A/N: Ok, now that you are all sufficiently pissed off at me again, on with the story….:)

Ok, I am slightly disappointed with the participation in the poll....seriously guys, 15 votes, you can do better than that. How am I supposed to keep motivated while I write the rest of this story? Well.....majority rules, so you will be getting updates twice a week, on wednesday and saturday, so I hope that you are all happy. You better send me some love in the form of reviews or I might just give up and kill off all of the characters.....then you will never know what was really supposed to happen. I don't think that Stephenie would be very happy about me killing off all of her characters in a writer's block induced haze, so show me some feedback people. ;)

Chapter Twenty-nine: Lament

Jacob POV


Six minutes.

Six long, excruciating minutes and the door to the apartment building has not opened once. Every time I hear a noise I jump. Every time someone walks by the car, my heart leaps.

The screen on the phone in my hand has remained black the entire time and my heartbeat is thumping in my ears wildly as I try to focus and calm myself down.

Maybe it is paranoia, but something isn't right about this whole situation. Nothing feels as it should, and she still hasn't returned to me. Nessie is still in that building, with him, and I can do nothing to control the situation.

I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on willing myself to relax, but something about this whole thing is putting me on edge.

Fuck it. I'm going in there….

I took a deep breath, shoving the phone into the pocket of my jeans and pushed open the car door.

Damn.

A car whizzed next to me while I was stepping out of the car, and I forced the door closed just in time. This is not helping, I am getting more and more on edge by the second. Getting myself picked off by a car and carted to the hospital would not exactly be a discreet way to keep our family's secret. Magically healing bones and scrapes would only draw attention to me.

Seven minutes.

I slowly walked up the sidewalk towards the front door, carefully listening to the street around me. The only noises that I could hear were the sound of a car engine running around the back of the building, and people's footsteps on the sidewalk of the surrounding block.

I leaned down to check the phone in my pocket again as I got to the door and still nothing. It's been too long, and I know that she wanted to get in and back out of there quickly. She hates confrontation, and will do anything to avoid it.

I buzzed the intercom to his apartment. Nothing. Not even an answer. Why won't he answer?

Eight minutes.

Finally, getting fed up with waiting, I tried the handle on the door, and it was unlocked. Thank god. I pushed it open and stepped inside of the lobby of the building. It was vastly different than ours, there was not desk, not even a doorman. There were only mailboxes attached to a wall, an elevator, which looked to be broken, and a dirty bulletin board filled with advertisements.

There were sounds coming from all over the apartment building, but one in particular caught my attention. I ran up the stairwell to my right and up to the fourth floor, taking the steps two at a time, and by the time I reached the third floor, the sound was moving.

Fluttering, it sounded like fluttering, but it was somehow doubled. Something's wrong.

Stopping in the middle of the stairwell, I pulled the phone back out of my pocket and hit speed dial number two, Bella Cell.

Pick up, pick up, god damn it Bella, pick up.

"Hello?" her strained voice echoed through the phone.

I slowly began to ascend the steps to the fourth floor as I responded.

"Bella, it's Jake, something's wrong, I think Nate isn't who he says he is. Hold on, I'm almost there," I said, rounding the corner to his apartment. The door was cracked open slightly, but I couldn't hear the fluttering noise anymore.

"Almost where Jake? What's going on? Jake? Hello?" Bella's anxious voice filled the receiver of the phone as I slowly pushed the door open.

Nine Minutes.

"Bella, she's gone, I think he took her," I bellowed as my eyes fell on an empty apartment.

There were a few things sitting in the middle of the living room floor, so I rushed over to pick them up. My hands were shaking as I knelt down beside the first small item.

I could hear Bella yelling things in my ear as I held Nessie's phone in the palm of my hand. On the tiny screen was a text message saying 911 and part of my phone number was typed into the field above it.

Oh my god, she's gone. I shouldn't have left her alone, it's all my fault.

"Bella, something is seriously wrong, I need to find her, can you come follow me?" I said, panting loudly into the phone as I looked over to the other thing on the floor.

It looked like some sort of gun, but it had a needle at one end and an empty glass vial at the other. Nessie must have tried to put up some sort of fight, how did he overpower her? And what was in that vial?

"Jake, calm down, let me find Edward, you can talk to Edward…" she said into the phone, Bella was panicking. She may have been a graceful vampire, but her human tendencies to worry and panic never left her, after all these years.

I could hear a scuffling noise, and then a low tense voice filled the phone.

"Jacob? What the hell is going on? You have Bella scared half to death…"

I screamed into the phone cutting him off.

"Edward, get Alice and Bella and get into Carlisle's car NOW! He took her, he drugged her or something, but she's in danger, she left her phone in his apartment and there is some kind of needle looking gun with an empty vial attached to it."

