Edward took a deep breath.
"We're going to see if I can confuse the scent enough to hide your trail," Jacob explained.
I stared at his open arms suspiciously.
"You're going to have to let him carry you, Bella," Edward told me. His voice was calm, but I could hear the subdued distaste.
I frowned.
Jacob rolled his eyes, impatient, and reached down to yank me up into his arms.
"Don't be such a baby," he muttered.
But his eyes flickered to Edward, just like mine did. Edward's face was composed and smooth. He spoke to Jasper.
"Bella's scent is so much more potent to me - I thought it would be a fairer test if someone else tried."
Jacob turned away from them and paced swiftly into the woods. I didn't say anything as the dark closed around us. I was pouting, uncomfortable in Jacob's arms. It felt too intimate to me - surely he didn't need to hold me quite so tightly - and I couldn't help but wonder what it felt like to him. It reminded me of my last afternoon in La Push, and I didn't want to think about that. I folded my arms, annoyed when the brace on my hand intensified the memory.
We didn't go far; he made a wide arc and came back into the clearing from a different direction, maybe half a football field away from our original departure point. Edward was there alone and Jacob headed toward him.
"You can put me down now."
"I don't want to take a chance of messing up the experiment." His walk slowed and his arms tightened.
"You are so annoying," I muttered.
"Thanks."
Out of nowhere, Jasper and Alice stood beside Edward. Jacob took one more step, and then set me down a half dozen feet from Edward. Without looking back at Jacob, I walked to Edward's side and took his hand.
"Well?" I asked.
"As long as you don't touch anything, Bella, I can't imagine someone sticking their nose close enough to that trail to catch your scent," Jasper said, grimacing. "It was almost completely obscured."
"A definite success," Alice agreed, wrinkling her nose.
"And it gave me an idea."
"Which will work," Alice added confidently.
"Clever," Edward agreed.
"How do you stand that?" Jacob muttered to me.
Edward ignored Jacob and looked at me while he explained. "We're - well, you're - going to leave a false trail to the clearing, Bella. The newborns are hunting, your scent will excite them, and they'll come exactly the way we want them to without being careful about it. Alice can already see that this will work. When they catch our scent, they'll split up and try to come at us from two sides. Half will go through the forest, where her vision suddenly disappears. . . ."
"Yes!" Jacob hissed.
Edward smiled at him, a smile of true comradeship.
I felt sick. How could they be so eager for this? How could I stand having both of them in danger? I couldn't.
I wouldn't.
"Not a chance," Edward said suddenly, his voice disgusted. It made me jump, worrying that he'd somehow heard my resolve, but his eyes were on Jasper.
"I know, I know," Jasper said quickly. "I didn't even consider it, not really."
Alice stepped on his foot.
"If Bella was actually there in the clearing," Jasper explained to her, "it would drive them insane. They wouldn't be able to concentrate on anything but her. It would make picking them off truly easy. . . ."
Edward's glare had Jasper backtracking.
"Of course it's too dangerous for her. It was just an errant thought," he said quickly. But he looked at me from the corner of his eyes, and the look was wistful.
"No," Edward said. His voice rang with finality.
"You're right," Jasper said. He took Alice's hand and started back to the others. "Best two out of three?"
I heard him ask her as they went to practice again.
Jacob stared after him in disgust.
"Jasper looks at things from a military perspective," Edward quietly defended his brother. "He looks at all the options - it's thoroughness, not callousness."
Jacob snorted.
He'd edged closer unconsciously, drawn by his absorption in the planning. He stood only three feet from Edward now, and, standing there between them, I could feel the physical tension in the air. It was like static, an uncomfortable charge.
Edward got back to business. "I'll bring her here Friday afternoon to lay the false trail. You can meet us afterward, and carry her to a place I know. Completely out of the way, and easily defensible, not that it will come to that. I'll take another route there."
"And then what? Leave her with a cell phone?" Jacob asked critically.
"You have a better idea?"
Jacob was suddenly smug. "Actually, I do."
"Oh. . . . Again, dog, not bad at all."
Jacob turned to me quickly, as if determined to play the good guy by keeping me in the conversation. "We tried to talk Seth into staying behind with the younger two. He's still too young, but he's stubborn and he's resisting. So I thought of a new assignment for him - cell phone."
I tried to look like I got it. No one was fooled.
"As long as Seth Clearwater is in his wolf form, he'll be connected to the pack," Edward said. "Distance isn't a problem?" he added, turning to Jacob.
"Nope."
"Three hundred miles?" Edward asked. "That's impressive."
Jacob was the good guy again. "That's the farthest we've ever gone to experiment," he told me. "Still clear as a bell."
I nodded absently; I was reeling from the idea that little Seth Clearwater was already a werewolf, too, and that made it difficult to concentrate. I could see his bright smile, so much like a younger Jacob, in my head; he couldn't be more than fifteen, if he was that. His enthusiasm at the council meeting bonfire suddenly took on new meaning. . . .