A/N: Yes, yes, I know. It's not the chapter you wanted. Have no fear though, we shall return to Jacob and Bella in due course.

Dang, you guys killed it with the reviews on the last chapter! Keep it up! As a reward for all those lovely reviews, here is the next chapter, two days early!

Disclaimer: I confess it! I am really Stephenie Meyer in disguise! *pulls off wig and mask* You all caught me!

Nah, I'm just yanking your chain. I'm not really Stephenie Meyer.

For realz, dawg.



EPOV

Sam crossed his arms in frustration, trying to decide what to do. I could hear in his thoughts how reluctant he was to giving me too much information about the pack, but, after much deliberating, he chose to tell me.

"It was about a week ago; two days after Harry Clearwater died. Paul, Jared, and I were attending his funeral, because Jacob and Embry had volunteered to run patrol, so we would not leave the reservation defenseless." Sam finally said, breaking the heavy silence. He stalked over to a tree, and leaned his back against it before continuing. "From what Jacob has told me, and from what I have seen in his thoughts, Jacob was running on the north side of the reservation, while Embry was running on the south side. I am not exactly sure what happened, but she got past them. They were just about to go make a run around Forks, when they caught her trail. Jacob and Embry followed it, all the way to Bella's house. Jacob realized what might have happened, and panicked; running into her house, and up to Bella's room. Everything was still in perfect order, except for the few drops of blood on the floor, and the overwhelming stench of a vampire." Sam paused; interrupted by the sound of sobbing. I looked over to see Jacob with his hand over his face, trying to stifle his tears.

"It wasn't your fault." Sam said, looking at Jacob with stony sympathy. "None of us know what happened. This was not your fault."

"It was!" Jacob exploded, leaping to his feet. "If I had been paying better attention, she never would have gotten through! I was just so distracted, what with the funeral, and Bella finally…" He trailed off, glancing over at me. I tried to listen to his thoughts, but he was blocking me; singing the words to Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, over, and over.

"'Bella finally' what?!" I yelled, probing around in his mind, desperate to find an answer. What had finally happened? What did Bella finally do, that he was excited for?!

"Bella finally getting over you!" Jacob screamed back, fighting against his order not to hurt me. "She had finally moved on! We were going to be happy! She was going to be happy! I swear to God this universe hates me. Practically the moment everything is going to be right, you stupid leeches had to go and screw it up again!"

I opened my mouth to retort, but I had no answer. He was right. If I had never entered Bella's life, she would still be alive. If I had not dragged her into my world of night, she would have had a happy life.

If I had never entered her life…

Jacob was correct about that.

"Jacob! Calm down!" Sam ordered, shooting a stern look at Jacob. Jacob sat back down; going over the various ways he could kill me, in his head.

"Embry called us," Sam continued, as if nothing had happened. "And the rest of the pack rushed from the funeral. We all went to Bella's house, and tried to track Victoria from there, and at first we couldn't find her. There was a trail to follow, but after following it for about an hour, we stumbled across a fresher trail, and decided to follow that one instead. We followed that one, and eventually caught up with her… She still had Bella's blood on her lips. We chased her for a long time, but, as usual, she escaped." I saw the memory of Victoria laughing as the wolves nipped at her, play again in Sam's head. "We started back to find the older trail, hoping it would lead us to Bella, but we couldn't find it again. We've tried to follow it again, but it always leads us around in circles. We still haven't been able to find a body. Since then, Victoria has made several runs through Forks, but we haven't been able to catch her. I believe she is taunting us. As a matter of fact, I was following one of her trails, when I heard Jacob attack you."

"Sam, can you take me to the trail you were following? I intend to take care of Victoria myself, and would be much obliged if you would assist me in tracking her." I interrupted, anxious to begin chasing her. "That is, if the trail is not on your land. I have no intention of violating our treaty." I shot a pointed look at Jacob. He scoffed, and looked in the other direction.

"I can." Sam agreed, deliberating over something in his mind. "But… Tell me something first."

