Chapter 14

Tara's POV

I pulled open the door to be met by Esme, a smile stretching across her heart shaped face; I succumbed and returned her smile.

"Hello!" I responded glancing over her shoulder, I saw two cars containing, Alice, Rosalie, Claire, Nikita, Helen and Stacey. In another car was all of the male members of the family, they appeared to be heading towards the house.

"Alice has planned a female shopping trip!" Esme announced, "Grab your things!" Seconds later I returned to the front door, bag in hand I heard the babies being entertaining by someone that sounded like Emmett.

We were in the fourth shop when I noticed something was wrong, Stacey was behaving rather strange, well stranger than usual. I carefully tuned into her thoughts and realised that she was struggling with her blood thirst, had no-one bothered to find out how long these girls had been vegetarians for? We were in an enclosed small boutique and Stacey was currently standing close to Esme, I was not pleased with this scenario at all.

Alice. I mentally sent Alice a warning. Check the future!

Without daring to glance up from the dress she was currently inspecting, I followed her visions through her thoughts and the outlook was currently good. However, I did decide to place myself strategically next to Stacey.

When we entered the next boutique I immediately realised the dangers, there was a breeze fluttering through, it appeared a back door was open behind where the counter was and this meant that the shopping assistant's scent was flowing throughout the whole room. A sweet mixture of peach and strawberries. I felt Stacey tense beside me; I grabbed hold of her arm. Inaudible to human ears she was emitting a growl, she had hit her limit, unable to take the thirst any longer and she was preparing to kill. Esme instantly distracted the two staff members, shortly before Stacey tried to launched herself forward, I felt Claire grab her other arm, quickly and carefully we managed to march her out of the back of the boutique and fortunately found ourselves on an abandoned car park. Stacey was getting more and more difficult to restrain and this was made more difficult when Nikita pulled Claire away from her, as Claire and Nikita were currently crouching at each other, their faces inches from each other, Rosalie made her way over to help me. However, in those few seconds Stacey flipped around, sinking her teeth into my upper arm, I roared with pain, managing to pull myself away from Stacey I clutched at the bite mark on my arm.

Stacey had begun desperately sniffing the air as to prepare which direction to head in. I quickly entered Stacey's thoughts trying to find out which direction she was going to head for, when I saw it, Aro's face, as clear as daylight, the only thing dominating her mind, I had been right, he had sent them. Rosalie and Alice leapt towards her but she quickly flung them off before bounding into the trees, with Nikita trailing not far behind.

I span around to face Claire.

"I got distracted when I heard you roar with pain!" Claire explained.

Esme emerged from around the corner, her face mirroring all our anxiety.

"Helen has disappeared!" she announced, "She was there one minute and then I went to leave and she'd already gone!"
"We fought Nikita and Stacey but they managed to get away!" Rosalie was frustrated.

"I'm going to follow their trail!" I announced "Stacey let her thoughts slip and she was thinking about Aro!"
"I'm coming with you!" Claire responded. I nodded in approval, "You lot head back to the guys!"
At vampire speed Claire and I began to search, she chose to use her agility and travel through the trees, whilst I skipped along the forest floor. The scent was easy to follow and after a short while Helen's scent mingled with that of Stacey and Nikita.

We were travelling quite a distant and I slowly became aware that it appeared that we were returning home. The trail was leading us back to the guys. Another scent hit me and I stopped, Claire sensing I was no longer moving also dropped down from the trees and demanded an explanation.

"Jasper's and Emmett's scent is around here!" I explained, "It is fresh!"

"Hunting?"

"I don't know!" we both froze when we heard a tree fall down to the ground nearby.

"JASPER!" I yelled.

I stormed through the trees until I entered a clearing. There were clearly two fights going on between Jasper and Stacey and Emmett and Nikita, Claire instantly began helping Emmett as she presumed that I would help Jasper.

Any plans I had made in the few seconds which I had stood before that clearing were ended as I was thrown violently against a tree. I twisted around to see who was responsible as I saw Helen dive towards me. With the stinging from the bite on my arm, I almost felt like I was going to loose this fight, it appeared she had hunted on the way here, her eyes now glinting red, whereas I hadn't, so my gift was rendering effectively useless.

Out fight began, leaping around and occasionally crashing into each I was anxious to find out how the others were doing, the silence around me was distracting but I as aware that perhaps we had moved towards a different clearing. I saw Helen's fatal blow against me in her head, preparing for this I managed to get my hands around her neck, I was about to detach her head when it disappeared. Emmett was stood in its place and had began tearing Helen into pieces, temporarily shocked I was bought round by the strong smell of fire, Jasper had prepared the fire whilst Emmett had come to help me. "Nikita and Stacey got away!" Jasper explained as we began placing the pieces in the fire.

At that point I didn't need Alice's gift to be aware that the future had just drastically altered.