Kal jerked awake, breath catching as consciousness snapped back into place.
The system wasted no time.
[Power Unlocked: Scion of the Sun Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Super Strength Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Super Endurance Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Flight Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Super Speed Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Enhanced Senses Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Heat Vision Tier II]
[Power Unlocked: Tactile Telekinesis Tier I]
[Origin Quest Assigned: "Retrieve the Fort"
Objective: You have lost something vital to you. One of the last remnants of a dying world. The final gift of a father to his son. Retrieve it.
Reward: Fortress of Solitude, Fortress of Solitude Management Tab unlocked]
The notifications stacked over one another, but Kal barely had time to process a single word before it hit him.
Power surged.
It flooded through him in an instant, solar energy roaring through every cell. His muscles seized, tightening as if compressed from within, density increasing, strength compounding on itself again and again. His body felt heavier and lighter all at once — harder, more solid, yet unbound.
For a split second, it felt like gravity didn't matter anymore. Like if he let go, he might just drift upward without meaning to.
The energy kept building.
More. More. More.
Then he dropped.
Kal hit his knees, a sharp gasp tearing from his throat as his hands flew to his head.
His senses detonated outward.
Sound crashed into him first — dozens, millions of overlapping noises all at once. Then billions. Distant traffic, voices through walls, the hum of electricity in the building, the faint rhythm of heartbeats nearby. An ever-increasing multitude of languages and sounds hit him as his hearing expanded to the entire continent, then kept expanding.
Then smell — too much, too sharp. Fabric, dust, food, rain lingering in the air from hours ago.
Sight followed last — every detail snapping into impossible clarity, edges too sharp, motion too fast. He could see down to a cellular level, bacteria, viruses, fungi, skin cells, dust, everything demanding attention at once.
It was too much.
Way too much.
And then it got worse.
Heat bloomed behind his eyes.
Pressure. Rising. Building. Far hotter than anything he'd felt before, like something was about to break loose.
"Shit—"
Kal squeezed his eyes shut instantly, jaw clenching as he fought it down, every instinct screaming at him not to let it out.
"Kal!"
Alice was there in an instant, dropping to her knees beside him, hands gripping his shoulders.
"Kal! Are you okay? What's wrong?"
Her voice cut through the noise, but barely.
The noise was still climbing, as his senses exploded outward.
And then it stopped.
Abruptly.
His hearing stretched to an impossible distance and held there, no longer expanding. The overwhelming surge that had thrown him off balance plateaued.
The disorientation faded with it.
Kal sucked in a sharp breath.
With the disorienting effect of his exponentially improving powers gone, and his ability to think returned, he was soon able to quickly restore his control over his senses.
He focused on the sound first, rapidly sorting through them — filtering them — until the roar softened. The tide of crashing sounds ebbed, leaving a pool that lapped gently at the edges of his consciousness, processed in the background of his awareness.
Smell next. He sorted them quickly, organising and layering, muting what didn't matter until he was no longer overwhelmed, but still aware of every aroma around him.
Then came sight.
He blinked hard, vision snapping back from overwhelming, microscopic clarity to normal.
Alice's voice sharpened into focus. It was panicked. Teary.
"Kal! Kal! Talk to me, please!"
"I'm okay," he said, though his voice came out rougher than he intended.
Footsteps — fast.
Jasper and Carolyn arrived a moment later, both stopping short at the sight of him on the floor.
"What happened?" Jasper asked immediately, eyes flicking over him.
Kal dragged a hand down his face, steadying himself.
"Headache," he said after a brief pause. "It just hit me all at once."
It wasn't a lie. It was just a different kind of headache than they expected.
They frowned, clearly unconvinced, but before they could press further, Kal closed his eyes again briefly.
One last thing.
The heat.
It was still there, coiled behind his eyes — hotter than anything he'd felt before. Not spilling out yet, but building.
He focused on it the same way.
He pushed it down, contained it, pressed it back where it belonged. It took a second — maybe two — but it settled, the pressure easing until it was gone entirely.
