Lips of an Angel

Chapter 21-Love Finds a Way

A/N

This was the most exciting chapter to write yet, so I'll let you get on with it!

Lucy xX

***

Jasper shot me a wry smile as Emmett and I returned to him after hunting and fighting constantly for the previous two hours. Emmett's clothes were battered and ripped beyond belief, but my own weren't so bad. Certainly, they weren't slashed and torn off in five different places as his were, although my jeans were ripped across the knee and my shirt was torn across the shoulder.

"Feeling better?" Jasper asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Immeasurably."

"Excellent. Lets go back and discuss where we need to move to next."

I rolled my eyes at Emmett towards Jasper as Jasper began to run back, and Emmett caught me in a headlock, which I threw off with a laugh. Emmett tossed snow in my face playfully, and I felt it settle across my face and shoulders, not melting, instead staying there perfectly. I shook it off instead, and we followed Jasper back.

As we entered the living room, I saw instantly that Tanya and Irina weren't there. According to Alice, they'd gone off to hunt. More like find some other poor human male to love for the night... Or morning. Or both. Disgusting, but at least I didn't have to deal with their maddening behaviour.

"Any ideas as to where we should go, Jasper?" Carlisle asked.

"Somewhere away from Alaska and Britain," he replied quickly. "We could head to Texas-"

"They could guess that," I said. "You're from there. And it's too sunny."

"Fair enough. Can anybody think of anywhere cloudy?"

"London," Rosalie said, flicking her hair. I refrained from rolling my eyes at her, but only just.

"Washington?" Esme suggested.

And so, after much deliberation, we decided to move to Washington, Seattle. With her long-term contacts, Esme found us a temporary house within a matter of hours, and a flight was booked for the following morning. I felt a distinct sense of whiplash as I realised how quickly it had happened, when something else occurred to me.

"If we're in Washington, how can we expect to catch James when we get a lead? He'll be in Britain."

"I thought protecting Edward was a larger priority. Besides, it's no better from here, and we can't go back to London with Paul," Jasper said.

"Equally, we can't run from James forever," Emmett said.

"No, we can't. I suspect that James will eventually be able to track us to an approximate location, and when that time comes, we can hunt him," Jasper said.

"How long are we going to disrupt Edward's life?" I snapped. "This could take months. Years."

"Let's be realistic, Bella. Edward can't go back to London with Paul there, as he's got too many ties leading back to us."

I scowled at Jasper. "That's not what I mean, and you know it. Edward has a life beyond us."

"I thought you'd be rejoicing," Rosalie observed. "You get to spend time with him for-"

"I don't want to! The further away from us Edward is, the better."

"Let's not get off the subject," Carlisle said hastily, clearly keen for Rosalie and I not to start fighting again. "Let's make the move, and take things as they come."

***

The amount of travelling myself and my family had done in the past month was, quite frankly, ridiculous. We'd been back and forth between Alaska and London, and then we were flying down to Seattle, Washington. The house we ended up in was absolutely gorgeous, but I was too distracted to pay attention to it, for Jasper and Emmett had been looking out for signs of James, and already he'd killed four people within a mile radius in Denali. Clearly, his tracking skills were better than we'd believed.