A/N: This chapter is dedicated to my sister who is the master of all things Twilight. And thank you, also to everyone for sticking with me and my slow updating, we’re over halfway done now. Un-betaed beware of misspellings.

Chapter 11: Wonderland

Dead I am the life, dig into the skin
Knuckle crack the bone, 21 to win
Dead I am the dog, hound of hell you cry
Devil on your back, I can never die

- “Dragula”, Rob Zombie

Bella tried her best to blend in with the crowd of scared and anxious guests in the Beliagio’s lobby. Which wasn’t hard, seeing as she was in fact scared and anxious. Edward stood beside her, talking rapidly in a low voice into his phone. He looked important and focused, a few people threw glances his way, curious to his behavior, but no one approached.

After fleeing the Ballroom, Edward had taken them up a flight of stairs all the way to their floor and to Emmett and Rosalie’s room faster than a phone call would have taken. As Bella stood quietly, Edward had explained in a quick and quiet voice what had happened and the other vampires had rushed through the door to help Carlisle and Esme. Edward and Bella had returned to the lobby to work on blending in with the other confused and panicked guests that had also escaped the ballroom.

Suddenly, he snapped his phone shut and it disappeared into the inside pocket of his jacket. He looked up and met Bella’s eyes.

“What’s the verdict? Is everyone okay? Did we get him?” She asked immediately, firing the questions in rapid succession.

“Jury’s still out,” he said as he led them to an alcove at the side of the lobby. “That was Carlisle. The Rogue escaped and Rosalie and Emmett are in pursuit. Alice and Jasper should have joined by now.”

“But they’ll catch him, right? Four to one,” Bella said, her eyes flicked to the crowd in the lobby, “that’s really good odds and this is Vegas, after all.”

“We can hope,” Edward said simply, he took Bella’s hand and pointed them toward the route that would take them away from the chaos while drawing the least attention. “Now, let’s get back to our room’s before this becomes a full fledged circus.”

When they arrived in their room, Bella removed herself from where she’d latched onto Edward’s back for the ride up the stairs, and collapsed onto the waiting sofa. She immediately undid the tiny buckles that bound her feet into the silver, strapy high heels Alice had forced her into. She leaned back into the cushions and the material of her dress irritated her skin where it started halfway down her back. She contemplated changing but decided she was too exhausted to bother and instead resigned herself to watching Edward roam around their apartment.

Feeling a prang of jealously mixed with an aged longing, she watched her fiancée move around their hotel room at an inhuman speed. Soon, she wouldn’t be limited by her mortal fatigue. If she were a vampire now they could both be out hunting through Sin City looking for their Rouge.

Edward moved from window to window, door to door, checking and rechecking the security. His diligence made her feel more uneasy than secure, like a threat was really going to burst through one of them at any minute. He turned and caught her eye.

“I really think we should leave, Bella.”

“We’ve been through this already, I’m not leaving.” She slumped forward, resting her head on her hands, her elbows crinkled in the blue chiffon of her dress. “Besides, it’s not even after me…for once.”

“We don’t know that. And even if you don’t end up…” He didn’t finish and changed tactics, “even if that’s true we’ve stumbled onto two kills so far, what if there’s a next time?”

“If we leave now, the cops will still get suspicious, they’ll come after us.”

“We can hide you! We can lie low for a few decades, by then the trail will have gone cold long ago and everyone will have forgotten by then.”

“But I am suppose to marry you by then, we’re suppose to be married tomorrow.” She stood up and padded over to where Edward stood. “I want to marry you and go on our honeymoon, I don’t want to flee Vegas and go on the lamb with the lion.”

That did warrant a smirk on his part, “I know, but we can get married…later.”

“But how much later? You said decades, I don’t have decades. And as much as I hate to point out, it’s more than putting off the wedding. It’s also about these women. We’re not running away and leaving their cases to go cold.”

“We can take this vampire off the streets, we can stop him. You don’t have to be here for that to happen.”

