Year Six, Chapter Fifty-Five
False security
Renesmee's Point of View
Two Italian subs, heavy on the peppers, a tub of coleslaw, and another filled with potato salad, two bags of chips, a couple waters, one container of strawberries, three candy bars, and a blanket, all fit nicely into the picnic basket, once again. I don't think my potato salad came out as good as the one that Jake made last time, mayonnaise just seemed gross to me on everything, but hopefully he would like it.
Things were going so well between Jake and I, now that we were together. He was so wonderful.
I wanted to try and recreate our first kite flying attempt that was ruined last time when Jake broke his arm, falling out of the tree attempting to retrieve his rouge kite.
I had gone to the store and picked up 5 kites for this afternoon. If we lost one in a tree, there would be plenty of others. I did not want a repeat of last time.
"You are sure you're okay with this?" I asked Jake one last time before we headed out the door to the same location we attempted to fly kites last time.
"Yeah, I think everything will be fine, but if you even see me walk towards a tree make sure you start smacking me over the head. Or tackled me to the ground, or something."
"Hmmm, tackle you to the ground? That sounds like a fun idea," I chuckled over to him.
"In that case, I'll be sure to lose my kite, in a tree, in the first 20 seconds," Jake jested back.
The kite flying went off without a hitch this time, thankfully, but the picnic lunch . . . not so much. The potato salad that I was worried about, he ended up gobbling up in under a minute. But I could tell there was something wrong with the Italian subs I made. I know he liked spicy food, so I put a bunch of peppers in them. I thought I used the same varieties and amounts that he had, but obviously I mixed something up. He never said anything but he didn't eat it as fast as everything else. It actually look like it was a struggle for him to get through. Which was saying a lot for a wolf to not be able to eat something, though he never said a word.
Just like the first time I snacked on strawberries while he ate everything else. And once again I tried to use a strawberry to get him to kiss me, knowing this time the results would be different.
Just like last time, I popped a strawberry into my mouth and slid over so he could eat it, this time he gladly bit it in half and kissed me all in one motion.
The combination of the flavor of the strawberry mixed with the taste of his lips was more than I could bare. It was delicious. He was delicious. What was going on? Jacob's scent had never bothered me before, like it did my family, I actually thought he smelled wonderful. He smelled like the woods, cedar and pine, mixed with motor oil, from working on cars all the time, though that part was not naturally occurring I loved how well the smells mixed together on him.
But this was different. I never thought about how Jacob would taste. How his blood would taste. I haven't drunk human blood since I was a baby, not that Jake was entirely human, but I did not want to start now. I was proud to be able to control my thirst and follow my families vegetarian lifestyle. But more importantly I could never hurt my Jacob like that. I ending up having to break the kiss before I did something I would regret.
I didn't want to alarm him so I just smiled and looked over at some birds that flew into a tree near us. Luckily before Jake noticed something was wrong, both of our phones received a text from my father. He asked us to return home. It seems that my grandfather needed to talk to everyone.
Maybe afterwards I could talk to him and see if he had an answer for why I suddenly craved Jake's blood.
Maybe.
Today could have been a fluke. I didn't want to alarm anyone. I wouldn't say anything unless it happened again.
Jacob's Point of View
The Doc had informed everyone that another two bodies turned up at the teaching hospital, hidden among those donated for students to learn from. This had been going on for the past three months. Just the same as before, all of the donation paperwork seemed to be in order, but Carlisle could smell the venom. Just traces of it, once again. It was still in their system, just along the almost indistinguishable bite marks.
It was more than likely that they must be the work of the same vampire from back in November. But it seemed like a lot of bodies for just one vampire. And the deliveries were getting more frequent. But why was, whoever was doing this, back after being gone for so many months?
Alice assured us it wasn't the Volturi. But then who was it? And why had they stopped for awhile?
It wasn't Joham either. Alice and Jasper were convinced that what Maysun and Jennifer had told them about their father and sister was true. Although Alice could not see them, Jasper assured us he did not sense any deception coming from either of them when they met. And according to them Joham and Serena should have left the area and returned home weeks ago. These bodies were fresh.
Was it another newborn army? But they wouldn't have the presence of mind to hid the bodies like they were. Would they? No. But then again, someone older would have had to create them in the first place.
