Chapter 36

I watched reluctantly as Bella pulled out of the drive until she was no longer in sight. If I had a heart, it would be heavy and it would be aching. I rubbed my chest as the phantom pain appeared. I didn't want to see her go and I especially didn't like that she was going on her own. I felt uneasy that she was going to be so far away from me. It was irrational, I knew it, but I still wanted to demand that she wait until I was able to go with her. However, I also knew that she would not appreciate anything if worded as a demand and it would most likely push her away. If I was going to learn anything from her relationship with Edward, it would be that I knew she didn't like being told what to do. She was a strong, independent woman. I had to break down the walls she had built around her heart in the gentlest way possible and demanding that she do something she didn't want to do was definitely not the way to do it.

The first item on my agenda for the morning was to hunt. Then, I wanted to clean up the house, make room for Bella's clothes and personal items that she would hopefully be bringing home with her today. After that, I needed to run out and purchase food for her as my cupboards were obviously bare. I wanted the house to be as welcoming and as comfortable as possible for her. Not that I wanted to make it impossible for her to say no to moving in with me, but I certainly wanted to make the offer extremely enticing.

By the time I had returned from the hunt, cleaned myself and the house up, it was already approaching noon. I hadn't yet heard from Bella, but assumed she'd gone to class and was now probably at her apartment. I decided to try her cell phone only to discover that it was not on and my call went straight to voice mail. Frowning as I heard her voice on the line asking me to leave a message, I thought back to before she left this morning and specifically recalled that she checked her phone and it was definitely on. Perhaps she turned it off when she went into class and forgot to turn it back on. Again, that feeling of uneasiness crept over me.

Another half an hour passed by with no word from Bella. At this point, I was pacing throughout the house, working myself to a near panic. What if Steven ignored my warning and was waiting for her at her apartment? What if she didn't even make it to class and she had an accident? I couldn't take it any longer. I was furious with myself for letting her go alone. I should have ignored her protests and at least went with her and I could have waited for her in the apartment. Cursing out loud, I walked toward the front door, grabbing the keys to the Porsche when my phone finally rang. I breathed an unnecessary sigh of relief and flipped open the phone without even checking the caller ID.

"Bella? You had me worried sick. Why didn't you have your phone on?" I asked without even giving her a chance to say anything, immediately feeling horrible for answering the phone in such a manner and was ready to apologize after I heard her explanation. After yesterday, any little interruption in normalcy was enough to cause my irrational behaviour, so I thought I was justified.

"She's not with you?" A male voice yelled loudly into the phone.

I immediately stopped in my tracks. The voice was definitely not the one I had expected. "Jacob?" I asked. Why the hell was he calling me?

"Please god, tell me you know where Bella is" He was absolutely frantic, I couldn't feel emotions over the telephone, but I certainly didn't need all my Masters degrees to determine what he was feeling.

"No, she left here this morning to go to class." My guard automatically going up at the state Jacob was in.

"Oh god, oh god, oh god." He cried as I heard a female in the background trying to calm him.

"Jacob, what is going on?" He was really starting to concern me with his behaviour.

"I killed her...I might as well have...I might as well have done it with my own fucking hands. I killed her." He was sobbing.

At this point, I was reaching the edge of hysteria myself, but rational thoughts kept coming into my head… he is not here, he's in La Push, he couldn't have killed her, what the hell is he talking about?

"Jacob, what is going on? Tell me now." I demanded trying to remain calm and not anger him as I wanted answers, but dammit, I was quickly running out of patience.

"Victoria." He barely got the name out between sobs.

"Come again?" I reached out and held onto the wall for balance, not sure that I heard him correctly. It felt like the entire room started to move on its own. He could not have said what I just heard.

I could hear him taking deep breaths trying to calm himself. "Victoria...Oh god...Victoria was in her apartment as recently as this morning and she was not alone. There were at least two others with her."

Before he even finished the sentence, I was in my car and was speeding down the drive. I was using every bit of control I had to focus on the road and also keep my head clear enough to continue the conversation with Jacob.

"Jacob, I need you to tell me exactly what has happened. How do you know this?"

"Seth, one of the younger wolves in the pack, has been watching Bella since she moved there." He responded.

"Wait, what? Why? Why were you having her watched?" This was probably the most terrifying and most confusing conversation I had ever had. Then it hit me, that was who I sensed outside her apartment all those times, no wonder I felt such rage as he probably hated me as well. The fact that I should have investigated the scent further and determined its origin and then found out why she was being watched on my own, only amplified my terror as something was obviously terribly wrong and Jacob was hiding it. I kicked myself for ignoring the warning flags each time I encountered his scent outside of her apartment.

"Victoria never stopped looking for Bella! She never gave up on her revenge! The pack has been protecting Bella for years!"

Fuck! I knew it. I slammed my hand against the steering wheel. "And Bella knew this?" I was furious at the thought that Bella might have lied to me, but not believing it possible that she would.

"No, I've kept it and everything else from her."

Okay, so Bella wasn't lying. Good. Hold up...what did he say? "Everything else? Jacob, you need to give me the full picture of what the hell is going on."

"I was stupid. I made a stupid, stupid, decision and I can't take it back...I was so angry with Bella and her stubborn refusal to give you up that I called Seth off guard watch..." He sobbed and then quickly switched his emotion over to pure anger. "Why couldn't you just stay away from her? Why, why are you bloodsuckers so attracted to her? I told Seth to leave and he did! He listened to me and he did! It's my fault! I did this! I left her exposed!"

