"Hey! Woah there, Jazz— stop!"

Jasper knew that if Emmett pushed down on his shoulders any harder, or if he pushed against his grip, the linoleum would shatter beneath their feet.

For a quick moment, Jasper didn't even care. Alice was gone.

He growled, low in his chest. Too quiet for the humans to pick up on, but that didn't matter. They were staring anyways, giving the quartet of vampires a wide berth as they all muttered amongst themselves. Jasper could hear one woman remark that someone ought to summon security.

"Jazz!" Emmett yelled again, the grip on his shoulders tightening slightly, but carefully. Then, swiftly, he shook Jasper, hard . The action would have snapped a human's spine, and even though Jasper was a thousand times more durable, this was Emmett, so it still hurt. "You better pull it together man."

Jasper didn't need to have his ability to feel the fury that had now taken ahold of the taller man. He was barely even thinking about how the room was hot with rage, and how it was his own making. It was hard to care. All he cared about was Alice.

And Alice was gone.

He didn't hesitate until he looked up and saw Carlisle standing behind Emmett. He had one hand lightly braced against Edward's chest, the other hand holding his phone, which was pressed against his ear. Unlike everyone in this vicinity, his expression didn't hold a hint of frustration or a molecule of anger.

As Carlisle glanced between the angry men, he looked devastated.

"Fucking reign it in, man," Emmett demanded, trying fruitlessly to shake off the fury that wasn't his own. "We can't fucking find her if you're like this. Calm down!"

"She could've gone after Bella," Edward finally supplied, also struggling to shake himself free of Jasper's emotional influence. "Wherever Bella ran to, Alice could be on her trail. Have you even tried tracking her scent?!"

"Edward," Carlisle finally spoke up, his tone disapproving. Swiftly, he pocketed the phone. It seemed that whoever he was calling hadn't picked up. "Let's take this elsewhere," he spoke sternly, his golden gaze shifting from Edward to Emmett and Jasper. His pointed look forced Jasper to snap out of it momentarily, glancing around all the humans eyeing them with apprehension.

He could just barely see how the two security guards across the room were now slowly heading towards them.

Turning briskly, Jasper slapped Emmett's hands off of him before striding up to the chair where Alice had abandoned her belongings. "Even if she's gone after Bella, James isn't far behind."

"Then we have no time to spare." Emmett beat him to it, throwing Alice's bag over his shoulder before meeting his eyes. And when Emmett was serious, it was hard to look away. "We're going to find her. So pump the brakes a little bit."

Reaching forward, Jasper plucked the phone out of the bag's side pocket, before pocketing it himself. "Don't." Jasper warned, his tone dangerous.

No matter how much he cared for his adoptive family, when it came to Alice's safety, that was the priority.

When Edward began to head toward the exit at the opposite end of the room (and in the opposite direction of the security guards that were still surveying the scene and following from a distance) everyone else turned to wordlessly follow.

Jasper couldn't tell how long he would be able to keep his anger in check, but if they didn't get a move on and find Alice, and quickly, no amount of negotiation was going to keep him from doing anything he could to find her.

Edward threw a frustrated glance over his shoulder, paying attention to Jasper's every thought closely. He was leading them to a stairwell that led to the parking garage Carlisle's Mercedes was parked in. Clearly, he'd picked the information out of his head without him knowing.

Keep moving, Jasper snapped inwardly. The boy was tiptoeing across thin ice right now, and Jasper had run out of patience the moment Edward had reacted to the disappearance of the human.

Edward reeled on him. "Her name is Bella—"

"And if Alice gets hurt because of her—"

Too caught up in their own anger neither of them could really react in time before Emmett had gripped the back of each of their necks and all-but-dragged them into the stairwell.

"I swear to god if you two don't pull it together." After the door to the stairwell closed behind Carlisle, with that final, angry word, Emmett threw his hands forward, nearly tossing them down the stairs.

Of course, they both landed on their feet; Edward caught himself at the bottom of the next landing, and Jasper, halfway down the first flight of stairs.

Emmett inhaled deeply, preparing to lay into the two men some more. But when he froze, suddenly overtaken with terror, Jasper felt himself freeze up, too.

But before Jasper could collect a breath to speak, Emmett had taken off down the stairs ahead of them, a blur as he darted down to the bottom floor before the other three men even began to follow. And when Jasper took a breath he was bombarded with both Alice and James' scents.

At the bottom of the stairs was an exit that led to the ground level of the parking garage. The bright Arizona sun shining just a few dozen yards away.

"What do we do?" Emmett spoke again, the hurt and fear shining through his words as he stared out toward the bustling city.

"Jasper," Carlisle moved so that he was in his line of sight, trying to force his attention. "Where did you say Bella went?"

"Jumped onto a hotel shuttle. I thought she was in the bathroom," he responded robotically, barely able to offer the information as his mind drew up countless worst-case-scenarios. "She tricked me. Made a run for it. Had at least a five minute start on me. Nearly nine now."

"A shuttle where?" Edward pleaded, his voice finally breaking. Jasper took a small mercy on him and visualized the sign that read 'HYATT SHUTTLE' that he'd seen before rushing back into the airport.

