Chapter Twenty Eight
Charlie
I watched dumbfounded as Renee walked up staring straight at me with those eyes that had once glowed with love for me and spoke quietly to Quil who glanced up at me with a troubled expression before nodding in reply. She then stretched out a hand to me,
"Come, Charlie, walk with me, we have much to discuss."
I got up but ignored her proffered hand and followed her out of the room conscious of all eyes on my retreating back. Once outside she halted waiting for me to catch up smiling a ghost of that old familiar smile I saw so often in my dreams.
"It's been a long time Charlie but you've hardly changed at all."
"Really? Well, I wouldn't know about you now would I? Seeing as I never really knew you in the first place. So, who are you? Renee Swan? Or Renata ******?"
"That's not important right now, our daughter's safety however is and we need your help."
"Might be useful if I knew exactly what was going on first and who this we really are."
She nodded and I saw the sadness in her eyes as she stopped to perch on the edge of a flat stone at the edge of the village. A vivid memory of Bella standing on the very same stone flashed into my mind and a stab of pain cut across my chest.
I refused to sit beside her feeling nothing but resentment and anger at the woman I had once loved and seeing my resolution she sighed,
"Still the same stubborn Charlie I see although I guess you have every right to be angry with me."
"I'm not angry with you, in fact, I feel nothing for you as an individual but I want answers Renee so start talking... now."
"You want to know everything Quil Ateara tells me and I guess it would be impossible to keep anything from you now although I wish things could be different."
"Where's Bella?"
"She's reasonably safe for now, I think, and not terribly far from here."
"How do you know that?"
"For two reasons, one, I had a tracker implanted in her as a baby and two because she was the one driving my truck although I hasten to add she was not responsible for Seth's death."
"Are you telling me that you've kept tabs on Bella all these years and she's been safe with you all this time while I've been worrying myself sick? What kind of a monster are you?"
Her smile faded altogether to be replaced with a hard cynical look,
"Actually Charlie, I'm a monster hunter and Bella was only with me briefly before she ran away. It's up to us to get her back before it's too late. The Quileutes have done all they can but their leader has ordered them to stand down, he's leaving it to us. I don't think he wants an all-out war with the Volturi and I can't say I blame him but then it's not his daughter under sentence of death is it?"
I was about to speak, a mountain of questions tumbling over each other to be first from my lips but she held up a hand.
"You want the truth, Charlie? You can have it, I just hope you can handle it, that's all."
I listened at first dumbfounded as Renee explained what my friends had hidden from me all these years. Of course, I'd heard the legends of the spirit warriors, who in Forks hadn't? But when she told me that these legends were true and the young Quileute men turned into wolves in order to hunt down their enemies, the Cold Ones I stopped her.
"What kind of tomfoolery is this? I thought you were going to tell me the truth yet you think I must still be a fool."
There was a rustling in the trees and suddenly four huge wolves appeared bathed in moonlight, much larger than any I had ever seen in these forests. I jumped to my feet pulling out my service revolver although it would be worst than useless against so many but Renee knocked it towards the earth,
"Watch if you don't believe me."
As I stood eyes wide open in shock the four wolves seemed to shimmer and then took on the forms of four young men I knew only too well, first Sam and then Paul, Jake, and Jared.
I struggled to regain my voice,
"OK, so there are stranger things than I understood and I'm shocked and not a little intimidated but if the spirit warriors are real and they exist for a reason then that means..."
I stopped unable to finish the thought but Renee merely nodded then turned to thank the guys who disappeared as silently as they had arrived.
"Yes Charlie, that means the Cold Ones also exist although you would know them better by another name...vampires. The creatures you were so friendly with and allowed our daughter to become involved with... the Cullens.
Bella was dating a vampire, one of the creatures I have spent most of my life hunting and tried so hard to protect you both from."
"Oh really? So you chose Forks as a safe place? One place where vampire killing creatures call home? Didn't it ever occur to you that such creatures might just draw their enemy to them?"
