A/N: Bella and Edward are driving home from the scene in the meadow at the end of Eclipse. Before we start I'd just like to remind everyone that Charlie has a part of whatever immunity to mental gifts Bella has, Edward has a hard time reading his mind.

Chapter One- Strange Occurrences

Bella POV

I sighed and looked out the window, fiddling with the wedding ring on my left hand, while the greenery of Forks speeding past. I wondered how Charlie would react to the wedding; marriage had been the downfall of the relationship between him and Renee. I was afraid he'd react badly, like pull-a-gun-on-Edward badly; Edward told me that he wouldn't do that, but Edward was unfailingly optimistic when it came to the whole marriage thing.

We planned to tell Charlie when we got home, no need to drag things out. Just get it over with. I looked at Edward sitting across the car from me; he seemed totally calm and composed, like always. I'm sure I seemed flustered and nervous. Edward turned to look at me, "What's wrong love? Your heart sounds like it's going a hundred miles an hour."

"I'm just worried about Charlie; he's going to react badly. I know he is. What if he tells me I can't marry you? What if-"

"I'm sure Charlie will be happy if you're happy Bella." He cut me off before I could fret more, "Remember that we can elope whenever you want." He teased, trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah, I'm sure that would make Charlie react to the whole marriage thing even better. And Renee... she's going to explode even if we tell her before we run off to Vegas." I exploded, worry bursting from my system.

"Don't worry Bella; all you can do is tell them, their reactions are their own. There is nothing you can do to change them." His voice was totally collected, he was right about that. If Charlie was going to freak out about me getting married, he would do it no matter what I said. Unfortunately I still felt that the way I broke the news would have a lot of effect.

We pulled into the driveway, gravel crunching under the wheels of Edward's car. There were no other cars in the driveway. "That's strange; Charlie should be home from work by now." I looked at the clock, it was seven p.m., and Charlie finished working at about six normally.

"Something probably came up. Do you want me to stay, or do you want to tell him tomorrow night?" The prospect of being able to procrastinate made me feel a lot better; I'd be able to figure out what to say.

I'd probably stress myself out until then, but I definitely need to wait until I get more used to the idea of getting married. Ugh...

"I think we should tell him tomorrow, he'll be grumpy if he's been working this late. Can you stay anyway?" I looked at him hopeful; any time with Edward is good time.

He grinned at me, "Whatever you want, I'll do it if I can. I'm going hunting later tonight, but you should be asleep by then."

Edward and I got out of the car and went inside. I made dinner for Charlie when he got home while Edward leaned up against the counter. Once I was done that we went and watched T.V. for a bit- Dracula was on. Knowing what real vampires are like can make the movie absolutely hilarious.

Charlie got home at about nine, he looked worried. "Sorry I'm so late for dinner Bells, there's been some more deaths. If this keeps up we might end up beating Seattle- what with all the animal attacks."

"Does it look like animals are doing it again?" asked Edward, he was leaning up against the wall. If there are more vampires in Forks I might just scream, they all make a natural line to me. I do not want to die now.

"No," mumbled Charlie, he was piling some food onto his plate, "whatever it is human this time." I frowned; it might still be a vampire. It probably wasn't, but a vampire could make its attacks like a human monster.

"Is there a pattern to it?" I asked.

"It's always stab wounds." He looked really tired. I looked at Edward questioningly. He shrugged.

"There's been more than one then?" Edward was looking worried, probably about me. Knowing my luck whoever is killing people is going to come right at me.

"Three, we found one fresh body, then we did a search and found another one that was about two weeks old, and one that was about one week old." Three victims, a vampire could drain the bodies of blood from a stab wound; it would keep the attention of the humans away from the supernatural so the Volturi would stay away. A vampire intelligent enough to come up with an idea like that would probably be old enough to be able to feed about once a week.

Edward looked at me, "now that Charlie's here I'm going to head home Bella." We walked to the door and he kissed me on the forehead. "I'm going to just take the car around the corner and call Alice; she can bring me some extra clothes so I don't have to leave. I'm not going anywhere until I find out if it's a vampire or a human doing this."

"You can't tell then?"

"No, I need to know more about the bodies. If they're totally drained of blood then it's a vampire. If they're not then it's a human. Or it might be both- if a serial killer gets turned into a vampire they'll still be a serial killer. If the serial killer enjoys using knifes then he'll still use knifes. Charlie's not going to give me secret police information, so I'll need to do some digging with my family. See if you can get more information out of Charlie, don't do too much prying tonight or he'll get suspicious."

"I'll try."

"That's all we can do." He paused, "I love you Bella."

"I love you too Edward." I never understood what the words 'more than my own self' meant until I met Edward.

