Temporal Tide

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight, nor any of its characters or franchises.

x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x=x

Chapter 17

Tanya

The shower water beat down on my head, soaking my hair and undergarments as I gently rearranged the corpse into position. I slanted his broken neck in a way to make it appear that he slipped and hit his head at the wrong angle. With care, I splayed his arms out. It had to seem as if he instinctively reached to catch himself, but ended up ripping the curtain down.

I knocked his soap into the tub, helping lend credence to the story I was painting.

Just a stupid accident.

Happened all the time.

People were fragile creatures.

The soft drum of the water kept the ice in my heart from melting. This was something I had to do, to keep my family safe. I couldn't let myself be affected by his nakedness, I couldn't let myself feel remorse for the terror and surprise in his eyes.

Finishing my final adjustments, I stepped out of the tub, letting the water run off me into the bathroom rug. I couldn't hear anything from the other room, but I assumed that Mari had either retreated back to the penthouse or was staying quiet as she processed.

Pulling a towel off the rack, I used it to pat myself down. One of the benefits of being a vampire was that it was practically impossible to leave incriminating evidence. I didn't shed skin or hair, so I wouldn't leave DNA behind. My skin didn't secrete oil, so I had no fingerprints.

If I'd bitten him, I would've needed to conceal the body until the venom broke down and dissolved. Once it was dissolved, it was indistinguishable from seroma fluid. In a corpse, it only took a few hours for the venom to become inert. Thankfully, that wasn't a problem I would have to deal with today.

When I was dry enough that I wouldn't track water around the bathroom, I bundled up the towel and bath mat. I would take these back to my room and replace them with dry ones from the penthouse. Fortunately, hotels used the same generic items for all of their rooms. No one would be any wiser for the switch.

Padding out of the bathroom, I looked around, hoping to see Bella waiting for me.

The room was empty.

I felt my heart sink, and I did my best to swallow past the sudden lump in my throat.

Blinking a few times, I exhaled slowly before noticing that the majority of the evidence was still strewn around the room.

With a sigh, I donned my clothes and began collecting everything at vampire speed. When I'd grabbed everything immediately visible, I began a second and third sweep of the room, searching the bed, mattress, closet, clothes, & vents. Basically, any conceivable place for hidden stashes.

I did find manage to uncover a SD card in one of the investigators jackets, as well as a small bag of cocaine in his shoe. I put the baggie back, but pocketed the SD card.

Zipping up the luggage, I began the prep of the room. I turned on the tv, volume low, and locked & bolted the door. Hopefully it would fool the cleaning staff long enough that they wouldn't find the body for a day or two.

Once I was certain I'd been over every inch of the room I gathered the luggage and jumped back to the penthouse balcony.

Straightening from my crouch, I turned to face the main room.

"Mari?" I called tentatively.

She wasn't in the main room.

Walking in, I placed the luggage down on the couch and stepped toward the bedroom. I could already feel the resignation settling like a stone in my chest.

I pushed open the door. No Bella.

Closing my eyes, I leaned against the doorframe.

I was alone. Either she'd decided she didn't want to be around me, or she'd faded. I allowed myself only a few moments of heartache, before I forced myself to remember the task at hand. Centuries of emotional compartmentalization came in handy, as I began methodically pulling everything out of the suitcase.

When I finally had everything laid out on the floor, I took the bag back out onto the balcony and jumped to the dead man's suite.

In the course of the next few minutes I replaced the towel, bath mat, and put all of the man's clothes and personal effects back into his luggage. Leaving the case on the bed, I closed the balcony door behind me on the way out.

After I get back to the penthouse, I hung a 'do not disturb' sign on the door to my room and headed down to the hotel giftshop. I didn't have a way of discretely transporting all of the evidence I'd collected to my Lamborghini. After a few minutes of pretending to browse, I bought several tote & luggage bags before heading back up to the room.

Stuffing everything into the totes I'd purchased, I sat on the bed and ran a hand through my hair, trying to figure out my next move. Thanks to technology, I couldn't afford to mess this up.

Before I could do more than come up with a few basic strategies, my phone began to ring with a familiar pop song. Sighing loudly, I brought the device up to my ear.

"Hello Alice."

"Tanya! You need to leave the hotel you're at asap. I just got a vision of you in a fight with a group of newborns. I think they're there for the human, but they won't hesitate to attack you on sight. If that happens, they'll break the law and expose themselves."

"Fuck." I muttered in Magyar, before switching back over to English. "How much time do I have?" I asked with forced calm.

