"Basketball? Why basketball?" I ask spencer. "we like to show off I guess. And besides, why not basketball?" She asks me. "i don’t know, but theres baseball or any other sport." I reason with her. "we play baseball sometimes but it’s annoying because we haven’t found a bat yet that can handle us." She just smiles. "well, bring it on." I tell her lifting my fist in the air. she simply grins at me. ______________________________________________ "okay, we’ll pick teams. That way it’s fair," dr carlin said once we arrived at the basketball court that was ticked away in the woods near the carlin residence. "yes, glen and madison, team captains." Mrs carlin agreed. "oh this should be great fun." Madison said, rolling her eyes, looking right through me. "madison, you choose first." Dr carlin started calmly. "spencer," our glen then made his choice, "chelsea." "arthur," "clay," "paula," "you can be on my team, ashley." Glen grinned at me. He was so nice to me, unlike- "just stay out of the way," madison snapped at me and she nudged past me. "ignore her, we are pleased you’re on our team." Chelsea told me in her cheery tone. ______________________________________________ I have never felt so useless in my life! The entire game, I stood there doing nothing but trying to focus my eyes on any one of the carlins. It was no easy thing, I only catch glimpses of blurs whizzing by me. I also saw the blurs materialize when one of the skilled vampires would dunk the ball or take a bit of time to show off. "wait!" Chelsea’s blur came to a halt. With her, so did everyone else. "what is it, chelsea?" Dr carlin asked his daughter. I saw spencer glance to the left before looking at her sister, "oh no, we have to get ashley out of here." "there’s no time. They are too close." chelsea looked to her parents for guidance. "just act normal, all of you. Even you, ashley, you’re one of us." Dr carlin turned to me. "this isn’t going to work, they’ll smell her from a mile away. We all can." Madison told no one in particular. "keep it together. If it comes to that, we’ll handle it. As a family, madison." Mrs carlin told the stubborn vampire. "guys," chelsea whispered staring towards the tree line. Out of the share of the trees, appeared 3 figures; two women and 1 man. "hello, I am sean. This is kelly and carmen, we heard that there was a clan nearby. Room for three more players?" his silver eyes scanned over the carlins, meeting arthur’s neon blue gaze. "i think that could be arranged. a couple if us were just leaving anyway." Dr carlin checked the basketball to sean. Throughout the whole exchange, the women introduced as carmen was staring at spencer and I. I could feel that spencer was tense and I was so scared. just then, the wind picked up around the court and I see carmen inhale deeply. She looked right at me and lunged. Spencer stepped in front of me and shoved my attacker backwards a good couple feet, right onto her back. A soon as that happened, she was back on her feet and charging toward us. The next thing I knew the carlins (even madison) were standing between me and certain death. "i can see the fun is over. We’ll go now." Sean spoke for the trio a he held carmen in her place. "you should keep that pet of yours on a tight leash." Carmen chuckled looking straight through me. Her grin made my insides crawl. This was not good. Spencer grabbed my hand so tightly, I thought it might break. I winced and she loosened a bit, still pulling me towards the carlins hummer. "we need to get out of forks." Spencer told me once she was driving the hummer away from the basketball court. "what do you mean? I can’t leave my dad, spencer. They would kill him!" "arthur and paula will protect him. You have to go though. Carmen won’t give up and I just made get chase a game." "chase, what chase?" I was baffled. "her chase of you. She’s a tracker, it’s what she does." Spencer spoke slowly but I could tell she was far from calm. ______________________________________________ "i can’t be stuck here!" I could see my father’s heart break and mine broke for him. I can’t believe I had to say those things to him. he just stood there, not moving or speaking. I shut the door in his face and slammed the door to my mustang. I knew spencer was close so I took off away from my father for however long,i didn’t know. "scoot over," spencer told me, running beside my car. I did as I was told and she vaulted over my door into the drivers seat. "he’ll never forgive me." I whispered, knowing that if I raised my voice any, it would surely crack. "he will, he loves you." spencer assured me, sort of. ______________________________________________ "We have to lead him away from ashley, while we figure out a plan to kill him. I’ll take her south to phoenix, while you guys-" spencer begins but is cut off by her father. "no, carmen will bet on ashley being with you. Chelsea and clay will take her to phoenix and protect her there until we kill carmen." dr carlin is always with a level head. "okay, fine" spencer turned to chelsea, "please keep her safe." "i will, spencer." the bubbly vampire looked at clay, "we both will." Clay only nodded in the positive. ______________________________________________ We arrived at the hotel in phoenix not long after and checked in. we got settled into our suite when chelsea had a vision. "what is it?" Clay asked her. She began drawing a huge hall of giant mirrors. I recognized it. "carmen knows we were trying to trick her and now she’s going here. "why would she go to a ballet studio?" I piped in. "you know this place?" They both looked at me. "yeah, I used to take classes there as a kid." "here, in phoenix?" Chelsea asked me. "yeah." "we have to call the others. She could be here already." Clay told chelsea a if she didn’t already know. ______________________________________________ My phone rang in the lobby and I answered it seeing that it was my mom’s home phone. "mom, what are you doing home?" "mommy can’t come to the phone right now, but I will say she’s okay," carmen’s voice came through the speaker, "for now." "please-" "meet me and I won’t rip her to pieces, deal? And lose your friends. If I sense a carlin anywhere near you, you’ll never see mother dearest again." "where?" My stomach was in knots. "your old ballet studio. See you soon."