Vampires are fast in the snow. Even in feet of snow, like there was that night. We can race so quickly that we almost skim on top of it, our feet leaving little shimmering drags of tracks rather than giant footprints.
We were almost a mile away when we both caught the scent and stopped so abruptly that snow went spraying everywhere.
Blood.
A lot of it.
Edward gave me a pointed look.
I wondered if he could handle it.
He nodded quickly. “Can you?”
“We can hold our breath.”
And instinctively, I reached for his hand. He took mine, squeezed it, and together, we ran.
The accident scene was an eerie nightmare. Blood spattered across the road. The odd yellow lights of the tow trucks; the snow pulsing odd shades of blue and red from the police cruisers. People screamed.
Near the edge of the scene, a woman stood, sobbing.
“He was right here,” she screamed. “He was right here!”
Edward and I exchanged glances.
Vampires move too quickly for anyone except other vampires to see. But the scent near the woman was undeniable.
It was the scent I loved to bathe in at night.
“Oh, Jas,” I heard myself say and found my hand was squeezed tightly.
Edward still hadn’t let go of it.
“We can still find him,” he said.
We had to run at human speed through the wreckage, jogging at a pace that felt glacial. As we did, we ran into Carlisle coming the other way. I’d never seen him looking so disheveled—his shirt and pants were covered in blood, one of his sleeves was torn halfway off, his hair was drenched with snow and matted with some other substance. His skin pulsed an odd shade of purple in the glow from the emergency vehicles.
For someone with perpetually maintained energy, he looked exhausted.
“What—” he started to ask.
“Jasper,” Edward answered at once. “And Maria. They were out having a conversation. They weren’t far from here.”
Carlisle closed his eyes, tilted his head upward, and muttered a word I’d never heard him say before.
When he opened them again, he laid a hand on Edward’s shoulder. “Can you find them, son?”
Edward nodded.
“Then do. Please. Make that your priority. I’ll handle whatever needs to be handled here. Just—keep them contained.”
Then he turned to me. “Alice, do you see anything?”
I shook my head. “I saw the accident. And Jasper. But I think there’s nothing new coming.”
“Good. That’s…that’s good.” He squeezed Edward’s shoulder. “Go, son. You and Alice need to find them. And fast.”
Edward nodded and sprinted off in the direction of Jasper’s scent.
I was still holding his hand.