Chapter 6-Divination
In spite of Tanya's continued efforts to get me to stay, I left Denali in Emmett's Jeep the following day as planned. I'd considered flying, but since I was supposed to be going back to Forks, driving was the best option. If I flew to Canada, it would arouse suspicion, and if I flew to Washington, it would slow me down. The Jeep's windows were well tinted and it was an overcast day. Alice had predicted that the weather would make it safe for me to leave early.
Before I left, Carlisle gave me a substantial amount of cash, 3 forged passports with credit cards and drivers licenses to match. My father also advised me to go to the house in Calgary and get one of the less conspicuous cars he had in storage there.
It took me just over two hours to get to the Canadian border. I prepared to read the minds of the security agents as I pulled the Jeep up to the gate. I needed to make sure they weren't suspicious of me for any reason. I pasted a smile on my face, rolled down the window and carefully placed my ID and passport into the tall bearded RCMP officer's outstretched hand.
This kid is way too sick to be traveling on his own; I've never seen anyone so pale! He looks miserable, too. Wonder what's wrong with him...
The border patrolman thought as he got a better look at me.
He considered asking me if I was okay. But like most humans, he was instinctively uneasy around me; too uneasy to express his concerns. He read the passport and Oregon driver's license that said I was 21 year old Anthony Whitlock. I noticed that his name tag identified him as Mark Chambers.
Twenty-one? I never would have guessed he was that old. Probably so sick his growth's been stunted…still think he should have someone with him… oh well, not my business…
He looked back up at me, comparing my face to the pictures on the passport and license. When I met his gaze, he shuddered involuntarily and looked away.
It had been a long time since I'd made a human so uncomfortable. Thinking of the way Bella had softened me during our time together, I understood the physical changes in me since I'd left her must be more obvious than I'd realized.
"Enjoy your time in Canada, Mr. Whitlock," Officer Chambers said, carefully averting his eyes from my face as he handed me my bogus IDs.
I certainly hoped I would. I would enjoy it very much if I got to kill Victoria while I was here. I nodded politely in his direction and crossed into Yukon without incident.
The drive grew increasingly difficult since I had little to occupy my mind and I was alone. By the time I got to Alberta, the pain was becoming so unbearable that I thought of stopping. Instead I turned on the radio, hoping for some music to distract me. There weren't many stations to choose from; Emmett didn't drive the Jeep enough to invest in satellite radio. A classical station I found was fine until they played Clair de Lune. I changed it so fast that I nearly ripped the knob off.
I spent several minutes searching…country (yuk)…a promising 80's station that I turned off when Prince's "When Doves Cry" came on ("how could you leave me standing alone in a world so cold?" he whined), a rap channel that was too vulgar to tolerate…I kept going for a few minutes until I found a rock station. That one was okay until they played Evanescence's Missing.
Please forgive me, but I won't be home again…isn't someone missing me…and if I bleed, I'll bleed, knowing you don't care and if I sleep just to dream of you, I'll wake without you there… even though I'm the sacrifice, you won't try for me, not now…though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone…"
The song instantly reminded me of her. I felt the dry burning in my eyes and the terrible throbbing in my hollow chest made me gasp. The immediate connection I made between Bella and the song seemed strangely ominous. Bella's haunting words ran through my mind again as I pondered the song's lyrics
I'd rather die than be with anyone but you…
.. though I'd die to know you love me, I'm all alone…
If I were a creature with a soul, I might have thought all this music was some kind of divine omen meant for me.
Go back now Edward before something terrible happens!
NO!
Needless to say, I gave up on the radio for good after that.
From then on I tried to focus on my goal; Victoria, kill Victoria! But in the silence my mind was still consumed with thoughts of my love. Being in Emmett's Jeep made it impossible not to remember the warmth of her body as I strapped her into the passenger seat the night of that fateful baseball game. The night Victoria had entered our lives.
Victoria! Victoria! I had to focus on Victoria. I couldn't afford to allow the pain to overtake me while I had a job to do. I visualized my hands ripping her head off, her sunset colored hair fluttering in the wind as her head flew through the air, and the way her burning corpse would smell when I got the ultimate revenge. The anger superseded my pain again, and for a moment my existence was tolerable; barely tolerable.
For no distraction in the world could erase the image of Bella's face in my mind; her small frame…her smile…the way she bit her lip when she was nervous...the haunted look in her dark eyes when I said goodbye. Victoria! I had to concentrate on my prey.
My thoughts were a vicious circle of agony and fury. The hours passed slowly as my mind continued to go back and forth between the woman I loved more than anything in the universe and the woman I hated in equal measure. But Bella was never out of my thoughts entirely, nor would she ever be. The image of her face and the sound of her voice were permanent fixtures in my mind, and the pain never went away.
It never would.
I made it to our former home in Calgary early the next morning. The trip had taken me 17 hours when it should have taken a day and a half. I hadn't been back here since Maria had visited and made it necessary for us to move in the dead of night 5 years ago.
The house had a neglected feel, but it was still beautiful. It was a substantial log home with cathedral ceilings, large rooms, a copper roof and lots of windows to let in as much light as possible. Most homes in the area had lots of windows. There was a very limited amount of sun in the winter here, and humans tried to get as much of it as they could.
