"Hey, you are back just in time for dinner, Emily," Mom called out from the kitchen as she walked through the door of the house.
"What's for dinner?" Emily asked cautiously.
"Im making Italian," Mom said, making Emily let out a sigh of relief.
Renee wasn't the best cook, mostly due to the fact that she got easily distracted. Which led to the food being burned. In fact, over the last year, both Bella and herself had taken over the cooking for the most part.
And their dad was even worse at cooking. Other than microwave meals, he only seemed to eat out.
"Okay, I am going to get changed," Emily said to her mom.
Stepping inside her room, Emily walked over to her small desk and poured the jewellery onto the table.
Most of the rings were made from gold, with three of them being made from platinum. With a simple spell, Emily had removed the gems from their housing and was left with a small pile of gold and platinum.
She kept one of the necklaces, which had a diamond in it. That was a carat and a half. And the only other thing she kept was a ring that she had taken a liking to.
It had a centre sapphire stone with two diamonds next to it. And two gold leaf motifs, which give a pleasing two-tone colour. It wouldn't hold much magic, and she would be better off replacing it with a large centre diamond.
However, she found the ring pleasing to the eye as it was. Emily conjured a small bag and, scooped up the gemstones and dropped them in the bag.
Emily stripped out of her clothes and threw them into the laundry basket before grabbing some new clothes. Picking up the ring, Emily used her magic to resize it so it would fit on her finger and slipped it on.
Walking into the kitchen, Mom was already plating food up, and Bella was sitting at the table.
"Hey, spend all day exercising?" Bella asked as Emily took a seat.
"No, not all day. How was the book?"
"Good, im at the part where Captain Wentworth returns."
"Hmm, would you marry someone even if mom and dad disapproved of them?" Emily asked, only vaguely remembering the storyline of the book.
Bella looked surprised by the question before biting her lip in thought. "I guess it would depend on how I felt about the man," Bella ended up saying.
"What about you?" Bella asked back.
"If I loved them, sure," Emily replied easily.
Mom walked over and placed a plate in front of Bella and Emily. "Garlic bread will be ready in a moment." A few seconds later, Mom returned carrying two more plates, one with garlic bread and another with her own meal on it.
"So, what would you girls like to do for your birthday?" Mom asked as she sat down.
"It's five weeks away?" Bella said as a reminder.
"Right, but that is a week after you have started school. I wondered if you wanted to do anything before school had started."
Emily looked at Bella. She didn't really care about doing much for their birthday, Emily hadn't really made any friends at school, and Bella wasn't a super outgoing person.
"How about we just go out to eat somewhere?" Bella asked.
"You sure we could go to Six Flags Magic Mountain, or there is that family entertainment centre that just opened recently," Renee asked.
"I am fine, just having a nice meal together," Emily said.
She wouldn't mind going to Six Flags Magic Mountain, but she knew for a fact that Bella would feel uncomfortable. Not to mention how clumsy she was.
However, maybe she could go with Leah and Emily. She wished that she could invite the Denali's, but she lived in one of the sunniest places in the world.
"Okay, if you are both okay with going out for something to eat, we will do that," Mom said. Emily could tell she had hoped they would do something more than a meal.
Emily looked down at the meal and was surprised that it wasn't burnt and actually tasted okay.
After dinner, Emily returned to her room and looked at the pile of gold and platinum on her desk. Thankfully, there was a good amount of gold, which should sell for a good amount.
Which was good as she had spent a good amount of her savings when she had added that extra two hundred on the necklace. So gold would be a good way to get some money.
Sure, she could just magic more money up when she needed it, but it wasn't like keeping the gold would do much for her as she could conjure that up as well. And she had no way to explain the remains of 20 rings in her bedroom should her mom ever find them.
Putting the gold aside, Emily started thinking of a way to charge up all the gems stones with magic. The lay line at La Push wouldn't work as just the one-carat diamond had pretty much drained it.
The Lay Line that she had found in the mountain most likely wouldn't even fill up the sapphire ring that she was wearing. What she really needed was to find a really large Lay Line.
