Blood Moon

Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.

Kidnapped

Jacob and the pack were halfway back to La Push when they got their first warning that something was amiss. They heard a distressed howl searing its way across the blackened treetops, followed by a series of panicked images projected through the pack mind from Seth Clearwater.

The images were hard to unravel at first. They caught glimpses of Charlie's cruiser, the ghostly sedan washed in pools of yellow light coming from the street lights. Whoever was at the wheel was driving erratically and at speed, veering from one side of the road to the next.

"Seth, what's going on?" Leah demanded before Jacob had a chance to.

"Bella!" Seth huffed, his breath coming in short bursts as he ran fast to keep up with the speeding vehicle.

"What about Bella?" Jacob questioned, his whole body becoming rigid with fear. "You were supposed to be watching her, Seth."

"Cool it, Jake." Embry warned, coming up beside him. "Explain, Seth."

More confused images followed this request. Without the accompanying cop car lights on top, it was hard to get a clear picture of what was going on. Seth was crashing wildly through the undergrowth, losing ground as he tried to keep himself hidden as well as follow the cruiser. It was proving difficult. With every twist and turn in the road, the cop car gained speed, forging ahead. The distressed young shifter was forced to swerve as other cars bypassed the vehicle, swinging back and forth between the intertwining trunks of the trees that edged the road.

"Bella, she – "– this was followed by more crashing sounds – "I don't know. She just took off in her dad's car."

"What?" Jacob asked, confused. "That doesn't make any sense."

The highway yawned wide before Seth's eyes showing only a slight smattering of traffic. The cruiser was still pelting along, the driver seemingly oblivious to everything about them.

"Are you telling me Bella is at the wheel?"

"Yes." Seth puffed. "Like I said – "– there were momentary pause as the sandy wolf narrowly missed a large trunk of a tree that had suddenly emerged in his line of sight – "she just came out of the house like a robot, climbed in and took off."

Jacob shook his head in an effort to shake off his growing disquiet. He knew that Bella would not have left willingly. Something must have triggered this odd behaviour, and that something had to be Edward Cullen. Was she hearing his voice again? That was the only logical conclusion he could draw.

With an effort Jacob pulled himself together. "Keep following, Seth." He commanded. "We're coming to you."

"Hurry!" Seth gasped, stumbling a little as he fought his way through another tangle of shrubbery. "I'm losing ground here."

"Stay focused." Jacob urged, even as he was struggling to do the same himself. "We're on our way."

He took off at a fast sprint, every sense on high alert, the others following behind like a group of canine dancers flowing over the earth.


When Bella next came to, she was confused. Her thoughts were hazy, still twisted up in dreams and nightmares. It took her longer than it should have to realize where she was.

The room was too bland to be belong anywhere but in a hotel. The bedside lamps, bolted to the tables, were a dead giveaway, as were the long drapes made from the same fabric as the bedspread, and the generic watercolour prints on the walls.

Bella tried to remember how she got there, but nothing came at first.

She did remember the sleek, black car, the glass in the windows, darker than on a limousine. The engine almost silent, though they had raced across the black freeways at more than the legal speed.

And she remembered Edward sitting with her on the dark leather backseat. Somehow, during the long night, her head had ended up on his granite neck. This action seemed to please him, the cool, hard skin of his hand closing over hers tenderly.

The front of her thick sweater was cold, damp with the tears of defeat that streamed from her eyes until, red and sore, they ran dry.

Sleep had evaded her, her aching eyes strained open through the night, finally ended when dawn broke, and she had no idea where the hell she was. The grey light, streaking across the cloudless sky, stung her eyes. But she couldn't close them, when she did, the images that flashed all too vividly, like still slides behind her lids, were unbearable. Edward's elated expression as he hauled her on his back and took off at a fast run – the growing nausea in her stomach as the black trees flashed by – the helplessness in her chest as she realized there was no escape this time – the heavy sadness squeezing at her heart at the thought of never seeing Jacob, Charlie or any of the people she loved ever again – the gut wrenching fear as Edward kissed her the last time…she couldn't stand to reflect on that last image. So, she fought against her weariness and the sun rose higher.

"Which way, Alice?" Jasper's soft voice had asked from the front seat, and Bella flinched, though his tone was quite soft and unalarming. It was the first sound, besides the purr of the car, to break the long night's silence. It also confirmed that Edward had not acted alone.

"Stay in this lane." Alice's bell-like voice answered. "We'll pass right by it."

Bella's brain had worked slowly through the fog of sleep deprivation.

"Are we flying somewhere?" Bella had asked aloud, the words coming out slurred.

"Hush, my love." Edward soothed, his hand stroking her hair. "You don't need to worry your pretty head about that."

Bella tried to remember what happened next. She did have a vague impression of leaving the car, her arm draped over Edward's shoulder and his arm firmly around her waist, dragging her along, as she stumbled along at his side.