I stared up at it for a moment and recalled how I loved the sound of the rain on the metal roof, and how it had inspired me to compose a couple of short pieces Esme liked.
At one time I would've considered such memories to be happy ones, but now they were inconsequential.
It seemed that everything in my life before Bella was faded, dim and muted; washed out somehow. As though I had been blind until I saw her face, as if my ears hadn't worked until I heard her voice. She intensified everything inside me, and now that I had truly seen, had been truly alive, I understood the life I'd been living before was just a pale imitation of what was possible.
I thought of every other house we'd lived in, and I felt the same sense of indifference. None of them had been or would ever be home. Except for that big white house in Washington; my true home; the home I longed to return to; the home I would never see again.
The lyrics to that Evanescence song echoed in my head again at the thought
Please forgive me, but I won't be home again…
I hoped that Bella would forgive me someday for the way I'd left her. Perhaps when she met someone else, she would even be grateful to me for going. My hollow insides ached again and I wrapped my arms around my chest in an effort to keep what was left of me from falling apart.
I went inside long enough to take a shower once I realized the water was still on. It wasn't for the sake of vanity; I knew I had to at least try to look presentable to keep from drawing attention to myself in the city. Then I made some minor adjustments to the 10 year old maroon Range Rover Rosalie had tweaked for better speed, parked Emmett's Jeep in the garage and took off.
Victoria's scent hit me 10 miles before I got to Edmonton. I followed it all the way to the city limits. Her scent was slightly diluted from a recent rain, so I knew she had left. But, it was strong enough for me to know that it couldn't have been more than two days since she'd gone. I would have to look around and see what I could find out about her time here. I needed to analyze her hunting habits so I could find patters that might assist me in tracing her.
I stopped at a gas station and grabbed a copy of the local paper, hoping to find some clues about her activities. I found what I was looking for right away.
Victoria may have left the area, but from the papers I could tell that she hadn't gone quietly.
One of the prominent local news stories was about the disappearances of several experienced hikers on the Waskahegan Trail. People vanished on the trail pretty often, but six people had gone missing over a 5 week time span, and people were worried. Plus, it had been a slow news month for the area press, so the story was getting a lot of attention.
Regardless of the public and the media's interest, it was unlikely that the disappearances would be seen as overtly suspicious. The Waskahegan trail is over 200 miles long and very isolated in spots. There is also an abundance of wild animals in the area, and humans fell victim to them almost as often as they did to my kind. And with the mild fall weather, more people were most unwisely choosing to hike alone.
Humans had been searching fruitlessly for any signs of the missing hikers for weeks. But, my senses were much better than theirs, and I could smell the decay mingled with Victoria's scent all along the trail. I had also hunted in these woods for years. My familiarity with the area combined with Victoria's scent made finding the bodies effortless.
The first body I found was that of a woman in her 30's with long read hair. She was lying at the bottom of a cliff, 5 miles off an isolated stretch of the trail. If the humans found her, they would probably attribute her broken bones to a fall. But based on the blood loss, it was obvious to me at least that she'd been murdered.
I searched the area around her body for other clues and found no ID. Victoria must have taken it for her own use. It would be easy for her to pass for the dead woman considering the similarity in their build and hair coloring.
Victoria's scent was still very distinctive in the air here, but this woman had been dead for at least two weeks and partially consumed by vultures. So she obviously wasn't Victoria's last meal.
Most of the time, our kind will burn their victims and scatter the ashes; leaving no trace of the body for humans to find. However, Victoria had put very little effort into cleaning up after herself. She had obviously put her trust in nature to do the job.
Victoria's carelessness was a good sign. She had no idea anyone was looking for her, otherwise she might have been more cautious about disposing of the evidence and masking her scent.
I located another body near the river; a 45 year old man named Leo Black. His wallet was empty of money, but a family photo of him with his wife and three children was stuck behind his driver's license. I thought of his family, and hoped they never had any idea about how horrible his last moments on earth had been.
The third corpse I found was much more mutilated than the others. The blonde teenage girl had 146 broken bones, multiple lacerations and 15 bite marks. She was completely drained of blood and had been dead for about 4 days; Victoria's most recent kill. The driver's license in an otherwise empty wallet lying beside her said her name was Brooke Robertson. She was 18 years old.
A sharp spasm of horror rushed through me when I noticed her birthday was September 13th, making her the exact same age as Bella. The pain nearly brought me to my knees again as I tossed the wallet aside.
Another sign! Go back! Go back to Forks and beg her to forgive you now!
No!
If this were any kind of sign at all, it had to mean something totally different. The fact that this poor dead girl shared a birthday with my love should only strengthen my resolve to destroy Victoria. Because Bella would have died before she even made it to her 18th birthday if Victoria and James's plans had worked out last spring.
I glanced down at the dead girl again and saw a beautiful diamond sparkling on the ring finger of her left hand.
Brook Robertson's fiancé was probably among the search party. His love was gone.
