A/N: Hopefully the chapter is fixed now! A big thank you to those who let me know that it uploaded wrong! Let me know if there are any other issues.
"She's taunting us," Edward finally said. "She planned to take one of our cars from the hospital, but she didn't know what car we had. She never made a concrete decision to take the BMW. Then she planned to switch cars at whatever exit had my Aston. She never explicitly chose this rest stop until she knew it had her second car."
"But how would she not know which exit had your Aston waiting for her if she's the one who stole the Aston and put it here?" Emmett asked.
"She had an accomplice. Her accomplice stole the car while Victoria took Bella. They left the car here and didn't tell her where it was until she asked. Then they left in some other, random car. And Alice didn't see any of it because she was busy actively looking for Victoria and Bella, so random visions were blocked from her sight."
Edward clenched his fists.
"If you're going to throw a tantrum, please do it away from my car. She's been through enough already," Rosalie warned.
Edward growled at her. "I'm not going to throw a tantrum, I'm going to find her!"
Emmett raised his eyebrows. "How can we, though? We can't track her by scent, and we have no way of tracking the car. I hate to say it, but I think we're at the end of our investigative abilities."
We might need to involve human police, Edward. They have the resources to track a vehicle, especially one as… unique as your Aston. Emmett, wisely, didn't say it aloud, or Rose would have bitten his head off. And probably would've gone on a rant about how a human wasn't worth risking exposure for, and Edward would have gone on and on about how Bella wasn't just any human, and she was totally worth risking exposure for, and they would get nowhere.
"We can't involve the police, Emmett. You know that," Edward sighed.
"Well, there's not a lot else we can do without bringing in someone else!"
Rosalie perked up at that. "No, Emmett's right. We do need to bring in someone else."
Edward stared at her and nodded at whatever he heard in her thoughts. "No, wait, that could work. Carlisle won't like it, though."
Emmett stared at them. "Does anyone feel like clueing me in? How are both of you okay with bringing in humans?"
Rosalie rolled her eyes. "I'm not talking about the police, Em. I'm talking about Alice and Jasper. The only reason Jasper isn't with us is because he wants to stay with Alice, and the only reason Alice isn't with us is to deal with the humans."
"Carlisle doesn't like leaving Esme alone, though. Especially not with the wolves in a frenzy and the humans also in a frenzy," Emmett pointed out.
Edward was already nodding, hearing Rosalie's words before she spoke them. "That's the thing, though. With our whole approach to this plan, we've been thinking like we usually do, with human strategy. But we're up against someone who's following vampire strategy. Just for a little while, we need to stop thinking like a family and start thinking like a coven."
A light bulb went off in Emmett's head. "And Jasper is the best vampire strategist in the coven. Esme will be better at dealing with the humans, because she doesn't look like a teenage girl. Hopefully, Alice has gotten Charlie under control by now. She won't be doing double duty, and she's one of the best weapons we have. And Carlisle could help coordinate both our group and the wolves from wherever Esme is."
"And we'll have strength in numbers. We won't be divided," Rosalie added
Emmett crossed the distance between them in two lumbering steps. "God, you're so smart," he said, kissing her.
Edward, wisely, decided that he'd been volunteered as the one to tell the others the plan.
~O~
"Carlisle's not happy," Alice said when she and Jasper arrived at the rest stop. With a few gallons of gas, as requested. "You know he hates leaving Esme alone."
"Esme is with the humans. He'll survive," Edward said flatly. Alice blinked at him. He didn't usually talk about… well, anyone, with that much disdain. Unless Bella was involved.
And Bella was very, very involved this time.
Rose snatched up the gas cans and started filling up. "We'll need to stop at the next gas station."
"Good, that'll give us sometime to plan," Jasper said. He spread a map on the trunk of the car. "We're here." He marks a location miles south of Forks with a Sharpie. "Bella's got twelve hours until her meds wear off, starting around four hours ago. The hospital isn't reporting any thefts, so we can assume that she only has the dose she's on right now. It would've taken two hours to get here, one and a half if Victoria was speeding. Given how fast an Aston can go, and how much time she has, she could be anywhere within this radius." Jasper drew a circle.
"Can't you just look for the Aston, Alice?" Edward asked.
My gift doesn't work that way, and you know that, Edward! I can only track people, not things. "I can't track objects," she said for the benefit of everyone else.
