A/N: It's a little shorter than I've been doing lately...sorry. This chapter was hard for me to write, I'm sorry if it's a little awkward.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

Chapter Twenty-six: Revenge

Bella was lost to the world.

She didn't know anything but pain.

The fire consumed her body. It prevented her from conscious movement, from talking, even from thinking. The only coherent thing she could think was that she was in hell.

Her inability to save her mother and then her wishes for death had brought her to hell. How ironic that Bella wished to die in order to escape the pain only to be pushed into a greater pain. If there was a God, he must have a sense of humor.

She didn't know how long she stayed that way, completely consumed by the unimaginable all encompassing pain. It could have been days, months, or years. Time meant nothing in that kind of suffering.

The events over the past few months began to come back to her as the pain ebbed away. She remembered her hopelessness, realizing that James no longer wished to kill her. But then there was that woman. Her hair was fiery red and her expression was pure rage.

That woman had been Bella's last hope. She remembered a blow to her back, and then darkness. The next thing she knew, she was lying on the grass outside her house that was ablaze.

She had screamed.

Not for the pain. That was already there, but Bella was more concerned for her father. James had obviously taken her to safety, but what of her father? What of Charlie who was surely still asleep in his bed. The house caught so fast she knew there was no way he had made it out. James had killed her father.

Sorrow and rage filled her as James picked her up. She realized that moving was impossible – probably due to the blow that the red-haired woman had dealt her – so, instead, she screamed.

Screaming was easy. It was therapeutic. It allowed Bella to release the horrible tension in her body. It helped her to distract herself from the pain – both physical and emotional.

It also hurt him.

While he was running with her, Bella couldn't help but feel some sort of perverse satisfaction at the pain etched on James' face. Every time she screamed, he would cringe, as though he was suffering the same sort of pain.

There was only a very short amount of time Bella was able to bask in the success of hurting him. Then everything was pain.

-x-

James returned from hunting as quickly as he could. There was a small chance that Bella would somehow attract the attention of another predator during her change, be it a vampire, werewolf, or a non-mythical predator. Though James was also a threat to her, he refused to believe he would hurt her. After hunting and because her scent was already becoming less appealing, James hoped he would be able to sit with her.

With each scream the beautiful creature he had fallen in love with produced, James felt like his heart was being torn. He remembered his change. The pain was unbearable. James could only hope that Bella would be strong enough to live through it.

-x-

Just as quickly as the pain had started, it stopped. Bella was curled in a tight ball, clutching her chest. The burning had settled around her heart until it finally stopped beating. Now it was gone.

Bella took a deep, shaky breath. She was confused. She had thought that the burning fire that had consumed her was hell. That she had been condemned to suffer eternally, but now everything was calm.

There was no pain.

In fact, Bella felt better than she ever had. More powerful, more sure. Another deep breath brought with it many different scents. She was in the forest – she knew that from the overwhelming scents of various evergreens. There were also many sweet scents that she associated with the rustling in bushes and thumping of feet. She was smelling the animals.

A horrible thought occurred to her as Bella clutched herself tighter. There was no heartbeat underneath her palm, yet she was breathing. With a sudden illogical sureness, Bella realized she had died. Just not the way she had hoped for.

She had been changed.

With that realization, Bella sat up. She opened her eyes and looked at who she knew would be sitting next to her: James. He had a relieved and anticipatory expression on his face.

James was waiting for Bella to do something, say something, anything. Instead, she just sat there, looking at him.

Bella was a vampire. The one thing she never would have wished for. She had been hoping for death in order to escape her sorrow, but now she could see that this was so much worse. What was one human lifetime compared to eternity?

An eternity alone.

Rage replaced the sense of hopelessness. As Bella stared at James, she could feel it filling her.

It was his fault. He had done this to her. A low growl was forming in her chest, releasing some of that which she was feeling. Bella wanted to hurt him. To destroy him completely.

She had lived with his slow torture for months, not caring, but this was it. This was something he could never make up for. Even if he wanted her, she did not want him.

