, and to her heart.

But it would be a lie to say that she didn't think of them ever. At that very moment, in fact, as Bella sat on her picnic table, she was daydreaming about having some sort of special power that would allow her to take on any sort of mythical creature in a fight...like that silly television show she'd watched in middle school with the vampire slayer. But, she thought, she wouldn't be dumb enough to fall in love with a vampire. Not again, anyway. She hated them. All of them.

Victoria stood in the woods behind the Swan house. She'd been watching for days now, ever since she'd followed the girl home from Los Angeles, which was where she'd found her studying at UCLA and interning at Random House Publishing. It had come as a huge surprise to Victoria that Bella was attending school in such a sunny location – from what she'd come to understand, the Cullens enjoyed a public life, and that would be difficult for a vampire to have in southern California. Confused, Victoria did her best to stalk from the shadows, relieved when the semester ended and Bella boarded a plane home to Forks.

Victoria was sure that the trip to Washington would finally bring her face to face with vengeance. Instead, it bought her to the girl's backyard; a backyard that had been visited by no vampire other than herself since they'd arrived.

Victoria paced in a circle around a group of trees, muttering to herself.

Where in the hell is Edward? Why isn't he here with her? Not even a phone call in all the weeks I've been watching! Did someone else get to him first?

When the sun began its descent behind the coastal range, Victoria made the decision to come out from the security of the trees and finally make herself known to her enemy. Just as she was about to emerge from the shadows, however, she heard the sound of a door closing and smelled the scent of fresh human in the air. Victoria stayed where she was, observing with interest as an older man approached the girl on the table.

"You know who came home today, Bells?" the man asked.

Bella shrugged as she looked up at him. "Who?"

"Mike Newton. He's down from Seattle visiting his folks – he's got a good job at Washington Mutual up in the city, you know."

Victoria's brow furrowed as she listened to the conversation. Why would Bella's father tell her about another man? Stomping her foot in the dirt in anger, Victoria once again wondered where Edward was. The longer he stayed away, the longer she had to wait to exact her revenge. And Victoria was not a patient woman.

"Dad," Bella replied, "That's...great. But you know it's not going to happen, right? I told you before. No more men. You are the only one I've ever met that was worth a damn."

It took great effort for Victoria not to scream in her rage as Bella's words broke the news that shattered every one of her plans. Edward was not with Bella now because he was no longer with her at all. Either he was dead, or the human had never actually been his mate. As much as she wanted to kill him herself if he was to die, Victoria really hoped that Edward was already dead. If he was not, her James's death was more pointless than ever. Spitting venom at the mere thought, Victoria clenched her hands into fists, waiting for Bella's father to end the conversation and go back inside. If Edward could not be made to suffer, Victoria would be sure to make Bella pay in his place, simply for the crime of not having been worth saving the first time.

Bella indulged her father as he tried to convince her to reconsider her decision to renounce men. She knew that he had hopes of becoming a grandfather and walking her down an aisle in a long white dress, but those were his dreams, not hers. Bella had long since come to realize that keeping men as far from her life as possible was safest. After all, every time she'd been close to death, it had been at the hands – or teeth – or a male.

She smiled and nodded, though, in the end promising her father to think about Mike Newton. And she would, too - she always kept her promises. Bella had every intention of spending the evening thinking about three or more excuses not to date him if he called.

Bella heard a rustle in the trees a few minutes after her father went inside, and though every muscle in her body tensed instinctively, she didn't even look up from the book she was reading, writing the noise off as having been made by a deer or bird or some other forest creature.

"You have no sense of self-preservation, do you, stupid child?" Victoria seethed, angry that Bella had ignored her approach. The flame-haired vampire had really expected, perhaps even hoped for, a bit of fanfare. A scream would have been nice, or a gasp at the very least.

Bella turned her eyes toward the voice, though she did not even need to look to know who it had come from. It had been five years since she'd heard the childlike tinkling of Victoria's speech, but she had recognized it as if were a sound as familiar to her as her own voice.

"Hello, Victoria," she said calmly. "Long time, no see."

The human's demeanor angered Victoria. How dare she greet her as if they were old friends! Victoria had come here to avenge her mate, to inflict upon Bella physical pain and horrors that would rival the emotional agony that she herself had suffered for half a decade, not share a cup of tea with the girl.

