Chapter Thirteen: Invasion of the Body Snatchers

My phone stayed infuriatingly quiet for the rest of the day.

I lied about that, of course. I told Angie and the others that Jake was keeping me updated every hour or so, and that they'd been held up at the animal control office all day. I was pretty impressed with myself, as a matter of fact. After the first couple of questions, the lies rolled easily off my tongue- even if I had absolutely no idea if what I was saying was anywhere close to what actually happens at an animal control office. My only solace was that no one else seemed to either.

'They're giving statements now.'

'They're trying to piece together a timeline.'

'They're giving a description of the bear so they can determine a species.'

'They're in contact with local biologists to see if it can be tracked.'

'They took a break to get some lunch.'

'No, the officials aren't worried. This is just procedure.'

'Yes Seth, Leah is with them.'

The last one left a sour taste in my mouth. I trusted Jake enough to know that if I hadn't heard from him, it wasn't necessarily something to worry about. He tended to hyper-focus on the task at hand, and I wasn't surprised that I hadn't gotten any texts or calls.

Alice and Emmett were practically unkillable, I wasn't worried about them either.

The fact that I hadn't heard from Quil or Paul yet though, that made my stomach churn uncomfortably. Leah should've turned up long before now, especially if she was unharmed. What did it mean, that they hadn't found her yet?

I tried not to dwell on it too much, knowing that if I did, Seth would figure out something was wrong. He was our only onsite defense; it was dangerous for him to be distracted. Besides, what could he do to help from here?

Maybe I was just convincing myself this was the right thing to do, but that was something else I had to put on the back burner for now.

Angie was in the middle of scrounging up something for supper. We didn't have much in terms of substance, since they never did make it to the grocery store, but she was confident she could put something together. Last time I checked, Mike and Eric were cleaning up the place, and Jess was trying to take a nap while Seth helped Angie in the kitchen. That was about an hour ago, before I disappeared into our old guest bedroom.

I told everyone that I had a headache and I just wanted to sit in a dark room for a while, but really I just wanted to get away from the questions. The lies came easier sure, but they still exhausted me. For once, I didn't want to feel like I was walking on eggshells.

The sun was hanging low in the sky now- not dark, by any means- but warmer than it had been a few hours ago. The trees were splotched with reds and oranges, yellows and pinks; it almost looked like autumn. I would've taken a picture, if I didn't want to forget this week entirely the second I got home.

My eyes darted inadvertently to the closed-door Jake had shoved me against just the day before. Okay, I guess I didn't want to forget everything.

The smell of bacon seeped into the room, awakening an aching hunger in my stomach. Maybe it was time to escape my reprieve after all.

I was sprawled on the floor, my limbs akimbo, but I struggled to my feet now. I turned to the door, stretching my sore joints, when a sudden knock startled a tiny yelp out of me.

It was coming from the window.

I whirled, arms up, ready to scream and defend myself if necessary, but the sight instantly sent a wave of relief through my limbs.

"Leah!"

She shushed me, gesturing angrily to the locked window. I rushed over to open it for her, again about to exclaim how happy I was to see her, when she clamped a hand over my mouth.

"I know what you're about to say," she sighed, shaking her hair out of her eyes. "And don't."

Other than the annoyed expression on her face, she looked unharmed. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were askew, but she was in one piece and that's all that mattered to me. I stepped aside to let her crawl into the house, but she did no such thing.

"What happened to you?" I whispered, pulling her hand from my mouth. Once she was confident I wasn't about to alert the others to our rather unexplainable circumstance, she didn't try to quiet me again. "Where have you been? The others left to look for you hours ago-"

"I know," Leah huffed, leaning back on her haunches. The windowsill was lower to the deck than her hips, so she had to crouch to peer into the opening properly. "I ran into Quil and Paul on my way back here. I got ambushed chasing that stupid human."

"Corey?" I gasped, brows furrowed. "He jumped you? How-?"

"The weasel set a trap," Leah answered snippily, glancing over her shoulder into the trees. Seeing nothing, she turned back to me. "Paul and Quil ran after him. I told him I'd grab you, and let Jake and Embry know where we were going."

"Where are we going?" I asked uncertainly. "I thought Jake wanted us to stay at the house-"

"The vampires said something about needing you," Leah shrugged, baring her teeth at the mere mention. "They can't approach Corey without alerting his vampire friend, so they want to use you to try to cover their scent. A wolf might make them bolt, but a human shouldn't scare them away. We're supposed to meet them, Paul, and Quil near the highway."

My mind caught on something about that plan, but I didn't have time to dissect it. Leah was already slinking off into the forest.

