Chapter Nineteen - Escaped

I stared silently at Leah-wolf as she paced back and forth across Jake's little living room. Her paws lightly crunched the carpet beneath them, and she could only take two full steps before her nose was in the wall. I wanted to know what the hell was going on out there, but I couldn't ask. The words were stuck inside of me for fear of what the answer might be.
I felt sick to my stomach - Jacob could be out there getting hurt right now! I knew that if they caught up to him and he decided to fight, Jacob was the one he was most likely to go for. He should have the common sense to know that he couldn't take down all of them, so why wouldn't he try for the one that posed the most threat?
My body trembled as I thought about Jacob getting hurt in that way. Each second the clock ticked, my hope died a little more. What could be taking so long? I looked up at the tiny digital clock for the millionth time. Twenty five minutes had passed since I'd been here,each second racing and lolling by at the same time. For the first time in my life, I actually felt cold.
Leah stopped pacing and her hair stood on end. She hunkered down and growled, then quickly straightened back up. Oh no...... please don't let anything have happened! I hope she would at least phase and tell me if anyone got hurt, but I wasn't sure if she would.
She sat down on the floor and tried to look calm. Or else she actually was calm, but that didn't seem possible. It was hard to be sure - she actually heard what was going on.
"Leah......."
She turned her gaze to me. I wanted to make her take me to Jacob to make sure he was okay, but I had no idea how to go about it. If I just asked her to, the answer would surely be no. I needed to appeal to her somehow.
"Don't you want to be out there with all of them?" I asked trying to hide my hopefulness.
She shook her head no. Well that obviously didn't work.
"Is everybody okay?" I asked in a tiny voice.
She nodded up and down, and I gasped in relief. As long as no one had been hurt, everything would be okay.
"If everything is okay, can you phase and give me an update?"
She trotted off to Jacob's room and emerged a few seconds later.
"Jake's coming," was all she said. She walked back into Jacob's bedroom at the same time he came through the door. I ran to him at warp speed and threw my arms around him as I kissed all over his face.
"Jacob!!! Are you okay? What's going on?"
"He escaped," Jake said angrily. "For now."
"What happened?" I asked as he carried me over and sat me back on the loveseat.
"He must have been here before, and very recently. Or else he did all this stuff just now before we had a chance to notice him, but that would have been stupid. He left false trails all over the place. Even when each of us would follow a different one we'd end up meeting each other somewhere and it would turn into another trail leading around the whole area. He's been all over the place, and we can't figure out what trail actually leads to him."
"What do we do?" I asked in a small voice
"We have to be more careful."
"More careful? How do we be more careful?"
"I think you should stay here, Nessie. Until all of this blows over, at least. If you are here and he comes to find you, he'll have sixteen werewolves ready to snap his neck off. If he came to your house, he wouldn't have as many people to go through." He held my shoulders and stared into my eyes with a pained expression.
"Okay....." I agreed slowly. "But what about my parents? I need to talk to them...... can they come over here? They don't even know anything is going on right now."
"Go call them, I need to phase for a minute to see what's going on." He turned to walk back outside, but then quickly spun around on the balls of his feet. He put both his hands on my face, one to my cheek and one under my chin, and he pulled me up towards him quickly.
His lips met mine desperately, like he thought they may never meet again. He set me on my feet and wrapped his long arms around my waist, squeezing my sides gently with his hands. One arm slid up my back until it reached my neck, and his warm lips moved even harder against mine.
"I love you...." he breathed before flying out the door. I knew what he was thinking, and I was not ever going to let such a thing happen. If he went off to fight this guy, I was going to be there to make sure he came back to me. That would not be the last kiss Jacob and I ever got to share.
I went to the kitchen and dialed my dad's cell phone number. It rang once.
"Renesmee?"
"Dad, I need you and Mom to come here right now." I heard a car starting.
"What's going on?" he asked seriously.
"That guy was here in La Push a little while ago. They're all out looking for him now. Jacob said he left false trails leading them around in circles over and over, and they can't find him yet," I said in one breath.
There was a short pause on the line. "We'll be there in two minutes." I counted out one hundred and twenty seconds, then heard his car pulling up outside.
"Oh, Renesmee!" My mom said as she flew through the door and threw her arms around me.
