The Rabbit, The Bat, and The Reindeer

Disclaimer: Twilight isn't mine. Today's song is The Rabbit, The Bat, and The Reindeer by Dr. Dog. Yeah I know it's weird.

EPOV

After we regrouped outside the theatre we scoured the city, searching for any unknown scents. Everyone was frantic, terrified of what may happen if the traceless vampires and their captive were not found quickly.

It wasn't until we expanded our search to cover the surrounding countryside that we found what we were looking for, a very faint but fairly recent scent trail. Jasper immediately took point, being the most experienced of all of us at tracking.

The trail led us in what seemed to be an endless loop, cutting in and out for miles before we would pick it up again and resume our hunt. It was devastatingly frustrating. With every twist and turn I could feel Bella slipping farther and farther from my grasp than I ever thought possible. I had all but resigned myself to the inevitable soul crushing disappointment that was bound to come once this turned into yet another dead end when Emmett let out a mental whoop before taking off like a bat out of hell.

As soon as I caught on to what he was all about I followed without hesitation. Through my mind's eye I watched as all of the Cullens paused for but a second before following quickly but cautiously in the giant's footsteps, desperate for some good news.

Emmett and I zoomed over the landscape, dodging scrub brush and boulders as we raced deeper into the countryside following a scent trail that, until a few miles ago, had all but disappeared. This trail was fresh and strong and even more exciting, it was intermingled with the scents of several other vampires as well as that of a human.

This was it I could feel it in my bones. I was almost to my love. Just a few moments more and I would have her in my arms. I wasn't naïve enough to think that everything between Bella and I would be all sunshine and lollypops but I truly believed that this experience would only serve to make us stronger. Once Bella learned just how desperately I had fought to find her, never giving up hope, she would surely allow me back into her life to fight off her demons together.

After another few miles Emmett began to slow and I shortened my strides to keep pace with him as we waited several moments for the rest of the Cullens to catch up. As much as I wanted to dash in and destroy whoever had held my love against her will I knew that running in half cocked would only get me and possibly Bella hurt. While I wasn't worried about myself, I wouldn't be able to live with the knowledge that I had caused my love more pain. I had to be smart about this.

Cautiously we approached what appeared to be an old mining operation which, by the decrepit looks of things, had probably been abandoned sometime during the early nineteen hundreds. The area was saturated with the smell of several vampires.

No discussion was necessary each of us knew what needed to be done. Without a sound we fanned out to cover any possible escape routes. Normally a stake out would have been called for but as we drew closer, the frantic heartbeats and tortured screams of a human undergoing the change could be heard emanating from somewhere deep within the mine. It was without a doubt the piece of scum they had kidnapped from the prison several hours earlier.

Most of the scents seemed to be coming from the dilapidated wooden shanty sitting precariously atop a bluff overlooking the mine entrance. Jasper, Emmett, and I quickly encircled the building eager for a fight yet unwilling to make our presence known prematurely.

With a nod of his head Jasper signaled for us to converge upon the shack and without a moment's hesitation Emmett and I had flung ourselves through the boarded up windows while Jasper went in through the front door.

Immediately, a fierce but quick scuffle ensued as we took the only resident of the building captive. We found ourselves in possession of a young vampire, probably about twenty when he was turned, with sandy blonde hair and crimson eyes. Once we had him subdued, Emmett pinned him to the floor while Jasper took his head in his hands and I kept watch.

"What's your name?" I demanded of our prisoner, anxious to get this over with and find Bella.

"Co- Colby," he stuttered nervously.

"Well Co-Colby," Emmett taunted, "we're going to ask you some questions and you're going to answer them for us like a good boy and maybe, just maybe you make it out of here alive. You got it?" he hissed grinding his knee into the vampire's side.

Colby let out a grunt of pain but nodded his agreement as best he could.

"Let's start out with something simple alright. Who are you working for?"

"I don't, I don't know." Colby admitted.

"Wrong answer asshole," Emmett spat as he reached back and slugged the immobile vampire in the face hard enough for small cracks to appear.

"I swear man, I'm telling the truth," Colby pleaded. "I don't know who's in charge of this outfit. Alls I know is I get orders from some Cajun dude with dreads and I follow them."

"You just follow orders no questions? Are you an idiot or something?" Emmett demanded disgusted.

"Enough of this bullshit," Jasper growled into the captive vampire's stricken face. "We're running out of time. Where is she?"

"I don't know who you're talking about," the Colby sputtered, fear shining in his eyes.

"Don't give us that shit!" Emmett spat while yanking the man's arm back painfully. "We know you have her." He gave the arm another sharp pull and succeeded in removing it from its socket. The captive howled in pain but his pleas for mercy fell upon deaf ears.

"The girl stupid! Where is she?" I demanded.

"There's no girl here, I swear it!"

"Liar!" Emmett roared before punching our hostage square in the chest.

Desperate for answers and unwilling to wait any longer I plunged into Colby's mind searching for any sign of my love. Pushing past his thoughts of pain and blind fear I searched for any information that might be useful but came up empty handed. The idiot had been telling the truth, he and the few others here were just lackeys who followed the orders of a faceless stranger.

None of them knew why they were doing the things they were ordered to do, nor were they inclined to ask. Colby was not much older than a newborn yet during his few years in this life he had been brutally tortured into submission by a vampire he knew as Rico before being dropped off at this camp several months ago.

Disgusted, I withdrew from his mind and gesture for Emmett to stop the thorough thrashing he had been giving our captive.

"He's telling the truth," I sighed in defeat. "The coward is too afraid to ask any questions and just does what he's told, when he's told to do it."

"So that's it?" Jasper asked in disbelief. "We've got nothing?"

