The sky was grey and heavy with the sign of incoming rain, it was easy to imagine that they were snow clouds. Her mind visualized small, blurry snow descending like a blizzard over them.

It was a usual thing for Forks to get horrible weather, but today was one of those days where she wanted it to be clear just for her, so that it was her doing that caused chaos in a snowstorm.

Trailing at a distance after the small army of newborns, Erica choked down a cackle at the knowledge that they were all, or at most, were going to die at the hands of the 'enemy'. Limbs would be torn by experienced hands, skin crushed by pointed teeth. Heads would role, the aggravating creatures would be gone forever from bothering her.

Darting over tree branches, Erica acme across the sound of fighting, only increasing in volume the closer she got. The sounds of familiar snarls and growls sending a shiver down her spine, tauntingly as she came closer to fighting proximity.

It was enticing, the tingles that just hearing the fight gave her made her want to grab Paul by the scruff and drag off to a clearing close enough that they could be heard even over the sound of fighting.

Slinking into the wide, circular space chosen by the Cullen's, she glanced around for a moment in calculation before she shoved a hand in the air. Snow swirled upward in a spiral, covering the hole of the clearing and with a burst of blue, it rippled once over with a shock.

Hail and ice whipped around them, turning, and swirling dangerously. It was cold against hose that should not have felt it, freezing against those that easily could.

Erica felt nothing, the icy touch so similar to that of her own that it did nothing to stop her advancement. It was like thousands of eyes, a perspective from all over that she could feel. Finding her target had never been so easy.

He was cocky, flitting all over to reach from one place to another, stopping every newborn in their track. He took it in his stride, every bite he received from the newborns before he ended their life in an instance.

If she allowed it, Erica could acknowledge that it was forgiving in the way that he was so strong – that her brother did not die at the hands of a weak man that was simply lucky in the moment. Jasper was skilled, was clever and unforgiving, a man that James would have allowed himself to die by.

Even still, the irony was not lost to her, how he was the mate to that tiny lite human that they had tried to covet years ago, before she was turned, and he had lost the chance. Alice, the little one that Erica had promised to kill first.

It was funny, the way that the world worked like it was taunting her – irritating the wound that became her soul at the lack of James and everything she lived for.

Stepping up to them, she stood proud as her powers caressed against her bare skin, flicking around her threateningly.

They both paused, abandoning their opponents to face her completely. It was automatic, the way that they moved together. He put Alice behind him in a swift motion, placing himself as the prime target.

Drawing conclusions faster than ever before, Erica began to construct as many possible courses of actions as she could. Fighting a girl that could see the future was hard, but she knew it depended on a set decision.

If she had plans, dozens of them, then it would be much harder for the girl to predict any of her moves. With Jasper, she had no doubt that he planned as well, though Erica was one hundred percent certain that he was no where near as close to being as good as she was with strategies.

"It is long time no see, is it not Alice?" Erica titled her head, a small curl to the lips. "It is a pity that we are meeting like this, truly."

"Why are you doing this?" the other girl questioned, trying to push past her mate pointlessly.

The blonde hummed, a lovely, musical sound that pitched over the snarls and growls that rang around them. "Do you remember the promise that I made you? You needn't worry, remember? You will not be here to witness the madness that he shall descend into."

Alice's mouth set into a grim line. "That was a long time ago. It doesn't have to be like this, it's not too late for you to stop."

She laughed harshly, the storm around them thickening angrily. "Not too late to stop? Why would I ever want to stop?! I took no grand part in planning this, but I am getting what I want, even if it is in a rushed fashion that will not bring me the joy that I yearn."

"What is wrong with you? Why are you like this?" the brunette shouted, clenching to her mate's arm tightly.

"Everything! I am the villain that gives the story flavour, the one that gives the good guys a purpose," Erica sneered. "I am doing you a favour."

"You're a monster!"

"Don't pass judgment on me like you're some kind of Saint!"

Her eyes flashed, fading from haunting crimson and bleeding into an electric blue.

"Look at you, clinging to a man that screams his desire for human blood by the look in his eyes. He is a monster, more so than I as he still cannot fight his addiction, not even with your help."

Jasper flinched, back becoming impossibly straighter as her words washed over him. His mate soothing was lost on deaf ears and the two blondes took it as a chance to strike.

He was fast, but she was lithe and flexible – bending in ways that would have been impossible for many others. Twisting and turning around one another, they dodged punch and kick that blurred with speed and precision.

Erica, a hand curled into a claw, swiped at his chest, tearing though the fabric of his sweatshirt as he pulled back in defense.

Around her, ice shot up with a stomp of her foot, pushing Alice away as she made to attack from the back. Snow blew from her mouth in a harsh breath that knocked jasper back further than before, the blond flipping through the air and landing in a low crouch.

Blocking a high kick from Alice, Erica grabbed the girls leg and swung her around, tossing her into a tree – not waiting to see if she caught herself, she faced Jasper with a series of quick jabs and punches.

Leaning back as he swiped for her head, she turned her head and caught stone skin between teeth – him pulling away before she could sink any further into his wrist.

