Disclaimer: As stated in the previous chapter, I own none of these characters.


When the House Goes Up in Flames

Chapter Two – Scent

The whole place just smelled. There were more important things for Alice to be worrying about, but it was hideous. It took her a minute to process, to get her brain to start working again. There was someone snoring upstairs, loudly.

It all hit Alice at once, like a hot gust of wind.

Within seconds, she was outside, crouched and snarling at the house in front of her. It was drizzling, and her short hair was beginning to plaster itself to her face. But the atmosphere was tense and hot. The creature upstairs had woken up, smelling her.

A scream – practically a howl – ripped through the night, emanating from the second-floor window looking into Bella's room. It was panicked and desperate somehow. Alice felt every muscle in her body get still, felt the electricity course through her as she prepared to fight.

The silence was pressing hard against Alice's ears. Something was very, very wrong. She had seen Bella jump… die. That thought was hard enough to bear. But the wolf in Bella's house didn't make sense.

A strong gust of wind blew the disgusting scent her way. The front door to the Swan's house swung open, and a figure, in a similarly defensive position stood just inside the threshold. The man would have towered over Alice by a few feet, and even from the distance, she could see quivers racking his body.

"Run, leech." The words were barely spoken, but she heard them crystal clear.

Alice knew that coming here had been a bad idea. She hadn't been thinking when she got on that plane. But she couldn't shake the feeling that she was missing something entirely. "I have every right to be here," she whispered into the wind, knowing that the dog would pick it up. "You might want to think about that before you ruin Charlie's house. He's gone through enough already. I doubt he wants to come home only to have no home to come to."

"I can control myself. I'm not so sure about you, bloodsucker."

Alice thought for a second about how bizarre this scene would look to an outsider. A tiny, crouched girl in the rain having a whispered conversation with a hulking, bestial man one hundred feet away.

"Typical. A hotheaded werewolf who thinks he knows what he's doing. Who believes he knows what he's up against. Do you really think you could take me?"

"The second I change, my pack will be here. Do you really think you could take all of us?" Alice swore internally. The wolf was slowly calming himself down, and began to take one step at a time closer to her. She stood her ground, not budging a single inch – she hadn't moved since he appeared in the doorway.

The two were left to stare at each other in silence – neither moving, neither speaking. The wind whipped the man's hair around his face, throwing his scent in all directions. "I only came to help," she whispered, her voice lilting. It was more to herself than to the wolf, but as soon as she said it, she knew he heard. A shock ran through his entire body and took another step towards her. A huge gust of wind blew whipped by her, and she continued to stand completely still.

But then she caught it. It was very faint, almost as though it was trying to go unnoticed – but it was fresh. The new scent took her by surprise, and in that instant the man, now halfway across the lawn, was replaced by a large, russet wolf.

Its size was tremendous – Alice had never seen anything like it. She had heard stories at some point, but no one had ever told her about the enormity of the creatures. She saw it lunging at her, almost in slow motion. Before his body could slam full force into hers, she side-stepped him and he went crashing onto the hard, wet ground. Off in the distance, a long, strained howl rose from the treetops. The wolf was preparing to lung again, and Alice knew she could easily play this cat-and-mouse game all night. But only with a lone wolf.

And she had bigger things to worry about.

Like the vampire that had been in Bella's house.

The giant wolf lunged at her again, a mass of hot, wet fur. Another howl echoed over the trees, haunting, closer, as she sidestepped him easily. She knew that he would barely even see her move. "This needs to stop," she said, her voice still soft, but filled with annoyance. The wolf growled at her in response and lunged again.

Suddenly, it dawned on her. The wolf didn't recognize her. He thought she was a danger – well, he would have thought that even if he had known her. "I'm Alice Cullen, you idiot. You kill me, and you break the treaty. There's nothing that will stop an all-out war between your pack and my family." She practically spat the words, although her voice was still light.

This made the wolf stop. He was hunched far away from her, growling with all his might. His whole body shook with anger, but he did not change back. Instead, he started slinking towards the edge of the woods.

Alice watched warily. Four other large, black masses appeared began to form in the darkness. The scent was overpowering. Alice wanted to throw up or spit or something to get the taste out of her mouth. She stopped breathing altogether, trying to cut off the scent. It made it bearable.

