Alice's words instantly absorbed the warmth.
"Armed? Standing at our door?" repeated Emmett, and a dangerous smile began to curve his lips, "Is he coming looking for trouble? Perfect. I've been getting bored for a while."
"Emmett, stop it!" intervened Carlisle with a face that was marked by deep gravity, "We are not murderers. We know nothing about him or his motives. Edward... I need you to be precise. Are you absolutely sure that he can project thoughts into your mind?"
Edward, who hadn't let go of Bella's hand, nodded gravely.
"I am sure. That sensation... It was invasive, as if someone whispered directly into your ear, bypassing any barrier," he explained, clenching his jaw, "And the worst part is that he knows we don't drink human blood, describing us as 'vegetarians'."
"A supposed 'human' who can block you, invade your mind, and know our diet?" Rosalie, who had been listening from the window, turned sharply.
She crossed her arms and her perfect beauty became sharp, "That is impossible.... Unless someone told him."
Her eyes locked onto Bella.
"Bella, you have become very close friends with him these weeks. Are you sure nothing slipped out during those 'chats'?"
"I didn't do that!" defended Bella immediately, feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks from indignation.
"I never told him anything! I didn't even know you were... what you are, until today!"
She stopped halfway realizing she was shouting, and looked at Edward with anguish.
"Relax, I believe you," he said immediately and looking at Rosalie, "Rosalie, leave her alone. It is not her fault. He came looking for us from the beginning. He knew what we were before stepping foot in Forks."
Silence settled in again…
"Then... what do we do?" asked Esme, breaking the tension. Her gaze swept over each of her children with concern, "If he knows where we live... Is it safe to stay? Should we leave Forks temporarily until things calm down?"
The suggestion made everything feel more tense.
"No."
Spoke Carlisle, shaking his head, maintaining the composure everyone desperately needed.
"We cannot run away every time we encounter something we don't understand, we have built a life here... we are not going to throw it all away for a single individual. Besides, Alice's vision is not an absolute certainty. Maybe he is just passing through, or maybe his intentions are not lethal and if we flee or attack hastily, we will only confirm his suspicions and provoke a war."
He looked at every family member, making sure everyone understood the order.
"From now on, stay on high alert. No one goes out alone, much less to hunt, until further notice. I will look for an opportunity to contact him and find out what he wants. But I want to make this clear: until he shows open and direct hostility, we will not attack first."
….
In the days that followed, the silent threat Lief represented acted as an accelerant for the relationship between Bella and Edward. The fear of being watched and the uncertainty about Lief's intentions pushed them to be almost inseparable, seeking refuge in one another.
Curiously, Lief made no hostile move.
He returned to his role as the model and mysterious student and disappearing into the horizon with his motorcycle when the bell rang.
There were no more voices in Edward's head, nor glances toward Bella. He acted with such normality that, at times, the incident in the cafeteria seemed to have been a hallucination.
However, calm always precedes the storm.
Literally.
One weekend, weather forecasts announced a massive thunderstorm and for the Cullens, that only meant one thing: it was time to play baseball.
The family took Bella to a secret clearing deep in the forest, a natural playing field surrounded by giant trees.
Edward explained to her that they needed the thunder to hide the cracking sound they produced when hitting the ball with their supernatural strength.
The game was a spectacle of raw power and grace.
Rosalie, with fierce concentration, batted with perfect technique, sending the ball into the stratosphere with a sound that rivaled real thunder.
Emmett, enjoying himself like a child, climbed trees to catch lost balls, while Alice and Jasper turned into blurs of speed, moving between bases faster than the human eye could process.
"...."
Bella, relegated to the role of umpire, watched fascinated.
But the euphoria was cut short abruptly.
Just when Emmett was preparing for a new pitch, Alice's smile vanished from her face and her golden eyes got lost in the void of a sudden vision.
"Stop!"
In less than a second, the entire family gathered around Bella and Edward grabbed her by the waist.
"They're late," murmured Edward, looking toward the edge of the forest.
Three figures emerged slowly from the mist and the shadows of the trees, walking with absolute confidence.
At the head was a vampire with dark skin and sharp features. He wore a bare torso under an open brown suit jacket, and his hair was styled in long dark dreadlocks.
To his right walked a wild and beautiful woman, with a mane of fire-red hair, curly and messy, falling down her back like a cascade of blood. She was wrapped in furs, moving with constant restlessness, as if she were ready to pounce at any second.
The last one, situated on the left, was the most disturbing.
A blond man with his hair tied back in a low ponytail, dressed in a leather jacket and jeans.
He wore no shoes, his bare feet stepped on the ground and his posture was relaxed, but his eyes scanned the Cullens with the coldness of a serial killer.
"We believed this area was clear," said Laurent with a cultured voice, the vampire with the dreadlocks, stopping a few meters away.
"It's impressive..." Laurent tilted his head, observing the metal bats in the Cullens' hands, "You have a very peculiar way of playing..."
The tension was palpable...
