𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄., rosalie hale

𝖝. prey

Snapping from his stupor, the boy croaks, "What did you say?"

A breath and Rosalie's sculpted eyebrows are scrunched ever so slightly, a guilty pout on her lips with turmoil beginning to darken her amber eyes. "I'm sorry," Is all she says, firstly and after a beat of quiet before Zachary's frown tightens in distaste for the apology and before he can reject it, Rosalie continues, "Bella told Charlie that you're taking her home, that you drove her so she can think, he'll tell your mother. Esme and I are going to keep them safe and lead the tracker away," She explains with a swipe of her tongue along her lower lip in a human habit she's clung to and Rosalie's thumbs graze against the undersides of his eyes, simmering with undiluted fear despite his attempt to even his expression. "You're going with Alice and Jasper, they're going to take you South with Bella."

"We're splitting up?" He blurts.

"James would know that neither Edward nor Rosalie would leave you," Carlisle says with a steady tone, level-headed and naively, it soothes some of Zachary's fright as he nods his head stiffly, "It'll throw him off, even if for a little while."

Zachary swivels his eyes toward Rosalie, with a trembling exhale as he wets his dry lips, and his cotton mouth opens and closes before he shakes his head and Zachary presses the palms of his hands against his closed eyes. "This is insane," Zachary is whispering, with a tremor of his voice involuntarily, and he gulps as Rosalie's hands slip to rub over his chest, trying to comfort him even if her guilt suffocates her and Zachary feels petite fingers curl around his wrist. Alice's cool touch is gentle as she tugs at him softly to lure him to the car where Bella is already loaded and Zachary's longing gaze finds Rosalie as he murmurs delicately, "Be safe."

In disbelief, a half bitter, half adoring smile graces Rosalie's lips with the shake of her head dousing her tight expression with locks of medallion and she breathes, "I should be saying that to you."

"Alice wouldn't let anything happen," Zachary says with the utmost certainty and a slight glance to the pixie haired immortal. Alice offers him a strained smile and a nod of her head in promise, as her dainty fingers slot with his and it's the same understanding as before as Alice's fingers squeeze his and Zachary peers back at Rosalie, assuringly. "I'll be okay. I'll be back in no time," As he hears the struggled stumble of Bella's words and Zachary turns his head to peek at his cousin, her teary eyes latching to his now clear ones as he veers back his shoulders and he promises, "We will. It'll be okay."

Rosalie whispers as her thumb brushes his lower lip, "You're too good," As her eyes jolt to Alice and Jasper respectively with a tilt of her head, eyes softening in a plea, "Take care of him."

For the first time, Jasper nods dutifully, arms wound behind his back, "We will."

· · ────── ·𖥸· ────── · ·

STATIC RUSTLES IN EVERY LIVELY LIMB as Zachary finds he can't settle. He stands, tense with shaky hands buried in the deep pockets of his sweatpants with the shuffle of his sneakers across the stampede flattened floor of their hotel room as Zachary paces from one end of the communal space to the other. A blurry image of a godawful reality show flits across the cramped screen, and yet Alice and Jasper are pretending to place their undivided attention on the episode. In the back bedroom, Bella is resting with her adrenaline plummeting on arrival but Zachary is wired, though neither immortal seem to mind. Every once in a while, a handful of seconds really, Zachary's blue eyes surge to the blackened screen of Alice's cellphone in search of Carlisle's late call. It doesn't come and Bella is slipping from the bedroom with the same crescent welts beneath her puffy eyes; a restless sleep no doubt.

Her eyes lift sluggishly, and expectantly, to Zachary but her cousin shakes his head in a grim manner. It nears the Witching hour, and Zachary has his fingers pressed to his lips with the churn of his nausea pebbling in his gut as Bella starts to pick at the tray of her room service dinner, with Zachary's left to grow cold on the cramped surface of the scarred coffee table. After a very long moment, Bella's eyes dart to him with an uneasy shift and she's murmuring his name whilst she bites at the edges of her already nibbled nails, "You're putting me on edge," Bella says softly once Zachary's gaze lands on her, with her call, and she breathes with a motion to inch further from the middle of the two-seater sofa with a tap of the beaten cushion beside her, "Sit...please?"