Tracking, Failing and Dealing With Pests

Dashing through the woods, I skidded to a stop before raising a hand to my ear, "Nothing here either. You ever think they might have a Vampire with an ability and this whole thing might be a useless endeavor?" I teasingly questioned into the Bluetooth wireless headset.

"Nothing over here either," Emmett's voice spoke up after a crackle before he chuckled and agreed with me, "I think Jason's on the mark this time, Carlisle."

Smirking, I provocatively spoke up, "See? You guys owe me some money after this. I won the bet fair and square," I let out a laugh, thinking about the money I was gonna get and the food I could buy with it. Fair and square, my ass, as well. I was using future knowledge like anybody else would in my situation.

Plus, using the bet, I could subtly prepare the Cullens for Victoria and her bullshit OP ability.

Basically made it so you could never catch up to Victoria if you had dangerous intent. She'd always be a step ahead of you no matter what you did. If you wanted a shot at her, you needed to wait for her to come to you.

"Can we please not bet on such a serious thing?" Edythe spoke up reprimandingly, "People's lives are at stake. Someone's already died," she continued in a somber tone.

Hearing her I gave a noncommittal shrug before speaking, "Sure thing, mom," I joked before I picked up something with my sense of smell. Instantly my eyes scanned the environment, my brain making connections before I could even figure them out consciously. "I've got the scent on my position. Moving to track it," I said into the wireless headset, my tone serious and unlike the jokey one I'd been using up until now.

In the last half and hour, I'd discovered something about myself that I guess I should've already known by know. I was a fantastic hunter.

Which made a lot of sense when you thought about it.

For one, Humans are the apex predator of Earth. I mean, on my Earth anyway. This Earth has Vampires, Werewolves and Shapeshifters--But I digress. Humans are unusual in the sense that we hunt predators. Humans hunt bears, lions, tigers, wolves - we hunt everything, regardless of it's position on the food chain. What does this mean? We have an innate advantage and ability as hunters.

And what does that make me? Well, by all means, I'm an ultra-enhanced human who has no doubt hundreds of thousands of years of evolution encoded into my DNA that makes me a true apex predator.

The innate talents hold for hunting has been magnified and enhanced inside of me.

Which means following scents, footprints and other environmental tells...is stunningly easy for me. Right now I could easily tell that I was on the trail of three extremely fast humanoids, one of them barefoot. Their scent and the way the dirt had hardened in the shape of their footprints...I could easily tell they'd been here about half an hour ago.

Jumping, I grabbed a relatively low-hanging branch and flung myself up even further. Pressing against the trunk behind me, I burst forward and occasionally used the trees as foot holds as I flew through the woods at increasingly faster speeds.

Something inside of me felt such joy at the prospect of hunting. Like a primal side of me was being unleashed and allowed to blossom after so many years of being forced to stay civilized.

My movements became faster, more fluid and graceful as I went through the trees, sometimes using them as footholds but also sometimes swinging off of branches like an ape. Truly, I've returned to monke.

Smiling wide and, probably, savagely to myself, I heard Rosalie speak over the comms.

"Stop rushing ahead, Jason!" she shouted with an annoyed tone, "What are you gonna do even if you do find them? There's three of them and one of you!" she gave very good and logical points...yet right now my brain wasn't really using anything other than the ape parts.

Not only were my movements becoming better and more efficient but they were also becoming more and more silent. It didn't take long until I was like a blurry shadow silently prancing through the trees. Meanwhile, my senses were getting sharper as the scent grew in intensity. I didn't reply to the voices in my ear and just delved into the hunt.

I wasn't going to attack if I found them. No, all I wanted to do was find them or try and get around Victoria's ability. If I could do that...I'd feel an immense amount of self-satisfaction.

It'd also prove that I could get Victoria and stop the future events that were going to happen, from happening. If I could, I'd no doubt save myself and others a lot of trouble.

My ears picked up the sound of crashing water and I came to a stop, gripping into a tree's bark as I stabilized myself above the raging river. Looking down, I found the source of the scent I'd been following and I gave a wry smile before I dropped from the tree.

Landing silently, I walked over to the pile of clothes that were ripped in places. Kneeling down, I picked up a scarf made of some sort of animal's coat. Bringing it to my nose, I sniffed it before reeling back a little in disgust. I'd smelled it when I was tracking the scent but the metallic scent of human blood was incredibly strong right now.

