CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT.
PREPARATIONS
I hated La's plan, but it worked. We got in and out of the cottage quicker than I ever could have imagined. Kevin had stayed behind to watch whichever game was on - we knew he would be there, but it didn't make the planned conversation any easier.
As predicted, James caught up to us we loudly told Kevin the abbreviated and sans-supernatural version of what happened. We made sure to say exactly where we were going so that the hunter would hunt us, not him.
As we stood in front of Kevin, explaining where we were going and knowing we had mere seconds to sell this story to James, all I could think was that I had promised to keep her safe tonight already, yet here we were. It seemed like a bad omen to be making the same promise twice in the same night.
Kevin was understandably devastated, but he took it as well as could be expected. I had the distinct impression La's choice to run wasn't shocking. Running from him had probably brought her out here to begin with. She still hadn't said so, hadn't told me her story, but I didn't need to hear it all to catch the gist of what happened.
That solo road trip had been a pivotal point in her life and an understandable fear response.
Kevin watched us from the cottage door as we loaded back into the truck. He watched us, but he left us alone and stood sentinel as we fled.
Alice was sure the ruse had eliminated James' interest. Kevin would be left alone for now. She drove us home in the Jeep so I could be a physical show of force to the watching tracker. I unzipped the back of the canvas cover to stand in the bed of the truck and did the same to the top so I could take hold of the roll bars. Inside, La and Edward were having a half-verbal, half-mental conversation. La's words often stuttered off to be finished in her head. Edward treated this as commonplace and kept her focused, kept her talking.
Their words became a backdrop to my incessant searching, though I picked up a few things here and there, including the confirmation of my suspicions.
"How could he possibly have found me? Three thousand miles, Edward!" I remembered she'd taken a long route, winding through seemingly random cities, stopping in places like Vegas that didn't entirely match her character.
Regardless, I didn't need to calculate the odds of what she described to know it couldn't possibly be a coincidence, and La was smart enough to know the same.
When Edward didn't have a good answer for her, La switched topics and I let my attention refocused on the surrounding woods, searching for any evidence of our tail.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" La's question snatched my attention back into the cab of the truck. I peered through the unzipped portion of the roof to see La was turned in her seat to face Edward in the back. He had slid over to the middle of the bench to be closer to her.
Edward answered honestly, despite his knowing I was listening in, or maybe because I was listening in. "Emmett may be unwilling to admit this to himself, but I can see the connection the two of you have very clearly. You two are connected in the same way Alice and Jasper are, or Esme and Carlisle. You're part of the family now. Taking care of you goes without saying."
My world stuttered to a halt. What he was saying implied much more than La could possibly understand. This speech was, as I suspected, for me. He was telling me that La was my mate.
My mind went silent. Did it matter whether she was my mate? Did it change anything? I'd already decided I loved her. I didn't need some storybook version of a perfect match. She was mine and I was hers and the fates could be damned.
So, no. It didn't change anything.
And yet, understanding La was my mate was the singularly most important thing in the world.
Tanya had been right the day she'd admonished me for running away. "You have to go back. She's your mate. You need to find her."
La was my mate. I felt numb and jubilant and terrified and angry and very nearly ready to explode. I needed to run, to tear James limb from limb, to set something on fire and skewer James to roast his body over the flames.
While my thoughts devolved from joy to bloodshed my siblings described exactly this process of permanently eliminating a vampire to La at her request. They kept the description short, which I appreciated, as Alice made the blind turn into our driveway.
"Is he still following?" La asked as we trundled along the gravel road.
"Yes," Edward allowed but didn't tell her just how close he was. Where I couldn't hear him before, now he had cut close enough that footsteps through the underbrush were discernable. It took all my strength not to tear after him and end this before he could get any closer. This was likely exactly what he wanted - to separate us and take us on one by one.
"He won't attack tonight," Alice supplemented Edward's brusque confirmation as if she were trying to head off my mad dash after the hunter. She pulled up in front of the house, parking so that there was as little open space between the truck and the front door as possible.
Someone had the house lit up from every angle. It would keep us from sneaking out straight away, but it would also keep anyone from using the cover of darkness to sneak in. I leaped from the back of the Jeep and had La's door open as Alice was putting the gear shifter into park. Edward had thoughtfully unclipped her harness enabling me to scoop her into my chest and run for the door without a frustrating pause to detangle her first.
Laurent was speaking quietly with Carlisle in the wide foyer. Esme stood beside her husband looking down her nose at Laurent, a displeased turn to her mouth. Edward shut the door and automatically covered me which gave me space to place La out of sight. Laurent watched us, curiosity making his porcelain features alive. I growled at the man wanting desperately to take care of this threat now and limit our enemy's numbers to two.
"He's tracking us," Edward declared into the room, eyes fixed on Laurent.