Bella, however, refused to allow herself to be frightened. She knew what was likely coming to her, but if she was honest with herself, she had always expected that her dalliances with the vampires and wolves in the past would some day come back to haunt her. But Bella had faced James with courage, she'd bled in a house full of vampires without so much as a scream, and she'd not shed a tear in fear when Jacob phased inside of her house, nearly killing her. She was determined to face Victoria with the same strength.

"I didn't come here for small talk, girl," Victoria said, the anger still thick in her voice.

"No?" Bella said, her voice full of sarcasm as she shrugged. "I thought for sure that was it, too. I'm always wrong about these things."

Victoria's hand shot forward before she even thought about it and smacked the human's cheek, forcing her head to whip to the side. To her credit, Bella did not falter. She immediately turned her face back to the front, her brown eyes cold and hateful as they locked on Victoria's red ones.

"You should know better than to disrespect your elders," the vampire spoke through gritted teeth. The blood that was pooling under Bella's cheek, already forming a purplish mark on her skin, smelled just as sweet as Victoria remembered. Shaking her head, she reminded herself that she could taste the girl later. It wasn't time for that yet.

"I respect those that earn it," Bella quipped, smirking at the vampire bravely. "Now, you say you didn't come here for small talk. Care to tell me what the hell you are doing in my backyard, then? Unlike you, I don't have all of eternity to wait for an explanation."

Victoria's fists clenched at her sides; she wasn't sure whether she wanted to rip out the girl's tongue to shut her smart mouth up once and for all or be impressed with her for fighting back rather than quivering in fear, even if both women knew that the girl would never make it out of the conversation alive.

"Where are the Cullens?" Victoria spat. "Edward?"

Years ago, hearing his name would have reduced Bella to tears. Today, however, she simply scoffed. "You came to the wrong place for that information, Vicky," she said, a touch of smug satisfaction in her tone. "I haven't seen or heard from them in almost five years. Your guess is as good as mine."

With a growl, Victoria lunged toward the brown-haired girl, pinning her against the picnic table. "Liar!" she cried, both angered and anguished. She was desperately clinging to hope that Edward could still be hurt, that her love had not died in vain. "You were his mate! Where is he?"

Using all her strength, Bella tried to push the vampire away. "Get off of me if you want answers."

"You tell me what I want to know," Victoria hissed. "If you don't, I will cause you so much pain that you'll be begging me to kill you." She wanted to give Bella a little preview of what she could do to her, but instead jumped away suddenly when she heard footsteps approaching from the back of the house.

"Hey Bells..." Charlie started before cocking his head to the side at the sight of the visitor. "I didn't know you had company."

Victoria smiled sweetly at the man, batting her lashes a bit for effect. "Hi there. I'm Victoria. I'm an old friend of Bella's," she explained. "I was just passing through and thought I'd say hello."

Charlie was confused. He was sure he'd neither seen this woman nor heard her name from his daughter in his life. The detective in him never rested. "I didn't hear a car pull up."

"I was out for a walk," Victoria replied smoothly, using the velvety tone that only vampires could achieve, the one that lulled humans into a false sense of security.

Bella, however, could tell that Charlie wasn't buying Victoria's story. Not wanting her father to be hurt because of poor choices she had made in her teens, she gave him a sincere smile and interrupted their conversation. "It's ok, Dad. Vicky and I were just catching up. Why don't you go visit Sue down on the reservation? It's been a few days since you've seen her, and I won't be much company for you tonight."

Charlie accepted his daughter's suggestion, and the two women waited in silence until they heard the cruiser pull out of the driveway before Victoria repeated her demand for information.

"For whatever it's worth," Bella began, "The Cullens left a few months after what happened in Phoenix. There was an... incident. Edward decided that keeping me safe wasn't worth the constant effort, and he and the family took off. I never heard from any of them again."

Victoria paced as she listened, trying to make sense of what the girl was telling her. "That can't be!" she said, getting in Bella's face once again. "Why would he just walk away from you like that after risking his whole family to protect you from James? He killed my mate, Bella! And for what? For some ridiculous human that didn't mean a damn thing to him?" She was screaming by the end of her little tirade.

"Well," replied Bella casually. "According to the letter I found a year later under my bedroom floor, I did mean something to him. He claimed to have left to protect me. Some bull shit about loving me too much to let me be in danger, to let me give up my soul... Blah, blah, blah. Typical know-it-all Edward stuff."