Alice kept searching and searching and turned up nothing each time. She was getting worried. We all were. I don't think anyone would care, well I cared about the loss of life. But a vampire feeding in the area, properly disposing of their victims, as to not draw attention from humans, was normally nothing to worry about. It was that Alice could not see them, that had everyone so worried.
What were they hiding? Were they planning something big? On the local humans? On us? That was the problem, we had no way of knowing.
Of course all of this worrying could be for nothing, the fact that Alice couldn't see them could just be their own gift.
"I think it is time we went on the offensive." Jasper announced much to some in the room's surprise, but not all.
"Hell, yeah." Emmett agreed. "I don't like just waiting around, for whoever it is, to make their next move. Let's do this."
"We need to draw them out, maybe alert the Volturi." Rose started.
"We need to find them first, we don't even know who they are." Bella needlessly reminded her.
"Rose, Bella is right." Of course Edward would agree with his wife. "What would you suppose we do? Go to the Volturi and tell them some unknown Vampire is feeding from people, but we have no idea who they are, they are not attracting any attention, and we only found out about their presence in the area by chance. They'd think we're crazy. It's a suicide mission."
"He's right. The Volturi won't care. As much as I despise the loss of life, whoever is behind this is behaving perfectly according to our laws." Carlisle reminded us.
"Let's just work on finding the Vampire or Vampire's responsible first." Jasper suggested.
"And how do you suppose we do that?" I questioned.
"I have an idea." He made it seem like whatever he was going to say was the most obvious thing in the world. "One or more of us should get a job at the teaching hospitals procurement dock, to wait for the arrival of the next body. Hopefully whoever this Vampire is will bring the donated bodies to the hospital, themselves."
"Victims!" I corrected him.
"Yes, Jacob, I'm sorry, 'victims'." He said, more to placate me than anything. "Carlisle have you noticed any pattern to the arrival of the . . . victims?"
"Not in the beginning, but as time has gone on, the arrival of the bodies has fallen into a pattern of sorts. Nothing too obvious, but they seem to arrive every four to five days if it is a single body. When two arrive simultaneously they appear every eight to nine days, but only after a ten day break in between a single to double deposit, then once a double victim dump has taken place three days will pass until the four to five day pattern returns."
Huh? Did that make sense to everyone else? Looking around the room, it looked like it did. Whatever.
"So based on that, it seems like the next body should arrive either Monday or Tuesday if they come after four or five days or Friday or Saturday if they follow the eight to nine day schedule." Edward mused.
"Of course, since I cannot be there all the time without drawing unwanted attention to myself, there is a chance more bodies, excuse me, victims, showed up while I was not at the facility, thus throwing my theorized timetable off." Carlisle actually looked like he was sorry that he was unable to be there 24/7.
"In that case, I guess we will have to have someone there all the time then."
"More than one of us, Jasper."
"And whoever it is would need to be able to handle the blood, right?" Bella looked over to Jasper apologetically for even making the observation. She knew how much he would want to be a part of catching whomever was behind this, but it didn't seem possible. He was the weakest when it came to blood and would probably be overwhelmed by the smell and forget all about the vampire we were trying to catch.
"Well, I think that takes me out." Nessie spoke up. Was she crazy for thinking she was going to be one of the ones going before Bella's statement? There was no way she was ever getting close to who was doing this. At least now I didn't have to try and talk her out of it. But I could help, though.
"No, Jacob. If whoever is behind this gets, even a whiff of you, before they get close enough to dump the body, they may change tactics and we would lose our shot."
"Edward, why would they even know I was there? After the army came for Bella and those four Volturi guards came they didn't recognize that the wolves had been there. They didn't know what we smelled like."
"Yes but we do not know who this is, it could have been one of those that witnessed for the Volturi and they would know your scent now."
Oh, I guess that was true. "Sure, sure. So who's left then?"
"I'll go." Bella offered.
"No, it's too dangerous."
"Edward, I'm not a weak little human anymore. I'll be fine."
"I know you could handle one Vampire, darling, but we don't know how many of them there are. I think whoever goes, we should all double up."
"Fine, then you come with me." She offered.
"And leave the rest of us defenseless?"