Before Edward could grasp at any more straws regarding her gift, Emmett cut in, and Alice was grateful for it. "Well, she'll probably continue south, right?" He gestured at the southern part of the circle.
"Not exactly. It would be logical to think that she wants to get as far as possible from us, but her actions show otherwise. She took the BMW and the Aston and even Bella right out from under our noses. She probably wants to continue that pattern."
Edward nodded. "She'd hunted with James for years, so his death appeared to her as happening while he was doing something routine. She would want to mimic that."
"Really, our house would fall best into that pattern, but we've got the wolves sweeping the entire Olympic National Forest, including our property, so that's out," Alice added.
Edward answered someone's unanswered question, and Alice was too focused on the map to care that he was being annoying. "I think her gift might be a talent for evasion, so she would know to avoid the forest."
"That leaves us with North and West," Jasper said.
"I'm done over here," Rosalie called. "Have you guys figured out where we're going?"
"She won't go West," Edward said decisively. "She wouldn't want to be pinned between us and the ocean. She'd go North."
"North it is, then." Jasper folded up the map.
~O~
"Texting and driving is illegal," Bella pointed out.
"Well, legally, I'm deceased, and they don't make laws for dead people," Victoria said back.
"It's the principle of the matter," Bella argued. "What's so important that you have to keep checking your phone, anyway?"
Victoria was silent.
"Is that even your phone?"
"If you must know," Victoria sighed, "I'm getting directions."
Bella raised her eyebrows. "You're driving at this speed and you didn't memorize the route? You're going to miss an exit."
"Why do you think I'm checking it so often?"
Bella stared at her for a moment. Then she decided she didn't care. "Whose car is this, anyway? Who'll foot the bill if you crashed?"
Victoria smiled wickedly. "Why, I'm so glad you asked! I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet. I thought you would realize it, given that I took the blond one's BMW, but I suppose not everyone can recognize an Aston Martin Vanquish on sight."
The name sounded vaguely familiar, and something was niggling at the back of her mind, but she couldn't recall it.
"This is your precious Edward's car."
Bella gaped at her. Victoria continued, seemingly delighted at her reaction. "It's a gorgeous car, isn't it? Almost irreplaceable too, since they don't make Vanquishes anymore. And it goes just fast enough for my tastes."
She slammed on the accelerator as if to demonstrate her point, the force making Bella's back hit her seat. Trees and shrubs became blurs outside the windows. Bella gripped her armrests tightly, nails digging into the leather.
Victoria eased off the gas and returned to their original, still too fast speed. Thinking Victoria was done, Bella relaxed her grip until-
"The response is good, too," Victoria added and swerved into the opposing lane. Bella closed her eyes, waiting for the sound of honking and screeching brakes and shattered glass. After what felt like eternity, though, she felt the car swerve back into their original lane. Bella peaked out with one eye, until Victoria continued with "And the turn radius is just excellent." Bella closed her eyes again just in time to feel the car make a hairpin turn off the highway. "Too exciting for you, dear?"
"How many more hours will it be until I get my feet back on solid ground?"
"You're in luck, darling," Victoria began. Bella tentatively opened her eyes. "We've arrived!"
~O~
Alice gave a short intake of breath that alerted everyone in the car that she'd finally gotten a vision. She didn't notice the others' prying eyes, though. She was seeing something else entirely.
"And it goes just fast enough for my tastes," Victoria was saying.
"The response is good, too," Victoria added and swerved into the other lane. Bella closed her eyes and the car swerved back into their original lane. Bella peaked out with one eye, until Victoria continued with "And the turn radius is just excellent." Bella closed her eyes again as Victoria made a hairpin turn onto Goodview Lane. "Too exciting for you, dear?"
"How many more hours will it be until I get my feet back on solid ground?"
"You're in luck, darling," Victoria began. Bella tentatively opened her eyes. "We've arrived!"
The car was parked in front of a sign labeled Oceanside Ranch.
Alice opened her eyes. "I know where they're going."
~O~
"'Oceanside Ranch'?" Bella read. "Seems a little… on the nose, doesn't it?"
Indeed, they seemed to be at a ranch that was, well, oceanside.
"I think it's charming," Victoria said. "And blame the Airbnb hosts, not me."
Bella stared at her as she walked towards the small cottage a distance away.
