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Chapter 21

The hunter returns

The walk with Edward was nice and relaxing. We walked along the shoreline hand in hand and we passed right by a cliff close to the water. It was quite the walk up the cliff but it was good exercise. We took a few hours off to relax with the walk and talk a little but a few moments before we entered the castle, Emmett came to us right outside the castle, saying that he needed to talk to Edward alone but I didn't know where, which technically wasn't any of my business. I decided to start walking back to my room when suddenly, I started hearing some voices. I could recognize them easily.

It was Emmett's voice. But it didn't sound like his normal childish voice. He sounded more… serious and sad. "Dude, if you're going to keep her human, then she's going to hurt one of us soon." My eyes opened widely. I couldn't believe Emmett would say something like this and I knew they were talking about me, since I was human. Although it was true, it was still hard to hear something this hurtful, especially from Emmett.

"Emmett, why would you even bring it up? You know how much she means to me the way she is." Edward replied. I placed my ear closer to the wall—since the door was open, I didn't want them to hear me and since Edward couldn't read my mind, I could eavesdrop on them easily—and kept listening to their conversation.

"Dude, don't get me wrong. I love Jules and she means everything to all of us but… I don't know dude, you're going to have to do something about it or one of us will get killed soon." Is that really what he thought of me? Was I really putting his family in that much danger? I didn't know what to do so, I walked away from the wall and when it was safe enough for e to not be heard, I ran for the woods. The woods right now felt like the best place to get away from most of the real world. The woods were a quiet place to think and to be alone.

When I entered the woods crying, I started whipping these stupid tears out of my eyes and started walking slowly. Why would I stay anywhere near them if I was that big a threat to them? The only thing—maybe—that I could do was to pack up and try to ask Evarak to get some sort of transportation back to Olympia. But I had to go without being caught by Alice or Edward. I knew that if I had Frederic's ring, I could get unnoticed by Alice's visions. It was a good thing that I kept the ring in my pocket at all time. These days, you couldn't tell what would happen next. I took the ring out of my pocket and slid I on my index finger. Now I was safe for a while. I started walking towards the cliff Edward and I passed just a few hours ago—wow… It felt like an eternity passed already—and decided to stop there for a while.

When I sat at the edge of the cliff, I looked at the sea. It was so big and endless. Minutes, maybe even hours, passed as I stared out at the endless ocean when I could hear someone calling my name. It was soft and soothing but not angelic. It couldn't be Edward. I looked towards my left and saw that someone with long curly red hair was walking and shouting my name. It was Esme.

When she saw me, she seemed relieved. I turned back to the ocean as she came closer to me. "There you are. What are you doing out here all alone?" She asked as she came closer.

"Thinking." I replied.

"Well, we might want to head back to the castle. Alice is getting worried. She says she can't see you in her visions." She said as she sat down next to me on the edge of the cliff.

"And with good reasons." I said as I lifted my hand at the level of my head to show the ring on my finger. Esme seemed disappointed by what she saw.

"Now, why would you want to wear that?"

"To escape."

"What are you talking about? Why would you want to escape?"

"Don't try to hide the fact, Esme. I don't know if you talked to Emmett too but he talked to Edward, that's for sure." I said as I looked at her beautiful face.

"Jules, you lost me. What did Emmett say exactly?" She asked softly as she placed her hand on my arm.

"When Edward and I came back to the castle after our walk, Emmett came to see us and he was saying that he needed to talk to Edward alone. He left with him and I decided to head back to my room to relax a little. When I went towards my room, I overheard a few people talking and I could recognize Emmett's voice. I went up against the wall and started listening." I started saying.

"Wait, you were eavesdropping?" She asked sarcastically.

"Oh, it's not like you guys don't do it with us! Anyways, when I was eavesdropping, I heard Emmett tell Edward that if he wanted to keep me human, that I would be hurting one of you soon. And he tried to make Edward understand that as long as I was human, I would be risking you guys. So, I decided to put the ring on and thought of ways to go back home without Alice or Edward figuring me out and stopping me." I explained.

"Are you sure he was talking about you?"

"Well, he said "If you want to keep her human", so I think he's talking about me."

"Well, Emmett's wrong." Esme tried to say.

"No, he's not. This might sound selfish but, I want to be with Edward, but not at the cost of someone's life. And especially not any of you guys. You're all too special to me." I said as I started to get up and head towards the castle. Esme got up as well and followed me.

She caught my arm and made me stop walking. I turned around and she was smiling at me. "Jules, you can't think that. And you can't think that what Emmett said was reasonable. You know he loves you like crazy." She said as she brought me in a hug. Esme was so adorable that it was hard to ever stay mad for a certain period of time.

