CHAPTER 29

*****JACOB POV*****

THIS WAS WHAT THE pack mind was made for. Perfect unity and coordination in the hunt. To know what we were each thinking and doing immediately. To see everyone's positions simultaneously.

As soon as Paul, Embry, and I phased, we could see where the rest of the pack was. They were staying on the red head, just far enough back for her to still think she had the upper hand as she continued to work her way around the Forks area trying to find Bella, so we still had time to make this work.

How's Bella? Sam asked and I could feel the concern coming from most of the pack.

In pain but doing better than at first, I thought, feeling tense about leaving her. She's sleeping at least.

I'm glad you decided to come Jake, Sam thought gratefully. We'll have a much better shot at making this work with you here.

We've got the bait, I informed him, wanting to focus on the task ahead, and we're headed to the field.

Good! Sam replied. Now, we just need to get the red-headed leech there. She spent extra time circling the school, so it's a good thing we already had Bella out of there.

Blessing in disguise… Embry thought, his frustration flaring again at the kid who hit Bella. He's still a little punk.

I barked a quiet laugh. A little punk indeed!

The trees were our enemy when it came to this leech… that's how she got around us every time. There was a large field a few miles north of town and that was our target. It wasn't too far from Bella's house, which is where the leech was currently heading.

Embry, Paul, and I were quickly approaching the field to set the trap. Alice had retrieved Bella's pillow for us over a week ago—something that was saturated with Bella's scent, but I'd never had contact with—and she had vacuum sealed it in a bag to hopefully keep her scent fresh and our scent off of it. We just needed enough of Bella's scent to get the leech to go into the field so we could surround her.

We reached the field and I quickly phased about 20 yards from the north edge of the tree line and ripped the bag open. Bella's scent hit me like a sledgehammer, and I had to fight to not let my thoughts and worry for her run away from me. As potent as it was to me, I just hoped it was strong enough to get the leech's attention. I dumped the pillow out of the bag, careful not to touch it, and let it fall into the tall grass, obscuring it from view. The ground was damp, and the threat of rain hung in the air, the moisture and humidity further intensifying the scent. I phased back as I ran toward the trees again.

Yep, still strong. That should do it, Embry thought, and Paul agreed. It was even stronger to me now in wolf form and made me long to return to Bella.

I shook my head and snorted to refocus. Lifting my muzzle into the air I paused to feel for the breeze to see where it was coming from. I could smell the rain, hanging thick in the air, as well as a faint hint of the ocean. The rain was rolling in from the west, but the breeze was fairly strong from the northwest and seemed to be holding steady.

We need to avoid the northwest corner of the field until the leech has taken the bait, I instructed everyone. Embry, you're going to be lookout. Stay in the northeast corner, far enough in she can't see you, but you can still see the southern edge of the field. Stay low.

Got it, Embry agreed and took off to get in position.

Leah and Paul, you two need to be ready to cover that northwest corner, I continued, but don't make a move until you're sure she's going for the bait.

Right, they both agreed. I could feel the frustration coming from Leah, but I ignored it. She hated taking orders, but especially from me and especially when it involved anything to do with Bella.

Paul and I went deep into the trees to the north, far enough that our scent wouldn't reach the field.

The rest of the pack was going to attempt to herd her toward the field… unless she turned that way on her own. Since she had been making more frequent attempts to get to Bella lately, the pack had been able to test the herding theory as well as track her movements more.

Each time they had chased her, they would subtly change their course to see if she would adjust her path to the direction they wanted. It had appeared to work every time. They also discovered that she often turned north once she was past Bella's house, so the herding may not even be necessary.

As she got close to Bella's house a few of the pack dropped back to prepare to make the next move to get in position to the east and west sides of the field.

Once the red head passed Bella's house she turned north all on her own. Everything was falling into place. This just might work!

The ones who had already dropped back had fanned out, and now they rushed forward to get into position. Sam and Quil were going to come up from the south, so as the leech got close enough to the field they started backing off. Hopefully she would think we had given up since she was headed out of the area.

This was the tricky part. We needed her to keep heading north to pick up Bella's scent and then go at least part way across the field. With her ability of self-preservation and evasion it was possible that she would sense the trap, so we had to stay back enough to keep her from sensing we were there.

