Chapter 7: Jacob

"This is a bad idea, Jake." Embry whispered into my mind. He was 50 yards away, staring after me as I crept towards the clearing. I cautiously sniffed the air. I could smell the stale scent of the redhead and the older scent of the black-haired leech, but nothing fresh.

"It'll be fine, Embry." Slowly, I crept past the treeline. The Cullen's massive house stood in the center, dark and imposing. The windows were shuttered, and the grass in the lawn was long and meadow-like. Pacing forward, sniffed at the porch. Still nothing new.

"Holy crap, is that a four car garage?" Embry thought from his place at the edge of the forest. "Their house is massive."

"They're loaded, what did you expect. I can respect using money like that for a place to park a lot of cars." I almost could anyways, if I pretended they weren't leeches who tore my true love apart. Making a quick decision, I phased and tugged a pair of shorts out of my sack. From the forest, Embry whined.

He was nervous about coming here. The idea to find the Cullen's old place and search here had been his, but he had never been super into the idea of coming here himself. I didn't blame him. Even weeks old, the scent of vampire was oppressive and the atmosphere was almost menacing. But it was the only thing I could think of to try that didn't involve leaving the Olympic Peninsula.

"I have to go inside," I called back to him. "They definitely didn't leave a forwarding address sitting out on the porch." I quickly pulled the lock picking kit Rachel had given me for my 14th birthday out of the pack. A few seconds after starting to pick the lock, I heard soft, human footsteps behind me. At once I felt a rush of appreciation for my pack brother. No matter how much he disagreed with me, I could truly count on him to have my back.

"You're doing it wrong," Embry muttered. "The bottom one has to press down. Let me try." I relinquished the tools to Embry and sat back on my heels. It took several minutes, but finally, we heard soft click and Embry whooped triumphantly.

"This is definitely breaking the treaty by the way," he said. "Running around on their property is one thing, but breaking into their house?" I shrugged.

"They'll know anyway if we find anything. And if we don't then we'll be long gone by the time they come back to the area."

My eyebrows rose in surprise as I entered the front room. Instead of it being empty, like I had expected, the house appeared to be fully set up with sheets covering all the furniture. Dust floated through the air, making my nose itch.

"Dude, check it out. They do pictures like Jared's mom does." I turned around to where Embry was looking and my jaw dropped when I saw a huge wall full of photographs. Each of the Cullens, exactly the same age they were now, in various combinations. A lump rose in my throat when I realized that Bella was featured in several of them. Often with the boyfriend or a short girl with black hair.

"Do you think these photos are actually legit? Or are they just staged so the Cullens appear normal for visitors?"

"The ones with Bella aren't staged at least," I said slowly. "She's not that good of an actor." My eyes roamed over the pictures and I felt a thread of confusion start to work its way into my mind. I wasn't entirely sure what I had been expecting coming here, but it was definitely something along the lines of cobwebs, coffins, and bloodstains. Not massive windows and happy family photographs.

"This doesn't make sense," Embry whispered. "They put her on the wall with their family. Why would they leave?"

"I mean, there's other people on here too. I gestured to a picture close to the edge of the gallery wall, where the doc and his wife were playing a board game with another couple.

"Hey, they have gold eyes too! I wonder if those are the cousins Charlie was talking about." I nodded thoughtfully. "If they're family though it doesn't exactly prove your point."

"Who cares," I said, wrenching myself away from the pictures. "Let's search the house."

The more we poked around the main floor, the more it looked like just a standard family home full of regular humans. The kitchen had appliances and cookbooks. The living room had shelves filled with DVDs and board games. Peeking under the sheet covering the coffee table, I found a basket with an assortment of plush blankets. Idly, I wondered if vampires could get cold, or if they had just kept those there for Bella.

"Holy crap, Jake, get over here," Embry called from down the hall. I followed his voice and found him peeking through a darkened door. It took my eyes a second to adjust to the pitch blackness, but when they did…

"Holy crap," I echoed. The garage was mostly empty, but parked, right in the center was a top-of-the-line Aston Martin.

"So that explains the huge garage," Embry said. "Look at her Jake, she's beautiful."

"Seriously Embry, what is going on here?" I ran my fingers through my hair. "Why on earth would they leave that beauty behind?" Embry shook his head.

"I dunno, but maybe they wouldn't mind if we took her for a spin. Just to keep the engine running smoothly of course." I chuckled.

"Says the guy who was so concerned about just coming into the house twenty minutes ago. I'm pretty sure Grand Theft Auto is worse."

"At least let me go touch it," Embry whined.

"Come on," I pulled him out of the garage. "What if you scratch it or something. Besides, we have to keep looking." Embry let me pull him down the hall but then shook my hand off his arm.

"I didn't find anything down here," he said. "Should we try upstairs?"

There wasn't a ton upstairs either. Like before, most of the rooms were covered in sheets. Two of them had wall-to-wall bookshelves, empty of books. Many of the rooms had beds hidden underneath sheets. There were two standard-looking bathrooms. Finally, we came to the last room on the left.

