Vanity and Patience: A Rosalie Hale & Emmett Cullen Story

Chapter 5: Predator

It took one-sixth of a second for Emmett to be on the move in pursuit of the poor, unsuspecting people. Like lightening, he charged into the trees and over the hill.

Edward was still mumbling unintelligible things, probably blaming himself, as we pursued Emmett in his chase. He must have heard their thoughts nearby, enabling him to detect the men seconds sooner than the rest of us.

Emmett ran and leapt onto trees in silence. Hunting was so natural to him already, just on his first day as one of us. I couldn't help but admire how quickly he picked it up. It was like he was born to do it and have fun with it. His tree leaping resembled that of a monkey, and his hunting and predator styles ironically resembled that of a bear.

Edward, the quickest of us all, managed to stop Emmett dead in his tracks. He stood in front of him, hands pushing on Emmett's chest. "Don't do this," he pleaded.

"Edward please be careful," Esme called, but she was too late.

Emmett flicked his elbow towards Edward to get him out of the way. His unmarked strength caused his large arm to fling Edward fifty feet into the air and ten feet away only continuing to pursue the humans. Edward landed with a crash, pulverizing an ancient tree and causing a dent in the earth, bending his leg in an unnatural way.

Esme ran to Edward's side to help as Carlisle and I stayed focused on Emmett.

Carlisle, trying to keep a safe distance from Emmett, caught up to Emmett's side and tried persuade him not to hunt them, tried reason with the vampire youth, but to no avail. Unfortunately, his distance wasn't far enough, and Emmett was able to push him out of his way, causing Carlisle to fall flat on his backside.

We could not stop him. The two hikers didn't stand a chance against Emmett.

We didn't stand a chance against him.

He was swift and efficient, propelling himself in their direction with his powerful legs. It was almost effortless. He lurched at them with precision, a cunning nature to his hunting tactic. The way he took each of them by their head and shoulders with his hands, breaking both their necks in the matter of just seconds—it was horrifying for even a vampire to watch.

Luckily for the first hiker, it was over so quickly for him, too fast for him to even feel an ounce of suffering or pain. The second hiker had just a bit less luck, being able to register what was happening in the two seconds his partner had died. Only right before he could consider running for his life, Emmett already had his large arms on the man's head and shoulder. The sickening snaps the last man's neck made instantly killed him, and I was sure he did not suffer much like his friend hadn't. Emmett was just way too sneaky, too quick for humans to see it coming or even feel him come at them. It did not hinder the brutality of it, though.

He seemed to possess the combined strength of fifty vampires. We knew as a newborn he'd be strong, but his size and build seemed to lend a hand in his extraordinary amount of strength. Maybe he didn't have a quantifiable unique ability like Edward, but it was evident his strength was something special that outweighed that of others. An enhanced quality, I was sure of it.

All of us stood there helpless as Emmett bit into the jugular vein in their necks and greedily sucked their bodies dry of blood. His crimson eyes rolled back into his head in pleasure as he did so.

In that brief moment that their skin broke, my throat was enflamed by my own thirst. I was sure the whole family had felt it, but it was short lived. He was too fast to drink them to even break us into a completely ravaged state by the scent of their palatable scarlet nectar. All of the blood was gone in seven and a half seconds.