The man slumped in theatrical disappointment, evoking the vision of unsurprised defeat. "I was afraid of that."
I bared my teeth at him. Oh, he was afraid of that was he? He was so ashamed that the leader of his coven behaved exactly like the piece of shit he'd proven himself to be. Alice, equally unimpressed flitted over to Jasper and bent to his ear.
"They're safe for now," she took his hand. "I'll tell you upstairs, but we need to prep to leave." They flew toward the staircase and disappeared from sight. I imagined they would be packing human necessities, spare cash, clothes, and passports.
"What will he do?" Carlisle asked while Esme took up Alice's vacated place flanking La to the right. She patted me on the shoulder as if that would make up for the absolute shit show we'd found ourselves in, but I appreciated her quick care for La.
"I'm sorry," Laurent was saying. "I was afraid, when your boy there defended her, that it would set him off."
As if I was at fault for the reaction of a psychopath. As if La's life was meaningless and we should have just let him have her. My growling became deeper and louder. I would give him approximately thirty seconds to say something interesting enough to save his life.
"Can you stop him?" Carlisle asked hopelessly.
Laurent didn't bother pretending. "Nothing stops James when he gets started."
"We'll stop him," I ground out through my teeth. I would gleefully and brutally end him - as soon as La was out of the line of fire.
"You can't bring him down," Laurent put up his hands in a "stop" motion. "I've never seen anything like him in my three hundred years. He's absolutely lethal. That's why I joined his coven."
It was enough to make me pause. His coven. This explained their odd maneuver when they first entered the clearing. At the time I assumed it was a show of respect to let their leader arrive first, but instead, they opted for subterfuge at the show of a much larger, unknown force. I reassessed what we knew about James. A talented hunter, and one who would likely continue using tricks to capture his prey. We simply didn't have enough information to predict his next move.
"Are you sure it's worth it?" Laurent tried to peer around me at La. I moved to block her from view and roared at him.
The man cringed and retreated. He was weak. A weak sniveling waste of space that had glommed onto a more powerful coven thinking it would keep him safe.
Carlisle cut in, dripping with barely disguised disgust. "I'm afraid you're going to have to make a choice."
We watched him deliberate and ultimately choose to run. I was grateful for this; there was no chance I would have trusted him within our planning circle. Esme shut the door behind the stranger, peering out into the darkness. Upon seeing nothing amiss, she clicked off the outer lights and flicked a switch that closed steel shutters over the wall of windows at the back of the house.
We briefly sketched out the skeleton of a plan in which we scattered to the cardinal directions using La's scent to confuse the enemy. When Esme went upstairs to switch clothes with La, I turned to Edward and Carlisle.
"Are we safe?"
Edward nodded to indicate James was out of hearing range. "He circled back to the other side of the river to meet up with the woman, Victoria, then went back east to cover us from there. Neither are within hearing range, and Laurent is truly on his way north." He spoke very quickly, lips buzzing together in his haste. We all followed suit, speaking as quickly as our vampiric processing would allow.
"How do you want us to split?" Carlisle asked. "Are you sure that's the best way?"
"He is talented," Edward cautioned. "His talent is not just tracking, it's the capture as well. It won't be easy no matter what way we do this, but more importantly," he paused and leaned in. "Victoria is talented too, and her talent is twofold. She is skilled at escape, but perhaps more intriguingly, she's a shield. Alice cannot see her clearly."
"That's how they were able to sneak up on us," I wanted to punch something.
"It is not only that," he continued. "She seems to be able to keep her thoughts partially obscured, making her intentions difficult to unravel. From what I was able to glean, I don't believe she or James are here by coincidence."
"That would be a very great coincidence, indeed," Carlisle frowned.
"I didn't think so, either," I added. "Were you able to see anything at all? Was James looking for her?"
Edward nodded. "His only surprise came from finding her in the presence of a large and powerful coven, not from finding her on the peninsula. He was thinking about how pleased he was to not have to search through town."
"And Victoria?" Carlisle asked. "You believe she was also here on purpose?"
"Again, she is very difficult to read, but it seems as though she was looking for us," Edward looked at Carlisle sharply but didn't explain further. "Either way, the two of them together are a very formidable pair."
"Then divide and conquer, it is," I decided. We could tackle whatever shit show Victoria presented after La was safe. "Alice and Jasper will take La south, Edward and I will hunt James to the east, you and Esme will cover Victoria to the west - just keep her in your sights, and try to keep her from following La south. Warn us if she heads back toward James. We'll lead him mainland and as far away as possible."
"In that case, we'll need the satellite phones and burners," Carlisle agreed. "And full tanks of gas plus backup so no one has to stop in public."
Edward nodded and left through the garage as Alice and Jasper appeared beside us.
We'll need dummies, I thought to Edward as he vanished.
