Chapter Thirty Eight: Gone
Uncle Charlie's first act upon Bella's return was to ground her, limiting her to school, work and the house. An action that made it my ultimate goal to be home as little as possible to avoid being home with Bella anymore than absolutely necessary. I spent every weekend away from the house per Embry's request, with the Cullens back in town and with Embry's new knowledge since they'd left he wanted me home even less than I wanted to be there.
Unfortunately this weekend was the rare exception that Uncle Charlie put his foot down and demanded that we both be home for dinner, that he wanted to see both his girls for once. His demand made me feel extremely guilty, knowing that this was all taking a toll on him despite our best efforts to keep him out of all the drama.
I was laying in bed reading a book and could hear Bella in her room continuously shuffling around. Whether cleaning or looking for something was beyond me. I had finally managed to tune her out when she yelled down the stairs to Uncle Charlie.
"Dad, did you start the wash?" Bella yelled.
"Um, no. Did you want me to?" He called back sounding a little guilty.
"No, I got it. Were you looking for something in my room?"
"No. Why?" This time Uncle Charlie sounded truly confused.
"I can't find… a shirt..." That was a pitiful cover up, but Uncle Charlie seemed to let it slide.
"I haven't been in there." He said simply and I heard Bella go back to shuffling through the laundry before walking back to her room. I glanced at the chair across the room where I had noticed my favorite hoodie missing from this morning and shoved a bookmark between the pages of my book and climbed out of bed. I knocked and poked my head in Bella's room.
"When did you notice the shirt missing?" I asked and Bella spared me half a glance before looking back to her closet.
"I don't need your snarky advice for finding missing items, Anna." She grumbled and I rolled my eyes.
"Too bad that's not what I'm doing. When did the shirt go missing?" I asked again. Bella sighed and turned around to look at me.
"I noticed it gone this morning. I'd left it on the end of the bed and now it's gone, satisfied?" Bella snarked.
"Did you notice anything else out of place?" I asked and looked back toward my door, little things that I had ignored suddenly coming to mind before looking back to Bella, who seemed to actually think before answering.
"Well, there's a couple things, but I just thought..." Bella stopped, not wanting to admit what I already knew. Edward was over far more than Uncle Charlie knew and closer than I truly felt comfortable with.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Uncle Charlie called.
"Not yet." Bella called back before locking eyes with me.
"You call Edward, I'll call Embry." I said and ran back to my room to get my phone. The line seemed to ring forever before Embry finally picked up and I was able to tell him what was going on. He said he'd be right over before the line disconnected and I was left in a silence that seemed deafening.
I knew this was Embry's fear, that being in the same house as Bella would put me in the same danger. My heart was pounding in my chest, I felt like I was in the middle of a marathon as I sat on the bed, watching for movement out my bedroom window. The time it took Embry to come from La Push seemed endless as I watched the treeline waiting for him. When he finally appeared I rushed from my place on the bed down the stairs and out the back door. His arms were wrapped around me before I made it halfway across the lawn.
As Embry hugged me to him I could make out the form of another wolf in the tree line and felt a little more secure till I felt the growl in Embry's chest as he pulled me behind him. Looking around Embry I could see Edward with his arm around Bella a feet few away and the small token of security the presence of Embry and whoever else was in the tree line diminished.
"It's not a scent I recognize. Whoever it was, they only seemed to steal a couple items of clothing from both girls. Emmett and Jasper are following the scent." Edward spoke, his voice was soft but there was a harsh edge to his words.
"Paul's patrolling the area, checking to see who many there were and we'll report back to Sam." Embry growled out. Edward nodded shortly.
"I'm going to take Bella back to our home and inform my family." Embry nodded and the two walked away back toward the house before disappearing behind the closed door. Embry dragged me with him further into the trees.
"God damn those leeches." Embry hissed under his breath.
"Why couldn't they just stay gone." Embry growled and I clung to him a little more.
"Anna, you've got to stick to the rez. That's the safest place for you." Embry said and I looked to Embry desperately. This was just more of the same, there was little I could change. I was already spending every moment I could on the rez and without telling Uncle Charlie what was really going on nothing was going to change. Uncle Charlie had very few rules but he was firm about those rules being followed. Uncle Charlie wanted Bella and I home by ten on a school night, didn't allow sleep overs during the week and didn't allow boyfriends in our bedrooms. Three very simple rules that were hard to ignore.
"Tell Charlie that you got a call from Emily about a feminine issue and need to come down to the rez. We'll figure everything out then. I'm going to going to follow you back and report to Sam before joining Paul." Embry rattled off quickly and I nodded. Embry pressed a kiss to my lips and finally let me go. I hesitated before heading back toward the house and back in the back door. Uncle Charlie was sitting in his recliner watching a baseball game as I peeked around the corner. I took a deep breath before stepping into the room and catching his attention.