As she thought about where to look for a Lay Line, an idea popped into her head. So far, all the Lay Lines she had found seemed to be in places of nature.
Forks was more forest than town, and the one she found was in a national park and flowed pretty much in tandem with the river. So maybe she needed to look somewhere full of nature that hadn't been massively affected by mankind.
The first place that popped into her mind was a rainforest. She would need to find some pictures so that she could teleport there. Given the distance, she may have to save a few days of mana up.
She didn't know exactly how far it was, but she was sure that it was much further away than Alaska. Given that trip had cost 20% of her mana, she was sure that she was looking at around 70% of her mana to get there and back.
She was pretty sure she would probably have to fly to get around, so she would need more mana for that. At the moment, all the charms on her bracelet were still full as she hadn't used them.
Her grandmother's ring was utterly empty, and her necklace was also running pretty dry. She would spend the next few days saving mana and looking up the Rainforest so she could teleport there.
"You going to the library again?" Bella asked as she walked into the living room.
"No, I can drop by if you need a book?" Emily offered.
"No, I will just reread one of my favourites."
"Okay, I should be back in an hour if you want to make lunch together."
"Okay, cya in an hour," Bella called out as Emily left the house.
Emily checked her pocket, making sure that she had brought the bag of gold, and made her way towards one of the pawnbrokes she had found when she was looking to buy a necklace.
Emily looked around as she entered the pawnbroker. The store was pretty empty as Emily walked up to the counter. Emily looked at the man behind the counter.
The entire shop had a disgusting smell of fried food and sweat permeating the air.
The man standing before her was an elderly gentleman with a noticeable protruding belly that stretched the off-white shirt he had on. His face appeared to be oily and unkempt, with a stubble covering it. His hair was thinning and greasy, making it look as if he hadn't washed it in days, leaving a shiny residue on his scalp.
Just looking at the man made Emily feel disgusted at his lack of hygiene, but she did her best to hide it.
"What you want?" the man asked as she got to the counter.
Emily noticed his eyes inspecting her body before focusing on her chest. A shiver of revulsion went through her, and her fingers twitched as she wanted to use her magic to kill the filth infrount of her, having an idea of what he was thinking.
"I need to sell this gold," Emily said, fighting the instinct to attack the man as she slid the bag of gold across the counter.
The man's eyes finally stopped looking at her breasts and picked up the bag of gold, looking surprised at the weight. The man let out a hum as he poured the gold out and inspected it.
Emily waited, tapping her foot impatiently. Just standing near the man made her feel dirty.
"Not bad, it's all 22k. In total, you have 253g or 8.8 ounces. You got ID?" the man asked in a knowing tone.
"No, how much is it worth?" Emily asked, ignoring his eyes.
"$356 per ounce with ID. Given you don't have ID, im sure we can think of some other way to prove your age," the man said lecherously as he licked his lips.
$300 per ounce," Emily countered coldly.
The man frowned at her counter. "If you come in the back and prove your age, I can sell it to you for $356," the man said.
Emily felt her fist tighten to the point that her nails were nearly cutting into her palm.
$300, or I will find somewhere else to sell it," Emily bit out.
The man looked at her for a moment. "Fine, $300, it is frigid bitch," the man said, going back to staring at her chest.
The man opened a box and started counting out the money as Emily watched him. "Right, 2640," the man said, slinding it across to Emily.
Emily wasn't sure if that was the right amount, but it sounded close enough for her. Emily reached out and snatched the money faster than the man could react.
With the deal done, she turned around to leave the store. "Come back if you have any more gold, frigid," The man called out as she left the store.
Tucking the money away, Emily took a deep breath as she left the store. Once she was outside the store, Emily let out the shiver that she was holding in.
No matter what, she vowed that she wouldn't ever return to the store. She was tempted to come back at night and set the building on fire.
Emily quickly left and made her way home. Tomorrow, Emily was going to the Amazonian Rainforest, hoping to find some plentiful Ley Lines to charge up all the diamonds and gemstones that she had gotten.
It had taken her four days in order to fill up both her grandmother's and the new sapphire ring. As for her necklace, she was able to refile that with a trip back to La Push and draining the Lay Line once again.
