I parked the ATV in the garage, but didn't bother to unload it. There would be no time to put anything away as Jasper met Rosalie and I at the doorway as I was pushing the ATV so it was as far out of the way as possible, but I stopped when I heard Jasper clear his throat.

"Chris, do you know how to get to the Swan house?"

I nodded

"Easily; why?"

"Alice just called. Edward is going to bring Bella back here from her house. Edward has a plan to keep her safe. Alice is going to drive the jeep home following while Edward drives Bella here in her truck."

"Where do I fit in?"

"Emmett's going to follow on foot for half of the way then ride in the back of the truck the rest of the way; Alice wants you with him, double eyes."

I raised an eye brow,

"Me? Not you?" I hate to admit it, but if the tracker attacked Bella while they were driving here, it would be Jasper and Emmett not me and Emmett who would have a better chance to defend.

"Laurent is here, he is inside with Carlisle and Esme." I literally stopped breathing for a moment and Jasper felt my fear "its all right, he came to warn us about the-"

"Tracker, Jasper." I finished.

Jasper's eyes narrowed a bit

"Are you sure Chris?"

"Positive." I paused and looked at Rosalie, who huffed and walked into the house, pushing past me, checking her shoulder into mine, expecting that, I quickly regained my balance and shook my head after her. I rubbed my shoulder and sighed, before continuing, "It's his life obsession. It's a game for him its fun, the more challenging the better it is."

Jasper nodded, he patted my shoulder, looking at the door after Rosalie, unsure why her anger was directed at me. I shrugged and rolled my eyes after her.

"I'll let Carlisle know. Chris, he's going to want you to profile Laurent when you guys get back." I nodded "and the tracker as well."

I started to move towards the drive when a thought crossed my mind, I turned to my brother and took a deep breath first.

"What has Carlisle talked to Laurent about?"

"He and Esme have been explaining our way of life, he seems generally curious about it, Carlisle is really indulging on the Denali clan."

I nodded

"Wouldn't be a bad idea really, getting him up there. He'd be far enough that he wont help the tracker and Eleazar can control him. He's a follower, Jasper not a leader he wont fight Eleazar."

"Excellent." Jasper replied with a grin.

I nodded again and without another word I took off into the woods, running as fast as I could.

I reached the Swan house faster than I had expected and panicked for a second at not seeing the truck and only faintly tasting Bella's scent in the air. Chief Swan's was very present and very faintly, not far away I could smell the tracker, bloody hell he was close, much closer than I was comfortable with.

It didn't take long however, before I heard the distinct roar of Bella's truck not far down the road.

Following that noticeable sound, I bolted down the road, easily surpassing Alice driving the jeep and about two car lengths ahead of that was Bella's truck rumbling down the deserted road. Even though I didn't need it, Alice turned on the extremely bright roof flood lights for a second.

I saw Emmett tense from his perch in the bed of the truck as his sharp ears and nose took in my sudden presence and Alice turned on the flood lights, he recovered quickly however and reached his hand down to pull me into the truck bed.

"hey kid, glad you decided to show."

I grinned at my brother and pushed him gently

"It's ok, that's just Chris," I heard Edward assure Bella in the cab. "Jasper sent him to help Emmett"

"She's been freaking out at every little noise I make." Emmett explained, pretending to be hurt.

"Gee Em can you blame her? You stomp around so much she probably thinks your fighting the tracker back here all by your lonesome. I mean I heard you over the roar of this junk bucket." I replied. Emmett went to reply, but his expression turned serious

"Did you catch the scent at her house?"

I nodded

"Yeah, it was faint, but I could smell him, he wasn't far off, a mile maybe a mile and a half, no more than that. Is Chief Swan going to be ok?"

Emmett nodded

"Yeah, the nomads are following us."

I took a deep breath

"I don't know if Edward already told you guys this, but he's a tracker."

"Yeah, Eddie told us."

"Do we have a plan?"

"Sort of, Edward's waiting on your profile, at the moment the plan is to get Bella back to our house."

I sighed

"Just to warn you, your wife is ready to kill somebody. I kinda unintentionally partially intentionally guilted her and she's not pleased."

Emmett snorted back his laugh as Edward made a sharp turn onto our drive

"Do I want to know?" I shook my head "thought so"

"I'd just leave my name out of any conversations for the next few weeks till this is all over at least."

"That bad huh?"

"She couldn't believe I was feeling guilty about missing the initial profile of the nomads. I was over confident in my profile and that put us in this situation."

Emmett shook his head

"You know Chris, she's partially right. This isn't your fault, we gave them the benefit of the doubt, we gambled and rolled wrong it happens we just gotta deal with it on this level now. Despite what we tell you in joking, you aren't responsible for every mishap, you cant control the wind Chris and if it hadn't been the wind he would have caught her scent another way." I raised an eyebrow "what?"

"For a second there, you sounded like Carlisle. Give or take a few words." Emmett reached over and pushed me, expecting this I jumped out of the still moving truck as Edward pulled up the driveway. "I'll make sure it's clear inside, wait for my signal." I called and Emmett nodded.