"What?" he growled into the phone. "What in the hell are you talking about?"

"Edward, I have to go find her, now, just get in the car and follow my phone!" I barked before I closed the phone and ran for the door.

They couldn't have gotten very far, I haven't been in here long. The car at the back of the building.

Ten Minutes.

I grabbed her phone and bolted out of the apartment and back to the stairwell. Knowing that I could make the jump, I pulled myself up over the railing and descended to the landing at the bottom of the stairwell.

I landed hard on my legs, but bending my knees on impact seemed to cushion the fall. My legs were a little shaky, but I could hear the fluttering noise fill my ears again, as well as the sound of the car. It was still there

Spotting the back door to the building, I hurriedly pushed it open and saw a figure closing the door to a dark tinted SUV. It was a young man, with dark hair and a slender build.

Nate.

I was so close, but I didn't know if he was alone, and I couldn't risk Nessie getting hurt if I tried to save her by myself. I had to be patient and try to follow them. The family could get to me with help; they had to.

Before he spotted me I pulled myself back into the door and ran to the front of the building, slamming the door open with so much force that the glass cracked as it hit the railing on the other side.

Eleven Minutes.

I had to get back to the car in enough time that I could follow them. The man getting into the car had to be him, I had to get to her.

Hastily climbing into the Jetta and slamming the door closed, I pulled it out into the lane of traffic with the tires squealing. I whipped it around the corner, trying to keep the car straight in the lane. As I pulled around to the side of the building, the dark SUV pulled out, just as another car pulled in front of me.

I couldn't tell if he could see me behind him, but as we pulled into the city streets, busy with early dinner traffic, I tried to mirror his movements without drawing suspicion to myself.

Getting into a traffic accident trying to get to her wasn't going to help anyone. If I could follow him to wherever he was taking her, then the family would be close behind me. I only hoped that it would be close enough to make a difference.

Twelve Minutes.

The SUV a few cars in front of me was making its way north out of the city towards the highway. I just needed to stay close behind and I could get to her, I knew I could, I just had to keep up.

As the black SUV accelerated up the on ramp to the highway, the car in front of me held me up as it merged into rush hour traffic. It may have been a weekend, but the highway was crowded, and I narrowly avoided accelerating into a semi-truck as I tried to merge into the fast lane.

Weaving in and out of traffic, I caught back up quickly and slowed so the car in front of me blocked his view of my car. I just had to shadow his movements and I could stay on him.

Thirteen Minutes.

Nessie POV


The black foggy haze that had enveloped my consciousness was swirling around me as I felt myself being lifted from the ground.

My mind was running a thousand miles a minute trying furiously to figure out what was going on. Had I really been this blind for all these months to not notice who Nate really was? I knew that he had seemed familiar to me, but whenever I got close to finding out why; he would speak and it would throw my brain off the scent.

"Renesmee, don't try to fight it, it will wear off, eventually," I could hear someone with a low voice shouting through the darkness.

The voice was not as menacing as the last time that I heard it, but as I was being carried, I could feel warmth penetrating my lifeless body. I tried to will my arms to move, but nothing would happen. All of my muscles were loose and hanging as he carried me down the steps.

As we reached the stairwell, I could hear a door opening, and a familiar scent hit my nostrils.

I fought desperately to try to open my eyes and scream, but I was drowning in the blackness inside my own head.

Jacob, I'm here, please….

It was no use, whatever had taken over my body made me powerless and I couldn't fight against it; I couldn't fight against him.

I had never felt like this before, drugs of any sort had always moved through my system so fast that they didn't have any kind of affect on me, but this was different. This was like I was trapped inside my body, numb and powerless to fight against anything.

Come on Ness, just open your eyes, you can do this; open your eyes, now!

The scent of Jacob disappeared and I was being laid down somewhere.

The faint swooshing sound of a car engine was ringing in my ears and I realized that he was taking me, he was taking me somewhere and Jacob still hasn't found me.

Trying to fight against my foggy prison, I willed myself to move, but nothing would respond as I heard Nate chuckle and throw the door closed.

I had to be in some sort of car. He was taking me somewhere; but where? and what did he want from me?

Maybe he was working with the Volturi and I was too stupid to realize that I was in danger. My mother had told me that they often used humans in their organization, but how would he have been able to restrain me? How was he so much stronger than I was?

The low voice once again penetrated my dark cocoon, and brought me closer to consciousness. It was like I was swimming in dark waters, surrounded by nothing but black, and there was only the dim light of a single star far off into the darkness.

Swim, Ness, swim, you can make it out of this….

"Ness, you are going to have to try to be more cooperative. Your fiancée thinks that he's being sneaky by following us, but I would know that little car of yours anywhere. I was there the day you got it dear, although you never knew I was following you back then."

