Disclaimer: All the Twilight stuff belongs to Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just playing in her sandbox.

Chapter 68 Frantic

EPOV

. . . stay in control . . . cover all possibilities . . . keep it together . . .

Those words played like a mantra, over and over in my head as Esme and I ran to cover one of the exits out of town. Fuck human pretense, we were through the middle of the crowd that had gathered around the crash outside and past the emergency personnel in an instant, leaping down the side of the cliffs to the valley at the bottom of Horseshoe Cove Road. We were there before there was any possibility that a car from town could have passed by.

"Esme, keep watch here, Carlisle hasn't answered his page and we have to get the other road covered - I can't wait," I told her, realizing that I was leaving her alone to look for a car with two vampires in it and she was the least agile fighter among us. It didn't matter. She could phone us and follow the car, we could be with her in minutes . . . all of us. A phone call from Jasper told me that Jake and Sam had shown up and were with them watching the Walhalla Road. They hardly needed four of them to take out two vampires, so he was going to stand watch with Esme.

I cut across the terrain and up the mountain side faster than I had ever moved in my life, heading well past the hospital and further out the Cashiers Road to head off any escape that way. Luckily that road followed the ridge and circled slightly towards me, allowing me to gain a great deal of distance by cutting through, like cutting the corner off a triangle. The South side of Whiteside Mountain was ringed by a cliff known by climbers to be the highest vertical drop cliff face on the East coast but my mind barely processed that as it took mere seconds for me to scale it and be across the mountain to the road.

Carlisle had not answered his phone or his page and it had been almost five minutes.

Five minutes.

. . . stay in control . . . cover all possibilities . . . keep it together . . .

Nothing.

"Alice. No, nothing. Yes, all roads are covered. Good idea, you're the closest. It's worth trying before more cars pass by and maybe the car they used has a distinctive smell, right, Rose can pick up anything like that if it's there. Call me. Jasper is with Esme, Jake is with Emmett. Five more minutes, they can't be speeding they'll attract too much attention," she hung up.

Alice would stay at the bridge down by Mirror Lake. Even if they took a turn off into a residential area, they would have to cross that bride to get out of town in a car. Rose was going to go back to the alley behind the maternity shop and see if the car had any kind of a distinctive odor or if there was a trace that she could follow before too many other cars and odors covered it up . . . if it was even there . . .

"Carlisle!" I called to my Dad as he came to stand beside me, still in his scrubs. He had obviously been in surgery, which explained why he didn't just pick up his phone like he normally did.

"I called and you weren't answering your page at the hospital, or your phone," I told him.

"I was in surgery, son," he explained. Just as I thought once I saw the scrubs. Carlisle always preferred slacks and a button down, never the informality of wearing scrubs around the hospital.

"How is it that you're here, then?" I asked, surprised.

"Esme."

Mom. It figured. She was a force to be reckoned with when it involved her family.

"Your mother called the hospital. She refused to take no for an answer when they told her I was in surgery. She told my staff that there had been an accident involving your car in town and she wanted me on the phone, now. One of my assistance came in to close for me and I took the phone call, leaving to find you here where she said you'd be. What happened?" Carlisle asked.

"We were in the maternity shop, Alice, Rose, Emily, Esme, Sue and I were with Bella. I checked the shop and there was no one there in the rear of the shop, the bathroom or the dressing room. Emily went to the dressing room with Bella to try on something that Alice had ordered. There was a crash out front. A black SUV ran into my Volvo, parked on Main Street, well, my car and a couple of others. It looked as though it rolled . . . or was tossed. I stepped out to the car and Riley's smell was all over it. By the time I ran back to the dressing room, Emily was out cold on the floor and Victoria's scent was all over. The back door was half off its hinges . . . and Bella was gone," I barely got the words out.

"Oh my God, Dad, she's gone. Victoria has her! How long before . . . I mean . . . ," I dropped to my knees, my hands on either side of me to keep me from falling over, "It's been almost ten minutes!"

"Son. They put her in a car. They had to be anxious to make a get away from all of us, that's surely what's on her mind right now . . . not anything else," he said standing beside me with his hand reaching down on my shoulder.

"I was supposed to protect her, Dad. I told her I'd keep her safe . . ."

