Chapter Eighty Two

Edward

I felt relaxed once I was off the plane and caught no stray thoughts of anyone here recognizing me. So Darius the all seeing God of the Computer world had failed, what a surprise. I'd told Carlisle at the time that he held the computer geek in far too much esteem. Anyone who spent all day every day in front of a computer screen for months at a time must be a very sad and lonely geek.

I imagined him as a scrawny spotty bespectacled youth wearing a Tee shirt with "I do it on the net" emblazoned across the chest and a pair of faded baggy denims. Of course being a vampire some of that was patently ridiculous but the general idea was right none the less and now he had failed, if he was even looking for me at all.

I rented a car ignoring the smiles and come hither looks of the girl behind the desk, that was all I needed another stupid human girl hanging around, one had been more than enough to last eternity. It was around five and a half hours drive to Phoenix but I was confident I was ahead of any opposition and by the time they worked it all out I would have Renee and her husband, if he was there, tucked away nicely somewhere they would never be found, a shallow grave with a limited supply of oxygen maybe, or was that a little too melodramatic? Well I had time to think of a plan on the way. As I drove out of L.A. I remembered what it was that I hated so much about the city. It was too new, too brash, too sunny, and it was full of people who thought they were important when in fact they were just insignificant humans, cattle.

Carlisle

We had engine problems and I knew we wouldn't beat Edward to LA so I contacted Darius who promised to get things organized. He arranged to change our flight plan direct to Phoenix now we knew for sure where Edward was going. Luckily we had only needed to land for an hour, the problem turned out to be a computer glitch, not a real engine problem at all but I was keen to get a look at Edward, see his face when he understood he was in deep shit.

Not that Charlie and I planned on killing him straight away, no we wanted him to suffer, suffer like poor Bella and Charlotte had, like Charlie had. By the time we were finished with him Edward would beg to die. When we heard back from Darius to say everything was under control I relaxed a little but both Charlie and I wanted to be moving, not sitting in a plane at 30,000 ft. Only Emmett was calm, he'd brought along his hand held game console and was busy killing mutant zombies or something. I envied him his ability to switch off from things he could do nothing about and just concentrate on something else until it was time for action.

Edward

I stopped off on the outskirts of Phoenix to scout around for a place to hide the Dwyers. It took a little time but as I could hardly go wandering up to their front door in the sun it was time well spent. I found an old derelict warehouse that had seen much better days but it had an underground storage area and it didn't take long to fix it up so it was secure. Then as I drove out to their house I stopped in a convenience store and purchased some bottled water and an armful of snacks to keep them going, unless of course the worst happened when they would run out of everything and find themselves dying alone, not mourned, and probably not missed by many people. I'd never liked Renee, she sounded like a really stupid person, much like her daughter really.

I parked up across the street and watched smiling as I saw the woman walk across the front window, so she was there, his presence wasn't necessary but I'd take both if I could get them. Picking up the huge bouquet of flowers I had bought earlier at a florist I held it before my face and walked across the road climbing her porch steps to the front door and rapping hard on it twice. The door opened and I smelled her scent which reminded me of Bella's and had my mouth watering.

I hadn't expected this but I cleared my throat and continued my scripted speech,

"Mrs Dwyer? Renee Dwyer? A delivery for you, someone is either in love or deep in the mire."

She laughed again very much like Bella and it threw me off my stride for a moment. As she brushed her hair back I smelled the strawberry shampoo Bella always used and shook my head to clear it. I thrust the bouquet forward hoping she would take it and step back allowing me access to the house.

As she took them something else registered, another mind in the house and this one wasn't human, there was a vampire already in the house! I turned to run but an iron hand grasped my wrist and yanked me inside so the woman could slam the door shut imprisoning me inside with the unknown vampire.

"You can go now Renee. Go to the address I gave you and don't come back here until you hear from me. You remember the code word?"

"Yes I do, thank you. I thought you were trying to trick me until I saw him coming up the path just as you described."

"I was banking on you being able to control your thoughts long enough to close the trap and you did well."

"I did what you said, I kept thinking of Bella. What should I do with the flowers?"

"Entirely up to you, take them with you, give them to a homeless old lady, whatever just get going please."

I saw Renee almost running through to the back of the house then heard the back door slam and moments later a car engine started up. So I'd lost my advantage and worse than that I was in the grip of a man I'd never seen before but he certainly wasn't Volturi, I knew the guard, this was something else entirely. He stood looking at me smiling knowingly.

"You're wondering who I am Edward."

"Why can't I hear your thoughts?"

"Oh you can, you just don't understand what you are hearing so you discard it as white noise, which it is in a way I guess. It's a little trick I learned many centuries ago but it comes in useful on occasion. Shall we get comfortable?"

He dragged me through into the lounge of the tacky little single story and I looked round dismissively,

"Looks like one step up from trailer trash."

"You are seconds away from having your tongue ripped out Eddy boy so if I were you I'd shut my mouth and sit."

He shoved me violently into one of the shabby fake leather recliners and stood over me.

"Who are you? Not Volturi that's for sure, you don't have their polish yet you say you are centuries old. So a mystery man."

"Yeah and let's keep it that way for now. So what did you intend doing with Renee Dwyer Edward? Bringing the war to women and children now are we?"

"War? Hardly, just a little diversion."

"Diversion? An interesting choice of words. Just who were you going to divert? No, don't tell me, let me guess…..how about Carlisle Cullen?"

"So, I should have known you are one of his freaky friends. Strange though I thought I knew all of them."

"Well it would appear you were wrong Eddy now doesn't it?"

"You know my name, aren't you going to return the courtesy?"

"I don't think so, I'll let you guess. We've got time to play twenty questions if you like."

"I don't play games but let me see. Well as far as I know Carlisle only has three friends I haven't met and you aren't Arthur, not unless you took a youth potion. That only leaves Danny and Darius and I know you aren't the latter so you must be Danny."

"So you worked that out all by yourself? Amazing. But tell me how you knew I wasn't Dar…..whatever."

"That's easy, he's a computer geek and we all know what they are like, skinny, hunchbacked, vacant looking assholes with little social skills and zero character."