4: the stranger
It had been several hours since my terrifying realisation. I would have to break my bond to Jacob. I wondered if it were at all possible and what, besides the obvious, the price would be. The imprint was something I had accepted in my life, I had never really questioned it. But when the possibility arrived to be forced to break it, I had thought about little else. The fact that the feelings Jacob and I had, were designed suddenly stung me. And that was how the first crack in the unbreakable bond came to be.
Preparations for our stand against the Volturi were in progress as the family was divided into little groups, Jasper, mom and dad were going to search for Charlie. Alice and I were going to check Forks for the strange "hiding scent". Emmet and Carlisle were going to specify the plans for both the fortified compounds as well as the evacuation of Forks. Esme and Rosalie were going to get Rene and Phill to Forks. Esme had claimed she as a fellow grandmother would have the best chance of success to get my human grandmother top come to Forks and get into grips with the new reality we would have to present them. I pictured our meeting, "my, you have grown" would be the understatement of the year I joked to myself.
Alice and I decided to start our search on bike circling the city and spiralling inwards to check all the "normal" roads. After that we would wait for the dark and go "vamp" on foot and focus our search on the less obvious paths. So a little later we were on our bikes, two leather clad beauties, one on a black bike and one on a bright yellow one, rattling the chains of every testosterone driven creature in Forks. It was hard to suppress a smile as we passed a sports car, bought obviously inspired by a midlife crisis, both of us winking at the balding driver who at that moment nearly drove his way too expensive car of the road. The twenty something blonde next to him punched him, obviously very painfully in the shoulder. After half an hour I noticed skid marks on the road leading towards the bushes on the side. I braked and made a one eighty turn, Alice mirrored me nearly exactly on her yellow motorcycle, a scene right out of Charlie's Angels I thought. I sniffed the air and recognized the smell. We placed our bikes at the side of the road and walked into the woods next to the road. Once we were past the bushes we could both almost taste the smell of blood in the air as we walked over to the crashed police car.
Charlie was opening his eyes as I looked through the broken window.
"Grandfather!' I screamed and Charlie groaned as he held his hands to his head as if he was trying to keep it together.
"You don't have to shout" Charlie said, his voice sounded like stone grinding on stone.
"What happened Charlie?" Alice asked, her voice as melodious as always.
"I thought I hit something and I lost control of the car, I must have been unconscious for hours"
Charlie explained how he had reacted to a call. Someone had seen something mysterious an alien or something of the sort. Ever since Charlie's daughter had married Edward Cullen, Fork's chief of police knew not to dismiss such calls as hoaxes or drunk-talk. While driving up to the place of the sighting he had seen someone, or rather something in the middle of the road, to late to steer away he had hit it, after that his memory faded into darkness, to open his eyes again to see us standing next to the car. When we checked the hood of the car we could see two distinct dents just above the grill. Two hands with strangely elongated fingers were clearly visible. I shuddered at the thought of how such hands must look in real life as Alice stomped on the hood to give the crashed car a less "supernatural" look.
Alice had called Carlisle to tell him we had found Charlie and that he was hurt. I was dialling my mothers phone number. As it went I could hear her ring tone coming from the road, apparently she was already here. She and my father were already coming towards us from the road. With catlike grace they crossed the small distance with a speed not visible to human eyes. Charlie was startled when his daughter was suddenly standing beside him with his son-in-law. Out of the car, he was now leaning against the hood, he would have fallen if mum hadn't caught his arm. He smiled at her as he said;
"Thanks, I remember a time when I was the one doing the catching" He smiled at his daughter as his thoughts visibly trailed of.
Carlisle was next to arrive, Emmet was driving him in Alice's Porsche. Alice gave a very clear "don't touch my car again look" at Emmet, who merely smiled at the small woman. Carlisle went to check on Charlie as finally, fast for all human measures, an ambulance arrived. Declaring Charlie clear for transportation Carlisle let the paramedics take the chief of police. A concussion and a few broken ribs the worst of the injuries, Carlisle assured us he would be fine. Mom went with the ambulance to the hospital. The rest of us remained behind to check the car. I touched everybody's forehead to show them how the dents on the hood of the police car had looked before Alice had "erased" them.
"You would be a pretty handy CSI tool" Emmet teased as he got the memory flash from me, as punishment for this tease I showed him a mental picture of Jasper naked, coming from the shower an accidental encounter some years ago, I reserved the memory for a special occasion such as this. The look on Emmet's face was absolutely worth it, I heard my father chuckle behind me as well.
"I have plenty more where that came from" I warned Emmet with the crooked smile I inherited from my father, Emmet still looked like he swallowed a bug.
After a while we discovered several scents in the surrounding area, some of which where familiar. Together we tried to categorize the unfamiliar scents as either human or supernatural. In the end we ended up with a few scents that seemed related. With our experience we had gained on the "hiding scent" we knew this might very well be coming from one and the same source. Though it was not impossible that we were dealing with two or more sources. One of the scent trails did remind me of the scent at Billy's place, Alice seemed to feel the same way. We decided to follow this specific trail. Alice and I were joined by Emmet.
Over the course of several miles the scent seemed to change two times. It had become easier to pick up on the changes now we more or less knew what to "look" for. We traced the scent outside of Forks, it seemed to cling near to the coast line when all of a sudden it clearly trailed to the beach. When we arrived at the beach the scent went into the sea were it was lost to us. Disappointed we headed back to the house. All the way back I could not shake the feeling we were being watched.
When we got to the house Jacob was there, Seth was with him.
"Billy awoke today" Jacob said. He came up to me and kissed me, Alice's words always echoing in the back of my head, I didn't answer his kiss, it seemed he didn't notice. I was completely lost, I had no idea how to act towards the man who held my heart from the day I was born though I knew we would have to break our bond soon.
"I heard you found your Grandfather?" It was Seth who broke my Mesmer.
I explained to Jacob and Seth what had happened and how we followed the scent to the beach outside Forks.
"Whatever it was, it could have easily swam back here while you were out there" Jacob stated, it sounded like an accusation, as if we had failed to fulfil our duties somehow. It irritated me, it shouldn't… it was strange to feel anything but love for Jake, but I did, I felt frustration, and a touch of anger. It was Seth who seemed to pick up on it. He poked his pack leader in the ribs and gave him a meaningful look. In many ways, Seth was closer to Jake then I would ever be, they shared their minds when they were in wolf form. Did Jacob somehow sense what was going through my mind? Was he anticipating a break up? He couldn't, as far as he could know the imprint was unbreakable, however if I could feel it slipping, perhaps he could too?
One by one the entire family came home over the course of a few hours. In no time everybody was preoccupied with the discoveries of the day. I pulled Alice away from the group and asked her to join me. I led her to my parents cottage so we could talk in private, I knew dad was listening in, but I didn't mind.
"The bond is breaking Alice" I said, my voice thick with emotion.
"I know Ness, I've seen it. Be strong, if you stay strong, things will work out, trust me" I hadn't seen Alice this serious in my life, it was scaring me.