In the end, it was Charlie who eventually found me.
I had collapsed onto the wet forest floor in the place I had last heard Bella's heartbeat, unwilling to move and unable to cope with my loss. She was gone – Bella had left me behind, alone in the wet Washington woods, ignoring my heartbroken pleas for her to stay.
I heard Charlie approach, his bitter wood-smoke scent invaded my nostrils as his strong yet steady heartbeat echoed in my ears. I could see him, out of the corner of my eye from where I sat hunched in the dirt – he shifted his weight lightly, causing the damp leaves underfoot to crunch loudly in the silence, but he made no other move to approach me. I didn't know what he was waiting for, or what he was planning on doing – surely he must know by now that Bella was gone, it had been hours.
And what was worse, he must have known it was my fault. I sat there and waited, waited for him to transform and attack me for driving his daughter away, for him to begin to yell and berate me, for him to do something other than just stand there in unerring silence.
Then, I heard footsteps and the gentle mind of my father. Carlisle was not purposefully pushing his thoughts in my direction, but his overwhelming love and concern for me swarmed my mind like a kaleidoscope of butterflies – so soft and bright they filled my mind and soothed my soul with the gentle touch of their powdery wings.
"Edward, son… are you alright?" Carlisle asked kindly as he crouched down in front of me, the knees of his smartly pressed trousers quickly becoming wet and dirty where they pressed into the ground.
"Bella…" I rasped, "She's gone."
A gentle hand came to rest on my shoulder, "We know." Carlisle confirmed, "Charlie tracked her scent north, over the border."
"You lost her scent?" I asked weakly, blinking up to look at the werewolf who was still standing awkwardly a few paces away.
"No."
I blinked owlishly between Charlie and Carlisle, "I…. I don't understand." I mumbled.
"Bella needs time. Space. It's best to give it to her." Charlie replied gruffly, resolutely not looking at me, or in my general direction.
"Wh-what?" I mumbled, my voice slow and slurred as I agonisingly pulled myself to my feet, a hand braced on Carlisle's forearm to help me keep my balance. "You-you just let her go?" I breathed in disbelief. "You are able to track her, but you… you just… let her go!?" I demanded incredulously. "Why!?" I took a step towards Charlie, ignoring Carlisle's hand on my arm as he tried to stop me.
"Am I happy that Bella took off without saying anything? No, of course not. But I'm not going to hunt her down like an animal when it's clear she needs her space!" Charlie growled out as he eyed me up and down, taking my aggressive advancement for what it was – a challenge.
"She could be in danger!" I argued, "Victoria is still out there!"
"If none of you are able to track her, what makes you think Victoria will be able to?" Charlie retorted mockingly.
"Edward, come home. Esme's worried about you." Carlisle interrupted in a soft voice from behind me.
That pulled me up and cut off whatever childish argument that was about to pass through my lips. I turned my head to glance over my shoulder – Carlisle stood there, mud staining his knees, smears of dirt on his forearms where the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up, his eyebrows pulled together in concern and I felt guilt bubble up in my gut. I nodded soberly and turned around to follow Carlisle home.
XxXx
What followed was the most harrowing two weeks of my entire existence.
Pretending that everything was all rose petals and sunshine while Bella was gone – not only gone, but missing, her location utterly unknown and her intended moment of return a question mark that hovered over my thoughts like a storm cloud – was the single hardest thing that I had ever done.
The official story was that Bella was out with Mono – it was the perfect cover story, it excused Bella's absence from school and allowed for an open ended return date, whether she came back in a few weeks or a few months it would be okay.
God. I hoped it wasn't a few months. I didn't think I could have survived that. I already ached with loss, each day compounding my grief tenfold, surely if Bella didn't return soon I would simply perish.
Now that my afternoons were no longer occupied by Bella, my family took it in turns to keep my attentions engaged elsewhere. For the most part, that meant hunting – working together to bring down large swaths of elk or deer was as good as anything else as an outlet for my frustrations. I was moments away from taking down an impressively large bull when the wind changed directions and my senses were overloaded with the scent of a stranger – or more specifically a strange vampire. Letting my meal make it's escape I turned on a dime to chase after the outsider.
Carlisle and Jasper caught the scent only moments after me and without hesitation joined the hunt – their entire bodies shifted from the playfully predatory nature they had adopted during a relaxing hunt with family and into more serious, more vicious stances. The stranger's mind flickered, my sixth sense picking him up on the periphery, and it wasn't long before he was alerted to our positions – but then, instead of turning to flee, the strange vampire turned and began to run earnestly in our direction, as if he were seeking us out. I met Jasper's eye, and he nodded once, he hadn't missed it either.
All four of us ground to a sudden stop the moment each of us were in sight of the other. Then, Carlisle cocked his head to the side and took a cautious step forward.
"Garrett?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Hello, old friend. You are not the one I was expecting on meeting, but I am gladdened to see you all the same." The stranger – Garrett – responded. I narrowed my eyes as I tuned into the unfamiliar mind, trying to get a feel for his thought patterns and mindscape. In his mind I saw an image of an unusually familiar man – his hair was long, down to his shoulders and it was curled tightly, in spite of his strangely long hair the man was otherwise clean shaven, save for a bushy moustache, it took me a moment to realise why the man was so achingly familiar. It was Charlie. A very, very, different Charlie than the one I knew, but it was undoubtedly him, any lingering uncertainty of the man's identity disappeared when the image of Charlie dissolved like a desert mirage to be replaced by that of Charlie's hulking wolf form, blood soaked and horrifying with what looked like a bayonet sticking grotesquely out of one muscled shoulder.
