29 Savvy
'
Paul's paws beat the ground in a frenetic rhythm as the forest whipped by him. Each footfall sent a sharp shooting pain up his left front leg, like the step was landing on a bed of razor blades. Over and over.
Paul didn't care.
There was simply nothing that could detract from the myopic, single-minded focus of getting to Seattle. To his mate. As fast as he could.
Except, perhaps, the cloying scent of vampire rot. This particular brand, actually.
It was a Cullen – Jasper, to be exact – and close. Paul slowed as his muzzle lifted to catch the sickening sweet scent from the breeze. His wolf growling in gleeful anticipation, he changed course as he salivated with enthusiasm.
Ahead he saw the spectral figure with ghostly white skin made even more pallid by flaxen hair. The vampire was standing at the edge of the treaty line, just at the ravine, obviously contemplating crossing.
Fuck the goddamn treaty. That game was over a long time ago.
Being downwind along with his innately silent gait, afforded Paul the advantage of surprise as he easily leaped the ravine and landed not twenty feet from his prey. With a rabid snarl the wolf lunged viciously for the vampire who had instantly whipped around in a defensive crouch. Paul's attack was thwarted by Jasper's fluent evasion.
Fuck.
Rounding on him again, the wolf sprang and Paul phased mid-air barely catching his opponent's jaw with his round-house kick. The move was enough to at least throw the other off balance with its counter. And it should have been enough to allow Paul's following lightning punch to land a square hit, but with a fluid deft flip, Jasper again spun out of harm's way.
This one was so much better than the others.
Livid, Paul phased back to the wolf – feeling the dragging drain of his convalescence – and ruthlessly attacked with rabid snapping jaws. Jasper's expertise was impressively showcased in the series of acrobatics that lithely avoided each of what should have been both inescapable and mortal blows.
But Paul was merciless and unrelenting.
Finally leaping up against a rock face, Paul's haunches pushed off in a twisting rebound, making him careen forcefully into his opponent. They tumbled into the ravine with the violent impact. Paul pinned the vampire under his weight upon landing, even as he considered all the different ways he could dismember his prey. Slowly. Painfully.
Paul! He's here about Bella! Listen to him! Sam's voice boomed yet again in his head, finally breaking through the blood-red haze of rage that had contracted his world down to the single imperative to kill.
Jasper's hands were held up in placating surrender as the wolf glared down at him with burning eyes and a snarling muzzle.
"Are you just about through, now?" Jasper drawled with maddening nonchalance.
The wolf panted through his teeth, as Paul struggled to surface from his blinding fury, realizing suddenly that Jasper had taken the fall on purpose. He hadn't been fighting… not really. He'd merely been evading Paul's frenzied, fierce offensive.
Phasing back into the man and gasping with the effort – the Change took a level of energy that his healing body barely had – Paul kept his hand clenched on the vampire's throat. Just for good measure.
"Where is she?" he ground out, trying to measure his heaving breath and cage the urge to rip the man's head off and ask his questions later.
Jasper's lips twisted in a wry smile and his gaze dipped pointedly to Paul's restraining grip that was literally digging inch-deep holes into his alabaster skin.
"Why the fuck do you even think I'm going to trust you again?" he spat as Sam landed on two legs beside him.
"Paul, listen to him," Sam warned low from beside him. Wisely keeping his fucking hands to himself. Oh he so didn't want to get between Paul and this leech.
"Shut the fuck up, Sam," he growled with white-hot animosity. "Well you motherfuckin' leech? Give me one reason not to tear your head off right now."
"I'll give you several, and then you'll let me up all gentleman-like so we can get to findin' your girl," Jasper gave him an unconcerned smile. "One… I saved your life. Two… I'm on your side. Three… I'm your only ticket to finding her. Four... I came back of my own accord - and at considerable risk, knowing what I do about the particulars of your savvy and mettle. You an' I share a certain affinity I'd say – kinda got a little soft spot in my poor dead heart growin' for the two of you. And if she was mine, I know I'd be going right outta my mind just about now."
"She's mine," Paul growled so vehemently that spittle sprayed over Jasper's face.
The vampire blinked urbanely, and then glanced pointedly again down at Paul's fist at his throat. "So are you just through, now? Time's a wastin' and I'm not used to havin' so damned little of it."
With a petulant growl, Paul pushed off him and stood – his body still vehemently vibrating with bloodlust.
In a flash, Jasper was on his feet, dispassionately dusting the leaves from his shirt, while he regarded the wolf before him, assessing.
Sam stepped between them, as he watched his Pack mate desperately trying to rein in his rage. "Do you know where she is?" he asked the leech.
"Not in Seattle. Not anymore," he provided out of the corner of his mouth.
