APEX PREDATORThis story has been bouncing around in my head each time I hear this song by Otep. Give it a listen if you'd like.

I take no credit and I do not own Stephanie Meyer's Twilight Saga or Otep's Apex Predator.

No copyright intended. I do not own any recognizable entities herein.

This is a Twific but I made some tiny adjustments just because I wanted to. Just a little gore and horror for the Halloween Spirit! Enjoy!

I woke up, cold and wet, sitting indian style in the middle of a full sized mattress. My clothing felt stiff and torn. I felt dirty and I had no idea where I was or why I was here. My gritty eyes tried to decipher my surroundings while my brain tried to remember the last thing I had done. It seemed that I was in a basement of sorts or at least a small cold concrete room. The air smelled of must and mold but I quickly realized that I couldn't turn my head to see much more. A scorching pain erupted when I attempted the movement and I bit my tongue to cut off the sharp cry that wanted to escape my chapped lips. I didn't want to alert whomever had taken me. It was obvious to me that I had been taken from my home. I know I would never willingly sleep in some moldy cold room, even if a raving party had been the reason. I wasn't known for going to raving parties anyway so that was a moot point altogether. Shaking my head internally, I continued trying to figure out what was going on. The basement was dank and gray as I looked around the best that I could. There was water dripping nearby but I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. Just an annoying drip-drip-drip echoing through the small concrete room. I almost gasped when I noticed a shadowy figure lingering in the corner directly ahead of me but I was able to cut that off as well, my chest hitching with the abrupt stop. The shadow did not move a muscle, not even the chest of my captor moved. I knew then that I had been taken by a vampire. Which vampire was the question. Victoria had been turned to ash...I danced on her pyre myself.

My head throbbed as I sat on the dingy smelly mattress on the damp floor. My wrists were bound together with what felt like very thick rope. It was actually kind of inappropriate and unnecessary since I couldn't move at all anyway. My legs were completely asleep from sitting and sleeping indian style for God knows how long and there was a burning pain in my back and neck but I didn't dare even attempt to stand or move from my spot. My captor obviously knew I was no longer sleeping...or drugged...depending on why I was out so soundly. I couldn't remember where I had even been before I had been captured. The day, the time...it all escaped me and it made me more than nervous. My eyes adjusted slowly to the darkness and I could make out a faint glow coming from the opposite corner from where my captor stood stock still. The fogginess and pounding in my head wouldn't subside and I fought to keep consciousness. My fingernails clawed at my arms, peeling dried blood and dirt from the skin with my fingernails. I realized that must be why my clothes felt so stiff. I was covered in blood. I prayed that it was my own. Would my dad be okay?

"Oh, she's so coy."

I glanced up slowly, startled that my captor had spoken. It was a broken whisper but obviously meant for me to hear. Swallowing hard, I realized I couldn't speak if I wished to. My throat burned like I had taken a large swallow of burning hot coffee filled with razor blades. Swallowing again I tried to look down at my hands, trying to untie the knots that were holding my wrists so tightly together. I brought them to my mouth and tried to chew the knot loose but it wouldn't budge. My captor chuckled darkly but I ignored her. I could tell by the alto cadence of her voice, the soft evil chuckle, that she was female. I wanted to move, crawl around on the floor, bang on the door and look for some way to get free, even though I knew it was pointless. There was no way I would get out of this mess unless my vampire captor decided to play a game of cat and mouse. Right now, I was completely caged at her mercy. I wanted to ask her how long she planned to play, how long I would have to suffer. I wasn't stupid enough to think that I would be getting out of this alive. The most I could hope for was that I could turn into a vampire and massacre this bitch myself. I don't know what I had done to deserve this torture.

