Chapter 8-Dallas

It had been a sunny 66 degrees the afternoon I arrived in Dallas, a little warmer than usual for January. Thanks to the bright sun, I was forced to hide behind the dark tinted windows of the Range Rover until well after dark. I parked in the shadows, reading a newspaper article about the mysterious disappearance of two married Richland College professors earlier in the week. The story had garnered a lot of attention, primarily because the teachers' home was in an affluent area of the city. I was sure they had been Victoria's most recent meal. I needed to try to find them so I could pick up her scent again.

As I sat there trying to deduce where she might have disposed of their bodies I felt oddly… tired. It occurred to me then that I was weak with thirst. I went to a hunting ranch near Plano, where I managed to get a couple of deer without being noticed, vowing not to wait so long between meals in the future. It was irresponsible in so many ways; being too thirsty meant that I was much more dangerous to humans, and if I had managed to catch up to Victoria in such a weakened state, she would have a really good chance of finishing me off. I wouldn't have minded dying, but I wouldn't want it to happen before Victoria met her end. Anyway, I felt stronger after I hunted so I headed back to the city.

"I need a room please," I said to the young blonde night clerk behind the desk at the hotel. She looked up from the romance novel she was reading, startled at my sudden and silent appearance. 10pm wasn't really a typical time check in time, especially in a nicer place like this.

"Sure, sir," she answered after a moment, averting her eyes from my face as she spoke. "How many are in your party?"

Where the hell did he come from? I didn't even hear the chime on the door… he's so pale… probably on drugs. She thought to herself.

"I am alone," I replied flatly, wincing internally as I thought of Bella. My hollow chest burned and ached.

He sounds almost as dead as he looks. Creepy! She thought.

"How long will you be staying?" she asked as she took in the rest of my appearance with increasing interest. Her thoughts were still very clear as her fingers flew over the keys of the computer in front of her, searching for rooms.

Those clothes are expensive…he's probably the son of some rich recluse from California or something. He'd be really hot if he took better care of himself…

I sighed. I was getting used to hearing humans think about how dreadful I looked. She wasn't the first to think that I looked like a corpse. That's what I was after all; a walking, talking corpse.

"Would you like a suite or a standard room with a king sized bed?" she asked, scanning the computer screen at the vacancies she'd located.

The accommodations didn't matter to me since I didn't sleep. I'd chosen this hotel because it had Wi-Fi and was very close to the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport. I wanted to be able to leave at a moment's notice if necessary. I would have just roamed the streets or continued to hide out in the car, but I was in the south, and the Volturi always kept a close watch on this area because of its violent history. I needed to remain inconspicuous.

"A standard room will do just fine, thank you," I replied, handing her a black American Express card. My name was Robert Durham today. I changed aliases on a regular basis, using a variety of driver's licenses and credit cards. I wished for the millionth time that it were that easy to completely change who and what I was permanently.

"Yes, sir," she nodded.

The clerk eyed my card carefully before running it through the machine.

I was right about the rich part. Hope he's not one of those suicidal celebrity kids like that TV star's son we had in here last fall who overdosed in a bathroom and died.

"Here you go Mr. Durham," She said a minute later, handing back my credit card along with a room key and paperwork with my checkout information on it. I slid everything into my wallet, ignoring the dead battery warning beep coming from the cell phone in my pocket. I nodded politely at her and headed upstairs to my room.

I laid my laptop case and a small duffel bag onto the bed and took the dead cell phone out of my pocket to charge it. I noticed the hotel room receipt sticking out of my wallet and I was going rip it up and throw it away when I noticed the date.

January 27th.

It was a year ago today that I had saved Bella from being killed by Tyler Crowley's van.

A million memories flooded through my mind all at once; Alice's hazy last second vision of the accident... how that unbidden voice in my subconscious had shouted NOT HER!..Running across the parking lot... the feel of her body against mine as I pulled her out of the van's path... the sound of her head hitting the pavement... the fear I'd felt at the possibility I might have hurt her; how much it hurt me to lie to her when she questioned me about how I'd managed to save her... And, the realization that the reason for my fears the pain, and the intensity of all of my feelings meant that I was falling in love with her.
Alice had seen it before I could even begin to comprehend what was happening to me.

But, that wasn't all Alice had seen.

Alice's two visions of Bella flashed through my mind; in one, Bella was arm in arm with Alice, and Bella's skin was just as pale and cold as my sister's; in the other, Bella's blood glowing in my red eyes, her body broken and still.

I had tried to stay away from Bella to keep Alice's visions of her future from becoming a reality. I couldn't allow myself to hurt her, or to fall in love with her and condemn her to this life.

I had failed miserably in my attempts to leave her alone the first time. I must not fail again.

I had to keep her safe; to keep her from death or damnation. She was so precious, so amazing and she did not deserve either fate.

Bella was perfect, so beautiful and special; she was so warm and soft; how I missed the feel of her arms around me...

No!

I had to be stronger than this. I had a job to do. I had to keep her safe. She deserves a normal life!

Victoria!

I had to focus on Victoria. I had to find her and kill her. For all the people she'd tortured and killed.

For Bella.

After taking a very long and very hot shower, I started up my laptop to check tomorrow's weather. I was pleased to see that the forecast said there was a very good chance of rain for the following day. I really wanted to get out and do some digging during the day tomorrow. I'd wasted a lot of time today courtesy of the weather. The weather was another reason I detested the south. I hated being imprisoned by the sun, unable to move around during the day. I was surprised that Victoria had traveled in this direction. Victoria had preferred living in the north for many years, and most peace loving nomads avoided the south. But, she'd spent the last month moving southward.