Through the snow she could feel Alice coming closer and with a split second of concentration, blue ice shot from her open palm and into the girl's leg, freezing her in her tracks and sending her to the floor.

The Cullen girl gasped in pain, hands clawing at her leg deeper in an attempt to get the limb to respond from it's frozen state.

Jasper's enraged snarl drew her attention back to him, his movements becoming harsh and abrupt. Grinning a predatory smile, she met his attacks with easy precise counters that drove them further away from his prone mate – only causing his anger and desperation to increase.

"I was originally going to make you live without her. Kill her and watch as you suffer, but with this, I know that it is impossible to leave you alive," Erica told him, leaning in close to his ear as she wrestled him, his hand free from her hair, a knee digging up into his stomach and pushing him away. "Can you imagine the pain she would feel with you gone? I can. I know the pain, I've seen it. It makes you wonder, will she move on? Forget you? That's what Victoria did, moved on to some blond boy with a pretty face."

Flipping out of the way of his next kick, Erica taunted him further with cheeky smiles and icy blue eyes. She dodged and jumped, spinning on her toes in an intricate dance as she traced ice as she went. It did little to slow his movement, but it gave her a sense of having an advantage none the less.

"Oh, are you angry, my friend?" she teased, grunting soon after as his fingers grazed against her jaw.

She laughed as he picked up speed, his moves becoming harder to block and dodge. Briefly, Erica wondered where Alice had gone, how Victoria and Riley were doing, but those thoughts were swiftly washed away as she felt that shift in the blizzard.

There was a shock that went down her back, a shiver and ache that sparked through her in a path that went through her like fire – burning.

Flashes assaulted her, the space above her heart burning black with frost bite. She would never forget the way it felt when she died, it was much the same as when her brother was ripped to pieces before her.

She would never forget the way her screams clawed from her throat in a terrifying screech that shatter the mirrors that remained in that plain ballet studio. The screams that crawled into her throat and froze over in a lump were much the same.

Never had she imagined that she would lose James, not ever, but she had never imagined it would happen twice, not to her – no one deserved to experience such a thing twice.

Thump Thump

Her body moved on her own accord, following the frantic thump of his heart through the snow that suspended itself in the air – waiting for her as she went.

He was there, regal, and tall as he stood in her creation despite the small swarm that surrounded him; despite the hands that ripped fur and pulled whines from his muzzle.

Thump Thump

The scent of his blood, warm and only appealing to her, mixed with the crispness of the air, flooded her with a fear that she did not know herself capable of.

He was not the type of man she would ever consider for herself, a man that was so much the opposite of what she had come to love, but somehow through all the promises that she made herself, she failed to destroy the way she felt for him.

In this moment Paul was all she could think of.

Thump Thump

Tearing heads from bodies of the army that she helped to create was the opposite of achieving her goal. Erica was an avenger, a woman that had to kill those that stole her most precious thing, yet in the moment in meant nothing.

The look in Paul's eyes as he saw her come to his rescue bathed her in a light that she had never before felt.

Thump Thump

In his eyes she was iridescent, golden and no longer an Icarus headed for destruction. To him, she was destruction and power, an archangel meant to do the will of a higher power.

Perhaps, if things had been different, she could have been different for him. If her beloved brother was at her side, her heart not an empty cavity in her chest, Erica could have been his archangel. She could have loved both her boys with equal fervor.

Thump Thump

Left alone, with numerous bodies surrounding her and more closing in on him, Erica did not care for the growls and panicked look that Paul shot her – it was easy to miss.

Her mind was set on his defence, what was left of her soul was singing.

Not him, not it again, it told her. Yelled and pushed until her body could not acknowledge anything else. She could only see him, could only hear the beat of his heart and listened to it as though it could have been her own.

Thump Thump

Maybe this was her way of saying I love you without needing to know if it was true. Sighing his name into his mouth, wedged in between teeth and tongues would not have sounded as beautiful as it could now, not when she razed down those that threatened to take him from her.

Maybe it would have been the only time she would have told him, through the way blue met deep brown. It was the only way she could tell James the same, over a shared neck and a fait pulse.

She could not tell if it was a 'I think' or 'I might', to her it was all the same. It was the same as saying that the blood that ran through his veins was the same that filled her own.

She would never let Paul know, not if he could not figure it out on his own.

Thump Thump

Revenge can only be so sweet, she mused, watching her opportunity pass her by. Her hoped rested with Victoria, that she would succeed in killing the human that started the road of torment that she was forced upon.

Jasper was out of sight, a distant thought as she was once again face to face with Paul, his grey fur within touch before she was moving to protect his flank, ice sprouting around her violently and without control.

Thump

Maybe she was never meant to get what she wanted, that her victory would have to end at one point. Maybe she should have trusted more in the wolves to protect their own, to keep Paul safe as she had asked him to be.

Erica would not count this as a loss though, not even when she would be once more returned to her brother. For this time, this time she had saved what was hers, had traded her life for his and she was fine with it.

Not even when warmth filled her space, halting her movements with a large body and sharp teeth.

Erica could not regret a thing because she had won in some twisted way even when her head was torn from her shoulders and everything just stopped.

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2017-12-11

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