Whoo!! You people are da bomb! Now I know that if I ever need an ego boost, I just need to post/read my reviews. Thans guys. And I know this wasn't that fast, but oh well. Oh, and since they let middle schoolers go to prom here, I'm going! It's on Friday! Whoo!! Lolz, so I probably won't be posting that fast. :D Now read away, I've nothing leftto say! -ooh! it rhymes...-

Endangered: Chapter 3

I sighed. It was finally time for Bubba to go out on his own, and I was anything but prepared to release him. I was sort of like a mother paranoid about her only child going out into the real world. Only difference was Bubba was a bear, and he was my best friend more than anything.

"So you remember everything, right? Stay on the La Push side of the treaty line, don't do anything stupid, stay away from any supernatural creatures, with the exception of me and Leah - "

Bubba groaned, agitated. "Yes, yes! I know! Avoid Jacob, meet a nice girl bear, come by as soon as possible! I'm not two Bella!"

"Yeah, you are…literally speaking…" He glared at me. "Okay! Okay! It's just gonna be so different without you here to do something stupid or silly. You know Hunter's already been released, and Nina's gotten really quiet and anti-social lately." I gave him a sad look.

"I don't see why you won't just let me stay at the center. It'd save you all this depression and - "

"Bubs," I interrupted, "I promised your mom I'd look after you, not force you to live in a protected hole all your life."

"But I like living like that!" Bubba protested.

"Only you." I muttered. "But that's beside the point. Now, you already know everything. So…" I trailed off awkwardly.

Bubba pulled his lips back over his teeth lazily, in his favorite bear grin. He walked up to me, getting on his hind legs so the he stood upright, wrapping his fore arms around my neck. I giggled softly, wrapping my own arms around his girth.

"I'm gonna miss you." I whispered, tears in my eyes.

"Me too Bells." He responded softly.

We eventually broke the hug, and I used my hand to scratch him behind his left ear. He rolled his head back slightly, closing his eyes. After a few seconds, I pulled my hand away.

"Okay then. Now, we'll just test the tracking device one more time…" I murmured. I ran my wrist across his shoulder, nodding in approval when on of the blue lights on the thick silver band lit up, indicating it had picked up the signal from the chip in Bubba's shoulder.

I pet him one more time, sighing. Bubba swatted my hand away. "If you keep this up, I'm following you back home, ya know," he told me.

I grunted in response, before forcing my features into a tight smile, that didn't quite reach my eyes. "Be safe." I said softly as I bent down and kissed him on his head.

"Will do, mom."

"Shut up!"

"Well, I'm just addressing you according to your behavior."

"Now you sound like the mom." I teased.

Bubba glared playfully at me. "Now you can shut up."

I rolled my eyes defiantly. "Make me."

"I will." He gave me a sly look, and I quickly held my hands up in defeat.

"Okay, okay, I surrender!"

"Much better." Bubba said.

"Alright then…I'll be going now…" I trailed off into another awkward silence.

"Yeah…"

"That didn't help."

"I know that." We both giggled like we always had.

"Bye!" I said as gave him one last smile, again relatively tight. He responded with a similar, bear-ified version. We shook our heads simultaneously, before I quickly turned on my heal and ran, knowing that if I looked back at my furry best friend, I would cave and take him back with me.

The scenery was flying by me faster than I ever remembered, and I eventually slowed down, only then realizing that in my rush to get away from where I had left Bubba, I had ran right past the center and into the 'danger zone', as I liked to call it. I was in vampire hunting territory, and I knew it.

I turned around quickly, so that I could head back in the direction of the center. And just my luck, not 200 feet off, stood a vampire.

But not just any vampire. No. This one was gorgeous, and that's saying something when vampires are, in essence, a very good-looking species. He had bronze colored hair in the most untamable mop on his head, and when I looked him in the eye, I realized I really shouldn't have. His eyes were the most mesmerizing ocher color, and even with wild look they held, they still managed to catch me off guard.

I held my breath, slightly dazzled, for lack of a better word, as he seemed to fight with himself internally. Probably between the instinct to hunt me, and the guilty conscience that told him not to.

Eventually, when I was about to pass out due to lack of oxygen, he crouched down more exaggeratedly, into an almost catlike position. I drew a sharp intake of breath as he started to slink toward me in the most cat like of manners. He reminded me very much of a puma.

I stood there, frozen in place, staring him straight in the eye as he approached me. Then, suddenly, when he was about 100 feet away, I snapped out of my hypnotized state, and my brain started functioning again. I kept my eyes on him as the wheels in my head started turning.

