No matter how far or fast I went – no matter how determined I was – I couldn't pick up the scent again. After every few miles, I would return to the end of the trail and start back from there. I understood that there was no more evidence, but I couldn't comprehend why the trail just stopped. No trees held a trace of the smell, so the vamp hadn't climbed any of them. The grass was clean of the stink, too. There was literally no trace of him beyond a certain point.

It was a few hours after dark, and I had grown tired and frustrated. So I padded home with a feeling of defeat, but in the morning I knew I would try again. I wouldn't let this go.

The door was left open for my convenience. My outburst would leave me naked if I were to shift back into a human. Not that I would have minded, but it was just so much easier to get into my room without anybody bitching and whining.

But nobody was in the living room. My step was already weakened, but it slowed as I searched for a face. I finally saw Bella on the couch, hunched over with her head in her hands. When she heard my entrance, she turned to me, and I saw the pain on her face. The pain that I had caused by not protecting her daughter. "Hey, Jake." She smiled but it was a futile effort. If Bella could cry, I knew she would have been sobbing.

I grunted and hung my head; my tail edging between my legs. I wasn't afraid of her lashing out at me. Bella looked far too depressed, but that was exactly the reason I was upset. I had lost Renesmee and now Bella was suffering.

She sighed and rubbed her temples. She was a vampire, so she didn't actually get headaches, but it probably soothed her on some symbolic level. "Will you come back downstairs when you're dressed? I could really use some company." Bella would have accepted my company even in wolf form, so I knew that she wanted to talk Great.

I gave her a look and finished my walk through the house until I ended up at my bedroom. Still as a wolf, I nudged the door closed. Once I heard the click, I allowed the transformation to take over my body. I felt everything being tightened and pulled inward; dragged. Overall, the shifting itself was painless, but I was exhausted and it left me on the floor without any desire to get up. I rolled over and stretched, finding more comfort on the hard, wooden floor than I had in anything this day since Rensmee's kidnapping.

The walls of the house were pretty thick, but Carlisle hadn't bothered asking for them to be soundproofed. After all, when you have superhuman hearing, nothing is soundproof. Like right now, even though they were talking as quietly as possible, I could hear them. It wasn't distinct, so I didn't know exactly what was being said, but I knew that they were having a family meeting.

A moment of doubt hit me, and then I was revitalized. I wouldn't give up on Renesmee. I wouldn't abandon her. I hopped up and grabbed the first pair of jeans that I could find. After slipping them on, I practically ran through the hall and bounded down the stairs. Not that I actually used the stairs. Adrenaline was fueling me once again, so I just gripped the banister and hopped over it, landing smoothly on my feet.

Bella, once again, noticed my entrance. The smile that she offered me this time seemed genuine, and it was infectious. "Glad to see you're impressed." I grinned with that cocky smile of mine, and hers only widened.

But I wasn't here to crack jokes. Within a few steps, I was at the couch. I sat next to her, and she instinctively curled against me. Years ago, I would have taken this opportunity to send some nasty, smug thoughts to Edward. I didn't feel that way about her anymore, though. We were family, but every ounce of me belonged to Nessie. Yeah, I would still die for Bella, but I didn't want her like I used to. I was happy where I was.

Well, I was actually miserable. Nessie was gone... But I was usually happy.

"So, what's up?" I pulled back her hair and looked into her eyes. The trip back to reality that she went through dimmed the amused light in the gold. They were darker now... "Why aren't you with everyone else? Sounds like they're having a family meeting."

She sighed despite the lack of reason to breathe. "Because we can talk about it all day, Jacob, but we still don't know anything. A meeting isn't going to change that." I nodded, still playing with her hair. When I didn't say anything to fuel the conversation, she picked up the slack. "Carlisle said that the trail just broke off."

"Yeah. It did."

There was silence between us for just a pause more. Then she looked me in the eye (At some point she'd shifted her attention.) and forced her eyebrows together. "What could do that, Jacob? I mean, how can something be there and then just...disappear?"