"Leah?" I hissed, leaning my upper body out the window. "Leah!"

"What?" She snapped back, appearing from behind a tree near Jess's car. "What's wrong?"

"Shouldn't we tell Seth where we're going?" I complained, unease creeping up my throat. Whether I was with Leah or not, I didn't want to go into those woods. At least if Seth was with us, we had numbers on our side.

"Seth already knows," Leah dismissed, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning against the tree trunk. "I texted him. He's going to wait for Jake and Embry to get back and then follow us."

I bit my lip. Something about that rang untrue, but maybe I was just paranoid. This was Leah, after all. She'd never willingly lead me into harm's way.

I was overreacting. I had to be.

"Okay, okay," I sighed, hoisting myself onto the sill. It was only a short drop onto the balcony, and then an even shorter one off of the rail and onto the wet grass. "But if Jake gets mad at me for not waiting for back up, I'm pinning it on you."

Leah laughed, shaking her head in exasperation.

"I think I can handle him."

By the time I reached her, she was already several paces beyond the scope of the driveway, nose high in the air, tracking a scent that I couldn't even begin to pick up. Her long legs made her strides double the length of mine, so I had to scramble to keep up.

Despite the late afternoon sun, it was dark in the forest. The foliage was so dense and layered that any light filtering down was squashed about five feet above my head. The further we moved from the bright safety of the house, the more I felt like the woods were trying to swallow me whole.

"How far did Alice and Emmett get?" I asked absently, ducking under a pointed branch just in time to save myself from a nasty forehead bruise. "Close enough to walk?"

"If it wasn't close enough to walk, we wouldn't be walking," Leah chuckled, but I heard an underlying tone of annoyance. Maybe Leah was just in a bad mood because she hadn't slept, but I wasn't so sure.

Every step was getting heavier. My insides were screaming at me that something wasn't right, something was off, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was. I pulled my focus away from Leah, listening instead to the world around me. I could hear trees rustling, critters skittering across the forest floor, distant waves crashing against the beach. If I strained, I could even hear cars on the distant highway.

Everything was normal.

Except that it wasn't.

I tried again, this time lingering on the things I couldn't hear, footsteps? Mine and Leah's, but no other. Breathing? Again, mine and Leah's. I didn't have the prickling sensation of being watched or followed, but something was definitely wrong. If only I could figure out what it-

My phone buzzed, startling me out of my senses. I fumbled to rip it from my pocket, the overwhelming need to keep quiet crashing over me like a tidal wave. Leah was far enough ahead that she didn't hear my phone, or if she did, she didn't react, so that was a good sign. If someone was following- or looking for- us, I didn't want to give away our position so recklessly.

Quil's name flashed across my screen, accompanied by a text.

We found Leah.

I blinked, the air going stale in my lungs. What…?

Bringing her back to the house. She's out cold. Tell Seth to meet us outside.

Heard from Jake?

I read the words again and again, seeing but not understanding. They'd found Leah. They were bringing her back to the house. She was out cold.

Impossible. It simply wasn't possible. Leah was here, right in front of me, talking to me! There's no way she could be in two places at once. Quil must've made a mistake; maybe the texts came in late- the service wasn't all that great out here- or maybe they found another girl and thought she was Leah.

Except Quil wouldn't make a mistake like that. Paul wouldn't make a mistake like that. Leah didn't say anything about being knocked unconscious, and if Quil and Paul were just ahead of her, then they would've joined us by now, unless-

Unless this wasn't Leah.

I gulped, my throat suddenly achingly dry. She looked like Leah. She sounded like Leah. She even walked like Leah. But in that moment, I knew- the feeling I'd had, the sense of wrongness that permeated the air as we disappeared into the woods. She wasn't Leah.

80 missing women.

Walked into the woods, like they were called by something.

Vanished without a trace.

"Hey Leah," I hedged, trying to sound casual. "I talked to Jake after."

"Oh yeah?" She still sounded so normal, so real. I took a steadying breath.

"Yeah," I looked around, memorizing every detail that I could. A Y shaped tree there. A shattered stump over there. A stream somewhere to the right. "I told him what you said, about not finding any evidence of wolves being able to choose their imprint. He didn't take it too well."

I waited, my heart caught in my throat.

"Well it's not like he can do anything about it," Leah shrugged, sending a jolt of ice through my veins. "He'll just have to deal, won't he?"

"I guess so," I murmured, my phone hanging from my wrist like a brick. I tried to stay calm, tapping out a reply to Quil's texts.