The wolves disowned me after Peter and Charlotte destroyed Victoria. They were pissed that they didn't get to help and blamed me for Colin and Brady's phasing at all. It was my fault that Victoria had hung around for as long as she did. Never mind the fact that I had been hiding on their land, scared out of my mind, for months while they failed to grab her time and time again. I had stumbled across Peter accidentally one evening in the Thriftway. He said his senses were tingling...Whatever that meant. He wanted to know if I had any friends in the area and I told him they had all left me like the garbage I was. The blonde had scoffed, tutted and scowled at me, wrapping me in his arms and cooing that I was not garbage. He completely ignored my flailing arms and struggles to get out of his tight grip until his beautiful mate had rescued me and my blue lips. The auburn haired beauty gave me a timid smile and listened as I told her about the vengeful vampire who was hell bent on destroying my life. She had already gotten my mom a month previous when Phil had left to go to yet another baseball game. He had been gone for three days and when he returned, his whole life fell apart. My mom's head was on a spike that had been set in a concrete block in the center of the living room, severed jaggedly with her dried blood pooled beneath - her lips were stitched closed. The rest of her was in the corner in a red tight lace dress, sat prim-like, as if she were having a spot of tea while she awaited her wandering husband. A note in red lipstick was on the coffee table...A psalm in napalm.

'Abandon all hope, but try to stay calm.'

The cops didn't know what to make of it, no one did.

Phil was now in a hospital after attempting to blow his brains out. Unfortunately for him, he only used his old .22 and missed most of the important parts of his brain. He was now a drooling mess, forever paralyzed. I hadn't taken that very well and my wolfy best friend Jacob had helped me. His larger than life presence, warm strong arms and kind smile was there consoling me through the funeral and Phil's admittance to the hospital. The pack had doubled up patrols and worked extra hard to keep an eye on my dad and myself. I was usually on their land however, so they only had to follow Charlie around without letting him catch a glimpse of the abnormally large wolves that roamed my small hometown, Forks. Jake had wanted to let my dad in on the secret but neither I nor the council thought that was a great idea and thankfully Sam alpha ordered Jake not only to drop it, but to keep the secret.

All of the help had left once Peter and Charlotte showed up and Victoria was taken care of. Paul had shoved me to the ground and spit on my chest while Jared laughed. Only Seth and Leah had looked slightly uncomfortable with the treatment but they didn't do anything to help. Jake had been ordered away from me permanently. Unless and until he took his rightful position of Alpha, I would never see my best friend again.

A shuffling movement brought me out of my tormented memories and I looked up abruptly. Immediately regretting that movement because of the pain that seared down my spine, I cried out loudly. My captor laughed a soft demented laugh. I reached back carefully, wincing and with both bound wrists I felt above my head. There was a thick cool wire that seemed to come from the ceiling and when my finger snagged it accidentally in my investigation, a tug was felt on my back. Scrunching my eyebrows, I lightly tugged on the wire again on purpose. I really wish I hadn't done that. Four deep seated metal hooks were dug into the skin of my back. I could feel them very easily now after that tug. Hot, silent tears tracked down my face as I let my arms drop heavily into my lap and I whimpered in pain. My thighs and calves tingled painfully from the jolt my hands made as they were still asleep. I was hooked to a ceiling! I had been fishing enough with my dad that I knew what the feeling of being hooked was like. I had snagged myself in the eyebrow, the fingers, the wrist, and even the back. These, however, were large harpooning hooks. Something used to hold up a shark on a boat or a cow at the butcher. I chewed again at the binds on my wrists, hating the raw feeling I was creating with the constant rub but knowing I needed to at least get my hands free. I needed to unhook myself. No wonder I had never fallen over when I had been asleep. Finally, after chewing until my gums bled and my wrists were so tender that I didn't even dare to remove the rope, the binds fell loosely into my lap and I breathed a sigh of relief. That is, until my captor stepped closer. My fingernails dug into my palms as I clenched my fists, nervous for what was to come. I wasn't sure how I knew she had come closer. I couldn't see her anymore as the light glow under the doorway had faded. I assume that had been sunlight and now it was after dark. It was like I could feel her presence even from the ten or so feet away that she had been.

"Seduce and destroy." She whispered thickly.

This was a joke. What the hell was she talking about?

"If you're trying to seduce me, you're going about it all wrong." I mumbled as I blew warm air on my sore wrist burns. Each breath in and out pulled on the taut skin of my back and I winced each time. "What the hell do you want with me?" I asked rudely and a little hysterically. What did it matter how I spoke to this maniac? I was going to die anyway.

