CHAPTER ELEVEN:
England, Tinworth: Shell Cottage
Harry slept badly that night. Lying awake in the early hours, he thought back to the way he had felt the night before they had infiltrated the Ministry of Magic and remembered a determination, almost an excitement. Now he was experiencing jolts of anxiety nagging doubts: He could not shake off the fear that it was all going to go wrong. He kept telling himself that their plan was good, that Griphook knew what they were facing, that they were well-prepared for all the difficulties they were likely to encounter, yet still he felt uneasy. Once or twice he heard Ron stir and was sure that he too was awake, but they were sharing the sitting room with Dean, so Harry did not speak.
It was a relief when six o-clock arrived and they could slip out of their sleeping bags, dress in the semidarkness, then creep out into the garden, where they were to meet Hermione and Griphook. The dawn was chilly, but there was little wind now that it was May. Harry looked up at the stars still glimmering palely in the dark sky and listened to the sea washing backward and forward against the cliff: He was going to miss the sound.
Small green shoots were forcing their way up through the red earth of Dobby's grave now, in a year's time the mound would be covered in flowers. The white stone that bore the elf's name had already acquired a weathered look. He realized now that they could hardly have laid Dobby to rest in a more beautiful place, but Harry ached with sadness to think of leaving him behind. Looking down on the grave, he wondered yet again how the elf had known where to come to rescue them. His fingers moved absentmindedly to the little pouch still strung around his neck, thorough which he could feel the jagged mirror fragment in which he had been sure he had seen Dumbledore's eye. Then the sound of a door opening made him look around.
Bellatrix Lestrange was striding across the lawn toward them, accompanied by Griphook. As she walked, she was tucking the small, beaded bag into the inside pocket of another set of the old robes they had taken from Grimmauld Place. Though Harry knew perfectly well that it was really Hermione, he could not suppress a shiver of loathing. She was taller than he was, her long black hair rippling down her back, her heavily lidded eyes disdainful as they rested upon him; but then she spoke, and he heard Hermione through Bellatrix's low voice.
"She tasted disgusting, worse than Gurdyroots! Okay, Ron, come here so I can do you..."
"Right, but remember, I don't like the beard too long"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, this isn't about looking handsome"
"It's not that, it gets in the way! But I liked my nose a bit shorter, try and do it the way you did last time."
Hermione sighed and set to work, muttering under her breath as she transformed various aspects of Ron's appearance. He was to be given a completely fake identity, and they were trusting to the malevolent aura cast by Bellatrix to protect him. Meanwhile Harry and Griphook were to be concealed under the Invisibility Cloak.
"There," said Hermione, "how does he look, Harry?"
It was just possible to discern Ron under his disguise, but only, Harry thought, because he knew him so well. Ron's hair was now long and wavy; he had a thick brown beard and mustache, no freckles, a short, broad nose, and heavy eyebrows.
"Well, he's not my type, but he'll do," said Harry. "Shall we go, then?"
All three of them glanced back at Shell Cottage, lying dark and silent under the fading stars, then turned and began to walk toward the point, just beyond the boundary wall, where the Fidelius Chard stopped working and they would be able to Disapparate. Once past the gate, Griphook spoke.
"I should climb up now, Harry Potter, I think?"
Harry bent down and the goblin clambered onto his back, his hands linked on front of Harry's throat. He was not heavy, but Harry disliked the feeling of the goblin and the surprising strength with which he clung on. Hermione pulled the Invisibility Cloak out of the beaded bag and threw it over them both.
"Perfect," she said, bending down to check Harry's feet. "I can't see a thing. Let's go."
Harry turned on the spot, with Griphook on his shoulders, concentrating with all his might on the Leaky Cauldron, the inn that was the entrance to Diagon Alley.
-
-
"You're dead. Again!" ordered Yin, and I ducked, the bolt of light flying over me. He flung several faster paced spells at me, which I dodged by either sidestepping or twirling away. My smaller frame came in handy for some things. Speed and dexterity were two of those... though immense practice and pressure via threat of an upcoming death-by-Death Eater helped too.
And then I moved a moment too late, and the pale light of a stinging curse hit my shoulder, making me grit my teeth in pain. I knew there would be a big, red welt left there as a nice souvenir of our practice.
It had been Katie's idea, that we ask Yin for help to practice our dueling. We rarely had the opportunity to use magic, and any aid we could get, any small piece of advice, could one day maybe even save our lives.
