A/N: Hello and happy weekend! Not much to say, so please enjoy!

Chapter 32: Search

"What do you mean?" Carine asked, confusion coloring her tone. Her coven was completely paying attention now, Jessamine closing her book and Royal placing the TV remote down. They all looked equally thrown, but the unease began to build as there was another pause on the line.

"She's not here. I haven't seen her since last night when she left," Amanda said.

"She told us you wanted her to come in," Carine said, her voice tight; her mind seemed stuck; despite the expanded mental room and enhanced capabilities, she was unable to understand or accept what she was hearing.

"I didn't ask her to come into work today," the young veterinarian clarified. There was another long pause as Carine and Earnest exchanged a look.

"Oh no," Carine whispered; her body had frozen, ramrod straight, staring at her coven as they stared back at her, their golden eyes wide, shocked and horrified as the truth dawned on them.

"When did you see her last?" Amanda asked quickly, the concern in her tone now overpowered with business-like assertiveness; once she understood the cause for the confusion, she needed the details.

"This morning, around seven," Carine answered immediately. The vampire didn't need to provide the math to the veterinarian as they both realized it had been over ten hours since Edythe had left.

"She left the house and went south," Earnest murmured to her, which Carine relayed.

"I'll start calling people, see if anyone's seen her," Amanda promised. "Do you have any idea where she could be?" Carine shook her head, providing the answer verbally.

"We'll start around the hospital and work outwards," Amanda said. "I will call back with any updates." Carine could barely utter in thanks before she hung up. The Cullens were immediately on their feet, crowding around Carine. Archie had already relayed what Amanda had said to Beau, and his blue eyes, paired with the six other golden sets, all reflected the same agitation, which was quickly morphing to anxiety. Carine's eyes slid to Archie.

"Where is she?" she asked tightly. But he looked as confounded as the rest of them.

"I…I don't know," he admitted, his voice clearly unnerved, "I haven't seen her make any decisions since this morning. I saw her in the hospital's study lounge. She was going to stay there all day."

"How can that be?" Carine murmured; she worked carefully to keep her voice from coloring with the emotions she felt, knowing this was not Archie's fault.

"I have no idea," Archie said; he was already pulling out his cell phone, pressing the number two on his speed dial. The Cullens stood tensely, listening to the outgoing call; they seemed to tense further as the call went straight to voicemail.

"Her phone is either off or dead," Archie stated unnecessarily.

"She could still be at school," Earnest suggested, though his voice was not hopeful. But his children shook their heads.

"She didn't go to any of our classes today," Eleanor said, and Beau confirmed.

"We need to find her," Eleanor added unnecessarily, already half turned toward the door.

"Where on Earth are we supposed to start?" Royal objected. "She left in the Volvo, and could have driven anywhere."

"We start looking for it, working patterns. We find it, we find her," she said simply.

"It's not that easy; there's probably hundreds of Volvo sedans in Ithaca alone," Archie said, his eyes only half-focused; despite his words, he was trying to find if Eleanor's tactic was of any use.

"How do we find her then?" Eleanor demanded. "What happened?"

For that, none of them had an answer. Beau contemplated calling Amanda back, but it was deemed unnecessary as his phone began to ring. But it wasn't Amanda that was calling him.

"Hey, Sky," Beau greeted her, his voice only barely holding his worry back.

"Amanda let me know. Edythe drives a Volvo, right?" Sky didn't waste time, and Beau quickly relayed to her the model and license plate number; he had memorized it long ago.

"I'm just leaving the house now; I'll start from where I am and work east, see if I can find the car," Sky said, then added grimly, "I was worried something like this would happen, especially after what happened last night."

"What do you mean?"

"Edythe didn't tell you?"

"No…" Beau hedged, his voice reflecting the further confusion; he glanced up at the Cullens but they all shook their heads, not understanding what Sky meant.

"There was a huge scene at the hospital last night," Sky informed him, "Some client came in ranting and raving that it was their fault his puppy died. He had brought it in earlier that day, but Amanda said it was too far gone. Edythe ended up on the receiving end up of the brunt of it before she could step in. Apparently, he called and asked for Edythe specifically. Amanda doesn't know what he said, but the other staff said Edythe acted off afterwards. She said it didn't bother her, but…"

Sky hesitated, deciding whether or not to say the next part.