I kissed him, or rather he kissed me. His lips controlled the movement. It's hard for me to stand up to him since he's made out of a substance harder than granite. Not that I really want to, kissing Edward is a dream come true. "I'll be in your room." He whispered into my ear before he walked out the door.

I went back into the kitchen. Reaching over the table I put my hand on Charlie's shoulder, "you want to talk about it?" Hopefully he'll just start spilling his guts and I'll get everything I need to know.

He sighed, "I don't really think it's the kind of thing I should be telling you about Bells, it's not very pretty." Since I can't really tell him about all the vampire stuff, I couldn't really tell him how well I handle weird. I mean, could you see the conversation?

Yeah... don't worry Dad I've seen people being dismembered, gotten thrown around the room by a psychopathic hunter intent on my death, listened to the Volturi massacring a roomful of innocent people after a long discussion on how to kill me... it's nothing really, we just need to know about the bodies so we can see if it's a vampire or not.

I'm sure that would go over well.

"I can live dad, I've seen worse things on T.V. I can just pretend that we're talking about a movie, then you'll be able to talk about it. Let's face it, I won't understand a word your saying, this is all for you. Or I could buy you a diary to write in, it'll let you express your feelings." And maybe I can steal it and get all of the details I need for the crime scene.

"That's a good idea Bells," he was just humouring me, Charlie probably would take the book and not write a word in it, but if I could get the information I needed... "I can get my own book though."

"I have a spare notebook in my room, mom made me take it with me when I went to Jacksonville. She said that I might as well take it since she wasn't doing anything about it." Come on Charlie, take the nice bait.

"Sure, why not? If you think it's a good idea Bells."

"I'll be back in a few then." I jogged up the stairs to my room and went inside. Alice was sitting on my bed, I jumped up and she darted over and put her hand over my mouth before I could shriek.

"Careful Bella." She murmured, stepping back. She passed me a small notebook, "good idea, the other one is sitting at the dump though. You threw it out because you thought that you'd never use it."

"Have you had any visions yet?" I asked.

"None, but that's just because I don't know who I'm looking for and the killer hasn't made a decision to kill someone else yet. Jaspers got a laptop; he and Emmett are trying to hack into the police database. They're not making very much progress though, it's well protected. You've had the best idea so far."

That's a first, it's nice to outsmart the vampires every once and a while.

She turned and jumped out of the window without another word. I took the hint and went to go give the book to Charlie, "Thanks Bells," he muttered.

"No problem dad. It's not like I was using it for anything. I'm going to head up to bed now." Alice had been here and left, which would mean that Edward would be coming back soon. I headed up the stairs and went into the bathroom, taking a hot shower and letting warm water and the familiar fragrance of the familiar strawberry shampoo sooth my already over-stressed nerves.

Isn't it just my luck that the minute we clear one danger out of town that a brand-new one will show up?

I walked carefully over the slippery tiles of the washroom, getting dressed in my pyjamas and brushing my teeth, eventually I was clean and relaxed enough that I felt I would be able to at least sleep a little bit.

I slouched over to my room, I was feeling exhausted, there had been so much happening today that it had taken a huge toll on my nerves. I walked into my room to see my very own angel lying on the bed, "Edward," I breathed; he slid sideways a little bit and patted the bed beside him. I walked over unsteadily and climbed up beside him

"What's happening at your house?" I asked sleepily.

"Nothing much, just try to go to sleep Bella. I'll wake you up if anything happens."

"No you wouldn't," I mumbled, trying to fight against the oncoming sleep but finding that it was a losing battle.

I heard the laughter in his voice. "Just go to sleep Bella,"

"Okay... if you insist..." I was out and asleep before I could even think about it.

I was walking down a dark alley. It was a cold night and I was shivering inside of my jacket, I had my hands crunched up in my pockets. I was curled up as small as possible; trying to conserve as much warmth as possible. My breath formed tiny clouds of crystallized fog in front of me, my feet were crunching on the thin layer of frost that seemed to cover the ground.

It was so dark out, I couldn't see anything at all. There wasn't even a street lamp to cast light. I felt like something was going to jump out of the shadows and grab me. The graffiti on the brick walls made strange shapes and the piles of trash looked almost like people curled up on the ground.

I kept walking, the alleyway seemed so long- there seemed to be no end. I went on forever. I was tempted to call out and see if there was anyone there, except I had no way of knowing exactly who would come out. Given my current environment I was betting that it wouldn't be anyone nice. I continued to creep along the alleyway, seeing no other option.

I slipped and fell on the icy ground; my hands fell into what must have been a puddle of water. I tried to wipe it off on my jeans and dry my hands before they got any colder but the water seemed sticky, almost like they were covered in juice.

