THE TRACKER CHOSE TO RUN BEHIND US, UNWILLING TO GUESS AT OUR route. Every now and then I would catch the edge of his thoughts, but never more than a few words, or a view of the Jeep. He followed on higher ground, in the mountains, unconcerned when it took him miles from the road. He could still see us.
I didn’t want to think about where Bella was now, what she might be doing and saying. It would be too distracting. But there were a few things left undone.I whispered instructions to Carlisle and he typed messages to Alice’s phone. It probably wasn’t necessary, but it made me feel better.“Bella needs to eat at least three times every twenty-four-hour period. And hydration is important. She should have water on hand. Ideally eight hours of sleep.”Carlisle, still keeping the phone low, texted as quickly as I could speak.“And…” I hesitated. “Tell Alice not to talk about our conversation before in the Jeep. If Bella has questions, deflect them. Tell her I’m very serious about this.”Carlisle looked at me curiously, but typed my message.I imagined Alice on the other end, rolling her eyes.She only texted back the letter y in acknowledgment. I took that to mean that Bella was still awake, and Alice intended to keep my instructions to herself. She must see an unpleasant reckoning if she ignored me.Emmett was mostly thinking about what he would do when he had the tracker in his grasp. His imaginings were pleasant to watch.When we had to refuel, I used one of the large gas cans Emmett had loaded into the backseat. In my pocket, Bella’s socks would leave the faintest trace of her scent in the air. I moved in a blurred rush, as if my only goal was to race away again, and I was pleased when the tracker came closer to watch. For a moment, he was no more than a mile away. I wanted to take advantage, to flip this flight into an ambush, but it was too soon. We were still too near the water.I didn’t try to be evasive about our route, driving in the straightest line the curving freeways allowed toward my destination. I hoped the tracker would interpret this the way I wanted him to—that I had a destination in mind, somewhere defensible, somewhere I felt safe. He knew little about us, but he knew this much: We had more physical assets available to us than the average nomad. Also, we were many. Perhaps he would imagine even more allies waiting in the forests to the north.And I had considered running toward Tanya’s family. I was sure they would help. Kate, particularly, would be an excellent addition to our hunting team. But they were also too close to the water. The tracker might take one look at the five of them and break for the ocean. All he’d need to do to disappear was submerge. It was impossible to track someone underwater. And he could come out anywhere—five miles down the beach, or in Japan. We’d never be able to follow. We’d have to regroup and start over.I was headed toward the national parks near Calgary, more than six hundred miles from the nearest open water.Once we turned on the tracker, he would know that he’d been led astray, and Bella wasn’t with us. He would run, and we would chase. I felt confident I could outrun him, but I needed a course with enough length. Six hundred miles gave me some padding.I wanted to finish this quickly.We drove through the night, only decreasing our speed occasionally when I heard a speed trap waiting ahead. I wondered what the tracker made of that. He’d already guessed I had extra abilities. This was surely giving away more than I wanted to, but the other option was too slow. Let him see this—my giving up information about my advantages—as another sign that we were intent on some specific destination. A safe house? That would have to make him curious.I wished I could hear the theories in his head, but he kept back just far enough for me to see only the sporadic glimpse. He must have formed a theory about my talents, and he probably wasn’t far off.The tracker ran on, tireless, and from the little I could hear, enjoying himself immensely.His enjoyment irritated me, but it was a good thing. As long as he was content with what he was currently doing, it gave me time to get to my chosen arena for our ambush.As the time passed, though, I got nervous. The sun was closer to the western horizon than the eastern. We’d done nothing interesting but stop to refuel a few times—always leaving hints of Bella’s scent. But would this long run bore him? Would he be willing to follow for potentially days and days, through the northern territories and into the Arctic Circle if we kept going? Could he abandon his chase before he was absolutely sure Bella wasn’t in the Jeep?“Ask Alice if she sees the hunter quitting before we’re set.”Carlisle complied quickly.A few minutes later, the letter n.That settled my nerves.The sun moved slowly closer to the western mountains as we neared my target. I wanted to get him close enough for me to hear him. I needed to do something to interest him.We were on a small freeway that led to Calgary. We could have continued to Edmonton, waited for full dark, but I was getting more and more anxious. I wanted to stop running away and start hunting.I turned off onto a small side road that led into the southernmost end of Banff National Park. The road did curve around eventually back to Calgary, but it wasn’t the fastest way to get anywhere. It represented a new behavior we hadn’t exhibited up to this point. That would have to pique his interest.Carlisle and Emmett knew what the change meant. Both were suddenly tense. Emmett was more than just tense—he was thrilled, eager to get to the fight.This side road took us quickly away from the barren, early spring farmlands that lined the road to Calgary. We’d started climbing immediately, and now we were surrounded by trees again. It looked quite similar to home, but drier. I couldn’t hear another mind anywhere nearby. The sun was on the other side of the mountain we were climbing.“Emmett,” I breathed. “I’ll buy you a new Jeep.”He chuckled once. No worries.We could pretend to stop for gas again—it was nearly time—but this change of pace would have the tracker on edge. We’d have to move fast.“On my word,” I told them, waiting for the first touch of the tracker’s mind.Emmett’s hand was on the door handle.This road was much rougher than the last. I hit a rut that had the Jeep jolting out of our lane. As I worked to control the vehicle, suddenly the tracker’s voice was there.