by Alicorn
After even a few minutes for the trail to cool, scent alone wouldn't be enough to identify mespecifically, although they'd know a vampire was involved. The distinguishing features of a person's scent evaporated much more quickly, so they'd only be able to tell my species, not recognize my person. I could confuse my trail to the point of untrackability in a sufficiently crowded area. But the crowds could be questioned later, and might remember us. Water would really be best if we could manage it. My backpack was fortunately waterproof; I'd considered that an important feature when I'd bought it, considering my penchant for aquatic food.
"Elspeth, sweetie, do you happen to know how long you can hold your breath?" I asked.
"A whole minute!" she bragged, sending me the relevant memory.
I didn't pull any oxygen out of the air I inhaled. If we both held our breaths, and I carried her in one arm and dove underwater, we could stay underwater for two minutes at a time if I gave her my air. That wasn't enough time to get out of visual range from a speedboat if someone on it spotted us and knew which direction to go, but itwas enough time to get far enough away to confuse anyone who thought we were human. I could pop up in unpredictable locations and be unfollowable. All they'd be able to tell, if they were questioned later, would be that we'd been in the lake.
I'd avoid spending too long in the water - I just needed to break my trail, and then there would be thousands of miles of coastline on which Icould have emerged. By the time they found the specific beach we'd come out on the scent would be long gone.
I clung to uninhabited areas so I could run instead of walking until I got to the edge of the water. "We're going to swim across this lake," I told Elspeth, after confirming that there was no one along the stretch of coast I'd found. I explained how we were going to stay underwater, made sure she knew to poke me if she needed air early, and dove in.
I managed to stay out of the paths of boats for the entire trip across the lake. The swim took four hours, but Elspeth was very patient about it, and looked fascinated by the fish we passed. We climbed out on a beach in Ontario, and it was already after dark. "I'm hungry, Mama," Elspeth informed me.
"Okay, Elspeth, I'll get you something to eat," I promised. "I need to figure out where we are first."
"I never got to hunt with you before, I'm excited," she announced.
"You've been hunting?" I asked, blinking.
She showed me. They'd been feeding her animal blood. Or rather, taking her along on hunting trips and letting her get it for herself, which she'd become capable of months previously. I wasannoyed that my dietary regimen had been thrown out the window once I was out of the picture, but on the other hand, wild animals were free and human food wasn't. I didn't have access to deep pockets full of ancient fortune anymore. It was probably better, all things considered, if she hunted for food.
I ran along a highway, slowing to a walk whenever I heard a car coming, until I arrived in a town. I found a convenience store that was open, read an atlas with one hand to avoid having to put Elspeth down, and identfied an area that was unlikely to be inhabited where she could hunt.
"You have to put me down so I can chase stuff," she pointed out when we'd arrived.
I didn't want to let her go. But she did need to eat, and if she was accustomed to bringing down her own food... I set her on her feet. She ran lightly ahead of me, and I jogged behind, just keeping her in sight.
Elspeth drained two raccoons and a small deer, then announced she was done. She had good table manners, which was a relief, because replacing her clothes every time she ate would have gotten very expensive and I only had a few hundred dollars left from snow shoveling.
She didn't protest at all when I scooped her up again. She fell asleep in my arms as I ran, heading nowhere in particular except away from the lake.
It occurred to me to feel bad for Carlisle and Esme and Emmett and Rosalie. They wouldn't know what had happened to Elspeth. I also worried vaguely about the neighbor who'd taken her to the park being suspected of having something to do with it. But there was no way to let it be known that she was okay, that the neighbor was innocent, without making my survival an even more obvious hypothesis than it already was. I had to stay "dead". If she just vanished without a trace, any nomadic vampire accustomed to helping him or herself to interesting live curios could have been the culprit. If she kept in touch with her grandparents and aunt and uncle, on the other hand, that sharply narrowed the field of suspects.
Maybe when she was older, there would be some workaround. She could claim to have escaped a captor or something, once grown, without being young enough that they'd insist on her coming to live with them again. Elspeth's adulthood was only a few years away. They could fret over it for that long. My parents had to think that I was dead for longer, possibly forever.
In the meantime, I had my daughter, and I could keep her, and she was warm in my arms.