The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner (13 page)

Riley had to force Kristie up the stairs, and her gang came with her. Finally we all were out in the sun, most people enjoying
how very pretty they were. Riley rounded everyone up for one more quick practice session—mostly, I thought, to get them to
focus again. It took them a minute, but everyone started to realize that this was it, and they got quieter and more fierce.
I could see that the idea of a real fight—of being not only allowed
but
encouraged
to rip and burn—was almost as exciting as hunting. It appealed to people like Raoul and Jen and Sara.

Riley focused on a strategy he’d been trying to drill into them for the last few days—once we’d pinpointed the yellow-eyes’
scent, we were going to divide in two and flank them. Raoul would charge them head-on while Kristie attacked from the side.
The plan suited both their styles, though I wasn’t sure if they were going to be able to follow this strategy in the heat
of the hunt.

When Riley called everyone together after an hour of practice, Fred immediately started walking backward toward the north;
Riley had the others facing south. I stayed close, though I had no idea what he was doing. Fred stopped when we were a good
hundred yards away, in the shade of the spruce trees on the fringe of the forest. No one watched us move away. Fred was eyeing
Riley, as if waiting to see if he would notice our retreat.

Riley began speaking. “We leave now. You’re strong and you’re ready. And you’re thirsty for it, aren’t you? You can feel the
burn. You’re ready for dessert.”

He was right. All that blood hadn’t slowed the return of the thirst at all. In fact, I wasn’t sure, but
I thought it might be coming back faster and harder than usual. Maybe overfeeding was counterproductive in some ways.

“The yellow-eyes are coming in slowly from the south, feeding along the way, trying to get stronger,” Riley said. “
She
’s been monitoring them, so I know where to find them. She’s going to meet us there, with Diego”—he cast a significant glance
toward where I’d just been standing, and then a quick frown that disappeared just as quickly—“and we will hit them like a
tsunami. We will overwhelm them easily. And then we will celebrate.” He smiled. “Someone’s going to get a jump on the celebration.
Raoul—give me that.” Riley held out his hand imperiously. Raoul reluctantly tossed him the bag with the shirt. It seemed like
Raoul was trying to lay claim to the girl by hogging her scent.

“Take another whiff, everybody. Let’s get focused!”

Focused on the girl? Or the fight?

Riley himself walked the shirt around this time, almost like he wanted to make sure everyone was thirsty. And I could see
from the reactions that, like me, the burn was back for them all. The scent of the shirt made them scowl and snarl. It wasn’t
necessary to give us the scent again; we forgot nothing. So this was probably just a test. Just thinking about the girl’s
scent had venom pooling in my mouth.

“Are you with me?” Riley bellowed.

Everyone screamed his or her assent.

“Let’s take them down, kids!”

It was like the barracuda again, only on land this time.

Fred didn’t move, so I stayed with him, though I knew I was wasting time I needed. If I were going to get to Diego and pull
him away before the fighting could start, I would need to be near the front of the attack. I looked after them anxiously.
I was still younger than most of them—faster.

“Riley won’t be able to think of me for about twenty minutes or so,” Fred told me, his voice casual and familiar, like we’d
had a million conversations in the past. “I’ve been gauging the time. Even a good distance away, he’ll feel sick if he tries
to remember me.”

“Really? That’s cool.”

Fred smiled. “I’ve been practicing, keeping track of the effects. I can make myself totally invisible now. No one can look
at me if I don’t want them to.”

“I’ve noticed,” I said, then paused and guessed, “You’re not going?”

Fred shook his head. “Of course not. It’s obvious we’re not being told what we need to know. I’m not going to be Riley’s pawn.”

So Fred had figured it out on his own.

“I was going to take off sooner, but then I wanted to talk to you before I left, and there hasn’t been a chance till now.”

“I wanted to talk to you, too,” I said. “I thought you should know that Riley’s been lying about the sun. This four-day thing
is a total crock. I think Shelly and Steve and the others figured it out, too. And there’s a lot more politics going on with
this fight than he’s told us. More than one set of enemies.” I said it fast, feeling with terrible urgency the movement of
the sun, the time passing. I had to get to Diego.