If his hunting tactics really did resemble that of a cougar's so much, it must mean he was a hunter who got as close to his preyas possible, before attacking and delivering the lethal bite. So running wouldn't be a good idea; but neither would it be smart to just stand there as he got ever closer to me, would it? To just stand there would be purely stupid. It would just be too easy for him.

I continued staring into his golden eyes, analyzing his every move. As he continued toward me, now within 50 feet from where I stood, I thought about how random it seemed to compare a vampire, an indestructible creature, built for the kill, to what seemed like an animal that was that much lower in the food chain.

It was kind of funny to think about, really. That such a feared thing could be compared to something so seemingly harmless in contrast. They were, in fact, very similar in nature, it appeared. At least this individual was.

I shook my head; this would be something to ponder on a slow day at the center, not when said vampire was less than 25 feet away from me. I could just smell him from here, a soft, musky, forest smell; it smelled wonderful. I noticed his eyes had grown considerably darker, and were now almost black – could it be a way of saying 'I'm hungry'? I continued to decipher his motives; he was very sure of his own speed, but he wasn't really sure about me. So he wanted to get as close as possible before pouncing.

Now, he was about 20 feet away, and I was now extremely sure I had no option left, except to just stand there and face the music. Unless… I shook my head, it was extremely unlikely that I could teleport if I actually wanted to. But I could try; really though, what was the chance there was a not-so-natural disaster happening on the north American continent at exactly this split second? Almost none. I might as well try to force myself to teleport, nothing would be lost.

In reality, it was probably my only chance of getting out of this alive. A look of sheer concentration crossed my face as I willed myself to teleport, all the while watching the beautiful vampire, following him with my eyes.

Suddenly, I saw the vampire's eyes go wide, and I felt the sensation of floating that came with teleporting. I saw the swirl of colors as the landscape around me liquefied, feeling the wind that whipped my hair around my face as I spun around at a somewhat alarming pace. I smiled to myself as everything faded to black. I loved teleporting.

I quickly steadied myself as I felt my feet touch hard ground, and was rather surprised when my surroundings turned out to be that of the center. I smiled slightly to myself, before trudging inside and collapsing on the couch.

"Long day?" Nina asked from where she was now curled up on the couch next to me.

"Yup. On my way home, I ran into a vampire." She looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to elaborate. "He was hunting, but I somehow managed to teleport myself home. He was a really gorgeous one, and he's one of the 'vegetarians'. He has the golden eyes. But jeez, if I ever run into a vampire again, it'll be too soon."

"Are you crushing on a vampire?" Nina asked incredulously. Did I really sound like I was crushing on the vampire? I replayed what I'd said in my head, and yes it did sound like I was. It was fairly obvious, the way I called him gorgeous then quickly changed the subject. Not that I was trying to hide that I was crushing on him, because I wasn't.

"No, of course not! I told you, vampires are all inhumanly beautiful." I defended.

"Mhm. Sure." She said, unbelieving. I gave Nina an indignant look. "Other than going all goo-goo eyes with this 'gorgeous vampire', what else happened?"

"Actually it was really interesting to study him. I did mental field observations, and it was cool to see how similar he was to a cougar. The way they hunted; it was kind of cool to make the comparison…" I droned on about my observations for a while, until I had it out of my system. I would probably write it up later.

"So, you left Bubba on the La Push side of the treaty line, right?" Nina asked curiously. She was Bubba's mother figure as well; I just did all the work was the difference.

I nodded. "Yup, told him to stay on that side too. In fact, it would be good to see how he's doing. How about we go check what the tracking device says?"

"Sure," Nina said in affirmation as we both got off the couch and walked over to the office corner. I quickly turned the laptop on and opened the special computer program that the boss had given me to use specifically for these sorts of projects.

As I lifted up my wrist to take the tracking bracelet, I froze. My wrist was bare, no sign of the important piece of metal anywhere. I groaned in annoyance.

"You have got to be kidding me," I muttered as I stood up. "Nina, I've gotta go look for it. It might take a while; it's Forks, so it's rained since I got back and probably washed away most of the scent. It'll be harder to track my route…"

"Take your time, but be back before nightfall." Nina said with authority.

"But it's already 5.30!" I whined. I seriously don't know why I even bothered listening to Nina; I was an adult, I didn't need curfew.

"That gives you around two hours. If you don't find it by 7.30, you're to come home, understand?" I nodded meekly. "Good. You should get going now."

It was 7.25, and I had been searching the forest only to find nothing. I was getting really frustrated; I needed to find the bracelet! I couldn't just go out and get a new one, especially since each bracelet only communicated with one chip. So, I had to find this bracelet, or the chip implanted in Bubba's shoulder wouldn't be doing either of us any good.

I groaned upon hearing a faint, reprimanding voice. "Bella!" it called. Nina.

Great, looks like this was a lost cause.

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