CHAPTER SEVEN
ʟᴀᴛᴇ sᴘʀɪɴɢ

Alice's hands were always cold, even wearing the thin, lace gloves she had a habit of making. The flimsy material was easy to pull from her fingers, revealing the chipped green polish on her nails, long enough to scratch my skin when they came to land upon my arms again. The contact sent a shiver down my back, making her laugh.

"I've never been more thankful for Sheriff Swan and his constant confusion."

They were all there, Bella, Edward, Renesme with Carlisle and the family. Charlie might not have known exactly what was happening with his daughter but his granddaughter had been the greatest gift she could have ever given him in response to the year of torment she'd given him, even if the thought of it made him feel old. It was a gift to Alice and me too. The Cullen's house was now often empty.

Her laugh ended against the skin of my neck, followed by the touch of her fingers again, brushing down to my collarbones, and across my shoulders. Her eyes watched her own movements as if even that was sensual enough, eyelashes heavy and dark, sheltering the dark gaze she sent my way. It was a look weighted enough to send me forward, connecting kisses like they would be our last. Alice smiled against my lips, nipping me slightly as her hands found my hair. It was always my hair she touched and tugged.

"They won't be back for another hour." Noses brushed as I pulled away. "We have time."

The insinuation didn't require a response with words. Alice's hands fell from my head, the touch missed but soon thanked for as her fingers found the thin strap of her ruffled sun dress, dropping it from her shoulder. It was a teasing movement. Too slow and painful for me to bear. But she completed it whole, taking each fold of fabric with her.

Everything about her was soft from the touch of her skin to the curve of her breasts. She leaned forward, coming so close that all I could smell was her earthy, expensive perfume. Then we were moving together, my own top removed, skin slipping against skin like the easiness of silk. There was a sigh against my lips. Her breath catching against my neck. And I realised that my eyes had closed, and my eyelashes fluttered shut.

It was the anticipation that killed me, loading my stomach with fire, letting a hiss leave my lips as cold hands reached to brush against the lowest point of my hip. Alice brushed smoothly against my most sensitive parts, the bridge of collarbones, the curve of my waist, the lowest point of my stomach, as if scared to spark such a flame with pressure. But but then her nails dug in, leaving crescents and a moan erupted shamelessly from lips.

Her touch was intoxicating, leaving me craving more. My own hands wondered, feeling each crevice of her body until I could describe each inch with my eyes closed. Her lips were against mine but my head was too hazy to feel it properly, kissing her lazily. My hands dipped lower and lower until she gasped, teeth biting against my lip to hold the sound in. I wanted nothing more than to hear that sound again, so I sunk lower and watched as Alice dissolved into the pillows, back arching and purple-painted lips parting.

The last Nahuel had known of his eldest sister, was that she was camped out in the forested area of the Amazon that lay in Venezuela. We found the first of Serena's trails by the southern border. It was long gone, but the scent was so distinct, the mix of human and vampire, that it lingered and clung. Alice led us in following it eastwards intermittently, cloaked in the desolateness of the rainforest until we reached the ocean and lost any remnants of what trail we had.

"Both of you think of a place she could've landed, swimming from here. I'll be able to tell if any of you pick up the scent of her on the other side."

There were too many options to think of, travelling through water from the coast of Guyana, but Alice seemed confident enough that I couldn't argue. She closed her eyes to concentrate and I thought of travelling back north, not hitting land until Canada, where the cold and dark could be good protection from a vampire. Nothing like the heat and sun of the south. Alice shook her head and we tried again.

New York. Maine. Morocco. Ireland, if she'd chosen a long swim. The top of Norway, an even longer swim still, where the days would be shorter, the sun more elusive. The Congo Basin, giving specifics for extra measure, an ecosystem similar to the one we'd first found her scent in. None of our guesses lead anywhere, and after a while, Alice grew frustrated.

She let out a huff and sat down against the trees. "Why isn't this working? It worked with James!"

"Maybe we're not being specific enough? With James, we knew smaller areas of where he was heading and we were actually running to those places," I suggested and Alice nodded, though it was half-hearted. "Come on, we can do this. We just need to try again."

