Yet, at the last second she lunged to the right, causing me to skim right by her and smash against a nearby tree, bringing it creaking and crashing to the forest floor. I hit the ground, rolling right up and into a crouch, springing forward and racing after her, knowing I would be too late. I came to a sudden stop at the tree line, shocked into incoherence by the sight in front of me. Instead of the screams I had been expecting, there was giggling all around, as Bella stood in front of the gaggle of girls, bouncing up and down and clapping her hands with excitement.
"Tell me you still have a few boxes of the Thin Mints left! They're my absolute favorite!" she squealed enthusiastically. "Though I really like the ones with peanut butter and chocolate too. Two great tastes that taste great together!"
"Bella?" I asked hesitantly, approaching her cautiously.
"Oh, hi, Jasper, what are you doing here? Would you like some Girl Scout Cookies too?"
Okay, JUST KIDDING! I couldn't resist after several reviewers made comments about the cookies. *snicker*
So here's the real chapter:
Finally, with only a few hundred yards between a thirsty instinct-driven Bella and all those innocent women and children, I pounced, praying with all my heart she wouldn't dodge at the last minute . . .
Chapter 28 - Human Blood
Our bodies crashed together with a thundering crack and boom, the earth shaking with the force of our collision with the ground. Dirt and leaves flew up in the air as we created a crater, taking out a few trees with our tangled limbs, as we rolled a little way down the now ravaged hillside. Both of us were struggling for control of the situation, snarling, growling, and snapping at one another in an instinctive attempt to intimidate our opponent. Birds from all around the area took to the skies squawking out warnings to the rest of the forest of impending doom, and the woodland creatures either hid, shaking with fear, or attempted to put as much distance between us and themselves as they possibly could.
We came to an abrupt halt with Bella sprawled out on her stomach and me crouched over top of her, clinging to her with all my determination and will. Calling upon my countless years of subduing rampaging newborns, I forced her arms up behind her, bent at the elbows, bringing her wrists up between her shoulder blades. This allowed me to hold both her wrists in one of my hands as I pressed her chest into the ground with the weight of my body. I used my other hand to grab a fistful of her hair, close to her scalp, rendering her incapable of moving her head without hurting herself by pulling against me.
Her lower body was trapped beneath my own, my muscular legs holding hers in place and keeping her from being able to get into a position that would give her any leverage to fight against me. As long as she wasn't able to draw her knees up under her torso, I could keep myself in a position of power and keep her from being able to buck me off of her.
As a final touch, I brought my mouth down to her neck, my teeth pressing gently against her skin, enough to let her know they were there, but not hard enough to pierce her. Her instincts warned her that if she struggled she could rapidly find herself missing her head. This calmed her down faster than anything else I could have done. There's nothing like threatening to behead a vampire to get one's attention.
I could feel it the moment she returned to herself, but I feared that if I let her go, she would quickly lose herself to the instinct to hunt again. Right now, the fear of literally losing her head was keeping her grounded in rational reality.
All of this occurred before the humans could even process the odd noises they had heard, from the crashing of two boulders against one another, the felling of trees, the rumbling and shaking of the earth beneath their feet, the harsh cries of all the birds, the snarls and growls of wild animals, and finally, the eerie quiet that descended upon the forest in the aftermath, devoid of the normal nature sounds of a forest.
"What the hell was that?" One of the women whispered to the other two.
"Do you think we should go investigate?" One of the others responded, her feelings radiating way too much excitement and curiosity for my peace of my mind.
Oh, hell no, I thought, rolling my eyes. All we need now is for all the tasty smelling humans to come closer to the thirsty, barely-under-control vampires. Desperately, I sent a major dose of fear, anxiety, and dread their way, hoping it would convince them to rethink their decision to camp here and to vacate the area as soon as possible.
"It felt like an earthquake accompanied by a landslide," The third lady declared. "The wild animals are all riled up and the ground may well still be unstable. This is not a good time to be out here. We really need to get all this stuff loaded back into the van and go somewhere else. It sounded like there may be bears or wolves nearby, and if they are angry, confused, or injured, they may behave irrationally. I'm not going to risk all these girls - I'd never be able to forgive myself if something happened to any of them."
"She's right," the first one agreed. "Alright girls, let's load up and get out of here. We can camp out in my backyard for the merit badge and have pizza and ice cream instead of rice and beans."
The girls cheered and began tossing all the equipment back in the van, and I allowed myself a tiny feeling of relief. At least things were moving in the right direction, though I wouldn't be able to relax until the van was miles away. The more adventurous lady was disappointed, but understanding and accepting of the decision to leave.
"Jasgrr? It smells so good! Why can't I have the yummy blood, Jasgrr?" Bella whimpered beneath me.
I lifted my teeth up a millimeter from her skin and answered, "They're human, Bella. Do you hear them talking? They're people like we are. There's a bunch of human children over there, Bella, and I know you'd feel awful if you killed the humans' babies, sweetheart. It would be much worse than how you felt after draining the puppy and the kitten. I know they smell good, baby girl, but humans are friends, not food." I enjoyed the play of my lips over her skin as I formed the words.
"But Peter and Charlotte drink human blood," she pointed out in confusion. "So they must be food."
I sighed, feeling aggravated with Pete and Char for confusing the issue for her. How could she be expected to understand the shades of grey at her level of maturity? "They only drink from the bad humans, the ones who are hurtful toward the rest of their kind, along with the ones who are already dying from illness or old age," I explained.
"Well, why do they smell so good if we're not supposed to eat them?" she demanded. "That's not fair."
I chuckled, some part of my brain noting the way my body moved against hers when I did, though I quickly pushed that thought away. "When you were human, your blood smelled better than any other human's I'd ever encountered, yet we managed not to eat you. Instead, we welcomed you into our family and learned to love you, even before you became a vampire."
