A/N Hey all my, hopefully, still loyal readers. I would like to thank Finals and moving back home after my first year of college for this late update!

~Rachel


Chapter 28

Untraceable

"The path that I'm walking I must go alone. I must take the baby steps till I'm full grown. Fairytales don't always have a happy ending do they? And I foresee the dark ahead if I stay." Fergie

With every mile I put between Forks and me I thought more and more about what I was leaving behind. My friends, my family, Seth, the wolves, the small town that had given me the first feeling of security and permanency: my life. I was deserting a life I had spent seventeen years creating. My identity was left nestled in the loveseat in my room, sitting in the third desk from the door in Ms. Liu's class, and snuggled up in the crook of Seth's arm while he slept as I made my way down the interstate towards the airport.

Now with nothing more than a spare pair of clothes and a series of one way plane tickets I was left with an identity that was unfamiliar to me. It really wasn't much of an identity at all. All Alyssandra had was a past that existed God only knows how long ago and that I only knew bits and pieces of. Resurrecting her was not going to be easy, but it had to be easier than watching Alyssa's life disintegrating. At least that's what I kept telling myself as I made my way towards an existence that would never fully be mine.

Planning had helped to keep the full impact of exactly what I had to do from settling in my mind but actually going through with it, I found myself more unprepared than ever, just going through the motions as I was moved from car to plane then back to a different car. There was no turning around, that path had been erased carefully by my own hands. It was too late. Besides, it was all for the greater good I reminded myself as I stood there, dressed in white lace and silk while silently morning, waiting for the announcement that would secure my severance from my old life, Alyssa's life, forever.

My breath faltered as the music started, Cannon in D. I fought back the tears as I stared down the long, stone pathway. I always knew it would somehow come to this. It was the only way to save my family. It was the least I could do for the burden I had been. This was the hardest decision I had ever had to make, and I had to remind myself that sometimes what's right and what's hard are the same. I took my first shaky step, hoping that if I began moving, getting the inevitable over with, the deed would be more bearable. Yet with every step closer I took towards my new fate, the more I wanted to run in the opposite direction and fight it tooth and nail.

I heard the ticking of the clock, acting as a metronome for the music, as I slowly picked my way across the stone path in my heels. I snuck a glance at it and quickened my pace, stumbling over a few loose stones. It was only a matter of time before Alice would see my new decision, and then a few more minutes until they caught up to me. I had been able to hide my intentions by hopping from one false decision to the next, but now my mind was solely on what I was about to do. There was no doubt in my mind that they would try to stop me. And I couldn't risk that, I couldn't risk them fighting for me, possibly revealing themselves for me. I wasn't worth it.

Desmond was waiting for me; his eyes trained on me looked uneasy and anxious. Those eyes made me speed up all the more, afraid that something had gone wrong. Was he going back on his word? We made a deal, he got this, us, and I was promised we would deal with Marcus. He looked somewhat unhappy and he of all people shouldn't be unhappy today of all days even with the heaviness of his part of the deal weighing on him. Especially not with his bride to be making her way towards him in the stupidly ornate dress he had given her. It should be the best day of his life, he should be ecstatic: I was wearing the dress he liked, the ring he had given me, and the necklace that had belonged to his mother. He was finally getting what he wanted, and yet he looked as if he was losing everything he had. Something most definitely had gone wrong.

As soon as I stood before him Desmond reached out, placing a steady hand on each of my shoulders. His eyes bore into me with a seriousness that I had never seen before.

"Where are you?" He asked worriedly.

My eyebrows scrunched in confusion as I stared up at him perplexed. "What?"

Other faint noises around us began to distract me but Desmond simply gripped my shoulders tighter and repeated his question with more desperation.

I couldn't focus on his words as another voice was speaking softly from somewhere nearby. I strained my ears to try and understand what the strange voice was saying, closing my eyes in an effort to block out every other sense but sound.

"Final boarding call for flight 52B to Munich," A woman's falsely chipper voice sounded out of nowhere, shattering the scene before me. A rough shake to my shoulder brought my attention back to Desmond, but when I opened my eyes I was blinded by a bright light.

"Miss, you're going to miss your flight," an unfamiliar male voice sounded to my right.

A jolt ripped through the pit of my stomach as I realized that I had fallen asleep and consequently had almost missed my plane. Quickly thanking the kind stranger I grabbed my backpack and slipped it over one shoulder as I hurried towards the gate. As my ticket and passport were being checked the flight attendant kept eyeing me and my sole carry on. She seemed to not to believe that someone would be flying out of the country with nothing more than a nap sac, especially not a young girl. Smiling politely at her I gripped my passport tightly as I made my way down the crowded aisle to row F.

