Interlude

Eleazar's Third Point of View

In a cabin below the deck on the boat, he is reading a book, trying not to look concerned. In the past three hours, his mate, Carmen, had kept asking him if he was okay. Personally, he knew that he wasn't okay but he would deal with it when the time came—namely, in Hawaii.

"Eleazar?" Kate asked, bounding down the stairs from above, then announced, "We're about an hour away, might want to call her up to get the location now."

Setting the book down he barely paid attention to, he nodded his thanks at Kate as he took out his cell phone. Dialing Bella's number, he waited.

"Eleazar, old friend," a man answered the phone.

He froze in his seat, not breathing when he did not hear Bella's voice. Wondering what had happened to her, who this person was and how he knew it was him—Eleazar, that was calling the phone.

"Who is this?" he demanded, grabbing the attention of everyone on the boat, stopping Kate from going back out.

"Pity, you don't remember," the voice said.

"What did you do with Bella?" he asked, praying that she was okay.

"Oh, don't worry, I haven't actually met her yet. Her phone just... fell into my possessions, that's all," the man replied.

Eleazar sat there silent for a long time, the boat silent and unmoving ever since he asked who the man was. He tried hard to remember who this voice might belong to. The voice did sound awfully familiar, Eleazar knew, someone like from the Volturi in his past.

"...Leo," he breathed, putting the puzzle together, the phone in his possession had been the first clue. He remembered that this man could view the memories of inanimate objects—where it's been, what it heard, and what it had seen.

"Bingo, my friend, what a small world, her phone bringing me to you again, eh?" Leo said and chuckled. "Maybe I ought to meet this woman and have a chat. But perhaps not, she's involved with the Cullens, of all things. Like you are, but not... as deeply, but I would love to see her for a bit."

"Don't meet her," Eleazar bit out, worried about Bella. How did she lose her phone? "Don't meet her and complicate things, Leo. Please."

Eleazar hated to beg, but with Leo... he remembered that Leo had loved to play games—and trap the victims.

"Oh, but why not?" he whined, sounding playful. "I haven't been entertained in years!"

"Find someone else," Eleazar said coolly then he heard silence. He mouthed to Kate, "Get to Hawaii now."

She left without any further prompts, but left the door open.

"Eleazar, friend, how about we meet? We can catch up, and then I'll go play with the wolves from these memories I'm hearing. I actually don't care about Bella, she's not worth the risk of seeing the Volturi, compared to seeing you and messing with the wolves."

Eleazar closed his eyes, trying not to ask She's not interesting to you?to Leo and felt a surge of hope that he wouldn't meet Bella.

"I really do not want to get involved with the Volturi ever again, friend. Choosing her for my games might be too much for me in the end, if you know what I mean."

"Yes... I do," Eleazar agreed slowly, thinking about if it was a good idea to come to Hawaii still. It might bring Bella to Leo, the last thing he wanted that to happen.

"So, I'll come to you, since I need to go for a swim," Leo said, providing Eleazar a way out of that problem, "Thanks to today's technology, I can find the exact location of where you are and the wolves with your phone numbers and such, so that should be convenient."

No, that's the last thing I want! Eleazar thought, panicking. He was going to come to them and he did not want to meet Leo now. He wondered how he was going to get in touch with Bella and realized that he could get a new number, tell the wolves to do the same then wait for Bella to come to Forks. Or...

Eleazar growled silently in his mind, even if he did reset the phone number, it would still bring Leo to him because he likely already knew the general direction of where they were at. Even so, he would still have needed to get a new number because they had been compromised in the first place, with Leo visiting or not.

"Yes, that's fine, we'll wait out here," Eleazar said, and told Kate to stop the boat.

"Excellent, I should be there in about five hours then. I need to get ready and everything," Leo said cheerfully. "See you soon!"

The line went dead, and he stared blankly in front of him, not seeing Carmen's worried eyes.

"This is bad," Eleazar stated.

"How did she lose her phone?" Carmen asked, frantic with worry about Bella. They all knew how scared Bella was when she first came to Alaska, and they hoped Bella would be safe until they finally met again.

"What if Leo tricked us and got Bella?" Tanya asked, suspiciously.

"He's not that type of guy," Eleazar replied, shaking his head, "when he's playing a game, he always tells me what he's going to do."

"So, he's an honest guy when he comes to games?" Tanya asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I've never actually known him to lie whenever he did... those games," Eleazar said, shaking his head as he remembered the mess Leo made with the Volturi. It was one of the reasons he was 'fired'.

"So, why are we sitting here on this boat then?" Kate asked, frustrated that she couldn't pilot the boat.

"Because it's his game, he wants to swim here and do something," he replied acridly. "I need to reset the number and call the pack to do the same."

Eleazar sighed angrily, running his fingers through his hair, "This is a security breach and I don't know when Bella will be able to find a phone to call us. I can't risk it."

"Then don't change the numbers!" Tanya exclaimed.

"But this should send Bella to Forks and we'll meet up there, after we deal with Leo," Eleazar reasoned, dialing his phone company to reset the number again.

"That's probably safer, she won't have to run into Leo," Carmen agreed, knitting her eyebrows together in concern.

Once his phone number was reset, he called Sam, the pack leader.

"Hello?" a sleepy voice answered.

"Hi Sam, this is Eleazar," he said and sensed that Sam went on alert.

"What's going on?"

"There's a vampire that wants to... play games with you," Eleazar said bluntly, not wanting to break it down slowly. He figured that out when he first called Sam. "He'll find your location if you keep the same numbers."

Sam let out a string of curses at my news, "So, you're saying that everyone has to change the numbers of our phones now?"

"That's what I'm suggesting, yes," he said.

"Where's Bella?" Sam demanded.

"Safe, we haven't reached her, but her phone was... lost, and fell into the hands of a vampire that likes to play games. We're not sure how she lost her phone, but he won't look for her. Besides, we don't want Leo—that's his name—to meet Bella. So, when she tries to call any of you, she'll likely come to Forks to find out why. Leo is coming to our boat so I can't pick her up, and I'm hoping to send Leo away before I come to... whatever the meeting spot is. You got my number now right?"

"Right," Sam agreed, disgust filling in his voice.

"I know Sam, I don't like this any more than you do," Eleazar sighed. "Please do it soon."

Some of the readers have expressed their wishes of seeing Edward soon and with Bella—all I ask of you is for your patience. Please let the story run its normal course, and you'll enjoy it every part of the way. Smile

Life is not about the destination, it's about the journey! That's pretty much the theme of this story.