He wished he could feel optimistic now, but he’d seen James triumph over impressive odds. His eyes turned to Bella, and all he saw was a human girl, one of billions, nothing to distinguish her from any of the others.
He didn’t think the words before he spoke them aloud. “Are you sure it’s worth it?”
The roar that ripped through my teeth was as loud as a detonation. Laurent immediately slid into a submissive posture, while Carlisle held his hand up.
Control, Edward. This one is not our enemy.
I worked to calm my fury. Carlisle was right, though Laurent was certainly not our friend, either.
“I’m afraid you’re going to have to make a choice,” Carlisle said.
There aren’t many choices left to me, Laurent thought. I can only make myself scarce and hope James doesn’t think I’m worth the trouble. His mind ranged back over the slightly less fraught conversation they’d been having before our arrival and fastened on one piece of information. I’ve clearly burned my bridges with this company, but perhaps I could surround myself with other friends. Talented friends.
“I’m intrigued by the life you’ve created here.” He felt he was choosing his words very diplomatically, trying to make eye contact with each of us. My access to his inner monologue rather ruined the effect for me. “But I won’t get in the middle of this. I bear none of you any enmity, but I won’t go up against James. I think I will head north—to that clan in Denali.” He imagined five strangers like Carlisle, slow to attack, but with great numbers and talents among them. Perhaps that would give James pause.
A feeling of gratitude had Laurent turning to warn Carlisle again. “Don’t underestimate James. He’s got a brilliant mind and unparalleled senses. He’s every bit as comfortable in the human world as you seem to be, and he won’t come at you head-on.” A few of James’s convoluted ploys ran through his memory. The tracker had patience… and a sense of humor. A dark one.
“I’m sorry for what’s been unleashed here,” Laurent continued. “Truly sorry.”
He inclined his head, submissive again, but his eyes darted to Bella and away, his thoughts mystified by the risk we were taking for her sake. They don’t understand about James, he decided. They don’t believe me. I wonder how many of them he’ll leave alive.
Laurent thought us weak. He saw our apparent domesticity as a deficiency. I’d worried the same thing earlier, but not now. Weak was not the impression I planned to leave with James. But let Laurent believe James would win. He could hide in terror for the next century and I would not mourn his discomfort.
“Go in peace,” Carlisle said, both offer and command.
Laurent’s eyes swept through the room, appreciating a kind of life he’d left behind long ago. Though this was not a palace, and he’d lived in several, there was an atmosphere of permanence and sanctuary here that he’d not felt in centuries.
He nodded once at Carlisle, and for a brief moment, I felt a strange kind of yearning from the dark-haired vampire toward my father. A sense of respect and a desire to belong. But he quashed the emotion before it could take root, and then he was racing out the door, with no intention of slowing until he was safely in the ocean, his scent untraceable.
Esme dashed across the living room to start the steel shutters rolling down the huge windows that comprised the back wall of the house.
“How close?” Carlisle asked me.
Laurent was almost outside my range and not slowing. He had no desire to run into James on his way out. He’d hear nothing we said. I reached for James. Alice’s vision had given me the direction. It was far enough that he, too, would not be able to hear our plans.
“About three miles out past the river. The tracker is circling around to meet up with the female.”
He would join her on higher ground, where he could watch in which direction we ran.
“What’s the plan?” Carlisle asked.
Though I knew the tracker couldn’t hear, and the shutters were still groaning, I kept my voice low. “We’ll lead him off, and then Jasper and Alice will run her south.”
“And then?”
I knew what he was asking. I looked straight into his eyes as I answered. “As soon as Bella is clear, we hunt him.”
Though Carlisle knew this was coming, he still felt a flare of pain. “I guess there’s no other choice.”
Carlisle had been scrupulously protecting life for three centuries. He’d always been able to find common ground with other vampires. This would not be easy for him, but he was no stranger to difficulty.
We needed to hurry, not to give the tracker any more time than necessary before we gave him a trail to chase. But there were practicalities we needed to address before we could run.
I caught Rose’s eye. “Get her upstairs and trade clothes.”
Confusing the scent was the obvious first step. I’d take something of Bella’s with me, too, and create a trail that would goad the tracker forward.
Rosalie knew this, but her eyes flashed with disbelief.
Don’t you see what she’s done to us? She’s ruined everything! And you want me toprotect her?
She spit the rest of her answer aloud, resolved that Bella would hear it, too. “Why should I? What is she to me? Except a menace—a danger you’ve chosen to inflict on all of us!”
