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EPILOGUE 3
The wind felt cold against my face as we ran through the last of the forest, not bothering to loop around toward the Cullen house as we usually would. The icy breeze was the only thing keeping my lips from feeling as if they were burning. The sensation of Alice's lips on mine still lingered, even though we'd parted over half an hour ago. Even in one hundred years, it would still be the same. She would leave me with that same ounce of passion, thriving against my body.
We had parted but she still remained close. Alice ran gracefully only a few metres to the left, swinging around trees and hopping easily over fallen logs and branches, with the elegance of a deer and the speed of a cheetah.
Up ahead, the sound of crashing echoed through the trees. Thunder was due- the sky was already paved with black slabs, the air thick with the sense of anticipation. But the sound, to the ears of a vampire, was too hollow to be a result of nature's monstrosity. A low grunt, which may have been mistaken for the creak of a tree, came shortly after the clatter, and I realised instantly what it was.
"Have they started without us?" I asked, stopping shortly only a mile from the clearing.
Alice barely skidded to a stop as she jumped down beside me. She listened for another clash of a bat, and when it came, she laughed lightly, shaking her head. "No. That's just Rosalie practising. After last time, she's desperate to win," she said, taking my hand so she could tug me to run toward the Cullen's playing field again. "But they could have started without us. We're late. Vampires are supposed to be incapable of lateness."
A joke was evident in her voice, and yet I rolled my eyes to tease her. "Then you shouldn't have let us stop off. We could have come straight from the hunt."
Alice grinned and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, either way, we have the advantage."
The advantage of having fed so recently.
"I suppose you're right."
Minutes later, and we were slowing yet again, letting elbows nudge as we stopped beside Esme and Bella. As Alice had predicted, a bat was already in Rosalie's hand, the ball she'd hit nowhere in sight. She let out another brief grunt and then turned, slinging the bat over her shoulder as she joined the group that was forming.
"Alice, Elide, you've finally shown."
"Sorry. The journey back took longer than we thought."
"And it was definitely by no fault of our own."
Carlisle nodded obliviously. "We've already sorted teams. Alice, you're with Edward, Jasper, and I. Elide you're with Rose, Emmett and Esme," he said, pointing at each person as he said so. Already, the group had split naturally into their teams, and I moved to my own.
"Who's batting first?"
"We could take a toss?"
Emmett was grinning as he rubbed his hands together. "I like the idea of a race better."
