Midnight Sun (The Twilight Saga #5) - Stephenie Meyer Page 0,255

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