"No, because the only vampires who ever set foot in Forks are the Cullens and they are the least dangerous of all vampires. They hunt animals not humans but I never believed in my wildest dreams they might come back here while you and Bella lived."
"Are you telling me the Cullens abducted Bella? Why?"
An icy chill ran down my back and I felt sick to the pit of my stomach at the thought of my daughter in the hands of vampires.
"No, they didn't. From what I can make out she was attacked by another vampire visiting the Cullens and one of the family saved her life taking her away from Forks to ensure her safety."
"Then why didn't they bring her back? Or let her contact me?"
"Because knowledge of what they really are is a death sentence, Charlie. The vampire leaders would kill her just as they will kill you if they suspect you know of their existence. The trouble is that our daughter has fallen in love with this savior, she has no idea just how deadly he really is, she refused to believe me and escaped from my care."
"So you got her away from this Cullen vampire and she then got away from you and came back here to Forks to find him? But Edward was here, I saw him and Bella wasn't with him."
"Edward? What's he got to do with anything? Bella is with the one known as The Major although I think you might know him better as Jasper Hale."
I was still confused and decided to let Renee tell her story keeping any questions until the end although the more I heard the sicker I felt and the more concerned for my daughter out there all alone with a psychopathic killer.
I hoped Renee would end her story with a plan to get Bella back but it seemed she had lost most of her comrades to The Major and she'd already told me the Quileutes had been ordered to cease any action.
"I can't believe Harry will just let this monster go. You said he was responsible for Seth's murder."
"We can't be sure, there were a number of vampires here at the time Seth died but it's a pretty good guess. I think the others were trying to keep the Cullens safe."
"And this Volturi? They've sent orders for The Major to kill certain people including Bella and some of the Cullens?"
"As far as we know yes."
"So, how come Bella is still alive if he's a cold blooded killer with no compassion or qualms?"
"I can't answer that Charlie but something has kept her alive thus far so let's hope whatever it is, the magic keeps working."
"Magic be damned, let's go."
"Where Charlie? Do you have any idea how to fight a vampire? They're faster, stronger and this one is a killing machine."
"Well then Mrs. Expert, tell me, how do you kill a vampire?"
An unexpected deep voice answered me from the shadows,
"With one of these, if you get the time Chief Swan."
I was past being shocked now as a tall man carrying a cylinder slung over his shoulder, a tube connecting to a nozzle, walked up.
"Only way to be sure to kill one of the fuckers, burn their ass."
"A flamethrower? You're going to use one of those with Bella around? Are you mad?"
"No, just practical, we tried warning your daughter and she didn't want to listen. If she gets in my way..."
He didn't finish the sentence but I got the picture although I was glad to see Renee frown at his words.
We went back to my place to wait for their intelligence officer to get back to them with news and as Renee walked through the front door I was taken back just for a second to the first time when I had carried her in my arms as a bride over the very same threshold. I didn't bother even attempting to play the host just poured myself a beer and collapsed into my favorite armchair struggling to make sense of everything.
Renee came in with a mug of coffee and I could hear her companion speaking to someone on a satellite phone he'd carried in with him. She gazed around,
"You made it into a comfortable home Charlie."
"Mostly Bella's touches, I was busy working keeping the bills paid."
"Look, I'm not going to apologize, it would be a waste of time and energy. What's done is done, we need to concentrate on the present and the future, getting Bella back and killing The Major."
"So, where are they?"
Renee took out a small box and checked the screen,
"Just across the border and stationary but we need help if we are going to rescue Bella. He's scary Charlie, the scariest vampire I've ever come across."
"How many have you..."
"Killed? Personally about twenty-five, altogether we're responsible for about seventy in the past twenty years and yes, I was a vampire hunter before I came to Forks. I wanted what all girls want, the dream of a perfect family. It didn't work out and I got over it, so did you, end of story. I'm tired, can I use one of the bedrooms?"
I nodded, what was the point of being awkward now, she was right, we'd all gotten over it and needed to work together for now but I hoped she wouldn't choose Bella's room, that seemed somehow wrong.