"Thirty-five to forty minutes. Don't delay. They'll pursue if your scent is still fresh when they arrive."

"Understood. Thank you for the warning Alice, I'll be heading back to the house now." I hung up with a sharp jab of my finger. Pocketing the device, I gathered up my bags and left the room. Hopefully Mari wouldn't reappear here. I'd left her a note explaining I'd gone out for food and to meet me at the usual place. It was vague, just in case someone else got their hands on it.

Striding through the lobby with one of the bags slung over my shoulder, I winked at the clerk at the front desk before sauntering out of the hotel toward my car. Placing my bags in the trunk, I slipped into my Lamborghini and leaned my forehead against the steering wheel.

Alice's annoying ringtone blasted through the speaker of my phone.

Growling out several curses, I didn't bother to answer as I started the car and pulled out of the parking lot.

The phone stopped ringing.

The drive back to Forks seemed to take a lifetime. The more I thought about it, the more I worried about the contents of the laptop, and the potential consequences if Mari reappeared at the hotel while the newborns were there. That thought nearly had me turning around several times, only the buzz of Alice's ringtone kept me on track.

Pulling into the Cullen driveway, I stepped out of my car and caught a faint scent of blood. Peter and Charlotte had obviously been hard at work. Grimacing slightly, I swallowed and tried not to lick my lips. It had been several centuries since I'd tasted fresh human blood, but I still craved it with the same strength of my youth.

Banishing my dark turn of thoughts, I strode into the house with my hard-won prize.

Kate and Irina greeted me at the door. They both enfolded me in a hug and I leaned into them, appreciating their love and support.

"Alice told us about her vision." Irina growled, pulling back as she checked me from head to toe. "I'm glad you got out of there in time, although she couldn't tell us why you were there in the first place."

"Where's Bella?" Kate interjected, glancing worriedly behind me. Affection warmed my heart for the concern she was showing my mate. It was good that they were bonding. It was hard to believe that I'd once felt resentful of her place in my life.

"She faded. She's reliving the past." I paused, "Or living it for the first time, I suppose."

Kate's countenance faded into a stony expression, while Irina simply looked at me with apprehension.

"Gather the others and I'll explain the situation." I directed, lifting my chin and letting the mantle of authority fall over me. They both nodded, and in short order managed to assemble everyone in the dining room.

"We have a problem." I began, laying everything from my bags out on the table. "A big one. Bella and I drove down to Seattle, and I was able to order the EDTA anticoagulant per your specifications." I sighed, directing that last part to Irina. "It will be delivered tomorrow. However, while I was inside, Bella noticed a man watching us. Taking pictures." There were several gasps and growls around the room. Jasper looked especially troubled.

"When he realized we'd noticed him, he took off in a car. Thankfully we were able to track him to a hotel, but we found this in his room." Motioning to the various pictures, maps, and surveillance equipment I'd laid out on the table.

Kate picked up the map with spots marked for cameras and bared her teeth as she comprehended what she was seeing.

"Tanya, this is a map of Forks, with coordinates for cameras and a list of download times." She trailed off as she scrutinized it more closely, and I'm sure if it was possible the blood would have drained from her face.

"Yes, he's had Forks and La Push under surveillance for a while now. The dates on a lot of the files I saw on the laptop suggest it started sometime after our cousins left their home here." I reiterated. Glancing over at Alice, I saw her staring into the distance as if searching her memories.

"I thought we were so careful when we lived in Forks. No one seemed to suspect. I mean, sometimes one of us will pick up a stalker, but we've always been able to deal with humans like that without issue."

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head. "This wasn't your fault Alice, at least not directly." I muttered, still slightly bitter. "Bella and I overhead a conversation he had on the phone with his employer. Bella recognized the voice. It was Victoria. Apparently, she's been keeping this house under watch for a long time." Several growls filled the room as everyone took in the implications.

Peter took the map from Kate and showed it to his mate.

"Charlotte and I will go collect these cameras, the sooner the better. Now that we know she is willing to employ even humans against us, we will be able to keep an eye out for any similar tricks."

Giving a swift nod, I watched them dart quickly out of the house. Peering further down the table, Irina already had the laptop open and was plugging in some device I'd seen once or twice in her room. Kate was watching intently from over her shoulder as her fingers flew against the keyboard.

Alice sidled up beside me as she watched the others start to meticulously sort through the rest of the pictures and diagrams.

"Did you take care of him?" she asked, voice soft as she bit her lip and looked at the floor.

"Yes." I replied. Short. To the point. Staring straight ahead I didn't let myself react when I felt Alice's delicate fingers touch my wrist in a comforting gesture.