"Rosalie is right, we should make sure each team contains at least one person with a gift. I won't be able to join you since I work upstairs in the hospital already. Renesmee, Jacob, and Jasper are out. That leaves Esme, Edward, Bella, Rosalie, Emmett and Alice. Do any of you all think you will be unable to handle the temptation of all of that blood?"
"If we are going in groups it should be fine," Esme said hesitantly.
"You don't have to do this, if you think it will be too hard, I don't want you to make yourself uncomfortable, my darling."
"No, I can handle it." She assured her husband. "But we should all make sure we are well fed beforehand."
"A very wise idea. And we will need to make arrangements for everyone to begin working at the hospital. I've made some . . . connections there and believe I can get all of you jobs fairly easily, but the man in charge of the procurement department can sometimes be difficult . . . um, Rose, would you mind accompanying me."
What was Rose going to do, to convince this guy to hire the six of them?
"Rose is just as capable of dazzling men, as I am with women." Edward leaned over and whispered an answer to my questioning thoughts once again.
"Yeah, and she better only be dazzling him." Emmett chuckled, but I could tell he was a bit disturbed at the thought of his wife flirting with another man, as well.
"Emmett, don't be ridiculous. I am more than capable of getting any man to do exactly what I want, without even having to lay a hand on them," she smirked.
"Alright then, if that is settled I propose the following coupling - Bella and Rose, Emmett and Alice, and Edward and Esme." Carlisle suggested.
"But I can't see anything." Alice whined.
"That is why I believe you would be best paired with Emmett, his size and strength should more than make up for it, and we are not sure why you don't seem to be able to see anything. If you are the one to confront them you may still be able to see something then, when needed."
Eventually, with a little more dazzling, everyone involved was able to rotate schedules with school and hunting but it turned out it was another dead end. The bodies were delivered by some intermediary, transport person. Edward was able to find out that he was a paramedic and this was just something he moonlit in. The guy would just receive a call on his cell phone to pick up a body, per usual. The only thing that was different when he was picking up the Vampires bodies was that no one was there to meet the transport person, his victims were just waiting for him on a gurney, all alone, with the completed paperwork laying on top.
Jasper tried running the number the transport guy had but the cell phone was traced back to a burner phone. He put a trace on it but the phone was never used again. Whoever was doing this was meticulous, and a genius. But that led to its own suspicions. They were almost being too careful, almost as if they knew we were trying to track them down and we're doing everything in their power to stop us.
At least Nessie and my plans to secretly help Seth, financially, were going well. Esme thought our idea to buy a house to have Seth refinish was perfect. She was able to help us whenever we had a question or needed some advise. She even found us the perfect house. It was a small place a couple of miles from where Seth was currently living. Esme checked out the place beforehand and let us know that the house didn't need that much work, some paint, spackle, refinishing the floors, updating appliances and lights, and fixing a few leaky faucets. AN easy flip. The only major thing that needed to be done was that a new septic tank needed to be installed. But we told the intermediary that we hired to represent us, so Seth would not know we were behind this, that they were to make it clear to Seth that he was to just contract someone to remove and replace the unit. All of the other things we were sure he could handle. Our intermediary, Jack Fisher, handled everything perfectly.
"Alright, honey. You understand the rules, right? Run at top speed, no holding back, to the old fallen maple tree by the river. No pushing, tripping, jumping on or over the other person . . . or wolf, no riding on the other one, and no knocking the other over. First one there wins bragging rights for all eternity. Or until you turn seven and we do this again." I laughed. Nessie was getting stronger and faster every single year. If I was ever going to win a race with her, I think it had to be now. She had gotten faster and faster over the years and could now outrun me while I was still human, but I was pretty sure I could still take her as a wolf. "Got it?"
"I think I can remember that, Jake." She snickered back to me. It was the first time Nessie and I were going to race while I was in my wolf form.
She would beat me all the time if I stayed on two legs, nowadays.
"Okay, then on your mark . . . Get set . . ."
"Go," Nessie yelled, as she took off ahead of me.
"Hey you, little cheat." I called after her right before I quickly phased.
As she ran, I faintly heard her chuckle and yell back, "you never said anything about me not getting a head start in any of your rules."
The tree we were running to was deep in the middle of the White Mountain National Forest. It took me nearly 35 minutes to get there, though she had gotten her head start. After phasing back and tagging the tree I could tell that I still managed to beat her here by a good 2 minutes, I think. My reputation and pride were intact for now, however slimly.
