So, this is my last update for a while since I'm headed home for the holidays in the wee hours of the morning. And, sadly, due to my parents' dial-up, I'm not going to update while I'm there.

But, no fear – I'm sure I'll have plenty to update with as soon as I get back! :)

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Chapter 10

I was moving swiftly through the woods, in search of good prey for the evening. From my luck so far, it seemed that my chances of mountain lion were slim tonight. I paused for a moment and inhaled deeply. But the scent that I caught was not an animal. Nor was it human.

I automatically dropped down into a crouch. I listened intently, but heard nothing except the sound of small insects crawling along the ground and the wind rustling through the trees. I inhaled again, this time to gauge how far away the presence was. After determining that it was heading away from me, I silently moved backward a few dozen yards and set off at a run back towards the house.

Although I had only been about a half hour run away, it took me nearly three hours to get back to the house since I often doubled back or purposely took a wrong turn to throw the unfamiliar presence off the scent if it tried to come after me. One of these excursions had taken me all the way over into Montana. It was nearing midnight when I got back, but vampires did not need sleep, so the Cullens would still be up. However, as I neared the house, I noticed that it was dark.

I checked the garage first. Both Jasper's Jaguar and Emmett's Jeep were still gone, as was Carlisle's Mercedes. I could not hear a sound coming from the house. I moved swiftly through the living room and towards Carlisle's study. I could see a dim light shining through the crack under the door and felt a glimmer of hope, even though my acute sense of smell told me that no one was in the house. Sure enough, when I opened the door, I found the room empty; however, a lamp had been left on and a book lay open on the desk with the chair pushed back haphazardly, as if he had vacated his seat in a hurry. I breezed quickly through the upstairs rooms, still finding no one.

I returned to the entry room by the front door, where I decided to wait for the Cullens to return. I did not turn on any lights – I did not need them anyway – just in case it was not a Cullen who returned. I stood completely still in the shadows in the doorway from the foyer into the living room, watching the door with all of my senses alert.

*******

I had been standing there for hours before I heard a rustle from outside. I let out a low growl and automatically dropped into a fighting stance, feeling every muscle in my body tense for attack.

I listened intently. The rustle was still relatively far away, back near the woods, but it was steadily moving closer at a pace that was just a bit too quick to be a human. The steadiness of the approach led me to believe that it was one of the Cullens, but I did not relax, as I had no intention of taking any chances.

I could hear them approach the steps and come up onto the porch. I could hear the power behind the lightness of the step; it was obviously a vampire. I cursed the closed door for stopping the airflow that would allow me to use my acute sense of smell to determine whether the approaching presence was friend or foe. As I heard their hand touch the doorknob, I readied for attack.

The second the door opened, it allowed a gust of wind to travel into the house. It was Esme.

She automatically turned on the light as she entered and started when she saw me, crouched and ready to spring. I straightened immediately.

"Thank God it is you," I said, a smile coming to my lips. However, the smile did not reach my eyes, belying my anxiety. "Where is everyone?"

"Hunter, you scared me for a moment there."

"I am sorry," I replied, truly feeling bad. "I was not sure that it was you until you opened the door. But the others, where are they?"

"I honestly do not know," she said, her worry coming out in her voice. She could tell by my demeanor that something was wrong. "Jasper and Emmett haven't returned since they stormed out earlier. And Rosalie and Alice went to hunt. I was just out looking for them; there has been another attack and I wanted them to come back in for the evening since I was worried. Carlisle is at the hospital caring for the victim."

"Did you not find them?"

"No. I checked all the usual hunting grounds, but there was no trace of them. It's not like Rose and Alice to venture so far out. Rose usually likes to stay close to hunt," she said, concerned.

My own unease was mounting. "You should not have gone out alone, Esme. It is not safe. I was out hunting earlier and I came across another vampire. It was about a half hour away from here. I made several detours on my way back so he would not easily be led back here."

"We need to get ahold of the others. Rose and Alice may be in danger," she said, immediately authoritative. This was a side of Esme I had never before seen. In the back of my mind, I found myself wishing that she would be this concerned over me were I ever in danger. "I have already tried Rose and Alice's phones several times; neither answered. Call Jasper and Emmett – tell them to get back here immediately. I'll call Carlisle and let him know what is going on."

Emmett was already on his way back when I called him and the way I heard the tires screech and the Jag's engine gun the second I said Alice could be in danger, I figured Jasper would not be far behind.