I turned around, planning to go back down the alleyway down the alleyway. I hadn't taken a step when the lights on the way down the alleyway all turned on and the entire alleyway was bathed in an eerie orange light.

I gasped, almost throwing up. The strange bulky shapes that I assumed were trash bags were actually bodies, there was blood everywhere, there were words written on the wall in blood, and they sent a chill through my spine.

Don't look behind you.

I choked on a sob and spun around, the bodies of my family lay scattered on the ground, covered in stab wounds. I started hyperventilating. There was so much blood... I looked at the body closest to me.

It was Edward.

I started sobbing, "No... NO! This shouldn't be happening... he can't die that way." The sobs grew, choking off my air. "No..." I moaned.

I raised my hand to my mouth, and realized that the sticky substance was more blood.

I let out an ear piercing scream. "Edward!" Someone started shaking me and I started screaming for help. I blinked and the world around me cleared...

"Bella?" Edward asked frantically, shaking my shoulder, "Bella, wake up love- it's just a dream."

I sat up, blinking blearily at my bedroom. The old lamp was casting a comfortable yellow light around my room, it was dark and warm. The cold, ugly dream seemed so distant in my warm, safe room. I took a few deep breaths to steady myself before looking questioningly at Edward, "What did I say?"

He looked at me, relief practically washing off of him. "You started muttering about how cold it was, then you started screaming about all the blood, and then I died apparently. I keep forgetting how vivid your dreams are- you were actually shivering."

I shrugged, "it was just another nightmare- nothing all that big. Have you had any news about Charlie yet?"

Edwards chuckled softly, "I could hear him writing something downstairs, then Alice called us saying she had a vision that your plan worked. Apparently Charlie thought about writing something, laughed at himself and went to watch T.V. before not being able to concentrate. He had an internal debate about writing in the diary for a while, before finally deciding that writing the journal would be totally for your benefit."

"And you know Charlie's inner monologue how?" I asked suspiciously. Whatever funky problem my brain had was obviously genetic, because Edward couldn't read Charlie's brain very well. It was like his brain was stuck in between the am and the fm stations- everything is fuzzy to Edward. Edward tries to tune him out because that fuzziness is annoying enough to give even a vampire a headache.

"Alice saw some of what he wrote in the diary, it's good he wrote in the diary when he did- Emmett and Jasper's plan to hack into the police computer system came up blank, we've never had to try to do anything like that before. Normally we just leave town when something like this happens."

"Ah..." I nodded. I yawned, my jaw gaping open. "Am I putting you everyone at risk because of this? Don't get me wrong, I want to have the wedding, but if it's putting your family at a risk then shouldn't we just leave."

Edward shook his head, the look on his face a cross between amusement and irritation, "Silly Bella- leaving with you now would just raise more questions than it asks. Normally we can have our entire family leave, but leaving with the police chief's daughter- especially with all these murders happening- would just draw attention to us. We'd need to make you disappear, then wait about a year, then we could disappear. It's more trouble than it's worth, especially since I consider myself perfectly capable of protecting you from a mere human."

"Over-confident," I teased, when he raised his eyebrow at me I blushed, "I guess you're right." We waited in comfortable silence before Edward realized that I wasn't falling asleep yet.

"Ready to go back to sleep love?" he asked playfully.

"Just two other things." I requested, trying to look as innocent as possible. He frowned at me but gestured for me to continue, "Why can't Alice see the serial killer?"

Edward shrugged, "Whoever is doing the killing isn't thinking straight. It's like he (or she) acts like the werewolves and lives completely on impulse."

"And one, tiny last thing..." I trailed off suggestively.

"What?" his voice sounded amused, and he had a right to be. This was somewhat of a tradition- every time I had a nightmare I would ask for a kiss. Kissing Edward had a tendency to wipe all unpleasant thoughts and memories from my head- I find I have fewer nightmares if Edward kisses me.

That's what I keep telling myself as an excuse anyways.

I stared into the molten gold of his eyes, "You know." I said playfully.

He grinned crookedly, "I believe I do." He leaned forwards across the bed and our lips met halfway. I wrapped my arms around him and moulded my lips against his. After a few seconds he pulled back and I was left gasping for air.

His grin got even bigger, "Are you ready now?" No. I'd rather kiss Edward all night long.

I leaned back against the pillow, wrapping my arms around him. "Most definitely ready." I closed my eyes and –despite my reservations- drifted into a deep sleep, with no nightmares of insane murderers bothering my sleep.

It wasn't until I woke up the next day that I realized that we had totally forgotten to tell Charlie that we were getting married.