But just at that moment, a treacherous gust of wind changed direction, blowing from Bella toward the newcomers.
!
The blond vampire James's nostrils dilated violently and he turned his head sharply toward Bella, and a light of recognition and hunger shone in his pupils.
"You brought a snack..." he whispered with excitement.
A threatening growl erupted from Edward's chest, who pushed Bella behind him.
The rest of the Cullens closed ranks even more, adopting combat stances, ready for the fight.
James smiled slightly.
He didn't seem intimidated by the numerical superiority, on the contrary, he seemed delighted.
He enjoyed the challenge.
"It seems the game has become much more interesting," he said taking a step forward, ignoring Laurent's silent warning, "A human protected by a civilized coven...."
While he spoke he was crouching down, preparing to lunge.
The confrontation was inevitable...
Swish
But the sharp whistle of something cutting the air broke the moment.
Before anyone could react, a black arrow crossed the space between the trees like a bolt of darkness and embedded itself with brutality in Laurent's shoulder.
"AAAH!"
Laurent let out a miserable scream, however, what was truly terrifying was the wound.
The place where the arrow had impacted didn't bleed like a normal wound would, instead, black smoke began to emanate, accompanied by the repugnant hiss of acid corroding.
This paralyzed everyone.
"WHO GOES THERE?!" shouted Victoria.
Swish
Her eyes traced the trajectory of the projectile and, without waiting for an answer, she became a blur of movement.
She launched herself like a fire arrow into the thick of the trees, with bared teeth and hands ready to tear apart.
However, she had barely covered ten meters when a figure emerged calmly from behind a tree, blocking her path.
It was Lief.
Walking calmly, he held a modified matte black crossbow with one hand, and a lazy smile adorned his face.
Upon seeing him, the bloodlust in Victoria's eyes intensified and, roaring, she accelerated even more.
However, Lief simply raised his left hand toward her.
!
In full supersonic sprint, Victoria crashed violently against the air as if she had slammed into a wall.
Her body remained frozen in the air, vibrating from the useless effort to move, and her eyes widened in panic upon realizing that she was totally immobilized.
Without sparing her another glance, Lief raised the crossbow, aimed at the center of her forehead, and pulled the trigger.
Clack-fium
The second arrow crossed the short distance in a fraction of a second and as soon as it penetrated her skull, her body came undone, crumbling first into cracks of light and then collapsing into a pile of ash that fell to the wet ground, leaving only her clothes.
"..."
Both the Cullen family and Laurent felt a chill run down their spines.
"VICTORIA!"
Witnessing her death, James roared with a mixture of pain and blind fury.
He forgot Bella, forgot the game, and forgot his own survival.
His world was reduced to a single goal: to tear apart the one who had just killed her.
Swish
He crouched and launched himself toward Lief with a speed that surpassed everything seen so far, turned into a projectile of pure hate.
"Should we help?" asked Emmett.
"Don't move!" shouted Alice with terror, clinging to Jasper's arm, "If we go in there, he will kill us too!"
Facing James's suicidal charge, Lief did not get anxious and the repeating crossbow in his hand began its work.
Clac-Clac-Clac-Clac
An uninterrupted rain of silver bolts created a barrier of death.
But James, with his monstrous agility, twisted in the air, zigzagging between the arrows. However, the rate of fire was too dense.
Several arrows grazed his sides and legs, and each graze caused that acid and corrosive smoke, burning his skin and slowing his movements enough to frustrate him.
"Do you only know how to hide behind that ridiculous toy?!" he roared, jumping over a root to dodge another shot, his clothes smoking, "If you have guts, throw that shit away and fight with your bare hands!"
And to everyone's surprise, the buzzing of the crossbow ceased.
Lowering the weapon, Lief looked at the furious vampire with an expression of genuine curiosity; he had just heard a very interesting proposal.
"In this life, it is the first time a prey has kindly asked me to kill it with my own hands," he said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
With a carefree movement, he threw the valuable crossbow to the ground, then, spreading his legs and positioning his arms, he curled his fingers in a gesture of invitation.
"Come, leech."
Swish
James didn't need any more provocation, and he charged with all the power he had left, with his hands turned into claws, aiming directly to tear the heart out of Lief's chest.
The distance closed in a blink.
But just at the instant James entered his range, Lief took a step forward, planting his feet firmly, and threw a straight punch, a blow technically perfect but which, at first glance, seemed suicidal.
The fist connected solidly against James's sternum.
For a thousandth of a second, time seemed to stop.
James's unstoppable momentum stopped dead and his fury froze, replaced by one of total confusion upon feeling a force that surpassed his understanding.
Crack
With the point of impact as the epicenter, a network of bluish cracks extended instantly throughout the vampire's body.
The pale skin fractured.
James didn't even have time to scream and before the astonished gaze of the Cullens, Bella, and Laurent, his body disintegrated, exploding into a rain of crystalline fragments and shining dust that scattered through the air, putting an end to his existence with a single blow.
________
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