Bella didn't really take notice of it when if first started. Seattle's a big city after all so it's not like it's unheard of for people to go missing occasionally. It was when Jason, one of the guys from her gym class at Forks High, turned up missing that she started to take notice. He was responsible, and wouldn't run off without telling anybody, it just wasn't in his character. Not to mention he was one of the bigger guys on the football team so it wouldn't be easy for somebody to take him down. It was after his disappearance that she started to notice a pattern and she was quite upset that she hadn't noticed it sooner. Whoever was behind it was being sloppy. Very sloppy.

It was almost like they wanted to be noticed.

Like they wanted somebody to catch them.

Like they wanted her to catch them.

This was a message to her. They had started out small so that it wouldn't gain much notice, and then they picked somebody that had ties to her to pull her interest into the entire thing. She started by looking into Jason's disappearance, then she worked backward from there hoping that she was wrong but knowing in her heart that she wasn't.

"We have a problem." Bella said, her calm voice in stark contrast to the panic flowing through her. Jasper's eyes snapped to hers from where he and Emmett were in front of the tv playing a video game of some kind.

"What kind of problem?" The blonde asked sending a wave of calm at her, only to have it bounce off her shield.

"We need to call another meeting with the pack. Immediately."

Alice's eyes snapped to hers at that statement. "What's wrong?" She demanded.

"Call Jacob and arrange to meet with him and the rest of the pack. We'll need neutral territory to meet them on, but it can't be at Charlie's this time. We need to be out of site of normal human eyes."

Alice stared searchingly at her for a moment before nodding and pulling out her phone to do as Bella said. The rest of the Cullen's looked on uneasily.

"Bella, what's going on?" Jasper asked again moving now to her side, his hand hovering a few inches from her arm, so he wouldn't be sent flying across the room by her shield that he could feel flowing like an electric current across her entire body.

"My friend Jason, that had gym with Emmett and I, went missing in Seattle this week." Bella said closing her eyes and making an effort to reign in her physical shield so that she could grasp Jaspers hand.

"Why do we need to talk to the Pack about that though?" Alice asked in confusion. "I know it's bad that your friend is missing but calling on the pack seems a little much don't you think?"

"No. I'm actually not sure having just the pack is going to be enough to handle things without serious casualties to the good people of Forks if I'm being honest. If I'm right about what's going on, then we have a very serious problem to deal with in the immediate future."

"What's so significant about one person going missing though?" Emmett asked.

"It's not just one person though Emmett." Bella said keeping her voice calm with effort. "Jason's just the disappearance that caught my attention. Though I was stupid not to notice it before it got to the point that they got Jason. I can only hope that there's still a chance of redeeming him otherwise I don't know how I'll ever live with myself."

"Who else has gone missing? Surely we would have noticed if more people from Forks weren't around anymore." Alice said frowning.

"Twenty-Seven. They aren't all from Forks. Jason's the only Forks resident actually and he's the most recent. Whoever it is that's doing this has been careful to keep it spread out mostly through Seattle so that I wouldn't pay as much attention to it as I should have. Whey they went for Jason it had to be to call me out specifically."

"Twenty-Seven?" Jasper asked as he tensed up next to me. "And that's just the missing not the dead?"

"Correct. I had the upper hand when I was in the south because they all feared me and there weren't humans around that could be hurt if something went wrong, but here is different. We have to keep the people in Forks and the surrounding area safe as well as take care of all of them. Not to mention who knows who the hell started this is and how much experience they have." Bella agreed, her eyes getting a bit of a far away look as she seemed to be trying to imagine every possible scenario.

"Wait, would you like to fill the rest of us in on what's going on or are you just going to keep being super cryptic?" Emmett demanded glaring at both Jasper and Bella.

"When and where are we meeting the Pack? I think it would be best to discuss this as a full group rather than trying to relay everything multiple times." Bella asked looking at Alice.