Oh god, this really was a nightmare. He was going to do something to hurt Jacob and I couldn't fight against him. I couldn't do anything.

He had been following me for years and I hadn't even noticed. No one had noticed. How could I have let this monster get near my family?

I tried to shake myself loose of my physical paralysis, but I could only feel a faint flutter of my eyelids when I tried to open them.

The star was getting closer and I swam furiously to try to get to it, but I couldn't get there fast enough. I could hear the car engine straining and I knew that we were going fast, but I had no idea where I was.

I was never going to get away. And who was I going to lose in the process?

Edward POV


The echo of Jacob's voice was still rattling in my ears as I heard the other end of the phone go dead. He hung up on me. I was still angry with him, but that situation seemed trivial considering the one we were currently faced with.

Bella was shaking beside me and I could tell that she had heard the whole thing.

I walked over to her quickly, pulled her up and urged her towards the door to the cabin.

"Bella, calm down love, we have to go, we have to get Alice now. Go to the garage and start the tracking software in the navigation. Do you remember how to do that love?" I said firmly, trying not to increase her panic as I opened the front door and pushed her onto the front steps.

"Edward, how am I supposed to…..oh my god, my little girl," she whined, slumping to the porch with her head in her hands. Her chest was heaving and I could tell that she would have been sobbing if her body could still produce tears.

I leaned over her carefully, and picked her up as I leapt over the railing, and then ran down the narrow pathway through the woods to the main house. Bella was breaking down and we didn't have the time to worry. I didn't know what Nate was capable of, but I knew that if he had taken her that we had obviously underestimated who he was, he clearly was not human.

As the trees rapidly sped by me, I held Bella tightly to my chest and tried to whisper soothing things into her ear. She clung to me with her head buried into the crook of my shoulder, and she had stopped breathing. Bella was panicking and I didn't even have the time to comfort her.

When the house came into sight I yelled for Alice, not loudly, but enough so I knew that she would hear me coming, if she hadn't already seen it.

As I approached the house, thoughts suddenly flooded my brain, and I could see fragments of a conversation between Jasper and Alice about the wedding. Then her thoughts shifted and I knew that she had heard us coming.

Hurriedly punching in the numbers of the garage door code, the doors lifted and Carlisle's jet black Mercedes came into view. Thank god that I had just finished installing the new navigation system into the car with Rosalie, because it would be the only way to track them with Jacob in pursuit.

"Bella, you have to let go, you have to get in the car now, we don't have time to wait any longer. Nessie and Jacob need us to go," I pleaded with her quietly as I put her down next to the car.

Her face was filled with anxiety, and I desperately wished that she was calm enough so I could hear her thoughts, I hated the fact that I couldn't share her pain with her. She was locked inside of her head by herself and she wouldn't let me in.

"Bella, get in the car and try to call Jacob back, we need to know if he is still following him," I said, pushing a lock of hair behind her ear as I pulled open the passenger door and helped her inside.

She nodded once she was in and began to pull out her cell phone as I closed the door behind her.

We still didn't know who Nate really was, and I wished that I had gone against my daughter's wishes all those months ago and went to find him. I knew that not all 'humans' were harmless, and I hoped that we still had time to get to her.

Alice's thoughts were frantic as she came barging into the garage, towing Jasper shortly behind her. His face was pained and I could tell that all of the anxiety and stress that the three of us were giving off was getting to him.

"Edward, what's going on, why are you freaking out?" she said, giving me a puzzled look when she saw Bella strapped into the car.

"Jacob called, Renesmee is in danger, we have to go; we need you with us." I said quickly, hoping that she wouldn't argue.

I can't see him Edward, you know that.

"I know, but you have to come with us, if he doesn't get to her in time we need you to find her. We still don't know who is behind this."

"Fine, but Jasper is coming with us, I don't want to leave him."

Jasper's thoughts called to me before I could respond to her.

No, if the Volturi are behind this we will need help; I will go find help.

"Jasper is right; we can't take everyone with us. He will need to have the family members go find us help. We will need help if the guard is involved in this."

Edward, no, I am not leaving him. If the guard come here and I can't do anything about it, then I can't let him be in danger like that.

"Alice, I know that you are only concerned about Jasper's well being, but we need someone to lead the search. They will come find us, but we have to leave now. We can't wait much longer."

I could hear several sets of footsteps descending the stairs into the garage and I could tell that the rest of the family was confused as to our meeting.

"Edward, what is going on dear?" Esme's voice rang through the garage as she appeared before us.

"Esme, Nessie is in danger," I replied as the rest of the family joined us. Their thoughts ranged from furious to confused, and I knew that I needed to explain the situation further before we left.

"Jacob called earlier, and he said that Nate had taken Renesmee. I don't know how, but he found some kind of injection gun in his apartment and I fear that he may have drugged her with something. He is obviously not a human, and I also fear that he might be working with the Volturi."