~oooOooo~

Jasper POV

After all the days on end of protecting her, watching the house, circling the town to try and find Victoria . . . how the hell had this happened. How the hell had she gotten a hold of my little sister?

I found Esme with no problem and not a single car had come down the road since she had gotten there or for a long time before that from the smell of the air around us.

Think. I needed a battle plan. This was what I was good at and I had to excel at it right now.

"Esme, you stay here and I am going to check all the houses with driveways off this road. As soon as I clear an area, you move up the road to that point. I'll let you know when to move," I told her as I took off, calling Alice on the phone.

"No, I understand. No, Rose getting the scent of the car was a good call and I hope it works. Hold on, she's calling me," I told my wife.

"Rose . . . anything?" I asked her.

"The smell where the car had to have sat was a car that was running a little rich. Alice had a vision and saw them in a silver Volvo, I'm sure you've been told that already. There are a lot of emergency vehicles and other cars cluttering up the roadway, but I get a whiff of that same smell on the road to the hospital, Jasper. I think they headed out the Cashiers road and I'm following it now to see if I pick up the scent turning off somewhere," Rosalie told me.

"Excellent, Rose. Let's hope it gives us a lead along the way," I said as I hung up and called Esme to come up the hill.

I had checked all the houses, front, side and garage entrances. There would be a lingering odor of Bella and certainly Victoria on any car they were in, it was just a matter of getting close enough to where the car had been. They could not get her out of the car and into a house without leaving a scent, at least. We would eliminate possibilities and narrow the search area. I had Emmett leave Jake and Sam on the road and start to check the houses along the road back towards town, the same as I was doing.

. . . eliminate possibilities . . . narrow the search area . . .

Sue had called Esme to tell her that Emily was indeed fine, just as Edward had said, and that the paramedics had confirmed it. Apparently they were looking for the owner of the Volvo that had been hit in the crash, but I knew better than to even mention it to Edward. He would not care about the car in the least and it would be futile to bring it up to him.

"Emily, let me speak to one of the officers there, please. Tell them that you have the owner of the car on the phone, and hand it to them. Thanks," I instructed her.

I explained to the officer that I had allowed my friend, Sue, to drive my car into town and that I would be sending a tow truck for the car. Once he found out that I was the son of the Chief of Staff at the hospital, things went well. Highlands was a very small town, and the police were loyal to it's less than two thousand full time residents and were certainly sympathetic to the Carlisle Cullen's son. Good thing I had the registration and paper trail intact on our cars and our files, I knew that the officer had run the plates before he ever spoke to me.

"Emmett, please go tell Sam where the keys to Jacob's truck are and have him go into town and pick up Sue and Emily. I'll have Sue call him and let him know what's happened. Emily is okay and the paramedic released her, but let Sue tell him that. We don't need him going off on you and the two of you fighting right now. Right, yes, tell Jacob to move up to Satulah and cover the road there, since you checked the houses below there already," I barked orders, but I'm sure he understood my mindset right then.

I called Sue and had her call Sam, who Emmett was telling to phase back and go get the truck and head into town. It was best if Sue was the one that told him that his wife had been injured, anyway.

Okay. We had narrowed the area on two of the roads. I left Esme and ran to the other side of town, starting down the Franklin Road, checking each house and garage that a road led to off the main highway. Nothing. I reached Alice at the bridge and had her go back up the road and watch the edge of town.

. . . eliminate possibilities . . . narrow the search area . . .

I headed off over the lake, in case they had taken that dirt road that connected through a series of switchbacks and turns, running down the side of the mountain. I didn't think there were many houses there and I was determined to check them in any case. At this point, we had eliminated three of the ways out of town and the houses that were fed by them. There were a great many houses in the town proper on small roads and streets but they had no access to leaving town unless they used one of the four roads that we had covered. We would have to leave someone at each of the four roads and the rest of us would cover all the houses. All the houses, we would not leave a stone unturned till we found my little sister.

I only hoped it was in time. Our only hope at finding her alive would be to bank on the fact that firstly, Victoria and Riley were interested first and foremost in escaping from us, getting away to a place where we could not find them. Secondly, we had to hope that the bitch was sadistic enough to wait, to spend time terrifying Bella or torturing her in some form. If she went for the instant kill . . . if she drained her immediately, all our efforts would be in vain. I had never in my life hoped for the cruelty of an opponent, but I hoped for it now . . .

