eighteen, juno fights a vampire
twilight

Juno had just finished her cup of tea when Bella burst into Charlie's house, breathless, wide-eyed, looking like she was fleeing a crime scene rather than coming home to relax with a book in bed.

"I have to go." Bella barely got the words out before she was running up the stairs. 

Charlie followed instantly, his voice sharp. He was confused, worried, scared. "Bella — what the hell are you talking about?!" 

Juno froze, holding her mug tight, watching as Bella frantically shoved clothes into a duffel bag, her hands shaking. 

She didn't know what was going on — but she knew this wasn't normal. Bella was too sweet to break her father's heart, she was too afraid that she'd hurt him if she accidentally hit him with the fly swatter trying to get a rouge fly.

"Why are you leaving?" Juno stepped forward, barely dodging the shirt Bella threw over her shoulder. 

Bella didn't answer. 

Charlie did though, and his voice was full of pure panic now. "She won't tell me!" 

Bella zipped the bag shut. "I have to go." 

The energy in the room pulled tighter, suffocating, overwhelming. 

And Juno, on instinct, made the snap decision she didn't even think about until it was coming out of her mouth. 

"I'll go with her." 

Bella paused, finally looking up. 

Charlie stilled, confused too. "What?" 

"I'll go." Juno's voice sounded normal, like it was just a casual thing. But nothing about this felt normal. "I'll make sure she's safe, uncle Charlie."

Bella hesitated, her nerves practically radiating off her skin. Then, she nodded.  "Okay." 

🌲

Juno had never felt so helpless in her life. Bella had snuck away, and her, Alice, and Jasper had realized it too late.

"Where did she go?" Juno's voice was laced with panic, breaking through the tense silence in the hotel room. "Alice, where!"

Alice's stare was faraway, searching for something that hadn't happened yet. Her body was still, but each and every possible image flashed in her mind before one settled, Bella and James.

"To meet James," she finally said, blinking away the images she had seen.

Juno felt her stomach drop. "No. How could this happen — you — you have super hearing and you still heard her leave!"

Alice's jaw tightened, but her voice was controlled. "We are sorry, Juno, but Bella got by because she was determined. She knew how to get by without us noticing."

Jasper was already moving toward the door, his presence specific, like he was bracing for war. "Get in the car," he spoke. "Now."

🌲

The drive was fast, reckless — Alice behind the wheel, indents on the wheel from how hard she was gripping it. A pure recipe for disaster.

"Why would she meet him?" Juno demanded, watching the dark road blur past.

"Because he made her believe she had no choice," Jasper murmured. For someone she understood was so secluded, Jasper sure talked a lot in the face of panic and danger. His gaze flicked to Juno briefly in the rearview mirror, something unreadable behind his golden eyes. "She's being hunted, Juniper."

The words settled deep in Juno's chest. Bella wasn't running away. She was walking straight into danger. To protect someone, to protect her. And now, Juno was stuck in it too.

When they finally reached the vacation home that belonged to the Swan girls grandfather, an old house tucked away in the Arizona desert, its windows dark, planted plants dying from the lack of watering and excessive sunlight.

Juno felt it before she saw it, the wrongness, the suffocating tension in the air.

Bella was inside. James was inside.

And now, they were here, too. The moment Juno stepped inside, everything was wrong. Bella stood near the fireplace, small, trembling, blood staining her sleeve — the wound fresh. James stood across the room, relaxed, like this was a game he had already won.

"Oh, what do we have here?" His voice was mocking, his eyes too red. He wasn't like Jasper and Alice, he had no control.

Juno moved without thinking, stepping toward Bella, toward the danger. Her head was spinning already, the idea that all she had to do was protect her cousin was the only thing she could focus on.

James struck first. The blur of motion barely registered before Juno was thrown backward, hitting the wooden floor hard.

"Juno!" Bella gasped, scrambling toward her. Her own pain forgotten as Juno groaned and attempted to push her self up and away from where the floorboard was splitting.

James laughed. "You don't know what's happening, do you?"

Juno forced herself up with Bella's help, chest heaving, eyes locking onto Bella's blood-stained sleeve and the blood coating her fingertips.

Then, James moved again, too fast to see, grabbing Bella before Juno could react.

Bella cried out, and Juno felt rage explode inside her. She had to protect her cousin. "Let her go!"

James tilted his head, amused. "And what are you going to do?"

Juno didn't have an answer, but she moved anyway. She lunged, towards a vampire.

James smirked, twisting his grip on Bella, and in the next second — Juno felt her body slam against the bookshelf, the impact stealing the breath from her lungs. Bella hit the floor, too weak to move, her blood seeping into the old wood.

James grinned, stepping closer — too close. "You don't belong here."

Juno's chest tightened. He was right. She didn't belong in this. In their world. She was a human, and so was Bella. Neither belonged in their world.

But it didn't matter anymore. Because she was in it now.  And she wasn't getting out.

By the time Bella and Juno had reached each other, majority of the Cullen family — minus Rosalie and Esme — were trying to do everything they could to take down James.

Carlisle was with Juno and Bella in seconds, pulling them back, keeping them out of the worst of the fight. She watched as Edward was slammed against the fireplace, flames whooshing and stone cracking.

As the Cullens pulled James apart and lit him on fire, Juno could only think of how she would explain this to her grandfather.

🌲 — 🌲 — authors note,

not juno just being unfazed as a vampire is ripped apart and burned, but rather thinking how this could be explained to her grandfather.