"Emily, what's wrong?" Tanya's worried voice asked as Emily felt herself being placed down on the couch.
Emily let out a moan of pain, and she covered her eyes in a vain attempt to try and deal with the pain. But even blocking all the light didn't stop the feeling of nails being driven into the back of her eyes.
"Get Carlisle," Emily groaned out.
"I think Alice must have seen us needing him. I can hear someone running towards us," Tanya replied with worry in her voice.
"I have some cold strips," Irina suggested.
For a moment, Emily was tempted to use magic to see like she had in the rainforest, but in the end, didn't dare in case it caused her even more pain.
"Do you want to try some cold strips," Tanya asked, pressing one of her cold hands against Emily's forehead.
Before Emily could reply, she heard the door open and several people entering the house.
"Alice said Emily needs some help," Carlisle said as he made his way over to Emily.
"Ya, she just dropped in. We are not sure what exactly is wrong with her."
Emily felt someone crouch down next to her. "Can you move your hands so I can look," Carlisle asked.
Emily removed her hand as blocking the light didn't seem to make any difference in the amount of pain she was feeling. Carlisle opened her eyes and used a scope to check her eyes. Emily felt her eyelid twitch as her eyes started to water.
"I can't see anything wrong with your eyes. I can apply some numbing drops; maybe that will help?" Carlisle offered.
"Yes, please," Emily gritted out.
"Okay, but it may make your vision blurry, or you could lose your vision for as long as the eye drop lasts," Carlisle warned as he placed a drop into one eye and then the next.
Emily blinked as the pain in her eyes slowly vanished until it was gone completely. Once the pain was gone, Emily opened her eyes to look around, only to frown.
"Is there something wrong?" Tanya asked, leaning in close to Emily.
"No, it's just that everything is very blurry, that's all," Emily said as she looked around at the smeary world.
"So what happened?" Tanya asked, taking a seat next to Emily on the sofa.
"I went to charge the gemstones with magic. I theorised that places in nature would be the best to find wild magic. So I went to the Amazonian Rainforest. I bumped into some vampires, we had a fight, and then I came here."
"I feel like you are skimming over a lot," Tanya said, and Emily could hear disapproval in her voice.
For a moment, Emily felt a twang of worry in her chest. But before she could think more about what she was feeling, Kate interrupted her thoughts.
"Wow, you managed to get away from three vampires, not bad, Emily," Kate said, letting out a laugh.
"Whoa, whoa. I didn't run away. I won the fight," Emily protested, sending an unimpressive glare towards where she thought Kate was.
"That's Irina, not Kate," Tanya whispered.
Emily blushed, knowing that everyone in the room heard that without a doubt.
"You don't look like you won the fight," Kate teased.
"Hey, I still have all of my limbs attached, something they can't say," Emily protested.
"You managed to cut their limbs off?" Irina asked with genuine shock.
"Well, just the one arm, but all my arms are still attached," Emily said, a mixture of pride and disappointment.
She was proud that she had been able to injure one of the vampires when it was a three versus one situation. However, she was disappointed that it was such a small injury. Emily knew that it could be reattached easily.
The fact that the lightning didn't really do any damage to vampires was a surprise to her. But at the very least, she knew that vampires couldn't dodge her lighting spell. She would have to think of ways to enhance the lighting spell, as the blue fire spell was far too slow to hit any vampires.
"So each drop will last for about thirty minutes. So we should, hopefully, be able to manage your pain till your eyes are better," Carlisle said.
"How long do you have before you have to go home?" Tanya asked.
"Maybe five or six hours. Hopefully, my eyes are back to normal, or I am not sure what I will tell my mum and sister," Emily said before her belly let out a rumble.
"Would you like something to eat?" Tanya asked.
"Err, sure," Emily said cautiously.
She had asked when she was last here, and vampires weren't able to taste food at all. She had only been brave enough to eat Esme's food as she had been said to be a good cook in the books.
However, as far as she knew, none of the Denali clan spent much time around humans other than for their physical needs. So Emily was a little worried about what the food would taste like.