"From what she understood, the owner blamed Edythe for killing the dog."

There was a low hiss from Eleanor and Archie at the comment, and Beau had to hold his hand over the microphone of the phone to keep Sky from hearing. Carine's eyebrows had raised, and, remembering the frequent conversations Amanda and she had had about Edythe's ambitions and work ethic, she had no problem seeing how damaging such a line could be, especially to Edythe.

"Of course," Sky continued, "it was complete crap. The owner neglected his own puppy and when he finally brings it in, all he cares about is how much money it was to try to save it. But God forbid, humans can't blame themselves for their own screw up, so he took it out on her." Beau could almost hear her roll her eyes.

"I am leaving now. I will call you if I find anything," she said. Beau thanked her before hanging up. He looked between his family, where it was obvious the confusion had been replaced with apprehension. They all watched Carine minutely, where her head was slightly bowed, taking in all the information, trying to process it and create a plan, all the while her own internal unease rising in the face of what had happened.

"We need to find her," Carine said automatically, looking up to meet their gazes. "We'll start from here and move south and west; with Sky moving east from the southwest, and Amanda from the southeast, we should be able to cover decent ground. It hasn't been very long; her scent should be easy to pick up."

"Unless she hid it," Jessamine added; everyone glanced at her.

"If she didn't want to be found," she clarified, her face grim at the thought, "And if there's one person who knows how to hide her scent trail, it's Edythe."

Carine didn't want to dwell on this potential fact and she shook her head.

"Regardless, we'll find her," she said.

"We need to hurry; it's getting cold out," Archie said, expression bleak and they made toward the front door. Carine gestured for Beau to follow her to the garage to grab her Mercedes.

It was surprisingly more difficult to locate the Volvo than originally thought, even during the light evening traffic. Beau left it to the vampires to follow the cars flying by them, instead choosing to text and call everyone he could think that may have some indication on where Edythe could be. They all had the same answer though; none of them had seen her that day. And his anxiety gradually increased to panic as time wore on. Carine reached across the console, squeezing the top of his hand, having smelled and heard the spike in his heart rate.

"It will be okay," she assured him calmly, "We will find her soon enough."

Beau nodded, hoping Carine was as confident in the words as she seemed.

Another half an hour past with no success before Beau's phone rang; one glance at it let him know it was Sky.

"Sky, please tell me you have good news," he breathed into the receiver, feeling Carine's eyes on him.

"I have good news and bad news," Sky said, the regret and frustration in her voice tangible. "The good news is I found her car; it's parked in the lot of the Wegmans on Route 13, south of the Walmart."

Carine immediately turned the car around, heading in that direction and retrieving her phone from her back pocket, quickly texting the others.

"And the bad news?" Beau asked hesitantly, unsure he really wanted to know.

"The bad news is that her wallet, phone, and keys were stashed under the driver seat," Sky informed him. Beau tensed, looking over at Carine, who was equally thrown. Their eyes were concerned; this new information added another level of complexity to the search.

"We'll be there in five minutes," Beau told Sky, before hanging up.

The drive to the grocery store was quiet, and it didn't take long to locate where the Volvo was parked. They could see it in the farthest corner of the lot, surrounded by Sky's black Ford truck and Royal's BMW. Carine pulled diagonally across the empty spaces, though it was late enough now that most of the shoppers had left for the night. As Beau stepped out of the car and headed toward where the Cullens congregated, he could feel the bite of the chilly New York air against his face. His worry increased exponentially, thinking of Edythe out in this.

"She took a bus," Eleanor informed Carine and him as they approached, pointing toward the nearby bus stop, which had just the hint of Edythe's scent.

"Do we know which one?" Carine asked, eyes scanning the blank boards to see schedule times.

"Sky's inside now, hoping to get the security tapes from the store," Archie said.

"The scent's only a few hours old, somewhere between eight and eleven," Royal noted.