Victoria turned. "Well? Are you coming?"
The impulse to run, to take the Vanquish and leave, made Bella pause for a moment. After all, to be human was to desire freedom. But she'd already made her choice. She jogged over to Victoria.
"You used Airbnb." Bella stated flatly.
"And?" Victoria began walking again.
"You used Airbnb to book the place you'll use to turn me into a vampire." Bella followed her.
"What, did you think I would use a haunted house? An abandoned warehouse? Unlike James, I won't sacrifice comfort for theatrical ambiance," Victoria laughed.
"How on earth did you pay for it?" Bella asked, mostly in awe of how strange her life had become.
"Well, I had to practice, to make sure I wouldn't kill you," Victoria started. "And one of my new- covenmate's, I suppose- one of his credit cards is still active, because the police haven't decided he's deceased without a body."
Bella shivered. She'd been trying not to think about what Chief of Police Charlie Swan had thought about her abduction, but now she couldn't stop herself. How on earth would Charlie rationalize why his daughter, who would be dead in a few days, was kidnapped? At least they would be able to rule her as deceased within a week and close the case.
When Victoria opened the door, Bella didn't know what she expected to see. Certainly not a living room with rich, red patterned rugs over hardwood floors. Probably not a galley kitchen with two-toned cabinets and bronze finishes. Most definitely a reading nook with a green velvet chair and floor-to-ceiling windows, displaying an ocean view.
"No wonder it was so expensive to book." Victoria smirked. She grabbed a bag from the kitchen counter that seemed strangely out of place. "I'll set everything up. Bedrooms and bathrooms down this hall" -she pointed to a doorway Bella hadn't even noticed- "and the fridge should be fully stocked. I'll be leaving in around two hours, so you have that long to do any last things you want to do."
And with that, Victoria left.
Bella stared down the hallway for a long moment. Then she went to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.
She really had no idea what she wanted to do with her last few hours of being human. Absolutely no clue. She perused the books in the reading nook, paced the length of the kitchen, sat in the chairs in the living room, and still had no idea what to do.
The bottle of water sat, almost entirely full, on the counter, taunting her.
She racked her brain trying to think of what she would miss doing, once she changed. What she would regret not doing. She stood, paced some more, and sat back down with a huff.
It was painfully obvious why she felt this way. She'd finished her bucket list. She'd done everything under the sun that she wanted to do before she died, except things that involved living to her nineteenth birthday. There was nothing that she could do here that she hadn't already done.
Except… She'd been preparing for death before. The end of her days. Now she was preparing for her days to continue forever.
When preparing for death, Bella had wanted to experience as much of life as she possibly could, until she wouldn't be able to. In preparing for eternity, what would be the equivalent?
It would be experiencing as much mortality as she possibly could, but she couldn't really do that, could she?
There was something else she'd done, though, when preparing for death. She'd learned as much about her impending death as she could. As much about how cancer would rip through her body as she could.
Bella stood. Well, then. Only one thing for it. She stepped into the hallway Victoria had gone into.
Original A/N: I gotta say, as soon as I came up with this chapter title, I did a celebratory wiggle. I have no idea when AirBnB was invented, but let's just pretend it was in the 2000s. If I ever write outtakes or a sequel to this (a sequel is unlikely, but outtakes might be in the cards), I'd want to make this as accurate to the year New Moon was set in as possible, so any outtakes set in the future could feature modern technology instead of me having to invent new iPhone features for 2034. That's my biggest issue with fics set twenty years later on books that have just been released, because they either leave technology the same as it is now or they invent new tech that quickly becomes outdated. Thankfully, since New Moon is set in 2005 (ish? was it 2008?), it's fairly easy to do a 15-years-later outtake with realistic tech. Hmm, now I'm contemplating a series of one-shots as a sequel for this... Anyways. How'd I do with the driving scene? I had a very clear picture of Victoria swerving into the other lane of traffic in my head, but I don't know how well the danger translated onto the page. And hopefully, the Cullens' little strategy session isn't too out of character? I knew I needed to write out their change in plans, but it's hard to write characters who are supposed to have more life experience, perfect recall of said life experience, and faster-thinking power than the author does. were the POV switches confusing at all? We saw Emmett's, Alice's, and Bella's POVs in this chapter. Y'all know the drill with the typos.