"I know but if he's crazy about me, then why would he bring such a subject in a conversation?" I asked; her arms still around me.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it. He was probably just upset about something and took it out on Edward. I'll talk to Edward and Emmett and try to get things arranged. Don't worry Jules." She said as we separated from the hug and she looked me right in the eyes.

"Easier said than done." I said as we started walking away. As we walked, I started to feel more relaxed. Maybe Esme gave off a certain calm vibe, like Jasper does when he uses his power. When I looked at her, I suddenly felt a sting on my neck. "Ouch." I said as I put my hand to the spot where the sting appeared and felt something poking at my neck. Suddenly, I started to feel extremely tired and dizzy all at once.

"Jules? Jules, what's wrong?" Esme tried to ask but to me, it was faint questions. I could hardly see anything anymore but my hearing was slight. Every sound around me was very faint.

"Esme…" I said before collapsing but someone with cold strong arms caught me.

"Jules! Jules, are you alright?! Jules, answer me! Come on, Jules!" Esme tried to say.

"Well, my prey has been trapped. Nothing more but to bring her back with me." A manly voice said. It didn't sound familiar to me. Who was he? And what was he talking about, his pray?

"Who are you?" Esme asked as she brought me in her arms. But this was all too weird. Why did he trap me? And what does he want with me?

"You don't know me but I know all about you, Esme. And your family. Especially one of them." The man said.

"How do you know me? And what do you mean?" Now, Esme's voice sounded more venomous than before. I don't think I ever heard her this angry before.

"Enough formalities. I need to take Juliette now. So, if you could easily give her to me without any trouble, I'll be on my way." The man said. He sounded calm.

"You'll have to get her from my dead cold arms." She said, trying to put as much hatred into her words as possible.

"If you say so…" He said. I could feel Esme shift positions and was ready to fight this man. Suddenly, I felt her move fast and tried to dodge many hits. At one point, she twitched and I was dropped on the ground painfully. I guess the man got to her. Another pair of strong cold arms grabbed me and started running. This wasn't Esme holding me. It was the man and he wasn't holding me lightly. It was painful. He pinched a part of my shoulders he kept running and it was extremely painful. I gasped in pain and then, everything went still and black.

When my eyes fluttered open many moments later, I was on a soft surface. I moved my head around slowly to find that I was in a bedroom with white walls and two windows. I was lying on a bed. I tried to put my hand to my forehead but it never left my side. I lifted my head slightly but somehow, my neck was chained to the back wall. I looked at my hands and feet and they were locked to the bed. I tried to break out of it but it didn't work.

"You won't be able to get out of your bounds." The manly voice said. I turned my head to find a tall man wearing a white shirt and black jeans standing in the doorframe. He had long blond hair tied up in a pony tail at the bottom of his head and a pale face. But what really came at me were his eyes. They were crimson red. He was a vampire, and certainly not one who drank animal blood.

"Where am I?" I asked, adding a little anger to my vice as he approached me.

"In my little house on the prairie. You like it?" He asked as he made a little three-sixty turn around with his arms extended and showed me the plain room. It reminded me so much of Gus's room in my nightmare when I was in my "coma".

"No. In fact, it's a little too plain for my taste. Now, untie me!" I said as I started moving around and tried to remove the chains from my neck, wrists and ankles but it didn't work.

"Highly unlikely. You see, you're now my little prisoner and as long as you stay still and keep quiet, we won't have any problems. Got it?" He said as he was right beside the bed, maybe just inches from me.

"What are you?" I asked dumbly. I already knew the answer to that but I just wanted to hear it from his mouth.

"Wow… You expect someone who lives with vampires to be able to recognize one from far away. But yes, I am a vampire but I'm very different from your vampire friends." He explained with a touch of bad humor.

"I kinda figured that part out already, thank you very much." I replied back with a sour note to my voice.

"Oh yeah, little miss smarty pants? Then tell me. What's different about me than your friends?" The man said as he dug his fingers into my shoulder and put pressure on it.

It was painful but I wasn't going to anyone the satisfaction of screaming. I put on a pained face and said a little louder than expected: "You drink human blood!"

"Well, you know quite a lot about vampires, don't you?" He asked as he took his hand off of my shoulder.

"What'd you do to Esme?" I asked angrily.

"Your little woman friend? I disabled her for a few seconds so I could get a hold on you. And it worked perfectly." He said as he went to sit down on the chair in the corner of the room.

"Who are you?"

"Oh, I completely forgot the introductions Juliette. My name is James."

Oh no!!! James is in here? And what does he want with Jules? Find out with REVIEWS!!!

Bellacullenswan17

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