"There's a lot of buses that come through here during that window," Beau said, his hand already on his phone as he searched through the company's website for times. A few minutes later, Sky returned.

"The quality of the tape is shitty," she said with some frustration. "But you can see she gets on at nine twelve this morning."

"Do you think we can backtrack to figure out which route she took?" Earnest asked.

"I couldn't make out the route tag on the back of the bus, but I have a friend of a friend who owes me a favor," Sky said. "If she can't tell me which bus stopped here at that time, she can at least give the names of the drivers for that shift that stopped here, and we can work through them." The Cullens agreed but, as Sky made to dial the number, she glanced at Carine and Earnest.

"I'm assuming you don't want the police involved yet, right?" she asked; the look in her eyes showed that she already suspected the answer and was unsurprised when they nodded. She nodded to herself before going to her truck to take the call.

The waiting was something the vampires could only take so much of, and after many redirections and working to get information through the phone by Sky, Carine recommended the others go to start searching.

"Park the BMW somewhere remote, then start following this route. There's only four possible different routes this stop is included in; we hopefully can narrow it down to one stop as you go. Be careful though; make sure no one sees you."

Archie, Eleanor, Jessamine, and Royal all nodded then returned to the car, eager to take action. As they pulled away, Carine glanced down from where she was standing in the driver's side door of the Mercedes, holding Edythe's phone as it charged from the center console. The screen had just illuminated, and Carine's fingers slid across the screen, opening up the lock screen asking for the passcode.

Carine had never asked for Edythe's code access, and now she regretted it. However, the possibilities were diminished as it was only a four digit code. She played with a few attempts before finally being successful, using Edythe's birth year—1901. As the screen unlocked she swiped through the notifications, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the multiple calls she and the rest of the family had made to the phone to try to get a hold of her.

Briefly, she searched Edythe's text messages; though she had read many articles on the negative effects of parents searching through their children's' phones and never thought she would ever have to do so herself, her search brought up nothing of consequence, only a few texts from Edythe's coworkers the night before, asking if she was okay. She had copied and pasted the same answer for every single one.

Sighing in frustration, Carine pressed the power button and tossed the phone onto the seat, leaning back and meeting her husband's gaze. His ocher eyes were wide, not disguising his growing worry. Carine had to admit she was feeling no better; the anxiety and fear as the minutes ticked by seemed to make finding Edythe harder and harder, combined with the multiple hours since the last time anyone had seen her and the length she seemed to have gone to break up her scent trail.

"Could she really be trying to hide from us?" Earnest asked softly.

"I…don't know," Carine murmured truthfully, glancing at Beau who had not moved since Sky had returned, his blue eyes trained on the woman sitting in her car. Sky moved toward them, jumping down from the truck.

"The driver didn't bother to check in when he stopped here, so there was no record of any bus stopping here at that time," Sky said bitterly, her brow furrowed and her mouth set in a frown. "But I was able to get the contact info of the drivers. I can start going through them, but there's a few, maybe ten or twelve."

Carine deliberated; as much as she wanted to follow her children, to start scouring the countryside to find Edythe's trail, she knew she and Earnest couldn't leave Beau. One glance at her newest son made it clear he was struggling more than any of them, and would be unable to stand being out of the loop as the vampires tracked her down. Additionally, she had no idea where to look that the others weren't already searching. She looked back at Sky.

"Give us the numbers; we'll help you call," she said. Sky didn't hesitate, immediately swiping across her phone screen to send the list to Beau.

"I'll start from the bottom of the list and work backwards," she said before pausing.

"Are you sure you don't want to contact anyone? The police can put an Amber alert out," she added; her voice wasn't suspicious, only even and slightly hesitant. But Carine and Earnest exchanged a glance before shaking their heads.

"We can find her faster," Carine was adamant. Sky nodded, and did not question it further.

Both parties made their way back toward their houses; Sky had a few more contacts that she wanted to try in addition to the drivers, so she turned off southeast as the Cullens continued north. Carine herself was already debating on trying to get into contact with some of her nomad acquaintances, some she knew frequented this area. By the time they had arrived back at the house, she had decided she would, assuming they had no new information from the bus drivers. The three Cullens divided the numbers equally and started calling.