The tracker wasn't far behind us, but he wouldn't step foot over the river, he was waiting for Bella to be alone and we wouldn't give him that opportunity.

With Emmett, Edward, and Alice to get her the rest of the way and safely into the house, I bolted ahead of the truck towards the house, my feet barely touching the gravel of our driveway as I shot up the steps and through the front door.

Jasper had warned me that Laurent was inside, but I couldn't help my reaction as I stopped short taking him in, before recovering and darting to Esme to protect her.

She reached out her arms and pulled me close wrapping her arms around me tightly. I could feel her body shaking a bit and I could see the worry etched on her face.

Laurent stared at me as if he hadn't even noticed me in the field and was finally getting a good look at me now.

I didn't want to instigate or antagonize him, but I stared right back, his eyes went wide as he caught sight of my blue eyes, his darted back from my family to me as his mind tried to figure it all out.

I knew I had been right about Laurent; he was old, not quite Carlisle's age, but at least in the late hundreds, early two and had experienced a lot in those years. But he truly was a follower and did what was asked of him.

If the nomads were a pack of wolves, he would rank lowest on the hierarchy. This gave us an advantage, it meant he would not fight, for either of us, he was afraid of the consequences of defying James the tracker and would run to escape him.

Had he agreed to fight with the tracker and the woman against us, we might have had a bit of a snag in our easy to destroy them plan; five against two sounded much better than five against three.

I looked over at the door and knew my brothers and sister were waiting for my ok before bringing Bella into the house. I could feel the truck's rumble beneath my feet.

It's safe, only Laurent is here and he's not a danger to anyone, Jasper's got him so calm it's amazing he's not in a coma right now. I thought and barely were those thoughts through my mind when Emmett burst into the house with Bella in his arms and Alice and Edward on either side.

Emmett growled at Laurent as he set Bella down gently, while Edward glared intensely at the nomad

"He's tracking us." Edward announced, wrapping his arm around Bella's shoulders protectively.

Laurent's face went panicky at that as he stared at Edward, before looking back at Carlisle.

"I was afraid of that." He muttered.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alice dart over to Jasper.

"We're taking her to Phoenix," she whispered, before the pair of them darted up the stairs to their room.

Rosalie was standing guarded near the stairs, she watched our siblings run upstairs, before moving to Emmett's side, she was glaring intensely at Bella and when she looked over at me I frowned, showing my contempt for her attitude.

Esme seemed to sense the tension and tightened her grasp on my shoulders. I moved closer to her as my eyes uncontrollably darted from Laurent to the large window.

The tracker wouldn't dare attack us at home, I knew this, he was to afraid of our forces, but even that knowledge didn't stop me from being nervous, afraid to see his figure through the trees looking in on us.

"What will he do?" Carlisle asked, I saw my father glance over at me for a second, before looking back at Laurent.

"I'm sorry, I was afraid when your boy there defended her, that it would set him off."

"Can you stop him?"

"Nothing stops James when he gets started." Laurent answered mournfully and I couldn't help but groan, that figured, he was a determined tracker.

"We'll stop him," Emmett spoke up, looking over at me with a grin, his face hopeful that I'd be as excited as he is about taking down James, which I was. But I couldn't be ready or even excited for us to take on the tracker, not until Bella was absolutely clear of the danger

"You can't bring him down. I've never seen anything like him in my three hundred years. He's absolutely lethal. That's why I joined his coven."

Now I felt my mouth twitch into a grin as I exchanged another look with Emmett, ok, now the prospect sounded better. The tracker is over confident, good, Em was right this would be fun.

Laurent's eyes lingered on Bella for a moment, a little longer than I would have liked, but Esme's grip stopped me from moving closer. I winced however as Laurent made a stupid move and opened his mouth.

"Are you sure it's worth it?" he asked Carlisle. Edward growled menacingly at Laurent who cringed, realizing his mistake. He was definitely submissive, he is easily older and even bigger than Edward but he was also smart and weak enough to not instigate.

"I'm afraid you're going to have to make a choice." Carlisle said gravely. Laurent nodded as he considered his options, he looked at each one of us in turn. His eyes lingering on Emmett then me for a few minutes longer than the others as he assessed our threat level.

"I'm intrigued by the life you've created here. But I wont get in the middle of this. I bear none of you any enmity, but I wont go up against James. I think I will head north- to that clan in Denali." He hesitated. "Don't underestimate James. He's got a brilliant mind and unparallel senses. He's every bit as comfortable in the human world as you seem to be, and he wont come at you head on…I'm sorry for what's been unleashed here. Truly sorry." He bowed his head, shamefully and I watched him closely, making sure that there was no malice or falsehood in his appeal.

"Go in peace." Carlisle replied, before Laurent surveyed the room one more time and made a beeline for the door. There was a deafening silence in the room for a few brief seconds before Carlisle turned to me, expecting my profile, hoping that I'd had enough time to do so. "Chris?" I took a deep breath and moved away from my mother, something I would not have done had Laurent remained. "Is he sincere? Were you able to read him and his moves?"