Bella could have easily shared the tragic fate of Brook Robertson. I had to kill Victoria.
I sat on the ground for a moment, trying to regain control of myself. The pain and rage made it impossible for me to even consider approaching the other bodies. I could smell them, I knew exactly where they were, but I couldn't stand to look. I had to follow Victoria's scent and figure out where she was going next.
Just then, the cell phone in the pocket of my jeans chimed and vibrated. I had a text message. It was only one word.
Saskatoon.
Thanks, Alice. I thought to myself as I jumped up off the ground. If I drove fast enough, I could be there in three hours.
It had taken several hours for firefighters to put out the flames that had destroyed the old brick building. I stood in an alley behind an old deli and watched the hazy smoke that hovered over what had recently been a retirement home on the outskirts of the city. Reporters swarmed all around the area, broadcasting live to various TV stations.
"This is the second suspicious fire in this area in the last ten days. And, just like the other blaze at a club downtown on Monday, there appears to be no survivors…"
Seven people, all employed at the club had died in last week's fire, their bodies charred beyond human recognition. I had just reached the city limits when I found out about it. By the time I had traced her scent to the place, the scene had cleared and there was nothing left to find.
Now this.
A home for the elderly torched after her latest meal. From the smell, I was able to determine that 2 of her 12 victims hadn't been dead when she set the fire. They had burned alive. So cruel...the victims were weak even by human standards. And, so excessive.
Why would she kill all of them? Twelve people! She couldn't have fed on all of them. Why? Just to cover her tracks? I didn't think so.
It was fun for her.
Victoria enjoyed the suffering. She was vile even among our kind, thirsting for a different kind of bloodlust. She just liked watching them die.
She was a monster among monsters.
It was then that picked up the scent of two others through the smoke. Could she have had help? All the evidence I had gathered so far indicated that she was traveling alone...
I don't think he was with her, but he's obviously looking for her, the red-haired male vampire thought. He was standing across the alley from me, invisible to human eyes, watching me. The crimson of his eyes clashed oddly with his hair. He was almost tall enough to hide his mate completely from view, but I could see her small dark haired form standing behind him. His stance was protective, wary...
"He's not with her," the female whispered to her mate, and I could tell she had a similar talent to Jasper's. She couldn't manipulate the feelings around her, but she could sense my...mood? And yet, there seemed to be something prophetic about her abilities.
His eyes are so odd, and he's terribly sad... she thought.
I winced. My grimace turned to shock as I saw recognition in her eyes; she knew what I could do. She stepped around her mate and started to approach me. A low snarl escaped from his chest, but I held up my hands in a gesture of surrender.
"I mean you no harm," I said quietly in response to her approach. I looked at her mate as I spoke. I understood his fear. I would have been terrified to let Bella walk over to a stranger like this; his snarls subsided and he followed closely behind her.
"I'm Samantha," the little brunette whispered softly. "And this is my mate, Matthew." She gestured to the man behind her. Her demeanor reminded me of Alice. I missed my sister so much.
"It's nice to meet you both," I replied formally. "I haven't seen anyone else for awhile."
"Besides the one responsible for all of this, you mean," Matthew said darkly. He wanted to leave; he didn't like the idea of lingering here, especially with some strange eyed vampire like me. He wanted to grab Samantha and run with her.
"He's not going to hurt me, Matt," Samantha said, rolling her eyes. "He's tracking her, not covering up her mess."
"Your mate is just being cautious," I said, smiling down at her. She was only four feet away from me now, and Matthew was right behind her, though he was relaxing a little now.
"Do you know the one who set the fires?" Matthew asked, trying to divert my attention away from Samantha.
"Her name is Victoria, and she is very dangerous," I replied simply, not wanting to explain how I knew her. "If I were you I wouldn't linger here."
"You have a grudge against her,"Samantha said. It was not a question.
"Yes,"I replied uncomfortably. She was too perceptive for my liking. Was this how those who knew about my talents felt when I read their minds?
I wonder how long it's been since he lost his mate? Samantha thought. I think it must be really recent. Poor thing; I would die without Matt...I can't imagine what he's going through, but wait she's not...
I cringed, averting my eyes from her without thinking. Matthew looked at her questioningly.
"He can read my mind," Samantha explained. "And what I was thinking made him uncomfortable."
"You are gifted, too, Samantha," I replied, thinking of Alice again.
"Yes, I suppose I am," she replied with a shrug. "But, not gifted enough to see why you would risk being found here to hunt down this female..."
"The less we know, the better," Matthew interrupted her, clearly ready to get out of this alley...out of the area.
"I agree," I replied swiftly. "You really should go. When something this conspicuous happens, it's never a good idea to linger."
"Maybe we will see you again someday," Samantha replied, smiling sadly at me. "I didn't catch your name by the way."
"I know you didn't," I said simply.
"You'll find her again," Samantha said quietly. "I can feel it."
"It won't take a tracker to catch her if she keeps doing things like this," Matthew replied, nodding at me as he took Samantha's hand and started to lead her away.
But, I saw in her mind that she wasn't thinking about Victoria.
She was thinking about my mate.
She meant that I would find Bella again.