My seat was by the window, and being one of the last ones to board I had to squeeze across two elderly people to get to it. Avoiding eye-contact I mumbled an apology as I collapsed in the chair and went to staring out the window.

"Are you traveling alone dear?" The woman beside me asked.

I turned to face her out of politeness when I answered "yes" and upon seeing the look of concern on her face I added "There wasn't enough room on the flight for my family."

That seemed to satisfy her worry, but did nothing to end the conversation. She asked about the reason for my trip, a wedding, then about who was getting married, my cousin, and was I part of the wedding party, no. When she asked about my date or if I had a boyfriend I found myself unable to come up with as quick of a lie as before. Thinking of Seth I couldn't help a small sigh from escaping.

"Not anymore," I whispered softly.

Her hand reached out for mine and I knew she was going to offer me some condolences, advice or reassurances. But I didn't want any of that from a stranger. It wouldn't help the situation. Luckily the flight attendants began instructing the passengers on safety precautions before she could say anything and after that one of the in flight movies kept me from having to converse any further with my too friendly neighbor.

I fought sleep tooth and nail, knowing that Desmond would be waiting with more demands about my location. However with over eight hours in the air there was little else to do and as the light began to fade so did my willpower. Soon I was drifting off to sleep vaguely aware of one of the attendants offering me a pillow and blanket.

The ringing of the house phone was what woke Seth. As he sat up he thought he caught Alyssa's scent, but simply shook it off. The ringing stopped, meaning Leah must have answered it. He was already mentally apologizing to whatever telemarketer had called and was unlucky enough to try and sell her anything.

At that thought a knock sounded on the door before Leah entered holding out the phone. "It's for you," she sounded a little antsy and wouldn't look him in the eye when he took it.

"Hello?" He answered, eyeing his sister warily.

"Seth, thank goodness, is Alyssa with you?" Carlisle's voice whispered through the receiver.

Seth's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "No," shifting his weight to his right foot he heard the crinkling of paper. Bending down he picked up the folded piece of notebook paper from underneath his foot. "Why would she be?" He asked as he unfolded the small rectangle.

"I don't know I was just hoping…she didn't make it to school today and she's not answering her phone." Carlisle sighed heavily. "Perhaps I'm just overreacting."

Seth was silent for a minute as he took in the familiar handwriting scrawled messily across the paper he had found. Then in a rough voice he said "I'll be right over" before hanging up the cordless phone and glaring up at Leah.

"Alyssa was here," It wasn't really a question but still she nodded her head slowly. "Why the Hell didn't you wake me up. Or try to stop her?" He burst out in anger.

Leah's shoulders were slumped in guilt but her eyes hardened at her brother's words. "How was I supposed to know the little brat was going to take off? It's not my job to babysit her."

Seth rose, stalking towards his sister who looked anything but older than him at that moment. For a minute it seemed as if he was going to strike her, or spit on her, but instead he simply whispered menacingly "you are going to help find her now seeing as you're the last one who saw and spoke to her before she left."

By the time Seth and Leah had made it to the Cullen's Emmett and Edward were already out tracking down any hint of her scent they could find and Alice was sitting in a trancelike state on the couch desperately trying to sense something, anything of Alyssa's plans. None of that surprised Seth. What did surprise him was turning to find Desmond sitting on the bottom of the stairs with his eyes staring blankly ahead, looking as if he was in a daze.

At first a rush of relief washed over Seth at knowing she at least didn't leave with him. Then the anger took over.

"Get out of this house," his voice was low and serious, almost a growl. When Desmond didn't move or even blink to show he had heard a single word Seth said, Seth began moving towards him.

Suddenly a restraining hand was resting on his shoulder, keeping him from throwing Desmond out the front door. "Seth, don't, he's trying to help. If you break his concentration it might be too late." Carlisle's soothing voice sounded close to his ear.

"How can he help?" Seth huffed.

Without taking his eyes off Desmond Carlisle began explaining everything that Desmond had told him about both his and Alyssa's powers.

"So she's been secretly sneaking off to see him so he'd teach her how to do magic tricks?" Seth asked clearly unhappy about the sneaking off to see Desmond part.

"Seems like your girlfriend isn't as perfect as you thought" Leah cut in with an I-told-you-so smile.

That smile began to fade when she saw the hurt and anger in her brother's eyes as his hands began shaking violently. With a word from Carlisle Jasper stepped in, sending an extra wave of calmness and tranquility towards Seth until the tremor of his limbs had subsided.

"Where are you?" Desmond's voice startled everyone as they turned, distractedly, to face him.