"Locked in a box so I can keep stock. A trophy to show me that all is not lost!" Her whisper got higher and higher, more high strung as her strange sentence went on. She cackled madly as she moved back. She almost sounded familiar but I couldn't connect the evil, crazed voice with any vampires that I had ever met. Was this basement my box or was she going to cut me up and stick me in something smaller. The longer I sat in the darkness with my captor hovering nearby, the worse the possible scenarios got inside my head. Her almost impossible to hear footsteps whispered across the basement floor left and right in front of me. I couldn't see her but I knew she was purposely making noise so that I would be able to hear her. None of this made any sense to me. Why was I here? Where even was here? I didn't dare ask. This bitch was nuts. She moved backwards against the wall furthest from me and slid down onto her rear end. I stared at her silhouette until my eyes crossed from trying to concentrate. I softly rubbed my palms on my dirty jeans, encountering more dried crusty spots that I now knew was blood. I wondered just how much I had lost since I had been taken. I didn't feel very woozy but I knew I was weak from whatever she had given me and from lack of food since I had been here. Strangely and thankfully, I didn't need to relieve myself.

Days went by like this. I was never given food or water, I was not even really hungry or thirsty though I did spend a large chunk of each day and night passed out. My body was drying up from lack of nourishment, I could tell. The skin of my back would throb randomly, reminding me that there were large fish hooks curled into me. The constant reminder kept my stomach roiling but I never got sick. My captor didn't move for these last days that passed. She kept silent and still, watching me, studying me but I could never get a good look at her. She stayed shrouded in the darkness of my prison, never nearing the light that would shine beneath the door so that my eyes could adjust enough and get a look at her. I licked my sore lips and swallowed thickly, wondering how long I would be kept here, floating between consciousness and awareness. When would she finally murder me? Would my father ever get closure?

On the fifth day since I had first awoken, the vampire suddenly stood at attention and I could tell that she had turned her face toward the only way in or out. A small whimper escaped her lips. Two small shadows appeared beneath the doorway that I assumed were legs. I was proven right and gave a small noise of relief in the back of my burning throat when the doorknob turned slowly. The cogs and gears squeaked as the handle turned and the door groaned in protest as it opened, bathing the small concrete room in liquid gold that blinded me. I squinted, refusing to shut my eyes completely, in case this new person would be my savior. Unfortunately for me, this was another vampire. His pale skin and deep burgundy eyes didn't so much as glance my way as he headed for the apex predator. My eyes followed his graceful movements as I tried to remember him. He looked very familiar. He was tall, his honey gold hair almost touched the low ceiling with each stride forward. Using his long fingers, he brushed a strand of silky looking hair out of his eyes and his lips curled into a loving smile as he approached my captor who had hunkered down onto her butt again with her forehead touching her knees. Her arms were wrapped around her legs as she seemingly tried to hide from the newcomer. The ratty tee she wore used to be white, I could tell but now was a stained and yellowed color. Her jeans had splotches of dark browns and reds, showcasing that she wore my blood on her as well as I did. Her chestnut hair was chopped short as if shorn in a hurry and stuck out in odd sticky angles, just as dirty as the rest of her. She made no noise as the man approached her, now murmuring softly to her.

He held out his hand as he crouched in front of her. "How are you doing, sweetheart? Are you ready to come out now?" The velvet tones of his baritone voice lulled me instantly and I sagged further into the mattress. The pain of the hooks in my back completely forgotten as his voice both calmed and excited me. I watched with avid fascination as he cupped her cheek and brought her face upwards. When he brushed some brown hair from her burgundy eyes, eyes that matched his own, I gasped loudly but he paid me no mind. That was me! I was my captor? How was this possible? My captor...I...locked eyes with human me and she smirked, her fangs elongating and dripping with venom. The burn in my throat flared and I swallowed hard, watching in horror as her throat undulated with my own swallow. She brought her hand up into the air and wrapped her slender fingers around nothing before dragging her arm up forcefully from her back behind her head high into the air. I was only left questioning the motion for a split second before the searing pain of the large fish hooks split from my skin and dangled in the air above me, dripping with my blood and flesh. Tossing my head back reflexively I cried out in pain with a blood curdling scream and my body fell backwards, intensifying the burning throb of my exposed muscle and bone as my wound came into contact with the filthy and gritty mattress. The male vampire didn't turn his head in my direction. He kept his whole demeanor focused on the vampire me, as if I wasn't there at all.

