The Story Of Sarelle: The Immortal Years »

Chapter 32

28th April 2048

I stared out over the map Carlisle and I had poured over. Every jump written in black and white. Where I went. What I saw. Where I was when I jumped. But for all the notes we had written it still didn't make any sense.

"Can you remember anything else, Sarelle? Any feeling about whether each jump was in the present, the past, maybe the future?" Carlisle's eyes raked over the information before us. His frustration was clear in the way his brow creased with concentration. He rarely showed such consternation.

"The airport in Florida, at the time. The date was 22nd April. I remember because I checked the departures board." I glanced at the screen on Carlisle's computer briefly to check the date, "that was 6 days ago now."

"We could check the flights, make a list of arrivals and departures."

"It could be something I suppose." We'd gone round and round in circles, each avenue just led to another. I couldn't help but think we were just wasting time.

"And this jump to the Cinetica lab?"

"I couldn't tell, but sometimes I can't unless it's in the far future."

"What about this jump to Dylan's? Could he have known you were there?"

"I was careful."

"No cameras? No hidden recording devices? If he is as shrewd a journalist as he seemed, he wouldn't have his work left unprotected."

"You think Dylan told the Volturi?" I gaped at Carlisle. The very thought that Dylan could do such a thing was unthinkable.

"We have to consider all the possibilities. If we believe something triggered these jumps, then there has to be something in these jumps that highlights what that event is."

I nodded along with his logic. If we were going to understand what was going we had to consider the unthinkable.

"Look at the links here, Dylan's office, the Volturi informant, the airport at Florida. Isn't he originally from there? I think we have to consider the idea that Dylan is somehow involved."

"Please don't tell me Dylan Dyer is yet again the thorn in our side." Tanya's voice drifted through the room as she joined us in the office. She had kept her distance recently as I worked with Carlisle, perhaps to respect his role a leader of the Cullen coven, or maybe the looming threat of the Volturi had just brought back memories she didn't wish to relive.

"Nothing is certain, Tanya. Carlisle was just stating a theory." I went on the defensive immediately and I knew they both sensed it. Just because the evidence pointed to Dylan somehow being involved, I knew the man he was, and betrayal wasn't in his nature.

"You don't think he might have been a little bitter after we sent him on his way?" Tanya trailed her fingers over the information before us, tracking the lines drawn between events as if building reality with every link she found.

"There's always the possibility it was an accident. Maybe he spoke to the wrong person?" Their eyes turned on me but not for long. Alice entered theroom with a speed swift for even a vampire. Her face twisted with worry, furrowing her brow beneath her cropped hair.

"What's wrong?" I asked wearily. Any anxiety I had felt when this all started had rooted itself in my muscles. Now it was just a dull ache, always present, always ready to fight or flee, but I had no room for anymore. Anything that came now was just background noise.

"It's Alfie. He been declared missing." Her voice was quiet, like saying the words would somehow crack the facade we'd all taking up these past few weeks.

"When was he last seen?" I asked as I tied my hair back and gathered my shoes. I was ready to run.

"They're not sure. His home life wasn't very stable. An alcoholic mother, no father around." She played with her fingertips as she talked. I wondered whether her childhood had more of an impact on her than she thought. "He never showed for school this week."