Part 21
By Tekhne
Interstate five stretched out before me. I'd made it halfway in just over eight hours. Bella had been right; the food she packed would make the drive shorter. So far, I'd only stopped for gas, grabbing extra drinks and food then. The drive home wouldn't take nearly as long as the drive down. I'd remember that the next time I visited Bella.
To be honest, I'd worried about her. I was glad to see she'd made some friends. Kathy might call me Hometown, but she seemed to really like Bella. Travis seemed nice enough, too, and I'd been even more enthusiastic about him when I learned that he had a crush on Lissa. Kathy seemed to have Burt under control. Patrick seemed like bad news, but Bella clearly had a handle on that already. She'd avoided him like the plague at the party.
While Bella and Lissa disappeared to find the bathroom at the party, Travis had filled me in on how Kathy, Burt and Patrick had teased Bella about having a hometown boyfriend, especially one who was still in high school. He pointed out that while Kathy called me Hometown to my face, she'd called me 'eye-candy too hot for high school' the rest of the time. I hoped Bella wasn't in for a different type of teasing now that I was gone.
I'd felt comfortable enough telling Travis that Bella had been through a rough time, and I worried about her. Of course, I couldn't tell him everything, but I gave him the basic idea and then asked him to keep an eye out for her. I even gave him my number and email so he could let me know if there was an emergency. With Bella, you never knew, even though she seemed to make it through the weekend unscathed. It made me feel better, knowing someone was watching over her, especially since I'd had to bail unexpectedly.
She was so vulnerable. I recognized that look in her eyes when I walked out the door. It wasn't the same, but it stirred up the old feelings from when the bloodsucker left her. It made me hate leaving her even more, but I had no choice. New leeches in La Push meant I had a duty. At least Bella was safe in California. We hadn't had these kinds of killings since I could remember. Why was the Olympic Peninsula bloodsucker central all of a sudden?
Sam had sounded worried because he was unsure of the numbers. At least two, maybe more. Could this group be as large as the Cullens? That would mean the stories were wrong. If they were wrong about one thing, the legends could be wrong about others. Maybe that was on Sam's mind.
Four people dead. Jared had found them that morning on a routine patrol. The bodies had been broken, mangled. Unless the leeches had done it after the people were dead, they enjoyed causing pain. Well, I would enjoy killing them. The sooner, the better. At the rate I was going, I might get home before sunrise. I could phase, check in with whoever was patrolling, and then get some sleep.