"You're dead," announced Yin, "again!"
He launched the first spell again and I twisted away and cast my own back. Our volley of spells and curses lit the room in a bright array of color, and a well-timed reducto on my part blasted a chair into Yin's legs, setting him to stumble long enough for me to shout, "EXPELLIARMUS!" Yin's wand flew across the room, into my hand, and I stood there, stunned, as I realized I'd just beaten him for the first time.
"Excellent job," Yin said, satisfied. He crossed the room, with only a bit of a limp, and I handed him back his wand. "You did very well." He said, approvingly, and I smiled at him.
"Thanks Yin."
"When the time comes, and we both know it will, remember this Bella," Yin said, suddenly gravely serious, "you have reasonable skill at dueling, but you will be fighting against fully-trained, battle-experienced adults, who have no scruples towards killing half-trained students. They will be fighters, warriors. Evade whenever you can, and forget about honor, because they certainly will- use your brain; that's how you'll defeat them. Come at them from behind, and from the sides- never head-on if you can help it. There is no shame in running away, at any point. Facing them on even ground will end in your incapacitation, and your death. Do you understand?"
"Out think them, don't out duel them." I say, and he nods approvingly.
"Exactly."
-
Luna and I apparated back to Charlie's house, into the living room. Charlie startled when he saw us, hand automatically going to his gun, before he relaxed his arm, sighing rolling his eyes at us. "You take years off my life every time you do that." He grumbled, and I give him an apologetic look before heading to the stairs.
"My entire body feels like a bruise." I complain to Luna, as I make my way up the steps, wincing with each movement. Entering my room, I pull off my jersey to examine the newly-forming bruises on my arms. There's an especially impressive red mark from the stinging curse on my shoulder that has me cursing Yin under my breath.
Tossing my sweaty clothes into the hamper, I decide it's probably time to put a load on and turn to Luna. Cyrrently dressed in a sarong with a Scandinavian sweater over it, and a limp noodle in her hair, despite our grueling training session she didn't look as sweaty and disheveled as I felt.
"Anything you need me to wash?" I ask her anyway as I started to strip our bed of the sheets, then paused and frowned as I noticed that my pillow was missing. Confused, I turned in a circle, scanning the room. No pillow. And now that I was taking a moment, I realized that my room looked oddly tidy- hadn't my knitted Weasley jumper been draped over the low bedpost on the footboard? And I could have sworn there had been a pair of dirty socks behind the rocking chair, along with the red blouse I'd tried on two mornings ago, but decided was too dressy for school, hanging over the arm... I turned back to the hamper and frowned harder around again- the hamper wasn't empty, but it wasn't overflowing, the way I thought it had been.
Was Charlie doing laundry? I wondered, doubtfully. It would be something rather out of character for him.
"Dad, did you start the wash?" I asked him anyway, shouting out from my door.
"Um, no," he shouted back, sounding guilty. "Did you want me to?"
"No, I got it. Um, were you looking for something in my room?"
"No. Why?" He sounded genuinely puzzled which just made me feel even more confused too b
"I can't find... stuff..."
"I haven't been in there."
I ducked into Charlie's room, stripping his bed and checking his hamper- no knitted jumper, no red shirt, and no pillow.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach, a sensation that something just wasn't right, I dug through my hamper, looking for my stuff. None of it was there. I dug through the entire pile and still couldn't find any of it. I knew I was probably getting paranoid, but it wasn't like I'd just misplaced a shirt or a pair of socks- I didn't even have half a load of washing.
"Luna?" I looked up at my best friend who was frowning at the wall like it had done something to greatly upset her.
"Shh," she said absently, not even looking at me, completely distracted by something only she could see and hear, "I must consult the fligby flutterloos that float ever-so-lightly on the sprightly breeze." Deciding this is Luna-talk for she's asking her invisible creatures something, I worried my bottom lip between my teeth as I carried the hamper downstairs. The washing machine was empty. I checked the dryer too, just in case. Nothing. I frowned, mystified.
"Did you find what you were looking for?" Charlie yelled.
"Not yet."
I went back upstairs to search under my bed. Nothing but dust bunnies. I started to dig through my dresser. Maybe I'd put the red shirt away and forgotten.
I gave up when the doorbell rang, but when I pulled it open, a big smile on my face, I instantly froze.
Edward's golden eyes were wide, his nostrils flared, his lips pulled back over his teeth.
