Chapter 5 December 25

I was too late to help the woman. I’d carry that failure with me forever, but there wasn’t a second to spare. I could wallow in guilt later; right now I had to get back to Forks to save the lives of three humans that had somehow gotten caught in the web of a psychotic vampire.

What I’d do once I was face to face with the monster I hadn’t exactly thought through; I just knew that I had to do whatever it took to keep Charlie alive. Bella would live through my death, but the death of her father…it would break her.

I tried to stay in the shadows as much as possible as I raced to the elderly couple’s house, but the sun was out in all its glory this morning. The snow covered ground just reflected it all the more adding insult to injury and left me sparkling more than any Tiffany diamond ever had.

I hunkered down in a tattered shed close to the house and listened to their Christmas morning festivities. Much to my relief, there would be no family stopping by this year. Their children and grandchildren thought a week away in a European country was far more exciting than spending what could very well be this couple’s last Christmas, at the family home. A part of me was sad for them, but it made things much easier for me.

The sky began to darken with the first hint of night though it was barely four in the afternoon. As the last of the sun’s rays sank behind the horizon, the vampire damn near materialized right outside their door. The beast was already on their porch and I never even heard him, let alone notice his scent. Apparently he could shield everything, not just vampiric powers.

The sound of my rumbling snarl sent him into action. He may have been caught off guard, but he wasn’t fleeing. No, he sprang at me, his hands splayed wide as he swiped them past me.

I rolled left only just escaping injury. He was faster than anything I’d ever encountered and the fact that he was bloated on human blood gave him an edge over me.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” I mentioned as I scrambled out of his reach.