Bella jerked as if Rosalie had slapped her.
“Rose…,” Emmett murmured, putting one hand on her shoulder. She shook it off. Emmett’s eyes cut to me, half expecting me to spring at her.
But none of this mattered. Rose’s spoiled temper tantrums had always been irritating, but this petty flare-up was ill timed, and time was something I didn’t have enough of.
If she’d decided to cease being my sister tonight, that was her choice and I accepted it.
“Esme?” I knew what her response would be.
“Of course!”
Esme understood the time limits. She lifted Bella carefully into her arms, much as Emmett had, though the effect was very different, and flew up the stairs with her.
“What are we doing?” I heard Bella ask from Esme’s office.
I left Esme to it, and focused on my part. The tracker and his wild partner had moved outside my range. They couldn’t hear us, but I was sure they could see us. They would see our vehicles leave. And they would follow.
What do we need?Carlisle asked.
“The satellite phones. The larger sports bag. Are the tanks full?”
I’ll do it.Emmett sprinted out the front door toward the garage. We always kept several gas drums ready for emergencies.
“The Jeep, the Mercedes, and her truck, too,” I whispered after him.
Got it.
We’re splitting into three?Carlisle was also wary of dividing our force.
“Alice sees it’s the best way.”
He accepted that.
He’ll get hurt. He doesn’t think. He just rushes in. This is all her fault!
Rosalie was assailing me with a torrent of grievances. I found it easy to tune her out. Easy to pretend she wasn’t even there.
What’s my part?Carlisle wanted to know.
I hesitated. “Alice saw you with Emmett and me. But we can’t leave Esme alone to watch Charlie.…”
Carlisle turned to Rosalie with a stern expression. “Rosalie. Will you do your part for our family?”
“For Bella?” She sneered the name.
“Yes,” Carlisle responded. “For our family, as I said.”
Rosalie glared at him resentfully, but I could hear her pondering the options. If she protracted this fit, turned her back on all of us, then Carlisle would certainly stay here with Esme rather than be on the front line, keeping Emmett from dangerous excesses. Rosalie saw only the danger to Emmett. But part of her was growing nervous about my visible detachment.
She finally rolled her eyes. “Of course I won’t let Esme go alone. I actually care about this family.”
“Thank you,” Carlisle responded—with more warmth than I would have bothered with—and then dashed out of the room.
Emmett was just coming through the front door with the large bag we kept some of our sports toys in slung over his shoulder. The bag was big enough to fit a small person. Bulky with equipment, it looked like there might already be someone inside it.
Alice appeared at the top of the stairs, just in time to meet Bella and Esme as they emerged from Esme’s office. Together, they lifted Bella by the elbows and rushed her down the stairs. Jasper followed. He was clearly on edge, tightly wound, his eyes roaming restlessly across the windows at the front of the house. I tried to use his savage appearance to calm myself. Jasper was more lethal than the thousands of vampires who’d tried to destroy him. Today he’d exhibited new skills I’d never imagined, and I was sure he had other tricks up his sleeve. The tracker had no idea what he was up against. Bella would be safer with Jasper standing guard than anyone. And with Alice beside him, the tracker couldn’t take them by surprise. I tried to believe that.
Carlisle was already back with the phones. He gave Esme one, and then brushed her cheek. She looked up at him with total confidence. She was sure we were doing the right thing, and because of that, we would be successful. I wished I had her faith.
She handed me a wad of fabric. Socks. Bella’s scent was fresh and strong. I shoved them in my pocket.
Alice took the other phone from Carlisle.
“Esme and Rosalie will be taking your truck, Bella,” Carlisle told her, as if asking permission. It was so like him.
Bella nodded.
“Alice, Jasper—take the Mercedes. You’ll need the dark tint in the South.”
Jasper nodded. Alice already knew this.
“We’re taking the Jeep. Alice, will they take the bait?”
Alice concentrated, her hands clenched into fists. It wasn’t a simple process, looking for maneuvers that never actually came in contact with any of us, but she was tuning in to these new enemies. She’d get better with time. Hopefully we wouldn’t need that. Hopefully we would end this tomorrow.
I saw the tracker flying through the treetops, focused on the fleeing Jeep. The redhead keeping her distance, following the sound of Bella’s truck as it chugged north a few minutes later. There were only the smallest of variations.
By the time she relaxed her vigil, we were both positive.
“He’ll track you. The woman will follow the truck. We should be able to leave after that.”
