-1She found a gap in our defences every time. Each time we lunged at her she'd evade us - with what I have to admit was agility to be admired.
Each time we closed in around her, she'd find a gap in our defences, and escape our trap. This was proving difficult, but surely it couldn't be impossible. There had to be a way. And failure simply wasn't something I couldn't live with. If there wasn't a way, I'd make one.
We simply couldn't outrun her. With every step we were falling further behind. Edward should have never left, he might have stood a chance - his lightning speed being the best out of all of us. But even then I don't think we would of caught her - I'd never seen anything like this. She was flying along so fast I was surprised I could see her, even with my vampire sight.
I could only see her as a blurring flame on the wind, sailing further and further into the distance with every minute that passed.
This was becoming unbearable, yet at least now she'd stopped dancing along the Line and we could chase her properly. She would have to run out of steam sometime. We weren't going to let her escape, not once we had got this far. No-one escaped me - however fast they were.
We carried on sprinting, our feet rhythmically pounding the moss covered grass like granite smashing against concrete.
We ran through the trees, through streams, through meadows - but still she seemed to get no closer. We passed through one meadow which I recalled Edward telling me about, but there was no time to stop and think about it. Even as I flashed through it momentarily, I was still in awe of its beauty.
And that didn't happen to me very often.
Maybe this was the place he took Bella?
Anyway, that wasn't the time to think about that - this was the time to focus, to focus on my one goal: Catching that bloody red head.
Victoria suddenly swivelled far ahead, changing direction sharply and she blasted off into the opposite direction on the beautiful meadow.
At this Alice caught my attention, grabbing my arm and pulling me to a standstill.
Jasper pulled up beside me and turned to see what Alice wanted. She turned us round in the direction we'd already come and gave us a little push.
"Keep going straight, she's going to do a loop, you'll cut her off!" She panted.
With that, we set off again, leaving Alice far behind us. Bless her, her little legs simply couldn't cope.
Jasper and I followed her directions obediently.
Soon enough, we came to a gap in the trees very close to the Line and there she was straight ahead, each step bringing her closer. I grinned in anticipation. She was ours.
We pelted off towards her, and as we did so, a flash of blonde behind her caught our attention.
Beyond her Rose was catching her up. We had her cornered. There was no escape for her. I'd have to remember to kiss Alice later. Now there was no way in Hell she could escape!
As we closed in on her though, a flaw became apparent in our plan. We were far too close to the Line. And if she flew over that, we'd lost our chance. We'd just have to hope she didn't.
Crossing our fingers, Jasper and I made a desperate leap for her. But sure enough, she was over that line before our feet touched ground. I caught her darting through the trees on the other side and swore,
As we went to follow her, Carlisle turned to me sharply.
"Emmett, we won't be able to follow her any further, she's over The Line."
"Fuck the Line." was my blunt reply.
I didn't see why it mattered. If these wolves were so intent on protecting Bella, surely they could just drop the bloody treaty. It made no sense, we would all have a much better chance in catching her if we were allowed to follow her freely! I frowned - my brow furrowed in frustration.
Instead we followed behind her, keeping a safe distance over our side.
She zipped among the trees on the other side, as we followed. And we began to fear we'd lose sight of her again.
But suddenly, she stopped and the expression on her face changed, for the first time ever I had seen her look frightened. But what of? What could she see that we couldn't?
As I rounded the bend I saw it. Six enormous wolves stood there, blocking the exit. She was cornered again.
I took my chance. I lunged at her, aiming to send her flying - but we never made contact.
Instead, I hurtled to the floor, loosing my balance as I toppled over the line.
Then, everything happened at once.
A wolf, a startlingly silver grey one, leapt at me - sending me crashing to the floor. My instincts kicked in as I threw the grey wolf off me, sending him hurtling into the nearest tree. My hands found their way to the wolves neck as I tried to get away, back onto my side of the line.
But the wolf wasn't having any of that. I hadn't countered on the wolves being good fighters but he certainly wasn't bad.
I felt razor claws rip at my granite hard skin as I struggled to force the beast off me.
In a flash of honey blonde hair, Rose was beside me, viciously swiping her long manicured hands at the wolf.
Her hands found their target as she tore at the wolfs thick fur, pulling it out in big, thick clumps.
The wolf shrieked in pain, a long high pitched howl that echoed shrilly around the forest.
