CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN:

My breath caught. My muscles spasmed. And then I screamed.

Staggering back, I hit the wall and slid down it to the floor with a heavy thump as my legs stopped supporting me. The slight pain caused from hitting the ground with all my excess weight was inconsequential in the face of the vomit-inducing agony that had seized me.

Something was wrong with my baby.

The revelation was like ice, giving me clarity despite the pain that was spreading like a rush of scorching heat in my entire midsection. If I'd been able to, I'd have curled into a tiny ball and screamed. But the pain radiated up and down my body. Someone had set off a blasting curse inside my stomach. Not pain. Agony. I couldn't think of a time I'd hurt more then this. Maybe during the disastrous cross-continental apparation, but to try and compare the two torments was too much right now.

Somehow, with numb fingers, I managed to peel open my maternity blouse. I thought someone might have helped, a wet muzzle, but I wasn't quite sure. I did hear animal sounds of shock as the skin of my stomach was exposed.

Through blurry eyes, I took in the sight. My stomach was stained almost black where Athenodora's fist had hit me and though the skin was unbroken, it was distended and smeared with bruises so dark and blotchy that the flesh barely seemed human. My belly was beginning to feel weirdly bloated, different to the way the swell of Baby growing inside me felt, more like something in there was leaking.

Something probably was leaking, I thought, and the numbness abruptly plunged away into something hot and desperate and wild. I jerked my head up to take in my surroundings– Esme was unresponsive, Leah crouched over her, Collin was lingering near Brody and Seth was hunched on the ground, clearly injured but still conscious. 

"Listen puppies!" I growled to them, just as fierce as any wolf, "either this baby chews its way out of my stomach, killing me in the process as it shreds my insides to pieces, or one you helps me perform a c-section with the only tool we currently have available that can cut through vampire skin!" I didn't need to clarify just what I was talking about– without Esme, their teeth were my only current option and I was about as happy about that as they were.

The wolves all gave startlingly similar panicked whines and I glared harder even as tears of pain leaked down my cheeks, choked back sobs escaping me with every gasping breath I took. "Do you think I actually want an oversized mutt biting open my stomach?" I demanded hysterically, my mouth twisting into an agonised snarl as one of Baby's feet slammed into something inside me that set of a wave of pain so bad I actually gagged, turning my head to spit up the mouthful of blood that had risen up my oesophagus. "Believe me," I gasped out, "I fucking hate this as much as you do, now one of you get your furry arses over here right now and help me get this baby out before- ARGH! FUCKING FUCK SHIT FUCK!" That had definitely been a rib snapping as my baby thrashed desperately inside me.

Right. I fixed the closest wolf with the most terrifying glare I could manage through the film of tears, baring my red-stained teeth at him. By the way he looked like he wanted to pee himself, I judged it as suitably terrifying. "YOU!" I snarled. "So help me god, if you don't help me get this baby out right fucking now I will punch you so hard that your nose cartilage will be creamy enough to butter my breakfast toast!"

The wolf– Collin– visibly swallowed.

"And it will be delicious!" I hissed.

He yelped and stumbled forwards. I let out a shuddering sigh of relief, followed by a sound of incomprehensible agony when my broken ribs ground together as Baby continued to thrash. Collin hesitantly pressed his wet nose to the bulge of my stomach where Baby's wild, desperate movements under my skin were as obvious as they were startling.

He continued to hesitate and I was considering through the haze of pain just how hard I'd be able to hit him in this state when Seth let out a huffing sound, slamming his tail against the ground and shuffling over to us on his stomach. He was leaving behind a slick, red trail and I wasn't sure he could even stand, but his eyes were clear, not hazy from pain, and the innate healing ability of the shifters had clearly kicked in.

Collin eagerly backed away, returning to standing vigil by the unconscious Brody's side while Leah nosed Esme. I reached out with a bloodstained hand to pat Seth's sandy-furred head, uncaring of how the sticky wetness caught in his fur. Seth made a quiet, snuffling sound, wagging his tail gently as he pressed his nose to my stomach. He tilted his head slightly, looking up at me as if to ask 'ready?'

I wasn't, I definitely fucking wasn't, but I nodded anyway, my eyes squeezing shut as I braced myself for more pain to come.