~oooOooo~

Sam POV

How the hell did I ever get myself in this position. I was whipped, simple as that. This fucking imprinting thing had definite drawbacks if this was going to be the result. My wife actually seemed to be growing fond of the leeches. I had no idea how that had happened. I knew that she and Bella were friends and, okay, maybe there was some kind of kinship between them since they both wee mated to mythical creatures . . . but even that was a stretch for me. Vampires had no place in myth or fairytales, they belonged in hell. Period.

My wife had me sitting at the table last night eating pizza with them. Well, they weren't eating it, of course . . . filthy bloodsuckers. How the hell had she come to trust her safety with them? Did she not understand what they fed on? What they routinely ate . . . or drank, rather.

Well, Bella could have them. Ha! I laughed to myself, she already had him or she wouldn't be fucking pregnant with his spawn. The world was upside down and I was sitting here, again, at their table being asked by Sue if I wanted coffee.

I had spent the night in this house, Edward's house, and Emily had slept peacefully in their guestroom, unfazed by the fact that there were vampires in the house with her. I had sat on the edge of the bed or paced . . . all night. I had taken to looking through Jake's things that were in the dresser, trying to figure out where he had been for the last year and what he had been doing.

It seemed as though he and Bella had run off and joined a Harley drag racing team run by a tribe member, Dale. Dale had left La Push a few years back, heading off on his own adventure and starting a business. Jacob had spent a good deal of time with Dale as a boy, tinkering with cars and motorcycles in the garage at first, then in the shop that Dale had opened on the reservation. Dale had been a good kid from all accounts, a little older than me and I never hung around him much. Hkie had to have known that Jacob was in line to be the tribal Chief though, surely Jacob had told him of Billy's passing . . .

From the newspaper clippings in the drawer, it was apparent that Bella had become quite the rider in the short time they were gone together, winning race after race until she was apparently almost killed in a crash. Huh. Didn't know any of that.

I had also come across a folder that scared the shit out of me. I wondered if Jacob had not been bought, lock, stock and barrel. There was a bank account showing a two million dollar deposit . . . an account in Jacob's name along with documents outlining their new company, Black Swan Racing, FLP. Huh. Both their last names, Jacob and Bella . . . at least Bella's maiden name before she took the name of that bloodsucker. Cute.

I knew that Jacob was nuts over Bella, he had been for a long time, even when they were kids and she visited her Dad for a couple of weeks in the summer. I knew he loved her, but to stay friends with her once she had been with that bloodsucker . . . to continue to be friends and even accept gifts from them, that just went beyond anything I could rationally understand. It just wasn't reasonable behavior . . . at all. We had legends, we had traditions and customs as a tribe and Jacob especially needed to respect and observe them! It was in his blood. It was his bloodline that carried the role of Chief and he needed to step up to his responsibilities.

I was brought out of my thoughts by the coffee cup being sat in front of me by Sue and Emily nudging me with her elbow to say thank you, which I did. It seemed that Sue had been taken in by the leeches as well, staying in their home and seeming to enjoy hanging out with them. She had supposedly been here to visit with Charlie. Charlie was here to visit his daughter, I understood that. Charlie knew nothing of the leeches anyway, he was not privy to the existence of any of the creatures that routinely were around him, werewolves or vampires.

When Sue had left Forks to come here, she had been hesitant, her thinking mirrored mine in most respects, though she had a soft spot for Bella and Edward. She had apparently had conversations with Edward and assurance from him that he would never hurt Bella, that he loved her. Loved her . . . how the hell did a rock love anything? He didn't bleed, hell he didn't even have a heart . . . just cold stone through and through, a killing machine that was impervious to any and all threats, other than our teeth, other vampires, and fire.

I ate my breakfast that the leech cooked and mumbled a thank you as I headed out the door to see Jake. Emily was hell bent on going into town with Sue and Bella, and the leeches were going with them. Apparently there was some rogue vampire after Bella and the rest of the family never ever left her unprotected. That protection extended to Sue and Emily as well, I was sure . . . if you could call being surrounded by vampires protection.