"Come now, Bella. You're here with me. You're not alone anymore. Victoria cannot get you anymore." He cooed quietly at her as he stroked her filthy hair away from her face over and over again. I didn't understand what he was talking about at all. Victoria...The flame haired vampire who tormented my life for months on end before Peter had come to fix everything for me. She was dead. I watched the bulky blonde rip her apart myself before he threw her into the roaring pyre that Charlotte had built. His tiny mate had held my hands, laughing giddily with me as we pranced on the warm embers of Victoria's fire after she had burnt to ash. My mind's eye flew to the day after Peter and Charlotte helped me back home before they faded into the shadows to let me be reunited with my father. Charlie had been so happy to see me again that he'd scooped me up and twirled me around before huffing and puffing that I needed to lose weight. I had smacked his arm playfully, knowing that my 110 pounds was not in any way a struggle for him to lift. The man worked out daily for crying out loud.

The vampire me sniffled and wiped her eyes and though I saw no tears on her face I felt my own cheeks and came away with blood tears on my palms and fingertips. My eyes darted between my hands and my captor's face as she cried to the male who held her fondly in his strong arms. A faded memory of Victoria holding me prisoner and shearing my hair off when Peter had burst through the door flitted through my mind and I struggled to hang onto that. I could picture the tormented look on the vampire's face as he ripped Victoria away from me and demanded that Charlotte take me to safety. The memories don't make any sense though. They're all jumbled. If I was as hurt as I remember when the small auburn haired vampire stole me away into the night, then how did we dance on Victoria's ashes that same night? How did Charlie swing me around and joke with me? I felt myself drifting back to unconsciousness but I fought the blackness. I needed to remember! I just knew this was important. It was a losing battle, however because my eyes fluttered closed. Just before the blackness encased me completely as I lie limply on the smelly mattress, I heard Peter's soft southern voice speak.

"You can do this, Bella. You've got it. Please remember. We need you." His words distorted in my brain as I fell into a deep slumber as if I were already hearing him from a tunnel dream.

I drifted in a gray fog with a loud constant static noise echoing around me. My arms flailed ahead, trying to catch hold of something to ground me, but I couldn't see. There was nothing under my feet; no grass, no concrete, no dirt, yet I tripped anyhow. Strong capable arms caught me and the scent of cardamom took over my senses. I inhaled greedily as I let these arms hold me upright.

"That's right, sweetheart. I've got you. Come back to me."

The voice sounded so familiar but I just couldn't place it, distorted as Peter's had been. The velvet baritone of whom I assumed was of someone important to me soothed my jagged soul and vanquished the pain that shrouded me. It hurt my heart to know that I couldn't remember that beautiful sound. I grasped him tighter, my fingernails digging into his hard round bicep as he hugged me just as tight. His soft lips pressed against my temple, kissing me lightly. He didn't seem to mind that I was covered in dirt and blood. His large hands smoothed down my back as he hummed a tune in my ear, his breath fanning against the side of my head, ruffling my raggedy hair. I whimpered and clung to him as if he were my lifeline. When I opened my eyes again, I saw that we were in a concrete room with a yellowed, torn mattress in the corner. Peter stood behind the man I clung to with his hand on his mate's shoulder while Charlotte looked on in worried concern. Peter's light blonde hair was pulled back low on the nape of his neck and Char wore hers in a high ponytail, the ends of her hair skimming her shoulders as she tilted her head at me. Neither spoke to me with their mouths but their eyes spoke volumes. I've been missing for a long while.

The velvet voice continued humming even as he pulled away slightly to look into my eyes. As our red eyes met, everything clicked into place and the memories flooded into my mind like the unraveling reel of an old movie. Charlie swinging me around when I moved in with him, not after I had been missing. I had never been found by the human world after Victoria had taken me. The off-white walls of Jake's house as I hid from Victoria while the wolves worked to find the vengeful vampire. Jake being ordered away from me as if I were a leper after Peter came to town. Paul, the pack's beta, telling me that if I were going to associate with vampires then the shifters were done helping me. They were the reason Victoria had found me, walking home from the reservation lands, defeated. The voluptuous vampire had snagged my arm and thrown me over her shoulder before taking to the trees and escaping with me into a small concrete basement of an old foundation home, deep within the forest. The home itself had been torn down, which was why light would make it's way to the underneath of the door each day. Peter and Char bursting through the door days after large shark hooks had been slowly inserted into my back, tearing my flesh open. Victoria had cackled wildly at my screams of torment - No one around for miles and miles to save me. I had relieved myself on that mattress for three days, never being able to clean up, never being able to move from my cross-legged position. It had taken Peter and Charlotte over a week to find me thanks to Victoria's uncanny ability to distort her surroundings. She could make it seem as if there was no exposed basement in the middle of the forest, only trees, bracken, and bushes. The worst part was she could distort the scents, making it impossible for anyone to track me that way. The wolves had first led my saviors on a wild goose chase, saying I had gone back to my mother's, though she was long gone, so that hadn't helped either.

