Demetri and Felix jumped over the ring of wolves that stood guard over Charlie’s writhing body; the vampire venom working its way through his veins. Bella was going to freaking kill me when I brought home her vampire daddy. Not to mention it couldn’t possibly be a good thing to give a man,who wanted nothing more than my death, vampire powers and the strength to actually tear me apart limb from limb.

The vampire’s sharp nails gutted me and I collapsed at its feet, but Demetri and Felix were on it. One of the wolves, the smallest one, broke ranks and grabbed my arm gingerly in its muzzle and dragged me away from the battle as more Volturi members joined the fray.

“Son of a bitch, you got your ass kicked,” Emmett hollered before flinging himself into the mass of vampires. There were more Volturi guards lying in ruins on the slushy ground, but in the end they finally succeeded in doing what I could not.

Aro towered over me, blotting out the moon behind him. He clapped his hands. “Do you not just love a happy ending, Edward?”

Jasper and Emmet were at my side immediately looking a little worse for the wear, but they’d only been fighting that homicidal maniac for a couple of minutes. I kept telling myself they’d be in much worse shape than I presently was had they been stupid enough to fight this thing on their own.

“We’ll take care of him, sir,” Jasper stated while Emmet helped me up.

“Man bro, you need to feed.”

“Yes, he does. And we have just the delicious morsel for him. Come, Edward,” Aro offered, “we’ll take very good care of you while you mend.”

Charlie let out a god awful shriek and Aro laughed, his eyes glinting with mirth. “How delightful, now your young Isabella can keep her father in her life. Heidi, Renata, see to Mr. Swan.”

“No!”

“Your brothers have their hands full with your fearsome wounds, Edward. It is the least we can do to repay you for your help in this little matter. Our young friend has been a most naughty vampire. He has slaughtered over a thousand humans in one little month. He had to be stopped but he turned out to be slipperier than we could have ever imagined. Without your help and…” he turned and looked at the wolves that were growling and bearing their teeth at Heidi and Renata, “…and your pets…well, goodness knows how many more helpless humans would have died.”

“You cannot take Charlie,” I declared though why I bothered was beyond me. He’d do what he wanted in the end, it was Aro’s way.

“I believe you will find that I can and I will.”

His guards moved in protecting Aro from the wolves as Sam changed back into human form standing naturally tan and buck naked before vampire royalty.

“Oh, how exciting. Now we can have an intelligent conversation, mongrel.”

“There will be no discussion, leech. Charlie is our responsibility and we will see to him.”

“I am fairly certain Charlie is now your mortal enemy and my brethren; therefore, he is my responsibility,” Aro replied coldly. I could see the amusement leak out of his eyes as he stared down at the beasts that he and his Volturi had nearly driven to extinction.

“We can coexist. Jacob and Bella manage it. For Charlie, so will we. He is engaged to Sue Clearwater who is the mother of two of our wolves.”

The black Mercedes pulled up and Carlisle, Alice, Esme, and Bella spilled out of it. Her eyes fell on me for a heartbeat and then all of her attention was on her father while Carlisle took it upon himself to talk some sense into Aro.

“Why can’t I hear their thoughts?” I asked.

“Bella’s probably shielding everyone’s from you,” Jasper replied giving my arm a firm tug in the opposite direction. “Come on,” Jasper ordered. “You need to hunt.”

Emmet punched me on the arm. “She’s too preoccupied right now, Eddie-boy. She won’t even miss you.” His mouth fell open as he realized how hurtful his statement was, but it was the truth and often the truth hurt.

I allowed them to guide me toward the woods knowing that Carlisle would make everything better and Charlie would be in good hands. But would Bella ever be able to forgive me for failing Charlie?

Reviews are like Christmas presents – always appreciated.

 Merry Christmas…or Happy Holidays if you don’t celebrate Xmas. Will try to get the last chapter up by the 25^th but I make no guarantees as I have lots of family functions to attend and baking, cooking, and goodness knows what else. Have a good one.