Emily felt Tanya stand up to go make her something to eat. Emily reached into her pocket and pulled out the bag with all the gemstones inside.
"Oh, so you managed to fill the gemstones with magic?" Kate asked, seeing the bag.
"Yep, it will be a few days before the mana inside them is usable, but with all of these, I will have plenty of magic to experiment with," Emily said happily.
Just the thought of the different things that she could try had her nearly bouncing in her seat. Not only that, but she could also travel wherever she wanted and bring people along with her.
"I have a question," Irina asked.
"About magic?"
"Yes and no. Would it be possible to make us look human under the sun?" Irina asked.
"Of course, the question would be how much mana would it use. To which I have no idea, I would guess a fair amount," Emily said.
"That reminds me, we have the gemstones to pay you. Alice said you would prefer just gemstones on their own," Carlisle said.
"Ya, I would have just taken them out of their housing so I can make my own at a later date," Emily said, shaking the bag and making the gemstones clink against each other.
"Here we go, one grilled cheese sandwich," Tanya said, walking back into the room with a plate.
Emily let out a mental sigh of relief. There was no way that Tanya could have messed up something like a grilled cheese. It was just bread and cheese, after all. Maybe that was why Tanya had made it, so it couldn't go wrong.
"Thank you," Emily said, stuffing the gemstones back into her pocket and taking the plate from Tanya.
"What do you do to pass the time?" Emily asked Tanya as she took a bit of the grilled cheese.
"It changes over time. At the moment, I teach an online university course. It pays well, and I never have to see people face-to-face. What do you want to be when you're older?" Tanya asked.
"Err, I don't really know, to be honest," Emily said, a little stumped by Tanya's question.
"Really, you don't have a dream job?" Kate asked, sounding surprised.
"No, not really. People work for money and then pick a dream job based on what they would like to be paid for doing, for the most part at least. I don't need to work for money, so I haven't ever really put much thought into it."
"Well, you have time to think of something. Trust me, doing nothing for decades quickly gets boring," Tanya said.
Emily frowned as she fell into thought. In her old life, she hadn't lived long enough to do everything that she wanted to do. But she knew that vampires would know best about getting bored.
"Delivery," a tinkling voice called out that Emily recognised as Alice.
"Hey Alice," Emily called out in greeting as she finished the first half of her grilled cheese.
"Hey, Emily. I am sorry about the fight you got into. I didn't see it until a few moments before it happened," Alice said.
Emily frowned as she was sure that she could hear some guilt in Alice's voice. "It was my choice to go to the Amazonian, and even if you had warned me, I would have still gone," Emily said.
"You could have gotten hurt," Tanya said with a hint of scolding in her voice.
"I could get hurt crossing the road. I wouldn't let the risk of getting hurt stop me from doing something," Emily said stubbornly.
For a moment, the room seemed to grow tense before Alice broke it. "Oh, I have the gemstones here for you. There are two five-carat marquise-shaped diamonds That I thought would make good earrings and then one four-carat heart-shaped diamond that I saw you would like. Then there is just a random selection of 2-carat diamonds," Alice said before handing the bag over to Emily.
Emily was surprised at the amount of diamonds the Cullens had given her as payment for the enchanted jewellery. Hell, just with what she had now, Emily doubted she would ever need any more.
"Wow, that was far more than I expected," Emily said, feeling a little awkward as she slid the diamonds into her pocket.
"Well, they aren't top-level diamonds. Tanya and Esme told me you had told them it didn't matter, so I thought more would be better than a few high-quality ones," Alice said happily.
"Thank you, Alice. You are right, more low-quality ones are better than a few high-quality ones," Emily said.
"So, how are you planning on spending the last three weeks of summer?" Tanya asked, taking Emily's plate away now she had finished eating.
"Hmm, not sure. I probably need to go clothes shopping," Emily said before she remembered who was in the room.
"Shopping, yes we could all go shopping," Alice said excitedly.
Emily felt a shiver go down her spine and looked over at the other vampires for help. However, no one spoke up, and Emily was sure if she could see, then all the vampires would be avoiding her searching eyes.