I phased just at the edge inside the woods and Jake came loping up to meet me. He immediately sensed my upset over Emily and told me that my fears of the Cullen's were ill founded, that they could be trusted. What a load of shit. I had no idea where he got these ideas, unless it was from Bella . . . but they had to go. He had to be made to see the truth. After all, the boy was to be the next chief of my tribe, and that mattered to me.

We spent an hour or two going over my exact thought patterns when I phased, allowing Jake in my head and to feel what I felt time and time again as I phased for him so that he could learn and hopefully mimic my actions. He was starting to be able to produce the vibrations that started the metamorphosis, but he hadn't gotten past that . . . yet.

I had at least gotten him to hunt with me and take down his own kill instead of waiting to feed from the bloodsuckers leftovers. He was good at it, of course. We all were.

"I just don't see the need to waste the meat, Sam. There is nothing wrong with the deer they kill, other than the lack of blood. Huh. If you want to look at the upside, it's not as messy to eat because the blood is gone. Less clean up of the muzzle and paws is not a bad thing!" Jake thought.

"Good grief, Jake. Now you're justifying it? Look, I saw the papers in your dresser . . . Black Swan Racing," I thought, "How did it happen that you sold out to them?"

Apparently that was the wrong thing to think. Jake took off running, and he was headed back to the house. I didn't tell him to stop, I just followed to see what the hell he was up to. He was being careful not to give himself away by thinking of any of it.

We heard them before we saw them, Emmett and Jasper flying out of the house and heading toward the road. Jake stepped it into high gear and ran after them to see what was going on.

When we got to the highway, Emmett explained that Victoria had apparently staged a crash outside the store in town, snatched Bella, and had her in a Silver Volvo. We were covering the road and checking any car that came by. There were only four ways out of town according to them and apparently they had them all covered.

Jasper left to check houses that were off the roads and drives that intersected with the highway on the way to town, eliminating the possibility of them being hold up in a house that could be reached by the road we were watching. We stood watching. Nothing. A red Chevy came by with a family in it, no trace of Victoria or Bella on it anywhere. Jake was going nuts. He already had a path worn in the undergrowth by the road from his pacing.

Emmett got a call from Jasper, and turned to me.

"Sam. I need you to phase back, I need to talk to you, please," he asked.

"Fucking phase back, Sam. It could be important. Emmett would never do anything to harm you, just do it!" Jake growled loudly.

I knew he was upset about Bella, but to have me phase back into human form out here in the woods, alone with a bloodsucker . . . that was asking a little much. A fucking whole lot much!

"Fine, Jake. But you had better have my back on this," I said as I phased, untying my sweats from my ankle and slipping them on.

"Sam, someone drove, or threw, an SUV into Edward's Volvo when it was parked in front of the stores in town. Everyone went to the front of the store to see what had happened, except Emily and Bella," Emmett told me. He look worried, even more worried than before. Apparently what he had to tell me was going to be a problem.

"What are you trying to tell me, where is Emily?" I demanded.

"Emily is fine. Apparently Victoria knocked her out when she took Bella. Sue says the paramedics have released her and she wants you to come into town and pick her and Emily up", he said, "Sue is calling you to give you the details."

"In Edward's garage you'll find a black Ford Harley Davidson truck that has the keys on the seat. It's the only vehicle that you can find keys for easily by yourself and I don't think Jake will mind your driving it," Emmett said, looking to Jake for approval.

Jake was standing there nodding his head up and down.

"You haven't been into town yet, Sam, but you follow this road five miles, left at the light and left at the second light. You should then see the wreck and the emergency vehicles on your left in the center of town. Sue and Emily are in the store just behind the wreck," I heard Emmett say as his voice trailed off in the distance. I phased, pausing only to remove my sweats first and only then because I needed them to wear in town. Naked would probably cause even more problems. The Cullen houses were a couple of miles down a side road and I was faster on four paws through the woods than on two legs.

I reached the garage, phased, dressed and had the garage door open and the truck heading out the driveway in no time flat. I couldn't help but notice that it was an amazing truck, had to be brand new. Yep, the odometer had less than a hundred miles on it. Jake? Did that leech say that it would be alright with Jake if I drove it? Huh, son of a bitch. Guess the boy was doing better than I thought. Now if I could just improve his taste in friends . . .