"Alice had two visions." Jasper's brain had entered analytical mode now. And as he tried to figure out what was likely happening, he was left with more questions than answers. "One showed Bella in her house, and one showed her at the ballet studio down the road from her house." Staring at the concrete beneath his feet, his chest ached when he realized that barely minutes ago, Alice had travelled across this very spot.

"So, Alice ran out after Bella?" Emmett offered. "Maybe to try and beat her to her house?"

"Not by foot. Not in the sunlight," Edward shook his head. "Alice isn't that foolish."

No, she's not , Jasper thought to himself, hardly shaking his own horror as he tried not to focus on the fact that James' scent was still so potent. There was just one detail that was driving him insane.

"Why would he go after Alice?" He felt their gazes on him before lifting his eyes up off the pavement to meet them. "If he was this close, why not go for Bella? She was right there. She made a break for it before I or even Alice could react. He could've just followed the shuttle and grabbed her." He looked at each of their faces again before speaking slowly. "Why Alice?"

Carlisle looked sad. Emmett, scared. But the sharp pang of guilt that pulsed off of Edward was almost satisfying.

Almost.

Jasper could feel that Edward was choosing his words very carefully before he started to speak.

"Back in the clearing, when we first encountered them. James…" Edward shot a guilty look at Carlisle, and the shame radiating off of him was powerful. He wouldn't even look at Jasper. "I didn't think much of it. I'm sorry—"

"Just spit it out," Jasper's voice was quiet, but he knew they could hear the dangerous tone his voice had taken.

"He recognized her. James recognized Alice. It was such a fleeting thought that I didn't even dwell on it. Once he saw Bella and watched me react to his advances and then decided he was going to make a game out of hunting her, that's all I could focus on." He was speaking fast now, as if trying to justify his action, or lack thereof, as fast as possible. "Jasper," and finally, he looked up at him, "if I had known he was going to go after Alice, I would've done something. I swear to you."

Jasper knew his words were genuine. But it mattered little to him at that moment. Nothing mattered, except for Alice's safety.

And right now, Alice was anything but safe.

"He's fooled us all," Carlisle spoke gravely. "Laurent was right to warn us. I'm afraid we've underestimated him."

"What do we—Jazz, where are you going?" Emmett was quick to move after him, following him step-for-step as he strode across the parking lot. Jasper's eyes were on the horizon as he strode toward the edge of the garage, directly toward the sunlight.

Jasper smacked Emmett's arm away as he attempted to lay another restrictive hand on him. "There's no time. The keys are in the bag. Use the car if you want. Go to the human's house, or dance studio. I'm going after Alice."

"She might be after Bella," Edward offered, his irritation sharp at Jasper's refusal to use her name.

"Then go find her. I'm not concerned with that."

"Jasper."

Carlisle's voice was sharp. As stern as he'd ever heard it. And Jasper could certainly count the amount of times he'd heard the man raise his voice in the past fifty-odd years. It wasn't a common occurrence.

"Don't let him make a fool out of you, too." That made him stop. Turning slowly, he met Carlisle's eyes with a challenging look. "He's made a fool out of all of us. If you go after him you're playing directly into his hand."

"Carlisle's right," Edward nodded in agreement, because of course he would. "He would absolutely expect us to follow him. You're not an idiot, Jasper. Don't start acting like one."

When Emmett reached over to smack Edward upside the head, he avoided the blow swiftly.

"Seriously, dude?"

"All I'm saying," Edward glared at him, stepping back and straightening up, "is that we're dealing with something we're clearly barely equipped to handle." It sounded like it was a painful thing to admit, and with his ability Jasper knew that was exactly the case. "We don't know where Bella is, we don't know where Alice is, and all we've got to go on is a fading trail and two visions."

"We go to Bella's house then," Carlisle offered, already fishing another set of keys out of his own bag.

"No," Jasper shook his head, feeling resigned and pitifully hopeless with Alice's fate unknown to him. "The ballet studio is probably where she's heading. My money is on that."

"Here," and wordlessly, Carlisle tossed his keys into Edward's lifted hand. Edward nodded, "I can figure out where it is."

When Jasper didn't immediately make a move to follow the three men, Emmett stopped and turned toward him.

"Jazz," and he could feel Emmett's heartbreak just as acutely as he could see it on his face. "C'mon. Don't go rogue on us now."

And beneath the sadness was a painful type of fear. And suddenly Jasper knew that while Emmett was terrified over Alice's disappearance, he was scared that Jasper would run off, too.

You better pray she's there, Jasper thought pointedly as he turned to follow the trio. Hands shoved in his pockets.

But if there was a hopeful bone in Edward's body, Jasper couldn't sense it.


A/N:

You'll be getting a new chapter per day, every day, up through this weekend. You're welcome in advance. Hoping to knock this story out before September starts.

Review Replies:

guest: thanks a bunch! I'm glad you like it so far—wish I could take credit for this awesome idea though.

M.A: god, so this afternoon G (the person who gave me the idea and the Go Ahead to write this fic) and I were complaining about how alice got her backstory revealed in a scene entirely about bella and how alice deserves more! c'mon steph! you're gonna ignore the potential to expand on the perfect southern gothic backstory for what? a love triangle? nonsensical. i'm happy you're liking my pics though—thank you so much!

ZileRacer: oh don't you worry about that... you'll see... :~)