My mind kept telling me to move and get the heck out of there, but my feet wouldn't budge an inch. Emily stood in front of me, her bowl shattered on the ground in from of her, her hands frozen in spot, her mouth agape, and her eyes wide. It seemed like she couldn't move either.
Crap.
"Aw. Look what we have here. Two for the price of one. So much better than what I originally thought." Victoria walked in front of me so she was staring into my eyes. "So how did your mutts like my friends? I met them back in South America. Great bunch. So willing to help with my plans. Did you know one has the power to make doubles of himself? Your dogs are going to be there for a very, very long time."
She started walking around Em and traced her fingers along the edges of her scar. "Is that what the mutt did to you? Isn't that enough proof that vampires are much better than werewolves? We have so much more self-control. I can show you if you like." She started closing in on Em's neck and I realized what she was about to do. I set her hands on fire again and she jumped away from Em. "You little-"
"Emily, RUN!" I screamed, and she took off out the backdoor and into the woods.
Victoria turned to me. "I don't need both of you, you know. So what if you helped your little friend. You're still right here."
Jake, please come home and help! I shouted in my mind.
Victoria picked up the table and threw it at me. I jumped out of the way, and it missed me by an inch. The table broke as it hit the kitchen wall. I ran into the living room and almost got to the front door when she ran in front of me.
"Where do you think you're going?"
I slowly back away while she stood there, clearly amused. "So the great mermaid is retreating. She doesn't have any more tricks up her sleeve," she laughed.
I looked around at our surroundings and an idea popped into my head. I might have one more trick up my sleeve, but Sam was going to kill me later.
I set fire to the rug she was standing on and the furniture surrounding her. I gave more life to the fire, and soon it was higher than her head. Once that happened, I ran out the back down and into the woods. I ran and ran until I couldn't run anymore. I found Emily by chance twenty minutes later. It seemed like we both took the same path, going straight into the woods and just kept on going that way.
"What do we do?" I asked Em, frantic.
"I have no idea," she said, almost on the verge of tears. She was huddled against a tree and had her hands wrapped around her legs. "I've never even seen a real vampire before except for the Cullens."
"What if she comes back? I can't do anything except set the whole forest of fire, and I don't think that will particularly go over well with the Elders!"
"What if we find Sam and Jake and the rest of the pack?"
I looked back at the way that we came, imagining Victoria coming down that path at any moment. "Sounds good to me. Let's go." I gave my hand to Em to help her up, and in the next minute we were in the woods trying to find our wolves.
I started shaking a little, and I knew that I was starting to have too much stress and my body couldn't handle much more. My body starting shaking and my heart hammered against my chest as I tried to look for the guys.
"Jake?" I called out. "Sam?"
Emily was doing the same thing. I suddenly got a chilling feeling, and a bad thought came over me.
"Em? What if she can hear us do that?"
She looked over at me. "Let's not do that anymore then," she said with wide eyes.
I agreed, and we continued our search. We were walking around for at least an hour and a half before we saw a flash of fur. I pointed frantically over where I saw it. "Was that them?"
"I think it was," she said, relieved. Two minutes later Sam and Jake came out of the trees in human form and the rest of the wolves were sitting behind them in their wolf forms.
Emily ran to Sam and gave him a fierce hug, while I ran to Jake and jumped on him. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck, and I buried my head in his neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me up.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
Emily started telling him how Victoria came to our house, while I just pulled Jake closer. I saw one of the wolves sprint out of the woods when Emily talked about how Victoria could use both of us in her plan.
"I ran out of the house and I met up with Hale thirty minutes later. I have no how she got out. You'd have to ask her," was the last thing Em said before I felt all eyes on me. I unwrapped my arms from Jake and began speaking.
"I don't know how you guys do it," I started. "That was seriously the scariest moment of my life... And I don't think you'll be too happy with how I got away..."
And then I told them my story. Some stared in disbelief, while others congratulated me. At one point Sam seemed depressed that his house caught on fire, but that look was soon wiped of off his face as he looked at Em. I could read the expression on his face, Nothing is better than your family.
"Paul, Embry. Come with me to check on the house and see if we can find Victoria. Jake, Quil. Take Em and Hayley to the town and find somewhere safe for them." With that, Sam let go of Em and ran off into the woods towards his burned-down house.
"Ready?" Jake asked. I nodded my head, and he grabbed my hand to lead the way.
"Where did Jared go?" I asked.
"Pretty sure he went to go check on Kim. He was worried that Victoria would go after her since she lost you guys."
"Well, at least it can't get any worse, right?" I asked Jake, hoping that he would confirm my thoughts. He grimaced instead. "Great. So it can."
Ten minutes later we walked out of the woods next to the grocery store. Quil wanted us to go inside to get some food. "It's been a long day, and I'm almost out of energy! A growing boy needs his food!" He didn't even wait for us to respond before he ran into the store. We followed him in there, and I stayed near the door while the other three grabbed as much food as they could carry. (Well, the two boys were anyway. Emily was trying to restrict the amount of food they were buying because she was the one who had to pay for it.) I glanced to my right and saw a stack of newspapers. I was about to look back at the boys when the headline caught my eye. What did I ever do to deserve a shitty day like this? Is this just karma for something bad I did?
