Edward's POV
"Edward," Eleazar greeted me as I reached a place with the waterfall. The smell of Bella's scent overwhelmed me, it brought back many memories of the past. Of holding Bella in my arms, smelling her succulent scent. Swallowing thickly to push down the grief that was threatening to overwhelm me, I nodded in greeting as I took in the surrounding. She left nothing behind but her scent, from what I could see. This area seemed to be soaked in her scent, how long had she stayed? Moving towards what I heard to be the ocean, I scanned the area, trying not to miss any clues as Eleazar greeted Kate. The rest of the group scoured over the area where Bella had been. I reached the beach, glad for the cover of the darkness as I looked up and down the place on the sea.
Letting out a frustrated sigh, I faced Eleazar, my eyes communicating what I saw—nothing.
"She only had a duffel bag with her," Tanya said, looking frustrated too. "Her scent is all over the place but I see none of her belongings."
"Naturally, she would take them with her," Carmen said, her eyes looking around the area.
What do I do now? We've reached a dead end... I thought in despair, collapsing onto the sand, my hands on the ground. I grabbed a fistful of sand, angry with myself and at the world for taking my Bella away just as I finally found her trail, and reached a dead end. Again.
In the distance, I heard a group of guys talking amongst themselves, not like one would be fooling around, but as though seeking justice. I frowned as I looked in their direction they were coming from. The other vampires heard them too. I focused on their thoughts and felt like I was hit with a hammer. They were seeing Bella in their minds. In all her glory with the shark.
"We better go," Tanya said, moving into the forest, followed by the others.
"No," I bit out, narrowing my eyes in the humans' direction. "They seeking Bella."
Eleazar widened his eyes in surprised and stopped walking, looking in the same direction they were coming. "What for?"
"They think one of their friend's disappearance had something to do with Bella," I replied, noticing a police officer with them.
"Then we need to go, we can't get involved in this, but we'll watch from a distance," Eleazar said, looking back at me.
I got off the ground, nodding, we didn't need to cause any problems with the law enforcement. Especially if they were to take photos of the coven and spread to the world, announcing myself, the coven and Bella. We hid ourselves within the trees and waited for them to come.
"This is where we ran into the girl," one of them said, looking around. "Didn't think we'd find her now."
"Hm, so you think this girl had something to do with this killer of your friend?" the officer asked, jotting notes down. Another person was taking photographs of the area and we made sure we were far enough away that they couldn't see us in the pictures.
"Yeah, they must have been related or something," he said, "the guy said he was very interested with this girl before he killed him... I thought he was saying he might go after her or something. It didn't make sense."
The guy fell silent, shuddering at the memory. "But then I realized the behavior those two shared... they were like... monsters. They must know each other."
I scowled at the term used in calling Bella. She was nothing but a monster. If anything, I was more of a monster than she was.
This went on for another hour, talking about what they saw here, and I saw it more vividly than the rest of the group, seeing it through their memories. I was proud of her for scaring the humans off, but I wished she had not been so... clothes-less during the fiasco, it showed in some of the less than pretty thoughts about my girl in some of their minds. My face darkened in reaction to their thoughts. What I wouldn't give to up and show them where they belonged. A glance at the other people in my group prevented me from doing anything rash.
They decided that Bella wasn't going to show and went back to wherever they came, some angry over their loss for their friend. Once they were gone, I looked at Eleazar, my eyes hooded in anger at what I had to 'hear' from their minds. It didn't help that they walked away, still thinking that she was a monster.
"It's unusual for Leo to... just leave behind witnesses like that," he said quietly. "He's pretty thorough, what was he thinking? They now know what we are," Eleazar said, frowning.
Is he trying to provoke the Volturi, telling the world about our existence? he wondered in his mind. Where is he going with this? Maybe when he saw the memories, he got so excited in having a new vampire to...
I let out a growl at his mind and Eleazar looked apologetic. Sorry Edward, but I was just trying to figure out what Leo is trying to do. He's broken so many of his own rules, I don't know what to expect anymore but the opposite, but howmuch will he do the opposite?
Eleazar sighed, shaking his head and faced his coven, wondering what to do next, now that we had run into a dead end.
"Well, I suppose we'll wait for the pack to get here while we think of something," Kate suggested.
I nodded, taking the phone out and called Jacob, wanting to know when they would be arriving. Not having Alice around was making things so much harder, not knowing what to expect next, not knowing when someone would arrive, not knowing anything.
"Edward," Jacob said.
"When will you be getting here?" I asked, counting the hours of how long it had been since we saw them in La Push. Almost a day, the dawn was about to arrive. I knew they must be close to finish with moving their tribe to a safer place.
"Oh uh..." Jacob muttered then took the phone away, though it did not diminish of what I could hear. "Hey Sam, when will we board the boat?"
"In about two hours, then we'll go," Sam answered.
