A/N: Thanks for your patience...it's been a busy week slogging back to work and getting through flu. So thrilled you all liked the first killing. Well, maybe 'like' is the wrong word ;) Will be pacing them out a bit. So, in this one, enjoy the aftermath, and let me know what you think! Thanks again to prettypinkbookworm for her beta read. BTW if you haven't read her most recent chapter of Alice, go take a look, its great.

CHAPTER 10

"I thought I might find you here."

Edward.

I sighed heavily, not shifting from my position in the tree. I had a clear view of Vera's dining room window from here and I wanted to be sure to see the first stirrings of life in her little house. And, truth be told, I wasn't exactly sure how to interact with Edward after the incident at home.

"You've caused quite a stir, you know," he continued. "The whole precinct came out to inspect the crime scene."

I tried to ignore him, but he had captured my attention with that damn silken voice of his, telling me the very thing he knew I was dying to hear.

"Did they now?" I asked with an edge to my voice. I didn't want him to think I'd forgotten what had passed between us earlier. "What did they make of my little message?"

Edward paused slightly before answering me. "They burned the rest of the carousel platform on that side to obscure the words and expunged it from the record. They didn't want to distress the family."

My eyes widened in disbelief. "How dare they!" I turned to face Edward and the branch swayed a tiny bit, sending a soft shower of snow to the ground.

Edward shrugged, his dark eyes unreadable. "Protecting prominent families is part of their job, Rosalie. I imagined it worked much the same way when they were dealing with rumors about your disappearance."

I frowned. "You mean about Royce's involvement in my disappearance," I corrected.

He smiled. It was a tiny, rueful smile.

"If it makes you feel any better, the soup kitchens and shantytowns are all abuzz. One of the vagabonds apparently saw you from a distance and is telling everyone that there is an avenging angel about."

I clapped my hands with glee and practically bounced on the limb, sending more snow showers to the drifts below. "Oh, that's wonderful! I couldn't have thought of a better title for myself."

Edward looked reproachfully at me. "You should be more careful, Rosalie. You weren't very discreet."

I felt my anger rising at his criticism. "Discreet? You want me to be discreet? I want the whole city of Rochester to know what they did to me, Edward. I want them to know that I am out there and that I am coming for them. I can hardly accomplish that by being the soul of discretion."

I couldn't disguise the disdain in my voice.

"Besides, the only reason you care about me being a good little vampire is so that your family's dirty secret isn't discovered." I turned away from him with a harrumph. "After all, you've made your personal feelings toward me very clear."

"Rosalie," Edward said softly, his sweet breath gently circling around my head. "I think you misunderstood my meaning."

"I'm quite sure I didn't," I mumbled, the feeling of rejection – and the knowledge that I was a ruined woman in his eyes – washing over me again.

"Oh, no," he groaned. He grabbed my arm and pulled me around to face him, managing to be as graceful as ever, even though we were perched high above the ground on branches.

"Please don't think that, Rosalie. No decent human being, or vampire for that matter--" he flashed his perfect teeth in a nervous smile -- "could ever think of you as fallen. You had no choice. They forced themselves upon you. And, what's more, they were people you trusted."

I was staring at my hands as I listened to his words. He reached over and cautiously took my hand in his. By sheer force of will, he seemed to force me to look into his eyes.

"I would never forgive myself, Rosalie, if you walked away from that conversation with the impression that I refused you because I blamed you for what happened to you. Or that you were somehow sullied by it.

"Those men were the evil ones, not you."

I stared at him gratefully, confused by my own emotions, unable to speak.

"Besides," he continued, his look of concern transforming into his silly, crooked grin, "I have plenty of other reasons to refuse you. Your incredible vanity, for one. Your incomprehensible stubbornness, for another."

"Me, stubborn?" I challenged, rising to his bait. "What about you? You're so stubborn you wasted nearly a whole year following me around at night, just to make sure I didn't get into trouble."

"True," he conceded, nodding slightly. "But I'm not the one climbing trees to watch the humans from my old life. I'm not the one following people around without their knowledge. I'm not the one refusing to let go."

I gripped my branch hold more tightly. I narrowed my eyes so I could catch any reaction from him when at last I spoke, bitterness tingeing my voice.

"Maybe you never had anything worth going back for in your old life."

He didn't flinch.

"I don't remember much of that life anymore, Rosalie. But you're right. My parents were dead before me. I had no sweetheart. There wasn't much left to keep a hold on my imagination, let alone my heart."

I stared at him, puzzled. How could someone go through life without any attachments at all?

"Well," I said slowly. "I just hope that I live to see the day when you are so taken with something – with someone – that you can't keep yourself away."

He laughed softly. "Don't hold your breath," he said.

This feels…comfortable, I thought. The awkwardness between us had vanished very quickly. My mind drifted quickly to my younger brothers, but this was different. Perhaps it was because Edward, at least in vampire life, was older than me. Perhaps it was because we were equals.

"Yes, comfortable," murmured Edward. "Anyway, to ensure that there would be no hard feelings between us, I brought you a gift."

He reached out an elegant hand and dropped a folded piece of paper in my upturned palm.

I looked at him quizzically, and, to be honest, suspiciously.

"Your enthusiasm is overwhelming," he noted dryly. "You'll thank me later. I had to resort to some rather…unconventional tactics to procure this for you."

Before I could question him further, he'd slipped down the tree and disappeared.

I unfolded the paper in my hand and smiled.

It was the name and address of the man from Georgia.