In trouble. Come quick. Woods. Someone that looks like Leah.

I didn't know if he would understand all of it, but the 'in trouble' would be enough. I sent the message and opened another one to Jake, but before I could blink, the phone was snatched from my hands.

"You kids and your phones," Leah shook her head, sighing. I hadn't noticed her approaching me, but now she was within a foot of my face. I reeled back, falling gracelessly onto the ground. "Don't you ever stop to smell the roses?"

"Who are you?" I demanded, abandoning all pretenses and scrambling backwards in the dirt. A twig jabbed the flesh of my palm, making me wince, but I didn't dare take my eyes from Leah. "Why do you look like my friend?"

"Neat little trick, isn't it?" she twirled, showing me the full effect of her disguise. "But I'm afraid I can't keep it up for very long. I'll have to let Corey explain."

As if summoned, Corey appeared from behind a cluster of evergreens, wearing that hideous denim jacket of his. I was really starting to hate that thing.

"You did have something to do with this!" I accused, feeling somehow both betrayed and vindicated all at once. There was shock too, but it was muted, suppressed by the sudden thrumming of instinct in my veins. Survival just became the most important thing on my mind- I could be shocked later.

Corey didn't bother to put up a front, instead directing his attention at Leah.

"Throw me her phone before you evaporate," he said lazily, holding out his hand. Leah tossed my cell into his waiting grip, and almost as soon as she did, she began to disappear.

I don't mean like Alice or Emmett. She didn't 'leave' in the way a vampire would. She just… dissolved. The lines of her image began to blur, fading until she was no longer solid, her features wisping away into the tree branches.

"What…?" I breathed, staring blankly at the space where Leah had been. Somehow, I knew this wasn't some sort of weird transportation thing. The woman was gone, vanished, blown away with the wind, like she'd never been here in the first place.

"Don't ask me how it works," Corey shrugged, easily approaching me where I was still sprawled on the ground. "She didn't explain it much."

"Who didn't explain?" I demanded, wracking my brain for answers I didn't have. "Why did that person look like Leah?"

"She can copy faces," Corey drawled, pocketing my phone. I saw the screen flash with a text, but I couldn't tell from who. Corey didn't notice or care. "Faces, voices, movements, all that. She can basically pluck a human out of thin air, but they don't last long. Maybe an hour, if she really tries. They're kind of like illusions I guess."

"Who?" I tried again, sliding back with every step he took. I didn't think he'd let me get to my feet from this distance. "The vampire you're working with?"

It was a gamble, but there was no time to pretend like either of us didn't know exactly what was going on here. Corey apparently agreed with me, nodding sagely and glancing for a second out into the trees. I slid further back.

"She's amazing," Corey sighed wistfully, the closest thing to fondness in his expression that I'd ever seen. "She did all this, you know."

"The missing women?" I guessed. Corey nodded again.

"She snatched every one of them." Admiration in his voice now, as clear as day. "It was incredible to watch. Sometimes I still ask myself how she pulled it off."

I thought back to how elated I'd been to see Leah, how unquestioningly I'd trusted her and how unabashedly I'd followed her into the woods. Unlike Corey, I didn't have to wonder how she'd pulled it off.

"Why?" It was a stupid question, but it was the first one that popped into my head. As Corey spoke, he was distracted. If I could shimmy far enough away to get up and run, I might be able to make it back to the house. "Why is she doing this?"

"To get to you, of all people," Corey snorted, shaking his head. "Don't ask me why. She didn't say, and I didn't care to find out. She wanted you, and that was good enough for me."

"Me?" I repeated, startled into pausing my retreat. Only for a second. "What the hell does this have to do with me? And how do you fit into it?"

"Like I said," Corey rolled his eyes impatiently, "I have no idea what this has to do with a plain Jane like you. All I know, is what's in it for me."

I thought I'd have to ask him what that was too, but he saved me the trouble. Corey reached into his pocket, producing a hunting knife the size of my forearm. I sucked in a breath.

"If I bring you to her," he grinned, a malicious, disgusting thing, "then she's promised to change me."

I didn't have to ask what he meant, and I didn't have to ask why. Most people would've, maybe, but not me. I understood all too well the allure of becoming a vampire. I knew the desire, knew how it festered and unfurled inside your bones, burning so hot you think you'd do anything to satisfy it.

Corey wanted what I once did, but he was willing to go much farther to get it.

I also knew that Corey wasn't the problem here. Sure, maybe he was my immediate problem, but he was just a pawn. The real threat, the vampire, had yet to show her face.

I just hoped I'd still be alive when she did.

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