Love Bites

Next Stop Phoenix

"What the hell Emmett?" Alice picked up a random bat off the ground and hurled it at Emmett's head. He miraculously managed to dodge it despite the speed at which the bat was thrown.

"What did I do wrong?" Emmett cowered in fear behind Rosalie. Rosalie struggled not to laugh as her boyfriend used her as a shield.

"Clearly, Alice didn't want the girl to know about us," Jasper said.

"She didn't know?" Emmett looked back at me in shock. "Then what the hell were you two doing back home?"

A small flashback of what occurred earlier played in my mind. Oh shit. "I just made out with a vampire." I stared at Alice in complete horror. She stared back at me with the same expression.

"We figured that by the hickey on your neck." Emmett snarked.

"Emmett you're not helping," Bella said.

"Everything's fine, Aspen. We aren't any different than we were before." Esme assured me.

I shook my head. I mean she was technically right. There were still vampires before. But... I didn't know about it before. And I don't know how to feel about it. I just wanted to go home. Immediately. "No, nothing is fine. I need to go home now."

"But I..." Alice started.

I cut her off. "I don't give a damn about anything else, Alice. I want to go home. So take me home. Now!"

Alice was taken aback by my words. Everyone else seemed to be too, but just for a moment before their stances changed.

Edward suddenly turned to grab Bella. "Let's go."

"It's too late," Carlisle told him.

In the blink of an eye, Alice was standing in front of me. I jumped back, startled by her sudden movement. "I shouldn't have brought you here. I'm sorry."

"Put this on." Emmett took the cap off of his head and placed it on mine.

"What's going on?" I asked. Wordlessly, Rosalie took off her vest and placed it on me.

"What- What?" Bella echoed.

"Both of you need to be quiet and stand behind us," Edward instructed.

We all formed a line. I stood in the middle of Alice and Emmett. Alice made it a point to stand a bit in front of me, which I assumed was to hide my injured arm. For whatever reason it seemed like the Cullens wanted to disguise me and Bella.

After a few seconds of standing there silently, which I believe could've been used to hop in the car and leave, three people emerged from the woods. All three of these people shared red eyes. Whatever they were, they were clearly supernatural. But I wasn't sure if they were vampires because of their eye color.

The darker-skinned man in the middle held a ball in his hands. "I believe this belongs to you." He threw it at Carlisle, who caught it with no effort.

"Thank you," Carlisle said.

"I am Laurant. And this is Victoria and James." A man was on Laurant's right, and a woman on his left.

"I'm Carlisle and this is my family," Carlisle said. All of their eyes sifted through the line that the Cullens, Bella, and I had formed. However, James's eyes seemed to linger on Alice longer than anyone else's.

"Hello." Laurant smiled warmly.

"I'm afraid your hunting activities have caused something of a mess for us," Carlisle complained.

"Our apologies. We didn't know that the territory had been claimed." Laurant feigned sympathy.

"Yes well, we maintain a permanent residence nearby," Carlisle explained.