"No!" Victoria cried in anger, wondering how Edward could have been such an imbecile. "He left you because he was a coward! He was too afraid to make you like him, or at least to stay and protect you when he had to have known I'd come for vengeance. What happened to the courage he showed when he murdered my mate?"

"James wasn't your mate," Bella said pointedly, earning her another sharp smack from Victoria.

"How dare you," the vampire seethed, her face only inches from Bella's, black eyes burning through her. "You are a child! What do you know of mates?"

"I know what Edward told me," Bella replied sharply. "He could hear the thoughts of everyone around him. He heard James." Bella paused for a moment, letting her opponent absorb her words. "James wasn't your mate. He was using you. That talent you had for escaping proved pretty convenient for him. Well, until he met the Cullens."

The smirk on Bella's face was more than Victoria could stand. The girl's words were cutting through her already-broken heart like serrated steel blades. Victoria had loved James with everything she had. And he had...used her?

Victoria wished more than anything in the world at that moment that James were standing in front of her so that she could use her fingernails to rip through his skin and muscles, shredding his tendons and forcing him to feel the pain that filled her heart. But Bella was the only one present.

Victoria supposed that the girl would have to do.

Grabbing the girl by the front of her shirt, Victoria lifted her up off of the table, glaring at her with pure hatred the whole time. "You ruined my life," she spat just before she threw the girl ten feet to the left.

Victoria watched with sick amusement as the petite human flailed as she flew through the air, laughing as she landed with a thud in the grass near the shed. She was in front of her again in a flash.

Despite the pain that her hard landing had caused her, Bella forced herself to her feet. She knew that there was very little chance that Victoria would let her live, so she saw no reason to hold back. "How do you figure this is my fault, you pathetic bitch?"

"Pathetic?" Victoria hissed, glaring hatefully at the girl. Bitch she could handle, but pathetic? That was crossing a line.

Crossing her arms over her chest, Bella nodded haughtily. "Yes." She paused for a moment, making sure that Victoria wasn't going to attack her before she continued. "You're gorgeous and powerful and you have eternity in front of you. And your plan for spending it is wallowing in misery over some loser who liked to be a big man and pick fights, probably to make up for being a small man somewhere else," Bella paused to smirked for effect, "and kept you around because you made a great gettaway driver and a good fuck. That sounds pretty damn pathetic to me."

Victoria wanted to argue with her. Actually, she wanted to kill her. She was furious with the girl, but mostly because she made a good point. Luckily, being a vampire, Victoria's mind was working furiously, thinking about several different things at once. In seconds, she came to two very important conclusions. The first was that Edward was still going to pay. Even if James wasn't her mate, she liked having him around, and Edward had taken him from her. That couldn't go unpunished. The second was that Bella Swan was going to get taught a lesson in respect. She couldn't very well let a human insult her and just walk away.

Lunging at the human, Victoria pushed her into the side of the shed, barely restraining her strength enough to prevent a Bella-shaped hole from forming in the building. With her arm across the girl's throat, Victoria forced Bella to look her in the eye. "I am gorgeous," she spat.

"I know," Bella agreed in a strangled voice. She may have wished she were strong enough to give the vampire a good punch in the face, she couldn't deny just how attractive she was. And not in the way that all vampires are beautiful either; no, Victoria was clearly something special.

"And strong," Victoria added scathingly, squeezing Bella a bit tighter to prove her point. "And I'm not just somebody's good fuck, you little whore. I'm fucking phenomenal."

"I'm sure you're great."

"Don't fucking placate me!" Victoria seethed.

"I'm not. I'm sure you were fantastic," Bella said calmly. "I mean, you were at least good enough that James wanted you around. That's gotta say something for your skills, right?"

Victoria had leaned in so close in her rage that she and Bella were now nose to nose, both women glaring intensely at the other.

"You should be so lucky as to experience skills like mine."

"I've never been very lucky," Bella shrugged.

Victoria paused for a moment, considering her next move. She hated this human, yet admired her at the same time. She wanted to shut her up, but she wanted her to do so because she knew she was wrong, not because she was forced. Victoria couldn't understand why she wanted this human's approval so badly. She should really just kill her and move on.

Instead, she kissed her.

The kiss was hard, so hard that it hurt Bella a bit, but the human didn't try to pull away. Never in her life had she been on the receiving end of such raw passion – she wasn't going to walk away from it. When people said there was a thin line between love and hate, Bella now knew that they were wrong. The truth of the matter, she realized as Victoria's angry tongue swept past her lips, was that love and hate were alike: both could burn like fire deep inside you, inciting passion.

