As the days passed I grew more and more anxious as we drew closer to December. The temperatures were dropping and soon we would be faced with snow, from there it would be a matter of hours before it stuck and then we would be facing the Volturi.
We really didn't have enough time and I'd realised all my life I'd been taking everything — no matter how small — for granted.
Renesmee continued to grow as every day passed and it was one day less we would spend with her because no one knew how this was going to pan out.
I'd never felt more overwhelmed in my entire life, trying to learn three gifts within the short space of time we had left. I had gotten the swing of Zafrina's mind projection and Benjamin's elemental control was proving to be easier with each day I practiced it but it was hard to master Bella's when she couldn't even project it herself.
Kate had explained this morning how she taught herself to project her electrocution all over her body as opposed to just in her palms. Every gift could be developed it was just a matter of learning how.
Once Bella could project her shield to other people I would be able to learn how to do it and we could put our strength together like Eleazer said to create something stronger.
Like always at the minute we found ourselves outside as Kate talked Bella through projecting her gift. Her first few attempts were a fail and Edward had landed on his ass once or twice after Kate electrocuted him.
"Dude you're not motivating her." Emmett said to his adoptive brother as he picked himself up off the floor.
"You want to try?" Edward fired.
Emmett raised his hands in surrender from next to Garrett and I turned to watch Bella as her face twisted in concentration. She was putting some focus into projecting her shield but was it enough?
I looked closer and for a split second a shimmer-like transparent field emitted from her. It was barely visible but if you looked close enough you could see as it blurred everything around it. My lips parted in a mixture of shock and excitement as I watched Bella produce an actual barrier, no matter how big or small it was.
Only, it wasn't enough. Once Kate's hand touched Edward's neck the crackling sound rang out loudly and Edward fell to his knees again groaning.
"Kate!" Bella yelled in attempt to get her to stop.
"You seem to lack incentive." Kate said to my sister, "Shall I go see if Renesmee's awake?"
My eyes widened somewhat but I remained silent. I could see where Kate was going with this, she was threatening something close to Bella in order for her to put more energy and focus into projecting her shield.
"Are you crazy?" Bella fired angrily.
"All right." Kate nodded, wiggling her fingers, "This ones on full power."
Edward looked obviously with wide eyes at Bella, clearly unwilling to face the power of Kate's electrocution again. Reluctantly he stepped forwards after getting himself to his feet again, holding his hand out slowly while screwing his eyes shut.
I watched as Bella stood next to Edward, her eyes focusing on him like she was blocking everything else out.
Slowly Kate reached forwards and clasped her hand around Edwards wrist, the crackling noise returning.
I waited for something to happen, for either Edward to fall to the ground groaning or Kate to stop but neither did. Instead Edward opened his eyes slowly as I watched the surge Kate was producing spread into Edwards skin.
He made a small noise of discomfort but he showed no sign of pain and after thirty seconds or so Kate let go of him, "It's painful but it's bearable." He told us.
Bella broke out into a smile and nodded triumphantly, "Okay, we should go again."
Edward turned to his adoptive brother, "Emmett?"
"I'm good." He protested immediately.
I sighed, rolling my eyes softly before I came up with an idea. I glanced to my sister, "I've got an idea."
"You do?" She asked.
I nodded, "If no one wants to face Kate's electrocution of course." I told her, "It helps both you and me."
Edward nodded once, "What's your idea?"
"What if Bella stands in front of you guys." I said, directing my conversation to Emmett, Edward and Garrett, "She projects her shield and I use a gift of someone else's to see if she can block it."
"Depends on who's gift you're going to use." Garrett said skeptically, "I wouldn't classify some of them as gifts."
I nodded, "I was thinking one that would be used against us.. Alec's quite possibly."
Emmett's face twisted, "I don't know about that—"
"—I wouldn't let it get that far." I interrupted, "If Bella can't project it I'll stop."
The three of them all exchanged small glances before looking back to me, all nodding. I looked to Bella, "Only if you're okay with it?"
She too nodded, "Yeah, why not?" She asked, moving to stand in front of the three, "It gives us both the practice."
I took my own spot directly opposite her but standing a few feet away. Alec's vapour could spread fast if you allowed your focus to get too carried away with how it grows. Everyone who wasn't participating in our experiment stepped back out of caution.
I held my hands out, palms towards the sky and looked solely at Bella, "Are you ready?"
