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Bella shivered．
Victoria was a jungle cat sunning itself, lazily watching the zebras at the watering hole, indolent and relaxed … until the second before it pounced. The problem was that Bella wasn't a zebra. She was aware. She knew that the jaws of death were only moments away from enclosing around her. That awareness left her terrified and trembling, but ultimately it was a good thing, because along with self-awareness, human beings were capable of reasoning, of logic, of thinking. Unlike the zebra she could assess the situation and act. She could be smart．
Bella straightened her back and met Victoria's gaze as steadily as she could．
She wasn't going to let the redhead see how completely fucking terrified she was. She was going to be tough. She was going to be cool. She was going to channel every badass female she had ever seen on TV or in movies．
She was Ellen Ripley. She was Xena: Warrior Princess. She was Sydney Bristow. She was Sarah Connor. She was Buffy the fucking Vampire Slayer．
She wasn't going to run. She wasn't going to scream．
She was going to quip．
After all, Bella thought, nothing showed your opponent how completely unimpressed with them you were like a good, well-timed quip. And, if Victoria wasn't impressed by her wit, then maybe, just maybe she would be able to buy herself some time．
"I uh guhoh," Bella sputtered, chocking on the last sound as her eyes began to water．
She wasn't Ellen Ripley. She wasn't Xena: Warrior Princess. She wasn't Sydney Bristow. She wasn't Sarah Connor. And she certainly wasn't Buffy the fucking Vampire Slayer．
She was Bella Swan of Forks, Washington. She was a regular human Ｈigh School student with no super powers, no utility belt, and no trailing in kung fu or various other deadly martial arts. She had no holy water, no stake, no secret incantations and she was beginning to fear she had very little bladder control left．
She was scared … and pretty certain that she was going to cry．
"Oh, very impressive," Victoria drawled, pushing off of the tree. "I can see why everyone is so … enamored with you," she continued elegantly stalking towards Bella. Ｈer voice oozed sarcasm and derision, and Bella was positive that if she could have seen Victoria's face properly that she would have seen a sneer stretched across the redhead's full, red lips．
"Yeah well," Bella managed to choke out, her eyes locked on Victoria's swaying hips as she tried to force something coherent past her. "I uh … smell good?" she continued, her voice quivering and cracking as she spoke．
It wasn't great, but it was something. She would have to do better next time. She had to keep Victoria talking. She needed to buy time．
"Yes," Victoria said. Ｈer voice was silky smooth. "I know that," she continued, and Bella could hear her breathe in, no doubt savoring the scent of her tasty, tasty blood．
Bell cursed silently. She had never regretted being made of sugar and spice and everything nice so much in her entire life. Snips and snails and puppy dog tails had never sounded so appealing. They sounded perfect. She was sure that the scent of that wouldn't have made her blood sing for anyone．
"The question now is … how do you taste?" Victoria continued, shockingly white teeth glinting in the moonlight as she smiled．
Bella blinked, the redhead was now only a few meters away from her, and Bella knew that she could close that distance in the time it took her to gasp．
There was no running from Victoria．
There was no hiding．
All that she could do was to wait．
"I'm going to be honest with you," Victoria said coming to a stop three meters away from Bella. "This isn't going to be quick. It is going to hurt. And it's not going to be harder on me than it is on you," she continued. "At the beginning you were just another blood bag to me, but … I've got to admit, chasing you for so long fucking irritated me, and now, I'm not just trying to hurt Edward," she went on taking another step closer, "I really, really want Alice to suffer, too … which is going to mean additional unpleasantness for you.”
"What are you going to do to me?" Bella asked; her voice suddenly surprisingly relaxed．
Focusing inward for a moment, she noted that her mind was beginning to clear, and that her heartbeat was slowing down．
She felt almost … calm．
"I'm going to hurt you, Bella," Victoria said, her voice flat as cold eyes regarded Bella thoughtfully. "I'm going to hurt you badly. And then I'm going to leave your broken, destroyed, mutilated, rotting corpse for them to find. And when they see the destruction wrought upon you, they will imagine all of the horrible and varied ways that I tortured you. They'll torment themselves with possibilities that did not even occur to me, and whenever they think of you they will see your damaged, ruined body, and know that they were to blame. That you died and suffered because of them, and they will have eternity to lament it.”
Bella stared at Victoria for a moment after she finished speaking, and then her eyes drifted to the side．
"Oh," she breathed out．
Ｈer heartbeat was slow and steady, now, almost too slow, as if she were about to fall asleep．
"I kind of thought you were going to say something like that," Bella murmured．
"You knew this was coming," Victoria said taking another step forward．
"Yes," Bella said, nodding slowly, her eyes tracing Victoria's agonizingly slow progress．
"And you still fought with her," Victoria said shaking her head, a cruel smile twisting her lips. "You still ran.”
A chocked sound escaped Bella's throat, and she squeezed her eyes shut．
Victoria sneered at her. She couldn't believe the stupidity of the girl．
In fact she hadn't, for a quite a while．
The stupidity of Bella's actions, the arrogance of them astounded her. The stupid girl had been safe while the Cullen's were watching her. She had thought that the small one, Alice, was the weakest link, but Alice had proved surprisingly capable and Victoria had begun to despair that she would catch Bella alone, unguarded．
And then, watching from the distance she had seen Alice and Bella fighting, Bella pushing and slapping Alice, while Alice took it．
Victoria had felt a wash of disgust come over her as she watched. She couldn't believe that she had been matched by Alice, that a weak, pathetic thing like her, who let a human hit her, who kissed and made love to a human instead of ripping her throat out and feasting on her blood, had very nearly beaten her．
It was galling．
Ｈer face contorted in loathing, she had continued to watch the lovers fight, a growl very nearly escaping from her throat when Bella had leaned close to Alice's face and yelled, "I can take care of myself!" at her, following the statement with a few obscenities．
Alice, seemingly finally remembering what dignity was, had then yelled "Fine, take care of yourself then!" in Bella's face, glaring at human murderously for a moment before she turned her back on her and disappeared into the night．
Bella had then gotten into her piece of shit truck and taken off in the direction of La Push．
Victoria had been tempted to follow her then, but she was cautious, suspicious of the fight, of the opening that it had left her. It seemed too good to be true. The Cullen's had been so careful guarding their pet that she was convinced it couldn't be that easy. So, she had quickly made her way to the Cullen's home, careful to keep hidden and stay down wind. She listened carefully, and watched closely and had been able to make out the voice of the blond alpha male and that of his mate, as well as Edward and Alice's. Then, as she continued to watch she saw the big one, Alice's 'mate' and the pretty blonde female return to the house．
She realized then that Bella was truly alone and raced to catch up with her, knowing exactly what route the girl took to La Push, having stalked her along the way many times. She found the girl's truck abandoned about a five minute drive from La Push. The hood was warm, too warm and Victoria realized that the engine had overheated and that Bella must have gone into the woods to walk the rest of the way．
Victoria had then called James' face up in her mind, and swore again to avenge him. She allowed her mouth to fill with venom and then she took off into the woods．
"Looks like you couldn't take care of yourself after all," Victoria drawled, the cruel, mocking smile still etched onto her pale features．
Bella felt the wind on her back, blowing her scent towards Victoria and the trees behind her．
"No," Bella said softly her eyes scanning the tree line. "I guess people, really do need people," she sighed．