Everyone around Bella's house was completely still. Five wolves, each moving minutely, shaking with rage, and a vampire, short but upright and not breathing. "I can see that my coming here was a mistake," she finally said, shattering the silence. "I just had… had to do something." Her voice cracked, breaking the façade of composure she held. "I had to make sure that Charlie would be alright. She was my friend. I couldn't just… go without saying good-bye." She scanned the five wolves again. One of them snarled and pawed the ground restlessly. The biggest – black and intimidating – turned his head and growled at the restless one, who shrunk back slightly. "Like I said, it was a mistake."

"You're damn right it was." The russet wolf had changed back, and shivers were running through two other wolves as they phased back into human form. The other two stood their ground and bared their teeth at Alice. "What the hell did you do with her?"

This took Alice by surprise. "What do you mean, 'what did I do with her?'"

Another one of the men, who had taken the place of the black wolf, spoke this time. His face was calm and collected, but his voice was full of venom. "Bella's disappeared."

"I… I saw her jump off a cliff. Hours ago. Are you saying that nobody's found her yet? Not even her truck?"

"We know she jumped off the cliff," one of them snarled. "She got picked up by Victoria. Then tortured." A look of horror passed over Alice's delicate face. "We killed the leech. Don't worry about that."

"I'm not worried about Victoria. What happened to Bella?" She looked at each of their faces in turn. Each one was stern, silent, and on guard. "Perhaps there are a few things we need to discuss."

--

"First thing's first," Jacob Black said, looking Alice up and down. Her body was tense, but she was trying to appear relaxed and nonchalant. Every few minutes, her nose would wrinkle slightly and she would stop breathing. The thought of how they smelled to her made him smile. "Are your – people – here too?"

"No. Nobody knows I came. Like I said, I wasn't thinking too clearly when I saw her jump. I just got on a plane and got here as quickly as I could. She meant a great deal to my family." That remark elicited an angry hiss from Jacob, who stood in the far corner of the kitchen. Two members of the pack, the ones who had remained changed outside, were circling the house in frustration. Alice could hear them. They wanted to help in any way they could, but couldn't stand being stuck in a small room with the vampire for so long.

"Is that why you left, because she meant 'a great deal to you'?" Jacob spat. "You didn't see – you didn't see her, you…" Sam shot him a look, and he just set his jaw tight and looked away in disgust.

"I didn't know," Alice said, very quietly. A short silence fell over the kitchen. "Alright, explain this to me again, please. Victoria was trying to get at Bella, something I can understand and something we were stupid for overlooking." Jacob snorted. "Then, for whatever reason, Bella decided to try her hand at cliff diving. Victoria got there before you could, and… took her."

"They were only together for twenty minutes or so before we got there," Sam said. "I have a feeling Victoria wanted to draw it out for as long as possible, but she'd gone weeks without food. We made sure of that. Once we found them, Victoria was feeding. We knocked her away, fought her, killed her."

"And you sucked the poison out of Bella," Alice said, looking at Jacob. He nodded slowly. "You took her back here, and you two fell asleep. It didn't occur to anyone to take her to the hospital? Or to at least have an active watch over her?"

"She didn't want to go to the hospital. I told her… I told her I'd take her after an hour. She just wanted to be somewhere familiar."

"And when you woke up…"

"I smelled you. She was gone. I put two and two together."

"Incorrectly." He snarled again, and she just glared back, her eyes coal black. "Has anyone told Charlie about her?" she suddenly realized. All of the pack's faces fell. Charlie, apparently, had been overlooked in the confusion.

"I'll call him," the quietest one, Embry said, leaving the room. This meant that Alice, Sam, and Jacob were left to stare at each other in the small kitchen. Jacob was practically crushed into a corner, trying to get as far away from Alice as possible. She sat in a chair in the opposite corner, and Sam – though clearly uncomfortable – tried to appear the most relaxed.

There was some rustling outside, and Alice heard the footsteps of another wolf joining the two patrolmen. "Jared's here," Jacob whispered to Sam.

"He probably has updates on the Clearwaters."