As for the new 1-and-a-half-carat necklace, she would have to wait till she got to the Rainforest in order to fill it up with mana.
Today, however, she was just going to relax with Bella, watching TV and cooking dinner.
Bella was sat in the same spot as when she had left, reading her book.
"Hey, back already?" Bella asked, sounding surprised.
"What can I say? My run was quicker than I thought. You sure you don't want to join me in the mornings?" Emily asked, knowing the answer.
Bella let out a scoff. "No, walking is already hard enough for me."
"Maybe your balance will get better from practice?"
"That's what mom said about ballet," Bella said.
"You sure you don't mind going out for a meal for our birthday?" Bella asked.
"I don't mind a meal, and im not going to drag you skydiving." Emily joked.
"No, I could do skydiving. There is nothing for me to trip on."
"You would trip on the air somehow," Emily said, rolling her eyes.
"Hey, im not that bad!" Bella said with a playful glare.
"Okay, okay, you wouldn't actually trip on air," Emily agreed.
Bella let out a huff. "Go watch your mermaid show."
"Where are you off to?" Mom asked as Emily made her way to the door with a small bag.
"I found a new gym the other day. I got a free trial for today, so im going to check it out," Emily called back.
"That will be good. I worry about you running during winter. How long will you be gone?" Mom asked.
"Not sure, 5 or 6 hours. I think they have a sauna to relax in after working out."
"Okay, but you have to be back by 7 pm, okay," Mom called out as Emily opened the door.
"Okay, love you," Emily called back as she rushed out of the house.
If she had to be back by seven, that would give her eight hours to explore the Amazon Rainforest.
Emily rechecked her pocket and felt the small bag that was filled with her gemstones, and she had her new necklace around her neck already. Emily looked around before making her way to the large, steep hill to the right of the house.
Walking halfway down the hill, Emily was happy no one would see her when she teleported. Emily focused on the picture of the Amazon Rainforest that she had seen in the books from the library. Emily vanished in a blur of colour before she crashed to the damp floor.
As the dizzy sensation faded, Emily looked around. The pictures in the books didn't do the place justice. Emily looked around with a large, happy smile on her face.
The dense canopy overhead filtered the dappled sunlight, creating an ever-changing dance of shadows and beams of light that played on the forest floor. The air was thick with humidity, carrying the earthy scent of damp soil and the sweet fragrance of exotic flowers.
Emily thought to herself that the smell of the flowers would make for some of the world's best perfume.
Emily's eyes darted around in all directions as she got to her feet, eager to take in the kaleidoscope of life that surrounded her. Towering trees, some ancient and gnarled, others slender and towering, reached towards the sky.
The air was filled with a quiet symphony of chirps, squawks, and melodies of exotic birds.
Emily closed her eyes and checked how much mana it had cost her to teleport and wasn't surprised to see that 40% of her mana had been consumed.
She had guessed it would have been around half her mana based on how much it had taken her to get to Alaska. She was glad that she had waited to fill up her two rings and necklace.
After all, the Rainforest was filled with dangerous creatures. After checking her mana reserves, Emily used her magic to reach out into the earth as probing tendrils. Almost immediately, Emily could feel the flow of mana below the ground.
The lay lines were tiny, almost the size of her finger, but they seemed to stretch on endlessly and connected to all of the trees. However, the lines going to the trees weren't interesting to Emily, given they had a tiny amount of mana in them.
She was more interested in where they came from as that would be a much larger branch and something that she could actually use to fill up her gemstones and necklace.
Eventually, Emily opened her eyes, drew mana from her grandmother's ring, and flew into the air. Emily flew higher and higher until she was above the forest's canopy and could see a never-ending sea of green in front of her.
Looking into the distance, Emily shot forward through the humid air. Going off feeling alone, Emily continued to fly towards where she thought the lay lines would converge.
Eventually, Emily felt the urge to check on the lay lines, and trusting her instincts, she flew back into the dense Rainforest. As she landed, Emily looked around. It was strange. The forest looked different yet the same, even though she knew she had travelled far away from her original spot.