Bella leapt to her feet in a movement too fast for even James to follow. A snarl ripped through her, stunning him thoroughly.

He had expected confusion, sadness, possibly even some anger. But this was different, this was outright and pure fury.

James stood slowly, not wanting to frighten her away. He may be older than her, but he had enough experience with newborns to realize that Bella would most likely be faster and most definitely be stronger. He put his hands up as well in an 'I mean no harm' gesture, and started crooning at her softly in hopes she would calm down.

"Bella, it's alright. You're fine now. You don't have to be scared, I saved you. Now we can be together." He smiled at the last part, lost in his own little fantasy. James hadn't even thought about the possibility that Bella would not wish to remain with him.

An inhuman snarl brought him out of his own thoughts. Bella looked very menacing with her eyes coal black, face twisted in rage, and feline posture. It was both frightening and erotic.

James took a slow step towards her, not wishing to scare her, but wanting to get closer. As soon as he twitched, however, Bella was on top of him, pinning him to the ground. The eroticism of the situation for James increased as Bella straddled him.

She was furious. Not thinking about how her movements could be interpreted as something else. Instead she was concentrating on remembering the conversation she had with Edward. He had told her how to kill a vampire. She knew that, she remembered him and who he was, but the specific details were fading.

Fire. That was important. She needed to burn him so he couldn't regenerate. But how to hold him while she found something to produce fire? The rest of Edward's explanation came back to her: tear him to pieces.

James misinterpreted the evil glint in Bella's eyes. He tried to push up on the hold she had him in, but it was solid. Both of his wrists were being held down by one of her hands and she had locked her ankles around both of his knees. He couldn't move. At all.

It was not a position James was used to. He was normally in control. Victoria had followed his every whim and command, happy to do anything for him. But not Bella. She had taken complete control of the situation and James could not help but find it arousing. She was his goddess.

Bella put her hand on James' cheek in an almost intimate gesture. He closed his eyes, reveling in the sensation of her touching him. Her hand slid down to rest at the back of his neck as her face moved so she was almost kissing the side of his neck.

She hesitated, unsure if she could actually do what she planned. Bella's breath fanned on James' neck, causing a lovely sensation. He couldn't help but moan.

It was that moan that made up her mind. The rage came back, wiping out any guilt or hesitation she held before. She strengthened her hold on his neck and in one swift motion bit down hard and ripped it from the rest of his body.

A slightly surprised expression was on James' face as Bella ripped the rest of his body apart. His clothes smelled faintly of gasoline from when he had poured it around in her house. This only motivated her further.

Bella was never more thankful at that moment that her mother had forced her into girl scouts when she was a child. There was no need for a lighter.

-x-

Edward raced through the forest until he was just outside where Bella's house had once been. Alice's vision had not shown the exact location, but Edward knew that he could follow Bella's scent to wherever she was. He hadn't really thought of it before he knew she was in danger, but it seemed obvious to him now. He needed to find Bella, and quickly.

He wasn't sure exactly what it meant, but Alice's vision popped back into his head.

Bella stood staring at a small fire. Heavy smoke was coming off of it as she watched with deep concentration. Her face was filled with both sorrow and disgust.

She was even more beautiful than before, each curve and muscle more defined. Her once deep brown eyes were now a shockingly vivid red.

Something seemed to move in the woods in front of her, causing her to look up. Bella's nose wrinkled slightly and her eyes turned black.

Then there was nothing, Bella's future had disappeared.

Edward wasn't sure what could cause Bella's future to disappear, but he knew he needed to stop it. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Edward knew that he couldn't live without her anymore. Even if Bella did not see him in the same light he saw her, just being around her would be enough.

Though he never wanted it for her, Bella was now a vampire. She would live forever. If it was at all possible, Edward hoped that she would spend her existence with him.

But that could only happen if he reached her in time.

...

A/N: Yep...that's right. I'm sorry to all those who were out there screaming "It should be James and Bella!" but that's just unrealistic in my story. Bella was falling in love with Edward, she felt nothing good towards James and then he did something unforgivable. Of course she'd be pissed. Hope ya'll don't hate me. :)