"Edward?" My voice was sharp with shock as I read his expression. "What-?"
He shook his head, and I stopped talking. "Give me two seconds," he said, voice tight with stress. "Don't move."
I stood frozen on the doorstep and he... disappeared. He moved so quickly that Charlie wouldn't even have seen him pass.
Before I could compose myself enough to count to two, he was back. He put his arm around my waist and pulled me swiftly toward the kitchen. His eyes darted around the room, and he held me against his body as if he were shielding me from something.
"Someone's been here," he murmured in my ear after he pulled me to the back of the kitchen. His voice was strained; it was difficult to hear him over the thumping of the washing machine. "One of us."
His tone made it clear that he didn't mean a member of his family.
I felt the blood empty from my face. A vampire had been in my house with my defenseless human father.
"Victoria?" I choked, horrified at the thought of her having been so close.
"It's not a scent I recognize." Edward says grimly.
"One of the Volturi," I guessed, hands clenched into fists.
"Probably."
"When?"
"That's why I think it must have been them- it wasn't long ago, early this morning while Charlie was sleeping. And whoever it was didn't touch him, so there must have been another purpose."
"Looking for me." I said, in realisation.
Edward didn't answer. His body was frozen, a statue.
"Your pillow." Luna spoke up softly, as she wafted into the room. Her face looked tight, and she was holding a rolled up newspaper in a white-knuckled grip. "Your sweater. The shirt. All things you've worn, touched, slept on..."
Edward's face turned even more strained. "Things with your scent." He realised, out loud, a mixture of realisation and horror present on his inhumanly beautiful features.
"My visitor," I felt queasy even thinking about it. "He was gathering traces, wasn't he- why? To prove he'd found me?"
"Let's go," Edward said in a low hard voice.
"But Charlie!" The fear building up inside me was squeezing my chest, making it hard to breathe as I realised just how close I'd come to losing my father today.
Edward hesitated for a fraction of a second, and then his phone was in his hand.
"Emmett," he muttered into the receiver. He began talking so fast that I couldn't understand the words. It was over in half a minute, and he was sliding his phone back into his pocket. "Emmett and Jasper are on their way." He assured me. "They'll sweep the woods. Charlie is fine. Can you apparate us back to the house?"
Hesitating, glancing in the direction of the living room where I could hear the sound of a game playing on the TV, I nodded reluctantly at Edward. "Okay." I told him, reaching out to snag both one of his hands and one of Luna's, then twisting on the spot.
We arrived in the Cullen's living room where Rosalie instantly swooped down on Luna, hovering, looking as though she was reassuring herself my best friend is in one piece. One of her hands carefully plucked the noodle from Luna's dirty blond hair.
The other vampires in the room were standing still as statues, all in various poses of stress.
"What happened?" Edward demanded, and I was shocked to see that he was glowering at Alice, his hands fisted in anger.
Alice stood with her arms folded tight across her chest. Only her lips moved. "I have no idea. I didn't see anything."
"How is that possible?" he hissed.
"Edward," I said, my voice sharp. I didn't like him talking to Alice this way.
Carlisle interrupted in a calming voice. "It's not an exact science, Edward."
"He was in her room, Alice. He could have still been there- waiting for her."
"I would have seen that."
Edward threw his hands up in exasperation. "Really? You're sure?"
Alice's voice was cold when she answered him. "You've already got me watching the Volturi's decisions, watching for Victoria's return, watching Bella's every step. You want to add another? Do I just have to watch Charlie, or Bella's room, or the house, or the whole street, too? Edward, if I try to do too much, things are going to start slipping through the cracks."
"It looks like they already are," Edward snapped.
"She was never in any danger. There was nothing to see."
"If you're watching Italy, why didn't you see them send-"
"I don't think it's them," Alice insisted. "I would have seen that."
"Who else would leave Charlie alive?"
I shuddered.
"I don't know," Alice said.
"Helpful."
"Stop it, Edward," I said, my voice sharp and firm. "That's enough."
He turned on me, his face still livid, his teeth clenched together. He glared at me for half a second, and then, suddenly, he exhaled. His eyes widened and his jaw relaxed.
"You're right, Bella. I'm sorry." He looked at Alice. "Forgive me, Alice. I shouldn't be taking this out on you. That was inexcusable."
"I understand," Alice assured him. "I'm not happy about it, either."