I scrambled up, giving the wolf one last shove as I did so, jumping back onto our side of The Line. A deep growl escaped me as I eyed the wolf angrily. Rose was beside me still, giving it a death stare.
Trust Rose to pull its fur out.
I felt a sudden cold hand on my shoulder. I whipped around to see Carlisle standing next to me, his hand resting on my shoulder, as if he was trying to keep me back.
Pfft. I could handle myself and I could've taken any of those dogs easily! But I had more control than that. I heaved a heavy sigh.
Jasper slipped in between me and the wolves, stepping directly along the line.
The wolves weren't happy about this - they growled fiercely as Jasper approached, but he took no notice whatsoever.
Slowly but surely, a peaceful atmosphere began to form around me, relaxing me. The wolves growls lessened and gradually grew silent.
I turned to Jasper, glad for a break from all the tension. He simply smiled slightly and stepped back slightly to place himself next to Alice in what was clearly a defensive position.
Carlisle took charge, speaking to the wolves in a loud but soothing voice.
"I am very sorry for the incident that just took place here. I assure you all that it was accidental. None of us mean you any harm in the slightest."
That was debatable judging by the way Rose was glaring daggers at them. If looks could kill…She certainly looked like she meant them harm.
The wolves slowly retreated, their eyes never leaving us even as the crept backwards into the shadows.
The silver grey dog stared at Rosalie, its piercing amber eyes meeting the cold, unwavering gaze of Rose's opaque ebony eyes.
A rusty coloured one, one of the bigger ones turned to it, then stepped in front of it, almost like it was restraining it.
Rose responded by edgily stalking away from them. Flicking long golden behind her, she went to join Alice. For the some reason unknown to me, Jasper laughed - nudging Alice gently in the ribs as he pointed into the distance.
Alice giggled too, glancing towards Rose. Rose ignored her.
I followed Jasper's steady gaze and saw he was still looking at the wolves. What was so funny about them? I made a mental note to ask him later.
Carlisle turned on his heel, striding away from The Line. He beckoned for us to come over. We obeyed, coming together in a huddle. Everyone had something to say and a gaggle of gushing voices erupted immediately.
"I don't believe it. How does that stupid animal think it can attack my husband!-"
"I can't cope with this loss of Vision!-"
"Look everyone calm down I'm going to snap in a minute!"
"Everyone please be quiet I have something to -"
"I'm going to rip that bloody animal limb from-"
"Everyone be quiet I have something important-"
"She won't get away next time!"
"Children please, be quiet, I have something -"
"I can't believe those wolves affect my si-"
"EVERYBODY PLEASE BE QUIET!"
Everyone whipped around to see Carlisle standing there looking incredibly stressed. He pushed strands his hair back of his face and attempted to compose himself.
"Ok, now everyone's quiet I can get on with what I wanted to say in the first place." He paused to look at Rose and Alice in turn. They looked embarrassed and looked at the floor.
"Anyway," Carlisle continued, "Obviously this time she got away. Next time we will have to be more careful. Especially you Emmett. You could have caused a lot of trouble-"
I interrupted, enraged. "But all I was doing was trying to catch her!"
"Yes I know that Emmett." But we mustn't give those wolves any excuse to dislike us even more than they do at the moment. Rosalie this includes you too, don't get so…" Carlisle halted, searching for the right word.
"…Territorial?"
I folded my arms across my chest and scowled at him. That's my wife he's insulting.
"Humph" Rose snorted, looking slightly pissed.
"Hey Rose!" Alice spoke up in her tinkling soprano voice.
"I loved the way you pulled that wolf's fur out! It got what it deserved all right!" Alice giggled.
Jasper was the one to speak now.
"Rose? Do you always fight so…" Jasper paused like Carlisle, pondering what to say.
"Bitchy?" Chipped in Alice.
Jasper and me laughed. It certainly was an accurate description of how Rose fought. She pulled out one's fur for goodness sake! That had gotta hurt.
Rose didn't even look embarrassed or even annoyed. In fact she looked rather smug as if she had taken Alice's words as a compliment.
I was pulled from my thoughts as Carlisle beckoned us all towards him. The wolves gathered round too, keeping their distance as they circled us. Their yellow eyes never leaving us.
"Now." Carlisle said addressing us and the wolves "We need to decide what the plan of action will be"
We all nodded our heads in agreement. And the wolves seemed to growl in a manner that seemed to sound enthusiastic.
