8. Musings
"Edward?" I asked, hand clutching the cellular phone to my ear. "Oh, thank heaven you answered."
"Tanya, are you all right?" Edward's voice was so soothing, even when it was strained with emotion.
"Yes, I'm perfectly fine, but--" How to put this to him? "But you need to come to Alaska. Now. Today. As soon as possible."
"What? Why?"
"Because--ah." I hissed between my teeth. Around me, the cold wind was swirling the snow around me, blowing my hair into my eyes. I was standing on the side of a back road a few miles outside Anchorage, staring in disbelief at what I saw lying in a ditch. "Carlisle must have called you already." There was tense silence on the other end of the line. "Edward?" What was wrong?
"Tanya," said Edward, in as gently a tone as I'd ever heard him use, "we don't know where Carlisle is."
Now it was my turn. "What?"
"He left, yesterday morning, without a word to any of us. All the warning we got was a letter to Esme, telling us not to follow him--" Here he swallowed. "And then he told us he wasn't coming back."
It was all I could do not to crunch the phone into scrap metal. Carlisle was gone? As in, I would never see him again? "But, why, Edward?" I gasped. I felt like I'd been dealt a blow between the shoulder blades, and then another clout on the head.
"I don't know that, either!" There was the old Edward, as frustrated and angst-filled as ever.
"Wait, wait, wait," I said quickly, holding up my free hand even though I knew he wouldn't see it. "You must be mistaken, Edward, dear. Carlisle must have come through here, looking for us." What else could explain the catastrophe I had found?
"Why is that? Have you seen him?"
"No." I hated to disappoint that eager voice. "But, that's why you must come to Alaska. I don't feel comfortable telling you this on the phone." And I can't understand it, I added in my head.
"I can't, Tanya," said Edward, ruefully. "But I'll send Alice and Jasper, and maybe Emmett and Rose, too."
A sudden thought occurred to me. "Oh, how is Esme?"
Edward exhaled heavily. "Too quiet. She's holding up admirably, all things considered."
"Poor Esme," I murmured. From what I could gather, the mother figure of the Cullens had just been given the biggest shock of her long life.
"Alice and Jasper are on their way," said Edward. In the background I heard the voice of a young girl, perhaps a high-schooler. Edward couldn't be at school, it was Saturday. Where was he? Then it hit me--we'd been told about Isabella Swan, the human who had caught Edward's eye. I couldn't help it: I had to repress a bout of jealousy when I heard the girl's voice.
"Jasper wants to talk to you," said Edward, and then he was gone, replaced by his older brother.
"Tanya?" Jasper had his own calming effect, except today he had on his Commander Whitlock personna.
"Jasper, I hope you and Alice are in the car, right now, heading to the airport?"
"You want us to fly?"
I concentrated a moment. "No, then again, you'd just better drive. No telling how long it would take you to secure a flight."
"Where are you? Denali?" The boy had a solid presence of mind.
"No, just outside of Anchorage, on a smaller road. Once you get in-state, I'll guide you."
"All right. Is there anything you can tell us over the phone about this?"
"Well, Jasper," I surveyed the surroundings grimly, "I can tell you to plan to check on Carlisle's auto insurance."
"That doesn't sound promising," Jasper said warily.
"Just get here as fast as you can. Push that Volvo to its souped-up limits, yes?" Uh-oh, there was one of my Russian nuances, resurfacing again. It was usually better not to act like a foreigner in front of humans, so smothering my Russian speech came naturally.
"We'll be there in no time."
"Be careful," I added.
"Careful is our middle names." This came from Alice, and right after she spoke the sound of the Volvo's engine roaring to life met my happy ears.
"Goodbye, Tanya," said Jasper, revving up the car.
"See you soon." I snapped the phone shut, turning back to the troubling sight before me.
I had been driving home from a shopping errand, eager to return to my family, when I'd spotted the shiny black paint of a car in a ditch. If it hadn't been for my vampire senses, I would have sped on past without taking notice. But, since I am, in fact, a vampire, the dark metal had caught my eye. At first I thought maybe someone had slid off the road in the snow and needed help. But as I had climbed out of my own XC90, I realized there was no one in the car-- and I had also realized I recognized the black Mercedes. It was a miracle I could read the license plate.
The car had been totaled.