Compared to animal blood that registered as a part of food* in my mind, human blood smelled as far away from food as possible. Good to know I'm not a cannibal, I guess.

(*A/N - Animal blood is considered food to him because blood is in meat. You can also eat animal blood and it's kinda beneficial, I guess. Human blood, however? That's cannibalism, so Jason's body would reject it.)

Dropping the fur scarf I assumed belonged to Victoria, I saw a visual representation of the scent and it traveled into the water...before it disappeared. They probably swam up or down the river while using it to hide the scent. Victoria knew I was after her and on her trail. Frowning, I pressed the button on the headset, "They ditched their clothes and washed the scent off their body in a nearby river."

Within a few seconds, Edythe and Edward appeared at my position and frowned when they saw the piles of clothes.

"This is a problem," Edythe started with a frown of her own, "A Coven from out of town can be bad because of their diet but a Coven with a member who can evade capture so easily? God, this is a disaster," she pretty much summed up the situation and both Edward and I nodded along.

"Well, it's not all bad," I started and Edythe gazed at me as if to ask 'Want to share?', so I elaborated, "At least we know they're around here now. Now we can be on guard and keep an eye out for them. I know for sure I won't forget their scent and the next time I catch it...I'll be on it," I gave a self-confident smile, knowing that despite only having discovered my talent for hunting that I'd quickly grow into it and develop it further with time and experience.

Seeing my point, Edythe gave a shrug, "I guess you're right. It's just a shame an innocent man had to die for us to gain this knowledge."

Such a wording struck at me a little, causing a pang of guilt to spawn in my chest. I knew the guy was gonna die but in the process of living this life, it'd slipped my mind. Or rather, I didn't want to think about it with my budding feelings for Rosalie blooming inside me. To bring up the fact that an innocent man was gonna die, would mean I could save him and stop James' Coven from taking anymore lives...but it would also mean upsetting the balance I had right now.

Plus, I'd have to explain to Carlisle how I knew they'd be attacking. Sure I could hide behind the excuse of precognition because Alice has such an ability...but at the same time, I'd have to keep up the guise of having precognition and, pretty soon, my foreknowledge would fail me and the jig would be up.

I'm between a rock and a hard place at the moment.

Yet I'm not just gonna let the future events play out like I know them. You'd be stupid to think I'd let Bella meet James alone like in the original. Hell, I won't even let it come to that in the first place which is why I was so involved in the tracking just now.

Hubris. It effects everyone in some way after a certain point in time. Now I just need to make sure I intercept the trio before they kill again.

Hopefully I can at least take one of them down at that point. I should be able to get Rosalie to contact the rest of her family while I stall for time. Would simply take a phone call or text message.

A plan was quickly growing in my head and I began to think through back-up plans and contingencies before the guilt I was feeling over the man's death disappeared as I resolved myself to stop it from happening a second time.

. . .

It'd been a day since the start of tracking and preparing yet there was nothing of James' Coven to find. Maybe they'd been spooked by how quickly we'd responded but it wasn't likely. They were simply biding their time and waiting for us to let our guards down before they could sneak in and attack once more.

I couldn't remember the exact date when they were supposed to attack or even if they were going to attack again. But at the very least I knew I'd be prepared this time.

But that was neither here nor there and I had bigger issues to deal with.

Jumping from the roof I was squatting on the edge of, I landed silently before calling out over the empty parking lot, "Oi."

It wasn't loud or aggressive. Hell, it was my normal volume of speaking. But the five guys surrounding Bella all stopped, their body's frozen and their faces twisted in confusion. How could they know that they'd run into a more evolved version of them? A human who was above other humans, genetically and physically? They couldn't. But it didn't stop their body's from knowing.

Looking at Bella, I saw that she was mostly fine albeit a little shaken up after having five drunk dudes prod and poke at her. Right now, I was angry. Obviously at the five drunkards in front of me, who were trying to accost my sister like she was some sort of prostitute.

But I was also somewhat mad at my sister. I'd told her not to stay out late tonight. And if she had to, to at least have a friend with her when she was out. Multiple friends, if possible.

Yet did she listen? No. Did she accept my offer of picking her up when she called me? No.

