The Jaguar Versus the Wolf
Chapter 38 - Family Gone, Family Found
Orbiting Satellites Book Two, Chapter 38 - Darkness companion
"How long?" Rosalie asked as Jasper began typing.
She hadn't been able to reassemble the jamming device Joham had used to block Renesmee and her dogs cell phones in New York, but she had managed to reconstruct a serial number on it, after Emmett smashed the thing to pieces.
"It'll be faster if you're not hovering over me." He was hoping Joham had registered the thing when he bought it, or had put it on a credit card that could be tied to an address, or… I wasn't really sure what else. But whatever it was Jasper was looking for it on his computer.
"Fine, I'm going to see if I can pull up any traffic cam footage. Maybe we can find them that way."
"Here," he then said as he handed his phone to Emmett. "Find Jenks in my contacts, DON'T give him any details," he stressed, "just tell him the jammers serial number and that we need a local address. Then tell him– Whitlock Omega Priority. Got it?"
Emmett took the phone and for the first time ever did something without first making a sarcastic comment. Wow!
I didn't know who this Jenks person was, but it seemed we needed all the help we could get.
Everyone was doing something now. Alice was off giving herself a headache trying to force a vision while Carlisle checked on Jennifer. When she'd passed out again on the car ride back here she still hadn't regained consciousness. I heard him ask Esme to help him set up an IV. He assured me she only needed rest and blood. And time to heal.
I still worried though.
While she slept and recovered I decided to see what she had been talking about before, when she asked me about getting her texts. I had nothing else to do.
I'd thrown my phone in my room over a week ago after being rejected and had my heart broken by Leah and hadn't picked it up since. The battery must have died shortly after since I never heard it ring or beep when Jennifer tried to get in touch with me to, I assume, warn me Joham was going after Renesmee.
After giving it twenty minutes to charge a little, I turned it back on and took a peak.
Oh! It looked like I had a lot of text messages from her. I had seen that she'd sent me some a few days before I'd sent Leah the photo of myself. But I hadn't realized what the green bubble picture was for. It looked like she had been sending me messages for awhile. I remember talking to her on the phone on the same dates for some of them, she must have called when I hadn't responded to her texts. I wished now that she had mentioned them at the time.
They went back months. I started at the earliest texts, but as I read they got more and more disturbing.
Mar 15
how r things with Ren?
still weird with her n dog?
10:11 AM
r u enjoying nh?
10:14 AM
miss you :)
10:15 AM
Mar 29
haven't heard from u in awhile
call me
4:19 PM
April 8
amazin news!
father says he found way around V rule
gonna start making us more siblings soon
2:46 PM
May 15
M & S just told me r coming to see u
did ya know they r goin to nh
8:07 AM
June 8
everything ok?
haven't heard back from u in while
5:01 PM
June 15
call or text me sometime
miss ya
7:43 AM
July 16
did u get my texts?
is eveytin ok
hope u r just 2 busy havin fun
hows goin btw?
8:27 PM
Aug 23
I'm scared
fathers up to something
I think M and S are involved
call me!
10:18 AM
HELP
need help
father told me what plan was
he cant
HE WANTS R!
u have 2 stop him
2:49 PM
Aug 25
911 HELP!
WHERE R U?
12:18 PM
Aug 26
f aftr ne abndond wrehse dint ni whre
hlp
1:18 AM
That was the last one.
It was so fragmented and jammed together but I think I figured out what she had been trying to tell me. Joham was after her. She'd been either in or by an abandoned warehouse and needed help. But that was sent eleven days ago. She didn't show up here until yesterday. Today was September 8th.
Had she run all the way here from Brazil?
I'd have to ask her when she woke up. But I was so upset with myself now. If I had read all of these messages when she first sent them I might have been able to stop Joham before anything even happened.
My misplaced hatred of technology was hurting people. I hated Joham. Just because he embraced technology shouldn't keep me from doing the same. Or at least not completely repel me from it. I had had some positive experiences with it. I was able to keep in touch with my Aunt, in ways I had never dreamed before, refrigeration kept human food fresh, and cars and planes made travel not only more comfortable but in some cases faster as well.