And it did come. And it hurt, it hurt having sharp teeth tear through my thin-fragile human skin like a knife through hot butter, then it hurt even more as they ripped through the lining of my womb, currently as diamond-hard and almost-impenetrable as vampire skin. It made a metallic screeching sound that my screams only half drowned out. My automatic response to the agony of it all kicked in then and I desperately tried to fight off the teeth, tried to kick or shove or run, but I was pinned by warm arms and soothing words as I struggled, helpless and hopeless.

And then the teeth were gone, and so was something else. I gasped hoarsely for breath as a strange and terrible feeling of hollowness washed over me. The warm arms had released their hold on me but I barely noticed that as my own icy-cold, violently trembling hands moved to cradle the bulge of my stomach... no, my empty stomach.

For a moment, the fear that rose up inside me was so strong and so desperate that even behind my close eyelids my whole world whited out to a haze of panic. And then I heard it, the thin, reedy wail of a newborn shocked and indignant to find itself out of its protected isolation, and my lips curved into a trembling smile before I gave in to the weakness spreading through me.

Dying– for what else could this be?– felt so terribly strange. It felt like all of my senses became hyper aware of the activity going on inside of me. My whole scalp seemed to be covered in ice, so cold it numbed my head down to the base of my neck. My heartbeat felt staggered and slow. Different muscles twitched from stabs of pain. A dull throbbing pulsed from my chest, my splintered ribcage. Air came and left my lungs in forced, haggard breaths. Slowly I could feel everything slowly begin to stop working, the low pulsating thrum in my ears marking the time...

slipping...

               away...

                               ...

I woke to the taste of pepper-up potion.

The disgustingly familiar sensation of my bones and flesh knitting back together as Qiang's healing potions set to work made me want to gag and a watery cough rattled through me, filling my mouth with the taste of bile and hot wet-rust. I hurt, I hurt everywhere and I hurt badly, but it was a manageable sort of pain– at least in comparison to before.

Forcing my eyes open, I blinked blearily at the naked young teenager leaning over me, holding an empty potions phial in each hand– Seth had found Qiang's med-kit, I realised, taking in the sight and the discarded empty phials spilled out around him; he'd found the potions and he'd just saved my life. Again.

Still... "Your penis is giving me a fist bump." I mumbled through a mouthful of what I was pretty sure was my own blood.

"Ohmygod, Bella, you're alive!" Seth exclaimed in clear relief. Then my words seemed to register and he frantically shoved himself backwards, both his hands going to his groin to cover up his happy stick. I could only laugh, the sound near-hysterical, before glancing weakly around the utterly destroyed, blood-soaked, smoke-stained, ash-coated room, seeking out the new life ripped from my womb too early.

It was surprisingly easy to spot my newborn in the wreckage. Leah was cradling my baby to her chest, a stunned, enraptured look on her face as she stared down at the tiny, swaddled form she was holding so delicately. "Leah?" I asked, my voice hoarse from all the screaming. Leah turned to me and I sucked in a shocked breath when I saw the intensity of the emotions on her face, in her eyes. She didn't even need to say anything for me to realise, or Seth beside me.

"Leah!" He croaked, stunned.

"Oh," I breathed, a tremulous smile forming on my face. "I'm so glad."

And I was. We weren't all out of danger yet and my baby had just snagged themselves the most dedicated protector in the world.

"Come over, please... I want to see my baby's face," I pleaded. Leah seemed to stumble more then walk, so great was her shock, and while she didn't try to actually hand my baby to me, my arms were currently so weak I wasn't sure I could support even such a tiny weight anyway.

Instead, I reached out to gently touch my fingertips to the tiny, perfect rosy cheek. My baby was matted with blood and afterbirth, but still so painfully perfect. So, so beautiful, with soft light-bronze hair, porcelain skin, chocolate-brown irises and the most cherubic little face I'd ever seen. My breath caught in my throat, twisting up in my chest as petal-pink lips parted softly in an 'o' of what almost seemed to be surprise, those beautiful chocolate-brown eyes focusing on me with the sort of intent that wasn't natural in newborns but I couldn't care less about.