And that's what Bella and Victoria were caught up in right now.

Bella, finally reacting after her initial shock, brought her hands up Victoria's back and tangled them in her flame-red curls, tugging on the vampire's hair hard enough to make her growl in anger. Ripping her lips away from the kiss, Victoria shoved Bella hard, pushing her right through the wall of the shed.

Bella tumbled, head over heels, twice before coming to a stop in the dusty center of the shed. "Bitch!" she screamed at her aggressor as she made her way to her knees. "Fuck you!"

In a flash, Victoria was right there in Bella's face once again. "You'd like that, wouldn't you, you little whore?" she sneered. "You wouldn't even think about that human your father suggested. What's wrong, Bella? Can't get wet for your own species?"

She wasn't strong enough to actually hurt the other woman, but that didn't stop Bella from smacking her across the face. "What makes you think I'd want you?" she snapped as she shook the hand that was still stinging from the slap.

Victoria scoffed, and then, jumping to her feet in one smooth movement, grabbed Bella by the neck of her shirt, and ran toward the opposite wall of the shed, shoving Bella up against it. "Your scent," she hissed, reaching for the waistband of Bella's shorts and ripping them right off her body. Shoving Bella's panties to the side, she dragged her fingers over Bella's slit, then raised her hand, shoving it in the girl's face. "Deny it, then," she demanded. "Tell me this isn't for me."

Bella strongly considered spitting in the vampire's face. She hated her, in part for all the reasons that she should hate her, but mostly because she was right. Bella had never been so aroused, never wanted a second touch so badly. She wished she could wrap her hands around Victoria's throat and squeeze it until it snapped for making her feel this way.

Bella didn't want this.

Except that she did.

Knowing that she could never physically beat the vampire, she decided that the only way to win this fight was to beat Victoria at her own game. She locked her hateful eyes on her nemesis and then, in a quick, unsuspected motion, covered Victoria's wet fingers with her lips, sliding he tongue into the valley between each pair, tasting herself until all that was left was the cotton candy flavor of the vampire's own skin. Bella pulled away, letting a low moan slip from her lips, and then smirked up at Victoria. "Maybe you're right," she said haughtily. "But tell me you aren't pissed that I didn't share."

Victoria wanted to tell her that she was wrong. She wanted to tell the girl to go to hell, maybe even send her there herself. But the scent of Bella's arousal, seconds ago just inches from her face, had made venom pool in her mouth...and between her legs.

"I hate you," she hissed as she tore away Bella's soft cotton panties and shoved two fingers into her, making the girl gasp in both shock and desire.

"Not nearly as much as I hate you," Bella replied in a raspy voice as she tightened her grip in the vampire's hair and used it, combined with the force of her back against the wall, as leverage to hold herself up as she let her feet leave the floor and wrap around Victoria's waist. Once she was steady, she tugged Victoria's hair hard, pulling her toward herself. "Now kiss me again, bitch."

She didn't want to give in to the girl, really, but Victoria kissed her anyway, because she wanted to kiss her. She was desperate for another feel of her soft lips and the sweet, floral taste of her tongue. She swirled her tongue around the girl's fast enough to make the human dizzy, only thinking about her own lust, and nearly matched her tempo with that of her fingers as they slid in and out of the human, fucking her roughly.

Bella panted and moaned, nonsense rather than words spewing from behind the lips that were joined with Victoria's. For the moment, she had completely forgotten that the woman giving her pleasure was her enemy, that she hated her, that she wanted to kill her in horrible, torturous ways. The only thing Bella could remember right now was how to beg for more.

"Harder," she demanded as she pulled back for air, using her shoulders to push against the wall as hard as she could, making her back arch so that Victoria's fingers entered her at a new, even more delicious angle.

Rather than do as Bella asked, though, Victoria removed her fingers from Bella altogether and pushed her feet down hard from her hips. "Don't tell me what to do," she hissed as she stepped back away from the girl. Victoria had forgotten, however, Bella's tight grip in her hair, though Bella had not.

Bella loosened her grip just enough to let Victoria turn, but then yanked hard the second her back was to her and Bella saw Victoria raising her hand to her mouth to get a taste of the human's essence.

The pull was hard enough to make Victoria stumble backwards a couple of steps, and when they were touching once again, Bella pulled the hair down tightly, forcing Victoria's chin up, and then brought her lips to the vampire's ear.

