CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
RED SNOW
( trigger warning; violence and gore )

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THE NEXT MORNING, SHAY woke to the sound of arguing voices outside. It took her a second to remember where she was, but the moment everything came rushing back to her, she was up on her feet in an instant. Edward and Bella were standing before the entry to the tent. They were facing Jacob, who looked heartbroken as he stared at Bella's regretful features.

"You're marrying him?"

"J-Jake," Bella stuttered, turning to look at Edward for help. But the bronze-haired boy was quiet, allowing Bella to come to a realisation. "You knew he was listening!"

"He deserves to know."

Jacob couldn't stay for another second in that clearing. Shay couldn't help feeling bad for him as he turned on his heel and stormed away. He must've been devastated to hear that the girl he loved so much, the girl he'd been pining after for years in the hopes she'd one day share his feelings, was going to marry someone else. Someone who Jacob and the pack considered an enemy. If Shay was closer to him, she would've followed him to check he was okay, but instead she stayed put as Bella decided to chase after him.

"Bella, just let him-"

But Bella wasn't having it. As Edward tried to stop her from leaving his side, reaching for her arm pleadingly, she shook him away with a glare. "Don't, Edward!"

With that, she disappeared after Jacob, leaving Shay and Edward standing in silence. Shay slowly approached the latter after an instant, offering him a comforting smile as he looked to her with sad eyes.

"I know she wanted to wait to tell him," he muttered. "But it didn't feel right keeping it from him."

"I know," she sighed, patting his stone-cold arm reassuringly. "But you should've said that to Bella instead of letting him find out that way."

He nodded, and their conversation faded. Shay glanced around the snow-covered clearing with wide eyes, her cardigan providing minimal protection from the cold. In a matter of minutes, the battle against the newborns would begin. Finally, hopefully, their problems would be over. They could move on, Victoria would be defeated. No more intruders, no more protection details. Shay was excited for the day she could leave her house without someone by her side.

"Are you nervous?" Edward asked, picking up on Shay's train of thought and looking for a distraction from whatever he could hear of Bella and Jacob's conversation.

"Of course I am," she nodded. "But I'm trying not to think too much about it. I just want this to be over."

Edward gripped her arm soothingly much like she had done for him, mustering up a smile of confidence, of certainty. "And it will be."

However, just as quickly as the smile came, it was gone. Edward's eyes went wide, harrowed with pain as he glanced the way Bella had went with Jacob. Shay frowned, following his line of sight, but she with her poor human eyes was unable to see whatever had made Edward so upset. But a moment later, she got her answer. Bella came back to the clearing wearing a frown on her face, regret twisting at her features as she met Edward's disappointed gaze. Something had happened between her and Jacob, something that tore at Edward's heart.

"You saw," Bella murmured, confirming Shay's suspicions.

"No, but..." Edward swallowed thickly, barely able to get the words out. "Jacob's thoughts are pretty loud."

"I don't know what happened," she said, looking between Edward and Shay with shocked eyes.

"You love him." Edward didn't need to ask her, he could see it on her face. Bella Swan loved Jacob Black. Maybe not as much as she loved Edward, but nonetheless, she loved him as more than a friend. And it had taken her a long time, but she was finally beginning to accept it.

"I love you more," she insisted. Maybe she did. Shay hadn't been around for most of Bella and Edward's relationship, so she had no idea what had happened between them. But somewhere along the way, Bella had fallen for Jacob too. Leaving her with a choice; did she want to be with Edward or Jacob?

Before either of them could say anything more, Seth entered the clearing with a grunt, shaking snow out of his fur as he joined the trio standing in silence. He looked right into Edward's eyes, communicating through his thoughts and faint snarls.

"It's starting," Edward muttered, putting what happened between Bella and Jacob aside as he focused on the fight. There was a moment's silence where Shay and Bella shared a worried glance, drawing closer to Edward's side as they waited for him to share more. "Jacob's just got there. He's doing good."

Just as quickly as he said this, an expression of fear shrouded his features. He glanced around the clearing with frantic eyes, his calm demeanour changing to disbelief. Bella reached for his hand in concern, asking, "Is someone hurt?"

"No," Edward shook his head, pulling Bella close on one side and reaching for Shay with his other hand. "But she's close. I can hear her thoughts."

She. Victoria. Victoria had found them. Shay gave a gasp of fear, the pounding of her heart echoing in her ears. She gripped onto Edward for dear life, her own gaze searching the trees around her for signs of the redhead. She heard Edward command Seth to hide, but she was too busy trying to think over her racing heartbeat to really pay attention to anything that was said.

"She knew we weren't there, but she caught my scent," Edward told them, shaking Shay's hand to snap her out of her panicked daze. "She knew you'd be with me, Bella, and she assumed that Alice would trust me enough to take care of Shay."

