thank you, thank you, thank you for all the reviews and new adds – you keep making my day! I will take some time soon to answer the reviews, too

twilight still doesn't belong to me

53

Jasper's POV

Charlotte had got us on the next plane with her usual efficiency and we landed in Phoenix soon after. Graham really is an extraordinary guy; he managed the flight without a hitch, even though most new vampires need almost a year before they are able to fly in such close proximity to humans. Emmett and I kept him in between us, but we needn't have worried – it looks like we got a Native American Carlisle on our hands.

As soon as we got out of the plane we made a beeline for the hotel with Seth and found him munching his way through what suspiciously looked like a three course meal for a family of four with a huge smile on his face. Rosalie chuckled and looked to us to give him time to finish.

"Ipft's ok. A con tolk amd shew", Seth welcomed us, shovelling more food at an alarming speed. In my human life I had seen soldiers eat like that after days of hunger, but maybe that was what the boy had been through, following two running vampires for thousands of miles. Nevertheless, I needed information, now.

"No, you can't. Swallow what you got, then talk!"

"Jasper, let the boy eat!" Rosalie.

"I think the evidence of this table shows he's not starving anymore", I contradicted, and Seth's eager face showed he agreed.

He emptied a huge glass of apple juice, wiped his mouth daintily with the linen napkin and took a deep breath. "Ok, well, as I told you before, Bella ran. I watched closely, because I thought if the vamps split up, I might be able to take them down separately, but the only time they split up, she was in the bathroom, and I could not follow her there. The dark guy waited outside the door for ten minutes, then he rushed inside and came out empty-handed – caused one hell of an uproar, one elderly lady called security on him. Apparently Bella disappeared into thin air in there. Maybe we can track her down if we all try… sniffing her out, only that would have to happen at night, because I can't really go there in wolf shape…"

"I don't think that's necessary", I said. "I think Bella went someplace she knew."

"Of course", Rose slapped her forehead and flinched from the impact. "Ouch – haven't done that in decades. She's from Phoenix, maybe she just went to her old house."

"Jasper, check your phone, I'm sure she tried to contact you as soon as she got away from them", Charlotte said.

I almost imitated Rose and checked. Indeed, I had missed a call when we were on the plane. It was a Phoenix number. Damn! She couldn't text because she didn't have her cell. I felt my rage boiling up again.

Peter had been looking over my shoulder and knew what was bothering me. "Try a reverse directory for the number!"

Rosalie was already on the phone to reception for one when Graham shook his head at us. "Technophobe palefaces, sometimes I wonder how you managed to get the better of us for all your metalworking and gunpowder. Try the number!" Then he shut himself off again – hotels also were no great places for newborns. I nodded to Emmett mouthing 'Get him out; I'll call you as soon as I know where we are." My sensitive brother got it at once and left with Graham to get him out of his pain.

I called the number but got no answer.

The reverse directory told us it was the number of Ph. and R. Dwyer and gave an address. So she had gone back to her old house. I phoned the address through to Emmett, had Rose hire a car and got the outfit going. I knew that Victoria and Laurent would also be looking and only hoped that we had the advantage over them for once.

Rosalie spent the car-trip fussing over Seth, who was trying in vain to ward off her motherly ministrations, especially the one about calling home. He did accept the opportunity to go shopping for clothes with her as soon as this was over though. We arrived at the house an hour later and found it empty, that is, we could tell there was no heartbeat inside, which could mean different things: either no one was there, or they had found Bella and had murdered her, or they had found her and taken her away gain.

On the road Carlisle had reached me on the phone, telling me that Maria was suspected to be near Richmond, Virginia. That was a relief, if (big if, and I did not allow myself to think that) Laurent and Victoria were not on the way to her with my girl. Char noticed how tense I was and put her hand on my arm. "Relax, Jasper, it will be alright, and you're not helping anyone if you lose control."

I shook myself and broke into the house stealthily. The others followed, ready to fight. We had asked Seth to go round the back in case there was someone there. In fact, I didn't feel too good about him phasing in such close proximity to us in a small house. Besides, he was much too young to be involved in what could potentially become a very dirty fight. Rose threw me a thankful smile; she must have been thinking along the same lines.

We spread out on the ground floor – empty. Bella's scent lingered in the air though, and I greedily sucked it in. No scent of vampires yet, good, so maybe we had actually been faster than them. I followed Bella's scent around the place. She had been in the living room, the kitchen – ah, eating – and the bathroom. My frustration was growing. I checked last numbers on the phone, mine, Rosalie's and Charlie's, then mine again. 'Think!' I told myself. 'What would she do? She is clever, she probably figured out the place was not that safe. If she did that, she also knew, she couldn't leave a note about her whereabouts lying around, in case the wrong people might see it.' Where would I hide a note? I came to stop, then dashed back to the kitchen and checked the notice board. Right, smack in the middle was an advertisement for new kitchens with an arrow pointing to the floor. I ripped it down and read the back: "What I can't do" was written in her smallest handwriting, highlighted with a yellow marker.

"Jasper?" Peter said softly, and I realised that I must have turned quiet for quite a while now.

"Yes?"

"Where is she?"

"I'm not sure, she's given me a clue, but I don't… Wait! Get me the phone book!"

Charlotte threw the book at me at once and I started leafing through it before I noticed the mistake. "No, the yellow pages!"

"Ok", she tossed the right one. I ripped it into five pieces and distributed them while I explained Bella's clue. "Look for something she absolutely can't do. Search!"

For the next few minutes only the turning of pages could be heard. Vampires read fast, and apparently Seth was no sloth in the brain department either, but it still was too slow for my taste. It took a lot of discipline to calm down enough to concentrate.

"Hmm, delicious baking, no, can't be, the pie was heaven." Seth was murmuring to himself.

"Weight lifting? Weight lifting?" Peter looked around.

I shook my head. "She does all the shopping and washing for Charlie, that's quite a lot of hauling heavy objects around."

"Great", Rose grumbled and went back to reading. "Hey!" She made everyone jump.

"What?" We asked in unison.

"Here, there is this ballet studio, "Move elegantly", the address can't be that far from here, and Bella told me her mother sent her to ballet just down the road as a little girl."

"Excellent!" I was up. "Let's go!" I was sure she was right, Bella and me had laughed about Renee's idea of trying to make her daughter less clumsy by sending her to ballet class. We checked the location for the studio on the town map near the telephone and set off on foot after I had texted Emmett the address. It was literally down the road.

We had no idea just how careless we were.