"Not nothing," I replied. "I have a name and a face." I turned my attention back to the whimpering captive on the floor intent on getting all the information possible. "Who is Rico Colby?"

The answer I received was not what I expected. Colby began to thrash wildly on the floor while his scarlet eyes rolled back into his head and he let out a series of keening wails. I looked at Jasper in disbelief as he and Emmett struggled to retain their hold on Colby's struggling form.

"What the hell Jazz?" Emmett grunted.

"I don't know man," Jasper admitted. "As soon as Edward mentioned that name his fear levels went off the charts. If he were human he would surely be having a heart attack right now. As it is I'm struggling to calm him down enough to keep him coherent. What did this guy do to him Edward?"

"I'm not entirely sure," I admitted. "The memory of it is blacked out in so many places it's hard to piece together but I can tell you from what I did see, it was bad, like Volturi bad."

"I don't like the sound of that," Jasper mumbled. "If this guy has Bells there's no tellin' what could happen. We've got to get this shit storm taken care of and get the hell out of here."

"I couldn't agree more," Emmett replied with a nod, "but what should we do with this guy? I mean we can't just leave him here, can we?"

"What do you think Alice?" I asked knowing that even if she was too far to have heard me she would have seen me ask.

"Order him to leave here and forget he ever saw us. I don't see any trouble from him in the future. The ones inside on the other hand we will have to destroy. Colby was a harmless petty thief while the others were convicted of several brutal murders."

"Alice says we can cut this guy loose after I mess with his mind a bit. The others will have to be killed though."

The Cullen boys agreed, not willing to bet against Alice no matter how much trouble she had been having with her visions lately. Rather than waste any more precious time I pushed my way into Colby's nonsensical mind and followed Alice's directions before instructing Emmett and Jasper to set him loose. Immediately, the now pacified vampire sprang from the floor and raced out the door heading north to Canada. As soon as he was out of sight we quickly rejoined the others near the entrance of the mine in order to strategize.

While we had been dealing with Colby the others had scouted the area looking for any possible escape routes or trails we had missed on our way in. Esme had discovered a back entrance to the mine and it was quickly decided that she and Carlisle would guard the exit in case anyone tried to make a break for it. Meanwhile Jasper and I would enter the mine through the main entrance while Emmett and the girls came in from the back.

With grim looks of determination we took our positions and at Alice's signal we swiftly made our way into to mine. The place had obviously not been in service for many years as it was collapsing in on itself and many of the side tunnels had suffered cave-ins at some point over the last few decades.

Jasper and I stealthily picked our way through the rubble as we wound our way deeper into the bowels of the mine headed for what I imagined must have once been the main cavern.

The air in the mine was stale and heavy with the smell of rot. Apparently the vampires dwelling here had been bringing their victims here to feed before disposing of the bodies. By the smell I ventured to guess that they hadn't gone very far to dump the corpses, the smell was very similar to that of the Volturi catacombs.

In the distance we could hear the faint sound of running water but that was all but drowned out by the tortured screams of the changing human. In a matter of minutes we had reached the entrance to the main cavern. I scanned the room for thoughts, bypassing the fiery torment of the writing human and settling on the vile and viscous thoughts emanating from the three vampires congregated near the back entrance.

It was immediately obvious to me why Alice had sentenced these creatures to death. They were some of the missing convicts, taken from prisons around the country and their thoughts were so dark and sadistic that they could have given Jane a run for her money were she still alive. Yes, these creatures needed to be exterminated before they could pollute the world with any more of their evil doings.

After quickly checking in with Alice and the others, I gave Jasper the thumbs up and we leapt into action, each of us taking down a vampire quickly while the third tried to escape out the back. Before he had gone more than a few feet I heard the sound of screeching metal and then silence as he was dispatched my an angry Rosalie a mere moment before putting the miserable excuse for a human being out of his misery once and for all.

Jasper and I had not yet destroyed our captives as we hoped to get some information out of them before their final deaths. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that they knew precious little more about who was pulling the strings than Colby had. It was only after Jasper had beheaded his captive that mine gave up some more information about the Cajun vampire Colby had referred to earlier.

Apparently he worked in concert with a red headed female, handing out orders and overseeing particularly important missions. None of that was as interesting to me as the small tidbit that came next. Apparently this female had a talent for evasion that was so strong that she had no scent.

Once certain that there was nothing more to be gained from my prisoner, I killed him quickly and threw his dismembered body parts into the now raging fire on the other side of the vast cavern. The information about the female would be valuable now that we had our answer about the vampire with the nonexistent scent.

I wondered of perhaps she had sensed we were on our way and high tailed it out of here once she dropped off the human. The thought caused me to panic as I realized that if she were to reach whoever is in charge of this operation before we do my Bella could be in very real danger.

Sensing my panic, Jasper sent me a quizzical look and a wave of tranquility that, although appreciated, did little to settle my already frayed nerves. Quickly I informed the Cullens about the new turn of events and stressed the importance of finding this woman quickly before any more damage could be done to my love.

We spread out around the mine, searching for any trace of the woman's traveling companion betting that, from what I had gleaned from the vampire's sadistic mind, wherever he was she would be close by. Thankfully luck was on our side as Carlisle was able to pick up the faintest trace of a scent heading away from the mine towards the northwest. We soon left the smoke filled mine far behind us without a second thought so intent were we on finding Bella.

After a few tense hours we caught the hint of the Cajun's scent once again mixed with the scents of several more unknown vampires and readied ourselves for yet another fight. I prayed that this time we would find my love, otherwise I would not be held accountable for my actions should we encounter more of the former inmates following mystery orders.

Please leave me some love and let me know what you think! I promise it's not who you think has Bella captive!