The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

hiding places, like Diego’s cave, but who else thought about that kind of
     thing? We had a place to go, a base, so we went to it. Clear heads were not a vampire specialty. Or, at least, they weren’t
     the specialty of
young
vampires. Riley was clearheaded. Diego was more clearheaded than I was. Those cloaked vampires were terrifyingly focused.
     I shuddered. So theroutine wouldn’t control us forever. What would they do when we were older, clearer? It struck me that nobody was older than
     Riley. Everyone here was new. She needed a bunch of us now for this mystery enemy. But what about afterward?
    I had a strong feeling that I didn’t want to be around for that part. And I suddenly realized something stupendously obvious.
     It was the solution that had tickled the edges of my understanding before, when I was tracking the vampire herd to this place
     with Diego.
    I didn’t have to be around for that part. I didn’t have to be around for one more night.
    I was a statue again as I thought over this stunning idea.
    If Diego and I hadn’t known where the gang was most likely headed, would we ever have found them? Probably not. And that was
     a big group leaving a wide trail. What if it were a single vampire, one who could leap up onto the land, maybe into a tree,
     without leaving a trail at the edge of the water…. Just one, or maybe two vampires who could swim as far out to sea as they
     wanted… Who could return to land anywhere… Canada, California, Chile, China…
    You would never be able to find those two vampires. They would be gone. Disappeared like they’d gone up in smoke.
    We didn’t have to come back the other night! We
shouldn’t
have! Why hadn’t I thought of it then?
    But… would Diego have agreed? I was abruptly not so sure of myself. Was Diego more loyal to Riley after all? Would he have
     felt it was his responsibility to stand by Riley? He’d known Riley a lot longer—he’d really only known me a day. Was he closer
     to Riley than he was to me?
    I pondered that, frowning.
    Well, I would find out as soon as we had a minute alone. And then maybe, if our secret club really meant something, it wouldn’t
     matter what our creator had planned for us. We could disappear, and Riley would have to make do with nineteen vampires, or
     make some new ones quick. Either way, not our problem.
    I couldn’t wait to tell Diego my plan. My gut instinct was that he would feel the same. Hopefully.
    Suddenly, I wondered if this was what had really happened to Shelly and Steve and the other kids who had disappeared. I knew
     they hadn’t burned in the sun. Had Riley only claimed he’d seen their ashes as another way to keep the rest of us afraid and
     dependent on him? Returning home to him every dawn? Maybe Shelly and Steve had just set off on their own. No more Raoul. No
     enemies or armies threatening their immediate future.
    Maybe that’s what Riley had meant by
lost to the sun
. Runaways. In which case, he’d be happy that Diego hadn’t bailed, right?
    If only Diego and I
had
taken off! We could be free, too, like Shelly and Steve. No rules, no fear of the sunrise.
    Again, I imagined the whole horde of us on the loose without a curfew. I could see Diego and me moving like ninjas through
     the shade. But I could also see Raoul, Kevin, and the rest, sparkling disco-ball monsters in the center of a busy downtown
     street, the bodies piling up, the screaming, the helicopters whirring, the soft, helpless cops with their dinky little bullets
     that wouldn’t make a dent, the cameras, the panic that would spread so fast as the pictures bounced swiftly around the globe.
    Vampires wouldn’t be a secret for very long. Even Raoul couldn’t kill people fast enough to keep the story from spreading.
    There was a chain of logic here, and I tried to grasp it before I could be distracted again.
    One, humans didn’t know about vampires. Two, Riley encouraged us to be inconspicuous, not to attract the notice of