"I used to be human?" she asked in shock. "Then how did I become a vampire? Did you used to be human before? What about the rest of the family? Hey, if we're not supposed to let humans know what we are, then how come you welcomed me into the family while I was still human? Jasgrr?"
Oh, crap. I just had to open my big mouth, didn't I? How much should I tell her? Well, I'm not gonna carry the weight of this by myself. The rest of the family can dig this hole right alongside me. I decided.
Thankfully, the humans had taken advantage of their reprieve, though they had no idea of the true danger they faced, and left promptly. I carried Bella back to the house, stopping for a few deer along the way to feed us both. Once we were back home, I sat down on the couch, with Bella in my lap. Ignoring the sounds of all the couples' current activities, I yelled, "Family meeting, downstairs in five minutes!"
xxxxxxx
Charlie checked with the school and the hospital for a prior address for the Cullens, but somehow all records regarding the family had disappeared or been erased all over town. Even the Department of Motor Vehicles, the Police station archives, and the Police database had no information listed for the Cullens at all, as if they didn't even exist. Using contacts gathered over the years, Charlie dug deeper, checking with the CIA, FBI, and the IRS. There was no real information on them at all, merely names, with no social security numbers, addresses, phone numbers, or dates of birth on file anywhere. They didn't even have credit scores or a history with the three credit reporting bureaus.
The Quileutes were uneasy with this turn of events, realizing the pull and influence the Cullens had was much greater than they had ever considered, for them to be able to hide so effectively from all the various monitoring agencies.
"Maybe we should just let it be," Sam suggested, squirming uneasily in his chair. "If they are that desperate to hide, that they can pull the skin over the eyes of the entire nation, who knows what else they could hide? What happens if they get mad at us for tracking them down and decide to take us out? Nobody would ever even know it was them! I mean, they have no fingerprints, they don't leave bits of their DNA lying around like humans do, and according to the government, they don't fucking exist. Forget the mafia - these things take disappearing without a trace to a whole new level."
"It's amazing really," Charlie concurred. "Utterly fascinating. Their hacking skills must be out of this world. However, they probably don't realize I like to do things the old fashioned way, just like the old Chief taught me. There is one other source we haven't checked yet."
"Where's that, Charlie?" Jacob asked.
"My house," Charlie offered with a sly grin, looking at the boys and men sitting around his living room.
"If you had the information here at your house, why the hell did you go on that wild goose chase all over the place trying to find it?" Paul demanded. "Did you just want to waste our time or what?"
Charlie gave him a stern glare. "Are you at all familiar with the phrase, 'Know thy enemy', son? The fact that they went through all the trouble to erase the evidence of their existence here in town, made me curious to know just how thorough they were. Do you know that they are not even mentioned in the school yearbooks for the past three years? Not only are their names not included in the print anywhere, but there is not a single photo of any one of them. In addition to there being no record of any of the Cullens attending the school, there isn't even any evidence the older Cullen 'children' ever graduated or earned diplomas. If you think that is scary, the video the school taped of the event, as well as the video tapes and digital copies made by every parent who attended, have been mysteriously edited.
If that isn't enough to give you the creeps, the hospital workers and long term patients who saw Dr. Cullen on an almost daily basis for years can't remember his first name or the correct spelling of his last name, nor can they give me an accurate physical description. Most can tell me he was blond, pale, and physically fit, but can't tell me the color of his eyes, his age, his height, the shade of his hair, or anything else useful in creating a profile. Most of the other people in town don't even remember there was a Cullen family here in the first place. If they do remember, they aren't sure what their first names were, what they looked like, their ages, or how many of them there were in the family. They've only been gone a couple of weeks! How can they be forgotten already?"
"I wish I could forget about them," Paul muttered bitterly. "It's obviously some vampire mojo, magic forget spell, they cast on the town."
"I'm sure that has something to do with it, but the people in town have forgotten my Bella just as thoroughly, even though her records are all still intact," Charlie explained. "The ones who do remember the Cullens, tend to do so through their remembrance of Bells. Angela Weber remembered all of them the best, out of anyone else in town, and she was also the only one to seem genuinely concerned about their welfare. Mike Newton remembered Bella, though his memories were inaccurate, but he only vaguely remembered Edward Cullen as the 'rich asshole competition' for her hand, with no recollection of the others."
"Okay, that's fascinating, Chief, but what does that have to do with records being stored at your house?" Paul snapped, bored and irritated with the conversation.
Charlie glared at him, but Paul didn't seem the least bit remorseful. "Just a minute," he informed his guests and jogged upstairs. A few minutes later, he returned with a file folder filled with information about the Cullens.
"What? How?" Sam asked.
Charlie grinned and relaxed as he began flipping through the file. "The walk-up stairs to the attic are located inside my closet. I don't think Bella even knows they're there. The old Chief used to keep his own private set of files in case there was a fire or something at the station. I saw the wisdom of it, especially the first time the computers crashed at work and lost the database, so I've maintained my own as well. I investigated the Cullens when they first moved here, concerned all those adopted teenagers might cause trouble, so I have copies of all their school records. The previous address listed is Denali, Alaska."
"Looks like we're headed to Alaska then," Jacob replied, giving Charlie a triumphant smile.
Billy cleared his throat to get Charlie's attention. "We've discussed it in the council, Charlie. Jacob and I are going with you: Jacob as protection and I as a representative of the Quileute tribe with the authority to make decisions regarding treaties and such. Sam and Jared have mates here, so they will be staying here to protect the tribe, but Paul has yet to imprint, so he will be joining us also, as further protection."
Charlie grinned. "Glad to have you on board, Billy. We'll be heading out tomorrow."
xxxxxxx
AN: Never a dull moment . . .