A/N: Who took Charlie? Is he alright or has he been drained? How will Bella react when she finds out? Read and find out. Enjoy!
Chapter 22 – Gone
When the four vampires sent to watch over the Swan residence arrived, they found the front door wide and a mess waiting inside. Swiftly searching the residence, they found no one there, but they did find a very small pool of blood. Someone had been taken and that meant Charlie was in danger.
"Shit!" Peter exclaimed.
"Why didn't Alice warn us?" Emmett growled. This was not good.
Charlotte muttered, "Maybe she couldn't. She isn't infallible, just usually damn accurate."
"What do you mean she couldn't?" Emmett and Rosalie questioned together.
Rolling his eyes, Peter answered for his mate, "I always try to get the drop on Alice, but part of actually succeeding is making snap decisions. No premeditation whatsoever."
Emmett's brow furrowed as he thought about what Jasper's friend just divulged, "So you're saying someone didn't plan to take Charlie, they just did it?"
"That's exactly what he's saying," Charlotte stated looking around the Swan home for any clue that would tell them who was taken and who did the taking. Towards the back of the house, where the blood was found, a distinctive aroma lingered in the air. Waving Rosalie and Emmett over, she asked them, "Do you smell that?"
The mated couple glanced at each other before nodding, and then Emmett responded, "Yah we do. I think we need to call Carlisle."
"That's what I…" A sound coming from the back of the house cut off Peter's words and drew everyone's attention.
Moving quickly, the four vampires rushed out the door and chased after the trespasser. Running through the woods, they dodged trees and jumped over bramble in order to catch their prey. They could see him just up ahead, staying just out of reach, and then he jumped high into the air. The trees now hid his body from the vampires on the ground. Rosalie and Charlotte pressed forward below while Emmett and Peter followed the evader into the heavens. They couldn't lose him now.
James found himself laughing at the subpar attempts to catch him. Leaping into the trees gave him some cover and made the chase a little more difficult… not that he thought they could catch him anyway. Victoria may have been a master at evasion, but he was no slouch. One does not live as long as he had without figuring out how to dodge his enemy. If he could find his way to his quarry then he could certainly get away from anyone who might be hunting him; he was even willing to use his own coven as pawns in order to get what he wanted… and right now there were two women on his radar, and he would not leave Forks without tasting both of them. One had escaped him decades ago thanks in part to a certain doctor, but life has a way of moving in circles, and she had wandered back into his life. It was a sign. She was destined to be killed by him. As for the other one, well there was something about her that called out to James. He craved a taste of her body and her blood. When she was a child, she had captured his interest, and now that she was a woman, that interest had been piqued even more. Of course the fact that Jasper claimed her made possessing her that much sweeter, that much more fun, and that much more of a necessity.
Pausing momentarily on a branch, James glanced over his shoulder and could see a vampire with red eyes still following him. He recognized the other vamp from this morning, and if James was correct, and he usually was, then he had tortured his pursuer's mate that very day. He could still feel how her neck started to crack under the pressure applied by his hand, could still hear the sounds as he ripped her arm off of her, and could still taste her skin when he licked her cheek just to torture her mate as he did nothing but watch from the sidelines. And James relished in seeing Peter's expression of anguish knowing there was nothing he could do to rescue his own mate. Who know what would have happened if that other one hadn't shown up, but James had been prepared for that and immediately used his captive as a deterrent and made his getaway. With his unique gift, he could track anyone and no one would ever catch him… period. It was one of life's certainties.
Peter could see the blond just up ahead. It had started to sprinkle, but it wasn't hindering the pursuit. Increasing his speed, he did everything he could to catch the perp; and yet, it still felt as if it wasn't enough. Unbidden, thoughts of this morning flashed through his head and he had to shake them away. Now was not the time to think about his failures or what he could have done differently. Hindsight really was 20/20, and he was going to spend the next hundred years making it up to Charlotte. Oh he knew she would never blame him, but Peter felt responsible… like he should have been able to do something, and he had just stood there, watching as a stranger laid hands on and hurt his mate. It wasn't right and he had to prove to Charlotte and to himself that he could still protect her.