"I can do that, I suppose…" I answered, tentatively. What did he want to know? I tried to probe around in his mind, but all I could catch was "Should I?" and "Or maybe not…" These wolves were very practiced in hiding their thoughts.

"Why are you here? Your family left. Why did you decide to come back now, of all times? I thought you didn't love Bella anymore?" Sam asked, noticing my wince at his last words.

"To tell the truth… I lied to Bella." I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "I always loved her, and I always will." I heard Jacob growl under his breath from across the clearing, but I continued as if I hadn't heard anything. "All I wanted for her was to have a normal life. I knew that there were only three options in my relationship with Bella. I could either change her; something I was very averse to doing. I could live with her for the rest of her human life, loving her even as she aged, but she refused that option. So, the only choice left for me was to leave. I wanted her to be able to grow, and to really experience life; to be an old woman, with kids, and grandkids, and friends. I didn't want her cursed to my life of secrecy and lies. I can't even go out in the sunlight without people noticing how different I am. I didn't want that for her. She deserved more than that."

Yeah, you piece of shit! Of course she deserved more than that! But that doesn't mean you LIE to her, and leave her for dead in the woods! What the hell is wrong with you!? Jacob shot his violent thoughts at me, once again. I let out a sigh, and continued on with my story to Sam.

"So, as I didn't think that she would just let me leave, knowing that I still loved her, I decided to hurt her. I decided to hurt her, to save her."

"That makes sense…" Sam muttered, a flash of memory going through his mind. In the brief glimpse I caught, I saw a beautiful teenage girl, with dark hair, and coppery skin, begging Sam for something. It sounded like she was asking him where he had been… The girl in his memory was crying, and seemed very distraught.

"Anyway," I continued, trying to tune out Sam's thoughts. "I thought that the best way to get her to let me go, and eventually get over me, was to tell her that I didn't love her anymore. I thought that if I left no traces of me left, she would, eventually, begin to forget about me. So I took her into the woods, and told her that my family was leaving, and that I felt no love for her anymore."

"Oh, that was smart! It didn't hurt her at all!" Jacob interrupted, again. "What the hell were you thinking, dumbass! 'Oh! I know! I'll just take her out into the woods, and tell her something life alteringly horrible! Nothing bad could possibly happen! It's completely safe, and an absolutely brilliant idea! I'm sure she won't be found, hours later, comatose, on the ground! Ha-ha-ha! No, that would never happen! Now I'll just go rip out her heart, and jump on it!!!'" Jacob screamed, imitating my voice, and consumed with rage.

"Jacob!" Sam turned, glaring at him. "Calm. DOWN. Be quiet! Let Edward tell his story. Continue please."

"Thank you Sam." I replied, running my hands through my hair. I didn't want to tell Sam this whole story! I wanted to get on Victoria's trail! I wanted to hunt down that bitch, and rip her limb, from limb! "As I was saying, I had no intention of hurting her. I took her out into the woods, barely 100 feet from her house, and told her. I had no idea that she would try to follow me. If I had, I would have taped her to a chair or something…" I chuckled darkly, pain welling up inside me at the memory of her face when I told her I didn't want her anymore. Never had I seen something so horrifying as the shock, and hurt in her eyes. I would remember that look till the day I died. "Anyway, I left. For the next several months, I moved from place to place, trying to forget about Bella. I knew I never would be able to, but I thought if I distracted myself, I would be less tempted to return to her. Those months were sheer agony." I sighed, running my hand through my hair again. It was odd; the comfort I felt in divulging my past to this wolf, who was my natural enemy. He understood though. He had been forced into doing the same thing, to the girl in his memory.

"About a week ago, I decided to be selfish and come back." I continued. "I simply couldn't live without her any longer. I told myself that if she had found someone else, and had moved on, I would never darken her doorstep again. But, if she still wanted me, I would live with her for the rest of her life… I reached Forks a day later, and when I was within a few miles of Bella's house, I got a call from my sister, Alice. Alice had seen a vision of me returning, and finding Bella dead. I ran to her house, because I didn't believe it, but then I saw the newspaper clipping on her bed, and I knew it was true." I trailed off, the pain consuming my long dead heart. How did I ever think I could live without her? "And so, here I am. Ready to do whatever it takes to destroy her killer. Now, I beg of you, will you take me to the trail?"