"Come on, please! I only normally ever get to go with Rose, though I have been trying to rope our cousins to go with me." Alice said pleadingly.
Emily could feel her resistance breaking under Alice's excited voice.
"I mean, I don't really need any winter clothing for Phoenix," Emily said with relief.
"You already told Irina that you could probably solve the sun problem," Alice shot back, and Emily could imagine her narrowing her eyes challengingly.
"I err.." Emily said, stumped by Alice's comeback.
"Come on, I don't get to shop for summer clothing; none of us do. We could all make a day of it together," Alice said convincingly.
"That does sound fun," Irina and Tanya said with a hint of pleading in their voice.
Emily's resistance crumbled. "Okay, we will go shopping sometime over the next week or so."
"Yes! Thank you, Thank you," Alice said before pulling Emily into an almost rib-breaking hug.
"How are your eyes? The first drops should be wearing off soon?" Carlisle asked.
Emily blinked and looked around. The world looked just as blurry as ever. "They don't feel painful, but the world is still very blurry," Emily reported.
"The blurriness could last for a bit longer. But I am glad to hear that there is no pain in your eyes." Carlisle said as he started packing his stuff away.
"Thank you, Carlisle," Emily said, grateful for his help.
"No problem, I am glad to have been some help," Carlisle said warmly.
"Now, let's plan out the shopping trip," Alice said, jumping onto the couch.
"Do you have time for this today, Emily?" Tanya asked.
"Ya, I have a few hours before I have to be back home, and I want to wait for the blurriness to have gone," Emily said.
"Excellent. So I am thinking Paris or Italy," Alice said excitedly.
Emily took a seat at her desk and pulled out her two bags of gemstones. She hadn't done anything with the diamonds that the Cullens had given her 4 four days ago.
Emily looked at her door and used magic to add a ward that would stop people looking for her. They didn't have locks on their doors, and Emily didn't want Bella or her mum walking in while she had what was probably a million dollars of gemstones on her desk.
With that taken care of, Emily poured out the diamonds and quickly fished out the three large diamonds that Alice had told her about. As she looked around, Emily realised she needed somewhere to store the gemstones.
And an idea popped into her head. Using her magic, Emily conjured a box from a black wood. She added gold inlay to the box's corners and a gold latch. Picking it up, Emily inspected the box.
She opened it, ensuring it was big enough to store her jewellery and gemstones. Happy with the box, Emily placed it back down, gathered the diamonds she had poured back into the bag, and dropped them into the box.
Emily opened the drawer of her desk, pulled out her grandmother's ring and placed it back into the box as well. Emily had stopped wearing it now that she had rings with large single gemstones.
The only ring she wore now was the sapphire ring with the two small diamonds. Each of the diamonds on the new ring could store about the same as her grandmother's ring. And the sapphire easily dwarfed both of the small diamonds.
Her bracelet had also been replaced. She had conjured a new one and used the diamonds from the rings that Tanya had given her, which were natural diamonds. As for the old bracelet, she planned on giving it to Bella for her birthday after redesigning the charms to better suit Bella's tastes.
She also planned on reworking the enchantments on the bracelet as well. As Bella didn't need her mind protected as she had that naturally. The first two enchantments, however, would keep her safe.
As for her new bracelet, she had all three enchantments to it again, and Emily was sure it wouldn't need recharging for a very long time. Emily only planned on using the mana from the bracelet if she was attacked by vampires again.
And even if that happened, she had her ring and the two necklaces, which should be more than enough mana to protect herself. Looking back at the box, Emily poured out the gemstones that she had filled with mana and started looking through them.
With a quick look, though, Emily found an emerald that didn't look too expensive. Emily carved out a slot for it on the lid of the box and then carved some decorative vines to frame the emerald.
Emily pressed the emerald into the slot and carved some runes around it, imbuing them with an enchantment that would make people disregard the box as something uninteresting. After a moment, Emily felt the mana in the emerald being used very slowly.