… must have a place close…“Go,” I snarled.We all three threw ourselves out of the speeding Jeep.I landed on the balls of my feet, and I was sprinting toward the sound of the tracker’s thoughts before the others had got their balance.Oh ho, a trap after all!The tracker did not sound either upset or frightened by the sudden reversal in roles. He was still having fun.I pushed myself, blurring through the trees we’d just driven past. I could hear Carlisle and Emmett behind me, Emmett charging through the underbrush like a rhinoceros. His louder attack might cover some of the sounds of my own. Maybe the tracker would think I was farther back than I actually was.It was a great relief to run, to move under my own propulsion, after the long drive stuck inside the Jeep. It was a relief not to have to rely on road, but just to take the shortest route toward my target.The tracker was fast, too. It didn’t take long before I was glad I’d given myself six hundred miles to catch him.He curved west toward the far-distant Pacific as we climbed higher into the eastern edge of the Rockies.Carlisle and Emmett were falling farther behind. Was that the tracker’s hope? Separate us and take us out one at a time? I was on my guard, waiting for another sudden turnabout. I welcomed the idea of his attack. Part of me was full of fury, another part was just anxious to finish this.I couldn’t hear his mind—he was slightly out of range—but I could follow his scent easily enough.His path turned northward.He ran and I ran. Minutes passed, then hours.We veered northeast.I wondered whether he had a plan or was just running aimlessly to throw me off.I could barely hear Emmett’s charge through the forest. They had to be several miles back now. But I thought I could hear something ahead. The tracker moved quietly, but not silently. I was gaining on him.And then the noise of his progress was gone completely.Had he stopped? Was he waiting to attack?I ran faster, eager to spring his trap.And then I heard a faraway splash at the same time I crested a snow-dusted ridge that broke off in a steep cliff.Far below, a deep glacial lake, long and narrow, almost like a river.Water. Of course.I wanted to dive after him, but I knew that would give him the advantage. There were miles of bank where he could emerge. I would have to be methodical, which would take time. He had no such impediments.The slow way was to run the perimeter of the lake, looking for traces of him. I’d have to be careful not to miss his exit. He wouldn’t walk up onto the bank and start running again. He’d try to leap out, to put some distance between the water’s edge and his scent.The slightly faster way was to split the distance with Emmett and Carlisle; we could cut the perimeter into thirds.But there was also the fastest way.Emmett and Carlisle were getting closer. I ran back to Carlisle, my hand stretched out in front of me. It only took him a second to understand what he wanted. He tossed me the phone. I turned again and ran with them, texting Alice.Tell me which one of us finds the trail.We reached the overlook of the long lake.“Emmett,” I breathed almost silently. “You decide to take the south bank from this point and then follow it around to the east. Carlisle, decide to run the north along this bank. I’ll take the far side.”I pictured it, committed to it, diving into the dark blue water, shooting across to the opposite shore, then running north to meet up with Carlisle at the far tip of the lake.The phone vibrated silently.Em, she texted. Southern tip.I showed them her text, and then handed the phone back to Carlisle. He had a waterproof bag to protect it. I dove, and heard Emmett push off behind me. I held myself straight as a knife, determined to cut into the water with as little sound as possible.The water was very clear, and just a few degrees warmer than freezing. I swam several yards below the surface, invisible in the night. I could make out the sound of Emmett behind me, but he was nearly silent. I couldn’t hear Carlisle at all.I slipped out of the lake at its southernmost point. The only sounds behind me were the drops of water falling off Emmett and hitting the stony bank.I took the right, and Emmett the left.There was a ripple as Carlisle emerged. I glanced back. The phone was in his hand again, and he was motioning to Emmett. I’d chosen the right way. Sure enough, only a few yards farther and I caught the hint of the tracker’s scent. It was above us—he’d leaped into the branches of a tall lodgepole pine. I scaled the tree and found his trail leading off through the branches of the surrounding trees.And then I was on the chase again.I fumed as I flew through the branches. We’d lost enough time with the lake that he was many miles ahead now.He was doubling back the way we’d come. Would south be his choice? Back to Forks to find Bella’s trail? It was a solid seven-hour trek, if run straight. Would he want to give me that long a chance to catch up to him?But as the endless night wore on, he changed direction a dozen times. He moved predominantly west, easing his way toward the Pacific, I imagined. And he kept finding ways to build his lead, to slow us.Once it was a wide cliff. We each decided the directions we would search at the base, but Alice just kept texting n n n n n. Her view of the tracker was so limited, she could only see how we reacted to his trail. It took too long for me to see the damage in the cliff face where he’d broken his fall halfway down and then scaled sideways across the stone.Another time he found a river. Again, we exhaustively imagined the routes we’d go searching. He stayed in the water for a very long way. We lost nearly fifteen minutes before Alice saw that Carlisle would find the tracker’s trail thirty-six miles southwest.It was maddening. We ran and swam and swung through the forest as fast as we were able, but he just toyed with us, constantly building his lead. He was very practiced and, I was sure, quite confident in his success. The advantage was entirely his now. We’d keep lagging behind, and eventually he’d be able to lose us completely.The thousands of miles between Bella and me kept me always anxious. This plan, leading him away, was turning out to be no more than a minor delay in his real search.But what else could we do? We had to keep chasing after him and hope we could somehow catch him out. This was supposed to be our big chance to stop him without endangering Bella. We were doing a pathetic job.He confused the trail again in another miles-long glacial lake. There were dozens just like this, all raking north to south through the Canadian valleys as if a giant hand had gouged its fingers down the center of the continent. The tracker took advantage of them often, and each time we had to imagine and decide, then wait for Alice’s C or Em or Ed, a y or an n. We got faster at the mental part, but every pause put him farther ahead.The sun rose, but the clouds were thick today and the tracker didn’t slow. I wondered what he would have done if the sun was shining. We were on the west side of the mountains now, and running into human towns again. Probably he would have just quickly slaughtered any witnesses if he’d had to.I was certain he was heading for the ocean and a clean getaway.