Waxing Crescent (Alice Cullen x Bella Swan)

Chapter 5 - Fire and Ice

I choked out a gasp as a shiver of terror rolled forcefully down my spine. 

I could hear them drawing closer - their gait heavy and their chortles echoing between flickering lamp-posts. I hadn't realized how late it'd gotten - the sky ebbing into an inky black.

My limbs locked up of their own accord and I struggled to get them to obey. After much teeth gritting, I eventually mustered the courage to turn around and face them.

They all looked eerily similar to the men out front of one of the bars I'd passed on my way to the bookshop. Just as drunken. Just as despicable.

I stumbled backwards until my back pressed up against a metal fence. The largest of the four took a few more steps forward, calling over his shoulder for his friends to follow. He must be the leader.

His eyes were glazed over - I assumed from the effects of alcohol - but that didn't make his grin any less menacing. He was a little chubby around the face and he wore a blue baseball cap and faded red-grey hoodie. If he wasn't drunk and cornering me in a dark and damp backstreet along with a bunch of his cronies, I'd never have suspected him capable of leaving someone feeling so completely helpless.

Those that loitered behind him laughed and excitedly lumbered closer. I tried to block out what they were saying but it was no use. Their grotesque threats and perverse banter pounded inside my skull.

If I didn't think of something quick, I wasn't getting out of here unscathed. Maybe not even alive.

I closed my eyes and tried to recount the self-defense classes from my old high school.

I knew that there was no way I could possibly take on all of them, but one thing my Dad had always said stuck with me; Target the leader, or the biggest one, first. If you take him down, nine times out of ten the others would fold, too. I wasn't so sure that applied for teenage girls going up against a group of drunken men, but it was the best shot I had.

I opened my eyes, my fists clenched in determination. Right, one step forward and then... 

Yes! Right to the face.

The sound of skidding tires drowned in my ears but I was far too focused.

My upward palm hit square on target, as did my left hook to the jaw. The chubby-faced leader fell forward and instinctively cupped his nose. He let out a whining yelp as tears instantly streamed down his cheeks.

I stood, mesmerized, as a trickle of blood slid down the length of his fingers, pooling in the crevices between his knuckles. Did I really do that?

The sound of the car roared closer and closer. For a minute I thought I was getting flashbacks to Tyler's van, but then I saw the vehicle.

A silver Volvo skirted nimbly around the corner and squealed to a halt in front of the disoriented group of men. They all jumped back. One of the others pulled the bloodied leader upright and back into the group.

I know that car. 

God... I know that car!

Edward leaped out of the driver's seat and stormed forward, his teeth glinting intimidatingly underneath the malfunctioning street lights. His golden eyes were quickly swallowed up in thick oozing rivulets of charcoal.

I swallowed back a gasp, trying to shake myself free of the fear that now drenched me through to the bone.

"Get in the car," He growled, his eyes wild and animalistic. He crouched down, his fingers splayed out into marble claws, "Now."

I didn't think. I just ran.

I spun on my heels and ducked down a narrow alleyway, wedged innocuously between two dark heavily-shadowed apartment blocks. I felt like a fool for failing to notice it sooner, but I was glad I'd spotted it now.