Separating for the Hunt

 After we lost sight of Jessy, Edythe and I drove straight to the police station so I could check up on Charlie. I was convinced that he was going to bury himself in work, in an effort to not brood on Bella. We talked, and I realized another reason for him trying to bury himself in work was so he wouldn't go home and drown himself in a bottle again, as he had done the previous night.

 Before leaving, I made sure he had Edythe's phone number and told him I would be at the Cullen house, so he didn't need to worry about me. I also assured him that if I heard anything from Bella, I would let him know. Seeing him settled, we made our way to the Cullen home.

 Walking into the front room, I saw Edward pacing back and forth with his phone in hand. "Anything else you can pick out? Him just sitting in a dark room watching a television doesn't help much."

 There was a short pause as he must have been listening to a response. "Ok, just let me know if you see anything else. I can still hear all three of them at times, so they are in the area, for now. If I pick up any pertinent thoughts, I will pass them along. How is she holding up? Okay, we are going to start moving around here so keep an eye out if you can, just don't try and do too much, that's how we miss things. Love you sis, and thanks again."

 He ended his call and turned towards us. "Bella is sleeping a lot. I think this is taking a large emotional toll on her."

 "Yeah, having to run from a group of sadistic vampire's intent on killing you would do that or more to anyone. Not to mention the guilt I am sure she feels for what she did to her father." I snarked.

 "I knew I should have stayed away from her, forced her to see me for the monster and danger that I am."

 "Drop the self-pity act, Edward. It's not just your choice. She made hers, and now she is dealing with the consequences of it. Don't cheapen her efforts by thinking only your opinion matters here. We just need to deal with these three and then give Bella the chance to make things right. Now, what's the plan?"

 "Rose, Emmett, and Esme are keeping an eye on Charlie right now. I can hear James right now, and he thinks that Jessy and Victoria will be testing our commitment to protecting him while gathering more information on you and Bella. Alice says she sees Jessy and Victoria in the school office during the night, but isn't sure what night."

 He gave a frustrated sigh and sat down. "Carlisle is at work to keep up appearances. I was thinking it may be best if you two replace Emmett on guarding Charlie, and then me and Emmett go hunt James."

 I smiled, "That actually works well with what I want to do. If I can get ahead of Jessy and Victoria, I can set up an ambush. One solid bite to the neck area and I could reduce our issues by 1/3 or even 2/3 if I can get in more than one bite."

 Edward shook his head, "Our kind are not so easily taken down, Thomas."

 "Tell that to the British vampire I took down when I first shifted. I have been thinking about it since Edythe told me about the visions Alice had. My fear of hurting Jasper or Emmett in our training could be holding me back. I need to go into this with the mindset of letting go of my hesitation and letting my nature to hunt free."

 He looked worried. "If you let yourself go like that and your nature is anything like ours during a hunt, you will put all vampires near you in danger." He looked specifically in Edythe's direction.

 I shook my head, "I will never hurt Edythe! Shifted or not, she will always be safe from me harming her."

 Edythe walked to the kitchen, "Let me get you fed before we take Emmett's place, and they hunt James. Maybe this will all be over tonight."

 About an hour later, just as the day fell to twilight, I stepped outside and shifted. Moments later, Edythe and Edward joined me, and we made our way to where the group was watching Charlie.

 A couple of miles before we got to them, I had a thought. {"Hang back a bit guys, I want to work on something."}

 They both paused, and I started to move more deliberately. Testing the wind and reaching out with all my senses. With the wind coming from behind me, I quietly but quickly went south of where I believed them to be waiting and then traveled upwind until I caught their scent. In no time at all, I was close enough to see all three as they stood their watch over the police station.

 Seeing that Esme was closest to an opening in the surrounding forest, I slunk on my belly without making any sound. Every inch forward was accompanied by a pause to wait for any reaction to my presence. Holding my breath, I leaned my head forward and brushed Esme's hand with my head. Acting like a cat looking to be pet.

 Esme panicked and jumped away with a startled eep coming from her mouth. Rosalie quickly ran behind Emmett as he squatted down into a defensive position. Once he noticed me laying there, he relaxed and shook his head.

 "Damn, where did you come from. I didn't hear a thing."

 I gave a chuffing laugh at their response, and moments later Edythe and Edward joined me.

 Once Esme calmed down, she gave me an angry look, "You scared years off my life, mister. That was not nice." 

 I quickly thought toward Edythe, {"Tell he I was just making a point about how close I can get without being noticed, please. Hopefully knowing this she won't worry when we go hunting later."}

 Esme's eyes narrowed, "What do you mean you're going hunting?"

 Edythe relayed my response to her again, "Once it's dark, we will start hunting. Edward and Emmett will go after James who is separated from the others and Thomas, and I will go after the other two. You and Rose will stay and look after Charlie. We will leave a message for Carlisle to join you two once he is off work."

 Edward broke into the conversation, "Me and Emmett need to start going after James now, he is or was watching the house for any sign that Bella was still hiding there. If we wait too long, they may join back up and make this more difficult."

 Emmett gave Rosalie a kiss and hugged Esme, "We will be just fine, so don't waste time worrying about us. Just stay safe yourselves, as much as I like Chief Swan, I would rather turn him because he found out about our nature than lose you because you get hurt trying to keep him in the dark."

 There was noting I could say to that, as I agreed with him. We could figure out how to fix things later but only if everyone was alive to do so.

 Once Edward and Emmett left, Edythe and I waited for the dark to settle a bit more as we were closer to town and in more danger of being seen. When it was time, we decided to first head to Charlie's house and see if we could pick up their scent from there. Edythe was constantly casting her mind out listening for them.

 When we got to the forest behind the house, I was able to pick up a fairly fresh trail and it led directly to the back door of the house. We followed it and once inside, I shifted back to human form. Much of my embarrassment of Edythe seeing me naked had gone away after we started to explore each other's body. Unfortunately, I lost the scent when I changed back.

 "What do you think Edythe?"

 She continued to wander the house and paused in front of the bookshelf that had a majority of Bella's pictures. "One stood here for a time, going through all these pictures. I think it was the woman, but their scent is mixed up. I think they were…Embracing each other recently."

 At her words, a thought occurred to me, and I looked at the stairs that led to my room, "They better not have fucked on my bed!!!"

 I took the stairs two at a time and pushed my door open and was happy to see that my bed was still made. However, several of my paintings had been laid out on it and there were critiques made for each one. The comments made it clear it was Jessy who wrote them.

 I looked over the notes he left and was not impressed by anything he had to say. Turning to Edythe, "I wonder if this was some sort of scare tactic he was trying? Letting me know he could get to me here if he wanted to."

 Edythe chuckled, "If a vampire with all our abilities can't get into an empty house and move things around then they are a failure of a vampire. If he did this with both of us here, I would worry, but it's nothing big that he did it this way. Let's go to the school and see if tonight is the night Alice sees them there."