She only nodded and I did in return, taking a deep breath as I focused on the black vapour. My hands started to tingle as I felt the fog dripping out of my hands, it seeped on to the ground and pooled around my ankles as it travelled across the forest floor growing closer and closer to Bella every second.
I could see Edward and Garrett cringing back slightly out of my peripheral vision as Emmett dropped his crossed arms.
The black smoke was vast in majority but it was completely at my mercy, I was the one controlling it and it reached Bella's feet. Instead of seeing it engulf her legs it began to disperse outwards, disappearing, as if it was evaporating into the air. Bella had successfully projected a shield strong enough to protect herself plus three others from a paralysing vapour.
I dropped my hands completely, any remaining black fog disappearing at my disposal as I grinned at Bella. She smiled triumphantly back at me as Edward, Emmett and Garrett visibly relaxed, all three of them sighing loudly in relief.
Bella had this. Producing a shield to protect other people was something she could nail with a little bit more practice and it would be something I would be able to achieve too — once she worked out how to teach me of course.
* * *
I relaxed fully in the drivers seat, drumming my finger against the steering wheel softly as I listened to the quiet tune of the song playing on the radio. I drove the familiar route from Charlie's place to Carlisle's casually, actually sticking to the legal speed limits.
I'd been for my dinner at my dad's house, catching up with him and Sue but also with Seth and Leah as they had been invited along too. They'd left for patrol at the same time I'd left to return to Carlisle's.
I didn't know how walking to a house full of vampires with newly changed blue eyes was going to go down but I was ready for the questions.
I tugged my steering wheel gently to the left to pull round the bend, putting my foot on the break as I reached the left corner. The roads in Forks were exceptionally curvy, windy even, but it was something was used too.
My brows drew in together in confusion as the song playing on the radio suddenly stopped and I tried to sort it out without taking too much of my attention off the road.
The car was telling me the radio was still on and no matter how loudly I turned the volume button up no music filled my ears. A second later they started to ring, long and loud sounds that were awfully familiar to me.
My heart pounded in my chest and my legs tingled, quickly growing numb like they would after a near miss or an adrenaline overload. I knew what was happening but I couldn't let it happen while I was behind the wheel.
This had never happened to me like this before and to be truthful I never ever thought it would.
As I panicked in the short remainder of time I had left I tried to push on to search for a small lay-by but I couldn't find one and just before I was about to pull over on the side of the road I slipped away.
The snowy ground underneath my boot cladded feet shook, the sound of earth shattering echoed around me. I looked around frantically, masses of people fighting around me, wolves tearing people to pieces, bodies lying motionless on the ground.
A few meters over I caught the eyes of Benjamin as he looked around wide eyed, around him a large split began to take place in the ground underneath us — like it would when an earthquake struck.
As I looked frantically around I noticed people were missing, Carlisle was gone, Alice was there but Jasper wasn't, Seth was lying limp on the ground a few feet from me. The gap in the earth that was turning into a sink hole was growing bigger and bigger and several people were falling into it, vampires and werewolves.
I watched as Leah jumped off the snowy surface, gripping on to the back of a member of the Volturi and dragging him down into the depths of the sink hole, ultimately saving Esme's life.
I turned frantically to my left to see.. me. A member of the Guard took me to the ground but before they could do anything a grey wolf zipped over me, ripping him off of me. Everything was a haze and a heart shattering scream pierced my ears before I heard the blaring sound of a car alarm.
All of a sudden everything was black, my body felt numb as the loud echoing of a car alarm stopped abruptly. I could physically feel myself blinking but everything was so dark, it was like Alec's vapour had robbed me of my sight and it was slowly being given back to me.
"What the hell!" I heard someone shout, "Is that—?"
"Yeah it's Sophia!" Another voice called, "Quil help me get her out, someone shout for Paul."
"Jared the cars on the roof, you can't get her out yourself!"
"So we leave her in there?" Jared argued back, "What if the car goes up? How do you explain that to Paul?"
I hit my hand off the window as blurs and shapes came to me. A white blur was in front of me, coming from the steering wheel, the glass of the front screen had shattered to pieces.
"I think she's awake!"
Everything started to become more clearer and within the next few seconds I was looking out of my window at Embry Call.
Only Embry looked upside down.
And it wasn't until then where everything came flooding back.
