Author's Note: I know this chapter ends on another cliff-hanger, but it was getting to be soooo looonng. I'll try to update it quickly. I wish I could put all your minds at rest-- but that would ruin the suspense! Thanks again for the reviews, be sure to tell your friends about this story. Reviews seriously make my day; I float ten feet off the ground when I read a nice review. ;)
23. Sweet Smoke
"All right," said Edward, slapping the palms of his hands smartly together, "you know the strategy. Let's not waste any time. Call every six hours, and don't make any offensive moves against anyone without consulting the rest of us first. Any questions?"
Well, I had one that was rather pressing, in my opinion. "Um, Edward," I asked, "is there any reason for me to be...worried...about your friends?"
"Siobhan and her coven are well-behaved," he answered warmly, sqeezing my hand. "Don't give that one moment of thought, Bella."
I breathed a little easier. "Okay." It would make searching for Carlisle a lot more simple if I wasn't scared of my fellow seekers.
"Actually, we don't even know if Siobhan's coven is going to help us," pointed out Jasper, frowning. "No one answered our call."
"They will," Edward was confident. "Until then, I suggest we don't range too far away from each other. It will be better if we can regroup and update Siobhan all at once."
"Sure thing, bro." Emmett was antsy, bouncing on his toes, looking like a football player keyed up for a game. "Let's roll!"
"Take care, dear," Esme said, her fingers tenderly brushing my shoulder.
"I will, Esmse." I waved in a pitiful imitation of cheerfulness. For Esme's sake, I hoped the search across Ireland would be short and successful.
"Come on, Bella," smiled Edward, tugging me in the direction of the city. We were going to start in Dublin, with everyone else spreading out in a half-starburst pattern around us. Emmett and Esme set off resolutely to our right, their khaki-clothed bodies growing more white as they walked away. Jasper had Alice by the hand, too, and was pulling her to our left, whispering something in her ear. I couldn't get over Alice's insolent attitude-- she still had her headphones on, dipping her head to the music. She didn't even wave at us, nothing to acknowledge our existence.
Didn't she realize this search could be life or death for our family?
"Carlisle will be easy to spot, luckily," said Edward, as we plunged into the traffic of bodies outside the airport. He held my hand tightly, as if afraid I would vanish, too, if he let me go. "Call out if you see anyone that looks remotely like him."
How could any human look like a vampire, much less Carlisle? I couldn't mistake a mere human for any of my inhumanly beautiful family. I was desperate to locate Carlisle, true, but my mind wouldn't play that big a trick on me. I just gripped Edward's hand tighter, communicating my fervent desire to find his father.
Not just Edward's father-- my father in a way, as well. That's what Carlisle had evolved into, really, when I'd spent all those nights staying late at the Cullens' house, sitting in the big living room, with everyone happy and content as can be. Carlisle had been at the center of that content, the pillar around which the rest of us had assembled. I had grown to admire the oldest of the Cullens almost as much as I admired Charlie, and maybe a little more, somewhat. Of course, Carlisle would never fill the place Charlie had in my heart, but...
"Is this hopeless, Edward?" I sighed, staring dispiritedly at all the people hurrying around us. We were moving through Dublin now, at a rapid pace. "How can we comb over this whole island in a day?"
"We have to," replied Edward, his eyes roving across the crowds.
"What if Carlisle has already moved on?" Why was I saying this? I was aghast; did I want Edward to give up hope?
"We'll find him, don't you think otherwise. We have to keep looking, and we will till there's nowhere else to look."
His gorgeous eyes were full to the brim with conviction and determination. I wished I had that much fortitude. Or maybe it was just hard-headedness. If that was the case, I had plenty of that.
"Siobhan should have called by now," mused Edward, checking the small phone in his pocket while we weaved through a group of Irishmen.
"She might be hunting, I guess," I suggested.
"Hmmm. I don't know. She could be in on whatever's wrong with Carlisle."
"She's your friend, isn't she?" I questioned sharply, rapping his forearm. "Why would she hurt Carlisle?"
"She's more Carlisle's friend than mine, so she would be more likely to help him than us."
His hypothesis left me in a deeper pit than I'd started in. Some friend, if she helped Carlisle into danger. A true friend was someone who would refuse to do as you asked if it was best for you. I was one to talk, I thought bitterly. What a great friend I'd been to Jake, all those times it would have been better for him if I'd stayed away, stayed aloof.
The phone in Edward's pocket buzzed, and he yanked it out. "Hello?" His face cleared. "Siobhan, we--" His eyebrows lowered, his mouth tightening. "Calm down, Siobhan. I can't understand you, what are you--" Edward stood stock still, the hand around mine growing slack. "What are you saying?" he asked in a low voice. "No, no, Siobhan, slow down. Carlisle was here? With you?" I gasped. "But then..." His eyes went wide. "He's gone? Gone where? And Rose? Why didn't--all right, I know, I see. Yes, of course. We're already here, in Dublin. All of us. We don't know, that's why--fine. We'll be there in an hour."
He snapped the phone shut, then stared down at me, his expression stuck between confused and dumbstruck. "Carlisle and Rose were with Soibhan's coven, then went to talk to..." With newfound urgency, he picked up my hand and we plunged into the stream of people.
"Edward, what's going on? What did she say? Is Carlisle all right?"
