Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Author's Note: Thanks for all your reviews, here's the trip to Port Angeles!

Chapter 6: Fishing for Vampires

The ride to Port Angeles was surprisingly pleasant. Jessica put on the radio, a popular teen station, and although the music wasn't my "cup of tea", as Giles would say, I at least found it cheerful. Angela was more talkative than usual, managing to get a word in edge ways as Jessica concentrated on navigating the car. I had decided to sit in the back, giving Angela shot gun as she was taller and needed the leg room. It only took an hour to drive there, and we chatted amiably about class, and Jessica waxed poetic about going to the dance with Mike. Angela more shyly said she'd asked Ben to the dance, and he'd said yes. They made a very good couple, their temperaments were very alike, quiet, sweet and thoughtful. I couldn't help but think that Jess and Mike were similar too, outspoken and assured of their own importance, although they were still good people, if sometimes misguided.

Jessica managed to park relatively close to the shopping district. It was October, the off season, so Port Angeles was only filled with locals willing to brave the chilly winds.

I decided to join into the dance dress spirit when we entered the gown boutique. Rather than sitting out, as I would have before my calling, my time at the academy had given me the confidence in my body I needed to display it. I didn't wear anything revealing, but I wasn't ashamed of my body, nor did I try to hide my shape with baggy clothes as I once had. I tried on a few, a red floor length gown that I found too revealing on top, a purple knew length dress with a sweetheart neckline that I liked the colour of, but then I saw it, blue with a halter neck and filmy layers to the knees. I knew I had some lace ending leggings at home to match, and it set off her my skin nicely. I didn't have a formal dress, and even if I didn't go to the dance it would be nice to have the option.

Angela looked stunning in a cerulean blue dress with beading, she was statuesque. Jessica went through a few before she decided on a pink V-neck halter that showed off her ample cleavage, I was sure Mike would approve. As I examined myself in the shop mirror, I felt a supernatural presence watching us from the window, it was 5pm and darkness had fallen. I turned and examined the window and saw a group of three teenage guys standing on a corner, looking towards the window, and nudging each other. They could have been any normal teenagers, if it weren't for my sixth sense. They'd been watching us try out the dresses, they'd seen Angela and Jessica, they'd targeted us.

I remembered my real purpose in coming to Port Angeles. I'd loaded her bag with two stakes (always handy to have a spare) a cross and holy water. It was winter in the city, hunting season for vampires.

But it was also hunting season for me.

As I got changed and paid for my purchase, as the other girls did, Jessica said:

"Bella, Angela and I are going to go buy some shoes before the store closes, want to come?"

This was a perfect opportunity to part ways.

"Actually, there was a book store I wanted to check out, meet you at the restaurant?"

"Sure!"

Finally! In the changing room I had tucked a stake into my jacket and my waist band, it was dark out now, and the vampires would be working in the less populated areas. Once Angela and Jessica rounded the corner onto the busy highstreet, I headed in the opposite direction to the book store, going towards the docks.

They'd definitely follow me. Looking at the docks I couldn't help thinking I was fishing for vampires.

As the sounds of the city diminished, making way for dockyards and four story housing, narrow alleyways and badly lit streets, I began to feel them. Of course they'd be attracted, a lone girl in a rundown neighbourhood, supposedly lost. I drew in a breath as I walked down a dark alleyway, smelling the sea salt, the rotting of the dumpster at the mouth of the alley, and the musty smell of vampire. I could feel them, closing in in front and behind of me. I felt like laughing, they were trying to herd me, there were three I had seen before, but I couldn't discount them having backup.

Suddenly, they were in front of me, and I turned my head, and they were behind, I was right, there was another one, four in total, two in front, two behind. These were classic vampires, none of the confusion of the Cullen's. It looked like they'd been high school boys, from their clothes, maybe the mid-00's. So they were young vampires, and as I hadn't run or made any sign of fear, they were stupid.

"Hey beautiful, you seem awful lonely out here, want to hang out with us, we'll show you around?"

This guy was like a group of clichés rapped together in a t-shirt and baseball cap.

"Does that line usually work for you?"

The leader who had spoken, the baseball capped boy with a slightly dim face seemed puzzled by my response. Why wasn't I scared or running? Screaming for help? Instead, a 5 ft 7 girl was back chatting to a group of guys with obvious ill intent.

"Hey babe, I'm the one asking the questions here!"

"I've never been one for talking and I'm not your babe."

He looked interested by my banter, as the more subordinate ones began to circle.

"So you're a girl of action, I like that. How about you have a little action with us? We've been real lonely, just us guys, maybe you'd like to join our little gang?"

It clicked into place, the dead girls, they hadn't just been feeding, they'd been trying to reproduce! But they were incompetent, and their attempts hadn't succeeded.

It seemed they wanted a girlfriend.

"I don't think you could handle me. Plus, I'm already in a gang."

"Really, girl gangs are hot. What are you called?"

I felt one of the smaller vampires move too close behind md, trying to catch a whiff of my hair. I round-housed, felled him, and then staked him in mid air. He exploded into a cloud of dust, scattering to the ground and I felt the euphoria of the kill. Feeling more alert than I had in months, I swiftly turned back to the leader, who stood wide-eyed; the others seemed fixed in place, stunned.

"We're the Slayers."

"Shit Cory she killed Brandon!" shouted the weedy looking vampire to my left, he looked like he should have been playing World of Warcraft somewhere, not tangling with a Slayer on a Saturday night.