"Hey, Emily just called. She's having a feminine issue and asked if I could come down and help. I shouldn't be gone long." I said, feeling guilty for lying and for bailing when he had asked for one night with both of us home. Charlie sighed and took a long drink from his beer.
"No need to look so guilty, kiddo. Bella already bailed to go over to the boyfriends. Just be home before ten." I nodded and kissed his cheek before heading for the door.
I caught glimpses of Embry on the drive to Emily's. Seeing him through the trees was both comforting and nerve wracking. Comforting in the sense that I knew he was just feet away that nothing could get me while he was that close. Nerve wrecking in the sense that he and the rest of the pack thought that I was in enough danger that Embry went a step further than Embry's typical over-protectiveness; instead of human Embry driving me to La Push, they felt that he needed to be phased to give just that extra layer of protection and it was setting me on edge.
Embry was running out of the treeline before I was completely out of the car in Emily's driveway. Before I could take a step Embry had his arm wrapped around my shoulders and was leading into the house, the tension never leaving his body even as we walked through the door and joined the majority of the pack in Emily's living room.
"What happened?" Seth asked, seemingly a little dazed, like he had been pulled from his bed and the thought wasn't completely unlikely.
"A super scary home invasion." I started.
"I had noticed little things moved or missing. I didn't think much of it till Bella mentioned that stuff was missing from her room. According to Edward, an unfamiliar vampire was in the house and took items belonging to Bella and I." I explained, Embry pulled me tighter into his side. A low growl rumbling in his chest at the threat that none of us had seen coming.
"What else did the Cullens say?" Sam asked and this time the question was directed at Embry. I could feel a slight tremor pass through Embry and I laid my hand on his arm, a silent reminder that I was here and safe despite the danger that had been presented.
"They didn't have much to contribute. Just said that it was a scent they didn't recognize and that they were going to track the scent and try to identify the source." Embry said gruffly and Sam nodded. Jared scoffed, pulling the room's attention to him.
"At least it's not like we were expecting much from them. The red head's been managing to evade us for months. She's managed to slip through the Cullen's grip twice now. Even their 'gifts' aren't helping at this point. Is it really surprising that she'd made more to help her and teach them how to evade us?" Jared stated with a sneer. There was a disgruntled murmur throughout the room. No one wanted to think about the possibility of more vampires and the games that this red headed bitch had been managing to play for months now.
"Too bad we couldn't just give her what she wants, spare the many for the price of one." Leah snarled. I felt conflicted about her statement. I knew the idea came from a place of pure frustration, but Bella was still my cousin, still my family, and for the time being still completely human. Doing such a thing would go against everything the pack stood for, even if it was ultimately that quickest and easiest way to solve the problem of the revenge seeking vampire.
After all this was completely and utterly the Cullens' fault. They'd had the red head in their grasp at least once, hence the started of this fiasco when they killed her mate. The blame and responsibility for rectifying the issue fell solely on their shoulders, but their ignorance and absence had made her a pack issue as they fought to protect the human population of Forks and La Push.
"That's enough, Leah!" Sam snapped causing Leah to glare back before leaning back into her corner and remaining silent. Sam sighed and the room remained silent as we all waited for him to speak.
"This all presents a new reason to end this quickly. Unfortunately, I don't see what we can change. We're already stretched thin with patrol, we're already collaborating with the Cullend in attempts to end this pest. Without locking ourselves in a cage and waiting everything out there's nothing I can think of that could possibly change the situation we're currently standing in." Sam sighed and everyone seemed resigned to what he was saying. There's nothing we can do, only stick to the course we were already walking and hope for the best that the red head would slip up and they'd finally be able to end her once and for all. They only other option crossed lines that I believed no one was truly willing to cross, not with the expense of a human life, even if it was a life that wished to become a part of the enemy sooner than that later.
"In the mean time, we do what we've been doing. We protect our own and dedicate ourselves to ending this leech. No one and no thing is perfect, the more she pushes the line, the more likely she is to make a mistake and when she does we'll be there to make sure that it's her last/' Sam said and it was almost like an invisible gavel hit the table and dismissed that people around us.
There was truly nothing else to say. We were stuck in an impasse, the piece on the board were all caught in a stalemate and waiting for someone to make a mistake to take the opening that would cripple the opponent. Our main advantage was our numbers. It was one against all of us, once she took a misstep, there would be someone there to grab her and we would finally be able to rest.