His eyes were still staring blankly at the wall but both hands were held out in front of him as if he were holding onto something.

"Alyssa, answer me, where are you?" He spoke again in a more demanding voice.

The room held its breath as if they would be able to hear Alyssa's answer. Instead there was only silence until Desmond blinked back into reality.

"Well, where is she blondie?" Leah was the first to break the tense silence.

Desmond stared down at his hands as he whispered "I don't know. She didn't tell me before she pulled out of the dream. I couldn't get a word out of her."

"What do you mean you can't get anything from her?" Seth growled at the blonde haired idiot. The only reason he hadn't kicked his ass back to wherever the hell he came from was because Carlisle had said he could help, well that and because it was the Cullen's house. Now Desmond was telling them he couldn't help. Hell Seth could have kicked his ass out a long time ago.

"I don't know, she's shutting me out." Desmond answered frustrated. He didn't think it was possible for her to be able to be so in tune with her powers in her sleep.

"Well we all know whose fault that is" Seth answered angrily as he combed his hand through his hair. "You just had to tell her about her freaking powers and your fucking world didn't you?"

"Seth, language," Esme, who had been standing quietly behind the couch Alice sat on through the whole scene, chided. "Cursing and blaming won't help us find her."

Seth knew Esme was right, but that didn't change the fact that he still blamed Desmond for everything that had gone wrong. It all started when he had come to town. Seth could just imagine how life would be if Desmond had never interrupted it. Alyssa and him would never have fought, she would be here, and she would love him and him alone.

Feeling around in his jeans pocket Seth pulled out the crinkled note Alyssa had left for him that reassured him that through it all she still cared. He smoothed it out, carefully reading each word, but there were no hints between the lines. The short message was nothing more than a goodbye.

"Seth, what is that?" Carlisle asked when he noticed Seth studying the paper intently. Seth didn't seem to hear him, so Leah answered for him.

"A note from Alyssa, she stopped in before she left." All eyes turned to her expectantly. As if she held the secret to where Alyssa was or where she was going. "Stop looking at me like that. Alyssa didn't tell me anything."

"What about the note?" Esme asked desperately. "What does it say Seth?" She hurried to his side, touching his arm so he'd notice more than just the last piece of Alyssa that he held tightly in his grasp.

Silent and reluctant he let Esme take the paper from his hand. He had already memorized it and found himself mouthing the words as Esme read them aloud for the room to hear. The first line was an apology for hurting him, followed by a hope that he will forgive her. It ended with her telling him to never forget that she loved him, but that she wanted him to move on. As if he could live his life pretending she never existed and just start dating someone else like that. Did she not fully understand what Imprinting meant?

If she wasn't with him, life wasn't worth living. It wasn't some cliché line from Romeo and Juliet. A part of his soul was given to her when the spirits decided she was made for him. Without that part of him he felt lost and uncertain. Life wasn't as bright anymore. He had believed that this connection would be what kept her with him instead of choosing Desmond, now he wished he had not pressured her into choosing. Sharing her was preferable to losing her altogether. But now it seemed she was choosing neither of them.

"You have to admit she was very thorough when it came to cutting strings and leaving no loose ends behind." Alice said forlornly from her seat on the couch. She hadn't spoken or even shown signs of being attuned to the present before then. "You must have taught her control very well. She's blocking me completely and leaving no holes for me to slip through" she spoke to Desmond. Her voice held an unhappy yet impressed edge to it.

His response was to groan helplessly, cradling his head in his hands.

No one spoke for the longest time after that. They all just stayed there frozen in their own thoughts and their shared worry until the ringing of the phone had them all lunging for the wireless handheld.

"Hello?" Esme answered breathlessly.

"We found the car" Edward's voice sounded from the receiver. "It's parked in lot B of Portland International Airport."

Esme closed her eyes and took a deep breath. They had found the car, but not Alyssa. "Where is she going?"

"After some serious…persuasion" Emmett's dark chuckling could be heard in the background at Edward's phrasing. "We got one of the attendants to look up her ticket purchases."

"Purchases?" Esme asked quietly at his use of the plural.

"Yes. It seems she bought a ticket for a flight from Portland to Chicago that left about seven hours ago which means she's already caught her connecting flight to Munich. From there she's got a ticket for her last flight to Pisa."

"Pisa?" Esme asked confused. "Why in the world would she go to Italy?"

As soon as the words were out of her mouth she froze. Her eyes flashed up to Carlisle who was standing inches in front of her, desperate to hear any news Edward and Emmett had. "Italy," they both murmured in unison as understanding and horror set in.


A/N Hope you enjoyed it :) And that you don't hate me so much for keeping you waiting that you won't review!