I felt like laughing, "Cory? You're the name's Cory? Jesus, vampires have low standards nowadays."

The third vampire, a short stout boy with a third tire guffawed.

"She sure got you Cory."

"Shut up Jerry! Get her!"

Action time, "Jerry" charged right into my, I barely had to move to stake him, while weedy vampire tried to be smarter, circling before diving in, only to find himself tripped and staked.

Then there was "Cory", he was bigger than the other two, maybe he'd been a jock in his past life, and now he looked mad.

"You bitch! Those were my friends!"

"And those girls you killed had friends, and families."

He looked slightly shocked that I knew about the girls.

"What's even sadder, is that you were all so impotent you couldn't even change a girl right."

I was goading him, as we circled, waiting for the charge.

"You don't know anything! We meant to kill them, they were little whores!"

I read the lie in his eyes, he was trying to distract me.

"No, I think you all decided you wanted a girl to share, but you were too stupid to even do that right. Well you wanted a girl, you got one, let's see how man you are!"

If there was one thing I hated more than vampires, it was men who treated women like they were inferior or like objects. They'd wanted a girl to pass around like a plaything, well let's see how he handled this girl!

"Cory" had taken his cue and charged for me, raging, I dodged out of the way and he stumbled but regrouped. Then we ran at each other, punches were thrown, ducking, diving, kicking, he danced better than I thought he would. But I was a master.

I jumped and rolled as I heard the screeching tires of a car, there must be some joy riders around here. The sound got closer as I fought, and suddenly headlights came round the corner, "Cory" was distracted and I pushed him several feet into a wall, before the car appeared in front of me and she ran, jumped and slid across the hood and staked Cory. He looked at me in horror before he disappeared into dust, the baseball cap falling to the floor as the driver's door opened on the car, and I turned round to see Edward Cullen.

The euphoria of the fight must have made me crazy, because I grabbed Edward and pushed him up against the wall.

"What are you doing here? Were you following me?"

Edward looked a little ruffled, but made no attempt to get out of my grasp.

"Alice had a vision you would get into trouble, so I followed to make sure you were alright."

I rolled my eyes and pushed him into the wall once more before letting go and stepping back. Classic patriarchal mind set, he was probably turned pre-women's rights, a boy that was raised to think women were helpless. While chivalry was sweet, it also had archaic undertones, particularly the mindset that women needed help.

"Edward, I'm a Vampire Slayer, I actively seek out danger, it's in the job description! As you can see, I was doing just fine!"

"Alice said it was four against one, those aren't fair odds even for a Slayer! And I read their minds, I couldn't stand what they were thinking about you!"

That gave me pause, he was worried about me? He'd been missing for weeks and suddenly here he was to save me poor Bella from the bad vampires. It was sort of...sweet, in its own way. Didn't he remember that I'd been able to throw him around a meadow and pin him to the ground a few weeks ago?

"I've had worse odds than four against one. They were young vampires, stupid; I doubt they even knew what I was. It's my job to deal with scum like them; they'd been attempting to turn teenage girls, but just left a trail of bodies. If I hadn't stopped them tonight, if I'd let Angela and Jessica come on their own they'd have been dead by morning. They spotted them when we were trying on dresses, targeted us, I won't stand for that."

Speaking of my dress, I looked over to where the fight began and saw my bag, dust covered but otherwise untouched. I began to make my way to it but Edward had seen my intention and was suddenly in front of me, holding the bag out to me sheepishly.

"It doesn't look damaged."

Bella took the bag from him and looked inside, as he'd said, the dress was fine.

"Thanks"

I remembered my manners; it seemed I was always losing my rag with Edward.

He made me feel things strongly. Just as I'd begun to work out some of my frustration, he turns up again!

"Are you planning to go to the dance?"

Suddenly, I felt awkward.

"I don't know, no one's asked me."

Edward looked surprised by this, and then something odd happened, he looked like he wasn't looking at me, but at something else, like he was listening to another conversation. His brow furrowed as if he irritated, and then cleared and his lip quirked in a slow smile, it was quite attractive.

I obviously hadn't killed enough tonight.

"Would you like to go?"

I was startled by the question. Now that I thought about it, I would like to. I never went to any dances in Phoenix, and we didn't have any at the academy after I was called.

"I guess, yeah, I would. It's one of those right-of-passage things."

"Would you do me the honour of accompanying me to the Winter Formal?"

In that second I wasn't a Slayer, and he wasn't a Vampire. He was a good looking boy asking me to a dance, I barely knew him, but my adrenaline was still running, and for a Slayer this meant a certain level of arousal. My hormones overwrote my common sense and I found myself blurting out:

"Okay."

Too late to take it back now, and I sort of didn't want to. God I was turning into Buffy.

He broke out into a grin, and he was almost dazzling,

"Fantastic. If you are done...hunting, I believe that Angela and Jessica are waiting for you at La Bella Italia."

Oh, right, girl's day out.

"I would be happy to drive you; perhaps we can talk about meeting up for a date before the dance, getting to know each other better?"

I found myself nodding, and he took the bag from me and made to open my door but I got there first, I needed to take some momentum back! It seemed so odd, a moment ago I'd been killing vampires and sneering at chivalry, and now I was letting Edward Cullen, Gentleman Vampire, take me to a dance.

Somewhere in that conversation he'd gotten the upper-hand, damn my stupid post-fight hormones!

Wait, did he say "date"?

Author's Note: Hope you like it! Please review!