I had been driving when I had a vision and I couldn't pull over in time to stop the car before everything slipped away. I had crashed the car, it was upside down, I was upside down.
My chest started to heave, my numb legs tingled and it was the only sensation I had in them. I couldn't of fractured my spine again surely.
Oh, god, no.
I started to hyperventilate, reaching through the smashed window for Embry. He grabbed my hand but as my mouth opened no words came out. Instead I breathed heavier and I started to sweat, panic seeped through my veins.
"Jared!" Embry shouted, "We can't wait!"
"Where the hell is Paul?" I heard Jared snap, "Quil call for Sam, maybe he's with him."
I heard a yipping noise, the sound the pack used to communicate outside of their wolf forms.
I could only look at Embry and soon Jared was next to him, "Help me get the door open."
By now I could hear my laboured breaths and my chest strained to get any air.
"Shit." Jared swore as he and Embry pulled on the smashed door.
"It won't budge." Embry strained out, "Brady get over here and help."
Brady.. that's whose voice I didn't recognise earlier.
But even with Brady's attempts the three of them couldn't pull the door open.
I began to feel claustrophobic, everything was restricting me and my need to breathe. I reached for my seatbelt keeping me from collapsing onto the roof of the car, pressing the unlock button.
"Hey, Sophia!" Jared shouted, "Stop, leave the belt on."
It was jammed and Jared's words flew in one ear and exited swiftly out of the other.
I needed to get out of this car because I couldn't breathe. My mouth opened again to speak but I found myself falling short.
I couldn't talk. I was trapped. I couldn't breathe properly. I was hyperventilating.
I pushed on the seatbelt harder in a panic as Jared, Embry and Brady continued to try and bust the door open. I heard something creak before the car slipped. It slid down into a ditch and a large tree branch came through the space where the windshield should've been. It skimmed passed my head, fixing itself in between the side of the car and my head rest.
My eyes widened in shock, it was literally inches away from me.
"Fuck! Sophia?" I heard Jared shout, "Sophia are you all right?"
Again I couldn't reply and the strong smell of petrol engulfed me. The car was leaking gas.
"What happened?"
Sam..
"We heard a crash, saw the car go off the road!" Jared explained quickly, "When we came down to see we found Sophia sat in the drivers seat.
I pushed harder on the seatbelt but it wasn't coming open.
"Sophia's in there?!"
Paul..
"Yeah but she's jammed in, she can't talk to us!" Embry said.
With both hands I grabbed onto the black material and pulled sharp and hard. The belt came undone and I fell onto the rooftop, the thud following with a yelp.
"Wait, do you smell that?"
Quil..
I couldn't climb out of the front.
"That—that's gas!"
Getting to my hands and feet I turned to the back screen, that was smashed open too and I crawled out the back. The tightness in my chest hadn't ceased and tears rolled down my face.
As I tired to push myself up to get to the trunk the pack appeared at the back, their heads poking in through the smashed glass. Each and every one of them wore worried looks on their face and now the car could go up at any minute they looked at me anxiously.
Sam and Paul each leaned down, extending their hands for me to grab on to so they could pull me up.
The adrenaline pumping, the only thing keeping me going, allowed me to reach up and slip my hand into Paul's. He held my hand in a vice grip, wrapping his other hand around my arm and pulling me up with all his strength.
He pulled me up high enough for Sam to take my other hand and Jared stepped in to grab the sleeve of my jacket, helping them pull me out of the wreckage.
Once I was out — a crying, shaking and hyperventilating mess — Paul picked me up effortlessly and I wrapped my legs around his waist. They ran from the car, up the hill I'd come all the way down and up on to the side of the road.
I picked my head up from out of the safety of his neck and looked down the embankment I'd crashed down, seeing the car wedged in between the trees. I watched horrified, we all did. Paul, Sam, Jared, Quil, Embry, Brady and I — all in total shock and we recoiled quickly when it went up in flames.
A loud banging sound echoed around the air, birds scattering from the trees.
I had been minutes away from death...
* * *
"Did you call the police?" Carlisle asked as he stood in front of me. I sat on the table, a blanket wrapped around my shoulders as Carlisle cleaned the cut on my forehead.
"Sam stayed behind to call them, I brought Sophia to you straight away." Paul answered.
Carlisle was silent, "That was probably for the best." He responded, "Follow my finger with your eyes."