However, the more she had evaded us, the more confident she appeared to become. Our hope was in that newfound confidence that seemed to border on arrogance. Even though she had encountered us repeatedly, she had always been able to get away. She no longer ran away as soon as we were on her trail, but she would continue on and complete her search of the Forks area, avoiding our territory and the area around the Cullen's home. The only time we had been able to touch her was when she had attacked Bella. She had possibly become too confident.

Plus, we had never attempted this level of coordination in an attack, so she shouldn't expect it. This might be the only chance we would get to attempt this plan. If she escaped today, she'd know that we weren't just a pack of mindless beasts and we could lose the biggest, and possibly only, advantage we had over her.

Now we just had to wait.

.

*****BELLA POV*****

I WAS ON THE beach, standing hand in hand with Emily. It wasn't raining, but there was a storm rolling in over the choppy waves, and the air was thick with it, making it hard to breathe. We weren't looking over the water, but we were facing up the beach instead, looking toward the tree line fifty yards away. There stood two massive wolves, one black and one red-brown, the wind blowing their fur like prairie grass.

The wolves looked out over the water, focused intently on something. I wanted to look, but I couldn't take my eyes off the breath-taking sight of the wolves. I tried to move toward them, but Emily was holding me back.

A movement in the water caught my attention and I was finally able to look that way. There were two objects headed for the beach, speeding through the water like torpedoes. Suddenly the objects broke the surface and flew out of the water in a flash of gold and red. Landing gracefully on the beach were the beautiful blonde female vampire from the Quileute legends, and Victoria! They crouched down in a fighting stance, hissing, as the wolves growled loudly and charged at them.

I tried to call out, to stop them from fighting, but the wind stole my words away as soon as they left my lips. I tried waving my arm, attempting again to get Emily to let me go or come with me, but she continued to hold me back, staring in horror as the wolves and vampires collided on the beach in a blur.

I noticed then that I was holding something in my free hand. I looked down and there was an ancient blade in my hand. It was handmade and looked like it had been beautiful at one time. It had an intricately carved wooden handle, inlaid with turquoise and veins of gold. But the handle was now cracked, the blade was rusty, and it was smeared with black. I knew automatically, the way you sometimes do in dreams, that it was the old, dried blood of the third wife… the one who had no special or magical powers, but sacrificed herself to save her family and her whole tribe.

I knew what I must do. I ripped my hand from Emily's and ran toward the blurred images of the fighting wolves and vampires, prepared to sacrifice myself to save my family… to save the ones I loved. I was running as fast as I could, but I was barely moving, trapped by the frustrating slow run of dreamers. I kept pushing forward, but when I had closed less than half the distance I stumbled to my knees as the blurred figures solidified and I saw the beautiful, powerful wolves lying lifeless on the stony beach. My heart shuddered to a stop and was crushed at the horrid sight… and I was screaming.

I woke with a start, a scream keening from my lips. As my lungs tried to draw in a breath, pain sliced through me and I cried out, the scream silenced, but the tears were streaming. I'd had the nightmare again, and this time I'd remembered it. Jake and Sam. They fought. I had tried to stop it. Just like the third wife, I was ready to sacrifice myself, but I was too late and both of them fell. The overwhelming loss wrenched a sob of their names from the depths of my soul, which caused more pain to shoot through me… more pain than I had felt in over a week. I lay as still as I could, desperately trying to control the emotions, chanting in head "It wasn't real" over and over. Jake and Sam were fine… it had just been a dream.

Emily was suddenly beside me, her hand on my head, and concern etching her face. "Are you alright Bella?"

I shook my head and tried to speak, but I couldn't get any words past the emotion and pain clogging my throat.

Emily began brushing her hand over my hair, speaking to me calmly, also telling me it was just a dream, but there was an edge of fear in her voice. As I finally got my emotions somewhat under control, I noticed for the first time that I was on my stomach with several ice packs laying along my back and draped over my side. Memories came flooding back—of the kid at school who had rammed into me and of Jake coming to me. But I didn't remember how I got to Emily's, and I was confused why Jake wasn't with me—there was almost nothing that would keep him from me when I was in pain like this.

