T.01.18 The Hunt

In Which We Meet REAL Vampires

So our first view of the other vampires. Cat-like, predatory, dressed very casually, animalistic. They are Laurent, Victoria and James. They are, it seems, Real Vampires. There are pleasantries exchanged with Carlisle, who seems intent on converting them, and the three agree to return to Wahmpire Manor. Then the breeze picks up and they catch scent of Bella....

Wait. During the last chapter Alice said she could smell Bella across the ballfield and that running was useless since the trio would then be inspired to hunt her.  You know what? Whatever. They catch scent of Bella, there's posturing and questions and the Laurent agrees not to kill her. It's all very civil. Emmett, Alice and Edward leave with Bella while the rest of Clan Cullen go home.

When they reach the Jeep, Edward reveals that James is a tracker who is going to kill Bella. Edward takes off driving with the intent to spirit Bella out of town, but she won't leave Dad. The three wahmpires quickly conclude they'll have to kill the three vampires (wow, some brutality from the monsters) while Bella argues that she should fly home to Phoenix until everything blows over. They argue some more about tricking James or getting him to do this and that, but it boils down to Bella getting out of Dodge vs killing the three Vampires.

And that's it. Seriously, that's the end. Nobody actually gets hunted or anything and it takes a dozen pages to kick this off.

SumUp: B
The conversation is roundabout, but if yo can actually feel the flow of logic and emotion in the discussion. The wahmpires (I may promote Alice and Emmett) are trying to work out a real plan given a difficult situation. The concern works, the race to get her away pours some desperately needed characterization into Edward and you get a real sense of intensity, anger and fear. If only there were more of this in the prior 17 chapters!.

I still don't get why the great tracker didn't know there was a human in the crowd, but I'm not going to belabor the point. Maybe she was downwind.