“I’m not surprised,” Fred said calmly. “And I’m out. I’m going to explore on my own, see the world. Or I
was
going on my own, but then I thought maybe you might want to come, too. You’d be pretty safe with me. No one will be able
to follow us.”

I hesitated for a second. The idea of safety was hard to resist in that exact moment.

“I’ve got to get Diego,” I said, shaking my head.

He nodded thoughtfully. “I get it. You know, if you’re willing to vouch for him, you can bring him along. Seems like sometimes
numbers come in handy.”

“Yes,” I agreed fervently, remembering how vulnerable I’d felt in the tree alone with Diego as the four cloaks had advanced.

He raised an eyebrow at my tone.

“Riley is lying about at least one more important thing,” I explained. “Be careful. We aren’t supposed to let humans know
about us. There are some kind of freaky vampires who stop covens when they get too obvious. I’ve seen them, and you don’t
want them to find you. Just keep out of sight in the day, and hunt smart.” I looked south anxiously. “I have to hurry!”

He was processing my revelations solemnly. “Okay. Catch up to me if you want. I’d like to hear more. I’ll wait for you in
Vancouver for one day. I know the city. I’ll leave you a trail in…” He thought for a second and then chuckled once. “Riley
Park. You can follow it to me. But after twenty-four hours I’m taking off.”

“I’ll get Diego and catch up to you.”

“Good luck, Bree.”

“Thanks, Fred! Good luck to you, too. I’ll see you!” I was already running.

“I hope so,” I heard him say behind me.

I sprinted after the scent of the others, flying along the ground faster than I’d ever run before. I was lucky that they must
have paused for something—for Riley to yell at them, I was guessing—because I caught them sooner than I should have. Or maybe
Riley had remembered Fred and stopped to look
for us. They were running at a steady pace when I reached them, semi-disciplined like last night. I tried to slide into the
group without drawing attention, but I saw Riley’s head flip around once to scan those trailing behind. His eyes zeroed in
on me, and then he started running faster. Did he assume Fred was with me? Riley would never see Fred again.

It wasn’t five minutes later when everything changed.

Raoul caught the scent. With a wild growl he was off. Riley had us so worked up that it took only the tiniest spark to set
off an explosion. The others near Raoul had the scent, too, and then everyone went crazy. Riley’s harping on this human had
overshadowed the rest of his instructions. We were hunters, not an army. There was no team. It was a race for blood.

Even though I knew there were a lot of lies in the story, I couldn’t totally resist the scent. Running at the back of the
pack, I had to cross it. Fresh. Strong. The human had been here recently, and she smelled so sweet. I was strong with all
the blood we’d drunk last night, but it didn’t matter. I was thirsty. It burned.

I ran after the others, trying to keep my head clear. It was all I could do to hold back a little, to
stay behind the others. The closest person to me was Riley. He was… holding back, too?

He shouted orders, mostly the same thing repeated. “Kristie, go around! Move around! Split off! Kristie, Jen!
Break off!
” His whole plan of the two-pronged ambush was self-destructing as we watched.

Riley sped up to the main group and grabbed Sara’s shoulder. She snapped at him as he hurled her to the left. “Go around!”
he shouted. He caught the blond kid whose name I’d never figured out and shoved him into Sara, who clearly wasn’t happy with
that. Kristie came out of the hunting focus long enough to realize she was supposed to be moving strategically. She gave one
fierce gaze after Raoul and then started screeching at her team.

“This way! Faster! We’ll beat them around and get to her first! C’mon!”

“I’m spear point with Raoul!” Riley shouted at her, turning away.

I hesitated, still running forward. I didn’t want to be part of any “spear point,” but Kristie’s team was already turning
on each other. Sara had the blond kid in a headlock. The sound of his head tearing off made my decision for me. I sprinted
after Riley, wondering if Sara would pause to burn the boy who liked to play Spider-Man.

I caught up enough to see Riley ahead and followed at a distance until he got to Raoul’s team. The scent made it hard to keep
my mind on the things that mattered.

“Raoul!” Riley yelled.

Raoul grunted, not turning. He was totally absorbed by the sweet scent.

“I’ve got to help Kristie! I’ll meet you there! Keep your focus!”

I jerked to a stop, frozen with uncertainty.

