Chapter Seven

Charlie

I knew Bella wasn't happy I'd sprung this on her but it meant I got to see her again and she could spend a bit more time with the friends she'd made here. Besides I was selfish and it meant for once I wouldn't have to make my obligatory appearance alone. Bella would be there, well I was driving her and Angela to the party, and the guys were driving them home at the end of the party. I'd made very sure Eric and Mike understood that. When she got back with Angela I forced her to show me her costume and found I hated it,

"Why can't you wear something pretty? Go as a fairy or an angel."

"Fairy? Angel? Its Halloween dad not Christmas, besides this is fine."

I shrugged,

"Well its your choice I guess. Just make sure you get a ride home with Mike and Eric and if anything happens you call me and I'll pick you up."

"Why?"

"Listen, if you get eaten by a hungry bear your mother will flay me alive."

Bella knew I was probably right, she would. Renee loved nothing better than to criticize me for every little thing she felt I did wrong which was probably just about everything. She smiled and gave me a hug,

"OK, I promise not to become bear chow"

I had to go into the office that evening so I left the girls to chat, I had another ulterior motive for helping strengthen the relationship between Bella and the friends she'd made in Forks. I wanted to suggest she might like to move up here permanently. Renee had told me a couple of weeks ago that she was planning on getting married to a minor league baseball player called Phil Dwyer and she was worried about leaving Bella for days or weeks on end while she travelled with her new husband.

"Why do you have to travel? Surely your place is home with Bella until she leaves school."

"Don't you dare lecture me Charlie Swan. I've brought our daughter up single-handed for years now."

"That's not my fault Renee, you left me remember?"

"I'm not having this discussion with you again Charlie. I just thought you might like Bella to live with you for a while. She could go to Forks High School and when you are working she can amuse herself. She's good at cooking and keeping house too."

It sounded like Renee was lining her up for a job as housekeeper!

"Well let her come up at Halloween and if everything goes well I'll approach the subject"

And that's how I got Renee's approval for the trip, necessity on her part.

At the station there was a fax waiting for me from a neighbouring force,

"Wild Animal attacks increased outside Seattle headed your way Charlie. Thought you might like a heads up. Jamie."

He was Chief of Hoquiam and if he thought the animals were moving in my direction then I was glad to have plenty of warning. They had to cross the mountains first but my blood had run cold at the phrase animal attacks. Did it mean there were a group of vampires feeding in Washington State or was this really the work of animals? I decided to ring him and get some more details.

"Hey Charlie, how's it going? Your daughter turn up?"

"Yeah, she's here and I'm keeping my fingers crossed she enjoys herself. Look I wanted to ask you about these animal attacks. Should I be worried?"

"Jeez I'm not sure. I saw the bodies of the group of hikers that were killed, they were ripped apart quite literally."

"How many?"

"Hikers or animals?"

"Either, both."

"Three hikers, young fit males."

"What killed them?"

"We don't really know Charlie. The ground was so churned up we couldn't find any tracks to identify the culprits but at a guess it would have to be at least four maybe more. I'd say it was wolves, its been pretty bad this year for them, not much food around."

"Were the hikers eaten?"

"Again difficult to tell. I'm waiting on the ME's report but I'll tell you one thing, it was weird, there was hardly any blood and there should have been, plenty of it. Anyway I have to go my other phone is going crazy. Speak to you soon Charlie, hopefully with more on the attackers."

My blood had run cold, hardly any blood? That sounded suspiciously like vampires to me. Then it hit me, Bella was here which put her in harms way but there was little I could do about it, she was here for a few days and the attack only happened yesterday. I didn't know how fast vampires travelled but I thought I had at least a few days grace. Now what I had to do was visit the res and see if they knew anything. If they did I wanted to know too and I wanted their help keeping the town safe although I doubted I'd get anywhere with that but I had to try.

I decided to visit the Blacks immediately, Bella had Angela for company so she wouldn't be alone. I didn't want her alone until I made some sense of this. As I got out of my cruiser Jacob Black opened the door and stood waiting for me.

"Chief Swan"

"Jacob is your father here?"

"No, he's over at Harry's place, the elders are having a meeting. Do you want to come in and wait?"

I shook my head,

"Thanks but I think I'd better get over there myself."

"OK I'll let them know you're coming"

I'd rather he didn't but I could hardly say so, I just nodded and drove over to the Clearwater house where Harry was waiting at the door and he stared at me coldly,

"Chief Swan. A little out of your jurisdiction aren't you?"

"I wanted to ask the elders something"

He shrugged and stepped aside,

"Go ahead then"

These were my fathers and grandfathers boyhood friends but I didn't feel at all welcome and all conversation stopped with my entrance. Old Quil motioned for me to be seated then spoke,

"Chief Swan, we don't see you on the reservation very often. What's wrong?"

"I had a report of animal attacks in Hoquiam and it seems these "animals" are headed this way."

They looked at each other and Sue Clearwater excused herself leaving the room hurriedly.

"And what have these animal attacks to do with us?"

"I believe they are the work of vampires"

There was a shocked silence, no one even breathed loudly.

"Vampires? Why would you think such a thing?"

"Maybe because I read my fathers journal and he left me a letter telling me how my grandfather died."

"I see. Well since you know what do you want us to do?"

"I want to know all you can tell me about them, how to defeat them, how to kill them, how to save my town."

"We can tell you nothing."

"Why?"

"Because there are no answers to your questions, or at least none you would like to hear. You cannot defeat or kill them and if they decide to feed in your town you cannot save anyone."

"But you can."

"Yes, we can. We protect our tribe that's all Chief Swan. There are not enough wolves to protect your town."

"So you wont help me?"

"We cannot help you even should we want to. We are not numerous enough to protect a town. The vampires if they visit Forks will take only enough to feed then they will move on. If not the Volturi will be hot on their trail and they do not wish to die."

"So you're saying I should just let them take innocent men, women, and children, drink their blood then leave without doing anything?"

"Whatever you do will only result in your death Chief. Stay watchful and keep out of their path but thank you for warning us. The wolves will step up their patrols."

I got up, disgusted with the men sitting here,

"You know something, my father was right, you are no friends to the human world."

I turned to leave and bumped into a young man just entering. I knew him by sight, he was Sam Uley, his father sometimes came into town to pick up supplies. He scowled at me but he didn't speak and I went back to my car and drove back to Forks frustrated and scared.