Then, his thoughts shifted once again – the bloodied battle field melted away, and a pristine mountain and clear watered river took it's place. In the gently rippling waters of the alpine river was a woman, a naked woman, the long expanse of her back was smeared with dirt and blood and her brown hair was a tangled mess of curls and forest debris. The memory was recent, and embarrassingly intimate. Then the woman in Garrett's memory turned around. Brown eyes wide in fright, ivory skin flushed red in embarrassment, the colour such a delicious shade of pink where her burning blood coloured the skin of her cheeks and travelled lower, Garrett's eyes had traced the path of the flush of blood like a starving hyena.
A feral snarl escaped my twitching lips and I crossed the distance between us in less than a second, "What did you do to her!?" I roared as I slammed the disgusting excuse for a man into the forest floor.
"I have no idea what you're talking about." he growled in return as he struggled in my grip. He managed to free himself enough to throw me back and get his feet back on solid ground. I collided heavily with a heavy fir that creaked dangerously at the impact.
I was on my feet and ready to rush the vampire again but Carlisle's hand on my chest stopped me. "Edward, son, what are you doing?" he asked sternly.
My gaze flickered over Carlisle's shoulder to were Garrett was standing, Jasper was standing strongly in front of him, his back to us as he glared down the stranger. "He knows where Bella is." I bit out.
That made Carlisle pause and he slowly turned his head to look at Garrett from over his shoulder. "Garrett?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
A salacious smirk curled his thin lips, "If you're referring to the delightful little werewolf I met a few days ago, then yes, I know where she is." He paused for a moment and a thoughtful expression crossed his face, "Or rather, I know where she was." he corrected.
Another growl built in my chest and I tried to take a step forward but was halted by the fact that Carlisle was still standing in front of me and seemed very unwilling to move. "Perhaps introductions are in order." Carlisle slowly moved to stand at my side, close enough to reach out and grab me if I were to attempt to have another go at the vampire standing across from us. Jasper silently moved to stand on my other side, also preparing to come between us should I try another attack – the way Jasper silently took cues from Carlisle, moved with military precision and deadly grace was enough to make Garrett eye him warily, as if the litany of scars that Jasper had over his arms and neck weren't reason enough to stay on his good side. "Boys, this is an old friend of mine, Garrett. Garrett, these are my sons, Edward." Carlisle gestured to me, "And Jasper." he added with another gesture.
"Where is Bella." I demanded lowly, not willing to waste time on pleasantries. Garrett eyed me up and down, his meticulous gaze cataloguing everything he could about me and making a flurry of half-accurate deductions about my person – It wasn't a Gift, per se, not like mine or Jasper's, but it spoke to a certain type of life experience that lead me to consider him much more of a threat than his wiry frame and dishevelled appearance had led me to believe. Garrett was very carefully weighing up whether I was a threat or not. It took me a moment to realise that he wasn't deciding if I were a threat to him, but rather if I was a threat to Bella. The insinuation that I could ever be a threat to Bella's safety enraged me beyond measure. I bared my teeth slightly, "I would never hurt her. Ever." I growled, "However, I might just hurt you if you don't tell me where she is!" I bellowed, taking a menacing step forwards only to be halted by Jasper's iron grip on my wrist. I knew that if it came down to it I wouldn't be able to fight Jasper off, at least not quick enough to get to Garrett before he took off. I shook off Jasper's hand with a jerky movement and stepped back in line beside Carlisle, feeling sufficiently angered and chastised by my older brother.
Garrett narrowed his eyes at me, "Are you reading my mind?" he mused. "You are, aren't you?" he was sounding amused and his enjoyment fuelled my anger. "That's a neat trick." he drawled lazily.
"Garrett," Carlisle said the name as if it were a warning. "Why are you here?"
"What? Aren't you happy to see me, old friend?" Garrett asked, holding his arms open and to the sides as if he were about to embrace Carlisle, a roguish smile curled his lips and a teasing glint flickered in his eye.
"He knows Charlie." I answered for him, not willing to play his stupid games. Garrett's raised his eyebrows and shrugged indifferently, he moved like a snake as he casually lent against a tree, one ankle crossed over another. His unaffected body language was betrayed by his mind, an image of Charlie's smiling face, the flutter of bed-sheets and the taste of Blood Wine all flew across Garrett's mind in rapid succession before he managed to wrangle his thoughts back to less personal things with impressive ease. "Intimately." I added with no amount of hidden glee as Garrett glared and shifted awkwardly at the addition.
"You may as well come and meet my Mate and the rest of my family. I can call Charlie to meet us there if you'd like?" Carlisle said with a sigh and a wayward thought about berating me for purposefully antagonising people with the things I overheard in their thoughts. A lecture about privacy and respect swirled through his mind before he decided against it – he was giving me a pass considering everything I was going through. I appreciated the restraint. Given the fact that I hadn't seen Bella in over two weeks, and this man knew where she was only days ago, invading the privacy of his mind was the last thing I was concerned about – if it got me to Bella faster, I would happily tear him apart.