"In 20 minutes in the baseball clearing." Alice answered promptly.

"Good. Everybody change into something you don't care about ruining, it's going to be a long night and things are probably going to get messy. Jasper show me where this clearing is." Bella said tugging Jasper along out of the house.

Jasper easily took the lead on the way to the baseball clearing trying not to let his own worry for what was coming cloud his thoughts when he needed to be thinking of the possible strategies they could use to come out of this on top. They didn't have time to panic, they had to keep clear heads for things to work out.

"We need to be smart about this. I don't think I'll be able to use my physical shield on more than myself in a fight this large. They won't be able to touch me but unless I'm close to somebody and can focus on them without being distracted myself, I won't be able to extend that to the others. How well do the others know how to fight?"

"Alice and Edward tend to be the strongest strategy wise, Emmett does well just because he's so strong but that likely won't matter in this aspect, so we'll need to work on that. Carlisle and Esme don't relish fighting but they can hold their own for the most part. The only problem I think we have to worry about with the family is going to be the fact that Alice relies heavily on her sight to stay ahead of her opponent. With the wolves here, she won't be able to do that, so we'll have to work with her on that. Unless they have a shield of their own on their hands there shouldn't be too much to worry about as far as Edward is concerned." Jasper answered promptly.

"The wolves will be our wild card, who knows how many of them there are these days or how good they are at actually taking down vampires when they're outnumbered." Bella stated, a small frown marring her face as she thought about it.

"We can hold our own just fine Count Chocula." Jacob's voice called across the field as he strutted into view wearing only a pair of worn cut off jeans.

"Let's hope so because I don't imagine we'll have too much time to bring your fighting up to speed. We've got to take care of this quickly to avoid any more unnecessary casualties." Bella said coolly as both the rest of the Cullen's and the pack began to enter the clearing.

"What do you mean by casualties?" Jacob asked frowning at her as the pack, in their wolf forms, shifted restlessly behind him.

"There has been a string of disappearances in the Seattle area. The most recent one was a friend of mine, Jason. His disappearance is what tipped me off to things. Those behind the disappearances wanted to get my attention by targeting him. It remains to be seen if they knew that I would recognize fully what they were doing so we need to work quickly to take care of this, preferably on our own terms." Bella relayed calmly.

"What exactly is it that you believe is going on Bella?" Carlisle asked then.

"As far as I know there have been twenty-seven disappearances and even more deaths over the course of the last few months. If I am correct, there is somebody in the area that is creating an army of newborn vampires." Bella replied scanning her eyes around the group, the Cullen's all froze at what she said while the wolves and Jacob cocked their heads in confusion.

"What's the big deal, is just a bunch of inexperienced leeches. Should be easy enough take care of." Jacob scoffed rolling his eyes.

"The big deal is that newborn vampires are full of their human blood still which makes them stronger than an older vampire. What they don't have in experience they make up for in strength and speed. We will need more than just brute strength to be able to overcome them, we will need to have strategy on our side. So, buckle up Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore." Bella growled, stalking closer to Jacob as she spoke even though it caused her to have to crane her neck to look him in the eye.

"Fine than Count Chocula. What's the plan?" Jacob growled right back at her.

Bella looked at him appraisingly for a moment before nodding and taking a step back. "Here's what we're going to do." She said calmly as she launched into the different strategies she had been mulling over since she started to put the pieces together.

XxXx

So…it hasn't been quite as long for an update this time. I'm currently ignoring all my classes in favor of working on this because why would I do it when I could procrastinate right? I feel like I'm hopefully going to be wrapping this up soon, granted I feel like I say that every time I update and then I find myself drowning between work and school and don't ever actually getting around to finishing it. But who knows maybe this time will be different. I do feel like there won't be too many more chapters after this one though and then who the hell knows what I'm going to do with my life when I don't have this story to work on anymore considering it's been part of my creative process for so long at this point.