Kal exhaled slowly, tension leaving his shoulders.
When he opened his eyes again, everything was steady, his control over his powers restored.
Alice hadn't moved.
Her hands still gripped him, her expression tight with worry, eyes bright with unshed tears.
"You scared me," she said quietly.
He pushed himself to his feet.
"I'm alright," he said, more firmly now.
She didn't answer. She just threw herself forward and wrapped her arms around him, holding on tightly, the top of her head barely reaching his chest.
"You asshole," she muttered, voice choked. "Don't ever do that again."
Kal huffed out a small breath, one arm coming up around her instinctively.
"It's okay," he said. "I'm okay."
She didn't let go.
Behind them, Jasper and Carolyn exchanged a brief, awkward glance — both suddenly very aware they were standing in the middle of something private.
Carolyn looked away, folding her arms lightly.
Jasper shifted his weight.
Abruptly his expression sharpened, focus snapping elsewhere.
"…Where's Bella?" he said, voice suddenly sharp.
"What?!" Alice whirled on him. "I sent her to you! I told her to get you and go to the airport!"
Jasper and Carolyn exchanged stunned looks. For a moment, the silence was deafening.
"Oh my God…" Alice's voice trembled, nearly breaking, "My vision. It's happening. It's all my fault!"
Her hands flew to her mouth.
"We need to save her! We have to get her now!"
Suddenly, the system chimed in Kal's mind.
[New Quest Assigned: "Savior"
Someone important to your girlfriend is in danger.
Objective:Save Bella.
Reward: +500XP]
Meanwhile, the room spurred into action.
"You had another vision, Alice?" Jasper pressed, "What did you see? Quickly!"
"Bella was there, she was in the room with him!" Alice shouted, "He had her!"
"How long ago was this? When did Bella leave?" His voice was tight, alert.
"About fifteen minutes ago!" Alice replied, "I thought you'd already left with her by now! Oh my God, Edward! His plane is early; they're landing in five minutes! Oh my God, I'm sorry, I'm so sorr—"
Kal stopped her.
"Okay, you don't need to apologise." he reassured her, "What matters now is that Bella's gone. And we need to find her. Okay?"
Alice nodded hurriedly.
"Listen, it's only been fifteen minutes. They can't have gotten far. One of you needs to go to the airport and get Carlisle and the others. Tell them what happened — we need as many of us as possible looking for her. Got it?"
Alice nodded. The other two exchanged surprised glances, taken aback by Kal taking charge of the situation, but they didn't disagree.
"Jasper," Carolyn started, "You have to stay and find them — you're our best fighter. I'll go to the airport."
"Good," Kal continued, tone firm, "Now Alice, do you know where the mirror room is?"
"It's a ballet studio. We figured it out while you were sleeping. We've got the address — Fifty-eighth and Cactus — but I don't know where that is." she replied quickly.
"Fine. I'll look for her. In the meantime, get a map, directions, anything, find out where that is. When you find it, call for me and start moving. I'll catch up."
Her head bounced up and down.
But, Jasper intervened.
"What are you talking about?" he demanded, "Catch up? Have you gone mad? He wants you too in case you'd forgotten. You need to stay here with Alice, and leave the rest t—"
His words cut off mid-sentence as his mind struggled to process what he was seeing.
In front of him, Kal — the human, Kal — had broken free from the constraints of gravity, his body slowly rising into the air.
"Wha—"
"Like I said. Get a map. Find the ballet studio. When you do, call my name. If I haven't already found her, I'll find you."
Kal didn't give him a chance to respond, disappearing from the room in an instant, leaving only a gust of air behind, which rushed through the now-open balcony door.
Kal climbed rapidly — almost too fast — needing a split second to adjust to his vastly increased speed, before appearing again in the sky kilometers above almost the very next instant.
The vast city stretched in all directions beneath him, a concrete jungle with a towering canopy of skyscrapers at its center and a voluminous brush of smaller buildings and houses stretching out from its core. Over three million souls resided within it and the surrounding areas. And he had to find one. He focused on his senses, the billions of different sounds from the city below rising in his ears.