Raoul kept on, not showing any response to Riley’s words. Riley slowed to a jog, then a walk. I should have moved, but he
probably would have heard me try to hide. He turned, a smile on his face, and saw me.

“Bree. I thought you were with Kristie.”

I didn’t respond.

“I heard someone get hurt—Kristie needs me more than Raoul,” he explained quickly.

“Are you… leaving us?”

Riley’s face changed. It was like I could see his shifting tactics written on his features. His eyes widened, suddenly anxious.

“I’m worried, Bree. I told you that
she
was going to meet us, to help us, but I haven’t crossed her trail. Something’s wrong. I need to find her.”

“But there’s no way you can find her before Raoul gets to the yellow-eyes,” I pointed out.

“I have to find out what’s going on.” He sounded genuinely desperate. “I need her. I wasn’t supposed to do this alone!”

“But the others…”

“Bree, I have to go find her! Now! There are enough of you to overwhelm the yellow-eyes. I’ll get back to you as soon as I
can.”

He sounded so sincere. I hesitated, glancing back the way we had come. Fred would be halfway to Vancouver by now. Riley hadn’t
even asked about him. Maybe Fred’s talent was still in effect.

“Diego’s down there, Bree,” Riley said urgently. “He’ll be part of the first attack. Didn’t you catch his scent back there?
Did you not get close enough?”

I shook my head, totally confused. “Diego was there?”

“He’s with Raoul by now. If you hurry, you can help him get out alive.”

We stared at each other for a long second, and then I looked south after Raoul’s path.

“Good girl,” Riley said. “I’ll go find
her
and we’ll be back to help clean up. You guys have got this! It might be over by the time you get there!”

He took off in a direction perpendicular to our original path. I clenched my teeth at how sure he seemed of his way. Lying
to the end.

But it didn’t feel like I had a choice. I headed south in a flat-out sprint again. I had to go get Diego. Drag him away if
it came to that. We could catch up with Fred. Or take off on our own. We needed to run. I would tell Diego how Riley had lied.
He would see that Riley had no intention of helping us fight the battle he’d set up. There was no reason to help him anymore.

I found the human’s scent and then Raoul’s. I didn’t catch Diego’s. Was I going too fast? Or was the human’s scent just overpowering
me? Half my head was absorbed in this strangely counterproductive hunt—sure, we would find the girl, but would we be ready
to fight together when we did? No, we’d be clawing each other apart to get to her.

And then I heard the snarling and screaming and screeching explode from ahead and I knew the fight was happening and I was
too late to beat Diego there. I only ran faster. Maybe I could still save him.

I smelled the smoke—the sweet, thick scent of vampires burning—carried back to me on the wind. The sound of mayhem was louder.
Maybe it was almost done. Would I find our coven victorious and Diego waiting?

I dashed through a heavy fringe of smoke and found myself out of the forest in a huge grassy field.
I leaped over a rock, only to realize in the instant I flew past it that it was a headless torso.

My eyes raked the field. There were pieces of vampires everywhere, and a huge bonfire smoking purple into the sunny sky. Out
from under the billowing haze, I could see dazzling, glittering bodies darting and grappling as the sounds of vampires being
torn apart went on and on.

I looked for one thing: Diego’s curly black hair. No one I could see had hair so dark. There was one huge vampire with brown
hair that was almost black, but he was too big, and as I focused I watched him tear Kevin’s head off and pitch it into the
fire before leaping on someone else’s back. Was that Jen? There was another with straight black hair that was too small to
be Diego. That one was moving so fast I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl.

I scanned quickly again, feeling horribly exposed. I took in the faces. There weren’t nearly enough vampires here, even counting
those that were down. I didn’t see any of Kristie’s group. There must have been a lot of vampires burned already. Most of
the vampires still standing were strangers. A blond vampire glanced at me, meeting my gaze, and his eyes flashed gold in the
sunlight.

We were losing. Bad.

I started backing toward the trees, not moving
fast enough because I was still looking for Diego. He wasn’t here. There was no sign he had ever been here. No trace of his
scent, though I could distinguish the smells of most of Raoul’s team and many strangers. I had made myself look at the pieces,
too. None of them belonged to Diego. I would have recognized even a finger.