I was down in the family room with my laptop and my feet propped up on the table when I heard screeching tires. I gently put my laptop down on the table and walked to the front door, just as Edward opened it.
To be truthful he looked better than he had in weeks and for a brief second I wondered why, then I realized he had a look in his eyes, one of purpose.
Not to mention, it look like all the pent up stress and concern he had been holding in for weeks had been released, he didn't even try to hide his body language from me.
"Edward?"
"Hey,"
My eyes went wide
"She knows doesn't she?" The words came out of my mouth in a quick sentence. He nodded. "Did you tell her or did she figure it out?" he didn't answer, but I knew it from his face, she had only guessed, but he had confirmed it. I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. "Rosalie's gonna kill you when she finds out, you know that right?" he nodded. "and you better find some place to hide the Martin for a while. 'Cause she may try to kill you, she'll succeed with your car. I would suggest hiding it with the Tanya and the others." I winced thinking that, I could only imagine the destruction Rosalie was capable of with Edward's car, it would be unrecognizable when she was done with it. "I'll only be able to do so much to protect it."
"I know."
"So, why are you home," I looked at my watch "you've been keeping watch over her every night since you and Emmett got back what's going on now?"
Quickly, Edward told me what had happened inPort Angeles that had led to his meeting up with Bella, without going into much detail I knew what he had planned and why he was home.
"Do you need me?" I asked. "Or do you want to see what Carlislethinks?" I finished, knowing his answer.
"We might need you, but let me speak toCarlisle, see what he has to say." He answered
"He's in his study."
Edward nodded his thanks and headed upstairs towards Carlisle's study, taking the steps two at a time.
I waited for him and Carlisle out on the porch with Alice. Nothing was said as we waited. She was happy that events were unfolding so neatly, her vision about her and Bella becoming friends was getting closer and closer to coming true. While that made her happy, it made me more and more anxious.
Without a word,Alicereached over and rubbed my shoulders, obviously not forgetting that what was making her happy was also the same thing that was making me miserable at the thought.
The front door opened and out stepped my father and brother, both with the same look of purpose in their eyes.
"Carlisle, may I come?" I asked, getting to my feet. He looked over at Edward for a moment, before nodding.
Edward drove, speeding along the highway heading towards Port Angles at 100 miles an hour.
We didn't speak. I knew what Edward wanted to happen and what Carlisle was planning on doing.
We parked the car along the curb and the three of us got out. Edward did not stay, which was a good thing, he wanted this man to suffer a painful drawn out death for what he had done in his past and what he had nearly done to Bella, the vigilante Edward had been long before I had joined the family wanted to be unleashed on the world again, if only to destroy this Lonnie guy.
Thankfully, Carlisle the voice of reason had better plans for him. Which I reminded Edward was the way to go; a death, even one as violent and prolonged as Edward planned for the human would be to good for him, this guy needed to pay for his crimes.
Edward seemed to accept my reasoning and though he wasn't fully sold on the idea, he was willing to let the justice system do its job.
He left us the car and took off running back to Forks, back to her. We watched him for a second, before I followed Carlisle to the bar. We didn't go in, but a window allowed me to see inside the bar pretty clearly.
The one we were looking for wasn't hard to find and I knew now why my father and brother had agreed to let me come along. I could pick out our target just by reading his body language and Carlisle didn't want Edward to get to close to the guy.
"He's there." I said softly, pointing. "Third stool from the register, black jacket, drowning his night in the beer."
Carlisle nodded and reached back into the car, extracting his bag, before joining me at the window.
I looked at Lonnie closer, he was getting closer to joining his buddies who were passed out on the bar, but I could also tell that he was perfectly happy to go out and try his luck again. He may have failed with Bella, but he wasn't ready to call it a night, Edward was right, another girl would be in danger tonight and he had to be stopped.
"Chris?" Carlisle said softly
"He's gonna leave soon, go out searching by himself, his friends are beyond trashed." I made a face "in fact I'm pretty sure that one there is about one drop from dying from alcohol poisoning." I paused and returned my stare to the scumbag we had come for. "He knows most of the restaurants will be getting close to closing and everyone will be heading home for the night." I finished, carefully profiling Lonnie. "He'll come out, head left down West Street, toward the business district, where the restaurants are. He's got a type in mind Carlisle and if he finds her, he'll wait till she's alone and…" my voice trailed off.
