Edward's POV
After hunting, me, the coven and the pack sat around on the couches at Jacob's house, the biggest they had to house everyone for the meeting. I sat at one of the recliner, mute by my own despair of not having Bella safe and sound in my arms.
"Hey, you got to stop that," Jacob said with a frown. "You're not going to help anyone if you're like this."
I scowled, but didn't say anything as Eleazar spoke next.
"So, first thing first, we need to find Bella."
"And how do we find her?" I queried, wondering if Leo had taken Bella away from Hawaii. "Could she still be at the islands?"
Eleazar shook his head, "It's doubtful, but a good place as any, maybe they left some clues."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" I demanded as I leaned forward, itching to go to Hawaii now.
"It would be uncharacteristic of him to stick around after he found someone to play with, Edward," Eleazar said coolly, causing me to sink back into the chair helplessly. I gripped the arms of the chair to contain my fury, my impatience. For all I knew, she was being turned over to the Volturi, or tortured, or forced into something against her will. Or something.
"So when do you suggest we go?" I bit out, struggling not to destroy Jacob's things.
"Once we have a plan on if we do find them in Hawaii," Eleazar answered. "Depending on what he is doing—with her, we are to get her out of there as quickly as possible. If he is working with anyone... or even if it's just him, they're all fair game."
He looked at each of us, the implied meaning behind his words made known—if we had to kill them, we would.
"What about us?" Sam asked and I noticed that the wolves' faces were strained from not trying to smell our foul scents, and from over the situation with Bella.
Eleazar looked over the pack, waiting for a moment as I looked into Eleazar's thoughts. He was concerned about the vampires in Denali, and did not want any harm to come to La Push. The ex-guard of Volturi also thought that it was not feasible nor fair to simply ask everyone in their tribe to abandon their homes for awhile and aid us in finding and rescuing Bella. Eleazar debated on the pros and cons then decided to let the wolves decide for themselves.
"You have two options, I'm sorry," he said, regretting to lay it down thick. "As we know, there is a group of vampires after Bella and us in Denali, and we don't know if they would come here. So, it's either some or none of you come with us, and the rest stay and protect the Olympic Peninsula area, or have... everyone in your tribe leave and go somewhere and have just about the entire pack help save Bella."
Sam frowned at the options but nodded in understanding. "We'll have to think over this and see what is best, Eleazar."
"Should we give your privacy?" Tanya asked, watching Irina carefully.
I kept my eyes on Jacob as I gleaned from Irina's thoughts that she was still bitter about the death of her mate so many decades ago. I realized that the woman was ready to snap and do something rash in this precarious situation. I nodded in agreement that we should give the pack their privacy and discuss their options.
Irina would need to get away and restore some semblance of control over herself. We got up and left the house and Irina was thankful for getting away from the pack for the time being. We took a walk along the beach, each of us silent in our thoughts as we readied for what was to come in the next few hours. I prayed with all my might that Bella had stayed in Hawaii with Leo, that we wouldn't need to go on a wild goose hunt for her.
Sometime later, the pack followed us out and we gathered into a circle as I pried into their thoughts of what they decided on and realized with a slight frown, they were going to stay. I looked at Jacob, puzzled by his thoughts, he was not happy with the decision.
"We're letting half the pack go with you, we feel that we should stay here. It's where our roots are, where our ancestors have had always lived. So we're going to stay by that and allow our descendants live here in the future," Sam announced.
"You could always move somewhere else temporarily," Kate said, pointing it out in case they overlooked that possibility. Sam shook his head.
"We're also not cowards, and we will stand and fight, if they so choose to come here," the leader said with finality in his voice.
"That's fine, I'm sure you can handle them," I said.
Jacob looked at Sam with a pained expression. I saw his thoughts as they remembered their run-in with the two vampires few weeks back.
They had been completely useless, and only got out of there because of Bella was willing to go with them. My face darkened at the memories playing through Jacob's mind.