"Yes. It will be faster if I run though." Sam replied, pulling off his jeans, and tying them to his ankle, before morphing into a giant wolf.

Can you hear my thoughts when I am a wolf? He asked me.

"Yes, I can hear you."

Good. Now follow me. The trail starts about 4 miles to the east of Forks, and goes south. I believe she is headed for Oregon, or northern California. I doubt she would risk going any farther south than that.

"You're probably right." I replied, anxious to get going. "Now, please, show me the trail."

"Wait a second!" Jacob yelled, causing Sam's head to swivel around to look at him. "If you think I'm going to let you be alone with this creep, you're insane. I'm going too." Jacob stripped his jeans off as well, pausing to give me a smug, self satisfied smile, and then morphed into a giant wolf.

Well, let's get this show on the road, shall we? I want you out of here as soon as possible, Cullen. Jacob snarled at me, quietly.

Jacob, don't be a child. Sam chastised him. Now, Edward, follow me. Sam took off into the woods, Jacob following swiftly behind him. I chased after them, and after several minutes of running, we reached the edge of a darkened road; long abandoned, and covered with weeds.

The trail begins here. Sam thought, nodding his nose in the direction of the trail. We have had several wolves run it, so you may not be able to smell Victoria's scent very well, but that's where she was earlier today. Good luck. I hope you catch her.

"Thank you Sam." I answered, glancing over at where I was to begin tracking her. "Thank you for your help. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a vampire to kill."

What a coincidence. I've got a vampire to kill too! Jacob thought, vindictively. He imagined breaking Sam's command, and leaping at me; ripping out my throat before I even had time to react.

"Hah. That would never happen. I'm much too quick for you."

Oh yeah? Try me.

Jacob! ENOUGH!

I laughed at Jacob; being forced to follow Sam's commands must be horrible.

"Again, thank you Sam. Goodbye now." I said one last time, before darting off into the forest. I locked in on the scent, and began following Victoria's trail through the forest.

"Victoria," I said, out loud; though there was no one there to hear me. "Remember that meeting I told you about last time? Well, I think it's going to be much sooner than I originally planned."


End notes: Whew! That one was a doozey! Well, now that we know what's been going on with Edward, we can get back to the juicy stuff, with Jacob and Bella. Jacob knows that Edward was looking for her! Will he tell her?! Who knows...

Tune in next time for the answer!

*switches off radio*

Now, show me some love in the reviews!

Edit: Due to some unclear writing on my part, I want to clear up why I wrote Edward in these chapters the way I did. I was trying to make him a realistic as possible, and, in my opinion, how I wrote him, is how he would react. Let me explain. Edward is totally, mindbogglingly, and utterly heartbroken over Bella's demise. Really, he is. But right now, he is a man on mission. He feels guilty for Bella's death, so he feels that he must avenge her killer. He knows that he cannot be an effective tracker, or killer, if he is laying on the ground in a blubbering mass! So, he is pushing his heartbreak to the side, for the time being, and channeling his sorrow into fury! He is using all his energy in becoming completely, and totally pissed off. He's channeling his feelings so that he can kill Victoria, and avenge Bella's death. As soon as he has killed Victoria, he has every intention of giving in to his despair, and running off to Italy to kill himself. But, for the time being, he knows that he cannot give in to his emotions, and let Victoria walk free. Because of this, he is very, very on edge, and emotionally strained. He's becoming almost hysterical from the effort to fight off the grief. So, when he laughs, it's not a real, happy, laugh; it is the laugh of a borderline insane person.

I hope that clears things up! I'm definitely going to make a few edits in this chapter to make it more clear, so if you notice any differences in the wording, that's why!

Thanks again for the feedback! It really, really helps me, to make this story the best it can possibly be!