"Listen, I'm sorry to interrupt your pack issues, but we need to figure out what happened to Bella," Alice said quickly.

"I'm guessing you have an idea, leech?" Jacob snapped.

"As much as I don't like it, yes, I do." Alice took a deep breath, trying to calm herself, only to regret it immediately. The place smelled so strongly of werewolves, it was making her sick. She focused on keeping her voice even, and hoped that her theory couldn't possibly be true.

"Now, I'm not so well attuned to Bella's scent as Edward would be. But I can recognize it. Of course, it's been months since I saw her – smelled her, I guess, too – last, so it was a bit difficult. And, like I said, I wouldn't be half as aware of it as… others are," she said, noticing Jacob's grimace when she first said her brother's name. "Also, considering this is her house, her scent's everywhere. With you here, it's masked – heavily – but it's still in the entire place, especially her room.

"When we were outside, I picked something else up. It was incredibly faint, but it was there, it was recent, and it was definitely a vampire. I thought it smelled so familiar, but I couldn't figure it out. Since it was so light, and since Bella's scent was everywhere – and probably because I thought she was dead at the time – I wrote off the feeling that it was Bella. But now…" Alice shook her head. "Now… I can't help but wonder…"

"She's changing," Sam said, his voice completely flat.

Jacob roared. The sound was deafening, and got responses from the pack outside.

"Jacob didn't suck all the poison out, so it took longer to reach her heart. She was probably going into shock and didn't even notice it until it was too late."

"Then where did she go?" Jacob said through gritted teeth.

"I don't know," Alice replied, her voice low and aching. She needed Jasper by her side. For some reason, she felt like he would know what to do. Her eyes squeezed shut. "It would be impossible to track her, assuming she took her car, and the rain will have washed away any of her scent."

Again, the room was filled with silence.

"How… how much… how painful is this going to be… for her?" Jacob asked slowly, an edge of panic in his voice.

"Considering the amount of venom, it's going to be… intense. For most of my kind, it's the most vivid memory of human life – the change. It can last for days." Alice paused. "But that probably means she won't be able to get very far. At least, not until she's…"

"In so much pain she can't move?" Alice simply nodded to Jacob. "Where would she go? Why would she run?"

"Don't you understand, Black?" Alice suddenly spat. She took a second to collect herself, to return to her soft soprano. "Bella's wanted this change for a long time, so that she could be a part of my family. She's heard enough about newborns to understand the amount of bloodlust, and she's vehemently against killing any of her friends or family in a feeding frenzy. Once she figured out what was happening, she tried to get away from Forks as fast as she possibly could. She's trying to protect you."

"She could have stayed. I would have helped her. I would have protected her." Jacob was sure to place extra emphasis on the the "I."

"Would you have? I understand that she's your friend -"

"She's more than that, leech," Jacob hissed under his breath.

"Regardless. Vampires are your 'sworn enemies,' correct?" Alice's eyes hardened with her voice. "Would you have really helped her through this? Would you have been able to stand it?"

Before Jake could answer, Embry returned to the room. "Charlie's on his way. After Harry, I have no idea how he's going to handle this."

--

Charlie had been making calls all night. It seemed like he had gotten half the town involved in finding Bella. When Alice returned to the house after hunting in the morning, Charlie had practically passed out at the kitchen table. She considered leaving him alone, but the phone rang and he saw her. She tried to smile reassuringly, but she new it wasn't coming across the way she had wanted it.

She stood in the doorway while Charlie spoke hurriedly on the phone. Bella's car had been found about twenty minutes earlier, dead after idling all night. It had been pulled over to the side of a back road, only see by two bikers on their daily route. Alice knew there was no sign of Bella.

All night without a single vision.

Hoping to be proved wrong, Alice had waited all night to call her family. She knew that Carlisle and Esme were on a camping trip and she wouldn't be able to reach them. Jasper would come the second she asked, and Emmett might want to, but she couldn't be sure about Rosalie.

And Edward.

He hadn't answered his phone in weeks; she didn't even know if he still had it.

Charlie hung up the phone. "It was supposed to be Harry's funeral today," he muttered.

"It will be okay," Alice said, trying to be reassuring in spit of the truth. "We'll find her, and she'll be okay."