I nodded and closed my eyes for a moment; recalling my profile, and what I had learned from Laurent, as well as James and Victoria.

"He will head north to Tanya and the others, as quickly as possible to avoid a run in with the tracker and the woman. He told the truth, he won't get involved. He knows that if he sticks around he will be killed, not by us, but by the tracker for betraying him and not helping him. He was with the tracker and the woman for convenience not close friendship, he has no ties to them, at least none that I can see at the moment...but he knows the tracker will see this as a betrayal. He's not sold on our lifestyle offer, but he has grown tired of being a front runner for the tracker a tag along who was needed by the tracker much more than he needs them. He was a scapegoat."

Carlisle gave me a proud smile as he placed a comforting hand on my shoulder for a moment.

"And the others, was there enough time for you to profile them as well?" he asked, his tone serious and his voice a little unnerved.

I nodded my answer to that, I looked at Bella quickly before looking back at my father. I took a deep breath before continuing, Edward was not going to like this part of the profile.

"The woman is completely one minded one focus…she will do whatever the tracker tells her and not question it, they're together and she is tied to him and loves him. The tracker, he's smarter and better focused, he has a lot of background in what he does, he is not new at this and has a long list of…discretions…"

I made a face as images flashed through my mind. The games the tracker liked to play, his thrill was not catching the human prey but the hunt that came with it, the more of a challenge the prey presented the more enjoyable the game was.

The tracker is not very old, less than a hundred, but in his time has made it his life's obsession to find the most challenging hunt.

In my mind flashed a short story, Most Dangerous Game I had read for class a few years ago and realized that the story of a hunter who used humans as his prey for only the pleasure of a challenging hunt was the same as this James fellow, only James is more dangerous to the humans in his path.

"Chris?" Carlisle asked bringing me back to the room as he read my face and understood what I meant by discretions and I heard Edward growl under his breath as he read my mind.

"Sorry," I said softly "He will use whatever he has at his disposal and more to get what he wants. He cares for the woman, but he is willing to sacrifice whatever needs be to get what he wants, including her, and she will follow him blindly wherever, the love she has for him is much more than he has for her and she is completely oblivious to his true obsession and love, hunting." I paused "Carlisle, he's a high level chess master at this sort of thing, that's the level we're dealing with, he's not impossible to beat, but it's not going to be as easy as Emmett thinks, this guys not overly intelligent, but he is very methodical, almost obsessive and that's what is going to make him difficult…and even dangerous, outnumbering them gives us only a slight advantage, a frontal attack on him isn't the way to go, we need to come at all sides and use our numbers even to the smallest advantage we can."

Carlisle nodded, now that everything was put out onto the table it was up to my father and brothers to come up with the most appropriate counter.

"Thank you," Carlisle said softly patting my shoulders again, before turning to Edward. "How close?" he asked

Esme moved in a fluid motion to hit the keypad which closed the metal shutters that encased the glass wall. I moved closer to my mother as she finished and reached out to me again.

"About three miles out past the river; he's circling around to meet up with the female."

"What's the plan?"

"We'll lead him off, and then Jasper and Alice will run her south."

"And then?"

Edward looked at me for a moment and I nodded

"As soon as Bella is clear, we hunt him, just as Chris says we should."

Carlisle sighed, a grim look on his face. He was appalled at the thought of killing someone even someone as evil as James, but he knew we had no choice.

Keeping Bella and the rest of our human neighbors safe and out of harms way was priority and it was James not us who had instigated this fight, he had brought this on himself.

They had come into our territory and threatened us without cause, therefore we were within our rights and duty to retaliate, violently if need be.

"I guess there is no other choice."

Edward turned to Rosalie and my eyes went wide as I tried to warn him through my thoughts not to ask her what he was about to ask her, but my warning came to late as he ordered, not asked (which might have gone a little bit better) her.

"Get her upstairs and trade clothes." He commanded and I winced as Rosalie stared at him, she had this look in her eyes like she was going to kill someone and at the moment that someone was Edward.

"Why should I!" she hissed violently "what is she to me? Except a menace, a danger you've chosen to inflict on all of us."

Ok that was enough, I had let Rosalie be all high and mighty with this whole thing long enough, I might get chastised for this later on and I might be risking her being mad at me for a decade, but I couldn't take any more.

I let out a low growl and out of the corner of my eye I saw Bella jump in fright, she looked at me, but she quickly realized that my growl was not directed at her.

To my surprise, Rosalie did not retaliate, instead she just stared at me in shock, which was fair enough, in her mind I was defending Bella over her and she couldn't believe it was actually happening.

"Rose," Emmett murmured, putting a hand on her shoulder, to which she shrugged off, he looked at me and I crossed my arms over my chest I would not apologize, not this time, Rose had made the mistake not I, I would apologize when she did so to Bella.