The front end of the S55 was hopelessly destroyed, the hood smashed up into a folded mess, the front fender crushed inward. The sides of the car were just as demolished, with identical concave dents in every door. I wasn't surprised to see that the back was trashed, too. But it wasn't just the body of the vehicle that was ruined-- the windows and windshields were shattered, as well. Although I wasn't sure, it seemed like the tires were slashed, too.
What in the world was going on? I wondered, re-inspecting the Mercedes. Now that I looked again, it was obvious this vehicle had been intentionally wrecked, even sabotaged. But who would damage Carlisle's car, and why? I walked up and peered in the open holes that were the windows. The upholstery was fine, at least. Could it have been a random act of vandalism? Teenage kids, I knew, sometimes thought it was funny to wreck abandoned cars. Maybe there was nothing more to it than that: some human children saw a nice Mercedes parked on the side of the road and decided to tear it up.
Where was Carlisle? Why was his car out here, clearly without him? Edward had said he'd left the Cullens, and yet that just didn't match up with Carlisle's personality. He wasn't that type of vampire, not that type of man. While some of our kind are always nomadic, never staying with the same friends long, I knew Carlisle was different. In fact, he was much better than any other vampire I'd known; he was honest, dependable. You could count on Carlisle-- so I'd thought.
I frowned with the next thought in my head. What if Carlisle was in trouble? Why else would he leave Esme and his children? No matter the reputation of the rest of us vampires, I refused to think that Carlisle would forsake his family for his own selfish needs. I ran a finger over the S55's beautiful gloss, now scratched and covered in snowflakes. "Jasper, you'd better hurry faster," I growled. When that boy got here he had some mighty explaining to do. I was determined to receive a more in-depth story from Jasper about Carlisle's disappearance.
Lost in my musing, I almost missed the symbol carved into the paint on the car's roof. Luckily, my fingers detected the rough surface, and I stood on tip-toe to see what the scratch was. The symbol was an animal, crudely drawn. It was a deep gouge in the paint, made by... a razor?
My phone rang, startling me. I pulled it out too quickly, nearly cracking the screen with my tense fingers. "Hello?"
"Tanya." That was Rosalie's voice, I thought. What did Rose need?
"Rose? What's going on?"
"Nothing. Is Jasper there yet?"
"No, they just started out not too long ago. I guess Edward told you they were headed this way?"
There was only a tenth of a second's hesitation in Rose's reply, but I sensed it. "Yes, of course."
"So you're home now?" Something was up with Rosalie. I felt, for some reason, like she was lying to me.
"Yes, Tanya, how esle would Edward tell me about Jasper?"
"All right, don't get all hissy," I muttered. "Well, I just wanted to make sure. Emmett's there, too?"
"As usual. And Esme's here, too."
"Why did you call?" And why didn't I hear anyone else inside the house? In fact, I thought I could hear birds in the background, and running water, like a stream. Rosalie was outside, somewhere, and it wasn't the Cullens' back yard.
"I called to make sure everything was fine in Alaska. You're all right?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm sure Edward would have told you that. It's just--" I didn't really want to tell Rose anything, now that I was suspicious of what she was doing. "Edward surely told you all this," I said, sounding as confused as I could. In truth, I wasn't confused-- I knew what was happening. Rose didn't want the rest of the family to know she was making contact with me, and she didn't want me to know she was calling me in secret. But why? I aksed myself, trying to be reasonable. Why would she deceive us?
"Edward took Bella home, before I got there," Rose said smoothly, her voice not even hitching on Bella's name.
"I need Jasper and Alice to come look at something outside Anchorage, that's all," I retorted, stifling my annoyance.
"Oh. Well, okay, Tanya. I'll see you soon, I hope."
"All right, Rosalie, what are you up to?" I demanded.
"What? I'm not--"
"I can tell nobody's home, so what are you doing? Why did you tell me Esme and Emmett were there?"
"Tanya, are you still there?" Rosalie shouted, making my ears ring.
"Yes, I'm--"
"I can't hear you, you must be in a dead zone!"
A dead zone? A dead zone my eye! I choked back a hiss. What was with that girl? I stuffed my phone in my pocket again, leaning against the demolished car. All I could do now was seethe, and wait for Jasper and Alice to arrive.