He searched for the one that mattered.
The noise was endless.
A rising tide of sound surged up from the city below—sirens wailing, glass shattering somewhere in the distance, voices shouting over one another, laughter, arguments, engines, footsteps, names called out into the dark. A million different lives, a billion different moments, all colliding into a single, overwhelming chorus.
Bella could be anywhere in it.
He reached into it anyway.
Kal's mind split, then split again — threads of attention branching outward, latching onto sounds, following them, discarding them. A woman's scream followed by the soft tapping of eight arachnoid legs. Not Bella. A man shouting a name. No. The crack of a fight breaking out between friends. No. He moved through them at impossible speed, filtering, sorting, isolating.
His mind split into millions of threads.
Millions of dead ends.
Each second, dozens — no, hundreds — of possible leads flared into existence and were cut away just as quickly.
Not her.
Not her.
Not her.
Time stretched.
It took him just over half a minute to find the right one, though he didn't know it immediately.
"Bella, Bella… Would you mind, very much, if I left a little letter of my own for your boyfriend?"
A man's voice. Smooth. Pleasant.
Wrong.
Kal's focus didn't falter. One thread locked onto the voice, holding it in place, tracking it — while the rest of his mind continued the search, still sifting through the noise, still hunting.
A faint, muffled sound followed. Something being handled. Plastic? Metal? A device.
"I'm sorry, but I just don't think he'll be able to resist coming after me after he watches this. And I wouldn't want him to miss anything.
"It was all for him, of course. You were simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time… and indisputably running with the wrong crowd, I might add."
Another thread of Kal's attention joined the first. Then another.
Footsteps.
A small, sharp beep.
"And… action."
A soft sound — barely there.
A whimper.
That did it.
The thread surged in priority, drawing more and more of his focus into it as the voice continued.
"How about, Bella… isn't it better that your mother didn't really have to be involved in all this?"
The priority of this thread rose again, rising above the others.
"Yes."
Everything stopped.
That was Bella.
Kal didn't hesitate.
He dropped the rest of the threads instantly, the noise of the city vanishing as his entire focus snapped to a single point. Thirty, maybe thirty-five miles out.
He turned and launched himself forward.
The world blurred beneath him as he accelerated, the air tearing past in a violent rush as he cut across the city in a straight line, faster than anything that had ever moved through its skies.
Behind him, the voice continued.
"Before we begin… I would just like to rub it in, just a little bit."
Buildings blurred.
Streets vanished beneath him.
"The answer was there all along, and I was so afraid Edward would see that and ruin my fun."
It took only three seconds.
The structure came into view.
A low building. Wide. Dark windows.
Kal dropped from the sky.
He hit the ground outside, momentum bleeding off in a single step before he surged forward again, already moving.
"It happened once, oh, ages ago. The one and only time my prey escaped m—"
The doors didn't slow him.
They burst inward as he slammed through, voice cutting across the room. He caught sight of James, video camera in one hand pointed at Bella, the other stroking her cheek as she shrank back in fear.
"Hey!"
For the briefest instant, something flickered across James' face, so small it might have been missed by anyone else. His pupils constricted, surprise flashing and vanishing in the same heartbeat.
Then he moved.
He wrenched Bella back against him, one arm locking around her torso, the other snapping up to her throat. The camera fell from his hand, hit the wooden floor, and shattered in a sharp crack that echoed through the mirrored room.
"Bella, I'm very disappointed. I thought we agreed you'd come alone."
His voice was still pleasant. Still controlled. But there was something thin and sharp beneath it now. His eyes flicked around the room in quick, precise movements, his ears pricked up, nostrils flared; scanning, listening, searching.
"Kal! I— No— I didn't—"
Bella's voice broke apart as she tried to speak, eyes wide, fixed on him in disbelief.
"She did. She didn't know about me. I came alone."