Emily smiled as she looked through the rest of the filled gemstones, looking for some to make bracelets. She would need to make at least seven for when she went shopping with Tanya, Kate, Irina, Alice, Esme, Roselie and Carmen.
In the end, she just picked 8 random rubies, emeralds and sapphires and created simple bracelets to house the gemstones. Then Emily added the runes to them and added two enchantments, one to make them unbreakable and the other which stopped them from sparkling in the sun.
With everything set for tomorrow's shopping trip, Emily changed into her pyjamas and crawled into bed. Emily quickly fell asleep with dreams of tomorrow's shopping trip.
"You going to your new gym again?" Reene asked.
"No, I met some people there the other day, and they invited me shopping."
"Oh, do you want your birthday money early?"
"No, it's okay. I have some saved up." Emily said.
"Okay, make sure to have fun," Renne said, kissing the back of Emily's head.
"Will do," Emily called back as she left the house.
Emily made a beeline down to the right and down the hillside till she was out of the view of her house. Emily drew magic from one of her necklaces and vanished from the hillside.
Emily landed with a small stumble in the Denali house. Emily looked around and saw that Alice, Esme and Rosalie were already waiting in the living room.
"Emily," Alice called out and appeared before Emily, pulling her into a hug.
"Hey Alice," Emily greeted back, hugging Alice.
"Yes, she has been hyperactive for the last hour when she saw you would be arriving soon," Tanya said teasingly.
Alice frowned and childishly stuck her tongue out.
"So, can we go? We have so much to buy and do," Alice asked impatiently.
"Okay, first, I have made bracelets for everyone," Emily said, pulling out seven bracelets.
"Do you know how long they will last?" Kate asked as she took one of the bracelets.
"Nope, but as soon as we go somewhere sunny, I will have a better idea," Emily said after everyone had taken a bracelet.
"Right, let's go," Emily said as she wrapped her magic around all the female vampires.
With a whip-like snap, they vanished and reappeared in a bright, sunny forest. Emily looked over at the vampires and smiled, seeing that they hadn't turned into disco balls.
The vampires also seemed surprised as they ran their hands up and down their arms.
"Hmm, we still have a slight glow to us. But nothing that humans would be able to notice," Tanya said. "So, how long do we have?" Tanya asked, looking at Emily.
"Two days, maybe a bit less or a bit more," Emily said as she felt the magic being used in the bracelets.
"Okay, are we far away from the grove?" Alice asked, looking around as if she would be able to see it.
"No, we are in a park a short walk away," Emily said as she pointed towards a path.
"Okay, let's go then," Alice said as she made her way towards the path.
Everyone smiled, seeing how excited Alice was before they followed after her. Emily wondered if it was a dream come true for Alice. After all, the Cullen's couldn't go shopping anywhere that was remotely sunny.
"So, what clothes are you looking to buy?" Tanya asked, walking up next to Emily.
"Hmm, sports clothes, but I am sure that Alice will talk me into getting some dresses."
"I am sure we can sneak a few jeans and shirts into the bag when Alice isn't looking," Tanya teased.
"I can hear you," Alice said pouting.
"We can get a few dresses, Alice. But I don't really wear dresses, so there is no point in me buying too many," Emily stated.
Emily watched Alice bite the inside of her lip before she conceded to Emily's request.
"I will have to work on that," Alice mumbled.
Emily felt her mouth twitch as they continued walking towards the shopping centre.
"What are all of you going to be buying? I doubt a shopping district in Los Angeles sells many winter clothes?" Emily asked.
"Im sure there are one or two winter stores. And we do go on holiday to sunny places where we can wear summer clothing." Tanya replied as she looked around.
"Ya, and with these bracelets, we could go to the beach or maybe a water park," Kate said, sounding enthusiastic at the idea.
Emily shot all of the vampires an incredulous look. If they went to the beach in swimsuits, Emily was sure the divorce rate would spike. All of them were supernaturally beautiful. Though if Emily had to say who was the best looking, Emily felt that it would have to be a draw between Rosalie and Tanya.
"And even if we can't buy much. We can buy you a lot of things to wear," Tanya teased.