Carlisle came up and placed his hand on my shoulder, contemplating what to say to the family.

Edward, I'm sorry son, but you need to go to your daughter, I will make sure that the family comes soon afterwards, but we shouldn't waste anymore time.

I smiled at him weakly because my father has always been the one to try to calm down a stressful situation.

"Ok, so I am taking Bella and Alice and all of you need to listen to Jasper and Carlisle once we are gone. Jacob has his phone on him and we can track him as he follows after them. Bella is trying to get a hold of him right now, but we have to go, we don't know where Nate is taking her."

Thoughts bombarded me once again, and I started to get aggravated at the tenor of their fears. This was not a time to panic and if we couldn't work as a family to save my daughter, we weren't going to be much of a match for whatever foes we encountered later.

"Stop, all of you stop and get ready to go. We don't have much time. GO!" I growled, wanting them to spring into action.

I briefly said goodbyes to my family members before I pushed Alice into the backseat of the car and hurriedly backed the car out of the garage.

Pushing a few buttons on the navigation system as we sped towards the entrance of the highway, Bella was finally able to get Jacob to pick up the phone.

"Jacob?" she called quickly into the receiver, she was still frightened. "We are coming, keep your phone on. Um, yes, Edward is looking at it right now."

"Edward, how long until we get to him?" she asked, pulling her head away from the phone for a moment.

"Ten minutes, he is headed right towards us, maybe fifteen at the most."

"Jacob, yes, we're coming. Ten minutes until we reach you. Yes, I know, Alice is with us. Stop yelling Jacob, this isn't your fault. You had no way of knowing. Wait, where?" she said, and I could hear his voice raise again as she tried to listen to his quick speech.

"Ok, we will be there soon, be careful. Don't underestimate him, we don't need you getting hurt. No Jacob, stop, make sure she is alright. Please, don't try to handle him by yourself," she pleaded, they had obviously stopped somewhere, and we were getting close as the red dot on the navigation screen came closer to our location.

She snapped the phone shut and turned to me.

"Jacob says that he pulled into some kind of private airfield. There is a plane there and Nate put Nessie inside of it. Somehow, she was unconscious. He is parked near the runway in the woods, he doesn't think that Nate has seen him, but he wants to go and confront him now, before the plane takes off," she said, pretending to be calm.

Her eyes were a dead giveaway to her emotions. I had learned to read them well because of her shield. They had darkened considerably, and the once glowing gold was now a dull charcoal.

"Bella, calm down, we will be there in a few moments. I think that you should shield Jacob and Renesmee until we get there. We don't know what Nate is capable of. Can you do that love? Do you think you can calm down enough to project to him?" I was trying to calm her down and give her something to focus on.

My Bella was stronger than she gave herself credit for, but she never let go of all of her human emotional reactions to danger. She didn't see herself as the confident beautiful woman she had become over the last ten years.

She nodded and closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the passenger seat. I could tell by her breathing that she was trying to concentrate so she could project her shield onto Jacob. We were close enough to him, but I didn't know if she could do it under this much duress.

The dot on the navigation screen was less than a mile away and I hoped that we could get there in time.

Alice had been sitting in the backseat with her eyes glazed over for the entire ride. She was desperately trying to get a read on whether or not we would get to Nessie. Jacob's presence was making it hard, and she could only get flickers of something.

All of a sudden, she opened her eyes wider and took in a shaky breath.

Thoughts of Demeitri flooded my brain, the Volturi didn't have any idea what was going on. Demeitri was still in Brazil with Huilen. Aro was still in Volterra. He wasn't leading this, but somehow Huilen's mind was still shielded from Alice.

She was coming into her mind in flashes, and she was not alone. Someone or something was hiding her. I had heard of vampires with masking abilities, but I had never actually seen someone being protected by that ability. She had to have someone powerful with her, and I hoped that this Nate person was not affiliated with this.

Even with Bella's shielding capabilities, someone with that much power would be a formidable foe. We would need sheer numbers to overpower them, if we could even find where they were.

Her thoughts suddenly shifted to Zafrina, she was closely following Demeitri with her sisters. She knew exactly where they were, but none of them could pinpoint Huilen's location.

Something was blocking Demeitri's ability, and they were being led in circles. Heidi was trying to get to Huilen's mind, but something was stopping her as well. They were at a standstill and nothing was changing.

Then she began to get fragments of Nessie and a dark haired young man. Within her short segments of her visions, she could make out certain features. He looked familiar, but he kept changing his path before she could get a clear look at his face.

Then, all of a sudden, she screamed from the back seat as she sat up and a face became clear in her thoughts.

"Oh my god, Edward, it's him. Go, go faster; go now!"

A/N: Ok everybody, you have to let me know what you think of my very first Edward POV!