Not that I really minded. If Nessie could run fast, it meant she could escape an enemy, if ever needed. Which meant she was better protected. I just hoped it never came to that.
As much as I didn't like him, maybe it would be a good thing if Nahuel and I spent some time together to figure out how closely he, and Nessie by proxy, resembled a full vampire, physically at least. Was he as strong and fast as them? I didn't know and had never bothered to find out. But if it was a matter of Nessie's safety, I probably should. I know Nessie did have some limitations. She obvious needed to breathe and sleep, so she couldn't run forever; she would eventually get tired. And whenever we had done any type of fight training she'd be sore the next morning and her muscles would ache, not for long though, she healed as quickly as I did. And I didn't mind giving her massages, but it was a reminder of her human side; her weaker human side.
That was one of the weird things about being a wolf. I could run, and run, and run and my muscles would be fine. Sure my mind would get tired from a lack of sleep, but my muscles never tired or burned. I was an endless ball of energy.
On the other hand, mentally Nessie was far superior. Her mind never shut off or stopped working, even while she slept. She was always learning and remembered everything.
That was why we stopped fight training last year. There was nothing left to teach her, and it's not like she would forget anything that she did learn. But maybe we should keep going if she was getting stronger. Perhaps she could learn to fight now, not just escape from a vampire and run away. Should we move from evasion to attack, I wondered?
"Hi, slowpoke." I jeered over to Nessie as I saw that she had finally arrived. I can tell she was panting and really out of breath. I hadn't even run that fast. I know I was faster as a wolf, then on 2 legs, but I never really stopped to consider how much faster I was.
"Hey, . . . Jake," she wheezed.
"Are you okay?" I chuckled.
"Me?" she questioned, while still gasping for breath, "never better. I almost . . . had you there, . . . I bet by this time next year, . . . you'll be trailing . . . my dust . . . the whole way."
"Really, 'cause to me, it looks like you're about to keel over, Nessie honey."
"Just give me a minute . . . Jake . . . to catch . . . my breath, . . . you'll see, . . . I'm fine."
We rarely ever competed over things, but I could see how badly this was getting to her. Probably because of how utterly I had beaten her.
"Sure, sure. So you're ready to hunt then?" I asked after exactly one minute. I knew she needed at least a few more to rest and get her breathing under control, but she was just being so stubborn, like she could be sometimes. I thought I'd tease her a bit, and give her a bit of a hard time. I didn't think there was anyway she'd take me up on it.
"Ready when you are. I bet I'll get the largest deer."
"You're on," I said, as I held out my hand so we could shake on it. But as she lightly touched my fingers, she was off in a blur. Aurg, she did it to me again!
I briefly thought about letting her win this time, but she was so cocky. Right that second the wind changed direction and I picked up the scent of a heard of a deer. It was like it was destined to be. I immediately phased and took off running in their direction. I pushed my legs as hard and fast as they would go. Even at high speeds I was eerily, deadly silent, especially for something my size. The deer didn't even know I was there. Quickly but quietly, creeping closer, as to not spook them away, I spotted a large male on the edge and pounced. He tried to run but I got him.
Eight minutes later, not only had I successfully taken him down, but eaten a few bites as well. I wasn't really hungry but didn't want to waste the animal. I believe this was my fastest time yet. Nessie had run the other way and was no longer in sight, but I knew I had won. The rest of the herd had taken off somewhere, I'm not sure exactly where to, but I think it was in her general direction.
A few minutes later, I got my answer. The herd came running back, almost directly towards me, but veering off to the side slightly, they had been scared off by something . . . Nessie, I'm assuming, and I was right.
Off towards the distance I could see her just as she was chomping down on some large Buck. As I jogged over to her to gloat, she proudly proclaimed herself the winner.
"What are you talking about Nessie? I clearly won. I brought down my deer at least ten minutes before you."
"Jake," she looked at me like I had two heads, "the contest wasn't about who could do it the fastest. Don't you remember, I said - who could bring down the biggest deer."
Thinking back on it I knew she was right, her deer was clearly bigger than mine, I screwed up and I only had myself to blame. Do'h.
At least she thought it was funny, but did she have to laugh quite so loudly? I guess it was a little funny, and I began laughing myself.