The memories kept pouring like a flipbook as I kept my eyes locked on my mate's. The first time I had met this beautiful man, the reason the vengeful vampire was after me in the first place, raced through my brain. Victoria and Jasper had been together for a century before he laid eyes on little ol' human me one day as they passed through town. Charlie and I had been walking home from the Thriftway enjoying the warm sunny weather, weighted down with bags and laughing about the latest movie we had seen. My dad and I had a wonderful, loving relationship and I always loved that we could laugh about everything and anything. His dark eyes would light up with crinkles and his smile was a mile wide. I hadn't been paying attention to my surroundings when I had walked headlong into a large strong man. While I was busy gawking at the most handsome, Godlike man I had ever met with his silky honey gold hair and his large bulky muscles, my dad had tried to apologize. Jasper stared into my eyes with the most intense wonder I had ever witnessed. Victoria had screeched angrily before grabbing a hold of Jasper's arm and yanking him down the street as she whisper-yelled at him. The encounter had been confusing until later that night, the God had come to my home and explained to me in private what was going on after Charlie had fallen asleep. I was his mate, someone he had unconsciously been searching for his entire vampire existence. Victoria and he both knew there was someone permanent out there for each other but she had contented herself with Jasper, being head over heels for him as they had been together since the Southern Vampire Wars. Of course I had believed him immediately. The hum in my chest confirmed the bond and I had no problems believing in the supernatural after Jake had confessed his biggest secret to me a year before. Jasper warned me that Victoria would be angry but he never guessed how angry she would be. He thought she had more regard for human life than the lack of restraint she had ended up showing him. When she had disappeared for a couple of days and summoned Jasper to her under the guise of finalizing their relationship, that was when all hell broke loose. I had more or less been trapped to the reservation, Charlie was not allowed to know why which made life completely miserable. Jasper hadn't returned and then Victoria had captured me. Peter and Char had saved my life and when Char took me away from the basement prison, she gave me her blood and snapped my neck. I awoke as a vampire a short time later, good as new and she showed me where I was kept and how Peter had kept Victoria alive long enough for Jasper to return before he tore her apart. He had been off trying to track his estranged ex-girlfriend, knowing she was going to come after me but she had led him on a chase thanks to her ability. It had taken him longer than he anticipated and it had almost cost him his mate's life. Unfortunately, something had happened when I walked inside the basement room after dancing on Victoria's ashes. My brain had shut down and vampire or no now, it locked me away inside it, reliving the torment that the vengeful bitch had forced me to endure.

Staring into Jasper's eyes now, I was hit with a torrent of emotions so strong, my knees buckled. His strong arms held me up, my chest pressed against his, as the gray fog lifted and my surroundings became more clear. I refused to look at the mattress in the corner or even at Peter and Charlotte hovering behind my mate. I clung to him and gave him a small tentative smile.

"Jasper." I breathed.

His lips captured mine and I closed my eyes, kissing him back just as passionately. The feeling of wind and rain slammed into me as he raced us away from my prison but I didn't pay attention to anything other than what my mate was doing to my lips. His tongue sweeping into my mouth, tasting me. His taste burst onto my tongue and I moaned, wrapping my legs around his waist as he ran. The trees blurred around us in shades of green and brown. The rain slicked my hair and I could feel the blood and dirt dripping down my body and my soaking clothes but the only thing I cared about was pressing against my man as he ran us away from the hell I had been trapped in. I would find out how long I was locked in my own mind later. I would find out if Charlie was okay later. Right now, Jasper was all that mattered. He had saved me. I wasn't sure how, but he did and for that I would be grateful for an eternity.

As you can tell, I left the Cullen's out of this completely. We will pretend that Jasper was not with them at all. Some of you may not like the fangs or the way she was quickly turned as it's not an SM thing, but I liked it better this way for this story. She had been through so much, why make the transition painful as well? LOL. Hopefully you liked it!