Her travel patterns and careless attitude were baffling to me. I was missing something crucial. It was almost as though she didn't care if someone found her, like she was deliberately trying to get caught, or to leave a trail for someone.

Was she trying to leave a trail for me?

Surely not. I had been most careful in my attempts to follow her, changing my name, the tags on my vehicle, and traveling very little by car when I could help it. I'd even dyed my hair a couple of times. The chemicals only lasted for a few days at a time before my superhuman body broke them down, though.

Perhaps Victoria was just getting eccentric and reckless since she'd been traveling without a companion for the last year. Being alone does odd things to people, vampires included.

I hated being alone, living like a nomad. It was an empty, hollow existence.

I missed my family. I thought of the last conversation I'd had with Esme. It had been Christmas day. She'd begged me to come home, and when I'd refused, making my usual excuses, she'd offered to come to Boulder. I couldn't see her. I couldn't bear to look into her beautiful, kind face and see the pain she was in because of me.

I was useless.

All I could do now was track Victoria to the best of my ability. Then, maybe I could go and see the others, say some kind of goodbye to them, explain why I could never live with them again. Distance myself from them for a number of years before the time came for me to go to Italy and end my existence when Bella...

I couldn't even bear to finish the thought. The idea of a world without her in it was unfathomable…pointless.

It rained the next day, which was an odd stroke of good luck for me, considering that January was usually the driest month of the year in Dallas. I was able to get to the lake right after the police and the coroner arrived. I hid in a tree covered in brown leaves about a half mile away, watching the scene from above.

The bodies had been found near the WPA bridge. It was another stroke of luck that anything had been located at all, given the area.

"So many broken bones," the coroner, a tall burly man dressed in a white shirt, bolo tie and Stetson was saying to the paunchy sheriff and two of his deputies. He was examining the body of a small blonde haired woman. I was sure it had to be Professor Nancy Sherman, one of the missing college professors. I could smell Victoria's scent through the trees now.

How strong would a man have to be to do this kind of damage?" Pure cruelty! Why? The coroner went on mentally

"I don't know, but whoever or whatever it is has to be stopped," the sheriff agreed. "We need to get this scene cleared up as soon as possible. I don't want the media snooping around here, and you and I both know those kooks from the paranormal society will be down here talkin' about that Lady of White Rock Lake shit as soon as they get the chance."

The coroner nodded. I don't believe in that kind of superstitious BS, but something inhuman killed this woman, he thought to himself.

The breeze blew Victoria's distinctive fragrance in my direction, and I knew I'd seen enough here. I followed the scent and it led me back to where I'd just been. Back toward the airport. How had I missed the scent before? Unless...

She had just left this scene to go in that direction. She was leaving.

The scent of fresh blood mingled with her scent in the dank parking garage near terminal E told me that she'd killed again. I shuddered when I realized from the scent that her latest victims were young...very young. I knew I didn't want to see what she'd left behind this time, but I had no choice.

If I had still been human, I would have vomited. As it was, I could almost feel the ghost of a heave in my throat.

The two little girls were still strapped into booster seats in the back of their mother's SUV. They were little more than babies; probably 3 or 4 years old. Twins; identical in every way.

Their mother's body was lying in the floorboard beside them. Clearly she had tried to protect her children. Carlisle's memory of my own mother's face inexplicably flashed in front of my eyes. I heard her voice in my head the way Carlisle had heard her on her deathbed, begging him to save me.

I had never wanted to kill Victoria more than I had in that moment. She was evil to the core. A true monster. Thank God she would never have a reason to go near my Bella again.

I didn't linger there. Victoria's scent was still strong. I had to stop her at all costs now. I couldn't bear the thought of visiting another scene like this one.

A small piece of paper caught my attention then; a credit card slip with a signature on it. The name on the receipt was Brooke Robertson. The name of a girl Victoria had killed near Calgary last fall. The girl with Bella's birthday.

I examined the receipt carefully, noting the items purchased. Sunglasses, a hat, flip flops, and something else...a tourist guide book of Rio.

Rio?

Was Victoria going to Rio?

Carnival was just a few short weeks away, and it was an ideal place for predators to get their fill of human blood. It was like a buffet for our kind. I'd been there myself many years ago during my time away from Carlisle and Esme, when I was feeding off monsters. There had been plenty of food to go around there.

I rushed to the nearest gate to check the flight schedule. A flight from DFW to GIG with a connection in Miami had just left 20 minutes earlier. Victoria's scent lingered here.

Would she really go to Rio?

From a hunting perspective, it certainly made sense. For one thing, she'd been causing quite a stir in the states lately with all the bodies she'd been leaving around the country. For another, Rio was a great place to be during Carnival in February. So much blood for the taking, so much going on that no one would suspect what she was up to.

Victoria seemed to have no other perspective.

I made my way up to the ticket counter, bags in hand a few minutes later to buy my tickets.

I was heading somewhere even warmer than Dallas.

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AN:

Thank you so much for reading. Now we know how Edward wound up chasing Victoria to Brazil. I wrote a one shot from Victoria's POV. I'm going to post it shortly. It goes along with this chapter and explains how Victoria persuaded Laurent to help her check to see if the Cullens were still protecting Bella in Forks. Chapter 9 will be up soon and after that one, we'll be on our way to Italy. Please leave me a note to tell me what you think, good or bad. Thanks.