Author's Note- This is what happened as the Cullens (or some of them at least) made their way from the Phoenix airport to the dance studio and beyond! It's all from Edward's POV

I hope you enjoy it! whether you do or not leave a comment and let me know!

EPOV.

Heat rose to my eyes and stung around the edges, and if I were human the tears would have been uncontrollable. Two very different emotions swarmed within my cold chest. The rage I felt towards James was literally painful, had I no other more significant task, his soul would already have been extinguished. The other was a mix of fear, pain, love, and loyalty for Bella. The warmth of the two intense emotions was scorching my abdomen.

"Edward, turn here!" Alice demanded.

The left swerve into the small suburban development wrenched the focus from my emotions. Alice's vision and Bella's description of her old neighborhood had gotten us this far; it was up to me now. I was furious with myself. If only we had gotten an earlier flight. I should have anticipated that James was coming to find her here…this was my fault.

Bella's endangerment was always my fault. I placed her in constant peril. She deserved so much more.

Carlisle's Mercedes whirred quickly through the grid like labyrinth of Bella's childhood neighborhood. Just the thought of her name struck a note of indescribable panic. It was sad that I could not enjoy the place that Bella's young laughter once filled, I should have been able to relish in Bella's past, soak in as much as possible. Instead I was racing against time to save her from death.

Bella. Death. My chin sunk into my chest as my shoulders heaved and a sob choked through my throat.

Jasper's hands were suddenly at my shoulders. The effect cleared my eyes enough to glimpse the road but didn't reach the feelings of horror and despair.

I searched the serge of voices for James' slithery speech. I sifted through nonsensical and pathetic human thoughts outraged that his had not surfaced as quickly as necessary.

Ha! Look at her knees quiver…this is just so utterly melodramatic. My video may turn out better than I even imagined.

The image of Bella's terror-stricken face filled his mind and the fear leapt into my heart that used to beat. The stab of pain nearly crumpled my stone chest; my foot fell harder onto the accelerator.

What else could I possibly do to provoke that beastly boy?

Her skin looks excruciatingly delicious with her blood pulsing so.

The fury that swam through me threatened to incapacitate my mind. That blood was hers and I was not going to allow anyone, not even myself to deny her of it.

The rows of redundant middle-class income housing began to bleed together. We were coming closer, his thoughts were louder… and thirstier. My desperation was overwhelming; my foot pushed the speedometer well over 120 miles per hour.

Where to start? Hmm… difficult choices…drama or precision…. presentation or thirst….

"NO!" I screamed. The exclamation made Carlisle in the seat next to me jump.

"Edward you have to calm down if you lose control now we will not arrive until it's too late."

I saw Bella's deep eyes frozen in a state of horror and her skin devoid of the blush I yearned for. I wrestled the thought from my mind.

I drew my favorite memories of Bella to the front of my mind: the blush under her skin when she was angry, the quickening of her heartbeat when I touched her. My heart warmed simply at the thought of her beauty. I remember the first time she whispered my name while she dreamt. A sweet smile crept across my lips as I imagined the sound of her voice as she spoke my name, as said she loved me. My breath caught in my chest.

Abruptly the memories withdrew to their sacred stony chamber at the back of my head.

Wow, she attempted to run. I was beginning to wonder if she had any typical human sense of self-preservation at all.

She was mine to preserve! My stone fingers began to quiver as I resisted crushing the steering wheel beneath my tendons. That filthy beast would regret his thoughts…

Her brilliantly chocolate eyes appeared beneath the lids of mine. She looked up at me through her thick lashes.

Bella will not die. She cannot die. I love her. I cannot live without her. I will die.

Her skin is much warmer than I anticipated.

I saw the images of the mirrors crashing down, after he threw her across the room, the jagged glass flew in all directions. My keen ears searched the surrounding air for the direction in which to travel. I threw the car around a sharp, right corner ignoring the stop sign.

Hot…crimson…thick…

He was thirsty.

I was fuming. I refused to listen to the words of his thoughts and concentrated on the direction they were coming from.

Bella danced through my mind. Her scent, her warmth, her voice, her sweet laughter, the way she shook her hair down her back…

Now.

My heart plummeted. It instantly sunk between the spaces of my abdomen and leaked into the hollow between my pelvic bones. NO! NO! More time!