It was like the world was working against me here and the only other way I could stop Bella from going out tonight would be to physically restrain her from going. And what would that get me? Indignation. Then dad would come in and make me let her go.

I was at wits end, so I just decided to follow her around for the night. Weird but needed behavior.

"And, like, who are you, man?" the least drunk, but still pretty drunk, of the group looked over to me but I just ignored him and didn't give an answer as I just walked over with long strides.

Before long, I was in front of them. Grabbing Bella by the arm, I pulled her behind me before I backhanded the first one who looked like he was about to speak to me, "Shut up," I said as he dropped to the floor, blood dribbling from his mouth and pooling around some stray teeth that had been knocked out by the casual swipe.

As if following a script, Edward's car screeched around the corner and soon came to a stop right in behind of us. I looked over my shoulder as he shot out of his car, the door barely opening in time, his eyes alight with anger and his entire body exuding the pressure of a barely contained animal.

But I ignored all that.

"Take Bella, get her something to eat and take her home," I told him, my voice calm and my words straight to the point. He seemed unsure of what I'd said, distracted from his anger for a brief moment before he nodded and walked around the car to open the door before he gestured to Bella to get in. "Go with him, Bella," I added and she shakily nodded, still shook up from the entire experience.

Edward guided her into the car before he closed the door, gave the four remaining men a lethal glare, and got into the car. Once the car sped backwards and away, I bent down and picked up the six-pack of beer the first guy I dropped had, ironically, dropped.

Breaking one of the can's free, I cracked it open and lifted my head back before chugging it.

The group of four men just stared at me, stunned solid and probably more than a little intimidated by my tall and solid frame. But that couldn't last for long, especially when they were all drunk.

As I was finished with the disappointing beer, I caught the nearest guy winding up with a haymaker and without wasting a second, I stepped into the space just in front of him and slammed the empty beer can right against his forehead. The can crushed with a satisfying sound and a blast of blood spurted out when the can cut into the man's skin.

I followed though and the man slammed into the floor, the can partially embedded in his skin a few millimeters. He was still alive but he'd have a circular scar of a beer can for a while. He'd wake up with one hell of a concussion as well.

The next two nearest to me burst into action sluggishly and I whipped the six-pack of beer around, the plastic wrapped around my finger as I used it like a flail.

The first man had his jaw shatter when the beers collided against it and he was out like a log, dropping to the floor as his legs failed him. The other guy looked in shock and looked poised to raise his hand in surrender but I didn't let him utter those words and I slammed the three remaining beers into his face, crushing his nose inward. He also dropped like his legs were made of jelly and he was sent to cuckoo land just as easily as the others.

The last one was just staring at me with fear easily clear in his eyes, even more clear when he spoke up, "P-please, man, just, uh, let me go--Please!" he stuttered out and I just narrowed his eyes as I grabbed another beer from the six-pack.

"Run," I gestured with my chin and he looked at me, lost, "Run. If you can get away, I won't look for you," I elaborated and his eyes filled with foolish hope as he turned around and left his downed friends behind.

Watching him running was like watching a snail moving--Nay, it was slower than that. It was like watching grass grow. Slow, arduous and boring.

But I waited until he was a good fifteen meters away before I gripped the beer can with enough force that the slick blood on it wouldn't make it slip out of my hand or effect my grip on it. Then, I wound up like a pitcher and threw the beer can with enough force to make a professional baseball pitcher look like they were a backup pitcher for a little league team. Not to mention the precision with what I threw the can.

It impacted the back of the fleeing man's head and burst open as a resounding crack echoed in my ears as his head shot forward, his chin impacting his throat as he dropped to the floor before skidding to a stop.

He was alive. They were all alive. But most of all, they were lucky. I'd left them with injuries that would hurt and ache but I hadn't crippled any of them. I'd just left them reminders of tonight and that would cast a shadow in their minds that would hopefully stop them from acting like asses in the future.

They hadn't committed any crimes. In fact, I was the only criminal here. This would count as grievous bodily harm or at the very least it's count as assault.

But in the end, that thought process came to an end as I shrugged:

They were drunk out of their minds and it was too dark for a normal human to really be able to remember someone's face. Neither was there any CCTV around here. So, I was safe and sound from the law.

With that mopped up, I flung the beers into a nearby bush and went on my way with my hands in my pockets. I was off to go and get a taco or a dozen.