Jennifer slept for over fourteen hours before she finally woke up. When she did I asked her what happened. I needed to know.
"Father went crazy when I refused to help him," she cried. "I ran, and ran, and ran, trying to get away, but Serena was helping him and they cornered me. They dragged me into this warehouse somewhere, but I managed to escape for a little while, and hide. That was when I sent you the last text. But there was nowhere to go, I couldn't stay there forever, and there was only one door to leave out of. I was trapped. He eventually found me in the crawlspace I'd shoved myself in. I didn't know what to do and stupidly I tried fighting to get away but he attacked back. I was bleeding and I don't know if he did it on purpose but father started feeding from me," she said holding up one of her wrists. "He took so much blood, I got lightheaded and thought he was going to drain me but he didn't. After tearing himself away he grabbed something out of his bag and injected it into me. I must have passed out because the next thing I knew I woke up chained to a wall and they were gone. I didn't think it had been that long but I must have been unconscious for days. I was so weak, it took me almost an entire day just to pull the chains out of the wall, but I couldn't get them off of my wrists.
"I wanted to call you but I found my phone smashed on the floor and father must have taken my wallet and ID's. But I knew I needed to get to you so I ran. I ran for as long as I could and then eventually found a car to steal. I drove it until it ran out of gas. And then I stole another, and another. But as I got closer to you I didn't want the police involved, looking for stolen cars, so I ran again. On this second half of my run up here I finally managed to break some of my fingers to get the shackles off of my wrists, and kept running and running until I found you." She looked embarrassed.
"I don't know why I'm not healing as fast as I normally would," she said while rubbing the bandages on her wrists.
"I believe it's a combination of the muscle relaxants and sedatives Joham injected into you, combined with the blood loss," Carlisle told her, coming into the room to check on her again as he'd been doing every few hours. He handed her another bag of donated blood, "The more you drink the faster you should heal."
She drank it, and then another. She looked better with each bag, but was still healing slower than normal. I didn't know what to do to help her, but she was so upset I mostly just held her as she cried. The more she cried the better her mood seemed to improve. I didn't understand it, but if it was working I didn't want to stop her.
Two days later Bella finally called. They had a lead.
"I'm putting you on speaker," Carlisle told her, as we all gathered around.
"We don't know for sure, they're too far away for Edward to hear, but we heard a wolf howl."
"You heard Jacob?" Esme gasped.
"No, I know what he sounds like as a wolf, as well as I do when he's human. But I think it was Seth."
"Who's Seth?" I whispered to Jasper, but only because he was standing next to me.
Edward's voice was the one to answer me through the phone though, "He's one of the wolves from Jacob's pack that live in the area."
The dog had a pack? I guess that would make sense, I'd just never seen any of them, or heard him, or Renesmee talk about them.
"Where are you?" Jasper asked them. When Bella gave us their location we all dashed into the cars. Once again Jennifer came, even though Carlisle thought it would be best if she stayed home to rest. She insisted and there was no stopping her once she'd made up her mind.
It didn't take long; driving over 120 mph they were less than an hour away. But when we got there Bella and Edward were not. We didn't expect them to be. We assumed they'd keep running and we'd follow theire trail, but smelled nothing.
"Did we go to the wrong spot?" Emmett asked looking around.
"No, this is where Edward said to go," Carlisle answered, but looked as confused as the rest of us.
Esme was about to call Bella, when Alice yelled, "They're this way," and took off running a few miles south, into some nearby woods. When we got there Edward was destroying anything he could lay his hands on.
"We lost them," Bella sadly filled us in when she saw us come into view.
We searched throughout the night and well into the next day, coming up empty.
"How do we even know the wolves know where they are?" Rosalie asked, echoing my own thoughts.
"I heard Seth," Edward replied. After he'd gotten out some of his anger and frustration he rejoined the search for his daughter a few hours ago. "The wolves are faster than us, so he was out of my hearing range before I could find anything pertinent out, but Jacob was in his wolf form when they were taken. His pack is looking for him too, and I can't be certain, but I think they picked up a scent we haven't and are following it."
So that was why we were trying to find them? That wasn't too optimistic in my opinion, but it was the only lead we had.
