12.

But there was no chance to respond. Edward burst through the trees madly, screeching to a halt when he saw us. "Good!" he said, sounding relieved. "I couldn't hear anybody and I was worried we had lost you."

Jasper shook his head. "It's just the fog."

Edward glanced around curiously.

Alice explained. "We think that Camila is near by with a few people like her. They emit a sort of shield that has made all of us blind. I cannot see anything, Jasper can't feel."

"And I can't hear. Huh," Edward muttered in response as he glanced at Carlisle for any more information.

"We'll have to go in blind, Edward. We can't find out anything until we're face-to-face with them."

Jacob burst through the woods next, muttering something about "bloody fast vampires". Seth, unable to stop in time, slammed into Jacob's back, but they barely noticed as one by one, everyone else joined us. They could sense something was about to happen. Jacob finally broke the silence.

"What's up?"

Edward explained to them what was going to happen. Bella and Nessie glanced worriedly at each other and then at Alice. I saw Nessie's arm brush against Bella's as she shared something with her, to which Bella nodded in reply. "Edward," she said softly, and he walked over to them. As they talked softly together Jacob walked over to Carlisle and asked what was going to happen. "We'll go in and see if they have John. If they have him, we might have to fight. If they don't have him, we'll leave quietly."

Jacob glanced back at Embry and Seth, who were joking together. Turning back to Carlisle, he dropped his voice so they wouldn't overhear. "I don't think the two of them should stay. You said there's no more than five –"

"Probably," Carlisle cut in.

"Okay, probably. There are more than enough of us here to fight. They can take Renesme back to the house or maybe even to the reservation."

Carlisle agreed. I heard some moaning and complaining from the two boys as Jacob told them what they needed to do, but they knew it was useless to fight the alpha. Nessie said her goodbyes, fear written clearly on her face, and the three of them sauntered off back to Forks.

"We should travel lightly," spoke Carlisle as soon as the trio was out of hearing range. "Let's leave all our packs here. Edward and Emmett, why don't you come with me and we'll try and scout the place out, see what's going on. The rest of you, follow us at a distance and stay out of sight until we signal for you to join us."

Everyone nodded.

"Now, they may not have John," added Carlisle. "If they don't we'll keep moving. If they have him, be prepared to fight. When I was with the Volturi, we sent out trackers to find these 'ghosts' and kill them. Some never came back, and those who did came back with stories of how strong and hard to kill these 'ghosts' were. Make doubly sure they're dead before turning your back on them."

All the backpacks we had brought were hidden behind a big rock, and slowly we followed as Edward, Emmett, and Carlisle darted off ahead of us. Everyone moved quietly, not even daring to breath. As I glanced from face to face, I saw mostly determination and some fear. I was sure my own face showed the most fear. I was unsure of what I wanted us to find: no John or John, held captive, maybe hurt. I couldn't think about it and instead focused on staying hidden as we moved forward.

The further we moved in, the quieter we got. Near the end, there was no sound at all. Even Jacob managed to breathe and walk very quietly.

Ahead, I saw Edward motion to Carlisle and Emmett and they stopped. The rest of us found somewhere to hide as we waited to see what they would do next. Edward was motioning towards what looked like a giant cave. Since he couldn't read anyone's thoughts, he and Carlisle were motioning wildly back and forth. Bella told me once that Edward and Carlisle had studied sign language together in the earlier days, which is what it looked like they were using now. With a glance back at us, all three disappeared into the rocky structure.

The only people I could see from where I was at were Jacob and Bella. Bella was anxiously biting her fingernails while Jacob was using all of his strength to stand still. Every two seconds he peeked out from behind the tree where he stood to peek at the cave. I could see him bolting after the others, disappearing into the cave mouth, but he stood absolutely still.

What seemed like hours passed before there was movement at the cave. All eyes fixed on its mouth as Edward, Carlisle, and Emmett silently emerged. Moving towards us, we all leaned in as they told us what they had seen.

"There are only four vampires as far as we can tell; two males and one other girl besides Camila. They have a lot of human captives, though. We'll all go in," said Carlisle softly. "Remember, never turn your back on them. We'll burn the bodies outside."

And with that, we were off. Forming a line, we followed Edward inside. I could feel Jacob's breath hot on my neck as he pushed me forward. He was making me way too nervous, so I nudged him back with my elbow. Twelve seconds later, he was breathing down my neck again.

We were thrown into utter darkness as we entered; even I could barely see anything. I ran my hand along the wall and placed my other hand on Bella's shoulder. Finally, there was light up ahead. As we got closer, I noticed that the flickering light came from torches placed every so often along the sides of the cave. Sounds reached my ears, sounding deafening in the utter silence I had grown used to outside.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I recognized what the noises were: humans screaming in extreme pain. Did they torture them for fun? The cave turned into what looked like a hallway with stone walls, splitting off into three directions. Edward pointed at half of us and motioned them to come with him. The rest of us moved after Carlisle and Emmett. We would all come back and check out the third passage together.