"Shouldn't we follow her?" asked Esme "Victoria's the main priority surely?" She was stating the obvious in my opinion.
"Yes. That is an option." Carlisle pondered thoughtfully.
"It's the ONLY option you idiot!" I blurted out, at this rate she would be halfway to Texas!"
"Oh yes." Carlisle agreed. "I suppose you're right. Well if you would like you can have the Line. Put your sense of smell into good action."
This seemed to please the wolves and the chase started up again, the wolves in front this time to my great annoyance.
We followed her tracks until we reached the sea. She was gone. And over to the other side of the Line by the looks of it. Damn.
Disappointment and failure hung in the atmosphere on both sides of the Line. The wolves' ears seemed to have drooped and their tails hung between their legs.
Well, all was not lost, if we could follow her tracks we could take her by surprise. That seemed like a pretty damn good plan to me, putting it to the dogs would be the difficult part though.
They probably wouldn't have it, but it was at least worth a try.
"Hey! What'd you say to me and Jasper here crossing the Line and following her. I'm sure we'd be able to get her" I said, pushing Jasper forwards and pointing to him, and me and then miming walking over the line just to make sure they got the message.
If we could cross, we'd get her for sure. In fact we would of done already if not for those stupid mongrels.
They eyed us with those big yellow eyes as if I had just insulted their intelligence. They didn't seem very agreeable to the idea. In fact they had started growling at it.
I poked Jasper next to me and hissed in his ear.
"Use your persuasion skills then, come on you know you can convince them to let us over!"
He sighed, he didn't particularly like manipulating people. I didn't get it, what a waste of a power! I would have SO much fun if I could do that…
Just then Carlisle tapped me on the shoulder and raised his eyebrows.
"That's their decision to make." He said
"Yeah I know, but couldn't Jasper just help them make their decision?"
I wheedled, putting on my angel face. But it just didn't work when you're Six and a half feet tall and as wide as a tank, you don't have that cute and innocent look Alice seems to posses.
Their blank, stony faces told me Carlisle wasn't convinced and neither were the wolves.
I sighed, I'd have to give up on my plan, the wolves didn't seem to want to budge on their decision.
Turning away, we slunk back into the forest, out of sight of the wolves.
We'd lost this battle. Through no fault of our own I'll admit, but it was a big disappointment.
"Anyway" I said changing the subject "What was it you two were laughing about just now?"
"Oh That!" Alice exclaimed, bursting into a fresh round of giggles.
"We were laughing at the expressions on the wolves faces" Jasper said, filling us in on their little private joke.
"You know when they were looking at Rose. A sort of mix between disgust and admiration. It was really funny. And the emotions coming off them, a really weird mix of angry, excited and horny all at the same time. Made me laugh. They seemed unsure to whether they wanted to rip her limb from limb or beg her to sleep with them."
I laughed, imagining the expressions. I hadn't seen them; I hadn't been looking at their faces, I was more worried about the claws.
"Well," We looked up to see Rose talking, "I do have that effect on men."
And with that she sauntered off with her nose in the air, towards where Carlisle was standing watching the wolves intently.
I laughed again. Rose certainly did have that effect on men. And dogs too obviously.
"Hey Jazzy!"
I nudged him playfully in the ribs, my grin stretching all the way across my face.
"Does Rose have that effect on you?"
Jasper looked slightly embarrassed and looked at the floor, shuffling his feet.
"No…" He murmured.
Alice raised her dainty eyebrows, looking amused.
Liar. Rose had that effect on every man.
Everything about her aroused every single man in the room. The way her hair waved down to the middle of her back . The way her hips moved as her she walked. The way her clothes hugged her gorgeous figure. The list was endless. I'd be willing to bet that every man who'd met Rose had thought about shagging her at least once. Even Edward.
"Well, I suppose she is sort of pretty if you like that kind of thing. I've never really though about it."
Jasper mumbled, shoving his hands into his pockets, still looking down at the floor, examining his shoes intently.
Whatever. Jasper loved girls nearly as much as I did. He couldn't hide that from me.
We were always rating the high school girls on their prettiness. Even if most of the time we rated people, Jasper got a hungry sort of look in his eyes and seemed more interested in eating them than anything else.
But as far as I could remember, none of them had ever scored higher than a five. We had high standards. It took a lot to be in our league.