"You left that small detail out," I said acridly. "You won't be able to get around them with those two."
Sam sighed and nodded, "I know, I'm hoping we'll come up with a plan, or if they will leave us in peace."
"What if they don't leave you in peace? What sort of plan can you come up with?" I retorted, "You really should relocate everyone until this all dies down."
"What, flee and then come back like the Exodus of the Biblical times?" Paul asked hotly. "Who knows how many decades this stupid leech war will last!"
Looking over the rest of them in their thoughts, they didn't like the idea either.
"I'm only telling you this for your tribe's safety, whether or not you will heed them is up to you," Eleazar said after a tense silence in the group. "And that is either to relocate for the time being, or face them, which can be chancy, Sam."
Sam rubbed his eyes, appearing exhausted, rubbing his temples as he tried to decide what to do as the chief of the village. His face darkened, dropping his hand down to his side.
"We're moving out," he announced and turned his back on us, ignoring some of the sounds of protests from his pack members. "We'll catch up to you in Hawaii in a day or two. Give us time to move."
"Try and be quick, if you please," Eleazar said, bowing his head as the pack moved away from us, relieving us of their awful stench.
I looked at Eleazar after a moment, waiting to get to Hawaii now.
"I suppose we'll take the boat?" Kate asked and Eleazar nodded as we approached their boat. My yacht was still riding among the waves near theirs and after a moment of contemplation, I decided to leave it for the pack to use. There was enough space for everyone in the pack to travel comfortably. I relayed my offer to Jacob via text message, so that they had one less thing to worry about of how to get to Hawaii.
I sat in the seat next to the captain's, watching the seas as we sped on towards the islands that I hoped was where Bella is at. I kept to myself, thinking over what had transpired ever since I came to Japan. I was over the moon when I had finally picked up Bella's trail, but terrified of her being in danger. My thoughts continued running rampant through my mind uninterrupted as we rode over the waves in cloudless skies.
A full day later, we arrived at the main island, the Hawaii. We discussed among ourselves of how to track Bella down and we divided up into three groups—Carmen and Eleazar, Tanya and Irina, and that left me with Kate. As I had no idea what Bella smelled like now as a vampire, I had to rely on Kate's memory through her thoughts. It smelled like tangerine and freesias.
With that thought in mind, we began to scour over the islands, trying to find her. An hour later, Kate's phone rang and we stopped as we listened.
"I found where Bella staked out at," Eleazar announced, "It's on the main island, Northwest."
We looked at each other, wide eyed as Kate snapped the phone shut as we made our way back to the main island, wondering what I would find there. A sinking feeling rose in me as I realized he had not said about finding Bella, but her stake out. If she had been anything like the time in wherever she was the past four decades, then she had stuck to one place the entire time she was here. Why wasn't she there anymore?
According to them, Leo had answered Bella's phone three days ago, so many things could have gone on in just three short days. Afraid for Bella, I tried to run faster, leaving Kate behind but I knew she'd catch up when I arrived at the destination. I picked up Carmen and Eleazar's scent and got on their trail, knowing I would be there soon.
Hey, wow, I totally messed up on the chapters and posted what happened to Bella twice (sort of, I posted her half with Edward's POV chapter and a semi-new one as a stand-alone chapter). Yeah, confusing, but I sorted it out but now I'm afraid I scared some people away with the technical difficulties as it showed a huge drop in viewings and reviews. :\ But anyway, it's resolved, and I like the latest version better as I got to put more description in as well as the drama of feeding. Thanks for sticking with me!
By the way, it was really interesting when I googled-map for Forks, WA, and saw the peninsula. That really helped wonders for providing visuals. Check out the terrain of that place! I had to look this up so I know what term to refer to when Eleazar told Sam to protect Olympic Peninsula. I was going to say Mount Olympus. XD
Lastly, for, hopefully, obvious reasons, I will be writing in Edward's POV for the next few chapters as Bella remains in captivity. That should provide some good news for y'all. smile