Kal's voice cut in, steady. Saving her from having to speak. His mind operated rapidly, measuring, calculating. James was too close to Bella. Kal was fast — impossibly so — but if he gave the vampire even the slightest chance to react, then Bella would be condemned to death instantly.
He had a good chance. But he wouldn't risk it. His best course of action was to get the vampire to lower his guard, to leave Bella, and then to act.
James' gaze kept moving. Listening. Measuring.
Suddenly, a quiet but unmistakable voice rose to the forefront of Kal's awareness.
"Kal, we've found it."
Alice.
She didn't repeat herself.
Miles away, they'd found the ballet studio. They'd arrive in minutes. He had to get James away from Bella before that.
James' eyes abruptly snapped back to him.
"You're really alone, aren't you."
His tone was almost incredulous. Disbelief, edged with something sharper. His senses had found nothing.
Kal didn't answer. He just stared back in silence.
James laughed.
It rang out through the studio — loud, disbelieving, almost delighted.
"My, my…" he said. "And I was just telling sweet Bella here how disappointing hunting her has been."
He laughed again.
"To be honest, I was rather hoping that after finishing up with her, you might prove the more thrilling quarry."
He paused, then sighed, the sound exaggerated, almost theatrical.
"But alas. You've both delivered yourselves to me at the same time. What a terrible shame."
His grip on Bella tightened just slightly.
"And I was so excited too. Bella was almost too easy to get to once Victoria found her family's address in the school records." His eyes flicked back to Kal. "You on the other hand… no family, nothing. And a coven of angry vampires to boot."
Another sigh.
Kal said nothing.
He stood still, mind spinning, searching for any way to separate Bella from the hand at her throat without risking her life.
James tilted his head, studying him.
"Oh well," he continued lightly, "I guess I'll just have to hunt our little fortune-telling friend again instead."
Kal tensed instantly, shoulders stiffening.
"Oh?" James' voice was intrigued now, "What was that reaction?"
Kal stayed silent, but his gaze grew more intense.
"Oh-ho, don't tell me—? No…" James' gaze flicked between Bella and Kal a few times, "You too?" he said, incredulous. "Oh, this just keeps getting better and better."
He laughed again, loud and mocking.
"Not one, but TWO vampires coupling with humans. And I just happen to kill both their mates? Ha ha ha! And not just any vampire, no… Your girlfriend… She happens to be quite special to me."
Kal's eyes sharpened.
"What do you mean?" he questioned, a steely edge to his voice.
"Now, now, Kal, watch your tone." The vampire's tone was still polite, but his hands tightened further on Bella's throat, nails digging into her skin. "Or I might get angry."
A bead of blood welled at her throat.
James took a deep breath, savouring the scent. Almost as if smelling a fine wine.
"Mmmm," he took a moment, "You know I was just about to tell Bella here the story about your little friend. That is… before we were so rudely interrupted."
He stared at Kal.
Kal stared back.
"She was the only one to ever escape me," he began, "You see, the vampire who was so stupidly fond of this little victim of mine made the choice that your apparent lovers were too weak to make.
"When the old one knew I was after his little friend, he stole her from the asylum where he worked — I never will understand the obsession some vampires seem to form with you humans — and as soon as he freed her he made her safe.
"She didn't even seem to notice the pain, poor little creature. She'd been stuck in that black hole of a cell for so long. A century earlier they would have burned her for her visions. In the twenties it was the asylum and the shock treatments. When she opened her eyes, alight with fresh youth, it was like she'd never seen the sun before. The old vampire made her a strong new vampire, and there was no reason for me to touch her then."
He sighed.
"I destroyed the old one in vengeance."
"Alice…" Kal breathed.
"Yes, your little friend. I was surprised to see her in the clearing. And even more surprised she didn't remember me. The one victim who escaped me, quite an honor, actually.
"And she did smell so delicious. I still regret that I never got to taste… She smelled even better than you do." he directed that at Bella, pulling her face closer to his, "Sorry — I don't mean to be offensive. You have a very nice smell. Floral, somehow… but…"
He sighed once again.