Paul snarled in frustration as he turned his back on the creature, slamming his good hand into the rock face with fury.
"What can you tell us? What happened?" Sam pressed.
"Well, I count myself a fool for not puttin' an end to this debacle of his sooner. I'm certainly no saint," Jasper's lips hitched up in the corner. "But I'm not one for sufferin'… And I like your girl. She's got pure feelings."
Paul whipped around with a furrowed brow.
Jasper tapped his temple. "My gift, y'know. Emotions. I taste 'em. And hers are somethin' else, let me tell you. Seems a pity to break her like he's doin'."
Paul growled viciously.
"My feelings exactly," Jasper smiled, unperturbed. "So I finally took it up with him, and lost the first round. When I got back to the hotel room, he was gone. I tracked him to the parking lot, but after that…"
Paul barked an acerbic laugh. "You fight like you do, and that whiny cocksucker fucking kicked your ass?"
"He did no such thing," Jasper hissed crossly sounding personally affronted.
Paul smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I was trying not to hurt him – he being my brother and all – and he threw me out the damn window. 'Not used to fightin' inside like that," Jasper sniffed defensively. "Fifteen stories. Had to muster a might bit a' damage control since I flattened a van and got right back up in front of twenty-odd humans. By the time I got back he was, of course, gone. I went straight for Sea-Tac, but couldn't find hide nor hair of his scent at the airport."
"Where's the other?" Sam asked quickly, glancing at Paul's quivering body warily.
And he was right to be concerned; Paul was only marginally able to hold it together at this point.
"My wife?" Jasper's lips stretched into a tight smile. "She was shoppin' at the time. She's… ah, ambivalent - shall we say - about the whole thing. She thinks Bella suits Edward just fine 'cause there's very little in this life that actually interests the boy. It don't matter none how Bella feels about the arrangement. Alice's simple like that," he cocked his head as a brief expression of annoyance flashed across his face. "She was pouting, so to save us all the headache, I convinced her to go on after Carlisle – who's finishing up a trip somewhere in South America. No cell phone coverage. Be sure, he'll side with you and me on this one. I just don't know how much time we have? I'm worried your girl's not gonna make it."
Paul inadvertently gasped as his white-hot fury instantly metastasized into molten anguished worry. He swallowed thickly. "How is she?" he choked quietly.
Jasper took a deep breath and spoke on its exhale. "She's weak. We couldn't get her to eat, but even so… it's like something else is draining that tiny little body a' hers."
Paul and Sam exchanged anxious looks.
"She'd lost the will to live as of yesterday, but today she was a might better. I'm assumin' all that has something to do with you?" Jasper raised his eyebrows shrewdly toward Paul.
Sam answered. "Paul finally woke up from a coma … today."
Jasper nodded. "That bindin' ya'll have …" he left the sentence incomplete, merely nodding reverentially. Jasper's lips pressed grimly into a straight line. "But while I gotta little more faith that she's gonna perk up now with you on the mend – that's not my only concern, Edward's gone … well, to be frank, I think he's gone an' lost his marbles. Happens sometimes with our kind. I'm worried he's finally gonna realize he's never gonna get a hold of that heart a hers… and…." Jasper left the sentence poignantly hanging.
The unspoken predicate was understood by every single one of them.
Paul imploded. Literally. He choked on his breath and fell forward, catching himself against the rock face as tremors violently shook his body so that his teeth audibly chattered. "FUCK! I'm gonna kill that motherfucker! KILL HIM!" he threw his head back and gagged on his rage.
Sam glanced at his Pack mate with concern and quickly interjected. "We'll find her before that happens. How do we find her? I assume you've got some kinda plan?"
"We gotta track 'em the modern way," Jasper crooned, taking another couple steps back all the same from the enraged werewolf, as did Sam.
Sam raised his brow quizzically.
"Hacking," Jasper grinned toothily as Paul whipped back around, having the focus of planning laid before him. "I know what names they're traveling under. I can take Edward on my own, now," he scowled pointedly at Paul. "But if I go after him, I don't put it past my wife to call and give Edward a head's up. But if I travel with you all… you wolves'll ruin her sight."
"You got that fucking right, leech," Paul growled.
Jared Phased and announced, "I've been feeding all this back and Jake says to come back …and bring Jasper. Swan says he can use the police system to set up a net."
"Can he give me access?" Jasper asked.
"Fuck yeah. I'll gut 'em if he doesn't," Paul snarled and quickly Phased, leaping up the side of the ravine.
'
'
Gasping, Bella jolted to sitting position.
Or tried to. She hit her head against something metal and groaned in pain. With adrenaline washing over her, she spayed her hands in front of her in the pitch black darkness.