Just as he spoke, Shay caught a flash of dark brown from the corner of her eye. At first, she thought she'd imagined it, but she started to rethink this when Edward's face changed from cautious to confused. 

"She's not alone."

It was him. The man who'd broken into Shay's home was standing right in front of her. The same ruby red eyes, the same wicked smile. Riley Biers was standing before them in all his immortal glory, eerily calm for someone who'd came there to kill them. Edward pushed Bella and Shay behind him with a hiss, the two girls watching over his shoulders as Riley drew closer and closer, like a predator cornering its prey.

"Riley, listen to me," Edward pleaded, though Riley remained silent, simply prowling closer. Every step he took seemed to take a lifetime, taunting Shay as she clung onto Edward with shaking hands. "Victoria's just using you to distract me. She knows I'll kill you."

There was a thud, and Shay's eyes locked on a bright blur of red up in one of the trees. A woman who Shay guessed was Victoria stared down at them with the same eyes as Riley, her pretty face twisting into a sneer as Edward continued to speak to Riley, his gaze also locked on Victoria's figure. 

"In fact, she'll be glad she doesn't have to deal with you anymore."

"Don't listen to him, Riley," Victoria called from where she was perched on her tree branch. "I told you about their mind tricks."

"I can read her mind," Edward insisted as Riley looked between them, unsure who to believe now that he was hearing Edward's side of the story. "So I know what she thinks of you."

"He's lying."

"She only created you and this army to avenge her true mate, James. That's the only thing she cares about, not you."

"There's only you," Victoria crooned. "You know that."

"Think about it," Edward insisted, desperate for Riley to believe him. If he changed Riley's allegiance, he'd have the upper hand on Victoria. "You're from Forks. You know the area. That's the only reason she chose you. She doesn't love you."

"Riley, don't let him do this to us," Victoria pleaded, and Riley's eyes met hers as she smiled down at him. "You know I love you."

Riley sighed. Shay couldn't tell what he was thinking as he spared one final glance between Edward and Victoria. Then a sense of resolve settled on his face. He took a step closer to Edward, sealing his fate and their's.

"You're dead."

In a flash, he was rushing towards them with beared teeth. Shay gasped, backing away with Edward and Bella by her side, but before Riley could reach them, Seth was jumping out of the bushes with a roar. He latched onto Riley's torso and flung him away from them, Riley gasping in surprise at the sight of Seth. It was clear he wasn't prepared to fight a wolf. He screamed in agony as Seth dug his teeth into Riley's arm, throwing him back and forth as he attempted to remove the limb from his body. It hadn't taken Riley long to lose, and Victoria seemed to think the same thing, for she jumped from her tree branch fully prepared to flee.

"You won't get another chance like this again!" Edward shouted after her, slowly moving away from Bella and Shay. He couldn't let Victoria escape, not again. "You want her, you want both of them. You want me to feel the pain that you were feeling when I killed James, when I tore him to pieces, when I turned him into ash, when I turned him into nothing!"

Victoria screamed in rage, flashing across the clearing and tackling Edward into the snow. They landed at Shay and Bella's feet, the two girls backing right over to the treeline as the two vampires fought. Victoria reached for them frantically, but Edward tore her away and threw her into the trees with a snarl. While she was distracted, Edward rushed Bella and Shay further into the forest, disappearing back into the clearing to take care of Victoria where she couldn't get to them.

Though the fight wasn't going to plan. Riley soon overpowered Seth, kicking him into a pile of rocks before running over to Victoria's side. Now that Edward was outnumbered, he found it a lot harder to keep the upper hand. Before either girl knew it, he was on his knees with Riley holding back his arms as Victoria attempted to tear his head from his body. Bella had frozen in shock, tears forming in her eyes at the sight of Edward. But Shay couldn't just stand there. If she didn't do something, Edward would be defeated and she and Bella would be killed. She would never see Sebastian again, she would never see Alice. Shay couldn't let that happen.

Glancing along the forest floor, she found the one thing she knew would distract these red-eyed vampires. Rushing into the clearing, she grabbed a jagged piece of rock from the treeline and rolled up her cardigan sleeve, digging the rock into her arm hard enough to draw blood. A line of it dripped down her skin as Shay watched Victoria and Riley freeze through squinted eyes.

The next moment happened so fast that when Edward and Bella thought back on it, everything was a blur. One moment, Edward was about to die and Bella had gone into shock. The next, Shay had blood pouring down her arm and Riley was no longer at Edward's side. The bonze-haired boy overpowered Victoria as a scream erupted from behind him. He spun around just in time to see Shay falling to the ground, Riley's lips coated in the blood that now covered Shay's neck and torso as Seth dragged him away. 

And as Riley Biers' screams echoed around the mountain, Shay Chambers' blood coated the snow in thick waves.