"Well, I can't have too many gym clothes," Emily joked back.
Emily did her best to ignore all of the looks they were getting as they walked into The Grove. However, it seemed that none of the vampires were bothered by it. Or, at the very least, they were used to it.
"Okay, well, let's go to Lululemon, and we can get Emily's gym clothes out of the way. Then we can pick out some cute clothes," Alice announced as they walked down the main street of the outside shopping centre.
Emily shot an amused look at Tanya as Alice pulled her along to one of the sports shops. As they entered the store, Emily could tell that Alice was disappointed with the clothes.
"They are clothes for working out in," Emily reminded her as she walked over to the section of shorts. It didn't take Emily very long before she had selected enough gym clothes to cover her for an entire week.
Emily looked around, hoping that they would have some warmer clothes for when she was in Forks and still wanted to go running. But predicably they didn't have anything for the colder weather. She would have to check out the local sporting goods store in Forks.
"Please tell me you're done," Alice asked with a giant pout on her face.
"Yes, let me go pay, and we can go," Emily said, making her way towards the counter. In preparation for the shopping trip, Emily had already conjured two thousand dollars.
Though looking at the amount just the workout clothing was going to cost her, Emily realised she had to really undershoot how much this shopping trip was going to cost.
In the end, it cost her over 800 dollars, and the cashier gave her a strange look when Emily handed over eight one-hundred-dollar bills.
"Finally, come on, let's go," Alice said, grabbing Emily's hand and pulling Emily towards the exit.
Emily's suspicion about two thousand dollars not being enough for a shopping trip with Alice turned out to be correct. By the end of the day, Emily wasn't sure how much she had spent or when she would wear all the clothes that Alice had convinced her to buy.
However, Emily was sure that if Bella was with them today, then she would have fainted at the amount of money that was being spent. Though she would have probably liked the bookstore.
"I guess that's every store here," Alice said, downcast at the idea of the shopping trip ending.
"Such a shame we didn't even get to embarrass Emily by shopping for
lingerie," Kate said with a large smirk on her face.
Emily shot her a glare before sticking out her tongue. Kate just let out a peal-like laugh as they made their way back towards the park where they had arrived.
"Did you have fun even with Alice?" Tanya asked Emily as they walked.
"Yep, not sure if I will wear all these clothes before I outgrow them, though," Emily teased, knowing Alice could hear them talking.
"What about you? It seemed you were more interested in the bookstore than clothing?" Emily asked Tanya, feeling quite relaxed in her presence.
It was odd. Emily never felt her senses on edge when she was with any of the other vampires. Still, she definitely felt much more relaxed when she was with Tanya.
"Hmm, I like the clothes, but even with these bracelets, I doubt I will be in sunny weather very much. As for books, I do really like books. I am actually a writer. It's a good job for me, like me," Tanya said.
"Really, a writer?" Emily asked, surprised.
"Of course, we aren't all like Carslie. But we also can't take many normal jobs. Irina teaches languages online as well as designs websites, and Kate is a historian and writes historical books."
"I suppose actually being there is helpful for that," Emily joked.
"Yes, it does help. Most of my books are based on lives I have watched other people live."
"Any that I will have heard of or read?" Emily asked.
"Maybe I will show you them in the library if you want?" Tanya offered.
"Sure," Emily agreed, getting a smile from Tanya.
For a moment, Emily was dazzled by how beautiful Tanya was. Even after knowing her for several weeks, it hadn't helped her resistance against being dazzled. Each time it happened, she was reminded how she always thought that Bella was playing it up. Now, she knew that wasn't the case.
"Would you like something to eat when we get back, Emily," Esme asked as they got back to the park.
"If you don't mind cooking," Emily asked.
"Of course not. I would love to cook you something while Tanya shows you around," Esme said with a warm smile.
"Thank you," Emily said gratefully.
She hadn't eaten much during the day as she didn't want people to notice that none of the vampires were eating.
"Well, there is no one around, so we should be safe to teleport from here," Tanya said, looking around.
Emily nodded as her magic wrapped around everyone, and they vanished from the park.