I shrugged and her head moved with my shoulders. "I don't know, but it was definitely a vampire. I would recognize that foul smell anywhere." Bella hit me. I winced for the effect and cracked another smile. This one wasn't as genuine. "Sorry. You know I don't mind being around you or the Cullens anymore. I've gotten used to you guys. It's just... This thing didn't smell familiar."

Bella gave me the strangest look. When she didn't speak what was on her mind, I prodded. "What is it?"

She lifted herself off of my body, leaving the cool spot to heat up. "It didn't seem familiar? Jake, then how did they know about Renesmee? How did they know where we were?" The panic was starting to show in her words now.

I thought about that. It was weird that somebody we'd never met had randomly decided to steal Renesmee. I made an attempt at rationalizing the situation. "After the show down with those Italian leeches, I'm pretty sure everyone knows. That was a pretty big thing."

Her sudden interest in the thought faded and she returned to her spot against my body. The chill of her skin was like needles against mine, but just like with the smell, I was used to it. "It just doesn't make sense. It's like someone's been watching us."

The thought gave me sudden chills. Not literally, since I don't think anything could make me feel cold to the bone anymore, but it was a sensation that ran deeper than skin. I changed the subject. "How did Alice know that Renesmee was in trouble?" I hadn't thought about it until now, but it bothered me.

"Edward heard someone."

"What did he hear?"

Her body twisted so that she could grab onto me, and the grip was deathly. "I don't know yet. He said that once he's done talking with everyone, he'll tell me."

"Wait... How long have they been in the meeting?"

The grip tightened. "Since they got back."

That was ridiculous. I didn't know how long I had been out there searching, but to have the meeting last that long didn't make any sense. What could they be talking about that would last like that? All we knew was that Renesmee had been taken by a vampire that could apparently disappear into thin air. That was not enough information to talk about for over four hours. At least, I assumed I'd been out more than four hours.

I felt myself becoming restless. I wanted to break up their little tea party and get some information, but I also didn't want to leave Bella. She wasn't quite herself right now. She needed somebody here, and I was the one offering myself. In the end, I had to stay.

Most of the company we kept each other involved silence. Things were still so fragile at the moment, since everything had happened only a handful of hours before. We did some talking, though. We mostly visited the past – how everything had changed; how we were glad that we were still friends; how she missed Charlie. I knew she did; I knew that the couple of calls a week to Forks and to her mother weren't enough. We visited once in a while, but the ties we kept were very secretive. It wouldn't be good to run into anybody ten years from now and still look like a teenager. People would get suspicious.

But not even Bella's attention could sooth my impatience. Come on, Edward. You guys have talked long enough. We deserve some answers. And, of course, he must have heard me. "I was just coming to get the both of you."

Bella practically jumped out of her seat and ran to Edward, caught between a desire to hug him and an anxiousness to know what was going on. I could see it in how she moved. Which she wanted more was the unknown answer. I, on the other hand, really could have cared less about snuggling up with him, so I got straight to the point when I got on my feet. "So what's going on?"

Edward didn't grab his wife entirely, but he reached for her hand. She accepted the gesture; it was a good even between affection and the answers that she wanted. "Whoever did this – and we're still not entirely sure who the culprit is – has planned this for a while. This was not just some stray vampire with the urge to cause trouble. They knew where we were. They knew our weak link."

I glared fiercely at him. "That's what you spent over four hours discussing? Bella and I already knew that."

He returned the look but with a softness to it. "I understand this. Please let me finish, Jacob." When he was sure that I would do just that, he continued. "We don't think they were alone. The attack was completely unexpected. The only warning we had was just before Renesmee was taken. I heard their thoughts."

Edward hesitated; I snapped. "And what were they?" My tone was a little sharper than necessary, but my Renesmee was still gone. We had no idea where she was. I hated all of these little pauses.

"Whoever stole Renesmee was thinking about revenge. Not their own, but somebody else's." Just like Bella, Edward breathed unnecessarily. "Whoever stole Renesmee may be working for the Volturi."