"I suppose I'll settle for ripping her neck out without the blood." he said simply.
Anger surged within Kal. His fists tightened.
"Ohhhh, that's got you angry hasn't it." James teased, "Good. I like a little adrenaline in the blood, it makes me feel a hundred years younger."
Kal's mind whirred, sensing an opportunity.
"Then come get it. Or do you need her to hide behind?"
He jutted his chin out toward Bella.
James raised an eyebrow.
He laughed, "Are you going to fight me?"
His voice was mocking, cruel.
Then he shook his head.
"You humans and your emotions… so irrational." A moment's pause. "Fine, I'll humour you. I'll even go easy on you; give you a chance." he chuckled to himself, "But first…"
With an abrupt motion, his shoeless foot kicked out, striking Bella's left leg from the side. There was a sickening crunch. A scream of hot, unfiltered agony ripped from her lips as her lower leg bent at a gruesome angle. Blood streamed from where her skin had been ripped open by the vampire's sharp nails. James dropped her, letting her fall to the floor.
"Can't have you going anywhere can we?"
Fury boiled over in Kal. He fixed James with a dark gaze.
"I'm going to burn you to ash." His voice was heavy, raw with ire, but cold. It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.
"Kal, you should know not to make threats you can't keep." His voice was chiding, mirthful, amused, "Come on, then. What are you waiting fo—"
Kal's fist struck him like a train.
…
Bella struck the floor hard as James dropped her. Her mind reeled. She had heard the sickening snap before she had felt it. But she felt it now.
White-hot agony tore through her, clawing at her mind, ripping a scream from her lungs so violently it stole the breath needed to sustain it. The sound broke, strangled, as her body refused to draw air.
Tears clouded her vision, nausea clouded her mind. She heard something in the background. Voices. But the excruciating pain didn't let up enough for her to listen. She felt liquid pooling around her leg. Blood.
BANG
The sound cut through the haze like thunder — loud enough to pierce even the agony. It was followed instantly by the violent shatter of glass. Her teary gaze snapped to the source. One of the mirrored walls had disappeared, or more accurately, the mirror on it had shattered.
For a moment, Bella swore she saw a figure embedded in the wall. Then it moved. It was.
"Kal!" Bella's already panicked mind went into overdrive.
Kal was there. Facing that beast — no, that devil — by himself. He had followed her here. He would die here and it would be her fault. No. She couldn't let that happen.
Bella's mind felt sluggish, a mix of nausea and the beginnings of blood loss. Her vision was beginning to darken slightly at the edges. And the crashes hadn't stopped.
Her hand rose to her face, clumsily wiping at her blurry eyes. She suddenly regained a semblance of her vision.
The first thing she saw was James' crimson eyes from across the room. And then he was leaping at her. Her heart hammered in her chest. Time seemed to slow.
She saw James properly now in her ever-darkening vision. A hideous crack cut his face in two, his sharp nails extended ahead of him as he leapt at her. His fangs were bared in an open snarl and she almost swore she could see a bead of venom clinging to one tip.
'Let it be quick.' was all she could think as he approached ever closer.
Her eyes closed. Time sped up again.
But the attack never came.
Her eyes opened again and James was gone. Instead, all she saw was a broad back. She felt a sense of warmth… protection… hope.
In her delirious mind there was only one possible explanation.
What else stood against a devil?
'Are you an angel?' she wanted to ask it, but could only think it, her tongue betraying her.
The figure moved.
Not like a man.
The wide back disappeared, and appeared again meters away. The sense of warmth disappeared with it. Her vision focused on it.
She saw as two hands shot out, then something was raised from the ground. James. Then the angel slammed down. The ground shook. Another slam down.
She saw James' arm lash at the figure, only for a heavy blow to strike back at him, smashing his face back into the ground.
And then Bella understood.
This was no gentle guardian angel.
No quiet, watching presence.