"Carlisle is just finishing at the hospital," Esme said, hanging up her phone. "He will be home as soon as possible."

"Good. Jasper and Emmett are both on their way. They should be back shortly."

"Do you think they will be alright, Hunter?" she asked, quietly.

"We will find them," I responded, determined that we would.

*******

"We should go in groups," I said. Jasper, Emmett, Carlisle, Esme and I were all seated around the dining room table. "I only smelled one, but I did not investigate, so there may be more."

"Should we leave anyone here?" Carlisle asked. "In case the vampires trace our scent here?"
"No," Jasper responded, crisply. I had to hand it to him. Despite the anguish I knew he must be feeling, he was extremely composed. He had reverted into battle mode as soon as he walked in the door; tactical planning was like second nature to Jasper. "If they are able to trace us here we are better off confronting them as one large group. We do not know how many there are, so we should not take any chances."

"Do you think we should go as one group or spilt up?" I asked, turning the options over in my mind. "If we split up we can cover more ground, but we will have the advantage of larger numbers if we stay together."

Jasper considered this briefly. "I think it would be better to split up. If we encounter them in the forests, there are more places for us to run to or hide than at the house, so it should be alright."

I nodded once. "I will go with Emmett. You take Carlisle and Esme. And we need to be in constant communication."

"We got that covered," Emmett said, holding up his phone. "Walkie-talkie feature."

"I will take communication for our group," Carlisle said, grimly.

"Let's go then." We all followed Jasper as he rose from the table.

*******

Emmett and I headed west, while Jasper, Carlisle and Esme went east. I started a systematic pattern of combing the forest, searching for anything that would tip me off as to which way Rosalie and Alice may have gone.

"Bro, how are we ever going to find them?" Emmett asked quietly. Hearing the worry in Emmett's typically joking voice was disconcerting. "Their scent is all over these woods – we're never gonna be able to tell which way they went."

"You just have to find the more recent scent," I replied. "You can pick out who they were with each time they came through and then-" I stopped abruptly. I sniffed the tree I was near a second time. Definitely Rosalie's perfume. I took a step in that direction. I could smell a faint odor of a human mixed with Alice's perfume – it must be from when Alice was in Matthew's car this afternoon. "They went this way. Let the others know."

"How did you do that?" Emmett asked, inhaling deeply in the direction I had indicated. "It smells the same as anywhere else. No wonder the Volturi hired you."

I smiled wanly and started off in the direction they had traveled. The others joined us shortly after. Now that we had a trail to follow, there was no need to split up.

The trail was easy to follow and we moved quickly through the forest. However, before long a new scent appeared – an unfamiliar scent. "They were followed," I said, stopping at a line of saplings. "Starting here."

We continued to follow the trail. Suddenly, I stopped again. "A second vampire began following here, on their other side."

This time we proceeded more slowly. "And a third here. And a fourth joined here."

I stopped again at a small clearing. It was not really even a clearing so much as a space made by a fallen tree. "The trail stops here. No, does not stop, but their scent is fainter beyond this point." I stepped out into the clearing and crouched by the fallen log. "Alice tripped over this log."

"Alice doesn't trip," Jasper said, tersely.

"It's true," seconded Carlisle. "She would have seen herself tripping and easily avoided it."

I thought about this as I inhaled deeply. I looked down and inspected the ground a little more closely. "You are right. She did not trip – she was tackled. She fell onto her back." The indents in the ground was a perfect replica of Alice's shoulders.

I stood up and started moving around the clearing. "There were six of them. No, seven. But the seventh one stayed back from the fight. He stood right…here."

"But, with so many, how did Alice not see the attack coming?" Carlisle asked.

"Because she was preoccupied with how stupid I was being," Jasper said, angrily hitting a tree. I could see the massive trunk tilt slightly. "If I hadn't been so stupid and childish, she would have seen it coming."

"Jasper, dear, you cannot blame yourself for this," Esme said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder.

He shook it off. "Where does the trail lead to from here?"
We followed the trail, but it only led us to the road, where it abruptly stopped. "They must have gotten into a car," I said. "We cannot go any further with it."

We returned home in silence, each lost in our own thoughts and worries. However, I could feel Jasper's despair consume me.

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Do you hate me for stopping it here? If so, I totally understand. I would hate me too – but it was just too good of a spot to pass up! Let me know what you think of it!

And mark your calendars for December 26th to find out what happens next!