I stayed cold with my guesses while Thomas ventured east and south.

Reykjavik. The most northern part of Iceland. Svalbard. The border between Sweden and Finland and then where that line reached the gulf. The entirety of the coast or Denmark. Shetland. Skye.

"There it is! You would catch her scent along the coast of Scotland," Alice breathed. It had taken too long to find it, her head nursed between her hands due to the strain but now that she had, she grinned. "The Isle of Skye."

"Beautiful. Let's go," Thomas said.

"I need a break. It hurts, going into my visions like that."

Alice settled herself against the tree, my jacket acting as padding. Her eyes closed, her face dressed in the same expression she used when scouring her visions, but I knew she was resting then because her eyelashes were still and without their busy flutters. She smiled under the attention of my gaze but said nothing more.

I sat next to her, legs sprawled against the dirt. It was warm, but even with skin so cold we weren't affected. Only the lowering sun, so glaring, was bothersome now and Thomas pitched himself amongst branches and leaves, just to hide from the sparkling of his skin. Though with no real malice, he was glaring, at my bare arms, I realised.

"It isn't fair really."

"What isn't fair?"

"That you can resist more sun than us," he said, but there was more to it. "It isn't fair that I didn't get a gift."

"What gift could you have gotten?"

He scoffed as if it was obvious, but then came up with nothing. His answers were grasping at straws, making me laugh. "My undeniable charm. They could have at least upgraded that."

I was laughing from the chest, shoulders shaking, making Alice shift at my side. She swatted my arm lightly but didn't say anything as I settled again.

"Never have I felt like such a third wheel than I have in the past couple of days," Thomas continued. It was my turn to shoot him a glare, but he continued his chatting. "That's saying something, considering I spent time with Rose and Emmett. Jasper was my only escape."

Alice sent me a glance and I knew exactly what she was noting. Thomas and Jasper had become close friends extremely swiftly.

She had us leaving not long later, bathed in sunlight. We would rise again in the darkness, but for now, the water protected us from the piercing stare of the sun. We were slower in the ocean, though not by much. Thomas led. It was as if the closer we got to our childhood home, the more he could sense it.

The sea was often rough, whenever we surfaced again, testing our distance. The mixing coldness of the air with the moderate warmth of the water left a thick fog covering the horizon, stretching as far as even we could see. I hated the salty feeling that was left on my skin whenever the water would dry.

Ireland rose from the distant water when the darkness began to lighten. The sky was blood-stained before the sun graced the sky. Red sky in the morning, sailors warning. My mother had always said so, and I could feel the truth in the air. It was thick and heavy and still laced with salt as we stepped onto the desolate shores. I could smell the oncoming storm.

We ran along the coastline, picking up the speed we had missed. Thomas still led, catching the trail exactly where Alice had predicted, and we were crossing over to Scotland and back across to the Isles before the sun had even risen to quarter height.

The island was not such a strange place for Serena to disappear to. Skye was thinly populated,  with fields of heather and grass stretching for miles and merging with old forests and meandering expanses of icy water. The weather was similar to that in Forks, with a soft drizzle coating the sky as we slowed our pace.

Alice's visions swiftly went black, in her closer presence, and it was by following that emptiness of sight, that we were able to find Serena. That stranger scent- one of mixed origins, one that was the same as Renesmee and Nahuel- swamped the most northern point of the island. It was thick, proving she'd been here for months. Alice frowned at the thought of it. Nahuel had described her as always moving, stopping only to convince him to join their father's family. Finding her here felt false.

But Alice forced us forwards, nearing the coast again, searching until her gifted second sight completely vanished. The scent was overwhelming now, leading us when Alice's visions could not, straight to a small, brick hut that overlooked the scathing sealine from atop the cliffs that were chiselled by rough waves. We'd found her. Serena, the half-breed that'd allied with her vampire father. But she'd sensed us coming. And Serena met us with teeth.

This probably works against the rules for Alice's visions, but I had writer's block so we're running with it, sorry!