For a brief second, I took in the people who would be whisking my mate away, stuck in a car with her for a day with little to no relief. Jasper's brooding nature and battle-scared body at odds with the tenderness with which he held Alice. If James circumvented us, he could easily take the man. He would keep her safe from James. The problem was his self-control around human blood. It had been a long time since he tasted any, but with so many hours in the car - possibly days in a hotel without hunting….
"Can you handle this?' I had asked Alice the same question earlier, but I wanted to hear it from his mouth as well. He knew what I meant without further explanation.
"I can handle this." He assured me. I studied him again and noticed small flickering expressions race across his face. He was worried. I gripped his shoulder in understanding, in gratitude. Maybe I needed the reassurance of the touch myself.
"There's still time to turn her tonight," he gripped me back, tone almost pleading. "If we do it now he might lose interest."
"He will lose interest in her, but he will use the distraction of her transition as a vulnerability and come after us one by one systematically, catching us through the years while alone and unsuspecting," Alice stated.
Well, that was grim. And it put the argument to rest.
"Anyway, I don't want this forced on her under duress." I didn't have to look to know Carlisle agreed with me.
"Additionally," Carlisle's agreement had a second layer. "I would like to avoid the ire of the wolves if possible."
"We could have enemies on both sides," Jasper concluded and cursed, but not deterred, he altered course. "We can do it once we get to San Francisco."
This offer startled me. Neither Alice or Jasper would be capable of handling such a thing, and he knew that. "How?"
Carlisle stepped in with an explanation. "I have prepared some vials of venom that will, in theory, operate the same way a bite would. But the problem remains that she would likely be in a semi public space during the transition and would be… overheard."
Screaming. He meant she would be screaming for her life for at least three days straight without reprieve.
"I may have a solution for that as well, but I am not certain it will work. Even a semi-public space is not an ideal place to experiment."
Edward rejoined us carrying two bags and handed one to Carlisle along with two tiny silver flip phones. I took the second bag from him as he said, "They're content to wait until we leave. We will be able to lead them away easily when we split."
"So our plan remains the same," I sighed. "Alice, you're in charge. Remember, humans have to eat three times a day. She gets hangry without snacks, and won't function without coffee in the morning." My eyes burned with phantom tears, but I turned to Jasper. "She gets nightmares, I have a feeling with all this happening they'll be pretty bad. Help her out if you can? Please."
Esme and La, clothes now switched, were making their way down stairs now. La still on the verge of tears, looked wrung out and frightened.
Only one last thing now. I said to Alice in a rush, "don't tell her anything that will scare her. Things are scary enough as it is. I'll have those conversations with her once she's safe. We'll call as soon as there is news to share."
Carlisle took over the delegating. "Turn your phones off when you're in Seattle, and switch to using only these. Esme and I will take the Volkswagen, Emmett, and Edward will take the Jeep." He turned to Alice. "Alice, you and Jasper take the Audi. You'll need the tint when you're traveling south. Will they take the bait?"
Alice closed her eyes tightly for a few seconds, and when she opened them she looked resolved and ready. "He'll track the truck. The woman will follow you. We should be able to leave after that."
"Let's go." Carlisle and Edward headed directly for the kitchen to use the side door, leaving the front one to Alice, Jasper, and La. Esme sniffed quietly and went to La, brushing a light touch on her cheek, then followed through the kitchen.
La looked so small and scared. It was tearing my heart up to leave her. I pulled her into me, hugging her tightly to my chest as though we could become one body, mind, and soul. I held on to her, and smelled her hair, her tear-soaked face, her fear, and then loosened my grip to see her eyes. Deep brown, little flecks of color escaping her irises, and filled with sorrow.
"You are everything," I thought about kissing her, about holding her for just one more second, but if I did I would never leave, so I fled, leaving my heart behind me.
On the way through the kitchen I scooped up one of two readied human sized duffle bags, packed with random objects and an article of La's clothing. I cuddled it to my chest as though it contained something far more precious than spare parts, and watched Esme do the same. Edward had moved the cars to this side of the house, parking the GTI behind the Jeep, both faced out and ready to sprint.
I set the duffle in the backseat of the Jeep with more care than it needed and allowed Edward to take the driver's seat. He took off down the driveway, turning off before the county road onto an old disused maintenance track like the one I'd taken earlier to get to the clearing. This one headed directly east through the National Parks and met up with another county road on the other side. From there we would have to join the state highway system and take the most direct route to Canada.
Edward took the lead, keeping tabs on James, who indeed took the bait, trailing behind us at a safe distance. A few moments later we received a text from Carlisle; clear. A few minutes after that a similar one from Alice. La was officially on her way south, with every passing minute she was another mile further away from me. I had to remind myself that every one of those miles made her safer than she was in Forks.
We were scattered to the winds at the whim of a hunter. I only hoped we would be coming together soon down and enemy, and without losses.