Emily sat on the ground and closed her eyes. She reached out with her magic and felt the difference in the lay lines. These were much thicker and had a stronger flow of mana pulsating through them.
Feeling the flow of mana, Emily was able to trace it back till she found the branch it had come off of. She was jolted with shock and fear the moment she touched the large branch, almost instinctively severing the connection.
The amount of mana in the branch was tremendous. It was hundreds of times larger than the Lay Line in La Push. Emily opened her eyes with a large smile and got to her feet at finding such a large source of mana.
The main branch wasn't far away. So Emily began the short trek to where the lay line was located. As she got closer, her excitement began to build. There was easily enough mana to fill all of the gemstones that she had brought.
Looking at her watch, Emily saw that she had only spent an hour in the Rainforest so far, leaving her plenty of time.
As she got closer to the Lay Line, Emily frowned as she looked around. The hairs on the back of her arms and neck had stood up, and she felt that something was wrong.
Looking around into the dense Rainforest, Emily tried to spot what had made her senses roar with danger. It wasn't till she looked down that Emily spotted what must have set off her senses.
A large snake within striking distance. It was also one of the few snakes that Emily wanted to avoid at all costs. It was striped yellow, black and red.
The rhyme 'Red and yellow, can kill a fellow; Red and black, a friend of Jack,' popped into her head. Emily was pretty sure that this was an Amazonian Coral Snake. The books she had read went into detail about them.
Emily carefully took a step backwards, keeping an eye on the snake. Who was also observing her.
However, with each step back, the snake seemed less and less interested in her until Emily was far enough away that she was out of striking distance.
Emily continued walking towards the lay line. As she did, she couldn't help but frown. Why had her senses reacted so violently to a snake?
After all, she was wearing her bracelet, so nothing should be able to get within 2 inches of her. It didn't make sense for her senses to react so strongly.
Even when she had met vampires, her senses hadn't reacted so violently.
Out of nowhere, the sound of a tree exploding could be heard, and less than a second later, something crashed into Emily like a train. The force sent Emily flying through the air as the forest turned into a blur.
Emily felt herself crash into trees, which broke under the force before she crashed to the ground. Emily noted that the enchantment on the bracelet must have worked, or she would have been dead from being hit that hard.
Emily quickly poured magic from her grandmother's ring throughout her body, strengthening her. She got to her feet at superhuman speed as she looked around for whatever had attacked her being burned by fire.
Only nothing was on fire, and the forest was empty.
However, her sense was still screaming at her that she was in danger.
A part of her mind registered that this must have been what had set off her senses the first time and not the snake.
Emily quickly checked how much mana had been used in her bracelet and was relieved to find that it was only around 20% of a charm. That brought a sense of relief and security to her.
With that, Emily focused on looking for whatever had attacked her. Emily poured mana into her eyes, and her vision sharpened and became clearer.
The dark areas of the Rainforest became bright and clear, and she could see almost in microscopic detail. The only downside of using mana like this to boost her sense or enhance her body was the after-effects.
As long as she didn't over-enhance her body, she would just be sore; however, if she did overdo it, she could tear her muscles and ligaments. As for her eyes and senses, she knew that she would be in for a horrible migraine and possibly vision damage.
However, even with her enhanced vision, Emily still couldn't find what had attacked her. Racking her brain, Emily tried to come up with an idea of how to find it, as she was sure it hadn't left.
An idea popped into her head: maybe she could use the way she felt for Lay Lines to feel the world around her. Almost immediately, she projected her mana out. However, instead of using it as a probe, she changed it into a wave to cover a large area.
Instantly, she could feel the world around her in a new and amazing way. She could feel the bark and leaves on every tree. The ants scurrying around the snakes, slivering under the leaves.
And once the wave got about thirty meters around, Emily felt a strange presence full of hunger. Without giving it any thought, Emily raised her hand, and a bolt of lightning erupted and struck the tree and the creature behind it.
A painful hiss could be heard when two angry growls snarled. The moment they stepped within range of her mana wave, Emily could sense them as well.
Emily twisted to look at them in the trees as she prepared to cast another spell. However, the moment she caught sight of them, she realised what they were.
Vampires.