This was not salvation. This was judgment.
Not an angel of mercy — but of war.
Of wrath.
The Sword of the Heavens made flesh.
This was Michael.
The angel was divine fury. Not a hot, raging fire, but a cold, callous burn. Every blow struck with righteous wrath.
He had come to punish not to protect.
She didn't even notice when the other figures had arrived. Two of them. Were they angels too? She heard something faintly. A woman's voice.
"Bella! Bella! It's going to be okay, help is on the way, the others are coming!"
Alice.
Then another voice. A man's.
"Stay awake Bella, don't go to sleep!"
Jasper.
But even as they spoke her gaze drifted back.
Drawn, helplessly, to the figure across the room.
To the angel of war.
And the devil being broken beneath him.
And for a second, as the angel's eyes glowed red with celestial power, Bella wasn't sure which was the devil and which the angel.
…
The world dimmed.
Then it vanished.
Bella fell. Not through air, but into something heavier.
Darkness swallowed her whole, thick and suffocating, like ink poured into water. It closed over her without resistance, without sound, until she was suspended in it — weightless, drifting in a vast, lightless sea.
It pressed against her from all sides, cold and endless.
She could not feel her body anymore. Could not feel the pain. Could not feel anything at all.
She was sinking.
Slowly, inexorably, drawn deeper into that silent abyss where even thought began to fade.
Then something broke through.
A sound.
Faint at first, distant, distorted as though carried through miles of water.
A voice.
Calling her.
"Bella…"
It reached her like a ray of light in the void, fragile but persistent. An angel's voice.
Not the same angel as before. That terrible, radiant force that had shattered the devil.
This was different.
Softer.
Desperate.
Human.
"Bella!"
The darkness trembled around the sound.
"Oh no, Bella, no!"
Horror cracked through the voice, raw and unguarded, and something in her — something buried deep beneath the black — stirred in response.
Her angel.
Not the angel of war.
Her angel. Calling her to the only heaven she had ever wanted.
The voice came again, closer now, breaking apart under the weight of its own fear.
"Bella, please! Bella, listen to me! Please, please, Bella, please!"
He was begging. Angels did not beg.
But he did.
And she reached for him.
Or tried to.
Yes.
She wanted to answer.
Anything. Everything.
But she couldn't find herself. Couldn't find her lips, her voice, her body. She was nothing but a drifting presence in an endless black sea.
"Carlisle!"
The name exploded from him, sharp with panic.
"Bella— Bella, no, oh please, no, no."
And then sobs — ragged, silent, tearing through the void without tears to carry them.
The angel was weeping. It was wrong.
She tried to rise toward him, to find him, to fix it—to tell him it was fine, that she was here, that he didn't have to sound like that.
But the darkness held her.
The water grew heavier.
It pressed against her chest, crushing, suffocating.
She couldn't breathe.
She was sinking again. Further. Away from him.
No.
A sharp pressure struck her head.
Pain.
Sudden. Blinding.
It cracked through the black like lightning.
And with it everything came rushing back.
Pain flooded her body, overwhelming, undeniable — her leg, her ribs, her chest, each breath a jagged shard tearing through her.
She gasped.
The darkness shattered.
"Bella!"
The voice was no longer distant, it was right there next to her.
Air tore into her lungs as she broke free of the abyss, dragging herself back into the world through sheer instinct alone.
"She's lost some blood," another voice said, calm, steady, grounded. "The bone nicked a vessel when it broke."
The angel again.
Her angel.
A sharp sting pierced her side, as pain flared anew, anchoring her to reality.
'This isn't heaven.'
There was too much pain for heaven.
"She's broken some ribs as well, I think," the calm voice continued, methodical even in urgency.
The agony began to dull, edges softening, slipping just out of reach as something heavy pulled at her consciousness again.
The dark waters waited.
She felt them. Felt the pull. Felt herself beginning to sink.
Fear gripped her — not of pain, not of death — but of losing him.
Of drifting back into that endless black where his voice could not reach her.