Nor did I give a fuck about the perfectly formed set of pearly-white teeth visible behind those pink lips.

"Boy or girl?" I whispered, choked up and overwhelmed with so much love for this tiny, perfect, shining little angel before me. My baby was beautiful enough to be either, yet somehow I wasn't really surprised when Leah managed to choke out,

"Boy."

"A boy..." I breathed out, fierce, fierce love swelling and eddying inside me, larger and more powerful then all the oceans, so immense and momentous that I briefly wondered how it was possible for it to stay contained by my thin, fragile skin. "A son... my son."

His skin was so silky-soft under my touch, as warm as the wolves. Tears welled in my eyes, blinding me momentarily. "My EJ," I choked out, "my Edward Charles Junior."

I'd started crying again, I wasn't sure when, but then familiar, ice-cold fingers were brushing away the tears, familiar arms pulling me into a desperate embrace.

"Bella-Bella-Bella–" Edward was almost sobbing too as he held me to him. It struck me, almost idly, that with his mind-reading ability Edward would have been able to witness through the Pack's mind-link everything that had been happening here to me, while he was still so far from my side. "I couldn't get here," he choked out, as if reading my mind, burying his face into the curve of my neck like he wasn't a vampire and I wasn't soaked with blood. "I was being targeted, every time I defeated one vampire another two would attack, and I couldn't get here to you!" 

"It's okay," I soothed, lifting a hand to stroke his hair, the bronze several shades darker then EJ's, I realised absently. My head felt like it was full of cotton; concentrating was hard, my thoughts spinning off on random tangents when I tried, but the love inside me was as focused and all-encompassing as ever. "I'm safe, EJ's safe– it's going to be okay."

"EJ," whispered Edward, lifting his head from my neck and turning slightly, keeping me tucked safely against his side, to face our son.

Leah was still holding him, still cradling him protectively to her chest. "Ah," Edward murmured, and Leah gave him a defensive look, her shoulders tensing up, but Edward shook his head. "How could I possibly be upset, when it is thanks to you they are both still alive?" He answered some thought she hadn't spoken. The tense line of Leah's shoulders relaxed and she finally extended her arms out, offering Edward his son.

Edward gently lifted EJ from Leah's arms, holding the infant as carefully and delicately as if he were a bubble of soap, staring down at our son like... well, there were no words that could truly describe his expression in that moment. I pressed my cheek to Edward's chest, looking adoringly at the perfect sight of our baby cradled in his arms and idly considered finding a shirt to cover my bare breasts.

Absently, I wrinkled my nose as an odd taste hit the back of my throat; cloying and tingling? almost. Heavy. Uncomfortable. And then, impossibly, Edward dropped our son.

It was only through a burst of speed and with reflexes I didn't even know I possessed that I managed to grab onto EJ, catching his small body before he hit the floor. Shocked speechless, I turned my wide, accusing eyes towards Edward, only to freeze in place as I looked at him, a trickle of terrible foreboding starting to build in my gut.

Edward's eyes were blank, his arms limp and still at his sides. He stood like a statue before me, frozen in place and clearly not registering anything. And, as I turned in a horrified circle, it became horrifyingly clear that everyone in the room was the same– unresponsive statues, still and silent and empty-eyed where they were standing, sitting or lying.

"What the fuck?" I breathed in horror, glancing down at EJ, and it felt like my heart almost stopped beating– my baby's eyes were just as clouded and unresponsive as everyone else's, unmoving and failing to track me at all. I thought I was going to be violently sick and catching sight of a small movement out of the corner of my eye, I spun towards it, desperately hoping it was someone coming to help.

It wasn't. It definitely wasn't. It was so, so much worse then that.

Because standing by the broken window was a vampire I'd only seen once before, back in Volterra when Jane had led Edward, Alice and I to go visit the 'Kings'.

Alec, the second of the Volturi's 'witch-twins', looked unhappy– actually, no; that was an understatement. He looked as if someone had shot his puppy in front of him, squeezed the blood out of it, let it rain over his face and then did the salsa over its grave.

Yes, he looked that unhappy– and he was currently gripping my previously-missing but somehow very much alive, though currently panicking, father by the throat.