"But that's just it, Alice," Charlie murmured, his voice plagued by a mix of frustration, defeat, and bitterness, "she won't be. She hasn't been. All I can think is that… somehow… this has to do with him." He sat down at the kitchen table and put his head in his hands. Alice across from him and looked at her folded hands.

"How bad was it, when we left?" Her butterscotch eyes glimmered as she looked back at him. He was tired, and it looked like his entire being was within moments of collapse.

"It was like living with a ghost. The word catatonia was thrown around a lot. I tried to get Renée to take her to Florida but she sort of… I don't know, exploded, I guess. She just refused to go. And after that, it almost got better.

"But, she wouldn't speak. Not unless you asked her a direct question. It was like her body was here, but she had checked out. And she didn't do anything. All her CDs were broken in the trash one day. She never watched TV. She only used the computer to e-mail Renée. She didn't call any of her friends back. It wasn't like… like you – your family – left. It was like somebody had died. It was… terrifying."

Alice touched one of her cold fingers to Charlie's shaking hand on the table.

"Is… he coming?" Charlie asked after a brief silence.

"I don't know. Nobody's been able to reach him in a while. All I know is that he's in South America somewhere."

"Hope he's enjoying himself."

"I wouldn't assume anything, Charlie." Alice's golden eyes hardened and she looked away.

After a few minutes of awkward silence, Charlie decided to take a shower. Alice sat in her seat for a while after that, listening to the light breeze outside, concentrating on trying to find Bella.

When she really concentrated, she could catch glimpses of Bella, wrapped in a ball in the woods, shaking and hot, but she could never pinpoint a location. And the images were so brief she may as well not have seen anything.

Her concentration was shattered by the shrill sound of the phone.

"Hello," she said, slightly breathless. She was met with silence. "Hello?"

"Alice," a voice croaked, deeply confused. "What are you doing?" Edward's velvety voice growled softly.

"Edward, I need you to listen to me." Before he did it, she saw him click the phone off in her head. "Don't you dare hang up on me." Her words were fast and low - even a wolf wouldn't be able to figure out what she was saying. "You've got this completely wrong. Listen to me."

"You saw her jump." It wasn't a question.

"But I didn't see her die, Edward. She's not dead. I know you don't believe me, but listen." She saw a quick flash of him before a group of men dressed in black robes. "Edward, I am not trying to talk you out of going to Italy for my sake, which you know I would do, because you're my brother, and I love you. But Bella's not dead. Not yet." She realized she probably should have added that in the first place. His decision to go to Italy was put on hold. He couldn't hear her thoughts, and he couldn't verify anything she said. "She's changing."

There was an enraged quiet on the other end. Alice saw an empty box smash to bits before she heard it, slightly crackled from the receiver. "How?" his voice had a sudden life to it, something she hadn't heard in months.

"Victoria." Again, she saw another item smash before she heard it. The line went dead. Quickly, Alice was dialing. After the first ring, Rosalie's luscious voice answered. "You told Edward about her?"

"What was I supposed to do, Alice?"

"He was going to go to Italy, Rose. What the hell were you thinking? Why would you tell him that." Alice was spitting fire. "I don't have time for this. Bella's not dead, at least not at the moment, but she hasn't got long."

"What's happening?"

"As soon as Carlisle and Esme come home, get them out here. Bella's changing, and considering what I've heard from the state she was in… it's not going to go well."

"Did you…"

"Of course I told Edward." An image of Edward on a plane appeared in Alice's head. "Is Jasper there?" She already knew he had just gotten back, and within moments, his calming voice filled her head.

--

It took everything in Edward's power not to just snap this pilot's neck and fly the plane himself. Before, he had been hollow, left in the dark. Now he was shattered, and his whole vision was on fire.

The woman next to him was terrified. He could hear her thoughts running like a faucet. He knew that he was practically breaking the seat he was in, gripping the edge so tight that he left small dents the exact size of his fingers. A small growl unfurled in his chest, and she shrunk away, pressing herself to the aisle.

Despite how painful it was, knowing what was happening to her, a small feeling of calm was sitting at the edge of his mind. The thought of seeing her – no matter what state she was in – of inhaling her scent, of cradling her in his arms: it was bliss.