As Carlisle moved his finger up and down and left and right I couldn't help but feel nostalgic. The first time I'd ever met Carlisle I'd nearly been flattened by a van and how far we'd come since then was crazy.
"Any pain when you move your eyes?" He asked me.
I shook my head, still — after an hour — succumbed to silence.
He sighed under his breath as Paul looked at him anxiously, "She's fine, just in shock."
"Are you sure?" He asked, "She hasn't spoke a word since the accident."
Carlisle glanced back at me, "Sophia did something happen?" He asked.
I nodded.
"Did you come off the road?" I shook my head, "Did you hit something?" I shook my head again.
"Embry said it took her a while to notice he was next to her when he found her but she had her eyes open."
Carlisle pressed his lips together, "Oh god." He mumbled.
"What?" Paul asked suddenly.
"Sophia did you have a vision while you were driving?"
I locked eyes with Carlisle, feeling tears rise to my eyes as I nodded.
He and Paul glanced at each other uncertainly and when I shivered Paul sat down next to me, wrapping his arm around me. He provided me with instant warmth and I rested my head on his shoulder as he pressed a kiss to my hair.
Carlisle was making his way out of the room, giving us some space, when he turned around by the doorway, "Can you remember what you saw?" He asked me. I nodded once, "Can you tell me?"
I shook my head, "N-no." I swallowed the large lump in my throat, "I'm sorry.. b-but I can't."
He gave us a tight-lipped smile as he left, closing the door after him. Paul wrapped his other arm around me pulling me into a full embrace, "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to." He said to me quietly, "I'm just glad you're safe."
His words hurt my heart, a thick lump creating in my throat again.
I would be all right but the question was, would he be?
* * *
Nobody was willing to let me out of their sight, even after I'd tried to assure them I was all right. It had gotten to the point where I just had to settle for going out into the balcony and jumping off to put some distance between me and the several vampires in Carlisle's house.
I wasn't going far, I just needed to be far enough so that no one would hear my conversation I was or wasn't about to have.
Once I was far enough I pulled my phone out of my jumper pocket and searched for the number.
I didn't even expect the call to go through, just hearing it ring shocked me. I half expected her to change her number.
While I listened to the ringing I paced back and forth across the earth. She wouldn't pick up, why would she when she left us? I was trying my luck by even calling her in the first place but I was desperate. If I had seen it surely she'd seen it too?
I just needed to talk to someone who would understand it without freaking out.
It rang and it rang and just before I thought it was going to go to voicemail the ringing stopped.
"Sophia?" I spluttered in shock hearing her on the other side of the phone. I was rendered speechless in fact, "Sophia are you there?"
"Oh my god, yes." I said quickly, "Yes I'm here... Alice?"
"Yeah it's me."
"Oh my god." I repeated, closing my eyes while sighing in relief. Just hearing her voice was enough to calm my frantic mind at the minute. After some silence I found the words to speak again, "Alice where are you?"
"I can't tell you yet." She said to me, "Why did you call, is something wrong?"
Yet? What does she mean by she can't she tell me yet?
"I—I, I had a vision today."
I heard her sigh, "So did I." She replied after silence, "Are you all right?"
I shook my head. I tried to reply but instead tears overcame me and my burning eyes succumbed to even more torture. I don't think I'd ever cried so much in my entire life than what I had today.
"Sophia, it's going to be okay."
"How can you say that?" I sobbed, "I can't do that Alice, I-I—"
"—I know." She told me, "And Jasper and I are doing everything to make sure that doesn't happen."
"He can't die, Alice." I sniffed, "I can't cope without him."
"I feel the same." She told me and I remembered not seeing Jasper in my vision either, "I swear Sophia I'm trying to make sure it doesn't happen."
"Alice.." I trailed off into a whisper, "I was driving while it happened."
"What?" She asked me shocked, "Are you—"
"—I nearly died." I interrupted, "The car flipped down an embankment, it leaked gas."
"Oh my god." She muttered to herself, "Was anyone else in the car?"
"No, luckily." I told her, "It was just me."
She sighed before telling me, "Hang in there Sophia, hopefully this'll all be over soon."
* * *
A/N; Writing the big battle scene is like trying to pull teeth. It's so hard to not repeat myself but there's only so many ways people can kill each other.
Hope you all enjoyed this chapter.. only 5 to go..