We hit a corner and stopped in our tracks. The screaming was so loud now that I could almost tell where it was coming from. Two closed doors away, someone was causing a human extreme pain. I tried listening for other noises. Every once in a while, a voice broke through, followed by laughter or a curse. A man spoke in Spanish. My years of the language in high school failed me; I could not understand a word he said.

Carlisle glanced back at our group: Emmett, Jacob, and Esme and I stood crowded in the small space. He held up two fingers.

Two vampires.

He pointed to his wrist. On my count. Three fingers, two, one. His hand came down as he signaled us forward.

Light filled my eyes as I charged into the room. It was empty, but I could see three doors. One stood halfway open; Emmett was already coming out of it. Carlisle and Esme were heading for the door on the left, so I followed Jacob to the last one, on the right. The door split open as Jacob kicked it in. All I saw were a couple of chairs. Cries came from behind me, but I didn't recognize them. I glanced around the room and spotted another door. I motioned to Jacob and he followed to where I was pointing. He nodded and we ran towards it. Again Jacob kicked the door in. But this time the room was not empty. It took me less than half a second to take it all in. Blood had tinted the walls in the room red. A tall girl stood over a chair, on which sat a very small and frail girl. She was whimpering, sweat dripping down her face. She wore a dirty yellow dress, underneath which her knees shook uncontrollably. She was hooked up to an ancient looking machine, but I guessed quickly what it was for: electrocution. A tall, round man stood in a corner, watching with a smile on his face. One of his front teeth was chipped in half. His smile disappeared as he whirled around to find us standing in the door.

A roar shook the room and suddenly a large wolf was taking up half the space. I paid Jacob no attention as I dove for the redheaded woman. She shrieked and clawed at me, scratching me across the face and chest. Pain ran through me but I pushed the feeling aside as I tackled the woman to the ground. I grabbed for her face, knowing one of the best ways to disable her was to break her neck, but all I got was a handful of hair. She took a hold of my hand and yanked off my index finger. I screamed out and lunged at her, teeth exposed. I bit into her flesh, which tasted like death itself. She began clawing at my hair. Before she could get a good grip to twist my head, I sprang up and landed on top of her, my knees digging into her chest. She tried to bite at me, catching me in the leg. I winced as I grabbed onto her face. Behind me I could hear the tall man fighting and Jacob growling. I was about to snap the girl's neck, when a stone-cold mass hit me in the side. I flew across the room, landing against the wall. I pushed the huge man off me just in time to see both Redhead and Jacob charging towards me. But suddenly she changed her course and sprang towards the huge wolf. I screamed Jacob's name and he lunged around just as the girl caught hold of his fur, tossing him like a blanket through the doorway and into the other room. I turned my attention back to the tall Spaniard on top of me as he tried to claw at my eyes. I grabbed both his hands and snapped his arms. He screamed as they fell to the floor. His leg flew out from under him and hit me in the hips, tossing me into the wall again. I could hear Redhead shouting in Spanish at Jacob as I pushed myself off the wall and into the man. As he was falling backwards, I grabbed his head and snapped it. When he hit the floor, his body was headless. I was about to turn around when Carlisle's voice filled my head. But it was too late. Two arms grabbed unto my shoulders. In a split second, I noticed that the arms and head I had torn off the man were gone off the floor. I spun around and delivered a karate kick to the man's sternum. Again I broke his head off, this time smashing it to the floor and stomping on it until it was dust. Then I began to tear off all his limbs, grinding them into powder under my feet. I swept his ashes into a pile and pulled out a matchbook. Lighting one, I threw it into the pile of white dust. In seconds, the only trace of his was the burn marks on the floor. I grabbed the finger the girl had ripped off my hand and licked the bottom, placing it back on my hand. When it was healed I turned to the girl on the chair. She had passed out and for the first time I could smell the blood draining from her. I gritted my teeth and took slow steps toward her. With each step, I made sure I kept myself under control. My teeth but into my bottom lip but I paid no attention to them. I pulled off the button-up I was wearing over a tank top and ripped it into pieces, tying off the girl's wounds. I pulled her into my arms; she felt like she weighed no more than 99 pounds. I walked into the other room slowly. Jacob was standing over Redhead's body, which was scattered all around the room. Leaning the girl against the wall, I reached in my pocket just as a huge frame filled the doorway. I glanced up in shock, but was relieved to see Emmett standing there. He looked around the room at all the scattered body parts. I tossed the matchbook to him, which he caught without looking, and motioned for the giant wolf to follow me out. I pulled the girl off the floor and headed out the door. Emmett threw the lit match on the parts he had piled together quickly and stepped out of the room, following us back to where all of us had split up. I assumed Esme and Carlisle had gone back to help the others.