"I'm okay, Mom," I said as I hugged her back. "I'm just worried about everyone else."
"They're fine, just on high alert," Dad said. How handy his power was, especially in a crisis.
"Jacob wants me to stay here until this is over with," I told them as I stared at the ground. "He thinks it'd be safer since I'd have a lot more protection."
I looked up at my dad who seemed to be thinking it over. It also made sense to have my mom and dad stay around me, too, I suddenly thought. My dad would hear his thoughts if he came close enough, and my mom could protect all of us from physical harm.
"So smart, Renesmee. How will we do it though?" Dad said in response to my epiphany.
"Hmmm..... you guys wouldn't need to be here all the time, probably just close at night......."
"That's pretty simple when you never have to sleep," Mom said.
"Looks like we're going to be spending our nights in the woods, love," Dad said to Mom. She nodded to herself in agreeance.
The living room door opened and shut, and Jacob came running in.
"Still nothing," he said worriedly.
"Jacob, Renesmee thought it would be a good idea if we stay here at night while all of this is going on. Out in the woods, I mean," Dad said to Jacob.
"Yeah...... you'd hear his thoughts if he was coming close." Jacob furrowed his eyebrows in thought.
"You stay here with her tonight, Bella and I can run perimeter all night while the rest take shifts," Dad answered Jake's mind.
"Perfect." He smiled slightly, but it did not touch his eyes.
"Don't worry about that. If we catch him, I'll leave what's left of him for you to finish off," Dad said, smiling slightly at Jacob. His smile turned to a frown as Jake looked down at the floor.
"Have a little faith, Jacob. In us and her. He won't get close enough for either of those things to happen," Dad told him gently. "I wouldn't allow you to do that...."
What was he talking about? He wouldn't get close enough for what all to happen? Dad wouldn't allow Jake to do what? I looked at Dad expecting an answer, but he ignored my questions.
That's very rude, you know, I told him mentally.
"You already know. You've already discussed it," he told me.
I looked over at Jacob. "I would never leave you for him. I could never love him - I absolutely hate him!" My words rang true, because they were. I did hate this mystery person that would not leave me alone. He stalked me every night in my dreams, and now he was doing it for real. My mind flashed back to the day I thought I saw him at school.
"What was that?" Dad eyeballed me, pulling the memory out of my brain.
"I just imagined it, it wasn't real," I told him.
"Can you be sure? He looks real enough to me."
"I know he looked real, but it was just a split second. The room was dark, I was daydreaming, and I'd had nightmares with him as the star the night before. I'm pretty sure I just imagined it," I explained, trying to convince the both of us.
"What?" Mom and Jake both asked.
"Renesmee might have seen this...... thing at school about a week ago," he explained quickly. "Tuesday?" he verified my thoughts. "That was just days ago....."
Jacob took a step towards me from behind and locked his arms around me protectively.
"So do I. I'm sure that's how it will end," Dad said offhandedly. I looked up and saw Jacob nodding at him, his jaw locked tight.
"Bella, we should go now and run the perimeter. Renesmee looks like she could use some sleep," my father pointed out and I realized Jake was supporting my entire body weight. He placed one arm behind my neck and the other behind my knees to pick me up gently.
"I'll phase every half hour to find out what's going on. If I miss anything, send Leah to get me. She's the fastest, and she can stay here with Nessie if I have to leave. You should come here too, Bella. You can protect her," Jacob said glumly.
I swung lightly in his arms as he loped into his bedroom. He laid me down easily and ripped open a drawer on his dresser. He handed me another pair of giant sweats, only these ones were navy blue.
"Here, you can sleep in these. They should be alot more comfortable," he said pointing to the strings hanging out of the back of my shirt. I had never gone swimming, so I had kept my bikini on under my clothes. I pulled my clothes off lazily and slid into the warm sweats, laying down the whole time.
"So I guess you're not sleeping tonight?" I asked Jacob as my lids drooped.
"No - I need to be ready if something happens," He sat down on the wall side of the bed. I scooted over to him and put my arms around his waist as he stroked my cheek softly.
"Love you, Jake. More than you'll ever know......"
"Love you too, Renesmee. More than you'll ever know."
That was the last thing I heard that night. Despite everything else that was going on, I fell asleep a very happy girl.