Oh my God! She was in a tiny little space! Trying to swallow down the multiple levels of fear, she took several slow shaking breaths, trying – uselessly – to quell her hysteria.
A trunk? She was in the trunk of a car? Nausea twisted her stomach as she started hyperventilating with claustrophobia. She frantically started feeling around the small space – there was some sort of release in the back of trunks, right?
Suddenly though the trunk popped open, and light spilled over her, making her blink as it shot through like daggers into her pounding head.
"Bella, darling… you're awake," a hushed voice murmured. Ugh! That freaking voice! To think that she had ever found it appealing was right now simply beyond belief.
Bella blinked laboriously: her eyelids felt like they weighed five pounds each.
"Come, love, it's time to awaken. You've been sleeping all day," Edward continued with a patronizing amusement twisting his voice as if it were adorable. As if she had been taking a nap like an exhausted child, instead of being a woman with sedatives pushed into her veins by a syringe against her will.
And then put in a trunk.
Her eyes were rolling in her head as she desperately tried to orient herself and push herself up to a sitting position. "You put me in a trunk?" Bella mumbled, her tongue still feeling thick and unresponsive in her mouth.
"I'm so sorry… I wanted to get you before you awakened. It was for your own safety, love. I've just finished arranging everything for our trip," he crooned, stroking his cool fingers down her cheek. Bella winced away from that touch.
She took in everything but the wild smiling face watching her carefully: she was in the back of a car – a different car from earlier – and it was nighttime.
Bella squeezed her eyes closed for another moment to block out the insane bliss sparkling frighteningly in those eyes. Amid the disorientation and confusion, one sacrosanct fact stood out to her, engraved indelibly on her very soul in its certainty: Paul was alive. And that meant Jacob was too. The relief at just knowing that her best friend… and her mate were alive was wildly comforting and gave Bella a renewed strength and purpose to endure whatever was coming next.
Even in the drug-induced stupor, she knew she had to change a few things… right now. She had to be smarter about this. Edward was obviously not the man he had been – had he ever been who she had thought him to be? – and she needed to switch tacks if she was going to survive this. If Paul was alive, he would be searching for her and he would find her. Neither he, nor Jacob for that matter, would leave her to this exigent fate without a fight. It was a soul-deep knowing. It was just a matter of time before they found her.
She needed to be better.
Bella opened her eyes and met Edward's searching gaze. "Can you help me out, Edward?" Bella whispered in her fallow voice. "I'm sorry."
Seeming taken aback, a tentative smile played at his lips. "Oh dearest, I know it has been confusing."
"They could have killed me," Bella choked on the words even spoken in artifice.
Edward's smile broadened. "You're safe with me, love."
Bella forced her lips into a smile.
Luckily Edward's waning reason and burgeoning confidence distracted him from how pitifully poor Bella was at a duplicity.
"Oh, darling," he whispered as his cool hand stroked her cheek. "You'll see, we'll have such a wonderful life together. We have to go now, we can talk more on the way."
Bella sat up, her head spinning around a dull, throbbing ache. Pressing her lips together against the nausea, she glanced around her. They were parked in a well-lit parking lot. The sound of an airplane landing in the distance made her think that it was an airport. "I'm looking forward to seeing that castle in Ireland," she murmured timidly as he effortlessly picked her out of the car.
Bella swayed on her stiff legs and he steadied her as his mouth hitched up in his crooked smile. "We will see that one day, love. I promise. But for now I have a surprise for you."
"What kind of surprise?" she asked quietly, nausea turning her stomach. The drugs were making her sick.
"You'll see, love. We're going to a place that I've always wanted to take you. It's beautiful. I always thought it would be where we took our honeymoon."
Bella licked her lips and cleared her throat –trying to gather her muddled wits about her. She needed to get as much information as she could – without making him suspicious. "Is it warm?"
"Oh yes, warm and beautiful like you," he murmured. "We can be married there and then decide how we want to spend the rest of our eternity." There was a certain testing edge to his voice. He still didn't trust her.
Bella gulped. Marriage? He had said eternity? Was he planning on Turning her? Not trusting herself to speak as adrenaline rushed through her veins, Bella simply nodded.
"Come now, we're going to be late," he admonished.
Bella paid rapt attention to everything she could on the way from the car to the building up ahead. It was indeed an airport – but a smaller one. "Olympia Regional Airport" was written over the automatic doors that they passed through into a luxurious concourse. It wasn't Sea-Tac; she'd never heard of it. A private airport, maybe?