Edward took a deep breath. "Okay, let's look at this logically. What are the possibilities?"
Everyone seemed to thaw out at once. Alice relaxed and leaned against the back of the couch. Carlisle walked slowly toward her, his eyes far away. Esme sat on the sofa in front of Alice, curling her legs up on the seat.
"Victoria?" Carlisle asked.
Edward shook his head. "No. I didn't know the scent. He might have been from the Volturi, someone I've never met..."
Alice shook her head. "Aro hasn't asked anyone to look for her yet. I will see that. I'm waiting for it."
Edward's head snapped up. "You're watching for an official command."
"You think someone's acting on their own? Why?"
"Caius's idea," Edward suggested, his face tightening again.
"Or Jane's," Alice said. "They both have the resources to send an unfamiliar face..."
Edward scowled. "And the motivation."
"It doesn't make sense, though," Esme said. "If whoever it was meant to wait for Bella, Alice would have seen that. He- or she- had no intention of hurting Bella. Or Charlie, for that matter."
I cringed at my father's name.
"But what was the point then?" Carlisle mused.
"Checking to see if I'm still in Forks?" I suggested.
"Possible," Carlisle said.
Edward's expression turned discouraged, and a moment later Emmett burst through the kitchen door, Jasper right behind him.
"Long gone, hours ago," Jasper said, calmly. "The trail went East, then South, and disappeared on a side road. Had a car waiting."
"Which is bad luck," Emmett grumbled. "If he'd gone west... well, it would be nice for those dogs to make themselves useful."
I glared, but Emmett looked unapologetic. Jasper looked at Carlisle. "Neither of us recognized him. But here." He held out something green and crumpled. Carlisle took it from him and held it to his face. I saw, as it exchanged hands, that it was a broken fern frond. "Maybe you know the scent?"
"No," Carlisle said, expression discouraged. "Not familiar. No one I've ever met."
That's when Luna unfurled the newspaper she was still holding, placing it down on the smooth floorboards, then lowering herself so she was sitting on the ground in front of it, cross-legged.
The headline of the Seattle Times read: "Murder Epidemic Continues- Police Have No New Leads."
"Luna?" I asked, confused.
"The Nargles are very strong around this." She says, and her silver eyes are grave as they look at me, then they turn to Jasper, with an unnerving, unerring focus. "They are also very strong on you, Major."
Jasper stiffens, turning to a statue. Beside me, Edward inhales sharply.
"Oh," he said sharply, turning his head slightly to look at Jasper. "I didn't think of that. I see. You're right, that has to be it. Well, that changes everything." The room, even gentle Esme, looked annoyed by their vagueness, but Jasper didn't respond to any of their looks, instead his golden eyes turned to... me.
"What do you know about me, Bella?" he asked, quietly. I frowned slightly.
"I know that you're from the South, and that you're Alice's mate." I said, honestly.
"What do you know about the South and it's history, related to vampires?" He presser and I thought back to History of Magic, straining to remember anything other then all the fighting between wizards and goblins.
"Something about... a war, I think?" I said, hesitantly.
"There are places in this world that are more desirable to us than others. Places where we can feed more, and still avoid detection," Jasper explained, his voice acquiring the same sort of lecture-tone as my professors and teachers alike, "the North is very civilized. Mostly we are nomads here who enjoy the day as well as the night, who allow humans to interact with us unsuspectingly." He sighed, heavily.
"It's a different world in the south. The immortals only come out at night. They spend the day plotting the next move, or anticipating their enemy's. Because it has been war in the south, constant war for centuries, with never one moment of truce, the covens there barely note the existence of humans, except as soldiers might notice a herd of cows by the wayside- food for the taking. They only hide from the notice of the herd because of the Volturi.
"Over the centuries different tactics were thought up for fighting for control of the desired land, some more successful then others. The person who thought up the most successful tactic of all was a young vampire named Benito. He created an army of newborn vampires. He was the first to think of it, and, in the beginning, he was unstoppable. Very young vampires are volatile, wild and almost impossible to control. One newborn can be reasoned with, but ten, fifteen together are a nightmare. They'll turn on each other as easily as on the enemy you point them at. Benito had to keep making more as they fought amongst themselves, and as the covens he decimated took more then half his force down before they lost. Newborns are dangerous, but they are possible to defeat if you know what you are doing. To put it simply, they have enormous strength, but they aren't skilled fighters. I was Turned by a vampire named Maria to be a member of the army she was creating.