“I’m not running away. I’m not letting him chase me away from this city, from this wedding. I’m not going to disappear off to some corner of the globe with no good-byes. I’m not leaving Charlie to get a call and learn there’s another police department hunting me out because we skipped town on them. I’m not leaving Renee and my friends…to have the last they see of me to be our pictures on the news like fugitives.” She switched to a professional monotone that she hoped resembled a news reporter, “Isabella Swan and Edward Cullen, wanted for questioning in relation to five murders in the greater Las Vegas…”

“Yes, there are five.” He cut her off. “Five women, young women, whose lives have been cut regrettably short. And while I respect your dedication to helping us catch the Vampire who did that, I cannot call myself your future husband and at the same time let you run the risk of becoming the sixth.”

“I know, I know,” she said slowly as she reached out and embraced him. She laid her head against his chest and felt the cold that seeped through the material of his tuxedo. “I know you want to protect me, and I love and appreciate that. But nothing you can say will make me leave. I’m in this for the long run.”

“Bella…”

“I’ve made up my mind, you’ll just have to stay here, fight this head on with me, sick by me…marry me.”

o0o0o0o0o0o

Alice could feel Jasper’s presence beside her as she leapt from a roof of an unknown casino to a rather nondescript business building. As she leaped from structure to structure, the people and cars roaming the strip looked like insects and the technicolor flashing lights made the city below swirl and move, and Alice thought that if she were to stand on the edge of one of the buildings she might be hypnotized to stop and stare until she fell forward into the sparkling abyss. Compared to the strobing lights beneath, the dirty, dark building tops all began to look the same. And in the unfamiliar city, she was forced to admit to herself, she wasn’t entirely sure of exactly where she was.

She couldn’t pinpoint a specific location in her mental map, but she figured that they had to be somewhere near or on the Strip due to all the flashing lights and activity below. She was aware Emmett and Rosalie were a few buildings ahead, having been just up lounging in their room when they were first by Edward (Alice and Jasper had caught up a few moments later.)

With a blind leap, Alice realized that she and the others had been essentially led in one big circle. For they had landed in the eerily barren section of the Strip that was currently under construction. The smell of gasoline and the ashen taste of concrete assaulted her senses as she landed next to Jasper.

The area was large, several acres and was promised to the assembly of new resort/casino/hotel complex. The ground breaking ceremony had taken place earlier in June and before that the area had been demolished and cleared so only a sandy wasteland remained in the wake of the former casino/hotel that had homed there.

A tall chain-link fence surrounded the entire area and floodlights were scattered about casting a faint glow over the site. Bulldozers, flatbeds, forklifts, backhoes, and various cranes and trucks were randomly parked throughout the area. Piles of rubble yet to be cleared as well as scaffolding erected in varying degrees were crowded around the beginnings of foundations for several building that dotted the construction site. The terrain was silent, yet chaotic, and it provided lots of little hiding places for their prey.

She automatically shifted her weight to the balls of her feet, as her stilettos were not sand-friendly and the sand then barley moved as Alice’s boots carried her forward she and Jasper made their way between two trucks and closer to their game. They were out of the light and carefully out of the sight of the human workers left to guard the area.

And sure enough, a few dashes between construction equipment later, they found two men in identical blue shirts slipping coffee and reading in an orange pick up parked on one of the makeshift roads carved through the sand. Alice and Jasper smelt their siblings nearby and quickly joined them in their position behind a stack of cement pipes a few yards in front and to the right of the truck.

“If this Vamp wants to play hide and seek we can’t do it with Tweedledee and Tweedledum watching,” Rosalie was saying. “It’s too risky.”

“I agree,” Alice replied as she and Jasper crouched beside her and Emmett, “But we can’t kill them.”

Emmett shook his head. “Carlisle would not approve.”

“We could distract them,” Alice suggested, by the look of the two guards the old dollar-bill-on-a-fishing-rod would do the trick.

“How?” Jasper and Emmett asked at the same time.

With lightning fast reflexes, Rosalie’s hand shot out and snatched a piece of paper that had been rustling across the sand, blown by the night’s breeze, some tourist’s throw-away trash. Alice could see it was a brochure with a dragon and two knights on it’s crumpled cover.

“Leave it to me,” Rosalie said, standing straight up with the pamphlet clutched in her hand.

Quick as a flash, Alice watched as appeared beside the driver’s side of the truck. She’d also let her hair down in the process.