Carlisle nodded. “Let’s go.”
I thought I was ready. The passing seconds were already pounding in my head like drumbeats. But I wasn’t.
Bella seemed so forlorn at Esme’s side, her eyes bewildered, as if she couldn’t process how everything had changed so quickly. Only an hour ago, we were perfectly happy. And now she was hunted, left to vampires she barely knew for her protection. She’d never looked so vulnerable as she did standing there, alone in a room full of inhuman strangers.
Could a dead heart break?
I was at her side, my arms tight around her, pulling her off the ground. Her warmth in my arms was quicksand and I wanted to drown in it, to never pull free. I kissed her just once, worried that the plans would all crumble into chaos if I couldn’t make myself step away from her. Part of me didn’t care if every human life in Forks and La Push and Seattle were sacrificed to keep her by my side.
I had to be stronger than that. I would end this. I would make her safe again.
It felt as though all the cells in my body were dying off one by one as I set her back on her feet. My fingers lingered against her face, and then stung as I forced them free.
Stronger than this, I reminded myself. I had to shut down all this agony so I could do my job. Destroy the danger.
I turned away from her.
I’d thought I’d known what burning felt like.
Carlisle and Emmett fell into step beside me. I took the bag from Emmett. I knew what the tracker expected—that I would be too weak to let her out of my sight. I cradled the bag as though it contained something infinitely more precious than footballs and hockey sticks as I rushed down the front steps flanked by my brother and my father.
Emmett climbed into the backseat of the Jeep and I placed the bag upright beside him, then quickly slammed the door, trying to look stealthy about it. I was in the driver’s seat in a flash, Carlisle already beside me, and then we were jolting up the drive at a pace that would have horrified Bella if she’d actually been there with us.
I couldn’t think like that. I had to trust Alice and Jasper and keep my head focused on my part.
The tracker was still too far away for me to hear him. But I knew he was watching, following. I’d seen it in Alice’s head.
Turning north onto the freeway, I accelerated. The Jeep was a lot faster than the truck, but it wasn’t fast enough to get any headway, even at the maximum speed I could chance without risking the engine. But I didn’t want to outrun the tracker now. He would only see that I was pushing the Jeep hard, as though escape were truly the motive. I hoped he wouldn’t realize I’d chosen the Jeep for just this purpose. He didn’t know what else I had in my garage.
For just a flicker, he was close enough to hear.
… take a ferry? It’s a long way around otherwise. I could cut through.…
“Make the call,” I said, barely moving my lips, though I knew he was too far behind us to see my face.
Carlisle didn’t bring the phone to his ear; he kept it by his thigh, out of sight, as he dialed one-handed. We all heard the quiet click as Esme picked up. She said nothing.
“Clear,” Carlisle whispered. He disconnected.
And I was disconnected, too. I had no way to see what she was doing now. No chance to hear her voice. I shoved the despair away from me before I could start wallowing.
I had a job to do.
24. AMBUSH
THE TRACKER CHOSE TO RUN BEHIND US, UNWILLING TO GUESS AT OUR route. Every now and then I would catch the edge of his thoughts, but never more than a few words, or a view of the Jeep. He followed on higher ground, in the mountains, unconcerned when it took him miles from the road. He could still see us.
I didn’t want to think about where Bella was now, what she might be doing and saying. It would be too distracting. But there were a few things left undone.
I whispered instructions to Carlisle and he typed messages to Alice’s phone. It probably wasn’t necessary, but it made me feel better.
“Bella needs to eat at least three times every twenty-four-hour period. And hydration is important. She should have water on hand. Ideally eight hours of sleep.”
Carlisle, still keeping the phone low, texted as quickly as I could speak.
“And…” I hesitated. “Tell Alice not to talk about our conversation before in the Jeep. If Bella has questions, deflect them. Tell her I’m very serious about this.”
Carlisle looked at me curiously, but typed my message.
I imagined Alice on the other end, rolling her eyes.
She only texted back the letter y in acknowledgment. I took that to mean that Bella was still awake, and Alice intended to keep my instructions to herself. She must see an unpleasant reckoning if she ignored me.
Emmett was mostly thinking about what he would do when he had the tracker in his grasp. His imaginings were pleasant to watch.
When we had to refuel, I used one of the large gas cans Emmett had loaded into the backseat. In my pocket, Bella’s socks would leave the faintest trace of her scent in the air. I moved in a blurred rush, as if my only goal was to race away again, and I was pleased when the tracker came closer to watch. For a moment, he was no more than a mile away. I wanted to take advantage, to flip this flight into an ambush, but it was too soon. We were still too near the water.