"I know you're still angry at us right now," she murmured, gazing up at my face. "but I want you to know that we still care about you very much, and I know how hard it can be to protect the secret. If you need to talk about it..." she trailed off.

I allowed my stance to soften slightly. I liked Alice. She had always been one of my favorite cousins, which made her betrayal and treatment of Mari hurt that much more. Still, it was hard to stay angry at her.

From across the table Eleazar flipped through several photos, examining each one carefully.

"Do you think this is the reason why newborns were sent to the hotel? Were they trying to retrieve this information for their own use, or to keep it out of our hands?" he asked, tossing the pictures onto the table.

"Its hard to tell." Jasper drawled, "It could be that they were just trying to uphold the law, but we can't say for certain without asking one of them."

"Well it's a good thing we got to it first." Irina interjected, not looking up from the screen. "There are several days' worth of videos of us and the Quileute's on this thing. In terms of tactical data, its pretty valuable. Fortunately, this guy was lazy, and had his auto password enabled. I was able to permanently wipe these files from the cloud, but its possible that he had physical backups we are unaware of."

I clenched my fist.

"Irina, see if you can discover this man's name and address. We'll search his home and office. We can't leave this up to chance. We all know the consequences if we do." I spoke with a cool tone. Everyone exchanged grim glances.

"Alice, how is it that you didn't get any visions of Victoria while this was happening? You told me a little while ago that when you were leaving Forks; you were assisting Edward in hunting her down." Carmen asked, voicing the question we were all thinking.

I tensed hearing that bastards name, but otherwise kept my tongue. Alice glanced at me nervously, but turned her attention back to Carmen.

"I searched for visions of Victoria near constantly, if she'd made a decision, I would have seen it. However, as useful as my talent is, I'm not all powerful. I have blind spots. I can't see the Quileute's for example, and I have trouble seeing people I don't know. Especially if I'm not in the area." Her voice was a hushed whisper.

"Could it be that someone else is making the decisions for her?" I hypothesized, tilting my head in contemplation.

"I mean, its possible, if someone knew how my talent worked. It could be why I didn't get a vision of her hiring a detective to spy on us. The only problem is how Victoria would have known to do that in the first place?" Alice replied with a shrug.

Irina suddenly became very still.

"Shit." She muttered in Magyar. Kate and I immediately turned to look at her. The others, taking our cue, did as well.

"Irina?" I inquired, getting a sinking feeling in my gut.

"Well..." she mumbled, steepling her fingers together as she glanced around the room. "You remember how I took up with Laurent for a while, and he was so charming, and we had so many long conversations about our pasts – well one of those topics might have been about our dear cousins and their many talents." Eventually she trailed off with a wince.

There was complete silence around the table.

"Well fuck." Kate stated blankly.

"Do you think Laurent is helping Victoria?" Jasper asked, scrutinizing Irina closely.

"I wouldn't put it past him. He had no qualms about killing children, and he and Victoria were in a coven for several years. It's not unthinkable. Especially after I kicked his ass to the curb." She replied.

"Alice, would you be able to get a vision of him if you tried?" I asked, turning to the smallest Cullen. She looked uncomfortable having been put on the spot.

"I mean, maybe? I met him once very briefly, and I don't know him well, but I can try."

We all watched as Alice closed her eyes and seemed to concentrate.

"I see him running through a forest. There's someone close behind him. There aren't really any unique characteristics in the background. The trees are common to northern America, but…" Her voice faded off as she gave us a helpless look.

In that moment, Charlotte and Peter rushed back into the room and deposited several cameras on the table.

"We recovered all the ones around the property, but weren't able to on Quileute land for obvious reasons." Peter huffed. "The damn mutts nearly chewed our heads off when we got close, but we at least warned them of the issue. If they'd been close enough to see our eyes, I think we might have had a more exciting adventure." He turned to look at his mate with a roguish grin. "Isn't that right darlin?" he laughed, kissing her equally mischievous smile.

I felt a sharp stab of envy, but quickly pushed it aside when Jasper gave me a sympathetic look.

Picking up one of the cameras, I began inspecting it for a model number. Rattling off the string of numbers to Irina, she managed to look up its specifications fairly easily.

"Looks like these models are completely wireless, but short range. Anyone who wanted to download their internal memory would have to fairly close by. No more than a mile I'd say." Turning over one of the cameras, she popped out its SD card. "These are small cards, just a 4 gig. If our stalker wanted to download them often, there's really only one place he could have done it without alerting us." Irina said before crushing the card in her fist.