Carine pressed the 'end call' button on her cell phone, trying to keep the waves of panic from flowing over. After nearly a dozen calls, none of the bus drivers—though friendly and willing to help, after realizing a young girl had gone missing on one of the routes they drove—had no recollection of seeing her or knew they had not stopped at the Route 13 Wegmans at the time indicated.

Earnest copied her a few moments later, reaching forward to cross the last of the numbers off the list. Both vampires glanced at Beau, who was speaking to Amanda again; the veterinarian had got off work and was joining the search, along with a couple of Edythe's coworkers, including Lex, Danielle, and Donna. They had search the more populated areas of town, including the shops Edythe and the other often frequented to get coffee or lunch during their shifts. Despite Edythe being easily recognizable and everyone knowing her, no one had seen her.

Beau and Amanda continued to discuss, working through the merits of some of the less likely locations. Though they knew Edythe had taken the bus route, none of them had any way of knowing how long she had stayed and if she had taken another bus.

Archie and the others had checked in periodically over the past few hours. They had split off to take over the four different bus routes, but it was taking fare longer than any of them cared to. Despite moving at vampire speed, they had to reside in shadow of the forest or marsh before moving into the open and heading toward each of the dozens upon dozen of stops, just to find no remnant of Edythe's scent anywhere. Archie was searching through as many decision outcomes as he could: the seven of them, Beau, Amanda, Sky, anyone he thought of in the search that could choose something that would lead them to the path to find Edythe. Everything had led to nothing, and Carine was reminded again about how indistinct and unreliable the future could be, combined with so many avenues.

"It's like she just disappeared," Archie said in aggravation. "Could she really be that out of it that she was doing things without consciously making decisions?"

"I don't know," Carine admitted. "I don't think she was thinking clearly. I hope she's not trying to avoid us, as Jessamine proposed, to put us off the trail."

"I would have seen that, though," Archie insisted, "At least, I hope I would. I was checking on her a lot last night and this morning; when I saw she had decided to hole herself up at the hospital, I accepted it. And then I guess I wasn't paying enough attention."

"Do not blame yourself, Archie," Carine said adamantly, her voice firm, "You cannot catch every decision she makes; you are not infallible. None of us are." She was pained at the idea of her son taking this blame on himself; Carine knew that she and the rest of the family relied on Archie heavily, and he took that responsibility seriously, especially after Edythe had become human and he had become the primary 'lookout' for them. And, with this, she was reminded how much they shouldn't take his gift for granted, for it seemed that it was not difficult to slip between the cracks and apparently holes in Archie's foresight.

"I'm almost done with this route," Archie said after a deep, regretful sigh. "Royal and Eleanor and are still moving through the others, but they haven't found anything. Same with Jess."

"Keep looking; we'll keep doing what we can here," Carine replied. Archie agreed then they said their goodbyes. As she returned her phone to her pocket, Carine glanced up, seeing Beau still on the phone, this time with Donna, one of the receptionists at the animal hospital. She stood from wearing she was seated at the table, stepping to the back wall. Similar to the Forks house, it was replaced with one large piece of glass, displaying the spacious backyard; the grass, frozen from the chill of the northern New York winter, ran from the back porch into the forest beyond, which butted up against northeastern half of Cayuga Lake, just on Ithaca's border. The line of woods and tree coverage gave the Cullens an easy access point between the large body of water and the unpopulated regions of the town to the national parks that covered this area of the state, eventually leading up to the Canadian border.

It was an optimal location for them but, as Carine's eyes gazed from the back window, her eyes could only see the darkness of night and the frigidity of the weather; though such things did not concern her—she could see easily through the blackness with her enchanted vision and the bite of the cold had no effect on granite, strong body—the thought of Edythe out there scared her to an unbearable degree. Thinking of her youngest daughter isolated, possibly physically hut as well as mentally hurting—Carine had no doubt of the latter now—made her frozen heart ache, filled with nothing but worry and anguish. She felt she may drown in the emotions.