"Dude, look," Embry moaned in delight. My jaw dropped. This room had floor-to-ceiling shelves with every CD imaginable.

"This is awesome," I said. "I wonder who's room this is."

"Nuh-uh," Embry said. "There's no bed in here. This is just a room for listening to music. Sweet." I looked around. He was right. The only pieces of furniture were a covered table by the window and an uncovered leather couch in the center of the room.

"That's weird," I muttered. "They've covered everything else." Suddenly Embry gave a wild whoop and lunged forward

"Jake, we found it!" He turned around and waved a large manila envelope at me. An envelope that had been sitting on the couch, waiting to be found. There was only one word on the envelope, written in beautiful, rounded handwriting.

Bella.

Embry passed the envelope to me and I started to peel it open with trembling fingers. I had it almost opened when I stopped. Did I really want to read what the vampire had written to her? I had no problems invading the leech's privacy and scouring their home for a forwarding address, but this was different. This was Bella's privacy I was about to violate.

"Hey man, want me to do it?" Embry said softly. I nodded and passed him the envelope. He finished ripping it open and dumped the contents on the couch.

The first thing I saw was a passport. I opened it and saw Bella's face looking at me beside the words 'Bella Masen'.

"Look, there's a birth certificate, driver's license, and a credit card all with the same name," Embry pointed out, gathering all the offending documents into his hands. "They made a whole-ass fake identity for her." Blinding rage ripped through my body and I threw the passport back onto the couch before I could destroy it."

"This is insane," I yelled, leaping to my feet. "First she's part of the family and they make fake documents for her and fill their house with stuff just for her, and then they just leave overnight? What the hell is going on? They obviously wanted her to find this stuff."

"There's a letter too," Embry said. "Should I open it?" I nodded and watched with bated breath as he unfolded the flowery stationary and started reading down the letter. Finally, he looked back at me.

"It's not from him, but it's also not gonna be easy to read. It's what we were looking for though. Do you think you can read it without accidentally tearing it to shreds?" I took a steadying breath and nodded. If this letter was the key to ensuring Bella's safety, I would guard it with my life. Embry passed me the letter.

Bella,

Edward wanted us to leave you alone so he doesn't know I'm writing this. He thinks you'll be better off without vampires in your life, but Esme and I disagree. I couldn't leave you with no help at all. I don't know exactly what's going to happen, but I have a bad feeling about this.

Jasper had Jenks make up these fake documents when you were on the run in Phoenix in March. They're yours if you need them. The credit card is yours too. Please - the please was underlined three times- don't hesitate to use it if you need to. I'll take care of it. The PIN is Edward's birth year.

Lastly, Edward forbade me from looking for you, but if something happens and you truly need our help, just make a drastic decision that puts your life at risk. I'll see it, and I'll get in touch.

I'm so sorry Bella. You're my best friend and I never wanted to leave you like this.

Love you forever and ever,

Alice.

Even though I had told Embry I wouldn't destroy the letter, I still had to fight to keep my fists from curling. Somehow that letter was even more infuriating than Bella's with the number of questions it raised without answers.

"What does she mean 'she'll see it'?" Embry asked. I shook my head and started pacing the room.

"I dunno Em. But all this is driving me crazy. Somehow the leech knew Bella would need this but she didn't find it in time. And what the hell, apparently Bella has already been on the run? In Phoenix?"

"Wait, you didn't know about that?"

"Of course not. I'm assuming Alice is referring to when she broke her leg during spring break last year, but Charlie was told she fell through a window. Holy shit," I said, sitting down suddenly. "No wonder she peeled when the redhead came back if that's what she did before."

"But before, the Cullens were around to help her." Embry groaned. "Dammit Jake. As much as Sam's gonna give us hell for this, we need to get him involved. The only way for Bella to know how to reach the Cullens is if anyone who could answer the phone has this information." Embry grimaced.

"Hold on just a minute," I said, an idea starting to form. "If Alice is taking care of the credit card, wouldn't she see it being used? Maybe we could find a way to get her a message using that?"

"Do we know Edward's birth year?" I sighed.

"No, but Charlie is looking into birth records for Edward Masen. We can see if he found anything." Embry shrugged and turned to go down the stairs.

"I guess if saves us from the wrath of Sam, it's worth a shot." Embry paused by the gallery wall. "Do you know which one's Alice?" I glanced up at the pictures.

"Uh, the little one with black hair I think." Embry nodded thoughtfully.

"She looks nice. For a vampire I mean. And she obviously loves Bella a lot." I nodded. If there was any doubt in my mind that at least one of them would be willing to help her, this letter banished it. We had the credit card, which would hopefully get their attention and the note I slapped on the front door would alert them to what was going on if they showed up. Unfortunately, it didn't help with the question of the hour.

If they cared so much then why did they leave Bella in the first place?

A/N – This is probably my favourite chapter so far! We're almost at the long-awaited meeting between the pack and the Cullens.

Up next: Alice (finally) goes off on Carlisle and Jasper receives a concerning bit of news