A few hours later Jennifer came across a strange scent. It almost smelled like the dog, but not. It had to be from one of his pack. Carlisle confirmed it.
After that it was a simple task of following their scent.
As we ran Edward must have heard something that upset him, and almost fell over. We must have been close so it wasn't hard to guess what he heard. I couldn't understand why he was so surprised though. He knew Joham's plan; why he had taken Renesmee in the first place.
A few minutes later we burst through the front doors. It seemed like my father liked warehouses, he'd kept Jennifer in one, and this was another, but larger and more fortified then the one she was kept in, or so she said. The wolves had already broken down the front door and there wasn't a lot left for us to do.
There was a room on the right I heard growls coming from, but Edward ignored it and headed toward the back. That must have been where Joham and Renesmee were. Bella, I, and half our group followed him, while the others went to the room on the right.
Edward could read minds so he knew what was happening in there before the rest of us, still it seemed strange when he paused at the door. He took a deep, unnecessary breath, and then slowly opened the door.
Just like I expected the room wasn't barren concrete like the rest of the building, but had sheer curtains framing the barred windows, a fluffy rug over the industrial tiled floor, and a large pillow covered luxurious bed in the middle of the room. Scented candles lined the walls and were adding a soft glow to the romantic atmosphere.
His daughter didn't seem to be doing too badly. She was slightly bruised, but Edward seemed more surprised, than angry that my father had succeeded in seducing her. While I despised the fact that that he had gotten to have her, when I had failed, it hadn't shocked me. He'd become an expert at the art of seduction over the centuries; so of course he'd succeeded, he was a pro at it. Renesmee never stood a chance.
As soon as we came in, she saw her father, said a single, exhilarated word, "Daddy!" and passed out. He was across the room in an instant, to catch her before she hit the floor, but lying there was already the headless body of my father.
"Carlisle," Edward called, who came in an instant.
While Edward was relieved to find his daughter he still seemed more upset than I expected, but wasn't this better than if Joham had forced himself on her? She might have gotten badly injured if she fought back. After a quick examination Carlisle said that she had merely passed out due to exhaustion.
Joham's body was quickly burned, but as we all exited the bed chamber and found the others I learned that my sisters were also both dead, killed by the wolves, yet I wasn't as upset as I thought I'd be.
The dog was alive, barely. Carlisle wasn't sure he'd make it; also not that upsetting.
A discussion was going on to determine what to do with my sisters bodies – burn or bury them. No hybrid had ever died before and no one was sure what to do.
Out of respect Carlisle asked Jennifer and I what we wanted, but it was hard to think. The wolves didn't seem to realize we weren't with Joham, Serena and Maysun. Emmett and Esme were having a hard time holding them back, so they didn't attack us too.
Jennifer was heartbroken, she loved her sisters, but there was nothing to do for them now. There would be time to mourn later. We quickly talked it over and decided that their bodies should be cremated as well. Jennifer wanted to gather the ashes to take with us as a remembrance.
As we did this Esme was still trying to calm down the wolves. The sandy colored one backed down, but the small grey one wouldn't stop growling at me. What was his problem?
"Nahuel, we'll need to transport Jacob back home in a car," Edward said tossing me two sets of keys. "Why don't you and Jennifer go get them."
Gladly. Anything to get away from the dogs.
Knowing where we were going it didn't take long but when we got back to the warehouse half our party was gone.
"We found Joham's van," Alice explained, "so Carlisle took Nessie, Jake and his pack home. They all needed medical intervention, some more than others. And Edward and Bella went with them. Come on we'll drive you back," she said as we piled in one car, and Emmett and Rosalie drove home alone in hers.
The nightmare seemed over.
But was it?
Joham was gone. My sisters were dead. Jacob might still die. Jennifer was severely traumatized and who knew about Renesmee. What would be the lasting repercussions from the events of the last few days?
Only time would tell.
A.N. That's it for the The Jaguar Versus the Wolf. Sorry to leave you on a sort of cliff hanger.
To read this story in Nessie and Jakes POV read Orbiting Satellites Book 2.
And to find out what happens next continue reading the story in Orbiting Satellites Book 3. I hope to start uploading it next week.
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Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed my story.