"Earnest." The patriarch looked up at her call, though low and barely a whisper he could hear. His heart, already so close to cracking from panic and stress, seemed to fracture as he saw the expression on his wife's face. Earnest moved to her side immediately, his hands coming up one either side of her face. Her topaz eyes were glassy, the closest a vampire could get to tears.

"Where is she?" she asked, "Where is our little girl?"

Earnest couldn't answer right away, his own throat clogged, but he pulled Carine to him, wrapping her in his arms and holding her.

"We'll find her, darling," he promised, "We'll find her." Carine clung to him tightly, needing the support as her universe seemed to buckle. The emotions: the fear, the horror, the panic, the grief, the regret, everything seemed to weigh down on her more than she could bear. Her desperation to find Edythe was all-consuming, and she felt like she was suffocating from it, the feeling accentuating with each passing minute and each receipt of new unuseful information.

The Cullen parents said nothing more, both of them in silent prayer, a nonverbal plea to whatever forces that be for them to find Edythe, and find her safe.

Archie forced the vision of Carine and Earnest from his mind, not only for the sake of a private moment, but for the anxiety that heightened once more at the cause behind the vision. Their worry was his worry, and that feeling seemed to only grow as time with on. Not only for Edythe's prolonged disappearance, but for the fact that, despite his best efforts, he could see nothing.

Archie knew better than anyone how un-solidified and pliable the future was, but he had never struggled so hard to find someone before, least of all Edythe. He had been seeing her almost as long as he had been Jessamine, and even in the worst of times, people still made decisions, even small ones, that gave him some insight to where they were and what was happening.

But he hadn't seen anything from her, or anyone surrounding her since early this morning, when he and Jess had taken to some private time in their room. He had been relieved at the time, thankful Edythe was going to do something productive with herself. But now, he feared he had missed something, too enveloped in his own business, and his little sister was out there somewhere, and in a bad state.

Jessamine was not completely aware of what was going on with Edythe, but she could feel the apprehension and the degree to which Edythe worked to hide her emotions, trying to focus only on one to try and fool her sister. Jess had discussed it with Archie and they were concerned; the entire family was concerned, in fact, as they watched the young human struggle under burdens which she neither explained or let them share.

Archie shook his head as f to clear it, both of the vision and his own thoughts; once they found her—and they would—they could deal with that. But the priority right now was finding Edythe. He was running as he thought and he drifted to a silent stop in the trees alongside the next bus stop along the route he had chosen. He and his siblings had memorized the four routes and were working their way through each one; the problem was it took three times as long as it normally would because ethyl were forced to remain hidden, only emerging from the forest once no one was looking. For such a cold night, there were far many nighttime walkers and people out and about than Archie expected, which made it all the more aggravating.

He paused on the edge of the trees, making sure no one was watching, before stepping casually from the foliage, making toward the bus stop, though he could hardly tell that what it was. There was no shelter or signs, it was merely a cement platform. As he stepped up onto it though, he prepared himself, taking in a deep breath, inhaling everything around them.

Unlike the past thirteen times though, there was not disappointment and his mind seemed to spin, revitalizing as Edythe's familiar scent blew through his nose. It was like a human taking in oxygen after being underwater for too long. He exhaled quickly before opening his eyes on her trail, as if there were a distinct mark in the grass where she walked. He crossed the deserted road quietly, moving at a light human-like jog across the field toward the boardwalk.

It was the ocunty park, and Archie couldn't imagine what would possess Edythe to come here. But he didn't bother to dwell on it. He hated having to move this slowly, but there were still people around, thankfully all headed toward the nearby parking lot. Ignoring the odd looks he got—clad in jeans and designer jacket, jogging along the boardwalk as if mildly exercising—Archie followed the trail, going the opposite direction of the lingering foot traffic, which just increased the stares. He followed Edythe's scent as far as he could, quickening his pace as he passed the last of the stragglers; hearing no human heartbeats ahead, he took off at a run, finally pausing at the end of the trail.

For one moment, he was confused, but he continued to follow the scent trail, making through the underbrush and foliage that lined the trail head, landing on the bank beneath the boardwalk. Archie moved more freely now as he curved in line with Edythe's scent, as it moved precariously on the edge of the park, the deep water only a few inches away. As he moved, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket, picking up a run as he did so.