"When I was first Turned there were six of us, later more were added. We were all male- Maria wanted soldiers. I was always quicker then the others, better at combat. Maria was pleased with me, and rewarded me more often, which made me stronger. She was a good judge of character, and decided to put me in charge of the others. It suited my nature exactly. The casualties went down dramatically and our numbers swelled to hover around twenty." He paused there. "I won't go into great detail, but the other newborns and I helped Maria reclaim her territory and later claimed dominance over others." He then sighed again.
"Overtime, the pain and cruelty of such existence depressed me to no end. Decades later, I ended up befriending a newborn named Peter, whom I managed to persuade Maria to keep past his first few years, claiming it was because of his advanced combat skills, but really more for his kindred spirit. Peter was... civilized, in a way. He didn't enjoy the fight, though he was good at it. It was during the purge time, the time where all the unnecessary newborns who had reached the year mark where their immense strength started to fade, that I learnt about Charlotte. She was a newborn who I was supposed to kill, but instead he yelled at her to run, and he ran after her. I could have pursued them, but I didn't. I felt... lifted, I suppose, by the love Peter and Charlotte felt for each other. They had mated, you see, and kept it a secret as Maria didn't allow for mated pairs in her army.
"Five years later, Peter snuck back for me. He told me about his new life with Charlotte, told me about options I'd never dreamed I had. In five years they'd never had a fight, though they'd met many others in the north. Others who could co-exist without the constant mayhem. In one conversation, he had me convinced. And I returned with him to where he had been staying with Charlotte."
"I remember now." I said, softly. Because while Binns had certainly focused mainly on goblins and giants, he had covered the bloody history (pun intended) of vampires too; the power struggles of the Romanians, the Egyptians and the self-named Volturi, the vampire hunting as sport Middle Age and the endless warring of the Southern American covens.
"An army," Alice whispered, her perfect face horrified. "Why didn't you tell me?"
The others were intent again, their eyes locked on Jasper's face.
"I thought I must be interpreting the signs incorrectly. Because where is the motive? Why would someone create an army in Seattle? There is no history there, no vendetta. It makes no sense from a conquest standpoint, either; no one claims it. Nomads pass through, but there's no one to fight for it. No one to defend it from.
"But I've seen this before, and there's no other explanation. There is an army of newborn vampires in Seattle. Fewer than twenty, I'd guess. The difficult part is that they are totally untrained. Whoever made them just set them loose. It will only get worse, and it won't be much longer till the Volturi step in. Actually, I'm surprised they've let this go on so long." Jasper said, grimly.
"What can we do?" Carlisle asked.
"If we want to avoid the Volturi's involvement, we will have to destroy the newborns, and we will have to do it very soon." Jasper's face had turned hard and knowing his story now, I could guess how this evaluation must disturb him. "I can teach you how. It won't be easy in the city. The young ones aren't concerned about secrecy, but we will have to be. It will limit us in ways that they are not. Maybe we can lure them out."
"Maybe we won't have to." Edward's voice was a mixture of angered and resigned. "Does it occur to anyone else that the only possible threat in the area that would call for the creation of an army is... us?"
Jasper's eyes narrowed; Carlisle's widened, shocked. My heart started to beat so loudly in my chest it was almost embarrassing.
"Tanya's family is also near," Esme said slowly, unwilling to accept Edward's words.
"The newborns aren't ravaging Anchorage, Esme. I think we have to consider the idea that we are the targets." Edward said, quiet and resigned.
"They're not coming after us," Alice insisted, and then paused. "Or... they don't know that they are. Not yet."
"What is that?" Edward watched her carefully, both curious and tense. "What are you remembering?"
"Flickers," Alice said, visibly frustrated. "I can't see a clear picture when I try to see what's going on, nothing concrete. But I've been getting these strange flashes. Not enough to make sense of. It's as if someone's changing their mind, moving from one course of action to another so quickly that I can't get a good view..."
"Indecision?" Jasper asked in disbelief.
"I don't know..."
"Not indecision," Edward growled. "Knowledge. Someone who knows you can't see anything until the decision is made. Someone who is hiding from us. Playing with the holes in your vision."
"I still don't understand how this is related to my visitor." I said, frustrated and anxious and very unhappy about Charlie being left unprotected.