Angela's voice sounded near my head. "What's wrong? Is her pain still that bad?"

"That may be part of it, but she has nightmares sometimes and she's been having them frequently lately. Never in the middle of the day before, but I think that's what happened."

I finally got the sobs to stop and tried to take a deep breath only to end in a gasp from the pain that lanced through my ribs. I looked up at both Angela and Emily, kneeling on the floor near my head. I was getting ready to ask where Jake was, but I could read the worry and fear in Emily's eyes now. It went far beyond any concern that she would have for me, and the realized meaning caused my stomach to drop as the blood rushed from my head. It was a good thing I was already lying down.

"Victoria?" I whispered tightly.

Emily nodded. "She showed up again, and they all went after her."

I closed my eyes as the air was sucked from my lungs. My nightmare was playing through my mind again. I kept it to myself and hoped that she hadn't heard me say Jake's or Sam's names when I first woke.

Emily took my hand and squeezed firmly, her other hand still on my head and I felt Angela's hand rest on my head too. We didn't try to reassure each other with words because we both knew that the pack was strong, but anything could happen.

"How long have they been gone?" I whispered once I'd recovered a little.

"About twenty minutes," she said quietly. After a pause she asked the question I didn't want her to. "You were crying for Jake and Sam when you woke up… do you remember your dream this time?"

I took a while to answer, but finally said "Yes."

She nodded and didn't ask anything else, guessing the meaning of it all, considering she already knew the feelings of loss the nightmare always left me with.

Oh no! The knowledge that Jake might have heard me calling for him slammed into me. I hope I didn't distract him! This could be very bad. Should I risk sending him another thought, to let him know I was okay? I couldn't even be positive he had heard me. But I was calling his name…since everything started between us, he has always heard me when I've done that, so yes, I should risk it. If I didn't, he could remain distracted and that was not something he needed.

Jake, I'm okay. I had the nightmare again and that's why I was calling for you and Sam. Please don't worry about me and be safe. I hoped he got all that. Suddenly, the need to send one additional thought to Jake entered my mind. Beyond logic or reason, my fear and worry subsided, and a blazing determination came over me along with a sudden certainty that the pack could do this. I channeled all of that energy into that final thought: And Jake… take down that red-headed leech!

I shivered as the determination and certainty faded and the fear and worry returned. I had no idea where that had come from, but the only way it was going to end is if the pack ended her, so I hoped it would somehow give him an edge.

I met Emily's gaze and she had a very strange look on her face.

"What is it?" I asked.

There was a slight hesitation before she asked, "Did you just communicate something to Jake?"

I furrowed my brow. "Yes. How did you know that?" I had told her about what we had discovered the night on the porch with Angela, but I couldn't see how she would be able to tell. I hadn't even closed my eyes.

"I ummm… well, I just…" She let out a long, tense sigh and opened her mouth to speak again, but Angela answered before she could say more.

"You had a strange, kinda glossy, far-away look on your face. I would have never figured out that's what it was though."

Emily's face instantly relaxed in relief. "It was just a lucky guess."

I nodded, but studied her face more closely. "Is everything okay, Em?

"Yeah, I'm fine… well actually, no, I'm scared a little out of my mind right now. I'm not thinking quite straight right now. Sorry if I'm acting kinda weird."

I squeezed the hand that was still holding mine. "It's alright."

After a brief pause, Emily changed the subject, probably trying to keep our minds occupied. "So, I called your dad to let him know where you are. And I called Carlisle… he should be here soon to make sure you didn't reinjure anything."

I nodded numbly. "Yeah, that kid hit me really hard. I couldn't stand for nearly ten minutes."

She nodded as Angela spoke. "I filled her in about that. I was really worried for you. Still am really, but I just have a few more things on my mind at the moment." She let out a little huff and shook her head slightly. "How're you feeling now?"

"Just lying here, everything seems to have calmed down, but I wouldn't want to try moving just yet. The ice packs feel good."

We talked a bit more about totally random things, but eventually the conversation faltered, and silence enveloped us. Clinging to each other's hands, we were connected by touch, but each of us were lost to our own worries about our wolves.