“Hi!” She chirped and the guard closest split his coffee out in surprise.

“Hey…how did you…you’re not suppose to be here.”

“I’m so sorry, I just got a little lost.”

Alice could see that the other man had put down his newspaper and had turned to face the visitor, his head peeking out from behind his partner’s shoulder.

“Miss, this is private property.”

“Oh, I didn’t know, I must have taken a wrong turn. I’ve never been a city so huge, it’s so scary and I’m so glad I found you guys parked here because this place is seriously freaky.” Rosalie was rambling, but Alice didn’t need to see her sister’s face to know that she had turned on the charm. No mortal (or immortal) man could resist the call of Rosalie’s amber eyes.

“Sounds terrible.” One of the guards muttered.

“It is and now I’m lost. Do you know where Excalibur is?” She quickly flashed the pamphlet. “I’m suppose to meet my friends there. I heard they had jousting.” The blonde head bobbed enthusiastically.

(“Jousting!” Emmett said excitedly. “Let’s do that after!”)

“Friends…” the first guard drawled and he smoothed his comb-over, “not a boyfriend.”

(“Emmett,” Jasper chided. “Stay focused, we’ve got a murderous Vampire to hunt down.”)

“Oh no,” Rosalie giggled “Just me and the girls, we’ve had this all planned out since first semester! So, if you guys could just point me the right way I’d be so totally grateful!”

“Tell you what, little lady, we’ll do you one better! Hop in, we’ll drive you over there ourselves, a girl as pretty as you should not be walking alone a night.”

“Oh, thank you!” Rosalie clapped her hands and bounced over to the other side of the truck at human speed. The guards had budged up to make room for her and Rosalie opened the passenger-side door and got in. “You guys should come! We can all see the jousting together!”

The guards exchanged unbelieving, yet ecstatic looks and the engine roared to life.

Alice and the boys watched the truck drive away and disappear out of sight. After a few minutes, the engine died off in the distance, total silence, then Rosalie appeared beside them.

Emmett looked at her warily. “Rose, what did you do?”

“Nothing! Relax! I used the sleeper hold you taught me. They won’t remember anything except meeting a pretty girl,” She explained while quickly snagging her hair up into a high ponytail. “They should wake up in a few hours… I think.”

“Rose! You didn’t use to much force did you?” Knowing his wife, they could be decapitated.

“No, they’ll be fine. Although, they might be a little shocked when they wake up in the bed together parked off the Strip.”

As if bored with the delay in the game of chase, a ways in the distance a cry broke the night. Alice and her siblings stood straight up to observe that their quarry had jumped on top of a small crane and proceeded to screech at the top of it’s lungs, the sound carrying across the whole construction site.

“Well, that answers the question of where.” Emmett stated as he and Rosalie took of towards the crane, veering to the right. Jasper and Alice sped off towards the left, they would run in a semi circle and approach their target from the right, Rosalie and Emmett would do the same on the left.

In a few seconds they arrived at the crane and, miraculously, the Rogue had waited for them. He was now perched on the roof of the crane’s car. He kicked in the window and yanked on a few of the gears within.

“It is about time you guys showed up for the party.” He sneered and with a leap he launched himself from the top of the car to the very tip of the crane.

Emmett had reached the crane first and wasted no time jumping onto the base and began swiftly climbing his way up the rig. But before he could reach him, the Rogue used his weight to spin the crane around, but Emmett continued to climb. The Rouge vaulted from the top of the crane onto the hook suspended from the cable hanging from the top of the crane’s arm. The force caused the crane to begin spinning faster, slowing Emmett’s ascension. Rosalie had also reached the crane and with a timed jump, reached up and grabbed onto one of the Rogue’s dangling legs. She used the other the claw at him, the Rogue hissed and tried to shake her off.

Alice and Jasper reached the crane. They wasted no time on jumping onto the rig, the metal heaved with the addition of the two more vampires. Jasper landed onto the top of the car, Alice landed on the side. She dug her fingers into the metal of the side and felt it warp beneath her fingers, with her other hand she ripped off the door and crawled into the small cabin. She heard the metal roof above her creak and through the small window in front of her she saw that Jasper had launched himself onto the arm of the crane and was several yards behind Emmett. Alice knew that her brothers would not try to jump from the arm to the cable from which the Rouge and Rosalie were hanging. They could jump the distance easily, but the momentum of the rapidly spinning crane would cause them to overshoot their target and miss the swinging cable.