I didn’t try to be evasive about our route, driving in the straightest line the curving freeways allowed toward my destination. I hoped the tracker would interpret this the way I wanted him to—that I had a destination in mind, somewhere defensible, somewhere I felt safe. He knew little about us, but he knew this much: We had more physical assets available to us than the average nomad. Also, we were many. Perhaps he would imagine even more allies waiting in the forests to the north.
And I had considered running toward Tanya’s family. I was sure they would help. Kate, particularly, would be an excellent addition to our hunting team. But they were also too close to the water. The tracker might take one look at the five of them and break for the ocean. All he’d need to do to disappear was submerge. It was impossible to track someone underwater. And he could come out anywhere—five miles down the beach, or in Japan. We’d never be able to follow. We’d have to regroup and start over.
I was headed toward the national parks near Calgary, more than six hundred miles from the nearest open water.
Once we turned on the tracker, he would know that he’d been led astray, and Bella wasn’t with us. He would run, and we would chase. I felt confident I could outrun him, but I needed a course with enough length. Six hundred miles gave me some padding.
I wanted to finish this quickly.
We drove through the night, only decreasing our speed occasionally when I heard a speed trap waiting ahead. I wondered what the tracker made of that. He’d already guessed I had extra abilities. This was surely giving away more than I wanted to, but the other option was too slow. Let him see this—my giving up information about my advantages—as another sign that we were intent on some specific destination. A safe house? That would have to make him curious.
I wished I could hear the theories in his head, but he kept back just far enough for me to see only the sporadic glimpse. He must have formed a theory about my talents, and he probably wasn’t far off.
The tracker ran on, tireless, and from the little I could hear, enjoying himself immensely.
His enjoyment irritated me, but it was a good thing. As long as he was content with what he was currently doing, it gave me time to get to my chosen arena for our ambush.
As the time passed, though, I got nervous. The sun was closer to the western horizon than the eastern. We’d done nothing interesting but stop to refuel a few times—always leaving hints of Bella’s scent. But would this long run bore him? Would he be willing to follow for potentially days and days, through the northern territories and into the Arctic Circle if we kept going? Could he abandon his chase before he was absolutely sure Bella wasn’t in the Jeep?
“Ask Alice if she sees the hunter quitting before we’re set.”
Carlisle complied quickly.
A few minutes later, the letter n.
That settled my nerves.
The sun moved slowly closer to the western mountains as we neared my target. I wanted to get him close enough for me to hear him. I needed to do something to interest him.
We were on a small freeway that led to Calgary. We could have continued to Edmonton, waited for full dark, but I was getting more and more anxious. I wanted to stop running away and start hunting.
I turned off onto a small side road that led into the southernmost end of Banff National Park. The road did curve around eventually back to Calgary, but it wasn’t the fastest way to get anywhere. It represented a new behavior we hadn’t exhibited up to this point. That would have to pique his interest.
Carlisle and Emmett knew what the change meant. Both were suddenly tense. Emmett was more than just tense—he was thrilled, eager to get to the fight.
This side road took us quickly away from the barren, early spring farmlands that lined the road to Calgary. We’d started climbing immediately, and now we were surrounded by trees again. It looked quite similar to home, but drier. I couldn’t hear another mind anywhere nearby. The sun was on the other side of the mountain we were climbing.
“Emmett,” I breathed. “I’ll buy you a new Jeep.”
He chuckled once. No worries.
We could pretend to stop for gas again—it was nearly time—but this change of pace would have the tracker on edge. We’d have to move fast.
“On my word,” I told them, waiting for the first touch of the tracker’s mind.
Emmett’s hand was on the door handle.
This road was much rougher than the last. I hit a rut that had the Jeep jolting out of our lane. As I worked to control the vehicle, suddenly the tracker’s voice was there.
… must have a place close…
“Go,” I snarled.
We all three threw ourselves out of the speeding Jeep.
I landed on the balls of my feet, and I was sprinting toward the sound of the tracker’s thoughts before the others had got their balance.
Oh ho, a trap after all!
The tracker did not sound either upset or frightened by the sudden reversal in roles. He was still having fun.
I pushed myself, blurring through the trees we’d just driven past. I could hear Carlisle and Emmett behind me, Emmett charging through the underbrush like a rhinoceros. His louder attack might cover some of the sounds of my own. Maybe the tracker would think I was farther back than I actually was.