He wasn't listening to me, he was dialing Emmett's number. His words ran together so that it was a chore to decipher them. "Emmett? Run to Siobhan's house, now. She called me less than a minute ago. Just go!"
He ended the call, and poised his finger over the first button of Jasper's number just as a light breeze announced Alice's arrival next to me. "Come on, Bella, Edward," she said imperiously, stuffing her headphones into a bag she'd pulled out of thin air. "I've been waiting all day to have this vision."
Jasper smoothed out my rising anxiety, then turned burning eyes on Edward. "Siobhan's house is where?"
"Just stay with us," said Edward, scooping me into his arms.
"Not in town, Edward," Alice reminded him. Smiling in a forced way, Edward laughed woodenly and kissed me, acting the part of a deleriously happy teenager pulling antics with his girlfriend. I laughed back, clutching his shirt-front all the while.
"Let's go," I muttered after our show, when we were past Dublin. "Pronto."
"You said it," agreed Jasper, laying on speed till he was nothing but a blur. Edward slung me onto his back and then blazed past Jasper and Alice.
Siobhan's house was a good way from Dublin, I learned, as we raced along over the uneven ground. My arms grew tired from hanigng on to Edward, so he switched to cradling me in his arms. In such a comfortable position, I would have normally been asleep in minutes, but today my eyes were thrown open, my heart beating faster than usual. What had happened to Carlisle and Rosalie, and why wouldn't Edward tell me? What if--but no, that couldn't be.
"They're...alive?" I whispered at him, tilting my head back to see his face. "Carlisle and Rosalie are alive, aren't they, Edward?"
"Siobhan doesn't know," said Edward vaguely.
We lapsed into pensive silence, until the whizzing figures of Alice and Jasper flanked us. "This is our closest lead yet," Jasper enthused. "Alice said the scene in her vision took place only three hours ago."
"Yes," mumbled Alice, her ivory face blank, "and there's the face. I see it, now. I've known it all along."
"Emmett and Esme are on their way, too," said Edward. "They might be ahead of us already."
"I know," perked up Alice, seeming to snap out of her dreamy state. "They aren't there quite yet. They've got about five minutes left, and then we'll get there ten minutes after that."
"Can you see anything else?" urged Edward. "What about Carlisle and Rosalie?"
"I've tried, of course," Alice glared at her brother, "but all I can see is blackness."
"Odd." Edward squinted as he interpreted Alice's thoughts. "Like someone has their eyes closed, or--"
"A blindfold," supplied Alice.
"What in the world could that mean?" Jasper hurtled over a low stone wall. "Why would someone blindfold you, Alice?"
"It isn't me, I don't think. I can't be sure, because I've never had a vision like that before, but I think it's Carlisle."
I sighed, and knew Jasper was getting some mixed feelings from my quadrant of the emotional territory. It was good that Alice thought she saw Carlisle-- that meant he was alive, at least. But what did it mean that he was blindfolded? Where was he, and with whom? "What about Rosalie?" I inquired tentatively. "Can you see her, Alice?"
"No," she growled. The subject was closed.
Ten minutes later, Edward set me on my feet, waiting until I was steady before withdrawing his hands. "Siobhan's house is just around that bend," he said, nodding.
Jasper and Alice came to a stop and accompanied the two of us at human speed to a tiny house perched on a fertile green hill. The exterior of the house was wooden, clearly old but well-kempt. I was mildly surprised; I hadn't been expecting a civilized coven. Although I hadn't had a definite picture in my mind, none of the other vampires I'd run into had acted remotely like the Cullens, so it startled me to think of these Irish vampires with a house, a home.
"Siobhan?" called Edward, striding toward the house. There was no answer.
Jasper crept forward as well, scanning the hills warily. "Where are they?"
With the force of a rattlesnake, Alice began to hiss, baring her teeth. At the same moment Jasper and Edward froze, and I inhaled with fear. That was when I could smell a cloyingly sweet smoke, and a second later I saw a curl of dark purple cloud beyond the little house. "No," moaned Edward, whisking me up and shooting toward the smoke.
Jasper hadn't waited for any of us, and was halfway to the purple haze. All three of us saw him stop as if he'd run into a brick wall, then crumple to his knees, his hands flying distractedly to his head. "Jasper!" cried Alice, and surpassed Edward in her fear for her love.
"Alice, no! What if it's--" Edward cut off and put on more speed.
I was still staring at Jasper, who was now attempting to crawl closer to the smoke, on his hands and knees like...a human. An inhibited, insufficient human. It was agonizing to watch, and I was glad when he finally gave up twenty feet from the smoke. As we got nearer, I made out a strange pile of tinder from which the smoke was emanating. What was it? A pit in the bottom of my stomach began to knot up, for what I didn't know.
Across the pile from Jasper were two figures I knew immediately to be Esme and Emmett. Emmett had his arms tight around Esme, who wasn't moving at all. If I wasn't clued in on the Cullens' secrets, I would have guessed Esme had fainted. "Be prepared, Bella," Edward told me softly, pressing me tighter to him. "Be prepared. We may have to help them."
Prepare? Help who? What did Edward think about the smoke, about Jasper? A sudden, horrific thought struck me. "Oh, Edward, you don't think...that smoke..."
He didn't respond, but the countryside whipped by faster.