"I taste good, don't I?" Bella breathed. Rather than answer with words, Victoria growled, trying to cover the moans that were forming due to Bella's taste on her tongue. Bella knew what the vampire was trying to hide, though. "Take it, Victoria. Take what you want."

Bella let go of Victoria's hair completely and stepped back, standing in the center of the shed with shaky legs and wearing only her tank top, waiting for her nemesis to come to a decision. Victoria turned around slowly, her eyes black with lust as she looked at the human. Her mind was a blurry haze of confusion – she was no longer sure that she wanted to kill the girl, and wondered if, perhaps, there wasn't a better option.

Bella recognized the look in Victoria's eyes – it was similar to they way Jasper had looked at her, years ago, as he raced toward her on the night of her 18th birthday. What Bella had learned, though, from spending so much time around the Cullens, was that sexual lust looked an awful lot like bloodlust. And that meant that she had Victoria right where she wanted her.

"Take it, Victoria," she repeated, keeping her eyes locked with the red-haired woman in front of her. "Take it straight from the source."

Victoria stepped toward her slowly, pulling her fingers from her lips with a pop as she approached. With the same hand, she reached out before Bella even had a chance to react and grabbed the girl by the back of her hair. "You stupid whore. You have no idea what you're getting into." With a flick of her wrist, Victoria dropped Bella to her hands and knees, dropping down behind her. Still holding Bella's hair tightly in her fist, Victoria leaned over the girl's back, bringing her lips close to her ear. "You're mine now," she hissed.

With one hand against the center of Bella's back, Victoria pushed Bella to the floor, and then grabbed her left hip, raising it up to give her the access she wanted. She dropped Bella's hair as she moved behind the girl, gripping her by both hips so tightly that she could smell the bruises forming under her fingertips, and then lowered her mouth to meet Bella's pussy.

Moaning as her tongue swept over Bella's wet, swollen lips, Victoria took her first direct taste of Bella, and the girl shivered as the vampire's cold tongue crossed over her clit. As Victoria brought Bella closer and closer to the edge, a thought crossed through her mind, and she pulled away from the girl to share it, earning a whimper at the loss of contact.

"Edward never made you feel this good, did he?" she asked the squirming girl in front of her. "I told you I was better than some good fuck. Tell me, Bella. Tell me that I was right."

"Edward," Bella panted, "Never even kissed me, you bitch. He was so fucking afraid of losing control that I never got more than a peck on the lips."

Though smug, Victoria was suddenly struck with inspiration. Pushing it to the side for the moment, she made her demand again. "Tell me I was right, whore."

Without waiting for a response, Victoria thrust her tongue into the girl's aching pussy, making her scream out in pleasure.

"You're the best!" she cried out as her legs began to shake.

It only took seconds more before Victoria felt the girl's muscles begin to tighten. Recognizing the moment she'd been waiting for, she reached out blindly with one hand and grabbed Bella's hair, pulling it back so hard that it made Bella's back arch up off the floor. As the girl cried out in ecstasy, Victoria removed her tongue and slid it over the crease of Bella's leg, then sunk her teeth deep into the femoral artery in her thigh.

Bella's moans of pleasure remained for a few moments before the agony of the venom began to take over. Victoria licked over the bite mark she'd just made, sealing it, and let the girl collapse against the floor before she reached out to roll her over.

With Bella's pained eyes found Victoria, she was barely able to focus. Victoria smiled at her with smug satisfaction. "Revenge, my dear little Bella, is nearly as sweet as your delicious pussy. You are mine now, and we will go together to remind Edward of everything that he threw away like garbage. I'll show him that I had the courage that he lacked. And then, together," she explained as she brushed a hair away from Bella's sweaty brow, "You and I will kill him."

Knowing that she needed to get Bella away before anyone discovered them, Victoria slipped silently into the Swan house and gathered some clothes and books, tossing them into a knapsack, and then returned to the garage to dress the girl who was writhing in pain on the ground. A different kind of fire burned inside Bella now, and though it would die away in three days time, it's flame was no less intense than those of the hate and passion she had shared with Victoria only moments before. Once she was clothed, Victoria lifted Bella into her arms and tossed the knapsack over her shoulder, then walked through the Bella-shaped hole in the wall and off into the woods. Bella's scream rang out through the night air and echoed off of the trees, announcing to the world their new beginning as the two disappeared into the woods.

A/N: I'd love to hear your thoughts - please review!