Another leap and Peter felt like he was closing the gap and gaining some ground. Flying through the trees like a monkey with Emmett following close behind, he tried to go even faster, to close the gap even more. A scream had Peter taking his eyes off his mark for a split second, but it was enough. When he looked again, James was gone. Scanning the area, he tried to find the blond again, but to no avail, their enemy slipped through their fingers yet again.
Jumping down, Peter and Emmett found Charlotte and Rosalie still running in the direction they had been chasing after James. After stopping them, Emmett asked, "Which one of you screamed?"
"Neither of us. It came from up ahead," Charlotte explained. They had been curious about it as well, but since it had come from the direction they were heading, they did not stop to investigate.
"What happened?" Rosalie inquired, narrowing her eyes, already knowing James got away, but not the hows of it.
Peter ran a hand through his hair and growled, "I heard the scream and let my eyes wander for no more than a moment, and he was gone. Did you two see anything?"
Charlotte approached her mate and wrapped her arms around him in an attempt to soothe his wounded pride, "No. We were following the sounds you two were making. He didn't jump down as far as we could tell. You couldn't find him by scent?"
Shaking his head, Emmett grumbled, "No. We lost his trail. Damn rain!"
"We need to check on that scream," Peter said and started off again in the direction the voice had come from.
Breaking through the tree line, the small group found themselves in a meadow, but no one was there. The scent surrounding the place told them wolves had been there recently. Searching the area, they didn't find anything and couldn't tell which direction they should travel, the smell of dog permeated the air too much.
"Let's go back to Bella's house. We need to wait for Edward to show up and we need to call Jasper," Peter dictated. It burned him that James got away again, and all because he had been distracted; and he knew Jasper was going to be pissed off about that, but if Edward also got away, then he may as well start his own funeral pyre. They would get Edward, and then they would get James. The rogue vampire couldn't evade them forever.
"We also need to tell Carlisle about Charlie," Emmett reminded the other vampire.
"Yah. I hope Bella can handle all this," Peter responded lowly.
Rolling her eyes, Rosalie scoffed, "It's because of her that we are having to deal with this mess."
Emmett, like the others, was already on edge and irritated and his mate was pushing the envelope a little too much. Grabbing her arm, he yanked her away from the two nomads and chastised her, "No, we are having to deal with this mess because three renegade nomads decided to show up in Washington state and run amuck. She did not ask for them to come here, she did not ask them to attack anyone around here, and she certainly did not ask for one of them to be obsessed with her. That is not her fault. They came here of their own volition and if you want to put the blame on her for that, then it would be like someone blaming you for what happened in your life that led to you becoming a vampire. That is bullshit and you know it! That wasn't your fault and this isn't hers!"
She couldn't believe what he had said. Her mouth opened in order to refute him, but nothing came out. Open and close, open and close, and still no sound could be heard. Rosalie felt like he had slapped her and then dunked her in a vat of ice water. How could he say those things to her? How could he bring up something like that when he knew how she felt? How could he…? She watched him walk away from her without saying another word, and she slowly followed with her head hung and his words circling in her head.
Harsh? Yah, Emmett could admit to himself that he had been harsh with his mate, but nothing was getting through to her. To blame Bella for this situation is the equivalent of blaming a victim for the crime… both were wrong, and Rosalie needed to see that. Stepping away from her in order to give her space and time to think, Emmett followed Peter and Charlotte towards Bella's house. They were about to make a phone call no one wanted to make.
Peter and Charlotte heard the whole exchange and flinched when Emmett had said what he had, but they had to admit that when it came to Rosalie, giving it to her in such a way may have been the only way for her to see reason. She had been wrong in her accusations and she needed to know that. They had tried to sneak off to avoid listening, however, their vampire hearing still allowed them to pick up every detail of what had been iterated. The only thing they had been spared, were the expressions on Emmett and Rosalie's faces when the speech was given.