Emily's mind vaguely remembered that there was a coven that lived in the Amazonian Rainforest.
The two vampires glared down at her with crimson eyes before they pounced. With her enhanced vision, Emily was able to track them.
Emily created another lightning bolt and attacked one of the vampires, hitting her in the chest with an ear-slitting boom and sending the vampire flying through the air.
However, Emily noticed that the female vampire didn't look very injured before her eyes snapped to the older-looking female vampire that was rapidly closing in on her.
Emily conjured a wall of intense blue fire in front of her. An angry hiss could be heard.
"We don't have to fight," Emily called out, knowing they could hear her even if she was miles away.
"What are you," A rough-sounding voice asked.
Hearing the vampire respond, Emily let the wall of fire die down but kept it ready to be used should they try to attack her again. Emily looked up into the trees to see three sets of red eyes looking down at her.
All three of them were tall. Intimidating so, they must all be around 6ft tall. They were all wearing animal skins as clothing.
"A witch, so where do we go from here?" Emily asked.
The three vampires looked at each other, and Emily was sure they were whispering to each other. But she couldn't hear them, and she wasn't going to enhance her hearing. She would already be in for a world of pain from her eyes and the migraine she would have.
The three vampires looked back at her, and Emily noticed the mana in her bracelet was slowly being used up. Emily's eyes narrowed, and she glared at the three vampires. One of them must have been trying to use a power on her.
A blue ball of fire formed in her hand and shot at the three vampires. The three of them seemed shocked and jumped away from the fireball, just narrowly escaping the explosion.
The tree was turned to ash, and the sump left behind was set on fire. Emily had already cast another lightning spell.
It, unlike the fireball, hit one of the vampires, and it let out a screech of pain as it crashed to the ground, twitching. Another ball of blue fire erupted in her hand, and she shot it at the down vampire.
One of the other female vampires ran and grabbed the down vampire before pulling them both out of the way of the fireball. As she was focused on them, a vampire appeared in the corner of her vision, her hand shot forward towards her neck.
The hand hit a barrier and sent Emily flying back as she hit the vampire with a lightning bolt. Emily created a blade of magic and shot it at the down vampire, who screamed as her arm was severed from her body.
Emily crashed into a large tree and fell to the ground. However, she didn't relax knowing that a severed arm wasn't a major injury to a vampire. Vampires could be torn into many pieces and still be fine.
However, it seemed that the vampire had gotten over the paralysis, grabbed her arm, got up, and was quickly retreating before Emily could even conjure a fireball.
Emily quickly probed her ring and bracelet, checking how much mana was left in both. The bracelet was good, with tons of mana still left in it, but the ring only had half of its mana left in it, as she had been using it for all her spells.
Emily could hear the three vampires talking to each other in a language that she didn't know. A few hisses were let out before it fell silent.
"It seems you aren't prey. I am not willing to lose one of my sisters for a meal." the wild and rough voice said before the forest fell silent.
Emily swallowed. Thanks to the magic wave she was using to sense everything around her, she could see or feel that the three vampires were indeed leaving very quickly.
Emily let out a sigh as she stood up. Her heart was still beating at a thousand miles per hour. With the vampires gone, Emily cut the mana to her eyes and flowed throughout her body.
Instantly, her eyes stung in pain, and tears started to form. Emily blinked as her eyes squinted.
Reaching out with her mana, Emily found that she was almost standing over the Lay Line and took a seat. She pulled the gemstones out of her pocket and placed them on the ground. She reached out with her mana and started filling them up one by one.
Eventually, all of the gemstones were filled to the brim with wild mana. Emily pulled off her necklace and filled it up as well before putting it back on.
Checking the Lay Line, Emily couldn't tell the difference. Emily gathered all of the gemstones and placed them back in her bag.
Over the last few minutes, the pain in her eyes had grown from a stinging pain to a burning pain. It had almost become intolerable.
Teleporting home didn't even cross Emily's mind at this point. Drawing mana from her ring, Emily teleported and slammed into the ground of a house.
Emily heard several people jump up at her appearance.
"Emily!" Tanya's voice called out as cold hands picked her up.