"I found her trail," Archie said as soon as Jessamine picked up the phone.

"Where?" she demanded immediately.

"The park, just north of County Road 547," he replied. "She went off the trail head of the boardwalk; I'm following it now."

"I can meet you there in a few minutes," she said. "How old is it?"

"A few hours, no more," he said, "But I can't hear her heartbeat yet. I don't know how far she could have gone; this eventually ends at a canal." As he spoke, he skidded to a stop, taking off guard by the sudden disappearance of Edythe's scent.

"What the hell?" he murmured.

"What happened?" Jess demanded.

"Her scent just stopped," he told her, returning to the spot a few paces away where the trial had faded. As if expecting Edythe to materialize around him, he looked around, taking a few steps toward the thick wall of trees. But her scent wasn't there. He spun, before his eyes caught the shape looking in the darkness.

"She didn't," he murmured, dumbstruck and horrified at the same time.

"Archie, what's going on?" Jessamine's voice was stressed. Archie didn't respond right away, as his eyes took in the dark mass of Cayuga Island directly across from him. The only thing between it and him was half of the lake; deep black and over four hundred feet deep, with water well below freezing. He took a half step closer to the shore's edge, smelling just the remnants of Edythe's scent.

As he did so, a vision flooded over his eyes. The stillness of shock that overcame his body had nothing to do with the sensation itself—he had long gotten accustomed to the feeling of being blinded—but from the subject itself. He saw himself, his clothes plastered to his body in water, almost completely engulfed in darkness, kneeling before a small form. As he looked closer, his eyes widened at the vision clarified into Edythe, curled into a ball, her arms around her knees and her chin tucked into her legs. The momentary relief he felt at finally seeing her was quickly overtaken by the unnerving paleness of her cheeks, and the blue around her lips and finger nails, as well as the unseeing pallor of her green eyes. He sucked in a shocked breath.

"Archie!"

"She swam, Jess," Archie finally said, answering Jessamine's question. "I saw a vision, just now. I can't believe it, but she swam to the island, the one right off the lake." Jessamine was silent for a beat.

"Isn't it like a mile off shore?" she asked incredulously, "Can humans even swim that far?"

"I don't know or care," Archie said uncertainly, "But I just saw me find her. She's there on the island." Jessamine gasped, half in relief and half in shock.

"What on Earth was she thinking?" Jessamine exclaimed, half to herself.

"I have no idea," he replied, "But I need to get to her, now. She's cold, and we need to get her home as soon as possible. Don't come here. I'll have to swim with her back to the mainland. Meet me on the opposite side of the lake; it's closer to the house. I don't know if my phone will survive the swim, so call the others and let them know. Prepare Carine; I don't know if we'll have to take her to the hospital or not."

"Go," Jessamine insisted, "We'll meet you there." Then the line disconnected. Archie shoved his phone in his pocket; despite its waterproof case—acquired after too many rambunctious hunting trips with Eleanor—he wasn't sure the device would survive the frigid temperatures, which would only be exacerbated by his lack of body temperature. He immediately waded into the lake and began to swim; the drag of his clothes had no effect on his muscles, of course, and he quickly lapsed into simple freestyle, the strokes propelling him more quickly than any Olympic swimmer could dream of.

For a moment, Archie worried about getting Edythe back. He saw no other option other than swimming with her back; waiting for a boat would take too long and would result in many unanswerable questions. He could get her to Carine faster himself; but he was loathe to hurt her even more than she undoubtedly was, and holding her securely to his wet, freezing body and surrounded by equally freezing water would not help her. But he couldn't find another solution.

Archie pushed harder against the rocky current—another obstacle he would have to face while swimming back with Edythe—pulling his body closer to the island, to Edythe.

A/N: Hello again! I hope you guys enjoyed! I don't have much to say, other than that I got requests for Carine and Earnest act more parental towards Edythe, which is a dynamic I like and prefer (as you no doubt noticed). This chapter and next will have a little more delve into their minds on what they're experience through this situation, so look forward to that.

More to come soon! Please leave a review if you would like! :)