She forced herself to speak. Or thought she did.
"Edward…"
The name barely existed, more breath than sound.
But he heard it. Of course he did.
"He's right here, Bella."
"I'm here."
She clung to that. To him.
"Stay… Edward… stay with me…"
"I will."
The words came immediately, absolute, unyielding despite the strain threading through them.
"I will."
Something shifted then — triumph breaking through fear.
In the background, Carlisle's voice came again, distant now.
"The morphine should take effect any second"
And Edward, softer now, closer than anything else in the world. "Sleep, my love… sleep."
The darkness returned.
But this time, it was gentle.
And she did not fall alone.
…
Kal's fist struck James like a train.
He flew backwards like a marionette with its strings cut. Mirrors shattered as the vampire's body crashed into the wall at breakneck speed. Kal reveled in the feeling. He enjoyed the surprise he had seen in James' eyes milliseconds before he had been hit, barely able to react before he had been sent flying backwards.
Kal didn't follow.
He was already there.
James hit the wall, and Kal was on him before the impact had even finished echoing.
His hand closed around the vampire's throat and drove him through the fractured mirrors, glass exploding outward as Kal forced him deeper into the structure behind them. The wall gave with a splintering crack.
Another punch.
Not wild or rushed, but measured.
His fist sank into James' torso with a dull, heavy impact that sounded wrong, and for the first time, a thin fracture spread across the vampire's ribs.
James reacted fast — he was a hunter — but he wasn't fast enough.
He twisted, claws flashing, aiming for Kal's face.
Kal caught the wrist mid-swing.
Held it.
Crushed.
There was a sharp, splintering sound as fine cracks spiderwebbed down James' arm.
James' eyes flickered. Surprise. Incomprehension. And the beginnings of something else.
Kal stepped in and drove another punch into his chest. The thin spider-like cracks widened.
Another.
And another.
Each strike was deliberate. Placed. Building damage with surgical precision.
James lashed out again, faster this time, feet kicking off the wall to create space.
But he wasn't attacking.
He was running.
The shift was instant, instinctive — the hunter had become the hunted. What had once been the predator now had to choose between survival or death. He blurred toward the far exit, body snapping into motion with lethal speed.
Kal moved once.
His hand shot out, catching James by the ankle mid-stride.
Momentum snapped.
James' body whipped backward violently as Kal threw him.
The vampire crashed back into the room, skidding across the wooden floor, carving a jagged trail through shattered glass and splintered boards before slamming into the opposite wall hard enough to crater it.
The cracks across his body deepened.
James pushed himself up, and something new flickered in his eyes.
Horrid. Sharp. Unfamiliar.
Fear.
Kal walked toward him.
He didn't run. He didn't have to. There was no escape now.
He was inevitable.
Cold. Controlled. Every step intentional.
James lunged.
Not at Kal.
At Bella.
A blur of movement — fast enough that, for anyone else, it would have been over before it began.
Kal was already between them.
His fist drove forward, catching James mid-air.
The impact was devastating.
It stopped him completely — suspended for a fraction of a second — and then sent him hurtling backward again, body folding around the strike as cracks burst across his chest and shoulders like spreading fractures in glass.
He hit the ground harder this time.
Didn't get up immediately.
Kal followed.
Grabbed him. Lifted him by the front of his shirt and drove him down again.
The floor buckled.
Another strike.
The cracks spread further now, still thin, but lacing across James' arms, his torso, creeping toward his neck.
James swung again, slower now.
Desperate.
Kal slipped it aside with minimal movement and answered with a short, brutal blow to the jaw that snapped his head sideways and split new fractures across his face.
The hunter was being dismantled piece by piece.
A blur at the edge of the room.
Alice and Jasper.
They stopped dead.
For a moment — one far longer than it should have been — they didn't move.
They just watched.
They watched as James — the tracker, the hunter, the vampire — was ruthlessly ground down piece by piece.
And Kal was the one doing it.
Another impact, another set of cracks.