"Well don't leave us in suspense." Kate drawled. Irina simply rolled her eyes.

"It's clearly the highway near the house. Cars go by there constantly. We wouldn't have given a car or van parked on the side of the road a second thought."

Jasper and Peter exchanged glances.

"I will go check the road for tire tracks and scents, I'm very familiar with the area so it shouldn't take too long." Jasper nodded to Peter and he took off running.

Kate watched him go with a solemn expression, before she turned back to me.

"We should go back to the hotel once the newborns are gone. We need to check the hotel cameras and retrieve any tapes. If we're lucky we might even be able to get an ID on some of them. If they didn't accidently kill their family members after being turned, we might be able to use them as leverage. Possibly get some good intel on what's going on in Seattle."

"Really Kate?" Irina slanted my other sister a disapproving look. Kate just stared back with a raised eyebrow and a blasé expression. "How quickly you forget how you got pulled into this lifestyle."

Kate stiffened, and I caught a brief expression of remorse flit across her face, before her body language forcefully relaxed. Irina seemed satisfied she'd made her point when Kate wouldn't meet her eyes.

"There's no need to pick at old wounds Irina." I murmured, sending my sister a sympathetic glance. "The fact of the matter is that we are currently outnumbered, and our adversary has been busy gathering intelligence about us. We should definitely head back to the hotel to collect that tape, not just in case the newborns did anything incriminating, but also because it's a good opportunity to find out what we are up against." I gave Kate a playful smirk. "I'm sure you wont object to being my backup."

Kate grinned with a bloodthirsty edge.

"Absolutely not."

"Regardless, we got lucky. More than likely we have nipped this in the bud, but depending on what we find we might have to report this to the Volturi. They'd be the only ones with the contacts and influence to clean up anything we cant handle on our own." I cursed under my breath.

Kate growled quietly. "Are you sure that's wise Tanya? You know the Volturi have a habit of killing first and asking questions later."

Eleazar shook his head. "That's not entirely true. I was with the Volturi for several centuries. They are more than willing to assist with cleaning up messes as long as you come to them openly, and the issue wasn't due to willful negligence. Of course, humans usually don't fare well when they do intervene, but I was witness to more than a few cases where vampires were given leniency."

Kate rolled her eyes before turning back to me. "Either way, you know Aro won't let her stay with us if he knows about her."

"They'll press her into service or kill her." Irina muttered, "Her gift makes her too dangerous not too. They'll want her under their thumb."

Peter and Charlotte exchanged confused and intrigued expressions as they looked to me for an explanation.

"Its better for you if you don't know." Irina explained. Charlotte pursed her lips but nodded as Peter wrapped an arm around her waist.

I clenched my jaw as I began pacing the length of the table. "Well, if we don't say anything and this gets out, chances are we'll all be executed. I don't want to end up like Mother, do you?"

Everyone at the table lapsed into an uncomfortable silence.

"Perhaps if we gave them a heads up to the situation, and explained that we were taking steps to mitigate the issue, they won't feel the need to come in person." Carmen hopefully interjected. Eleazar squeezed her hand in support.

"The Volturi will, at minimum, send their enforcers. With two large covens involved, they would have no choice. Which means a visit from Alec and Jane." Eleazar stated, following up on his wife's suggestion.

"We can handle them." Kate spoke up, crossing her arms against her chest. "Worst case scenario, we get some personal attention from Jane. Nothing we haven't had to deal with before during our 'sparring sessions" Kate drawled, making air quotes with her fingers. Carmen shuddered slightly in remembrance. "We've been loyal subjects of the Volturi for centuries, they are on good terms with us and with Eleazar. I don't think they'll be too quick to put us on the chopping block."

My chest felt heavy as I looked over every member of my coven. My family.

"We do what we must to stay alive and together. We'll inform the guard; we can't take any chances." I nodded to Irina to make the call.

However, before any of us could so much so much as twitch; three high pitched repeating beeps came from my phone. I felt myself freeze as I locked eyes with Irina, who was already moving to pull a tablet out of her purse. Flicking her finger across the screen, navigating through several menus, her frenetic energy finally paused as her face twisted into a snarl.

Twisting the tablet around, she showed me what was on the screen.

It was a live security feed of our house in Fairbanks.

Two figures could be seen breaking through the glass doors on our veranda. The first one was large, muscular, and blonde. The second, as he shook pieces of glass from his hair, was unmistakably Laurent.

x=x=x=x

A/N: This was mostly a strategics/explanation/talking chapter but i hope you guys still liked it. Please let me know what you thought/what you think is going to happen next.