I sniffed the air, our kind have stronger senses than any human could ever imagine, but my sense of smell, like the rest of my senses, ties directly into my profiling ability. With it I am usually able to get a complete profile of a given individual usually aided by my other senses that is.
Sometimes I can profile someone by their scent alone, but it's gotta be a powerfully strong scent.
With the Bella in Edward's car a few days ago when I had nearly complete profile of her, just from the scent she left behind in my brother's car though that was a real rarity.
It was only because her scent is extremely strong and alluring to our kind in general so it is just strong enough that I was able to profile.
Normally it's tough to get such a precise and detailed profile from a scent alone, it just doesn't happen often. But tonight, even from this distance and with many other smells attacking my nostrils, I could smell the evil on him, but I could also read his body language and see the evil, the sociopathic nature of him.
I was getting a perfect profile of the guy, his past, his present…but mainly his very bloody and very violent past
"Chris?" Carlisle called to me softly, bringing me quickly out of my profile and my thoughts.
"He's got blood on his hands Carlisle…I can feel it and I can smell it, we're not talking one or two… maybe hundreds…of victims. Some are dead….others for what he put them through they should have been put out of their misery."
Carlisle nodded, he always has complete faith in my profile and that I will explain it as I see it, with no bias or exclusion of details.
The sound of a barstool scrapping against the wood floor caught our attention and we ducked into the shadows, blending in perfectly.
Lonnie staggered out of the bar, the amount of alcohol he had consumed in the few hours it had been since Edward had left him and his pals after rescuing Bella was obvious.
The most obvious of which, aside from his unbalanced stagger, was the nasty smell wafted past my nostrils, I wrinkled my nose and gagged a bit.
I could smell the beer all over him, his clothes, his breath… his blood. If this guy was given a blood alcohol test, he'd set a new record. I winced for a second, this was exactly the kind of guy Demetri from the Volturi would love to feed from, more wasted the better for Demetri.
Taking him out would not be difficult. For crying out loud, one more drink would finish him off for the night.
I would even be happy with knocking him out with the sidewalk. Carlisle of course had a less violent method planned as he pulled out a syringe from his black bag and without a sound followed Lonnie.
I glanced around and after making sure we were the only ones on the street, quietly opened the rear door to the Volvo as Carlisle returned, the unconscious Lonnie being carried over my father's shoulder. I went to the other side of the car and helped Carlisle lift Lonnie into the backseat.
We drove away from the city heading to the Oregon/Washington border, reaching it a little after 2 in the morning.
In Portland we dumped the still unconscious Lonnie in an alleyway not far from the police station where he'd be found easily.
An anonymous call made by Carlisle from a payphone a few blocks away, summed up our participation in the event. The rest was up to Portland PD and the judicial system that we were placing our faith in…actually that Edward had placed his faith in…
As we drove home, I looked over at Carlisle, he glanced over at me and smiled curiously
"Yes?"
"Thanks for letting me come."
"It wasn't a field trip Christian"
I nodded
"I know, but you didn't have to bring me along, but I needed to get out of the house,"
"You needed to have more time to profile Edward." Carlisle corrected gently
"Yes." I wasn't going to deny it "but I did want to help,"
"I know and we couldn't have done it without you, you more then did your part tonight."
"She knows." Carlisle nodded "what are we going to do?"
"Take it as we always do, in stride."
"What if the Volturi find out?"
Carlisle didn't say anything for a moment, this seemed to have been weighing heavy on his thoughts as well and I felt my stomach twist a bit.
"I do not know." He finally said, "I do not know."
I nodded, sighing a bit. I turned my head and stared out the window, I could feel it…I was getting closer to meeting Bella Swan and therefore having to profile her.
a/n: just me again, I just wanted to warn you guys that tomorrow's chapter, 23 and 24 will be uploaded one after the other because they tie into each other. Chapter 24 will consist of Chris reading his "memoir" to his classmates. I was actually pretty proud of how it came out when I first wrote it in and there are some parts at the end of it that still make me chuckle, so I decided not to exclude it. So while chapter 23 may be on the short side, 24 is not because of the memoir. Thanks for your understanding guys, and thanks again for all the wonderful reviews and people who have added this story to their favorites or story alerted this fic. It means a lot to me! Till tomorrow!