"Jacob! I need you to calm down, this isn't making sense. Tell me everything." Never in my life did I wish more than now that I could manipulate emotions over the phone or at least be able to reach through it and throttle someone.

An exasperated sigh came over the phone, which angered me beyond belief. As if telling me the background of his concerns was beneath him or something that didn't concern me. If he were here in person, I would not be able to contain the bubbling rise of fury that threatened to take over my control and I would be lashing out at him in a second. However, it would not do Bella any good if I lost it now and didn't get the story out of Jacob. Every bit of information that he would share with me was important. "Victoria never stopped looking for Bella. Charlie didn't actually die from his gunshot wound, Victoria bled him dry. Once we determined Victoria had killed him, we hid Bella on the reservation. I even enrolled her in school under another name, which she never knew as the principal of the school is a pack elder and fully aware of the situation. Once Victoria couldn't find her, she went after Renee, hoping that would draw her out. That's why we had her guarded when she finally left the reservation. We thought it was safe for her to come out of hiding since Victoria hadn't come around in years. Bella could register under her own name and we would just keep watch. I should not have let my emotions get the better of me. I came to my senses and sent Seth back, but it was too late. Seth caught Victoria's scent and followed it to Bella's. He went in her apartment and there were at least two other scents there as well as Bella's. They've got her Jasper." His last words echoed in my head. They've got her. I refused to believe that she was gone. I had to be able to do something, anything. I could not lose her now.

"How long ago?"

"What?"

"How.Long.Ago.Was.Seth.There?" My patience was completely gone. I was in full out anger mode, wanting to get my hands on anything and everything and squeeze the life out of it. I knew my eyes had darkened and venom was beginning to coat my mouth. How could Jacob keep this from her? If I had known about any of this, I could have protected her, could have saved her.

"He is still there now."

"What do you mean, he's still there? Why isn't he tracking them? Why didn't he follow the scent?" Isn't that what a dog is for? I thought to myself, rudely.

"The scent ends at the sidewalk in front of her place. They got into a vehicle and they left. There was nothing he could do."

"Fuck. Tell him to wait for me there." I hung up the phone and pushed my car to its absolute limit. I needed to get there and get there now.

My thoughts went back to the amazing weekend I had with Bella. Even the episode with Steven, while being an absolutely horrible thing for Bella to have to go through, it still played its part in making the weekend special. It reinforced that our feelings for one another were very deep and also showed Bella that I would trust her judgement and she could trust me to maintain my control. I could not, I would not lose her now. I refused to allow myself to think of what was happening to her at this moment. My mind could not go there, not even in the hypothetical. Perhaps she was at her apartment before class and was now in the library. Maybe she decided to do a little shopping before she went home and the scent of hers that Seth smelled was old. I knew these were huge stretches, but perhaps she didn't run into Victoria. Perhaps...anything else but what Jacob was suggesting, anything else.

I pulled up to her apartment and my stomach rolled as I saw my truck parked in front. It did not bode well for my hopes that she had already come and gone before Victoria had shown up. I ran into her apartment in broad daylight, moving so fast that I would have just been a cool breeze passing by anyone that might have noticed, but I was past the point of caring. I needed to get to Bella.

I entered her apartment to find Seth pacing back and forth in front of her couch. As soon as I barged through the door, he started to tremble. I immediately responded by crouching into an attack position waiting for him to either calm down or to change.

He was obviously a very smart kid as he slowly put his hands up realizing who I was. "Jasper, I'm Seth." Since he had been watching Bella for weeks, he had obviously seen me before.

I nodded at him, not wanting to waste a moment with idle chit chat. I quickly circled the small room, taking in all the different scents. It was Victoria and two males that had been here. My head started to swim as I didn't know what to do next. Where would they have taken her? Why would they have taken her? Victoria was hell bent on revenge. She wanted Bella's death, why not just do it here and get it over with? Closing my eyes, I shuddered to think that perhaps she was taking Bella somewhere for torture. The thought that there were also two males involved immediately spiked my fury to unbelievable levels. Once I got my hands on whoever they were, they would quickly realize that they had picked the wrong team to play on. No one was taking Bella from me without a fight. I would not give up until I searched every corner of the earth if that is what it was going to take to have her back in my arms. As terrible as the thought was, I was glad that Bella was missing, it at least meant there was a small glimmer of hope that she was still alive. At least I didn't walk into her apartment and find blood, or even worse, a body. There was still hope, I had to believe there was still hope.

I turned back to look at Seth who was wearing an expression of extreme guilt. "I'm sorry. This would have never happened if I didn't leave."

I shook my head at him. "Seth, there were three vampires here. Perhaps even more were outside in the vehicle. Do you really think you would have been able to stop them?" He knew I was right, but he still carried the guilt of not protecting her.

"I could have followed the vehicle if I was still here, I would know where they took her."

I put my hand up to stop him from speaking any further. "There is no point in rehashing what could have or should have happened. It happened and I need to figure out how to get her back." I continued to pace around the small apartment as I frantically tried to think of what to do next as this was a dead end. I had no way of tracking a car, the scent of the passengers locked tightly within. While I continued to think about my next move, a very familiar scent hit my nose that stopped me dead in my tracks just as Seth started to growl. Running toward the door, I threw it open before the hand that was about to knock made contact with the wood.

Reaching out and grabbing the person standing in the hallway, I spoke as clearly as my rattled nerves would allow. "Save my life right here and now and tell me you know where she is."