It was night fall by the time I left the airport in Seattle and traveled further to the inner-city. I could smell her sent all throughout the Seattle streets. I reached out in my mind searching through the thousands until I found her. She was just as Alice had seen her- her thoughts filled with the ecstasy from the blood of her kill. Racing forth covered in the shadows of night I followed her trail. As I closed in on her; she sensed the danger and fled-tossing her mutilated victim in the nearby dumpster and I followed her.
She ran south, she ran until the sun wouldn't allow our kind to move freely but once darkness engulfed the light she started to flee again and I would continue my hunt for her.
I had been so focused on Victoria that the minds of others slipped through my attention. We had crossed in to dangerous territory and I had foolishly failed to notice- my prey was so close but before I could reach her I was surrounded.
The hectic minds of over twenty newborns infiltrated my brain- there was no escape and Victoria was gone- I couldn't even hear her in my mind. I had to think! I searched their minds trying to find something that could help me. The same face flashed sporadically in all their thoughts-a face that I had seen in another- a face that had haunted him every single day since he opened his eyes to this new existence. Maria.
Her thoughts came into my mind from a distance as she looked over her warriors. I turned and stared into her crimson eyes and called out above the hissing of the circling newborns, "Major Jasper sends his regards Maria," she tilted her head and smirked. Her mind filled with possibilities.
In a moment she was in front of me surrounded by her guards, "You know my name but yours is still a mystery to me," she purred.
"My apologies, I am Edward Cullen," I bowed my head slightly with my response.
"How is it you know the Major?" she purred sweeping closer.
"He's my brother," she frowned so I tentatively explained; "he joined my family in 1950."
She raised a brow at my use of the word family 'he has such strange eyes. It seems roomer is true,' "you have such intriguing eyes," she almost cooed.
"We only feed on animals-it makes our eyes gold," I explained.
'Jasper eats rabbits now? How amusingly disgusting' an image of Jasper chasing after the small furry animal flash through her mind. Her face held none of the disgust her mind did. She carefully covered her revulsion but all those around didn't.
"We tend to prefer large prey- like lions and bears- they taste better," I wanted to subtly defend Jasper in some way and hopefully she would just assume that I was responding to looks on all the faces around us and not her thoughts.
She looked me up and down and an image of me gracefully taking down a lion entered her thoughts. I re-framed from grimacing at the lustful thoughts that entered her mind along with the image even if the thought of drinking the blood of animals repulsed her.
"What has you traveling in the area?" she spoke calmly- her thoughts only slightly suspicious. Considering where I was this was the best I could hope for.
"I am hunting down a red headed vampire. Her mate attacked us and we had to destroy him. She will retaliate- I'm making sure that she doesn't get the chance." She was curious as to why only I went after Victoria when there were obviously others and I prayed that she didn't ask. She didn't- she summarized that I had a gift. She wanted me because of it. "I hope you beg me pardon but I need to find her trail again." I said trying to get out as soon as possible and with everything still attached.
She moved closer to me- her face oozing innocents though her thoughts were contradictory. Her second in command shadowed her forward and moved to my other side as she took my arm, "it has been so long since I have heard anything of my dear Jasper- surely you wouldn't disregard a sire's desire to know if one of her creation is happy in his new life? We were ever so close before he left. You would do me such a service," she said sweetly as she started to move. Her arm securely around my own trapping me by her side- she wasn't going to let me go. I was trapped in the she-devils clutches and I couldn't find a way out. No matter which way I moved death stared back at me with scarlet eyes.
I had already failed my mission and I prayed to whoever was listening that Victoria wouldn't threaten Bella- I hoped at least for now that I had scared her off from the idea of harming my beloved.
I knew I would have to bide my time before I could escape; so under the hard crimson gaze of her warriors she led me into the lion's den.