"Now, love, we're are traveling as EU citizens to ease annoying issues of visas and the like – so just follow my lead," he crooned in a velvet warning as he hitched the large, single travel bag up on his shoulder and they crossed the parking lot. "Let's not have any more problems, now darling. Just remember, I'm listening," he pressed cryptically flashing her grin. Even if he couldn't hear Bella, he could still hear the people around her. He was warning her not to ask for help.
Edward kept a firm hand around her shoulders at every moment, and she stood meekly at his side at the Air Charter desk as he presented two passports to the pretty and perfectly groomed woman behind the mahogany counter.
"Miguel and Andrea Romero for a Newport Jet charter," Edward said smoothly to the woman with a British cadence to his words.
"Good evening," she piped brightly. "You will be flying with us to –"
Edward broke in with a disarming smile. "Ah! It is a surprise for my new wife. Our honeymoon." Edward glanced down at Bella with an urbane solicitousness.
Bella turned and gave the woman a tight-lipped smile and nodded.
"Are you feeling okay, dear?" the woman asked quietly as she glanced at Bella and checked the pictures on the passports.
She probably did look like shit. She certainly felt like it.
"Morning sickness," Edward beamed.
While the transaction was taking place, Bella scanned her surroundings carefully. The clock on the wall of the high-ceilinged concourse said 9:35. There was a no arrival/departure board in the terminal that appeared to be used for shipping, commuter and charter flights. There was a silver holder on the counter filled with shiny, executive pens advertising Newport Jets: An Air of Distinction. She took one from the display and glanced up to Edward with a questioning raise to her brow. He smiled benevolently and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
Bella pulled her hair back into a pony tail and twisted it into a bun, shoving the pen into it. Yes, she was quickly coming up with a plan. She didn't want to go down like some simpering idiot like this – she had told Paul that she liked that he didn't think she was a useless, helpless fool. She didn't just have to prove to him that his confidence was deserved. She had to prove it to herself.
"Right this way, sir. You will board at Gate three," the woman gracefully indicated the hallway to her left.
"Thank you," he dazzled and then placed his hand firmly at Bella's elbow and steered her toward it.
The small security checkpoint, ushered them through by barely checking their credentials. Bella realized that money could probably buy anything – even discretion.
Soft music played overhead through the empty halls. Seeing a concession machine, Bella tugged on Edward's arm and leaned up to his ear. "May I get some chewing gum for the flight," she whispered. "It hurts my ears."
"Of course," he smiled and changed course.
Bella picked out any old pack of gum and he put the bill into the machine. She took out a piece immediately and popped it into her mouth.
Down the hallway – and coming upon them entirely too quickly – was Gate Three. Luckily right before it, was a sign for a women's restroom.
"Can I use the restroom before we board?" Bella asked, trying to keep her face as innocent as possible.
Edward frowned. "Darling there are bathrooms on the jet."
"I hate airplane bathrooms," Bella wrinkled her nose, glad to be able to say something truthful.
"This is a private jet – it will only be us. They are nothing like you're used to," Edward contradicted.
"Please," Bella pushed. "They give me claustrophobia." Like trunks, she mentally added bitterly. "Plus I just want to freshen up a little." She gave him an insecure grimace.
"You look beautiful," Edward smiled in a way that told her she had won. "Be quick, darling. And remember – I can hear the woman who is cleaning the restroom right now." He tapped his temple lightly.
With a solicitous nod, Bella disappeared into the bathroom. There was indeed an older woman who was cleaning down the counters while listening to whatever was playing on her headphones. With a nod to Bella, she continued her work.
Inside the stall, Bella pulled out the drawing from her back pocket and unfolded it. Her eyes ran affectionately over Paul's rendering, getting stuck on the soft smile that stretched her mate's lips – seeming almost like approval in this context. With a squint of pain at the prospect, Bella tore off a strip on the bottom – choosing the words to part with instead of desecrating the image of them in the mirror so beautifully captured. Refolding the remaining portion of the drawing and placing it in her pocket, she turned over the scrap in her hand.
Pulling the pen out from her hair, she held the paper up against the metal wall of the stall and as quickly and neatly as she could, wrote down all the details she could remember about the evening. Pulling off several small pieces of her gum, Bella folded the scrap of paper and stuck it on the door, right at typical eye level, scrawling 'urgent: help me' on the outside painfully over the penciled message from Paul.
Taking a step back and deep breath, she examined her handiwork and then expediently made use of the facilities.
When she emerged, Edward was anxiously watching the door like a hawk.
Bella smiled uncomfortably. "Okay… ready."
He wrapped his arm soundly around her shoulders and pulled her into his side as he leaned down and kissed her temple. "We're going to have such fun, darling. Just wait and see."
"I-I j-just need a little time to get my head together through all this," Bella pressed quietly.
"We have nothing but time now. An eternity of it," he crooned, leading her down the hallway.