"Don't you see?" Luna speaks up, her voice soft, soothing almost as she meets my anxious eyes with calm silver. "It's the same. It's both the same. The vampire who stole your scent, and the vampires in Seattle. They're together."
Jasper looked at her sharply. "What makes you think that?" He demanded.
"Someone is using the holes in Alice's vision to keep her from seeing the newborns," Luna explained while I looked at her with no small amount of horror. "And the thief was careful to make no contact that she could see. He knew the holes in her vision, and he was using them too. And what are the odds that two different people not only know enough about you to do that, but also decided to do it at exactly the same time? No," she murmured, thin fingers tugging on the ends of her straggly hair. "It's one vampire. The same one. The one who is making the army is the one who stole Bella's scent."
"You're right," Edward said in a hollow tone. "Of course you're right. And when you put it that way..."
"It was a test, to see if it would work." Jasper said grimly. "A test for if he could get in and out safely as long as he didn't do anything Alice would be watching out for. Like trying to kill Bella. And he didn't take her things to prove he'd found her. He stole her scent so that others could find her."
Edward let out a truly frightening snarl. His face was white, pure white, and his eyes were huge, wide with panic, dazed and horrified.
"There's a final link," Rosalie spoke up for the first time. Her beautiful face was strained, and her golden eyes kept darting between Luna and Emmett, as if she was trying to decide which one she wanted to scoop up into her arms and hide away from the oncoming army more. "Victoria."
"You think she created the army?" Jasper asked, sharply.
"She was in Texas. Edward tracked her there, when we left Forks."
"No," Edward shook his head; tense, afraid. "I think it's more likely to be the Volturi. Aro is far too interested in Alice, he must have an idea of how her visions work."
"Aro might have guessed, but wouldn't it make more sense that Tanya and Irina and the rest of your friends in Denali know about her visions? Laurent stayed with them, remember- he told me so in the meadow. And if he was still friendly enough with Victoria to be doing favors for her, why wouldn't he also tell her everything he knew?" I argued. I could see where Rosalie was coming from, and what she was saying made a horrific amount of sense.
"It's too sloppy to be the Volturi," Jasper agreed, "Whoever's doing this, they have no idea what they're doing. A first timer. The Volturi are not involved, but they will be."
"It could be favor," Alice suggested. "Someone in the South... someone who already had trouble with the rules. Someone who should have been destroyed is offered a second chance- if they take care of this one small problem... That would explain the Volturi's sluggish response."
Jasper looked doubtful, and I agreed with him.
"It could be either," Carlisle said, grimly. "Regardless, we'll have to be prepared. We're going to have to practice how to fight. We'll need you to teach us, Jasper. How to destroy them." Carlisle's jaw was hard, but I could see the pain in his eyes as he said the words. No one hated violence more than Carlisle.
I felt sick. There was already one life-threatening fight approaching my future, I really didn't fancy a second. And at least I'd had the assurance that Edward, that my beloved vampire family, wouldn't be involved in my fight.
This one... this one they were right in the center of.
"This isn't good," Jasper said, his jaw as hard as Carlisle's. "It's too even a fight. We'd have the upper hand in skill, but not numbers. We'd win, but at what price?" His tense eyes flashed to Alice's face and away.
I wanted to cry as I grasped what Jasper meant.
We would win, but we would lose. Some wouldn't survive.
"The shifters should familiarise themselves with the new scent." Luna spoke up, voice soft but serious. Everyone turned to her.
"That's... actually not a bad idea." Jasper said, slowly.
"Of course we're involving the wolves." I said, somewhat hysterically, anxiety and grief twisting and curling in my stomach, making me feel like I was about to throw up. "I mean, why not?"
Edward silently produced a phone, passing it to me, and, after the slightest of hesitationsc I dialed Jacob's number with practiced ease, my fingers trembling as I did so.
"Hello?" he asked, picking up after several rings, his voice guarded.
"Jake, it's me Luna and I've had a visitor of the vampiric variety. A stranger. Emmett and Jasper tried tracking them, but they got in a car, or something. We thought it would be a good thing for you lot to have the scent, in case they decide to come back for a second visit." I blurted out. There was a second of silence.
"I'll be right over." Jacob said, his voice tight. The line went dead.
"You didn't say anything about the army," Edward noted.
"I'd rather not do that over the phone." I snapped, my anxiety shortening my temper. "Or at all. I'm too distracted to apparate. Can we drive?" I asked, and Edward nodded.
"Of course, Bella." He said quietly.