Arriving back at the house, Peter pulled out his phone and reluctantly dialed Jasper's number. It was up to him to break the news that Charlie had been taken and that James had escaped… and this was the last thing he wanted to do. When the line was answered, he told his friend, "I've got bad news."
"What's wrong?" Jasper demanded. The tone of voice his friend used put him on edge and he needed to know how bad it truly was.
Peter took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he answered, "James showed up and we chased him, but he got away."
"What the hell happened?"
"He went into the trees. Emmett and I followed up top while the girls continued on the ground just in case he jumped down. Then we heard a scream and I took my eyes off that damn vampire for one fucking second and he was gone. We looked for him, but couldn't find him."
"And the scream?"
"We aren't sure. We searched the area and didn't find anything. The only thing we could determine was that there were werewolves in the area recently."
"Shit!" Jasper cursed. Werewolves meant that the Quileute tribe was probably behind the distraction. Forcing himself to calm down, he pinched the bridge of his nose and asked, "What else?" Something told him that his friend wasn't quite down. Maybe he had known him too long and could hear the small catch in his voice, or he was becoming psychic, he wasn't sure, he just knew there was more to the story… and he also knew he probably didn't want to hear it.
Hesitating, Peter finally spilled, "When we got to the house, the door was ajar. Inside looked like there was a fight or struggle…" He paused and then rushed out, "Jasper, we found a small pool of blood on the kitchen floor, and there's more. Carlisle should probably hear this as well."
"The hell? This can't be fuckin' happenin'!" Jasper snarled.
Peter could hear Bella in the background asking about what happened, and Jasper telling her he would explain in a minute and to wait there. Something told the nomad that when she heard the news, she would not be calm, cool, and collected. There was a closing of a door and some more voices in the background, and then the phone was switched to speaker.
"Pete, I'm with Carlisle in his office. What else ya'll got for us?" Jasper inquired attempting to remain level headed.
Carlisle spoke next, "Jasper said there was something I needed to hear. He told me about James and about the scream. Do you think James took Charlie and then came back?"
Shaking his head, Peter broke the rest of the news to them, "No, I don't. His scent wasn't in the house and neither was Edward's. So it wasn't either of them."
"Then who?" Jasper questioned.
"Not sure who, but the only scent besides yours, Bella's, and Charlie's was the scent of dog. A wolf took him."
"They… they wouldn't do that," Carlisle tried to defend them, but if there was only one other scent… it had to be. Did Sam or Billy order someone to take Charlie? But if that was the case, then why had there been a struggle? Why was there blood found?
"I'm sorry Carlisle, but you need to call the tribe and find out what's going on," Peter told him.
The sound of a hand hitting the desk ricocheted through the office and Jasper growled, "What the hell do those fuckin' idiots think they're doin'? Did someone over there go rogue? We have enough to worry about without those dogs interferin'!"
"Calm down Jasper. I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for all of this," Carlisle tried to reassure the southern man.
"Reasonable?" Jasper scoffed.
"Look. I don't know what's going on, but that's what we found. I'll let you two call the tribe and figure it out. Call me if you find out anything. Until then, we'll be on the lookout for James and Edward," Peter stated and then hung up the phone.
As soon as Peter had disconnected the call, Carlisle picked up his office phone and dialed Billy Black. They needed to know what was going on and they needed to know now, however, it seemed as if answers would not be quick in coming. The tribal leader knew nothing and had been trying to get in touch with Sam for the past couple of hours. Charlie was missing and it appeared as if the wolves had their own agenda, and they still had a crazy nomad preying on the population in the area. Turmoil surrounded Forks, and Jasper decided that until they knew something more, he would not tell Bella about her missing father. It felt like all hell was about to break loose.