A slight yelp of helplessness escaped from my lungs. NO! This can't be happening! Not my Bella…my angel…my love… the star that slipped from heaven into the arms of the earth…

If there were any God he would grant me with the speed to save the one I loved. The one of whom my life consisted. His hands need be around my Bella. I prayed.

I didn't wait for the car to stop when I flew onto the asphalt of the parking lot. The small building's shades were drawn and the street was deserted.

I froze and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. The scent was indescribable. Carlisle's thoughts ran through my mind.

There must be a large amount of blood for the smell to be that strong.

My nostrils flared, my muscles tensed as the back of my throat widened, and a heavy flow of venom spilled onto my tongue. Carlisle again.

Edward, are you sure you'll be able to resist?

I was through the door before his thought was finished. Emmett and Jasper snarled. Their brilliant teeth gleamed as they shoved past my left shoulder, dragging James through the open door. Jasper's eyes were blackened with intense thirst; the human blood was in dangerous proximity. Emmett's were alight with fury. His thoughts left me satisfied with the knowledge that James would suffer before his death. I may have jumped in and torn his throat out had I not seen what was lying in front of me.

Bella lie in a gentle mangled heap across the room from me. The floor beneath her was soaked.

A hideous cry of pain tore through my chest. My ribs stung as the panic swelled against my bones. I stopped breathing the intoxicating air, saturated with the scent of my dear Bella's blood.

I beat Carlisle to her side. The vivid color of her blood contrasted with the sandy wood flooring of the dance room. My skin seared where the pool of blood seeped through my pants.

My heart's contents slid away into the bottom of my abdomen and cemented to the inner walls of my stomach. I whimpered in pain, and then called for her in desperation. NO! Bella! All I could scream was her name.

The heat behind my eyes made them ache with pain.

I heard the screeches and violence of Emmett and Jasper's brawl. Emmett's riveting growl shook the floor. The thought of James' painful death did nothing to relieve my panic.

My angel couldn't be called back to heaven so soon.

I began to call her back to me. Please. I begged the Lord at that point, promised him every part of my soul, the service of my entire existence, just please to save Bella.

Carlisle made it clear that her wounds were severe but not necessarily fatal.

They couldn't be fatal…she must survive. It was necessary that he stop the bleeding. Blood. Not just any blood. It was Bella's blood.

I felt the heat from the liquid beneath me rising into my skin…into my nostrils…. into my mouth.

I cried. It was different from a human cry obviously because of the lack of tears. But the sobs shook my body as they struggled to emerge from my throat. I cried out in anguish, in pain, and in love.

Suddenly Bella's normally soft voice was shrill as she began shrieking. She yelled in agony and terror. Something was burning her.

I could see nothing, no fire or smoke. The panic circulated through my body and my limbs began to shake. I searched everywhere, overlooking nothing. I could not discover the source of her blistering pain.

Carlisle tensed beside me.

He bit her.

The fury that beheld me strained against the confines of my soul. A hideous howl escaped through my lips.

Yet there was a small portion of my mind that consented with what was occurring. If Bella were transformed she would be with me forever. That was an idea I very much appreciated.

Then my greater half chimed in. I would never doom Bella to the eternal twilight; she was too full of the sun. I would also never allow someone else's venom to taint her either. To never see her blush again or feel the tender skin of her arm, no, that would be unbearable. She was human. She will remain human as long as I had control of that fate.

Edward, the only way to save her is to extract the venom.

You have to do it. I cannot stop stitching her wounds or she will bleed to death.

As I came to recognize Carlisle's words for what they were, an intense intrigue gripped my senses. The monster inside of me awoke and smiled in delight. Finally a taste.

Horrified I catapulted myself as far from Bella as possible. I shoved the emergency exit door wide and sucked the sticky air into my chest. The fresh air calmed the monster and my sore heart put me back at Bella's side. She was thrusting her right hand away from body and writhing in torture.

The blood from her head wound oozed down over her eyebrows and dripped into her eyes. She kept trying to blink it away but it clung to her eyelashes. Alice held Bella's face in her hands and used her thumbs to clear away what she could.

Bella's hand was covered in blood, as if she'd been finger painting with a disturbingly grotesque color. Although her palm was facing me it was the back of her hand that had been pierced.

Her eyes were forced closed in pain. They suddenly shot open and she parted her lips. She muttered my name and something fluttered inside of me. Strength.

I forcedly contained the monster and, as gently as possible, lifted her hand to my mouth.