Removing her eyes from the scene before her, Alice focused instead on the gears and controls before her. The crane’s dashboard was lit up and the gages and dials were flickering and spinning almost as wildly as the crane itself. Alice wasn’t sure if she was ashamed to admit it, but when it came to the considerable amount of skills and talents she had developed over her prolonged stay on earth, operating a crane was not one of them. She spotted a partially large lever and pulled it towards her.

The crane jolted a few feet higher in the air and the whole rig tilted to the side and then fell back into place with a shudder. The arm remained spinning.

“Alice!” Rosalie yelled angrily from where she hung suspended from the one of the Rogue’s feet. He aimed another kick at her but she punched the boot away.

“Sorry!” Alice cried. “I’m trying!”

Alice leaned back away from the gears and clutched the leather seat beneath her with both hands to steady herself. She closed her eyes and focused and eventually the noise of the creaking crane and the growls and hisses of the others died away to a dull hum. She ignored the jostling of the crane and soon that also died away. She focused of the Rogue, his scent, his image, his dark essence. Blurring balls of faded color moved around in her mind’s eye and slowly began to form pictures.

His face contorted in a mix of rage and determination.

His leg drawing back.

A boot coming in contact with Rosalie’s chin.

Rosalie plummeting to the ground.

Alice’s eyes snapped open and the world came flooding back, she’d removed her hands from the seat and was now clutching the dash for support. Even though she wasn’t sure if she could have done anything to stop it, Alice still cruised herself as she watched her vision play out and witnessed Rosalie take a hard hit and lose her grip. She landed crouched on the ground, unharmed, but she had lost her prey and snarled in frustration.

“Rose!”

She caught her sister’s eye and jerked her head. Rose nodded and in a flash of blonde hair abandoned the base of the crane.

Her vision had given her an idea, with Rosalie out of the way she was ready. Grabbing the same lever she had pulled before, she forced it all the way forward, the handle snapped off but she had achieved her goal and the crane’s armed slammed forward and into the ground.

Alice was the last to reach the wreck of the arm. Dust and sand had filled the air for a few seconds, but was now beginning to dissipate. Although try as they might, they could not find the Rogue in the debris. Their quarry was not caught under the arm as Alice had hoped and she once again began trying to tune in on her prey.

Crowds of dark figures obscured by bright neon lights, the dark shapes of cars and vehicles whipping past.

She opened her eyes and saw Jasper beside her and felt his hand on her shoulder.

“Where is he headed?”

“The Strip.”

At her words, the four vampires ran at top speed to the edge of the construction site. They found a desert and dark portion of fencing and pried open a hole and soon they were on the street. Automatically they split up in different directions to search, Rosalie and Emmett headed across the street towards MGM, Alice and Jasper back towards the Bellagio.

They traipsed up and down Las Vegas Boulevard, weaving in and out to the pulsing crowd of mortals. A few times Alice thought she got a whiff of his scent but as she tried to follow it, the trail was swallowed up by the mixing aromas of the thousands of humans on the sidewalks and roads.

Soon they all circled back to the block across from the construction site and hid from prying eyes and ears in the alley behind a decorative café. They exchanged frustrated and defeated looks.

Alice leaned up against a wall and closed her eyes.

“Can you tell if he’s still here?” Emmett asked her. “Where’s he headed?”

Shapes began to form under her eyelids and she described them for the others to hear.

“It’s a room…dark…the walls are made of brick, could be a basement, there’s junk all over the place...”

“Great,” Rosalie groaned, “he could be anywhere.”

Emmett growled and knocked his head against the alley wall, a few pieces of cement feel out and joined the gravel below.

“It’s no use…we’ve lost him.”

TBC

A/N: With the combined help of the Wiki entry for the City Center and the Twilight Lexicon I think my description off what the landscape would have looked like at that time is at least semi accurate. And thank you to the magic of Google maps, they’re very addicting.