She, however, had no memory of the room she was in now.

Bella looked at the digital clock on the nightstand. The red numbers claimed it was three o'clock, but they gave no indication if it was night or day. No edge of light escaped the thick curtains, but the room was bright with the light from the lamps.

Rising stiffly Bella staggered toward the window, pulling back the drapes. It was dark outside. Three in the morning, then. Her room looked out on a deserted parking lot. She glanced down at herself. She was still dressed in the same clothes from the day before. She glanced uneasily around the room, finally glimpsing a duffel bag that belonged to her. She walked unsteadily over to it, wrenching the strings apart, she found it filled with haphazardly packed clothes.

More tears leaked out of her eyes as the enormity of the trouble she was in finally began to make itself felt. She was trapped, essentially being held against her will by a group of gifted vampires who were hell bent on her joining them one way or another.

Everything that Old Quil had intimated was true. This had all been planned. Edward's pathetic reasons for not wanting her turned in the beginning were merely a ruse, because, in the end, he knew it was going to happen anyway. His venom drip feeding into her veins over a period of months would make her ripe for the plucking, ensuring that she would remain docile and compliant. Even as a newly turned vampire, she would be malleable enough for him to remain in control, doing his bidding, moulded into the perfect mate.

And the others were clearly in on it -well Alice and Jasper anyway. Probably Carlisle too. Esme would go along with whatever Carlisle thought was right. As for Rosalie and Emmet, Bella wasn't so certain. Rosalie was a force of nature all on her own. It wouldn't surprise Bella if the statuesque blonde had been kept out of the loop to ensure she didn't try and interfere.

Shrugging out of her clothes, Bella was just pulling on some fresh ones when a light tap on the door made her jump.

"Can I come in?" Alice asked.

Bella took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Why bother to even ask? You'll do what you want anyway." She called out.

Alice walked in, and looked Bella over cautiously. "You look like you could sleep longer."

Bella shook her head mutinously.

Alice drifted slowly to the curtains and closed them securely before turning back to face Bella.

"You need to keep them closed."

"Why?" Bella demanded hoarsely.

"Thirsty?" Alice asked, ignoring Bella's question.

Bella shrugged listlessly, moving to sit on the bed.

Alice smiled sympathetically. "I ordered some food for you. It's in the front room. Edward reminded me you need to eat a lot more frequently than we do. But don't fret, that won't be an issue for much longer."

"What do you mean?" Bella asked sharply. "And where is Edward?"

"Out hunting." Alice confirmed.

Bella was instantly more alert. "Where are we?"

Alice floated to her side and reached out to take Bella's hand. Pulling her up from the bed carefully, she led her through the door into the living room of the hotel suite. Bella could hear the buzz of voices coming from the TV. Jasper sat motionlessly at the desk in the corner, his eyes watching the news with no glimmer of interest.

Bella glowered in his direction, angered that he was being so complicit. He must be feeling her reservations, how upset this was all making her, as well as the burgeoning anger and hatred that was like a lead stone in her chest.

Sitting down on the floor next to the coffee table, where a tray of food waited, Bella began picking at it, without noticing what she was eating. She was only bothering so she could keep her strength up. It was only as she raised her right hand, the sleeve of her clean hoodie falling back to reveal the formerly smooth skin of her wrist, that she noticed the fresh bitemark.

The food didn't even have time to reach her stomach as she vomited it all back up again.


Embry and Quil moved fluidly at Jacob's side as they charged toward Seth. The desperate young shifter had lost sight of the cruiser long ago and was busily tracking the muddy tire tracks embedded in the asphalt.

Jacob could feel the compulsion, the need, to get there as fast as possible, to find and rescue Bella, then tear Edward apart with his teeth. The compulsion grew and grew, like a burning spear embedded in his chest.

Embry whined quietly next to him, feeling everything he was feeling. He didn't want to think the words, afraid that it would destroy Jacob's fragile composure and send him spiralling into darkness. The thought that they were too late had to remain unspoken.

There was fear in the pack, not so much for the whole, but for their intrepid leader. None of them liked to imagine the outcome if Bella wasn't found alive tonight.

Jacob was aware of the ambivalent emotions they tried to suppress. His mind was working automatically with theirs, sifting through their thoughts, feeling their unease. He pushed his will onto theirs, forcing them to put aside their doubts and remain focused. No one was allowed to give into despair, least of all himself.

Embry and Quil huffed in relief, feeling reassured as his silent Alpha command banished the disquiet. Their minds filled with the challenge, the assignment. The emboldened emotions spread through the pack, firing their determination, fortifying their courage.

Seth's warning howl rent the air, its panicked song full of anxiety and fear. He had found the cruiser, abandoned and empty, the engine still running, its yellow-white headlights spotlighting the dense shrubbery to the side of the dirt track where the tail-lights sat high off the ground and tipping upwards into the night sky.

A/N-thanks for reading!