"Did you get that?" Jacob asked and I replied in affirmative, figuring it would take another fifteen or so hours to get here by boat, and a further two to depart from wherever they were hiding at.
"All right, well, we found nothing here but we heard from a few humans that they saw her... and know what she is too, if you can believe that," I informed him.
Jacob cursed, hating the idea that several humans knew about the dangers of the world. He knew the price humans paid—Volturi did not take well to humans knowing our secret. Right now, it may as well be the safest time to know, for they had to protect themselves from other covens attacking them.
"Shouldn't you all just come on back here then?" he asked.
I tutted, thinking for a moment, there was no use of staying here any longer and I looked at Eleazar.
"It's true that we don't need to stay," Eleazar relented, "but we can't all go back to La Push. We need to meet somewhere else, like... San Diego."
"That sounds good," I said and relayed to Jacob and the pack agreed to the idea. "All right, I'll see you soon in San Diego, keep me posted."
"Right, see you," Jacob said and cut the line as the coven made their way back to the boat on the other side of the island. I stayed behind for a few minutes, breathing in Bella's scent. The coven understandably left me alone for a few minutes, knowing that I would catch up later. Looking around in the jungle as I reentered the place with the waterfall. This was the closest I had been to smelling her in decades and it was overwhelming. The scent was only a few days old, so few days off from seeing her. I hadn't even gone to my old house, and I was sure her scent was there too, only older. At Jacob's house, I had no doubt that the wolves' smell erased any and all of her scent, if she had come by. I had sensed none of her there.
I closed my eyes, wishing that she were here, that Leo had never come by and screwed all of this up. Screwed up my chances of seeing her sooner rather than later. I watched the water cascade down from the top, hitting some of the rocks along the way, splashing against the pool at the bottom of the cliff. In the early dawn, it looked beautiful, and I understood why she came here to bathe and relax. It would be my choice too. Without another glance, I turned and sped away from the place, my need to see Bella overriding any of my needs in the world.
Once I rejoined the coven on the boat, we made our way to San Diego, our rendezvous point with the wolves. From there, we were not sure what to do next. We conversed among ourselves, trying to brainstorm of what action to take next once we met up with the rest of the pack.
My thoughts travelled back to Alice and how I felt so blind, more so than I had ever felt since the day she had been captured. I scowled at my thoughts, needing Alice more than ever. If only we could get her back, get her out...
I blinked, wondering how feasible the idea was. Could we really bust her out? With the help of the Denali coven, with Eleazar on our side, using his knowledge to get around in that castle. Not to mention the wolves, no one could really win against so many. By my count, there were fifteen, and I was not sure if there were more. My heart seemed to pump even faster in my mind, filled with adrenaline, an illusion, letting me know that I was on to something. My eyes met with Eleazar and he saw something in my eyes and grew curious.
"Did you think of something, Edward?" he asked, grabbing the attention of everyone.
"It... might not be so favorable, but listen, work with me for a bit," I began, knowing that this might be the worst idea, but also the best one of them all. For all I knew, Leo could be taking her to Volturi right now, and we may as well as kill two birds with one stone. "We rescue Alice."
"That's crazy, Edward," Irina protested. "How can you expect to get Alice out of there?"
"Yes, I know it's crazy Irina, but if Bella is there too, we can get her as well. But you see, not only you guys will be helping out, but we have the entire pack as well. The last I counted, there were fifteen wolves, and who knows how many more now. Sam said... well, in his mind, it was all due to the war breaking out that's wrecking havoc on their children's genes, turning them into werewolves."
I hated the idea that the war we had started was the cause for their pain, and it showed on my face to the others as they fell silent. In their minds, they realized how guilty I must be feeilng and they couldn't be more right. Everything all came back to me, everything was my fault. If I had not left Bella back then...
"So, you're proposing... a battle?" Eleazar asked, his face void of emotion, bringing me back out of my thoughts. I shook my head.
"We can't lose anyone, if anyone dies, it'll be on my conscience. We need to think of a way to get Alice as quickly and as safely as possible. It's likely that with Aro, he may be seeing her visions on a daily basis to see what she has seen, it's how they're trying to capture us. So, we have to always be unsure of our decisions and never think about the actual course of action. It'll be... safe... for the wolves since Alice can't see them," I said, getting more new ideas the more I talked. "In fact, they could plan the whole thing out and only inform us what they thought. We'll be with them, and Alice will never see us coming. I trust them," I said, looking at Irina as I asked of the group, "do you?"
Irina looked disgusted as everyone else took a moment to answer. They didn't really like the wolves, but were tolerating them for the sake of Bella and they slowly agreed to trust them. It was our best idea and plan by far.
I couldn't wait to see my family together again, with Bella at my side.
This chapter is dedicated to I.W. Cullen for the great idea of using the boys in this chapter. :D Thanks!