The sound of it — like crystal shattering — filled the room.
Almost thirty seconds passed before they moved.
Before instinct overcame shock.
They rushed to Bella's side, hands hovering, not touching too much, voices low, steady, assuring her that help was coming, trying to ground her.
But their eyes kept drifting back; watching.
James staggered to his feet again.
He didn't attack this time.
He circled.
Looking for an opening that didn't exist.
His breathing unnecessary — but uneven anyway.
Kal stepped forward, closing the distance. A punch to the ribs. Cracks spread like lightning. A second to the sternum. A third — slower — into the same spot.
James struck back, claws raking across Kal's side.
They didn't even break skin.
That was when the fear settled in properly. It was clearly visible now. No longer a flicker deep in his eyes, but an emotion that permanently stained his visage. Eyes wide. Lips parted. Chest heaving.
He tried to run again. Kal didn't let him get two steps. He caught him by the back of the neck this time, and slammed him into another mirrored wall.
Glass shattered outward. James' reflection fractured alongside him.
Another presence.
Edward. He'd arrived before the others, the fastest of the group.
He froze when he entered.
Took in the scene. It took him a few seconds to process what he was seeing.
Kal picked James' body out of the wall and threw him back into the center of the room, creating another trench in the floorboards.
For a few seconds, Edward didn't react.
Then Bella. He was at her side instantly, despite his mind still not comprehending what he had witnessed.
The cracks now covered most of James' body.
They had been fine lines at first. Now they were a deep web of intersecting ravines, spreading and growing with every strike.
Every movement threatened to break him further. Kal didn't stop. Didn't rush. Another blow. And another. Each one placed where the fractures already were. Widening them. Forcing the structure to fail.
James dropped to one knee. For the first time he looked small.
The doors burst open again.
Carlisle. Emmett. Carolyn.
They stopped — frozen for a long moment.
It was Carlisle who awoke the other from their reverie with a low shout.
He was at Bella's side in seconds, already pulling supplies from his bag, a syringe in hand, voice calm as he worked.
Emmett and Carolyn hovered close — watching, alert — but there was nothing to watch for. Nothing save the fight between — no — the brutal disassembly of James by Kal.
Kal. Someone they had thought was an ordinary human.
Kal stood over James.
The vampire's body was a lattice of fractures now.
Two scarlet beams of celestial heat crashed into him like divine retribution.
In an instant, James' entire body seemed to turn to diamond, and suddenly tens of beams of scarlet light escaped from his body from all angles, a few nearly hitting Bella, as the laser beams refracted through his crystalline form. Pure, unadulterated agony. A horrid scream tore from his mouth, more animal than human.
It took a split second for Kal to process what he was seeing before he stopped. James' body instantly returned to normal, not counting the innumerable cracks that decorated his entire body.
That was a surprise. He hadn't expected heat vision to interact with vampires like that.
James struggled weakly, trying — and failing — to get to his feet. The final throes of a wounded animal. An animal that had once been an apex predator. The hunter had nowhere left to run.
Kal's hand closed around his tattered shirt again, lifting him into the air. He looked toward the Cullens. They all stared at him now. Whatever Bella had been given had long put her to sleep. His gaze met Alice's. They held there for a long moment. Then his gaze shifted, finding Carlisle's.
An unspoken question.
Carlisle's jaw was set. Resolute.
"Emmett. Jasper. Start a fire." he said it in a hard, ruthless tone.
Emmett and Jasper spurred into action, gathering splintered floorboards, and ripping others out of the ground, rapidly creating a pile of wood.
Jasper moved to start it.
"Wait." Kal called.
A single, conic blast of heat vision set the wood alight, a fire roaring into existence.
Kal looked at James, hanging limply from his hand. He felt unsure. His gaze turned to Alice. And his resolve firmed up. He brought James close. Close enough to whisper in his ear. To utter the final words he would ever hear.
"You said you'd rip her throat out." Kal whispered.
A pause.
"You should know not to make threats you can't keep."