It was a great relief to run, to move under my own propulsion, after the long drive stuck inside the Jeep. It was a relief not to have to rely on road, but just to take the shortest route toward my target.
The tracker was fast, too. It didn’t take long before I was glad I’d given myself six hundred miles to catch him.
He curved west toward the far-distant Pacific as we climbed higher into the eastern edge of the Rockies.
Carlisle and Emmett were falling farther behind. Was that the tracker’s hope? Separate us and take us out one at a time? I was on my guard, waiting for another sudden turnabout. I welcomed the idea of his attack. Part of me was full of fury, another part was just anxious to finish this.
I couldn’t hear his mind—he was slightly out of range—but I could follow his scent easily enough.
His path turned northward.
He ran and I ran. Minutes passed, then hours.
We veered northeast.
I wondered whether he had a plan or was just running aimlessly to throw me off.
I could barely hear Emmett’s charge through the forest. They had to be several miles back now. But I thought I could hear something ahead. The tracker moved quietly, but not silently. I was gaining on him.
And then the noise of his progress was gone completely.
Had he stopped? Was he waiting to attack?
I ran faster, eager to spring his trap.
And then I heard a faraway splash at the same time I crested a snow-dusted ridge that broke off in a steep cliff.
Far below, a deep glacial lake, long and narrow, almost like a river.
Water. Of course.
I wanted to dive after him, but I knew that would give him the advantage. There were miles of bank where he could emerge. I would have to be methodical, which would take time. He had no such impediments.
The slow way was to run the perimeter of the lake, looking for traces of him. I’d have to be careful not to miss his exit. He wouldn’t walk up onto the bank and start running again. He’d try to leap out, to put some distance between the water’s edge and his scent.
The slightly faster way was to split the distance with Emmett and Carlisle; we could cut the perimeter into thirds.
But there was also the fastest way.
Emmett and Carlisle were getting closer. I ran back to Carlisle, my hand stretched out in front of me. It only took him a second to understand what he wanted. He tossed me the phone. I turned again and ran with them, texting Alice.
Tell me which one of us finds the trail.
We reached the overlook of the long lake.
“Emmett,” I breathed almost silently. “You decide to take the south bank from this point and then follow it around to the east. Carlisle, decide to run the north along this bank. I’ll take the far side.”
I pictured it, committed to it, diving into the dark blue water, shooting across to the opposite shore, then running north to meet up with Carlisle at the far tip of the lake.
The phone vibrated silently.
Em, she texted. Southern tip.
I showed them her text, and then handed the phone back to Carlisle. He had a waterproof bag to protect it. I dove, and heard Emmett push off behind me. I held myself straight as a knife, determined to cut into the water with as little sound as possible.
The water was very clear, and just a few degrees warmer than freezing. I swam several yards below the surface, invisible in the night. I could make out the sound of Emmett behind me, but he was nearly silent. I couldn’t hear Carlisle at all.
I slipped out of the lake at its southernmost point. The only sounds behind me were the drops of water falling off Emmett and hitting the stony bank.
I took the right, and Emmett the left.
There was a ripple as Carlisle emerged. I glanced back. The phone was in his hand again, and he was motioning to Emmett. I’d chosen the right way. Sure enough, only a few yards farther and I caught the hint of the tracker’s scent. It was above us—he’d leaped into the branches of a tall lodgepole pine. I scaled the tree and found his trail leading off through the branches of the surrounding trees.
And then I was on the chase again.
I fumed as I flew through the branches. We’d lost enough time with the lake that he was many miles ahead now.
He was doubling back the way we’d come. Would south be his choice? Back to Forks to find Bella’s trail? It was a solid seven-hour trek, if run straight. Would he want to give me that long a chance to catch up to him?
But as the endless night wore on, he changed direction a dozen times. He moved predominantly west, easing his way toward the Pacific, I imagined. And he kept finding ways to build his lead, to slow us.
Once it was a wide cliff. We each decided the directions we would search at the base, but Alice just kept texting n n n n n. Her view of the tracker was so limited, she could only see how we reacted to his trail. It took too long for me to see the damage in the cliff face where he’d broken his fall halfway down and then scaled sideways across the stone.
Another time he found a river. Again, we exhaustively imagined the routes we’d go searching. He stayed in the water for a very long way. We lost nearly fifteen minutes before Alice saw that Carlisle would find the tracker’s trail thirty-six miles southwest.